Archive for August, 2012

I may be an old lion, but I can still bite someone’s hand off if he puts it in my mouth. – Wilhelm Steinitz

The first world chess champion knew what he was talking about. He is also credited with – among a whole lot of other things – of having improved his chess to an amazing degree after the age of 21! Here is an exciting Scotch Gambit by the Master. Watch out for the sacrifices. How many can you spot?

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the Sunday bunch of checkmates-in-two. All are White to play. How fast you can solve them? They are not all that easy so don’t worry too much about the time you take to solve. If you have your own Chess King training software, you could take your chess level up solving thousands of such puzzles!

Read the rest of this entry »

Dang! That was it – A missed mate-in-one. The game: Viswanathan Anand vs Vassily Ivanchuk. Yes, it did happen in reality. Whatever reasons save Ivanchuk from turning suicidal after this were blessed reasons indeed. Can you figure out the ‘Duh’ moment? Replay the chess game with the super Chess King applet slowly. Afterthought: Yes, Grandmasters are human. In fact, Ivanchuk had more than 55 seconds on his clock when ‘it’ happened.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most-talked about chess games at the Swiss National Chess Tournament 2011 was Alexandra Kosteniuk-Olivier Kurmann in Leukerbad (Loeche-les-Bains). There’s a beautiful Queen Sacrifice happening there with a neat combination starting at 16. c5! Who says 1. d4 always lead to quiet games! Check out the complete Chess King game video channel at ChessKing. Also read the Chess Queen blog post on the game that includes a Chess King applet of the game.

Read the rest of this entry »

For long, Levon Aronian has been considered one of World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen’s “most dangerous” rivals. This game was a convincing victory by Carlsen at the Tata Steel Chess in Wijk Aan Zee earlier this year. The victory took Magnus Carlsen to an awesome rating of 2843 as he pursues Garry Kasparov’s all-time high rating of 2851 achieved in 2000. The game is a strategic class between two talented and young minds of our generation. It was a classic Bishop+Knight versus Rook and passed pawns, but the point is even the ‘won’ endgame needs skill to actually win it. Phew!

Read the rest of this entry »

This must be some record of sorts! When did you last see all the eight pawns rolling down the chess board through the middlegame? The first Black pawn falls only on Move 30! But, that’s not the main reason we’re featuring this chess game tonight. Congratulations to GM Alexander Ipatov for becoming the World Junior Chess Champion 2012 and joining a list of illustrious chess champions. Chess King showcases the game Grandelius, Nils (2562) – Ipatov, Alexander (2577) 0-1 played at the just-concluded World Junior Chess Championships in Athens, Greece. A report is now available at Chess Blog.

Read the rest of this entry »

Time for the Chess King show: Some Grandmasters have a unique way of dealing with an all-out attack: Patience! Here’s one such game that saw Frank James Marshall throw everything at Jose Raul Capablanca save for the chess board itself. Capablanca held on for a neat win. Check out the Lasker Defense in the Queen’s Gambit Declined with the super Chess King gameplayer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Despite computers becoming the strongest chess players on the planet and despite top-level chess impossible without computer-aided chess training, the human element in chess tournaments would never go away. Best of grandmasters miss the easiest of wins. Here is an interesting position from the Russian Chess Superfinal 2012. Nikita Vitiugov missed a winning line with 26. …Qa5 27.b4 Qxb5. We pick up the game if the winning line were played. Look at the position on the left and can you spot the pretty mate that happens if White plays 28.QxQ? This game of Round 8 eventually ended in a draw.

Read the rest of this entry »

The legendary Grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić is no more. You can read an obit at Chess Blog. One of Gligorić’s most famous games was his victory over former world chess champion Tigran Petrosian at the great “Tournament of Peace” held in Zagreb in 1970. Gligorić dared to go for a sacrificial attack against one of chess history’s greatest defenders. Replay the game with Chess King.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Alekhine as Black is not a very popular response in top-level chess. However, it has not really been abandoned totally. World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, as a 13-year-old, had lost an Alekhine game to Emil Sutovsky in 2003. It took him just about five years to use it as a secret weapon against Veselin Topalov in 2008 at the Morelia-Linarest Chess Tournament. Here is the cool game with Chess King as our Monday morning chess tutor show. Watch how Black activates the King and builds solid pressure to clamp down White.

Read the rest of this entry »

How about a chess date tonight? Chess King and Chess Queen go for a dance and dinner of checkmates. By the way, Knights on the rim are not dim this time around. First, White to play and checkmate in three. The second time, White to play and checkmate in two. Enjoy the romantic dance. Find the answer in the extended post.

Read the rest of this entry »

Chess is plenty about accurate calculation and plenty about intuition as well. Some of the world’s best grandmasters have often confessed that they didn’t actually calculate all the way to the win, but continued to follow a path of “the strongest move” before them. Here’s a neat puzzle. This chess position is taken from Hertan-R.MacDonald. To say that the position is a White-to-play and checkmate-in-nine win might sound pretty daunting. But, follow your chess intuition and find the strongest move – step by step – and you would have the swell win! Try it: White to play and win. Solution is in the extended post.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some chess games become immortal and you replay them again and again not just to learn from them, but to enjoy chess as well. Here is one such cool game between “two very strong chess grandmasters”. (No other hint possible. Can you guess the game? Just replay it first. You can find a hint for the answer here and here.

Read the rest of this entry »

The answer to this chess puzzle would have already been sent. This puzzle marks the opening round of a national competition in which Guardian readers have performed with notable success over the years. The annual Winton Capital British Solving Championship has a £1,000+ prize fund and is open to any British resident. You have to work out how White, playing as usual up the board, can force checkmate in two moves, however Black defends. The last date was July 31 for the entries. However, Chess King readers might still like to try their hand at this puzzle from the Guardian article by Leonard Barden. In mid-August all entrants will be sent the starter problem solution plus the BCPS magazine, and those who get it right will also receive a postal round of eight harder and varied problems, with plenty of time to solve them. Easy one!

Read the rest of this entry »

When two chess masters meet, sparks fly. Here is an interesting and very strong game between Anatoly Karpov and Boris Spassky – both world chess champions and both a huge value addition to the history of modern chess. Karpov is also known to be an extremely patient chess player. He picks up a strategic mistake by Spassky, keeps the pawn on d5 instead of exchanging it with e6 so as to keep the center clamped shut and goes into a won endgame. A great game that is bound to be replayed again and again. (Spassky had been playing the King’s Indian much less and almost abandoned it later.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Can you find the magic move that the first world chess champion Wilhelm Steinitz played in the position on the left. This game was played at the Hastings Chess Tournament in 1895. William Steinitz, became the first official world chess champion in 1886, defeating Johann Zukertort in a match played in the United States. But he was considered the world’s best chess player from 1866, when he defeated Adolf Anderssen, to 1894, when he lost to Emanuel Lasker. The game was awarded the top brilliancy prize and the award citation stated “the whole of the play was extremely artistic and beautiful, as well as brilliant.” Steinitz considered it the best game of his chess career.

Read the rest of this entry »

Eugenio Torre (born November 4, 1951) – better known as Euge – happens to be Asia’s first Grandmaster. He has several distinctions to his name and he is just going to add to that! The 60-year-old “brand-new grandfather” would make a record 21st appearance in the World Chess Olympiad this year from August 27 to September 10 in Istanbul, Turkey. Read the report in Chess Blog. Here is one of Torre’s biggest wins. He created a sensation in 1976 by beating the then World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov.
Read the rest of this entry »

The World Rapid Chess Championship 2012 that was held in Astana, Kazakhstan saw a strong performance by Russia’s Sergey Karjakin to win the title ahead of some of the world’s strongest grandmasters. An important game that allowed Karjakin to get ahead of Magnus Carlsen was the won against Peter Svidler on the final day. Going for a simple combination, Karjakin first wins a pawn and then builds on the small advantage.

Read the rest of this entry »

The British Chess Championships took place in North Shields, a town on the banks of River Tyne. The newly-crowned champion is GM Gawain Jones who pulled off a victory in the play-offs by playing on even when he lost his Queen in the first game. Sometimes, it just doesn’t pay to resign. He went on to win the second game with White and the title. Jones has become the 99th British Chess Champion. Here is the first playoff game. Bad luck for Stephen Gordon.

Read the rest of this entry »

The scene was Linares 1991 and Viswanathan Anand was pitted against Alexander Beliavsky of Slovakia. The Two Knights Defence game progressed along with White maintaining an advantage and actually missing super smashers by playing 34.Kc1 instead of 34.Qa5 or 34.Qb4. Black defended along bravely. In the position on the left, Black has just played 43….Ne4 and White blunders with 44.Nc5+ Black promptly replies with 44….QxNc5! White resigns as he goes one piece down. Could White have saved the game after 43…. Ne4? What would have maintained White’s advantage instead of 44.Nc5+

Read the rest of this entry »