Luke McShane

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 a hat. Please include a postal address. Last week’s solution 1 Qg6! threatens Qxg7 mate.

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 compensation. Wadsworth reacted well, but let his advantage slip, whereupon Grieve doubled up his investment. After several hours’ play, they reached the murky position shown below. Matthew Wadsworth–Harry Grieve Chessable British Championship, Torquay 2022 50...Qb7 The mate threat on b1 forces White’s hand. 51 Rxd3 cxd3 52 Qc3 Qa6 53 Qb3 Ke4! This move looks right, when I see it, but it takes real guts to play it.

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 reminisce about Dubai 1986, or perhaps Lugano 1968, and who hasn’t missed one since. This year, teams from around 200 nations – perhaps 2,000 players in all – made the trip to India. The event was moved from Moscow with just a few months’ notice, but any fears about the hasty organisation were quickly allayed.

At the Chennai Olympiad, the Indian team began as second seeds, even with former World Champion Vishy Anand absent from the lineup. But it is the host country’s privilege to field more than one team, and India used its second team to showcase the next generation of talent. This team, which included three 16-year-olds, even won bronze, narrowly ahead of the first team. The gold medals went to another team of exceptionally talented youngsters from Uzbekistan, while Armenia took silver. Dommaraju Gukesh, who was born in Chennai, produced an astonishing performance on board 1 for the second team. He began with eight consecutive victories, including a victory over former World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana.

I chatted to a spectator after one of my games at the Sparkassen Chess Trophy in Dortmund. ‘A close shave today, wasn’t it?’ he began. ‘Yes, I can’t believe my opponent escaped with a draw.’ ‘No, I think you were losing.’ ‘Oh, but didn’t you see my beautiful mating idea with b5?’ ‘There’s a fly in the ointment – have another look,’ he said. [The penny drops, eventually.] ‘Oops. Ah well, better lucky than good!’ Fortunately, my opponent shared my delusion during the game. And doubly so, in that my misplaced confidence spared me the need to conduct an arduous defence. My opponent has just snatched a pawn on a3. After 39 Rf4 Re8 40 Rff7 Rb8 my rooks would hit a brick wall.

On International Chess Day, 20 July, Magnus Carlsen announced that he will not defend his world championship title next year. The Norwegian won the title in 2013 by beating Viswanathan Anand in Chennai, and went on to defend his title against Anand once more, then Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and most recently Ian Nepomniachtchi. Carlsen stressed that he has no intention of retiring. In fact, his stated goal is to keep improving, unencumbered by the grind of preparing for a new world championship match. (Each one might easily demand six months of preparation.) Reaching an international rating of 2900 is still a target he has in mind, though that Everest remains a long way off.

Modern chess computers, like the program ‘Stockfish’, are treated as oracles. Plug in a position, start the engine, and within a fraction of a second it will identify the best move and its numerical evaluation (+1.27 pawns!). So it is a natural misconception that an ambitious player must commit to endless clicking and memorising. On that theory, grandmasters are simply the ones who have set upon this treadmill with unusual fervour. I have done my share of gawping at the screen, but in wiser moments, I remember that when Stockfish is running, my brain goes to sleep. The firehose of answers is unmemorable if you don’t articulate any questions.

The ‘English chess explosion’ that began in the 1970s produced a bumper crop of grandmasters, which meant that by the late 1980s, England was second only to the Soviet Union in international team events. Those days are behind us, but the march of time means that England is now a force to be reckoned with in senior team events. The World Senior Team Championship took place last month in Acqui Terme, Italy. England’s over-50s team got a boost from the addition of Michael Adams, who reached that milestone last year. With Nigel Short, Mark Hebden, John Emms and Keith Arkell, they began the event as top seeds. In the fourth round, they saw off a serious challenge from the second seeded USA, with its team of emigrants from the former USSR.

Ian Nepomniachtchi is back for more. The former world championship challenger left his rivals in the dust at the Candidates tournament in Madrid, seizing victory with a round to spare. So he will once again challenge Magnus Carlsen, in a world championship match slated for 2023. Or will he? A few weeks after beating Nepomniachtchi the first time around (in Dubai 2021), Carlsen stoked some intrigue when he stated: ‘It is unlikely that I will play another match unless maybe if the next challenger represents the next generation.’ ‘Nepo’ does not fit the bill; at 31, he is the same age as Carlsen.

Forbidden things have a secret charm – that delicious paradox applies to the chessboard just as it does in life. Moves which appear to be unthinkable (for example, when the piece in question can be readily captured) can create a strong aesthetic effect. Composers of chess problems often make great play of this fact – so much so that it is a useful rule of thumb for a solver. If you spot a move which appears to be prevented for several reasons, there’s a good chance you have your solution. Once in a while, this pursuit of maximum mischief proves its worth in practical play as well.