Perpetual Chess Linkfest #46, July 28, 2023
Like GM Ju Wenjun in the Women’s World Championship, the linkfest has come back!
Hi everyone. I have a wide variety of interesting chess stories this week relating to players representing new countries, chess improvement, tennis, fighting dementia, and lots more. There is tons of chess going on, but the FIDE World Cup soon will take center stage (it starts Sunday). Can Magnus win the only major event he has not won? I intend to fill out my bracket soon, and I am probably not going to pick against him! Without further ado, here are 2 weeks worth of chess links. Have a good weekend!
Chess Improvement
GM Alex Colovic on dealing with stress in chess “There is only one reliable way to avoid excessive stress in chess. That is to give all your attention to the moves you make. When you are fully immersed in the calculation of variations or evaluating the position you do not feel stress or pressure.” (GM Alex Colovic’s Blog)
Dr. Nick Vazquez analyzes a painful loss “It’s been said that the best way to improve at chess is to play slow games and analyze them. Investing time into decisions and then seeing how well they work out is either the path to improvement or maybe the slow road to hell.” (Chess in Small Doses)
IM Junta Ikeda shares a few chess lessons we can learn from the unforgettable Alcaraz-Djokovic Wimbledon match. (Infinite Chess)
FM Nate Solon also found himself thinking about Chess when watching Alcaraz-Djokovic- what’s wrong with us? 😉 (Zwischenzug Blog)
GM Serper on why you shouldn’t resign (Chess.com Blog)
Sam Asaka Shares some Useful Advice for Club Players on Choosing Openings (The Say Chess Blog)
Books
Quality Chess shares an excerpt of Nikolaos Ntirlis’ forthcoming book, Playing the English (Quality Chess Blog)
Nick Visel reviews of Chernev’s classic, Logical Chess Move by Move “This book is not without its detractors, nor without its criticisms (much doing with the analysis of the ~master-level strength annotator), but I still think that this is one of the best introductions to chess books one can possibly find.” (Nick Plays Chess Blog)
Misc.
Sam Kahn with a fun look at the often overlooked legacy of Oldrich Duras “The sense is of a meteor - a chess genius, who was also wealthy, witty, urbane, liked by everyone - who then faded out of sight in the confusion of the war and possibly the stresses of his other responsibilities.” (Chess.com Blog)
A new study shows that chess and other active mental activities like crosswords can contribute to a decrease in the likelihood of developing dementia. (Albert Silver for Chessbase News)
Top Chess
Must-Read Piece from Dirk jan ten Geuzendam on Interviewing Hikaru, both this year and 19 years prior (New in Chess Blog)
GM Khachiyan, IM-elect Alice Lee, and GM Abi Mishra won the US Seniors, the US Junior Girls, and the US Junior, respectively (IM Sandeep Sethuraman for Chess Life Online)
WGM Begim Tokhirjonova with a trip report on the Dortmund Chess Festival “Regarding my tournament, I cannot say I played well. Dortmund was the third tournament in Europe, and I have been traveling for more than a month there. I felt I did not have enough energy for this tournament, which is my fault.” (Chess Life Online)
GM Le Quang Liem won the Biel Festival and has a new personal best rating. Will the World #16 make some noise in the World Cup? (FM Jack Rodgers for Chess.com)
GM Fedoseev will now represent Slovenia “I have no will to represent Russia.” (NM Anthony Levin for Chess.com)
IM Sara Khadem is now officially a Spanish citizen “She told Reuters in the video embedded below: "I was told to record some video of saying that I regret what I did.... They told me, 'If you do that, you can go back,' but I didn't wanna do it, so that was when I realized that it's not possible to go back." (Anthony Levin for Chess.com)
Community
FM Alisa Melekhina with a Detailed Post on the Thriving NYC Corporate Chess League (Chess.com Blog)
Congrats to GM Hikaru Nakamura and Iranian-American WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan who recently married. (Tarjei Svensen for Chess.com)
Thank you for the shout out Ben!