Daily puzzle 041207

What do you play with White? The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

23…a3! 24.cxb4 axb2+ 25.Kxb2 Rxa2+ 26.Kxa2 Qd5+ 27.Kb2 Be6 28.Rd2 Qb3+ 29.Kc1 Ra8 0–1, Varga-Gyimesi, Hongarije 2005

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Value for money: 1000 rook endings

Hungarian GM Jozsef Pinter spent many years in compiling his new book, clearly a labor of love and extreme devotion to the game of chess.

We now have in stock 1000 Rook Endings, which was published a couple of weeks ago. This is a very straightforward book, and the 434(!) pages offer very good value for money.

Please have a look at this astonishing collection.

P.S. Garry Kasparov’s How Life Imitates Chess is now in stock.

Large (pictorial) report Dresden

Last week our editor Manuel Weeks dropped by at the European Chess Championships in Dresden. Here is his report with many photos.

The European Chess Championships is proving a great success for the German organizers. Taking place from April 2nd to 16th, 2007 in the International Congress Center located in the center of town with participants able to play while looking at the river. The event is an 11 round Swiss, with time controls at the new FIDE official control of 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. This was suggested by the ACP after the previous faster time control of 90 minutes plus 30 second increments was condemned by most players as too fast. Read more

Charity simul Anand

World #1 Viswanathan Anand of India is once again utilizing the services of the Internet Chess Club to champion a cause that is close to his heart: Vidyasagar, a non-profit organization that strives for inclusion of children with autism and cerebral palsy. Hereby an invitation to play against Vishy and support this organization. Read more

Daily puzzle 041107

What do you play with Black? The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

22…Bf8, the only move, was played in Solodovnichenko-Ivanov, Rochefort 2005. 22…Nxa4? is answered by 23.Bxa4 Qxa4 24.Rxg7+!! and Black is mated (do calculate it!).

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Daily puzzle 041007

What’s wrong with 22…Nxa4? The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

31.Bc5!! and White won in Istratescu-Karpov, Bucarest (3rd match game) 2005.

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Corrales Jimenez, Leon Hoyos & Gonzalez Garcia

Corrales Jimenez, Leon Hoyos and Gonzalez Garcia, that sounds nice. These double names, common in Spanish speaking countries, stand for the three winners of the Mexican Open Championships 2007. Well, the real winner was Corrales Jimenez, on tiebreak. The big favourite was Lazaro Bruzon but he finished only at the 7th place in this nine round Swiss that was played last week. The tournament organizers have sent us photos - something that now occurs quite often. More and more tournament organizers know where to ChessVibes and send us material; something we’re very happy with of course. Read more

Shirov wins Villa de Cañada de Calatrava

At the Festival Villa de Cañada de Calatrava Alexei Shirov has won the rapid tournament. The first prize was for him because his tiebreak was better than Daniel Fridman’s, Ivan Sokolov’s and Boris Gelfand’s, who also finished on 7,5 out of 9. So it was a very exciting tournament, where people like Polgar, Mamedyarov and Anand ended shared fifth. Shirov deserved the title considering his magnificently artful play, which reaffirmed his claim to the title Fire on Board. Read more

Daily puzzle 040907

What would you play as White? The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

42.Rf1!! Rc8? (better was 42…Nf5!) 43.Rg7+! Kb8 44.Rf8!! and White won in Karjakin-Nikolic, Wijk aan Zee II 2005.

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Once a year it’s allright

Yesterday for the 14h time the Boerenkool Met Worst Tournament was played (boerenkool = kale). This is already the good news, because the tournament was almost canceled. The old playing hall in the West-Frisian town Nibbixwoud was turned into a wok resutaurant this year and so the organisation had to move a few kilometres away to Wadway. On the arrival the bad news was told: because the tournament was played so late in the season, (usually it’s being held early March) no kale could be served! This vegetable, like Brussels sprout, needs frost to grow, so to speak, and we didn’t have very cold nights in Holland lately. So no fresh kale could be found in any supermarket in the country! But, the kitchen assured us, we would definitely be served a true West-Frisian diner. Read more

Daily puzzle 040807

What would you play as White? The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

20.h3!! a4 21.Nh2 f5 22.exf6 Bxf6 23.Nxf6+ Rxf6 24.Rxf6 gxf6 25.Ng4 Kg7 26.Nxf6 Kxf6 27.Rf1+ Ke7 28.Qh5 Qd5 29.Rf7+ Kd6 30.Qxh6 and White won in Volkov-Vaganian, Moscow 2005

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Weekly Endgame Study (14)

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. Today we also announce an Endgame Studies Composing Tourney. Read more

Daily puzzle 040707

What would you play as White? The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

20.Re7!! Rf8 21.Bb4 Bxb4 22.axb4 b5 23.Bxf7 Ra7 24.Be6 with a big advantage, Ivanchuk-Van Wely, Monaco (rapid) 2005.

