Archived News
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Lichess.org has a huge collection of endgames to study also with Endgame Studies,
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Ever seen or heard of the Phantom Chess board?
Just informing you that you may play against any opponent on the Internet at a magical "normal 3D" physical Chessboard.
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Two new books written by Sergei Tkachenko issued by Ilan Rubin:
For sale at Amazon.
For sale at Amazon.
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An article about the theme: two-knights against a pawn by Vladimir Kuzmichev.
New frontiers in the Troitsky line, by Vladimir Kuzmichev
Replayable studies added.
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Amatzia Avni introduces his article in Chess Magazine issue Jan 2022 with 3 studies.
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Chessbase has added an Endgame Studies app to their product-line.
You can try to solve online as well.
At YouTube also an introduction to the Application.
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Vladislav Tarasiuk has written a nice article
about the famous Richard Reti study created 100 years ago.
Réti's Study Is 100 Years Old !
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Again sad news:
Composer Buyannemekh, Bizijagin 1946-2001
from Mongolia passed away at 1 November 2021.
He created about 66 Endgame studies.
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The CQL 6.1 has now specific extra options to Search in the HHdbVI !
Look under CQL Key concepts, "Heijden Database VI interface"
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Again Sad News:
Yesterday 26-10 Ed van de Gevel passed away.
Ed was a long time member of Arves and also long time contributer to EG.
We will miss him.
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Alexei Popov wins the study section of the 5th YCCC
2nd place goes to Ilija Serafimovic (Serbia) and 3rd to Andrii Sergiienko (Ukraine).
12 studies competed.
The YCCC is a youth composing tournament in various genres (for composers under 23 years of age).
All in all, 50 composers competed.
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SAD NEWS:
Marco Campioli passed away on 17-10-2021.
a well-known composer of studies from Sassuolo (Italy).
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Watch the very popular Netflix miniserie The Queen's Gambit (trailer), with very good chess acting.
A very nice drama with a lot of mixed chesshistory and also very good real chess quality.
Highly recommended to watch now during these winter days.
.
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In the very popular Netflix miniserie The Queen's Gambit (trailer), the Russian player Borgov is an expert at Endgames.
A very nice drama with a lot of mixed chesshistory and very good chess quality.
Highly recommended!
Studies awarded for the Sinfonie Scacchistice 2020
A theme tournament about positions with more than 10 pieces.
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The results of the Chess Artistry Competition in memory of Pal Benko are showed here
by some nice online interviews by Judit Polgar
with John Nunn, Vladimir Kramnik, Yochanan Afek, Harold van der Heijden,
Ben Smolkin, Marjan Kovacevic, Itay Richardson.
The winner of the torunament is Sergiy Didukh
2nd prize for Yuri Bazlov
and 5 more prizes, 7 Honorable Mentions
and 6 Commendations.
You can replay all the studies from here: Benko MT 2021
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The memorial tournament Yuri Belyakin 100 MT 2021 is won by Sergey Osintsev
2nd prize for Petr Kiryakov with Martin Minski.
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The winner of the FIDE 9th World Cup 2021 is Aleksandr Stavrietsky
2nd prize is for Vladislav Tarasiuk
3rd prize winner is Jan Timman
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The Jubilee Tournament Polasek Vlasak 64 JT is won by Martin Minski.
2nd/3rd prices shared by Oleg Pervakov and Geir Sune Tallaksen Ostmoe
4th prize to Yuri Bazlov
5th prize for Ludek Sedlak
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You may find and download Variantim-84 from The Israeli Chess Society website
with The Reti study at 100 by Gady Costeff
and Israeli study successes abroad by Michael Pasman.
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In the Polish Chess Fed 2020 tournament the first prize winner is Gady Costeff
with a spectacular positional draw with two black Queens against a Knight and Bishop,
Second prize is won by Vladimir Kuzmichev with a miniature.
3rd prize goes to Marek Halski.
