Still Open & World Championship

We are still open!  Juniors Six pm to 7 pm and Adults after 7 Monday nights.

This year is an exciting year in the chess world.  The candidates tournament to decide who will challenge Magnus Carlsen for the World championship crown begins March the 15th.  The match for the title will be played later this year, details are still to be finalised.

I'm a big fan of Magnus Carlsen and his right to be known as a deserving world champion would be hard to argue against.  His last 2 title defences though have been a little underwhelming with his match against Fabiano Caruana ending with every game drawn.  Magnus retained his crown in the rapid tie-break.  Perhaps to be regarded as one of the game's titans he will need a more convincing defence in the next match.  Watching Magnus over the last year nobody has beaten him in classical chess.  He seems to either destroys his opponent with elegant ease or mysteriously play sub-par, get into difficulties, but find robust defence to find a draw.

Whoever emerges from the bear-pit of the candidates knows they have an even tougher task to wrest the crown from the champ.