Chess, Chess Everywhere.... The African Kings US Chess League 2007 Highlights ICC Store Past issues
● ICC Weekly Newsletter ● Vol. II - issue XXXX ● Friday, October 26th, 2007 ●

Chess, Chess Everywhere.... Chess, Chess Everywhere.... There's been no shortage of chess action going on around the globe lately, with many events of importance to the ICC either just ending or about to begin. Last week at the Essent Crown Croup in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands, it was a tale of two world junior champions at opposite ends of the table. As expected, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan - the only player to win the world junior title twice, in 2003 and 2005 - won his last round game against Zaven Andriasian of Armenia to take the title. The tournament proved to be a true baptism of fire for 2006 world junior champion Andriasian, who lost all six games on his debut on the elite stage! And on the subject of world junior champions, one of ICC's prolific players, the young Egyptian GM Ahmed Adly, recently became the 2007 world junior champion; in the process winning the first major title for Africa. Another ICC favorite, the young American GM Hikaru Nakamura (Smallville), who decided against playing in the world junior championship, had a stunning break out performance to win the Casino de Barcelona tournament in Spain with his winning score of 7/9. Just started in Mukachevo, in the Ukraine, is a 12 round rapid match between world no.2, Vassily Ivanchuk, and world no.5, Peter Leko. The match is being transmitted live on ICC, and the official match site. Next week also sees the start of the European Team Championships in the luxurious Creta Maris Conference Hotel in Crete, Greece. The event runs 27 October through 7th November, with daily live coverage of the top boards on ICC. The participants will include 7 of the World Top-10 GMs: V. Ivanchuk (UKR 2787, No. 2 in the world) V. Topalov (BUL 2769, No. 4) A. Morozevich (RUS 2755, No. 5-6) S. Mamedyarov (AZE 2752, No. 7) T. Radjabov (AZE 2742, No. 8) L. Aronian (ARM 2741, No. 9) A. Shirov (ESP 2739, No. 10)   The African Kings Christian missionaries first spread chess throughout Africa in the 19th century. But the continent has lagged behind in turning out masters - until now, that is, thanks to two standout performances recently from ICC'ers Amon Simutowe (Solomons) and Ahmed Adly (a-adly). Simutowe, 25, is on the brink of becoming the first black grandmaster from Sub-Saharan Africa (there are already GMs from Morocco and Egypt) after winning a tournament a few months back in Arnhem, the Netherlands. The Zambian has the required norms and now only needs to raise his rating above 2500 for the title. Last week Adly, 20, despite losing successive games to the two leading favourites (GMs Wang Hao and Ivan Popov), made a dramatic comeback to score a famous victory at the World Junior Championship in Yerevan, Armenia. The young Egyptian GM - who follows in the footsteps of Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand - now becomes the first player from Africa to win a world title. The former African junior champion was ranked 21st at the start of the event, limited to players 20 and younger, and first contested in 1951, and won by Boris Ivkov. He notched a number of notable upsets on his way to the title, including a powerful demolition of No. 4 seed GM Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic. In an exciting finish, Adly defeated German GM Georg Meier in the 13th and final round in Yerevan to take the title and gold medal with a score of 10-3, a half point ahead of his nearest rival, Russia's Ivan Popov, with China's Wang Hao squeezing out Russia's GM Dmitry Andreiken to take bronze on tiebreak.

