This week, we are looking at the rising star Vaishali Rameshbabu, the 3rd woman in India to achieve the Grandmaster title. She and her brother are the first 2 siblings in history to be Grandmasters, to play in the Candidates, and to play in the Candidates in the same year.

For today though, we are going back just a couple of years to the 2022 Tata Steel Blitz tournament - Vaishali Rameshbabu versus Kulkarni Bhakti.

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1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 e6 4. e3 Bd6 5. Bg3 c5 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. c3 b6 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. Ne5 Nc6 10. f4 Ne7 11. Qf3 Nf5 12. Bf2 Be7 13. g4 Nd6 14. g5 Nfe4 15.Bxe4 dxe4 16. Qg4 cxd4 17.cxd4 Rc8 18. h4 Rc2 19. h5 b5 20. g6 Qa5 21. Rd1 Nc4 22. gxf7+ Kh8 23. Ng6+ hxg6 24. hxg6+ 1-0

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Being the 3rd woman to achieve the Grandmaster title in India, playing in her first Candidates tournament last year, and setting her sights at the World Championship - it’ll be great to continue to watch Vaishali improve.

So that is all that we have for this week. Tune in next time where we will continue to work on our blindfold skills and look at another game of the Masters.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishali_Rameshbabu

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2420745

https://cassidynoble.com/

This week, we are looking at the tumultuous and impressive life of the 4th World Champion - Alexander Alekhine.

Alekhine’s fingerprints are all over the game we know today - he had many openings named over him including the: Alekhine Defense (e4 Nf6), Alekhine Variations found in the Budapest Gambit, Vienna Game, Ruy Lopez, Winawer Variation, Sicilian Dragon, QGA, Slav, Queens Pawn, Catalan, and Dutch, he had composed several endgame studies, he wrote over 20 chess books, and he had a cat named ‘Chess’ that he took with him to tournaments.

Though not officially given the Grandmaster title since FIDE did not give those until 1950, he was given it unofficially from Tsar Nicholas II at the St Petersburg tournament of 1914.

This week, we are traveling back to 1921 - before he became world champion to The Hague - Alexander Alekhine versus Max Euwe.

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1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c5 3. c4 e6 4. e3 Nc6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. a3 Bd6 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. b4 Bd6 9. Bb2 O-O 10. Rc1 Qe7 11. cxd5 exd5 12. Nxd5 Nxd5 13. Qxd5 a5 14. Bb5 axb4 15. a4 Rd8 16. Qh5 g6 17. Qh6 Ne5 18. Ng5 f6 19. Bxe5 fxg5 20. Bc4+ 1-0

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Being ensnared in World War I, World War II, the Russian Revolution, leaving your home country to never return, all while being at the top of the chess world for 17 years, playing in 5 chess Olympiads, and breaking the simultaneous Blindfold Chess record 3 different times - Alexander Alekhine has earned his plaque in the Chess Hall of Fame.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1012076

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Alekhine

http://cassidynoble.com/

Welcome back! This week, we are taking a closer look at someone that Garry Kasparov has praised for her calculation skills, a 20 time US Women’s Chess Championship participant, 4-time US Women’s Champion, and someone who helped the United States win their first Olympic medal(s) - Anna Zatonskih.

For today’s game, we are traveling back to the 2nd round of the US Women’s Championship of 2017. Anna Zatonskih versus Emily Nguyen.

Now, if we’re ready - lets begin.

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1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. c3 d5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. d4 Nf6 6. Na3 Nc6 7. Be3 cxd4 8. Nb5 Qd8 9. Nbxd4 Nxd4 10. Bxd4 Be7 11. Bd3 O-O 12. Qc2 g6 13. O-O-O Qa5 14. Kb1 b5 15. h4 Rd8 16. h5 Nxh5 17. Rxh5 gxh5 18. Qd2 Kf8 19. Qh6+ Ke8 20. Qxh7 e5 21. Qg8+ Kd7 22. Nxe5+ Kc7 23. Qxf7 1-0

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A 3 time Women’s World Championship participant, a 20 time US Women’s Championship participant, a 4 time US Women’s Championship winner, a player in every Olympiad for a quarter of a century, and on the US Women’s team that help earn the United States women their first Olympiad medal - Anna Zatonskih has cemented her mark not only in Ukraine and the United States, but also across the world.

