Around the world in chess

-American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana (left) prevailed in a field of world-class chess players including the world champion, to win the exclusive 2017 London Chess Classic tournament. Caruana and Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi (right) tied for first in the tournament, and, therefore, were forced into a playoff. Caruana won. The prize money for the tournament was US$300,000. (Photo: Lennart Ootes)

Garry Kasparov, a previous world chess champion, has documented his insights into his 1997 match with the IBM computer Deep Blue. This match registered Kasparov’s quickest defeat in chess tournament. The game has been considered by generations of scientific pioneers to be a key to unlocking the secrets of human and machine cognition.

Thirteenth world chess champion Garry Kasparov has authored a number of best selling books on chess and other subjects. His latest book, Deep Thinking (in photo) outlines his strategy for his 1997 colossal match with the exacting IBM super-computer Deep Blue. The match certified a new era in artificial intelligence and was referred to as a watershed moment in the history of technology. The 1997 match was the first defeat of a reigning world chess champion by a computer under tournament conditions.

American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana emerged winner of the London Chess Classic by registering a playoff blitz victory against Ian Nepomniachtchi. The two had tied for first place and a blitz playoff was required to ascertain a winner. World Champion Magnus Carlsen did not win the London Classic, but he took the overall 2017 Grand Chess Tour. He emerged with the highest number of points during the series.

In local news, former national junior champion and Candidate Master Anthony Drayton won the Inaugural Caribbean Chess Cup recently in Barbados. Drayton dropped his first game to Trinidadian Frank Sears but rebounded to win the tournament. Congratulations.