Just as GM Teimour Radjabov withdrew from the Candidates Tournament, due to the uncertainty caused by the Coronavirus, you may be considering skipping your next in-person chess tournament. In addition to getting your chess-fix with sessions on Play Chess, you could become a chess streamer, coach, or writer.

Teaching online chess lessons is easier than ever, with these tips from Albert Silver. Having a chess title helps a streamer or a coach build clientele.

Whether or not you are a titled player, you can write about chess. Chess outlets are looking for writers; some of them pay for articles. For example, Chess Life Kids pays $75 per page. Non-titled children writing for that magazine get paid at the same rate as adults and titled players.

Moreover, manychildrenandadultsdream of becoming writers. Forbooks, non-fiction outsells fiction. Chess writing can be non-fiction or fiction, but non-fiction is much more common. This article provides four tipsFind Topics, Query, Persistence, and Reader Feedbackfor writing.

Chess streaming is a way tomake money, if you develop a large following such as that enjoyed by Woman FIDE Master AlexandraBotez

Covering chess tournaments their winners, best games, anecdotes is the bread-and-butter of chess websites and magazines. But if fear of the Coronavirus keeps you at home, interviewing chess players can be done via email, text, chat, or phone. Lets suppose you are aware of a junior player who has just reached a rating milestone. If you have the permission of that prodigys parents, you could interview that prodigy.

One recent example from ChessBase is an articleabout D. Gukesh by Sagar Shah. Shah is an International Master. Therefore, Shah could have analyzed all the chess games himself, but he had Gukesh annotate some. If you are not a strong chess player, you can ask your interviewee to annotate all the chess games in your article. In any case, some articles, like this one, dont include chess games or positions.

The cover story for the March 2020 issue of Chess Life was written by Menachem Weber, who has journalistic credentials but no US Chess rating. 47 minutes into this podcast about Webers story, US Chess Senior Director of Strategic Communication Dan Lucas stated(47 minutes and 5 seconds) in:

To any aspiring journalists who want to specialize in chess writingweve hired many a high school student who are writing for publication for the very first timeIf youve got talent, and ability, and an interesting story to tell, please pitch it to us and you can find the contact information at our website on uschess.org.

My first emailed query to ChessBase was 784 words long. I introduced myself and asked to review Danny Gormallys book. I outlined what I thought would be interestingin that book, from an excerpt available at its publishers website. I also referred to Gormallys history by linking to ChessBase articles about him. Once I got the assignment, which the ChessBase editor modified to my interviewing Gormally rather than reviewing his book, I read Gormallys book and interviewed him by email. Five takeaways:

Queries are often rejected. In 2010, when Dan Lucas was editor of Chess Life, I wrote the following email to him after he had accepted my query to review the latest book by Grandmaster Andrew Soltis.

As I wrote you the Soltis query (my third one to you in the last couple days), I had two thoughts in mind:

1) IfDansays yes to this query, then its third times a charm.

2) IfDansays no, then threestrikesyoure out. (Though I would have kept trying with more queries!)

The two rejections referred to above had come after Id already written several articles for Chess Life. Even after working with an editor, there are no guarantees that your next query to that editor will be successful. Be persistent, dont give up, and hope that the editor doesnt think you are a pest.

One way to build your clips, and to get appreciation rather than rejection, is to write for free. In the US, many states and regions need written content for magazines and websites. Texas Knights (where I have a book review column) doesnt pay columnists. However, Texas Knights editor Louis A. Reed Jr. promotes each writers work and liberally hands out compliments. On the other hand, sometimes writing at the state level pays. Texas Chess Association pays the Texas Knights editor and also pays for social media posts.

When I watch television, listen to chess podcasts, view YouTube or Twitch chess broadcasts, or peruse Facebook all good hobbies for avoiding the Coronavirus I stay alert for possible chess stories. I watched The Oprah Winfrey Show for years and finally, near the end of its run, got a chess story out of it.

Writing questions and emailing them to podcast@uschess.org is a great way to win $50 in USCF Sales merchandise. I have won best question three times, and each of my three winning questions have been less than 25 words long. If more people had emailed questions to that podcast, I think I would have only won once. So, write a question!

YouTube and Twitch broadcasts of chess tournaments can be sources for chess writing ideas. The Mechanics Institute Chess Clubs broadcasts have inspired three of my articles including this one for ChessBase.

On Facebook, the Eade Foundation posted about its new $1000 award for Chess Excellence, which could be turned into a query that answers What monetary awards are available for young chess players? and then lists the Arthur Award (named after Jim Eades father, Arthur Eade) along with more famous awards, such as the Frank P. Samford, Jr. Fellowship.

Comments on past articles may inspire new writing. As I wrote at the end of this article about Jennifer Yus result in the U.S. Junior Championship, Thanks to chess fan Leavenfish for hiscomment, which motivated me to write this article.I enjoy and learn from the comments on my articles; part of the fun of being published is readers feedback (hint, hint).

The Charles Bukowski poem so you want to be a writer? sets a high bar for the passion needed to become a great writer, as Bukowski was. My level of passion is lower, and I am not a great writer. For me, writing, editing, and proofreading is fun; thanks to ChessBase and its readers for this outlet.ChessBase encourages freelance writers to submit queries. Email editor[at]chessbase.com.

See the rest here:

So you want to be a (chess) writer? - Chessbase News

Lourdes High School juniors Yiping Wang and Peizhan Wang are not brothers, Wang being as common a last name in China as Smith or Johnson is in the U.S.

Yet even if they had different last names, it would be easy to think of them as a tandem, not only because of their nativeness to China but by the way they play chess.

And last weekend, they proved how good they are, with Yiping taking second place and Peizhen third place in the 9th- through 12th-grade under 1200 division at the Minnesota State Chess Association Tournament.

