Added on 12.09.2019
Photo credit: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour Ding Liren finished off a strong year by winning the Grand Chess Tour. Here is Maurice Ashley's interview to the 2019 GCT Champion (starting at 2:37:38): Liren got to the final by defeating Levon Aronian decisively, 19-9. The first victory in that match, coming in the first rapid game, included a truly spectacular move: var viewer = new CHESS.PgnViewer({ pgn_uri:...Full StoryAdded on 11.26.2019
Another day, another tournament victory by the King, Magnus Carlsen. In what seems to be one of the best results ever for the Norwegian wizard, today in Kolkata, India, the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz ha seen the triumph of the reigning World Champion. Only US Hikaru Nakamura was able to almost keep the impressive pace of Carlsen and finished second with an excellent result. Hikaru played phenomenally well in the blitz rounds to score an unbeaten 12.0/18 points. Photo by Lennart Ootes The...Full StoryAdded on 11.18.2019
Alexander Grischuk won the Hamburg Grand Prix, greatly increasing his chances of qualifying for the Candidates Tournament. If he doesn’t emerge as the automatic qualifier from the Grand Prix, he will be the favorite to receive a wild card selection from the Russian Organizers. Here are the current standings of the FIDE Grand Prix, with only Jerusalem's left to play at the beginning of December: Grischuk will not play in Israel, whereas his direct opponents for the final win in the FIDE PG -...Full StoryAdded on 11.03.2019
It's almost worrying when one reads a piece of news which reports about Magnus Carlsen not being the World Champion. Photo from the official website But that is: Wesley So, the American chess wizard, destroyed Carlsen in the finals of the Fischer Random World Championship, to claim the title. The Fischer random variant, also known as Chess 960, was invented by Bobby Fischer, who announced this new game variation on June 19, 1996. Fischer Random Chess employs the same board and pieces as...Full StoryAdded on 10.31.2019
In October, the chess scene has been dominated by the finals of the colossal knockout event in Khanty-Mansiysk, the FIDE World Cup, and the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament at the Isle of Man. Teimour Radjabov won the World Cup, defeating the super-strong Chinese GM Ding Liren. Wang Hao, the Chinese you don't expect to be there on top, won the IoM Grand Swiss. Radjabov's interview right after his brilliant feat at the World Cup A radiant Wang Hao after his amazing victory With the victory,...Full StoryAdded on 09.16.2019
The World Cup is the strongest knockout tournament of the year. 128 of the best players in the world gathered in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from 9 September to 4 October, to fight in mini-matches that will eventually decide the winner. Each match lasts 2 days - with one 90 30 game per day - plus a playoff day if needed. This is the format: The tournament is a 7-round knock-out event. The matches from round 1 to round 6 consist of two classical games with time control of 90 minutes per 40 moves...Full StoryAdded on 09.04.2019
GM Joel Benjamin pays tribute to the late Pal Benko, who passed away a week ago. Here is the video with Joel's analysis of two games played by the great Pal Benko. Joel's article Pal Benko passed away last week, leaving a tremendous chess legacy. First, let’s consider his achievements as a player. He was a world-class player who twice qualified for the Candidates tournament, in 1959 and 1962. We are going to look at a game from the Curacao Candidates tournament of 1962, where he...Full StoryAdded on 08.16.2019
Round 1 The first round was very quiet, and it'd have been even quieter hadn't Nepomniachtchi blundered in a dead drawn endgame, allowing Anand to take the early lead. © Grand Chess Tour All the other games ended in a draw. var viewer = new CHESS.PgnViewer({ pgn_uri: 'https://www.chessclub.com/assets/PGN/Sinq19-Rd1_Anand-Nepom.pgn', piece_set: 'https://www.chessclub.com/assets/canvaschess/img/pieces/merida/', show_screen: false,...Full StoryAdded on 08.09.2019
Day 1 Rd 1 Breaking news in Rd 1. Magnus Carlsen gets crushed by Ding Liren, losing his first Rapid game of 2019! Here is the live commentary of the endgame with GMs Yasser Seirawan and Maurice Ashley, and WGM Jennifer Shahade. The Chinese superstar literally annihilated the World Champion, who had to give up when Ding had mate in two over the board. In a round that saw only one draw, between Karjakin and Caruana, Aronian, Mamedyarov, and Rapport won their games, joining Ding in the early...Full StoryAdded on 07.25.2019
The Participants. First row, from left to right: GM Maxim Dlugy, GM Alexander Fishbein, GM Jaan Ehlvest, GM Alex Yermolinsky, GM Alex Goldin Second row, from left to right: GM Alex Shabalov, GM Joel Benjamin, GM Gregory Kaidanov, GM Igor Novikov, GM Larry Christiansen. Watch the video GM Joel recorded for this special occasion! Hi, folks! This is Joel Benjamin, reporting from St. Louis. There was a generous $50,000 prize fund with $12,000 to the winner at the Saint Louis Chess Club. I...Full StoryAdded on 07.15.2019
