Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (83)

5/13/2012 – The fascinating history of the world chess championship has long been plagued by a lack of proper documentation, and many myths and controversies have arisen. The Editor of Chess Notes has written a range of detailed articles covering everything from early occurrences of the title ‘world chess champion’ to a catalogue of books about many of today’s leading players, including Anand and Gelfand.

Sigeman: Caruana leads, Grandelius in second place

5/13/2012 – Fabiano Caruana is number eight in the world. With two wins and a draw, and a 2940 performance, he has taken the lead in the 20-year jubilee of the Sigeman Chess Tournament. In second place is Sweden's most interviewed chess player, dredlocked Nils Grandelius, who is known for Grandelius innovative playing style. The dredlocked GM is totally fearless, as his games in Malmö show.

US Championship – Favorites lead, with wins all around

5/12/2012 – It is perhaps symptomatic of chess players more reared on swiss opens than round robins, but whatever the reason, even the presence of world top players such as Nakamura and Kamsky have not changed the fact that nearly all players have at least one win. Nothing is decided yet in this event with live video GM commentary, and beautiful online coverage. Rounds two and three.

Top seed Khotenashvili wins Georgian Women Championship

5/12/2012 – After eight rounds WIM Meri Arabidze, rated 2337, was in the lead, a full point ahead of top seed Bela Khotenashvili, 2490. In round nine the two clashed and Bela beat Meri, who went on to draw and then lose a game. Bela on the other hand won and drew, so that on the final scoreboard she was the sole winner and 2012 Georgian Women's Champion. Player portraits by WIM Sopho Nikoladze.

World Championship G2 – Anand shows his hand as Semi-Slav is played

5/12/2012 – Although the second game failed to develop the tension that might have led to a decisive victory, it did answer an important question: what did Anand have planned as his main black weapon? Against Topalov it had been the Grünfeld, then the stultified Catalan. This time the Semi-Slav was chosen, though it developed into a calm position that ended in a draw. Express report with GM commentary.

World Championship – Opening ceremony, Anand has white

5/11/2012 – The World Chess Championship was opened in the Tretyakov Gallery on Thursday in spectacular style and with plenty of prominence. There was the playing of anthems, speeches by dignitaries, and the drawing of colours – Anand will play white in the first game. But the highlight is the musical part of the evening, which includes a pre-teen pianist whom we shall call the Magnus Carlsen of Music.

Fit for the WCh?

5/11/2012 – Today is the first game of the title match between Anand and Gelfand (13.00 live on Playchess.com), so the sophisticated kibitzer should exercise calculating long variations. In this position the liquidation sequence 14...Nxe5 15.dxe5 Bxe5 16.Nxd5 Bxa1 17.Qxa1 Nxd5 18.Bxd5 Qxd5 19.Qxg7 leads to ...
A)... advantage for White since the rook h8 drops;
B)... advantage for Black after 19...Bh3;
C)... an unclear position.
ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

World Championship G1 – a fighting draw sets the tone

5/11/2012 – In the most anticipated match of the year, the World Championship got under way with Vishy Anand against challenger Boris Gelfand. It was neither the cataclysmic opener of his match against Topalov in 2010 nor a dull draw, though draw it was. The game was a fascinating Grünfeld, which has been summarised for us by IM Malcolm Pein. Full report with pictures and commentary.

US Championship starts with an Evans Gambit by Nakamura

5/10/2012 – The 2012 US Championship started once more in the incredibly luxurious St. Louis Chess Club, and this time includes Hikaru Nakamura in the line up, as well as Gata Kamsky and the usual suspects. The first round was one of surprises with Nakamura unleashing an Evans Gambit on Hess. On the other side, Stripunsky also surprised Onischuk by dropping a piece on move eleven. Illustrated report.

Endgame Magic with GM Karsten Müller

5/10/2012 – Endgame knowledge is not easy to acquire and is thus a valuable weapon. In his Endgame Magic Show on Playchess, the well-known endgame expert GM Karsten Müller will assist you with a bunch of practical endgames. He shows how to handle the positions, which will help improve your results. An example and more information.

Sigeman: Caruana beats Giri in clash of the young stars

5/10/2012 – This is the 20-year jubilee of the annual Sigeman Chess Tournament, one that pits top international chess stars against local Swedish players. This year it is taking place in the classical Hipp Theater in central Malmo, and with eight players. The stars and favourites are former World Champion challenger Peter Leko and the young GMs Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri. Round one report.

World Championship Moscow – Interview with Andrey Filatov

5/10/2012 – It starts tomorrow, at 15:00h local time, between the Indian World Champion Viswanathan Anand and his Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand, in the famous Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. But why in the Russian capital, we hear some of you ask. Because a powerful sponsor was found, an industrialist who loves chess (and history). Interview by Europe Echecs.

Fahim the Conqueror

5/10/2012 – A young Bangladeshi chess prodigy became the French Under 12 chess champion, but there is a snag - the boy, or more correctly, his father, is an 'irregular', without papers, and as such, after three and a half years living illegally in France they risk being deported to their native country at any moment. Read on about this incredible struggle against adversity in this touching story by Diana Mihajlova.

Tacticsson

5/9/2012 – White has just given up his mighty bishop for the the enemy knight with 37.Bb2xf6 (diagram) - and certainly not without an ulterior motive. How should Black recapture?
A) 37...gxf6
B) 37...Rxf6
C) both moves lose by force

ChessBase Magazine, larger diagram and solution.

World Championship Moscow – inspecting the venue

5/9/2012 – Two days before the start of a World Championship match the players, their seconds and the organisers visit the venue to see if everything is satisfactory. Unsurprisingly the inspection in the theatre of the Engineering Building in the State Tretyakov Gallery met with the approval of Vishy Anand and Boris Gelfand. In 48 hours they will commence hostilities here. Big pictorial report.

47th Capablanca Memorial led by Ivanchuk

5/9/2012 – The Capablanca Memorial has finally found a leader, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it is Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk. After the first round win, Cuba’s top-rated player, Leinier Domínguez, faced Ivanchuk, and was completely outplayed by the Ukrainian in the endgame. The Cuban bounced back, but Ivanchuk's win in round five has given him the midway lead in this tournament rich in Sicilians.

ChessBase 25 Composing Tourney Awards – Part three

5/9/2012 – We continue our tour of chess studies, guided by GM John Nunn, who explains the finer points with great care. The studies were all submitted as part of a composing tourney to celebrate the 25th anniversary of ChessBase last June and came from all over the world. In today's installment we encounter studies from Ukraine, Germany, Austria, Russia and Holland.

World Championship – pre-match information

5/8/2012 – Just three days to go: on Friday, at 15:00h local time – 13:00h CEST, 7 a.m. New York – the first move will be made in the World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and his challenger Boris Gelfand in Moscow. To get you in the mood here is all the latest information, newspaper reports, interviews and a special video warm-up session with commentator Andrew Martin.

11th Asian Continental Chess Championships

5/8/2012 – They are being held from May 4th to 14th 2012 at the First Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Lots of interesting players – China, India and Vietnam are fast becoming super-powers in chess. However, top seed Le Quang Liem lost his first round game, and 20-year-old Indonesian WGM Irene Kharisma Sukandar is leading the women's section. Lots of pictures and some really great video reports.

Chess and Shogi – Chernin in Japan (Part 2)

5/7/2012 – When Jacques-Marie Pineau, chess enthusiast and trainer in the emerging western-chess nation of Japan, invited grandmaster Alexander Chernin to take part in a good-will tour, which involved lectures and simultaneous exhibitions in a country mainly fascinated with Shogi. Jacques-Marie starts his final report with a description of how a young Shogi talent can take to chess. Impressive.

Kavalek in Huffington: Women in chess – a few tales (Part 1)

5/7/2012 – Lurking in the background, hiding their identity, they seem mysterious, magical, beautiful. At first they observed the game from a distance, but as centuries went by, women were drawn closer to the chessboard. Still, for ages they could not play chess in public and it took courage and determination to break into the male dominated game. GM Lubomir Kavalek takes a look at some who paved the way.

CBM training: Caruana's King – Endgames from Italy

5/6/2012 – Distant opposition; via the queenside to the kingside; the blockade; Caruana's king – these are the themes that crop up in the positions that our endgame specialist Dr Karsten Müller – of ChessBase Magazin fame – has extracted from the recent Italian Team Championships. His analysis and annotations will give your practical tournament rating a boost. Don't miss it.

Norwegian Chess Festival – great fun in beautiful Fagernes

5/6/2012 – The second "Norsk Sjakkfestival" took place from 28th of April to 5th of May at Norway’s new “Chess Hotel” Quality Hotel & Resort Fagernes, with a central placement in Southern Norway, 2½ hours from Oslo airport. There were several events for players of different categories, from beginner to grandmaster. We received an informative report and some wonderful pictures by WFM Maria Bolshakova.

Georgian Women Championship 2012

5/5/2012 – This strong event is being staged in the beautiful Black Sea costal town of Anaklia – a name that translates to "Ana is crying" (explained in our report). The press officer of the championship, WIM Sopho Nikoladze, has sent us some lovely pictures and, thankfully, full captions that acquaint us to the players. We can only share half of them in our current report – the rest will follow soon.