Chess

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013Hi everyone, We just found these two very interesting articles which are not directly related to chess, but have a chess motif and worth reading. The first one is controversial and disturbing, but has a "chess man" link. The second article reminds us about a debate we've conducted here on Chess Blog before!1. Bring up the bodies: a controversial anatomy exhibit comes to Moscowby Joy NeumeyerA man sits playing chess. Hunched over in concentration, he reaches to move one of his pieces. He could be any lover of the game - only his brain is exposed, as are all of his muscles. The chess man is one of dozens of bodies on display in "Mysteries of the Body: The Universe Within," now at Moscow's Vetoshny Art Center. The macabre traveling exhibit displays human specimens preserved by "plastination," a process that replaces body fluids with liquid plastic. It's spurred human rights protests, bitter rivalries between scientists - and in Moscow, as in most previous locations, it's a packed house.Before coming to Moscow, "Our Body: The Universe Within" (the show's international title) had successful runs in the U.S., Europe and South America; other parts of the collection are now on display in Florida and Nicaragua. (You can read the full article here.)2. Not Just a Pretty Faceby Hannah DawsonIn chess, there is a tactic called 'The Cleavage Attack'. This is where a woman leans in, her breasts pressing towards the table behind her opponent's troops, so disconcerting him that she wins the game. Is this the kind of game we want to play? Is this the kind of recipe for success that we want to write? That is one of the subjects for debate at 'How The Light Gets In', the festival of philosophy and music which runs down by the river at Hay, in parallel with the literary festival. The premise is that we openly discriminate in favour of intelligence. The question is whether this is a mistake: ought we to prize beauty as much as brains? Or, to put it in the terms of Catherine Hakim, one of the panellists, ought we to maximise and reward erotic capital? (You can read the full article here.) But, that reminds us about a Chess Blog debate!Psychology: Are Beauty and IQ related?Check it out. If you have still not commented, maybe you would like to! Have fun playing chess and reading Chess Blog.From Alexandra Kosteniuk'swww.chessblog.comAlso see her personal blog atwww.chessqueen.comDon't miss Chess Queen™YouTube Channel

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013Hi everyone, During the opening ceremony of Thessaloniki Grand Prix, Fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov gave an interview to Chessdom. Here are the excerpts. Q: Mr. Ilyumzhinov, you literally had only few weeks to prepare for Grand Prix in Thessaloniki. How did everything happen so sudden?A: Initially the tournament was supposed to take place in Madrid, where last year we signed protocol of agreement. But due to crisis in Spain, the sponsors asked me to postpone the tournament for year 2014. This was not acceptable for us because we wanted to strictly maintain the planned schedule.When my friend Ivan Savvidis learned about this, he offered to hold the Grand Prix tournament in Makedonia Palace Hotel, his recent acquisition.Savvidis already supported Greek Chess Federation and he wants to open children chess academy in PAOK. That is why he thought the Grand Prix would be a good opportunity to further popularise chess in Greece.Q: After this tournament finishes, you will have only one month before the next 5th stage is starting. Will this event take place in Berlin, as planned, or you will again have to move it to a different venue?A: We are now in the process of negotiating and I think next week we will announce the venue. But the dates will not be changed, and this is important.Q: After Berlin you have Paris as the last Grand Prix in the calendar. Will you continue with this Grand Prix format in the coming years?A: Yes, we will continue.Q: You insist on this format?A: Yes, I think this is a good format and chess players like it too.From Alexandra Kosteniuk'swww.chessblog.comAlso see her personal blog atwww.chessqueen.comDon't miss Chess Queen™YouTube Channel

