Bluvshtein’s baptism of fire

When I met GM Mark Bluvshtein this summer in Budapest, he told me that in one month he was going to play the strongest tournament in his career: the 10 player round-robin Montreal International 2007, where he would be seeded 9th (!) below players such as Ivanchuk and Kamsky. After some busy months Mark found the time to tell us about how he experienced this high-class event.

The Montreal International tradition started in 2000 and became an annual event, with the 8th edition taking place July 19th-28th 2007. The tournament has always been a Round Robin event made to give Canadians norm opportunities as well as opportunities to gain valuable experience against some of the best players in the world. full story »

Leko wins his first game

Three draws and one victory in the eigth round. Leko won his first game, with White against Grischuk. The Russian hadn’t expected Leko to repeat Anand’s variation of the day before and hadn’t yet checked it thouroughly. Again he was outplayed. So the only player who didn’t win so far in Mexico is named Peter Svidler. Today he had an excellent start though, and he needed only three minutes for his first eighteen moves. Kramnik went for some big thinking and defended at his usual top level. Aronian blew up a winning rook ending (that was very similar to the one in Anand-Kramnik) and had to be satisfied with a draw. Anand surprised Gelfand already at an early stage in the Catalan and easily grabbed a consolidating half point. full story »

New half-point lead for Anand

With a fine win against Grischuk, Anand has regained clear first in the standings. Not that the other leader Gelfand had a bad result; he can be satisfied with his excellent draw with Black against Kramnik. The seventh round had started with a quick draw between Svidler and Aronian after the former had played the Ruy Lopez Exchange for the first time ever. Morozevich and Leko fought out the longest game (not for the first time!) and despite Leko’s advantage at some point this game was drawn as well. full story »

1000 minor piece endings on 549 pages

Hungarian GM Jozsef Pinter continues his incredible labor, and has just published a new tome, on the heels of his very popular 1000 Rook Endings and 1000 Pawns Endings.

Fresh in, straight from Budapest, is his 549 pages book on minor piece endings. This is, again, a very straightforward book, with no less than 39(!) different categories of Bishop and Knight endgames.

It is an astonishing collection, Pinter’s new 1000 Minor Piece Endings.

PS Also brand new: Chess Explained: The Queen’s Gambit Declined

Experience leading the field

Videos have been added!

After the sixth round you could say that Experience is leading the field. After Anand had drawn his game against Leko with Black in a line they had studied together some ten years ago, Gelfand (after Anand the oldest player in the field, followed by Anand) won again, this time against Morozevich, and so the Israeli is joining Vishy on the first spot. Svidler and Grischuk fought a great battle today, which they both clearly enjoyed themselves as well. After both had had won positions, eventually the point was shared. This had also happend in the early afternoon between Aronian and Kramnik, who went through an ultra-correct Catalan. full story »

Top computers will also meet

Just like the last Wch, during this Wch in Mexico City a computer match will be held, starting tomorrow. The strongest engines of the moment will meet: Rybka (who became computer world champion this summer) and Zappa (world champ in 2005 and vice champion in 2007). The match consists of 10 games, with a time control of 60 minutes plus 20 seconds per move. We have the (quite interesting) press conference already on video. full story »

Anand takes the lead

It was a great fifth round I’ve been watching here in Mexico. this fifth round that I could watch on the spot A great fifth round it was, While I was editing the footage of the start of the round, the players were involved in some great fights. Only Leko-Kramnik was a quiet draw which forced me to run to the room next to the press room quickly to film their post-mortem (a rare thing here at the Wch) and press conference. Much later Anand took the clear lead by beating Svidler with White and during their press conference Grischuk won with White against Morozevich. A third White win was scored by Gelfand; his victim was Aronian. full story »

¡Estamos en Ciudad de Mexico!

…which of course means ChessVibes is in Mexico City! The flight with KLM – that should have included the Chessbase guys as well but there were problems with their flight between Hamburg and Amsterdam – was fine, if only it included a pretty good Thai vegetarian meal. After arriving at the hotel I had a good night sleep of about ten hours (thanks to the time difference) and after a sunny morning walk in the neighbourhood of the hotel (where I took some pictures) I’m now sitting in the press room full of energy, waiting for the things to come. full story »

Aronian is back

In round 4, played on Día de la Independencia which celebrated the 197th birthday of Mexico’s independence, it was Aronian who improved his standings with a victory over Leko. Kramnik and Anand drew their games but both missed wins against Grischuk and Morozevich respectively. In Svidler-Gelfand Black grabbed another easy half point in the Petroff. full story »

Instructive draw favourites

In the third round Anand-Kramnik was on the list, the first of two meetings between the top favourites to win the tournament. When I say “Petroff” you might think “boring draw”. Yes, it was a draw, but of the fascinating and quite instructive kind. The players played a theoretical rook ending till and including the pawn ending where White was stalemated! We have images from the game and the press conference afterwards in a new video by Macauley. full story »

Ponomariov and Movsesian share first

Allthough the whole world is focused on that tournament going on in Mexico’s capital, we have to return once more to that little Czech town Karlovy Vary where I had a chance to stay for a few days last week. Today the tournament, that lasted as long as the first half of the Wch, has finished with a shared win for Ponomariov and Movsesian, their 4,5 out of 7 being enough. full story »

It really has begun now

After the quiet start of round one, the second round in Mexico City was a big spectacle. Both Kramnik and Anand won their games convincingly after a strong novelty and Svidler got very far with a different treatment of Leko’s Marshall. Only Gelfand-Grischuk was a draw in first-round style. full story »

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