Sweden is now a regulated market, which means that as a player you can only play at casinos with a license. See all regulated casinos in Sweden by Mr casinova.
In this special weekly column we will be looking at the most unexpected upsets that happened last week. Players usually face opponents of a comparable level. Considerably less frequent are situations when a significantly lower-rated player succeeds in beating a much stronger adversary.
This week is special: a club player rated 1922 defeated a GM (2559 ELO) with White. Isn't it inspiring for the underdogs?
Magnus Carlsen Won London Chess Classic & Broke Kasparov's Record
Written by Administrator
Monday, 10 December 2012
The world's highest-rated male and female players - Magnus Carlsen and Judit Polgar
Magnus Carlsen has won London Classic undefeated and with a remarkable performance - 18/24 (football scoring system). Notably, he broke Garry Kasparovs record (2851 in year 1999) and now has an empyreal live rating of 2861.
Vladimir Kramnik (16/24) has also enjoyed being undefeated and scored really well (+4). Especially interesting was his game against Gawain Jones, in which he employed the double fianchetto variation a rare guest at the elite level. Vlady is now #2 on the live rating list with 2809 his all-time high previously achieved in 2002.
Michael Adams is clearly underrated (according to Vladimir Kramnik). He won bronze and reestablished himself as the #1 in Great Britain. The US #1 Hikaru Nakamura finished on par with him (13/24) and earned a few rating points along the way.
The reigning World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand is still performing disappointingly (9/24), 50%. The way he blundered a simple mate against Michael Adams is a sign that something is wrong with his play.
Levon Aronian was obviously in a bad form at London (8/24). Even more shocking, he managed to save a few terrible positions, but still scored poorly and fell to #3 on the live rating list.
Apart from the game against Luke McShane the event didnt go too well for Judith Polgar (6/24), but it is always a pleasure to see the chess Amazon playing chess.
Luke McShane (5/24) probably collapsed under the burden of high expectations of the public being the #1-rated British grandmaster and a person who has defeated quite a few of the worlds top players, he was supposed to achieve something spectacular in London. Alas, it didnt happen, but at least he won one game (against Gawain Jones).
The reigning British Champion and rating outsider of the tournament Gawain Jones has scored rather miserably (3/24), but was complimented for showing a fighting spirit as opposed to trying to make as many draws as possible.
Puzzle courtesy of Barry R. Clarke, columnist for The Daily Telegraph and international puzzle expert The Pig and the Bird
Porky the pig was enjoying a nap when a bird accidentally flew into him. Can you add one triangle to the picture to show the bird battered and bruised?
Pogonina.com offers you a selection of some of the most informative chess tweets from last week. Today is our column's first anniversary: 1 year! As usual, all the fresh chess news in one short post:
Must-read articles and books coming up Congrats to the new Women's World Chess Champion Can you recognize the athletes?
Alexandra Kosteniuk: Champions for peace. At @peaceandsport forum in Sochi (31.10.2012-02.12.2012)
Armageddon @ Russian Chess Cup
Maria Fominykh: Lost the second game in classical chess, made three draws on tie-breaks, and the tournament is over for me. I will be flying home in 6 hours)
BBC Woman's Hour Quote of the week Quality vs. quantity Lots of exciting action at London Classic Karjakin, Wang Hao and Morozevich tied for first in FIDE Grand Prix in Tashkent Perfection knows no limits
Have we missed some of the best tweets? You can contribute to our next top-10 stories chart by retweeting the post you like and adding @Pogonina to the message so that we can see it.
In this special weekly column we will be looking at the most unexpected upsets that happened last week. Players usually face opponents of a comparable level. Considerably less frequent are situations when a significantly lower-rated player succeeds in beating a much stronger adversary.
This week's post includes many games from junior chess championships where many underrated players are participating. Hence, it is not surprising that our hit list looks rather impressive:
Puzzle courtesy of Barry R. Clarke, columnist for The Daily Telegraph and international puzzle expert The Hardest Ever Logic Puzzle
Although the following is a new puzzle, its method of solution can be derived from a similar puzzle credited to George Boolos and often referred to as ―The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever.
A prisoner in solitary confinement, who has no idea what day of the week it is, has been told that on each day for three consecutive days he can ask the guard on duty a question to which he will receive a 'yes' or 'no' answer. From the responses, he must announce on the third day what day of the week it is. If he is correct he will be set free, if not he will be executed.
The prisoner is faced with several difficulties. A guard will either consistently tell the truth or consistently lie and on no two days of a week will the guard be the same man. Furthermore, although the guards understand English, they have been instructed to give a 'ho' or a 'mo' answer, one of them meaning 'yes' and the other meaning 'no'. The prisoner has no idea which is which.
What line of questioning is sure to win the prisoner his freedom?
Anna Ushenina is the New Women's World Chess Champion
Written by Administrator
Saturday, 01 December 2012
Anna Ushenina (born August 30, 1985) from Ukraine became the XVth Women's World Chess Champion after beating ex-Women's World Chess Champion and the reigning Women's Rapid Chess Champion Antoaneta Stefanova in the final match on tie-breaks in rapid chess. Additionally, Anna has earned the GM title, a $60,000 paycheck and the right to face Hou Yifan in a World Championship match next year.
Ushenina was rated #38 among women in the world before the championship, and very few people were expecting her to succeed. However, by taking a look at her recent results once can notice a dramatic improvement in her performances: she was undefeated in the Chess Olympiad and Ukrainian Women's Championship, as well as in all the games until the final classical one vs. Stefanova (which she lost rather poorly and awkwardly). Here is a reminder of what her tournament run looked like:
