World Cup Fever

John B. Henderson • August 1, 2023

The race to become the next world champion has now officially started, as the jamboree that is the Fide World Cup got underway on Sunday in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the field of 206-player doing battle in the mega knockout event. Each round is a two-game mini-match, followed by rapid and blitz tiebreaks - and there will be many nerve-jangling moments for those looking to progress.


Magnus Carlsen may well have abdicated the main world crown, but the Norwegian is the No 1 seed in the only major individual event he has never won - hence the reason for his participation. The top seeds are already into the second round of the contest that gets underway on Wednesday - when the tournament will already be over for 117 players heading for an early flight home - and Carlsen’s main rivals could well prove to be Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana of the US. 

By convention, with it being an automatic qualifier into the Candidates, the world champion doesn't normally play in the World Cup (Carlsen proving to be the exception in 2021!), and absent from the line-up is the new world champion, Ding Liren - but another notable and more puzzling absentee is the 20-year-old world No 4, Alireza Firouzja, once deemed to be the young pretender to Carlsen’s throne, who is pursuing a parallel career in fashion design. 


The KO format for the World Cup always throws up the possibility of an unknown going on a giant-killing run. In the last World Cup in 2021, it was the young Serbian newly-minted GM, Velimir Ivic. Ranked 110th, he defeated Robert Hungaski 1½-½ in the first round, 19th seed Francisco Vallejo Pons 1½-½ in the second round, 46th seed Matthias Bluebaum 1½-½ in the third round, and 14th seed Dmitry Andreikin 3-1 in the fourth round. His heroic run only ended in the fifth round when he lost to Vladimir Fedoseev.


Once again, Ivic found himself in the media spotlight - but for all the wrong reasons, as the World Cup star of 2021 was sensationally crushed in dazzling style in the opening game of his two-game mini-match by the possible new star of 2023, the cherubic and fresh-faced fourteen-year-old Turk, IM Ediz Gurel, the youngest player in the competition.


Ivic duly survived the possibility of an early exit by winning game two to take the match into a sudden-death tiebreak, where the more experienced Serbian finally managed to overpower the rising star, as he went on to win both rapid games to record a 3-1 victory. 

IM Ediz Gurel - GM Velimir Ivic

FIDE World Cup, (1.1)

C83: Ruy Lopez, Open

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Nxe4 It was the late, great Danish legend Bent Larsen who once suggested that the Open Variation was the only 'correct way' for Black to play against the Ruy Lopez. And indeed, Larsen was the one to rehabilitate the Open Lopez at the elite level; writing many articles supporting it, and famously using it to beat Bobby Fischer during the Second Piatigorsky Cup in Santa Monica, 1966. 6.d4 Be7 7.Re1 b5 8.Bb3 d5 9.dxe5 Be6 10.c3 O-O 11.Nbd2 Nc5 12.Nd4 Nxd4 13.cxd4 Nd3 14.Re3 Nxc1 15.Rxc1 a5 16.Rec3 a4 17.Bc2 a3? Right idea but the wrong execution of creating counterplay, as Ivic walks into an epic tactic that turned the young 14-year-old into an overnight star of the World Cup. Correct was 17...c5! 18.dxc5 b4 19.Rg3 Bg5! And Black does have genuine compensation for the pawn after 20.Qh5 (A minor detail, but this time - unlike in the game - the 'Greek gift' with 20.Bxh7+?? backfires as Black has 20...Kxh7 21.Qh5+ Bh6! and White is losing big-time) 20...h6 21.Qe2 Qe7 22.Qd3 g6 23.Qd4 Ra5 24.Bb1 Rc8 25.c6 Qa7! 26.Qxb4 Ra6 27.h4 Raxc6! 28.Rxc6 Rxc6 29.hxg5 Rc1+ 30.Kh2 Qxf2 31.Rc3 Qg1+ 32.Kg3 Qe1+ 33.Kf3 Qd1+ 34.Kg3 (Definitely not running the king with 34.Ke3?? as Black ends up with a forced winning position after 34...Qg1+ 35.Kf4 Qxg2 36.Rxc1 Qg4+ 37.Ke3 Qxb4 38.Nf3 hxg5 39.Nd4 Qxb2 40.Rg1 g4 and Black is easily winning with the extra couple of pawns but, more importantly, the queen dominates the position)

34...Qe1+ and a perpetual check. 18.bxa3 Bxa3 19.Rb1 c5 20.dxc5 d4 In Ivic's head, and in his calculations, he probably thought he was doing OK here with his menacing bishop-pair and a juicy target on a2 - but he's missed a crucial tactic. 21.Rg3 Bxc5 (see diagram) Ivic has what can only be politely described as a brain freeze, making a complete Horlicks of it in his head by probably thinking the game was going to continue 22.Rxb5 Rc8 with Black has genuine compensation and counter-play for the pawn. 22.Bxh7+! The 'Greek gift' strikes yet again, only for about the millionth time in chess! 22...Kxh7 23.Qh5+ Kg8 24.Qh6 g6 25.Ne4 Black can't stop the looming Nf6+ hit and a mating attack. Time to lick your wounds and get the game over and done with, and move on to Game 2 and look to equalise to take the game into a dramatic tiebreak, which happens in the match. 25...Be7 26.Rf3 Bf5 27.Rxf5! Ra6 What else is there now? If 27...gxf5 28.Nf6+ Bxf6 29.exf6 and Black can't stop Qg7 mate. 28.Rf3 1-0

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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