Worst Worlds

John B. Henderson • April 12, 2023

The World Chess Championship with Magnus Carlsen - still ranked World No.1 by a big margin - abdicating his title was a strange affair indeed. And now, as Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren slug it out for the vacant throne in their €2m ($2.2m) best-of-14-game World Chess Championship match in Astana, Kazakhstan, could see the coveted contest enter the annals as the strangest ever in its 140-year history after two weird opening games. 


Things took a strange twist straight from the off in the first game with Nepo catching out Ding in the opening by resurrecting the DERLD, the Delayed Exchange of the Ruy Lopez Deferred (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Bxc6) that was popularised in the early 1970s by two top Lewisham (London) club players, Tony Swift and Len Pickett, who also collaborated on a series of critically-acclaimed opening research pamphlets (and many magazine articles).

But visibly nervous and struggling to hold his game together (and eventually battling through for a hard-earned draw), for some strange reason the live FIDE coverage took on an almost surreal air of a Big Brother-like reality show intrusion by turning his restroom visits and habits into a sideshow distraction. 


Ding was clearly overawed by the experience of playing in a title match; and clearly not in the right frame of mind, as he readily admitted in his first post-game presser. “In the first part of the game, before the middlegame, I didn’t think about chess so much. My mind was very strange — memories, feelings, strange things happened. I feel maybe there’s something wrong with my mind, maybe it was due to the pressure of the match.”


But despite the mind games and narrowly avoiding an opening game defeat, there was a general feeling that Game 2 was going to end in some sort of epic disaster for Ding, which is now being dubbed in some quarters as being “the worst game in the history of the world championship”, as China’s No.1 did indeed suffer a car-crash loss with the White pieces.


His opening surprise of 4.h3 definitely comes from the playbook of his second, Richard Rapport. The main objective was to take Nepo out of his well-honed preparation. But the Russian’s reaction - after a wry smile and some 10 minutes of thought on his clock - proved to be lethal, as he easily found the most aggressive way to demolish his opponent’s foolhardy experiment to strike first-blood and what could prove to be a psychologically-scarring early loss for Ding.


At least after those two early blows, a more confidant and relaxed Ding looks to have shrugged off the setback with a solid and drama-free draw in Game 3 by adopting a more conventional opening, and even going as far as saying in his post-game presser that he was now “beginning to feel more comfortable on the stage” after receiving support from his friends and fans.


Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2

½ 1 ½

½ 0 ½

Ding Liren | 1

GM Ding Liren - GM Ian Nepomniachtchi

World Chess Ch. 2023, (2)
Queen's Pawn game

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.h3?!? Far from ambushing Nepo, the only thing this bizarre move at this level achieved was to gain Ding 10 minutes of surprise-value time on his clock. But for the rest, that invaluable 10 minutes in the tank from Nepo was more than enough for him to drive a coach and horses through this unwise novelty. 4...dxc4 5.e3 c5 6.Bxc4 a6 Effectively, with Ding's early h3 experiment, Nepo has here a Queen's Gambit Accepted with the addition of a vital tempo! 7.O-O Nc6 8.Nc3 b5 9.Bd3 Bb7 10.a4 b4 11.Ne4 Na5 12.Nxf6+ gxf6! The correct recapture, as the open g-file gives Nepo the initiative with the ready-made kingside attack - and how ruthlessly he exploits this. 13.e4 c4 14.Bc2 Qc7 15.Bd2 Rg8 16.Rc1 O-O-O It was clear to see to all that Ding was never going to survive the coming kingside onslaught. 17.Bd3 Kb8 Just nudging the king out of the danger zone of the c-file. 18.Re1The pain was firmly etched on Ding's face for all to see - he was in a whole world of hurt where even the obvious pin down the c-file with 18.Bxc4 backfires to 18...Nxc4 19.b3 Bxe4 20.Rxc4 Qb7 21.Bf4+ Bd6 22.Bxd6+ Rxd6 23.Kh2 Rc6! 24.Rxc6 Qxc6 25.Re1 Bxf3 26.Qxf3 Qxf3 27.gxf3 Rc8 leaving White struggling to defend a total wreck of a R+P endgame. 18...f5! Let the carnage begin, as Ding is quickly put out of his misery. 19.Bc2 Nc6 20.Bg5 (see diagram) 20...Rxg5! This exchange sacrifice was just screaming to be played, and the screams could even be heard coming from inside Ding's head! 21.Nxg5 Nxd4 Ding's wretched position now collapses like a veritable House of Cards. 22.Qh5 f6 23.Nf3 Nxc2 24.Rxc2 Bxe4 25.Rd2 Bd6 26.Kh1Black's bishops baring down on White's kingside is the least of Ding's problems, as Nepo deftly switches his attentions to the queenside for the easiest of wins he'll ever experience at this level with the black pieces. 26...c3! 27.bxc3 bxc3 28.Rd4 c2 29.Qh6 e5 0-1 And with it, Ding heads for an early bath as the only square left for the rook is Rd2 that allows ...c1Q etc.

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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