Archive for July, 2009

Just a couple of years ago the shocking pawn sacrifice 5.g4 entered the theory
of the dignified Philidor Defence. If you check with the ChessBase online database, you will find 208 games and an amazing
score of 64% for White. The creator of this ultra-sharp new line, Alexei Shirov, recently recorded a
Fritz Trainer DVD on both the new and the classical Philidor.
Buy it
now or read more.

Born in 1954, GM Adrian Bogdanovich Mikhalchishin (or Mihalcisin or Mihalčišin)
established himself as a strong grandmaster who was the second to World Champion
Anatoly Karpov. He went on to become an internationally renowned trainer and
a prolific author of chess books. Adrian discusses his life and the strategy
of chess training in this interview with Özgür Akman.

They are GMs Victor Mikhalevski, Hua Ni, Mark Bluvshtein, Surya Ganguly and FM Raja Panjwani – the latter is the top player on his team at the University of Western Ontario. Top seed Alexei Shirov conceded a draw against Chinese GM Zhao Xue and dropped to second berth, which he shares with 12 other players. Big illustrated report with annotations by GM Alexander Shabalov.

There is nothing (too) wrong with Philidor’s Defense, and its notable advocates
include stars like Nisipeanu, Beliavsky, Azmaiparashvili and –- at least
in the 2009 World Open – Joel Benjamin. It seemed to go pretty well for
him, at least until his round seven game against Polish IM Jacek Stopa, which
is the subject In this week’s Playchess
lecture by Dennis Monokroussos. 9 p.m. ET.

This Category 18 event – averaging rating 2682 – is being dominated by American GM Hikaru Nakamura, who after six rounds of play has put a full point between himself and his nearest rivals, Peter Svidler and Maxime Vachier Lagrave. There are three rounds to go. Here are the games, results and a pictorial report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich which includes the free day activities.

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.

If you own Pocket Fritz 3, you will have known for some time that the program
allows you convenient access to almost all the data from the ChessBase Magazine
DVD (since CBM 126). This means that the combination of Pocket Fritz 3 and
ChessBase Magazine is unbeatable training and reference tool when you are away from home. Peter Schreiner gives more details…

If you own Pocket Fritz 3, you will have known for some time that the program
allows you convenient access to almost all the data from the ChessBase Magazine
DVD (since CBM 126). This means that the combination of Pocket Fritz 3 and
ChessBase Magazine is unbeatable training and reference tool when you are away from home. Peter Schreiner gives more details…

For the second time in recent memory, Alberta plays host to the Canadian Open. As in the 2005 edition, the top seeds sit amongst some of the best players in the world. Alexei Shirov has returned to defend the title he split with GMs Mark Bluvshtein and Vassily Ivanchuk, and has scored two fine victories in the first two rounds. Illustrated report with annotations by GM Alexander Shabalov.

Just prior to the start of summer there is a noteworthy event which for 28 years has held a prominent place in the Hungarian chess calendar. Zalakaros is located in the south western part of Hungary, 200 km far from both Budapest and Graz. The event is favoured by many Hungarian GMs and IMs, in addition to players from further abroad. Pictorial report by Diana Mihajlova.

New Jersey’s Andrew Ng took first place in the 2009 U.S. Cadet Championship, July 7-10 in Crossville, Tennessee. Close behind was fellow NJ rising star Victor Shen, who won a grueling 150 move game against NM Rohan Agarwal to claim sole possession of 2nd place. If anyone has any games from the event (including the contestants themselves), please send them to me at michael.goeller@rutgers.edu. Links:

• Andrew Ng Is the 2009 Cadet Champion by Alan Kantor
• Andrew Ng Leads Cadets by Alan Kantor (with update)
• Agarwal Shoots for Cadet Title by Michael Aigner (with update — and Twitter)
• Cadet Championship Set for Crossville by Alan Kantor

Chess authors and publishers have a tendency to become over-excited, to put it mildly, when trying to induce potential customers to part with their money. But a darker side also emerges on occasion. With some grim examples the Editor of
Chess Notes shows that there are cases where hype tips over into something far more reprehensible.
It is time for a reality check.

