Gold in 2012

LiveStream Round 12 Candidates

Kramnik takes over the lead in London, with two rounds to go. Watch the action, minute by minute, in this video.

Retrograde analysis with GM Ashley

Retrograde analysis is where you envision the future situation and proceed by working your way backwards to find the right path. A practical example of using this technique in chess is to envision what endgame you want to have, for instance a bishop against knight. Then, if the position right now is where you have two bishops and the opponent has bishop and knight, it becomes clear that you should trade bishops. Deciding what you want to achieve is a great idea, because this decision can guide you forward through the countless number of different paths ahead.

May 9-12 2013 International ELO registered Senior Tournament in Stockholm/Täby

Click here to read the official invitation!

"SCT – Scandinavia’s largest tournament organization lead by the founder Peter Hlawatsch, wishes you very welcome to Stockholm and Sweden during one of our most beautiful months of the year. We want to guard seniors (our chess pioneers) who have developed, renewed and given so much knowledge to the next generations. Thanks to our seniors and organizers, we have an onrush of thousands of young and talented chess players who want a career and learn chess science to even higher levels.

It is born daily prospective Grand Master and it is our duty to help and realize their dreams. We expect respect for our work and we promise that we will help to keep chess alive well into our ages. SCT will ensure friendly, jovial life and hard battle at the chessboard. You are welcome to be part in our chess family from May 9-12, 2013. You will not be disappointed. Maybe you want to stay until the next tournament. Our hostesses will take care of you at the best possible way."

A historic match in the highest league in Norrtälje

Link with photos and full text (in Swedish).

Ideas are born

Many players like to discuss positions using moves. Knight to G four, bishop to F five, pawn to h6, and so on. But behind those moves there are of course ideas. And it is those ideas you need to find the moves! So let us talk about ideas instead!

Ideas are born in wishful thinking. You wish that something would work. You wish that you could get a knight to f5. Then you look and see if that is possible in practice? Do you have a knight? Yes. Where is it now? On f3. Can it get to f5? Yes, with Nf3-d4-f5 and Nf3-h4-f5. But black has a pawn on g6. Can it be bound to the black king on g8? Yes. With what? A queen. Where is the queen? On d2. Can it get to the g-file? Yes, with Qd2-g5. So that is the idea. Nf3-d4, Qd2-g5, Nd4-f5.

Ideas of course need knowledge and experience. Been there, seen that and hopefully done that. That is what you get by going through grandmaster games. You see and memorize ideas, also known as patterns. You see how the pieces act in harmony towards a common goal. Then, you can derive through analogy a similar idea in your position.

Here is an example. Black just moved Kc8-b8 to avoid Nxf7. Now white did some wishful thinking. "I wish I would grab the rook on d7 with Qxd7 because the rook on d8 is pinned to the black king on b8 via Rh8-d8-b8. But I cannot do that because black also has a queen on c7. Can I chase that queen away somehow? Yes! With Bd2-a5! Thus the idea Ba5 was born!" We also added the idea Nf4-e2 check to make the point that black does have some defense ideas. After Qxa5 black is probably lost. But after Nf4-e2+ white has to make a few good choices before getting an advantage. In the example below black managed to almost equalize the position! So after Ba5 black should calm down and look for ideas too! It works both ways! Thanks for reading.