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.
Pogonina.com offers you a selection of some of the most informative and entertaining chess tweets from last week:
The moor has done his work, the moor can leave Zukertort's grave was finally restored Svidler beats Navara 3-1 in a friendly match Clash of the titans Congratulations, ladies! Time to gather stones Really? Don't get me started! Team Russia will play a correspondence game against amateurs
Russian Chess Federation: Today, on June 25th at 3 p.m. the Team Russia vs Chesss Fans match will begin. Here's the link: http://match175.russiachess.org/
The joy of helping other people improve Quote of the week
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.
Venue: St. Petersburg, Russia Dates: July 1st - 9th Format: classical chess (each member of the team gets to play all the members of the opposing team once) + rapid (two games against each member of the opposing team) Scoring system: each game is worth 1 point; the team with the highest combined score (women+men) will be declared a winner Prize fund: each men's team gets $15,000 (non-taxable); each women's team - $10,000 (non-taxable)
Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk - Victorious in Kazan
Written by Administrator
Friday, 22 June 2012
Koneru Humpy and Anna Muzychuk: world's #4 highest-rated woman vs #3
The Grand Prix stage in Kazan has come to an end. Here are the results:
Most notably, Anna Muzychuk is now rated over 2600 on the live rating list. This should make her the 4th women in the history of chess to break the respectable barrier. Our congratulations in advance!
Pogonina.com offers you a selection of some of the most informative and entertaining chess tweets from last week:
While not leading at any point of the tournament, Magnus wins Tal Memorial again - 5.5/9 English amateur GM Luke McShane defeated two of the three world's highest players at Tal Memorial! Anand talks frankly and in detail about his preparation, Gelfand, the role of Aruna, beef with Kasparov, etc. The World Rapid & Blitz Championship: the '11 qualifiers from Aeroflot weren't invited Women's Grand Prix is underway in Kazan, Russia Momento Moro The Russian Chess Federation also issued a statement condemning the actions of Ali NIhat Yazichi Garry Kasparov is planning to take another shot at FIDE Presidency in 2014 After drawing two classical and two rapid games Karpov defeated Seirawan in blitz: 6-4 Don't miss the Russian Top League!
Ian Nepomniatchi: I have nearly oveslept the first round :) In the middle of acclimitizing. So far a draw against Panarin with White: I started forcing matters prematurely in a better endgame.
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.
Title: FIDE Woman Grandmaster, Grandmaster of Russia
Date of birth: March 9th, 1985
Fide rating: 2447, highest - 2501
Country: Russia
What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favorite movie?
Forrest Gump.
What kind of food and drink do you prefer?
Drinks kvass and fruit drinks. Since I am a Russian, I will have to mention that I hardly ever drink alcohol. Not more than a glass of red wine during a celebration.
No special preferences when it comes to food. Meat with mushrooms maybe? And I cant imagine a day without sweets.
What is your favorite book?
All the books by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, especially Citadel.
What music are you currently grooving to?
Bad Balance thats one of the oldest and most respected Russian rap groups. They started back in the late 80s and are still alive and kicking. Btw, their leader, Vlad Valov, loves chess! He challenged me to a game, so I will play him when we meet next time.
Avoid passively reading about opening ideas, middlegame plans, typical endgames. Always practice, play them out! You can only learn by doing.
What is your best chess memory?
Chess has presented me with many pleasant moments of different natures. I cant single out one.
Which do you think is worse, failing or never trying?
After failing one can often learn something and try again, or find a better application of his energy. And never trying doesnt lead to anything positive.
What chess player have you ever wanted to be and why?
I have never wanted to be like some other chess player. The two icons I would like to mention though are Bobby Fischer for his contribution to chess and helping make the game a professional occupation, and Judit Polgar for serving as an inspiration for all female players.
What do you do to get better at chess? How do you train?
Now that I have a small kid my time for studying is very limited. The best opportunities to work are during tournaments and special trainings sessions (held about twice per year for a week or two). I try to solve tactics on a daily basis (for example, using Chess.coms Tactics Trainer) and make sure I have all of my games analyzed after the end of a tournament. My Chess.com columns are helpful in this respect too, because when I feel lazy they sometimes force me into taking a look at one of my games and including it in the next article.
Also, lately I have been paying more attention to psychology and physical shape, because most of my current weaknesses are not directly chess-related.
How old were you when you began to play chess?
My grandfather taught me how to play the game at 5. I started attending a chess club and studying at about 8-9 when one of the local chess coaches noticed that I won the school checkers tournament and thought I could have a talent for chess too.
