Best match chess

In yet another thrilling Blitz Death Match, Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi edged out Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirezby a final score of 16.5-13.5, pulling away just enough in the final portion of play (Bullet) to win by three games. The first Death Match of the year was held last weekend, January 12th for those in the Western Hemisphere - January 13th for those in the East. The different time zones meant GM Ramirez was to play...

2013 SPICE Cup

Le Quang Liem winning the 2011 SPICE Cup As well as the seven 2700+ players, there are 14 players rated between 2600 and 2699. Two names to look out for: we are very pleased to welcome back Artur Yusupov (or Jussupow, to give the German version of his name), who was a world championship contender of the 1980s, three times reaching the semi-final stage of the Candidates’ competition. Artur was coached and mentored by the legendary Mark Dvoretsky...

news results

The 11th edition of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festivalstarts on Monday and promises to be as prestigious and exciting as the previous ten. With ten tournaments now played, the Gibraltar Festival already has a bit of history behind it and maybe it’s time to consider a few stats and records. For example, let’s consider the most impressive victory in terms of score and rating performance: that goes to Ukrainian super-GMVassily Ivanchuk...

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chess nation

 Some last-minute recruitment on the part of our tournament director secured the services of another very strong and interesting 2700+ player – Czech GM David Navara. 27-year-old David is a universally popular player who is definitely going to be a big hit with the Gibraltar audience. David has played several sponsored matches in Prague against strong opposition and has match wins against Nigel Short and Sergei Movsesian to his credit. Alexei...

chess history

Mickey Adams is the fourth highest rated player playing in Gibraltar. He is a former winner, having tied with eight(!) others on 7½/10 in 2010 and then won the play-off. Mickey comes to Gibraltar on the crest of a wave (well, not literally – I expect he is flying in like everyone else). At the recent London Classic he finished an excellent third equal after Carlsen and Kramnik, and with a win against world champion Vishy Anand to his credit....

online chess

Chigorin could have forced mate with 24...Rh1+ 25 Nxh1 Bh2+, etc., but was Chernev correct to state that the position had ‘very often’ been published as a brilliant win by Chigorin? Citations are sought. ‘This is a worthy candidate for the title of Greatest Combination That Was Never Played’, suggested Andy Soltis on page 12 of the December 1990 Chess Life. Apart from writing that the game ended with perpetual check, he had an incorrect...

chess en ligne

that according to a report by Monvoisin in La Liberté, 26 September 1927 (reproduced on pages 722-723 of the September 1927 L’Echiquier) Polikier’s forename was Miroslar. He appeared, with Alekhine, in a group photograph on page 345 of the August 1975 BCM; see too page 544 of the December 1975 issue. When Chéron v Polikier was given on page 21 of 1000 Best Short Games of Chess (New York, 1955) by Irving Chernev it was...

formation chess

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 Nbd7 5 e3 Be7 6 Nf3 O-O 7 Qc2 c6 8 a3 dxc4 9 Bxc4 Nd5 10 Bxe7 Qxe7 11 Ne4 N5f6 12 Bd3 Nxe4 13 Bxe4 h6 14 O-O e5 15 Rfe1 Qf6 16 Rad1 exd4 17 exd4 Nb6 18 Ne5 Be6 19 Re3 Rad8 20 Rf3 Qh4 21 g3 Qh5 22 h4 Bg4 23 Re1 Nd5 24 Rxf7 Rxf7 25 Bh7+ Kh8 26 Bg6 Qxe5 27 dxe5 Rff8 28 e6 Ne7 29 Bf7 Rd4 30 Qc5 Rfd8 31 Qxe7 Bf3 32 Qxd8+ Resigns. This game was won by Salo Flohr against Karel Vaněk in a team match in Brno between Prague...

chess source

USA (exact occasion?) 1 f4 f5 2 e4 fxe4 3 f5 Nf6 4 Be2 h5 5 Nh3 d5 6 O-O Qd6 7 Nf4 Bxf5 8 Nxh5 Bg6 9 Nxf6+ exf6 10 h3 Qg3 11 Bg4 Bc5+ 12 Kh1 Bd6 13 Kg1 Qh2+ 14 Kf2 f5 15 Be2 and Black gave mate in seven. However, our computer offers 15…e3+ 16 Kxe3 Qe5+ and mate in three more moves. Source: Deutsche Schachzeitung, June 1872, page 167. Thomas Niessen (Aachen, Germany) now notes that the game was given in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletinon...

Mate in 2 moves

7911. Two pawns (C.N. 7901) White to move and draw We took this composition from page 30 of the February 1942 Schweizerische Schachzeitung. The solution was on page 129 of the August 1942 issue: 1 g4+ Kf6 2 g5+ Ke7 3 gxh6 Nf6 4 h7 Re8 5 h8(Q). The magazine stated that the composer was J. Jonas of Zurich and that the original source was the National-Zeitung, 1939. Richard Forster (Zurich) has provided cuttings from that newspaper (2 November...

Michael Clarke Duncan and chess

Those seem like the most significant stats – and the good news is that Ivanchuk and Short are back to do battle in 2013. Nigel Short could consider himself more than a little unlucky not to have won a fourth Gibraltar title in 2011 when he scored 8½/10 for a rating performance of 2883: good enough in almost any other year but not when Hurricane Chucky is blowing through the Straits of Gibraltar! The sight of Chucky and Nigel cutting a swathe through...