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"
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.
Alexandra Kosteniuk: The current Woman’s World Chess Champion – see her blog-link on my blog’s sidebar.
A nurse playing chess with a patient – WWI
Women at Chess in London London, June 24 – The fourth round of the International Women’s Chess Tournament, played in this city this evening, was finished with the following results:
Stevenson beat Thomas in a Giuoco Piano after twenty-nine moves. Gooding beat Muller-Hartung in a French defense after fifty-three moves. Bonnefin beat Hooke in a Ruy Lopez after forty-eight moves. Fagan beat Watson in a French defense after seventy-four moves. Finn beat Forbes-Sharpe in a two-knight defense after forty-three moves. Rudge beat Field in a Giuoco Piano after twenty-nine moves. Fox beat De La Vigne in an irregular opening after thirty-one moves.
Appended are the scores up to date: 1897
*Games left unfinished
The New York Times
Published June 25, 1897
Click HERE to read the news article in PDF-format. Links will open in a new window.
Giuoco Piano – Chess Opening – image: Wikipedia
I’m not familiar with this name as a chess opening, I’ve heard/read about many chess openings, but this one was new to me.
The Giuoco Piano is a chess opening characterized by the moves
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Bc5
Instead of 3. … Bc5 it is possible for Black to play 3… Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 ( Two knights defence ) or 3. … Ne7 4.d4 d6 5. h3 Nf6 6.Nc3 0-0 7.0-0 exd4 ( Hungarian defence )
The Giuoco Piano (Italian: “quiet game”) is the oldest recorded opening. The Portuguese Damiano played it at the beginning of the 16th century and the Italian Greco played it at the beginning of the 17th century. The opening is also known as the Italian Game, although that term is sometimes used more generally to describe the position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4. The Giuoco Piano was popular through the 19th century, but modern refinements in defensive play have led most chess masters towards openings like the Ruy Lopez that offer White greater chances for long term initiative.
White’s “Italian bishop” at c4 prevents Black from advancing in the center with …d5 and attacks the vulnerable f7 square. White plans to dominate the center with d2-d4 and to attack the Black king. Black aims to free his game by exchanging pieces and playing the pawn break …d5, or to hold his center pawn at e5.
Source: Wikipedia
Another champ…
MRS. HARRISON TRIUMPHS
February 27, 1938, Sunday
Defeats Miss Lesley in Women’s Title Chess Tourney. Mrs. Edna Harrison continued her winning streak in the preliminaries for the Hazel Allen championship trophy at the Marshall Chess Club yesterday, defeating Miss Dora Lesley in the seventh round. Mrs. Harrison now has scored 6 1/2 points.
Mar 5, 1986 – Lyudmila Rudenko, the first women’s world chess champion, has died at age 81, the official Soviet news agency Tass reported Tuesday. The news agency said she died Sunday in Leningrad. A native of the Ukraine, she won the first world chess competition for women in 1950, …
was a Soviet chess player and the second Women’s World Chess Champion from 1950 until 1953. Rudenko held the FIDE International Master and Woman International Master titles.
Born in Lubny in the Poltava region of Ukraine, in the Russian Empire, her father taught her to play chess at age 10 although at first she was more serious about swimming. After grammar school, she moved to Odessa and took a degree in economics. Rudenko became the Odessa swimming champion in the 400m breaststroke. Her professional career would be as an economic planner for the Soviet Union, and chess would remain a hobby.
She began playing tournament chess in 1925 after a move to Moscow. She then moved to Leningrad where she met and married scientist Lev Davidovich Goldstein; in 1931 they had a son. In Leningrad in 1929 she began training with chess master Peter Romanowski. She would not reach the peak of international women’s chess until she was about 40 years old.
Source: Wikipedia – Vera Menchik died during a German air raid in Kent.
Lasker and Women …
Among the women fond of chess of this country, mrs J W Showalter has long been considered the champion chess player. At present she is engaged in a little match with Lasker who has to concede to her the odds of a knight. Mrs Showalter has so far won two games, while her opponent has registered an equal number of wins.
On this Google-link you will find more links about the history of women in chess to follow up.
To explore some chess openings, click on this link from the site of chessgames. To enjoy your chess openings, I have three music files to share with you which you might want to listen while exploring some chess openings. Choose the music to open your chess dance floor and have a ball! The first song is a famous song – Zorba’s Dance. The second, a South African golden oldie – Helloh-A and Strauss – The Skaters Waltz. I will of course choose the music of Strauss to open my chess dance floor. On rainy days like today, Amazon can be sure of making their money out of me when it comes to music!
