Archive for July 10th, 2009

All the King’s Men chess store and club is featured in an article from the Gloucester County Times today titled “Pitman chess store owner has all the right moves.” The article talks about how owner Stephen Dick turned an online store into a bricks and mortar chess and games emporium. This is definitely a place to visit this summer (see map), perhaps in conjunction with playing in the 2nd Annual Greater Pitman Open Chess Championship, a 4-Round Game-60 Swiss tournament on August 15th, directed by Dick. According to Susan Polgar, among those confirmed to play in the Grand Prix event are GM-elect Alex Lenderman, GM Michael Rohde, IM Bryan Smith, NM Dr. Leroy Dubeck and “likely, but not confirmed players” IM Dean Ippolito, IM Kirill Kuderinov, FM Boris Privman, and FM Tommy Bartel. Lenderman will play a simul Friday, August 14^th at 7:30 p.m. at All the King’s Men, with an entry fee of $20 and prizes of $50 for a win and $25 for a draw.

And suddenly things have changed… After two relatively uneventful rounds Vladimir Kramnik was able to go into the lead at the Sparkassen tournament in Dortmund, after the leader since round one Magnus Carlsen blundered in a probably drawn position. Dmitry Jakovenko was able to defeat Etienne Bacrot in an 81-move marathon. Round eight report with pictorial impressions.

An advanced knight outpost in the enemy camp is a fine thing, and two of them often make you believe the game should just win on its own. Playing 29.Bg5, White had just provoked the losing move
29. … f6 here. What would you recommend to him now? A) There are no forced continuations, but the modest bishop retreat to c1 keeps all the advantages of his position;
B) Don’t stop half way, the strike 30.Nxf6+ clearing the d-file wins at once;
C) Sacrificing is correct, but the right method is rook h3 with the threat 31.Rxh5+.
The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

On June 25th the iconic pop star died in Los Angeles of cardiac arrest. While the world stopped to mourn and millions followed his memorial service, we discovered an interesting factoid: Jackson owned a very luxurious gold-and-marble chess set, which he actually used, back in 2000, to teach his son Prince Michael, then aged three, the first steps in the game.
Here is video evidence.

The legendary twelfth World Champion Anatoly Karpov has long been an ambassador
for chess. In his latest mission he travelled to Syria to make the first move
of the Arabic Chess Championships Under 14. He was accompanied by roving chess
journalist GM Robert Fontaine of Europe
Echecs, who sent us a pictorial report, including high-def video footage.
Extraordinary visual impressions.

Two games – Magnus Carlsen vs Peter Leko and Etienne Bacrot vs Vladimir Kramnik – ended in relatively uneventful draws. The third encounter, between Arkadij Naiditsch and Dmitry Jakavenko, developed into a drama in which the German GM let an advantage slip away, then got an unexpected gift from Jakavenko, but failed to capitalise on it.
Round seven report.