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Headline Archives
The headlines below do not include our regular weekly features:
Each of which can be seen at it's respective archive page.
Here's what was New at Chessville
between 1 April 2006 and 30 June 2006:
(6/29)
Chess & Soccer:
IM Igor Khmelnitsky's latest contribution looks at two very
popular facets of the Ukranian culture he left behind 15 years
ago, but still follows very closely: chess & soccer! IM
Khmelnitsky looks at a number of positions from games at the
recently concluded super-tournament held in Ukraine – under the
sponsorship of the Ukrainian airline Aeroswit.
Bologan,V (2666) - Karjakin,S (2661) [E15]
Aerosvit-2006 Foros (1), 17.06.2006 |
Black to Move |
Black is a little worse here, but nothing too serious.
After a solid 32...Rf8, the problem with the pin is solved. Instead
Karjakin played...32...c3?? 33.Rxc3 Perhaps, the plan was to play
33...Rb1+ 34.Kg2 Bh3+ aiming at 35...Rxa8, but the Bf3 defends it and
after 35.Kxh3 White is up a Bishop. Also, near miss is 33...Bh3, since
after 34.Rxd8 Rb1+ 35.Rd1 the Bf3 defends the same rook but on a different
square. So, with both counterstrikes failing, suddenly Black found himself
not only losing a pawn, but also the pinned Bc8.
|
(6/25)
USCL Player Spotlight:
The USCL Player Spotlight falls this month on one of the strongest ever
American players, GM Larry Christiansen,
of
the Boston Blitz. A
Southern California native who now resides in
Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Natasha. One of the greatest
attacking players in the history of the United States, Larry was a star of
the Bundesliga (a German league of chess teams) and was U.S. Champion in
1980, 1983, and 2002 (he won the title-ring in a playoff against Grandmaster
Nick deFirmian). A major figure in international chess for over two
decades, Larry is also the author of several books on the game. His latest,
Storming the Barricades, was
published to universal acclaim in 2000. In today's spotlight, GM
Christiansen looks at his Round 3 (2005) smashing of IM-elect Lev
Milman of the Carolina Cobras. |
|
(6/25) Review:
Win with the London System by Sverre Johnsen and Vlatko Kovačević,
reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "I have always been intrigued by
chess opening books with the words “win” or “winning” in their titles.
I can imagine myself sitting down to a game with a buddy, confident with
1.e4 because I’ve ingested Winning with the Ruy Lopez.
Quick as a shot, though, in this reverie, he replies 1…c5, and I
realize that he’s been visiting Winning with the Sicilian Dragon.
No problem. My latest study was Winning with the Smith-Morra Gambit,
so I whip out 2.d4, and after 2…cd, I proceed with 3.c3.
My opponent smiles as he takes the pawn,
3…dxc, and I suddenly realize with a bit of chagrin that he’s been
reading Beating the Anti-Sicilians…" |
(6/25)
Opinion/Editorial:
Why Kramnik is the Current and Last "Match" World Chess Champion Now in
June 2006, by Gene Milener.
2006 World Championship Match Topalov-Kramnik
WHY THIS MATCH IS A TRAGEDY FOR CHESS
Politically,
chess is a mess. We do not have much good going for us
politically, but we do have an extremely prestigious World Chess
Championship (WCC) title with a history reaching back to the 1800's.
Now with this
Kramnik-Topalov match, Kirsan in effect wants to end the historically
gloried concept of a "Match" WCC title. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov wants
to replace it with a new kind of title, a less prestigious "Tournament"
WCC title. Topalov could have simply declined to go along with
Kirsan's plan. Topalov could have publicly pressured both Kirsan
and Kramnik... |
“I’m too sexy to wear a tie,” said the big man. |
(6/25) Bad Vlad:
Fashion Attack at Turin! by Robert T. Tuohey. "At
the 36th Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy (heretofore notable
only for its shroud), Vladimir Kramnik resorted not to his Berlin Wall
but rather his clothes stall. In an entirely new approach to chess
strategy, non-sartorial Kramnik remarked he would, “Bore ’em, then
floor ’em!” And so he did..." |
(6/18)
Review:
Chess Endgames 1 (Basic
Knowledge for Beginners) by Karsten Mueller, reviewed by
Michael Jeffreys. "I promise you that from studying your endgames,
not only your endgame will profit, but your chess in general. –
Karsten Mueller. No doubt GM Karsten Mueller from Hamburg, Germany
is best known for his landmark work on the endgame (co-written with Frank
Lamprecht) which was published by GAMBIT in 2001 under the title,
Fundamental Chess Endings. Personally, I thought this was
hands down the book of the year. Curiously, the spelling of his
last name on that book is Müller, while on the DVD
jacket it’s Mueller. This DVD from ChessBase covers the basics of
endgame play, and looks to be the first in what I assume will be a series of
progressively more advanced material..." |
|
(6/18)
Review:
My Best
Games in the Sicilian by Alexei Shirov, reviewed by Michael
Jeffreys. "When I look at my chess career, probably the best
games that I played were in the Sicilian defense. – Alexei Shirov.
