Page 6 - Jan Timman News Today

In December, on the 14th to be specific, Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman turns seventy. He was one of the world's leading players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. He is also a prolific study composer. So it is appropriate that a Study Composition Tourney is being staged in his honour. Awards will be distributed on his birthday. For this announcement Jan has selected five of his favourite studies, composed by him, for you to solve.

€199.90 Fighting chess all around The Isle of Man tournament, which by now has become a fixture in the chess calendar, celebrated its first edition back in 2014. With its venue at the Villa Marina on Douglas’ seafront, the first two editions were sponsored by PokerStars, with a number of activities involving original combinations of chess and poker taking place as side events. Nigel Short was the clear winner that year, as he prevailed in a field that included three 2700...

Karsten Müller once again sets out to find truth in a famous endgame. This time he looks at the 27th game of the 1st World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, which is generally regarded as a fine example of Karpov's outstanding technique. But how well did Karpov and Kasparov really play the endgame in this famous game?

€19.95 The Chess Informant Once upon a time, there were no computer engines to analyze a chess game. And there was no database to provide millions of games at a touch of a button. However, games were available, albeit not in a number of millions; but the most current ones, the most important and the most beautiful ones were made available to look and delight at.  Not at a touch of a button, but by patiently turning page by page of a printed book of usually not less than 300 ...

All or nothing: How Wijk aan Zee pulled off its most challenging chess tournament All or nothing: How Wijk aan Zee pulled off its most challenging chess tournament Magnus Carlsen (in picture) has won the tournament on seven occasions, the highest number of times.  © Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Forty-eight hours before the first move was to be played at the De Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk aan Zee, tournament director Jeroen van den Berg was down by one player. Ru...

€19.95 When Wim Andriessen founded  Schaakbulletin in 1968 and shortly thereafter gave up his secure job at the college, many were quick to call him insane. Berry Withuis, a veteran of chess journalism, openly mocked him: "If you want to throw away your money in the Netherlands, you either waste it on women or create a chess magazine." After all, the local chess community was way too small to allow for a second publication to survive beside  Schakend Nederland, the offi...

Giri paces Tata Steel Masters Edgar De Castro In the Netherlands, hometown GM Anish Giri continued to impress, posting an undefeated 7.5 out of 11.0 points to maintain the lead entering the penultimate round of the 2021 Tata Steel Masters Festival. With two rounds remaining at Wijk aan Zee, the prestigious tournament remains wide open among four players. Giri, 26, who is hoping to become the second Dutchman to win the title (since Jan Timman in 1985), halved the point...

Frank Scott's "The Queen's Gambit" with Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon is the most successful Netflix series of all time, and despite small inaccuracies it convincingly shows how exciting and fascinating chess can be. In fact, the games Beth Harmon plays in the series were almost all taken from actual tournament or matches. But which games found their way into the series? In <a href="https://www.newinchess.com/new-in-chess-2020-8">New in Chess Magazine 08/2020&l...

Lubomir Kavalek, 1943-2021 The Czech-American grandmaster, former number-10 in the world, coach, organizer, trainer, commentator, author, columnist, and member of the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek died at the age of 77 after a brief but severe illness. The news was confirmed by his wife Irina. Kavalek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), on August 9, 1943, exactly five months after GM Bobby Fischer. He won his first national championship in 1962 at t...

€19.95 Top-notch chess in a small fishing village It was business as usual at the 2020 edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, although things were about to take a dramatic turn for the worse. Now we are entering the second year of the coronavirus crisis, which means the 2021 tournament will be organized on a smaller scale — but it will take place nonetheless! Wijk aan Zee is a small fishing village on the shores of the North Sea which once a year becomes the chess c...