The tour operator GO-Makkahhas set up a well worth goal of putting Tunisia firmly on the chess map, while at the same time bringing up to the shore significant tourist spots that this beautiful country abounds with. Last year, the 1st GO-Makkah tournament was held in Sousse, the Tunisian pearl on the Mediterranean Coast, also famous in connection to chess for the 1967 Interzonal, which was a first FIDE tournament to take place in Africa.

The second edition, fromFebruary15th to24th 2020, took place at yet another attractive tourist spot, the small island of Djerba,in the south of Tunisia.Rich with natural wonders and legends, it's known as "the Island of Dreams". It is where Homer's Odysseus stopped over on his odyssey and met its inhabitants, the lotus-eaters.

The organizers pride themselves for creating the biggest chess festival in Africaand aim for it to become a regular yearly event. Judging by the success of the second edition, GO-Makkahs Director, Mr Chokri Saidi has proven that he is well-placed as a dedicated organizer, sponsor and promoter.

The largest island of North Africa, located in the Gulf of Gabs,off the coast of Tunisia

(L-R) The Tunisian Minister of Tourism Mr. Ren Trabelsi, Judit Polgar and the organizer, Chokri Saidi

This passionately organized tournament paid attention to every detail and was marked by a professional, aesthetic touch: arbiters and assistants clad in matching uniforms.

Arbiters and assistants

Four main tournaments were played: A Master tournament and three Opens: Open A (>2000), Open B (1500-2000) and Open C (<1500), a blitz tournament and several side events including two simultaneous exhibitions by twoleading chess personalities, Anatoly Karpov and Judit Polgar.

Karpov and Polgar at their simultaneous exhibitions

A local artist, Karina Gassem, made paintings while the simuls were taking place. The paintings were composed of a figurative style and a calligraphy and were presented to Karpov and Polgar.

Karina Gassem at work and Judit Polgar with her painting | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

On rare occasions, some participants in the simul managed to steal a draw or even a win. It is considered a great feat and not surprisingly, the Tunisian player who made a draw with Judit Polgar, splashed his scoresheet on the social media.

Abdelaziz Bouhamed (2064) and the scoresheet of his game signed by Polgar

The support and cooperation by a French contingency was evident, led by the President of the French Chess Federation, Bachar Kouatly, who attended several happenings at the festival and addressed the participants praising the organization.

(L-R) Bachar Kouatly, French IA arbiter Nadir Bounzou and his Tunisian counterpart IA Mohamed Ali Baktach

As it turned out, the winner of the Masters was also a French player, the young GM Maxime Lagarde, the 2019 French champion.

The Masters tournament was composed of ten players hailing from ten different countries: (in the order of the final standings) GM Lagarde Maxime (FRA), GM Tiviakov Sergei (NED, GM Pichot Alan (ARG), Gagunashvili Merab (GEO), GM Cuenca Jimenez Jose Fernando (ESP), GM Heberla Bartlomiej (POL), GM Sumets Andrey (UKR), GM Kotronias Vasilios (GRE), IM Zaibi Amir (TUN), IM Oussedik Mahfoud (ALG).

Neighbourly friends: the local IM Zaibi Amir, representing Tunisia and IM Oussedik Mahfoud from the neighbouring country of Algeria

The organizer is presenting the prize (2000 euro) and a medal to the winner of the Open A, another French player, GM Jean-Marc Degraeve (Elo 2526)

Tunisian young hopes greatly benefit from the opportunity to play at such a class international tournament on their doorstep

The guests were entertained throughout the tournament by performers presenting typical folklore of the island

An accomplished local musician, Khalil Chahbani, performed on kanun, a traditional Arabic string instrument

A full day was dedicated to a sight-seeing. Museums, a crocodile farm, a synagogue and other beauty spots were visited for which participants were provided with buggies.

An original way to explore the beautiful island

The synagogue La Ghriba (Wonderworking) supposed to be the oldest synagogue in the world dating from the time of the second temple in Jerusalem

Master Class Vol.6: Anatoly Karpov

On this DVD a team of experts looks closely at the secrets of Karpov's games. In more than 7 hours of video, the authors examine four essential aspects of Karpov's superb play.

Karpov and Judit Polgar soaking the light and sun of Djerba | Photo: Judit Polgar Facebook

The two distinguished chess personalities contributed to another worthy cause while in Djerba: They opened the first school chess club on the island named after the 12th World Champion.

Endgames of the World Champions from Fischer to Carlsen

Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Mller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.

Karpov and Judit Polgar surrounded by enthusiastic school kids on the occasion of the opening of the school chess club on Djerba | Photo: Judit Polgar Facebook

More here:

Chess on the "island of dreams" - Chessbase News

The chess team from Cambridge University overwhelmed their rivals from Oxford by the score of 5.5 to 2.5 in the 138th annual varsity match which took place at Londons Royal Automobile Club, London, last Saturday, March 7. The full results, with moves of all the games, can be found here.

Cambridge now leads in the worlds longest running traditional chess contest by 60 wins to 56 with 22 draws.

Although Oxford won no games at all this year, the dark blues came extraordinarily close in two encounters,where the Cambridge players had to exhibit Houdini-like skills in order to escape defeat. Thus the final score could easily have been much closer. It was in any case hardly a surprise that the much more highly-rated team (Cambridge) ultimately triumphed.

The highlight of the day came not so much in the moves across the board, as in the moving closing address delivered by the experienced World Chess Federation arbiter, David Sedgwick. Match organiser Stephen Meyler had engaged the voluntary services for the day of Davids fellow arbiter Shohreh Bayat, the Iranian who felt obliged to defect from Iran after her allegiance to the medievally mandatory hijab, demanded by the Ayatollahs of Tehran, began to waver (seemy column for TheArticle in February.)

Shohreh had been officiating at the Womens World Chess Championship in China, when official complaints arose concerning her loyalty to the offending item of testosterone-fuelled theocratic tyranny. At this point Shohrehs world collapsed, yet, as David Sedgwick poignantly emphasised in his peroration, she demonstrated the fortitude to fulfil her World Championship duties to the very end. At the same time she began searching for a secure haven from the certain ostracism, possible imprisonment, the public lash and even the death penalty, should she return home, minus the visible safe pass of the now despised hijab.

As the Varsity match amply demonstrated, Shohreh has landed on her feet among friends and the British chess community, starting with our World Chess Federation Vice President Nigel Short and David Sedgwick himself, have welcomed her with the proverbial open arms.

Returning to this years chess, I cannot help but compare the composition of the two current teams, with those from the days during the Cretaceous Period when I represented Cambridge on board one in the annual contest.

Thus, last Saturday, 70 per cent of the players could be identified as students of science or mathematics. In 1970, which launched a record-breaking sequence of 11 consecutive Cambridge victories, it was exactly the opposite way round, with 70 per cent studying the Humanities, such as modern languages, history and classics.

My belief is that this drastic volte-face reflects the dominant role which computer technology now plays in our society. Indeed, it was no coincidence that the commentator for last Saturdays Boat Race of the Brain was Grandmaster Matthew Sadler, co-author, with Natasha Regan, of the seminal book Game Changer, which explains the revolutionary strategies of the strongest ever chess AI program: Alpha Zero.

For those interested in the phenomenal run of 11 Cambridge successes against Oxford, commencing with the 1970 Varsity match, I can recommend the book Cambridge Chess by the worlds leading chess historian Richard Eales, also author of Chess, the History of a Game.

Link:

Chess: the Boat Race of the brain - TheArticle

Gary M.Shiffman, Opinion contributor Published 7:00 a.m. ET March 12, 2020

Twelve-year-oldGary Leschinskyis a nationally-ranked chess player in the U.S. He has a bright future ahead of him but it may not be in chess.

Why? The reality is that theres not much future for people in chess anymore. Machines have become so advanced that they will always beat us in the game, however smart we are. In "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World", David Epstein notes that this has been the case since grandmaster Garry Kasparovs loss to the IBM supercomputer in 1997, and that its a sign that perhaps we should be outsourcing tactical tasks to computers. Similarly, translation, spell checking, copyediting, transcription, and other jobs heavily reliant on rote memory have all begun to be outsourced to computers.

What Gary Leschinsky has going for him, instead, is something particularly human his creativity.Hes also aninventor, and he has patented an allergy watch that can detect food allergies.

Computers and machines can beat us in games like chess, checkersand tic-tac-toe because these games are bound by a finite number of moves and possibilities. Machines can surpass humans in anything that is bounded and literal. Theyre inductive: we train them to recognize patterns in data. Humans, on the other hand, are limited in our inductive abilities. There is so much data available today that the human mind simply cant process it all.

Heres the difference: Humans have creative, deductive, emotionaland ethical abilities. Machines dont. This is what makes humans irreplaceable, no matter how many chess matches computers win.

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What does this mean for the future of work? Will our jobs really be replaced by machines? A Pew survey found that nearlyfour in 10 Americans worry thats the case, and a 2019 Brookings Institute report concluded that a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted by AI in the coming years.

Contrary to popular fears, however, theres a very relevant and important place for humans in a world of robots and computers. The key is that we have to be strategic about what roles and tasks we assign to the machines and what roles and decisions we protect for the humans. We should be assigning the chess-like tasks to the machine while protecting the creative and values-based tasks that are inherently human.

Human and robot connection.(Photo: PhonlamaiPhoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Right now, the best use of technology is prioritization: filtering, ordering, and ranking data. Most of us, for example, take for granted that when we type cat into a Google search bar, we instantaneously have access to millions of pictures of cats. Ten years ago, this would have been impossible. It would have been one of the most impressive feats of computing ever accomplished. That a machine can accurately select a cat from billions and billions of available images is actually a remarkable thing.

Its not magic, though. Computers have this ability because humans trained them to do it; we essentially fed algorithms millions of images of cats to teach them what an image of a cat looks like. This is how machines learn.

The applications of machine learning have far greater implications than quickly finding cute cats. Today, you can build a computer model to identify virtually anything, provided you have the examples to teach the algorithm. Giant Oak, for example, developed atechnologythat enables financial institutions and government agencies to identify money launderers, human and drug traffickers, and terrorists.

When we do this, were not digging through the haystack to find the needle. Were teaching a computer to prioritize billions of documents for human investigators, agents, and analysts to review. Thecomputeris not the one deciding whether or not someone is a terrorist or a money launderer. Instead, its doing what it does best using the training data humans have given it to identify and rank potentially relevant information for humans to use in making judgment calls.

Cyber flashing: Sending unsolicited explicit pics is the tip of our toxic sexual culture

For example, we can imagine that over 99% of all bank customers abide by all laws, but some small percentage of launder money. With proper training data, machine learning can prioritize information likely associated with money laundering over all other information. Now the human need only review the most important information when adjudicating money-laundering behaviors.

Computers promise amazing efficiencies, but we also need humans. If were deciding whether to let someone onto an airplane, open a bank account, or watch our children, we dont want a computer making the final call.

Computers, robots and machines might impact the future of work, but they will never completely replace humans. Theyll just beat us at chess.

Gary M.Shiffmanis the founder and CEO ofGiant Oakandthe author of "The Economics of Violence: How Behavioral Science Can Transform our View of Crime, InsurgencyandTerrorism."He teaches economic science and national security at Georgetown University. Follow him on Twitter:@GaryMShiffman

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Computers may surpass humans, but we'll still have jobs. Here's why. - USA TODAY

Our beloved game of chess has had many legends, world champions, challengers, world-class players, and grandmasters.

The games of these masters delight, inspire and teach us the ways of the royal game. It is common to discuss the greatest players of all time in chess circlesbut these discussions always beg the singular question: Who was the best of all time?

Here are the top 10 best chess players:

The following players are all chess legends and are in the conversation for the best players of all time, but for one reason or another ended up just outside of the top 10.

Paul Morphy was the embodiment of romantic attacking chess, the strongest player of the 1850s and the best player of the entire 19th century. There was no official world championship title during his era, but he was light years ahead of his competition and is recognized as an unofficial world champion.

Morphy won the 1857 American Chess Congress and then traveled to Europe in 1858, winning every match he played versus the world's leading players.

Morphy taught the chess world about sacrifices, development, attacking, accuracy and more. Hislegendary Opera Game is considered one of the most famous chess games of all time and is still studied today. Bobby Fischer listed Morphy as one of the ten greatest players of all time.

