Daily puzzle 021407

White plays and wins. The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

14.g4!! Rb8 15.h4 g6 16.hxg5+ Kg7 17.Qf4 Bb7 18.Rh7+! and White won, J.Polgar-Berkes, Budapest 2003.

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Daily puzzle 021307

How does White continue? The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

37.a3!! (37.Rh8+ Kf7 38.Rxc8 Qxc8 39.Nxf4 Qa6! is unclear) 37…Rc4 38.Ne5 and White won, Otero-Perez, Havana 2003.

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More videos!

As said before, I could collect a large quantity of good video material last Saturday. Today we experience the tournament online till and including round 9. A loss by Manuel Bosboom or Hans Ree playing: have fun with these rare pieces of material. Read more

Daily puzzle 021207

White plays and wins. The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

18…Ngf3+!! 19.gxf3 Bc2 20.Qc1 Nxf3+ 21.Kh1 Nxe1 22.Nxd6! Qc6 and now White should have gone for 23.Qxe1 Qxd5+ 24.Bg2 e4 25.Qb4! Bf6, when Black is a bit better. Kononeko-Kovalev, Alushta 2003 continued with 23.Qd2? Ba5! and Black won.

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(Photo) report

Update: more photos at ChessVista!

The whole Chessvibes team is looking back at a very succesful first tournament. Everything went quite smoothly and there barely occured any incidents. The justified winner was David Smerdon, who is said to be one of the strongest blitz players on ICC. In his speech afterwards, he said he thought the Dutch players were so nice and decent. In Australia many more pieces would have fallen on the ground and more incidents would have occurred! Read more

First videos Chessvibes Blitz Tournament!

There appeared to be more than 70 minutes of footage on tape. Quit some editing has still to be done, but now we’ll present the first few videos of yesterday’s Chessvibes Blitz Tournament. One with fragments from all Saturday, and then a few games from the first five rounds. More videos will follow, as well as a small report with photos. Read more

Daily puzzle 021107

Black plays and gets the advantage. The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

31…Ba3!! 32. Qh2 (32.bxa3 Qe5 33.Nc4 Rb5+ 34.Bb4 Nc3+ 35.Ka1 Qg7!) 32…Qxh2 33.Rxh2 Rb5 34.b3 Rd8 35.c4 Rxa5 36.bxa4 Bb4= Movsesian-J. Polgar, Budapest 2003.

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David Smerdon wins first Chessvibes Blitz Tournament

David Smerdon has won the first Chessvibes Blitz Tournament. Just put my equipment (printer, camera etc.) at home and put the full finals standings online. Now I quickly head back into town; tomorrow more. Much more. Like lots of videos.

Weekly Endgame Study (6)

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. Read more

Daily puzzle 021007

Black plays and keeps the position balanced. The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:
28.Nd7!! (28.Ng5+ Kg8 29.Ne4 Qc6) 28…Qd6 (28…Qxa5 29.Nf6+ Bxf6 30.Qxf6 is good for White) 29.Nde5! Kg8 30.Qg3! Qc7 31.b4! and White had a marvellous position in in Dembo-Kustar, Budapest 2003.

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‘Cheating Topalov recorded’

For quite a while now, in the chess world there is a big fuzz about alleged cheating by the world’s highest rated player Veselin Topalov from Bulgaria. Rumours that started after his huge success at the Wch in San Luis (Argentina), at the end of 2005, that were intensified by the article by Martin Breutigam in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The Russian newspaper Kommersant now claims to have in their possession a video made by a Dutch chess fan, who claims to have put on tape suspicious gestures of Topalov’s manager, Silvio Danailov. Just for the record: it wasn’t Chessvibes! Read more

Daily puzzle 020907

White plays and keeps the advantage. The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

19.dxc6!! Rxd1 20.Rfxd1 bxc6 21.Rxc6 and suprisingly, White has an annoying initiative (Sulskis-Moiseenko, Kharkov 2003).

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Yuri Averbakh 85

Today Yuri Lvovich Averbakh has reached the age of 85. Awerbach has become famous especially for his years of hard work in the field of endgames, which resulted in many high-level endgame manuals. However, especially in the fifties he was also one of the world’s strongest chess players. Read more

Daily puzzle 020807

White plays and keeps the advantage. The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

19. c4!! bxc4 20.Nxc4 Bb7? (20…Be7 21.Qc2 with a big advantage) 21.Nb6! +- Bruzon-Granda Zuniga, Havana 2003.

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A new book by the late Bronstein

Last December the great David Bronstein sadly passed away, just when the English translation of his latest book was almost finished. The book is called Secret Notes and it’s available now. In it, Bronstein joyfully describes his travels to various Western countries after his ban on travelling abroad was lifted in 1989. As you may remember, Bronstein refused to join other Soviet grandmasters in denouncing Viktor Kortchnoi for his defection in 1976, and was barred from travelling for 13 long years.

There’s a chess part as well, with 30 annotated Bronstein games from the nineties, plus, as a remarkable extra, all six games from a previously unpublished training match with Kortchnoi from 1970! Plus lots of memories from the past, plenty of pictures old and new, a foreword by Garry Kasparov. All in all, a worthy tribute to David Ionovich Bronstein.

You can order this very personal travel & chess account of David Bronstein here.

The Navara Fanclub

One of the most remarkable participants in the Corus Chess tournament was the Czech top talent David Navara. Navara (22, rating 2719) is a special boy. Extremely modest, polite, apologizing all the time, he makes an unworldly as well as a heart-warming impression, enhanced by his monotonous manner of speaking and his habit of looking at the floor while he talks. In the pressroom people soon started calling him ‘cutie’ and ‘honey’ - words normally reserved for certain player’s wifes, female journalists and press employees. Read more

Daily puzzle 020707

White plays and keeps a big advantage. The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

11…Rb8!! 12. Qxc6+ Bd7 13. Qxc4 Rxb2! Perea-Gongora, Cuba 2003, and now White should have played 14.Ne5! Nxa4 15.Be4 0-0 16.Qc3 Ra2 17.Qc4 Rb2 =.

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Round 5 Dutch league: HSG still leading

After the first, lengthy overview of the Dutch league (called ‘Meesterklasse’) it’s time to pay some more attention to the top of the Dutch team competition. Last weekend the fifth round was played, and now it’s clear that we’re dealing with a race between two teams: HSG from Hilversum and Share Dimension from Groningen. Read more

Daily puzzle 020607

Black to play and draw. The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

30…b3!! 31. Rc5+ (31. Ra8+ Bxa8! 32. Rxa8 Ka7 33. Ra7+ Kc6 34.Rxd7 Rb1+ 35.Kh2 Kxd7 36. h5! b2 37. h6 Rh1+! 38.Bxh1 b1Q 39. Bxd5 c3 -+ Shirov ) 31…Kd8 32. Rxb7 Qxb7 -+ Ponomariov-Shirov, Wijk aan Zee 2003.

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Ending: Zugzwang

In a game for the Dutch team league, last Saturday, I was rather lucky that my opponent did not notice a nice motive in an endgame position. He could have force me in some sort of zugzwang which is absolutely worth checking out. Read more

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