This is definitely his tournament: Vladimir Kramnik won it eight times previously, and after an inauspicious start the former World Champion mopped up in the second half to finish a full point ahead of his nearest rivals. They were Peter Leko, Magnus Carlsen and Dmitry Jakovenko, all at 5.5/10 points. Kramnik’s performance: 2848. Final report with statistics.

Send your favourite Kramnik game to magazine@chessbase.com
and tell us what you particularly like about the game you have nominated. All
entries will be put into a draw (don’t forget to include your name and address),
with the winner getting a DVD “My
Path to the Top” signed by Vladimir Kramnik himself. All
entries must be received by Saturday 18. 7. 2009. The judges’ decision is final.

Vladimir Kramnik played a fine black game against his compatriot Dmitry Jakovenko, and was a hair’s breadth away from winning the game and the event. But he untypically missed the chance and with the other two games drawn there are four contenders for first place (Kramnik is half a point up on the other three). Note: the game on Sunday start at 13:00h CEST! Round nine report.

Vladimir Kramnik played a fine black game against his compatriot Dmitry Jakovenko, and was a hair’s breadth away from winning the game and the event. But he untypically missed the chance and with the other two games drawn there are four contenders for first place (Kramnik is half a point up on the other three). Note: the game on Sunday start at 13:00h CEST! Round nine report.

I planned to post just the raw score but the game was rather easy, thanks to my foe’s mistakes at moves 14 & 16. So, here’s the annotated version in java-replay & PGN

P.S. – Been wondering… What the hell is plural for faux pas? – Faux pas pas?!?

Update – Improved notes posted at 10:25 a.m.

Like it or not, I’m back to post dozens of well-annotated games for a handful of readers. The fine folks at Blogger have re-programmed their bots & my blog now correctly comes up as Taylor Pork Roll.

Sadly, I will not become a martyr or popular with Hawaiians.

I found out why my Chess Coroner blog is locked. Blogger’s bots think it’s a spam blog. Click the images to enlarge & read them.

P.S. – For under 40 crowd, the title refers to this Monty Python skit :

This was originally posted on the Kenilworth Kibitzer on 7/10 at 2:41 a.m

I have uploaded a ChessBase archive (.cbv) with 27 of the 79 games played in the recently concluded 2009 Garden State Chess League season.

Ian Mangion, Mark Kernighan & Greg Tomkovich won their games to remain 1-2-3 in the 2009 KST. Max Sherer lost but stayed 4th. I didn’t play but am still 5th.

Finally, here’s an up-to-date crosstable. I apologize for it not being in standing order. I’ll post a better version in a few days.

This was originally posted on the Kenilworth Kibitzer on 7/10 at 1:13 a.m

Here’s the java-replay of Bert Shiffman’s simul win vs. Chitra Sridhar, which I promised 12 days ago. For the PGN, you can copy & paste from here or download the zip.

This was originally posted on the Kenilworth Kibitzer on 7/10 at 1:08 a.m

Click the image to enlarge & read it.

This was originally posted on the Kenilworth Kibitzer on 7/9 at 10:16 p.m

All players are well aware of how difficult it is in rook endings to convert
winning positions to the full point. This makes all the more amazing the
magnificent demonstration of good endgame technique displayed by Alexei Shirov
in his first round victory in Bazna over Kamsky. But the American could have
put up a more stubborn defence, if he had only activated his rook in time.
ChessBase Magazine’s endgames expert GM Karsten Müller shows you in his
analysis that things could have been a lot closer.
Play through the analysis. –

Buy Karsten Müller’s Endgame DVDs in the shop. – Buy
Alexei Shirov:’s “Endgame Fireworks”.