Vitolins was born on the 15th of June 1946 in Sigulda, Latvia, close to Riga. He was nine years old when his father took him to the first chess coach, Felix Tsirtsenis. Vitolins' talent emerged shortly after, and he became one of the strongest juniors in URSS. "He was the best among us," said GM Yury Razuvaev. The chess aficionados will always remember Alvis, and that is mostly due to the fertile pen of Gennadi Sosonko, the Russian GM who moved to the Netherlands in 1972. In his fantastic book...Full StoryAdded on 07.08.2019
Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour™ Eight wins in a row for the Martian who was born in Norway. Image by Tarjei Svensen Another great show by the World Champion, who appears to be playing in a different league. A league in which he's alone, there, at the top of the Chess World, unattackable, a mirage to all the rest of the super-GMs. After five years, during which commentators - including yours truly - have been writing that Carlsen was slowly declining, that he had already reached his...Full StoryAdded on 06.21.2019
Seven tournaments in a row. The World Champion, after a couple of years in which he seemed to have gotten back to Earth, is again dwelling on a different planet. Magnus simply wins every event he participates in. His rating is again approaching the mythical 2900 barrier - only seven points shy of his best ever - and if he is not there yet, it's mostly due to his opponents' "weak" ratings. Magnus would need 3-4 players with a rating over 2850. And we would too, to make his hegemony a bit...Full StoryAdded on 06.14.2019
The beautiful coastal city of Valencia, Spain was the venue for a very insightful and entertaining chess conference on Chess Strategy, Artificial Intelligence and AlphaZero. Held on the weekend of May 17 to 19, and organized by the Federació d' Escacs de la Comunitat Valenciana and hosted at the Universitat de Valencia, the conference was a well-balanced mix of theoretical discussions, round-table debates on the implications of AI in our everyday lives and future, and hands-on workshops on how...Full StoryAdded on 06.05.2019
How many times have you found yourself in a closed position, with no idea about how to proceed? Yeah, I know. This is why the ICC, with the collaboration of GM Davorin Kuljasevic, brings you a brand-new video course: "Mastering Closed Positions". Here is the course outline. Many players have problems understanding and playing properly in closed positions. Sometimes you can hear them say: ‘’I don’t know what I am doing in closed positions’’ or ‘’I am not good at maneuvering.’’ – I know the...Full StoryAdded on 04.05.2019
In the past few months, I have been making a tour of Central and South America courtesy of my life-long friend GM Alex Shabalov. Alex is still active on the tournament scene, and he knows the right people to make such things possible. Our latest stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico where we took part in the Hermanos Colon Romero Memorial. Start of Round 1 Aside of the two of us, the other guests came from Cuba, Grandmasters Yuri Gonzalez Vidal and Reynaldo Vera. We were treated like royalty...Full StoryAdded on 03.17.2019
From March the 20th to April the 1st, 12 of the strongest chess players in the USA will compete for the coveted title of US Chess Champion. This year, the total prize fund is a stunning $194,000, with $50,000 to go to the winner and $35,000 to the runner-up. The Championship will be held at the fabulous Chess Club and Scholastic Center in St. Louis, Missouri, owned by the chess passionate and benefactor Rex Sinquefield. The tournament is a Round Robin with 12 players (11 rounds). All the rounds...Full StoryAdded on 02.25.2019
This week we feature the Champions Showdown, a high powered event with an unusual format. Just days after a groundbreaking women’s tournament, the Cairns Cup, St. Louis hosted the big boys in a match-play tournament, with five lengthy matches in rapid and blitz chess. 12 rapid games followed by 24 blitz games, contested over four days. A mini-marathon of sorts. Here are the match-ups: Name Rapid Blitz FIDE...Full StoryAdded on 02.19.2019
This year Mr. Sinquefield, the American Chess benefactor, put on the plate $300,000 to host in his beloved and marvelous St. Louis Chess Club an interesting event, which sees the participation of ten top GMs. The new American GM Lenier Dominguez is going to wear the star and stripes flag, as he changed federation recently. The exhibition event features five matches: Name Rapid Blitz FIDE Rating Federation Name Rapid Blitz FIDE...Full StoryAdded on 01.13.2019
You know how you asked to choose a security question when you make an account online? One of the options is often, “what is the country you'd like to visit the most?” I chose that one with the answer, “Chile”. It took me until December 2018 to make my dream come true. As usual it was my long-time friend Alex Shabalov who made it possible. Alex played in the same tournament a couple of years ago, and when the organizers asked him to come back he mentioned my name. In case you wonder what makes...Full Story
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