Blindfold Chess Podcast

This week, we are looking at one of the most influential names in chess - Yasser Sierawan. 

Yasser was born in Damascus, Syria to his Syrian father and English mother. At the age of 7, his family immigrated to Seattle, Washington.

He didn’t start playing chess until the age of 12 - this was in 1972, right in the thick of the Fischer Boom that was happening in the United States. The next year, at the age of 13, he became the Washington Junior Champion.

In 1975, he participated in his first US Open where he defeated his first Grandmaster - Arthur Bisguier. 

At the age of 19, he played in (and won) the World Junior Championship. At a separate event, he played (and won) a game against former World Championship Challenger - Viktor Korchnoi. Korchnoi was impressed with Sierewan’s play and invited Yasser to train in Switzerland for the 1981 World Championship match between Karpov and Korchnoi. 

Yasser shares an interesting story about this where he was offered to sleep in Korchnoi’s master bedroom and Korchnoi would take the guest room. At the time, Korchnoi had just defected from the USSR so if there was an assassination attempt, they would shoot at the person in the master bedroom. I’ve left Yasser’s story in the show notes. 

In 1981, Yasser won his first US Championship in a 2 way tie as well as earned his Grandmaster title.  

Two years later, 1982, Yasser played Anatoly Karpov and defeated him. In a span of 10 years, Yasser went from no chess experience to defeating a reigning world champion.

He received his first taste of the Candidates tournament in 1985 scoring in the middle of the pack and he won his first US Open. The following year, he won his second US Championship - this time in sole ownership. 

In 1988, he was in the Candidates again, eliminated in the first round, in 1989 he won the US Championship again. 

1990, Yasser reached his peak world ranking list by placing 10th in the world. He won the US Open again. He was also invited to do the commentary for the World Championship between Kasparov and Karpov. Later in the year, he played in his final Candidates tournament - being eliminated in the round robin portion. 

Around this point, there was a schism in the chess world between FIDE and the newly created Professional Chess Association. Starting in 1993, there were 2 simultaneous World Champions

In 2000, he returned to his winning ways by winning his 4th and final US Chess Championship. 

In 2001, Yasser released a plan called “Fresh Start” to join the chess world back together. The plan was signed by all parties in 2002 called the “Prague Agreement”. Eventually in 2006, the world championship title was reunited. 

The next year, Yasser was awarded the Chess Journalist of the Year award, and in 2006 he was entered in the Chess Hall of Fame. 

Today, you can see him as a commentator and a streamer appearing at the St Louis Chess Club, Chessbrahs, and others - teaching, sharing stories, and talking about games. 

This week, we are going to 1990 - Yasser Seirawan versus Boris Spassky.

1. d4 b5 2. e4 Bb7 3. Bd3 e6 4. Nf3 a6 5. O-O d6 6. c3 Nd7 7. a4 Ngf6 8. Re1 Be7 9. axb5 axb5 10. Rxa8 Qxa8 11. e5 dxe5 12. dxe5 Nd5 13. Bxb5 Bc6 14. Bxc6 Qxc6 15. Nd4 Qb7 16. Qg4 g6 17. Nd2 c5 18. N4f3 h5 19. Qe4 Qc7 20. Nc4 h4 21. Bg5 Bxg5 22. Nxg5 Rh5 23. Nxe6 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1129587 

https://worldchesshof.org/hof-inductee/yasser-seirawan#

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

Assassination Story - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiexLWApQC8 

This week, we are looking at the Indian prodigy - Dommaraju Gukesh commonly known as Gukesh D.

Born in 2006, Gukesh D learned how to play chess at the age of 7. 

Two years after he started to play chess, he won the Under 9 Asian School Championships in 2015 with a 1770 rating. 

He did not stop there, with his rating rapidly climbing - his father gave up his career as an ear, nose, throat surgeon to support his son while his mum continued to be a microbiologist. 

In March of 2018, Gukesh fulfilled the requirements for his International Master title at the age of 11. Later in the year, he participated in the World Youth Championships for the Under 12 division. At the event, he won 5 gold medals - one in each the: team rapid, team blitz, individual class, individual rapid, and individual blitz categories. 

