Post-mortem Leko-Aronian

In the fourth of Morelia/Linares 2007 the quite interesting game Leko-Aronian was played. Perhaps you remember: at some point Leko entered a long, forced line that led to a position with a bishop and two pawns for White against a rook for Black. You can now learn about the ins and outs of the opening phase of this game from the players themselves, with today’s video. full story »

Danger: SOS Volume 6 just out!

SOS - Secrets of Opening Surprises, Volume 6 has just arrived from the printers. And you know what that means: danger!

In the next few weeks countless chess players all over the world will be eagerly hunting the pages of that book for early deviations from the regular lines in mainstream openings.

Why? Because many chess players are too lazy to study main line opening theory, that’s why! The only thing they are looking for is an easy ride towards an opening advantage.

Authors like Tiviakov, Rogers, Rogozenko, Silman, Kogan, Van der Wiel, Donaldson, l’Ami, Flear, Mikchalchishin, and editor Jeroen Bosch will, I am afraid, persuade thousands of chess players to try their luck with SOS 6. You may be facing one of them, soon.

So my advice is: have a look here, or ignore SOS 6 at your own peril!

Videos as a little bridge

We were quite busy this week as far as ‘content’ was concerned. We didn’t even have enough time and space to focus on what we might call our ‘core business’: videos. We still have material from round 3, 4 and 5 and this will be posted in the coming days, as a small bridge to the second part of the tournament that will continue this Friday in Linares. Today fragments of round 3 and twelve minutes of the Carlsen-Anand post-mortem. full story »

An amazing round 7

After the peaceful sixth round, yesterday guerilla was back in Morelia. Especially Topalov-Morozevich was an fantastic fight, where full and half points went back and forth all the time. Eventually it was the Bulgarian, after starting with 1.e4, who won the game. Ivanchuk showed some fine technique with White against Aronian by slowly but surely grinding down the Armenian in a classical endgame with an isolated queen’s pawn for Black. Against Anand, Leko had a small plus for quite a while but as soon as he decided to go for complications, it went downhill. A nice sequence of moves brought the Indian the full point. Only Svidler-Carlsen was quiet, in which Black equalized surprisingly easy in an Accelarated Dragon. full story »

Bezemer champion of Amsterdam

The Chessvibes reporters are everywhere! They’re in Moscow, in Morelia, and soon in Linares as well. But also, of course, in their hometown, Amsterdam. Yesterday, the last round of the championship of Amsterdam was played at the Wethouder Verheij sports hall. Our love for Amsterdam chess life is so big here at Chessvibes, that we even went through lots of rain and wrong turns (because of the rebuilding of the entire neighborhood of the sports hall). But we did get value for money in the end. The exciting last round was exactly what sensation-seeking journalists were hoping for. full story »

Quiet round 6

A very quiet round 6, yesterday in Morelia. Not much happened at all. On move 10 Leko deviated from what Topalov had played a round before with Black against Carlsen, and on move 15 a move repetition started that lasted quite long. Morozevich played a line in the English which isn’t known as very dangerous, and Svidler knew this of course. Topalov could have turned it into a real game if he had put a bishop on c2 instead of a knight, and so only Anand-Ivanchuk can be called a real game. In timetrouble (Ivanchuk’s, although Anand was playing fast too) Black missed a chance one move long, and after that too much was exchanged to leave something to play for. full story »

Aero-Alekseev the best in Moscow

He may truly call himself the king of Russian chess at the moment. Evgeny Alekseev, who won the Russian Championship at the end of last year, this week showed that great form can endure for months. After a quick draw on board one between Tomashevsky and Jakovenko, Alekseev beat Gabriel Sargissian after five hours struggle and ensured himself of a clear first place at the Aeroflot Open. A report on the apotheosis in Moscow: the last four rounds and the closing ceremony. full story »

Weekly Endgame Study (8)

Every Saturday an endgame study is published at Chessvibes, selected by Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. full story »

Aronian brilliant against Anand, Topalov resigns prematurely

Sometimes Aronian is simply an amazing player. Today he played a brilliant game against the player who was leading the field in Morelia: Viswanathan Anand. Replay the game and enjoy. Full of moves you just don’t expect. How beautiful the game of chess can be. Morozevich-Ivanchuk and Svidler-Leko were two boring draws; the former after a Berlin Defence and the latter after another Marshall Gambit. When I write this, Carlsen and Topalov are still playing.

Update in the morning: Another tragedy for Topalov. After blundering a piece against Ivanchuk, against Carlsen he resigned prematurely, in a position that’s probaby a draw. Now Morelia really is the world upside down, compared to Corus… full story »

Morelia round 4 with videos

Update: a few comments to the games

We’re experiencing quite a busy week of chess. Due to editorial work for the lengthy Noteboom report and preparation of an equally lengthy conclusive Aeroflot Open report (which was won by Evgeny Alekseev, we can reveal already), for now we just bring you the moves of round 4 of Morelia/Linares. As soon as possible, comments to the games will follow. But… we do have videos! full story »

Predrag Nikolic wins 67th Noteboom

Last weekend the 67th edition of the Noteboom tournament took place in Leiden and Chessvibes was there – a personal report. Three good reasons to play in the Noteboom tournament:

1. Toughness training. The Noteboom tournament is a weekender, which means six games with a maximum of four hours each (105 min/40 moves and 15 min/finish) in one weekend: Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon. The light version is taking a bye (a free round that counts for a draw), the heavy version is going out on Friday night and Saturday night. The tournament does not count for FIDE rating, so one can affort some experimenting. For the Dutch chess youth the circuit of weekenders is a good (tough) way to chess improvement. full story »

Aeroflot: report round 5

With some delay we now publish Manuel’s report on the fifth round of the Aeroflot Open.

It is always interesting to see the players analyze after the games. Some players find it hard after they have lost, others want to justify their play. After Indian GM Sasikiran had resigned against Kazakstan GM Sadvakasov they went off to the analysis room together. The Indian GM had a big advantage during the game but in the time scramble lost his way. They seemed like two old friends talking together, similar ages and were laughing at their own mistakes afterwards. I am sure many GM’s could not keep up their good humour as much as the affable “Sasiâ€?. full story »

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