'Gukesh, make sure you become world champion...!' 18-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh is the 18th World Champion!
„Gukesh, you'd better become world champion or we won't be friends,“ we joked with my long-time friend after he told me about the tournament in Prague this March. He ‚met' Gukesh in the toilet, and Gukesh then held the door for him as he re-entered the hall, giving a slight nod after a casual „thank you“. We mused that a kind of bond was formed by visiting that room. Readers of my website know that I noticed Gukesh a long time ago. After all, he appeared on the cover of New in Chess back in 2019. 10 months ago we already ‚had a hunch‘, but that our joke „you'd better become world champion or we won't be friends“ would take such a turn?? The following post and celebration of the new world champion I have approached in an unconventional way, just as the nearly three-week-long fierce battle, including the incredible final, was itself unusual… Continue reading
What If... Memories and Speculations on World Championship Matches
What would have happened if Rome had not won the Punic Wars, but Carthage? If parallel worlds existed, as postulated from the perspective of quantum mechanics by the brilliant physicist Hugh Everett? Are there other iterations? What if, in one of them, on 13 July 2024 at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump had not turned his head at the exact moment of the assassin's shot?... And how would chess history have developed if Anatoly Karpov had won the 6th game against the young Kasparov in 1984 and set the final score at 6-1 or even 6-0? If, in the 2013 Candidates Tournament, the number of wins had not decided the winner as a tiebreak, but the traditional Sonneborn? If Carlsen had not equalised the score against Karjakin in the 10th game in 2016? If Caruana had won the study-like endgame in the 6th game of the closely fought 2018 match?... On the eve of the world championship match, let us speculate, reminisce, and of course, do some training… Continue reading
The US Championship or a Parade of Self-Centred Brats and Blunders?
Regrettably, it was precisely this sense of disjunction, the text after 'or', that this year made what for many years has been the most interesting and strongest domestic tournament of the chess superpower seem so. „But everything is fine and in its place,“ another reader who followed the tournament might claim. „Once again, Fabiano Caruana won with a lead. Wesley So, the 2021 US Champion, was once again the draw king, and Levon Aronian as well as another former winner, Samuel Shankland, could certainly have performed better.“ Yes, but what the American youth, once child prodigies but now rather self-centred brats, displayed is perhaps even more thought-provoking. The unusually high number of outright withdrawals and logically inexplicable blunders is also striking… Continue reading
Chess Olympiad: India takes up the sceptre of superpower, abandoned for 30 years
The Chess Olympiad in Budapest has concluded – a true festival of chess. It broke numerous records: the number of participating countries – teams. The clear division into chess superpowers, stalwarts, developing countries, and… a single super-superpower. The number of fans at the venue, but also those following the action 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 victory, with a 4-point lead, came from two truly Olympian terminators, Dommaraju Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi. It is to them that these articles are primarily dedicated... Continue reading
Miniatures expose modern-day geniuses for their carelessness. Magnus and Jan, what is this supposed to be?
