Sunday, January 6, 2008

The Bakery

Welcome to the Bakery 

 

Master Bruce Baker's Chess Page for Annotated Games, Chess Problems, Trivia and other delicious muffins!  (email bakersandiego@cox.net)


Recent Events

Gambito #384 [08/23/2008]    Daniel Grazian - Alejandrino Baluran    position after 16...Nd7

 

Black's king is not safe in the corner. White won after the 8-move combination 17.Rxd7! Bxd7 18.Qh4 h5 19.Nxh5 gxh5 20.Qxh5+ Kg8 21.Bf6 Bxf6 22.Rg1+ Bg7 23.Qg5 Qxe5 24.Qxe5  Here's another fine tactic by Daniel from Gambito #374

Daniel Grazian - Carey Milton   position after 22...a6 

  

23.Rd4!!  wins a piece 23...Qxc4 (23...Rxd4 24.Qxb5 axb5 25.exd4)  24.Rdxc4 Rd5 25.e4 Rh5 26.g4 Rxh3 27.Kg2. The same idea is the aesthetically appealing 23.Qxb5 axb5 24.Rd4!!. Carey could have played (instead of 22...a6) 22...Qd7 to keep the rook protected, but then 23.Rd4!! still wins a piece. A similar tactic came up in the following game:

So-California St Ch 2008   IM Cyrus Lakdawala -  IM Enrico Sevillano   position after 24...f4

 

Cyrus could have played here 25.e4 with a much better game than 25.exf4 because 25...Bxd4? loses to 26.Qxd8 Rxd8 27.Rd5!


Marshall NY International [06/22/2008]    GM Ehlvest - Elliott Liu   position after 39...Ra8

  

Ehlvest played here 40.Qe4??, setting a trap which Elliott walked into with 40...Qa4?? 41.Nc5+ 1-0. Elliott made an IM norm at this tournament, so all is well. However, with more time 40...Ra1+!! would have been a dramatic refutation. 41. Kxa1 Qa4+ 42.Kb1 Qd1+ 43.Ka2 and with a perpetual in hand, Elliott would not have missed 43...b3+ 44.Ka3 Qa1+ 45.Kxb3 Qxb2+ 46.Ka4 Qa2+ 47.Kb5 Qa6 mate!


Annotated Games Section  with a sprinkling of white sugar

Tom Kuhn - Ryan Nichols  [08/20/2008]

Mario Amodeo - T Sutharsan  from Tribute to Anderssen Tournament, round 2

Baker-Kaidanov  from Gambito #376

Baker-Lakdawala   from Gambito #367 

 


Bishop's Opening

[posted 07/28/2008]  Mieses-Rubinstein  (best game ever in the Bishop's Opening)

 Baker-Carey  from Gambito #358 

Players have been asking about this opening lately.


Problems Section

[posted 5/28/2008]   mate in 5  (composed by fritz)   Solution

  

with black's king on h4 it's mate in 3, a famous problem by Sam Lloyd 


Internet Chess Club (ICC)

[posted 5/28/2008]  GM Boris Grachev - GM Maxim Dlugy   an amazing game


Sevillano and US-ch 2008

Internet qualification matches

Later in August, IM Enrico Sevillano won the U.S. Open


Trivia Questions

1. In 1975 the USCF refused to carrry a controversial chess book published by Simon and Schuster. Some (like me, for example) consider it the worst chess book ever written. The author currently writes a regular column for The Nation. What chess book was it? 

2. How many times did Capablanca win the Cuban Championship?

3.  According to chessbase, who is the only chess master in history to have his portrait on a banknote?

4. What grandmaster, playing against Bilek at the Sousse Interzonal in 1967, put a piece en prise, and then took the move back after saying "j'adoube"? He was thereafter notoriously known as J'adoubovic. Later, he disappeared from chess to serve a prison term for vehicular homicide. 

5. Which of the following great players lived the longest? (Harry Nelson Pillsbury, Paul Morphy, Rudolf Charousek, Richard Reti, Johannes Zukertort or Gyula Breyer)

6. Who are Alexei Gavrilov, Alexei Bezgodov and Alexander Lastin?

7. When Nimzovitch shouted, "Why must I lose to this idiot?", what idiot was he referring to?

8. What day is officially National Chess Day?

9. What International Master was once nominated for a Nobel Prize in chemistry?

10. What is the theoretical evaluation of the esoteric ending three knights vs. one knight?

 answers


Trivia Test 2

1. What is grandmaster Kholmov's first name?

2. What's my first name?

 

3. What grandmaster has both the most common first name (for a GM) and the most common last name (for a GM)?

4. Where is Cambridge Springs?

5. True or False. In 1991 organizers in Buenos Aires unwisely renamed the Argentine Championship to the Miguel Najdorf Memorial tournament. Najdorf, at the age of 81, showed up to play, although he finished with a minus score.

6. Who wrote the comic book series "The Incredible Adventures of Chessman" which included "Treachery in Transylvania"?

7. Who beat Capablanca in the fifth round at New York 1924, his first loss in 8 years?

8. True or False. In the summer of 1972 right before the Fischer-Spassky match, the cover of Chess Life and Review featured a cartoon/caricature of the players and others with the caption: "...but Boris, what if he doesn't play P-K4?".

9. In the film Stalag 17 which hollowed-out chess piece was used to exchange messages?

10. According to Kasparov, "It is the greatest game in the history of chess. The sheer number of ideas, the complexity, and the contribution it has made to chess make it the most important game ever played". What game is it?

 answers


Easy Trivia Test

1. Who won the 1st USSR-ch in 1920?

2. What famous Russian novelist wrote "The Defence" with fictional grandmaster Luzhin?

3. What world chess champion married a Russian princess?

4. Who said, "Amberly excelled at chess - one mark, Watson, of a scheming mind"?

5. In "The Seventh Seal" who was the medieval knight's chess opponent?

6. Who always won the 3-dimensional chess games between Captain Kirk and Mr Spock?

7. Who said, "The mistakes are all there, waiting to be made"?

8. How many USSR (Russia) vs Rest of the World matches have there been?

9. Who played first board for the West in the 1970 match?

10. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of FIDE, is also president of what country?

 answers


Impossible Trivia Question

Fischer was not the first chess player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Eleven years earlier in 1961, who was it?

answer


Fiendish Trivia Question

Dr Jana Bellin married English IM Bill Hartson, GM Tony Miles and IM Robert Bellin. What is her profession and why is she controversial?

answer


 

 

 

 

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