Luke McShane is chess columnist for The Spectator.
White to play. A variation from L’Ami–Caruana, Bundesliga 2020. Caruana avoided this position, where White can force a quick mate. White should begin with a check, but which one? 1 h8=Q+, 1 Ne6+, or 1 Ne4+? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 5 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first
Send in haste, repent at leisure. It is a cruel certainty that you will sooner or later text your intimate thoughts to the wrong person, or hit ‘reply all’ by accident. The second you spot this, your heart will leap into your mouth. That sensation is much like how a mouse slip feels during an
White to play. Areshchenko–Koch, Bundesliga 2020. White has won rook for bishop, but the queen is offside and his Rf2 is pinned by the Qb6. How did White win the game at a stroke? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 28 September. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer
Nothing courts us so nimbly as technology. Perhaps the chess computers have already won you over — I am dazzled by the riches they have revealed. For a jaw-dropping sense of wonder, try playing over a forced mate in 549 moves. Still, many yearn for a simpler time. A time when the mysteries of chess
Black to play. Jones–McShane, London Chess Classic 2019. Last year I played two games of no-castling chess with Gawain Jones, each of us winning one. Here, Jones has won a pawn, but his pieces are scattered. Which move won me the game? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 21 September. There is a prize of
It was as baffling to me as quantum entanglement. Every time the Algerian player on the Zoom call shared his screen, my own screen share would stop working. That we were playing in separate matches was beside the point — this was online chess under something like exam conditions, and the software glitch left me
Black to play. Rios–Adams, Online Olympiad, August 2020. The White king is running short of squares. Which move did Adams play to tighten the noose? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 14 September. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address
Man plans, God laughs. Fide, the international federation, organised an Online Olympiad, with 163 teams taking part. We got a global internet outage during the final. The disruption hit the Indian players at a critical stage, in the second of two matches against Russia. (The first was tied 3-3). India were soon to be trailing
White to play. Zaibi–Napoleao, Online Olympiad, August 2020. White has just sacrificed the rook on a1. He concluded the attack in fine style. What was the winning move? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 7 September. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include
Facing Magnus Carlsen, you have two problems. The first is obvious — he’s the best player in the world. The second lies in your awareness of the first. Countless players have seemed bewitched by the world champion, drained of the confidence needed to push for a win. In a single game, a strong grandmaster may
Nakamura–Carlsen, August 2020. Carlsen has just advanced 40…g6-g5+, laying a nasty trap. Only one move gives White a fighting chance here — what is it? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 31 August. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address
Last week, snooker ace Ronnie O’Sullivan won his sixth World Championship at the age of 44, a full 19 years on from his first title. A few days earlier, he had taken a pop at the younger generation: ‘They’re not that good really… I’ve probably got to lose an arm and a leg to fall
Black to play. McShane–Anand, World Rapid Championship 2017. While executing my last move, 51 Qf4-f3, attacking the h5-pawn, I got a horrible sinking feeling, as I saw what was about to hit me. What did Anand play? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 24 August. There is a prize of £20 for the
Does Bear Grylls play chess? If he does, I’m sure he would favour the King’s Gambit. As chess openings go, it is primitive and hazardous. Playing it well demands a kind of reckless, wholehearted optimism that few can muster. Ostensibly, you sacrifice just a pawn (1 e4 e5 2 f4), but really, you’re already in
Black to play. Efimov–Bronstein, Kiev 1941. Normally White seeks glory in the King’s Gambit, but here Bronstein scored a lightning victory for the Black side. Which move did he choose? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 17 August. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include
‘Cabin crew, ten minutes to landing!’ Are there any more exhilarating words? Soon, for a few precious minutes, one can fix one’s gaze on the approaching landscape. The patchwork fields, the lines of terraced houses and shuffling cars — all woven together in an intricate fractal. From a certain point of view, these simple things
Black to play. Studer–Naiditsch, Biel, July 2020. White intends to meet 1…Bxb5 with 2 Bxe7 Qxe7 3 Qxb5, with an equal position. Which move did Naiditsch play to pinpoint the flaw? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 10 August. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a
I am sure I have posed more questions to the chess engine Stockfish than to any living being. I love the instant gratification: you give it a chess position and it gives you an answer: the best move and an evaluation measured in hundredths of a pawn, like +1 24. Leave it alone, it will
White to play. Stockfish–Leela Chess Zero, TCEC 18, Game 92, July 2020. It looks hard to make progress, despite the far advanced pawns. What was Stockfish’s winning move? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 3 August. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include
‘Had I not become a composer, I would have wanted to be a chess player, but a high-level one, someone competing for the world title.’ So said Ennio Morricone, who died earlier this month at the age of 91. Looking back on a lifetime of work, you don’t doubt that he could have done it.
