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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 July 2005 and 30 September 2005:
(9/30) 2006 Susan
Polgar National Open Championships for Girls (under 21):
Another block-buster event featuring the reigning queen of chess in the USA.
|
2005 FIDE World
Championship |
|
(9/25) Interview: GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
plays 20 Questions with Chessville.
Alexandra was officially awarded the GM (men's) title at
the 2004 FIDE Congress.
She is the 10th woman in history to
get that title, and the first Russian. She recently became the 2005 Russian Woman's Champion
with an incredible result or 9/11. Chessville appreciates
Alexandra's willingness to play 20 Questions with us! Read what
she has to say about childhood heroes, her twin careers as GM &
Super-Model, the tension of playing against male chessplayers, family
and more! Read all of our
20
Questions interviews. |
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(9/25) Review: Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine, reviewed by ICCF-IM
Keith Hayward. "First
Impression: I knew
this film was covering the Kasparov - Deep Blue match, but little did I
realize the full drama of what happened. I followed the match
(back in May 1997), and it played out as many chess players feared, the
computer won. The match reports I read focused on the game moves.
I, and I am sure many others, thought this was an inevitable step in
computer development. I had no appreciation for all the behind the
scenes conflicts and battles..."
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(9/25) The Great Pawn Hunter:
Chessville welcomes The Great Pawn Hunter (and his cat, too!).
Manny Paddy Fealy and Whiskey have put together a great amount of
excellent training material at their site, aimed at the beginning and
improving player and we encourage you to visit early & often. As
an enticement, we offer you a small taste of what awaits you...
(9/25)
The Initiative:
The Great Pawn Hunter, Manny Paddy Fealy, introduces the beginning
student to the idea of The Initiative. "This is a fancy
word for having the move that steers the game where you want it to go..."
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(9/18)
Inside Susan Polgar's
World Records: From beginning to end, Susan & Paul Truong
bring you the inside scoop. The planning. The preparation.
The training. The people. The records. Also read the
open letter from the previous record holder, IM Andrew Martin,
questioning the records, along with Susan & Paul's responses. |
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(9/18)
Annotated Game: ICCF-IM Keith Hayward's update to his (now)
six-part look at the Balogh Counter-Gambit features the reigning US
Champion, Hikaru Nakamura playing at the HB Global Chess Challenge
earlier this year. Keith writes, "I did not plan on writing an update to the Balogh
Counter Gambit series, but some misfortune of my own allowed me to
observe the game below. I was having a bad tournament
at the HB Global Chess Challenge, and I decide to withdraw from the last
tournament to watch the top boards. I was shocked to walk by the US Champion's game and see
him playing the Balogh Counter Gambit!"
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|
 (9/18)
Euro Gallery Live Art:
"We believe that the topic of Chess is very much neglected in the World
of Art. For this reason Euro Gallery Live Art, together with an
International Artist, have created an exhibition of a series of ‘Chess’
related works. These paintings will be shown ‘live’ over the World
Wide Web per daily upload. We cordially invite all Chess Players,
Enthusiasts and friends of the game Worldwide to view and experience
this extraordinary Event..." |
|
(9/18)
Chess Samizdat is a new portal which offers free syndicated
chess content to the world via JS and RSS feed. From time to time
Chessville will bring you articles from this great new community chess
resource courtesy of
John C. Knudsen's and the author's generosity. Write's John: "Welcome
to Chess Samizdat, the portal for free syndicated chess content
on the world-wide web. Authors can submit their chess articles
here. Webmasters, E-Zine editors and other publishers can obtain
the javascript code to run the syndicated articles which are located
here. Or, just use the RSS feed.
The general public can obtain the content by subscribing with their
RSS Reader software." Now, for our
first article from
Chess Samizdat, we present you with a familiar face... |
|
 (9/18)
Chess Fiction: Holdout!
by NM Dan Heisman. "Josh Jokim was very upset.
Apparently, his team didn't think as highly of previous year's
contribution as he did, at least judging from their "final" salary
offer. Josh thought he had done rather well for a rookie, but he now
regretted signing only a one year contract. Not that it had been a bad
contract for a first round draft choice: $1,200,000 bonus and a $82,000
salary with fringe benefits, including $25,000 for making the team and
playing over half the matches. He was glad that they didn't send
him down to the farm system, because in the Big Leagues everything is
first class. Besides, who wants to go on a nine hour bus ride to play
the Akron Fianchettoes? And how many first-year players get to crack the
starting lineup of a National Chess League team, even if it was the
woeful Philadelphia Woodpushers?"
