The Premier Chess Club of Northeast Ohio!
On the second day Nigel Short, desperate to break his opponent’s clean 2-0 score, played the – Alekhine’s Defence. He hung on bravely for 35 moves but then collapsed under the pressure from his young opponent Sergey Karjakin. In the fourth game, with moral support from organiser Bessel Kok, Nigel at last struck back. Pictorial report by Anastasiya Karlovich on chess in the Puppet Theatre.
With two rounds to go (and no more rest days) German GM Jan Gustafsson scored a second point, with black in an 18-move miniature against Loek van Wely. Jan is now at plus two, half a point ahead of Peter Leko and poised to win the tournament. Vassily Ivanchuk climbed to 50% with a win over Arkadij Naiditsch. The other games were drawn. Round five report.
The Editor of Chess
Notes has selected the five worst chess books in English from the past two
decades. This grisly matter is not for the faint-hearted, although there are touches of black comedy and farce in the egregious books chosen for the Chamber of Horrors. Warning to readers of a sensitive nature or nervous disposition: do not enter.
The event is taking place in the Academic Puppet Theatre, lasts five days and encompasses ten rapid chess games between the former world championship challenger and a former record-breaking child prodigy. After an evening of press conferences and wild festivities it was the younger player who started with a clearer head. Karjakin won both games.
In October there is one between Anand and Kramnik in Bonn. But that will be
peaceful compared to the World Championship that is scheduled in Berlin
this weekend. There four minutes of chess are interspersed with three minutes
of violent pugilistic activities. We bring you photos and videos – and we also
found out what FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov thinks about this sport.
Ian Nepomniachtchi, the youngest player in Dortmund (he turns 18 in two weeks), scored his first win, beating Dutch GM Loek van Wely in 48 moves. Ian joins Jan Gustafsson and Peter Leko at “plus one”, which is enough to lead after four of seven rounds. The other games were drawn. Express report.
The third round of Iranian Premier League took place on Wednesday, June 25th, in Sari, the capital city of Mazandaran, a beautiful and green province on the south coast of Caspian Sea. There were a lot of surprises, like when GM Tigran Petrosian with the white pieces was held to a draw by the untitled Mehdi Atabaki, who is rated exactly 562 points lower. Report by FM Arash Akbarinia.
In the restaurant in Linares, scene of the annual Super-GM tournament, Garry
Kasparov always had a permanent table for his entourage, and a chair that was
only his. One day Vassily Ivanchuk sat down on that chair, with a very specific
goal in mind. In his Playchess lecture
Dennis Monokroussos shows us the result: Ivanchuk blasted Topalov off the board
in just 25 moves. Enjoy.
A very dramatic day in Dortmund. While three games ended in relatively uneventful draws (in 19, 27 and 31 moves) the youngest player, German GM Arkadij Naiditsch, uncorked a giant novelty against Vladimir Kramnik’s Petroff Defence. It worked like clockwork and Naiditsch took home his first point. Mind you it turns out that Garry Kasparov had analysed this move nine years ago. Express report.
It has been tried before, with success: top-level chess played in a glass “aquarium”, where the public can approach the tables without disturbing the players. This time it’s in September in Bilbao, Spain, on the Town Square. Anand, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Radjabov and Aronian take part in a unique tournament with no draw offers and the football scoring system of 3-1-0. Press release.
Actually the news is: Magnus Carlsen is only sixth on the official
FIDE list, although up-to-date rating calculations put him on a history-making
second place. The media (and chess fans) assumed that would be his place on
the FIDE list, but a missed deadline thwarted that. Alexander Morozevich is
second Vassily Ivanchuk third. Here are the FIDE and the Live Rating lists.
It’s almost July and in about a month and a half Mid Valley City in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will see the arrival of grandmasters, IMs, players, enthusiasts and fans from around the world for the 5th IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open. With a $24,000 prize fund it will be the richest ever edition in the series. Participants can relax and sight-see in the beautiful country. Register now.
The “Language” options in Fritz sometimes confuse even experienced users of the software. Our ChessBase Workshop columnist solves the mysteries and describes the settings in his latest column. Workshop…
Our original “gratuitous aside” about British sporting representation led to passionate responses from people for or against devolution or federalism. Scottish GM Jonathan Rowson and British GM Nigel Short made strong statements, and now their views have spilled over into a Scottish newspaper. We bring you excerpts and a final installment of some eminently enjoyable readers’ feedback.
