Henri Rinck News Today

We talked a few times about Genrikh Kasparyan already, this time we delve a bit into his book “Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies”. At the time, the book served as a great anthology and also a small theoretical introduction to the theme. | Photo: Midjourney AI

Two years ago, we had a collection of “random” endgame studies, a small kaleidoscope, in January, and then again in July. With the vast number of different possibilities in endgame studies, many creations wouldn’t fit into a coherent article, so let us take this approach again. | Pictured: Mikhail Botvinnik during his match for the world crown against David Bronstein in 1951

Castling is a fascinating move. According to Wikipedia, "it originates from the 'king's leap', a two-square king move added to European chess between the 14th and 15th centuries, which took on its present form in the 17th century". The intricacies of the rules of castling have inspired many studies. Specialized columnist Siegfried Hornecker presents some of them. | Photos: Pixabay

Due to recent events, in these times of turmoil that have divided the world, I will this time not speak on behalf of the WFCC, but on behalf of my own, my personal opinion. | Photos: Pixabay

€29.90 Study of the Month: April 2021 What is an ‘endgame study’? By definition, it is (unless an author specifies otherwise) a position in which White wins or draws in exactly one way. How do you know that there is exactly one way? Endgame tablebases (EGTB) are a proof, but unlike many other genres, there is no way to use brute force or heuristically solve an endgame study to find a complete proof of it being correct. That is where cook hunters come in. A cook is an inco...

€19.95 Nezhmetdinov and Rinck [Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.] I couldn’t easily decide on what to do for the last column of this very difficult year and eventually fell back on some cheerful ultra-violence. It’s the sort of chess which is wonderful to watch from a distance and would be delightful to dish out but deeply unpleasant to be on the end of. And who better to follow than t...

€29.90 congratulations today, Harold, on your 60th. Harold finished a PhD in 2009, while he was working at the research and development laboratory of the veterinary company Royal GD. After his PhD he became a full researcher and went on to lead a group of 20 technicians at the company. But that is not what Harold is famous for. It is related to his hobby: chess studies, of which he has to date published around 150 (winning 28 prizes and many horourable mentions and commend...