U.S. Champion and world famous blitz player GM Hikaru Nakamura won the 11th Dos Hermanas online blitz championship, played on ICC. As you can see from the Finals Grid, Nakamura (Smallville), author of Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate, began the finals by beating former Kenilworth Chess Club Champion Yaacov Norowitz (a tough first pairing for YaacovN!) and went on to beat GM Yaroslav Zinchenko (MEGAYARICK) in the final match. You can download the games in PGN from the ICC site.
In rook endings tiny subtleties are often what decides between victory and a draw. This position from the game Heinig-Prusikin from the German Championship is a good example of this. Should White, to move, immediately go for a clearing up of the situation with 50.h4 gxh4 51.Rxh4 or does he have a better continuation? What do you think? As usual on ChessBase Magazine Online, you will find analysis by our endgames expert Karsten Müller and in addition there is a reader’s comment on the previous week’s endgame Lubbe-Huschenbeth.
ChessBase Magazine Online.
This popular blitz tournament was held in the National Mindsport Centre in the Dutch town of Utrecht for the eleventh time this year. The event was won by top seed Vladimir Baklan of Ukraine, who beat all GMs, drew four games and lost two – against talented Dutch youngsters. The most colorful figure was GM Vladimir Epishin, who played in coat and cap.
Big pictorial report by Fred Lucas.