Well, not exactly holidays ,but it must be a seasonal thing, I'm not too "productive" (don't I hate that word!) in September.
Anyway, I've been working under the shadows and soon I'll be able to let you know about some interesting changes on this website.
As for chess... hmm... How about this 3 minutes victory over a strong GM at playchess.com?
The combination wouldn't make any sense if I hadn't seen my 33rd move.
Hey, maybe I'm talented player?
Nah!
White to play and checkmate in 10 moves, BUT, with 2 conditions:
a] No pawn moves allowed.
b] It must be a knight mate!
Your chess engine doesn't help? tough luck! use your brain instead!
Solution:
Regional duel at Malaysia.
Gary seemed well prepared and he got the advantage at around move 23 and never let it run away. Possible improvements for black? There are at least two, check the game:
[site “Kuala Lumpur MAS”]
[Date “2007.08.22″]
[Round “6.7″]
[White “IM Lane, Gary W”]
[black “GM Chandler, Murray”]
[Result “1-0″]
[WhiteElo “2412″]
[blackElo “2540″]
[pgn]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.0-0 Nc6 8.Qg4 Nf6 9.Qxg7 Rg8 10.Qh6 Ne5
A couple of weeks ago I got my jacket stolen. It was a great leather and wool jacket.
Not only did the thief get my jacket, he got my mp3 player as well. I'm not sure what he's going to do with it though, as it was purchased overseas and the recharger is not sold in Australia.
Anyway, last week I decided that I would get a Sony voice recorder with a basic mp3 player and FM tuner. Here's the beauty:
I looked it up at Sony's site and it sells in Australia for 199 Australian Do
One would expect that with the advance of the internet, buying quality software would become easier. In my experience, it is actually the other way around!
Choosing good software is surprisingly becoming very time consuming and there's simply too much information to look for. There are literally hundreds of sites with reviews, and it's very hard to tell whether the people who wrote those reviews have any connection with the company who creates the software or they're just home users who have
There's a misterious account on the playchess server which has everyone wondering: is it Kasparov?
He uses the nick "Raffael" and nobody knows for sure who it is. Well, maybe some of the people at chessbase do know, but they're not telling:
Oh yes, Garry has a nick called "Garry Kasparov", which he uses for special events. Whether he has a second account he uses to play regular games on the Playchess server? Now that will have to be kept a secret.
Yasser Seirawan has said: "Everyone is sa
Short's visit to Montreal has become a nightmare. After 7 rounds, he's on just one point.
In this game, he self pinned his knight with 17.Ng6??, a move which soon resulted in one of the shortest defeats in his whole career.
[pgn]Short,N (2683) - Harikrishna,P (2664) [C01]
8th It Montreal CAN (2), 20.07.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d3 Nf6 6.d4 d5 7.Bd3 Bd6 8.0-0 0-0 9.h3 h6 10.Nc3 c6 11.Re1 Re8 12.Rxe8+ Nxe8 13.Ne5 Nd7 14.Bf4 Nf8 15.Qh5 Be6 16.Rb1 f6 17.Ng6 {??} Bf
Australia is playing against Japan in a crucial match which will decide who gets into the semifinals of the Asian Cup.
Soccer is BIG in this country. Yes, sure.
Let me check the TV guide for today:
2 p.m, channel 10, AFL, Collingwood vs Essendon.
7:30 p.m. channel 10 AFL: West Coast vs Sydney.
10:00 p.m. SBS, Tour de France!
11:00 p.m. Netball!
11:25 p.m, channel 9: Golf!
Midnight, channel 10: Motor racing! wow!
Where's the soccer game? ah? PayTV, that's where it is!
This looks promising! "A giant monster movie that is shot using home video cameras from the point of view of people who are experiencing an attack on New York City." And this is what an IMDB reader had to say about it: I saw the preview when i went to go see the new transformers movie (best movie I've ever laid eyes on) i saw the preview and the first thing i thought was GODZILLA. the sound the "creature" makes sounds very similar to the original Godzilla. I own Nearly all the Japanese movies
Since it has been clearly proven that it's extremely difficult to organize what is supposed to be the most important competition of the year in this country (Australia), perhaps we should ask New Zealand to organize it for us. Call it the "Championship of Australia and New Zealand" or something. What do you think? I trust New Zealanders when it comes to organizing national events...
If they refuse, there's also Samoa Island, Papua New Guinea and other countries in the region. It would definit
Ok, Shirov is out of the WC Cycle after drawing his last game against Aronian. It was a rather depressing game. I'm not sure if Shirov had any seconds during this match, but his opening choice was really quite a bad one (once again). I mean, just look at the position after black's 16th move. It doesn't matter whether it's book or not, it's just a really sad position for a player with such an imagination. Watch:
Shirov,A (2699) - Aronian,L (2759) [C88]
WCh Candidates Finals Elista RUS (
I took this quiz today, and this is the disappointing result that I got. Now you know absolutely everything there is to know about my thinking style, so don't use it against me if we ever play each other, ok?
