No fear !

In the following position , White was wondering how to avoid the draw and play for the win . White chose Bb6 .

















To everyone's surprise , Black played the unexpected trump Nh4! threatening Qg4 mate.
Qd8+ Kh7 Qxh4 Qf1 Game over 0-1 !

Keep your eyes wide open !

Black is two pawns up and White has just played 28) Qf6 .
Black misses a good chance here to simplify . The obvious Bxg2 is compelling !
29)Kg2 Rd2 30)Kh1 Qe4 31)Qf3 Qe5 32)Qf4 Qxb5 33) Rxa7 Rd4 -+




















Unfortunately Black played 28) ... Qe4 ?? 29)Rxb7 Qb7 30)Qxd4 1-0

Earth shattering blunder !

picture courtesy of Chesspics.com








Kramnik will hit the healines tomorrow after his second game vs Deep Fritz : "When the best among the best stumbles like a newbie" or "Kramnik claims the blunder of the century "...
Could you imagine a World Chess Champion forgetting a mate in ONE move ?
Will he get over his blunder in the match man vs machine ?

Have a look , White to move !

Short but Sweet

Caro Kann players should know that neglecting the e6 square could be lethal . Here's a nice example :
1) e4 c6 2) d4 d5 3) Nc3 de4 4) Bc4 Nf6 5) f3 ef3 6) Nf3 Nbd7 7) 0-0 Qc7 8) Ng5 e6 9) Be6 fe6 10) Ne6 Qb6 11) Qe2 Kf7 12) Ng5 Kg6 13) Qd3 1-0

Keep a straight face

Do you remember"elista 2006" ? A new World Champion , The bathroom gate ... What else ?










It looks weird, isn't it?
How could it be possible to dream up such a mascot for a world championship ?

Look like a Rook ?

Fearless King !

It's quite simple : White is much better .
Black has just played 27) ...Kd5
Do you foresee what could happen after 28)Nc3 Kxd4 ?

Looking for a beautiful chess picture ?

Do you know Chesspics ?
a site that cannot be ignored !
http://www.chesspics.com/

Be patient , not too confident

This seems to be a confortable position for White .
However, a mirage led them to the blunder ...

Cap d'Agde 2006

A Master Tournament is held from 27 october to 2 november 2006 in Cap d'Agde , France .
See the results , players interviews here

Wijk Aan Zee 2007

The traditionnal Wijk Aan Zee Chess Tournament aka Corus Chess will be held from 12-28 January 2007 in the Netherlands .
Already known as the strongest tournament of 2007 , six out of the ten best rated chess players have confirmed their participation .

Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria, 2813, 1)
Viswanathan Anand (India, 2779, 2)
Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2750, 3)
Peter Svidler (Russia, 2750, 4)
Alexander Morozevich (Russia, 2747, 5)
Levon Aronian (Armenië, 2741, 7)
Teymour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, 2729, 11)
Alexey Shirov (Spain, 2720, 14)
Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2703, 20)
Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2698, 21)
Sergey Tiviakov (The Netherlands, 2680, 27)
Loek van Wely (The Netherlands, 2676, 29)
Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine, 2672, 35)
Alexander Motylev (Russia, 2662, 44)

By the way , where is Gata Kamsky ?

Note that it will the first meeting on the board between Kramnik and Topalov since the last world championship .


More information here

Hoogeven suits to Judith !

A few years ago , Judith already beat a former Chess World Champion , Anatoly Karpov .
I couldn't resist to show you this nugget !
White to move

Judith Polgar wins Essent Crown Group !

This is the heading I found on www.veselintopalov.net , the site of the former Fide World Chess Champion !
Congratulations Judith !
But we have to specify that she shared first place with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.(4.5 points / 6.0)
3) Topalov 2.5 - 4) Sokolov (0.5) brought up the rear
All the result here
Ivan Cheparinov won the Open tournament with Jan Werle (7.0 points / 9.0)
Results and pgn files here

Mexico City Broke The Record

Last week , in Mexico’s City , during the Chess Festival , 13 446 persons ( 23 000 were registered ! ) were given the Guinness World Record for being the largest concentration of people playing simultaneously chess games .
Have a look on the Reuters video !
Karpov , Kortchnoi and many more chess guests were under the sun of Mexico ...

Which epilogue for this game ?

White To move




















After 54) g7 + which states the obvious
Black had an optical illusion and played Rxg7 ( Kh7 ! works well since the c3 pawn holds the position )
55) hxg7 kxg7
56) Nf5+ Kf6
57) Ne3 Ke5
58) a4 Kd4
59) Nc2 Kc4
60) a5! the only way Kb3
61) b5 Kc2
62) bxa6 1-0

Here's the first message / move

Nothing to say but welcome on the Chessboard to all visitors !

It's a real pleasure to have the opportunity to share all about my passion .
So, the first move of the game is 1 ) e4 ! , not really the fashionnable move at high level . As a matter of fact , most of the best players in the world usually play 1) d4 .
Even if Garry Kasparov , Viswanathan Anand , Misha Tal , Nigel Short , Paul Charles Morphy Adolf Anderssen ( the Master of attack !) love playing 1) e4 .
Robert Fischer , the former american world champion , used to say you had to play 1) e4 if you were not a coward !
Do you want more opinions about this topic ?
See "What is more lethal" in Susan Polgar's blog ( The best chess blog ever !)