The London Classic 2017 was rounded off according to tradition with a lavish closing dinner at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand. As well as beautiful food and wine, guests can take part in a raffle and – more importantly – a silent auction for chess memorabilia (for example a board signed by all participants of the Classic) and events …

I’ve been spending some time looking through Muller and Konoval’s “Understanding Rook Endgames” presents findings about King, Rook & 2 Pawns versus King, Rook & Pawn endings using the latest 7-man tablebases.     One fact that amazed me was that the superior side wins 46% of King, Rook, a & b / g & h …

Looking through some old analysis, I came across these fragments from a tournament I played just over a year ago. They seemed interesting to me so I hope you like them too! One of them at least is pretty spectacular!   From round 1: Sadler,Matthew D – De Roode,Martijn Haarlem 2016     We had …

While casually browsing through a compilation of positions, I came across this unusual position from the game Shirov-Topalov Bosnia 2000. The game was given as an example of a pawn wedge in the enemy camp which is quite understandable when you see the rest of the game! It’s worth playing it through without comments just …

While idly flicking through recent games of Vishy Anand, my eye was drawn to the position on move 24 in his game against Robert Ruck.     It reminded me strongly of a very impressive game that Gawain Jones had played against Boris Gelfand at the 2013 London Classic:   1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ …