Mediaboss Marketing

Press release by the Grand Chess Tour

The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) has confirmed the field for the Croatia Grand Chess Tour leg that will include four full tour participants and seven wildcards. With legendary World Champions Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand as well as the World Championship title challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi from Russia the Croatia Grand Chess Tour promises to be action packed.

How I became World Champion Vol.1 1973-1985

Garry Kasparov's rise to the top was meteoric and at his very first attempt he managed to become World Champion, the youngest of all time. In over six hours of video, he gives a first hand account of crucial events from recent chess history, you can improve your chess understanding and enjoy explanations and comments from a unique and outstanding personality on and off the chess board.

For the Rapid & Blitz Tournament in Zagreb which will take place on July 5-12, 2021 similarly to the Paris Grand Chess Tour, the GCT also selected to feature split wildcards where Garry Kasparov will play the blitz portion of the tournament, while Croatian Grandmaster Ivan Saric will be fighting it out in the rapid games. Their combined score will be used to determine final standings. Croatia Grand Chess Tour will include 9 rounds of rapid chess and 18 rounds of blitz chess for a total prize fund of $150,000.

The Croatia Grand Chess Tour will feature quite unique competition, said GCT Executive Director, Michael Khodarkovsky. Fans can expect five days of exhilarating chess demonstrated by the famed world champions, like Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand, as well as a new wave of the top players like the 2021 World Chess Champion Challenger, Ian Nepomniachtchi and the 2021 champion of the prestigious super tournament in Wijk aan Zee, 22 years old Dutch Grandmaster Jorden Van Foreest.

The confirmed field for Croatia Grand Chess Tour is as follows:

Watch all the action live exclusively on grandchesstour.org, kasparovchess.com, and on thekasparovchess Twitch.tv channel.

In a famous game between the two legends, which included a well-known and hilarious reaction by Kasparov (at 5:05 in the video below), Anand beat the Russian in the second blitz game of tiebreaksto win the PCA Credit Suisse Masters Tournament in 1996.

How I became World Champion Vol.1 1973-1985

Garry Kasparov's rise to the top was meteoric and at his very first attempt he managed to become World Champion, the youngest of all time. In over six hours of video, he gives a first hand account of crucial events from recent chess history, you can improve your chess understanding and enjoy explanations and comments from a unique and outstanding personality on and off the chess board.

The Grand Chess Tour is a circuit of international events, each demonstrating the highest level of organization for the worlds best players. The legendary Garry Kasparov, one of the worlds greatest ambassadors for chess, inspired the Grand Chess Tour and helped solidify the partnership between the organizers. All Grand Chess Tour 2021 events will comply with local and regional COVID-19 restrictions.

The GCT is sponsored by the Superbet Foundation, Vivendi, Colliers International, and the Saint Louis Chess Club. All Grand Chess Tour 2021 events will comply with local and regional COVID-19 restrictions. For more information about the tour, please visit grandchesstour.org.

Read more here:
Kasparov and Anand to play in Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour - Chessbase News

Long ago, when I first competed in the annual Hastings congress, I lost a decisive game for first prize in the Masters group. There were otherpieceson the board, but essentially the battle was between my two rooks and a bishop and my opponents queen and knight. Based on the traditional point count of queen nine or 10, rook five, bishop three and a half, knight three,it should have been an even fight, but my rook-bishop trio were soon overrun.

After I resigned, my conqueror Herbert Rhodes, a Southport solicitor who had been awarded the Military Cross in the 1914-18 war, told me that in his experience the queen-knight duo were generally superior, but that few players were fully aware of this.

Rhodess tip came back to me recently when mention on a chess forum of a Caro-Kann 1 e4 c6 openingtrap stimulated several posters to say that they had used it, fallen for it, or witnessed it. The snare has scored for at least two chess legends. Paul Keres won a 1950 tournament game with it, while Alexander Alekhine brought it out in a simultaneous display to defeat four opponents in consultation.

The sequence to remember is1 e4 c6 2 Nc3 d5 3 Nf3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Qe2(setting the trap)Ngf6?? 6 Nd6 mate. And again it is our old friends the queen and knight that do the damage.

The queen-knight pair can also be the key to more sophisticated attacks, as in this game which enabled IndiasDommaraju Gukesh, 15, to win last weeks online Gelfand Challenge and so qualify for a chance to take on Magnus Carlsen later this month.

