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RESULTSFound 2659 results for the word 'script' in 33145 chess posts stored in the archive of yourchess.net since june 2008
 
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Amber Rapid dal 13 al 25 Marzo. Grischuk sostituisce Morozevich.

  AMBER con Carlsen e Kramnik. Morozevich rinuncia.

E' notizia di pochi giorni fa che il russo Alexander Morozevich dovrà rinunciare per motivi personali al super torneo Amber che inizia il 13 Marzo e termina il 25. Si tratta di una competizione con 12 invitati che si confrontano ogni giorno in 2 partite  rapid (25'+10") e 2 partite alla cieca ( 25'+20''). Il posto di Morozevich sarà preso dal suo connazionale e Campione Russo in carica Alexander Grishuk.

Tra i presenti Kramnik che vanta numerose vittorie ( 1996 -1998-1999- 2001-2004-2007) e due secondi posti nelle ultime due edizione.
A contendergli lo scettro il Norvegese Magnus Carlsen, n° 1 del tabellone e che ha un 1° posto a parimerito nel 2009 e due secondi posti a parimerito nel 2007 e 2008.
Tra i plurivincitori vanno annoverati anche Aronian (sue le ultime due edizioni 2008-2009) e Morozevich (2002-2004-2006). Ivanchuk ha una alloro datato 1992, mentre ha una ricca collezione di medaglie d'argento (ben 5).

L'Azerbaigiano Gashimov, dopo l'esordio recente al supertorneo di Linares, scende per la prima volta in campo anche all'Amber. Esordio anche per Ponomariov, Dominguez a Smeets.



INVITATI  all' AMBER  2010

NomPaysElo
1 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2810
2 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2788
3 Aronian, Levon ARM 2781
4 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2761
5 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2759
6 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2749
7 Svidler, Peter RUS 2744
8 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2737
9 Morozevich, Alexander assente,
Grischuk al suo posto
RUS 2732
10 Karjakin, Sergey RUS 2720
11 Dominguez Perez, Leinier CUB 2712
12 Smeets, Jan NED 2657



CALENDARIO 2010

Sabato 13  14.30 hrs - Round 1
Domenica 14  14.30 hrs - Round 2
Lunedi 15 14.30 hrs - Round 3
Martedi 16 14.30 hrs - Round 4

Mercoledi  17  Riposo

Giovedì 18 14.30 hrs - Round 5
Venerdì 19 14.30 hrs - Round 6
Sabato 20 14.30 hrs - Round 7
Domenica 21 14.30 hrs - Round 8

Lunedì 22  Riposo

Martedi 23 14.30 hrs - Round 9
Mercoledì 24 14.30 hrs - Round 10
Giovedì 25 12.30 hrs - Round 11



CLASSIFICA 2009


Combinata (cieca + rapid)
1.  Aronian    14    
2. Anand 13½
Kramnik 13½
4. Carlsen 13
5. Morozevich 11
6. Karjakin 10½
Topalov 10½
8. Kamsky 10
Leko 10
10. Ivanchuk 9½
11. Radjabov 9
12. Wang Yue 7½

Cieca

1.  Aronian    7    
Carlsen 7
Kramnik 7
4. Anand 6½
Morozevich 6½
6. Leko 5½
Topalov 5½
8. Ivanchuk 5
Radjabov 5
10. Karjakin 4½
11. Wang Yue 3½
12. Kamsky 3
Rapid
1.  Anand      7    
Aronian 7
Kamsky 7
4. Kramnik 6½
5. Carlsen 6
Karjakin 6
7. Topalov 5
8. Ivanchuk 4½
Leko 4½
Morozevich 4½
11. Radjabov 4
Wang Yue 4


Aronian


LINKS UTILI:


RISULTATI e ABBINAMENTI
QUI  

  PARTITE IN DIRETTA QUI
 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1738
2010-03-10T20:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament 2010

The 19th traditional TopGM’s blindfold and rapid tournament in Nice, France will be held from March 13th to 25th.
Players: Levon Aronian (Armenia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov, Jan Smeets (The Netherlands) and Peter Svidler.

 
http://chessok.com/?p=23520
Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:04:47 +0000
 
 
 
Chess Diva Haiti Fundraiser

Chess Diva episode #8 from Lauren Goodkind


You’re invited to the “Chess Diva” Chess-Haiti Fundraiser!

Nationally ranked chess players Barbara and Lauren Goodkind, producers of the award winning local access TV show, “Chess Diva” will play 5 minute blitz games with the public. Non chess players will find it entertaining to watch! Parents, bring your kids!

?Suggested donation per game is $5.

??When: Saturday and Sunday, March 20th and 21st, 10 am to 4:30 pm ?Where: Lytton Plaza, 202 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA. (next to Pizza My Heart)

?All proceeds will go to UNICEF.


Lauren and Barbara Goodkind,
the producers of "Chess Diva"


About the Producers (from their website):

Lauren has been playing in chess tournaments for about 8 years. Her current United States Chess Federation is 1859. After graduating recently from a 4 year university with a BA in communications, she decided to work with the chess community and pursue a career in media production at the same time. "Chess Diva" is one of her first projects. She gives a lot of credit to the Media Center in Palo Alto, which made this effort possible.
Barbara was first of the sisters to play in chess tournaments. She currently attends a 4 year university to obtain her BA degree.

Lauren and Barbara Goodkind are ranked among the top 100 females in the United States (see top rating list).

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
 
http://www.chessblog.com/2010/03/chess-diva-haiti-fundraiser.html
Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:00:00 +0000
 
 
 
Spectacular chess in Rijeka – 4 on 4.5/5

Four players on 4.5/5 in RijekaAfter five rounds of play, Zahar Efimenko, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Artyom Timofeev and Baadur Jobava are sharing the lead at the European Individual Championship in Rijeka. The four grandmasters scored 4.5 points and are chased by 23 GMs who are on 4/5.

The 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship is held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new Zamet Centre sports hall. The event is organized by chess club “Rijeka”, in agreement with the Croatian Chess Federation under the auspices of the City of Rijeka and the European Chess Union. It is open to all players representing the chess federations which comprise the European Chess Union (FIDE zones 1.1 to 1.9) regardless of their title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation.

The championship is based on Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. As always, the European Championship is a qualification event for the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify.

Rounds 4-5

Especially the 4th round in Rijeka saw a number of highly entertaining games and in this report we’ll present a few diagrams to give you an idea of how amazing the game of chess can be (if you didn’t knew already). Let’s start with the following brilliancy by Georgia’s number one player Baadur Jobava.

Krasenkow-Jobava
Position after 32…Rxe3Krasenkow-Jobava

The whole game had been a big tactical squirmish, but up to this point Polish grandmaster Krasenkow was still in the game. A puzzle book would ask a question like: “Is 33.Qg2 good or bad here?”. The answer… (calculate first!) …is…bad, though White had obviously counted on it. With 33.Qh4 he might still be on top, but the obvious 33.Qg2? was answered by 33…Bd4!! 34.Rxd4 Re1+35.Qf1 Ne3!! and White resigned.

Jobava

Imaginative play by Baadur Jobava

18-year-old Tamir Nabaty from Israel is a player without any title yet, but he’ll probably become at least an IM soon. In Rijeka he drew with GM Zoltan Gyimesi and then defeated GMs Gadir Guseinov and Ildar Khairullin, only to be stopped by top seeded GM Zoltan Almasi yesterday. The game against Khairullin had a nice finish.

Nabaty-Khairullin
Position after 31…Kc7Nabaty-Khairllin


Again we can pretend to be writing a tactics book (perhaps we should do that, one day…) and here we’ll ask: “Can White take on h8?” It’s a nice example of the theme “The deceiver deceived” because at first sight it looks like he cannot, because Black gives a check on e3 and then plays Qf2 (an important trick to know, often useful in blitz games as well). Then Rg1 can be answered by Re1, and after e.g. Ne8+, Kb6 Black controls the d4 square. But… if there’s a check in the position, always “check it”! The game went 32.Qxh8! Qe3+ 33.Kh1 Qf2 34.Nd5+! (the check that needed to be checked) Kd7 35.Qc8+!! (another one!) and Black resigned.


Don’t miss Movsesian’s finish in his game against Chirila, Bologan’s handling of the King’s Indian against Babula or Nisipeanu catching Pelletier’s queen. And we didn’t even mention the game Motylev-Godena yet, a true 19th century chess classic! All below in the game viewer.


After five rounds Zahar Efimenko, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Artyom Timofeev and Baadur Jobava are sharing the lead. Today the top pairings include Timofeev-Jobava, Efimenko-Nisipeanu, Sutovsky-Almasi, Vallejo-Zvjaginsev and Adams-I.Sokolov. In the women’s section Arakhamia-Grant, T.Kosintseva and Socko are on 4.5/5.

European Championship 2010 | Round 5 Standings (top 40)

European Championship 2010 | Round 5 Standings
Full standings here

Selection of games rounds 4-5

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Zamet Centre

The top boards of the 5th round

Zamet Centre

Young & old in Rijeka

Photos courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/spectacular-chess-in-rijeka-4-players-on-4-55/
Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:26:42 +0000
 
 
 
Review: Reggio Emilia 2007/2008

Reggio Emilia 2007-2008Having read mostly chess improvement books and opening manuals lately, I was delighted to see a new publication in the best tradition of chess writing: a serious tournament book. Strangely, it’s a tradition that seems rather unpopular these days – a very unfortunate development indeed.

The tournament book tradition has given us many classics, e.g. Bronstein on Zürich 1953, Alekhine on Nottingham 1936 and, more recently, Jan Timman on Curacao 1962. Nowadays, tournament books are a rare guest among the countless opening guides, chess tutorials and personal game collections. Still, a serious tournament report has many advantages over these other genres.

If a single game is like a newspaper column, and a game collection is like a short story, a collection of all games from one tournament is, in my view, like a full-grown novel, with different story-lines and intricate plots, small personal dramas and highlights, seemingly trivial details and an intricate plot leading up to a satisfying or thought-provoking finish. I would like you to see Mihail Marin and Yuri Garrett’s Reggio Emilia 2007/2008, published by Quality Chess, as an intriguing and well-written novel, rather than ‘just another’ chess book on the market.

On of the characteristics of a good tournament book is that all games are seriously analysed. As Garrett, the tournament’s technical director, writes in the introduction, in the current book, 25 out of the total of 45 games are analysed by at least one of the combatants, 3 of them present the views of both players and the remaining 20 have been annotated by GM Mihail Marin.

One of the very nice things is of this is that quick, ‘boring’ draws are also seriously analysed. This is something you don’t see in regular game collections or in New in Chess magazine, but I’ve always found it very instructive to see how the big guys make these draws, especially with such an outstanding explicator as Marin commenting them:

Korchnoi-Almasi
Reggio Emilia (2) 2007

Reggio Emilia 2007-2008How realistic are White’s chances of retaining even a tiny edge? In the absence of knights, there is no way to take advantage of the relative weakness of the d6-square. Speaking about “ifs”, under certain circumstances a knight jump to f6 would have been devastating. The way it is, I see only one (highly unrealistic) possibility: exchange all the rooks in order to avoid any form of counterplay, install the queen on e4 to dominate both wings, and advance (by some miracle) the b-pawn to b5, in order to put the black pawns placed on dark squares in potential danger. Admittedly, there is no way all this could happen.

16.Bxb7 Maybe Korchnoi’s initial intention was to keep control of the long diagonal with 16.Qf3. However, in this case he would have lost control of another important avenue, the d-file, after 16…Bxe4 17.Qxe4 Rad8 18.Rad1 Rd7! followed by …Rfd8. This would also have led to plain equality.

16…Qxb7 17.Qe2 Rfd8 18.Rad1 Qc6 19.f4 g6 20.Qg2 This is the only way to try to activate his position, but the almost complete simplifications that follow lead to a dead draw.

20…Qxg2+ 21.Kxg2 h5 22.Kf3 Kf8 23.Ke4 Rxd1 24.Rxd1 Rd8 25.Rxd8+ Bxd8 26.h3 Ke8 27.g4 hxg4 28.hxg4 Kd7 When this position was reached, Korchnoi said in a loud voice, “What can I do?” A draw was agreed.

Of course, the tournament not only consisted of solid draws, but also of some very spectacular and beautiful chess. And again, Marin takes us by the hand towards a crystal-clear understanding of the games.

Almasi-Marin
Reggio Emilia (5), 2008

Reggio Emilia 2007-200828.e6! White sacrifices his central pawn to clear the e5-square for his knight and make the e-file available for his rook. Black’s contorted piece coordination, which was quite functional in the closed position before Almasi’s breakthrough, will soon lead me to defeat. (…)

28….Qxe6 29.Ne5 c6 To tell the truth, I was still optimistic at this point, especially since, judging from his physical reaction, I knew Almasi had overlooked this defensive resource. My pleasant state of mind was not altered by his next strong move.

30.Bd2!! I would have enjoyed playing one of my favourite type of defensive positions – an exchange down – after 30.Nxg6 hxg6. Then Black has practically no weaknesses and his structure is much better than White’s. Moreover, if the black knight reaches the e4-square, White would be in trouble.

In this fragment, we see Marin at his best. He honestly describes his emotions yet manages to stay objective all the time, enabling him to explain the technical details without ever becoming boring or repetitive. He also shows a constant concern for the reader trying to make assessments of the arising positions. Marin even comes to the rescue in annotations by the other participants, when they have not been explicit enough to Marin’s satisfaction. The very first game of the book is a good example: Zoltan Almasi analyses his victory over Pentala Harikrishna in a solid, but rather clinical fashion, so Marin jumps in at several points in the analysis to add useful comments like “It may seem that Black has regrouped his forces harmoniously and his kingside counterplay is developing without problems. However, White’s space advantage in the centre and on the queenside should not be underestimated.”

Reggio Emilia 2007/2008 (it started on December 29, 2007) was in many ways perfect for a tournament book. Not only were there a number of world-class players such as Vugar Gashimov and David Navara, but also the legendary Viktor Korchnoi was present, as well as two rising stars from Asia (Pentala Harakrishna and Ni Hua), and of course Mihail Marin himself. As is good practice in a literary review, I won’t give away the ending of the ‘novel’, nor any other spoilers. In the end, however, it’s the moves and the games that tell the story of this tournament, not the results.

I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself into this tournament (even though I had never seen a single game from it before), identifying with the players and the problems they were facing during the games, and I suddenly felt it as a real loss that such books are hardly ever written anymore these days. I think a tournament book is the closest a chessplayer can come to identifying with fictional characters, and it’s a true pleasure to be able to enjoy the excitement of chess for once without having to think about improving my own game or updating my opening or endgame knowledge. This is simply top level chess entertainment.

Apart from the tournament itself (the heart of the book) there are numerous interesting extras in Reggio Emilia 2007/2008, such as excellent interviews with the players, a history of the Reggio Emilia tournament (including some memorable games from past editions) and a sympathetic description by Garrett of how this particular tournament was organised. Garrett is a keep observer who not only loves to watch the games but also the players themselves:

It was also interesting to witness the cultural differences between the players, ranging from Almasi’s assertive comments to the hesitant and modest ones by the Chinese warrior, Ni Hua (…). Gashimov whispered his fascinating comments, which were charcterized by a wildly tactical approach (albeit with that raw touch so typical of the young player who has yet to fully exploit his potential).

I hope readers will consider buying this very charming book; perhaps it will energize publishers to publish more serious tournament reports. It’s too beautiful a tradition to be written off already.

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reviews/review-reggio-emilia-20072008/
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:26:10 +0000
 
 
 
Thirteen players on 3/3 in Rijeka

Thirteen players on 3/3 in RijekaNaiditsch, Vallejo, Jobava, Pelletier, Timofeev, Martinovic, Skoberne, Krasenkow, Inarkiev, Nisipeanu, Efimenko, Maiorov and Nepomniachtchi are the names of the thirteen players who are still on 100% in Rijeka. Three rounds at the European Individual Championship have been played.

The 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship is held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new Zamet Centre sports hall. The event is organized by chess club “Rijeka”, in agreement with the Croatian Chess Federation under the auspices of the City of Rijeka and the European Chess Union. It is open to all players representing the chess federations which comprise the European Chess Union (FIDE zones 1.1 to 1.9) regardless of their title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation.

The championship is based on Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. As always, the European Championship is a qualification event for the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify.

Rounds 1-3

Top seed Zoltan Almasi started with a draw with Black against Italian GM Lexy Ortega. In this first round, played on Saturday, Russian top GMs Alexander Motylev and Evgeny Tomashevsky, the reigning European Champion, also started with draws. The biggest upsets were IM Artem Smirnov beating GM Evgeniy Najer, IM Pavel Potapov beating Viktor Laznicka, FM Burak Firat beating GM Konstantin Sakaev and FM Danny Raznikov beating GM Zaven Andriasian. On one of the lowest boards, Dutch GM Friso Nijboer was held to a draw by Denis Kadric (2171).

The second round saw two draws on the top boards, in Stefansson-Bacrot and Movsesian-Ragger. Moldav top GM Viktor Bologan lost to Bulgarian GM Valentin Iotov and GM Avetik Grigoryan defeated GM Kiril Georgiev. Ivan Cheparinov, long-time team member of Veselin Topalov, lost to Spanish GM Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez, but another Bulgarian of the same generation did better: IM Momchil Nikolov defeated GM Boris Savchenko. FM Hamitevici Vladimir managed to beat GM Mateusz Bartel in this round.

Round 3 was played on International Women’s Day, and all the women playing in the tournament received a rose “as a small sign of appreciation to all women players and all the ladies participating in the organization of this big sporting event”.

Dutch ladies

Dutch ladies Lisa Schut, Anne Haast and Arlette van Weersel, with roses at the chess boards

In the women’s section there are four leaders with a perfect score after three rounds: Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS), who is the only survivor from the ten best rated players, Monica Socko (POL), Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (SCO) and Irina Chelushkina (SRB).

Back to the men. After three rounds there are still 13 players with a 100% score. Among them are the two young international masters Sasa Martinovic (CRO) and Jure Skoberne (SLO) who in round 3 defeated GMs Vorobiov and Howell respectively. David Navara, these days boasting a 2708 rating, lost to Yannick Pelletier yesterday. Cheparinov went down again, this time against IM Artem Smirnov. IM Pavel Povatov and FM Burak Firat had more successes: the former defeated GM Tomi Nyback, the latter beat GM Gregorz Gajewski.

Today’s round will see some interesting encounters: Vallejo Pons-Timofeev, Krasenkow-Jobava, Naiditsch-Efimenko, Pelletier-Inarkiev, Skoberne-Nisipeanu, Nepomniashtchi-Maiorov and Adams-Martinovic. In the women’s section there are two clashes at the top: Arakhamia-T.Kosintseva and Socko-Chelushkina.

European Championship 2010 | Round 3 Standings (top 40)

European Championship 2010 | Round 3 Standings
Full standings here

A nice curiosity about the European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship in Rijeka

For the first time, there will be a ‘priest’ to represent – unofficially – the State of Vaticano. Unofficially because Vaticano is not (yet) affiliated to FIDE.

The name of the priest who will partecipate to the European Championship is Don Valerio Piro, from Neapolis; he got the formal authorization from Cardinal Sepe (note that Cardinal is more than Bishop; the Cardinal reports directly to the Pope).

Don Valerio is candidate-master for the Italian Chess Federation. Officially he is registered as Italy, but he will play with the flag of Vaticano. This is the first partecipation of a representative of the little State that is not afffiliated to FIDE. But only for the moment, as there are many priest that are good chessplayer.

Historically, the first (important) was Ruy Lopez – the inventor of the famous opening. The last one is William Lombardy, assistant of Bobby Fischer.

There is the idea to organize a championship for ‘ecclesiastics’ (priests, friars, monks, nuns), then there will be the possibility to create a Chess Federation of the state of Vaticano. So may be that it will be possible to see a team fom Vaticano also in the Olympiads.

The news had a good interest in the Italian newspapers and press agency. Please find enclosed the links (sorry, but the articles are in Italian!). Please note that the most important ‘catholic’ newspaper, Avvenire, dedicated a complete page to the news.

Thanks and best regards!
Adolivio Capece

Selection of games rounds 1-3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Zamet Centre

The venue is the Zamet Centre (16,830 m2), which hosts various facilities: a sports hall with max 2,380 seats, local community offices, a library, 13 retail and service spaces and a garage with 250 parking spaces.

Venue

These days the sports hall is occupied with tables, seats and chess sets...

Venue: full

...and hundreds of chess players

Spectators

Croatian chess fans watching the games from the side

Vallejo and Adams

Vallejo Pons, from Linares to Rijeka, with Michael Adams next to him

Inarkiev-Bosiosic

Local hero GM Marin Bosiocic (r.), here against GM Ernesto Inarkiev, has many fans

Stefanova-Guramishvili

Top seed GM Antoaneta Stefanova (l.), here against WGM Sopiko Guramishvili

Nadezhda

Second seeded is IM Nadezhda Kosintseva, but another favourite...

Tatiana

...is her sister Tatiana, two times European Champion already

Photos courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/thirteen-players-on-33-in-rijeka/
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:46:16 +0000
 
 
 
Sick Day
I am still feeling under the weather (this is day four or five) and I'm taking this one totally off! I posted my illness on my facebook status and a friend sent me the following song:

 
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Chessvine/~3/Fplrh6Wijcw/745-Sick-Day.html
 
 
 
Fischer's Birthday

Mar 09, 2010
Happy Birthday Bobby Fischer
Source: USA Today

On this day in 1943, one of the greatest chess players in history was born.

Bobby Fischer's talent, known in the chess world for decades, would become evident world-wide when he defeated Russian Boris Spassky for the world title in 1972.

