Wrapping up 2011, Big Vlad in London, Rybka muddies the water, double-time Donastia, and Nakamura's 'In Da House'. Or, in other words: The Full English Breakfast #16 is out!

About the Full English Breakfast

Mission: Bring the serious chess news analysis. VERY serious, and not at all witty. Definitely not tongue in cheek. ;) Origins: The Full English Breakfast started life as a late night brainstorm at the 2009 GibTel (now Tradewise) Chess Festival in Gibraltar. Trent and Macauley struck up a conversation about things missing in the chess media, and hit upon the idea of doing a podcast combining the serious with the slightly sophomoric. Trent quickly brought in his pal Stevie G. dramatically raising both the intellectual and the dialectical heft of the new ensemble. And the rest, as they say, is hysterical.

The Full English Breakfast #16

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• Official website: The FEB.com
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• Vladimir Kramnik
• London Chess Classic
• Rybka
• San Sebastian
• Hikaru Nakamura

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Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!

--> IM Yochanan Afek's Official Website

I. Akobia 2011  

PGN string

White to play and win

Next week the solution.

Last week's solution:

PGN string

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• Endgame
• Akobia

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• Weekly endgame study

Κύπελλο Ε.Σ.Σ.Κ. Ανακοίνωση 2012

Ξεκινάει το Διασυλλογικό Κύπελλο Ελλάδος 2012, περιφέρειας Κρήτης. Ο 1ος και προκριματικός γύρος θα διεξαχθεί, αν χρειαστεί, το Σάββατο 18 Φεβρουαρίου 2012.

Καλούνται όλες οι ομάδες που επιθυμούν να αγωνιστούν στο Κύπελλο να δηλώσουν συμμετοχή, μέχρι την Τετάρτη 8 Φεβρουαρίου, στις 12.00, με email, στον Έφορο Αγώνων Μπάμπη Στεφανάτο, δηλώνοντας και την έδρα του Σωματείου.
Λεπτομέρειες στο συνημμένο έγγραφο.

Iceland celebrated its first "Chess Day" on January 26th, the country's first GM and ex-FIDE president Fridrik Olafsson's birthday. GM Olafsson, who turned 77 that day, was honored at a reception at Bessastadir, the Presidential Residence. The day featured many events across all of Iceland, including simuls and blitzes in schools, shopping malls, swimming pools and at Althingi (the Parliament House).

By Gunnar Bjornsson

GM Fridrik Olafsson (born 1935) joined the world's chess elite from the mid 1950s onwards. His illustrious career included victories at Hastings, Wijk aan Zee and the Reykjavik Open (three times), beating four world champions on the way, Tal, Fischer, Petrosian (twice) and Karpov.

Fridrik Olafsson

GM Olafsson played significant part in the programs offered on Chess Day 2012. At Bessastadir, he played Iceland's newly crowned Under-14 national champion (10-year old Nansy Davidsdottir, one of the many promising young players emerging in Iceland currently) and simuls at the headquarters of the Icelandic Broadcasting Company, including its director general.

Iceland now counts 13 GMs, despite a population of only 300,000. GM Johann Hjartarson, who 20 years ago played in the semi-finals of the candidates matches, played simuls against MPs. Althingi has many notable chess players, including WIM Gretarsdottir, former president of the Icelandic Chess Federation. Another former president of the Icelandic Chess Federation is the chief political advisor to the Icelandic PM. So the words chess and politics are really intertwined in Iceland!

But the Chess Day wasn't only celebrated by the Icelandic president and MPs; 18-year old IM Hjorvar Steinn Gretarsson, who had a breakthrough performance at last year's European Championship (including a famous win against Shirov), where he captured two GM norms, played a game against the people of Iceland on the Internet. ICC hosted the Icelandic Championship in 2-minute blitz.

Iceland's latest GM, Stefan Kristjansson and IM Bragi Thorfinnsson, played a marathon blitz match in a shopping mall in Reykjavik; another simul was played by Bragi's older brother, IM Bjorn Thorfinnsson, in a swimming pool, where he swam between floating chess boards. Playing chess in swimming pools is gaining popularity in Iceland (which is known for its geothermal energy and naturally heated swimming pools) – remember that famous Evans-Fischer photo?

The Chess Day was also celebrated on the Artic Circle, in Grimsey, which counts only 60 inhabitants. Grimsey is famous as being the beneficiary of a major chess gift from American scholar and chess enthusiast Willard Fisk, who helped organize the first American Chess Congress in 1857. Grimsey's own national holiday is in fact November 11, Fiske's birthday.

The Icelandic Chess Federation, together with the Reykjavik Chess Academy, and the Icelandic Chess School, organized the Chess Day. The Chess Day will be celebrated annually in the future.

The Icelandic Chess Federation is now in the midst of preparations for the famous Reykjavik Open tournament, which will take place in perhaps the most spectacular playing venue any chess tournament in the world has ever enjoyed. Among registered players are 25 GMs, including Italian GM Fabiano Caruana, who finished in 2-4th place in the recent Wijk aan Zee event.

There are very attractive travel packages offered with Icelandair. For more information about the Reykjavik Open, please visit www.chess.is.

Around the same time that we received this article by Gunnar Bjornsson, we read at the website of the Dutch chess federation that Secretary of State Fred Teeven is trying to create a National Chess Day in The Netherlands as well. He said this during the annual simul for politicians in The Hague, which always takes place on the first Wedensday after Wijk aan Zee. Tata Steel sponsors this event every year and last Wednesday it was Kateryna Lahno who gave the simul. (She won 24 games and drew 2.)

Among children who play chess, we see less truancy, less crime and less drug use.

said Teeven.

Chess teaches a child to be creative, to follow his intuition, to analyze, and to make decisions for which he is responsible. He cannot, like in team sports, hide behind the group or blame the team. No, he is responsible for the game he has played. He learns to deal with blows.

Teeven intends to make the Wednesday immediately after the Tata tournament as the fixed date for the National Chess Day. The mayor of The Hague, Jozias van Aartsen, has already pledged its support for the initiative. As far as Teeven and Van Aartsen are concerned, the first Chess Day will be in 2013. (And because the 75th Tata Steel tournament will take place January 11th-27th, 2013 that would be Wednesday, January 30th, 2013.)

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• Chess Day
• Iceland
• Fridrik Olafsson
• Fred Teeven

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As a life-long King's Indian player (not counting the occasional flirt with the Grünfeld), I've never been very enthusiastic about answering the move 1.d4 with putting my pawns on d5 and e6. In Queen's Gambits White always has a small but very annoying edge, the Nimzo & Queen's Indian complex somehow doesn't seem to suit my style and without my bishop on g7 all those London Systems (where White goes 2.Nf3 and 3.Bf4) and Torre Attacks (3.Bg5) seem so much harder to beat! The Ragozin Complex (New in Chess, 2011), however, gave me that final push over the edge and into unknown queen's pawn territory. I might just have lost that complex of having to start with 1...Nf6 and 2...g6!

Let me start by saying that in my view, Barsky's book belongs to the same category as classics like Understanding the Grünfeld by Jonathan Rowson (Gambit, 1998) and Queen's Gambit Declined by Matthew Sadler (Everyman, 2000). It's a wonderful guide to this more or less neglected opening system, with about as much attention to explanation as to the actual theory. On top of that, the author not only provides a lengthy introduction about Ragozin himself, but also the full translation of Isaak Lipnitsky's 'forgotten research' from 1956 on the Ragozin Defence, including his article 'How to Study a Concrete Opening'. All this together makes The Ragozin Complex more than just another opening book.

The Ragozin is basically the opening system that arises after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4. Naturally, a lot of games start with 1.d4 d5 or even 1.Nf3.

