Benjamin Bok News Today

The 2024 Champions Chess Tour kicked off earlier this week with the return of the Chessable Masters. The first of four major online invitationals — consisting of play-ins, qualifiers, and double-elimination matches across three divisions — featured over 200 players eventually sorted into groups of eight, 16, and 32 (for Divisions I, II, and III, respectively) over the course of eight days of action.

Vincent Keymer won Division II of the Chessable Masters by beating Levon Aronian in the Grand Final Reset — i.e. Aronian, who came from winning the losers’ bracket, beat Keymer in their first match of the day (the Grand Final per se). Similarly, Alexey Sarana won Division III in the Grand Final Reset, as he defeated Alexander Grischuk in a rematch. | Photo: WR Chess / Lennart Ootes

Alireza Firouzja took down Ian Nepomniachtchi and Denis Lazavik in back-to-back matches to reach the Grand Final in Division I of the Chessable Masters. Firouzja will get a rest day before facing Carlsen in Wednesday’s showdown. Tuesday will see the Grand Finals in Division II (Vincent Keymer v. Levon Aronian) and Division III (Alexander Grischuk v. Alexey Sarana). | Photo: Alireza Firouzja’s X account

Denis Lazavik and Magnus Carlsen advanced to the winners’ bracket final in Division I of the Chessable Masters. Lazavik defeated Jose Martinez, while Carlsen got the better of Vladimir Fedoseev. In the losers’ bracket, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vladimir Fedoseev remain in contention, as they knocked out Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So respectively. | Photo: chess.com / Thomas Tischio

Control of the centre has been considered to be the heart of chess strategy from time immemorial. As José Raúl Capablanca pointed out, the fundamentals remain the same, though application may change in the course of time. The Cuban world champion wrote: “In chess the tactics may change but the strategic fundamental principles are always the same”. | GM Sundararajan Kidambi analyses three ‘hypermodern’ games.

Nagpur: City’s first Grandmaster (GM) Raunak Sadhwani proved his mettle by winning silver in the second leg of summer classic tournament organized by .

The Dutch Championships and the Dutch Women's Championships are played in parallel, but in different modes. The Open is a knockout tournament with mini matches and has reached the semi-finals. In the women's tournament, Eline Roebers (pictured right) was the clear winner and became the new Dutch Women's Champion. Last Wednesday's hurricane also wreaked havoc on the women's championship. | Photos: Harry Gielen

In his Game of the Week show #575 Merijn van Delft takes a look at the Dutch Championships, in which Anish Giri once again impressed with fine play and superb preparation. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can <a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/create-account" target="_blank">register a Premium account here</a>.

Editor's note: This story first ran in the June 2023 issue of Chess Life Magazine. We have republished Gledura's article below, and included several fully annotated games that were not in the print edition. Members can access the print version of the article here and also read GM Christopher Woojin Yoo's annotations of his game against GM Abhimanyu Mishra.

The Saint Louis Chess Club continues to organize seasonal, closed events aimed at creating competitive opportunities for up-and-coming players. The Spring Chess Classic is taking place on April 5-13 as a 10-player single round-robin event. After six rounds, Dariusz Swiercz, Benjamin Bok (pictured) and Christopher Yoo are sharing the lead with 3½ points. In round 2, Yoo and Abhimanyu Mishra played a remarkable game, featuring no fewer than five promotions. | Photo: Crystal Fuller