10/05/2026
CHESSMIS ISSUE # 6:
๐ช๐ต๐ผ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐บ๐ฒ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐๐ต ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ซ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด?
Held once every two years, the Candidates tournament decides the most worthy challenger for the World Champion to face. In order to achieve a coveted spot in the tournament, players participate in different tournaments and perform their best, which will guarantee them a spot depending on the qualification method they fit in. The tournament is an eight-player double round-robin tournament, wherein the winner, decided by who has the highest amount of points after all games have concluded, earns the right to challenge the World Chess Champion. The Candidates is one of, if not the most, jam-packed tournaments out there, consisting of only the best players in the world who have fought for their right to be there. Among the players, there are the favorites, typically the top players based on rankings, and the dark horses, those who do not get as much recognition but could potentially change the outcome of the event later on.
The recently concluded Candidates is no stranger to this situation. Composed of players with the likes of Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, and many more, it is guaranteed that the event will contain many twists and turns, ups and downs, and shocking surprises through its course. One of these surprises is the emergence of the 20-year old Javokhir Sindarov, one of the โdark horsesโ of the tournament, as the winner to cement a dominant Candidates run, probably the greatest weโve seen throughout the history of the Candidates.
One of his wins stood out among the rest because of the heated discussion that came along with it. In Game 5, one of the most shocking upsets of the tournament happened. Sindarov defeated Nakamura with the black pieces, a rare and unexpected occurrence, after Hikaru blundered on move 13 with h4 as a response to Sindarovโs castling on move 12. To make matters even worse, Hikaru burned over an hour thinking of a response to Sindarovโs move to no avail.
After the game, Hikaru mentioned in his recap session posted on his YouTube channel that the move โO-Oโ was not in the preparation file that his team had prepared for him. This leads us to one of the most pressing issues in the game of Chess today.
In the age of unbeatable computers and complex engines, has the game of Chess been reduced to a game of who can memorize the most lines? In a typical Classical tournament, youโd often see players blitz out the first ten moves of a game in an instant, maybe around two to three minutes compared to the initial 90 minutes that they have. The reason for this is because the players have already studied and memorized multiple lines and their permutations to an extent before taking over the game themselves. After all, theyโd want to be as accurate as possible so that their opponent will have no window for a potential counterplay.
Because of this, the winner is often decided based on who has the deeper preparation because they know how to navigate lines much easier since they have already gone through those situations with engine simulations or team-based preparations. While this is an extremely impressive feat and showcases how intelligent these players are, the evolving practice has injected a bit of a monotonous aura to the game itself. Games are seen as repetitive, boring, and unexciting until the second half of the game; when both players are low on time and much more prone to blundering. Magnus Carlsen, the 5-time Classical World Champion, shares the same sentiment, nowadays opting for tournaments with lower time control or Freestyle tournaments, a variant where the back-row pieces are shuffled, making deep preparations essentially impossible due to the novelty of the position.
What happens if players primarily rely on memorized lines to kick off a game? They make the same mistake as Hikaru. Because of the rigidity of their preparation, a simple, almost human-like move from the opponent is sufficient to topple them off balance and frantically engage in a position not because of the thrill with the plays, but because they have been forced into it. When we were all still at the early stages of learning the game of Chess, the principle of castling has been hammered onto us. Get the King away from the center of the board as early as possible, where it is under the safety of its pieces at the corner of the board. It is something so important that itโs almost instinctual to play in situations that call or allow for it, yet, we have seen how a seemingly defensive, human move can turn into an offensive one once the computers and preparations fail.
In your opinion, has memorization taken over as the primary way for player preparations? With the increasing role of computers and engines, how do we balance being a human and a robot while playing? Lastly, how does this issue affect the reputation of other formats, specifically Bullet, Blitz, Rapid, and Freestyle (Chess 960) in terms of garnering more respect and prestige as the defining format of the game of Chess, or will the crown still remain with the Classical format?
https://youtu.be/lRdxyF2T2iE?si=WKNISrkRi8up9hg7
by: Seya Angco
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ is a ๐๐ ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐๐ญ๐ถ๐ฃ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ, ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ช๐ค๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ - ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ณ๐ช๐ป๐ป.
LAST CALL FOR SIGNED COPIES: https://sites.prh.com/gothamchessbook0:00 Intro1:30 Hikaru Sindarov11:36 Fabi Blubaum19:08 Pragg Esipenko21:52 Giri Wei24:55 Lag...
