US Championship or a showcase of self-centred brats and gross blunders?
Alas, precisely by the disjunction, the text after 'or', this year the tournament of the chess superpower, which had been the most interesting and strongest domestic event for many years, affected me. „But everything is fine and in its place,“ another reader who followed the tournament might claim. „Fabiano Caruana won again with a clear lead. Wesley So, the 2021 US Champion, once again became the king of draws, and Levon Aronian and another former winner Samuel Shankland could certainly have delivered better performances.“ Yes, but what the American youth, the former prodigies, rather self-centred brats, showed is worth more reflection. The unusually high number of outright outbursts and logically inexplicable gross blunders is striking... Continue reading
Chess Olympiad: India took into its hands the superpower sceptre orphaned for 30 years
The chess Olympiad ended in Budapest – a true chess festival. It broke many records: the number of participating countries – teams; the clear division into chess superpowers, stalwarts, developing countries and... a single superpower. The number of fans at the venue, but also those following the event online or via recordings. India confirmed its overwhelming rise not only in the open tournament, where success was expected, but also in the women's category! The decisive contribution to the victory with a 4-point lead came from two truly Olympic terminators Dommaraju Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi. The contributions are primarily dedicated to them... Continue reading
Miniatures convict modern geniuses of carelessness. Magnus and Jene, what is this?
In the previous, actually unfinished article, we praised Carlsen's long, truly Alekhine-like calculation of variations. However, his very next game brought an unprecedented debacle in the opposite direction! To lose with White in twenty-three moves in one of the quietest Caro-Kann variations? How else to call this? Why do today’s undoubtedly brilliant players ‚manage‘ to lose with White in a miniature? This did not happen before! Is it due to absent self-discipline? Inability to concentrate? A world out of joint? But all bad things are good for something: the second miniature game can also be used as a tough test of theoretical knowledge, logic and mental flexibility...
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Two shocking records of Magnus Carlsen in a single day
„I am the strongest of the living!“ allegedly said the young Capablanca in response to a curious journalist. However, the most popular question from chess laymen to players is different! „How many moves ahead do you calculate variations?“ To this question Capa answered: „It varies, but sometimes I have to know what will happen after 20 or 30 moves.“ Only when my older chess friend explained to me what Capa probably meant did I understand. He spoke about the development and tendencies of the position, which are known to the player in advance, not about forced variations. But even so! A similar sentence could have been uttered by Magnus Carlsen after a game against Erigaisi. From a mathematical point of view, his calculation lasted an incredible 30 moves! However, today's article will not only focus on this first peculiar record... Continue reading
With summer flying through the tournament world and the brilliant ride of Arjun Erigaisi
In this article, we will return to the paper-wise strongest tournament of recent years in Stavanger, Norway. There we could record not only a truly sad historical record but also unusual gross blunders in the endgames by many participants, which at least deserve reflection. Two more strong pre-holiday tournaments can then be seen as a duel between the older generation and juniors or as a kind of remote tug-of-war between two of them for rating supremacy at the start of the second half of the year. The winner was the relatively lesser-known 20-year-old Arjun Erigaisi, who will reach 4th place in the world rating list on 1 July... Continue reading
A tasteful gift for the eighteenth birthday from Stavanger: „Dommaraju, kings caught in negligence, it’s time to sit on the throne!“
On 29 May 2024, Dommaraju Gukesh celebrated his eighteenth birthday. Of course, at least in the new chess superpower, no one forgot: a queue of congratulators, a nice video summary of his career so far, lots of gifts. Perhaps the most tasteful was the lesson in strategy and tactics given by his fellow fighter Praggnanandhaa to the „strongest chess player of all time,“ as many proudly proclaim worldwide. The proverbial cherry on the birthday cake was then Caruana’s lesson to the reigning world champion... Continue reading
Bishop or Knight? Computers put the final dot on a series of known positions... and coaches got more wrinkles on their foreheads (2)
We continue studying the issue and relationships between the Bishop and Knight. First, we will verify the validity of the 3xBest rule on many simpler, typical, but also more complex examples. This should help us orient ourselves in endgames where these minor pieces confront each other. The very concept of the Minor Piece (the advantage of the Bishop over the Knight) is, of course, long forgotten, but we can safely say that its spirit lives on. What is more, it permeates practically all strategy and we would classify it under basic ways of conducting the fight: exchange or material gain. In the second part of the article, the reader will learn even more... Continue reading
Shocking historical record in Toronto
I believe that no other expression than „positive shock“ can be added to the result of the Candidates Tournament in Toronto 2024. For the first time in the long 75-year history of Candidates Tournaments for the World Championship, a 17-year-old youngster won it! And perhaps also for the first time, four players fought for victory in the last dramatic round. Many readers have surely already watched numerous videos, games and commentaries, so I approached my article unconventionally. I will focus on the critical moments of the second half of the tournament, but I will „decorate“ the article with questions, tests and, of course, videos that may have somewhat been overlooked in all the glory... Continue reading
Toronto: Candidates Tournament at the halfway point
Half of the Candidates Tournament has been played in Toronto, Canada. However, I believe that this time we cannot use the saying „don’t praise the day before the evening!“ In a way, we already know what the continuation of the men's competition will bring! No, it is not that the tournament lacks many dramatic clashes and great ideas and performances. I mean „what FIDE has done again!“ This time it pulled off a truly daring stunt (irony). In the men's competition, it introduced a new time control. And the consequence? Many peak time scrambles, 180-degree position reversals, blunder chasing blunder before the time control. It is almost certain that as the finish approaches, time trouble incidents will increase... Continue reading
Out of nowhere, the Middlegame appeared. From the afterlife of oblivion to the heights of popularity. A waste of time in the opening as a new trend?
Performance players, let alone top grandmasters, of course cannot ignore modern trends in the opening. This time, however, we will not focus on new ideas and variations, but on an attempt to dust off the entire opening. The shifts of today’s times are transferred into chess, and so in our beloved game it has begun to apply that „everything new is just well-forgotten old.“ Today, the harmless opening is basking in the limelight – the middlegame: 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4. How to fight against it and still strive with Black for more than equal chances? Well, with a Classic with a capital ‚C‘... Continue reading
Abdusattorov in Prague 2024 like Alekhine in San Remo 1930
, that was the impression made on me by the performance of the young Uzbek super-grandmaster in the closed nine-round tournament. Nodirbek Abdusattorov, by the way the 2021 World Rapid Chess Champion, won it with a 1.5-point lead! „But isn’t the author exaggerating a bit?“ a history expert might say: „Alekhine won the 14-round tournament in San Remo with a 3.5-point lead!“ „Yes, but at that time he was also twice as old as today’s fresh world rating number four!“ I dare to raise my argument. So let us look primarily at his performance in Prague... Continue reading
Bishop or Knight? Computers put the final dot on a series of known positions... and coaches got more wrinkles on their foreheads (1)
„The worst bishop is better than the best knight,“ a classic supposedly once said. However, this bon mot may have a rational core, and when we examine the texts and opinions of those who are now classics for us, we at least begin to consider the problem. The following contribution can be understood both as a supplement to my old work The Bad Bishop – Reality, Dogma or Chimera?, which received considerable attention many years ago, and also deals with new perspectives on the issue. The corrections that computers have brought to these problems may be shocking for many readers… Continue reading
Chess quote
Chess is the touchstone of intellect.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Chess quote
Chess, like music and love, has the power to make a person happy.
Siegbert Tarrasch
Siegbert Tarrasch