Vladimir Kramnik outwitted Loek van Wely in a QGD and clinched it in 29 moves. Peter Leko had to work harder and longer – 57 moves – against Vassily Ivanchuk in a Sicilian Paulsen. Jan Gustafsson whipped up a deadly attack after strategic errors by Arkadij Naiditsch. Express report before the European football final.
The French call un blitz de départage «mort subite»
– a sudden death blitz game. The Aspiring Youth Rapid Chess Championship,
staged in Lyon to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the French Chess Magazine
Europe Echecs, went down to the wire, with 18-year-old IM Romain Edouard beating
17-year-old Sébastien Feller in the tiebreak. Final pictorial and video report from Lyon.
Our original “gratuitous aside” about British sporting representation led to passionate responses from people in favour or against devolution or federalism. Scottish GM Jonathan Rowson and British GM Nigel Short made strong statements, and now their views have spilled over into a Scottish newspaper. We bring you excerpts and a final installment of some eminently enjoyable readers feedback.
Gustafsson-Kramnik, an Exchange Grünfeld, ended in a symmetrical rook ending and a draw in 29 moves. Naiditsch-Nepomnaichtchi, a Sicilian Najdorf, saw White with some chances but ended in repetition after 30 moves. Mamedyarov vs Leko was a Sämisch and drawn after 24 moves. Ivanchuk-van Wely was a Scheveningen with a drawn queen ending in 39 moves. Illustrated report.
Why are these fair maidens playing chess with the names of two famous world champions affixed to their table? They are part of a “Young Hopefuls” tournament to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the French Magazine Europe Echecs – and doing so in the exact location where Kasparov played Karpov in 1990. The twelfth champion is a special guest. Report with video reports from Lyon.
The Turkish İş Bank Chess League is taking place from June
23 to July 3, 2008, with 22 GMs, 18 IMs, 15 FMs, 15 WGMs, 2 WIMs and 2 WFMs
participating. It is taking place in a mountain resort near Izmit, just east
of Istanbul, at an altitude of 6000 feet. We have a beautiful pictorial report
brough to you from the Kartepe Mountain Resort by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich and Özgür Akman.
Good news for consumers of chess software: the price of ChessBase
DVDs have not been raised, while the quality stays tops. Nigel Davies is a good example,
says Bob Long, who recently watched Nigels DVD on the King’s Indian Attack. Fasten
your seat belts and enjoy this 5+ hours crash course with masterpieces of
Fischer, Morozevich, and more.
Buy it
now or read Bobs review.
The Editor of Chess
Notes rounds off his examination of old masters’ choices of their best games, and for this second part the cast includes Emanuel Lasker, Akiba Rubinstein and Max Euwe. Full scores of all 22 games are provided in replayable form, together with background jottings and a further nomination for ‘the perfect game’. See Part II now.
The World Chess Champion has signed a deal with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), the company that develops computer processors and related technologies and is the second-largest global supplier of microprocessors. Anand is now the brand model for AMD, which is driving large ad campaigns with him. We bring you the first TV ad and some cool wallpaper.
Our templates are ready: the annual Sparkassen Chess Meeting will take place from June 28th to July 6th, 2008, with eight players: Vladimir Kramnik, Shakhriyar Mamedjarov, Peter Leko, Vassily Ivanchuk, Loek van Wely, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Arkadij Naiditsch and Jan Gustafsson. The average age is 27.9, the average rating 2695 (= category 18). Full details.
The discussions are not yet over, and emotions are still running high. Does Britain legitimately enter separate sporting teams for the different nations that “peacefully coexist within one nation state,” as Scottish GM Jonathan Rowson thinks? Or is this “absurd, anachronistic, and profoundly discriminatory”, as British GM Nigel Short believes? New opinions and more readers’ feedback.
The calendar of top events was once again fully packed. CBM 124 covers them all: the
spectacular FIDE Grand Prix in Baku as well as M-Tel in Sofia, with Ivanchuk dominating. Top commentators in this issue are Baku’s co-winner Gashimov, Radjabov,
Shirov, Karjakin, and the new EU champion Tiviakov. Twelve opening surveys and the
regular columns make this DVD a
superb training course.
