Babula wins Czech Open, 3rd GM norm for Smerdon
31 July 2007 5:06 PM
As promised we’re now returning once more to the Czech Republic to do a final report on the 18th Czech Open Festival held in the CEZ Arena in the town of Pardubice. The chess part of this huge festival is probably the biggest annual event in the world, with besides several open groups a lot of side tournaments (e.g. in blitz and ‘active chess’ or rapid). The big open was won on tiebreak by Czech GM Vlastimil Babula, who finished together with his compatriot Viktor Laznicka on 7,5 out of 9. 26 norms were scored in Pardubice, of which 4 were GM norms, one won by David Smerdon. It was his third, and he now needs some 20 more rating points to become the third Australian grandmaster in history. full story »
Ivanchuk wins again
30 July 2007 11:29 AM
Perhaps it’s a bit too early to start talking about it, already before the Wch in Mexico, but anway, Vassily Ivanchuk seems to have a decent chance to win his first Chess Oscar this year. He continued his amazing series of victories at the Montreal International where he finished first place in a strong round-robin a point clear. Nigel Short suffered the worst result ever in his professional chess career: 2 / 9. full story »
Weekly Endgame Study (30)
28 July 2007 10:00 AM
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 »
Two ChessVibes editors fired on the spot
26 July 2007 2:06 PM
ChessVibes editors GM Erwin L’Ami and IM Merijn van Delft, both currently participating in the Open Dutch Championships in Dieren, were fired on the spot today. The direct cause is the supposed cheating by Erwin L’Ami during the first and second round, and an incredible story by Merijn van Delft about his stay in Amsterdam last week end.
Hard-core Zaitsev Theory in Czech Open
25 July 2007 11:55 AM
The Czech Open in Pardubice is one of the biggest, if not the biggest chess festival in the world, with a bit over 1700 players this year. And not even just a chess festival, since also tournaments in backgammon, crossword puzzles, draughts, sudoku, poker, bridge and even Rubik’s cube are held! Later I will write more about the festival, but today I will focus on a subject that hasn’t been treated for a while here on ChessVibes. Hard core opening theory! Normally long theoretical lines are seen in the elite round-robins and not in these huge open tournaments, except… when super-theoretician Vasilios Kotronias is playing. Yesterday, in the fifth round, an amazing Zaitsev Ruy Lopez attracted the attention. full story »
Interview with GM Pavel Tregubov
22 July 2007 10:00 AM
Right after the last round of the Parish Championship had finished, I interviewed GM and President of the ACP, Pavel Tregubov. He had just finished shared first and talks about his chess and especially about the Association of Chess Professionals and its view on the FIDE world championship cycle. full story »
Weekly Endgame Study (29)
21 July 2007 10:00 AM
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 »
Vachier-Lagrave wins Paris Ch
17 July 2007 4:32 PM
The summer is finally there. After performing a bit too modestly in many European countries the sun now does its job big time, which meant a sudden change of the weather into really hot summer days. Those days you normally don’t play chess. Or do you? full story »
Rajlich, Research, Rybka
15 July 2007 12:25 PM
An interview with the Rybka team on the future of computer chess
Computer chess is everywhere. Chess engines reign supreme. Their expertise ranges from endgame tablebases to amazing tactical resources in the middlegame to surprising opening novelties in well-known variations. There is only one aspect of chess that is still mainly dominated by humans: the understanding of the fundamental opening moves.
