Is This Match Over?

Macauley Reports WC Match on BBC Radio

Even if you don't see a lot of suspense left in this match as it winds down, you may still be excited to hear that our own Macauley Peterson was interviewed by the BBC Radio about the match! Here's the teaser:

BBC World Service: The title of "World Chess Champion" is up for grabs in Bonn, Germany. The two finalists - from India and Russia - are battling through a 12-Game match.

Anchor Marco Werman gets the latest from reporters Macauley Peterson and Arvind Aaron, who are covering the showdown for the Internet Chess Club.

We have the entire audio presentation up on the ICC/Chess.FM website, so check it out!

GP Age Categories: "Who's Winning?", Part II

This week we continue with our inspection of the Age Category standings in the Grand Prix race. In case you missed it, you can still read last week's article on the first two age categories.

Category III: Players Born 1991-1992

Last week we KibBlitzed with FM Daniel Yeager. Surprise, surprise, guess who is now winning the third age category in the Grand Prix? In a highly retroactive form of the KibBlitz Bump, Yeager has proved his GP worth by maintaining his lead over IM Robert Hess and former Denker Champion NM Warren Harper. Yeager has a score of 41.667 WCL GPP, while Hess and Harper are neck-and-neck with scores of 36.800 and 36.000, respectively.

Category IV: Players Born 1993-1994

FM Ray Robson holds a dominating lead with an astonishing 73.267 WCL GPP. I remember playing Robson back in the 2006 National K-9 Championship. I had the White pieces against Robson and needed a last-round win to tie for first; he only needed a draw. Though he steadily played me throughout the game, he eventually stretched out a tiny hand and said, "Draw?" My prospects for a win were quite bleak by that point, and I acquiesced. At the time, I was dispirited from having lost my National Middle School Champion title, which I had earned in 2005, to a fifth-grader. But now, I tell all my chess friends that I drew with the great Ray Robson.

Robson's lead in this age category is certainly significant, as NM Mark Heimann, one of the two talented home-schooled Heimann Brothers, is nearly 30 GPP behind with 43.500. Heimann will need to win 1-2 moderately strong GP tournaments to take the top spot away from Robson. Yet, if there is one thing the 2400-rated Mark Heimann is capable of, it is just that. Both he and his brother NM Alexander Heimann, rated over 2300, are often seen defeating their much-older chess peers and reeling in large swabs of cash at GP events. In third place is NM Steven Zierk with 26.250, whom we hope to feature in a KibBlitz at some point in the near future. Zierk was one of two Denker Representatives from California earlier this year.

Finally, we'll wrap up our series on the GP Age Categories next week, when we look at those chess prodigies born 1995 & after. Who's winning that category? I'll give you a big hint: his brother was recently featured on one of our KibBlitzes.

Chess.FM Update

This week we have GM Boris Alterman's "Albin counter-gambit" Chess.FM video lecture. Invented nearly 90 years ago by the Austrian master Adolf Albin (1848-1920), the Albin counter-gambit (1 d4 d5 2 c4 e5!?) gives up a pawn for space in the center and is generally thought to be unsound - but Black has many tricks and traps to hold the balance.

For many years it was a big favorite at club level, but regarded as dubious at top level, as Black doesn’t gain full value for the sacrificed pawn. But Alexander Morozevich soon changed all that by breathing new life into it. And in his latest Gambit Guide series, GM Boris Alterman takes a closer look at the Albin Counter Gambit. So check out the lecture!