Take the Ronen Challenge

Friday & Saturday, [20:00 EDT | 02:00 CET]

Former world under-16 junior champion GM Ronen Har-Zvi has a reputation of being one of the toughest simultaneous masters on ICC.

Each Friday and Saturday, at 20:00 EDT, Ronen will take on 30 all - comers (restricted to 2150 Elo or below) in a series of twice weekly simuls (time control 45 20), with the winners receiving a 3-month membership extension and going forward to the third grand prize final on Saturday, 25 August at 20:00 EDT, with a prize of a 1-year membership extension going to anyone who can beat Ronen in the final. In Ronen's July final, he scored 10-0!

Only winners who beat Ronen on the board (not on time), will go forward to the final; and should anyone beat Ronen there, they will also receive an additional 12-month ICC membership extension!

Anyone who draws in the final will also receive a 4-month membership extension. And each month, Ronen will pick and annotate the best game from the final for the ICC Newsletter.

Do you have what it takes for the Ronen Challenge?

Read the full announcement

John Watson Chess & Book Show

Tuesdays [21:00 EDT | 03:00 CET]

New on ICC Chess.FM! Tune-in for The John Watson Chess & Book Show on ICC Chess.FM. Each Tuesday at 21:00 Server Time, John's 90+ minute show will review the latest titles, followed by a discussion of books and other chess topics with his guests.

John's special guest this week (7 August) is Grandmaster Joel Benjamin. Child prodigy Joel was a master at 13 who went on to become a three-time US Champion and leading member of several US Olympiad squads. He rose to fame in 1997 when IBM hired him as the "chess brains" behind their supercomputer Deep Blue in its successful New York showdown match against Garry Kasparov. He has featured in two movies, Searching For Bobby Fischer and Game Over: Kasparov and the Machines. Joel has been highly praised for his writing and observations on the game, and he is a regular contributor to both New In Chess magazine and Chess Life. He is also a leading commentator for ICC Chess.FM, where he will shortly be hosting his own weekly show, "Joel Benjamin's Game of the Week".

This show is one not to be missed and will be made available for 7 days ONDemand for members.

Chess FM page on our website.

Wild 27 (Atomic) Championships!

 Qualifiers begin August 17th!  There will be 2 sections; 1 0 bullet and 3 0 blitz.  Bullet qualifiers will be 12 rounds swiss style, and blitz qualifiers will be 7 rounds swiss style. The top 3 finishers in each qualifier will advancing to the final, along with the next 4 best finishers in the series of qualifiers.  Will anyone be able to dethrone last year’s champion, MoltenThinker?  Stay tuned to find out!

5 0 Blitz Championships!  Qualifiers begin August 11th!  There will be 2 sections; the open section, and the under 2000 section.  All qualifiers will be 9 rounds swiss style, with the top 5 finishers in each qualifier advancing to the final.  Also, the top 3 players who didn’t otherwise qualify will advance to the finals.  Will anyone be able to dethrone last year’s champion, akibael?  Stay tuned to find out!

Sunday Ratings Limited Blitz!  Every Sunday afternoon at 15:00 server time, 2 tourneys will open for certain rating categories.  Tomato will host a 2 5 7rd swiss tourney for under 1800 rated players.  At the same time, a 5 0 7rd swiss will be open for over 1800 rated players in Cooly.  Come on out and join a tourney that you have a good shot at winning.  Don’t miss all the fun!

Games annotated by GM Ronen Har-Zvi

Former world under-16 junior champion GM Ronen Har-Zvi has a reputation of being one of the toughest simul masters on ICC with whitewash scores of 30-0 and 28-0 to his name.

I would like to start this month's review of the games with a big blunder on my part, where I missed the simplest move on the board.

