Chess Puzzle - 106

White to play and win.

Solution :

1.Nd7 (1...Qxd7 2.Qh8#) 1...Kg8 2.Qe8+
a) 2...Kg7 3.Qf8+ Kh7 4.Nf6#
b) 2...Kh7 3.Qxf7+ Kh8 4.Qf8+ Kf7 5.Nf6#

Carlsen wins World Rapid Championship and triple crown!

Final round top board results:

1 13 AZE Radjabov Teimour 9½ ½ - ½ 10½ Carlsen Magnus NOR 4
2 9 IND Anand Viswanathan 10 ½ - ½ 10 Levon Aronian ARM 7
3 8 RUS Karjakin Sergey 10 0 - 1 9½ Alexander Morozevich RUS 15
4 18 VIE Le Quang Liem 9 0 - 1 9½ Caruana Fabiano ITA 2
5 3 RUS Alexander Grischuk 9 1 - 0 9 Eljanov Pavel UKR 19
6 28 ARM Movsesian Sergei 9 0 - 1 9 Svidler Peter RUS 6
7 20 CHN Hao Wang 9 0 - 1 9 Tomashevsky Evgeny RUS 31
8 23 ESP Vallejo Pons Francisco 8½ 0 - 1 9 Etienne Bacrot FRA 32
9 25 AZE Mamedov Rauf 8½ 1 - 0 8½ Yudin Sergei RUS 68
10 45 CHN Yangyi Yu 8½ 1 - 0 8½ Meier Georg GER 41

http://dubai2014wrb.com/en/result/rapid

Top finishers:

Rank Country Full Name Fide Rating Points

1 NOR Carlsen Magnus 2881 11.0

2 ITA Caruana Fabiano 2791 10.5
3 IND Anand Viswanathan 2785 10.5
4 ARM Levon Aronian 2815 10.5
5 RUS Alexander Morozevich 2731 10.5

6 RUS Tomashevsky Evgeny 2695 10.0
7 RUS Karjakin Sergey 2771 10.0
8 RUS Alexander Grischuk 2792 10.0
9 AZE Radjabov Teimour 2724 10.0
10 RUS Svidler Peter 2753 10.0
11 FRA Etienne Bacrot 2720 10.0

12 CHN Yangyi Yu 2675 9.5
13 AZE Mamedov Rauf 2659 9.5

14 GEO Jobava Baadur 2713 9.0
15 VIE Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 2621 9.0
16 VEN Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo 2653 9.0
17 ARM Movsesian Sergei 2672 9.0
18 AZE Guseinov Gadir 2613 9.0
19 VIE Le Quang Liem 2712 9.0
20 UKR Efimenko Zahar 2648 9.0
21 CHN Hao Wang 2729 9.0
22 UKR Eljanov Pavel 2723 9.0
23 RUS Antipov Mikhail Al. 2502 9.0

24 RUS Nepomniachtchi Ian 2730 8.5
25 FRA Laurent Fressinet 2717 8.5
26 RUS Yudin Sergei 2546 8.5
27 ESP Salgado Lopez Ivan 2622 8.5
28 RUS Riazantsev Alexander 2692 8.5
29 USA Hikaru Nakamura 2775 8.5
30 POL Bartel Mateusz 2641 8.5
31 GER Arkadij Naiditsch 2705 8.5
32 GER Meier Georg 2632 8.5
33 ESP Vallejo Pons Francisco 2698 8.5
34 RUS Matlakov Maxim 2689 8.5
35 UKR Moiseenko Alexander 2707 8.5
36 RUS Nikita Vitiugov 2742 8.5
37 RUS Fedoseev Vladimir 2662 8.5
38 BLR Zhigalko Sergei 2678 8.5
39 BUL Ivan Cheparinov 2682 8.5

Congratulations to Magnus for winning the chess triple crown. He won the World Blitz title a few years ago!

Anand defeated Carlsen - Final round World Rapid

The world no.1 and world champion Magnus Carlsen has lost in the 12th round against Vishy Anand!!

Is Anand ready to defeat Magnus in the next world championship?

