Intermediate Moves News Today

Thanks to dedicated individuals who follow their own heart’s pursuits, ancient chess variants are still alive today. An overwhelming number of enthusiasts and associations throughout the world cultivate old variants and other board games. Among them is Greg Myers, founder of the ‘Tamerlane Chess Club’ in Jamestown, New York.

A remarkable penultimate round at the Sinquefield Cup saw Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja scoring full points to climb to shared first place with 4½ points each. For Caruana, however, it is all but impossible to win the event, as he will not play in Sunday’s final round, when he was supposed to face Magnus Carlsen. In the one draw of the day, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov managed to escape with a half point from an inferior position against Leinier Dominguez. | Photo: Gra...

Fighting chess was the rule rather than the exception in round 10 of the Candidates Tournament. All the players — except Ian Nepomniachtchi, naturally — chose fighting lines, attempting to win at all costs, as the event is coming to an end and first place is all that matters. In the end, Ding Liren and Hikaru Nakamura won and caught up with Fabiano Caruana in shared second place, as the latter overplayed his hand and was defeated by Jan-Krzysztof Duda. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

Jan-Krzysztof Duda won the Superbet Rapid & Blitz tournament in Warsaw. The Polish star collected 6½/9 points on the final day of action to overcome long-time sole leader Vishy Anand in the standings table. Anand tied in second place with Levon Aronian, who scored 13½/18 points in the blitz section and thus climbed to first place in the blitz world ranking. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Two players have a 1-point lead in their respective pools going into round 3 of the FIDE Grand Prix preliminaries in Belgrade. Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi kicked off the event with back-to-back wins and are the sole leaders in pools B and C. In pool A, Sam Shankland joined Dmitry Andreikin in the lead thanks to a win over Alexander Grischuk. In pool D, both games were drawn for a second consecutive day. | Photos: Mark Livshitz

Underdogs Vincent Keymer and Eric Hansen qualified to the knockout stage of the Airthings Masters on Tuesday. On the other hand, the likes of Anish Giri, Levon Aronian and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov did not make the cut. Ian Nepomniachtchi was the clear winner of the round-robin with a commanding score of 29/45 points.

Levon Aronian became the first player to secure a spot in the semifinals of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin. The US grandmaster qualified to the knockout stage with one round to spare after getting an unsurmountable 1½-point lead in pool C. Suspense remains in the other three pools, though, with seven players going into Thursday’s sixth round still with chances of getting one of the three remaining spots. | Photos: World Chess

After beating Daniil Dubov in a sharp struggle, Vidit Gujrathi grabed the sole lead at the Tata Steel Masters tournament. Going into round 4, no fewer than five players stand a half point behind the leader, though, with Jorden van Foreest, Richard Rapport and Andrey Esipenko joining the chasing pack thanks to victories in Monday’s third round. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Vidit Gujrathi and defending champion Jorden van Foreest (pictured, right) all won with white on Saturday to take the early lead at the Tata Steel Masters tournament. It was an action-packed day, especially during time trouble, with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Fabiano Caruana failing to find winning continuations while hurried by the clock. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Years ago the great Mikhail Tal pithily expounded a critical aspect of all out attacking chess, noting that it is only possible to capture one piece at a time. In full battle cry, Tal’s instinct was not to retreat attacked pieces, especially minor pieces — but to pour more oil on the fire by putting further units en prise! Jonathan Speelman explores this theme using games by Tal and Fischer, as well as more recent examples. | Pictured: Fischer and Tal in Zurich, 1959 / Photo via <a href=&...