With the ability to now incorporate video, Chessbase products have taken a
giant leap forward over the past few years... first up on today’s menu is
the Latvian genius (who has been living in Spain for the last several
years), GM Alexei Shirov, who is currently rated 2699 and ranked 18th
in the world... This DVD contains a total of 3 hours and 50 minutes of
instruction on how to play against the Sicilian defense according to
Shirov (he is White in all the games.) Here’s a breakdown of the
material by segment..." |
|
(6/18)
Annotated Game: Topalov-Anand, XIX Magistral Ciudad de León
(1). Ciudad de Leon 2006 - Finals -
Viswanathan Anand Wins!!!
2½ - 1½
over
Vesselin Topalov;
reported by GM Zenón Franco Ocampos, Press Chief. OK, you've
seen the photos and read the
report of Anand's victory, now we bring you the games, with
annotations. Today's game is the first, a tense, unbalanced yet
technical struggle, resulting in a 70-move draw. Enjoy!
|
|
(6/18)
Recon64:
The Move-Prediction exercise from the creative genius of Prof.
Chester Nuhmentz. Click on the
portrait of Garry Kasparov to try this month's
Recon64 game selected especially for the readers
of Chessville: Garry Kasparov vs.
Veselin Topalov; Wijk aan Zee, 1999.
A fantastic game. Garry was so moved as to
crown this game as his finest accomplishment.
Destined for the hall of fame. Which leaves me
wondering how fleeting immortality truly is.
After all, what would have happened had Topalov
thumbed his nose and played 24...Kb6 declining
the sacrifices? - Yasser Seirawan
Similar to Predict-A-Move and Solitaire-type chess exercises,
Recon64 challenges players to find candidate moves from games
played by masters. Players are encouraged to search for several
strong candidate moves in each position, and are rewarded as long as
their list of moves includes the move selected by the master during the
game. As an extra twist, players invest
Recon64-dollars on candidate moves based on how likely they think
each move was used in the original game...
Play Recon64!!
|
(6/18)
Annotated Game: Paulsen-Morphy, New York, 1857, with
notes by Chess Coach Leopold Lacrimosa,
annotated for the novice and
beginning chessplayer.
Coach comments on almost every move by each player, explaining the
ideas behind it, and each player's plans. |
|
|
(6/17) Review:
Play 1...b6 - A Dynamic and Hypermodern Opening System for Black by
Christian Bauer,
reviewed by S. Evan Kreider.
"Want an opening that has it all? Something universal,
playable against any of White’s first moves? Something
non-theoretical, not requiring any study or memorization? Something
that guarantees equality, if not an advantage? Well, there’s no such
thing. However, in GM Bauer’s first book for Everyman, Play 1…b6,
you might find something pretty close..." |
(6/11)
Gruesome End for the
Gruenfeld: by IM Larry Kaufman. "Now, at last, it
seems that there is a weapon in White’s arsenal (4.Bg5 Ne4 5.Bh4) that
leaves Black struggling for equality. In the [2006] Linares
tournament, the world’s top rated Gruenfeld player, Peter Svidler, lost
twice in this line, in both cases at least partly due to the opening.
Moreover, after losing a third Gruenfeld (to another line), he gave it
up entirely for the rest of the event. There have been other
recent games with the line, but always it seems that White either won or
at least had a path to some advantage. The line is quite old, but
it has only become popular again quite recently. Let’s see why..."
