Chess
A puzzling dozen
This Christmas, government guidance says that board games are out and quizzes are in. Thus, 12 questions for Christmas. Answers…
Birthday surprise
The Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour is back. This time, the series of online events is rebranded as the Champions Chess…
Chess improvement
The juicy prospect of improvement constantly dangles above a chess player. Those morsels of knowledge one has acquired whet the…
Forbidden pairings
Put yourself in the shoes of Aryan Gholami, the teenage master from Iran who was paired with an Israeli opponent…
Speed freaks
Writing in January, I described internet bullet chess, where the players have one minute for all their moves, as ‘popular,…
The Brick
I own a few chess books that could serve as a murder weapon, but none so hefty as Chess: 5334…
The Queen’s Gambit – Accepted
‘It’s chess. We’re all prima donnas.’ You can hear it spoken with a wink in the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s…
Collapsing barricades
Geometry shmometry. The pirouette of a knight may be pleasing to the eye, but sometimes what I really crave is…
Sweet surrender
It’s over. Magnus Carlsen’s undefeated streak in classical chess has finally come to an end, after 125 games. It is…
Chess players on ice
We are what we do. Alas, in its zeal to suppress the virus, this government would have many people doing…
A trout in the milk?
I can’t tell you why the Armenian grandmaster Tigran Petrosian was found guilty of cheating last month, because I don’t…
Real live chess
It is nigh on seven months since I sat opposite a flesh and blood opponent, so I expected to feel…
When Garry met Fabi
Send in haste, repent at leisure. It is a cruel certainty that you will sooner or later text your intimate…
Changing the rules
Nothing courts us so nimbly as technology. Perhaps the chess computers have already won you over — I am dazzled…
Internet trouble
It was as baffling to me as quantum entanglement. Every time the Algerian player on the Zoom call shared his…
Act of God
Man plans, God laughs. Fide, the international federation, organised an Online Olympiad, with 163 teams taking part. We got a…
Carlsen vs Nakamura
Facing Magnus Carlsen, you have two problems. The first is obvious — he’s the best player in the world. The…
Streaks of brilliance
Last week, snooker ace Ronnie O’Sullivan won his sixth World Championship at the age of 44, a full 19 years…
The King’s Gambit
Does Bear Grylls play chess? If he does, I’m sure he would favour the King’s Gambit. As chess openings go,…
The view from on high
‘Cabin crew, ten minutes to landing!’ Are there any more exhilarating words? Soon, for a few precious minutes, one can…
Tech mate
I am sure I have posed more questions to the chess engine Stockfish than to any living being. I love…
The maestro
‘Had I not become a composer, I would have wanted to be a chess player, but a high-level one, someone…
An ugly duckling problem
The position shown in this week’s main diagram is the starter problem for the Winton British Chess Solving Championship, an…
The Streisand effect
There is no sight so compelling as one that would be hidden. I am fascinated by the Streisand effect, named…
Twitch pageant
Chess has much in common with video games — not least, the eager disdain of uninformed critics. An 1859 article…
