St. Petersburg 1914 is one of the most memorable tournaments in history. What has made it a landmark chess event? Was it because it was the first true super-tournament of the 20th century and chess’ modern age? Was it because it drew together the legendary trio of Emanuel Lasker, Jose Raul Capablanca, and Alexander Alekhine for the first time? Was it because it provided one of the most dramatic and riveting finishes of all time in top-level chess? The reasons are plenty, all of which call for a revisit of the tournament a century and eight years after its passing.
The “Chess for Mental Health” international event was held on 9 March 2022 in Paris. According to the speakers, many recent studies have already highlighted the benefits of playing chess to support the development of children with autism spectrum disorders, the DYS (dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia) or attention and hyperactivity disorders.
In the second week of March, the French capital will host the “Chess for Mental Health” international event. The conference will cover various topics related to mental health, including autism, DYS, concentration, hyperactivity. The event’s keynote is how chess can improve multiple aspects of mental health.
What do Tal, Euwe, Botvinnik, Petrosian and Alekhine have in common? They all appear on today's episode! Lawrence Trent shows us a couple of World Chess Championship games, of the earlier mentioned Grandmasters. We also advance to a 2250 rating, of the ChessBase training app, but fail to solve a 2497 points high rating. Can you guess it correctly?
As a chess player, Alexander Alekhine (pictured) was brilliant, but his biography contains a number of dark spots. In particular, his proximity to the Nazis has damaged the reputation of the fourth world champion. The Swiss historian and chess player Dr. Christian Rohrer wanted to find out how and to what extent Alekhine supported the Nazis, and he published his findings in an online article titled <a href="https://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/bitstream/11682/11576/1/2021 Rohrer Alekhine.pdf">"World chess champion and favourite of Hans Frank?: assessing Alexander Alekhine’s closeness to the National Socialist regime"</a>. Detailed, fascinating and well worth reading.