The Dutch Open takes place Tuesday July 27th (Sunday rest day) - Thursday August 6 2010. 9-round Swiss Open with 13 GMs and 12 IMs. Including: 2009 winner Erwin L'Ami, Sipke Ernst, Valentin Iotov, Viacheslav Ikonnikov, Elshan Moradiabadi, Leonid Milov and Valery Neverov.

Official site has live games, downloads, round-to-round reports (in Dutch) and videos by Peter Doggers from ChessVibes.

Cr�on, une jolie petite ville fran�aise situ�e dans le d�partement de la Gironde en r�gion d'Aquitaine, organise son 15�me Festival International d'�checs du 26 juillet au 1er ao�t 2010.

Le cr� 2010 nous r�serve une belle surprise avec un 1er tournoi ferm� de ma�tres. Dix joueurs participent � cet �v�nement, dont notre ami Maxime Lagarde, m�daill� de bronze au dernier championnat du monde dans la cat�gorie minime, en photo ci-contre � Chess & Strategy

Le tournoi des Grands-Ma�tres :

Dix jeunes grands-ma�tres sont les stars de cette 43�me �dition du Festival d'�checs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet, en 9 rondes. Apr�s 8 rondes, Fabiano Caruana et le Fran�ais Maxime Vachier-Lagrave pointent en t�te avec 5 points sur 8. Ronde d�cisive aujourd'hui !

Le Festival international d'�checs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, f�te son quart de si�cle avec un nouveau record de popularit� � 354 participants.

Superbe reportage vid�o du Festival International d'�checs de Bienne r�alis� par BNJ Multim�dia, avec l'interview de l'organisateur Olivier Breisacher, qui met en avant le mariage harmonieux entre les �checs et l'internet. Notre sport a eu la chance de se d�velopper avec Internet et ses milliers de passionn�s qui suivent les parties en direct.

A voir �galement le t�moignage du grand-ma�tre suisse Yannick Pelletier qui explique la mani�re de se pr�parer contre un adversaire, comme celle d'un sportif. Travailler sa condition physique pour tenir la distance et regarder les ouvertures que joue son adversaire. Mais peut-on gagner sa vie aux �checs ? r�ponse d'Olivier Breisacher.

Chess.FM

Over at chessclub.com (aka ICC), I have been doing some Game of the Days for Chess.FM online broadcasts. I remember way back when Tony Rook started Chess.FM.� At some point, I suggested Skype be used.� Tony Rook was bought out, new leadership took control of ICC, and … Skype was introduced as a broadcast platform. � I did Game of the Day for Rounds 9 and 10 of Dortmund 2010 Sparkassen (Naiditsch-Kramnik and Leko-Naiditsch).� I learned from a viewer that Naiditsch is pronounced NIGH-ditch not NAY-ditch.

Chess.Com

Over at chess.com, I composed some video lectures on “When to Use (and When Not To Use) Computer Engines.

Some reasons so far to use the engines:

1) you play a game or observe a game where the opponent plays an inferior opening and you forget what to do (or, if you are observing, the inferior side “gets away with it” illogically) – check later with a computer!

In Lecture 1, I went over 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Qb6? 6. e5! Bc5 7. Ndb5! as an example to see the comprehensive, computer-backed, refutation.

2) you see a high level game giving an inferior opening some rough treatment and you want to meld that into a complete way of dealing with it – check with the computer!� In lecture 2, I went over the Blumenfeld Declined (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 b5 5. Bg5!) as an example.� Why am I the only person who heard of the Dutch Blumenfeld theme tournament?

Chukcha Jokes

Chukcha (Russian Eskimo) is going to Moscow and his friends ask him to bring back some butter.

They tell him to find it on sale, simply find the longest line.

He found the Lenin’s Tomb line instead.

When asked why he did not bring back any butter, he said “I found the longest line, but when I got closer, I found out the salesman was dead.”

And for Some Dutch Scenery

Mark Ginsburg and Christine Syben in Delft, Holland December 1989 - photo E. Tall

Le Festival international d'�checs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, f�te son quart de si�cle avec un nouveau record de popularit� � 354 participants.

Tournoi de Grands-Ma�tres : Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 6�me � 2,5/5

Formule originale cette ann�e pour le tournoi majeur puisque dix jeunes grands-ma�tres sont les stars de cette 43�me �dition du Festival d'�checs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet.

Le Festival international d'�checs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, f�te son quart de si�cle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Le Festival international d'�checs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, f�te son quart de si�cle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Quel talent, ce L�o ! Aujourd'hui, le vice-pr�sident de la F�d�ration Fran�aise des �checs, L�o Battesti, revient sur Chess & Strategy pour nous pr�senter la nouvelle formule interactive du magazine f�d�ral Echec & Mat.

A l'�re du d�veloppement durable, on parierait qu'Internet a �t� cr�� pour servir les Echecs... Cette version num�rique d'Echec et Mat en constitue une preuve suppl�mentaire.

Au menu, des reportages vid�os, des parties comment�es, une centaine de diagrammes interactifs pour tous niveaux de jeu, des rubriques "Terre d'�checs", "Histoire", "Dossier" b�n�ficiant de cette nouvelle technologie. Mais aussi un sondage et un Quiz dot� d'une dizaine de cadeaux !

Inscrivez-vous gratuitement en envoyant votre e-mail � la FFE.

2007-2010 � Chess & Strategy - tous droits r�serv�s

Le Festival international d'�checs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, f�te son quart de si�cle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Le Festival international d'�checs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, f�te son quart de si�cle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Le club d'�checs de Strasbourg organisait son 1er Open International du 14 au 17 juillet 2010, le 1er tournoi international d'envergure dans la capitale europ�enne depuis 1973. A cette occasion, France 3 a r�alis� un superbe reportage vid�o mettant en avant les valeurs de notre sport.

Le Festival international d'�checs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, f�te son quart de si�cle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Le Festival international d'�checs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, f�te son quart de si�cle avec un nouveau record de participants.

On August 12, a week earlier than in previous years, the new edition of the NH Chess Tournament starts in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You can watch Boris Gelfand, Peter Svidler, Peter Heine Nielsen, Loek van Wely and Ljubomir Ljubojevic (the Experience team) against Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri and David Howell (the Rising Stars) with free admission and expert commentary at the Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam.

The NH Chess Tournament will take place August 12-22 in hotel Krasnapolsky, in the heart of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. As always, the tournament is a confrontation between a team of five young �Rising Stars� and a team of five �Experienced� grandmasters who can look back on impressive and glorious careers.

The two teams play a �Scheveningen� tournament, which means that each player of one team plays against each of the players of the other team. They do so twice, once with the white pieces and once with the black pieces.

The team that collects most points wins the tournament. The best player of the ‘Rising Stars’ team will be invited to the 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in March 2010 in Nice, provided he or she scores over 50% in the NH Chess Tournament in Amsterdam.