Your Dominant Thinking Style: Modifying
Super logical and rational, you consider every fact available to you.
You don't make rash decisions and are rarely moved by emotion.
You prefer what's known and proven - to the new and untested.
You tend to ground those arou
I tried to find the ugliest move ever played in one of my games, but couldn't find any ugly moves, I wonder why? and then I remembered a position I saw during my Singapore-Sydney flight... Look at the position of white's King, I mean, it's so UGLY, isn't it?
However, it's white to play and draw! If you can't find the answer, slide your mouse over the black line.
That wasn't so ugly, was it? True, but look at this now:
The dog above has won the "ugliest dog in the
That picture above is my Nokia6600. I've always used Nokia phones. Anyway, last week I started getting messages from people in my contact list, they said things like:
"What??"
"What do you mean??"
"?"
etc.
After some research, I found that I had lost all the credit in my prepaid account (only 20$, lucky I'm not on a contract!). Anyway, to cut a long story short, my phone had a virus and, "on its own" initiative, was sending multimedia messages to everyone in my contact list (i
After tonight's Eropean Champions' League final between Milan and Liverpool, held in Athens, and which the Italian won (2-1) I will not mention the word "soccer" again for a long time.
It's Rugby League for me now. Go WARRIORS!!!!!!
National Rugby League of Australia Website.
Qantas found my suitcase back (it was somewhere between Singapore and Paris!) which means that I can finally wear a different shirt!
So, what's that got to do with chess? why, can't you see it? it's got EVERYTHING to do with chess! now that I got my suitcase back my mood has improved and I can concentrate on chess again. See?
Anyway, the following endgame position is one of those where you can tell that there just has to be something... yes, something but WHAT?
White to play and win.
My free electronic book, "Learn chess Or Call Me An Idiot!!" has reached the first spot in the free ebooks billboard: Check it out here!.
Brought up in a catholic culture, I've been programmed to behave modestly, but life's so short and there are so few things to cellebrate sometimes... what the hell, I'm happy!
Maybe, just maybe I haven't forgotten how to play chess after all.
Ok, here's a game I played on-line yesterday on the playchess server against a well known WGM. It's one of those 3 minutes games.
The fun happens between moves 20 and 23.
White: Woman GM (I'd rather not tell her name)
Black: Javier Gil
[pgn]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd3 Re8 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. Nf3 Nf8 10. h3 c6 11. Bf4 a5 12. O-O Ng6 13. Bh2 Bd6 14. Bxd6 Qxd6 15. a3 Qe7 16. Rab1 Ne4
What's the best move you've ever seen?
On my QF6 (that's not Queen to f6! ) flight from Singapore to Sydney this morning, I could not get any sleep and had to switch on my pocket pc to review some great endgame compositions. I then found the following beauty. What would you play here as white and, more importantly, why?
btw, either Airfrance or Qantas have managed to lose my suitcase. I only have a pair of trousers and a shirt to wear now...
See that beauty above? It can reach peak speeds of more than 300 Km an hour. It's called "AVE", spanish for "Bird" and also an acronism meaning "Spanish High Speed" (Alta Velocidad Español). Today I travelled from Madrid to Zaragoza (350 km) in 75 minutes. I didn't even have time to take a short nap!
But then again, isn't that what's happening all over the world? isn't everything going and happening a lot faster than it ever was? tranport, internet connections, food gets cooked in a matter of
Guests can now post their comments to my blog entries. I don't think there's going to be many, but I'm letting you know just in case.
If you do post a comment and you're not a registered user on these forums, the comment will have to be approved first. (you know what spam is like, don't you? )
Anyway, instructions are pretty basic: just click on the "reply button" and then enter your comments. Can't get easier than that!
A few days ago we saw how Seirawan killed Harry Potter, but as you know, anything can happen when you play a 3+1 game of chess. Yes, I do mean anything, for example losing in just 16 moves... (btw, the numbers in brakets are blitz ratings on the playchess server. Accord is one of the strongest blitz players on this server).
Accord (3146) - Yasser Seirawan (3127) [b15]
3m + 1s, rated, 02.05.2007
[pgn] 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 g6 Javier: Strange that Yasser should choose this line wher
Yes, I'm European and as such, I'm a soccer fan, I can't help it, it's in our blood.
Anyway, today was a happy day for me: Liverpool won through to the Champions League final 4-1 on penalties after the semi-final second leg against Chelsea ended 1-0 to the Reds, leaving the aggregate score locked at 1-1.
Why did I want Chelsea to lose? No particular reason, I simply can't stand their coach: Mourinho.
Needless to say, I'd love Liverpool to win the final in Athens (against either Milan or
