We originally sent this out as an email to our members, but then thought we may as well put it on our blog: it is our staff picks for our own personal favourite releases so far in 2019.
A bit like the recommendations you get in book stores.
We’re the guys who’ve worked hard on these courses and we know them inside out – find out which ones have piqued our interest and why.
No surprise for me that someone went for this. Yusupov’s course is just great – and Jabe should know as he was deeply involved in adapting it for us. Here’s what he had to say: My pick is no other than Yusupov’s The Fundamentals: Build Up Your Chess 1. Aimed at players below 1500, the course attempts to give the student a rock-solid chess foundation using over 500 lessons on tactics, strategy, endgames, openings, positional play, and calculation. The variety ensures the student doesn’t get bored, while Yusupov’s selection of positions/exercises will make you a more well-rounded player.
It was a close-run thing between this and the sharp Trompowsky course we released in January, but Logozar’s course edged it. Geert and I are both big fans of Logozar.My favorite so far is Crush the London! because I’ve really struggled to find a good way to play fun chess against the London set-up with Black and Logozar’s is the perfect ambitious and agressive approach to taking it down. Also, Logozar’s courses are just incredibly well done in the Chessable format. He IS truly the Mozart of Chessable.
William didn’t read the brief and went for a course that was actually released last year, but he was so effusive I had to go with it. In fact, I had to cut his response down by about 70 per cent. Here is the nub:It’s more than just a collection of endgame tactics, the way the chapters are arranged by material you learn how to better coordinate your pieces too. The number of exercises and level of difficulty really makes it a fun course that you can complete in short amount of time – ideal for players of all levels.
As for me, my favourite course is easy: Mastering Pawn Endgames: Volume 1 by IM Ahmad Alkhatib, a guy I’d never heard of until I started learning his course. It’s really helped me nail my pawn endings and I can’t wait for IM Alkhatib’s second course to come (which it will soon).
One more thing, chess-site.com posted a really nice review of us – check it out here.
Leon is a national newspaper journalist from London, England. He is an avid chess fan, and writes regularly about the game. Apart from chess, he loves cricket, Tottenham Hotspur FC and spending time with his son.
It has been the longest staredown in history – 12 long drawn-out games. But after 50 nerve-shredding hours of play, one black-eye, and an embarrassing data leak, the world chess champion has been crowned in London.Norway’s rock star of chess Magnus Carlsen held onto his title in commanding style on Wednesday as he crushed US challenger Fabiano Caruana in a penalty-kick style sudden-death playoff that followed three weeks of deadlock.World chess champion Magnus CarlsenCarlsen picks up a prize fund of £487,000 plus 20% of the worldwide pay per view proceeds, while Caruana takes home £400,000.Caruana, who was bidding to be only game’s 17th king and the first American for 46 years, pushed Carlsen all the way but could not hold on at the end.
Heartbreak for Fabi
“It’s heartbreak for Fabi because he had been doing so well over the course of the 12 games,” said International Master Anna Rudolf.Chess legend Garry Kasparov, meanwhile, paid tribute to Carlsen’s brilliancy in playoff situations where the time controls get faster.Magnus Carlsen“Carlsen’s consistent level of play in rapid chess is phenomenal,” said. “We all play worse as we play faster and faster, but his ratio may be the smallest ever, perhaps only a 15% drop off. Huge advantage in this format.”The grueling three-week match, every minute of which has been broadcast live in Norway across two channels, was poised on a knife-edge after a record 12 straight draws in the classical version of the game.
Moment of weakness
The previous record had been just eight in Kasparov’s 1995 match against Vishy Anand.
Carlsen, 27, and Caruana, 26, then had to enter overtime to battle it out in rapid and, if needed, blitz – two much faster forms of the game – to find a victor.Carlsen had the advantage of playing with the white pieces for the first of four mini-games and won swiftly after Caruana blundered. It was the first moment of weakness the American had shown all match.
Jonathan Hawkins: Did Caruana nominate Trent to play the rapidplay for him or something? #CarlsenCaruana
Carlsen then followed up in the second game as Caruana wilted under the pressure in the fully-enclosed sound-proofed glass tank they were playing in at The College, Holborn. It left Carlsen two nil up and needing just a draw. He then won the final game to secure the result and a very painful end for the American.Carlsen, who has held the title now for five years, was the heavy favourite going into the playoffs. He is the world’s number one rapid and blitz player, while Caruana is only ranked 8th and 16th respectively.
The main section of the match was described by some as one of the most boring in history as the ultra-high level of play from Carlsen and Caruana only resulted in the world’s top two players battling themselves to a standstill.However, off the board, there were a series of incidents that have spiced up the match, held in London for the first time since 2000.
