Page 26 - Chess

Chess (#1212)

The game has always had a large number of prodigies but they are getting ever-younger and there are more and more of them

Chess (#1211)

Magnus Carlsen took the Bilbao Masters with a round to spare. After suffering his first-ever classical loss to Hikaru Nakamura in the opening round, the world champion clinched the tournament with his first-ever classical win versus Anish Giri.In all, Carlsen scored +4, -1, =5, to log 17 from 10 games (double round robin) with soccer scoring. He was followed by Nakamura, (+1,=9), 5 points behind. Wei Yi and Wesley So scored one win and one loss each. Giri was obviously in terrible form (=7,-3). But the real disappointment was Sergey Karjakin who scored 9 draws and a loss to Carlsen in their last encounter before the title match. He may be protecting his repertoire.The world champion's rating barely improved (up 2.4 Elo) despite his convincing performance. Carlsen has had, by anybody else's standards, a fantastic year winning the Tata Steel and the Norway GM before he took Bilbao. For him, it's been just average.Meanwhile Maxime Vachier-Lagrave leads 4-2 in an exhibition match against

Chess (#1210)

Carlsen won the psychologically important encounter with Karjakin

Chess (#1209)

The Bilbao Masters started with a shock defeat for Magnus Carlsen

Chess (#1208)

The 2016 Challenger will reportedly be unrated because the high-rated participants don't want to risk rating

Chess (#1207)

The chess world is still coming to terms with the details of alleged deals from the Panama Papers

Chess (#1204)

Viktor Korchnoi was a title contender every time between 1962-1992

Chess (#1206)

The Indian Grandmaster (GM) was ahead with 3.5 from five rounds. Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So shared 2nd-3rd on 3 each

Chess (#1205)

The Grand Chess Tour, Paris was a four-day multi-course affair. It started with a rapid round robin, followed by a blitz double-round robin

Chess (#1203)

R Praggnanandhaa is now the youngest International master in history

Chess (#1202)

There are several memorial events but the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir Azerbaijan is very special

Chess (#1201)

This year's event, the 17th edition, is being held in Gjakova, Kosovo

Chess (#1200)

The Russian Team Championships have just concluded. The premier league had just five teams but it also boasted 12 super GMs

Chess (#1199)

The US Championships was followed by a mammoth blitz with 4 players playing three double round robins for 18 rounds

Chess (#1198)

Fabiano Caruana is the US Champion

Chess (#1197)

Two big tournaments are running concurrently. One is the Norway Altibox Super GM, which features 20 players with an average rating of 2770

Chess (#1196)

The Asian Nations Cup concluded with light-hearted blitz and rapid sections

Chess (#1194)

The very last game to finish in the last round of the Candidates determined the challenger to Magnus Carlsen

Chess (#1193)

The Candidates is heading for a nailbiting finish. After 11 rounds, any of the six players could still win the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen

Chess (#1192)

The Candidates in Moscow is almost at midpoint. Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian share the lead with 4 points from 6 rounds. Viswanathan Anand (3.5) is in third. Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri are on 3 each, with Peter Svidler (2.5), Veselin Topalov and Hikaru Nakamura (2 each) trailing. Everybody has a theoretical chance with 8 rounds left.Karjakin has shown excellent form, picking off a nice technical win against Anand, capitalising on a big error by Nakamura and fighting hard to hold an inferior position against Caruana. Aronian has been more sloppy and more fortunate with two big strokes of luck; Topalov blundered two pawns against him and Nakamura made an unfortunate touched-move error in a drawn endgame.Anand's form has been uncertain. He won two good games, pulling off a good attack against Svidler and a study-like endgame against Topalov. But he also drifted into a loss versus Karjakin with a series of sub-optimal moves. Caruana and Giri have not quite been able to impose th