Kasparov vs. Karpov 2009 - Clash of the Chess Immortals!

These two chess greats are scheduled to clash once again over the 64 square battlefield in a 12 game match (4 rapid - 8 blitz) in Valencia September 21-24, 2009. This match will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first time these men squared off against each other in Moscow in 1984. Karpov won the last match in NY City by the score of 2.5 - 1.5.

You can safely bet that Kasparov will be looking for revenge for his 2002 performance.

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.

New Chess Book from Gary Kasparov - Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess Volume 3

Garry Kasparov is, of course, one of the all time greatest chess players in history. Given that, any book he writes is bound to be good. I haven't read this one yet, but his new book is hot off the press (published just this month) so if you're interested here is the link to the publisher's main site. Maybe I will get a chance to review it at some point for http://www.jrobichess.com if time permits.

Garry Kasparov's New Book
Garry Kasparov on Wikipedia

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.

Happy Birthday to Judit Polgar - The Reigning Queen of Chess

Judit Polgár (born July 23, 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history, and remains the world's number 1 women's chess player. In 1991, she achieved the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years and 4 months. She was, at that time, the youngest person to do so.

Judit has won many important chess games, including a victory over one of the all time chess greats Gary Kasparov:

Judit Polgar vs. Gary Kasparov - Russia vs. The Rest of the World (Moscow 2002)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 h6 10.Rd1+ Ke8 11.h3 Be7 12.Ne2 Nh4 13.Nxh4 Bxh4 14.Be3 Bf5 15.Nd4 Bh7 16.g4 Be7 17.Kg2 h5 18.Nf5 Bf8 19.Kf3 Bg6 20.Rd2 hxg4+ 21.hxg4 Rh3+ 22.Kg2 Rh7 23.Kg3 f6 24.Bf4 Bxf5 25.gxf5 fxe5 26.Re1 Bd6 27.Bxe5 Kd7 28. c4 c5 29.Bxd6 cxd6 30.Re6 Rah8 31.Rexd6+ Kc8 32.R2d5 Rh3+ 33.Kg2 Rh2+ 34.Kf3 R2h3+ 35.Ke4 b6 36.Rc6+ Kb8 37.Rd7 Rh2 38.Ke3 Rf8 39.Rcc7 Rxf5 40.Rb7+ Kc8 41.Rdc7+ Kd8 42.Rxg7 Kc8 1-0

Source: Wikipedia

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.

Underwater Chess?

Yes, you read the title right - it's some underwater chess! According the video poster:

"Dutch chessmasters 'Hans Böhm' and 'Robin Swinkels' take up a chess match 4 meters below sealevel having stingrays and fish as their spectators!"

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.

Judit Polgar on Bobby Fischer

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.

Four Drawn Rook vs Rook+Pawn Endgames

Check out Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame Course. Also: I missed the fact that Black's got a win at one point if White's careless enough to oblige. My apologies! And: I say "recapture" when I meant to say "recapitulate".

New Chess Video: jrobi (1543) vs Yaughan (1602)

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Round "?"]
[White "jrobi"]
[Black "Yaughan"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[BlackElo "1602"]
[ECO "C02"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[WhiteElo "1543"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Qb6 5. Qb3 Qxb3 6. axb3 cxd4 7. cxd4 Nc6 8. Bb5 Bd7 9. Bxc6 Bxc6 10. Ne2 Ne7 11. Nbc3 Nf5 12. O-O Be7 13. Be3 O-O 14. Ng3 Nxg3 15. fxg3 Rfc8 16. Na4 h6 17. h4 b5 18. Nc5 Bxc5 19. dxc5 b4 20. Rf4 a5 21. Rg4 Kh7 22. Rf4 Kg8 23. g4 Rf8 24. g5 h5 25. g4 hxg4 26. Rxg4 g6 27. h5 gxh5 28. Rh4 Kg7 29. Rxh5 Rh8 30. Rxh8 Kxh8 31. Rf1 Kg7 32. Bd2 Rc8 33. Be3 Ra8 34. Ra1 Kg6 35. Rf1 Kg7 36. Kf2 Rh8 37. Kg3 Kg6 38. Ra1 Ra8 39. Kf4 Kg7 40. Kg3 Kg6 41. Kf4 Kg7 42. Kg3 a4 43. bxa4 Rxa4 44. Rxa4 Bxa4 45. Kh4 b3 46. Kg4 Kf8 47. Kh5 Ke7 48. Kh6 Ke8 49. Kg7 Ke7 50. g6 fxg6 51. Kxg6 Kd7 52. Kf7 Bc6 53. Kf8 Bb5 54. Bd4 Bc6 55. Kf7 Bb5 1/2-1/2

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.