Yiping, 16, is from Shandong Province. Peizhen, 17, is from Shanghai. From the time the two landed in Rochester three years ago, chess became their calling card, a language to connect to their new community first at Kellogg Middle School and later at Lourdes.

Both came to Rochester as exchange students, accompanied by parents who were researchers at Mayo Clinic. They now live with host families after their parents returned to China.

"Chess is the way that connects them with the Lourdes community and the other Lourdes students," said Lourdes chess coach Dennis Mays. "You can see them joking and having fun with the students. That's really satisfying."

Their performances led the Lourdes chess team, which went undefeated this year, to a second-place finish at the state championship with 16.5 points. Mayo High School came in fourth with 15.5 points, followed by John Marshall's 8th place in the dozen-team division.

Each student played six games during the two-day tournament. A player wins a point for a victory and a half point for a draw, with 6 points being the maximum number a player can earn.

Home-schooled junior Michael Kern finished 6th overall in the top-tier K-12 Championship division, and Mayo senior Henry Lange finished 9th.

Kellogg Middle School finished in fourth place, led by 8th-grader Ethan Zhang, who finished 8th.

Stephen Jones of St. Francis placed 19th in the K-8 Championship and Isaac Ann of Schaeffer Academy finished 11th.

Yiping and Peizhen are friends and chess rivals. Although Yiping tied for first in his category and was awarded a second-place trophy by virtue of a tie-breaker, Yiping acknowledges that Peizhen is "slightly better."

"He has slightly more wins," Yiping said.

"Slightly?" Peizhen said.

"I'd say slightly," Yiping said.

Peizhen was still kicking himself over how one game he should have won ended. His opponent was down to a king, while Peizhen had his king, rook and several pawns. One move away from winning the game, Peizhen moved his rook to "another square" and the game ended in a tie. He ended with four wins and two ties.

"I was definitely winning," Peizhen said. "But probably, it's too late and too tired."

Yiping said he first began playing chess in China as a form of relaxation and reprieve from his homework. Then he stopped. At Kellogg, his passion in chess were reignited, thanks to a "fantastic music teacher" who also loved the game. He soon found himself in an "awkward situation." He was beating his teacher, but "I didn't finish."

In one game, he was a move away from checkmating his teacher. Instead, Yiping called the game a draw and extended his hand in handshake. Instead the teacher gave him $10 in acknowledgement that Yiping had won.

Thirty-seven Rochester students participated in the state tournament. For Mays, the number and the skill displayed by the players at the tournament reflected how much a culture of chess has taken root and grown in Rochester.

The Rochester teams had their own meeting room at the tournament, and in between games, coaches went over the games with students, "discussing what they did well and what they thought they could improve on."

Peizhen said he can't imagine a time when he won't be playing chess.

"People need to to keep their bodies healthy," he said. "Chess is exercise for the brain. It keeps your brain active."

Original post:

Chess mates: Wang and Wang rise to the top at state tournament - PostBulletin.com

Many of our tournament organizers are facing tough decisions due to the general guidance from authoritative sources to avoid large gatherings because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic. If there is a tournament you were planning to play in, you should first make sure it is still being held before you make a potentially unnecessary trip, up to and including the day of the event.

We are trying to make this process as easy as possible for our members by listing cancellations/postponements in the Upcoming Tournaments area of our website located at:

http://www.uschess.org/tlas/upcoming.php

Click here for an example of what you might see if you search for all tournaments in Texas (Note: this is a sample image and not a live update of current Texas events).

We are updating this area immediately upon receiving updates from our organizers. Of course, you can always use the contact information given in an individual Tournament Life Announcement (TLA) as well, which often have an email, phone number, and sometimes an organizers website.

We have taken other steps as well, including:

We have suspended certain rules: https://new.uschess.org/news/us-chess-rules-suspensions-due-covid-19/ We have made it free for organizers for organizers to use our email blast system to notify potential participants if they cancel a previously advertised TLA by simply contacting our TLA department at [emailprotected]. We have cancelled the National High School (K-12) Championship

We appreciate your patience and continued support of US Chess as we all work together to meet this challenge. We want our members to not only stay well but be informed every step of the way as it relates to US Chess. Please continue to check http://www.uschess.org regularly for other updates.

See the original post here:

US Chess Affiliate Tournaments and COVID-19 - uschess.org

Students from theSouth Carolina Governors School for Science & Mathematics (GSSM) won the state championship at the South Carolina Chess Associations State Scholastic Chess Tournament in Greenville on February 29, 2020.

HARTSVILLE Seven students from the South Carolina Governors School for Science & Mathematics (GSSM) won the state championship at the South Carolina Chess Associations State Scholastic Chess Tournament in Greenville on February 29, 2020.

One hundred eighty-nine young future Masters and their families came together at University in Greenville to hunt Kings, double Rooks, promote many pawns, and to generally get their passant en.

The field of 36 high-school players contested the five-round tournament. GSSMs winning score of 12.0 surpassed longtime rival D. W. Daniel High School, who finished second with 11.5.

This years chess team consisted of Katherine Brennan of Charleston county, Anavami Isa of Orangeburg county, Anish Kanthamneni of York county, Connor Miles of Kershaw county, Breckin Muzzy of Dorchester county, Patricio Ortiz of Greenville county, and Theo Pedapelu of Orangeburg county.

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The winning score was based on the top four combined scores of the GSSM Chess Team.

I am proud of our students for both their skill and their good sportsmanship, whatever the outcome, said Dr. Clyde Smith, GSSM retired physics instructor and advisor of the Chess Team. Daniel High has been a state chess power for many years now.

This competition marked the 15th time GSSM has won the State Scholastic Chess Tournament since 1993.