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The top players live again

Nothing to do during this Easter Weekend? Then I have good news for you. At this very moment many top chess players are playing a rapid tournament in Spain, and the games can be followed live. I’m talking about the Festival Villa de Cañada de Calatrava. On the participants list we see names such as Anand (he’s quite high on the new FIDE list), Mamedyarov (how good would he be in rapid?), Gelfand (who’s openings are still top-notch as we saw in Monaco), Ivanchuk (his play is still top-notch as we saw in Monaco), J. Polgar (wow, we haven’t seen her play since… Hoogeveen?), Grischuk (wow, we haven’t seen him play for ages) Bacrot (o yes, he’s quite strong too), Shirov (always great to watch) Sasikiran (isn’t he playing Sofia?), Milov (one of those players you always hear winnig opens in far away countries) and… Karpov! (no introduction needed). Read more

Daily puzzle 040607

What would you play as White? The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

22.c4!! Rxa4 23.Kc2 Bb4 24.Qd4 Ra2+ 25.Kb1 Qa8 26.cxd5 0–0 27.Qxb4 Ra1+ 28.Kc2 Rc8+ 29.Kd3 Ne5+ 30.Ke2 Ra2+ 31.Rd2 1–0, Quezada-Ruiz, Santa Clara 2005

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Beach boy Smerdon wins Bangkok Open and scores his second GM-norm

The Australian IM David Smerdon, who appeared on this site a couple of times before (e.g. here and here), started playing many tournaments as from January with the aim to score another GM result (he already had one). In Gibraltar, Moscow and Cappelle la Grande he didn’t succeed but last week he was very succesful at the Bangkok Chess Club Open. He finished clear first and grabbed his second GM norm with a half point to spare. For ChessVibes David analysed his crucial game against Philippine GM Antonio and reveals the secret of his success. Read more

Daily puzzle 040507

What would you play as White? The solution will be published tomorrow.

Yesterday’s solution:

17…Nb4! 18.a3 Nd5 19.Bc4! Bc6 20.Bxd5 Rxd5 1/2, Izoria-Avrukh, Athens 2005.

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Save 10% on 2 sweeping opening books

Today we are offering you a 10% discount on a set of two recent, very popular opening repertoire books by Lev Alburt, Roman Dzindzichashvili & Eugene Perelstein: Chess Openings for White, Explained, and Chess Openings for Black, Explained.

These “extremely user-friendly” (GM Rowson) books contain “many new ideas that combine to make a potent and practical set of openings” (British Chess Magazine). More than 1100 pages(!), “so well presented that I can’t help asking myself: Why doesn’t everyone put that much effort in?” (GM Flear).

Please, have a look at this high quality bargain here.

Quick update Dresden

A quick update on the second round of the European Championship. Lots of draws were played today, but because of the huge number of participants there are still 34 GMs on a hundred percent score. Top seed Jakovenko won easily with a kingside attack you and I could have played, but perhaps wouldn’t have dared against a 2500 player? Bad start (0 / 2) for the GMs Maiwald, E. Lutz, Azmaiparashvili, Kovalev, Zezulkin and Gallagher. Read more

Lajos Portisch 70

Because of the Dresden hitch, now for some calendar trivia. Chess Today pinpoints that today exactly fifteen years ago Samuel Reshevsky passed away. More happy news On a happier note legendary Hungarian chess player Lajos Portisch celebrates is 70th birthday today. In the sixties and seventies he belonged to the world elite, playing many interzonals and qualifying for the world championship title no less than five times. For his country Hungary he played in twenty (!) Olympiads; they won the 1978 Buenos Aires edition where Portisch scored 10 out of 14. Read more

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