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In the UAPA 14th 2021 tournament for the thematic section: Fortress, the winner is Sergey Osintsev.
In the free sections Win and Draw interesting studies can be found.
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In the Platov 140 MT tournament the 1st prize winner is Sergey Didukh.
2nd prize is for Luis Miguel Gonzales.
3rd prize goes to Steffen Nielsen.
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Marc Bourzutschky presents analyses of the
8-men Tablebase explorations “opposing 1 pawn” endgames
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Four yet unknown studies of Jan Timman:
Dutch composers and unknown studies of Jan Timman.
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20 July is International Chess Day !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Chess_Day
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Peter Krug is free again and here he shows his inspirational view in Hallein (A), he uses to create studies.
Peter Krug in Braunau-prison but still composing.
He lost his job and all of his money due to the Corona hard restrictions.
He refused to comply.
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At Netflix the french movie Joueuse (2009) is available.
In English the name is Queen to Play.
Chess played by women is popular at the moment.
The chess setting, moves and games look technicaly OK.
Recomended to inspire others to learn and play chess.
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New book issued by Ilham Aliev (together with Shaig Guliyev):
«THE MYSTERIOUS PAWN»
In the new book (200 pages, 165x240) by Ilham Aliev (together with Shaig Guliyev)
"THE Mysterious PAWN",
one can get acquainted with the mysterious world of the pawn.
The 5-part book contains over 600 examples: opening traps, games, combinations, endgame positions and 67 studies.
The book is intended for a wide range of readers - from amateur to high-level chess players.
Section 1: FROM GRECO TO CARLSEN.
Section 2: OPENING TRAPS.
Section 3: COMBINATIONS.
Section 4: ENDGAMES.
Section 5: ENDGAME STUDIES.
Azerbaijan Chess Composition Commission
Ilham Aliev, E-mail:
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Hikaru Nakamura tests Garry Kasparov with solving Endgame studies !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vri2CHdwI0c&list=RDCMUCweCc7bSMX5J4jEH7HFImng
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19 may 2021 an article in the Daily Telegraph (British) newspaper
with a tribute to the EG-Magazine,
written by Macolm Pein:
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CQL 6.1 is available from http://www.gadycosteff.com/cql
Lewis Stiller and Gady Costeff recommend to use this version.
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Marc Bourzutschky presents the 8-men Tablebase: first explorations
Interesting new cooks, some new studies and some very long lines.
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In the Issue 52 of the Fairy chess magazine Quartz,
there is an article with many chess studies with the Domination Theme.
First part of this article:
There is also an article (page 875) with corrected studies by Paul Rãican.
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SPAM email going around:
There is an email going around which is not sent by Arves.
It looks like:
***************************************************************************************
Hi,
We are happy to greet you.
We're asking you to post a blog article on your site arves.org,
Which will be related to the gambling site.
If you accept our request, then please mail me back with the price you charge.
Thanks for your time and attention, Can't wait to hear back from you
*************************************************************************************************
Advice, Ignore the email !
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Peter Krug (left) teaching Chess by showing some beauty Endgame studies:
The black Rook is just attacked by the White King, where to go?
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Young Talent Composing;
At the website of Chessbase a nice article by Gady Costeff about young Chess composers:
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As mentioned before: at the
Chessbase website, Siegfried Hornecker
publishes each month an article with a study with interesting history.
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Sad news: Mikhail Zinar, "pawn-endgame composer", has died yesterday (4.2.2021).
More also about him at (Russian website): https://chesspro.ru/_events/2008/zinar.html
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Issue 82 of the magazine
Variantim of The Israel Chess Composition Society is available.
