http://gameknot.com/ World chess news digest by GameKnot.com, where you can play chess online! en-us Rapid chess and blindfold chess require different skills. But excelling at both is a prerequisite for victory at the annual Amber Chess Tournament, the most unusual event of the year. Amber is sponsored by Joop van Oosterom, a Dutch billionaire and world correspondence chess champion, who started the tournament in 1992 and named it after his daughter. With a generous prize fund (this year 216,000 euros, or a little less than $300,000), an invitation to the tournament is coveted by the world’s top chess players. (It does not hurt that the tournament is held in Nice, France, on the Côte d’Azur.) This year’s field is made up of ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=14118;ext=1 Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:40:27 GMT The former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov announced on Saturday that he was running for president of the World Chess Federation. Karpov is trying to unseat Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who has been president of the federation (known as FIDE, its initials in French), since 1995. Ilyumzhinov is also the president of Kalmykia, a small Russian republic on the Caspian Sea. The federation president is elected for a five-year term, and there is no limit on how many times he (or she) can be re-elected. Karpov would not be the first ex-champion to serve as FIDE’s president. Max Euwe, the fifth world chess champion (1935-37), led the federation from 1970-78, a period of exceptional ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=14083;ext=1 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:04:18 GMT David Howell was one move away from a fine victory in the eighth round of the European Individual Chess Championships at Rijeka in Croatia but a blunder on the last move of the time control gave his opponent Laurent Fressinet of France the full point. Howell also nearly won his ninth round game but was just foiled in the endgame. Michael Adams was lucky to hold a draw with the white pieces against Romain Edouard, a young French GM who impressed at Hastings. Adams was close to lost but after a time scramble he emerged a pawn down in a rook ending where all the pawns were on the kingside and ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=14075;ext=1 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:40:34 GMT It it time for black to use his f-pawn as a battering ram? We saw last week that advancing the f-pawn can leave you horribly exposed at the back if the attack stalls. Here Black has removed the knight from f6, clearing the way for the battering ram. Is it wise to advance the pawn to f5? RB When playing against 1 d4 I will often go for a Nimzo-Indian (as in the present chess game) or King's Indian. I have a liking for the kind of kingside attack that can arise – with certain key differences obviously – from both defences. With the centre safely closed, Black has ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=14053;ext=1 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:02:08 GMT Richard Rapport of Hungary just completed the requirements to become a chess grandmaster at age 13 years, 11 months, 15 days, the fifth-youngest ever. A thrilling accomplishment, no doubt. But chess fans have grown numb to the exploits of adolescent wonders. The inimitable Bobby Fischer stunned the world by becoming a grandmaster in 1958 at age 15 years, 6 months, a record that lasted until 1991. In the last two decades, though, 23 chess players have surpassed Fischer's mark. Sergey Karjakin, the Ukraine star who now plays for Russia, holds the current record at 12 years, 7 months. The World Chess Federation's March rating list includes ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=14047;ext=1 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:29:21 GMT The most significant chess news this month is a negative item. A carefully scripted and bland press release announced that the world No1, Magnus Carlsen, would make his own chess career decisions for 2010 and that he and the all-time No1, Garry Kasparov, would cease their regular training sessions launched early last year. The statement claimed that, with 19-year‑old Carlsen established at the world top, his cooperation with Kasparov had achieved its objectives ahead of schedule and that the Norwegian no longer needed constant guidance. Carlsen won his last two chess tournaments in London and Corus Wijk but displayed weaknesses and is as yet far from ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=14022;ext=1 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:29:26 GMT The World Chess Federation, the governing body of the game of chess, released new “antidoping rules” for chess players on Tuesday. The rules replace, or update, previous guidelines. Drug testing was begun several years ago to bring the federation, and chess, in line with the rules and requirements of the International Olympic Committee and other international sporting organizations. Part of the reason was to get chess included in the Olympics — an idea that seemed far-fetched, at best. Chess players have complained about drug testing and pointed out that, aside from caffeine — which many competitors consider essential — there are no drugs that can ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=14014;ext=1 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:56:01 GMT Black has taken White's f-pawn, leaving White exposed. Is there a way to deal with it? RB Over the last few chess columns we have been looking at the f-pawn as battering ram – an early, bullish advance to break open the enemy king's position with sheer aggression. But here the f-pawn has been exchanged very early – on the seventh move! There is no ram with which to batter, and the rook on f1, the usual beneficiary of any successful f-pawn push, is staring down at a solid phalanx of enemy pawns. Manoeuvring rather than force seems to be called for. But manoeuvre what where? Looking at White's own setup, there's an obvious target for ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13992;ext=1 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:07:04 GMT Maguire might have just lost a franchise character in Spider-man, but it looks like he might be playing famous chess icon, Bobby Fischer, in the film "Pawn Sacrifice". Pawn Sacrifice follows Bobby Fischer who has to face the Russian chess champion, Boris Spassky, in 1972, in a game filled with Cold War overtones. Basically think Rocky IV just slightly geekier (only slightly). The film is being written by Steven Knight, who is also working on Matt Damon’s recently announced Robert F. Kennedy biopic, has apparently had the script written for Pawn Sacrifice for some time. No doubt the film will focus more on the earlier days of Fisher before he became a recluse, and started ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13977;ext=1 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:34:13 GMT On this day in 1943, one of the greatest chess players in history was born. Bobby Fischer's talent, known in the chess world for decades, would become evident world-wide when he defeated Russian Boris Spassky for the world title in 1972. Later, Fischer's erratic personality and anti-Semitic rants would dominate his life. Click here for his confrontation with ABC's Jeremy Schaap. The chess champion passed away in 2008. Here is a news report on Fischer's chess victory against Spassky. ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13962;ext=1 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:38:16 GMT Older chess players are not an endangered species, but there is no doubt that chess is increasingly dominated by young men (and women). The world’s top-ranked player is 19, and more chess prodigies are emerging everywhere. The latest is Richard Rapport, a 13-year-old from Hungary. In the Gotth’Art Cup, which ended Wednesday in Hungary, Richard earned the final norm toward a grandmaster title. He has not yet qualified for the title, because his rating is below 2,500, the level needed to become a chess grandmaster, but there seems little doubt that he soon will satisfy that last requirement. When he does, he will become the 18th player to become a grandmaster before ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13935;ext=1 Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:26:27 GMT The great double round robin in Linares, Spain, ended in a dramatic victory for world chess championship challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. Like a crafty pitcher who wins without his best stuff, Topalov succeeded without revealing any opening secrets he had prepared for his April match against chess champion Viswanathan Anand. Two of his four wins came from inferior positions, and only once did he outplay his opponent thanks to an advantage in the opening. Topalov's legendary determination highlighted the final round. His cautious opponent, Boris Gelfand of Israel, reached an obviously drawn endgame, yet Topalov induced an almost imperceptible ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13923;ext=1 Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:44:29 GMT In a review of Diego Rasskin-Gutman’s book “Chess Metaphors’’ (MIT Press), which deserves special attention by chess lovers, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has published in The New York Review of Books a retrospective look at the development of chess machines. He also expresses a hope for the future. It is strange to this column that Kasparov ever thought that he would be a worthy opponent of chess computers. The computers have so many advantages over human beings in playing chess that it is hardly a fair fight. The chess computer memory is simply a copying device, the machine can look at any number of books on chess openings, and ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13899;ext=1 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:46:54 GMT Punting the f-pawn down the chess board may be desperate but it sometimes gets results. The Grand Prix Attack. White has just offered the f-pawn. How should Black reply? RB We've been using the metaphor of route-one football in our survey of the f-pawn advance, and while we all know from experience that the long, hopeful punt down the park can produce the occasional goal, this looks to me just a little too early and a little too crude. The team is barely on the pitch and the ball has already been booted up the other end. On principle alone it seems wrong. I can't decide whether Black's best response is 1…exf5 or simply to continue with ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13866;ext=1 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:28:00 GMT The Aeroflot Open, arguably the strongest open chess tournament ever, ended Feb. 19 in Moscow. The field of 80 included 75 chess grandmasters. The surprising winner of 21,000 Euros (about $28,000) for first place was 18-year-old Le Quang Liem of Vietnam, who scored an undefeated 7-2. His success followed his tie for first place in the Moscow Open, another GM-heavy chess tournament, a day before the start of the Aeroflot Open. Entering the last round of the Aeroflot Open, Le shared the lead with his countryman Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, 19. Le defeated 2009 winner Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia), while Nguyen lost to GM Anton Korobov (Ukraine), who took ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13851;ext=1 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:52:02 GMT Computer chess programs are so popular, and so good, that almost anybody can use one to figure out where a chess player went wrong — when the game is over. But at the chess board, competitors can rely only on their brains and wits (unless they are cheating) and are bound to make mistakes, especially when they are under pressure. One reason why Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria is so good is that he forces opponents to make mistakes. Ranked No. 2 in the world, he is an aggressive chess player who is always trying to attack. There are problems with this approach, when being aggressive is not justified. But the constant pressure that he places on his opponents often ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13839;ext=1 Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:30:51 GMT Vishy Anand, who defends his world title against Veselin Topalov at Sofia in April, kept his powder dry in his warm-up chess event at Corus Wijk where the Indian, 40, played at full force in only a few games. In contrast Topalov, 34, has played hard in almost every game this week at the Linares elite chess tournament in Andalusia, where he won first prize with 6.5/10, half a point ahead of Russia's Alex Grischuk. The Bulgarian squeezed points from tiny advantages and by round six had regained the world No1 spot on the live chess ratings from Magnus Carlsen. These daily updated rankings have a huge following and their prestige is now not far short of ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13827;ext=1 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:35:46 GMT An unusual chess match is being held in South Carolina. It pits Judit Polgar of Hungary, the strongest woman chess payer in history, who is now ranked No. 46 in the world, but once was in the top 10, against Gregory Kaidanov, a Ukrainian-born American grandmaster, who is ranked No. 261. The match is four games and has an interesting twist: Each game begins with a different variation of the Sicilian Defense. The first game was on Monday and was won by Kaidanov, who had White, and featured the Sveshnikov. The second, which was won by Polgar, was on Tuesday and was a Dragon. The third chess game, which is being played on Wednesday, and can ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13817;ext=1 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:51:16 GMT Does White have a better option than moving the f-pawn? Continuing our look at the chess equivalent of route one football – the f-pawn advance... RB Well, let's see what happens when we push – 1 f5. The answer comes back faster than Manchester United on the break, not much. Black is under no compulsion to take the pawn and can instead centralise with 1…Nd4 or even 1…Qd4, or start getting the queen's rook into play with 1…Rac8, and 1…Nb4, hitting the d-pawn, would be irritating. All right, let's try to be logical. What's wrong here is that even if we could swap off pawns on the f-file, the f1-rook would remain blocked by the bishop. Let's ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13786;ext=1 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:31:18 GMT Europe has been a center of chess activity over the last month with a series of major open tournaments. The first was the Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar, which ran from Jan. 26 through Feb. 4. Among the world-class chess players who competed were Etienne Bacrot of France, Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia, Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain, Michael Adams of England, and Gata Kamsky of the United States. The chess tournament ended in a nine-way tie for first, with Adams winning a four-person playoff to take the title. The Moscow Open, which overlapped with Gibtelecom and ended on Feb. 7, was divided into four sections — A, B, C and D — with ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13770;ext=1 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:41:58 GMT After eight rounds, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, the top seed, holds a one point lead in the annual Ciudad de Linares chess tournament in Spain. Alexander Grischuk of Russia, the defending champion, is in second place after beating Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan in Round 8 on Sunday. Levon Aronian of Armenia is in third, having managed, like Topalov, not to have lost a game in the chess tournament. Unlike Topalov, who has won three games, Aronian has not won a game either. So far, 25 percent of the games have been decisive, but that does not mean that the other 75 percent have been dull. Quite the contrary. The games have mostly been hard fought and exciting, even ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13758;ext=1 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:30:20 GMT The highlight of the year for many chess players is Washington’s Birthday weekend, when four amateur team championships are held across the country. There are no cash prizes, but the chess tournaments are popular because of the camaraderie. Players walk back and forth chatting before, after and even during the games. Some renew friendships with competitors they see only once a year. The World Amateur Team East tournament in Parsippany, N.J., the biggest and oldest of the chess events, celebrated its 40th birthday this year. There were 1,150 players and 271 teams, down from 283 teams last year, said Steve Doyle, the tournament’s director, who ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13746;ext=1 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:37:08 GMT The annual Ciudad de Linares chess tournament in Spain began earlier this week, and after five rounds — or halfway through — Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, the top seed and No. 2 chess player in the world, is leading with 3.5 points, a point ahead of the field. Linares has been among the world’s elite chess tournaments since the early 1990s, when Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov were regular competitors. This year’s tournament has only six players, though they are all among the world’s best. The format is a double round robin in which each chess competitor faces all the others twice, playing once with White and once with Black. Aside from Topalov ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13718;ext=1 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:33:48 GMT Is an f-pawn advance the chess game's equivalent of route-one football? RB For some time I've been nagging Dan to do a series of columns on the f-pawn advance. He's been resistant, partly, I suspect, because pushing the f-pawn is a bit like route-one football, the long ball punted down the park in hopes of a quick goal. The advance can sometimes be crude, obvious and speculative, but, like the infamous route-one game, it can also produce results, and, as we will see over the next few weeks, some very classy chess players have used it. We start with one of the classiest of all time, Botvinnik, in a chess game played in the decade before he became world chess champion. Having ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13704;ext=1 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:04:00 GMT Why aren’t there more great female chess players? One theory is that men are physically stronger and more aggressive by nature and therefore better suited at a game that simulates warfare. Another is that the talent pool among women has not been big enough to produce many great chess players. That has been changing over the last 20 years. And the results of the Eighth Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar, which ended on Feb. 3, seems proof of that change. The chess tournament had a strong field that included 35 grandmasters, 5 of them ranked among the world’s top 40 players. The festival offered special prizes for women, and ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13691;ext=1 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:51:12 GMT The 27th edition of the Linares tournament is underway in the Andalucian town but the chess event has been affected by the economic slowdown. It was no surprise that the planned tie up with Dubai fell through and the organisers responded to budgetary pressures by reducing the size of the field. The chess tournament will be a six-player double round all play all and I am delighted to see that Francisco Vallejo, one of the strongest players Spain has ever produced, has been invited back. Veselin Topalov will be aiming to recapture the number one spot from Magnus Carlsen while Alexander Grischuk the Russian chess champion returns as winner of ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13676;ext=1 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:39:11 GMT Luke McShane has braved the Moscow winter, the hordes of seriously under-rated Russian GMs and is the first English chess player to enter the Aeroflot Open for many a year. As well as under-rated chess players there are also 14 of the world’s top 100 competing. After two rounds McShane has 1.5/2. The prize fund this year is € 180,000 and there are some qualifying places available in the World Blitz Chess Championship which will take place straight after the event. The Botvinnik Variation is a very sharp line which seems to defy all logic. Black loses a pawn, his kingside is wrecked and his king forced to run to the queenside. Despite this the second player often wins as ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13656;ext=1 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:43:16 GMT The World Chess Federation (FIDE) has announced that the final Grand Prix tournament will begin May 5 in Astrakhan, Russia. The six-tournament series was supposed to conclude in 2009, but three of the six cities that promised to host tournaments backed out. FIDE deserves credit for finding replacements, despite the delay in the schedule. The Grand Prix offers a total of 300,000 Euros (about $410,000) to the top 10 cumulative scorers. Levon Aronian of Armenia, who won two tournaments and tied for second in another, has already clinched the first prize of 75,000 Euros (about $102,000). More than half of the 14 chess players in Astrakhan retain ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13645;ext=1 Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:29:37 GMT Last autumn Michael Adams lost the England No1 chess spot for the first time for a decade when his below-par results coincided with Nigel Short's purple patch. Adams used to be a world top-10 chess grandmaster but his poor run also dropped his international rating below the elite GM 2700 mark. This double reverse stung the 38-year-old Cornishman into adding a more incisive touch to his strategic game and last week he triumphed at the competitive Gibtelecom Open while Short struggled against the super-GMs at Corus Wijk. The outcome is that the live daily chess ratings today show Adams back above 2700 and Short below it. The old order is restored and, since ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13636;ext=1 Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:39:47 GMT Michael Adams turned out for Baden-Baden in the German Bundesliga at the weekend and scored 1.5/2. His team lead the chess competition after nine of the 15 rounds with a perfect score. Baden-Baden even achieved a rare whitewash and defeated Berlin 1903 8-0. Baden-Baden’s strength is illustrated by the fact that Adams plays on board 3. Luke McShane’s Werder Bremen are in joint second place having dropped two match points. One of those was to the bottom club Erfurter SK who were out-rated by an average of over 180 points per board but managed a 4-4 draw. McShane played on chess board ... http://gameknot.com/news.pl?id=13632;ext=1 Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:36:31 GMT