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Help from ChessBase Magazine
09.03.2010
– After three rounds in the European Championship Dieter-Liviu Nisipeanu was in the lead. The Romanian GM scored three consecutive wins, including one against Dimitri
Reindermann. Perhaps he was helped in his efforts by an article in ChessBase
Magazine, because in
CBM 132
his compatriot Mihail Marin examined in detail a variation of the Alekhine
Defence, which then was up for discussion in the game. The Dutch player chose a
line which our author had rejected and received the ultimate punishment for
doing so. Marin has provided a few notes on the game, and a thorough analysis
will follow in CBM 136. Here is
Nisipeanu -
Reindermann
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The political chess game
09.03.2010
– We long ago abandoned the practice of sending our readers to every article
or international news report that contains the word "chess". But when
a Euronews story contains video footage of a world class grandmaster (Boris
Gelfand) playing the Deputy Prime Minister of his country (Natan Sharansky),
who is assisted by the current PM (Benjamin Netanyahu), we make
an exception.
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Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (37)
08.03.2010
– At the New York, 1889 tournament a master lost a game by forfeit after only
eight moves because he was, in the words of a newspaper report, ‘laboring
under excitement’. The Editor of Chess
Notes looks at three great players with reputations for heavy dependency
on alcohol, examining how they have been treated by
contemporaries and subsequent writers.
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11th European Individual Championships in Rijeka
08.03.2010
– This event is taking place from March 6th to 18th 2010 in Rijeka, Croatia. Top players include Almasi, Bacrot, Movsesian, Navara, Vallejo, Motylev, Adams, Tomashevsky, Alekseev, Baadur, Naiditsch, Akopian, Volokitin, Bologan and Caruana. After two rounds 34 players have perfect scores, in the women's section it is 17. The venue is spectacular: see if you can
read its name from space.
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Can you guess who this (future) grandmaster is?
06.03.2010
– Here's another puzzle from our early-pictures scrapbook: who is the child in this photo? He was a boy prodigy, who at the sensational age of nineteen became the youngest grandmaster in the world. He has beaten twelve world champions. He lives in Europe and unlike his compatriots speaks flawless English. In our report we provide you with a few
more or less helpful clues.
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Richárd Rapport – grandmaster at thirteen
05.03.2010
– 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...
05.03.2010
– ... 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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Goals met – Kasparov and Carlsen's new strategy
03.03.2010
– The cooperation between Garry Kasparov, arguably the greatest chess player in history, and Magnus Carlsen, one of its greatest talents, began early last year. The results came faster than anyone had expected: Magnus was number one in the last two world rankings. Now the work between the two takes a new direction, with Magnus making all career decisions on his own.
Press release.
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Chess legend Bent Larsen turns 75
03.03.2010
– An all-time great of chess, Bent Larsen, was born on March 4th, 1935. He is the greatest chess player of Denmark, and the strongest ever Scandinavian (before Magnus Carlsen). As a world top ten GM he beat many legendary world champions and was greatly feared by the Soviet chess hegemony. Today Bent turns 75. We have some remarkable
contemporary and historical pictures.
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ChessBase show: Sokolov, Speelman, and the Icelandic Gambit
03.03.2010
– When former multiple world championship candidates collide what can you expect?
The fun Icelandic Gambit, that's what. It goes 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.c4 e6 and
is not entirely sound. But as Dennis Monokroussos explains in his Playchess
presentation, if it worked against a player who was once #3 in the world, it
could also work in your local club.
9 p.m. ET Wednesday night.
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A rook full of tricks
03.03.2010
– Okay, the analysis of last week's endgame set you a pretty hard task. But
since
you are really up to speed on this material, there is an equally hard one
for you
this week.
After 72...Rb4+ (diagram) White had an important decision to take in the
game Romanov-Vescovi:
should he move his king aside to g5, in order to advance his h-pawn as
quickly
as possible, or is perhaps 73.Kh3 the better choice?
Work out both variations – but be warned: there are all sorts of
hidden tricks!
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Werder Bremen catches Baden-Baden in the Bundesliga
03.03.2010
– The German Bundesliga is the strongest team championship in the world. Just look at the names: Anand, Svidler, Gashimov, Mamedayrov, Shirov, Adams (playing on board six!). In round ten the champions OSG Baden-Baden faced the ambitious team of Werder Bremen, who snatched a surprise victory to catch the leaders on match points. There are four rounds left to play.
Report and games.
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