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Winning in long run requires motivation — Chess is a worthy pursuit for all seasons of life; 6- and 7-year-olds can play a pretty good game. In recent years, chess players in their early teens have become grandmasters. And a 20-year-old, Magnus Carlsen, is the highest-rated chess player in the world. Meanwhile, 82-year-old Viktor Korchnoi is still capable of winning tournaments, though not at the same level as before. When do chess grandmasters reach their peak? The ballpark figure used to be 35. But two chess players in their early 40s — the champion, Viswanathan Anand; and the challenger, Boris Gelfand — will face off for the world title in the summer. Gelfand embraces the age factor. He sees no decline in his ...

Chess: Karpov turns the screw — Karpov-Smyslov, Moscow 1972. White has come out of the opening with a certain spatial advantage. Now he has to find a plan. Warning: you're not looking for a sacrificial combination – this is Karpovian, it's all about subtlety and strategy. RB: I've nominated Karpov's Strategic Wins 1: The Making of a Champion by Tibor Karolyi (Quality Chess) for our book of the year award. It's a year-on-year account of Karpov's career from 1961 to 1985, nicely laid out and well annotated. Karpov's style is positional, unhurried and exceptionally deep. Constantly alert to the counter-stroke, he likes to make small improving moves. Some of Karpov's choices remain, even with the help of a chess computer, mysterious, as ...

Chess piece value — When I teach a class of beginning players, it is customary to explain the “value” of the chess pieces. If both sides exchange pieces, knowing their approximate value will help explain who gets the better deal. Some things are pretty obvious, like if I capture a queen and my opponent captures a bishop, we both know who is doing better. But some things are not so clear. I try to make analogies when I teach. Some hit the mark, and some confuse the student even more! But before I try to confuse my readers, let us look at standard values: Queen = 9, Rook = 5, Bishop = 3, Knight = 3, Pawn = 1. The king does not have a capture value, since we do not capture the king. (You can’t say, “I captured his knight and two pawns for...

The Most Treacherous Defense in Chess — Named after the Austrian chess master Ernst Grunfeld, the defense has been around for nearly 90 years. At first, it was looked upon with suspicion: giving white a strong pawn center that could only be tickled by black's dark bishop and other chess pieces didn't seem to be a fair deal. Those who played the Grunfeld defense knew that it could turn into a nightmare in an instant. But the defense also brought them bright moments, tempted them again and again, and they could not live without it. Bobby Fischer created the "game of the century" in 1956 against Donald Byrne and he almost beat the world chess champion Mikhail Botvinnik at the 1962 olympiad in Varna, Bulgaria, with the Grunfeld ...

Vasily Ivanchuk seizes on rivals' blunders to lead Grand Slam final — In a rare form upset both the world chess champion, Vishy Anand, and the world No1, Magnus Carlsen, were beaten on the same day at the Grand Slam final which has just switched from São Paulo, Brazil, to Bilbao, Spain, for its last five rounds. Anand got his queen trapped while Carlsen made a mega-blunder which is featured in this week's puzzle. The major beneficiary was Vasily Ivanchuk, 42, who beat both Anand and the world No3, Levon Aronian, and since the chess event is using football-style three points for a win he was briefly six points clear until losing to Carlsen in the final São Paulo round. It seemed that Ivanchuk would have fond memories of São Paulo but next day, as ...

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