The Chess Test

  The Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee has ended, and it is time to take stock.                                                                               Is Gukesh, Boris but on HGH? One of the cruicial moments in the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee came in the penultimate round, when Gukesh struck against his compatriot Praggnanandhaa. Here Pragg went astray with 31... Rxc3? Allowing 32. Rxe5! ... dxe5 33. Bxe5.  White already had a winning position, and he could have avoided the drama of the play-offs if he had not carelessly allowed a repetition later.  There is an assurance about Gukesh in attacking positions that reminds me of Garry Kasparov. You feel confident he is going to get the job done. Most of the better younger players including Nordibrek Abdusattarov, Vincent Keymer and Pragg himself, strike me as endgame grinders. But there is something different about Gukesh and the roundness and universality of his style, which makes me think he could be a bit special. It'

  Think about it- is the Grandmaster title that relevant anymore? The issue with the chess grandmaster title is that it was created (I believe the first grandmaster titles were given in 1948) before Elo ratings were a thing. For me, Elo ratings are a better and more accurate measurement of a players value.  My argument for scrapping the Grandmaster title, and I would do the same for other titles as well, is simply that the rating system is accurate enough. Other sports like tennis, darts, cricket, football, don't have title systems. They rely on rankings alone. So lets scrap the titles.

  Hastings this year was a bit of a disaster . 😯 I recall it being very stormy, and on one of the first days I was there I braved the strong breezes and slowly walked down the seafront. Sitting on a bench gazing out to the sea, I pondered on how many years I had been playing Hastings. It seemed to frame my entire life. All those years wasted, propping up bars, when I should have been working on my chess and getting after it. And now I felt old and was getting old. Mid-life crisis, par excellence. The first real test was against Gasanov and it was one I failed dismally. Under pressure I had to find ... Qc7! when according to the engine Black is still ok. But in a negative frame of mind and dismally out of form mainly because I haven't played chess recently, I failed to find this and lost quickly. I then went out on New Years eve with a few others, like Keith Arkell, Ameet Ghasi and Tom Villiers to the local Weatherspoons, ended up drinking too much and regretted it the next day wh

A few days ago I played in the four nations chess league, and although it wasn't as disappointing as Hastings, in some ways it still felt that way. The saturday game went ok though. I drew with super talent Shreyas Royal with the Black pieces.                                     Delta hotel warwick hosted the second 4NCL weekend.  As far as I can ascertain Shreyas is working pretty hard on chess and he seems to have been earmarked as a possible successor to the likes of Michael Adams, as being a dominant player in English chess. Of course the ambition should be to ultimately compete at the world level, not just beat up fellow British players in tournaments like the English championship and British championship, but it is not difficult to imagine Shreyas snapping up a lot of home titles, just as Adams has done. While Adams is a good comparison, the player that I feel Shreyas is closest to in a way is Luke McShane; probably as he drew a lot of hype and attention when he was very youn