[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]
A fortnight ago, I looked at perhaps the most violent game of my life: a ludicrously messy battle with Tony Miles way back in 1975. Paired with a recent bout of hacking (or hackery — the two are more or less interchangeable in my mind) they formed a small homage to violence in chess. In a time still dominated by lockdowns we need entertainment, and a blood sport which doesn’t spill real blood seems ideal — so I promised some more today.
Most chess is currently of course played online, but there is some over-the-board activity. While I obviously saw them myself online, these two recent examples were both actually contested on over-the-board competitions.
We begin with a last round-game from the Swedish League in Stockholm.
Yuri Solodovnichenko
We move on to the Tegernsee Masters in Germany, an initially ten-player all-play-all which Vincent Keymer had to leave after a schoolmate caught the Coronavirus. Alexander Donchenko won the resultant nine-player tournament, and like the blood fest in Sweden above, this explosive battle was played in the final round.
