No. 721
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Carl Schlechter, Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, 1908. What is White’s first move?…
Royal’s success
The London Mindsports Centre in Hammersmith opened its doors in 2021, after it was converted from a Salvation Army building.…
No. 720
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Edith Baird, for The Chess Amateur, 1923. Answers should be…
Pique or cheat?
In the third round of the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, Magnus Carlsen was beaten by 19-year old Hans Niemann,…
Chess speaks for itself
‘Plug the fucking laptop in!’ Hans Niemann, the lively 19-year-old from the US, was left fuming – understandably – after…
No. 719
White to play. Cornette-Feller, French Champion-ship, August 2022. Black has just played 13…h7-h6. How did White capitalise on this mistake?…
Match of the half-century
They called it the Match of the Century. A full 50 years has passed since Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky…
No. 718
White to play and win. Composed by Alexey Troitsky, Novoye Vremya, 1895. Trapping Black’s queen looks unimaginable on such an…
No. 717
White to play. Gormally–Claridge-Hansen, British Championships 2022 Black’s last move, Ra8-a7,was a fatal mistake. Which move won the game for…
A week in Torquay
Hats off to Harry Grieve, who took clear first place at the Chessable British Championships which concluded in Torquay last…
The first Olympiad
Everyone remembers their first Olympiad. As I boarded the flight to Chennai last month, it struck me that two full…
No. 716
Black to play. A variation from McShane-Hamitevici, Chennai 2022. I avoided this position, but lost in a different way. White…
No. 715
White to play. Navara – Batsuren, Chennai Olympiad 2022. In this strange position Czech grandmaster David Navara found an elegant…
India’s young stars
At the Chennai Olympiad, the Indian team began as second seeds, even with former World Champion Vishy Anand absent from…
No. 714
Black to play. Smirnov – Duda, Chennai Olympiad 2022. With his next move, Duda forced a decisive gain of material.…
A lucky escape
I chatted to a spectator after one of my games at the Sparkassen Chess Trophy in Dortmund. ‘A close shave…
Heavy is the head
On International Chess Day, 20 July, Magnus Carlsen announced that he will not defend his world championship title next year.…
No. 713
White to play and mate in two. Composed by Henri Rinck, La Strategie, 1892. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk…
No. 712
White to play and mate in two. Composed by Philip Hamilton Williams, British Chess Magazine, 1895. Answers should be emailed…
Wetware
Modern chess computers, like the program ‘Stockfish’, are treated as oracles. Plug in a position, start the engine, and within…
No. 711
White to play. Short-Timman, Staunton Memorial 2008. Short played 1 Qb3, missing an unusual opportunity to cause havoc with the…
Silver and gold
The ‘English chess explosion’ that began in the 1970s produced a bumper crop of grandmasters, which meant that by the…
No. 710
White to play. J. Polgar-Carlsen, Casual blitz game, Madrid 2022. Carlsen’s last move 15…Ra8-c8 was a losing blunder. How did…
Nepo’s playbook
Ian Nepomniachtchi is back for more. The former world championship challenger left his rivals in the dust at the Candidates…
No. 709
White to play. Miles-Pritchett, Lloyds Bank Masters 1982. Tony Miles found a powerful counter to the queenside threats. What did…
