Greetings everyone! I set up a new twitch stream! I’m going to be streaming every Monday at 7pm EST for the ICC 3/2 USCF Blitz tournament. With any luck, I’ll see y’all there! I’ll also post the videos to youtube afterward so you’ll always be able to see it after I’m done playing. Follow me on Twitch! EDIT: The video for… Read more →
Apologies for the delay everyone; I was traveling yesterday. There were some exciting results yesterday. In one of the worst displays of sportsmanship I’ve seen in top-level chess in a long time, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi appealed his loss against Hikaru Nakamura after claiming that Nakamura castled with two hands. To his credit, Nakamura did use two hands to castle, but… Read more →
Round two is over and we’re at the stage of 32. Just 32 players stand in the way of earning one of two candidates spots. Technically less than 32 because a few remaining players have already reserved their spots in the tournament. Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana got spots via the FIDE Grand Prix. Today was quite dramatic. The tiebreaks… Read more →
The first round is over and we have some interesting results. There were some notable upsets in the first round. A few of the players considered to be the “old guard” have been eliminated. Before we get started with the upsets I just wanted to make the comment that the repartee between GM Emil Sutovsky and GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko is… Read more →
If you’re bored this year by the chess scene, I don’t blame you. This year hasn’t been all that interesting. The good news is, that all changes today. For today FIDE has announced the first round pairings for the World Cup. The World Cup is the March Madness of the chess world; TIMES TWO! In the NCAA tournament, ~64 teams… Read more →
Hello everyone! In a few days the Marchand will be well underway. I figured I should give you an updated list of GM’s that have preregistered this year. Last year we had a strong field led by current US Champion GM Gata Kamsky. This year we have another star studded field featuring some returning players and some new faces. Rumor… Read more →
Hello everyone, this is probably going to be my last update on the Olympiad. I’ve had a lot of fun bringing you the upsets and the latest news regarding the Olympiad. It’s been quite challenging and quite entertaining, but alas vacation is calling and I need to answer. As far as the chess for this round goes I want to… Read more →
Hello everyone, the picture of the girl that you all see is Luzia Pires (courtesy of David Llada), the legend from the third round who beat a WIM in 8 moves. I would like to offer an apology, I made an omission yesterday that I would like to clear up today. In what could possibly be the shortest victory in… Read more →
Welcome to the fourth edition of the Olympiad Recap here at LifeZugzwang. I realized yesterday that I will not be able to cover the last few rounds of the Olympiad due to a scheduled and much needed vacation to French Canada. Unlike yesterday I didn’t see any games that I thought were worthy of mentioning outside of the upsets that… Read more →
Another exciting day in Tromso, France managed to eek out a victory over a tough Armenian team and (much to my chagrin) the Americans lost to the Dutch. The Russians managed to climb to the top five once again after thoroughly dominating wily team from Macedonia (FYROM – Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia). As to be expected there were many… Read more →