GM Tigran Petrosian, or "Iron Tigran," was the world champion during 1963-1969 and a four-time Soviet champion. Undefeated the entire year leading to his world championship title (1962), he was known for his defensive prowess and his famous exchange sacrifices. According to GM Daniel Naroditsky, he was one of the "first elite players with a truly universal style."

Petrosian defeated the legendary GMMikhail Botvinnik to become world champion in 1963, defended his title against GM Boris Spassky in 1966 and then lost the re-match to Spassky in 1969.

In 1971 Petrosian was GM Bobby Fischer's last stepping stone to face Spassky for the world championship in 1972. His victory over Fischer in the second game of their candidates match stopped Fischer's historical and unprecedented 20-game winning streak (although Fischer did win the match).

GM Viswanathan Anand was the FIDE world champion from 2000 to 2002 and the 15th undisputed champion from 2007 to 2013.He lost the Professional Chess Association (PCA) world championship match against GMGarry Kasparov in 1995 and lost to GMAnatoly Karpov in the FIDE world championship match in 1998 (on tiebreaks) before winning the FIDE world championship in 2000.

In 2007 Anand won the double round-robin world championship tournament ahead of GMVladimir Kramnik and other world-class players and was crowned world champion. In 2008 he defeated Kramnikin a match to become the 15th undisputed world champion. He defended his title by defeating GM Veselin Topalov in 2010 and in 2012 against GM Boris Gelfand. In 2013 Anand was defeated by reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

Anand is the strongest Indian grandmaster of all time and has inspired multiple generations of chess players in India and around the world.

Alexander Alekhine was the fourth official world champion and held the title from 1927 to 1946 (with an exception during 1935-1937). He was a brilliant and well-rounded player with a special ability for combinational play in complex positions. He also taught the chess world that rules and principles can be broken based on concrete analysis of the specific and unique position.

Alekhine became world champion by defeating Jose Raul Capablanca in 1927, despite being a large underdog (he had never won a single game against Capablanca before the match).

Alekhine's reign as world champion was long, but he successfully defended his title only twice (both times against GM Efim Bogoljubow in 1929 and 1934). Capablanca and Alekhine never had a rematch for the world championship due to various reasons. Alekhine faced GM Max Euwe for the world championship in 1935 and surprisingly lost the match.

Two years later Alekhine won the rematch against Euwe to earn the crown back, but he would never defend it again. He passed away in 1946 as the world champion, the only champion ever to do so (although he was finalizing the details to play a match with Botvinnik).

GM Mikhail Tal, also known as the "Magician from Riga," was the eighth official world champion. He defeated Botvinnik in 1960 to earn the crown at the age of 23 and a half, becoming the youngest world champion in history at the time (although this record was broken by both Kasparov and Carlsen).

Known for his brilliant and unique attacking style, Tal's approach to the game has been an inspiration for attacking players for decades. One of his famous bone-chilling quotes is, "You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one."

His game collection The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal is a chess classic and considered one of the greatest chess books of all time.

Emanuel Lasker was the second official world champion and held the title for 27 years. His reign from 1894 to 1921 is the longest of any world chess champion, and his playing career lasted five decades. Lasker defeated the first official world champion Wilhelm Steinitz in 1894, and he defended his title five times against a host of world-class contenders, including Frank Marshall, Siegbert Tarrasch, David Janowsky, and Carl Schlechter.

In 1921 Lasker lost the title to Capablanca but continued to play at the highest level. He placed third in the 1935 Moscow tournament at the age of 66, half a point behind Botvinnik and Salo Flohr, but ahead of Capablanca, the first women's world champion Vera Menchik and 15 other masters.

GM Vladimir Kramnik was world champion from 2000 to 2007. He became the classical world champion by dethroning the legendary Kasparov in 2000, defended his title in 2004 against GM Peter Leko and in 2006 faced the FIDE world champion Topalov in a title unification match. Kramnik defeated Topalov to become the first undisputed world champion since Kasparov in 1993.

At his peak, Kramnik's game had absolutely no weak pointshe could do it all. He was known for his fantastic endgame play and his clean, tenacious and positional style. Kramnik is considered one of the most difficult players to defeat in the history of the game.

Kramnik was a top player for over 25 years before retiring in January 2019.

GM Mikhail Botvinnik is known as the "father of the Soviet chess school." The sixth world champion reigned from 1948 to 1963 (with two brief intermissions) and was a top player for over 30 years. Botvinnik's style was dictated by iron logic and flexibility, although he was extremely talented with methodical and strategical planning. His flexible style allowed him to adapt to all different types of playing styles.

He became world champion in 1948, defended his title against GM David Bronstein in 1951 and defeated GM Vassily Smyslov in 1954. In 1957 Smyslov defeated Botvinnik, who won their rematch the following year (at that time the world champion had the right to a rematch if they lost the title). In 1960 Botvinnik was defeated by Tal, but history repeated itself as Botvinnik won their rematch in 1961.

Although his reign as world champion was brought to an end by Petrosian in 1963, Botvinnik continued to play at a high level until his retirement in 1970. Botvinnik started his chess school in 1963, and he was the teacher of three future world champions (Karpov, Kasparov, and Kramnik).

GM Anatoly Karpov was the 12th world champion and reigned from 1975 to 1985 while also being the FIDE world champion from 1993 to 1999. Karpov was an exceptionally well-rounded player, but his specialty was positional binds, prophylactic play, and wonderful endgame technique.

Karpov became world champion by default when Fischer withdrew from their 1975 match because his demands weren't met. Karpov defended his crown by defeating GM Viktor Korchnoi in 1978 and again in 1981. In 1984 Karpov would have his first meeting with Kasparov, and the chess world was changed forever.

In the first of five matches between the two legendary titans, the match was called early with Karpov leading five wins, three losses, and 40 draws. In 1985 Kasparov defeated Karpov and claimed the chess crown. They played again in 1986, 1987 and 1990 and when their matches were concluded their lifetime record in world championship matches was 19 wins for Karpov, 21 wins for Kasparov and 104 draws!

In 1993 Kasparov broke away from FIDE (creating the PCA), and Karpov became the FIDE world champion. Karpov defended his FIDE world champion title by defeating GM Jan Timman in 1993, GM Gata Kamsky in 1996 and Anand in 1998 (on tiebreaks). Karpov refused to play in the 1999 FIDE world championship tournament after FIDE changed their rules.

