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While it's something of a fool's game to compare players across different eras, the current Chess world champion Magnus Carlsen has a good case for being the greatest player to ever live. He's been a Grandmaster since 2004, became world champion in 2013 (a title he's successfully defended in three championship matches since), and his peak classical rating of 2882 is the highest in history (his current FIDE rating is 2847). And last week, at the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, he and grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura decided to lean into the memes by playing an opening that has now been dubbed the Double Bongcloud.

There are various explanations for where the Bongcloud nomenclature came from, but it's been around since at least the 90s and seems inextricable from the rise of internet chess. There were rumours that former world champion Bobby Fischer played online in the 90s, and would use this opening to demonstrate his superiority (thanks, Guardian). As that suggests, the joke with the Bongcloud is that it's such a bad move you'd have to be stoned out of your mind to even try it.

The move follows the standard opening of White pushing their king pawn to e4, Black responding with their king pawn to e5, after which White's king moves to e2. Which looks like this:

Let's not get too into the weeds on chess theory but this is as bad as it gets: exposes the king, blocks development of other pieces, prevents castling... it's a stinker. It can be played as a kind of disrespect to one's opponent, but the Bongcloud's sheer daftness in a game where players memorise openings called things like the Sicilian Dragon, the Nimzo-Indian defence or the Ruy Lopez means it's also become a good-natured joke, skewering the chess world's occasional tendency towards pomposity.

Carlsen's opponent in this game, Hikaru Nakamura, is a wonderful player himself and known for humorous chess-based internet shenanigans, including playing the Bongcloud and actually winning in big matches. Which is the necessary context for Carlsen choosing to open against Nakamura with the move, which sees Nakamura instantly crack up, before choosing to respond in-kind. After which neither player can contain their laughter as they shuffle pieces on the way to a draw.

Here we are, in the year of our lord 2021, with two of the greatest players on the planet opening against each other with a Double Bongcloud. Some chess grandees don't take too kindly to such stuff happening in the game of kings: British grandmaster Nigel Short here suggests that "some Twitch generation openings" are "an insult to chess."

To quote the Dude: that's just, like, your opinion man.

Most of the chess grandmasters when I was learning the game were very serious figures indeed, but that was also chess in an era where it was transitioning to the computer age. The game now is almost unrecognisable from the 80s and 90s, and the number of formats and interest that online play has given rise to is surely some sort of golden age. If the price of that is the current generation of grandmasters making a few jokes in minor tournaments, I'm pretty sure chess can weather that.

Certainly going by the reaction of Hungarian grandmaster Peter Leko, who was on commentary duties, and couldn't suppress his own laughter by the end. "Is this called Bongcloud yeah? It was something like of a Bongcloud business," he chortled in disbelief.

As if it needed to be said, this game was a dead rubber: both players had already qualified for the tournament's next stage. When Leko refers to the Berlin stuff he's talking about a high-level play that looks to secure an early draw, i.e. the kind of play one might have expected to see.

Instead, Carlsen and Nakamura laugh, move their kings around a little, and essentially go for a derp draw. They both had a hit of the Bongcloud, laughed their asses off, and peaced out. It's a far cry from Bobby Fischer versus the world but, every once in a while, that's no bad thing.

See the article here:
Greatest chess player of all time goes for the 'Double Bongcloud' opening - PC Gamer

The Central Chess Club in Moscow is probably the most beautiful chess club in the world. The clubrooms are located in a venerable building on Gogolevsky Boulevard, whose history goes back deep into the 19th century. Many Russian noble and merchant families successively inhabited the mansion before it was forcibly transferred to state ownership after the Russian Revolution.

The Central Chess Club in Moscow

The Russian Peoples Commissar for Justice Nikolai Krylonko then made the mansion his headquarters. Since he wasthe motor of the Soviet chess movement, he also brought the royal game to the historic edifice.

The history of the mansion begins in the first half of the 19th century. The property on todays Gogolevsky Boulevard lay fallow after the Muscovites themselves set fire to their city in 1812 to deprive the French of shelter and food. In 1822, Catherine Ivanovna Grekova, wife of the boyar and first lieutenant Alexei Vasilchikov, bought the vacant lot and had two houses built there.

The couples son,Nikolai Vasilychikov, also became an officer in the Russian Army and was known as one of the so-called Decembrists who refused to take the oath to the new Tsar Nicholas I on 25 December 1825 (according to the Gregorian calendar) in St. Petersburg. The Decembristsprotested the social conditions in the autocratic Tsarist Empire, which were characterized by serfdom, arbitrariness and censorship. The uprising was crushed. Nikolai Vasilychikov received a suspended sentence after a short imprisonment and was exiled to a unit in the Caucasus, where he took part in the wars against the Persians and Turks. He was also banned from the Russian capital, St.Petersburg, and the other major Russian cities. In 1830, Nikolai Vasilychikov was discharged from military service with honours and wasallowed to return to Moscow in 1831.

