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England andthe US both won team golds as a battle for supremacy in world senior chess intensified at Krakow, Poland, last week. The struggle had extra significance due to Americas over-50 squad of former Soviet grandmasters, while Englands teams included a trio who, nearly 40 years ago, had won silver behind USSRgold atthe 1986 and 1988 Olympiads.

The bond among Englands over-65 team went even further back.Four of the five had played together in the England junior Glorney Cup team in 1972, includingTerry Chapman, a consistently outstanding team player, who made the squads best individual score in Krakow of 83 per cent.

John Nunn, the individual world 65+ champion, won in the final round with an elegant 15-move victoryagainst the dubious Ruy Lopez Schliemann.

There was another miniature from Michael Adams, the individual world 50+ champion, who defeated an Icelandic former world title candidate in 19 moves with a tactic reminiscent of the Scholars Mate plan beloved by beginners.

The US took the over-50 gold with 16/18, eight wins and a loss to Italy, who were second on 15 with England third on 14. Thirty-two teams competed. England won the over-65 gold with 16/18, ahead of Israel 15 and France 14. Thirty-three teams took part.

Senior chess in the US is financially rewarding, thanks to the patronage of FT reader Rex Sinquefield, who has made his home city St Louis a global centre for the game. Ninety over-50s competed last weekend for a $13,000 prize fund in the US Senior Open in Illinois, to be followed this week by the invitationUS Senior Championship at St Louis, where the awards total $75,000.

Later this month, the annual British Championships in Hullwill include Senior titlecontests for over-50s and over-65s.There the Senior awards will total just 1,700,with a tournament entryfee of 75. Nevertheless, for the past three years England have dominated over-65 team chess, in which the US have not competed, and held their own at over-50 level, where since 2022 the US team has won two golds and a silver to Englands gold, silver and bronze.

The England vs US competition is likely to become still more intense in 2025, when Gata Kamsky, the 1997 Fide world title challenger, will be eligible for the US over-50 squad, while Matthew Sadler, the leading grandmaster expert on artificial intelligence in chess, who has an inactive Fide rating close to the 2700 elite level,will be a potential England candidate.

Very young players have been in the news recently.Argentinas Faustino Oro is the youngest ever international master at 10, while Bodhana Sivanandan has justbeen selected for the England womens Olympiad team at nine.

Now there is a 10-year-old national champion. Last week, Abdalrahman Sameh Mohamedbecame Egyptian champion, outpacing a mammoth field of 369 players for a winning total of 10.5/11.

Ten wins and one draw, and he should also have won the 11th game, which he drew against the runner-up,who scored 9.5.Mohameds early rounds were against weak opponents, but his overall performancestill clocked in at 2466, international master standard.

The prodigy participated in his first Fide-rated tournament only six months ago, and his coach so far has been his father, who does not play chess. He is now getting help from Egypts grandmaster Bassem Amin, and will travel to Astana, Kazakhstan,next month to represent his country in the Fide World Rapid and Blitz team championships.

Puzzle 2581

Magnus Carlsen vs Richard Rapport, Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, 2018.White to move and win.

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Chess: England and US win gold at world senior teams in echo of Soviet era - Financial Times

This years U.S. Junior Championship, Girls Junior Championship, and Senior Championship all kick off Tuesday, July 16, at the Saint Louis Chess Club (SLCC). Stay tuned to Chess Life Online for round-by-round coverage, featuring annotated games and highlights, of each round. Read on below to see what to expect from this years tournaments.

Image Caption

courtesy SLCC / Austin Fuller

There will be a new U.S. Junior Champion by the end of July, with last years winner GM Abhimanyu Mishra opting not to defend his title. Of this years competitors, only GM Christopher Yoo has previously won the tournament (back in 2022), with several runners-up also joining this veteran group of juniors.

Indeed, eight of this years competitors are at least 16 years of age, and six of those eight have played in at least one previous U.S. Junior Championship. In descending order of rating, GM Andrew Hong (19) looks to improve on consecutive second-place finishes and reigning Denker champion GM Arthur Guo also looks to improve on his share of second from last year.

IM Justin Wang is tied with Yoo and Hong for most previous appearances in this tournament, but has never finished above a tie for sixth place. Rounding out the top half is IM (and GM-Elect) Andy Woodward, one of the two 14-year-olds making his debut this year.

GM Balaji Daggupati may be seeded sixth by rating, but also earned a share of second last year (and a share of fourth in 2022). Qualifying for the first time, on rating, is IM Jason Wang (17), and Jason Liang (16) returns after last years debut.

