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"
Source: Please click here to read the article on the site of ‘Business Insider.’
The Sinquefield Cup Chess Tournament is on at the moment in St Louis and I’ve been following some of the games and thought it was high time to blog about a ‘big’ tournament again. The images above are from twitter The link below is game 7 where Anand is playing against Wesley So. You can see the moves up to move 11 by Anand. Please click HERE to follow the game live. 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 d3 Bc5 5 Bxc6 dxc6 6 Nbd2 O-O 7 O-O Re8 8 Nc4 Nd7 9 b3 a5 10 a4 f6 11 Be3 Bb4 12 Rc1 b5
Chess Sinquefield Cup round 7 Anand vs Wesley So
Round 7 – Aronian and Nakamura
Round 7 – Magnus vs Grischuk
Round 7 – Caruana vs Vachier Lagrave
Magnus Carlsen on his way to the playing venue – photo: @CCSCSL SaintLouisChessClub
World Chess Champion, Gary Kasparov is visiting South Africa!! Kasparov was the top rated player for 21 years. He will be playing some chess on the 12th November. Pres Zuma has recently launched the MOVES FOR LIFE Chess development programme. From the link:
Kasparov comes from Moscow to South Africa on 12 November to form a joint venture with Tshwane/Pretoria based chess educational project Moves for Life (MFL).
13th Chess World Champion, Garry Kasparov, has announced that he wishes to link his Kasparov Chess Foundation to MFL to take the successful MFL formula to other African countries.
He has added that he plans to work with MFL to make Johannesburg the chess capital of Africa
Kasparov stated:. “I was greatly inspired by the words of President Zuma last October, when he spoke so movingly on the many benefits of chess for children – and of his remarkable connection to my beloved game. I am happy to join him and the South African Moves for Life programme in a commitment to bringing chess to schools across the country and for turning Johannesburg into the continental capital for chess.”
Kasparov will be visiting South Africa as the guest of MFL from the 12th – 15th November to promote the Kasparov Chess Foundation link up with the Moves for Life programme.
The Moves for Life programme was launched by President Zuma last year and has since expanded to over 50 schools around the country, resulting in measurable improvement in maths and science performance amongst children
Watu Kobese, Moves for Life trustee and one of South Afriva’s top chess players Operations says: “The game of chess impacts positively on Maths, Science and comprehension abilities while also imparting valuable life skills to children. In learning to play chess, children are mastering a wide range of skills such as pattern recognition, classifying information, reasoning by analogy, following principles, calculating possible sequences of events and critical thinking — which in fact helps with all their academic subjects,”
President Jacob Zuma, is clear that there is a place for chess in South Africa’s education system. When President Zuma launched the MFL initiative in 2010, he highlighted the benefits of chess saying, “We want to convince parents and teachers that chess is one of the most powerful tools available to strengthen and enhance a child’s mind.”
Moves for Life is now training over 6000 children per week and has trained more than 200 educators in 2011 both to teach chess in schools and also as an extra-curricular activity.. According to Kasparov, “The Moves for Life programme is already doing a wonderful job and we expect to cooperate and aid them in developing both their chess and sponsorship efforts. To promote our activities, chess in the media, and to inspire the grassroots, I will personally donate my time, to train South Africa’s most promising young players as well as the country’s elite teams, as I have done in the United States with great success.
The mission of the Kasparov Chess Foundation: Africa will be to bring the many educational benefits of chess to children throughout Africa by providing a complete chess curriculum with associated enrichment programs. The foundation promotes the playing of chess as a cognitive learning tool in classes and in after-school programmes for primary and high schools. The Moves for Life programme has both the South African experience as well as the material developed uniquely for the African situation. Through collaboration both KCF and MFL will be able to optimise all available resources and reach their respective goals.
“Chess is an individual sport, but promoting chess is not. With your support, Johannesburg will take a prominent place alongside New York, Brussels and Sao Paulo,” says Kasparov.
In June this year the Kasparov Chess Foundation launched its European leg, based in Brussels. The Foundation has ambitious plans to develop a programme for the entire European Union. On September 20th, the Kasparov Chess Foundation Europe presented its proposal at the Headquarters of the European Union.
Update: Saturday 12/11/2011 Was really disappointed when reading on CHESSA’s site about MFL, Kasparov, etc. I agree, MFL is a PRIVATE company and HERE is Dr Kemm, one of the 5 trustees of MFL and hopefully he will do something to get CHESSA also involved in this important visit – a visit our Chess players look forward to. This is a visit that happens only ONCE in a life time and Chess South Africa is not even fully involved! MFL: You CAN do something about it.
