Maecenas

Andrew Paulson, an American who lives in London, has been responsible for a remarkable chess revolution over the past year. He commissioned a YouGov study which showed that more than 600 million people worldwide regularly play chess. Paulson proceeded to raise sponsorship funds to stage two of the best chess tournaments ever held in London — and all within a matter of months. These were the London Grand Prix and the Candidates qualifier, to determine the challenger for the world title match which starts in a few weeks. Almost every grandmaster from the current elite — Carlsen, Kramnik, Svidler, Ivanchuk, Gelfand — was present in one or both of these two extraordinary competitions. Only Anand was absent, but that was unsurprising, since they were designed to identify his challenger.
 
Paulson’s next exploit was to decide at the last minute to stand as the new president of the English Chess Federation. His victory last Saturday was a landslide against the incumbent president, Roger Edwards, of 169 votes to 106. It is my belief that the Federation has acted boldly, but in the very best interests of chess. Paulson’s energy is undoubted, his contacts impressive, and his desire to unite all strands of English chess imperative.
 
Meanwhile, Russian grandmasters have been engaged in a particularly strenuous battle for their annual championship. This week, a game and a puzzle from that event.
 
Svidler-Andreikin: Russian Championship, Novgorod 2013; Ruy Lopez
 
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 d3 d6 5 0-0 Bd7 6 c4 g6 7 Nc3 Bg7 8 Be3 0-0 9 h3 Nb8 Young players are invariably advised to avoid such time wasting. If he wants to regroup then 9 … Ne8 looks superior, freeing his f-pawn for counter-attacking purposes. 10 Qb3 c6 11 Ba4 Qc8 (see diagram 1) 12 Qd1 Also a curiously retrograde decision, but he has to make an escape route for his light squared bishop which was in some danger of being snared by a possible future advance of Black’s queenside pawns.