Everything/Anything and…Chess…"Despite the documented evidence by chess historian HJR Murray, I've always thought that chess was invented by a goddess"–George Koltanowski: from the foreword to:"Women in chess, players of the Modern Age"
This is a game I played against a player called ‘The Duke of Wellington’ – just his nickname. Of course, with a much lower rating than this Duke, I lost the game, but thought it was a good game and good experience. You can play through the game where I played white by clicking on the above link.
I have also discovered that Napoleon played also chess! He played a game against the Duke of Wellington though he was not the only person to play chess against Napoleon. Both the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte where gentlemen chess players – Napoleon had a higher rating. Chess just before battle of Waterloo – Night 17th June 1815.
The whole art of Chess consists in getting at what is on the other side of the board. Duke of Wellington
Lord Uxbridge: By God, sir, I’ve lost my Queen! Wellington: By God, sir, so you have.
Wellington describing Napoleon Game Play. Source – chess.com
Image – google images
Johann Baptist Allgaier (June 19, 1763 – January 3, 1823) was a German-Austrian chess master and theoretician. He was also the author of the first chess handbook in German – Neue theoretisch-praktische Anweisung zum Schachspiel.
This is a game played by Napoleon vs the Turk, alias Johann Allgaier.
Three games purporting to be played by Napoleon are in existence. One of these (a Scotch Game) said to have been played in St Helena between Napoleon and Bertrand, and first printed in Capt. Kennedy’s Reminiscences in the Life of Aug. Fitzsnob (Waifs and Strays, 1862), is certainly fictitious. The second game, said to have been played with Mme von Rémusat, 29 March 1804, and a third game (I.L.N., 1844, 352), played against the Automaton in Vienna, are also of very doubtful authenticity.’ from H.J.R. Murray’s A History of Chess. – Source: chess.com
During this game, the Turk was operated by Johann Allgaier The automaton was a chess playing machine known as the Turk. It was invented by a Hungarian baron called Wolfgang van Kempelen in 1770. However, the machine did not really play chess. It was a trick. The automaton was a large box, large enough for someone to hide inside and it was this person who played the game. In 1809 Napoleon played against the Turk. (1)e4e5 (2)Qf3 Nc6 (3) Bc4Nf6 (4) Ne2Bc5 (5) a3d6
This is one of my own poems. It is a cento. A cento is a poem written using other author’s lines or passages. This ‘cento’ though has been written using my own poems. The poems I used are all from my Afrikaans poems. I do write English too, but as I said before, it’s just playing with words. I don’t try to be professional. I decided a few years ago to do my ‘bit’ for Afrikaans on the 14th August every year. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen last year and I couldn’t let another year go by without having one on this day! This is the history behind the 14th August.
The Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners (Afrikaans for “Society of Real Afrikaners”) was formed on 14 August 1875 in the town of Paarl by a group of Afrikaans speakers from the current Western Cape region. From 15 January 1876 the society published a journal in Afrikaans called Die Afrikaanse Patriot (“The Afrikaans Patriot”) as well as a number of books, including grammars, dictionaries, religious material and histories. Die Afrikaanse Patriot was succeeded in 1905 by today’s Paarl newspaper. You can read more about this Society on this link on the site of Wikipedia.
If you are Afrikaans, I hope you enjoy these couple of lines.
My siel op haelwit wolke
In gietende reën sypel my gedagtes: eindloos! Ek stuur vir jou die goud van sondeurdrenkte landskappe in die galery van my stille gemoed. My opgevoude gedagtes steek vas en onderhou my geheue wat onvermydelik verstrengel is en soos gister vind jy my siel op haelwit wolke; my gedagtes wentel om die aura van my taal en rol ragfyn ligstraaltjies voor my uit: wat die tuimelende bergstilte laat rol oor die dansende blou waters na die holtes van my gedagtes.
==Nikita 14/08/2015
Mantovani is one of my real big favourites. On this video you’ll find a whole library of his music to keep you company. I hope you enjoy!
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you would know that I do play chess myself too. I’ve blogged quite a few chess games in the past. This is one of my most recent chess games on chess.com Time is little to play rated chess games and I was tricked into this game, but managed to escape the worst. Rated games involve more concentration and I tend to play friendlies just for fun and I feel I can ‘escape’ or shut down from normal work and enjoy the game.
I like how I managed to checkmate my opponent, though he was very close to checkmate me! I played white in this game – not my favourite colour, as I discovered I play better games when I play black. If you are interested, please click here to play through the game. If you are a chess player yourself, please feel free to leave a comment and Dan, if you read here, you might want to analyse my game…hehe.
Game 6 move 32 – I feel Anand could have made a better move with his pawn on d, which he ‘gave’ away. Game 6 move 33 – game looks like a draw to me – Anand not sure what to do? Bet you they are going to draw this one! Game 6 still going – move 41
I’ve been looking at some of my games played a few years ago and just to post a game to go with these two games from chessgames, I’ve decided on this game HERE – for no particular reason. You can play through the game on the link. I played black.
End position of my game
One of my very old games, played in 2006- I was black and you can see my rating – not that I was really bothered to improve my rating, time to really think about moves, doesn’t exist in my life of full time teaching. [hehe] I liked how I was chasing my fellow countryman around on the board, whilst he was in a really strong position early on in the game.
A game played in 2005 – and I like how I used my bishops here. My opponent resigned on this point.
In this game – where I played black – I was lucky. My comments on this game: a very interesting game I’d played in a long time – well, that was in 2006. I like the checkmate in this game.
Indeed the name Prokofiev needs little introduction, as one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. However his connection to chess might be a little less obvious, even to the musically enlightened. As to David Oistrakh, he was one of the very greatest violinists, whose virtuosity ranked alongside Fritz Kreisler and Jasha Heifetz. Both of them were passionate chess players, though Prokofiev more than one would believe.
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev, born April 23, 1891, died March 5, 1953 was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century, which include Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Among his best-known works are the 3rd Piano Concerto, the third and fifth symphonies, as well as composed family favourites, such as the ballet Romeo and Juliet – from which “Dance of the Knights” is taken – and Peter and the Wolf. Sergei Prokofiev fell in love with chess at an early age, and during his lifetime never lost his passion for the royal game, befriending chess greats such as Capablanca and Alekhine.The composer met Alekhine in his native Russia in 1900 during an international tournament held there. Alekhine was a member of the organizing committee and Prokofiev had volunteered to accommodate the guests and the players. As the years passed, their friendship solidified. He met Capablanca in January 1914 in Petersburg where the Cuban champion was playing a series of simultaneous games. Prokofiev tried his luck and even managed to win a game!
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 Bf5 4.Qb3 Nc6 5.Qxb7 Na5 6.Qa6 Nxc4 7.Nc3 e6 8.e4 dxe4 9.Bxc4 exf3 10.Qc6+ Nd7 11.g4 Bg6 12.Bg5 Be7 13.Bxe7 Kxe7 14.O-O-O Re8 15.h4 h5 16.gxh5 Bxh5 17.Nb5 Kf8 18.d5 Qf6 19.dxe6 Ne5 20.Qc5+ Kg8 21.exf7+ Bxf7 22.Bxf7+ Qxf7 23.Kb1 Rab8 24.Nxc7 Rbc8 25.Rc1 Re7 26.Qd6 Rexc7 27.Rxc7 Qxc7 28.Qe6+ Kh8 29.a3 Qc2+ 30.Ka1 Nd3 31.Rb1 Nxf2 32.h5 Qc6 33.Qf5 Ne4 34.Qxf3 Nd2 35.Qxc6 Rxc6 36.Rd1 Rc2 37.Rg1 Rc5 38.Rg6 Rxh5 39.Ra6 Nb3+ 40.Ka2 Ra5 41.Rxa5 Nxa5 42.b4 g5 43.Kb2 g4 0-1 Another great combination: Chess and music! What’s missing is the poetry! The closest I could get was the poem by Robert Frost. Please click HERE to read the entire article on Chessbase.
Fire and Ice – Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.
You can read my entry on Dance of the knightson this link. The music is also the theme music to The Apprentice.
A young Sergey Prokofiev with his inseparable board
and chess books. [Image: chessbase]
Prokofiev in his later years remained faithful to his true love [Image: chessbase]
Registration is open for the African Youth Chess Championships – the closing date is 31st August 2012.
The tournament will be held in Pretoria, Gauteng, one of the 3 Capital Cities of South Africa from 28 September 2012 (official arrival date) to 08 October 2012 (official departure date) at the Faircity Roodevallei Hotel & Conference Centre (Roodevallei). Players will be accommodated at Roodevallei.
Click HERE for more details about the tournament. You will also find a link to live games and photos.[All links will always open in a new window on my blog]
The Venue of the African Youth Chess Championships – see the link for more details of the Venue.
Update: 13/10/2012
Phew, what a task to get all these results displayed in a format easier than an excel document! Why should it so difficult to publish results in a table easy for anyone to observe. Well, I’ve done it now and I hope you find it useful to look at the results and to see where South Africa’s future in Chess lies?
The Braille Chess Olympiad starts tomorrow! Please click HERE to read more about the Chess Braille Olympiad in Chennai [India] . The tournament starts 9th August till 19th August. Chess is the only game visually impaired players can play on an equal footing with sighted players.
Please click HERE to follow some of the games live!
Team South Africa at the Braille Olympiad. Good luck to all players and we wish you a great tournament! Click the image for a larger view.
South Africa at the Olympiad – photo: official site
It’s again time for the FIDE World Chess Championship – this time Anand vs Gelfand at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Follow the link of the official site to read more.The prize fund is 2.55 million US Dollars. The winner gets $1,530,000 (60%) and the loser $1,020,000 (40%) Official site: Chess FIDE Moscow
This is the second entry on my blog, on THIS LINK you can follow the first 6 games – with some chess graphics too. Six games have been played. Six draws. Is it Anand’s tactic, is he warming up? What about a prediction: 6 more draws within the next week.
Game 7 – move 8
Game 7 – Anand explained where his ‘mistake’ was – the Bishop on C8!- which he lost
Game 7 moves – [grrr for the Houdine comments in the PGN-file too- I tried to remove it neatly]
Click HERE to play through game 7. The link will open in a new window.
Anand during the interview after Game 7 – explaining his Bishop-mistake +My opinion about move 26: unnecessary lost of his Knight on E4 too.
Game 8 Anand vs Gelfand 1-0
Game 9 – Gelfand vs Anand – 1/2-12
Game 10 Anand vs Gelfand – 1/2-1/2
Game 10 moves
Countdown starting – game 11
Anand – Gelfand – taking their positions
Standings
Game 11 Gelfand vs Anand – move 16
Anand – game 11
Game 11 – Gelfand
Game 11 – draw agreed
Game 11 Gelfand vs Anand – 1/2 – 1/2
Game 12 – Anand vs Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Standings: Anand 6 – Gelfand 6. Now – for the tie break on Wednesday! Still crossing my fingers for Anand!
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1233404 On one of the chess sites, I’m busy playing a tournament and this particular player sent me the above link on chessgames, to highlight a ‘better’ move for one of the moves I’ve made. When looking at the game, I realised that our game was almost this game, in particular the first few moves. I felt sort of ‘thrilled’ by the idea of playing the start of Morphy’s famous game called: ‘Night at the Opera’. The moves in blue are the first moves of our game -I played white- and you can compare it with Morphy’s game in this entry.[maybe, if I didn’t castle, I could have had move 9 with move 7 – which was Morphy’s move – he castled move 12.] I hope you like Dolannes Melody by Jean-Claude Borelly, you can listen to it at the bottom of this post.
In 1858 the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard invited the American master Paul Morphy to the Paris Opera to watch The Barber of Serville, then asked their guest to play chess with them. Morphy was more interested in watching the opera, but could not courteously refuse.
Morphy played white, while Brunswick and Isouard consulted on black. He took his opponents apart in 17 moves, enabling him to watch the rest of the show without distraction, and incidentally proving that teaming two mediocre players does not double their talents.
This game is one of the best known in chess, exemplifying as it does the advantages of quick development over the pursuit of minor advantages. The game features a queen sacrifice that leads directly to mate.
The score of the game follows:
Paul Morphy vs Duke of Brunswick & Count Isouard, Paris Opera House, 1858. Philidor’s Defense.
Paul Morphy “The Pride and Sorrow of Chess,” was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was also one of the first chess prodigies in the modern rules of chess era.
The “Opera game” – a casual game against inexperienced opponents, but at the same time one of the clearest and most beautiful attacking games ever. Often used by chess teachers to demonstrate how to use time, develop pieces and generate threats.
While most of the audience was following the performance of The Barber of Seville, Paul Morphy was busy at the chessboard, facing noble opposition. His opponents, working together, played well enough for a while, but they allowed Morphy to set two deadly pins.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. d x e5 B x f3 5. Q x f3 d x e5 6. Bc4 Nf6 7. Qb3 Qe7 8. Nc3 c6 9. Bg5 b5 10. N x b5 c x b5 11. B x b5 + Nbd7 12. O-O-O Rd8 13. R x d7 R x d7 14. Rd1 Qe6 15. B x d7 + N x d7 16. Qb8 + N x b8 17. Rd8 mate
These two images found on google and edited it slightly – beautiful poster – the second image.
I spoilt myself the last few days with a few chess games and even a few tournaments, but work is calling again! The following two games were played against the same opponent – you will notice in both games, my Knights were used – in conjunction with the Queen – to checkmate my opponent. I always prefer to save my Knights – I will even sacrifice my Bishops in order to keep my Knights for the reason as in these games and also for their tricky moves.
GM Alexei Shirov and Michael Adams – photo:ECC2010Chessdom
The European Club Cup 2010 is now on in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Some of my old favourite players are playing. Although time is little to follow the tournament, I will make an effort over the coming weekend to check out more of the games. Shirov is an old time favourite and Michael Adams – an English player I saw in action December, is also an upcoming favourite of mine. Click HERE for the Official site and for results and live games.
Anand – Game 4 -28th April Game 4: Anand leads by one point after the second Catalan opening in the match.
