American Chess Magazine No.7 boasts a cover portrait of Sam Shankland and rightly so because in a short period of time he has won the US Championship in St.Louis, the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba and the All-American Continental Championship in Montevideo.

In fact the 2018 US Championship is one of the main features of this issue, together with the Berlin Candidates that has propelled Fabiano Caruana into the role of world title challenger.

In an interview with ACM Sam Shankland reflects on his success in St.Louis, which was the biggest success of his career so far and achieved against the strongest possible American opposition. In addition Sam contributes exclusive annotations to two of his games from the event.
Another kind of success story in the US Championship was that of Zviad Izoria who has now gained a reputation as a giant-killer after surprising wins against Caruana and Nakamura, for which he provides his personal commentary.
In fact we wanted to find out what really happened to the ‘Big 3’ so we asked our regular columnists to investigate. Young GM John Burke was critical of Caruana’s lack of objectivity in certain games, John Fedorowicz was unimpressed by Nakamura’s tournament strategy, while Michael Rohde noticed that Wesley So’s play had lost its spark. These three articles effectively represent a complete retrospective on America’s three highest rated players in St.Louis.

ACM #09 features an extensive coverage of the World Championship Match in London with each game played being thoroughly examined by our regular GM-contributors Mackenzie Molner, Joel Benjamin and John Burke.
The 43rd Chess Olympiad was under the scope of Bassem Amin, Robert Hungaski, Elshan Moradiabadi, Jennifer Yu and Susan Polgar.
Jacob Aagaard’s regular column also focuses on games from Batumi.
Key games from one of the strongest open tournaments ever, Isle of Man 2018, are annotated by none other than the winning couple – Radek Wojtaszek and his wife Alina Kashlinskaya.
The best Olympiad performer, Peruvian Jorge Cori, added another success by winning the very strong SPICE Cup Open from where he annotates a couple of his interesting games, while his only defeat in the tournament is presented by his opponent, young US star Awonder Liang.
Former World Junior Champion Alex Ipatov shares his own analysis of a fresh idea in the deeply explored Breyer Variation of the Ruy Lopez, based on revitalization of a different move order applied at the early stage of the game. 
Chess journalist from London, Leon Watson was so full of positive impressions after participating in a chess event in New York’s Central Park that he wanted to share them with our readers and pay his compliments to the chess scene in the US. 
There’s even more chess in the Big Apple as ACM presents the USA Chess Tour – a new and ambitious player on the American tournament circuit.

After two years, at last a portrait of Hikaru Nakamura takes pride of place on the front cover of American Chess Magazine – and with full justification following his consecutive wins in Grand Chess Tour events held in Paris and Saint Louis over the summer. Indeed, when it comes to speed, we dare say that Nakamura even rivals NASCAR – albeit in the realms of rapid and blitz chess! Here, by means of a selection of annotated games from these tournaments, IM Venkat Saravanan endeavors to discover the reasons for Hikaru’s superiority over his principal rivals in this fast and furious form of chess which never fails to provide so much drama and excitement. 
Switching to the world of top class classical chess, we highlight Shakhriyar Mamedyarov’s spectacular tournament win in Biel, one and a half points ahead of World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Though this was a sensational result in itself, perhaps even more significant was Shakh’s new found maturity of play, so different from his former risky and adventurous style. The success of this fresh approach is amply reflected in the consistency of the Azerbaijani grandmaster’s latest results, which have propelled him to world No.3 in the live ratings. 
Also over the summer, Saint Louis hosted another edition of its traditional Sinquefield Cup, where the crème de la crème of world chess was gathered together to do battle for big time prestige – and big time pay! After ten days of fierce fighting, for the first time in its history, three players, Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, finished ‘in Sinque’ at the head of the tournament table and by mutual agreement reconciled themselves to sharing the honor of first place. Local resident and regular US Women’s Olympic Team member, WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, presents a round by round ringside report, supported by additional contributions from GMs Mihail Marin, Evgeny Miroshnichenko and Alex Ipatov.

By the time we had concluded the manuscript of American Chess Magazine #06, Fabiano Caruana had already made a great start at the Candidates Tournament in Berlin. In fact it’s almost as if he wanted to fulfill the “rollercoaster” prediction emblazoned on our front cover. Well, if the only way was up on his current rollercoaster ride after a brilliant win in London and an epic fall in Wijk aan Zee, then, as expressed by our “Readers’ Voices”, he was destined to shine brightly in Berlin. And he did! As we all now know, Fabiano did what was necessary in style and so qualifies as the next official challenger for the world title!

