Cheparinov has apologized

The Corus press officer has just confirmed that the tournament committee have received Ivan Cheparinov’s written apologies. At the moment it’s not yet clear whether the game Short-Cheparinov will indeed be played. We’ll keep you posted. full story »

What’s worse: cheating or false accusations?

Last year’s story about a Dutch chess player who was studying his position with PocketFritz during an official game, quickly became known all over the world. Cheating should be banned as much as possible - everone agrees on that. But what to do when an innocent girl is falsely accused of cheating? Isn’t that equally bad? It happened last week at the Vandoeuvre Open. full story »

Fischer’s My 61 Memorable Games

This week a remarkable story on Bobby Fischer appeared on the net: a new edition of the American chess legend’s famous games collection was published, and put on eBay: My 61 Memorable Games. It was said to be a revised edition of My 60 Memorable Games, with “improved analysis and commentary” and a 12-page foreword by the Man himself (the 61st game being the first match game from the Fischer-Spassky 1992 match). full story »

Stunning story at World Youth

We were notified by the Belgian chess blog De Schaakfabriek about a stunning course of events during the World Youth that was held 17-29 November Kemer, Antalya (Turkey). A 14-year-old player from Belgium had drawn his game in the penultimate round after a threefold repetition. At 23.00 hours at night, he was suddenly lifted from his bed to see the officials Azmaiparashvili, Campomanes and Makropoulos. The result: around midnight he had to continue his game. full story »

What to do with politics?

Often there’s certain, political or otherwise sensitive chess news, and we’re not sure what to do with it here at ChessVibes. Garry Kasparov criticizing Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Kramnik putting Vishy Anand’s world title in doubt, or, like today, Teimour Radjabov expressing hatred against Armenia. We could have ignored the APA interview with Radjabov, because it all came down to just one (admittedly, astonishing) little sentence. We could have grabbed the trumpets and published the interview with a screaming header like “Teimur Radjabov: We all hate Armenians”. Instead, we decided to express our uncertainty. What to do with politics? full story »

Dutch chess player banned after using PocketFritz

Poll added, on the right, in the grey column.

Last Saturday, while playing a game for his club, a Dutch chess player got caught outside the playing hall, holding a PDA. On the screen, a chess position was visible. It appeared that the player had entered the actual position of the game into PocketFritz. His game was declared lost, and yesterday the player was punished severely by the competition manager of the Dutch Chess Federation: a ban till the end of the season 2009-2010. full story »

Life sentence for “chess board killer”

A former grocery clerk was sentenced today to life in a hard labor colony for slaying 48 people in an effort to fill all 64 squares on a chessboard, luring his elderly, alcoholic victims with vodka and dumping them in a Moscow park. Alexander Pichushkin, who claimed to have killed 60 people, stood in a reinforced glass cage with his hands cuffed behind his back as a judge delivered the harshest possible punishment under Russian law. full story »

What a way to win

During during the World Championship in Mexico, the computer match Rybka-Zappa was played. In the fourth game something happened that made me lose interest in this match (and actually in computer-computer matches in general). In Chess Today issue 2530 (which came out last Friday) IM Andrey Deviatkin analysed some games of the Rybka-Zappa match and after reading this, I feel obliged to tell the “truthâ€? about game 4. full story »

Where did our money go?

The European Championships in Dresden was quite succesful from an organisational point of view. Unfortunately ChessVibes had to report about some negative points as well. And we have to add one more. Today we received an open letter by one of the participants, GM Erik van den Doel. He and other players were very disappointed about the hotel food and after doing some math, they are confused about part of the money they paid for accomodation. full story »

Cheater banned for ten years

In a world where microchips are getting smaller and smaller, and mobile phones are turning into tiny personal computers, for a lot of people the temptation to cheat with chess is also getting bigger and bigger. And indeed, it’s not that difficult anymore to get help from outside the playing hall during a chess game, wearing any kind of modern communication devices. Umakant Sharma from India is the first to get caught and punished severely after using a bluetooth device during a tournament at Delhi earlier this month. He’s been banned from chess for no less than ten years. full story »

