New Chess Video: Personal Endgame Study #2

Mysto and Pizzi Strike Again

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Chess Snapshot Analysis #6 - Can you spot any improvements?

There are improvements on both sides, can you find them?

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

Remembrance Day 2010

Magnus Carlsen Quits World Chess Championship Cycle

It's official - Magnus Carlsen has quit the World Chess Championship cycle. Many in the chess world consider him to be the prime candidate to hold the championship in the future. I am sure Carlsen fans around the world are not too happy about him leaving the cycle at this time, but rest assured he will be back. Carlsen has also launched a new website which you can visit here.

The following is a copy of the letter Carlsen sent to the FIDE regarding his decision to withdraw from the World Championship cycle:

-------------------

To: FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov & FIDE World Championship Committee.

Reference is made to the ongoing World Championship cycle.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of my decision not to take part in the planned Candidate Matches between March and May 2011.

After careful consideration I’ve reached the conclusion that the ongoing 2008–2012 cycle does not represent a system, sufficiently modern and fair, to provide the motivation I need to go through a lengthy process of preparations and matches and to perform at my best.


Reigning champion privileges, the long (five year) span of the cycle, changes made during the cycle resulting in a new format (Candidates) that no World Champion has had to go through since Kasparov, puzzling ranking criteria as well as the shallow ceaseless match-after-match concept are all less than satisfactory in my opinion.

By providing you with four months notice before the earliest start of the Candidates as well as in time before you have presented player contracts or detailed regulations, I rest assured that you will be able to find an appropriate replacement.

Although the purpose of this letter is not to influence you to make further changes to the ongoing cycle, I would like to take the opportunity to present a few ideas about future cycles in line with our input to FIDE during the December 27th 2008 phone-conference between FIDE leaders and a group of top-level players.

In my opinion privileges should in general be abolished and a future World Championship model should be based on a fair fight between the best players in the World, on equal terms. This should apply also to the winner of the previous World Championship, and especially so when there are several players at approximately the same level in the world elite. (Why should one player have one out of two tickets to the final to the detriment of all remaining players in the world? Imagine that the winner of the 2010 Football World Cup would be directly qualified to the 2014 World Cup final while all the rest of the teams would have to fight for the other spot.)

One possibility for future cycles would be to stage an 8-10 player World Championship tournament similar to the 2005 and 2007 events.

The proposal to abolish the privileges of the World Champion in the future is not in any way meant as criticism of, or an attack on, the reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who is a worthy World Champion, a role model chess colleague and a highly esteemed opponent.

Rest assured that I am still motivated to play competitive chess. My current plan is to continue to participate in well-organised top-level tournaments and to try to maintain the no 1 spot on the rating list that I have successfully defended for most of 2010.

Best regards,
IGM Magnus Carlsen

The Wickedest Man in Chess - Aleister Crowley

Happy Halloween everyone!

Can you spot any improvments

Remembering Terry Fox

New Chess Video: Grandmaster Chess Tactics #7

[Event "Reykjavik Open"]
[Site "Reykjavik ISL"]
[Date "2010.02.27"]
[EventDate "2010.02.24"]
[Round "4"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Henrik Danielsen"]
[Black "Tiger Hillarp Persson"]
[ECO "A37"]
[WhiteElo "2495"]
[BlackElo "2581"]
[PlyCount "79"]

1. g3 c5 2. c4 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Nf3 d6 6. O-O a6
7. d3 Rb8 8. a4 Nf6 9. Rb1 O-O 10. Ne1 Bd7 11. Nc2 a5 12. b3
Qc8 13. Bb2 Bh3 14. e3 Bxg2 15. Kxg2 Rd8 16. e4 e6 17. Nb5 Ne8
18. Bxg7 Kxg7 19. f4 f5 20. Qe2 Nf6 21. Rbe1 Qd7 22. Qd1 Rf8
23. exf5 exf5 24. d4 Rfe8 25. Qd3 cxd4 26. Ncxd4 d5 27. c5 Re4
28. Nf3 Rbe8 29. Qd2 Rxe1 30. Rxe1 Rxe1 31. Qxe1 Ne4 32. Nbd4
Nxd4 33. Nxd4 Kh6 34. Qxa5 Qe7 35. Qb6 Kh5 36. b4 Qg7 37. Qd8
Nf6 38. Ne6 Qf7 39. Ng5 Qg7 40. Nxh7 1-0

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

Chess Snapshot Analysis #5 - Can you spot any improvements?

There are improvements on both sides, can you find them?

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

Website Back

http://www.jrobichess.com is now back online after the hosting maintenance.

Website Errors

Just a quick note to let you know the main site is experiencing troubles due to a hosting upgrade. It shouldn't be down for long.

Chess Snapshot Analysis #4 - Can you spot any improvements?

There are improvements on both sides, can you find them?

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

New Chess Video: The Sicilian Defence - Dragon Variation - Classical

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

Chess game can you spot any improvments

Chess Games of Grandmaster Veselin Topalov added to Interactive Grandmaster Database on www.jrobichess.com

The chess games of Grandmaster Veselin Topalov have been added to the Interactive Grandmaster database section of www.jrobichess.com. Topalov just wrapped up his bid for the World Chess Championship against Anand, falling short in game 12 and losing the match 6.5 to 5.5 against the reigning World Champion Anand.

