Magnus Carlsen

Magnus CarlsenMagnus Carlsen (1990-) is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and World Chess Champion, with a peak rating of 2882 – the highest in history at the time of writing. A chess prodigy, he earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 13. He uses a variety of openings to make it as difficult as possible for his opponents to prepare against him.

David Smerdon: The Complete Chess Swindler

David Smerdon: The Complete Chess Swindler

The Complete Chess Swindler: How to Save Points from Lost Positions won the 2020 English Chess Federation Book of the Year Award. The book is by Grandmaster David Smerdon, who later created a Chessable course based on the book. More 🡢
Grind like a grandmaster

Grind Like a Grandmaster: Magnus Carlsen

The Champions Chess Tour Finals (CCT Finals) was the closing event of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, run by Chess.com. Eight players met in Toronto from December 9 to December 16. They played for a $500,000 prize fund. The pre-tournament favorite was former World Chess Champion GM Magnus Carlsen. In the finals, Carlsen defeated GM Wesley So to win the 2023 Champions Chess Tour. More 🡢
Hikaru Nakamura

World Cup 2023: Are the favorites winning?

The FIDE World Cup 2023 takes place from July 29 to August 25, 2023, in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the Open section, 206 players were eligible to take part and 103 were invited to the Women’s section. More 🡢
Hans Niemann

Is Hans Niemann the second-best classical chess player of 2022?

Imagine a ranking system in which defeating the World Chess Champion trumps other considerations. In this system, Hans Niemann would be #2 for 2022. Niemann is the only player with a classical chess win over World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. This imaginary system is more like sports rankings than chess rankings and is loosely based on the Morphy number. More 🡢
Ding Liren

Do favorites win World Chess Championship qualifiers?

Earlier in this World Chess Championship cycle was the 2021 World Cup. Its top two finishers earned spots in the 2022 FIDE Candidates Tournament. To pair its single elimination matches, the World Cup ranks each of its participants by their chess ratings. Thus, the World Cup provides data for the question, “Do ratings favorites win World Chess Championship qualifiers?” More 🡢
Ian Nepomniachtchi

Greatest World Chess Champion of All Time?

How to judge which world chess champion is the greatest of all time? One might look at the number of years that the champion held the title, inflation-adjusted peak rating, dominance over peers, or abilities as a chess ambassador. Another criterion, adopted by this article, is how many different challengers has each world chess champion faced. More 🡢
Fabiano Caruana

FIDE Candidates Tournament and a new Norway Chess sweater

At the opening ceremony for the FIDE Candidates Tournament is June 16, Chilean singer Juga will perform her new chess-themed song, Open Files. Oddsmakers favor China’s Ding Liren and Fabiano Caruana of the United States to be the top finishers at the eight-player FIDE Candidates Tournament. The Candidates winner will face World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen for the title. More 🡢
Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Magnus Carlsen

Chess, the number 1,000, and Carlsen’s social media

Although the chess board has 64 squares, the number 1,000 relates to two recent chess milestones. World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has made 1,000 tweets, including tweets about the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships. His 1,000th tweet linked to a “brand new social media platform.” On New Year’s Day, the Mechanics’ Institute posted its 1,000th Chess Room Newsletter. More 🡢