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!
It's strange how people have their own interpretation of songs. I always thought "Hotel California" was a metaphor of hell. Reading Don Henley's comments: "We were all middle-class kids from the Midwest. Hotel California was our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles." perhaps I wasn't so far away.
Click HERE to check what this song means to many different people.
"Hotel California" (The Eagles)
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, risi
In April this year I was in tokyo for a few days and gave a couple of lectures. I also played a simul Exhibition.
One day I'll play an unforgettable game which everyone will remember , till then, here are these 2, I'm white.
[pgn] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 O-O 7. Rc1 h6 8. Bh4 c6 9. Bd3 Re8 10. O-O dxc4 11. Bxc4 Nd5 12. Bg3 Bf6 13. Ne4 Be7 14. Bb3 N7f6 15. Nc5 b6 16. Nd3 Bb7 17. Nfe5 Rc8 18. Qf3 c5 19. e4 Nb4 20. Nxf7 Kxf7 21. Ne5 Kf8 22. Bxe6 g5 23. d5
(25) Morozevich,A (2733) - Radjabov,T (2729) [b30]
ACP World Cup Odessa (2), 07.01.2007
Here, one of the strongest players in the World now played b5??, dropping his Rook on c5.
Here's a short game from the same event:
(2) Leko,P (2749) - Sokolov,I (2652) [C64]
ACP World Cup Odessa (1), 05.01.2007
[pgn]1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.c3 f5 5.d4 fxe4 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.Nxe5 Qd5 8.0-0 Nf6 9.Bf4 Bd6 10.c4 Qe6 11.c5 Be7 12.Nc3 Qf5 13.Bg3 Be6 14.f3 exf3 15.Rx
I'm currently adding new links to the links section of this site.
I've created a new section called "Country specific", for I didn't know where else to put all the Australian Links that I know about.
My intention is to create links for other english speaking countries: US, UK, etc. but first things first.
Anyway, one of the Australian Links that I've come across is the one from the Hakoah Chess Club in Sydney, where I played for many years. I even defended their first team on board 1 for
Although I had been an Australian resident for aproximately 10 years after my arrival in Sydney back in 1982, I had my visa cancelled after not returning to Australia in the alloted 5 year period that I was given when I moved back to Spain. That was a long time ago...
My mum, sister, brother and nephews all live here (Sydney, I mean) and got their Australian Citizenship long ago. I can speak the language, support myself, and had been offered a job. When I lodged my resident application 2 years
Ever need to call overseas? yes, I know VOIP (voice over IP) is a serious alternative to calling directly, but you need a microphone or one of those pc handsets and the quality is not very good.
Recently I found out about Jajah. The great thing about this system is that a Caller simply types in his own number and his desired destination number in a Web form. The Jajah service first rings the caller. After the caller picks up the phone the destination number is then dialled and the connection i
I was taking a quick look at some of the games from the 2006-2007 Australian Open when I noticed a particularly interesting one.
Hu is a young australian player who came close to beating GM Antic (he was a piece up at one stage).
The fun begins after 16... Nxe5!, which white answered with 17.Qh4!, creating some nasty threats against the black King (note that 17.Qf4 is met by 17...Qc2!). Then GM Antic played the unexpected (but wrong) 17...Ng4, which was apparently refuted by Hu's 19th mo
So, what have I been up to?
I'm currently in Spain for a few months before I return to Australia. I'm really looking forward to being back in Sydney again and perhaps I'll be moving there permantely...
chessnia.com used to be visited by quite a number of people, but due to work committments and a problem with my forum's database, all data was lost a couple of years ago and I had to start from scratch.
Nowadays I spend most of my time teaching on the internet, doing coaching at a local ch
I use a really good personal organizer called "Do-organizer", but if you want something simpler and free, how about one of those electronic sticky notes programs? They're really useful, and this is one is feature rich.
I've tried just about every single one there is and and I can safely say that this is one of the top 3.
Once on screen, stickies will remain where placed until closed, even through reboots
Stickies appearance can be customised; fonts, colours and buttons may be changed, and s
Ok, I'm aware that it is highly unlikely that I'll be coaching GM Alexei Shirov in a while , but how does this player choose his opening repertoire? I mean, he keeps on playing the Petrov against 1.e4 and the Grünfeld against 1.d4.
How on earth can one of the most imaginative players that has ever lived play the Petrov? it's just shocking! What has happened to this man? I don't understand it, but one thing is for sure: whoever is giving him advice, cannot be called a friend! (I think Shirov
With 0.5/3 this could be a very tough experience for young Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen.
Ponomariov's 6th move is as unusual as it is logical. White has several ideas in mind, one of them being g4+h4, which is not easy to meet. I don't think 6...h6 is entirely correct though. Other moves that had been tried in that position were 6...e6, 6...Nbd7 and 6...b5. After white's 11th move, Bb5!!, black's position looks extremely difficult:
Ponomariov,R (2723) - Carlsen,M (2690) [D10]
Corus A Wi
A few days ago I wrote a review on Stickies, which is without doubt one of the best electronic sticky notes programs. Version 6 has just come out and guess what? it remains FREE!
