Weekly Endgame Study (19)

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 »

Khamrakulov the strongest in Salou

With a relatively short draw against Felix Levin today Ibragim Khamrakulov secured himself of the title in Salou. He was the only player with 7 points out of 8 games, and of the group of titled players that followed, nobody had 6,5! For myself, I shouldn’t have lost against Levin in round 7, and didn’t have much of a chance against Epishin afterwards. I can recommend the Salou tournament, als long as bit of noise during the game is no problem for you (cause the chatter of the people in the hall is the only negative aspect I could think of). full story »

The coffee machine

A lot is happening in the chess world, like Aronian beating Kramnik 4-2 in a rapid match and the Mtel Masters starting today in Sofia. On Sunday I will arrive in Sofia and most probably I will have a better internet connection than here (in whole Salou there’s no wifi). In the Hotel Negresco Princess here in Salou everybody is enjoying the weather (that’s really great now) during the day and playing chess in the afternoon. Not much has happened here in the last few days that’s worthy of mentioning. Or it must be the coffee machine and especially the way it’s being interpreted by the tourists. full story »

Interview with GM Kevin Spraggett

Today the second video from Salou. I had a short interview with GM Kevin Spraggett, about himself and about the Spanish tournaments.

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First videos from Salou!

ChessVibes wouldn’t be ChessVibes if there were no videos from Salou. Today the first: the post-mortem of the very interesting game from the third round on board 1, Castellanos-Spraggett. Castellanos completely refutes the opening set-up of Spraggett, recommended by players such as Bologan and Shirov. The quiet 14.Qh3 would have led to a winning advantage for White. However, the Chilean player was slightly too blood-thirsty…

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Vladimir Epishin

Three rounds have been played in Salou. There have been a few surprises already, like GM Felix Levin only drawing in round 1 (!) and Epishin only being on 1,5 out of three. More about him later. Another surprise, in round 2, was “the other Dutch guy” here in Salou, Paul Span, again not showing up for his game. I don’t know what happened and I’m not sure if he spoke to the organizers between rounds 1 and 2. What I do know from the arbiter is that if he didn’t break a leg or something, he won’t be accepted in Salou ever again. full story »

Weekly Endgame Study (18)

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 »

Chess in cloudy Salou

Yesterday the open tournament of Salou started and with it the “Catalan Circuit”. This circuit of tournaments in Catalunya, Spain (actually not seen as Spain at all by most of the Catalan people) is organized every year in the months May, June, July, August and a bit of September. Tournaments can be played seperately of course, but the main idea of the Circuit is to be able to win prices over the result in the consecutive tournaments. full story »

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