Also all 2020 studies available now for replay! Variantim 2020
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12 issues available here of the Hungarian chess magazine Magyar Sakkvilag 2020
by chief editor Péter Gyarmati
Magyar Sakkvilag magazine 2020
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In the 70 Jubilee Tournament: Muradov 70 JT 2020
1st prize is won by Igor Zaitsev with Oleg Pervakov (Russia),
2nd prize is for Steffen Nielsen (Denmark),
3rd prize goes to Vladislav Tarasiuk (Ukraine),
4th prize to Sergei Didukh (Ukraine) and
5th prize to Ben Smolkin (Canada)
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Winner of the 10th Maroc Echecs 2020 is: Luis Miguel Gonzalez,
2nd prize for Yuri Bazlov,
3rd prize goes to David Gurgenidze with Martin Minski.
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In the Bortolotti MT 2019 there were 4 sections.
A) Win studies with no more than 11-12 pieces
B) Win studies with 13 pieces (or monsters with 16 pieces or more).
C) Draw studies with no more than 11-12 pieces
D) Draw studies with 13 pieces (or monsters with 16 pieces or more).
In the A-section 1st prize to Janos Mikitovics, 2nd prize to Pavel Arestov with Daniel Keith.
In the B-section 1st prize for Sergei Osintsev, 2nd prize for Martin Minski, 3rd prize goes to Andrzej Jasik.
In the C-section 1st prize for Luis Miguel Gonzalez, 2nd prize for Emil Melnichenko
in the D-section 1st prize for Janos Mikitovics, 2nd prize for Michal Hlnka with Ľuboš Kekely.
See the PDF files in: Awards Files
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Studies presented by the Slovak magazine Sach for Pravda 2016-2017 and 2018-2019 tournaments:
Michal Hlinka and Ľuboš Kekely were productive.
http://www.rubriky.net/pravda/r2020/pr_16_17x.php#d
http://www.rubriky.net/pravda/r2020/pr_18_19x.php#d
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New list and statistics-file to download, about the most productive composers according the new HHdbVI:
Composers by Production HHdbVI
Simple ranking list updated to HHdbVI: Ranking Composers
Many articles with numbers and names on this website get an update later.
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Harold van der Heijden
has released a new version (HHdbVI)
of his Endgame study database !!
This is the largest database in the world
and contains now 93.839 endgame studies !!!
(On his website you also can find this leaflet, which you can open here as well, with detailed information)
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On the 5th of November 2020 the FIDE has reported the new title holders in Chess Composition
Congratulations to :
Geir Sune Tallaksen Østmoe, Norway
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An new issue of the Variantim magazine 81 is available with interesting articles and studies.
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The Russian version of "Practical Chess Beauty" by composing grandmaster Yochanan Afek (originally in English by Quality Chess 2018) has been released.
The best of his composing (and even playing) career in 2 volumes translated by Oleg Pervakov and published by the Russian chess federation.
The book may be purchased HERE.
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New edition :
The American publishing house Russell Enterprises Inc. has recently released the fifth edition
of this highly acclaimed classic, first released in 2003,
revised and updated by German GM Karsten Müller
(helped by American GM Alex Fishbein).
This is arguably one of the best efforts to make the theory and practice of the
final stage of the game accessible to enthusiasts at all levels.
The author, legendary trainer Mark Dvoretsky (1947-2016) was also a great promoter of our fine art.
Thus the book’s 440 pages include also hundreds of endgame studies with a practical
value, used both as examples and exercises throughout all chapters.
Highly recommended! (Yochanan Afek)
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Article series written by John Beasley about Artur Mandler and Richard Reti now available at Arves too.
Also these complete article/book in one PDF to download.
Depth and Beauty, Artur Mandler || book by John Beasley
Studies Richard Réti || by John Beasley
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Sad news.
One of the founders of the GBR code
Guy, Richard 1916-2020 died at a respectable age of 103 !!
It might be interesting to do statistics about ages of Endgame composers.
Many reach respectable ages above 90.
May be Chess Endgame composing is good for health?
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Sergiy Didukh (Ukraine) wins the magazine The Problemist 2018-2019 tournament.
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Oleg Pervakov created a nice miniature winning the Schach magazine Corona 2020 ty.