The fourth game of the FIDE World Chess Championship match between Viswanathan Anand of India and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria saw another Catalan opening on the board. This is the first opening that was played twice in the match, the players are obviously willing to have a theoretical discussion. Topalov was the one to deviate from the second game, as early as on move 5, when he played the sharper Bb4+ instead of a6.
Similar to the earlier Catalan game, Black clutched onto the extra pawn while White tried to take advantage of his faster pieces’ development. Anand aggressively advanced in the center to break opponent’s pawn formation and open up the files and diagonals. At the same time, Topalov was carefully clearing the queenside in order to reduce the positional pressure.
The game appeared to be taking a normal course but then Anand’s sudden Knight movement (e3-g4) caught Topalov without guard and on the wrong foot. Not hesitating much, Anand knocked a piece sacrifice on h6 and picked a strong attack against the Black King. Still precision was needed in carrying out the assault, but Anand never blinked and found the crushing 25. e5!
Topalov continued for a few moves more, but resigned at the imminent danger of a mate. Anand takes the lead in the match 2,5-1,5, tomorrow is a rest day and the games continue on Friday at 15:00 Source: Official Site
Anand crushes Topalov in fourth game
The fourth game of the World chess championship match in Sofia saw Viswanathan Anand’s best performance to date with a slashing attack against challenger Veselin Topalov.
“Anand really played brilliantly today,” said commentator Zurab Azmaiparashvili, having watched the World champion sacrifice a pawn, then a knight and then a bishop to create a winning assault against
Topalov’s exposed king.
Anand was pleased with his performance. “It was a very complex position with a lot of tension on the queenside,” said Anand. “I thought (my 23rd move) was clinching it but you can’t be 100 per cent sure.”
Anand explained that in a key variation he was prepared to give away both his rooks as well to ensure a checkmate: “Once I saw that I knew I was winning.”
Poor start
After a poor start, Anand, 40, has taken the lead for the first time in the €2 million match and the Bulgarian challenger is looking shaky. “I though I had a decent position,” said Topalov, “but if I was able to answer so simply what went wrong then the result might have been different.
“Certainly my (20th move) was especially bad.”
Playing with white pieces, Anand used the Catalan Opening which had brought him success in game two but Topalov, 35, defended differently this time. Soon Anand sacrificed a pawn and Topalov needed no invitation to grab the material and attempt to hang on to it.
Anand’s unorthodox 10th move, moving a knight to the edge of the board, appeared to be new. However, a member of Team Anand, computer expert Eric van Reem, explained that Anand was following an earlier game, a precedent apparently unknown to Topalov who began thinking hard for the first time in the game.
Excellent compensation
Soon it became clear that Anand had excellent compensation for his pawn when the apparently offside knight moved to the centre, stymieing Topalov’s freedom of movement. Although the position was highly unbalanced — the type of game at which Topalov usually excels — Anand’s speed of play indicated that he had checked the ideas at home with his team and had everything under control.
Anand was coy when asked if the sacrifices were prepared with his team. “I won’t be able to tell you that until the match is over,” said Anand, who has managed to keep the identity of some of his helpers secret as well.
On the 23rd move, after cogitating for only five minutes, Anand sacrificed a knight and Topalov immediately found his king under massive fire. Another sacrifice followed and Topalov was soon defenceless. The challenger resigned after 32 moves and three-and-a-half hours’ play.
Anand leads Topalov 2.5-1.5 with eight games remaining after Wednesday’s encounter. The fifth game, with Topalov holding the first move, will be played on Friday starting at 5.30 p.m. IST. Source: http://beta.thehindu.com/sport/other-sports/article414219.ece GAME 5 – 30th April -Topalov vs Anand 1/2
Bulgaria Chess Master Topalov Hopes to Crush Anand’s Defense
Click on the image for a clear view -the article continues here:
“We hope to have finally figured out the secret of Anand’s defense. We have five people on our team working with top notch computers on this task, and we hope to see results today,” Danailov explained.
The first move of the fifth game of the Sofia World Chess Title Match was made Friday by Nobel Prize winning professor of economics Robert Mundell, known as “the father of the euro”.
Danailov said Topalov’s team met Professor Mundell during a tournament in China which was won by the Bulgarian chess master.
“I wanted to invite Professor Mundell as a guest during the last M-Tel Masters tournament but he was busy then. This time, however, he managed to find time to be our guest,” Danailov explained.
“It is a pleasure for me to be here. I have come as an economist and a fan of chess,” said the Nobel Prize laureate expressing his happiness to be present at the event.
After the second rest day, the FIDE World Chess Championship match between Viswanathan Anand of India and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria continued today with game five in which Topalov played with White pieces.
The first symbolic move were made by the “father of the euro” professor Robert Mundell. The President of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Parvanov visited the match.
The opening was replay of game three in which Anand used the Slav defence and comfortably held a draw. The expectation were that Topalov will find an improvement in the variation and fight for opening advantage.
But it was Anand who first diverted from the earlier game by moving 15…h5 instead of 15…h6. Topalov continued with the logical 16. Ne2 having in mind Nf4, to exploit the newly created situation with Black pawn on h5. Anand established strong Knight outpost on e5 and traded off a pair of Rooks to reduce White’s chances of gaining initiative.
After further exchange of minor pieces, an endgame with Rook and Bishop versus Rook and Knight has arisen. Anand’s 29…g5 initiated changes in the pawn structure, which allowed him to solve one issue and concentrate on pieces’ play.
Black Knight gradually suppressed White Bishop, which eventually landed on the backward d1-square. Right after the time-control, Topalov offered moves repetition before the situation goes out of the hand. Or perhaps it was a psychological move, attempting to test Anand’s resolve to play for a win, in case of which White would also have chances for full point.
But Anand needed no risk and accepted the threefold repetition. Draw signed on move 44. The current score is 3-2 in favour of Anand who tomorrow plays with White pieces. Live coverage on the official website starting at 14:45 local time.
Anand blacks out Topalov’s ambitions
Viswanathan Anand has retained his narrow lead over Veselin Topalov with a solid draw in the fifth game of the Indian’s world title defence in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Anand, playing black for the third time in the match, repeated the Slav opening which had neutralised Topalov’s ambitions in game three, and also came armed with a new 15th move.
Soon afterwards, as Anand was considering his 17th move, the playing hall — and indeed the entire Military Club — was plunged into darkness by a power blackout. The game timers were stopped by the arbiter but both players remained firmly in their seats, analysing in the dark.
Ten minutes later, emergency power provided some flickering light on the stage and five minutes later the light was good enough for the game to resume.
“I don’t know what would have happened if the lights had not gone on for an hour or more,” admitted Anand. “I don’t know what the rules are for such a situation.”
However, while play continued, the video screen above the players, relaying the game to the audience in the Military Club and to hundreds of thousands of viewers on the internet, remained inoperable. Audible protests from some of the frustrated spectators in the theatre were quickly muted by security guards and five minutes later normal broadcasting of the moves resumed.
Both players reacted calmly to the unexpected interruption, although Anand spent some time re-orientating himself with the position before he made his next move.
“It is very easy to make a mistake after a break in concentration like this,” said Anand, “so I decided to invest an extra ten minutes just to be sure.”
Once again Anand’s opening preparation proved superior to that of his Bulgarian challenger. “I missed Anand’s [22nd move],” confessed Topalov. “It was very strong. I will need to be more precise in future games.”
With other strong pawn moves Anand soon solved all his problems. “I managed to stabilise the position,” explained Anand, “after which I have nothing to complain about.”
Before long Topalov found himself staring at an equal endgame which offered no chances for a win to either player. After four hours play, both players could find nothing better than to repeat moves and a draw was agreed after 44 moves.
The draw was a perfectly satisfactory result for Anand as he retains a 3-2 lead in the best-of-12 contest and will hold the advantage of the first move, equivalent to the serve in tennis, in the next two games.
Anand refused, however, to express any comment on the state of the match so far, saying “I’m just taking it game by game.”
Anand in Sofia – Anand and Topalov are going to fight the mother battle of all battles. [chess of course!] I hope [if you’re a chess player] that you’re going to follow their games with me. Anand is my favourite and my money is on him. Those of you who don’t know anything about these players…they are THE big chess-engines of the world of chess…and they’re playing in Sofia[Bulgaria]. Anand is from India and Topalov from Bulgaria. Anand is the current World Champion and Topalov the challenger.
What is said about Anand- ‘….extreme efficiency, his splendid personality…’ -watch the videos about Anand and Topalov on the official site…
Anand is the fastest thinking chess player
Ah…they look so handsome… – is that what he’s thinking [haha]
Enjoy the music of the Hungarian Rhapsody no2[unfortunately not the Bulgarian Rhapsody…but let’s pretend lol -also not the complete music file]
Topalov…hmmm…wonder if he’s going to beat me up!..
Press Conference – Sofia
Postal Items devoted to the Anand-Topalov Chess tournament in Sofia [Bulgaria]
Please click HERE to visit the official site of Anand-Topalov to read more or to play through their games. The first game startson the 24th April. [see the playing schedule] You will also find this link on the sidebar of my blog.[top] Images in this post are all from the Official site of Anand/Topalov.
Click on the image for a larger view…This is the schedule of Anand’s and Topalov’s games.
Map of Bulgaria / Sofia – image: Topnews
The History of Chess…only a few images from the video on the Official site.
See the video on the Official site – link in this post [and on the sidebar of my blog] about the History of Chess. These images are from the video.
40-hour ride to defend the title
New Delhi: World champion Viswanathan Anand Tuesday reached Sofia, Bulgaria, after a strenuous 40-hour road journey from Germany as all flights were cancelled due to the volcanic ash floating across European airspace.
The 40-year old world champion had requested a postponement of the World chess championship match against Veselin Topalov, by three days, but his appeal was rejected by the organising committee.
Not used to travelling such long distances on road along with the refusal to grant a three-day postponement could give Anand’s challenger, Topalov, a significant advantage.
Anand had planned to reach the venue on April 16, which is one week before the first game on April 23. But he arrived four days behind schedule due to factors beyond his control.
Anand might miss the press conference but will attend the opening ceremony according to his wife Aruna Anand. Not rescheduling the games will mean Topalov could have the same advantage that Anatoly Karpov enjoyed in the world title match, in Lausanne, in 1998.
“The news from us is that we reached here safely,” said Aruna Anand.
Had Alexander Alekhine been in Anand’s place, he would have sought a postponement of at least a week as world champions ruled and challengers were at the mercy of champions. Sometimes a handicap is a better way to start a match and Anand can turn the disadvantage into a driving force in the 12-game series.
Earlier, the organising committee had received an e-mailed request for a postponement from Anand and also a word from Fide about the situation.
However, the committee said that the press conference could be postponed but not the opening ceremony scheduled on April 21 because invitations to all official guests, sponsors, politicians, television stations and the media was already sent. Also since many commercial contracts have been signed, there would be serious penalties if any changes were made.
The championship is to be formally inaugurated on April 21 with the first of the 14 games to begin on April 23.
Benjamin Franklin playing chess…’And lastly, we learn by chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs; the habit of hoping for a favorable chance, and that of preserving in the search of resources.’ -Benjamin Franklin, ‘The Morals of Chess’
I like playing chess on chesscube for a couple of reasons…I always find someone to play a quick realtime game -my time is little and I’m not anymore interested in playing games going on for ages – I like the interface and the colours. This first game was played today and I was just on time to win this game…as I’m always in a hurry…I try to think fast, move fast – and sometimes end up with fast blunders too. My opponent spent 7 minutes before he decided to sacrifice his Queen -and in the process I did the same and won his Bishop. I have the pgn-file for you to follow if interested.
Mmmm…I always keep my Knights as long as I can…wonder if you can spot in this next game why…I have some of the colours of chesscube on this image too. Very visual for someone like me…This player resigned the game.
Magnus Carlsen from Norway – is he the Mozart of Chess?
The Big Eight
and…this is my ticket for Saturday!
Click HERE for the Official site. The link will open in a new window.
Standings after round 3
Enjoy the Music of Mozart – Piano Concerto no 20 in D Minor
Pairings for round 4 – Saturday 12th December – I was hoping to see Carlsen vs Kramnik in action, but…you can’t have your bread on both sides buttered…
Howell vs Carlsen – round 3
Womens Invitational-section
Denise Frick – South African WIM is taking part in this section
David Howell and Magnus Carlsen round 3 – draw
Howell vs Carlsen – move 48 round 3
Howell vs Carlsen move 60 round 3
Howell vs Carlsen – move 79 – 1/2 round 3
Magnus Carlsen: the rise and rise of chess’s answer to Mozart
If Magnus Carlsen had not had an elder sister, he would never have been gnawed by sibling rivalry, and if he had not been gnawed by sibling rivalry, he might never have become a world-famous chess-player. On such accidents of birth, genius can depend.
“I first tried interesting Magnus in the game when he was four or five,” says Henrik Carlsen, father of the precocious Norwegian teenager, just turned 19, who has been called the Mozart of chess. “But he was too young. It was only when he was eight, watching me play chess with his elder sister, Ellen, that he caught the chess bug in earnest. By the age of nine, he was able to beat me. By the age of 13, he was an international grandmaster.” Not just a grandmaster, one of the elite of world chess, but at 13 years, four months and 27 days, one of the youngest Grandmasters in the history of the game. That turbulent American genius Bobby Fischer did not become a grandmaster until he was 15 and a half, middle-aged in comparison, while Russia’s Garry Kasparov, often regarded as the greatest chess-player of all time, was 17, practically senile, before he reached the same mark.
It is the sheer precociousness of the young Norwegian – Carlsen is now ranked number one in the world – that has captured the imagination of chess lovers, who will be able to see him in action at the London Chess Classic next week. The comparisons with Mozart are inescapable. Kasparov has now retired from top-flight chess, but is so fascinated by the prospects of this Scandinavian wunderkind that he has signed up as his coach. Imagine being a fly on the wall at their training sessions. The intellectual voltage would kill you.
