Thoughts about an unequal battle

A question that is not heard enough these days, is: should we actually be glad with all these matches between Man and Machine? Of course there are many perspectives from which you can try to answer this question. full story »

Thomas Willemze qualifies for Corus C

With a quick draw in the eighth round against Bianca Muhren, Thomas Willemze secured his sole victory at the Cultural Village Tournament today. By doing so, already before the last round he qualified for the C group of the Corus Chess Tournament. Jan Willem de Jong needs a draw against Michiel Abeln tomorrow for his second IM-norm, which will be no problem won’t be that easy, because Abeln declined the pre-game draw offer by De Jong! full story »

Kramnik: ‘Some kind of black-out’

This is what Kramnik said about his blunder at the press conference: “It was not actually only about the last move. I was calculating this line very long in advance and… I don’t know… It’s actually very strange, some kind of black-out. Because I was feeling well, I was playing well before and… I think I was pretty much better… –>

The blunders of Kramnik, Petrosian and Reshevsky

‘The best knitter drops a stitch sometimes.’ This Dutch saying was more than true, this afternoon in the art hall in Bonn, because Kramnik’s 34…Qe3 was probably the worst move ever played by a world champion. It’s hard to imagine but the Russian, officially the strongest player on earth, made the biggest possible mistake in the game of chess: he allowed a mate in one. And: just like in 2002 he blunders on move 34 against Deep Fritz. full story »

Loek van Wely wins a horse

This weekend Loek van Wely won a horse. Okay, he wins them all the time, exchanges them for bishops or puts them on the rim (while he should know better) but winning a real horse, that’s what he did today at the first Remco Heite Chess Tournament. He finished sole first and thus secured himself of a true Stellingwerf trotter. full story »

Strong start by Ivanchuk on Cuba

Vassily Ivanchuk is showing his class at the Capablanca Memorial, taking place this week in Havana. In the 6 player double round robin with also Evgeny Bareev, Kamil Miton, Jesus Nogueiras, Lenier Dominguez and Lazaro Bruzon he tops the field with 3,5 points after 4 rounds. full story »

Kramnik-Deep Fritz starts today

Today the match Kramnik-Deep Fritz starts. Six games will be played in the federal art hall in Bonn, Germany. The start fee for the world champion is 500,000 dollars; the same amount will be added by sponsor RAG (a chemics company) if he wins. If Kramnik wins. Because is that still a serious possibility that we should consider? full story »

19.00 hrs: Remco Heite Chess Tournament

In about five minutes, the unique Remco Heite Chess Tournament starts. Unique, firstly because of the players in the invitation group: Vlastimil Hort, Robert Hübner, Artur Jussupow, Jan Timman, Loek van Wely and Jan Werle. Secondly because of the rate of play: 1 hour and 45 minutes for 35 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game. (From that perspective, they look like games from a club night competition!) Chatting about the games is possible this weekend at this site! full story »

David Navara replaces Morozevich in Grandmaster group A

The young Czech grandmaster David Navara (21) will replace Alexander Morozevich in the grandmastergroup A of the Corus Chess Tournament 2007. Morozevich has withdrawn for personal reasons. Navara, who ended 5th in the Grandmastergroup B of the CCT 2006 with a score of 7,5 points, made a huge jump on the world ranking list in 2006. His actual position is number thirteen. full story »

Karel van Delft 50!

Vandaag heeft Karel van Delft de mooie leeftijd van vijftig jaar bereikt. Een felicitatie is op zijn plaats, voor de duizendpoot uit Apeldoorn. Van Delft is een van de meest actieve vrijwilligers van dit moment, en de grote man achter de successen van het Apeldoornse schaak als het gaat om jeugdtrainingen en talentontwikkeling. full story »

Impressive chess by Willemze

Thomas Willemze is showing impressive chess at the Cultural Village Tournament that’s being held in Wijk aan Zee this week. Willemze, who recently became an IM, is making clear that this was fully justified: a 3 out of 3 you can’t haggle. Not unimportant for this tournament is Muhren’s play (2 out of 3), still without a norm but if you ask me she’s heading to her first one. full story »

What are IM and GM titles worth these days?

This week Nigel Short expressed the opinion that we can do away with the IM and IGM titles. Today Susan Polgar asked questions about the FIDE titles too. It’s good to have this discussion, because isn’t it about time that FIDE does something about the serious devaluation of both its rating and its titel system? full story »

Bundesliga: Porz beats Baden Baden

This weekend was the second Bundesliga weekend and the most important match was OSC Baden Baden against SG Köln Porz. While Baden Baden player Anand was playing blitz all weekend in Moscow, his team mate Shirov did play, after he took a couple of plains earlier from the Russian capital. Beating Vaganian, he couldn’t prevent his team from losing to Porz. full story »

Anand wins Tal Memorial Blitz

Today Vishy Anand won the Tal Memorial Blitz tournament in Moscow. He grabbed the title of the, with 18 super grandmasters, probably strongest blitz tournament ever held, with 23 points out of 34 games. Levon Aronian, last week shared first in the big tournament, became second; Peter Svidler and Teimour Radjabov equal third and fourth. It’s a shame, not to say completely ridicoulous, that the event was not broadcast online. full story »

FIDE: Candidates Matches it will be

FIDE president Kirsan Ilhumzhinov has announced that in the spring of 2007 candidates matches will be held. If everything would have gone according to the original FIDE plan (a scenario enough to make you laugh) these matches would have been played in October. Then it would already have been clear which four players had qualified for the World Championship Tournament in 2007. full story »

NSI de Eenhoorn live again

Four boards from the clubmatch NSI de Eenhoorn-SOPSWEPS ‘29 can be followed live today. In the Dutch league, my club NSI de Eenhoorn is the first club to show parts of their home team matches online to the world. Today it’s a postponed match from Dutch leage 2A. The opponents couldn’t play last week but had a good reason: one of the team members got married! Four boards can be followed today at this link.

Wedstrijdverslag uit klasse 3K

In de week na de KNSB-zaterdag verschijnen er op schakers.info en schaakbond.nl altijd vele verslagen van de gespeelde wedstrijden. Omdat doggers-schaak niet achter wil blijven en bovendien in een groeiende behoefte wil voorzien, hebben wij de hand weten te leggen op een inspirerend verslag van de wedstrijd tussen de koplopers in klasse 3K, geschreven door de teamcaptain van het verliezende team. Veel leesplezier! full story »

Sofia please!

A most disappointing last rond of the Tal Memorial today: all games ended in a quick draw. I can understand that some players were looking forward to the end of the tournament, but all of them?! And what about those rest days? A comment on Chess Ninja: “What a joke!!! The last round was a snore-fest. I could hibernate for three months, wake up, take a look at round nine, and fall right back to sleep!” Hopefully the organizers (and with them other big tournaments) will conclude that the Sofia rules must be applied more often. At least for final rounds. For everyone who goes crazy with quick peace agreements, here the games.

Exciting Tal Memorial decided today

When we left the Tal Memorial the last time, Ponomariov was leading after round 3. After round 8 he still occupies the first spot but he has to tolerate Peter Leko next to him. Both have five out of eight and today, it can’t be more beautiful, the two face each other with Ponomariov behind the white pieces and Leko behind the black ones. An update with the most exciting moments so far. full story »

Some more YouTube: Kasparov

Some more YouTube this week. Big names always have the most videos at the site, whether it’s about sports, comedy, or whatsoever. In the game of chess Kasparov is a huge name, and so there are lots of interesting videos to be found. Like a funny commercial, or parts of a lecture he once gave in London. full story »

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