Read more from the original source:

GSSM students win state chess tourney - The Times and Democrat

The tour operator GO-Makkahhas set up a well worth goal of putting Tunisia firmly on the chess map, while at the same time bringing up to the shore significant tourist spots that this beautiful country abounds with. Last year, the 1st GO-Makkah tournament was held in Sousse, the Tunisian pearl on the Mediterranean Coast, also famous in connection to chess for the 1967 Interzonal, which was a first FIDE tournament to take place in Africa.

The second edition, fromFebruary15th to24th 2020, took place at yet another attractive tourist spot, the small island of Djerba,in the south of Tunisia.Rich with natural wonders and legends, it's known as "the Island of Dreams". It is where Homer's Odysseus stopped over on his odyssey and met its inhabitants, the lotus-eaters.

The organizers pride themselves for creating the biggest chess festival in Africaand aim for it to become a regular yearly event. Judging by the success of the second edition, GO-Makkahs Director, Mr Chokri Saidi has proven that he is well-placed as a dedicated organizer, sponsor and promoter.

The largest island of North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabs,off the coast of Tunisia

(L-R) The Tunisian Minister of Tourism Mr. Ren Trabelsi, Judit Polgar and the organizer, Chokri Saidi

This passionately organized tournament paid attention to every detail and was marked by a professional, aesthetic touch: arbiters and assistants clad in matching uniforms.

Arbiters and assistants

Four main tournaments were played: A Master tournament and three Opens: Open A (>2000), Open B (1500-2000) and Open C (<1500), a blitz tournament and several side events including two simultaneous exhibitions by twoleading chess personalities, Anatoly Karpov and Judit Polgar.

Karpov and Polgar at their simultaneous exhibitions

A local artist, Karina Gassem, made paintings while the simuls were taking place. The paintings were composed of a figurative style and a calligraphy and were presented to Karpov and Polgar.

Karina Gassem at work and Judit Polgar with her painting | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

On rare occasions, some participants in the simul managed to steal a draw or even a win. It is considered a great feat and not surprisingly, the Tunisian player who made a draw with Judit Polgar, splashed his scoresheet on the social media.

Abdelaziz Bouhamed (2064) and the scoresheet of his game signed by Polgar

The support and cooperation by a French contingency was evident, led by the President of the French Chess Federation, Bachar Kouatly, who attended several happenings at the festival and addressed the participants praising the organization.

(L-R) Bachar Kouatly, French IA arbiter Nadir Bounzou and his Tunisian counterpart IA Mohamed Ali Baktach

As it turned out, the winner of the Masters was also a French player, the young GM Maxime Lagarde, the 2019 French champion.

The Masters tournament was composed of ten players hailing from ten different countries: (in the order of the final standings) GM Lagarde Maxime (FRA), GM Tiviakov Sergei (NED, GM Pichot Alan (ARG), Gagunashvili Merab (GEO), GM Cuenca Jimenez Jose Fernando (ESP), GM Heberla Bartlomiej (POL), GM Sumets Andrey (UKR), GM Kotronias Vasilios (GRE), IM Zaibi Amir (TUN), IM Oussedik Mahfoud (ALG).

Neighbourly friends: the local IM Zaibi Amir, representing Tunisia and IM Oussedik Mahfoud from the neighbouring country of Algeria

The organizer is presenting the prize (2000 euro) and a medal to the winner of the Open A, another French player, GM Jean-Marc Degraeve (Elo 2526)

Tunisian young hopes greatly benefit from the opportunity to play at such a class international tournament on their doorstep

The guests were entertained throughout the tournament by performers presenting typical folklore of the island

An accomplished local musician, Khalil Chahbani, performed on kanun, a traditional Arabic string instrument

A full day was dedicated to a sight-seeing. Museums, a crocodile farm, a synagogue and other beauty spots were visited for which participants were provided with buggies.

An original way to explore the beautiful island

The synagogue La Ghriba (Wonderworking) supposed to be the oldest synagogue in the world dating from the time of the second temple in Jerusalem

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.

Karpov and Judit Polgar soaking the light and sun of Djerba | Photo: Judit Polgar Facebook

The two distinguished chess personalities contributed to another worthy cause while in Djerba: They opened the first school chess club on the island named after the 12th World Champion.

Endgames of the World Champions from Fischer to Carlsen

Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Mller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.

Karpov and Judit Polgar surrounded by enthusiastic school kids on the occasion of the opening of the school chess club on Djerba | Photo: Judit Polgar Facebook

More here:

Chess on the "island of dreams" - Chessbase News

The chess team from Cambridge University overwhelmed their rivals from Oxford by the score of 5.5 to 2.5 in the 138th annual varsity match which took place at Londons Royal Automobile Club, London, last Saturday, March 7. The full results, with moves of all the games, can be found here.

Cambridge now leads in the worlds longest running traditional chess contest by 60 wins to 56 with 22 draws.

Although Oxford won no games at all this year, the dark blues came extraordinarily close in two encounters,where the Cambridge players had to exhibit Houdini-like skills in order to escape defeat. Thus the final score could easily have been much closer. It was in any case hardly a surprise that the much more highly-rated team (Cambridge) ultimately triumphed.

The highlight of the day came not so much in the moves across the board, as in the moving closing address delivered by the experienced World Chess Federation arbiter, David Sedgwick. Match organiser Stephen Meyler had engaged the voluntary services for the day of Davids fellow arbiter Shohreh Bayat, the Iranian who felt obliged to defect from Iran after her allegiance to the medievally mandatory hijab, demanded by the Ayatollahs of Tehran, began to waver (seemy column for TheArticle in February.)

Shohreh had been officiating at the Womens World Chess Championship in China, when official complaints arose concerning her loyalty to the offending item of testosterone-fuelled theocratic tyranny. At this point Shohrehs world collapsed, yet, as David Sedgwick poignantly emphasised in his peroration, she demonstrated the fortitude to fulfil her World Championship duties to the very end. At the same time she began searching for a secure haven from the certain ostracism, possible imprisonment, the public lash and even the death penalty, should she return home, minus the visible safe pass of the now despised hijab.

