FIDE has issued a statement in response to the last-minute series of matches in Chartres, France, which began on Monday 18th December and in which Alireza Firouzja is playing three much weaker opponents in an attempt to gain the necessary Elo points that would secure him a place in the 2024 Candidates Tournament.
Monthly Archives: December 2023
Four players are sharing the lead with 5½ points each after six rounds of play at the Chessable Sunway main tournament in Sitges. Sethuraman S.P. (India), Dominik Horvath (Austria), Brandon Jacobson (United States) and Iniyan Pa (India) are the current co-leaders in the 10-round open event. Two side stories from Sitges dominated the news cycle […]
There are still two places available in the 2024 Candidates Tournament. One of these places will go to the player with the highest Elo rating in the January 2024 world rankings who has not yet qualified for the Candidates Tournament. A tournament was therefore organised at short notice in Chennai, India, to give Erigaisi and […]
D Gukesh scored his first win of the event against Alexandr Predke in the fourth round of the Chennai Grand Masters. Gukesh joined Pentala Harikrishna in the lead with 2.5/4 points each. Harikrishna had a well contested draw against Levon Aronian. Parham Maghsoodloo also scored his first win of the event, against Sanan Sjugirov. Arjun […]
In order to attack the enemy king successfully in a game of chess, you need sufficient firepower and a clear target. Often there will be a complex of squares of the same colour that come under attack, and so we have white or dark-square games. Today we have some instances of attacks on both light […]
Arjun Erigaisi scored his first win of the event against Alexandr Predke in the third round of the Chennai Grand Masters 2023. After losing the first round against Harikrishna, Arjun was virtually in a must-win situation to stay in the championship hunt and keep his chances in the FIDE Circuit. Predke made a positional mistake […]
Today, 17 December 2023, Alexander “Big Al” Beliavsky celebrates his 70th birthday. 50 years ago, in 1973, he became World Junior Champion and has been a fixture in the chess universe ever since. For decades he was a world class player and in the course of his illustrious career Beliavsky defeated no less than nine […]
Magnus Carlsen beat Wesley So in a hard-fought match to claim his third consecutive Champions Chess Tour title. This time around, the last event of the cycle took place in Toronto and featured eight much deserving qualified players. In the end, however, it was the king of rapid chess who — once again — came […]
Vishy Anand inaugurated the Chennai Grand Masters 2023 by making the first move on D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi’s board. They had a relatively calm draw. Alexandr Predke (SRB) had good chances against Pentala Harikrishna. However, he blundered away his advantage. The endgame expert, Harikrishna, does not miss these chances to secure a half point. […]
Magnus Carlsen faced Levon Aronian several times in his career. The game Svitlana chose to analyse together with us, points out some crucial initiative decisions by Magnus, which made him win the game. Sacrificing one pawn to gain some advantage is a common practice. But sacrificing two pawns is already quite exceptional.