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(9/17)
Nuestro Círculo #162:
10 de septiembre de 2005, este número de "Nuestro Círculo"está dedicado al
notable Maestro Alemán Ludwig Paulsen que vivió entre los años 1833 y 1891.
Nuestro Círculo, un boletín semanal de ajedrez editado en Argentina en lenguaje
español.
(9/16)
Chess Word Search Puzzle: Love
your word-search puzzles, do you? Then you're sure to enjoy this one,
constructed especially for all you chessophiles out there!
|
(9/15)
2005
Kavala Rapid: Reported by
IM Jovan Petronic. On
September 10-11, 2005, the traditional 4th open rapid (20'+10")
tournament "Kavala 2005" was held in Kavala, Greece. The winner,
12 years old
Ilias Kazantzidis, scored a 100%
result, outplaying much stronger ranked opponents! IM Petronic
annotates one of Ilias' victories in
this illustrated report.
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(9/14) Fall Tourney:
The ICCL is now recruiting teams for the 2005-2006 season. Last
year they were able to restart this league with a handful of dedicated
university teams. At least three masters and plenty of experts
were involved in exciting internet matches. This year, we're
looking to expand the league and attract a larger range of teams.
Learn more here.
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(9/14)
Tourney Report: GM Alexandra Kosteniuk Wins the 2005
Golden Blitz Tournament in Moscow, convincingly defeating in the semi-finals ex-world
champion Zhu Chen 2-0 and in the finals Almira Skripchenko 2-0.
The event saw two very strong knockout blitz tournaments, a men's event
with 8 players, and a women's event with 4 participants. The event
included A.Grischuk, E.Bareev, A.Motylev, P.Tregubov (all – Russia),
N.Short (UK), R.Ponomariov (Ukraine), V.Tkachiev (France), Y.Pelletier
(Switzerland), and A.Kosteniuk (Russia), Zhu Chen (China), A Skripchenko
(France), I.Krush (USA). For more about this event -
click here. |
|
(9/11)
Claude Bloodgood Part One:
The latest installment in Robert Tuohey's
Past Pawns. "Claude
Bloodgood, I dare say, was something of an enigma to all who knew him.
This very singular individual wove about himself such a web of fact and
fiction that no researcher to date has been able to untangle, to
penetrate its weave. Finally, most just wind up caught in it.
In this two-part article (the second installment coming in about two
months) I’ll take a different tack. Here, I’ll present what we
know to be true, and in the next Past Pawns, in all it’s romantic
detail, Mr. Bloodgood’s version..." |
“Confusion now hath
made his masterpiece.”
(Macbeth, scene III) |
|
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(9/11) Review:
Boris Spassky, 10th
World Champion, CD (Convekta), reviewed by Nagesh Havanur.
"The career of Boris
Spassky was overshadowed by his great contemporaries, Fischer and Tal. The
contribution of the former world champion to chess is yet to be appreciated in the post-Fischer era. This CD is a salutary effort in
that it makes the entire oeuvre of Spassky available to chess players. While 1965's games contain brief annotations, 400 Best
Games have
deep analysis by Khalifman in Informant style. It may be assumed that much of the analysis is derived from the book Boris Spassky’s 400
Selected Games (Chess Stars). The annotations are
a refreshing change. In several cases the games have been critically
examined afresh, overturning old evaluation and judgment....."
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(9/10) Review: Starting Out: Rook Endgames by Chris Ward, reviewed by Michael Jeffreys.
"If you were to ask me what the biggest “ah-ha” I’ve had in the
past year concerning chess improvement was, I would tell you that it was
figuring out that I needed to study, and really get to know, the
power of the individual pieces. In other words, I thought I
knew what a bishop could do, but I had only scratched the surface of
their many facets. I thought I understood the magical powers of a
knight, but their true strength had eluded me. And rooks, well,
they were pretty straight forward creatures weren’t they? Hardly.
Clearly, it was time to get back to basics and really learn about the
special talents of each of “my employees.”..."
