Archive for September 30th, 2009

The New Jersey Knockouts (4-0) play the Chicago Blaze (1-3) tonight at 8:00 p.m. in US Chess League action on ICC. Match previews are available from Joseph Criscuolo (”Knockouts Preparing to Dowse the Blaze“) and Tom Panelas (”Next Up: Jersey“), the latter of whom has some questions about the uncanny resemblance between Blaze manager Glenn Panner and Knockouts first board GM Joel Benjamin. I am personally most curious to see the match-up of Cadet champ Andrew Ng vs. Junior Open champ Eric Rosen. It should be an interesting match.

In “Based on Life or Fantasy, a Picture Goes to Auction” (The New York Times, September 30, 2009), Dylan Loeb McClain presents a balanced report on an etching meant to depict a chess match between Hitler and Lenin. Let readers and potential buyers be the judge of its authenticity. I just don’t know who would want to own a picture of either man, let alone one that shows both. (See also items from ChessBase and from Edward Winter).

Here are the pairings for Round 3 of the Sy Fish Memorial :

1. Kernighan (2.0) – Stoyko (2.0)
2. Komunicky (1.5) – Chieu (2.0)
3. Singh (1.0) – Mann (1.0)
4. Wojcio (1.0) – Mangion (1.0)
5. Pawlowski (1.0) – Sturniolo (1.0)
6. Mazzillo (0.5) – Renna (0.5)
7. Shiffman (0.0) – Agress (0.0)

Jose Garcia (0.0) gets a full point bye.

Third round and things are heating up. Whilst in the men’s tournament Magnus Carlsen narrowly failed to win, in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix GM Nana Dzagnidze was the sole player to remain on 100% with 3/3. She is followed by former Women’s World Champion GM Xu Yuhua and the untitled Ju Wenjun, both from China. Report with gorgeous pictures and annotated games.

In the Short-Efimenko
match, which finished last Saturday in 
Mukachevo, the young Ukrainian player went straight into the lead in round one,
but saw Short catch up immediately in the next round. The match was finally
decided in round five - in a rook ending, in which the experienced English
player demonstrated his faultless technique to secure the win. In the
position in the diagram Short (White) was on the move and held on to his
advantage with an accurate manoeuvre. Can you work out his 38th move? Our ChessBase
Magazine endgame expert GM Karsten Müller has analysed the
decisive phase of this game.

The recent match between Kasparov and Karpov in Valencia, Spain,
was a tremendous success. That is tragic,
says Garry Kasparov – when two old guys, one retired, the other no longer a real
force in the game, still are the greatest show in the world of chess. In his
interview with GM Robert Fontaine for the French magazine Europe
Echecs Kasparov vents his feelings on this and other subjects. Part two.

For a long time in round three it looked like Magnus Carlsen was going to pick up his third victory. The Norwegian had an extra pawn and great attacking opportunities. But he had used too much time and on his last move before the time control spoilt it to a draw. Peter Leko struggled with black against Veselin Topalov, but held; while Radjabov-Jakovenko was a less exciting draw. Illustrated report.

It took them 22 hours to get there – door to door. But after a quick acclimatizing the two, father and son, have settled down in the splendid hotel and are thinking chess, table tennis and Chinese food. Magnus won his first two games in the Pearl Spring Tournament, with his father Henrik watches, as usual, anxiously from the sidelines. Here’s a first installment of his Nanjing blog.

The gloves came off in the second round of the women’s event that is taking place parallel to the Pearl Spring tournament. After three wins in the first round we saw four decisive games in the second. Even the draws went the full length and all possibilities were exhausted before they were accepted by the Chief Arbiter Ignatius Leong. Report by FM Geoffrey Borg.

Not only can the Russian GM, who has been enthralling chess fans for over a
decade now, defeat anyone – he can do it playing practically anything:
the Chigorin, the Albin, 3…Be7 in the French, the King’s Gambit, the Evans
Gambit… In his Wednesday night Playchess
lecture Dennis Monokroussos shows us a game in which Vladimir Kramnik fell victim
to "Moro’s" brutal attacking play.

Bulgarian FIDE master Valeri Lilov, rated 2411, starts a weekly
show on Playchess. On Wednesday at 20:00h CEST (7 p.m. London, 2 p.m. NY),
he will be discussing the most interesting games from the great players.
This time he will focus on the most interesting duel in the history – the
matches between Kasparov and Karpov. Take a look, it’s free.