Added on 10.22.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 22, 2023 A swashbuckling game from the US Championship, where, at time of writing, Fabiano Caruana looked likely to prevail. The victor plays in the style of what is known as the Romantic period of chess, in the 19th century. The old adage that “it is easier to attack than defend” proves to be right yet again and the victor was always playing with the draw in hand. R Robson – J Xiong Petroff Defence var viewer = new CHESS.PgnViewer({ pgn_uri:...Full StoryAdded on 10.21.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 21, 2023 ONE way to beat younger players is to play openings that went out of fashion before they were born. Bill Hartston defeated me in my debut game at the British Championships in 1980 with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bd2?!. Bill got no advantage from the opening, but I burned up some time trying to remember, unsuccessfully, what to do. I needn’t have bothered, as he said afterwards, “No one has played this since before you were born”. Gregory Kaidanov...Full StoryAdded on 10.20.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 20, 2023 FABIANO Caruana secured victory in the 2023 US Championship with a round to spare after defeating Abhimanyu Mishra, the youngest player in chess history to secure the GM title. Caruana’s score of 7.5/10, unbeaten, was 1.5 point clear of the field. This was Caruana’s second straight US championship victory at St Louis and his third overall. His first victory was in 2016. The championship lacked only Hikaru Nakamura, who preferred to play the Qatar...Full StoryAdded on 10.19.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 19, 2023 HIKARU Nakamura and Dommaraju Gukesh were two of the seven leaders on 3.5/4 at the strong Qatar Masters Open. Magnus Carlsen bounced back from his shock defeat at the hands of Alisher Suleymenov with a win, but then had to be at his most resourceful to save a draw against teenage Indian GM M Pranesh. M Pranesh – M Carlsen Pirc Defence var viewer = new CHESS.PgnViewer({ pgn_uri:...Full StoryAdded on 10.18.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 18, 2023 MAGNUS Carlsen was crushed in just 31 moves in the second round of the Qatar Masters by 23-year-old Kazakh GM Alisher Suleymenov. The world number one played lackadaisically in the opening and reached a Hedgehog-type position where his setup lacked the customary solidity. After another imprecise move from Carlsen, Suleymenov opened up the game and was able to use his superior mobility to move pieces to the kingside and win with a lovely sacrificial...Full StoryAdded on 10.17.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 17, 2023 THE Qatar Masters Open is under way, headlined by Magnus Carlsen, who headed east after leading his Offerspill team to victory at the European Club Cup in Albania. Old rival Hikaru Nakamura should provide some competition for Carlsen, as the world number three skips the US Championship. Anish Giri is third seed, ahead of a trio of highly-talented young players: Indian stars Dommaraju Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi, and Uzbek number one Nodirbek...Full StoryAdded on 10.16.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 16, 2023 ROMANIAN heavyweights Superchess might have suffered a painful last-round defeat in the Open section at the European Club Cup, but they did take top honours in the Women’s event. Following a surprise defeat at the hands of early leaders TAJFUN from Ljubljana, they dominated thereafter, defeating Hungarians Garuda Ajka in the final round to claim the gold medals with 12/14, two points ahead of Ajka, who took silver. Wood Green were back in 10th place...Full StoryAdded on 10.15.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 15, 2023 The Chess.com Speed Chess Challenge produced many magnificent battles, and ended with Magnus Carlsen defeating Hikaru Nakamura 13.5-12.5 in the closest of matches. Last year it was equally close, but Nakamura prevailed. The tournament has an unusual format, with 90 minutes of 5+1, 60 minutes of 3+1 and half an hour of bullet. Nakamura and Carlsen nearly always dominate the Bullet games, and Carlsen is occasionally prepared to try almost...Full StoryAdded on 10.14.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 14, 2023 DEFENDING against the Giuoco Piano is always a challenge, but with a bishop on b6 or a7 pointing at the white king, I always reckon I have some chances. Nowadays the trend is to play a7-a5 rather than a7-a6 to preserve the dark bishop. This has the added advantage of ruling out any queenside expansion by White with b2-b4. In this high-level game from the European Club Cup, Black had chances to develop an attack against White’s slow build-up. The...Full StoryAdded on 10.13.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 13, 2023 MAGNUS Carlsen won his first major team prize last weekend as his Offerspill club from Oslo won the 38th European Club Cup at Durres, Albania. There was still all to play for going into the final round, with Offerspill leading the top seeds Superchess of Romania on tie-break, but with four teams having a realistic chance of victory. The top matches, with match points at start of play in brackets, lined up: Novy Bor (10/12) vs. Superchess (11/12);...Full StoryAdded on 10.12.