16.01.2010– Loek van Wely, playing in Wijk an Zee for the 19th time is succession, started
off with a fine text-book victory over Nigel Short, while Alexei Shirov, playing
the black side of Ruy Lopez Moeller, punished Peter Leko's exchange sacrifice
in a fine endgame performance. Live coverage with audio commentary is available
on the Playchess server. Big pictorial report.
16.01.2010– ... Jan Timman wrote about this encounter between two absolute top grandmasters of the 70s and 80s. Here Black played
21...Bb5 and later succumbed in a remarkable attack. How would you assess the position after
21...Nxc7 instead?
A) The second player maintains his plus pawn without risk;
B) White gets the advantage;
C) the result is a draw by perpetual check.
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.Читать дальше »
16.01.2010– What if you are a young chess fan with crooked teeth? Braces is the answer, but now an orthodontic doctor has come up with a way to combine a healthy set of straight teeth with your love for the game. Chessmile offers braces in the form of chess pieces. You can set up endgames, puzzles and even checkmates. And this is the brainchild of? WIM Dr Carolina Blanco,
that's who.
15.01.2010– Just one more day without top-level chess. On Saturday the action starts, in the Dutch seaside town, with three incredibly strong invitationals. Friday was the opening ceremony and pairings, on Saturday we will see the first round at 13:30h local time. Live coverage is available on Playchess, with audio commentary by GMs Yasser Seirawan and Daniel King. Pictures and video report.
15.01.2010– Our endgame blog started the New Year on the subject of barriers. Just a week later, we can offer you two more examples on this important theme. In Getz-O'Toole, played in the Masters in Hastings, White won in exemplary fashion with the help of a horizontal barrier. A vertical barrier could be seen in Sasikiran-Aronian, where a draw would have been the correct result. But the world class Armenian GM went wrong, allowing Sasikiran to win with flawless technique. Would you have found the correct move in the diagram? Black to play and draw! The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.