Luke McShane

Magnus Carlsen was, as he said, ‘completely crushed’ in the second round of the Qatar Masters earlier this month. His opponent, 23-year-old Alisher Suleymenov from Kazakhstan, is a grandmaster, but on paper nowhere near to the level of the world elite. He played the game of his life, but his achievement was undermined by Carlsen’s intemperate comment (on X) that ‘as soon as I saw my opponent was wearing a watch early in the game, I lost my ability to concentrate’. Predictably, this began a frenzy of gossip, though the world no. 1 soon clarified that he was not accusing his opponent of cheating. The sad truth is that a miasma of mistrust is encroaching year by year.

‘Chess, an ancient game of strategy…’ – that’s what they write on the packaging in department stores. But in real life, playing a game of chess feels more like fighting fires, half of which you kindled yourself. Whatever grand ambitions you have, right now your queen is under attack and the next priority is your shaky kingside. But, first let’s go and attack that bishop! A game of chess is just one damned thing after another. Even for the world’s best players, any planning is mostly implicit, since they recognise the contours of the game at a glance. In such and such position, the bishop belongs here and the knight belongs there, and this is the pawn break you aim for.

A queen and king can force mate against a lone king – that is as fundamental as it gets. Almost all regular players know that to be true, and they also know how to execute it. But players are regularly confronted by the distinction between ‘knowing that’, and ‘knowing how’. Many know that king, bishop and knight can force mate against a lone king. But I would bet with confidence that only a minority of those who know that fact could actually demonstrate it. The technique is somewhat abstruse and, since the endgame arises so rarely, it is easily forgotten. Imagine – you spent an hour practising this endgame… but that was five years ago. Now you’ve actually got it on the board, but it is, so to speak, a cold, rainy night in Stoke.

Novice chess players can seem spellbound by the power of their own queen, zigzagging hither and thither in desperate search of bounty. You soon learn that on the chessboard strength is weakness and weakness is strength; the queen must flee from any attack while a pawn is, well, only a pawn in your game. Experienced players acquire a more mercantile approach – every piece has its price. In fact, being ready to dispense with an ostensibly valuable piece in service of a higher goal is the mark of a skilful player. Making great play of this is the chess game from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, presumably one of the most widely viewed chess scenes in cinema history.

The former world champion Vishy Anand has described the current crop of young Indian talents as a golden generation. At last month’s Fide World Cup, four of the quarter-finalists were Indian. Most eminent was 17-year-old Gukesh, who recently entered the world top ten, narrowly overtaking Anand himself. Praggnanandhaa, 18 years old, went as far as the final, where he was beaten by Magnus Carlsen. The others were Erigaisi, who turned 20 earlier this month, and Vidit, almost a veteran at age 28!    All four players were back at the board at the Tata Steel India Rapid and Blitz, held in Kolkata earlier this month. Impressive as they are, it was reassuring to see that the teenagers have not entirely eclipsed the older generation.

Hans Niemann is back. The American grandmaster drew worldwide attention last year when he was alleged to have cheated by Magnus Carlsen. Niemann responded with a $100 million defamation lawsuit against various parties. That was dismissed by a federal judge in June, though Niemann could still have pursued some of his claims in a state court. But in late August, the website Chess.com (one of the defendants) released a joint statement with Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen to move on from the issue. What a delicate compromise it was! Chess.com reinstated Niemann to their platform, but stood by their October 2022 report, which set out the case that Niemann had cheated extensively online.

‘How do you become a grandmaster?’    ‘You must climb the mountain, and defeat the opponent at the top.’ Alas, the answer is not nearly so succinct, and when I get asked the question, I remind myself to spare the finer details. The gist is that you must outperform an ‘average’ grandmaster over the course of an event of around ten classical games. Each time you clear that bar you earn a ‘norm’, and racking up three norms earns you the title. There is no limit on the number of grandmasters in the world, and since their introduction in 1950, a couple of thousand players have attained that level. By definition, achieving a norm involves surpassing one’s current abilities, which are measured with great precision by the international rating system.

A fortnight ago, I wrote about Magnus Carlsen’s narrow escape against the German teenager Vincent Keymer at the Fide World Cup in Baku. That brush with mortality seemed to galvanise the world no. 1, who coasted to the final with convincing victories in his next three matches, against Ivanchuk, Gukesh and Abasov. His next opponent was another exceptional talent, 18-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa from India, and Carlsen’s triumph in the tiebreak secured victory in perhaps the only major event which he had never managed to win before.    Nevertheless, Praggnanandhaa had perhaps even more reason to be satisfied with his own performance. His achievement became front-page news in India and drew praise from Narendra Modi.

England teams brought home a raft of medals from the European Senior Teams Championship, held last month in Swidnica, Poland. England’s first team were top seeds in the over-50s event, with an all-grandmaster lineup (Mark Hebden, John Emms, Keith Arkell, Glenn Flear and Chris Ward). They faced a serious challenge from Slovakia, whom they defeated in the final round by 2.5-1.5. Mark Hebden was the standout performer, winning the individual gold medal on top board with a 7.5/8 score. His game against Jonathan Hill, from England’s third team, had a neat finish. Jonathan Hill–Mark Hebden European Senior (50+) Team Championship In the diagram position, capturing the rook on Rc2 would allow the a7 pawn to promote. Instead, Hebden sowed confusion with 52… e2.

If you love chess enough to play hundreds of tournaments you will, sooner or later, play like a numbskull. You lick your wounds, go to bed, and hope the engine belches into action the next day. As a wise man once told me, the great comfort of a knockout tournament is that if you play badly, at least you get to go home. Except that doesn’t apply to Magnus Carlsen, or at least not yet. The world no. 1 is the top seed at the Fide World Cup, currently underway in Baku, Azerbaijan. But he suffered two serious glitches on consecutive days in his fourth round match against Germany’s Vincent Keymer, one of the world’s top juniors.