The European Championship gold medal winners were already known (Nepomniachtchi and Cramling), but for deciding the other medals and World Cup qualifiers, tiebreak matches were played on Thursday in Rijeka. We bring you the results and some statistics.

The 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship was held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new Zamet Centre sports hall. The event was 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 was also no limit of participants per federation.

The championship was an 11-round Swiss in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The rate of play was 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 was a qualification event for the next World Cup.

Tiebreaks

On Thursday tiebreaks were played to establish the silver and bronze medal in the open section, the bronze medal in the women’s section and to establish the qualifiers for the World Cup. Jobava beat Timofeev in the first tiebreak game and then drew the second to claim silver.

Jobava (r.) beat Timofeev with Black in game 1 of the tiebreak

The results of the other tiebreaks:

2nd round

You can download all women’s tiebreak’s results in PDF here.

The following 23 players qualified for the next World Cup:

• Nepomiachtchi, Jobava, Timofeev (numbers 1-3)
• Efimenko, Lysyj, Almasi, Tomashevsky, Rodshtein, Salgado Lopez, Pashikian (numbers 4-10)
• Mamedov, Movsesian, Drozdovskij, Babula, Vorobiov, Akopian, Nisipeanu, Alekseev, Socko, Grachev, Halkias, Potkin (tiebreak winners)

From the women’s section Cramling, Cmilyte, Socko, T. Kosintseva, Sebag, Zhukova, Dembo, Stefanova, A. Muzychuk, N. Kosinsteva, M. Muzycduk Kovalevskaya, Ziazulkina and Rajlich qualified.

We received some interesting statistics and quotes in a last press release from the organizers:

Rijeka’s Championship in quotes and numbers

Yesterday, March 18th the 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship ended in Rijeka. As you already know, the gold was won by the 20-year old Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi and by Swedish GM Pia Cramling.

The Championship achieved various records, and here are some of the numbers. Total of 566 chess players from 41 European countries participated in Rijeka. 440 players with a chess title, 196 of them Grandmasters, as well as 158 players female chess players, 134 of them with a chess title.

Now, here are some of the details about matches played in Rijeka: total of 3.078 matches were played and 2.088 or 68% of them ended by win or loss situation. Only 32% of the matches resulted with a draw. A total of 41 norms for titles of man and women Grandmasters and International masters were won at both tournaments. A total of 8 male and 1 female player have won a norm for the title of a Grandmaster. 23 male chess players qualified for the World Cup and 14 female players qualified for the World Championships.

This Championship will be remembered by the large number of visitors who watched 75 broadcasted matches every day. Up to now, our web site was visited more than two million times. March 11th, was a record day, when there was more than 200.000 visitors. Some 1.500 visitors passed through the sport’s hall of the Centre Zamet.

Here are some of the quotes about this Championship:

Anatoly Karpov, ex World Champion: “I was at Croatia 30 years ago, and the organization of this Championship in Rijeka delighted me. The organizers provided ideal conditions for a large number of players and so I congratulate them for the excellent organization“.

Georgios Makropoulos, FIDE Deputy President: “This is the best organized European Individual Chess Championship, because excellent accomodation and playing conditions are provided for all players.

Boris Kutin, ECU President: “No championship has ever received as many compliments as this one in Rijeka. This is surely the best one.”

Zoltan Almasi, GM: “This is the strongest European Championship ever and as well the best organized championship for sure. Opatija is a very nice place and I fell excellent here.”

Ian Nepomniachtchi, GM: “I love this country and I must admit that I was warmly welcomed in Croatia. This is a country full of friendly individuals. Conditions for the game are also great.”

Pia Cramling, GM: “This is my first time in Croatia and I am really enjoying. Everything is nice here and it is my great pleasure to play in Rijeka. It is very important for men and women to play together so that’s why this sports hall is ideal for this tournament.”

Victoria Cmilyte, WGM : “I think this is the best competition ever. Opatija is a beautiful place, and the hall is ideal for playing chess. All this has made this championship very special and unique.”

All tiebreak games

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Silver, gold, bronze: Baadur Jobava, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Artyom Timofeev

Silver, gold, bronze: Viktorija Cmilyte, Pia Cramling, Monica Socko

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Links

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Ladies of Tucson- do not miss a spectacular 9 Queens Academy this Sunday, March 21 from 2-4 pm at Bookmans on Grant and Campbell. National Master Leo Martinez will be teaching a tantalizing lesson on winning tempo in the opening, while expert Amanda Mateer will show you how to make the most out of exchanging pieces (especially the Queen). This workshop is free and open to female chess players of all ages and abilities. Many thanks to Bookmans for their continued sponsorship of our 9 Queens Academy Series. If you haven’t seen it, check out this great video from Bookmans featuring 9 Queens at the Tucson Festival of Books. So much fun!

On his 41st birthday Vasily Ivanchuk defeated Jan Smeets 1.5-0.5 at the Amber tournament in Nice. Because Magnus Carlsen won one and lost one against Sergey Karjakin, Ivanchuk is now half a point ahead of Carlsen and Gelfand, who beat Aronian 2-0.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 5

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Round 5 report

Vasily Ivanchuk grabs lead on 41st birthday
In round 5 of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk, who celebrated his 41st birthday today, grabbed the sole lead in the overall standings with a 1½-½ win over Jan Smeets. Magnus Carlsen saw a winning streak of seven consecutive wins interrupted by Sergey Karjakin. The Norwegian top-seed is now in second place together with Boris Gelfand, who defeated Leinier Dominguez 2-0 (scoring his fourth consecutive win in the process).

Yesterday the participants of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament enjoyed a free day. Some of them stayed at the hotel to recharge their batteries, others joined an excursion to Gourdon, an age-old mountain village perched on a rock 780 meters above sea-level with a splendid view of the surrounding natural scenery and of Nice at a distance of some 10 kilometres (the ride there was obviously longer and lasted about an hour). The excursion included a visit to the local museum and a relaxed lunch on the outside terrace of Le Nid d’Aigle.

At the end of the afternoon the players who took part in the excursion returned to the Palais de la Méditerranée, where in the evening they were joined by their colleagues at a Quiz evening. The theme of the evening was Movies (with questions about chess interspersed) and we can reveal that Ruslan Ponomariov, who was on the winning team, astounded all and sundry with his passionate rendition of We Are the Champions. And then today, at 14.30 it was back to chess again with the games of the fifth round.

After he had won the blindfold game against Leinier Dominguez, Boris Gelfand was full of praise for his opponent’s opening play. Without going into any detail (he preferred the telling stock phrase ‘future games will have to shed more light on this variation’) Gelfand explained that the complications had been big and that he was suffering a pawn down at the ‘end’ of the opening. But Dominguez’ problem was to find a way to convert his material and this proved not so easy. And searching for a plan he got confused by the sudden advance of Black’s e-pawn that started marching down the board. Things were still fine for White, but the Cuban panicked and before he knew it he was lost.
The opening in the rapid game again was highly complicated and although in various instances the computer prefers Black, Gelfand had full confidence in the white side. To his mind his opponent went astray with 24…Rd8, where he could have stayed in the game with the ‘beautiful idea’ (Gelfand’s words) 24…Rd3 25.Nf2 Rxf3 26.gxf3 f5. Now things went rapidly downhill for Black and after 30.Qa4 Gelfand believed that he was close to winning. The game lasted another 36 moves, but indeed the result was never in any doubt and Gelfand scored his fourth consecutive win.

Vugar Gashimov and Alexander Grischuk conducted a tense battle in the Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Najdorf, with White going for the less usual 8.Qd3. White seemed to have a promising initiative and Gashimov’s hopes were rising, when Grischuk found the beautiful defending move 28…Kh7, that essentially saved the draw.
In the rapid game they also repeated the opening they had played in Linares last month and with Gashimov behind the black pieces it’s no big surprise that we saw another Benoni. The novelty came on move 12, when instead of 12…Nh5, the Azeri grandmaster now played 12…b5, an improvement he was most pleased with. Black got a fine game, but White remained ambitious and in the end it was the Russian’s wish to keep on playing on that did him in. After he had repeated moves several times (in different positions) Grischuk finally fell for the trap that Gashimov had spied many moves ago and when White proceeded 43.Bb5, Black’s answer 43…Rxc7 came very quickly.

Vladimir Kramnik scored a convincing win against Ruslan Ponomariov in their blindfold game, although he wasn’t too impressed by his achievement. To his mind Ponomariov had simply forgotten to play 6…d6 (as Ponomariov was happy to explain he had already played this exact variation without …d6, way back in 1997 against Volkov amongst others; ‘it used to be one of my specialties at the time’), which gave White a considerable space advantage. He also was critical of Black’s 10…dxe5 and believed that Black’s best chance on move 15 was 15…Bxc3+ 16.Qxc3 Qxb5, as after 15…Kg7? 16.0-0 he felt that White was almost winning. What Black probably missed was that 16…Nf6 would have been answered by 17.Bh6+ Kxh6 18.Qe3+. The remainder of the game Kramnik played with a steady hand and Ponomariov never got a chance to turn the tide again.
After the blindfold game Ponomariov mused that he should not have played so adventurously and that it was wiser to strive for a healthy position, solidly developing your pieces and all that. But once he sat down for the rapid game he had already forgotten about most of this wisdom and went for wild adventures again with 12.Be5 and 13.Bd3. Further on 20.Qa1 was not fortunate choice and 21.Rb1 was a blunder that practically immediately cost him the game.

