Leonard Barden on chess
Leonard Barden's weekly chess column
England reveal strong Olympiad squads as seniors campaign for gold in Krakow
Top five English grandmasters will feature in Budapest – as will nine-year-old prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan
Chess: Jones and Mirzoeva win English championships as teenagers impress
Gawain Jones won the English Open after a playoff with Michael Adams while the former Russian Elmira Mirzoeva is the women’s champion
Chess: national solving championship 2024 open to entries from Britain
Entry is free, the prize fund is expected to be £2,500, and the winner qualifies for the world solving championship
Chess: Carlsen and Nakamura dominate in Stavanger, while Ding falters again
Magnus Carlsen continued his winning streak in Norway as Hikaru Nakamura gained the No 2 ranking, but China’s world champion finished a poor last of six
Faustino Oro, aged 10 and known as ‘the Messi of chess’, advances again
Argentinian prodigy already has two international master norms and looks set to break more records while England’s pre-teen talents are also making eye-catching progress
Chess: Magnus Carlsen loses on home turf in Norway to 18-year-old Indian
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, fifth in the Candidates, says: ‘I can beat these players, but I have to play my best for that’
Chess: Carlsen wins in Casablanca as new variant tests historic skills
The world No 1 identified most of the six positions from previous world championships and exploited Vishy Anand’s unfamiliarity with a classic from Havana 1889
Chess: England seniors score triple European gold and eye world titles
England over-50s edged out Italy and Hungary on tie-break, while England over-65s shone at the European senior championships in Slovenia
Chess: Britain’s 4NCL national league has closest ever three-way finish
Wood Green edge out Manx Liberty and The Sharks on game points after a triple tie on match points
Chess: Magnus Carlsen calls Ding Liren ‘broken’ as teenage star Gukesh emerges
The former world champion fears for the current holder, who is out of form before title defence against 17-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju
Chess: Gukesh, 17, shocks favourites to become youngest challenger for title
The Chennai teenager won the Candidates by just half a point and will take on China’s Ding Liren for the world crown in a 14-game series later this year
Chess: Four in close contention as Candidates reaches weekend climax
With just the final two rounds to come, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh Dommaraju share the lead while the world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, is half a point behind
Chess: Nepomniachtchi bids for third Candidates victory as Indian trio shine
The 33-year-old Russian, a defeated world title challenger in 2021 and 2023, is in line for a third attempt as he leads in Toronto at halfway in the 14-round event
Caruana favourite as Candidates begins while Carlsen wins sixth event in a row
The contest to decide Ding Liren’s challenger began on Thursday, while the world No 1 kept up his winning streak in the Grenke Classic
Fast-rising Lu and Lee, both 14, could provide Fischer v Spassky-style rivalry
Lu Miaoyi jumped to the 2400 international master level at Reykjavik, while Alice Lee defeated the US No 1 Irina Krush in St Louis
Richest chess tour announced for 2025 as freestyle wins global appeal
Freestyle Chess (also known as Fischer Random and Chess 960) has announced a $1m tournament in each of five continents
Chess: Fischer v Spassky revisited – Reykjavik Open echoes 1972 match
More than 400 players, including several young English talents, are competing in Iceland’s premier event
Chess: Danny Gormally holds off junior challengers to win British Rapidplay
The top seed fought back from a fifth-round blunder and won the title after a playoff with Ireland’s No 1 woman, Trisha Kanyamarala
Chess: Adams wins seventh straight first prize as England’s girls set records
The eight-time British champion, 52, has played 63 games without defeat, while Ruqayya Rida, 12, scored against two GMs and Bodhana Sivanandan, eight, is the new world No 1 under-nine
Freestyle Chess plans 2025 global Tour for Carlsen and the world’s top players
The world No 1’s impressive victory last week has put the random chess variant into the spotlight and its billionaire organiser plans to expand into all five continents next year
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