As the Varsity match amply demonstrated, Shohreh has landed on her feet among friends and the British chess community, starting with our World Chess Federation Vice President Nigel Short and David Sedgwick himself, have welcomed her with the proverbial open arms.

Returning to this years chess, I cannot help but compare the composition of the two current teams, with those from the days during the Cretaceous Period when I represented Cambridge on board one in the annual contest.

Thus, last Saturday, 70 per cent of the players could be identified as students of science or mathematics. In 1970, which launched a record-breaking sequence of 11 consecutive Cambridge victories, it was exactly the opposite way round, with 70 per cent studying the Humanities, such as modern languages, history and classics.

My belief is that this drastic volte-face reflects the dominant role which computer technology now plays in our society. Indeed, it was no coincidence that the commentator for last Saturdays Boat Race of the Brain was Grandmaster Matthew Sadler, co-author, with Natasha Regan, of the seminal book Game Changer, which explains the revolutionary strategies of the strongest ever chess AI program: Alpha Zero.

For those interested in the phenomenal run of 11 Cambridge successes against Oxford, commencing with the 1970 Varsity match, I can recommend the book Cambridge Chess by the worlds leading chess historian Richard Eales, also author of Chess, the History of a Game.

Link:

Chess: the Boat Race of the brain - TheArticle

Gary M.Shiffman, Opinion contributor Published 7:00 a.m. ET March 12, 2020

Twelve-year-oldGary Leschinskyis a nationally-ranked chess player in the U.S. He has a bright future ahead of him but it may not be in chess.

Why? The reality is that theres not much future for people in chess anymore. Machines have become so advanced that they will always beat us in the game, however smart we are. In "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World", David Epstein notes that this has been the case since grandmaster Garry Kasparovs loss to the IBM supercomputer in 1997, and that its a sign that perhaps we should be outsourcing tactical tasks to computers. Similarly, translation, spell checking, copyediting, transcription, and other jobs heavily reliant on rote memory have all begun to be outsourced to computers.

What Gary Leschinsky has going for him, instead, is something particularly human his creativity.Hes also aninventor, and he has patented an allergy watch that can detect food allergies.

Computers and machines can beat us in games like chess, checkersand tic-tac-toe because these games are bound by a finite number of moves and possibilities. Machines can surpass humans in anything that is bounded and literal. Theyre inductive: we train them to recognize patterns in data. Humans, on the other hand, are limited in our inductive abilities. There is so much data available today that the human mind simply cant process it all.

Heres the difference: Humans have creative, deductive, emotionaland ethical abilities. Machines dont. This is what makes humans irreplaceable, no matter how many chess matches computers win.

Big tech giants: Can antitrust enforcement save the digital free market from Big Tech monopolies?

What does this mean for the future of work? Will our jobs really be replaced by machines? A Pew survey found that nearlyfour in 10 Americans worry thats the case, and a 2019 Brookings Institute report concluded that a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted by AI in the coming years.

Contrary to popular fears, however, theres a very relevant and important place for humans in a world of robots and computers. The key is that we have to be strategic about what roles and tasks we assign to the machines and what roles and decisions we protect for the humans. We should be assigning the chess-like tasks to the machine while protecting the creative and values-based tasks that are inherently human.

Human and robot connection.(Photo: PhonlamaiPhoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Right now, the best use of technology is prioritization: filtering, ordering, and ranking data. Most of us, for example, take for granted that when we type cat into a Google search bar, we instantaneously have access to millions of pictures of cats. Ten years ago, this would have been impossible. It would have been one of the most impressive feats of computing ever accomplished. That a machine can accurately select a cat from billions and billions of available images is actually a remarkable thing.

Its not magic, though. Computers have this ability because humans trained them to do it; we essentially fed algorithms millions of images of cats to teach them what an image of a cat looks like. This is how machines learn.

The applications of machine learning have far greater implications than quickly finding cute cats. Today, you can build a computer model to identify virtually anything, provided you have the examples to teach the algorithm. Giant Oak, for example, developed atechnologythat enables financial institutions and government agencies to identify money launderers, human and drug traffickers, and terrorists.

When we do this, were not digging through the haystack to find the needle. Were teaching a computer to prioritize billions of documents for human investigators, agents, and analysts to review. Thecomputeris not the one deciding whether or not someone is a terrorist or a money launderer. Instead, its doing what it does best using the training data humans have given it to identify and rank potentially relevant information for humans to use in making judgment calls.

Cyber flashing: Sending unsolicited explicit pics is the tip of our toxic sexual culture

For example, we can imagine that over 99% of all bank customers abide by all laws, but some small percentage of launder money. With proper training data, machine learning can prioritize information likely associated with money laundering over all other information. Now the human need only review the most important information when adjudicating money-laundering behaviors.

Computers promise amazing efficiencies, but we also need humans. If were deciding whether to let someone onto an airplane, open a bank account, or watch our children, we dont want a computer making the final call.

Computers, robots and machines might impact the future of work, but they will never completely replace humans. Theyll just beat us at chess.

Gary M.Shiffmanis the founder and CEO ofGiant Oakandthe author of "The Economics of Violence: How Behavioral Science Can Transform our View of Crime, InsurgencyandTerrorism."He teaches economic science and national security at Georgetown University. Follow him on Twitter:@GaryMShiffman

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Computers may surpass humans, but we'll still have jobs. Here's why. - USA TODAY

Our beloved game of chess has had many legends, world champions, challengers, world-class players, and grandmasters.

The games of these masters delight, inspire and teach us the ways of the royal game. It is common to discuss the greatest players of all time in chess circlesbut these discussions always beg the singular question: Who was the best of all time?

