Just when I think I couldn't possibly get any dumber...

Published: Fri, 11/08/13

Let's get ready to rumble!

Hey there, -- The Big News in the chess world right now is the upcoming World Championship match between challenger Magnus Carlsen and defending champion Viswanathan Anand. The match starts on the 9th in Chennai, India. Former World Champion, Garry Kasparov gives his predictions in Business Insider magazine...

Dates and Times for the World championship Match

The Carlsen- Anand World Chess Championship Match 2013 will consist of 12 games and if necessary, tie-break games.

The FWCM will be played according to the schedule below in November 2013:

Dates Events TIME

09.11.2013 Game 1 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
10.11..2013 Game 2 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
11.11.2013 Rest Day
12.11.2013 Game 3 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
13.11.2013 Game 4 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
14.11.2013 Rest Day
15.11.2013 Game 5 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
16.11.2013 Game 6 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
17.11.2013 Rest Day
18.11.2013 Game 7 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
19.11.2013 Game 8 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
20.11.2013 Rest Day
21.11.2013 Game 9 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
22.11.2013 Game 10 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
23.11.2013 Rest Day
24.11.2013 Game 11 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
25.11.2013 Rest Day
26.11.2013 Game 12 03.00.P.M. (Indian Time)
27.11.2013 Rest Day
28.11.2013 Tie Break Games To be decided
28.11.2013 Closing Ceremony To be decided

Night Owl Party

For people in the US, the round times are in the middle of the night. But that is not stopping some dedicated chess players!

My friend Paul Anderson is hosting an all night chess party, on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning to watch round 4 of the match!

Paul writes: "You are cordially invited to attend the 1st ever World Chess Championship, Anand-Carlsen, Game 4 party!

After the CSCC's USCF-rated G30 Quads this Tuesday (11/9), any daring night owls can blitz the night away until Game 4 starts around 3 am. Then follow along LIVE as the best chess players in the world duke it out for supremacy. I am providing a demo board to view the game and culturally appropriate Swedish fishes and pork rinds!

Call in sick, take a personal day, or just ditch! You don't want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime event."

http://cschess.webs.com/

Chess, rubber duck squeak into National Toy Hall of Fame

Our favorite game made it into the Toy Hall of Fame!

I was kind of surprised, because when I mentioned that it was a candidate before, it was not doing very well in the voting. I thought "My Little Pony" had a much better chance.

I was glad to see the rubber duck make it as well. Pittsburgh recently hosted a giant yellow duck that was floating in the river, which I found very amusing, and got kind of obsessed about. My gf Mia told me "No, I don't want to see any more pictures of the giant yellow duck on facebook!"

Toy Hall of Fame Website

Timur Gareev Blindfold Simul

Last weekend I took part in a really amazing event. Grandmaster Timur Gareev was in Denver for just one night, and did a 15 board blindfold simul!

Gareev is currently touring the country giving exhibitions and lectures. He is preparing to break the world record by playing 50 boards at one time! He said that playing this many boards at one time will take about 30 hours!

Gareev flew in from Chicago, where that day he did a 10 board blindfold simul at a prison there.

The event was held during Brian Wall's first tournament - the Inaugural Corner Bakery Open.

Brian got the idea to start holding his own tournaments, after spending time in Arizona with Joel Johnson (author of the excellent Formation Attack books), and seeing how Joel holds tournaments there.

I started off the day with a disastrous result - losing in a 900 point upset to Brian's son Devon Wall in a crazy game. This was probably the worst upset of my entire chess career.

[Event "Corner Bakery"]
[Site "Denver, CO"]
[Date "2013.11.02"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Brennan, Tim"]
[Black "Wall, Devon"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "1905"]
[BlackElo "1053"]
[PlyCount "76"]
[EventDate "2013.??.??"]

1. g4 e5 2. Bg2 d5 3. c4 d4 4. Qb3 Nc6 5. d3 Nf6 6. h3 Nd7 7. Bd2 Nc5 8. Qc2
Ne6 9. Nf3 Bd6 10. a3 Qf6 11. e3 Bd7 12. b4 b6 13. b5 Ne7 14. Nxe5 Qxe5 15.
Bxa8 dxe3 16. fxe3 c6 17. bxc6 Nxc6 18. Nc3 Qg3+ 19. Kf1 Qf3+ 20. Kg1 O-O 21.
Ne4 Rxa8 22. Rf1 Qe2 23. Nxd6 Ng5 24. Qd1 Qxd3 25. Nf5 Qxa3 26. Rh2 a5 27. Bc1
Qc3 28. Qxd7 Ne5 29. Qd5 Re8 30. Ne7+ Kf8 31. Nc6 Nef3+ 32. Rxf3 Nxf3+ 33. Qxf3
Qxc1+ 34. Kg2 Rxe3 35. Qd5 Qc2+ 36. Kf1 Qc1+ 37. Kf2 Qe1+ 38. Kg2 Rg3# 0-1

Brian Wall extensively annotated each blunder here: https://denverchess.com/Games/ViewPGN?id=4931

But after losing to Devon, I was able to totally redeem myself by being one of only two players to get a draw against the GM in the simul. The other person was expert Gunnar Andersen of Woodland Park. Several strong players in the 1700-2000+ range lost.

It was very impressive to watch Timur being able to handle so many games at one time.

The GM told me that I played really well, and that he enjoyed our game a lot. Chris Peterson, who was making the moves for the GM told me that he thought my game was the most interesting.

[Event "Garrev Simul"]
[Site "Corner Bakery, Denver, CO"]
[Date "2013.11.02"]
[White "Brennan, Tim"]
[Black "Gareev, Timur"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "1905"]
[BlackElo "2769"]
[PlyCount "81"]

1. g4 e5 2. Bg2 Nc6 3. c4 d6 4. h3 h5 5. gxh5 Nf6 6. Nc3 Nxh5 7. d3 g6 8. Nf3
Bg7 9. Bg5 f6 10. Bd2 O-O 11. Qc2 Kh7 12. O-O-O Be6 13. Rdg1 Ne7 14. Nh4 c6 15.
e3 d5 16. Bf3 Bf7 17. Bxh5 gxh5 18. d4+ Kh8 19. Rg3 Rg8 20. Rhg1 Qd7 21. Qd1
Bh6 22. e4 Bf4 23. Bxf4 exf4 24. Rf3 Rxg1 25. Qxg1 dxe4 26. Rxf4 Rg8 27. Qh2 f5
28. Nxe4 Qe6 29. Nd2 Qe1+ 30. Kc2 Rg1 31. Nhf3 Qc1+ 32. Kb3 Rd1 33. Rh4 Rxd2
34. Nxd2 Qxd2 35. Qe5+ Kg8 36. Qxe7 Qd3+ 37. Ka4 Qxc4+ 38. Qb4 Qxa2+ 39. Qa3
Qc4+ 40. Qb4 Qa6+ 41. Qa5 1/2-1/2

You can play through this game here: https://denverchess.com/Games/ViewPgn?id=4925

So it was a pretty crazy day of chess for me!

Denver Post Coverage

One of the really amazing things about the event was the large amount of media coverage that was there for the Blindfold simul. Colorado State Chess Association Vice President Brad Lundstrom did an amazing job creating a media circus!

There were reporters and photographers there. The Denver Post ran two different stories:

15 Coloradans challenge blindfolded chess master - at once

Chess fans who came to Denver tournament want game to go mainstream

Gallery of Denver Post Pictures

Happy tactics!

Enjoy the World Championship matches!

Your Friend,

Tim "I get eaten by 1053's for breakfast" Brennan

[email protected]