A Nice Game with the Nimzowitsch Defense

Stuart Geschwind (wallythegh) – Leopold Lacrimosa (KingLeopold)

Chess.com, 5′ Blitz, 5/30/2012

1.e4 Nc6 (Nimzowitsch Defense) 2.Nf3 f5 (Colorado Variation) 3.exf5 d5 4.Bb5 Bxf5 5.O-O Nf6 6.Ne5 Qd6 7.d4 Nd7 8.Nc3?! (c6) 8…Ncxe5 9.dxe5 Qxe5 10.Qxd5 c6 11.Qxe5 Nxe5 (After the exchange of pieces, play is about even) 12.Ba4 O-O-O 13.Bf4 Ng6 14.Bg3 e5 15.Bb3 Bd6 16.Rfe1 Rhe8 17.Ne4 Bc7 18.h3 Nf4 19.Rad1 Nd5 20.Ng5 Re7 21.Nf3 e4 22.Nd4 Bg6 23.Bh4! Nf6 24.f4?!  (26.Ne6 looked strong) 24…Bb6! (I believe this move sets up the win for me) 25.c3 c5 26.f5 cxd4 (In a Blitz game time prevents acurate calculations so I just have to take a chance my continuation is the correct one) 27.fxg6 d3+ 28.Kh1 hxg6 29.Bxf6? (Giving up the exchange is wrong in my oppinon) 29.gxf6 30.Rf1 f5 31.g4 e3 (The two connected passed pawns are a mighty powerful weapon) 32.Rf3 d2 33.gxf5 gxf5 34.Rxf5 e2 White Resigns 0-1

 

Anand Vs Gelfand Going into Tie Breakers

Nerves hold the key in closing stages of clash in World Chess Championships

By Mail Today Reporter

PUBLISHED: 13:34 EST, 25 May 2012 | UPDATED: 13:35 EST, 25 May 2012

Nerves more than past reputation could hold the key in the closing stages of the ongoing World Chess Championships at the Tretyakov Gallery here.

A lot of beliefs and predictions have already been thrown out of the window. The first was that Viswanathan Anand would outplay Boris Gelfand, the second that two 40-year-old players could not produce riveting chess, and finally, a break has been made from animus-driven World Championships matches.

Anand and Vladimir Kramnik played a cordial final in 2008, but this current match between the Indian and Gelfand has shown healthy mutual respect and a lot of maturity.

Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand (left) will play their 11th game of the World Chess Championships in Moscow on Saturday

Both have played the game in the right spirit and also produced good chess.

What’s more, Gelfand, the underdog at the start, has shown excellent preparation. Gelfand, seen as a possible successor to Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov in the early 1990s before he lost his way, seems to have found second wind.

Overall, it has been a good match and a pretty good advertisement for chess. But should the match go into the rapids and tiebreaker, it will again open the debate on the length of the match.

Most Grandmasters believe that a 12-game match is just too short for a Classical World Championships.

Neither player would take risk, for the margin of error is too small, if not non-existent. A loss means it becomes tough to fight back, which is why Gelfand’s 17-move defeat in the eighth game, after a win in the seventh, was surprising.

But Gelfand showed no ill-effects of the blunder. He has simply moved on.

For those who feel Anand will be comfortable in rapids or blitz, one only needs to look at Gelfand’s attitude. He has shrugged aside talk of statistics. He brushed aside history of not having beaten Anand for 19 years before the seventh game.

The drought ended in the most important match of his career. Peter Svidler, the six-time Russian champion, smiled and remarked: ‘These guys have given us hope. It shows that we can still achieve a lot and aspire for a World Championships.’

Gelfand has thrown up novelties and even an innovation as early as the fifth move in the 10th game and that certainly is a very creditable achievement at this level. Whenever Anand has tried to surprise him, Gelfand has hit back.

Both have had one win each. When Gelfand won, he gave Anand no chance. Anand, always great at defending, kept looking at ways to get away, just could not find one to do so. But when Gelfand lost, it was a miserable loss. ‘There’re two games to go.

Each one will have a white after the rest day. It’s important to note that those two games are not immediately following one another.

So, both will have an additional day to prepare,’ Svidler remarked after the 10th game. Anand refused to get drawn into the talk on tie-breakers.

‘I’m just playing every day and seeing what turns up, deciding strategy according to the position on the board,’ he said.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2150078/Nerves-hold-key-closing-stages-clash-World-Chess-Championships.html#ixzz1wCSAjsRV

Magnus Carlsen on The Colbert Report

http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:colbertnation.com:413135

The Colbert Report
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What to do with a New Trophy?

Why, turn it into a phaser of course!

Photo’s of My Students from the 2012 Governor’s Cup State Chess Championship this Weekend!

World Chess Champions

Here is a drawing of all the World Chess Champions in one place. Can you name them all?

World Chess Champions

8-year-old West Covina boy beats chess master in tournament game

By J.D. Velasco, SGVN twitter.com/J_D_Velascopasadenastarnews.com

Posted:   04/26/2012 12:23:21 AM PDT

Joaquin Perkins, 7, with a chess set at his home in West Covina on Tuesday. The rising star in the chess world recently beat a 43-year-old chess master. (Watchara Phomicinda / Staff Photographer)

This story has been corrected from an earlier version.WEST COVINA – In a lot of ways, Joaquin Perkins is like many 8-year-old boys. He plays basketball, watches cartoons and enjoys Pokemon trading cards.

But unlike most boys his age, Joaquin possesses a fearsome set of chess-playing skills. He has been winning chess tournaments since kindergarten.

Earlier this month, he beat a national chess master during a tournament game in Garden Grove.

“It felt pretty good,” Joaquin said. “I like beating people.”

“This means it’s someone to keep your eyes on,” said Bill Hall, executive director of the U.S. Chess Federation. “Now let’s watch and see what he can do.”

After combing through the federation’s records, Hall determined that Joaquin’s recent win makes him the seventh- youngest player to ever beat a chess master in an official tournament game.

While Joaquin was already a highly ranked chess player before the game, his opponent, Pablo Pena, was ranked even higher. Pena, 43, earlier this year beat an international chess master to win a tournament in Irvine.

Hall said there was a less than 0.5 percent chance Joaquin would beat Pena, statistically speaking.

“It’s extremely rare,” Hall said. “Could this be an anomaly? It’s possible, but it typically will show that it is a promising talent.”

Joaquin has been playing chess in some capacity since he was 2 years old, said his father, Kele Perkins. He entered his first tournament at 3 1/2.

Kele Perkins said he had been taught chess by his own father at a young age. He stopped playing after high school, but when he had a son of his own, he decided to pass along the tradition.

“It’s not that chess is really important, it’s the kind of things that it would generate,” Kele Perkins said. “Studies indicate that it has these cognitive benefits.”

Kele Perkins said they had no idea who Joaquin would be playing when he signed up for this month’s tournament.

“We just showed up and the master showed up,” Kele Perkins said. “I was hoping he would give him a decent game.”

Joaquin said he wasn’t really worried about playing a chess master when he sat down at the table.

“Not at first, but in the end I was pretty nervous,” Joaquin said.

Until the end, it seemed as though Pena would beat his son, Kele Perkins said.

“When they had about a minute left Pablo (Pena) made a mistake and blundered,” Kele Perkins said.

Joaquin said his dad told him he should pursue chess professionally when he’s older, but he seems more interested in being an NBA basketball player.

One day he asked his dad if he should play for the Lakers or the Miami Heat when he gets bigger. His favorite players are Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade.

While he has mastered the chess board, Joaquin still has a few things to learn about basketball, his dad said.

“He has no idea what kind of work it takes to be one of the best in the country for something like basketball,” Kele Perkins said.

justin.velasco@sgvn.com

Tournament Photos

Photos of some of my students from last Saturdays qualifying toymaker held in Chandler

Chess Team Leaves Texas Tech

 

Sunday, Apr 15 2012 3AM 0°C 6AM 0°C 5-Day Forecast

Checkmate! Champion chess coach poaches entire TEAM of players to new college

By David Gardner In Los Angeles

PUBLISHED: 20:51 EST, 13 April 2012 | UPDATED: 21:07 EST, 13 April 2012

Poached: Chess champion Susan Polgar brought an entire chess team to a new university

It’s not unusual in sport for a richer rival to prey on the best players of a competing team after they’ve found success.

But even the New York Yankees couldn’t match the check-mate move that has shocked the genteel world of chess.

For just days after winning their second consecutive national college chess title the entire Knights Raiders team has jumped ship, poached by another university.

America’s reigning chess queen, four-time world champion and five-time Olympic gold medallist Susan Polgar, masterminded the unprecedented switch.

The team coach is taking all seven of her players with her from Texas Tech to the private Webster University in St Louis, Missouri.

Brains: America¿s reigning chess queen, four-time world champion and five-time Olympic gold medallist Susan Polgar, masterminded the unprecedented switch

A chess prodigy herself, chess grand master Ms Polgar became the world’s top ranked female player when she was just 15.

Her team, all chess masters, were offered full scholarships by their new college, an offer that Texas Tech couldn’t match.

The Midwest city is also hosting the US chess championships next month and is home to a brand new 6,000 square foot chess club.

‘St Louis today is the centre of chess in America,’ Ms Polgar told the Associated Press. ‘It just seemed like a perfect fit. The university is an overall good choice for them, but it is a decision each member made individually.

Switch: The team coach is taking all seven of her players with her from Texas Tech to the private Webster University in St Louis, Missouri

‘We are one family and in that spirit they know how much I fight for them and not just about chess, but with whatever they need help with.

‘They all are international students and it is part of my job to ensure that they find a home away from home. I am very proud and very happy for them,’ she added.

Her team consists of players from around the world, including Germany, Iran, Israel, Brazil, Hungary and Aberbaiijan

Provost Julian Schuster, a native of the former Yugoslavia who calls himself ‘a very strong fan and casual player,’ helped broker the deal after learning of Ms Polgar’s interest through mutual friends.

Game on: Webster University provost Julian Schuster is looking forward to his new chess team

Commitment: Schuster was instrumental in bringing the defending national champion chess team from Texas Tech to little-known Webster University near St. Louis

He envisions a broader academic focus revolving around chess, espousing a ‘dream of connecting chess as not only a game but as a didactic tool, to apply in a learning setting.’

Neither Ms Polgar nor Schuster would discuss the specifics of the financial commitment to attract the program.

About 30 schools nationwide have competitive chess teams, from Yale and Princeton to Miami-Dade College and the University of West Indies.

And while college chess remains a niche activity, Ms Polgar’s unprecedented move has given the game a brief moment in the spotlight.

Double Sacrifice Win

KingLeopold (1680) vs JefferyPoppell (1810)

Chess.com  2012.04.02

TimeControl “1 in 3 days”

 

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 My standard answer 2…d5 3.e4 dxe4 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 BDG by trnasposition 5…g6 Bogolyubov Var. 6.Ne5 Bg7 7.Bc4 O-O 8.O-O e6 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bh4 g5  11.Bg3 c6 12.Qd3 Nbd7 13.Nxf7?! I wasn’t sure if this sacrifice was correct or not, but it does break down the castle walls 13…Kxf7?! Souldn’t he have taken with the rook or not? 14.Rae1! Everyone of my piece are in play 14…Nb6 15.Bb3 Re8 16.Be5 Rh8 17.Qf3 Rf8 18.Ne4 Kg6 19.Qd3 Nxe4 20.Qxe4+ Rf5  21.g4 Bxe5 22.gxf5+ exf5 23.Qxe5 Nd5 24.c3 Nf4?! 25.Rxf4! I feel good about this second sacrifice 25…gxf4 26.Kh1! I can’t let him set up an attack on my king 26…Qf8 27.Rg1+ Kh5?! Stepping into the fray? 28.Bd1+ Kh4 You can run but you can not hide! 29.Qxf4+ Kh3 30.Qg3#  1-0