Here are the top 10 best chess players:

The following players are all chess legends and are in the conversation for the best players of all time, but for one reason or another ended up just outside of the top 10.

Paul Morphy was the embodiment of romantic attacking chess, the strongest player of the 1850s and the best player of the entire 19th century. There was no official world championship title during his era, but he was light years ahead of his competition and is recognized as an unofficial world champion.

Morphy won the 1857 American Chess Congress and then traveled to Europe in 1858, winning every match he played versus the world's leading players.

Morphy taught the chess world about sacrifices, development, attacking, accuracy and more. Hislegendary Opera Game is considered one of the most famous chess games of all time and is still studied today. Bobby Fischer listed Morphy as one of the ten greatest players of all time.

GM Tigran Petrosian, or "Iron Tigran," was the world champion during 1963-1969 and a four-time Soviet champion. Undefeated the entire year leading to his world championship title (1962), he was known for his defensive prowess and his famous exchange sacrifices. According to GM Daniel Naroditsky, he was one of the "first elite players with a truly universal style."

Petrosian defeated the legendary GMMikhail Botvinnik to become world champion in 1963, defended his title against GM Boris Spassky in 1966 and then lost the re-match to Spassky in 1969.

In 1971 Petrosian was GM Bobby Fischer's last stepping stone to face Spassky for the world championship in 1972. His victory over Fischer in the second game of their candidates match stopped Fischer's historical and unprecedented 20-game winning streak (although Fischer did win the match).

GM Viswanathan Anand was the FIDE world champion from 2000 to 2002 and the 15th undisputed champion from 2007 to 2013.He lost the Professional Chess Association (PCA) world championship match against GMGarry Kasparov in 1995 and lost to GMAnatoly Karpov in the FIDE world championship match in 1998 (on tiebreaks) before winning the FIDE world championship in 2000.

In 2007 Anand won the double round-robin world championship tournament ahead of GMVladimir Kramnik and other world-class players and was crowned world champion. In 2008 he defeated Kramnikin a match to become the 15th undisputed world champion. He defended his title by defeating GM Veselin Topalov in 2010 and in 2012 against GM Boris Gelfand. In 2013 Anand was defeated by reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

Anand is the strongest Indian grandmaster of all time and has inspired multiple generations of chess players in India and around the world.

Alexander Alekhine was the fourth official world champion and held the title from 1927 to 1946 (with an exception during 1935-1937). He was a brilliant and well-rounded player with a special ability for combinational play in complex positions. He also taught the chess world that rules and principles can be broken based on concrete analysis of the specific and unique position.

Alekhine became world champion by defeating Jose Raul Capablanca in 1927, despite being a large underdog (he had never won a single game against Capablanca before the match).

Alekhine's reign as world champion was long, but he successfully defended his title only twice (both times against GM Efim Bogoljubow in 1929 and 1934). Capablanca and Alekhine never had a rematch for the world championship due to various reasons. Alekhine faced GM Max Euwe for the world championship in 1935 and surprisingly lost the match.

Two years later Alekhine won the rematch against Euwe to earn the crown back, but he would never defend it again. He passed away in 1946 as the world champion, the only champion ever to do so (although he was finalizing the details to play a match with Botvinnik).

GM Mikhail Tal, also known as the "Magician from Riga," was the eighth official world champion. He defeated Botvinnik in 1960 to earn the crown at the age of 23 and a half, becoming the youngest world champion in history at the time (although this record was broken by both Kasparov and Carlsen).

Known for his brilliant and unique attacking style, Tal's approach to the game has been an inspiration for attacking players for decades. One of his famous bone-chilling quotes is, "You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one."

His game collection The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal is a chess classic and considered one of the greatest chess books of all time.

Emanuel Lasker was the second official world champion and held the title for 27 years. His reign from 1894 to 1921 is the longest of any world chess champion, and his playing career lasted five decades. Lasker defeated the first official world champion Wilhelm Steinitz in 1894, and he defended his title five times against a host of world-class contenders, including Frank Marshall, Siegbert Tarrasch, David Janowsky, and Carl Schlechter.

In 1921 Lasker lost the title to Capablanca but continued to play at the highest level. He placed third in the 1935 Moscow tournament at the age of 66, half a point behind Botvinnik and Salo Flohr, but ahead of Capablanca, the first women's world champion Vera Menchik and 15 other masters.

GM Vladimir Kramnik was world champion from 2000 to 2007. He became the classical world champion by dethroning the legendary Kasparov in 2000, defended his title in 2004 against GM Peter Leko and in 2006 faced the FIDE world champion Topalov in a title unification match. Kramnik defeated Topalov to become the first undisputed world champion since Kasparov in 1993.

At his peak, Kramnik's game had absolutely no weak pointshe could do it all. He was known for his fantastic endgame play and his clean, tenacious and positional style. Kramnik is considered one of the most difficult players to defeat in the history of the game.

Kramnik was a top player for over 25 years before retiring in January 2019.

GM Mikhail Botvinnik is known as the "father of the Soviet chess school." The sixth world champion reigned from 1948 to 1963 (with two brief intermissions) and was a top player for over 30 years. Botvinnik's style was dictated by iron logic and flexibility, although he was extremely talented with methodical and strategical planning. His flexible style allowed him to adapt to all different types of playing styles.

He became world champion in 1948, defended his title against GM David Bronstein in 1951 and defeated GM Vassily Smyslov in 1954. In 1957 Smyslov defeated Botvinnik, who won their rematch the following year (at that time the world champion had the right to a rematch if they lost the title). In 1960 Botvinnik was defeated by Tal, but history repeated itself as Botvinnik won their rematch in 1961.

