1/4/2012 – Normally, the news would be that Morozevich beat Nakamura (which he did) and is now right behind (which he is), followed by Giri in third, but Ivanchuk stole their thunder. In round seven, visibly haunted by his loss to Giri, he dropped a piece against Vitiugov in such a way that spectators were left gaping. In round eight, against Caruana, he just flipped and literally tried to give away all his pieces!
new: ChessBase 16 - Mega package Edition 2022
Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training!
Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
ChessBase is a personal, stand-alone chess database that has become the standard throughout the world. Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it.
As the author explains in the introductory video, knowing the classic games from the past enriches your chess understanding in general, and helps to improve the level of your own games.
€29.90
The 54th Reggio Emilia is underway at Reggio Emilia, Italy, and runs from December 27, 2011 to January 6, 2012. The tournament is a six-player, double round-robin with ten rounds played at 50 moves for 100 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move. January 1st is a rest day. Games start at 3 PM Paris time (9 AM NY time).
54th Reggio Emilia
Round seven
By Martha Fierro, Augusto Caruso (accademia internazionale di scacchi)et al. (bert)
The seventh round was the beginning of high drama, but not the typical one readers are used to. The top players Nakamura and Morozevich drew their games against their junior opponents with barely a struggle, but Ivanchuk's famed fragile nerves finally betrayed him as his poor loss against Giri in round six still haunted him.
Ivanchuk already looked very unhappy, and he hadn't even started his game
Ivanchuk was doing fine against Vitiugov inasmuch as the game was quite equal and nothing much was going on, then on move 30...
Players following the game online could barely believe their eyes. What was the explanation for such an absurd aberration? A prominent player following the action, summed up the reason behind the blunder in one word, "Ivanchuk!"
In fact, if the name of this great player is included in future chess glossaries for this reason, at least he can rest assured he is not alone. In Brazil, there is a football term, a 'domingada', ('a Domingos play'), that can only be understood by an outsider via an explanation.
In the 1940s, one of the greatest defenders on the planet was the legendary Domingos da Guia (pronounced Domeengoes da Guee-ah), whose play was to become textbook material for generations to come. Unfortunately, on more than one occasion, he also committed such absurd mistakes, with no rational explanation possible, that could lead to the team's loss, and did so more than once. This stark contrast led to the term, a 'domingada', to mean an uncharacteristically disastrous play from an otherwise world-class performer.
Move thirty was clearly a 'chucky'.
Round eight
By Martha Fierro, Augusto Caruso (accademia internazionale di scacchi)et al. (bert)
The audience watches a player self-combust
The blunder in round seven led to the high drama of round eight. Ivanchuk is not only recognizable, he is blatantly suicidal (chesswise). After losses to Nakamura, Giri, and then the horror story against Vitiugov, his will to win is ashes. The last moves of his game against Caruana, in which he tried to give away all his pieces in a fit, say it all.
Vassily Ivanchuk is in nuclear meltdown mode, however Krogius warns, in his famous
bookon chess psychology, of players who seemed depressed, beaten, who suddenly
came back swinging, mustering strength from unsuspected sources.
So Nakamura beware.
The match between the leaders only served to foment the excitement to the end
The faceoff between Nakamura and Morozevich was as tense as hoped for, and the fans are ensured a race to the end between the two players. Against Morozevich's Classical French, Nakamura played the same pawn sac that Kamsky used against Akobian in last year's US championship, but the result was not as fortunate, and shortly after he lost a central pawn and then the game.
Sometimes being a top player can be painful
In his Twitter, Nakamura later wrote, "Just one of those days where everything went wrong and my opponent played well. Fortunately, I still have the lead and can sleep it off."
After a slow start, Anish Giri has now moved up to sole third
Anish Giri also followed strong and beat Vitiugov in a strong Sicilian Kan in which he sacirficed pawns and the exchange to strand the Russian's king in the center. The pressure never let up, even though Vitiugov avoided being mated, and the Dutchman converted the endgame. With this win, he moves into clear third, right behind Morozevich, who is second, and Nakamura who is still clear first.
Sopiko Guramishvili was lucky to survive her game against Marianna Chierici
In the women's tournament Maria De Rosa blundered against Videnova and had to give up immediately, while Marianna Chierici once again showed her strength and built a significant edge against the leader, Sopiko Guramishvili, after very creative middle-game play. Unfortunately, time trouble caused her to lose the chance, and she had to content herself with half a point.
Marina Brunello was in a critical position, which at one point was in danger of losing in a single move, but clawed her way back to a draw, and can still fight for a top place in the tournament.
Pictures by Martha Fierro
Men's standings after eight rounds
Men's standings after eight rounds (traditional scoring)
Women's standings after eight rounds
Women's standings after eight rounds (traditional scoring)
The games are being broadcast live on the official
web site and on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client and get
immediate access. Or you can get our latest Fritz
13 program, which includes six months free premium membership to Playchess.
Videos: Romain Edouard starts his series "Critical Lines in the Dragon", Leon Mendonca shows Caro-Kann (3...dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.N1e2). "Lucky bag" with 44 annotated games - analyses by Kapnisis, Mikhalchishin, Sasikiran and many others!
Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!
Let us explore together how the rooks should enter the game in the early middlegame, how they operate on open files and how they sometimes join a deadly attack, being transferred in front of the pawn chain and many more topics!
Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2023 is a database and contains a total of 10947 games from Mega 2023 and the Correspondence Database 2022, of which 1232 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes video course you will learn the ins-and-outs of the Grivas Sicilian which starts after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6!
€9.90
Fritztrainer in App Store
for iPads and iPhones
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.