 Let's Have a Party!
 Barcelona, Spain: Luz de Gas
 December 3
ICC will be holding a special European Party for its members on the evening of Monday, 3 December with its Spanish partners, CET, at the top Barcelona nightclub, Luz de Gas. And this will be no ordinary party, because Judit Polgar will also be on-hand to play a 10 board simul - and ICC members can win a chance to play against her!
On Thursday, 22 November at 15:00 ICC Time (21:00 CET - 20:00 UK), there will be a two game rapid match on ICC between WGM Martha Fierro and IM Alejo de Dovitlis. During that match, ICC's ever-popular "Guess The Move" bot will spring into action at various times asking members to guess what the next moves will be. The member who accumulates the most number of correct moves will be the winner; in the event of a tie, a tiebreaking system will be announced before the start of the games.
Prizes on offer in this exclusive, members-only competition will be: Invitation to ICC European Party, including seat to play against Judit Polgar + 300 euros (to help cover travel costs) + hotel room & breakfast (Night of Dec. 3 only). This main prize will only be paid out when member arrives in Barcelona. If member can't travel for whatever reason, then prize will be offered to next place etc. There will also be conciliation prizes of ICC membership extensions. ***Please also note that this competition is restricted to players rated under 2200 FIDE (or national rating equivalent) only***.
All ICC members are welcome to join us in Barcelona for free entry to ICC European Party. For further details or to book your ticket, contact us.
Gibtelecom '08 ICC Qualifier
Gibtelecom '08 ICC Qualifier
November 15-18
After the success of our Mainz and Mexico qualifiers, the Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with the Gibtelecom Chess Festival, are now offering ICC members a unique opportunity to win a round trip ticket, hotel room and breakfast and automatic seat to the exclusive Gibtelecom Chess Festival.
You will be joined by many of the world's leading Grandmasters, in what is hailed as one of the best chess events in the world! To win this exclusive offer, you will need to play in a series of ICC online qualifiers 15-17 November, with the final 32-player KO running 18 November.
This event is only open to ICC members - so don't delay, sign-up here today!
Review all the rules and details of this exciting members-only event!
 Qualifier 1: Thursday, 15 November
There's was an excellent turnout of 423 members who battled it out in the first Gibtelecom qualifier on ICC. Winning their way through the plethora of GMs and IMs to Sunday's final was: olimpus (IM Axel Bachmann), B-Savchenko (GM Boris Savchenko), Vanych (GM Viktor Komliakov), KRASAVCHIK (IM Safarli Eltaj) and Kgt1 (IM Gaby Livshitz)
Qualifier 2: Friday, 16 November
Again there was another excellent turnout of 329 members for the second Gibtelecom qualifier on ICC. Winning their way through to Sunday's final was: Franchesko (GM Rauf Mamedov), VerdeNotte (GM Gawain Jones), mightymax (Max Illingworth), TRADE (IM Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian) and Jehovahnissi (Shivananda B.S.).
View here the crosstable for the latest qualifier - Final qualifier will take place Saturday, Nov. 17, starting at 2:00pm EST
Tal Memorial 2007
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Tal Memorial 2007
November 9-19
 The 2007 Tal Memorial is underway and runs 9-19 November at the famed Moscow Central Chess Club in the Russian capital. The event is held in memory of the ’Magician from Riga‘, Mikhail Tal.
The full line up in order of world ranking for the ten player all-play-all is: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Peter Leko (Hungary), Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Alexei Shirov (Spain), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Gata Kamsky (USA), Evgeny Alekseev (Russia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia).
Each day during the Tal Memorial, ICC Chess.FM will provide a video Game of the Day from GM Larry Christiansen.
Game of the Day: Round 6
Shirov vs Carlsen
Game of the Day Videos:
As a special treat for non-members, ICC have made all of Larry Christiansen's Game of the Day videos from the Tal Memorial free so you can see one the many benefits of becoming an ICC member. These instructive, 30 min+ videos giving Larry's spin on the best game of each round can be found by clicking here.
For more information visit ICC: finger Tal07 or the official web site.
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Crosstable
| N |
FLAG |
NAME |
FED |
FIDE |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
0 |
PTS |
| 1 |
|
Kramnik |
RUS |
2785 |
|
- |
½ |
½ |
1 |
1 |
- |
- |
1 |
½ |
4½ |
| 2 |
 |
Mamedyarov |
AZE |
2752 |
- |
|
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
- |
- |
3½ |
| 3 |
 |
Carlsen |
NOR |
2714 |
½ |
½ |
|
- |
- |
0 |
1 |
½ |
½ |
- |
3 |
| 4 |
 |
Gelfand |
ISR |
2736 |
½ |
½ |
- |
|
- |
- |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
3 |
| 5 |
 |
Lékó |
HUN |
2755 |
0 |
½ |
- |
- |
|
1 |
½ |
- |
½ |
½ |
3 |
| 6 |
|
Shirov |
ESP |
2739 |
0 |
½ |
1 |
- |
0 |
|
- |
½ |
- |
1 |
3 |
| 7 |
|
Jakovenko |
RUS |
2710 |
- |
½ |
0 |
½ |
½ |
- |
|
½ |
- |
1 |
3 |
| 8 |
 |
Ivanchuk |
UKR |
2787 |
- |
0 |
½ |
½ |
- |
½ |
½ |
|
½ |
- |
2½ |
| 9 |
|
Alekseev |
RUS |
2716 |
0 |
- |
½ |
½ |
½ |
- |
- |
½ |
|
½ |
2½ |
| 10 |
 |
Kamsky |
USA |
2714 |
½ |
- |
- |
½ |
½ |
0 |
0 |
- |
½ |
|
2 |
|
US Chess League 2007
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The first Semifinals of the playoffs in the US Chess League took place last Wednesday night here on ICC with the Boston Blitz facing the New York Knights.