Later, Fischer's erratic personality and anti-Semitic rants would dominate his life. Click here for his confrontation with ABC's Jeremy Schaap. The chess champion passed away in 2008.

Here is a news report on Fischer's victory against Spassky.

Posted by Picasa
 
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/03/happy-birthday-bobby-fischer/1
2010-03-09T09:46:00.000-06:00
 
 
 
Grischuk replaces Morozevich at Amber

Palais de la MéditerrannéeAlexander Morozevich has withdrawn from the Amber tournament, which starts in six days from now in Nice, France. The Russian is replaced by his compatriot Alexander Grischuk. To get you a bit in the mood already, today we present a video with footage from 2008 and 2009.

The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place at the Palais de la Mediterranée in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco. The total prize-fund is € 216,000.

The world’s number one player, Magnus Carlsen, is the top-seed in Nice. Also present are Levon Aronian, the winner of the past two Amber tournaments, and Vladimir Kramnik, who won the Amber tournament a record six times.

The following twelve grandmasters will take part (between brackets their country and their rating in the March 1, 2010 world rankings): Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2813), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2790), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2782), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2756), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2750), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2750), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2748), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 2740), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2737), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2725), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 2713) and Jan Smeets (The Netherlands, 2651).

Every day four sessions will be played, two blindfold sessions and two rapid sessions. The first session starts at 14.30 CET. The fourth session finishes around 20.00 CET. The final round on March 25 starts at 12.30 CET. March 17 and 22 are rest days. The rate of play is 25 minutes per game per player. With every move made in the blindfold games 20 seconds is added to the clock, with every move made in the rapid games 10 seconds is added.

Below you’ll find an appetizer video. Like in previous years, many more will be posted on the official website during the tournament. Besides, you can expect something new this year: live chess with audio commentary, streaming footage from the playing hall and live commentary sessions with the top GMs!

Video


Link

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/grischuk-replaces-morozevich-at-amber/
Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:18:55 +0000
 
 
 
Weekly Endgame Study (159)

Weekly Endgame StudyEvery week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!


S. Didukh
2003

White to play and win

Next week the solution.


Solution last week

I. Aliev
2008

Game viewer by ChessTempo

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/weekly-endgame-study/weekly-endgame-study-159/
Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:58:39 +0000
 
 
 
JM, Century chess teams declared City Cup co-champions - Post-Bulletin

JM, Century chess teams declared City Cup co-champions
Post-Bulletin
The John Marshall and Century chess teams tied for first place in the Rochester Area Scholastic Chess League City Cup Tournament played Saturday at Century ...
Chess team maintains string of state appearancesCheboygan Daily Tribune (subscription)

all 2 news articles »
 
http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.postbulletin.com%2Fnewsmanager%2Ftemplates%2Flocalnews_story.asp%3Fz%3D2%26a%3D442157&usg=AFQjCNHzStRQgwsrqP-i3jwRkVFttzad9Q
Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:41:43 GMT+00:00
 
 
 
Teen gets first move in chess tourney - Aiken Standard (subscription)

Aiken Standard (subscription)

Teen gets first move in chess tourney
Aiken Standard (subscription)
A local teen's chess skills landed her the opportunity to keep time during an international tournament and face off with a Grandmaster. ...

 
http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aikenstandard.com%2FLocal%2F0303Chess&usg=AFQjCNFOTYKQ28Gy5e3vUDR5z1bU-a3enA
Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:36:03 GMT+00:00
 
 
 
Let's Quit Playing Chess
Danish pop band, Alphabeat, features a chess-themed song in their latest album, "The Beat Is...".


Baby, let's quit playing chess,
You've been to my address,

You keep checking me out,

I wanna get loud,

Stop playing mouse and cat,

I'm telling you that,

I'm gonna win,

I'm checking you in

Alphabeat is currently supporting Lady Gaga's tour of the UK.
 
http://closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com/2010/03/lets-quit-playing-chess.html
Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:40:00 +0000
 
 
 
Save the rainforest – buy a sustainable chess set

Endangered ParrotsChess players love wooden chess sets for their massive, easy-playing pieces, their obvious superiority over cheap plastic stuff and their distinguished classical look. But what about their sustainability?

I got interested in this question after seeing an advertisement for a truly magnificent chess set called the ‘Endangered Parrots of the World Chess Set’. Created by Grant Dawson Collections in the United States, it is “hand made from certified sustainable North American hardwoods (walnut and maple), food safe natural finishes with recycled glass ball feet, and features 32 lead-free pewter playing pieces finished in 24k gold or sterling silver.”

The set is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, but it’s not exactly cheap: if you’re interested, you can buy it here for the nice sum of $5000. It’ll buy you this:

Endangered Parrots of the World Chess Set

That’s much more expensive, for instance, than the slightly less serious Freshwater vs. Saltwater Fish Chess Set or the various Animal Chess Sets that are sold on the internet. (”Endangered species will live on, healthy and free, in your own controlled temperature living room. Beware if you lose a piece or you could be in trouble with the Feds.”)

This is all good fun, of course (in fact, I can’t help mentioning a marvellous – if not really environmentally ‘correct’ – Through the Looking-Glass chess set, with pieces vanishing as soon as they are captured!) – but what about regular, Staunton-style chess sets?

I personally became interested in deforestation and sustainability issues after a visit a few years ago to Easter Island (which was completely deforested by its original people) and after reading Jared Diamond’s influential book Collapse (2005) about the collapse of great civilizations in the past and present, which deals about deforestation in great detail. As Diamond writes:

More than half of the world’s original area of forest has already been converted to other uses, and at present conversion rates one-quarter of the forests that remain will become converted within the next half-century. Those losses of forests represent losses for us humans, especially because forests provide us with timber and other raw materials, and because they provide us with so-called ecosystem services such as protecting our watersheds, protecting soil against erosion, constituting essential steps in the water cycle that generates much of our rainfall, and providing habitat for most terrestial plant and animal species. Deforestation was a or the major factor in all the collapses of past societies described in this book.

I tried searching for the word ’sustainable’ on a couple of well-known chess vendor sites such as The House of Staunton and the online shop of the London Chess Centre, but got a No products matched your search criteria in all cases. (One of the very few hits I got at all on Google was for a recyced chess set on Cool Gadgets.com. Pretty cool indeed, but hardly useful for even the smallest-sized chess tournament.)

I looked for more information online on the type of wood that’s used in chess sets. Again, it’s not easy finding out about this. On one site, I learned that “rosewood is a very popular type of wood used for chess men.” This would be bad news, since rosewood is in fact a tropical hardwood which is hugely overexploited. Still, a quick look at some retailer’s sites show that this is indeed one of the most commonly used wood for chess sets. According to the BBC,

The most reliable way to choose environmentally friendly timber and wooden products is to look out for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo. The FSC is a charity which certifies wood, paper and other tree products that have come from sustainability managed forests. (…) Wood from trees native to Europe, such as pine, oak, beech and birch, pose lower environment risks than those from tropical and subtropical trees such as mahogany, teak, rosewood and ebony.

The widely-used Digital DGT wooden boards are made of rosewood. On the website of the USCF Shop, too, most chess sets (both pieces and boards, and both ‘tournament’ and ‘luxury’ sets) seem to be made from rosewood, ebony or mahogany. And on this site, too, the word ’sustainable’ doesn’t return any pages. (There are ecologically sustainable types of rosewood, such as Santos Palisander, but again it is unclear (at best) whether this palisander type is used for the chess boards advertised on these websites.) In fact, one of the very few websites that explicity features ’sustainable chess sets’ is the English ShopWiki, which links the so-called Negiel Decorative Staunton Wooden Chess Set:

Folding wooden chess set by Negiel, comprising of an ornate stained wooden chess board and traditional Staunton style weighted chess pieces. Quality product made in Europe from carefully selected high quality sustainable wood.

The sustainable Negiel Staunton chess set doesn't look so bad, does it? (Apart from the wrongly placed king and queen, that is.)

It’s also quite cheap (certainly compared to the Endangered Parrots one!): £44.99, and it will be in stock from April this year on. But again, on the above-mentioned online shops, you’ll search in vain for the Negiel chess set, as far as I can tell.

I phoned Joris van Vuure of Chess and Go Shop Het Paard in Amsterdam, one of the largest chess equipment sellers in The Netherlands, to ask him what, if anything, he knew about sustainable chess sets. “Well, to be honest I’ve never thought about it,” Joris van Vuure told me. “Our customers – including the Dutch Chess Federation – simply never ask for it. They are obviously interested in the price and quality of the chess sets, but not their sustainability. Our top-selling chess sets are mostly made of mahogany, palissander or boxwood. Boxwood pieces are usually painted, which you can easily recognize because the black pieces are really black, whereas the others have a natural dark wood colour. I personally thought boxwood is sustainable, but I’m not sure.”

In fact, the sustainability of boxwood (or buxus as it says on the chess sets) is questionable. It’s an extremely hard type of wood which makes it very suitable for many things, including chess pieces, but it’s often overexploited and its sustainability really depends on where the plant was cultivated. Even if some boxwood would deserve to get the benefit of the doubt (Het Paard sells a lot of them, which is a good thing!), rosewood, mahogany and other tropical hardwoods wouldn’t.

Van Vuure says their shop would be interested in marketing explicitly sustainable chess sets, possibly even with an FSC logo, but he doubts whether customers would want to pay more for them. “In fact, many of our customers explicitly say they want nice wooden products rather than plastic ones, which obviously look cheap and actually have a bad image environmentally speaking. It’s a complicated issue, but if we could market it in a good way, without confusing customers, why not?”

Exactly how bad is it that we chess players mostly use unsustainable wooden chess sets, and what can be done about it? To quickly answer the first question: I have no idea – but it certainly doesn’t help. As often with these things, it’s clearly better in any case to be part of the solution, instead of the problem. Besides, I’m pretty sure more chess sets are being sold each day than expensive musical instruments made of the same materials, so there’s another clue. Finally, while unsustainble furniture at least looks really nice, I really wouldn’t be able to spot the difference between a maple chess set and a boxwood one. Nor would I much care: as long are the pieces are heavy (which can be achieved in other ways as well) and they don’t look too distracting, it’s all perfectly fine by me.

The second question seems tougher. I can advice you to buy a sustainable chess set next time, and you can tell your chess-playing friends, but even if you’d be willing to follow my advice, when will that be? And how effective will that be in the grand scheme of things anyway? It’ll also look decidedly pedantic to complain with your local club staff about the nice sets they just bought to please their club members: gee, thanks for the support!

This is an example of what marine scientist Jennifer Jacquet, who studies the overfishing problem, calls horizontal agitation:

Horizontal agitation is peer pressure combined with a pejorative element of what is socially or environmentally unacceptable. One friend lambasts me if she sees me with a disposable coffee cup. Another one does when I drive instead of walk. A British colleague in fisheries told me he could no longer bear dinner with his “middle-class friends” because they would pester him about the hypocrisy of his seafood consumption.

Although horizontal agitation can be beneficial, as studies have shown, Jacquet thinks there’s a better way: vertical agitation.

Choosing a MSC-certified fish over another is not going to relieve overfishing — not when one trawler today can remove 60 tonnes of fish from the ocean in a single haul. The way to get big changes quickly and maximize the effect of our scrutiny is with vertical agitation.

Vertical agitation means working higher in the demand chain. Rather than consumers hassling consumers, vertical agitation implies consumers hassle mega-consumers (chefs, managers, retailers, universities) or government. Today’s conservation movement, like the industries it seeks to revolutionize, must make big changes quickly. It can do this best with vertical agitation. (…) [A] colleague, Claire Nouvian, managed to arrange a meeting with President Sarkozy and vertically agitated him into supporting a CITES listing of bluefin tuna.


Jennifer Jacquet talking about the problems sustainable fisheries face against the big companies, and what can be done about it.

In terms of chess sets, the problem is obviously not as big as, say, slavery or the extinction of the bluefish tuna. Nor will buying sustainable chess sets alone save the world’s rainforests. But, as Joris van Vuure says, why not give it a try? At least unsustainable chess sets are not subsidized by FIDE! Chess organizers and federations could use nicely made plastic chess sets only (there are nice plastic sets, I’ve seen them myself!) or they could ask retailers about sustainable wooden sets. They might even be subsidized because of it!

Retailers, especially small ones already offering that little ’something extra’ to customers, should in my view seriously consider importing (and marketing) more sustainable wooden chess sets made of, for instance, oak or beech, even if perhaps they don’t always look as posh as some of the tropical of subtropical hardwood products. After all, in no-nonsense tournament chess, nobody ever really looks at the pieces for their beauty, do they? As long as they’re not distracting, surely it’s the chess that matters, not the board and pieces?

Finally, FIDE (Gens una sumus) itself should also be listening closely. Since they seem to have a liking for introducing weird new rules, here’s a suggestion for them: order all FIDE-rated tournaments to play with plastic or sustainable wooden chess sets. And they shouldn’t just do it because they like new rules, either. Like most ’sustainability’ initiatives, it could actually save them real money in the long run. What with all the financial troubles of our dear World Chess Federation, might this not be music to their ears?

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/columns/save-the-rainforest-buy-a-sustainable-chess-set/
Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:13:45 +0000
 
 
 
Four-way tie at Reykjavik Open

Four-way tie in ReykjavikThe 2010 Reykjavik Open ended in a four-way tie between Abhijeet Gupta, Yuriy Kuzubov, Ivan Sokolov and Hannes Stefansson. The four grandmasters all ended on 7/9; Dutchman Sokolov had the best tiebreak.

The Reykjavik Open took place February 24 – March 3 in the capital of Iceland. It was a 9-round Swiss with 104 players (20 GMs, 16 IMs). The rate of play was 1.5 hours for 40 moves plus 30 minutes to end te game, with an increment of 30 seconds starting from move 1. The main sponsor was MP Bank, the bank started by grandmaster Margeir Pétursson and the only bank in Iceland that more or less managed to avoid the biggest damage in the crisis so far.

Reykjavik OpenAs always the Reykjavik open was quite a strong event, with 11 GMs rated higher than 2550 and six rated 2600 or higher. Besides the usual suspects (Baklan, Dreev…) there were the sometimes quite famous veterans (Westerinen, Ehlvest, Romanishin) and some of the biggest talents around (Nyzhnyk, Jorge and Deysi Cori).

In the end the first place was shared between Abhijeet Gupta (India), Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukraine), Ivan Sokolov (The Netherlands) and Hannes Stefansson (Iceland). Sokolov recovered well from his terrible result at his last open, the open in Cappelle-la-Grande. For local hero Stefansson it was the third time in a row that he ended (shared) first, and the fifth time in total.

Reykjavik Open 2010 | Final Standings (top 30)

Reykjavik Open 2010 | Final Standings

Selection of games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Reykjavik Open 2010

Veterans meet: Alexey Dreev (Russia) vs Oleg Romanishin (Ukraine)

Reykjavik Open 2010

Newcomers meet: Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukraine) vs Ilya Nyzhnyk (Ukraine)

Reykjavik Open 2010

Peruvian rising star Jorge Cori vs Iceland's number two (on rating still behind the inactive Johann Hjartarson) Hannes Stefansson

Reykjavik Open 2010

Ivan Sokolov (The Netherlands) vs Irina Krush (USA)

Reykjavik Open 2010

A draw in the last round between Hannes Stefansson and Abhijeet Gupta

Reykjavik Open 2010

The fifth victory for Stefansson

Photos courtesy of the tournament website

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/four-way-tie-at-reykjavik-open/
Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:44:29 +0000
 
 
 
The endgame technique of a 99-year-old

Prof. Dr. Johan van HulstHe watched Max Euwe become World Champion. He chatted with Emanuel Lasker, and saved dozens of Jewish babies during the Second World War. Last night I had the privilege to play a club game against 99-year-old Professor Dr Johan van Hulst. I couldn’t beat him.

Photo: Fred Lucas

Professor Dr Johan Wilhelm van Hulst was born in Amsterdam on January 28th, 1911. He’s a Dutch emeritus professor of education and a politician. Starting as a teacher and mentor, from 1942 to 1960 Van Hulst was Principal of the Pedagogical Academy in Amsterdam and in that capacity he was responsible for rescuing hundreds of Jewish babies and children from the nursery of the Hollandsche Schouwburg. For this he received the Yad Vashem Distinction in 1973. About this period he said:

“The director of the kindergarten, our neighbor, asked me if she could use the school because the nursery was full. I made available an empty room and a part of the garden. Soon, this became the flight route for the children. Many children were smuggled away from the school. Members of the resistance could just walk in and out, because the Germans did not notice the school. Probably because I deliberately acted like I didn’t want anything to do with the Hollandsche Schouwburg and the Jews.” Source: Verzetsmuseum

Van Hulst earned a doctoral education and psychology and graduated in 1961. From 1956 to 1981 he was member of the Senate of the Dutch government and from 1961 to 1968 Member of the European Parliament. He’s a former Chairman of the political parties CHU and CDA and held many other functions. Van Hulst is also author of numerous scientific publications and books; the last was published when he was 95.

Gerard Leijenhorst, Johan van Hulst and Ruud Lubbers

Consultation between (L-R) Gerard Leijenhorst, Johan van Hulst (CDA chairman for the Senate) and Ruud Lubbers (chairman CDA for the Parliament)

In the chess world he is no stranger either. He was quite a strong player himself and in fact was once invited to play for the Dutch team at one of the Olympiads. However, Van Hulst had to decline the invitation, with the knowledge that he would lose his job as School Principal if he would play. This was the moment he decided that he wouldn’t pursue a chess career. But for decades he has played in the special group for (former) parliamentarians at the Corus Chess Tournament, and won it many times, including the 2010 edition, at 99 years old.

Johan van Hulst in 2007

Johan van Hulst giving one of his famous speeches,
during the 2010 Corus Chess Tournament | Photo Fred Lucas

I play chess myself very little these days. This season I’ve probably played just three or four games at my Amsterdam club Caïssa. Last year the ‘Max Euwe’ chess club ceased to exist and its members transferred to Caïssa. On the first club night in September last year, we met with our new club members, and one of them was the distinguished Professor Van Hulst. He is an honorary member of the Caïssa Chess Club, and has been a member for about seventy years.

“I have been a spectator at all of Max Euwe’s matches in Holland,” he told us on that Tuesday night. “During one of the early games of the 1935 match, Emanuel Lasker was one of the spectators. I asked him what he’d think of Euwe’s chances.” We were listening in awe to Mr Van Hulst, a magical figure already, who saw Euwe play, who talked to Lasker… Of course we immediately asked: “What did Lasker answer?” Van Hulst, smiling: “I remember very clearly. He said Alekhine should be considered slight favourite, considering the time control they were playing.”

Johan van Hulst in 2007

Johan van Hulst in 2007 | Photo Fred Lucas

Later that evening he also told about the period of the Second World War. “I was the chairman of a chess club here in Amsterdam. At the end of the 1930s the situation for our Jewish members became more and more difficult. At some point they weren’t allowed to play anymore, so we decided to secretly play at their houses instead of at the club. Later this had to stop as well.

One night an SS officer walked into our club. ‘I want to be come a club member and play here,’ he told me. I had to think deeply, and then I responded: “Are you a Christian? You have to be a member of our Christian community too, you know.’ This way I managed to get rid of him.”

Van Hulst still plays almost every week. He’s being brought and picked up by taxi, and needs a walker or a stick to move around. “Not long ago he had to skip a club night,” the current chairman of the club told me. “The next week he came and apologized for his absence, but he had a very good reason. His daughter had turned 60.”

Last night I decided to go to my club, and to my surprise I was paired against Professor Van Hulst. Remembering the many stories, and with deep respect for my opponent, I had trouble concentrating. But that’s no excuse; I simply played badly. More importantly, except for the opening I believe he played quite strongly, as if there was no age difference of 65 years.

Van Hulst-Doggers
Amsterdam (Caïssa) 2010

Game viewer by ChessTempo

After the game I said: “I won the opening, you won the ending.” He answered with “I’m an old man, you know. I’m getting tired after a few hours of play.” Then he asked me about my rating. I told him it was a bit over 2200. “Aha! Well, perhaps I shouldn’t tell you mine, then. Well, OK, it’s 1600.”

After that he stood up, grabbed his walker, adding “I’m satisfied about the game.” He went for his coat. “I’m satisfied too,” I replied, having enjoyed the evening, and feeling OK about a draw against this man. But he was quick in pointing out that this was just nonsense: “I don’t think you have any reason to be satisfied!” I smiled, knowing that he was right. In the end he was the one who had won.

Johan van Hulst

Photo © Fred Lucas;
for another photo see also Schaaksite

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/columns/the-endgame-technique-of-a-99-year-old/
Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:46:06 +0000
 
 
 
Dutch Defense, Stonewall
Get ready to play in a chess tournament this weekend.

Here's a little video to help you get your engine started. (-or to just learn a little more about the game.)



The Stonewall has pawns on KB4, K3, Q4, and QB3. Either Black or White can move into this formation. In my experience, it is really hard to bust this formation. I recall Max Euwe's book on the middlegame had an extensive chapter on how to bust this formation.

This is one formation I recommend for beginning players.

Chess events in your area . . . and visit jrobi who created these wonderful videos.
 
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Chessvine/~3/pp6E654uP2Q/743-Dutch-Defense,-Stonewall.html
 
 
 
Les échecs, une passion pour se surpasser

Aujourd'hui samedi, Cannes déroulera le tapis rouge pour le "roi des jeux". Le Festival International des Jeux consacre une journée spéciale "Les Echecs, une passion pour se surpasser".

En ouverture de cette journée dédiée aux échecs, le Dr. Poucet du Laboratoire de Neurobiologie de la Cognition d'Aix-Marseille Université, donnera une conférence sur le thème "Jeux de stratégie et fonctionnement cérébral". Puis à 16h, sera lancé en avant-première nationale le Neurodon 2010 par Bernard Esambert, Président de la FRC (Fédération pour la Recherche sur le Cerveau), en présence du parrain du Neurodon, l'acteur Christophe Malavoy.