Perhaps the question most people were asking themselves at the start of the blindfold game between Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen was whether the Norwegian would continue his winning streak or that the Ukrainian would slow him down. And indeed, despite the fact that he had the black pieces Carlsen managed to win his seventh consecutive game. In a first reaction he called it ‘a good game’ and it was certainly impressive how he first solved his opening problems and next started to look for more. By the time he had played 23…Nxe3 followed by 24…Bf2, he felt he got a grip on the position. He was even more pleased when Karjakin let himself be tempted to play 34.Bxg6, as he had sharply calculated the consequences of his move. Still, it wasn’t clear if Black’s advantage was winning, but with Karjakin in severe time-trouble and the pressure building up on him he faced an arduous task. Carlsen wasn’t entirely sure if he had played the queen endgame perfectly, but the way he played it was enough to score another point.
Carlsen’s winning streak ended in the rapid game. Dithering opening play didn’t bring him anything and when Karjakin stepped up his counterplay, dark clouds gathered over the white position. Carlsen tried his best to muddy the waters but in fact his fate was sealed well before the end of the game.

Levon Aronian and Peter Svidler played a blindfold game that the latter called ‘wildly exciting’ and who would argue with that? In a sharp anti-Grünfeld system Black was reluctant to go for the endgame that would have arisen after 11…Qxd1+ even if a brief look afterwards convinced him that there was nothing wrong with it for him. When he played 11…Qe7+ he had missed White’s 12.Bb5+ and wild (indeed) complications began. Initially Black’s position looked under threat but with 21…Qe4 Black took over the initiative. But White crawled back into the game and a manoeuvring phase ended in a drawish position. At this point, however, Aronian had little time left and lost control. First he spurned a repetition of moves and next he put his queen en prise.
After he’d also won the rapid game, Svidler suppressed his happiness with the words ‘Today Levon had one of those days that I normally have’. Aronian’s opening turned out badly when he played 12…Re8, where moves like 12…Be6 or 12…Bd7 were called for, and was punished by 13.Nb5. Still, Svidler didn’t continue in the most powerful manner. To his mind, if he had gone 15.Qd2 Bf5 16.Rfe1, the game ‘wouldn’t have lasted twenty moves’. Now Aronian could fight back and with 18…Be4 19.Rf2 Rxf2 20.Kxf2 Qh4+ 21.Kg1 Qg4 22.Qg3 Qxg3 he would have had the worst behind him. Now White was soon in the driver’s seat again and hauled in the point without too many problems.

Jan Smeets and Vasily Ivanchuk went down a long line of Caro-Kann theory in their blindfold game. Today was Ivanchuk’s birthday (he turned 41), but Smeets had obviously no wish to present any gifts and although Black was slightly better in the endgame that appeared on the board, the Dutchman confidently secured the draw. At the very end of the game he even came close to a win on time when Ivanchuk had lost track of his bishop, but after a series of tentative mouse clicks the Ukrainian managed to trace it (if the players made an ‘impossible’ move the note ‘illegal move’ appears on their screen; there are no sanctions, however, so they can keep searching for a piece or pawn as long as you want, provided you have enough time).
In the rapid game, a Four Knights’ Opening, Smeets at first didn’t have any real problems either. But an ill-advised queen excursion on the queenside, while White was advancing menacingly on the kingside cost him dearly. His kingside proved much more vulnerable than it had appeared at first sight and within a few moves he had to resign.

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Sixème ronde ce vendredi du tournoi d'échecs Melody Amber 2010 qui se tient au Palais de la Méditerranée à Nice du 13 au 25 mars.

L'Ukrainien Ivanchuk mène avec 7,5 points sur 10. Pour ses 41 ans, nous avons décidé de lui offrir un tube planétaire du groupe Gossip. Bon anniversaire, Chucky !

Résumé de la ronde 5 : Belle opération hier pour Vassily Ivanchuk qui s'impose 1,5-0,5 face au GMI néerlandais Jan Smeets. De son côté, le Norvégien Magnus Carlsen n'aura pu qu'annuler 1-1 face à Karjakin. Du coup, Ivanchuk passe en tête du tournoi le jour de son anniversaire.

After many draws in the penultimate round, Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) defeated Vladimir Akopian (Armenia) in the last round and won the gold medal at the European Championship in Rijeka. The women’s section was won by Swedish GM Pia Cramling, who beat Viktorija Cmilyte (Lithuania) in the last round.

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 an 11-round Swiss 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 10-11

With draws on the first seven boards in round 10, nothing changed in the top of the standings in Rijeka. Ian Nepomnaichtchi went into the final round in sole lead, and no less than seven GMs were chasing him with half a point less. Some GMs in Nice expected the last round’s top game Nepomniachtchi-Akopian to quickly end in a draw (since both would be sure of a good prize and qualification for the World Cup) but that’s not what happened.

Nepomniachtchi-Akopian
Position after 23.Rec1

Pia Cramling had a very strong finish, drawing with Socko and then beating Khurtsidze, Stefanova and Cmilyte in rounds 8-11. The decisive game went like this:

Cramling-Cmilyte
Position after 24.Ne4

27…a4

28.Nd7! Rh8 29.Rd6

And so for the gold medals in both sections no tiebreak is needed. In the women’s section the silver medal goes to Viktorija Cmilyte, who was the only one to score 8.5/11.

Thursday tiebreaks will be played to establish the silver and bronze medal in the open section, the bronze medal in the women’s section and to establish the qualifiers for the World Cup.

Selection of games rounds 10-11

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Links

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After winning 2-0 one more time, today against Smeets, Carlsen joined Vasily Ivanchuk in the lead in Nice. The Ukrainian on his turn defeated Aronian 1.5-0.5, while Kramnik went down 2-0 against Gelfand.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 4

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Round 4 report

Magnus Carlsen catches up with Vasily Ivanchuk after third 2-0 wipe-out
After four rounds of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Magnus Carlsen and Vasily Ivanchuk are tied for first in the overall standings with 6 points from 8 games. The Ukrainian grandmaster defeated last year’s winner Levon Aronian 1½-½. Magnus Carlsen continued his remarkable comeback after he lost 2-0 to Ivanchuk in Round 1. The world’s number one defeated Jan Smeets 2-0, raising his number of consecutive wins to six. Manifold Amber winner Vladimir Kramnik suffered a highly atypical 2-0 defeat at the hands of Boris Gelfand. Perhaps typical for the fighting spirit of the round was the fact that 5 out the 6 rapid games were won by black.
Tomorrow, March 17, is a rest day. Play is resumed Thursday March 18 with Round 5.

Magnus Carlsen was understandably ambitious to continue his winning streak in his blindfold game against bottom-seed Jan Smeets. Despite a modest opening set-up (that started with 1.g3) he indeed got an edge, but there was no reason for Black to despair yet. Afterwards Carlsen commented that had Smeets just stayed put, instead of becoming active with 31…Rc3, he didn’t see how he could have made progress. Smeets’ action was based on a miscalculation. After 32…Rxc4 the only reply he had counted on was 33.Rd6+, but instead Carlsen dealt a killer blow with 33.Bg5. Three moves later Black resigned, raising Carlsen’s winning streak to five.
In the rapid game the Norwegian also scored his sixth consecutive win, but this time he really had to squeeze water from a stone. After the opening he was slightly worse, but he kept looking for his chances, collecting one minimal asset after the other. On move 33 there was a minuscule victory when he exchanged his knight for a bishop and with 38…g5 he made a brave winning attempt, as he let the white c-pawn on the board. Objectively speaking all his tries would have been in vain had Smeets kept his cool, but low and time and feeling the pressure the Dutchman finally succumbed. As late as move 54 he still could have made a draw with 54.Nh2 as this saves an essential tempo compared to the move he played, 54.Nf2.

The blindfold game between tournament leader Vasily Ivanchuk and defending champion Levon Aronian suddenly ended when the board was still full of pawns and pieces when on move 25 White offered a draw. In a slightly unorthodox Ruy Lopez it seemed that Black had obtained a good game, but Aronian wasn’t so sure. When he was asked why he had accepted the draw, he simply replied: ‘Because I am worse.’ And he elaborated that his pieces might look nice and active, but that White can slowly continue h3, Rd1 and c4, and on top of that he didn’t like the g5-h4 pawn-structure on the kingside either.
In the rapid game Ivanchuk maintained the (shared) lead with a fine win with the black pieces. A speculative piece sacrifice by Aronian (19.Nxe6) for three pawns and the initiative failed to impress and although the game remained complicated Ivanchuk hauled in the point with determined and precise play.

In the blindfold game between Peter Svidler and Sergey Karjakin a tense Sicilian with chances for both sides saw an untimely and unfortunate end when on move 42, White put a knight en prise. Following his resignation yesterday against Carlsen when there was still everything to play for, this was a new blow for the Russian grandmaster.
Svidler found some consolation in a well-played rapid game that finally brought him a win again. In his beloved Grünfeld Defence he believed that his 12…Rd8 was a safe road to equality, but it required accurate play. Instead of 17…g5 he could also have played 17…c4, but he felt more attracted to the push of the g-pawn. Karjakin felt optimistic about his chances when he won a pawn, but in fact this materialistic decision spelled disaster, as very soon the black pieces assembled for a strong attack. One nice line that didn’t appear on the board was 24.Bf2 (in the game 24.Bd7 was played) 24…Nxf3 25.Bg3 Qxg3! 26.hxg3 Rh6+ 27.Kg2 Rh2 mate. The end of the game was less drastic, but nevertheless there was no escaping for White.