Puzzle 2423

Wei Yi v Tigran L Petrosian, China v Armenia, Pro Chess League 2020. Find Whites surprise winning move.

Click here for solution

Read more:
Chess: watch the power of the queen-knight duo in this useful opening trap - Financial Times

The festival is to become a permanent institution, following the example of the tournaments in Wijk aan Zee. Due to the Corona pandemic, however, the 2021 edition was postponed by a few months and will now open with a Masters, a junior tournament, a rating tournament, an Open and a few other tournaments.

The Czech number one David Navara, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Sam Shankland, Nils Grandelius, Jorden van Foreest, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Nihat Abasov and the young Czech grand champion Ngyuen Thai Dai Van take part in the Masters and play a seven-round round robin tournament.

In round one three of the four games ended in a draw. Jan-Krzysztof Duda who played against David Navara, was the only one to win.

The chances in this complicated endgame are about equal though White is slightly more active.

25.Nf5 Ba6?! Aimed against d3. But Black now gets under pressure. 25...f6!? or25...g6!? 26.Nd6 Re7= might have been better alternatives.

26.Bd6 Threatening to win the exchange with Ne7.

26...Kh8 26...Ng5 27.Rf2

27.Bb4 Rec8

28.Kd1 Nc5 The start of a forced sequence. The passive 28...R6c7 29.Nd6 Rb8 30.Rf2 f6 31.Rf5 did not appeal to Black.

29.Ne7 Nb3 30.Nxc6 Nxa1 31.Nxd4 After 31.Ne7!? Re8 32.Rf2 f6 33.h4 the black knight on a1 is trapped.

31...Rd8 32.Bc3 b4 33.axb4 Bxd3 34.Rd2 Bxe4 35.Nf5 Re8 35...Bc2+ 36.Ke2 Re8+ 37.Kf3 f6 might have been a bit more stubborn.

36.Rd7 Bf3+ Harassing the white king, who has just enough squares to avoid being mated.

37.Kc1 Nb3+ 38.Kb1 Bc6 39.Rxf7 Be4+ 40.Ka2 Nd4 40...Nc1+ 41.Ka3 yields nothing for Black.

41.Rxg7 Bd5+ 42.Ka3 Nb5+ 43.Kxa4 Bc6

44.Ka5 Black chases the white king but the king can escape.

44...Nxc3 45.bxc3 Bg2 46.Re7 White repelled the attack and is winning.

46...Ra8+ 47.Kb6 Bxh3 48.Ne3 Rc8 49.c4 Bxg4 50.Nxg4 Rxc4 51.Nf6 Rxb4+ 52.Kc6 Rh4 53.Kd7 Rh1 54.Ke8 Ra1 Or 54...Rh2 55.Kf7 -- 56.Re8#55.Rxh7#10

About a 100 players start in the Open. The number one seed is GM Vjotech Plat

Tournament page...

Excerpt from:
Duda beats Navara in the first round of the Prague Chess Festival - Chessbase News

Nate Diaz had quite an interesting piece of advice for Leon Edwards after their five-rounder on Saturday at UFC 263. Dont let these motherfs tell you (you) aint shit. Name your price or they will name it for you.

Tactics like these can work for certain fighters. Back in his day as an active competitor, Georges St-Pierre also used a similar strategy to negotiate his contract.

Now enjoying retirement, the 40-year-old St-Pierre recently wrote a guest piece for Wealthsimple Magazine entitled The UFC Wont Pay You Fairly Unless You Make Them. Here, he described the negotiations with his former employer as a chess game you strategically have to play.

In mixed martial arts (MMA), we dont have an association to protect fighters like players in basketball, hockey, or baseball do. There is no union in the fight game. So, for us in MMA, negotiations can become like a chess game.

It was in 2008, two fights after Id become UFC world champion, and my contract with the UFC was going to be up. Other organizations wanted to have me as their poster boy and UFC knew that. So, like a poker bluff, we said, We dont want to re-sign before the fight we want to just finish the contract.

We took a big risk. Because its like a stock market. Your stock might go up if youre successful, but it can also go down if you lose. But thats what we decided to do. I always believed in myself, so we took the big risk.

St-Pierre revealed taking home a mere $9,000 from his UFC 50 title fight against Matt Hughes. With a $9K/$9K show-win contract, he only earned half after losing the fight via first-round submission.

But as he climbed the ranks and slowly built his name up, GSP had more leverage on his side. And like how any star athlete would, he used it to his advantage.

So after I won the championship in 2008, I took a big gamble on myself and told UFC I was not going to re-sign with them. And then, the day before my fight with Jon Fitch, the UFC came back with a big, crazy contract because they didnt want me to become a free agent.

You read I made $400,000 a match? No. I made a lot more than that. A lot more than that. Millions. When I was at the peak of my career, I was making many millions of dollars. Because you not only get the money to show and the money to win, but you also have a percentage of the gate and pay-per-view buys the gate and the pay-per-views are where the real money is.

Thats how fighters make their money. But you need to have the power to negotiate those terms. I was very successful so I could demand that extra money.

After nine straight title defenses as the undisputed UFC welterweight champion, St-Pierre took a hiatus in 2013 out of disgust towards the performance-enhancing problem at the time.

After USADA intervened a couple of years later, St-Pierre decided to make a comeback. But this time, he wanted a different challenge for a much bigger payday.

I didnt want to come back to fight for the same title. I wanted to make history and do something different. So, I challenged Michael Bisping, the champion in a heavier weight class.

I came back mostly for my own sense of accomplishment, but of course, the money was there. Theres a lot of people buried in the desert for much less than what I made for that fight, my friend.

For the fight with Michael Bisping, with the pay-per-views, the sponsorship and all that, I made about $10 million. Then in 2019, I got out. Im very lucky and very privileged that I finished on top.

The reality is most fighters finish broke and broken. They hang there too long. They get brain damage. They go broke. Im very healthy and Im wealthy. Its very rare to find someone that hangs up his gloves and finishes on top like this.

Unfortunately, what may work for both St-Pierre and Diaz may not work for everybody else. Not even for former long-time champions.

As for St-Pierre, he still butts heads with the UFC. The company recently rejected his supposed boxing match with Oscar De La Hoya, which he said wouldve been for charity.

Continued here:
GSP details chess game negotiations with UFC that earned him many millions of dollars - Bloody Elbow

While Scotland has a clear history of playing the game, arguably chess has lost its way in this country against its continuing popularity in many parts of the world. Enter stage left Gareth Williams and Andrew Green Williams the co-founder and longtime CEO of online travel site Skyscanner and Green the nations only full-time chess coach.

On Sturday an online chess tournament was staged by Green with the backing of Williams and saw more than 600 Scots kids from Dingwall to Dubai play in competition for prizes totalling 10,000, the largest prize fund of its kind anywhere in the UK.

The aim of the game, so to speak, is to get more kids into playing chess in this country. Securing government funding would help. Most European countries receive public funding for chess in schools and the lack of funding is one of the factors at the root of the problem in Scotland.

The benefits of the game to kids are well proven. Research points to the educational benefits of chess, including around cognitive and emotional skills, maths and problem-solving. And with chess increasingly played in an online environment without language barriers, its never been easier or cheaper to get into the game no need to keep replacing the chess sets in the school cupboards when a bishop and a few pawns go missing.

From a campaign point of view, it has been great to work with Andrew, Gareth and the team to get the story out there and featured in the national media. The mainstream UK press hasnt taken much of an interest in the game, to the extent that when the World Chess Championship took place in London in 2018 there was relatively little coverage of the event.

We brought in social media agency Sunshine Communications to support the campaign, and the Jenny Emslie-led outfit who have offices in Edinburgh and London have done a great job of amplifying the story via social channels.

Unsurprisingly, the kids were the real stars of the show, not least a ten-year-old from Edinburgh who has been putting fabled Grandmasters to the sword in competition play. On a personal level, I was pleased to get our daughter into playing the game under the expert tutelage of Andrew Green himself. With kids spending so much time on devices these days, chess can certainly be seen as good gaming in comparison to many of the so-called shoot em up games available online.

Some say The Queens Gambit has helped to put chess back on the map, and perhaps the Netflix series has made chess cool to those who didnt previously see it in this light, but its great to see Andrew Green and Gareth Williams put real building blocks in place in the hope that they can help to grow the game here.

Nick Freer is the Founding Director of corporate communications agency the Freer Consultancy

Read more here:
Gareth and Andrew's gambit is putting chess back on the map - Nick Freer - The Scotsman