Chess - Blog
Posted in ChessBase on Окт 22, 2009
22.10.2009
– What is the easiest way to learn the functionality of ChessBase programs? Our
new video workshop provides you with an easy access to ChessBase 10 and Fritz
12. In his today's lecture Steve Lopez, who has been providing written ChessBase
Workshop installments for the last twelve years, will explain to you the myth
about Search Boosters in streaming
video.
Posted in ChessBase on Окт 22, 2009
22.10.2009
– "I am very unhappy to inform that I have withdrawn my participation in the Asian Indoor Games 2009 to be held at Vietnam due to some nasty circumstances caused by Mr. D.V. Sundar, Secretary, All India Chess Federation." That is the start of a press release sent to us by Koneru Humpy, the second strongest female player in the world, and the second to cross the 2600 rating mark. Humpy's protest.
PRESS22nd October, 2009.
I am very unhappy to inform that I have withdrawn my participation in the Asian
Indoor Games 2009 to be held at Vietnam due to some nasty circumstances caused
by Mr. D.V. Sundar, Secretary, All India Chess Federation (AICF). As you know
Chess is a mind game. So, I need to be mentally peaceful to perform well. I
was put under lot of pressure and stress by Mr. Sundar that I am upset and not
in a position to participate in a prestigious event for the country.
Today, I am bringing all the happenings between me and Mr. D.V. Sundar to make
the things clear to everyone.
After confirming my participation in Asian Indoor Games 2009 I requested IOA
(Indian Olympic Association) to allow my personal trainer Mr. Koneru Ashok (Dronacharya
Awardee) to the event. They responded favorably and asked me to get a letter
from AICF. I requested the Secretary, AICF for the same through email. He didn’t
respond. Then my father contacted him by phone and made a request for which
he refused and kept some terms. He bargained with my father that he will see
that AICF bears his expenses if I confirm my participation in all the forthcoming
Women tournaments. I gave my confirmation to the tournaments accordingly. But
Mr.Sundar did not keep up his promise and he said that in case my father accompanies
me for the tournament he has to bear his expenses. I do not want to make this
an issue. As Asian Indoor Games means playing for the country, my father decided
to bear his expenses and accompany me as my trainer.
In the meantime, I happen to apply for permission from AICF to play in two
International tournaments abroad. As I am representing PSPB (Petroleum Sports
Promotion Board), I am supposed to get permission from AICF to participate in
International tournaments as per its guidelines. Generally AICF will give permission
unless the tournaments applied are clashing with the Official tournaments like
World Championships, Asian Games etc.
But to my surprise, Mr. Sundar didn’t give me permission to play in
the Gibtelecom Chess festival to be held at Gibraltar from 26th Jan. to 4th
Feb., 2010. The reason is that an International tourney will be held at Chennai
during those dates. Let me clarify that, it’s just an International tournament,
not an Official event.
D.V. Sundar (right) receiving a formal letter of recognition as Honorary
Secretary of the AICF from FIDE Continental president for Asia Khalifa Mohamad
AL-Hitmi in Doha
on March 30 2005.
As a player I must have the freedom to choose the tourney I am going to
play. Gibtelecom is a prestigious event where I can compete with my peers
as a World No. 2 women player. In this event world class players like present
and former Women World Chess Champions and many more Super Grandmasters will
be participating.
This is not the first time such incident took place.
In August this year, I made a request for permission to participate in two
tournaments in Greece, for which Mr. Sundar has not responded at all.
In fact there is no reason for him to object my participation in those tournaments.
That is why he didn’t give any reply.
But what am I supposed to do in such circumstances?
I suffered due to his insane behavior and didn’t get the usual clearances
from PSPB. In spite of that I played the tournaments as I have already agreed
with the organizers to participate but failed to perform well due to the severe
pressure he created.
Another incident took place in September 2008 during the World Championship
at Nalchik, Russia. My return flight ticket was booked by AICF in the middle
of the event instead of booking it after completion of the event which caused
lot of disturbance. My father who accompanied me as a personal trainer by bearing
all the expenses personally has to leave me alone in the hotel room before the
crucial stage of the tournament (semi-finals) and left to change the dates of
return tickets. So, my father had to travel six hours by road to and fro to
the Aeroflot Airlines Office and spent there around three hours for that purpose.
Humpy with her father and trainer Koneru Ashok
That means I missed him the whole day during the practice. It has deeply disturbed
our routine practice sessions. There is no official manager or coach at that
time to look after such things.
Isn’t it the responsibility of the Secretary, AICF to see that there
will be an official manager to take care of players in the highest titled event
in the game of Chess i.e. the Women World Chess Championship?
