Features
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Interview
“An access tool for online play” – 31 May 2020
Millennium 2000 was not a household name in online chess. Then the Munich-based company made a grand entry by cosponsoring the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, the first online chess world class tournament. COO Thomas Karkosch is eager to turn online chess into a haptic game: “Our devices are predestined to become an access tool for online play,” says Karkosch, interviewed by Conrad Schormann.
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![[Alex Colovic][1] is President of the Association of Chess Professionals since 2019, a coach, author and grandmaster from Macedonia. [Follow Alex on Twitter][2]
[1]: https://www.alexcolovic.com
[2]: https://twitter.com/GMAlexColovic](/files/players/alex-colovic.240.jpeg)
Call to Action
What can chess professionals do now? – 27 May 2020
The events that shook the world in the last few months had a colossal effect on the chess world - the tournaments stopped and chess moved online. For some, this changed nothing, for others – everything. Alex Colovic, President of the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP), reflects on how he and his colleagues make a living now.
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![Hikaru Nakamura fan art by [Dr Assenov][1]
[1]: https://twitter.com/drassenov](/files/people/dr-assenov-hikaru-6k-05.240.jpeg)
Background
Stealing the show – 26 May 2020
Hikaru Nakamura reigned supreme during the preliminary rounds of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge while Magnus Carlsen barely escaped elimination. The American Grandmaster also angered the world champion and the hosting platform chess24 by allowing their competitor Chess.com to broadcast the event on his popular GMHikaru channel on Twitch. Carlsen complained via Twitter, but the gamer community stands behind Nakamura, ahead of their likely clash in the semifinals from Thursday on, reports Stefan Löffler.
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Background
Robot magic is back – 25 May 2020
Chess automatons that move the pieces have been a fascination since the Mechanical Turk of Wolfgang von Kempelen. A recently announced wonder board turned out to be too good to be true, but it has triggered activities and ambition by other producers, developers and platform providers, reports Conrad Schormann.
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Call to Action
Can online chess overcome cheating? – 24 May 2020
Numerous disqualifications at the ongoing European Online Championship highlight the major battle online chess is fighting these days: cheating. Games with longer time controls will be an especially critical battleground. Is the detection system in place good enough? How do we sanction cheaters? Ahead of our online debate on Tuesday here is an update by Conrad Schormann.
Latest News
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Short news
Artemiev claims first Speed Chess Grandprix – 03 Jun 2020
Chess.com`s popular Titled Tuesday series has been rebranded as Speed Chess Grandprix and is sponsored by the games website Gambit. After ten rounds of Swiss the first eight players slug it out in k.o.-mode and also gain points towards a grandprix. Vladislav Artemiev from Russia won the first edition.
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Short news
Clutch goes international – 03 Jun 2020
The Clutch Chess International fills the gap until the start of the second Magnus Carlsen Tour Event. Four US stars - So, Caruana, Dominguez and Xiong (instead of Nakamura who is busy with PogStars) - meet four European stars: Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian and Grischuk. They compete for $ 265,000 until 14 June. The time control is 10 minutes plus 5 seconds/move (the increment was 10 seconds at the US only event in late May), and the host is LiChess.
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Short news
Dubov victorious – 03 Jun 2020
Hikaru Nakamura had beaten Magnus Carlsen in the semifinal of the Lindores Abbey Rapid hosted by chess24 and won the first match of the final against Daniil Dubov, but the 24-year-old Russian claimed the following two matches and therefore the first event of the Magnus Carlsen Tour and qualifies as first player for the final four in August.
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Short news
First post lockdown GM event in Oslo – 01 Jun 2020
On 10 June starts an over the board tournament for GM and IM norms run by Offerspill, the club Magnus Carlsen founded a year ago.
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Short news
Sarana is European Online Champion – 01 Jun 2020
Alexey Sarana from Russia won the European Online Championship 2300+ category. The time control was 10 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. More than 4400 players participated in different categories, hosted by Chess.com
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Short news
A chess tournament! Offline! – 31 May 2020
The first over the board tournament with classical time control since the Candidates begins in Helsinki, Finland this Sunday. The Mestarit Areenalla is a six player round-robin from 31 May to 4 June 2020. Average rating: 2320 elo.
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Short news
Carlsen stopped by Nakamura – 30 May 2020
The world champion won´t claim first prize at the Lindores Abbey Heritage Rapid inaugural event of the Magnus Carlsen Tour hosted by chess24 in spite of a clean 3:0 against Hikaru Nakamura on the first day of their semifinal. But the American won their next two mini matches, the last one in an Armageddon blitz game, and qualified for the final against Daniil Dubov from Russia that starts on Sunday.
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Short news
Rauf Mamedov unstoppable – 30 May 2020
With two tournament victories this week, Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan) has underlined that he is especially good in blitz. After winning the French Chamionship (where foreign guest players were invited) Mamedov has now won the Silkway Cup that was initiated to celebrate Independence Day in Georgia (May 26) and Republic Day in Azerbaijan (May 28). 55 players took part, Mamedov won with 11,5/15 ahead of Badur Jobaava (11/15).