Garvida Chess Championships [RP, Score, IC]

[Garbelia]

RPs, Scores and IC Discussion

Tables and Fixtures:
Group 1:
Tin Mužinić
Ivan Habijanić
Elissa Tanas
Henry Reque
Daniel Paradžik
Hari Roy

Group 2:
Isaac Almorth
Mike Elorina
Edita Vukorepac
Maximilian Oto
Aveline Cohen-Solal
Lutri Ottodottir

Group 3:
Werner Huber
Hudson Moore
Marius
Jelena Tabak
Dinara Ivezić
Ivan Yelsov

Group 4:
Alexander Zerev
Sinan al-Ahdal
Iancorn Sohinki
Carlos Devyn
Denis Carhart
Ánýá Klæðskera-gleði

Schedule:

• 30th of January 2021: Signups close
• 31st of January 2021: RP/Scores thread opens
• 1st of February 2021: Draw takes place
• 3rd of February 2021: Tournament begins with the first games (1v6, 2v5, 3v4)
• 5th of February 2021: Matchday 2 (5v1, 4v2, 6v3)
• 7th of February 2021: Matchday 3 (1v4, 3v2, 6v5)
• 9th of February 2021: Matchday 4 (2v1, 5v3, 6v4)
• 11th of February 2021: Matchday 5 (3v1, 2v6, 4v5)
• 14th of February 2021: Semi-finals leg one (Group 1 winner v Group 2 winner, Group 3 winner v Group 4 winner)
• 16th of February 2021: Semi-finals leg two (Group 2 winner v Group 1 winner, Group 4 winner v Group 3 winner)
• 17th of February 2021: Blitz playoffs if needed
• 19th of February 2021: 3rd place playoffs and second leg and blitz tiebreaker if needed. (Semi-final 1 loser V Semi-final 2 loser)
• 21st of February 2021: Grand Final legs 1 and 2 (SF 1 winner v SF 2 winner), Blitz tiebreakers if needed
• 24th of February 2021: Chess rankings released
• 26th of February 2021: RP thread closes, tournament finishes.

Format:
Normal games will be played with a time control of 20+20 (20 minutes to make all your moves, + 20 seconds once you have made them)

Blitz tiebreakers will be played with a time control of 5+0 (5 minutes to make all your moves.

The competition will be held in Marx Public Hall in Garvida, and broadcasting rights will be free and open. Spectators aside from writers and broadcasters covering the event will not be allowed in.

[Lorrana]

https://www.newsbit.ln/sports/news.html/

Lorrani-born chess player Mike Elorina will play at Garvida
January 31, 2021

Mike Elorina, one of the best chess players in Lorrana, recently announced that he will be participating in the Garvida Chess Championship, held annually in Garbelia's capital city. This is his first international competition and the first time Lorrana has been represented in the international stage.

On the chessboard, Elorina is known for his aggressive and offensive style, using strategies which have been championed by pro players such as Alexander Serev, who will also be playing in this year's championships.

Here at Newsbit Sports, we will be broadcasting the tournament which starts on February 3rd. Stay tuned for more news articles as well!

[Garbelia]

Player profile: Lutri Ottodottir:
1st February 2021

Age: 76
Favourite Opening: Zukertort Opening: Pirc Invitation, although she thrives when the opponent invites her to transform it into a line of the Sicilian Defence.
Unofficial Rating*: 2506 (GM)
Favourite Piece: Rook
Favourite Type of Move: Pin

Lutri Ottodottir is the 20 time winner of this competition before it was opened up to foreign players. She works along developing a 'Pawn Structure' as a rudimentary form of defence, using the bishops and knights to attack the opponent's pieces. She has the appearance of being defensive, but tends to leave 'developed' bishops and other long range pieces to seize diagonals, ranks and files, under the guise of defence. She is a master of the pin, and is famous for an incredible move against her rival, Otto Otta, which was both a double check and a fork at once, in her first victory of the 20. She attained unofficial GM status 29 years ago, yet there is no talk about her retirement. Despite it being considered rude, she takes great pleasure in shouting "Check!"

OOC: * Ratings will not be official until the end of the tournament, where rankings will be released. Players will earn the right to be a GM, IM, BM (NS version of FM) or CM once rankings are released.

More OOC: The draw will take place at 17:15 GMT.

