The London Candidates Tournament was one of the most eagerly anticipated events in modern chess history, and it didn’t disappoint. After Magnus Carlsen emerged victorious by the finest of margins Crestbook asked some leading chess experts for their views.
“Be a winner in the future! Learn from the most successful female chess player of all time.”
Judit Polgar, the best female chess player in the world, has launched her new skill-building application with this slogan. “Future winners in our knowledge-based society will be those who can think strategically and analytically, who are problem-solvers,” says Judit. “Children can practice these skills while they have fun playing chess. Our application educates and entertains at the same time; it’s a program that kids and their parents can use together.”
This unique animated series has just appeared in the appstore for iPhone and iPad, under the title Judit Polgar’s ChessPlayground.
And now Crestbook’s leading expert, Grandmaster Sergey Shipov, is answering questions from members of the KasparovChess forum about the sporting, creative, organisational and other aspects of 2012. Discussion of the resulting portrait of the year can be continued in a special thread on the KasparovChess forum.
Great achievements often take a lifetime of preparation, but when these achievements are becoming the World Number 1 at the age of 12 and the youngest ever grandmaster at the age of 15 you have to start early!
In this very personal book Judit Polgar describes her early moments of success and the chess ideas she needed to master to achieve them.
This exceptional book is the beginning of a unique project where one of the greatest players of our time transforms her personal journey to the top into a roadmap for everyone who ever wanted to better themselves in the game of chess.
The World Chess Championship between Vishy Anand (India, 2791) and Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2727) will take place in the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow from 11 till 30 May, 2012. The two will play a match of 12 games, unless someone scores a decisive 6.5 points at an earlier stage. In case of a tie, there will be a rapid / blitz playoff to decide.
Time control: 120 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 60 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from the first move.
Days of play: 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26 and 28 May. Games begin: 3 PM Moscow time. Tie break: 30 May, 12.00 PM.
Colin McGourty and Dana Mackenzie are translating GM Sergey Shipov's online commentaries at Crestbook.
International grandmaster Judit Polgar is the greatest female chess player of all time. She is ready to answer chess fans' questions as part of the Crestbook KC-Conferences project. You can ask the Hungarian queen about virtually anything!
Your questions for GM Judit Polgar can be submitted in English at . Of course, it is also possible to submit your questions in Russian at the KasparovChess forum. The deadline is 28 November.
GM Sergey Shipov's article initially published in Crestbook's Russian section is now available in English at the premier chess site ChessBase:
In this article Crestbook's editor-in-chief analyses Rustam Kasimdzhanov's recent idea for getting rid of the drawn result in chess and discusses a new scoring system allowing for increasing the number of decisive games in tournaments and stimulating fighting play.
Your questions for GM Levon Aronian can be submitted in English at a special post at Chess in Translation. Of course, it is also possible to submit your questions in Russian at the KasparovChess forum. The deadline is 2 February.
From 3 to 27 May 2011 the FIDE Candidates Matches take place in Kazan, Russia. The winner will qualify to challenge the World Champion GM Vishy Anand in a 12-game match during the first half of 2012.
Quarterfinals (best of four): 5 May - 9 May:
V. Topalov (Bulgaria, 2775) - G. Kamsky (USA, 2733) V. Kramnik (Russia, 2785) - T. Radjabov (Azerbaijan, 2746) L. Aronian (Armenia, 2808) - A. Grischuk (Russia, 2747) B. Gelfand (Israel, 2733) - S. Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 2772)
Semifinals (best of four): 12 May - 16 May:
B. Gelfand (Israel, 2733) - G. Kamsky (USA, 2733) V. Kramnik (Russia, 2785) - A. Grischuk (Russia, 2747)
Final(best of six): 19 May - 26 May:
B. Gelfand - A. Grischuk
Time control:120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds increment per move, starting from move 61.
Tiebreaks: four games of 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment, two blitz games (five minutes plus three seconds) and one sudden death game (five against four, with three seconds increment from move 61, and draw odds for Black).
Games begin: 3:00pm Moscow time / 12:00pm GMT
Live commentaries by GM Sergey Shipov:
and then, after some editing, can be found at their permanent locations.
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament (known before as Corus Chess Tournament) takes place in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. The three Grandmaster tournaments have 14 players each.
Participants (Group A - Average rating: 2740; Category: 20): Magnus Carlsen (2814), Viswanathan Anand (2810), Levon Aronian (2805), Vladimir Kramnik (2784), Alexander Grischuk (2773), Hikaru Nakamura (2751), Ruslan Ponomariov (2744), Ian Nepomniachtchi (2733), Wang Hao (2731), Alexei Shirov (2722), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2715), Anish Giri (2686), Jan Smeets (2662), Erwin l'Ami (2628)
Format: single round-robin of 13 rounds. Time control: 100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from the first move. Playing days: 15-18, 20-23, 25-26 and 28-30 January 2011. Games begin: 1:30 PM (12PM on 30 Jun) GMT+1 / 3:30 PM (2 PM on 30 Jun) Moscow time.
The 2nd London Chess Classic takes place in the Olympia Conference Center, Kensington, London, UK. The event is Category 20.
Participants: Viswanathan Anand (2804), Magnus Carlsen (2802), Vladimir Kramnik (2791), Hikaru Nakamura (2741), Michael Adams(2723), Nigel Short (2680), Luke McShane (2645) and David Howell (2611).
Prize fund: 145,000 Euros. Six main prizes: 1st 50,000 Euros, 2nd 25,000 Euros, 3rd 15,000 Euros, 4th 10,000 Euros, 5th 10,000 Euros, 6th 8,000 Euros. Plus 7 Daily Best Game prizes of 1,000 Euros (voted on by the public) and a winners’ pool of 20,000 Euros for each game won.
Format: single round-robin of seven rounds. Score system: 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw.
Time control: 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour and then 15 minutes to finish the game with 30 seconds increment from move 61. Sofia Rules. Playing days: 7-12 and 14-15 December. Games begin: 2:00 PM (4.00 PM on 9 Dec, 12PM on 15 Dec) GMT / 5:00 PM (7 PM on 9 Dec, 3 PM on 15 Dec) Moscow time.
Once again, as part of the Crestbook KC-Conference project, you have the chance to ask a super-grandmaster absolutely anything you want. Now it's Ruslan Ponomariov, the youngest World Champion in history (in a FIDE knockout, it’s true, but beating Morozevich, Bareev, Svidler and Ivanchuk along the way!). Nevertheless, he’s still perhaps one of the lesser-known super-grandmasters, so this is a chance to put things right.
The second stage of the 2010 Grand Slam Masters Final takes place 9-15 October in Bilbao, Spain.
Grandmasters Magnus Carlsen (ELO - 2826), Viswanathan Anand (2800), Vladimir Kramnik (2780) and Alexei Shirov (2749) play in a double round-robin tournament.
Score system: 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw. Time control: 90 minutes/40 moves + 60 minutes + 10 seconds/move as of move 41 Playing days: 9-11 и 13-15 октября. Games begin: 4:30 PM local time / 7:30 PM Moscow time
The 39th Chess Olympiad takes place September 20th – October 3rd in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. 148 men's and 114 women's teams are playing according to the Swiss System over 11 rounds. Both the men and women are playing in teams on four boards, with one player in reserve. Team points (2,1,0) are given for each match, while the overall number of game points collected serves as a tiebreaker.
Days of play: 21-25, 27-30 September, 1 and 3 October. All rounds start at 15:00 local time (UTC/GMT +5), the last round starts at 11:00.
International Grandmaster Michal Krasenkow was the first hero of the “KC-Conferences” project. Back in September 2009 he answered more than sixty questions submitted by forum members. Today we are presenting an English version of his conference which has been slightly updated with a couple of topical questions added.
Today we are publishing an English version of the final part of Alexander Khalifman's KC-conference. This third part is, in a sense, the completion of an adjourned game: the 1999 FIDE World Champion answered supplementary questions submitted by members of the KasparovChess Forum after reading parts one and two.
New members of the Crestbook team Colin McGourty and Dana Mackenzie are translating Sergey Shipov's online commentaries on the games from this year’s in Dortmund.
Colin McGourty’s translations first appear in real time at page of his site and then can be found at their permanent locations:
Rd 1:
Rd 2:
Rd 5:
Rd 6:
Rd 9:
Dana Mackenzie’s translations are initially at his and then can be found at their permanent locations:
Today we present an English version of the second part of Alexander Khalifman's KC-conference. In this part, in particular, grandmaster and FIDE World Champion of 1999 talks candidly about chess literature and journalism, chess on the Internet, the principles of preparation and improvement, openings, and also simply “about life".
