Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand, the winners of last year's world rapid (Anand) and blitz (Carlsen) championships, will be defending their titles this year, from December 26–30. Although the main sponsor didn't change, the tournament was moved from Saudi Arabia to St. Petersburg, Russia.
It was a controversial championship last year in Riyadh, where the total prize fund was a record U.S. $2 million, but players from Israel (due to visa issues) and Iran did not participate, and players...
Grandmasters Daniel Naroditsky and Andrew Tang (two of the fastest flag kings in chess) put their firm stamp on the Arena Kings Season Two by winning the finals (Naroditsky) and overall season (Tang). Naroditsky won the finals on Wednesday, December 12th with a gaudy score while Andrew Tang's season-long performance kept him ahead in total Arena Kings points.
The Arena Kings season two took place over two stages, first a regular season, then a qualifier and finals.
Regular Season
The regular season...
The Chess.com member kurniadigautama asked:
Something has been bothering me since I saw the game between GM Vidit Santosh and GM David Eggleston in The Chess.com Isle of Man international open tournament (round 1). In the game, we see that Vidit sacrificed a queen for two minor pieces claiming that the white pieces are not in sync and hence White’s king will be mated if Black can bring all his forces towards the king. The problem is, though we can understand the principle, calculations are...
Gambits in chess openings are not only fun to play, but can be very effective if your opponent is not familiar with the line. Here GM Ben Finegold teaches you the Shirov Gambit in the Philidor.
And then life went back to normal...
When the smoke cleared after November, despite all the action (and 12 rounds of no satisfaction ), nothing had really changed: Magnus Carlsen was still world champion, Fabiano Caruana, while still being America's number-one, was relegated to "just another candidate," and all of us (fans and commentators alike) were looking ourselves in the mirror, and wondering "how do I feel about that match?"
Well, hopefully enough time has passed for you, as it has for Robert...
In today's rapid and blitz games, Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated their opponents—Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian respectively—to reach the final of the London Chess Classic.
It was a long and fun last day at Google headquarters (after this the tournament returns to Olympia in Kensington) with two games of rapid and four games of blitz. With both matches on an equal score after two classical games, everything would be decided in the faster time controls (25...
Maria Theresa and Frederick II play chess as Ares watches in an allegory for the Seven-Years War
In a kind of Cold War allegory, the Sept. 29, 1947 issue of "Time" featured the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (who had been accusing the USA of warmongering) behind whom the artist, Ernest Hamlin Baker—who designed over 300 "Times" covers—used a position from a game between a youthful American and a older Russian in which the overconfident Russian...
With two draws again on the second day of the London Chess Classic, both semifinals—Levon Aronian vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Hikaru Nakamura vs Fabiano Caruana—will be decided in the rapid and blitz segment on Thursday.
Last month's world championship saw 12 draws in the classical portion. It is generally believed that this scenario is typical of modern chess, where computers have not only boosted the preparation of players to enormous heights, but also made them stronger defenders.
The...
[What is CAPS? Read the explanation here.]
All 12 classical games are in the books for the 2018 world chess championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Spectators are divided on their opinion of who deserves to be world champion. All draws, not many opportunities for victory, and a three rating point difference between the players... Should they be co-champions?
To continue our Chess.com Computer Aggregated Precision Score (CAPS) series, we will take a look at what CAPS...