Au programme, des parties simultanées, à l'aveugle et en blitz. Mais également, une conférence de presse Les échecs et l'art par Yves Marek, et la projection du film de Caroline Bottaro Joueuse, en présence de Bertina Henrichs, l'auteur du roman La joueuse d'échecs.

 
http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/03/les-echecs-une-passion-pour-se.html
Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:13:00 +0000
 
 
 
5th Annual “Bum Rush the Boards”

5th Annual  'Bum Rush the Boards'

Chess + S.T.E.M. + Hip-Hop = Bum Rush the Boards

“They might think they’ve got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can’t all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil’ Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers.”

President of the United States, Barack H. Obama, at the 100-year anniversary of the NAACP

On Saturday, April 10, 2010 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Words Beats & Life (WBL) in partnership with the Historical Society of Washington and the Columbia Heights Youth Club will host the fifth annual Bum Rush the Boards Hip-Hop Chess Tournament. The tournament will take place at the Historical Society of Washington located at 801 K St. NW at Mount Vernon Square Washington, DC 20001. Bum Rush the Boards was created by WBL in 2005 to promote strategic thought and actions within the hip-hop community. The name of the event was inspired by Public Enemy’s album, “Yo! Bum Rush the Show” released in October 1987.

is Lester Wallace “DJ 2-Tone jones”. Beats & Life

Mazi Mutafa of Words, Beats & Life

This year, Bum Rush the Boards will consist of 6 rounds of 30-minute team-based tournament play for intermediate and advanced youth, ages 5-23. Beginning Youth will participate in 3 rounds of 1 hour individual play. There will also be six 30-minute rounds rounds of individual tournament play for intermediate and advanced adults. These workshops give chess players the opportunity to have hands-on learning experiences based on the core elements of hip-hop culture. Participants will also participate in a series of S.T.E.M. -based workshops called “Engineering a Culture.”

Beginning with our 2010 tournament, there will be a specific focus on career exploration in S.T.E.M.A. We know that S.T.E.M.A. is important because together, these areas of study and employment constitute key components of the creative economy, one of the largest employment sectors in the United States. Read More About Our S.T.E.M.A. based Approach!

~Mazi Mutafa

Registration: http://www.wblinc.org/bumrushreg.html
2009 Mixtape: http://wblinc.bandcamp.com/album/bum-rush-the-boards-official-events-mixtape 2010 mixtape coming March 20th!

Words Beats and Life
c/o Mr. Mazi Mutafa
1525 Newton St NW
Washington DC 20010
202-667-1192
mazi@wblinc.org

 
http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2010/03/04/5th-annual-bum-rush-the-boards/
Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:44:28 +0000
 
 
 
Bundesliga: Werder Bremen beats Baden-Baden

BundesligaIn what was probably the strongest Bundesliga match ever, OSC Baden-Baden Saturday lost for the first time in more than three years, against their biggest rival Werder Bremen. The two teams are leading the standings, together with SG Solingen, with 20 points out of 11 matches. Games, photos and a video.

In the 10th round of the Schachbundesliga, Werder Bremen won 5-3 against Baden-Baden. It was the first loss in more than three years for the German champion. The match took place last Saturday at the Kongresshaus of the Stadthalle in Heidelberg, and match winners were Alexander Areshchenko and Michael Roiz who defeated Michael Adams and Arkadij Naiditsch respectively. All other matches ended in a draw.

ICC Chess.FM
’s Macauley Peterson was in Heidelberg too this weekend and made the following video on the victory for the ‘Green Shirts’.


On Sunday Baden-Baden recovered and easily defeated Hamburger SK with 1.5-6.5. On board 1 Anand beat Kempinski with a nice combination. Shirov, Movsesian, Naiditsch and Heine Nielsen also scored full points. Werder Bremen did even better by crushing host club Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim 7.5-0.5. Winning 2.5-5.5 against SK Turm Emsdetten, SG Solingen managed to reach a shared first place together with Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen.

Bundesliga 2009 | Round 11 Standings

Bundesliga 2009-2010

Selection of games played last weekend

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Bundesliga

The venue, with Baden-Baden against Werder 'Green Shirts' Bremen

Bundesliga

The World Champion, scoring 1.5/2 this weekend...

Bundesliga

...including an easy draw with Black against Vugar Gashimov using fine, Archangelsk Ruy Lopez preparation

Bundesliga

Peter Svidler, another Baden-Baden top gun...

Bundesliga

...but it was Bremen's Michael Roiz, together with...

Bundesliga

...Alexander Areshchenko who decided the important match

Photos by Christian Bossert & Georgios Souleidis

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/werder-bremen-beats-baden-baden/
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:19:12 +0000
 
 
 
Weekly Endgame Study (158)

Weekly Endgame StudyEvery week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!


I. Aliev
2008

White to play and win

Next week the solution.


Solution last week

V. Kovalenko
1970

Game viewer by ChessTempo

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/weekly-endgame-study/weekly-endgame-study-158/
Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:05:32 +0000
 
 
 
Giant chess game pits students against teachers - Hamilton Journal News (subscription)

Giant chess game pits students against teachers
Hamilton Journal News (subscription)
Staff photo by Greg Lynch The students and staff at Wilson Middle School Adams campus are playing a game with cleverly created chess pieces designed by the ...

and more »
 
http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.journal-news.com%2Fnews%2Fhamilton-news%2Fgiant-chess-game-pits-students-against-teachers-573053.html&usg=AFQjCNFNCGx_8vAJ2_323XmLuK1GZdc9dQ
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:45:57 GMT+00:00
 
 
 
Alekhine's Defense
Get ready to play in a chess tournament this weekend.

Here's a little video to help you get your engine started. (-or to just learn a little more about the game.)



I've found this to be easy to play from Black, especially against weaker players. As White, I used to be tempted to advance all 4 pawns but I usually did badly. This is, of course, the whole point of the Alekhine Defense: to tempt W to advance his pawns so that you can break up his center.

Book lines lead to obscure positions. While the obvious move 1. ... Nf6 was played for a century before, it is named "Alekhine" because of his great success with this move Budapest in 1921.

Play that Game!

Chess events in your area . . . and visit jrobi who created these wonderful videos.

www.jacklemoine.com
 
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Chessvine/~3/NvLnUz6_92Q/735-Alekhines-Defense.html
 
 
 
Echecs & Musique : Marie Chess Song n°8
Marie Bérenger anime le célébrissime Marie Chess Song
Comment jouer au Marie Chess Song ?

C'est simple, il suffit d'écoutez la chanson "Les Rois du Monde", extraite de la comédie musicale Roméo et Juliette. Ce tube comporte le nom d'une pièce du jeu d'échecs bien connue. Mais, sauriez-vous préciser à notre amie Marie Bérenger laquelle, et surtout combien de fois elle est citée ?

 
http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/02/echecs-musique-marie-chess-song-n8.html
Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:29:00 +0000
 
 
 
Plus d'échec grâce à Clara Morgane !

Clara Morgane Si vous en avez assez que les joueuses d'échecs ne vous remarquent pas, découvrez le nouveau déodorant Axe Twist.

Plus qu'un nouveau déodorant, il agit durant plusieurs heures et change progressivement de parfum. C'est bien connu, les filles se lassent rapidement et quand bien même vous avez réussi à les séduire, il est bien plus compliqué de conserver leur attirance pour vous sur le long terme!

A l'occasion du lancement de son nouveau produit, Axe organise un concours dont l'égérie n'est autre que Clara Morgane, la femme favorite des jeunes français (sondage IFOP2).

Via le site dédié, participez à un concours original: le but du jeu est de garder Clara sous votre charme, le plus longtemps possible. Du style intello au rockeur en passant par le look bling bling, AXE met à disposition une application photo élaborée qui rassemble tous les accessoires rêvés pour garder les filles sous son charme plus longtemps. A la clef, de nombreux lots (iPods, écrans etc), mais surtout, une séance de shooting photo avec la star, et qui sera ensuite affichée dans votre ville! Un bon moyen d'augmenter votre karma charme,non?!

Doublez vos chances d'être l'heureux élu qui posera aux côtés de la star, en témoignant de vos expériences: les filles qui se lassent, vous connaissiez mainenant c'est fini ?!  N'hésitez pas à  laisser votre commentaire sur le sujet, ici même… vous avez une heure pour gagner un shooting photo avec Clara. Bonne chance à tous !

Article sponsorisé

 
http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/02/plus-dechec-grace-clara-morgane.html
Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:06:00 +0000
 
 
 
VIDEO: Interview Veselin Topalov

In our last video from Linares we speak with Veselin Topalov, just after he won his first Linares. He talks about the game against Gelfand and several other topics, and it includes a brief comment by Grischuk as well as footage from the closing ceremony. Below we give many photos from the closing.







The closing ceremony started with music from the Andrés Segovia Choir

Host was Leontxo Garcia

The players in front row enjoying the ceremony

Organizer Paco Albalate, during the rest of the year French teacher

Arbiters Juan Vargas and Faik Gasanov with Paco Albalate

A speech by the President of the Spanish Chess Federation, Javier Ochoa de Echagüen

Paco Vallejo receives last prize from the mayor of Linares himself, Juan Fernández

Boris Gelfand with Javier Ochoa de Echagüen

Vugar Gashimov with Antonia Olivares, a Province delegate occupied with turism

A speech by the secretary general of sports of the Andalucía region, Manuel Jimenez

Levon Aronian and Vugar Gashimov

Topalov and Aronian just received the prize (excellent olive oil) for 'most beautiful game'

All players together on stage during one of the speeches

The mayor of Linares gives Topalov the trophy

The trophy (1st prize): a mine shaft - Linares was a mining city until 1991

Proud winner of Linares 2010: Veselin Topalov

Some final words by the mayor...

...and a final group photo with all players and authorities.

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/video-interview-veselin-topalov/
Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:52:42 +0000
 
 
 
Scacchi tra i ghiacci : Rejkyavik - Open 2010


REYKJAVIK OPEN 2010

Il suggestivo Open di Reykjavik è iniziato il 24 Febbraio e terminerà il 3 Marzo dopo 9 turni. Sono presenti 104 giocatori provenienti da ben 22 nazioni.
Si gioca presso il Reykjavik Cityhall. L'evento è organizzato dalla Federazione Scacchistica Islandese e dal Reykjavik Chess Academy.  Il circolo cittadino che fu fondato nel 1900 vanta una lunga tradizione e il primo torneo internazionale fu organizzato nel 1964 e vide la vittoria del mago di Riga.

L'edizione 2009 registrò il record di presenze con ben 110 giocatori da 21 Paesi. Alla fine a trionfare furono Hédinn Steingrímsson, Hannes Stefánsson and Yuiry Kryvoruchko.
Erano presenti anche parecchi italiani mentre quest'anno nessuno si è spinto fino a certe latitudini.
Nel 2008 si affermò invece il duo cinese composto da Wang Yue e Wang Hao.



L'Ucraino Vladimir Baklan, numero 1 del Tabellone



LISTA PREISCRITTI

No.     Name FED Rtg
1 UKR GM Baklan Vladimir UKR 2654
2 RUS GM Dreev Alexey RUS 2650
3 BIH GM Sokolov Ivan BIH 2649
4 UKR GM Kuzubov Yuriy UKR 2634
5 USA GM Shulman Yuri USA 2624
6 USA GM Ehlvest Jaan USA 2600
7 SWE GM Hillarp Persson Tiger SWE 2581
8 IND GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2577
9 ISL GM Stefansson Hannes ISL 2574
10 USA IM Lenderman Alex USA 2560
11 FRA GM Maze Sebastien FRA 2554
12 LTU GM Kveinys Aloyzas LTU 2536
13 FRA GM Nataf Igor-Alexandre FRA 2534
14 LAT GM Miezis Normunds LAT 2533
15 ISR GM Kogan Artur ISR 2524
16 SWE IM Grandelius Nils SWE 2515
17 UKR GM Romanishin Oleg M UKR 2512
18 ISL GM Danielsen Henrik ISL 2495
19 UKR IM Nyzhnyk Illya UKR 2495
20 POR GM Galego Luis POR 2487
21 PER IM Cori Jorge PER 2483
22 IND IM Harika Dronavalli IND 2471
23 RUS GM Ivanov Mikhail M RUS 2465
24 USA IM Krush Irina USA 2455
25 SRB IM Boskovic Drasko SRB 2454
26 IND FM Grover Sahaj IND 2448
27 DEN IM Bromann Thorbjorn DEN 2434
28 ISL IM Gunnarsson Jon Viktor ISL 2429
29 ISL GM Thorhallsson Throstur ISL 2426
30 PER WIM Cori T Deysi PER 2412
31 IND WGM Karavade Eesha IND 2405
32 ISL IM Thorfinnsson Bragi ISL 2398
33 IND IM Tania Sachdev IND 2398
34 ISL IM Kjartansson Gudmundur ISL 2391
35 ISL IM Thorfinnsson Bjorn ISL 2383

Presente anche il duo Jorge e Deysi Cori, fratelli peruviani ormai veri e propri globetrotter scacchistici vista l'assiduità con cui stanno giocando tornei in giro per il mondo.



Deysi e Jorge ( a 2 su 2) Cori, fratelli Peruviani



MI indiana Tania Sachdev, ha fermato sul pari il GM svedese Hillarp Persson



Un'altra MI Indiana, Harika Dronavalli, a 2 su 2

L'Islanda è un Paese affascinante e degno di essere visitato nonostante la scarsità di popolazione (coloni prevalentamente giunti da Norvegia e Isole britanniche verso la fine dell'800 d.c.) e l'isolamento geografico.Infatti la varietà e la particolarità di scenari naturali  la rendono una nazione unica sotto certi punti di vista. L'islanda è scolpita dai ghiacci ma è anche ricca di vulcani e da questo mix derivano forti contrasti e colori irripetibili.

Il Paese è stato investito da una profonda crisi economica nel 2008 a cui si è giunti dopo una serie di sintomi negativi come l'eccessivo ricorso al credito da parte dei cittadini determinandone una maggiore esposizione al rischio, una bolla immobiliare determinanta da una continua crescita dei prezzi delle case e investimenti nel settore ed infine un elevato rapporto debito sul pil. Insomma una situazione non poi così lontana dalla nostra con l'aggravante che con una popolazione ed economia di così piccole dimensioni le banche si sono trovate molto più in difficoltà ad affontare uno scenario talmente negativo. Ora in virtù della crisi la moneta ha perso gran parte del valore e giocare il torneo e visitare il Paese è particolarmente conveniente.

Un Viaggio in Islanda sulle note di Joga,
canzone della nota cantante locale Bjork





FOTO







Un'installazione di Tea Mäkipää and Halldór Úlfarsson durante il Reykjavik Art Festival



Reykjavik



Una splendida e imponente Chiesa ghiacciata



Aurora Boreale


LINKS UTILI:


RISULTATI e ABBINAMENTI
QUI  

  PARTITE IN DIRETTA QUI
 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1733
2010-02-25T23:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Topalov beats Gelfand, wins Linares outright

Complicated tiebreak rules made all kinds of scenarios possible, but in the end it couldn’t be more clear. By beating Boris Gelfand in a tense game, Veselin Topalov won the 2010 Linares tournament outright as Grischuk drew with Vallejo. Games & final standings. later more.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain.

A six players, double round-robin, with Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705).

Rounds start at 16:00 CET, with rest days on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Games round 9

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Linares 2010 | Round 10 (Final) Standings


Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/topalov-beats-gelfand-wins-linares-outright/
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:37:03 +0000
 
 
 
VIDEO: Grischuk-Topalov

In our second video from Linares we give the mic to Alexander Grischuk, who gave his view on his victory over Topalov. “I didn’t understand why people thought I had no chance against him.”







 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/video-grischuk-topalov/
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:14:39 +0000
 
 
 
VIDEO: The Draw

This year the Linares tournament has seen a lot of draws, despite the newly introduced rule that draws are in principle not allowed under move 40. Yesterday we spoke with Gashimov, Vallejo, Gelfand and Aronian about their draws and this rule. Video!







 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/video-the-draw/
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:18:37 +0000
 
 
 
Linares R9: Grischuk beats Topalov

Alexander Grischuk defeated Veselin Topalov in round 9 of the Linares super-tournament. The two are leading with just one round to go. Gashimov-Vallejo and Gelfand-Aronian were both drawn. Big pictorial report.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain.

A six players, double round-robin, with Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705).

Rounds start at 16:00 CET, with rest days on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Round 9

Just two rounds ago Veselin Topalov seemed sure of his first tournament victory in Linares, but two days later this picture has changed dramatically. Alexander Grischuk defeated the tournament leader with the white pieces in round 9 and should now be considered favourite for victory, since this year the first tiebreak rule is the individual enounters. Update: Here I forgot that Grischuk lost to Topalov in the first stage. The tiebreak rules are:

1. Individual result.
2. Highest number of victories.
3. Highest sum of points against players who scored 50% or more.
4. Remove the points scored against the player/group of players at the bottom of the standings. If still equal, do the same for the player/group of players above.
5. If still equal, blitz games will be played (but only to decide the 1st place).

Grischuk was ‘pretty much happy’ with his play, as he said after the game. And he had all the reason, since he had simply played a good game, and certainly better than Topalov. Slightly under pressure, the Bulgarian continued to play quickly, to try to create complications; a strategy we also saw for example during his match against Kamsky a year ago. This time his opponent kept his calm and didn’t give away the advantage. During the last phase Topalov didn’t defend optimally and so Grischuk won the ending with RBN vs Q easily, where it should have been more difficult.

Gashimov-Vallejo was drawn, and way before move 40, before which officially one is not allowed to agree to a draw. However, an exception is made in clearly drawn positions, and this was one of them.

Later Gelfand and Aronian also split the point and for the Armenian this was the 9th consecutive draw. His comment after the game: “A personal record! I once had eight, but never nine!”

Tomorrow we’ll have a video with Grischuk’s reaction after the game as well as a video on ‘the draw’, with comments by Gashimov, Vallejo, Aronian and Gelfand. Unfortunately the Hotel Anibal’s internet speed is too slow to upload.

Games round 9

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Linares 2010 | Round 9 Standings







Calle Cervantes (Cervantes Street)...

...where Teatro Cervantes, the venue, is located

Only three boards fill the stage this year...

...and just 10-20 spectators showed up on Tuesday

But the press room is crowded as always...

...with, amongst others, Ljubojevic and Topalov's two Dutch seconds, Erwin l'Ami and Jan Smeets

As always, the games shop across the street of Hotel Anibal is dedicated to chess again...

...with the flags of all the participants...

...and all kinds of chess sets....

...creating a beautiful picture

The January issue of the Spanish chess magazine Jaque

Does that cover photo look familiar? Sharp vision! It’s by yours truly, also published over here; the report on the London Chess Classic for Jaque was done by me. :-)

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/linares-r9-grischuk-beats-topalov/
Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:46:57 +0000
 
 
 
Ciudad de Linares: diretta del X ed ultimo turno

Trionfa Topalov!

  • Veselin batte Gelfand mentre Grisuchk patta con Vallejo
  • Aronian coglie la prima vittoria ed è 3°

A tre turni dal termine sembrava che Topalov, con un punto e mezzo di vantaggio sui secondi in classifica, dovesse vincere con relativa facilità la 27^ edizione del torneo di Linares. Ma la patta con Aronian e la concomitante vittoria di Grischuk nell'ottavo turno, e soprattuto la sconfitta subita nello scontro diretto del nono turno, hanno rimesso tutto in discussione. I due giocatori sono adesso in perfetta parità, anche in base ai primi tre criteri di spareggio. Il quarto criterio vede in vantaggio Grischuk, ma solo perché Alexander deve ancora giocare con l'ultimo in classifica. Aronian, che teoricamente potrebbe agganciare i due a quota 5.5, è invece escluso dalla lotta per la vittoria finale proprio in virtù dei criteri di spareggio (in parità negli scontri diretti, ma un numero inferiore di vittorie).

Saranno dunque decisive le sfide dell'ultimo turno. Il bulgaro se la vedrà, con il bianco, con il solido Gelfand (otto patte e una sola sconfitta, proprio contro Grischuk) mentre il russo affronterà l'idolo di casa, Vallejo, che sinora ha perso solo con Topalov e Gashimov. Se dovessero vincere entrambi, si dovrebbe ricorrere agli spareggi blitz. In caso di due patte, invece, vincerebbe Grischuk per il quarto criterio di spareggio. Anche in caso di due sconfitte Grischuk, per il terzo criterio di spareggio, bisserebbe il successo dello scorso anno.

Due immagini delle sfide del girone di andata tratte da Chessbase



Incontri del X ed ultimo turno
Veselin Topalov 
 1-0  Boris Gelfand
Levon Aronian 
 1-0  Vugar Gashimov
Francisco Vallejo 
 1/2  Alexander Grischuk

Classifica Finale

1. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2805 * * 1 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½
2. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2736 0 1 * * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 6
3. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2781 ½ ½ ½ ½ * * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1
4. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2705 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * * ½ ½ 0 ½ 4
5. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2761 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * * ½ ½ 4
6. Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2759 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ * * 4

criteri di spareggio in caso di arrivo a pari merito

  1. scontri diretti
  2. numero di vittorie
  3. punti ottenuti contro i giocatori che hanno conquistato almeno il 50% dei punti a disposizione
  4. si rimuovono i punti ottenuti contro il giocatore o il gruppo di  giocatori che si trovano in fondo alla classifica. Se permane la parità, si rimuovono i punti ottenuti contro il giocatore o il gruppo di  giocatori in testa alla classifica
  5. se permane la parità, sono previsti gli spareggi blitz (due partite. 3'+2". In caso di ulteriore parità,  si giocherebbe una partita secca: 5' al bianco, 4' al nero e vince il nero in caso di patta)  ma solo per decidere il 1° posto

Regolamento

calendario i sei giocatori si affronteranno in un girone all'italiana con partite di andata e ritorno. I 10 turni si svolgeranno dal 13 al 24 febbraio, con inizio alle ore 16. Sono previsti due giorni di riposo, il 17 e il 22 febbraio.

tempo di riflessione 2h x 40 mosse  +  1h per 20 mosse + 30' per terminare la partita +30" di incremento per mossa a partire dalla 61esima.  