Update [again] – Saturday 19/11/2011
If you are interested to read Mickey’s reaction as a MFL-trustee – you can read his comments in the comments box. It’s sad to know that MFL actually contacted CHESSA and that CHESSA asked MFL to cancel Kasparov’s visit. I think CHESSA needs to ‘grow up’ and show that they are there for the Chess community in South Africa and that they are serious about developing Chess in South Africa. CHESSA’s article is misleading the general public about their role in Kasparov’s visit. CHESSA is obviously not thinking about their international image.
Azerbaijan is now a world of chess! GrandMasters in the world of Chess are there for this prestigious event taking place in Baku. Round 4 results now available too. On my side bar you can follow the games LIVE. Look for the “Fide Grand Prix”-link! Read HERE more about Azerbaijan.
Please click HEREto play through the games of Gashimov vs. Svidler, Carlsen vs. Inarkiev and Navara vs. Grischuk in round 3 played on the 23rd April. Click HERE for the results of round 4.
On this table you can see the results after round 3. The video can also be seen on
Baku’s Official website and it’s about round 2! See more photos on this link too.
Peter Svidler: Image – Chessvibes
Michael Adams…Image: Chessvibes
Kamsky…examined by security before entering …Image: Chessvibes
Carlsen…and security…see more images on Chessvibes.com
Bobby Fischer is my favourite chess player and you will find many links on my site to his games etc. Today I have his 60 memorable games for you to enjoy! ..and of course for myself!
Click HEREto play through his 60 memorable games.
And…on THIS LINK you can read more about him and play through more games…
On THIS LINK you can read how he was almost killed in Japan…how BAD can people be in this world just because you have a passion for chess? or for what you like! Shame on the American Government…he was good enough when he defeated the Russians after the cold war! and then…. you used him as a pawn! in his own “game”… If you want to read a poem which I wrote about him, you can click HERE ….
Not Black and White: In her painting, ‘The King is Down,’ the author seeks to capture the two sides of Fischer’s complex personality.
Remembering Bobby Fischer Reminiscence
By Sofia Polgar Wed. Feb 13, 2008
Unquestionably the most famous chess player in the history of the royal game, Bobby Fischer died last month at the age of 64 — the exact number of squares on the chessboard. His lively games will be remembered for as long as the game is played. “Chess is life,” Fischer used to say. But, alas, after he became world champion, his life and his chess diverged. And while his games were beautiful, his life away from the chessboard was often ugly. The chess genius harbored a delusional side whose antisemitic and anti-American rants brought shame on not only the speaker but also the game.Many of today’s players — from amateurs to grandmasters — call Fischer a factor in their decision to take up the game. His triumphs even inspired some outside the chess realm. Fischer was the first modern chess player to break down the wall of Soviet chess domination. During the Cold War, as the Iron Curtain divided Europe, he became a hero.“A man without frontiers,” grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojevic said of Fischer. “He didn’t divide the East and the West, he brought them together in their admiration for him.”In the 1960s, as he headed toward his 1972 world championship, he demolished some of the best players in the game. His road to the top was brutal; he didn’t allow his opponents the mercy of even a single draw. Never before or since were such defeats handed to world-champion-caliber players
Wilhem Steinitz (1836-1900) from Prague, Czech Republic, was the first official World Champion of chess. He was recognized as the world’s number one player in 1866, after he defeated Adolf Anderssen in a match, but it was not until he defeated his most powerful rival, Johannes Zukertort in their historic match of 1886 that he was recognized as the official champion. He defended his title twice against Mikhail Tchigorin and once against Isidor Gunsberg. He lost his title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894.
Steinitz lived in New York for several years, he changed his first name to “William” after he became an American citizen in 1888.
In the game below, Steinitz outplays his oponent Augustus Mongredien with high class style.
Wilhem Steinitz vs. Augustus Mongredien
London
1862
1-0
Click HERE to see the article and to play through the game of Steinitz and Mongredien.
Rest in Peace Bobby Fischer —b. 1943 – d. 2008
You can read my Bobby Fischer-poem HERE… On THIS LINK you can read an article about him that was published in the UK Times.
