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10/4/2020 Two days ago, October 2, it was Jon Speelmans 64th birthday. Given that 64 is a canonical number for chess players, our columnist used this chance to remind us that every single square of the chessboard may be important. In order to illustrate his point, he goes on to show a game in which, as Black, he placed his knights on both h1 and a8 during a single game. Happy birthday, Jon! And many thanks for your ever-ingenious columns! | Pictured: Speelman usin PressTel Chessbox to play long distance chess | Source: British Chess News

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Im writing this on Friday, October 2nd which, a fond hope, is International Day of Non-Violence after Gandhis birth on October 2nd 1869, and coincidentally (there are lots of worse people to share a birthday with) my own. Mercifully it isnt a round one, at least for a pentadactyl, though if our lords and silicon masters eventually attain real consciousness, they will presumably consider 0x40to be fairly round and their more simple-minded colleagues will deem 1000000 to be very much so...

Im not enormously delighted to be 64, but at least it is a canonical number for a chess player and does provide a fairly plausible segue to the idea that every single square of the chess board may be important (or to misquote Monty Python: Every square is sacred).

Theres a game I sometimes show people in which as Black I put knights on both h1 and later a8,and it appears at the end. (I think it may have appeared here before but not for a good while?). This set me thinking about how unusual it is for knights to appear on multiple corners of the board in the same game, and I did a fairly simple-minded search for white knights on a1 and h1, starting by making a database of games in Megabase in which a white knight at some stage appeared on a1 there were a little over 17,000 of these and thensearching that database for ones in which a knight also appeared on h1.

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These are pretty rareand, of the nearly 6.5 million games in my Megabase,I found 39.They included three in which people (kids?) had agreed a draw and then moved their horses around the board for a longer or shorter time: one of these masterpiecesended in the initial position (admittedly after rooks had also moved, so in no-castling chess) after Blacks 54th move. There were also a few instances of Chess960, but still over 30 real games.

After a quick look at these, I reached a tentative conclusion that knights on the rim really are dim or at least that the people who had created this very aesthetic picture were making a minus score. To my surprise I also found that of these 30 or so games, eight (!) featured white knights on a1 and h1 at the same time.

Given a chance to create such an aesthetic picture, Id certainly do so myself if the second knight move to the corner was decent, but I dont think that aesthetics played any part in most of these, and you can judge for yourselves.

I realize that foolish horses in the corner may not be to everybodys taste so please dokeep on sending in your Agonizing and Ecstatic games and /or ideas for future columns, more rooted in the nitty-gritty of battle.Readers whose games or ideas are used will win a 3-month premium membership.

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.1 and 2

These DVDs are about Understanding Middlegame Strategies. In the first DVD dynamic decisions involving pawns are discussed. The second DVD deals with decision making process concerning practical play.

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Sacred squares and foolish horses - Chessbase News

Start position:

The St Louis Chess Club in the US held its annual Chess 9LX 2020 Tournament as an online competition owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of grandmaster quality, the 9LX tournament was one of the foremost for 2020. Current world champion Magnus Carlsen was a participant, as was a previous world champion, the inimitable Garry Kasparov. The challenger for the last world championship title match Fabiano Caruana was there. So were six leading grandmasters: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So (last years Random chess champion), Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, and Peter Svidler.

Alireza Firouzja, the worlds best junior, completed the ten participants of the round robin competition. It was played on the popular site Lichess and was contested according to the rules of Chess 960 at rapid time controls (20+10).

In Chess 960 or Random Chess, the pieces on the chess board are placed differently to the usual set-up. This new organization gives the game a different flavour. Take a look at the position of the pieces in the diagram, which is referred to as Start Position 476. It means that any chess game adopting the position of the pieces on the chess board would be known as Chess 960/476.

Before the start of each game in a Chess 960 tournament, the pieces are rearranged and carry different numbers. Random Chess or Chess 960 is the creation of world champion Bobby Fischer, as far as I am aware. He invented this method to take grandmasters out of book or out of theory and compel them to be more creative. During his lifetime, Fischers random chess never caught on. It is therefore encouraging that the St Louis Chess Clubis promoting the American chess geniuss idea. Fischers principal argument was it would lessen grandmasters dependence on known theory and make draws more infrequent.

Carlsen and So tied for first in the Chess 9LX Tournament. They shared the first prize. American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was third.

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Carlsen and So tie in Chess 9LX tournament - Stabroek News

The remaining seven rounds of the FIDE flagship event the Candidates are facing a fresh crisis as Chinese Star Wang Hao is considering withdrawing from the event scheduled to resume November 1 in Yekaterinburg, Russia.The 31-year-old GM said the tournament should be moved from Russia because the host country is not safe and accused FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich of rudeness towards him.

