06.01.2010 – Whereas the main attention was focussed on Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia at
the start of the World Team Championship, the hosts Turkey had the joy of a
spectacular win: 19-year-old Emre Can defeated Yuri Shulman, almost 200 Elo points
stronger, in a Tarrasch French with the help of a bishop sacrifice
on h7. The 2008 USA champion, however, was not following the recommendations of
Hannes Langrock, whose four-part article in CBMs 126-129 presents the theory of
the 3...Be7 system in great detail and with a lot of original analysis. Here is
.
Full analysis by Igor Stohl will follow, in February in CBM 134.
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has won so many world championship titles. The new edition of Deep Shredder is stronger than all previous versions. Meyer Kahlen: The improvements are visible all over
the place. Especially the search and the evaluation have become much more precise. The engine is 100 Elo points stronger than the predecessor Shredder 11.
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06.01.2010 – In 1910 Emanuel Lasker was World Champion, but the arguably strongest player
in the world was the Polish master Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (18821961),
a dominant figure in tournament chess who was winning most events and in glorious
style. In this week's
Dennis Monokroussos looks at a game or two of his from the 1911 tournament in
Karlsbad. 9 p.m. ET
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Deep Shredder 12 - Multiprocessor Version Deep Shredder 12 by Stefan Meyer Kahlen. No other chess program
has won so many world championship titles. The new edition of Deep Shredder is stronger than all previous versions. Meyer Kahlen: The improvements are visible all over
the place. Especially the search and the evaluation have become much more precise. The engine is 100 Elo points stronger than the predecessor Shredder 11.
Available from 14 January 2010
Playchess training with FM Dennis Monokroussos
A lot has changed the last 100 years. For instance, the current world champion
may not be the clearly strongest player (at least judging by the rating list),
but in 1910... it may have been the same story. Emanuel Lasker barely survived
a challenge to Karl Schlechter that year, and while he (Lasker) was most likely
stronger than José Capablanca (the closest approximation to Magnus Carlsen
at the time), it's entirely possible that the best player at that moment was
the great Akiba Rubinstein (1882-1961).
Polish grandmaster Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein
During the few years from around 1909 up to the beginning of WWI, Rubinstein
was the dominant figure in tournament chess, winning most events and in glorious
style. He was an openings innovator who could play sharp and quiet positions
extremely well, and his endgame technique was fantastic by any standard –
he was probably the best endgame player of the first half of the twentieth century.
Unfortunately, the "Great" War put an end to his hopes of playing
a title match with Lasker, and after that his nerves worsened. Although he remained
a top player, he was supplanted by Capablanca and then Alexander Alekhine, and
never again became the dominant player he once was.
All the same, his legacy to our game is colossal, and we'll celebrate it with
a look from a game or two of his from the 1911 tournament in Karlsbad. We'll
start with a victory that was decided in the middlegame – his win over
Grigory Levenfish (whom we recently profiled on this show) – and then,
time permitting, we'll look at the great rook ending he conducted against the
aforementioned Alekhine. (If time doesn't permit, we'll look at next week –
Rubinstein certainly merits back-to-back shows, and the games are very different
in character.)
To tune in, it's simple. Log on to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday
night (that's tonight, or 3 a.m. CET Thursday morning for those on the other
side of the Atlantic), go to the Broadcast room and look for Rubinstein-Levenfish
under the Games tab. Hope to see you there!
Dennis Monokroussos'
lectures begin on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST, which translates to 02:00h GMT,
03:00 Paris/Berlin, 13:00h Sydney (on Thursday). You can find the times for
different locations in the world at World
Time and Date, with exact times for most larger cities .
And you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos offline in
the Chess Media System room of Playchess:
Enter the above archive room and click on "Games" to see the lectures.
Monokroussos in Mexico: World Championship 2007
Dennis Monokroussos is 43, lives in South Bend, IN, where
he teaches chess and has worked as an adjunct professor of philosophy at the
University of Notre Dame and Indiana University-South Bend.
