Inilah Manfaat Belajar Catur Bagi Anak

Ternyata belajar catur memberi manfaat luar biasa bagi anak. Berikut penulis red-white-chess.blogspot.com mencoba merangkum berbagai artikel berkisaran topik “Manfaat Pendidikan Catur Bagi Anak” dari berbagai sumber.

Para pakar pendidikan dan psikologi telah lama menyakini adanya pengaruh positif bagi anak yang belajar permainan catur. Research mengenai pengaruh belajar permainan catur terhadap tingkat intelegensia dan tumbuh kembang anak sudah dilakukan sejak awal abad 20. Namun demikian karena research ini kebanyakan masih sporadic dan juga karena banyak yang bersifat dirahasiakan, maka para pakar pendidikan dan psikolog belum menyatukan pendapat mereka dalam satu kesimpulan yang universal.

Singkat cerita artikel ini hanya langsung memuat point-point, kutipan-kutipan penting yang bisa dipetik anak yang belajar catur di usia dini, yaitu sekitar usia 7-10 tahun.

Why Offer Chess in Schools? – Jerry Meyers (seorang Master Catur)

Catur diyakini memberikan manfaat :

• Focusing – Anak yang belajar catur lebih unggul dalam mengamati sesuatu dan berkonsentrasi. Di catur, jika kamu tidak focus terhadap sesuatu kamu tidak bisa merespon dengan baik.
• Visualizing – Anak yang belajar catur bisa membayangkan / memvisualisasi rangkaian peristiwa (sequence of actions) sebelum itu terjadi. Catur memperkuat daya visualisasi anak, artinya anak sudah punya skill untuk membayangkan / menvisualisasi sesuatu peristiwa dalam beberapa langkah ke depan sebelum itu terjadi. (red-white-chess.blogspot.com)
• Thinking Ahead – Anak diajarkan untuk berpikir dulu sebelum action. Anak diajarkan untuk bertanya “Jika saya melakukan hal ini, apa yang akan terjadi berikutnya, lalu bagaimana saya merespon?”. Ini berarti anak juga belajar untuk lebih sabar dan berpikir. (red-white-chess.blogspot.com)
• Weighing Options – Menimbang Pilihan – Anak diajarkan untuk tidak perlu melakukan hal pertama yang terpikir di benak mereka, tapi mengumpulkan beberapa pilihan dan menimbang mana yang terbaik untuk dilakukan. Anak belajar mengidentifikasi alternative, menimbang pro dan kontra sebuah action. (red-white-chess.blogspot.com)
• Analyzing Concretely – Anak yang belajar catur diajarkan mengevaluasi secara konkrit sebuah action dan konsekuensinya. Keputusan yang tepat didasarkan pada data dan logika, bukan dari perasaan. (Decisions are better when guided by logic, rather than impulse.).  (red-white-chess.blogspot.com)
• Planning – Anak berlatih mengembangkan skill merencanakan sesuatu. Untuk mencapai tujuan tertentu, anak merencanakan step by step. Jika ada yang tidak bisa dilaksanakan, anak berlatih untuk mengubah planning sesuatu keadaan.  (red-white-chess.blogspot.com)

Manfaat Edukasi:

Anish Giri Leading Longgang Chess Master 2017 - Shenzhen

A very strong six players tournament had been held in Shenzhen, China. The event also known as Longgang Chess Master included : Anish Giri, Peter Svidler, Pentala Harikhrisna, Michael Adams, Ding Liren and Yu Yangyi. Currently there are five rounds being played. As the players strength are closely in the same league, they are all in top 20, the rounds are dominated by draw results. First finisher will granted 20,000 bucks as per report. The event started from March 22 2017 and to be play ten rounds.

Only three decisive results so far : Harikrishna defeated Michael Adams, Anish Giri defeated Harikrishna and Ding Liren defeated Peter Svidler. After five rounds, Anish Giri is leading the field. UPDATE: Ding Liren won Shenzhen Longgang Chess Master after 10 rounds.

