Czech Defense
The Pirc Defence (pronounced ) is a chess opening characterised by the response of Black to 1.e4 with 1...d6 and 2...Nf6, followed by ...g6 and ...Bg7, while allowing White to establish a with pawns on d4 and e4. It is named after the Slovenian grandmaster Vasja Pirc. The Pirc Defence is usually defined by the opening sequence :1. e4 d6 :2. d4 Nf6 :3. Nc3 g6 This is the most commonly played line after Black responds to 1.e4 with 1...d6. It has been claimed to give rise to somewhat interesting and exciting games, where Black will have but has to be cautious about playing too passively. According to Garry Kasparov, the Pirc Defence is "hardly worth using in the tournaments of the highest category", as it gives White "too many opportunities for anybody's liking". Description The Pirc Defence is a relatively new opening; while it was seen on occasion in the late nineteenth century, it was considered irregular, thus remaining a sideline. The opening began gaining some p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vasja Pirc
Vasja Pirc () (December 19, 1907 – June 2, 1980) was a Slovenian chess player. He is best known in competitive chess circles as a strong exponent of the hypermodern defense now generally known as the Pirc Defense. Pirc was champion of Yugoslavia five times: 1935, 1936, 1937, 1951, and 1953.''Chess Informant'', volume 30, tribute by Aleksandar Matanovic, Chess Informant publishers, Belgrade 1981. He was awarded the International Master (IM) title in 1950, and the Grandmaster (GM) title in 1953. He was made an International Arbiter in 1973. Pirc was born in Idrija, then a part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and died in Ljubljana. Sample game Although Pirc had a minus record against Alexander Alekhine, he beat Alekhine with the black pieces in a blitz game in Ljubljana in 1930: * 1.d4 e6, Queen's Pawn Game, Horwitz Defense *2.c4 Nf6, 2.c4 usually transposes to openings such as Queen's Gambit Declined, Nimzo-Indian or Queen's Indian The Queen's Indian Defense (QID) is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586, it is the second oldest university press after Cambridge University Press. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics known as the Delegates of the Press, who are appointed by the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho. For the last 500 years, OUP has primarily focused on the publication of pedagogical texts and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Efim Geller
Efim Petrovich Geller (russian: Ефим Петрович Геллер, uk, Юхим Петрович Геллер; 8 March 1925 – 17 November 1998) was a Soviet chess player and world-class grandmaster at his peak. He won the Soviet Championship twice (in 1955 and 1979) and was a Candidate for the World Championship on six occasions (1953, 1956, 1962, 1965, 1968, and 1971). He won four Ukrainian SSR Championship titles (in 1950, 1957, 1958, and 1959) and shared first in the 1991 World Seniors' Championship, winning the title outright in 1992. Geller was coach to World Champions Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov. He was also an author. Early life Geller grew up in Odesa, USSR, and was Jewish. He was a fine basketball player, and earned his doctorate in physical education before specialising in chess. His development as a top player was delayed by the inception of World War II. Geller's first notable result was sixth place in the 1947 Ukrainian SSR Chess Championship a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Castling
Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved; the squares between the king and the rook are vacant; and the king does not leave, cross over, or finish on a square attacked by an enemy piece. Castling is the only move in chess in which two pieces are moved at once. Castling with the is called ''kingside castling'', and castling with the is called ''queenside castling''. In both algebraic and descriptive notations, castling kingside is written as 0-0 and castling queenside as 0-0-0. Castling originates from the ''king's leap'', a two-square king move added to European chess between the 14th and 15th centuries, and took on its present form in the 17th century. Local variations in castling rules were common, however, persisting in Italy until the late 19th century. Castling does not ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Perpetual Check
In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can a draw by an unending series of checks. This typically arises when the player who is checking cannot deliver checkmate, and failing to continue the series of checks gives the opponent at least a chance to win. A draw by perpetual check is no longer one of the rules of chess; however, such a situation will eventually allow a draw claim by either threefold repetition or the fifty-move rule. Players usually agree to a draw long before that, however. Perpetual check can also occur in other forms of chess, although the rules relating to it might be different. For example, giving perpetual check is not allowed in shogi and xiangqi, where doing so leads to an automatic loss for the giver. Examples In this diagram, Black is ahead a rook, a bishop, and a pawn, which would normally be a decisive advantage. But White, to move, can draw by perpetual check: : 1. Qe8+ Kh7 : 2. Qh5+ Kg8 : 3. Qe8+ etc. The same po ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chessgames
Chessgames.com is an Internet chess community with over 224,000 members. The site maintains a large database of chess games, where each game has its own discussion page for comments and analysis. Limited primarily to games where at least one player is of master strength, the database begins with the earliest known recorded games and is updated with games from current top-level tournaments. Basic membership is free, and the site is open to players at all levels of ability, with additional features available for Premium members. While the primary purpose of Chessgames.com is to provide an outlet for chess discussion and analysis, consultation games are periodically organized with teams of members playing either other teams of members or very strong masters, including a former US champion and two former world correspondence champions. Members can maintain their own discussion pages, and there are features to assist study of openings, endgames and sacrifices. The front page also feat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gyula Sax