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The UAPA 11th tournament had 3 sections.
In the theme section about Domination of minor pieces the first prize is won by Oleg Pervakov.
In the win section first prize winners are: Oleg Pervakov with Alexander, Stavrietsky
in the draw section two winners are: Janos Mikitovics, Andrzej Jasik
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The Moscow 2020 tournament is won by Oleg Pervakov. See PDF (cyrillic) at Awards Files
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Oleg Pervakov and Karen Sumbatyan win the Steffen Nielsen 45 JT
59 studies competed in the Steffen Nielsen 45 JT, judged by Steffen himself.
There was a total of 19 awarded studies, including 7 prizes.
The winning study by Oleg Pervakov and Karen Sumbatyan showed an amazing knight endgame,
ending in mate with three knights against a sole queen.
All studies to replay here: Nielsen 45 JT 2020
The award is also available as PDF and PGN at Problemskak.dk
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Winner of the Fide 8th World Cup 2020 tournament is Darko Hlebec.
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Michael Pasman and Steffen Nielsen with Martin Minski are the winners of the Phenix 2019 tournament.
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Steffen Nielsen winner of the Advantage / Disadvantage or Van de Gevel 60 JT 2020 tournament.
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Many studies of the Strategems 2018 and 2019 tournaments available.
Winner 2018: Martin Minski with Niclas Huchenbeth
Winner 2019: Steffen Nielsen.
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In the Problem Paradise 2019 tournament there were two sections.
In Win-section the winner is Peter Krug;
In the Draw-section Christopher Yoo and Jan Timman are the prize winners !
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Tournament: Tehtavaniekka 2017-2019 is won by Arpad Rusz !
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Amatzia Avni wins IRT 2019
The April 2020 issue of the Israeli magazine Variantim is available.
It has an interesting study article by Gady Costeff as well
as the award of Variantim 2019 (IRT 2019) judged by Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen.
The tournament saw a home victory, as Amatzia Avni triumphed with a spectacular "one move" study.
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Piotr Murdzia and Martin Minski win the Polish Chess Federation ty 2019
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In the 10th Jubilee tournament of the Union Argentina de Problemistas de Ajedraz, there were 4 sections.
For the thematic Win-Miniatures section A1: the winner is: Mario Micaloni with Arpad Rusz,
For the thematic Draw-Miniatures section A2: the winner is: Vladislav Tarasiuk,
For the no-theme Win Section B1: the winner is: Peter Krug,
For the no-theme Draw Section B2: the winner is: Michael Pasman.
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Evgeny Kopylov wins Pobeda-75
14 composers competed in a tournament to commemorate Russia's defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Accordingly all six prizes were awarded to win studies.
The first place winnner was Evgeny Kopylov (Russia) in front of Vladislav Tarasiuk (Ukraine) and Luis Migual Gonzalez (Spain).
Special prizes were awarded to Yuri Bazlov, Oleg Pervakov and Alexey Sochnev (all Russia).
The tournament was judged by Sergey Osintsev (Russia), who put all 14 studies in his award.
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Steffen Nielsen with Martin Minski win the Magyar Sakkvilag 2019 tournament !
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Russian Oleg Pervakov
is the old and new world champion
of endgame studies.
Congratulations!!
The scores of the studies section of the 2016-2018 WCCI have been released, securing Pervakov the honours for the fourth time, this time scoring 42,5 points.
The judges of the championship were Harold van der Heijden (The Netherlands),
Gurgenidze and Minski win Pat a Mat 2018/19
The latest biennial tournament of the Slovakian magazine Pat a Mat saw 22 studies compete.
Judge Emil Vlasak awarded first prize to the Georgian-German duo Martin Minski and David Gurgenidze who presented a sharp rook endgame.
Pavel Arestov (Russia) and Daniel Keith (France) won second prize in front of Peter Krug from Austria (3rd prize) and Arpad Rusz from Romania (special prize).