At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S. and has reached
a peak rating of 2434 USCF, but several long breaks from tournament play have
made him rusty. He is now resuming tournament chess in earnest, hoping to reach
new heights.
Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for ten years now, giving lessons
to adults and kids both in person and on the internet, worked for a number of
years for New York’s Chess In The Schools program, where he was one of
the coaches of the 1997-8 US K-8 championship team from the Bronx, and was very
active in working with many of CITS’s most talented juniors.
When Dennis Monokroussos presents a game, there are usually two main areas
of focus: the opening-to-middlegame transition and the key moments of the middlegame
(or endgame, when applicable). With respect to the latter, he attempts to present
some serious analysis culled from his best sources (both text and database),
which he has checked with his own efforts and then double-checked with his chess
software.
Playchess Training with IM Merijn van Delft
Everyone is invited to join this weekly training hour on Wednesday evening.
Together we will have a look at the most recent grandmaster games. Recurring
themes during our analyses and discussions are the latest opening developments
and how to work on your own chess.
A word about myself: I was born (March 13, 1979) and raised in Apeldoorn, The
Netherlands. In 1995 I won the Dutch U16 Championship and played the European
Championship in Poland and the World Championship in Brasil. In 1998 I moved
to Amsterdam to study psychology and had a great time there. In 2003 I met my
wife Evi Zickelbein and ever since we've been living together in Hamburg, Germany.
In 2004 I made both master titles: one at the university and one in chess. Since
2005 I've been working fulltime in the chess world: training, coaching, writing,
organizing and still actively playing myself. By now I have about fifteen years
of experience as a chess trainer. Together with my dad I wrote a book
about chess training (Schaaktalent Ontwikkelen), of which the Dutch
version is already available and the English
version will follow April 2010.
IM Merijn van Delft's lecture starts at 20:00h Central European Time (Berlin,
Paris, Rome), which translates to 19:00h London. You can find the times for
different locations in the world at World
Time and Date. Exact times for most larger cities are .
The lecture is in the "Broadcast" room of Playchess. It is free for
Premium Playchess members (50 Ducats for others).
Links
The lectures are broadcast live on the chess server .
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
06.01.2010 – The 2009-10 Hastings Masters ended in a fourway tie for first place, between Mark Hebden of England, British Champion David Howell, Andrei Istratescu of Roumania, and Romain Edouard of France. In the final round Hebden and Istratescu halved out in 11 moves, but Howell had to fight for a black victory. Our report on the last two rounds includes a big pictorial of lesser-known players.
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Deep Shredder 12 - Multiprocessor Version Deep Shredder 12 by Stefan Meyer Kahlen. No other chess program
has won so many world championship titles. The new edition of Deep Shredder is stronger than all previous versions. Meyer Kahlen: The improvements are visible all over
the place. Especially the search and the evaluation have become much more precise. The engine is 100 Elo points stronger than the predecessor Shredder 11.
Available from 14 January 2010
Reports by Steve Giddins
Round eight: De pilo pendet
I wandered into the Congress Office yesterday around mid-morning, and stood
chatting briefly with Pam Thomas, the Congress Publicity Officer, when suddenly,
from the next room, there emerged the dulcet East Ham tones of IM Andrew Martin.
I found him surrounded by a couple of boxes full of booklets, each of which
he was signing. I mentioned in my first round report that Andrew plays very
little tournament chess these days, concentrating instead on his career as a
writer and trainer. He is certainly one of the country's busiest junior trainers,
and has been heavily involved in the ECF's "Chess Sets for Schools"
project. This is a project, which started some 18 months ago, when a company
called Holloid Plastics approached the ECF, with a proposal to manufacture and
distribute up to 250,000 free chess sets, to be allocated amongst every school
in the country. Such a massive boost in school chess activity represents a unique
opportunity for English chess.
Andrew Martin
Unfortunately, the management of the project has not exactly been a model of
efficiency or effectiveness, and it has attracted a great deal of criticism.