Karpov's legendary games continue to be a source of inspiration for all positional and endgame players today. Tibor Karolyi's two-volume work titled Karpov's Strategic Wins is considered one of the best chess books ever written.

Jose Raul Capablanca was the third official world champion and possibly the most talented chess player ever to play the game. From 1916 through 1924 he amassed a tournament record of 40 wins and 23 draws, an unprecedented feat at the time and still a historically significant achievement.Capablanca's talent and skill were unmatched during his eight-year period.

Capablanca became world champion by defeating the legendary Lasker in 1921. Many believe that Capablanca would have defeated Lasker had he been given the chance before 1921, and many believe that he would have reclaimed the title had he been given an opportunity for a rematch with Alekhine. Unfortunately for Capablanca, his peak playing time happened both during and between World War I and World War II.

Every world champion and contender is well-rounded, but Capablanca had a special gift for the endgame. Even now (in the engine era of chess) it is difficult to poke holes in his endgame play. Irving Chernev's book Capablanca's Best Chess Endings is a classic.

Going eight years without a single loss and becoming world champion are something the chess world won't ever see again, and only Capablanca achieved this feat.

GM Bobby Fischer was the 11th official world champion as well as the first and only American world champion. He is considered by many to be the most famous chess player ever. From 1970 to 1971 Fischer won 20 consecutive games against world-class opposition, an unprecedented and mind-boggling achievement that will most likely never be equaled. This feat is counted among the seven most amazing chess records.

In 1972 Fischer defeated Spassky in the "Match of the Century" and was crowned world champion, despite starting the match with a 0-2 score after throwing away game one in a completely equal endgame and not even showing up for game two. Fischer's dismantling of the Soviet chess empire from 1970 to 1972 during the midst of the Cold War is considered one of the greatest individual performances of all time.

His style was unique, original and creative. He could attack and defend with the best of them, but he also showed a very deep and almost scary positional understanding. Fischer inspired multiple generations of chess players in the U.S. and around the world.

Fischer's "Game of the Century" is one of the most famous chess games of all time, and his book titled My 60 Memorable Games is considered one of the best chess books in history.

GM Magnus Carlsen is the reigning world champion for all three time controls (standard, rapid and blitz). In 2009 he becamethe youngest player in history to reach the 2800-rating threshold, and on April 21, 2014, he reached his peak rating and the highest rating ever at 2889.

Carlsen has been the number-one ranked player since 2011 and has been dominating the game ever since. As of February 2020, Carlsen has been on a 120-game undefeated streak in standard time controls, another record for the world champion.

His resume is already more than enough to be considered number two on this list of the best players of all time, but Carlsen is only 29 years old and may not have even reached his peak playing strength!

Carlsen became the world champion by defeating Anand in 2013 just before turning 23 years old (the second-youngest world champion ever, behind only Kasparov). He has successfully defended his title three times: in 2014 Carlsen won the rematch against Anand, in 2016 he defeated GM Sergey Karjakin and in 2018 he defeated GM Fabiano Caruana.

Carlsen himself does not believe he has earned the #1 spot on this list. According to an interview in January 2020, Carlsen states: "Kasparov had 20 years uninterrupted as the world number 1...He must be considered as the best in history. But I feel that time is on my side...I'm not 30 yet. If I were to be considered the best in history at 30, I would have had to start dominating at 10."

GM Garry Kasparov is the 13th world champion and held the title from 1985 to 2000. He first reached the number-one ranking in 1984 and with a few minor exceptions remained the number-one player in the world until 2006. Kasparov dominated the chess world for over 20 years.

Kasparov reached his peak rating of 2856 on March 3, 2000at the time an unprecedented number and a record that wasn't broken until Carlsen surpassed it.

In 1985 Kasparov defeated Karpov to become the youngest world champion ever at the age of roughly 22 and a half. He defended the world championship title against Karpov on three consecutive occasions in 1986, 1987 and 1990. In 1993, he broke away from FIDE and started the PCAthis break would create two different world championships until the reunification match between Kramnik and Topalov in 2006.

Kasparov defended his title by defeating GM Nigel Short in 1993 and successfully defended his title again by defeating Anand in 1995. Kasparov and Lasker are the only two world champions to defend their titles successfully five times.

In 2000 Kramnik defeated Kasparov, ending the reign of the best player of all time as world champion. However, Kasparov would continue playing in (and winning) tournaments until his retirement in 2005he left the game as the number-one player in the world.

Kasparov has remained active in the chess world after his effective retirement. He has played exhibition matches and even trained Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura. His five-volume series titled My Great Predecessors is considered one of the best chess books ever.

This list is the product of a great discussion between many Chess.com staff members recently, and not meant to be taken as fact! Our own Colin Stapczynski put together our view on this debate as old as the game itself, but if you disagree with the order or think we missed someone please let us know your opinion in the comments below.

Go here to read the rest:

The 10 Best Chess Players Of All Time - Chess.com

Two weeks before the start of theFIDE Candidates Tournament, we provide the latest news and address the question that is on everyone's mind: Who will win?

This article, originally posted on March 3, has been updated on March 6 to reflect that Vachier-Lagrave is replacing Radjabov.

The first round of the most important tournament of the year is scheduled for March 17, 14 days from now. GMs Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren,Alexander Grischuk,Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave,Anish Giri,Wang Hao, and Kirill Alekseenko will fight for the right to challenge GM Magnus Carlsen in the next world championship match which is likely to start December 20 in Dubai.

First, an update about Ding and Wang, related to the coronavirus. According to the latest information, Wang is still in Japan, from there he will travel to Russia normally. Meanwhile, Ding has arrived in Russia already and is undergoing a 14-day quarantine with the rest of the Chinese delegation.

In other recent news, the March FIDE ratings are out, so we know with which ratings the players will be playing. Here's the updated players' list, with changes only for Wang (who won four points in Gibraltar) and Alekseenko (who lost six points, also in Gibraltar, and dropped below 2700):

2020 Candidates Tournament | Participants

Unsurprisingly, things have been somewhat quiet around these players as they have been focusing on preparing for the tournament. None of them have played over-the-board chess since Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar finished.