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https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1869995

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Zatonskih

http://cassidynoble.com/

This week, we are looking at not only the current Women’s World Champion, but the 5 consecutive time Women’s World Champion - Wenjun Ju.

Her journey to the top of the Women’s World of Chess started at the age of 7 when it was something interesting to do after school. In an interview with Chessbase from November 2020, she said:

“My parents didn’t know too much about the game because chess doesn’t have a long history in China. Most people got to know about chess from the 1991 Women’s World Chess Championship when China’s Xie Jun defeated Georgia’s Maia Chiburdanidze. That just happened to be the year I was born”

For today’s game, we are going back to 2017 to the IMSA Elite Mind Games Blitz Tournament - Wenjun Ju versus Nana Dzagnidze.

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1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. Nbd2 e6 6. c3 Bd6 7. Bg3 O-O 8. Bb5 Bxg3 9. hxg3 Qd6 10. Bxc6 bxc6 11. Ne5 cxd4 12. exd4 c5 13. g4 cxd4 14. cxd4 h6 15. g5 hxg5 16. Qf3 g4 17. Qf4 Rd8 18. Rh8+ Kxh8 19. Nxf7+ Kg8 20. Nxd6 Ba6 21. O-O-O Rab8 22. Qe5 Bc8 1-0

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Having collected the trifecta of chess achievement of being the Classical, Rapid, and Blitz World Champions, being the now longest reigning Women’s World Champion from China surpassing Xie Jun and Hou Yifan, and now tied for the 2nd most number of Women’s World Championship titles. Ju Wenjun is a pillar of chess achievement and is inspiring a new wave of chess players in her home country and across the world.

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https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1899883

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ju_Wenjun

http://cassidynoble.com/

**There is an error in the first puzzle of the episode: the bishop should be on c4 (NOT c5)**
Thank you @brianmartin5571 on Youtube for letting me know!

Hello, and welcome back to another episode - as per tradition, we will be looking at some puzzles this week. I will give you the location of each of the pieces on the board then I will give you some time to solve it before we walk through the solution. We have 3 puzzles this week - easy, medium and hard. Try your best to solve the puzzle before the solution begins.

Let’s dive in!

Puzzle number 1:

White has a knight on e7, a king on h6, and a rook on g1.

Black has a bishop on c5, rook on e5, and a king on h8.

Are we ready for puzzle 2?

White has a room on a6 and a king on f3

Black has a pawn on a2, a rook on a1, and a king on b4

Puzzle 3 - this is another important rook and pawn ending that comes up a surprisingly high number of times:

White has a king on b8, a pawn on b7, and a rook on c1

Black has a rook on a2 and a king on d8.

And that is all that we have for this week, tune in next time where we will continue to work on our blindfold skills and look at another game of the Masters.

http://cassidynoble.com/

Today, we are looking at a sometimes overlooked player in chess history. An individual is rumored to have learned 14 languages, he founded a chess magazine, has an opening named after him, and someone who played in the first World Championship - Johannes Zukertort.

In London, members of the St George’s Chess Club heard of Zukertort’s victory and offered money for him to come play against the unofficial world champion Steinitz. Steinitz had been living in London for 10 years by this point dominating everyone. By accepting this invitation, Zukertort had sparked a rivalry with Steinitz that would last for years.

1878 saw success for the rising star. He played in the Paris World Expo - an 11 round double round robin tournament. This was considered the first Intercontinental tournament as there were players from the United States making it 7 countries represented out of 12 players.

In early 1879, while in Dublin, Zukertort played a 12 person blindfolded simul (where he plays 12 players at once without looking at the board) finishing with 8 wins, 1 loss, and 3 draws. One of the opponents that he defeated was Lord Randolph Churchill, the father of Winston Churchill.

The following year - he defeated the English champion - Joseph Blackburne 9.5 to 4.5. After the match against Blackburne - both Zukertort and Steinitz wrote about the games in their respective magazines taking jabs at one another’s analysis. Zukertort represented the Romantic style of chess while Steinitz represented a more ‘scientific’ approach that we would call the positional style. The various articles and analysis written would antagonize each other beyond strategy and morph into personal insult territory. This animosity would later be named “The Ink War”.

