Beauty in chess (II)

Today the second and last part of Jonathan Rowson’s lecture on beauty in chess, plus a small update on the tournament in Sardinia. full story »

Beauty in Chess (I)

As promised, we present you the lecture by IGM Jonathan Rowson which he gave on Monday night, here in the Porto Mannu Residence in Capo d’Orso, Sardinia. The subject: beauty. full story »

Rybka’s Immortal Game (Part 2)

Today an article by a guest author: Jeroen Noomen, writer of the opening book of the computer world champion, Rybka.

Some time ago ChessVibes published the “immortal game” of the chess computer program Rybka, currently the strongest engine in the world. Although this game was quite beautiful, I think we have a new candidate that fits this description better. It was played in the WCCC (world computer chess championship) 2007 in Amsterdam. Rybka beat the dutch program Diep in an amazing game, full of spectacular tactics and difficult-to-find moves. After 29 moves the game was over, something that is very rare in computer games these days. Especially for ChessVibes I have analysed the new Rybka immortal game and a few other Rybka games from the WCCC. full story »

Analysis Shirov-Radjabov by IM Notkin

One of the most beautiful games so far, at the Corus Chess Tournament, was Shirov-Radjabov. We already brought you Radjabov’s ideas about it and IM Maxim Notkin agreed to let us publish his extensive analysis on this rest day, which appeared earlier at the website Chesspro.ru. The translation is by Paul Janse. full story »

Two replacements at Corus

There have been two mutations in the grandmaster groups of the Corus Chess Tournament. In Grandmaster group B Alexandra Kosteniuk (ill) was replaced by GM Viorel (a.k.a. Viktor) Bologan from Moldavia, and in Grandmaster group C Sipke Ernst (university obligations) was replaced by reigning Dutch Women’s champion Zhaoqin Peng. The categories of the two events remain the same. full story »

Rybka’s immortal game

Kramnik’s 4-2 loss of last week against the computer program Deep Fritz was a big blow. Not as big of course as Kasparov’s defeat in 1997 against Deep Blue, which is universally considered as the end of the human supremacy over chess engines, but the international media did mention it, for example the BBC and CBS. The news even inspired a computer programmer to try and make a program that will be the best in the poker world as well! Especially for the company Chessbase the victory of their darling pet Fritz was nice of course, and they did not dread in calling it the world’s leading chess computer program, already during the match. However, Deep Fritz is not the best. Not at all. full story »

In Memoriam: David Ionovich Bronstein

“For the sake of brilliance it is worth taking a risk!” That is how Bronstein played, even in his advanced years. After Tarrasch and Nimzowitsch he is perhaps the most outstanding populariser of the game, a genuine teacher of the chess world.â€? – Gary Kasparov

David Bronstein was both an outstanding chess player and an excellent writer. Furthermore he was one of the most beautiful players of the twentieth century, always looking for the beauty in chess. Where Botwinnik saw chess as science, Bronstein considered it to be art. And of course it was Bronstein who wrote one of the true classics in chess literature: Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953. Enough reasons to pay tribute to David Ionovich Bronstein. full story »

Fischer’s Game of the Century

It was one of the first books I really loved: The Games of Robert J. Fischer, edited by Robert G. Wade & Kevin J. O’Connell, Batsford 1972. All of Fischer’s games were in it, including his match against Spassky in ‘72, and also lots of fascinating stories of the rise of the American prodigy, by people such as Arthur Bisguier, Harry Golombek and Paul Keres. I played through the majority of the more than seven hundred games at least once, and I guess I’m one of the few that prefers to take this book to a desert island, instead of My Sixty Memorable Games. A few games in the book come with annotations, and one of them is a game played exactly fifty years ago today. full story »

Study of the Year

Onlangs bepaalde de Permanente Commissie van de FIDE voor Schaakcompositie wie dit jaar de prestigieuze ’studie van het jaar’ heeft gewonnen. IM Yochanan Afek, speler, trainer, eindspelcomponist, co-winnaar van groep 2 van het BDO-toernooi en zelf lid van deze commissie, vroeg om het verspreiden van deze mooie studie onder zo veel mogelijk schakers. Bij dezen!
Recently the Permanent Commission of Fide for Chess Composition (PCCC) awarded the Study of the Year Award 2005. IM Yochanan Afek, player, trainer, endgame study composer, co-winner of group 2 of the BDO-tournament en member himself of this commission, asked the media to spread this study among chess enthusiasts. No problem!
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Sutovsky en Roberto Carlos

Brazilië heeft op het WK voetbal bepaald niet laten zien wat veel mensen hadden verwacht - en gehoopt. Met name de oude garde kreeg er in de pers genadeloos van langs - net als de jonge garde, trouwens. Toch lijkt niet iedereen zijn liefde voor de Goddelijke Kanaries te hebben verloren: Emil Sutovsky, de supergrootmeester uit Israël, blijkt in elk geval nog steeds fan te zijn van Roberto Carlos.

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Aanvallen zoals Shirov

Momenteel wordt in Amsterdam een rapidcompetitie voor clubteams gespeeld. Rapidpartijen vind ik bij uitstek geschikt om nieuwe openingen uit te proberen en ook op andere manieren wat te experimenteren met ideeën en zetten die je in een normale partij misschien niet zo snel zou durven spelen. full story »