However, more than half the field found time during their preparation to play in thePRO Chess League this month. For instance, Caruana has played 24 games for the Saint Louis Arch Bishops in 2020, half of these in February. So far he scored 16.5 points, good for a 2764 performance rating.

Both Grischuk (23.5/32, TPR 2776) and Giri (7/8, TPR 2940) have played for the Canada Chessbrahs, and in fact, both of them were part of last night's victory against the Sweden Wasabis.

"I'm actually done. All openings have been refuted, everything's done!" joked Giri about combining his Candidates prep with playing online.

Don't miss GM Robert Hess and WFM Alexandra Botez's interview with Giri from last night's PRO Chess League stream, starting at 1:19:32, where the Dutchman also reveals that he has a team member that doesn't like to watch movies, saying it's too late to fire him now!

"I'm actually done. All openings have been refuted, everything's done!" Anish Giri

Whether his league games will help him in Yekaterinburg will have to be seen, but his Candidates preparation definitely helped him for yesterday's games:

"You can't imagine how much stuff that you look at during a serious preparation you deem sort of to be somewhat second rate. Then, by now I've got like three, four, five bonus repertoires I can play so in that sense I think I am very well prepared for an event like today," said Giri.

Here's his win against GM Nils Grandelius from yesterday's match, which wasn't an unimportant line from the Gruenfeld:

Meanwhile, Girihas been sharing some views from his training camp.On Instagram, the Dutchman uploaded a few pictures that revealed a beach location somewhere in Portugal, the presence of GMs Erwin l'Ami and Jorden van Foreest, and basically everyone having a pretty good time:

As Giri explained, it wasn't just fun: "Let me explain that my sponsors and supporters don't think I am wasting resources on ice cream and football! There is nothing to take a picture of during the hard work, which is like nine hours a day, and in that spare half an hour when I am eating ice cream or playing football, I take a picture and then it looks like all I do is eat ice cream and play football. You're not gonna share a screenshot with your latest ideas in the Najdorf."

That is actually an error that has happened before; the Saint Louis Chess Club released a video during the early phase of the 2018 Carlsen-Caruana world championship match that showed a screenshot of Caruana's analysis against the Petroff.

Also during the PRO Chess League, now three weeks ago, it was suggested that Caruana might have made a somewhat similar little error:

Two more players have played in the PRO Chess League this season. Still at his home in Wenzhou, Ding scored 3.5/4 for the China Pandas (TPR 2759) on February 17, and Nepomniachtchi scored 7/8 (TPR 2930) in matches in January and February for the Russia Wizards.

Apart from FIDE launching theofficial website and publishing a promo video, this is all the recent news available now.

The easy answer is: Caruana or Ding. It's quite obvious that they, as the only two 2800+ players competing, are the two clear favorites as compared to the rest of the field. But how much are they favored? What do the experts say?

First, the bookies. Unibet, who recently closed a sponsorship deal with Carlsen, still has a slight preference for Caruana over Ding. Grischuk and Nepomniachtchi are the biggest dark horses, followed by Giri:

GM Viswanathan Anand told Chess.com that he also puts Caruana first and Ding second, followed by Grischuk. In Ben Johnson's The Perpetual Chess Podcast, Anand elaborated:

"Ding's strength is that he plays very well in these super top tournaments. He's very solid. Something like the Candidates is really designed for his style. On the other hand, Fabi is scoring very high. He was plus-five in Isle of Man, he was plus-seven in Wijk aan Zee... If he wins more games than the other guys are able to do, because it's normally a low-scoring event, then people may never catch up."

Ding's strength is that he plays very well in these super top tournaments. He's very solid. Something like the Candidates is really designed for his style. Vishy Anand

"I think it really comes down to these two, and I would put the other six in the basket of surprise. Anything other than these two I would consider a surprise for me."

GM Garry Kasparov shared his thoughts during the live broadcast of the Cairns Cup. He went as far as putting Caruana and Ding three-to-one against the field: "They are huge favorites. You need a natural disaster for one of them not to win."

"They are huge favorites. You need a natural disaster for one of them not to win." Garry Kasparov

He continued: "If Ding qualifies, we can expect a major boom in China provided it can sort out some of the problems that China is facing these days. I will be curious to see the effect on Chinese chess. Of course, if he wins thats one story, but if he doesnt win, it will generate the ongoing effect. Chess in China is promising, but having a candidate for the title is a different story.

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"Somehow I think Magnus would prefer Caruana although Fabi already has the experience. The only advantage is that Ding could take on Magnus in rapid and blitz. Fabi is not as great in these disciplines. But as we saw, he could be really dangerous for Magnus in classical chess. Lets not forget, in the last two matches, Magnuss performance in classical chess was far from convincing."

Update March 9: All this was based on Radjabov in the field, who has now been replaced by Vachier-Lagrave. Today Kasparov tweeted:

Two American top grandmasters also see Caruna as the favorite. GM Wesley So, interviewed after the Speed Chess Championship final, said:

"Fabiano, obviously. I hope he didn't use all of his good chess in Wijk aan Zee. But if he plays good chess and if he keeps up the good form that he has the last few months, I would give him a very high chance to win. I mean, it's hard for me to think that anybody else could win other than Ding and Fabiano, but also Ding doesn't win too many tournaments per year. I mean, Ding is very consistent, but he doesn't have very dominating performances like Fabiano."

So and Nakamura talking about the Candidates after playing the Speed Chess Championship final.

GM Hikaru Nakamura, in the same interview: "Fabiano is the clear favorite. He played very well in Wijk, unlike last time. If it's not Fabiano, I would say Ding is the only player I see. Outside chance maybe Grischuk or Nepo, but I don't think anybody else has a chance of winning realistically."

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Candidates, has Caruana as the favorite too and puts Caruana and Ding one-to-one against the field. The biggest outsider, in his opinion, is Giri.

Who do you think will win the Candidates and WHY!?

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Who Will Win The FIDE Candidates Tournament? - Chess.com

Vladimir Kramnik will commentate live for chess24 on the first eight rounds of the 2020 FIDE Candidates Tournament. The 14th World Chess Champion will be joined by Jan Gustafsson and Lawrence Trent, while former World Championship Challenger Nigel Short will then step in for Vladimir for the final six rounds. The 8-player Candidates Tournament starts on 17th March in Yekaterinburg, Russia and will determine who plays Magnus Carlsen in a World Championship match this December.

