All posts tagged: rook

How Arjun Erigaisi punished Magnus Carlsen’s rare rook blunder in Hong Kong

How Arjun Erigaisi punished Magnus Carlsen’s rare rook blunder in Hong Kong

Published by Webster

3 min readUpdated: Jun 18, 2026 11:49 PM IST Just days after R. Praggnanandhaa’s impressive exploits at Norway Chess 2026, where he defeated Magnus Carlsen twice, another Indian has struck a blow against the five-time World Champion. Arjun Erigaisi tasted victory over Carlsen during the second day of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championship 2026 in Hong Kong. Arjun, representing defending Rapid team champions MGD1, played on top board against a star-studded WR Chess side, who were hot favourites and led by Carlsen on Board No. 1. In the sixth round of the Rapid event, Arjun was pitted against Carlsen, and his win helped MGD1 defeat WR Chess in a high-octane clash. In a wild Queen’s Gambit Declined game, an uncharacteristic rook blunder by Carlsen proved decisive. The Norwegian had earlier sacrificed his bishop in desperation to gain an edge, but a queen b6 check from Arjun ensured the advantage stayed with the Indian. Arjun admitted he initially thought he had missed something when Carlsen launched the aggressive bishop takes e6 sacrifice. However, …

Candidates 2026: How a rook sacrifice powered R Vaishali to joint lead | Chess News

Candidates 2026: How a rook sacrifice powered R Vaishali to joint lead | Chess News

Published by Webster

Like a juggernaut hurtling through opponents, R Vaishali’s Candidates campaign finds itself five games away from securing her a Women’s World Championship battle. For someone who started the Women’s Candidates tournament in Cyprus with four consecutive draws and a defeat in the fifth round to slump to joint sixth place at one stage, Vaishali is now the joint leader of the women’s section, thanks to three wins and a draw in the last four rounds. Vaishali has a reputation in the circuit for going on streaks—both winning and losing—and she seems to have found the right direction just as the business end of the Candidates approaches. Vaishali’s victory over compatriot Divya Deshmukh means that she remains in joint lead of the tournament — sharing the top spot with China’s Zhu Jiner on 5.5 points — with just five rounds left in Cyprus. In a game where Vaishali held a 20-minute advantage on the clock by move 12 and an edge on the board from as early as move 13 with the white pieces, victory eventually …

Gukesh on Carlsen’s World Championship comments: ‘These matches are decided not purely by chess, but by who has better character and will’ | Chess News

Gukesh on Carlsen’s World Championship comments: ‘These matches are decided not purely by chess, but by who has better character and will’ | Chess News

Published by Webster

With five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen lashing out at the quality of matches at the World Chess Championship between India’s D Gukesh and China’s Ding Liren and terming the games ‘not looking like a game between two World Championship contenders’, earlier this week, D Gukesh, who at 18 years of age became the youngest champion on Thursday, termed his title win coming from his character and will power. When asked on BBC World about being hurt by Carlsen’s comments, the Indian replied in the negative. “Not really. I get that maybe in some of the games, the quality was not high but I think the world championship matches are decided not purely by chess but by who has the better character and who has the better willpower. And I think those qualities, I did show quite well. And the pure chess part, it was not at a very high level as I would have liked it to be. Because it’s a new experience for me. So the workload was different, the pressure was different. It’s …