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Vishy Anand’s eyes lit up as he described a beautiful variation from his game with Shakriyar Mamedyarov, played at the…
Girls compete
Judit Polgar, the strongest female player of all time, conducted an enchanting interview in the commentary room during the Chennai…
The Generation game.
The latest flashpoint in the Carlsen-Niemann saga took place in the sixth round of the preliminaries at the Julius Baer…
Royal’s success
The London Mindsports Centre in Hammersmith opened its doors in 2021, after it was converted from a Salvation Army building.…
Pique or cheat?
In the third round of the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, Magnus Carlsen was beaten by 19-year old Hans Niemann,…
Chess speaks for itself
‘Plug the fucking laptop in!’ Hans Niemann, the lively 19-year-old from the US, was left fuming – understandably – after…
Match of the half-century
They called it the Match of the Century. A full 50 years has passed since Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky…
A week in Torquay
Hats off to Harry Grieve, who took clear first place at the Chessable British Championships which concluded in Torquay last…
The first Olympiad
Everyone remembers their first Olympiad. As I boarded the flight to Chennai last month, it struck me that two full…
India’s young stars
At the Chennai Olympiad, the Indian team began as second seeds, even with former World Champion Vishy Anand absent from…
A lucky escape
I chatted to a spectator after one of my games at the Sparkassen Chess Trophy in Dortmund. ‘A close shave…
Heavy is the head
On International Chess Day, 20 July, Magnus Carlsen announced that he will not defend his world championship title next year.…
Wetware
Modern chess computers, like the program ‘Stockfish’, are treated as oracles. Plug in a position, start the engine, and within…
Silver and gold
The ‘English chess explosion’ that began in the 1970s produced a bumper crop of grandmasters, which meant that by the…
Nepo’s playbook
Ian Nepomniachtchi is back for more. The former world championship challenger left his rivals in the dust at the Candidates…
Maximum mischief
Forbidden things have a secret charm – that delicious paradox applies to the chessboard just as it does in life.…
Cream of the Candidates
The Candidates tournament is underway in Madrid, where eight of the world’s best players vie for the right to challenge…
Have they spotted it?
Returning to the board, Mamedyarov looks at Anand’s outstretched hand with bemusement. It can’t be a draw offer – that…
El Ajedrecista
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, ‘El Ajedrecista’, died in prison in the United States on 31 May. The Colombian drug lord, a…
A rising star
Ding Liren took first place at last month’s Chessable Masters, the fourth event in the 2022 Meltwater Champions Tour. But…
Tiger bites man
Viswanathan Anand left the spectators in awe at the Superbet Rapid earlier this month. The ‘Tiger of Madras’, as he…
Rock, paper, scissors
The Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest concluded last weekend in a dramatic tiebreak between Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon…
Remembering Averbakh
Yuri Averbakh had a wry explanation for why he was made chairman of the USSR Chess Federation in 1972. There…
Gorilla tactics
There is a video in which a small group of students amble about passing a basketball back and forth. The…
Ordination
In the dying seconds of an online blitz game, I promoted a pawn and instantly regretted it. There was nothing…
