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Magnus Carlsen has won the World Chess Championship Match contested in London in a dramatic rapid chess playoff. Dominating Fabiano Caruana by winning Games 1 and 2 of the rapid playoff, Carlsen needed only a draw in Game 3 to retain his title. Caruana, needing to win, artificially prolonged Game 3 which left the door open for Carlsen to press and win the game and the Match. |
Continue reading "Magnus Carlsen Wins World Championship Match " »
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What if the World Championship Match is decided in rapid or blitz games? That once hypothetical query has now become a reality. Tomorrow, Wednesday, November 28th, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are scheduled to play rapid and, if necessary, blitz games to decide the title. GM Maxim Dlugy gives us a preview of the World Championship Playoff in his column The Blitz Wisperer for New in Chess Magazine. |
Continue reading "World Championship Tiebreak Preview" »
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Game 12 of the World Chess Championship Match in London between current World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Challenger Fabiano Caruana ended in an unprecedented twelfth draw. This is the first match in the history of World Chess Championships in which all games were drawn. The Match now moves on to the Playoff portion--and the schedule has changed as tomorrow is a rest day--which will begin at 10:00 a.m. eastern U.S. on Wednesday, November 28th. |
Continue reading "WCC R12: It's on to Tiebreaks" »
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On the way to the November 2018 Houlton Open, five Bangor-area players drove off an ice and snow covered road in Old Town, Maine. Unable to travel to the tournament but undaunted, they decided to create their own impromptu tournament at John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor. The tournament was dubbed We Survived! Here's the tournament report with a few photos and US Chess crosstable. |
Continue reading "We Survived! Tournament Report" »
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The World Chess Championship Match being contested in London by the current World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, and the second-highest rated player in the world, Fabiano Caruana, will enter the final game in an eleven-game-deadlock tie at 5.5 points apiece. In Game 11, Carlsen played a low-risk opening variation of the Petroff and steered the game into the safe harbor of a bishops-of-opposite-color draw on move fifty-five. |
Continue reading "WCC R11: Game 11 Draw 11" »
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In a dramatic finale at the Women's World Champion Match in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, Ju Wenjun won two games in the G/10 +10 tiebreak phase of the Match and retained her title. The players were still tied after the first two games of the tiebreak which necessitated the exciting G/10 speed games. Congratulations to Ju Wenjun! |
Continue reading "Ju Wenjun Retains Women's World Chess Champion Title" »
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Game 10 of the World Championship Match has ended in a draw. This marks the tenth consecutive draw in a Match between two equally skilled gladiators. There remain two classical time control games. If the Match is tied after Game 12, the tiebreak portion of the Match will commence. |
Continue reading "WCC R10: A Match of Two Equals" »
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In the forth and final game of the Women's World Championship Match between Katarina Lagno and Ju Wenjun, Lagno, playing the white pieces needing only a draw to secure the title. The Challenger made two critical inaccuracies and that's all the current Women's World Champion needed to force checkmate. The Match now enters the tiebreak phase. |
Continue reading "Women's World Chess Championship Goes to Tiebreaks" »
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Game 9 at the World Chess Championship Match ended in a draw which set the record for the most draws to begin a World Championship Match in history. The game began as an English Opening in which Carlsen had a decent position with some chances but the Challenger held steady and the game evaluation went to triple zeros just before the first time control when the queens came off. |
Continue reading "WCC R9: A World Record (for Draws) " »
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Lloyd Lombard, Secretary and Treasurer of the Nova Scotia Chess Association and Editor of the NSCA Newsletter shares with us another edition of this informative publication. Also included in this post is Lloyd's cover letter which is itself chock full of interesting chess-related material. We hope you enjoy the Newsletter and we encourage you to get on Lloyd's email list. |
Continue reading "Nova Scotia Chess Association Newsletter November 2018" »
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The Fall Chess @ UMA Tournament was played on Saturday, November 17, 2018 at the University of Maine in Augusta. The event attracted thirty-nine players including twenty-six scholastic players, eleven in the Open section, and two who played in a non-rated match. |
Continue reading "Fall Chess @ UMA Tournament Report" »
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Using an information advantage and 7.Nd5 in the Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian, Caruana got a great position in Game 8 of the World Chess Championship Match with a big lead on the clock. If he played 24.Qh5, Caruana would have had complete control over the position. However, Caruana played the slower 24.h3 and lost most of his advantage. A near miss for the Challenger and the eighth straight draw in the Match tying the record held by Anand-Kasparov 1995. Going into a rest day, the Match is tied at 4-4. |
Continue reading "WCC R8: A Promising Position for Caruana Ends in a Draw" »
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The seventh game of the World Championship Match ended in a draw after a 40-move Queen's Gambit Declined. This game marked the seventh straight draw of the Match--one game shy of the most consecutive draws to open a World Championship Match which happened during Anand-Kasparov 1995. Another bellwether from this game is the realization that, at the top level, getting one's opponent out of their preparation is more important than playing the most principled lines. The Match score is locked at 3.5 points apiece. |
Continue reading "WCC R7: An-Out-of-Book-at-All-Costs Draw" »
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Maine Chess Association President Michael Dudley shares his Coaches' Communique with details of the upcoming 2018-2019 scholastic chess season. |
Continue reading "MECA Coaches' Communique" »
