19.01.2010– A complicated position arose during time trouble in
Tomashevsky (2708) vs Fier (2653). The pawn structure leaves us in no doubt:
it was a King's Indian. The sacrifice 35...Bxg4 is on the cards, but
calculating through all the consequences accurately is hardly possible. What
does your intuition tell you?
A) The sacrifice is unsound. Black does not get sufficient compensation.
B) The sacrifice is playable. The position remains balanced.
C) 35...Bxg4 decides the game in Black's favour.
The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.
19.01.2010– He is a well-known firebrand in the chess world. In Wijk he is currently playing at a 3500 level. But Alexei Shirov is also a prolific chess teacher, and his ChessBase DVDs are amongst the most popular. Take for instance one of his latest, on the Philidor Defence, a surprise opening that can give rise to extreme open and closed positions. Shirov's treatment is reviewed by a field biologist in the Yukon.
19.01.2010– Last year Garry Kasparov visited Asia for the first time since the Philippines Olympiad in 1992. He was in India and in Malaysia, where our reporter Edwin Lam did a Q&A with him. Kasparov spoke engagingly and candidly about Asia, his early career as a chess player, his protégé Magnus Carlsen and his Chess Foundation in America. Not a line of blah in this interview. Must read.
18.01.2010– What a round: White lost no fewer than four games in the top group, without winning any. Alexei Shirov continued his storm in the Dutch resort with a third victory in succession, beating Tiviakov. Nakamura, Ivanchuk and Carlsen also won their black games (Garry Kasparov was pleased as Punch about his protégé's victory). Round three report with beautiful photos by Fred Lucas.
18.01.2010– Shirov won two in a row, Carlsen and Nakamura drew first blood those are the stories from the Super-GM in Wijk aan Zee. But there is something extraordinary in the B-Group: a 15-year-old has won his first two games, both in dashing style, to take the lead. According to a Dutch newspaper Anish Giri holds the "promise of greatness in Dutch chess". Special report.