Archive for August, 2012
Cool Chess King Decree: GM Short Please Leave Your King At Home!
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!
Istanbul Chess Olympiad R3: Beliavsky Falls to Harikrishna’s Swindle
Istanbul Chess Olympiad R3: Vachier-Lagrave’s Endgame Lesson to Topalov
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!
Istanbul Chess Olympiad R3 Game Pick: Pono Turns the Tables on Rodshtein
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.
Istanbul Chess Olympiad R2: Italian Dinner for Chinese #1 Wang Hao-Fabiano Caruana 1-0
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.
The Chess Assassin’s Creed: Nakamura Grinds Down Malisauskas in 107-Move Sicilian Najdorf
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.
Istanbul Chess Olympiad Day 2 Game Pick: Ivanchuk’s Sorrow vs Al-Modiahki
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.
Istanbul Chess Olympiad Round 1 Game Upset: Zambrana-Movsesian 1-0
Crazy Chess Sacrifice: Can You See What Fischer Can?
French Chess Championship 2012: Fressinet’s French-Winawer Chess Symphony
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.
Chess King Showcase: Kramnik-Shirov 1-0 Game that Almost Got Russia the Gold in 2010 Chess Olympiad
Killer Chess Sacs: Anand’s Painful Look that Kaidanov Never Forgot!
Saturday Chess Puzzle: White on Rampage!
French Chess Championship 2012: Skripchenko-Milliet 1-0; Plus Trivia Question
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.
Clever Chess Wins – Find the Winning Combinations
Tactical Chess Shot: What’s Capablanca’s Move?
World Chess Championship Game 1998: Anand-Karpov 1-0
“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.
Remembering a World Chess Champion: Spassky-Botvinnik 0-1
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.