Archive for May 25th, 2009

Max Sherer plays Anna Matlin in Round One

Yesterday I dropped by the US Amateur East tournament at the Somerset Ramada, mostly to visit with my chess friends and to see what Fred Wilson had on offer. I was pleased to see that the event has gotten some good coverage at the USCF site, with an article and photos by Atlantic Chess News editor Steve Ferrero. I tell myself every year that I should be playing in the Amateur, and I think I’ll make the commitment to play next year. But I have been quite busy of late and so had promised the wife and kids to take off some days around the Memorial Day holiday.

I picked up a couple interesting books from Fred, including a surprising little pamphlet in the “Grandmaster Profiles” series offering 64 games of Joel Benjamin. It seemed like a bargain at $3, but it’s a typically slap-dash Eric Schiller production, so Fred had priced it right. Fred’s table will be set up for the entire event, so you have through Memorial Day to drop by.

As always, a great selection from Fred.

It was an exciting – perhaps nail-biting is a better word – final
round of the 3rd ACP World Rapid Cup, organised by the PIVDENNY
Bank and the ACP
in Odessa, Ukraine. The two most experienced players of the event (after Karpov) faced each
other. After two draws Peter Svidler produced two winning positions, only to
mess them up against Boris Gelfand, who won the event. Big pictorial report.

For some months now, Alexei Shirov has only experienced one direction in the
world ranking list – upwards. Sofia was his masterpiece – victory ahead of Carlsen
and Topalov. How does the 36-year-old do it? Find out in the latest entry in
our CBM Blog,
or buy his acclaimed training DVDs : My
best games in the Slav and Semislav and My
best games in the Sveshnikov.