All posts by Ramdake Lewis

U.S,C,F. Master RAM DAKE has been teaching chess for professionally for over 35 years. He was awarded his Masters’ Title in 1991 and within a year received the United States Chess Federation Title of National Life Master.

Nakamura Still Too Strong For MVL In Speed Chess

Over the board the players consider themselves equals, but online Hikaru Nakamura is still too strong for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The American GM won yesterday’s Speed Chess match with an eight-point margin.

It was the last quarterfinal of this year’s Speed Chess championship, but wouldn’t have looked bad as a final. The fight was between the world number two (Vachier-Lagrave) vs the world number three (Nakamura) on the current FIDE blitz ratings list.

Online speed chess is a different ballgame though, especially taking into account that the Chess.com matches also include bullet games. Nakamura was still the pre-match favorite, also because he had beaten MVL in two previous matches on Chess.com: their 2015 Death Match (17.5-10.5) and their 2016 Blitz Battle (21.5-10.5). In fact, Nakamura hadn’t lost a single segment there.

From Chess.com

Funny: Grandmaster Jokes

“German grandmaster Wolfgang Unzicker loved to tell jokes, even at the most inappropriate occasions. He would often start telling one immediately after a chess game, while he and his opponent were still signing the scoresheet.

Once he tried doing that after a game against Vasja Pirc. He started with the customary: ‘Excuse me, grandmaster, but did I ever tell you this joke..’

‘Is it good?’ – asked Pirc.

‘ Oh, excellent.’- replied Unzicker.

‘Then it means you haven’t told it to me.’ “