Live Chess Rating List

This website is going to help super-GMs knowing if the kid (Magnus) has already surpassed them or not!
This is how the live rating list >2700 looks like at the moment of writing:

Rank	Name		Rating	Change				Games
01	Anand		2798,1	-4,9				2
02	Carlsen		2793,9	+28,9				24
03	Kramnik		2788,0	0				0
04	Morozevich		2787,9	+13,9				20
05	Ivanchuk		2782,3	+42,3				33
06	Topalov		2777,0	+10				10
07	Radjabov		2744,1	-6,9				31
08	Mamedyarov		2742,1	-9,9				23
09	Leko		2741,0	0				0
10	Aronian		2737,1	-25,9				11
11	Adams		2734,5	+5,5				20
12	Shirov		2733,4	-6,6				19
13	Svidler		2733,4	-12,6				40
14	Karjakin		2729,8	-2,2				35
15	Grischuk		2728,2	+12,2				21
16	Eljanov		2723,6	+36,6				31
17	Movsesian		2723,3	+28,3				53
18	Kamsky		2722,7	-3,3				28
19	Gelfand		2719,8	-3,2				10
20	Ponomariov		2717,6	-1,4				10
21	Gashimov		2716,9	+37,9				34
22	Polgar		2710,6	+1,6				3
23	Jakovenko		2709,1	-1,9				28
24	Alekseev		2708,8	-2,2				20
25	Dominguez		2707,5	+12,5				19
26	Ni		2705,0	+1				28
27	Bu		2704,6	-3,4				25
28	Milov		2704,6	+14,6				16
29	Wang Yue		2704,1	+15,1				28

I'm Back!

OK, it's about ten months since I last post here, but my road to GM is not over yet and i'm here to finish the job! My Fide rating has improved, as I'm getting nearer and nearer to the Candidate Master title. Obviously is not enough, and I know that i must improve much more quickly if I want to become a GM. I'll start again posting videos, tournament reports and analisys on a daily basis.
So...stay tuned!

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!