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Tal R03: Anand, Aronian, Kramnik draw first blood
08.11.2009
– At last: after ten drawn games in the first two rounds the public suddenly got three decisive games on the third day. Vishy Anand piled the pressure on Peter Svidler in an Exchange Grunfeld until the latter cracked; Levon Aronian outplayed Peter Leko in a Semi-Slav; and Vladimir Kramnik played another splendid game, defeating Alexander Morozevich with the black pieces. Round three report.
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Measuring the 'hotness' and watching the 'Mate-o-meter'
07.11.2009
– "There can’t be many chess players who have not heard of Fritz,"
writes Sean Marsh on his chess blog. "This latest version looks like being
THE must-have chess item of 2009." He examines the new "hotness"
display and the "Mate-o-meter" and concludes that Karpov would have
done better in a certain line against the Catalan if he had used Fritz. Order
it now or read
Sean's review.
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Tal R02: All games drawn – first win expected tomorrow
06.11.2009
– We are not complaining – yet. Two or three of today's games were quite exciting. But somehow we miss the rush of win, and a table in which not everyone is in the lead. That will happen tomorrow. It must. Today it was Ponomariov and Ivanchuk who put some token pressure on Aronian and Svidler, but in the end the result was five draws. Round two report.
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Five pieces lined up on the h-file...
06.11.2009
– ... we see in this position, where Black had just played ...Ng6-f4, attacking White's queen and rook. How would you assess the situation now?
A) The fork wins for Black;
B) White can get away with perpetual check;
C) He can actually give mate.
The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.
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Tal R01: All games drawn – with plenty of excitement
05.11.2009
– Organisers don't like the 'all games drawn' headline. But in round one of the
very strong Tal Memorial all were more or less hard fought. Carlsen, Anand and
Leko had at some stage shaky positions against Kramnik, Ivanchuk and Morozevich
respectively, but all three pulled it together and held draws. On Playchess the spectators spotted some fairly prominent
kibitzers. Round one report.
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Israeli double agent shot dead in Moscow
05.11.2009
– Shabtai Kalmanovich, a former Israeli double agent who penetrated Golda Meir's government on behalf of the KGB, has been shot dead in Moscow. An unidentified gunman fired at least 20 shots into his chauffeur-driven Mercedes Benz. Why do we report this? Because Kalmanovich was a patron of women's basketball – and chess. News reports.
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World Junior Championship – Impressions from Patagonia
05.11.2009
– This event, which ended on Tuesday, brought us lively games and a dramatic finish. But being staged in a remote place at the other end of the world there was a dearth of pictorial material. Which was a shame, since the venue, the southern end of South America, is scenically beautiful. Well, thank heavens for Åse Østebø, captain of the Norwegian squad. She has sent us this spectacular report.
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Tal Memorial begins today – live on Playchess
05.11.2009
– The annual Tal Memorial starts on Thursday, November 5th and ends on November
14th. At category 21 (average Elo 2764) it is one of the strongest of all time
and includes Anand, Carlsen, Kramnik and Aronian. After this the World Blitz
Championship will be held. We will be broadcasting the moves from Moscow live
on Playchess, which soon celebrates a
remarkable anniversary. Tournament details.
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A rook ending worth its weight in gold
05.11.2009
– The European Team Championship in Novi Sad witnessed an exciting final
round in which the decision as to who would win the gold medal came as the
result of a rook ending. Vugar Gashimov, White, absolutely had to win in order
to secure the title for the Azerbaijani team. Daniel Stellwagen, Black, was fighting
for a draw. In the position shown in our diagram, which move would you have chosen as
Black? Think carefully.
GM Karsten Müller has analysed the decisive phase of the endgame
Gashimov-Stellwagen for ChessBase Magazine Online.
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ChessBase Workshop: tips and tricks in ChessBase 10
04.11.2009
– How do you create a new database, how do you copy new material into it –
e.g. all Caro-Kann Advanced Variation games from Mega Database – and how
do you correct a database that has become corrupted? These are questions that
are answered by Steven Lopez, who has been providing written ChessBase Workshop
installments for the last twelve years, in his second streaming
video lecture.
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Wednesday night training on Playchess
04.11.2009
– At 20:00h CET, IM Merijn van Delft holds his lecture on recent grandmaster
games on the Playchess server. At 9 p.m.
