Chess News
Hikaru Nakamura and Irina Krush await their Challengers in the Finals of the American Cup (FM Sandeep Sethuraman for Chess Life Online)
Leonard Barden on Kasparov’s Lukewarm Comments about Ding-Nepo, plus a Rundown of other Recent Chess News (The Guardian)
Chess Improvement
Great post from IM Junta Ikeda on how to Become a Better Defender “Work on 3 Skills: 1) Prophylaxis 2) Calculation 3) Active Defense” (Infinite Chess Blog)
Dr. Nick Vasquez dissects the highs and lows of his year of chess so far. “You can see from the AimChess data that the problems not with my openings or tactics. Where I am weakest is in time management, resourcefulness, and endgame. I also could be better on capitalizing on my advantages.” (Nick’s Blog)
GM Gregory Serper with a Fun One on the Importance of Knowing Endgame Basics (Chess.com Blog)
Can You Spot Carissa Yip’s Tactics? (JJ Lang for Chess Life Online)
GM Vasif Durarbayli wonders- What should you do if your OTB opponent is constantly coughing, to the point where you can’t concentrate? This is a tough issue for any regular tournament player. (LiChess Blog)
FM Garri Pacheco on the Beauty of endgame studies (Chess.com Blog)
Chess History
Sam Kahn with a Fascinating Post on Mannheim 1914, A Tournament that was Suspended when World War 1 Broke Out (Chess.com Blog)
Chess Books
Dr. Patzer saves us from a Week Without Book Reviews! He Reviews NM Dan Heisman’s Elements of Positional Evaluation (Dr. Patzer’s Blog)
Congrats to Martin who is out with his latest “Tactics Ladder” Workbook, this time for Players Below 1000 (Say Chess Blog)
That concludes this week’s linkfest- catch you all next week- Ben