Video: Ivanchuk’s drama

For “drama”, the Oxford English Dictionary gives “a play” as well as “an exciting series of events”. Both meanings fit Ivanchuk’s drama from round 4, captured by Macauley. 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 »

Kramnik still leading

After the fourth round of the Melody Amber Tournament Vladimir Kramnik is still leading. By beating one of the likely candidates for the tournament victory, Vishy Anand, with 1,5-0,5, the Russian could keep his half point difference with Aronian. Svidler now changed place with Anand in the classification; at the bottom the situation didn’t change much. full story »

Interview with Aronian and Leko

There was much more to say about the game Aronian-Leko from round 11 than I did say about it. White got a strategic advantage but at some point he got over-excited and blundered. But then he found the nice manoevre Na2-c1-d3-e1-f3, when Leko didn’t play the most convincing way. Actually, a lot happened in this game, and in the minds of the players too. How does a 2700 player react when he blunders? To what extend is his play influenced by earlier games in the tournament? These are some of the questions Macauley asked Levon Aronian and Peter Leko in his latest video. full story »

Carlsen ready for Monaco

Magnus Carlsen seems ready for Monaco. In March the yearly rapid and blindfold tournament Melody Amber will take place there, and this weekend a Scandinavian group of four played a blindfold tournament as a preparation for Magnus, on the island of Funen, Denmark. His co-participants were the GM’s Peter Heine Nielsen and Emanuel Berg and the strong IM Steffen Pedersen. Carlsen won the mini tournament by beating his own second Heine Nielsen in the final. full story »

Marvellous Morozevich

It was Marvellous Morozevich again, this week in Pamplona. He won the not very weak tournament with the splendid score of 6 out of 7 and noted a Rybkayan tpr of 2951. What a shame he won’t be there, in Wijk aan Zee, in two weeks from now. full story »

The blunder of Seville

Good news at the end of the year. Someone posted images on Youtube of the dramatic eleventh match game Karpov-Kasparov, Seville 1987! Kasparov’s faces after Karpov’s blunder 35.Rc6?? have become legendary but were not, as far as I know, available on internet before. full story »

Missed opportunity by Negi

Today Parimarjan Negi missed a big chance for the equaliser in his Amity Grandmaster Challenge versus Kateryna Lahno. In this position he played 28.Rg1? and the game ended in a draw after 28…Bxg1 29.Be6 Ng3+ 30.Kxg1 Ne2+ 31.Kf2 Nf4+ 32. Ke3 Nxe6 33.fxe6 Re8 34.Nf7+ Kg8 Nxh6+ Kh8 and a draw via perpetual. Do you see how White could have won? full story »

Tactics with Bobby

Black to play and win full story »

Kramnik: ‘Some kind of black-out’

This is what Kramnik said about his blunder at the press conference: “It was not actually only about the last move. I was calculating this line very long in advance and… I don’t know… It’s actually very strange, some kind of black-out. Because I was feeling well, I was playing well before and… I think I was pretty much better… full story »

The blunders of Kramnik, Petrosian and Reshevsky

‘The best knitter drops a stitch sometimes.’ This Dutch saying was more than true, this afternoon in the art hall in Bonn, because Kramnik’s 34…Qe3 was probably the worst move ever played by a world champion. It’s hard to imagine but the Russian, officially the strongest player on earth, made the biggest possible mistake in the game of chess: he allowed a mate in one. And: just like in 2002 he blunders on move 34 against Deep Fritz. full story »

Ponomariov grabs ‘pole position’

Chess tournaments do not often manage to come up with well-designed logos in my opinion but the Tal Memorial has a very nice one (and should therefore be shown here as well). Mikhail Tal himself can be seen on it; the eighth world champion who would have celebrated his 70th birthday today, if he wouldn’t have died on June 28th, 1992. The best way to remember Tal is to purchase a copy of his autobiographical game selection but the tournament in Moscow does a nice job as well. Yesterday ex-FIDE world champion Ponomariov grabbed pole position (and Aronian blundered terribly). full story »