However, it now appears that things are finally on the move. With a newly-constituted
ECF Management Board firmly behind the project, many thousands of sets are currently
in the process of being delivered to the approximately 9,000 schools which have
applied for them. Alongside the delivery of sets themselves, the ECF has developed
a Certificate of Merit scheme, which involves a multi-level online test, which
pupils can take, to improve their chess skill. Andrew has been heavily involved
in developing material for this scheme, and the booklets he was signing are
part of it. They complement an excellent DVD, which has been produced by Andrew,
in cooperation with Chessbase, the world's leading supplier of chess software.
Together, the materials add up to a first-rate beginners' course, and it is
hoped that as many pupils as possible will sign up to the Certificate of Merit
scheme. Ex nihilo, nihil fit, as they say – by working now to
develop a whole generation of children, who are familiar with the game, and
enjoy playing it, we can build a foundation for Britain's chess future, as well
as transforming the ailing finances of the ECF itself.
IM Jack Rudd, modelling the latest in ECF-approved chess education literature
But now ad rem. Yesterday's penultimate round of the 2009/10 Hastings
Masters saw two of the leading group win, and thereby assure themselves a half
point lead over the field, going into today's final round. Mark Hebden won the
longest game of the day against Christophe Philipe of France, whilst Andrei
Istratescu beat Simon Ansell in a model positional game. The latter's Kalashnikov
Sicilian soon led to a galloping case of what Hans Kmoch, in his classic book Pawn Power in Chess, described as "leucopenia" (that's what
you and I call "weak white squares"), after which the Roumanian GM
sucked the blood from Black's position, with an efficiency that would have done
credit to his mythical Transylvanian countryman:
Meanwhile, those following the live broadcasts had the unaccustomed experience
of seeing a novelty on move 2 of the Sicilian! Well, maybe it is not technically
a novelty, but I for one have not seen the move 2.Be2 played in a master game
before. Despite its exceptionally modest appearance, it yielded Greet a decent
position, but he had used too much time on the clock and lost the thread of
the position completely between moves 19-25:
Bates and Hawkins both had dubious-looking positions from the opening, but
survived and eventually made draws (in Hawkins' case, after pressing for the
win). Martin Mitchell has had a great tournament, and virtually wrapped up an
IM norm, by winning an extraordinary game against John Anderson, in which the
black king was chased from pillar to post, but somehow escaped the mates, and
eventually decided the game by helping himself to a whole rook in broad daylight:
Another untitled player who has had an excellent tournament is Bob Eames, and
he served up a game which will warm the cockles of every King's Gambiteer's
heart. Whatever the objective risks of the opening, there is no doubt that when
it works, it really works. The young Icelander, Gudmundur Kjartansson, has shown
repeatedly over the past couple of years that he is a very strong player indeed,
but he was caught out with his theory yesterday, and the result was brutal:
So Tuesday's final round sees the following leading pairings:
Hebden (6.5) – Istratescu (6.5)
Gormally (6) – Drozdovskij (6)
Hracek (6) – Howell (6)
Ansell (5.5) – Edouard (6)
Logic would suggest that the players on boards 2-4 need to play for a win,
so hopefully some fighting chess should be guaranteed. My message to the players
is: come on lads, remember what the Romans used to say – sic itur
ad astra!
Round nine: Nunc est bibendum
The 2009-10 Hastings Masters ended in a fourway tie for first place, between
Mark Hebden of England, British Champion David Howell, Andrei Istratescu of
Roumania, and Romain Edouard of France.
To nobody's great surprise, the two leaders, Hebden and Istratescu, halved
out in 11 moves. This left them safely ensconced in the clubhouse on 7 points,
from which they could observe the attempts of the various 6-pointers to catch
them up. Gormally-Drozdovskij never looked like ending in anything other than
a draw, but Romain Edouard defeated Simon Ansell with Black, to join the leaders.
Finally, in the last few minutes up to the first time-control, they were joined
by David Howell, whose opponent lost the thread in the time-scramble:
Jonathan Hawkins won his last-round game, to secure his third IM norm and the
title, on which we offer our heartiest congratulations. Sadly, Bob Eames missed
out, after losing a must-win game against Natalia Zdebskaja, whose 3.5/4 finish
lifted her to a share of 5-8th places. Martin Mitchell also missed a norm, when
he lost to Andrew Martin, as did Elias Demac of Norway, who went down to Andrew
Greet. Lower down, young Peter Williams, who has been one of the stars of this
past week, capped an excellent performance, by beating the highly experienced
Petr Marusenko, after a dramatic struggle.
The £100 Horntye Park best game prize goes to Simon Williams, who produced
a stunningly imaginative queen sacrifice, to beat Andrew Green in the final
round. In all honesty, I (the judge of the prize) have had no time in which
to establish whether it is fully sound, but my reasoning is that if it is, it
certainly deserves the prize, and arguably it does so, even if not!
16.Qxd4?! [Fritz 12 gives this 4.80 in favour of Black, Rybka
3 thinks Black is better by 4.0] 16...cxd4 17.Nxf6+ Kh8 18.Ne8 Rf5 19.g4
exd5? [19...Qd8 or 19...Rxf1 were definitely preferable] 20.gxf5
Bxf5 21.Bf3 dxc4 22.Bxb7 Qb5 23.Nd6 Qb6 24.Rae1 d3+ 25.Kh1 Nd7 26.Bxa8 Nf6 27.Nxf5
gxf5 28.Rxf5 1-0. [Click to
replay]
Thus, another Hastings comes to an end, in many ways one of the most enjoyable
I ever remember. Many thanks to everyone involved in sponsoring and running
the event, and to all the players, for making it such a great 9 days of chess.
And now, as monk-copyists used to write at the end of manuscripts, Nunc
scripto totum pro Christo ta mihi potum – now that I have written
so much for Christ, give me a drink! In my case, it is Caissa rather than Christ,
but the sentiment remains the same! Ultimum vale.
Zbynek Hracek – try pronouncing that after having a couple of
pints at Hastings' Pig in Paradise pub ... or even before
Zbrynek Hracek versus Bob Eames – White won a pawn but Black put up a
gutsy defence to hold the draw
Natalia Zdebskaja is a 23-year-old WGM from Ukraine. She is married to the
tournament top seed, Yuri Drozdovskij. They got married in July 2009. Natalia
was a member of the silver-medal winning Ukraine women's team at the 2008 Dresden
Olympiad.
French GM Romain Edouard wearing a very shiny shirt for his Hastings debut
Nicolai Getz made a name for himself (and a couple of thousand pounds) in Gibraltar
last year when beating the (literally) underrated Russian IM Oleg Kozlov in
the Challengers competition
Andreas Stripunski of Germany ... not to be confused with GM Alexander Stripunsky
of USA.
Jude Lenier, 14, is one of England's best young players at the moment
Young French player Hugo Devoille gets close and personal with his pieces.
But they didn't respond favourably, I'm afraid. Hugo was not a Victor.
Tarun Malhotra is the 2009 British Under-11 Champion and is a member of Richmond
Junior Chess Club. He beat a very experienced 2000+ rated player in the recent
London Festival Open at Olympia.
Ten-year-old Aryan Tari from Norway could be hot on the heels of another prodigy
from his country. He is already rated 1932 and could soon be A Tari 2000 (Atari
2000 – geddit? Oh, please yourselves)...
”Beam me up, Scottie!“ It's unclear if Ezra Kirk is a relative of
Star Trek's Captain Kirk.
Given that he is French, he is more likely to be related to Captain Picard...
Amy Hoare, from Sussex, is only 13 but did well to draw with...
James Jackson (2067) an opponent rated 270 points higher than Amy.
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server .
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
06.01.2010 – With one round to go the seven-time Hungarian champion Zoltan Almasi has scored 6.5/8, a full point ahead of his nearest rival, Gata Kamsky. Almasi has won five of his last six games, including a key game against Viktor Bologan in round six. His performance: 2859. Kamsky and Almasi face each other tomorrow in the final round. Pictorial report.
Advertisement
:
Deep Shredder 12 - Multiprocessor Version Deep Shredder 12 by Stefan Meyer Kahlen. No other chess program
has won so many world championship titles. The new edition of Deep Shredder is stronger than all previous versions. Meyer Kahlen: The improvements are visible all over
the place. Especially the search and the evaluation have become much more precise. The engine is 100 Elo points stronger than the predecessor Shredder 11.
