Chess Computer Corner

The European Team Championships got underway on Sunday. This is still one of the highlights of the chess calendar. If you're looking for high-quality, motivated chess, this is your tournament. Russia is absent due to the war in Ukraine (or, if you prefer, because it now belongs to the Asian Federation), and Norway couldn't afford to send a team, but quality is everywhere. Top-seeded Germany lost to 21st-seeded Denmark. They outrated them on every board, but not by so much that the result was outrageous. After three rounds, Serbia and Greece are the only teams with perfect scores. The Netherlands, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine have each dropped just one point. Russia is holding its national championships, October 1st to 12th. Many Western websites refuse to cover this at all. I wouldn’t go that far, but I do try to limit myself to reporting results and games. I only found out it had started after round 6. It's also shockingly weak compared to even a few years ago. Finally Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov meet in a 12 game match - Clutch Chess, the legends - held in Saint Louis over three days starting tonight. It’s quite possible this match wouldn’t have happened without the use of the Chess960 variant - Anand is surely much more theoretically knowledgeable than Kasparov these days - but still I would have much preferred standard chess. The mixture of rapid and blitz under a single scoring system is unusual, and the Clutch Chess format - where the value of wins increases from 1 to 2 to 3 points (with draws worth half that value) across the three-day event - is experimental. A 12-game match of regular rapid chess would have elevated the status of this immeasurably.

Source: https://theweekinchess.com/twic-news-fe ... s-kasparov