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by Siegfried Hornecker

Continuing where we left off last June, i.e. after the year 1966, most basic ideas already were explored. As such, we can now concentrate more on interesting ideas connected to castling, instead of just the castling aspect itself. One such idea is happening in a study by Vitaly Kovalenko.

Vitaly Kovalenko

Tikhookeansky Komsomolets 1967, 1st prize (correction).

White to move and win.

The then young Russian master Vitaly Kovalenko (23 May 1947 - 5 March 2014) who won this tourney that first was announced in Primorsky Krai is not to be confused with multiple other people (an actor, volleyball player, or even professor of organic chemistry) of similar names. Judge Vitaly Tyavlovsky noted that not only the two prizewinners but also the first two honorable mentions of this tourney came from the Far East. Of Kovalenko's over 750 endgame studies, around 80 won prizes (source: Kovalenko obituary by Yuri Bazlov, EG 196, July 2014). The next endgame study of our article today coincidentally also is by Vitaly Kovalenko.

Vitaly Kovalenko. Problem October 1968.

White to move and win

Obviously after 1.a7 0-0 the game would be an easy draw. But... can Black even castle? What was his last move? Certainly not with the pawn on f7. But if it was with either the king or rook, castling is impossible. So 1.a7 Ke7 is the only way to stop the pawn for now. How does White continue?

Iosif Krikheli, Prioskaja Pravda 1968, 1st/2nd prize.

White to move and draw

The first five moves are important to find here, Afterwards the positional draw is easy to manifest. So how can White prevent the immediate loss, and what is the continuation afterwards?

Iosif Krikheli (10 May 1931 - 22 September 1988) attended an All-Union congress of chess composers in Sukhumi when he suddenly died, being a chess composer from 16 years old to the last minutes of his life, as Velimir Kalandadze characterized him in EG 98, October 1989, where Kalandadze also wrote:

As a study composer Krikheli worked with the classic themes. His personal preferences concentrated on stalemate, positional draw, and themes from problemdom. He always endeavoured to find that one elusive, light and economical setting to express his chess thought: in his best output one can feel the harmony of form with content.

The total output of Krikheli was over 1500 compositions of many genres.

Johan van den Ende, Schakend Nederland December 1972, 4th prize.

White to move and win (correction)

The study - Mario Garcia added a pawn on d6 four decades after the original publication to correct it - starts off a bit brutal, but after 1.e:d4 Rc2 2.Bf1+ Ke4 3.B:b5 B:b5 4.N:d6+ Kd5! 5.N:b5 R:b2 an interesting position is reached. How does White win here?

Johan J. van den Ende (6 August 1902 - 9 July 2002) was six times champion of Zeeland, the westernmost province of the Netherlands, in practical play. He was an endgame study composer for over six decades, creating around 150 endgame studies.

I found the solution of the following study amusing. Will readers share the same sentiment?

Jindich Fritz, Szachy December 1973 (correction, winning 2nd prize, in Szachy May 1975).

White to move and win.

How can the pawn on h2 be stopped? Beautiful geometry unfolds but it ends with an... well, not entirely unexpected... castling.

In October of 2017I quickly wrote about Jindich Fritz (15 June 1912 - 9 November 1984). Lawyer, Grandmaster for Chess Composition (1976), composer of more than 500 works (endgame studies and problems) which were collected in the 1979 book Vybran achov problmy according to the writers at the German Wikipedia. Eric Huber & Vlaicu Crian date the book to 1959 on their blog, attributing 252 problems and 50 endgame studies to it. So were there multiple editions? Yours Truly found only the 1979 printing of Olympia in Praha (Prague) in a quick search at used book sellers.

Ernest Pogosyants, Shakhmaty v SSSR January 1974, 5th commendation.

White to move and win

It looks as if giving the check on f1, exchanging rooks on f5 and then playing the ending in a precise manner wins. But what is the difference between 1.Rf1+ and 1.0-0+, or is there even a difference? Or should White not exchange rooks at all?