In the early 1830s, the Vasilychikov family sold the estate to Countess Ekaterina Zubova. She was married to a great-grandson of the Russian general Alexander Suverov (1730-1800). Prince and Princess Zubov had the house extensively rebuilt. In 1859/1860 the two houses were finally combined into one building. Prince SergeObolensky lived there for a whilein the 1860s.

In 1865, the estate changed hands again and now belonged to the wealthy, merchant Alexeyev family. A nephew of the new owner was Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938), who made a name for himself as a theatre director and theorist. He was an occasional visitor to the estate. Actually, Stanislavskis surname was also Alexeyev, but he adopted a stage name so as not to jeopardize his familys reputation.

Twenty years later, the manor house became the property of Vladimir von Meck. He was a son of the philanthropist and music lover Nadezhda Filartovna von Meck, who maintained an intensive pen friendship withcomposer Pyotr Tchaikovsky for many years.

Master Class Vol.10: Mikhail Botvinnik

Our experts show, using the games of Botvinnik, how to employ specific openings successfully, which model strategies are present in specific structures, how to find tactical solutions and rules for how to bring endings to a successful conclusion

The von Meck family circa 1875. Baroness Nadezhda Filaretovna is seated on the left and holds the youngest daughter Lyudmila (Milochka) in her arms. The girls father was Alexander Yolshin, seated on the left, secretary to the baronesshusband, engineer Karl von Meck (centre with dark hat). Karl von Meck only learned this much later through the second daughter Alexandra, and subsequently had a heart attack. The von Meck couple had 18 children (between 1848 and 1872), 11 of whom survived. In the centre of the photo, wearing a white hat,sitsVladimir von Meck, one of the Baronesss favourite sons.

The von Meck family was of Baltic German origin and had come to great wealth in Russia asowners of railway lines. The house was owned by the von Mecks for 30 years. In 1890, Vladimir von Meck[pictured] died after a long illness.

In 1895, the house was sold to the Falz-Feinfamily. The Falz-Feinfamily came from Germany and were also successful entrepreneurs in Russia. Under its new owners, the house was equipped with balconies and was electrified. Friedrich Falz-Feinhad bought the Anhalt colony of Askanija-Nova near Kherson, 100 km north of the Crimean island, and maintained a 65,000 HA farm with a huge naturereserve. Before World War I,he kept herds of horses and cattle and owned half a million sheep. He also bred over 400 species of mammals, including antelope, bison, zebra and ostrich, and undertook scientific research. After the revolution, the family members were either expelled or shot.

After only a few years, in 1899, the Falz-Feins sold their Moscow house again. The new owner was Lyubov Simina, sister of Sergei Simin, who founded the famous Simin Opera Theatre in 1903. In the 14 years of its existence, 120 operas were staged in the theatre. In 1917, it was closed as there was no longer an audience for opera after the Russian Revolution. Sergei Simins sister was married to opera singer Nazariy Kapitonov-Raisky, who was also a teacher at the conservatory. During this period, the Siminshouse was an epicentrefor many Russian musicians. Composers Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Taneyev and Sergei Rachmaninoffas well asfamous singer Feodor Chalyapin were frequent guests.

After the Russian Revolution, the house on Prechistensky Boulevard, as the street was then called it was only renamed Gogelvsky Boulevard after Nikolai Gogol in 1924 was nationalized and divided into several smaller flats. The former owners were assigned flat No. 4 as their new home.

In 1923, the PeoplesCommissariat for Justice of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) made the house its headquarters. Deputy Peoples Commissar since 1923 was Nikolai Krylenko. In 1931, he became thePeoples Commissar of Justice. In his capacity as Prosecutor General, he was responsible for countless death sentences.

Krylenko was an enthusiastic and good chess player, and was active as an organizer of tournaments and team competitions. He was the driving force behind the popularization of chess in the Soviet Union. In 1925, he organized the first major international chess tournament in the Soviet Union after the revolution in Moscow. With Nikolai Krylenko, the leadership of the not yet existing Soviet Chess Federation also moved into the mansion on Gogolevsky Boulevard.

Master Class Vol.5: Emanuel Lasker

The name Emanuel Lasker will always be linked with his incredible 27 years reign on the throne of world chess. In 1894, at the age of 25, he had already won the world title from Wilhelm Steinitz and his record number of years on the throne did not end till 1921 when Lasker had to accept the superiority of Jose Raul Capablanca. But not only had the only German world champion so far seen off all challengers for many years, he had also won the greatest tournaments of his age, sometimes with an enormous lead. The fascinating question is, how did he manage that?