Carlsen sounds mildly irritated when the Mozart comparison is wheeled out. “I’m not sure why people have to talk like that. It’s not something I ever think about.” But he concedes that the life of a chess prodigy can sometimes be lonely. “I think that’s the price of success in many walks of life. If you want to get to the top, there’s always the risk that it will isolate you from other people.”
Ultimately, it is a love of the game, the Norwegian insists, not some stern work ethic, that drives him on. “I spend hours playing chess because I find it so much fun. The day it stops being fun is the day I give up. Without the element of enjoyment, it is not worth trying to excel at anything.”
As for Carlsen’s genius – and one can hardly avoid the word – there were clues long before he started showing his paces at chess. Before he was two, he could solve jigsaw puzzles with more than 50 pieces. From jigsaws he graduated to Lego, constructing models that would have challenged teenagers. Feats of memory came easily to him. By the age of five, scarily, he knew the area, population, flag and capital of every country in the world.
“Boys are very good at focusing their attention on one thing at a time,” reflects his father. “Girls are better at multitasking. I would not say Magnus is naturally hard-working. In fact, he can be quite lazy at times. But when he is following his intuition and curiosity, there is no stopping him.”
If the life of a child chess prodigy can be quite intense, Carlsen has not been put under relentless pressure by ambitious parents. Instead he has enjoyed a normal, even outgoing, childhood. In 2003, when he was still 12, his parents took him and his sisters out of school for a year, packed them into a minibus and, in the adventure of a lifetime, embarked on a tour of Europe.
The itinerary was partly dictated by the international chess tournaments in which Carlsen was due to play. But there was also time for sightseeing, museum visits, even three weeks on a beach in Crete. What an exhilarating contrast to normal schooling.
You could never call Magnus Carlsen normal, not with his extraordinary talents. But if his natural milieu is the chessboard, there is a part of him that loves the great outdoors, fresh air and physical exercise. Ask him if he would rather have been a world-famous footballer than a chess-player, and his answer might surprise chess fans.
“I would probably have to say yes. Who could resist being a famous footballer? Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport.”
What lessons from his childhood would he want to pass on to his own children, if and when he has them? “I can’t say I’ve given that much thought. I guess what my parents taught me is that, as a parent, you need to be supportive without being pushy. They were very happy to let me play in tournaments and made sacrifices so that I could, but they didn’t force their own agenda on me. They let me follow my own enthusiasms.”
Image: wikimedia – The World Chess Championship 1984 was a match between challenger Garry Kasparov and defending champion Anatoly Karpov. After 5 months and 48 games, the match was eventually abandoned in controversial circumstances with Karpov leading five wins to three (with 40 draws), and replayed in the World Chess Championship 1985.
Image: wikimedia – The Word CC 1985 The 1985 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov in Moscow from September 3 to November 9, 1985. Kasparov won. The match was played as the best of 24 games. If it ended 12-12, Karpov would retain his title.
2009 – September – and the word biggest Chess Engines meet again…25 years on. Follow their games live on the top link on my blog’s side bar or click HEREto follow their games live. [the best link to follow their games live is the next link at the bottom of this entry…the site is chessok.com]
Click on this link to play through their blitz-games. The link will open in a new window.
Chess is a game that rarely draws a massive amount of attention from the global public, but a rematch between Kasparov and Karpov reminds us that it throws up the occasional great rivalry.
When Garry Kasparov challenged Anatoly Karpov in 1984 for the chess world championship, it was the beginning of a titanic struggle.
The contest lasted five months and featured a series of successive draws of 17 and 15 games. It was controversially ended by the chess authorities over fears for the health of the players, both of whom had lost weight during the struggle. Kasparov had been resurgent at the end, although Karpov still held a lead.
In 1985, Kasparov beat Karpov for the title. They played for it again in 1986 and again Kasparov won. In 1987, Kasparov was one down going into the final game, but recovered to tie the series and therefore retain his crown.
It was a great chess rivalry, but it was more than that to the watching public and pundits.
“It was very symbolic of what was happening to the Soviet Union,” says grandmaster Raymond Keene, chess correspondent for the Times. “It was obvious the USSR was going through a period of great turmoil.”
And the rivalry was perfect in pitching a brilliant, brooding outsider against the Soviet establishment’s main man.
“Kasparov was a southerner, half-Jewish, half-Armenian, much younger, in the vanguard of a change, taking on the golden boy of the old Soviet Union,” says Keene.
Keene organised the London matches of the third series between the players in 1985, which took place both in the UK and Leningrad. He was surprised by the stark disparity between the Soviet and the Western ways of organising things.
In London, after the matches, a list of moves with annotation was faxed all over the world within 15 minutes of the conclusion. In Leningrad, a sheet bearing only the moves was typed up, a press officer with a minder was taken to the local party HQ where the only photocopier was to be found, the sheet was copied and then manually handed only to the journalists present at the event.
“They were still mired in Soviet bureaucracy and fear of publicity. I thought ‘this place is doomed’.
“It was a gigantic metaphor for the collapse of a creaking, unviable, introspective, conglomerate empire.”
There had been other rivalries that never succeeded in sparking the imagination. Mikhail Tal against Mikhail Botvinnik in the early 1960s had the same hallmarks of the non-Russian outsider against the Soviet stalwart, but failed to develop into a sustained struggle. And the earlier battle between Vasily Smyslov and Botvinnik is probably one for chess aficionados only.
The other rivalry that spread outside the world of chess was between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. Their famous 1972 world championship match became another symbol of the struggle between civilisations.
Fischer was the Western maverick up against Spassky, the emblem of the powerful Soviet machine. And Fischer won.
“It was about Western individualism, depth of analysis, use of the technology available,” says Keene.
And the notion that ideas of a greater struggle would be imposed on chess was an invention of the Stalinist era.
The Communist official Nikolai Krylenko took his board games seriously. He was reported to have said: “We must organise shock brigades of chess players, and begin immediate realisation of a five-year plan for chess.”
He might have approved of the great rivalries with an ideological flavour that grew up in the 1970s and 80s. He would have been less delighted that on both occasions the Soviet establishment’s representative was bested.
Other sports have individual rivalries. Tennis has had some great ones.
But perhaps only boxing, with its system of champion and challengers, comes close to replicating the way that the protagonists have to study each other’s play and personality, even live in each other’s skin, during the mind-bogglingly detailed preparations for a world championship series.
[All links in this post will open in a new window.] Have you thought about the chess openings you like and think that it might be that you prefer certain openings – as those openings just feel like it is “you” – like your personality. You feel you associate yourself with certain openings or you feel like you’re in your own “comfort zone” when playing those openings? Well, that’s me. I think I’m that type of player playing most of the time certain openings. The silly quiz I’ve taken said I’m a King’s Gambit-person, but I stronly disagree. I looked at a few of my chess games and I’m certainly not the King’s Gambit-player-type …in the games I’ve been looking at. In most of the games I looked at, the Indian Opening or Philidors Defence were the most common, but again, I only looked at about 10 of my previous of about 5000 games. If you take the quiz, you will not be told what type of personality you’ve got, only the type of opening. Click here for the quiz. Bear in mind, this quiz has for sure been drawn up by some wandering, loose pawn-on-the-run and not by an educated Bishop… or a Knight with a black belt…haha…in all of these games’ graphics of my games, I played the colour nearest to you, i.e. the bottom colour. From the next image you can see statistics from the chess site where I played tournaments [this is only half of the statistics – of my games/tournaments] and you can see from the column to the right – the opening played during those games.
Click in the image for a larger view
Brunel University has done a study. Interesting – the chess personalities. Do yourself a favour and read the PDF-document. I’ve quoted a few paragraphs here for you as a taster. Please click here for the pdf on research done by Brunel about personalities in chess. They used 169 children in their study. I wonder why not 170? That sounds so not right to use an unrounded number…maybe another pawn got away…hehe…
Children who score higher on Intellect/openness and Energy/extraversion are more likely to play chess while children who score higher on Agreeableness are less likely to be attracted to chess. Boys with higher scores on Agreeableness are less likely to take up chess than boys with
lower scores. Considering that girls score higher on Agreeableness, this factor may provide one of the possible reasons why more boys are interested in chess. Although none of the Big Five factors were associated with self-reported skill level, a sub-sample of 25 elite players had significantly higher scores on Intellect/openness than their weaker chess playing peers.
Chess is an adversarial game where one has to take into account the opponent’s intentions and not just focus on one’s own plans. Chess is also a game where just a small mistake can ruin the efforts of the previous long hours. Hence, players should be more suspicious and orderly than non-players. That is exactly what Avni, Kipper, and Fox (1987) demonstrated – chess players scored higher than non-players on the measures of orderliness and unconventional thinking in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory In addition, it was found that more competitive players, as measured by the number of games played, were more suspicious than non-players.
We applied the Big Five Questionnaire for Children which measures Energy/extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional instability, and Intellect/openness, on primary school children aged eight to eleven. Our main goal was to find out what are the personality characteristics of children who decide to take up chess, as well as to see whether personality factors can differentiate between strong and weak players. We also wanted to see whether personality factors could shed some light on the issue of the large discrepancies in the participation rates of girls and boys. Based on previous results with adult we hypothesised that children who play chess would score more highly on Conscientiousness but less highly on Energy/extraversion than children who do not play chess. Given that chess is often perceived as an intellectual endeavour, we also hypothesised that Intellect/openness will differentiate between children who take up chess and those who do not. The same personality factors could
be expected to differentiate between strong and weak child chess players.
Since women score higher on Emotional instability and Agreeableness. Two factors previously not shown to be associated with chess skill, it is difficult to have clear-cut predictions as to how these factors are related to gender differences in chess skill. On the other hand, chess has a competitive side where players encounter constant conflicts and confrontations which may be less appealing to children who score more on Agreeableness. Consequently, it is possible that Agreeableness provides clues about
the differences in the number of girls and boys who take up chess as a hobby. Read on the PDF-link the complete research-article.
Some openings and the moves – click on images for a clear view
Bishops Opening: Philidor counter attack
Indian Opening – C20 – e2d2e4d3 – one of my previous games
Indian Opening
e2 d2 e3 d4 1. e4 e5 2. d3 Bb4+ 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Nf3
Another e4 e5-game of mine
Fork 1 –oh how do I love thee…let me count my knights! Some people prefer Bishops, other Knights and I certainly prefer to keep my Knights. They do work for me.
Fork 2 – same game as in the previous image
Run! – the sequal continues…old King Cole…
Defeated! A position I never had a player in before or after
This opening is called: Sicilian Dragon, Yugoslav Attack
I do like the dragon, I love the formation of the white pieces…hehe
This next game was featured in the James Bond movie “From Russia With Love.”
I found this next quote on the chess site..and it was funny
I know some dog lovers who play the Colle. Some Italians I know play the Sicilian Defense. I have some Polish friends who play 1.b4. It seems that bird lovers like to play 1.f4. Some Catholics I know like the Bishop’s Opening. I see the Danish Gambit played by a lot of pastry lovers. I’ve played a few folks from the U.K. and they seem to play the English Opening. I’ve played a gourmet cook who opens with the Fried Liver Attack. Anand seems to play the Indian Defenses a great deal. I’ve played a few drunks who opened up with the Scotch.
Philidor’s Defense
On the first link you can look at the Philidor’s variations and the second link you can play through some chess games in this opening.
As this next piece of info was on draft for ages, I can’t remember where I got it from, but thought not to delete it anyway.
‘You are Crazy! But Does It Matter?’
Translated from ‘Schaaklezen’ written by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam. It’s a collection of dutch chess columns.
Show me your games and I tell you who you are. Is it possible to draw conclusions about the nature of somebody’s character when looking at their chess games? A tempting hypothesis, which seems to be as easily proven as it is challenged. The book ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ from David Guterson which has received numerous literary awards in the United States, describes a lawyer who believes his personality is reflected in his chess games. At least you come to that conclusion since he uses his chess style as a business card.
When Nels Gudmundsson for the first time visits Kabuo Miyamoto, accused of murder , he does not want to waste any time talking about why he is the man for the job to defend him, instead straight out he offers to play a game of chess. They draw for colour and the lawyer has white: ‘The old man doesn’t seem to bother to castle at all. He is not faintly interested in the endgame. His strategy is to give up material in the beginning-phase of the game in favor of the position which occurs, give up his pieces to get an undefeatable bind on the board. He won , even though Kabuo saw what he was doing. No fiddling. And the game ended abruptly.’ The reader might now expect he knows how Gudmundsson will set about his defense and also has inadvertently faith in his qualities. When going through two books about the great Akiba Rubinstein which first was released by the International Chess Enterprises, I was wondering in which extend the sober playing style of the Polish genius was a reflection of his excessive desire not to be a burden on his surroundings. various people of his time testified Rubinstein never sat at the board when it was not his move because he was terrified to disturb his opponent. As soon as he pressed his clock , he would stand up, duck under the cord which separated the players from the audience and if possible even hid behind a big plant until it was his move again. This complete effacing of himself and his reluctance against all blatancy is also shown is his games. As Nimzowitsch wrote in his tournament book about Karlsbad 1929: ‘Another characteristic property of Rubinstein is his aversion to melodrama. Hollow bombast and pretentious moves shock him deeply in his soul! All his moves are soaked with a natural elegance , almost contiguous to severity. His moves are always normal, you could call them ‘ordinary’. Closer study brings to light that these simple, common moves are in fact extraordinary deep.’ This correlation between his nature and chess style produces a fine parallel, which undoubtly contains a core of truth, but sells Rubinstein short. Was his style indeed as sober as Nimzowitch outlined? Maybe so if we compare him to a lot of his contemporaries. Hypermodern and neoR0m@ntic players might consider him pretty boring and dogmatic despite his great strength, nevertheless Rubinstein’s concept of many positions give you the feeling he was way ahead of his time.
