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.
15.01.2010– A new version of our pocket-sized grandmaster was released in mid December.
It contains the chess engine Hiarcs 13, about which you may have read
in our Copa
Mercosur report. The program, as it is suggested by the DVD cover, is
a complete multitask tool for training and enjoying chess. In a new series
we introduce you to this Swiss penknife amongst chess programs, starting with the basics.
14.01.2010– We hear a collective sigh of relief: after the Tal Memorial, the World Blitz,
the London Chess Classic and the World Team Championship (ended yesterday),
some chess fans out there were feeling a twinge of withdrawal. Not to worry:
top GMs are currently arriving in the Dutch seaside town for the annual chess
festival. We will provide full coverage on Playchess.
Here are the tournament details.