PGN string

This defence, which at first sight looks like some kind of mixture of the Queen's Gambit Declined and the Nimzo-Indian, was introduced into practice by Viacheslav Vasilievich Ragozin (1908-1962), in his time a top grandmaster from the Soviet-Union, and also a well-known theoretican. He was a close friend of Mikhail Botvinnik and helped him in many occasions, including World Championship matches. Ragozin's best individual achievements include a 2nd place at the 1947 Chigorin Memorial ahead of Keres, Smyslov, Boleslavsky, Kotov and Gligoric, and winning the 1959 World Correspondence Championship.

The author of The Ragozin Complex, Vladimir Barsky, is an International Master himself, but mostly involved in coaching and journalism. For instance, at the moment he is also editor-in-chief of the website of the Russian Chess Federation. Besides, many of his photos appear on websites and in chess magazines. Opening lovers might know him for his The Modern Philidor Defence (Chess Stars, 2010) and, of course, for co-authoring The Chigorin Defence According to Morozevich (New in Chess, 2007).

Already in his introduction, the author reveals his love for the historical aspect of the game of chess. He quotes Alexander Alekhine, who at first is sceptical about putting the bishop on b4. In his article 'The Significance of the New York tournament (1924) for Opening Theory', Alekhine wrote:

...Still less can one recommend the development of the bishop to b4 on move four (as in the game Capablanca-Marshall), since then by the reply 5.Qa4+! White can force 5...Nc6, which makes it significantly more difficult for the opponent to achieve the important task of opening lines in the centre. It is remarkable that the world champion did not exploit this possibility.

According to Barsky, it was this remark by Alekhine that got Ragozin interested in exploring the position after 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.e3 more. And in fact soon after, Alekhine softened his opinion. In his game against Colle at Hastings 1925/26, he played it as Black, and said:

Although, strictly speaking, this defence is not fully correct, it is not easy to refute. I chose it specifically in order to convince myself of the practical chances which can arise in the event of inaccurate play by White, and of those dangers which he faces, if White plays correctly.

In the 1930s the Ragozin Defence started to become more and more popular. In subsequent decades the opening setup with ...d5, ...e6, ...Nf6 and ...Bb4 never grew into a main-line, but it always kept its special place in 1.d4 theory. In recent years strong players such as Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Pavel Eljanov and Hou Yifan have played it more than once.

It's quite amazing that there hadn't appeared a book on the Ragozin before! The only substantial theoretical research ever published was a section in the famous book Questions of Modern Chess Theory by Isaac Lipnitsky (yes, the book that got Bobby Fischer to learn Russian, and... play the Ragozin!). A second edition of this book (the English translation was reviewed by us) was published in 2007, but the theoretical section on the Ragozin was replaced by a selection of Lipnitsky's best games.

Once a 'Russian schoolboy' himself, Barsky was lucky enough to become acquainted with Lipnitsky's book when he was young. Therefore, when he started to write a book on the Ragozin a few years ago, he decided that he couldn't do without Lipnitsky's research, even though it was more than half a century old. The result of Barsky's approach is a wonderful mixture of what you might call 'Soviet School of Chess analysis and explanation' by Lipnitsky, and up-to-date games and theory brought together by Barsky himself, all interwoven in one book.

The additional value is that Barsky makes clear that Lipnitsky's explanations and even variations haven't lost their topicality. Take, for instance, this brilliant game:

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This game cannot be found in the Megabase 2012. And so it can happen that in a game from the 2009 Spanish team championship between two players rated around 2400, Black didn't play 8...Bd7!! but 8...0-0?! instead. Barsky tells the whole story, quoting from an article by Mihail Marin published in the German magazine Schach, called 'Old wine in new bottles'. The game itself is given later in the book by Barsky, where he combines, like in the whole book, quotes from Lipnitsky with personal annotations.

Let us give the microphone at least once to Lipnitsky himself, so that you can decide for yourself whether you can learn something from words and sentences written in 1956.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 Nc6!? 7. O-O dxc4 8. Bxc4 Bd6 9. Bb5 e5 10. Bxc6 exd4 11. Bxb7 Bxb7 12. Nxd4 Qd7

PGN string

Black brings his queen into play and prevents the threats 13.Ndb5 or 13.Nf5. Either move would allow White either to eliminate the bishop on d7 or force the exchange of queens... Now Black has compensation for the pawn in the shape of greater freedom of action and two bishops, with White's queenside insufficiently developed.

Playing similar positions involves well-known difficulties. Black's compensation is of a temporary character and could evaporate quite quickly. White only needs to liquidate his development lag and ha can go over to a policy of exchanges or utilise his extra e-pawn in the centre. However one should not draw any hasty conclusions from this and start attacking the enemy king with all of one;s pieces, trying to mate him or else regain the pawn before he can develop, Such an approach can easily turn out to be a false trail. On the other hand, of course, if there is a chance of a successful attack on the king, one should exploit it.

But often such attacks can be easily repulsed, and in the process of defence, the underdeveloped pieces gradually come into play. The attacking side, having placed his pieces on the kingside, often lacks sufficient effectiveness in the centre and this can enhance the defensive possibilities in several ways: 1. by the exchange of the attacking pieces; 2. by driving them away; 3. by returning te extra material at the right moment, and taking key squares.

Thus, in this position, with the initiative for the pawn, to throw all one;s forces into an unclear attack on the king would be to burn one;s boats and play va-baque. A different method of play is correct - exploit the greater freedom of movement for further annexation of key points on the board, and the quickest possible mobilisation of the remaining forces. In doing this, it is important to prevent successful development by White.

The structure of the book is a collection of complete games (sometimes all the way up to a tablebase analysis of an endgame), which may not be to everyone's liking. This way it's not easy to get a good idea of the basic structure of the theory: what are the main-lines, which moves are important to remember, which not... However, the publisher put a lot of effort in creating structure around these games. The main chapters are named after the main alternatives White can play at move 5:

Chapter 1 - 5.Qa4+
Chapter 2 - 5.Qc2
Chapter 3 - 5.Qb3
Chapter 4 - 5.e3
Chapter 5 - 5.a3
Chapter 6 - 5.Bg5
Chapter 7 - 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5

These chapter names are also shown at the top of each page (where unfortunately an error slipped in: Chapter 6 is called '6.Be3' on each page). Besides, at the end of the book there is an index of players, a games list, an index of variations and a bibliography so all this makes it more easy to get an idea of the different possibilities.

It's important to note that the book isn't especially focused on White or Black. It's not a repertoire book - in fact the subtitle is 'A guide for White and Black'. Therefore, it might take a bit more time to create your own repertoire if you decide to try out this system with Black. However, this can't be a real problem. I mean, for me the Ragozin would be something completely different, so I don't expect to be able to play it well after only a few hours of looking at critical lines! Barsky forces you to read about the history of the opening, and its development over the course of seven decades. But isn't that how new openings should be studied in the first place?

The Ragozin Complex is one of the better opening books I've seen in recent years. It's a highly interesting read for both opening theoreticians and lovers of chess culture and history.

Links

• Get yourself a copy of The Ragozin Complex
• Read more book reviews

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2012 Ανακοίνωση Ατομικά Νεανικά Κρήτης Ε.Σ.Σ.Κ.

Ανακοινώθηκε από την ΕΣΣΚ το αναλυτικό πρόγραμμα συναντήσεων του πρώτου μέρους της τελικής φάσης των Προκριματικών των Ατομικών Νεανικών Κρήτης 2012.

