English Chess Forum

If last weekend's results are anything to go by, with all the teams from Pool B winning in round 8, at least three of them will get promoted. Sussex Martlets carry no wins forward from Pool B so they might offer a glimmer of hope to Spirit of Atticus? I like to see veterans succeed so I hope they ma...

In view of the announcement about visas for sporting students (discussed in the Tier 4 visa regulations thread under General Chat) I imagine that Hou Yifan would be ill advised to allow herself to be recruited by any 4NCL team, whatever the inducement? I'm not sure that I see why. What is the worst...

a good guess. They had been hoping to play her regularly but must still be hoping for a one-off appearance. In view of the announcement about visas for sporting students (discussed in the Tier 4 visa regulations thread under General Chat) I imagine that Hou Yifan would be ill advised to allow herse...

.. Tim. Why are you referring to the 2016 Arbiters' Manual? There is a 2018 one. The Arbiters' Manual is not Law. It is just suggestions. Naturally there are mistakes. I did check the 2018 edition prior to publication. Even so, I expect there are errors. I think I did not get to check the 2016 edit...

Ah yes, I hadn't given that clause much thought, sorry. If the opponent is still thinking (though it's unlikely if Player A has been absent for a quarter of an hour) then you are right. The the thing would be to catch Player A on his return without disturbing B. Failing that, wait until B made his m...

First observation, in response to the line in Justin's blog: And has a team match ever been reduced to single combat in this way before? Yes, I think it happens quite a lot in 4-board international team matches. As captain in two World Seniors Teams events I have seen quite a few matches reduced to ...

Leaving the venue without the arbiter's permission does not have a defined penalty associated with it, so it's up to the arbiter which of the penalties they apply. I think I'd need to know why the player left the venue before I came to a conclusion as to whether the penalty was OK or too lenient. I...

Old-fashioned way: Alizadeh's move 7 f4 is premature according to notes to Game 55 in Fischer's " My Sixty Memorable Games" saying Black can choose between 7...b5, 7...d5 and your 7...Nxe4. Fischer himself used to play 7 Bb3 to rule out all those replies. The engine way: Stockfish10 prefers Black af...

Board pairings, for round 9 which starts very early tomorrow, are now up at chess24. To clarify, Russia have won the Open (and China the women's tournament) with a round to spare with 14MP. India and England are on 11 MP and China on 10 MP (but China have 1 game point more). USA have 9MP and the sam...

Adhiban looks like saving his ending in which case England may only get bronze if they can beat Sweden. (Malcolm Pein watching anxiously.)
But the good news is that India would have to beat Russia which seems unlikely.
Well done to Egypt for winning a match.

Ding Liren v Adams
McShane v Yu Yangyi
Wei Yi v Howell
Jones v Bu Xiangzhi

Karjakin is back.

Yes you do love correcting me, don't you? I wasn't at home to check the title page of his book.

The link from John McKenna's post mentions: Tigran Vartani Petrosjan: Chess Logic. Skakhus-forlaget, 1968. Translated from the Russian into English by Carl Andersen. (See the catalogue entry at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek.) I have copy 90 (of 250) of this. It is 39 pages and says it is the "personal...

Thanks, Stewart. Harold Murray had a long debate with the German problemist Johannes Köhtz who wrote a long article on early chess for the Handbuch des Schachspiels , which Murray thought was wrong in many respects. A summary of this is to be found in a two-part article Murray wrote in BCM for 1913....

Phew! McShane held so we win the match and are up to second place, India only drawing.