The 2013 Malaysian Open
The Malaysian Open hasn’t received much attention due to the excitement of the World Cup (which I was following during my time in Malaysia), but we have good reason to be excited about the Malaysian Open too!
[White "Introduction"]
[Black "Budapest Gambit"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "A52"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[PlyCount "6"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
{A little-covered topic in chess literature is how to use databases to learn
an opening, but it is an important skill as it is essential to be able to use
databases at the club level and above. The program I/^ll be using for this
interactive post is ChessBase 12, but you could also use Chess Assistant or[Event "Chongqing World Youth U/16 Olympiad"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.07.27"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Cheng, Bobby"]
[Black "Asgarizadeh, Ahmad"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D22"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[PlyCount "105"]
[EventDate "2013.07.??"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "CHN"]
{Last week I analysed some of the games played in the World Youth Olympiad by
overseas teams, but this week we'll concentrate on the play of Australia's top[Event "Chongqing World Youth U/16 Olympiad"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2013.07.29"]
[Round "10"]
[White "Ghosh, Diptayan"]
[Black "Lorparizangeheh, Shahin"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D45"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[PlyCount "75"]
[EventDate "2013.07.??"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "CHN"]
{Sorry for the delay in posting - I needed a day to recover from the
excitement of the World Youth Chess Olympiad! Speaking of that tournament,[Date "2013.07.22"]
[White "The Sozin in 60 Minutes"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "B86"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
[PlyCount "12"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]
{In this blog post I'll aim to teach the basics of the Sozin System (Bc4 in
the 2...d6 Open Sicilians) in 60 minutes!} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 {Bc4 is
generally ineffective against the 2...Nc6/2...e6 Open Sicilians. An exception
can be made for} (2... Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 {[Event "FIDE GP Beijing"]
[White "Karjakin, Sergey"] [WhiteElo "2776"]
[Black "Wang Hao"] [BlackElo "2752"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
{The start of the Beijing Grand Prix resembled the Stavanger Super Tournament,
in that Karjakin started with a winning streak! As early as the second round
he took the outright lead, beating local Wang Hao in a quirky Pirc line.} 1. e4
d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. f4 Bg7 5. Bd3 {This is a clever move order trick in[Event "New York Rice final"]
[Date "1916.??.??"]]
[White "Janowski, Dawid Markelowicz"]
[Black "Capablanca, Jose Raul"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Event "14th Euro Indiv 2013"] [Site "Legnica POL"] [Date "2013.05.13"] [Round "8.47"] [White "Nyzhnyk, I."] [Black "Sebenik, M."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D19"] [WhiteElo "2635"] [BlackElo "2527"] [Annotator "Illingworth,Max"] [PlyCount "85"] [EventDate "2013.05.05"] [EventRounds "11"] [EventCountry "POL"] [Source "Mark Crowther"] [SourceDate "2013.05.13"]
[Event "World Rapid Final"]
[Site "Astana KAZ"]
[Date "2012.07.08"]
[Round "14"]
[White "Carlsen, M."]
[Black "Radjabov, T."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "2837"]
[BlackElo "2788"]
[Annotator "Illingworth,Max"]
{This week I will finish my two-part article on the Lowenthal by covering
White's more critical options (with 5.Nb5). This and last week's post presents
a repertoire for Black for the player wishing to play the Sicilian without{Easy Guide to the Lowenthal One of the most fascinating and reputable
openings in chess is the Sicilian Defence. However, it's easy to get
overwhelmed by the slew of theory associated with this opening, and the price
of a mistake can often be high as Black develops more slowly to achieve some
long-term positional gains. With this post I'm going to offer a solution to
both these issues: Play the Lowenthal Sicilian! This opening is not very
theoretical, and Black obtains an early lead in development almost no matter