#Chess Players

[ratatoskryggdrasil]

Marilo Pagani

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Gunnar Berndtson (Finnish, 1854-1895) Shakinpelaajat, 1878 Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation

[chessismyaesthetic]

Happy birthday Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand!

Vishy Anand, one of my favourite commentators from recent World Championships (he just seems like such a lovely guy and his analysis is always interesting and well explained), is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. The FIRST grandmaster from India (he won the title in 1988) which is hard to believe given how many great Indian chess players there are now, he has the 8th highest peak FIDE raiting of all time. He remains the only player to have won the World Chess Championship in tournament, match, and knockout format, as well as rapid time controls.

Vishy playing Kasparov, 1995.

As a teenager people called him "Lightning Kid" for his rapid playing speed, and later GMs who faced him often described him as one of the all-time greats alongside Garry Kasparov (a logical comparison given the schism in the World Championship and the fact most top GMs would have played both so could compare).

As a lightning fast teenager in the 1980s.

Wikipedia describes him as "a well-liked figure throughout the chess world for two decades, evidenced by the fact that Kasparov, Kramnik, and Carlsen, all of whom were rivals for the world championship during Anand's career, each aided him in his preparations for the 2010 World Chess Championship" which is something I massively admire in sports people - the seemingly rare ability to be a top competitor AND be nice to people.

Check out his game 6 win against Karpov in the 1998 World Championship match for a great win at an important moment. Karpov had won the first four games, Vishy made a draw in game 5, and NEEDED to win. So what does he do? He plays the Trompowsky Attack (1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5) - rarely seen at GM level - and wins in 42 moves! Seriously, go google and admire. Sadly (for me at least since I'm a fan) he lost the WC in the tiebreaker games and didn't manage to become World Champion until two years later when he became the first world champion from Asia and the first world champion from outside the ex-Soviet Union since Bobby Fischer.

Anand v. Kramnik at the 2008 World Championship, game 3.

OR check out game 3 of his World Championship match against Kramnik in 2008. Here Vishy has the black pieces playing against Kramnik's Queen's Gambit Declined - they go into a really tactically sharp line known as the Blumenfeld Attack (this is part of the Semi-Slav defence, classical merin variation if you want to look it up). On move 14 Vishy plays a novelty - a new idea - that Kramnik needs to refute if he's to win. Vishy's idea is to just give up a pawn (which is usually defended) in favour of attacking the white king. Two pawns down, Vishy rejects the possibility of a draw and goes on the attack with Kramnik's king on the run. It's exciting stuff and unbelievably tense when you imagine the WC conditions they were playing in!

Vishy about to beat defending champion Magnus Carlsen in Game 3 of the 2014 World Chess Championship in Sochi.

His career is way too long and too well documented to be worth going into any greater detail - google is your friend here - but what a great player. Well worth delving into his games, not least as he was one of the first to embrace computer prep so that alone is an interesting development.

[thatbrownchic]

Can Tumblr find me a chess mate close to my rating? 😬 My rating is 1300.

Drop your rating in the comments maybe? 🌼💖♟️

[roseventricles]

why are chess players kinda...

also you can find anish giri and magnus carlsen smut on ao3, if your day was going well <3

[baubeautyandthegeek]

Nothing is so good it lasts eternally//Perfect situations must go wrong – Hazel Vaugn/Lola Alvarez

A/N: Day 5 for @augustwritingchallenge

A clash of champions. That’s what they call it, but as Hazel plays against Lola, she feels a little off-kilter, the girl is younger than her by years, the pretender to her chess crown. She knows, if she tried, she could distract the girl by adjusting her outfit. She chooses to play properly, her eyes locked on Lola’s hands. It's only after they are forced to stop for the night that she breaks protocol, seeking the girl out in the hotel room they should share, locking them both in and moving to kiss Lola, making a promise to share the money if she won, Lola mirrors the promise and the next day they start over. Lola is defeated, barely, her eyes full of pain so much that Hazel moves to stroke her cheek then kiss her firmly. It's not the done thing, she just doesn’t care anymore.

[2emeagauche]

©pierre-yves chassaigne

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Olga Rubtsova

Chess player Olga Rubtsova was born in Moscow in 1909. Rubtsova was a four-time Soviet women's chess champion. From 1956 to 1958, she was the reigning Women's World Chess Champion. In 1972, she became the Women's World Correspondence Chess Champion, making her the only player to be a world champion in both correspondence and over-the-board chess. Four years later, Rubtsova attained the title of Woman Grandmanster.

Olga Rubtsova died in 1994 at the age of 85. In 2015, she was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.

Image source: Dutch National Archives

[arinewman7]

Chess Players

Pravoslav Kotík

[chessonboard]

Common Openings in Chess Game 

Reti Opening

The Reti opening (1. Nf3) is named after the great chess master Richard Reti. Like 1. d4 and 1. c4, the Reti generally leads to closed positions in the Chess Set, and all three moves can transpose into similar setups. One possible formation for white is the king's Indian attack.

Indian Defenses

After 1. d4, black is not obligated to play d5 in response. The best answer to d4 is Nf6, which leads to a collection of openings known as the Indian defenses. While less solid than the classical d5, these openings offer more immediate opportunities for counterplay.

Many famous lines arise after Nf6: the king's Indian defense, Nimzo-Indian defense, queen's Indian defense, and the Grunfeld defense.

English Opening

The English opening is a flexible choice for white. The English often transposes into openings normally seen after 1. d4, either exactly or with slight variations due to move order. You can also enter a "reversed" Sicilian defense if black responds with e5, whereas white is playing the Sicilian defense with an extra tempo.

One well-known setup that can arise from the English opening is the Hedgehog defense.

Queen's Gambit

White players who prefer a quieter, more positional game tend to choose 1. d4 to 1. e4, after which the c4 break is the best way to play for an advantage either on the second move or soon after. The queen's gambit, marked by the movements 1. d4, d5, and 2. c4, is one of the oldest chess openings. This classical approach pretends to offer a pawn. In reality, black cannot expect to hold onto the pawn if the player chooses to capture it in exchange for a stronger center.

Black has several options: the queen's gambit is accepted, the queen's gambit declined, and the Slav defense.

[wigoutlet]

[ratatoskryggdrasil]

Benjamine Lester, War in the Study; oil on birchwood panel

[allenchi1]

https://allenchi.org/top-3-chess-grandmasters-in-the-world/

Check out my latest blog post to learn about the top 3 chess grandmasters from around the world.

[chessismyaesthetic]

Mitra Hejazipour, 2017 Women World Chess Championship, Tehran. Photo © David Llada

[romaniasweetromania]

https://romaniasweetromania.com/2024/01/elisabeta-polihroniade-am-acordat-barbatilor-respectul-cuvenit/

[bottegapowerpoint]

Adolphe-Alexandre Lesrel, La Confrontation