The Candidates Tournament is the second most important event in chess and arguably the most exciting. Eight players will face each other twice over a gruelling 14 rounds to decide Magnus Carlsens next challenger, and no-one will be holding anything back. Its been gruelling even before it began this year, with Teimour Rajdabov sensationally dropping out over coronavirus fears, meaning French no. 1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finally got the chance to play a Candidates Tournament.

The best place to watch will be right here on chess24, since were privileged to have Vladimir Kramnik commentating live on the first eight rounds. In 2000 Big Vlad pulled off the almost impossible winning a World Championship match against a Garry Kasparov who was still at the height of his powers. Vladimir held on to the title for seven years (defending it against Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov) and although he retired from classical chess last year he still won bronze in the 2019 World Blitz Championship just a few months ago. Here he is beating Alireza Firouzja in brilliant style in the penultimate round:

Nigel Short has also played a World Championship match against Garry Kasparov and will be reunited with Grandmaster Jan Gustafsson, after the pair previously commentated together on the GRENKE Chess Classic. The plan is to have Jan together with Vladimir and then Nigel in our main Hamburg studio, while Lawrence Trent will be next door introducing our FantasyChess Contest, quizzes and more. We also hope to have a certain Magnus Carlsen phoning into the show from time to time!

Heres the full commentary schedule in English:

March 17, 12:00 CET:Round 1 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 18, 12:00 CET:Round 2 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 19, 12:00 CET:Round 3 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 20: REST DAY

March 21, 12:00 CET:Round 4 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 22, 12:00 CET:Round 5 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 23, 12:00 CET: Round 6 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 24: REST DAY

March 25, 12:00 CET:Round 7 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 26, 12:00 CET: Round 8 | Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 27, 12:00 CET: Round 9 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 28: REST DAY

March 29, 13:00 CEST:Round 10 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 30, 13:00 CEST:Round 11 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent March 31, 13:00 CEST:Round 12 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent April 1: REST DAY

April 2, 13:00 CEST:Round 13 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent April 3, 12:00 CEST:Round 14 | Nigel Short, Jan Gustafsson & Lawrence Trent April 4:Tiebreaks/ Closing Ceremony

We're also going to have commentary at least in:

You can find the full pairings, and the starting times wherever you are now, by clicking on any of the games below to go to our broadcast page. Thats where youll find the commentary as well as computer analysis of all the moves, chat, a 7-million game database and much more:

For a preview of the 2020 Candidates Tournament check out the following video series by Magnus Carlsen seconds Laurent Fressinet, Jan Gustafsson and Peter Heine Nielsen (a Maxime Vachier-Lagrave update is coming soon after he was a late addition to the line-up!):

Weve also been taking a look at the players in a series of articles based on those videos. So far we have:

If you take out a Premium Membership now you can not only watch that 5-hour series and dozens more for free, but during the Candidates Tournament broadcast youll be eligible for special Premium-only prizes from our FantasyChess competition.

Read more about FantasyChess and get involved now!

There will also be other quizzes and contests and a chance to take on some of our commentators in Banter Blitz.

There are three special promotions on offer (sorry Anish!) depending on the voucher code you enter when you go to our Premium page- GIRIDRAW, KRAMNIK_MUG or CANDIDATES2020:

We hope youll join us for one of the most exciting events in chess!

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Kramnik & Short to commentate on the Candidates - chess24

3/15/2020 Many young players used the Aeroflot Open to gather some tournament experience. Some of their names are not so familiar. One of them, 14 year old Aydin Suleymanli, made himself a name by simply winning the tournament. THORSTEN CMIEL introduces the next generation. | Photo: ChessBase India

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It turns out to be a great method to follow players who are improving their practical skill level in all phases. Watching their games and analysing the interesting moments, is a good way to improve the own chess skill level. Talented young players show a chess performance explosion ever so often. In Moscow, two new outstanding talents have entered the world stage.

The risk appetite among most strongest youth players is higher than that of the saturated top of the world. This is why Alireza was able to challenge the chess elite in Wijk aan Zee and spread a bit of fear and terror. At least with the white pieces, he often goes straight for the king which is rather unusual for super grand masters. Normally Alireza is traditionally participating in Moscow, but this time he surprisingly received an invitation as a substitute in Prague, which he won, and had to pass at Aeroflot due to overlap. In Moscow, some other young talents were showing that they could soon follow the Iranian to Olympus.

A colorful mix of exciting moments and games show how confidently young players with ambitions play for victory. Older players tend to lose their breath in the last rounds. Not so with many juniors, who have enough stamina to prepare themselves just as meticulously for the final rounds as they do for the first ones.

In 2020 the AzerbaijaniAydin Suleymanli, born in 2005, won the world's strongest open tournament at the age of 14. His score of 7 out of 9 in Moscow corresponded to a performance of 2791 points. For comparison, Vincent Keymer's performance with 8 out of 9 at the Grenke Open 2018 represented a performance of 2795 against significantly weaker opponents. Historically, there was someone a girl in fact who was more successful:

In 1989 in Rome, Sofia Polgar, at the age of 14, achieved one of the best measurable chess achievements and made history.

Her result of 8 out of 9 corresponded to a performance of 2879 according to New in Chess. Incidentally, the younger sister of Sofia, Judit, was already number 1 in the women's world ranking at the age of twelve.

Sofia Polgar was able to keep a better overview than her opponents, especially in tactically complicated positions. In particular with black, she was often worse off after the opening phase, but she showed her extraordinary fighting qualities.

Judit and Sofie Polgar 1988 | Photo: Gerhard HundGFHund /CC BY

The winner inMoscow told ChessBase India a few months ago that he no longer went to school and already saw himself as a chess professional. His coach is Farid Abbasov, an Azerbaijani grandmaster who isnt very active himself. Aydin is currently the reigning U14 world champion and has recently improved his results. At the European Club Cup, for example, Aydin achieved a performance of over 2700 with an opponent average of 2487 with 5.5 out of 7. With his victory, he achieved a grandmaster norm, won 38 Elo points and advanced to an Elo rating of over 2500 points for the first time.

Aydin performed well particularly in the second half of the tournament by scoring a full point three times in a row in round 6, 7 and 8. The youngster was very convincing in his game against Parham Maghsoodloo.

Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

In the first half of the tournament, a twelve-year-old Indian (born in 2007) dominated the field in Moscow. After losing to Rauf Mamedarov in the middle of the tournament, he seemed to be running out of breath. After six rounds, he already had at least an eight-round grandmaster norm and even exceeded it by winning the last round with a point. His performance of 2707 points continues to attract attention. Bharath is a student from the Ramesh performance group in Chennai and has already collected several titles in children's chess. His trainer was delighted with this success. Bharath can theoretically break Karjakin's age record as the youngest grandmaster of all time.

The Russian is an international champion with a current rating of 2442. His result of five points against an opposing average of 2590 corresponded to a performance of 2633 and brought him an increase of 23 rating points.

Arseniy seems to want to follow the example of his compatriot Esipenko and initially refrain from gaining less important titles (IM, FM). With a rating of 2501, the Russian was number set as starting position 67. Aside from his brutal loss against Praggnanandhaa in the final round, he played a solid tournament, reaching a performance of 2618 and a grandmaster norm.

Another Azeri achieved a grand master norm in Moscow with a performance of 2604. He played in the B-Open and gained 22 points in Moscow.

The Belarusian narrowly failed to gain the grandmaster norm. She entered the A-Open with an Elo rating of 2404 and earned 50 percent with an opposing average of 2587. Her performance is all the more remarkable if you take a look at the current women's world rankings. The Indian Koneru Humpy has just become the new number 2 at 2586.

The Indian is FIDE Master and achieved an IM norm with a performance of 2528. At the beginning of the tournament, he was even on track for a grand master norm for a long time.

In addition to the title hunters, there were of course some other well-known teenagers who are already grandmasters or have long since had their grandmaster norms. Praggnanandhaa, currently number 12 in the junior world rankings in March 2020, was unable to exploit a number of promising positions, although it looked good for him in the beginning. For Nodirbek Abdusattorov things were not going so well in Moscow this time, and he lost 17 rating points.

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New faces at the Aeroflot Open - Chessbase News

The Talmud is wrong, Al Pacinos character says in the first episode of Hunters. Living well is not the best revenge. You know what the best revenge is? Revenge.

The show, which premiered in late February, follows Pacino as Meyer Offerman, a wealthy Holocaust survivor in 1977 New York who leads a band of misfit killers on a mission to torture and murder as many former Nazis as they can. Meanwhile, a new generation of white supremacists infiltrates the U.S. government and plans to institute a Fourth Reich to pick up where Adolf Hitler left off. The two groups soon begin killing each other in increasingly brutal ways.

The shows storytelling is clumsy, an uneven cross between the campy gore of Quentin Tarantinos Inglourious Basterds (2009) and the self-serious melodrama of Orson Welless The Stranger (1946). In one scene, Meyer and his gang crack lighthearted jokes as they slaughter Americas favorite enemies. But then, in overdramatic flashbacks to Auschwitz, we are reminded that Nazis are no laughing matter. These tonal jumps are disorienting, and the confusion is heightened by the fact that rookie writer and director David Weil throws in a circuitous subplot involving a lesbian FBI agent on the trail of Nazi infiltrators in NASA.

Weil attempts to tie the plot of Hunters together with an ongoing conversation between Meyer and his protege Jonah Heidelman (Logan Lerman). The question is whether it is fairer to deliver the Nazis justice or mercy. But during the final episode, Weil abandons the question almost completely. In a bizarre twist, Jonah learns that Meyer is no Jew at all, but rather a self-hating Nazi making amends for his war crimes by slaughtering his former compatriots.

After more than 10 hours of gratuitous violence pasted over with Meyers wry invocations of the Torah and Talmud, the revelation is jarring. If this were Philip Roth, we would have been treated to a whole other story agonizing over Jewish identity. But since this is post-prestige TV, Weil moves right on to the next twist: Hitler and his lover Eva Braun are still alive and apparently cavorting in Argentina no doubt a setup for a second season.

If we get one, I hope Weil will have matured. Hunters is an example of a beginner swinging for the fences in almost every way imaginable and missing every time.

The shows failure became apparent only two days after it dropped, when the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland denounced it for a depiction of sadistic torture that took place inside the camps. In the scene in question, a Nazi forces a Jewish chess champion to play him in a game of human chess. The Nazis and the Jew call out moves, and the various players move around the board, killing each other as directed. An aerial shot shows hundreds of naked, dead bodies rotting in the sun as the masterminds move their chess players.

The scene is horrific. It also has no basis in fact, which the museum was quick to point out on Twitter.

Inventing a fake game of human chess for @huntersonprime is not only dangerous foolishness & caricature, the museum wrote. It also welcomes future deniers. We honor the victims by preserving factual accuracy.

Weil wrote a long response, saying that he invented the episode to show respect to the victims of the Holocaust without borrowing from a real persons specific life or experience. He explained that the chess scene was a representationally truthful story intended to powerfully counteract the revisionist narrative that whitewashes Nazi perpetration of crimes against Jews.

Weil added that his own grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and that the show is largely dedicated to her memory and the memory of others who survived the camps. He said that he went to great lengths to avoid misrepresenting a real person or borrowing from a specific moment in an actual persons life.

That was the responsibility that weighed on me every night and every morning for years, while writing, producing, editing this show, he wrote. It is the thing I go to sleep thinking about and the thing I wake up working to honor.

Attempting to respect the victims of the Holocaust is a noble sentiment, but making up stories about them is an odd way to do it. Nearly every work of art that doesnt hew closely to the gruesome, well-documented facts of the Shoah comes off poorly. Classics such as The Boys From Brazil (1978) and Marathon Man (1976) now seem like paranoia-inflected fantasies. Inglourious Basterds is commercialized bloodlust. Even Roberto Begninis Academy Award-winning Life is Beautiful (1997), so beloved upon its release, seems naive and tone-deaf in hindsight.

The Holocaust is one of the great human tragedies in living memory. Depicting it in art will always be difficult, and for some, impossible. The unskilled had best to stick to Theodor Adornos maxim: There can be no poetry after Auschwitz.

Nicholas Rowan is a staff writer for the Washington Examiner.

