This week I continue my homage, during the London Classic which finishes this coming week, to great players who have achieved outstanding things in London. In 1866 Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Adolf Anderssen in what was, to all intents and purposes, a World Championship clash. Steinitz marked it as the beginning of his World Championship tenure,
To celebrate the London Classic, which starts at Olympia this Saturday, I shall be paying a series of homages to illuminati of the game who have achieved great things in London. I kick off with Howard Staunton, who won the equivalent of World Championship matches against the German masters Harrwitz and Horwitz in London and
Armenia won the gold medals in the Istanbul Chess Olympiad for the third time in four years — an astonishing feat for a small nation. Part of the secret of their success is the fact that chess is now taught as a curriculum subject in Armenian schools; the Armenian hero Tigran Petrosian created a chess
Last week, in the context of the discovery of the chessboard of Sir John Tenniel, the Times related a famous, possibly apocryphal story in which Aron Nimzowitsch mounted a table after yielding to a lesser player, shouting ‘why must I lose to this idiot?’ Nimzo is also in the news after the recent publication of
Entries are now being invited to what I believe to be the world’s finest open tournament held at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar over January and February next year. I attend as often as I can and the atmosphere and general camaraderie exceed anything I have experienced elsewhere. Brian Callaghan, the spiritus rector of the
Michael Basman is in many ways the most important person in British chess. As a player, he is an International Master, who tied for the British Championship in 1973, losing out in the tie-break. Since then he has turned his hand to organising a mass annual schools championship, attended by 70,000 entrants every year. Sponsored
In contemporary high-class tournament play both adjournments and early draws have been banned. This is partly due to the accessibility of computer analysis and partly to the realisation that well-remunerated grandmasters have an obligation to entertain. As a result, more and more games are being decided in seemingly level endgames which in former times might
Magnus Carlsen has won the elite tournament split between Sao Paulo, Brazil and Bilbao, Spain ahead of a squad of top grandmasters, including the world champion Viswanathan Anand. Using the 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and nothing for a loss system, the final scores were as follows: Carlsen and Caruana 17, Aronian
The London Grand Prix at Simpson’s in the Strand finished in a triple tie between the three grandmasters Topalov, Gelfand and Mamedyarov, who ended in that order after a tie break. Britain’s Mickey Adams performed creditably after being granted just one day’s notice that he was playing, while the top-ranked US Grandmaster, Hikaru Nakamura, experienced
Boris Gelfand, the challenger for this year’s World Championship in Moscow, continues, as I write, to lead the Agon/Fidé Grand Prix at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand. He is being pursued by a pack of great players which includes Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan and Vesselin Topalov from Bulgaria. The surprise of the event has been the complete collapse of
When this article appears, the AGON Grand Prix at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, brought to London by Andrew Paulson, will be reaching its midway stage. The players who have shone in the early stages of this stellar event are Boris Gelfand of Israel, the World Championship challenger earlier this year, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, and Peter Leko from
Every year I give many so-called simultaneous displays, usually for charity, where I take on 20 opponents at one and the same time. The only game I have lost this year in such events was a complicated battle during the Phoenix Legacy weekend in Dorset, organised by Rosie Barfoot, to raise awareness of the need
The indefatigable Michael Basman continues to identify future chess superstars with his annual Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge for schoolchildren. Eight-year-old Alex Golding won an astounding £1,000 prize in the most recent edition of the challenge, which attracts a world record entry of 60,000 every year. Brandon Clarke emerged as the overall winner of the
Memory is vital in chess, not least because modern opening theory has expanded in such a daunting way. I was, therefore, interested to observe the results of the UK Memory Championship which took place last month at the London Science Museum and resulted in victory for Katie Kermode. In the course of the championship Katie
London’s newest and most flamboyant chess entrepreneur, Andy Paulson of Agon, which has acquired all World Championship rights from Fidé, is set to stage a spectacular Grand Prix tournament at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand starting on 20 September. The superb line-up includes Peter Svidler, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Wang Hao (the victor of the recent tournament in Biel,
Marcel Duchamp was the strongest chessplaying artist the world has seen. He defeated a number of master players, including Koltanowski, the Knight’s Tour expert and exponent of blindfold play, and represented France in the Chess Olympiad. Chess permeates his work; there is even a chessboard pattern concealed beneath his work Étant donnés in the Philadelphia
Grandmaster Gawain Jones triumphed in the 99th British championship. However, his path to success was not exactly problem free. Far from storming to victory, Gawain tied for first prize with grandmaster Stephen Gordon, thus necessitating a play-off to break the tie, an echo of last year’s championship, when Michael Adams defeated Nigel Short after a
The 99th British Championship in North Shields is reaching its midway point. The favourites are grandmasters Gawain Jones (my personal tip for the top), David Howell, Keith Arkell, Stuart Conquest and Stephen Gordon. This week a game by three-times British champion Harry Golombek in his favourite English Opening. Golombek-Wood: British Championship 1947; English Opening 1
This week I continue with extracts of play from the new book on the English Opening by Steve Giddins. The timing is solicitous in that the British Championship commences next week in North Shields with grandmasters Gawain Jones, David Howell, Stephen Gordon, Keith Arkell and Simon Williams. Timman-Ernst: Wijk aan Zee 2012; English Opening 1
White to play. This position is from Kasparov-Ivanchuk, Moscow 1988. White’s next caused Black’s instant resignation. What did he play? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 17 July or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner will be the first correct answer out of a hat, and
