Taking risks | 12 March 2022
I do not, as a rule, go looking for a fight on a Sunday morning. Chess, if it must be…
Russia in check
The Champions League final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris and the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi cancelled.…
No. 692
White to play and win. A gem discovered by the Ukrainian composer Vladislav Tarasiuk with Israeli composer Amatzia Avni. How…
No. 691
Black to play. Maric-Gligoric, Belgrade 1962. White has offered to exchange the rooks on f5 and c3. But Gligoric found…
Nakamura the wildcard
Hikaru Nakamura justified his wildcard invitation by taking first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Berlin this month. The…
No. 670
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
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
One tradition at the annual Gibraltar Masters is a high-spirited skittles match played in the evening between teams of men…
No. 689
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Touw Hian Bwee, Schakend Nederland 1976. The first move allows…
Magnus’s tasks
World championship match play has a stony logic, where there are no prizes for glorious endeavour. It calls to mind…
No. 688
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
Black to play. Grandelius–Rapport, Tata Steel Chess 2022. With a bishop resting on a3, the White king can never sit…
Pixel this
When Magnus Carlsen won last year’s Meltwater Champions Tour, they made two trophies. One was for Carlsen, and the second…
No. 686
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
Here’s a challenge which appeared in a German chess magazine in 1848: place eight white queens on an empty chessboard…
No. 685
White to play. Maxime Lagarde-Thai Dai Van Nguyen, Reykjavik 2021. Lagarde found a brilliant finish, forcing mate in just a…
When travel unravels
Recently, with some regret, I declined an invitation to play chess in the Netherlands. I fancied the trip, but alas…