The playing schedule:

Round 1 August 12 13.30 hrs Round 2 August 13 13.30 hrs Round 3 August 14 13.30 hrs Round 4 August 15 13.30 hrs Round 5 August 16 13.30 hrs August 17 Free Day Round 6 August 18 13.30 hrs Round 7 August 19 13.30 hrs Round 8 August 20 13.30 hrs Round 9 August 21 13.30 hrs Round 10 August 22 12.00 hrs

Every day the games will be commented on by experts in a nice and spacious commentary room to which the admission is free. These sessions start one hour after the start of the round, i.e. at 14.30 hrs, with the exception of the last round when the commentary will start at 13.00 hrs. IMs Hans B�hm, Jop Delemarre, Cor van Wijgerden, Gert Ligterink and GM Genna Sosonko will be doing the commentary (schedule here). At the end of the round, or towards the end, depending on the duration of the games, there will also be a press conference with one of the players in the commentary room.

Just like the last two years, and just like at the Amber tournament in Nice, both Macauley Peterson and yours truly will be providing daily video coverage and live interviews during this tournament. To get everyone warmed up, here’s the playlist of the videos from 2009 and 2008:

You’ve probably noticed already that since last week there’s a connection between Facebook and ChessVibes. From now on at every article you’ll find a ‘Like button’, and in the right column you can see a section with the fans of our page on Facebook. We’ll explain.

It cannot be denied that Facebook is having an increasing impact on global society. Currently there are more than 400 million active users worldwide and a few weeks ago founder Mark Zuckerberg claimed to be confident that Facebook will reach one billion users at some point. But still, for those few who don’t know… what is it?

Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004. Users can add people as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks, share content and join events. The website’s name stems from the colloquial name of books given to students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.

Facebook’s own statistics claim that 50% of the active users log on to Facebook in any given day. There are over 160 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups and events) on Facebook. An average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events and creates 70 pieces of content each month himself. More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared each month.

Besides being the number one place to meet friends online, Facebook has become a new channel for media and people to share their content. The New York Times is on Facebook, CNN is on Facebook, Google is on Facebook. Even Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is on Facebook.

Recently Lady Gaga became the first person to have 10 million fans on Facebook and averages approximately 140,000 new fans each day. Columbia Pictures will release a movie called The Social Network � a comedy-drama about the creation of Facebook – in October 2010 (trailer here). Facebook is the new Google.

As it goes with all major brands in the world, Facebook has met with some controversy as well. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Pakistan, Syria, China, Vietnam, and Iran. It has also been banned at many places of work to discourage employees from wasting time using the service. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. Facebook settled a lawsuit regarding claims over source code and intellectual property. The site has also been involved in controversy over the sale of fans and friends. (For more info we refer to Wikipedia.)

Although we’re still reluctant to try all features Facebook offers, especially relating the privacy issues mentioned above, we decided to do two things: create a page on Facebook and add a ‘Like button’ to our articles.

Our page on Facebook

At the moment the page offers all articles by ChessVibes via RSS, and there’s some basic info about our site (with the possibility to leave a comment about ChessVibes) and our editors. If you’re a fan of ChessVibes you can go to the page and click on the ‘Like button’ there. You’ll be added to the group of fans, and shown in the far right column on ChessVibes.com when your Facebook friends visit ChessVibes.com.

Like button

Besides, we also added a Like button to our articles. The Like button enables users to make connections to ChessVibes articles and share them back to their friends on Facebook with one click. Since the content is hosted by Facebook, the button can display personalized content whether or not the user has logged into your site. For logged-in Facebook users, the button is personalized to highlight friends who have also liked the page. For ChessVibes this means that from now on you can find one at the top, which gives the number of people who clicked it, and one at the bottom, where sometimes a few small thumbnails will be shown – when friends of yours (on Facebook) clicked the Like button before you did.

The streak has been broken.

After an amazing run of thirty(!) straight decisive games in U.S. Women�s Championship play, which began during round six of the 2009 Championship, spectators finally witnessed a draw in third round action between the two early favorites, IM Anna Zatonskih (pictured) and IM Irina Krush.

By Mike Wilmering and Katie Baldetti

The U.S. Women’s Championship and U.S. Junior Closed Championship are being held concurrently, from July 9-20, at the spacious Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.

In round three, an aggressive yet calculated gamble by Krush was countered by Zatonskih�s solid defense, and the rivalry that has been stewing for years will be placed on the back burner pending a possible playoff to decide the championship.

With Black, Krush chose to play the Benoni, an uncharacteristic decision designed to surprise her opponent.

�I thought it was a good decision, a fighting opening,� Krush said.

Krush only has played the Benoni two other times five years ago, games even she had forgotten about, but she said she thought there was no way Zatonskih could have expected her prep.

Zatonskih, the defending Champion, fell into time trouble and said she is still not playing to her true form, which she put on display at last year�s U.S. Women�s Championship, in which she scored a blistering 8.5/9.

�I just didn�t calculate clearly,� Zatonskih said. �There were probably too many [missed] opportunities for me.�

Today, Krush was clearly going for the win.

�Of my own volition, I wound up in this sort of dubious line, and I went for not such a principled move [9...]Qc7,�
she said, adding that Black has to be careful not to get dominated in this line without any counter play.

�I feel like I got away with a slightly provocative play in this game� Krush said. �I kind of got lucky to get out of this opening like this.�

After losses by WIM Alisa Melekhina and WIM Iryna Zenyuk, Krush and Zatonskih sit atop the leaderboard, each with scores of 2.5/3.

***

The U.S. Junior Closed Championship has an unlikely early leader after three rounds. FM Warren Harper won his game today with White against NM Tyler Hughes, which puts Harper at 3/3 atop the heap.

�[14...]f5 was I think the main point where [Hughes] went wrong,� Harper said. �Around move 8�c6 Harper said he liked his position much better, and also said he thought Hughes could have played defensively better later on in the game.

Hughes said he isn�t going to let Harper�s win upset him. ��You try your best to destroy each other on the board even though you�re friendly off,� Hughes said, �It�s what makes the tournament more enjoyable.�

Harper�s perfect score puts him above the highest-rated player and tournament favorite GM Ray Robson. Robson, who gave up a first round draw to 2209-rated qualifier Eric Rosen, shrugged of FM Steven Zierk 3.Bb5 anti-Sicilian in round three, and said he felt he had winning chances as early as the 14th move.

�After [14...]Qd4, I just thought I�d have a really comfortable game,� Robson said. �I didn�t think I played so well in the games leading up to this one, but I think I played decently this one, so I was happy about that.�

IM Sam Shankland, the number two seed by a wide margin, has struggled thus far and was 0-2 coming into today’s round but was able to score a come-from-behind victory against FM John Bryant to earn his first point of the tournament.

For all of the scores and pairings, and to watch live coverage of round four, visit www.uschesschmps.com.

On-demand replays of the full live broadcast are available on www.uschesschamps.com/video.