Brought to you by...
|
IM Larry Kaufman |
(6/11)
Ciudad de Leon 2006 - Finals:
Viswanathan Anand Wins!!! 2½ - 1½
over
Vesselin Topalov; reported by GM Zenón Franco
Ocampos, Press Chief. "Before the beginning of the tournament
World Champion Vesselin Topalov said that Vishy Anand was the favourite
to win the Ciudad de León chess tournament, and it was so. Anand
won for the sixth time, after a hard fight between both champions.
In the first game Anand seemed to have a slight initiative, but it was
Topalov who got a pawn up, which was insufficient to win the game,
however. Anand was unsure about the outcome of the ending; only
when the last pair of rooks was exchanged he felt safe enough to hold
the game..." Report, photos, games, and soon GM analysis of all
four games. |
(6/10) New Links Updates:
We've been back at it again this week, updating our famous links collection.
There is a baker's dozen of fascinating new sites for you to check out,
including The Ken Whyld Association, a new FREE online correspondence site,
and we didn't neglect the shoppers among you - there's several new retail
sites. We even through in a couple of sites in Spanish & Portuguese.
A club near Atlanta, a variant (Mirror Chess) and Edward Winter's site add
further luster to this roster of new links for your chess surfing.
(6/10)
Ciudad de Leon
2006, Second Semi-Final - Topalov defeated
Vallejo Pons 2½ - 1½ . Reported by GM Zenón Franco
Ocampos, Press Chief. "The Ambassador of Bulgaria
to Spain, Mr. Vassily Takev, who is very fond of chess,
made the first move of this second semi-final. His
countryman, World Champion Topalov, reached the final
after defeating the Spaniard, Francisco Vallejo Pons, 2
½ - 1 ½ . Topalov won the first game, in which Vallejo
got a decent position, but after some inaccuracies on
his part, Topalov won convincingly. In the press
conference both players agreed that the second game was
nearly decisive for the outcome of the match..." |
|
|
(6/10)
Ciudad de Leon 2006,
First Semi-Final - Anand reaches the final after a
hard fight. Reported by GM Zenón Franco Ocampos,
Press Chief. "Vishy Anand and Cuban Lázaro Bruzón
played one of the most exciting chess matches ever held
in Leon. Anand was clearly the favourite, but he
had to overcome a lot of difficulties to win the match.
The first 4 games finished in a draw, and in the
tie-break Bruzón won the fifth game with a vigorous
attack; a draw was enough to win the match but Anand won
the sixth game, and after suffering a lot to achieve a
draw in the seventh game, he won the last one to win 4 ½
- 3 ½.
|
(6/7)
Closed Knight's Tour
Animation: Dan Thomasson shares his
animation of one of the solutions to the classic
knight's tour. The Knight's Tour is a simple game
of skill. The object of the game is to move a knight on
a chessboard such that every square on the board is
covered once and only once. It's not as easy as it
might sound. There are multiple solutions to the
Knight's Tour; however, after trying and failing to
cover every square a few times, you may have a hard time
believing it! Check out Dan's clever animation
effort, then download a free knight's tour game where
you can practice The Knight's Tour for yourself. |
|
|
(6/4) Review:
The Sveshnikov Reloaded by Dorian Rogozenko,
reviewed by S.
Evan Kreider. "It used to be that Sveshnikov Sicilian (1.e4 c5
2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5) was a good choice for the Black
player looking to take up the open Sicilian while avoiding the reams of
theory associated with the Najdorf, Scheveningen, or Dragon. Even just
a few years ago, the theory was still fairly undeveloped, and Black could
get by playing on a general understanding of the plans and strategies of the
opening and memorizing no more than a handful of lines. Well, times
have changed. Nowadays the Sveshnikov is as densely theoretical as
most openings, and nowhere else does this show as well as it does in GM
Rogozenko’s The Sveshnikov Reloaded..." |
(6/4)
Annotated Game: In his latest rant, Tom Rose (Rose's
Rants) looks at one of his recent games, telling us "for
the first time since I returned to regular competition, I played a game that
showed some of the strength, vision, and judgement from 20 years ago ... and
encourages me to persevere in my belated quest for chess mastery."
