Magnus 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 single point behind the leader, Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The 18-year-old from Uzbekistan has led most of the way, and is unbeaten.
Leaders after 11 of the 13 rounds were Abdusattorov (Uzb) 7.5, Anish Giri (Neth) 7, Carlsen (Nor) and Wesley So (US) 6.5, Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana (both US) 6.
Play starts at 1.15pm, and is live and free to watch on chess24.com, with grandmaster commentary by Peter Svidler and David Howell, as well as move-by-move computer assessments and analysis. The 12th and penultimate round features So v Abdusattorov, while in Sunday’s final round, which starts at 11.15 am, two hours early, none of the current leaders are paired together.
Carlsen’s only remaining Black is in the last round against the Indian tailender, 19-year-old Arjun Erigaisi, so the Norwegian, 32, is sure to make a serious bid for what would be a record ninth first prize at Wijk. His best win so far in his recovery run has been in round seven against Richard Rapport.
Chess.com, the largest chess website, is now attracting astronomical numbers of new members. More than 31m games were played last Saturday, up to a quarter of a million new players are joining every day, and there are regularly more than a million games every hour. This huge success has also brought a negative consequence in frequent server outages.
Why the boom? It appears that a number of factors are coming together: the chess streamers with large followings who make the game fashionable and easy to understand, the cheating controversy and its bizarre device allegations, the popularity of Carlsen as an accessible and media-friendly world champion, and the ease and simplicity of online chess at fast time-rates. The attention span needed for a game has been reduced from several hours to five minutes or less.
Where are the new chess players coming from? That is harder to answer because chess.com cannot, as yet, supply a geographical breakdown. India, the current chess epicentre after the success of the 2022 Olympiad at Chennai, is fast improving its internet speeds, but it seems more likely that the boom is age related, as the fast action of blitz and bullet games appeals to generation z.
Over 40% of tracked age groups first visiting chess.com last month were between 18 and 24, nearly double the next largest age group. So far in January, 100,000 new youngster accounts have been set up on chesskid.com, where children can safely play one another.
For regular and committed players who seek a consistently strong level of opponent, the free site lichess.org continues to be the platform of choice, with its clear and simple layout and its classical playing board and pieces. You can play on lichess and chess.com, of course, as Carlsen has done many times.
The boom contrasts sharply with some experiences of over-the-board chess. As a widely quoted cynical tweet puts it: “Chess, the centuries old tactical battle played out over hours is dying, while chess, the game where those with short attention spans try to move pieces as fast as possible on a computer screen and win on time is booming.”
In England, rated games are down around 40% since the pandemic, while weekend and one-day congresses are much more expensive for participants than in the Bobby Fischer boom of the 1970s. The situation is even difficult for strong grandmasters, witness this widely read blog.
Chess.com, which recently took over Play Magnus Group and its associated companies, has announced that the 2023 Champions Tour, previously staged on chess24, will be revamped and expanded, with a $2m prize fund open to any internationally titled player.
The Tour starts with the Airthings Masters on 6 February, where Carlsen will compete, followed on 13 February by the first open qualifier. The format is quite complex, essentially giving many more players a chance to win serious money. Previous Tours have been criticised because the top prizes were effectively restricted to a few of the GM elite.
There have been rumours that the viewing platform on chess24, a favourite for many who enjoy its high quality analysis, would close after the merger with chess.com.
However, it is understood that only the Oslo base, which provides commentary for less experienced players, and where England’s David Howell and Jovanka Houska appear regularly, will switch to chess.com. Chess24 will continue expert commentary on the Airthings Masters next week, with the popular Peter Leko one of the team.
Titled Tuesday, the weekly event open to all titled players, cancelled its early edition this week due to chess.com’s server problems, but the late version was held as usual and featured a surprise appearance by Carlsen, despite the world champion having just finished his arduous ninth round game at Wijk.
Titled Tuesday featured Hikaru Nakamura v Carlsen, which began with 1 a3 Anderssen’s Opening, which can transpose to a reversed Sicilian (1 e4 c5) with an extra move for White. The No 1 avoided that, but still succumbed to a king’s side attack.
3852: 1 Re8+! Bxe8 2 Qg6! (threatening both 3 Qxh7 mate and 3 Qxe8 mate) Bxg6 3 Nxg6+ Kg8 4 Bc4+ Qd5 5 Bxd5 mate.