I was age 11, when I got my first chess set and chess book. It was a book written by Cor Nortje in Afrikaans…”Skaak!” In the back of the book, there are the games of Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. I used to play through those games to “teach” myself a bit more of the game. Nobody else in the family played chess! I got to like Bobby F and he was always – and will always be! – my favourite chess player! It’s very sad to know that he’s passed away, and as somebody said on the chess site… at the age of 64! A “good” number, as there are 64 squares on the board!! Bobby had an IQ of 187! A very gifted and talented player, for sure… What happened to him was really sad and even more sad that the American government “chased” him because of violating sanctions… that means that you don’t have the freedom to do what you love and what you are brilliant at! Sad….that is what politicians are good at…ruining other people’s lives! ..and sometimes with their “fantastic” ideas… even divide nations all over the world!
Fisher died in a Reykjavik, Iceland, hospital on Thursday of kidney failure after a long illness.
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Fischer faced criminal charges in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions.
This chess book is written in Afrikaans and was my first chess book at the age of 11. It has all the games of Spasski and Fischer.
Robert James “Bobby” Fischer (born March 9, 1943), won the World Chess Championship on September 1, 1972 and lost the title when he failed to defend it on April 3, 1975. He is considered to be one of the most gifted chess players of all time and, despite his prolonged absence from competitive play, is still among the best known of all chess players.
“Chess is war over the board.
The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.” – Bobby Fischer
“I am the best player in the world and I am here to prove it.” – Bobby Fischer.
He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, emerging occasionally to make erratic and often anti-Semitic comments.Fischer, whose mother was Jewish, once accused “the Jew-controlled U.S. government” of ruining his life.
He fell into obscurity before resurfacing to win a 1992 exhibition rematch against Spassky on the Yugoslav resort island of Sveti Stefan in violation of sanctions imposed to punish then-President Slobodan Milosevic.
A fierce critic of his homeland, Fischer became wanted in the United States for violating the sanctions.
“The United States is evil. There’s this axis of evil. What about the allies of evil — the United States, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers,” Fischer said.
Source: Click here for the news. Fischer told reporters that year that he was finished with a chess world he regarded as corrupt, and sparred with U.S. journalists who asked about his anti-American tirades.
He renounced his American citizenship and moved to Iceland in 2005.
Japanese Release Bobby Fischer
Ex-Chess Champ Heads to Iceland
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A14
NAGOYA, Japan, March 24 — Bobby Fischer, the chess legend who feared deportation to face charges in the United States, was freed Thursday by Japanese authorities after eight months in prison, the Justice Ministry said. He left immediately for the airport to fly to Iceland.
The deal to free Fischer came after Iceland — a chess-loving nation that hosted his historic Cold War-era victory over the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky in 1972 — granted Fischer citizenship this week in a move to help him avoid trial in the United States. Fischer, 62, who grew up in New York, has dodged a U.S. arrest warrant since playing a chess match in Yugoslavia in 1992 in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Read the rest of the article HERE …
Bobby as a 15 year old teenager….and America’s champ!
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, Fischer was a U.S. chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15. He beat Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America’s first world chess championship in more than a century.But his reputation as a genius of chess soon was eclipsed by his idiosyncrasies.A few years after the Spassky match, he forfeited the title to another Soviet, Anatoly Karpov, when he refused to defend it.
Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, has died. He was 64.
Fischer died Thursday in a Reykjavik hospital, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said. There was no immediate word on the cause of death.
Fischer’s first Filipino friend: He was very special
By Artemio T. Engracia Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:10:00 01/20/2008
MANILA, Philippines–FLORENCIO CAMPOMANES, the country’s chess pioneer and former president of the International Chess Federation (Fide), was Bobby Fischer’s original Filipino friend.
They met in New York in the mid-1950s when Fischer was emerging as a chess phenom barely into his teens and Campomanes was shuttling between New York and Washington DC while working for the State Department Read the complete article here.
Hi Jasper… Hierdie “post” het jy my nou mee geinspireer! Suid-Afrika het nog nie ‘n Grand Master nie! Maar, ons spog darem al met “International Masters!”…. jy sal dalk HIERDIE artikel interessant vind! Ek het….! want ek stem saam, was dit nie vir hom nie, het Watu “Grand Master” status gekry! Op die foto kan jy ook vir Kenny Solomon sien, ‘n SA-IM. Ander name…WIM (Women IM)Solomons Anzel en Melissa Greeff… en ons het Daleen Wiid – WIF , Carmen de Jager -WCM. My kop draai van al die afkortings! Ek glo ek sal nog spelers met titels kry en die lys aanvul sodra ek meer tyd het! Hierdie lysie is maar baie vinnig opgestel. Van die spelers het ek self nog nie van gehoor nie, bv. Kenny….met die dat ek nie “tuis” is nie….. Geniet die lees hier!
Click HERE TO play through a game of Jennifer Shahade – GM – and Watu Kobese – IM – (South Africa) in 1998, Philadelphia. This was Watu’s game.
