WCL Newsletter Vol. II - issue XIX  Friday, May 9, 2008
	In this Issue: USCF: first results! Grand Prix : Just Great ! Titled players challenge you ! Live on WorldChessLive  Tourneys: Wild Marathon Highlights WCL : The Community Past issues

Titled players challenge you ! MasterChallenge(*)(C)(TD): >Congratulations WCL-Member for defeating GM Vladimir TooStrongsky in the MasterChallenge event. Congratulations Player for this incredible accomplishment :) Played this week Some results of the week   Keep an on the scheduled Events, connect in time, then, jump in!  On Dasher, click in menu bar - Window - Activities then select the Events tab. That is where you find most of the info about Tournaments and EVENTS! Under (To)day Events, you find scheduled events, MasterChallenge, Simul, etc. But also the live games that are broadcasted. following, there is "tomorrow events" as far there is no last minute change.  vs is probably the toughest Time  Control for the Masters. So, in most on cases, we go for a  1 1 vs 2 1. Still one more minute for the player!     Let's see the results of the week: Thursday May 1 | 15:00 EDT IM Martha Fierro long time no see in a MasterChallenge. She showed us in a MasterChallenge shortned by the up-coming USCF Grand Prix that she plays as well in bullet than in Simul. 11 wins and 1 draw to PeterGiannatos Friday, May 2 | 15:00 EDT IM Branimir Maksimovic  played 17 games, lost to RajNadar, Impunity, arnoldmuscat. Friday, May 2 | 19:00 EDT IM Branimir Maksimovic  was there again for some bullets in the MasterChallenge 13 wins and 1 loss to damianabramson Saturday, May 3 | 15:00 EDT FM Dragan Drasko played 16 games and lost to Lena and MaryDawson. Monday, May 5 | 15:00 EDT WGM Anna Zatonskih in time-odds won 14 games, and lost to ArjunePatel2.  Tuesday, May 6 | 15:00 EDT IM Branimir Maksimovic played 19 games, and just lost one game to MikeWilson2! Wednesday, April 30 | 15:00 EDT WGM Anna Zatonskih for a time-odds Master Challenge played 15 games and lost once to VincentPerrier! Wednesday, April 30| 19:00 EDT IM Branimir Maksimovic played 16 games, 1 draw to RajNadar and 1 loss to ArjunPatel2. Piece-Odds Friday, May 4 | 14:00 EDT GM Alex Finkel 11 wins and 5 losses to kiki78, VAIBHAVBAT, croder and twice to Houda. Tuesday, May 6 | 15:00 EDT WGM Anna Zatonskih considers Piece-Odds as a torture where someone just steals her pieces but she played this one with a better result than her fist try. 14 wins and 2 losses  to Glorioso and  brechstange. We wish good luck to Anna who is going to play in the US Championships next week!  Of course, only members can play, so become a member!  TGIF This Friday evening, (April 19), was again the 2 Draqsko battle !  IM Irina Krush 5.5-6.5 IM Goran Vojinovic . Do you want to see this games ? type /search IrinaKrush GoranVojinovic and you will get the list of all the games played between this titled players on WCL.    Don't miss this weekly battle! Be there next friday at 20:00 EDT!  Simul Results  Don't miss the registration! To make sure you'll be warned of the beginning of the registration for the simul, just do "tell simulbot alarm". Beware, that is a toggle command, so, if you send the command twice, that will switch the alarm off.   IM Martha Fierro 'Simul, was supposed to be played by 12 players but, according to the great number of joiners, the limit was pushed to 15!  but be careful, it can't be done always so, as soon as the registration for simul begins, "tell simulbot join" or you will just be a lucky watcher! Here is a screenshot of the game lost vs brechstange that she reviewed. She admitted she was surprised in the opening and was glad that her opponent reminded her an almost forgotten line.   GM Ronen Har-Zvi, exceptionnally played monday instead of tuesday, the simul was full too. Its nice to see that you appreciate this event. Premsta was the only one amongst the 12 players to win against Ronen. And of course his game was analysed. WCL is the only site where Simul are followed by an analysis and comments between the simul giver and  the  audience. Banter played this week:  During the 25 5 game, the two Masters whisper their thoughts and their plans. Of course, they can't read what their opponent is planning. Always interesting to try to understand how a Master thinks!  When the game finishes, the players review the game together, exploring other lines and analyzing their mistakes. GM Alex Finkel vs GM Viktor Gavrikov. 