He had a chance to become the youngest GM in history in December 2018, but he drew a must win game, falling short of his final GM norm by ½ of a point at the Sunway Sitges Chess Festival. In an interview with ESPN, Gukesh said - “I was disappointed for 2 days. Then I moved on”. 

The following year, in 2019, he became (at the time) the 2nd youngest player to ever earn his Grandmaster title at the age of -  12 years, 7 months, 17 days. He missed Sergey Karjakin’s record by 17 days. 

From getting his first International Master norm to his final Grandmaster norm, Gukesh played in over 30 tournaments over 16 months covering 276 games in 13 countries. Over a span of 5.5 years, he went from a rating of 1300 to 2500. 

In 2021, he earned gold on Board one at the Chess Olympiad with a 2867 performance rating. 

Last year was a very busy year for Gukesh, he surpassed Vishiwanathan Anand as the top ranked Indian player. The first time in 37 years that Anand was not the top ranked Indian player. He finished 2nd in the FIDE World Cup earning a spot in the 2024 Candidates tournament. He was the youngest to cross the 2750 rating barrier. 

Gukesh is still in school! He attends (Vel-a-mal Vid-e-a-lee-ya) (Mel Aye-an-a-back-um)  Velammal Vidyalaya , Mel Ayanambakkam  in Chennai. He attends the same school as Praggnanandhaa. In September of 2023, they both received 20 lakh from their school for their chess accomplishments.  20 lakh is approximately $24,000 USD or 22,000 Euros. 

So far in 2024, Gukesh finished in a 4 way tie for 1st in 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament. 

There doesn’t seem to be a ceiling for Gukesh’s accomplishments. Time will only tell what he will be able to do in the future. 

This week, we are going to the Tata Steel India tournament from last year - Dommaraju Gukesh versus Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin. 

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bf4 Bb4 7. e3 Ne4 8. Qc2 g5 9. Bg3 Nb6 10. Bd3 Bf5 11. Nd2 Qe7 12. a3 Bxc3 13. bxc3 h5 14.Bxe4 dxe4 15. h4 O-O-O 16. c4 Bg6 17. a4 Rxd4 18. a5 Rhd8 19. axb6 Rxd2 20. bxa7 Rxc2 21. a8=Q+ Kd7 22. Qa4+ Ke6 23. Qxc2 Qb4+ 24. Ke2 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2569140

https://www.chess.com/players/gukesh-dommaraju 

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

https://sportstar.thehindu.com/chess/praggnanandhaa-gukesh-felicitated-school-velammal-nexus-cash-prize-anand-udhayanidhi-stalin-india-chess-news/article67296473.ece 

With a birthday less than a week ago, this week, we are looking at Spanish-Swedish star Anna Cramling. 

Anna has a very strong chess background - her father is Grandmaster Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez - the 5 time Spanish Chess Champion and 11 time Spanish Olympiad player. Her mother is - Pia Cramling - the 5th woman to ever to have earned her Grandmaster title, the number 1 woman player in the world in 1984, and she has 9 gold medals between the European Club Cup and Women’s Chess Olympiad. 

Anna started playing chess at the age of 3 and regularly accompanied her parents to tournaments due to not having a babysitter. 

In an interview with Chessbase, her mother commented: “sometimes, e.g. at Olympiads or similar tournaments, we could find someone to help us and you could see an arbiter carrying Anna around!... When she was already a bit older – she’d sit on my legs while I played or next to me sleeping in the trolley. She was a very quiet and calm child and very easy to take with us, so she was almost all the time traveling with her father and me to tournaments.”

Anna earned her first FIDE rating of 1519 at the age of 10.

Two years later, she gained 300 rating points over 4 tournaments in 2 months.

At the age of 14, she broke the 2000 rating barrier. She also participated in her first Olympiad for Sweden. By doing so, she became the youngest female to ever participate in the Olympiad for Sweden - beating the record previously set by her mother. Her mum was also on the 2016 team on board 1 (earning a Bronze medal) and Anna’s father was the team captain. The team finished 23rd out of 140.

2018 was a busy year for Anna. She reached her peak rating of 2175, earning her her Women’s FIDE Master title. She participated in U20 world junior championships finishing 54th out of 98, she also participated in the U16 World Youth Championships finishing 59th out of 90.

