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The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is the longest running, most popular,
and best place to play chess on the Internet. Nowhere else can you find as many
chess enthusiasts ready for a quick round of blitz, a short chat, an impromptu
tournament, or simply enjoying the wealth of Chess.FM shows and live event coverage.
It is not uncommon to find more than 3,000 chess players hanging out on ICC
where more than 100,000 games are played each day.
Hou Wows!
The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival ended in dramatic fashion last week with a tie for first place between rising Chinese starlet Hou Yifan and English veteran Nigel Short, with both top-scoring on 8/10 to finish a half point clear of the chasing pack of Michael Adams, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Viktor Bologan and Emil Sutovsky.
However the tournament rules dictate that, in the event of a tie, the players have to play a series of speed playoff games, not only for the title but also for the first prize of $31,000 - and this duly went to the former world title challenger Short, who beat Hou, 1.5-0.5. And in addition to the $31,000 first prize, Short also won a further $8,000 for the Commonwealth prize, awarded in celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and only eligible to the top-scoring Commonwealth player.
Yet despite this being one of Short's best results in recent times, it was totally overshadowed by 17-year-old Hou's epoch-making performance on the Rock, as she not only pocketed the $19,000 second prize but also added herself a bonus of a further $16,000 for the best female performance - a prize that everyone expected Judit Polgar would easily win.
Reigning Women's World Champion Hou - who faced seven elite grandmasters rated 2700 or over - wowed the chess world with a performance that was pure Polgaresque in itself. As well as wins over chess legends Judit Polgar (the first time Polgar has lost to a woman since 1992 - to her eldest sister, Susan - when she was just 16) and Alexei 'Fire on Board' Shirov, she also beat Zoltan Almasi and Le Quang Liem, and drew with Adams and Mamedyarov for a tournament performance rating that went off the Richter scale for a woman at an astonishing 2872.
Hou is now the second highest rated female in the history of the game, and now closing in fast on Polgar. There has been speculative talk in the past year or so of a match between Polgar and Hou. Although Polgar has never competed in events limited to women, now suddenly the prospects of such a match-up has become "interesting".
Book of the Year
There are two chess book awards that are eagerly sought by chess authors, and that's those that come from the English Chess Federation and ChessCafe.com. Both are equally deserving awards, with each having their own particular merits and particular method of selecting the winners.
Late last year, the ECF judging panel voted for Nunn's Chess Endings Volume 2 by Dr. John Nunn for their2011 Book of the Year award. And it was announced last week that, after two international voting rounds, the ChessCafe Book of the Year for 2011 went to Invisible Chess Moves by Emmanuel Neiman and Yochanan Afek. And as you can see in the ad underneath our menu, publishers New in Chess were quick off the mark in capitalizing on their new title. Congratulations to Emmanuel Neiman, Yochanan Afek and New in Chess!
Shining from the Shadows
Will this be the year when the world No.2, Levon Aronian, finally emerges from the shadows of Magnus Carlsen? The Armenian has often been overlooked with the rise of the Norwegian world No.1 - but he's more than made his mark by winning the first major of 2012 at the 74th Tata Steel Chess tournament, in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.
Despite the hiccup of an unexpected loss to the tournament "punch-bag", David Navara, in round 11, Aronian rallied with a superb penultimate round win over world title challenger Boris Gelfand to be guaranteed of first place. Aronian finished on 9/13, a full point ahead of the chasing pack of Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov and rising star Fabiano Caruana; who not only took a share of the runner-up spoils, but in the process also forced his way into the top 10 for the first time on the unofficial daily live ratings.
With his performance in clinching his third Tata Steel title, Aronian, 29, is now closing in fast on the No.1 ranking and has clearly established himself as an equal rival alongside Carlsen for the future world championship stakes. Many of Aronian's victories in Wijk were trademark displays of his aggressive and dynamic style, including his win over Gelfand that secured him the title - and to commemorate Aronian's win, we have made GM Alex Yermolinsky's Game of the Day showing that particular game free for all to view.
Also checkout the final Tata Steel video with the traditional pea soup dinner, prize giving ceremony and short interviews with the top two of Aronian and Carlsen, plus B & C group winners Pentala Harikrishna and Maxim Turov. It can be found at http://www.facebook.com/InternetChessClub.
Join ICC today by clicking here to view all of our GOTDs - and access our video archives containing hundreds of regular weekly shows!
Game of the Day
And just to see a little of what you all miss by not being an ICC member, we've made free the Carlsen-Aronian Game of the Day from round three! Being a member gives you access not only to our live commentary coverage, but also to all of our GOTDs.
Join ICC today by clicking here to make sure you don't miss a single minute of Chess.FM's continued live commentary coverage and Game of the Days from Tata Steel 2012.
Game of the Day Trivia!ICC presents the daily trivia contests, where each day an ICC member will win 1 and 3 month membership extensions.
'New in Chess' TRIVIA! ICC and New in Chess present The
New in Chess' Trivia Contest, where each day an ICC member will win a 1 year subscription to NIC!
ICC Network
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Gone are the days when the Advance variation in the Caro-Kann (1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5) was thought to be a poor cousin to the French Advance - now it is arguably one of White’s best ways to secure the advantage against the notoriously solid defense. And thanks to the likes of Nigel Short, Mickey Adams, Alexei Shirov and Peter Svidler et al., the White lines became so much more aggressive.
These highly aggressive lines (with an early h4, g4 or Ne2) took a direct, almost bludgeoning approach to the game, so much so that it got coined as “The Caveman Caro-Kann: Advance variation.” And in a new series, GM Ronen Har-Zvi trends the developments in all the sharpest lines.
Each week, ICC sends a newsletter to its members, featuring the most important international chess news, in addition to the main ICC online activities. The list can be found here.
All events are free to ICC members unless noted. All times are Eastern Standard Time. Add 5 hours for GMT. Add 6 hours for CET.
Tuesday, February 07
00:00
Tournament All the scheduled Tournament of the Day
00:45
Tournament Sleepless - 3 tourn. - 5 rd - 3 0
07:00
Tournament EarlyMorning - Tomato - 7 rd - 3 1
11:30
Tournament Weekday - Tomato - 5 rd - 5 0
13:00
Tournament Weekday - Tomato - 5 rd - 5 0
14:00
Simul MarticaFierro- in Simulbot- 20 players - OPEN
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