My free electronic book, LOCMAI (which stands for "learn chess or call me an idiot!!") has been downloaded more than 1000 times from this site!
There are now several sites where you can download my book from, apart from here:
http://www.ebookbillboard.com
http://www.gemx.com/ebooks_download.php
At present, LOCMAI is the 17th most popular free ebook on the ebookbillboard!
I was reading the Sydney Morning Herald today and learned that "A large English cheddar cheese has become a star of the internet, attracting more than 1 million viewers to sit and stare at it as it slowly ripens" (Click here Visit the website!)
Oh well, what can I say? , if you think perhaps you might have something A LITTLE BETTER TO DO (particularly if you're a chess player!) you might want to watch the following game which I saw last night on the playchess.com server.
GM Andrei
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.
[Event "Sydney International Open"]
[Round "6.5"]
[White "Bjelobrk, Igor, 2386"]
[black "Matamoros Franco, Carlos 2523"]
This position happened on board 5, round 6 of the Sydney International Open. Both players were probably in time trouble.
White has just played 37. Rf1. Think about it. Take your time. What would you play now as black?
When you think you're ready, put your mouse pointer over the black line and simply slide it.
(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
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
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
Morozevic - Leko was the best game from round IX, and you can download it with my annotations here: moroleko.cbv.
However, one of the most embarrasing games in this round was Carlsen - Aronian:
Carlsen,M (2690) - Aronian,L (2744) [E15]
XXIV SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (9), 03.03.2007
[pgn] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 8.Bc3 d5 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.Nd2 0-0 12.0-0 Rc8 13.e4 c5 14.exd5 exd5 15.dxc5 dxc4 16.c6 cxb3 17.Re1 b2 18.Bxb2 Nc5 1
Australia's number 1 player, GM Ian Rogers, is currently leading the Sydney International Open with 5/5. If you're wondering how Ian can still play at the top after nearly 3 decades of success, I have but one answer: let the games speak by themselves!
[Event "Sydney International Open"]
[Date "Apil 10th, 2007"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Rogers, Ian, ACF 2621"]
[black "Lane, Gary W, ACF 2452"]
[Result "1-0"]
[pgn] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8
Hey, how do you like my autobot?:
Transformers, the movie produced by Spielberg, premiers worldwide on July 4th.
The Decepticons (known as Destrons or on occasion Deathtrons in Japan) are the enemies of the Autobots, and the villains in the fictional universe of the Transformers toyline and related spin-off comics and cartoons. Their best known leader is Megatron.
Despite being the villains, the Decepticons are very popular. Part of their popularity comes from having many more
Timoshenko's has won the Sydney International Open and I figured that I might as well publish one of his games on my blog. It's kind of funny, but I actually have had a lot of trouble finding the typical "spectacular" victory of his in this event!
I'm not saying that his games were not interesting, but they were not very eye catching (don't we all wish we could play so efficently too?).
Anyway, I finally came accross the game that he played on round one against a player who was rated nearly
Harry Potter is dead, I saw it with my own eyes!
I guess such a sad loss is not something I should be sharing with others, , but some of the stuff I watch on TV nowadays has taken away all the sensitivity left which I had!
Oh, and for the record, Harry Potter WAS NOT WHITE, HE WAS BLACK!
[pgn] 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 c5 4.e5 Ng8 5.d4 cxd4 6.Qxd4 Nc6 7.Qe4 d6 8.Nf3 dxe5 9.Nxe5 Nxe5 10.Qxe5 Nf6 11.Bf4 Bb4 12.Be2 0-0 13.0-0 Bd7 14.Rfd1 Qc8 15.Nb5 Bxb5 16.Qxb5 Bc5 17.Bf3 Bb6 18.Bd6 1-0 [
All games were drawn at Linares on round 8. Aronian - Svidler only lasted 16 moves.
Anand never seemed like he was really fighting for a win in his game against Topalov, but Morozevic - Carlsen was a tough fight.
Ivanchuck was never in trouble in his game and he achieved equality rather easily:
Leko,P (2749) - Ivanchuk,V (2750) [C10]
XXIV SuperGM Morelia/Linares MEX/ESP (8), 02.03.2007
[pgn] 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bg5 h6 7.Nxf6+ Nxf6
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
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!
Some friends tell me that it's very unpolite to set the "ignore" flag on all my MSN contacts (this way they can't see I'm connected when I log on). I have to disagree with my friends on this one. I don't have all that many people on my contact list, I don't know, somethng like 50-75, but some people have hundreds.
My point is, I'm the sort of person who likes to reply to someone greeting me. I know people who never use the "ignore" flag and simply don't reply whenever someone says somethin
GM Alexi Shirov has just won one of the strongest rapid chess events ever held: Festival Cañada de Calatrava (Spain).
Shirov, who plays for Spain, played some very nice chess there.
Personally, I was quite happy on two accounts: 1, on seeing him win a tournament again, and 2, on seeing him playing a tournament where he didn't play the Petrov! (He played a Sicilian against a weaker player and he beat Ivanchuck as black on round 8 playing against the Ruy Lopez. In the rest of the games his op
I was kibitzing some blitz games on the playchess server last night and was surprised by the unexpected result of this game. There's a couple of errors on move 29 for black and 30 for white, but other than that the game is pretty good. The interesting moment comes on move 41, when Nigel tries to make some progress on the Kingside overlooking black's chances on the Queenside. By means of a nice sacrifice black was able to get a passed pawn and win the game.
With a FIDE rating of 2248, 18 year o
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
[Event "Amber Blindfold"]
[site "Monte Carlo MNC"]
[Date "2007.03.20"]
This happened in the game Vallejo - Svidler after black's 23rd move. You'd never guess white's next move. Think about it for a while. When you've found a really bad move, put your mouse pointer over the black line. But wait! Something else happened!
If you didn't guess white's 24th, there's no chance you'll guess white's 25th!! you don't believe me? check it out!
For the record, 24. e5! would have
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-
Who or what are we in this infinite universe of ours? How meaningless are our daily actions and thoughts? is there any reason to believe that we are any smarter, more creative, artistic, important, relevant, useful (or any other positive adjective that you can think of) than others?
Perhaps the answer was found by "Kansas" guitarist Kerry Livgren when he was reading a book of Native American poetry. The line that caught his attention was "For All We Are Is Dust In The Wind..."
That might
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
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
