 Amber
is Go
The 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess
Tournament takes place March 14th-28th, 2008 at the grandiose
Hotel Palais de la Mediterranée on the Promenade
des Anglais in Nice, France.
 Twelve
of the world's top grandmasters from ten different countries
will take part in this hotly-contested annual contest. On
offer is a 216,000 Euro ($337,000) total prize-fund. The
event is organized by the Association Max Euwe and generously
sponsored by Mr and Mrs Van Oosterom from Monaco.
With eight players from the world's
top ten (including the top four) and an average rating of
2752 (category 21), the line-up is even stronger than the
super-tournaments in Wijk aan Zee and Morelia- Linares.
These are the twelve participants: Vladimir Kramnik,
Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov, Alexander
Morozevich, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Peter Leko,
Vasily Ivanchuk, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand,
Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin and Loek
van Wely.
And each day here at ICC, we will be
relaying all the games live and also have our popular Game
of the Day videos by GMs Larry Christiansen and Joel
Benjamin. And our roving reporter, Macauley Peterson
is also now in Nice, and each day he'll be taking you behind
the scenes with his video reports for this chess extravaganza.
This is one event you will not want
to miss! Live coverage begins each day on ICC at 09:30 ICC
Time (EDT). Check out all the links below and book your
ringside seat now for all the action on ICC!
ICC: finger
Amber08
Official site: www.amberchess2008.com
XIX
Internet Chess Tournament "Ciudad de Dos Hermanas"
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 For
the ninth year running the XIX Internet Chess Tournament
"Ciudad de Dos Hermanas" (Spain) is being
held on the ICC
playing zone. Registration for the event is completely
free both for ICC members and non members!
This event is clearly the most
important Internet chess tournament in the world,
featuring the biggest number of participants. In the
2007 edition, nearly 2000 players from all over the
world took part. The winner, former child prodigy
and under-10 World Champion IM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun,
overcome an impressive field of 300 IM/GM’s,
including top players Shahriyar Mamedyarov,
Tigran L. Petrosian, Gata Kamsky, Hikaru
Nakamura, Kiril Georgiev and Sergey
Shipov.
This year the prize fund will
be 7,700 Euro (roughly $12,000), with 2,000 Euro (roughly
$3,400) for the winner. In addition, there are many
class prizes and special cash prizes for amateur players.
Also, winners can achieve the opportunity to travel
to Dos Hermanas for the main Event, with Topalov,
Shirov, Polgar and Vallejo, at
the end of April.
As in previous editions, the playing
system is as follows: twelve 12- round Swiss qualifiers
using the playing rate: 3 minutes per game. Qualifiers
are held twice a day from March 28th to April 2nd,
and the finals are held on April 4th and 5th. The
12 qualifier winners plus the 20 best scores qualify
to the 32 KO final.
Full rules, guidelines and registrations
can be found at our special Dos
Hermanas website.
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Junior
Special
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 We
are still offering the World Champion "Junior"
chess engine at an EXCLUSIVE price for ICC-members
only. The single-processor version (Junior) is available
for $29.95 and the multi-processor version (Deep Junior)
is available for $49.95. During the month of March
only, if you sign up for a new ICC membership or renew
an existing membership for a year or more, we'll take
a further $10-20 off, bringing the price down to $19.95
for Junior and $29.95 for Deep Junior!
All you need to do is sign up or renew online before
purchasing Junior. Once you are a member, it's easy
to buy:
1) Download
ICC Dasher 1.2.2 (Windows) for free
2) Sign into the ICC using Dasher
3) Select Purchase Junior Engine from the Web
menu
After purchasing, you can download
Junior to your computer for immediate use.
Junior integrates with ICC
Dasher 1.2 , allowing you to analyze your games
or "Play vs. Computer" offline.
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Junior
FAQ | Dasher
1.2.2 Release Notes
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GM Ronen Har-Zvi: "New Ideas
in the Slav and Semi-Slav Defences"
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In a series of new opening videos for ICC Chess.FM, GM Ronen Har-Zvi investigates the latest developments and trends that will keep you up-to-date in the rock-solid Slav and Semi-Slav Defences.
Click "Play
Video" for a free 5 minute preview of Ronen's
latest video. To listen to the full videos, sign
up for membership!
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"Chess Talk" with IM John Watson
 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. All shows
run on demand for members after airing.
This week (Tue., 11 March.), making
a return to join IM John Watson on Chess Talk is
three-time U.S. champion GM Joel Benjamin, host of
Chess.FM's popular show, Game of the Week
Joel rose to fame when IBM hired him
in 1997 as the "chess brains" behind their supercomputer
Deep Blue in its successful New York showdown match against
Garry Kasparov. He has featured in two movies, Searching
For Bobby Fischer and Game Over: Kasparov and the
Machines.
With a wealth of experience in the game, Joel recently
published his hit new book, American Grandmaster: Four
Decades Of Chess Adventures, that's being hailed as
one of the early contenders for the book of the year title.
It was also announced last week that Joel would be a new
inductee this year into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.
Find below a selection of free 5-minute
previews of the latest shows. To listen to the full shows,
sign
up for membership!
Attack with LarryC!