Non si può offrire patta prima della 40esima mossa

SITI UTILI

sito ufficiale

partite commentate in diretta su Chessdom (in inglese)

Articolo di presentazione di Angelmann

FantaLinares 2010 di LightKnight


Visore

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1732
2010-02-24T14:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
The Fabulous 10s: All the Ginsburgs

From the USChess Rating site,

--------  --  ----------  ------ ------ -----------------------
12490706 (NJ) 1989-02-28   Unr    Unr   GINSBURG, ALEX B 
12427342 (AZ) 1990-10-31  1371P   Unr   GINSBURG, BEN 
13138610 (CA) 2006-03-31   471P   459P  GINSBURG, BENJI 
13171016 (RI)  Dupl. ID    744    655P  GINSBURG, DANIEL 
12486555 (RI) 2008-06-30   758    635   GINSBURG, DANIEL 
12887849 (SC) 2006-04-30   612P   610P  GINSBURG, DAVID 
12850468 (NY) 2002-11-30   416P   406P  GINSBURG, DYLAN 
12915462 (MD) 2007-12-31   740    740   GINSBURG, ELIJAH 
12709120 (AZ) 2001-02-28   823    Unr   GINSBURG, ELLIOT 
12893211 (NJ) 2003-07-31  2527P   Unr   GINSBURG, GENNADY 
12783962 (CA) 2000-11-30   880P   Unr   GINSBURG, GRAEME 
13693330 (SC) 2008-04-30   Unr    Unr   GINSBURG, JACOB 
12526368 (MD) 1991-11-30   935    Unr   GINSBURG, JAMES 
20087839 (CA) Non-Member   901    Unr   GINSBURG, JASON 
10270871 (OH) 2011-03-31  2331    Unr   GINSBURG, JEFFREY MARSHALL 
12915461 (MD) 2007-11-30  1059   1045   GINSBURG, JESSE A 
12752216 (CA) Non-Member   658P   Unr   GINSBURG, JOAHUA 
12834327 (IL) 2004-06-30   959    961   GINSBURG, JOEY E 
12173960 (CA) 1988-02-29  1614    Unr   GINSBURG, JONATHAN 
14075233 (NJ) 2009-11-30   101P   101P  GINSBURG, JORDAN 
12849259 (MO) 2008-01-31   649    546P  GINSBURG, JOSH A 
20018146 (CO) Non-Member  1079    Unr   GINSBURG, KATE 
12433030 (AZ) 1986-02-28   Unr    Unr   GINSBURG MD, LEON J 
12854815 (CA) 2003-01-31  1008P   Unr   GINSBURG, LEONARD M 
12781372 (SC) 2003-12-31  1248    Unr   GINSBURG, LEVI 
12947965 (MD) 2007-12-31   241    240   GINSBURG, LILA M 
13744028 (RI) 2008-08-31   100P   Unr   GINSBURG, LILY 
12854816 (CA) 2003-01-31   866P   Unr   GINSBURG, MARCO H 
10172918 (AZ) Life        2432   2416P  GINSBURG, MARK 
10270898 (OH) 2009-11-30  1408   1456P  GINSBURG, MARSHALL 
12687714 (NY) 1997-09-30   571P   Unr   GINSBURG, MATTANYA 
12455996 (SC) 1989-07-31  1849    Unr   GINSBURG, MILTON 
12857187 (CA) 2003-01-31    *     Unr   GINSBURG, MOLLY M 
12657541 (SC) 2000-10-31  1223    Unr   GINSBURG, MOSHE 
12284700 (PA) 2006-01-31   Unr    Unr   GINSBURG, SIDNEY 
11368115 (CA) 1986-12-31  1951    Unr   GINSBURG, STEPHEN 
12684511 (SC) 2009-05-31  1199   1181P  GINSBURG, YAKOV 

A note on etymology: Gins is derivated from Ganz – German word for Goose. Burg can be a fortified castle (usually with a moat) or a small village. Not a “mountain” as in “iceberg” – “berg” is different. Thus – Geese in a moat that surrounds a castle, or geese in a tiny village.

Depressing Postscript

I was rated 2578 in 1993.

Humorous Post-Postscript

ChessBase has a bunch of games under my name I did not play – they are mostly Midwestern encounters courtesy of Jeff Ginsburg.  GM Gennady Ginsburg came out of nowhere (Jersey!!) and has given me new motivation. I know he’s played in Bundesliga games.

 
http://nezhmet.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/the-fabulous-10s-all-the-ginsburgs/
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:00:05 +0000
 
 
 
From Spider Man to Bobby Fischer

Who Needs Spider-Man? Tobey Maguire Eyeing Role as Chess Master Bobby Fischer
Posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
by Russ Fischer

Hopefully you’ve read a bit of sarcasm into the title of this piece, because I truly expect that Tobey Maguire is quite likely happy to set aside the Spider-Man costume. There’s a very specific challenge to making big superhero films, but after three of them I’d expect that the challenge of playing something like his character in Brothers would be immensely more satisfying.

Oddly, I envision famous chess master Bobby Fischer as being somewhere between Peter Parker and Maguire’s character in Brothers. Now Maguire is producing the film Pawn Sacrifice (a fantastic title) and eyeing the lead role, which would have him playing Fischer circa 1972, when he beat Russian chess champ Boris Spassky.

The news about Maguire’s involvement in Pawn Sacrifice is buried in a DHD report about Matt Damon’s interest in an RFK biopic. The script is by Steven Knight, the same writer behind the Matt Damon RFK movie, and the screenwriter of Eastern Promises. Knight has already moved forward from Pawn Sacrifice, as he’s been hired by Columbia to adapt Dan Brown’s novel The Lost Symbol. So if Maguire’s version of the film happens, don’t be too surprised to hear of a new writer hired to tinker with the script.

I like this idea a lot, despite the relative lack of resemblance between Maguire and the long-faced Fischer. I’m glad to see that the film isn’t going the straight biopic route. I don’t expect that we’ll see some of the later, weirder elements of Fischer’s life, as when he became ultra-reclusive and expressed anti-Semitic and anti-American ideas.

Not that I think those parts of his life shouldn’t be shown, but it would be all too easy for a film to get bogged down there. Focusing on Fischer’s battle against Spassky, with Fisher’s already finicky personality and the cold war overtones that were added and emphasized by American media, is interesting material enough. (This is the same matchup, incidentally, that was the subject of the musical Chess.)

Source: http://www.slashfilm.com
Posted by Picasa
 
http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/02/24/who-needs-spider-man-tobey-maguire-eyeing-role-as-chess-master-bobby-fischer/
2010-02-24T13:19:00.000-06:00
 
 
 
Maguire to star in new Fischer Hollywood blockbuster?

Posted on Wed, 24/02/2010 @ 13:12
by: Paul Martin

Gary Ross, the man behind Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, as well as one of the writers embroiled in the saga of the Spider-Man 4 that never was, is the man set to issue directorial diktats in the direction of Damon's RFK, while the script is being penned by Steve Knight, the British screenwriter of Eastern Promises and co-creator of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire television quiz show. Knight has another big job on the slate at the moment too, with Columbia having engaged his services to adapt Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol for the big screen....The suggestion is that Knight's sudden status as a studio go-to guy is down to his script for Pawn Sacrifice, which is another Columbia project, and indeed another fact-based project; this time about troubled chess champion Bobby Fischer, and in particular his 1972 World Chess Championship victory over Soviet Union incumbent Boris Spassky. Tobey Maguire is due to produce, and also apparently fancies the role of Fischer for himself.

Source: http://www.indiemoviesonline.com
Posted by Picasa
 
http://www.indiemoviesonline.com/news/matt-damon-makes-history-240210
2010-02-24T07:37:00.002-06:00
 
 
 
Zherebukh (16) wins in Cappelle

Yaroslav ZherebukhYaroslav Zherebukh Saturday won the strong open in Cappelle-La-Grande. The Ukrainian grandmaster, just 16 year old, was the only player to finish on 7.5/9. Veteran GM Mihhail Gurevich was doing well, but lost the crucial round 8 game to Zherebukh.

Yaroslav Zherebukh | Photo Jean Michel Delfosse

The 26th edition of the Cappelle-La-Grande chess festival was held 13-20 February. The main event was a big 9-round Swiss.

The rate of play of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds per move for the first 40 moves and then 30 minutes plus 30 seconds per move to the end of the game. Draws by mutual agreement in under 20 moves were not allowed.

venue

The tournament was organized by the “L’Echiquier Cappellois” chess club and took place at the Palais des Arts in Cappelle-la-Grande, just south of Dunkerque, France.


Yet another relatively unknown Ukrainian grandmaster won in Cappelle this year. 16-year-old Yaroslav Zherebukh scored 7.5 points and only lost to the winner of last year, Yuri Vovk. As Chess Today reports, both are in fact pupils of IM Vladimir Grabinsky.

Zherebukh finished ahead of many favourites, such as Yuri Drozdovskij (2625), Murtas Khazgaleyev (2643) and Ivan Sokolov (2649). The latter probably won’t like to be reminded of the tournament, finishing 85th with 5.5/9 as the top seed. His performance rating was just at GM level: 2507. In Wijk aan Zee Sokolov told me that he’ll be tournament director of the big Bosna chess festival this year, so, well, he has more important things to do! ;-)

Cappelle-La-Grande 2010 | Final Standings

Cappelle 2010

Selection of games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/underdog-zherebukh-wins-in-cappelle/
Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:28:42 +0000
 
 
 
Weekly Endgame Study (157)

Weekly Endgame StudyEvery week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!


V. Kovalenko
1970

White to play and draw

Next week the solution.


Solution last week

E. Pogosjants
1970

Game viewer by ChessTempo

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/weekly-endgame-study/weekly-endgame-study-157/
Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:07:40 +0000
 
 
 
Ciudad de Linares: diretta del IX turno

 Grischuk sfida Topalov per riaprire il torneo Live h. 16

La 27^ edizione del torneo Ciudad di Linares si avvia alla conclusione. Sinora  la competizione è stata letteralmente dominata da Topalov (3 vittorie e 5 patte), per nulla distratto dalla sfida Mondiale che il bulgaro affronterà ad aprile contro Anand. Grazie ai risultati ottenuti sinora (performance 2889), il bulgaro ha superato Carlsen in testa alla classifica del Live Rating internazionale curata da Hans Arild Rundle.

Il menù di oggi ci offre la sfida tra Topalov e Grischuk, l'unico giocatore che nel corso del torneo ha dato l'impressione di poter contrastare il dominio di Veselin. Nel match di andata si impose Topalov dopo una partita emozionante. In quella occasione Griuschuk ebbe anche un paio di occasioni per vincere, ma il russo le sprecò a causa del terribile zeitnot in cui si era ridotto. Superato il controllo della 40esima mossa, Topalov  finì con il prevalere sfruttando magistralmente il piccolo vantaggio che aveva nel finale presentatosi sulla scacchiera.

Alexander oggi ha l'occasione di rifarsi, e vincendo aggancerebbe Topalov in testa alla classifica!

V turno: la Topalov-Grischuk è appena iniziata. Sarà una battaglia!

Incontri del IX turno

Alexander Grischuk 
   Veselin Topalov
Vugar Gashimov 
   Francisco Vallejo
Boris Gelfand 
   Levon Aronian

Classifica dopo 8 turni
1. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2805 * * 1 . ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ . ½ 1 2889
2. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2736 0 . * * ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ . 2807
3. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2781 ½ ½ ½ ½ * * ½ . ½ . ½ ½ 4 2751
4. Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2759 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ . * * ½ ½ 1 . 2718
5. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2761 ½ . 0 ½ ½ . ½ ½ * * ½ ½ 2705
6. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2705 ½ 0 ½ . ½ ½ 0 . ½ ½ * * 3 2686
Accoppiamenti del X ed ultimo turno
Veselin Topalov 
   Boris Gelfand
Levon Aronian 
   Vugar Gashimov
Francisco Vallejo 
   Alexander Grischuk

Regolamento

calendario i sei giocatori si affronteranno in un girone all'italiana con partite di andata e ritorno. I 10 turni si svolgeranno dal 13 al 24 febbraio, con inizio alle ore 16. Sono previsti due giorni di riposo, il 17 e il 22 febbraio.

tempo di riflessione 2h x 40, 1h per le 20 mosse successive e 30' per terminare la partita

SITI UTILI

sito ufficiale

partite commentate in diretta su Chessdom (in inglese)

Articolo di presentazione di Angelmann

FantaLinares 2010 di LightKnight


Visore

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1730
2010-02-23T15:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Grischuk narrows Topalov’s lead

Vugar Gashimov once again tried his luck in a Benoni, but this time around Grischuk made him pay, as the Linares defending champion moves to within a point of the leader Topalov. Today is the second and last restday in Linares.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain.

A six players, double round-robin, with Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705).

Rounds start at 16:00 CET, with rest days on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Round 8

Things have not yet been decided in Linares. In round 8, Alexander Grischuk narrowed Veselin Topalov’s lead to a point by beating Vugar Gashimov, and after today’s restday it’s… Grischuk-Topalov on Tuesday. Yours truly is typing this from Madrid Barajas Airport, and so you can guess what that means. I’ll be arriving in Linares tonight and I’ll be covering the last two rounds (and the closing ceremony) on site. It wasn’t clear if I would make it, since I flew to Madrid from Frankfurt (after a short trip to the US) and part of the Lufthansa crew is on strike. Luckily not my cabin crew and pilots.

So Gashimov’s Benoni got a beating in round 8, and a tough one. Grischuk played a very powerful game, accurately preparing and calculating his 21st move which yielded a clear advantage, and then finishing it off strongly as well. He seems to have found his shape of e.g. last year, and this hopefully leads to an exciting encounter against Topalov. This year’s Linares tournament can use every excitement available.

Topalov himself played an interesting draw against Aronian, and missed a clear win (34.Rxe4! Qxe4 35.Qc3+ Kg8 36.Qc7+-). Vallejo and Gelfand also split the point after a less eventful game. On today’s rest day Topalov is playing a simul somewhere; I’ll try to find out some more when I get to Linares. Although perhaps some of you might provide a link.

Soon more, on-the-spot stuff!

Games round 8

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Linares 2010 | Round 8 Standings


Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/grischuk-narrows-topalovs-lead/
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:37:59 +0000
 
 
 
Three draws in 7th round Linares

Three draws in 7th round LinaresWith three more draws in round 7, the drawing percentage Saturday rose to 77% in Linares. Veselin Topalov kept his 1.5 point lead, with three more rounds to go.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin.

This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Round 7 report by Rick Goetzee

Five centuries ago
Before telling you about the happenings in today’s 7th round, we’re going back 500 years. Because that’s when the chess tradition in Linares was anticipated. Juan Huarte de San Juan (1530-1592) is the patron of Spanish psychology. He was a writer, philosopher and professor at the university of Baeza. One of his publications was Examen de ingenios in which he defined profiles of people who excelled at different professions. One of the profiles was that of a chess player, as Huarte was very fond of the game.

San Juan

The Huarte de San Juan street in Linares

According to Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Huarte described personal and psychological attributes which match Kasparov’s characteristics more than 400 years later. As he was a high-profile and controversial figure the Spanish inquisition brought him to court and he was convicted. Then he promised that he would give the heritage of all of his work to the church and not to his nine children. This saved his life. His wish was to be buried in the Santa Maria church in the heart of Linares. With a twinkle in his eye Ljubo said: “It’s clear that the spirit of Huarte is still present in Linares and that’s why we have this great chess tradition.”

Santa-Maria-kerk

The Santa Maria church in the heart of Linares

I also had a word with one of the organisers, Señor Paco Albalate. After reading all the comments from people expressing their disappointment with this year’s tournament, I had to ask him a few questions.

Q: Last year the announcement was made that Dubai would organise the first half this year. What happened?
A: They made a lot of promises, also about prize money. But in the end nothing materialised and we don’t really know why. But we are working with a number of candidates for next year’s tournament. Also, next year a number of changes will be introduced but it’s too early to give any details about that.
Q: With the economic recession how difficult was it to put the tournament together this year?
A: Very easy. We cut the budget by 30%. We cut the prize money, brought the number of players down and we cut hotel costs. And what helped was that the players generously accepted the changed conditions.
Q: What about the rule of not allowing draw offers before move 40?
A: Yes we introduced a version of the Sofia rules. We wrote to all players beforehand because it was important for us that they understood why we were doing this instead of just enforcing the rule.
Q: How does it feel that people are saying that Linares is no longer the Wimbledon or the Tour de France of chess?
A: It’s clear that there are tournaments that are stronger. It’s clear that Corus is a very important tournament with a different format than we have here. It’s true that the Tal Memorial is a great tournament. But we have organised a first class tournament for 27 years. This year it may be a bit less than we are used to, but in 2011, if our projects work out, we will surprise the chess world.

There were three more draws in Linares today. Grischuk took nine minutes for his response to Gelfand’s 1.c4; eventually the Russian decided to go for 1…Nf6. The players ended up in a complicated rook ending which was drawn after 60 moves.

grischuk

Alexander Grischuk pondering over his first move

Gashimov-Topalov was a Nf6/Bc5 Ruy Lopez in which Gashimov sacrificed a pawn. The game went along like Kamsky-Topalov 2009 till move 7 when Kamsky played 7.d4 followed by 7…Qe7 8.dxc5 Nxc5 9.Nc3. Svidler-Ivanchuk 2009 was followed a while longer which deviated with 10.Qxg7 Bxd4 11.Qg3 a6. At the right moment Topalov gave back the pawn and had the better chances, but a draw was agreed on move 42.

gashimov-topalov

Aronian-Vallejo was the most interesting game of the round. In a Slav defence Vallejo came up with the mysterious 7…Qc7 and then 11…Qb6. It looked like a loss of tempo but eventually he reached a promising position with two rooks against the queen. Then the Spaniard won a pawn and then another, but suddenly the screen showed ½-½. What had happened? Nobody knew. Ljubo: “He is two pawns up and has good winning chances. He must have been very tired.”

Games round 7 with brief annotations

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Linares 2010 | Round 7 Standings


anibal

The chess hotel: Anibal

Photos © Rick Goetzee

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/three-draws-in-7th-round-linares/
Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:12:23 +0000
 
 
 
Topalov beats Vallejo, increases lead in Linares

Topalov beats Grischuk, leads by a pointIn the 6th round of the Linares super-tournament, Veselin Topalov was in trouble against Francisco Vallejo until the Spaniard suddenly blundered a full rook. By then Gashimov and Gelfand had already drawn in a very theoretical Petroff. The last game to finish was Grischuk-Aronian, which also ended in a draw. Thanks to his win, Topalov is the world’s number one player in the live ratings again.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin.

This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Round 6 report by Rick Goetzee

Ljubojevic

Ljubomir Ljubojevic

The main aspect that makes the pressroom in Linares a nice place to be is the presence of GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic, the 1985 winner. He lives in Linares and is present every day. Always standing in the same place, close to the monitors, he gives his opinion on the games in Spanish, English, Russian and a handful of other languages.

Ljubojevic met his wife-to-be at the 1981 tournament. He then decided to settle in Linares, also because there was quite a bit of chess activity in the region, apart from the yearly grandmaster tournament. In those years there were plans to bring chess to schools, but unfortunately they didn’t materialise. According to Ljubojevic this is a great pity, as he was often approached by parents telling him that their children would love to learn chess and he visited schools to talk about the game.

pressroom

The press room, at the first floor of the Teatro Cervantes

Recently a second attempt has been launched. Only two cities in Andalusia have plans to integrate chess in the school curriculum: Sevilla and Linares. Ljubojevic says that it is a pity that it took almost thirty years before a second attempt was made but ‘better late than never’.

Ljubo doesn’t like the Sofia rules: ‘they are funny’. In his view top chess players are artists and artists have good days and bad days and this should be accepted as part of the game. Also he thinks it’s hard to enforce the rule, because if strong players want to make a draw they will find a way through a perpetual check or move repetition. “It is done because organisers think it will favour chess. What they should do is invite the right people, then they won’t have to worry about short draws.”

There was some confusion at the start of today’s round at the board of Topalov-Vallejo. A guest made the first move and started the clock but Vallejo’s clock started to run. The arbiter had to intervene to reset the clock.

topalov-vallejo

Topalov and Vallejo pointing out the error to arbiter Faik Gasanov

Then Vallejo took three minutes to reply to Topalov’s 1.c4. After an English opening the game became very sharp as Vallejo setup an attack against Topalov’s king. It was hard, even for Ljubo, to give a correct evaluation of the position although it seemed that Vallejo was better. His main problem was the clock, having only one minute left for the last twelve moves. He played well for a long time till he hung a full rook on the 38th move and overstepped the time limit on move 40.

According to GM Larry Christiansen on ICC’s Chess.FM, Gashimov proved to have done a lot of good homework against Gelfand’s Petroff. He achieved a promising position from the opening without counterplay for Black. However, Gelfand defended accurately and a draw was agreed in a knight endgame.

gashimov-gelfand

Grischuk decided to burn the midnight oil against Aronian, trying to win a rook vs knight endgame with an extra pawn for Black. In an empty pressroom there was still the voice of Leontxo Garcia continuing his commentary for the tournament website. Finally, at move 101, the players decided to call it a day.

grischuk-aronian

Before we’ll leave you, we’d like to point out that GM Anish Giri, reigning Dutch champion and winner of the Corus B group this year, is doing wonderful commentary for Chessbase each round. This round he did Topalov-Vallejo, over here.

