Newsletter (April 15th)

FIDE Grand Prix

The FIDE Grand Prix is underway in Nalchik, Russia. Round I begins tomorrow, and I will have some good coverage of the first few rounds in my next newsletter.

Topalov v. Kamsky match analysis

I am beginning work on analysis of the recent Topalov v. Kamsky match, which determined the contender for the world title, slated to play against Vishy Anand for the FIDE World Title this year. I picked the 4 pivitol games of the match, and will be releasing analysis of them, one by one, as part of a series.

2009 Serbian Championship

GM Ivan Ivanisevic is leading in the 2009 Serbian Championship with 11 points, 2.5 points ahead of second place Sinisa Drazic. Ivanisevic was also the winner of this tournament last year.

Thanks to all the patient readers, the new polling system will be unveiled soon. It will come after I post new analysis, and the poll will be based off of the analysis I post.

Round 1 Ends In The FIDE 2009 Women Grand Prix

The first round of the tournament in Istanbul wraped up earlier today.

The players who took home a win in Round 1 follow:
Koneru Humpy (GM from India, 2621 ELO)
Antoaneta Stefanova (GM from Bulgaria, 2557 ELO)
Martha Fierro (WGM from Ecuador, 2403 ELO)
Zhao Xue (GM from China, 2522 ELO)
Elina Danilian (WGM from Aremia, 2496 ELO)

Updates!

I am working away on material to put up, and I wanted to remind everyone that the project isn't dead. To all visitors who are reading this, check up tomorrow for some cool new stuff.

New Breed of Project

I have recently been contemplating possible places to take this blog. I realized, that since I have started, every project I have commensed has required a good deal of input before anything substantial can be discovered. So I am posting today to announce another new project.
My new project will involve concepts and theories of chess. I plan for this to be one of the most important and unique projects here on the blog. I have stumbled upon some concepts and theories while analyzing games, and each installment of this project will be a piece of writing describing and explaining these concepts and theories. These will be raw thoughts, and things you can take the board with you next time you sit down.
Also, I believe this project will encourage more feedback from you the reader, and will set us all on the fast track.

Thanks for reading everybody, keep voting, and send in some feedback!

2009 FIDE Women's Tournament

There is yet another tournament I am focusing on. This one is just getting ready to start, and I plan to cover it round-for-round. This one is the FIDE Women Grand Prix in Istanbul, Turkey.
This will begin on March 6, and you can find all the coverage you need right here.

Thanks to all my participants.

Good Poll Results

It's still quite early in the most recent poll, and we already have enough responses to determine a results (if the poll were to end now). This is a good sign, and gives me confidence in the Analysis Series project. Arman Pashikian is the current favorite at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow, so to start off the analysis, I am working on a game of his from 2 years ago at the World Junior Championship. I will post this by the time the current poll closes.
Send in your games, and give me some feedback on the analysis. This is your community, this blog feeds off of reader participation.

Thanks for reading and supporting the project.

Aeroflot Open 2009 Coverage

As some of you may know, the Aeroflot Open chess tournament for 2009 is under way, and I am going to starting a new project. I am going to select a few games from the tournament that have attributes I am focusing on. I will dig through the available PGN files and find games that fit a specific criteria.
To start this project off, I want to know what analysis you, the reader, would like to see. I am going to post a poll with a variety of different traits that a game could have, such as 'Black overcomes White in center control in the opening'. I will choose the qualification that the readers would most like to see, and analyze as any games from the tournament that fit this qualification. Then I will post the analysis on the blog.
So go check out the poll at the top of the page, and tell me what you would most like to see in a game I analyze.

On a separate note, I am suspending the current main project for a few reasons. I am currently working on building a readership, and until I have a big enough sample of participants to poll, the results are not very conclusive. Also, I believe that turning my focus to posting analysis, puzzles, and resources will draw in more readers.
The current project has lead to a Ruy Lopez open, and I am going to take some time to figure out a way to take this project. I am considering renovating it, and turning it into an exploration of the Ruy Lopez opening.

Finally, I have recently stumbled upon a piece of work I created about a month ago. This work is a walk through of the Benoni Opening. By the end of the week, I will post a download of this word document on the blog. This will also become part of the Exeterstreet Data Package that I am compiling and hoping to offer on the blog as soon as I have a considerable amount to offer. This package will be offered at no cost to any visitor of the blog. Each version of the package I release will have a bonus add-on, available exclusively to members of the mailing list.