2 GM for a banter. A great Game by the two players but GM Alex Finkel could resist to the attack of GM Viktor Gavrikov!  GM Arthur Kogan vs IM Irina Krush was the program on sunday May 4. GM Arthur Kogan won after an interting game. Note that, from now the sunday Banter will take place at 17:00 Server Time. Due to the success of UCSF-QR Tourney  The game ended in a draw and the review of the game was much appreciated by the 25 people in audience!  These games are recorded with their commentaries for a further rebroadcast. You can also do /finger Banterchess to review the games without the comments for now but you will be soon be able to have the full benefit of the event.  Thanks to all the players, Members and Masters, and Congratulations to the Winners. Rules and descriptions of all Titled Events can be found here Events Scheduled This Week (Saturday May 10, May 18)  Saturday  15:00 EST MasterChallenge  19:00 EST Simul+Analysis GM Alex Finkel IM Martha Fierro  Sunday  14:00 EST Piece-Odds  17:00 EST Battle of the Week IM Gergely Szabo FM Dragan Drasko vs IM Goran Vojinovic  Monday  15:00 EST Time-Odds  19:00 EST Simul+ Anlaysis IM Sasha Belezky IM Branimir Maksimovic  Tuesday  15:00 EST MC Pieces-Odds  19:00 EST Simul+ Anlaysis IM Goran Vojinovic GM Ronen Har-Zvi  Wednesday  15:00 EST Time-Odds  19:00 EST MasterChallenge GM Victor Mikhalevski IM Gergely Szabo  Thursday  15:00 EST BanterChess  18:00 EST MasterChallenge GM Michael Roiz vs  GM Larry Christiansen IM Alex Lenderman  Friday  15:00 EST MasterChallenge  19:00 EST MC Pieces-Odds  20:00 EST TGIF GM Viktor Gavrikov FM Dragan Drasko GM Dejan Antic vs  GM Yuri Solodovnichenko  Saturday  15:00 EST MasterChallenge  19:00 EST Simul + Analysis GM Alex Finkel IM Martha Fierro  Sunday  14:00 EST Piece-Odds  17:00 EST Battle of the Week GM Vitali Golod IM Branimir Maksimovic vs IM Miodra Perunovic Site Pro : Branimir Maksimovic IM Branimir Maksimovic, known as Branimir on WCL is one of the more active titled players on the site. Playing events as well as challenging members.  Born in 1955, Branimir lives in Nis (250 km south of Belgrad), he got his IM title in 1987 at the 1987 FIDE Congress. And, as a proof one can always try for better, he earned a GM norm at the 2003 Yugoslavia Championship held in Budva. Some results: Champion of Serbia (in Bajina Basta), many times champion of the city of Nis, Champion of Nurnberg (Germany), 2nd place in Monte-Carlo. He is also known as a great coach for the past 30 years, and helped lots of Serbian players on their way to the Title! If you ever meet him (on the board), it would be better for you to know all about French defence and Nimzo-Indian in which he is an expert. Also manage (if you reach that point in the game) to avoid Rook endings. Well anyway, always beware of a titled player for who has Garry Kasparov as a model! Don't miss his next event on WCL : MasterChallenge Monday May, 12 at 19:00 server time    Live on World Chess Live MTel 2008 is underway  Topalov, Aronian, Cheparinov, Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Xiangzhi... These guys are in Sofia for MTel 2008. They started pushing wood on May 8 and planned to do nothing else till may 18! Every day, starting at 8:00 AM (15:00 Local Time) WCL will relay the games and Chess.FM will bring you a ringside seat throughout with live commentary with Mig Greengard and his expert GM team of Joel Benjamin, Larry Christiansen, Ronen Har-Zvi and Nick de Firmian. Checkout for GOTD Calendar and Macauley Peterson Videos direct from the playing venue in Sofia. "finger Mtel08" for the full schedules. FIDE Grand Prix BAKU 2008 : Gashimov, Wang Yue & Carlsen Started on April 20, the FIDE Grand Prix of Baku 2008 was broadcasted everyday on WCL. It ended May 6 with the victory of Gashimov, Wang Yue (who drew their game in final round) and Magnus Carlsen (what will stop him this year?) who defeated Etienne Bacrot in that round. The Video Game Of The Day (GOTD) are available for members on WCL. The commentaries by GM Larry Christiansen are always highly appreciated. This famous SitePro of WCL plays almost every week MasterChallenge and Piece-Odds events So, if you dont want want to miss the GOTD and enjoy to be crushed by one of the strongest attacking players, just become a WCL member or renew your membership! More details on the official website Grand Prix on WCL : 2nd Tournament played on May 1st  The kickoff event for the 2008 Worldchesslive