Although his reign as world champion was brought to an end by Petrosian in 1963, Botvinnik continued to play at a high level until his retirement in 1970. Botvinnik started his chess school in 1963, and he was the teacher of three future world champions (Karpov, Kasparov, and Kramnik).

GM Anatoly Karpov was the 12th world champion and reigned from 1975 to 1985 while also being the FIDE world champion from 1993 to 1999. Karpov was an exceptionally well-rounded player, but his specialty was positional binds, prophylactic play, and wonderful endgame technique.

Karpov became world champion by default when Fischer withdrew from their 1975 match because his demands weren't met. Karpov defended his crown by defeating GM Viktor Korchnoi in 1978 and again in 1981. In 1984 Karpov would have his first meeting with Kasparov, and the chess world was changed forever.

In the first of five matches between the two legendary titans, the match was called early with Karpov leading five wins, three losses, and 40 draws. In 1985 Kasparov defeated Karpov and claimed the chess crown. They played again in 1986, 1987 and 1990 and when their matches were concluded their lifetime record in world championship matches was 19 wins for Karpov, 21 wins for Kasparov and 104 draws!

In 1993 Kasparov broke away from FIDE (creating the PCA), and Karpov became the FIDE world champion. Karpov defended his FIDE world champion title by defeating GM Jan Timman in 1993, GM Gata Kamsky in 1996 and Anand in 1998 (on tiebreaks). Karpov refused to play in the 1999 FIDE world championship tournament after FIDE changed their rules.

Karpov's legendary games continue to be a source of inspiration for all positional and endgame players today. Tibor Karolyi's two-volume work titled Karpov's Strategic Wins is considered one of the best chess books ever written.

Jose Raul Capablanca was the third official world champion and possibly the most talented chess player ever to play the game. From 1916 through 1924 he amassed a tournament record of 40 wins and 23 draws, an unprecedented feat at the time and still a historically significant achievement.Capablanca's talent and skill were unmatched during his eight-year period.

Capablanca became world champion by defeating the legendary Lasker in 1921. Many believe that Capablanca would have defeated Lasker had he been given the chance before 1921, and many believe that he would have reclaimed the title had he been given an opportunity for a rematch with Alekhine. Unfortunately for Capablanca, his peak playing time happened both during and between World War I and World War II.

Every world champion and contender is well-rounded, but Capablanca had a special gift for the endgame. Even now (in the engine era of chess) it is difficult to poke holes in his endgame play. Irving Chernev's book Capablanca's Best Chess Endings is a classic.

Going eight years without a single loss and becoming world champion are something the chess world won't ever see again, and only Capablanca achieved this feat.

GM Bobby Fischer was the 11th official world champion as well as the first and only American world champion. He is considered by many to be the most famous chess player ever. From 1970 to 1971 Fischer won 20 consecutive games against world-class opposition, an unprecedented and mind-boggling achievement that will most likely never be equaled. This feat is counted among the seven most amazing chess records.

In 1972 Fischer defeated Spassky in the "Match of the Century" and was crowned world champion, despite starting the match with a 0-2 score after throwing away game one in a completely equal endgame and not even showing up for game two. Fischer's dismantling of the Soviet chess empire from 1970 to 1972 during the midst of the Cold War is considered one of the greatest individual performances of all time.

His style was unique, original and creative. He could attack and defend with the best of them, but he also showed a very deep and almost scary positional understanding. Fischer inspired multiple generations of chess players in the U.S. and around the world.

Fischer's "Game of the Century" is one of the most famous chess games of all time, and his book titled My 60 Memorable Games is considered one of the best chess books in history.

GM Magnus Carlsen is the reigning world champion for all three time controls (standard, rapid and blitz). In 2009 he becamethe youngest player in history to reach the 2800-rating threshold, and on April 21, 2014, he reached his peak rating and the highest rating ever at 2889.

Carlsen has been the number-one ranked player since 2011 and has been dominating the game ever since. As of February 2020, Carlsen has been on a 120-game undefeated streak in standard time controls, another record for the world champion.

His resume is already more than enough to be considered number two on this list of the best players of all time, but Carlsen is only 29 years old and may not have even reached his peak playing strength!

Carlsen became the world champion by defeating Anand in 2013 just before turning 23 years old (the second-youngest world champion ever, behind only Kasparov). He has successfully defended his title three times: in 2014 Carlsen won the rematch against Anand, in 2016 he defeated GM Sergey Karjakin and in 2018 he defeated GM Fabiano Caruana.

Carlsen himself does not believe he has earned the #1 spot on this list. According to an interview in January 2020, Carlsen states: "Kasparov had 20 years uninterrupted as the world number 1...He must be considered as the best in history. But I feel that time is on my side...I'm not 30 yet. If I were to be considered the best in history at 30, I would have had to start dominating at 10."

GM Garry Kasparov is the 13th world champion and held the title from 1985 to 2000. He first reached the number-one ranking in 1984 and with a few minor exceptions remained the number-one player in the world until 2006. Kasparov dominated the chess world for over 20 years.

Kasparov reached his peak rating of 2856 on March 3, 2000at the time an unprecedented number and a record that wasn't broken until Carlsen surpassed it.

In 1985 Kasparov defeated Karpov to become the youngest world champion ever at the age of roughly 22 and a half. He defended the world championship title against Karpov on three consecutive occasions in 1986, 1987 and 1990. In 1993, he broke away from FIDE and started the PCAthis break would create two different world championships until the reunification match between Kramnik and Topalov in 2006.

Kasparov defended his title by defeating GM Nigel Short in 1993 and successfully defended his title again by defeating Anand in 1995. Kasparov and Lasker are the only two world champions to defend their titles successfully five times.

In 2000 Kramnik defeated Kasparov, ending the reign of the best player of all time as world champion. However, Kasparov would continue playing in (and winning) tournaments until his retirement in 2005he left the game as the number-one player in the world.