Boris Gelfand didn’t hide his contentment after he had won his blindfold game against Vladimir Kramnik. ‘It’s always nice to win against such a great player’, he almost humbly commented. The Israeli grandmaster more or less blamed Black’s defeat on the opening system he had chosen, the Bg4-system that is mainly popular among some Azeri players. One of the ideas of the black approach is the exchange sacrifice on e3 that also happened in this game. Gelfand wasn’t convinced of its correctness and suggested Black should have looked for something else at that point. He pointed out the sad offside position of the black knight on c7 in particular and quoted Tarrasch who said that if one piece doesn’t take part in the play there’s something wrong with the entire position. Gelfand was satisfied with his plan Bd1 and Ne2 which allowed him to cement his advantage and slowly but surely win the game.
In the rapid game Kramnik was perhaps too cautious in his approach, certainly if he had clear plans to level the score, and this seriously backfired. Playing actively Gelfand freely advanced his pawns and directed his pieces to active positions. Objectively speaking, White was not yet in trouble, but Black’s position was much more pleasant and easy to play. Gradually the black pressure built up and following a blunder, 31.Rc2, Kramnik soon had to throw in the towel. An impressive achievement by Gelfand.

Ruslan Ponomariov seemed determined to blow up Vugar Gashimov’s Benoni Defence in their blindfold game and judging by the comments of the kibitzing grandmasters in the hospitality lounge he was soon on his way to realize that objective. But then the Benoni is a resilient customer and although his position looked highly suspect, Gashimov seemed to have no wish to surrender without a fight. He stayed afoot in the complications and he could have even taken over the initiative if instead of 31…Rh8+ he had gone 31…Rxf4 32.Rxf4 Qh6+. But soon he was in the driver’s seat anyway when White first missed the winning continuations 32.Kg2 and next 32.Kg1. Instead the players ended up in a rook ending with one pawn (white) against two. This they played on for many more moves until on move 68 the computer indicated a threefold repetition and the game was drawn.
The rapid game was a protracted battle in which the balance was not really disturbed for a long time. Nevertheless, Gashimov managed to upset the equilibrium in the endgame and score his second win in the tournament.

Alexander Grischuk was clearly satisfied after his blindfold win against Leinier Dominguez and he had every reason to. In a Sicilian Najdorf that his opponent had clearly prepared (Dominguez blitzed out his first 18 moves), the Russian champion was in a creative mood and managed to create attacking chances with pointed play. Probably the key moment of the game was the point where White played 23.Qh5, a move that Black had missed and that netted White the important f7 pawn. Grischuk kept playing strong and incisive chess and after 63 moves he had earned a well-deserved point.
The rapid game also saw a Najdorf, but (not surprisingly) a different line. Dominguez’ troubles started when early on in the opening he played his knight to d5 and shortly afterwards had to withdraw it to c3 again, losing two precious tempi. Grischuk obtained a comfortable game and it was impressive to see how he gradually exploited his advantage to score his second win of the day.

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With two rounds to go, Ian Nepomniachtchi is in sole lead at the European Individual Championship. The Russian GM scored 7.5/9. In the women’s section Viktorija Cmilyte leads with the same score.

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 an 11-round Swiss 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 8-9

Baadur Jobava continued strongly in round 8, with a nice victory over Hungarian GM Zoltan Almasi.

Jobava-Almasi
Position after 15…bxc5

The other leader after 7 rounds, Ukrainian Zahar Efimenko, drew relatively quickly with Armenian grandmaster Vladimir Akopian. Ivan Sokolov and Ian Nepomniachtchi won their games and joined Efimenko at second place. The Russian GM did it with a nice sacrifice:

Nepomniachtchi-Inarkiev
Position after 32…Rb6

Another pretty game from round 8 was the folllowing.

Svetushkin-Landa
Position after 12…Qxb2

Yesterday, on the top board of round 9, Ian Nepomniachtchi grabbed sole lead:

Nepomniachtchi-Jobava
Position after 23…Re8

The Championship will see two more rounds, today and tomorrow. 22 players will qualify for the next World Cup. Tiebreaks will be played on Thursday to establish the Champion, to establish the medal winners and to establish qualifiers for the World Cup.

Selection of games rounds 8-9

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Ian Nepomniachtchi (2656, Russia) leads the European Individual Champioship with a score of 7.5/9. His perfomance rating is 2864.

Viktorija Cmilyte (2485, Lithuania) leads the Women's section, also with a score of 7.5/9 and with a perfomance rating of 2658.

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Rijeka,Croazia - Anatoly Karpov, il 12? Campione del Mondo, si è candidato per la prossima Presidenza Fide, elezioni che si terranno a Settembre? durante le 39esime Olimpiadi in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Il russo ha infatti intenzioni di ristabilire l'ordine nel mondo degli scacchi, con particolare riferimento a:

1) il ciclo mondiale

2) il calendario dei principali eventi

3) impedire in futuro che si cambino in corsa i regolamenti delle manifestazioni

Il tutto per restituire al Campione del Mondo il prestigio di cui godeva un tempo

[Darkstorm ? 16-03]

Eric Jovana WFM 2183 ( a destra)

Vincitrice del 42? torneo di Belgrado

[Darkstorm ? 16-03]

Silvio Danailov, Candidato alla Presidenza ECU

[Darkstorm ? 16-03]

Richard Rapport, GM a 13 anni



Gotth'Art Cup, Richard Rapport - Lajosh Portisch , foto by www.chessdom.com



WGM Anna Rudolf , 2? norma MI

CLASSIFICA FINALE? (GM event):

1. GM Beliavsky Alexander SLO 2657 - 6.5
2. GM Portisch Lajos HUN 2519 - 6.0
3. IM Rapport Richard HUN 2444 - 6.0
4. IM Banusz Tamas HUN 2517 - 5.0
5. GM Prohaszka Peter HUN 2501 - 4.5
6. GM Vajda Levente ROU 2519 - 4.5
7. GM Ftacnik Lubomir SVK 2546 - 3.5
8. IM Bokros Albert HUN 2479 - 3.5
9. IM Neubauer Martin AUT 2465 - 3.5
10. IM Fodor Tamas Jr HUN 2417 - 2.0

CLASSIFICA FINALE? (IM event):
1. WGM Rudolf Anna HUN 2283 - 6.5
2. FM Gergacz Attila HUN 2421 - 6.0
3. FM Lorand Norbert HUN 2346 - 5.5
4. Nagy Gabor HUN 2278 - 5.5
5. IM Paschall William M USA 2398 - 5.0
6. Szabo Bence HUN 2261 - 4.5
7. FM Baratosi Daniel ROU 2396 - 4.0
8. IM Biro Sandor ROU 2298 - 4.0
9. Feher Adam HUN 2260 - 2.0
10. IM Banas Jan SVK 2341 - 2.0

INTERVISTA COMPLETA by Rudolf , per Chessdom, QUI


[Darkstorm ? 16-03]

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Les péchés capitaux se sont dévoilés du 8 au 13 mars 2010 : retour aux plaisirs grâce au 8 by Suchard qui revisitait les coulisses du Scopitone  ! Après les 7 Péchés Capitaux  , Suchard a mis en scène Le 8 . Le « 8e » Péché Capital by Suchard dans une ambiance feutrée et intimiste, où plaisirs et gourmandises sont de rigueur. Pour toutes les personnes lasses des interdits, de la bienséance, et des protocoles, Suchard proposait un moment d’évasion et initie les gourmands aux plaisirs épicuriens.

Envie, Gourmandise, Paresse, Orgueil, Colère, Avarice et Luxure ont été interprétés par des artistes (Dj’s et groupes) pour une ambiance « péchés capitaux » sur le dance-floor… et mis en scène dans les salles cachées du Scopitone, ouvertes exceptionnellement pour cette occasion, laissant place à des expériences uniques. Un espace éphémère qu'il ne fallait pas rater !

Un programme osé toute la semaine du 8 mars !

Le 8 by Suchard a accueilli le public de 17h à 2h du matin pour une ambiance « paresse et détente », et à partir de 20h pour une soirée exaltante autours de divers DJ’s qui ont livré leurs versions musicales des péchés capitaux. (Jeudi 11 et vendredi 12 mars, vous avez pu succomber aux plaisirs 8 by Suchard jusqu’à 6h !)

Deux soirées d’exception ont marqué le début et la fin de cette semaine exceptionnelle :

- La soirée d’inauguration follement suchardesque, le lundi 8 mars. Elle a été animée le temps d’un set par Frédéric Beigbeder, maître du défoulement d’un dance floor survolté !

- La soirée privée de clôture du 8 by Suchard, le 13 mars, « l’Illicit Party » où tous les péchés ont été permis de 21h à 6h du matin.
Un clip sur un air de ragtime avec la participation d’Hélèna Noguerra et de Marc Collin… 

Le 8 by Suchard
envoyé par Mindshare. - Regardez plus de vidéos comiques.

