Long castle, ye say? If it does a number on the position, calculate how much the A game matters with the 'a' pawn. It is less about the best guestimate and more about why prolonging a castle to the later middlegame or early endgame yields deceptio...
Months ago in Tata Steel, I speculated GM Vincent Keymer being the last one standing in Round 2, playing the only remaining game, which if hypothetically won, would gain him the lead. Said game not too surprisingly drew. GM Praggnanandha R went on...
GM Gukesh D edges to the top with the benefit of a greater tiebreaker, beating GM Pentala Harikrishna and drawing against tied home team ally, GM Praggnanandha in Round 8. This comes with a streak of point consistency, particularly in said games...
The Tata Steel Masters stops at nothing as my time zone ends a round at midnight to commence the next on the very same day. Small significances in who's winning yet who gets the better part of the game prove to be some pivotal deciding factors. St...
Midnight in said timezone doesn't catch a break as GMs Vincent Keymer and Max Warmerdam play on after 6 boards concluded their games. We all know the hypothetical - ANY blunder can earn the opponent their win. GM Vincent Keymer is the last player ...
The Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee commences 2025's first major Chess Tournament. Newly crowned World Champion GM Gukesh D faces off against GM Anish Giri who happened to commentate on many of his games against former champion, GM Ding Liren.&...
Grandmasters Ding Liren and Gukesh D encountered each other several times in Chess games throughout 2024. The biggest event being FIDE World Championship was where Gukesh secured his triumphant win as the 18th World Champion. Here's a lookback o...
Congratulations, GM Gukesh D, on unleashing the Bobby Fischer momentum and channeling it to this historic win as World Champion. Fischer didn't settle for draws, nor did he. That said, I feel badly for former champion GM Ding Liren. What he broug...
The penultimate game of the 2024 World Championship match subsides in a draw, and it is not without takeaway! GM Gukesh D and team revisit the opening moves from Game 1 that benefitted defending champion GM Ding Liren, with this game of positional...
GM Ding Liren's Spassky spirit strikes back as Game 12 reinforces his improvisation that became intellectual just out of nowhere, except, that Ding pictured this maybe 20 moves ahead of time! This is the 180 that Ding needed after Game 11 (Not yo...
GM Gukesh D has unleashed the Fischer point advantage in the 2024 FIDE championship. It is here on Game 11 that it is hard not to look back on champion GM Ding Liren's chances in Game 5 or wherever else. The game I discuss below belongs solely t...
Game 10's draw handshake is officially a high five. GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Fabiano Caruana's Game 10 from Fide 2018's World Championship seems to agree, except that 10 draws seems something of a middling five. Ahead of potential tiebreakers, spe...
Yesterday was my rest day, most unreservedly. Getting back from work in general to blog through the moves is something that this consecutive draw wasn't rushing itself towards. The game I discuss below belongs solely to Game 9 of the 2024 World C...
GM Ding Liren plays this championship's first English opening as things see GM Gukesh D command 2 passed pawns and Ding gain the exchange. The result is yet another draw, only that unlike a match like 2018, the draws carry weight with who will gra...
GM Gukesh D enforces a distinctive inclination with an Nf3 opening, as Game 7 sees both players under a minute and ticking to an astounding draw. Mr Ding Liren, however did you pull this off? I see your chances in that your journey in former succe...
Round 6 has historically and recently meant a match-changing turn of events. Notable examples are Fischer Vs Spassky (1972) and Carlsen Vs Nepomniachtchi (2021). What may have been a 3.5-2.5 result here subsided in two waves of potential threefold...
I had a hunch that Ding could use his experience to his discretion in this championship. But my, oh my, do I feel sorry for him, to see a draw in the apparently clearly won position. No overstating of course. Ding is clearly not out of form based ...
The likelihood of another draw after each player nabbing a win was quite an expectation. By the premise, it looked like rest day was an eventful part of this preparation for both sides. Given the context of their playing history up against one ano...
I mean to get a grip on regular openings, or just develop pieces enough to see through the game, or for something novel to come up. Anything goes in place of b3, c3 and d3, if I am to make my Phase 3 count. For more details on this specific part, ...
Game 3 has the Fischer momentum brewing as challenger GM Gukesh D evens the score with his first ever win against defending champion GM Ding Liren (Let aside another victory by Gukesh over Ding with FischerRandom). Gukesh did mention earli...
Game 2 of 2024's FIDE World Championship subsides in a draw. With the draw, comes basic takeaway value that it was fairly distinct from Ding Vs Gukesh at Sinquefield earlier this year, where Ding also helmed the white troops. Closely enough, even ...
The 2024 FIDE World Championship embarks its way with liftoff as we have reigning World Champion GM Ding Liren defend his title for the first time, up against challenger GM Gukesh D, bringing with him the possibility of becoming the 2nd world Cham...
The 2024 World Chess Championship match will commence in a couple of weeks. (All credit for the image above goes to Chess.com) I previously talked about the first 5 games in 2018's World Championship match between then reigning champion GM Mag...
I have been finding my way with good openings that exist, while keeping forging my own a later priority. Chess.com on mobile has a few things not so intuitively bogged behind, at least for blog posting. The app, as far as I recall, doesn't include...
Akin to calling it a passed pawn along said file. More often than not, the Van Geet opening has allowed me to maintain a defensive stance while getting the opponent to play a few moves too useful. Getting to perform these moves on opposite sides ...