Ernest Pogosyants (5 June 1935 - 16 August 1990) was a victim of medical torture after speaking out against KGB leader Alexander Shelepin (the same Shelepin who then also was heavily involved in bringing Brezhnev to power by overthrowing Khrushchev in 1964). Those experiments left him an insomniac. The numerous sleepless nights were used to compose endgame studies and chess problems, totaling over 6,000 (nearly 2,000 of them endgame studies). This was reported by John Roycroft in the book "A (First) Century of Studies" and gained widespread attention after being included as entry 43 by Dutch author and chess curiosities collector Tim Krabb in hisOpen Chess Diaryon 25 December 1999. Many of Pogosyants' endgame studies harbor very simple yet interesting ideas, such as the study above. And also often, such as in the study above, the ideas are accompanied by entertaining play. Of course, another famous chess composer, Vladimir Nabokov, whose "Lolita" might be the most misunderstood work in literature history by those who didn't read it, is well-known for his "Poems and Problems", but if Pogosyants published a similar work, he could have included over 4,000 of his own poems and aphorisms...

Stanislav Belokon, Krasnaja Gazeta 1975, 1st prize.

White to move and draw.

Here castling is only the introduction to three stalemates: 1.0-0-0+ Kc3 2.Rd8 Bf7 3.e8Q B:e8 4.R:e8 Bf4+ and the magic begins...

Stanislav Belokon (Belokin) (30 April 1939 - 21 February 1984) was an Ukrainian composer (from Kharkiv) of more than 100 endgame studies. Having lost both hands in an accident at 10 years old, he still became a high-class creator of artistic endgame studies, winning many awards, including the Ukrainian championship four times in the 1970s. Unfortunately it seems that not much is known about Belokon on the internet, I only found the ARVES website's short biography. In the magazine EG, also no further information seems to be provided about him, although we read that his both memorial tourneys received over 100 entries each by international composers. (A bonus study by Belokon is added at the replayable entries, which doesn't fit the theme but I like a lot.)

Ernest Pogosyants, Shakhmaty v SSSR September 1977.

White to move and win.

White wants to play 1.Ra7 Kf8 2.Kf6 Ke8 3.Ra8+ and 4.R:h8, but sadly 1.-0-0! prevents this. So how can White prevent the castling defense? Another small but interesting Pogosyants study.

Valery Maksaev, Shakhmaty v SSSR June 1978, 6th honorable mention.

White to move and win.

Castling is used as a defense here, but eventually White captures the rook. The chase starts with 1.Bc3, and then...? (While editing the study, Yours Truly found there is a dual, but the intended winning way is much easier, so solvers should look only for that.)

Valery Maksaev (born 5 September 1946), according to the information[S3] by Oleg Efrosinin on the ARVES website, studied Russian language and literature before working as a teacher and school director until his retirement in 1995. Since 1965 around 150 of his endgame studies and problems were published. He lives in the Volgograd region (probably this should be "Volgograd oblast[S4]") for which he participated in chess composition tourneys.

The article "Castling in Studies" by Ernest Pogosyants in EG 56, June 1979, contained only some originals by him, but not all were correct. One was corrected by Stephen Rothwell in the specialized magazine "Knig & Turm" in 2006 by moving the knight from d5 to d1.

See: EG Archive Part 1andPart 2

Ernest Pogosyants, EG 56, June 1979 (correction).

White to move and win

The study is short but fun.

1979 was a very interesting year for castling in endgame studies. The magazine Shakhmaty v SSSR held a thematic tourney and the Joachim Reiners Memorial Tourney was also held as a thematic tourney. We shall get to those next time in this series. The winner of said tourney was reprinted in Tim Krabb's book about chess curiosities, by the way.

For the more experienced solvers, I have a final challenge. It is from 1978, and also replayable below as the second bonus entry. Can you find the solution? The author is not to be confused with a boxer of the same name. We have no biographical information on Vladimir Nikitin (born 3 September 1954), so we also don't know if he was related to the master coach Alexander Nikitin who died last year, but the surname seems to be not uncommon.

Vladimir Nikitin, Shakhmaty v SSSR June 1978, 2nd prize.

White to move and win

Castling plays no big role here, although technically it refutes 1.Rg7? 0-0-0.

As a famous cartoon series said: "That's all, folks..." Well, at least this time.

Don't get me started on Shelepin, this is as far as I think still is acceptable for readers. Brezhnev and Shelepin were fully corrupt in my opinion, and history should tell it, but it is not my place here to educate on that.

