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hosted by Chess Queen™ & 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Chess puzzles: Two old combinations of mate-in-three
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Hi Everyone,
Remember the two old combinations you always learn when studying endgames? Regular mating patterns? Here are two such patterns used for a mate-in-three but in the middlegame. Gives you an idea how you need to fit endgame patterns to the middlegame.
But the problem is, we won't tell you the names of the patterns. That would be a hint. So, go on, White to play and mate in three in both the puzzles. It's all forced but can you see it?
3 L's of chess: A chess lover's innovative interpretation
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c0 Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
We love chess
Hello Everyone,
No matter what anyone says but chess is now an integral part of the collective consciousness of the human species!
Does that sound a bit weird? It just means we love chess and every day, someone finds something new to write about chess and their life.
There are hundreds of blog posts, news reports and articles that go on to the Internet every single day. But we found this special paragraph that surely needs to be shared.
A food technologist who holds a Bachelor of Law degree and is currently teaching conversational English at Sisa English Language School in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, wrote this at www.koreatimes.c0.kr:
"The three L's that continually control, shape and hone my life, I attribute to chess: law, life and love. Law, like chess, is spirited by rules and regulations for the benefit of both the citizens and the State. Life, like chess, requires planning and should failure impede, one should overcome or at least try again. Successful people have more or less failed in one form or another. Love, like chess, requires certain sacrifices in order to succeed. Love, is after all, work; a residue of duty and commitment."
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Hi Everyone,
Feeling dull and bored because suddenly no high-profile tournament is happening? The Russian Superfinal has ended and the Women's World Chess Championship is still a days hours away... No worries!
Here's another of those funny chess videos to cheer you up. If you've got one of your own, don't forget to share it with us. Meanwhile, we're sure you'll watch this a couple of times. Enjoy!
Rybka wins 30th Dutch Chess Computer Open Tournament
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
The playing hall is prepared for the tournament.
Hi Everybody,
Imagine if your opponents in a chess tournament were named Spike, Rookie 3.0, Scaramanga, Nightmare 7.0 and so on! Well if it were so then you wouldn't be reading this post. Simply because you would be a computer yourself and competing in the 30th Leiden Computer Chess Tournament in The Netherlands.
We found this very nice news report on the chess site www.chessbase.com with all details of this high-powered chess tournament.
The event also had no less than three supercomputers playing. There was Jonny, a German program running on a massive cluster of 800 Intel i7 cores. The programmer, Johannes Zwangzer, was running it remotely on his university’s hardware; the University of Beyreuth has 2000. Next is Deep Sjeng by Gian-Carlo Pascutto, residing in Belgium, whose engine ran on a cluster of 32 x 8 AMD Opterons (256 total) running at 2.4 GHz, and then there was the reigning champion, Rybka, running on a cluster owned privately by Lukas Cimiotti, containing 248 Intel i7 cores at 2.93 GHz, later increased to 260.
Of course, Mr. Rybka won. Go on read the full news. Here is the official website.
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Hi Everybody,
Time for two puzzles to brighten up your evening. You can run the solution in our flashplayer below. Also check out various puzzle podcasts at www.chesskillertips.com. Enjoy.
In both the puzzles below. White to play and Mate in 3.
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Hello Everyone,
Double sundae for you. Two mate-in-3 puzzles for you. Enjoy!
You can run the solution in the flashplayer below after a thinking time of at least 5 minutes per puzzle. That is if you don't hit upon the solution before that. And, people, don't cheat. We have means to find out if you run the solution without thinking first! (Serious!)
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Vlastimil Hort and Wolfgang Ulhmann
Hi Everybody,
Hope you've been enjoying the traditional Czech Coal Chess Match in Marianske Lazne this year between 'Snowdrops' (Humpy Koneru, Viktorija Cmilyte, Arianne Caoili and Tereza Olsarova) defeated the 'Old Hands' (Vlastimil Hort, Lajos Portisch, Wolfgang Uhlmann and Dragoljub Velimirovic) with a score of 18-14.
The traditional Czech Coal Chess Match is a double-round Scheveningen match between chess legends (”Old Hands”) and young female talents (”Snowdrops”). It was held from November 20-27 at the Villa Butterfly Hotel in Marianske Lazne (the former Marienbad), Czech Republic.
The rate of play was 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes and 30 seconds increment to finish the game. The tournament was organized by the Prague Chess Society.