Article sponsorisé

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

In this lesson I will show you the Mortimer trap, also known as the Mortimer Variation of the Berlin Defense.

Mortimer_Trap

The game of this lesson between Paul Morphy and Carl Isouard that has been played in Paris 1858 is one of the most famous chess games.
It’s a very interesting short game and it contains at least five important chess lessons:
1. Develop you chess pieces quickly
2. Castling into safety
3. The strategic outpost at d5
4. Attacking a pinned piece
5. The use of an open file

Morphy_Isouard

19^ edizione per l’Amber, evento caratterizzato dalla presenza di giocatori di primissimo piano che si confrontano nel gioco rapido e alla cieca. Marzo è da sempre il mese dell’Amber e quest’anno la competizione si svolge dal 13 al 25, nella splendida sede del “Palais de la Mediterranée” a Nizza.

Questa la lista, come sempre prestigiosa, dei partecipanti all’edizione 2010:

Sarebbe un dunque un Cat. XX, con media Elo 2746. Ma naturalmente non è valido per le variazioni Elo…

Magnus Carlsen, una vittoria nella "combinata" dell'Amber gli manca...

Vladimir Kramnik, qui impegnato in una partita "alla cieca" (i giocatori possono visualizzare una scacchiera vuota sul pc) in una passata edizione

Levon Aronian, soddisfatto dopo la vittoria dell'edizione 2009

Doveva prendere parte al torneo anche Alexander Morozevich (ospite fisso all’Amber, anche perché considerato uno dei più forti giocatori alla cieca del mondo) e invece qualche giorno fa la rinuncia per motivi personali; come spesso accade è Grischuk a prendere il posto del Moro e il rimpiazzo è proprio “di lusso”.

Morozevich sostituito da Grischuk: spettacolo sempre assicurato!

Ricordiamo che Jan Smeets ha colto la possibilità di partecipare all’Amber 2010 grazie al suo risultato conseguito nel match “Experience vs. Rising Stars” 2009, dove ha preceduto proprio il nostro Caruana tra le fila del “Rising Stars”.

Jan Smeets

Per quanto riguarda la formula del torneo, ogni giorno i 12 partecipanti si confrontano in due partite alla cieca (25’ a testa + 20” a mossa) e due rapid (25’+10”). Giorni di riposo il 17 e il 22 marzo.

Montepremi totale: 216.000 euro!

Cenni storici sull’Amber

Amber è Melody Amber, figlia di Joop van Oosterom, un milionario olandese, settantenne mecenate del torneo, che tra l’altro ha ottenuto nel 2007 un notevole successo come scacchista, diventando il 21° Campione del Mondo per Corrispondenza, titolo che aveva già acquisito nel 2005. In gioventù era stato Campione Olandese Giovanile, poi interessi professionali e soprattutto economici nel campo dell’informatica l’hanno a lungo distolto dagli scacchi. Nel 1992 in occasione del primo compleanno della figlia Melody Amber le regalò (o meglio, si regalò) un torneo di scacchi.

La prima edizione si disputò a Roquebrune-Cap-Martin e non prevedeva la specialità “alla cieca”, s’impose Ivanchuk (che ha partecipato a tutte le edizioni dell’Amber).

Amber 1992: chi riconosce i partecipanti?

Dal 1993 si tennero due tornei distinti e una classifica “combinata”: per ora il giocatore con più vittorie nella “combinata” è Kramnik (6 successi), seguito da Anand con cinque. Le ultime due edizioni sono entrambe state vinte da Aronian.

Anand nel 2003 il trofeo se lo portava anche a tavola!

La sede dal 1993 si è trasferita a Montecarlo, rimpiazzata poi dal 2008 con quella di Nizza.

Anche la sede di Montecarlo non era certo male...

Approfondite schede sui partecipanti all’edizione 2010.

Foto dal sito ufficiale

Prima giornata. Carlsen-Ivanchuk: irresistibile Chucky!

Seconda giornata. Aronian-Carlsen: imperioso riscatto di Magnus!

Immagine d'assieme dalla terza giornata

Gelfand, eroe della quarta giornata: 2 a 0 a Kramnik!

Sito ufficiale

After beating Sergey Karjakin 1.5-0.5, Vasily Ivanchuk leads the combined standings of the Amber tournament with a score of 4.5/6. Magnus Carlsen again won 2-0, this time against Peter Svidler, who resigned in a probably drawn position in the blindfold game.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Round 3 report

Vasily Ivanchuk in sole lead
Magnus Carlsen back in business with two more wins
After three rounds of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk is in the sole lead in the overall standings with 4½ points from 6 games. The Ukrainian grandmaster, the only GM to play in all 19 Amber tournaments, defeated Sergey Karjakin 1½-½. Defending champion Levon Aronian scored his first full points at the cost of Jan Smeets. Magnus Carlsen also won 2-0, the victim being Peter Svidler. Despite his dramatic start, the Norwegian is now only half a point behind the leading Ivanchuk. And he optimistically faces the future: ‘I am hoping for two more tomorrow.’

Vasily Ivanchuk immersed in thought at the start of his blindfold game against Sergey Karjakin. Following a 1½-½ win over his former compatriot the Ukrainian grandmaster is in the sole lead.

Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand played a blindfold game that at first sight may have looked lively and entertaining for the spectators. However, they were following a theoretical line and after the game Grischuk summed up his assessment of what had happened as ‘very boring’. White had a small advantage in the ending that appeared on the board, but it never took on serious proportions and the games petered out to a draw. For Gelfand the line evoked old memories: ‘The last time I played this line was in 1988 in Vilnius. Against Goldin at the Soviet Young Masters.’ Certainly an interesting footnote to this game.
The rapid game was anything but boring. Playing adventurously Gelfand sacrificed two pawns to develop an attack against the black king and was awarded for his courage with a winning position. But just when everyone expected Grischuk to resign soon, Gelfand faltered and failed to deal the final blow. With 32.Bh7+ he let Black back into the game, where he could have decided the issue with 32.axb5 cxb5 33.Nd5 exd6 34.Bxd5+. In raging time-trouble for both, Gelfand again got a winning position, and might just as well have lost if Black had found 42…Kh6 instead of 42…Kg6, but in the end it was a draw and that was a result that definitely felt deeply unsatisfactory for Gelfand.

When Leinier Dominguez arrived at the board for his blindfold game against Ruslan Ponomariov, the Ukrainian grandmaster already sat waiting impatiently. As he laughingly told the arbiter: ‘I am nervous, let’s start!’ Once he was allowed to start the game, Ponomariov went for 4…g6 against the Ruy Lopez, a set-up that is sometimes considered slightly suspect, but mostly leads to satisfactory play for Black. Dominguez certainly obtained an edge, but with precise and active play Ponomariov comfortably equalized and once they reached a rook endgame with three pawns on each side, there were few reasons left not to draw the game.
The blindfold game presented Ponomariov with a problem that every grandmaster faces from time to time: he had to play against an opening variation that he also has played himself. A tense struggle developed in which both sides were fighting for their chances, and although those of White looked slightly more promising in the middlegame, the game ended in a draw when most pieces and pawns had left the board on move 47.

The blindfold game between Vugar Gashimov and Vladimir Kramnik saw the Russian grandmaster play another Pirc. However, this time it didn’t bring him much pleasure, as his mix of set-ups landed him in a risky position. Things looked threatening for Kramnik, especially when on move 26 Gashimov got a golden opportunity. With 26.Rxd6 he could have been a healthy pawn up, as 26…Ne8 is answered by 27.Rxh6, but instead of all this the Azeri grandmaster played 26.Nxd6 and a few moves later he agreed on a draw.
In the rapid game Kramnik emphatically wanted to be at the wheel from the word go. With gritty play he put his opponent under pressure and obtained a sizable advantage. But Gashimov had no wish to knuckle under and fought back with determination and his 37…Bg5 came as a rude awaking for Kramnik. Now suddenly the win was far off, objectively speaking no longer there, and a messy phase followed in which White kept looking for a win. And found it, because Gashimov didn’t grab his chances. The final mistake came on move 51, when the Azeri grandmaster played the right idea in the wrong order. Had he gone 51…Qf1+ 52.Kh2 Ne1, White would have had to resign himself to a draw. When he played 51…Ne1 immediately, Kramnik had 52.Qb5 and now 52…Nf3 doesn’t work because of 53.Qf8 mate.

