February 28, 2012

Chess Fortress?!

While watching my husband's game in Bundesliga this weekend, I was stunned by another encounter, between Anish Giri and Markus Ragger. The game went on for 113 moves and I was shocked to see that Black was not able to make any progress from a position which looked to me, at the first glance, completely winning!

February 14, 2012

Happy Chess Velentine!

From the National Championship, in between today's preparation and a walk outside, confronting the winter's wrath, I wish you all a great day!
We are celebrating it by playing chess, what else?! If you have never thought that chess and romance could go together, take a look at the card underneath, from the 20th century, maybe it will change your mind:)

February 9, 2012

Invisible Chess Moves

Remember my previous book review on "Invisible Chess Moves", written while I was watching the games in Wijk, during Tata Steel 2012? I am literally warming up my brain (freezing cold in Romania) by checking the beautiful examples hidden inside.
The book received recently the Book of the Year award, on Chesscafe.com and I can see why. The two diagrams presented underneath gave me such a pleasure that I couldn't keep it just for myself and decided to challenge you:)
I hope you didn't see them before and if you did, I am sure their beauty will steal at least a smile from you! And keep in mind: the moves are surprising. That's all I'm going to say.

February 5, 2012

World School Chess Championship 2012

Iaşi. Whenever somebody asks me: 'Where do you live?' and hears the name of my hometown 'Iaşi' (pronounced 'yash') I can see in their eyes they have absolutely no clue where that should be on a map:) That's ok, even our capital Bucharest is quite confusing, being oftenly misplaced with...Budapest, or the other way around - a common mistake that children make during their geography lessons. And this is not the only tough part in school, imagine you have to study chess! Not everybody likes it, but in time, when you reach adulthood, you start realizing how good in fact that was. If you become a professional chess player, maybe you get slightly different feelings sometimes, but this is not the point of today. What I want to share with you is a simple, honest and warm invitation, for the World School Chess Championship, held in Iasi, between 27th April until 7th May 2012!