The Tata Steel Challengers, the start of the (confusing!) 2024 Champions Chess Tour, and a short, moving film on Erwin l'Ami. And: Farewell Chess24, plus a couple of ways you can help this blog.
A little return potpourri: Marc'Andria Maurizzi is from Corsica, which might explain his Italian name and the one of his first coach Michaël Massoni - as well as their "non-French" first names. Daniel Dardha was born in Belgium but his parents are from Albania. Leon Luke Mendonca might owe his "not typical Indian names" to being from Goa. [Erwin l'Ami's French roots are, as far as I know, more distant]
Yes, the format of the Chessable Masters (and subsequent events of the series) is complicated: There is also Division II (now with, among others, Nakamura and Giri) and Division III. And each division is "double elimination" - they say "losers bracket", you say "repechage bracket". The loser of e.g. Carlsen-So can still reach the final if he wins his next matches, to maybe face the same opponent again.
Finally, the story/fate of chess24 is a bit more complicated: First they were bought by PlayMagnus (officially it was a merger), then this construction went shopping for e.g. NewinChess and Chessable, then chess.com took the whole group. Chessable is apparently considered profitable and thus stays alive (though a while ago about 30 Chessable employees had to go). Yes, I will miss the chess24 game viewer and their videos.
A little return potpourri: Marc'Andria Maurizzi is from Corsica, which might explain his Italian name and the one of his first coach Michaël Massoni - as well as their "non-French" first names. Daniel Dardha was born in Belgium but his parents are from Albania. Leon Luke Mendonca might owe his "not typical Indian names" to being from Goa. [Erwin l'Ami's French roots are, as far as I know, more distant]
Yes, the format of the Chessable Masters (and subsequent events of the series) is complicated: There is also Division II (now with, among others, Nakamura and Giri) and Division III. And each division is "double elimination" - they say "losers bracket", you say "repechage bracket". The loser of e.g. Carlsen-So can still reach the final if he wins his next matches, to maybe face the same opponent again.
Finally, the story/fate of chess24 is a bit more complicated: First they were bought by PlayMagnus (officially it was a merger), then this construction went shopping for e.g. NewinChess and Chessable, then chess.com took the whole group. Chessable is apparently considered profitable and thus stays alive (though a while ago about 30 Chessable employees had to go). Yes, I will miss the chess24 game viewer and their videos.