Archive for September 25th, 2009

The Asbury Park Chess Fest 2009 is on Saturday, September 26th in Asbury Park’s Convention Hall (5th Street and Ocean Avenue) from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. I will be among those giving a simul, as I was last year. This will be the 10th anniversary of this excellent event that does a lot to promote chess to young people. You can register online. See the website for more details.

Garry Kasparov won the series of fast play games against his arch-rival Anatoly Karpov by a final score of 9-3, “exactly as their ratings predicted” according to ChessBase (which has a nicely illustrated report — as does ChessVibes). Dennis Monokroussos has annotated all of the blitz games (which Kasparov won 6-2) as well as the two remaining rapid games from the first two days of the match (which Kasparov won 3-1). See my previous post for additional links.

Everyone expected an easy win by Kasparov, but their eight-game blitz encounter started with a shock loss. Karpov drew first blood, Kasparov took a “deep breath” 17-move draw to clear his head, and then went on to score five wins in a row. The final game was a draw, leaving Kasparov winning the blitz with 6.0-2.0 and the match with 9.0-3.0 – exactly as their ratings predicted. Illustrated report.

… is a continuation which immediately springs to mind in a position – if, for example, a piece can be developed to an active square in the opening with tempo. In the diagram, playing
16.Rad1 White occupied the d-file with his rook and at the same time attacked the opponent’s queen. What is your judgement on this?
A) simple and strong, the move maintains a powerful initiative;
B) here nature is against White, Black gets the advantage; 
C) neither nor, with a precise reaction the position is kept in balance.
The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.