During the pandemic, Anna backed off of playing in tournaments and instead focused on her streaming career. She commentated with her mother on the 2020 Women’s World Championships, she signed with the Panda esports team becoming the first chess streamer and first Swedish chess player to sign with an esports organization, in 2023 and 2024 she was nominated for the Streamer Awards, and presently - she has more than 360,000 Twitch followers. Over 890,000 Subscribers on Youtube, and almost 400,000 followers on Instagram.

Anna has done a wonderful job promoting chess and bringing more women into the chess community.

This week, we are going to the Xtracon Open from 2019. Anna Cramling versus Tobias Lindgaard. 

Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin. 

1. d4 Nc6 2. Nf3 d6 3. e4 g6 4. d5 Nb8 5. c4 Bg7 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Be2 Nbd7 8. Be3 c5 9. dxc6 bxc6 10. O-O O-O 11. h3 Qc7 12. Rc1 Qb8 13. Qc2 e5 14. Rfd1 Rd8 15. c5 Nf8 16. Nxe5 Bb7 17. cxd6 Rxd6 18. Rxd6 Qxd6 19. Nxf7 Kxf7 20. Qb3+ Ne6 21. Qxb7+ Nc7 22. Nb5 1-0 

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1969070 

https://en.chessbase.com/post/a-strong-duo-an-interview-with-pia-and-anna-cramling 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Cramling 

https://www.youtube.com/@AnnaCramling 

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Passing away in late 2023, International Master Jeremy Silman made a lasting impact on our game through his playing, his consulting, his writing, and his coaching. 

Born in 1954, Silman didn’t start playing chess until he was 12 where he went to his first tournament, ending with a rating of 1068. 

In high school, Silman expressed to his guidance counselor that he wanted to go to “Moscow University” to study chess from the best players of the Soviet Union. Considering this was in the middle of the Cold War, this was not really an option. 

Instead, he joined the Army but he lasted less than 3 months before being discharged and going to San Francisco in 1973. Two years later at the age of 20, earned his Master title. 

The next couple of years, his US Chess Rating began to grow. 2400 in 1980. 2500 in 1981 where he tied for first at the US Open. He hit his peak US Chess rating of 2556 in 1982. 

He met his future wife in 1988 and after 2 months of dating asked her to marry him. In an interview with the New York Times, Ms Feldman said she was unsure because the life of a chess player can be unstable, so she said she would marry him only if he fulfilled the requirements to become an International Master. 

Later in the year, he earned his final IM norm - shortly thereafter he and his wife got married. 

In 1990, he was the winner of the National Open. Two years later, he was the winner of the American Open. Silman reached his peak rating in 1995 when he reached a 2420 rating. 

He never had an interest in trying to achieve his Grandmaster title. His last tournament was in 1999, but by that point, he’d started to phase himself out of tournaments instead focusing on his writing and his coaching.

He was a coach of the US Junior National Team as well as a columnist for Chess Life, New In Chess, and Chess.com. According to Chess.com, he wrote 481 articles for the website.

Silman went on to write a total of 39 books selling over 600,000 copies including - Reassess Your Chess, Silman’s Complete Endgame Manual, The Amateur’s Mind, and The Complete Book of Chess Strategy. His success was predominantly in the United States, but his book has now been translated into French and German. 

Not only that, but he was also a chess consultant on high profile shows like - Criminal Minds, Arliss, Monk, Malcolm in the Middle, and Harry Potter (though he is uncredited for his puzzle in the Harry Potter movie).

Unfortunately, Silman passed away in September of 2023 at the age of 69 from a form of dementia. 

Through his works and education, Jeremy Silman helped influence hundreds of thousands of chess players.  Reassess Your Chess was given to me as one of my first chess books I’ve read and Silman’s Complete Endgame Course was one of the first endgame books I enjoyed. 

In today’s game we are going back to 1991 to the Reno Open. 

Jeremy Silman versus James MacFarland. 

Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin. 

