Basmania in the Dutch League!

Recently the strong FM Jasper Broekmeulen (fide rated 2412) won a Macho Grob game against the current Dutch ladies champion IM and WGM Tea Lanchava

[Event "BSG I- HMC Calder I"]
 [Site ""]
 [Date "2012.11.03"]
 [Round ""]
 [White "Lanchava, Tea"]
 [Black "Broekmeulen, Jasper"]
 [Result "0-1"]
 [ECO "A00"]
 [WhiteElo "2312"]
 [BlackElo "2419"]
 [PlyCount "64"]
 [EventDate "2012.11.03"]
1. c4 d6 2. g3 g5 3. h4 g4 4. h5 Nc6 5. Bg2 e5 6. d3 f5 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. e4 fxe4 9. Nxe4 Nxe4 10. Bxe4 Qf6 11. Ne2 Bh6 12. O-O Bd7 13. Nc3 O-O-O 14. Nd5 Qg7 15. b4 Rdf8 16. Qa4 Bxc1 17. Raxc1 Kb8 18. b5 Nd4 19. Nb4 Qf7 20. Nc6+ Bxc6 21. bxc6 Qxh5 22. Rc2 Qh3 23. Rb1 Nf3+ 24. Bxf3 gxf3 25. Rxb7+ Kc8 26. Rb8+ Kxb8 27. Qb5+ Kc8 28. Qb7+ Kd8 29. Qb8+ Ke7 30. Qxc7+ Ke8 31. Qb8+ Kf7 32. Qc7+ Kg8 0-1

But would you believe me if I told you that FM Broekmeulen won another Macho Grob game against a fide rated 2.300+ opponent in Oct. 2012 as well? Here's the game:

[Event "NL tt, De Stukkenjagers I-HMC Calder I"]
 [Site "Tilburg"]
 [Date "2012.10.06"]
 [Round "3.4"]
 [White "Van Dongen, Cor"]
 [Black "Broekmeulen, Jasper"]
 [Result "0-1"]
 [ECO "A10"]
 [WhiteElo "2357"]
 [BlackElo "2410"]
 [PlyCount "82"]
1. c4 d6 2. g3 g5 3. d4 Bg7 4. Nc3 h6 5. Bg2 Nc6 6. d5 Ne5 7. f4 gxf4 8. gxf4 Ng6 9. Nf3 e5 10. dxe6 fxe6 11. O-O N8e7 12. e4 O-O 13. Ne2 Rb8 14. a4 a6 15. Ra3 b5 16. axb5 axb5 17. cxb5 Rxb5 18. Nfd4 Rb4 19. Rg3 Kh7 20. Nc2 Rb6 21. b4 Qe8 22. Be3 Rb8 23. Rh3 d5 24. e5 Nf5 25. Bc5 Rf7 26. Qd3 Bf8 27. Ncd4 Bxc5 28. bxc5 Qa4 29. Qd2 Qb4 30. Rc3 Bd7 31. Bh3 Nxd4 32. Nxd4 Rg8 33. Kh1 Rxf4 34. Rxf4 Nxf4 35. Bf1 Be8 36. Qe3 Bg6 37. Rb3 Qxc5 38. Rc3 Qb6 39. h3 Be4+ 40. Kh2 Qb2+ 41. Ne2 Qxe2+ 0-1 
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The Macho Grob Tape

The Grob meets its Match 

The Grob cassettes are available as CDs as well 

Enrico Faraoni's 1.g4 & 1...g5 games

Enrico Faraoni is an italian Candidate Master who is fond of 1.g4 & 1...g5
At this link https://hotfile.com/dl/179031423/e3ad30d/Faraoni.zip.html
you can download 33 of his Grob and Macho Grob games against opponents rated from Class A to I.M.
IMO this is his best Grob game against IM Dragojlovic:

du Chattel Blitz Games (n° 1 to 314)

http://theamazingchessworld.blogspot.it/2012/05/gift-for-philip-du-chattels-fans.html
Here is a link to the download of the first 314 games in zipped pgn format. This means that 33 new games have been added to the former file. 
https://hotfile.com/dl/177793196/e75bcb1/du_Chattel_Blitz_1_314.zip.html
This is what we can say of the new games:

•  quite a few games where du Chattel plays white against chess engines;
• 1.e4 Nh6 2.d4 g6 3.f3!? and 3.Bd3
• 1.e4 Nh6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 c6 4.Bc4
• 1.e4 Nh6 2.Nf3 f6 no fianchetto!
• 1.Nf3 Nh6 2.b3 g6 3.Bb2 f6
• 1.e4 Nh6 2.d4 g6 3.Bc4 c6 4.Qf3 f6 5.h4 Nf7
• 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Nh6 3.Nc3 d6 4.g3 f5

 Enjoy!

du Chattel Blitz Games n° 1 to 281

http://theamazingchessworld.blogspot.it/2012/05/gift-for-philip-du-chattels-fans.html
Here is a link to the download of the first 281 games in zipped pgn format. This means that 34 new games have been added to the former file. 
https://hotfile.com/dl/176936066/71f7b4a/du_Chattel_Blitz_1_281.zip.html
This is what we can say of the new games:

• some of them begin with the wild line 1.e4 Nh6 2.d4 g6 3.h4!?
• 1.Nf3 Nh6 2.b3 f6 3.e4 e6 and 1.g3 Nh6 2.Nc3 g6 3.e4 Bg7
• 1.Nf3 Nh6 2.b3 g6 3.Bb2 f6
• 1.d4 g6 2.g3 Nh6

 Enjoy!

Bilbao Masters Final: Carlsen vs. Caruana - an endgame virtuoso at work

Carlsen plays the endgame in Capablanca's style!

Deep Saros ver. 3.1a free download

http://deepsaros.jimdo.com/
Deep Saros ver. 3.1a
- New experimental Evaluation functions
- New Time Manager
- Correct some bugs
- Some code optimizations

The “Steps method”

 http://theamazingchessworld.blogspot.it/2012/10/the-steps-method.html
The “Steps method” is a relatively young method worked out by the former Dutch Federation coach and IM Cor van Wijgerden and Rob Brunia, chessplayer and specialist in pedagogics.

The essence of this method is that you learn certain themes, first in their easiest appearance but with each step some complexity is added.
There is a strong emphasis on tactics.

The “Steps method” contributed to give a good chess education to a whole generation of young dutch chessplayers.

What I like the most is that within the method chess knowledge and skills are  nicely structured. This means that the method’s serious student rarely fails in endgames with a few pieces, and rarely misses a combination too.

Step 6 http://www.chess-steps.com/step6.html  may really be the real step for a 1^st class player to become a good candidate master.

The authors explain that it is required to integrate a serious study of the “Steps method” with:

• Playing serious games;
• Analysis of the games played.

Concerning Step 4 http://www.chess-steps.com/step4.html I have studied the first 4 lessons of the manual and I have gone through the same number of exercises in the workbook, with a success rate of about 85% So I can say that the indication that Step 4 is for players up to a USCF rating up to 1750 is quite ok.

It should be noted that Steps 1 to 5 are contained in the Tasc Chess CD 2    http://www.stappenmethode.nl/en/tasc-chess-cd-2.php

Additional material to the standard Steps  is available as well:

http://www.chess-steps.com/workbookplus.html

http://www.chess-steps.com/workbookextra.html

At last we want to highlight that International Master Cor van Wijgerden helped Chessity to develop an exciting new training concept:

http://www.chessity.com/

To conclude, I can say that the material is well organized and challenging. Highly recommended.

PS my thanks to IM Gerard Welling for being a constant source of chess inspiration.