Luke McShane

No. 696

2 April 2022 9:00 am

White to play and mate in two. Philip Hamilton Williams, Birmingham News, 1897. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.ukby Monday…

Varsity battle

2 April 2022 9:00 am

The 140th edition of the Varsity Match took place last month at the Royal Automobile Club in London’s Pall Mall.…

England-Sweden Challenge

26 March 2022 9:00 am

Three summers ago, I was invited to the Swedish city of Eskilstuna, for a brief but exciting match against their…

No. 695

26 March 2022 9:00 am

White to play and mate in 2. Composed by Bo Lindgren, Probleemblad 1969. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by…

Establishing Rapport

19 March 2022 9:00 am

Richard Rapport took first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Belgrade last weekend. The Hungarian grandmaster is now almost…

No. 694

19 March 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Rapport-Rogic, Austria 2010. Black threatens Qa1+ and then Rxf2+, so Rapport must strike at once. Which move…

No. 693

12 March 2022 9:00 am

Black to play. Shirov-Kramnik, Groningen 1993. Shirov threatens Rg3-h3+ so Kramnik forced a draw: 1…Rxg7+ 2 Rxg7+ Kh6 3 Rg8…

Taking risks | 12 March 2022

12 March 2022 9:00 am

I do not, as a rule, go looking for a fight on a Sunday morning. Chess, if it must be…

Russia in check

5 March 2022 9:00 am

The Champions League final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris and the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi cancelled.…

No. 692

5 March 2022 9:00 am

White to play and win. A gem discovered by the Ukrainian composer Vladislav Tarasiuk with Israeli composer Amatzia Avni. How…

No. 691

26 February 2022 9:00 am

Black to play. Maric-Gligoric, Belgrade 1962. White has offered to exchange the rooks on f5 and c3. But Gligoric found…

Nakamura the wildcard

26 February 2022 9:00 am

Hikaru Nakamura justified his wildcard invitation by taking first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Berlin this month. The…

No. 670

19 February 2022 9:00 am

Black to play. Shuvalova–Pavlidou, Women’s World Blitz Championship, 2021. White was winning, but has just played 89 g3-g4? No resignation…

Contemplating loss

19 February 2022 9:00 am

Contemplating a lost position is a bit like having sauce down your shirt. It is annoying in itself, but worse,…

The battle of the sexes

12 February 2022 9:00 am

One tradition at the annual Gibraltar Masters is a high-spirited skittles match played in the evening between teams of men…

No. 689

12 February 2022 9:00 am

White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Touw Hian Bwee, Schakend Nederland 1976. The first move allows…

Magnus’s tasks

5 February 2022 9:00 am

World championship match play has a stony logic, where there are no prizes for glorious endeavour. It calls to mind…

No. 688

5 February 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Dardha–Shuvalova, Tata Steel Challengers 2022. The 16-year-old grandmaster from Belgium found a crisp way to finish the…

No. 687

29 January 2022 9:00 am

Black to play. Grandelius–Rapport, Tata Steel Chess 2022. With a bishop resting on a3, the White king can never sit…

Pixel this

29 January 2022 9:00 am

When Magnus Carlsen won last year’s Meltwater Champions Tour, they made two trophies. One was for Carlsen, and the second…

No. 686

22 January 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Gelfand–Karjakin, Tal Memorial Blitz 2008. Gelfand’s pawn is pinned, and moving the king runs into more checks.…

A multitude of queens

22 January 2022 9:00 am

Here’s a challenge which appeared in a German chess magazine in 1848: place eight white queens on an empty chessboard…

No. 685

15 January 2022 9:00 am

White to play. Maxime Lagarde-Thai Dai Van Nguyen, Reykjavik 2021. Lagarde found a brilliant finish, forcing mate in just a…

When travel unravels

15 January 2022 9:00 am

Recently, with some regret, I declined an invitation to play chess in the Netherlands. I fancied the trip, but alas…