London, there was a 14-player double round robin (26 total games). A rumored story from the tournament banquet - the Club’s President proposed a toast to the best chess player in the world, to which both Steinitz and Zukertort stood up at the same time. In the first 23 rounds of the tournament, Zukertort scored 22 points, winning the tournament with 3 rounds to go. He finished with 22 out of 26. Steinitz came in 2nd with 19 out of 26. A day after the tournament, Steinitz challenged Zukertort to a one on one match in the United States. The winner would be crowned ‘the champion of the world’.

Zukertort started off strong - winning 4 of the first 5 games. They then moved to St Louis where Steinitz picked up 3 ½ out of 4. They then concluded in New Orleans. Zukertort is quoted as saying he was ‘living on his wits’ as he was physically fatigued and approaching a mental breakdown. Meanwhile Steinitz had a ‘bottomless pit of mental stamina’. In New Orleans, Steinitz picked up 6 wins in 11 games to become the World Champion by a score of 10-5. After that loss, Zukertort’s health suffered immensely. While in New Orleans, he caught malaria. He also had heart disease, kidney problems, and arteriosclerosis. On top of that, he was broke from losing the match.

For our game this week, we are traveling to the early part of his career - before the World Championship, before the Ink War, and before the training with Anderseen - we are going to 1869.

John William Schulten versus Johannes Zukertort.

Now, if we’re ready - let’s begin.

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 d5 4. exd5 Qh4+ 5. Kf1 Bd6 6. D4 Ne7 7. Bb3 g5 8. c4 b6 9. Nf3 Qh5 10. Qe1 Bf5 11. Ne5 Nd7 12. Ba4 O-O-O 13. Nc6 Nxc6 14. dxc6 Nc5 15. Bd1 Bd3+ 16. Kg1 Rhe8 17. Qd2 Qh4 18. g3 fxg3 19. Kg2 Be4+ 20. Bf3 Bxf3+ 21. Kxf3 Qe4# 0-1

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1337018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Zukertort

http://cassidynoble.com/

Nowadays, we may see this gentleman as a commentator on large scale events such as the US Championship and the World Championship, but he has had a groundbreaking career including participating in the US Chess Championship and becoming the first Black chess Grandmaster. We are of course talking about -the Tiger Woods of Chess - Maurice Ashley.

He joined the Black Bear School of Chess - a chess group of African American chess enthusiasts popular in the 1970s and 80s. This group produced some of the strongest Black Masters in history. In that same interview, Ashley said “This group was the most influential on my chess - they taught me how to fight to the bitter end and really study intensely. Not by formal lessons, but by just crushing me mercilessly. Truly the school of hard knocks.”

In 1997, he backed off of coaching and commentating to focus on becoming a Grandmaster. He had an epiphany after seeing Tiger Woods clinch the 1997 Golf Masters and said: “I had been dreaming about being a grandmaster for over a decade, but life had seemed to be constantly pulling me in different directions,” Maurice writes on his website, “It was that Sunday in April watching Tiger realize his dream that convinced me that I needed to change my life and go chase mine.”.

In 2003:

• He and Susan Polgar became US Chess Federation’s Grandmasters of the Year
• He was the commentator on ESPN’s broadcast of Kasparov’s match against X3D Fritz (a match that ended in a 2-2 tie)
• He wrote an essay called - ‘The End of the Draw Offer?’ which raised questions about ways to avoid quick draws in chess tournaments. He argued that quick draws were detrimental to the game for the viewer, sponsorships, and players. He insisted on a 30 (or 40) move rule in tournaments. This essay helped inspire the rule changes at the US Championship and the New York Masters that are present today
• He also played in his first US Championship placing - scoring 39th out of 58. After this tournament, he announced he would be retiring from competitive chess instead pivoting to coaching and commentating

He was the 57th person to be inducted into US Chess Hall of Fame. On his plaque, he is described as: “Not only was he the first African-American player to achieve the title of Grandmaster, but one of the greatest ambassadors and promoters the game has ever known”.

Fast forwarding a little to 2024, Ashley released the book ‘Move by Move Life Lessons On and Off the Chess Board’. He also started the Maurice Ashley Foundation. An organization with the mission to help young people who do not typically have access to resources be able to grow - "Too often, kids with immense potential are overlooked simply because they don’t have access to the right environment or support. This fellowship is about giving those kids a chance to rise, to be seen, and to compete on the world stage."