In September FIDE announced that the Candidateswill resume with the 8th round on November 1st in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The event that decides Magnus Carlsen's challenger for the World Championship title was halted abruptly on March 26th when only 7 rounds had been played.

On Monday, Wang Hao published e-mails he has had with FIDE lawyer Alexandr Martynov where he has made it clear that he is not a fan of the idea of holding the event in Russia. He has not yet decided whether he will participate.

Russia, like most of Europe and many other countries, is experiencing a spike in new Covid-19 cases and broke 10,000 new cases on October 4th, its highest number since May 15.

According to screenshots published on his private Facebook account, seen by chess24, FIDE has offered Hao a private flight, directly from Beijing to Yekaterinburg and is also willing to cover a business-class flight and VIP transfer in Germany, in case he needs a stopover. He also turned down offers to play in Tbilisi, FIDE's reserve venue, as he does not consider airports in Europe safe.

The World no. 12 is concerned with the venue in Russia. chess24 reached out to Wang Hao, who commented:

We are still discussing. But I was very disappointed and angry with the attitude of FIDE and the rudeness of the president.

The response comes after FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich intervened in the conversation with the following:

Wang Hao followed up:

I think that its risky to have the tournament this November. If FIDE wants to resume the tournament in November, the tournament cannot be held in some place which is not safe like Russia.And somewhere is easy for players to go, to have a direct flight, make sure less possibility of the infection.Also, players need to be compensated if they get infected during the way or in the tournament place, because we are taking risks.

After Round 7, Wang Hao finds himself one point behind the leaders Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who scored 4.5.

The Chinese player, who qualified by winning the 2019 FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, had already expressed safety fears prior to the event.

He was not alone. Azerbaijan Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov also predicted big problems and went one step further by withdrawing before the tournament.

Radjabov was replaced by GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and the tournament started as scheduled. The 33-year-old has since said he wants his place back and was reportedly considering legal options.

Asked whether dropping out of the event is an option, the Chinese star says:

I am not sure about it. It depends on how the discussion goes.

According to the Regulations of the FIDE Candidates, Wang Hao will be considered to have lost his remaining games:

5. 3. If a player withdraws after completing 50% or more of the games, the rest of his games are lost by default. In case a player completes less than 50%, all his results are annulled.

FIDE confirms to chess24 that discussions with Wang Hao are ongoing. General Director Emil Sutovsky made the following response:

FIDE makes a huge work trying to secure safest and at the same time most comfortable environment for players. Objectively, it is not easy - and we see that even in Stavanger foreign players had to quarantine for 10 days. We are going to resolve it without obliging players to quarantine, and we also are in constant touch with every one of them discussing every detail. It is a monumental task, but we realize how important it is and make every effort and beyond that.

Leon Watson contributed to this report for chess24.

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Wang Hao brands FIDE president 'rude' and threatens to pull out of Candidates - chess24

9/29/2020 From October 5 to October 16, Stavanger will again host the the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. It is a double-round-robin with six players, who play live(!) against each other. Top seeds are Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alireza Firouzja and Aryan Tari complete the field.

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The field of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament was announced last week. Anish Giri was supposed to play, but in view of rising corona infection rates the Dutchman prefers to stay at home. He is replaced by the young Polish grandmaster Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Alireza Firouzja, currently the world's best junior, also gets a chance to prove himself in this top event. For both it is their first Altibox Norway Tournament.

Top seed, World Champion and clear favourite: Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Norway Chess

Magnus Carlsen (Norway)Fabiano Caruana (USA)Levon Aronian (Armenia)Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland)Alireza Firouzja (FIDE)ArianTari (Norway)

The tournament starts with the first round on October 5, and ends on October 16. October 9, and October 14, are rest-days.

In view of the Covid 19 pandemic, the organisers in Stavanger are taking all the necessary measures to ensure that the tournament is safe for all concerned.

Tournament page...

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Altibox Norway Chess 2020: Live and over-the-board! - Chessbase News

As a global pandemic continues to determine a new normal, tens of thousands of viewers have been tuning in to watch people play chess on a livestreaming website called Twitch.tv. An American chess grandmaster, Hikaru Nakamura, along with a number of celebrities of the video game world, is leading a renaissance in the ancient game.

While viewers eagerly await Nakamuras streams to begin, they are treated to a slideshow of memes involving Nakamuras face superimposed into scenes from pop culture. First a reference to a well-known Japanese animation, next a famous upside-down kiss with Spiderman and finally, Nakamuras characteristic grin is edited onto the Mona Lisa herself.

From Aug. 21 to Sept. 6, Twitch and Chess.com are hosting a tournament, called Pogchamps, where some of the most popular gaming streamers in the world compete in a chess tournament with US$50,000 on the line.

