Tiebreak round 2: Volokitin & Kasimdzhanov out

Volokitin and Kasimdzhanov are the biggest names that were kicked out of the World Cup tournament in the tiebreaks of round 2, and both players lost their mini-matches in sudden death games. Despite his loss in game 1 on Tuesday, Ponomariov went through in the tiebreaks, just like Ivanchuk, Carlsen and the other hot shots that had to play the rapids today. The only relatively unknown player left is Jianchao Zhou from China, rated 2566, who beat Volokitin today and now faces Adams. Round 3 pairings & full tournament schedule. full story »

Kasparov released

After a five-day detention, Garry Kasparov has been released today. In a brief statement Kasparov called his arrest an example of Russia’s transition into a dictatorship. He also stated that the arrest was meant as a warning and that next time it would be a criminal case. full story »

New: Lasker’s classic for club players, just 17.95

In London, in the spring of 1895, world champion Emanuel Lasker gave a series of lectures, geared to the level of club players. Later that year Lasker expanded and gathered the material and published it as a book.

Common Sense in Chess has remained an instructional classic ever since. Our friends at Russell Enterprises in Connecticut have just published a splendid new edition of this book. This characteristics of this edition are:

• it is converted to the algebraic notation
• many diagrams have been added
• the text has been reformatted to make it more clear
• two chapters are added with Lasker’s annotations of Hastings’ 1895 last round games.

Common Sense in Chess is a masterpiece of compression and exposition. Lasker treated everything a club player should know: basic opening theory, middle game strategy and tactics, and endgame fundamentals.

The chapters on attack and defence reveal Lasker’s ability to condense matters to a single underlying principle: obstructions. It is the attacker’s business to remove them, and the defender’s to create them. Can chess really be that simple? In Lasker’s hands yes.

Please have a look at this very affordable (only €17.95) edition of this book that has lost nothing of its freshness.

Round 2.2: Radjabov out, Ponomariov still alive

Another big name has left the World Cup tournament: against the Pole Macieja, Teimour Radjabov had to win but he lost again. Until now it was the only upset of this second round, because Ponomariov did it again: he had to win with Black against Wang and he did. Galkin again kept Ivanchuk relatively easy to a draw and with eleven other duos they’re going to play the tiebreak tomorrow. full story »

Aguascalientes: ladies win again

Just like last year, the ladies’ team beat the men’s team at the 2nd Chess Tournament “Festival de las Calaveras” which took place earlier this month in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The tournament was a double round-robin that followed the Scheveningen system, with a women’s team consisting of GM Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria, WGM Marie Sebag from France, WGM Elisabeth Paehtz from Germany and WGM Yang Shen from China, and a men’s team consisting of GM Jose Gonzalez, IM Alfonso Almeida, FM Guillermo Dominguez and FM Uriel Capo, all from Mexico. full story »

Round 2, game 1: Radjabov & Ponomariov lose

Former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov will face his second must-win situation tomorrow after he lost his first match game again, this time against Wang Hao from China, after the latter calculated a long and forcing variation more deeply. Ponomariov finds himself in good 2700 company because Teimour Radjabov also had to throw the towel today, against Polish GM and ACP General Secretary Bartlomiej Macieja. full story »

Tiebreak round 1: Short, Khalifman & Harikrishna also out

After the tiebreak of the first round, three more big names had to say goodbye to the World Cup and to their own hopes. Former candidate Nigel Short was kicked out by Baramidze (who, according to Sergei Shipov, arrived in the playing hall 56 seconds before his flag would fall and still won this game with the 10 seconds increment!). Former FIDE World Champion Khalifman went down to his compatriot Belov and Harikrishna lost to Jun Zhao. Round 2 pairings! full story »

Round 1 World Cup: Eljanov, Sutovsky & Landa out

This weekend the first two regular games of the World Cup’s first round were played and there were a few upsets: Eljanov was sent home 1,5-0,5 by Enamul Hossain, Landa didn’t survive against Nevednichy and Sutovsky too leaves Siberia with “only” 6,000 dollars in his suitcase after a 1,5-0,5 loss against Jianchao Zhou. Strickly speaking we should also mention Shabalov, Rodshtein and Laznicka as players who lost against lower-rated opponents. full story »

Kasparov in jail, Fischer in hospital

The two greatest chess players ever are in the news this weekend. Garry Kasparov has been detained during a protest in Moscow, because of “organizing an illegal demonstration and not obeying police orders”. Update: two videos added. Bobby Fischer is hospitalized and he’s not doing well. Update: Fischer has been in a hospital for two months already. He suffers from kidney problems and his situation is said to be critical. full story »

Review: On the Edge of Elista, Topalov-Kramnik 2006

When the editor in chief asked me to review this book, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Almost everything has already been said about the controversial match between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik, which was held in Elista slighty more than a year ago. For this review I wanted something new to write about. So, let me give a small disclaimer in advance: this review is not about the actual Toiletgate controversy and the arguments from both camps. Instead, I will try to focus on the perspective and the general idea behind the book. In my opinion, it is not at all about ‘Toiletgate’, but about something else altogether. full story »

Weekly Endgame Study (46)

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 »

World Cup starts tomorrow

Tomorrow the first round of the FIDE World Cup will be played; a knockout tournament with no less than 128 players that runs November 23 till December 17 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Seven round of two-game matches, except for the last round (the final) which will have four games. Total prize fund: 1,600,000 US dollars. full story »

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