This description of Viktor Korchnoi was coined (an oblique reference to Muhammad Ali’s nickname of Louisville Lip) by Ian Ward of the Daily Telegraph during the Baguio City World Championship of 1978. During the pre-Kasparov mid-1970s and early 1980s, world title chess was dominated by the three great matches between Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly
The second leg of this year’s Grand Tour was contested in Paris, almost immediately after Leuven. For Paris, Anish Giri was replaced by the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, increasing the overall strength of the competition. Final results and top prizes in Paris were as follows: Hikaru Nakamura 13 ($37,500), Sergei Karjakin 10 ($25,000),
Over the course of this year Fabiano Caruana has scored splendidly in tournaments with classical time limits, notching up first prizes in the Berlin Candidates tournament, Baden Baden and Stavanger. The first of these triumphs qualified him to contest the World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen, the title holder, in London in November. In the
Fabiano Caruana has won the elite Altibox tournament ahead of world champion Magnus Carlsen. This result might appear to give a promising boost to Caruana’s prospects for his world title challenge to Carlsen, which is due to take place in London in November. Alas, that is not the case. It is true that Caruana triumphed
Viktor Korchnoi is the subject of a poignant new book from the distinguished pen of the Dutch grandmaster and former Soviet emigré Genna Sosonko. The title Evil Doer (published by Elk and Ruby) refers to the damnatio memoriae meted out by the USSR after Korchnoi’s very public defection to Amsterdam from the socialist paradise in 1976.
Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana will be contesting their World Championship match in London in November. As I mentioned last week, there is no better guide to the entire history of the World Championship than the extraordinary series by Garry Kasparov. He catalogues the best games of every champion, demonstrating how each one represents the
My Great Predecessors is an indispensable guide to the achievements, style and best games of the former world chess champions. It is a monumental series, consisting of five volumes, written by probably the greatest champion of them all, Garry Kasparov. In Modern Chess and Kasparov on Kasparov there are several more volumes, and in the latter
On 10 May, Britain’s most famous grandmaster, Nigel Short, chose the pages of the Times to announce his surprise candidacy for the post of president of Fidé, the World Chess Federation. It is high time indeed that someone had the courage to attempt the clean-up of this organisation, whose bank account has recently been terminated
Chess, the musical by Sir Tim Rice and the male half of ABBA, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, runs at the London Coliseum until 2 June. I cannot recommend it more highly, especially for chess enthusiasts who recall the defections, alcoholism, protests, match terminations and paranormal interventions of the age of Tal, Spassky, Fischer, Korchnoi, Karpov
Matthew Sadler was the star of the evening on the night of the Royal Automobile Club annual dinner which I mentioned in this column on 14 April. It is traditional that a grandmaster takes on the assembled forces of the RAC, who this year won the Hamilton Russell Trophy. On this occasion it was Matthew
The Grenke Chess Classic, played in Karlsruhe and Baden Baden, has been won by Fabiano Caruana, who also won the World Championship Candidates tournament in Berlin (see Chess, 21 April). In his most recent success Caruana finished ahead of the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, by a clear point. Although Carlsen must remain the favourite for
The Vienna variation of the Queen’s Gambit is notable for a line in which the pieces conduct an elaborate dance around respective captures on opposite sides of the board. The variation has come into prominence as a result of a game from the recently concluded Berlin Candidates tournament. On the whole, in spite of the
The Berlin qualifying tournament to determine the challenger to world champion Magnus Carlsen has ended in victory for the American grandmaster and Olympiad gold medallist Fabiano Caruana. Caruana will be the first homegrown American contender since the days of Bobby Fischer in 1972. The world championship match will take place in November in London. This
The annual Hamilton-Russell competition for London Clubs has been won by the Royal Automobile Club, with the Marylebone Cricket Club in close contention. On Tuesday 17 April, the awards ceremony will take place in the Mountbatten Room of the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, combined with the annual dinner for notables of the contesting teams. It
No, not the type of space travel allegedly enjoyed by the World Chess Federation president, Kirsan Ilumzinov, during his self-confessed encounters with aliens — rather, the control of space conferred by certain types of chess opening as explained in Opening Repertoire 1 e4 by Cyrus Lakdawala (Everyman Chess). The industrious and prolific Lakdawala presents a
A match which has attracted less attention than it deserves was Luke McShane’s victory over David Howell in the final of the UK Knockout championship, which coincided with the London Classic last December. En route to the final, Luke eliminated both the reigning British champion Gawain Jones and England’s most celebrated grandmaster, Nigel Short.
Every so often a game is played which is worthy of joining the immortals in the pantheon of chessboard masterpieces. Anderssen v. Kieseritsky, London 1851, Zukertort v. Blackburne, London 1883, Botvinnik v. Capablanca, AVRO 1938; these are the jewels to which every chess player aspires. As Marcel Duchamp once observed: ‘not all artists are chess
The three most important events in the World Chess Federation calendar are the World Championship match, the Olympiad and the Candidates tournament, all of them biennial. The last of these is now in progress in Berlin and the winner will go on to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the supreme title in London later this year. The first
This weekend the Candidates tournament commences in Berlin to decide the challenger who will face Magnus Carlsen for the world title in London later this year. The favourite is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, with a rating of 2814, and this week’s puzzle shows a sample of his trenchant style. Although he is not the highest-rated, my money
This year’s tournament at Bunratty in Ireland was the celebratory 25th in the series and I was invited to deliver the closing peroration. The competition was particularly stiff on this occasion, with British champion Gawain Jones sharing first prize with grandmaster Sergey Tiviakov, ahead of Nigel Short, Jon Speelman, Luke McShane and a host of other