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.Nbd2 Nbd7 7.O-O c6 8.Qc2 b6 9.e4 dxe4 10.Nxe4 Bb7 11.Bf4 Nxe4 12.Qxe4 Nf6 13.Qe2 Bd6 14.Ne5 Bxe5 15.dxe5 Nd7 16.Rfd1 Qe7 17.Rd6 Rac8 18.Rad1 Nb8 19.Qg4 Kh8 20.Bg5 Qc7 21.Be4 c5 22.Bxb7 Qxb7 23.Bf6 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1124892

https://www.chess.com/news/view/jeremy-silman-1954-2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/books/jeremy-silman-dead.html 

http://cassidynoble.com/ 

Fabiano Luigi Caruana, the chess phenom who was the youngest American to earn his Grandmaster title, the youngest to win the Italian Champion, the current top US player, and the number 2 player in the world… - his accomplishments go on for a while, but currently - he is playing in his 5th Candidates tournament aiming for the World Championship. 

Born in Florida in 1992 to his Italian parents, he moved to Brooklyn when he was 4. He played in an after school chess program when he was 5 when his chess talents were discovered. Later that year he played in his first tournament. 

In 2008, he won the Corus C tournament (the Tata Steel tournament) and won the Italian Championship again. 

In 2009, he won the Corus B tournament - becoming the first player to win back to back Corus C and Corus B tournaments.

In 2010 and 2011, he won back to back Italian Chess Championships.

However - the 2014 Sinquefield Cup was different. The tournament consisted of 6 players - the number 1,2,3,5,8, and 9 players in the world. Caruana had the performance of his life winning the first 7 games, then drawing 3, and having 0 losses earning him a performance rating of 3098. The highest performance rating in a single tournament ever. Later that year, he earned his peak FIDE rating of 2844 - the third highest rating in history. 

The following year, Caruana moved back to the United States from Italy and began to play under the American flag - in doing so - he became the highest rated American player (a title he has not relinquished since he moved).

In 2016, he participated in his first Candidates tournament - finishing in a tie for 2nd. A month later, he was playing in his first US Championship. He finished a full point ahead of Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura to become the US Champion. 

The next year, he landed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list under the ‘Games’ category - becoming the first chess player to make the list. 

2018 was also a big year for Fabiano. In March, he played in his 2nd Candidates tournament where he won and advanced to play Magnus Carlsen for the championship. He was the first American world championship challenger since Fischer in 1972. 

The match against Carlsen was close, what else do you expect when the world number 1 and 2 play a match? The first game was 115 moves. Game 6 - Fabi had a “chance” to win with a ‘forced mate in 30’ on move 67, but they drew. Carlsen had a chance in Game 12, but offered a draw. All 12 games they played ended in draws. Carlsen’s strategy was to beat Fabi in the rapid tie breaks - and that he did, winning all 3 and keeping his title. 

Since then, Fabiano has kept busy. He qualified again for the Candidates in 2020 and 2022. He won his 2nd and 3rd US Championships in 2022 and 2023, and how, he is playing in his 5th Candidates tournament to try to dethrone Ding Liren as the current World Champion. 

In today’s game, we are going back to the World Blitz Championship of 2010.

Fabiano Caruana v Boris Gelfand

Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 Nc6 6. O-O Nf6 7. d3 O-O 8. f5 gxf5 9. Qe1 fxe4 10. dxe4 Be6 11. Nd5 Ne5 12. Nxe5 dxe5 13. Bg5 Bxd5 14. exd5 Qd6 15. Qh4 Nxd5 16. Rad1 e6 17. Rf6 Qc7 18. Bxd5 exd5 19. Rd3 Rfd8 20. Bh6 Bxh6 21. Qxh6 e4 22. Rg3+ 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1599806

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabiano_Caruana

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

http://cassidynoble.com/

Welcome back to another episode! 

In today’s episode,  I will be providing you with the locations of the different pieces on the board. It is your job to figure out the solution by pausing the podcast before moving on. Today, we will be looking at 3 puzzles each around a different endgame theme starting from Easy and working our way to Hard. 

Here is your first puzzle - White has a king on e5 and a pawn on c5. Black has a King on d8 with white to move. 

Again, that is White has a king on e5 and a pawn on c5. Black has a King on d8 with white to move.

