Exciting last round

During the world championship the spectator seats hadn’t exactly been overflowed with Mexicans, but for the last round the venue was packed with local chess fans who wanted to see with their own eyes how Anand and Leko were pretending to play chess for twenty moves. But most of the people didn’t know or care, since Vishy was winning a well-deserved world title. Read more

Daily puzzle 300907

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

Yesterday’s solution:

42…f5! 43.Nxf5 Ke6 44.Ng3 Kd5 45.Kg2 Bd2 46.f5 Bg5 47.Kh3 c5 48.Kg4 Bf6 49.Nh5 Ke5 50.Nxf6 Kxf6 51.Kf4 e3 52.Kxe3 Kxf5 53.Kd3 Kg4 54.Kc4 Kh3 55.Kxc5 Kxh2 56.Kd4 Kg3 0–1, Tringov-Quinteros, Yugoslavia 1970

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Viswanathan Anand World Champion

Interview GM Peter Heine Nielsen

After my interview with Loek van Wely, Vladimir Kramnik second in Mexico, I also had an interview with Peter Heine Nielsen, Viswanathan Anand’s second. Thursday, right after the start of the twelth round, we spoke about different things, from working with Anand and the atmosphere in the team to Magnus Carlsen and Nielsen as a chess writer. Read more

Anand passes Grischuk’s test

Quite unexpectedly Grischuk, who was just drained during yesterday’s press conference, had collected some new energy for the penultimate round and really put Anand to the test. The Russian could even have won somewhere after Vishy had blundered in the ending and so the last round could have been an exciting one. But with superhuman power the Indian managed to save the half point and thanks to the draw between his rivals Gelfand and Kramnik the Indian just needs a draw tomorrow with White against Leko to take over Kramnik’s world title. Read more

Weekly Endgame Study (38)

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 290907

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

Yesterday’s solution:

25.Re4! Qd7 26.Qf3 Rc7 27.h4 Qe7 28.g3 Nd8 29.a3 and White won in model style, Geller-Mecking, Palma de Mallorca 1970

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Gelfand keeps on rockin’

Gelfand is playing a great world championship tournament and many predicted that this had to end at some point. Last Tuesday one of the grandmasters present even predicted he would soon collapse. But today Boris proved them wrong by scoring the second win of the black pieces in Mexico so far, against Aronian. He thus decreased Anand’s lead to a point, after the Indian expectedly had drawn his game against Svidler. Kramnik this time satisfied his fans by scoring a fine White victory over Leko and the clash between the two Alexanders ended positively for Morozevich, who beat Grischuk in a reversed Sicilian. Read more

Daily puzzle 280907

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

Yesterday’s solution:

26…Kh8! 27.h3! [27.Bxg4 gxh2+ 28.Kh1 fxg2+ 29.Kxg2 h1Q+ 30.Rxh1 Qxg4#] 27…f2+! 28.Kf1 Bxe6–+ 29.h4 Qxh4 30.Bg5 fxe1Q+ 31.Kxe1 Qxg5 32.Rxd6 Rf2 0–1, Reucki-Ostapenko, Soviet-Union 1970

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Daily puzzle 270907

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

Yesterday’s solution:

The game Ostojic-Zaitsev, Polanica Zdroj 1970 continued with 24.Rad1? when 24…Rxe1+ 25.Rxe1 Qxf6 eventually led to a draw. Instead, 24.Bxf7+! Kxf7 25.Re7+! Kf8 26.Rae1 would have won for White.

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Three times Anand

After the press conference Anand was happy to answer the many extra requests by journo’s. First he showed the hidden ideas behind his ending with Morozevich to the Russian television, then he answered Vijay Kumar’s questions for millions of fans in India en after that I also had a short interview with Vishy. All three now online. Read more

Anand close to world title

Because he had also beaten Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich could perhaps have been the one to stop Anand from becoming world champion that quickly, but Vishy already decided to act as true world champion by avoiding a repetition of moves and beating Moro with a beautiful combination. He was received in the press room with a big applause and it wasn’t clear who had more difficulty: the journalists in keeping their objectivity or Vishy with hiding his smile. Read more

Grischuk-Kramnik draw in 13 - press conference online!

