White to move and mate in 2.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
2010 Philadelphia Inventors: Kavinayan Sivakumar
Well, now that we have taken a look at the 2010 Philadelphia Inventors top board, lets take a look at their 10th board. Kavinayan Sivakumar currently has a USCF rating of 2183, which is good, but perhaps even more impressive is the fact that in 2006, he had a USCF rating of 569! It has only taken Kavinayan Sivakumar 4 years or so to go from beginner to high level Expert. We shouldnt be surprised, then, if Sivakumar outplays his rating a bit during this Chess League.
Being a younger chess player, he does not have as many games online as some of the other more established players on the Philadelphia Inventors, but he also seems to be very comfortable with blogging and Chess. You can read some blog posts of his here and here. I believe he is also a major contributor for the Philadelphia Inventors official chess blog Of course, the whole League is about chess, but Kavinayan Sivakumar's contributions to the team in the form of blog posts will also be appreciated.
Definately make sure to check out the many games of Sivakumar on the Philadelphia Inventors blog. Lets look at a few of his games that are not featured there.
Here Kavinayan Sivakumar gets an aggressive draw against Expert Ian Harris. Sivakamur is able to get a nice passed a pawn to the 7th Rank, but sadly for him Harris was able to defend his position.
Another exciting draw against Jim West. Thanks to Jim West for posting this game on his blog, Jim West On Chess.
Perhaps Sivakumar will become a National Master over the course of this year's Chess League. That would be great! Good luck to him.
Being a younger chess player, he does not have as many games online as some of the other more established players on the Philadelphia Inventors, but he also seems to be very comfortable with blogging and Chess. You can read some blog posts of his here and here. I believe he is also a major contributor for the Philadelphia Inventors official chess blog Of course, the whole League is about chess, but Kavinayan Sivakumar's contributions to the team in the form of blog posts will also be appreciated.
Definately make sure to check out the many games of Sivakumar on the Philadelphia Inventors blog. Lets look at a few of his games that are not featured there.
Here Kavinayan Sivakumar gets an aggressive draw against Expert Ian Harris. Sivakamur is able to get a nice passed a pawn to the 7th Rank, but sadly for him Harris was able to defend his position.
Another exciting draw against Jim West. Thanks to Jim West for posting this game on his blog, Jim West On Chess.
Perhaps Sivakumar will become a National Master over the course of this year's Chess League. That would be great! Good luck to him.
2010 Philadelphia Inventors: Magesh Panchanathan
Well, the good news is that the US Chess League starts this Monday. The bad new is that this came up really quickly, and I have only done one player profile for the 2010 Philadelphia Inventors team!
The rest of the roster is up and can be found here.
I am going to Blitz out a bunch of player profiles for the remaining 9 players then over this weekend. Quality will be non existent! Haha, no quality will be fine. I will just go through one game of each player, and very brief biographical stuff.
The 2010 Philadelphia Inventors top board this year is Magesh Panchanathan. He is an 27 year old Grandmaster who has done well in tournaments in the United States, India, Canada and Scotland. In 2005, he shared 1st place in the 2005 World Open in Philadelphia. Lubomir Kavalek went over one of his games for the Washington Post. This is Magesh Panchanathan's first year with the Philadelphia Inventors, but he has played with the Dallas Destiny before.
Lets look at a few of his games!
A nice tactic with Nxf7 gives Magesh Panchanathan a nice position. In the final position all of White's pieces work well together to form a mating net around Black's King. The White Dark Squared Bishop attacks the c7 and b8 squares. The White Rook holds the Black Rook to the b-file, the Light Squared Bishop attacks the a6 square, and the White Queen prepares to move to a6 checkmating the Black King.
The only way Black can prevent checkmate is through massive loss of material.
Notice that the Black King cannot move out of danger by Kc8.
Unfortunately, I am having difficulty finding games from the 2005 World Open that Magesh Panchanathan tied for first at. It would be nice to see his later round games. Here is his Second Round win, though.
A nice tactic wins the exchange.
One last game from the Second Mumbai Mayor Cup from 2009. Magesh Panchanathan shared 1st through 4th in this tournament.
Well, that will wrap up this post about Magesh Panchanathan. Have fun and Good luck to him!
The rest of the roster is up and can be found here.
