The Chess Mind

Alexander Morozevich has been exciting chess fans for over a decade now as not only one of the strongest but most imaginative players around. Not only can he defeat anyone, he can do it playing practically anything: the Chigorin, the Albin, 3...Be7 in the French, the King's Gambit, the Evans Gambit...and on occasion he'll play normal openings too. It's not just that he plays unusual openings; his creative play extends to all phases of the game. This, his fighting spirit and streaky results all contribute to making him the fan favorite he is today.

As an example to illustrate what he is capable of, we'll have a look at his impressive win over Vladimir Kramnik in last year's Tal Memorial. Choosing a main line - the 6.Qc2 Anti-Meran with the Shabalov/Shirov Gambit (7.g4), he went right into the heart of Kramnik's preparation and proved himself more than up to the task. Kramnik played very well for a while, and the balance between Morozevich's initiative and Kramnik's extra pawn remained intact for a good while. As it turned out, Kramnik blinked first, and his single inaccurate move was all Morozevich needed to take over - and he did, going on to win with brutal attacking play.

We'll look at this outstanding game tonight - Wednesday night - at 9 p.m. ET (3 a.m. CET Thursday morning for European late-nighters). Just log on to the Playchess server, go to the Broadcasts room and look for Morozevich-Kramnik under the games tab. It's as simple as that, and I look forward to seeing you there.

If you want to, anyway. It's a great engine and comes with some nice bells and whistles, but of course if you already have 20 other engines that can whup you, me, and Anand too, you might not really feel the urge.* The reason I'm mentioning this is because of its relevance to watching shows like mine on the Playchess server, complete with free access to all the archived materials. Better still, it costs even less than I thought it would: just under 50 euros (which I expected), but only $60.80 in U.S. money.

More Fritz 12 info here, more info about premium Playchess memberships here, and more info about accessing my archived Playchess shows here.

* On the other hand, if you're the sort of person who has 20 other engines, why not make it 21?

With a draw in the next to last round of the Spice Cup B-Tournament, Ben Finegold has, at long last, achieved his third and final grandmaster norm. As he fulfilled the rating requirement long ago, all that's left is the paperwork and the payment. Congratulations!

As for Ray Robson, he won his game, too, against GM Diamant, and is still in the running for his final GM norm as well. To do it, he'll need to defeat FM Rensch in the final round. And if he does it, he'll be the youngest GM in American history: younger than Fischer, younger than Nakamura, and younger than Caruana (send him back!). Meanwhile, have a look at his brutal win over Diamant:

IM Ray Robson (2527) - GM Andre Diamant (2526)
Spice Cup 2009, Round 8, 9/26/2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Qd2 Bb4 8.f3 d5 9.a3 Qa5 10.Nb3 Bxc3 11.bxc3 Qc7 12.c4 dxe4 13.Bc5 exf3 14.gxf3 Ne7 15.O-O-O Nf5 16.Bh3 b6 17.Bb4 a5 18.Bc3 a4 19.Be5 Qe7 20.Bxf5 exf5 21.Bd6 Qd8 22.Qg2 axb3 23.Bb4 Qc7 24.Qxg7 1-0

As I was informed by a reader earlier tonight, the ChessBase archives are up and running, and my shows are all there, waiting for your viewing pleasure. To find them, log on to the Playchess server, then in the Rooms window select Watch Premium Training Videos - Radio ChessBase - English - Great Games with Dennis Monokroussos.

I don't think the new pricing has gone into effect yet (I assume it won't until Fritz 12 is out), so those of you who don't intend to become premium members should watch now while the price is still a pretty trivial 2 ducats (about 30 U.S. cents) a show.

Thank you for your patience; at last you can dig in!

With the recent news that Magnus Carlsen is working with Garry Kasparov, it seems like only a matter of time before he reaches the very top of the chess world. Of course, that has been a common opinion for some years anyway, and it's games like the one we'll look at this week that have encouraged such speculation.

Played when he was just 13, his victory over the experienced and strong GM Evgeny Vladimirov was both important and remarkable. Important, because it jump-started him in the tournament on the way to his final grandmaster norm and the title; remarkable, because afterwards Vladimirov - one of Kasparov's former trainers, declared that Carlsen's future in chess was as the number one player!