At this moment millions of soccer fans are watching the FIFA World Cup Final, played in Johannesburg, South Africa. Perhaps we can hire commentator Andr�s Cantor for one of our new videos…

Several fans pointed out to us the following video on YouTube. We decided that this was the right moment to publish it: the start of the FIFA World Cup final. In the video, a commercial for insurance company Geico, we see a combination of chess and football, with a game being played and commented by the famous Spanish commentator Andr�s Cantor.

In the coming two weeks the articles posted on ChessVibes will appear less frequently than usual, because your editor-in-chief is celebrating a holiday. However, our co-editors will be taking care of the most important news, such as the FIDE elections and the Super GM tournament in Dortmund, so that you don’t have to miss much.

At the moment of publishing this article yours truly has just arrived in Marseille, France to celebrate two weeks of holiday in the Provence. (Sorry for the Madonna pic, but we don’t know of a better way to get into the groove mood and found this high quality video from her Live Aid show recently uploaded to YouTube.)

For two weeks I will be derpived of chess, chess news and internet in general. It will be a challenge, but I suppose I’ll survive.

But don’t worry – my co-editors will make sure that the most important news will appear on the site, so you can still expect round-by-round reports from Dortmund, book reviews, tournament reports and more.

In the mean time I’ll give an overview of the biggest tournaments that will be held in the coming weeks.

Benasque Open: 8-17 July
The annual open in Benasque, Spain with Kiril Georgiev, Pavel Maletin, Viacheslav Zakhartsov and Hrant Melkumyan topping the participants list (though veterans UIf Andersson and Vlastimil Jansa also play). Official website.

Leiden Chess Tournament: 8-18 July
The annual open in Leiden, The Netherlands with Sergey Tiviakov, Predrag Nikolic, Erik van den Doel and Leonid Gofshtein topping the participants list. Official website.

2010 U.S. Women’s and Junior Closed Championships
The Chess Club and Scholastic Center in St Louis, USA will host this year’s Women’s Ch and Junior Ch together. Top participants: Ray Robson, Sam Shankland (Juniors), Irina Krush, Anna Zatonskih (Women’s). Official website.

Canadian Open: 10-18 July
The annual, strong open in Toronto, Canada, with this year Harikrishna, Bareev, McShane and Shabalov topping the participants list. Official website.

Rethymno Open: 13-20 July
The annual open in Rethymno, Crete, Greece with Gabriel Sargissian, Evgeny Najer, David Alberto, Maxim Turon and Viorel Iordachescu topping the participants list. Official website.

Ikaros Open: 13-21 July
The annual open in Ikaros, Greece with Elshan Moradiabadi, Momchil Nikolov and Sergey Zagrebelney topping the participants list. Official website.

Dortmund: 15-25 July
The annual Sparkassen Chess Meeting, with this year Vladimir Kramnik, Shakhryiar Mamedyarov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Peter Leko, Arkadij Naiditsch and Le Quang Liem. Official website.

Czech Open: 15 July-August 1
The annual festival in Pardubice, Czech Republic, with Evgeny Najer, Anton Korobov, Vladimir Potkin and Eltaj Safarli topping the participants list. Official website.

Andorra Open: 17-25 July
The annual open in Andorra, with Lazaro Bruzon, Aleksander Delchev, Csaba Balogh and Edouard Romain topping the participants list. Official website.

Biel: 17-30 July
The annual festival in Switzerland, with this year Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Dmitry Andreikin, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, David Howell, Parimarjan Negi, Maxim Rodshtein in the top group. Official website.

Avec l'�t� qui commence, les tournois d'�checs sont l�gion en France, alors comme vous, notre amie Nino Maisuradze se pose la question du choix de sa destination. Un choix v�ritablement corn�lien pour les pratiquants du noble jeu face � l'offre pl�thorique.

Chess & Strategy, un site sur les �checs qui fait certes du bruit sur la toile mais certifi� sans vuvuzela !

Coup d'oeil en vid�o et en musique sur le tournoi Fide de la 85�me �dition du Championnat d'�checs de Paris qui se d�roule du 3 au 11 juillet 2010 au Gymnase Pierre de Coubertin. Vous reconnaissez les champions et championnes d'�checs : Zhu Chen, Deysi Cori, S�bastien Feller, Maxime Lagarde, Christopher Debray, B Adhiban ... sur le tube plan�taire Superstition de Stevie Wonder.

Jonathan Cayla, un sympathique lecteur de Chess & Strategy, nous signale la sortie d'une vid�o mettant en sc�ne le num�ro un des �checs mondiaux.

Pourriez-vous battre le champion d'�checs norv�gien Magnus Carlsen ?

Pour le savoir, il suffit de vous inscrire sur le site de Raw. Le duel avec les internautes est pr�vu le 10 Septembre � New-York. Ce d�fi �chiqu�en est organis� par la marque de v�tements hollandaise G-Star pour laquelle Magnus est devenu l'�g�rie masculine de sa prochaine campagne de pub.

Le lien pour participer au Raw Chess Challenge. Merci pour l'info, Jonathan !

2007-2010 � Chess & Strategy - tous droits r�serv�s

While the Black Stars of Ghana were unable to convert penalty kicks to beat Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup, 15 hours away another group of Black stars would square off against competition from around the world. The World Open is a venue where people from every demographic group come to compete on the largest stage America has to offer.

For players of African descent, the tournament serves a number of purposes. It is a time to reunite with friends and to pursue personal chess endeavors. There are norms and titles to earn and of course the attractive lure of big winnings. Of course each has an acute level of difficulty. Typically Black players have done well at this marquee tournament.

In the 2010 World Open, Black players were well-represented in a diverse sea of players. In the Open section, there was GM Amon Simutowe who is finishing his Master’s degree at University of Texas-Dallas and has been accepted into eight elite schools for advanced study including Oxford, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and Duke.

The Zambian national has been occupied with his studies and has not had much of a chess appetite. However, he came with a student and ended on a respectable 5.5/9, but certainly not a great performance by his standards. Nevertheless, he played an interesting draw with GM Evgeny Najer, the 2008 champion.

Kassa Korley will probably be getting his FM title soon as he approaches 2300. He entered the Open section with norms on his mind. The New York native has narrowly missed a couple of norms, but in this tournament he was never able to gain momentum and finished with an even score. There is no question that Korley is brimming with talent and needs opportunities to maintain the momentum. Sylvester Smarty decided to try the Open section and beat IM Marc Esserman in the first round. However, he stumbled for seven rounds before ending with a win and 3.5 points.

In the high-octane under-2400 section, several heavy hitters entered this section including the legendary IM Emory Tate and red-hot Farai Mandizha. The Zimbabwean recently earned “IM-elect” status after earning a norm at the Philadelphia International. IM Oladapo Adu is a mainstay in the American circuit and is always a threat in this section.

Top boards in under-2400 section. Epic battle unfolds between IM Emory Tate and IM Oladapo Adu. A surging IM-elect Farai Mandizha enroute to a last round win against FM Ilye Figler.

