Perpetual Chess Linkfest #20, January 14, 2023
LFG Wijk aan Zee!
Bad news fellow chess fans, it is looking increasingly likely that we may not have a World Championship match, at least as previously scheduled, but today is not the day to be dark! Tata Steel starts today, chess web traffic is booming, and, as is customary we have lots of insightful chess improvement related posts to share with you. Here are some of the best chess posts I came across this week:
Wijk aan Zee/Tata Steel
Fun Wijk aan Zee trivia primer from Eduard Frey. Unsurprising spoiler- Magnus was its youngest champion and has won it the most times. (Chessbase.com)
Tata Steel starts today with Carlsen-Aronian, among Other Matchups! (Colin McGourty for Chess24)
Leonard Barden also provides a nice preview of Tata Steel in which he drops this gem... “Firouzja missed many of the major chess occasions in 2022, leading to some outlandish rumours including one that he seeks a career away from chess in fashion design and a contradictory one where he is preparing to meet Carlsen in a breakaway world title match.” (The Guardian)
Chess Improvement
GM Alex Colovic on How Top Players Select Their Repertoires “With the state of modern theory being such that it is impossible to obtain an advantage with White, when they play White they are mainly going for the hit-and-run approach, choosing a line or idea suitable for one game, with the hope to surprise their opponents.” (Chessable Blog)
JJ Lang created a fun quiz based on the instant classic Rapport-Carlsen blitz game (Chess Life Online)
On the topic of learning from Carlsen, FM Dennis Monokroussos provides annotation to all 21 of Magnus’ games at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz (The Chess Mind Blog)
An update from IM Jakob Pfreundt on his Road to 2500 FIDE. “Several hours of additional daily prep on top of the 7-8 hours of chess (in a tournament) is clearly not best practice.” (LiChess Blog)
Evan Seghers on The Aspects of his Game he is Working on in 2023 “These are just 2 games, but I believe they are a microcosm of my general weaknesses.” (An Ocean of Chess Blog)
GM Gregory Serper on Seinfeld, the Yield Curve, and How to Learn from Losses. “If you played Black and got checkmated like this, you could complain that it was not your day, you were distracted and didn't defend very well, that you had a big material advantage and were on your way to winning if it were not for that accidental combination... Or you could admit that the final result contradicts your views and maybe there is something wrong with them.” (GM Serper for Chess.com)
Richard James with a detailed and helpful review of IM Thomas Engqvist’s 300 Most Important Chess Exercises (British Chess News)
“SimaginFan” takes you on a tour through some of Paul Keres’ more impressive early games (Chess.com Blog)
Non-Wijk Chess News
Indian Chess Star GM Harika Dronavalli on What it Was Like to Play the Olimpiad while 36 weeks Pregant “" I'm trying to be a mother she can look up to sometime!"“ (Himank Ghosh for Chessbase India)
Webster University won the American Collegiate Chess Championship (Pan Am Games) (Ray Linville for Chess.com)
GM Maxime Vachier Lagrave gives the rundown on his recent tournaments ranging from the World Rapid & Blitz to the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship (MVLs Blog)
Hans Niemann filed an amended complaint where he, among other things, accused Carlsen of bribing another GM to yell insults at him!? (Sean Ingle for The Guardian)
Misc.
Award Winning Sports Writer and Chess Enthusiast Joe Posnanski gets Philosophical about the Rise of Mittens (Joe Posnanski’s Blog)
20 Questions with chess history enthusiast Emila Castelao (Corey Shaya’s Chess.com Blog)
20 Questions with Ben Johnson (that name rings a bell!) (Corey Shaya’s Chess.com Blog)
That’s all I’ve got for you all. Have a good weekend everyone!- Ben
I’ve got to get you as my title guy!! Haha