Chess

King’s Indian

29 June 2019 9:00 am

The King’s Indian Defence is one of Black’s most dynamic reactions to closed openings such as d4/c4 and Nf3. Black…

Fortune’s wheel

22 June 2019 9:00 am

The elite tournament at Stavanger in Norway has resulted in yet another victory for the world champion Magnus Carlsen. The…

Morse and Lewis

15 June 2019 9:00 am

The Isle of Lewis chess pieces are one of the proudest possessions of the British Museum and also the National Museum…

Spirited

8 June 2019 9:00 am

An unusual tournament has taken place at the Lindores Abbey Whisky Distillery in Scotland, namely a double-round competition between four…

Holy Grail

1 June 2019 9:00 am

Gawain Jones has fought his way to the no. 1 position on the UK ranking list by a series of recent…

Goring the gambit

25 May 2019 9:00 am

One of the most irritating defences to meet when playing 1 d4 as White is the Benko Gambit (1 d4…

Ivory gates

18 May 2019 9:00 am

This year’s Grand Chess Tour kicked off in the Ivory Coast with a significant innovation, the first ever tournament in…

Revolutionary

11 May 2019 9:00 am

The French Defence appears to be somewhat cautious in nature but can in fact lead to disruptive middlegame clashes. It…

Déjà vu

4 May 2019 9:00 am

In my column of 20 April I reported on the overwhelming victory by world champion Magnus Carlsen in the elite Gashimov…

Venit, vidit, vicit

27 April 2019 9:00 am

India is quite possibly the birthplace of chess, with the four branches of the ancient Indian army, infantry, cavalry, chariots…

Carlsen the Great

20 April 2019 9:00 am

I cannot conceal the feeling over the years of Magnus Carlsen’s leading position at the head of world chess, that…

Be prepared

13 April 2019 9:00 am

Last week I wrote about Cyrus Lakdawala’s new book, which provides an aggressive repertoire based on the solid move 1…

Advance planning

6 April 2019 9:00 am

One way to improve your results is to develop a specific opening repertoire and learn it thoroughly so as to…

Fischer favourite

30 March 2019 9:00 am

A favoured line of the great Bobby Fischer was to meet both the French Defence (1 e4 e6) and the…

Family silver

23 March 2019 9:00 am

The World Team Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan, finished last week with a victory for Russia but with an outstanding team…

Oxford win

16 March 2019 9:00 am

The annual Varsity Match between Oxford and Cambridge ended in a surprisingly narrow victory for the dark blues. Their team…

Bunratty

9 March 2019 9:00 am

The Bunratty tournament in Ireland is one of the highlights of the chess year and always attracts an impressive field.…

Playing the blues

2 March 2019 9:00 am

This Saturday (2 March) sees the annual varsity match between the teams of Oxford and Cambridge. Oxford are strengthened this…

Rock solid

23 February 2019 9:00 am

This year’s Gibraltar Masters saw some surprising results at the top, chiefly the victory by the young Russian, Vladimir Artemiev,…

Homage to Kramnik

16 February 2019 9:00 am

The former world champion Vladimir Kramnik recently announced his retirement from competitive chess. He is one of the greats of the…

Kramnik retires

9 February 2019 9:00 am

A notable feature from the recently concluded elite tournament at Wijk aan Zee was the abject failure of former world…

A tale of two tournaments

2 February 2019 9:00 am

The start of the year sees the elite of the chess world divided between Wijk aan Zee in Holland and…

Game changer

26 January 2019 9:00 am

Game Changer, the long-awaited book by Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan, has now appeared. This represents the most thorough inside…

Knockout

19 January 2019 9:00 am

The 2018 UK Knockout, won by Gawain Jones, ahead of Luke McShane (silver) and Michael Adams (bronze), was played in…

Three titans

12 January 2019 9:00 am

The Dutch grandmaster Genna Sosonko specialises in biographies of the greats of the Soviet era. His earlier forays covered the…