Please pause and find the solution before moving on. 

Solution coming in 5 seconds. 

—- -— 

This puzzle looks at the concept of opposition. When the white king steps to d6, it forces black to protect the queening square by stepping to c8. White follows up with King to c6. If they could, they would ‘pass’, but black is forced to give up ground and white will procure the queening square by stepping to either b7 or d7. 

Time to move on to the next puzzle, this one is a little tougher. 

White has a King on c4, a rook on f7, and a rook on h6. Black has a king on e8 and a Queen on a5 with white to move. 

Again, that is a King on c4, a rook on f7, and a rook on h6. Black has a king on e8 and a Queen on a5 with white to move. 

Please pause and find the solution before moving on. 

Solution coming in 5 seconds. 

—- — 

This one is quite incredible. Even with so few pieces on the board, white is able to sacrifice their rook since the black queen is trapped. Rook to a7 attacks the queen, a queen that has no square to go to without being captured or allowing quite to access the ladder mate by playing Rook to h8 checkmate. Black gives up the queen and allows white to check the king and force it on the same rank as the queen. Then white will win the Rook versus King ending. 

Onto the last puzzle! This one is a little tricky, we’ll be looking at a couple variations. 

White has a king on h8 and a pawn on c6. Black as a king on a6 and a pawn on h5.

Again, White has a king on h8 and a pawn on c6. Black as a king on a6 and a pawn on h5.

Please pause and find the solution before moving on. 

Solution coming in 5 seconds. 

—- - — 

This puzzle is Richard Reti's Famous Endgame Puzzle originally published in 1921. Black has a passed pawn that ‘can’t’ be captured by the white king while white’s passed pawn is firmly under black’s control. 

White needs to utilize the idea of ‘multi-purpose’ moves in order to simultaneously move toward his pawn and track down black’s pawn. 

We are going to look at the second variation now which contains sub-variations. Return to the starting position and remember the position when we enter a sub-variation. 

—-------

There are two main ideas here, but they both start with King g7 to move closer to both pawns. Black now has the option to either try to stop white’s pawn by moving his king closer which gives white time to move toward black’s pawn allowing both pawns to be captured - ending in a draw. Conversely, black could try to advance his pawn, giving white enough time to move toward his own pawn allowing his queen to promote at the same time as black’s - resulting in a draw. 

That concludes our 3 puzzles for this week. Tune in next episode where we will continue to work on  our visualization with another game of the Masters.  

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/

http://cassidynoble.com/

The Iron Tigran was Tigran Petrosian’s nickname for his solid defensive style. Born in 1929, he started learning chess when he was 8. During WWII - Petrosian was orphaned and needed to sweep streets to earn a living. During this time, he got sick and developed a hearing problem that would affect him for the remainder of his life.   

Using his ration money, Petrosian bought Chess Praxis by Nimzowitsch and by age 12, he began training at the Tiflis Palace of Pioneers - a place where students could focus on creative work and sports training.  

His first coach - Archil Ebralidze was a fan of Nimzowitsch and Capablanca who discouraged wild tactics and speculative combinations. Ebralidze’s solid style made its way into Tigran’s play. 

In 1951, Petrosian was in Moscow participating in the Soviet Championship. At that tournament, he played the World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik for the first time. That game went through two different adjournments and lasted a total of 11 hours of play to secure a draw. Tigran ended up finishing in 2nd in the tournament, earning him his International Master title. 

That tournament qualified him for the Interzonal Tournament in Stockholm where he finished in 2nd - earning him his Grandmaster title and qualifying him for his first of 8 different Candidates tournaments.

Tigran developed a reputation for quick draws or in general just drawing his games. That made him incredibly consistent - never really losing, but also never really winning major tournaments, he would hold 2nd or 3rd place in many tournaments much to the chagrin of his colleagues and the press.   

His first 3 Candidates in 1954, 1956, and 1960 he placed 5th, 3rd, and 3rd.  1962 was different. Petrosian won clear first in the Candidates - 19 draws, 8 wins, and 0 losses - in fact in all of 1962 he never lost a tournament game. That qualified him to play Mikhail Botvinnik in the 1963 World Championships.   

