Chess
Fire and ice
Sergei Karjakin stormed into an early lead with 4/4 in the elite tournament at Stavanger in Norway, which finishes on Saturday 18 May. Karjakin also triumphed in a blitz tournament… Read more
Alekhine Memorial
The Alekhine Memorial split between Paris and St Petersburg has been won jointly by Lev Aronian and Boris Gelfand. The final scores (out of 9) were as follows: Aronian and… Read more
Great Alexander
As I write, the prestigious Alekhine Memorial tournament is drawing to a close. Brainchild of sponsor Andrei Filatov, this high-powered event is taking place partly in the Louvre in Paris… Read more
Poisson d’Avril
Trust the French to have cuisine in mind when coining their phrase for April Fool. On the front page of the Daily Telegraph of 3 April, I spotted a statistical… Read more
Adrian Hollis
Adrian, who died earlier this year, was both an Oxford classicist from Keble College and a Correspondence Chess Grandmaster. One of the outstanding personalities of British chess, he won the… Read more
Magnus force
Magnus Carlsen has qualified from the London Candidates tournament to earn a title match against the incumbent world champion Vishy Anand of India. Final scores were as follows: Carlsen and… Read more
Passed pawns
This week, further fascinating positions from the world championship qualifier Candidates tournament recently concluded in London. Although there were the regulation number of draws, for such an elite event, the… Read more
Candidates
The Candidates tournament to decide the challenger to world champion Anand is the strongest tournament ever to have graced the capital. As I write, three rounds of fighting chess have… Read more
Ponziani scheme
The world championship qualifier, known as the Candidates’ tournament, should now be underway in London. (For details see the website worldchess.com/candidates.) The favourite is Magnus Carlsen, who has identified Lev… Read more
Witschcraft
There are two new books about Aron Nimzowitsch, chess strategist and author of My System. Aron Nimzowitsch on the Road to Chess Mastery 1886-1924 by Per Skjoldager and Jorn Erik… Read more
Sacrificial rite
Rudolph Spielmann, a contemporary of Rubinstein, Reti, Alekhine and Capablanca, can be seen as the Romantic equivalent to a further great master of the 1920s, Aron Nimzowitsch. Whereas Nimzowitsch made… Read more
Duchamp/Cage
The Bride and the Bachelors is an impressive exhibition of the work of Marcel Duchamp, John Cage and related artists which is on at London’s Barbican Centre until 9 June.… Read more
Francophilia
Any book by the erudite Steve Giddins is an event and he has now produced a valuable guide to the popular Winawer Variation of the French Defence, championed by the… Read more
Rock solid
The Gibraltar Masters, where I was last week, has been won by a quartet consisting of Vitiugov, Short, Sandipan and Vachier Lagrave. In the final knockout to determine who would… Read more
Opposite bishops
No, not the Church of England and its troubles with the question of whether women should be allowed to be bishops, but chess endgames, with rival bishops moving respectively on… Read more
Anand’s Immortal
There is a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where Sir Lancelot’s servant, Patsy, is shot in the back by an arrow and seems to expire. As Lancelot… Read more
Gran Fiesta
Just before the London Classic, Magnus Carlsen and Judith Polgar contested a four-game match under speed and blindfold conditions as part of the Gran Fiesta of chess at UNAM (Universidad… Read more
London Classic
The fourth London Classic at Olympia, organised by the indefatigable Malcolm Pein, was the strongest of the series including, as it did, the reigning world champion, a former world champion… Read more
Special Ks
London has seen three World Championship matches in the post-war period, Kasparov-Karpov 1986, Kasparov-Short 1993 and Kasparov-Kramnik 2000. The game I have chosen to start the new year is Kasparov’s… Read more
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