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2019 was a great year for chess.

While many chess fans are ready to jump right into 2020 and the world championship drama, let's take a moment on this last day of 2019 to appreciate the best chess had to offer this year.

For much of 2019, the world's top chess players battled to qualify for the 2020 Candidates' Tournament, and it came down to the wire for the full field to emerge. The championship cycle is now set for 2020 and chess fans can hardly wait.

There were some exciting developments in computer chess (a personal favorite), including the ascent of neural-network chess engines like Lc0 to the top of the pack.

The year also saw another big leap forward for online chess coverage, with more in-person tournaments and online events streamed and professionally broadcast by the Chess.com mega-hype team.

A living chess legend, Vladimir Kramnik, proposed an exciting rule change to chess. And in the last days of 2019, the current world chess champion, Magnus Carlsen, continued his dominance of the year (and decade, and century...) by holding all three major world chess championships: classical, rapid and blitz.

So how do all these great things stack up?

Here's our ranking of the sevenbest chess moments of 2019:

When: May 2019

What happened:

Led by the super-GM and 2020 world championship candidate Fabiano Caruana, the Arch Bishops claimed their second PRO Chess League title in three years with a dominating win over the Baden-Baden Snowballs.

The Arch Bishops played the live semifinals and finals in San Francisco with strength from top-to-bottom boards, but it was Caruana's scorching 7.5/8 score for the weekend that sealed the victory.

Further reading:

When: November 2019

What happened:

Vladimir Kramnik, one of the greatest world chess champions of all time, retired from competitive chess in 2019. But he wasn't done making chess headlines.

Last month, Kramnik proposed an elegant and simple solution to boring draws and repetitive openings in top-level chess: Get rid of castling.

Kramnik tested his rule change with another chess legend, the neural-network chess engineAlphaZero. Kramnik and AlphaZero ownerDeepMind collaborated to produce beautiful sample games where the artificial intelligence chess project played itself without castling allowed.

Further reading:

When:2019, ongoing

What happened:

The Chess.com Speed Chess Championship expanded to include women's and junior events in addition to its main bracket of the world's top speed chess players.

The biggest underdog in the field, GM Elina Danielian, ran through the women's bracket to claim the title. And it would be an understatement to call Wei Yi a rising star, since he already is star (full stop), but the Chinese prodigy won the Junior Speed Chess Championship all the same.

The main Speed Chess Championship bracket had its share of upsets and brilliancies, highlighted by the 21-year-old Vladislav Artemievdispatching two speed chess legendsAlexander Grischuk and Levon Aronianby the same dominating score of 16-9, before falling in the semifinals to Wesley So.

At press time, three super-grandmasters remain in the Speed Chess field. So is through to the finals, while the reigning champion Hikaru Nakamura will need to get past Ian Nepomniachtchiin their semifinal match before he can defend his title against So.

Nakamura vs. Nepomniachtchi is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 5 at 8.am PST on Chess.com/TV.

Further reading:

When:April 2019

What happened:

Was it any surprise?

Hikaru Nakamura, already the long-reigning Speed Chess Champion, added another online chess title to his resume with a win in the first Chess.com Bullet Chess Championship.

Nakamura, the heavy favorite going into the tournament, defeated Oleksandr Bortnyk to clinch the championship. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finished in third place in the loaded championship field.

Further reading:

When:April 2019

What happened:

Lc0, an open-source project using machine learning to train a neural-network chess engine, rose to the top of the computer chess world by defeating the champion Stockfish in the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship.

It marked the first time a neural-network engine had beaten Stockfish in a championship event, proving that artificial-intelligence-based chess engines could play better than the traditional engines, which had been the kings of chess for the past two decades.

Stockfish, though, soon took back the championship from Lc0, and these two engines will battle with many others in the coming decade to determine the best chess-playing entity in the world.

Further reading:

When:November 2019

What happened:

Wesley So became the first officially-recognized champion of Fischer Random chess, beating the classical chess world championMagnus Carlsen in the finals of a groundbreaking event played both online on Chess.com and in-person in Norway under the FIDE (World Chess Federation) banner.

So pulled off the upset of the heavily-favored Carlsen in a shocking runaway, winning 13.5 to 2.5, ending the match early before the scheduled blitz games.

The tournament was a fan-favorite for its energetic games and exciting starting positions, showing that Fischer Random chess will have a bright future in the 2020s.

Further reading:

When:December 2019

What happened:

The reigning classical world chess champion Magnus Carlsen won both the world rapid and blitz championships at the end of the year to once again hold all three major titles in a tremendous feat of chess dominance.

Carlsen is now the world champion in the three most important forms of chess (and he just missed a fourth, finishing second to Wesley So in the Fischer Random championship). With the wins, Carlsen further secured his legacy as one of the greatest chess players ever.

With another title defense in the 2020 world chess championship, Carlsen could finally shed that "one of" clause and become simply the greatest of all timeif he is not already.

Further reading:

Let us know your favorite chess moments of the year in the comments.

And before you sign off for the year, take a look at some more of our best-of-2019 content:

Originally posted here:

The 7 Best Chess Moments Of 2019 - Chess.com

Are you looking for an easy way to add chess content to your website, blog, or social media account? Chess.com has a variety of tools you can use to easily embed chess games, puzzles, streams, diagrams, and more!

In this short guide, we'll show you how to easily find and use these tools.

Daily Puzzle

Thousands of users solve the Chess.com daily puzzle each and every day, and you can add it to your website or blog with the following simple embed code.

Embed Streams

Much like the daily puzzle, official Chess.com streams can be easily embedded using the "share" option on our Twitch channel and on archived Twitch videos. Just add the embed code to your website or blog.

Embed Games, Puzzles

Probably the most advanced and little used feature here are the rich "Embed" options in our "share" modal. The embed tab allows you to easily add any game from Chess.com to your website. You can also create your own games and annotations at Chess.com/analysis.

Additionally, you can customize the chess board and piece set, coordinates, and whether you want the embed to be presented as a puzzle.

GIFs

GIFs are an incredibly easy and popular way to share classic chess games, especially on social media. You can easily make and share GIFs in two places on Chess.com, the "share" modal for games, and chess.com/gifs.

To access GIFs with the "share" modal, just use the highlighted share button and "Download" the GIF from the "Animated GIF" tab once it's ready.

To create your own GIFs from any PGN, simple go to Chess.com/gifs and paste in a PGN and "Create GIF" once you've selected your preferred options. The GIF will now open in a new tab, and you can right click to download it.

Diagrams

A diagram image can be accessed and downloaded for any position from the "share" modal. Just open the share modal when looking at any game or chess position and "Download" the diagram from the "Image" tab.

Go here to read the rest:

How To Embed And Share Chess.com Media - Chess.com

Magnus Carlsen won two more global crowns last weekend when the Norwegian, 29, dominated the world 30-minute rapid and five-minute blitz world championships in Moscow. He lost only one of his 38 games and was impressive in all phases. This was one of his best wins.

Since 2009 the No1 has won four classical global titles, five at blitz and three at rapid. It is reminiscent of the vintage years of Jose Capablanca, Bobby Fischer or Garry Kasparov, except that Carlsen puts his reputation on the line far more than any of his legendary predecessors.

Alireza Firouzja, 16, won the rapid silver medal. A few days earlier, the Iranian teenager opted to play under an international flag rather than obey Tehran officials who ordered him to withdraw to avoid meeting any Israeli opponents.

In England the traditional Hastings congress, staged annually since 1920, is under way with its new sponsor Caplin Systems, specialists in desktop and mobile trading technology, plus a record entry for recent years. The three-time British champion David Howell, who lives in Sussex, is the favourite.

Hastings has its final two rounds on Saturday and Sunday (2.15pm start) and is free and live to watch online.

2348

White is six pieces and six pawns ahead here, and its just a two-move mate, but it is easy to fall for a false trail.

Whites first move is not a check and at first glance seems an irrelevant piece retreat to the back row. Can you find it?

Click here for solution

View post:

Chess: White is six pieces and six pawns up, but can you find the mate? - Financial Times

To have a chess club, it takes somebody who has a basic knowledge of chess and is interested in working with the kids, added the 69-year-old volunteer chess adviser at Perkins Local Schools.

The Milan Public Library will host a chess tournament featuring four area schools Jan. 25. The event starts at 10 a.m. in the community room and will run until about 4 p.m.

Its the first quad tournament for just four schools, said Balduff, who has coordinated tournaments for as many as 100 players.Perkins has had some tournaments that I have organized. Its been fun.

Students from Edison, Norwalk,Perkins and Western Reserve will be playing in Milan. Lisa Border, Western Reserve High School principal, said the chess club is new, but the students are enthusiastic and the game is popular in the district.

This (tournament) is just an opportunity for fun, Balduff said.There is no entrance fee; there are no awards. We will have three players from each junior high and each high school to play each other.

Chemistry teacher Jeremy Newton advises the Edison High School chess club, which has 25 players in its second year.

At Norwalk Middle School, social studies teacher Danny Helton is the chess club adviser. Balduff said Helton is known for working chess into his school lessons via stressing history, medieval lore and developing strategy.

Becky Molnar advises the NHS club.

In Perkins, the chess club at Meadowlawn Intermediate School started in 2018. There currently are about 20 fourth- and fifth-grade students who are participating. Balduff said the club has receivedgreat support from Principal Jeremy Hiser and his staff.

Briar Middle School started its chess club in 2017 and includes slightly more than 20 students.Balduff said he considers Principal Scott Matheny agreat supporter of chess.

The Perkins High School chess club also began in 2017. About 10 students meet during lunch periods in a room designated for the organization.Balduff said adviser Paul Sherwood has set up tournaments for Sandusky City Schools and the Huron Public Library and when he isnt playing chess,Paul is an avid bird-watcher.

While some of the various club members occasionally bring in chess pieces based on Disney characters and the Star Wars, Harry Potter,Pirates of the Caribbean andThe Simpsons universes, the students prefer using the Staunton style because they dont get the pieces confused,Balduff said.

The adviser was asked what life lessons the students can learn from playing chess. Balduff said they can learn about winning and losing obviously, but also developing strategy, fair trades, persistence andgood sportsmanship.

I encourage the kids not to quit, he added.

Balduff said its wonderful to see the players have ana-ha moment playing chess.

Its fun; its nice when things click for them, he said.

Excerpt from:

Chess teaches more than strategy - Norwalk Reflector

Viswanathan Anand will be appearing in the New Year episode of India Today Inspiration in which he will be talking about his future in chess, the talent emerging from India in the sport and much more.

(Photo courtesy: Boria Majumdar Twitter)

Five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand is into his fifth decade in the sport but is showing no signs of stopping. Anand recently celebrated his 50th birthday on December 10th and also launched his book 'Mind Masters' just a couple of days later.

Anand, India's torchbearer in chess and the country's first-ever Grand Master, has inspired a legion of players over decades. But the fire inside him as a chess player is still burning and he is as hungry as ever to get back to winning the big tournaments.

2019 wasn't a great year for Anand and he himself was the first to admit that. He finished tied third spots in both the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee and also at the 2019 Gashimov Memorial chess tournament in Shamkir, Azerbaijan.

But the New Year promises a new start for Anand and he is looking forward to new challenges against much-younger opponents.

"Chess builds up a lot of tension, you are constantly lost in your own thoughts, you have a lot of negative and positive emotions sitting inside and they are just knocking around.

"Given the demands of chess today and the pace at which it's going, this is quite hard. I am still able to play and cope and it is satisfying that I do so," Anand told in the New Year episode of India Today Inspiration.

So where is the next Anand coming from and is he happy with the future of Indian chess?

"About Indian chess, there are things that I like very much and there are things that we need to work on. I would like to work with a lot of these youngsters and help them because in the future, I'd be very proud of someone that I helped went on to become a world champion," Anand said.

See the original post here:

Chess builds up a lot of tension, you are constantly lost in your own thoughts: Viswanathan Anand - India Today