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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="http://skaksogufelagid.is">skaksogufelagid.is</a>