Luke McShane

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 IM. But 16-year-old Xue Haowen from Shenzhen, China is one of the rare exceptions. At the outset of the Hastings Masters, which began in the days after Christmas, Xue was seeded sixth, but he had no title, and his rating was based on just a handful of international events in the past few years. But to call him a complete unknown would be an exaggeration.

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 a new venue at the Emirates Stadium in London. The programme included a dozen separate events, headed by an elite invitational tournament in which the top seeds were the former world championship candidates Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Vidit Gujrathi. They tied for second place in the final tables, alongside the England team members Michael Adams and Nikita Vitiugov.

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 in the days beforehand, was won by Humpy Koneru, who first won the title in 2019. The winner of the open rapid section was more of an outlier. Eighteen-year-old Volodar Murzin from Russia was seeded just 59th at the start of the event but his undefeated 10/13 score earned him first place outright, ahead of the world’s elite.

‘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’ mode, where any decisive game would determine the championship, and according to the rules they were to play on indefinitely. Carlsen proposed to Nepomniachtchi that they share the title, and they got the nod after a private discussion with Arkady Dvorkovich, the Fide president. Disgruntled fans complained that there must be one winner because ’twas ever thus, and that sporting values were undermined by their backroom deal.

White to play. Composed by František Dedrle, Deutsches Wochenschach, 1921. Black plans to draw by eliminating the last pawn on b5. What is White’s only winning move? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 6 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 Kf4! cuts off the g6-f5 escape, threatening Re8-h8 and Rb8-g8 mate.

Eighteen-year old Gukesh Dommaraju, from India, has become the youngest ever world chess champion – after defeating defending champion, China's Ding Liren, in Singapore yesterday. There is an adorable clip online in which an 11-year old Gukesh, smiling shyly, states his ambition to become the youngest world champion. Bold as that goal was, at the age of 18 he has accomplished it with time to spare, since Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen were both 22 years old when they won the title.  The fourteenth and final game of the match saw an extraordinary turn of events. Up until that point, the scores were tied, with two wins apiece and nine draws. After four hours of play, Gukesh held an advantage, but most commentators anticipated that Ding would hold the line and secure a draw.

1) Which former US women’s chess champion, who in 1961 became the first chess player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, died earlier this year? 2) This year a boy from Argentina became the youngest ever to be awarded the International Master title, at the age of ten years and eight months. He even defeated Magnus Carlsen in an online bullet game. What is his name? 3) Noland Arbaugh, who was paralysed below the shoulders after a diving accident, demonstrated the outcome of his pioneering medical procedure by playing chess. How did he make the moves? 4) The grandmaster parent of a well-known chess streamer played a ‘Battle of Generations’ match against the world’s most popular YouTube chess personality. What were the players’ names?

It may sound strange to say that Ding’s win in the first game of his world championship match came as a shock, but it did. His recent form had been shaky and his challenger Gukesh, heavily favoured by pundits, had the advantage of the white pieces. There was every reason to expect Ding to stick to classic match strategy which dictates a ‘safety first’ approach when playing black. Gukesh opened with 1 e4, whereupon Ding usually prefers 1…e5 and plays in a solid, classical style. Instead, his choice of 1…e6 (the French defence) was, I imagine, perceived by Gukesh as a small provocation. It is likely that Ding’s second, the imaginative Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport and a renowned expert on the French, influenced his decision.

The World Championship match between Ding Liren and Dommaraju Gukesh is now underway in Singapore. The $2.5 million prize fund will be decided over 14 games of classical chess, and in the event of a 7-7 tie, there will be rapid tiebreaks on 13 December. Pre-match consensus had Ding, the reigning champion from China, as a heavy underdog, with only around a 20 per cent chance of victory. He has appeared afflicted by a psychological crisis since winning the title last year, and his recent form has been dismal. His challenger, 18-year-old Gukesh from India, has had a splendid run, climbing well above Ding in the world rankings.

‘I kind of played old man’s chess in that game,’ said Magnus Carlsen, after winning a game against S.L. Narayanan, a top Indian grandmaster, at the Tata Steel Rapid in Kolkata last week. ‘No long variations, just positional chess.’ None of his moves would have come as a great surprise to his opponent, while Narayanan’s mistakes were inconspicuous. Yet Carlsen steadily assumed control of the game, consistently sensing the optimal places for his pieces. S.L. Narayanan-Magnus Carlsen Tata Steel Chess India Rapid, November 2024 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 O-O Be7 6 Qe2 6 Re1 is more common, and one standard continuation is 6…b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 O-O 9 h3 Na5 10 Bc2 c5 11 d4.

To an outsider, we chess players might seem a rather uniform breed. Studious and contemplative, we spend hours absorbed in a board game to no apparent end. It is the archetypal thinker’s hobby. But within the subculture, there are many, perhaps even a majority, who identify as pragmatists, not thinkers. Results are the driving motivation. At the board, they are drawn to ideas which are likely to wrong-foot the opponent, with no special regard for their objective merits. In their study, they disdain the more obscure, frivolous or unrealistic chess problems such as the one in the puzzle below. What, they ask, is the purpose of seeking a subtle mate in 2, when a simple move like 1 Qxb8+ wins easily? For some players, the game’s rewards are not intrinsic at all.