The final two players are the other 14-year-old IM Brewington Hardaway and the 2023 U.S. Junior Open champion, Nicholas Ladan.

Image Caption

U.S. Girls' Junior champ Alice Lee is interviewed by WGM Begim Tokhirjonova after her victory (courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

The big question for the U.S. Junior Girls Championship is whether anybody can catch last years champ, IM Alice Lee. The 14-year-old is certainly a veteran of this event, oxymoronic as it may sound: this is her fifth consecutive appearance in the invitational. Indeed, only two players are older than her in this years youthful field, as well!

Following the top seed (by rating), is 15-year-old FM Zoey Tang. Tang is appearing in this tournament for the third straight year, and is looking to improve on her share of third place in 2023 and strong showing in the U.S. Cadet Championship earlier this summer.

14-year-olds WIM Iris Mou and FM Rose Atwell follow Tang on the ratings list, and are the only other two returning competitors in this years field. Mou finished in clear fifth place, while Atwell finished tenth and will occupy a much different role as one of the older and higher-rated girls in this years field.

The six newcomers are: Jasmine Su, WFM Yassamin Ehsani, WFM Megan Paragua, WIM Omya Vidyarthi, and wildcard WFM Chloe Gaw. At 19 years old, Ehsani is the oldest competitor in the field by four years! Paragua, in contrast, is the only pre-teen in attendance, clocking in at the age of 11.

Image Caption

The last man anybody wants to see across from the board right now: Melikset Khachiyan (courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

The roster for the U.S. Senior Championship shares more than a bit of overlap with the official delegation for the 2024 FIDE World Senior Team Championship. Four of this years gold medalists are picking up in St. Louis less than a week after their tournament in Krakow concluded.

Among them is the defending U.S. Senior Champion GM Melikset Khachiyan alongside GMs Igor Novikov and Alexander Shabalov. Also in this years field is GM Gregory Kaidanov, who was a part of the 2023 FIDE World Senior Team gold medalist squad, as well as GM Vladimir Akopian, who was planning to travel to Krakow before last-minute logistical issues.

Other familiar names include the return of GM Larry Christiansen, who sat out in 2023, but returns for his fifth championship. If that sounds like a lot, it turns out that GM Joel Benjamin is one of four participants playing in his sixth championship. Considering this event is only in its sixth iteration, thats quite an accomplishment for Benjamin (and Kaidanov, Novikov, and Shabalov).

The three remaining players are the relative newcomers, with only IM Douglas Root (2023) previously appearing in this event. The two debutants are GM Jesse Kraai (the 2023 U.S. Senior Open Champion) and wildcard GM Julio Becerra.

Quick Links:

Follow our coverage of the 2024 National Championships Official Website Replay all games onChess.com:Senior (link coming soon) /Girls' Junior/Junior Replay all games onLichess.org:Senior/Girls' Junior/Junior (links coming soon) Follow live commentary with GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Christian Chirila, and IM Nazi Paikidze on Twitch or YouTube

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2024 U.S. Junior, Girls' Junior, and Senior Championship Preview - uschess.org

ACCENTUS Chess960: Victory for Pragg and Donchenko

Press release by the Biel Chess Festival

The participants of the GMT Masters and Challengers tournaments played the one-day ACCENTUS Chess960 tournament on Saturday. In this variation, the positions of the pieces in the first row are drawn by lot, so the starting position for the players is different from what they are used to. This tournament is not part of the Grandmasters' Triathlon, but its result is still important: in the event of a tie at the end of the GMT Triathlon, the positions in the standings of the ACCENTUS Chess960 serve as a tie-breaker.

Among the players in the GMT-Masters, the top seeded Indian Praggnanandhaa, known as "Pragg", lived up to his role as favourite by winning the Chess960 tournament with 5/7 points.

Among the GMT-Challengers, Alexander Donchenko prevailed in impressive fashion: he remained unbeaten and won with 5 out of 7 points.

Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu

Kick-off to the flagship event of the Biel Chess Festival, the Grandmaster Tournament (GMT)!

This year, it is divided into the GMT-Masters and the GMT-Challengers. The first discipline on the programme was rapid chess. Haik Martirosyan from Armenia proved to be the strongest rapid player, ahead of the Chess960 winner, Praggnanandhaa. Vincent Keymer and L Quang Liem finished level on points with the Indian grandmaster.

