Saturday, January 29, 2011
Simultaneous Chess at ICA
Myself having Simultaneous Games with my students SaiDarshan, Ashrit, Rohit, Mahantesh, Madhuchandra, Ganesha, Jhosh, Anushka, Anish, Girish, Varshini, Akash, Sudarshini, Srivats, Pallavi and Ashwin
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Vera Menchik
Vera Menchik was the first Women's World Chess Champion.She was born in Moscow on 16th February 1906. She leart chess from her father and by the age of 15 had won the British girls championship. In 1927 she won the first Womens World Championship at London (representing Russia) and successfully defended the title 6 times; during this she had an awesome record of 78 wins, 4 draws and only 1 loss!
Geza Maroczy was her coach during her formative years. She defeated several famous players including Sultan Khan, Reshevsky, Lazard, Samisch, Euwe, Colle, Becker, Golombek, Book, Mieses and Baratz. Her greatest Tournament success was at Ramsgate 1929, when she tied for second with Rubinstein (Capablanca was first).
She was married to Rufus Henry Streatfeild Stevenson and died in a tragic rocket bombing raid during World War II.
A nice video on Vera and her achievements is below
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The most difficult Chess Problem
According to a post on Chess.com
Check the full article here
Click here for a comprehensive site on Chess Problems
An unsolved mathematical Chess Problem Video is below
Chess Jokes
In a park people come across a man playing chess against a dog. They are astonished and say: "What a clever dog!"But the man protests: "No, no, he isn't that clever. I'm leading by three games to one!"
More Jokes here, here and here
Kasparov's Immortal Game
Below is one of the greatest games played by Garry Kasparov.White: Garry Kasparov
Black: Veselin Topalov
Hoogovens A Tournament, Wijk aan Zee, 1999
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. Qd2 c6 6. f3 b5 7. Nge2 Nbd7 8. Bh6 Bxh6 9. Qxh6 Bb7 10. a3 e5 11. O-O-O Qe7 12. Kb1 a6 13. Nc1 O-O-O 14. Nb3 exd4 15. Rxd4 c5 16. Rd1 Nb6 17. g3 Kb8 18. Na5 Ba8 19. Bh3 d5 20. Qf4+ Ka7 21. Rhe1 d4 22. Nd5 Nbxd5 23. exd5 Qd6 24. Rxd4 cxd4 25. Re7+ Kb6 26. Qxd4+ Kxa5 27. b4+ Ka4 28. Qc3 Qxd5 29. Ra7 Bb7 30. Rxb7 Qc4 31. Qxf6 Kxa3 32. Qxa6+ Kxb4 33. c3+ Kxc3 34. Qa1+ Kd2 35. Qb2+ Kd1 36. Bf1 Rd2 37. Rd7 Rxd7 38. Bxc4 bxc4 39. Qxh8 Rd3 40. Qa8 c3 41. Qa4+ Ke1 42. f4 f5 43. Kc1 Rd2 44. Qa7 1-0
Play through this game on ChessGames
Download PGN of this Game
Video explaining this Game
ECO Codes
ECO (Encyclopedia of Chess Openings) has created a method of categorizing all the openings into alpha-numeric codes. Variations of an opening will have numeric extensions on the 3rd digit.Using the ECO Code, it is possible to search through Databases for a particular opening or variation. Broadly, there are 5 alphabets into which all openings are classified:
A - Flank Openings (English, Benoni, Benko, Dutch, Reti)
B - Semi-Open (Sicilian, Caro-Kann, Pirc, Alekhine, Center-counter)
C - Open (Ruy Lopez, French, Petroff, Philidor, Scotch, Kings Gambit, 4 Knights, Giuoco Piano)
D - Semi-Closed and Closed (Queens Gambit, Slav, Grunfeld)
E - Indian defenses (Nimzo indian, Queens Indian, Kings Indian, Catalan)
More Details on Wiki: Overview & Full-List
Robert James ‘Bobby’ Fischer
Authored by my students, Ashrit and RohitBorn on March 9, 1943 Robert James Fischer went on to become one of the all-time greats in chess. His unique ideas about hypermodern chess impressed everyone. These ideas are about controlling the center with the pieces rather than the classical and most accepted way i.e. with pawns. These openings start with usually Nf3 and continue with other piece moves. It is only later the pawns develop.
He lived in America (Illinois), Germany, Hungary and Iceland (Reykjavik).
On January 17, 2008, Fischer died from degenerative renal failure at the Reykjavik hospital. This year was his third death anniversary. The URL to a website about him is http://bobby-fischer.net/
At the age of 13 he won a ‘brilliancy award’ that is now known as ‘The Game of the Century’. Aged 14, he played in eight United States Championships winning by at least one point’s margin. When he was about 15 years he went on to become the youngest Grandmaster and Candidate for the World Chess Championship of his time.
Here are records of all his years of the US Chess Championships:
His scores were:
• 1957–58: 10½/13
• 1958–59: 8½/11
• 1959–60: 9/11
• 1960–61: 9/11
• 1962–63: 8/11
• 1963–64: 11/11
• 1965–66: 8½/11
• 1966–67: 9½/11
He did not attend the 1961-62 Championships as he was training for the Interzonals.
His playing style was magical. He played really well in Sicilian Defense Najdorf variation which was his main weapon against any King pawn opening.
He captured Boris Spassky with his miraculous play, in the year 1972.
Perhaps the best game of the 1972 match and certainly one of the most famous games in chess history. And to think this was the first time Fischer had played the white side of a Queen's Gambit as an adult.
But here he plays his best and establishes a clear advantage from the opening. That alone would not be enough to make this game a classic - Fischer then goes on to play one of the most beautiful middle games in the history of chess.
He also played the English Defense for the third time in his career in Game 6 which I present before you now. Spassky chooses to defend with the Tartakower Variation of the Orthodox Defense, probably a good choice as he had previously never been beaten in this opening.
When Spassky resigned he too joined in the applause.
Here is an video of the game.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
8 Queens Puzzle
The 8 Queens puzzle is one of the oldest problems. First proposed by the chess player Max Bezzel in 1848, this puzzle has been a favourite of both chess players and mathematicians. Franz Nauck in 1850 extended the puzzle to a n-queens problem on an nxn chessboard. Later in 1972, Edsger Dijkstra used this problem to explain the basics of structured programming using the depth-first backtracking algorithm.Eight chess queens need to be placed on a 8x8 chessboard in such a way that each of them cannot capture any other queen. Thus, no two queens should be on the same row, column or diagonal.
The puzzle has 92 different solutions which includes 12 unique solutions.
More Details on Wiki
A mathematical solution
Recursive solution in Java
Detailed Algorithmic approach
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Vugar Gashimov wins Reggio Emilia 2011
The 53rd Reggio Emilia Masters Tournament was won by Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan. Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain tied with him on 6 points after 10 rounds, but Gashimov won by a better tie-break score.Click here to play through 2 crucial games
Click here to download all games in PGN
Official Tournament Site
Reports on ChessBase and TWIC
Why you lose at Chess
Most of the games are decided by mistakes and blunders by either player. The reason is:
-- lack of knowledge of Opening Theory and Endgame Technique
-- incorrect utilization of Time
-- lack of Concentration and Focus during the Game
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Yifan Hou is the new 2010 World Women's Champion
Yifan Hou won the World Women's Chess Championship thereby becoming the Youngest ever player to win the crown (earlier record was held by Maia Chiburdanidze).The Final was played between Yifan Hou (who beat Koneru Humpy) and Lufei Ruan (who beat Xue Zhao). The 4 game match was tied at 2-2 and in the Tie-Break, Yifan won the 2nd and 4th games (1st and 3rd were drawn).
The event was held at Hatay, Turkey, from December 2nd to 25th. It was a 64-player knockout tournament, with two-game mini-matches qualifying a player to the next round, until the final and 6th round, which is a four-game match to determine the champion.
Click here to replay the 4th game
Click here to download games in PGN: Regular & Tie-Break
Official Tournament Site
All WWCC reports on ChessBase & TWIC
Below is a video of Yifan Hou anaysing a game with David Navara at Corus 2009
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