The Russians Are Coming(Back)! Mr. Super October! US Chess League 2007 Highlights Tomato Central ICC Store Past issues
● ICC Weekly Newsletter ● Vol. II - issue XXXXI ● Friday, November 2nd, 2007 ●

The Russians Are Coming(Back)! Oct. 28 - Nov. 6 [09:30 EDT | 15:30 CET]   The stage is set at the European Team Championships for a dramatic comeback in form for old hands Russia, as they routed wannabes Azerbaijan in round 5 to take a commanding lead at the top. Despite what many thought would be a close match, it in fact ended in an emphatic victory for the Russians, as Peter Svidler, Alexander Morozevich and Evgeny Alekseev all won with ease as they beat the young Azerbaijanis by a resounding 3.5-0.5 margin. The USSR dominated team and world chess from the early 1950s until the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, after which Russia became the leading chess superpower in its own right. They have since lost the world championship title and we have to go back to 2002 (Bled) for Russia’s last Olympiad win, and 2003 (Plovdiv) for their last European Team title. Now, after a lean period, Russia are back with a vengeance and look poised to capture their third European Team title. Azerbaijan-Russia match Photo courtesy of the European Team Championship organizers. For more information visit ICC or visit the official web site. View the team rankings. TOP-10: 1 Nov. 2007 N FLAG TEAM GAMES + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 1 RUSSIA 5 5 0 0 10 15.0 58.5 2 SLOVENIA 5 4 0 1 8 13.0 53.5 3 ISRAEL 5 3 2 0 8 12.5 55.5 4 AZERBAIJAN 5 4 0 1 8 12.0 60.5 5 BULGARIA 5 3 1 1 7 13.0 53.0 6 HUNGARY 5 3 1 1 7 12.5 59.5 7 UKRAINE 5 2 3 0 7 12.5 44.5 8 CZECH REPUBLIC 5 3 1 1 7 12.0 59.0 9 FRANCE 5 3 1 1 7 12.0 58.5 10 ARMENIA 5 3 1 1 7 12.0 54.5   Hikaru Nakamura - Mr. Super October! ICC favorite Hikaru Nakamura (smallville) more than lived up to his handle as he turned in two superhuman back-to-back performances in top European events as he rounded off a spectacular month of October. Firstly, he dominated the 10-player Casino Barcelona tournament from start to finish to take the title with a score of 7-2, a point ahead of his nearest rival, Lenier Perez Dominguez of Cuba. From Barcelona, he then marched on the birthplace of Napoleon to capture the powerful Corsica Masters rapid title. After qualifying for the knockout finals by winning the preliminary swiss event on 8-2, Nakamura then proceeded to beat Viktor Mikhalevski (2.5-1.5) in the opening round, Loek Van Wely (3-1) in the quarter-finals, Evgenny Bareev (3-1) in the semi-finals, and then demolished defending champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov (1.5-0.5) in the final to take the title! Such a performance will have surely been noticed by some of the organizers of top European tournaments, and hopefully Hikaru will rightly receive his reward with invitations in the post.

US Chess League 2007 Wednesday 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). Get all the latest at the US Chess League web site. USCL Week 10 Recap - Last week saw the end of the regular season for the USCL, where it was boom or bust for the teams in contention for a playoff berth. And in an exciting Halloween evening of action, with all six matches proving decisive, there were some fitting comebacks from the dead! The two division winners were Boston Blitz (East) and Dallas Destiny (West). Philadelphia made the playoffs for the first time from the East and will be joined also by the New York Knights. Joining Dallas in the West will be San Francisco Mechanics and surprise package Miami Sharks, who defied the odds to defeat early favorites Seattle Sluggers to take the final playoff spot. Boston Blitz 2.5 - 1.5 Philadelphia Inventors Queens Pioneers 3.0 - 1.0 Baltimore Kingfishers New York Knights 2.5 - 1.5 New Jersey Knockouts Tennessee Tempo 1.5 - 2.5 Carolina Cobras San Francisco Mechanics 2.5 - 1.5 Dallas Destiny Seattle Sluggers 1.5 - 2.5 Miami Sharks

Next week (Wednesday, 7 Nov.) will feature the first round of the USCL Playoffs, with one match in each division. In the East, Philadelphia will square off against the NY Knights. Meanwhile in the West, the Miami Sharks face the SF Mechanics. Although both Philadelphia and San Francisco will have the advantage of draw odds in their respective matches, they will be facing two very determined teams looking to cause an upset. Check the ICC homepage for updates, starting times and lineups for both matches this coming Wednesday - follow all the action with us live at ICC!

IM Alex Lenderman "Endings for Beginners: Part 1" IM Alex Lenderman provides a two-part, instructive introductory lecture on chess endings. Listen along as he annotates play-by-play action on the board, and you can pick up invaluable tips on how to rapidly improve your rating by these simple endgame tips. Part 1 is now available, and Part 2 will be coming soon and only available for ICC members. For non-members, we give you a sneak 5 minute preview to sample this instructive video. To view in full, join ICC today!

