Daniel Naroditsky would have turned 30 today. It's been 3 weeks since his passing and I still cannot believe that this is the new reality. Every day I wake up with mixed emotions, sometimes more sad, sometimes more angry. I'm not a performative influencer and generally would keep these things to myself, but this whole situation feels so awful. He impacted the lives of so many people, both online and offline. He had such a bright future ahead of him. I hope we the people of the chess world never forget everything that made him exactly who he was. I truly think that there will never again be a person with such eclectic, high-level skill, mixed with wit, humor, and a sophistication most of us can only dream of having. Call your parents. See your friends. Stay strong.

It is interesting how you can manipulate statistics. The administration in London is claiming crime and especially murders are down. It is true. But why? Because the hospitals and medics have improved their abilities in dealing with stabbings. This rough guide shows murders (blue) and stabbings (yellow). To say that violent crime is down is obviously ludicrous. The reasons for the crime is open for discussion. This did not inspire this post. Rather that London won some award for being the best city in the World. But why? Because of history, power and culture. Not because living there is nice. Crime is really up, median wages don't match expenses. And having been there a few times this year, I must say that it looks quite dirty and dilapidated to me. The reasons for London being "best" has nothing to do with current politics from the mayors office, but the propaganda on X today has been extensive. In this age of new media, everything is spin...

Analysis from my class today on Positional Play and opposite coloured bishops at @killer_chess. Black to play and hold the draw. This is not easy at all and requires a correct 5 move sequence to reach an unpleasant endgame (Stockfish gives 0.00 of course).

"The most exciting Armageddon since Bruce Willis destroyed that asteroid" - Jan Gustafsson.

“He certainly has left a lasting legacy.” — Magnus Carlsen In a tribute interview with Yasser Seirawan, Magnus shared his fond memories of Daniel Naroditsky — a player he deeply respected and enjoyed facing. Today, on what would have been Danya’s 30th birthday, we remember a brilliant mind, a kind soul, and a lasting inspiration to the chess world. ♟️🕊️

eBook of the Week: Opening Repertoire: 1 d4 with 2 c4 The emphasis of the repertoire is to gain space as quickly as possible and set Black the task of finding quick counterplay or face the risk of being overrun. forwardchess.com/product/ope… newinchess.com/opening-reper…

Thanks to all who read the rules and corrected me :-)

I found an error. Bluebaum has 100% chance of reaching the Candidates... 😝

Imagine that Praggnanandhaa and Keymer makes it to the Candidates via the World Cup, the winner of the circuit may be Wesley or Abdusattorov... Or someone coming from behind even.

Not after he won individual Gold at the Olympiad in 2024, shared first at the European Championship and qualified to Round 4 of the World Cup...

We talked tactics and calculation last night. It was late, so I may have rambled on a bit...

new: ChessBase '26 - Save 20% and pre-order now - newinchess.com/preorder-ches… release on November 11 #chessbase #chess

Out by a factor of 10,920. And hating the man that made cars go electric.

The translation is mostly correct. This excerpt is taken out of my podcast interview with Nepo dated November 2022 (it's in Russian - I hadn't yet launched my English channel back then). For those interested, the full video with Eng subs can be seen here: piped.video/_8rBWqaImPE?si=zmpE…

@GMJacobAagaard reading through the book and so far it's full of inspirational Tal moves! Like in this position. White (Tal) to play.

The Vlad-bots have been on me for two weeks. So let's meet the accusations head on: Explaining that a language nuance is easy to miss for a Russian speaker, is not racism. I am certainly against the invasion of Ukraine. And I don't think Russia should participate in international sports, as long as it is waging an unprovoked war of conquest. (Israel-Palestine is much more complex, as is many other international conflicts, to warrant the highest sanctions in sports). If nothing else, I find it intolerable to routinely get threatened with nuclear annihilation. When I say it is idiotic to compare looking at move 5-10 in a game, while playing move 40, with someone playing the moves suggested by Stockfish, I am not calling the person "an idiot". It is the argument that is idiotic. For a non-native speaker, failing to understand the difference is natural. For someone equal or above in technical competency (which Kramnik certainly has, should the Vlad-bot be him) and at the same time making such a statement, is idiotic. Either you don't know what you are talking about, or you think I don't know what I am talking about. Either is stupid. But it does not transfer to all other areas. There is no mob going after this anonymous Vlad-bot, of course. Enough with the self-pity. But many of us can recognise the Vlad-bot narrative of ridiculous statements and declaration of "victory" and explosions of anger.

On the one hand, it is clear that turning on the engine is a technical error. But the intention here is to test the feeling that the opponent is cheating, not to cheat the opponent. I don't think there is anything disingenuous in this narrative. I also don't think it is a good method to do anti-cheating. But if the general feeling is one of powerlessness, it is hard not to sympathize with him. His intuition was correct. But in other situations, he was wrong. And to me this is the main problem. Once some people are cheating, and you become obsessed with catching cheaters, you get to the place where you smear and hurt innocent people. So, for this reason I find this dubious. Turning on the engine is a path to the dark side.

Jo ældre jeg bliver, jo mindre er jeg interesseret i folks meninger, og mere i fakta.

I love it when the Vlad-bots turn to arguing with Grok...

Quite easy, but really beautiful.