Rubinsteins games to this day deserve to attention of every serious chess student. Only therefore alone John Donaldson and Nikolay Minev cannot be praised enough for all the material the put together in ‘Akiba Rubinstein:Uncrowned King’ en ‘Akiba Rubinstein:the Later Years’ On the basis of roughly thousand chess games, many accompanied with annotations and testimonies the reader gets a clear picture of the luster and sadness in the ‘Curriculum Vitae’ of one of the greatest chess players ever lived. thrilling as the wave of success was between 1907 and 1912 , when he stood above everybody else as a tourney player ,so compelling was the turn around after world war one , which amplified his mental state drastically. The expected match against Lasker was cancelled due to that reason.A few years later Rubinstein’s dream to concur the highest title definitely shattered when he was unable to gather the needed money to be able to play a match against Capablanca. More and more he was haunted by ghosts in his head, although he occasionally still showed his enormous talent. He managed to will a strong tourney ahead of Aljechin and Bogoljubov. During tourneys his peculiarities could not be unnoticed, but never it received more then a shrug of ones shoulders. Typical was the reaction of a neurologist from Munchen who examined him at the instance of Mieses Because Rubinstein constantly complained about a buzzing fly crawling on his face during a tourney in San Sebastian. Without hesitation the doctor said: ‘My friend, you are crazy! But does it matter? You are a chessmaster!’ Rubinstein had to stop playing chess in 1932. The rest of his life was totally grief.The Rubinsteins were very lucky they survived world war two in a by Germans occupied Brussels. To make sure he was stationed in a sanitarium for five years.For this act of charitable the family received a sum of 49500 Belgian Franks Once in a while he played chess with his son Sammy, a Master class chess player who still lives in Brussels or with the master O’ Kelly. It was not until 1961 when the relieving death came. Donaldson and Minev tried very hard to establish a honoring for Rubinstein, but a definite tribute their books cannot be called. For this the material needs to be reordered and reproduced and a few gaps need to be filled. This would be very convenient for the binded book which to my enjoyment is available.The will to improve is still there. in version two of the book are many adjustments and corrections. As a tribute to Rubinstein a piece of classic clarity . Even now when someone wants to engross himself in the Tarrash defence can take advantage of the refutation which Rubinstein showed in 1908(!)
It’s Saturday night…that time of the weekend and guess what…no, you can look at this entry and I don’t have to ask you to guess! Classical music and all the other ingredients!… how romantic to have a game of chess with your “knight” and the music is playing, chocolates nearby, glass of South African red wine…hmm… I always say chess, chocolates and classical music go together, but don’t forget the red rose too! I was given Pinotage Cinsault as a present a few weeks ago and it’s quite nice red wine!
Have you tried to play chess with classical music on your ears and you have your partner opposite you staring in your eyes..hmmm… I forgot! It’s Saturday (k)night…wonder if the moon is out there, suddenly I have to go!
James Last: Elizabethan Serenade
James Last: Lara’s theme from Dr Zhivago
Sweet People: Barcarolle
Image:www.redwine.co.uk
SA red wine
Red wine increases the female sex drive
March 24, 2009
Lucy Shaw
Red wine increases the female libido, research has found. According to a study carried out by the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Florence, drinking one to two glasses of red wine a day increases female sexual desire.
The study investigated 789 Italian women aged between 18 and 50. Drinking red wine not only helps to release inhibitions, but also has a direct effect on sexual activity.
Women who drink one to two glasses of wine a day were found to be more sexually active than those who abstain. Dark chocolate, which is rich in antioxidants, has a similarly positive effect on the female libido.
Whoops! I found this article link on douglasgreen.wordpress.com’s blog
These chess graphics are from games I finished quite awhile ago. Sometimes I save a certain chess position with the intention to blog about the game, but for the past 8 months my time was very little to blog chess games in detail. If you’re a chess player, I’m quite certain you will be able to “read” these graphics. The last image is from a tourney I finished in April. I played white in the game and thought it was a good win. Actually, in all the games, I played the colour nearest to you when you look at the games.
If you have thought you’ve seen all the “big game” of the Chess World the past week on my blog…then you haven’t seen these “Chess Engines” of the Chess World. These guys look very serious and I think they mean it serious when it comes to chess. Shirov is currently playing in Azerbaijan too! Topalov will again have a blindfolded game – like last year. Ivanchuk is last year’s winner, wonder what will happen this year. On the official site you can read more player info by clicking on their images. Click HEREto read the interview with Topalov about his chess.
Please click HERE for the Official site. On my blog’s side bar (top right) you will find the link to LIVE-games. All images: Ivan A. Grigorov for mtelmasters
Vassily Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian Grandmaster. His an ELO of 2787 on the FIDE January 2008 list, making him number 9 in the World and Ukraine’s number one. He played board one on the victorious Ukraine team at the 2004 Calvia Olympiad. As of November 2007 he is the World Blitz Chess champion.
World Champion to comment M-Tel Masters The World Champion in chess Antoaneta Stefanova will comment the games from the fifth edition of the super chess tournament M-Tel Masters. The competition will start on 12 May. For the title up to 23 May will compete the leader in the world ranking Veselin Topalov, Magnus Carlsen from Norway, the last year’s winner Vassily Ivanchuk from Ukraine, Leinier Dominguez from Cuba, Alexei Shirov from Spain and Yue Wang from China. The average ELO of the participants is 2755, which makes the tournament FIDE 21st category. Only five tournaments in history have been of that rank so far.
Bulgaria’s all time strongest female player won the chess crown at the World Championship in Elista in 2004. She is currently fourth in the ladies’ world ranking with an ELO of 2549.
The commentator’s place of Stefanova will be meters away from glass pavilion where the games from the tournament will be played. Her guests will be Bulgarian GMs and after each game she will be able to analyze the game with the participants.
The comments and analysis of Stefanova will be heard also online in real time on the web site of the tournament www. mtelmasters.com. The games from the tournament will start every day at16:00 local time, only the last round’s games will begin at 15:00.
The Venue: A glass pavilion on the square in front of the National Theatre Ivan Vazov – image: Official site
The first move made by the mayor of Sofia. MTel has started.
The Glass house where the tournament is taking place – in front of the National Theatre Ivan Vazov
Topalov played a game blindfolded.
Players ready for round 1
The first move..by the mayor of Sofia.
The Mtel Chess Masters Round 2- Images: Mtel Official site
Shirov vs Topalov Round 2 move 7
Shirov vs Topalov Round 2 end position 1/2
Ivanchuk vs Wang round 2 move 7
Ivanchuk vs Wang round 2 end position 0-1
Dominguez vs Carlsen round 2 move 7
Dominguez vs Carlsen round 2 end position 1/2
Round 3
Magnus Carlsen - Images: MTel
Wang vs Shirov
MTel Chess Round 3 Wang vs Shirov end position 1/2
MTel Chess Round 3 Carlsen vs Ivanchuk move 41
MTel Chess Round 3 Topalov vs Dominguez move 41
Carlsen vs Ivanchuk
Topalov
Pairings Rounds: 4-5-6
Round 4 – Results: 16th May 2009
Round 4 Carlsen vs Shirov move 7
Round 4 Carlsen vs Shirov end position
Round 4 Dominguez vs Ivanchuk move 7
Round 4 Dominguez vs Ivanchuk end position
Round 4 Topalov vs Wang move 7
Round 4 Topalov vs Wang end position
In both problems white moves and mates in two moves
See the “news”-link on the official site for Kostadinov’s Challenge. You can send your solution to him, his email is on the link too.
Round 5: 17th May 2009
Topalov – round 5
Supporters follow the games outside the glass house
Round 5 Ivanchuk vs Topalov move 7
Round 5 Ivanchuk vs Topalov move 22
Round 5 Ivanchuk vs Topalov move 30
Round 5 Ivanchuk vs Topalov move 44
Chess football – results- MTel-United 8!
Players played football on their day of rest. This is the evidence to show chess players are good at football too!
Fortress Gate – image: wikitravel – a different view
Image: Wikipedia The two teams’ photos in the glass front of the theatre where they’re playing
Image: Chessbase
Azerbaijan vs Fide World 7-9 May 2009 in Baku
How is it possible to mis good chess! The world’s big champs play in this tournament and Baku is my favourite chess city! Braam…I hope you’re reading this…I know you live in Baku!
Please click hereto follow the games LIVE. For the official site, click here, links will open in new windows. Click on images for a larger view and follow the official site to see more player-info of the players that are taking part in this tournament. All images are from the official site.
The opening ceremony of “President’s Cup” tournament, that is devoted to great national leader Heydar Aliyev’s memory, will hold in “UNS” (creative stage) theatre at 05:00 p.m. in 07 May, 2009, the tournament will also hold there from 07 May till 09 May 2009.
The World champion Vishvanatan Anand (Indian), vice-champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), the finalist of the latest World’s Cup – Aleksey Shirov (Spain), and the winner of the latest authoritative tournament Veyk-ann-Zee – Sergey Karyakin (Ukraine) have taken part in the world team which will be hold by the “Sheveningen” system.
Teymur Radjabov, Vugar Hashimov, Shahriyar Mamedyarov, Gadir Huseynov and Rauf Mamedov will compete in the Azerbaijan team against them. The first day of the biggest chess event in the history of Azerbaijani sport – the Presidential Cup tournament in commemoration of Haydar Aliyev, the National Leader of Azerbaijan, left behind. Two rounds of the match between FIDE’s World picked team and Azerbaijani picked team were played in the building of Uns theater.
The impression from the first round was very positive. Teymur Rajabov tied with Vishvanatan Anand, and Vuqar Hasimov tied with Ex World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. The only win of the day was signed by Shahriyar Mammedyarov. He defeated the Spanish grandmaster Alexei Shirov. Qadir Huseynov who found himself in a very difficult situation has managed to take half point from the Ukrainian Sergey Karyakin due to right moves in the endgame.
The picked team of the world showed itself in the second round. Qadir and Vuqar were defeated by Shirov and Anand respectively. Teymur who played agains Kramnik and Shahriyar who played ahainst Karyakin gained half point each.
There is no doubt that Vishvanatan Anand and and Shahriyar Mammadov were central figures of the first day.
Both players have managed to gain 1.5 points each – more than their colleagues. Shahriyar will also be remembered as the author of our first victory during the first round. He also put his sign under the only victory of our players.
Round 3. Kramnik defeat Huseynov
Round 3 was played today at the ” President’s Cup” international chess tournament dedicated to the memory of nationwide leader Haydar Aliyev. All the opponents, except Gadir Guseynov who lost to Viswanathan Anand, reached an accord amongst each other. Hence, points were shared in the games between World Champion Vishvanatan Anand vs. Shahriyar Mamedyarov, the leader of team of Azerbaijan Teymur Radjabov vs. Aleksey Shirov, and Sergey Karyakin vs. Vugar Gashimov, respectively. After the Round 3 FIDE World Team is leading with the score of 7-5.
Round 4. FIDE improve the margin
FIDE World team increased the points of margin in the round 4 through the performance in the “President’s Cup” international chess tournament dedicated to the memory of nationwide leader Haydar Aliyev. There was a substitution in this round in the team of Azerbaijan. Rauf Mamedov substituted by Gadir Huseynov who shared points equally with Indian Grand Master Vishwanatan Anand. The leader of the team of Azerbaijan Teymour Rajabov lost to the latest winner of the Veyk An Zee tournament –Sergei Karyakin. The same result was destined for Shahriyar Mamedyarov. The hero of the yesterday, Resistance pursued by “Shah” against Kramnik turned out to be a disappointment. The game played between Vugar Gashimov vs. Aleksey Shirov ended with “peace”. Winning by 1-3 in the round 4, FIDE World Team secured the points to 10, totaling 10 – 6. – Report from the official site.
Kramnik – Fide World Team
Anand – Fide World Team
Radjabov – Azerbaijan Team
Shirov – Azerbaijan Team
Schedule
Azerbaijan vs Fide World…round 4 – click on chess graphics for a clear view
Round 4: Karjakin vs Radjabov 1-0
Round 4 Gashimov vs Shirov 1/2
Round 4 Mamedov vs Anand 1/2
Round 4 Kramnik vs Mamedjarov 1-0
Results after the 2nd day of the tournament
Round 6: Gashimov vs Anand 0-1
Round 6: Kramnik vs Radjabov 1/2
Round 6: Guseinov vs Shirov End position 1/2
Round 6: Karjakin vs Mamedjarov End position 1/2
Results: Round 6
Anand vs Mamedov round 8 – End position 1-0
Radjabov vs Karjakin Round 8 End Position 1-0
Round 8 : results
Final standings: Fide World Team – 21,5 Azerbaijan Team – 10,5
I’ve thought to blog one of my most recent games – while I’m in blogging chess-stuff the last 2 days! Actually, I don’t have time to blog now, but hey, I need a break too, hehe..I am actually waiting for the South Africans! What’s going on with CHESSA’s site today! I can’t get the results for my entry about the SA Women’s! Can someone give them a shout ple….ase! Update: Thank you! They’re back online! I could hear alot of shouting going on!
This game was a friendly against of one my big favourite players. He’s a very good player and sometimes makes some moves just to let me win, that’s what I think, but he’s denying it completely by saying he hates to lose and therefore doesn’t do it on purpose. We started this game a few days ago and when I forked his King/Queen with my Knight, he made another blunder and then resigned. I preferred to capture his Bishop in the second fork, instead of his Rook as I knew how deadly his Bishops are. On the first image you can see my two Knights conferencing about some moves..hehe…I love my Knights and will always do everything to keep them. Although he’s a much stronger player than I am, I do like to play him as he’s racking my brains with his moves. Here are the moves in this game.
1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Bb5 e6 5. Bd2 Qd7 6. Bc3 a6 7. Bxc6 bxc6 8. Nd2 c5 9. Ne2 Be7 10. O-O cxd4 11. Bxd4 c5 12. Be3 d4 13. Bf4 Bd8 14. c4 Ne7 15. b3 O-O 16. h3 h6 17. Nf3 Bh7 18. Bg3 Nf5 19. Bh2 Ba5 20. Ng3 Ne7 21. Nh5 Nc6 22. Nh4 Bc7 23. Re1 a5 24. Qg4 g6 25. Nf6+ Kh8 26. Nxd7 Bb6 27. Nxb6 Click on this Wiki-link for Chess Openings. Did you know that there are 318,979,564,000 possible ways to play the first four moves of a chess game on each side of of the board.