All three of these players were in the thick of things until the last two rounds. While Mandizha charged on, Tate dropped his last two games ousting him from contention and ending him on 5.5/9. One of the games he lost was to Adu, who finished with 7/9 and a share of joint 3rd. Mandizha closed with clear second on 7.5/9.

While these are great results, perhaps the best result among the Black players was turned by 12-year old Justus Williams. The scholastic All-American scored a strong 5.5/9 and including his win over FM Alexander Barnett.

Lawyer Times finished strongly on 5.5/9 after losing three of first four games. FM Norman Rogers and Okechukwu Iwu scored even with 4.5/9. Three other scholastic stars played up a section. Experts Darrian Robinson (3/9), Josh Colas (2.5/8) and James Black, Jr. (2/8) took some harsh lessons, but gained valuable experience against tough competition. There seems to be a friendly competition as four scholastic players played up.

In the under-2200, Kola Adeyemi scored 6.5/9 for a share of 3rd place. Adekunle Ogunmefun was just out of the running with 6/9. Other plus scores were rising star Jehron Bryant who scored 5/9 as did Nigeria’s Abiye Williams.

Some notable performances occurred in the under-1600 section. In the last round Khalee Ward was set to defend his 2008 under-1600 title and had 7.5/8 going into his last round encounter with Lerrenzo Davis who was on 7/8. Davis won the contest to take first place and a $10,345 paycheck. Ward settled for $3160.67. Also in the hunt was Brianna Conley who scored a spectacular 7/9 losing only one game.

Brianna’s proud father Robert Conley remarked that this was her best performances. After the tournament, rising senior from Columbus, Ohio was headed to Harvard, Brown and Yale to look at schools. She will compete in the Polgar Girls later in the month.

Orrin Hudson of Besomeone, Inc. with Brianna Conley.

Last but not least, was the performance of Dwayne “Vortex” Darby. He scored 7.5/9 under-900 section and was interviewed about his performance. He gave credit to his coaches and gave an acknowledgment to his high school team, “The Dark Knights”.

Standings: http://chesstournamentservices.com/cca/category/world-open/world-open-standings/
Games (Open): http://www.thechessdrum.net/palview4/worldopen2010.pgn
Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=182385&id=513866269&l=14d7fc2035

GM Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands faces GM Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic in the last round. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.

The World Open moved from City Center to Valley Forge. This change of venue was not greeted with enthusiasm, but there was still lots of exciting chess ready to be played. The field was stacked with talent despite the absence of Hikaru Nakamura. A strong Indian contingent and several of the world’s top brass trekked to King of Prussia. The venue was certainly not a gleaming example befitting the status of such a tournament, but a thousand competitors filled the giant convention hall and braved the searing summer heat.

Francisco Vallejo-Pons and Loek Van Wely have much more in common than cheering for their national teams in the World Cup (both are now in the final). Both were expected to be in the hunt for the title, but unfortunately neither finished in the running. Top-ranked Vallejo-Pons ended on a disappointing 6/9 with five draws!

The star of the tournament was 22-year old Viktor Laznicka from the Czech Republic. In a show of dashing bravery, his maiden tournament in the U.S. was accented by six straight wins. At that point he was a full point clear of the field. After two draws, he sat down in his chair needing only a draw with Van Wely to win the title. To the amazement of many, he spurned a draw offer to play on in a better position. The game was one of the last to finish, but ended in a draw nevertheless. Laznicka would take home $17,413.00. GMs Pentala Harikrishna, Ilya Smirin and Luke Shane were joint 2nd and took home $5,028.67.

In the under-2400 section, FM Victor Shen blitzed the field with a scorching 8/9. He won his first seven games, but still only won by half-point over IM-elect Farai Mandizha who has been playing stellar chess as of late. The Zimbabwean earned norms in the New York and Philadelphia Internationals and should be close to reaching the required 2400 ELO. In joint 3rd was IM Chandrashhekhar Gokhale, WIM Alisa Melekhina and IM Oladapo Adu.

The World Open tournament will move back to Philadelphia’s City Center. Before the last round, Tournament Director Boyd Reed announced this news to sighs of relief. The Scanticon Convention Center does not appear to have met the standards for the World Open. There were complaints about the location and the fact that one needs a car to find a variety of food choices.

In addition, those staying at the Clarion Hotel had an irregular shuttle service and could not choose to walk a few blocks since there were no sidewalks. One Grandmaster walked a mile each day to the playing site because his hotel did not have a shuttle service. The playing room was tantamount to a basement and the lighting was not ideal. Even the trapped bird did not approve of the conditions. See you next year!

Standings: http://chesstournamentservices.com/cca/category/world-open/world-open-standings/

Games (Open): http://www.thechessdrum.net/palview4/worldopen2010.pgn

1. GM Ray Robson (2608, 2562)
   
2. IM Sam Shankland (2561, 2513)
   
3. FM John Bryant (2483, 2403)
   
4. FM Conrad Holt (2468, 2402)
5. FM Darwin Yang (2429, 2396)
6. NM Warren Harper (2416, 2304)
7. FM Steven Zierk (2412, 2385)
   
8. NM Parker Zhao (2382, 2267)
9. NM Tyler Hughes (2381, 2312)
   
10. NM Eric Rosen (2227, 2179)
    

Udine- Dal 5 al 11 luglio si svolge la terza edizione del Torneo Internazionale "Oro Caffe". Partecipano alla manifestazione due Maestri Internazionali, il francese Okhotnik e l'italiano Mogranzini. Il torneo � un Open integrale e si disputa sulla lunghezza di sette turni. Il Montepremi complessivo � di 1800 euro, 500 dei quali andranno al vincitore.

Migliori dieci iscritti per Elo FIDE (47 partecipanti)

1	Okhotnik Vladimir		IM	2467	0
2	MOGRANZINI Roberto		IM	2387	2387
3	TONON Alessandro		-M	2274	2274
4	DE POI Paolo		-M	2198	2198
5	DELLA PIETRA Andrea		CM	2170	2170
6	PAGNUTTI Lorenzo		-M	2095	2095
7	CAPALIKU Aleks		CM	2095	2095
8	VARINI Massimo		CM	2076	2076
9	PROCACCI Sergio		CM	2043	2043
10	VISINTIN Roberto		CM	2031	2031

Vladimir Okhotnik, numero uno del tabellone

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[Megalovic – 06-07]

VIDEO INTERVISTA a JUDIT POLGAR� QUI

CLASSIFICA FINALE

[Darkstorm– 05-07]

Castiglione Olona-Varese. La Societ� Scacchistica "Citt� di Varese", in collaborazione con gli enti locali, porter� in scena, domenica 4 luglio 2010 (ore 21:00), nel Borgo Antico di Castiglione Olona (Piazza Garibaldi) "Scacco al Borgo".

Una spettacolare partita vivente di scacchi in costumi d'epoca che far� rivivere la storica battaglia avvenuta in epoca longobarda tra il Seprio e Milano, ed in particolare l'assedio milanese a Castiglione nel 1161.

