 I don't want to miss a thing ...
The Aerosvit tournament in Foros, Ukraine, takes place 17th-30th June 2007
 Although Armenia won gold at the last Chess Olympiad, in the FIDE world rankings, Russia is No.1 ahead of the Ukraine. Both Russia and the Ukraine strive to outdo each other as best they can as rivals. So, not to be outdone by the support given to Russian chess by airline company Aeroflot, the Ukrainian carrier AeroSvit also sponsors a major event, which is now underway at the Yalta resort of Foros.
You don't want to miss a thing, because the Ukrainians are crazy about their chess. And living on the edge has been the young Ukrainian superstar Sergei Karjakin, who showing a much welcomed return to form, takes what could be a crucial half point lead at the midpoint in the tournament on 3.5/5, ahead of veteran Vassily Ivanchuk.
JOHN B. HENDERSON
| Nº |
FLAG |
FED |
FIDE |
NAME |
PTS |
| 1 |
 |
UKR |
2686 |
GM Sergey Karjakin |
3.5 |
| 2 |
|
UKR |
2729 |
GM Vassily Ivanchuk |
3.0 |
| 3 |
 |
ESP |
2699 |
GM Alexei Shirov |
2.5 |
| 4 |
 |
USA |
2663 |
GM Alexander Onischuk |
2.5 |
| 5 |
 |
NLD |
2674 |
GM Loek van Wely |
2.5 |
| 6 |
 |
CUB |
2678 |
GM Lenier Dominguez |
2.5 |
| 7 |
 |
RUS |
2736 |
GM Peter Svidler |
2.5 |
| 8 |
|
RUS |
2680 |
GM Sergei Rublevsky |
2.5 |
| 9 |
|
RUS |
2708 |
GM Dmitry Jakovenko |
2.5 |
| 10 |
|
UKR |
2686 |
GM Pavel Eljanov |
2.5 |
| 11 |
 |
IND |
2690 |
GM Krishnan Sasikiran |
2.0 |
| 12 |
 |
ROM |
2693 |
GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu |
1.5 |
|
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  Video Game of the Day
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ICC Chess.FM video commentary
 Each day during the Dortmund Sparkassen elite event in Germany, ICC Chess.FM's crack commentary team of GMs Joel Benjamin, Jon Speelman and Larry Christiansen will again be giving their spin on "Game of the Day" with 20 minutes worth of full audio & board analysis. You can also rate each of the shows by voting on the best performance from our team.
This service is FREE to non-members of the ICC as a sampler of our full 4 hour daily shows hosted by Mig Greengard, featuring the famed New In Chess Trivia Quiz, where each day listeners to the show can win a 1-year subscription to New In Chess magazine.
Check it out now at ICC Chess.FM |
 Take the Ronen Challenge
Friday & Saturday, [20:00 EDT | 02:00 CET]
 Former
world under-16 junior champion GM Ronen Har-Zvi has a reputation of being
one of the toughest simultaneous masters on ICC.
Each Friday and Saturday, at 20:00 EDT, Ronen will take on 30 all- comers (restricted to 2150 Elo or below) in a series of twice weekly simuls (time control 45 20), with the winners receiving a 3-month membership extension and going forward to the second grand prize final on Saturday, 30 June 20:00 EDT, with a prize of a 1-year membership extension going to anyone who can beat Ronen in the final. Do you have what it takes for the Ronen Challenge?
Read
the full announcement
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John Watson Chess & Book Show
Tuesdays [21:00 EDT | 03:00 CET]
New
on ICC Chess.FM! Tune-in
for The John Watson Chess & Book Show on Tuesday, 26 June at 21:00 Server Time.
Each week, John's 90-minute show will be reviewing all the latest titles and discussing books with his guests
This week's guest will be IM James Rizzitano, author of three popular Gambit books: Understanding Your Chess, How to Beat 1.d4 and Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian. James Rizzitano dominated the chess scene in the New England region during a 14-year period from 1976 to 1989 - where he won 157 out of 336 events. His career highlights include victories over Alburt, Benjamin, Benko, Christiansen, Dlugy, I. Gurevich and Wolff, and exciting draws with de Firmian, Larsen, Speelman, and the legendary former world champion Mikhail Tal.
This show will be made available
for 7-days ONDemand for members
Chess
FM page on our website
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  3 3 Blitz Championships Recap!
 
The 2007 3 3 Championship Final was won by ItSoMR (2941 blitz rating) with a score of 10.0/12. He went 7/7 to open the tourney, before losing twice to eventual runner-up akibael (9.0/12). He avenged the losses with two consecutive victories over akibael in rounds 11 and 12 to achieve the victory. Third place went to PalaciosLl with a score of 6.0/12. The u2000 championship was won by Inegrepus with an impressive score of 9.0/10. Both tourneys were triple elimination format. To see the grids, tell tomato grid 301861 for the open final, and tell tomato grid 301854 for the u2000 final. Don’t miss the 2008 3 3 Blitz Championship next June!
Losers (w17) Championship Finals! This Saturday, the finals of the 2007 Losers Championships will be contested. At 5pm the 1 0 championship will begin, to be immediately followed at 6pm by the 3 1 championship. Both tourneys will be held in Wildone. Current finalists include cornfused, Hogwarts, and Beats20Cents. Also of note is the return of one of ICC’s greatest losers players of all-time, Borovnia (28,538 losers victories and 1333 tournament victories). Come join us to see who will be crowned champion for 2007!