I am going to Blitz out a bunch of player profiles for the remaining 9 players then over this weekend. Quality will be non existent! Haha, no quality will be fine. I will just go through one game of each player, and very brief biographical stuff.
The 2010 Philadelphia Inventors top board this year is Magesh Panchanathan. He is an 27 year old Grandmaster who has done well in tournaments in the United States, India, Canada and Scotland. In 2005, he shared 1st place in the 2005 World Open in Philadelphia. Lubomir Kavalek went over one of his games for the Washington Post. This is Magesh Panchanathan's first year with the Philadelphia Inventors, but he has played with the Dallas Destiny before.
Lets look at a few of his games!
A nice tactic with Nxf7 gives Magesh Panchanathan a nice position. In the final position all of White's pieces work well together to form a mating net around Black's King. The White Dark Squared Bishop attacks the c7 and b8 squares. The White Rook holds the Black Rook to the b-file, the Light Squared Bishop attacks the a6 square, and the White Queen prepares to move to a6 checkmating the Black King.
The only way Black can prevent checkmate is through massive loss of material.
Notice that the Black King cannot move out of danger by Kc8.
Unfortunately, I am having difficulty finding games from the 2005 World Open that Magesh Panchanathan tied for first at. It would be nice to see his later round games. Here is his Second Round win, though.
A nice tactic wins the exchange.
One last game from the Second Mumbai Mayor Cup from 2009. Magesh Panchanathan shared 1st through 4th in this tournament.
Well, that will wrap up this post about Magesh Panchanathan. Have fun and Good luck to him!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Live Standard Chess Game 1 on Youtube
Hey everybody, I have put up a video of a standard game I played and commentated at the same time. Check it out here if that sounds like something you want to do!
Here is the game
A pretty cool game, I got some nice pressure with White and did some nice trading of material to simplify into a easily won King and 2 pawns v King endgame.
Here is the game
A pretty cool game, I got some nice pressure with White and did some nice trading of material to simplify into a easily won King and 2 pawns v King endgame.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #42 to #48
Tactic #42:
This game is from the same tournament as Tactic of the Day #18. The tournament was to qualify for the World Championship match with Kasparov. The tactic is more of a defensive tactic than an offensive tactic. I feel it is good to through these types of problems into the mix. They do a great job of stopping automatic thinking. After 26...Re4 White's attack fails and he ends up material down.
Tactic #43:
Yep, from the same tournament. This tactic is really easy once you see the answer. Before you see it, though, it Rh3 threatening mate idea is not nearly as easy to spot. Even after you spot it, it is a fairly complicated to actually win.
Tactic #44:
Another from the same tournament. It was a pretty cool tournament after all. It is a pity that World Championship qualifier tournaments are less stable these days. I like the World Cup Knock Out tournament as a qualifier though. Anyway, Black is able to win a pawn by playing 19...Bxf4 because a Knight can eventually capture on f4 forking White's Queen and Light Squared Bishop. In some ways, a straight forward Knight fork. On the other hand, it is pretty well disguised!
Tactic #45:
1. Qxh7+ Kxh7 2. Rh4+ Kg8 3. Re8#
Tactic #46:
1. Qxe4+ Kxe4 2. Nc3+ Kf5 3. Rf1#
Tactic #47:
This game is between Philadelphia chess player Bryan Smith and the eventual World Open winner Viktor Laznicka. There is some good analysis of this game on the Huffington Post. It was a very back and forth game that was well fought by both players. In the end, though, Bryan Smith couldnt hold on for the win. Instead of 41. Nc4, 41. Rb7+ and after the King moves 41. Rc8 and White's position is much more comfortable and he remains up material. Hopefully a lot of Philadelphia Inventors games are like this!
Tactic #48:
1. Qa7+ Kxa7 2. Ra2+ Qa4 3. Rxa4#
Hope you enjoyed these!
This game is from the same tournament as Tactic of the Day #18. The tournament was to qualify for the World Championship match with Kasparov. The tactic is more of a defensive tactic than an offensive tactic. I feel it is good to through these types of problems into the mix. They do a great job of stopping automatic thinking. After 26...Re4 White's attack fails and he ends up material down.
Tactic #43:
Yep, from the same tournament. This tactic is really easy once you see the answer. Before you see it, though, it Rh3 threatening mate idea is not nearly as easy to spot. Even after you spot it, it is a fairly complicated to actually win.
