 Sultan of Brunei Birthday Blitz Bash
 We all know ICC is the place to be for the biggest and best online prize tournaments - and we've got another coming up later this month for our members, as we collaborate with the official 62nd Birthday celebrations for the Sultan of Brunei!
The 1st Brunei Internet Chess Blitz, with a total prize fund of $6,500 USD, will take place on Tuesday, July 15th starting at 2:00AM ET (2:00PM Brunei Time). Registration is free and open to players from all over the world. The 13 round, 3 0 minute blitz promises to attract many top grandmasters, all of whom will be battling it out for the five major cash prizes, including the first prize of $1,500 USD. ICC Rules and guidelines can be found at http://www.chessclub.com/activities/brunei08/
There will also be plenty of consolation prizes on offer for what promises to be a fun-filled, through-the-night tournament here at ICC, where our members in the likes of Australia and early-risers in Europe finally get the time zone advantage over North American members!
We'll also be linking-up directly with the Brunei Chess Centre, located at Hassanal Bokiah National Sports Complex and the Brunei Shell Recreation Club Chess Centre, where Brunei Darussalam locals there will take part in their own prize tournament.
Major sponsors for this gala birthday event include: Alif Technologies, DST Group, PT. Wai IIIa Sarana Utama & PT Talenta Pratama Madri, Pines Enterprises - Verde and Adison Marketing Services. The tournament is also sponsored by The Empire Hotel and Country Club, i-Centre, Everyman Chess UK, London Chess Centre UK, Mutiara Shakila Nabilah Transportation Services, Royal Brunei Technical Services Sdn Bhd, Zisen Enterprise, PT. Budi Gunawan and PT. El-Nusa.
Playing like a God at Dortmund
  Who would have guessed it? The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting could be heading for a big surprise result as the German bottom seed, Jan Gustafsson (GodGusti here on ICC) is playing the tournament of his life so far to be the unlikely sole leader going into Saturday's penultimate round.
The unbeaten Gustafsson set the Independence Day fireworks off early on Friday July 4th, as he took only 18 moves to beat the hapless Dutchman Loek Van Wely in a miniature - and with the black pieces! He's now on a +2 score of 3.5/5 (2863 performance) and a half point ahead of nearest rivals Peter Leko and Ian Nepomnichtchi.
The tournament also saw a sensational piece of giant-killing with the last German player to win Dortmund (in 2005), Arkadij Naiditsch, easily beating former world champion Kramnik with a big novelty in the Petroff's Defence that featured in GOTD.
Will GodGusti live up to his ICC handle by going on to become only the second German player in the last 25 years to win Dortmund? You can find out here by joining us at Chess.FM as Mig Greengard is joined for the final two rounds f by top commentators GM Larry Christiansen and GM Gregory Kaidanov or move-by-move coverage. Play starts Saturday at 9:00AM ET with Sunday's final round at 7:00AM ET.
Our full schedule can be found here.
On ICC: finger Dortmund08
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DATE |
FREE DORTMUND GAME-OF-THE-DAY |
HOST |
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1 |
6/28 |
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GM Nick de Firmian |
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2 |
6/29 |
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GM Joel Benjamin |
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3 |
7/1 |
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GM Ronen Har-Zvi |
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4 |
7/2 |
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GM Joel Benjamin |
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5 |
7/4 |
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GM Larry Christiansen |
Are
You a Member of the USCF?
In a new sponsorship deal with the United
States Chess Federation, ALL current members of the USCF
will qualify for a free 6-month membership! For new WCL
members, simply check the USCF Member box and enter your
USCF membership number and PIN on the WCL
registration page. If you're already registered with
WCL, go to your
account page and use the USCF link at the bottom.
WCL is the new sponsor of the USCF's
2008 Grand Prix and 2008 Junior Grand Prix. We're providing
prize funds of $20,000 and $7,500, respectively, and will
also be running Online Grand Prix events all year, beginning
in April, open only to USCF members. So what are you waiting
for? Sign up now for your FREE 6 month membership to World
Chess Live and start winning those Grand Prix points!
So what are you waiting for? Come join
the growing USCF community at WCL and take part in all the
activities.
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NM Dan Heisman "Improve Your Chess"
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National Master Dan Heisman is a
name that is synonymous with excellence in chess coaching
and teaching.
Over the years, Dan has produced
many winning students and scholastic teams - and now
he can help you, too! In this series of five instructional
videos for ICC Chess.FM, Dan brings you his innovative
teaching methods on how to play better chess - and
all packed with sound advice from the maestro himself.
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1. Introduction to Safety and Counting
(below 1500) -- Watch
now
2. Introduction to Time Management (all players)
3. Introduction to Thought Process (800-1800)
4. Common Evaluation Misconceptions (1000-2200)
5. Is It Safe? (below 1900) - this video is a follow-up
to "Introduction to Safety and Counting"
These 5 videos are available exclusively
for ICC members - but as a special launch promotion, non-members
can view for free Dan's
first video in full. To view the other four video in
the series, sign
up for membership!
Mondays: GM Ronen Har-Zvi "New Ideas
in the Petroff's Defense"
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The Petroff Defence (sometimes
called the Russian Defence, and named after Russia's
Alexander Petrov, 1794-1867) is considered as one
of Black's most reliable and solid methods of meeting
the king's pawn opening. It is easy to play and an
excellent choice for someone looking for an alternative
to the Scotch Opening, the Italian Game and the ‘Spanish
torture’ of the Ruy Lopez.