Kasparov has remained active in the chess world after his effective retirement. He has played exhibition matches and even trained Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura. His five-volume series titled My Great Predecessors is considered one of the best chess books ever.

This list is the product of a great discussion between many Chess.com staff members recently, and not meant to be taken as fact! Our own Colin Stapczynski put together our view on this debate as old as the game itself, but if you disagree with the order or think we missed someone please let us know your opinion in the comments below.

Go here to read the rest:

The 10 Best Chess Players Of All Time - Chess.com

Two weeks before the start of theFIDE Candidates Tournament, we provide the latest news and address the question that is on everyone's mind: Who will win?

This article, originally posted on March 3, has been updated on March 6 to reflect that Vachier-Lagrave is replacing Radjabov.

The first round of the most important tournament of the year is scheduled for March 17, 14 days from now. GMs Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren,Alexander Grischuk,Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave,Anish Giri,Wang Hao, and Kirill Alekseenko will fight for the right to challenge GM Magnus Carlsen in the next world championship match which is likely to start December 20 in Dubai.

First, an update about Ding and Wang, related to the coronavirus. According to the latest information, Wang is still in Japan, from there he will travel to Russia normally. Meanwhile, Ding has arrived in Russia already and is undergoing a 14-day quarantine with the rest of the Chinese delegation.

In other recent news, the March FIDE ratings are out, so we know with which ratings the players will be playing. Here's the updated players' list, with changes only for Wang (who won four points in Gibraltar) and Alekseenko (who lost six points, also in Gibraltar, and dropped below 2700):

2020 Candidates Tournament | Participants

Unsurprisingly, things have been somewhat quiet around these players as they have been focusing on preparing for the tournament. None of them have played over-the-board chess since Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar finished.

However, more than half the field found time during their preparation to play in thePRO Chess League this month. For instance, Caruana has played 24 games for the Saint Louis Arch Bishops in 2020, half of these in February. So far he scored 16.5 points, good for a 2764 performance rating.

Both Grischuk (23.5/32, TPR 2776) and Giri (7/8, TPR 2940) have played for the Canada Chessbrahs, and in fact, both of them were part of last night's victory against the Sweden Wasabis.

"I'm actually done. All openings have been refuted, everything's done!" joked Giri about combining his Candidates prep with playing online.

Don't miss GM Robert Hess and WFM Alexandra Botez's interview with Giri from last night's PRO Chess League stream, starting at 1:19:32, where the Dutchman also reveals that he has a team member that doesn't like to watch movies, saying it's too late to fire him now!

"I'm actually done. All openings have been refuted, everything's done!" Anish Giri

Whether his league games will help him in Yekaterinburg will have to be seen, but his Candidates preparation definitely helped him for yesterday's games:

"You can't imagine how much stuff that you look at during a serious preparation you deem sort of to be somewhat second rate. Then, by now I've got like three, four, five bonus repertoires I can play so in that sense I think I am very well prepared for an event like today," said Giri.

Here's his win against GM Nils Grandelius from yesterday's match, which wasn't an unimportant line from the Gruenfeld:

Meanwhile, Girihas been sharing some views from his training camp.On Instagram, the Dutchman uploaded a few pictures that revealed a beach location somewhere in Portugal, the presence of GMs Erwin l'Ami and Jorden van Foreest, and basically everyone having a pretty good time:

As Giri explained, it wasn't just fun: "Let me explain that my sponsors and supporters don't think I am wasting resources on ice cream and football! There is nothing to take a picture of during the hard work, which is like nine hours a day, and in that spare half an hour when I am eating ice cream or playing football, I take a picture and then it looks like all I do is eat ice cream and play football. You're not gonna share a screenshot with your latest ideas in the Najdorf."

That is actually an error that has happened before; the Saint Louis Chess Club released a video during the early phase of the 2018 Carlsen-Caruana world championship match that showed a screenshot of Caruana's analysis against the Petroff.

Also during the PRO Chess League, now three weeks ago, it was suggested that Caruana might have made a somewhat similar little error:

Two more players have played in the PRO Chess League this season. Still at his home in Wenzhou, Ding scored 3.5/4 for the China Pandas (TPR 2759) on February 17, and Nepomniachtchi scored 7/8 (TPR 2930) in matches in January and February for the Russia Wizards.

Apart from FIDE launching theofficial website and publishing a promo video, this is all the recent news available now.

The easy answer is: Caruana or Ding. It's quite obvious that they, as the only two 2800+ players competing, are the two clear favorites as compared to the rest of the field. But how much are they favored? What do the experts say?

First, the bookies. Unibet, who recently closed a sponsorship deal with Carlsen, still has a slight preference for Caruana over Ding. Grischuk and Nepomniachtchi are the biggest dark horses, followed by Giri:

GM Viswanathan Anand told Chess.com that he also puts Caruana first and Ding second, followed by Grischuk. In Ben Johnson's The Perpetual Chess Podcast, Anand elaborated:

"Ding's strength is that he plays very well in these super top tournaments. He's very solid. Something like the Candidates is really designed for his style. On the other hand, Fabi is scoring very high. He was plus-five in Isle of Man, he was plus-seven in Wijk aan Zee... If he wins more games than the other guys are able to do, because it's normally a low-scoring event, then people may never catch up."

Ding's strength is that he plays very well in these super top tournaments. He's very solid. Something like the Candidates is really designed for his style. Vishy Anand

"I think it really comes down to these two, and I would put the other six in the basket of surprise. Anything other than these two I would consider a surprise for me."

GM Garry Kasparov shared his thoughts during the live broadcast of the Cairns Cup. He went as far as putting Caruana and Ding three-to-one against the field: "They are huge favorites. You need a natural disaster for one of them not to win."