[Silvedania]

Lesson One - The Pieces
Chess is a strategy game composing of different pieces that can move in different ways. In this lesson, you will learn where chess pieces go on the board and how they move.

The Board
Chess uses an 8x8 grid board, similar to a checkerboard.

This board also has a coordinate system composed of letters and numbers.

Each spot has a name, and all the pieces have a coordinate where they start on the board.

The Pawns

Being the most simple piece in chess, there are eight of this per player. This piece can move one forwards each turn, or diagonally when capturing and removing a piece. But these pieces aren't completely useless, as when they reach the end of the board, they can turn into a queen, rook, bishop, or knight. White pawns start at a2,b2,c2,d2,e2,f2,g2, and h2. Black pawns start at a7,b7,c7,d7,e7,f7,g7,and h7.

Knights

Knights are the only piece that can move over other pieces. They move in an L-like shape, 3 spots up and one to the left or right. They can move in this pattern in any direction. Knights capture pieces when they land on top of one. There are two knights per player. White knights start at b1 and g1, black knights start at b8 and g8.

Bishops

Bishops move diagonally, as far as the player wants to, or until it runs into another piece. There are two of them per player. This piece captures by moving on to the spot that the other piece is on. White bishops start at c1 and f1, black bishops start at c8 and f8.

Rooks

Rooks are the straight-moving counterpart of bishops. They have similar rules, just they do not move diagonally. White rooks start at a1 and h1, black rooks start at a8 and h8.

King

Kings are the most important piece on the board. If your king is captured(or will definitely be captured next turn), you lose. If your king is about to be captured but can move away from being captured, this is called a check. If your king will definitely be captured next turn as it cannot move away, this is called a checkmate, and the other player wins. Kings can move one square in any direction, and capture similarly to bishops and rooks. The white king is placed at e1, and the black king is placed at 38.

Queen

Queens are the most powerful piece on the board. They can move in any direction, for as far as the player wants, or until they run into another piece. They capture similar to the bishop. The white queen is placed at d1, and the black queen is placed at d8.

[Fahran]

Player Profile: Elissa Tanas

---

Age: 18

Birth Place: Port Fatima, Fahran

Unofficial Rating: 2430

Favorite Piece: Queen, Paired Bishops

Favorite Opening as White: King's Gambit (King's Bishop Gambit), Ruy Lopez/Spanish Opening

Favorite Opening as Black: King's Indian Defense, Sicilian Defense (Accelerated Dragon)

Career: Elissa Tanas began her chess career comparatively late, only taking an interest in the game after her uncle introduced it to her at the age of fourteen. Nonetheless, she proved a prodigious pupil and, after some coaching from GM Samir Mahyoub, managed to win the National Girls Chess Championship by age fifteen, going on to win it again a year later. At sixteen, she bested IM Noelle Talamas at the HS Women's Chess Invitational in a six series blitz, winning the final match in twenty nine moves to much acclaim. This secured for her the title of international master. Tanas then competed in several Chess Olympiads and international youth tournaments, giving a string of strong performances. At seventeen, Tanas won the National National Women's Chess Championship and the title of grandmaster. She has been hailed as the strongest women's chess champion since Hana as-Samarra.

Playing Style: Elissa Tanas is well-known for her brilliant positional play and relentless attacking style. She was likened to a tiger cub by chess commentator and grandmaster Khalil Sa'adeh after scoring three straight wins against former women's national chess champion Noelle Talamas in the final round of the HS Women's Chess Invitational. She prefers strong, aggressive openings, almost always moving e4 as white, with the King's Gambit, specifically the King's Bishop Gambit, being her most common frequent opening.

[Garbelia]

Group 1:
Tin Mužinić
Ivan Habijanić
Elissa Tanas
Henry Reque
Daniel Paradžik
Hari Roy

Group 2:
Isaac Almorth
Mike Elorina
Edita Vukorepac
Maximilian Oto
Aveline Cohen-Solal
Lutri Ottodottir

Group 3:
Werner Huber
Hudson Moore
Marius
Jelena Tabak
Dinara Ivezić
Ivan Yelsov

Group 4:
Alexander Zerev
Sinan al-Ahdal
Iancorn Sohinki
Carlos Devyn
Denis Carhart
Ánýá Klæðskera-gleði




Good luck to you all!

