The Play-In

John B. Henderson • February 6, 2023

One of the major - and much welcomed - changes to the format of the revamped $2m Champions Chess Tour is that, for the first time, it is genuinely open to all grandmasters to compete for a berth to play against the likes of Magnus & Co. It’s called a ‘Play-In’, and the first, for a place to alongside the big guns in the Airthings Masters Knockout - that gets underway today - was sensationally won by Indian rising star Gukesh D.


Unlike the monetary ‘Buy-In’ seen in poker, this one does what it says on the side of the tin, with everyone having to do battle in a gruelling 8-hour Play-In day that began with a 146-player, 9-round Swiss where all grandmasters could play. 

At the end of the day, the 16-year-old from Chennai went undefeated scoring six wins, that remarkably included three against former World Champion Vladmir Kramnik, and three draws as he dominated the super-strong field. Along with Gukesh D, five other top GMs - Rauf Mamedov, Alireza Firouzja, Arjun Erigaisi, Alexey Sarana, and Hikaru Nakamura - also qualified for Division I after the Match Play segment.


The sextet go forward now to face Magnus Carlsen, the 2022 Champions Chess Tour winner, and Wesley So, the 2022 Global Chess.com Champion, who were the only players invited into the $235,000 Airthings Masters — a double-elimination knockout split into three divisions that runs February 6-10.


The new format comes with Chess.com successful takeover of the Play Magnus Group and spans a full season of online chess comprising six events starting with the Airthings Masters followed by Playoffs and culminating with knock-out Final in December. Each event has a prize fund of $235,000.

GM Vladimir Kramnik - GM Gukesh D

Airthings Masters Play-In, (7)

English Opening

1.c4 c5 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.b3 Nge7 7.Ba3 b6 8.d4 There are lines of the English Opening with an early b4 - rather than d4 - with similar themes of looking to hit the hole on d6. 8...0-0 Bad was 8...cxd4?! 9.Nb5! 0-0 10.Rc1 and White has a clear advantage with the d4-pawn set to be recaptured. And there's also; 

8...Nxd4 9.Nxd4 d5!? 10.Rc1 Bxd4 11.b4!? which is a little similar to what happens in the game. 9.0-0 d5 10.cxd5 exd5 11.Rc1 Nxd4 12.Nxd4 Bxd4 13.b4 Ba6 14.bxc5 Bxc5 15.Bb2?! Too ambitious from Kramnik, as he attempts to bamboozle his younger and less experienced opponent with pressure down the long a1-h8 diagonal - but it only backfires to bamboozle the former world champion himself! Instead, he had to go for simplifying with 15.Bxc5 bxc5 16.Nxd5 Nxd5 17.Bxd5 Bxe2 18.Bxf7+ Rxf7 19.Qxe2 Rf5 20.Qe6+ Kh8 21.Rfd1 Qe8! where White has a marginal advantage, but it is doubtful he has anything that looks like a winning in the ensuing double R+P endgame. 15...Rc8 16.Nxd5 Nxd5 17.Bxd5 Qg5! Timing is everything, because with one excellent and accurate move, suddenly it is Gukesh who is taking control with the more active pieces, plus the added threat looms of rooks coming to d8 and e8. 18.Qb3? Kramnik had to bail-out now with 18.Bf3 (White would really like to be able to play 18.h4 here, but that would lose on-the-spot to 18...Qxg3+!) 18...Rfe8 19.Re1 Qf5! with Black having slightly the better of equality with a hidden double tactic on f2 and e2. 18...Bxe2! With White's bishops menacingly threatening, some might well have feared that Kramnik had 'something' - but Gukesh shows no fear by snatching the pawn to take command. 19.Rfe1 Qd2! As Kramnik collapses, you begin to believe that he might not have fully appreciated just how strong a move this was for his opponent; the big threat being ...Bxf2+ followed by a nasty discovered check. 20.Bc3 Qd3 21.Qc2 A sure admission from Kramnik that he is now in dire straits - and not in any good way either by standing in-between brothers Mark & David Knopfler! 21...Qxc2 22.Rxc2 Bd3! [see diagram] Gukesh has a solid pawn, but what is really impressive is how he belies his age by showing no respect whatsoever for the former world champion, as he very effectively polishes off his more illustrious opponent. 23.Rd2 Bf5 24.Bf6 There's just no way to avoid a tactic on f2 winning a second pawn, so Kramnik goes for broke now by sacrificing the exchange to try and make something - anything - with his bishop-pair. 24...Bb4 25.Ree2 Bxd2 26.Rxd2 Rc2 27.Rd1 Rfc8 Slightly more clinical was 27...Be6! 28.Bb3 (If 28.Bxe6 fxe6 29.Be5 Rfxf2 easily wins.) 28...Bxb3 29.axb3 Rfc8 30.Kg2 R2c6 31.Bg5 Rc3 32.b4 R3c4 33.Be7 a5! 34.bxa5 bxa5 and the passed a-pawn will be unstoppable. 28.Kg2 b5 29.Rd4 Be6! Effectively the game is over at this point. 30.Bxe6 fxe6 31.Rd7 R2c7 32.Rd6 Kf7 33.Be5 Rb7 34.h4 There's no defence. If 34.Ra6 Rc4! with the threat of ...Ra4 coming. 34...b4 It's just a matter of time now for Gukesh to cash in on his massive advantage. 35.Ra6 Rc5 36.f4 h5 37.Kh3 Rd7 38.Bd6 Rc4 39.Be5 Rc2 40.Bd6 Kg8! 0-1 And with it being zugzwang, Kramnik resigns. The point is that the king just moves out of any check to set-up the quick mate after 41.Be5 Rdd2! 42.Rxa7 Rh2#

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • October 2, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • September 29, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • September 27, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • September 25, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • September 22, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • September 19, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • September 14, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • September 11, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • September 8, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • September 4, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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