Games round 6 with brief annotations

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Linares 2010 | Round 6 Standings


ayuntamiento

The town hall of Linares which proudly shows...

poster

...the tournament poster - something the Spanish are really good at

oppositevenue

Andalusian palm trees in sunny Linares

cervantes

The entrance of the venue; the Teatro Cervantes

Photos © Rick Goetzee

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/topalov-beats-vallejo-increases-lead-in-linares/
Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:41:19 +0000
 
 
 
Chess lets kids make some moves - Columbia Daily Tribune

Columbia Missourian

Chess lets kids make some moves
Columbia Daily Tribune
Zane Durante, left, watches as defending champion Grant Roulier prepares to move a piece during a tie-breaking championship match in the Columbia Open Chess ...
Chess tournament at Gentry Middle School draws record crowdColumbia Missourian
Banana splits are behind young chess player's prowess.Hamilton Journal News (subscription)

all 3 news articles »
 
http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.columbiatribune.com%2Fnews%2F2010%2Ffeb%2F21%2Fchess-lets-kids-make-some-moves%2F&usg=AFQjCNHZHqGlc5baWug_hSrsbevdqfWczA
Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:10:58 GMT+00:00
 
 
 
Ciudad de Linares: diretta del VIII turno

Ultima chiamata per Aronian contro Topalov Live h.16

Dal 13 al 24 febbraio si disputa la 27^ edizione del torneo Ciudad di Linares. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale dove i lettori potranno commentare le partite. Domani è previsto il secondo ed ultimo giorno di riposo.

Incontri del VIII turno

Veselin Topalov 
   Levon Aronian
Francisco Vallejo 
   Boris Gelfand
Alexander Grischuk 
   Vugar Gashimov

Classifica dopo 7 turni
1. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2805 * * ½ . 1 ½ 1 . ½ . ½ 1 5 2901
2. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2781 ½ . * * ½ . ½ ½ ½ . ½ ½ 2743
3. Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2759 0 ½ ½ . * * ½ . ½ ½ 1 . 2764
4. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2736 0 . ½ ½ ½ . * * 1 ½ ½ . 2764
5. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2761 ½ . ½ . ½ ½ 0 ½ * * ½ . 3 2704
6. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2705 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 . ½ . ½ . * * 2673

Accoppiamenti del IX turno
Alexander Grischuk 
   Veselin Topalov
Vugar Gashimov 
   Francisco Vallejo
Boris Gelfand 
   Levon Aronian

Regolamento

calendario i sei giocatori si affronteranno in un girone all'italiana con partite di andata e ritorno. I 10 turni si svolgeranno dal 13 al 24 febbraio, con inizio alle ore 16. Sono previsti due giorni di riposo, il 17 e il 22 febbraio.

tempo di riflessione 2h x 40, 1h per le 20 mosse successive e 30' per terminare la partita

SITI UTILI

sito ufficiale

partite commentate in diretta su Chessdom (in inglese)

Articolo di presentazione di Angelmann

FantaLinares 2010 di LightKnight


Visore

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1728
2010-02-21T15:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Ciudad de Linares: diretta del VII turno

Topalov consolida il vantaggio

Dal 13 al 24 febbraio si disputa la 27^ edizione del torneo Ciudad di Linares. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale dove i lettori potranno commentare le partite.

Incontri del VII turno

Vugar Gashimov 
 1/2  Veselin Topalov
Boris Gelfand 
 1/2  Alexander Grischuk
Levon Aronian 
 1/2  Francisco Vallejo

Classifica dopo 7 turni
1. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2805 * * ½ . 1 ½ 1 . ½ . ½ 1 5 2901
2. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2781 ½ . * * ½ . ½ ½ ½ . ½ ½ 2743
3. Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2759 0 ½ ½ . * * ½ . ½ ½ 1 . 2764
4. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2736 0 . ½ ½ ½ . * * 1 ½ ½ . 2764
5. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2761 ½ . ½ . ½ ½ 0 ½ * * ½ . 3 2704
6. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2705 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 . ½ . ½ . * * 2673

Accoppiamenti del VIII turno
Veselin Topalov 
   Levon Aronian
Francisco Vallejo 
   Boris Gelfand
Alexander Grischuk 
   Vugar Gashimov

Regolamento

calendario i sei giocatori si affronteranno in un girone all'italiana con partite di andata e ritorno. I 10 turni si svolgeranno dal 13 al 24 febbraio, con inizio alle ore 16. Sono previsti due giorni di riposo, il 17 e il 22 febbraio.

tempo di riflessione 2h x 40, 1h per le 20 mosse successive e 30' per terminare la partita

SITI UTILI

sito ufficiale

partite commentate in diretta su Chessdom (in inglese)

Articolo di presentazione di Angelmann

FantaLinares 2010 di LightKnight


Visore

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1727
2010-02-20T15:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Seguite Campionato Italiano a squadra serie A2 girone 5

21 febbraio 2010 ore 14,30
Accademia Le Due Torri - Augusta Perusia

Leggi articolo

 
http://www.euroscacchi.com/seguite-campionato-italiano-squadra-serie-a2-girone-5
Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:41:00 +0000
 
 
 
Echecs à Linares : la ronde 8 en Live à 16h
Topalov face à Vallejo Pons © site officiel

Six super GMI s'affrontent en double ronde : Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Boris Gelfand et Vugar Gashimov.

Après sa nulle hier face à Gashimov en fort zeitnot, Topalov maintien son leadership au classement avec une confortable avance d'un point et demi sur ses poursuivants directs. Aronian pourrait-il freiner aujourd'hui le Bulgare?

Le Direct Live La Webcam Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 16h + La Webcam + Les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

Les appariements de la ronde 8 :
Veselin Topalov    2805 - Levon Aronian   2781
Francisco Vallejo  2705 - Boris Gelfand   2761
Alexander Grischuk 2736 - Vugar Gashimov  2759
Pour en savoir plus: Le site officiel - Le Live sur Chessdom

Les résultats de la ronde 7 :
Vugar Gashimov    2759 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805
Boris Gelfand     2761 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736
Levon Aronian     2781 1/2 Francisco Vallejo  2705
Les résultats de la ronde 6 :
Veselin Topalov    2805 1-0 Francisco Vallejo 2705
Alexander Grischuk 2736 1/2 Levon Aronian     2781
Vugar Gashimov     2759 1/2 Boris Gelfand     2761
Les résultats de la ronde 5 :
Veselin Topalov   2805 1-0 Alexander Grischuk 2736
Francisco Vallejo 2705 0-1 Vugar Gashimov     2759
Levon Aronian     2781 1/2 Boris Gelfand      2761
Les résultats de la ronde 4 :
Boris Gelfand      2761 1/2 Veselin Topalov   2805
Alexander Grischuk 2736 1/2 Francisco Vallejo 2705
Vugar Gashimov     2759 1/2 Levon Aronian     2781
Les résultats de la ronde 3 :
Levon Aronian     2781 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805  
Boris Gelfand     2761 1/2 Francisco Vallejo  2705  
Vugar Gashimov    2759 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736  
Les résultats de la ronde 2 :
Veselin Topalov    2805 1-0 Vugar Gashimov   2759
Alexander Grischuk 2736 1-0 Boris Gelfand    2761
Francisco Vallejo  2705 1/2 Levon Aronian    2781  
Les résultats de la ronde 1 :
Levon Aronian      2781 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736
Boris Gelfand      2761 1/2 Vugar Gashimov     2759
Francisco Vallejo  2705 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805
 
http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/02/echecs-linares-la-ronde-8-en-live-16h.html
Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:17:00 +0000
 
 
 
Echecs à Linares : la ronde 7 en Live à 16h
Topalov face à Vallejo Pons © site officiel

Six super GMI s'affrontent en double ronde : Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Boris Gelfand et Vugar Gashimov.

Après sa victoire sauvage hier face à Vallejo, le bulgare Veselin Topalov mène au classement avec une confortable avance d'un point et demi sur ses poursuivants directs. Mais qui pourrait bien stopper Topalov ?

Le Direct Live La Webcam Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 16h + La Webcam + Les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

Les résultats de la ronde 7 :
Vugar Gashimov  2759 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805
Boris Gelfand   2761 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736
Levon Aronian   2781 1/2 Francisco Vallejo  2705
Pour en savoir plus: Le site officiel - Le Live sur Chessdom

Les résultats de la ronde 6 :
Veselin Topalov    2805 1-0 Francisco Vallejo 2705
Alexander Grischuk 2736 1/2 Levon Aronian     2781
Vugar Gashimov     2759 1/2 Boris Gelfand     2761
Les résultats de la ronde 5 :
Veselin Topalov   2805 1-0 Alexander Grischuk 2736
Francisco Vallejo 2705 0-1 Vugar Gashimov     2759
Levon Aronian     2781 1/2 Boris Gelfand      2761
Les résultats de la ronde 4 :
Boris Gelfand      2761 1/2 Veselin Topalov   2805
Alexander Grischuk 2736 1/2 Francisco Vallejo 2705
Vugar Gashimov     2759 1/2 Levon Aronian     2781
Les résultats de la ronde 3 :
Levon Aronian     2781 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805  
Boris Gelfand     2761 1/2 Francisco Vallejo  2705  
Vugar Gashimov    2759 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736  
Les résultats de la ronde 2 :
Veselin Topalov    2805 1-0 Vugar Gashimov   2759
Alexander Grischuk 2736 1-0 Boris Gelfand    2761
Francisco Vallejo  2705 1/2 Levon Aronian    2781  
Les résultats de la ronde 1 :
Levon Aronian      2781 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736
Boris Gelfand      2761 1/2 Vugar Gashimov     2759
Francisco Vallejo  2705 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805
 
http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/02/echecs-linares-la-ronde-7-en-live-16h.html
Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:59:00 +0000
 
 
 
I want you to Join the CJA today!


Dear chess friends and chess Journalists!

I am addressing this post to all of you out there who love chess, who have ever played chess, or written about chess in any way or form. Yes, that's you, reading these lines!

Nowadays the bounds and methods of journalism have grown considerably. According to Wikipedia,

Journalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and opinion via a widening spectrum of media. These include newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the internet and even, more recently, the mobile phone.

I love the word "widening"! That means that any of you, who have ever written about chess in any medium, not only in the printed media, such as books, magazines, and newspapers, but also in new technologies, such as video (video podcasts, YouTube, video sharing sites), audio (songs, audio podcasts), photographs (photography sites), blogs, home pages, social sites (Twitter, Facebook) are journalists in some way, and at the very front of chess promotion! Yes, again, I'm speaking about YOU reading this post!

It's now possible from one's cell phone to update one's blog or Twitter account in seconds and that's one of the fastest way to relay or receive information. I read "tweets" every day from chess enthusiasts around the world with the freshest chess news. Today chess lovers can find out in real time how their chess heroes are playing, watch their games, and see tournament results tables. Even webcams are often installed in chess tournament halls, it makes you feel you're right there with the players, all this is journalism of the 21st century, and we are all part of it!

I thank every single one of you who has ever created any such kind of chess journalism. You are making the game cooler, younger, more alive! I want you all to join the CJA! But let me first start with the beginning.

I first become acquainted with the CJA thanks to its president, Jerry Hanken, who came to me in August of 2004 at the US Open in Fort Lauderdale and introduced me to the organization he cared so much about, the CJA. He told me all the benefits of being a member, and how I could not afford not to be a member. Jerry and I even played in that 2004 US Open Blitz tournament (Nakamura won the tournament, I came in second), and gave me a real fight in his favorite English opening. I immediately then joined the CJA, and since then have always been proud to be a member.

When Jerry invited me to become Vice-President of the CJA 2 years ago, he told me not to worry, as long as he's around, I won't have to do much. Jerry called me often to discuss new articles (read his article about me) and work went on as usual. He was very strong in his opinions, and always faithful to putting chess #1 in all his decisions. Suddenly the unthinkable happened, on October 1, 2009, I got the sad news that Jerry passed away, from complications of diabetes (read USCF post and a blog post). I had just spoken to him while he was in the hospital some days earlier and he was in good spirits, hoping to go home soon. In memory of Jerry Hanken, I will be holding high the torch for the CJA, let is prosper and continue to promote chess!

The CJA stands for "The Chess Journalists of America", but I don't want you to think it's limited depending on where you live, this is truly a worldwide association, and I intend to do my best to help promote it to the whole chess world.

One of the very best features of the CJA is its fantastic yearly AWARDS PROGRAM. One of the main goals I have as President of the CJA is to recognize any of you who really do something to promote chess, in any positive, original way you do so.

There are close to 20 awards categories in the Awards Program, such as (I use the 2009 categories, these may change a little for 2010):

• Chess Journalist of the Year
• Best Chess Column
• Best Achievement in Correspondence Chess
• Best Chess Art
• Best Chess Photograph
• Best Tournament Report
• Best Regular Newspaper Column
• Best Chess Web Site
• Best Historical Article
• Best Interview
• Best Editorial
• Best Review
• Best Analysis
• Best Instructive Lesson
• Best Humorous Contribution
• Special Recognition Award

I will gladly consider other categories upon request, due to new technologies, such as best Chess Podcast, best Chess YouTube Channel, best Chess Tweet, best chess poem, best chess iPhone app, best chess playing site, best live chess viewer, or any other you can think of. This will be difficult for the judges, but I will do my best to help. Feel free to add any comments to this post if you have any suggestions.

The CJA Awards are very prestigious. The winners get recognized officially with a beautiful certificate, of course also on the web, and in the most widely circulated chess magazine in the world, Chess Life (both printed and online versions). I have the honor of having won the 2009 "Chess Journalist of the Year" award, succeeding eminent chess journalists Macauley Peterson (2008), Mig Greengard (2007), Peter Tamburro (2006), Frisco del Rosario (2005), Andrew Soltis (2004), Fred Wilson (2003), Yasser Seirawan (2002), Hanon Russell (2001), Al Lawrence (2000). Don't you want to try to be the next "Journalist of the Year"?


Before becoming CJA President, I have applied for several awards, and have won "Best Chess Art" (see my chess comic on the cover of the CJA Magazine #130), "Best Chess Video or Podcast" (for my Chess Killer Tips free video podcast, "Best Deep Analysis" (for my game Huss-Kosteniuk, which I commented in a magazine and also on video), so I'm sure you can also apply for an award, and get recognized for what you do for chess.

This should be plenty to convince you to become CJA members. The good news is that the cost to become a CJA member (and also get the quartely CJA magazine) at this time is only $10 for the USA and $15 for any other place in the world! That's a very low price for all the benefits you get from being with equally minded colleagues.

To make it easier for people to sign up to the CJA or renew their memberships, there are now additional options, perfect for people outside the USA who don't find it convenient to send a check.

a) Send a check made for $10 (USA) or $15 (outside USA) made out to CJA, c/o Randy Hough, 1826 W. Garvey Ave. #5, Alhambra, CA 91803, USA

b) Pay by Paypal (Paypal does not require registration, any credit card should work) via my webshop, all monies received will be transferred to the CJA:







Link for Paypal $10.00 (USA), click or press the button















Link for Paypal $15.00 (World), click or press the button










If you have any questions about the CJA and have any doubt about should you become a member or not, feel free to contact me by email, and I will gladly personally answer your questions. More information can also be found on the CJA web site.

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
Chess Journalist of the Year
CJA President

 
http://www.chessblog.com/2010/02/i-want-you-to-join-cja-today.html
Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:37:00 +0000
 
 
 
Topalov beats Grischuk, leads by a point

Topalov beats Grischuk, leads by a pointVeselin Topalov defeated co-leader Alexander Grischuk in round 5 of the Linares super-tournament. The Bulgarian now leads by a full point at half time. Vugar Gashimov beat Francisco Vallejo with Black, and while being a pawn up, Levon Aronian had to be satisfied with a draw against Boris Gelfand.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin.

This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Round 5 report

Some of you have already discussed the tournament website, and the fact that the contents is only in Spanish. That’s disappointing indeed, but even worse was the ‘Fotogaleria’ page which contained only a Marca announcement video for the first few days. However, today we suddenly noticed two video playlists with some videos, not of the highest quality yet, but it’s better than nothing. Below that, indeed a photo gallery has now been added. Just to let you know.

The game of the day was of course the encounter between the two tournament leaders, Topalov and Grischuk. It certainly provided excellent entertainment for the chess fans, but the number of mistakes was above average, at this level of play. Again it seemed that Topalov was avoiding the most theoretical lines, this time against Grischuk’s Najdorf Sicilian. Just when his opponent was about to consolidate a slight positional advantage, the Bulgarian came up with a dangerous but highly creative concept: avoiding the exchange of queens with 20.Qb2 and sacrificing a knight (21.Nf5) to bring Bg2 to life.

Grischuk replied with a strong defensive set-up (…a5 + …Ra6) and was suddenly winning after the slow (or ‘lazy’, as The Doctor used to call it) 26.Kb1. 27…Kh7, avoiding the Ne5 pin, would have won material. Topalov then missed the winning 29.Qc1 but it must be said that the ideas behind that one are very computeresque. It was Grischuk’s turn to miss the very promising 31…Qg3 after which an equal (but slightly more comfortable for White) ending was reached. Around move 52 Grischuk suddenly collapsed.

topalov-grischuk

Against Vallejo, Gashimov was confident enough to go for the Benoni again, and it’s really amazing how the grandmaster from Azerbaijan keeps on surviving, and even winning these positions that are actually just better for White. He just knows them very well and has a great sense of timing and counterchances, like his compatriot Radjabov in the King’s Indian. Moves like 19.Nb6 or 20.Ncd2 should be better for White, and 26.Qxc8 was a clear misjudgement of Black’s play on the queenside.

vallejo-gashimov

Less entertaining was Aronian-Gelfand, except for the fact that White’s novelty was deviating from a 1929 game. In a middlegame with opposite-coloured bishops Gelfand sacrificed a pawn and confidently held it to a draw, helped by the unsafe white king.

aronian-gelfand

Photos © María José Sánchez Rivera

Games round 5 with brief annotations

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Linares 2010 | Round 5 Standings


Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/topalov-beats-grischuk-leads-by-a-point/
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:43:47 +0000
 
 
 
Ciudad de Linares: diretta del VI turno

?Grischuk-Aronian, chi è l'anti-Topalov? Live h.16

Dal 13 al 24 febbraio si disputa la 27^ edizione del torneo Ciudad di Linares. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale dove i lettori potranno commentare le partite.

Incontri del VI turno


Veselin Topalov?
? ?Francisco Vallejo
Alexander Grischuk?
? ?Levon Aronian
Vugar Gashimov?
? ?Boris Gelfand

Classifica dopo 5 turni
1. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2805 * * ? . 1 . 1 . ? . ? . 3? 2897
2. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2781 ? . * * ? . ? . ? . ? . 2? 2753
3. Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2759 0 . ? . * * ? . ? . 1 . 2? 2757
4. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2736 0 . ? . ? . * * 1 . ? . 2? 2762
5. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2761 ? . ? . ? . 0 . * * ? . 2 2685
6. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2705 ? . ? . 0 . ? . ? . * * 2 2696

Accoppiamenti del VII turno
Vugar Gashimov?
? ?Veselin Topalov
Boris Gelfand?
? ?Alexander Grischuk
Levon Aronian?
? ?Francisco Vallejo

Regolamento

calendario i sei giocatori si affronteranno in un girone all'italiana con partite di andata e ritorno. I 10 turni si svolgeranno dal 13 al 24 febbraio, con inizio alle ore 16. Sono previsti due giorni di riposo, il 17 e il 22 febbraio.

tempo di riflessione 2h x 40, 1h per le 20 mosse successive e 30' per terminare la partita

SITI UTILI

sito ufficiale

partite commentate in diretta su Chessdom (in inglese)

Articolo di presentazione di Angelmann

FantaLinares 2010 di LightKnight


Visore

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1726
2010-02-19T15:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Echecs à Linares : la ronde 6 en Live à 16h
Veselin Topalov en compagnie du journaliste sportif russe Juri Vasiliev

Six super GMI s'affrontent en double ronde : Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Boris Gelfand et Vugar Gashimov.

Après 5 rondes, le bulgare Veselin Topalov mènent au classement avec 3,5 points, et un point net d'avance sur ses poursuivants. Qui pourra stopper Topalov ?

Le Direct Live La Webcam Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 16h + La Webcam + Les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

Les appariements de la ronde 6 :
Veselin Topalov    2805 - Francisco Vallejo 2705
Alexander Grischuk 2736 - Levon Aronian     2781
Vugar Gashimov     2759 - Boris Gelfand     2761
Pour en savoir plus: Le site officiel - Le Live sur Chessdom

Les résultats de la ronde 5 :
Veselin Topalov   2805 1-0 Alexander Grischuk 2736
Francisco Vallejo 2705 0-1 Vugar Gashimov     2759
Levon Aronian     2781 1/2 Boris Gelfand      2761
Les résultats de la ronde 4 :
Boris Gelfand      2761 1/2 Veselin Topalov   2805
Alexander Grischuk 2736 1/2 Francisco Vallejo 2705
Vugar Gashimov     2759 1/2 Levon Aronian     2781
Les résultats de la ronde 3 :
Levon Aronian  2781 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805  
Boris Gelfand  2761 1/2 Francisco Vallejo  2705  
Vugar Gashimov 2759 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736  
Les résultats de la ronde 2 :
Veselin Topalov     2805 1-0 Vugar Gashimov     2759
Alexander Grischuk  2736 1-0 Boris Gelfand      2761
Francisco Vallejo   2705 1/2 Levon Aronian      2781  
Les résultats de la ronde 1 :
Levon Aronian       2781 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736
Boris Gelfand       2761 1/2 Vugar Gashimov     2759
Francisco Vallejo   2705 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805
 
http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/02/echecs-linares-la-ronde-6-en-live-16h.html
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:15:00 +0000
 
 
 
Dutch Special: Matten 7 & De Pion

Matten 7 & De PionThe Dutch quarterly Matten provides a mixture of interviews, stories and anecdotes with a literary flavour, interweaved with drawings, cartoons and photos. We bring a review of the 7th edition in the Dutch language, together with a review of De Pion, the first book of a new series on chess pieces by endgame composer (and ChessVibes contributor) Yochanan Afek and the Dutch ‘Mr. Chess’ Hans Böhm.

