Archive for August, 2012

The hundreds of chess games being played at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad 2012 are a treasure trove. (Round 3 report at Chess Blog). The collection of games will give us great joy for years to come. Sifting through the Round 3 chess games in Istanbul, we chanced across this one: Nigel Short (2698) – Yuniesky Quesada Perez (2626)! What’s this with GM Short – He specializes in King marches among other things? Great middlegame and a superlative endgame by the British GM with a Knight’s terrific posting at e3 holding back a bad Bishop and all the holes plugged for the Black King. Reminds us also of:

Fantastic Chess King March in Middlegame – This Time Short vs Timman 1-0!

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Look at the chess position on the left. White has just played Bf4 and the fork is way too obvious with a g5. Though, the game is not immediately lost if g5 is played, but that’s the kinda swindle you gotta keep in mind when playing the Indians. What do you think happened in this Harikrishna, P (2685) – Beliavsky, Alexander G (2609) game in the India – Slovenia chess match in the third round of the Istanbul Chess Olympiad 2012? Cross-check your answer with the full game in the Chess King super applet that works on any device on the planet. (We’re checking with Curiosity on Mars for inter-galactic compatibility.) All other games were drawn and this win gave India a crucial win over Slovenia.

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Nothing beats the cruelty of being ground down in a chess endgame. French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave went for an endgame lesson for Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov in the third round at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad 2012. Pick up the game from Move 53 (black has just played 52…Ke7) as shown on the left and you would know what we mean!

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The big talk of the third round at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad was undoubtedly the match between defending champions Ukraine and Israel. Ukraine was on the back foot and suddenly the tables turned! Ukraine beat Israel 2.5-1.5. GM Ruslan Ponomariov (2734) on the second board was clearly going downhill, but he turned the tables on GM Maxim Rodshtein (2642). Things were not even all that bad around 22. … BxRe1. By the 25th move, White was almost cruising to a win. Even otherwise, a draw could have been in the offing as far on as at move 50.Nxb2, but 50.Rd2 was played and Ponomariov went into the big think. Soon, Pono was going from dead lost to taking his team home to the winning post! Watch the mating net that spun at the end of this exciting chess game.

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Chinese #1 Wang Hao decided to have an Italian dinner at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad 2012 in the second round. He first elbowed out the Italian prodigy Fabiano Caruana on the a-file then cooked up a winning endgame with a piece up. Caruana fought valiantly till the end, but it just wasn’t his day. Check it out. For the report of the second round at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad 2012, read Chess Blog.

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US Chess Champion 2012 GM Hikaru Nakamura is known for his plus-100-move chess games that leave his opponent flagged out. He did not disappoint his fans in the second round at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad grinding down Lithuanian GM Vidmantas Malisauska in a 107-move Sicilian Najdorf. A draw’s not a draw after all the battery’s been sucked outta your system – drop of blood by drop of blood.

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Such is the sorrow of chess: GM Vassily Ivanchuk lost this game to GM Al-Modiakhi and then sat looking at the pieces for half an hour says the official website. However, Ukraine did manage to beat Qatar 3-1. You can check a full Round 2 report from the Istanbul Chess Olympiad and videos at Chess Blog.

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The Istanbul Chess Olympiad 2012 did not see any major team upsets in the first round as finally the results were corrected on the official website. But, board upsets include this Chess King game pick of the day in the first round where favorites Armenia dropped a game against Bolivia.

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We return to Bobby Fischer and his chess magic. A very nice position from a chess game played during the Leipzig Chess Tournament in 1960. Fischer was playing Black and had the natural Bh6 here in the given position on the left. But, what did he play to finish White?

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The French National Chess Championships 2012 concluded recently. Here is a nice game between Laurent Fressinet and Vlad Tkachiev. Watch the White moves as they flow together in a symphony of delightful chess.

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The 2012 Istanbul Chess Olympiad is about to begin. However, here’s a game from the last round of the previous Chess Olympiad held in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2010. Vladimir Kramnik beat Alexei Shirov of Spain in his trademark style. That, most felt, was taking Russia well on their way to the gold. Then, disaster struck. Peter Svidler lost to Ivan Lopez Salgado. Ukraine and Israel drew their match so Ukraine picked up the gold, while Israel got the silver. Here is the Kramnik-Shirov chess game that almost got the gold for Russia in 2010. Playing a move Kramnik had not used before (except in blitz) – 6.Qb3 – Kramnik even gave up the Bishop pair in the Semi-Slav game. So much for theory! Check out this classical chess game with our special Chess King applet that works beautifully on absolutely any tablet or smartphone on the planet.

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This position is taken from a very nice game played between GM Gregory Kaidanov and Viswanathan Anand in Moscow, 1987. White has already sacrificed one piece to get the initiative and goes for the second killer blow. Can you spot it? Later, GM Kaidanov was to remark “At this point Vishy looked up at me. There was so much pain in his eyes that I remember this look until today.” This remark appeared in Jan 2009 issue of Chess Life. You can replay the full game with our super Chess King applet in the extended post. We found this game by searching through GigaKing database of chess games played from the beginning of time.

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Saturday chess puzzle coming up. When you’ve got all your chess battery down the opponent’s throat, it’s only about brute force and final kill. This position is from the Khalifman-Serper chess game played in St Petersburg, 1994. White to play and win. Can you spot the bulldozing combination?

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Almira Skripchenko has just won the French National Women’s Chess title for the fifth time. Also going for the fifth crown was Sophie Milliet. Pause after Black’s Move 39 and think awhile about White’s plan before you continue replaying the game with the Chess King applet. This was one of the crucial chess games of the French National Chess Championships 2012 that helped Skripchenko on her path to tournament victory. Do you know which other sport GM Skripchenko is fantastic at? Find the answer in these Chess Blog posts.

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Training with regular chess-problem solving sessions is the best way to be ready to find magic-win combinations that show up on the chess board during a tournament game. Here are three quick chess puzzles to try this Friday.

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Capablanca’s flawless chess technique was always admired. Here’s an interesting tactical shot he comes up in a game against Lasker. Can you see here how White could win? The event is the 1921 World Chess Championship. The answer is way too simple so you must replay the entire game as well in the extended post.

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“I did not expect that I would manage to win and now I am very, very happy. I am so pleased that I have managed to level the scores, that for the moment I am not thinking about tomorrow’s tie-break. I will think about it later.” – World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand remarked thus after winning the sixth game at the Lausanne, Switzerland World Chess Championship, 1998 when playing against Russia’s Anatoly Karpov – the 12th World Chess Champion.

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It’s always a pleasure to go over the games of world chess champions. Right now a particular reason is that August 17 was three-time world chess champion Mikhail Botvinnik‘s birth anniversary. Here’s his win over Boris Spassky (10th world chess champion) with a classical Caro Kann. You can find all the games of the world chess champions in the super chess database GigaKing. The power-database comes free with the ultimate chess training software Chess King.

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Are you an overly defensive and nervous chess player? Do you see ghosts (threats) on the chess board that really don’t exist? Check out this neat Chess King puzzle from the game Rashkovsky-Sergey Ivanov played in Elista 1995. White cannot let go off the g pawn, but the passed Black pawn on the c-file is a major threat… or, is it? How can White play and win this chess endgame?

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This position is taken from the chess game Taimanov-Kuzminikh played in the Soviet Union in 1950. White has to play and the most obvious idea could be to go for the Bishop exchange and move forward. However, there’s a pretty little combination sitting out there. Can you spot it?

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