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The snows came early this year in Maine. A nor'easter blew into eastern Maine and prevented quite a few players from getting to the Houlton Open on Saturday, November 17th. Four hearty locals had to take up the slack and play a three-round quad. When the smoke (and snow) had cleared, Roger Morin and Ray Haines shared first with 2.0 points and Lance Beloungie and Roger Hardison finished in equal third with a point apiece. |
Continue reading "November 2018 Houlton Open Tournament Report" »
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Game 6 was the most exciting and fascinating game of the Match. From a sterile middlegame position, Caruana created some imbalances with 21...c5. At that point, both players and fans were in for a wild ride. A forced sequence later resulted in Carlsen giving up a piece for three pawns and opposite colored bishops. The position was very good for Caruana but Carlsen managed a fortress to hang on to a draw on move 80. |
Continue reading "WCC R6: Caruana Presses Carlsen to the Brink--Game 6 Drawn" »
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Two great players are battling it out at the World Chess Championship in London. In Game 5, the Challenger Fabiano Caruana, playing the white pieces, went for the unconventional Wing Gambit out of a Sicilian Rossolimo opening. Magnus Carlsen met this surprise with cool-headed sure play and the players entered a very interesting middlegame. After pawn sacrifices in both directions the position lost most of its dynamism and the players agreed to a draw after white's thirty-first move. The Match is now tied at 2.5 points apiece. |
Continue reading "WCC R5: A Tricky Wing Gambit Ends in a Draw" »
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So far in this World Chess Championship Match the player with the white pieces has had a very difficult time whipping up any kind of advantage. In today's game, Game 4 of the Match, Fabiano Caruana held the positions with black comfortably and with relative ease. The players shook hands after thirty-four moves had been made. This, incidentally, was only four moves more than the rule that stipulates no draw offer are to be made before move thirty. |
Continue reading "WCC R4: A Easy, Comfortable Draw for Caruana With Black" »
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The third game of the World Chess Championship Match in London ended in a draw. Both players now have 1.5 points going into Game 4. Interesting points to consider after this game are opening preparation, pressing with the black pieces, and the Challenger not, as yet, hitting his best form. |
Continue reading "WCC R3: Draw!" »
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In the first two games of the World Chess Championship Match, the player with the black pieces has been the aggressor. Yesterday, it was Magnus Carlsen; today it was clearly Fabiano Caruana. The game followed three Korchnoi-Karpov games from their 1978 World Championship Match until Caruana deviated with the innovation 10...Rd8. This gave Carlsen pause--literally--as the Champion pondered for seventeen minutes before replying. After Carlsen accepted a broken pawn structure and a pawn-down endgame, the players agreed to a draw on move forty-nine. |
Continue reading "WCC R2: Carlsen has to "beg for a draw" in Game 2" »
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On the night of November 9, 1938 the deliberate persecution against Jews throughout Nazi Germany reached the point of physical beatings, incarceration, and murder. Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, is often referred to as the beginning of the Holocaust. On the eightieth anniversary of Kristallnacht, Holocaust survivor and Portland-area chess player Charles Rotmil spoke at the Holocaust and Human Right Center of Maine in Augusta to remember this tragic chapter in human history. |
Continue reading "Remembering Kristallnacht Eighty Years Later" »
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Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana opened the World Chess Championship Match with a marathon 115-move draw. Carlsen was pressing with the black pieces to a point that the game was nearly won when Caruana engineered--with missed opportunities by the World Champion--a miraculous save. After dodging the critical phase when his position was nearly lost, Caruana simplified to a three vs two pawn and rook endgame. Try as he might, Carlsen could not convert his now miniscule advantage and offered a draw at move 115. |
Continue reading "WCC R1: Caruana Holds 115-Move Draw" »
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Maine Central Institute, a high school in Pittsfield, Maine, hosted its first US Chess rated tournament on Saturday, November 3, 2018. The tournament, dubbed Chess Madness at MCI by its organizers, attracted twenty-one players in three sections. Here's the illustrated tournament report. |
Continue reading "Chess Madness at MCI Tournament Report" »
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The first game of the World Chess Championship Match will take place on Friday, November 9, 2018 at The College on Southampton Row in London. Current World Champion Magnus Carlsen will attempt to defend his title against Challenger Fabiano Caruana. Here's the Match Preview with schedules, rules, and links. |
Continue reading "World Championship Match Preview" »
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