The primaries and Kasparov

For years, Kasparov has claimed that life imitates chess. Until now, I’ve had a difficult time believing this, if only because life was here before chess, and because chess is a model of life rather than the other way around. full story »

Supposedly extinct chess players

The game of chess attracts many different people. In Amsterdam chess cafes you will see artists, tramps, intellectuals and experienced hustlers. Many have written about them, usually in painful stereotypes, sometimes in amiable poetry.

By Arne

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Order and chaos in chess

Is chess ultimately governed by fixed rules and logic, or is it just a ‘random’ game? A comparison with science.

by Arne full story »

Carlsen and Aronian win again

The second has just started and it promises new excitement. We’re looking forward to Topalov-Ivanchuk but of course there’s also Kramnik-Radjabov - for the KID fans: Radja did go for 2…g6 and 3…Bg7. And Nigel Short put up another… Evans Gambit! Two videos added full story »

Merijn van Delft wins Weihnachts Open

ChessVibes-editor IM Merijn van Delft has won first prize in the Weihnachts Open tournament that was held 27-30 December in Hamburg. (Yes, there are still tournaments without world class players!) After a convincing first half, a couple of draws in the later rounds sufficed for the first place. IM Michael Kopylov came second, while outsider Christian Michna surprisingly finished third. Yours truly couldn’t make any difference to all this, and had to settle for a grey place in the outback of the tournament. full story »

Review: From London to Elista

In my previous review I discussed last year’s World Championship match between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov according to the book On the Edge of Elista by the Bulgarians Topalov and Ginchev. About the same time as the review, From London to Elista by the Russians Bareev and Levitov, was published. 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 »

Two ChessVibes editors fired on the spot

ChessVibes editors GM Erwin L’Ami and IM Merijn van Delft, both currently participating in the Open Dutch Championships in Dieren, were fired on the spot today. The direct cause is the supposed cheating by Erwin L’Ami during the first and second round, and an incredible story by Merijn van Delft about his stay in Amsterdam last week end.

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Rajlich, Research, Rybka

An interview with the Rybka team on the future of computer chess

Computer chess is everywhere. Chess engines reign supreme. Their expertise ranges from endgame tablebases to amazing tactical resources in the middlegame to surprising opening novelties in well-known variations. There is only one aspect of chess that is still mainly dominated by humans: the understanding of the fundamental opening moves.
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Recensie: Matten II

This is a review of the Dutch chess magazine Matten. The magazine is completely in the Dutch language and therefore we decided to publish this review only in Dutch too. full story »

Turn off those opening libraries!

Today not only the finals of the Candidate matches in Elista have begun, but also the “Ultimate Computer Challenge” computer match between Deep Fritz and Deep Junior. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the FIDE, appears to sponor the match himself. Of course this is all very moving, but I suspect that Chessbase would otherwise have donated the money. By the way, neither Ilyumzhinov nor Chessbase have responded to Rybka’s challenge about which we wrote before. Whether this is really surprising, I leave to the reader’s imagination.
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An important improvement?

An opening that is currently not very popular at the highest level, is the Tarrasch Defence. You mainly see Slavs, Queen’s Indians and thanks to Radjabov many King’s Indians as well these days. Although Grischuk uses the Tarrasch occasionally, no top player seems to have seriously studied the opening since Kasparov in the eighties. The reason might be that Black players unconsciously associate it with boring positions and a draw as the best possible result. This is a misconception. full story »

Review: ‘Secrets of Practical Chess’ (new edition)

During the last Corus tournament I received good news: a new edition of John Nunn’s classic Secrets of Practical Chess (1998) was forthcoming. In those days (1998) I was working for Chess and Goshop Het Paard in Amsterdam, and I often had to advise chess players which books to buy. I have often recommended Nunn’s book to chess players of my own level (at the time I had a national rating of around 2100) and slightly below. full story »

Kramnik in the Dutch league - a video report

Last Saturday was the day: the debut of World Champion Vladimir Kramnik in the Premier League of the Dutch competition. In the top match between Share Dimension Groningen and HSG Hilversum, for the first time since Max Euwe, another reigning champion of the world played in the league. And, of course, Chessvibes was there with a camera! full story »

Bezemer champion of Amsterdam

The Chessvibes reporters are everywhere! They’re in Moscow, in Morelia, and soon in Linares as well. But also, of course, in their hometown, Amsterdam. Yesterday, the last round of the championship of Amsterdam was played at the Wethouder Verheij sports hall. Our love for Amsterdam chess life is so big here at Chessvibes, that we even went through lots of rain and wrong turns (because of the rebuilding of the entire neighborhood of the sports hall). But we did get value for money in the end. The exciting last round was exactly what sensation-seeking journalists were hoping for. full story »

The Navara Fanclub

One of the most remarkable participants in the Corus Chess tournament was the Czech top talent David Navara. Navara (22, rating 2719) is a special boy. Extremely modest, polite, apologizing all the time, he makes an unworldly as well as a heart-warming impression, enhanced by his monotonous manner of speaking and his habit of looking at the floor while he talks. In the pressroom people soon started calling him ‘cutie’ and ‘honey’ - words normally reserved for certain player’s wifes, female journalists and press employees. full story »

Live reporting: round 12

Last update: 18.40 CET (video online!)

The most important round of the tournament has started. Of course, all attention is focused on the game Topalov-Kramnik. Before the game there was some speculation about whether there would be a handshake or not. We’ve got it on tape: there wasn’t. (Video is uploaded as soon as possible.) It’s total craziness in Wijk aan Zee at the moment, with press, television crews all over the place. More about that later.
What about the game itself? Kramnik surprised many by playing the Queen’s Gambit Declined (instead of Slav/Meran Defence like in recent the Topalov-Kramnik WC match). A very sharp position with opposite castling is now on the board. There’s not much theory about this line, so we’ll see what the players come up with.
Carlsen-Karjakin is a theoretical discussion in the Open Ruy Lopez. Navara-Pono seems to be about equal. Svidler played his beloved Grunfeld defence against Loek van Wely, who also knows the opening very well. We predict a draw
Radjabov again shows great faith in the King’s Indian Defence. Motylev tries to break it with gentle means, but the current position is very unclear. Tivi plays safety first again. Aronian has solved all his problems in the anti-Marshall. More later. full story »

A theoretical endgame in group C

At the end of the fourth round of the Corus Chess Tournament, when almost everybody had gone home already, something unsual happened in the C-group: in the game between Stellan Brynell and Mihail Krasenkow, after 66 moves the ending of two knights agains pawn arose. full story »

Notes from underground

Reports of chess tournaments are usually about what’s going on in the playing hall. At least as interesting is what’s going on in the press room, where this year at Corus the ediorial team of Chessvibes has access for the first time. The press room of a large chess tournament is considered by many to be the santum sanctorum, the Holy of the Holies, when grandmasters and players give their divine opinions and where you can learn more in one hour than from a year of studying. full story »

Book review: ‘The Chigorin Defence’

What’s the first thing you do when you see a new opening book? Look up the variation you know most about and check what is said about it. Surprisingly enough, this is often a disappointment, and usually you don’t even buy it because of this first impression. “This will never work.” But it’s wrong to think like that. full story »

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