Beauty in Chess VI: Ian Nepomniachtchi
July 26, 2009 by Michael Schwerteck · 5 Comments
After examining Planet Nisipeanu in the precedent column in this series, we now continue our cosmological research with a look on a bright new phenomenon that appeared on the horizon: Ian Nepomniachtchi. This week the Russian grandmaster will face Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and Arkadij Naiditsch in Mainz. Read more
Nalchik R10: Petroff finally loses
April 27, 2009 by Michael Schwerteck · 20 Comments
Did someone say „Black is hot“? In round 10 of the Grand Prix he was not! The players with the black pieces only scored one draw out of six games plus another draw out of a non-game. Even the Petroff only scored 25 percent. As a result, Aronian is still in sole lead, now half a point ahead of Leko. Video added. Read more
Nalchik R7: Curious opening choices
April 23, 2009 by Michael Schwerteck · 4 Comments
In round seven of the Nalchik Grand Prix, Karjakin and Eljanov won their games, while Aronian maintained his lead. The round was also notable for the players‘ opening choices – some were unusual, some instructive and some rather strange. Update: video added! Read more
Nalchik R4: Exciting draws
April 19, 2009 by Michael Schwerteck · 15 Comments
Chess fans generally want as many decisive games as possible, but a fighting draw with strong play from both sides can be very attractive as well. There were as many as six draws in the fourth round of the Nalchik Grand Prix, but one should not complain – all of them were hard-fought and some even highly interesting. Update: video added! Read more
Nalchik R1: The Day of Anti-Systems (UPDATE: videos added!)
April 16, 2009 by Michael Schwerteck · 13 Comments
Many people say that FIDE is destroying chess with its chaotic handling of the World Championship cycle. The Grand Prix series in particular has been the subject of many debates. Chess politics aside, however, it’s great that these tournaments exist. Six big round-robin tournaments with many fantastic players, that’s 546 high-level games! Read more
Beauty in Chess V: Planet Nisipeanu
April 13, 2009 by Michael Schwerteck · 21 Comments
In his fifth column about beauty in chess, Michael Schwerteck was inspired by the attractive style of Romanian GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.
In an interview with the German magazine Schach, the manager of the Bundesliga team Tegernsee, Horst Leckner, recently made an interesting comment about chess media. He regrets that most of the time only approximately the world’s top 20 are in the focus of attention, while many grandmasters below this level do not get the attention and, even more importantly for them, the invitations they deserve. Read more
Beauty in Chess IV: What we can learn from ski jumping
February 16, 2009 by Michael Schwerteck · 16 Comments
In his fourth column about beauty in chess, Michael Schwerteck was inspired by the recent German championship, as well as by ski jumping.
It has always bugged me that the scoring system in chess is so primitive. As everybody knows, there are only three possible results: 1, 1/2, and 0. However, there are so many different ways to achieve them!
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Beauty in Chess III: Olympic highlights
December 2, 2008 by Michael Schwerteck · 6 Comments
Another Olympiad is over and plenty of interesting games have been played. So many, in fact, that one hardly knows what to look at. In the open section alone there were more than 3000 games. Are you feeling overwhelmed by this number? Then have a look at the following selection of great games! Read more
Beauty in chess II
September 17, 2008 by Michael Schwerteck · 2 Comments
As my first article about beauty in chess seems to have been appreciated by at least a few people, I now present the second one in the hope that I can still reach some attentive audience. Read more
[lang_en]Halfway Biel[/lang_en][lang_nl]Halfway Biel[/lang_nl]
July 26, 2008 by Michael Schwerteck · 5 Comments
Finally there was a really spectacular game in Biel: Carlsen-Dominguez was a short but very lively draw. Alekseev-Onischuk was also drawn. In the batte of the tail-enders Etienne Bacrot beat Yannick Pelletier.
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