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Games and tactics from Moscow
21.02.2003
– They failed to supply the games, except as scans of the original gamescores.
The Aeroflot Open has ended with a victory on tiebreak by Viktor Bologan, but
of the many hundreds of games only 97 have become available so far in machine-readable
format. To keep your interested we have at least extracted the tactics from
them, presenting a set of ten combinations
for you to solve. The final standings and the 97 games are
here.
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Volcanic chess festival
21.02.2003
– It began as a joke by a bunch of chess loving friends in downtown Reykjavik, where Fischer faced Spassky thirty years ago. But it has blossomed into Iceland’s most successful chess event, a chess festival (18th – 27th February) that features Adams and Shirov – and the spectacularly beautiful landscape of this
island in the Northern Atlantic.
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Making the Unification Train Run on Time
20.02.2003
– It's the running of the bulls in Linares and the running of the bull in Bucharest
this weekend. Before we get caught up the fantastic supertournament in Spain,
let's not forget the FIDE Presidential Board in Romania. There are some big
issues about world championship unification, so here is a handy guide. And in
case they get lazy, we explain just what FIDE needs to do in Mig
on Chess #187.
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Central control is everything
20.02.2003
– In his training session tonight, GM Dorian Rogozenko will
once again deal with the Sveshnikov Sicilian, this time emphasizing the
importance of central squares. If Black manages to get control of d5 and to push
his d- and e-pawns, not even extra material will save White from trouble. The lesson is free of charge and starts at
21.00 CET, on our server at Playchess.com
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Goodbye, 97 pound chess weakling!
19.02.2003
– Remember those Charles Atlas ads of your youth? The 97-pound weakling was pushed around at the beach in front of the girls – until he learnt the secrets to a dynamic body. James DuBois thinks ChessBase has unintentionally created a chess body building system for the player that is sick and tired of being a chess weakling.
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Breaking news: Kasparov vs Ponomariov in – Argentina!
19.02.2003
– The match between Garry Kasparov and Ruslan Ponomariov is to take place from June 19 to July 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This was announced in a news conference by FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Moscow yesterday. The match is being held in line with the Prague chess unity plan. Looks like FIDE may help organise the other match between Kramnik and Leko as well.
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Four world champions in Linares
18.02.2003
– Once a year the Andalusian city of Linares stages a super-tournament, hailed
as the Wimbledon of Chess. This year it is a category 20, with four world champions
participating (Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Ponomariov). Each has a little something
to prove. Games start on Feb 22. In the meantime you will find full information on the participants and can take part
in a special Linares quiz here.
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Sorry, no chess tournaments here
18.02.2003
– "In our new chess calendar there are now tournaments from every continent,
except for Antartica," writes Harmen Jonkman, who meticulously collects
information on every notible chess event the world over. If you are looking
for a place to play (or watch) you should regularly visit our tournament Chess
Calendar.
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Faces and friends in Moscow
17.02.2003
– In round four there were lots of draws. It's obvious that the Aeroflot Open has reached cruising altitude. Time to change the angle of view, at least in a photographic sense. Here is
Eugeny Atarov's illustrated report.
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Dutch blitz chess marathon
16.02.2003
– Once a year there is a Blitz Chess Marathon in Dordrecht, Holland. There is place for 200 participants, but since many top grandmasters are present you have to be there in time to secure a place. Which means getting up at 6 a.m. and driving for two hours, especially if you are a lowly 1400 player, fulfilling a wager with your brother.
Jeroen van den Belt reports.
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Sunday puzzle: a classic retractor
16.02.2003
– Last April we posted a report on a
proposal by Bobby Fischer, designed to eliminate the "unbearable
preponderance of tactics in chess". According to the new rule
players would be allowed to take back moves and play something
else instead. It turned out that the whole report was a cruel
hoax. But the "retractor" move actually exists in the chess problem
world. Here's a lovely
example.
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Hikaru Nakamura breaks Fischer's record
15.02.2003
– At the beginning of February an unassuming 15-year-old from White Plains, New York, who loves spaghetti, tennis and pingpong, broke Bobby Fischer's 1958 record to become the youngest American grandmaster ever. Hikaru Nakamura earned his final GM norm at the Bermuda International Chess Festival, and since he has a rating of 2520 the title is certain.
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