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Hunters botches the Holocaust - Washington Examiner

Chennai, March 10 (IANS): On the International Women's Day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over his social media accounts to seven women, the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association and its affiliate Erode District Chess Circle denied a mother and daughter to write the chess arbiter's examination.

A total of five persons from Erode including the two women were not allowed to write the arbiter's exam that was held on March 8 despite paying Rs 1,000 each as exam fees.

"I had been preparing for the arbiter exam for 15 days. I didn't expect the Secretary of Erode District Chess Circle not accepting the exam application and forwarding that to Tamil Nadu State Chess Association (TNSCA)," T.Kanmane, a former Erode district chess player told IANS.

Kanmane is a qualified teacher for mentally retarded teacher. She is working in a school for mentally retarded children.

As per the arbiter exam procedure, an aspirant should route his/her application through the district chess association. The Secretary of the District Chess Association has to give his nod/recommendation in the exam form so that a candidate can write the exam.

According to Kanmane, an email was sent to Tamil Nadu State Chess Association saying that the Secretary of its Erode district affiliate did not accept and forward the exam application, but of no avail.

Not only Kanmane, even the exam applications her mother T.Intherane and her father N. Thirugnanasampandam were not accepted by the Erode District Chess Circle.

"For the past several years we have been organising chess tournaments in Erode. This time we thought of writing the arbiter's exam and get ourselves qualified," Thirugnanasampandam told IANS.

"I used to play in 1980s and also used to lend a helping hand to tournament organisers as an unofficial arbiter. RecentlyA I came to know about arbiter exams and decided to write the same to become a qualified arbiter," S. Kalyanasundaram whose was not allowed to write the exam despite paying the fees told IANS.

For all the five persons former Secretary of the then Erode District Chess Association R. Nachimuthu acted as the coordinator on the exam matter.

"The five persons who are all members of Erode Mavatta Chaduranga Kazhagam had asked me to do the needful like submitting the application forms to the Erode District Chess Circle and other related work," Nachimuthu, Executive Committee Member of the Kazhagam told IANS.

He said the Erode District Chess Circle Secretary S.Ramesh did not accept the exam applications and was not reachable on phone.

Nachimuthu said as the exam date was nearing, he had sent the applications directly to Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, but he nor the applicants have not received any reply from the state chess body.

When contacted for his comments Ramesh, Secretary of Erode District Chess Circle told IANS: "These people had never lent a helping hand for the events organised by the official body. They also hold their own events. Will you allow a non-journalist into your journalist association?"

Tamil Nadu State Chess Association Secretary P. Stephen Balasamy was not available for comments when contacted by IANS.

It may be recalled last October, 11-year old school boy Karthick Rahul was arbitrarily evicted from The Hindu Tamil Nadu State Level Chess Tournament Tirunelveli Under-13 midway by the secretary of Tirunelveli District Chess Development Association (TDCDA) in Tamil Nadu for playing in tournament that was not affiliated to the district or state associations and AICF.

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2 Erode women not allowed to write chess arbiter exam in TN - Daijiworld.com

The push-and-pull going on between Tom Brady and the Patriots has a familiar feel to it.

If youre Ty Law, or any other elite former Patriot who has tussled with Bill Belichick over money or respect listening to all the back-and-forth fodder with regard to Bradys free agency isnt surprising.

The Hall of Fame cornerback certainly had his contract battles with the Hoodie in the past. It came to a head in 2005, when the three-time Super Bowl winner was released after 10 seasons due in part to his $12.5 million cap hit.

Its a chess match going on right now, Law said Wednesday, when reached on the West Coast.

He gets it.

Like so many, he doesnt want Brady to leave the Patriots. He wants the 4-time Super Bowl MVP to finish his career with the same team he started with in 2000. But Law also has the perspective of being in New England himself and making Belichick make a hard choice.

He knows you dont always get what you wish for.

Ive said this a few times already. Hes given us 20 years. Hopefully (Brady) doesnt leave. No one wants to see Tom Brady leave New England, said Law, who won three Super Bowls with the quarterback. If he stays, he gets to do something not too many people get to do. But at the same time, theres all the all-time greats that have left. Look at Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Emmitt Smith. The list goes on other great Hall of Famers. They move on.

While Law is on a mission these days to promote his new venture hes now tackling a partnership with V-One Vodka he couldnt help but weigh in further on Bradys pending free agency.

For whatever his reasons are, whatever happens, I dont think theres any right or wrong to whatever (Bradys) decision is, said Law. Its the best decision for Tom Brady. And whatever it is, none of us know.

But if he leaves, guess what? Hes still going to have a statue out in the stadium at some point because he deserves that, Law went on. Hes always going to be synonymous with the New England Patriots.

After Law was sent packing by Belichick, he went on to play with four other teams and retired in 2009.

He said he doesnt have any inside information about Bradys future, or where his former teammate and friend might end up. Law expects Belichick will extend an offer and keep Brady if thats what he thinks is best for the organization. And if Belichick decides its better for the Patriots to go on without the GOAT, and leave Brady to make a choice outside of New England, there was a report Wednesday that the Buccaneers are going all in for him.

(Belichick) released me. He releases a lot of people. No one is exempt, even though some are more difficult decisions than others, Law said. But Tom got here because Belichick wasnt afraid to make the difficult decision when it came to Drew (Bledsoe). Or Lawyer Malloy, or (Richard) Seymour. Its a business at the end of the day.

And Tom has to make a business decision. If he wants to play his last few years somewhere else because I think its beyond money at this point. Its like, maybe theres a challenge with a change of scenery.

If thats the case, Law says wish No. 12 well.

I say best of luck to him whatever decision he makes in the end, and the same for the organization, said Law. He gave 20 years of his life. People need to stay off his back, leave him alone, let him live and if he leaves, what? Football is still going to be played whether he stays or leaves. Football is still happening.

No matter this outcome, fans in New England are going to have to get used to not having Brady behind center in Foxboro at some point. Its going to happen eventually. As Belichick would say, it is what it is.

At some point, Tom Brady is not going to be suiting up for the New England Patriots. At some point, were all going to have to get over it, and move on, said Law. Its not an end (for the Patriots). All good things come to an end, whether its his choice, or not his choice. So right now he has a choice for what hes going to do, so let him live.

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Ty Law weighs in on chess match between Tom Brady and Patriots - Boston Herald