Chess Blog

Wesley So wins the Opera Euro Rapid 2021 - Day 9 14/02/2021
Wesley So won the Open Euro Rapid beating World Champion Magnus Carlsen 2.5-1.5 in the second set to take the mini-match 1.5-0.5. This is the second time that So has beaten Carlsen in a final of a Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event having won the Airthings Masters in December. So was clearly the most convincing […]
Mark Crowther
Shared first set in the final of the Opera Euro Rapid between Carlsen and So - Day 8 13/02/2021
Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So drew the first set of their final 2-2 in the Opera Euro Rapid. Game one saw a draw in a Nimzo-Indian where Carlsen didn't get much if anything but the game remained complex throughout. Game 2 was a complex Two Knights where So seemed to be far better prepared than […]
Mark Crowther
Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So to meet in the final of the Opera Euro Masters - Day 7 12/02/2021
Magnus Carlsen had to win an Armageddon tie-break to get past Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in his Opera Euro Semifinals. Carlsen had won the first set so MVL needed to strike back. After two draws MVL won the after Carlsen yet again made a simple tactical blunder, he cut the final retreat square from his bishop and […]
Mark Crowther
Carlsen and So win the first sets of their semifinals of the Opera Euro Rapid - Day 5 11/02/2021
Magnus Carlsen was a comfortable winner in set one of his Opera Euro Rapid match against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Carlsen's choice of an old variation of the Gruenfeld caused MVL all sorts of trouble and after 30.Nd5+! he smoothly converted his endgame advantage. Game two was a sharp Sicilian where MVL had his chances but he […]
Mark Crowther
Quarterfinals of the Opera Euro Rapid produce Carlsen-MVL and So-Radjabov semifinal pairings - Day 5 10/02/2021
The final day of the Opera Euro Rapid quarterfinals produced almost too much action to recount. First of all Wesley So built on his success of day one against Jan-Krzysztof Duda and won both the games played to go through. So is due to win one of these tour events, this could be it. Then […]
Mark Crowther
Carlsen, So and MVL lead their Quarterfinal matches in the Opera Euro Rapid after first set - Day 4 09/02/2021
Magnus Carlsen beat Daniil Dubov 2.5-0.5 in the first set of their quarter finals of the online match in the Opera Euro Rapid. This event is part of the Champions Chess Tour. Carlsen's loss to Dubov in the Airthings Masters in December was on his mind so when he took the lead in the first […]
Mark Crowther

ECF

ECF Online Grand Prix Series – starts Sunday! 03/03/2021
The ECF Online Grand Prix series starts on Sunday 7th March with the first Online Grand Prix Blitz Tournament. Click this link – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/2021-online-grand-prix-series/
WebAdmin
FIDE Chess Fundraiser 18/02/2021
From FIDE — Chess in education, chess for people with disabilities, or the support fund for distinguished chess seniors? Which social project would you like...
WebAdmin
Alex Holowczak – Chief Arbiter, FIDE World Corporate Championship! 16/02/2021
We couldn’t have dreamed of a better welcome for the inaugural edition of the FIDE Online World Corporate Chess Championship that will be played next...
WebAdmin
GM Luke McShane on the boom in chess 15/02/2021
Chess continues to be in the news and English Grandmaster Luke McShane has written an article in The Spectator on the game’s current surge in...
Danny Rosenbaum
Office hours 15th-19th February 15/02/2021
While the webmaster takes a break this week, the office manager has spread his furloughed hours over all five days to help out – you...
WebAdmin
Join us for a big ECF Online International Weekend! 12/02/2021
We have a big international weekend for ECF club members, with England vs Cape Verde in the Nations League on Saturday on Chess.com, a Nations...
WebAdmin