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. As a special treat to non-members this week, we're making John's latest interview with Mig Greengard free to view - so click "Play Video" to listen now! This hit show is one of the many benefits of being a member of ICC. John's previous guest have included top GMs such as Alexei Shirov, Nigel Short and Jan Timman; and columnists, journalists and historians Hans Ree, John Donaldson, Andy Soltis, Jennifer Shahade, Malcolm Pein, Ray Keene and Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam (Editor-in-chief of New In Chess). So, what are you waiting for? Sign up today and listen each week to John Watson interviewing the A- list of chess personalities! John's weekly 60+ minute show (members only) will feature an interview with leading chess personalities. This week (Tue, 30th Oct), John's guest will be author, columnist, ICC Chess.FM live coverage host, and American Chess Journalist of the Year, Mig Greengard. Mig first came to prominence in 1997 from his 'mountain top' retreat in Argentina, with a series of "Mig on Chess" online columns for The Week In Chess. He then became vice president of content for Kasparov Chess Online and editor-in-chief of kasparovchess.com from 1999 till its demise in 2002. He then started his own chessninja.com website, which features one of the more entertaining chess blogs, "The Daily Dirt". Since 1999, Mig has worked on numerous projects - chess, business and politics - with Garry Kasparov; the latest being his collaboration on Kasparov's 2007 book, How Life Imitates Chess. Next week (Tue, 6th Nov.), John's guest will be IM Irina Krush.

Celebration Recap! In celebration of mrmarck's 1500th tournament, a 4 0 blitz 13 round tourney was held. Congratulations to the winner, Gronevelt, who finished with an impressive 10.5/13 score!   Crazyhouse (w23) Championship Recap! In the 1 0 final, a quad elim style tourney, Nitz successfully defended his title from last year, using up only 2 of his 4 losses! RLH2 took 2nd place while yuchanged finished 3rd. In the 3 0 final, a triple elim format, Nitz again won the championship, this time losing only once along the way! Paulana finished 2nd and rookmnm took 3rd place. Congratulations to this year's 1 0 and 3 0 champion, Nitz! Join us next year for more crazyhouse excitement! Tourney Tip of the Week: Leaving a Tourney! Every now and then, it's unavoidable that a player needs to leave a tourney they've entered. While we encourage players to remain if at all possible, if you must leave you can do so with the command "tell <bot> leave". For example, if you were playing in the Scheduled Fischer Random on a Tuesday evening and absolutely had to go, you could type "tell Wildone leave". You will then be removed from the tourney. Please don't simply disconnect, because then the manager is left wondering whether you will return or whether they should forfeit you. The proper etiquette is to simply use the "tell <bot> leave" command. *Be Warned* -- you will receive dr points! Monday Night Flash Every Monday night at 21:00 server time (EDT), a 9 round swiss 1 0 bullet tourney is held in Flash! Some of the best bulleters on ICC show up for this event, so why not come out and take your best shot at them? Joining begins around 20:45, so log in and "tell flash join" to play! See you there!

Gambiteer II - Nigel Davies Are you fearless in your approach to chess openings? Are you happy to take calculated risks? Do you loathe trivial positional chess? Do you feel the need to sacrifice pawns early in the game? Are you a Gambiteer? If the answer to these questions is ‘yes!’ then this is the book for you! Read more Price $22.95 -  Buy now! Vishy's Victory: The Undisputed 2007 World Champs. - Giddins, Keene and Simpole After 13 years of strife and divided world titles, the match between Kramnik and Topalov in 2006 brought the great chess schism to a close. The next step in the world championship reunification process was a match-tournament, to give other leading contenders a chance, before the title reverts to a match format in 2008. Read more Price $41.95 -  Buy now! New In Chess Yearbook 84 - Soft Cover Edition Contains 33 surveys. Sicilian Defence - Najdorf Variation 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 - SI 14.8 – Anka Sicilian Defence - Najdorf Variation 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3 - SI 14.8 - Kolev Sicilian Defence - Rauzer Variation 6...Bd7 - SI 27.5 - Galkin Sicilian Defence - Rossolimo Variation 4...Qc7 - SI 31.9 - Kolev Sicilian Defence - Taimanov Variation 6.Nc6 - SI 39.12 - Langeweg and more... Read more Price $27.95 -  Buy now! Chess Success: Planning after the Opening - Neil McDonald Every player has encountered problems once the opening phase of the game has ended. Renowned chess author Neil McDonald guides you through a selection of over 40 recent instructive and entertaining Grandmaster games, all of which illustrate how sound planning and a clear head can help you through that crucial post-opening phase. Read more Price $20.95 -  Buy now! Fabulous Budapest Gambit - Viktor Moskalenko The Budapest Gambit is popular with club and internet chess players all over the world, and it is easy to see why. It has surprise value, it’s not hard to learn, and it leads to sharp and dynamic play from the very start of the game. Read more Price $23.95 -  Buy now! One Move and You're Dead - Edwin Brecher and Leonard Barden This book is likely to become a classic. It is a selection of eighty positions played by experts over more than a century, in which one brilliant move forced the opponent to surrender. It includes intriguing examples of such moves being overlooked by grandmasters, only to be identified on subsequent analysis. Read more Price $19.99 -  Buy now! Don't miss Special Offers from the ICC store!