Moscow 1936. Soviet master Ilya Kan had drawn his first game against former
world champion Capablanca, and things were looking very peaceful in their second
encounter. But, as our Playchess lecturer
Dennis Monokroussos shows, the great "Capa" was able to wring out
a win in a "drawn" position, with deep strategic technique. Be there
and learn – the show is free.
How does Anna Zatonskih feel about her sudden-death win of the US Women’s Championship earlier this year? What do other readers think about the comments that have been made on the subject? The letters keep pouring in, and even BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, who once beat Irina Krush, has weighed in with a proposal for a new blitz clock.
How does Anna Zatonskih feel about her sudden-death win of the US Women’s Championship earlier this year? What do other readers think about the comments that have been made on the subject? The letters keep pouring in, and even BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, who once beat Irina Krush, has weighed in with a proposal for a new blitz clock.
What brings a dozen young and talented chess kids to a skyscraper somewhere in the middle of Manhattan in New York City, on a pre-summer weekend in June? Why would those same kids completely take over the richly decorated, large conference room on a top floor, belonging to a successful financial company? To learn chess from the greatest, that’s why. Report by Aviv Friedman.
Why is manoeuvring important, and in what circumstances should we consider manoeuvring rather than another course of action? In this 7th Power Play DVD, Daniel King helps you to recognise when a piece is poorly placed and what to do about it. Throughout the DVD, specially selected positions will enable you to test your understanding of the subject. The Power Play series is suitable for anyone looking to improve their chess, but also provides ready-made lessons and exercises for a trainer. More
Our ChessBase Workshop series concerning various Fritz “tweaks” continues this week with a discussion of customization options under the “Tablebases” and “Clipboard” tabs, including a description of various types of text output. Learn more in the latest Workshop.
The Iranian Premiere League has a total of sixty players, fifty-six of them holders of international ratings. There are five GMs, with more – including super-GMs – to come. The rounds take place in different cities throughout the country. If you don’t know the Si o Se Pol in Esfahan or the Ganjnameh of Hamedan, you will after you have read this pictorial report by Arash Akbarinia.
Sochi,
Baku, Plovdiv, Sofia – the last few months have seen the great chess
circus more or less far away in the east. Of the four highlights in this issue, two were
classical all-play-all tournaments: the FIDE Grand Prix in Baku and the
M-Tel in Sofia. The other two highlights were championships, on one hand
the European Individual Championships and on the other the Russian Team
Championships. Whereas the
circle of participants and potential victors in the major all-play-all
tournaments tends to be constant and predictable, the FIDE Grand Prix in
Baku was an exception, thanks to the nomination of Vugar Gashimov and Wang
Yue. And who would have thought that it would be those two players who
(almost) completely dominated the field of established players and who
would share the final victory with Magnus Carlsen. Co-winner Vugar
Gashimov has annotated two of his brilliant games from Baku for this issue
of ChessBase Magazine. As in
previous years the M-Tel in Sofia must have anticipated as a victor
Veselin Topalov, had the tournament but followed a normal course. But
Vassily Ivanchuk surprised everyone and in the first series of the double
round robin ran up 5 victories out of 5, a run of victories which had for
a long time never been seen at this level. He then carried forward this
lead into the second half of the tournament and majestically went on to
win ahead of Topalov. As a highlight Radjabov has annotated his game
against Bu Xiangzhi, which was chosen as the best game in the tournament.
On
the other hand, for the last few years the European Individual
Championships have not seen the really top players. However the number of
grandmasters who take part is almost overwhelming: 177 GMs with an
Elo-rating of 2500 or better were at the start in Plovdiv. The victor,
Sergei Tiviakov, deserves our compliments because in the final round he
was concentrating on the chess and not keeping his eye on his ticket for
the FIDE World Cup, for which a draw would have been sufficient. The new
European champion has annotated in depth two of his wins, including his
instructive last round victory over Sutovsky. In addition, the new vice
European champion Sergei Movsesian explains two of his games from Plovdiv
on this DVD. More information…
A rogue trader as an authorised employee making unauthorised trades on behalf of their employer. The most famous rogue trader is Nick Leeson, who lost Barings Bank £827 million in 1995 and received a 6½-year jail sentence. The latest case of a £60 million loss for a London bank is smaller fry, but made it to all the broadsheets last week. Find out why we are telling you all this.