The 2009 STC World Championship, a 9-round swiss with a time control of 60+30, begins July 6th on the Internet Chess Chess, Free Internet Chess Server and World Chess Live.
The Kenilworth Karpovs wrapped-up their 2009 Garden State Chess League campaign on a high note, with a 3.5-0.5 victory at Summit.
In a recent thought-provoking
article WGM Natalia Pogonina and Peter Zhdanov presented their views on
the topic of why women are worse at chess than men. A number of our readers
were unconviced: they think that efforts at “explaining”
differences between the sexes only from environmental factors are doomed at the
outset. Recent studies seem to support this. Feedback and articles.
We recently reported
on a large Fischer collenction that was snapped up for US $61,000 by Rex and
Jeanne Sinquefield. Collectors – and especially philatelists – have
an opportunity to get some new items from the 1972 Fischer vs Spassky World Chess
Championship, with postcards, envelopes, a signed admittance ticket. They are
from a private Icelandic collection.
In
the “Kings Tournament” in Bazna Ivanchuk managed to triumph again, after his
misfortunes in Nalchik and Sofia. Reason enough for our ChessBase Magazine
endgame expert GM Karsten Müller to analyse for you Ivanchuk’s round seven win
over Alexei Shirov. A mating attack in an endgame with bishops of opposite
colours – not your everyday sort of occurrence.
Analysis
of Ivanchuk-Shirov
Endgame DVDs by Karsten Müller
CBM126 with its article on endgames with bishops of oppposite colours
The inagural Garden State Chess League season wraps up this week with the following matches :
Ian Mangion extended his lead with 2 wins & is on-pace to smash Scott Massey’s unofficial 2004 record of 15.5 points.
Chitra Sridhar scored 12 victories, 2 draws & suffered 3 defeats in less than 3 hours against 16 simultaneous opponents (1 board was re-filled) in Scotch Plains, yesterday. She played 1.e4 in every game.
Bulgarian chess trainer Valeri Lilov, rated 2411, has a weekly show on Playchess.com.
On Mondays at 20:00h CEST (7 p.m. London, 2 p.m. New York) he presents practical
chess problems and interesting themes based on games taken from recent super-tournaments.
This time he will focus on the defence in chess, with live audio commentary.
Take a look, it’s free!
London hasn’t been this crazy about a Swede since the heady days of Bjorn Borg at Wimbledon. This was undoubtedly the best chessboxing night yet seen in the UK; there was a superlative headline bout between two of the world’s leading chessboxers, controversy involving an illegal move, the flamboyant Red Kite, and an England vs Germany match. Pictorial report with annotated games.
It’s been quite a while since our ChessBase Workshop columnist had a look at Fritz features geared toward the beginning chess player. Novices take heart – a new ChessBase Workshop series for this group of novices and amateurs starts now with a column devoted to general advice. Learn more in the latest Workshop.
NJIT graduate student Chitra Sridhar will be giving a free simultaneous exhibition at the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Public Library tomorrow afternoon (Saturday 6/27), from 1 to 4 p.m.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand is currently in his home town of Chennai, India, preparing for his upcoming events. He spoke about them with the network CNN-IBN – about the rapid chess tournament in Mainz, Germany, an event with Kramnik and Karpov. He also speaks about Indian cricket and about the passing of pop superstar Michael Jackson. Watch the video.
Opposite-coloured bishops tend to favour the attacker in
middlegame positions, yet in endgames they can sometimes save the weaker side
despite being one or even several pawns down. What do you think about the
position after 66…Ke6? A) White has nothing better than to go for the trade b7 against e4, when despite two plus pawns his victory is written in the stars. B) There is a clever way to keep the pawn on e4, increasing his winning chances
considerably. C) The first player can win by force.
The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.
Ukrainian super-GM Vassily Ivanchuk drew Teimour Radjabov on the black side of a sharp Najdorf to take clear first place by a full point (and with a 2872 performance) in the Romgaz King’s Tournament in Romania. Gata Kamsky drew Boris Gelfand in 32 moves, while Alexei Shirov got a plus one score with a fine victory against Liviu-Dieter Nisepeanu. Final report.
Readers to the rescue! Several columns ago we took a close look at the new analysis feature of the program Rybka. Today our ChessBase Workshop columnist dips into his mailbag for some clarifications and corrections sent in by our loyal readers. You can find out what needed fixing in the original article by checking out the latest Workshop.
Being blind or visually impaired does not mean you cannot enjoy chess. Naturally the games cannot be conducted as in normal events – the blind need a separate pegged board which they can touch during the games. And the moves are naturally exchanged verbally. The Junior Chess Championship for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Täby/Stockholm was won by
Daniel Pulvett of Venezuela.
How do you learn a new opening? Do you spend hours studying variations? Do you play through a dozen games which have been annotated in depth, including the most insignificant of variations? Why not just take a couple of minutes to take a look at the video from Andrew Martin’s DVD “The ABC of Chess Openings”? Then you will know what you have to do.
Start
Video or
Buy Andrew
Martin’s “ABC of Chess Openings, 2nd edition” in the shop.
Nisipeanu-Radjabov was an important theoretical game in Sicilian Dragon, which ended in a draw in 40 moves. Ivanchuk was slightly better the entire game against Kamsky, but a draw was agreed on move 55. For most of the time Gelfand-Shirov looked like a quiet game, but at some moment Gelfand had a study-like win, which both opponents missed during the game. Report.
ChessBase today features “The World’s Oldest Chess Club: Part I (1809–1914),” by Dr. Richard Forster & Dr. Christian Rohrer, about the Schachgesellschaft Zürich. The club will be celebrating its 200th anniversary in August with some great tournaments and events to be attended by all of the legends of chess, including champions Kasparov, Anand, Karpov, Kramnik, Spassky, Ponomariov and Topalov. Besides presenting some fascinating history, the article says a lot about the important institutional role of chess clubs in supporting and promoting the game.
In August there will be a spectacular event celebrating the 200th jubilee of the oldest chess club in the world: the Schachgesellschaft Zürich, which was founded in 1809. Attendees include Kasparov, Anand, Karpov, Korchnoi, Kramnik, Spassky, Ponomariov and Topalov. To prepare you for the jubilee Richard Forster and Christian Rohrer retrace the historical development of the club.
Ian Mangion leads after taking 1.5/2 from me. Don Carrelli, Mark Kernighan & Greg Tomkovich won their lone games & are half-point back.
Exchange variations of nearly all openings are
quite unpopular with the second players, since White often gets to play for the
advantage without any risk. Naturally, in these lines there is a very
high demand to obtain an active game with Black. GM Dejan Bojkov shows how this is possible against the King’s Indian with 6.h3 and
7.dxe5, which he proved in practice at the Bulgarian Championship when he used
this variation to rake in the full point and clinch the title. Here you can see
the article (one of a total of 12 opening contributions) in full length.
Complete
survey of ChessBase Magazine 130. See
Bojkov: Kings Indian 9.Bg5 Na6 10.Nd5 Rd6
The top encounter Gelfand-Ivanchuk did not develop into the merciless battle many expected – it ended in a draw by repetition in twenty moves. Shirov vs Radjabov ended in 38 moves peacefully. In Kamsky-Nisipeanu the American GM missed very good winning chances – he went for a beautiful knight sacrifice but missed the study-like win. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.
On June 11-12, FIDE held a special meeting in Athens, Greece to discuss the implications of changes to the FIDE rating system, especially the increase of the K-factor. Ratings experts from around the world (including John Nunn and GM Bartlomiej Macieja) were brought together to recommend a course of action to the Presidential Board. Jeff Sonas reports on the meeting.
