New in Chess 2023/1

6 Boxing Clever
Ten thousand fans filled the Galen Center in Los Angeles and 558,000 viewers tuned in live to watch ‘The Mogul Moves’ Chessboxing Championship.

8 NIC’s Café
Mittens, the trash-talking AI bot kitten launched on Chess.com was built to destroy, and is incredibly strong (with a 99 per cent scratch rate). And why was Sergey Karjakin not elected president of the Russian Chess Federation?

10 Interview: Natalia Zhukova
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Natalia Zhukova decided to stay in Odesa, where she is a City Council woman for president Zelensky’s party Servant of the People.

18 Spectacular Hat-Trick
For Magnus Carlsen a lot of prestige was at stake as he entered the World Rapid & Blitz Championships in Kazakhstan’s former capital Almaty. Not for the first time, intense pressure brought out the best in the Norwegian phenomenon.

25 Celeb64: John Wayne

52 The Iranian Chess Brain Drain
Iran seems to be very good at developing top chess players, but the government’s policies keep driving them away.

55 Fair & Square
Prince Harry says he killed 25 Taliban fighters, comparing them to ‘chess pieces taken off the board’.

56 Adult improvement
He wants to quit, writes James Altucher, and he tells you why. And why he won’t quit at all.

58 The sunny side of chess
The Chessable Sunway International Chess Festival in Sitges has quickly become a highly popular destination for professionals and amateurs alike. Stuart Conquest understands why.

76 Oh, what a move!
Jorden van Foreest describes how it feels when you’re stunned by the genius of Vasyl Ivanchuk: ‘I was about to fall off my chair, literally.’

80 Maximize Your Tactics
Find the right moves.

82 A lifelong friendship
Judit Polgar mourns Alex Sherzer, a very dear friend, who was ‘as close to my heart as a brother’.

87 What would you play?
Test your decision-making skills with Thomas ‘Toolbox’ Willemze.

92 Sadler on Books
In the spirit of the start of a fresh new year, Matthew Sadler focuses on new titles that should help you improve your game. And slips in a wonderful book on Bent Larsen, one of his childhood heroes.

97 They are The Champions
Bernard Lesbros is the national champion of Senegal.

98 Bobby and the rest
Jan Timman revisits the 1970 Soviet Union vs. The Rest of the World match in Belgrade, focusing on games that deserve more attention than they got.

106 Just Checking
What is David Llada’s life motto