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.
Alas for Moro's fans, he didn't make an impressive comeback. However, he has lost a couple of completely won games, which can be attributed to his rustiness. Otherwise Alexander would have finished in a much higher place.
Candidate master Peter Zhdanov's column at Pogonina.com
New Year is the perfect time for planning, making NY resolutions and wishes. According to the results of the poll at Chess.com, nearly 50% of the responders have rating goals for 2011.
From theory to practic. How many points can one gain within a rating period (2 months)? Without giving it much thought, I recall a remarkable achievement by Alexander Smirnov who managed to jump from 1956 to 2184 in just 3 months (back then rating lists were published quarterly) in year 2004 - that's 228 points.
How about your personal best result? ? Do you know other record-holders of this type?
Update by GM Dimitri Reinderman: a guy has just managed to gain 243 points in one rating period!
An isolated pawn is a pawn that has no pawns of the same color on neighboring files. Chess theory has many variations featuring this type of pawn structure, e.g. the Queens Gambit Accepted, Caro-Cann and others. In these systems the d4 (for White) and d5 (for Black) pawns become isolated. Today we will be discussing the main peculiarities of positions with isolated pawns.
An isolated pawn is controlling important central and adjacent squares. For example, for the d4 pawn it would be e5 and c5. These squares can be used as perches for pieces, especially knights. On the other hand, the opponent gets an excellent blockading square in front of the pawn. As an isolated pawn is not supported by allied pawns, it is subject to attacks from the opponent. In the endgame it becomes a target especially often.
Lets take a look at the typical strategy used when playing with an isolated pawn:
Attacking the king. Some of the techniques: placing pieces on central squares controlled by the pawn; creating a B+Q battery aimed at the king, activating the rooks via the 3 (6th for Black) rank; pushing the f-pawn.
Playing on the queenside. Exploiting the c-file, attacking queenside weaknesses (if any).
Breakthrough d5 (d4 for Black). It is used to clear the files for ones pieces, e.g. when attacking the king, especially when the opponent is behind in development.
Now a few ways to treat an isolated pawn in the opponents camp:
Attacking the isolated pawn. Especially popular in the endgame, when your king may help eliminate the intruder.
Exchanging pieces. It both decreases the opponents attacking chances and reminds him/her of the pawns vulnerability.
Using the blockading square in front of the pawn for creating counter-play. For example, counter-attacking on the queenside.
Exchanging pieces and thus creating hanging pawns that can become a target. For example, trading the d5-knight for the c3-knight and creating a pair of hanging pawns (c3 and d4).
In the following game I played vs Nazi Paikidze at the Russian Superfinal-2010. It may serve as an illustration of some of the above-mentioned concepts.
Please pay attention to the following moments: White has launched an attack against the Black king justified by the fact that the bishop on c8 was bad. I tried to slow my opponent down by exchanging pieces (usually a good idea when defending). On move 18, by playing Ng6 followed by d5 (another technique see above), White could have gained some space for her pieces and got a long-lasting advantage. Instead Nazi hesitated and played d5 only on move 22, which was less effective. The game reached a drawn knight endgame, but my opponent managed to lose it somehow. After the end of the round I was very glad to receive praise from ex-FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman, a critical-minded person with an exceptional chess technique, who noted that I had converted the advantage very skillfully.
The rules are simple - send us your questions and see them featured in the weekly Q&A column!
Q1: Whom do you consider to be the most talented chess player of nowadays? A1: I don't like speculations about one person being talented but lazy, and the other - an ordinary Jack, but a hard-worker. As Kasparov mentions in "How life imitates chess", the ability to work hard is also a special gift. Therefore, at the end it is about the result, not the ethereal potential. Besides, it's very hard to compare players since some of them have a certain public image which may differ from the reality.
