Raymond Keene

Raymond Keene is The Spectator's chess columnist.

No. 374

15 August 2015 9:00 am

Black to play. This is a variation from Osborne-Hawkins, British Championship, Coventry 2015. Black is a piece down. What is…

1 Samuel 18:7

8 August 2015 9:00 am

David Howell is on a roll. At the halfway stage of the British Championship he looks set to retain his…

No. 373

8 August 2015 9:00 am

White to play. This is a variation from Williams-Howell, British Championship, Warwick 2015. Howell won this game but the puzzle…

Stormy Petroff

1 August 2015 9:00 am

Alexander Petroff (1794-1867) is often remembered as the first great Russian chess master. He became the strongest player in Russia…

No. 372

1 August 2015 9:00 am

White to play. This position is from Howell-Sokolov, Staunton Memorial 2009. How can White finish off his attack with a…

Arachnid

25 July 2015 9:00 am

Sadly, Michael Adams, for many years Britain’s leading grandmaster, will not be playing in the British Championship, which starts next…

No. 371

25 July 2015 9:00 am

Black to play. This is from Williams-Hawkins, -British Championship 2014. How can Black finish off his attack with a fine…

Fabulous Fabiano

18 July 2015 9:00 am

Fabiano Caruana notched the result of his life at the Sinquefield Trophy in St Louis last year. Since then he…

No. 370

18 July 2015 9:00 am

Black to play. This position is a variation from Kramnik-Naiditsch, Dortmund 2015. How can Black make a decisive material gain?…

Chinese cracker

11 July 2015 9:00 am

I have a particular affection for Chinese involvement in mind sports. In 1981 I was invited as the first western…

No. 370

11 July 2015 9:00 am

Black to play. This position is a variation from Hou Yifan-Kramnik, Dortmund 2015. Black is a rook down. What does…

Magnus toppled

4 July 2015 9:00 am

Last week, world champion Magnus Carlsen suffered a devastating defeat in the first round of the Stavanger super tournament when…

No. 369

4 July 2015 9:00 am

White to play. This is from Anand–Hammer, Stavanger 2015. White is a pawn up with a good position and his…

Tempus fugit

27 June 2015 9:00 am

In serious competitive chess the play is regulated by time limits for completion of the moves. In the mid-19th century,…

No. 368

27 June 2015 9:00 am

White to play. This position is from Vachier-Lagrave-Caruana, Norway Blitz 2015. How did White finish off at once? Answers to…

Dark lord

20 June 2015 9:00 am

A new book, Opening Repertoire: The Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian by Christof Seilecki (Everyman Chess), focuses on the ever popular Nimzo-Indian…

No. 367

20 June 2015 9:00 am

Black to play. This is from Spassky-Fischer, World Championship, Reykjavik (Game 5) 1972. This is probably the most famous ‘dark-square’…

Triple tie

13 June 2015 9:00 am

This week I conclude my coverage of the Fidé (World Chess Federation) Grand Prix which finished last month in Khanty-Mansiysk.…

No. 366

13 June 2015 9:00 am

Black to play. This is from Rodriguez-Xiong, California 2012. How does Black finish off? Answers to me at The Spectator…

Boris Good Enough

6 June 2015 9:00 am

Boris Gulko, celebrated both as a grandmaster and a former Soviet dissident, has recently completed his great trilogy of instructional…

No. 365

6 June 2015 9:00 am

Black to play. This is from Caruana-Jakovenko, Khanty-Mansiysk 2015. Black is winning -easily, but can you find the most accurate…

Shuffleduck

30 May 2015 9:00 am

There are some odd opening moves in chess, such as 1 a3 and 1 g4. The former was used by…

No. 364

30 May 2015 9:00 am

Black to play. This is from Westman-Walther, Havana 1966. Black has the possibility of a discovered check against the white…

Reichenbach falls

23 May 2015 9:00 am

The former world champion Vladimir Kramnik recently espoused an opening system which I elaborated in a tournament in Germany in 1975.…

Puzzle no. 363

23 May 2015 9:00 am

White to play. This is from Kramnik-Svidler, Russian Team Championship, Sochi 2015. The black pieces are in a tangle and…