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French Defence
The French Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e6 This is most commonly followed by 2.d4 d5, with Black intending ...c5 soon after, attacking White's and gaining on the . The French has a reputation for solidity and resilience, although some lines such as the Winawer Variation can lead to complications. Black's position is often somewhat in the early game; in particular, the pawn on e6 can impede the of the bishop on c8. Basics Following the opening moves 1.e4 e6, the main line of the French Defence continues 2.d4 d5 (see below for alternatives). White sets up a , which Black immediately challenges by attacking the pawn on e4. The same position can be reached by from a Queen's Pawn Game after 1.d4 e6 2.e4 d5 or the declining of a Blackmar–Diemer Gambit after 1.d4 d5 2.e4 e6. White's options include defending the e4-pawn with 3.Nc3 or 3.Nd2, advancing it with 3.e5, or exchanging it with 3.exd5, each of which leads to different types of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King's Pawn Game
The King's Pawn Game is any chess opening starting with the move: :1. e4 It is the most popular opening move in chess, followed by the Queen's Pawn Game. Details about the move and the game plan White opens with the most popular of the twenty possible opening moves. Although effective in winning for White (54.25%), it is not quite as successful as the four next most common openings for White: 1.d4 (55.95%), 1.Nf3 (55.8%), 1.c4 (56.3%), and 1.g3 (55.8%). Since nearly all openings beginning 1.e4 have names of their own, the term ''King's Pawn Game,'' unlike Queen's Pawn Game, is rarely used to describe the opening of the game. Advancing the king's pawn two squares is highly useful because it occupies a square, attacks the center square d5, and allows the of White's and queen. Chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer said that the King's Pawn Game is "Best by test", and proclaimed that "With 1.e4! I win." Opening categorization and continuations King's Pawn Games are further cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Szymon Winawer
Szymon Abramowicz Winawer (March 6, 1838 – November 29, 1919) was a Polish-Jewish chess player who won the German Chess Championship in 1883. Tournament and match results At the Paris 1867 tournament held at the Café de la Régence, his first international tournament, Winawer finished in second place, tied with Wilhelm Steinitz behind Ignatz Von Kolisch. He remained one of the world's best players for the next 15 years. At Warsaw 1868 Winawer won the first chess tournament conducted in Poland. He won an 1875 match in Saint Petersburg against Russian master Ilya Shumov, 5–2. At Paris 1878 Winawer tied for first place (+14−3=5) with Johannes Zukertort, ahead of Joseph Henry Blackburne and George Henry Mackenzie, but took second prize after the play-off. At Berlin 1881 he finished =3rd with Mikhail Chigorin. Winawer's best result was a first place tie with Steinitz at Vienna 1882, in what was the strongest chess tournament in history up to that time. At London 1883 he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Sergeyevich Morozevich (russian: Александр Серге́евич Морозе́вич, translit=Aleksandr Sergéevich Morozévich; born July 18, 1977) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1994. Morozevich is a two-time World Championship candidate (2005, 2007), two-time Russian champion and has represented Russia in seven Chess Olympiads, winning numerous team and board medals. He has won both the Melody Amber (alone 2002, shared 2004, 2006, 2008) and Biel (2003, 2004, 2006) tournaments several times. Morozevich is known for his aggressive and unorthodox playing style. His peak ranking was second in the world in July 2008. Career His first win in an international tournament was in 1994, when at the age of 17 he won the Lloyds Bank tournament in London with a score of 9½ points out of 10. In 1994 he also won the Pamplona tournament, a victory he repeated in 1998. In 1997 Morozevich was the top seed at the World Jun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evgeny Bareev
Evgeny Ilgizovich Bareev (russian: Евгений Ильгизович Бареев; born 21 November 1966) is a Russian-Canadian chess player and trainer. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1989, he was ranked fourth in the FIDE world rankings in October 2003, with an Elo rating of 2739. Chess career Bareev was world under 16 champion in 1982. In 1992 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physical Culture. The biggest success in his career was winning the Corus supertournament in Wijk aan Zee 2002. In this event he scored 9/13 points ahead of elite players like Alexander Grischuk, Michael Adams, Alexander Morozevich, and Peter Leko. Bareev is triple winner at Hastings (in 1990/91, 1991/92 and 1992/93, shared with Judit Polgar; all three editions were then still played as an invitational tournament in round-robin format). He also won the strong Enghien-les-Bains tournament held in France in 2003. In a man vs machine contest in January 2003, Bareev took on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amos Burn
Amos Burn (1848–1925) was an English chess player, one of the world's leading players at the end of the 19th century, and a chess writer. Burn was born on New Year's Eve, 1848, in Hull.Richard Forster, ''Amos Burn: A Chess Biography'', McFarland & Company, 2004, p. 17. . As a teenager, he moved to Liverpool, becoming apprenticed to a firm of shipowners and merchants. He learned chess only at the relatively late age of 16. He later took chess lessons from future World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz in London, and, like his teacher, became known for his superior defensive ability.Forster 2004, p. 9. Aron Nimzowitsch, in his book ''The Praxis of My System'', named Burn one of the world's six greatest defensive players. Although never a professional chess player, Burn had a long tournament and writing career. In 1913, Leopold Hoffer, the editor for over 30 years of the chess column in '' The Field'', the leading chess column in Great Britain, died. The proprietors of ''The Field'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rafael Vaganian