Do you have a family?
They say that one chess player in the family is more than enough. However, my husband, Peter Zhdanov, apart from being an IT project manager and debate expert, is a member of the Association of Chess Professionals, and very keen on chess. We are cooperating on many projects.
Our son Nikolai is 2.5 years old. You might remember him from the Pogonina vs. Chess.com match.
Is the Internet a big part of your life?
Huge! Im usually online on Skype; tweeting all the time. Before FaceBook allowed people to subscribe to other people's profiles, I had to create three pages in order to be able to confirm the friend requests (the limit is 5,000 per profile).
I have a few blogs and a personal website, so I spend a lot of time responding to messages-- getting about two hundred of them per day. Therefore, if I am not replying promptly it usually means that I am either busy playing in a tournament, or simply flooded by e-mails. Sorry for the delay!
Also, I love watching movies, listening to music, reading all sorts of news and articles on the Internet. To sum it all up, when I am not asleep, I am usually online.
What was your childhood like?
I grew up in Vladivostok and was an only child. My Mum is a teacher and my Dad is an engineer. In the 90s life in Russia was rather tough, so I obviously didnt have access to top level coaching or opportunities to travel to tournaments. Even when I started winning the Russian and European junior championships things didnt change much.
At some point, when I was a teenager, I had to leave my parents and move to a different city - Saratov. It is now #3 in Russia in the chess sense after Moscow and St. Petersburg. There I received the assistance of a personal coach, eventually received some support from the university, and could travel more easily, because Saratov is closer to Europe than Vladivostok.
What is chess to you a game of combat or an art?
Frankly speaking, I dont like the approach of viewing chess as an opportunity to break the other persons ego, crush him. To me it is more of a search for harmony, a struggle to create a masterpiece together and learn something new along the way.
How much time do you devote to chess?
I dont have a particular schedule, so its hard to say.
What is your inner being?
An ancient Dragon.
Who is your inspiration?
Who, not what? Strange question. I myself then.
What is your greatest fear?
Death.
Describe a perfect day.
Every day is good in one way or the other. Its not like I want to re-live a certain scenario over and over again.
Is there any chess book that has had a deep and lasting influence on you?
If you could choose to live one day of any time in the history of mankind, which time would that be and why?
I would rather see a day in the distant future.
Do you have any favorite hobbies?
I love active sports and play soccer, basketball, and volleyball. Also, I am an avid fan of many types of sports. Besides that I like traveling, taking pictures, flamenco, skating, singing and writing poems. My current #1 passion is airplanes.
What is your most treasured possession?
I wont be original here my laptop with chess analysis.
Are you a superstitious person?
Not really. At least I dont have any mascots or rituals that dont make sense.
What are the most important lessons youve learned in chess?
I am in the process of learning.
What does your future hold as a chess player?
I am not really a fortune teller, but I am hoping to improve as a player and help make the game more popular and enjoyable for other people!
How would you describe yourself to an alien from another planet?
I would ask Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to kindly introduce us to each other.
Do you have any thoughts on how chess.com can get even better?
Chess.com is easily the #1 chess website in the world: great articles, excellent Chess Tactics software, daily chess news, interesting forum threads, access to coaching, witty polls, etc. And, most importantly, a very friendly and intelligent international community!
I would work on Study Plans, add even more Chess Mentor courses and improve the interface and the features of the Live Chess. A large part of the audience at any website is people who love watching GM games. And so far Chess.coms playing zone hasnt attracted enough top players. Of course, it is partly due to the conservatism of the grandmasters why leave the website where and your friends have been playing for a few years? Nonetheless, everything is possible.
Another idea post FIDE ratings of players and create a utility that plots multiple rating graphs on one screen. For example, wouldnt it be interesting to see how Carlsens, Aronians, Kramniks and Anands ratings were fluctuating as compared to each other over, lets say, the last five years?
Sometimes I am somewhat surprised by seeing, for example, Chess Tactics tweaked to show performances, or Chess 960 added. Of course, its just my personal opinion, but these innovations dont seem important to me, while a few other critical ones could have been made instead.
Do you prefer blitz, otb tournaments or correspondence style chess?
Over the board. Previously I used to play online, mostly using a secret anonymous accounts. Now I am not doing it much. As to correspondence my first experiences were the two matches against the World (win with White, draw with Black). I have never played in official correspondence tournaments though.
How seriously do you take the online games you play?