Petrosian’s solid style suited him well in match play. The focus on prophylactic play allowed him to wait for an opponent's mistake before taking the opportunity to strike. He took down Botvinnik 12.5 to 9.5 to become the World Champion at age 33. 

As World Champion - Tigran campaigned for a chess newspaper across the entire Soviet Union rather than just Moscow. This newspaper was later rebranded as ‘64’ and is still in publication today.

3 years after his first win, he was challenged to the World Championship by Boris Spassky to which Tigran defended his title 12.5 to 11.5.

The next tournament cycle in 1969 was a rematch between Petrosian and Spassky where Spassky came out the winner 12.5 to 10.5 relegating Petrosian back to the Candidates.

In 1972, he lost to Bobby Fischer in the finals. That year Fischer became World Champion.

During all of this, Tigran participated in 10 straight Olympiads from 1958 to 1978 winning 9 team gold medals, and 6 individual gold medals. Over the 20-year 129-games played period - he had 78 wins, 50 draws, and 1 loss. 

In today’s game, we are going back to the Bled tournament of 1961. 

Tigran Petrosian versus Ludek Pachman 

Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 g6 4.O-O Bg7 5.d3 e6 6.e4 Nge7 7.Re1 O-O 8.e5 d6 9.exd6 Qxd6 10.Nbd2 Qc7 11.Nb3 Nd4 12.Bf4 Qb6 13.Ne5 Nxb3 14.Nc4 Qb5 15.axb3 a5 16.Bd6 Bf6 17.Qf3 Kg7 18.Re4 Rd8 19.Qxf6+ Kxf6 20.Be5+ Kg5 21.Bg7 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1104948 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigran_Petrosian 

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

http://cassidynoble.com/ 

 Born in 1941, Nona Gaprindashvili was the youngest of 6 kids and the only girl. She began playing chess at 5 from watching her brother play. Her first major break came when her brother had to back out of a local Team Championship. Nona stepped in to fill his place and performed very well scoring 5th overall. 

There is a really nice interview she gave to Chessbase in 2018 walking through her chess life and accomplishments, I have left those in the show notes. 

Vakhtang Karseladze - one of Georgia’s top chess trainers of the time - noticed her play and offered to properly train her starting in 1954. 

Two years later in 1956 at the age of 14,  Gaprindashvili won the Women’s Soviet Union Championship. 

Five years later was the start of Nona’s absolute dominance on the global stage. She won the 1961 Candidates tournament a full 2 points ahead of the 17 person field which qualified her to play in the 1962 Women’s World Championship against Elisaveta Bykova. Gaprindashvili crushed her in a 9 to 2 match score. 

Her victory at the World Championship stage was seen as the beginning of a ‘women’s chess revolution’ in Georgia and some go as far as an ‘intellectual revolution’ for Georgian women.

She went on to defend her title: 

• In 1965, against Alla Shulimovna Kushnir winning 8.5 to 4.5 
• In 1969, winning a rematch against Kushnir with the same 8.5 to 4.5 score
• In 1972, winning a close rematch against Kushnir that Gaprindashvili won 8.5 to 7.5
• In 1975, she won against fellow Georgian Nana Alexandia 8.5 to 3.5

In 1978, she was finally dethroned by the then 17 year old (and 20 year younger) Maia Chiburdanidze, ending her 16 year reign as the Women’s World Champion. 1978 was busy for Nona. She participated in the Lone Pine International tournament scoring well enough to be the first woman to ever earn a norm for the title of Grandmaster. 

At a meeting by the FIDE Congress of 1978, Gaprindashvili was awarded the Grandmaster title. She has said her tournament performance at Lone Pine and earning her Grandmaster title as one of her greatest achievements in chess. 

AND she is still playing! She participated in the 2023 European Senior Women’s Chess Championships at the age of 82. She has won the Senior tournament 7 times with her most recent being in 2022 in the 65+ age division. 

Gaprindashvili not only was the first woman to earn the Grandmaster title, dominate the Women’s World Championship for 16 years through 5 different cycles, play in 12 Olympiads, and win 7 different Senior Championships - but she has been a role model that many have looked up to by causing women to get into the game, being an active voice in politics, and earning the Presidential Order of Excellence by the Georgian President. There is so much we can learn from players like her. 

