Ingrid and I often
They are tired
In 1946, freshman at the Law School of the University of Amsterdam, Hein Donner went to Groningen at the Staunton Memorial. Student Donner was rarely seen in university auditoriums: captivated by chess, he sat in the chess cafes of Amsterdam from morning till night. And even played in January in Wijk aan Zee in this tournament – the third group C, gaining fifty percent of the points.
Donner knew that not only western, but also the strongest Soviet grandmasters arrived in Groningen, demonstrating, as everyone said, new, ultra-modern chess. And the most powerful of them is Mikhail Botvinnik.
“I don’t remember how I got to the hall where the tournament was played,” Donner recalled thirty years later, “only a huge space remained in the memory, in the center of which they were sitting. THEY ARE! Continue reading
Computer or person
MG Emil Sutovsky recently published shocking news on his Facebook page: the computer program “Ponanza” beat the best shogi player in the world. But that is not all! The program applied the novelty on the first move: no professional shogi player had ever played like this before! I think this is about how to start a debut with 1.Ka3 or 1.f3.
Of course, this is not so shocking news for chess players. Unfortunately, we have already left this stage of computer development far behind.
Today, the top-end program can easily beat Magnus Carlsen by playing literally any initial move. The future Continue reading
Mair Mammadov: “Always believed in Rajabov”
In Khanty-Mansiysk, the World Cup is coming to its end. Unfortunately, not one of the Russians made it to the finals and won a ticket to the applicants’ tournament. But a stranger to us continues to fight for the Cup. The representative of Azerbaijan and the Baku chess school, Teymur Rajabov, will fight in a tie-break with the Chinese Ding Liren and, perhaps, for the first time in the history of his country, will win this trophy. The vice-president of FIDE and the ASF Mair Mammadov talks about the success of his compatriot.
The winner of the sixth Gashimov Memorial is Magnus Carlsen (left) and Mair Mammadov. Continue reading
