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Latvian Gambit
The Latvian Gambit (or Greco Countergambit) is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 f5 It is one of the oldest chess openings, having been analysed in the 17th century by Gioachino Greco, after whom it is sometimes named. The opening has the appearance of a King's Gambit with . It is an aggressive but objectively dubious opening for Black which often leads to wild and tricky positions.Nick de Firmian, ''Modern Chess Openings, 15th edition'', Random House Puzzles & Games, 2008, p. 144. . FIDE Master Dennis Monokroussos even goes so far as to describe it as "possibly the worst opening in chess". While Paul van der Sterren observes: The Latvian is, and has always been, uncommon in top-level play, but some correspondence players are devotees. The '' ECO'' code for the Latvian Gambit is C40 (King's Knight Opening). History The opening was originally known as the Greco Countergambit, and some modern writers still refer to it as such. That name recogn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kārlis Bētiņš
Kārlis Bētiņš (german: Carl Behting; 27 October 1867, Bērzmuiža – 28 March 1943, Riga) was a Latvian chess master and composer of studies. He tied for 3rd-5th at Riga 1899 (the 1st Baltic Congress, his brother Roberts Bētiņš won), took 3rd at Riga 1900 (won by T. Muller), won at Riga 1900/01, shared 1st with Karl Wilhelm Rosenkrantz, W. Sohn and Wilhelm von Stamm at Dorpat (Tartu) 1901 (the 2nd Baltic Congress), and tied for 3rd-4th at Reval (Tallinn) 1904 (Bernhard Gregory won). In 1902–1910, he was co-editor with Paul Kerkovius of the ''Baltische Schachblätter''. After World War I, he took 3rd, behind Hermanis Matisons and Fricis Apšenieks, at Riga 1924 (1st LAT-ch). Bētinš played for Latvia in the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad at Paris 1924 (+7 –4 =2), where he took 4th place (team) and tied for 4-7th in Consolation Cup (individual; Karel Hromadka won). The Latvian Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5) was named as a tribute to Kārlis Bētiņš, who analyzed it in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert Becker (chess Player)
Albert Becker (5 September 1896 in Vienna – 7 May 1984 in Vicente López), also known as Alberto Becker, was an Austrian– Argentine chess master. Chess career Early career In 1921, he won in Vienna. In 1923, he tied for 4-5th in Frankfurt (23rd DSB Kongress). The event was won by Ernst Grünfeld. In 1924, he tied for 2nd-3rd with Carls, behind Wagner, in Bremen. In 1924, he won a match against Heinrich Wagner (+3 –1 =4) in Hamburg. In 1924, he won ahead of Post and Gruber in Vienna. In 1925, he tied for 5-7th in Breslau (24th DSB Kongress). The event was won by Efim Bogoljubow. In 1925, he tied for 1st-2nd with Wolf in Vienna. In 1926, he tied for 4-5th in Vienna (10th Trebitsch-Turnier). The event was won by Rudolf Spielmann. In 1927, he tied for 1st with Friedrich Sämisch in Mittweida. In 1927, he tied for 1st with Hans Müller in Vienna. In 1928, he tied for 2nd-5th in Vienna. In July–August 1928, he took 8th in the Amateur World Championship in The Hague. The eve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draw (chess)
In chess, there are a number of ways that a game can end in a draw, neither player winning. Draws are codified by various rules of chess including stalemate (when the player to move is not in check but has no legal move), threefold repetition (when the same position occurs three times with the same player to move), and the fifty-move rule (when the last fifty successive moves made by both players contain no or pawn move). Under the standard FIDE rules, a draw also occurs in a dead position (when no sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate), most commonly when neither player has sufficient to checkmate the opponent. Unless specific tournament rules forbid it, players may agree to a draw at any time. Ethical considerations may make a draw uncustomary in situations where at least one player has a reasonable chance of winning. For example, a draw could be called after a move or two, but this would likely be thought unsporting. In the 19th century, some tournaments, notably ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremy Silman
Jeremy Silman (born August 28, 1954) is an American International Master (IM) of chess and writer. Silman was born in Del Rio, Texas. He began playing chess at the age of 12. He has won the American Open, the National Open, and the U.S. Open, and was the coach of the US junior national chess team. He attained the IM title in 1988. Silman has written over 35 books, mostly on chess but also on casino gambling, and has written articles for chess magazines such as ''Chess Life'' and '' New in Chess''. He has also written many chess mentoring puzzles on the chess.com website. Silman is the professor in a video chess course produced by The Teaching Company as part of its Great Courses series. Silman served as a chess consultant on the 2001 ''Harry Potter'' film ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', ''Monk'', and ''Malcolm in the Middle''. However, Silman was uncredited for his work on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Silman is also said to have been involved in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Kosten
Anthony Cornelis Kosten (born 24 July 1958 in London) is an England, English-France, French chess Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster and chess author. Chess career In 1982 he placed third in the British Chess Championship, British Championship, held in Torquay. In 1989 he moved to France and since then has captained and coached that country in major competitions. Kosten played many tournaments, finishing first or equal first in the following: * 1984 Budapest * 1985 Andorra International Open * 1986 Geneva International Open, clear first at 8.5/9 * 1987 Cappelle-la-Grande Open (first on tie-break) * 1987 Challengers Open, Hastings International Chess Congress, Hastings Congress 1987–88 * 1989 Challengers Open, Hastings International Chess Congress, Hastings Congress 1989–90 * 1991 San Benedetto del Tronto * 1992 Mandelieu-la-Napoule * 1993 14th Festival of Asti * 1994 Chanac (repeated in 1995) * 1995 Saint-Affrique * 2000 Naujac-sur-Mer – L'Étang-Salé * 2004 Montpellier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sacrifice (chess)