ET (03:00 a.m. CET) FM Dennis Monokroussos talks about the start of the Tal
Memorial in Moscow on Thursday, about chess prodigies in general and Bobby Fischer
in particular, with an instructive 1960 game. Free for Premium members.
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Vachier-Lagrave, Soumya win World Junior
04.11.2009
– It was a very fateful final day at the World Junior in Argentina. French GM and top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave worked hard to win his final game and catch the leading Sergei Zhigalko from Belarus to take Gold and the title on tiebreak. In the women's section there was even greater drama. One player missed a special $33,000 prize by a few tiebreak points. Final round report.
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Chess Players Association urges compromise
03.11.2009
– The recent controversy between GM Koneru Humpy, the second strongest female chess player in history, and D.V. Sundar, the Hon. Secretary of the All Indian Chess Federation, has brought us a spate of letters by our readers – and a press release of the CPAI, which represents the interests of the players, urging both parties to reach a settlement on all issues. Facts and opinions.
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Anand defeats Karpov 3.5:0.5 in Corsica
02.11.2009
– Karpov is definitely not the player he once was. In the second half of his rapid chess match against Viswanathan Anand the former World Champion took a 0:2 beating. Surely this is due to lack of practice and modern training methods – a deficiency that can be remedied. We bring you the games and pictures from a chess event held in the birthplace of Napoléon Bonaparte.
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Video report: Garry Kasparov at Your Next Move
02.11.2009
– "Think fast. Think under pressure. Think strategically. That’s how
you win in business – and in chess." That's the motto of Your
Next Move, an organisation that for the third time staged a chess
event near Antwerp centered around Garry Kasparov. It
was captured by the Belgian Sports TV company EXQI and is now available in extraordinary
high definition. Must watch.
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The Catalan bishop
02.11.2009
– The Catalan Opening has one specific peculiarity: White's strategy in the
opening is often aimed at achieving a good endgame. If Black sooner or later decies to
play ...d5xc4, then he must be confident that the development of his Bc8 to, e.g.
b7 or c6 will actually take place. If he fails in this, Black frequently ends up
in a hopeless "Catalan" ending, in which the Bg2 exerts enormously strong pressure on b7
and sometimes cripples the whole black queenside (Ra8, Bc8). IM Michael Kopylov
has annotated six typical
games for ChessBase
Magazine Online.
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Zhigalko leads World Junior in Patagonia
02.11.2009
– Top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, rated 2718, is josting for top place with third seed Sergei Zhigalko of Belarus, rated 2646. In round nine both won their games and were equal first, in round ten Vachier played a quick draw, while Zhigalko won again to take the sole lead. No pictures of the chess action in Puerto Madryn, but we have received some very nice shots of whales.
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November 2009 FIDE ratings
02.11.2009
– Everyone knows the big news: Magnus Carlsen has crossed the 2800 barrier, the fifth player in history to do so, and is now in second place in the world rankings, just nine points behind the leader Veselin Topalov. World Champion Vishwanathan Anand remains in third place, with Levon Aronian in fourth and Vladimir Kramnik in fifth. Top rankings and statistics.
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Anand vs Karpov rapid chess match in Corsica
01.11.2009
– First there were 32-board simuls, against participants from the Corsica Masters. Reigning World Champion Anand won all his games, 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov conceded one draw, against a 15-year-old. Then they faced each other in the first of four rapid chess games. Anand won one, the second was drawn. The next two are scheduled for November 2nd. Illustrated report.
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Novi Sad: Azerbaijan wins Gold – by one rook move
31.10.2009
– Daniel Stellwagen had fought bravely for 69 grueling moves. On move 70 the Dutch GM played the only rook move that lost him a drawn position. Azeri Vugar Gashimov seized the chance and won Gold for his team. Russia was second and Ukraine third. In the women's section it was Russia ahead of Georgia on tiebreak points. Here, too, with Ukraine took Bronze. Final report.
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World Junior Chess Championships 2009 in Patagonia
30.10.2009
– Puerto Madryn is a city on the east coast of southern Argentina, in a geographical region known as Patagonia. In this remote place, where right whales and dolphins congregate, 84 of the most talented young players – under twenty years old – are playing for a prestigeous title. The girls's section has 45 contestants. The official web site is unfortunately comprimised, but we have results and games.
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