Gyula Sax (18 June 1951 – 25 January 2014) was a Hungarian chess grandmaster and International Arbiter (1995). In 1972 he won the European Junior Chess Championship in Groningen. Sax was awarded the IM title in 1972 and the GM title in 1974. Gyula Sax was the Hungarian Chess Champion in 1976 and 1977 (jointly). He placed first at Rovinj-Zagreb 1975, Vinkovci 1976, Las Palmas Invitation (together with Vladimir Tukmakov) 1978, IBM international chess tournament 1979 (together with Vlastimil Hort), and Wijk aan Zee 1989 (shared in a four-way tie). He won the 1978 Canadian Open Chess Championship and the strong Lugano Open in 1984. Gyula Sax participated twice in a row in the Candidates Tournament after qualifying at the Subotica Interzonal in 1987 and at the Manila Interzonal in 1990 respectively but was eliminated in the Candidates in 1988 by Nigel Short (+0=3−2) and in 1991 after extra-time by then sixty years old Viktor Korchnoi (+1=6-1; +0 =1-1 rapid chess). His ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yasser Seirawan
Yasser Seirawan ( ar, ياسر سيروان; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author and commentator. Early life Seirawan was born in Damascus, Syria. His father was Syrian and his mother an English nurse from Nottingham, where he spent some time in his early childhood. When he was seven, his family immigrated to Seattle, Washington, where he attended Queen Anne Elementary School, Meany Middle School, and Garfield High School. He honed his game at a now-defunct coffeehouse, the Last Exit on Brooklyn, playing against the likes of Latvian-born master Viktors Pupols and six-time Washington State Champion James Harley McCormick. Career Seirawan began playing chess at 12; at 13, he became Washington junior champion. At 19, he won the World Junior Chess Championship. He also won a game against Viktor Korchnoi, who had two yea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yuri Balashov
Yuri Sergeyevich Balashov (russian: Ю́рий Серге́евич Балашо́в; born 12 March 1949) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1973. Chess career Born in Shadrinsk, Balashov was awarded the grandmaster title in 1973. Balashov was champion of Moscow in 1970 and runner-up to Anatoly Karpov in the 1976 USSR Championship. In 1977, he won Lithuanian Championship. He tied for first place at Lone Pine 1977 and at Wijk aan Zee 1982. In 2014, he won the Senior Tournament at the Moscow Open and tied with Anatoly Vaisser, Viktor Kupreichuk and Herman Claudius van Riemsdijk for first in the World Senior Championship in the 65+ section. Balashov took the silver medal on tiebreak. In the 2018 edition he tied with Vlastimil Jansa for first and again took silver on tiebreak. Balashov represented the USSR in several team events. He played on the second board for the USSR team at the 1971, 1972, and 1974 World Student Team Champions ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jan Timman
Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as "The Best of the West". He has won the Dutch Chess Championship nine times and has been a Candidate for the World Chess Championship several times. He lost the title match of the 1993 FIDE World Championship against Anatoly Karpov. Early career He is the son of mathematics professor Rein Timman and his wife Anneke, who as a schoolgirl was a mathematics student of former world champion Max Euwe. His older brother, Ton (1946–2014), held the chess title of FIDE Master. He was an outstanding prospect in his early teens, and at Jerusalem 1967 played in the World Junior Championship, aged fifteen, finishing third. Timman received the International Master title in 1971, and in 1974 attained Grandmaster status, making him the Netherlands' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nick De Firmian
Nicholas Ernest de Firmian (born July 26, 1957) is an American chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1985. He is a three-time U.S. chess champion, winning in 1987 (with Joel Benjamin), 1995, and 1998. He also tied for first in 2002, but Larry Christiansen won the playoff. He is also a chess writer, most famous for his work in writing the 13th, 14th, and 15th editions of the important chess opening treatise ''Modern Chess Openings''. He was born in Fresno, California. He has represented the United States at several Interzonals and played on the United States Olympiad teams of 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1996, 1998, and 2000. De Firmian earned the International Master title in 1979 and the GM title in 1985. Beginning in the 1990s, he lived for many years in Denmark. He currently resides in California. He won the 1983 Canadian Open Chess Championship. In 1986, he won the World Open and the first prize of $21,000, at that time a record for a Swiss sy ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Modern Chess Openings
''Modern Chess Openings'' (usually called ) is a reference book on chess openings, first published in 1911 by the British players Richard Clewin Griffith (1872–1955) and John Herbert White (1880–1920). The fifteenth edition was published in 2008. Harry Golombek called it "the first scientific study of the openings in the twentieth century".Harry Golombek (editor-in-chief), ''Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess'', Crown Publishers, 1977, p. 202. . History Although Bilguer's ''Handbuch des Schachspiels'' was more authoritative at the time ''MCO'' was first published, it was last published between 1912 and 1916, and was becoming outdated by the 1930s. ''MCO'' was popular with English-speaking players and has continued to be updated throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, with fifteen editions from 1911 through 2008. Early editions were small enough to fit in a pocket (the first edition was 190 pages), but later editions grew and the fifteenth and most recent version is 768 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |