David Howell neglects British title defence to seek tougher challengesLeonard BardenThe Guardian, Saturday 28 August 2010 England’s youngest grandmaster David Howell, 19, made an ambitious and bold decision last month, when he opted to miss defending the British title...
Grand prix plans scuppered
Fide’s grand prix plans scuppered by withdrawal of Magnus CarlsenLeonard BardenThe Guardian, Saturday 10 July 2010 The world chess body Fide’s plans for a grand prix tournament circuit were badly hit when its status as a world championship eliminator...
The master of incisive calculation
Vasily Smyslov: the master of incisive calculationHow did the late Russian grandmaster deal with this situation? Ronan Bennett & Daniel KingThe Guardian, Tuesday 6 July 2010 Smyslov-Ribli, London 1983.White to move. The life of a professional chess-player is mentally...
Ditching the chess column?
Greig put in check over Standard’s chess moveguardian.co.uk – UK All the usual wit and insight from Ray Snoddy at the Broadcasting Press Guild lunch yesterday. But also a fair bit of outrage at the new-look London Evening Standard,...
Portrait of a chess artist
Portrait of the artist as a grand masterMay 26, 2008 Hay festival 2008: Perhaps he lacked the killer instinct of his rival Bobby Fischer, but Boris Spassky played chess as a beautiful game There must have been times in...
Going for the final GM norm in Merida
ChessLeonard BardenSaturday March 29, 2008The Guardian China’s golden girl Hou Yifan, 14, is closing in on a record-breaking grandmaster title at men’s level. Last week Hou won the Ataturk women’s invitational in Istanbul with an unbeaten 7/9 and a...
Match influence
ChessLeonard BardenSaturday March 22, 2008The Guardian Monaco’s annual Amber tournament offers £165,000 prize money, so the elite rarely turn it down. Moreover, the format of blindfold and rapid chess does not affect world rankings, so in theory a bad...
IM title at the age of 58
Chess with Leonard BardenLeonard BardenSaturday February 16, 2008The Guardian Gibtelecom, now in its sixth year, is en route to becoming the strongest and best open event in the western world. Hikaru Nakamura, the youngest US champion since Bobby Fischer,...
The Carlsen watch
Carlsen’s turn must surely comeLeonard BardenSaturday February 9, 2008The Guardian Magnus Carlsen’s joint first with Levon Aronian at the elite Corus Wijk event puts the 17-year-old Norwegian up to No9 in the world. Media coverage of his meteoric rise...
The “old guys” came through
Leonard BardenSaturday December 15, 2007The Guardian The old guys came through at the end. For much of the $2m World Cup in Siberia it seemed that one of the 17-year-olds, Magnus Carlsen (Norway) or Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine), might upset...