Chess
15-Year-Old Besou at the Bavarian Championship: The Risk of Turning a Regional Result into a 'Prodigy Story'
Chess: The Quiet Revolution on 64 Squares Reshaping Global Sport
Silver in Samarkand: 18 Match Points, 28.5 Game Points, and One Board-Four Ledger Entry
Two Clubs, Zero Scores: How a European Club Cup Headline Became an Advertisement
Is Sindarov's 'Spectacular' Win a Message for Gukesh's World Championship, or Just Rapid-Format Smoke?That moment is stuck in my head. Watching Sindarov beat Nakamura with the bla...
From Hong Kong Team Rapid-Blitz to Bangladesh's Niaz-Zia: A Story of One Headline, Another RealityWhen the board took its last breath through the screen, the clock read half...
15-Year-Old Besou at the Bavarian Championship: The Risk of Turning a Regional Result into a 'Prodigy Story'When 15-year-old Hussain Besou's name appears alongside the leaders on the...
A DVD and a Wrong Title: The Ledger That Does Not Add Up on the King's Indian 9...a5On a Saturday night, the headline on my screen stopped me: "Samarkand R10...
Chess: The Quiet Revolution on 64 Squares Reshaping Global SportSixty-four squares, thirty-two pieces and two people — inside this simple...
Silver in Samarkand: 18 Match Points, 28.5 Game Points, and One Board-Four Ledger EntryThe ledger was open in the final hour of round eleven. On the left column,...
The Crown Is Rachael Li's, the Headline Belongs to Someone Else: Two Stories, One Gap in the St. Louis ReportSt. Louis, Missouri, October 23, 2026. A draw in the final round was enough f...
Two Clubs, Zero Scores: How a European Club Cup Headline Became an AdvertisementA headline carried two club names — Bayegan Pendik and Monte-Carlo. Below the...
War on Board One, Arithmetic on Board Six: The European Club Cup's Fourth RoundKhulna, 20 October 2026, twenty to midnight. The coffee ring on the printed...
Vahap Sanal in the Headline, Najdorf in the Body: Anatomy of a Chess News MismatchIt was half past midnight in my Mymensingh room, the feed scrolling under my...
Sixty Minutes for a Defence, and the Interview the Headline LostLast month, at eleven at night in my Saint Petersburg flat, I opened the file...
Budva's 2715: A 115-Point Gap on a Six-Board LedgerBudva, October 19, 2026. The European Club Cup preview is a short text with a...
Whose Name Is on the Rating Ledger: What the Budapest ‘Unified Rating’ Announcement Did Not SayOn 29 August 2026 a release landed on my desk. The headline said Total Chess...
The Hour of the Seconds: 9...a5 Against the Bayonet Attack and the Ledger of a Promotional ClaimHalf past midnight in a Mumbai flat, a laptop screen shows the cover of an...
Sixty Minutes Buys an Opening; Seventeen Years Buys No GrandmasterAt 1:47 in the morning in a Khulna flat, the router light blinked on and off,...
Sixty Minutes of Promise, Five Hours of Reality: The Scandinavian Defense, Carlsen's Name, and the Exhausted Nervous System of the Club PlayerThe video runs sixty minutes. The last page of my notebook that I have not ye...
The Olympiad That Never Was: Munich 2026, the Scotch Opening, and the Economy of Chess MemoryA folder. Yellowing paper, dust gathered in its folds, and at its edge a...
Caruana's 'Fifth Title' and Lilov's Six Videos: Anatomy of an Advertorial Wearing Chess-News ClothingHook On Monday night I came back from the Delhi studio, opened my laptop, and...
9...a5 in the King's Indian: A Strategic Shield, or a Marketing StoryLast week a photograph spread from Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. A man...
From Dusk till Dawn: An Autopsy of an Invisible Injury in the Chess Training EconomyWhen I first read the promotional feature for ChessBase Magazine #225, I did...
What Sells Under the Name of Vlastimil Hort Tournament 2026: Six Videos, Seven Openings, and an Empty BoardLate in November, in my Boston flat, I typed “Vlastimil Hort Tournament 2026”...
Paid Chess, Free Engines: ChessBase Magazine 225 and the Bent Larsen Missing From Its HeadlineThe green bar was still crawling across my laptop screen at two in the mornin...
A World Champion on the Last Board, and the Balance Sheet Called 5/5At 12:45 a.m. on my Khulna desk the router dropped for the fourteenth time th...