Το πρόγραμμα περιλαμβάνει όλες τις συναντήσεις που θα διεξαχθούν κατά τους 5 γύρους του πρώτου μέρους και είναι λεπτομερές, ανά γύρο, ανά κατηγορία και ανά χώρο διεξαγωγής των συναντήσεων. Παρακαλούνται οι υπεύθυνοι επικεφαλής διαιτησίας να τηρήσουν το πρόγραμμα, εκτός σοβαρής περίπτωσης, για να ολοκληρωθεί χωρίς προβλήματα αυτη η φάση των αγώνων. 

Για αναλυτική πληροφόρηση ενημερωθείτε από τους συνημμένους πίνακες.

διαβάστε περισσότερα

English grandmaster Nigel Short won the 10th Tradewise Chess Festival in Gibraltar on Thursday after beating Hou Yifan of China in a blitz playoff. Both players had finished on 8/10.

Event Tradewise Chess Festival | PGN via TWIC Dates January 24th-February 2nd, 2012 Location Gibraltar, UK System 10-round Swiss, different groups Players Top players in the Masters include Peter Svidler, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Michael Adams, Zoltan Almasi, Le Quang Liem, Judit Polgar and Alexei Shirov Rate of play 100 minutes for 50 moves followed by 15 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds increment for each move starting from the first move.

17-year-old Hou Yifan was already assured of the top Woman’s Award of £10,000, irrespective of what would happen in the last round. She was lone leader on 7.5/9, and assured of some sort of open prize as well as the U18 prize! On the last day, all eyes were on Gibraltar to see if Hou Yifan could also claim the first prize of £20,000.

Round 10

In the final round Hou Yifan drew with White against Shakhiyar Mamedyarov in a rather nice game.

PGN string

Mickey Adams, who had been leading the tournament until the 8th round, had to play with Black in the last two rounds. He drew both games, on Thursday against Viorel Bologan, who seemed to have a technically winning ending.

PGN string

The other two players who were trailing by half a point were Krishnan Sasikiran and Nigel Short. The Englishman didn't hold back and played the Benoni. He won a good game where he showed better tactical vision than his opponent.

PGN string

Emil Sutovsky won a queen ending that was theoretically drawn, but very difficult to hold over the board.

PGN string

Another nice last-round pairing was Judit Polgar vs. Viktor Korchnoi!

PGN string

A truly fantastic game was played by Emanuel Berg - the Swedish grandmaster beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in a mere 29 moves with a queen sacrifice:

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The ever-creative Emanuel Berg sac'ed a queen against Vachier-Lagrave. Game of the tournament?

Playoff

This meant that Hou Yifan and Nigel Short had finished on shared first place, with 8/10 (see below). Traditionally, in such cases the Gibraltar tournament is decided in a playoff. Hou Yifan and Short played two games with 10 minutes on the clock, and 5 seconds increment per move.

In the first game Hou Yifan missed an excellent chance, after Short blundered in the middlegame. Both players missed an intermediate moves, and Short then won convincingly. In the second game the Chinese had to go all or nothing, and it became nothing. Well, the half point was worth as much as nothing.

Here are the two games, and the video commentary with GM Simon Williams and GM Mickey Adams:

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Tradewise Chess Festival | Masters | Round 10 (final) standings (top 40) Rk.   Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 1 GM Hou Yifan CHN 2605 8.0 2872.0 2 GM Short Nigel D ENG 2677 8.0 2838.0 3 GM Adams Michael ENG 2724 7.5 2807.0 4 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE 2747 7.5 2783.0 5 GM Bologan Viktor MDA 2680 7.5 2734.0 6 GM Sutovsky Emil ISR 2703 7.5 2669.0 7 GM Le Quang Liem VIE 2714 7.0 2733.0 8 GM Almasi Zoltan HUN 2717 7.0 2730.0 9 GM Howell David W L ENG 2603 7.0 2725.0 10 GM Sasikiran Krishnan IND 2700 7.0 2717.0 11 GM Movsesian Sergei ARM 2700 7.0 2711.0 12 GM Svidler Peter RUS 2749 7.0 2700.0 13 GM Negi Parimarjan IND 2641 7.0 2694.0 14 GM Polgar Judit HUN 2710 7.0 2693.0 15 GM Laznicka Viktor CZE 2704 7.0 2681.0 16 GM Fridman Daniel GER 2660 7.0 2632.0 17 GM Gustafsson Jan GER 2643 7.0 2628.0 18 GM Jussupow Artur GER 2569 7.0 2625.0 19 GM Salem A R Saleh UAE 2505 7.0 2621.0 20 GM Berg Emanuel SWE 2550 7.0 2603.0 21 GM Sargissian Gabriel ARM 2683 7.0 2594.0 22 GM Kanep Meelis EST 2509 7.0 2556.0 23 GM Cabrera Alexis ESP 2504 7.0 2544.0 24 GM Gopal G N IND 2566 6.5 2647.0 25 GM Shirov Alexei LAT 2710 6.5 2629.0 26 GM Brunello Sabino ITA 2581 6.5 2617.0 27 GM Kulaots Kaido EST 2581 6.5 2604.0 28 GM Erdos Viktor HUN 2634 6.5 2601.0 29 GM Zhu Chen QAT 2472 6.5 2598.0 30 GM Cramling Pia SWE 2491 6.5 2591.0 31 IM Muzychuk Anna SLO 2580 6.5 2586.0 32 GM El Debs Felipe De Cresce BRA 2497 6.5 2582.0 33 GM Nabaty Tamir ISR 2563 6.5 2575.0 34 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2523 6.5 2571.0 35 IM Dvirnyy Daniyyl ITA 2492 6.5 2530.0 36 GM Del Rio De Angelis Salvador G ESP 2531 6.5 2528.0 37-38 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2652 6.5 2525.0 37-38 IM Muzychuk Mariya UKR 2483 6.5 2525.0 39 GM Iturrizaga Edoardo VEN 2649 6.5 2510.0 40 IM Zatonskih Anna USA 2506 6.5 2502.0

 

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• Tradewise
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In an official statement, Levon Aronian has repeated what he expressed before: that he cannot play a 'high ranked tournament' in Azerbaijan. The Armenian grandmaster made this statement today and it was published at the website of the Armenian Chess Federation. With this message, Aronian reacts to bids for the 2012 FIDE Candidates Tournament coming from Azerbaijan and Bulgaria.

The Armenian Chess Federation published the following on Thursday:

February 2, 2012

To:
FIDE PRESIDENT KIRSAN ILYUMZHINOV
FIDE PRESIDENTIAL BOARD MEMBERS

Dear Mr. President
Dear Presidential Board Members

I learnt from the media, that the Chess Federations of Azerbaijan and Bulgaria had submitted an application on holding the Candidates Tournament of World Championship.

I’d like to inform you that general atmosphere in Azerbaijan and continuous tensions between our countries make my participation in such high ranked tournament in Azerbaijan impossible. A responsible and important event, such as the Candidates Tournament, requires peace of mind and special concentration. No circumstances, if they are not chess-related, should prevent the grandmaster from demonstrating all of his skills. Unfortunately, at this moment no Armenian can find favorable or adequate psychological atmosphere in Azerbaijan, whereas that is something absolutely necessary. In my opinion, all the participants should be in equal conditions, which is impossible in case of holding the tournament in Azerbaijan. Security guaranties and any kind of additional support cannot be a remedy.

Taking into account the above-mentioned considerations, I inform you that I would be delighted to take part in Candidates Tournament any other country, but my participation in the candidates tournament in Azerbaijan has to be excluded.

I hope you will take into account these considerations while discussing the issue of the tournament venue at the Presidential Board Meeting.

