Archive for August 19th, 2009

I played badly misplayed the opening to middlegame transition in a Milner-Barry Nimzo-Indian (much as I did against Kernighan in March) & lost a rematch with Haim Pilosof.

240 players participated, from 14 different countries. For one week the 2009 edition of the Asian Youth Championships witnessed the vibrant and energetic activities of children on and off the board, in New Delhi. The Indian contingent faced little resistance and grabbed gold medals in seven categories, mustering 23 out of 36 medals in total. Illustrated report with Bhangra dance instructions.

At eighteen years of age, WFM Abby Marshall is making waves in the United States. In addition to being the only girl to hold two Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls titles, achieved consecutively in 2005 and 2006, she has recently added a victory at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions to her mantle – the first female to do so. We follow her activities in Indianapolis.

Remember the study we showed you in one of our Chess Classic reports? The one which top grandmasters failed to solve, while the program Rybka succeeded in just over a minute? We promised to give you the astonishing solution, which we now do, together with a number of interesting – and sometimes delicate – anecdotes describing how the humans fared. 1-0 for the computers on this one.

Six draws from seven games – but happily there was quite a bit of excitement in at least two games. One was of course Rustam Kasimdzhanov’s victory over Ivan Cheparinov, which brought the former FIDE World Champion into the lead group of Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk, a full point ahead of the field. We bring you a big illustrated report with impressions by Arman Karakhanyan.

It was arguably the most dramatic match in chess history. Challenger Anatoly
Karpov was on the verge of winning it, when he took game 23, but was foiled
by World Champion Garry Kasparov in the very last game. History only remembers
the winners, but as Dennis Monokroussos shows in his Wednesday night Playchess
lecture, Karpov’s best efforts are worth another look. So are these videos.

The new ChessBase Magazine taster is a threefold package: read
CBM for half a year at reduced price; choose your favourite bonus DVD – by Anand,
Kramnik, Kortchnoi, or Hort; and with the December issue of CBM you will get a
special offer for the new Mega Database 2010 at only a third of the regular price.
Order your

CBM taster now, or read more about the new CBM 131 here.

With seven of nine rounds completed in the Baltic Queen, IM Ekaterina Atalik of Turkey has taken the sole lead with 5.0/7, followed by GMs Arakhamia and Cramling. With the top contenders meeting in the final rounds a climatic finish is expected, Viktorija Cmilyte, 4.0/7, may certainly make a statement as well. Feel the atmosphere in St Petersburg in this big photo report by IM Irina Sudakova.

The 5th tournament in the FIDE Grand Prix series is under way and Karsten Müller has already discovered and annotated a few interesting endings. There is, for example the knight ending Ernesto Inarkiev vs Vassily Ivanchuk from the second round. In it a spectacular breakthrough led to success – no, sorry, should have led to success… 

Introductory video to knight endings from CBM 131
Analysis of the endgame Inarkiev – Ivanchuk