Sam Shankland

Day 84

Rating 1827

Puzzle Rush Score

Daily Study Today’s World Championship game was so good! I can safely say that I have never played the Catalan. On chess.com you get little achievements when you play an opening for the first time and I am yet to get the Catalan achievement. However, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the game. The middle game complications were real! The endgame was also really instructive.

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Day 83

Rating 1827

Puzzle Rush Score 24

Daily Study The World Chess Championship has begun and the first game ended in a draw. I think my study over the next few weeks is going to be mainly following the event and looking at the games.

I had thought that it was likely we would see a Ruy Lopez and we did. I even had a sneaking suspicion that it could be a Marshall type position (as it has been quite popular at the moment and I have been noticing it more in my own games too). Magnus gave up a pawn for the two bishops and dynamic play. Nepomniachtchi went up a pawn, but had to deal with a tricky pawn structure and had to defend well to secure the draw.

Sam Shankland is going to annotate each of the games for chess.com news coverage. I am going to share his annotations here on my blog. I love reading through annotations of the grandmasters as it really helps you get into the same headspace as the players.

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Day 47

Rating 1833

Puzzle Rush Score 36

Daily Study Today I played one blitz game, I looked over a game played by Kasparov and Karpov from Linares 1992. I also worked on a chess newsletter. More information about that newsletter to come!

The U.S Chess Championship ended in a tie for first place after Fabiano Caruana drew with Sam Shankland in an incredibly exciting game.

That means playoffs! Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Samuel Sevian will battle it out. More great chess!

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