Thank you in advance and best regards,

GM Levon Aronian

The statement is not different from what Aronian has said before. For example, on the final day of the World Championship match in Sofia, in May 2010, Levon Aronian was interviewed in Armenia by Vadim Mkrtchian of “Golos Armenii” (“Voice of Armenia”). Part of the interview was about Aronian's reasons for not wanting to play candidates matches in Baku. Back then he said:

I already expressed my opinion on the topic, as well as in a conversation with FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s assistants. I won’t travel to Baku. It isn’t that I’m frightened for my life. Chess players are creative people and they must have a normal psychological atmosphere. For example, during a tournament I like to walk around the town. Will I be able to do that in Baku? Besides, the safety guarantee that Azerbaijan mentions implies constant personal protection. Going to the toilet with a body guard is hardly likely to help me to play calmly at the chessboard. I think common sense will prevail in FIDE.

(Translation by Colin McGourty - more here.)

At first, common sense did not prevail. A few months later, at the 80th FIDE Congress in Kallithea, Greece it was decided that the 2010/2011 FIDE Candidates matches would be split into two groups and organized in two locations. One part was to be held in Azerbaijan, and the other (in which Aronian would play) in a different country. As we all know, eventually the Candidates matches took place, from start to finish, in Kazan, Russia.

It's a pity that the tense political relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to complicate the World Championship cycle, especially taking into account that the top chess players in these countries, like Aronian and Movsesian, and Radjabov and Mamedyarov, get along fine.

Ironically, a tournament in Baku would normally be a great idea, beause the chess federation in Azerbaijan is doing well financially. However, to organize the Candidates there is not a serious option as long as there happens to be a world class player who cannot play in that country.

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• FIDE
• Candidates
• Levon Aronian
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan

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Invisible Chess Moves won the 2011 ChessCafe Book of the Year award. After several weeks of voting, the book by Yochanan Afek and Emmanuel Neiman beat Jeremy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess and Boris Gulko & Dr Joel R. Sneed's Lessons with a Grandmaster. It was the 12th time that the prize was awarded by chess website ChessCafe.

In the past, big chess authors such as John Nunn and John Watson won the award. Little-known FM Charles Hertan got it for the year 2008, ahead of Lars Bo Hansen and Garry Kasparov. A year later the prize went to Herman Grooten's Chess Strategy for Club Players - The Road to Positional Advantage and last year Yasser Seirawan's Chess Duels won the award for best book of 2010.

Invisible Chess Moves, mentioned in this review by us, has the subitle 'Discover Your Blind Spots and Stop Overlooking Simple Wins'. It is about moves which are harder to see than others.

Why is it that, frequently, uncomplicated wins simply do not enter your mind? Even strong grandmasters suffer from blind spots that obscure some of the best ideas during a game. What is more: often both players fail to see the opportunity that is right in front of their eyes. Neiman and Afek have researched this problem and discovered that there are actually identifiable reasons why your brain discards certain ideas. In this book they demonstrate different categories of hard-to-see chess moves and clearly explain the psychological, positional and geometric factors which cloud the chess player’s brain.

is how the book is described by the publisher.

It was co-written by Yochanan Afek. Everyone reading these lines will know Yochanan from the weekly endgame studies here at ChessVibes - many of them composed by Yochanan himself. The Israeli IM is an active player himself, as well as a trainer and writer. Co-author Emmanuel Neiman is a successful coach in the Paris region and in fact the son of a famous Israeli painter.

The book was first published in France by Payot and later in both English (by New in Chess) and Spanish (Casa del Ajedrez). Afek told us that a Russian publisher has shown strong interest in the manuscript as well.

Congratulations to both authors, and the publisher!

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• ChessCafe
• Yochanan Afek
• Emmanuel Neiman
• New in Chess

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Reigning Women's World Champion Hou Yifan is showing very impressive chess in Gibraltar. After beating Judit Polgar and earlier Zoltan Almasi, in the last two rounds the Chinese grandmaster added two more 2700 scalps: Le Quang Liem and Alexei Shirov. With one round to go, she is in sole first position with 7.5/9. 

Hou Yifan grabbed the lead in round 9 in Gibraltar | Photos in this report by Ray Morris-Hill, more here

Event Tradewise Chess Festival | PGN via TWIC Dates January 24th-February 2nd, 2012 Location Gibraltar, UK System 10-round Swiss, different groups Players Top players in the Masters include Peter Svidler, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Michael Adams, Zoltan Almasi, Le Quang Liem, Judit Polgar and Alexei Shirov Rate of play 100 minutes for 50 moves followed by 15 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds increment for each move starting from the first move.

There's still one round to go, but at the moment the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Masters is dominated by one name: Hou Yifan. The Chinese, who will turn 18 at the end of this month and is in Gibraltar with her mother, seems to be in the middle of a new breakthrough in her career. Not only is she is the clear favourite in any women's event she participates in, and not only did she manage to beat Judit Polgar, but she's capable of beating more than one 2700 in one event! After her win against Polgar, Hou Yifan beat Le Quang Liem on Tuesday and Alexei Shirov on Wednesday.

Round 8

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Thanks to this (slightly lucky) win, Hou Yifan caught Mickey Adams in the standings. For the third time in a row, the Englishman reached a rooks + opposite-coloured bishops ending with White, but this time it was an easy draw for the opponent: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Nigel Short also drew his game, with Zoltan Almasi, starting with 1.b3.

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Peter Svidler and Alexei Shirov came a bit closer to the top of the leaderboard. In Svidler's case, the Russian was just much more familiar with the intricacies of the opening, his favorite Grünfeld.

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Shirov won a tactical slugfest against former World Championship Candidate Artur Jussupow.

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In the video below, produced by Macauley Peterson, Shirov explains this game:

And in this video there are excerpt from the round 8 live commentary: the exciting climax with dual-game commentary on Hou Yifan vs. Le Quang Liem and Artur Jussupow vs. Alexei Shirov. GM Simon Williams comments.

Round 9

In Wednesday's 9th round Hou Yifan grabbed sole lead, thanks to a win with Black against Alexei Shirov. It was a great fight in an ending that started as a Poisoned Pawn:

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The video below shows 15 minutes from the 5 hour live show, with excerpt from GM Simon Williams commentary, with Alexei Shirov vs. Hou Yifan, Michael Adams vs. Zoltan Almasi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs. Varuzhan Akobian, David Howell vs Sergei Movsesian, and Judit Polgar vs. Kaido Kulaots.

The final round of the Masters starts at 11.00am (GMT+1), 05.00am (EST) on 2 February followed by a play-off for 1st Prize if required. Top pairings:

1 25 GM Hou Yifan 2605 7½ 7 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2747 2 2 14 GM Bologan Viktor 2680 7 7 GM Adams Michael 2724 3 3 11 GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2700 7 7 GM Short Nigel D 2677 15 4 10 GM Movsesian Sergei 2700 6½ 6½ GM Svidler Peter 2749 1 5 21 GM Gustafsson Jan 2643 6½ 6½ GM Almasi Zoltan 2717 4 6 22 GM Negi Parimarjan 2641 6½ 6½ GM Le Quang Liem 2714 5 7 23 GM Erdos Viktor 2634 6½ 6½ GM Sutovsky Emil 2703 9 8 27 GM Howell David W L 2603 6½ 6 GM Shirov Alexei 2710 7 9 6 GM Polgar Judit 2710 6 6 GM Korchnoi Viktor 2558 37   All eyes will be on Gibraltar to see if Hou Yifan can claim the first prize of £20,000 - as well as the top female award of £10,000! Tradewise Chess Festival | Masters | Round 9 standings (top 40) Rk. Title Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 1 GM Hou Yifan CHN 2605 7.5 2892.0 2 GM Adams Michael ENG 2724 7.0 2826.0 3 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE 2747 7.0 2808.0 4 GM Short Nigel D ENG 2677 7.0 2807.0 5 GM Sasikiran Krishnan IND 2700 7.0 2776.0 6 GM Bologan Viktor MDA 2680 7.0 2740.0 7 GM Le Quang Liem VIE 2714 6.5 2744.0 8 GM Almasi Zoltan HUN 2717 6.5 2740.0 9 GM Howell David W L ENG 2603 6.5 2727.0 10 GM Movsesian Sergei ARM 2700 6.5 2707.0 11 GM Svidler Peter RUS 2749 6.5 2701.0 12 GM Negi Parimarjan IND 2641 6.5 2692.0 13 GM Erdos Viktor HUN 2634 6.5 2633.0 14 GM Sutovsky Emil ISR 2703 6.5 2624.0 15 GM Gustafsson Jan GER 2643 6.5 2618.0 16 GM Gopal G N IND 2566 6.0 2669.0 17 GM Polgar Judit HUN 2710 6.0 2668.0 18 GM Dzagnidze Nana GEO 2535 6.0 2658.0 19 GM Laznicka Viktor CZE 2704 6.0 2656.0 20 GM David Alberto LUX 2598 6.0 2642.0 21-22 GM Shirov Alexei LAT 2710 6.0 2635.0 21-22 GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian ROU 2650 6.0 2635.0 23 GM Brunello Sabino ITA 2581 6.0 2633.0 24 GM Kulaots Kaido EST 2581 6.0 2619.0 25 GM Akobian Varuzhan USA 2617 6.0 2614.0 26 GM Rapport Richard HUN 2543 6.0 2605.0 27 GM Zhu Chen QAT 2472 6.0 2604.0 28 GM Fridman Daniel GER 2660 6.0 2603.0 29 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA 2699 6.0 2601.0 30 GM Jussupow Artur GER 2569 6.0 2600.0 31 GM Cramling Pia SWE 2491 6.0 2595.0 32 GM El Debs Felipe De Cresce BRA 2497 6.0 2585.0 33 GM Salem A R Saleh UAE 2505 6.0 2583.0 34 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2523 6.0 2565.0 35 GM Sargissian Gabriel ARM 2683 6.0 2560.0 36 GM Berg Emanuel SWE 2550 6.0 2552.0 37 GM Al-Sayed Mohammed QAT 2524 6.0 2547.0 38 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2652 6.0 2527.0 39 GM Del Rio De Angelis Salvador G ESP 2531 6.0 2517.0 40 GM Iturrizaga Edoardo VEN 2649 6.0 2511.0

Photographer Ray Morris-Hill got this nice shot of Hou Yifan running Wednesday morning in the Gibraltar sunshine

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• Gibraltar
• Hou Yifan
• Tradewise

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• Reports

 

While Sue’s been busy writing on our road trip I haven’t forgotten about my Game of the Month (actually I had but Sue emailed me to remind me!). I decided to choose one of my own games. Overall the tournament was a bit of a disaster from a rating point of view, losing to Chris Wallis, an Aussie FM already put me in a big rating hole. I can’t have many complaints about the game though –  my only serious mistake was declining to go into a drawn endgame instead choosing an unclear option, after which Chris played perfectly. The long time control certainly seemed to suit him. I also finished the tournament with a loss to the tournament victor Darryl Johansen. The Australian GM has had a good patch recently, also winning the Australian Championships. Again I got too ambitious, I miscalculated something when sacrificing a piece and should have simply repeated position for the draw (an option I had twice). Again after declining the draw my opponent played very well and didn’t give me any more chances.

However the tournament wasn’t all bad. From a social point of view it was great to meet up with our Kiwi friends and spending time in New Zealand again was very pleasant. I also played a couple of nice games – the one below won the Best Game prize, sponsored by Grant Kerr.

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Ατομικά Νεανικά Κρήτης Ε.Σ.Σ.Κ. Προκήρυξη 2012

Ξεκινάει το ερχόμενο Σάββατο 4 Φεβρουαρίου 2012 το πρώτος μέρος της τελικής φάσης των Προκριματικών των Ατομικών Νεανικών Κρήτης, για τις κατηγορίες <8 έως και <16.
Το πρώτο μέρος της τελικής φάσης περιλαμβάνει 5 γύρους, οι οποίοι θα διεξαχθούν το ερχόμενο Σαββατοκύριακο 4-5 Φεβρουαρίου, το επόμενο Σαββατοκύριακο 11-12 Φεβρουαρίου και το Σάββατο 18 Φεβρουαρίου 2012. Οι υπόλοιποι αγώνες θα διεξαχθούν στις 30,31 Μαρτίου και 1 Απριλίου 2012, σε ξενοδοχείο.
Παρακαλούνται όλοι οι προκριθέντες να επιβεβαιώσουν τη συμμετοχή τους στην τελική φάση μέχρι αύριο Πέμπτη 2 Φεβρουαρίου 2012.

FIDE has started a new inititive to support chess federations and chess in schools projects. The major goals are to increase on the one hand the number of members, and on the other hand the actual income, for individual federations. In the press release, which you can read in full below, an important novelty is introduced: student membership.

The text in which the whole project is described is quite long, and not crystal clear. For example, it's not immediately clear to us why a student should apply for a free membership. Besides, it's also interesting to note that early on in the press release, FIDE is anticipating potential criticism concerning their (lack of) succes in acquiring corporate sponsorship. It's not a secret that the World Chess Federation is suffering from an image problem, and the officials are well aware of it. Let's wait and see what this project will bring!

CIS Manifesto - Big or small - Your children need you!

PRESS RELEASE, 24 January 2012

Are you big or are you small? Whichever you are, there is something here for you. If you are one of the world’s largest federations, your budget may rival or even surpass that of FIDE. If you are small, your annual budget may be only USD 30,000, or even less.

But are you as big as you want to be, as large as you ought to be? In our view, the answer is a clear "no." One of you has about 80,000 members, half of them juniors. However, that same federation has at least 500,000 (maybe a million) children playing chess in schools across the country. An 8% conversion rate is not bad in historical terms, but what if it were 20% or 30%? Wouldn't that make a big difference to your federation? Not just directly to your finances, but to your NUMBERS, and it is those numbers that carry weight, especially with potential sponsors. If you are small, growing your numbers will make an even bigger difference proportionately.

FIDE has been accused of doing nothing to acquire sponsors. Such accusations are entirely unfounded, but it is true that we have not yet been entirely successful. FIDE has found many sponsors in the past quarter of a century, but most of them have been municipalities or from Russia. Let's think about Russia - why is it that so many events are supported by Russian sponsors? To us, the answer seems simple. Russia is one of very few countries that has already managed to build both an audience and a vault of potential sponsors because all the leading businessmen know about chess, they can play, they were brought up with it. It is that background that facilitates finding sponsors. The more children who encounter chess, the better. When they grow up, graduate and move into business and political life, so there will be an audience for chess and a business and political elite willing and able to support chess organizations to feed that audience.

Let us help you to build your federation and your chess in schools programme. Our objective is to be able to generate more income for each and every federation than you pay to FIDE, much more. This reversal of flow of funds is something new for FIDE. For FIFA it is easy because of their huge income from the sale of TV rights. Regrettably, there is no such interest in the TV rights for chess events.

To try and achieve these dual objectives (numbers and money for you), we have instituted FIDE Student Membership as part of our Chess in Schools programme. Originally, we had planned to phase this in with the CIS100 franchise modules, but we soon realised that the scope is much wider.

Why should you promote FIDE Student Membership, rather than just push on trying to recruit more juniors directly to your federation? We believe that Student Membership offers additional advantages, especially the two Unique Selling Points. The USP of Premium Membership (€10 per annum, of which FIDE will take only €1) is a FIDE Student Rating. The USP of Basic Membership is that it is FREE (at no cost to you). We believe that this can reach youngsters that national federation membership may not attract, but you will benefit either way, especially if these children go on to take up BOTH memberships (Student and national federation), and we will be pushing them to do just that.

