Archive for November 24th, 2009

There is a wonderful lecture series by GM Ronen Har-Zvi at ICC on what he calls the “Pseudo-Steinitz Variation of the French,” where Black plays 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Ne4!? to mess up White’s plans, with one continuation being 5.Nce2!? f6!? (see for example Nijboer – Kujif, Wijk aan Zee 1991). FM Steve Stoyko was apparently inspired by Har-Zvi’s lecture enough to try the same idea against the Two Knights French after 1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Ne4!? 5.Ne2 f6!? (see diagram above). I have annotated Milonovic – Stoyko, Hamilton Quads 2009 (or download the PGN) to explore this idea, which turns out to be much more interesting for Black than the result of the game would indicate.

After Bobby Fischer and before Magnus Carlsen, the “Best in the West”
was the Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman. He played many games against Anatoly Karpov
– including two title matches – beating the former world champion
no fewer than eleven times. One remarkable game is the subject of this week’s
Playchess lecture by FM Dennis Monokroussos. Be there and watch.

The two big names that will leave Khanty-Mansiysk after the first round are Emil Sutovsky of Israel and Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia. The were knocked out by Chinese GMs Li Chao and Zhou Weiqi respectively (but not respectfully). Promising youngsters Parimarjan Negi and Hou Yifan are also out, while Dominguez, Navara and Bacrot made it to the next round. Illustrated report.

A total of 1324 participants from 90 countries took part in six age groups, for boys and girls, at this World Youth Championship in Turkey. A great success for the host nation was the bronze medal for local talent Kübra Öztürk in the Girls U18 section. A protest has been submitted by the Israeli Chess Federation because no anthem was played for the winner of the Girls U14 section. Results and games.