This game was a game against a different player and it shows you how you can get your Queen trapped when you bring her out too early. I prefer not to bring her out early unless I have to for a reason. I think this player learnt a good lesson and I myself saw what can happen if you play carelessly around with your Queen.
…and if Elmer can play chess…so can anyone else too..hehe.
Ons eerste liefde was
‘n wit galop van hingste
kniediep deur die gras:
ontdekkings, avonture
in die grot te, ‘n geil slaap
in holtes langs rooi vure.
Nou starend van die koue krans
voed een bron ons vergesigte –
‘n hoër vreugde, dieper angs.
This poem is an Afrikaans poem by one of our National Poets. As you can see from the title, it’s about Mount Aux Sources! Thank you Kop for the poem!
Mount Aux Sources is the highest peak of the Drakensberg Mountain range in South Africa. Note: the highest peak of this mountain range is actually Thaba Ntlenyana (thaba means “mountain” in Sotho) and this peak is in Lesotho, an enclaved country in South Africa.
Image: the dailykitten.com…beautiful kitty!
On the 22nd April 2009, all Saffas are going to vote..again. Saffas outside South Africa can vote on the 15th April. Please read HEREon the site of South Africa House, London, for more details.
Please click HERE for the Elections website and to check if you are registered to vote! You need to send in your VEC10-formby Friday 27th March to be able to vote! The form is available on this link too! Links will open in a new window.
Wow! I like this chess position! I’ve just resigned the other game as I haven’t had any chance to win it…I lost my Queen a few moves ago! but this game is an exciting one….just look at that fork! Usually I like to castle in my games, but for some reason, I didn’t castle in the two games against this player. He’s rating is a bit more than mine, but a few months ago, his rating was about 500 higher than mine. I guess you figured out that I played white in this game…
And…here’s the final position, my opponent has resigned. Click on the link to play through the game. The link will open in a new window. Nikita1 vs. P79
She was created in a poem called Caïssa written in 1763 by English poet and philologist Sir William Jones.
Scacchia ludus was the basis for the poem written by William Jones in 1763. While Scacchis may have been the first Goddess of Chess, Caïssa is certainly the most famous and sustaining. In the poem Caïssa, Mars becomes infatuated with a nymph named Caïssa but she does not return the favor and is in fact a bit repulsed by the God of War. Not one to give up the fight, Mars enlists the aid of an ally, Euphron, the God of Sports and Games. Euphon creates the game of chess and designs a beautiful and elaborate board and chess set for Mars to give to Caïssa. In the poem, Mars gains Caïssa’s attention this way and teaches her how to play. As the game progresses, Caïssa’s resistance wears down and in the end, Mars wins more than just the game. But Caïssa wins eternal fame.
…fram’d a tablet of celestial mold,
Inlay’d with squares of silver and of gold;
Then of two metals form’d the warlike band,
That here compact in show of battle stand;
He taught the rules that guide the pensive game,
And call’d it Caissa from the dryad’s name:
(Whence Albion’s sons, who most its praise confess,
Approv’d the play, and nam’d it thoughtful Chess.)
Mars then presents the game of chess to Caissa in an attempt to win her affection.
For chess players, Caissa is often invoked as a source of inspiration or luck, e.g. “Caissa was with me in that game.”
Image: sbchess.sinfree.net
Caissa is also spelled Caïssa.
Caïssa is quite frequently referred to in chess commentary. Garry Kasparov uses this reference now and again, especially in his epic volume My Great Predecessors. It is used as a substitute for being lucky – “Caïssa was with me” – especially in unclear situations, for example in sacrifices. Caïssa as a concept has also been explored by some who seek the evidence of the sacred feminine in chess. The first (Russian) computer program that won the World Computer Chess Championship (in 1974) was also named Caïssa.
On this next link – which will open in a new window – you will also find a bit of info about Caïssa and a link to mythology-images.
The poem is based on Scacchia ludus (‘The Game of Chess’) written in 1510 by Marco Girolamo Vida– an Italian poet and later Bishop of Alba – where the nymph is called Scacchis. Jones also published an English language version of the poem.
CAISSA or
The Game at Chess- a Poem.
(written in the year 1763, by Sir William Jones)
(pronounced ky-eé-sah)
Of armies on the chequer’d field array’d,
And guiltless war in pleasing form display’d;
When two bold kings contend with vain alarms,
In ivory this, and that in ebon arms;
Sing, sportive maids, that haunt the sacred hill
Of Pindus, and the fam’d Pierian rill.
Thou, joy of all below, and all above,
Mild Venus, queen of laughter, queen of love;
Leave thy bright island, where on many a rose
And many a pink thy blooming train repose:
Assist me, goddess! since a lovely pair
Command my song, like thee devinely fair.
Near yon cool stream, whose living waters play,
And rise translucent in the solar ray;
Beneath the covert of a fragrant bower,
Where spring’s nymphs reclin’d in calm retreat,
And envying blossoms crouded round their seat;
Here Delia was enthron’d, and by her side
The sweet Sirena, both in beauty’s pride:
Thus shine two roses, fresh with early bloom,
That from their native stalk dispense perfume;
Their leaves unfolding to the dawning day
Gems of the glowing mead, and eyes of May.
A band of youths and damsels sat around,
Their flowing locks with braided myrtle bound;
Agatis, in the graceful dance admir’d,
And gentle Thyrsis, by the muse inspir’d;
With Sylvia, fairest of the mirthful train;
And Daphnis, doom’d to love, yet love in vain.
Now, whilst a purer blush o’erspreads her cheeks,
With soothing accents thus Sirena speaks:
“The meads and lawns are ting’d with beamy light,
And wakeful larks begin their vocal flight;
Whilst on each bank the dewdrops sweetly smile;
What sport, my Delia, shall the hours beguile?
Whall heavenly notes, prolong’d with various art,
Charm the fond ear, and warm the rapturous heart?
At distance shall we view the sylvan chace?
Or catch with silken lines the finny race?”
Then Delia thus: “Or rather, since we meet
By chance assembled in this cool retreat,
In artful contest let our warlike train
Move well-directed o’er the field preside:
No prize we need, our ardour to inflame;
We fight with pleasure, if we fight for fame.”
The nymph consents: the maids and youths prepare
To view the combat, and the sport to share:
But Daphnis most approv’d the bold design,
Whom Love instructed, and the tuneful Nine.
He rose, and on the cedar table plac’d
A polish’d board, with differing colours grac’d;
Squares eight times eight in equal order lie;
These bright as snow, those dark with sable dye;
Like the broad target by the tortoise born,
Or like the hide by spotted panthers worn.
Then from a chest, with harmless heroes stor’d,
O’er the smooth plain two well-wrought hosts he pour’d;
The champions burn’d their rivals to assail,
Twice eight in black, twice eight in milkwhite mail;
In shape and station different, as in name,
Their motions various, not their power the same.
Say, muse! (for Jove has nought from thee conceal’d)
Who form’d the legions on the level field?
High in the midst the reverend kings appear,
And o’er the rest their pearly scepters rear:
One solemn step, majestically slow,
They gravely move, and shun the dangerous foe;
If e’er they call, the watchful subjects spring,
And die with rapture if they save their king;
On him the glory of the day depends,
He once imprison’d, all the conflict ends.
The queens exulting near their consorts stand;
Each bears a deadly falchion in her hand;
Now here, now there, they bound with furious pride,
And thin the trmbling ranks from side to side;
Swift as Camilla flying o’er the main,
Or lightly skimming o’er the dewy plain:
Fierce as they seem, some bold Plebeian spear
May pierce their shield, or stop their full career.
The valiant guards, their minds on havock bent,
Fill the next squares, and watch the royal tent;
Tho’ weak their spears, tho’ dwarfish be their height,
Compact they move, the bulwark of the fight,
To right and left the martial wings display
Their shining arms, and stand in close array.
Behold, four archers, eager to advance,
Send the light reed, and rush with sidelong glance;
Through angles ever they assault the foes,
True to the colour, which at first they chose.
Then four bold knights for courage-fam’d and speed,
Each knight exalted on a prancing steed:
Their arching course no vulgar limit knows,
Tranverse they leap, and aim insidious blows:
Nor friends, nor foes, their rapid force restrain,
By on quick bound two changing squares they gain;
From varing hues renew the fierce attack,
And rush from black to white, from white to black.
Four solemn elephants the sides defend;
Benearth the load of ponderous towers they bend:
In on unalter’d line they tempt the fight;
Now crush the left, and now o’erwhelm the right.
Bright in the front the dauntless soldiers raise
Their polish’d spears; their steely helmets blaze:
Prepar’d they stand the daring foe to strike,
Direct their progress, but their wounds oblique.
Now swell th’ embattled troups with hostile rage,
And clang their shields, impatient to engage;
When Daphnis thus: A varied plain behold,
Where fairy kings their mimick tents unfold,
As Oberon, and Mab, his wayward queen,
Lead forth their armies on the daisied green.
No mortal hand the wond’rous sport contriv’d,
By gods invents, and from gods deriv’d;
From them the British nymphs receiv’d the game,
And play ech morn beneath the crystal Thame;
Hear then the tale, which they to Colin sung,
As idling o’er the lucid wave he hung.
A lovely dryad rang’d the Thracian wild,
Her air enchanting, and her aspect mild:
To chase the bounding hart was all her joy,
Averse from Hymen, and the Cyprian boy;
O’er hills an valleys was her beauty fam’d,
And fair Caissa was the damsel nam’d.
Mars saw the maid; with deep surprize he gaz’d,
Admir’d her shape, and every gesture prais’d:
His golden bow the child of Venus bent,
And through his breast a piecing arrow sent.
The reed was hope; the feathers, keen desire;
The point, her eyes; the barbs, ethereal fire.
Soon to the nymph he pour’d his tender strain;
The haughtly dryad scorn’d his amorous pain:
He told his woes, where’er the maid he found,
And still he press’d, yet still Caissa frown’d;
But ev’n her frowns (ah, what might smiles have done!)
Fir’d all his soul, and all his senses won.
He left his car, by raging tigers drawn,
And lonely wander’d o’er the dusky lawn;
Then lay desponding near a murmuring stream,
And fair Caissa was his plaintive theme.
A naiad heard him from her mossy bed,
And through the crystal rais’d her placid head;
Then mildly spake: “O thou, whom love inspires,
Thy tears will nourish, not allay thy fires.
The smiling blossoms drink the pearly dew;
And ripening fruit the feather’d race pursue;
The scaly shoals devour the silken weeds;
Love on our sighs, and on our sorrow feeds.
Then weep no more; but, ere thou canst obtain
Balm to thy wounds, and solace to thy pain,
With gentle art thy martial look beguile;
Be mild, and teach thy rugged brow to smile.
Canst thou no play, no soothing game devise;
To make thee lovely in the damsel’s eyes?
So may thy prayers assuage the scornful dame,
And ev’n Caissa own a mutual frame.”
Kind nymph, said Mars, thy counsel I approve;
Art, only art, her ruthless breast can move.
but when? or how? They dark discourse explain:
So may thy stream ne’er swell with gushing rain;
So may thy waves in one pure current flow,
And flowers eternal on thy border blow!”
To whom the maid replied with smiling mien:
“Above the palace of the Paphian queen
Love’s brother dwells, a boy of graceful port,
By gods nam’d Euphron, and by mortals Sport:
Seek him; to faithful ears unfold thy grief,
And hope, ere morn return, a sweet relief.
His temple hangs below the azure skies;
Seest thou yon argent cloud? ‘Tis there it lies.”
This said, she sunk beneath the liquid plain,
And sought the mansion of her blue-hair’d train.
Meantime the god, elate with heart-felt joy,
Had reach’d the temple of the sportful boy;
He told Caissa’s charms, his kindled fire,
The naiad’s counsel, and his warm desire.
“Be swift, he added, give my passion aid;
A god requests.” – He spake, and Sport obey’d.
He fram’d a tablet of celestial mold,
Inlay’d with squares of silver and ofgold;
Then of two metals form’d the warlike band,
That here compact in show of battle stand;
He taught the rules that guide the pensive game,
And call’d it Cassa from the dryad’s name:
(Whence Albion’s sons, who most its praise confess,
Approv’d the play, and nam’d it thoughtful Chess.)
The god delighted thank’d indulgent Sport;
Then grasp’d the board, and left his airy court.
With radiant feet he pierc’d the clouds; nor stay’d,
Till in the woods he saw the beauteous maid:
Tir’d with the chase the damsel set reclin’d,
Her girdle loose, her bosom unconfin’d.
He took the figure of a wanton faun,
And stood before her on the flowery lawn;
Then show’d his tablet: pleas’d the nymph survey’d
The lifeless troops in glittering ranks display’d;
She ask’d the wily sylvan to explain
The various motions of the splendid train;
With eager heart she caught the winning lore,
And thought ev’n Mars less hateful than before;
“What spell,” said she, “deceiv’d my careless mind?
The god was fair, and I was most unkind.”
She spoke, and saw the changing faun assume
A milder aspect, and a fairer bloom;
His wreathing horns, that from his temples grew,
Flow’d down in curls of bright celestial hue;
The dappled hairs, that veil’d his loveless face,
Blaz’d into beams, and show’d a heavenly grace;
The shaggy hide, that mantled o’er his breast,
Was soften’d to a smooth transparent vest,
That through its folds his vigorous bosom show’d,
And nervous limbs, where youthful ardour glow’d:
(Had Venus view’d him in those blooming charms,
Not Vulcan’s net had forc’d her from his arms.)
With goatlike feet no more he mark’d the ground,
But braided flowers his silken sandals bound.
The dryad blush’d; and, as he press’d her, smil’d,
Whilst all his cares one tender glance beguil’d.
He ends: To arms, the maids and striplings cry;
To arms, the groves and sounding vales reply.
Sirena led to war the swarthy crew,
And Delia those that bore the lily’s hue.