Shenzhen Longgang Chess Master 2017 final standing:

1	Ding, Liren	6.5
2	Giri, Anish	5.5
3	Svidler, Peter	5.5
4	Yu, Yangyi	4.5
5	Harikrishna, P.	4.5
6	Adams, Michael	3.5

Anish Giri leading Shenzhen Logan Longgang Chess Master 2017 as per round 5

Petunjuk dan Tips Catur Fase Middlegame (Permainan Tengah)

Bagi pecatur, setelah capek-capek menguasai fase pembukaan (opening) dan permainan akhir (endgame), maka fase permainan tengah (middle game) adalah fase yang paling susah. Seperti kata legenda catur GM Siegbert Tarrasch:

“Before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game”
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

"Sebelum sampai di permainan akhir, Tuhan sudah meletakkan permainan tengah." ... artinya Tarrasch bersyukur karena hanya di permainan tengah-lah, seorang yang betul-betul lihai bermain catur akan mampu mengungguli lawannya yang hanya textbook di opening dan di endgame.

Ada banyak tips-tips di fase permainan tengah. Tidak seperti fase opening dan endgame yang sangat teoritis, fase middle game betul-betul mementingkan unsur kreativitas, kekuatan kalkulasi dan instink yang kuat. Berikut sepulu tips catur fase middlegame yang dikutip dari website catur terkenal.

Terjemahan  Chess Middlegame Strategy - Top Ten Principles

The Rise of Wesley So - World Chess No.2

It's been a wake up call since last year 2016 when Wesley So keep winning elite tournaments. Some major chess journalist had calling Wesley So the best chess player performed in 2016. Wesley's victories  in at least three super tournaments:  Sinquefield Cup 2016, London Chess 2016 and Tata Steel Chess 2017 had put Wesley So at world number 2 in FIDE rating list. I feel it is the time to see how the Phillipino boy ascending to the top, by compiling list of tournaments he had done, in over 10 years.

Wesley So Kampiun di turnament Tata Steel Chess 2017

List of Wesley So Major Tournaments Since 2007

House of Cards Chess Scene But Wrong Boards

House of Cards is popular political TV serial produced by Netflix. The story involved character Frank Underwood, who first a congressman then become vice president and then finally the US president. Over the serial it is shown that Francis Underwood actually love to play chess. Here some of the screenshot.

House of Cards, Episode 10 Season 1 

White is winning, best move is Qxa8

but strangely in the movie, Frank moves the queen in the middle of the boards, seemingly in diagonal move, which is not possible since there was a pawn blocking

But in Episode 4 Season 3, the film production destroy our fantasy, the board was setup wrongly. As usual, common Hollywood mistakes when handling about chess scene. The left corner should always a black square, that is the simplest rule to remember.

House of Cards Episode 4 Season 3

As shown, the left corner is white square, so it is wrong. The left corner should always black square, in black and white side of playing.

House of Cards characters :
Kevin Spacey as Francis "Frank" J. Underwood, a U.S. Congressman from South Carolina and the House Majority Whip.
Robin Wright as Claire Underwood, Frank Underwood's wife and the CEO of the Clear Water Initiative, a non-profit organization devoted to environmental awareness.
Kate Mara as Zoe Barnes,
Corey Stoll as Peter Russo, a U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania
Michael Kelly as Douglas "Doug" Stamper,
Kristen Connolly as Christina Gallagher

A Guide to "Pawn Sacrifice" (2014) - Complete Bobby Fischer Games from the Movie

Pawn Sacrifice is a movie about Bobby Fischer, mainly dramatization in his career up to the climax match against Boris Spassky in 1972. Bobby Fischer is American chess grandmaster that considered as one of greatest chess player ever born. He was World Chess Champion where he stopped the Soviet Union domination on chess world up to his era. His match against Boris Spassky is part of Cold War story, where US won on this one.

The film itself is great. Tobey Maguire is Bobby Fischer and many others top names for the casts. On the chess facts, some are really fictional only. The movie only take care the historical part on their important scenes.  Here are the guide to the movie as per games being shown or played in the movie. Non chess fans will find this guide helpful and understand the background of Bobby Fischer better.

If you are a chess lover, this is the most serious movie about chess ever produced, so watch it!
BUY PAWN SACRIFICE (2015) MOVIE HERE

"Pawn Sacrifice" adalah film yang berdasarkan biografi pecatur Bobby Fischer. Di film yang dibintangi Tobey Maguire ini, Bobby Fischer dikisahkan ulang dari masa kecil hingga ke masa dia menjadi juara dunia. Drama paling seru adalah di bagian duel catur Bobby Fischer melawan Boris Spassky di kota Reykyavik tahun 1972. Seperti kita tahu, Bobby Fischer adalah karakter yang unik, aneh dan misterius. Film Pawn Sacrifice ini mencoba menggali aspek-aspek dramatis tersebut. Di tulisan blog ini, dirangkum partai-partai catur yang muncul di film Pawn Sacrifice ini. Ada yang asli dan sepertinya ada juga yang hanya fiksi.

