Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i British Chess Magazine

Can Ding Liren, struggling with poor performances and health issues, defend his World Chess Championship title against rising stars and mounting pressure? When Ding Liren became World Champion in Astana last May, not many people praised his play in the match. More than a year later, the world champion is seldom seen at events, and when he does appear, he performs poorly. Several factors contribute to the question: Will Ding defend his title? With the 17-year-old Gukesh making a convincing appearance in Toronto and winning the title of Challenger, many believe the new world champion will be from India. Another relevant indicator is the interest FIDE has received from bidders in organizing the forthcoming World Championship Match, set to take place from November 20 to December 15. Only three bids…

This year’s edition of Norway Chess took place from 27 May to 7 June. It gathered most of the world’s elite, including the struggling World Champion Ding Liren. The tournament was played as a double round-robin format with a peculiar time control, with the players starting with 120 minutes and not getting any additional time after move 40, except for the increment of 10 seconds per move. With Carlsen’s last classical game dating back to November last year, the two main questions that Norway Chess was supposed to clarify were: is Carlsen still the best player in the world in classical chess and has Ding Liren managed to navigate his crisis? The tournament provided clear answers to both questions: yes to the first (though not with the same margin as…

This year the chess world celebrates the centenary of the formation of The International Chess Federation – FIDE. However, the first idea about forming a world body of chess was discussed 10 years earlier, in 1914, by the German and Russian Chess Federation and, before then, the idea was considered by the British Chess Federation. The outbreak of the First World War laid those ideas to rest. (Ironically, 100 years after, chess again finds itself in the web of problems caused by the games of Great Powers.) It was not until 1924 when Pierre Vincent, the General Secretary of the French Chess Federation, brought the idea of FIDE back to life. On 20th July 1924, in Paris, during the 8th Olympic Games representatives of 15 chess federations came together to…

Bodhana’s journey into chess began during the 2020 lockdown. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, she discovered a passion for the game and started honing her skills. Just 15 months after learning chess, she got noticed by Leonard Barden who described her as "exceptional". In 2022, Bodhana shared her love for the game: "I love to play chess because it helps me to recognise patterns, focus my attention, and is helping me to learn how to strategise and calculate moves in advance. Also, I like the way the chess pieces move on the board, especially the knight." Bodhana’s list of achievements is remarkable for her age. In 2022, she dominated the European Schools age group championships in Rhodes, winning all 24 games and securing three gold medals. She continued…

This game reminds us of two fundamental principles. One is the necessity for learning the basic technical knowledge of chess: rook and pawn endings, king and pawn endings, techniques for winning material, attacking a king that castled, attacking a king that isn’t castled, etc. The other principle is that you must, at the board, have a thinking process routine on every move so you don’t overlook opportunities when they arise - for you or your opponent. These two players are masters. One missed a fatal attacking move that if you gave him as a position and said, "Black to Play and Win," he would have found it. A little research revealed it was even worse than that! However, there is nobody whispering that in your ear during a game. You…

CAIRNS CUP 2024 The Cairns Cup, held from June 13 to 23, marked a milestone in women's chess by offering a $200,000 prize fund, comparable to top-tier open category events like the Sinquefield Cup. However, not everyone was happy about the prizes. The Cairns Cup, which took place from 13 to 23 June, is for women’s chess what the Sinquefield Cup is for the open category. After Norway Chess, which had a women’s event running in parallel to the open category, the Cairns Cup was the second event in close succession where a top-level women’s tournament saw the players compete for similar prizes to the elite events in the open category. The total prize fund at the Cairns Cup was $200,000. This increase in the prize money sparked some debate…

1 Kabe Moen (USA) Mate in 2 Original 2 Sergey I. Tkachenko and Leonid Lyubashevsky (Ukraine/Israel) Mate in 3 Original 3 Udo Marks (Germany) Mate in 7 Original 4 Ljubomir Ugren (Slovenia) Helpmate in 2 – 7 solutions Original Solutions to Problems This month’s originals We are always glad to welcome new names to this column, and it is a pleasure this month to include offerings from Sergey Tkachenko and Udo Marks. In a balanced set of problems, I think (and hope) that the first and last will come in the ‘easy and enjoyable’ category, the middle two requiring more cerebral effort, albeit hopefully retaining the ‘enjoyable’ tag when the solution is either found or else read in the following text. A (fairly) easy starter In Kabe’s problem there are…