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 12, 2023 A BLUNDER in a rook and pawn endgame by Jorden van Foreest ensured that Magnus Carlsen’s club Offerspill still led top seeds Superchess of Romania on tie-break going into the last round of the European Club Cup. The match between the two leading teams ended 3-3 as Carlsen drew with Richard Rapport on top board, and four games were drawn. Bogdan-Daniel Deac positionally outplayed Aryan Tari to secure a win for the favourites. The leaders have 11/12,...Full StoryAdded on 10.11.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 11, 2023 MAGNUS Carlsen’s Offerspill club had more than kept pace with top seeds Superchess of Romania after a tight fifth round of the European Club Cup in Durres, Albania. With two rounds to play, Offerspill led on tie-break as both teams maintained their 100 per cent match record to reach 10/10. Carlsen led from the front and scored the only win of the match as he took down 18-year-old Vincent Keymer. Keymer should have eliminated Carlsen from the FIDE...Full StoryAdded on 10.10.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 10, 2023 FOUR teams reached 8/8 at the European Club Cup in Durres, Albania, all after 3.5-2.5 wins in the fourth round. The leaders were top seeds Superchess, for whom Jorden van Foreest and Kirill Shevchenko, against former Ukrainian colleague Sergey Fedorchuk, scored wins, as well as Asnieres of Paris, Czech Champions and former winners Novy Bor and Offerspill. Magnus Carlsen won again to reach 3/3 for Offerspill and Armenian GM Haik Martirosyan had 4/4...Full StoryAdded on 10.09.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 9, 2023 EIGHTY-FOUR teams travelled to Durres, Albania, for the European Club Cup, where the opening rounds saw few surprises as the minnows were crushed by the professionals. Wood Green were drawn to play the Norwegian team Offerspill in round two and GM Ravia Haria was soon outplayed on top board by Magnus Carlsen. The big guns started to meet in the third round. Top seeds Superchess of Romania scored a narrow victory over the Azeri team Vugar Gashimov, as...Full StoryAdded on 10.08.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 8, 2023 In Soviet times, there was a hierarchy of tournaments that led to qualification for the Soviet Championship. The competition was ferocious and it remains the case, that in a winner-takes-all format, players often have to take risks. In 2020, the Dutch IM Stefan Kuipers tweeted: This is what a very hard winner-takes-all format in the Tata Steel chess qualifiers does to the players. These three miniatures are not even the first this tournament. Here...Full StoryAdded on 10.07.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 7, 2023 MAXIME Vachier-Lagrave’s renaissance continued when he defeated Magnus Carlsen in the final of the AI Cup and qualified for the final of the Champion’s Chess Tour. MVL was the long-time French number one, until Alireza Firouzja sought asylum and settled in Chartres. In Classical chess, MVL has dropped out of the world’s top 20, while Firouzja remains the fourth highest-rated player. However, online, MVL has outperformed his new rival of late. The...Full StoryAdded on 10.06.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 6, 2023 MAXIME Vachier-Lagrave qualified for the Champions Chess Tour final this December in Toronto, as he inflicted a rare defeat on Magnus Carlsen in the final of the AI Cup, the final qualification event. MVL also took home $30,000 after defeating Carlsen in two separate matches; a four-game contest and a two-game ‘reset’. In the first match, MVL won game one and drew the rest, in the second he won 2-0. MVL’s first win. M Carlsen – M...Full StoryAdded on 10.05.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 5, 2023 FRENCH GM Marc’Andria Maurizzi, 16, sprang a small surprise, as he won the World Junior (U-20) in Mexico City. The Corsican was the fourth seed and scored 8.5/11 with a superior tie-break to fellow grandmasters Russian Arseniy Nesterov, Luka Budisavljevic of Serbia and Armenia’s Mamikon Gharibyan. Hans Niemann was top seed but, possibly distracted by initially also playing online in the AI Cup before each round, lost to 13-year-old fellow American...Full StoryAdded on 10.04.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 4, 2023 THERE were more medals for England in senior competition as both the Over-50 and Over-65 teams took silver in the World Senior Team Championship in Struga, Macedonia. In the last round, the Over-65 team walloped Switzerland 4-0, but leaders Emanuel Lasker Chess Society from Germany clung on to draw their match and so finish a point ahead. The England Over-65 team only lost one match and just one individual game. They were led by GM John Nunn, who was...Full StoryAdded on 10.03.2023
IM Malcolm Pein October 3, 2023 THE European Club Cup is under way in Durres, Albania. The seven round Swiss for Europe’s top teams sees Magnus Carlsen again turning out for his Norwegian club, Offerspill. Top seeds are the Romanian side Superchess, sponsored by Superbet, who also support the Grand Chess Tour events in the country. Vishy Anand, Richard Rapport, Bogdan-Daniel Deac, Kirill Shevchenko, Jorden van Foreest and Vladimir Fedoseev is an imposing line-up, with Liviu-Dieter...Full Story
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