US Chess League 2007 Wednesday [19:00 EDT | 01:00 CET] Follow all the top US stars in action every week at the United States Chess League, hosted exclusively by the ICC! The USCL, with ICC favorites such as Hikaru Nakamura (New York Knights), Larry Christiansen (Boston Blitz) and Joel Benjamin (New Jersey Knockouts). The USCL is held every Monday & Wednesday starting from 19:00 EDT and shown live on ICC. Get all the latest at the US Chess League web site. USCL Week 9 Recap - Week 9 of the USCL means there's only one more of the regular season left to play, and with it came some decisive results for the playoffs. In the East, this seasons surprise package, the Philadelphia Inventors - shrewdly managed by Mike Shahade - moved into a tie first place as they secured their first playoff berth after defeating the New York Knights 2.5-1.5. New Jersey and Baltimore tied as did Boston and Queens. All of which means the Week 10 match-up between Boston and Philadelphia will determine the destination of the East Division title (with a draw giving it to Boston on superior game points) and a first round bye in the playoffs. Also New Jersey and New York will be playing for a playoff spot next week, while Baltimore has an outside chance of qualifying if they can defeat Queens. In the West, things are a bit more clear. Dallas clinched the division title on Wednesday with a 2.5-1.5 win over Tennessee. Dallas will now have the advantage of a first round bye and draw odds in the SemiFinals. Miami shocked everyone with a 2.5-1.5 victory over Carolina, as they went into the match with a huge rating disadvantage. Another shock result came in Monday’s featured match, as the San Francisco Mechanics easily beat the very strong Seattle Sluggers, 3-1, in a possible preview of a playoff match. Now, if Miami defeats Seattle in Week 10, they are in the playoffs, but if Seattle draws or wins they are in! WEEK 9 - San Francisco Mechanics 3-1 Seattle Sluggers Philadelphia Inventors 2.5-1.5 New York Knights New Jersey Knockouts 2-2 Baltimore Kingfishers Queens Pioneers 2-2 Boston Blitz Carolina Cobras 1.5-2.5 Miami Sharks Tennessee Tempo 1.5-2.5 Dallas Destiny

There's now only 1 week of the regular season remaining in the USCL, and it's so close that remarkably almost all the teams are still in with a chance of making the playoffs. Next week's fixtures on ICC include: WEEK 10 - Wednesday October 31th 19:00 EDT - Boston Blitz vs Philadelphia Inventors 19:15 EDT - Queens Pioneers vs Baltimore Kingfishers 19:30 EDT - New York Knights vs New Jersey Knockouts 20:15 EDT - Tennessee Tempo vs Carolina Cobras 20:30 EDT - San Francisco Mechanics vs Dallas Destiny

Dasher 1.1.7 Chess Software Release The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is the longest running, most popular, and best place to play chess on the Internet. No where else can you find as many chess enthusiasts ready for a quick round of blitz, a short chat, or an impromptu tournament. It is not uncommon to find more than 3,000 chess players hanging out on ICC where more than 200,000 games are played each day. ICC Dasher is a Windows program for playing chess. Membership enables you to play chess online within the ICC community, challenging your skills at ICC online tournaments. You can download Dasher and use it for free. If you are already a member, upgrade Dasher today to our latest version, release 1.1.7. Mukachevo Match: Ivanchuk vs. Leko  Mukachevo Match: Ivanchuk vs. Leko 26-28 October   Two international stars duel Oct. 26 - 28th. GM Leko is ranked 5th in the world list, and GM Ivanchuk is ranked 2nd in the world list. It will be an intense battle of 12 rounds, rapid, 10 min + 10 sec per move over the course of three days. View the official Mukachevo Match web site.

N FLAG T NAME FED FIDE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 PTS 1 GM Ivanchuk UKR 2787 ½ 1 ½ ½                   1 GM Leko HUN 2755 ½ 0 ½ ½

Ask the Renaissance Man Tune-in for "Ask the Renaissance Man" with National Master Dan Heisman every Thursday at 21:00 EDT. Click "Play Video" for a free 5 minute preview of Dan's latest show. To listen to the full show, sign up for membership now! You send in the questions and Dan provides the answers every week on his Q&A show. Questions on tournament rules, opening play, chess books, chess politics, current events, and more! GM Joel Benjamin "Game  of  the  Week" Game of the Week New on ICC Chess.FM! Three-time U.S. Champion GM Joel Benjamin starts his weekly show every Friday at 15:00 Server Time. Click "Play Video" for a free 5 minute preview of Joel's latest show. To listen to the full show, sign up for membership! Joel is regarded by many as one of the best commentators and analysts' we have in the game today, and each Friday he will be giving us his insight and spin with his selection of Game of the Week. This is a not-to-be-missed 30-minute video is exclusively for ICC members only -- so if you want to get ahead of the game, get ready to tune-in! By popular demand and requests from members, ALL of Joel Benjamin's GOTW videos are available. Enjoy! Chess Talk with IM John Watson Tune-in for Chess Talk with IM John Watson on ICC Chess.FM. Members click "Play Video" for to view John's interview with GM Nigel Short MBE. Non-members, sign up today! This week (Tue, 23rd Oct.) John was on holiday and requested we repeat his show from last month with former World Championship challenger, coach and columnist GM Nigel Short MBE. In 1979 at 19, Nigel was the world’s youngest grandmaster of the game. In 1993 in London, after defeating Boris Gelfand, Jon Speelman, Jan Timman and Anatoly Karpov in Candidates Matches, Short unsuccessfully challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Championship title. Along with his playing activities, Short is regarded as a witty, yet often controversial columnist on the game, notably for two of the UK’s leading broadsheets, The Sunday Telegraph and The Guardian. He has gone on to coach young prodigies like Pentala Harikrishna, Sergey Karjakin, David Howell and Parimarjan Negi. In 1999 the Queen of Gt. Britain awarded him the honor of Member of the British Empire (MBE), in recognition of his chess accomplishments. Next week (Tue, 30th Oct.), John's guest will be Mig Greengard.