‘It was so, so tense’
In round 5, Caruana played without knowing a clip that appeared to reveal tightly held secrets of the American challenger’s preparation had been uploaded to YouTube shortly before the game.
Carlsen’s team had seen it and informed the champion, but Caruana only found out at the post-match press conference.Then it was Carlsen’s turn. In round 5 he turned up sporting a bandage and a black eye having collided with a Norwegian TV reporter while playing football the day before.Carlsen Vs CaruanaHe missed a winning chance with an impatient move and the match remained deadlocked.Added to that, Carlsen has complained about the enclosed glass “fish tank” being too cold and at one key moment the sound-proofing allowing Russian voices to disturb the players.
Lucy Hawking, the novelist daughter of British physicist Professor Stephen Hawking, was invited to make the ceremonial first move in the playoff.She said afterward: “The atmosphere in there was electric! It was so, so tense.”
All said and done, Caruana is a thinker first and a warrior second. While with Carlsen it’s the other way around. As the tempo quickened and the importance of each move intensified, it was always likely that Magnus’s martial qualities would prevail. #carlsencarauana2018
Carlsen is a former child prodigy who has been dubbed everything from the “Mozart of chess” for his symphonic style to the “Justin Bieber of chess”, for his good looks and trendy quiff. He has modeled for a fashion label, been named one of Cosmopolitan’s sexiest men and given interviews to teen girl magazines.In 2004 he became a grandmaster aged just 13 years and 148 days, making him the second youngest ever at the time after Russian rival Sergey Karjakin.
Carlsen won his first world championship in 2013 against Anand before becoming the highest-rated player in the history of chess with a peak rating of 2881 in 2014.He then defended his title again in 2014 and in 2016 against Karjakin.Carlsen dominates the international chess scene but until today has had an up and down year that has included a record run of draws in classical chess.
Leon is a national newspaper journalist from London, England. He is an avid chess fan, and writes regularly about the game. Apart from chess, he loves cricket, Tottenham Hotspur FC and spending time with his son.
The World Chess Championship 2018 has been an enormous amount to take in – however much of a superfan you are.
By our (rough) calculations, there have been 637 moves and around 48 hours of chess in total.
Not to mention novelties, shocks, surprises and the odd celebrity.
So to make it easier to get a handle on, we’ve boiled each game down to its bare bones in our quick round-by-round summary of everything that has happened so far:
Round 1
White: Caruana
Opening: Sicilian Rossolimo
Result: Draw.
Woody Harrelson makes the first move, or tries to
Moves: 115
Length of game: Seven hours
Flash verdict: A marathon grind leaves Carlsen kicking himself after missing a winning opportunity with 34… Qe5. He nearly became the first champion to win Game 1 of a world title match as black in 37 years.
Flash verdict: Caruana comes back faster, more confident and better prepared. He surprises Carlsen in the opening and the champion then has to defend for the entire game and at the end hold a pawn-down rook endgame.
Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano shake hands before the start of Round 4
Moves: 34
Length of game: Less than three hours
Flash verdict: Not much going on here in this 34-move draw, although Carlsen did offer a novelty with 11. b4, played in less than three hours. Much more interesting was what was happening off the board with Caruana’s YouTube controversy.
Flash verdict: The same as the second game until Caruana’s rare 10. … Qd8!? but that was the only highlight. Carlsen rues his conservative play (castling instead of playing the sharper 15.Nce4) as the match drifts.
Flash verdict: Carlsen, sporting a bandage over a black-eye, misses a winning chance with an impatient 25. h5 that allows Caruana to hold for a peaceful result.
Flash verdict: A quiet draw. Carlsen got surprised in the opening then shut it down. Tie-breaks clearly on the players’ minds as it goes to the final game.
The post-match press conference at the end of Game 12
Moves: 31
Length of game: Two hours and 57 minutes
Flash verdict: Caruana pushed, Carlsen got the advantage. Carlsen declined an opportunity to go for the win in the finale to the classical games and offered a draw while ahead to go to tie-breaks. A tame end.
Leon is a national newspaper journalist from London, England. He is an avid chess fan, and writes regularly about the game. Apart from chess, he loves cricket, Tottenham Hotspur FC and spending time with his son.
Puzzle Rush is the new feature brought out by our friends over at chess.com – and it is causing a bit of a sensation.
The platform’s latest puzzle game been described as the “new chess drug” and it has clearly been a hit. Grandmasters like Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler and Eric Hansen say they are gripped by it.