Boston won the match 2.5-1.5, and advances to face the winner of next Monday’s match-up (Nov. 19, at 7 PM) between West division winner Dallas Destiny and West division wildcard-winner, Miami Sharks. Like Boston, Dallas will have the advantage of draw odds, and the pressure will be on 2006 and 2007 USCL MVP Julio Becerra to come up big for Miami.
You can watch that match live here on ICC on Monday, starting from 7pm Server Time.
Wednesday, Nov. 14th
| No. |
SNo. |
New York |
Res. |
Boston |
SNo. |
| 1 |
2742 |
GM Hikaru Nakamura |
½-½ |
GM Larry Christiansen |
2669 |
| 2 |
2536 |
GM Pascal Charbonneau |
0-1 |
SM Jorge Sammour Hasbun |
2576 |
| 3 |
2360 |
IM Jay Bonin |
1-0 |
NM Denys Shmelov |
2391 |
| 4 |
2185 |
WFM Irina Zenyuk |
0-1 |
NM Chris Williams |
2241 |
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Monday, Nov. 19th
| No. |
SNo. |
Miami |
Res. |
Dallas |
SNo. |
| 1 |
2634 |
GM Julio Becerra |
- |
IM Drasko Boskovic |
2520 |
| 2 |
2430 |
IM Blas Lugo |
- |
IM Davorin Kuljasevic |
2491 |
| 3 |
2462 |
FM Marcel Martinez |
- |
IM Jacek Stopa |
2433 |
| 4 |
2160 |
Luis Barredo |
- |
NM Francisco Guadalupe II |
2218 |
|
You can catch all the playoff action live here on ICC.
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GM Joel Benjamin "Game of the Week"
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Game of the Week
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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!
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"Chess Talk" with IM John Watson
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Tune-in for Chess Talk with IM John Watson on ICC Chess.FM. John's weekly 60+ minute show (members only) will feature an interview with leading chess personalities. Click "Play Video" for a free 5 minute preview of John's latest show. To listen to the full show, sign up for membership!
John's guest this week (Tue., 16 Nov.) is Irish\Russian Grandmaster Alexander Baburin. Originally born in Gorky, Russia, in 1967, Alexander relocated with his family to Dublin, Ireland in 1993. He is an experienced player, coach and writer on the game. Alexander was also manager and second for a couple of years to Alexander Morozevich.
He sells antiquarian chess books and runs his own chess school in Dublin, offering chess classes in schools. But his biggest contribution to the chess world is unquestionably his popular daily chess newsletter Chess Today, a venture he started in November 2000, and to-date has reached 2561 issues.
Next week (Nov. 23), John's guest will be GM Anthony Kosten.
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Ask the Renaissance Man |
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Tune-in for "Ask the Renaissance Man" with National Master Dan Heisman every Thursday at 21:00 EST. 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! This week (15 Nov.), Dan's special guest was Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer, who not only wrote the chess program Phoenix and the checker program Chinook, but earlier this year announced that his team had solved checkers.
Click "Play Video" for a free 5 minute preview of Dan's latest show. To listen to the full show, sign up for membership!
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 Marathon Recap!
 It was another successful Marathon event as five bots were consecutively running tourneys for 24 hours! Including MonthlyStandard the Marathon had 233 tourneys, 1069 rounds and 849 players. Thanks to all who participated! In the next two newsletters, we'll recap the winners of the various marathon events. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for information about the January Marathon coming up next!
 4 2 Thematic Championship! Qualifiers will be held December 8-13! All qualifiers will be 9 round swiss tourneys. The top 5 finishers in each qualifier will advance to the finals along with the next 3 best scores for the entire qualification series. Come on out and see if you can dethrone last year's champion, VerdeNotte (GM).
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 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!
 Wednesday Standard!
Every Wednesday evening at 18:00 server time, a 5 round swiss 15 0 standard tourney is held in Slomato! Take your time to think about your moves, and test yourself against some of the best players ICC has to offer! Come out this Wednesday and "Tell Slomato join"! Joining begins at 17:40, so don't miss it!
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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!
Treasure Chess: Trivia, Quotes, Puzzles, and Lore from the World's Oldest Game - Pandolfini
A book for all who appreciate the game of chess–no matter what age or skill level. This book is filled with history, lore, trivia, quotes, and puzzles that celebrate the wonderful game of chess.
Read
more
Price $18.95 - 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!
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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!
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