by scribe | Sep 27, 2017 | current news, people, translations
Today Levon Aronian won both of his 25-minute playoff games against Ding Liren to become the first two-time winner of the World Cup. (He also won in 2005. I’m not including the two earlier World Cups that were held using a different format and only 24 players.)...
by scribe | Sep 23, 2017 | current news, endings, positions
In my last post, I looked at the K and Q versus K and R endgames, one of the four endgames of the Apocalypse, which occurred in both of the semifinal matches of the World Cup, and I introduced a couple of new ideas or at least new terminology, the “seesaw...
by scribe | Sep 21, 2017 | current news, endings, literature, positions, tournaments
Watching the World Cup is just like watching a master class in endgames! We’ve already had three matches decided by very difficult K+R versus K+B endgames, with equal pawns on both sides. Today, in the semifinal round, the masters decided to teach us a class in...
by scribe | Sep 18, 2017 | current news, people, ruminations
I’m glad to make a two-part announcement today. First, my blog is going to start partnering with Susan Polgar’s blog, “Chess Daily News.” Don’t worry, my posts will continue to appear here as they always have, but they will also be...
by scribe | Sep 14, 2017 | current news, games, positions, tournaments
Every landslide begins with one little pebble. And then another, and then a few rocks, and then a boulder, and then a whole hillside is moving … That’s what it must have felt like for Alexander Grischuk when he was on the receiving end of an overwhelming,...
