London Chess Classic 2010

Magnus Carlsen won the first place at the 2010 edition of the London Chess Classic.

Though Viswanathan Anand and Luke Mc Shane had tied with Carlsen at 4.5 points after 7 games (also Anand and McShane defeated Carlsen!), Carlsen was declared the winner due to the tiebreak system (greater number of blacks). The sofia system of scoring (3 points for win and 1 point for draw) led to a high percentage of fighting games.

Official Tournament Site
Download games in PGN and a Free Souvenir article in PDF
Reports on Chessbase and TWIC

63rd Russian Championship

Ian Nepomniachtchi is the new Russian Men's Champion. In an exciting final, he defeated Sergey Karjakin to win the event.

This year's event was held from Dec 11-22 at the Central Club of Chess in Moscow and was a 11 round all-play-all event with a time control of 40 moves in 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, and a 30 second increment for every move throughout the game. It carried a prizefund of 3.5 million rubles.

Though 71% of the games were drawn, the event had an exciting finish with Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi catching up with Svidler at the top of the leaderboard towards the final stages of the tournament.


Official Tournament Site (in russian)
Download games in PGN: Regular + Tiebreak
Tournament Reports on TWIC
Ian Nepomniachtchi on Wiki & ChessGames

Chessbase Puzzles

Click here for the Homepage of all Chessbase Puzzles

Anand - praise from a mentor

Read this very touching article by World Champion Anand's mentor and spanish parent, Mauricio Perea.

In this is explained how the Perea couple first met Anand, how they came close to him and why they consider him like their son.

ChessBase Christmas Puzzles 2010

Check the Christmas Puzzles composed by Dr John Nunn

Behind each of the following date-images you will find a separate set of puzzles, one per day from Christmas to the New Year. The first for 25th is a Help-mate.

Simple Checkmates - King+2Rooks vs King

This is the simplest checkmate.

1. Both the Rooks give check file-by-file or rank-by-rank.
2. If any Rook is attacked, go to the other side of the respective rank or file.

Other Simple Checkmates on CWBlog: K+Q vs K, K+R vs K

Bishop Pair

The Bishop is an attacking piece and when both colour Bishops get together, it forms an effective unit in both offense and defense.

This is referred to as having the Double bishop advantage and if the centre is open or semi-open it is even more formidable.

2 Instructive wins on this topic: Capablanca & Kramnik
Check an excellent example online here
View this great video on the power of Bishop Pair
Another good example from Georgi Orlov

Sethuraman is India's youngest GM

Sethuraman P (born 1993) of Tamil Nadu became India's youngest Grandmaster at the age of 17 years.

He secured the title by winning the recently concluded Voivoda's Cup International Chess tournament at Legnica, Poland.

Click here to read the TOI Report

Sethuraman on ChessGames

Game of the Century

Bobby Fischer, regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time has played many famous games.

At the age of 13, when he brilliantly defeated his strong opponent, who was one of America's leading chess masters, it caused a sensation.

A spectacular Queen sacrifice followed by a series of discovered checks earned this game the title of "Game of the Century".

Game of the Century on Wiki & ChessGames
Download PGN of this game

White: Donald Byrne
Black: R.J. Fischer

New York Rosenwald 1956, (Round 8)
Gruenfeld Defense
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. d4 O-O 5. Bf4 d5 6. Qb3 dxc4 7. Qxc4 c6 8. e4 Nbd7 9. Rd1 Nb6 10. Qc5 Bg4 11. Bg5 Na4 12. Qa3 Nxc3 13. bxc3 Nxe4 14. Bxe7 Qb6 15. Bc4 Nxc3 16. Bc5 Rfe8 17. Kf1 Be6 18. Bxb6 Bxc4 19. Kg1 Ne2 20. Kf1 Nxd4 21. Kg1 Ne2 22. Kf1 Nc3 23. Kg1 axb6 24. Qb4 Ra4 25. Qxb6 Nxd1 26. h3 Rxa2 27. Kh2 Nxf2 28. Re1 Rxe1 29. Qd8 Bf8 30. Nxe1 Bd5 31. Nf3 Ne4 32. Qb8 b5 33. h4 h5 34. Ne5 Kg7 35. Kg1 Bc5 36. Kf1 Ng3 37. Ke1 Bb4 38. Kd1 Bb3 39. Kc1 Ne2 40. Kb1 Nc3 41. Kc1 Rc2# 0-1

Rook on the 7th Rank

OpenFile --> Rook --> 7th Rank
The Rook on the 7th Rank is a very strong piece which can dominate the position. The opponent pawns can be attacked from the enemy back rank and also in the Endgame, the enemy King can be restricted from coming out.

An Instructive Game where the power of Rook on the 7th Rank is illustrated:
Capablanca (1-0) Tartakower, New York 1924

Mark Dvoretsky Interview

Mark Dvoretsky is a famous chess coach and author.

Below is a very instructive interview in which he answers questions from visitors of the Chessvibes site.

Part 1 of the Interview -- Part 2 of the Interview

Dvoretsky on Wiki & ChessGames