To bid on: Magnus Carlsen's New York jeans

2/21/2025 – At the last World Rapid and Blitz Championship in New York, Magnus Carlsen was reprimanded for violating the FIDE dress code by wearing jeans. This led to a dispute that attracted a lot of media attention. Carlsen is now making the best of it by auctioning off the jeans on Ebay for charity. You can still bid. | Photos: Magnus Carlsen via Ebay

Magnus Carlsen at the ICE Gaming Fair in Barcelona

1/27/2025 – After giving his Bundesliga debut for St. Pauli, Magnus Carlsen travelled on to the ICE Gaming Fair in Barcelona. In an interview, Carlsen commented on the controversy with FIDE, though he did not mention it explicitly. Still, it was an interesting and open interview.

60m The Two Knights

This entry into the 60 minutes series concentrates on the Modern variation of the Italian game where White opens the centre early : 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5!. This line can be reached by various move orders, most frequently from the Scotch 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4. It's a sharp variation and Grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov have used it frequently,with very good results. It's a perfect line for club players to adopt which is relatively easy to learn and which contains many traps. All the main responses are covered here, including 5...d5, 5...Ng4 and 5...Ne4 and the conclusion is that is is difficult for Black to equalize in a straightforward way. Problems are being posed, which over the board might prove tough to solve.