Perpetual Chess Linkfest, #67, January 19, 2024
Action-packed
Hi everyone! Here in New Jersey, my kids are on their second snow day of the week so I have little time for editorializing. It has been an awesome week of chess though, with Tata Steel taking center stage. We also have a bevy of insightful chess-improvement-related posts, a book review, and even a potential norm-buying scandal brewing. I am setting off to shovel snow, have a good weekend- Ben
Chess News
Chess.com broke the bad news that the Pro Chess League is being cancelled. R.I.P. to a real one. (IM Danny Rensch for Chess.com News)
What can we learn from the common discourse about chess cheating? Jen Shahade breaks it down in an insightful post (Jennifer’s Substack)
GM Nijat Abasov discussed his ascendance into the FIDE Candidates with Tarjei. “"It's not like I am working only the next three months. I have been working on chess for the past 20 years, so nothing has changed. Now it will just be more intense and with more motivation." (Chess.com News)
GM Hans Niemann has started a Substack Blog! I predict that it won’t be boring. “Chess players don't correctly describe the real lifestyle that we chess professionals live.” (Hans’s Substack)
FIDE refused to rate a suspicious tournament where FM Brandon Burrows earned an IM Norm (Tarjei Svenson for Chess.com )
Fantastic article by GM Gregory Kaidanov on his experience playing Magnus and other monsters in the Qatar Open. “Memory is a very strange thing. Sometimes you can't remember the lines you looked at right before the game, and sometimes, like in this case, you recall what you saw in a chess magazine 44 years ago!” (Chess Life Online)
Chess Improvement
Dr. Nick Vasquez reviews his month of tournament chess. “IM Alex Banzea’s London Course completely changed what I expect from other Chessable courses and from my own preparation. I don’t want to know the moves… I want to know the plans for both sides.” (Chess in Small Doses)
GM Alex Colovic shares a poignant reflection on his time as a traveling chess pro… “This contrast of what "everyday life" looks for a lot of people and the singleminded focus from my chess-playing days still hasn't left me.” (GM Alex Colovic’s Blog)
What is the secret to Hikaru’s blitz success? “The ChessCorner64” argues that it isn’t engine prep. “He plays systems he knows well, has intuition for, plays quickly to put pressure on the clock and of course calculates extremely well and fast in the middle-game.” (Chess.com Blog)
FM Nate Solon tells you why your rating isn’t going up. “if you’re learning a lot, but not seeing it reflected in your results, there’s a good chance you’re missing skills lower on the (chess skills) pyramid” (Zwischenzug Blog)
Alekhine/Books/Chess History
Nick Visel reviews Alekhine’s Complete Games Volume 1, “Alekhine’s analysis is incisive and instructive” (Nick Plays Chess)
Want more Alekhine? Simaginfan shares some historical nuggets and some great old photos of him. (Chess.com Blog)
Wonderful piece from Douglas Griffin on the legacy of Soviet/Israeli/American GM Leonid Shamkovich (Soviet Chess History Blog)
I never watched the pro chess league but I'm sad to see it go. It seemed like that tournament style was perhaps too "busy" so much going on at once that it was hard to cover live and get invested in any single game.