1.Nf3 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 d6 4.d4 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.0-0 0-0 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.d5 Ne5 9.Nxe5 dxe5 10.e4 f4 11.gxf4 exf4! This is the only way to continue; 11...Nh5 has proven to be in white's favor. 12.e5 Ng4 13.e6 Ne5 14.Re1 Nxc4 15.Re4 Nd6 16.Rxf4 So far, so theory. 16. ..c6 makes lot's of sense, mainly in a simul. Under real tournament play though, I would be more carefull. 16...c6!? 17.dxc6 bxc6 18.Bxc6 Rb8 This is th e perefect position for black in a simul, as it forces white to think and calculate a lot - the complete opposite of what the simul-giver wants: a simple plan and a simple position, where he can try more easily to exploit his greater knowledge and expertise of the game. 19.Qe2 Rxf4? Alllowing white' s piece to fully enter the game. 19... Nf5 was correct with a very unclear position. 20.Bxf4 Qc7? 21.Nd5 Qd8 22.Rd1!+- The game is over. 22...Rxb2 23.Qe3 Kh8 24.Be5 Rc2 25.Bxg7+ Kxg7 26.Qe5+ Kg8

27.Nxe7+? [27.Nf6+! exf6 (27...Kf8 28.Ne8 with mate 1 move) 28.e7 and black can resign.] 27...Qxe7 28.Qxd6 Qxd6 29.Rxd6 Rc1+ I was so surpri sed by this. Suddenly, I thought I was losing, and then very quickly I saw 30. Kg2 Rxc6 and 31.e7 winning, and played it. But... 30.Kg2 Rxc6

31.e7?? I missed the simplest move in the world, after which I resinged immediately. However, instead of 31.e7??, I had the simply winning plan of 31. Rd8 Kg7 32.e7+- 31...Kf7 For everyone who is always in favor of the underdog, i.e. the simul player, I hope this give you some pleasure at my expense :) 0-1

There was nothing special in the game so far, but the fact that I have not played the opening well, and black is very comfortable here - probably somewhat better - with my next move I tried not to give away the "d" file and played...

22...Rd8 23.Rd4 Rc8?! It seems that all black was thinking was a possible passed pawn on the queenside - not realizing that by ceeding the d-file he could well be ceeding....his king! 24.Rd6! Of course - and there is a major threat of Qd4 coming also. 24...Qa7 Preventing Qd4 25.a3 c3? 25...a5 was the correct idea, with about roughly equal chances. But black doesn't sense the danger as all his thoughts are on queenside.

26.bxc3 Rxc3?? A must-play move this after c3, right? Wrong! Black does not have to lose at once by force, although now he is already worse. Can you find the win for white? 27.Rd8+ Kg7

28.Qh4!! That's it. By taking a away the "e7" sqaure from black's queen, Qf6 can not be prevented. The rest of the game is academic. 28...Qc7 29.Qf6+ Kh6 30.Qh4+ Kg7 31.Qf6+ Kh6 32.Rf8 [Much more clinical of course was 32.Rg8 and mate in a few moves] 32...Rc5 33.f4 Rc3 34.Rxf7 Qxf7 35.Qxf7 Rxe3 36.Qf8+ Kh5 37.g4+ Kh4 38.Qh6#

This game is a good example and study of how playing your own game, without thinking of your opponent play, and leaving the king too weak can end! 1-0

Just one nice, funny position to end with this month. This position obviously came from a French defence 3.Nd2 (Tarrasch var). White should be very happy as he has achieved everything he could hope for and then some. My next move is probably the best move in the position that also sets a very tricky trap for black. Can you try to figure what it could be?

21...Qd6 22.Qc2! Nf6? And now the trap has now been set and primed. And the next move in my cunning plan?

23.Ng5! All the squares on the b1-h7 diagonal are under full white control. The h7-g6 squares have 3 white pieces attacking them, when after 23...g6 there comes 24.Nxh7 with a winning attack. But the game continued... 23...Nb4 Now do you see it?

24.Qxh7+!! Oops 24...Nxh7 25.Bxh7+ Kh8 26.Ng6# I hope you all enjoyed that one! 1-0

Arctic Chess Challenge 2007

  The Arctic Chess Challenge 2007 takes place 4th-12th August in Tromsø, Norway. This tournament  is the second in a series of events leading up to Tromsø’s bid for the 2014 Chess Olympics. The total prize fund is 11.050 Euro.

