In 1971 Bobby Fischer was on his way to the World Championship, but agreed to take part in a blitz tournament in New York, organised by the Manhattan Chess Club. Fischer won the tournament 25.5 – 0.5. But in round 1, Fischer came close to losing against the well-known and popular author GM Andrew Soltis, […]
Monthly Archives: October 2023
Super-GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri kicked off with wins at the Qatar Masters in Doha. Round 1 saw a few upsets though, with fourth seed Dommaraju Gukesh only managing a draw against IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh, and tenth seed Vladimir Fedoseev even losing to 19-year-old Indian IM Kushagra Mohan. The highest-rated woman […]
The Qatar Masters, one of the strongest open tournaments of the year, is taking place on October 11-20. A star-studded field with Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri as the top seeds fights for a prize fund of $108,250. | Follow the games live with computer-assisted analysis starting at 14.00 CEST (8.00 ET, 17.30 […]
Last year GM Yuri Averbakh turned 100 and set a world record. He became the oldest ever grandmaster in chess history. Sadly, he passed away in May. Averbakh led a rich and extraordinary life that he narrated himself in his autobiography, “Centre-stage and Behind the Scenes”. In the series here, our columnist draws on this […]
As we just reported, the women’s section of the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, was won by the Chinese team – followed of course by the Indian women. But third place was unexpectedly taken by the Kazakhstani women, who beat the Uzbekistan team and secured bronze. It was an achievement that brought pride on […]
Eight years after two very successful editions of the Qatar Masters, won by Yu Yangyi (2014) and Magnus Carlsen (2015), the extraordinarily strong open is back. Carlsen returns to Doha and is joined by the likes of Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri and Dommaraju Gukesh. The tournament will be a 9-round Swiss open, with a $108,250 […]
Svitlana Demchenko celebrated her 20th birthday recently, marking this year’s World Junior Championship in Mexico as her final appearance. She enjoyed the tournament atmosphere, and met many chess friends. In this episode, she shows us a well-prepared Italian Game.
Wins in rounds 3 and 4 allowed Fabiano Caruana to go into the first rest day as the sole leader at the U.S. Championship in Saint Louis. Three players are sharing second place with 2½/4 points: Sam Shankland, Hans Niemann and Abhimnayu Mishra. In the women’s championship, Carissa Yip and Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova are sharing the […]
The Asian Games, held from 23 September to 8 October in Hangzhou, China, included individual and team chess tournaments for men and women. The winners of the team events were Iran (men) and China (women).
The renowned New York University has taken a scientific approach to the omnipresent question marks around the effects of gender bias in chess. It concludes: “This study provides the first large-scale investigation of bias against young female players and holds implications for the role of parents and mentors.” | Logo: Courtesy of the New York […]