Monday, October 17, 2011

De Firmian - Welling; Oslo Chess International 2011

A nice win by IM Gerard Welling who had a 2507 Elo performance rating in Oslo 2011!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

"The St. George Defense" Chapter within the book "No Passion for Chess Fashion"

We have already spoken of this book briefly in a former post Now we would like to go more in detail, concerning "the "St. George" Chapter. This 47 pages article (from page 82 to page 129) was written by IM Chetverik who claims to have played more than 100 games, with classical time control with this opening. By the way, Chetverik had the opportunity to study either IM Basman's previous works (see Bibliography at the bottom of the article) or Yuri Remizov's Shakhmatny byulleten articles. Furthermore, he had the opportunity to obtain the support of strong chess engines for his analysis. These 24 games are analyzed in details, and deviations are dealt too. The first move is 1.e4 a6!? (2.d4 b5 if not otherwise mentioned) :
1. Werner-Chetverik 2003 2.c4 e5 (and 2.Nc3 / 2.f4 analysis)
2. Cyborowski-Bartel 2007 2.g3 b5
3. Cozette-Chetverik 2008 2.d4 b5 3.f4 (also 3.Bf4 analysis)
4. McDonnell-Basman 1998 3.Be3
5. Vorobev-Chetverik 2003 3.c4 Bb7 4.Nd2 bxc4
6. Seirawan-Spassky 1990 3.c4 (transposition from 1.d4 b5)
7. Tian-Chetverik 2001 3.c4 Bb7 4.f3 e5 5.cxb5 f5
8. Jonas-Chetverik 1998 3.a4 Bb7 4.axb5
9. Frolov-Kutuzov 2002 3.a4 Bb7 4.Nd2 Nf6
10. Levitt-Howell 2006 (from 1.d4 b5) 3.a4 Bb7 4.f3 b4;
11. Gozzoli-Chetverik 2006 3.a4 Bb7 4.Bd3 e6
12. Szabo-Chetverik 1998 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Ne2 e6
13. Zozulia-Baklan 2004 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 e6 5.Nc3 c5
14. A.Petrosian-Csom 1989 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 e6 5.Nbd2 c5
15. van der Weide-Carrabeo Garcia 2007 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 e6 5.0-0 c5 6.c3 Nf6 7.Nbd2 Be7
16. Delchev-Chetverik 2005 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 e6 5.0-0 c5 6.c3 Nf6 7.Re1 d5
17. Gleizerov-Ionescuy 2007 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 e6 5.0-0 c5 6.c3 Nf6 7.Re1 Be7
18. Handke-Poley 2004 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 Nf6!? moveorder 5.e5 Nd5 6.Ng5
19. Khamatgaleev-Chetverik, 2000 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 Nf6!? 5.e5 Nd5 6.c3
20.Karpov-Miles 1980 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 Nf6!? 5.Qe2 e6 6.a4 c5
21.Freisler-Janturin 2007 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 Nf6!? 5.Qe2 e6 6.Bg5
22.Vitiugov-Savchenko 2003 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 Nf6!? 5.Qe2 e6 6.0-0 c5 7.c3 Be7
23. Veszpremi-Chetverik 2008 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 Nf6!? 5.Qe2 e6 6.0-0 c5 7.c3 Nc6 8.d5
24. Hunt-Basman 1998 3.Bd3 Bb7 4.Nf3 Nf6!? 5.Qe2 e6 6.0-0 c5 7.c3 Nc6 8.Nbd2
 
We can wholeheartedly recommend this article in the book, as the most updated work on the St. George Defense. One minor objection is that the book was published in July 2011 while the most recent games included in the article are of the year 2008. We would have liked to see some material taken from games played in the year 2009 and perhaps the first part of 2010 as well.
The St George Defense recommended Bibliography (Chronological order)
-Book "Play The St. George" by Michael Basman, 1980;
-Cassettes (now CDs) "St. Georges Opening" by Michael Basman, 1981 You can purchase them here
-Book "The Polish Defense" by Thomas Kapitaniak, 1988
-Chapter "The St. George" from page 66 to page 89 of the book "Dynamic Black Defences" by Tim Harding;
-Book "Die Polnische Verteidigung" by Peter Zimmer;
-Book "The New St. George" by Michael Basman, 1993.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George_Defence

Friday, October 14, 2011

While we are waiting for Vitruvius 1.0 to be released....

...at http://vitruviuschess.blogspot.com/ I have just seen an amazing game by Vitruvius where it has beaten His Majesty Houdini 2.0.... 10 min. per player game. A few notes taken from that Blog:
  • Vitruvius sacrifices a pawn with 5.a5!?
  • 21.Rxc5!? Vitruvius sacrifices the exchange
  • 27.Nf4 After pawn & exchange sacs, Vitruvius sacrifices a Knight....
Enjoy this wonderful game!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Beware....Vitruvius 1.0 is about to be released...

...while we are waiting for the Vitruvius 1.0 official release, we can see how a test version of Vitruvius is playing against "The King Houdini 2.0" at 60 min. x game level.
The game is taken from the Vitruvius Blog in italian language at http://vitruviuschess.blogspot.com/2011/10/vitruvius-092m.html
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz 2842 MHz W=20.1 plies; 5. 831kN/s; 8.047.407 TBAs; Perfect2011.ctg B=20.4 plies; 6.924kN/s; 64 TBAs; Perfect2011.ctg

Sunday, October 2, 2011

2011 World Amateur Chess Championship

Yes, this tournamentt does exist for players rated < 2000! At http://wacc2011.tsf.org.tr/  you can even download the games! Perhaps next year you and I could join the tournament ;-)
The winner will be awarded a Fide Master title with a Fide rating of 2200!