It's a Celebration! Join us this Friday, October 26th to help us celebrate mrmarck's 1500th tournament managed! The tourney, a 4 0 blitz 13 rounder, will begin at 3:00 pm in tomato. The tournament is open to all players and there will be no dr-points for leaving early! Come join the party! Daily Standard Tournament Every weekday at 14:15 server time (type "date") ICC is proud to present the Daily Standard Tourney! Each tourney is 4 rounds long with a swiss format. However, every day of the week features a different time control: Monday 20 5 Tuesday 20 20 Wednesday 20 0 Thursday 17 5 Friday 30 0 Prizes are awarded to the the top 3 finishers every month, and also to the top 3 players who played the most games in that month. Daily Standard opens every day at 13:55, so log on today and "Tell Slomato join"! Tourney Tip of the Week: Requesting a Tourney! Been waiting all day for that tourney you'd love to play in? There's a channel devoted exclusively to tourney requests! Managers keep an eye on channel 221 to see what tournaments would be popular with the players. Usually if several players are asking for the same type of tourney, a manager will go ahead and run it! So next time you're just dying for that one special tourney, "tell 221 Hey, can you guys run <my favorite tourney> please?". Our managers are standing by! 15 0 Standard Championship Recap! Congratulations to sitparkcin (FM), the 2007 15 0 Champion! The final was a double elimination format. In the final game sitparkcin defeated runner-up akibael. Nardz took the third place. In the u2000 final, our champion for 2007 was SUNTZU76. Congratulations to this year's champions and we eagerly await the 2008 Standard Championships!

Duels of the Mind (4 DVDs) - Raymond Keene Originally broadcast on Thames television in 1989 this 4 DVD set features all 12 programs making up Keene’s selection of the twelve best games of chess. Running time: 6 hours. Read more Price $44.95 -  Buy now! King's Gambit: A son, a father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game - Paul Hoffman King's Gambit is part memoir and part an insider's look at the obsessive subculture of tournament chess and the crazy behavior that the game brings out in professionals and amateurs alike. Read more Price $23.95 -  Buy now! Chess Opening Essentials - Djuric and Panteleoni An accessible primer and opening reference book, providing es sential knowledge on all chess openings. It explains the basic plans and ideas for both black and white. It gives beginners the ability to choose the openings that suit their style and taste, and gives club players the opportunity to test and review their opening repertoire. Chess Opening Essentials gives a flavour of how a particular opening works, with pointers in the right direction if you wish to explore further. Read more Price $28.95 -  Buy now! Complete Chess Workout, The - Richard Palliser In this book, tactics expert Richard Palliser presents the reader with a massive 1200 puzzles, all checked for accuracy by the latest computer engines. There is something for players of all levels here: a huge number of basic tactics - forks, pins, skewers and checkmates - to appeal to beginners and improvers, and several brain-teasers that will tax even the strongest of players. Read more Price $27.95 -  Buy now! Knights of the South Bronx - DVD (2006) Directed by Allen Hughes (Menace II Society), Knights of the South Bronx is based on the true story of an inner-city elementary school teacher. Ted Danson (Cheers) stars as Richard Mason, who transforms his students' lives by teaching them the game of chess. Against all odds, he becomes a mentor to these underprivileged children and inspires them to better themselves. Read more Price $13.98 -  Buy now! Chess Praxis - Aron Nimzovitch NEW EDITION Chess Praxis is a superb collection of Nimzovitch's best games and annotated by the man himself, but it is even more than that. Nimzovitch and his hypermodern ideas had a huge influence on modern chess thinking, views which were first expounded in My Sytem. In this follow up, he demonstrates and explains how his concepts work his own own games. Read more Price $29.95 -  Buy now! Don't miss Special Offers from the ICC store!