 New
at ICC Chess.FM - Attack With LarryC! A
weekly 30 min+ show on Wednesdays at 15:00 EDT
(and available on-demand thereafter for members), featuring
three-time U.S. Champion Larry Christiansen, one of the
most dangerous and respected attacking players of his generation.
Larry is a feared competitor and attacker who authored two popular books that showcase his aggressive style: Storming the Barricades and Rocking the Ramparts. And each week on his show, Larry will feature various
attacking motifs and themes and showing you how best to play for mate.
Click "Play
Video" for a free 5 minute preview of Larry's latest
video. This video is just one of the many benefits of being
a full member of ICC - so, sign
up for membership!
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 EDT. 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!
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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Boris Alterman's Gambit Guide
Israeli GM Boris Alterman is best known as a leading chess advisor for the multi-title winning chess software program (Deep) Junior, where he specialized in developing its opening book.
GM Joel Benjamin "Game of the Week"
 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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Correspondence
Chess!
Want to play slow games with
plenty of time to think between moves? Maybe correspondence
chess is for you! You can think about your move for
days if you like in this format. It will help you
to analyze positions and improve your game overall.
Stop by channel 240 on ICC if you're looking for a
game, or read "help correspondence" to find
out about the other correspondence formats, such as
"quads"
March
Marathon
A storm that took out power for
tens of thousands of people in New Jersey last weekend
also caused problems for a major collocation facility's
routers that left our servers temporarily unreachable.
March Marathon had to be delayed due to this.
The Marathon will be restarted from the beginning
this weekend beginning at 12:00 server time on Saturday
March 15th and ending at 12:00 server time on Sunday
March 16th.
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Sunday
Night Standard (SNS)!
Every Sunday night at 18:30 server
time, Slomato will run a 5 round 16 6 standard tourney.
There are monthly prizes, so come on out and play
every week! And best of all, our good friend billscotty
(founder of the SNS) does a random drawing every week
for those who played all 5 rounds. The winner gets
a free month extension on ICC! See you on Sunday!
 Tourney
Tip of the Week:
Records: Occasionally, people
ask about records for certain tourneys. For example,
you might be wondering what the record # of players
is for the popular Weekday Blitz tourneys. Well, if
you use the littleper.com website and click Records
(or click
here), then you'd find that the all-time record
for the Weekday tourney is 99 players. We keep records
for the Scheduled tourneys, Marathons, Championship
Qualifiers and more! Check it out!
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Secrets of Opening Surprises Volume 8 - Bosch
 Ready-to-go
chess opening ideas.
Readers of this series can ignore
large areas of the ever expanding chess opening theory.
They can concentrate on these surprising ideas, because
SOS variations deviate very early from the regular
lines in mainstream openings. Ideal for players who
don’t have enough time to keep abreast with main
line theory. Appears twice a year.
144 pages.
Price $21.95
- 
Buy
now!
Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings Volume D 4th Edition
on CD-ROM
 Contents
CD: 1. d4 d5 & 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 followed by 3…
d5:
Queen’s Gambit (Slav, QG
Accepted, Orthodox, Tarrasch, Tartakower, etc.), Gruenfeld,
Queen’s Pawn, etc. Games and analyses from Chess
Informants 1-88 Important game entries from recent
tournament practice
New Volume D of Encyclopaedia
of Chess Openings is available on CD for the first
time ever, bringing you some additional features:
Database tree; Test Your Skills (234 instructional
examples); and Chess Informant Expert 5.1 (Full version)
Amatzia Avni is an Israeli psychologist
who is a FIDE Master both over-the-board and of composition.
He has written several original and critically acclaimed
books.
Published by Quality Chess,
233 pages
Price $54.95
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Buy
now!
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New in Chess magazine 2008/1
 The
Return of the Jedi
For the second time the town of Khanty-Mansiysk in
what was once Russia’s Wild East hosted the World
Cup. A total of 128 players were welcomed with warm
Siberian hospitality, although they may also have
wondered why they were once again competing in this
distant out-of-the-way place where there’s hardly
any interest in chess. At the end of seven gruelling
rounds none other than Gata Kamsky defeated Alexey
Shirov in the final to win the 120,000 dollar first
prize and to gain the right to play a match against
Veselin Topalov. Misha Savinov watched the action
from the bustling first rounds right through to the
lonely final and gives a blow-by-blow account of a
survival race that ended with an epic comeback.
Price $10.95
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Buy
now!
Chess Informator 98-100
 In
CIE, PGN, CBH & CA formats
Trademark sections included
The Chess Informants 98-100 in
4 different formats CD brings a selection of 1,296
fully annotated theoretically important games and
1,479 accompanying game fragments played between September
2006 and August 2007.
Trademark sections brings the
voting for the ten best games and the ten most important
theoretical novelties from Chess Informants 97, 98
& 99, theoretical surveys in ECO format (C 19,
B 80 & D 44), the most interesting combinations
(54) and endings (36) from recent tournament practice,
studies (27), tournament standings and crosstables,
and the best of Boris Gelfand’s, Yasser Seirawan’s
and Aleksandar Matanovic’s creative output.
Price $60.00
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Buy
now!
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