Le mosse saranno quelle della brillante partita disputata a Londra nel 1834 tra il francese Louis Charles Mah� de La Bourdonnais (bianco) e l'irlandese Alexander McDonnel (nero). Alleghiamo la partita e alcune brevi note storiche.La partita fu vinta da La Bourdonnais con scacco matto in 18 mosse.

La Regina e il Re dei bianchi sono impersonati da Maria Rosa Centofante e Francesco D'Aulisa(rispettivamente Presidente e Vicepresidente della Societ� Scacchistica"Citt� di Varese").

LOCANDINA della MANIFESTAZIONE QUI

[Darkstorm– 04-07]

Philadephia-USA. Attualemente in corso il World Open, un torneo Open della durata di 7 giorni di alto livello e col ragguardevole montepremi di 250.000 dollari. L'evento si svolge dal 29 Giugno al 5 Luglio presso il Valley Forge Convention Plaza, Scanticon and Radisson Hotels.

Prendono parte alla competizione infatti il GM Vallejo Pons (spagnolo,over 2700), l'indiano secondo di Anand:GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly,i connazionali GM Harikrishna e Sandipan Chanda, il britannico GM Luke McShane, e l'olandese GM Loek Van Wely, GM Evgeny Najer,ilGM ceco Viktor Laznicka e il GM Jan Gustafsson. Il giocatore locale pi� forte � GM Alexander Onischuk.

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World Open Philadelphia,montepremi 250.000 $

Il GM ceco Viktor Laznicka,attualemente a 5 su 5!

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IL giovane GM USA Ray ROBSON

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Vallejo Pons (Spagna)

GM Harikrishna

Accattivante il video di presentazione,da vedere per capire l'atmosfera del torneo:

VIDEO del TORNEO

9 Queens instructor Amanda Mateer earned her first WIM norm at the Philadelphia Open. Watch this video on her victories.

What qualities does it take to play world-class chess? What�s the appeal of chess? These and other questions were answered by 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov in an interview with Big Think.

The following interview with Anatoly Karpov was conducted May 17, 2010 by Paul Hoffman of Big Think, a global forum connecting people and ideas. In their Experts series, other big names include Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist William Phillips, author Isabel Allende and comedian Stephen Fry.

Question: What qualities does it take to play world-class chess?

Anatoly Karpov:� A lot of things.� Chess is a very tough game, and psychologically a tough game.� And of course chess needs a lot of qualities, human qualities.� And so you must have very strong nervous system and then you must be well prepared, you must be able to work a lot. Chess need good preparation and so you must work for hours if you play, let�s say, for world championship.

(…)

Question: How do remain calm after you realize you�ve made a poor move?

Anatoly Karpov: No, this is a very important and this is good question because many people would call back the situation, they missed chances, and then of course it will spoil the rest of the game.� But it is concerning not only special situation during the game, but also the bad result of previous game for the next game you play.� So, in my life, I tried and I succeeded in many cases to forget everything that was in the past.� So, of course you need to make some analysis and not to repeat mistakes, but it�s extremely important to accept situation like it is, the real situation, not with thoughts of regrets of what you missed and okay, two moves ago you had winning position now, you have to defend a difficult position and probably you might lose the game.� So, this thought shouldn�t be when you play chess game.� And so later on maybe you analyze and then you will, how to say, make some conclusions.� But during the game… and this is also very important part for chess education because chess is getting ideas how to accept the real situation and how to be objective.� To be objective and to meet unexpected situations and to adapt to this immediately and to start to think and to solve the problems.

You have to develop this.� I don�t think it comes from your childhood or with birth.�

Question: What are your weaknesses as a player?

Anatoly Karpov: Weaknesses?� So, I didn�t know so well chess theory, the theory of chess openings.� And so, of course I knew the theory, but not on the level of the best players, so this was my… this was always my weakness.� But this is you know, this is weakness and this is advantage because if I would know Chess theory so well, so probably I would not work out this style to defend difficult positions because from my childhood I could receive difficult positions against even weaker players, but okay nothing happened, so I was continuing to fight.� And so this is weakness, this is positive thing, but still more this is weakness.� It is better to know Chess Theory and not to get in difficult positions from the beginning.�

The full interview can be read here.

You’ll probably remember the 13-fold repetition in the game Bok-Van Wely at the Dutch Championship, two weeks ago. Afterwards Van Wely was fuming that his young opponent didn’t use the opportunity to get more experience in a real fight. As GM Luke McShane pointed out, something similar happened in a clock simul between Kasparov and the USA in 1988.

What would you do, when you played the world champion in a simul, with the white pieces, and you have the possibility to repeat moves in a theoretical position? Would you go for it, being able to tell your friends that the man couldn’t beat you? Or would you consider it bad ethics, like Kasparov, who argued that the White player should always play for a win?

In his June 10 column for the online version of the Daily / Sunday Express, GM Luke McShane picked up the Bok-Van Wely story, and demonstrated a clear parrallel with the 1988 clock simul between then World Champion Garry Kasparov and the USA, held in New York City. This event was beautifully depicted for TV and can now be found on YouTube in three separate videos (due to YouTube’s 10-minute limit).

The second video shows Kasparov being clearly upset when IM Daniel Edelman goes for the draw in the well-known Sveshnikov sequence 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Qa5+ 10.Nc3 Qd8 11.Nd5.

McShane argues that a simul and a tournament game are quite different situations.

My opinion is that forcing a well known draw (when there are more interesting options available) in an exhibition game like a simul really is spineless. Bok’s decision certainly wasn’t brave, but is harder to judge. Apparently he was aware that he could play on with h2-h4, but wasn’t familiar with the position. I’m sure his opponent was, and that’s a serious handicap against a stronger player.

I’ve occasionally gone into games eager to face my opponent’s lines A, B or C, but accepted that if he chooses D then I’ll be content with a draw. Maybe Bok was tired that day, or judged that his overall tournament would benefit from a draw. Any competitive player can sympathise with those feelings. As for gaining experience, Bok probably learned more about chess psychology from this game than he ever would have normally!

Links

• Column by Luke McShane
• Kasparov-USA on YouTube
• ‘Experimental draw at Dutch Championship’

Magnus Carlsen finished the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania in style. The Norwegian beat Wang Yue with Black in the last round to finish with a 7.5/10 score, two points ahead of the rest of the field. Ponomariov and Radjabov defeated Nisipeanu and Gelfand respectively, also with the black pieces. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco – Final Report.

Marcel Adrian Piteiu, CEO of sponsor Romgaz, and Magnus Carlsen holding the trophy

The fourth Kings Tournament took place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. It was a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue played. The rate of play was 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move. No draw agreement by the players were allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event was organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade�. This year the tournament was officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue was the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers decidede to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna after five rounds, where everyone was staying.

ChessVibes was at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 10

As Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Magnus Carlsen quickly calculated during the buffet after the closing ceremony, the final round of the Kings Tournament brought the number of Black victories to eight, against just seven for White! It was three times ‘0-1′ on the last day, and this included the fifth victory for Carlsen, against Wang Yue.

