 Kramnik Dominates Dortmund
 
World Champion Vladimir Kramnik proved he was back to his brilliant best again, as the Russian ace won his eighth Dortmund Sparkassen title last week. He was unbeaten on 5/7 to finish a full point ahead of his nearest rivals on 4-points: Vishy Anand of India, the world’s top-ranked player, Peter Leko of Hungary, world No.7, and Evgeny Alekseev, No.24.
But Dortmund was all about Kramnik, who turned in an almost effortless 2900 performance without looking as if he had gotten into top gear. The world champion was always in control of the tournament by winning three of his four games with White - all of which must come as a timely warning for those thinking he may not be a force he once was for this September's world championship tournament in Mexico City.
An ICC & ChessVibes co-production.
ICC Chess.FM & Chessvibes reporter Macauley Peterson has a video interview with Vladimir Kramnik. In it, the world champion discusses his round four game against Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen, how he feels about Dortmund and his preparations for the forthcoming World Championship Tournament in Mexico City. Not to be missed!
Click here to watch the full video interview!
JOHN B. HENDERSON
| FINAL
STANDINGS AFTER R-7 |
| Nº |
FLAG |
FED |
FIDE |
NOMBRE |
PTS |
| 1 |
 |
RUS |
2772 |
GM Vladimir Kramnik |
5.0 |
| 2 |
|
RUS |
2679 |
GM Evgeny Alekseev |
4.0 |
| 3 |
 |
IND |
2786 |
GM Viswanathan Anand |
4.0 |
| 4 |
 |
HUN |
2738 |
GM Peter Leko |
4.0 |
| 5 |
 |
AZE |
2757 |
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov |
3.5 |
| 6 |
 |
NOR |
2693 |
GM Magnus Carlsen |
3.0 |
| 7 |
 |
ISR |
2733 |
GM Boris Gelfand |
2.5 |
| 8 |
 |
GER |
2654 |
GM Arkadij Naiditsch |
2.0 |
|
 The Mainz Attraction!
ICC members can win a round trip ticket to Mainz
 Over the next week, the Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers of the popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, are offering ICC members a unique opportunity to play in a Chess960 Qualifier to win a round trip ticket, 600 Euro ($811) cash, hotel room and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel, from August 15 to 20 (5 nights and 6 days!).
You will also receive an automatic seat into two of the biggest and most prestigious series of rapid chess tournaments in the world, playing alongside many of the game's top grandmasters: the 6th FiNet Open, the world's biggest Chess960 (FischerRandom) tournaments, the 12th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship, and the 14th ORDIX Open, one of the biggest and strongest rapid tournaments in the world. While there, you will also have the best seats in the house for the main evening attraction: Anand, Kazimdzhanov, Aronian and Bacrot will play two round robin tournaments followed by a "small final" between the 3rd and the 4th and a "big final" between the 1st and the 2nd.
This event is only open to ICC members and to those who sign up for a free trial membership of the ICC - so don't delay, sign-up here
today!
Playing schedule
Qualifier 1: Saturday, July 7th, 2pm
Qualifier 2: Sunday, July 8th, 2pm
Qualifier 3: Monday, July 9th, 3pm
Qualifier 4: Tuesday, July 10th, 6pm
Qualifier 5: Wednesday, July 11th, 5pm
Qualifier 6: Thursday, July 12th, 4pm
The final of the last 32 players will take place on Saturday, July 14th, 2pm, and the final of the last 8 players will take place on Sunday, July 15th, 2pm. For the full playing schedule, rules and total prize-fund, click here
|
 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 third grand prize final on Saturday, 28 July at 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 |
|
|
|
  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, 9th July 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
Over the past few week's, John's guests have include a wide range of chess personalities and authors, such as Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Editor-in-chief of New In Chess, IM Jeremy Silman, GM Jon Speelman, IM James Rizzitano, IM David Vigoritto, IM John Donaldson, FM Graham Burgess, Editorial; Director of Gambit Publications, and John Saunders, Editor of the world's longest running magazine, British Chess Magazine.
This show will be made available
for 7-days ONDemand for members
Chess
FM page on our website
|
  July
Marathon!
  It’s
Marathon time! Mark your calendars for the weekend of July
14-15. Beginning at 12:00 noon on Saturday, and ending at
12:00 noon on Sunday, ICC is proud to host 24 consecutive hours
of non-stop tournament action! There will be several categories
being contested. In 5 0 Blitz, there will be an u1600 section
along with an over 1600 section. In 1 0 Bullet, there will
be an u1800 section to go with the 1800+ section.
Finally,
there will be a 15 0 Standard section for all ratings. Prizes
will be awarded for best and most in all categories. See “Help
marathon” for full details!
