Chess
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…
What is possible
There are lessons in chess that cannot be learned from a book. One lands, from time to time, in a…
Nakamura’s place
Wesley So won the final Fide Grand Prix, which was held in Berlin earlier this month. But it was Hikaru…
Career moves
Sergey Karjakin won’t be playing much chess for a while. Last month, the Russian grandmaster’s Twittering jingoism in support of…
Varsity battle
The 140th edition of the Varsity Match took place last month at the Royal Automobile Club in London’s Pall Mall.…
England-Sweden Challenge
Three summers ago, I was invited to the Swedish city of Eskilstuna, for a brief but exciting match against their…
Establishing Rapport
Richard Rapport took first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Belgrade last weekend. The Hungarian grandmaster is now almost…
Taking risks
I do not, as a rule, go looking for a fight on a Sunday morning. Chess, if it must be…
Russia in check
The Champions League final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris and the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi cancelled.…
Nakamura the wildcard
Hikaru Nakamura justified his wildcard invitation by taking first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Berlin this month. The…
Contemplating loss
Contemplating a lost position is a bit like having sauce down your shirt. It is annoying in itself, but worse,…
Battle of the sexes
One tradition at the annual Gibraltar Masters is a high-spirited skittles match played in the evening between teams of men…
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…