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Grandmasters triumph in 64-Shakhmatnoe Obozrenie 2019
The 2019 study tournament of the famous Russian chess magazine Shakhmatnoe Obozrenie, best known as simply "64",
was won by Yochanan Afek (The Netherlands) and Oleg Pervakov (Russia).
The two grandmasters of composition presented a tactical struggle with black and white counterblows.
A special prize was awarded to Arpad Rush (Romania) for a malyutka study featuring the fight of rook against two black pawns.
The tournaments was judged by Pavel Arestov (Russia).
64 Shakhmatnoye Obozrenye 2019
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A new issue available of the Argentinian magazine:
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Pervakov and Stavrietsky win Borodavkin 50 JT
A tournament to celebrate the 50th birthday of Sergei Borodavkin saw the triumph of an epic study by the Russian duo Pervakov/Stavrietsky.
On a total of 14(!) occasions White refuses to capture the Black queen.
Mario Micaloni and Arpad Rusz (Romania) presented a deep logical bishop ending to secure second place,
while a special prize was awarded to Pavel Arestov's (Russia) study with a rook battling four Black pawns to secure the draw.
The judge Vladislav Tarasiuk evaluated a total of 25 studies.
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On the download page added a new zip-file with latest Awards in PGN files.
First (Register and) Logon.
Downloads || registered users only
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Rusz and Kiryakov win Shakhmatnaya Kompositzia 2019
The annual study competition of the Russian periodical Shakhmatnaya Kompositzia saw 26 works competing for the honors.
Judge Alexrandr Stavrietsky gave three prizes.
The top spot was shared between Arpad Rusz (Romania) and Petr Kiryakov (Russia), while Steffen Nielsen (Denmark) won third prize.
We have two studies so far to show you:
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Krug, Peter 1966 is the first prize winner for the Win section and
Michal Hlinka with Lubos Kekely are the winners of the Draw-section
of the Československý šach 2019 tournament.
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Nielsen wins ChessStar 2019
The 2019 informal study tournament of the ChessStar website was won by Steffen Nielsen (Denmark)
with a study combining a checkless Prokeš (5. Ra7!) with a logical try (5. Ra6+?)) where the Prokeš happens with check.
Second place was secured by Jan Timman (The Netherlands) and Mario Guido Garcia (Argentina).
Their study features eventful counterplay by Black culminating in a positional draw despite Black being a rook, bishop and two pawns up.
Third place saw another joint study by Nielsen (Denmark) and Minski (Germany), the star move being 2. Re8!! after which White's pawns become unstoppable.
The tournament was judged by Peter Gyarmati, who evaluated a total of 25 studies. Replay: ChessStar 2019
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Results of the János Mikitovics 70 JT
Winner of the win section: Oleg Pervakov, Russia
In the UAPA 9th 2019 - Iriarte Memorial ty with 3 sections, Oleg Pervakov wins the thematic section.
In the win section the victory is split between Andrzej Jasik and a co-study by Arpad Rusz and Pavel Arestov.
In the draw section the winner is: Valery Kalashnikov.
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Siegfried Hornecker, Martin Minski and Hauke Reddmann won the Moscow 2019 ty with a nice miniature!
Can you solve it? White plays and wins.
You also can find the solution in the Moscow 2019 PDF on the Awards Files files page.
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Study commented by GM Pablo Ricardi
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Dolf Wissmann has made an accurate summary with the results of the Arves Solving contests organized since 1995:
Arves Solving contests statistics
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Original study donated to Arves by Michal Formela:
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The December 2019 issue of the Israelian magazine Variantim with an interesting study article by Gady Costeff.
PDF (Variantim_Dec_79_2019) to download.
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Dear chessfriends,
The ARVES solving tourney 2019 was the 10th and last edition of a fine tradition.
The faithful tournament arbiter Luc Palmans and myself have taken this decision sharing the feeling that this would be the moment from personal reasons
and in view of the lack of further financial resources.
