Kasparov at CNN’s Late Report

It’s not over yet. Kasparov has now also appeared on CNN, where he told his story against Wolf Blitzer in the program Late Edition. Unfortunately not complete, but still, the interview can already be found on YouTube. You’ll find the transcript provided by CNN below. full story »

Interview IM Herman Grooten

Last week, at the Essent Tournament in Hoogeveen, IM Herman Grooten defeated GM Tiger Hillarp Persson with Black, playing a brilliant combination. I asked Herman to show the final part of this game before the camera, and he was happy to do so. Afterwards the chess trainer adds some useful advice. full story »

Bu wins Blindfold Chess World Cup

OK, some pretty famous chess players participated in the event, so we can’t really ignore the Blindfold Chess World Cup that was held last week in Bilbao, Spain. But the game fragments in this article aren’t really advertising the game of chess. It looks like us journalists have to search for other phrases to describe the blindfold sections of the yearly Melody Amber events in Monaco, because “blunder festival” should belong to Bilbao from now on. But, hey, why not just enjoy it? Play the quiz “find the blunder”! full story »

Kasparov at Maher’s Real Time

Friday night, for the second time this week, Kasparov was on American television. This time he was interviewed by Bill Maher through a satellite connection in his show Real Time. It’s a talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by comedian and political satirist Maher who’s assisted by a panel of guests that discuss current events in politics and the media. Here’s the Kasparov fragment from last Friday. full story »

Azerbeidzhan wins Essent

Mamedyarov became the expected winner of the 11th Essent Tournament. He finished clear first with 4,5 out of 6 and it wasn’t Ponomariov finishing second but Van Wely, who beat the Ukrainian player in a nice game with Black today that was awarded the brilliancy prize. Andriasian returns home with plenty of experience but zero points, and will need either a pocket chess set in the plane back home or a good drink. The open group was won by fifteen-year-old IM Eltaj Safarli (whááát? who?) from Azerbeidzhan (a-ha). full story »

Weekly Endgame Study (41)

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 »

Ponomariov and Mamedyarov share lead

After beating Andriasian with Black in a Scheveningen, Ponomariov is now sharing first place at the Essent Tournament with Mamedyarov. Hopefully Andriasian will score at least half a point somewhere, although Loek and Shakh might consider it a loss if they don’t beat the young Armenian player! Speaking of Loek and Shakh: they drew relatively quickly in a Grünfeld yesterday. In the open group there were many draws but Winants beat Reinderman and is now co-leader with l’Ami and Postny. full story »

Kasparov at The Colbert Report

Yesterday Garry Kasparov appeared on US television. He was a guest in the comedy show The Colbert Report, a satyrical tv program about politics that is pretty big in the United States and is hosted by political humorist Stephen Colbert. Kasparov is on a tour in the US right now, promoting his book How Life Imitates Chess. More info at Mig’s blog. You can watch the Kasparov fragment here. full story »

Some day in Hoogeveen

Hard times for Andriasian

Yesterday and today I was in Hoogeveen and amongst other things I saw that Essent 2007 is indeed a bit too strong for Andriasian. Also against Loek van Wely he had to resign and so for the young Zaven this first half with three zeros is even worse than Topalov’s last year. Mamedyarov and Ponomariov didn’t take too many risks and played what one calls a “correct draw”. Today the crown group didn’t play and so the open group is already two rounds further, compared to the last report, with l’Ami and Postny leading. full story »

Adly en Nebolsina new juniors champs

Ahmed Adly from Egypt and Vera Nebolsina from Russia have grabbed the titles at the World Juniors & Girls Championships in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. Both scored 10 points out of 13 rounds. When we left the tournament halfway, Adly was leading but things didn’t go that smoothly afterwards. In rounds 9 and 10 the Egyptian GM lost both his games, against Wang Hao and Popov. But quite amazingly he then beat Gupta, Jojua and Meier in the last three rounds, leaving the tournament without having played a single draw! full story »

Mamedyarov a half clear

Andriasian is having a hard time so far in Hoogeveen, but it might be too early to conclude that this tournament is too strong for him. The lowest-rated player had to start with two Blacks against the two strongest and lost twice. Yesterday it was Mamedyarov, twice world juniors champion himself, who beat the boy, scoring his second win. Van Wely and Ponomariov played a not too intersting draw and in the open group GM Jan Werle is leading. full story »

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