Luke McShane

Carlsen–Nakamura, December 2019. In the decisive playoff game, Carlsen played 1 Nxf7+ and won quickly. But there was a mate in 3 available. What is the first move? Answers should be sent to ‘Chess’ at The Spectator by Tuesday 14 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 six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1…Qd5! (idea Qxg2#) 2 Qxd5 Rxf1+ 3 Kh2 Nxd5 4 Bxd5 d3 wins.

Besides the Grand Chess Tour final, an abundance of chess was played at this year’s London Chess Classic. More than 2,000 children visited the festival, which was organised by the charity Chess in Schools and Communities. Fittingly, two talented youngsters shared first place in the Fide Open event — 14-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa from India and 18-year-old Anton Smirnov, from Australia.   Michael Adams added another title to his collection by winning the British Knockout Championship. He had a close shave in the quarter finals, narrowly surviving an Armageddon game against the promising young player Marcus Harvey, who sailed through a qualifying tournament with 8.5/9 the previous day.

Ding Liren, from China, was a convincing winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, which reached its climax in London last weekend. The Grand Chess Tour Finals, a four-player knockout, was the flagship event at this year’s London Chess Classic. The match format was a blend of classical (slow), rapid and blitz games. Although the slower games held more weight in the scoring, the very inclusion of faster time limits reflects their increased status in the modern game.   The first semi-final, between Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, went to a tiebreak. The Frenchman won a topsy-turvy game in his beloved Najdorf Sicilian, as Carlsen went astray amid wild complications. In the second semi-final match Ding defeated Levon Aronian with a dominant performance in the rapid games.

There is a gritty fight scene in The Bourne Supremacy, in which Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon) faces down his adversary Jarda at an apartment in Munich. Both men are skilled assassins, but they aren’t wielding their weapons of choice. The villain’s hands are tied, but he lands the first blow with his elbows. He somehow turns up a kitchen knife, and frees his wrists on some shattered glass furniture. Bourne rolls up a magazine and you know he could kill with it. You wish someone would answer the shrieking telephone. They’re soon back to bare knuckles and slamming into the tables. At last, Bourne throttles him with an electric power cord, and the audience breathes a sigh of relief.

Magnus Carlsen is the star attraction at this year’s London Chess Classic. The festival, now in its 11th edition, runs from 29 November to 8 December at the Olympia Conference Centre in Kensington. The World Champion will play in the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour, in a four-player knockout event with a $350,000 prize fund which begins on Monday 2 December. He will be joined by Ding Liren, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.   ‘The Classic’ as the festival is affectionately known, features a wide variety of events, including a Fide-rated Open tournament, weekend events, and a ‘Super Blitz Open’ on the final Sunday.

Reimagine democracy. Reimagine capitalism. Reimagine education. For all the reimagining thrown at big ideas, they don’t seem much perturbed. You can reimagine a problem too, but it probably won’t be fruitful. It won’t help you find the end of the Sellotape, or balance the books (unless you worked for Enron).   But some problems really are amenable to a fresh perspective. According to legend, the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss was tasked at primary school with adding up the numbers from 1 to 100. The obvious approach is (to quote the King of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland) ‘Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’ Gauss saw the problem in a different light.

When Daniil Dubov advanced his queen’s pawn in Batumi last month, he might as well have chewed the head off a bat and set fire to the board. For diehard chess fans, it was a true rock’n’roll moment, still more transgressive for being done in a team event on behalf of Mother Russia. The 23-year-old had just come from a grotty performance at his previous event. ‘They asked me to calm down and not play some ridiculous lines,’ he said with a grin.   His brazen sacrifice is steeped in history. In 1918, Frank Marshall unleashed the related gambit with 8… d5 against José Raúl Capablanca. Never mind that he was not the first to try it, and that Capablanca won the game: Marshall’s concept was vindicated in the long run.

Black to play. Erwin l’Ami–Luke McShane, Batumi, 2019. The pawn on e6 looks powerful, but White’s king is more vulnerable than it looks. What blow did I land? Answers should be sent to ‘Chess’ at The Spectator by Tuesday 12 November 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 for prize delivery.   Last week’s solution 1 f4!!

White to play. Dahl-Kolbus; Isle of Man, 2019. In this game between two Manx players, White had promoted a pawn earlier but finishing off the game is not easy. Here, Dahl found an elegant winning move. Can you do as well? Answers to ‘Chess’ at The Spectator by Tuesday 5 November or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the winner. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery.   Last week’s solution  Be6+ (e.g.