exd5!

19.11.2009
– It was a spectacular event, a three-day frenzy of blitz chess, with World Champion Anand finishing three full points ahead of the field – and one Magnus Carlsen, 18-year-old youth from Norway, three points ahead of him. Oh the excitement! We brought you the results and games of the third and final day. Here now is a photo report by Misha Savinov.

Nigel Davies:
A busy person’s opening system
Players with interests and commitments away from the chess board often find it difficult to compete against those with more study time. Their opponents come to the board armed with the latest theory and can bash out moves well into the middle game. On this DVD Nigel Davies addresses this issue by demonstrating a simple and easy to learn opening system designed for the busy person.
More information...

World
Blitz Championship – final pictorial report

This event was held on November 16, 17 and 18 in the showroom of the Red Square
mall GUM. Time controls were three minutes for the whole game + two seconds
increment per move. The event was a 22-player double round-robin, i.e. it had
a total of 42 rounds, which were played on three consecutive days. The participants
include the players from the Tal Memorial, plus twelve invitees. The average
rating was 2718 – quite remarkable for an evernt with so many players.

Not in form: Levon Aronian, who is feeling a bit sick

Alexander Morozevich watches Grischuk-Aronian, which is ten seconds away
from the draw

Morozevich vs Kramnik, always a crowd pleaser

Peter Svidler, who ended up in fifth place

Vishy Anand patiently waits for his next customer...

... who is Sergey Karjakin, with whom Anand drew in round 35

Why didn't I think of simply going after your king with my king?

Anatoly Karpov was in third place after the first day but finished sixteenth
in the end

He did beat his round 37 opponent Judit Polgar, who finished nineteenth

A disappointed Vassily Ivanchuk, who failed to score 50%

One of the most active photographers: Maria Fominykh

Crowds gather as Boris Gelfand struggles in vein to convert an extra piece
against Magnus Carlsen

Of supreme interest: Anand vs Carlsen. The Norwegian won both their encounters.

Magnus pondering 30...Rxe3! in their round 38 game

Anand,V (2788) - Carlsen,M (2801) [D31]
World Blitz Moscow RUS (38), 18.11.2009
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 Nf6 6.e3 Bf5 7.h3 c6 8.Nf3
Nbd7 9.g4 Be4 10.Bg2 0-0 11.0-0 Re8 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.Nd2 Nxd2 14.Qxd2 Nf8 15.b4
Ng6 16.Bg3 Bd6 17.Bxd6 Qxd6 18.Rab1 a6 19.a4 Nh4 20.b5 axb5 21.axb5 Qg6 22.bxc6
bxc6 23.Rfc1 h5 24.Qc2 Qg5 25.Qxc6 Nxg2 26.Kxg2 hxg4 27.h4 Qf5 28.Qd6 Qf3+ 29.Kg1
Ra2 30.Rf1

30...Rxe3! 31.Qd8+ Kh7 32.Qg5 g3 33.Qxe3 gxf2+ 34.Qxf2 Rxf2 35.Rxf2
Qg4+ 36.Rg2 Qxd4+ 37.Kh1 Qe4 38.Rf1 f5 39.Kg1 d4 40.Rgf2 d3 41.h5 Qg4+ 42.Rg2
Qd4+ 43.Kh1 d2 44.Rgg1 f4 45.Kg2 Qe3 46.Rh1 Qg3#

This is known as an "Epaulette mate". It is most painful. 0-1.

Felt pen 7: updating the table in the Blitz World Championship

It's over: Magnus is the 2009 Blitz World Champion

The new champion must talk to Moscow TV

The winners at the closing ceremony: Sergey Karjakin (Bronze), Vishy Anand
(Silver),
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (Natural Gas and Oil), Magnus Carlsen (Gold)

Chief organiser Alexander Bakh, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and arbiter
Bolat Assanov (background)

Vladimir Kramnik: "Soon people will consider this year's Tal Memorial as
one of the strongest tournaments in the history of chess, like AVRO-tournament
and Zurich 1953". Right: Alexander Bakh.

Everybody: Gelfand, Aronian, Kramnik, Svidler, Moroz... Ponomariov, official,
Bakh, Geurt Gijssen (arbiter), Ilyumzhinov, Andrzej Filipowicz (arbiter), Leko,
Anand, Carlsen.

Moscow at night – with golden arches and a denizen from a galaxy far,
far away

Final standings (after 42 rounds)

    Click to get
a full table (with ratings, performance and tiebreaks)

Video of the closing ceremony

Links Official tournament site (Russian) All games in PGN + all results + all ChessBase reports The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. 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!