Chessbase

ChessBase Magazine Jubilee: the best opening traps 04/03/2021
In the anniversary edition CBM #200, Grandmaster Rainer Knaak, who regularly writes about "Opening Traps" in the Magazine presents his Top Ten opening traps. Traps that again and again lead to success - not only in blitz, but also in high-level tournament! Some of the traps Knaak presents are well-known but his Top Ten list […]
Alekhine rocks the Philidor Defence (2) 04/03/2021
The Philidor Defence 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6!? was often underestimated in the past. But World Champion Alexander Alekhine, who used the Philidor Defence several times with good success, showed the dynamic possibilities of the opening. Stephan-Oliver Platz takes a closer look.
The IBM 305 Ramac: The secret grandfather of Deep Blue? 04/03/2021
Every chess fan knows about the "Man vs Machine" matches between the IBM computer Deep Blue and World Champion Garry Kasparov in 1996 and 1997. But in the 1960s IBM had already developed a computer that could play chess reasonably well: the IBM 305 Ramac. At an industrial fair in Milan, Ramac even defeated the […]
Game of the Week: A. Giri vs A. Shirov, Hoogeveen 2014 03/03/2021
This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game in which Anish Giri enriched opening theory and showed his attacking skills against Alexei Shirov. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Alina […]
Cindy Zhan: "Chess Mom and Lego Fan" 03/03/2021
Recently, Peter Heine Nielsen, Danish Grandmaster, coach and second of Magnus Carlsen, and father of four children, enthusiastically retweeted a tweet by Cindy Zhan, which shows a scene from game six of the World Championship match Fischer vs Spassky in Reykjavik 1972. However, the photo does not show the real match but a Lego model […]
Back in the game: Karpov to play classical tournament in Malmö 03/03/2021
The traditional TePe Sigeman & Co tournament will take place at the Malmö Live Concert Hall on April 24-30. A highly attractive 8-player lineup will battle it out in a single round robin with a classical time control. Most notably, 69-year-old former world champion Anatoly Karpov will be participating. Alexei Shirov, Jorden van Foreest and […]

lichess.org

Alireza wins a 13th Titled Arena. 23/02/2021
Another dominant victory.GM Alireza Firouzja won his 13th Titled Arena on Saturday, bringing him almost even with the record 14 won by GM Magnus Carlsen. (EDITORS NOTE: Upon further review, it seems Magnus has actually won 15 Titled Arenas.) Firouzja was quickly among the leaders and eventually pulled away, finishing in 1st by a comfortable […]
@NoJoke
Stockfish 13 NNUE on Lichess 22/02/2021
The latest release of the strong open source engine is now available in your browser!We congratulate the Stockfish developers for their latest release, Stockfish 13. Check out the release announcement for details. Client-side analysis Securely running programs like Stockfish in your browser requires them to be ported to JavaScript and/or WebAssembly (WASM). Previously this would […]
@revoof
Fat Fritz 2 is a rip-off 18/02/2021
An important message from open source chess organizations. A few days ago, ChessBase released Fat Fritz 2, described on their website as the “new number 1” chess engine “with a massive new neural network, trained by Albert Silver with the original Fat Fritz.” They advertise Fat Fritz 2 as using novel strong ideas compared to […]
The Stockfish, Leela Chess Zero and Lichess teams
Shamsiddin Wins Variant Titled Arena. 07/02/2021
Not Chess, not exactly, but close.Here at Lichess, we like to occasionally throw a bone to one of the strange subcultures that play versions of chess distinct from what we’re all used to. Even if you’re not a fan of their odd form of the game, even if their game may seem totally counter to […]
@NoJoke
Puzzlers on the Storm 27/01/2021
More puzzling, more fasterIt gives us great pride to announce the arrival of Puzzle Storm; a timed puzzle feature that prompts the user to solve puzzles with increasing difficulty as quickly as possible. Give it a try here. The setup is fairly simple, you are given puzzles to solve and 3 minutes on the clock. […]
@NoJoke
Some Puzzling Analysis 18/01/2021
A quick look at how the new puzzle system is going!The new puzzle system has been live for almost a month now and we wanted to take stock with a quick analysis, as well as introduce a new feature! Puzzle Dashboard On the new Puzzle Dashboard you can see your strengths and weaknesses, as well […]
@Lichess

