Although it can be fun to watch Hikaru Nakamura play Wesley So for the gazillionth time, I find large open tournaments like The Reykjavik Open far more entertaining. This year’s edition has been especially incandescent, as in addition to the typical mix of GMs, amateurs and semi-pros, there are several prominent streamers in attendance. And they have come to play! Two of them, GM Simon Williams and WGM Dina Belenkaya have already played brilliant attacking games that have set “Chess Twitter” abuzz. The legendary GM Vasyl Ivanchuk is even in attendance in Reykjavik and has been holding down board 1, although he narrowly escaped against GM Magesh Panchanathan in Round 3! All of this is to say that it has been a fun tournament to follow so far and I look forward to the second half in the coming week. On to this week’s links:
Chess News
More background on The Reykjavik Open from Gerd Densing (with nice photos) (Chessbase News)
Leonard Barden with a rundown of the latest in top level chess: “The absence of Carlsen (at the 2024 FIDE Candidates in Toronto) , together with the prospect of a beatable reigning champion, should be sufficient incentive for Caruana, Nakamura and So to concentrate their efforts and raise their game in preparation for the favourable circumstances of a Candidates staged in North America.” (The Guardian)
The Women’s Candidates Final is tied at 1.5 after 3 rounds (NM Vanessa West for Chess.com)
Fun inteview excerpt with former FIDE World Champion, GM Alex Khalifman- “I do think Magnus that will return to the World Championship Cycle… at the moment when people least expect it from him. That’s the guy’s character.” (Colin McGourty for Chess24.com)
Nakamura and Krush brought home the Ws at the American Cup (IM Justin Wang for Chess Life Online)
Anna Cramling on the “isolating” experience of Competing in the Male-Dominated Chess World (Ben Church of CNN News)
Chess Improvement
IM Junta Ikeda is back with another banger! A Great Summary of Advice for Defending Lost Positions. “The best book for learning how to defend, or even better, how to swindle your opponents, is The Complete Chess Swindler by GM David Smerdon” (Infinite Chess Blog)
Dr. Nick Vasquez compares the knowledge/skill gap in chess to his experiences in medicine… “ I was most dangerous in my second year of medical school, because it was the most I had ever known about medicine… but I had no clinical skill. (Nick’s Blog)
FM Nate Solon looks at an inspiring game by “No Nonsense Nona” (Zwischenzug Blog)
That’s all I have for y’all this week, have a good weekend!- Ben