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.
The Snowdrops vs Oldhands match has been taking place in the Czech resort Marianski Lazne for fourt years in a row. The name of the event is connected with a movie which was quite popular in that country. There are two teams of 4 players each: male legendary veterans (Oldhands) and rising female stars (Snowdrops). Each person gets to play every member of the opposing team twice. Colors change each round, i.e. either all your teammates have White, or all Black. The time control is standard, no zero tolerance rule, no Sophia rules. It is worth mentioning that the latter factor didnt ruin the fighting spirit of the tournament.
Marianski Lazni has a great chess history. In 1925 a round robin featuring such stars as Nimzovitch, Rubinshtein, Marshall, Reti, etc. took place. A few times the city hosted FIDE zonal tournaments and other prestigious events. As a result, the city has been visited by many top grandmasters.
The Oldhands vs Snowdrops matches started in 2008. In the first edition the veterans prevailed, while the next two events were won by the girls. Among the participants were such renowned players as Karpov, Korchnoi, Timman, Koneru, Cmilyte, Lahno. The best performance was demonstrated by Vlastimil Hort in 2008 6.5/8.
This year the players were Mariya Muzychuk, Natalia Pogonina, Tania Sachdev, Eva Kulovana & Robert Huebner, Rafael Vaganian, Boris Gulko (who replaced Dragoljub Velimirovic) and Vlastimil Hort. You can find the information about all the players here. The captain of our team was IM Michal Konopko, while in the mens team Hort was a playing captain. After having lost the last two matches, the Oldhands were taking the event very seriously and aimed at winning. While being greatly outrated (the average rating of our opponents was 2541 as compared with our 2409), we were still motivated to fight to the very last shot.
The beginning was nice for us. In the first round we had 4 Blacks and managed to draw the formidable veterans. Muzychuk defeated Vaganian, and Hort struck back against Kulovana:
The position is interesting and too complicated to play in time trouble. Black has to understand that she should be playing for a draw, since the powerful White bishops outweigh the passed pawn.
35...e1Q?! [After the correct 35...Kg8 36.Bc4 Kh7 37.Bd3+ Kg8 38.Bc4= the game ends in a draw by move repetition] 36.Bxe1? [The right way to play is 36.Rh5+ Kg8 37.Rxe1 Rxe1 (37...Nxe1?? 38.Bc4+ Rf7 39.Rf5+-) 38.Bc4+ Kf8 39.Bb4+ Ke8 40.Bxe1 Nxe1 41.Re5+ Kd7 42.Rxe1 Rxc2 and Black should be able to save the game] 36...Nxe1?? [36...Rxe1 37.Rxe1 Nxe1 and White will be looking for a draw] 37.Rh5+ Kg8 38.Bc4+ Rf7 39.Rf5 Re3 40.Rxf7 Kh7 41.Rxb7 Nf3 42.Rd1 Ne5 43.Bd3+ Kh6 44.g5+ Kxg5 45.Rxg7+ 10
Vlastimil Hort vs Eva Kulovana
Photo: Martin Chrz
In the second round the Oldhands had all Blacks. They drew three games and won one.
Here Robert Huebner demonstrated his incredible technique (although making a few oversights in time trouble). He transferred the king to the queenside, blocked the pawn on a5, deflected one of Whites rooks by attacking the a5-pawn with a queen from d8, played g5, and eventually won.
Indian beauty Tania Sachdev and Dr. Robert Huebner
Photo: Martin Chrz
In the third round we went down 3-1. Kulovana lost to Hort, while Vaganian launched a great home-prepared attack against me:
19...f5?? [A position with mutual chances would have occurred after a rather straightforward 19...cxd3 20.Rxd3 Ba6 21.Rg3+ Qxg3 22.fxg3 Bd3+ and the bishop gets transferred to the critical b1-h7 diagonal] 20.g4 f4 21.Bxh7+ Kh8 22.Bf5+ Kg8 23.Qh7+ Kf8 24.Bxe6 10
Rafael Vaganian has prepared a tricky opening variation against Natalia Pogonina
Photo: Martin Chrz
So, after three rounds the score was 7.5-4.5 in the Oldhands favor. In the following two rounds we were to get White, and were planning to regain some of the points.
Round 4 was a draw. Muzychuk won again: Boris Gulko forgot a forced line, and the young WGM took advantage of it. Huebner restored the balance by overcoming Kulovana in a dramatic struggle:
Muzychuk,M (2460) - Gulko,B (2535) [B64]
Snowdrops vs Oldhands Prague CZE (4), 06.12.2011
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 Be7 8.000 00 9.f4 h6 10.h4 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 hxg5 12.hxg5 Ng4 13.Be2 e5 14.Qg1 exf4 15.Bxg4 Bxg4 [The alternative is 15...Bxg5] 16.Qh2 f5 17.g6 Bh4The key move in this line 18.Rd4
18...Bh5?Boris remembered Bh4, but forgot what to do next and played the wrong move. [He should have started by playing 18...fxe4 19.Rxe4 Bh5 20.Qxh4 Qxh4 21.Rxh4 Bxg6 with a more or less equal position] 19.Qxh4 Qxh4 20.Rxh4 Bxg6 21.Rxd6White got an advantage and quickly converted it into a win Bh7 22.exf5 Rxf5 23.Nd5 Re5 24.Rd7 Rg5 25.Ne7+ Kh8
Before the 5th round was a rest day. While previously the weather was sunny and warm, now it all of a sudden started snowing. Hence we had to spend most of the time in the hotel. However, this day we had a chance to taste the famous waffles Colonada, a proprietary product of Marianski Lazni since the 19th century.
