11.03.2010 – It is frequently anything but easy to make the material superiority of a rook over a bishop tell when all the pawns are on one side of the board. we showed you a game with reduced material in which zugzwang brought about the decision. Today we follow that with an example with more pawns, in which White has to find access to a black fortress that is hard one to storm. The siege had already lasted for over twenty moves before White turned to radical measures with 55.f5!? GM Karsten Müller demonstrates how the game was decided and what additional defensive resources Black had. ChessBase Magazine Online.
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Nigel Davies:
French Defence Strategy The French Defence is one of the best choices a player can make for his opening repertoire, especially older players with limited study time. The solid construction of Blacks game puts the onus on positional understanding and makes it immune to sharp and tricky variations. The longer you play the French the better youll play it. On this DVD Nigel Davies explains the strategy behind the French Defence by examining typical pawn structures and explaining the plans and ideas for both sides.
White turned to radical measures with 55.f5!? Karsten Müller demonstrates
how the game was decided and what defensive resources Black could still have availed himself of.
11.03.2010 – ChessBase Light is a program you can download on the right of this newspage.
It is completely free and you have most of the functions of a full database
program. In the latest ChessBase Workshop installment Steve Lopez shows
you how you can analyse games with the standard unregistered version of CB Light, which
comes with an older but very efficient chess engine. Streaming
video.
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Nigel Davies:
French Defence Strategy The French Defence is one of the best choices a player can make for his opening repertoire, especially older players with limited study time. The solid construction of Blacks game puts the onus on positional understanding and makes it immune to sharp and tricky variations. The longer you play the French the better youll play it. On this DVD Nigel Davies explains the strategy behind the French Defence by examining typical pawn structures and explaining the plans and ideas for both sides.
10.03.2010 – Currently the FIDE rules require that players must be seated at the board no later than zero seconds past the scheduled start of a game. This has led to some unpleasant situations in the past. At the 11th European Individual Championships 110 participants signed a petition to change the grace period to 30 minutes. In the tournament Baadur Jobava and Zaher Efimenko lead. Round four report.
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Nigel Davies:
French Defence Strategy The French Defence is one of the best choices a player can make for his opening repertoire, especially older players with limited study time. The solid construction of Blacks game puts the onus on positional understanding and makes it immune to sharp and tricky variations. The longer you play the French the better youll play it. On this DVD Nigel Davies explains the strategy behind the French Defence by examining typical pawn structures and explaining the plans and ideas for both sides.
This event is taking place from March 6th to 18th 2010 in Rijeka, Croatia.
Top players include Almasi, Bacrot, Movsesian, Navara, Vallejo, Motylev, Adams,
Tomashevsky, Alekseev, Baadur, Naiditsch, Akopian, Volokitin, Bologan and Caruana.
Zero tolerance protest in Rijeka
At the Dresden Olympiad in 2008 some players forfeited their games when they
appeared too late – sometimes by a few seconds – at their boards.
Last June the Chinese Championship was effectively
decided by a player not being present on his seat at the board when the
start gong was sounded. All this is the result of a new "zero tolerance"
rule introduced by FIDE to force players to be seated at their boards when the
games are scheduled to start. The traditional one hour grace period (with the
clock running) that was granted to players was reduced to zero seconds –
be there or forfeit the game.
The participants of the 11th European Individual Championships in Rijeka have
submitted a petition to the organisation committee and to the European Chess
Union president requesting a change: instead of the zero seconds the players
should be allowed a grace period of up to thirty minutes. A total of 110 participants
have signed this petition. The decision of FIDE, the ECU and the organisation
committee is pending.
Thirteen players went into round four with a perfect 3.0/3 score, and two came
out with an additional point: Baadur Jobava, who beat Michal Karsenkow with
the black pieces, and Zahar Efimenko, who beat Arkadij Naiditsch, also with
the black pieces.
The leader after four rounds: Georgian GM Baadur Jobava
White is doing well enough, and after Qh4 and Rxd5 he might be playing for
a win. But not after 33.Qg2?? Bd4! 34.Rxd4 Re1+ 35.Qf1 Ne3
and White is going to be mated. 0-1.
Sharing first with Jobava: Ukrainian GM Zahar Efimenko
In the women's section four players had perfect scores after three rounds,
but only one of them was able to win the fourth game in a row:
GM Monika Socko of Poland with 4.0/4 in sole first place
A selection of 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!
10.03.2010 – Britain's first ever grandmaster, the late Anthony John Miles, was not just
strong but also extremely creative. When this fiery player clashed with Anatoly
Karpov, it was pure provocation facing ice-cold strategy. In his
presentation Dennis Monokroussos shows us Karpov succeeding next week
it will be Miles taking down his illustrious opponent. Be there at 9 p.m. ET.
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Nigel Davies:
French Defence Strategy The French Defence is one of the best choices a player can make for his opening repertoire, especially older players with limited study time. The solid construction of Blacks game puts the onus on positional understanding and makes it immune to sharp and tricky variations. The longer you play the French the better youll play it. On this DVD Nigel Davies explains the strategy behind the French Defence by examining typical pawn structures and explaining the plans and ideas for both sides.