Chessbase.com

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18.11.2009
– Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian chess phenomenon, has won this event with 31.0 points from 42 games, three points ahead of World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who himself finshed three points ahead of the next-closest rival (Sergey Karjakin). Carlsen's overall performance was 2894, Anand's 2835. In fourth place we find Vladimir Kramnik. Results, games and statistics.

World
Blitz Championship

This event was held on November 16, 17 and 18 in the showroom of the Red Square
mall GUM. Time controls were three minutes for the whole game + two seconds
increment per move. The event was a 22-player double round-robin, i.e. it had
a total of 42 rounds, which were played on three consecutive days. The participants
include the players from the Tal Memorial, plus twelve invitees. The average
rating was 2718 – quite remarkable for an evernt with so many players.

Third Day report

The winner of the 2009 World Blitz Championship: Magnus Carlsen

Final standings (after 42 rounds)

    Click to get
a full table (with ratings, performance and tiebreaks)

Ratings, performance, points, tiebreaks

Wins against...

Statistics

Of the 462 games played in this event, only 122 were drawn, i.e. the draw quota
was just 26 percent. White won 180 games = 39% and Black 160 games = 35%. The
winner, Magnus Carlsen, drew just six of 42 games, winning 28 and losing eight.
Vishy Anand drew 16, winning 20 and losing six. "Bronze medalist"
Sergey Karjakin won 20, drew ten and lost twelve.

Blitz World Championship on Playchess

It was an exciting day on the Playchess
server, especially for visitors using the new Fritz 12 program to log in.
One aspect that was especially useful is the multi-game function: instead of
loading games individually you simply click on a tournament or a round, and
all games are loaded in a single window.

Click to enlarge

Double-clicking any of the boards will bring it in full size up front. The
Fritz engine evaluates any position that you have highlighted by clicking, and
the chat window shows the comments that pertain to this game.

Naturally the window can be reshaped and resized to suit your monitor (click
to enlarge image)

Links Official tournament site (Russian) All games in PGN + all results + all ChessBase reports The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. 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!

Chessbase.com

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18.11.2009
– Three minutes for the entire game, two seconds increment per move – this
fast version of chess produces its own brand of drama, with wonderful chances
and bitter tragodies going hand in [...]

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18.11.2009
– He has never been the world chess champion or the #1 ranked player (though
he has come close on both counts). But Vassily Ivanchuk is one of the world’s
greatest and most original players for the past 20 years. The Ukrainian GM is
the subject of the Playchess lecture
at 9 p.m. ET by FM Dennis Monokroussos. Before that IM Merijn van Delft discusses
current games. Schedule.

Nigel Davies:
A busy person’s opening system
Players with interests and commitments away from the chess board often find it difficult to compete against those with more study time. Their opponents come to the board armed with the latest theory and can bash out moves well into the middle game. On this DVD Nigel Davies addresses this issue by demonstrating a simple and easy to learn opening system designed for the busy person.
More information...

Playchess training with FM Dennis Monokroussos

“I guess it is safe to say he is the most creative player of the
modern age.” – Levon Aronian

Fantastically creative and able to play any and every opening with either color,
the great Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk has been a fan favorite for many years
now, and his occasional blunders and lapses under pressure have only made him
a more sympathetic figure.

It won’t be his errors that we examine today, however, but his play when
everything clicks into place. That was the case earlier this year, during the
5th FIDE Grand Prix which took place in Jermuk, Armenia. After some poor results
earlier in the year had momentarily pushed him below 2700 for the first time
in many years, he came back with a vengeance, winning Jermuk with a +4 score
against an impressive field.

For our show this week, we’ll look at Ivanchuk’s round four victory
over Evgeny Alekseev. The opening was an English/Reversed Modern Benoni, and
while reversed openings often fail to give White more than a stable equality,
Ivanchuk was able to create some real chances for an edge. At least as importantly,
the game was very dynamic, and in a position where nothing too dramatic seemed
to be going on, Ivanchuk found a shot that led to a winning attack seemingly
out of thin air.

It’s a remarkable game, but we won’t just watch to admire. There’s
much to learn about the Modern Benoni – both in its normal and reversed
forms – and our knowledge of tactical patterns is bound to increase as
well. It’s a game I’m sure you’ll enjoy, and to join in the
fun you need only log on to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. ET/3 a.m. CET, go
to the Broadcast room and double-click on Ivanchuk-Alekseev under the Games
tab. Hope to see you there!

Hope to see you there!

Dennis Monokroussos'
Radio ChessBase
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 here.
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 here.
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 Playchess.com. 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!

Chessbase.com

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17.11.2009
– Yesterday World Champion Vishy Anand was leading Magnus Carlsen by two points, today the Norwegian caught and overtook his Indian friend, finishing with 21.0 points from 28 games, with just two draws on his [...]

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