Archive for April, 2009

Magnificent Chess Limited (MCL) is a new and innovative enterprise to revolutionize the mindset of Jamaican people and their Caribbean neighbours, through the democratization of the art of learning, teaching and playing chess. The organisers hosted a tournament which was duly won by the only GM in the Master’s section, Alfonso Romero Holmes. Big pictorial report from Jamaica.

Hess – MacIntyre, USATE 2009
White to play.

If they gave a “Brilliancy Prize” at the US Amateur Teams East and World Amateur Teams (held in Parsipanny in February), Hess – MacIntyre, USATE 2009 would surely be most deserving. Yet it is only one of many tactical gems strewn in the wake of 17-year-old Robert Hess, whose meteoric success is nicely chronicled by Jennifer Shahade at the USCF website in an “Interview with GM-elect Robert Hess.”

NM Mark Kernighan, Ari Minkov, Ian Mangion, Greg Tomkovich, Mike Wojcio & I won the opening round games at the 2nd Irving Ellner Memorial Swiss in Kenilworth.

A day of surprise results: Vladimir Akopian, who has been languishing with 1.0/4 alone at the bottom of the table, beat second-placed Gata Kamsky in a titanic R+B vs R ending over 98 moves (Kamsky missed a number of drawing chances, the simplest on move 93). Vassily Ivanchuk self-destructed with the white pieces in 25 moves against Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Report with commentary.

A day of unexpected results: Vladimir Akopian, who has been languishing with 1.0/4 alone at the bottom of the table, beat second-placed Gata Kamsky in a titanic R+B vs R ending over 98 moves (Kamsky missed a number of drawing chances, the simplest on move 93). Vassily Ivanchuk self-destructed with the white pieces in 25 moves against Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Express report.

Sunday’s top games are Alexander Grischuk vs Peter Leko (will the Hungarian
former World Championship challenger stop the Russian Linares winner?); Peter
Svidler vs Boris Gelfand (experience covers the board); Karjakin vs
Mamedyarov and Ivanchuk vs Kasimdzhanov. Watch all seven games
on the Playchess server, with live discussions,
or on our new broadcast client.

I have tweeked the notes  to my Garden State League games & posted the full score of last week’s Agress-Bliznikas. See posts #472 & 479 for the replay & PGN links.

Just before the time control Peter Svidler sacrificed an exchange and messed up his position. He defended tenaciously, but his opponent Gata Kamsky ground him down in 74 moves. All other games were drawn, Alexander Grischuk leads the event with 3.0/4 points. Full report with pictures and commentary – and excerpts from an interesting interview with Boris Spassky.

Levon Aronian vs Alexander Grischuk; Gata Kamsky vs Vassily Ivanchuk; Boris
Gelfand vs Etienne Bacrot: Peter Leko vs Sergey Karjakin; these are four of the seven games
you may want to watch on the Playchess server, with
live discussions, or on our new broadcast client.

The tactics column for ChessBase Magazine is written by IM Oliver Reeh. The
database which he produces for each issue has an introductory text, followed
by six quite simple exercises. These are also printed in the booklet and you
can solve them there on paper. Take a look in our ChessBase
Magazine blog, where you can download the tactics page or watch
a tactics
video from CBM 129.

High drama at the Fourth FIDE Grand Prix: Sergey Karjakin took the 2-0 leader Levon Aronian to the cleaners in a 34-move slugfest; Alexander Grischuk continued his excellent form with a win over Rustam Kasimdzhanov (in time trouble); Alekseev outplayed Eljanov and Leko did the same to Akopian. We bring you pictures plus commentary by birthday boy Sergey Shipov.

Levon Aronian, who stands at 2.0/2 points, has black against Linares winner
Sergey Karjakin; Vassily Ivanchuk battles Boris Gelfand, in the veterans’ match-up
(both are 40); Bacrot vs Svidler and Mamedyarov vs Kamsky are the other games
to watch on the Playchess server, with
live chat and discussions, or on our new broadcast client.

