Luke McShane is chess columnist for The Spectator.
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White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Johan Axel Akerblom, Sveriges Schackförbund, 1924. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 20 April (first move only). There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks
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More than 3,500 players convened in Karlsruhe, Germany over the Easter weekend to take part in the Grenke Chess Festival. The flagship event was the Freestyle Chess Open, and Magnus Carlsen’s advocacy for Freestyle chess (also known as Fischer-Random, or Chess960), in which the pieces on the back rank are rearranged randomly at the start
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Black to play. A variation from the game Tan-Goryachkina, Fide Women’s Candidates, Cyprus 2026. White is two pawns up, but Black has a surprising winning move. Which one? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 13 April. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat.
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Javokhir Sindarov from Uzbekistan has dominated the first half of the Candidates Tournament in Cyprus, with an astonishing start of six points from the first seven games. That puts the 20-year-old 1.5 points clear of his closest pursuer Fabiano Caruana, and makes him a huge favourite. The tournament winner earns the right to challenge for
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White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Thomas Dawson, British Chess Magazine, 1942. This problem appeared in the Minor section of the 2026 solving championship. Email answers (first move only) to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 6 April. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out
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Participants at the Winton British Solving Championship face six rounds of fiendishly difficult chess problems. The problems have an exam-style rubric, where marks are given for the right answer, but also for relevant variations to the main idea. Each round contains a different genre of problem: mate in two, mate in three, longer mates, helpmates,
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Black to play. Dishman-Bevis, British Rapidplay Championship, 2026. A draw looks likely, but White’s last move, 40 Rb6-b5, had a surprising flaw. Black’s next move prompted resignation. What was it? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 30 March. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of
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Fifteen-year-old Frederick Waldhausen Gordon was a surprise winner at the British Rapidplay Championship, held in Peterborough earlier this month. The teenager from Scotland was seeded just 25th in a field which contained seven grandmasters, including England team regulars Gawain Maroroa Jones and Michael Adams. After eight rounds (out of 11), Maroroa Jones had won all
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Black to play. Schell-Bryant, Isle of Wight 2026. Black’s next move prompted immediate resignation. What was it? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 23 March. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize
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Oxford began as small favourites for the 144th Varsity Match, held at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, London, earlier in March. But it was Cambridge who pulled ahead first, thanks to wins from Rajat Makkar on top board, as well as captain Remy Rushbrooke, who was awarded the Brilliancy Prize for the finish below.
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White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Otto Wurzburg, Zlata Praha, 1907. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 16 March. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last
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Nodirbek Abdusattorov continued his formidable run with victory at the Prague Masters, adding to triumphs at the Tata Steel Masters in January and the London Chess Classic in December. The Uzbek grandmaster now sits fourth in the world on live ratings, making his absence from the Candidates tournament, which begins at the end of March,
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White to play. Royal-Radeva, Isle of Wight Masters, 2025. Royal found a quick way to wrap up the game. Which move did he play? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 9 March. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal
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There is a persistent contrarian view that the world’s top players maintain their high ratings by being part of a closed shop. According to that theory, the same players get invited to all the same tournaments, where they face each other repeatedly, and the prevalence of draws between closely matched players means that nobody’s rating
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Black to play. Sigurjonsson-Timman, Wijk aan Zee 1980. Timman has sacrificed a rook to open up White’s king. His next move was a decisive blow. What did he play? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 2 March. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a
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Jan Timman, the Dutch grandmaster who at his peak reached second place in the world rankings, died in February at the age of 74. For much of the 1980s, when Soviet players (especially Karpov and Kasparov) dominated the game, Timman was regarded as the ‘Best of the West’. As a young man, Timman was drawn to the bohemian
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White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Heinrich Meyer, 1898. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 23 February. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution
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Since Magnus Carlsen abdicated his classical world championship crown in 2022, the international chess federation (Fide) has faced a persistent headache: the world’s strongest player has no interest in their flagship event. Fide has responded by adding new formats in which world titles are contested, to encourage Carlsen’s participation. Early in 2026, they sanctioned the
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White to play. Jacorey Bynum-Magnus Carlsen, chess.com, 2026. In another Titled Tuesday game, a teenage national master from the USA scored a memorable upset. Which move forced a quick mate here? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 16 February. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out
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‘This is why you don’t do puzzles, kids,’ drawled Magnus Carlsen, after a lucky escape in a recent blitz game played on Chess.com. ‘Because if this is a puzzle you see it immediately. But in puzzles, you’re trained to see puzzles, while in games, you’re not.’ No doubt Carlsen has done his fair share of