Until a few years ago, the Petroff was an opening that was favored by only a few top Grandmasters, including Anatoly Karpov and Artur Yusupov. However, the last few years have seen a dramatic rise in its popularity, and it now provides battlefields for many top clashes of the modern elite players, including Anand, Kramnik, Leko, Topalov, and Shirov. And in the latest of his "New Ideas in..." series, GM Ronen Har-Zvi, takes a closer look under the microscope at the solid Petroff.
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Click here
for a free 5 minute preview of Ronen's latest video. To
listen to the full videos, sign
up for membership!
Tuesdays: 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., 1 July), joining
IM John Watson on Chess Talk is author, tournament
director and President of the Marshall Chess Club,
Frank Brady.
Frank was the Founding Editor
of Chess Life magazine and is famed for writing Profile
of a Prodigy, the biography of Bobby Fischer
- the film rights to which he sold to HBO, who are
currently in-fliming with Brady as consultant to the
movie due for screening early next year.
Apart from his passion for chess,
Frank Brady is the Chairman of the Department of Mass
Communications, Journalism, Television and Film at
St. John's University, New York. He was elected
and serves as an active voting member of the British
Academy of Film and Television Art and has written
popular mainstream biographies of the Hollywood A-list,
such as Oscar winners Barbra
Streisand and Orson
Welles.
Find below a selection of free 5-minute
previews of the latest shows. To listen to the full shows, sign
up for membership! |
Wednesdays: 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. By popular demand from members, we are now archiving
previous Attack
with LarryC shows. This video is just one of the many
benefits of being a full member of ICC - so, sign
up for membership!
Thursdays: 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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Thursdays: 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.
Fridays: 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 not-to-be-missed weekly video
series is exclusive 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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Losers
(Wild 17) Championship Recap!
Congratulations to this year's
champions! Winning the 1 0 section was rigel,
while our 3 1 winner was CalPoly. The action
was intense, and all the best players were there.
Join us next June for the 2009 Losers Championships!
July
Marathon
It's time for the marathon again!
24 hours of consecutive tournaments in 5 bots! We
have 1 0 u1800 bullet in Olive and 1 0 1800+ bullet
in flash. We also have 5 0 blitz tourneys for u1600
in tomato and for 1600 + in cooly. And then there's
standard 15 0 in Slomato. It all begins at 12:00 on
Saturday, July 12 and continues until 12:00 on Sunday,
July 13!
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Bullet
Challenge !
Every Thursday at 15:00 server
time, Flash will run a 9 round swiss 1 0 tourney.
This tourney gets titled players at times, and so
many of the best bulleters on ICC show up for it!
Come on out and see how you stack up against the best!
 Tourney
Tip: What's with those Pear and Automato bots?
You may have noticed that these
guys don't run very many tourneys... especially
not when compared to Tomato or Flash, etc. Pear
and Automato are reserved only for special events
such as the ST-Tourney or huge events like Dos Hermanas.
This way we know those bots will always be available
for important events.
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Informator 101
Every volume of Chess Informant offers a selection
of the best games played by the world's greatest chess
players. Over 90% of the games are annotated by the
players who played them. The classification code system
facilitates the search by openings and variations,
and the system of annotation signs and symbols is
perfectly understandable to everyone. There are also
the most interesting endings, combinations, studies,
the ten best games and the ten most important theoretical
novelties from the previous volume, tournament crosstables
and thorough indexes of players and annotators.
Chess Informant 101 contains 459
annotated games and 516 variations. Covers events
held between September 1st, 2007 and December 31st,
2007
366 pages.
Price $36.00
- 
Buy
now!
Chess Informator 1-100 - SAVE $49 OFF LIST!
 Chess
Informants 1-100 CD brings a selection of 101,031
fully annotated theoretically important games played
between January 1966 and August 2007.
The number of published games annotated by world champions:
Euwe (1 game), Botvinnik (29), Smyslov (128), Tal
(367), Petrosian (509), Spassky (17), Fischer (10),
Karpov (579), Kasparov (620), Kramnik (409), Khalifman
(209), Anand (456), Ponomariov (136), Kasimdzhanov
(117), Topalov (55), Gaprindashvili (61), Chiburdanidze
(127), Xie Jun (29), Zs. Polgar (99), Zhu Chen (7),
Stefanova (2).
Chess Informant Expert, PGN,
ChessBase & Chess Assistant formats.
Price $350.00
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now!
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Best of the Best 1000, The - Informator
A stand alone book, as a crown of forty-two years
of Chess Informant, that has become the standard throughout
the world.
From all the games ever published
in Chess Informants, the Editorial Board and a jury
of leading grandmasters chose the ten best games from
each volume, and among them - a golden winner for
each volume. These 1,000 games (100 of them are "golden")
have been compiled in a book that represent the greatest
achievements in chess.
560 pages.
Price $59.95
-
Buy
now!
Chess Monthly - July 2008 issue
The UK's most popular CHESS magazine - established
1935!
* Extensive coverage of the recent
M-Tel Masters featuring Ivanchuk, Topalov and Aronian.
Games anootated by GM Danny Gormally and IM Malcolm
Pein.
*Back Rank Blunders by Ronen Har-Zvi.
*Two pages of tactical teasers
compiled from the latest Chess events.
*Coverage of the Final Weekend
of the 4NCL by Andrew Greet.
* The FIDE Time Control: Its effect
on Endgame Play by GM Jacob Aagaard.
* Instructional feature from David
LeMoir: the king of miniatures passes on his wisdom
in ten easy steps.
60 pages, soft cover.
Price $7.00
-
Buy
now!
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