Luke McShane is chess columnist for The Spectator.
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White to play. Mamedyarov-J. Polgar, Fide World Blitz, Dubai 2014. Black is lagging in development, and her last move, 10…Nb8-d7, gifted White a tactical opportunity. Which move won the game for White? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 24 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of
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‘I can comprehend Alekhine’s combinations well enough; but where he gets his attacking chances from and how he infuses such life into the very opening – that is beyond me. Give me the positions he obtains, and I should seldom falter. Yet I continually get drawn games, even out of the King’s Gambit!’ Those words
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White to play and mate in two. Composed by Bruce Leverett, Chess Life, 1968. What is White’s first move? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 17 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
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Vishy Anand’s eyes lit up as he described a beautiful variation from his game with Shakriyar Mamedyarov, played at the European Club Cup in Mayrhofen, Austria this month. The first diagram shows a variation which could arise if Mamedyarov had tried 33…Bg5!? 34 Rxc4 Bxe3+. (See left game) 35 Kf1 is tempting, since 35…Bxc4 36
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Black to play. Giorgobiani-Sivanandan, Fide Cadets U8 Girls Championship, 2022. Black has a subtle winning move in this position. What is it? (The game continued 32…Rf1 33 Qd5 and Black won after a long fight.) Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 10 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct
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Judit Polgar, the strongest female player of all time, conducted an enchanting interview in the commentary room during the Chennai Olympiad. Her interviewee was Charvi Anilkumar, an eight-year-old girl from Bangalore. Asked about her dreams and ambitions, she announced confidently, ‘I need to play in men’s section and I need to be a grandmaster, and
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The latest flashpoint in the Carlsen-Niemann saga took place in the sixth round of the preliminaries at the Julius Baer Generation Cup, one of the online events in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Ten days earlier, 19-year-old Hans Niemann had beaten Magnus Carlsen over the board at the Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen’s shock withdrawal from that
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Black to play and win. A variation from the game Aronian-Ivanchuk, Julius Baer Generation Cup, September 2022. Ivanchuk could have reached this position, where he can now win at least a knight by force. What should Black’s next move be? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 3 October. There is a prize of £20 for
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White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Carl Schlechter, Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, 1908. What is White’s first move? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 26 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
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The London Mindsports Centre in Hammersmith opened its doors in 2021, after it was converted from a Salvation Army building. The centre now hosts lectures and tournaments in Chess, Go and Bridge, besides other events. The Mindsports Masters all-play-all events, held earlier this month, were designed with title aspirants in mind. Among them was 13-year-old
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White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Edith Baird, for The Chess Amateur, 1923. Answers should be emailed by Tuesday 20 September to chess@spectator.co.uk. 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
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In the third round of the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, Magnus Carlsen was beaten by 19-year old Hans Niemann, the lowest seeded player in the event. The result was surprising, particularly since Niemann played Black, but certainly not inconceivable. The next day, Carlsen announced his withdrawal from the tournament on Twitter, appending a short
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White to play. Cornette-Feller, French Champion-ship, August 2022. Black has just played 13…h7-h6. How did White capitalise on this mistake? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 12 September. There is a prize of £20 for a correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last
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‘Plug the fucking laptop in!’ Hans Niemann, the lively 19-year-old from the US, was left fuming – understandably – after his loss to Jan-Krzysztof Duda at the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami. The organisers set up the equipment, but Duda’s laptop ran out of juice at a tense moment when both players had about a
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They called it the Match of the Century. A full 50 years has passed since Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, thereby becoming the 11th world champion. On 1 September 1972, Fischer won game 21 to win the match by 12.5-8.5. I enjoyed the perspective of a new book, The Match of All Time
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White to play and win. Composed by Alexey Troitsky, Novoye Vremya, 1895. Trapping Black’s queen looks unimaginable on such an open board, but it can be done. What is White’s first move? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 5 September. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of
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White to play. Gormally–Claridge-Hansen, British Championships 2022 Black’s last move, Ra8-a7,was a fatal mistake. Which move won the game for White? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 29 August. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks
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Hats off to Harry Grieve, who took clear first place at the Chessable British Championships which concluded in Torquay last Sunday. I am in awe of the courage he showed in the final round game, against the international master Matthew Wadsworth. Grieve set the tone in the opening, sacrificing rook for bishop, but gaining long-term
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Black to play. A variation from McShane-Hamitevici, Chennai 2022. I avoided this position, but lost in a different way. White would be three pawns up, but facing a fierce attack. Which move wins the game for Black? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 22 August. There is a prize of £20 for the
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Everyone remembers their first Olympiad. As I boarded the flight to Chennai last month, it struck me that two full decades have passed since my Olympiad debut in Bled, 2002. Respectable in the seniority stakes, though one of the charms of this biennial team event is that you can count on meeting someone excited to