Chess
London Rapid
The exciting American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura compensated for his somewhat lacklustre performance in the London Classic section, held at Olympia…
London Classic
The key feature of the London Classic, which finished shortly before Christmas, was the resurgence of Viswanathan Anand, the former…
Ave et vale
2014 was the year in which Magnus Carlsen confirmed his position as world champion, and also the year in which…
London greats
The London Chess Classic, graced by two former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, as well as the world…
Classic
London chess fans are about to enjoy a great treat. The London Chess Classic will run from the 10-14 December…
Extinct tigers
The Tiger of Madras has gone the way of the sabre-toothed tiger. Viswanathan Anand, world champion from 2007 to 2013,…
Comedy of errors
For reasons unknown, the world championship in Sochi between Carlsen and Anand is turning into a catalogue of disastrous blunders…
Force Majeure
The common feature of the first two games of the World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in…
Sochi Challenge
On Saturday 8 November the first game will be played in the three-week long rematch between defending world champion Magnus…
Winning hand
Tension has always existed between games of skill, such as chess or draughts, and games seemingly based on chance, like…
Baku beyond
The irrepressible Fabiano Caruana has added to his laurels by sharing first prize in the Baku Grand Prix, which finished…
Tigran Tigran
Tigran Petrosian seized the world championship from Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963, defended the title against Boris Spassky in 1966 and…
Fabian strategy
Good news. Fabiano Caruana will be coming to London this December to participate in the sixth London Classic. This will…
Highland fling
Recently Professor Jackie Eales gave a lecture in Canterbury on ‘Queenship in the Age of the Enraged Chess Queen’. (The…
Scotch miss
This week, a tribute to the one major Scottish contribution to chess, the invention of the Scotch game, later to…
Double trouble
The importance of pawn structure cannot be overestimated when planning chess strategy. Although Philidor (18th century) understood the importance of…
Sinking the field
Fabiano Caruana has dominated the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in a way that almost defies belief. The Italo-American grandmaster,…
Gifted and talented
Despite occasional evidence to the contrary, I have persisted in the belief that the ability to play chess well indicates…
Olympiad highlights
To round off my coverage of the chess Olympiad in Tromsø, which saw a total of 313 teams in the…
Great wall
China have won the Olympiad in Tromsø. I believe that we can now look forward to a sustained Chinese dominance…
Olympiad
The Tromsø Olympiad finishes on Thursday 14 August, too late for any definitive conclusions to be drawn here as to…
Two’s a crowd
The British Championship, which finished in Aberystwyth last week, has been shared by international master Jonathan Hawkins and the defending…
Treasure Island
As I write, young Jonathan Hawkins has stormed into the lead in the British Championship in Aberystwyth with the tremendous…
Witsch craft
The ever reliable Steve Giddins has just published a new book on that great strategist Aron Nimzowitsch. This is the…
Final flame
I am very sorry to report the death of International Master Andrew Whiteley, a friend of mine for half a…