Some of the GMs participants are: Bartosz Socko, Vugar Gashimov, Aleksander Moiseenko and Mikhail Gurevich.

Rounds 1-8 are played with a single round every day between August 4th-11th with rounds starting at 10am The 9th round is played on Sunday 12th of August starting at 4am.

You have more information in the ICC LIVE coverage page. Also, visit the official website.

Mainz Chess Classic

The annual extravaganza of the Mainz Chess Classic will soon be upon us, with the main event this year being a top-billing battle between Anand, Aronian, Kazimdzhanov and Bacrot for the GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship and the FiNet Chess960 Rapid World Championship.

As ever, there will be grandmasters galore vying for the Ordix Open and the FiNet Chess960 Open, where among the line-up will be recent ICC Qualifier winner Tigran L. Petrosian of Armenia.

You have more information in the ICC LIVE coverage page. Also, visit the official website.

Spanish Repertoire for Black, A - Marin

Here is a world-class chess repertoire for Black against 1.e4. As the title suggests, the repertoire is based on the respected Spanish Opening, or the Ruy Lopez, as it is sometimes called. In his previous book, Beating the Open Games, Grandmaster Mihail Marin dealt with White’s options up to 3.Bb5. Now Marin provides all the answers for Black after 4.Ba4.

This depth of chess expertise has rarely been published for a mass audience before, as grandmasters usually prefer to keep their secrets. The complexity of the material could have been daunting, but Marin is also a master of explaining profound ideas to a wide audience. Read more

Price $25.95 -  Buy now!

Beating the Open Games - Mihail Marin

Acclaimed author and chess grandmaster Mihail Marin presents an opening repertoire for Black against the Open Games. This means providing an answer to 1.e4, but not considering the main lines of the Spanish Opening. This includes openings such as the Scotch, the Vienna, the Spanish Exchange Variation, and even the notorious King’s Gambit. Marin uses his renowned writing skills to explain the ideas behind each move, so Beating the Open Games escapes the standard opening book trap of being a boring list of analysis. Marin has based the book mainly on his own repertoire and reveals many original moves and ideas. After studying this book the reader will not only have an excellent repertoire but also a deeper understanding of chess. Read more

Price $25.95 -  Buy now!

My Daily Exercise: 365 Tactical Tests to Improve Your Chess - Heinz Brunthaler

Most games of chess are decided through tactics. This is good news, since virtually all players love tactics. The best advice for a novice who wants to improve quickly is therefore: improve your tactical abilities. This books helps in identifying weak points in the position of your opponent, in recognizing patterns of combinations, and in visualizing tricks.

My Daily Exercise is neither just a freewheeling puzzle book, nor a systematic course in which the thematic grouping of the positions gives an unwelcome hint to the solution. Here the tactical themes are clearly explained, but the random order in which the exercises are presented, makes studying the material much more similar to what a player experiences in an actual tournament game. Read more

Price $17.95 -  Buy now!

Tactics in the Chess Opening 5: Indian Defences - Geert Van Der Stricht & Spike Ernst

Every chess player loves to win early in the game with a deadly combination or a cunning trap. On the other hand, nobody wants to be tricked by his opponent before the game has really started.

The popular series Tactics in the Chess Opening teaches how to recognize opportunities to attack early in the game. You will also learn how to avoid standard pitfalls in the opening. This book explains, in around 230 carefully selected and annotated games, all the tactical themes and typical traps of the main lines in the Indian Openings and related systems like the Catalan Opening and the Benoni Defence. Read more

Price $20.95 -  Buy now!

Solution to ICC Quiz #3515
submitted by Fighterknight

1.Ra2!

Solution to ICC Quiz #3592
submitted by Mikenas

1.Rxf7+ Kg8 2.Ne6! h5 3.Rxg7#

Solution to ICC Quiz #3591
submitted by Evergreen

1.Bg7+!! Kxg7 2.Qh6+! Kg8 3.Rg3+ Kh8 4.Qg7#

Solution to ICC Quiz #3604
submitted by claymore

1.Rh8+! Kxh8 2.Kf7#