Luke McShane is chess columnist for The Spectator.
‘I kind of played old man’s chess in that game,’ said Magnus Carlsen, after winning a game against S.L. Narayanan, a top Indian grandmaster, at the Tata Steel Rapid in Kolkata last week. ‘No long variations, just positional chess.’ None of his moves would have come as a great surprise to his opponent, while Narayanan’s
Black to play. Erigaisi-Dubov, Tata Steel India Blitz, November 2024. Dubov chose Rg4-e4, overlooking a tactical shot that would have won the game. What was the winning move? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 25 November. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal
To an outsider, we chess players might seem a rather uniform breed. Studious and contemplative, we spend hours absorbed in a board game to no apparent end. It is the archetypal thinker’s hobby. But within the subculture, there are many, perhaps even a majority, who identify as pragmatists, not thinkers. Results are the driving motivation.
White to play and mate in 2. Composed by Sam Loyd, La Stratégie, 1867. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 18 November. There is a prize of £20 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 1 Be8! threatens
Garry Kasparov retired from competitive chess in 2005, but has proved that at the age of 61 he remains competitive at the highest level. That is an extraordinary achievement in an time when just five of the world’s top 100 active players are older than 50. The former world champion joined a powerful field in
White to play and mate in 2. Composed by Otto Wurzburg, the Pittsburgh Gazette Times, 1917. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 11 November. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s
In 2016, the naming of a polar research ship was put to a public vote, and ‘Boaty McBoatface’ was the overwhelming winner. Should humanity’s fate ever be staked on a game of chess against alien invaders, I hope we don’t get a vote. If the internet has taught me anything, we would end up playing
White to play. Abdusattorov-Maghoodloo, European Club Cup, October 2024. Black’s preceding move Qg6xg3 backfired spectacularly. Which move allowed White to turn the tables? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 4 November. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks
Two of England’s brightest prospects received a golden opportunity to play at the WR Chess Masters Cup, an elite knockout tournament held at the Langham Hotel in London last week. WR is Wadim Rosenstein, a keen chess player and CEO of the German WR logistics group, which last year partnered with Fide to organise the
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Hermann Feodor Lehner, Deutsche Schachzeitung, 1873. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 28 October. There is a prize of £20 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 1…f6!
Congratulations to Sir Demis Hassabis, who last week was awarded a Nobel prize for his work on AlphaFold, which uses artificial intelligence to predict the structure of proteins. Developed by DeepMind, AlphaFold belongs to the same family of work as AlphaZero, which revolutionised computer chess when it was released in 2017, and before that AlphaGo,
Black to play. Dominguez-Shankland, US Championship 2024. Which move allows Black to escape perpetual check and win? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 21 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include an address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1…Kd3!
There’s a piece of chess clickbait which occurs with tiresome regularity. The players are deep in the endgame, but have so little time remaining that the game cannot be concluded with dignity. Pieces land in between squares, or get dropped and clatter across the board. In their final seconds, players will attempt to move before
Black to play. Mamedyarov-Maghsoodloo, Global Chess League, October 2024. Maghsoodloo chose wrongly here. Out of 1…Kd3, 1…b2+ and 1…c2, which one is the best? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 14 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and
Mistakes in chess come in pairs. Last month, and not for the first time, that nugget of wisdom thumped me on the nose. Representing England at the Olympiad in Budapest, my game against Luca Moroni was proceeding rather pleasantly. It was clear the Italian grandmaster had underestimated my sacrifice of rook for bishop in the
White to play. Ciolacu-Khotenashvili, Fide Women’s Olympiad, Budapest, September 2024. How did White crown her kingside attack? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 7 October. There is a prize of £20 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
White to play. Kulaots-Kadric, Budapest Olympiad, September 2024. The Estonian grandmaster spotted a neat sequence to gain a decisive material advantage. What was his first move here? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 30 September. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address
The Gaprindashvili Cup, named after the Georgian former women’s world champion Nona Gaprindashvili, is awarded at the biennial Chess Olympiad to the country with the highest total standings between the open and women’s events. In Chennai in 2022, that honour went to India, who won the bronze medals in both sections. The 45th Chess Olympiad,
When I select puzzles to accompany this column, I stick to the plain vanilla. The stipulation must be short and sweet, and one move solutions must be accepted (though I like to include a few further words of explanation). Alas, a thousand such puzzles can never do justice to the wondrous ingenuity of chess composers.
Le-Sindarov, Budapest Olympiad, September 2024. White’s next move induced immediate resignation. What did he play? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 23 September. There is a prize of £20 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