Qatar Masters Open

By Moulthun Ly

Right now there is a super strong open taking place in Qatar. It has a 2200+ rating cutoff and features an abundance of top GM's over 2600. Often, while watching elite events, there may be long waiting periods while the players decide on a move, due to the small number of games. However, with so many interesting games going on that has not yet been an occurrence.

In fact, several months ago, I had the intention of playing this event but later decided not to for various reasons. This wasn't specific to this situation - it has applied on and off the board. I did feel a small sense of regret for not playing when it was possible, but this is nothing new and happens almost all the time during my games. I will choose a line only to have a change of heart shortly after.

Even at top level this can happen, for instance during the recent World Championship match when Anand missed his big winning opportunity in a crucial game. I wonder for how long that must have affected his state of mind. The best thing I have learnt to do, is take everything "move by move" and "game by game". This can happen to anyone so unless we are able to adjust, the rest of our games/tournament is pointless. So I suggest you do not overlook this, always keep looking forward.

You can catch all the live action at:
http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/live-games/

#1 on Chess.com Tactics Trainer

by Junta

Shameless self-promotion: I've made it to the top of the list on the Chess.com Tactics Trainer rankings.

Having unlimited access to the Tactics Trainer as a titled player, I'd been solving an average of around 20 problems a day since June. Answering a problem incorrectly, it gives you the same one (with the exact same variation) again after a while, and since the problem pool only had a finite amount of problems rated 3000+, soon I'd pretty much gone through them - even after answering correctly, the same ones kept coming up, so I figured it was a good time to stop. I may come back to it from time to time, but for tactics I think I will go back and resume work on the book Grandmaster Preparation - Calculation by Jacob Aagaard which I highly recommend for players rated over 2000 or so (very challenging problems)

I hadn't solved tactics online since chess.emrald.net many years ago, but this Chess.com Tactics Trainer was very well made, with plenty of challenging and interesting problems for any level. I've heard that the Tactics Trainer on Chesstempo is just as good.

Homeless Pony

by Junta

My friend Shinsaku Uesugi has built an awesome free-to-play iOS app where you are a pony who jumps in knight-moves around a 5x5 grid. Of course, there will also be obstacles and enemies in the mix. Chess players with iPhones or iPads are sure to enjoy this outwardly simple but challenging puzzle game. There are 100 levels! Gotta love the design.

Below are images taken from iTunes.

Chess players should love the idea of this game

You can even design your own level

Author's overview with more details on the game
iTunes app page

Australia's Digital Chess Magazine - Founded by FIGJAM Duo

by Junta

The August issue cover

On August 1st, 2014, the first issue of 50 Moves Magazine was released. Congratulations to my good friends, FIGJAM duo Moulthun and Fedja who have launched this exciting project!

From the website, http://www.50movesmagazine.com:

50 Moves is Australia’s new and exciting digital chess magazine, created in PDF and PGN form to allow for easy reading. Our team of contributors features some of Australia’s chess legends and combines their knowledge and experience with the energy of our leading young stars to create a magazine which is both entertaining and informative.

What can you expect from our magazine?
— 6 issues a year covering major Australian chess news
— PDF and PGN format for easy reading
— A fascinating interview with the Australian player of the moment
— Overseas tournament reports from Ian Rogers
— Opening surveys by Max Illingworth
— Chess history, humour and trivia with Guy West
— Studies and a game of the month by Junta Ikeda
— Endgame lessons from Chris Wallis
— Chess psychology and miniatures by Andrew Brown
— Tournament reports featuring analysis from the winners

Take a look at our samples for a preview!

The second issue, full of Olympiad content, will be published later today, October 1st. The first issue spanned 83 pages, and the second looks to be just as rich in diverse and quality content.

The October issue cover

A brief review of the August issue can be read on popular Aussie blogger, Amiel Rosario's blog here.

50 Moves Magazine Facebook page

Figjam Mid-Year Update

by Andrew

Greetings Readers, 

First of all, I'd like to say sorry about our general inactivity on here. I am going to try to post twice a week starting from next week (aiming for a Tuesday post and a Friday post).

Second of all, I would like to offer my congratulations to two of our contributors, Moulthun Ly and Junta Ikeda, who have been selected to represent Australia in the 2014 World Chess Olympiad in Norway starting the 1st of August! In the Sydney International Open (SIO) at the end of April, Moulthun and Junta both had fantastic performances, with Moulthun winning the tournament outright and registering his first Grand Master norm and Junta narrowly missing a GM norm but placing Equal 2nd and fulfilling the requirements for the International Master title. It will be great to watch how they go in Norway against many of the world's best. Before then however, they, along with two other members of the team, GM David Smerdon and 13-year-old FM Anton Smirnov, will be competing in the Politiken Cup - a strong open tournament in Denmark - as a warm up.