full story »
Weekly Endgame Study (28)
14 July 2007 10:00 AM
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 »
GMs longing for the Hilton in Mainz
13 July 2007 3:22 PM
The first Chess960 online qualifiers, organized by the Internet Chess Club in conjunction with Chess Tigers (organizers of the popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany), has been a stunning success. All of last week, qualifiers were held on the ICC (and on their new service of World Chess Live), where 959 unique players (1546 in total over 10 events) battled it out for the coveted spots in the 32-player KO final, to be staged 14-15 July on the ICC. Players such as Gata Kamsky, Krishnan Sasikiran, Ivan Sokolov, Kiril Georgiev and Mikheil Mchedlishvili are still in the race for that one round trip ticket to Mainz, including hotel room and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz. full story »
In between rounds… a nice fragment
11 July 2007 5:00 PM
To publish something on ChessVibes while playing a tournament might be a bit too much, but I don’t care. Today I was sitting in the public libray of the Centre Pompidou, comfortably with laptop and wifi, going through this week’s chess news, when I jumped into the beautiful fragment from the rapid game Gelfand-Shirov. You might have seen it already somewhere else, but in my opinion we cannot ignore it over here. full story »
Bughouse in Berlin
8 July 2007 12:30 PM
As mentioned before, I spent a week in Berlin before I went to Dortmund. It was an quite a coincidence that a club member happened to be in Berlin too. During the weekend of 23/24 June he would play, for the 6th time already, in a tournament I had never heard of! It wasn’t that surprising after I read further: he was talking about a bughouse tourney. I met my friend at the hotel where the players resided, and suddenly found myself in between the crème de la crème of the international bughouse chess scene. Wrong, of the international bughouse scene. Bughouse isn’t chess. full story »
Weekly Endgame Study (27)
7 July 2007 10:00 AM
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 »
Underprivileged Peruvian children like chess too
5 July 2007 9:00 AM
The city of Cusco in Peru is mainly known as a backpacker resort, very close to the Inca town Machu Picchu. Like many cities in South-America, Cusco (about 300.000 inhabitants) has many slums where mostly immigrants live, coming from the surrounding countryside. In the Cusco slums thousands of children live and work on the streets without any form of protection by adults. They try their luck as vendors in the streets, but they are more likely to find themselves in trouble. Child labour, abuse, violence, malnourishment and for some also drug abuse (glue snorting) are the daily facts of their life. The Inti Huahuacuna Foundation ensure daytime-shelter for these underprivileged children, e.g. by organizing chess training sessions. full story »
Two rapid tournaments start today
4 July 2007 11:00 AM
During the following days chess fans around the globe will have a great time, thanks to the invaluable invention called internet. Not one but two rapid tournaments start today, both with some of the very best in the world participating. Both can be followed live on their respective websites. In the Spanish town of Léon, Anand, Topalov, Kasimdzhanov and Ponomariov play the 19th Magistral “Ciudad de Leónâ€? will be held from July 4th to July 9th 2007, though the rapid chess will only be played on July 6th, July 7th and July 8th. But don’t worry, today you can already tune in for the Pivdenny Bank Chess Cup that will take place in Odessa, Ukraine till 6th July 2007, with Smirin, Shirov, Tukmakov, Drozdovskij, Grischuk, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Bacrot, Korchnoi and Radjabov. So have your lunch a bit later today, because they’ll start at 13.00 CET today. full story »
Alexei Shirov 35
4 July 2007 7:30 AM
Regular visitors are well aware of the fact that Alexei Shirov is one of our favorite players here at ChessVibes. Congratulations to Alexei, because the current number 11 in the world turned 35 today. We pay a small tribute to the man who’s known for setting the chess board on fire. full story »
The Mainz Attraction on the ICC
3 July 2007 11:59 PM
(This is an ICC advertisement)
The Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers of the popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, are offering a unique chance to play in a free online qualifier to win a round trip ticket, 600 Euro ($811) cash, hotel room and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel, by the banks of the Rhine, just 1 block from the picturesque Old Town, from August 15 to 20 (5 nights and 6 days!). full story »
Halkias and Berelovich win in Haarlem
3 July 2007 2:53 PM
Last weekend ChessVibes on tour made a pit stop in Haarlem, The Netherlands, where the 6th Nova College Chess Tournament was held. The grandmasters Stelios Halkias from Greece and Aleksandar Berelovich (Ukraine) ended shared first with 5½ out of 6. The cup and the title went to Halkias on tiebreak. Having finished their Dutch championship only one day before the tournament, GMs Friso Nijboer and Zhao Qin Peng were vulnerable in Haarlem. full story »
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