New fragments Moscow Open

The games from rounds 3-5 from the Moscow Open are now available, and so we present you new game fragments. (And this time, five players are leading indeed!) full story »

Endgame technique - it’s in the book

Endgame technique - let’s leave that to the grandmasters. Well… After Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual, new top level excercise material is now available. A review of Gambit’s latest: How to Play Chess Endgames.
full story »

The Corus-70 Studies

During Corus 2008, there was also an endgame studies composing tourney. The jury was our co-editor Yochanan Afek and today we publish the studies in the order of the prizes. full story »

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 »

Baden-Baden leader again

Before the “winterstop” started, this weekend title holder OSC Baden-Baden and three other clubs catched up with the other teams, and played their third and fourth rounds of the Bundesliga. After this the situation in the German national league is back to normal, because with victories against Turm Trier, SC 1950 Remagen and Godesberger SK the home team, with Peter Svidler on board one, took the lead. full story »

Who still studies the basic endgame?

Last week, a club member of mine (rating around 2250) told me that he almost never studies the endgame nowadays, whereas he used to do this on a regular basis. When games were still being adjourned, he always used to “grab the books” but these days he rarely takes the time to “dive into the endgame”. And I suspect this is the case with many chess players. full story »

Three times Anand

After the press conference Anand was happy to answer the many extra requests by journo’s. First he showed the hidden ideas behind his ending with Morozevich to the Russian television, then he answered Vijay Kumar’s questions for millions of fans in India en after that I also had a short interview with Vishy. All three now online. full story »

Action movies from Mainz

Everything has been cleaned up already in the Congres Center in Mainz but not yet here at ChessVibes. There are still some videos left from the rapid tournaments. I have shot some timescrambles of well-known grandmasters, and so it looks like you’re standing next to the boards of gentlemen such as Grischuk, Karjakin or Mamedyarov. Similar in all these action movies: endgame technique. The big guys usually seem to beat the slightly smaller guys with accurately played little endgames. Instructive! full story »

Babula wins Czech Open, 3rd GM norm for Smerdon

As promised we’re now returning once more to the Czech Republic to do a final report on the 18th Czech Open Festival held in the CEZ Arena in the town of Pardubice. The chess part of this huge festival is probably the biggest annual event in the world, with besides several open groups a lot of side tournaments (e.g. in blitz and ‘active chess’ or rapid). The big open was won on tiebreak by Czech GM Vlastimil Babula, who finished together with his compatriot Viktor Laznicka on 7,5 out of 9. 26 norms were scored in Pardubice, of which 4 were GM norms, one won by David Smerdon. It was his third, and he now needs some 20 more rating points to become the third Australian grandmaster in history. full story »

Alexei Shirov 35

Regular visitors are well aware of the fact that Alexei Shirov is one of our favorite players here at ChessVibes. Congratulations to Alexei, because the current number 11 in the world turned 35 today. We pay a small tribute to the man who’s known for setting the chess board on fire. full story »

Kramnik leading by a point

After a beautiful win today Kramnik is now leading by a point in Dortmund. De deeply calculated temporary piece sacrifice the Russian went for with 29.a4 was just fantastic. Leko won too today, which is not an easy thing to do with Black against Gelfand, and the Hungarian once again confirmed that opposite coloured bishops aren’t that drawish with rooks on the board. Mamedyarov-Carlsen wasn’t very interesting but the other draw, Anand-Alekseev, was. Anand got a strong kingside attack and the way Alekseev defended was impressive. full story »

Endgames are fun!

Chess players who like to improve their game, are always adviced by trainers not to spend too much time on openings. “Study the endgame. Your game will benefit from this for the rest of your life.” But, as I always thought, and many other ambitious players with me: endgames are no fun? I must say that I started to appreciate studying the endgame some more after Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual was published, but now three books have appeared that make it even more fun. full story »

Beach boy Smerdon wins Bangkok Open and scores his second GM-norm

The Australian IM David Smerdon, who appeared on this site a couple of times before (e.g. here and here), started playing many tournaments as from January with the aim to score another GM result (he already had one). In Gibraltar, Moscow and Cappelle la Grande he didn’t succeed but last week he was very succesful at the Bangkok Chess Club Open. He finished clear first and grabbed his second GM norm with a half point to spare. For ChessVibes David analysed his crucial game against Philippine GM Antonio and reveals the secret of his success. full story »

Yuri Averbakh 85

Today Yuri Lvovich Averbakh has reached the age of 85. Awerbach has become famous especially for his years of hard work in the field of endgames, which resulted in many high-level endgame manuals. However, especially in the fifties he was also one of the world’s strongest chess players. full story »

Ending: Zugzwang

In a game for the Dutch team league, last Saturday, I was rather lucky that my opponent did not notice a nice motive in an endgame position. He could have force me in some sort of zugzwang which is absolutely worth checking out. full story »

Weekly Endgame Study (1)

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 »

Choices and doubts (part I)

The cool thing about analysing your own games is that you can never tell beforehand how long you will be analysing. A serious tournament game against a strong opponent might be forgotten only hours after the game, while a relatively unimportant club game can haunt you for weeks. Recently, I played such a game on the competition of chessclub Max Euwe Amsterdam. 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 »

Karsten Müller on the 1st match game Kramnik-Deep Fritz

During the Christmas celebration in our chessclub HSK I asked the well-known endgame expert & grandmaster Karsten Müller whether he would be interested to occasionally & spontaneously contribute to the interesting project Doggers-schaak (about which he had read in one of the German chess magazines!). Müller is the author of Fundamental Chess Endings and Secrets of Pawn Endings (both together with Frank Lamprecht). Below you find his first contribution: how Kramnik could have beaten Deep Fritz in their first match game. full story »

The game of chess as the universe

Every chess player knows the comparisons between the game of chess and war, between the game of chess and ‘life’. But computers show that the game of chess should actually not be compared to real life combat or life itself, but rather to… the universe. full story »

Next Page »