Available from 14 January 2010
52nd Reggio Emilia Tournament
The Masters group is an invitational with ten players with an average rating
of 2623 (= Category 15). The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then
50 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds increment given for each
move from the start of the game.
Round six
There were four decisive games in this round, making it the most blood-drenched
so far. In rounds one, three, four and five there were three decisive games
each, in round two it was two games, in rounds seven and eight there was just
one decisive game each.
Viktor Bologan faces a Berlin Defence by Zoltan Almasi (contemplating his
9th move)
Bologan, who hadn't played a single draw so far, gave up a bishop in the endgame
for attacking chances which did not materialise.
After 49.e7+ Ke8 (49...Kxc7 50.e8Q+–) 50.Rc8+ Kxe7 51.Rxa8 Rxh3+ 52.Ke4
Rxa3 53.Kd5 White is two pawns down but should be able to hold the draw. 49.Rf7?
Rxh3+ 50.Kd4 Bf3 51.Rxf6 Bxg4 52.Ke5 Rf3 53.Rxh6 Bxf5 54.Rh5 Ke7 55.Rxg5 Bxe6
56.a4 Ra3 57.Rg7+ Bf7 58.Rg4 Be8 59.Rg7+ Kf8 60.Ra7 Rxa4. This way
White is a piece and pawn down and is going to lose. But the endgame is not
trivial, and after some pushing and probing Almasi takes home the full point. 61.Kd5 Ra1 62.Kc4 a5 63.Kc3 a4 64.Kb2 Rd1 65.Ka3 Bd7 66.Ra5 Ke7 67.Re5+
Kd6 68.Re3 Kc5 69.Rf3 Kb5 70.Re3 Rd5 71.Rf3 Ka5 72.Re3 Rb5 73.Re7 Rb3+ 74.Ka2
Bc6 75.Re1 Bd5 76.Ka1 Rd3 77.Rb1 a3 78.Rg1 Kb4 79.Rb1+ Ka4 80.Rg1 Rc3 81.Rb1
Be4 82.Rg1 Kb3 83.Re1 Bd3 84.Rd1 Bc4 85.Rb1+ Ka4 86.Rg1 Rc2 87.Re1 Ra2+ 88.Kb1
Rd2 89.Ka1 Kb3 90.Rb1+ Rb2 91.Rd1 Rc2 92.Rb1+ Kc3 93.Rg1 Bd3 94.Rd1 Bc4 95.Rg1
Ra2+ 96.Kb1 Rf2 97.Ka1 Bf1 98.Rg3+ Bd3 99.Rh3 Rd2 100.Rh2 Rd1+ 0-1.
Gata Kamsky won a Fianchetto Grünfeld against Sabino Brunello
in crushing style in round six
Konstantin Landa won the white side of a Sicilian Dragon 65 moves
GM Eltaj Safarli, 17, of Baku, Azerbaijan, lost to GM Fabiano Caruana, Italy,
who is one month his junior
Round seven
Safarli and Hungarian GM Zoltan Almasi analyse their Ruy Lopez Schliemann (Almasi
won in 61 moves)
Until now 20-year-old Daniele Vocaturo has bewen doing fine against a grandmaster
rated 200 points above him, but now he picks a flawed plan: 29...Rd1?
30.Nd4 Rxf1+ 31.Kxf1 Ba6+ 32.Kg1 Qb6 33.Qe5 Bc8? The final mistake
in the losing battle.
34.Rc6 1-0. Daniele Vocaturo made his three GM norms in just
six months and has been invited to play in the 2010 Wijk aan Zee tournament
in Group C. He is being trained by GM Mihail Marin. Zoltan Almasi has won five
of his last six games and now leads the field by a full point. His performance:
2859.
Standings after eight rounds
Of the 40 games played so far 20 were drawn = 49%. White won eleven (28%) and
Black nine games (24%).
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server .
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