To conclude this meaningful chapter for us I wish to thank all those who kindly contributed to its success:
First and foremost our devoted arbiter Luc Palmans, who selected and tested the studies, prepared the paper work and skilfully judged all 10 editions;
All distinguished composers who provided their fine original entries;
0ur photographers Harry Gielen and to Rene Olthof for helping to documentate and save the precious moments and the finest memories;
To the boards of ARVES and Tata Steel chess and Jurgen Stigter for their substantial support.
Last but not least I would like to thank you all dear participants and to wish you a happy new year and Lots of success in your future challenges!
Best regards, Yochanan Afek , Tournament director.
Addition by Luc Palmans:
Ward Stoffelen was arbiter of the first edition.
I participated at the first edition, finished last, and decided it was time for a career switch.
Thanks to all the participants and supporters of these 10 fine editions.
Of course thanks to Yochanan, who doesn't stop to promote our art.
Best wishes to everybody for the next year.
Arves Solving contests statistics
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Vladislav Tarasiuk - wins the 22nd Championship of Ukraine.
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Results of Sinfonie Scacchistiche 2017-2018
The 2017-2018 informal study tournament of the Italian problem magazine Sinfonie Scacchistiche were split into 3 sections:
In the win section (A1), the honours were shared between a tactical study by the German-Danish duo Martin Minski and Steffen Nielsen and the Pole Andrzrej Jasik.
Another win section with midboard mates (A2) was established by the judge, as he discovered that a large portion of the submitted studies fullfilled this theme.
Here the trio Bizyagin Buyannemekh (Mongolia) Michael Hlinka (Slovakia) and Mario García (Argentina) were succesful.
Finally, in the draw section (A3) Pavel Arestov won first prize with a logical study.
The tournament was judged by Michael Roxlau of Germany who evaluated a total of 59 studies. Sinfonie Scacchistische 2017-2018
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A new book issued by Sergei Tkachenko:
The book contains almost 400 pages and is about the chess career of Yakov Vilner who lived mostly in Odessa, Ukraine and became only 31 years old.
He is the one who helped Alexander Alekhine to escape the death penalty and to leave Russia in the rural times of 1919.
The first part of the book is about his career as a chessplayer;
The second half is about all his compositions (93) which are mainly all kind of Problems.
The book contains a lot of interesting history with many beautiful pictures.
The games and compositions are extensively commented by Sergei Tkachenko
and with the compositions other examples with the same theme (of other composers) are added.
The English translation is very good.
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A new book : An English edited version of De Koning and De Koningin in one volume.
Translation by: Yochanan Afek.
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New book by Sergei Tkachenko:
100 studies with just bishop and knight.
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Sergei Tkachenko has written many new books about endgame studies:
Biography's about Gorgiev, Tigran 1910-1976, Zinar, Mikhail 1951 and Rezvov, Nikolay 1921-2013:
With 100 studies each and pictures.
And by material theme:
You may find more details about them and more chessbooks at: http://www.elkandruby.com/
-----------------------------
At "Elk and Ruby Publishing House" high quality Chess books are published.
Also about Endgame studies.
Oleg Pervakov (born in 1960 in the city of Kirov) is widely recognized as Russia’s greatest living chess composer.
He has composed nearly 500 studies and he has won the individual chess composition world championship three times: in 2004-2006, 2007-2009 and 2013-2015.
In this book, Sergei Tkachenko, a member of the Ukrainian team that won the 5th World Chess Composition Tournament in 1997
and which came second in 2000, 2004, 2013, and 2017, has selected 100 of Oleg Pervakov’s best studies.
The selection is quite varied – from elegant short studies with six moves to romantic grotesques with many pieces on board and over 30 moves to the solution.
Yet what all of these studies have in common is spectacular play by both sides.
And watch out: they are tough! That said, Oleg’s compositions are never boring.