Rafael Artemovich Vaganian ( hy, Ռաֆայել Արտյոմի Վահանյան, Rrafayel Artyomi Vahanyan, russian: link=no, Рафаэль Артёмович Ваганян, ''Rafael Artemovich Vaganyan''; born 15 October 1951) is an Armenian chess player holding the title of grandmaster (GM). He was Soviet champion in 1989. Chess career Vaganian achieved his Grandmaster title in 1971, at the age of 19. This followed an excellent result at the Vrnjacka Banja tournament the same year, where he took first place ahead of Leonid Stein and Ljubomir Ljubojević. It was also the year that he finished fourth at the World Junior Chess Championship, a competition won by the Swiss player Werner Hug. His international tournament record includes victories at Kragujevac 1974, São Paulo 1977, Kirovakan 1978, Las Palmas 1979, Manila 1981, Hastings 1982/83, Biel 1985 (the Interzonal), Leningrad 1987, Toronto 1990 and Ter Apel 1992. At Moscow 1982 and Tallinn 1983, he shared first place with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal; rus, Михаил Нехемьевич Таль, ''Mikhail Nekhem'yevich Tal' '', ; sometimes transliterated ''Mihails Tals'' or ''Mihail Tal'' (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius within the game of chess and one of its best ever players. Tal played in an attacking and daring combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. It has been said that "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem". His nickname was "Misha", a diminutive for Mikhail, and he earned the nickname "The Magician from Riga". Both ''The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games'' and ''Modern Chess Brilliancies'' include more games by Tal than any other player. He also held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competitive chess history with 95 games (46 wins, 49 draws) between 23 October 1973 and 16 O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rashid Nezhmetdinov
Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov (Tatar: , ; russian: Раши́д Гибя́тович Нежметди́нов; December 15, 1912 – June 3, 1974) was a Soviet chess player, chess writer, and checkers player. Though he never attained the title of Grandmaster, he was a renowned tactician and created several brilliant games. Biographer Alex Pishkin compares him to Chigorin, Réti and Spielmann. Early life Nezhmetdinov was born in Aktubinsk, Russian Empire, in what is now Aktobe, Kazakhstan, in a Tatar family. His parents were “worked to death” when he was still very young, rendering him (and his two siblings) an orphan. Nezhmetdinov was then sent to live with his uncle, in a small town on the banks of the Volga river. From 1918-1923, the Russian Civil War devastated the region, particularly with the introduction of the ''Prodrazvyorstka'' policy, a system whereby peasant’s foodgrain was confiscated at nominal prices, as per fixed quotas. The ensuing famine killed over 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11–0 score, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Qualifying for the 1972 World Championship, Fischer swept matches with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6–0 scores. After another qualifying match against Tigran Petrosian, Fischer won the title match against Boris Spassky of the USSR, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR, the match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE, chess's international governing body, over the match conditions. Consequently, the Soviet challenger Anatoly Karpov was named World Champion by default. Fischer subseq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov ( rus, Васи́лий Васи́льевич Смысло́в, Vasíliy Vasíl'yevich Smyslóv; 24 March 1921 – 27 March 2010) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, who was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions (1948, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1959, 1965, 1983, and 1985). Smyslov twice tied for first place at the USSR Chess Championships (1949, 1955), and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won is an all-time record. In five European Team Championships, Smyslov won ten gold medals. Smyslov remained active and successful in competitive chess well after the age of sixty. Despite failing eyesight, he remained active in the occasional composition of chess problems and studies until shortly before his death in 2010. Besides chess, he was an accomplished baritone singer. Early years Smyslov born in Russian family, first became interested in chess at the age of six. His father, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by former World Champion Bobby Fischer. She was the youngest player ever to break into the FIDE top 100 players rating list, ranking No. 55 in the January 1989 rating list, at the age of 12. Polgár is the only woman to have been a serious candidate for the World Chess Championship, in which she participated in 2005; she had previously participated in large, 100+ player knockout tournaments for the world championship. She is also the only woman to have surpassed 2700 Elo, reaching a peak world ranking of No. 8 in 2004 and peak rating of 2735 in 2005. She is the only woman to be ranked in the top ten of all chess players, first reaching that ranking in 1996. She was the No. 1 ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poisoned Pawn Variation
The Poisoned Pawn Variation is any of several series of opening moves in chess in which a pawn is said to be "poisoned" because its capture can result in a positional loss of or a loss of . Sicilian Defense, Najdorf The best known of these, called the Poisoned Pawn Variation, is a line of the Sicilian Defense, Najdorf Variation that begins with the moves: :1. e4 c5 :2. Nf3 d6 :3. d4 cxd4 :4. Nxd4 Nf6 :5. Nc3 a6 :6. Bg5 e6 :7. f4 Qb6 after which 8.Qd2 Qxb2 usually follows, accepting the "poisoned" b2-pawn. White can also play 8.Nb3, protecting the pawn. One of the pioneers of this line was David Bronstein, who tied the 1951 World Championship match against Mikhail Botvinnik 12–12. Bobby Fischer later became a proponent, playing it with great success. The line was most famously played in game 7 and game 11 of the 1972 World Chess Championship match between Fischer and Spassky. In both games Fischer played Black and grabbed the pawn. In the first, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
