ChessCafe.com Weekly Newsletter, September 16 - 22, 2009‏

234 Depot Rd. Milford, CT 06460 1-877-91-CHESS (1-877-912-4377) Issue #22 September 16 - 22 Welcome to the ChessCafe.com weekly newsletter. You can keep up-to-date with new product releases, read reviews of selected products, and follow the latest postings at ChessCafe.com. Plus, try your hand at solving our weekly puzzle. Enjoy! Here & There Old Riddle Vassily Smyslov is one of the finest endgame virtuosos of the royal game. One of his most famous victories is the seventeenth game of the 1957 world championship match against Botvinnik. Check out this month’s Endgame Corner. Show Stoppers According to Dan Heisman, there are three things that a beginner has to do in slow games before he can reap the major benefits of studying most other chess strategies. Fifty-move Confusion After some “crazy” occurrences is FIDE contemplating an addendum to the fifty-move rule? Geurt Gijssen has the answer. Opening Disasters Development is of the fullest value when it is harmonious. As Nikolay Minev explains, it is always risky when an opening variation is based, first and foremost, on full development of only one of the wings. B+N Mate This third video looks at Deletang’s system of triangles, discusses the role of the king and minor pieces, as well as Zugzwang, temporizing, and Hooper's cordons. Book Notes New In Chess magazine is acclaimed as the best chess magazine in the world, and for good reason. Issue 2009/5 is a treasure trove of entertaining articles and great chess! On GM Daniel King’s tenth Power Play DVD he helps you assess how good you are at calculation and give you tips on how to improve. In all there are forty-eight video segments for a running time of four and a half hours. The new Club Special Set has proven to be a popular choice among players, organizers, and clubs. This black and ivory set features a nearly four inch King and four Queens. Plus, the weighted version weighs more than two pounds. Reviews in Brief New In Chess Magazine, 2009/5 New In Chess magazine is acclaimed as the best chess magazine in the world, and for good reason. The latest issue is a treasure trove of entertaining articles and great chess! Among the highlights are Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam’s interview with GM Miguel Illescas. For more than a decade he was Spain’s most successful player. These days he is a businessman and entrepreneur, running a chess school, an Internet chess club and a publishing house. Still, the main reason why Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam went to visit the Spanish GM in his native Barcelona was Illescas’ involvement as an advisor and trainer in two historic matches. The only two ever lost by Garry Kasparov! Also, Nigel Short proves that the is still “Life in the Old Dog,” Genna Sosonko writes about the first prize in the Georgian Championship of 1945 that served Tigran Petrosian for many years, and Olimpiu Urcan paints a compelling portrait of Arthur Reynolds (1910-1943), a chess player who volunteered to serve his country at war and paid the highest price. Hans Ree writes the cover article about the new book Marcel Duchamp, The Art of Chess, written by art critics Francis M. Naumann and Bradley Bailey with game analysis by WGM Jennifer Shahade. It explores the web of connections between chess and the art of the French genius. Plus, there are tournament reports from Bazna, the Foxwoods Open, the 10th Poikovsky, and more!     Power Play 10: Calculation by Daniel King The topic of GM Daniel King’s tenth Power Play DVD is calculation. He notes that this DVD will help you assess how good you are at calculation and give you tips on how to improve. King calls calculation a core skill of chess play because your plan can only be as good as your ability to calculate correctly. To demonstrate how difficult it can be, and to emphasize the fact that even the best make mistakes, King uses as his first example the poisoned pawn combination from Game Five of the Anand-Kramnik match in which Kramnik missed the sting on the tail of Anand’s combination 34.Ne3. In fact, if you watched this game via the live Internet feed, you would have seen Kramnik rock back in his chair after Anand's move as if he had been struck by a physical blow. King soon produces a copy of the German magazine Schach from which he has input five puzzles into ChessBase. He asks the viewer to pause the DVD to solve the puzzles; however, he states that he himself has not looked at the solutions. He then tries to solve the puzzles on his own, verbalizing his answers so that the viewer can compare the way they think about the position. During this process he notes that how one frames their calculation is often more important than how deeply into the position one sees and he implores the viewer to use a chessboard for this exercise, as he is doing, since one simple cannot analyze properly on screen. It is also interesting that King admits he might not spot some of the winning moves during a game, though they are easier to spot in the context of a puzzle. In all there are forty-eight video segments for a running time of four and a half hours. The DVD also contains the whole training course in audio-format for Pocket Fritz 3. No additional software is needed to run the DVD as it comes equipped with the ChessBase Reader that installs onto your hard disk. If you already have CB10 or one of the Fritz family playing programs, then you do not need to install the reader. The nice thing in this scenario is that if you have a question concerning a move that isn't covered, you can just click on Fritz for an answer. The system requirements are Pentium-Processor at 300 MHz or higher, 64 MB RAM, Windows XP/Vista, DVD drive, etc.   New Catalog Additions 8/18 Power Play 10: Calculation (DVD) 8/17 Shirov: The Sicilian with 3.Bb5 (DVD) 8/16 Davies: The f4 Sicilian (DVD) 8/15 Bologan: The Caro-Kann (DVD) 8/14 Kaissiber #34 8/13 ABC of the Vienna (DVD) 8/12 ChessBase Magazine #131 (DVD) 8/11 The Safest Sicilian 2 8/10 Endgame Workshop 8/7: New In Chess Magazine, 2009/5 8/6: New Club Special Set (weighted) 8/6: New Club Special Set (unweighted) 8/6: Pirc Alert (2nd edition) 8/5: The Classical King’s Indian Uncovered   Weekly Puzzle   Quote of the Week Black to Move/Solution Below   Every chess player has the same style in chess as he does in life. Vladimir Kramnik New In Chess, 2000/3 Check Out the September Savings Only .99 cents! Only .99 cents! Only .99 cents! Only $5.95! Only $4.95! Only $3.95! Plus dozens of other sale items! Puzzle Answer: Black played 39...Qe1+ and eventually drew, but 39...Rc6! would give an advantage in Svidler-Vitiugov, Moscow 2008 (Source: Power Play 10: Calculation) Copyright 2009 BrainGamz, Inc. All Rights Reserved.