Chess

Arrival The 2026 EuroChess took place from 14th-17th May at the Deutsche Bundesbank training centre in Eltville am Rhein. The event was jointly hosted by the Deutsche Bundesbank and the European Central Bank. I was one of five players to represent the Bank of England. We arrived on Thursday and were warmly welcomed. We enjoyed the various activities on offer at the centre, such as tasting Eltville’s wines in the cellar, playing pool, bowling, as well as the scenic walkway along the Rhine. ...

The 30th EuroChess took place between May 9th and 10th, 2025 in Budapest, Hungary. EuroChess is an annual tournament for European central banks. This year, the tournament was organized by the Hungarian National Bank’s Sports Club and was hosted at ibis Budapest City. I participated in the tournament representing the Bank of England (BoE) along with my colleague Harley Mason. The tournament was attended by 18 central banks from across Europe. The Bank of England had not participated in the tournament since 2002, so the other players were pleasantly surprised to see us there. We were warmly welcomed by the organizers and other participants. The organisers welcomed us with gifts of signed copies of Judit Polgár’s books, which were highly appreciated. We also got to meet Judit later on when she visited the tournament, which was a very memorable experience. ...

Introduction I participated in the Reykjavík Open 2024 from the 14th March to the 21st March. The Reykjavík Open is an annual chess tournament that takes places in Reykjavík, Iceland. The first edition was held in 1964, and since its inception, it has attracted top players such as the 8th world chess champion Mikhail Tal, and among the current top players, five-time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, and many more. ...

Intro Jan Gustafsson often asks during his chess commentary: “which name would have the strongest chess team?” This blog answers that question! Strongest Olympiad teams The first name chess Olympiad would comprise of teams of four, whose players have the same (or very similar) first names. Alexander, Vladimir and Jan would be the top seeds! Here’s a list of potential teams with an average rating greater than 2600, using the January 2023 classical ratings. ...

Here’s a selection of a few of my favourite chess puzzles. Solutions to the puzzles are at the bottom of the page. Puzzles 1 2 3 4 Solutions 1 2 3 4