Analysing old chess games with a modern engine can lead to interesting insights. Recently, I did some historical research in the Philidor Countergambit for which I looked at some of the earliest games played with this variation. This is a line tha...
In the ongoing marathon TCEC Superfinal best of 100 match between Leela Chess Zero (LCZero) and Stockfish, the two heavyweight engines are playing a variety of gambits and popular openings. In Games 59 and 60, they had a go at the Fegatello Attack...
In the second round of the current FIDE World Cup tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk, the Azeri Grandmaster Eltaj Safarli bravely played the Evans Gambit against Indian prodigy Nihal Sarin. He even won the game, though only because of a terrible blunde...
Last week, the legendary Pal Benko died at the age of 91. Benko was famous for his gambit and several other opening lines. But there's one particular opening idea that I remembered quite well but had missed in the many obituaries that I read onlin...
Last week, I was in London for business, and of course I paid a visit to the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. It wasn't my first World Championship visit. In 2013, for instance, I had the opportunity to v...
In my last blog post, I wrote about lost traces of medieval chess opening theory. My conclusion was that there's virtually nothing left of chess opening "theory" from the Middle Ages and that the introduction of the new bishop and queen's moves ch...
Although many chess fans find it boring, in my opinion it's absolutely fascinating that the Giuoco Piano, or Italian Opening, is so popular again at top grandmaster level. Isn't it wonderful that some of the oldest books about modern chess already...
One of the very first chess books I bought was Morphy's Games of Chess (1957) by Philip W. Sergeant. This book (I was 14 years old when I read it) made a lasting impression on me - I've been fascinated by the chess genius from New Orleans eve...
Blitz games are usually a lot of fun while they're being played, but best forgotten once they're finished. Last week, however, I played a blitz game on Chess.com which actually featured a funny theme you don't hear much about. It's the so-cal...
Last week I went to Norway, to see the strongest chess tournament since AVRO 1938. The legendary AVRO tournament, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, has captured my imagination ever since my granddad, who taught me the rules of chess, told me a...
I haven't written anything on chess.com for a while, but on 22 May, Grandmaster Viktor Kupreichik passed away at the age of 68 and this news made me feel rather sad. One of my most memorable chess experiences is connected to a game I played exactl...
It's been a while since I've written a serious chess book review, but I felt I had to make an exception for Smerdon's Scandinavian by GM David Smerdon. The reason is simple: I've played this variation of the Scandinavian, also known as the Portug...
Blitz games should never be taken seriously - even world class players tend to drop material every 5 moves - but sometimes certain fragments are worth thinking about for a bit longer than just a few minutes. Last week I played a blitz game...
I don't play - or think about - chess a lot anymore, and opening preparation is something from such a distant past that I can hardly remember how to do it anymore. Imagine my amusement when, last week, I played an important team game and all of ...
Did you see the live report of the fourth round of the Tata Steel tournament on CNN? You didn't? What a pity. It was great, just great. Ah, so much publicity for chess, just because the round was played in the world-famous Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam...
When it turned out that I would be in Chennai, India, in November during the World Championship match between Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen, I was, like any chess fan would be, over the moon. I even posted a photograph of my visa on my Facebook p...