Humbert sexually abuses 12-year old Dolores after becoming her supposed "stepfather" and giving her sedatives. So the way the name "Lolita" is handled usually is a complete reversal of the role of the victim and the perpetrator. She dies at the end during childbirth. And he is an unreliable narrator who dies while awaiting a murder trial for shooting her ex-boyfriend when she's 17. Anyone who doesn't get the message of the book never even wanted to understand the plot.

https://www.arves.org/arves/index.php/nl/endgamestudies/studies-by-composer/1256-maksaev-valery-1946

Of historical note is that Volgograd, whose region also held many names, was formerly named Stalingrad but was renamed during the de-stalinization (the Oblast Stalingrad was renamed Oblast Volgograd on 10 December 1961). It was the site of a major battle in the European theater of WWII between Germany and Russia (1942-1943).

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Study of the Month - A short history of endgame study castling III - ChessBase

Over the past year, the Chess.com team has grown considerably into a robust community with employees from 60+ countries. Like on a chessboard, our team meets in the center through our mission to champion the great game of chess.

To celebrate Women's History Month, I was lucky enough to interview some of the women who power Chess.com. Learn more about their unique pathways to growing a career in chess!

I became a user of Chess.com long before I joined as a staff member. It was in December 2010, one month before I left China and started studying in France. I was 18 years old and had never traveled abroad. Playing on Chess.com against a guy with a Swiss flag next to his profile soothed my anxiety of leaving home; I had a subtle feeling that Europe was not that far away.

Its been only two months since I joined Chess.com from Play Magnus Group (PMG). I enjoy incredible freedom and support to contribute to what Im truly passionate about. As a technical product manager, I recently started leading a project that enables chess engine analysis to be shared between different products. Sometimes I even get my hands dirty and write some code!

As someone who has played chess since the age of six, the game has already grown beyond my imagination! But we can always dream more. I hope that chess professionals will gain more recognition and make a decent living, so that prodigies can keep pursuing their dream without being told: This is not a real profession.

Thanks to The Queen's Gambit, I started playing chess, and the game very quickly became something important to me. At the time, the coding boot camp I was a part of introduced us to various companies, including Chessable. I was excited to contribute to growing the game on a wider scale. Currently, I work as a full-stack developer.

During the past few years, I've worked on the Chessable platform: building features, fixing bugs everything needed for the user to enjoy their personal study platform! Chess has taught me many things, and I'm looking forward to seeing the game become even more mainstream, so everybody can discover the beauty of the game.

I started working at Chessable two years ago and have recently joined the Chess.com family. As a full-stack developer at Chessable, I work with the team who developed our science-based technology, such as our Spaced Repetition System (SRS). Chessable developed a system that helps people to create stronger learning connections in the brain, ultimately improving their memory.

At our Barcelona office, my colleagues play in the Catalan league every Sunday, and I give them a chess lesson weekly in our office. Those are unforgettable moments we share. We laugh a lot and share the same passion, creating solid links among us.

While The Queen's Gambit series helped bring more women into chess, we still have much to do. Some levers we can use are inclusive language in communication, being very careful with discrimination, and severely punishing harassment.

Half of the time, I work with the Events Department. I'm a female arbiter with the highest arbiter title, International Arbiter (FIDE) and National TD (U.S.). I also help with game operations and coordinating event-related matters.

The other half of the time, I'm working with chess clubs and helping them get support from Chess.com so they can grow and offer chess to more people. We support clubs with free merch, customer support, and offer a community for them where they can connect and learn from each other.

As a female arbiter, I'd love to see more girls and women interested in becoming official organizers and arbiters. The chess world needs more female leaders. My other passion is scholastic chess and making it accessible to all kids! Please encourage them to get started, and keep playing by creating fun events and encouraging them not to quit!

As an enthusiastic chess player, the opportunity to work at ChessKid.com is fascinating. My role as a front-end developer within the company goes beyond building and maintaining our site. Instead, I aim to make the chess world more accessible, engaging, and thrilling for young players worldwide.

I have recently worked on the front-end of our new Classroom feature, designed to create a welcoming learning platform for coaches and parents to teach kids from a distance. In real-time, were making an impact on the next generation of chess players by building tools that allow kids to analyze their games and learn in effective ways.