"They are huge favorites. You need a natural disaster for one of them not to win." Garry Kasparov

He continued: "If Ding qualifies, we can expect a major boom in China provided it can sort out some of the problems that China is facing these days. I will be curious to see the effect on Chinese chess. Of course, if he wins thats one story, but if he doesnt win, it will generate the ongoing effect. Chess in China is promising, but having a candidate for the title is a different story.

Can you play like Ding Liren?

Try our Play Like Ding Liren course featuring five of Ding's best games!

"Somehow I think Magnus would prefer Caruana although Fabi already has the experience. The only advantage is that Ding could take on Magnus in rapid and blitz. Fabi is not as great in these disciplines. But as we saw, he could be really dangerous for Magnus in classical chess. Lets not forget, in the last two matches, Magnuss performance in classical chess was far from convincing."

Update March 9: All this was based on Radjabov in the field, who has now been replaced by Vachier-Lagrave. Today Kasparov tweeted:

Two American top grandmasters also see Caruna as the favorite. GM Wesley So, interviewed after the Speed Chess Championship final, said:

"Fabiano, obviously. I hope he didn't use all of his good chess in Wijk aan Zee. But if he plays good chess and if he keeps up the good form that he has the last few months, I would give him a very high chance to win. I mean, it's hard for me to think that anybody else could win other than Ding and Fabiano, but also Ding doesn't win too many tournaments per year. I mean, Ding is very consistent, but he doesn't have very dominating performances like Fabiano."

So and Nakamura talking about the Candidates after playing the Speed Chess Championship final.

GM Hikaru Nakamura, in the same interview: "Fabiano is the clear favorite. He played very well in Wijk, unlike last time. If it's not Fabiano, I would say Ding is the only player I see. Outside chance maybe Grischuk or Nepo, but I don't think anybody else has a chance of winning realistically."

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Candidates, has Caruana as the favorite too and puts Caruana and Ding one-to-one against the field. The biggest outsider, in his opinion, is Giri.

Who do you think will win the Candidates and WHY!?

Read more:

Who Will Win The FIDE Candidates Tournament? - Chess.com

Vladimir Kramnik will commentate live for chess24 on the first eight rounds of the 2020 FIDE Candidates Tournament. The 14th World Chess Champion will be joined by Jan Gustafsson and Lawrence Trent, while former World Championship Challenger Nigel Short will then step in for Vladimir for the final six rounds. The 8-player Candidates Tournament starts on 17th March in Yekaterinburg, Russia and will determine who plays Magnus Carlsen in a World Championship match this December.

The Candidates Tournament is the second most important event in chess and arguably the most exciting. Eight players will face each other twice over a gruelling 14 rounds to decide Magnus Carlsens next challenger, and no-one will be holding anything back. Its been gruelling even before it began this year, with Teimour Rajdabov sensationally dropping out over coronavirus fears, meaning French no. 1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finally got the chance to play a Candidates Tournament.

The best place to watch will be right here on chess24, since were privileged to have Vladimir Kramnik commentating live on the first eight rounds. In 2000 Big Vlad pulled off the almost impossible winning a World Championship match against a Garry Kasparov who was still at the height of his powers. Vladimir held on to the title for seven years (defending it against Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov) and although he retired from classical chess last year he still won bronze in the 2019 World Blitz Championship just a few months ago. Here he is beating Alireza Firouzja in brilliant style in the penultimate round:

Nigel Short has also played a World Championship match against Garry Kasparov and will be reunited with Grandmaster Jan Gustafsson, after the pair previously commentated together on the GRENKE Chess Classic. The plan is to have Jan together with Vladimir and then Nigel in our main Hamburg studio, while Lawrence Trent will be next door introducing our FantasyChess Contest, quizzes and more. We also hope to have a certain Magnus Carlsen phoning into the show from time to time!

Heres the full commentary schedule in English:

March 17, 12:00 CET:Round 1 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 18, 12:00 CET:Round 2 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 19, 12:00 CET:Round 3 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 20: REST DAY

March 21, 12:00 CET:Round 4 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 22, 12:00 CET:Round 5 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 23, 12:00 CET: Round 6 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 24: REST DAY

March 25, 12:00 CET:Round 7 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 26, 12:00 CET: Round 8 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 27, 12:00 CET: Round 9 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 28: REST DAY

March 29, 13:00 CEST:Round 10 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 30, 13:00 CEST:Round 11 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 31, 13:00 CEST:Round 12 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent April 1: REST DAY

April 2, 13:00 CEST:Round 13 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent April 3, 12:00 CEST:Round 14 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent April 4:Tiebreaks/ Closing Ceremony

We're also going to have commentary at least in:

You can find the full pairings, and the starting times wherever you are now, by clicking on any of the games below to go to our broadcast page. Thats where youll find the commentary as well as computer analysis of all the moves, chat, a 7-million game database and much more:

For a preview of the 2020 Candidates Tournament check out the following video series by Magnus Carlsen seconds Laurent Fressinet, Jan Gustafsson and Peter Heine Nielsen (a Maxime Vachier-Lagrave update is coming soon after he was a late addition to the line-up!):

Weve also been taking a look at the players in a series of articles based on those videos. So far we have:

If you take out a Premium Membership now you can not only watch that 5-hour series and dozens more for free, but during the Candidates Tournament broadcast youll be eligible for special Premium-only prizes from our FantasyChess competition.

Read more about FantasyChess and get involved now!

There will also be other quizzes and contests and a chance to take on some of our commentators in Banter Blitz.

There are three special promotions on offer (sorry Anish!) depending on the voucher code you enter when you go to our Premium page- GIRIDRAW, KRAMNIK_MUG or CANDIDATES2020:

We hope youll join us for one of the most exciting events in chess!

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Kramnik & Short to commentate on the Candidates - chess24