Peter Svidler profited from an over-optimistic combination that didn’t work, unleashed by Vassily Ivanchuk. Levon Aronian nursed a small advantage into a promising knight endgame in which he won in 94 moves (”a perfect endgame, a textbook example of converting the advantage” – Shipov). It was Aronian’s second win in two rounds. All other games were drawn. Pictures and GM commentary.

Once again we are testing our Flash broadcast client with the games from round
two. You can watch all seven games, on boards which are refreshed every 30 sec.
Naturally you can follow the games and discuss them with thousands of other
spectators on our Playchess server. But
if you are stuck in an office without your Playchess software you may be glad
for our new broadcast client.

For the third time we bring you a “final report” on the Russian Team Championship and Leagues in Dagomys-Sochi, southern Russian. It features pictures taken mainly after the end of the event – prize giving and medal distribution, the closing party. There are a number of faces you probably have not seen before. Here’s a megabyte and a half of pictures by Irina Sudakova and Elena Mikheeva.

It is no simple business for World Champion Anand to play on first board in
the German Bundesliga with black against a player who is ranked 180 points below
him. The pressure is on to win at any cost. In his game against Solingen’s
Daniel Stellwagen, Anand accomplished this with a flourish. Visit our ChessBase
Magazine Blog or check it out directly in this article
by GMs Stohl and Postny.

The fourth FIDE Grand Prix Tournament started with a number of exciting games. Alexander Grischuk outplayed Boris Gelfand very nicely, while Lev Aronian crushed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with the black pieces in 32 moves. Gata Kamsky hung on for dear life in a very grim position against Peter Leko and held a draw in 121 moves. Round one report with a wrap-up by GM Sergey Shipov

The fourth FIDE Grand Prix Tournament is being held from April 14–29, 2009, in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia.
The fourteen participants include Ivanchuk, Aronian, Mamedyarov, Leko, Kamsky,
Svidler, Karjakin and Grischuk. Average rating: around 2725 points. The games
have started – you can watch them on Playchess.com
or on our experimental live web client.

In 2004 he won the FIDE world championship in Tripoli, knocking out an insane
gauntlet of players, including Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin
Topalov and Michael Adams. Last year the Uzbek GM assisted Vishy Anand, decisively,
in defending the World Championship title. Our Playchess
lecturer Dennis Monokroussos shows us an instructive attacking game by the king-maker.

Different in the sense that in two days there will be groups competing in Fun Chess, Gift Chess, Chess Doubles, Chess 960, Chess Quiz, Blindfold knockout, Lost to Win and Problem Solving. Different because it is being held in a South Indian matchbox, firework and printing city in the middle of lush Western Ghat forests and waterfalls. Just after a Car Festival. Rathinam Anantharam reports.

The 11th European Senior Team Championship in Velden, Austria, ended with a convincing Gold for the Russian team. Silver and Bronze went to Switzerland and Finland. The best player in the event was Viktor Korchnoi: the indomitable septuagenarian – he has just turned 78 – scored 7.5/9 on board one and had the highest performance in the event. Big illustrated report by Franz Rulitz.

Tips and tricks for handling database icons in ChessBase 10 are the topics of the day – especially the right-click “Properties” menu and the many options you have to tweak up your Database window with this command. Learn all about it in the latest ChessBase Workshop.

Site : Kenilworth Chess Club

Format : USCF-rated, 3/SS
Time Control : G/45

Rounds : 8:40 p.m. on 4/16, 8:30 p.m. on 4/23 & 4/30

Entry Fee : $10

Prizes : Cash; based on the number of entries… 80% of entry fees returned

Register : 4/2 & 4/9 from 8:15-10:00 p.m. (or later), 4/16 from 8:15 to 8:30 p.m.

Late entries accepted until the 2nd round is paired (0 pt. bye awarded for round 1)

No entries thus far.
April 15th ratings to be used.

Annotations to my 2009 USATE games have been posted.

One of my USATE teammates, Arunas Simonaitis (aka knightrunner), tied for 16th place in the recently concluded STC Open on ICC.