The blindfold game between Peter Svidler and Magnus Carlsen started with a comic prologue when, once they were seated behind their laptops, the Norwegian discovered much to his dismay that he wasn’t White is this game, as he had believed, but Black. The comedy of errors was continued in the game and even after the Russian had resigned, when the spectators in the hospitality lounge switched on some engines. In the game Carlsen invited Svidler to play a full-fledged Dragon, but instead White opted for a more quiet approach. For some time there was nothing new under the sun until White played a new move, 19.Qf4 (19.Qe2 had been seen). The comedy of errors came back to life on move 20, when Svidler suddenly had second thoughts about the intended 20.Rxd7 because of 20…Qc6 21.Rxb7 Rxf4 22.Bd5 and now 22…Qf6 wins for Black. However, both players had missed 22.Rb6 with an edge for White. On move, 22 Svidler refrained from 22.Qh3 because he didn’t like 22…Nf4, but after the move he played, 22.Qe1, he was unpleasantly surprised by 22…Bxg2. Now Black developed a raging attack, but was it was deadly as Svidler acknowledged when, after 25…Nd4, he resigned? Indeed it would have been if Black had played 24…Nh4+ (instead of 24…Nf4+). But now things were different, as in the final position the engines immediately showed the amazing 26.Nd7!, attacking the rook on f8, and there is no immediate win and the position looks drawish.
At that point the players had already left for their rooms, Carlsen happily laughing off the fact that he had prepared for the wrong colour: ‘In any case it seems to be clear that in the blindfold I do better when I play the black pieces.’ Yes, but this time he needed a helping hand from his opponent. In his room he obviously also found 26.Nd7, but to his mind Black could nevertheless have kept on playing for a win with 26…Nh3+ 27.Kg2 Qc6+ 28.Bd5 Qxd7 29.Rxd4 e6.
The rapid game saw a rare sideline of the Qb3 Grünfeld, which, according to Carlsen, both players were not too familiar with. He himself seemed to suffer the least from this relative ignorance as he obtained a pleasant position. ‘And then it just got better and better’, he summed up the game. One moment he pointed out to illustrate the strength of his position was the moment when he played 22.Nd3, planning g5, pushing away the knight on d5 with e4, and then playing Nf4 threatening Nxg6 mate. To prevent such plans Svidler played 22…g5 himself, but his troubles remained and after 34 moves he had had enough and resigned.

When Sergey Karjakin, who is now playing for Russia, sat down to play his former compatriot Vasily Ivanchuk there was little doubt that a fierce clash would follow. In the blindfold game Ivanchuk gradually managed to took over the initiative and when he pushed 19…c4! it was clear that Karjakin faced a difficult defence. The final mistake White made on move 32, when playing his bishop to a3, he allowed Black to invade his position and force his surrender.
In the blindfold game Ivanchuk got promising play and tried various ways to improve the position of his pieces. But Karjakin defended tenaciously and when his opponent failed to make any headway a draw was the result after 44 moves.

Jan Smeets was happy with the outcome of the opening of his blindfold game against Levon Aronian. After all he was allowed to play the improvement he had suggested after his game against Karjakin in Round 2, 17.Be4 instead of 17.Ne4. White got an edge, but failed to exploit it. His first inaccuracy was 24.Rac1 where 24.a4 was called for, but the real mistake was 26.Bxd8?, an exchange that was prompted by his fear that Black’s knight would come to e6 and White’s bishop on f6 would end up out of play. Now Smeets suddenly found himself in an unpleasant rook endgame, which Aronian first converted in a winning pawn endgame and then into a winning queen endgame.
The rapid game was a tumultuous affair that started out with an opening that was popular at the start of the 20th century (the rather unusual 4…Nc6 followed by 5.e4). Aronian was pleased with his position but commented afterwards that he should have played 13.Qa4+ instead of 13.Bxf4, as he had underestimated 15…Qd7. Further on he had planned the imaginative 19.Kf1 until he saw 19…0-0 20.Rd6 Bc4!. Black’s troubles started with 24…Qh1, where he could have secured a level position with 24…Qxf2+ 25.Kf2 Ne4+ 26.Kg2 Nxd6 27.Bxa7. His final mistake was 25…Qh5, when he should have gone 25…Qxh6 26.Nd5 Qh4. Now his king was too vulnerable and as Smeets was also in time-trouble it didn’t come as a surprise that Aronian quickly hauled in the point.

Report & photos © official website, more here

Videos

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Blindfold | Rapid, via TWIC

“I feel like I can make some changes, and chess needs changes.” Yesterday Anatoly Karpov officially announced his FIDE President candidacy in Rijeka, where the European Championship is currently taking place. Europe-Echecs published a video interview with the 12th World Champion and shared it with us.

Video Europe-Echecs

Le chanteur s'est éteint en Ardèche samedi à l'âge de 79 ans. Hommage Chess & Strategy à cet artiste engagé, au service de tous les combats pour la fraternité, la révolte et l'idéal communiste, mais également un poète fou d'Aragon, qu'il a interprété avec talent.

Jean Ferrat né Tenenbaum, résidait depuis des années en Ardèche, ce qui lui avait inspiré sa célèbre chanson "La montagne" en 1964.

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Le tournoi d'échecs Melody Amber 2010 se tient au Palais de la Méditerranée à Nice du 13 au 25 mars. Spécificité de cet événement échiquéen majeur, les parties se jouent d'une part à l'aveugle et d'autre part en cadence rapide.

Magnus Carlsen today recovered completely from his bad start in Nice. The Norwegian defeated Levon Aronian, the winner in 2008 and 2009, in both the blindfold and the rapid game. Ukrainians Ivanchuk and Ponomariov lead the combined standings after two rounds.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 2

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Round 2 report

Carlsen bounces back with 2-0 win over defending champion Aronian
After two rounds of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov are in the lead in the overall standings with 3 points from 4 games, followed at half a point’s distance by Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler. Top-seed Magnus Carlsen recovered from his poor start with a 2-0 win over defending Amber champion Levon Aronian. The Norwegian admitted that he had been upset about his 2-0 loss on the first day (particularly the rapid game, where he believed he was in no danger of losing), but said that he certainly had not despaired: ‘With twenty rounds to go there is always time to recover.’ The first two of those twenty rounds were certainly encouraging for him.

Magnus Carlsen fared excellently in Round 2 with two wins over Levon Aronian. After the round the Norwegian was happy to comment on his blindfold game for the tournament website.

Just like last year the second round of the Amber tournament clashed with the final stage of Paris-Nice, the 8-stage cycling race that started in Paris (you had guessed that much) a week ago. For many hours the Promenade des Anglais was crowded with people waiting for the denouement of the 68th edition of this legendary race and we can tell you that quite a number of chess fans mingled among these spectators. But after, early in the afternoon, Alberto Contador had won his second Paris-Nice, three years after his first victory, they could concentrate on chess again. Right they were. After the drama in Round 1 there was every reason to look forward to the developments in Round 2.

The final stage of the cycling course Paris-Nice finished today, about two hundred metres from the venue and about two minutes after the second round started | Photo Nadja Wittmann

Alberto Contador after winning the final stage of Paris-Nice | Photo Nadja Wittmann

Magnus Carlsen was obviously eager to fight back after yesterday’s dramatic 2-0 loss, but with Levon Aronian as opponent this was easier said than done. Moreover the Norwegian had the black pieces in the blindfold game and one would think that his first concern should be not to lose again. Already before the tournament Carlsen had prepared the King’s Indian and his ambition to steer for a highly complicated struggle worked out beyond expectation. To begin with he got the chance to implement an idea he had seen in a game Eljanov-Radjabov; a quick counter-push on the queenside to undermine White’s centre followed by a piece sacrifice (20…Nxd5) to break up that same centre. The tactical complications that ensued demanded a lot from both players and it was soon clear that Carlsen felt more at ease. Aronian missed the push 22…e4, a seemingly contradictory move that seems to contribute little to Black’s wish to open up lines and files, but which in fact is the right move to keep his initiative going. White could still have put up some resistance with 25.Bg5 (instead of 25.Nxf2), but Aronian had also missed 25…Qh4, which in case of 26.Be1 is followed by the deadly 26…Be5. Three moves later Aronian threw the towel. Carlsen found it easy to smile again when a couple of minutes later he spoke to the press.
Aronian’s worries were compounded when he also lost the rapid game. And perhaps this loss hurt even more as it was completely unnecessary. From a Four Knights’ Defence the players ended up in a totally drawish rook endgame. Probably the main factor that kept the game going was that neither of the players were willing to offer a draw. And as they plodded on Aronian got himself into trouble. A first moment where he was inaccurate was when he played 42…Ra2, when he could have thwarted all White’s further tries with 42…g5. He further pleased Carlsen with 50…h5 when he should have played 50…Kh7. Now his position became very unpleasant, and when he missed a last chance to stir up complications with 59…d5 he was inexorably counted out.

Blindfold: Carlsen beats Aronian with Black in a spectacular King's Indian

Jan Smeets had no trouble acknowledging that he had been completely lost in his blindfold game against Sergey Karjakin, as he was happy enough with the half point that he had saved miraculously. In a Ruy Lopez with 3…Nge7 and 4…g6, White drifted into trouble when he played his knight to e4 on move 17 (better 17.Be4) and followed this up with 20.Nf6+. Things quickly went from bad to worse and with 35…Kf8 Black could have forced his resignation. But even the pawn ending that Karjakin allowed his opponent, was lost for Black if only he had found 46…h5. Now the Dutch grandmaster could save the draw, even if, as usually, he was very short of time for the greater part of the game.
The blindfold game was another eventful affair and again the surprising outcome was a draw. In a Ruy Lopez Smeets lost his c-pawn after a heavy manoeuvring phase. Things looked bleak, but it wasn’t too easy for White to make further progress and when Karjakin made the move Smeets had been waiting and hoping for (58.h4), the vulnerability of his king suddenly became a source of sorrow. In fact, White would have been totally lost had Smeets played 59…Qg1. But being short of time (just like Karjakin) he failed to see this opportunity and the game ended in a repetition of moves. Ironically, Smeets could still play Qg1 in the final position, but he didn’t complain that the threefold repetition had ‘only’ brought him a draw.