The Snow Drops beat the Old Hands 18-14. As expected, Humpy Koneru scored the maximum of 6 out of 8. She only lost 1.5-0.5 to Vlastimil Hort who scored the maximum among the Old Hands with 5 out of 8.
Men's chess more risky against beautiful women, says research paper
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Hi Everyone,
It's another of those gender things.
We found this very interesting paper on the Internet at the Gearybehaviourcenter. It says when men play chess against an attractive woman, they tend to adopt riskier strategies. However, women are not influenced by the looks of their male opponents while playing chess!
An abstract of the paper titled "Beauty Queens and Battling Knights: Risk Taking and Attractiveness in Chess" states: We explore the relationship between attractiveness and risk taking in chess. We use a large international panel dataset on chess competitions which includes a control for the players' skill in chess. This data is combined with results from a survey on an online labor market where participants were asked to rate the photos of 626 expert chess players according to attractiveness. Our results suggest that male chess players choose significantly riskier strategies when playing against an attractive female opponent, even though this does not improve their performance. Women's strategies are not affected by the attractiveness of the opponent."
In chess, the term aggressive play is used when indicating a strategy that reduces the
drawing probability while the term solid play is used to indicate a strategy that reduces the
winning/losing probabilities.
You can read the full paper here. The credit for the research goes to Anna Dreber, Christer Gerdes and Patrik Gränsmark. It's kind of technical but you will enjoy it.
Kasparov on chess, Carlsen and how business decision-makers can learn from chess
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Kasparov in Googleplex
Hello Everyone,
When chess legend Gary Kasparov speaks who doesn't listen? www.chessbase.com has presented a super video of the former world champion in Googleplex studios. Here are these choicest quotes:
When asked about the interrupted match in 1984.
He explains, quite poignantly, that in this match Karpov turned into one of his most important teachers, who showed him how one should never give up, that there is hope in any situation, and basically molded him into the chess player and person he is today.
In references to Carlsen
I must be very cautious about the use of the terms instructor and student in my relations with Magnus Carlsen. I helped him to learn how to study the game of chess. That was one of the unique things I learnt from Botvinnik. What helped me to work with Magnus was that his chess style and natural talent is different from mine. It is more like Karpov's. He is a very quiet, positional player with a phenomenal ability to recognize positional elements. I am a very sharp and dynamic player, so he could learn how to do other things in chess, so there was extra value added to his chess education. I enjoyed it immensely and I am very happy to see that my work produced such impressive results.
On chess lessons for life
Kasparov also spoke on business management and how decision makers can learn from the experience of chess players – since every decision contains components of material, time and quality. Bet you already know about Kasparov's book 'How Life Imitates Chess'.
Grandmaster Alisa Galliamova has become the Russian women's national chess champion for the second time after beating Natalija Pogonina in the speed chess tie-break in Moscow on Saturday.
Galliamova drew the first blitz game as White but won the second one with Black as her e pawn took her home to the championship title all the way to the seventh rank!
The last two rounds at the Russian Women's Superfinal lived up to the excitement that we witnessed throughout the tournament. In the penultimate round, Tatiana Kosintseva and Nazi Paikidze drew level with defending champion Alisa Galliamova to notch up a total score of 6.5 points each.
This happened because Tatiana beat Olga, Paikidze drew with Nadezhda and Galliamova lost to Gunina in the ninth round.
But the last round witnessed further ups and down like every round has. The eleventh and the last round ended with three players tied at 7 points. This happened because Galliamova and Tatiana drew their match while Paikidze lost to Nebolsina. On the other hand, Shadrina lost to Pogonina.
The three-way tie witnessed a blitz tie-break between Galliamova and Pogonina to decide the champion. Tatiana took the third place.
You can find all the great games, photos and other details at the official website of www.russiachess.org.
Congratulations to Alisa Galliamova for a fine victory. Congratulations to all the lovely women who participated in this tournament, who gave us such exciting chess and who make Russia such a strong chess nation.
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Hello Everyone,
Here are some 'funny' chess videos. Yes they feature chess and we won't say a word more. But if after watching them you want to come over and kill us in frustration we would simply like to direct you to the uploaders of these videos on YouTube. (Try to enjoy.) Come on, you need to improve your sense of humour!
Painful?
Okay we'll be back with some cool videos next time.
Thanksgiving Chess : Kasparov, Short to attend special event in St. Louis
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Hello Everyone,
We are always all ears for absolutely any news about chess legend Gary Kasparov. For fans in St Louis, USA, here are details of a nice event.