Who first, O muse, began the bold attack;
The white refulgent, or the mournful black?
Fair Delia first, as favoring lots ordain,
Moves her pale legions tow’rd the sable train:
From thought to thought her lively fancy flies,
Whilst o’er the board she darts her sparkling eyes.
At length the warrior moves with haughty strides;
Who from the plain the snowy king divides:
With equal haste his swarthy rival bounds;
His quiver rattles, and his buckler sounds:
Ah! hapless youths, with fatal warmth you burn;
Laws, ever fix’d, forbid you to return.
then from the wing a short-liv’d spearman flies,
Unsafely bold, and see! he dies, he dies:
The dark-brow’d hero, with one vengeful blow
Of life and place deprives his ivory foe.
Now rush both armies o’er the burnish’d field,
Hurl the swift dart, and rend the bursting shield.
Here furious knights on fiery coursers prance,
but see! the white-rob’d Amazon beholds
Where the dark host its opening van unfolds:
Soon as her eye discerns the hostile maid,
By ebon shield, and ebon helm betray’d;
Seven squares she passed with majestic mien,
And stands triumphant o’er the falling queen.
Perplex’d, and sorrowing at his consort’s fate,
The monarch burn’d with rage, despair, and hate:
Swift from his zone th’ avenging blade he drew,
And, mad with ire, the proud virago slew.
Meanwhile sweet smiling Delia’s wary king
Retir’d from fight behind the circling wing.
Long time the war in equal balance hung;
Till, unforseen, an ivory courser sprung,
And, wildly prancing in an evil hour,
Attack’d at once the monarch and the tower:
Sirena blush’d; for, as the rules requir’d,
Her injur’d sovereign to his tent retir’d;
Whilst her lost castle leaves his threatening height,
And adds new glory to th’ exulting knight.
At this, pale fear oppress’d the drooping maid,
And on her cheek the rose began to fade:
A crystal tear, that stood prepar’d to fall,
She wip’d in silence, and conceal’d from all;
From all but Daphnis; He remark’d her pain,
And saw the weakness of her ebon train;
Then gently spoke: “Let me your loss supply,
And either nobly win, or nobly dir;
Me oft has fortune crown’d with fair success,
And led to triumph in the fields ofChess.”
He said: the willing nymph her place resign’d,
And sat at distance on the bank reclin’d.
Thus when Minerva call’d her chief to arms,
And Troy’s high turret shook with dire alarms,
The Cyprian goddess wounded left the plain,
And Mars engag’d a mightier force in vain.
Strait Daphnis leads his squadron to the field;
(To Delia’s arms ’tis ev’n a joy to yield.)
Each guileful snare, and subtle art he tries,
But finds his heart less powerful than her eyes:
Wisdom and strength superior charms obey;
And beauty, beauty, wins the long-fought day.
By this a hoary chief, on slaughter bent,
Approach’d the gloomy king’s unguarded tent;
Where, late, his consort spread dismay around,
Now her dark corse lies bleeding on the ground.
Hail, happy youth! they glories not unsung
Shall live eternal on the poet’s tongue;
For thou shalt soon receive a splendid change,
And o’er the plain with nobler fury range.
The swarthy leaders saw the storm impend,
And strove in vain their sovereign to defend:
Th’ invader wav’d his silver lance in air,
And flew like lightning to the fatal square;
His limbs dilated in a moment grew
To stately height, and widen’d to the view;
More fierce his look, more lion-like his mien,
Sublime he mov’d, and seem’d a warrior queen.
As when the sage on some unfolding plant
Has caught a wandering fly, or frugal ant,
His hand the microscopic frame applies,
And lo! a bright hair’d monster meets his eyes;
He sees new plumes in slender cases roll’d;
Here stain’d with azure, there bedropp’d with gold;
Thus, on the alter’d chief both armies gaze,
And both the kings are fix’d with deep amaze.
The sword, which arm’d the snow-white maid before,
He noew assumes, and hurls the spear no more;
The springs indignant on the dark-rob’d band,
And knights and archers feel his deadly hand.
Now flies the monarch of the sable shield,
His legions vanquish’d, o’er the lonely field:
So when the morn, by rosy coursers drawn,
With pearls and rubies sows the verdant lawn,
Whilst each pale star from heaven’s blue vault retires,
Still Venus gleams, and last of all expires.
He hears, where’er he moves, the dreadful sound;
Check the deep vales, and Check the woods rebound.
No place remains: he sees the certain fate,
And yields his throne to ruin, and Checkmate.
A brighter blush o’erspreads the damsel’s cheeks,
And mildly thus the conquer’d stripling speaks:
“A double triumph, Delia, hast thou won,
By Mars protected, and by Venus’ son;
The first with conquest crowns thy matchless art,
The second points those eyes at Daphnis’ heart.”
She smil’d; the nymphs and amorous youths arise,
And own that beauty gain’d the nobler prize.
Low in their chest the mimic troops were lay’d,
And peaceful slept the sable hero’s shade
I think Caïssa was with me in this game…haha.. I played against one of my all time favourite players. We always have five games going at any one time and I always try to save my Knights. In this end position, you can see why I do save them whenever I can. I know most players prefer Bishops, but I always prefer my Knights! See the pgn-file which I’ve copied here to look at.
Now, for another all-time-favourite…the music of Ravel…the ostinato from Bolero, though I do apologise for the funny sound you will hear.
Boléro became Ravel’s most famous composition, much to the surprise of the composer, who had predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it. It is usually played as a purely orchestral work, only rarely being staged as a ballet.
This entry is like scrambled eggs! ..some English..some Afrikaans… some reading…some listening…some chess, some poetry, make your pick and choose what you want to do…and I hope you find something good here….I’m going to explain in short what the magazine is about. This is a South African family magazine, since the 1900’s and I’ve blogged about it before, but want to blog more and focus more on poetry that was published in these issues and about the fashion of the time and whatever you’ll find here…it’s really a mix! The three issues are in this post as PDF files if you want to download it and my other entry is only in English, if you want to click on the link to read the English-entry posted in 2007.
You will find a poem by Goethe.. The Fisherman…translated in Afrikaans in 1915/6 – by someone. The poet’s name was unfortunately not published, only initials, at least it said that the poem was translated from the German-poem. The poems in this entry are written in Afrikaans, but Afrikaans was still busy developing and you will spot the similarities to the Dutch Language in the words/phrases. By looking at these images you can get a pretty good idea of what the fashion of the time was like, the captions with the images will also guide you and you’ve thought that my blog is a chess blog only…hehe..actually, my blog says…anything/everything and chess! But as always, I will try and link something in my entry to chess, if possible! So…here it goes…some extracts of sites – links which you can follow too – that tells us that chess was a game that was enjoyed by South Africans too…from early years on….and for those of you who want to listen so some beautiful Afrikaans music…there’s a song for you to listen to…called..”Korreltjie Sand” – (grain of sand), the poem of Ingrid Jonker…as sung by Chris Chameleon. The following three links are pdf’s which you can download and it’s old Huisgenoot-mags. All the links will open in a new window. These files are quite large, they do take a few seconds to download. Wees geduldig! huisgenoot-julie-1916
This link is from my blogwhere I’ve previously posted in English about Ingrid Jonker with external links you can enjoy. She comitted suicide by walking into the sea.
By downloading the pdf-format of the old Huisgenoot issues, you can compare the covers which is interesting to see how much it’s changed. Even the format has changed over the years from a quite larger format to what it is now.
At the bottom of this link, – for people who want to do some “listening” only…there are some music files…some music from the good old “past”…I know the South Africans reading here – especially if you’re not “at home” – will appreciate these songs… and if you want to download the songs in a zip folder, go to this blog and voila! music-a-la-in-a-jiffy…or is it in a “zip”-py! For English “foreigners” reading here…”Rabbit” was one of South Africa’s rock band of the mid 70’s and they had a big hit…”Charlie”…read about Trevor Rabin…one member of the band…and why he’s now in Hollywood! You can listen to Charlie too…and a few other brilliant songs…all by Saffa-artists. Do enjoy! The first song at the bottom of this post, is an Afrikaans love song though..so go on, play it for your girl friend/boy friend…the title of the song…something like..”Are you still thinking of me”?
If you can’t read the following paragraph…it is Afrikaans! Ek het in Sept 2007 ‘n blog-inskrywing gemaak oor die 1916-Huisgenoot en hier sal jy ook die skakel kry na Tukkies waar ek die Huisgenoot-publikasies gekry het. Dit is in PDF-formaat en die skakels sal in ‘n nuwe bladsy oopmaak. Elkeen van die publikasies is sowat 8 MB en neem ‘n paar sekondes om af te laai en oop te maak. Wees maar bietjie geduldig. Daar is nog ‘n paar gediggies vanuit hierdie toeka-se-dae-uitgawes wat ek sal byvoeg met die tyd. Ek hoop julle geniet die musiek hier ook!
Chess played in South Africa in the early years: Organised club league chess is over 100 years old in Cape Town. Cape Town chess club, the oldest in South Africa (founded in 1885) together with Woodstock, Tokai and the YMCA club formed a union of clubs in 1907. Each club entered one team in the league at a fee of 1 pound-1-0 per team in the same year.
Teams of five competed in the inaugural competition. Cape Town was expected to win and did so but only by one point. In the double round robin they scored 10 match points, Woodstock 9, YMCA 6 and Tokai 0. Cape Town sensationally lost in the opening round to Woodstock, a club barely a year old, and had to field to their strongest possible team for the replay which they won by a single point. Source: Chess for all. The link will open in a new window. Some Chess records …about South Africa… Longest running correspondence chess rivalry. Reinhart Straszacker and Hendrick van Huyssteen, both of South Africa, played their first game of correspondence chess in 1946. They played for over 53 years, until Straszacker died in 1999. They played 112 games, with both men winning 56 games each. Source… https://www.chess.com/article/view/records-in-chess The Chessmaster Borislav Kosti toured South Africa in the 1920’s. I’ve lost my original link about him, but found another link…just after his image…and here’s a wiki-link too..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borislav_Kosti%C4%87
Bora (Borislav) Kosti – a Chess Grandmaster of the 1920’s
Bora Kostic was born on 24 February 1887 in Vrsac. His first chess steps he started when he was ten, and as early as he was in grammar school he was one of the best chess-players in Vrsac. His biggest competitor from the grammar school days was five years older, Sava Gerdec, who taught him the chess theory. Their fight for the chess reputation was finished when Kostic went to study to Budapest. He finished Oriental trade academy there, but without neglecting chess.
His first great chess result was achieved in Budapest 1909, when he won at the tournament of the greatest Hungarian chess amateurs. This victory opened the door of the Vienna chess society to young Kostic, and that was the chess metropolis of that time.
In 1911 he achieved sensational victory in the match with the American champion, Frank Marshall. His first real “baptism of fire” Bora Kostic had that same year at the International grand master tournament Karsbad (Karlove Vari). In extraordinarily strong competition he won the title of the international master. Then followed the visit to Nordic countries where he won over the champions of Danmark and Sweden, as well as the very powerful Rudolf Spielmann.
In 1913 he moved to the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires where he worked as the chess lecturer at the Military academy. He had been cruising on one Argetine warship across many seas. In Argentina he won in the matches with all their best players, and also the champion of this country, Roland Ilja, 6:0.
In 1915 he went to New York and started the chess tour from the east to the west coast. On that famous six-month-long tour, Bora Kostic achieved the world record in the number of played games on simultaneous exhibitions. Out of 3281played games he lost only 112, and made draw in 237. During his stay in America he visited Nikola Tesla, while he was the chess teacher to the famous tenor singer Enrico Caruso.Playing numerous games and tournaments, master tournament of the “Manhattan chess” club being the most famous in 1918, Bora Kostic was ranked immediately after Capablanca on the whole American continent. Especially because their four games played at two tournaments ended draw. That was why their match in 1919 happened, when the genius Capablanca won with the great result.
In the same year he returned to Europe and in Hastings took the second place after Capablanca. The next year in Hastings he took the first place with 100% gained points, which nobody repeated during the long tradition of this tournament. Then came important tournament results: Gothenburg 1920 – IV place, Budapest 1921 – III-IV place, Hague 1921 IV-V place. In England he played simultaneous games and blind productions, animating the chess world with enthusiasm.
In Yugoslavia of that time the rivalry between dr Milan Vidmar and Bora Kostic was evident. Unfortunately, the match, the result of which should have shown who should have been given the title of the Yugoslav champion, was never organized.
Bora Kostic especially liked to travel and see new countries and customs, but also to play at the chess tournaments during those travels. So he organized world chess tour which lasted from 11 November 1923 to 28 May 1926. As he himself said to his friend Kosta Jovanovic immediately before the trip: “I want to see the world, those parts of the world that were only the objects of my imagination. I believe that on that trip there will be a lot of interest for chess. ” That was the mission which brought commercial success of great scale to the world chess. Certain Yugoslav master, demonstrating chess on, so to speak every step, in different countries, talks about his homeland about which many people have never even heard before. First he set off to Australia and New Zealand. Then over South Africa overland to Kenia, where the famous match on the equator was played. Bora Kostic was on the northern hemisphere, and his opponent on the south. His next stop was India, where he was at the end met by maharaja from Patiale (Schandagar), who organized tournaments on the hights of the Himalayas. From there he went to Nepal and on Tibet, and then to the island of Java in Indonesia. From Java he crossed to Sumatra where he played with the chief of the Bataki tribe. From there he moved to the Philipines, and then to Hong Kong and China. From China he moved to the Soviet Union from where his return to Vrsac began. Through Siberia, over Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Sverdlovsk, Moskow, Odessa, Leningrad to Riga. Everywhere he played simultaneous matches, blind games, matches, and as he himself confessed the greatest number of lost games he had, were played just in the Soviet Union. Finally, at the end of May 1926, he arrived to Vrsac and ended the first part of his trip around the world at the chess-board. Tireless chess traveller, he put foundations for the future chess links among the peoples of the whole world. …
First chess Olympics were played in 1927. godine. Bora Kostic played at the first board of the Yugoslav representation and won 8,5 points out of 15 games. The following year he won in Trencanske Toplice, and in 1930 he was IV in Nice. In the same year he continued his trip around the world. He went to Mexico where he stayed eight months. From there he went to Cuba, then to America, and came back from there in the middle of 1931 to arrive to the Olympics which took place in Prague. On that Olympics Yugosalvia was IV, the contribution of Bora Kostic on the third board was very important.Then came extraordinarily strong tournament in Bled , which was marked by the world champion Alekhin.
