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Workshop: Kibitzing in ChessBase Light
11.03.2010 – ChessBase Light is a program you can download on the right of this newspage. It is completely free and you have most of the functions of a full database program. In the latest ChessBase Workshop installment Steve Lopez shows you how you can analyse games with the standard unregistered version of CB Light, which comes with an older but very efficient chess engine. Streaming video.
 

The fortress breaker
11.03.2010 – It is frequently anything but easy to make the material superiority of a rook over a bishop tell when all the pawns are on one side of the board. Last month we showed you a game with reduced material in which zugzwang brought about the decision. Today we follow that with an example with more pawns, in which White has to find access to a black fortress that is hard one to storm. The siege had already lasted for over twenty moves before White turned to radical measures with 55.f5!? GM Karsten Mьller demonstrates how the game was decided and what additional defensive resources Black had. CBMagazine Online.
 

Postny wins Nancy Chess Festival Group A
10.03.2010 – 168 players took part in the biggest chess festival of closed tournaments in France, with seventeen groups, from the A Group (ten players, average 2526 Elo) all the way to the last group with an average Elo of about 1300. Israeli GM Evgeny Postny won first place with 6.0/9. The venue, the “Conseil General”, is normally reserved for local government meetings. IM Christophe Philippe reports.
 

Sean Woods, seanwoods77@gmail.com,
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"It's easy to surrender to your frustrations when progress seems to be at a standstill. But if you want to break out of your apparent slump, you must somehow stay with the program, whether by hard work, dedication, or doggedness. And when you finally break out, it may seem as if it happens "just like that." But it won't be "just like that" at all, regardless how suddenly and surprisingly the gain in strength manifests itself. It's likely that you've been getting stronger all along, even if plainly by accruing experience, but the improvement might not show itself until all the parts are in place." Bruce Pandolfini

"With Nimzowitsch, we see a powerful awareness of the presence of the opponent as someone who must be restrained or provoked." Raymond Keene