“When people asked me at the time, ‘How does it feel to become the first?’ I said, ‘You know, it is cool to be the first. But what excites me is that there is going to be a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and a 10th.’ Here we are 25 years later, I’m still the only one [in the US or in Jamaica]. For me, that is a challenge. That’s unacceptable.”

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. c4 c6 5. Nc3 Be6 6. cxd5 Bxd5 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Bd3 Nf6 9. O-O O-O 10. Re1 Re8 11. Ne5 Nbd7 12. Nxd5 cxd5 13. Bg5 h6 14. Bh4 Nf8 15. Bb5 N6d7 16. Bg3 a6 17. Ba4 Rc8 18. Qh5 Nxe5 19. Rxe5 b5 20. Bb3 Bf6 21. Rxd5 Qa5 22. Qxf7+ Kh8 23. Re5 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2387718

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ashley

http://cassidynoble.com/

This week, we are looking at a 5-time US Women’s Olympiad participant, a 2-time Women’s World Chess Championship participant, a 21-time US Women’s Championship participant, and a lover of all things penguins - Women’s Grandmaster Tatev Abrahamyan.

Born in Armenia, Tatev learned to play chess at the age of 8 when her father took her to the Chess Olympiad of 1996 which took place in her home country. While there, she met Grandmaster Judit Polgar - who at the age of 18 was competing in the Open division of the Olympiad and was the only woman in the Top 10 in the world.

Tatev had commented - “I was in complete awe. My first thought was, ‘I want to be just like her’” .The following year, she established her first FIDE rating of 2113.

In 2001, her family moved from Armenia to the United States. It did not take long for her to start making waves in the United States. Her first tournament was the 37th Annual American Open. She finished with a score of 4.5 out of 8 but it was good enough for a provisional rating of 2266 which was above the threshold for United States National Master… from 1 tournament.

Two years later, she played in the US Junior Championship finishing in the middle of the pack of 10 players, but she was also the only female player in the tournament.

In her second round of going to the Olympiad, Team USA placed 5th.

That same year, she also picked up her Womens Grandmaster Title - which requires a FIDE rating above 2300 of at least 30 games and 2 norms.

If that wasn’t enough, she also had her focus split between chess and studying as she earned a dual degree from California State University Long Beach for Psychology and Political Science.

2012, she was back to the US Women’s Championship in 6th and back to the Olympiad - this time Team USA finished in 10th place.

Toward the end of the year, Abrahamyan played in her first Women’s World Chess Championship - a 64 player knockout tournament to see who would become the Women’s World Champion. She was seeded 51st and faced Alexandra Kostenuik the 14th seed where she lost and was eliminated ½ to 1 ½ .

2013 - she finished 3rd in the US Women’s Championship.

2014 - she ended in a 3-way tie for first at the US Women’s Championship where Irina Krush ended up the winner after rapid playoff games. Again by finishing in the top 3, Tatev had punched her ticket to the 2015 World Women’s Championship.

She also played in the Olympiad - this time Team USA finished in 8th.

The next year, she finished 7th at the US Women’s Championship and entered the Women’s World Championship as the 53rd seed. Her round 1 opponent was Dronavalli Harika, the 12th seed. Tatev ended up 0-2 and was eliminated.

2016, she finished 2nd at the US Women’s Championship.

To round out her participation at the US Women’s Championship: In 2017 she came in 8th. 2018 - 6th, 2019 - 3rd. 2020 - 5th. 2021 - 4th. 2022 - 5th. 2023 - 4th. 2024 - 9th.

For today’s game, we are traveling to the United States Championship back in 2006. Tatev Abrahamyan versus Natasha Christansen.

Now, if we’re ready… let’s begin

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 Qa5 8. O-O O-O 9. Nb3 Qd8 10. f4 d6 11. h3 Bd7 12. Qe2 Na5 13. Nxa5 Qxa5 14. Bb3 Bc6 15. Bf2 Rac8 16. Rad1 a6 17. Bh4 Rfe8 18. e5 Nd7 19. e6 fxe6 20. Bxe6+ Kh8 21. f5 Rc7 22. fxg6 hxg6 23. Rf5 Qxf5 24. Bxf5 gxf5 25. Qh5+ 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1399216

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatev_Abrahamyan

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/