GM Ruslan Ponomariov answers your questions: Part I
Answering reader questions almost a decade after becoming FIDE World Champion as an 18-year-old, Ruslan Ponomariov provides both a revealing insight into the life of an elite player, and a damning indictment of the chess politics that saw his match against Garry Kasparov collapse.
Danailov: “Chess should either change, or die”
In a short but fascinating interview, Silvio Danailov, Veselin Topalov’s manager and the President of the European Chess Union, shed light on the fate of a number of tournaments, his protégé’s form, and new and controversial plans for the future of chess.
Birth of a Supernova: Vasiliev reports from Wijk aan Zee
Hikaru Nakamura’s tournament victory was described as “the birth of a supernova” by Yury Vasiliev in two final reports from the Tata Steel 2011 Tournament. The Russian journalist was on the ground in Wijk aan Zee to provide photo reports and comments from players and observers throughout the event.
Radjabov decides not to tilt at FIDE windmills
One of the last obstacles to the Candidates Matches going ahead in May this year in Kazan appears to have gone, with Teimour Radjabov deciding not to dispute the decision to replace Magnus Carlsen with Alexander Grischuk. He made the announcement in an interview with Teimour Tushiev for Extratime.az.
GM Peter Svidler answers your questions: Part I
Peter Svidler didn’t disappoint! The first instalment of his answers to reader questions bears all the hallmarks of his wit and self-deprecating humour. The Russian super-grandmaster talks about his career, chess colleagues, Carlsen’s withdrawal, chess literature… and much much more.
Aronian: I’ve never considered myself a strong blitz player
Maria Fominykh’s final report on the Tal Memorial at ChessPro included interviews with two of the winners, Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian. Both players talked about the main event, but also the upcoming blitz.
Kramnik and the robot
On the eve of the World Blitz Championship an event was held in Moscow for the opening of the Russian Women’s Championship – where the women were joined by Magnus Carlsen and many of the Tal Memorial players, and Vladimir Kramnik played against a robot.
Mikhail Tal and contemporary chess
Moscow’s Tal Memorial honours Mikhail Tal, the “Magician from Riga”, who blazed a path to win the World Championship half a century ago this year. Recalling those days, and how chess has changed since, has been a theme of Ilya Odessky’s tournament reports.
Kramnik on Nakamura, blitz and Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik, talking to Maria Fominykh for ChessPro, discussed his “unbelievably complex” game against Hikaru Nakamura, blitz and bullet chess, and once more expressed his opinion on Carlsen’s withdrawal from the Candidates Matches.
Ilya Odessky returns in style
For sad personal reasons we’ve been deprived of the work of the Russian chess journalist Ilya Odessky of late, but his reports from the Tal Memorial have been a brilliant reminder of what we were missing.
