White to play. This position is from Tiviakov-Jones, Bunratty Play-off. White’s next led to a decisive material gain. What did he play? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 6 March 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
One of the sharpest lines in the Ruy Lopez (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 f5) is widely attributed to Wilhelm Karl Adolf Schliemann (1817-1872), said to be a relative of the Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) who discovered the site of Troy. Now it appears that the variation should in fact be attributed to
Black to play. This position is from Drozdowski-Tay, chess.com 2014. Black played 1 … Qg6 which was good enough to win but what would have been quicker? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 27 February or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of
A good rule of thumb is to avoid sending off knights to excursions at the edge of the board, where their mobility can be limited. Exceptions exist, of course, in particular where a knight strikes from the extremities to land a decisive blow against the enemy king. A good example arose in a win by
White to play. This position is from Capablanca-Fonaroff, New York 1918. Once again there is a knight on h6. What was the white tactic that made the most of this? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 20 February or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct
The Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian has won first prize of £25,000 in the important Tradewise Masters which has just finished in Gibraltar. Britain’s Mickey Adams also shared first place, but due to the exigencies of the tie-breaking system it was Aronian who progressed to the play-off, where he defeated the leading French representative Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
White to play. This position is from Wang Hao-Howell, Gibraltar 2018. What opportunity did White overlook? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 13 February 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 six weeks
Various champions have been accused of hypnotising their opponents, including Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal and, not least, the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen. The respective accusers were the grandmasters and world-title candidates, Efim Bogolyubov, Pal Benko and the relatively recently deceased, Viktor Korchnoi. The latter was an adept in the dark arts of presumed
White to play. This position is from Goriatchkin-Bosiocic, Gibraltar 2018. How did White finish off? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 6 February, via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7961 0058. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal
A remarkable event took place in London towards the end of last year, when the AlphaZero computer program took on one of the leading commercial programs, Stockfish, in a 100-game match. Astonishingly AlphaZero won by the overwhelming score of 28 wins, no losses, with the remainder of the games being drawn. AlphaZero is the brainchild
White to play. This position is from Ivanchuk-Lafuente, Gibraltar 2011. White now terminated proceedings abruptly. What was the key move? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 30 January 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
‘Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike,’ wrote Alexander Pope about Atticus. Those lines more or less describe the entire tone of the London Classic, which concluded towards the end of last year. Though it was a powerful event, there were too many anodyne draws to stir the blood of either the live audience
White to play. This position is from O. Howell-Pickersgill, Hastings 2017/18. White now terminated proceedings abruptly. What was the key move? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 23 January 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
Although it does not have the prestige of the Classical World Championship (to be staged in London in November), the Rapid and Blitz championships recently concluded in Saudi Arabia carried not just worthy titles, but an impressive overall prize fund of $2 million. Viswanathan Anand emerged victorious in the Rapid, while Magnus Carlsen dominated the Blitz.
Black to play. This is from Carlsen-Anand, Riyadh Rapid 2017. The needle clash from the Rapid was Anand’s destruction of Carlsen. What was Black’s key move? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 16 January or via email to victoria@-spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a
It is traditional that in my first column of the new year I review the previous 12 months and select the most outstanding game played at elite level to receive the accolade of game of the year. This time, there is little doubt that the most spectacular game of 2017 was the win by the Chinese
Black to play. This position is from Kasparov-Navara, St Louis 2017. How did Navara deal with Kasparov’s check? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 9 January 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
The London Classic is over and full reports in this column will follow in the new year. Meanwhile, we now know the line-up for the World Championship candidates tournament, which is to be staged in Berlin next March and will determine the challenger to Magnus Carlsen for the supreme title. Leading results in the Fidé (World
White to play. This position is from Aronian-Giri, Palma de Mallorca 2017. Aronian now finished off a fine attack with a clever coup. What did he play? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 2 January or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of
The English Chess Federation has awarded its Book of the Year prize to Timman’s Titans: My World Chess Champions by Jan Timman (New in Chess). This is a good choice for a present: Timman’s book is aimed at both the expert and the general chess enthusiast, and describes his interactions with many world champions.
