"Mate in 196"

Daniel Parmet reports from behind the scenes at the London Chess Classic for Chess Life Online.

London Chess Classic winding up

Daniel Parmet, who is working the London Chess Classic for the second consecutive year, passes along this link to a charitable auction of LCC memorabilia.  As of now, the prices are reasonable!  (Warning: you'll be bidding against me in one of them.)  Daniel posted photos of the event via the Chicago Area Chess Facebook page.

As you can find out from the usual chess websites (ChessBase for example), Hikaru Nakamura is doing well in London, and Magnus Carlsen is playing phenomenally.

Enormous win for Nakamura

A win with Black against the #2 player in the world is a great way to start the London Chess Classic!

Nakamura clear second in London!

The tournament is over (Nakamura beat Adams, all other games drawn.)  Final scores (unofficial):

Kramnik 16
Nakamura 15
Carlsen 14
McShane 13
Anand 9
Aronian 9
Short 6
Howell 4
Adams 3

Update: Nakamura won with the King's Gambit!  The game is here.  The final round report should appear here soon.

Boris Becker on tennis and chess

When do you play cat-and-mouse?  When do you go for the kill?  Tennis players can learn a lot from chess players, and chess players can learn a lot from tennis players.  So thinks Boris Becker.

Here's an entertaining miniature that Nigel Short played against Boris a few days ago. Becker never got to use his backhand, er, his queenside pieces.

London Round 4: Anand 0 - Nakamura 1 !!!

Yesterday, GMHikaru tweeted, "The single most important thing in life is to believe in yourself regardless of what everyone else says" After Nakamura's disastrous showing in the Tal Memorial in Moscow, this blogger was one of the doubters. It is good to be proven wrong!

In the first four rounds of this event, Nakamura has drawn Kramnik, beaten Aronian, lost to Carlsen, and beaten Anand. That's +1 against the top four players in the world.

In the Classical King's Indian, White's kingside attack arrives first.  Indeed, in the position after move 21, it looks like Nakamura is about to get swept off the board.

But Black is attacking White's king!  If Black breaks through, Black will bring pain.  The biggest win in Hikaru's career?

More to follow!

London Chess Classic underway

Chicago Blaze manager Daniel Parmet is working the event, and Illinois Chess Association President Tom Sprandel is in London.  Maybe we can get some inside info....

The nine grandmasters (including the world's top four: Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Kramnik) played a fun exhibition game against "the rest of the world" on Twitter.  The geniuses won easily, but they missed an amazing combination (checkmate or win of queen) in the position below:

Black to play and win quickly

Follow this link for the answer, the entertaining game, and the notes.

Follow Round 1 (right now!) at the official site, WhyChess, The Week in Chess, or your favorite paid provider. 

Anand on Fischer

World Champion Viswanathan Anand.  Photo: Amit Bhargava/AP

...and other topics in The Guardian.

The London Chess Classic begins tomorrow!

Carlsen-Nakamura live commentary

The game just started! I'm listening to Alex Yermolinsky on ICC. You can follow for free at Chess in Translation and The Week in Chess, among other places.

Shipov on Anand-Nakamura

Via Chess in Translation (not a permanent link). 

Nakamura draws, McShane spanks Carlsen, Kramnik beats Short with Black.

Live coverage of London Chess Classic

Streaming video commentary is here!

Gelfand leads 7-6 in playoffs

One more blitz game to go? You can follow the action here. (The London Chess Classic games are being broadcast on the same site.)

Carlsen breaks 2810

Unofficial live rating after Round 3 of the London Chess Classic.

Aloha

Retiring the colors

Naturalization ceremony, 9 Dec. 2009, U.S. District Court, Honolulu

I was subpoenaed to testify as a fact witness before a grand jury in Honolulu yesterday.  Of course, it was great to get away from our miserable weather for a couple days.  But spending seventeen hours on a plane is less fun than watching games from the London Chess Classic or the Ponomariov-Gelfand World Cup final.  And gorgeous tropical weather notwithstanding, I'll take Chicago.

When the grand jury recessed for a sushi break, I got to witness the end of a naturalization ceremony.