ICC Newsletter - Wednesday, February 8, 2006

Vol I Issue VII - February 8, 2006

Corus Tournament 2006

GM Nakamura Tied with GM Ponomariov

After five rounds of action GM Hikaru Nakamura loses his spot in first place at the Cuernavaca Young Masters tournament taking place in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In rounds one and four GM Nakamura held a draw against his oppponent. In round two GM Nakamura defeated Ukrainian grandmaster Andrei Volokitin. In round three GM Nakamura defeated IM Manuel Leon Hoyos. In round five GM Nakamura lost to GM Dominguez of Cuba.

Can the young American grandmaster get back to his spot in first place before the end of the tournament?

Standings after round 5 of 9:
3.5 GM Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine 2723)
3.5 GM Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain 2650)
3.0 GM Lenier Dominguez (Cuba 2638)
3.0 GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA 2644)
2.5 GM Ivan Cheparinov (Bulgaria 2625)
2.5 GM Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine 2660)
2.0 GM Lazaro Bruzon (Cuba 2650)
2.0 GM Andrei Volokitin (Ukraine 2665)
1.5 GM Ruben Felgaer (Argentina 2607)
1.5 IM Manuel Leon Hoyos (Mexico 2428)

Download all of the games played up to round four.

White to mate in three

Problem #263 **
submitted by thepeopleschump

To play this puzzle on the ICC type:
tell trainingbot number 263

Then type:
play trainingbot

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Opening Surprises: SOS #4 - Jeroen Bosch

Dealing with d4 Deviations- John Cox

French: Advance & Other Pedersen

Bashing the Sicilian with Bb5- Murray Chandler

Chess Advantage in Black and White Kaufman

639 Essential Endgame Positions- Schiller

Build Your Technique- Thomas Wolski

ABC of Chess Endgames- Gauthier

Benko Gambit, The- Jan Pinski

Caro-Kann Panov-Attack B13-B14- CD

Mini-Pocket Set- Travel Set

Checkmate - My First Chess Book- Garry Kasparov

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Advance and other Anti-French Variations $21.95 - by Lev Psakhis
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Ajedrez21 Merges with the ICC

The Internet Chess Club is pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Chess21 (Ajedrez21 in Spanish), the premier online chess service in Spain and
Latin America, to move their membership onto ICC.

Cuernavaca Young Masters
Ajedrez21

Chess21 members will be able to maintain their sense of community through a new Chess21 dedicated channel as well as additional Spanish-language events, content, and support staff. At the same time, they'll join the largest chess club in the world, dedicated to providing the best online experience for chess enthusiasts.

Former Chess21 members will shortly be able to move their current accounts to ICC (details will be found at www.ajedrez21.com) and will receive special gifts for supporting their new service. Let's join together to welcome them into the ICC family.


New ICC members get a free issue of New in Chess! That's right! Sign-up as a new member of the ICC and you will receive a free issue of New In Chess magazine. New In Chess is one of most popular chess magazines with excellent analysis and commentary from some of the top grandmasters in the world. Join ICC. Read more about New In Chess magazine.

Continued Live Coverage of Cuernavaca Young Masters Live relay coverage started on February 2 and will continue through to the last round on February 11. The games start at 5:00 PM EST except for the last round which will be starting at 11:00 AM EST.
For more details on this tournament visit the Cuernavaca Young Masters tournament page on the ICC web site. You can also visit the official web site for the tournament.

Game commentary from IM Malcolm Pein
Naiditsch,A (2657) - Carlsen,M (2625) [B33] Corus B Wijk aan Zee 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 The Sicilian Sveshnikov which Carlsen has adopted in common with many of the world's leading players. Black makes many positional concessions; the d5 square, weak queenside pawns and often doubled f pawns but he gets active play 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Nxe7 [10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c3 Bg5] 10...Nxe7 11.Bd3 Nd7 [Unusual, 11.Bb7 or 11...d5 12.Bxf6 gxf6 are the more standard moves] 12.0-0 Nc5 13.b4 Nxd3 14.Qxd3 White must be better here he just needs to reroute the Na3 and he threatens to get a rook to the d file to attack d6 14...f6 15.Be3 d5 16.Bc5 dxe4 17.Qxe4 Qd5 18.Qe2 [18.Qxd5 Nxd5 19.c4 bxc4 20.Nxc4 Be6=] 18...Bb7 19.f3 [19.f4 with the Black king stuck in the middle this looks logical 19...Qe6 (19...Ng6 20.Rad1 Qe4 21.Qg4 Bc8 22.Qh5 And the Black king is still vulnerable if 22...Bb7 23.Rd2) 20.c4!] 19...Ng6 20.Rfd1 Nf4 21.Qf1 Qe6 22.c4 Winning a pawn because Black can hardly capture on c4 and allow a knight into d6 22...Kf7 23.Rd6 Qf5 24.cxb5 axb5 25.Nxb5 Kg6 Avoiding possible forks on d6 26.Rd2 Rhd8 [26...Ba6 27.Nd6 Bxf1 28.Nxf5 Kxf5 29.Kxf1] 27.Rxd8 Rxd8 28.Nd6 Rxd6 [after 28...Qd7 simply 29.a4] 29.Bxd6 Qg5 30.Kh1 Black has no threats so the plan of a4-a8 should just win, but... 30...h5 31.Bc5? [31.a4 h4 32.Ra3 (or 32.Qf2 keeps it all under control) ] 31...e4! 32.Be3? [32.Qf2 h4 33.Be3] 32...exf3 33.gxf3 Qg4 0-1

Leko's One Hundred Wins by Sergei Soloviov – Here is a very worthwhile addition to your chess collection.
Lost Olympiad, The by W.H. Cozens – The only olympiad not to have had a commemorative book.
Curacao 1962 by Jan Timman – Jan Timman returns to the 1962 Candidates Tournament featuring Fischer, Petrosian, Tal, Kortchnoi and many other giants.
Chess Psychology by Angus Dunnington – Dunnington takes a fresh look at the value of studying psychology in chess.

See these and many more new books

IM John Watson's book reviews at TWIC, updated regularly.

ICC Puzzle Solution

1.Nd5+ Ke6 2.Qg4+ f5 3.Qxf5#