Dutchman Jan Smeets managed to draw twice with Sergey Karjakin

The blindfold game between Vasily Ivanchuk and Peter Svidler not surprisingly saw a Grünfeld Defence, an opening in which the Russian is one of today’s greatest specialists. Afterwards he called the opening phase of ‘mild theoretical importance’, as Ivanchuk deviated on move 11 from an earlier game Gelfand-Svidler. In that game White played 11.Be2, Ivanchuk preferred to first play 11.Nf3. Almost forced the players ended up in an ending that Svidler had (of course) looked at before and although Black’s play is not entirely carefree he felt that it should be a draw objectively speaking. As a possible improvement for White he indicated 21.Bc6, the way it went now the point was quickly shared.
In the blindfold game Svidler felt he had missed a good chance when he played 13.Qd2 instead of 13.Qc1. ‘The idea is essentially the same, but it would have saved me a tempo in almost any variation’, as he explained afterwards. He even got into slight problems when Black played 22…Qe7, effectively stopping Ng5, the move White had hoped to make. In the final phase of the game the Russian had to be careful not to lose any material, but when he managed this task the game was drawn.

Boris Gelfand recovered from his poor performance in the first round with a win in the blindfold game against Vugar Gashimov. Nevertheless he called it ‘a stupid game’, as he had spoiled an excellent opening position to end up in a problematic situation. The last trick he wanted to try in order to extricate himself from this situation was 20.Nxd5. Now he was lucky as Gashimov could have played 22…Qb4 and White might as well resign. After 22…Qc7, White’s problems were not over yet, but when Black blundered with 23…Qxc4?, he suddenly was presented with a winning position. For the rest of the game Gelfand kept his eyes on the ball and converted his advantage without further problems.
The blindfold game started slowly. White got a slight edge but nothing for Black to get worried about. The game turned around when Gelfand opened the position and Gashimov snatched a pawn, that his opponent called ‘poisoned’. Soon White was totally lost, but the game was far from over yet. Gelfand spoiled his advantage and in the end he had to win an opposite-coloured bishop ending in a study-like manner (although the Israeli grandmaster was the first to say that he was not sure if this win was waterproof). Gelfand was certainly pleased with his two wins, but he didn’t forget how he obtained them: ‘Two points with bad play’.

The blindfold game between Vladimir Kramnik and Leinier Dominguez was a fascinating fight. Obviously Kramnik emphatically played for a win, but Dominguez fought back in his customary razor-sharp style. The game was decided when in a highly complicated position the Cuban grandmaster continued 36…Kh7 where his only chance was 36…Bf8. With the text-move he invited a forced mate and a couple of moves before this mate would become reality, Dominguez resigned.
In the blindfold game Kramnik played the Pirc Defence, the opening with which he surprised (and beat) Smeets in the recent Corus tournament. Again it looked as if this rather offbeat opening would give him easy and pleasant play, particularly after he bagged a point. But White had compensation for his material deficit and although Kramnik remained better for the rest of the game, Dominguez hung in tenaciously and was rewarded with a draw after 88 moves.

Deep concentration: Leinier Dominguez and Vladimir Kramnik

The blindfold game between Ruslan Ponomariov and Alexander Grischuk saw a Catalan Opening, similar to a game Ponomariov had played with colours reversed against Gelfand in the final of the recent World Cup. Instead of 10…Bb7, as Ponomariov had played, Grischuk went 10…Ba6. White obtained the bishop pair, but with a symmetrical pawn-structure it was difficult to exploit that slight advantage. Both players invested a lot of time as there were always tactics to be considered with opposing rooks on the c-file, but when Grischuk offered the opportunity to repeat moves and agree to a draw, Ponomariov saw no good reason to play on.
At the end of the rapid game Ponomariov walked into the hospitality lounge and wondered what people had thought of his rapid game. He himself wasn’t too happy as he had hoped to play something active, but somehow his Grünfeld ended up in a static position in which he had to suffer for a draw. When on move 32 the queens left the board, Grischuk offered that draw and Ponomariov didn’t have to think long before he accepted.

Report & photos © official website, more here

Videos

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Blindfold | Rapid, via TWIC

“I feel like I can make some changes, and chess needs changes.” Yesterday Anatoly Karpov officially announced his FIDE President candidacy in Rijeka, where the European Championship is currently taking place. Europe-Echecs published a video interview with the 12th World Champion and shared it with us.

Video Europe-Echecs

Every 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. Bunka
1999

White to play and win

Next week the solution.

Solution last week

S. Didukh
2003

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“The 40-year old Ukrainian has a reputation of being an unpredictable genius, capable of producing absolutely brlliant games, as well as amateur-like losses from time to time,” Magnus Carlsen wrote on his blog yesterday. Today, at the Amber tournament in Nice, he met with a Chuky in excellent shape, and lost 2-0.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 1

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Round 1 report

First day sensation: top-seed Carlsen loses 2-0 to ‘Mr Amber’
Last night the opening ceremony of the 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament took place at the Chateau de Cremat, a stylish wine chateau perched on a hill overlooking Nice at a half and hour’s drive from the Palais de la Mediterranée, the five-star luxury hotel on the Promenade des Anglais where the grandmasters are staying and playing. The evening started with a degustation of various wines of the house and then the guests of the Van Oosterom family and the players sat down for a delicious dinner. In the opening speech there was special attention for the totally unique place that the Amber tournament occupies in chess history. There have been chess benefactors who sponsored one tournament, two or even three. But no one ever came even close to the astounding 19th edition that the Amber tournament reaches this year.

There were also references to Steely Dan’s Hey Nineteen, Joe Jackson’s Nineteen Forever and Chanel 19 (by some strange coincidence Coco Chanel was presented the famous Chanel logo – two C’s elegantly locked together – by the owner of the Chateau de Cremat about a century ago!) and of course the twelve grandmasters were welcomed, with a special mention for Vasily Ivanchuk, ‘Mr Amber’, who participated in all 19 tournaments. Once the drawing of lots had taken place, we could start to think about the pairings for the first round and the overall chances of the participants. Who is the top-favourite for first place? Vladimir Kramnik, who won a record of six Amber tournaments? Levon Aronian, who won the last two editions? Or Magnus Carlsen, the world’s number one, who very appropriately celebrated his 19th birthday a couple of months ago? In any case the opening round didn’t go as they may have hoped. Not at all.

Today at 14.30 the first round started of a blindfold and rapid spectacle that will keep us entertained for the coming fortnight (the 11th and last round is on March 25). As always the players started with two blindfold sessions (in each of which six GMs played) followed by two rapid sessions and immediately there were some intriguing pairings.

When Ruslan Ponomariov saw at the drawing of lots that he had to play Boris Gelfand in the first round, he wondered aloud if he had to play Gelfand for the rest of his life. What he meant to say was that this was his first official competition since the dramatic final Gelfand and he played in the World Cup last December, a lengthy final that was only decided in the blitz games. Ponomariov’s second remark was that he wanted to have his revenge for that lost final. The only problem was that the first game was a blindfold game and his experience in that discipline was almost zero. In fact he had asked to play a training game on the day of his arrival in Nice. To avoid any complications he decided to play fast and to remain fully concentrated, not even considering the option of going to the toilet if needed. The approach worked well, as with the help of Gelfand his opening was a great success and after 15.Ng5 he felt that he was spoiled for choice when looking for a way to exploit his advantage. The game was practically decided when Ponomariov captured Black’s h-pawn. The rest was simple and he converted without any problems. After the game he was greatly relieved that this game for which he had been so nervous had gone so well. ‘Perhaps it turns out that I am not so bad at blindfold chess.’ He also shared his impression of playing chess on a screen that only shows an empty chess board: ‘It’s just like a computer game!’
Ponomariov completed his ‘revenge’ (to avoid any misunderstanding, he was the first to point out that, of course, these two games cannot be compared to the World Cup final) in the rapid game. Spoiling for a fight he came up with an interesting plan in the Grünfeld, sacrificing an exchange for promising play. He indeed got wonderful compensation when Gelfand played 14.f3? where he should have tried 14.Qe3. Suddenly it was a delight to sit behind the black pieces and Ponomariov fully enjoyed the next phase. White still managed to get into an ending with opposite-coloured bishops, but the two extra black pawns quickly carried the day.

Russian champion Alexander Grischuk had his work cut out for him when he immediately had to play Vladimir Kramnik. There could be no misunderstanding about Kramnik’s intentions as he played almost all his moves instantly. ‘He wanted to trick me’, smiled Grischuk after the game. Playing with white he had to leave the initiative to Black, but to his mind Kramnik went too far in his winning attempt. But even if Black ended up in a difficult position, the situation was still far from lost and things only got hopeless when he reverted to the desperate 38…Nxg4, where it seemed that Black could have stayed in the game with 38…Nf3. Now things were easy for Grischuk and the handful of seconds he still had on the clock proved enough to win an important scalp.
Kramnik struck back in the rapid game. After a strongly played opening he obtained a clear advantage and looking back he concluded that Black’s position was difficult after 34.Rd4. But Kramnik praised his opponent for his inventive defence in the next phase and expressed his doubts whether the position was really winning for White (‘That has to be checked with the computer’). However, Grischuk was once again low on time and after 40…Nc3 (he should have played 40…Nb6) Black certainly was lost. The rest wasn’t difficult anymore and Kramnik wrapped up fairly effortlessly.