Simen Agdestein, Norwegian Grandmaster toured South Africa during March and said SA has got chess talent, the problem South Africans face…is the fact that they are far from Europe to play tournaments! If it wasn’t for that….then we would have had many masters in chess…. unfortunaletly, the article is only in Afrikaans and you have to translate it to be able to understand it! Second link here…..
Hier is ‘n verduideliking van al die afkortings in skaak titels! (al daardie “getalle” is hulle “ratings”…dis nogal hoog! hehe….en dis deur FIDE…die International Skaakfederasie-ratings… as jy op ‘n skaak website skaak speel, soos ek en Bib, kry jy net ‘n “site-rating”…so terloops…wanneer begin jy saam met ons speel…en was dit nie Roer wat ook gese het sy wil speel nie, seker koue voete gekry! Ons moet haar bietjie roer!! lol!
Lees HIER oor die SA Ope wat in Julie 2007 plaasgevind het. Daar kan jy ook ‘n foto van Kobese sien!
GM= grand master= 2500+ (+ 3 GM norms, performances of 2550+ against strong
enough opposition)
IM= international master = 2400+ (+3IM norms, performances of 2450+ against
strong enough opposition)
WGM=woman grand master= 2300+ (+3WGM norms, performances of 2400+ against
strong enough opposition)
FM= fide master = 2300+
WIM=woman international master= 2200+ (+3 WIM norms, performances of 2250+ )
CM= candidate master = 2200+
WFM= woman fide master= 2100+
WCM= woman candidate master= 2000+
News about Kenny Solomon – one of South Africa’s International Masters (Photo)
“Having recently returned from the broils of tournaments such as Capelle Le Grande, in France (Dunkirk), and the famous Gibraltar (The Rock) tournament, Kenny is looking rather relaxed. In France his 5.5 out 9 was in his view average, having achieved draws against GML Tolsky, IM Nasar Firmian (2481), and IM Mateo (2417), and conceding to IM M. Wojiech (2463), and IM E Gasanov (2477). In Gibraltar, a British territory bordering Spain, he lost to defending South African Open Champion, British GM Gewain Jones who was an IM last year in July when he took the SA crown in Port Elizabeth. Solomon later compensated with a solid draw against British GM Chris Ward in a game spanning 82 moves.” (2007)
A few pictures from Chess players with titles… and you can see more if you click on the link at the end of the post.
George Michelakis…International Master
David Gluckman…..International Master
Charles de Villiers …..Fide Master
Nicholas van der Nat…. Fide Master
Heinrich Stander…. International Master
Click HERE FOR MORE Chess players with titles from South Africa registered with FIDE.
Please Click HERE to play through a game of Smyslov V. – Denker A. played in
Moscow, 1946. They played a Sicilian Opening. Click HERE for more Sicilian openings! You do get different variations on the Sicilian.
If you click HERE you can read on Wikipedia about the Sicilian Defence! I like the Dragon -variation = see the 2nd small image in this post = because of the white Knights’ formation…! It looks beautiful….hehehe…
Vasily Vasiliyevich Smyslov was born March 24, 1921, in Moscow and is a Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions (1948, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1965, 1983, and 1985). Smyslov was twice Soviet Champion (1949, 1955), and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won is an all-time record. In five European Team Championships, Smyslov won ten gold medals.
Read HERE more about Smyslov and if you scroll down on this link, you will find more chess games of him. DRAGON-variation on the next image.
Chess games of Bobby Fischer…..Click here. He is THE greatest chess champion of all times! Listen to Bobby himself herewhen he was interviewed in Aug. 2004.
And herein Iceland where he now is —as we all know….
Spoken by great men:"Give me 20 divisions of American soldiers and I will breach Europe. Give me 15 consisting of Englishmen and I will advance to the borders of Berlin. Give me two divisions of those marvellous fighting Boers and I will remove Germany from the face of the earth." - Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, Commander of the Allied Forces during WW2.
"The Americans fight for a free world, the English mostly for honour, glory and medals, the French and Canadians decide too late that they have to participate. The Italians are too scared to fight, the Russians have no choice. The Germans for their Fatherland. The Boers? Those sons of Bitches fight for the hell of it." American General, George 'Guts and Glory' Patton.
Hi Jasper… Hierdie “post” het jy my nou mee geinspireer! Suid-Afrika het nog nie ‘n Grand Master nie! Maar, ons spog darem al met “International Masters!”…. jy sal dalk 
Smyslov in 2002
Chessalee 