London Staunton Memorial Khanty-Mansiysk World Cup Roulette Chess Russian Super Final Alexander Alekhine Kortchnoi-Spassky Rowson’s Reviews Just Checking

Content NIC’s Café Carlsen Claims London Chess Classic ‘One big dream,’ tournament director Malcolm Pein called the London Chess Classic, and everyone present agreed. After all, the birth of a major new chess event in a city that is known to fans worldwide is a rarity these days. The London Chess Classic. Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian top-seed, also saw a dream come true. Looking for adventure in all of his games, the public’s favourite steered straight for the €25,000 first prize and secured top spot in the January 2010 world rankings. ‘I am not claiming now that I am much better than all of the others, but I think that the ratings do mean something. When people are speaking about the best player in the world, it will be hard to overlook me that easily.’ A Country for Old Men The World Cup returned to Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, where this time the thermometer hovered between -30 C and -40 C. The format is not everybody’s cup of tea, but our reporter, Misha Savinov, has no doubts. ‘It took 480 games to determine the winner, and the winner had to play 25 games in less than two weeks. I believe the Khanty-Mansiysk tournament and its heroes deserve a lot of love from the chess world. And its winner Boris Gelfand should receive the highest acclaim. He won a marathon. Think about it.’ Roulette Chess If you think Fischerandom is random, you may wonder how random Roulette Chess, developed by artist Larry List and WGM Jennifer Shahade, is. Perhaps you should see it as art. Alexander Grischuk Russian Champion Alexander Grischuk crowned a successful year that already included victories in Linares and Mainz with a sweeping victory at the 2009 Russian Super Final. Displaying unbelievably confident and high-quality play the Muscovite deservedly took his first national title. In the five years of its existence the Super Final has developed its own traditions (one of them is that no one has yet managed to win it twice) and who could be a better guide to its unwritten rules and peculiarities than Mark Glukhovsky, the editor-in-chief of Russia’s most revered chess periodical ‘64’. Alexander Alekhine’s Paris Years Winning the World Championship from Capablanca made him the toast of the town among Russian émigrés in Paris, but Alexander Alekhine always longed to be received ­triumphantly in his motherland. His political compromises had disastrous results, being rejected by the Soviet ­government and denounced by the compatriots who had once held banquets in his honour. Kortchnoi-Spassky Reunion The contest in Elista between Boris Spassky, the 10th world champion, and Viktor Kortchnoi, the many-time challenger to the throne, bore the proud title ‘Battle of the giants’. Vladimir Barsky reports from a snow-covered Kal­mykian capital. Chess Metaphors ‘I hesitate to suggest that chess players have any privileged access to analogical reasoning or pattern matching, but if chess skill does transfer to other domains, one of the ways it might do so is in the manner in which we recognise patterns in every day life’, writes Jonathan Rowson. Old Hands and Young Talents Jan Timman competed in two events where youth and experience clashed conspicuously. Just Checking Does Ben Finegold have any superstitions concerning chess? Did they play your opening? In this issue games with the following openings were annotated by world class players: Sicilian Timofeev-Khismatullin, by Timofeev Van Kampen-Timman, by Timman Howell-Carlsen, by Howell French Kamsky-So, by So Caro-Kann Svidler-Riazantsev, by Svidler Alekhine Grischuk-Riazantsev, by Grischuk Italian Game Karjakin-Gelfand, by Gelfand Polgar-Gelfand, by Polgar Slav Ponomariov-Gelfand, by Ponomariov Nyzhnyk-Chadaev, by Timman Svidler-Malakhov, by Notkin Nimzo-Indian Carlsen-Adams, by Adams King's Indian Nakamura-McShane, by McShane English Opening Carlsen-Kramnik, by Carlsen Kortchnoi-Spassky, by Barsky Réti Ponomariov-Motylev, by Ponomariov