In the future, I would love to see more young girls and women engaged in chess, as this is an area where the game has historically been underrepresented. At Chess.com, I believe were contributing to a brighter future by hosting events to celebrate young girls in chess, such as the 3rd Annual ChessKid USA Girls Championship.

"Back in 2017, Chess.coms CEO, Erik, and CCO, Danny, were the first and only people in the chess world to let me prove that having an in-house photographer is worth it, and I am forever grateful for that. Today, I am responsible for the entire photography assets database at Chess.com and take photographs for all major events coverage.

"With my photography, I try to show that chess is a powerful game for all ages, genders, and strengths. Chess should not have barriers!"

I work in the Billing and Member Support Department, where I have the opportunity to assist our valued members with any website-related issues they may face and provide support for all their needs.

Whether troubleshooting technical problems, resolving billing issues, or simply sharing my passion for the game, I'm excited to help others enjoy chess to the fullest. I would love to see more diversity in the chess world, including people of all identities, from different backgrounds and countries at a competitive level.

I'm also hoping for a future where we can finally settle the debate of whether the knight or bishop is superior once and for all ... with an epic medieval-style jousting tournament.

Are you looking to help us grow the game of chess? Check out our open positions: https://www.chess.com/jobs.

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The Women Powering Chess.com - Chess.com

GM Daniil Dubov and GM Vladimir Kramnik won Titled Tuesday on March 21. Kramnik, 47, was the world chess champion from 2000 to 2007. He retired from over-the-board tournament chess in 2019 but has been active in Chess.com rapid and blitz events in the last year or so.

The late tournament on Tuesday was Kramnik's best showing so far in such events, and he was one flag away from potentially scoring 10.5/11. Dubov, meanwhile, won his third Titled Tuesday of the year in the early event. Both winners scored 9.5 points and claimed the tournament on tiebreaks.

Round seven was the battle of the undefeated and eventual top two finishers earlier in the day, with Dubov winning against GM Tuan Minh Le to improve to 7/7.

Dubov's perfection did not last long, however, as he was toppled by GM Denis Lazavik in the eighth round.

It was Lazavik who led the entire field with a 9/10 score entering the final round, but he played the Black side of a Four Knights and drew with GM David Paravyan in 31 moves. Both Dubov and Minh Le were able to catch up by winning their games, Dubov checkmating GM Gawain Jones (below) and Minh Le defeating GM Rasmus Svane.

Dubov ended up with better tiebreaks than either Minh Le or Lazavik and thus won the tournament out of a field of 464 players. Paravyan was the only player with nine points, taking fourth place.

March 21 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Dubov earned $1,000, while Minh Le won $750 in second place and Lazavik $350 in third. Jones scored $200 for fourth place. The $100 prizes went to GM Benjamin Bok in fifth and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk with the highest women's score.

Kramnik started out 9.5/10, giving him enough margin for error to retain his tournament lead despite losing to second-place GM Alireza Firouzja in the final round. In third came GM Magnus Carlsen, with the best tiebreak scores of the five players who ended on nine points.

It took until the end of round nine for Kramnik to enter the sole lead, when he defeated the co-leader after eight rounds, GM Sanan Sjugirov.

Kramnik's advantage only expanded in round 10, when he developed a full-point lead on the field of 430 entering the last cycle.

No one was able to defeat the champion until the last round. Even then, Kramnik was better on the boardhe simply ran out of time. Yet by then, it was too late to dethrone him anyway. Firouzja still ensured the second-place payday with the win.

March 21 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Kramnik earned $1,000 for his performance, while Firouzja settled for the $750 second-place prize. Carlsen won $350 for third place, Svane $200 for fourth, and GM Gata Kamsky emerged in fifth place for $100. WFM Varvara Poliakova won the $100 women's prize with a 7/11 finish.

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players, played in two 11-round Swiss tournaments each Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time/17:00 Central European and 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/23:00 Central European.

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Former World Champ Roars Back With Big Win In Tuesday Blitz - Chess.com

The 2023 American Cup continued in St. Louis on Monday with championship bracket semifinals that were won by GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So respectively. Nakamura was in fine form with the black pieces and outplayed GM Leinier Dominguez in the middlegame to take his match 1.5-0.5, while So required rapid playoffs to overcome U.S. Champion GM Fabiano Caruana.