Online Grand Prix began Thursday, April 24th at 8pm Server Time. This inaugural event was FREE for all USCF members and a total of 20 points in USCF's 2008 WCL Grand Prix was awarded. Of course, Younger members can also earn points and, in addition, all games in the Online Grand Prix are USCF quick-rated. Full details can be found at WCL-USCF 2008 Grand Prix   When you register for the first time, make sure your USCF number and PIN have been updated, specially if you just renewed your USCF membership. Otherwise just come and play! USCF members are full part WCL members and can take benefit of all the events, tourneys, videos, that are provided by WCL to his members so enjoy and don't limit your pleasure to USCF events. On the other hand, all WCL members are invited to get their USCF membership and play in that great event! Grand Prix is hosted in channel 225 (Littleper) and run by Quickbot in 3 2 u blitz, 7 rounds no latejoin after rd 3, so don't be late! This Thursday, May 8th, the Grand Prix was becoming a paying event. 3 Crowns (3USD) is the small fee asked to jump in the tournament, to have the chance to earn Points AND Crowns. Go to Web > My account to purchase them. Soon, they will allow you to buy and pay some other stuff on WCL.  With 27 players joining the 1st paying tournament, that Grand Prix was a real success.Thanks people for joining us for this event! This week's winner is Bulletchamp, then come gmbth for the second place and Premsta for the third. Congratulations to the winners ! Thanks to all who played or watch for making this tournament a true success !   "tell USCFBOT grid" for full results and info. We hope to meet you next thursday and every week then for what is promising to become one of the greatest regular events on WCL! USCF QR : more and more players! Sunday May 4, 54 players joined the tourney !!! You were 28 last week for that not to be missed Tourney on WCL in cooperation with USCF. The tourney was a Swiss 5 0 7rounds with latejoining allowed till round 3. We don't expect to double the participants each week but... triple could be fine! Congrats to ELu who scored 6 out of 7 and to Bulletchamp and ARyba, both with 5.5/7. To see all the results "tell USCFBOT 2" The results are immediatly forwarded to USCF who update the ratings their site. Of course, all the precautions are taken to avoid cheating. But keep focus on your play, even if Speedtrap pays you a visit. That doesn't mean you are suspect, but just it behaves the same way with anybody.   So get ready for May 11, 20:00 EST ! You can find the result of the previous tourneys on this USCF page STC Bunch May Mania Interested in playing slow games? The STC Bunch organizes slow tournaments and helps people who prefer slower time controls to find games. Check out our website at www.stcbunch.net and join channel 90. We have over 1000 members, and membership is free! May Mania is here! The STC Bunch's annual four round sprint kicked off on April 28 and will occur every week. You just have to sign-up for STC and the games are free. Keep an eye in channel 90, STCRobot(TD) announces the games in progress.  The time control is 45 5, and you'll be paired against players with a rating close to your own in every round. There are prizes available to WCL members! The minimum requirement is to play at least one game per month. Details of the rules can be found at http://stcbunch.net/eventswcl.php Available on WCL : Chess Talk with IM John Watson featuring Jonathan Berry Tune-in for Chess Talk with IM John Watson on ICC Chess.FM. John's weekly 60+ minute show will feature an interview with leading chess personalities. All shows run on demand for members after airing.   This week (Tue., 6 May), joining IM John Watson on Chess Talk will be Macauley Peterson, who will shortly be bringing you all his latest videos from the MTel Masters in Sofia, Bulgaria. Macauley - who recently finished his Masters in Film Studies at Amsterdam University - is a media developer & foreign correspondant for ICC Chess.FM, and writes for Chess Life, Chess Life Online, and elsewhere. In 2006, he completed work as an editor on Adam Nemett's independent feature film, The Instrument, which appeared at the 2005 Dances With Films festival, in L.A., and was part of New York’s Anthology Film Archives' New Filmmakers series, and he has produced the DVD releases of A Turnpike Runs Through It (2008), and Excess Hollywood (2006) for the Princeton Triangle Show.