Nikolai Krylenko, 1918 | Photo source: Wikipedia, author unknown

Krylenko had brought Emanuel Lasker to Moscow after his emigration from Germany, but as more and more Russian chess players disappeared during the Stalinist purges, Lasker secretly packed his things together with his wife and left Moscow for New York. Krylenko was arrested in 1938 and shot after a show trial.

In the late 1920s, the mansion on Gogolevsky Boulevard was also used for a while to house communists who had been forced to flee their countries. In 1940, the state trust company Dalstroyhad its headquarters here.

In 1956, the house, where chess hadplayed a role since the mid-1920s, was designated as the building of the Central Chess Club at the suggestion of Vasily Smyslov. Smyslov lived near by in a skyscraper on Barrikadnaya and was friends with the chief architect of Moscow, Mikhail Posokhin.

Fischer and Petrosian, playing Blitz in the Central Chess Club, 1958

In 1980, a chess museum wasestablished in the mansion. In addition, the editorial office of the Russian chess magazine 64is located there.

The chess museum

In the times of the Soviet Union and even afterwards, the rooms of the Central Chess Club were not particularly well maintained. For a long time, the building gave a somewhat run-down visual impression, typical of many old buildings in communist Russia. During a renovationin 1980, more was destroyed than preserved. In 2014, however, the building was restored in a historically correct and elaborate manner, and now it shines in its old splendour.

The large roomoften used as a tournament hall| Photo: admagazin.ru

The library| Photo: Admagazin.ru

After the fall of communism, there were several attempts by investors to acquire the house to set up expensive offices or flats at theexquisite location in Moscow. But the Muscovitechess enthusiasts resisted all offers, and when necessary, an oligarch with an affinity for chess stepped in to pay dues and taxes which the club could not pay.

The Russian Chess Federation has also been using the magnificent rooms of the Central Chess Club for many years now for tournaments, ceremonial receptions and other major events.

Master Class Vol.6: Anatoly Karpov

On this DVD a team of experts looks closely at the secrets of Karpov's games. In more than 7 hours of video, the authors examine four essential aspects of Karpov's superb play.

The Moscow Central Chess Club has now built its own website, which allows chess fanstovisit the club virtually.

Originally posted here:
The most beautiful chess club in the world - Chessbase News

Cameron Crawford thought he had seen it before. There was the puzzle scare in March 2020. When the weather got better, he ran out of kites. Then there was a Pokemon card gold rush that left his shelves empty.

But he never wouldve guessed what came next.

Starting in late October, phone call after phone call came in with the same question at Crawfords Colorado Springs store, Petries Family Games. People wanted to know about chess sets. Did they have any left?

It was just kind of bizarre, Crawford said. There are parts of the toy and game industry that people dont care about as much. Chess is one of those.

A week later, Petries was sold out of everything chess-related. Its the same story at local stores such as Its Your Move and Gamers Haven. This time, store owners couldnt blame the surge in sales solely on the coronavirus pandemic.

We started to figure out, Oh yeah, theres that show, said Mike Lindhal, who works at Gamers Haven. We were totally not prepared for The Queens Gambit.

The Netflix series, which debuted on Oct. 23, has been pinpointed as the reason for the unlikely rise in popularity of chess.

Sales of the classic game have skyrocketed internationally, according to an NPR interview with Mary Higbe, director of marketing at game distributor GoliathGames.

Our October sales for chess were up 178% over the same period last year, she told NPR. Thats a big increase. But something else unexpected happened at the end of the month. Now, she says, our chess sales are up 1,048%.

Since then, Crawford says its been impossible to keep chess sets in stock.

This is crazy because its still going strong, he said.

That means good business for someone like Brad Borkowski, who has built custom chess boards since 2013. The construction teacher at Manitou Springs School District started the side hustle, called Colorado Woodworker, to make extra money.

While chess boards have been hard to find at stores or online, Borkowski has worked overtime from his Colorado Springs home to fill orders from around the world.

He noticed a spike in orders in April, shortly after the pandemic started. Then, the Queens Gambit effect found him.

In November and December, my business blew up, Borkowski said, estimating his sales increased by 1,000%.

A sibling tipped him off about the series, which was the top-watched show on Netflix for several weeks.

I was like, I cant really watch it. Im kind of busy right now, Borkowski says.

Orders kept relentlessly coming in through his Etsy shop, which lists boards starting at around $75. His priciest board sold for $600.

Eventually, Borkowski had to call in backup. His parents offered to visit from Iowa for a weekend to help out. They ended up staying a month.

Im lucky to have a dad who knows woodworking pretty well, Borkowski said of his father, a retired shop teacher who passed on the trade to his son.

It was Borkowskis dad, too, who suggested the idea of custom chess boards.

He thought it would be a good niche to get into, he said.

And Dad was right.

Chess is such a personal thing to so many people, Borkowski said. They dont want something that was made in a factory. They want to make it their own.

During a break around Christmas, Borkowski finally found time to watch The Queens Gambit during evenings after making chess boards all day. He finally got it.