As in Chess960, Alexander Donchenko leads the GMT-Challengers ranking. Saleh Salem is the German's closest chaser after the first day of the Triathlon.

An open one-day rapid tournament with 143 participants took place simultaneously in Biel. It was won by Mukhiddin Madaminov from Uzbekistan.

Alexander Donchenko

As in previous years, the Grandmaster Tournament is organised as a triathlon, a mixture of games in different formats: classical, rapid and blitz. In this year's edition, a GMT-Masters and a GMT-Challengers are taking place simultaneously.

In the GMT-Masters, Haik Martirosyan showed that he is a force to be reckoned with in the rapid disciplines. He started the tournament with two wins against Sam Shankland and Vincent Keymer both with the black pieces and was not defeated in the following rounds either. If the Armenian can continue at this level in the slower, classical games, which count more heavily in the scoring, he will be a favourite to take the title. His closest chasers are Praggnanandhaa, Keymer and last year's winner L.

Alexander Donchenko lived up to his role as favourite in the GMT-Challengers: after the rapid games, he leads the tournament table with a one-point lead over Emirati Saleh Salem and stands two points ahead of over Jonas Bjerre and Vaishali Rameshbabu.

Master Class Vol.17 - Boris Spassky

In this video course, experts including Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Karsten Mller and Oliver Reeh, examine the games of Boris Spassky. Let them show you which openings Spassky chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were and much more.

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Biel Festival: Martirosyan and Donchenko the strongest in the rapid - Chess News | ChessBase

One of the quiet joys of being a restaurant pastry chef is that you arrive early, typically before anyone else, probably just an hour or two after the last of the line cooks are done scrubbing and sanitizing the splashbacks and lowboys. The room invariably still smells like degreaser and leftover wine, no matter how immaculate. That is, at least until you pop your first espresso shot, then a third and a fourth. Here you make yourself a kind of force field. You get to take time to enjoy the kind of inspiration that being alone in a giant kitchen full of your tools and favorite recipes might bring.

On those mornings, I would use my early arrival as a chance to thumb through my cookbooks. Some of these books were by renowned pastry chefs, but a majority were castoffs from rummage sales and free bins at the library. They were full of recipes that people once exchanged verbally before eventually typing them up and binding them with plastic spirals. In these volumes, I found inspiration and personal stories and often scrap papers with handwritten recipes tucked among the pages.

Then I would get to work on my own recipes. I would roll out a dozen or two pie shells to pop in a freezer and begin my near-daily dance with buttermilk chess pies, where I would be at the center of a carefully choreographed performance of whisking, filling, baking, rotating, cooling.

While it was a very simple recipe, I had, without knowing it, created quite an art of the thing. Timing was essential: never missing a step, never letting my timer outsmart my sense of smell, never letting a young baker crack the door too soon to check the wiggle. I aimed for nothing less than a particular type of perfection with that pie. I knew it, and it knew me. It wasnt quite right unless the crackle appeared on top, the edges were flaky and tender and the bottom was both crisp and soft.

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The Pie Ill Never Shut Up About - The New York Times

Beating a grandmaster, should you manage it, is obviously a huge milestone for any chess player. These days youngsters are beating grandmasters at younger and younger ages with the current record being just eight years old. At 39 years old though, I had yet to beat a grandmaster in the most prestigious format - OTB Classical Chess. A handful of draws and some wins against International Masters were previously my peak OTB results.

In the 2024 Carolinas Classic, I managed to break through and score a win against GM Julio Sadorra. Not only did I manage to eke out the victory, I managed to do it in fantastic fashion, winning a Sicilian sacrificial assault that is easily one of my best games ever.

I already analyzed the game in @JulesGambit's excellent recap of the event, but here also is my video recap of the game.

GM Sadorra was incredibly kind and genuine after the game, laughing as he extended in his hand in resignation, and chatting about the game, UT Dallas, and our families. I wish him all the best in his coaching career at UT Dallas and am honored to have had the chance to play him.

I was inspired in the game by the game Mikhail Tal vs. Bent Larsen from 1965. I've always enjoyed this game. It's one of my absolute favorite Mikhail Tal games. When deliberating over 14.Nf5!?, I recalled the game and the nature of the sacrifice, finding enough similarities to give me confidence that my sacrifice should work as well.

Thanks to the Charlotte Chess Center for a great event, and I hope to have more chances to compete again soon!

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I Beat A Grandmaster In Classical Chess For The 1st Time! - Chess.com