Image:chess.com
Zorba’s Dance by Mikis Theodorakis
from the CD: Memories from Greece – see the youtube-link for the dance.
[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(!)
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.
Please click HERE to play through annotated videos of the games of Anand and Kramnik, 2008. The link will open in a new window. It is also the “movies”-link on my blog..top page.
Images: Official site
The big day has arrived! Opening ceremony on today…Monday 13th October
LIVE CHESS…click on the link on the top right of my blog! Follow this new link with the games I blog and chess graphics about their games….
14th October – 2nd November 2008….Who is going to be the winner?? The battle for the highest Chess Title! You can find the OFFICIAL LINK on my side-bar in the “Admin”-section as well in the “Chess” section…look out for the same image as the image in top of this post…I will be following the Championships and blog about it too…you can also find a link underneath my “welcome” image…on the side bar of my blog..(right hand side- top – the link will open in a new window) Please click hereto look at statistics between the 2 players on Wiki…the link will open in a new window. Schedule for the World Chess Championship 2008:
All games start at 3pm! 2pm UK local time and 9am Eastern USA time. Game 1 Tuesday October 14 —1/2 Game 2 Wednesday October 15 Game 3 Friday October 17
Game 4 Saturday October 18 Game 5 Monday October 20
Game 6 Tuesday October 21
Game 7 Thursday October 23
Game 8 Friday October 24
Game 9 Sunday October 26
Game 10 Monday October 27
Game 11 Wednesday October 29
Game 12 Friday October 31
Tiebreak Sunday November 02
On this link of Chessgamesyou can play through Kramnik and Anand’s games where they played one another. A new window will open when you click on the link! If you slide down to Anand, you will find more games to play through and at the bottom of this post you will find more links on my blog…- with games to play through- that were all played during tournaments.
Where: Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn
Overall Prize fund: 1,5 Million Euro
The match will consist of twelve games, played under classical time controls, in the period from October 14 to October 30, 2008. If there is a tie at the end of these games a tiebreak will be played on November 02, 2008. The prize fund, which will be split equally between the players, is 1,5 million Euro (approximately 2,1 million US Dollars) including taxes and FIDE licensee fees.
V. Kramnik and V. Anand. World Chess Championship Tournament Sep. 2007, Mexico City
Image: Official Site
1886 – 1946
Wilhelm Steinitz (Austria/USA) was the first official World Champion in the chess history. In 1886, he defeated Johannes Hermann Zukertort in the first classical tournament for the World Chess Champion title. They played 20 games against each other – and Steinitz won by 12.5:7.5 points. Steinitz defended his title up to 1894. Emanuel Lasker (Germany) deprived Steinitz of his title and remained champion for 27 years – a unique record in the chess history. The next World Chess Champions were José Raoul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine and Max Euwe.
1948 – 1993
Since 1948, World Chess Federation (FIDE) started to organize the World Chess Championships. After Alekhine´s death in 1946, the new World Champion had to be determined. Thus, there was a tournament with several players where Mikhail Botvinnik (USSR) became a winner. Since that time, the reigning Champion should defend his title in a match against a challenger. Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrossian and Boris Spassky – all of USSR – were the next World Champions. In 1972, Bobby Fischer (USA) broke through the dominance of the Soviet players by defeating Boris Spassky in Reykjavik. In 1975 Fischer refused to fight for his title, and as a result his challenger Anatoly Karpov was appointed as new Champion. Karpov – who played two times against Viktor Korchnoi and once against Garry Kasparov – kept his title until November 1985. Then it was Kasparov, who defeated Karpov by 13:11 points and became the new World Champion. 1986, 1987, and 1990 Kasparov succeeded in reserving his chess crown against Karpov, before he broke away from FIDE in 1993.
1993 – 2006
In 1993 Kasparov refused to defend his title under the conditions provided by FIDE – and together with his challenger Nigel Short (England) the World Champion decided to leave FIDE by holding the Championship match under the auspices of the new founded “Professional Chess Association” (PCA). Kasparov won the match against Short and retained the title of “Classical World Champion”. Two years later he won the next title match against Viswanathan Anand (India) in the New York World Trade Center. Finally it was Thursday, the 2nd November 2000, when Kasparov’s era ran out: with 8.5:6.5 victory Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) dethroned Kasparov, who did not manage to win a single game. Kramnik, at that time 25 years old, became the 14th Classical World Chess Champion. In October 2004 the next Championship took place: In Brissago (Switzerland) Kramnik held out against the attacks of the Hungarian Peter Leko and kept his title. Leko was qualified for this match by having won the Candidates’ tournament in 2002 in Dortmund.
