Sometimes bad performance at a tournament can spur you into action. It can make you have a close look at the holes and weaknesses in your play. This is exactly what happened with our reviewer Aanjaneya Phatak. 20-year-old Aanjaneya, who works on chess without a coach, decided to go to the MP Masters Chess 2021. […]
Monthly Archives: January 2022
A new Russian film, written and directed by Aleksey Sidorov, called “The Champion of the World” was released on December 30. The film tells the story of the bitter rivalry between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, focusing on their memorable match in Baguio. Eteri Kublashvili had access to the shooting and shared a number of […]
Four years after his epic match against Fritz in Bahrain, which ended in a hard-fought 4-4 draw, World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, who had in the meantime twice defended his title, once again took up the gauntlet to face his computer opponent. In a two-part pictorial article, Frederic Friedel describes the intense million-dollar battle that was […]
On Tuesday, January 11, 2022, the first auction of the Chess World Champion NFTs (Wilhelm Steinitz) will end at 12:00 CET. The other auctions will follow roughly every hour. Therefore we summarize here the points that make this series unique. In one sentence: It will remain the first of its kind for all times! Also: […]
The Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu won the “Vergani Cup” in the Italian Adriatic resort of Cattolica which finished on Sunday. With 7.0/9 Lalith shared first place with Hans Moke Niemann (USA), Vitaliy Bernadskiy (Ukraine) and Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria), but he had the best tiebreak and therefore won the tournament and the first prize of €2,500. […]
With the Tata Steel Masters kicking off next Saturday, chess aficionados are set to enjoy another year of elite tournaments. Besides the traditional event in Wijk aan Zee, a tournament with a new format will take place in Gibraltar, while the first two legs of the FIDE Grand Prix will be played in close succession […]
In a year that saw Magnus Carlsen defending the Classical World Championship title for a fourth consecutive time, a young player became the most dangerous potential challenger for the Norwegian. 17-year-old Alireza Firouzja climbed to the second spot in the world ranking by showcasing incredible results throughout 2021. We look at how the Iranian-born grandmaster […]
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 will take place in Wijk aan Zee on January 14-30. The Masters and the Challengers sections will be played concurrently. The Open had to be cancelled. World Champion Magnus Carlsen leads the field. Alireza Firouzja is not taking part. | Photos: Tata Steel Chess
“Historias de Ajedrez” is a Cuban movie from 2019 by Emmanuel Martin Hernandez. In the movie, Hernandez, a passionate chess player himself, offers an intimate look at the stories of chess players in Santiago de Cuba.
In 2017, AlphaZero shocked the chess world by crushing Stockfish in a 100-game match. Since then, chess engines have undergone a substantial revision based on deep learning methods to develop a neural network. Joshua Doknjas examines the impact of the AI revolution in chess. | Graphic: Europe Echecs