World Chess Championship

Day 84

Leave a Comment / Catalan, Climb To 2000, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Magnus Carlsen, Sam Shankland, World Chess Championship /

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

Leave a Comment / Climb To 2000, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Magnus Carlsen, Ruy Lopez, Sam Shankland, World Chess Championship /

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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World Chess Championship 2012

Leave a Comment / Boris Gelfand, Viswanathan Anand, World Chess Championship /
The World Chess Championship was held May 10-30 with Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand facing of for the title. It is the first world championship match I have ever followed while it was being played out and so I really enjoyed it. However, many commentators and chess players have expressed different thoughts, expressing their views about the lack of excitement in the match as a whole and the individual games that were played, along with the fact that the two players in the match were not the two highest ranked players in the world.
I found the games quite interesting though, even with the high number of drawn games. The things I found most interesting were the little intricacies in the games and the opening theory that was demonstrated by the players. My favourite games were rounds 10 and 12 where the Rossolimo Sicilian variation was played. The games were both drawn but I enjoyed the ideas in the opening as something different for White to play against the Sicilian.
I also really enjoyed watching Kingscrusher and Chessexplained on YouTube go through the games and give their insights on the games and would recommend the videos to those who are interested. (A link can be found on my blog.)
The great thing about a World Championship match and other high profile matches is the amount of analysis that occurs on different websites etc. from very experienced chess players, which are available for our viewing to help us grow in our understanding of chess.
The final result went in Anands favour and he earned the title of world champion once again. The title was secured after the match was drawn and the players moved onto a rapid playoff to decide the champion.

 

 

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Famous Games – World Chess Championship1892

Leave a Comment / Famous Games, Mikhail Chigorin, Wilhelm Steinitz, World Chess Championship /

The following games are from the Steinitz-Chigorin World Chess Championship in 1892. In this rematch Steinitz was again champion with the final score of 10 wins to 8 with 5 draws across 23 games. I have chosen a few games that I found interesting for you to view below.


This game is a classic game that you may have seen before with a great finish!

Chigorin had the chance to even up the stakes with this game but makes a blunder that gives Steinitz mate in 2 and the win!

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