On the other hand, FIDE continued organizing its own World Chess Championships from 1993 on. The FIDE title holders between 1993 and 2006: Anatoly Karpov (1993), Alexander Khalifman (1999), Viswanathan Anand (2000), Ruslan Ponomariov (2002), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (2004) and Veselin Topalov (2005).
The split of the chess world into two competitive championships ended in 2006. The duel between the Classical World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik and FIDE World Chess Champion Veselin Topalov took place in Elista from 23 September to 13 October 2006. In a historic battle this unification match combined both titles in one FIDE World Chess Championship. Having won this important event, Vladimir Kramnik became an undisputed World Chess Champion. Continue to read more on the Official site here: http://www.uep-worldchess.com/
Image: chessgames.com
VLADIMIR KRAMNIK
(born Jun-25-1975) Russia
Vladimir Kramnik was born in Tuapse, on June 25, 1975. In 1991 he won The World Under 18 Championship, and began a string of international success. At the Manila Olympiad 1992, he achieved a gold medal for best result on reserve board. Major tournament triumphs were soon to follow, such as Dortmund 1995, Tilburg 1997, and Wijk aan Zee 1998. Dortmund became a favorite stop, as Kramnik would go on to win seven more times, either as shared champion, or clear first. In 2000 Kramnik won his first Linares tournament, completing his set of victories in all three of chess’s “triple crown” events: Corus, Linares, and Dortmund. Kramnik would later capture additional Linares victories in 2003 (shared) and 2004.
In 2000 Kramnik reached the pinnacle by defeating long-time champion Garry Kasparov for the World Championship in London by the score of 8 1/2 to 6 1/2. Kasparov was reported as saying, “He is the hardest player to beat in the world.” The year 2002 saw Kramnik play an eight-game match against the program Deep Fritz (Computer) in Bahrain. The match ended in a 4-4 tie, with Kramnik and the computer each winning two games and drawing four. In 2006 the German organization Universal Event Promotion (UEP) would stage a return match of six games, which Kramnik lost, +0 -2 =4.
In 2004, Kramnik successfully defended his title by drawing a 14 game match against Hungarian GM Peter Leko in Brissago, Switzerland. His next title defense was in 2006, in a reunification match with the holder of the FIDE world title, Veselin Topalov. As part of his preparation for the match, Kramnik played first board for Russia in the 37th Chess Olympiad (2006), where he won the gold medal for best performance rating of all participants (2847). He also took part in the Dortmund Sparkassen (2006) supertournament, tying for first place with Peter Svidler.
The $1 million Kramnik-Topalov World Championship Match (2006), was played in Elista from September 21 to October 13, and drew record numbers of online followers on most major chess sites. After much controversy surrounding a forfeit in round 5, Kramnik won in the tiebreak phase, thereby becoming the first unified World Chess Champion since the schism of 1993.
Kramnik lost the unified World Champion title when he finished second to Viswanathan Anand at the Mexico City FIDE World Championship Tournament (2007). Kramnik will exercise his entitlement to a match for the World Championship against Viswanathan Anand in Bonn, Germany, starting 14 October 2008.
NOTABLE GAMES:
Kramnik vs Leko, 2004 1-0
Kasparov vs Kramnik, 1996 0-1
Leko vs Kramnik, 2004 0-1
Gelfand vs Kramnik, 1996 0-1
Kramnik vs Kasparov, 1994 1-0
Kramnik vs Kasparov, 2000 1-0
Leko vs Kramnik, 2004 1/2-1/2
Kramnik vs Anand, 2004 1/2-1/2
Kramnik vs Kasparov, 2001 1-0
Kramnik vs Morozevich, 2007 1-0
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Kasparov-Kramnik World Championship Match (2000)
Kramnik-Leko World Championship Match (2004)
Kramnik-Topalov World Championship Match (2006)
It is an almost senseless challenge to describe Vladimir Kramnik in only a few lines. His personality has too many facets; his areas of interests are too diverse. What is clear is that Kramnik is not solely fixated on chess. Current affairs interest him just as intensively as numerous sport and cultural activities, several of which he regularly engages in. The cosmopolitan would love to enjoy life ever more intensively, but his drive to succeed holds this inclination within limits. What is it that marks out a world chess champion in him even though he doesn’t focus exclusively on chess?
