NICK BARNETT CHESS

SINQUEFIELD

On the road to The World Chess Championship in November, Magnus Carlsen (reigning world champion since 2013) and challenger Fabiano Caruana, finished the Sinquefield cup with no indication of a potential winner. As well as Levon Aronian, they all tied for first place, receiving $55,000 each.

SA TOURNAMENTS

• In the recent Chess Western Province League 2018, Cape Town lost to Steinitz by a score of 6.5 to 1.5. Former Olympiad teammates played against each other but IM David Gluckman took the full point from DR FM Deon Solomons with the Steinitz backbenchers securing victory.

• I was so used to going directly to the calendar on the CHESSA website that I totally missed that the webmaster had put the upcoming tournaments at the bottom of the home page including details about the 2018 FIDE Chess Olympiad and 2018 South African Junior Chess Championships. Very useful, well done!

SOME HISTORY

I chanced on a documentary on You Tube showing some of the chess greats. Made in 1986, it is called: ‘Chess - A State of Mind’ and starts with this voice-over: ‘The eccentricities, political maneuverings and off the board tactics of modern chess were often thought to have begun with Bobby Fischer but in fact he was only following a pattern.’ It goes on to tell stories of of Paul Morphy, Zuckertort, Steinitz and Lasker. From the time of Capablanca and Alekhine, there is fascinating footage of these two as well as Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Korchnoi and Bobby Fischer. There are wonderful anecdotes and an interview with Bobby Fischer. Although I covered the Spassky/fischer match, it was interesting to hear him speak again, sounding quite normal! There is also footage of Anatoly Karpov with Spassky commenting on his stature, demeanour and mimicking his thin reedy voice.

Karpov’s strongest opponent was Victor Korchnoi. Hearing him again brings back memories. I got to know him quite well during his two appearances at the Oude Meester Grand Prix in 1969 and 1971. Always willing to condemn the USSR who were holding his son and wife after he defected to Switzerland, he handed out a post-card addressed to Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev to everyone he met along the way. The Kasparov / Karpov match dragged on for 6 months and there is dramatic footage of the attempt to end the stalemate! The documentary ends after Kasparov finally achieved World Chess Champion status. To link to current political chess events, there is a little piece showing an 11-year-old Nigel Short playing in a simul against Karpov.

CHESS COACHING

I am researching the coaching methods, especially online, employed by aspiring chess players. If you have a favourite (or its opposite) please let me know. For comment or news please write to thechessnik@gmail.com