Featured June Prize Winners! Nightly u1500
monthly winners: Best: 1st place (1 month) therev1957. 2nd
and 3rd place (2 weeks) outbacker5, ElMarginal. Most: 1st
place (1 month) Adytum. 2nd and 3rd place
(2 weeks) Meridian1, babydoc. Nightly o1500 monthly winners: Best:
1st place (1 month) akdog3. 2nd and 3rd
place (2 weeks) Ecuadorian, OF. Most: 1st place (1
month) Chastewart. 2nd and 3rd place (2
weeks) BillietheKid, carlosthegreat.
Congrats to our Nightly
Event winners!
|
|
|
|
 Tourney
Tip of the Week:
Joining a tourney Tell
220 Tourney to see what tournaments are currently
going on. The first column tells you the “bot” hosting
the tourney. The second column tells you if the tourney is
open, late, or closed. You can’t join closed tourneys. To
join an open tourney, tell <host bot> join. A tourney
that shows up as “late” means that it’s underway,
but you can still join the tourney late. To do this, tell <bot> latejoin. The
final column tells you what type of tourney it is. Give
it a whirl, and good luck!
Monthly Standard! Tomato presents
a new type of tournament, suitable for longer time controls. The tournament
starts in the Slomato bot on the first Saturday of a month at 12 noon.
As usual, you can join shortly before starting time by typing 'tell Slomato
join' or clicking the item in your event list. On each Saturday,
three rounds of 15 5 (rated, Swiss parings) will be played. This gives
a total of 12 rounds (in months with 4 Saturdays) or 15 rounds (in months
with 5 Saturdays), thus a really long standard tournament which would
be impossible without breaks in between. Prizes are awarded and
lots of fun is had… so don’t miss out on this month’s
Monthly Standard! |
|
Games annotated by GM Ronen Har-Zvi
 Former
world under-16 junior champion GM Ronen Har-Zvi has a reputation
of being one of the toughest simul masters on ICC with whitewash
scores of 30-0 and 28-0 to his name.
Indiana-Jones (2321) - youngamerican (1640) [A89]
ICC 55 20 u Internet Chess Club (1), 29.06.2007
In this game, I managed to play some amazingly bad chess to reach this position, where I am lost. I needed a lot of help from my opponent here, who until this moment had played very well indeed
34...Rh1+ 35.Kg3 Qe1+? [The first mistake. Perhaps not yet losing, maybe even still winning, but making thing so much more complicated, because after the simple 35...Qd3 White is losing by force: 35...Qd3+ 36.Kf4 Rf1+ 37.Ke5 Qc3+ 38.Ke6 (38.Kd6 Rf6+ 39.Kd7 Rf7) 38...Qxh3+ 39.Kd6 Qxg2] 36.Kg4 h5+??
After this, there are no more questions! [36...Qd1+! 37.Kf4 (37.Kg5 Qh5+ 38.Kf6 Rf1+; 37.Kg3 Qd3+) 37...Rf1+ (37...Qf1+ 38.Ke5 Qxg2 39.Qe8+ Kg7 40.Qe7+=) 38.Ke5 Qd3 when it seems black still has winning chances, but the game is still on] 37.Kg5!
where else? 37...Qe3+ 38.Kxg6!
This king march to g6 is somewhat similar to a goalkeeper going up field to join the attack in the last 30 seconds of a soccer game! Black resigned, as he is getting mated in 3 moves. 1-0
|
|
|
|
Indiana-Jones (2321) - StoneyJ (1883) [D11]
ICC 55 20 u Internet Chess Club (1), 16.06.2007
Even wilder than the first game was this one.This position was reached after black's 28 move. After a complicated game, the smoke has cleared and white is completely winning, but still needs to be a bit careful, as after 29.f3 or useful moves such as 29.Re1, the game is just over. But...
29.Bd2?? What a horrible, careless move to have made. 29...Qd7! And suddenly it is game on again. 30.Bf4?? Well, playing 30.Rh1 does not seems an easy choice to make, but was probably the only move with a draw as the outcome. Now White can simply resign after the second mistake in as many moves - but this is just the beginning of the fun. [30.Rh1 Rxf2+ 31.Kxf2 Qxd2+ 32.Kg1 (32.Kf3 Rf5+-+) 32...Qd4+ 33.Kg2 Qd2+=] 30...Qh3+ 31.Kf3
Black has 1 move to win here (clue: a surprising one) and one for draw. Want to try and find them? 31...g5? This is the drawing one. The amazing 31...Re5!! would have won immediately, cutting the white king's escape route, with the immediate threat of Rxf4 Kxf4 Qf5 mate, not to mention g5-g4 mate ending the game. 32.Qe3! The only move to draw. 32...Rxf4+ 33.Ke2 A crazy position: white's king on e2, black's king on a7, the rook on h5 etc... 33...Qg4+ 34.f3 Rh2+ 35.Rf2 Qxg3 36.Qe7+
At this point I was already very happy with a draw - especially after all that has happened in the last 6-7 moves. Alas, my opponent got a little too ambitious this time. 36...Kb6 37.Qd6+ Kb7 38.Qd7+ Kb6 39.Qd6+ Kb5?? 40.a4+ The Queen or the King, this is what black need to decide now 40...Kc4 The King it is! But after 40...Rxa4 41.Qxg3 the result would not have been different. 41.Qd3+ Kb4 42.Qc3#
Wow, pretty crazy stuff! But these are the sort of games that sometimes happen in Simuls; many boards, no time. Crazy stuff happens, good or bad, you decide - but FUN it is for sure :). 1-0
|
|
ICC
Quiz #3203
submitted by StesurBarsa
White mates in 3
To play this puzzle on the ICC type:
tell trainingbot number 3203
Then type: play trainingbot
| 
|
|
| ICC
Quiz #3200
submitted by Mikenas
White mates in 4
To play this puzzle on the ICC type:
tell trainingbot number 3200
Then type: play trainingbot
|
 XX Ciudad de León
  The XX Ciudad de León Chess tournament takes place 4th-9th July 2007.
