Newsletter and Chess Beijing Tournament in 2014 announcement

As the year 2013 is coming to an end, let me give you a quick preview about our next Beijing activity early next year. We’ll organize a rapid chess tournament at Cafe de la Poste after the Chinese New Year (it officially ends on February 6th). I guess the announcement couldn’t be timed better, so you can practice and improve your chess skills during the holidays – unless you are not too busy with celebrating christmas. More detailed information will be announced in mid-January 2014.  I hope the venue will be as busy as on this picture:

In the meantime, you can come by to our regular Saturday games, as usual between 3pm to 6pm. If you have time, feel free to join in for some games!

2013 must have been the best chess year for Magnus Carlsen as he took the crown of the World Chess Champion. I haven’t seen all games, but some chess friends told me that he won the match because he pushed onwards to continuing the games rather than to accept any draws. As the games went on longer, Anand by the end might have lost some stamina … By the way, did you see this Youtube video in which Carlsen beats an amateur in a 1 minute versus 9 minutes game? Well, for a GM this actually is a piece of cake, and we can clearly see that while waiting for his oppenent he is watching the other games at the same time, why not …

At the London Chess Classics, Nakamura showed his superb form and won the final of the Super Sixteen rapid. Being the current No.3 on the world chess rank, this does not come at a suprise, however, the American well deserved the victory and it will be interesting to see more of his mind-blowing, creative games. Who knows, he might become Carlsen’s challenger.

In Beijing, the Mind Games recently just finished and Sergey Karjakin and Zhao Xue emerged as the winners of the Basque system games. In the Basque system the players play two simultaneous games, one with white and the other one with black. It looks a bit funny to see the players switching from one board to the other and handling two clocks. The Basque system seems to be a fairly balanced match mode. If someone is interested, let’s try it out!

I wish you merry christmas and all best for next year!