Archive for July 7th, 2009

U.S. Chess Scoop Episode 3 from DIM mak films on Vimeo.

There is plenty of good commentary on the World Open, which wrapped up this weekend in Philadelphia, won by Evgeny Najer and Hikaru Nakamura (who played the short schedule, as Mig reports). Jennifer Shahade gives us her video “scoop” (see above). Lubomir Kavalek analyzes two snappy miniatures in his Washington Post column. Jonathan Hilton blogs about his games at the USCF website. And you can download the 128 available games from the World Open website (PGN here) and in TWIC #765 (see description or download PGN), or view them online at Chessgames.com (among other places). I found the Dragon games Friedel – Robson and Homa – Kudrin of interest.

Update: According to the USCF website (”Hilton on the World Open: Lenderman Dances; Nakamura and Najer Tie for 1st“), the World Open blitz event was won by Kenilworth Chess Club champion Yaacov Norowitz with a score of 9.5/10. Congratulations Yaacov!

Tuesday – after five rounds, and having completed the first half of the double round robin Sparkassen tournament, the players have earned a rest day. For your roving correspondents the concept is unknown – we use the pause to take a look around the German industrial city of Dortmund. Join Michael von Keitz on a sightseeing tour through Dortmund.

Because of its rather abstract nature and, most obviously, the amount of space
it concedes to the opponent, the Hedgehog System (or systems) tend to be relatively
unpopular at the club level. In this week’s Playchess
lecture Dennis Monokroussos shows us that this is not the way things ought to
be. Be there to watch on the server at 9 p.m. ET.

Magnus Carlsen is leading the field in Dortmund at the half-way mark with 3.5 points, closely followed by Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko with three points each. Both Kramnik and Leko have won a game with kingside attacks, but the 18-year-old Norwegian has scored two points in endgames against the Berlin Defence. GM Karsten Müller, commentator for ChessBase Magazine,
has examined the endgame
artistry of the world number three in the game Carlsen-Jakovenko.
You can learn more about the endgame in the Berlin Defence which was the subject of the endgame column in CBM
128.