In this game Tom looks at the Advance Variation of the French Defense,
and includes an opening primer along with the subsequent focus on a very
pretty middlegame combination. |
(6/4)
Chess
Fiction: Touched By Genius Part II - by Rick Kennedy. In
Part I (
a brand new
Kennedy
Kids
story from the creative genius (hint, hint) of Rick Kennedy)
we learned that Jon had prepared a surprise for his dad:
"“You did what??”
My sister Mary looked like Lucy van Pelt getting ready to slug her little
brother Linus in the “Peanuts” comics. “I paid for a chess lesson for
Dad for his birthday” I admitted quietly. “What a sweet thing to do,”
said Mom, as she slipped by, taking Marty out for a walk. “Your dad
says he’s quite the pawnpusher, you know – whatever that means..."
Now in
Part II we find out what happens when
Perry the
PawnPusher hires out to give chess lessons: "This day
I was sitting in the otherwise empty library of the Club, polishing my
endgame technique, taking a rook against the computer’s two pieces.
It’s surprising how many times such a position shows up in my games.
It’s hard work, preparing, but I’ve always though it was harder being
unprepared. My concentration was broken by a stranger who tentatively
wandered into the room, apparently looking for someone. He tip-toed up
to me, a question on his face. “Are you…?” he stammered, and then
shoved a printed piece of paper into my hand. I gave it a glance, then
waved him over to a board..."
|
(5/28) Review:
How to Beat 1.d4 by James Rizzitano, reviewed by S. Evan Kreider.
"In my experience, most club players prefer king’s pawn openings to
anything else. I don’t have any hard statistics to back this up, but
anecdotally speaking I’d say the majority of us play 1.e4 as White, and as
Black we spend most of our time on our favorite defense to 1.e4, whether it
be the French, the Sicilian, or whatever. Other openings, we’d
probably rather avoid. Of course, we can avoid them as White, but as
Black, we’re often faced with the problem of responding to non 1.e4
openings. This book is designed to solve most of that problem, showing
Black how to answer most anything that begins 1.d4, from the Queen’s Gambit
to many of White’s secondary 1.d4 systems..." |
(5/28) Review:
50 Essential Chess Lessons by Steve Giddens, reviewed by Michael
Jeffreys. "I’ll let you in on a little secret. I happened
to see this book at Borders a month or two ago, and spent 10 minutes
standing there reading it and quite liked it. In fact, I just about
went up to the cashier and purchased it. However, I grudgingly forced
myself to put it back on the shelf (no easy task), as I figured there was an
off-chance I might get to review it. I know, a rather petty move on my
part, but given I have purchased several hundred dollars worth of poker
books over the past few months, one simply has to draw the line somewhere!
Luckily, I did end up getting a review copy in, and so here we are..." |
|
|
(5/28) Review:
Starting Out: Defensive Play by IM Angus Dunnington, reviewed by
Rick Kennedy. "Dunnington steers away from older, already-used
classic examples of successful defense, and avoids homages to great
past defenders such as Steinitz, Lasker and Petrosian. Instead, he
selects 37 “practical examples almost at random from a database”
(mostly game positions – there are six complete games – largely from 2002,
although a half-dozen are from 1995-1997) and looks at them through the lens
of defence:
My intention was to steer the reader in the right direction with a
collection of examples of the kind of play we are likely to encounter
throughout our chess career, the emphasis on the role of defence.
Nothing earth-shattering, rather a series of realistic but instructive games
accompanied by what I hope is some good advice..." |
|
(5/21) NEWS
AND PHOTOS FROM
THE TORINO CHESS OLYMPIADS! From
http://www.kosteniuk.com
comes news and photos from the 2006 Chess Olympiad going on now in Torino,
Italy. Both men and women teams are covered, with photos of most
teams and players. Check back regularly for the most recent updates!
|
|
|
The Russian women's team will try to win the Olympic
Gold at the Torino Chess Olympiads, which started May 20, 2006. In the
photo, from left to right: IM Tatiana Kosintseva (Elo 2489), IM
Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Elo 2460), GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (Elo 2540), IM
Nadezhda Kosintseva (Elo 2469). The photo was taken at the
training camp of the National team in Zvenigorod. |
|
(5/21)
Online Auctions - Caveat
Emptor! Well-known collector Lawrence Totaro looks at a recent
online auction. He examines
some of the issues that need to be addressed when contemplating a
memorabilia purchase this way. Mr. Totaro is the highly respected mind
behind
UltimateChessCollecting.com. This particular auction we know ended
successfully for both the seller and buyer (see Thread 4118 in the
Chessville Forum; the buyer also left the following
eBay feedback about the seller; "Trustworthy seller who went the extra mile
to acquire authentication docs. A+++ - Buyer "), but Mr. Totaro's exposition
of the buying/selling process is both illuminating and cautionary.
