Chess Go Spinny

It can sometimes be surprisingly difficult to pin down just how many tournaments a successful and active player has won, but there's no doubting that Keith Arkell has been one of the most successful in this regard over the course of his 45-year career, and this month he notched up another one. According to him, the 27th 4NCL Congress in Harrogate was his 413rd tournament victory. Nobody will be surprised to learn of the way he got there, either. His wins in the first three rounds were his customary endgame grinds, one of them against the current British Women's Champion . Then in round four, he got a free point in a way that will be all too familiar to audiences these days: there was a positive COVID test in his scheduled opponent's family, and so said opponent had to withdraw. Stay safe out there, everyone. His tournament concluded with a six-move draw against Derakhshani, guaranteeing him at least equal first, which became outright first when Willow could not beat Wells...

 More news of title-norm tournaments, this time from Ireland. The Irish Chess Union ran what were meant to be two title-norm all-play-alls over the New Year period, but sadly had a last-minute withdrawal in the IM norm section and could not get a replacement player. Still, the GM norm section ran and did its job: Icelandic IM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson convincingly won the tournament and exceeded the GM norm requirements by half a point. Nobody else managed to get a norm, although Tom O'Gorman would have achieved an IM norm had he beaten Sam Collins in their last-round game. Name Rating Federation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Points 1 IM Stefansson Vignir Vatnar 2465 Iceland * ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 7½ 2 GM Gonzalez Garcia Jose 2466 Spain ½ * 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½...

World Cup 2021 Preliminary Round   Last 128   Last 64   Last 32   Last 16   Quarter-Final   Semi-Final and Final   Grand Swiss 2021 Round 1 Round 2   Round 3   Round 4   Round 5   Round 6   Round 7   Round 8   Round 9   Round 10   Round 11   Grand Prix 2022 Tournament 1 Round 1   Round 2 Round 3   Round 4   Round 5   Round 6 and playoffs   Knockout Stage   Tournament 2 Round 1   Round 2   Rounds 3 and 4   Rounds 5 and 6   Knockout Stage   Tournament 3  Rounds 1 and 2 Rounds 3 and 4 Round 5   Round 6   Playoffs   Knockout Stage   Candidates 2022 World Championship Match 2022

 An index of all the posts about the 2021 World Championship match. Game 1 Game 2   Game 3 Game 4   Game 5 Game 6   Game 7 Game 8 Game 9   Game 10   Game 11

 This is an index for all this blog's Great Players articles, separated by category. (Some of the categories were blank at the time the index was first constructed; I intend to fill them out at some point.) Early Days of Competitive Chess Francois-Andre Danican Philidor   Alexander Petrov   Alexander McDonnell Louis de la Bourdonnais   Howard Staunton   Tassilo von der Lasa   Adolf Anderssen   Paul Morphy   World Champions World Championship Challengers Great Women Players Vera Menchik   Nona Gaprindashvili   Others Carlos Torre Repetto Evgeny Sveshnikov