Mijn recensie van het vorige Matten-nummer begon ik met de constatering dat er sinds de opheffing van Schaaknieuws niet veel meer te beleven was op Nederlandstalig schaakgebied. Dat is niet meer helemaal juist. Niet alleen is er de nieuwe website schaaksite.nl, een initiatief van Kees Schrijvers met columns, verslagen en analyses, maar ook schrijft Richard Vedder sinds enige tijd zeer lezenswaardige schaakboekrecensies op schakers.info en zijn niemand minder dan Yochanan Afek en Hans Böhm een nieuwe, laagdrempelige serie over de schaakstukken begonnen. Het eerste deel, De Pion – De Ziel Van Het Schaakspel, werd onlangs gepresenteerd. Hoog tijd dus voor weer eens een Nederlandse (dubbel)recensie.

Matten 7: Eindelijk op topniveau!

Matten 7, uitgegeven door New in Chess, staat dit keer helemaal in het teken van schaken en vrouwen, en de introductie van dit enkele thema voor (bijna) alle artikelen is een gouden greep van de redacteuren, want dit nummer is zonder twijfel de leukste Mattten sinds haar oprichting in 2006.

Ik wil beginnen met het interview dat Karel van der Weide had met de schaaktweeling Marlies en Laura Bensdorp. Hebben we in het verleden Van der Weide als schaakliterator regelmatig kritisch gevolgd, de rol van interviewer vertolkt hij met verve. Het interview, met de goed gekozen titel Zelfstandig en Weerbaar, is vlot geschreven, scherp en tegelijk bedachtzaam van toon en levert veel interessante en soms onthullende antwoorden van de schaakzusjes op. Sterk is vooral dat Van der Weide in dit interview nu eens niet zijn eigen (inmiddels overbekende) opvattingen over een onderwerp als het vrouwenschaak herhaalt, maar de zusjes alle ruimte geeft hun punt te maken:

Het aansnijden van het onderwerp [vrouwenschaak] leidt bij Marlies tot enige verontwaarding. Hoe de KNSB met damesschaak omgaat, valt volgens haar zeker nog te verbeteren. De ‘publiciteit’ rond het afgelopen NK in Haaskbergen sterkte haar in die opvatting. De persdienst had toch op z’n minst een paar foto’s op internet kunnen zetten?! Laura vult aan dat vrouwen sowieso op een heel andere manier naar schaakverslaggeving kijken. Reportages op ChessBase en New in Chess worden eerst beoordeeld op de kwaliteit van de foto’s, anders beginnen de zussen niet eens aan de tekst! Marlies vervolgt dat ze zich vreselijk ergerde aan een uitspraak van Hans Böhm tijdens datzelfde NK. Hij zei dat hij hoopte ‘geen damespartij te hoeven bespreken’. Marlies: ‘We zijn minder goed dan de mannen, maar het is altijd zo negatief’.

In zo’n fragment toont Van der Weide dat hij wel degelijk kan schrijven: hij observeert, verwoordt en interpreteert goed, durft op te schrijven wat hij hoort en mixt alles met pittige soundbites van de dames zelf. Ook prima: het interview is ideaal van lengte, lang genoeg om de diepte in te gaan en toch kernachtig genoeg om niet te gaan vervelen.

Langer van stof is een ander vermaard interviewer, Dirk-Jan ten Geuzendam, in een sympathiek vraaggesprek met Corry Vreeken – het interview is langer, maar de 82-jarige Damesgrootmeester honoris causa heeft logischerwijs ook meer te vertellen dan de nog geen dertigjarige dames Bensdorp. Ook Ten Geuzendam slaagt erin de geïnterviewde opmerkelijke uitspraken te ontlokken – curieus vond ik bijvoorbeeld dat Vreeken aan het eind van het gesprek, dat veel gaat over ouderdom en nog meer over herinneringen aan het verleden, bekent nog wel degelijk te schaken: op internet. Relevant en stijlvol is ook Ten Geuzendam’s inleiding over schaken en sanatoria in de literatuur, die mij herinnerde aan een andere beruchtste schaakroman die zich afspeelt in een sanatorium: Murphy van Samuel Beckett.

Beckett had trouwens misschien beter gepast in het stuk van Peter Boel over die andere grande dame van het Nederlandse schaak: de in 2007 overleden tienvoudig Nederlands dameskampioene Fenny Heemskerk. Eigenlijk vond ik Boels stuk nog boeiender, waarschijnlijk omdat het persoonlijker, soberder en diepgravender van toon is: waar Corry Vreeken vooral smakelijke anekdotes vertelt, beschrijft Heemskerks dochter, die zelf ook behoorlijk schaakte, openhartig de manische depressies van haar moeder en de moeilijkheden die dat opleverde voor het gezin én Heemskerks schaakprestaties. Het resultaat is een betrokken en aangrijpend portret van een Nederlandse schaaklegende.

Diepgang wordt zeker ook niet vermeden in John Kuipers’ stuk De ziel tussen duister en licht over Erika Sziva en Johan van Mil, een relaas dat in zijn eerlijkheid en onopgeschmukte tragiek soms bijna pijnlijk om te lezen is. Iets luchtiger, maar eveneens zeer onderhoudend, is het interview dat Danielle Pinedo hield met Peng Zhao Qin. Pinedo stelt goede vragen die getuigen van mensenkennis (’je aanpassingsvermogen is je redding geweest’, ‘ben je nooit bang geweest dat je familie de dupe zou worden van je vlucht?’) en Peng geeft open en uitgebreid antwoord op de vragen.

Sterk is ook het opzettelijk wat raadselachtig gelaten stuk van Jan Timman over zijn trainingservaringen met Judit Polgar, en Matten’s huisfilosoof Dirk Poldauf houdt een genuanceerd en goed beargumenteerd ‘enerzijds-anderzijds’ betoog over het vrouwenschaak als speciale discipline, waar ikzelf mij in elk geval uitstekend in kon vinden:

“Op korte termijn zou het afschaffen van toernooien voor alleen maar vrouwen een traumatisch effect kunnen hebben en ertoe kunnen leiden dat sommige meisjes zich bij het ontbreken van de kans op snelle lauweren van het schaken afwenden. Op de langere termijn zou het waarschijnlijk echter tot een normalisering in de verhoudingen in het toernooischaak leiden (…).”

De korte rubrieken Het Notatieformulier (Rob van Vuure) en De Foto (Allard Hoogland) zijn ook nu weer leuk om te lezen, en ook Het Gedicht dat Paul van den Hout schreef voor Frans Naerebout (’Verliezen doet hij immers nog maar zelden,/ want juist zijn stille kracht wordt onderschat’) is mooi en toepasselijk, op zijn minst voor wie Naerebout gekend heeft.

Is het dan alleen maar hosanna voor de nieuwe Matten? Niet helemaal. Lex Jongsma schreef een wisselvallig en wat rommelig stuk (met de al even rommelige titel ‘Mag ik u mijn Dame aanbieden? Het Dameoffer en het Paard in de Zak’) dat aanvankelijk over De Groene-hoofdredacteur Martin van Amerongen lijkt te gaan, maar opeens overspringt op Reuben Fine, dameoffers en iets ‘uit eigen werk’. Jongsma’s aanstekelijke manier van vertellen komt op papier een stuk minder tot zijn recht. Ik kon mijn aandacht er in dit artikel niet bijhouden: te veel van de hak op de tak, te veel onuitgewerkte invallen, overbodige uitwijdingen en te stellig geformuleerde opinies (’Nu was Freud een genie, en Fine een schaker van wereldkampioenstatuur, en een zeer geacht en goed verdienend psychiater, die weliswaar nooit meer toernooien speelde, maar het schaken allerminst verleerd had: bij een enkele malen herhaald bezoek aan het Amsterdamse koffiehuis/schaakcafe op het Leidseplein eind jaren zestig, in de pauzes van een …’ Enfin, enzovoorts.)

Vergeleken met deze woordenbrei zijn de twee bondige stukken over Jan Timman, van Hans Böhm (‘Madame Chaudé de Silans’ over hun reizen naar Frankrijk) en van Franka van der Loo (over de fascinatie van Laurie Langenbach) een lust voor het lezend oog. Pikant is de foto van Langenbach voor Timman waarop ze in ‘een decolleté tot haar navel’ staat afgebeeld met op de achterkant de woorden ‘Op de overwinnning!’.

Ach ja, en dan is er nog Guus Luijters, als altijd kwistig strooiend met boek- en filmtitels en Grote Namen uit de Kunst en Literatuur. Luijters weet niets van schaken, is niet geïnteresseerd in schaken, schrijft niet over schaken. Dit keer roept hij wat over Graham Greene en de onlangs verschenen laatste roman van Nabokov (The Original of Laura), ‘koortsig proza, waarin zowaar een keer geschaakt wordt’, zonder ooit iets diepzinnigs of verrassends ter tafel te brengen. Raadsel waarom Luijters iedere keer weer gevraagd wordt voor een bijdrage aan Matten; ik begin inmiddels te vermoeden dat de redacteurs het zelf ook niet weten.

Tot slot: een fascinerend portret van de Pools-Nederlandse schaker Salo Landau door Adri Plomp – het enige artikel dat niet over vrouwen gaat. Choquerend zijn iedere keer weer de antisemitische stukken die Aljechin, wiens secondant Landau was in 1935, in de Tweede Wereldorlog schreef; maar de door Plomp beschreven gebeurtenissen rond de dood van Landau in de oorlog, zijn nauwelijks met droge ogen te lezen. Het is volkomen terecht dat de Matten-redactie er ondanks het themanummer toch voor gekozen heeft dit boeiende artikel nu op te nemen.

Met Matten 7 is het tijdschrift eindelijk helemaal op het niveau dat past bij de al tijdens de oprichting uitgesproken ambities van de redactie. Proficiat!

Wij presenteren … De pion – De Ziel van het Schaakspel

Er is een nieuw project van Hans Böhm en Yochanan Afek: een serie boeken over alle stukken van het schaakspel, uitgegeven door Trion Sport. Het eerste deel heet De Pion. Uit Böhms voorwoord:

Elk stuk van het eeuwenoude schaakspel verdient het om apart gepresenteerd te worden. Dit boek is het het eerste in een serie van zes – en we beginnen met de pion. Nog nooit zijn van dit kleine stuk zoveel speelfacetten, aanvallend en verdedigend, bij elkaar gebracht. Per thema – zestig in totaal – geven we vier voorbeelden. Door de presentatie, vier diagrammen op de linkerpagina en uitleg op de rechterpagina, is dit boek een ode aan de pion maar ook een leerboek.

Uit de inleiding wordt overigens niet helemaal duidelijk voor wie de serie nu precies bedoeld is. Voor mensen die ’slechts’ geïnteresseerd zijn in schaken? Of ook voor schakers die het leuk vinden problemen en schaakpuzzels op te lossen? Gezien het niveau van de stellingen denk ik eerder het laatste – en dat is goed nieuws voor gevorderde schakers!
Böhm schrijft dat hij te rade is gegaan bij schaakhistoricus Leo Diepstraten om een beeld te krijgen van de ontstaansgeschiedenis van de pion als schaakstuk. Afek heeft voor zijn selectie van fragmenten en composities inspiratie opgedaan uit vele verschillende bronnen. Kortom, dit is een degelijk project geschreven door twee schakers die weten hoe ze hun passie over het voetlicht moeten brengen, en dat is te merken.

De historische inleiding is een pakkend en levendig geschreven stuk met relevante citaten en interessante feiten over de evolutie van de moderne schaakpion, die over het algemeen ook nog eens accuraat beschreven is. Ik kwam één foutje tegen: het zogenaamde Göttingen manuscript stamt volgens de laatste wetenschappelijke opvattingen niet uit 1471, maar uit de vroege 16de eeuw, zoals ik vorig jaar leerde op een symposium in Valencia over de oorsprong van het moderne schaak. (Zie J.A. Garzón, The Return of Francesch Vicent, 2005, p. 399 e.v.) Ook in de bijbehorende beschrijving van de ontwikkeling van de rokade kan wellicht de nodige nuance worden aangebracht, maar ik wil geen muggenzifter zijn. Het historische gedeelte van het boek is leuk en informatief, en daar gaat het om.

Het leeuwendeel van het boek bestaat uit de al genoemde fragmenten en composities, ingedeeld in relevante thema’s. Het eerste thema is ‘De vertraagde pion’ en het eerste voorbeeld is meteen al behoorlijk pittig:

Remise. De eindspelkenner herkent direct een overeenkomst met de beroemde studie van Réti over het ‘kwadraat’, en inderdaad is deze studie van T.Gorgiev uit 1930 daarop gebaseerd, al noemen Afek en Böhm dit niet. De oplossing:

1.c6! (niet 1.a4 h6! ‘en zwart wint het tempospel’ of 1.a3 h5!) 1…h6 2.a3! h5 3.a4 h4 4.a5 h3 5.a6 h2 6.a7 h1D pat. Of 1…Kc7 3.a4 [sic, bedoeld is 2.a4] 3…Kxc6 4.a5 Kb5 5.Kb7 Kxa5 6.Kc6 h5 7.Kd5 ‘en de witte koning zit in het kwadraat (h1-h5-d5-d1) en dus remise’.

Oef! Hoe fraai en subtiel de studie ook is, voor een eerste voorbeeld in het boek vond ik dit tamelijk zware kost, vooral omdat de bijbehorende uitleg nogal summier en weinig specifiek is. Mensen die dit boek kochten omdat ze ’schaken een leuk spelletje vinden’ zullen zich toch misschien wel even op hun achterhoofd krabben wat nu precies de definitie van een ‘kwadraat’ is (is dat altijd h1-h5-d5-d1 of alleen in dit geval?). Schakers die Afeks werk kennen weten dat zijn niveau hoog is, maar geldt dat ook voor argeloze kopers?

De voorbeelden zijn trouwens niet allemaal zo pittig, al zijn ze ook nooit echt makkelijk. Uit het hoofdstukje ‘De kamikazepion’:


Wit aan zet.

Dit is een fragment uit de partij Tal-Zdravko Milev, München 1958. De eerste zet is fraai en in het kader van het thema niet al te moeilijk te vinden, maar daarna wordt het toch lastiger:

1.d5!! exd5 2.Tfe1! Kd8 3.Db3 c5 4.Pxc5! en wit won in enkele zetten (al schrijven Böhm en Afek dat de partij hier ‘abrupt eindigde’).

Afek en Böhm geven als alternatieven voor zwart op de tweede zet 2…dxe4 3.Dxe4+ De7 4.Dg4 en vervolgens – zonder nadere toelichting! – de tamelijk complexe variant 2…Le7 3.Pf6+! Kd8 4.Db3 Kc8 5.Lf4! Dxf4 6.Txe7 Tb8 7.Dh3+ en wit wint. Hier sta ik toch wel even van te kijken. Ten eerste wil ik na het spectaculaire 3.Pf6+ toch ook wel even weten wat er volgt op gxf6 gevolgd door rochade, dus ik zocht de partij op in mijn database en kwam toen pas te weten dat zwart helemaal niet meer mag rocheren aangezien de koning op zet 14 een stuk op d7 geslagen heeft en daarna weer teruggegaan is naar e8. Dat hadden de auteurs er toch wel even bij mogen zetten! (Dat wit toch wint als zwart had mogen rocheren, doet daar niets aan af.) Daarnaast is pas 19…c5? de beslissende fout en kan zwart nog aardig partij geven na 19…Kc8, al blijft wit ook dan goed staan.

Uit deze twee voorbeelden blijkt dat de auteurs hun taak op een tamelijk rigoureuze manier hebben opgevat: het gaat ze puur om de ideëen die door de thema’s worden geïllustreerd: het visuele aspect. Ze lijken minder geïnteresseerd in de uitleg van het waarom, en dat is jammer, want gaat het daar uiteindelijk niet om? Misschien is dit een knieval naar het ‘grote publiek’, dat mogelijkerwijs niet zit te wachten op een diepgaande uitleg, maar op zoek is naar ’snel vermaak’. Zou het zo zijn? Zou een oppervlakkige lezer wel geraakt worden door de schoonheid van Gorgievs studie, maar niet geïnteresseerd zijn in de precieze uitwerking?

Toch valt niet te ontkennen dat Hans Böhm en Yochanan Afek met De Pion een zeer vermakelijk en aanstekelijk boekje hebben geschreven, dat zich zowel goed leent voor ‘in bed’ als voor diepere (zelf)studie. Welk stuk volgt? Het Paard? Ook dat belooft wat.

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reviews/dutch-special-matten-7-en-de-pion/
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:35:52 +0000
 
 
 
Le Quang Liem wins Aeroflot, qualifies for Dortmund

Le Quang Liem does it again, wins Aeroflot straight and qualifies for DortmundLe Quang Liem Wednesday won the Aeroflot Open in Moscow. Like at the Moscow Open, the grandmaster from Vietnam finished on an undefeated 7/9, which this time was enough for clear first and qualification for the Dortmund tournament later this year.

Le Quang Liem | Photo © Eldar Mukhatemov

The 9th Aeroflot Open took place February 9-17 2010 in Moscow, Russia. It’s one of the biggest tournaments (and certainly the strongest) of the calendar, and as always sponsored by airline company Aeroflot and organized by the Russian Chess Federation in cooperation with the Committee on Tourism of the Municipality of Moscow. The festival had the same prize fund as in 2009 amounting a total of 180,000 EUR (which includes the prizes for the World Blitz Qualification Tournament which will be held afterwards).

Hotel Gamma - DeltaAs always, the players are divided by rating over four open tournaments (A1, A2, B and C). Naturally, the greatest interest is aroused by the A1 tournament, in which a rating above 2550 is required. Already for the fifth time, the Aeroflot Open is held outside the city centre, in hotel “Gamma – Delta” of the tourist complex “Izmailovo”, where almost all participants also stay.

In our previous report on the Aeroflot tournament we already wrote a paragraph about 18-year-old Le Quang Liem, who became World Youth Champion Under-14 in July 2005. He “continues to improve rapidly”, we said last week, and this was even more true than we thought.

In September last year he won the 4th Kolkata Open ahead of 13 higher-rated players and two weeks ago he finished shared first at the Moscow Open with an undefeated 7/9. At the Aeroflot Open he again finished on an undefeated 7/9, and this time that meant a sole first place.

Ukrainian GM Anton Korobov finished on sole second place with 6.5 points, followed by four players who scored 6 points: Alexander Motylev (Russia), Zhou Jianchao (China), Boris Grachev (Russia) and Le Quang Liem’s compatriot Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son from Vietnam.

See if you can find how Bacrot quickly decided matters in his game against Bareev in round 6. White to play and win, solution in the game viewer.

Bacrot-Bareev
Aeroflot Open 2010
Bacrot-Bareev
Position after 19…Qxd4

Aeroflot Open 2010 | Group A1 | Round 9 (Final) Standings
Aeroflot Open 2010 | Round 9 Standings



Games rounds 4-9 (top boards)

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/le-quang-liem-wins-aeroflot-qualifies-for-dortmund/
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:57:29 +0000
 
 
 
Ciudad de Linares: diretta del V turno

Topalov in fuga al giro di boa

  • il bulgaro batte Grischuk e prende il largo
  • Grischuk Aronian e Gashimov inseguono ad un punto

Dal 13 al 24 febbraio si disputa la 27^ edizione del torneo Ciudad di Linares. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale dove i lettori potranno commentare le partite.

Incontri del V turno

Veselin Topalov 
 1-0  Alexander Grischuk
Francisco Vallejo 
 0-1  Vugar Gashimov
Levon Aronian 
 1/2  Boris Gelfand

Classifica dopo 5 turni
1. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2805 * * ½ . 1 . 1 . ½ . ½ . 2897
2. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2781 ½ . * * ½ . ½ . ½ . ½ . 2753
3. Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2759 0 . ½ . * * ½ . ½ . 1 . 2757
4. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2736 0 . ½ . ½ . * * 1 . ½ . 2762
5. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2761 ½ . ½ . ½ . 0 . * * ½ . 2 2685
6. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2705 ½ . ½ . 0 . ½ . ½ . * * 2 2696

Accoppiamenti del VI turno
Veselin Topalov 
   Francisco Vallejo
Alexander Grischuk 
   Levon Aronian
Vugar Gashimov 
   Boris Gelfand

Regolamento

calendario i sei giocatori si affronteranno in un girone all'italiana con partite di andata e ritorno. I 10 turni si svolgeranno dal 13 al 24 febbraio, con inizio alle ore 16. Sono previsti due giorni di riposo, il 17 e il 22 febbraio.

tempo di riflessione 2h x 40, 1h per le 20 mosse successive e 30' per terminare la partita

SITI UTILI

sito ufficiale

partite commentate in diretta su Chessdom (in inglese)

Articolo di presentazione di Angelmann

FantaLinares 2010 di LightKnight


Visore

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1725
2010-02-18T15:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Caruana nel Campionato a squadre svizzero 2010
   
Caruana makes his debut in Swiss team championship


Succesful debut for Caruana in the Swiss team Championship ( SMM ). The Italian international played his first game for Winterthur alongside veteran GM Artur Jussupow, beating GM Renet to help his team win their tie against Genf with a 5 -3 score ( Swiss championship team matches are held over 8 boards ). Next month Fabiano will probably cross swords with Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, in the 2nd round of the tournament.

