http://gameknot.com/ World chess news digest by GameKnot.com, where you can play chess online! en-us The world championship chess match in Moscow between Indian titleholder Viswanathan Anand of India and challenger Boris Gelfand of Israel has reached the quarter post, with a few fireworks but no decisive results in the first three games of the scheduled 12-game match. Gelfand, the underdog, came under heavy pressure in Monday’s Game 3, but managed to double his rooks on the seventh rank and force a perpetual check. Play continues through the end of the month, and it’s looking like the first chess player to notch a win could gain a decisive edge. It was the underdog Gelfand who scored the first (psychological) point in the very first game, throwing the chess champion off stride with his unusual opening choice of ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=19033;ext=1 Tue, 15 May 2012 15:59:38 GMT The opening match of the first chess title to be decided in Moscow since the Cold War ended in a cagey draw on Friday as the rivals probed for weaknesses ahead of an epic three-week series. India's title-holder Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand of Israel shook hands after a compelling start to a clash that chess authorities hope will grip the public as it did when the Cold War shadowed the game in the 1970s and 80s. Moscow is hosting the 12-match series at the State Tretyakov Gallery with a view to bringing back some of the Soviet-era magic to a city that many Russians regard as the game's natural home. The 42-year-old Anand began his third defence of the world chess title since 2007 playing white and ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=19009;ext=1 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:35:16 GMT The top-ranked players in three elite chess tournaments — the United States Chess Championship in St. Louis, the Sigeman & Company event in Malmo, Sweden, and the 47th Capablanca Memorial chess tournament in Cuba — took early leads last week. In St. Louis, Hikaru Nakamura, who is No. 7 in the world, scored two and a half points in his first three games, including wins over Robert Hess and Ray Robson, both up-and-coming chess players. One of the tournament’s favorites, Gata Kamsky, the defending chess champion, was tied with Nakamura, having won matches against Alejandro Ramirez and Alexander Onischuk. At the Sigeman chess tournament, Fabiano Caruana, the Italian-American chess star who ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=19021;ext=1 Sun, 13 May 2012 17:23:20 GMT At the U.S. Chess Championships under way in St. Louis, all eyes are on America's top-ranked chess player, and the favorite going into the tournament, Hikaru Nakamura. During the past decade, Nakamura has made a name for himself as the new superstar of American chess, and with it, he's become a kind of spokesperson for a game that hasn't been too popular in this country since the days of world chess champion Bobby Fischer. In an interview with NPR's Michel Martin for Tell Me More's series on Asian-American "game changers," Nakamura says the comparisons with Fischer are always present. In 2003, at the age of 15, Nakamura became the youngest American chess grandmaster. In 2005, he became ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=19012;ext=1 Sat, 12 May 2012 16:34:14 GMT Lurking in the background, hiding their identity, they seem mysterious, magical, beautiful. At first, they observed the game of chess from a distance, but as centuries went by, women were drawn closer to the chess board. Still, for ages they could not play chess in public and it took some courage and determination to break into the male-dominated game. Let's have a look at some who paved the way. Three Sisters. Women have come a long way since 1555 when the Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola finished her famous painting "The Chess Game." Did Anguissola play chess? Her patron was the Spanish King Philip II, who also supported Ruy Lopez de Segura, the priest who gave us the Spanish Game ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=19007;ext=1 Fri, 11 May 2012 16:02:44 GMT As many of you surely know by now, the European Chess Union has established a dress code for chess players. (Okay, some of you don’t know — you don’t follow chess and you don’t think it’s a sport. Well, friends, at a minimum, it’s “mental sport.” And, as far as I’m concerned, Bobby Fischer was every bit the athlete that Michael Jordan was; both were hyper-competitive and ruthless in their pursuits, plus Fischer was a better trash talker.) Before we detail the dress code — apparently, the bust line has become a problem — as a former non-grandmaster, let me emphatically state my opinion in this sartorial area: Chess needs a dress code like Switzerland needs a navy. Poker needs a dress code. At the moment, all ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18979;ext=1 Wed, 09 May 2012 16:39:37 GMT It may not be the sexiest chess pairing of all time, but we have a legitimate world chess championship match on tap and one that could prove more entertaining than some anticipate. Opening ceremonies will be held Thursday at Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery for the 12-game, three-week FIDE world title match between chess champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Russian-born challenger GM Boris Gelfand, based in Israel. Game 1 will be played Friday, with play concluding May 28. If the score is tied after 12 games, the players will play a four-game rapid playoff (Game/25) on May 30. Gelfand, who leapfrogged several higher-ranked chess players to qualify for the finals, is a distinct underdog, but he is a hard man to beat, and ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18990;ext=1 Tue, 08 May 2012 16:04:29 GMT Vaibhav Suri became India’s newest chess grandmaster last Sunday when he won the Luc Open in Lille, France. At 15 years, 2 months and 21 days old, he is the 27th youngest grandmaster in history. Some chess players who have become a grandmaster at such a young age have gone on to join the chess elite, but others have floundered. And some relatively late bloomers have risen to the top. Sergey Karjakin, 22, who was born in Ukraine, holds the record as the youngest grandmaster (12 years, 7 months) and is among the successful chess prodigies: he is now No. 6 in the world. The top-ranked chess player, Magnus Carlsen, 21, of Norway, became a grandmaster four months after his 13th birthday. But the Chinese chess player ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18984;ext=1 Mon, 07 May 2012 16:07:28 GMT Fabiano Caruana and Gawain Jones, two recent heroes of this column, have been in action once more this week, in the Italian team chess championships at Arvier in the Aosta Valley. Caruana again showed his remarkable stamina as he continued his style of grinding out points in long endgames, as in the puzzle diagram below. However, it seemed at the end of the chess event that he had stretched his reserves too far, when a final round defeat dropped him to No9 in the daily world rankings. Caruana actually played board two on his team for the early rounds due to a cameo appearance by Hikaru Nakamura, his US rival in the world top 10. Nakamura won his first game, settled for two brief draws, including one against Jones, then ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18976;ext=1 Sun, 06 May 2012 16:40:15 GMT Chess games shown on television or streamed on the Internet elicit a high degree of active mental participation. Although watching sports on television is often accompanied by second-guessing — an active and respectable mental activity — the passive nature of the TV audience tends to create couch potatoes rather than interactive viewers. Important chess events are rarely televised but can often be watched move by move online. Those who follow such games on their computers become de facto kibitzers and proxy players who analyze and anticipate along with the grandmaster competitors. Cogent grandmaster commentators add to the mix. All of this stimulates audacious second-guessing. In the luxury of ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18975;ext=1 Sat, 05 May 2012 15:59:53 GMT As a chess player, I get a lot of questions from non-chess players about tournament structure. Most people assume that chess competitions are knock-out events, but this is actually the least common tournament format. Knock out: The knock-out chess event (lose and go home) is an exciting format, but it becomes quite difficult and expensive for out-of-town players to book flights and hotels. Occasionally chess tournaments are run this way, albeit rarely. Knock-outs are especially exciting for the spectators, but it means half the participants are gone after one round. Swiss system: This chess tournament format, which is the most common, pairs people with each other based on their rating and the number of points ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18967;ext=1 Thu, 03 May 2012 16:25:06 GMT Kolkata: As Indian chess ace Viswanathan Anand gears to defend his World Chess Championship title against Boris Gelfand later this month, GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly feels it will be "foolish to underestimate the Israeli". Ganguly, Anand's second in the four-member team, is leaving for Moscow on Thursday for the May 11-30 chess event. As this would be the Israeli's first shot at the chess championship, Ganguly said Gelfand would be highly motivated to prove a point. "A great positional player, Gelfand is among the top chess players of the world for last 10 years or so. It will be foolish to underestimate him. He will give his 100 per cent," Ganguly said of Gelfand, who won the Candidates tournament to become Anand's challenger in the World Chess ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18959;ext=1 Wed, 02 May 2012 16:09:15 GMT The six-game chess match between Russian GM Vladimir Kramnik and Armenian GM Levon Aronian that wrapped up in Zurich on Sunday proved unexpectedly entertaining. The world’s No. 2 and No. 3 chess players, evenly matched and theoretically armed to the teeth, showed