Mexico R05: Anand, Grischuk and Gelfand win. Anand leads.

Mexico R04: Aronian wins, Leaders miss.

Mexico R03: Moro Wins, Anand Holds

Another fighting in Mexico, where the big clash of leaders and top favourites Anand and Kramnik saw Vladimir Kramnik on a Black side of a Russian Defense pushing hard in a favourable endgame (yes, Black can also try to win in the Petroff...), but Vishy Anand

Mexico R02: Kramnik, Anand win.

Well, that's what is called spectacular!!! Fighting chess in round 2! Vladimir Kramnik destroyed Alexander Morozevich with an unexpected (maybe home-cooked?) knight sacrifice, that led to a very unclear position, but Moro went down on the clock, made some poor moves and all ended quickly. Vishy Anand, simply outplayed his Armenian opponent on a black side of a Semi-slav.
He played a strong novelty which required precise play for White, but Aronian wasn't up to the task.
Svidler tried to squueze a win against Peter Leko, but you know how difficult it is to beat Leko in technical positions...
Gelfand-Grischuk was the only game where there was no real fight.
Well, another 12 rounds like this, and Mexico 2007 will be remembered as the greatest chess tournament ever played!

Mexico 2007: Round Two Pairings

Round 2: Friday, Sept. 14th 2007, 14:00h
Peter Svidler		Peter Leko
Boris Gelfand		Alexander Grischuk
Levon Aronian		Viswanathan Anand
Vladimir Kramnik		Alexander Morozevich

These are the pairings for round 2 of the World Chess Chapionship.
What do you think the results will be?

Mexico R01: All Games Drawn

Well, not an exciting start, four draws in less than 30 moves. Perhaps they didn't recover yet for the flight, as the positions that arose after the opening were all interesting.
I hope they'll show more fighting spirit in the next rounds!
Having said that... go Vladimir! :D

Mexico 2007: Round One Pairings

Vladimir Kramnik	1/2	Peter Svidler
Alexander Morozevich	1/2	Levon Aronian
Viswanathan Anand	1/2	Boris Gelfand
Alexander Grischuk	1/2	Peter Leko

That's how they will fight in the first round, that will start in a couple of hours.
What's your prediction about today's results?
Will Kramnik try to crash his long-time friend Peter Svidler or he'll go for a short draw?
I think he'll go for the blood!! He's very motivated to win this tournament and he'll not throw away his first White. Go Volodya!

Here are some pictures of the opening ceremony:

Some Pictures from Bratto: Updated!

That's the playing hall, more than 250 participants!

GM Burmakin, winner of the event with 7/9.


GM Godena, Italian and European Union Champion 2007.


Top GM Sergei Tiviakov, 5th place.


Chess legend GM Oleg Romanishin.


IM Fabio Bruno, first italian in the field.


IM Rolly Martinez who beat Tiviakov in round 8, 4th place.

Mexico 2007: Kramnik wins the poll, Anand close second.

These are the results of the poll the day before the start of the strongest World Chess Championship of all time:

Kramnik: 42% (11)
Anand: 38% (10)
Aronian: 7% (2)
Leko, Svider, Gelfand: 3%(3)
Morozevich, Grischuk: 0% (0)
Total Votes: 26

Reigning World Champion Vladimir Kramnik won also the poll in the Chessvibes.com Webisite:
Kramnik: 33%
Anand: 31%
Aronian: 20%
Morozevich: 7%
Leko: 6%
Gelfand: 2%
Grischuk: 1%
Svidler: 0%
Total Votes: 990

Botvinnik rocks, Kramnik too!

Finally I found my favourite player of the past and of the present and eventually I FOUND MY CHESS STYLE!! It has been too long time that I moved from an attacking style to a positional one, with great problems finding a durature repertoire. Now I can say it's all over! I founf my real style: it's a rock solid repertoire, with strategic unbalances to grind down my opponent in a long ending.
Such a Kramnik's style, but more fighting!
Iron Strategist!

On the road to Bratto

Here we go! Today I start my journey to Bratto!! So, on the 23 of August I'll start my tournament, and I'll post my results!!! Bye guys!

Blitz Power

This is someone who really knows how to play blitz: Hikaru Nakamura!
He's almost impossible to emulate, but we can learn from him what playing blitz well really means..
Look how he crashes GM Maxim Dlugy in a 1-minute game:

#3 John Nunn's Favourite Puzzles

Here we are! The third problem:
White to Play and Mate in Two.

Intensive Training

In this month I will do an intensive tactical training to win the tournament I've spoken about, so I will have less time to post here. I beg you pardon, but stay tuned for the results, photos, and games. I will also keep posting the nunn's puzzles and endgame studies.

Worst Rating Ever

Today after an unprecedented series of 10 succesive defeats I reached my worst rating peak in the playchess.com server! 1777, ten losses, pieces losses like a patzer... Perhaps they were right saying I started too late... I'm training very hard and the results is that I'm worse than when I started. Perhaps i should give up my too ambitious dream to become a GM.....
If I don't wake up EARLY, it will remain a dream FOREVER...

#1 Chess Study

It's often boring to study endgame, isn't it? But it's tremendously useful to improve our chess understanding and positional intuition. So, a funny way to study endgame is to resolve endgame studies, which in the meantime will also improve your tactics.
I took this studies from Kusnetsov's book 'Brilliant Chess Studies', but as it is only a collection of the greatest chess studies, there's no violation of copyright.
WHITE TO MOVE AND WIN
If no one find the complete solution I'll post it in a week.
Enjoy the Fantastic World of Chess Studies!

#2 Problem - Hint

Okay, since no one has posted the solution
to the second problem I give you the hint:
"The first point to note is that Black's king has a possible escape route to e4, so White's first move must either prevent Ke4 or prepare a reply to it. The second point is that if White loses control of c4 or e6 then Black can give a discover check by moving his king. However composers love an element of paradox in their problems, so..."
(taken from Chessmaster 9000)

When Garry Got Really Upset...

ahah Kasparov is too funny when he makes a blunder... he really doesn't want to lose from anyone!
I keep falling off my chair when I watch this video.
You can find the complete game here, the blunder is on move 33 (Qxe3) not seeing the discover attack (Qg4). Don't worry Garry, you are still the greatest player in the history of the game!

Kasparov in Milan

Garry Kasparov, my chess hero, on the 29th of June went to my hometown, Milan, to sign autographs and make photos and I...WAS NOT THERE!!!!!!!
Damn it! I was in holiday very far from Milan (I was in Boston, USA) so I couldn't see the greatest player of all the time right there, in my city... I hope he'll come back in Italy, I won't surely miss another occasion to speak to my chess idol.
Garry, COME BACK!

Fischer Random Chess

Without any doubts it is fun, being a purely tactical affair from move one. I'm talking about Fischer Random Chess (also called Chess960), a variant of the game where piece placement is randomly determined before each game. It has been created by Bobby Fischer to eliminate opening preparation and quick draws (it's too comlicated to make a draw on move 20!!).
I think it's a good game but it cannot replace the entire game of chess, it cannot delete two century of history. Is the opening preaparation killing chess (only at supergm level of course)? Well, no problem; just play an UNCOMMON opening and demonstrate your superior strenght on UNCOMMON grounds. What do you think about this?

#2 John Nunn's Favourite Chess Puzzles

Ok, the first one was really too easy, so I post the second which is both more difficult and more instructive. I think resolving a problem is very useful to gain confidence, develop calculation ability and tactical intuition. So, why not to try? If you cannot find it, I'll give you a hint in a couple of days.
WHITE TO PLAY AND MATE IN TWO.

Calendar Update

Unfortunately I had to drop the tournament I've spoken about due to travelling problems...
But I've already found another insteresting tournament with very strong international players partecipating in. I'm going to partecipate and I'm going to WIN THIS FUCKING TOURNAMENT!!
Stay tuned for results and games! (It starts on the second half of August.)

It's Worth Risking!

I've just read a very interesting article by computer scientist Darse Billings, on Chessbase
that speaks about different types of chess styles and their relationship with tournaments results. It turns out that a tactical oriented player who takes many risks during a tournament has more possibility to win that tournament, even if he's not the strongest player.
And a classical player, who doesn't risk too much and draws more games, even if he's the strongest player has less probability to win (an example for this in modern chess could be Wch Vladimir Kramnik). All is demonstrated by statistic means in that article.
So..it's worth risking!!!

#1 Kasparov's Greatest Games

I'll post you the analysis I made on Kasparov's games (as I said, he's my favourite player), integrating with Fritz analysis and some commentaries I read in books. But the main work would be mine; so if you find mistakes in my analysis, please post a comment with your correction!
I'll start with a tactical slugfest, an example of how to play against the Samisch Variation of the King's Indian Defense.
Smbat LPUTIAN - Garry KASPAROV
Tbilisi 1976
1. d4 Nf6
2.c4 g6
3.Nc3 Bg7
4.e4 d6
5.f3 Nc6

(still analyzing.... Soon I'll post the complete game.)

