This was the question that a friend, grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky, posed after being inquired about a comment by another grandmaster. It was meant as irony, but was the logical result of a series of questions and comments that led to him posing this. He had explained with hard data how one could even ask this. […]
Monthly Archives: October 2021
Team Mongolia became the winner of the first Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners after defeating Team Zimbabwe in the final of the biggest ever chess event among correctional facilities. In the women’s section, the Georgian team won all three matches and finished in clear first place.
In an exclusive interview with Tatiana Flores, Jovanka Houska talks about her career as a chess player, author and commentator. She also talks about some of her most important and memorable games and reveals how it feels to get free chess lessons from Judit Polgar. | Photo: Alina l’Ami
Adding symbols, evaluations and comments may be important, but without variations and moves to depict the possibilities that could have taken place or should have taken place, describing chess as a science would have no meaning. Yet knowing how to organize and re-organize those variations and moves sensibly and efficiently is no less essential. Learn […]
On Monday, 25 October, the Grand Swiss Tournament in Riga is scheduled to begin. 114 players have registered, the two best qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2022. But due to a sharp rise in the numbers of COVID-19 cases, the Latvian authorities have introduced a strict four-week lockdown, from Thursday 21 October until 15 November. […]
Recently, Svitlana came to Hamburg to record her new Fritztrainer: “Understanding Material Imbalances”. The DVD will appear soon, probably in a couple of weeks. But this is a good opportunity for a preview, including some recent examples of the themes Svitlana presents, e.g. the entertaining topic of “Material Imbalances”. At the US Championship 2021 that […]
All but one game in both sections of the Russian Superfinals finished drawn in Wednesday’s final round, and the one decisive game (which was played in the open section) did not alter the situation at the top of the standings table. Thus, Nikita Vitiugov and Valentina Gunina, who were the sole leaders after the penultimate […]
Wesley So beat both Fabiano Caruana and Sam Sevian in the playoffs of the 2021 US Championship to win the national title for a third time, since his transfer to the United States in 2014. A hard-fought tournament saw the three players sharing first place on 6½ points after 11 rounds. A round robin with […]
Last weekend, Baden-Baden won the German Team Championship, the Bundesliga. Again. In fact, since 2006 the team from Baden-Baden, sponsored by GRENKE Leasing, only failed to win the league in 2016, when Solingen finished first. This year, at the end of a season that due to the pandemic lasted from 2019 to 2021, Baden-Baden was […]
Going into Wednesday’s final round in the Russian Superfinals, both the open tournament and the women’s championship have a sole leader with a half-point edge over two players sharing second place. In the open, Nikita Vitiugov leads, with Maxim Matlakov and Vladimir Fedoseev standing close behind; among the women, Valentina Gunina is the frontrunner, with […]