Malcolm Pein on…Blackburn’s Victory
Malcolm Pein on…Blackburn’s Victory After the pandemic prevented the Welsh Championships from being played over the Easter weekend both last year and this, the event emigrated online. The Welsh Online Chess Championship took place on the Lichess platform over the second May Bank Holiday weekend. Regular Welsh Olympiad team member Jonathan Blackburn triumphed with 5.5/7, […]
Malcolm Pein on…The Power of the Pin
Malcolm Pein on…The Power of the Pin In the absence of Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, no player was able to assert their authority at the Grand Chess Tour Paris Rapid. After the second day of three, the American duo of Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So shared the lead with Muscovite world title contender Ian […]
Malcolm Pein on…The Tour Striking Gold
The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour online at Chess24 has struck gold with a new sponsor backing the seventh leg, the Goldmoney Asian Rapid.The event has a $100,000 (£71,000) prize pot. The Tour climaxes with a face to face competition in San Francisco in September. The 16 players make up the most interesting and varied field […]
Malcolm Pein on…The 24-Hour Blitz Marathon
The English Chess Federation raised over £5,000 for the Red Cross recently when it staged a 292-player, 24-hour Blitz Marathon, ‘Checkmate Covid, The Rematch’, on Chess.com. GM Keith Arkell finished way out in front, with the prodigy Shreyas Royal second. Both players managed to stay awake virtually throughout. Twenty titled players supported the event, either […]
Malcolm Pein on…Kramnik’s Design
Malcolm Pein on…Kramnik’s Design The second event of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour is underway in Paris. Shak Mamedyarov’s fine win in round seven of the Grand Chess Tour’s Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest given yesterday featured an early g7-g5 thrust that was inspired by Aronian-Kramnik from the 2018 Candidates tournament in Berlin. This game […]
Malcolm Pein on…Shak the Invincible
Malcolm Pein on…Shak the Invincible Shak Mamedyarov won the Grand Chess Tour’s Superbet Chess Classic in after a quiet draw in the ninth and final round with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. This took him to an unassailable score of 6/9. A burst of three wins mid-tournament secured Mamedyarov $90,000 (£65,000) and the lead of the Grand Chess […]
Malcolm Pein on…Sure-Fire Shak
Malcolm Pein on…Sure-Fire Shak It was steady as she goes for Shak Mamedyarov as he headed straight for a known drawing line against Anish Giri’s Grunfeld Defense to maintain his full point lead going into the ninth and final round of the Grand Chess Tour’s Superbet Chess Classic at Bucharest. Mamedyarov’s nearest pursuers were unable […]
Malcolm Pein on…Shak’s Seventh Heaven
Malcolm Pein on…Shak’s Seventh Heaven Shak Mamedyarov scored a huge win in the seventh round of the Grand Chess Tour’s Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, as he outplayed world number two Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces. Mamedyarov produced an opening novelty for the second successive game to secure his third straight win and take […]
Malcolm Pein on…Shak’s Killer Combo
Malcolm Pein on…Shak’s Killer Combo Shak Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk took control of the Grand Chess Tour’s Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest with three to play. Mamedyarov produced an opening novelty and Levon Aronian went wrong immediately in a game I will analyse tomorrow. Grischuk overpowered Constantin Lupulescu in a complex Sicilian Defence Richter Rauzer […]
Malcolm Pein on…A Bloodthirsty Round
Malcolm Pein on…A Bloodthirsty Round A bloodthirsty fourth round at the Superbet Chess Classic in Budapest saw the leader board considerably shaken up. Fabiano Caruana and 19-year-old rising local hope Bogdan-Daniel Deac had been leading, but both suffered defeats to send them back down to 50 per cent. Wesley So outplayed Caruana, as we’ll see below, […]
Malcolm Pein on…A ‘Tragedy’
Malcolm Pein dons the wig, puts on his sunglasses and polishes his teeth in today’s Daily Telegraph column, as he rolls back the years to put a ‘Tragedy’ in your head for the rest of the day. Malcolm Pein on…A ‘Tragedy’ To paraphrase the Bee Gees, “Tragedy, when the clock has gone and you can’t go […]
Malcolm Pein on…The Local Hero
Malcolm Pein continues his coverage of the Grand Chess Tour’s Superbet Classic in today’s Daily Telegraph column, in which the French Defense has a very hard time. Malcolm Pein on…The Local Hero Bogdan-Daniel Deac had a near miss in the first round of the Grand Chess Tour’s Superbet Classic in Bucharest when he missed a win against […]