The encounter between debutants Dominguez and Gashimov took a relatively quiet course, although the grandmaster from Azerbaijan offered to play a sharp Benoni, an invitation that was quietly turned down with Rodriguez. They ended up in a rook endgame that was slightly better for Black, but it was his lavish use of time that did Dominguez in. With more than ten minutes less on the clock he committed a few inaccuracies and when Gashimov stormed down the board with two passed pawns it was clear that the fight was over. After the game Gashimov was congratulated on his blindfold debut and confessed that he had not especially prepared for this unusual type of chess. ‘I played one training game two days ago against Ruslan (Ponomariov), this was my second game.’
The rapid game was a variation of the Italian Game ‘in which many games have been played’, as the database experts call it these days. The key question was if the knight that Gashimov managed to post on e7, was an asset or a weakness. Frantically he calculated variations, considering sacrifices here and there, but there was nothing that worked. In the meantime, Dominguez just stayed put and maintained his position. After some further manoeuvring it was clear that this balance was not going to be upset and a draw was agreed.

Magnus Carlsen openend his blindfold game against Vasily Ivanchuk with 1.a3, aiming for an open battle, unburdened by theory and steering clear of any possible preparation of his opponent. The plan wasn’t a success, even if he managed to win a pawn, but Black got such good compensation that the Norwegian top-seed must have regretted his unorthodox approach. He kept looking for his chances, but Ivanchuk remained fully concentrated and his advantage was such that at some point the white position should collapse. An oversight on move 31 sped up the end of the game and floored another top-favourite.
In the rapid game Carlsen tried to fight back with the Poisoned Pawn of the Najdorf Defence. Afterwards Ivanchuk felt that he again had had sufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn, but was reluctant to give a concrete assessment of the game as it had been so ‘very complicated’. One move he criticized was 25…Kf7, which allowed him to increase the pressure. They ended up in a rook endgame of three pawns versus two, which Black failed to defend, leading to a sensational 2-0 defeat of the top-seed.

‘It’s been a while, clearly’, Peter Svidler commented after he had beaten Jan Smeets in his first Amber blindfold game in three years. Svidler had an edge from the opening, but Smeets should have been able to hold a draw. Things got funny when Svidler, played his 39th move thinking Black’s bishop was on e6 (it was on d7). That it was not, he found out when Black played 39…Ne6+ and picked up the pawn on g5. This was not a problem in itself as now White can go 40.Nd5+ and pick up the b6 pawn, but not knowing where the black bishop was, Svidler now reasoned that it was on c6, which ‘prevented’ this knight jump. Smeets on his part got confused by White’s 44.Bxg6 and panicked with 45…Be6 when 45…Kg5 was still a draw. Well, in fact he would have even won, as (still thinking the black bishop was on c6) Svidler had planned to answer 45…Kg5 with 46.Be4 Kxh6 47.Bc6, thinking he would capture a bishop but in fact giving one away. After this comedy of errors had ended, Smeets was left with a lost position and had to resign soon.
The rapid game ended in a draw. In a classical Ruy Lopez Black got good play and when he started piling up on White’s a pawn, Smeets decided that instead of defending a pawn that will drop off anyway at some point, he better hand it over immediately for some activity. This turned out to be an excellent exchange and at a certain point his compensation even seemed to turn into more. But his advantage got never concrete and both players could live with the draw that materialized.

Sergey Karjakin obtained a winning position in the blindfold game when in a sharp opening tussle Levon Aronian committed a serious error. Instead of 19…Bg5?, the Armenian grandmaster should have played 19…Bh4 or 19…Rb4. Things looked bleak for Aronian, but then he didn’t win himself a reputation for ‘slow-motion’ swindling for nothing last year. And this time, too, he almost escaped when Karjakin allowed a repetition of moves. But Aronian was going for the whole hog and thinking he was winning he didn’t repeat moves, but played 36…Nxc3, which turned out to be a losing move.
In the rapid game Levon Aronian showed a different face and put his opponent under pressure right from the opening. Perhaps this permanent pressure also explained the mistake Karjakin made at the end of the game. Instead of hanging on in a dubious ending he blundered and even got mated.

Report & photos © official website, more here

Videos

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Blindfold | Rapid, via TWIC

Zahar Efimenko (Ukraine) and Baadur Jobava (Georgia) are sharing the lead at the European Individual Championship after seven rounds of play. The two are both on 6 out of 7.

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 6-7

The four players on 4.5/5 obviously met in the sixth round on Thursday. Baadur Jobava reached a better ending which suddenly turned into an easily winning one, when his opponent exchanged a pair of knights.

Timofeev-Jobava
Position after 39…Kd7

After winnin a few nice White games, Nisipeanu was on the wrong side of a devastating attack in round 6. Efimenko was in a killing mood:

Efimenko-Nisipeanu
Position after 15…Rd8

Grandmaster Karpov annonced his candidacy for the president of the World Chess Federation and pointed out that he is ready to use his chess fame around the world. He said that if he became the president, his first step will be the Federation’ reorganization as well as finding a major sponsors that will allow accoure more efficient FIDE activities. Karpov considers that it is necessary to remove the current negative FIDE image in the world, and that the main thing is to respect our own rules.

He note that by now he founded numerous chess schools and clubs all over the world, and than he recalled the times when he was the world’s leading chess player. On the question of how to restore the old glory of chess, Karpov said that the national federations must highlight the big names of world chess so they could obtain new sponsors.

“I was at Croatia 30 years ago, and the organization of this Championship in Rijeka delighted me. The organizers provided ideal conditions for a large number of players and so I congratulate them for the excellent organization“, Karpov said.

Selection of games rounds 6-7

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Zahar Efimenko, in shared first place, here in his round 6 game, beating Nisipeanu

Baadur Jobava, also on 6/7

Photos courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

• Official website
• All details and statistics
• Games in PGN: Men | Women via TWIC

YOYO voló al Cielo

( porque a que otro sitio puede ir una gran
persona como Yoyo ? )

hoy 2 Feb 2010 a la 1 de la madrugada

habia ido este domingo al Hospital NEGRIN para tratar de recuperarlo pues no comia, tenia muchos dolores y parecia que iba perdiendo fuerza por momentos.
Asi y todo, los que tuvimos la suerte de haber estado a su lado en estos ultimos dias, teniamos la esperanza que una vez mas saldria adelante .... pero esta vez Dios nos lo arrebató, pues seguro que querria tenerlo a su lado para gozar de su maravillosa compañia.

Descansa en paz amigo GREGORIO "Yoyo". Siempre te recordaremos como la gran persona que fuistes.

Hoy a las 12 del mediodia habra una misa en el Tanatorio SAN MIGUEL en Las Torres ( Las Palmas de GC ), en cuya sala 203 se encuentra y estará hasta las
02:00 del Miercoles en que será incinerado.


****************


No se como decirlo, son solo la 5:24 de la mañana y acabo de recibir la llamada que esperaba no se produjese en mucho tiempo, pero era ella, Rosy, su compañera y gran amor de sus ultimos años ..... Yoyo voló al cielo, mas que me joda y muchisimo acabo de perder a mi amigo, a mi gran amigo de la infancia y lo siento no solo por mi sino porque todos los que lo conociamos acabamos de perder un ser entrañable, generoso donde los haya, inteligente, trabajador, dinamico, con un gran sentido del humor y de la amistad y todo un GENIO, de esos que no paren las madres todos los dias y lo siento no solo por mí sino por toda su famila, amigos y por supuesto por la gran familia del Ajedrez al que él amaba con locura y a esa inseparable compañera de sus ultimos años a la que él amaba con locura y con la que se sentia super feliz y que luchó a su lado hasta el ultimo momento.

Un sentido pesame tambien para su ex mujer Mariam y sus hijos Ancor, Aubin y Mary (no me acuerdo el nombre) y a los hijos de Rosy a los que él consideraba tambien como sus hijos, Alfonso, Jose, Fran y sobre todo Marina, que se que lo queria con locura, a su hermana Piluca (en Francia ), a su primo Pepe de San Roque y al Ajedrez canario que acaba de perder su figura mas relevante de todos los tiempos.

GREGORIO murió esta madrugada del martes 22 Febrero 2010 a la 01:00 de la madrugada. Quizo ser muy madrugador tambien en esto asi que alli estará ya dandole la paliza a San Pedro y seguro enterandose de los ultimos resultados de la Liga Canaria de Ajedrez del Sabado pasado ( que me habia pedido el domingo que se los apuntara para cuando lo fuera a verlo de nuevo ).

PD:  Si quieren enviar alguna nota, recordatorio, etc., y que la pongan en su pagina web www.gregoriochess.com, por favor enviarla  al mio  pacoroque@gmail.com. Gracias

Over the last 2 years I have been producing and directing a documentary about scholastic chess with my company Rescued Media.  Chess Movie (working title) goes inside one of the best junior high chess program in the nation, Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn, New York. Many students at 318 come from difficult circumstances and 60% are from low-income families, but being part of a winning chess team gives them a unique opportunity to experience success at a young age. Justus, Patrick, Alexis, Pobo & Rochelle are 5 of 50 team members that are learning on the chessboard the skills they need to face challenges of adolescence and their working class circumstances.