Besides this, on the same day Mr. Sundar called to my hotel room at Nalchik
and put pressure on me to participate in the Olympiad even though I intimated
him about my unavailability for that event long back.
After completion of the World Championship I requested AICF to issue the certificate
that I won the Bronze medal. In practice AICF issues certificates for such events
like World Youth Championships, Asian Games, Asian Indoor Games etc. Mr. Sundar
said that he will issue the certificate after confirming with FIDE (World Chess
Federation) but didn’t turn up. After waiting for a long time, I contacted
FIDE and got the certificate directly from them.
Doesn’t the Secretary of AICF have the responsibility in such matters?
For the first time in my career I went alone (without my father and personal
trainer Mr. Koneru Ashok) to play in the Chess Olympiad 2006 at Turin, Italy.
I was sick throughout the tournament. My teammate and good friend Swati Ghate
took me to the doctor. I was under medication throughout the tourney and inspite
of that I played 12 games out of 13.
Can anyone guess the reward that Mr. Sundar has given me for this?
“It’s a warning letter from Mr. Sundar that I didn’t wear
the t-shirts provided by the AICF and that he has forgiven me as it is first
time. He warned me that Action will be taken if it repeats again.”
Let me explain where in the world these t-shirts came from. Those are given
by AICF to wear during the games. But the ones given to me didn’t suit
me. So, I borrowed two of them from another team mate Mary Ann Gomes. I managed
with those two shirts in the tournament (15 days) and may be I missed them in
one or two games to get this wonderful letter from Mr. Sundar.
Of course Mr. Sundar is very passionate about issuing such warning letters
to players. His recent victim is GM G.N. Gopal.
Growing up into a chess
star: photos from the family album
Mr. Sundar’s Chess understanding is very poor and he is insisting me
to play in all the tournaments he mentions. And if I don’t accept that
he is creating hurdles. He is trying to keep players under his control. Being
a world No. 2 player I will have my preferences in selecting the tournaments
keeping my rating and world ranking in view. I don’t think that a person
who doesn’t know the game of Chess and who doesn’t know my preparation
strategies can blindly insist me about the tournaments I have to play.
Inspite of the ridiculous administration of Mr. Sundar, the AICF is still producing
good results because there are some good organizers who know Chess, like Mr.
Bharat Singh Chauhan (Delhi), Mr. R.M. Dongre (Mumbai), Mr.Soumen Majumdar (Kolkota),
and they are frequently conducting International events.
Mr. Sundar is testing my patience during all these times. Every time I am adjusting
myself and letting things pass on without making an issue. But every now and
then he is troubling me. Now I am bringing all these things to the notice of
everyone because I can not bear this any longer.
If a world level player like me is suffering so much because of Mr. Sundar,
what is the position of upcoming players? It’s time for everyone to think
of it.
Koneru Humpy
Chess Grandmaster
Born on March 31, 1987, in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh (India), Koneru Humpy has
a current FIDE rating of 2595. Her top rating was achieved in July 2009 and
reached 2623, making Humpy the second female player in history to cross the
2600 rating mark (she had been rated
2600+ since April 2008). These are the September 2009 world rankings –
Humpy had just lost 28 points and for the first time in over a year dipped below
the 2600 mark.
| Rank | Name | Title | Country | Rating | Games | B-Year |
| 1 | Polgar, Judit |
g | HUN | 2687 | 0 | 1976 |
| 2 | Koneru, Humpy |
g | IND | 2595 | 25 | 1987 |
| 3 | Hou, Yifan |
g | CHN | 2585 | 9 | 1994 |
From 2002 through 2008, Humpy held the record as the youngest woman ever to
become a grandmaster (not merely a Woman Grandmaster), which she achieved at
the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgar's previous mark
by three months. However, this has since been surpassed by Hou Yifan. In 2001
she won the World Junior Girls Chess Championship. In 2006 she participated
in the Women's World Chess Championship, but was eliminated in the second round.
In the Women's World Chess Championship 2008 she made it to the semi-finals,
but was beaten by Hou Yifan.
Humpy was originally named Hampi, (after the ancient city) by her parents,
but her father later changed it to Humpy, a more Russian-sounding name. She
writes her family name (Koneru) before her given name, as is the convention
with Telugu speaking people.
Posted in ChessBase on Окт 22, 2009
22.10.2009
– After returning safely to Earth from the 128th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program, during which he had played a game of chess against the readers of a Swedish newspaper, astronaut Christer Fuglesang was [...]
Posted in ChessBase on Окт 21, 2009
21.10.2009
– Behind the kings of the chess world, theres a crack team of knights or seconds, as they are called. They work day and night, and spend months together locked up, and once in a while they want to break the tension. In the team of World Champion Viswanathan Anand Coldplay is staple music, but "the guys now also listen to Tamil music." Jaideep Unudurti reports on Outlook Business.