The Chinese GM played one of his worst games and thus finished with a very disappointing result. He had a very tough tournament, in which he never seemed to have recovered from his jetlag, and the 24 hours waiting at Munich airport (due to visa problems) before the start. For Carlsen it meant a relatively easy with to end with a 7.5/10 score, a 2918 performance and a new rating of 2826, the second highest in chess history.

The other two games were similar affairs, with the white players simply playing way below their normal level. Ponomariov could end a not very good tournament with a win, thanks to some big, strategical errors by his Romanian opponent. 7…Ne7 caught Nisipeanu by surprise and after that all his moves ‘deserved a question mark’, as he said afterwards. Ponomariov thought 17.d4 to be the decisive mistake.

Als Gelfand started to make mistakes at an early stage. He had his doubts about 14.Qd2, since the queen had to go to c2 soon afterwards. And after 17…c6 he suddenly saw that the planned 17.Ne3 is answered by the strong 17…Ne6 18.Bg3 f5, so there White’s position was already difficult. Radjabov thought it to be winning after 24…a5.

So the Kings Tournament ended in another great victory for Carlsen, who is getting closer to Kasparov’s record Elo. More importantly, the Norwegian showed that even after a break of a few months he can still maintain his high level, barely getting into real danger. Only Ponomariov had him on the ropes, but then missed a big chance when Carlsen created new complications.

Next on the world’s number one’s chess agenda is a rapid event with Anand, Polgar and Hammer in August in Norway and he’ll also play for Norway at the Olympiad. Soon we will find out if we will see him in one of the other big, upcoming tournaments: Shanghai, Bilbao and Nanjing. He already signed for London in December. Next top event is Dortmund, which starts July 15th and has Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Leko, Naiditsch and Le Quang Liem.

Round 10 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

La 4�me �dition du Kings Tournament d'�checs de Bazna vient de s'achever sur le triomphe de Magnus Carlsen avec 7,5 points sur 10, soit une performance de 2920 Elo.

Celui que l'on imagine comme le prochain champion du monde d'�checs, a donn� une v�ritable le�on en remportant 5 parties et en conc�dant 5 nulles. Il laisse ses plus proches poursuivants, Teimour Radjabov et Boris Gelfand, � 2 points derri�re.

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All three games of round 9 in Bazna, Romania ended in draw. With one round to go, Carlsen leads the Kings Tournament with 6.5/9. Gelfand, who celebrated his 42nd birthday on Thursday, has a point less. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade�. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 9

A bit more than an hour into the round, Radjabov and Wang Yue already finished their game. I was upstairs in my hotel room working on something else, and suddenly I saw the ‘1/2-1/2′ on the live transmission board. I went downstairs with my camera, but the players were nowhere to be seen. There wasn’t much to record anyway, since everything was theory, and analysed to a draw back in 2002.

More interesting were the other two games, but these two also ended in draws. Ponomariov-Gelfand had quite a disappointing finish, since there was still enough going on in the final position. The reason for this draw? Ponomariov was suddenly wondering what he was doing. He didn’t like his last few moves at all, and thought that if he’d continue that way, he’d certainly lose. Then he saw Gelfand had just two minutes left on the clock, and it was a good moment for a draw offer.

Nisipeanu surprised Carlsen by playing the J�nisch Gambit of the Ruy Lopez. This variation has mainly been played at top level by Radjabov recently, and Carlsen said he knew those games, but that he was less comfortable when he saw 5…d5 played. Therefore he didn’t go for the critical 9.Nxa7+, but the more solid 9.f4.

In his recent book The Ruy Lopez Revisited, Sokolov says about 16.Qf1 “this is considered to be White’s best. A number of other moves have been tried – almost everything. Black has adequate counterplay and the tables can easily turn,” and then 16.Nf7 Bxf7 17.Bxf7 Rhf8 (Timman-Speelman, London Candidates 1989), 16.Kb1, 16.a4, 16.Rdf1, 16.Bxe6+ and 16.g4 are mentioned. After 16.Rdf1 (instead of Carlsen’s 16.Rhf1) Sokolov gives 16…Rhe8 17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.Nf7 (18.Rxf6 Bxe5 as in the game is only possible with a rook on d1 instead of h1) 18…Rd7 Lau-Schiffer, Bundesliga 1996/97.

Nisipeanu played very accurately, e.g. his 21…Qh6+ and 25…Kc7! were strong. When Dorian Rogozenco told him that it had all been played in correspondence games, Nisipeanu said he ought to update his correspondence database, but in fact his second Iordachescu admitted they had looked at it. After the game Carlsen and Nisipeanu analysed a possible pawn ending for about half an hour.

At night, just like last year, Gelfand was given a birthday cake and we all toasted to his health with a glass of champagne. A very nice gesture from the organizers.

Round 9 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

La 4�me �dition du Kings Tournament d'�checs de Bazna se d�roule du 14 au 25 juin � Medias. Ce tournoi d'�checs se joue en 10 rondes aller-retour, avec 6 grands-ma�tres dont le n�1 au Elo Magnus Carlsen. Nous suivrons la partie Wang Yue - Magnus Carlsen lors de cette ultime ronde.

Comment jouer au Marie Chess Song ? C'est simple, il suffit d'�couter M. Pokora chanter "Juste une photo de toi". Alors, sauriez-vous pr�ciser � notre amie Marie B�renger combien de termes �chiqu�ens on y trouve ?

M. Pokora, de son vrai nom Matthieu Tota, est un chanteur fran�ais de R'n'B et de Pop, n� � Strasbourg le 26 septembre 1985. Il commence sa carri�re sous le pseudonyme � Matt Pokora �, mais est contraint d'en changer pour � M. Pokora � suite au proc�s intent� et gagn� par le chanteur Matt Houston, pour �viter la confusion entre les deux artistes de style musical proche. Il sort son premier album solo en 2004. Celui-ci est certifi� disque d'or. Il m�lange R'n'B, pop, hip hop et crunk'n'b.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu defeated Wang Yue with the black pieces in round 8 of the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania. Gelfand-Carlsen and Radjabov-Ponomariov ended in a draw. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade�. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 8

The eighth round saw the clash between the numbers one and two in the standings. For Gelfand, who played with the white pieces, it was an excellent opportunity to do something about Carlsen’s supreme reign in the tournament. And the Israel grandmaster got his chances, when his opponent allowed some complicated tactics on move 16.

In a more or less forced sequence of moves, both sides ‘won’ an exchange and the resulting position was analysed in the hotel lobby by Ponomariov and Radjabov, who had drawn a quiet game in thirty moves. “It looks promising for White, but Carlsen is a tricky guy, very tricky,” Ponomariov said.

And indeed the Norwegian appeared to be safe throughout the game, and even had the better chances in the end. Black’s activity is more important than White’s a-pawn, but there is no clear way to profit from the pin.

Nisipeanu was rewarded for his persistance in an ending against Wang Yue. At move 36 his second Viorel Iordechascu couldn’t find more ideas for Black and expected a draw soon, but his boss managed to find a way to get his king in. Then, on move 63, he said he wasn’t sure if ‘Dieter’ would find 63…Kc3 and especially 65…Rf1, which he called a ‘computer move’ to cut the king. But Nisipeanu found it (depicted below).

Round 8 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

In the seventh round of the Kings Tournament, which has returned to Bazna, Carlsen won against Radjabov. Gelfand is still a point behind the Norwegian after beating Nisipeanu with Black. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade�. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 7

Monday morning the tournament organizers decided to move back to Bazna, where the first three editions of tournament were held as well. It was clear that the players weren’t really fond of the half an hour drive to Medias and back each day, but the final ‘drop’… were the drops of rain that fell on Carlsen and Ponomariov’s board in round 6.

To avoid any further problems as result of the unpredictable weather, all boards, pieces and other things were moved to the conference room of the hotel complex. The players and seconds were all quite happy about this. One of the reasons might have been that they now have some more football to watch each day!

After a somewhat slow start (certainly from hindsight) it’s now full steam ahead for Magnus Carlsen, who won his fourth game in a row. His tournament performance rating is now 2960 according to TWIC, 2955 according to Chessbase. (Who is right? Well, it doesn’t matter too much.) His live rating is now 2825.

“I thought it was a very good game actually,” said a cheerful Carlsen afterwards. The Norwegian pointed out that both he and his opponent Teimour Radjabov had probably played the strongest moves up till the rook ending. “He handled the position very well. I thought I should at least make him work a little bit for the half point,” said Carlsen, and after the inaccurate 32…Rc5 Black indeed needed to work hard. Radjabov had gotten into timetrouble and after 39…Kg8 the rook ending was lost. We are using Carlsen’s own words when we say that the rest was a ‘matter of technique’.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu was clearly disappointed after his loss against Boris Gelfand, which brought the local hero on minus two. The Romanian was mostly disturbed by the simple tactics he missed in the middlegame. He had planned 21.Rxe4 dxe4 22.Qxe4 but this is refuted by 22…Qxc6.

Ruslan Ponomariov had no reason to be happy either after his draw with Wang Yue. The Ukrainian had been clearly better and a healthy pawn up, but couldn’t win the ending. It was surprising that he didn’t play the positional standard move 28.h4, and later he simply overlooked 37…Ng6 completely.

Round 7 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Pour la premi�re fois de son histoire, la Coupe du Monde de Football est diffus�e en Direct Live sur le Web. Nous ne pouvions pas manquer ce rendez-vous sur Chess & Strategy !

Comme vous le savez, le pied du tennisman est très sollicité lors des différentes phases de jeu : quelles chaussures choisir pour jouer une partie de tennis en s'assurant les meilleures chances de gagner ?  La question mérite réflexion. Amis lecteurs, nous avons la solution. Nous vous présentons un nouvel atout sport conçu pour le joueur de tennis régulier de niveau confirmé pratiquant sur tous types de surfaces, découvrez tous les atouts techniques de la chaussure tennis  de la marque Artengo 633D. Elles vous feront vivre de nouvelles sensations.

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Retrouvez plus d’infos, de vidéos et un forum sur le site dédié à la nouvelle chaussure Artengo 633D

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2007-2010 � Chess & Strategy - tous droits r�serv�s

El Gran Maestro serbio Aleksa Strikovic, se convirti� en el ganador del IV Torneo Internacional de la Bajada de la Virgen, que conclu�a en la ma�ana del domingo 20 de junio en el Real Club N�uticos de Santa Cruz de La Palma. Strikovic, con 7,5 puntos, superaba en medio punto a el Gran Maestro Ruso Korneev y el Gran Maestro serbio Dragan Barlov, segundo y tercero de la clasificaci�n general.

Con 7 puntos tres ilustres del ajedrez canario,� la WFM Belinda Vega, el aruquense Fernando Hidalgo y la gran sorpresa del torneo el jugador de Los Llanos de Aridane, Sergio Hern�ndez Le�n en la sexta plaza del torneo.

Gustavo de la Cruz, en el d�cimo puesto�con 6,5 puntos fue el mejor palmero�(sin contar�a Sergio), seguido del infantil Juan Manuel Acosta en el puesto 15 con 6 puntos. Jos� Antonio Herrera con 5,5 puntos en el puesto 20 y Borja Rodr�guez Ferraz en el 24 eran los mejores jugadores palmeros del campeonato.

El mejor juvenil correspondi� a Pablo Rodr�guez lapetra�en el puesto 14, seguido por el palmero Nauzet P�rez en el puesto 30 de la general con 5,5 puntos. Kevin Meneses fue el mejor cadete, seguido de Nathaniel Capote.

El MI Francisco Javier Sanz, se llevo el premio al mejor veterano, quedando a continuaci�n Francisco de La Banda, Miguel Angel Morcuende y Tom�s Cano. Isolina Majul se llevo la mejor F�mina, seguida de Carolina Quiza.

Tuvieron premios especiales Borja Molina (mejor sub.2200), Hector L�pez (mejor sub.2000), Aitor Pi�ero (mejor sub.1900) y Adi�n P�rez Barreto como mejor sub.1800.

Daniel Guerra se llevo la categor�a infantil seguido de Johanna Capote; Alain P�rez y Odama Santana resultaron los primeros Sub.12; Diego Acosta Moreno fue el mejor sub.10 seguido de Andr�s Garc�a, mientras que los mejores Sub.8 fueron para Jos� Luis Hern�ndez y Angel Luis Cubas.

El Campeonato Internacional de la Bajada de la Virgen se disput� el 19 y 20 de junio en el Real Club N�utico de Santa Cruz de La Palma con m�s de 100 ajedrecistas participantes en el torneo.

Las principales autoridades pol�ticas de La Palma, se dieron cita en el evento encabezados por el Alcalde de Santa Cruz de La Palma Juan Ram�n Felipe, el Consejero de Deportes del Cabildo de La Palma Adolfo P�rez Acosta, Nieves Davila en representaci�n de Cajacanarias, Jos� Miguel Fraguela como Presidente de la Federaci�n Canaria de Ajedrez, Alejandro Hern�ndez, concejal de Deportes de Santa Cruz de La Palma, Miguel Angel Morcuende vocal de la Federaci�n Canaria de ajedrez y Jos� Carlos Mart�n el responsable del ajedrez en la isla de la Palma.

Todos ellos se congratularon por lo bien que va el deporte ciencia en La Palma, y que cada cinco a�os la familia del ajedrez de la isla pueda festejar con el ajedrez canario la principal fiesta de La Palma, La Bajada de la Virgen de Las Nieves.

Toda la informaci�n del torneo en el siguiente enlace:

Torneo Internacional Bajada de la Virgen 2010

En�ajedrezlapalma.com �hay tambi�n una importante colecci�n de fotos del evento y en d�as pr�ximos se pondr� un par de v�deos del mismo.