Click here to visit Stickies website!
The following game has won the prize for the best game at the Gibraltar Telecom Masters. If you're wondering, personally, I don't like it. Why? I don't think it's anything special, simple tactics and a rudimentary Queen Sac. Surely there must have been better games than this played at Gibraltar! oh well... here it is:
Sulskis,Sarunas (2525) - Quillan,Gary (2354) [A00]
Gibtelecom Masters Gibraltar (1.27), 23.01.2007
[pgn]
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg
I tried to find an interesting game from the Moscow Open. Normally I'd try to find a game by the tournament winner, but I don't know whether it's me or for some reason I didn't like any of his games.
However, there was one game which I quite liked. Take a look at the position after black's 13th move, 13...Bg8!. What a great bishop, isn't it! Only a few moves later that very bishop will turn out to be black's most dangerous piece! Here's the game:
Chernobay,A (2408) - Deviatkin,A (2544
I've just read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald. Here's an extract:
"SYDNEY'S rental crisis hit home yesterday when up to 100 people queued to inspect a single property ( )
The frenzy illustrated the predicament faced by renters, with agents warning the city's lowest rental vacancy rate in 20 years could push up weekly rents by as much as $150 by year's end. "
Another 150$ a week is something like 650$ a month (on top of what the price is already!). Who the hell can afford t
I found this old song on itube a couple of days ago. I used to love it! I think I'm getting old!
iFrame (Click here to see this in a new window.)
Computer games
I fidget with the digit dots and cry an anxious tear
As the XU-1 connects the spot
But the matrix grid don't care
Get a message to my mother
What number would she be
There's a million angry citizens
Looking down their tubes at me
Com-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-pu-puter-puter, puter games
Com-pu-
It's been a while since a last saw a game which left me with my mouth open .
Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen has just played one of those games in Mexico against no other than GM Morozevich. Carlsen's 12th move (Nde4) is a Novely and it is a very intereting move indeed. It's not hard to see that if black goes 12... f5 then the g5 square becomes weak, but did you expect white's next move?
17.d7! is a powerful move also. After all the fireworks, Magnus is just one pawn up, but he converts his a
Ivanchuk,V (2750) - Topalov,V (2783) [b90]
XXIV SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (2), 18.02.2007
Maybe he's like Tahl, who rarely had a good tournament start, but watch what happened when Topalov (black) had to make his 40th move before the time control:
40...Qf7?? 41.Qxc4! 1-0
Admitedly, Ivanchuk was a Pawn up already and enjoyed a comfortable advantage.
Another thing Topalov has in common with Tahl is that he usually wins the tournaments he takes part in, regardless of
After 4 rounds GM Anand is leading Morelia-Linares with 3/4. Playing the black side of a Ruy Lopez against the Anand probably sounds as the closest thing to a slow torture, particularly if you choose one of the main lines, like Morozevic did. However, the Russian GM defended solidly and at one point could have obtained a slight initiative. The position after white's 31st move is critical. 31...Bh6! seems like an improvement. I have annotated the game and you can download it here: anandmoro.cbv o
Dramatic day for Topalov in Mexico: after 64 moves of fighting chess, he resigned a drawn position, look:
Magnus has just played 64.Qg6 and Topalov sees no defence against Qh7 and Qh8, but there was a rather simple defence! (if you can't see it, download the game with full analysis of the whole game here: carlstopa.cbv )
However, it'd be completely unfair to claim that Carlsen's victory was undeserved. Watch the first diagram, when he's about to play 48.h6!
Or can
I will not mention what happened in round six at Linares other than it was the most boring round of any GM tournament I've seen in years. If you have children at home and you're running out of ideas because you no longer remember what silence sounds like, let your kids watch the games from this round and I assure you that they too will go to sleep in no time!
Anyway, Round VII was a lot more interesting. Only one of the 4 games ended in a draw.
Here's Ivanchuk's victory against Aronian. P
(2007 Oscar, best documentary)
The subject is AIDS in China. Specifically in Anhui province. The victims are poor families. The adults donated blood in evidently unsanitary conditions: one individual apparently connected to the blood drawing procedure describes combining the donated blood of fifty individuals and then re-injecting a little bit of the mixture into the veins of the donors. It is hard to believe that China's health system would be so primitive! The consequence is not surprisin
Yes, Carlsen has his own blog, no kidding!
How does he find the time to prepare for his games, play those tough games, rest and... write a blog?
Hang on a minute, this is not Magnus Carlsen's blog we're talking about, is it? True, but it comes close: it's his dad's!
Still, a very interesting source of information with plenty of photographs, family stories, honest and witty. Henry is doing a great job. Highly recommended.
Read it here!
