Chess
9...a5 in the King's Indian Mar del Plata: A Real Antidote or a Marketing Promise?
The Empty Board and the ACPL Fever: What Remains When the Data Goes Quiet
India's Chess Team and a Roomless Night in Samarkand: The First Test That Isn't on the Board
Chess Olympiad 2026: The Torch Reaches Samarkand and Three Claims Worth Rechecking
Rachel Li and the US Women's Championship: When the Crosstable Goes Missing
Rachel Li and the US Women's Championship: When the Crosstable Goes MissingAt 7:12 in the morning I opened the file for this week's chess column. The...
European Club Cup 2026: Bayegan Pendik, the 2715 Elo Average and a Mispriced RaceAt the first row of boards in the Budva hall, the digital clocks ticked. Behi...
Total Chess and the Unified Rating System: Budapest 2026 and the Governance of the NumberOn 29 August 2026, in Saint Petersburg, rain fell sideways across my window i...
Chess Olympiad Round 9: Gukesh Pulls a Houdini, India Keeps Gold Medal Race AliveThe 54-move escape On board four, the spot Olympiad convention usually reserv...
Samarkand R8 Women: China Lead 15/16 and the Changing Media Calculus of ChessRound 8 of the women's chess event in Samarkand ended with an almost perfect...
Three Moves at the Chess Olympiad: Nihal Sarin, India, and How a Team Keeps FaithThree moves. Three moves was all it took to erase nearly five hours of...
Samarkand R4: Eight Co-Leaders and a Body That Isn't NewsAfter four rounds in Samarkand, eight players stood level on points at the to...
Gukesh voluntarily moves to Board 4: The world champion steps back for the team to move forwardSamarkand, Chess Olympiad 2026. Round 3, before the game began, Gukesh...
Master Class Vol. 20 – Bent Larsen: When a Defense Wears a Legend's CoatA video that runs exactly sixty minutes. No more than that. That is the entir...
9...a5 in the King's Indian Mar del Plata: A Real Antidote or a Marketing Promise?The King's Indian Defense was never a system for the impatient. From 1.d4 Nf6...
ChessBase Magazine 225: Prague 2026, 27 Miniatures, and the Lesson of MotivePrague, March 2026. In the wooden hall of the Municipal House, the chess cloc...
The Empty Board in Samarkand: When a Federation Refuses to MoveIn Samarkand, on a Wednesday in September 2026, a chessboard was set out in i...
The 9...a5 Move and the Night Storm of the King's Indian: When the Bayonet Is No Longer the Only RoadHook Da Nang rain in November falls sideways, not down. I sat in a corner caf...
The Empty Board and the ACPL Fever: What Remains When the Data Goes QuietThe report ran eight pages. Every section had a heading. Every cell was empty...
Samarkand 2026: The Gap That Isn't on India's BoardThe plane touched down in Samarkand. Five hours later, Srinath Narayanan —...
The Empty Chess Analysis and the Discipline of Saying 'Insufficient Data'At 2:47 a.m. on March 14, 2026, I opened an eight-page chess analysis file on...
Chess Olympiad 2026: The Samarkand Torch and Three Unverified ClaimsThe torch handover ceremony for the Chess Olympiad 2026 took place in...
Coach Mishra's claim and the 'stronger than Olympiad gold' equation: Reading a delta statement from the edge of India's chess boardA seemingly simple statement — "they are stronger than when they won the...
The Samarkand Torch and Three Names Being InflatedIt rained sideways in Da Nang that night. I sat in front of a screen watching...
The 5.e5 Move and the Data Gap of an Opening Sold as "Easy to Learn"Late at night in Hanoi, when the streets have gone quiet and the desk lamp...
India's Chess Team and a Roomless Night in Samarkand: The First Test That Isn't on the BoardAbout five hours after the plane touched down in Samarkand, Grandmaster Srina...
Chess Olympiad 2026: The Torch Reaches Samarkand and Three Claims Worth RecheckingOn September 14, 2026, at the Registan complex in Samarkand, the Chess Olympi...
European Club Cup 2026: Bayegan Pendik, the 2715 Elo Average and a Mispriced RaceAt the first row of boards in the Budva hall, the digital clocks ticked. Behi...
Total Chess and the Unified Rating System: Budapest 2026 and the Governance of the NumberOn 29 August 2026, in Saint Petersburg, rain fell sideways across my window i...
Chess Olympiad Round 9: Gukesh Pulls a Houdini, India Keeps Gold Medal Race AliveThe 54-move escape On board four, the spot Olympiad convention usually reserv...
Samarkand R8 Women: China Lead 15/16 and the Changing Media Calculus of ChessRound 8 of the women's chess event in Samarkand ended with an almost perfect...
Three Moves at the Chess Olympiad: Nihal Sarin, India, and How a Team Keeps FaithThree moves. Three moves was all it took to erase nearly five hours of...
Samarkand R4: Eight Co-Leaders and a Body That Isn't NewsAfter four rounds in Samarkand, eight players stood level on points at the to...
Gukesh voluntarily moves to Board 4: The world champion steps back for the team to move forwardSamarkand, Chess Olympiad 2026. Round 3, before the game began, Gukesh...
Master Class Vol. 20 – Bent Larsen: When a Defense Wears a Legend's CoatA video that runs exactly sixty minutes. No more than that. That is the entir...
9...a5 in the King's Indian Mar del Plata: A Real Antidote or a Marketing Promise?The King's Indian Defense was never a system for the impatient. From 1.d4 Nf6...
ChessBase Magazine 225: Prague 2026, 27 Miniatures, and the Lesson of MotivePrague, March 2026. In the wooden hall of the Municipal House, the chess cloc...
The Empty Board in Samarkand: When a Federation Refuses to MoveIn Samarkand, on a Wednesday in September 2026, a chessboard was set out in i...
The 9...a5 Move and the Night Storm of the King's Indian: When the Bayonet Is No Longer the Only RoadHook Da Nang rain in November falls sideways, not down. I sat in a corner caf...
The Empty Board and the ACPL Fever: What Remains When the Data Goes QuietThe report ran eight pages. Every section had a heading. Every cell was empty...
Samarkand 2026: The Gap That Isn't on India's BoardThe plane touched down in Samarkand. Five hours later, Srinath Narayanan —...
The Empty Chess Analysis and the Discipline of Saying 'Insufficient Data'At 2:47 a.m. on March 14, 2026, I opened an eight-page chess analysis file on...
Chess Olympiad 2026: The Samarkand Torch and Three Unverified ClaimsThe torch handover ceremony for the Chess Olympiad 2026 took place in...
Coach Mishra's claim and the 'stronger than Olympiad gold' equation: Reading a delta statement from the edge of India's chess boardA seemingly simple statement — "they are stronger than when they won the...
The Samarkand Torch and Three Names Being InflatedIt rained sideways in Da Nang that night. I sat in front of a screen watching...
The 5.e5 Move and the Data Gap of an Opening Sold as "Easy to Learn"Late at night in Hanoi, when the streets have gone quiet and the desk lamp...
India's Chess Team and a Roomless Night in Samarkand: The First Test That Isn't on the BoardAbout five hours after the plane touched down in Samarkand, Grandmaster Srina...
Chess Olympiad 2026: The Torch Reaches Samarkand and Three Claims Worth RecheckingOn September 14, 2026, at the Registan complex in Samarkand, the Chess Olympi...