Desde La Palma agradecer a toda la familia del ajedrez palmero y Canario, su colaboraci�n con este evento y en especial a las entidades que lo patrocinan: Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de La Palma, Patronato de la Bajada de la Virgen, Cabildo de La Palma y CajaCanarias.

El Centro Insular de Ajedrez de La Palma y el Club Cajacanarias de La Palma,�fueron los organizadores, siendo los �rbitros del evento, Jacinto Iglesias, Jos� Antonio Gonz�lez Valero y David Rodr�guez.

La clasificaci�n del torneo fue:

El Gran Maestro serbio Aleksa Strikovic, se convirti� en el ganador del IV Torneo Internacional de la Bajada de la Virgen, que conclu�a en la ma�ana del domingo 20 de junio en el Real Club N�uticos de Santa Cruz de La Palma. Strikovic, con 7,5 puntos, superaba en medio punto a el Gran Maestro Ruso Korneev y el Gran Maestro serbio Dragan Barlov, segundo y tercero de la clasificaci�n general.

Con 7 puntos tres ilustres del ajedrez canario,� la WFM Belinda Vega, el aruquense Fernando Hidalgo y la gran sorpresa del torneo el jugador de Los Llanos de Aridane, Sergio Hern�ndez Le�n en la sexta plaza del torneo.

Gustavo de la Cruz, en el d�cimo puesto�con 6,5 puntos fue el mejor palmero�(sin contar�a Sergio), seguido del infantil Juan Manuel Acosta en el puesto 15 con 6 puntos. Jos� Antonio Herrera con 5,5 puntos en el puesto 20 y Borja Rodr�guez Ferraz en el 24 eran los mejores jugadores palmeros del campeonato.

El mejor juvenil correspondi� a Pablo Rodr�guez lapetra�en el puesto 14, seguido por el palmero Nauzet P�rez en el puesto 30 de la general con 5,5 puntos. Kevin Meneses fue el mejor cadete, seguido de Nathaniel Capote.

El MI Francisco Javier Sanz, se llevo el premio al mejor veterano, quedando a continuaci�n Francisco de La Banda, Miguel Angel Morcuende y Tom�s Cano. Isolina Majul se llevo la mejor F�mina, seguida de Carolina Quiza.

Tuvieron premios especiales Borja Molina (mejor sub.2200), Hector L�pez (mejor sub.2000), Aitor Pi�ero (mejor sub.1900) y Adi�n P�rez Barreto como mejor sub.1800.

Daniel Guerra se llevo la categor�a infantil seguido de Johanna Capote; Alain P�rez y Odama Santana resultaron los primeros Sub.12; Diego Acosta Moreno fue el mejor sub.10 seguido de Andr�s Garc�a, mientras que los mejores Sub.8 fueron para Jos� Luis Hern�ndez y Angel Luis Cubas.

El Campeonato Internacional de la Bajada de la Virgen se disput� el 19 y 20 de junio en el Real Club N�utico de Santa Cruz de La Palma con m�s de 100 ajedrecistas participantes en el torneo.

Las principales autoridades pol�ticas de La Palma, se dieron cita en el evento encabezados por el Alcalde de Santa Cruz de La Palma Juan Ram�n Felipe, el Consejero de Deportes del Cabildo de La Palma Adolfo P�rez Acosta, Nieves Davila en representaci�n de Cajacanarias, Jos� Miguel Fraguela como Presidente de la Federaci�n Canaria de Ajedrez, Alejandro Hern�ndez, concejal de Deportes de Santa Cruz de La Palma, Miguel Angel Morcuende vocal de la Federaci�n Canaria de ajedrez y Jos� Carlos Mart�n el responsable del ajedrez en la isla de la Palma.

Todos ellos se congratularon por lo bien que va el deporte ciencia en La Palma, y que cada cinco a�os la familia del ajedrez de la isla pueda festejar con el ajedrez canario la principal fiesta de La Palma, La Bajada de la Virgen de Las Nieves.

Toda la informaci�n del torneo en el siguiente enlace:

Torneo Internacional Bajada de la Virgen 2010

En nuestra p�gina web hay tambi�n una importante colecci�n de fotos del evento y en d�as pr�ximos se pondr� un par de v�deos del mismo.

Desde La Palma agradecer a toda la familia del ajedrez palmero y Canario, su colaboraci�n con este evento y en especial a las entidades que lo patrocinan: Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de La Palma, Patronato de la Bajada de la Virgen, Cabildo de La Palma y CajaCanarias.

El Centro Insular de Ajedrez de La Palma y el Club Cajacanarias de La Palma,�fueron los organizadores, siendo los �rbitros del evento, Jacinto Iglesias, Jos� Antonio Gonz�lez Valero y David Rodr�guez.

La clasificaci�n del torneo fue:

Magnus Carlsen increased his lead at the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania to a full point. Today the Norwegian beat Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces, while Wang Yue-Gelfand and Radjabov-Nisipeanu ended in a draw. For now the games, later more.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade�. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

• Round 5
• Interview Elisabete Polihroniade
• Round 4
• Radjabov
• Round 3
• Interview Mayor of Medias
• Round 2
• Round 1
• Interview Tournament Director

Round 6 games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

After five rounds, Carlsen is in sole lead at the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. The world’s number one defeated Nisipeanu with Black. Gelfand also won, against Ponomariov, while Wang Yue and Radjabov drew. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade�. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

• Round 5
• Interview Elisabete Polihroniade
• Round 4
• Radjabov
• Round 3
• Interview Mayor of Medias
• Round 2
• Round 1
• Interview Tournament Director

Round 5

After hours of beautiful, sunny weather, for a few days in a row it has started to rain in the afternoon, here in Romania. On Saturday it was especially rough, with a thunder storm and hail shower which lasted for about twenty minutes, just when the players arrived at the venue.

They even waited in their cars for about ten minutes, before Henrik and Magnus Carlsen decided to go first. They took their shoos off and ran for their lives inside the building, after which the others followed, helped with umbrellas.

The bad weather continued for Nisipeanu and Ponomariov. The Romanian grandmaster faced the rare move 13…Re8 and already on moves 15 and 17 he played in accurately, sort of missing the feel for danger in that phase. Soon it became clear that his knight on a7 was never going to get back into the game.

Ponomariov was also caught by surprise, in his game against Gelfand, and was soon looking at a hopeless ending. He tried to make something out of it, but his opponent had no mercy. The Israeli GM was even more happy after the game when he heard Holland had won their second match at the World Cup.

Wang Yue was better for most of the middlegame, but it was hard to think of a clear plan. The ending was probbly already equal and at move 41 the players called it a day.

Round 5 games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Three victories for the white pieces shook up the standings completely at the Kings Tournament in Media, Romania. Carlsen and Radjabov took over the lead from Gelfand and Nisipeanu, going into the first rest day. Now with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco & a long video with Radjabov explaining in ‘Corus style’ his win against Gelfand.