Puzzle Rush, chess.com’s new feature
And not just them. Regular users also seem to love it, or at least according to Twitter. Here’s Chessable’s Geert van der Velde talking about it after hitting 29:
Our co-founder International Master John Bartholomew has also been playing Puzzle Rush and even elicited a clever idea to break the deadlock at the Carlsen-Caruana match:
Shout-out to the viewer in Twitch chat tonight who suggested that the tiebreaker for the World Championship ought to just be a round of Puzzle Rush 😂
Writing on the Puzzle Rush page, Chessable user David Millern said: “Puzzle Rush could be a good competitor for high-volume pattern recognition training, like Saltmining and The Woodpecker Method, if there were a setting that allowed the player to do a quick review of the three strikes puzzles, assuming there were three strikes.”
Puzzle Rush is only available right now on chess.com’s desktop site. However, it will be released for iOS soon and the Android version is apparently coming early next year.
Leon is a national newspaper journalist from London, England. He is an avid chess fan, and writes regularly about the game. Apart from chess, he loves cricket, Tottenham Hotspur FC and spending time with his son.
Another draw. The final scheduled game, Game 12, of the 2018 World Chess Championship ended in a draw. That’s an incredible TWELVE in a row.
Perhaps this is what we expected, with Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana separated by just three rating points going into the match.
But while for some today’s game had an air of predictability about it – even if the timing of the draw on move 31 caught everybody off-guard – it leaves us firmly in squeaky-bum time.
Carlsen-Caruana Game 12
The match goes to tie-breaks on Wednesday when either the US challenger will become the first champion to have won the crown without winning any classical games in a title match, or Carlsen will be the first to defend it without winning a classical game.
One thing is for sure: Carlsen is the favourite. While Carlsen and Caruana are separated by just a hair’s breadth in classical chess, there is a chasm – at least at the elite level – between them in rapid and blitz: 100 points.
Carlsen is the world’s top-rated rapid player and top-rated blitz player, while Caruana is rated No 8 and 16 respectively. It’s also been 13 years since Carlsen lost a tiebreak.
However, if rapid and blitz aren’t sufficient to separate the champion from the chaff, the match will go down to Armageddon – chess’s version of a penalty shoot-out.
Was it boring?
Hell, no. This was another dynamic game with Caruana pushing – perhaps over pushing – and Carlsen seeing a serious advantage but not taking the opportunity, perhaps because he was satisfied with a draw. There were gasps of surprise when it ended in a draw – Carlsen could have pushed on but chose to be conservative.
But the question is, are all these draws good for chess?
In the post-match press conference, English Grandmaster Daniel King seemed to think so: “I hope it generates a lot of interest because it [the match] has been incredibly close.”
Carlsen Caruana Game 12 post-match press conference
He added that Carlsen “took us all by surprise” when he offered the draw with a small advantage, at least according to the chess computers.
A thrilling end?
Tarjei Svensen, the Norwegian journalist, tweeted: “Well, for the fans, a draw today was great. We get to see a thrilling tiebreak now. Nothing better than that.”
Carlsen also seemed sanguine about the prospect of tie-breaks.
Carlsen revealed afterward that his intention before the game started was to hold the draw and head for the tie-breaks, and therefore he was not in the right mindset to take any risks and play for the win.
“Everybody could see that I wasn’t necessarily going for the maximum, I just wanted a position that was completely safe where I could put some pressure. If a draw hadn’t been a satisfactory result, obviously I would have approached it differently.”
Speaking about the final position, Caruana declared: “I was a bit surprised by the draw offer…I can never be better here and I don’t really have any active ideas. If anything Black is better but I thought I was over the worst of it. It was much more dangerous a few moves ago.”
Later on he admitted: “I’m mainly relieved because I thought it was quite close today, I was very worried during the game.”
Former top 10 player Grandmaster Judit Polgar said afterward that, by deciding to take the safe route and not take advantage of an inaccuracy from Caruana on move 25, Carlsen may have put his title at risk.
“This mistake could cost him the crown,” she said. “He did not try, he did not want to win it in classical chess. This shows something we’ve never seen before by Magnus, and it’s not a good sign necessarily.”
Play will start again on Wednesday at 3pm at The College in Holborn.
Carlsen and Caruana will play a best of four rapid games with 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move.
If still tied, they will play up to five mini-matches of two blitz games (five minutes for each player with a three-second increment).
If all five mini-matches are drawn, one sudden-death ‘Armegeddon’ match will be played where White receives five minutes and Black receives four minutes. Both players will receive a three-second increment after the 60th move. In the case of a draw, Black will be declared the winner.
Around an hour and a half after the result, the ceremony will take place and the winner is crowned.
Leon is a national newspaper journalist from London, England. He is an avid chess fan, and writes regularly about the game. Apart from chess, he loves cricket, Tottenham Hotspur FC and spending time with his son.
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