Chess on a Thursday

Time to catch up on what I've been looking at recently. I'm still lapping up anything to do with the upcoming Candidates tournament and it looks like Chessbase is running some regular columns profiling the players in the build up to the start of the event next week. By the way, is Chessbase's new look better than the old one? That's not a rhetorical question, I am personally not sure which one I prefer and wonder how others feel.

The first moment of Candidate excitement came when the pairings for the tournament were announced. The first I saw of it was on twitter from the Chessvibes website. The more I think about this tournament, the more trouble I'm having picking a winner and much will do with the form of the players. Of course, it would be easy to just say Carlsen is in a class of his own, but I'm not so sure. So rather than claiming that I'm hoping one player or another wins, I'll just say, may the best man win and I hope the tournament lives up to the billing of the highest rated tournament in history. Somehow last time's candidates finalists, Gelfand and Grischuk are complete outsiders which seems pretty unfair to me. Dennis Monokroussos agrees and points to an interview with Alexander Grischuk.

In the meantime I've been watching some games from the Women's World Teams Championship. There are some high profile names missing from the event, but it's still pretty strong with Russia and China the favourites to take gold. In fact, it is difficult to split these 2 teams who have won all their games so far except the match between the two which ended in a draw. I was watching a fascinating game a couple of nights back which unfortunately ended with a horrible blunder. The round 2 game Dzaganidze-Ju Wenjun started out life as a Staunton Gambit in the Dutch, a line that was played a long time ago by Jacques Mieses (he even managed to win a game against Rubinstein with black). White was doing good until the following position was reached:

Dzaganidze, rated 2554 played the unbelievably shocking 39.Kxe5 losing an exchange to the simple to spot 39..Bf6+. White played on for a few moves before resigning. There is hope for us all!




I've also checked out some other interesting chess sites this week. Trowbridge Chess Club in the West of England were voted the English small club of the year lat year. Their blog is an excellent combination of local chess news and regional reporting which is what all clubs should be striving for. I also went to the USCF for the first time, and was mildly impressed. The blog section has some interesting articles and I'm kind of surprised that it doesn't show up higher on google searches for chess blogs. Jennifer Shahade is the editor of online blog, but there are numerous contributors. Actually, I think this is a really good idea. It gives a website more diversity and differing opinions. In fact, if anyone wants to regularly write for this blog, then feel free to contact me on carl.coffehousechess@gmail.com. I'm happy for anyone who wants to regularly write about chess or coffee or preferably both!

How Amazing is Social Media?

So, I'm a bit of a technophobe, and fairly reluctant to try new gadgets, but I have to say that I'm completely blown away recently by the power of the internet. I'm currently following live feeds on Twitter and the BBC news site over the shock announcement that the Pope is to resign. Now as a non Catholic, I'm not going to make comment on this turn of events, but it is a momentous piece of news. In fact Pope Benedict will be the first Pope to resign in office since Gregory XII in 1415. I am now an avid follower of Twitter, and when I'm online I will have a tab with it running while I do other things. Besides following various chess tweeters, and some authors and book sites, it is the news that mainly interests me, and I find the BBC coverage usually very good. I always have an alternative site news running so as to get a second opinion, though this second site changes. Currently I am following Sky News, but I think I'll change soon.

My main point of contact with others online is through Facebook, and I've found it an invaluable tool for following the progress of my family back in the UK, and for promoting chess and this blog. I must admit that I'm not too bothered about the number of 'friends' I have, or interests I follow. I guess we all use these social media tools for our own ends.

But personally I find the most useful thing about the internet is the way it has made following chess so easy. There are some sites which I regularly follow and have done for a very long time. Top of the list are my favourite 2 sites, The Week in Chess (TWIC) and the Chess Cafe. TWIC is a chess news site while Chess Cafe offers regular articles on all aspects of the game. I use TWIC as my main portal for watching live games. On the site there is a live chess game page, and links to other live games happening around the world.  In fact, watching live games online is one of my favourite chess activities. My local chess club, the Melbourne Chess Club (MCC) has a digital board and I've been watching a game tonight which has been broadcast live. I see the game has just finished but I'm guessing the result has been put in wrong, as it looks as if white has forced mate rather than the game being a draw.

I also like to follow blogs. Some I have been looking at for a long time, while I like to try new ones out for a bit. My blogroll to the right of the page shows blogs I follow as do the links underneath. Some of these are updated more often than others and I've found a few more to follow. Kevin Spraggett's blog is excellent for chess. Spraggett is a Canadian GM and his chess posts are great reading material whether they are about parts of the game itself, or commentary about chess politics or culture. I also want to follow Denis Monokrousos' site as that also has a great deal of chess content. I'll be adding these 2 sites to the blogroll and following them for the next couple of months, at least until the end of the London Candidates.