For more info on either of these tournaments, you can click on the links below:

https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014

http://www.ksu.dk/politiken_cup/default.aspx?la=en

Thirdly, the Gold Coast Open is on this weekend. Moulthun, Jonas and I are all participating, with Moulthun currently being the top seed. Last year Moulthun placed Equal First but was unlucky not to win outright, missing a last minute opportunity in his final round game with GM Lubomir Ftacnik:

Ly - Ftacnik GCO 2013

62.g4? (62.Kh7 +- - e.g., 62...Kf7 63.g4 Kf6 (...h5 64.g5) 64.h4 Kf7 65.g5 or 62...h5 63.Kg6 h4 64.g4) Kg8 63.h3 Kh8 64.h4 Kg8 Draw agreed.

Hopefully there will be better news to report this time around - Moulthun is certainly the favourite to win this year's event. Either way, the tournament should be hard fought and enjoyable to play in as it has been in previous years.

Fourthly, Magnus Carlsen just won both the World Rapid and the World Blitz Championships, meaning he is now World Champion in all three of the major time divisions of chess - a triple crown, if you will.

Lastly, White to play and win. Highlightable solution below. Enjoy!

White to play and win - A. Wotawa 1960

1.f8=Q Rxf8 2.gxh5+ Kf7 3.Rh8!! (3.Rxf8+ Kxf8 4. Rf1+ Kg8 5.h6 (5.Ke7 h6 =) gxh6 6.Ke7 h5 7.Rg1+ Kh8 8.Kf7 h6 =) Rxh8 4.Rf1+ Kg8 5.h6! gxh6 6.Ke7 with mate next move.

IM Max Illingworth annotates

by Junta

Thanks Max for annotating some of my Doeberl Cup and Sydney International Open games on his blog! It's very nice to have strong players looking at your games, as you can observe a difference in style and learn from their thoughts and evaluations. Max is a very good annotator. You can also check out his posts from the previous two weeks where he annotated Moulthun's games from the SIO.

Max Illingworth's blog

chess24.com - for Playing, Studying and Following Chess

by Junta

I've recently been having a look at a new chess website, launched this year - chess24
. I've focussed on the news articles, but to back up their mottoes of 'your playground' and 'the only chess site you'll ever need!', there's also an online play arena, interactive tutorials and training, video lessons from masters, and more.

I was very impressed by the articles on the Candidates until I spotted the contributor's name, when I understood. Colin McGourty was the editor of Chess in Translation, which I was a big fan of - he had written last year that CiT would become inactive as he had been recruited to join an exciting new project, and it looks like chess24 is what he was talking about.

chess24 also has a horde of strong grandmasters and chess professionals contributing, including Macauley Peterson, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Jan Gustafsson and Lawrence Trent. There are video series on openings and on chess in general, spearheaded by none other than Vishy Anand and Peter Svidler, and many other grandmasters, but payment is required to watch in full (I haven't subscribed, myself).

All in all, chess24 still seems to be in its early days, yet it may indeed become an all-round, high quality chess website that many flock to. I for one, am just content to be able to read articles by McGourty again!

Marvelling at Super GMs' play

by Junta

A simplified banner - tempting to incorporate into FIGJAM

A great website I visit daily when elite tournaments are being held is
www.2700chess.com .

Conducted since May 1st, the website has:
1. a live, informative FIDE rating list of players rated over 2700; and
2. a game viewer with all of their recent games you can play through.

Personally, I find the quality of the top players' games quite inspiring, and although I usually just play over all of the games from the previous day, it can be a good training method to pick a game, choose a side (2700+) and after the opening stage, compare the moves you come up with to the one played.

Some memorable recent games (which made me smile while replaying them) are:
Caruana-Berg, European Club Cup (2) - great endgame technique.
Gelfand-Jobava, European Club Cup (3) - a queen sac in the style of Ivanchuk.*
Moiseenko-Morozevich, Saratov Governor's Cup (3) - a mobile queen.
Ni Hua-Morozevich, Saratov Governor's Cup (4) - R's+P's overpowering RBN.

* - Examples (I'm sure there are more of them in the database):
1. the famous 'Final Fantasy' game against Jobava in last year's Olympiad

After 11.Qd2xRe1

2. an interesting battle from this year's Greek Team's Championships

38...Be5-f6 0-1

3. the classic from the 1996 Wijk aan Zee with 21.Qg4-g7

4. the win over Karjakin in the 2008 Amber (Rapid) named 'Speed Racer'


14.Qe3xPe6+