Perpetual Chess Linkfest #64, December 22, 2023
Merry Linkfest!
What a crazy week of chess! As you may have heard, GM Alireza Firouzja has been playing a last-minute invitational in his adopted hometown in order to help him pass GM Wesley So on the live ratings list, and thereby earn a coveted spot in the FIDE Candidates Tournament. As many have pointed out, the tournament looked rather farcical in comparison to the super tournaments that usually decide such matters, and some wondered about its competitive integrity. Alireza had won his first 5 games, but today, in what is scheduled as the last round, he drew (from a losing position) and thus may not earn the last spot after all! But there are still 8 more days in 2023 for more last-second tournaments or additional rounds, so who knows what chaos will ensue.
On top of that, the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz occurs next week, which, (in addition to being a really fun tournament) gives GM Anish Giri a slim chance to (re)pass Gukesh in the Circuit standings for the other remaining Candidates spot. If this is confusing, I apologize, I didn’t design this system! All I want for Christmas is a return to Interzonal matches.
Anyway, other things are also happening in the chess world. There is a young British chess wunderkind making headlines, books are being reviewed, and FIDE Presidential term limits are being removed. Read all about it via the links below!
Even though the next chess week could be epic, there will be no linkfest next week, as I will be traveling. But I will have my popcorn with me, and on Friday, January 8 we can catch up on two weeks worth of Candidates drama and any other noteworthy chess stories. Until then, I wish you all Happy Holidays and a safe New Year- Ben
Update- Just as I was about to hit “send” Colin McGourty wrote a much more detailed, (and more coherent) explainer for Chess.com. Read it here.
Chess Improvement
GM Gregory Serper on finding “fractures” in your opponent’s position. Serper is so good at spotting patterns across generations of games! (Chess.com Blog)
GM Alex Colovic on how Self-Knowledge, and a painful miscalculation helped him get serious about addressing his chess shortcomings (GM Alex Colovic’s Blog)
FM Nate Solon on how to try to obsess less about ratings (Zwischenzug Blog)
Chess News
GM D Gukesh won the Chennai Grand Masters, and inched ahead of Giri in the race for one of the last Candidates spots (Shahid Ahmed for Chessbase India)
FIDE is getting rid of term limits for its president. What could go wrong? (Leon Watson for Chess.com)
Alireza was one win away from taking the rating lead and potentially earning a Candidates spot, but he drew today! (Andre Schulz for Chessbase News)
Leonard Barden takes a break from the FIDE drama to spotlight the astounding performance of 8-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan (The Guardian)
Books
Quality Chess shares excerpts of two of their forthcoming books, Spassky’s Best Games, by GM Tibor Karolyi, and Understanding Chess Exchanges by GM Amir Bagher and Mohammad Reza Salehzadeh (Quality Chess Blog)
I am honored that Perpetual Chess Improvement is nominated for Chess.com’s Award for Book of the Year, alongside some absolute legends! (Chess.com News)
Speaking of my book, here is another thoughtful review of it, by Jay Roth (Making Sense of Chess Blog)
Happy holidays, Ben!
Always grateful for the curation!