Home/Sports/British Chess Magazine/June 2024/In This Issue
British Chess Magazine|June 2024QUALITY over QUANTITYSince Covid, we have witnessed an explosion of chess events – first online and then over-the-board. There is now so much chess going on it’s increasingly difficult to keep up Having almost exhausted the available space and time for tournaments for the world’s top players, the chess community is now turning towards amateur and occasional players and trying to figure out new formats that will appeal to a wider and even non-chess playing audience. One example is the recent tournament in Morocco – the Casablanca Chess Variant – where the players started with an historical chessboard position which they had 10 minutes to study before playing the position on. The event brought a lot of excitement and interest (read Alex Colovic’ analysis of the event in this issue of BCM)…4 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024CHESS AS AN ECOSYSTEM: AN INITIAL EXPLORATIONOnce a pastime for the elite, chess has evolved into a bustling ecosystem reflecting societal shifts and shaping new paradigms The notion of an ecosystem has been around for a long time. But in recent years, the term has been applied to just about anything and everything. From something that in its origins was mostly employed as a broad tool for examining natural environments, it has been transformed into a way of describing interactions of all sorts, and of “testing” how good the entities involved really are at making the most of those interactions. Since chess, within the past five years, has undergone multiple tsunami of change, surely it’s the moment to ask ourselves: what does the chess ecosystem (CES) look like today? And how does today’s picture/moving panorama differ…10 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024ENGLAND'S SENIOR CHESS TEAMS TRIUMPH AT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPSIn a remarkable display of persistence and skill, England's senior chess teams captured triple gold at the 2024 European Senior Team Chess Championships held at the picturesque Terme Čatež in Slovenia This prestigious event saw England’s over-50 and over-65 teams overcoming formidable competition to achieve a clean sweep of titles. The results are a continuation of England’s great performance in recent years. In a way, it would seem that the bright moments of British chess are still coming from the previous generations than the current top players. THE OVER-50s The over-50 squad, comprising grandmasters John Emms, Glenn Flear, Keith Arkell, Nigel Davies, and Stuart Conquest, showed resilience and vigour by rebounding from an unexpected defeat to Montenegro in the second round (2.5:1.5). They then secured as many as five consecutive…3 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024THE REVERSE PROCEDURE!Most chess players approach the use of chess engines in the same way. Put a key position on the board (for correspondence players the current position in an ongoing game) and let the engine run and run and run. The more powerful the processor, the deeper and presumably more accurate the output. If you are ever outplayed in correspondence chess, you may simply conclude that your opponent must have been using a faster processor. I am confident that the approach described just above is not the best practice and the decision-making process involved is sub–optimal. I would like to describe what I have come to believe is a far–better practice for the use of engines. It is the method that I have used to compete effectively throughout the ICCF World…6 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024PROBLEM WORLD1 Leonid Lyubashevsky and Leonid Makaronez (Israel) Mate in 3 ORIGINAL 2 Paul Michelet (London) Mate in 6 ORIGINAL 3 Stanislav Hudak (Slovakia) Helpmate in 3 – 2 solutions ORIGINAL 4 Ljubomir Ugren (Slovenia) Helpmate in 7 ORIGINAL SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS Firstly, apologies for an error in the Problem World diagrams in March 2024. In the first problem, by David Shire, a white bishop at g8 was omitted. Apologies indeed to the composer and to readers who must have been bemused by this error. This month’s problems I’m going to repeat what I said at the start of the last Problem World: “as usual, we start with the shortest direct mate problem, but this time the three-mover, typically for its composers, requires you to find a neat key move, against…4 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024REINVENTING THE CLASSICS: A MODERN TWIST ON CHESS HISTORYA unique tournament in Casablanca featured four top world players - Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Hikaru Nakamura and Bassem Amin - using a rapid format with historical starting positions selected by Grandmasters and by public vote To celebrate the 100th anniversary since its inception, FIDE is organising many events throughout the world. One of these was the commercial and exhibition-style tournament in Casablanca (18-19 May), won by Magnus Carlsen. To ensure maximum visibility, the invited players were former World Champions Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand, “the streamer” Hikaru Nakamura and the best African player Bassem Amin. The time-control was the ever more popular rapid 15 minutes + 10 seconds per move. However, the spice of the tournament was the format! The players competed in a double-round robin with each round…11 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024FAMOUS CHESS MASTERS WHO (ALMOST) ENDED UP BEHIND BARSGarry Kasparov is in trouble with the (Russian) law yet again. An April report by RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty), gives the following details: “A court in Russia’s Komi region on April 24 issued an arrest warrant for Garry Kasparov, opposition politician and a co-founder of the Free Russia Forum, on a charge of creating and leading a "terrorist" group. The Syktyvkar City Court also issued arrest warrants for several other Russian opposition politicians and activists in exile on the same charge. Last month, Russia added Kasparov to its list of terrorists and extremists, an action generally used by the Kremlin to crack down on political opponents. Kasparov, a former world chess champion and an outspoken Kremlin critic, lives in the United States. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s…9 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024THE NUMBERS THAT CONTROL US: THE PARADOXICAL IMPACT OF RATINGS ON PERFORMANCESSome time ago, I remember a young and promising GM “crying” on social media, in all seriousness, how the public cannot possibly understand the agonising pain of losing 20 rating points and dropping below 2600. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry from such a deification of the rating numbers. And yet, for active players, the rating numbers control us. Everybody is addicted to those numbers, to a bigger or lesser extent. Even Carlsen, who recently said he would like to remain number one with a solid advantage over the rest. We are all trapped inside our own small circles, from the beginners who want to cross 1100 to the elite who want to cross 2800. Let’s mention again Carlsen, who not so long ago set himself the aim…4 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024Attacking patterns out of your Openings (Part II)As my loyal readers know, I love using old games as well as modern games. I’ve pointed out that the ideas carried out in older games are not infrequently easier to understand than modern chess games. That’s why so many amateurs get lost in the early middle game. It’s best to learn the foundational concepts before trying to mimic today’s greats. Moderns do play clear plans, but you have to dig for them. This game, from the legendary Carlsbad, 1929, tournament, has had more than its share of commentators: Nimzowitsch and Tartakower among them. For these two GMs of the avant-garde school to take a special interest in this game made me wonder what caught their eye. White develops an attack against a castled king that is not on h7,…9 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024JUDGING PROBLEMS IN BCM IN 2022 AND 2023BCM recently received the award made by the German expert, Hans Gruber, a FIDE International Judge, based upon his judging the new problems published in BCM over 2022 and 2023 Such judgments are made by most magazines or websites that regularly publish new problems. Generally, there are four categories: Prizes, for problems that are regarded as being in some way or other exceptionally meritorious; Honourable Mentions (near misses); Commendations; and the rest, which don’t find a place in the award. Very rarely do the ‘Prizes’ have any monetary value! But in the world of chess composers, the approbation delivered by a high place in an award is generally cherished. The question arises: how are the problems evaluated? There is no one objective criterion, and, as with art prizes or literature…4 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024THE CASABLANCA VARIANT IN CHESS IS LIKE A FORMULA 1 RACE IN THE RAINBCM Interview: Tarik SENHAJI, Organiser of the Casablanca Chess Week Tarik Senhaji is the director of the Casablanca Stock Exchange, and he has a strong passion for chess. In an interview for the British Chess Magazine, Senhaji talks about the Casablanca Variation – a new chess concept which he invented together with his Moroccan compatriot, GM Hichem Hamdouchi, as well as about the Casablanca Chess Week which gave a breath of fresh air to chess in Africa and globally. BCM: How did you come to the idea of organising the Casablanca Chess Week? Tarik Senhaji: We started the Morocco Chess Week as a popular chess festival in 2022, aimed at engaging the wider public through a variety of activities such as conferences, chess in the park, and community outreach. However,…5 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024Chess lovers invited to set Guinness world recordFIDE to celebrate centennial with record-breaking chess event. Everyone is invited to join! Chess enthusiasts from every corner of the globe are invited to unite on 20 th July in a groundbreaking event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and International Chess Day In an ambitious bid, FIDE aims to set a new Guinness World Record for the most chess games played in 24 hours, inviting participation from grandmasters to novices across various platforms and locations. The record attempt will be meticulously coordinated across different time zones, starting at 00:00 CET and concluding at 24:00 CET, encompassing both over-the-board and online games. FIDE is calling on all chess platforms and organisations to join the effort, whether by organising new…4 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024IS CHESS A SPECTATOR SPORT?The question on whether chess is interesting to watch given that players take a long time between moves is the core problem with chess becoming a spectator sport. Of course, I’m talking here about classical chess, not rapid or blitz, which are more easily “sold” as we have seen in recent years, with a huge rise in the number of rapid and blitz events. The answer to the question from the subheading is: you don’t. Unless you’re a strong chess player yourself and have the time to immerse yourself in the game in progress. The key word here is the conjunction “and”. Because, in order to be appreciated, chess must be understood and that understanding requires the time to put in the effort. The main issue that prevents the “casual…7 min
British Chess Magazine|June 2024MINIATURES6254 The Decisive games in 15 moves or less are rare. Two in the same match is rarer still, but not unique. When the City of London CC travelled to Rugby to meet the MCCU on 1st November 1913 it was clear that the team’s captain wished to improve on their previous showing against them a decade earlier. The home team lacked Arthur Mackenzie and Frank and Fred Brown. City of London fielded Burn, Lawrence, George Thomas, R.C.Griffith, Edward Lasker, Blake, Wainwright, Loman, Michell Davidson and Scott on boards 1 to 11. MCCU managed two draws and one win against this array of talent, six of whom had represented Great Britain in the cable match series with the United States. Here are the miniatures from boards 1 and 5. Amos…2 min