Playchess training with FM Dennis Monokroussos
The late Tony Miles was not only a very strong player, but a very creative
one too. Some of his opening ideas were really out there, and not just by the
standards of the day but even by our own! This week and next, we'll take a look
at how they fared against his greatest peer, the former world champion Anatoly
Karpov.
Britain's first ever grandmaster: Tony Miles, 1955 – 2001
Karpov, as you'd expect from a world champion, got the better of their battles
overall, but Miles did get his shots in. Even when Karpov won, it wasn't necessarily
because he refuted Miles' experiments, either. Their styles made for an interesting
clash: Miles as fire, Karpov as ice. This week, we'll see the Englishman trot
out one of his provocative openings, only to have Karpov's "water on board"
approach slowly carry the day. In the next show, it will go the other way around:
Miles engages in the ultimate provocation and takes down his illustrious opponent.
To watch, whether this week or next (or both, naturally), tune in tonight
- Wednesday night at 9 p.m. (that's Thursday morning at 3 a.m. CET) on the Playchess
server. Go to the Broadcast room and find Karpov-Miles under the Games tab,
double-click and watch. 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!
10.03.2010 – 168 players took part in the biggest chess festival of closed tournaments in France, with seventeen groups, from the A Group (ten players, average 2526 Elo) all the way to the last group with an average Elo of about 1300. Israeli GM Evgeny Postny won first place with 6.0/9. The venue, the Conseil General, is normally reserved for local government meetings. IM Christophe Philippe reports.
Advertisement
Nigel Davies:
French Defence Strategy The French Defence is one of the best choices a player can make for his opening repertoire, especially older players with limited study time. The solid construction of Blacks game puts the onus on positional understanding and makes it immune to sharp and tricky variations. The longer you play the French the better youll play it. On this DVD Nigel Davies explains the strategy behind the French Defence by examining typical pawn structures and explaining the plans and ideas for both sides.
8th International Chess Festival of "Meurthe et Moselle"
in Nancy (France) – 22nd - 28th February 2010
Report by IM Christophe Philippe
This chess event could not have been organised without the strong support of
four main sponsors: The “Conseil General”, where the tournament
takes place, the French Chess Federation, the bank “Populaire Lorraine
Champagne” and the cultural product shop “FNAC”.
The A tournament contained four strong GMs: Postny (Elo 2648), Granda Zuniga
(2635), Pelletier (2602) and Solodonivchenko (2578). And six International Masters:
the Bulgarian Ninov (who qualified last year by winning group B), the French
players Charnushevich, Wirig, Mullon, Brunner, and the special guest Sophie
Milliet, reigning French Women's champion.
The strong Israeli GM Evgeny Postny won first place with 6.0/9, and Julio
Granda Zuniga and Nikolai Ninov (who scored his first GM norm by winning his
last round against Pelletier) finished equal second with 5.5/9.
In group B, Ukrainian IM Dmitry Stets won easily with 6.5/9, and Xavier Bedouin
of France finished second with 6.0/9, scoring his third and final IM norm which
bings him the precious title.
Picture gallery
The playing hall, with groups C and D on the outside, groups A and B inside
the circle
Normally this is the assembly room for voting on laws and budgets
The chess week began with a traditionnal simul in the “FNAC”
shop, this year by
Peruvian legend Julio Granda Zuniga, who scored 16 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses.
Some days later, Granda Zuniga at work in the Group A tournament
A round eight clash in Group A: Yannick Pelletier vs Evgeny Postny (draw
in 52)
Granda Zuniga against local IM Nicolas Brunner, who almost made a GM norm
Postny won the tournament, but also crushed his 20
opponents in a final simul before closing ceremony
Reigning French champion IM Sophie Milliet could not avoid last place, despite
good fighting spirit
An IM norm for Xavier Bedouin with 6.0/9 in Group B
Ukrainian WIM Svetlana Fomichenko finished fourth in group C with 5.0/9
French number nine Laurie Delorme (from Marseille) finished 6th in Group
C with 4.5/9
GM Pelletier from Switzerland finished 4th in the A Group with 5.0/9
Easy victory for Dmitry Stets in group B with 6.5/9
23 young players took part at the rapid tournament for children on Wednesday
The I Group playing in a different section of the complex
French IM Anthony Wirig (originally from this region Lorraine) failed to
scored his
third and final GM norm, which would have brought him the title
View of analysis and resting area
Spectators watch the very last game of the 2010 festival, Granda Zuniga
vs Solodonivchenko (draw in 61)
The organisation team: Stephane Dupré from “Conseil General”,
arbiters Nadir Bounzou and Florence Schlotter, tournament director and creator
IM Christophe Philippe, and specialist for Internet broadcast and also talented
video interviewer IM Etienne Mensch.
At the prize giving ceremony, with Postny winning group A
Links
(Groups A and B)
To read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the free PGN
reader ChessBase Light. This program also gives you immediate access
to the chess server .