Watch games below

Aronian vs Carlsen - World Rapid Final Day

Pairings here: http://dubai2014wrb.com/en/result/rapid/11/

Chess Puzzle - 105

White to move. How should white proceed?

Solution : 

1. Qh7!! f1=Q? 2. Qg8+ Qf8 3. Bxf7+ Ke74. Rxb7 Kf6 (Rc7 Rxc7 Kf6)5. Qg6#
                 
1. 1. Qh7 Qxe62. Qxh8+ Ke73. Rxb7+ Qd7 (Rc7 Rxc7+ Qd7)4. Qe5+ Kd8 (Kf8 Rxd7 any Qh8#)5. Rxd7+ Kxd76. Qd6+ Ke87. Ne5 Rd8 (f1=Q+ Qd7+ Kf8 Qxf7#. f1=1N+ Ke1 Rd8 .8. Qf6 Rd7 9. Qh8# 

Carlsen - Anand World Championship 2014 in Sochi

Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand will play the World Championship Match in November in Sochi, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced at the press conference with Interfax.

The Match will take place from 7 to 28 November at the Olympic Village in Sochi. The budget is 3 million USD.

ITAR-TASS states that both players agreed with this solution.

The RCF President Andrei Filatov confirmed that the federation will participate in the organization of the event.

Magnus Carlsen became the World Champion last November by defeating Viswanathan Anand in Chennai, but the Indian bounced back and earned a rematch by winning the Candidates Tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Espen Agdestein, manager of Magnus Carlsen, said for Dagbladet that “there was nothing wrong with Sochi”. The city hosted the Winter Olympics and even Carlsen was there to follow biathlon competitions.

Regarding the world politics, Agdestein added that he contacted the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and currently there is no question of any sports boycott.



Source - http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/

The art of Defence in chess

Hello,

GM Igor Smirnov is back with another great article! Lets go!

Today we’ll see how to DEFEND in chess.

But firstly, I would like to talk to you about an important subject. We have created a survey for our students and this is the opportunity for you to give us your wishes and needs about future lessons.

It is very important to participate in this survey. Thanks to your wishes, we’ll develop our new lessons and training tools according to YOUR needs. We need your opinion to create tomorrow’s tools.

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Now we’ll go to the theme of the day: DEFENCE

The position below was played in a game between Iturrizaga Bonelli (2635) and Alvarez Marquez (2410). This game is very interesting, because Black has lots of attacks and White has to stay in defence.

Iturrizaga – AlvarezWhite’s Turn

In this position, it’s White to move. Now you are Iturrizaga Bonelli and you have to find the best way to defend this difficult position. Take your time, if you don’t want to give Black the opportunity to checkmate you.

How would YOU play in the position from the diagram? Don’t leave without posting your answer!

SOLUTION:

16...Ng4Black is ready to play Qh4. White should be extremelly careful now; otherwise he risks to get mated in a few moves. 17.Ncxe4! White starts bringing his forces towards king-side. In order to withstand opponent's attack on a certain flank, you should have equal quantity of defenders on this side of the board.17.g3 is giving an escape path to White's king, and it's possible as well. However, in this case Black still can continue his attack. Qxc5Black needs to bring his queen to h-file, and now he's ready to play Qh5. Perhaps White can defend, but it's not an easy task. 17...Qh4 18.Nf3 "Offense if the best defense". White is attacking Black's queen and is bringing 1 more defender to the king-side. Qh5 19.Neg5!This is the move Alvarez missed; the knight is going to h3, closing h-file and defending the entire position. The manoeuvre c3-g5-h3 is a great example of calculation and defence. Be5+ 20.Nh3 Bf5 21.Qe2 Be4 22.Bxe5 Nxe5 23.Nfg5 Now Black is simply a piece down and he resigned. Being under attack you should be extremelly careful, and calculate all eventual attacking moves of your opponent. 1 mistake can be decisive, and you don't want to make it!after 23.Nxe5 Black has prepared a tricky mate! Qxh3+ 24.Kg1 Qxg2#
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