Let us stress again, since there is so much cynicism and so many suspicious minds (especially in the media), that this is designed to help your federation and our multinational chess family build towards the objective of 1,000,000,000 chess players on the planet.

Gens Una Sumus - Get in touch, let’s talk. But first, read on ...

What do you need to do to take advantage of this initiative?

There are five options:

• You can apply ('bid') to become a CIS100 project country.
• If you are a federation from a ‘small’ country (population less than one million), you can apply (‘bid’) to become a CIS30 project country.
• If you are a ‘small’ federation (less than 2,000 members) you can apply for ‘seeding’.
• If you are a big federation, you don’t need free boards and sets, nor seed capital, but we can probably help you with guidance – the experience drawn from hundreds of initiatives in dozens of countries.
• Any federation can take advantage of promoting Student Membership to the children in your country as a simple partnership.

These options are not mutually exclusive, especially the fifth one which can and should be implemented if you are doing any of 1-4. What is Student Membership? What is involved in options 1-4? Read on! Please, send us your feedback to cis@fide.com.

STUDENT MEMBERSHIP

[SM = Student Member/ship; PSM = Premium Student Member/ship]

We introduced Student Membership to form a part of the CIS100 projects. It can also be a stand alone module. The big difference is that ANY federation should be able to manage this and enjoy the benefits.

Basic Student Membership (SM) is free to anyone. The free version is handled automatically (more- or-less) by our web server (the only place that registration for free membership can be made). This is valuable, both to you and to us, because it adds to the number of your and our members, making chess ever more interesting to potential sponsors. However, the main interest is in Premium Student Membership (PSM with an annual fee of EUR 10).

Why the flags? They are the partner federations (see below for more about partner federations).

Premium Student Members (PSMs) get a Premium Pack for their €10 per year membership fee. The standard elements are:

- plastic ID card
- welcome letter
- FIDE Student Rating
- chess book
- weekly (32/year) newsletter containing practical tips, instructional material and puzzles
- dedicated web site
– a lollipop full of instruction and entertainment.

1. CIS100 Projects

These involve funding of USD 45,000 per annum, to provide the materials (and pay for some administration) for 100 chess classrooms in your country. Bidding for one of these projects involves a big commitment on the part of your federation. If you are prepared for that and want to bid, then send us some explanation of why you think you would make a big success of this. You should, as a general rule, have the backing of your Ministry of Education, if only as a general expression of support. If your bid is sufficiently convincing, we will send you a route map for that long road and then we can start discussing whether (and how) you can really implement it all. The funding is in the form of a loan, to be repaid out of PSM fee income.

You decide what benefit(s) to provide your Student Members with. That is in addition to the standard elements.

2. CIS30 Projects

This is based upon the CIS100 module, but it should be possible rapidly to saturate the schools in your country. The coordination will be a great deal less onerous (although you may need to provide a lot of translation if your main language is a minority one). Funding will be in the region of USD 15,000 per annum. The funding is in the form of a loan, to be repaid out of PSM fee income.

3. Seeding

We are aware of quite a few countries with fair size populations but small membership of federations which lack the resources even to bid for a CIS100 Project. Our idea to help them is to provide them seed funding of about USD 5,000 per annum. The idea is for that seed funding to be used to promote SM & PSM within your territory. By building up the number of SMs and especially PSMs, to grow your income (and ‘presence’) to the point that you can at least manage option 5 and perhaps graduate to a CIS100 project.

4. Harmonious collaboration

The experience gathered by us at CIS (from many dozens of national federations) means that FIDE can offer you something greater than the sum of the parts. We want to work with you to grow numbers. We offer you the benefit of our (and your!) experience.

5. Simple Partnership

This is very similar to option 4, but presumes a much greater involvement by us and much less by you (so more suitable for less developed federations).

Options 1-3 will generally run for an initial term of three years. Contracts to be agreed.

PARTNER FEDERATIONS

Our initial partner federations are the CIS100 pilot project countries. However, we would like every single national federation to partner this initiative under option 5 above.

What are the benefits?

• Your own dedicated space on our web server.
• Top quality content provided at no cost to your federation.
• FIDE’s global advertising reach, directed to your benefit.
• A substantial increase in numbers – the take up of free membership (no cost to your federation) is expected to be very large and that will help you in your presentations to government, sponsors and the media.
• An increase in revenue – your federation will receive the vast bulk of the income generated by PSMs – up to 90% (about 60-70% net of all costs, all of which can be under your control).

What are the obligations?

Appoint a reliable coordinator (more than one in the case of larger countries).
Keep your part of the web site updated, including translation of the materials freely provided to you if no translation is available – most of the major languages are done by us.
Depending upon the level of partnership (determined by number of PSMs), to manage the mailing of their Premium Packs (in order to keep costs down and maximize your revenue.

TIMELINE

We will be finalizing this year’s projects soon after the next Presidential Board meeting, which is just a few weeks away (3-6 February), so try to make your pitch before then. Get in touch, let’s talk.

Your feedback (to cis@fide.com) can help us to improve this never-ending project.

Ali Nihat Yazici
Chairman, FIDE Chess in Schools

 

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• Chess in schools

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Like every year, New In Chess is asking its readers what they think was the best opening novelty of 2011. The inventor of the novelty will receive a prize of €350 ($450). Among those who have voted for the winning novelty, a one-year subscription to the Yearbook will be raffled.

You might remember last year's New in Chess Yearbook Novelty of the Year which was Vishy Anand's 10.Na3! in the Catalan against Veselin Topalov in their World Championship match in Sofia, May 2010.

NIC Yearbook editor GM Genna Sosonko gives the first prize to Vishy Anand

The voting for 2011 Novelty of the Year has now started. Candidate novelties must meet the following conditions:

• they must have been played in 2011
• they must have been published in New In Chess Yearbooks 98, 99, 100 or 101

Here's the shortlist of six candidate novelties:

 

   

 

The shortlist of six candidate novelties can also be found here on the New in Chess website. There, visitors can cast their final vote until February 12, 2012.

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• New in Chess
• Yearbook
• Novelty
• poll

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• Announcement

Hou Yifan, reigning World Champion, defeated Judit Polgar, the best female chess player ever, in their first over-the-board encounter on Monday in Gibraltar. The two ladies faced each other in the 7th round of the Tradewise Chess Festival's Masters tournament and the Chinese grandmaster won an endgame that started from a Sicilian, Taimanov variation. Mickey Adams in leading the tournament with 6 points out of 7 games.

Hou Yifan and Judit Polgar meet in Gibraltar | Photos in this report by Ray Morris-Hill, more here

Event Tradewise Chess Festival | PGN via TWIC Dates January 24th-February 2nd, 2012 Location Gibraltar, UK System Swiss, different groups Players Top players in the Masters include Peter Svidler, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Michael Adams, Zoltan Almasi, Le Quang Liem, Judit Polgar and Alexei Shirov Rate of play 100 minutes for 50 moves followed by 15 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds increment for each move starting from the first move.

Last Friday we already reported on the first three rounds of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, which celebrates its 10th edition this year. At that point Nigel Short, Mickey Adams, Hou Yifan, Sabino Brunello and Ruben Felgaer were still on a 100% score, while top seeds Peter Svidler and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov were already a point behind.

In round 4 Hou Yifan of China drew quickly with Mickey Adams on board 1. In a Marshall Ruy Lopez, The Women's World Champion played white and quickly gave back the extra pawn, but her bishop pair offered no winning chances. Sabino Brunello and Nigel Short also drew quickly and so did Judit Polgar and Humpy Koneru. Viktor Laznicka's opponent fell into a trap he should have seen:

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Sergei Movsesian handled Artur Jusspow's Petroff like a hot knife through butter:

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Traditionally the Gibraltar organizers invite many women to their tournament. Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia played a splendid game with Black against Brazil's Alexandr Fier:

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At the end of the round Hou Yifan, Adams, Short, Le Quang Liem, Laznicka, Sasikiran, Movsesian, Brunello, Gopal, Rapport and Dzagnidze were all on 3.5/4.

In round 5 Adams faced the Jaenisch/Schliemann and won an ending with rooks and opposite-coloured bishops, as he got the enemy king in a mating net. Two rounds later he would do exactly the same! (See below.)

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Nigel Short played the Closed Sicilian and drew with Vietnam's Le Quang Liem. India's Gopal did something that not many manage these days: beat the solid Czech GM Viktor Laznicka in his Caro-Kann. Dzagnidze continued playing well:

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Sasikiran beat Hou Yifan in an instructive manner:

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In the same round, 2700+ players Zoltan Almasi and Peter Svidler dropped half points, playing white against Richard Rapport (Israel) and Nadezhda Kosintseva (Russia) respectively.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tried an original way of handling the Hedgehog, but it backfired completely:

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Gopal and Adams drew a somewhat boring game in round 6 and with some more excitement the same result was seen in Dzagnidze-Sasikiran. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had a narrow escape against Hungarian GM Viktor Erdos:

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Nigel Short won a nice game with Black against Humpy Koneru:

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Sergey Movesian allowed Anna Zatonskih to get a second queen because he had found a nice checkmate:

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In Monday's 7th round, Mickey Adams won in a similar manner as in round 5:

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Nigel Short kept playing originally with White, and Nana Dzagnidze kept playing strongly:

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Nana Dzagnidze is having an excellent tournament thus far

The following game was arguably the most spectacular of the tournament so far:

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Video Almasi-David

Macauley Peterson is producing live streaming commentary and videos in Gibraltar. Here are both Almasi and David looking at this marvelous game afterwards:

We finish this report with the game that made the headline: the first clash ever between Hou Yifan and Judit Polgar. The Hungarian used less time than her Chinese opponent, but miscalculated somewhere:

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Hou Yifan won her historical first clash with Judit Polgar

Video Hou Yifan-Polgar

Macauley Peterson is producing live streaming commentary and videos in Gibraltar. Here are highlights from the Hou Yifan-Polgar game with GM Simon Williams:

Viktor Korchnoi is again playing in Gibraltar. The living legend is on 4/7.

Tradewise Chess Festival | Masters | Round 7 standings (top 40) Rk. Title Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 1 GM Adams Michael ENG 2724 6.0 2879.0 2 GM Hou Yifan CHN 2605 5.5 2823.0 3 GM Short Nigel D ENG 2677 5.5 2810.0 4 GM Le Quang Liem VIE 2714 5.5 2803.0 5 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE 2747 5.5 2795.0 6 GM Sasikiran Krishnan IND 2700 5.5 2775.0 7 GM Almasi Zoltan HUN 2717 5.5 2768.0 8 GM Movsesian Sergei ARM 2700 5.5 2759.0 9 GM Gopal G N IND 2566 5.5 2733.0 10 GM Dzagnidze Nana GEO 2535 5.5 2708.0 11 GM Negi Parimarjan IND 2641 5.5 2700.0 12 GM Laznicka Viktor CZE 2704 5.0 2688.0 13 GM Howell David W L ENG 2603 5.0 2679.0 14 GM Svidler Peter RUS 2749 5.0 2677.0 15 GM Parligras Mircea-Emilian ROU 2650 5.0 2672.0 16 GM Bologan Viktor MDA 2680 5.0 2662.0 17 GM El Debs Felipe De Cresce BRA 2497 5.0 2647.0 18-19 GM Shirov Alexei LAT 2710 5.0 2646.0 18-19 GM Koneru Humpy IND 2589 5.0 2646.0 20 GM Jussupow Artur GER 2569 5.0 2617.0 21 GM Akobian Varuzhan USA 2617 5.0 2609.0 22 GM Gustafsson Jan GER 2643 5.0 2608.0 23 GM Sutovsky Emil ISR 2703 5.0 2599.0 24 GM Zhu Chen QAT 2472 5.0 2589.0 25 GM Rapport Richard HUN 2543 5.0 2582.0 26 GM Salem A R Saleh UAE 2505 5.0 2563.0 27 GM Fier Alexandr BRA 2603 5.0 2537.0 28 GM Del Rio De Angelis Salvador G ESP 2531 5.0 2477.0 29 GM Polgar Judit HUN 2710 4.5 2648.0 30 GM David Alberto LUX 2598 4.5 2640.0 31 GM Brunello Sabino ITA 2581 4.5 2622.0 32 GM Felgaer Ruben ARG 2571 4.5 2599.0 33-34 GM Fridman Daniel GER 2660 4.5 2583.0 33-34 GM Cramling Pia SWE 2491 4.5 2583.0 35 GM Kulaots Kaido EST 2581 4.5 2579.0 36 GM Erdos Viktor HUN 2634 4.5 2575.0 37 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA 2699 4.5 2572.0 38 IM Arnold Marc T USA 2482 4.5 2568.0 39 GM Nabaty Tamir ISR 2563 4.5 2565.0 40 IM Muzychuk Anna SLO 2580 4.5 2562.0

 

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• Hou Yifan
• Judit Polgar
• Michael Adams

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The Grand Slam Chess Association announced on Sunday that the world famous tournament in Linares, Spain will be held again this year, after it was cancelled in 2011. The Association also communicated the dates for the 5th Grand Slam Masters Final, and requested FIDE to "avoid any conflicts with our schedules".

The following press release was distributed on Sunday to the journalists who were present in the press room in Wijk aan Zee for the Tata Steel tournament:

PRESS RELEASE

The Grand Slam Chess Association (GSCA) had a meeting in Wijk aan Zee on Saturday January 28th. The representatives of four top tournaments (Tata Steel-Wijk aan Zee, Ciudad de Linares, Kings-Bazna and Bilbao (Masters Final) discussed about several matters. The most important ones are the following:

1. The 75th edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will be from 11th up to and including 27th of January. The GSCA warmly congratulated the Organizing Committee on this important achievement.
    
2. Linares will share the 2012 tournament with a Mexican city, starting most likely at the second half of April. The venue and dates will be concreted soon.
    
3. Just as in four previous years, Bilbao will also host the 5th edition of the Masters Final, from September 24th to October 13th, with six players, in a double round-robin. Negotiations are being held with several countries to share the tournament, as it happened very successfully in 2010 with Shanghai and 2011 with Sao Paulo.

   Carlsen and Kramnik have been already invited as winners of the Tal Memorial-Moscow 2011 and the London Classics 2011, respectively. The winner of the World Championship Anand-Gelfand will also be invited. The remaining three places will be for the winners of Tata Steel 2012, Linares 2012 and Kings-Bazna 2012. If the same player wins more than one tournament, the highest-ranked second place finisher from one of these tournaments according to the July 2012 list will be awarded a spot. If all the second-place finishers have already earned spots in the 2012 Masters Final by other means, the Organizing Committee will decide who gets the spot by direct invitation.
    

4. Given that FIDE has not announced yet the dates for the Candidates Tournament, we will send this press release to FIDE today. We expect FIDE will avoid any conflicts with our schedules.

