Luke McShane is chess columnist for The Spectator.
England’s over-65 team triumphed at the World Senior Team Championships, held in Prague last month. They began this event as second seeds behind the German team Lasker Schachstiftung, whose strongest player Artur Yusupov, originally from the Soviet Union, was once ranked third in the world. That crucial England-Germany match ended in a 2-2 tie, but
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by George Edward Carpenter, Dubuque Chess Journal, 1873. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 17 March. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize
Back in 2008, Boris Spassky paid a visit to Bobby Fischer’s grave in Iceland. ‘Do you think the spot next to him is available?’ he mused. Last week, Spassky died too, at the age of 88. The two world champions were rivals, but also the unlikeliest of friends. Spassky was born in Leningrad in 1937,
White to play. Spassky-Marsalek, World U26 Team Championship, Leningrad 1960. After Spassky’s next move, his opponent resigned. What did he play? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 10 March. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow
Forty minutes, two problems to solve. Earlier this month I was seated in an examination hall at Harrow school in London, taking part in the final of the Winton British Chess Solving Championship. This was the second solving challenge of the day: two ‘mate in 3’ problems. The first (see the puzzle below) was a
White to play and mate in two moves. The original problem was a mate in three, composed by Godfrey Heathcote for British Chess Magazine in 1904. In this, the most beautiful variation, White has just two moves left to give mate. What is the first move? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 3 March. There
Freestyle Chess (also known as Fischer-Random, Chess960, or Chess9LX), is the variant in which pieces on the back row are shuffled in one of 960 configurations at the start of the game. Until now, it has been regarded as a novelty. Standard chess offers a great starting position, in that there are countless ways to
White to play. A variation from Keymer-Carlsen, Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, Weissenhaus 2025. Which move allows White to conclude the attack? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 24 February. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and
‘Praggnanandhaa rallied to win the playoff’ is what I wrote last week, as though there were nothing more to say. That came after a humdinger of a final round at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee, in which ‘Pragg’ and world champion Gukesh Dommaraju both lost their final games but nevertheless shared first
White to play. Gukesh-Praggnanandhaa, Tata Steel Masters tiebreak, 2025. Black’s last move, 35…Qd3-d6 was a blunder. Which move did Gukesh play to exploit it? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 17 February. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal
The Tata Steel Masters is one of the most prestigious elite events, now in its 87th edition. As the gong chimed for the start of the round in the Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee last Sunday, two Indian teenagers remained in contention for first place. One was the newly crowned world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, unbeaten
Black to play. Gurel-Nguyen, Tata Steel Challengers, 2025. Black’s king is in danger here. Which move allowed him to save the game? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 10 February. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address. Last
Fide, the international chess federation, awards a succession of titles on the way to grandmaster (GM) status – Candidate Master (CM), Fide Master (FM) and International Master (IM). These are significant milestones which usually represent years of effort, so it almost never happens that a player can ‘jump’ to grandmaster level without first becoming an
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Sam Loyd, St Louis Globe-Democrat, 1907. What is White’s first move? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 3 February. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address. Last week’s
My first round game from the first edition of the London Chess Classic in 2009 remains a vivid memory, not least because it ran for 163 moves and nearly eight hours. (I won!) England’s premier international event returned for its 14th edition in December, having skipped two pandemic years, with new sponsorship from XTX markets, and
Black to play. Gukesh-Giri, Wijk aan Zee, 2025. With less than a minute, Giri erred and lost here. Which move would have won him the game? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 27 January. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include
Besides the controversial anticlimax at the World Blitz Championships, in which Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi agreed to share the title, there were several old-fashioned tournament winners to celebrate in New York. China’s Ju Wenjun, the reigning women’s world champion in classical chess, won her first women’s world blitz championship. The women’s world rapid championship, held
White to play. Karthikeyan–Tabatabaei, Qatar Masters 2024. With his next move, Karthikeyaninitiated a winning combination. What did he play? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 20 January. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address. Last week’s solution : 1
‘To share is to do’, as no Latin proverb dared to suggest. The 2024 Fide World Blitz championship, held in New York just before the new year, awarded gold medals to both Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi when their final match remained tied after seven games. The last three games were played in ‘sudden death’
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Edith Baird, Pen and Pencil, 1888. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 13 February. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery.