The Vice Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Zhukov took the floor first. He informed the audience on the World Chess Olympiad 2010 Organizing Committee meeting which was held to discuss the organizational points. He also mentioned that all the objects to be involved into the Olympiad including the Chess Academy were inspected.

Apart the Olympiad issue, Mr. Filipenko informed the journalists that 128 participants from 42 countries are participating in the 3 rd World Chess Cup 2009. The tournament consists of 6 rounds. 128 players will take part in the 1 st round, 64 players will stay for the 2 nd one, 32 for the 3 rd and so on till the final match. The World Cup winner will be qualified for the Candidates tournament. Therefore this year World Cup has its special importance for all the players. Mr. Filipenko said with confidence that this novelty (speaking about chance to qualify to the Candidates) will undoubtedly raise the interest and add the fighting mood to all the players. In his opinion the two previous World Cups which took place in Khanty were held on a proper level. It is confirmed by the fact that the Yugra chess players started showing better results in the tournaments of higher level and by the fast development of chess in Yugra Okrug. Today, chess in Yugra – is a harmonious system where people of all ages, from children to old generation, are involved. He also added that the perfect organization of the World Chess Olympiad 2010 will bring a considerable contribution to the chess development in Okrug, Russia and all over the world.

Thereafter the journalists started their questions:

• Alexander Vasilievich, do you expect any financial support from the Federal Centre for organizing the World Chess Olympiad? – “Yugra” magazine.

• Today I can say that all possible financial support in all optimal volume has been received, - says the Governor. – The most important is undoubtedly moral support. But despite this, we have agreed on some cooperation which means not only financial but also organizational assistance. We don't need more. Thank you.

• All the possible support and assistance from the side of Ministries and departments will be also provided, - adds the Vice Prime Minister of RF. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Sport will assist in all necessary fields. It concerns visas, customs, etc. Of course, we will also provide the Olympiad organizers with media support. The coverage of the Olympiad should fit the level of this event.

• Alexander Dmitrievich, it came to our knowledge that two days ago you resigned from the position of the Russian Chess Federation President. Just some words about it and will you remain the organizing committee chairman? – asked Ludmila Malzeva, “Rossiiskya gazeta”

• I am the Organizing Committee Chairman not due to my position of the RFC President but due to my position of the Vice Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. To say more, we have a tradition, which I think is right. It is obligatory that an Organizing committee is set up to hold any international big sport events in Russia. It also concerns the World Championships in any sport for there are a lot of issues and problems where our support is needed. As for the Chess Federation, yes, you are right, I have resigned recently and everyone is aware why I had to do so. At the beginning of the next year we will have the special session of the RFC. Till that time the Vice President of RFC Alexander Bach will fulfill the duties of the President. He is at the same time an Executive Director of our federation. During the next session of RFC we are planning to make some changes in the format structure. Me and Arkady Dvorkovich, the assistant to the President of the Russian Federation would continue contribute to the Russian chess and assist chess development in frameworks of new so-called council of trustees or observers' committee. Later we will define the structure.

• Question to Alexander Dmitrievich. Today you have inspected many sport objects, not only connected to chess. This is a theoretical question to the Winter Olympic Games Organizing Committee Chairman: in case of force majeure, could Khanty Mansiysk be a worthy replacement? – asked a correspondent of TV company Yugra. The audience burst out with laughter.

• Almost yes. You only miss a higher ski mountain. You have very good ski mountain, but the downhill is not possible. We should do something: either to make deeper hole or to build a mound of snow somehow. But anyway you have perfect sport infrastructure. This is not my first visit anyway and I have seen a lot of them. But I must confess that for instance now I saw for the first time your new ice soccer palace. My personal opinion is that not only high league matches could be held here but also NHL games as well. Of course one should mention a perfect tennis centre, which is now one of the best tennis centers of Russia. Very good soccer stadium and all the facilities there. One should not forget the biathlon stadium. Now it is under reconstructions, I believe, it will become better after it. It is really difficult to mention all now. The new chess palace is under constructions. We were talking about your developments and all that given to sport with Alexandr Bach and he already envies you. We don't have all this in Moscow.

• And he is ready to move to Khanty Mansiysk, - added Alexander Vasilievich joking.

• Who can become a winner of World Cup? Your prognosis?

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If there were two favorites in the tournament, they were likely Viswanathan Anand, who is not only the World Champion but is also known as a tremendous rapid and blitz player, and Magnus Carlsen, who has been playing extremely well as of late. The two players were in the lead from start to finish, with Anand holding a two point lead after the first day. However, it was Carlsen who ended up on top, finishing clear first with a 31/42 score -- three points ahead of Anand, who finished in second.

Carlsen won the event on the back of an impressive 28 wins, drawing just six games and losing eight. Conversely, Anand actually lost fewer games -- only six -- but also drew 16. Carlsen also pulled away by dominating the other leaders; he won both games against Anand, as well as against third place finisher Sergey Karjakin (25/42) and Vladimir Kramnik, who finished fourth (24.5). The tournament was competitive throughout the field, with even Alexandra Kosteniuk (last place, 12.5) scoring wins against both Carlsen and Anand.

Of course, blitz tournaments don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Still, this is another notch in the hat for Carlsen, for whom 2009 has been a very good year. We'll soon see if he can top things off at the London Chess Classic in December, where he'll have a chance to finish the year with a tournament victory, and secure his #1 spot on the FIDE rating list.

Carlsen Blitzes Through Moscow originally appeared on About.com Chess on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 12:37:06.

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• My first attempt to get better at endgames was when I picked up an endgame book by Euwe. Euwe is one of those terrible endgame authors who wanted to give his book a whiff of science, I assume. Which meant that he tried to be complete in his writings. Well, sort of. The result is that his book started with 8 chapters with endgames that you get only once in a lifetime, if you are lucky. An author must protect you from wasting your time. As novice you look for guidance, not for completeness, of course. The idea of an encyclopedia is totally wrong for a novice in endgames.
• It took me about a half year of daily study to get an idea where to start with endgame study. That I count as my second attempt.
• The third attempt was based on my discovery that all endgames were judged by the underlying pawnending. So I started with SOPE of Muller and Lamprecht. That seemed to work well for some time untill I collided with the habit of those authors to put in lots of beautiful endgame compositions into their exercises with positions you will not even get once in 10 lifetimes. That is so silly in an endgame book when you are a novice and looking for guidance. I had to stop that spilling of my time in disgust.
• The fourth attempt was papa Polgars endgame brick which suffered from the same flaw.
• An endgame CD with 2400 exercises of Convekta: same waste of time
• Sixth attempt was PCT. Darn you, Gregoriev! Darn you silly endgame authors!
  
• My seventh attempt was Lars Bo Hansen's SOCES. Now that was a revelation! Finally a book that guides you in stead of being encyclopedic and wasting my time with beautiful studies! I had to stop that study though since my positional middlegame skills were so poor that I never reached an endgame that wasn't lost anyhow.

Greg Hager Memorial

Saturday, November 21

• SS; G/60. EF: $27, $17 to BCF members.
• Two sections: Open & U1800;
• Prizes: b/entries.
• Reg: 9:15 – 9:50.
• Rounds: 10, 12:40, 3:00, 5:10

“Spassky now caused an uproar in the audience by appearing on the stage wearing, for the first time, a large bright silver-white sun visor. Korchnoi reacted by demanding the curtains be drawn across the stage, thus screening the players from the audience which had been thrown into tumult by Spassky’s behaviour.”

a good try from Vassily but, like much else in chess,
bizarre headgear was better in the seventies
photo from chess vibes

“In personal conversations he accused everyone, in particular me and Kazic, that he had been hypnotised and prevented from thinking, and he quickly left Belgrade.”

“Do you remember, Viktor, how I accused Kazic of disturbing me, and how he once prevented me from placing my knight on f5?”

To which David replies: "Oh yes, I know that game but all that was known at the time that game was played." He described the game in detail, practically cited the page the game was on. All of this from a player that doesn't play either side of a Giuoco!?

I play few 40/2 hr G/60 weekend tournaments anymore as they appear to be on the decline. I miss one interesting phenomenon that happens to those who toil all weekend within a slow time control tournament analyzing for hours at the board: by the last round of the tournament I am so much more lucid when compared to my state of mind when round one began. By late in a tournament, I can glance at a position and just know things that my typical rusty, mushy mind usually doesn't comprehend easily. A really cool experience. Two or three days of 8 to 10 hours per day of slow time control chess does wonders for my chess awareness and judgment. And when combined with the Swiss effect of you meeting players more and more equal to yourself as the tournament goes on, each game usually becomes a tougher and tougher, more fun, battle.

Being a chess weekend warrior, I dream of what it would be like to spend mountains of time with chess every day and have this incredible awareness all the time like IM's.

Folks like David Vigorito have such an all inclusive interest that they study games and openings even if very esoteric to their style, likes, and beliefs.

I would be a better player if I could afford to spend all my hours playing. But then I would need to find a hobby, maybe scrapbooking?!

I wonder what the likes of Larry Christiansen do for fun?

Please Comment

Thank You Mike Griffin

11/17/2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapbooking

Here is blogger Ed Gaillard of Der Alter Goniff.

FM Asa Hoffmann browsed through the thousands of chess books.

So did many others.

Jim West (USCF 2200) - Isaac Barayev (USCF 1803), Marshall Chess Club 11/15/2009

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Be3 Qb6 7.Qb3 c4 8.Qxb6 axb6 9.Nbd2 Bd6 10.g3 Nge7 11.Bg2 Be6 12.O-O Nf5 13.Rfe1 O-O


14.Ng5 Rfe8 15.Nxe6 fxe6 16.a3 h6 17.Re2 Nxe3 18.Rxe3 Re7 19.Rae1 Rae8 20.f4 g6 21.h4 Nd8 22.Nf3 Kg7 23.Bh3 Kf6 24.Nh2 Kg7 25.Ng4 Bc7 26.R3e2 Bd6 27.Ne3 b5 28.Kg2 Kf6 29.Kf3 Kg7


30.f5 exf5 31.h5 Nf7 32.hxg6 Ng5+ 33.Kg2 Kxg6 34.Bxf5+ Kg7 35.Bg4 Kg6 36.Nxd5 Rxe2+ 37.Rxe2 Rxe2+ 38.Bxe2 Ne4 39.g4 Ng5 40.Bf3 Nxf3 41.Kxf3 Kg5 42.Nb6 Bc7 43.Nd7 Bf4 44.Nc5 Bc1 45.Nxb7 Bxb2 46.Nd6 Bxc3 47.Nxb5 Bb2 48.d5 c3 49.Nd4 Bxa3 50.Nc2 Bd6 51.Ne3 Be5, draw.

Jason Margiotta (USCF 1942) - Jim West (USCF 2200), Marshall Chess Club 11/15/2009

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.c4 e5 4.dxe5 Ne4 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 dxe5 7.Qxd8+ Kxd8 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.Bxe4 Nxc4 10.Bd5 Bb4+ 11.Nc3 Nd6 12.O-O Re8 13.Bf3 Be6 14.Rd1 Ke7


15.Nd5+ Bxd5 16.Rxd5 c6 17.Re5+ Kf8 18.Rxe8+ Rxe8 19.Bf4 Nc4 20.b3 Ne5 21.Bg2 Bc5 22.Rc1 Bb6 23.Rd1 h6 24.h4 Ng4 25.e3 Nf6 26.Bd6+ Kg8 27.Ba3, draw.

Jim West (USCF 2200) - Miguel Garcia (USCF 1917), Marshall Chess Club 11/15/2009

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nc6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 O-O 8.Bb3 a6 9.f3 e6 10.Qd2 d5 11.exd5 Nxd5 12.Nxd5 exd5 13.O-O-O Re8 14.Rhe1 Qf6 15.c3 Bd7


16.Bxd5 Rac8 17.Bg5 Qxd4 18.Rxe8+ Bxe8 19.cxd4 Nb4+ 20.Kb1 Nxd5 21.Qa5 Bb5 22.Qa3 h6 23.Qd6 Bc6 24.Be7 Ne3 25.d5 Bb5 26.a4 Bxa4 27.Rc1 Nc4 28.Qb4 Bb5 29.d6 Bf8 30.Bxf8 Rxf8 31.Rxc4 Bxc4 32.Qxc4 Kg7 33.Qc7, Black resigns.