In chess, a sacrifice is a move that gives up a piece with the objective of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value. Any chess piece except the king may be sacrificed. Because players usually try to hold on to their own pieces, offering a sacrifice can come as an unpleasant surprise to one's opponent, putting them off balance and causing them to waste precious time trying to calculate whether the sacrifice is sound or not, and whether to accept it. Sacrificing one's queen (the most valuable piece), or a string of pieces, adds to the surprise, and such games can be awarded . Types of sacrifice Real versus sham Rudolf Spielmann proposed a division between sham and real sacrifices: * In a ''real sacrifice'', the sacrificing player will often have to play on with less than their opponent for quite some time. * In a ''sham sacrifice'', t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pawn (chess)
The pawn (♙, ♟) is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess. It may move one vacant square directly forward, it may move two vacant squares directly forward on its first move, and it may capture one square diagonally forward. Each player begins a game with eight pawns, one on each square of their second . The white pawns start on a2 through h2; the black pawns start on a7 through h7. Individual pawns are referred to by the on which they stand. For example, one speaks of "White's f-pawn" or "Black's b-pawn". Alternatively, they can be referred to by the piece which stood on that file at the beginning of the game, e.g. "White's king bishop's pawn" or "Black's queen knight's pawn". It is also common to refer to a rook's pawn, meaning any pawn on the a- or h-files, a knight's pawn (on the b- or g-files), a bishop's pawn (on the c- or f-files), a queen's pawn (on the d-file), a king's pawn (on the e-file), and a central pawn (on the d- or e-files). The pawn histori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Saladin Leonhardt
Paul Saladin Leonhardt (13 November 1877 – 14 December 1934) was a German chess master. He was born in Posen, Province of Posen, German Empire (now Poland), and died of a heart attack in Königsberg during a game of chess. A player with a low profile and not many tournament wins, Leonhardt has been largely forgotten by the history books. However, at his best, he was able to defeat most of the elite players of the period. Tarrasch, Tartakower, Nimzowitsch, Maróczy and Réti all succumbed to his fierce attacking style between 1903 and 1920. He won several . Tournaments In major tournaments he was first at Hilversum 1903, Hamburg 1905, and Copenhagen 1907 (ahead of Maróczy and Schlechter), making him Nordic Champion; third, behind Rubinstein and Maróczy, at Carlsbad 1907; second, behind Milan Vidmar, at Gothenburg 1909 (7th Nordic-ch); second, behind Rudolf Spielmann, at Stockholm 1909; and second, behind Carl Ahues, at Duisburg (DSB Congress) 1929. Matches In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Grandmaster (chess)
Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally it has been revoked for cheating. The title of Grandmaster, along with the lesser FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and FIDE Master (FM), is open to all players regardless of gender. The great majority of grandmasters are men, but 40 women have been awarded the GM title as of 2022, out of a total of about 2000 grandmasters. Since about the year 2000, most of the top 10 women have held the GM title. There is also a Woman Grandmaster title with lower requirements awarded only to women. There are also Grandmaster titles for composers and solvers of chess problems, awarded by the World Federation for Chess Composition (see List of grandmasters for chess composition). The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) awards the tit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonny Hector
Jonny Hector (born 13 February 1964) is a Swedish chess player. In chess, he received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1991. In correspondence chess, he earned the ICCF title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1999. Born in Malmö, Sweden, Hector has lived in Denmark for many years. He learned chess at the relatively late age of 14, but quickly became a very strong player. In 1987 he was equal first in the strong Cappelle-la-Grande open (with Anthony Kosten and Anatoly Vaisser). In 2002 he won the Swedish championship at Skara. He has reached a tie in 1st place in the Politiken Cup in Copenhagen four times. In 2000, he tied with Boris Gulko and Lars Bo Hansen. In 2006, he tied with Vadim Malakhatko and Nigel Short. In 2008, he tied with Sergei Tiviakov, Vladimir Malakhov, Yuriy Kuzubov, Peter Heine Nielsen, and Boris Savchenko. In 2012, he tied with Ivan Sokolov and Ivan Cheparinov. He has an aggressive attacking style, and is known for playing unusual chess openings, for exam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
José Raúl Capablanca
José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capablanca was born in 1888 in Havana. He beat Cuban champion Juan Corzo in a match on 17 November 1901, two days before his 13th birthday. His victory over Frank Marshall in a 1909 match earned him an invitation to the 1911 San Sebastian tournament, which he won ahead of players such as Akiba Rubinstein, Aron Nimzowitsch and Siegbert Tarrasch. Over the next several years, Capablanca had a strong series of tournament results. After several unsuccessful attempts to arrange a match with then world champion Emanuel Lasker, Capablanca finally won the world chess champion title from Lasker in 1921. Capablanca was undefeated from 10 February 1916 to 21 March 1924, a period that included the world championship match with Lasker. Capablanca lost the ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
