Polls

  As the finishing line of Playing 1.e4 – Caro-Kann, 1…e5 and Minor Lines is in sight, a poll question came to mind: What is your usual defence against 1.e4? If you happen to be a World Championship Candidate, then I guess your usual choice is the Sicilian or 1…e5, with some Caros and the […]

The chess season in the UK runs from roughly October-May, so now seems like another good time to ask about your own playing habits. The majority of games are played in midweek league matches or weekend congresses, and there are also 9 round international tournaments on the continent almost every week (and a growing number

Do you think less of Magnus Carlsen after his emotional outburst at the World Blitz Championship? A few days ago I had a discussion with a friend on Skype about Carlsen’s swearing and throwing of a pen during the World Blitz Championship. The best way to bring my point across is to give a slightly

Today is the third and final day of the World Rapid Championships, with the Blitz equivalent taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday and seemingly receiving an extra injection of players straight from the Isle of Man. Most of us can only dream of being in Berlin, but I’m sure we all enjoy the occasional blitz

Live tournament coverage has really taken off in the last few years, with all major tournaments now coming with a commentary team broadcasting alongside the action. The commentator’s job varies from explaining the player’s moves, to interviewing them post-game, to generally passing the time with anecdotes or question/answer sessions with viewers. So our poll question

Asking who you want to win the World Cup is too easy (Svidler, right?) so instead: In 2016 there will be 8 Candidates to challenge World Champion Magnus Carlsen. By reaching the final of the World Cup, Svidler and Karjakin have now qualified, making 7 places fairly secure: Anand, Caruana, Karjakin, Nakamura, Svidler, Topalov and Giri

In the final Armageddon game in the match Nakamura – Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura castled with two hands on move 5. Following a Facebook discussion with a lot of intelligent people, I have come to two possible opinions of the arbiter’s responsibility in this situation. First a few clear things: 1) This is an illegal act. You

When you have a number of entrants (128 in this case) competing in a knockout format, what kind of seeding/pairing system should be used? The most common pairing system involves splitting the list in two, so that No.1 plays 65, 2 plays 66 and so on until 64 plays 128. This is seen as normal,