Ct-Art Level 10 Done

I'll post the results of the training section with CT-Art.
This is the first level, very easy problems, in test mode; these are the results:
Level 10
N° 110
Perf. 2335
Succ. 100%

#1 John Nunn's favourite chess puzzles

I'll post once a week a problem taken from '50 John Nunn's favoutite chess puzzles'. (They're all 'WHITE TO PLAY AND MATE IN TWO').
Post the solution in the comments (don't use engines please!).
Let's start with an easy one:

Questionnaire tag

Here are my answers to Blue Devil Knight’s questionnaire tag.
I tag Atomic Patzer, that let me know this interesting questionnaire.

1. How long have you been playing chess? Have you played it consistently since you started, or were there lulls in your play? How did these lulls affect your performance?
I started tournament play 2 years ago. I played and I will play it consistently because I want to demonstrate that even if I started too late I can still become a GM!
2. Aside from playing games, what is your primary mode of training?
I do a lot of tactical training with Chess Tactics Server and CT-Art3.0; and I read books, analyzing GM games.
3. What is the single most helpful method of improvement that you have ever used?
Tactics exercices. I wanna become a machine!!!
4. What is your favorite opening to play as white? As black against e4? As black against d4?
I played only 1.e4 so far, but I'm studying 1.d4 Kasparov-way now. Against 1.e4 the Sicilian, usaually the Najdorf or the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon; against d4 the King's Indian Defense and the Grunfeld -studying the Nimzo-Indian now
5. Who is your favorite chess player and why?
Kasparov. He's simply the 'greatest player ever in the history of the game'. His concentration, tactical virtuosism, opening preparation are simply matchless.
6. What is your favorite chess book?
'Kasparov Teaches Chess'. For his personal value, as it was my first chess book.
7. What book would you recommend for a friend who knows only the rules of chess?
I recommend 'Kasparov Teaches Chess' to the beginners, it shows you how the really good players play chess and give advices about training.
8. Do you play in in-person tournaments? What is your favorite tournament experience?
Yes I play in OTB tournaments. The tournament where I liked the atmosphere and the people was Erba 2006. But the torunaments where I played better was Melegnano 2006, where I made any tipe of risky moves and I won games after games (I closed with 6 out of 7).
9. Please give us a link to what you consider your best two blog posts (on your own blog).
I started my blogs today, and I do not consider one of my posts to be better than the others. I'll update this statement in the next few weeks!
10. What proportion of total chess time should be spent studying openings for someone at your level?
I think no more than 20%. I spend the remaining time on tactics tactics tactics!!!
But I don't read opening books, I study openings analyzing GM games.

Open Bergamo

This will be my next tournament. I would play in the open A to start playing with someone really strong, but unfortunately I have to gain some money to my travel in the United States (I came back the 3rd of July), so I must play in the open B and win the first prize.
Stay tuned for the results and games!

Chess Tactics Server

That's my rating chart of the main website I use for training, the Chess Tactics Server. It's a great tool because it teaches you to think faster and faster, as you usually have 3-5 secs to resolve a tactical problem.

+400 in 2 years!

These are all the tournaments I played:

	FE 36 CORSICO +9
	WE CITTA' DI ERBA +45
	WE MELEGNANO +87
	FE E. CRESPI +12
	FE MARTESANA SCACCHI +24
	FE 35 CORSICO +6
	OPEN INTEGRALE MILANO +6
	CIG UNDER 16 -36
	FE CORSICO UNDER 16 +57
	CP MILANO +30
	WE MILANO +6
	OP GIOVANILE CORSICO +24
	WE 33° CORSICOSCACCHI +15
	OP GIOVANILE CORSICO +23
	MARE E SCACCHI +21

In Italy a new player starts from 1440; I started on August 3rd 2005, so I gained 400 ELO points in less than 2 years! I must keep this speed! I started too late, eh?

Chess Ratings

In the column on the right I'll update my ratings, to trace my progress 'on the road to GM'.
At the time of writing my ratings are these:
ELO Fide: 1822 (my first FIDE rating.)
Chess Tactics Server: 1618
Playchess Blitz: 1861
Playchess Bullet: 1961
CT Art: 2012

First post!

I'm a 16 year old chess fan from Italy. My biggest dream is to become a GM, but many people said me I started too late (I played my first tournament 2 years ago). In this blog I'll trace my rating progresses to realize my dream. I'll discuss with you about all that's chess related, such as super-GM tournaments, my games, chess training, chess problems, photos from my tournaments, humour and some politics.
So, if you are a fan of chess, come here and share your knoweldge!