Miss Universe Chess a Joke? - Update

The "Miss Universe of Chess" website has now added Judit Polgar into the category listing for voting, but the poll itself hasn't been reset. Hopefully they will reset the vote now that the overall options have changed - seems to be the fair thing to do.

Miss Universe Chess Official Site
Miss Universe Chess Official Twitter Page
FIDE Top 100 Women Chess Players

Miss Universe Chess a Joke?

While having morning coffee and analyzing a personal game I am posting on video today, I came across a message on Twitter announcing an online forum to vote for Miss Universe Chess. Obviously interested, I took a look at the link thinking I would see a lot of the best in women's chess. Curiously, in the slide show hosted on the site from which people vote from, there was a huge amount of Alexandra Kosteniuk pictures, and even the Twitter page created for the contest (as of the posting of this article) had a Kosteniuk icon. Interesting!

Notably absent from the contest was the world's highest rated women's chess player, Judit Polgar. Susan Polgar is also not listed, but she hasn't been active in competitive chess for awhile, focusing mostly on promoting chess to the next generation, so that might be the reason why. But no Judit? Here is a picture of Judit Polgar:



As to why the world's strongest women's chess player (who also happens to be quite beautiful) isn't on this list is completely beyond my understanding of how the world works. Somethings off in my opinion.

There are some interesting comments posted about the competition and these oddities on the Miss Universe Chess site.

For those interested, here's the FIDE list of the top 10 women chess players in the world as of July 2009:

Rank Name
1 Polgar, Judit
2 Koneru, Humpy
3 Hou, Yifan
4 Zhao, Xue
5 Muzychuk, Anna
6 Kosintseva, Tatiana
7 Dzagnidze, Nana
8 Stefanova, Antoaneta
9 Sebag, Marie
10 Cramling, Pia

I don't know who is hosting this competition, but there definitely seems to be a little bit of bias to the whole thing. Feel free to post your thoughts or go to the official site page and voice them there.

Miss Universe Chess Official Site
Miss Universe Chess Official Twitter Page
FIDE Top 100 Women Chess Players

jrobichess on Blip.FM

It's no secret that I really enjoy music (pretty much of all kinds) so when I found out about Blip.FM I was all over it. Basically what the website lets you do is listen to your favorite songs, create a playlist, and share them with your friends who can just listen to them all from your personal page on Blip.FM. In other words, you basically can DJ whatever you want and have people share your music with you from wherever they are provided they have internet access. It also has integration into twitter which is nice.

If you check out my page there, you will notice a pretty big variety in musical taste - I don't concern myself with labels, I just go with what sounds good to me. If you sign up there (it's free of course) let me know so I can check out your tunes.

Chess Blog Challenge #1 - Annotate This!

I think it's fun to share the games people send me. Annotating chess games (looking for mistakes, awesome play, etc) is very beneficial to overall chess improvement. If you have a game you would like posted on the chess blog for people to look at and possibly annotate, feel free to email them to me and I will post them here.

If you're up to helping the people that send these in, post your annotations in the comment section.

[Event "Let's play chess"]
[Site "http://gameknot.com/chess.pl?bd=11923045"]
[Date "2009.07.12"]
[Round "-"]
[White "theultimatemilk"]
[Black "joenis"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "1200"]
[BlackElo "1471"]
[TimeControl "1/1209600"]
[Mode "ICS"]
[Termination "unterminated"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 h6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. a3 Bxc3
6. bxc3 Nf6 7. Bd3 d5 8. Qe2 d4 9. cxd4 exd4 10. e5 O-O
11. O-O Re8 12. Bb2 Bg4 13. Rfe1 Nd7 14. Qe4 f5 15. Qf4 Bxf3
16. Bc4+ Kh8 17. Qxf3 Ndxe5 18. Qe2 Qd6 19. Bb5 Ng4 20. Qxe8+ Rxe8
21. Rxe8+ Kh7 22. g3 Nce5 23. Bd3 Nf3+ 24. Kg2 Qd5 25. c4 Qc6
26. Bxf5+ g6 27. Re7+ Kh8 28. Bxg4 Nxd2+ 29. Kh3 Qxc4 30. Rc1 Qb5
31. Rcxc7 *

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.