This week, we are traveling back to 1963 to the 9th Soviet Team Championship. 

Nona Gaprindashvili vs Evgenia Guseva.

Now if we’re ready, let’s begin. 

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 O-O 8.Bc4 Bd7 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.O-O-O Rb8 11.h4 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b5 13.Be2 Qa5 14.h5 b4 15.Nd5 Nxd5 16.Bxg7 Nc3 17.Qh6 Nxe2+ 18.Kd2 b3+ 19.Kxe2 Rfc8 20.hxg6 Rxc2+ 21.Ke3 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2285813

https://en.chessbase.com/post/nona-gaprindashvili-interview-bled-2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nona_Gaprindashvili

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

http://cassidynoble.com/ 

This episode was a struggle to cram all of Viswanathan Anand’s accomplishments into a highlight script! The Indian Grandmaster has been one of the most dominant and successful players in the game for over almost 4 decades. He was born on December 11, 1969, and moved to Chennai, India, and began playing chess at the age of six from his mother who was a chess aficionado.

Anand’s rise in the chess world was very quick. He won the sub-junior championship with a perfect 9/9 score in 1983 at the age of 14. 

The next year, he won the Asian Junior Championship picking up his International Master norm in the process. 

In 1985 he became the youngest Indian player to earn his International Master title at the age of 15.

The next year, he won his first of 3 Indian Chess Championships in a row at age 16, 17, and 18.

In 1988, when he was 18, he became India’s first Grandmaster at the Shakti Finance International tournament in Kovai, India. 

In 1993, he played in his first of 10 World Championship cycles with varying levels of success. 

In 1995, he faced Garry Kasparov for the World Championship losing 10.5 to 7.5. 

In 1998, the format was changed to a 100 person knockout tournament where Karpov beat Anand in the finals 5 to 3.  

In 2000, Anand won the 100 person knock out tournament against Shirov 3.5 to 0.5. 

In 2005, the format was changed to be a round robin tournament where Anand tied for 2nd with Svidler behind Topalov who won it. 

In 2007, Anand won the round robin World Championship a point ahead of the field. 

Starting in 2008, the format was changed to a 12 game match. 

• Anand defeated Kramnik 6.5 to 4.5.
• In 2010, Anand defended his title against Topalov 6.5 to 5.5.
• In 2012, Anand defended his title against Boris Gelfand 8.5 to 7.5.

In 2013, Anand was dethroned by Magnus Carlsen losing 6.5 to 3.5 in 10 games. 

In his last World Championship appearance in 2014, Anand fought through the Qualification cycles to rematch Carlsen but lost 6.5 to 4.5.

Anand’s contributions to the game go well beyond the chess board as well. He has been awarded: 

• An Order for Friendship from Russia
• Indian Sportsman of the Year, Indian of the Year, Excellence in Chess Award, Best Sportsperson, the Chess Oscar 6 different times, and the National Citizens Award
• In India, he has received a host of National Honors including the- Arjuna Award, Padma Shri, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Bhushan, and the Padma Vibhushan award
• He even has a planet named after him - Planet 4538 Vishyanand

In an effort to give back to his home country, he has been on the Olympic Gold Quest Board to support India’s elite sportspersons. With his help and training, after he became the first Indian Grandmaster, India now has 84 Grandmasters, 10 of the top 100 Women players are Indian and 9 of the top 100 Open Global players are Indian (including 3 of the top 15).

This week, we are going to 2013 at Wilk aan Zee Group A.

Levon Aronian versus Viswanathan Anand. 

Now if we’re ready, let’s begin. 

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 Bd6 9. O-O O-O 10. Qc2 Bb7 11. a3 Rc8 12. Ng5 c5 13. Nxh7 Ng4 14. f4 cxd4 15. exd4 Bc5 16. Be2 Nde5 17. Bxg4 Bxd4+ 18. Kh1 Nxg4 19. Nxf8 f5 20. Ng6 Qf6 21. h3 Qxg6 22. Qe2 Qh5 23. Qd3 Be3 0-1

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1704763

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viswanathan_Anand

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/ 

http://cassidynoble.com/