Grandmaster Garry Kasparov will give a special lecture and talk at the St Louis Chess Club on Monday, November 29, just one day after the conclusion of the Thanksgiving Open tourney featuring renowned GM Nigel Short and an $11,000 prize fund.
Nigel Short will play a simul and also conduct a special lecture.
Several other titled players you can meet at the Club include Resident GM Ben Finegold, GM Yury Shulman, GM Alex Onischuk, GM Ray Robson, GM Gregory Kaidanov, GM Dmitry Gurevich, GM Timur Gareev, GM Mesgen Amanov, IM Michael Brooks, IM Istvan Sipos, IM Angelo Young, IM Raja Panjwani, WGM Sabina Foisor, WIM Alisa Melekhina.
There are several sections in the Thanksgiving Open so absolutely everyone of any playing strength can participate.
You can find more details at the official website here.
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Hello Everyone,
As most people expected, China has won both the men's and women's team events in the 16th Asian Games being held in Guangzhou, China.
The Chinese men's team beat Philippines 3.5-1.5 to pick the gold while India beat Iran with same score to take the Bronze medal.
In the final match of the women's tournament the Chinese women beat Uzbekistan 2.5-1.5 to win the gold while India lost to Vietnam after a drawn match to give the latter the Bronze medal after a rapid tie-break.
Karpov-Miljkovic Rapid Chess on Dec 3,4 in Nis, Serbia
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Hi Everyone,
Former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov will take on Miroslav Miljkovic in a rapid chess match on December 3 and 4 in Niš, Serbia. The City of Niš is sponsoring the match that will include four games with a time control of 25 min+10 sec per player and two blitz games with a time control of 5 min+2 sec per player. The games will be broadcast on the internet and TV Bell Amie will cover the match live, according to the www.chessdom.com news site.
Meanwhile, here is a nice video of Niš. Been there?
Meanwhile, the 12th World Chess Champion will also be the guest of honour at the an international chess tournament being held in memory of Grandmaster Vladas Mikenasa - 2010 being the birth centenary was celebrated this year.
The competition will be tough with players like Maxim Matlakov (2619), Sergei Azarov (2601) and Andrew Zhigalko (2570). You can read more about it at the chess news site www.chess-news.ru.
Snowdrops lead 14-10 against Oldhands in Czech Coal Chess
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
Chess in the snow: Mariánské Lázne
Hello Everyone,
The Snowdrops are doing a nice chess job in the beautiful city of Mariánské Lázne where it is snowing nicely. They are ahead of the veterans (Oldhands) by 14-10 after six rounds.
The Snowdrops vs Oldhands Czech Coal Match 2010 is being held from November 20-27. The (rising generation girls) of Snowdrops are Indian grandmaster Humpy Koneru, currently the world second highest rated female player, the Lithuanian grandmaster Viktorija Cmilyte, the Philippine born Australian WIM Arianne Caoili and the Czech WIM Tereza Olsarova. The 20th century chess legends are Lájoš Portisch, Vlastimil Hort, Dragoljub Velimirovic and Wolfgang Uhlmann.
The games start each day at 3 p.m. in the Villa Butterfly Hotel in Marienbad. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes for the rest, with an increament of 30 seconds per move.
Team results
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
R8
Snowdrops
3
1
3.5
2.5
2.0
2.0
Oldhands
1
3
0.5
1.5
2.0
2.0
Total Snowdrops
3
4
7.5
10
12
14
Total Oldhands
1
4
4.5
6
8
10
Individual results
O1
O2
O3
O4
O1
O2
O3
O4
Total
S1
Humpy Koneru
1
0
1
1
1/2
1
4.5
S2
Arianne Caoili
1
1/2
1
0
0
0
2.5
S3
Tereza Olsarova
1
1/2
0
1/2
1
0
3.0
S4
Viktorija Cmilyte
1/2
1
1
1
1/2
0
4.0
S1
S2
S3
S4
S1
S2
S3
OS4
O1
Wolfgang Uhlmann
0
1
0
0
0
0
1.0
O2
Vlastimil Hort
1/2
1/2
1
1
1/2
1/2
4.0
O3
Lajos Portisch
1
0
1/2
0
1/2
0
2.0
O4
Dragoljub Velimirovic
0
1
1
0
1
0
3.0
Find great photos and reports at the official website here and at www.chessbase.com.
Don't be shy about contacting me
to share women's chess news
or to propose collaboration
Best chess wishes to you! Alexandra Kosteniuk
12th Women's World Chess Champion
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