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 →
This month we are going to peruse the games of GM Emil Sutovsky. Sutovsky has a FIDE rating of 2626 and is the 5th highest rated player from Israel. He earned the IM title in 1993 and earned the GM title in 1996. Like GM Azarov he is still active and plays frequently. In 1996 he won the World Junior… Read more →
If you’ve been a diligent reader, you may remember the post from last year, “10 Games from 2013“. To maintain some consistency across this blog; I will attempt to re-create the same post this year. I also wanted to add a new section to this post that I am calling, “The Player of the Year”. I choose this player by… Read more →
Today I’m going to be running through the list of candidates and what I perceive to be their respective chances for winning the tournament. Last year it was fairly easy to determine who would be the next challenger; Magnus Carlsen was a clear favorite and Levon Aronian was the number two choice. For a while that seemed to be playing… Read more →
Hello everyone, continuing the format of the “Top 10 list” I present to you 10 games from 2013. I had trouble creating a title for this page because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say about these games: are these the best games from 2013? Are these the most memorable games from 2013? Tough questions, but I intend on… Read more →
If you’re looking for a new opening you’ve come to the right place! I warned you all that this was coming, this will be a bit dryer than my usual chess posting. I intend to do some fairly in depth research on the openings that were played during the 2013 World Cup so we amateurs can get an idea as… Read more →
As the fourth round wraps up I would like to just take a moment here and say that the second game of the first tiebreaks between Morozevich and Tomashevsky was one of the most exciting and nerve wracking games I have ever seen. The game started off slowly with each side doing the cat and mouse. Finally after a slip… Read more →
Greetings everyone, Round 3 has come to a close and we are now in the sweet sixteen. The fourth round should be full of intrigue as we watch the best players in the world duke it out. Worth checking out are the interviews between Nakamura and Kamsky with Polgar. You can sense a certain disdain and a desire to keep… Read more →
Today I’m going to try my hand at creating the beloved “Top 5 list” which will be discussing the most famous forfeits in chess history. These games and matches are unique because despite the fact that no moves had been played; one person was crowned victor (or world champion in one case). Read more →