We've all had some time now to appreciate Carlsen and to see Vladimirov's prediction come closer and closer to fruition, but it's worth having a look at this game in particular, to see what so impressed Carlsen's opponent. Those of you who want to see the game in advance can undoubtedly do so, but for those who want to enjoy the surprises with fresh eyes, I'll keep any possible spoilers out of this blurb.

What I will tell you is that you can watch the show tomorrow night - Wednesday night - on the Playchess server, at 9 p.m. ET. (That's 3 a.m. CET on Thursday, for my European insomniac and early-rising viewers.) To watch, simply log on, go to the Broadcasts Room, find Carlsen-Vladimirov under the Games tab, double-click and you're good to go. See you then!

[N.B. I don't think the Premium membership rules are in effect yet - I assume this won't happen until Fritz 12 is out - so if you haven't re-upped yet you're probably still okay. If I learn otherwise, I will update this paragraph.]

ChessBase's PlayChess server is changing its policies somewhat. The gist is this: if you are a premium member, which seems to require nothing more than buying Fritz 12 (when it comes out) or a separate serial number, you get everything free on the server: my show (live and archived - a pretty good value since there I've done over 200 shows), others' shows, the chance to play in simuls, leagues and everything else. For those with basic memberships, some features are blocked altogether while others are fairly costly. Here are more details, as they've been given to me by ChessBase staff:

Premium members

New on the server are the Premium members. Purchasing Fritz 12 or a separate serial number, Premium Members have access to all offerings of the chess server.

For Basic members, live commentaries and training are still available through Ducat payment (50).

All important tournament will be commented live. Premium members can watch all offered live shows for free. For Basic member, the shows will cost 50 Ducats each.

Our range of training programmes will be extended. Oliver Reeh and André Schulz will broadcast in German every week as usual, just like Dennis Breder. Dennis Monokroussos and Valeri Lilov will broadcast in English every week, and so will Daniel King every month. Leontxo Garcia will broadcast in Spanish every month. In addition, there will be further authors for training. Premium members can watch all offered training programmes for free. Basic members again pay 50 Ducats per programme.

Starting 2010, we will introduce a Single League managed by Martin Fischer. Furthermore, simuls versus title holders will be offered on a regular basis. Only Premium members are admitted there.

Moreover, we offer weekly workshops in English and German showing important and useful programme functions. These will be free for all members.


Training: Premium: Free; Basic: 50 Ducats per programme.
Live Shows: Premium: Free; Basic: 50 Ducats per programme.
Single League: Premium: Free; Basic: No admission [i.e. can't participate].
Simuls: Premium: Free; Basic: No admission.
Archives: Premium: Free; Basic: 50 Ducats per programme.
Workshops: Free for all.

Related Posts (on one page):

1. ChessBase Show: Archives are Up!
2. ChessBase Shows: Important Information

The NH Tournament in Amsterdam, which finished a couple of weeks ago, wasn't a great event for Hikaru Nakamura. Some heavy travel the past few weeks may have helped get the flu (or something flu-like), and the result was his worst performance of the year. He only won one game, but the good news is that it was a great one.

The victim was the legendary Alexander Beliavsky, a former World Junior Champion, Candidate and a 4-time Soviet Champion. He's 55, but with a rating of 2662 he remains a member of the elite, if no longer a member of the Grand Slam scene. Best of all, he continues to work very hard at the game, and is renowned for his uncompromising chess (that's the title of his chess autobiography).

In their second game in the event, Beliavsky took his revenge, but in the game we'll look at in this week's ChessBase show, he was the victim. Playing White in a Classical King's Indian, he followed the script and went for the queenside while Nakamura went king-hunting on the other flank. It looked like Beliavsky had the better of it - that was certainly the opinion of the online commentators I saw - but Nakamura's extremely energetic attacking play, replete with sacrifices, led to a successful conclusion.

More than this I will not say, so that if you haven't seen the game, you won't have any of the surprises taken away in advance. So here's what you do: tune in tomorrow night (9 p.m. Wednesday in the Eastern Time Zone; 3 a.m. Thursday morning CET) on the Playchess server. Just log on, go to the Broadcast room and find Beliavsky-Nakamura under the Games tab. Double-click, watch, and enjoy - that's it! Hope to see you then.