Chess24

Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh & co. in Vidit Chess Tour Finals 03/03/2021
The Vidit Chess Tour Finals start Thursday with Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Raunak Sadhwani, who all became grandmasters before the age of 14, among those fighting it out for 8 places in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Indian qualifier later this year. The 16 players in the knockout, to be played here on chess24, have already […]
Try out the new chess24 Playzone! 03/03/2021
Today we opened up the new chess24 Playzone to all Premium members. It’s by no means a finished product, but we’d love to have your feedback on what we hope will be a much faster, more enjoyable experience. There’s dark mode, resizable boards, a much improved mobile experience as well as technical changes such as […]
Carlsen's 117th time as world number one as Van Foreest & Esipenko join 2700 club 03/03/2021
The Tata Steel Chess Masters was among the few events to count towards FIDE's March 2021 Rating List that was published on Monday. Ratings winners Jorden van Foreest (+30 to 2701) and Andrey Esipenko (+24 to 2701) are new entries in the 2700 club, while Magnus Carlsen's disappointing 6th place led to him dropping 15 […]
Checkmate! The Queen’s Gambit & Anya Taylor-Joy win Golden Globes 01/03/2021
The Queen’s Gambit Netflix series has won the Golden Globe for the Best TV Limited Series while Anya Taylor-Joy, who starred as chess prodigy Beth Harmon, took home her first Golden Globe as Best Actress. Anya, who faced stiff competition from Cate Blanchett (Miss America) and Nicole Kidman (The Undoing), commented afterwards, “We played very […]
‘Thank you very much’: David Anton and Anish Giri win chess24 vote to play in next Tour event 01/03/2021
Anish Giri and David Anton are the names chess24 members chose to play in the next event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The pair won the Premium vote and will lock horns in the 16-player tournament, stage four of the Tour, when it gets under way on March 13.
Magnus Carlsen: ‘I just want to win one more tournament!’ 28/02/2021
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen hasn’t won a tournament since Altibox Norway Chess in mid-October, and even then a last-round loss to Levon Aronian took some of the gloss off the win. In the aftermath of losing the final of the Opera Euro Rapid to Wesley So, Magnus talked to Ilya Levitov about his motivation, […]

thechessworld

4 Best Sacrifices Played by Bobby Fischer 02/03/2021
Robert James Fischer, an icon of our sport, is perhaps one of the most studied chess players. He is famous for his universal playing style, excellent endgame technique, and his great contributions to chess in the form of chess writings, new ideas in a number of openings, and a new variant of chess, which is […]
Jesus Gonzalez
10 Best Chess Players of All Time 27/02/2021
Many chess history experts keep arguing whom to consider the best chess player of all time, but we will try to stay away from it. The aim of this article is different. The idea is to familiarize the readers with the greatest chess players and their best games. That’s why I ranked the best chess […]
Jesus Gonzalez
10 Good Reasons to Play the French Defense 26/02/2021
On being asked why most GMs and super-GMs play 1…c5 and 1…e5 to 1.e4 instead of the French Defense, Peter Svidler recently commented: “I think the answer is twofold. Firstly, both the Spanish and the Sicilian offer you a much broader scope to choose from. If you play 1…e5 you’re not …” What did he […]
Yury Markushin
10 Reasons to Play the Rapport-Jobava System in Your Next Game 18/02/2021
Sometimes, even a single move can change the course of a game—even so much as to turn a good opening into a GREAT one! That’s what the move 2.Nc3 does to the regular London System. Not that the London system is a bad opening or such, it has got a few drawbacks where it does […]
Jesus Gonzalez
Andrey Esipenko Beats Magnus Carlsen: Game Analysis 16/02/2021
The chess super-tournaments held in a small Dutch town Wijk aan Zee are never boring. The reason lies behind a great composition of the participants. It is a place where the elite players (usually led by the World Champion) face less-known but still dangerous players, sometimes even rated below 2700. This year’s edition, the Tata […]
Jesus Gonzalez
10 Reasons to Play Modern Defense in Blitz 12/02/2021
The Modern Defense, starting with 1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7, follows any other hypermodern openings and is highly provocative and dynamic—as much as an opening can get. Black fianchetto a bishop early on the g7-square eyeing on the long dark-squared diagonal running from h8 to a1. Black’s idea is to let White grab control […]
Jesus Gonzalez

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