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  (9/10)
Editorial: Why I
am sick and tired of reading about Susan Polgar, by
Phil Innes. Innes asks the rhetorical question, "Are you
approaching your Polgar-limit? Ostensibly both the Susan Polgar
Foundation and the United States Chess Federation exist for the same
purpose – to further chess into mainstream culture. Yet anyone
reading these statistics, or even the newspapers, and who had a few
dollars to promote chess, would make their choice as a no-brainer!
Which of the two actually can be said to promote chess into mainstream
culture in a superior way? My ten dollars is going to get 100 here
and 2 there…"
|
(9/10)
Annotated Game: Kasparov-Spassky,
Tilburg 1981, King’s Indian
Defence, notes by
Prof. Nagesh Havanur
(9/10)
Annotated
Game: Spassky - Fischer, Siegen 1970, Grünfeld Defence,
notes by Prof. Nagesh Havanur
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Jude Acres Alive!!
(9/10) Man Missing No More! Jude Acers
- long-time denizen of the French Quarter in New Orleans, is no longer
MIA, he has made direct contact with Chessville via e-mail today.
He writes: "I
am very very lucky to be alive. After nine days of wild west it is
over. Thank you. Jude Acers"
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The Man in the Red Beret - Found!!
 Michael
Ciamarra, who wrote about Jude's
visit to Birmingham Alabama in May 2004, writes that "Jude did not
have much materially apart from thousands of chess books and clothes.
I imagine his livelihood will be impacted for many months to come.
If anyone wishes to help Jude they can contact me either at my email
michaelc@alabamapolicy.org
or call me directly 205 914 3248. Any donations will be earmarked
for Jude at the Alabama Scholastic Chess Resources."
|
 (9/9)
The United States Chess League:
The US Chess League (USCL) began on Wednesday, August 31st.
Featuring eight teams in two divisions, the inaugural season's lineups
include six GMs and fifteen IMs, along with many other FMs & NMs.
We've got first round results, week two lineups, standings, and more,
including our "Game of the Week" between GM Julio Becerra and IM Pascal
Charbonneau, playing for the Miami Sharks and the Baltimore Kingfishers,
respectively.
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(9/9)
Online Chess League Presents...
The Fall 2005 Tournament
Looking for some serious team
competition?
The OCL's Fall 2005 Tourney closes ***
TUESDAY,
September 13! *** Check out this great way to make new
friends while playing serious standard time-control chess!
Sign Up Here For this
Coming Event!!
|
(9/9)
Reader's
Responses: Readers sound off on Russell Mallot's
The Black Hole in Chess
Ratings. "There is a “black hole” in chess ratings. It has a
definite cause: unregulated scholastic ratings..." Now his readers
respond with comments ranging from "I must be missing something because I do
not see any problem..." to "I could not agree more..."
(9/9)
Will
Smith To Play Salome Thomas-El: Will Smith will play the part
of AF4C Board Member Salome Thomas-El in the forthcoming Disney
film based on his
autobiography.
Thomas-El's life is
chronicled in his book I Choose To Stay: A Black Teacher Refuses to
Desert the Inner City, and is one of the inspirational
stories of our time. |
|
(9/4)
Practical Rook Endgames: IM Igor Khmelnitsky's latest article,
covering the most frequently encountered endgame of all.
"Rook Endgame is the most common type of Endgame and one
of the more complex one. There are many nuances – activity of the rook,
king’s position, pawn structure that can easily distort what seems to be
a clear picture.
Today, I’d
like to show an example from the very recent game that my student has
played at the HB Global Chess Challenge..."
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IM Igor Khmelnitsky
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Igor is a winner of many national and
international tournaments in Europe and the United States.
At various points during his career, he has won individual
encounters with many of the game’s best players. He has been
a participant in the Ukrainian National Championship as well as a
three-time contestant in the US National Championship.
Igor is a very experienced coach. His
first high profile coaching experience was in 1986, when he served
as a coaching assistant of the Ukrainian national junior team.
Several members of that team went on to become successful
Grandmasters (V.Ivanchuk, B.Alterman, M.Brodsky, A.Maksimenko and
others…). Later Igor assisted various leading Ukrainian
players, including Y. Kruppa (now Grandmaster) and Women
Grandmaster L. Semenova, a challenger to the World Championship
title.
Since moving to the United States in 1991, Igor
has been coaching in the Philadelphia area. His students
include players of all levels, ranging from novices to masters.
|
|
It is in the
Q&A format. Take it seriously and see if you can find the right
answers...
