Follow us:
Princeton Chess Academy
  • Home
    • About us
    • Coach Andy
    • Contact
  • Lessons
  • Registration
  • Tournament
  • News
  • Resource
    • Steps
    • 5334
    • NJ Tournaments Guideline
    • Websites

Second Shamkir Victory For Magnus Carlsen

4/29/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
He won last year and today GM Magnus Carlsen also won the second edition of the Shamkir Chess tournament. He finished undefeated, winning his final round game after a blunder by GM Rauf Mamedov.

More interesting was the question (and Carlsen's answer) about staying motivated: “I feel that in such a tournament there are still many things that I can improve on, even though the score was good. Maybe another time, if my opponents had punished my mistakes, the score could have been different.

“For me I feel that it's motivating enough, it's enough of a challenge to play against the best in the world, that I really don't need to look too much at the games of the younger ones. I can deal with that problem when it arises.

“I'm still learning all the time. The difficult part is to be able to use what you've learnt in your games. That's something that I, and also others, don't find easy. You always know more than you're able to show in the games.

“I feel that I'm learning. I'm improving and I feel that is motivation enough to keep going.”

GM Viswanathan Anand drew his black game with GM Fabiano Caruana to remain undefeated as well. The Indian GM came second in the standings, and is now also second in the live ratings. In a very long game GM Anish Giri came very close to beating GM Vladimir Kramnik.


GM Wesley So started strongly in Shamkir: he was leading after four rounds. After that there were some setbacks but eventually his plus one score, in this group, playing the tournament right after the U.S. Championship, was just fine.

After finishing his tournament, So said: “It hasn't really gone that well. I did better than some other players but generally I made a lot of mistakes and there is a lot of things to improve upon.

“I would to congratulate Magnus for simply dominating. Whenever he's around it feels like the tournament is just about second place. I would also like to congratulate Vishy. As the oldest participant he played extremely well without losses. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from him.”



See the full article.
0 Comments

China confirms domination, wins World Team Championship 2015

4/29/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
The national team of China continued its global domination by securing the gold medal at the FIDE World Team Chess Championship in Tsakhkadzor, having previously won the 2014 Chess Olympiad in Tromso. Earlier, China had three silver medals from the World Team Championships in 2005, 2011 and 2013. In 2005 they were on the brink of winning the gold, before being overtaken by Russia in the dramatic last round.

The next generation of players took a leap ahead, with Bu Xiangzhi being the only member of the team both in 2005 and 2015.

The 2015 FIDE World Team Chess Championship was held from 19-28th April in Tsakhkadzor, Armenia.


See article.
0 Comments

Interview with Natalia Pogonina

4/15/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Peter Zhdanov - Natalia, my congratulations to you for an inspiring performance! What were your expectations for the Women’s World Chess Championship? The bookmakers didn’t seem to have a lot of confidence in you: one company estimated the odds of you winning the event at 1:41, while the no.1 favorite’s chances, according to their assessment, were almost thirteen times higher. Did you set any goals before the tournament?

Natalia Pogonina - I don’t pay attention to such forecasts. Humans are in charge of all those assessments, and they can make mistakes. For a player there is not much sense in studying such information. Under the knockout system anyone can pull oneself together and do well. One shouldn’t set any limits for oneself. I didn’t have any particular goals and didn’t treat it in the “the minimal task is to reach round X” way. I was mentally prepared to go home after the very first round. If I move on, it’s nice. If not, it’s also fine, because I will return to my family. Maybe this attitude helped me to focus on the game itself instead of dwelling on the results. My attention was on the game, not on the outcome.

Q: Is it even worth it, this endurance test? When watching from the distance one’s hair can turn grey prematurely from the level of stress. And how does it feel to be part of the process? How much weight did you lose during the tournament? I guess it’s entertaining for the spectators to follow all the sensations and the drama, but how does it feel from the participant’s perspective?

A: Don’t blame the format too much. It’s up to you how you react. No one is obliging you to be nervous. This system teaches you to be strong intrinsically. It has its own advantages. In terms of self-development it is very useful not to be distressed and to maintain good self-control. The fact that I lost a lot of weight reveals that I have been making certain mistakes. Maybe my schedule wasn’t good enough: I worked on openings too much and sacrificed time for sleep. One should be able to survive through this without any serious harm, but you have to be prepared in a special way. By the way, Anna Muzychuk told me that Mariya also lost quite a few kilos during the tournament. It’s not only my problem.

Such extreme conditions allow one to test oneself and temper one’s character.

Q: In the international press a few media independently dubbed you the Queen of Comebacks. How did you manage to “return from the dead” three times in a row? This is a unique feat in the history of knockout events. How did you handle the nervous tension between rounds? Did you sleep well?

A: This is a very complicated and personal question. I have my own life philosophy. I can’t give concrete advice, because I slept badly and prepared overzealously. I also didn’t follow such popular advice as “forget about the tournament and do something else”, “watch a movie”, “get a massage”. All I had to do was to fight and to not be afraid, and in the end it turned out I won all the tie-breaks.

See the whole interview part 1 and part 2.
0 Comments

Meet Sam Sevian, America's 14-year-old chess grandmaster

4/8/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Q: In other sports, as folks head into big competitions, they taper, or slow down training to reserve energy. What does your training look like heading into big competitions, and do you have any sort of “tapering”? 
A: In general, yes, one should preserve energy for tournaments, and probably [Garry] Kasparov and [Bobby] Fischer are good examples of that. For me, I try to do both; I try to stay relaxed and at the same time stay sharp. To stay sharp, I do problems and to stay relaxed, I watch sports and basically take my mind off the game.

Q: But in the moment, you were just focused on winning the game. It was stressful just reading about it because it was a nail-biter, but that buzzer beater won you a monumental achievement overall. How did you stay focused in the moment? 
A: There was a lot of pressure on me, and I tried to basically focus on just the game. But at some point, I got really deep into the variations. I had very low time, but I made the game very sharp, and my opponent then also kept getting lower and lower on time.

Q: Now we’re thinking ticking time bomb … 
A: At some point, I even had only one second on the clock, and I had to make my move extremely fast.

Q: And looking back, was it the right instinct? 
A: Yes, I think it was the correct move.

Q: Trash talk isn’t really a big part of the culture of chess. What kind of mental intimidation occurs over the board between opponents? 

A: Sometimes people try to stare down their opponents, but …

Q: But you have a mind of steel, Professor X … 
A: Well, I will just stare right back.

Q: I understand that you have your eyes on a world championship. What do you need to do to get there? 
A: Anyone who plays the game has eyes on the World Championship title, and if they say otherwise, don’t believe them. Basically, though, it comes down to work ethic, and when I say I want to become world champion, I think that time will show. I just became a grandmaster, and there are still so many steps to get to that title.

Q: How do you sustain yourself –mentally, physically and emotionally – from exhaustion in long matches? 
A: Well basically during tournaments, a win really adds to your confidence, and I don’t really get hungry.

Q: Because of the adrenaline? 
A: I drink water, but I don’t need anything else. But I do stay physically fit in general. I go to the gym. I run and swim and play sports, which you should do for these long games that can last so many hours.

Q: With all that water over those hours, can you get up and go to the bathroom? 
A: [Laughs.] Of course, you can do that as much as you need.

Q: How much of chess, then, is playing against your opponent versus playing against yourself? 
A: When it comes to playing your opponent, you especially want to be up on time or at least equal on time to keep the pressure on.

See Guardian's interview.
0 Comments

April 2015 Newsletter

4/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
News
  • Tactics Workshop
         Time: Tuesday or Thursday 7:00 - 8:00pm
         3 students had jumped over 550 points combined over the weekend.
  • Facebook
  • Chess Parent FAQs
  • This Week Tournaments

Chess Cartoon
Tactics Corner
Scholastic Tournaments


See newsletter
0 Comments

(4538) Vishyanand – Minor planet named after chess player

4/1/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
In addition to the eight planets (in 2006 Pluto had its classification changed from planet to "dwarf planet"), there are likely many millions of small bodies which are members of the Solar System. These include approximately 650,000 minor planets, formerly referred to as asteroids, and 3800 comets currently known. On average a new minor planet is discovered every five to ten minutes, and a new comet every week or so. Once a sufficiently accurate orbit is determined for a minor planet, it is assigned a number. It is also then subject to being named. The first minor planet, discovered in 1801 is known as "(1) Ceres".

The privilege of suggesting a name for a minor planet is accorded to the discoverer. An international committee of astronomers – members of a working group of the International Astronomical Union – have the final authority to officially assign a name to a minor planet. The discoverer has this exclusive privilege for ten years following an object being numbered, after which the committee members themselves may elect to assign a name. They occasionally invite select people to submit names for minor planets for which the ten year exclusivity period has expired. Names are subject to certain rules laid down by the committee.

The Minor Planet Center, which operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, is an organization tasked with being the repository of all observations of minor planets and comets, and computing orbits for them. MPC is responsible for the identification, designation and orbit computation for all of these objects. Recently staff member Michael Rudenko was invited to suggest a name for minor planet (4538), discovered back in 1988 and still unnamed. Rudenko, who received an SB in Mathematics from MIT in 1977, has worked at the MPC since 2009 as an IT Specialist engaged in modernizing the MPC observation processing, orbit computation and related operations. During the 1980s he undertook a visual comet hunting project and discovered three comets with the aid of a six-inch refractor.

"My two passions in life are astronomy and chess," says Mike, who has a Playchess account. "I thought it might be appropriate to name a minor planet in honor of a chess grandmaster. My thoughts at once turned to Viswanathan Anand who, in addition to being the fifteenth world chess champion, is also an astronomy buff."

See the article.
0 Comments

    Coach Andy

    ​This blog reports the achievements of my students (current and recent).
    ​

    Picture

    Archives

    October 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

© Copyrights 2014 All Rights Reserved | Daily Math Worksheet, LLC