The current renaissance in chess is happening at the confluence of livestreaming technology, video game culture and one grandmasters exceptional skills as both a chess player and entertainer. What is emerging is an unexpectedly good pairing between chess and a digital generation that is showing how influential gamers can be.

The game of kings is more popular than ever, with over 605 million players worldwide, and now, memes are involved.

Twitch.tv is a live-video streaming website that was started in 2011 as a platform for users to watch other people play video games. In recent years, Twitch has grown to become the cultural hub of the gaming community. It now hosts tens of thousands of creators who broadcast live to a global audience of around 17.5 million viewers a day.

Since 2015, chess viewership has experienced exponential growth on Twitch. Then, a mere 59 people were watching chess streams at any given time. Today, that number averages 4,313. At the time of writing this, viewers have consumed close to 38 million hours of chess in 2020 alone.

At the helm of this explosion is Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura is a five-time U.S. chess champion and a top 10 ranked chess player in the world.

In addition to his traditional competitive career, in 2015, Nakamura began streaming chess on Twitch. At first, he was relatively unnoticed, but in 2019, when he started dedicating upwards of 30 hours per week to streaming, Nakamura became known as GMHikaru to his growing fanbase online. In 2020, those fans have already watched an astonishing 9.95 million hours of Nakamuras channel. At times, over 45,000 viewers have watched a single game.

Why is this flood of interest in chess happening now?

Nakamura is a great player and a jovial person, but there are many thousands of modern, high-production video games being played by charismatic and skilled streamers on Twitch. Viewers on Twitch have discovered a profound interest in learning the fundamental mechanics of a board game from the sixth century.

Nakamura has attracted the interest of other massively popular streamers with millions of followers xQc, forsen, Nymm and the late Reckful, to name a few. These collaborations with celebrities of the gaming world have been a huge boost to chesss popularity as Nakamura plays games against these streamers while blindfolded or foregoing the use of the queen. These games illustrate for the new fans and top streamers the skills, cunning and joy that are rapidly coming to be associated with chess. Hikaru is literally the discipline in action, comments Devin Nash, a popular Twitch analyst.

This popularity culminated in a chess tournament called Pogchamps. In June, 16 of Twitchs top streamers played in a round robin chess tournament after being coached by a number of world-class chess players, including Nakamura. The event was so popular with both the streamers and fans at one point more than 150,000 people were watching that a second Pogchamps was immediately scheduled. The second tournament is running through September 6 and features streamers like xQc and even Hafthor Julius Bjornsson the actor who played The Mountain in Game of Thrones.

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There are a few pieces involved in this world of online chess: the streaming technology of Twitch, Nakamura, the online gaming community and the game of chess itself. Just as in the board game, no single piece in this evolving landscape of chess is alone driving the popularity. As Nakamura, gamers and the chess world collide, each piece is changing the others.

My research focuses on understanding the economic and cultural significance of video game communities. This year has proven what many who study video games have long claimed: that online gaming is significant far beyond the confines of video games. Today, music artists are shaking the foundations of their industry by migrating onto Twitch to great success. Doctors and medical researchers as well are strengthening their ties with gaming and gamers: for instance, raising $3.1 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation in collaboration with Twitch in early 2020.

Beyond these headlines, I focus specifically on how streamers like Nakamura create micro-communities with their own cultural norms and spheres of influence. The strong human connections that develop in these spaces extend beyond the digital world. In the case of Nakamura and chess, the results are new ways of playing chess, a new meme-filled language surrounding chess and, as gamers continue to watch chess in huge numbers, an illustration of how gamers connect with each other and parts of the offline world in meaningful ways.

But not everyone is accepting of this cultural shift. Twitch viewers are mostly males in their early 20s and are, in general, a notoriously irreverent bunch. This is partly how they gain the reputation as disillusioned and dysfunctional.

As chess has grown in this community, an established elite guided by a few longtime chess players and commentators see the trend as detrimental to a once noble contest.

Ben Finegold, a prominent U.S. grandmaster, refers to the streamers with whom Nakamura has collaborated as negative talent. Unlike a normal person who has talent in chess, says Finegold, users on Twitch ought to be ignored lest they diminish the good name of a traditional chess community.

Some at the head of traditional chess, however, disagree. David Llada, the chief marketing and communications officer for the International Chess Federation, acknowledges the damage of insular thinking: Our main sin is that chess people tend not to think outside the chess board. They dont pay enough attention to the world around them.

Whatever the old guard of chess believes, this ancient game has found a new, passionate and receptive audience. A digital generation on Twitch has built bridges between worlds not only for chess but for the musical and medical worlds as well. The memes are here to stay. What is next for online gaming and the game of kings remains to be seen, but neither will likely be the same.

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Chess is taking over the online video game world and both are changing from this unlikely pairing - The Conversation US