Z.D –
J.G
HB Global
Chess Challenge (7), 21.05.2005
Black to move
How would you evaluate this position?
What would you play? Spend 5-15 minutes.
Then find the solution in:
Practical Rook Endgames |
|
 (9/4)
Review: The Trompowsky by Nigel Davies,
reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Looking for a new chess opening?
Grandmaster Nigel Davies might just have what you're looking for.
Then again, he might not. But that wouldn't be the fault of his
highly instructive (and entertaining) recent book, The Trompowsky,
which I recommend highly...Vlastimil Hort, writing in How to Open A
Chess Game (1974), noted:
After 1 P-Q4 N-KB3,
the move 2 B-N5?!! Is in line with the most modern tournament tactic of
trying to surprise one’s opponent and force him to think for himself.
Since it occurs so rarely in tournament practice, it places the opponent in
virtually unexplored territory.
Since then, the
terra incognita has slowly been mapped..."
|
|
 (9/4)
Review: Foundations of Chess Strategy by Lars Bo Hansen, reviewed by Michael Jeffreys.
"The Book of the Year? Up until just a few years
ago, there weren’t a whole lot of “chess strategy” books to choose from.
Euwe’s two books on the middlegame as well as Romanovsky’s come to mind,
as well as Silman’s efforts and a handful of others. Tactics and
opening manuals were the darlings of the chess publishers throughout the
70s, 80s and 90s. However, over the last several years, there have
been quite a few books out on Strategy. There’s Secrets of
Positional Chess by Drazen Marovic, Improve Your Positional Chess
by Carsten Hansen, Lessons in Chess Strategy by Valeri Beim, and
Creative Chess Strategy by Alfonso Romero, to name but a
few...And now we can add this latest effort by Lars Bo Hansen, a GM from
Denmark (must be something in the water, as it seems like this part of
the world produces more than its share of talented players) who is
attempting to break new ground in his book, Foundations of Chess
Strategy (Applying Business Methods to Chess Preparation and
Training). Since Hansen’s background is in business economics, his
goal is to instruct the reader on how to utilize key business
strategies to make oneself a better chess player..." |
(9/4) Review: NIC Yearbook 71,
reviewed by Prof. Nagesh Havanur. "Nothing provides
richer fare for the jaded palate of a seasoned tournament player than the
NIC Yearbook. Openings of every kind, from the sublime to the bizarre,
may be found here. What is more, variations on the same theme are
discovered by avid readers, and shared by one and all. Consider
the following lines in which a prelate makes merry on the long
diagonal even as his monarch comes to grief..."
|
(9/3) Chess and
other Occupations: Enjoy this latest addition to
Bill Walls Wonderful World of Chess!
"Not all chess masters are professional chess players. Some have other
interesting occupations. Accountants and chess masters include Henry
Bird, Samuel Reshevsky, and Frederick Yates..."
(9/3) Jude Listed Alive!: The Gulf Post News (http://wx.gulfcoastnews.com/katrina/status.aspx)
lists Jude's status as ALIVE but offer no contacat information nor source
for the repost. We trust this is the case however, and greet the news
with renewed hope for Jude. Now we need to confirm this report, and
make contact with Jude. Then recovery begins, see below for Michael
Cimarra's appeal for help for Jude.
|
Have you seen
Jude Acres?
(9/1) Man Missing: Jude Acers -
long-time denizen of the French Quarter in New Orleans, is currently
missing - in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Rumors abound but we
just don't really know for sure. What we do know, is that he's
MIA.
|
Michael
Ciamarra, who wrote about Jude's
visit to Birmingham Alabama in May 2004, writes that "Jude did not
have much materially apart from thousands of chess books and clothes.
I imagine his livelihood will be impacted for many months to come.
If anyone wishes to help Jude they can contact me either at my email
michaelc@alabamapolicy.org
or call me directly 205 914 3248. Any donations will be earmarked
for Jude at the Alabama Scholastic Chess Resources." |
|
 |
One family writes: "My husband and I brought our 6
year old son who had just learned how to play chess to New Orleans in
July. We couldn't do anything until our son got to play chess with
Mr. Acers. We are concerned about his well being since Hurricane
Katrina hit one of our favorite places to visit. Would you please
post something on your website to let us know how he is doing and let
Mr. Acers know his fans and an anxious 6 year old boy wish him the best
and that he and his city are in our prayers. Thank you, Mike,
Shari and Garrett" |
|
If you have any information
about Jude Acer's whereabouts, please
write to us now!
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|
 |
(8/28)
Review:
Gambit Play - Sacrificing In the Opening by Angus Dunnington, reviewed by Phil Innes.
"I note that the back cover of this one
states its opinion that the title is “A thorough education on gambit
play” and adds “containing wild and aggressive play.” These two
ideas are profoundly at odds with the Introduction of the book, where
the Author takes some pains to explain that these particular gambits are
not wild and speculative at all but sober investments in resulting play,
and more a ‘taste’ than a thorough education, and the idea of putting
some fun back into the game by assaying sensible gambits..." |
(8/28) Free PGN Utilities: from Tom McCormick.
A collection of freeware pgn utilities, including PGNTRIM5 for
"normalizing"...a process of cleaning PGN syntax errors and producing
consistent output files. A combination of these utilities may be used
to remove duplicate games within one PGN file, or to set the sequence of
games within one PGN file, such as sorting games in order of YEAR, or ECO
code, or Result, etc. A few additional utility programs may be used in
special situations... Locate this 359 kb zipped file on our
Downloads Page, along with other
great free downloads.
|
(8/28)
Online Chess League Presents...
The Fall 2005 Tournament
Looking for some serious team
competition?
The OCL's Fall 2005 Tourney closes *** TUESDAY,
September 13! *** Check out this great way to make new
friends while playing serious standard time-control chess!
Sign Up Here For this
Coming Event!!
|
 (8/28)
The Black Hole In Chess Ratings:
an editorial by Russ Mollet, of Chess Express Ratings. "There is a
“black hole” in chess ratings. It has a definite cause: unregulated
scholastic ratings. The number of scholastic chess players in the USA
has grown dramatically in the last 10 to 15 years, and consequently,
scholastic players outnumber adult players by something in the order of
4 to 1 (twenty years ago it was more like 1 to 2, with adult players
outnumbering student players). This trend is not only continuing, it is
accelerating...The rampant anarchy in scholastic chess ratings is a
ticking time-bomb that is leading to the devastation of the purpose and
meaning of chess ratings. Let us examine several simple examples so we
can project the effects which are percolating throughout the greater
system of chess ratings..."
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(8/28)
How I Spent My Summer Vacation: A new
Kennedy
Kids story
from Rick Kennedy. "I visited the Chess Celebrities Hall of Fame.
It is in a small building, in an out-of-the-way place where probably nobody
much goes. But its treasures are enormous. There is the exact
chair that Aaron Nimzovich, the hypermodern master, used to help him climb
up onto a table to utter his defiant, wrenching words, after a humiliating
loss, “Why must I lose to this Idiot??” Imagine! He
apparently also threw his King, but the piece was not recovered, and so is
not in the Hall. Nearby is a shot glass used by..."
|
 (8/27)
2005 Susan Polgar
National Invitational for Girls:
48 girls
competed for $155,000 in prizes, stipends and scholarships. The
second annual Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls (under 19)
was held on August 7 – 12, 2005 alongside the 106th US Open
in Phoenix, Arizona. This is the most prestigious girl’s event in
the United States. In order to qualify to participate in the
annual championship, participants must be nominated by their own states.
Each state creates its own criteria to select its best player each year.
Approximately 3,000 girls participated in regional and state qualifying
events in the last 12 months to earn the rights to represent their
states. A record 48 girls (four of them as young as 11 years old)
represented their respective states in this championship. After
six grueling battles, three players tied for first... |
|
 (8/26) Chess
Chronicle: Five free issues for you to check out - this
semi-monthly issue chess e-zine featuring the writing of GM Vassily
Ivanchuk (World #5) & GM Alex Finkel,
among others. Accompanied by a pgn file containing the games
contained in that issue, this e-zine so far has ranged up to 46 pages
cram-packed with great analysis, training, and other great chess
content. We've posted the first five issues here for you to check
out free-of-charge. The next issue will contain an exclusive
interview with GM Vishy Anand!
|
(8/24) European Team
Championships, Goteborg 2005: The Russian Woman's Team, headed
by GM Alexandra Kosteniuk on First Board, won the Bronze Medal. Check
out all the photos, including many of the men's teams members, and the Prize
Ceremony, on GM Kosteniuk's personal page here at Chessville.
|
 |
(8/21) Review: Beat the Grandmasters by Christian Kongsted, reviewed by Michael Jeffreys.
"On February 17, 2002 the phone rang, and when I picked it up a female
voice said, “Is this Michael Jeffreys, president of the Wilshire Chess
Society?” After I replied in the affirmative, she said, “This is
Mayor Richard Riordon’s office. The mayor is opening a new school
in downtown Los Angeles, and Garry Kasparov, who is a friend of the
mayor’s, will be there giving a simul. Do you think you could
bring down some children for him to play against?” And before I
could answer she casually threw in, “And you’re welcome to play against
him as well.” Say what!?..." |
(8/20) Chess Fiction:
Last week you read about little brother Jon's three-move wipe-out of his
friend. Today the story continues, from Mary Elizabeth's perspective -
Oh... Another
Kennedy
Kids story,
as retold by Rick Kennedy. "“Have I shown you my brilliant, crushing
game against Will?” asked Jon, bounding into the family room and scooting up
to the sofa. “Only a thousand times,” I admitted, lifting one eye off
of the pages of the latest Harry Potter book. “I mean, the one where I
obliterated him in merely THREE moves?” he continued. “I’ve seen it,”
I told him. Now, what was that spell to make someone disappear…?"
|
 |
(8/20) Review: New In Chess Yearbook 70
(2004),
reviewed by Prof. Nagesh Havanur. "The NIC Yearbook offers a
unique platform for aficionados of opening theory. Grandmasters,
theoreticians and amateurs alike share their knowledge and experience in
a friendly and democratic spirit. This issue offers as many as 33
opening surveys along with trademark features like the Forum, Sosonko’s
Corner and book reviews. Beside mainstream openings like the
Sicilian, French, King’s Indian, and Nimzo-Indian, the issue also has a
fair sprinkling of 19th-century openings like the King’s
Gambit, Scotch Opening (4…Qh4), Evans Gambit and Traxler Attack..." |
|
(8/14) Review: The Miniature Man
by R. Muir, reviewed by David Surratt. "The Miniature Man is a psychological mystery-thriller
that delves deep into the hidden, dark corners of
the human psyche, into the depths of the human mind, to where we go to hide when
the world outside is no longer bearable. Marcy, or so she is called by the
nuns who care for her, bears no memory of the horrible events of the time
before St Francis, the convent cum hospital that had become her home.
Yet there she finds herself...But Marcy is not alone...Julian was a
prodigy, in the truest sense of the word. At the age of twelve he
collected his first GM scalp; many others were to follow..." |
 |
(8/14) Chess
Fiction: Amazing - A new Kennedy
Kids
short-story
from Rick Kennedy. Check out Jon's latest adventure, and see how he
checkmates his friend, Will, in just three moves!
(8/13) I'm Back!: Your Mayor has evicted the gremlins,
and I'm ready to start pushing buttons again. Thank you for your
patience during these last couple of weeks! I'll start posting
material tonight, and keep adding as I get pages finished - so check back
early & often!
(7/31) Technical Difficulties: The infamous Gremlins have struck at
the Mayor's office, and he (David Surratt) will be offline for
sometime. Unfortunately, that means we'll have no updates available this
week, and no newsletter, either. We will be back though, and we have a
great store of updates just waiting for you all as soon as possible. See
you then!
(7/25)
34th Greek Team Championships:
The (34th) Greek Teams Championship took place, July 4th
to July 11th, at the nice resort of Ermioni in Peloponnese,
southern Greece. Spiros
Ilandzis sends this report, along with a cbv file containing 267
games by the top players, including such luminaries as
Azmaiparashvili (GEO, 2672), Volokitin (UKR,
2671), Navara (CZE, 2663), and
An. Sokolov (FRA, 2603) along with the top Greek players, of course,
including GMs Kotronias (2587), Papaioannou (2578), and
Mastrovasilis D. (2563).
|
(7/24)
Review: Turning Advantage into Victory In Chess
by Andrew Soltis, reviewed by Mark Houlsby. "This
book is a milestone in chess publishing.
Why say it last? Here's a quote from the cover of the book:
"Andrew Soltis, International Grandmaster and award-winning chess
journalist, writes chess columns for the New York Post and Chess Life
magazine. He is also the author of more than 30 chess books, including
The Inner Game of Chess and The Art of Defense in Chess." Has
GM Soltis ever written a bad chess book? Possibly, but if
he has, I have not read it. Nevertheless, the quality of this book
is outstanding even for him..."
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(7/24)
Annotated Game: 2005 Russian Woman's Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk annotates her
last-round encounter with Julia Kochetkova. "I chose the Petroff
defence because a draw in the last round would give me the title of
Russian Champion. I was ready to accept an offer but White played
very badly in the opening and I quickly got a very good position..." GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
recently became the 2005 Russian Woman's Champion; you can
read the ChessBase report by
clicking here. Meanwhile, we bring you the last of seven games
from the event, annotated by GM Kosteniuk herself. Enjoy! |
(7/24)
Chess Fiction:
Down These Mean Ranks and Files... is the latest
Perry the PawnPusher story from the creative mind of Rick Kennedy.
"I started the clock. When enough time had passed, and my opponent had
not made a single move, I claimed the win by time forfeit. Of course,
by then we all knew that he was dead. As the Club filled up with
police, I realized with a sigh that the tournament’s next round would
probably not start on time. “Down these mean ranks and files a knight
must go,” came a gravelly voice behind me. “Who is neither tarnished
nor afraid…”
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(7/24) Review: Chess Informant 91, reviewed by Prof. Nagesh Havanur.
"By an ironic coincidence, this issue of the Informant carries
games from both the Brissago and Tripoli World Championships. The
Brissago Match, played under classical time controls, was criticized for
some of its colorless draws. Yet it belongs to the Great
Tradition of World Championship Matches from Steinitz to Kasparov.
The Match was hard-fought and both the players maintained the highest
standards of play. The Tripoli World Championship cycle held under
the aegis of FIDE was marred by controversy..."
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(7/23)
Chess Masterminds 2005: A Distance-Chess match...pits teams representing New York versus St Petersburg.
The event featured a match-up of two
former world champions on Board One, Alexander Khalifman against 4-time
Woman’s Champion Susan Polgar...See the broadcast Sunday July 24, and
rebroadcasts vis the internet all week long!
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(7/17)
Annotated Game: 2005 Russian Woman's Champion
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk annotates her 5th round game from the 2005
Russian Woman's Championship against Natalia Pogonina. "In Samara
Natalia was very faithful to the Dragon variation in the Sicilian
Defense: in 5 games she played with Black 5 times the Dragon variation
took place..." |
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(7/17)
Unorthodox Chess Openings: “The Search for Dragons and Mythical Chess Openings” by Clyde
Nakamura. "Some
players have believed that chess is almost dead. That there is no more
to be discovered in the openings. That you have to memorize 20 moves deep
to play a correct game of chess. I do not believe that this is true.
There are still many new and exciting opening lines to discover. Chess
is still vast and unexplored. I started playing tournament chess with
regular orthodox chess openings such as the Ruy Lopez, French Defense,
Sicilian Defense, Colle System, Caro-Kann Defense, Stonewall Attack & etc.
And I used to play a more positional type of game..."
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(7/17)
Review: Checkmate! My First Chess Book by Garry
Kasparov, reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "With Checkmate! my first
chess book, Gary Kasparov presents what might be the first
coffee-table chess book for children. Props to the author, who
many believe to be the best chess player, ever; and hats off to Horatio
Monteverde, listed in the front of the book as being in charge of
“design, typesetting and illustrations.” This is a very
eye-catching book. There is color, there is an attractive
layout..."
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(7/10)
Annotated Game: 2005 Russian Woman's Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk annotates her
6th round game with Svetlana Matveeva, from the 2005 Russian Woman's
Championship. "1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4
It was the first time that I played this variation, so my opponent was
not ready for it. 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 e6 7.Nxc4 Svetlana
told me after the game that she just mixed up variations. The most
popular continuation here is..." |
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(7/10) Review: Excelling at Technical Chess by Jacab Aagaard,
reviewed by Rick Kennedy. "Jacob Aagaard. Excelling at
chess. They go together: Excelling at Chess (2001),
Excelling at Positional Chess (2003),
Excelling at Chess
Calculation (2004), Excelling at Combinational Play: Learn to
Identify & Exploit Tactical Chances (2004), and now Excelling at
Technical Chess (2004), subtitled Learn to Identify and Exploit
Small Advantages...Aagaard, a pleasant, creative and energetic
writer, comes right to the point in Chapter One: "What I have tried
to do in this book is present seven basic modes of thinking and endgame
technique, which are helpful for understanding and playing the endgame
well. I have explained them to the best of my ability and tried to give
some examples. It is my belief that abstract rules alone have no value
to anyone. They need both to be explained and seen to work in practice.
The main point here is that a rule is only valuable if you understand
why it is a rule..."
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(7/10)
Opening Analysis: The Omega Ω Gambit Part
2, by Clyde Nakamura. The main Omega
Gambit accepted line is 1.d4 Nf6 2.e4 Nxe4 3.Nc3 Nxc3 4.bxc3, and is covered
in
Part 1. Here in Part 2 Nakamura looks at the Gambit Declined:
1.d4 Nf6 2.e4 and now Black can decline
the gambit by 2...d6; 2...e6; 2...g6; 2...c6; 2...c5; 2...d5; or 2...e5.
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(7/10)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk:
You probably noticed that in the past several weeks we have featured a
number of annotated games by the new Russian Woman's Champion, GM
Alexandra Kosteniuk. We've gathered together on this one page
links to all of the games, photos, and news reports by & about Alexandra
here at Chessville.
Learn & enjoy! |
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(7/9)
The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia:
Another fresh batch of the unusual and arcane, from the Taskmaster of Trivia
himself, Graham Clayton. Check out the weird and the wonderful, as The
Mad Aussie takes us on another trip into the dusty byways of chess history,
including another popular "Who Am I?" quiz. Do you know which World
Champion suggested adding two new pieces to the game? Which Swiss GM
represented his country in both the regular AND Senior Chess Olympics in the
same month? Which GM fought in both World Wars? Who was the only
player to win both the FIDE and Amateur World Championship titles?
There's lots more too, so drop on in and check out The Mad Aussie's Chess Trivia.
(7/3)
Interview:
Part Two of our
20 Questions interview with
GM András Adorján. If you haven't already done
so, read
Part One of
this fascinating look into the mind of one of the most enigmatic of chess
legends, or jump right into the middle of it with
Part Two,
where GM Adorján expounds on such subjects as the state of chess in his
native Hungary, his Black is OK! philosophy, match preparation,
the Elo system, chess psychology, plans for the future, and more,
including two of his poems! |
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(7/3)
Annotated Game:
2005 Russian Woman's Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk annotates her 9th
round game with Tatiana Kosintseva from the 2005 Russian Woman's
Championship. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk recently became the 2005 Russian Woman's Champion,
with an incredible result or 9/11, which is a performance of 2643 ELO!
With this tournament, Alexandra will gain about 19 ELO points and will beat
her previous record of 2511 ELO in the next FIDE ELO list. You can
read the ChessBase report by
clicking here. Meanwhile, we bring you the forth of seven games
from the event, annotated by GM Kosteniuk herself. Enjoy! |
(7/3) Greco the Great:
"Gioachimo Greco (1600 – 1634) was the most important player and analyst
of the period known as the Renaissance, which dates from the mid-fourteenth
to the mid-seventeenth centuries. It was here, with the tremendous
excitement attending upon the rebirth, and subsequent development, of the
long-latent Greco-Roman arts and sciences, that the platform for modern
times, the eighteenth century Enlightenment, was constructed.
Succinctly stated, every area of European culture was advanced during the
Renaissance. And chess was included..." Enjoy this latest
installment of Past Pawns by Robert Tuohey,
which includes a picture of one of Greco's handwritten manuscripts as well
as 73 surviving games by this Renaissance Master.
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(7/3)
Review: Starting Out: Attacking Play by James Plaskett, reviewed by Michael Jeffreys.
"My guess is that EVERYMAN CHESS assumed that if they called the book,
Plaskett’s Greatest Attacking Games, it wouldn’t do as well as if
they gave it the more generic (but misleading) title, Starting Out:
Attacking Play (How to set up and execute decisive attacks).
However, this is a shame as a scan of my Big Database 2005 brings
up 991 Plaskett games, of which 444 are wins. With a win rate of
almost 50%, the guy certainly knows how to attack..." |
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