I understand that they dont matter much. However, I get really upset and crazy about losing a few games in blitz. Sometimes I go on tilt and keep playing until I regain my rating points, or squander even more.
What is your favorite time control in live?
The official FIDE classical chess time control. 1h 30m per game and 30s per move.
Would you be interested in playing a "death-match"?
I like this idea a lot. When it was first introduced, we have discussed it with David Pruess and have considered many options: a) I could challenge one of my 2700+ FIDE-rated friends b) play a more balanced match against an IM/regular GM c) arrange a duel between two females. So far this plan hasnt been implemented, but I am sure we will bring it to life in the future.
Btw, a question to the readers: which of the three abovementioned scenarios do you like best? ;-)
Dmitry Jakovenko and Natalia Pogonina are the top seeds at the Top League
The Russian Top League will be taking place in Tyumen from June 15th to 28th. The format is Swiss, 11 rounds. Players can qualify for participation by doing reasonably well in the last years Superfinal; having a high rating; finishing in the top-3 in regional championships of the country; being a junior Russian champion. It serves as a qualification event for the Superfinal (one has to finish in the top-5) & for the national team and hence attracts some of the strongest Russian players. For example, the reigning European Champion Dmitry Jakovenko is taking part.
Some of the highest-rated players in the mens tournament (47 participants overall):
Dmitry Jakovenko, 2736
Ian Nepomniatchi, 2716
Ernesto Inarkiev, 2707
Nikita Vitiugov, 2703
Dmitry Andreikin, 2700
Vadim Zvyagintsev, 2683
Boris Grachev, 2680
Evgeny Alekseev, 2677
Maxim Matlakov, 2668
Igor Kurnosov, 2663
Alexander Khalifman, 2651
Vladimir Potkin, 2642
Artem Timofeev, 2641
Ildar Khairullin, 2631
Sanan Sjugirov, 2625
Ivan Popov, 2609
Dmitry Bocharov, 2600
Alexandr Shimanov, 2600
The highest-rated players in the womens Swiss (31 participants overall):
My previous report was dedicated to the World Womens Rapid Chess Championship, and now it is the time for blitz. The participants were the same, but not the results. The time control was rather unusual: 4m+2s/move. The typical one nowadays is 3m+2s/move, while in the past everyone used to play 5m/game. The schedule was comfortable enough: 15 rounds in two days.
In blitz the ability to play without thinking much, with your hands, is critical. One cant calculate much, so instincts come into play. To become a good blitz player, one has to constantly practice, solve a lot of tactics and have special opening schemes to surprise the opponents and make life easier for oneself.
Before the tournament one of the main favorites was Valentina Gunina from Russia. She is the reigning European classical and blitz chess champion, who has proven herself as a successful blitz player in womens and mixed events. She lived up to her status and scored a spectacular 8/8 on day one! As Valya herself has commented, she got lucky (in most of the games she was actually lost), but, nonetheless, there is no such thing as a random victory. Generally speaking, in blitz most of the games are far from perfect, so one can see the advantage swing back and forth. Often the last one to blunder terribly loses.
Of course, other strong blitz players were taking part, but no one could match Valyas speed. The Muzychuk sisters had 6/8, as well as Zhukova Natalia and Nana Dzagnidze. The winner of the rapid event Antoaneta Stefanova had 5/8. I started off badly with 3/8.
On day two another 7 rounds were to be played, offering a chance to catch up. Alexandra Kosteniuk won the first three games (on day one she had 4.5/8). Antoaneta Stefanova scored 3.5/4. Natalia Zhukova got only 2.5/5, but went on to win the final games. Maria Muzychuk defeated Zhukova in round 9, but lost five games in a row after that! I started with 3.5/4, then lost a game, didnt convert a commanding advantage in the next one, and ended up at 8/15. Day two was clearly an improvement for me as compared to day one: 5/7.
Valentina Gunina drew four games in a row that is a rare case in blitz. Then she won three games and finished at 13/15. A great achievement for the new Womens World Blitz Chess Champion! Natalia Zhukova and Anna Muzychuk earned medals with 10.5/15.
The atmosphere at the tournament was very friendly and, no matter how serious were the titles at stake, one could see most players smiling and chatting with each other. During prize-giving we were all eating a tasty cake. :) Batumi is a very beautiful city and a great place for holding chess tournaments.
I love taking pictures, so here is another photo report:
And here is some chess content. While reviewing the games to find some interesting samples to show to you, I was actually shocked by the number of one and two-move mates, blundered queens, etc.
