 Women on top
The final leg of the Fide Women's Grand Prix is now underway in Doha, the capital of Qatar, and continues until Saturday 5 March - and each day here on ICC, we have the live relay of all the games.
The cycle began in Istanbul way back in March 2009, and has taken in Nanjing in September 2009, Nalchik in Russia in April-May 2010, Jermuk in Armenia in June-July 2010, and Ulanbaatur in Mongolia in July-August 2010. It was supposed to finish in Santiago in Chile at the end of 2010, but they pulled out after due to the earthquake there and Doha stepped in to fill the breach.
With the final event to go, the new world champion, Hou Yifan, is leading overall on 410 points. However, she isn't playing in Doha and two other players have a chance to overtake her: Nana Dzagnidze from Georgia, who will win if she is first or second; and Humpy Koneru from India, who needs to be first and Dzagnidze not to be second - but those top two are not having an easy time of it!
GM Elina Danielian from Armenia is having the tournament of her life with a sensational perfect start of 4/4, and she leads by a commanding 1.5 points over her nearest rivals - and those rivals in equal second on 2.5 points include GM Marie Sebag from France, and one of ICC's own top vendors, IM Martha Fierro Baquero (MarticaFierro - pictured above in the main image) from Ecuador, who despite being the bottom seed, has already defeated second seed Dzagnidze.
You can follow the final Women's Grand Prix - and Martha's progress - live each day on ICC (Qatar-WGP11) starting from 7am ICC (final round at 4am ICC).
New on Chess.FM - Ronen's Opening Survey: "Anti-Dutch"
One of the great benefits of ICC (apart from all the top-notch online play and tournaments) in recent years has been the upgrade in our Chess.FM service - many members agree that the live Chess.FM commentary and GOTDs from our elite tournament coverage alone is worthy of their membership fee. As a member you also have access all through the year to our regular weekly shows: Ronens Opening Survey (Mondays), Chess Talk and Beyond the Opening (Tuesdays), Attack With LarryC (Wednesdays), Boris Altermans Gambit Guide (Thursdays), Joel Benjamins Game of the Week (Fridays), and Dan Heisman's Improve Your Chess (Saturdays).
And for non-ICC members to tune-in to one of the most popular Chess.FM regular weekly shows, we have made this week's new series of Ronen's Opening Survey on the Anti-Dutch with 2 Bg5 free for you to view to find out exactly what you are missing by not being a member of ICC! |
|
 |
Players wishing to play the Dutch Defense must certainly pay as much attention to Anti-Dutch systems as they do to the main line, as it is these very lines that can more frequently arise at club level. And one of the most popular is the tricky 1 d4 f5 2 Bg5, a line that’s certainly a blood brother of the Trompowsky Attack. |
 |
Black has to be extremely careful when facing 2 Bg5, because many up against this line have fallen victim to a miniature with White winning with a crushing attack in under 25 moves. This line is also a favorite in online play, and especially here on ICC! And in a new series of Ronen’s Opening Survey, GM Ronen Har-Zvi explores the cut and thrust of the blood-thirsty Anti-Dutch with 2 Bg5.
|
|
|
Amber Alert
The 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament returns to its spiritual home of Monaco soon for a farewell Jubilee Edition. It will take place at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort in Monaco, from March 11 to 24, 2011.
In this final jubilee edition, the line-up includes a truly stellar grandmaster field of: World Champion Viswanathan Anand (India), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Hikaru Nakamura (United States), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan) and Anish Giri (The Netherlands).
And to bid a fond farewell to what has been a remarkable series of Amber Tournaments, each day here at ICC, the Chess.FM team will be back in action to cover every round. GMs Yasser Seirawan & co-host Ronen Har-Zvi will be joined by GMs Larry Christiansen, Joel Benjamin and Alex Yermolinsky ( not to mention some surprise grandmaster commentators!), who will also be providing us with a daily GOTD service.
Live coverage will start from 8:30am ICC every day (last round starting at 6:30am ICC) - check the full ICC schedule for Amber by clicking here. Book the dates of 12th-24th March in your calendars now for one farewell not to be missed!
|
