At the age of 84, the legendary writer has died in his sleep last night.
I have a mouth, and I want to scream!
Friday, June 29, 2018
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
About project "Study of the Month"
I have sent my annual report to the WFCC president and the president of the Subcommittee for Endgame Studies in the WFCC yesterday. I believe the project "Study of the Month", which is hosted by ChessBase, is a great success, and although not many people comment on it, I have the unofficial comments per e-mail that tell me that the chess composers are reading it, they enjoy it, and they are unfortunately too polite to tell what should be changed when it should.
For this year, i.e. 2018, we have undertaken the historical examination.We have shown several early composers, and will continue to do so. For December a special christmas issue is already in the works, but details can't be given yet.
The articles about the following main topics were published in 2018 so far:
January: Alexey Troitzky
February: Platov brothers
March: Kubbel brothers
April: Nikolay Grigoriev (extensive)
May: Chess Studies; or: Endings of Games
The following topic is scheduled for June, to be published on June 30.
Henri Rinck
So far only very famous composers have been covered, but those are incidentally the most important figures. I am worried about the new EU copyright directive, as it might prevent the re-use of still copyrighted endgame studies for educational and scientific purposes without permission of untracable heirs. History might end with the studies of people who died in 1947 then. This would be a horrible cultural holocaust. (Link in German, as there is no English article fitting.)
For this year, i.e. 2018, we have undertaken the historical examination.We have shown several early composers, and will continue to do so. For December a special christmas issue is already in the works, but details can't be given yet.
The articles about the following main topics were published in 2018 so far:
January: Alexey Troitzky
February: Platov brothers
March: Kubbel brothers
April: Nikolay Grigoriev (extensive)
May: Chess Studies; or: Endings of Games
The following topic is scheduled for June, to be published on June 30.
Henri Rinck
So far only very famous composers have been covered, but those are incidentally the most important figures. I am worried about the new EU copyright directive, as it might prevent the re-use of still copyrighted endgame studies for educational and scientific purposes without permission of untracable heirs. History might end with the studies of people who died in 1947 then. This would be a horrible cultural holocaust. (Link in German, as there is no English article fitting.)
Monday, June 25, 2018
PraggnANANDhaa Rameshbabu is grandmaster!
https://en.chessbase.com/post/praggnanandhaa-a-game-away-from-becoming-a-grandmaster
"Pragg" (* 10 August 2005), as he is often called, has received his third norm in the small Italian village Ortisei. Congratulations!
"Pragg" (* 10 August 2005), as he is often called, has received his third norm in the small Italian village Ortisei. Congratulations!
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Satire: How I became World Chess Champion
You certainly have heard of the World Chess Championship 2018. World Champion Bogolblanca had to fight against me. With new FIDE rules, it was a "best of 10". The first game went like this:
Bogolblanca - Hornecker
World Chess Championship 2018, game 1
1.f4
Bogolblanca plays the Bird opening, but I have prepared the Englund gambit, to which I want to continue 2.f:e5 f6.
1.-e5 2.g4!
Bogolblanca offered an interesting gambit. I was shocked. I had never seen anyone play this opening before, and I was a master for over 30 years now. So what was to be done there?
2.-e:f4
Of course, a gambit can mostly be refuted by taking the pawn. The game went on:
3.Sf3! h5 4.g5 Be7 5.h4 d5 6.d3 Bd6
I thought to be safely a pawn up by now.
7.Bg2 Se7 8.Sd4 Sg6 9.B:d5 f3 10.e4 c6 11.g6!! S:g6 12.B:f7+!!
Needless to say, I lost in a few more moves. I analyzed the variation and after an easy draw with White in the second game he played it again. I managed to hold this time. The further games ended in draws, and after game 5 the colors were switched. Finally, in the last night of the match I found a surprising refutation of his gambit.
Bogolblanca - Hornecker
World Chess Championship 2018, game 10
1.f4 e5 2.g4
Now I presented my refutation of this gambit, after which, as you know from the press, even the most stubborn of grandmasters ceased to play it.
2.-Qh4 mate with a small advantage I converted into a full point.
The tie-break match went nice for me, but after a blunder it went into the Armageddon game. As I had Black and had to win the game, my experience with crisis situations came in handy. The venue was robbed during our game, and just as I was about to be checkmated, the robbers broke into our playing room. I quickly made a move, and my opponent didn't realize he was to move as he had to hold his arms up. I paid the robbers nicely afterwards and kept his watch as a memento. Wait, I was not supposed to write this. How can I delete this text?
[EDIT: Somehow I messed up the moves in the first game and can't seem to "recover my thoughts" for the original game. So if you have any clues what I left out, please let me know. I think White castled kingside and played Sc3, and Black also did something in that time, probably bringing the knight to e5 or something similar. But I can't seem to find a realistic line where B:f7+ wins.]
Bogolblanca - Hornecker
World Chess Championship 2018, game 1
1.f4
Bogolblanca plays the Bird opening, but I have prepared the Englund gambit, to which I want to continue 2.f:e5 f6.
1.-e5 2.g4!
Bogolblanca offered an interesting gambit. I was shocked. I had never seen anyone play this opening before, and I was a master for over 30 years now. So what was to be done there?
2.-e:f4
Of course, a gambit can mostly be refuted by taking the pawn. The game went on:
3.Sf3! h5 4.g5 Be7 5.h4 d5 6.d3 Bd6
I thought to be safely a pawn up by now.
7.Bg2 Se7 8.Sd4 Sg6 9.B:d5 f3 10.e4 c6 11.g6!! S:g6 12.B:f7+!!
Needless to say, I lost in a few more moves. I analyzed the variation and after an easy draw with White in the second game he played it again. I managed to hold this time. The further games ended in draws, and after game 5 the colors were switched. Finally, in the last night of the match I found a surprising refutation of his gambit.
Bogolblanca - Hornecker
World Chess Championship 2018, game 10
1.f4 e5 2.g4
Now I presented my refutation of this gambit, after which, as you know from the press, even the most stubborn of grandmasters ceased to play it.
2.-Qh4 mate with a small advantage I converted into a full point.
The tie-break match went nice for me, but after a blunder it went into the Armageddon game. As I had Black and had to win the game, my experience with crisis situations came in handy. The venue was robbed during our game, and just as I was about to be checkmated, the robbers broke into our playing room. I quickly made a move, and my opponent didn't realize he was to move as he had to hold his arms up. I paid the robbers nicely afterwards and kept his watch as a memento. Wait, I was not supposed to write this. How can I delete this text?
[EDIT: Somehow I messed up the moves in the first game and can't seem to "recover my thoughts" for the original game. So if you have any clues what I left out, please let me know. I think White castled kingside and played Sc3, and Black also did something in that time, probably bringing the knight to e5 or something similar. But I can't seem to find a realistic line where B:f7+ wins.]
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