Luke McShane is chess columnist for The Spectator.
White to play and mate in two. Philip Hamilton Williams, Birmingham News, 1897. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 4 April. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Rd4+!
The 140th edition of the Varsity Match took place last month at the Royal Automobile Club in London’s Pall Mall. This one was as tense as they come: Cambridge grabbed an early point, but Oxford built a significant lead by winning the next three. On the four boards which remained, Oxford’s situation looked precarious, so
White to play and mate in 2. Composed by Bo Lindgren, Probleemblad 1969. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 28 March. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Bh6+!
Three summers ago, I was invited to the Swedish city of Eskilstuna, for a brief but exciting match against their top player, the affable Nils Grandelius. Earlier this month, Grandelius visited London, this time to play a match against my England team-mate David Howell. The England-Sweden Challenge match was staged as part of the 30th
White to play. Rapport-Rogic, Austria 2010. Black threatens Qa1+ and then Rxf2+, so Rapport must strike at once. Which move did he play? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 21 March. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks
Richard Rapport took first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Belgrade last weekend. The Hungarian grandmaster is now almost assured of a place in the Candidates tournament in Madrid later this year, which will determine a challenger for the World Championship. Only a very unlikely outcome at the final Grand Prix event (which begins
Black to play. Shirov-Kramnik, Groningen 1993. Shirov threatens Rg3-h3+ so Kramnik forced a draw: 1…Rxg7+ 2 Rxg7+ Kh6 3 Rg8 Kh7 etc. Which move would have won Kramnik the game? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 14 March. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include
I do not, as a rule, go looking for a fight on a Sunday morning. Chess, if it must be played at all, should be approached with due caution. My game plan tends to be pretty simple: deploy the pieces onto sensible squares and hope that the coffee kicks in before anything interesting happens. Usually
White to play and win. A gem discovered by the Ukrainian composer Vladislav Tarasiuk with Israeli composer Amatzia Avni. How does White avoid stalemate and secure the win? Answers should be sent to ‘Chess’ at The Spectator by 7 March or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct
The Champions League final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris and the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi cancelled. It was obvious that the Chess Olympiad, to take place in Moscow in July and August, could not continue as planned. Last week, this was confirmed by Fide, the international federation, and it is reported
Black to play. Maric-Gligoric, Belgrade 1962. White has offered to exchange the rooks on f5 and c3. But Gligoric found a much stronger shot, prompting instant resignation. What did he play? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 28 February. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a
Hikaru Nakamura justified his wildcard invitation by taking first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Berlin this month. The American grandmaster has become the world’s most popular chess streamer, and had not played a slow game in more than two years. But he looked fresh and relaxed, and evidently the steady practice of elite
Black to play. Shuvalova–Pavlidou, Women’s World Blitz Championship, 2021. White was winning, but has just played 89 g3-g4? No resignation here: Pavlidou seized her opportunity to save the game. What did she play? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 21 February. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a
Contemplating a lost position is a bit like having sauce down your shirt. It is annoying in itself, but worse, it often comes with a sting of embarrassment. We chess players are a proud lot, and losing is an affront to our dignity. And what do your dining companions make of it? You might jokily
One tradition at the annual Gibraltar Masters is a high-spirited skittles match played in the evening between teams of men and women, dubbed the ‘Battle of the Sexes’. In 2020, to much amusement, the women won a playful miniature after the flamboyant 3…f5 quickly backfired: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 f5 4
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Touw Hian Bwee, Schakend Nederland 1976. The first move allows Black’s king to run in any of four directions, with a different mating response to each one. What is it? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 14 February. There is a prize of £20 for
White to play. Dardha–Shuvalova, Tata Steel Challengers 2022. The 16-year-old grandmaster from Belgium found a crisp way to finish the game. What did he play? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 7 February. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address
World championship match play has a stony logic, where there are no prizes for glorious endeavour. It calls to mind the old joke about two hunters who encounter a bear. One puts on his running shoes. ‘You can’t outrun a bear,’ objects his friend. ‘I don’t have to outrun the bear, I only have to
Black to play. Grandelius–Rapport, Tata Steel Chess 2022. With a bishop resting on a3, the White king can never sit comfortably. Rapport’s next move was a crushing blow. What did he play? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 31 January. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of
When Magnus Carlsen won last year’s Meltwater Champions Tour, they made two trophies. One was for Carlsen, and the second was auctioned online, fetching a sum in digital currency of around $25,000. The trophy only exists as a video showing a stack of rotating gold squares, like a Donald Trump skyscraper from the future. If