Wijk aan Zee, January 29th 2012

Signed by:

Jeroen Van den Berg -Tata Steel Chess Director
Juan Fernandez - Mayor of Linares
Elisabeta Polihroniade- Kings Bazna Director
Juan Carlos Fernandez - Bilbao Masters Final Director

The information about the future of the Tata Steel tournament is not different from what was expressed by CEO and Managing Director of Tata Steel Europe Dr Karl-Ulrich Köhler, during the opening ceremony in Wijk aan Zee two weeks ago. The tournament will be held for at least one more year, and considering the fact that it's the 75th jubilee edition, that's no surprise. At a press conference on Sunday afternoon, tournament director Jeroen van den Berg once again said that he didn't know anything yet about the year after.

It's great news to see that the Linares tournament wasn't taken off the calendar for good. It's one of the longest running top tournaments with a wonderful history. The connection with Mexico is not new: in the past there was a cooperation with the city of Morelia, for three years. Apparently a similar concept, where two cities share the organization and finances, will be repeated.

The very same set-up will again be the case for the Grand Slam final as well: the second half will, as always, take place in Bilbao but the other city (in previous years Shanghai and Sao Paulo) is yet to be announced.

And so the calendar for 2012 is, like last year, completey out of balance. Only two elite events (Wijk aan Zee and Bazna) and one more big tournament (the European Championship) are scheduled for the first half of the year, and many more for the second half, such as Biel, Dortmund, the Olympiad, the European Club Cup, the European Team Championship, the Tal Memorial, the London Chess Classic and... the FIDE Candidates tournament. It's understandable that the Grand Slam Chess Association urges FIDE to avoid an overlap with one of their events, but it won't be easy!

Update: On Tuesday morning, January 31st the GSCA distributed an updated version of the press release via email, in which it is confirmed that Levon Aronian qualified for the Grand Slam Masters Final by winning the Tata Steel tournament. Besides, we forgot to mention that because of their planned match (which we mentioned in our Tata round 11 report), Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik will probably not be able to play Linares/Mexico.

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Today is the 75th birthday of 10th World Champion Boris Vasilievich Spassky. Taking over the title from Tigran Petrosian in 1969, Spassky lost his title in the famous "Match of the Century" against Bobby Fischer in 1972. Spassky is the oldest living former World Champion.

Spassky at the 1984 Thessaloniki Olympiad | Photo Gerhard Hund

Spassky was born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) on January 30, 1937 and learned to play chess at the age of five on a train evacuating from Leningrad during World War II. He first drew wide attention at the age of ten, when he defeated Soviet champion and later World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik in a simultaneous exhibition.

Spassky won the Soviet Chess Championship twice outright (1961, 1973), and twice more lost in playoffs (1956, 1963), after tying for first during the event proper. He was a World Chess Championship candidate on seven occasions (1956, 1965, 1968, 1974, 1977, 1980, and 1985). He played seven times for the Soviet Olympiad team and won thirteen medals. Spassky won dozens of international tournaments.

In the 1965 Candidates Matches, Spassky beat Paul Keres 6–4 and Efim Geller 5.5–2.5, both in Riga. Then, in his Candidates' Final match against Mikhail Tal in Tbilisi, Spassky lost the first game but won the match 7–4, qualifying for his first World Championship match.

Spassky lost a keenly fought match in Moscow, with three wins against Petrosian's four, with seventeen draws, though the last of his three victories came only in the twenty-third game, after Petrosian had already ensured his retention of the title. A few months after the match, however, Spassky finished ahead of Petrosian and a super-class field at Santa Monica 1966 (the Piatigorsky Cup), with 11½/18, half a point ahead of Bobby Fischer.

As losing finalist in 1966, Spassky was automatically seeded into the next Candidates' cycle. In 1968, he beat Geller again, in Sukhumi, and then defeated Bent Larsen in Malmö with 5.5-2.5. The Candidates final was against his Leningrad rival Viktor Korchnoi and in Kiev Spassky triumphed 6.5-3.5. In the "return match" in Moscow, 1969, Spassky defeated Petrosian 12.5-10.5.

We took this photo at the 2008 Chess Olympiad, where Spassky was guest of honour. In his top years, he was considered an all-rounder on the chess board. His adaptable "universal style" was a distinct advantage in beating many top grandmasters.

Spassky's reign as world champion lasted three years, as he lost to Fischer of the United States in 1972 in the "Match of the Century" in Reykjavik, Iceland. However, he maintained his composure and competitiveness and continued to be active in the World Championship cycle and international tournaments.

In 1992, Bobby Fischer, after a twenty-year hiatus from chess, re-emerged to arrange a "Revenge Match of the 20th century" against Spassky in Montenegro and Belgrade; this was a rematch of the 1972 World Championship. At the time, Spassky was rated 106th in the FIDE rankings, and Fischer did not appear on the list at all, owing to his inactivity. This match was essentially Spassky's last major challenge. Spassky lost the match with a score of +5 −10 =15. Spassky then played young female prodigy Judit Polgár in a 1993 match at Budapest, losing narrowly with 4.5–5.5.

Spassky continued to play occasional events through much of the 1990s, such as the Veterans versus Women series.

On October 1, 2006, Spassky suffered a minor stroke during a chess lecture in San Francisco. In his first major post-stroke play, he drew a six-game rapid match with Hungarian Grandmaster Lajos Portisch in April 2007. In subsequent years, Spassky was a welcome guest and commentator at top events such as the Mtel Masters in Sofia and the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Nalchik.

On September 23, 2010, Russian media reported that Spassky had suffered another stroke while in Moscow, and was taken to hospital. After that he returned to France (where has lived since 1976) for a long rehabilitation programme.

The German Chessbase published an interview today with Spassky, conducted by Dagobert Kohlmeyer, where it says that the 10th World Champion is celebrating his birthday at home in Paris. Spassky is not in a good condition. However, in his characteristically optimistic and jovial tone, he says that according to the circumstances, he's doing well.

The stroke has only caught one brain hemisphere. Thought and speech are still working. Above all, the side that is responsible for chess work, is still reliable!

Boris Spassky was a special guest at the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany, There we recorded the following press conference, hosted by Susan Polgar. Highly recommended!

We used Wikipedia for this article.

Update 17:06 CET

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov sent the following message to the 10th World Champion:

Dear Boris Vasilievich!

It is my great pleasure to most cordially and sincerely congratulate you on the occasion of your 75th birthday, on behalf of the leadership of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), me personally and millions of your fans in all parts of the globe.

There are plenty of remarkable mementoes in your sportive chess career. You have demonstrated on many occasions your ability to concentrate and impeccably perform under very complicated circumstances. Your ability to play and your will to win is a true example for a young generation of chess players.

Thanks to you, in 1972 after your World Championship match with Bobby Fischer, the entire world learnt what chess is. Then, only due to your noble position, a chess crown was taken by Fischer. For the whole chess society and not only you are a model of decency and nobility.

Your professionalism, enthusiasm, highest level of loyalty, honesty and culture as well as your modesty and kindness towards people make everyone who works with you and know you, respect you immensely.

After the termination of the active sports activities, you pass your experience to the younger generation. A chess school in Satka, Cheliabinsk region of Russia, is proudly named after you and for 10 years is a center of an active chess live in the Urals Federal district, where chess is cherished and loved. Hundreds of children in the remote places of Russia thanks to you got to know the wonderful world of chess.

I believe that these temporary health difficulties will not interfere with your future creative activities for the benefit of chess, and you will keep delighting us with your worldly wise advice and scintillating commentaries.

In my capacity as FIDE President, it is my pleasure to extend an invitation for you to be my representative at the World Chess Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand, this May.

Dear Boris Vassilievich, on this wonderful day, I would like to wish you further success, good luck, the best of health. We hope you will be always in the best of spirits and your energy will have no end. Let peace and balance always stay in your heart!

With best wishes,

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
President

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© 2011, José Diaz

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