In the previous, actually unfinished, article we praised Carlsen's lengthy, truly Alekhine-like calculation of variations. Yet his very next game brought an unprecedented debacle in the opposite direction! To lose with White in 23 moves in one of the calmest Caro-Kann variations? What else can you call this? Why do today's undoubtedly brilliant chess players ‚manage‘ to lose with White in a miniature? This simply didn't happen in the past! Is it due to a lack of self-discipline? An inability to concentrate? A world out of joint? But every cloud has a silver lining: the second miniature game can also be used as a tough test of theoretical knowledge, logic, and flexibility of thought…
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Two Shocking Records by Magnus Carlsen in a Single Day
„I am the strongest living player!“ the young Capablanca is said to have declared in response to a curious journalist. However, the most popular question chess laymen ask chess players is a different one! „How many moves ahead do you calculate?“ To this, Capa replied: „It varies, but sometimes I have to know what will happen after 20 or 30 moves.“ It was only when my older chess friend once explained to me how Capa probably meant it. He spoke of the development and tendencies of the position, which are known to the player in advance, not of forced variations. But even so! Magnus Carlsen could have uttered a similar sentence after his game against Erigaisi. From a mathematical perspective, his calculation lasted an incredible 30 moves! However, today's article will not focus solely on this first peculiar record… Continue reading
With summer, a flight through the tournament world and Arjun Erigaisi's dazzling run
In this article, we will return to the strongest tournament on paper of recent years, held in Stavanger, Norway. There, we witnessed not only a truly sad historical record, but also, in the play of many participants, further unusual blunders, especially in the endgames, which at the very least deserve reflection. The other two strong pre-holiday tournaments can then be seen, for example, as a contest between the older generation and the juniors, or even as a kind of long-distance tug-of-war between two of them for rating supremacy as we step into the second half of the year. The relatively lesser-known 20-year-old Arjun Erigaisi emerged victorious from this, and on 1 July will occupy 4th place in the world rating list… Continue reading
A tasteful 18th birthday present from Stavanger: 'Dommaraju, kings caught with their trousers down, it's time to take 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 well-wishers, a nice video summary of his career so far, plenty of gifts. Perhaps the most tasteful, however, was given to the youngest challenger in chess history by his compatriot Praggnanandhaa! For he delivered a textbook lesson in strategy and tactics to the „strongest chess player of all time“, as many proudly proclaim to the world. 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 dot on the 'i' in a number of well-known positions... and coaches have a new wrinkle on their brow (2)
We continue our study of the relationship between bishop and knight. First, we will test the validity of the 3xBest rule with a number of simpler, typical, but also more complex examples. This should help us orient ourselves in endgames where these minor pieces face each other. The very concept of 'small quality' (the superiority of bishop over knight) is, of course, long forgotten, but we can safely say that its spirit lives on. What's more, it actually permeates all strategy and would be classified under the basic methods of conducting battle: exchange or gain of material. In the second part of the article, however, the reader will learn even more… Continue reading
A Shocking Historical Record in Toronto
I believe that no other expression than „positive shock“ can be applied to the result of the 2024 Candidates Tournament in Toronto. For the first time in the long 75-year history of Candidates Tournaments for the World Championship, it was won by a 17-year-old! And perhaps also for the first time, 4 chess players were fighting for victory in the last dramatic round. Many readers have surely already watched plenty of videos, games and commentaries, so I have taken an unconventional approach to my article. While I focus on the critical moments of the second half of the tournament, I will also „embellish“ the article with questions, tests, and of course videos, some of which may have been somewhat overlooked in all the excitement… Continue reading
Toronto: The Candidates Tournaments at the Halfway Mark
Halfway through the Candidates Tournaments in Toronto, Canada. However, I believe that this time we cannot use the old saying „don't count your chickens before they hatch“! In a way, we already know what the continuation of the men's contest will bring! No, it's not that the tournament hasn't produced plenty of dramatic clashes, great ideas and performances. What I mean is „what FIDE has done again“! This time, they have pulled off a real coup (ironically). In the men's event, they introduced a new time control. And the result? Numerous time scrambles at the highest level, positions turning 180 degrees, and before the time control, blunder follows blunder. It is therefore almost certain that as the finish approaches, time trouble will only increase… Continue reading
Out of Nowhere, the Centre Game Appeared. From the Grave of Oblivion to the Heights of Popularity. Wasting Time in the Opening as a New Trend?
Naturally, club players—let alone top-level chess players—cannot ignore modern trends in the opening. This time, however, we will not focus on new ideas and variations, but rather on an attempt to revive an entire opening. The shifts of our times are reflected in chess, and so in our beloved game the saying has become true: „Everything new is just well-forgotten old.“ Today, a harmless opening—middlegame is basking in the limelight of popularity: 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4. How should one fight against it and still strive for more than equality with Black? Why, with the Classic with a capital ‚C‘… 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