The history of the U.S. Women's Chess Championships contains a wealth of information about chess in America and countless fascinating stories about champions from all walks of life. A groundbreaking work about the U.S. Women's Chess Championships and the 29 women who won the title between 1937 and 2020 has been published by McFarland. Johannes Fischer wanted to know more and interviewed Alexey Root, the author of the book.
Day 3 of the World Team Championships saw four teams leaving the competition as the preliminaries came to an end in Jerusalem. South Africa and the Netherlands did not make it through in Pool A, while Israel and the United States were eliminated in Pool B. Poland barely qualified, after tying in match points and individual points with Israel a better tiebreaker score allowed the Polish team to move on. | Photo: Mark Livshitz
Going into Wednesday’s final round, Fabiano Caruana and Irina Krush are sole leaders in the open and women’s sections of the U.S. Championships, respectively. Ray Robson, Leinier Dominguez and Awonder Liang still have chances of catching Caruana in the open, while Jennifer Yu and Thalia Cervantes stand a half point behind Krush and will face each other in the thirteenth round. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Studying "Black to play and defend positions" teaches chess students how to recognize and stop threats. For example, coaches may ask beginners to find ways to stop a back rank mate or the Scholar’s Mate. Flipping the board may also help with high-level analysis. National Master Jeffrey Ashton explains how to create positions where the Black chessmen are on the bottom of the diagram, which gives Black’s perspective.