Bobby Fischer vs Carmine Nigro 0-1, 1952, friendly game

Here the first games in the movie, young Robert Fischer was taken to the Brooklyn Chess Club where he met Carmine Nigro, the president of the club. Being an expert on chess, Carmine Nigro considered the first serious trainer to Bobby Fischer. The game in the movie is perhaps fictional, as no recorded of Bobby Fischer game vs Carmine Nigro I had found. The position itself did not return when being search on chess database.

Carmine Nigro vs Bobby Fischer 0-1, 1953, Home tournament

We then jump to a scene where Bobby Fischer playing Carmine in tournament. This is to referred to home tournament arranged by Carmine Nigro, that won by Bobby Fischer. The position is a checkmate in one. This is of course also fictional game. When the camera shot in the scene later, the position had changed, indicating different game, in which Bobby also won that game.

Donald Byrne vs Bobby Fischer 0-1, New York 1956 "Game of the Century"

One of the most famous chess game in the history. Bobby Fischer defeated Donald Byrne in fascinating game. Fischer sacrifice a queen, yeah for sure. Here is the game with classic commentary from Robert "Bob" Wade.

Sinquefield Cup 2014 was Fabiano Caruan-ied

Just like last year (Sinquefield Cup 2013 was Magnus Carlsen-ed) , the Sinquefield 2014 was sensational. Highest rating tournament of modern chess history (well, nobody knows about Middle Earth chess right?), joined by six hyper high rating players. Apart from these excellent mutants brains player, the tournament is "disastrous" for all of them, except Fabiano Caruana. The other five men just couldn't do any better in saving the prestige of the tournament by letting Caruana threatening this event just like giving a simuls. All seven first round was a clean score, 7/7 is Caruana new nickname. Nevertheless to say, the tournament champion already decided as soon as perhaps before half of the needed duration.  Wonderful tournament again thanks to excellent live commentary of GM Yasser, Jennifer and Maurice.

Sinquefield Cup 2014 Final Standing:

1. Fabiano Caruana 8.5/10
2. Magnus Carlsen 5.5/10
3. Veselin Topalov 5.0/10
4. Levon Aronian 4.0/10
5. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 4.0/10
6. Hikaru Nakamura 3.0/10

Chess meme edition for now....

1st, Fabiano Caruana

2nd, Magnus Carlsen

3rd, Veselin Topalov

Levon Aronian

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 

GM Hikaru Nakamura

All photos from official website 

Bill Gates vs Magnus Calrsen Chess Games 2014

While the other world top rank chess players sweating in high rated tournament in Tata Steel 2014, Magnus Carlsen enjoy his campaign to meet the world highest rated digital personalities. Today's news was the most interesting as we got a clear Youtube video showing mr Microsoft, Bill Gates challenge Magnus Carlsen in a chess of game. The game only last 9 moves, a miniature in a strange 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d5?! with Carlsen as black. Carlsen sacrificed a bishop to open the cornered White King, but it was Bill Gates call to takes the Knight in the last move that allowed Carlsen checkmated Gates, in just 71 seconds.

Here is a list of Magnus Carlsen's events and 'opponents' after his Vishy Anand match:

A Simuls vs 20 players in Texas - Nordic Semiconductor sponsored

6 Blindfold Simuls - and become Honorary Member of America’s Foundation for Chess

Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook founder
Yuri Milner - investors Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, and Groupon
Art Levinson  + 10 others simultans included Ali Tamur rated 2168  - CEO of Calico
Peter Thiel - Paypal co-founder
Bill Gates - Microsoft founder

the game : Bill Gates vs Magnus Carlsen 0-1, 2014

historic chess games, Bill Gates vs Magnus Carlsen

and the final position...

 Mark Zuckerberg vs Magnus Carlsen

Di kala pecatur dunia lainnya lagi keringatan bertarung catur di Tata Steel 2014, Magnus Carlsen asyik menikmati lawatannya ke kantor para petinggi industri digital dunia. Carlsen bertemu boss nya Facebook Mark Zuckerberg dan bermain catur serta memberikan tips. Juga Juara Dunia Catur ini bertemu boss Paypal, Peter Thiel. Dia juga bertandang ke kantor Google dan bermain simul dengan sepuluh karyawan Google di lokasi. Paling sensational adalah duel catur nya melawan Bill Gates di sebuah acara talk show. Semua liputan perjalanan promosi catur Magnus Carlsen bisa dibaca di link-link / tautan di atas. Partai catur di atas adalah partai catur Bill Gates vs Magnus Carlsen.

Magnus Carlsen akan segera mengetahui penantang nya setelah turnamen kandidat catur 2014 digelar dua bulan lagi. Dengan peserta, Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Shak Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin, Peter Svidler dan Veselin Topalov.

Introducing New Blog - Age of Chess

Friends, we would like to introduce a new blog called Age of Chess ( http://ageofchess.blogspot.com ). This blog will be the place for sharing chess columns from  past newspapers, especially in the mid and late 1800s. Please stay tuned for many interesting columns we hunted down, hopefully may help chess fans and historians to gathered a story from these raw materials.

There will be rare games, simuls by Blackburne, Alekhine etc. which unpublished (or at least we can found on chessgames.com neither 365chess.com !) Romantic style games and vintage hand drawing portrait of the masters.

please visit:

Romantic era chess masters:

Top 10 Funniest Chess Meme

What? We don't have enough chess meme on Google / Yahoo? How unacceptable that is. So there you go, we produced some chess meme to show that chess player and playing is as popular as wedding photographer, travel journalist, web designer or game tester. Here you go.... ;p LOL

Anand vs Carlsen 2013 World Chess Championship MEME - HERE

Let's started with "How we see......" series...

tags: How we see Alekhine chess meme, alcohol chess

tags: How we see Bobby Fishcer, terminator chess

my favorite ..lol 

tags: How we see Ivanchuk, Ivanchuk funny stares ceiling

a bit political theme

tags: how we see Kasparov, kasparov vs putin, chess politician 

tags: how we see Magnus Carlsen, Magnus Carlsen young, toy chess set

tags: boy vs girl chess game, all draw chess, all decisive result chess round

and the "What my friends think I do...." chess meme, how could we hardly found this..

I will added later when something funny come out from search engine...so far this is all my creations.

Sinquefeld Cup Chess Meme

Euro 2012 Poland Ukraine - Fantasy Chess

Let's celebrate Euro 2012 also, but in chess version. Here the fantasy Euro 2012 Poland-Ukraine team, but with chess players as the line up. The players are from FIDE highest rating, but I include some of notable name in case they are "missed" by rating in certain country.

It's a good exercise to compare chess as a sport in these country, counter part to their soccer achievement. We missed Magnus Carlsen as Norway is not an Euro 2012 team. Missed also, Bulgaria with Veselin Topalov and Armenia's Levon Aronian as member of top ten chess player.

Here the full line up of fantasy chess based on Euro 2012 football championship.

Group A
The line up quite reflected the real Euro soccer team strength. Russia is the highest here with all star team, with elo at 2770, similar to their soccer team. But by the time of writing, Russia already sent off with 0-1 knock off by Greece. Poland as the home team also suffered the same. So the team of Czech with David Navara and surprisingly Greece will proceed. The only highlight of this group is pairing of David Navara vs Vladimir Kramnik.

Poland  Avg Rating = 2662.75 -- eliminated
Radoslaw Wojtaszek 2717
Mateusz Bartel 2677
Bartosz Socko 2635
Milton Kamil 2622

Russia 2770.2 -- eliminated

Vladimir Kramnik 2801
Sergey Karjakin 2779
Alexander Morozevich 2769
Alexander Grischuk 2761
Peter Svidler 2741

Czech Republic 2654.5

David Navara 2706
Viktor Laznicka 2693
Zbynek Hracek 2624
Jiri Stocek 2595

Greece 2607.5

Hristos Banikas 2626
Dimitrios Mastrovasilis 2612
Ioannis Papaioannou 2597
Vasilios Kotronias 2595
Group B
The group of hell in soccer, but not really in chess fantasy. Highest here is Germany, which is a country with all around high in sports. But the anomaly here is Portugal, which is a great soccer team but very low rating in chess. Netherland is also very all around in both soccer and chess and full of talents, but they were went bad in Euro and straight away sent home after just two game. Denmark on other hand very similar to their soccer team which is a dark horse that produced surprised result. Germany team vs Netherland is very good pairing here.
 
Germany 2664.5

Arkadij Naiditsch 2698
Igor Khenkin 2670
Daniel Fridman 2653
Georg Meier 2637

Netherland 2645.8 -- eliminated

Anish Giri 2693
Loek van Wely 2682
Sergei Tiviakov 2656
Daniel Stellwagen 2630
Erwin L'Ami 2605
Jan Timman 2575
Ivan Sokolov 2680

Denmark 2608.75

Peter Heine Nielsen 2665
Curt Hansen 2619
Sune Berg Hansen 2577
Lars Bo Hansen 2574

Portugal 2474.25

Antonio Antunes 2496
Luis Galego 2481
Diogo Fernando 2466
Paulo Dias 2454

Group C
Spain dominated the elo rating by 15 points. Compared to Ireland which is the elo lowest rating team here, same to their soccer team which is already sent home in two games. Italy come with all young guns team, Caruana is the highest rating here with his 2770 rating. Croatia is at modest 2600 rating and come with very experience team.
 
Spain 2619.5

Francisco Vallejo Pons 2697
Ivan Salgado Lopez 2623
Oleg Korneev 2586
Manuel Perez Candelario 2572

Italy 2606.5

Fabiano Caruana 2770
Sabino Brunello 2592
Daniele Vocaturo 2543
Michele Godena 2521

Croatia 2600.75
Ivan Saric 2632
Hrvoje Stevic 2601
Zdenko Kozul 2593
Davor Rogic 2577

Ireland 2461.75 -- elimanated

Alexander Baburin 2537
Brian Kelly 2480
Sam Collins 2428
Alex Lopez 2402

Group D
Actually the real group of hell in our fantasy chess Euro. Ukraine come with all 2700+ team, similar to Russian. They are challenged by England and France, with Sweden as the last dark horse here. In soccer as the time of writing, all teams still top their chances to go round 2 except Sweden. Ivanchuk vs Adams and Ponomariov vs Short are some of high pairing here.
 
Ukraine 2719.6

Vassily Ivanchuk 2764
Ruslan Ponomariov 2726
Alexander Moissenko 2711
Andrei Volokitin 2704
Pavel Eljanov 2693

England 2699

Michael Adams 2728
Luke McShane 2706
Nigel Short 2705
Gawain Jones 2657

France 2690.5

Laurent Fressinet 2715
Etienne Bacrot 2695
Maxime Vachier Lagrave 2680
Christian Bauer 2672

Sweden 2594.5 -- eliminated

Evgenij Agrest 2614
Ferdinand Hellers 2599
Emanuel Berg 2587
Tiger Hillarp Persson 2578

So, it's still left Ukraine as the all 2700 team here, let's see how this can be reflected in soccer. While Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany is the real favorite in Euro 2012. Will update this.

Top Ten Most Memorable Chess Games of 2011

Once again we are at the end of another great year in chess. A candidate knockout and World Cup happening this year are some of notables events. Surely there are thousand of interesting games, but I would like to recollecting the year 2011 and put in ten of most memorable chess games. These are not the best chess games but something like most memorable because of its intensity, its rivalry, its background story and others.

This list put in chronological order. Enjoy the list!

10.Magnus Carlsen vs Hikaru Nakamura
Tata Chess 2011 Group A, Round 8 1-0

Hikaru Nakamura is going to win his first super tournament here, but at round 8, Magnus Carlsen defeat him. Not only this defeat is memorable, but it will be the start of string of defeat suffered by Nakamura in this year. It's look like Nakamura are beating any other top player today (Kramnik, Anand, Aronian, etc.) but Carlsen. The game in Chessgames.com generated 18 pages of comments.

9.Boris Gelfand vs Alexander Grischuk
World Championship Candidates Final 2011 (E60) · 1-0

Boris Gelfand surprise everybody by winning the super strong KO events to decide the challenger for Vishy Anand. He duly perform a solidly and beat everyone from Mamedyarov, Kamsky and Grischuk in final.
 
8.Wesley So vs Alexey Shirov
19th Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament 2011 · (D11) · 1-0

This semi super tournament played by six player round robin. Wesley So finally break the egg and put his name elegantly by tie winning this event. This is, maybe, the only strong tournament by So after his successful Corus Chess a while ago, where he won the Group C!
 
7.Yasser Seirawan vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
World Chess Team Championship 2011 · (A43) · 1-0

This is one of my favorite games in 2011. Not only Yasser is my favorite player and chess writer, but to see how he challenge by 'youngster' in sharp opening play, and duly won it because it is so unpositional and out of theory, is a winning moment of chess. Yasser also won the other top challenge by Judit Polgar (on her birthday) and giving a nice comeback in US team and chess fans rejoice one again.
 