Tactic #44:
Another from the same tournament. It was a pretty cool tournament after all. It is a pity that World Championship qualifier tournaments are less stable these days. I like the World Cup Knock Out tournament as a qualifier though. Anyway, Black is able to win a pawn by playing 19...Bxf4 because a Knight can eventually capture on f4 forking White's Queen and Light Squared Bishop. In some ways, a straight forward Knight fork. On the other hand, it is pretty well disguised!
Tactic #45:
1. Qxh7+ Kxh7 2. Rh4+ Kg8 3. Re8#
Tactic #46:
1. Qxe4+ Kxe4 2. Nc3+ Kf5 3. Rf1#
Tactic #47:
This game is between Philadelphia chess player Bryan Smith and the eventual World Open winner Viktor Laznicka. There is some good analysis of this game on the Huffington Post. It was a very back and forth game that was well fought by both players. In the end, though, Bryan Smith couldnt hold on for the win. Instead of 41. Nc4, 41. Rb7+ and after the King moves 41. Rc8 and White's position is much more comfortable and he remains up material. Hopefully a lot of Philadelphia Inventors games are like this!
Tactic #48:
1. Qa7+ Kxa7 2. Ra2+ Qa4 3. Rxa4#
Hope you enjoyed these!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #35 to #41
Tactic #35
This tactic comes from the 5th round game of the World Chess Championship between Steinitz and Zukertort. Steinitz continues his poor play, and this was the last of his 4 early losses in a row. It makes his ultimate victory amazing!
The idea behind the tactic is 32. Rxg7 Rxg7 33. Rxg7 Kxg7 34. Nxe6+ Kh8 (or anywhere) 35. Nxc7 winning a rook.
Tactic #36:
1. Bc5 Ka5 2. Rxa7# or 1. Bc5 a3 2. Rxa7#
Tactic #37:
1. Qc5+ Kd3 2. Bf5# or 1. Qc5+ Ke4 2. Qd4#
Tactic #38:
1. Qg4+ Kh7 2. Qg7# or 1. Qg4+ Kh7 2. Qh5# or 1. Qg4+ Kh6 2. Rh8#
Tactic #39:
1. Qf4+ Ke1 2. Qc1# or 1. Qf4+ Kg1 2. Qc1#
I messed this one up because I thought it was 1. Qe5 Kg1 2. Qe1# or 1. Qe5 g1=Q 2. Qe2#. This doesnt work, though, because 1. Qe5 g1=N! and there is no checkmate.
Tactic #40:
1. Qf3 c5 2. Qf7#
Tactic #41:
This is simply an incredible game. Ponomariov ended up winning Dortmund, which is not all that surprising if he played like this!
Well, my plan was to put these answers up on the Monday two weeks or so after the problems are up. This one is about a week late. I will put up one tomorrow, and hopefully get back on schedule.
This tactic comes from the 5th round game of the World Chess Championship between Steinitz and Zukertort. Steinitz continues his poor play, and this was the last of his 4 early losses in a row. It makes his ultimate victory amazing!
The idea behind the tactic is 32. Rxg7 Rxg7 33. Rxg7 Kxg7 34. Nxe6+ Kh8 (or anywhere) 35. Nxc7 winning a rook.
Tactic #36:
1. Bc5 Ka5 2. Rxa7# or 1. Bc5 a3 2. Rxa7#
Tactic #37:
1. Qc5+ Kd3 2. Bf5# or 1. Qc5+ Ke4 2. Qd4#
Tactic #38:
1. Qg4+ Kh7 2. Qg7# or 1. Qg4+ Kh7 2. Qh5# or 1. Qg4+ Kh6 2. Rh8#
Tactic #39:
1. Qf4+ Ke1 2. Qc1# or 1. Qf4+ Kg1 2. Qc1#
I messed this one up because I thought it was 1. Qe5 Kg1 2. Qe1# or 1. Qe5 g1=Q 2. Qe2#. This doesnt work, though, because 1. Qe5 g1=N! and there is no checkmate.
Tactic #40:
1. Qf3 c5 2. Qf7#
Tactic #41:
This is simply an incredible game. Ponomariov ended up winning Dortmund, which is not all that surprising if he played like this!
Well, my plan was to put these answers up on the Monday two weeks or so after the problems are up. This one is about a week late. I will put up one tomorrow, and hopefully get back on schedule.
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