Raymond Keene

White to play. This position is from Quparadze-Uzunoglu, Cesme 2017. Black is hoping for counterplay on the a1-h8 diagonal but White’s next move put paid to this. What did he play? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 25 July or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first

International master Andrew Martin is the head of the English Chess Federation Academy. He is well qualified for this post, since his conversational writing style is both characteristically endearing and informative. It is very easy to learn from Andrew’s work. His latest book is a tour de force of the venerable Queen’s Gambit which was

This year’s Grand Chess Tour started in Paris, continues in Leuven (Belgium) and will go on to St Louis and then London. The Paris and Leuven legs are speed events, while St Louis and London revert to chess played at classical time limits.   In Paris world champion Magnus Carlsen won the rapidplay section, fell back

Can chess and bridge be considered sports? According to a European Court of Justice judgment earlier this month, bridge is a sport and should be granted the same official status as football, rugby and tennis. The Daily Telegraph report says: ‘Advocate General Maciej Szpunar ruled that sport was an activity requiring a certain effort to

Tigran Petrosian is the great chess hero of Armenia. World champion from 1963-1969, his best games exhibit a profundity which few other champions have matched. Sadly he passed away in his fifties, in 1984, but his legacy lives on in Levon Aronian, who has emerged victorious from Stavanger. Scores from Norway (out of 9) were

White to play. This is a variation from Karjakin-Giri, Stavanger 2017. Can you spot White’s fine winning coup? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 20 June or via email to victoria-@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

With the election dominating the news, this week I focus on the strongest chess player to have entered Parliament. Marmaduke Wyvill was MP for Richmond Yorkshire, and he won the silver medal in the very first international tournament, which was organised by Howard Staunton to coincide with the Great Exhibition of London in 1851. Stylistically,

To the best of my knowledge, Michael Basman is the first officially titled chess master to ever stand in a UK parliamentary election. Marmaduke Wyvill, MP for Richmond Yorkshire, was an accomplished player who took second prize in the great London tournament of 1851, but he could not have been described as a chess professional. Basman will

In 1972, in collaboration with George Botterill, two-times British champion, I published a revolutionary book on 1 … g6 which we named the Modern Defence. At first sight this defence is paradoxical, since it makes no attempt whatsoever to prevent the construction of a gigantic white pawn structure. However, its virtues have subsequently been recognised and

Regular readers will recall my column of 15 April in which I speculated on the future of the eccentric Fidé president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the face of mounting criticism from the board of the World Chess Federation. Somewhat surprisingly, Kirsan survived and has announced his intention to run yet again in the presidential election next

Four important events have taken centre stage over the past few weeks. These were tournaments in Shenzen (won by Ding Liren), Zurich (won by Hikaru Nakamura), Karlsruhe (which witnessed a massive triumph for Lev Aronian, who came in ahead of Magnus Carlsen) and Shamkir. In this last, the local matador Shakhriyar Mamedyarov seized the laurels