People close to Kramnik often claim that this has something to do with his creative nature and strategic gifts. Kramnik considers chess less as a sport and more as the art of carrying out a long-term plan. The harmonious interplay of his pieces and the beauty of his game are already legendary. He is always searching for creative and new solutions, particularly when he is playing.
In many games, they say, he sees things that no computer can calculate and no other grandmasters could discover. The ingenious ideas would come to him quite easily, providing him with moments of pure joy. The artistic vein in the 32-year-old Muscovite must have been given to him in his cradle. His father Boris is a well-known sculptor; his mother Irina a music teacher. No wonder that journalists all over the world have dubbed Kramnik an “artist” or “painter”.
Kramnik started to play chess at the age of five. At 12, his enormous talent was recognized in Moscow and encouraged. As a teenager, Kramnik got better and better – at only 16, he won the U18 World Championship. The list of his victories is long. He has already finished all major tournaments in the world as the victor. And he holds a record which made sporting history: Kramnik was unbeaten at the highest level in 86 classical games over 18 months up to July 2000. World Championship
Thursday, November 2, 2000, London: Vladimir Kramnik became the World Chess Champion with a brilliant 8.5-6.5 result against Garry Kasparov (Russia), who could not win a single game. After Garry Kasparov had congratulated him, the greatest dream of his life became true. Exulting, Kramnik threw his arms up into the air in triumph. The audience’s applause and the subsequent tumult will not be forgotten. It was a historic moment in the history of chess: Kramnik had not only won the lion’s share of the two-million dollar prize money; his victory had ended Kasparov’s 15-year-long reign on the chess throne.
First Challenge
In 2004, he faced off in another World Championship Match, this time in Switzerland : Kramnik successfully defended his title against the Hungarian super grandmaster Péter Lékó. In a complex strategic battle, he pulled off a supreme coup, winning in the 14th game – the last in the match – with a 7:7 tie. Kramnik was lucky because it was agreed before the match that he had to be beaten outright based on points – the challenger Lékó came heart-wrenchingly close to doing so.
2005 was a year of ups and downs for the World Champion. Kramnik was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, entered intense medical treatment, and disappeared from the tournament hubbub for six months. The break seemed to rejuvenate the Russian – at his comeback in the 2006 Chess Olympiad in Turin , he had the best individual score of all 1,000 participants. Kramnik was successful in several tournaments thereafter and on 1 January 2008 he again occupied the no. 1 position in the FIDE world ranking list.
The Unification Match
In October 2006, Kramnik faced the biggest challenge: the unification match that would decide who the next unique, absolute World Champion would be. In a historic fight against all sort of adversities, Kramnik defeated the FIDE champion Veselin Topalov ( Bulgaria ) to become the first unified World Champion after 1993, the one and only official World Chess Champion. His win in Elista was one of the most impressive victories in all of sports history.
Highlights:
– World Chess Champion 2000-2007
– Undefeated in three World Championship Matches
– Three-time Olympiad winner as a member of the Russian team
– Russian Honoured Master of Sport
– Current ELO rating: 2788
Please click HERE to play through Kramnik’s games on chessgames.com The link will open in a new window.
VISWANATHAN ANAND All games on these links will open in a new window.
Please click HEREto play through a ‘Petrov Defence’- game which was played in 2003. This Sicilian game was played in 2001and this Sicilian Najdorf was played in 2003. (born Dec-11-1969) India
Viswanathan Anand, or “Vishy” as he is known to his fans, became in 1984 the youngest Indian to earn the title of IM at the age of fifteen. At the age of sixteen he became the Indian Champion. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Championship. At the age of eighteen, he became India’s first grandmaster. His prowess at quick-play chess earned him the nickname “The Lightning Kid.”
Anand contested a match with Garry Kasparov for the PCA World Chess Championship in 1995, but lost. Three years later he won a knockout tournament in Groningen to qualify to play for the FIDE title against Anatoli Karpov, but was defeated in rapid tie-breaks. a game by them in 1996 with the Reti-opening.
In 1998, he won the strongest Linares tournament ever, with an average rating of 2752, making it a category 21 event. In 2000, he beat Alexey Shirov to become the FIDE World Chess Champion. He is a four-time winner of the Chess Oscar award and the 2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion. In spring of 2006, following a record-extending fifth victory at Corus Wijk aan Zee (2006), Anand became only the fourth player ever to crack the 2800-Elo mark in FIDE ratings, following Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Veselin Topalov. 2007 was a year of two memorable milestones for Anand. First, he finally achieved his longtime goal of becoming world #1 in ratings. After winning his second victory at Linares-Morelia (2007), he overtook Topalov to claim first place on FIDE’s April list. His second great success came at the FIDE World Championship Tournament (2007). Leading throughout the event, Anand captured the unified World Chess Champion title with an undefeated +4 score. A few months later, he won the Morelia-Linares (2008) outright for the third time. Anand’s first title defense will be in a match against challenger Vladimir Kramnik in October 2008. Please click HERE to play through the games of Anand. The link will open in a new window.