Under our primary scope in this issue are two events that preceded Fabiano’s historic success in the Candidates. At the London Classic, he scored 6/9 to finish first ahead of the world champion Magnus Carlsen, but then a month later, at Tata Steel, he was simply unrecognizable, scoring only 5/13.

A number of Caruana’s key games from London come under the spotlight with the help of two authors – our new contributor 16-year-old American prodigy John Burke, who completed his final GM norm almost at the same time as working on the article, and the experienced GM John Fedorowicz. Then GM Priyadarshan Kannappan, well-known coach at Webster Chess Club, takes up the tricky challenge to explain what could have possibly gone wrong afterwards…

Then again, Magnus Carlsen’s world class victory at Tata Steel is covered by our ringside reporter and first ever African 2700+ player, GM Bassem Amin from Egypt. In addition, Bassem provides commentary on the Masters Group in which he relates his own exciting experiences and also takes a look into the play of young American Jeffery Xiong with whom he tied for third place in the final standings.




SHOWDOWN IN ST. LOUIS! 
GM Mackenzie Molner
ISLE OF MAN MASTERS:
MAGNUS THE KING AMONG MERE MORTALS
GM Ivan Sokolov
CALIFORNIA SUN OVER A FOGGY BRITISH ISLAND
IM Michael Brown
DO CHESS COLUMNISTS PLAY CHESS? 
GM Ivan Sokolov
AAGAARD’S ALL-ROUND TRAINING
GM Jacob Aagaard
WORLD CUP:
How Levon Aronian was first across the line! 
FIVE MOMENTS OF TRUTH 
GM David Smerdon
ONE MOVE THAT ALMOST GAVE ME 
A HEART ATTACK
GM Sam Sevian
LET’S PLAY CAT AND MOUSE!
GM Vassily Ivanchuk
MUST-WIN
GM Alex Ipatov

SHE’S MIT’S HIDDEN GEM:
AGATA BYKOVTSEVA 
WIM Yuanling Yuan
DETERMINED TO SUCCEED
Chris Wainscott
LONDON SYSTEM
FM Dennis Monokroussos
A WHOLE BAG OF POSITIONAL TRICKS
GM John Fedorowicz
THE NOTORIOUS “GRANDMASTER DRAW”
GM Michael Adams and 
GM Baskiran Adhiban
ONE MAN PARADE
GM Michael Rohde
MATING MOTIFS IN THE ENDGAME 
GM Alex Fishbein
FRESH LEAVES FROM THE BOOKSHELF
FM Carsten Hansen
DATABASE WAR
Jon Edwards
MAN V MACHINE
IM Danny Rensch

MUSINGS OF AN AMERICAN GRANDMASTER
GM Joel Benjamin
CHESS PARENT’S SURVIVAL GUIDE
Ryan Velez
“DADDY, CAN I SHOW YOU THE CHESS GAME?”
Scott Miller
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CARLSEN
IM Praveen Balakrishnan
25 Questions for GM Lev Alburt
INTERVIEW
Pete Tamburo
Tribute to GM William Lombardy
GOODBYE GADFLY
GM Robert Hungaski
A RISING NORTH STAR IN CHESS!
Bill Broich, Patrick Tang, Jim Freerksen, 
with annotations by GM Vladimir Georgiev, 
IM Sean Nagle, and FM Sam Schmakel
IGOR'S CHESS DOUBLES
IM Igor Khmelnitsky
TOURNAMENT REVIEW
WHERE GRANDMASTERS ADVISE YOUNG PLAYERS
GM Peter Heine Nielsen

With great anticipation the chess world awaited the return of Garry Kasparov, the legendary 13th World Champion. The passage of time did not appear to have changed anything much in Garry’s approach to chess, although his long layoff does seem to have damaged his practical skills. But we got the playing style we expected – dynamic, direct, and not shying away from theoretical battles, as Ivan Sokolov concluded while analyzing the games from Garry’s Back to The Future of Chess...