Highlights

Predict a Move - An Event with PRIZES ! Started  January 1st, PAM (Predict-a-Move) is rolling. Every day at 13:00 EDT, you can join the line just type "tell PAM-bot join". The rule is simple. A game played by 2 masters is chosen in a database and the members have to guess what is the move that has been played by white as well as black. Any guess within the 30 first seconds gives you 25 points. The right guess gives 75 points, so, the right guess found in less than 30 seconds means 100 points. Of course, it is not allowed to search the game in a database in order to guess(?) the move. We hope you understand that cheating is just detrimental. You can join, leave and come back without losing your points. PRIZES : Each month the best player will be awarded with a 3 weeks membership extension and the player who has played the most during the month (with a minimun score of 3000 points for the whole month) will get 1 week membership extension! The winner of the best can't be, the same month, also winner of the most and can't be awarded for the best score, two months in a row but he is allowed to play for the most. The April Winners of PAM are:  For the best: timm 112825 pts (3weeks membership extension) For the most : MassimoViti 92875 pts (1 week membership extension) 162 differents players took part to this event in April! A new month has begun ! Here come the names of the top 3 in the PAM played from Thursday, May 1st to Wednesday, May 7:  Thursday  1. Alstone52  3475 pts  2. robertbancod 3450 pts  3. ZoraMilenkovic 3175 pts  Friday  1. Alstone 52 3700 pts  2. teve15 3200 pts  3. robertbancod 3175 pts  Saturday  1. EduardoAbramson  3550 pts  2. ZoranMilenkovic 3525 pts  3. timm 3400 pts  Sunday  1. Janos07 2175 pts  2. timm 2100 pts  3. AdvisorLee 1975 pts  Monday  1. ChessLover2 3250 pts  2. ZoranMilenkovic 3250 pts  3. Robertbancod 3200 pts  Tuesday  1. timm 1850 pts  2. Alstone52 1775 pts  3. ZoranMilenkovic 1650 pts  Wednesday  1. robertbancod 3350 pts  2. AdvisorLee 3250 pts  3. DirkVanDooren 3175 pts  Each day, around 20 persons join this events and kibitz their thoughts via PAM-bot. So Join us and have fun!  In case of tiebreak, the system is very simple, it is the registration order which decides, so, be there at the very beginning!   Dasher - Hints and tips  WCL help files are being updated. So, for the coming days, you will have to do /set webhelp 0 before calling a help file and read it in main tab. Just a matter of days :)    Make sure you have a version 1.2.2 or above. Click on the Help in menu bar and select About Dasher. It will display your actual version and if it does show you the 1.2.2 you have to download here. You just downloaded the latest Dasher and, Included in this version, a link to the multi-title winning JUNIOR engine that you can buy much cheaper than anywhere else and integrate in Dasher to examine, analyze your games and, use as a tool to help improve your game!     We are here to help you and let you have fun playing chess!    : The Community  We need you ! As already said above, WCL is growing ! We need Helpers, we need more Tournament managers, so if you like chess and if you enjoy to help people to play chess and give them fun in playing in the best conditions, apply for Helper and/or for Tournament Manager. Go in Event Tab of the Activities Window and, at the bottom, you'll find the forms to fill. Don't forget that thing : if you are friendly with people, people will be friendly with you (well... almost !) You can also click on "I want to become a Helper" or on "I want to be a Tournament Manager"  Feel free to share your opinion and your wishes. We want to know what kind of event you like, in tourneys, in event vs titled players. We also need to know what is the best hour for you (of course, regarding where you live in the world) and how much time you can spend on WCL for an event. You can find the list of scheduled events, tourneys and broadcast of the coming week in the event window .   Well, we need to know who you are and where you are from in order to schedule the right events at the right time. Questions and some answers: Games of the day / Videos : they are available for members only (so join us !) with your WCL handle and password.  Mac / Linux :I adore the dasher program but I can't downloaded with my Mac OS X 10.5.1 and sadly I only play with it in my laptop. There is an alternative interface to Dasher for people who chosed Mac or Linux, its called Sonia. Time Control : Set up a game with time control like 40 moves in 60 minutes + extra time like on an OTB is possible when the game is in tourney mode, so you may need a Admin Tournament Manager to do it. What time is it ? : On WCL, the events refers to the Server Time EDT (New-York time), that is GMT-4 or PST+3. To check the Server Time (and see if your didn't forget to have lunch) you can type /Date in main tab and see the server time.   Two important addresses : If you have any suggestions, ideas or questions, feel free to contact us. We will give you a personal answer or publish it in this part if many of you are concerned by a topic. We collect also infos regarding members of WCL. If you have played a tourney OTB, if your club organizes an event or anything else, we can mention it. Some of you may have questions relatives to login, lost password, membership then contact support. We answer as soon we receive your mail.

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