CARUANA - RENET = 1-0 
 


[Round "1"] [White "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Black "Renet, Olivier"]
[Result "1-0"] [ECO "C97"] [WhiteElo "2675"] [BlackElo "2522"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5 11. d4 Qc7 12. Nbd2 Bd7 13. Nf1 Nc4 14. Ng3 Rfb8 15. Nf5 Bxf5 16. exf5 exd4 17. cxd4 Re8 18. a4 Rad8 19. axb5 axb5 20. Bd3 d5 21. b3 cxd4 22. Bg5 Qb6 23. Ra2 h6 24. Bh4 Nd6 25. Qa1 Nde4 26. Ra6 Qb8 27. Qa5 Qf4 28. Bxb5 Rf8 29. Bg3 Qxf5 30. Nxd4 Qg6 31. Bd3 Rc8 32. Nc6 Bd8 33. Nxd8 Rfxd8 34. Bc7 Rd7 35. Bb6 Qg5 36. f3 Nd6 37. Ra8 g6 38. Be3 Qg3 39. Rxc8+ Nxc8 40.Bd4 Ne4 41. Rc1 Ned6 42. Qxd5 Rd8 43. Qe5 Qxe5 44. Bxe5 Ne8 45. Ba6 Nb6 46. b4 f6 47. Bg3 Rd2 48. b5 Nd5 49. Bb7 Kf7 50. Bc6 g5 51. Be1 Rd3 52. Rb1 Nd6 53. b6 Ne7 54. Ba8 1-0



1° turno: Caruana - Renet 1-0

Their new signing notwithstanding, Winterthur cannot be considered as contenders for the title : Zurich retain their role as favourites, regardless of not having signed a very strong GM for their top board for the first time in many years while also dropping two-time Swiss Champion Florian Jenni from their line up, as they still retain the services of strong GMs such as Christian Bauer ( 2621 ) Yannick Pelletier ( 2602 ) and the venerable but fearsome Viktor Kortschnoi ( 2588 ).

Among the rest of the field, Reichenstein have an average elo similar to the Zurich side, but the team to look out for will probably be Luzern, who have been very active on the transfer market and acquired the services of GMs Andrei Istratescu 2615 and Romain Edouard 2608 , who will be joining Robert Hübner 2616 and Rustem Dautov 2601 in their line up.

Many italians are playing in National Liga B with Mendrisio team. Their target is to win the championship for coming back in National Liga A.

Mendrisio - Zürich II 6½:1½ (Fressinet - Joa. Rosenthal 1:0, Godena - Jon. Rosenthal ½:½, Bellini 1:0 f., Borgo - Csajka 1:0, Sedina - Rohrer ½:½, Mantovani - Kummle 1:0, Aranovitch 1:0 f., Salvetti - Haufler ½:½).


1st Round results , 14th February

Winterthur - Genf 5:3 (Caruana - Renet 1:0, Jussupow - Landenbergue 1:0, Forster - Mirallès ½:½, Kelecevic - Vuilleumier ½:½, Huss - Gerber ½:½, Schauwecker - Preissmann ½:½, Nuri - Duport ½:½, Gähwiler - Kovacevic ½:½).

Luzern - Zürich 2½:5½ (Kurmann - Bauer 0:1, Züger - Pelletier ½:½, Almada - Vogt ½:½, Räber - W. Hug 0:1, Lötscher - Goldstern ½:½, Gloor - Grünenwald 0:1, Wüest - M. Hug ½:½, Rusev - Friedrich ½:½).

Reichenstein - Tribschen 6:2 (Sokolow - Kaufmann 1:0, Volke - Strauss 1:0, Heimann - Nideröst ½:½, Eschbach - Lustenberger ½:½, Kühn - Cremer ½:½, Drabke - Gabersek 1:0, Wirthensohn - Herzog ½:½, V. Riff - Bellmann 1:0).

Wollishofen - Riehen 2½:5½ (Prusikin - Buss ½:½, O. Moor - Ekström 0:1, Hochstrasser - Kaenel ½:½, R. Moor - Brendel ½:½, Carron - Toth ½:½, Gähler - Aumann 0:1, Mäser - Giertz ½:½, Fierz - Schmidt-Schäffer 0:1).

Bern - Joueur Lausanne 3½:4½ (Flückiger - Tschernuschewitsch 0:1, A. Lehmann - Gallagher 0:1, Turdyev - Sermier ½:½, Lombard - Domont ½:½, M. Lehmann - Ch. Lamoureux ½:½, Gast - Serban 0:1, Kellenberger - Meyer 1:0, L. Rindlisbacher - Kusnezow 1:0).



2nd Round, 21st March

  • Tribschen – Wollishofen
  • Reichenstein – Bern
  • Zürich – Genève
  • Luzern – Riehen
  • Joueur – Winterthur



Team Line Ups, 2010

Zürich  (1):

GM Christian Bauer 2621 ELO, GM Yannick Pelletier 2602, GM Viktor Kortschnoi 2588, IM Werner Hug 2469, GM Lothar Vogt 2460, GM Lucas Brunner 2424, FM Jörg Grünenwald 2337, FM Marcel Hug 2322, FM Filip Goldstern 2321, FM Norbert Friedrich 2319.

Left: GM Florian Jenni

Average ELO: 2446

Reichenstein (2):

GM Andrei Sokolow 2582, IM Jean-Noël Riff 2484, GM Vlastimil Hort 2463, IM Karsten Volke 2452, IM Andreas Heimann 2442, IM Lorenz Drabke 2431, Dennis Eschbach 2420, IM Peter Kühn 2412, IM Heinz Wirthensohn 2398, IM Christian Maier 2382.


Average ELO 2447 (Nr. 1).

Riehen (3):

GM Jörg Hickl 2610, GM Ognjen Cvitan 2518, IM Roland Ekström 2502, FM Ralph Buss 2407, IM Oliver Brendel 2359, IM Hansjürg Kaenel 2340, FM Matthias Rüfenacht 2334, FM Clemens Werner 2311, Welf Aumann 2309, IM Bela Toth 2307.

Left: FM Christian Flückiger

Average ELO : 2400 (Nr. 5).

Lucerna (4)

GM Robert Hübner 2616, GM Andrei Istratescu 2615, GM Romain Edouard 2608, GM Rustem Dautow 2601, IM Beat Züger 2461, IM Oliver Kurmann 2453, IM Georg Danner 2429, FM Enrique Almada 2345, FM Roland Lötscher 2339, Roger Gloor 2297, (Markus Räber 2248).

Joined:  GM Andrei Istratescu , GM Romain Edouard , IM Georg Danner , Roger Gloor

Left: IM Severin Papa, IM Valery Atlas, IM Giulio Borgo

Average Elo (ohne Romain): 2440 (Nr. 3).

Wollishofen (5):

GM Michael Prusikin 2559, IM Olivier Moor 2416, IM Rico Zenklusen 2389, IM Michael Hochstrasser 2385, IM Julien Carron 2359, IM Roger Moor 2356, FM Felix Hindermann 2340, Marco Gähler 2327, FM Martin Fierz 2323, Andreas Umbach 2317.

Average ELO : 2377 (Nr. 8).

Joueur Losanna (6):

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk 2523, GM Alexei Tschernuschewitsch 2510, GM Anthony Kosten 2509, GM Joe Gallagher 2495, IM Guillaume Sermier 2424, IM Jean Netzer 2375, IM Charles Lamoureux 2345, FM Petri Lehtivaara 2337, IM Alexandre Domont 2322, FM Denis Bucher 2311, (Vlad Serban 2230).

Joined:  IM Alexandre Domont

Left: FM David Burnier

Average ELO : 2387 (Nr. 7).

Winterthur (7)

GM Fabiano Caruana 2675, GM Artur Jussupow 2611, IM Richard Forster 2430, FM Walter Bichsel 2371, IM Martin Ballmann 2369, FM Oliver Sutter 2366, Guido Schleicher 2327, FM Emanuel Schiendorfer 2322, FM Peter Szakolczai 2301, FM Urs Rüetschi 2297.

Joined:  GM Fabiano Caruana Guido Schleicher

Average ELO 2407 (Nr. 4).

Genf (8):

GM Igor Khenkin 2590, GM Olivier Renet 2522, GM Gilles Mirallès 2464, FM François Fargère 2432, IM Claude Landenbergue 2409, IM Richard Gerber 2358, IM Alexandre Vuilleumier 2352, IM Emmanuel Preissmann 2303, Nicolas Duport 2247, Vladimir Kovacevic 2209.

Joined:  GM Igor Khenkin , IM Emmanuel Preissmann

Left: GM Sébastien Mazé  Flavio Pérez

Average ELO: 2389 (Nr. 6).

Berna (promoted):

IM Giancarlo Franzoni 2445, FM Christian Flückiger 2326, IM André Lombard 2319, Anvar Turdyev 2304, FM Andreas Lehmann 2302, FM Marco Lehmann 2292, FM Beat Neuenschwander 2249, FM Jonathan Gast 2204, Lukas Kulczyk 2194, Stéphane Kellenberger 2169.

Joined: : FM Christian Flückiger

Average ELO : 2280 (Nr. 9).

Tribschen (promoted):

GM Falko Bindrich 2512, Jürgen Strauss 2284, Bruno Nideröst 2271, Werner Kaufmann 2242, Daniel Lustenberger 2240, Kevin Cremer 2175, Albert Gabersek 2140, Lukas Fischer 2134, Raphael Rölli 2098, Rambert Bellmann 2090.

Joined: GM Falko Bindrich

Average ELO: 2219 (Nr. 10).



Link : Swiss Championship SMM Website.






Esordio di Caruana nel Campionato a squadre Svizzero - SMM

Esordio con vittoria per Fabiano Caruana  nel SMM, Campionato Svizzero a squadre. Il nazionale italiano ha infatti giocato in terra elvetica, dove si è recentemente trasferito, per la squadra di Winterthur dove milita anche Artur Jussupow. Il loro team si è imposto per 5-3 sul Genf (ricordiamo che si gioca su 8 scacchiere) e Fabiano ha battuto nel 1° turno il GM Renet . Nel 2° turno, tra un mese circa, Caruana  dovrà propabilmente sfidare  la Campionessa del Mondo russa Alexandra Kosteniuk.

CARUANA - RENET = 1-0  (1°turno - 14 Febbraio)

   

[Round "1"] [White "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Black "Renet, Olivier"]
[Result "1-0"] [ECO "C97"] [WhiteElo "2675"] [BlackElo "2522"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5 11. d4 Qc7 12. Nbd2 Bd7 13. Nf1 Nc4 14. Ng3 Rfb8 15. Nf5 Bxf5 16. exf5 exd4 17. cxd4 Re8 18. a4 Rad8 19. axb5 axb5 20. Bd3 d5 21. b3 cxd4 22. Bg5 Qb6 23. Ra2 h6 24. Bh4 Nd6 25. Qa1 Nde4 26. Ra6 Qb8 27. Qa5 Qf4 28. Bxb5 Rf8 29. Bg3 Qxf5 30. Nxd4 Qg6 31. Bd3 Rc8 32. Nc6 Bd8 33. Nxd8 Rfxd8 34. Bc7 Rd7 35. Bb6 Qg5 36. f3 Nd6 37. Ra8 g6 38. Be3 Qg3 39. Rxc8+ Nxc8 40.Bd4 Ne4 41. Rc1 Ned6 42. Qxd5 Rd8 43. Qe5 Qxe5 44. Bxe5 Ne8 45. Ba6 Nb6 46. b4 f6 47. Bg3 Rd2 48. b5 Nd5 49. Bb7 Kf7 50. Bc6 g5 51. Be1 Rd3 52. Rb1 Nd6 53. b6 Ne7 54. Ba8 1-0



1° turno: Caruana - Renet 1-0


Tuttavia le favorite per lo scudetto sono altre : in testa la squadra di Zurigo che nonostante non abbia potenziato per la prima volta dopo molti anni la prima scacchiera può comunque avvalersi di forti GM come Christian Bauer 2621 ELO, Yannick Pelletier 2602 e il vecchio ma sempre temibile Viktor Kortschnoi 2588. Si è comunque un po' indebolito privandosi del GM Jenni Florian, due volte campione elvetico

Anche la squadra di Reichenstein ha una media elo simile a quella di Zurigo ma probabilmente andrà  tenuto d'occhio il team di Lucerna, quest'anno molto attivo sul mercato acquisti-cessioni, che  ha deciso di affiancare a Robert Hübner 2616 e Rustem Dautow 2601 altri due forti GM, ovvero il rumeno GM Andrei Istratescu 2615 e il francese GM Romain Edouard 2608.

Da notare che nella National Liga B svizzera militano molti italiani nel team di Mendrisio, squadra favorita per la vittoria finale che ambisce a tornare nella Liga A:

Mendrisio - Zürich II 6½:1½ (Fressinet - Joa. Rosenthal 1:0, Godena - Jon. Rosenthal ½:½, Bellini 1:0 f., Borgo - Csajka 1:0, Sedina - Rohrer ½:½, Mantovani - Kummle 1:0, Aranovitch 1:0 f., Salvetti - Haufler ½:½).

RISULTATI 1° Turno del 14 Febbraio

Winterthur - Genf 5:3 (Caruana - Renet 1:0, Jussupow - Landenbergue 1:0, Forster - Mirallès ½:½, Kelecevic - Vuilleumier ½:½, Huss - Gerber ½:½, Schauwecker - Preissmann ½:½, Nuri - Duport ½:½, Gähwiler - Kovacevic ½:½).

Luzern - Zürich 2½:5½ (Kurmann - Bauer 0:1, Züger - Pelletier ½:½, Almada - Vogt ½:½, Räber - W. Hug 0:1, Lötscher - Goldstern ½:½, Gloor - Grünenwald 0:1, Wüest - M. Hug ½:½, Rusev - Friedrich ½:½).

Reichenstein - Tribschen 6:2 (Sokolow - Kaufmann 1:0, Volke - Strauss 1:0, Heimann - Nideröst ½:½, Eschbach - Lustenberger ½:½, Kühn - Cremer ½:½, Drabke - Gabersek 1:0, Wirthensohn - Herzog ½:½, V. Riff - Bellmann 1:0).

Wollishofen - Riehen 2½:5½ (Prusikin - Buss ½:½, O. Moor - Ekström 0:1, Hochstrasser - Kaenel ½:½, R. Moor - Brendel ½:½, Carron - Toth ½:½, Gähler - Aumann 0:1, Mäser - Giertz ½:½, Fierz - Schmidt-Schäffer 0:1).

Bern - Joueur Lausanne 3½:4½ (Flückiger - Tschernuschewitsch 0:1, A. Lehmann - Gallagher 0:1, Turdyev - Sermier ½:½, Lombard - Domont ½:½, M. Lehmann - Ch. Lamoureux ½:½, Gast - Serban 0:1, Kellenberger - Meyer 1:0, L. Rindlisbacher - Kusnezow 1:0).


2° TURNO il 21 Marzo


  • Tribschen – Wollishofen
  • Reichenstein – Bern
  • Zürich – Genève
  • Luzern – Riehen
  • Joueur – Winterthur

 


FORMAZIONI 2010

Zürich  (1):

GM Christian Bauer 2621 ELO, GM Yannick Pelletier 2602, GM Viktor Kortschnoi 2588, IM Werner Hug 2469, GM Lothar Vogt 2460, GM Lucas Brunner 2424, FM Jörg Grünenwald 2337, FM Marcel Hug 2322, FM Filip Goldstern 2321, FM Norbert Friedrich 2319.

Cessioni: GM Florian Jenni

Media ELO: 2446

Reichenstein (2):

GM Andrei Sokolow 2582, IM Jean-Noël Riff 2484, GM Vlastimil Hort 2463, IM Karsten Volke 2452, IM Andreas Heimann 2442, IM Lorenz Drabke 2431, Dennis Eschbach 2420, IM Peter Kühn 2412, IM Heinz Wirthensohn 2398, IM Christian Maier 2382.


Media ELO 2447 (Nr. 1).

Riehen (3):

GM Jörg Hickl 2610, GM Ognjen Cvitan 2518, IM Roland Ekström 2502, FM Ralph Buss 2407, IM Oliver Brendel 2359, IM Hansjürg Kaenel 2340, FM Matthias Rüfenacht 2334, FM Clemens Werner 2311, Welf Aumann 2309, IM Bela Toth 2307.

Cessioni: FM Christian Flückiger

Media ELO : 2400 (Nr. 5).

Lucerna (4)

GM Robert Hübner 2616, GM Andrei Istratescu 2615, GM Romain Edouard 2608, GM Rustem Dautow 2601, IM Beat Züger 2461, IM Oliver Kurmann 2453, IM Georg Danner 2429, FM Enrique Almada 2345, FM Roland Lötscher 2339, Roger Gloor 2297, (Markus Räber 2248).

Acquisti: GM Andrei Istratescu , GM Romain Edouard , IM Georg Danner , Roger Gloor

Cessioni: IM Severin Papa, IM Valery Atlas, IM Giulio Borgo

Media Elo (ohne Romain): 2440 (Nr. 3).

Wollishofen (5):

GM Michael Prusikin 2559, IM Olivier Moor 2416, IM Rico Zenklusen 2389, IM Michael Hochstrasser 2385, IM Julien Carron 2359, IM Roger Moor 2356, FM Felix Hindermann 2340, Marco Gähler 2327, FM Martin Fierz 2323, Andreas Umbach 2317.

Media ELO : 2377 (Nr. 8).

Joueur Losanna (6):

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk 2523, GM Alexei Tschernuschewitsch 2510, GM Anthony Kosten 2509, GM Joe Gallagher 2495, IM Guillaume Sermier 2424, IM Jean Netzer 2375, IM Charles Lamoureux 2345, FM Petri Lehtivaara 2337, IM Alexandre Domont 2322, FM Denis Bucher 2311, (Vlad Serban 2230).

Acquisti: IM Alexandre Domont

Cessioni: FM David Burnier

Media ELO : 2387 (Nr. 7).

Winterthur (7)

GM Fabiano Caruana 2675, GM Artur Jussupow 2611, IM Richard Forster 2430, FM Walter Bichsel 2371, IM Martin Ballmann 2369, FM Oliver Sutter 2366, Guido Schleicher 2327, FM Emanuel Schiendorfer 2322, FM Peter Szakolczai 2301, FM Urs Rüetschi 2297.

Acquisti: GM Fabiano Caruana Guido Schleicher

Media ELO 2407 (Nr. 4).

Genf (8):

GM Igor Khenkin 2590, GM Olivier Renet 2522, GM Gilles Mirallès 2464, FM François Fargère 2432, IM Claude Landenbergue 2409, IM Richard Gerber 2358, IM Alexandre Vuilleumier 2352, IM Emmanuel Preissmann 2303, Nicolas Duport 2247, Vladimir Kovacevic 2209.

Acquisti: GM Igor Khenkin , IM Emmanuel Preissmann

Cessioni: GM Sébastien Mazé  Flavio Pérez

Media ELO: 2389 (Nr. 6).

Berna (promossa):

IM Giancarlo Franzoni 2445, FM Christian Flückiger 2326, IM André Lombard 2319, Anvar Turdyev 2304, FM Andreas Lehmann 2302, FM Marco Lehmann 2292, FM Beat Neuenschwander 2249, FM Jonathan Gast 2204, Lukas Kulczyk 2194, Stéphane Kellenberger 2169.

Acquisti: FM Christian Flückiger

Media ELO : 2280 (Nr. 9).

Tribschen (promossa):

GM Falko Bindrich 2512, Jürgen Strauss 2284, Bruno Nideröst 2271, Werner Kaufmann 2242, Daniel Lustenberger 2240, Kevin Cremer 2175, Albert Gabersek 2140, Lukas Fischer 2134, Raphael Rölli 2098, Rambert Bellmann 2090.

Acquisti: GM Falko Bindrich

Media ELO: 2219 (Nr. 10).

 

SITO Campionato Svizzero SMM

Calendario 

 

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1722
2010-02-17T14:49:00+01:00
 
 
 
Elizabeth Vicary Tucson Chess Workshop

CHESS MOVIE (working title) from Rescued Media on Vimeo.

Hi everyone!

I just found out from the
9Queens web site that Elizabeth Vicary will be the host of a free chess workshop in Tucson on Saturday February 20.

Here is the announcement:

Tucson chess players, coaches, parents, teachers and enthusiasts come by Lineweaver Elementary School on Saturday February 20 to meet Elizabeth Vicary- nationally renowned chess teacher from IS 318 Brooklyn and star of the upcoming documentary Chess Movie. Beginning at 12 noon Elizabeth will answer questions and provide information on how to create and sustain your own chess club, regardless of your skill level or experience. For more information email jhoffman@9queens.org.

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.com
 
http://www.chessblog.com/2010/02/elizabeth-vicary-tucson-chess-workshop.html
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:54:00 +0000
 
 
 
Three more draws in round 4 Linares

Three more draws in fourth round LinaresThe standings in Linares remained unchanged after three more, and this time rather uneventful draws in round 4. Alexander Grischuk and Veselin Topalov maintained their shared lead, going into the first rest day.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin.

This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Round 4 report by Rick Goetzee

Topalov and Grischuk still in the lead
The patience of chess fans was put to the test at the start of today’s round as the opening moves came through with a 15 minute delay. Real addicts were trying to spot the moves on the webcam of the official tournament site. Then the moves came up on the same site and showed that Gelfand had played Qc4 on his first move after which Topalov replied with the strong 1…Bc6.

It later turned out that these moves were indeed played but only on the 9th move. Gashimov had allegedly played 1.d5 with White and it was clear from the webcam that Aronian was struggling to find a good reply to that move. Soon afterwards the technology was back working properly.

Gelfand-Topalov was a Catalan of which the first fifteen moves were copied from game 4 of the World Cup final in December. Like against Ponomariov, Gelfand chose a calm approach in an attempt to squeeze Topalov in the middlegame. It didn’t work out as planned as it was in fact Topalov who did the squeezing.

gelfand-topalov

It never amounted to much and the players reached an equal rook endgame. Play had to continue till the time control as draw offers before move 40 are not allowed. On move 40 the draw was agreed. Topalov must be very satisfied with the start of his campaign: three draws with Black and a nice win in his only game as White.

topalov

In Grischuk-Vallejo we saw one of the main lines of the 6.Ne5 Slav in which Black sacrifices a piece for three pawns. Grischuk took over an hour for 19.Kc2 and was in serious time trouble from move 25. Rather disappointingly, the game suddenly ended in a repetition of moves. According to GM Jon Speelman White could have run away with his king to g1, win the black b-pawn and push his c-pawn, with winning chances. With only a few minutes left on his clock Grischuk was probably happy to allow the move repetition.

grischuk-vallejo

Photos © María José Sánchez Rivera

Gashimov and Aronian played an Anti-Marshall and soon reached a queenless middlegame. Aronian slightly outplayed his opponent and got a better position because of his space advantage and better pieces. This was especially clear after thirty moves, when Speelman commented: ‘All black’s pieces are better than their white counterparts.’ Gashimov had to play accurately in time trouble and proved himself up to the task. After the time control a simply drawn endgame was reached.

Wednesday is a rest day with round 5 scheduled for Thursday 4pm local time.

Games round 4 with brief annotations

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Linares 2010 | Round 4 Standings


Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/three-more-draws-in-round-4-linares/
Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:05:12 +0000
 
 
 
Ciudad de Linares: diretta del IV turno

Per Topalov l'ostacolo Gelfand Live h.16

Dal 13 al 24 febbraio si disputa la 27^ edizione del torneo Ciudad di Linares. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale dove i lettori potranno commentare le partite. Domani  ci sarà il primo dei due giorni di riposo previsti.

Incontri del IV turno

Boris Gelfand 
   Veselin Topalov
Vugar Gashimov 
   Levon Aronian
Alexander Grischuk 
   Francisco Vallejo

Classifica dopo 3 turni
1. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2805 * * . . ½ . ½ . 1 . . . 2 2873
2. Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2736 . . * * ½ . . . ½ . 1 . 2 2892
3. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2781 ½ . ½ . * * ½ . . . . . 2748
4. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2705 ½ . . . ½ . * * . . ½ . 2782
5. Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2759 0 . ½ . . . . . * * ½ . 1 2642
6. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2761 . . 0 . . . ½ . ½ . * * 1 2608

Accoppiamenti del V turno

Veselin Topalov 
   Alexander Grischuk
Francisco Vallejo 
   Vugar Gashimov
Levon Aronian 
   Boris Gelfand

Regolamento

calendario i sei giocatori si affronteranno in un girone all'italiana con partite di andata e ritorno. I 10 turni si svolgeranno dal 13 al 24 febbraio, con inizio alle ore 16. Sono previsti due giorni di riposo, il 17 e il 22 febbraio.

tempo di riflessione 2h x 40, 1h per le 20 mosse successive e 30' per terminare la partita

SITI UTILI

sito ufficiale

partite commentate in diretta su Chessdom (in inglese)

Articolo di presentazione di Angelmann

FantaLinares 2010 di LightKnight


Visore

 
http://www.scacchierando.net/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=1724
2010-02-16T15:00:00+01:00
 
 
 
Peter Lalic Youtube Chess
From: Peter Lalic

"Hi!
I like your blog, and noticed that it has the intention to teach improving players.
Therefore, I am just wondering if you would be so kind to post a link to these chess videos:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4CF48F864CFA7853
Hopefully they are instructive. The latest games are presented with notation as well. Please take this as an example for consideration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIRBdyk3Obc
Thank you very much.
Peter"

I love to get these kind of e-mails. From my inbox directly to my friends that read the blog: PRESTO! ;-)

 
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Chessvine/~3/rrVmzQg0dIw/721-Peter-Lalic-Youtube-Chess.html
 
 
 
Echecs à Linares : la ronde 3 en Live à 16h
Veselin Topalov en compagnie du journaliste sportif russe Juri Vasiliev

La 27ème édition du prestigieux tournoi d'échecs de Linares (Espagne) se déroule du 13 au 25 Février.

Six super GMI s'affrontent en double ronde : Veselin Topalov (en photo), Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Boris Gelfand et Vugar Gashimov, qui défendra ses chances ici pour la première fois.

Le Direct Live La Webcam Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 16h + La Webcam + Les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

Les appariements de la ronde 3 :
Levon Aronian  2781 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805  
Boris Gelfand  2761 1/2 Francisco Vallejo  2705  
Vugar Gashimov 2759 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736  
Les résultats de la ronde 2 :
Veselin Topalov     2805  1-0  Vugar Gashimov     2759
Alexander Grischuk  2736  1-0  Boris Gelfand      2761
Francisco Vallejo   2705  1/2  Levon Aronian      2781  
Les résultats de la ronde 1 :
Levon Aronian       2781  1/2  Alexander Grischuk 2736
Boris Gelfand       2761  1/2  Vugar Gashimov     2759
Francisco Vallejo   2705  1/2  Veselin Topalov    2805
Pour en savoir plus: Le site officiel - Le Live sur Chessdom
 
http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/02/echecs-linares-la-ronde-3-en-live-16h.html
Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:10:00 +0000
 
 
 
Video Commemoration at The Drum

The Chess Drum celebrated its 9th year in existence on February 12th. I have just posted a commemorative video for the 9th Anniversary of The Chess Drum. Below is the 15-minute version. Enjoy!

The Chess Drum… Keeping the Beat for Nine Years!

 
http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2010/02/15/video-commemoration-at-the-drum/
Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:56:27 +0000
 
 
 
Free Chess Workshop with Elizabeth Vicary

CHESS MOVIE (working title) from Rescued Media on Vimeo.

Tucson chess players, coaches, parents, teachers and enthusiasts come by Lineweaver Elementary School on Saturday February 20 to meet Elizabeth Vicary- nationally renowned chess teacher from IS 318 Brooklyn and star of the upcoming documentary Chess Movie. Beginning at 12 noon Elizabeth will answer questions and provide information on how to create and sustain your own chess club, regardless of your skill level or experience. For more information email jhoffman@9queens.org

 
http://9queens.org/2010/02/16/free-chess-workshop-with-elizabeth-vicary/
Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:58:32 +0000
 
 
 
VIVE L'INSPIRATION !...

J'ai passé plusieurs heures de mes vacances à revoir et éplucher l'excellent livre de David LeMoir "comment devenir un super attaquant" (ne vous y trompez pas, malgré le titre, la couverture et les illustrations atrocement cuculs, ce livre est un must !) et j'ai l'impression qu'à force de voir les exploits de Tal, Alekhine et Kasparov, quelque chose finit par pénétrer dans nos cerveaux de joueurs (très) moyens ! Quelque chose que j'appellerais l'inspiration. Et ça marche ! Dans la position ci dessous, que je viens de jouer sur Buho devant la retransmission des JO, j'ai joué avec les blancs une combinaison imparable qui mériterait sûrement une entrée dans les " nouvelles tactiqueries" à moins que Philippe, imperturbable dans son rôle de juge-arbitre très British, ne juge la séquence trop "évidente". Je vous laisse juge : que jouez-vous avec les blancs dans cette position ? La réponse est dans la partie animée en fin de post.

inspiration_


La réponse animée :

inspiration.pgn

 
http://echecsvdm.canalblog.com/archives/2010/02/16/16928531.html
Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:45:00 GMT
 
 
 
Three draws in round 3 Linares

Three draws in third round LinaresAlexander Grischuk and Veselin Topalov maintained their shared lead in Linares after all round 3 games ended in a draw today. Don’t judge this round by the results, though, as all three games were highly interesting fights.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin.

This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Round 3 report by Rick Goetzee

Snow in Linares
There are reports that because of Global Warming the south of Spain will have a desert climate in thirty years from now. But the people from Linares are not too worried, as thirty years ago the same prediction was made and did not come true. And last night it was snowing!

Today there was heavy rainfall before the start of the round and it was a damp affair when the players took their places at the board. As usual there were not many spectators in the auditorium. But with the move from the Anibal Hotel to Teatro Cervantes there are more non-chess players in the audience, probably people taking a break from shopping. Today there was a young woman with her 3 year old daughter. The little girl was impressed by the typical atmosphere of a chess tournament and sat quietly in her seat staring at the stage. Later she was spotted in the press room eating cakes and cookies. When they left, she said to her mother: ‘I like it here, I want to come to your work more often.’

Another nice quote came from a visitor who said after the games had started: ‘Those pieces are really beautiful, I liked it when they were lined up. Now they are scattered all over the place; it looks very messy.’ Sometimes it’s nice to look at our game through the eyes of an outsider.

Gashimov-Grischuk was a repeat from the exciting game they played at the World Team Championships only a few weeks ago. In the Poisoned Pawn variation of the Sicilian Najdorf, Grischuk was the first to deviate, probably because his slightly artificial 15…Rh7 from that game can probably be answered by 16.g5. Today Gashimov proved to be well prepared but couldn’t claim an advantage; soon the game fizzled out into a draw.

gashimov-grischuk

Just when we wrote that the Benoni is a rare opening at this level, Veselin Topalov plays it. In the big encounter against Aronian the Bulgarian sacrificed a pawn with 22…b5 today. It looked pretty, but a few accurate moves later Aronian was clearly on top. White should probably have gone for e5-e6 somewhere; in the game Topalov got away with a draw by defending brilliantly. Just look at this one:

aronian-topalov

38…Nd6!! amazingly held the game.

aronian-topalov

In a Slav, Vallejo’s set-up against could have backfired at an early stage, but Gelfand didn’t see it. With 17.Bxd7+! Kxd7 18.Rd1! White suddenly threatens to win the black queen with Rd1-d4, to which there doesn’t really seem to be an adequate defence. In the game Gelfand got a probably winning advantage anyway, but like Topalov, Vallejo managed to defend the game to a draw by using all the tactics available. Both Aronian and Gelfand will be disappointed after today’s round…

gelfand-vallejo

Photos © María José Sánchez Rivera

Games round 3 with brief annotations

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Linares 2010 | Round 3 Standings


Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/three-draws-in-round-3-linares/
Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:04:42 +0000
 
 
 
Grischuk and Topalov win in second round Linares

Three draws in first round LinaresAlexander Grischuk and Veselin Topalov both won their White games in Linares today, after their opponents erred in close to equal positions. The two share the lead after two rounds.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin.

This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Round 2 report by Rick Goetzee

Blood has been shed
The reactions to the first round in Linares were not very positive. Disappointment about the diminished number of participants, unhappiness with the uneventful draws and frustration with the tournament website. Grumbling chess lovers all over the Internet, probably spoiled too much by the Corus coverage. There was also confusion about the 26 move draw in Aronian-Grischuk. What about the Sofia rules? This was clarified during the day. The players had asked the arbiter for permission to declare the game drawn. A more lenient version of the Sofia rules seems to be used in Linares, which makes a lot of sense.

Hopefully the reactions to the second round will be more positive as blood was shed in two of the three games. Defending champion Grischuk beat World Cup winner Gelfand from a Nimzo-Indian opening. It seems the Nimzo is making a revival at the top level; 3.Nc3 is being seen more and more. On ICC Chess.FM, GM Jan Gustafsson joked that he thought 3.Nc3 was indeed a good move, although he preferred 3.Nf3 avoiding the pin.

GM Varuzhan Akobian praised Grischuk’s energetic play starting with 14.Qe4 and said that Gelfand will have mixed feelings about taking with the knight on the 13th move. In the middlegame Gelfand kept White’s advantage to a minimum, until he made a big mistake on move 29. White’s threats of Qh4, Rg3 and Bh6-g5-f6 had to be answered by 29…Rc7. Grischuk’s 32.a5! was surprisingly strong as Black was suddenly in some kind of Zugzwang. Black’s last chance was to give the queen, but that looks winning for White too.

grischuk-gelfand

Topalov beat newcomer Gashimov in an untheoretical Chebanenko Slav. Akobian commented that White’s set-up must be one of Topalov’s back-up openings and that he will choose sharper systems in the match against Anand. Still, the Bulgarian slowly increased the pressure on his opponent and was able to exploit the unsafe position of Gashimov’s king in a queen and rook endgame.

topalov-gashimov

Vallejo and Aronian drew a Berlin Wall, “old style”. Aronian went for the old main line 9…Ke8 and his follow-up with …b6 and …Bb7 is yet another (but more than 30 years old) idea in this intriguing ending. The Spaniard had a slight advantage because of Black’s undeveloped rook on h8. After Aronian found a way to free his rook (especially 18…g6! was accurate) an opposite-coloured bishop ending arose with a worthless extra pawn for Vallejo.

vallejo-aronian

Photos © María José Sánchez Rivera

Finally a word on the playing venue which is Teatro Cervantes in the heart of the city. For many years the playing venue was the ballroom of Rentero’s Hotel Anibal. Since 2008 they have moved to Cervantes, which is a more suitable venue for players and press. In Anibal there was always a pillar in the way if you wanted to follow all games at the same time. A shuttle service is in place to bring the players from the hotel to the playing venue but most make the 15 minute journey by foot.

Games round 2 with brief annotations

Game viewer by ChessTempo


Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Linares 2010 | Round 2 Standings


Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/grischuk-and-topalov-win-in-second-round-linares/
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:33:22 +0000
 
 
 
Weekly Endgame Study (156)

Weekly Endgame StudyEvery week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!

E. Pogosjants
1970

White to play and win

Next week the solution.


Solution last week

V. Kalandadze
1962

Game viewer by ChessTempo

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/weekly-endgame-study/weekly-endgame-study-156/
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:16:09 +0000
 
 
 
Chess TV Episode 284



Hello everyone!

I'd like to share with you episode 284 of CHESS TV, which talks about:
• Extreme Chess
• Accelerated Dragon opening
• my game against Judit Polgar
• Caissa FIDE Award
• Aruna Anand inspection report
• Other Chess news

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.com


 
http://www.chessblog.com/2010/02/chess-tv-episode-284.html
Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:47:00 +0000
 
 
 
Peaceful start in Linares

Three draws in first round LinaresThe Linares tournament started peacefully today, with draws on all three boards. Topalov surprised Vallejo with a Breyer against the Spaniard’s Ruy Lopez and easily equalized. Grischuk needed a lot of time on the clock, but was also doing fine with Black against Aronian in a 4.f3 Nimzo ending. Gelfand had some advantage against Gashimov’s Benoni but just before the first time control a drawn ending was reached.

The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin.

This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time.

Linares 2010 | Pairings and results


Round 1 report by Rick Goetzee

The famous Linares tournament is on its way again. It is true that the event has lost some of its aura and some say that Corus has taken over as the Wimbledon of chess, but it is still one of the greatest tournaments around. And not only because of its history. It’s quite remarkable how the organisers have kept the event alive through great adversity and without corporate sponsorship. In the last year they had to deal with the economic recession and voices in the local government challenging the decision to invest in a chess tournament. Also the plan to host the first half of the tournament in Dubai fell through. Despite all this, the Linares organizers have secured this famous event for another year.

The field once consisted of 14 players, but since 2006 (after Kasparov retired) there have been eight players, competing in a double round robin. This year, because of financial constraints, it went down to six. While this is a pity it puts it on par with the Grand Slam tournaments in Sofia and Nanjing. Only Corus still has 14 players in their A-group.

One of the consequences of a relatively small field is that the tournament is very strong. In Wijk aan Zee there were a few players (predominantly the local ones) who acted as the rabbits in the field, as GM Joel Benjamin referred to them on ICC’s Chess.FM. In Linares the only local player is Vallejo Pons but with a rating of 2705 he can hardly be called a rabbit.

stage

Although he has always been a top player, it’s been already 13 years since Boris Gelfand has last played in Linares. In the polls before the start of the tournament Aronian was the favourite, undoubtedly because Topalov will have the upcoming world championship match in the back of his mind.

The opening ceremony on Friday was short but entertaining with flamenco dancers and Spanish traditional music. The first round started on Saturday at 4pm which is quite late compared to other tournaments. It must have to do with the great Spanish tradition of ‘la siesta’.

All games were drawn in the first round. Vallejo-Topalov lasted 41 moves after a Ruy Lopez opening, Breyer variation. This solid system isn’t something Topalov regularly plays, and Vallejo was probably not well prepared for it. The Spaniard chose an old system but got nothing, and after many exchanges Topalov couldn’t play for a win either.

vallejo-topalov

Aronian-Grischuk was a Nimzo-Indian with 4.f3, the system popularized by Fritz Sämisch. White’s move 8.Qd2 led the game into a position that was popular in the 50s (!) and Grischuk used a lot of time in the opening, but he was able to solve all his problems. In fact if anyone was better it was Black, who could have tried 19…N7e5 if he’d had more time. After 26 moves the players shook hands. Aronian only used 40 minutes for the whole game.

aronian-grischuk

The most interesting game of the day was Gelfand-Gashimov. The Azerbaijan GM went for his favourite Benoni, an opening we don’t see very often in the elite tournaments. According to GM Benjamin this is a sign of the new philosophy of modern top players. Chess is becoming more of a sport than a science. A fight over the board is preferred over home preparation.

Well, in any case Gelfand was, as so often, very well prepared. The World Cup winner went for the 7.Bf4 line, and knew all ins and outs of Gashimov’s pawn sacrifice on move 9. Gashimov always seemed to have compensation, but was it enough? White’s bishops looked very strong. Eventually Black won his pawn back and the game ended after 54 moves with a repetition of moves in a knight and bishop ending.

gelfand-gashimov

Photos © María José Sánchez Rivera

The pairings for the 2nd round on Sunday are Topalov-Gashimov, Grischuk-Gelfand and Vallejo-Aronian.

Games round 1 with brief annotations

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

 
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/peaceful-start-in-linares/
Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:34:37 +0000
 
 
 
Echecs à Linares : la ronde 2 en Live à 16h
Le Direct Live La Webcam Les parties d'échecs à visualiser Les parties d'échecs à télécharger Le Direct Live à 16h + La Webcam + Les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger

La 27ème édition du prestigieux tournoi d'échecs de Linares (Espagne) se déroule du 13 au 25 Février.

Six super GMI s'affrontent en double ronde : Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Boris Gelfand et Vugar Gashimov, qui défendra ses chances ici pour la première fois.

Les appariements de la ronde 2 : 

Veselin Topalov     2805  -  Vugar Gashimov     2759
Alexander Grischuk  2736  -  Boris Gelfand      2761
Francisco Vallejo   2705  -  Levon Aronian      2781  
Les résultats de la ronde 1 :

Levon Aronian       2781 1/2 Alexander Grischuk 2736
Boris Gelfand       2761 1/2 Vugar Gashimov     2759
Francisco Vallejo   2705 1/2 Veselin Topalov    2805
Pour en savoir plus: Le site officiel - Le Live sur Chessdom
 
http://www.chess-and-strategy.com/2010/02/echecs-linares-la-ronde-2-en-live-16h.html
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:29:00 +0000
 
 
 
multiples interrogations interface fritz 12 ?
Bonsoir à tous.

je continue mon stage intensif de formation aux interfaces recentes de fritz ! ( mes connaissances remontaient à 5 ans ! ) ...

- question 1 : j'ai decouvert sous l'interface Fritz 12 une option ( nouvelle ? ) : choisir deux types de bases de finales : soit celle de la GUI , soit /et  celle du module ....

Patrick, peux- tu allumer ma lanterne s'il te plait ?

si je ne me trompe pas, les fichiers  tables de finales de nalinov sont gérées par la GUI , et le moteur les utilise si il le peut . je suppose qu'il s'agit de l'option bases de finales GUI.

Ensuite il y a le fichier mate210 fournit avec fritz : c'est uniquement le module de resolution de mat ou bien est il utilisé poour une finale Tour et roi / roi par exemple ? ce fichier est utilisé par fritz seulement ?

Ensuite il y a le cas de shredder : il possede à coté de son moteur .eng et .dll , d'autres fichiers mysterieux ( un dossier shredderbases et des fichiers pl2 ?) .

j'ignore ce qu'est le fichier pl2 , mais le dossier shredderbases contienr les finales 3et4 pieces. seul le moteur shredder peut il utiliser ce dossier ? c'est cela les tables de modules ?

enfin pour en revenir à fritz 12 lui meme , il y a lors de l'inscription d'un moteur à un tournoi , une case à cocher tablebases . De quoi s'agit - il ? des tables de nalinov si elles sont presentes ou d'autre chose ?

-Question 2 : est il posible avec l'interface fritz 12 d'organiser et de programmer plusieurs matchs en tete à tete entre plusieurs modules en creant une file d'attente par exemple .??

Le mode tournoi ne convient pas , le mode simultanée non plus, et le mode match entre moteur ne permet que de choisir deux moteurs pour une confrontation , sans possibilité de creer une file d'attente .

je voudrais par exemple faire jouer la nuit ( sans moi !) :

match moteurA vs MoteurB en deux parties , puis match moteurC vs moteurD en deux parties , etc etc avec des moteurs E F G H ....

est ce possible ?


merci d'avance , cordialement

thierry .

PS , un magnifique tournoi va debuter dans quelques jours  : CCT12 sur ICC avec plein de vedettes ( Junior, Shredder, etc etc et les meilleurs gratuits !)

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