Hi everyone, I don’t have a lot of time to rhapsodize this week, but I didn’t want to leave you linkless. Here is the latest from the wide world of chess. Have a good weekend! - Ben
Chess News
An informative rundown of the entire FIDE Grand Swiss from JJ Lang (Chess Life Online)
Leonard Barden, as always, provides an informative rundown of top chess news, including this nugget: “Although she disappointed in the Women’s Grand Swiss, Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina is still the favourite to win the Women’s Candidates with one caveat. Hou Yifan, the former champion and all-time No 2 woman after Judit Polgar, can capture the ratings spot if she plays another 15 classical games before the January 2024 rating list. Hou is only a part-time player now, but if she decides to take the world crown seriously again she would be a strong contender.” (The Guardian)
Chess Improvement
FM Nate Solon shares some helpful tips for how to approach solving chess exercises (Zwischenzug Blog)
Instructive Post from GM Alex Colovic on Magnus’ approach to the Black Side of the Rossolimo (GM Alex Colovic’s Blog)
Coach’s Corner with CM Can Kabadayi “I believe the most important role of the chess coach is to give epistemic feedback to the student: It means answering the “why?” questions.” (Chess.com Blog)
Books
Sam Kahn is writing a book with IM Cyrus Lakdawala and FM Carsten Hansen based on his excellent “A Century of Chess” feature. “to be a grandmaster beating other grandmasters — it’s necessary not just to master certain techniques but to reflect one’s personality in a game, the same way an artist would in a painting or a novel” (Chess.com Blog)
“Vitualis” Reviews Gotham Chess’ new book “Who is Levy Rozman's "How to Win at Chess" for? I think that the self-described rating of up to 1200 ELO is very reasonable, and it's a perfectly good book for recreational players who want some easy-to-follow tips.” ( Chess.com Blog)
Misc.
Chessable is organizing a large scale study of engine-cheating, Dr. Alexey Root shares some fascinating details (Chessable Blog)
Douglas Griffin looks at the legacy of legendary Soviet-era author, GM Alexei Suetin (Soviet Chess History)
Carlos Alberto Colodro with an informative profile of Argentinian prodigy, FM Faustino Oro “From a very early age, we knew that Fausti was an alert boy. For example, he was able to solve the Rubik’s cube in less than two minutes. Things like that. But we could never have imagined the incredible talent he would surprise us with. His natural genius for understanding the royal game was nothing short of perplexing.” (Chessbase News)