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013Hi everyone, The second round of the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Thessaloniki produced more decisive results and now we have as many as five players sharing the lead with 1,5 points each. Alexander Morozevich, Fabiano Caruana and Alexander Grischuk took advantage of the white pieces and signed important victories. The other three games were drawn.Hikaru Nakamura, arriving directly from Norway Chess tournament, has a difficult start with two losses in two consecutive games with black pieces. The Grand Prix tournament is attracting huge attention in Thessaloniki, the chess capital of Greece. Even on the working days, around 100 people join the commentator GM Ioannis Papaioannou in the Salonika bar of Makedonia Palace.In addition, GM Stelios Halkias and FM Sotiris Logothetis are providing live English commentary for the official website. Guests are commonly joining in to share their thoughts on the games. Today we had an honour to welcome the reigning Greek champion Antonios Pavlidis in the commentary room.Nelly Serefidou, reigning Greek U18 Girls champion, and Elisavet Papathanasiou, two-times Greek U18 Girls champion, also analysed with the commentators.Leinier Dominguez - Ruslan Ponomariov 1/2-1/2Ponomariov aimed to play the popular Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez, but Dominguez deviated with the quiet 8.h3 and 9.d3. Black prepared the d5-push and comfortably equalised. White released the tension on the a-file and exchanged a couple of pieces. Immediately after that the players silently agreed to a draw with the three-fold repetition. Dominguez said that he was surprised by the black's opening choice and decided to play solid. Ponomariov based his preparation on the game that Leinier played with white against Kasimdzhanov in Tashkent. He also analysed some games from the recent European Championship in Poland.Etienne Bacrot - Rustam Kasimdzhanov 1/2-1/2Bacrot revived the old main line against the Gruenfeld Indian defence that is occasionally springing into popularity thanks to the efforts of Gelfand and Kramnik. He however played the direct 13.Rxb7 instead of the more popular Bg5 or Be3. This system allowed black to take down the central d4-pawn, which is often white's main trump in the resulting endgames. Here white relied on the Rook on the 7th rank and pressure against the f7-pawn.Black was on time to activate his pieces and contest the 7th rank. After the massive exchanges of heavy pieces, draw was singed on move 35.Alexander Morozevich - Peter Svidler 1-0The match started as a Four Knights Game and Svidler opted for the active Rubinstein variation. Black sacrifices a pawn but gets good compensation as white pieces are a little bit clumsy. Replay the full game with Chess King. Veselin Topalov - Gata Kamsky 1/2-1/2This was another Gruenfeld Indian defence, but here Topalov employed Kramnik's plan with g3 and e3. Only few days ago he used the same system against Jon Ludvig Hammer in Norway Chess tournament. Kamsky improved on that game with 8...a5 and 9...Ba6, forcing white Knight to a less active square d2. After some maneuvering with the pieces, Topalov decided to force matters with 19.Nxd5 in attempt to exploit the bad placing of the black Queen.However, later he admitted that this backfired to him as black obtained a very active play and even a slight advantage. For the rest of the game white struggled to contain the heavy influence of black's dark-squared Bishop and eventually succeeded on move 47.Fabiano Caruana - Vassily Ivanchuk 1-0Ivanchuk decided to defend with the deferred Ruy Lopez Steinitz to which Caruana responded by trading the pawns on e5 to clarify the structure in the center. 8.d5 instead of 8.h3 would lead to a totally different setup, reminiscent of the King's Indian defence. Caruana exchanged the dark-squared Bishop for opponent's Knight and after 19.Qa4 obtained a slight advantage. Replay the game with Chess King to see h

In my previous article we looked at the first three games from the U.S. Women's Championship. This article will cover the next three rounds I played. In the round-robin format all the participants play each other, so it seems the order doesn't r...

Official website: http://thessaloniki2013.fide.comChess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Detail results here: http://chess-results.com/tnr100034.aspxChess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Round 3 results 2 GM Kamsky Gata 2741 1/2 GM Grischuk Alexander 2779 12 3 GM Ponomariov Ruslan 2742 1/2 GM Topalov Veselin 2793 1 4 GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2755 0-1 GM Dominguez Perez Leinier 2723 11 5 GM Svidler Peter 2769 1/2 GM Caruana Fabiano 2774 10 6 GM Kasimdzhanov Rustam 2699 1/2 GM Morozevich Alexander 2760 9 7 GM Nakamura Hikaru 2775 1/2 GM Bacrot Etienne 2725 8 Official website: http://thessaloniki2013.fide.com Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Full standings here: http://chess-results.com/tnr101373.aspxChess Daily News from Susan Polgar

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013Hi everyone, On the opening day of the Hay Festival the Duchess of Cornwall plays chess against schoolchildren from a local primary. A fun chess video to watch.From Alexandra Kosteniuk'swww.chessblog.comAlso see her personal blog atwww.chessqueen.comDon't miss Chess Queen™YouTube Channel

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