(5/21)
TheParrot's Special Report: Beatriz Marinello's dispute with the
USCF's Board of Directors over the FIDE Presidential Election is
rebuffed in an open letter from respected chess organizer Mikhail "Misha"
Korenman. Also included is an open letter from the USCF's Board of
Directors complaining about unethical campaign tactics by the current FIDE
President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
(5/21)
You can't miss it; or - can you?:
by FM Amatzia Avni. "Whenever I hear the words “you can’t
miss it” I feel shivers in my spine. I recall the guy who sold me, years
ago, a self-assembled book-cabinet with the assurance that the assembly
tasks were very easy: “Piece of cake” - he said - “There is no way you can
miss it”. Or the bystander who explained to me how to reach my
destination: “Third turn to the left, fourth turn to the right and after 300
meters you’ll see a building shaped as a cow - you can’t miss it”.
Well, you know what happened. Nowadays I know that I can miss
almost everything, and probably will.
Are there chess positions that we are certain to handle correctly and
‘can’t miss’? In my book “Danger in Chess” (Cadogan
1994, Dover 2003) I tried to map the dangerous, most critical moments of
a chess game. I reckoned that “perhaps the most dangerous
moment... is, paradoxically, just before victory is achieved.”
This conclusion has only strengthened in my mind during the years.
Let’s see some examples..."
|
Amatzia
Avni is an Israeli psychologist. He is a FIDE Master in both
game and composition, a former editor of the Israeli magazine
Schahmat and a regular contributor to Chess Monthly.
His forthcoming book "Devious Chess" will be released by
Batsford in April. Read
Chessville's reviews of two of his earlier works:
Practical Chess
Psychology: Understanding the Human Factor (2001); and
The Grandmaster's Mind (2004). |
|
(5/21)
Review:
Chess Explained: The Classical Sicilian by Alex Yermolinsky,
reviewed by S. Evan Kreider. "The Classical Sicilian is
the first in the new Chess Explained series of opening books by
Gambit Publications. The series subtitle is “A new approach to
understanding the chess openings.” ... Sounds revolutionary, eh?
However, upon opening the book, I found a collection of annotated games.
That’s it. There’s nothing “new” about this. In fact, it’s one
of the most common approaches to opening instruction there is ...
This disappointment alone almost made me give the book a poor review,
but then I realized that it still might be a quality book..." |
|
|
(5/21)
The Collected
Works of Wilhelm Steinitz (CD) Edited by Sid Pickard,
reviewed by Prof. Nagesh Havanur. "Who
was the greatest player of all time? In the last century arguments
raged over the claims of Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine. In
modern times Fischer and Kasparov can lay claim to the same distinction.
Yet the fact remains that none of these great figures could rival the
score of Steinitz in terms of chess career. The First World
Champion held the title and reigned over the chess world for 28 years..." |
(5/7)
Annotated Game:
Ivanchuk Palace by GM Vassily Ivanchuk. Today we bring you
another example of the fantastic content available to you in
The Chess Chronicle, the first
Ever Semi-Monthly Online Chess e-zine! In today's game, the
World #10 turns his critical eye on the game Rublevsky-Dreev (B51-
Sicilian Rossolimo) from the 2005
Russian Championship.
|
|
(5/7)
Recon64:
The Move-Prediction exercise from the creative genius of Prof.
Chester Nuhmentz. Click on the
portrait of
Judit Polgar to try this month's Recon64
game selected especially for the readers of
Chessville: Judit Polgar vs. Alexy Shirov;
Amsterdam, 1995. Here's a 21-move
miniature that showcases Judit Polgar's
relentless, attacking style and brilliant
command of tactics.
Similar to Predict-A-Move and Solitaire-type chess exercises,
Recon64 challenges players to find candidate moves from games
played by masters. Players are encouraged to search for several
strong candidate moves in each position, and are rewarded as long as
their list of moves includes the move selected by the master during the
game. As an extra twist, players invest
Recon64-dollars on candidate moves based on how likely they think
each move was used in the original game...
Play Recon64!!
|
|
(5/7)
Review:
Play Stronger Chess by Examining Chess960 by Gene Milener,
reviewed by Michael Jeffreys. "Milener’s enthusiasm for chess960 is
strong, and like the Pied Piper he won me over with his many persuasive
arguments. I have to tell you this was no easy task, as by nature I am
a traditionalist, and tend to come from the school of, “if it’s not broke,
don’t fix it.”"
"Fischer feels ‘old
chess’ has nothing left to contribute to chess in general. I
disagree, and I explain why in this book. I like both chess960 and
chess1, and both add their own kinds of desirable aspects to fundamental
chess that the other cannot." - Gene Milener" |
(5/6)
Interview with Bessel Kok:
Chessville plays
20 Questions with the FIDE
Presidential Candidate. Phil Innes interviews. Learn Kok's views on the
fairness of the current election process; his opponent and whether or
not he has ever been up in a space ship, as Kirsan Ilyumzhinov claims to
have been. Regarding ideas of a breakaway organization, Kok says, "Whatever
the result of the outcome of the election, FIDE has to undergo major
surgery in its management team. I think Kirsan already has started
to understand this." Plans for the World Championship system
are in the planning stages, learn who is helping Bessel with that!
All this and much more, as Chessville plays
20 Questions with Bessel Kok! |
(5/5)
Games Collection - Wolfgang
Unzicker: Bob Tuohey shares his collection of 1265 games by the
recently passed on giant of German chess (Wolfgang
Unzicker, 1925–2006; read this ChessBase article:
In memoriam.) The games cover the
period from 1947-2005, and are, as Bob puts it, "clean and correct."
Find this free download on our
Downloads by Player page.
(4/30)
Susan
Polgar On Chess: Chessville welcomes 4-time World Chess
Champion GM
Susan Polgar, successful author, coach and five-time Chess Olympiad
Champion. Enjoy, and learn from, her latest column, written
especially with the scholastic player, parent and coach in mind.
Each month GM Polgar will bring you an assortment of tactics, basic endgame
positions, and questions (with answers, of course!) from parents and
coaches. |
Brought to you by the good folks at
The Chess House is a leading
chess store providing quality chess sets and merchandise to chess
enthusiasts, chess clubs, schools, and businesses, since 1972. |
|
Today
the Queen of Chess offers six different mates, demonstrating different
mating patterns students should know. All are mates in one to four
moves. Next are three basic endgame positions, teaching basics like
the opposition, pawn breakthrough, etc. She finishes up this month's
column with five common questions from parents and coaches, asking about
such things as blitz chess, opening advice, and internet play. Check
out
Susan
Polgar On Chess today! |
(4/30)
Review:
The Safest Sicilian - A Black Repertoire with 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 by
Alexander Delchev & Semko Semkov, reviewed by Evan Kreider.
"The first thing I noticed about this book was, not surprisingly, the
title: The Safest Sicilian. Frankly, this struck me as odd
– what Sicilian is “safe”?! Delchev explains: "Could the
Sicilian be a safe opening? Is there a miraculous system which
guarantees Black a calm life after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3? Of course not!
After all we love the Sicilian because it offers tangled play with much
greater chances to score than the Ruy Lopez or the Russian Game.
Yet the variations I analyze in the present book were in the repertoire
of the world champions Petrosian, Karpov, and Anand. They are
famous for their sound strategy and practical approach to chess . . .
I cannot think of a single main line in this book where material does
not count and piece sacrifices on b5 or e6 or d5 are a matter of
everyday life..." |
(4/25)
USCL Player Spotlight: The
USCL Player Spotlight falls this month on the first GM from Central America,
17-year old Alejandro Ramirez.
At the young age of 15 (born 1988) not
only was Alejandro Ramirez the highest rated player in his home country of
Costa Rica, but he was the highest rated player in all of Central America
(and he is also the first GM ever from Central America!) His FIDE
rating so far has reached a high of 2542. We have a special
treat as
GM Alejandro Ramirez and
IM John Donaldson
have both annotated their wild game from last year's 2nd-round
match-up between San Francisco and Dallas. I want to thank both
players for their fantastic annotations... |
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