Sorry to miss a week sending this out. I guess I was drained after two tournaments on consecutive weekends. Congrats to the winners of the Summer Open, Ian Harris and Nakul Ramaswamy! The tournament was a beautiful day in the (Wickham) Park.
ALL TOO HUMAN
The news that has rocked the chess world has a Connecticut angle to it. Hans Niemann, a former CT player, defeated World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis. Hans spent his high school years living in Connecticut and playing tournaments at the Fairfield County Chess Club. He currently lives "out of a suitcase" in New York City, jetting off to tournaments around the world. Here is a link to his Wikipedia page:
The win against Carlsen would have been big enough as an announcement of Niemann's entry to the very top level of chess competition and race to succeed the outgoing World Champion, but Carlsen's dropping out of the tournament the next day and cryptic tweet elevated it to huge controversy. Wikipedia does an excellent job of fairly explaining it so I would like to focus on the game itself, which I (and Stockfish) analyse here:
The game itself shows no signs of computer assistance, containing the inevitable human mistakes from a long and complex game. Niemann outduels Carlsen in a magnificent endgame to extract the full point.
Having watched Hans in several interviews and noting his great confidence and single minded devotion to chess, I would like to offer one piece of unsolicited advice: Learn from the tragic life of Bobby Fischer, who accomplished everything in the chess world at the cost of everything that is most important in life. You also have a great talent but let it be your servant rather than your master.