In the women's event, GM Irina Krush was held to a draw for the first time in the event but won her match by a 1.5-0.5 margin. FM Alice Lee with the black pieces also dispatched IM Nazi Paikidze in a convincing display by the rising star.

Action from the championship and elimination brackets will continue at The American Cup on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, at 11 a.m. PT/20:00 CET.

"I will try to press and see what happens" were the words that Dominguez left viewers with after a tame game-one draw against Nakamura on Monday, and 10 moves into game two it was clear he was indeed playing for the win.

Although Dominguez managed to build an edge and gain the bishop pair, time pressure was a problem for the Cuban-born GM, who had less than seven minutes left by move 26. Against one of the world's best fast chess players, this proved to be fatal, and Dominguez's position quickly collapsed.

Our Game of the Day that saw Nakamura progress through to the championship bracket final has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.

A slicing rook sacrifice was the nail in the coffin for Dominguez's position and made it easy for Nakamura to come up with a caption for his YouTube recap, "Dear YouTube, I Sacrificed THE ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK," playing on GothamChess' viral moment.

After drawing their second classical game in a 52-move, Nimzo-Indian Defense where they averaged 98.8-percent accuracy, So and Caruana needed playoffs to determine who would be Nakamura's championship bracket final opponent.

Playing with the white pieces, So opted for the Ruy Lopez, and Caruana set up solidly with the Morphy Defense, Columbus Variation. On move 12, the reigning U.S. champion played the slightly inaccurate 12.Rab8? and gifted So a continuation that would isolate his a-pawn.

With a permanent structural disadvantage, Caruana desperately tried to hold his position together, but So gradually improved his advantage, eventually inciting his opponent who had dropped below 10 seconds to blunder.

The win proved decisive for the world number-eight as he was able to hold in the next game after quickly trading into an opposite-colored bishop and rook ending. Although the game was played until the 125th move, the result was never in doubt, and Caruana was relegated to the elimination bracket.

Following a win against WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova on Monday, Krush hinted that she would look to keep up the aggression in their second game. True to her word, the eight-time U.S. women's champion was the first to strike with a queenside intermezzo, fearlessly giving up an exchange for a pawn and the initiative.

With healthy connected passed pawns on the queenside, Krush began to tighten the screws with a liquidation combination that removed any serious chance of her opponent's swindling. Despite garnering a strong edge, Krush opted to secure the match result with threefold repetition and booked her spot in the championship final. (If Krush had won, she would still have to face off against the winner of the elimination bracket.)

FM Alice Lee's rise to stardom continued on Monday with a black-pieces victory over IM Nazi Paikidze that pushed her FIDE rating to 2386, gaining her the number-two spot on the U.S. women's FIDE rating list.

In the Slav Defense: Modern, Quiet, Schallopp Variation, Lee took space in the center early and launched a queenside assault after Paikidze castled long on move 12. Not one to shy away from complexity, Paikidze fought back by infiltrating Lee's kingside, but the lack of space in the center was her downfall, and her 13-year-old opponent crashed through decisively.

Lee will now face Krush in the championship bracket final. Interestingly, should she defeat her opponent in their first classical encounter, she would pass the 2400-rating mark for the first time in her career.

With two IM norms under her belt, Lee has a good chance of smashing the record for the youngest female IM and WGM in U.S. history, which is currently held by WGM Carissa Yip (16 years, one month, and 18 days old).

All Games

The American Cup is an over-the-board event in the U.S. capital of chess, St. Louis, featuring the country's top grandmasters. Split into Open and Women's categories, the players will compete in a double-elimination knockout bracket while competing for their share of the $300,000 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

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Nakamura With Black Defeats Dominguez, So Overcomes Caruana - Chess.com

LAS VEGAS On the first day of February, the new chess set appeared atop the circular glass table in the Mo Ostin Center lobby. Nobody with the UCLA mens basketball team knew it was coming. But here it was, delivered by the founder of Poison Pawn Chess, a local company. A crisp black-and-white board with objectively cool redesigned pieces, begging for tactics and gambits.

As Jaime Jaquez Jr. sat down for a conversation, his eyes went wide. Like a spaceship landed a foot in front of him. The hoops talk, clearly, had to wait.

T.J.! the Bruins star called to T.J. Wolf, the programs director of player personnel, who happened to be passing by. They just put this in?

Yes, Wolf replied. And the Poison Pawn guy was in the locker room.

Hell, yeah, Jaquez declared. I want to try to play him.

Hes like a master, Wolf said.

I know, Jaquez replied. Thats why I want to play him.

A couple of months later, UCLA has a spot at the West Regional, and everything is still in development. The Bruins are a chess team, obsessed with competing on the boards in more ways than one.

When the locker room doors swung open Wednesday for NCAA Tournament media availability, there was injured guard Jaylen Clark, tucking away his phone just as an online match with Jaquez ended. A few feet away, fifth-year senior Russell Stong put the finishing touches on a win over Tyger Campbell, just as the Bruins point guard left for press conference duty.

Elsewhere, PlayStations and Xboxes dominate the idle minutes in the lives of college basketball players. Not so at UCLA. The Pac-12 champions prefer to play mind games. We like to think that were mature, Stong said Wednesday, and it was unclear how serious he was being. We like to keep our mind ready. And honestly you can apply chess to life and basketball a lot of the time. Its really just keeping your mind sharp and thinking outside of the box. The answer is always on the board. Its just a matter of finding that answer in the right moment.

Who made the first move here, and when, is unclear.

Campbell might have been on the vanguard, but even he wasnt sure how much credit he could take as he walked down a T-Mobile Arena hallway. I guess Id say I had a hand in the start of that, he said. He took a trip home before his freshman year and his friends brother was playing a lot of chess. Campbell got into it. He brought a physical board and chess set back to Los Angeles and brought the game to the group.

Chronologically, it would line up with Stongs recollection, which places the inception date in the 2018-19 season when he and Campbell were freshmen. They played chess back then occasionally, giving it up in favor of Super Smash Bros. Then one day, we were like, Remember when we used to play chess?' Stong said. And then we started playing again.

It quickly became an obsession of choice. More people on the team play than dont, at this point, Campbell said. Every player has his own board, with two larger community boards available at the Ostin Center. The ubiquity of chess apps allows the Bruins to leave their physical sets at home, as they have this week in Las Vegas, but sate the appetite for competition nevertheless.

And, as no two chess games are alike, everyone comes to it for their own reasons. Its all you, Jaquez said. I play a sport where other guys can make mistakes, whereas you play chess and every move you make is your own. You are the only one that can make a mistake. And the other part I like about it the answer is always right in front of you. You just have to find it. You put this here, you put that right there, theres a right and wrong answer here, of what to do. You just have to find it out. I think thats really cool.

Its a way to engage differently, Clark said. We talk about different stuff on this team. We talk about stocks, money movement, business. This aint your average team. Were like an Ivy League school, the stuff we get into.

In the Bruins estimation, chess and basketball are linked pieces. It sounds like a specious claim until they start to reason it out.

Pressure situations. Finding ways out of traps, as Stong put it. Examining what an opponent is trying to do and sussing out the countermeasure.

You assume that opponent will do one thing, Jaquez said, and then they do another thing. And then you have to figure everything out all over again.

One mistake, Campbell said, and thats the end. You have to stay alert. You have to see the whole game.

In chess, sometimes it looks like youre sacrificing things when youre really not, Clark said. Youre looking four, five, six steps down the line. If you call a play and it doesnt work, but youre just trying to see if the big man was going to drop or roll or whatever, and then you come back and run the same play with a different counter, youre playing ahead. We do that sometimes here just to get a feel of a team. Were not even necessarily looking at that as a scoring option. Its just to see different things and attack from there.

By most accounts, Campbell and Stong are the resident masters, relatively speaking, but apparently anyone can be a hot hand. Which sounds familiar. Its a day-to-day thing, Stong said. Its like basketball somebodys playing well, theyre going to win.

Gonzaga awaited, but there were a lot of hours between UCLA getting to town and eventually getting to the Zags at T-Mobile Arena. A lot of ways to bide that time. There wasnt a question about the way the Bruins would choose. It was there on their screens to see.

A different college basketball pastime. A different way, as Jaquez put it, to look at the world. You think youre in a bad position, and all of a sudden you see something great, Jaquez said. I think its beautiful.

(Photo of, left to right, Dylan Andrews, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

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How UCLAs favorite hobby became chess - The Athletic