Archive for March 5th, 2010

Richárd Rapport – grandmaster at thirteen

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Actually at thirteen years and eleven months, but still according to our calculations the fifth youngest player in history to gain the title. Richárd did it in spite of a last-round loss to chess legend Lajos Portisch, who is almost 60 years older than the lad. The tournament was held in Hungary and was won by Alexander Beliavsky. Congratulations to the new GM.

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The World Champion at work…

Friday, March 5th, 2010

… the German chess fans had the pleasure of watching at the last Bundesliga weekend in Heidelberg, when Vishy Anand’s club OSG Baden-Baden had to acknowledge their first defeat of the season versus title contender Werder Bremen. This is his white game from Sunday. How would you assess the situation after 23…Qxe5?
A) White is in trouble since the bishop f7 can’t move;
B) this piece can be unpinned, but Black has no problems whatsoever;
C) White wins by force.

The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

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