English Chess Forum

I am of course about to lay into the London Classic four player event and the ridiculous prize money. 1st $120,000 2nd $ 80,000 3rd $ 60,000 4th $ 40,000 Some ham could have lost every game and walk away with $40,000 (that is now impossible and the draws have already started to pile up.). Well no, ...

BBC Report Doing crossword puzzles and Sudoku does not protect against mental decline, according to a new study. The idea of "use it or lose it" when it comes to our brains in later life has previously been widely accepted. But a new Scottish study suggests it has no effect on mental decline. Inste...

The 6 monthly updates apply to longplay, not just rapidplay

Howell wins the first rapid with white, and looks like going through

Today's games started at 11 am (same format as yesterday)

Game 1
Williams - Adams
Howell - Haria
Jones - Merry
Hawkins - McShane

Game 1
1. Jonathan Hawkins v Jovanka Houska 1-0
2. John Nunn v Alan Merry 0.5 - 0.5
3. Matthew Turner v Ravi Haria 0.5 - 0.5
4. Simon Williams v Harriet Hunt 1-0

Game 2 in progress

From the December ECF newsletter Why am I always the only person who can't find these things? You don't actually have to answer that, just tell me where it is. The newsletter was emailed to me by the ECF yesterday afternoon I copied the whole of the text about grading for those who hadn't seen the ...

FIDE Regs on the Rapid & Blitz World Championships to be held in St Petersburg and the prize fund is $700,000 not the hoped for $2 million but does compare reasonably well with pre-Saudi events. So is St Petersburg a suitable venue for all potential participants? Ukraine being the obvious but not o...

The calculation of grades for players and the publication of grading lists is recognised as being a core function of the Federation. Annual grading lists have been published since time immemorial, and for the past few years the time interval has been six-monthly. The Board recognise that there is a...

MVL on the match (plus The Clash) 12 games is clearly not enough. I think the number should be raised to 16. But I see another problem in the many rest days, one of them after every pair of game. It is just not in the spirit of the match. You could see the match dragging on at the end, rest before ...

Carlsen blog doesn't give much away

I feel deep gratitude to Peter Heine Nielsen and the rest of my team of seconds

A special shout-out this time to chef Magnus Forssell

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:22 am

Steve Gardner writes on the match in 3 Quarks Daily

The Petroff is a crazy and complicated opening

Thoughts on the match from Svidler I was surprised, above all, by the score – I expected a lot of blood, and we saw only draws. But of course a great deal depended on the first game, in which Magnus didn’t win a position which in a normal situation he would have won 9 times out of 10, or even more. ...