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Ben Monaghan, a volunteer at the Maine Chess Academy, has mounted a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the Academy which holds regular training sessions in East End Community School and Howard C. Reiche Community School in Portland. Falmouth Forecaster Journalist Ben McCanna recently wrote an article describing Monaghan's efforts to promote scholastic chess in Maine. |
Continue reading "Maine Chess Academy teaches 'royal game' to Portland schoolchildren" »
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Eleven players turned out to compete in the 2013 Presque Isle Player of the Year Tournament on November 16th, 2013 at the University of Maine, Presque Isle. Here's the illustrated tournament report with results and USCF crosstable. |
Continue reading "Presque Isle Player of the Year Tournament" »
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Magnus Carlsen has become the 16th World Chess Champion after Game 10 in his match with Vishwanathan Anand ended in a sixty-five move draw. The game was a dynamic one in which Carlsen spurned a triple-repeat draw on at least two occasions. In his words, "As long as there was no risk I thought I should try to win it." He added, "It was a nice fight and a worthy end to the match." |
Continue reading "WCC R10: Magnus Carlsen 16th World Champion!" »
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It was do-or-die for Anand and he and everyone else knew it. The World Champion played 1. d4 and threw everything he had at the challenger in the form of the Saemisch Variation of the Nimzo Indian Defense. It was a textbook kingside vs queenside battle. Seeing that he was not getting mated on the kingside, Carlsen pushed his b-pawn to b3 on his twenty-second move and Anand's attack recoiled on the head of its general. Although Carlsen still needs half a point to win the crown, the match, for all intents and purposes, is over. |
Continue reading "WCC R9: Carlsen Wins Game 9, World Title is All But Decided" »
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Carlsen played 1. e4 and it was Anand's turn to play the Berlin Defense. The game followed well-trodden lines with Carlsen playing his first nineteen moves in six minutes and twenty-two moves in ten minutes. No weaknesses appeared on the board and after Anand played 33...h5 a wry smile appeared on his lips and the players shook hands. Anand will have the white pieces in Game 9 scheduled for Thursday, November 21st. |
Continue reading "WCCR8: Game 8 Ends in Sterile Draw" »
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The world champion was unable to generate anything substantial in his second consecutive game with the white pieces. Again playing 1.e4 and running into Carlsen's Berlin Defense, Anand failed to make meaningful inroads and chose to repeat the position for a draw after thirty-two moves. The match score is now Carlsen 4.5 - Anand 2.5 with five games to play. |
Continue reading "WCC R7: Anand Poses Few Problems, Game 7 Drawn in 32 Moves" »
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Garry Kasparov has referred to Magnus Carlsen as the Harry Potter of Chess. The Norwegian certainly showed his wizard-like command of the pieces today when he transformed the game from an equal position into one with a winning advantage and finally forced Anand's resignation on move sixty-seven. Carslen now takes a commanding 4-2 lead in the match with six games to play. |
Continue reading "WCC R6: Wizard-like Win for Carlsen in Game 6" »
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From a position that gave Carlsen the ever-so-slightest positional advantage in the middlegame, he managed to squeeze blood from a stone as he is often credited with doing. Playing a pawn up in the endgame and reaching a position having passed pawns on a7 and h4, he forced Anand's resignation on black's fifty-eighth move. Game 5 was an incredibly complicated contest worthy of the two greatest players in the world. |
Continue reading "WCC R5: Carlsen Wins Game 5 with White" »
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Anand essayed a Ruy Lopez in Game 4 and the challenger played the rock solid Berlin Defense brought into modern chess popularity by Vladimir Kramnik during his world championship match with Garry Kasparov in 2000. Chess engines and commentators were very satisfied with black's position during the late middle game after Carlsen won a pawn with the Fischer-like 18...Bxa2. A very complicated game ensued, then, after black's 37...Rf8, Anand, visually relieved, went on to quell further threats and steer the game into the quiet harbors of a 64-move draw. |
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Playing the white pieces, Carlsen again essayed 1. Nf3 as he did in Game 1. Carlsen steered the game into a non-theoretical position, just the type that he excels at. However, he drifted in the transition to the middle game and was somewhat worse with his queen entombed on the h1 square for nine moves. Down a pawn, he extricated himself masterfully from a difficult game. Anand offered a draw after 40...Qf6 which Carlsen declined choosing instead to play on for eleven more moves until a king and bishop vs king and bishop endgame resulted. |
Continue reading "WCC R3: After Tense Struggle, Game 3 Drawn in 51 Moves" »
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