To everybody’s surprise, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand’s big competitor at this WCC in Mexico and in danger of losing his world champion’s title, has drawn today’s game in just thirteen moves. Against Grischuk, he played the Petroff again and after White made a Fingerfehler, he decided to offer a draw. Kramnik, one and a half point behind Anand, accepted. We already have the press conference of this game, in which I asked Kramnik about why he played the Petroff again (and not an opening closer Loek’s repertoire for example) and if his match in 2008 influences playing for a win in this tournament. Read more

Daily puzzle 260907

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

Yesterday’s solution:

17.Rxa6!+- Bxa6 18.Qxa6 Rc8 [18...Ra8 19.Ndxb5+!+-] 19.Ndxb5+! Kd8 20.Qb6+ Ke7 21.Nd5+! 1–0, Camilleri-Johannessen, Siegen (ol) 1970

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Anand survives

Although after today four rounds still have to be played, the game Kramnik-Anand was of course a crucial one at this WCC. Again Vishy survived a position with a slight material deficit against Kramnik and consolidated his lead since Gelfand had placed a perpetual at Leko’s king. Like in almost any game, Svidler was surprised by Morozevich’s opening choice but still could have won in one position. It was a draw. Aronian won, according to his opponent Grischuk with a “brilliant attack” in the ending. Read more

Weekly Endgame Study (37)

This “weekly” endgame study should have been published already on September 15th, but because of the editor-in-chief’s busy times unfortunately there’s has been a delay. As always, the study is selected by Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. The plan is to publish solution and the new study next this Saturday. Read more

Daily puzzle 250907

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

Yesterday’s solution:

24.e5!!± dxe5? [relatively better is 24...d5! 25.Rad1 Nd4! 26.b4! cxb4 27.Ncxd5 Nc6 28.Nf6 Rxd2 29.Rxd2 Nxe5 30.Nxh7+ Ke7 31.Re2 Kd6 32.Nxe6 with an advantage for White] 25.Nxe6+ fxe6 26.Rxd8+ Nxd8 27.Nxb5 Rd7 28.Nc3 Rd2 29.Rc1 Ke7 30.Ne4 Rd5 31.Ra1+- Adorjan-Bednarski, Amsterdam 1970

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The world champion goes down

World champion Vladimir Kramnik went knockout today in the ninth round of the WCC in Mexico. A marvellous Morozevich was needed; the Russian with the unique playing style acted orthodoxly unorthodox again with a g-pawn push in front of his king, but Kramnik quickly choked on it. Update: last video has been added. Read more

Daily puzzle 240907

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

Yesterday’s solution:

24.Qd3!+- Qd5 25.Qxd5! cxd5 26.Re6 Rf7 27.Kf1 h5 28.h3 hxg4 29.hxg4 a5 30.a4! Rd7 31.Ke2 Kf7 32.Kd3 Rd8 33.Rc6 Rd7 34.Kd4 Kg7 35.f3 Kf7 36.c3 Ke7 37.b4 axb4 38.cxb4 Kf7 39.a5 bxa5 40.bxa5 Re7 41.a6 1–0, Adorjan-Lukacs, Magyarorszag 1970

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Interview GM Loek van Wely

During the eighth round, somewhere when Svidler started his attack against Kramnik’s king, I had an interview with GM Loek van Wely. During the WCC in Mexico Loek is the second of no-one less than the world champion. I asked him what it’s like to work for Kramnik, compared to Topalov and Kamsky, for whom he used to work before. Furthermore, we talked about how a chess player benefits from being a second and what information he can take with him to his own tournaments and what not. Watch the interview here: Read more

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