Wednesday, September 22, 2010

2010 Chess Olympiad

The 2010 Chess Olympiad has started in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. The official website is overloaded, well what can you expect from Siberians/Russians, eh? Nothing like the German efficiency two years ago where every game was broadcasted!! Live games are found here with Rybka 4's analyses and results are here and here.

Games can now be re-played here by clicking on the result of the individual game.

It seems there were a lot of "upset" draws eg, IM Sam Collins (Elo 2431) holding GM Alexander Grischuk (Elo 2760) with Black on Bd 1 of the Russia 1 vs Ireland match and Malaysian No 1 player IM Mas Hafizulhelmi (Elo 2422) with White holding English No 1 GM Michael Adams (Elo 2728).

The only GM to fall, I think, is one of my favourite palyers, Swedish GM Tiger Hillarp Persson (Elo 2517) losing to Surinam's CM Dewperkash Gajadin (Elo 2179) on Bd 2 of their match.

Both Australian teams began well with a 4-0 clean sweep of their opposition. A great induction especially for the Women Team's Bd 4 player ACT teenager/junior Emma Guo.

Here are the Australian Olympiad Open team's Rd 1 games against Bahrain which we won 4-0:

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And here are the Australian Olympiad Women Team's games against Nigeria which we won 4-0 including a 14-moves miniature on Bd 3 by WIM Biljana Dekic:

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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Miskolc 2010: Peter Leko vs Boris Gelfand in Miskolc, Hungary_Games 7 and 8

Miskolc 2010: Peter Leko vs Boris Gelfand in Miskolc, Hungary_Games 7 and 8

GM Boris Gelfand defeated GM Peter Leko 4.5-3.5 in an 8-games rapid match. Here are the games 7 and 8 with annotations courtesy of Chessbase and GM Ferenc Berkes and IM Gyula Mészáros, "who has been his trainer for fourteen years now".

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Friday, July 16, 2010

Chess Quote Of The Day


When I was thirteen I became entranced with Alekhine's games. Strangely enough, this had no influence on my style and I ended up playing in a materialistic positional vein. 
    --- Silman

Chess Puzzle

White to play

O De la Riva Aguado vs Ermenkov

22. ?
See game for solution.

Difficulty Scale

Monday, July 12, 2010

"
The beauty of a game of chess is usually assessed according to the sacrifices it contains.
"
    --- Rudolf Spielmann

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Chess Video Of The Week

 This Is The Chess Video Of The Week: Exploring Fischer's Openings #6: King's Gambit




This Is The Chess Video Of The Week: Chess Network: Game Analysis (Grandmaster vs Master)





This Is The Chess Video Of The Week: Topalov vs Anand-Game #12: 2010 World Chess Championship

Game Of The Day


1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Bg4  4.dxe5 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 dxe5 6.Bc4 Nf6 7.Qb3 Qe7 8.Nc3 c6 9.Bg5  b5 10.Nxb5 cxb5 11.Bxb5+ Nbd7 12.O-O-O Rd8 13.Rxd7 Rxd7 14.Rd1 Qe6 15.Bxd7+ Nxd7 16.Qb8+ Nxb8 17.Rd8# 1-0

3.Bg4 ▼ This is a weak move already.--Fischer

9.Bg5 ▼ Black is in what's like a zugzwang position here. He can't develop the [Queen's] knight because the pawn is hanging, the bishop is blocked because of the Queen.--Fischer