6.Alexander Morozevich vs Peter Svidler
Russian Superfinals 2011 · (D97) · 1-0

Peter Svidler and Morozevich are having great year in 2011. Svidler won this Russian Superfinal and then world cup. But, in the final round Morozevich down Svidler in this nice game. Morozevich having won the previously higher league tournament are now watch nervously by chess fans, but he prove that his games still on and strongly finish no.2
 
5.Gata Kamsky vs Peter Svidler
World Cup 2011 · Spanish Game: Morphy Defense (C78) · 0-1

One of most famous moment and chess move of 2011. Until move 25, Kamsky seem dominated the King hunting as white, but Svidler move 26..Re2!! killed it all. This is one of Svidler's black wins, as he continue in this style until the final of World Cup 2011.
 
4. Leinier Dominguez-Perez vs Judit Polgar
World Cup 2011 · Sicilian Defense: Old Sicilian. Open (B33) · 0-1

This ultra sharp and dramatic game is one of my most favorite moment in 2011. The game was in Sicilian defence, played by Judit Polgar who desperately need to secure a win after a lost the day before. Leinier Dominguez played a strong opening and very promising position, with little risk to lost and absolutely able to hold draw with great precision. But Leinier continued play in "style" and slowly put into great tactical shoot create by Judit. The game continue in roller coaster of Houdini's analysis and show both side have moments. In the end Judit seems almost unable to convert her end game advantage and need a nerve of steel to find the winning position. It generated 16 page views in chessgames.com
 
3.Alexander Grischuk vs Peter Svidler
World Cup 2011 · Sicilian Defense: Kan Variation. Wing Attack (B43) · 0-1

This is the last Svidler black string of winning in World Cup and the winning game of World Cup final. And this enough to give Svidler his big cup after a long absency of prestigious world title. Svidler will join Ivanchuck and Grischuk to play in next edition of candidate.
 
2. Viswanathan Anand vs Vassily Ivanchuk
4th Bilbao Masters 2011 · Spanish Game: Schliemann Defense (C63) · 0-1

Ivanchuck played great tournament here. Winning four times but yet lost the title to Carlsen who beat him in the later round. Ivanchuck surprises started in this game, follow tensely by fans around the world. This event memorable because of the news that Ivanchuck robbed by gun criminal in Brazil. He 'recover' by beating Nakamura, but lost two times to Carlsen and Vallejo-Pons.
 
1. Luke McShane vs Vladimir Kramnik
London Chess Classic 2011 · Spanish Game: General (C60) · 0-1

Kramnik taking advantage of the last Britton he need to play.. and defeat. This game concluded the London Classic and also ended Nakamura almost domination in London. The game generated 20 pages of comments.
 
--- other candidates of most memorable and most controversial games of 2011 ---
 
Alexander Moiseenko vs David Navara ,draw, World Cup 2011
Navarra controversially 'tortured' Moiseenko by offering a draw in winning final position. The little story was well known (read here) and this is the Fair Game of the 2011!
 
Radjabov, Teimour vs Naiditsch, Arkadij 0-1
A0918th Euro-TCh Open(8)Porto Carras/Greece

and

Movsesian, Sergei vs Meier, Georg 0-1
C0518th Euro-TCh Open(9)Porto Carras/Greece

These two key moment where Germany won the European Team gold medal.

Azerbaijan vs France - 2-2
Controversial draw result in European Team Champ, where Gashimov from Azerbaijan suddenly become ill during the match and a dramatic peace pact signed in the end of this match.

Vallejo Pons, Francisco vs Nakamura, Hikaru 1-0
E94 Chess Masters Final 2011(9.1)
Perhaps the most controversial game in ending. Hikaru Nakamura reach the last move before time control, but failed to understand this due to miss-communication to arbiter, and leave the board for a drink and duly declared lost because of this. Should Nakamura can get different result, he have a high chance to compete the first title in Bilbao tournament.

Hikaru Nakamura vs Michael Adams
London Chess Classic 2011 · King's Gambit: Accepted. Abbazia Defense (C36) · 1-0
One of the rare King Gambit played by 2700+ player against 2700+, and white win with it!

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and thanks for reading my blog in the year 2011!

Again Chess boxing video

I've been watching Paul Merton series. In 2007 he was travelling to China and recorded some of my most giggled but amazing videos. In 2008 he went to India and after that the series continued Paul Merton in Europe.

In early episode I was surprised that chess boxing was in the topic. Here the youtube video if you having know about it: