Sochi Challenge
On Saturday 8 November the first game will be played in the three-week long rematch between defending world champion Magnus…
No. 339
White to play. This position is from Carlsen-Anand, Amber Rapidplay 2008. White is a pawn ahead but Black has counterplay.…
Winning hand
Tension has always existed between games of skill, such as chess or draughts, and games seemingly based on chance, like…
No. 338
White to play. This is from Hebden-Mannion, Isle of Man 2014. White’s next move completely destroyed the black position. What…
Baku beyond
The irrepressible Fabiano Caruana has added to his laurels by sharing first prize in the Baku Grand Prix, which finished…
No. 337
White to play. This position is from Gelfand-Andreikin, Baku 2014. What is White’s best move? Answers to me at The…
Tigran Tigran
Tigran Petrosian seized the world championship from Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963, defended the title against Boris Spassky in 1966 and…
No. 336
White to play. This is from Petrosian-Rosetto, Portoroz 1958. White’s knight is threatened and appears to lack a safe escape…
Fabian strategy
Good news. Fabiano Caruana will be coming to London this December to participate in the sixth London Classic. This will…
No. 335
White to play. This position is a variation from Aronian-Anand, Bilbao 2014. White needs a subtle move to complete the…
Highland fling
Recently Professor Jackie Eales gave a lecture in Canterbury on ‘Queenship in the Age of the Enraged Chess Queen’. (The…
No. 334
White to play. This position is from Keene-Nunn, Surrey Junior Championship 1963. This game started with the Scotch Game opening.…
Scotch miss
This week, a tribute to the one major Scottish contribution to chess, the invention of the Scotch game, later to…
No. 333
White to play. This position is from Yu–Ganguly, Indonesia 2012. This encounter also started with the Scotch Game opening. Both…
Double trouble
The importance of pawn structure cannot be overestimated when planning chess strategy. Although Philidor (18th century) understood the importance of…
No. 332
White to play. This position is from Nimzowitsch-Rubinstein, Berlin 1928. White’s passed pawn and active pieces guarantee a winning advantage.…
Sinking the field
Fabiano Caruana has dominated the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in a way that almost defies belief. The Italo-American grandmaster,…
No. 331
White to play. This is from Caruana–Nakamura, Sinquefield Cup, St Louis 2014. Caruana could have registered an even greater performance…
Gifted and talented
Despite occasional evidence to the contrary, I have persisted in the belief that the ability to play chess well indicates…
No. 330
White to play. This position is from Polgar-Bareev, Moscow 1996. Neither king is entirely happy and in such situations having…
Olympiad highlights
To round off my coverage of the chess Olympiad in Tromsø, which saw a total of 313 teams in the…
No. 329
White to play. This position is from Lee-Croes, Tromsø Olympiad 2014. White’s position is overwhelming and he now found a…
Great wall
China have won the Olympiad in Tromsø. I believe that we can now look forward to a sustained Chinese dominance…
No. 328
Black to play. This position is from Ivanchuk-Mamedyarov, Tromsø Olympiad 2014. How did Black win material? Answers to me at…
Olympiad
The Tromsø Olympiad finishes on Thursday 14 August, too late for any definitive conclusions to be drawn here as to…