[Fahran]

Player Profile: Sinan al-Ahdal

---

Age: 67

Birth Place: Sumeira, Fahran

Unofficial Rating: 2770

Favorite Piece: Knight

Favorite Opening as White: English Opening (Reverse Sicilian)

Favorite Opening as Black: Sicilian Defense (Najdorf Variation)

Career: Sinan al-Ahdal is a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Sumeira who has been playing chess since he was eight years old. At the age of twenty five, he managed to obtain second place in the CK Chess Invitational, beating out several international masters and grandmasters in the process. This showing put him in the spot light and, in the following year, he managed to place third in the national chess championship behind GM Mohammed Wardeh, who had studied under Charles Karkar, and GM Shenouda Armani. al-Ahdal remained a formidable presence in subsequent tournaments, often placing second or third. He became an international master at the age of thirty three and became a grandmaster at the age of thirty six after winning four matches against Shenouda Armani to win the CK Chess Invitational. At the age of forty two, he defeated then IM Samir Mahyoub to become the national chess champion, a title he subsequently lost two years later to a young GM Khalil Sa'adeh. He regained the title of champion after a harrowing series against GM Mohammed Wardeh five years later and, despite losing it subsequently, he regained it in 2018.

Playing Style: Sinan al-Ahdal has been characterized as a master of prophylaxis with his defense having been described by former opponent GM Shenouda Armani as "insurmountable" and "constricting." Less complimentary pundits have lamented his playing style as "unimaginative", "boring", and even "cowardly." Former national champion, grandmaster, and pundit Khalil Sa'adeh has said of al-Ahdal "He doesn't always win but he seldom ever losses either. He's cautious and has no problem taking a draw." His moves on the board tend to favor conservative play, and make ample use of closed games, never going on the attack until an opponent has committed a fatal error. He is even known to move the same piece multiple times to throw off opponents by threatening a draw. Given his sound grasp of the fundamentals of the game and defensive tactics, it's not surprising that he has been hailed as THE master of the Sicilian.

[Islands Of Ventro]

/ placeholder (will use this later when I get a chance to make it)

[Silvedania]

Lesson 2 - Castling

Castling is a special move performed by rooks and kings. When you have moved all of the pieces inbetween your king and one of your rooks, you can move your king twice to the left or right, depending on which rook. The rook then moves to where the king had been originally. This move only works if you haven't moved your king or rook.

If only your knight and bishop moved in order for you to castle, this is called a King's Side Castle. If your queen also had to move, this is called a Queen's Side Castle.

---

Player Profile: Denis Carhart

---

Age: 78

Birth Place: Ceka, Silvedania

Unofficial Rating: 2690

Favorite Piece: Knight

Favorite Opening as White: English Opening, Trompowsky Attack

Favorite Opening as Black: French Defense, Benko Gambit

Career: Denis Carhart has lived a long time, but started playing chess later in life. Graduating from GCU at the age of 20, he then pursued a career in political sciences. Once he retired, he started playing chess in the park. As he got better, he started to enter in tournaments, namely the Rondel Chess Invitational, and the annual King's Gambit Tournament of Chess Champions. The first of which he one, and the second of which he made it to the final.

Playing Style: Carhart likes 'in your face' style play, and usually is more offensive. Former opponents have stated that he surprised them with long-planned out attacks and finishing them off quickly after he had captured almost all of their other pieces.

[Sannyamathland]

Player Profile


Name :Soviet GM Alexander Zerev

age:26

nationality: Soviet

unofficial ranking2762

Favourite Piece: Queen

Favourite Opening:Ruy Lopez(as white), Petroff Defense(as black)

Career:Zerev learned to play chess at 4 years old.He rapidly developed to be a chess prodigy.He made national headlines after he
defeated Grandmaster Petrov who was then the fifth highest ranked chess player in the Soviet Union,at the age of 12 years.He was subsequently made a Soviet Grandmaster at the age of 13 years,the fourth youngest Soviet Grandmaster in history.His fine form continued until the annual Bomsuk Chess Festival 2016.He won all but 2 games and won the competition by the highest margins in 45 years.He subsequently represented the Soviet Union in three Chess Olympiads and even came second in the World Blitz 2019.He won the Soviet Chess Championship in 2020,which is considered by many to be one of the toughest chess tournaments in the world.

Personality:Highly Intelligent(as usual),Eccentric,Funny,Good Sense of Humour,At the same time gets easily angry,more active on Twitter than Anish Giri.

[Lorrana]

Player Profile: Mike Elorina


Full Name: Mike Jorlinaa Elorina
Age: 31
Nationality: Lorrani
Unofficial Ranking: 2592
Favorite Piece: Bishop
Favorite Opening as White: The Scotch Opening
Favorite Opening as Black: The Marshall Attack
Playing Style: Mike Elorina is known to open very aggressively. He is a pro at the distraction game, and is known for winning matches with only a few pieces remaining.

[Graintfjall]

The White Winter Queendom of Græntfjall does not commonly participate in diplomatic exchanges with socialist regimes; indeed, during the recent football World Cup, Garbeli fans visiting the Queendom would have noticed (though not necessarily observed) a ban on the flying of the hammer-and-sickle, which features prominently on their own flag, under the Prohibition of Swastikas and Offensive Imagery Act. With news that the Garvida Chess Championship was to be hosted in ‘Marx Hall’, a propagandist event proselytising for political causes anathema to the free people of Græntfjall was feared, and the junior diplomat who had unthinkingly accepted the open invitation to participation shunted off to a distant embassy in the unforgiving heat of Jabal Akhdar.

The problem remained that the invitation had been accepted, and pulling out would merely compound the error. With Græntfjaller chess champions uneasy about partaking in such an event, an effective compromise was reached through outreach to the Kamdyr community. The Kamdyr are a nomadic people who mostly inhabit, though do not particularly claim affiliation with, Græntfjall. Traditionally, they lived in yurts, migrating with the seasons, herding buffalos, unicorns, reindeer, dragons, and other animals. Today, many Kamdyr, especially the younger generations, have to some extent integrated with Græntfjaller society, getting jobs and apartments, attending schools and universities. All the same, the Kamdyr retain their distinct ethnic heritage; a notable example of this is that they are among the few exempted from the requirement that all Græntfjaller names be patronymic or matronymic.

Ánýá Klæðskera-gleði, a Kamdyr chess prodigy, has competed on the Græntfjaller men’s circuit for a number of years. She will be unofficially representing the country at the coming Garvida Chess Championship. The 27 year old achieved grandmaster status while studying mathematics at the prestigious University of Waltenberg, where she later pursued postgraduate studies in econometrics. Now an economist by day, she is one of the most accomplished female players in Græntfjall despite never having entered the National Women’s Championship. Regarded as a calm, composed, and defensively-minded player, she is known for her stalwart and effective defence; she is especially adept at rook endgames. She shows little interest in unusual openings, nearly always opening 1.e4 with white, usually with Lárentíus Arnbjörnsson.*

* Lárentíus Arnbjörnsson was a priest who wrote the first known book on chess in the Græntfjaller language. A number of common chess terms are expressed differently by Græntfjallers (who have never heard of somewhere called Spain or some guy called Ruy López); during this tournament, those differences in nomenclature will be explained.

[Saint-Domingues]

"I do this for fun, and if it stops being fun, I'm going to stop" - In-depth with Saint-Dominguan chess player Aveline Cohen-Solal

---

In this edition of RTD's Figures in Focus series, we talk to professor of applied mathematics and chess player (she was insistent on it being that order) Aveline Cohen-Solal. Cohen-Solal is a two-time National Chess Champion, and the only Dominguan who will be competing in Garvidia to win the coveted prize at Marx Hall.

"It was my grandfather who was passionate about it," she reveals with a chuckle. "My parents couldn't care less about chess. One day while I was at my grandparents, it was a rainy day and I was stuck indoors. I must have been a little kid, about four or five, and I was very bored. Like a lot of grandparents, they didn't have much for a young girl to entertain herself with! So my grandfather decided to try and keep me amused with a game, and that game was chess."

Did she beat him?

"No, of course not!" She brushes the question off immediately. "I was five years-old at most, he had been playing chess for more than fifty years. The idea of a five year-old winning their first ever game of chess against an experienced player is something made up to mythologise these 'chess prodigies'." Cohen-Solal asserts.

Chess prodigies, she says the phrase like it is a dirty word. Why is that? "I don't like the attention, it takes away from the game. I won a game at Nationals and afterwards there were people trying to sneak into my school to get access to me. Paparazzi, journalists - I was twelve years old, isn't that bizarre? My school had to up security when they held their own chess tournament because people who weren't parents were coming in. I remember once the flash of a camera went off while I was playing and it blinded me, I froze up because it totally threw me out of it."

The Saint-Domingue National Chess Champion at fifteen, Cohen-Solal had retired by the age of sixteen to focus on her education. However, she also takes issue with the term 'retirement', arguing that chess was "never my career, it was just my hobby." Cohen-Solal's focus was school, and thereafter, university. She enrolled at the prestigious Le Cap University at eighteen to study mathematics, and insists that she never touched a chess piece in that period. "My focus was studying and partying," she says with a glint in her eye.

Due to the early age that some players begin, early retirements are not unheard of. Some successful players retire from chess as early as their late teens, whilst others go on into their twenties and thirties. The Soviet Alexander Zerev is a former chess prodigy who will play in Garvidia, though is still competing in his 20s. There are also a number of much more senior players in Garvidia; such as the Garbelian Lutri Ottodottir, who is seventy-four; and Fahrani Sinan al-Ahdal, at sixty-eight years of age. Cohen-Solal is certainly on the senior side when it comes to chess players, even at thirty-two, but the performance of some of her peers suggests that she can remain in the game for a long time if she so wishes.

"We'll see how things play out," she replies nonchalantly. "As I said, this is not my career. It's a hobby, and I have always had other priorities." Unlike some of her fellow players, Cohen-Solal has had plenty of time out of the game already. After graduating from university, she obtained a graduate position within the Ministry of Finance. "I love numbers, if you can say that without sounding weird. I really liked the job, studying the market and getting to contribute to fiscal policy. It wasn't specifically related to what I studied, but I felt it improved my skills. Though after a couple years, I did begin to feel more of a call back to the field. So I ended up doing my masters... then my PhD... and then that ultimately led to me getting tenure. Being able to engage in cutting-edge research and also teach future generations of amazing mathematicians? I'm in my dream job." Now a professor of applied mathematics at Jacmel University, Cohen-Solal is one of the youngest female professors in any subject, let alone maths, within Saint-Domingue.

Cohen-Solal is always distant when she talks about chess, regarding it as almost a side-story to her career, and highlighting a very casual attitude towards the event in Garvidia. This is something she does "for fun, and if it stops being fun, I'm going to stop." Getting back into chess is almost a throw-away detail, revealing that she got back into playing during the latter stages of her PhD. This culminated in her return to Nationals last year, where she won the tournament once more after a gap of sixteen years.

"Of course I'm excited," she reveals through the demeanour of coolness. "I'm looking forward to this, I think it is going to be very engaging and challenging. But it's not the be-all and end-all. There are teenage chess players out there feeling pressure from their coach, parents, media, thinking this sort of thing is must win for them to ever be something and that is totally not true. I hope that they can look at someone like me and see that there are plenty of career options for someone that talented. Because I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that all my fellow competitors are immensely talented and gifted. And I look forward to playing against them all."

@dssert - What was your favourite ever game of chess?
I'm going for the emotional choice, but the last time I got to play against my grandfather before he passed. He's the one responsible for introducing me to the game and because of chess I spent a lot of time with him. I miss being able to play and talk to him very much.

@greenulate - Do you think that someone starting out late can still make it to the top level of chess?
Yes, definitely. I don't think being a young prodigy is a guarantee that you will make it, there is still plenty of time. As long as you have the passion and willingness to put in some time to study tactics, practice, and play, then you have a chance. A precocious talent helps, but there are so many other factors which make someone the best. Hard work most of all.

@rarch - Do you ever play chess online?
Sometimes, though you wouldn't know it was me!

See the full interview with Aveline Cohen-Solal here.

---

[Garbelia]

Announcing the first round of results! Tables will be calculated shortly.

Scores:

Group 1:
Tin Mužinić 0 - 1 Hari Roy
Ivan Habijanić 1 - 0 Daniel Paradžik
Elissa Tanas ½ - ½ Henry Reque


Group 2:
Isaac Almorth 0 - 1 Lutri Ottodottir
Mike Elorina 0 - 1 Aveline Cohen-Solal
Edita Vukorepac 1 - 0 Maximilian Oto


Group 3:
Werner Huber ½ -½ Ivan Yelsov
Hudson Moore 1 - 0 Dinara Ivezić
Marius 0 - 1 Jelena Tabak

Group 4:
Alexander Zerev 1 - 0 Ánýá Klæðskera-gleði
Sinan al-Ahdal 1 - 0 Denis Carhart
Iancorn Sohinki 1 - 0 Carlos Devyn

[Saint-Domingues]

Player Profile: Aveline Cohen-Solal
Picture: N/A - Aveline refused. "I hate pictures."

Full Name: Aveline Anne Cohen-Solal
Age: 32
Nationality: Saint-Dominguan
Unofficial Ranking: [REDACTED]
Favorite Piece: Knight. "I like horses. In fact, I have my own - Petit Tonnerre, he's a Castillonnais."
Favorite Opening as White: The Vienna Game
Favorite Opening as Black: Sicilian Defence
Playing Style: Cohen-Solal is a relatively aggressive player but is best known for her adaptability, often playing a much more conservative game against another aggressive player. She is patient and known for her relaxed demeanour and coolness under pressure. She takes her time in opening and gradually tries to increase the tempo and pressure upon her opponent.

---

Garvidia Chess Championships: Cohen-Solal takes the win

---

Aveline Cohen-Solal won her first match at the Chess Championships in Garvidia to begin the tournament in good order.

In the first matchday at Marx Public Hall, Cohen-Solal's opponent in Group 2 was the Lorrani chess player Mike Elorina. A very aggressive player, Elorina is also renowned for his employment of distractions and 'mind games' to try and disturb his opponent.

Opening with his favoured Scotch Opening, Elorina likes to dominate the centre of the board from the start. However, his assertive style was on this occasion guilty of over-committing, as Cohen-Solal pounced on an early mistake to seize the initiative whilst his attempts to distract from the game were unsuccessful.

A fascinating meeting of the minds, Cohen-Solal was ultimately able to grind out the win without losing too many of her pieces. Normally an aggressive player herself, this was another example of her tactical flexibility, as she offered a measured response to Elorina's aggressive moves to try and lure him into an uncomfortable position. When this was achieved, she seized the initiative and tried to force back and frustrate her opponent to good success.

Saint-Domingue National Chess Champion Aveline Cohen-Solal: "It was a fun start, I really liked the game that Mike played. Nice to get the win for the beginning, but now I'm just looking forward to the next one and... this interview being over."

---

---

[Silvedania]

Lesson 3 - The Ruy Lopez/Spanish Opening

One of the most basic yet skillful openings in chess is The Ruy Lopez. Named after a priest in the 1500s, it is also one of the oldest.

What is an opening?
Openings are combinations of chess moves made by a player at the beginning of the game that provides strategy and 'unlocks' pieces from their starting place.

The Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez is most commonly used by the white side. It prepares the player to castle, develops the bishop, and disrupts the even structure of the other player's pawns, removing the first line of defense. The Ruy Lopez consists of:

• e4white, unlocks bishop
• e5response by black
• Nf3white setting up the next sequence
• Nc6black defending the pawn, stopping white from taking the pawn momentarily
• Bb6white's bishop challenging the knight

Thus, black can respond in a number of ways, leading into modifications of the Ruy Lopez, including the Morphy and Norweigan defenses.

Lesson 4 - The Sicilian Defense

This is, of course, a defensive opening, meaning that it is mostly used by black, as black traditionally goes second in chess. The opening is started by white, who plays e4. Then black plays c5. From here, black has unlocked his/her queen for when they want to use it. White has unlocked the less powerful bishop, and, if they don't play well, could be subject to checkmate in only a handful of turns.

[Atheara]

Profile of Carlos Devyn

Name: Carlos Devyn
Age: 35
Nationality: Athearan
Unofficial Rating in Atheara: 2532
Favourite Piece: The Rook "I like Straight Lines, easy to Navigate, Predict, and Simple to use"
Favourite Opening for White: Birds Opening/Dutch Attack
Favourite Opening for Black: French Defense
Playstyle: Devyn likes to play a bit Agressive. He takes Pieces when he sees the chance for an Advantage. He always thinks quickly and memorizes the enemy Positions. His best part of play is his Positioning. Always stressing his enemies with his gradual positions of advantage. A Sportive Player, he usually just joins Tournaments for the laughs. However he is not to be underestimated, he is Professional in masking his face, making it difficult to predict his moves.

Career: Joining the Chess World a bit late at the Age of 15, he has constantly improved since his first game. In Atheara, he always participated in the highest Chess Tournaments of his skill every year, and in the Astena Chess Championships, he is always a Semi Final Contender, winning 4 Times in a row. He has kept up with International levels for a long time, and even beating a higher Athearan Player, Jords Flynas, whom was to be a 2746 Rated player and only 3 time Champion.

Personality: Humorous, Sportive, Deceiving, Unpredictable, Calculated

[Garbelia]

In a fascinating opening game, Lutri Ottodottir and Isaac Almorth closed the board up right from the start with the dense Mikenas Defence. The two could hardly be separated for most of the game, but offensive use of Lutri's king, combined with a rook sacrifice eventually led to a promotion. In the end, Almorth didn't deserve the annihilation he got, having played well throughout, but eventually letting Ottodottir's floodgates open.

After the game, she said, "Good game. Onto the next one. Goodbye."

[Islands Of Ventro]

Name: Henry Reque
Age: 23
Nationality: Island of Ventroanoanoanoanoanoanoan
Unofficial Rating in Island of Ventro: 2432
Favourite Piece: The Pawn, "You can do so much with them, attack defend, they are a team player"
Favourite Opening for White: Kings gambit
Favourite Opening for Black: Hyper-Accelerated Dragon
Playstyle: When we tried to track him down for a interview he tried to evade us, but when we finally caught him he had but one word to say, "Gambits". We don't know what this means just yet but we hope its good.

[South Newlandia]

Werner Huber was a man happy with his life. The 53-year-old had everything he ever wished for, a family and a career, while still having time for his favourite hobby. Huber was a chess player for the Newport Rooks of the South Newlandian Chess League, playing on board three, and having scored 9.5/14 last season, including a nice win in the first encounter with Elephant Valley Chess, the later league champions. One thing he distinctly lacked, however, was a new adventure.

Final position Huber - Yelsov

He decided to seek invitation to the Garvida Chess Championship. It was a new competition, at least new to the international world; and many were unsure what to think of Garbelia in general.
Werner was pretty confident that it would be just fine, and decided to make the trip to Forest.
He would be playing five opponents in the group stage, the first of which would be Ivan Yelsov, a strong player from Sannyamathland. Huber had a decent time in the opening, opting for a slower approach in the Sicilian, and he managed to maintain a slight edge throughout the game. Huber had a rook and a bishop against a rook and a knight; in a position that favoured him, although only slightly. His big problem was one way too familiar to him; he found himself in time trouble. You would think that this wouldn’t be a big issue with twenty seconds added after every move, but Huber had less than a minute in the clock. He opted to offer his opponent a draw, hoping to improve in the later games, and Ivan Yelsov accepted.

[Garbelia]

Scores for MD2:

Group 1:
Daniel Paradžik 1 - 0 Tin Mužinić
Henry Reque 0 - 1 Ivan Habijanić
Hari Roy 0 - 1 Elissa Tanas

Group 2:
Aveline Cohen-Solal ½ -½ Isaac Almorth
Maximilian Oto 1 - 0 Mike Elorina
Lutri Ottodottir 1 - 0 Edita Vukorepac

Group 3:
Werner Huber 1 - 0 Dinara Ivezić
Hudson Moore 1 - 0 Jelena Tabak
Ivan Yelsov 1 - 0 Marius

Group 4:
Alexander Zerev ½ -½ Denis Carhart
Sinan al-Ahdal 1 - 0 Carlos Devyn
Ánýá Klæðskera-gleði 1 - 0 Iancorn Sohinki


Tables:

(Blue bands do not mean anything, they are just there to highlight the progression spots. No-one is eliminated or progressed yet.)

[Silvedania]

Lesson 5 - The French Defense

The French Defence is very similar to the Ruy Lopez, as it starts with white on e4. Where it differs is that black plays e6 instead of e5. This means that on the next turn, black can play d5, ending in a trade of pawns. But white may play Bc4, which would end in white losing the bishop. Instead, white should play Nc3, which will result in both black pawns being captured, leaving the pawn unharmed. Another piece that white could play would be d4 in order to stop the black pawn from eventually reaching the end of the board and turning into another piece. This leaves the king vulnerable, allowing black to play Bb4, resulting in check.

[Koniglich Wasserstein]

Player profile: Maximilien Oto.
Name: Maximilian Oto
Age: 24
Nationality: Konig
Unofficial Rating in Koniglich Wasserstein: 2541
Favourite Piece: The Knight: "A perfect piece. You can use it to fork, to smother, even to cover the King's escape. Brilliant."
Favourite Opening for White: Fried Liver
Favourite Opening for Black: Nimzo Indian
Playstyle: They say that the best form of defense is attack. Well, that is how Maximilien likes to play. He often utilises systems like the London in order to surprise his oponents, he achieved the titlle of IM at 17 and GM at 21. He knows that pieces can have more than one role in the playing of the game, and can sometimes be a bit adventurous and try things that you wouldn't expect. In an interview he said that 'unpredictability is something that you can't teach'

Oto vs Elorina Match Report
A chaotic game, Oto managed to win the endgame in a tense encounter with Mike Elorina. In the end it was just two bishops against the King, after a brilliantly executed skewer allowed Elorina's last piece that wasn't a King, a rook, to be taken, and in this position Elorina resigned. A very early queen for queen on 12 moves each saw both sides struggle to finish the game off, but in the end Oto did just that by forcing a resignation and his first point was acquired.

[Srednjaci]

WORLD ARENA SPORT CHANEL - 5

REPORTER :In the shadow of the Winter Olympics, the chess championship is being played, where two of our great masters, Jelena Tabak and Danijel Paradžik, are performing.
With us is the chess commentator and vice president of our chess federation, Miroslav Jedinak.
Mr. Individual, how do you assess the performance of ours so far?

JEDINAK: Jelena Tabak defeated Marius in the first match. It was an attractive match in which Tabak took control of the board.
However one reckless move and she lost the knight.
Here, the game starts to look like an equalizer, but Tabak completes the game with one great maneuver.
Paradžik lost the first match on the 10th move.
Ivan Habijanić just finished the job because Paradžik didn't have a chance to get out.

REPORTER: second round?

JEDINAK: in the second round, Hudson Moore managed to get Jelena out of tact with quick changes of rhythm and great maneuvers. Tactically, he made her make a mistake that ultimately cost her the party.
Daniel Paradžik had a Spanish opening which completely confused his opponent. Tin was attacked by Daniel at one point in the game, but he no longer had enough pieces to make that attack dangerous.

REPORTER: half the success of ours?

JEDINAK: half success but they play well. In fact, they play great in this kind of competition.

REPORTER: thank you, that’s all for today, you have to comment on the games and do the analysis and we’re back to the battlefields at the Clayquot Olympics!
Stay with our program and watch chess matches and analyzes on CHANEL 8!

[Raspotochje]

AUTHORITY ON THE BOARD BY CHESS COMENTATOR ON THE CHESS OFFICIAL WEB SITE



Grandmaster Ivan Habijanic achieved two victories in his group.
Our player took first place in his group and will play much calmer.
In the first match against Henry Reque, he played a little in spasm. It was the first match and he didn't want to lose, the pressure did its thing at first and at one point Henry Reque seemed to have the game under control but it was a trap.
Ivan Habijanić is known as a psychological player, a tactician who makes invisible traps for the opponent.
Henry Reque spotted the trap late, Habijanic imposes authority and the game goes in his direction, gives Reque to eat Knight, Reque hesitates, tries to switch the game to the other side of the board, opens Habijanic's condensed rows but it was too late.
In the next two moves chess and then chess checkmate.
In the second round, Habijanić immediately imposes his game on Danijel Paradžik, Paradžik makes a cardinal mistake on the 10th move, Habijanić authoritatively ends the game.

PAID TAX FOR NERVOUSNESS

Edita Vukorepac entered the first match against Maximilian Oto very well.
The Spanish opening, the continuation of a game that Oto did not expect, nervousness arose and Edita used it as a lady and finished the game.

In the second round Edita starts well, the game is under control and then an unexpected move by Lutri Ottodottir which Edita did not expect and quickly loses both Knight. He tries to get away with defensive maneuvers, but Lutri Ottodottir does not give up. Edita is seized with restlessness and helplessness, again tries to divert attention with a false attack but fails and it is a defeat.

Our representatives have 3 wins and 1 loss. We hope for the continuation of good games without cardinal mistakes that would take away their victories.