The biggest chess tournament of the year is less than a week away, and the chess content machine is humming. For the uninitiated, The FIDE Candidates tournament determines who earns the right to challenge for the World Championship this year, and tends to make for compelling theatre. This year’s edition is in Toronto, Canada and offers a clash of generations in both the Open and the Women’s sections. In addition to several Candidates preview pieces, we have our usual smattering of chess improvement-related posts, and, unfortunately, a few obituaries for recently departed chess players. I hope you all enjoy this week’s links, I will catch you all next week during the Candidates! - Ben
The Candidates is Coming
Tai Pruce Zimmerman looks at the small amount of data we have to attempt to ascertain whether past outperformance in the Candidates might predict future outperformance (Chess by the Numbers)
Magnus Carlsen discussed the Candidates (among many other topics) in a Sjakksnakk podcast interview. Tarjei Svensen summarizes it (Chess.com News)
Nathaniel Green shares “Chess by the Numbers’ Candidates’ win probability data, and gets reactions from GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, GM David Howell, Robert Hess and GM Rafael Leitao (Chess.com News)
Finally, CM Vjekoslav Nemec with the most detailed Candidates preview we could find, complete with two different predictions on order of finish! (Chessentials Blog)
R.I.P.
Lisa Lane, a pioneer in Women’s Chess Died at the Age of 90. (Dylan Loeb McClain for the New York Times)
GM Igors Rausis an accomplished trainer who became infamous for being caught with a phone in a bathroom at an OTB tournament passed away. (Peter Doggers for Chess.com)
Chess Improvement
GM Noël Studer shares advice for changing your study habits. But research clearly shows: if we do not create habits and systems, nearly all of us will fail to keep up activities that help us but aren’t the most fun.” (GM Noël Studer’s Blog)
Sheldon of Osaka drops another dispatch from Japan “To guard myself from the agony (of losing), I have invested hundreds of hours of training, thousands of dollars on chess materials, and countless ounces of blood, sweat and tears.” (Chess.com Blog)
FM Nate Solon shares some of the chess improvement advice recently dispensed by top trainer, GM RB Ramesh (Zwischenzug Blog)
Should you play the Petroff or the Berlin? GM Alex Colovic says the answer is not “neither”, but “both!” “I have played the Petroff myself on more than one occasion and the games have often been very interesting, a far cry from the boring reputation of the opening.” (GM Alex Colovic’s Blog)
Martin Justesen presents some interesting data on what type of tactics appear at different puzzle rating levels (Say Chess Blog)
David Hamm on what he is doing to try to limit blunders (LiChess Blog)
MIsc.
Fun trip report from LulaRobs on the Reykjavik Open (Chess.com Blog)
Chess is booming in Singapore (Junior Tay’s Chess.com Blog)
Why do men dominate chess? Carole Hooven takes a detailed look quoting Jen Shahade, Jules Gambit and many others (Quillette)
Magnus is leading the Grenke Open (Colin McGourty for Chess.com) (The Chess Mind Blog)
Ben, am very glad you linked to the Carole Hooven piece. I read it earlier this week and found it absolutely fascinating. While nobody denies a certain level of sexism in chess in the past, and some would even say it still exists today, it’s an intellectually lazy way to explain the differences in chess ability. I applaud Hooven for tackling this unPC subject with clarity and insight. Could be an excellent future interview for you.