a refreshing willingness to mix it up and take risks before settling for a 3-3 tie after Kramnik just missed a win in Sunday’s final round. After a stunning loss with White in Game 1, Kramnik bounced back with a strong performance in Game 3, goading Aronian into a speculative queen sacrifice and navigating the ensuing complications with aplomb. Kramnik’s Four Knights Scotch was an inspired opening choice, and after the kings castled on opposite wings, White got ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18956;ext=1 Tue, 01 May 2012 15:58:56 GMT School chess programs are common. In New York alone, thousands of children are exposed to their benefits. Programs for adults are much rarer. I recently learned of an innovative program for adults in the Cook County jail in Chicago, where inmates are learning to play chess. According to an Associated Press story, “Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, known for making unusual moves in the name of justice, hopes that inmates can take what they learn from a game that rewards patience and problem-solving, and apply it to their lives.” “Thoughtless actions,” Dart said, “will hurt you while playing chess and more on the street.” I recall several conversations with a middle-school principal during the ’80s. Children who entered chess programs in his school were more punctual and less likely to be absent. Their behavior and grades improved. Because errors in chess are seen as an occasion for self-improvement, not ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18940;ext=1 Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:12:31 GMT Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand will have to forget their recent struggles when they begin their chess match for the world title in Moscow a week from Thursday. Anand has been the world chess champion since 2007, and this will be his third defense of the title. But his recent play has dropped him to No. 4 in the World Chess Federation’s rankings. Gelfand, who won the right to challenge Anand in the Candidates’ Matches last year, is out of the top 20 entirely. (He is No. 22.) It is “the first time in the modern world chess championships’ history that the match between the legitimate champion and a legitimate candidate won’t be a fight for the title of the strongest chess player in the world,” Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18942;ext=1 Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:31:35 GMT At midday on Saturday the world Nos2 and 3, Levon Aronian and Vlad Kramnik, start the final round of their six-game chess match in Zurich. It will be broadcast free and live on the internet, with grandmaster and computer move-by-move running commentary, and its outcome will be crucial to the global chess rankings. When Aronian won the opening round with the black pieces he stoked up his challenge to Norway's golden boy, Magnus Carlsen, who became No1 at 18 in 2010. Carlsen has since become a brand name in Oslo where his company Magnuschess reported $1.5m yearly income, mainly from G-star men's clothing and other endorsements. Aronian himself is a national hero in Armenia, whose 2010 gold medal Chess Olympiad team flew ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18938;ext=1 Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:00:09 GMT The second annual St. Louis Invitational ended recently at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, and for young standouts Darwin Yang and Marc Arnold, the chess tournament proved to be a great success. One of the main reasons to hold a prestigious chess event such as this is to provide an opportunity for players to earn "grandmaster norms." My regular readers will remember a few articles back that I discussed in detail what it takes to become a chess grandmaster, and scoring three grandmaster performances, or "norms," is the most important aspect of the application process. The chess tournament was a 10-player, round-robin, and the field was comprised of seven international masters (IMs) and ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18926;ext=1 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:06:18 GMT Chess champions may be most vulnerable right before they defend their titles. Deep into the preparation for his 12-game match against challenger GM Boris Gelfand of Israel starting May 11 in Moscow, titleholder Viswanathan Anand of India took a little timeout this month to hold down first board for the Baden-Baden team in final rounds of the powerful German chess Bundesliga. Perhaps because his mind was elsewhere, or perhaps for fear of showing Gelfand too many of his ideas, Anand ran into a buzz saw in his game against veteran Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov. Anand’s play on the Black side of this Rossolimo Sicilian is uncharacteristically passive, and by 11. a4 b6?! (a too-modest move Tiviakov later criticized) ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18925;ext=1 Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:00:22 GMT Researchers at Temple University found in 1971 that the pulse and respiratory rates of chess players during peak moments of a game were comparable to those of boxers and football players during competition. A clue to understanding these findings is the Russian notion that a chess game is a debate. Imagine an intense argument that lasts four or five hours without relief. Could not the equivalent in a chess competition wreak physical and psychological havoc — especially for those who are obliged to play day after day with only an occasional respite? Chess struggles can have a mind-boggling intensity. Each move by the opponent potentially introduces new threats and dangers. A surprise move or a material sacrifice can ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18919;ext=1 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:21:10 GMT In November 1934, Lester Markel, the Sunday editor of The New York Times, wrote to José Raúl Capablanca, a former world chess champion: “Dear Mr. Capablanca: After full consideration of the proposal, we have come to the conclusion that space conditions are such that we cannot consider the addition of another department at this time. We are grateful to you for making the suggestion and should there be a change in the situation I shall notify you of it without delay.” The proposal that Markel turned down was Capablanca’s offer to write a chess column for The Times. Twenty-eight years later, The Times hired Al Horowitz, an international master, to write the column that Capablanca, who died in 1942, had proposed. The first ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18911;ext=1 Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:54:08 GMT The German and Russian chess leagues are the strongest in Europe, their top teams crammed with highly ranked chess grandmasters. Both played their final rounds last weekend when two individual performances, one impressive and the other dismal, stole the headlines. Baden-Baden, the holders and favourites, retained their Bundesliga crown ahead of Bremen. Both squads are global so that the England No1 Michael Adams played for B-B and the No2 Luke McShane for Bremen. But B-B's success was overshadowed by a bad defeat for Vishy Anand four weeks before the Indian defends his world title in Moscow. Sergey Tiviakov, ranked far below the chess champion, called it "an easy game" and claimed that Anand knew little about ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18910;ext=1 Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:04:04 GMT Congrats to Susan Polgar, the incoming coach of Webster University's new chess team, for her sidebar article, "Winning Gambit," inside the current issue of Sports Illustrated (NFL Draft cover). We first introduced Polgar back in February. The Budapest native, former world chess champion and, until recently, coach of Texas Tech University's national championship squad, was prepping her eventual move to Webster, with nearly half of her Texas Tech players accompanying her. Polgar's strategic move to St. Louis has now captured the attention of a national audience. Writes SI: "Call it a grandmaster flash: After guiding Texas Tech to its second straight national collegiate chess title early this month, Knight Raiders coach Susan Polgar and ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18899;ext=1 Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:44:53 GMT The classroom at Intermediate School 318 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was filled on Tuesday with the thumping and clattering of a half-dozen high-speed chess matches, played with a rambunctious energy more reminiscent of a hockey game than of Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue. The school’s conquering heroes — its chess players — were blowing off steam. On Sunday, in Minneapolis, they became the first middle school team to win the United States Chess Federation’s national high school championship. The chess team, mostly eighth graders, beat out top high schools like Stuyvesant in Manhattan and Thomas Jefferson in Alexandria, Va. The victory burnishes what is already a legend in the chess world. At I.S. 318, more ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18892;ext=1 Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:13:32 GMT It is almost always better to be the aggressor in chess. Players who give their opponents time to plan and organize an attack often end up losing. But chess players who attack without a firm strategy in mind can overextend themselves and become trapped behind enemy lines without an adequate supply chain. Some chess players have a history of carefully planning their defenses and then baiting their opponents into attacking from faulty positions. At the Philadelphia Open, which ended last weekend, the chess grandmaster Giorgi Kacheishvili, who is originally from Georgia, was burned twice by being overly aggressive. In Round 5, his attack against Samuel Shankland fell short in a spectacular game in which Shankland had to ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18877;ext=1 Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:03:01 GMT One of my favorite stories involves an appearance by Bobby Fischer at the Chess and Checker Club of New York, a once-sprawling Times Square center where regulars and passers-by played and wagered on board games. One evening, Fischer — the U.S. chess champion but young and penniless — showed up incognito, with his coat collar high and his hat drooping over his eyes. “Psst, Frank,” he whispered to Frank Brady, his friend and future biographer, who happened to be standing near the entrance of the “flea house.” Brady looked up in surprise and said, “Bobby, what are you doing here?” Taken aback by the failure of his disguise, Fischer sheepishly explained, “I’m trying to get a few bucks to ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18876;ext=1 Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:10:21 GMT Fabiano Caruana's eye-catching bout of chess tournaments with hardly a break has resumed this week. Italy's world No8, aged 19, had already played more games in March and April than the rest of the top 10 grandmasters combined. Caruana joined the chess elite in February when he tied second with the world No1 Magnus Carlsen at Wijk. After that most GMs would have consolidated with a rest, but Caruana went on to two more chess tournaments. Now, a few days further on, he is playing for Moscow 64 in the Russian team championship at Sochi. He probably felt he owed it to them after Moscow controversially won the 2011 title with a chess squad built round western Europe's two star teenagers, Caruana and ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18875;ext=1 Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:02:41 GMT This afternoon, the chess team from Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood, Brooklyn, is off to Minneapolis to compete in the national chess championship after winning the state last month. It is a 1,200-mile journey, but for some of the team’s members, that is an almost incidental distance compared with how far they are from their homelands: they hail from four continents, five if you count their parents. Azeez Alade, 16, was born in Nigeria and moved to New York when he was 5. Vadim Libo, 17, is from Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Shabieko Ivy, 18, is from Kingston, Jamaica. Muhammad Raqib, 14, was born in Pakistan near the border of Kashmir, India. Alexis Paredes, Kristian Jacome and ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18866;ext=1 Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:15:12 GMT To the disappointment of basketball fans everywhere, this year’s hardwood version of the collegiate Final Four featured no buzzer-beaters, no last-minute 3-pointers to win the game. Happily, the collegiate chess version of the Final Four, won for the second straight year by the Texas Tech Knight Raiders earlier this month, offered a bit more excitement as the clocks ticked down on the decisive game. Tied with rivals University of Texas-Dallas and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Tech GM Andrew Diamant appeared totally busted in his last-round game against UT-D IM Conrad Holt. “In a normal game, I would resign because my position was terrible,” Diamant later admitted in Chess Life Online. After a series of ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18858;ext=1 Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:33:52 GMT England's Gawain Jones, 24, ended up 15th, far above his seeding, in the European Chess Championship at Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Jones's 7.5/11 total qualifies him for the $1.2m 2013 World Cup and strengthens his growing challenge to Michael Adams and Nigel Short at the top of UK chess. His sights are now set on a place in the world top 100 – likely after Plovdiv – and an invitation to the London Classic, where English GMs meet the global chess elite. First prize at Plovdiv, €14,000, went to the No3 seed, Russia's Dmitry Jakovenko, who was undefeated with 8.5/11 and beat France's Laurent Fressinet in the crucial final round. A day earlier Fressinet took the lead with this lucid attack. The game is level until Black's 17...dxc4? opened up ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18854;ext=1 Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:06:57 GMT Chess is often a plot element in television dramas, but until “Endgame” premiered last year on the Canadian network Showcase, the game itself had never had a starring role. The central character in the series is Arkady Balagan, described as a former world chess champion from Russia who never leaves his luxury hotel suite because he has severe agoraphobia. To relieve his boredom and to earn money, Balagan starts using his formidable intellect to solve crimes, aided by several people who run his errands. Balagan is often seen playing chess, and some of the plots are built around the games. The star is Shawn Doyle, who has had roles on “Desperate Housewives” and “Big Love,” and the series was created by ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=18852;ext=1 Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:57:33 GMT