NOTABLE GAMES: Karjakin vs Anand, 2006 0-1
Anand vs Topalov, 2005 1/2-1/2
Anand vs Lautier, 1997 1-0
Anand vs Bologan, 2003 1-0
Anand vs Kasparov, 1995 1-0
Anand vs Ponomariov, 2002 1-0
Radjabov vs Anand, 2002 0-1
Kramnik vs Anand, 2004 1/2-1/2
Anand vs Karpov, 1996 1-0
Anand vs Kramnik, 2005 1-0
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:
Kasparov-Anand World Championship Match (1995)
Karpov-Anand World Championship (1998)
FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2000)
FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2001)
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Kasparov-Anand World Championship Match (1995)
Karpov-Anand World Championship (1998)
FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2000)
FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2001)
Acclaimed as the Fastest Brain in the world, Viswanathan Anand is the World Number one and World Champion. It is his success in the world scene that has made this ancient Indian game, a mass sport in India.The critics rate him as one of the biggest natural talents ever in the history of chess. His hallmark lightening speed and intuitive play came to be recognised when he became the first Indian Grandmaster in 1987.
On 29th September 2007 Anand became World Champion for the second time in his career. By winning the event in Mexico Anand becomes the Undisputed Champion, ending many years of schism in the chess world. An feat that is unique as he achieved it while being the World No.1. A honour shared by a select few. Anand became the first Asian to win the World Championships in 2000. In 2007 Anand reached the number one spot on the world ranking lists by winning the prestigious Linares tournament. He becomes the seventh person in modern chess history to reach the coveted spot. This is the first for an Indian and Asian . He won the prestigious Melody Amber, Blind & Rapid chess in Monaco in 2003, 2005, 2004(Rapid), 2006, 2007(Rapid). The Leon Magistral for the seventh time, Corsica Masters five times & the Mainz Classic a staggering ten times. His results in rapid chess make him one , if not the greatest player ever in chess history . If his talent as a Rapid chess player is legendary, his records in classical chess have been superlative. In January 2006, he became the only player in chess history to win the Corus Chess event 5 times in the tournament’s 70-year history. He has won the prestigious Corus event 5 times (1989,1998,2003,2004 & 2006), Linares Super Tournament 3 times (1998 , 2007 and 2008), Dortmund Sparkassen 3 times (1996,2000 & 2004) and other important events like, Madrid Masters, Biel etc.
One of the few non-Soviet players in the sport, Viswanathan Anand has been feted with many international awards. He is the proud recipient of the Chess Oscars given for the best player of the year . He received this award four times. (1997,1998, 2003,2004) (An unique distinction he shares with Bobby Fischer).In India he has received the civilian awards, Padma Vibhushan,Padma Bhushan, the Padmashree and the Arjuna Award. He is the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. He has received other prestigious awards from private organisations .
Having travelled to close to 50 countries, Anand is also fluent in Spanish and German. One of the projects closest to heart is the NIIT Mind Champions Academy which aims at taking chess to over 1 million children from both Government and Private schools in India . Known as the Gentleman Champion in the chess world, Anand is a spokesperson for Vidyasagar, a NGO that crusades for the Inclusion of children with cerebral palsy and he also represents Avahan, the Bill& Melinda Gates Foundation initiative on AIDS. Anand is a keen follower of current affairs, world business and astronomy. Source: http://www.uep-worldchess.com/
On all of these links – on my blog – you will find games of Kramnik or Anand which you can play through — games they played during different tournaments.
In chess you have to think about a good opening when you start your game…I don’t know many openings…and know that’s one weak point which I have to work on seriously…most of the time I like to play how I feel! but will always start with my Knights/King-Queen-pawns… and if I can play the Dragon…I’m happy…..and you don’t know about the Dragon?….you can look at the image below and follow THIS LINK too!
Click on THIS LINK and it will take you to Wikichess…you can play through different openings and see what percentage of players playing white/black plays a specific opening…interesting…
More HERE on chess openings….really a good site to visit!
On the image you can see the Dragon-Variation…of the Sicilian opening….
On this link HERE you can read more about the Sicilian/Dragon, which is one of my favourites…
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.
Chessalee 
