Early end of the summertime – prospects for a "hot" autumn
Our Belgian friend Henri Serruys (together with his son) visited Wuppertal on July 8th, Henri gave valuable help for the Le Lionnais article (meanwhile published in KARL 2/2006). Naturally in fantastic weather some refreshment in an open-air restaurant (picture above) was compulsory.
Bert Corneth even controls a state of utter chaos - fortunately existing only in the "Wuppertal Archives":
Visit of our new treasurer on July 29, 2006
On this occasion we would like to appeal to the payment of the membership fee 2006, we ask you to transfer outstanding fees to our well-known account!
A trip to the "Sparkassen Chess-Meeting" in Dortmund was planned for August 4th, below some photos of this top event.
The pair of arbiters – Alexander Bach (Moscow)
and Dr Andrzej Filipowicz (Warsaw)
- the latter is also held in high regard as a chess historian and author (a sample of recent date is the chronicle "Chess in Poland ages XII to XX", please click the following link).
As Irina Krush and Elisabeth Pähtz had a rest day on August 4th, the Open’s top encounter was live on the stage: the game Igor Eismont vs IM Olaf Heinzel ended 0:1 after 74 moves.
Alexander Beljavski (left) and Vlastimil Hort met in the press room.
We find well-known faces among the journalists and photo hunters - Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam from New in Chess (left and below) and Otto Borik from Schach Magazin 64 (below).
Arkady Naiditsch had to compete here with the future co-winner Peter Svidler. With a 50 per cent result our German representative reached 6th place, in this game the points were shared too.
Peter Svidler adjusting his pieces first.
Baadur Jobava expecting his opponent. He doesn’t know that a marathon battle is in store for him ...
Start of a game in which the "fighter" Boris Gelfand could secure victory after 113 (!) moves.
"Whizz kid" Levon Aronian played disappointingly in Dortmund – he finished last but one with three defeats and no win.
The tournament went nearly tragically for Peter Leko – leading for a long time he once again missed the tournament win by suffering a defeat against Kramnik in the last round.
Vladimir Kramnik could confirm his rising form by winning the tournament, against Michael Adams "only" a draw was possible.
Andy Ansel has sent us a note on Kasparov’s benefit simul in New York City as well as his game against Gary:
"Here is my game from last night -- I have never played this opening as Black (or White) before -- there were 18 boards and Gary actually played fairly slow in the beginning -- but toward the middle of my game most boards were winning for him and the speed picked up a notch -- Boaz Weinstein played and he gave Gary a good match and a friend of his Igor (Nahum I think) was the last board to finish and during most of the game Ilya Gurevich and Michael Rohde thought it was a draw yet Gary penetrated and won a pawn and then another and the opposite color bishops never occurred (both sides also had a Knight)
It was a great night.
Andy"
Here the game to play over.
Manfred Mittelbach’s greetings arrived from Venice:
our member is just busy with a fantastic reading
(Salvio’s IL PUTTINO of 1634 by the Canale Grande)
Back to Germany – the starting press conference for the World Chess Challenge 2006 took place in Essen on August 8th.
From left: RAG boss
Dr. Werner Müller, Wladimir Kramnik, Federal Minister of finance Peer Steinbrück and match director Josef Resch from UEP
Dr. Helmut Pfleger and RAG press officer Christian Kullmann were placed at the left end.
The text of the
press release is retrievable online (pdf-file).
You will find a detailed report on this event at ChessBase.
Klaus Bischoff played (bound to lose) against Fritz.
On the left Harry Schaack (KARL), Fritz programmer Mathias Feist and further chess journalists can be made out in the background.