It was a slow chess week at the top levels of chess, but the 2023 Chess Calendar is filling up quickly, and Tata Steel is less than a week away. Meanwhile, in online chess, the feline chess bot Mittens has generated a lot of attention, presumably due to the dichotomy between its cute face and crushing chess moves. If you are not familiar with Mittens, congratulations, you probably spend your time more wisely than I do. In any event, despite the lack of news, we have some quality links and book reviews for you. Here they are…
Chess Books
Vjekoslav Nemec read practically every chess book that exists in 2022, and kindly reviews them for us (Chesssentials Blog)
Quality Chess looks to have some bangers coming in 2023, led by the highly anticipated return of Chess Structures Author GM Mauricio Flores Rios and Learn from the Legends 2 by GM Mihail Marin …
Classical Chess ?
Magnus Carlsen has been sounding the death knell for classical chess, but Martin Justesen still values it. (Say Chess Blog)
Daaim Shabazz also discussed the rise of faster online chess. “It is the view of this writer that chess should not come down to an “either/or” decision. The online/OTB, classical/quickplay, and match/tournament debates are all relevant to the promotion of chess.” (The Chess Drum)
Congrats to India’s Newest Grandmaster, 16 year old Pranesh M (Shahid Ahmed for Chessbase India)
Mittens
“Chess.com's latest addition to chess bots, Mittens, has been storming the chess world. It is no secret that Mittens with her whopping one singular Elo is absolutely annihilating every mortal on the planet.” (Naycir’s Chess Blog)
Gotham Chess is going all Mittens all the time, as his channel has passed 2 millions subs and a couple Mittens related videos topped 1 million views!! (Gotham Chess YouTube)
Meanwhile, GM Benjamin Bok beat Mittens in a Legit Beautiful Game. “Here… Mittens Made Some Mistakes.” (Benjamin Bok’s YouTube) (Play Through the Moves on Chess.com)
Misc.
Sports Business Substacker Joseph Pompliano chronicles the ascent of Chess.com. “Chess.com is one of the world’s most interesting companies.”) (How The Resurgence Of Chess Built A $500 Million Company)
This concludes this weeks linkfest, have a good weekend everyone, catch you next week. - Ben