Chess
Magnus’s tasks
World championship match play has a stony logic, where there are no prizes for glorious endeavour. It calls to mind…
Pixel this
When Magnus Carlsen won last year’s Meltwater Champions Tour, they made two trophies. One was for Carlsen, and the second…
A multitude of queens
Here’s a challenge which appeared in a German chess magazine in 1848: place eight white queens on an empty chessboard…
When travel unravels
Recently, with some regret, I declined an invitation to play chess in the Netherlands. I fancied the trip, but alas…
Fresh start
Chess offers one ultimate consolation in defeat: the opportunity to set the pieces up and start again. At least in…
Twelve questions for Christmas
1. ‘I like the game, the money, and the fame.’ Which Twitter-loving top grandmaster said that, in response to an…
Carlsen’s breakthrough
Game 6 of the Carlsen–Nepomniachtchi world championship match was one for the ages. After draws in the first five games,…
Mar del Plata
Alireza Firouzja produced a momentous performance for France at the European Team Championships, held in Slovenia last month. The 18-year-old,…
The world championship
‘Time to say Dubai,’ tweeted Magnus Carlsen, like some wry Bond villain, when he learned that the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi…
Sacrificing the queen
One of the most eye-catching games from the recently concluded Fide Grand Swiss in Riga saw an early sacrifice of…
Fide Grand Swiss
Alireza Firouzja, just 18 years old, was the clear winner of the Fide Grand Swiss, which concluded in Latvia last…
Short fights
If you play chess like a wet rag, sooner or later you will be made to regret it. In Nigel…
The Varsity match
Anyone who has attended the Varsity chess match knows that an online version just wouldn’t be the same. The annual…
Eaten by a bear
I don’t like losing at chess. It feels bad in the moment, whether my position subsides like a failed pudding,…
The sudden mate
The hero pauses, plays the move, and announces ‘Checkmate!’ The villain crumples in shock. It’s a scene played out countless…
Chess sets
Since tennis matches are decided in sets, they are sometimes won by the player who has won fewer games. For…
The Manx Liberty Masters
I sat on the plane to the Isle of Man, leafing through a copy of Nigel Short’s new book, Winning.…
Nona vs Netflix
Last year’s Netflix mini-series The Queen’s Gambit hit all the right notes. For the neophytes, it was quirky and intriguing.…
Detecting vulnerabilities
I suspect many players perceive the chess board in rich contrast, like a heat map. Glowing bright red are those…
Titles bonanza
At the beginning of August, seeing his outstanding performance at the Fide World Cup in Sochi, I wrote that Ravi…
Best-laid plans
A popular conceit among chess authors, particularly dead ones, is to describe a fine game as the execution of a…
Remembering Evgeny Sveshnikov
There be dragons! What we now call the Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian defence was, in the 1970s, largely uncharted…
Containment
‘Exchange chess’ (also known as bughouse) is the chess equivalent of a three-legged race. It is played in teams of…
Calculated risks
Two years ago, the brilliant young Polish player Jan-Krzysztof Duda made a baffling decision. In the second game of his…
The Fide World Cup
As I write this, the Fide World Cup is underway in Sochi, the Black Sea resort in Russia which hosted…