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 Tourney
Tip of the Week:
How can I see the weekly or monthly standings in a scheduled series? The first thing you need to know is the “tag” of the series you’re looking for. “Tell tomato series list” to see a list of all the current tags. When you’ve found your tag, you can then “Tell tomato series best <tag>” or “Tell tomato series most <tag>” to see who has scored the most points or played the most games, respectively. Let’s use the weekday blitz mentioned above as an example. If you want to see the top point scorers for this month, you would type, “Tell tomato series best mar07weekday”. Now you can play in a scheduled series, track your progress and win prizes!
Z-House League: Every Friday evening at 17:00 in Ketchup, the best crazyhouse (w23) players come together for a z-house extravaganza! A 6 round 1 0 swiss tourney is followed up by two consecutive 6 round 3 0 swiss tourneys. It’s more craziness than you can shake a stick at! The same sequence of tourneys is held again on Sundays at 12:45. Best of all, there are prizes for the top finishers of the month! See “finger zhouse-league” for full details! Also see “help crazyhouse” for more information on how to play w23. Come out and give it a shot!
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ICC
Quiz #3052
submitted by Kapitalq
White mates in 3
To play this puzzle on the ICC type:
tell trainingbot number 3052
Then type: play trainingbot
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| ICC
Quiz #3065
submitted by baran-sj
White mates in 2
To play this puzzle on the ICC type:
tell trainingbot number 3065
Then type: play trainingbot
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 Dortmund, Category XX starts tomorrow!
  The elite annual German even takes place 23rd June to 1st July 2007.
The field for the 2007 edition includes: Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Viswanathan Anand (India), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Peter Leko (Hungary), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Arkadij Naiditsch (Germany), Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Evgeny Alekseev Russian)
Visit the official
website of the event. |
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Spanish Team Championships underway!
  The semifinals of one of Europe's top national team championships are being played in two groups
The first group plays in Lugo, Galicia, June 20-24th, with the second group starting a few days later in Torrelavega, June 27th - July 1st. Each group is composed of 6 teams; the winners of each group going forward to contest the finals.
Among the strong teams participating, the line-up of club Magic looks mightily impressive, featuring Aronian, Mamedyarov, Adams, Ponomariov, Akopian, Shirov, Rublevsky, Sargissian and Cheparinov!
Visit the official
website of the Spanish Chess Federation
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Understanding Your Chess - James Rizzitano
 Rizzitano presents lessons from his own experiences that will be most relevant to club and tournament players. He shows how by analyzing their own games, players can gain a greater understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and he explains they can shape their approach to chess to make the most of their abilities. Major topics include: Developing a reliable and coherent opening repertoire; The importance of understanding opening theory rather than simply memorizing it; Theoretical novelties: finding your own, and facing the opponent's; Opening selection depending upon the nature of the game and event; Risk management and 'playing for a win'; Competing successfully against higher-rated opposition; Accumulating small advantages: a safe method when the opponent plays for a draw; The power of the initiative: lighting a fire and keeping it burning. Read
more
Price $24.95 - Buy now!
How to Beat 1. d4 - James Rizzitano
 Rizzitano, author of Understanding Your Chess, presents a full repertoire for Black against 1 d4, based on the Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA). The QGA is an extremely popular opening amongst players of all levels, as it gives Black free development and counterpunching potential, especially if White takes up the challenge and tries to set up a broad pawn centre. Rizzitano has chosen to recommend dependable main lines of the QGA, and throughout emphasizes how Black can create winning chances and White's typical ways to go wrong. The repertoire is completed by a set of weapons against White's alternatives to offering the Queen's Gambit, ranging from the stolid Colle to the weird Hodgson Attack and the reckless Blackmar-Diemer.. Read
more
Price $27.50 - Buy
now!
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Chess Explained: The Taimanov Sicilian - James Rizzitano
 Chess Explained is a new series of books about chess openings. They are not theoretical works in the traditional sense, but more a series of lessons from a chess expert with extensive over-the-board experience with an opening. You will gain an understanding of the opening and the middlegames to which it leads, enabling you to find the right moves and plans in your own games. It is as if you were sitting at the board with a chess coach answering your questions about the plans for both sides, the ideas behind particular moves, and what specific knowledge you need to have.
The Taimanov Sicilian is one of the most flexible options for Black in the Open Sicilian. Black avoids committing himself to a rigid set-up, and tailors his response once White has shown his hand. This can lead to a great variety of central structures, and the player with the better understanding of typical Sicilian themes will often emerge victorious - Taimanov positions need to be understood well in order to be played well. Many of the post-war World Champions have used the Taimanov, and amongst the current world elite, Anand has played it most frequently. This book covers the Paulsen set-up with ...Qc7 in addition to the 'pure' Taimanov with ...Nge7.. Read
more
Price $18.95 - Buy now!
Roman's Lab Vol. 41-45 series.
 Big savings for ICC members on the acclaimed Roman's Lab DVD series by GM Roman Dzindzichashvili! You can save $5 on any 3 DVDs or $10 on any 5 DVDs by Roman. You can also save $24.80 by buying the latest Vols 41 thru 45.
Vol. 41: New Lines & Novelties in the Scotch and f4 Sicilian; Vol.
42: New Lines & Novelties for White against the Pirc & Center Counter, the Black side of the Scandinavian Defense and Accelerated Dragon; Vol. 43: New Lines & Novelties for White against the Caro Kann, Alekhine & French Defense; Vol. 44: New Lines & Novelties for White in Grand Prix, French, Hippo, Latvian & Philidor; Vol.45: New Lines & Novelties for Black in the Accelerated Dragon and King's Indian. Read
more
Price $74.95
- Buy
now!
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Solution
to ICC Quiz #3052
submitted by Kapitalq
1.Bf6+!!
Kd7 [1...Nxf6 2.Ne5#] 2.Nd8+ Kd6 3.Be5#
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Solution
to ICC Quiz #3065
submitted by baran-sj
1.Qh6+ Kg8 2.Qxg7#
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