The first Yugoslav championships took place in 1935 in Belgrade. Bora Kostic shared the first place with Vasja Pirc. Bora Kostic achieved the greatest tournament result in 1938 in Ljubljana at the Yugoslav championships. With 10,5 points out of 15 games he won over the best Yugoslav players, as well as over Szabo, Tartakower and Steiner.
At the beginning of World War II the chess activity stopped for all those who did not want to play in Nazi Germany. Among them was also Bora Kostic who spent some time in the concentration camp in Veliki Beckerek (Zrenjanin) because of his patriotism. After the war he took part at several championships and smaller tournaments, and the last competition at which he won was the tournament of veterans – Zurich 1962.
Bora Kostic died in Belgrade, 3 November 1963. Perhaps, when we take into consideration only the objective power of some players, Uncle Bora would not be ranked in the world top. It may happen that his rich talent has worn out on his road filled with all kinds of events. The circumstances he lived under later did not allow him to fullfill his creative potentials to their full extent. However, as the chess-player he was a unique, extraordinary person. He devoted his life to chess and he was thrilled with it to the end of his life.The magic of the chess game took him to the great life adventure – to the long journey through the exotic, in that time unknown world. Source: See the link by his photo- it will open in a new window. You can play through his games on the link too.
Mode : Neklyne en haarstyle / Fashion: Necklines and hairstyles
Girl's dress
Marriage-couple
Mode/Fashion
Modes van 1916/Fashion 1916
Akteurs/Actors
Chris Chameleon singing “Korreltjie Sand” – (Grain of Sand)
Korreltjie Sand – lyrics
korreltjie korreltjie sand
klippie gerol in my hand
klippie gesteek in my sak
word korreltjie klein en plat
sonnetjie groot in die blou
ek maak net ‘n ogie van jou
blink in my korreltjie klippie
dit is genoeg vir die rukkie pyltjie geveer en verskiet
liefde verklein in die niet
timmerman bou aan ‘n kis
ek maak my gereed vir die niks
korreltjie klein is my woord
korreltjie niks is my dood
korreltjie klein
korreltjie sand kindjie wat skreeu uit die skoot
niks in die wêreld is groot
stilletjies lag nou en praat
stilte in doodloopstraat
wêreldjie rond en aardblou
korreltjie maak ek van jou
huisie met deur en twee skrefies
tuintjie met blou madeliefies pyltjie geveer en verskiet
liefde verklein in die niet
timmerman bou aan ‘n kis
ek maak my gereed vir die niks
korreltjie klein is my woord
korreltjie niks is my dood
korreltjie klein
korreltjie sand (5x)
You can read about Chris Chameleon on this link which will open in a new link.
The Original poem
Korreltjie niks is my dood Ingrid Jonker (1933-1965)
Korreltjie korreltjie sand
klippie gerol in my hand
klippie gesteek in my sak
word korreltjie klein en plat
Sonnetjie groot in die blou
korreltjie maak ek van jou
blink in my korreltjie klippie
dit is genoeg vir die rukkie
Kindjie wat skreeu uit die skoot
niks in die wêreld is groot
stilletjies lag nou en praat
stilte in doodloopstraat
Wêreldjie rond en aardblou
ek maak net ‘n ogie van jou
huisie met deur en twee skrefies
tuintjie met blou madeliefies
Pyltjie geveer in verskiet
liefde verklein in die niet
Timmerman bou aan ‘n kis
Ek maak my gereed vir die niks
Korreltjie klein is my woord
Korreltjie niks is my dood
Kontras Wit is die wêreld,
wit van die sneeuw.
Bokant die water
sweef daar ‘n meeuw;
blouw is die hemel,
nergens ‘n wolk:
oral is daar vrede
rondom die kolk.
Spierwitte wêreld,
diep in jouw siel
sug jij en smag jij
om te verniel;
skijn is jouw vrede,
donker jouw hart:
jij is maar blij oor
ander se smart
A D Keet: Amsterdam, Kersmis 1914
Digter Is Hij
Digter is hij, die digters-taal
Diep uit die grond van sijn hart kan haal;
En hij voel in sijn hart ‘n heerlike drang
Om ‘n vlugtige stemming in woorde te vang.
Digter is hij, die verse maak–
Verse, wat duisende harte kan raak.
Maar hij weet nie, waar hij die mag van haal:
Dis ‘n gawe, wat bo uit die hemel daal.
Digter is hij, die oog en oor
Tref met ‘n pragtige woordekoor;
En hij skep sijn lied soos ‘n vooltjie vrij,
Die sijn hele siel aan die wêreld belij.
Digter is hij, die sing en sing,
Fraai als ‘n vooltjie, wat vreugde bring:
Want hij hef sijn stem op ‘n lieflike maat
Van die môre vroeg tot die awend laat.
Digter is hij, die deur en deur
Voel, wat rondom en in hom gebeur;
Die sijn siel se gevoelens uit kan giet
In ‘n lewende, sprekende, roerende lied.
A D Keet
Wagter op die Toring
I (Januarie 1913)
Wagter op die toring,
sê, wat sien jij daar?
Ek sien duisend-duisendtalle
voor die gragte, voor die walle,
om die vesting aan te val.
Maar geen grag sal hul oor steek nie,
en geen poort sal hul deur breek nie,
want die burgers op die mure
staan getrouw en pal.
Wagter op die toring,
sê, is daar gevaar?
Is eie strijd dan uitgestrede,
dat die vijandsvlag in vrede
oor ons eie vesting waai?
Ag! die wagter lê in bande,
neergevel in bitt’re skande,
want die burgers op die mure
het die burg verraai.
II
(Junie 1915)
Wagter, die nag is donker,
donker en o, so bang:
vijande buite, wat raas en woed,
vriende gekeerd teen hul eie bloed,
en oor die burgers ‘n doodse slaap–
wagter, die nag was bang.
Trouw was jouw wag op die voorste wal,
helder en luid jouw basuingeskal,
maar oor die burgers ‘n doodse slaap–
wagter, hoe lang, hoe lang?
Wagter, siedaar, die skadewee
versmelt als, ‘n ligte skim
Hoor ‘n geruis in die beendre! die dood
voel nuwe lewe ontkiem in haar skoot.
Strijders, ontwaakte, die swaard ontbloot!
Wagter, ‘n goue môreson
verrijs aan die oosterkim.
—H A FAGAN
Die Visser
(Uit die Duits van Goethe)
Die water ruis, die water rol:
‘n visser sonder smart
sit daar te hengel vredevol,
ja koel tot in sijn hart.
En wijl hij loer en wijl hij sit,
deel sig die vloed in twee:
‘n vogtig meerwijf, haelwit,
stijg uit die siedende see.
Sij sing tot hom, sij spreek tot hom;
“Wat lok jij uit mijn skoot
“met mensekuns en menselis
“mijn kinders tot die dood?
“Wis jij hoe rijk die vissies is
“hier onder in die see,
“dan sou jij afdaal en gewis
“ook vind die ware vree.
“Moet nie die son en maan hul rig
“vir laafnis tot die vloed?
“Toon golwe-aad’mend hul gesig
“nie tweemaal skoner gloed?
“Ag jij die diepe hemel lig,
“die vog-beglansde blouw?
“Lok nie jouw eie aangesig
“jou in die eeuw’ge douw?”
Die water ruis, die water rol;
benat sijn naakte voet;
sijn hart word van verlange vol
als hij ‘n minnegroet.
Sij spreek tot hom, sij sing tot hom:
weerstaan kon hij nie meer;
half trek sij hom, half sink hij in,
en niemand sien hom weer.
J J S
Aan Mijn Vaderland
Trouwe liefde al mijn dae,
sweer ek jou met hand en hart!
Al jouw vreug is mijn behae,
en jouw leed mijn diepste smart!
Want mijn alles, selfs mijn lewe,
dank ek jou, mijn vaderland:
dis van jou mij vrij gegewe,
uitgereik met milde hand.
Daarom sing ek jou mijn sange
en mijn lied’re vir altijd;
daarom is ook mijn verlange
en mijn strewe jou gewijd.
Maar ons is nie net verenig
als jij in die sonskijn baai:
ek wil ook jouw smarte lenig,
als die stormwind anstig waai.
En nie net met woordeklanke
is ek tot jouw diens bereid:
met mijn daad is jij te danke
in jouw nood en angs en strijd.
Ek sal pal staan, tot ek sterwe
teen tiranne, wat jou druk:
tronk, verbanning wil ek erwe,
eer ek voor hul gruwels buk.
Is die nagte soms ook duister,
eind’lik daag dit in die oos,
en die dag vol glans en luister
bring die matte strijder troos.
Trouwe liefde al mijn dae.
sweer ek jou met hand en hart!
Al jouw vreug is mijn behae,
en jouw leed mijn diepste smart!
W.K. van Elssen
WINTER
Die eikebome
staan bleek en kaal,
en die popliere
als as so vaal,
Oor tuin en velde
kom elke nag
‘n kille laken
van spierwit prag.
Die newels drijwe
die vleie oor
en keer die sonskijn
aan al kant voor.
Die awendwindjie
speel langs die hang,
druk ijsig soene
op elke wang.
Dis oral aaklige!
Natuur is dood;
en ook mijn harte
word swaar als lood.
Maar nee, mijn liefste!
ek kan nie treur:
jouw liefde lewe
om op te beur.
Jouw oë melde
in minnegloed
waar wintersweeë
vergeefs teen woed.
Dit wil mijn siele
verwarm, verblij,
en vir die lente
reeds voorberei.
W K van Elssen
THE FISHERMAN.
THE waters rush’d, the waters rose,
A fisherman sat by,
While on his line in calm repose
He cast his patient eye.
And as he sat, and hearken’d there,
The flood was cleft in twain,
And, lo! a dripping mermaid fair
Sprang from the troubled main.
She sang to him, and spake the while:
“Why lurest thou my brood,
With human wit and human guile
From out their native flood?
Oh, couldst thou know how gladly dart
The fish across the sea,
Thou wouldst descend, e’en as thou art,
And truly happy be!
“Do not the sun and moon with grace
Their forms in ocean lave?
Shines not with twofold charms their face,
When rising from the wave?
The deep, deep heavens, then lure thee not,–
The moist yet radiant blue,–
Not thine own form,–to tempt thy lot
‘Midst this eternal dew?”
The waters rush’d, the waters rose,
Wetting his naked feet;
As if his true love’s words were those,
His heart with longing beat.
She sang to him, to him spake she,
His doom was fix’d, I ween;
Half drew she him, and half sank he,
And ne’er again was seen.
Goethe: 1779
An Afrikaans love song…
Luister na “Dink jy darem nog aan my”
Sias Reyneke was member of “Groep Twee” – (Group Two)
Joy: Paradise Road
Joy
Master Jack
It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.
You taught me all I know and I never look back.
It’s a very strange world and I thank you, Master Jack.
You took a coloured ribbon from out of the sky,
and taught me how to use it as the years went by.
To tie up all your problems and make them believe.
And then to sell them to the people in the street.
It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.
You taught me all I know and I never look back.
It’s a very strange world and I thank you, Master Jack.
I saw right thru the way you started teaching me now.
So someday soon you could get to use me somehow.
I thank you very much you know you’ve been very kind.
But, I’d better move along before you change my mind
It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack
No hard feelings if I never come back
It’s a very strange world and I thank you, Master Jack
You taught me all the things the way you’d like ’em to be.
But I’d like to see if other people agree.
It’s all very interesting the way you describe
But I’d like to see the world thru my own eyes.
It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.
No hard feelings if I never come back
You’re a very strange man and I thank you, Master Jack.
You’re a very strange man and I thank you, Master Jack.
You’re a very strange man, aren’t you, Master Jack?
Four Jacks and a Jill with “Master Jack”
http://www.mnet.co.za/Mnet/Shows/carteblanche/story.asp?Id=2876 Rabbit…South Africa’s rock group from the 70’s with Duncan Faure, Trevor Rabin, Dave Matthews…read the next article about Trevor! Read this article about Trevor Rabin… now in Hollywood…writing the score for Hollywood movies…-follow the link to Mnet.
He wrote the score for Hollywood movies like Enemy of the State, Armageddon and National Treasure and won more awards than he can count, including several Grammies.
It started off with classical piano lessons as a boy. ? He then embarked on a lifelong love affair with the guitar. The name is Trevor Rabin, South Africa’s celebrated guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer.
You might remember him from Rabbit or Yes, but Trevor Rabin has left the rock stage for the lights of Hollywood. He has written the score for 25 movies.
Here at his Los Angeles home studio, he creates the stuff Hollywood dreams are made of.
A stone’s throw from the houses of the producers and actors he composes for, Trevor is crafting away at the music of yet another feature film – Glory Road, to be released soon
If you would watch or listen to a movie without the music, you would be amazed as to what a difference the score makes. And that is where Trevor has found a new profession – playing with our emotions. Continue reading on the link in the start of this article…and now you can listen to..Charlie!
For the Official site of Corus, please click here.For Live Games, click on the Corus-logo on the side bar of my blog or click here. If you click on the images, you will get a larger view. All images are from the Official site and all links will open in a new window. At the bottom of this post you can play through the games of some players in Group A.
Corus Schedule: Grand Masters Group A rounds 1 to 6
To see the schedule for the other rounds, please click here for rounds 7-13. Please click HERE to play throughthe game of Carlsen vs Radjabov. Carlsen played white in round 1 against Radjabov. The game will open in a new window.