Players: Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Ruslan Ponomariov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov all of whom have been FIDE World Chess Champions.
A 5th World Champion will be present at León, Boris Spassky, who will give a lecture about his match with Robert Fischer, and give a simultaneous exhibition.
Official sites:
http://www.advancedchessleon.com
http:// www.elajedrezdelfuturo.com
|
|
|
Canadian Open
  The 2007 Canadian Open Chess Championship is a 10-round, one-section Swiss that takes place 7-15 July 2007 in Ottawa
The 2007 Canadian Open Chess Championship is a 10-round, one-section Swiss that takes place 7-15 July 2007 in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. 120 minutes/game + 30sec. increment/move. Projected prize fund of $20,000 CDN based on 200 entrants. Free entry to GMs, WGMs and IMs. Entry fee for all others, $125 CDN until May 31, 2007, $150 CDN thereafter. Players must be members of the Chess Federation of Canada. A tournament membership is available for $10 CDN, and a one- year membership for foreign players is $50 CDN. The venue is the Ottawa Marriott (www.ottawamarriott.com), offering rates of $89/night CDN for single and double occupancy.
Online reservations may be made at the website: http://cwp.marriott.com/yowmc/chess/ Confirmed GMs so far: GM Nigel Short, GM Vadim Milov, GM Suat Atalik, GM Alex Yermolinsky, GM Mark Bluvshtein. More GMs will be announced at the event blog: http://cocycc.blogspot.com
Event website: http://www.canchess.ca
|
|
My System - Aron Nimzovitch * NEW EDITION *
 Aron
Nimzowitsch was one of the greatest chess players of the 1920s and
1930s, ranked just behind the famous World Champions Alekhine and
Capablanca. His reputation as an author is higher still.
My System is at the top of a very short list of chess classics. Nimzowitsch’s
ideas have had a profound influence on modern chess thinking. Most
chess masters will at some point have studied Nimzowitsch’s
work, and not to have read My System is by many regarded as a shocking
gap in a chess player’s education.
The problem for an English-speaking audience has been that My System
was written in German more than eighty years ago. The commonly-used
contemporary translations have sounded dated for some time, and were
always questionable: the translators frequently toned down many passages,
fearing Nimzowitsch’s biting wit would be too controversial.
This edition uses a brand-new translation that recreates the author’s
original intentions. For the first time an English-speaking audience
can appreciate the true nature of a famous chess book. Read
more
Price $20.95 - 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!
|
|
|
|
Transpo Tricks in Chess: Finesse Your Chess and Win - Andrew Soltis
 In
chess, a transposition is a known position reached by a different
move order than usual – a less obvious way of getting to somewhere
you want to go, leading to confusion for your opponent. Every chess
player has a number of them in his arsenal, and they are used most
often in openings. There are transpositional tricks in all openings,
but this is the first book devoted to them.
As the book covers all the key openings variations it can be used
by most chess players. The introduction explains what transpositions
are and why they're invaluable, followed by 8 chapters discussing
transpositions, illustrated by some notorious examples from top-flight
matches. Chapters are divided by opening group – Double e-pawn
openings; Sicilian Defense; Other Semi-Open openings; Double e-pawn
openings; Indian openings; Other 1 d4 openings; Reti, English, 1
g3. The benefits and drawbacks of each set of move orders are discussed
throughout.
This is an ideal book for all club players and is written by one
of the best chess writers in the world today.
Read
more
Price $20.95 - 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!
|
Solution
to ICC Quiz #3203
submitted by StesurBarsa
1.Nh7!! Qc8 2.Bh3+ Qg4 3.Rxg4#
|
|
|
|
Solution
to ICC Quiz #3200
submitted by Mikenas
1.Qxe7+ Rxe7 2.Rd8+ Qe8 3.Bxe7+ Kg8 4.Rxe8#
|
|
|
|