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MECA President Michael Dudley has penned an update sharing what has been going on and what is planned to come related to the Maine Chess Association and chess in Maine in general. We welcome your comments and suggestions. |
Continue reading "MECA President's Letter" »
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Running concurrent with the World Chess Championship Match in London is the Women's World Chess Championship being played in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The WWCC is a sixty-four player knockout tournament with each round consisting of two mini-matches and tiebreaks if necessary. The tournament's final match will begin on Monday, November 19th between current Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun of China and Challenger Kateryna Lagno of Russia. |
Continue reading "Women's World Chess Championship Enters Final Match" »
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The World Chess Championship Match currently underway in London between Champion Magnus Carlsen and Challenger Fabiano Caruana will consist of twelve classical time control games and tiebreaks if the score is tied at the completion of the twelfth game. Each player will play six games with the white pieces and six games with the black pieces. If this is so, why is it that the Champion will play two consecutive games with the white pieces? We take a look at the rules and regulations for the FIDE World Championship Match. |
Continue reading "Carlsen Gets Back-to-Back Whites in Games 6 & 7" »
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The snows came early this year in Maine. A nor'easter blew into eastern Maine and prevented quite a few players from getting to the Houlton Open on Saturday, November 17th. Four hearty locals had to take up the slack and play a three-round quad. When the smoke (and snow) had cleared, Roger Morin and Ray Haines shared first with 2.0 points and Lance Beloungie and Roger Hardison finished in equal third with a point apiece. |
Continue reading "November 2018 Houlton Open Tournament Report" »
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Game 6 was the most exciting and fascinating game of the Match. From a sterile middlegame position, Caruana created some imbalances with 21...c5. At that point, both players and fans were in for a wild ride. A forced sequence later resulted in Carlsen giving up a piece for three pawns and opposite colored bishops. The position was very good for Caruana but Carlsen managed a fortress to hang on to a draw on move 80. |
Continue reading "WCC R6: Caruana Presses Carlsen to the Brink--Game 6 Drawn" »
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Two great players are battling it out at the World Chess Championship in London. In Game 5, the Challenger Fabiano Caruana, playing the white pieces, went for the unconventional Wing Gambit out of a Sicilian Rossolimo opening. Magnus Carlsen met this surprise with cool-headed sure play and the players entered a very interesting middlegame. After pawn sacrifices in both directions the position lost most of its dynamism and the players agreed to a draw after white's thirty-first move. The Match is now tied at 2.5 points apiece. |
Continue reading "WCC R5: A Tricky Wing Gambit Ends in a Draw" »
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So far in this World Chess Championship Match the player with the white pieces has had a very difficult time whipping up any kind of advantage. In today's game, Game 4 of the Match, Fabiano Caruana held the positions with black comfortably and with relative ease. The players shook hands after thirty-four moves had been made. This, incidentally, was only four moves more than the rule that stipulates no draw offer are to be made before move thirty. |
Continue reading "WCC R4: A Easy, Comfortable Draw for Caruana With Black" »
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The third game of the World Chess Championship Match in London ended in a draw. Both players now have 1.5 points going into Game 4. Interesting points to consider after this game are opening preparation, pressing with the black pieces, and the Challenger not, as yet, hitting his best form. |
Continue reading "WCC R3: Draw!" »
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In the first two games of the World Chess Championship Match, the player with the black pieces has been the aggressor. Yesterday, it was Magnus Carlsen; today it was clearly Fabiano Caruana. The game followed three Korchnoi-Karpov games from their 1978 World Championship Match until Caruana deviated with the innovation 10...Rd8. This gave Carlsen pause--literally--as the Champion pondered for seventeen minutes before replying. After Carlsen accepted a broken pawn structure and a pawn-down endgame, the players agreed to a draw on move forty-nine. |
Continue reading "WCC R2: Carlsen has to "beg for a draw" in Game 2" »
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On the night of November 9, 1938 the deliberate persecution against Jews throughout Nazi Germany reached the point of physical beatings, incarceration, and murder. Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, is often referred to as the beginning of the Holocaust. On the eightieth anniversary of Kristallnacht, Holocaust survivor and Portland-area chess player Charles Rotmil spoke at the Holocaust and Human Right Center of Maine in Augusta to remember this tragic chapter in human history. |
Continue reading "Remembering Kristallnacht Eighty Years Later" »
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Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana opened the World Chess Championship Match with a marathon 115-move draw. Carlsen was pressing with the black pieces to a point that the game was nearly won when Caruana engineered--with missed opportunities by the World Champion--a miraculous save. After dodging the critical phase when his position was nearly lost, Caruana simplified to a three vs two pawn and rook endgame. Try as he might, Carlsen could not convert his now miniscule advantage and offered a draw at move 115. |
Continue reading "WCC R1: Caruana Holds 115-Move Draw" »
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Maine Central Institute, a high school in Pittsfield, Maine, hosted its first US Chess rated tournament on Saturday, November 3, 2018. The tournament, dubbed Chess Madness at MCI by its organizers, attracted twenty-one players in three sections. Here's the illustrated tournament report. |
Continue reading "Chess Madness at MCI Tournament Report" »
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The first game of the World Chess Championship Match will take place on Friday, November 9, 2018 at The College on Southampton Row in London. Current World Champion Magnus Carlsen will attempt to defend his title against Challenger Fabiano Caruana. Here's the Match Preview with schedules, rules, and links. |
Continue reading "World Championship Match Preview" »
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