To access the interactive Grandmaster database from the main page, click on your Grandmaster or tournament of choice on the left-hand side of the main site.

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

www.jrobichess.com - World Chess Championship PGN Database Updated on Interactive Grandmaster Database

The interactive Grandmaster database section on the main site ( http://www.jrobichess.com ) has been updated to include the 2010 World Chess Championships. The series was amazing, and I was very happy to cover it for all my YouTube subscribers, both new ones to the channel and the grizzled vets that have been following my chess videos for a long time.

To interact with all the World Chess Championship PGN's going back to the very first one, make sure to visit the main site and click on the tournament section on the left. There are several tournaments to browse through, along with a number of Grandmaster databases to explore. I will be adding several new Grandmasters to the list in the near future.

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

New Chess Video: World Chess Championship 2010: Topalov vs. Anand - Game 12

[Event "Sofia BUL, WCC 2010 Game_12"]
[Site "Sofia BUL"]
[Date "2010.05.11"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Topalov, V."]
[Black "Anand, V."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D56"]
[WhiteElo "2805"]
[BlackElo "2787"]
[PlyCount "112"]
[EventDate "2010.04.24"]
[EventType "match"]
[EventRounds "12"]
[EventCountry "BUL"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. e3 Ne4 8. Bxe7
Qxe7 9. Rc1 c6 10. Be2 Nxc3 11. Rxc3 dxc4 12. Bxc4 Nd7 13. O-O b6 14. Bd3 c5
15. Be4 Rb8 16. Qc2 Nf6 17. dxc5 Nxe4 18. Qxe4 bxc5 19. Qc2 Bb7 20. Nd2 Rfd8
21. f3 Ba6 22. Rf2 Rd7 23. g3 Rbd8 24. Kg2 Bd3 25. Qc1 Ba6 26. Ra3 Bb7 27. Nb3
Rc7 28. Na5 Ba8 29. Nc4 e5 30. e4 f5 31. exf5 e4 32. fxe4 Qxe4+ 33. Kh3 Rd4 34.
Ne3 Qe8 35. g4 h5 36. Kh4 g5+ 37. fxg6 Qxg6 38. Qf1 Rxg4+ 39. Kh3 Re7 40. Rf8+
Kg7 41. Nf5+ Kh7 42. Rg3 Rxg3+ 43. hxg3 Qg4+ 44. Kh2 Re2+ 45. Kg1 Rg2+ 46. Qxg2
Bxg2 47. Kxg2 Qe2+ 48. Kh3 c4 49. a4 a5 50. Rf6 Kg8 51. Nh6+ Kg7 52. Rb6 Qe4
53. Kh2 Kh7 54. Rd6 Qe5 55. Nf7 Qxb2+ 56. Kh3 Qg7 0-1

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

New Chess Video: World Chess Championship 2010: Anand vs. Topalov - Game 11

[Event "Sofia BUL, WCC 2010 Game_11"]
[Site "Sofia BUL"]
[Date "2010.05.09"]
[Round "11"]
[White "Anand, V."]
[Black "Topalov, V."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A29"]
[WhiteElo "2787"]
[BlackElo "2805"]
[PlyCount "130"]
[EventDate "2010.04.24"]
[EventType "match"]
[EventRounds "12"]
[EventCountry "BUL"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. g3 d5 5. cxd5 Nxd5 6. Bg2 Nb6 7. O-O Be7 8.
a3 O-O 9. b4 Be6 10. d3 f6 11. Ne4 Qe8 12. Nc5 Bxc5 13. bxc5 Nd5 14. Bb2 Rd8
15. Qc2 Nde7 16. Rab1 Ba2 17. Rbc1 Qf7 18. Bc3 Rd7 19. Qb2 Rb8 20. Rfd1 Be6 21.
Rd2 h6 22. Qb1 Nd5 23. Rb2 b6 24. cxb6 cxb6 25. Bd2 Rd6 26. Rbc2 Qd7 27. h4 Rd8
28. Qb5 Nde7 29. Qb2 Bd5 30. Bb4 Nxb4 31. axb4 Rc6 32. b5 Rxc2 33. Rxc2 Be6 34.
d4 e4 35. Nd2 Qxd4 36. Nxe4 Qxb2 37. Rxb2 Kf7 38. e3 g5 39. hxg5 hxg5 40. f4
gxf4 41. exf4 Rd4 42. Kf2 Nf5 43. Bf3 Bd5 44. Nd2 Bxf3 45. Nxf3 Ra4 46. g4 Nd6
47. Kg3 Ne4+ 48. Kh4 Nd6 49. Rd2 Nxb5 50. f5 Re4 51. Kh5 Re3 52. Nh4 Nc3 53.
Rd7+ Re7 54. Rd3 Ne4 55. Ng6 Nc5 56. Ra3 Rd7 57. Re3 Kg7 58. g5 b5 59. Nf4 b4
60. g6 b3 61. Rc3 Rd4 62. Rxc5 Rxf4 63. Rc7+ Kg8 64. Rb7 Rf3 65. Rb8+ Kg7
1/2-1/2

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