Corus Group A Round 1 results
On the link here, the site of Chess.com,you can play through the games of Aronian,L (2750) vs. Wang Yue (2739); Kamsky,G (2725) vs. Adams,Mi (2712); Van Wely,L (2625) vs. Dominguez Perez,L (2717); Stellwagen,D (2612) vs. Movsesian,S (2751); Carlsen,M (2776) vs. Radjabov,T (2761); Karjakin,Sergey (2706) vs. Morozevich,A (2771) and Ivanchuk,V (2779) vs. Smeets,J (2601). All the games from Round 1, Corus Group A. The link will open in a new window.
Corus Group A Round 2 results
For the games of round 2please click on this link to play through the games. Please click on the image for a larger view of the results of round 2.
Carlsen round 12..end position and move list.
Sergey – Corus round 12 – final position and move list Play through games on this link played in round 12 and view the standings after round 12 too.
Sergey Karjakin, winner of Corus 2009
Corus Final Results…please click on the image for a larger view – image: chess.com
Sergey Karjakin, round 13 final position and move list
Classical music and chess are two of my “melodies of love”..if you know what I mean..and today I want to share Dolannes Melody, by the master himself, the French artist, Jean-Claude Borelly! If you’re a chess player, try playing a game while listening to this music, you surely will have a good game. Wasn’t it Philidor that was a composer too…and a world chess champion! Today’s chess game, which I played on Chesscube, was really one of “those” games – for me…a plain silly start. No excuses. Sometimes you play (well me, not you) and you make certain moves and you don’t know what on earth caused you those moves. If you look at these images, you will see what I mean. You see, this is “typical-me”..Frailty, thy name is woman!) not thinking about the game, but just playing for the fun of it..and then, suddenly, the tables get turned…and your opponent refused to move as he knows he’s in trouble…and..”The rest is silence.” I wonder if you will identify some quotes I’ve used here and know from which play? You can now play through two games interactively. Down in this post you will find the links to play through it. Game 2 is a game I’ve played earlier tonight on Chesscube. My opponent is a 1708 strong player. I beat him in our first round and in the second I lost due to a silly Knight-move! If it wasn’t for my Knight-move, I could have beaten him, but that shows you again.. absent-minded-me! Please click on the images for a larger view.
You will see how he used his Knight (my favourite piece – see how I used my Knights later on!) to “spoil” it for me! –“O! what a rogue and peasant slave am I!”
–“Let me be cruel, not unnatural; I will speak daggers to her, but use none.”
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
..hmmm…first Knight to move in with a Knight-fork…”Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me. You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery.”
..and my second ready to slay his King..another Knight-fork…gmf! that will teach him to chase my Dame around and slaughter my men! –“The rest is silence..
And my dearest opponent begged me to stop..and on his knees he prayed his last prayers…his poor King in rags! –“The play’s the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King!” –“Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
Do you think it’s true what Kasparov said?
Game 1: Please click HERE to play through the game. The game will open in a new window.
Update: Game 3…Another game I played on Chess cube….my opponent’s time ran out…although he was about to lose the game too…please click HERE to play through the game where I played white. Out of desperation he forced me to capture his Queen in order to have a lost myself, but I didn’t mind that much as I knew I had a Pawn-advantage. I loved the position of my Knights during the middle-game as I could use them effectively.
Now, for the climax! Do enjoy Dolannes Melody and if you like it, I’ve got a link – Grumpy Boss’s blog – where you can download it from rapidshare. But you also have to download the Rar-software to unzip it…good luck, it’s worth doing it for a wonderful piece of music like this, and you not only get the one track, but the complete album! Follow the link. Dolannes Melody
Jean-Claude Borelly
African Junior Chess Championhips 2008_2009… Please scroll down a little bit..I do apologise for this mixed post! I didn’t know I was going to have time to blog the African Juniors and didn’t want to start a new entry…
Melissa Greeff and Kareim Wageih - Winners of the African Junior CC 2008_9
Finally I got my picture! Image from the Official site of Chessa. Melissa Greeff – from South Africa and Kareim Wageih – from Egypt, are the winners of the 2008_9 African Junior Chess Championship that took place in South Africa. For a larger view you may want to click on the image. See more images at the bottom of this post and 5 pages of lovely photos on the official site (link in this post).
I’m not in a mood to explain anything about my own games in this post. Ask me why…and I’ll tell you it’s because of politiciants ranted about what was written in a book they’ve read, believed all the rubbish and think they know everything after what some stupid guy wrote! (ok, that was a couple of years ago, but still…the idea! who says what was was written in that book was the truth anyway! You should go and visit a place to see what’s going on before you make any accusations or act upon what was written in a book! Silly – if you ask me!) Well, you shouldn’t ask me more on this, unless you want to see me ranting tomorrow whole day! And those same “people” won’t move a finger about what’s going on in Zimbabwe. Could somebody please write them a book about Zimbabwe!!! People are dying of hunger, calling for help…much worse is going on than what was written by “someone”, but do they care…no! They think they care..does anyone ever really care what’s going on in another country…who cares about Mugabe killing his own people? Is he God-sent..that they don’t do anything?
Ek wip sommer my agterend vir hierdie Engelse Barones wat dink dat as jy ‘n boek lees, dat alles in ‘n boek waar is…sy was seker lekker blond gewees. Dis alles in die hansard, skree as jy die link wil hê, maar maak gereed om jou te vererg.
Ok, I’ll shut-up and keep my thoughts to chess…that’s much better – for my soul at least. I’ve decided to upload only a few images about games I’ve played recently..some good games, some silly stupid games. Chess Cube is a quite newish chess site which is worth to check out. You can follow this link or the link on my blog’s side bar – with the white knight’s-head. Links in the post will open in a new window.
The Hastings Chess tournament is also now on and on THIS LINK you will find games from the 1920’s till 2004 played at Hastings tournaments. Games can also be downloaded. I also have a few chess graphics of games played by earlier Chess Grandmasters, which I dug out on Chess World. Sometimes if I play through these games, I think..oh, that’s easy, or that looks like such an easy game, or…hmm..I think I can play a game like that too! but…gmf..when it comes to the real game…it’s not always so easy peasy, but I guess I need to follow the “rules” more, as I’m following my “own” rules. I’m playing not too much now, but prefer to go on Chess Cube for a quick real time game, there’s always someone to play with. I do like Chess Cube’s interface, it’s cool. Chess Cube is a South African site, also now a site which the English Chess use for their chess club. At the bottom of this post you will find a link to the English Chess-forum-site and the image with the link shows you the page you get when you go to “their” club…but once you’ve clicked on “log in”..it takes you straight away to the main page of Chess Cube. On Chess Cube you can also join your country’s chat room, if you like. The African Junior Chess Championship is now taking place in South Africa! You will find a link to the official site with more information in this post too.
Chess.com-game..I played white. I guess it was a good checkmate in this game.
Chess.com-game..I played white in this game, my American opponent wasn’t “impressed” with my play…by that I think you know what I mean..
Sneumann vs Steinitz
Maroczy vs Pillsbury
Steinitz vs Lasker
Chess.com-game..this game wasn’t a good game for me…although it might look like it was.
Chess Cube-game..I like the position here..I played white in this game too..how come are all these games I’m blogging games where I played white!…just wondering..
Flags of the African countries taking part in the championships
African Junior Chess Championship: 28th December 2008 – 6thJanuary2009. Please click here for the African Juniors link for more information.
The Amanzintaba Resort at Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa, where the African Junior Chess Championships are taking place. Amanzintaba means: “Water from the mountain”, this link will take you to the resort’s homepage. Bronkhorstspruit is near Pretoria, about 30 mins’ drive on the N4 Highway. Thaba in Northern Sotho means “mountain”…I’m not sure if they’ve changed the spelling of “thaba” in this resort’s name..this is my knowledge of Northern Sotho.
African Junior Chess Championship: Schedule
African Junior Chess Championships 2008_9: Girls top 5 after round 7
African Junior Chess Championships 2008_9: Open section after round 7
South African girls taking the lead in the African Juniors- girls section
African Junior Chess Championship: Open section after round 8
African Junior Chess Championships: Round 9 – The final round…
Results: Round 9 - South African girls taking the first 5 places, well done!
Results: Open section: Round 9, the final round. Egypt taking the lead again.
For a larger view, please click on the images
For more images about the African Juniors…please follow my link to the official site in this post. There are 5 pages of lovely pics to see, also pics about their free day. Chess Cube interface…ahh…you can see I played black here! Please click here for the English Chess Forum link. The link will open in a new window. English chess -url…http://ecfclub.chesscube.com/
I believe this is a good combination: chess, poetry, art and music! I’ve started recently reading Dean’s poetry blog and glad that I’ve discovered his blog. This poem in this post, is today’s entry on his blog and I’ve really enjoyed it and thought to share it with you. If you’re a lover of poetry, make sure to visit his blog, if you don’t, you will regret it! If you don’t like poetry, then you still should visit his blog and you will immediately fall in love with his poems! I have a present for you today too, let’s call it an early Christmas present if you like, a composition by Jim Brickman. Finally, for my chess-lovers (and those who think they might become chess-lovers!) I’ve got a few games here (do check back as I have about ten more to blog in this entry!) played a few days ago in the Dresden Olympiad. This post is almost as good as “wine women and song!”:) All links will open in a new window.
Remember me to the world
And all the beautiful girls
I never kissed; if there’s one regret
That is it: that I left any lovelies’
Lips unblessed, her heart repressed
Remember me to the wind, which
Blows wherever it goes; still, or not
Any feeling does not cost, but what you
Do with it: recall I am that
Innocent, awake to only wonder told
Remember me to the sun; the heat,
The blaze, worries public or hidden,
I have had them all, unbidden: most
Of all when you see that woman or girl,
Remember me, my dear, to the blessed world
Read more about Dean on his biography-link on his blog!
Over 500 poems and prose poems published since 1972 in over 130 literary publications in Canada, the USA, England, Australia, New Zealand, etc., such as Descant, Carleton Literary Review, Poetry WLU, The Prairie Journal, Freelance, Nexus, Bitterroot, Oxalis, Bogg, Aileron, RE:AL, Art Times, Pegasus, Impetus, On The Bus, and many others. More have been published in newspapers, magazines, online and in anthologies, recorded and paper.
Music: Jim Brickman: Dream comes true
Please click HERE to play through the game of Nyback from Finland vs Carlsen played in round 6, Dresden 2008.
Carlsen
Please click HERE to play through the game of Dominguez from Cuba vs Gata Kamsky in round 6, Dresden 2008.
If you click on the logo, you will get taken to the official site of Dresden and the “Live” image will take you straight to the “live”-games-link. On this link you can play through games played in round 8. Players from the SA team and also GM’s like Boris Gelfand, Magnus Carlsen, Ivan Cheparinov, Alexei Shirov, Topalov, Yelena Dembo, Nigel Short, Peter Leko, etc. The link will open in a new window. You can now play through two games, I will add more soon when I’ve got more time! Please click HEREto play through the game of Kamsky and Ivanchuck and a few other players in round 11, the final round on chess.com. The link will open in a new window. http://chessaleeinlondon.blogspot.com/2008/11/dresden-olympiad-2008.html
On this next link you can play through games of round 6. The SA-team games plus games of Kramnik and Ivanchuk. The link will also open in a new window.
GM Eduardo Iturrizaga..Watu Kobese’s opponent in round 9
More games to play through will be added soon, also games of about 15 GM’s. So, keep watching this space!
Statistics of Eduardo
Statistics of Watu
Watu Kobese..image: chessaol
Melissa Greeff Image: chessaol.wordpress.com
Melissa: Statistics…Melissa has a personal score of 6.5 so far at the Olympiad, a score not many other females could equal in this tournament. Well done to Melissa!
Results of the ladies after round 10…you can see Melissa having 7 out of 9…she didn’t play in round 5.
Please clickHERE to play through the game of Melissa Greeff in round 9 played on the 22nd November at the Chess Olympiad 2008. Links in this post will all open in new windows.
Please click HERE to play through Watu Kobese’s game played in round 9.
Please clickHERE to play through the game of Kenny Solomon played in round 9.
Please click HEREto play through the game of Carmen de Jager in round 9.
Please click HEREto play through the game of Anzel Solomons played in round 9.
Please click HERE to play through the game of Daniel Cawdery played in round 9 vs Jose Sequera Paolini of Venezuela.
Melissa Greeff round 10 move 27
Dresden round 10 Melissa Greeff end position…1/2
Round 10 move list: Melissa Greeff, see the last move with the chess graphics
Dresden round 10: Results of the ladies – SA vs Scotland
Image: chessaol.wordpress.com
Kenny’s game – 1/2
Dresden round 10: Results of the men’s team
Dresden round 11: Results of the SA Ladies against UAE…3-1..well done ladies!
SA ladies on the left..image: chessaol.wordpress.com
Dresden round 11 Results of the SA men against IPCA (International Chess Organisation for Physically Disabled)…3-1..well done boys!
SA men on the right..image: chessaol.wordpress.com
The Gaprindashvili Cup – click on the image for a clear view, or follow this link: The link will open in a new window.
Chess Games of Round 8: South African chess players as well as: Magnus Carlsen, Boris Gelfand, Ivan Cheparinov, Topalov, Radjabov, Yelena Dembo and a few more GrandMaster-games to play through on my blogger-blog, please click on the link here and it will open in a new window.
Click on the logo and you will be taken to the Official site and the “live” link will take you straight away to the live-games! Both links will open in a new page.
Please click HERE to see more results of games played in round 1 and round 2. The link will open in a new window. Please click HERE to see lots of South African Chess player-pics and to see the results of rounds 3-6. At the bottom of this post you will find a link to play through games of round 5, where South Africa played Luxembourg.
On this link…see their games of round 6 and you can play through their games interactively. Also, the games of Kramnik and Ivanchuk (my favourite) of round 6 can be found on this link. The page will open in a new link.
Please click HERE to see more results of games played in round 1 and round 2. The link will open in a new window. At the bottom of this post you will find a link to play through games of round 5, where South Africa played Luxembourg.
On this link you can play through games played in round 6. The link will open in a new window.
