Leonard Barden

6 days ago | theguardian.com | Leonard Barden

Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, scored a low-key triumph on Monday when he won the Paris leg of the $3.75m Freestyle Grand Slam by defeating his old rival and world No 2, USA’s Hikaru Nakamura, by 1.5-0.5 in the final. It was patient attrition over the two games, worthy of a place in the Carlsen-David Howell book Grind like a Grandmaster. The decisive first game had some technical errors, which the Norwegian described almost apologetically in his post-game interview.

1 week ago | ft.com | Leonard Barden

Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, added another triumph to his illustrious career today when he won the Paris leg of the $3.75mn Freestyle...

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Leonard Barden

Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, was an early front runner in the $375,000 second leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam in Paris. The 34 year-old tied for first with Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 12-player round robin which decided Thursday’s quarter-finalists, and which proved a disaster for India. Three of their four contenders were eliminated, headed by the 18-year-old world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, who also failed in the first Grand Slam leg in Germany.

2 weeks ago | ft.com | Leonard Barden

Hans Niemann, the controversial US star, surprised organisers by withdrawing from the $750,000 Paris leg of the $3.75mn Freestyle Grand...

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Leonard Barden

Women’s chess takes centre stage this week. In Shanghai and Chongqing, there is an all-Chinese 12-game match for the women’s world crown between Ju Wenjun, 34, the holder, and Tan Zhongyi, 33, the challenger. The pair are closely matched on ratings (2561 to 2555) and level on head-to-head. The prize money pool is $500,000. Thursday’s game one, with Ju playing White in a Sicilian Defence, was a routine draw by threefold repetition in 39 moves.