As if Viswanathan Anand didn’t have his hands full preparing for his
World Championship defence against Bulgarian Grandmaster (GM) Veselin Topalov
next year, an off-the-board move has probably given him more to think about.
Last month, it was revealed that Garry Kasparov had agreed to work with Magnus
Carlsen, the 18-year-old Norwegian wunderkind. For the fanatical chess fraternity,
it’s an intriguing collaboration. It’s as if in the 1990s, Don Bradman
decided to coach Tendulkar. Even that’s putting it mildly, for the value
of partnerships is more in chess than perhaps in any other sport.
Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of partnerships in chess. There’s
the coach-ward relationship. And then, there is the support team—called
‘seconds’—that does most of the preparatory work for a top
player. The Carlsen-Kasparov relationship falls somewhere in between the two.
At the pinnacle of the sport, seconds are the key partnership. Seconds are
a throwback from the age of duelling, when two ‘gentlemen’ settled
their differences with pistols or swords. Each had a second to help him load
the guns, inspect the ‘field of honour’ – where the duel would
be fought – and ensure the duel was conducted fairly.
Anand's team of seconds in Bonn: Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Peter Heine Nielsen,
Surya Ganguly, Anand, wife Aruna and Radoslaw Wojtaszek
In chess, seconds have a similar role, helping top players in key matches.
They pore over games, act as sparring partners and assess the opponent’s
strengths and weaknesses. Seconds are often strong GMs. Besides a fee, they
typically get paid a percentage of the prize money. For them, there is the experience
gained by working with top players. For the players themselves, a good team
can be, pardon the pun, the difference between finishing first or second.
Read the full article in Outlook
Business:
Posted in ChessBase on Окт 21, 2009
21.10.2009
– Viacheslav Ragozin, who passed away in 1962, was one of the trainers of Mikhail
Botvinnik. He became famous for blowing smoke into the legendary World Champion's
face in order to steel the non-smoker for opponents who did the same. In his
Wednesday night lecture Dennis
Monokroussos shows us Ragozin at his best against Andor Lilienthal. Be there at 9 p.m. ET or 3 a.m. CEST.
Dennis Monokroussos writes:
Last week, we took a look at the famous Mikhail Botvinnik-Jose Capablanca game
from AVRO 1938. That game is famous not only because of the concluding combination
starting with 30.Ba3, but for Botvinnik's powerful strategy. The "pawn
roller" he used to push through the center and create a kingside attack
is not unique to that game, but has been used many times over the generations
to steamroll helpless opponents in the Nimzo-Indian and certain Exchange Queen's
Gambit lines. It is a very simple but powerful plan.
But despite this, it's not unstoppable and not an automatic win. This week,
we'll have a look at a 1935 game between Andor Lilienthal (the world's oldest
living grandmaster – he's 98!) and Viacheslav Ragozin (also a grandmaster,
but no longer with us, having passed away in 1962). Ragozin, ironically one
of Botvinnik's sometime trainers, perhaps best-known for the following story:
Botvinnik, as a non-smoker, had a difficult time when his opponents smoked at
the board. So he set up some training games with Ragozin where the latter not
only smoked, but blew the smoke in Botvinnik's face as well. (Now that's training!)
Anyway, in the game against Lilienthal Ragozin demonstrated Black's defensive
resources in this poorly known gem. It required patience, and for quite a while
all he did was prevent Lilienthal from achieving the e4 break. Finally, when
it seemed as if it would finally happen, a timely exchange sacrifice reversed
the initiative, and now it was White's turn to defend. He didn't manage to do
so, however, and Ragozin finished the game in style.
Just like last week's game, the game was a battle between opposing strategies,
and the triumphant strategy was crowned with accurate tactical play. In short,
both were complete games with both instructional and aesthetic value.
To watch, go to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday night (= 3 a.m.
CET Thursday morning), enter the Broadcast room and find Lilienthal-Ragozin
in the games list. Note: Only premium members can watch for free; other viewers
will have to pay 50 ducats (about five euros). ChessBase will make further announcements
about premium memberships soon, but at the moment premium members are those
with an activated copy of Fritz 12.
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). Other time zones
can be found at the bottom of this page. You can use Fritz or any Fritz-compatible
program (Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Hiarcs) to follow the lectures, or download
a .
You can find the exact times for different locations in the world at World
Time and Date. Exact times for most larger cities are .
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.
The lectures, which can go for an hour or more, will cost you between one and
two .
That is the equivalent of 10-20 Euro cents (14-28 US cents).
Monokroussos in Mexico: World Championship 2007
Dennis Monokroussos is 41, lives in South Bend, IN, where
he teaches chess and occasionally works 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.