Torre too got his Memorial

One of the more boring opening lines is the Torre Attack: 1.d4, 2.Nf3 and 3.Bg5. If the Mexican chess player Carlos Torre Repetto (23 November 1905 - 19 March 1978) finds out he’s mainly remembered for these opening moves, he’ll turn around in his grave (can you say this in English?). This was probably what the organizers were thinking when setting up the Torre Memorial which is held this week. 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 »

Loek van Wely wins a horse

This weekend Loek van Wely won a horse. Okay, he wins them all the time, exchanges them for bishops or puts them on the rim (while he should know better) but winning a real horse, that’s what he did today at the first Remco Heite Chess Tournament. He finished sole first and thus secured himself of a true Stellingwerf trotter. full story »

Horses as main characters

This article is about horses. Nice, friendly animals, and as knights they have a special place within the game of chess. Ask anybody on the street about the moves of the pieces, and they will only be able to tell those of the knight correctly: one ’straight and one diagonally’. The brand new Remco Heite Chess Tournament seems to like horses. In fact, the winner of the tournament will be given one! That is, if the GIS (General Inspection Service) will cooperate. full story »

Rare mistake of Geurt Gijssen

Making mistakes is a human thing. This saying can be applied to Geurt Gijssen as from today. Gijssen, the Pierluigi Collina of chess arbiters (and I’m not speaking about their appearance but about the amount of respect in the worlds of soccer and chess), granted a draw claim unjustfully to no one less than Magnus Carlsen in his game against Alexander Morozevich, today in the second round of the Tal Memorial. Gijssen discovered his mistake himself. full story »

Danailov: “Rematch starts March 3rd, 2007″

Of course Wch title loser Topalov, on his arrival at Sofia, Bulgaria, was asked about a possible rematch against Kramnik. His manager Danailov reacted as determined as ever: “FIDE regulations allow every world champion that has lost the title to challenge the title holder. The total prize fund is 1,5 million dolars. We will find this money and will request the game to take place in Sofia. We will offer an exact date, 3rd of March 2007.” full story »

Ilhumzhinov desires cooperation with Kok

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has asked Bessel Kok to reorganize professional chess, according to the Dutch daily newspaper Trouw. “Unbelievable,” reacted Kok. full story »

Opschudding in uitgeversland

Is Hanon Russell voor Sinterklaas aan het spelen? Of is er wat anders aan de hand? Russell, die met zijn uitgeverij Russell Enterprises boeken als Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual (Dvoretsky), The Human Comedy of Chess (Ree) en Kings, Commoners & Knaves (Winter) uitbracht, heeft deze week op zijn website Chesscafe.com een boek gezet dat gratis is te downloaden. En wat voor een boek. full story »

Cadillac voor Nederlands kampioen (voor even dan)

De winnaar van het Nederlands Kampioenschap ontvangt dit jaar niet alleen een hogere geldprijs, maar ook een Cadillac. Voor even dan: hij mag er vier weken in rondrijden. Het gaat om een Cadillac CTS en het is een ‘cadeautje van de sponsor’, aldus het persbericht op de site. Als dit geen motivering is voor KingLoek… “De nieuwste wagen, de Cadillac BLS, is tijdens het toernooi te bewonderen in de speelzaal.” Misschien dat de kampioen van 2008 in díé editie mag rondkarren… full story »

Olympiadeflitsen

Het is niet bij te houden, zo’n Olympiade. Er worden zo ontzettend veel partijen gespeeld dat je er tureluurs van wordt. Waar te beginnen, zo vraagt de serieuze schaakstudent zich af. Een lawine van namen, partijen en zetten ontwijkend, beperkt menig schaakspeler zich tot het naspelen van de potjes van zijn landgenoten, om vervolgens weer over te gaan tot de orde van de dag. Maar er gebeurt natuurlijk nog veel meer. Een selectie. full story »

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