Perpetual Chess Linkfest #91, August 16, 2024
Big Chess Coming
September is looking to be a month to remember for the chess world, with a Magnus Carlsen-Hans Niemann speed chess showdown set to take place September 6 in Paris. The match will be played “battleship-style” with the players playing via computer in the same room. Some days later, Magnus will head off to Budapest for the Chess Olympiad. At the Olympiad, Magnus will be playing actual classical chess on a team with his Norwegian compatriots. These two events highlight the contrast between old school and new school chess events and I am excited for both of them. While we wait, there is plenty to follow both at the top levels and in the chess-improvement realm. Read all about it via the links below.
Chess Improvement
A team of AI scientist/chess players is working on a cool project related to chess puzzles. You can help them by solving Lichess puzzles through their link. (Frogoffruit90’s LiChess Blog Post)
NM Matt Gross shares reflections and sample lines related to his recent choice to take up the Scotch Game. “…Dissatisfaction with 1… e5 is one of the major reasons I switched to playing 1. d4 a couple of years ago. “ (MoveLibrary Blog)
GM Alex Colovic on what he does to make sure he is consuming chess content actively. “The main danger of online chess consumption is that it can easily put the viewer in a passive position (chess pun fully intended) - it is little different from watching a film or a football match on TV.” (GM Alex Colovic’s Blog)
Books/Courses
JoelCato has been sharing some good book breakdowns on his Chess.com blog, including this list of books that are often recommended, but may be too hard for you (Chess.com Blog)
IM Andrew Greet provides an insightful peek at GM Sam Shankland’s Theoretical Rook Endgames (Quality Chess Blog)
Richard James recommends Tiviakov’s Rock Solid Chess for 1750+ players “Perhaps this isn’t a book for everyone, but the content is excellent throughout, and, if you’re strong enough to appreciate grandmaster level positional concepts, the book can be highly recommended.” (British Chess News)
Chess News
The FIDE Women’s Grand Prix is underway, and the Muzychuk sisters played an amusing draw. (Colin McGourty for Chess.com)
FM Dennis Monokroussos takes a measured look at Hans’ recent activities. “One needn’t be a fan of Niemann or his trash-talking persona (I find the latter disasteful in the extreme) to think that Carlsen’s accusations from the Sinquefield Cup a couple of years ago were unfair and unduly harmed Niemann’s career.” (The Chess Mind Blog)
More on Hans’ resurgence to near the top 20 from Leonard Barden (The Guardian)
Jan Buettner on the upcoming contination of $12 million freestyle chess tour (Chessbase India)
Kevin Pryor was named the new president of US Chess (Chess Life Online)
Chess History
Sam Kahn takes a fascinating look at the Capablanca-Alekhine rivalry. “My favorite story about Alekhine and Capablanca has the two of them attending a music revue during the London 1922 tournament. Capablanca, according to a witness, never took his eyes off the dancing girls. Alekhine, sitting next to him, never took his eyes off a pocket chess set. “ (Chess.com Blog)
That’s all for this week, have a good weekend!-
Ben