CBM Blog: One diagonal, and to exchange or not to exchange?

5/28/2011 – Pure opposite colored bishop endings have a very large drawish tendency. If the defender is dug in on squares of his own bishop his fortress usually cannot be stormed. In his second example our resident GM endgame expert has a serious admonition: before trading down into a pawn ending you should calculate it to the end. Useful lessons for tournament success.

Italian National Scholastic Team Championship set a new record

5/28/2011 – This year the annual event attracted 1480 players from 286 schools from all over Italy. It was staged from May 12-15 in the beautiful city of Spoleto in Umbria, the center of the country. The large number of participants relied to a great degree on support from the FIDE Chess in Schools initiative and its Chairman Ali Nihat Yazici, as we learn from this illustrated report by IM Martha Fierro.

Feedback on Kazan – how should the Candidates be conducted?

5/28/2011 – The opinions range from joke to disaster, to a more balanced "Don't insult the players, they are not there to entertain us, they are there to win." As usual we received a large number of messages on the Candidates Matches in Kazan, while they were running, and on the controversy between the ECU President and the FIDE World Championship Chairman. Food for thought.

No fewer than four candidate moves ...

5/28/2011 – ... the first player had to consider here when she went for 34.Rd1-d8 (diagram), pinning the Bf8 on the opponent's back rank but also making her own king prone to perpetual check ideas. What is the correct continuation for Black now?
A) 34...Rd6
B) 34...Rxf6
C) 34...Qb1+ 35.Kh2 Qe4
D) 34...Qb2
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

Accusations by the ECU and FIDE over Kazan

5/27/2011 – "The current KO system for the Candidates tournament is negative for chess," says the European Chess Union President Silvio Danailov, who demands that the World Championship Committee Chairman resigns. The Chairman, FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos, sent us his reply, accusing Danailov of electioneering for the 2014 FIDE presidential election. Hostilities and tension.

NASA: Earthlings, it’s time to keep your pieces from floating away

5/27/2011 – In the past we have reported a number of times on NASA Space Station astronauts playing chess against earth-bound citizens. One of the biggest chess enthusiasts, Greg Chamitoff, and his colleague Gret Johnson are currently playing an Earth vs. Space match, on Facebook and Twitter. NASA has started it with an textbook plug for chess. Watch the video!

St. Louis: Nakamura and Robson prevail in whirlwind final

5/27/2011 – Both the native GMs led after the six classical games. Hikaru Nakamura went on to defeat Ukrainian FIDE ex-world champion Ruslan Ponomariov by 3-1 in the rapids, while Ray Robson held Ben Feingold 2-2 to maintain his two-point overall lead. The rapid chess phase was interrupted by tornado warnings, which sent the players into the basement. Final report.

Kavalek in Huffington: It's Anand vs. Gelfand for the World Chess Crown

5/26/2011 – Boris Gelfand of Israel won the Final FIDE Candidates Match, defeating GM Alexander Grischuk of Russia 3.5 to 2.5 in Kazan, Russia, on Wednesday. It is a culmination of his successful chess career. With the victory, he earned the right to challenge the world champion Vishy Anand of India for the world title next year. GM Lubomir Kavalek analyses the final decisive game.

PokerListings: Best bets are chess players!

5/26/2011 – Every year, PokerListings releases its list of Best Bets for the upcoming 2011 World Series. This year they have decided to go with chess: "If there is a group of people more prepared for success than chess players, we haven't found it." They list child chess prodigy Jeff Sarwer, Dan Harrington, Almira Skripchenko and Dinara Khaziyeva as prime examples. Report with videos of Almira in action.

FIDE Candidates Finals: Gelfand wins right to challenge Anand in 2012!

5/25/2011 – We had a bit of it all in this final, with moments of quietness, moments of boredom, and at the end, just great chess. Grischuk played a Gruenfeld, and ran into trouble with a novelty by Gelfand. The position teetered but held, until a mistake put Gelfand in command, and he brought home the point, winning the right to challenge Anand in 2012. Report with annotations by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

New Fischer movie by Liz Garbus – trailer and videos

5/24/2011 – Bobby Fischer, one of the most famous chess players in the world, is no longer with us. But he remains in our culture’s memory years after his passing, and decades after he gave America one of its greatest Cold War moral victories. That is the centerpiece of Garbus’s compelling, thorough film, to be released in July. Our reporter Sabrina Chevannes visited the pre-screening in London.

FIDE Candidates Finals G5: No winner in trenchwar

5/24/2011 – Today's game was a battle through and through, and textbooks will probably pick up on it, owing to its singularly narrow strategic focus. In a Queen's Gambit Declined, the players quickly set out to fight for the e5 square: Gelfand to slip in his pawn break, and Grischuk to prevent it. The positional complexities were enormous, so here is the detailed GM Commentary by Elshan Moradiabadi.

Dangzhou: 16-year-old Yu Yangyi wins with 2880 performance

5/24/2011 – It is one thing to have a mid-tournament performance above 2800, it is another to actually end with a nine-round performance of 2880, and that is exactly what 16-year-old Yu Yangyi just did. Not only that, but he butted heads with all the strongest players from the Chinese contingent, including an eighth-round win over 2nd place, Wang Yue (2714). Final illustrated report by Gu Xiaobing.

Poisoned pawn variation

5/24/2011 – In yesterday's 5th game of the candidates final Grischuk at this point refrained from 29.Qh3xh7 (diagram) and preferred to exchange queens on c8 instead. What do you think, which black reply made him decline the pawn?
A) 29...Kf7
B) 29...Qf5
C) 29...Qg4

The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

Attack and defence

5/24/2011 – White's pieces are clearly targeting the black king. What would be your evaluation of the position after the sequence 20.Ng5 (diagram) hxg5 21.Nxg7 with the idea 22.Qh5+? 
A) dangerous attack for White;
B) advantage to Black;
C) balanced if both sides follow up correctly (perpetual check).
A toughie!
The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

Happy Birthday! Anatoly Karpov turns sixty

5/23/2011 – He is one of the greatest chess players in the history of the game, World Champion from 1975 to 1985, superb tournament player with 160 first-place finishes against world-class opposition, including the legendary 2985 performance at Linares in 1994. Our special birthday present is an amusing little video, narrated by the late Alexander Roshal, on the eleven-year-old prodigy Karpov.

FIDE Candidates Finals G4: Another short draw

5/23/2011 – After the short draw in game three, and the rest day that followed, the spectators were entitled to expect today's game to be a good fight at the very least. But no such luck. The grandmaster we had lined up to annotate the game told us, "The match is very disappointing... Have you ever seen a sports event that ended precisely when the heat was at its highest?". Report and picture.

St. Louis Matches: Nakamura and Robson win classical

5/23/2011 – The start was inauspicious to say the least with Nakamura losing the first game, and getting into trouble against Ponomariov in the opening of most of the games. Yet sheer grit kept him alive, and in the sixth he finally got it all right. "I was just simply outplayed," Ponomariov explained. Robson also won his last game taking the score to 4.0-2.0. The rapids start Tuesday. Report and videos.

2nd Hainan Dangzhou: Yu Yangyi leads with 2882 performance

5/22/2011 – After seven rounds, 16-year-old Yu Yangyi still leads, though with 5.5/7 and a 2882 performance now. Current Chinese number two, Wang Yue is close behind, though seems to be having an epiphany as the ultra-positional player has been experimenting with the other extreme. During the rest day, the players gave simuls to children from the area. Illustrated report by Gu Xiaobing.

Ivanchuk catches Le in final round of Capa Memorial

5/22/2011 – One round before the end the Vietnamese super talent Le Quang Liem led the field at the 46th Capablanca Memorial in Havana, Cuba, by a full point. But he still had to face Vassily Ivanchuk. Le played a brave game with black and had (we believe) the required draw in hand. But a few small inaccuracies left the Ukranian GM three pawns up and a clear win. The two players shared first.

Chess and general impressions from Luanda

5/22/2011 – The CUCA International Chess in Angola's capital of Luanda is a generously staged event in an exotic part of the world. We have problems coming by the games, but two of the participants, Romanian-born WGM Alina l'Ami and GM Sergey Tiviakov, originally Russia – both now live in Holland – took time off to explore the town and its culture. From them we have received this giant pictorial report.

Saint Louis: Nakamura equalises, Robson stays ahead

5/21/2011 – Ruslan Ponomariov and Ray Robson both won their first-round games at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. In round three the Ukrainian GM's opponent Hikaru Nakamura drew level, while GM Ben Feingold has not been able to win a game against the 16-year-old Guam-born GM who lives in Largo, Florida. Robson leads 2.5:1.5. Report after round four.

FIDE Candidates Finals G3: Strong novelty... quick draw

5/21/2011 – The third round of the candidates was quite disappointing, and not so much because it was a fourteen-move draw, but the circumstances. Grischuk chose a rare move in the Queen’s Gambit Declined, and ran into a strong and unpleasant novelty right there and then. It promised to be a fascinating game, and just as the spectators were settling down for the upcoming struggle...Draw!?! Report.

European Women's Championship: Cmilyte is champion!

5/21/2011 – It was a tough competition but Lithuanian GM Viktorija Cmilyte made it almost seem easy. After a five in five start she stumbled against Stefanova, but responded as if nothing had happened and still finished on an incredible 9.0/11 and a 2692 performance, including eight wins in eleven games. Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova stayed close and came clear second with 8.5/11. Report and videos.