In April 2009 we embarked on our first trip with the team to Nashville, Tennessee, to the USCF Super Nationals. Once we witnessed how big the scholastic chess world was, we were hooked. Over the next year we embedded ourselves with the team-- at home, at school and away at tournaments -- and slowly, the kids' individual stories began to take shape.  Please view our five minute teaser for an idea of where the film is now headed. It’s our ultimate goal to secure a national television broadcast for Chess Movie and maybe even a small theatrical release. We also plan to build a strong community outreach campaign in the hopes the film will build support for scholastic chess programs in under served communities as we have witnessed firsthand the profound effect the I.S. 318 chess program has had on its students.

Right now we have a fundraising campaign underway at Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter is an online funding platform for artists to engage with their audiences and build support for their projects. Our Kickstarter campaign has been pretty successful so far, reaching our initial goal of $4,000 in just a few short weeks. But we still have 50 days to go and we need more than 4k to finish this film. When you log onto Kickstarter you will see that we are offering some really cool rewards and incentives for backers. For example a $10 donation gets you exclusive access to video updates and deleted scenes and a $55 donation secures you a "Special Thanks" credit in our film. We also offer chess-centric rewards like free memberships to WORLD CHESS LIVE and CHESS.COM but at the end of the day I hope you are most inspired to give because you love chess and are moved by the kids and their stories. We believe this film has the potential to breakdown false stereotypes about chess and present a new and fresh perspective to one of the world's oldest and most beloved games.

• FTP Publishing on Blogger to WordPress: Migration Guide by Ravi
• Migrating from Blogger to WordPress (FTP Blogs) by Ben Frain
  Be sure to check the comments area here, which suggests it may actually be easier than he says.
• Move from Blogger to WordPress without Losing GoogleRank by Jason Fitzpatrick at Lifehacker
• Migrate Your Blog from Blogger to WordPress with All the Google Juice by Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspiration
• Move from Blogger to WordPress and Maintain Permalinks and Traffic by Arpit Jacob

• Beginner's Repertoire at Chessgames.com
  The link presents a game collection from Chessgames.com with great classic games showing you how to crush people with the Moeller and other Giuoco lines.  It's essentially a complete repertoire in games -- just click your way through them and you get the basic theoretical ideas and tactics.
• "Don't Shoot the Piano Player!" by Leviathan at Chessgames.com
  Another great games collection that serves as an excellent introduction to Giuoco Piano themes and ideas.
• Exeter Chess Club's The Italian Game for Beginners by Dr. Dave (e-book in PDF)
  Tricks, traps and tactical ideas in the Italian lines, including the Evans, Moeller Attack, and others.  This little e-book makes a great beginner's introduction to Giuoco Piano themes.
• Swansong of the Giuoco Piano, Part 1 (Kibitzer #64 at ChessCafe) by Tim Harding
• The Giuoco Piano, Part 2: The Case for the Defence (Kibitzer #65 at ChessCafe) by Tim Harding
• The Giuoco Piano on Trial, Part 3: The Summing Up (Kibitzer #69 at ChessCafe) by Tim Harding
• The Giuoco Piano on Trial: White Wins the Case (Kibitzer #70 at ChessCafe) by Tim Harding
• The Giuoco Piano Revisited (Kibitzer #118 at ChessCafe) by Tim Harding
  This five part series of articles on the Giuoco Piano lines with c3 and d4 for White -- mostly focused on the Moeller Attack and Rossolimo's Bd2 line with only some discussion of others -- gives a great overview to the Giuoco Piano theory and is remarkably pro-White in the final analysis.  In the last article, Harding returns to the Giuoco by way of reviewing Pinski's book, focusing on the critical lines vs the Moeller Attack and the Rossolimo Variation.

• The Lolli Attack by Michael Goeller 
• The Lolli Attack at Chess Teaching and Lessons 
• Back to Basics (Opening Lanes #121 at ChessCafe, January 2009) by Gary Lane
  Covers the Lolli and Fried Liver attacks.
• Giuoco Piano, Two Knights, Fried Liver (C57) by Richard Westbrook (Farragut Chess Club 2006) -- see also Paul Morphy Fried Liver Attack.
  A useful article on how to win the Fried Liver Attack.
• Fried Liver Attack, Pratt-Wolford 1976 by John Pratt
  A useful introduction to the Fried Liver for beginners.
• The Fegatello Attack (Unorthodox Openings Newsletter #2) by Paul Valle
  Available in the archive or download the issue of UON.  Offers some deep analysis showing how Black might survive the traditional Fried Liver with 6.Nxf7.
• The Fried Liver Attack, Part One by Boris Alterman (June 1, 2008)
• The Fried Liver Attack, Part Two by Boris Alterman (June 6, 2008)
• The Fried Liver Attack, Part Three by Boris Alterman (June 13, 2008)
• The Fried Liver Attack, Part Four by Boris Alterman (June 16, 2008)
• The Fried Liver Attack, Part Five by Boris Alterman (June 19, 2008)
• The Fried Liver Attack, Part Six by Boris Alterman (June 29, 2008)
  A useful presentation for amateur players focused mostly on the 6.Nxf7 lines, culminating in the annotated game Morphy - NN, New Orleans simul 1858 which features the Lolli Attack.

• The Fritz and Ulvestad Variations by Steven Craig Miller for the Renaissance Knights Club
  A very useful quick-start guide on these critical lines.
• Open Games Revisited: The Two Knights (November 2005, Kibitzer #114) by Tim Harding
  Covers both the Fritz/Ulvestadt and main lines after Ng5.
  
• Charbonneau - Schneider, USCL 2009 without notes -- I hope to find some material on the web analyzing this game.
• Death of the Main-Line Ulvestad by Mark Ginsburg
  A very pro-White analysis refuting the Ulvestad.  See also his comments on Zierk - Friedel, embedded.
• Vallejo-Pons vs Naiditsch, European Teams 2007
• New Investigations in the Two Knights Defense (September 2008, Kibitzer #148) by Tim Harding
• Friedel's Fritz-Ulvestad Wins Again by Michael Goeller 
• GM Josh Friedel Plays the Ulvestad by Michael Goeller
• Two Knights Defense, Fritz-Ulvestad Variation by Michael Goeller
• Two Knights, Ulvestad by Katar at Chessvideos  
• Two Knights Fritz Notes by Pete Tamburro (forum only requires free registration to access).

Tomorrow the first round of the 2010 Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament will be played, and we have a second preview video to get you warmed up. The world’s number one, Magnus Carlsen, is there. Vladimir Kramnik, who won many times, is there. Levon Aronian, who won the last two editions, is there. Who do you think will win?

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.

Preview video by Macauley Peterson

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. These three players are clearly the big favourites, but what about Alexander Grischuk, who replaced Alexander Morozevich less than a week ago? Or the ever unpredictable Vasily Ivanchuk? Or Ruslan Ponomariov, who is back among the world’s elite?

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.

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!

Link

• Official website

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

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

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

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

RISULTATI e ABBINAMENTI

QUI  

  PARTITE IN DIRETTA QUI

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.

Magnus Carlsen (2813) (NOR) brVladimir Kramnik (2790) (RUS) brLevon Aronian (2782) (ARM) brAlexander Grischuk (2756) (RUS) brPeter Svidler (2750) (RUS) brBoris Gelfand (2750) (ISR) brVasily Ivanchuk (2748) (UKR) brVugar Gashimov (2740) (AZE) brRuslan Ponomariov (2737) (UKR) brSergey Karjakin (2725) (RUS) brLeinier Dominguez (2713) (CUB) brJan Smeets (2651) (NED)

After 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…Rxe3

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…Kc7

Selection of games rounds 4-5

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The top boards of the 5th round

Young & old in Rijeka

Photos courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

• Official website
• All details and statistics
• Games in PGN: Men | Women via TWIC

Having 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

How 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

28.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

• Get yourself a copy of Reggio Emilia 2007/2008
• Read more book reviews

Naiditsch, 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 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.

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.

• http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/regioni/campania/2010/02/28/visualizza_new.html_1709041681.html
• http://napoli.repubblica.it/dettaglio/scacchi-parroco-di-boscotrecase-primo-sacerdote-agli-europei/1875352
• http://www.ilvesuvio.it/index.php?page=0&news=8711
• http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Regioni/Campania/Prete-ai-Campionati-europei-di-scacchi-Al-mio-rientro-lezioni-in-parrocchia_70956501.html
• http://www.libero-news.it/regioneespanso.jsp?id=360194

Thanks and best regards!
Adolivio Capece

Selection of games rounds 1-3

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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.

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

...and hundreds of chess players

Croatian chess fans watching the games from the side

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

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

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

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

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

Photos courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

• Official website
• All details and statistics
• Games in PGN: Men | Women via TWIC

Alexander 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

• Official website

Every 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

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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

Chess 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.

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?

The 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.

As 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.

Selection of games

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

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

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

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

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

The fifth victory for Stefansson

Photos courtesy of the tournament website

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

He 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.

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 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 | 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.

Photo © Fred Lucas;
for another photo see also Schaaksite

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.

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

“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.

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!

In 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.

Selection of games played last weekend

Game viewer by ChessTempo

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

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

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

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

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

...Alexander Areshchenko who decided the important match

Photos by Christian Bossert & Georgios Souleidis

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGNvia TWIC

Every 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

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 ?

 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 !

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

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.