Peaceful start in Mexico

The eight gentlemen started peacefully in Mexico. All four boards were relatively quick draws, somewhere between moves 22 and 28. In such a first round, players are scanning everything. The opponents get a first glance on the months of preparation, but further than that they didn’t go. No aggressive actions yet, like at San Luis 2005 (where Topalov and Anand won there first round game with Black), although Morozevich kept true to his style with his early h2-h4. In this first report we already have the first video by Macauley who is Mexico City. full story »

“I’m in Salamanca at the moment …”: Topalov

“I’m in Salamanca at the moment, the day after my 32nd birthday. The date is March 16, 2007.”

These are the first two sentences of a new book, and the author is none other than former World Chess Champion Veselin Topalov!

Quite appropriately we are presenting On The Edge in Elista at the beginning of the Mexico FIDE World Championship Tournament, where, as you know, Topalov is absent.

It is, of course, about the dramatic match in which Topalov last year lost to Vladimir Kramnik. Not only has Topalov thoroughly annotated all the games, he also has revisited the dramatic moments, and very precisely and openly describes his personal feelings and emotions.

Let me also quote the last two sentences of the book: “Then he folded the piece of paper and put it back in his pocket. I saw tears filling his eyes and somehow freezing there …”

Just to show you that this is not your avarage match book! Please, have a look here.

It’s gonna start

In exactly two hours it’s on. A year after the reunification match Kramnik-Topalov, with which the chess world finally got rid of the schism and Kramnik was crowned unified world champion, the tournament for the new world championship starts today. With Kramnik, without Topalov. The world champion defends his title against Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Leko, Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler. Tonight at 21.00 CET (14.00 local time in Mexico City) the first moves will be made. The pairing for the first round: Kramnik-Svidler, Anand-Gelfand, Morozevich-Aronian and Grischuk-Leko. full story »

Interview Akopian + post-mortems

With this article the last material from Karlovy Vary is published. Firstly, an interview with Vladimir Akopian about the success of the Armenian team, the rise of China and the chances of his compatriot Aronian in Mexico. Furthermore I’ve taken up an old hobby: filming post-game analysis. The players didn’t mind the camera to watch alongside, and so you can watch the post-mortems of Ponomariov-Navara and Korchnoi-Timman from the second round. full story »

Issue no. 2500 for Chess Today

Today’s issue of Chess Today was a special one: it was issue no. 2500. A wonderful achievement by the CT team, which consists of GM Alexander Baburin (editor-in-chief), GM Mikhail Golubev, IM Andrei Deviatkin and IM Vladimir Barsky (besides many other titled players who sometimes contribute). We’ve mentioned CT quite a lot here at ChessVibes and hereby we’d like to congratulate the CV-team and wish them good luck for the next 2500 issues. full story »

“Find good moves in difficult positions”

“If you really want to play better”, GM Jonathan Rowson recently said, then “push yourself to find good moves in difficult positions.”

Our online shop has just received, from Tuscon, Arizona, a book which fits into that concept: Practical Chess Exercises by Ray Cheng.

There are several interesting things about this book:
It has no less than 600 exercises (not all of them difficult, by the way)
It costs only € 16.95(!)
It comes with a recommendation by great chess author IM John Watson (please click here to see what he has to say).
You cannot really go wrong in having a look at this book.

First videos from Karlovy Vary

With some delay I can finally present you the first videos from Karlovy Vary. Meanwhile the third round has been played - another very exciting one. Shirov disappoints so far with two losses, one today against Jan Timman. The same Timman who we had before the ChessVibes camera Friday and who shared his thoughts about Karlovy Vary, about Mexico and about his own chess of nowadays. This he did immediately after the press conference, which you can also watch. (Some Korchnoi comments halfway can’t be missed!) full story »

Mexico update

A small Mexico update here. As you might have noticed, the chat has returned! In the grey column, can’t miss it. Last year this was a great succes during the Kramnik-Topalov match, especially when the Dutch forum Utrechtschaak went down. That’s why I decided to put it back for Mexico, and as from today you can already start discussing the Wch (or whatever you like). For the daily puzzle you now have to scroll down a little. full story »

China too strong for UK

China proved too strong a country for the United Kingdom in a team match that was held this week in Liverpool, as part of the lead-up to its status of 2008 European City of Culture. Each team consisted of four boards, plus two junior boards and two ladies boards. On paper, the two sides were fairly evenly matched in rating terms. However, the greater youth of China combined with the excellent “training” they recently enjoyed (beating the Russian team in a similar match played in Nizhny Novgorod last month!) turned out to make the difference: 28-20. full story »

First-seed Shirov loses to Laznicka

At the press conference yesterday I asked Alexei Shirov whether he, as the first seed here in Karlovy Vary, felt like the favorite to win the tournament. He didn’t think so and said something like “everybody is strong here”. A day later this remark turned out to be very true, because in the first round Shirov lost to the lowest seed last but one seed Laznicka. A good first round, commentator Vlastimil Hort agreed with me. “The first draw was only after 3,5 hours,” he said with a satisfied smile. full story »

Weekly Endgame Study (36)

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 »

In remembrance of Carlsbad 1907

In our so culturally rich game of chess it’s very common to remember great players of the past with memorials. Already in the sixties (and still going strong) you had the famous Capablanca Memorials on Cuba and nowadays there’s for example the Tal Memorial in the winter in Moscow. It’s something special when a tournament is remembered like this. This afternoon there will be the press conference, tonight the opening ceremony and tomorrow the first round of the “Carlsbad 1907 Memorial”: the Czech Coal Carlsbad Chess Tournament 2007 in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The participants are Alexei Shirov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Vladimir Akopian, Viktor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, David Navara, Sergei Movsesian and Viktor Laznicka. Before you click on “read more” first try the trivia question: who won Carlsbad 1907? full story »

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