The 8th Youth Chess Composing Challenge is on the way! The youngest contributors to chess art (born 2001 and younger) were offered three different sections to inspire their creations till June 10, with five special prizes of 500 Euros vouchers each for the best representatives of the five most successful countries. The tradition of YCCC was established in 2016 to stimulate young minds and to mentor their work. | Pictured: Christopher Woojin Yoo | Photo: Eric Rosen
Each year we try to have something unusual for the final article of the year. While the endgame studies this time may not fulfill this criterion, your author wanted to provide some deeper, partially philosophical, thoughts. | Photo: Midjourney
Chess stalemates in the middle games reveal the intricacy and beauty of this uncommon occurrence, offering various unique and engrossing endgame analyses. To show the variety of inventiveness and strategic nuance present in these unusual circumstances, Siegfried Hornecker presents a number of examples of midboard stalemates. These range from complex endgames to complicated compositions by well-known chess composers like Vladimir Bron and Emil Melnichenko. | Photo: Midjourney
The finish of the 6th game of the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi was impressive. In a tense and complicated position, Ding surprisingly advanced his d-pawn, and this small pawn advance was crucial to a spectacular mate that could have occurred in the game. The audience was impressed, the study composers were inspired. In his last "Study of the Month" column Siegfried Hornecker had a look at "Ding's Theme" in studies, in his current column he returns to this theme with further insights. | Photo: Ding Liren | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Tim Krabbé's book "Schaakkuriosa" showed a study by the Bulgarian chess composer I. Ionchev, flawed but nevertheless interesting. Yours truly tried to follow in his footsteps. Nadareishvili explored the same concept, and it might be unfair to associate the name with Ionchev as he was neither the first, the last, nor the most important one to show it - only the most famous. | Photo: Pixabay