Since the start of the war in Ukraine, now more than two months ago, several Russian grandmasters have decided to leave their country or not return to it. Chess.com spoke to four well-known players about their views of the war and the personal choices they are making. As was signaled by the German chess.
Between 16 and 24 June 1954 a match was held in New York’s Hotel Roosevelt between the Soviet and the US chess teams. The eight-board, four-round match ended with a decisive 20-12 victory for the Soviets. In an article for the New York Times ahead of the match, US chess champion Samuel Reshevsky shared his thoughts on how the Soviets (whom he kept calling ‘the Russians’) became so good at chess and why this was so important to them. The Britisch Chess Magazine have reproduced this article, which shares a view on the role chess had, both as an internal and external weapon, for the Soviets.
All pools at the preliminaries of the FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade had a clear winner after Monday’s sixth and final round. Dmitry Andreikin, Anish Giri, Richard Rapport and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave moved on to the semifinals, and will get a rest day before the knockout stage, as no tiebreaks were needed in the qualifiers. | Photos: Mark Livshitz