Its almost like watching Rocky, he said. You watch that and it makes you want to go out and learn boxing.

And chess easily fits into quarantine life.

People have been stuck at home for so long, Borkowski said. You watch a show like that and you say, Thats something I can do.

Originally posted here:
Chess board maker in Colorado wins big thanks to popularity of Netflix show - OutThere Colorado

Guildford are unbeaten in Britains national league, the 4NCL, for over eight years, scoring 81 wins and two draws and dominating opponents. This week, though, the juggernaut halted when the Surreyclub was defeated by the continental elite in the online European Club Cup.

The 91 competing teams included numerous high-class squads whomade it the strongest ever entry for this long established event. Teams of four, with reserves, played using a fast time limit of half-hour games.

Guildfords quintet, led by England No1 Michael Adams, are all experienced grandmasters, and were effectively the England national team plus a Bulgarian reserve.

Deizisau were the surprise winners among10 finalists, scoring 14/18. Sponsored by Grenke Bank, the Stuttgart teams star performer was Vincent Keymer, 16. French and Russian clubs were close behind, with Guildford (+3=2-4) seventh.

Andrey Episenko, 19, who beat world champion Carlsen at Wijk in January, sacrificed rook and knight en route to a 21-move mating attack againstFrances No2.After Black missed a chance to stay level by 14...Nf6, itwas like watching the legendary Mikhail Tal reincarnated.

Major over the board tournaments in Norway and Sweden have recently been postponed due to the pandemic, so there will be anxiousmoments before the world title Candidates, abandoned at half-way, can resume in Ekaterinburg on 19 April.

2413

Fabiano Caruana v Magnus Carlsen, Isle of Man 2017. Black to move. How did Norways world No 1 persuade the US world 2 to resign?

Click here for solution

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Chess: Guildford, unbeaten for eight years, find the strongest ever Eurocup a bridge too far - Financial Times

It was a great weekend for American collegiate chess, and an even better one for the state of Missouri: two of its schools claimed both gold and silver medals in FIDEs first World University Online Blitz and Rapid Championships.

On Saturday, March 27, the University of Missouri won the gold medal in World University Team Online Blitz Cup, with Saint Louis University claiming silver. The next day, the two schools swapped places in the standings for the Team Rapid Cup event, with SLU earning the gold medal and Mizzou finishing second. In both events, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley placed third.

As it turned out, the United States has the strongest chess universities in the world right now, said"> GM Bartek Macieja, coach for UT-RGV who helped FIDE organize the collegiate championships. It wasnt obvious to me I expected some Russian schools or some Chinese universities to do very well in this event, but no. Three of them were from the United States.

The World University Online Team Cup events were the culmination of several world collegiate championship events organized by FIDE and the UT-RGV throughout the month of March. Earlier in the month, World University Online Championship events were held for individuals in both Blitz and Rapid time controls. According to the results of those individual championships, the four best team scores qualified for the Cup events, which were played as knockout duels of two matches each, using four boards.

Team members, by school and event were:

University of Missouri

Saint Louis University

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

The three American universities also secured an assortment of individual medals. In the individual Blitz Championship, Mizzous Antipov earned the bronze medal in the Open section, while Badelka placed second in the womens section, and UT-RGV's Sliwicka in third.

In the Individual Rapid Championship, Mizzous Antipov and Oparin won silver and bronze medals in the open section, while Badelka brought home the bronze in the womens section.

Additionally, WIM Julia Antolak from UT-RGV earned the gold medal and became the 2021 World University Online Rapid Womens Champion. The event, however, has since become the focus of significant controversy. The individual Womens Rapid final was played Thursday, March 25 and initially won by IM Iulija Osmak, though by the weekend her title as womens champion was revoked.

Osmak, a 23-year-old Ukrainian Womens Champion playing for UT-RGV, was one of 20 players flagged by FIDEs Fair Play Panel and disqualified from the Rapid Championships. After initially scoring 4.5/5 in Thursdays finals, each of her games were reversed to losses by forfeit, and a half point was awarded to each of her opponents.

FIDEs decision to disqualify for a suspected fair play violation was final, and Osmak was not allowed an appeal, review or any other challenge. Further muddying the waters of an immediately difficult situation, FIDE did not claim that the suspected fair play violation is proof of actual cheating or an admission of guilt by the disqualified player. You may view FIDEs Fair Play report here.

Though FIDEs decision was abrupt and without recourse, it has undoubtedly created passionate debate throughout the internet chess world. For a thorough dissection of FIDEs decision and the surrounding fallout, you may view Chess.com journalist Peter Doggers report here.

For a full list of results, video interviews and description from each of FIDEs 2021 World University Online Chess Championship events, please visit the official website.

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Mizzou, SLU win World University Online Team Championships - uschess.org