Wow ...

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.

New Chess Video: jrobi (1512) vs Bristols (1495)

[Event "rated standard match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Round "?"]
[White "jrobi"]
[Black "Bristols"]
[Result "1-0"]
[BlackElo "1495"]
[ECO "C41"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[WhiteElo "1512"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. dxe5 Bxf3 5. Qxf3 dxe5 6. Bc4 Qf6 7. Qb3 b6 8.
Qb5+ c6 9. Qb3 Bc5 10. Be3 Bxe3 11. Qxe3 Ne7 12. Nc3 O-O 13. O-O Nd7 14. b4
Rad8 15. a3 b5 16. Bb3 a6 17. Ne2 Ng6 18. c4 Nf4 19. Nxf4 Qxf4 20. Qxf4 exf4
21. cxb5 axb5 22. a4 bxa4 23. Bxa4 Rc8 24. Rfd1 Nb6 25. g3 Nxa4 26. Rxa4 g5 27.
Rb1 Rb8 28. Rc1 Rfc8 29. e5 f3 30. Re1 g4 31. b5 Rxb5 32. Rxg4+ Kf8 33. Rf4 Rb3
34. e6 Ke7 35. Rxf7+ Ke8 36. Rxh7 Rcb8 37. Rh8+ Ke7 38. Rxb8 Rxb8 39. h4 Rg8
40. Kh2 c5 41. Kh3 c4 42. g4 Rf8 43. h5 Rf4 44. h6 Rf8 45. Re3 Rf6 46. g5 Rf8
47. h7 Rh8 48. g6 c3 49. Rxc3 Kxe6 50. Rxf3 Ke5 51. Rf7 Ke6 52. Ra7 Kf6 53.
Ra6+ Kg5 54. Kg3 Kf5 55. f4 Ke4 1-0

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.

New Chess Video: Grandmaster Chess Tactics #6: Can you spot the line?

[Event "12, Bad Lauterberg"]
[Site "12, Bad Lauterberg"]
[Date "1977.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Anatoli Karpov"]
[Black "Istvan Csom"]
[ECO "A16"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "99"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 c5 3. Nf3 e6 4. g3 b6 5. Bg2 Bb7 6. O-O d6
7. b3 Be7 8. d4 cxd4 9. Qxd4 a6 10. Ba3 O-O 11. Rfd1 Ne8
12. Bb2 Nd7 13. e4 Nc5 14. Qe3 Qb8 15. Nd4 Nf6 16. h3 Rc8
17. g4 h6 18. f4 Nh7 19. Qf2 Ra7 20. Rd2 Ba8 21. Re1 Bf6
22. h4 g5 23. hxg5 hxg5 24. fxg5 Bxg5 25. Rdd1 Nd7 26. Rd3 Ne5
27. Rh3 Re8 28. Nce2 Rc7 29. a4 Qd8 30. Qg3 Ng6 31. Qh2 f6
32. Rd1 Rg7 33. Nf3 Bxe4 34. Rxd6 Qc7 35. Ba3 Be3+ 36. Kf1 Bc5
37. Bxc5 Qxc5 38. Rd4 Bxf3 39. Rxf3 Ne5 40. Rh3 Nxg4 41. Qd6
Qf5+ 42. Rf3 Qb1+ 43. Rd1 Qe4 44. Rg3 Ne3+ 45. Kg1 Nxg2
46. Rxg7+ Kxg7 47. Ng3 Qa8 48. Qc7+ Kh8 49. Rd7 Nf8 50. Nf5
1-0

jrobichess makes chess videos and has a chess blog along with a personal chess site at http://www.jrobichess.com.