Alex Bellos    Smart thinking across the boardToday s puzzles are about pawns on a chessboard but they require no expertise at chess All you need to know is that the queen can move in any direction for any number of squares The first puzzle was devised by Maurice Ashley the US chess grandmaster and taken

Leonard Barden    The five time US champion whose main career is as a streamer with more than a million followers defeated fellow world top player Wesley So in a bruising finalHikaru Nakamura who combines streaming to over a million followers with a comeback to classical chess in his mid s has won the

Leonard Barden    Kasparov says the world championship match should include the strongest player on the planet and this match Ian Nepomniachtchi v Ding Liren doesn t Garry Kasparov who held the world title from to and is regarded as Magnus Carlsen s rival as the greatest player of all time said next

Leonard Barden    The world No faces encounters with Caruana So Nakamura and Aronian in the online Champions Tour starting April then over the board at Stavanger in late MayMagnus Carlsen s reign as an abdicated world champion will formally start late next month when a winner is declared in the m game

Leonard Barden    The year old who is abdicating his world crown chose the Norwegian League for his last three classical games and will not play the format again until late MayMagnus Carlsen chose last weekend s Norwegian League in Oslo for his three final classical games as world champion The world No

Leonard Barden    The year old seemed to be cruising but took the first prize only after winning tiebreaks against Ian Nepomniachtchi and Dommaraju GukeshLast week s WR Masters in Düsseldorf Germany looked on paper an interesting opportunity for potential rivals to Magnus Carlsen to showcase their

Leonard Barden    The world champion is representing Canada Chessbrahs as the chess com professional league is revived after a four year break but his streak will be overshadowed by this week s puzzleMagnus Carlsen is again the centre of attention as the world champion leads the Canada Chessbrahs in the chess com

Guardian community team    We would like to hear from people around the world who have taken up chess in recent monthsThe most popular chess site Chess com reported that its traffic increased by nearly double in January from the beginning of December This spike in interest was even larger than the chess boom

Leonard Barden    Generation Z young masters are in contention for GM performances this season while the revamped chess com Tour prize fund offers new incentives for the world top Britain s Four Nations Chess League NCL is a team competition but it also plays a key role in providing opportunities for the

Leonard Barden    In the opening event of the online Tour the world champion and the US speed specialist showed their skills while Alireza Firouzja lost five games in a row and the event s format sparked criticismMagnus Carlsen the world champion and Hikaru Nakamura the five time US champion and speed

Leonard Barden    The Netherlands world No got a final round gift while a backbreaker in the penultimate round cost the world champion his chance of forcing a playoffChess tournaments can be decided by the tiniest of margins and that certainly happened in last weekend s final two rounds at Tata Steel Wijk aan

Helena Horton Environment reporter    Co author of paper says results have implications for anyone who has to think hard in polluted areasChess experts make more mistakes when air pollution is high a study has found Experts used computer models to analyse the quality of games played and found that with a modest increase in fine

Leonard Barden    The world champion has recovered from his two early losses and is one point behind the leader as the chess Wimbledon nears climaxMagnus Carlsen has fought back strongly from his two early losses and the world champion will enter this weekend s final two rounds at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee only a

Ashifa Kassam in Madrid    Sara Khadem talks from Spain after tournament decision some saw as sign of her support for protests back homeThe routine played out each time Iran s Sara Khadem travelled abroad for chess tournaments between contemplating openings and sizing up her opponents the top ranked chess player kept a

Leonard Barden    Norway s world champion was beaten on Tuesday by Anish Giri of the Netherlands then lost a move queen endgame on Thursday to Uzbekistan s Nodirbek AbdusattorovMagnus Carlsen suffered a rare double defeat in classical chess this week at Wijk aan Zee the chess Wimbledon On Tuesday the year

Paul Campbell    Who screamed Who was scared Who saw red Continue reading

Leonard Barden    A ninth success at the chess Wimbledon could kickstart a new attempt by the No to reach a landmark rating Magnus Carlsen versus the young guns at Wijk starts on Saturday when the opening round of of the chess Wimbledon at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee gets under way at the windswept

Sean Ingle    Niemann claims grandmaster was paid to shout Cheater Hans Allegations contained in latest legal submission from NiemannChess s cheating scandal took another bizarre twist on Wednesday after the US teenager Hans Niemann accused world champion Magnus Carlsen of paying a fellow grandmaster to

Leonard Barden    The event has been staged since the s and the iteration ended with England s Mark Hebden tied in second after missing a win against Lithuania s Sarunas Sulskis who finished firstHastings is the grandpa of international chess tournaments first staged in and annually since with

Leonard Barden    The world No led all the way in the minute Rapid scoring with some classic wins but the incident packed Blitz where he totalled was much closerMagnus Carlsen scored another triumph this week when the year old No won the World Rapid and World Blitz titles ahead of more than