World No.6, Shak “The Shark” Mamedyarov, who broke through the magical 2800 barrier earlier in the year, was surely a must-have participant at the 5th Sinquefield Cup. However, although he was not invited this time, by way of consolation he now provides exclusive game commentaries for the event, which Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won ahead of world champion Magnus Carlsen.

14-year old American prodigy, Awonder Liang, is currently the youngest grandmaster in the world. His latest success came in July when he won the US Junior Championship. That means he will get a ticket for the “premier league” – next year’s US Championship – where he will face the big guys: Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana... Let’s get to know the player who is clearly on the right track to be a future world champion – we interviewed Awonder and asked him to annotate two of his best games from 2017.

Decision Making in Chess, does it sounds familiar to you? This is the revealing book by grandmasters Gelfand and Aagaard that brought a whole new philosophy into the game of chess...And now, exclusively in our magazine, open your mindset to four types of decisions you can take in chess. We are happy to present to you Aagaard’s All-Round Training, written by the only chess author to win all four major book awards.

And there is much more from names such as Ivanchuk, Fedorowicz, Benjamin, Rohde, Hungaski... Check out the contents – it’s all in the 156 pages of American Chess Magazine 04.

Just imagine that the two newly crowned US champions are by your side, explaining their most crucial games, move by move... Well, this is precisely what the third number of the American Chess Magazine brings you, exclusively, thanks to the contributions of Wesley So and Sabina Foisor.
And there is much more. From the men’s championship, third-place Varuzhan Akobian explains how he and Alexander Onischuk managed to upstage the big guys, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura! Then Ivan Sokolov highlights three of the most interesting and significant games played in St.Louis, while Jaan Ehlvest reveals current trends in opening theory by identifying theoretical novelties unloaded by the American players.
For the women’s championship, Alisa Melekhina presents an interview with Sabina Foisor and then dissects moments from key games in the title race – including a spectacular forced checkmate in nine, which represented a grand finale for the eventual winner.
The magazine also devotes plenty of pages to recent tournaments played across the USA, such as the Chicago Invitational where the performances of several participants are highlighted, including that of the winner Ilya Smirin who provides a personal perspective on his overall tournament victory. Participating grandmaster Alex Fishbein writes on the North Carolina Invitational, while another of our regular columnists, Mackenzie Molner, puts on display sparkling chess played in the Philadelphia Open.

Be sure to pick up a copy of the Spring edition of the American Chess Magazine. If you liked the first issue, then you will like this latest one even more! The magazine turns the spotlight on the fantastic winning streak of Wesley So at the Wijk Aan Zee and London super-tournaments, as well as reporting on Hikaru Nakamura’s triumph at the Gibraltar Masters. Moreover this issue takes a very detailed look back at the Carlsen-Karjakin World Championship match in New York and even features a seven page anecdotal review of past champions and challengers, spanning two centuries of chess history.

The American Chess Magazine brings you 156 colorful pages, packed with amazing chess material, ranging from world class play to local State news and games. Instructive and entertaining games from recent events are presented with outstanding annotations, while special attention is given to overviews of latest trends in the openings, and explanations of practical endgame techniques.

The ACM has an impressive list of contributors from home and abroad, including Yasser Seirawan, 4-time U.S. Champion; Joel Benjamin, IBM’s Chess Consultant for the Deep Blue computer that defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov in a match in new York.; Alex Fishbein, Endgame Expert; Jeffery Xiong, World Junior Champion; Alex Lenderman, U.S. Olympiad Team Coach; and many others.

A dream team of US grandmasters won the gold medal at the World Chess Olympiad, ahead of Ukraine, Russia, India, and over 160 other nations, while 15–year–old Texan, Jeffery Xiong, became the new World Under–20 Champion! And now the ACM has been launched to help American readers keep in touch with all the most significant happenings in the exciting world of present-day chess, both at home and abroad.

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A new American chess magazine is on the scene! It is receiving rave reviews around the country. Our first issues won numerous awards from the Chess Journalists of America. It’s the chess magazine America, in its chess renaissance, deserves. 

We are a quarterly, so we concentrate on presenting instructional articles that will have value not only today, but years from now. With over a dozen American grandmasters contributing to its 150+ pages chock full of the chess, we are committed to providing tons of valuable resources for months of reading pleasure.

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American Chess Magazine - 07 Summer 2018

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