Santa has lent each of the seven dwarfs one of his reindeer to deliver a gift to a house in Hollyville. Unfortunately, the order the dwarfs should leave the grotto together with their delivery instructions has been mixed up in all the excitement. Although each item is in the correct column, only one entry in each column is correctly positioned.
The following facts are true about the correct order:
(1) Happy is somewhere above Vixen
(2) Dungroovin is not above the TV
(3) The MP3 player is one above Litesout which is two above Takerhike
(4) Blitzen is two below Bashful and two above Whywurry
(5) Sleepy is three above Comet which is two below the guitar and three below Nomunie
(6) Donner is one below the radio and one above Dopey
(7) The doll is one below Dancer and two above Sneezy
Can you find the correct dwarf, reindeer, gift, and house name for each position?
Some of the most informative and funniest tweets posted last week are brought to you by Pogonina.com:
Tougher than last year, but still manageable
How many pages?!
Just one question: game of the year where?
Time is a factor in chess
The joys and sorrows of being a professional chess player
Launch a trailer?
You can never go wrong with quoting Bobby to grasp attention
Still better than procrastinating on FaceBook
And what about Mars?
Why not invite someone to decorate it?
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.
All the five chess players who are currently representing Russia in the World Team Chess Championship were featured in a special chess calendar released after the Russian Superfinal in 2005. Wondering how they looked like at that time and what their ratings were? Here is a reminder:
Nadezhda Kosintseva. Rating at that time: 2459. Current rating: 2546.
Tatiana Kosintseva. Rating at that time: 2486. Current rating: 2526.
Alexandra Kosteniuk. Rating at that time: 2492. Current rating: 2439.
Valentina Gunina. Rating at that time: 2340. Current rating: 2514.
Natalia Pogonina. Rating at that time: 2355. Current rating: 2451.
Ushenina (2463) - Kosintseva N. (2546), 2011
Black to move
On move 41 Nadezhda had to find a very tricky combination to win, but instead the game ended in a draw rather quickly. Will you be able to work out the solution?
Anatoly Karpov Elected Deputy of the State Duma, Representing "United Russia" Party
Written by Administrator
Monday, 19 December 2011
Ex-World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov was elected a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation as a representative of the United Russia party.
In 1989-1991 Karpov used to be a deputy in the USSR. In 1996 he supported Boris Eltsin for presidency. In 1997 he made an attempt to get elected to the State Duma from Tula city. In 2007 he supported the Russian Communist Party. In the same year a famous event took place: Anatoly visited Garry Kasparov in a detention center, thus melting the ice between the two great chess champions. In 2010 the duo ran a campaign "Karpov for FIDE President", but Ilyumzhinov retained the position.
Here is an excerpt of a video interview given by Karpov to Vladimir Pozner, a famous Russian TV host. March 29th, 2010:
V.Pozner: Ok. You don't have to answer this question, but I will ask you anyway. Which party will you vote for?
A. Karpov: I used to be in Fedorov's party, then in Mironov's party. Then I quit my membership due to entering the Civil House, thus losing the right to be a member of a political party according to the Russian law. I will vote for Mironov.
V. Pozner: I.e. for "Fair Russia"? (a socialist party - Pogonina.com)
A. Karpov: For "Fair Russia", yes.
In June 2011 Anatoly Karpov became a member of the United People's Front (a pro-Putin political movement; don't mix it up with United Civil Front - an anti-Putin movement led by Garry Kasparov) and, after winning the primaries, was registered as a candidate to the State Duma from United Russia. After gaining support of about 57.12% voters in his district, he became a deputy of the Russian State Duma.
Work place - Russian State Trade-Economic University; Moscow Regional State Expertise.
Annual income 616 768.2 roubles (roughly $20,000). Owns 1200 sq. m. of land in Moscow district. Has a house in Moscow (188 sq.m.). Also owns four apartments in Moscow: 422.4 sq.m., 134.9 sq.m., 91.7 sq.m. (shared property), 58.2 sq.m. (shared property). Cars: UAZ 3962 (1990); Toyota Avensis (2008) (shared property with his wife); BMW 760 li (2003). Bank accounts: public company AKB Avangard, 113 934 roubles (roughly $3,500); public company Master Bank, 47 085 roubles (roughly $1,500).
Shares in the following companies:
Anatoly Karpov Cinema, 50%
Gazprom Komplekt, 50%
Perm office of NSE TEHEKO, 14%
MPS Invest, 33.33334%
Latan Company, 100%
Evrofarm, 80%
Polinar-M, 25%
MDM-Bank, assets
Berhgoff, 5%
International Visa Center, 50%
Karpov's Mastershop, 50%
Trade House Aerolife, 25%
Anatoly is also a famous philatelist. His collection of stamps is worth at least 13 million.