Q2: Natalia, apart from the years of experience, Elo rating, title, fame... which is the
principal/s difference/s between a Master and a Grandmaster? That is to say (i.e.) only OTB. Faster? longer variations? more clears plans? more precision? Is much the difference between an IM 2450 and a GM 2450? Thank you and merry Christmas and a happy new year:) ? A2: Thanks, and a Happy New Year to you too! When you say "apart from" you probably mean that GMs should be more experienced, have a higher rating and so on? This is not always the case. Sometimes one may see a 2500-rated 14-year old GM who is both lower rated and less experienced than a 2550-rated 45-year old IM. The general answer is that a GM is usually a more universal player than an IM. Also, the prevailing majority of IMs are amateurs (in the sense of having a regular job), while GMs tend to be pros (not all of them though). As to a 2450-rated IM and 2450-rated GM: their current strength should be about the same. The only difference is that for some reason the GM has earned the norms at some point, while the IM hasn't.
Q3: In order to prepare for an upcoming chess tournament one has to physically work-out,
right? What are some the the training you do to stay physically-fit?
A3: Personally I prefer jogging and active games (soccer, basketball, volleyball) to increase my endurance. Many colleagues of mine visit the gym regularly, or practice swimming.
Q4: How many years generally does it take for a player to become an expert?
A4: This is one of the evergreen questions. A lot depends on the motivation of the person, access to training and tournaments, the general environment. In Russia the typical time is maybe 3 years. Many have managed to reach expert level in 2 years. However, when I mentioned it at Chess.com, some people clearly didn't believe it, or thought that I am referring to my friends who grew up to form the world chess elite. Generally speaking, it is not that important. Becoming an expert can't be a career goal, so why not just take one step after another if you like chess? One day you will probably become an expert and proceed further. Q5: Don't you agree with the idea that the time control of a game in a tournament is a
great factor in a chess game? Because I am a 1500 who has problems playing in g/30
tournaments for I do not have enough time to think.
A5: Of course, the time control is very important. Why not participate in standard-time control events too? g/30 is rapid chess, and it is somewhat different. Of course, the drawback of standard chess is that it takes the whole day to play just one game, and few people can dedicate, let's say, 9 days in a row to play in an open tournament. However, if you really want to improve and feel like you need more time, you will have to find a way to compete at classical time control tournaments.
Q6: How many games have you memorized throughout your chess career?
A6: My memory for chess games is nothing special. In fact, I often have trouble recalling my own games, not to mention games played by others.
Q7: Does it bother you or any other female chess player that a sound queen sacrifice is
one of the most awe provoking occurrences in chess? Whenever someone sacrifices
their queen, everybody gets excited, but it is disposing of the female figure on the
chessboard? A7: I can't speak for all female chess players, but I don't pay any special attention to the "sex" of the pieces. Besides, depending on the language, it can be different. For example, the Russian word "ferz" (queen) comes from a Persian "ferzin", meaning counselor, originally a man assisting the sultan. Nonetheless, if we create a poll, most people would probably anyway vote that a "ferz" is female. I don't see anything particularly bad about queen sacrifices. They say that there is a great woman behind each great man. The same is true for a vulnerable, but very important king, that is protected by the powerful queen. Btw, from a different perspective, don't you find it feministic?
Magnus Carlsen has regained the #1 spot on the rating list. Anand is at his all-time peak (2810), so is Aronian (2805). Sergey Karjakin burst into the top-5, while Hikaru Nakamura made it to the world top-10.
Largest rating increases per period among 2700+ players: Karjakin (+16); Nepomniatchi (+13); Carlsen, Caruana (+12), Vachier-Lagrave; Hikaru Nakamura (+10).
Most rating points lost: Wang Yue (-22); Eljanov (-18); Shirov (-13); Topalov (-11)
Picture of Hou Yifan by Mike Magnan exclusively for Pogonina.com
Now to the female rankings. The most important result is that 16-year old Hou Yifan from China became the Women's World Champion and broke the 2600 barrier.
Largest rating gains: Paikidze (+54); Zhao (+22); Zhu (+18); Zatonskih (+15); Muzychuk M (+14); Cmilyte (+12); Yifan (+11), Galliamova (+10).
Greatest ratings losses: Kosintseva N (-24); Hoanh Thanh (-17); Krush (-12), Danielian (-12); Kosintseva T (-11); Cramling (-10); Ju (-10).
