My game vs Duke of Wellington (Chessworld)

I thought this was the best I've played for quite some time online, the opening is standard Ruy Lopez theory. During the middlegame, I felt that I was always in control and had the initiative and once the simplification was over had a reasonable position going into the endgame. I spotted the mating possibilities early, unfortunately for the Duke, he did not.

Feel free to disagree and suggest better moves, I won't be offended.

World Chess Championship - Mexico 2007

Just 6 weeks to go until the most eagerly awaited tournament of the year and who looks in fine fettle to make a charge for the World Title?

Ok, so we now know that there are lots of matches, rematches planned depending upon who wins, and yes it's frustrating that such a prestigious tournament doesn't have Topalov or the supremely in-form Ivanchuk participating, but quite frankly I'm just completely bored with all the political wrangling.

So let's just focus here totally on the players that are playing in most likely the last tournament of this kind for the title of World Chess Champion.

Vladimir Kramnik - Current World Chess Champion. Very strong performance in Dortmund, very doubtful that he'll lose many games, if any at all. Is the big question, will he draw too many games?

Vishwanathan Anand - No.1 in the World rankings. Will win his fair share of games with White, but will he lose too many with the Black pieces?

Peter Leko - Qualified through the Elista Candidates tournament pretty impressively, and had a strong performance in Dortmund, will he to draw too many games. Is his best strategy to avoid quick draws and exploit his reknowned technical skills?

Alexander Morozevich - Didn't manage to get his final preparation in, when he was forced to pull out of Biel. Which Moro will turn up, the one who is unstoppable or the one who struggles to perform consistently in this level of competition?

Levon Aronian - Gave Kramnik a beating in rapid, and has also accounted for Anand at the same speed. Can he win against the big boys at the longer distance? Will he surprise everyone with an e4 repertoire? Probably not, expect a solid tournament though.

Alexander Grischuk - Another candidates qualifier, where he played very well. Then he turns up at Biel and performs very sporadically, comments from Chessbase that he was too young to play the Slav were quite controversial, but I think he's definitely too young to win this. Will be great experience for him though I'm sure.

Peter Svidler - Hmm! Slipped down to number 12 in the ratings, has been completely indifferent so far this year, so what can we expect from him in Mexico? Quite frankly I have no idea.

Nearly forgot,

Boris Gelfand - Probably a surprise that he qualified, but he did. This level of compeition much the same as for Grischuk might be too much for him, but he seems to be very strong willed and if he gets into a scrap I wouldn't bet against him. Won't win enough to be higher than mid-table though.

That's my thoughts folks, I believe it'll be a tussle between Kramnik, Anand and Leko with Aronian leading the chasing pack and I slightly favour Vlad to pull it off. Please feel free to disagree with me, and please do have a vote on my sidebar.

Best wishes, Juicy.

Carlsen Endgame Prowess

The following video is from the game Carlsen - Onischuk Biel Rd 5. Carlsen who leads the event by a full point at the moment displays some excellent endgame tactics to turn a seemingly simple draw into a win. The video is brought to you by fellow chessworld member Majnu. Enjoy!

Tuesday Top Tip

"When you see a good move--wait--look for a better one." - Emanuel Lasker

Classic Games

From time to time I'll post up a game to play through for anyone who stumbles across this blog, hopefully they'll be of some interest. If I can highlight any themes occurring during the game I will.

William Steinitz vs Curt Von Bardeleban - Hastings 1895 - Giuoco Piano


This game is very good and is one that highlights great attacking play, a wonderful combination and is instructive on how powerful a Rook on the 7th rank is, and how to play an Isolated Queens Pawn position. It was also awarded a Brilliancy prize because it was highly regarded in it's time. Enjoy!

Welcome to Juicy's blog.

This is my first attempt at blogging, so bear with me. Hopefully I can post something interesting for you to read from time to time.

My main focus will be chess, which has become a passion of mine over the last few years.

If you want to find me online for a game, you can find me at Chesswold.net and Playchess.com under the nickname juicyplums.