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GM Hikaru Nakamura returned as the winner of Titled Tuesday on February 2. The American grandmaster was the only player to score 10/11 and finished ahead of GMsJeffery Xiong, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

This week's Titled Tuesday tournament had a total of 811 participants, the highest number in six months. It was an 11-round Swiss with a 3+1 time control.

The live broadcast of the tournament.

As in recent weeks, Nakamura suffered an early loss in the tournamentthis time in the third round. However, in this edition it was the only flaw in an otherwise perfect event. He finished with eight straight wins, and the victims included GMs Matthias Bluebaum, Eric Hansen, Vachier-Lagrave, and Dmitry Andreikin.

The game with Hansen was spectacular, as the Canadian grandmaster and Chessbrah streamer threw everything but the kitchen sink toward his opponent. By the way, could it be that this game is theoretically relevant for the 3...g6 Ruy Lopez?

A long and tough battle was Nakamura's game with Vachier-Lagrave, who played shortly after a disastrous Tata Steel Chess Tournament. The Frenchman, who lost three times with his Najdorf in Wijk aan Zee, chose the Caro-Kann for this game. His mistake came only deep in the endgame:

Like last week, Xiong finished in a tie for second place. In the final round, the 20-year-old grandmaster from Texas defeated the 18-year-old Dutch IM Liam Vrolijk, who has been doing well in Titled Tuesdays lately. Last week, and also on November 24, Vrolijk finished in 10th place.

This week the Dutchman came in 14th, but he could have shared second. Xiong ended up having the strongest nerves:

Feb. 2 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Nakamura won $750 for first place, Xiong $400 for second, Abdusattorov $150 for third, and MVL $100 for fourth.The $100 prize for the best female player went to GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (@ChessQueen), who scored 8/11.

Titled Tuesday isChess.com's weekly tournament for titled players. It starts each Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific time (19:00 Central Europe).

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Titled Tuesday: Nakamura Back To Winning Ways - Chess.com

As the birthplace of, among others, Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Eubie Blake and Thurgood Marshall, my adopted home state of Maryland has a wealth of Black native sons and daughters worth celebrating.

But since this is Black History Month and this is a chess column, let us focus on yet another remarkable Free Stater: Theophilus Thompson, the first great figure of note in the rich history of Black American chess.

Born into slavery in Frederick, Maryland, in 1855, Thompson showed a natural aptitude for the game after picking up the moves as a teenager. His brief but bright legacy rests on a series of games he played in the 1870s and the remarkable Chess Problems: Either to Play or Mate, an 1873 collection that established him as one of the countrys first major problemists.

Todays first game might be a scoop of sorts. It first ran in John K. Hanshews Our Chess Column in the March 23, 1876, edition of the Maryland Chess Review, but does not seem to be included in subsequent collections of Thompsons games. Its from a series of correspondence games with Charles Blood of Maine, a series Thompson handily won.

Declining Whites Kings Gambit is perfectly playable for Black, but allowing the kings bishop to be traded off and wasting several tempi with the queens knight get Blood into quick trouble. Whites 11. f5! grabs space on the kingside, and Thompsons attack quickly overwhelms.

Thus: 11Nb8 (seeking exchanges to ease the pressure, but White does not oblige) 12. Bc4 c6 (h6, to keep the knight out of g5 isnt much better after 13. Nxe5! dxe5 14. Qh5 Rf8 [g6 15. fxg6 fxg6 16. Bf7+ Kf8 17. Qxh6+! Rxh6 18. Bxh6 mate] 15. f6 g6 16. fxe7 gxh5 17. exf8=Q+! Kxf8 18. Bxh6+ Kg8 19. Rf7 Qe8 20. Rxd7+ Kh8 21. Rf7 Nd7 22. Raf1, with an overwhelming position) 13. Ng5 d5 14. Qh5!, with a winning attack.

Its over quickly on 14Rf8 (g6 15. fxg6 fxg6 16. Qf3 Bf5 17. exf5 dxc4 18. fxg6) 15. Nxh7 dxc4 16. Nxf8 Kxf8 17. f6! (opening the f-file is the central idea of the Kings Gambit, and Thompson shows why) Ng6 18. Bg5 gxf6 19. Rxf6 Qc7 20. Qxg6 Be6 21. Qh6+ and Black mailed off his resignation. One road to victory is 21Kg8 (Ke8 22. Rxe6+! fxe6 23. Qxe6+ Kf8 24. Bh6+ Qg7 25. Rf1 mate) 22. Rf3 Nd7 23. Rg3 Nf8 24. Bf6+ Ng6 25. Qg7 mate.

Thompsons chess career proved tragically brief. Theres no record he played any more games or composed new problems after the 1870s. His final years including the date of his death are shrouded in mystery, but his talent and legacy as a pioneer will live on.

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Todays second game, in addition to being an otherworldly display of imagination and grit, has its own historical significance the first rated game (of just two) between two of the most notable African-American players of the past half-century: Maurice Ashley, Americas first Black grandmaster, and the late, incomparable IM Emory Tate, whose tactical imagination and fierce drive made him in many ways the American Tal.

We havent anything close to the space to do justice to this amazing Richter-Rauzer Sicilian battle from the 1993 New York Open. Suffice it to say Ashley as Black bravely but barely survives Whites early cascade of sacrifices, reaching a position where his bishop, knight and kingside pawns seem to promise an easy win.

But this 15-round heavyweight battle flares up again after 33. Kc2 h5? (Bxa8 34. Rxa8 Be3! cuts off the White king) 34. a4! Bxa8 (bxa4?? 35. b5+ wins the bishop) 35. axb5+ Kd7 36. Rxa8, and suddenly Tate has his own armada of queenside passed pawns ready to sail.Whites hopes remains on the knifes edge until 51. Re1 f2? (the last mistake; 51Kf6!, sidestepping the coming check, appears to win after 52. Rxe5 g2 53. b7 f2 54. b8=Q f1=Q+ 55. Kc2 Qc4+) 52. Rxe5+! Kxe5 (now Whites b-pawn threatens to queen with check) 53. Ke2 Nf3 54. b7 Nd4+ 55. Kf1 Nc6 56. b5 Nb8 57. c6 Kd6 (see diagram), and, amazingly, its a draw, as after 58. Kg2 Nxc6 59. bxc6 Kc7 neither side can force the passed pawns through.We actually chuckled at each other, Ashley later wrote of the games ending, two fighters gaining much respect for each others attitude at the board.

Thompson-Blood, Correspondence game, Maryland, 1874(?)

1. e4 e5 2. f4 Bc5 3. Nf3 d6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Na4 Bb6 6. Nxb6 axb6 7. Bc4 Na5 8. Bb5+ Nc6 9. d3 Bd7 10. O-O Nge7 11. f5 Nb8 12. Bc4 c6 13. Ng5 d5 14. Qh5 Rf8 15. Nxh7 dxc4 16. Nxf8 Kxf8 17. f6 Ng6 18. Bg5 gxf6 19. Rxf6 Qc7 20. Qxg6 Be6 21. Qh6+ Black resigns.

Tate-Ashley, New York Open, New York, April 1993

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 a6 8. O-O-O h6 9. Be3 Qc7 10. f3 Rb8 11. g4 Ne5 12. f4 Nexg4 13. Bg1 e5 14. Bb5+ axb5 15. Ndxb5 Qd8 16. Bc5 d5 17. Ba7 Ra8 18. Nxd5 Nxd5 19. Qxd5 Qxd5 20. Nc7+ Kd7 21. Nxa8 Qd6 22. Bb8 Kc6 23. Bxd6 Bxd6 24. Rd3 b5 25. Rhd1 Bc5 26. Rd8 Rxd8 27. Rxd8 Bb7 28. h3 Nf2 29. fxe5 Nxh3 30. c3 Nf2 31. b4 Be7 32. Rb8 Bg5+ 33. Kc2 h5 34. a4 Bxa8 35. axb5+ Kd7 36. Rxa8 f4 37. Rf8 Ke7 38. Rh8 h4 39. Rxh4 g5 40. Rh8 Bxe5 41. Rg8 f6 42. b6 Kf7 43. Ra8 g4 44. Ra1 g3 45. Rg1 Nxe4 46. c4 Ke6 47. Kd3 f5 48. Ke3 Ng5 49. c5 f4+ 50. Kd3 f3 51. Re1 f2 52. Rxe5+ Kxe5 53. Ke2 Nf3 54. b7 Nd4+ 55. Kf1 Nc6 56. b5 Nb8 57. c6 Kd6 Draw agreed.

David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at [emailprotected]

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Theophilus Thompson of Maryland blazed a trail for Black chess players, despite hurdles - Washington Times

The chess puzzle in Little Nightmares II might seem like a tricky one to solve. You encounter it during the school level, which is Chapter Two, and you must complete it to acquire a key to open a door downstairs.

First, ignore the chess set in the main room. Walk to your right, and you will see a projector screen with a massive eye drawn on it. Jump, grab the handle at the bottom and then let go to reveal the wall behind it.

There will be a chalk drawing replica of the chess set. You have to find and place the correct tops on each chess piece to activate the puzzles next phase.

Head right to a table underneath a window. Jump and grab the table ledge to haul yourself up. Take the queen top off the chess piece, drop down and carry it to the chess set. Put it on the ground for now.

Head back to the rooms entrance. You used a chess piece, with a rook top, to reach the door handle to enter the room. Grab the rook top, head back to the chess set, and place it on the top left chess piece. Climb up and leap to the table next to you. Pick up the top for the king chess piece and drop down.

Now you can complete the puzzle. Remove the rook top from the previous chess piece and place it on the far right one. Put the queen top on the top left chess piece and the king top on the piece next to the black king piece. A wall light to your right will flicker on.

Climb onto the rook piece and leap to the table to your right. Jump and grab the brass handle of the wall light to activate a secret switch. The dresser at the back will open to reveal a hidden room with the key. Grab the key and use it to open the door downstairs.

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How to solve the chess puzzle in Little Nightmares II - Gamepur

The preliminary stage is a single round robin event. From Saturday until Monday, the participants will play five games per day to find out which eight players move onto the knockout stage.The tournament features a $100,000 prize fund, with $30,000 for first place.

The time control is 15 minutes for all moves, with a 10-second increment from move 1. No draw offers are allowed before move 40.

Click to enlarge

The Fashionable Caro-Kann Vol.1 and 2

The Caro Kann is a very tricky opening. Blacks play is based on controlling and fighting for key light squares. It is a line which was very fashionable in late 90s and early 2000s due to the successes of greats like Karpov, Anand, Dreev etc. Recently due to strong engines lot of key developments have been made and some new lines have been introduced, while others have been refuted altogether. I have analyzed the new trends carefully and found some new ideas for Black.

Commentary by Amruta Mokal and Sagar Shah

Click to enlarge

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Opera Euro Rapid - Games and results - Chessbase News

Vladimir Putin, president of the country where chess is considered a sport, not a game, seems to spend every waking hour in front of the 3-D chessboard. In 2015, Nikolai Sokov of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, wrote a convoluted op-ed in The Washington Post headlined How the Ukrainian crisis is like three-dimensional chess. A few years later, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, bemoaning reports of Russian interference in the election, averred that her opponent, Trump, had been playing checkers and Putin is playing three-dimensional chess.

You get the point. This is a lazy, meaningless phrase that conveniently ignores that chess, like life itself, already takes place in three dimensions. Normal chess is exceedingly complex. For instance, IBMs computer Deep Blue had to calculate 200 million positions per second to beat world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Chess doesnt need a fake invocation of extra-dimensionality to be more complicated.

Im not the only one tired of this rhetorical nonsense. In a 2017 interview with Politico, Kasparov said he couldnt envision Trump or Putin playing chess, three-dimensional or any other kind, according to interviewer Edward Isaac-Dovere. Both of them despise playing by the rules, Kasparov said, so in a hypothetical game its who will cheat first.

Noting that cable news references to three-dimensional chess skyrocketed with the onset of the Trump presidency, Vice News decided to ask: What the hell is 3-D chess? Vice unearthed numerous variants of 3-D chess; by far the most famous was the version first played on a 1966 episode of Star Trek. Vice even tracked down former US Chess Federation president Leroy Dubeck, who was hired as a consultant to codify the rules for Star Trek chess.

I have never had a passion then or now for 3-D chess, Dubeck told Vice. I got my check and I put away the Star Trek board and set, where it sat in a closet for decades. He further opined: I dont think you need to be a genius to play 3-D chess, and if youre really smart, youre too smart to play 3-D chess, because you see its a waste.

Not surprisingly, 3-DC, as I call it, spiraled out of Star Trek. Tony Joe Britton told me a little bit about his Facebook group, the Amateur Tri-Dimensional Chess League. He also pointed me to a couple of websites that may or may not launch you into the glamorous world of 3-DC.

At this moment, 3-DC is not necessarily ready for prime time. A few of the rules first appeared in the Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual, a work of fiction that appeared in 1975. Britton has since published his own 395-page Complete and Official Guide to Tri-Dimensional Chess, which you can download from the Facebook site.

Uncertainty about the rules has limited the number of players in the United States to about a dozen, Britton told me. None of them are named Trump, Putin, or Pelosi.

Alex Beams column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @imalexbeamyrnot.

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The politics and passions of three-dimensional chess - The Boston Globe