You may buy this collection of studies to test your endgame tactical abilities, to improve your endgame understanding, or simply to appreciate chess in all its beauty.
Unlike previous studies books compiled by Sergei Tkachenko this book is not pocket-sized due to its longer solutions.
Available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/5604071048
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Sad news: Benko, Pal 1928-2019 died at the age of 91.
At Chess.com you may read more about his great chess career.
In Memory of Pal Benko by Vladimir Samilo
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Martin Minski with Steffen Nielsen win the Phenix 2018 tournament.
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Results and report of the 4th Youth Chess Composing Challenge.
The study section of the Youth Chess Composing Challenge 2019 was won by American Christopher Yoo
in front of Andrii Sergiienko, Ukraine, who secured both 2nd and 3rd place.
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Gromov, Pervakov and Sumbatyan win the
Vladimir Bron 110 MT 2019
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Peter Krug & Mario Garcia win the Springaren 2018 tournament
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Ivanna Infantozzi supplied new information and nice pictures about her grandfather: Infantozzi, Julio 1916-1991
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Magazine EG 217 is issued.
Contents and more to replay.
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In four sections the winners of the UAPA 8th 2019 Foguelman 95 MT are:
Richard Becker, Peter Krug & Mario Garcia, Jan Timman & Mario Garcia and Peter Krug.
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Chessfriend and Clubmate Brent Burg
(not family of Twan Burg)
did show this bold position (at the Chessclub Dubbelschaak97)
which has only one solution and is hard to find.
May be not good enough for a prize winner, but anyway an endgamestudy !
Specially at the first move white has many options.
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Peter Krug meets Martin Minski 2019
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Andrzej Jasik (win section) and Jan Timman (draw section)
win the Japanese magazine tournament: Problem Paradise 2018
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Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen and Martin Minski win the Romanian tournament Bucovina 100 Years Cup 2018.
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Pavel Arestov wins the 5th FRME 2019 tournament.
Second Prize winners are Amatzia Avni and Martin Minski.
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Many new tournaments announced last week: Tournament Calendar
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EG 218 issued
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Avni and Osintsev win Gravura 2019 - Pervakov wins first ever superprize
The study section of the annual cross genre Gravura tournament, requiring problems with 10 pieces or less, saw 27 studies compete.
The judge Igor Agapov (Russia) awarded 15 studies and gave first prize to a cowork by Amatzia Avni (Israel) and Sergei Osintsev (Russia),
a tactical study with two surprise corner moves: 3. Rh8! and 8. Qa8.
Second prize went to Steffen Nielsen (Denmark)
and third prize to Mikhail Gromov and Oleg Pervakov (both Russia).
Pervakov was also winner of the first ever "Superprize", an apparently new concept in the world of studies.
In his study, the pieces at one point forms a Kyrillic "G" (Г) for Gravura.
The award in Russian, including the other sections of the tourney can be found here.
German trio triumphs in Moscow Tournament
The annual Moscow Tournament attracted 25 studies of which 7 were awarded by judge Evgenij Kopylov.
A beautiful miniature by Siegfried Hornecker, Martin Minski and Hauke Reddmann (all Germany)
won first prize ahead of Marcel Dore (France) and Mikhail Gromov/Oleg Pervakov (Russia).
Read the full award (in Russian) here.
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Final award has some updates in the UAPA 7th 2018 studies: Caputto-95 JT 2018 UAPA 7th
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This book now on the ECF Book of the year 2019 shortlist !
Or to be found on this website:
The leading publishing house Quality Chess has just released a new title by Yochanan Afek
Practical Chess Beauty
Summing up a creative career of over 50 years the new hardcover book introduces in 464 pages
Yochanan’s selected endgame studies, games and fragments, as well as bites from his problems in other genres all presented in thematic chapters.
The book is available in online chess shops and on the publisher’s website also in a digital version from Forward Chess.
Look it up here:
Author Yochanan Afek with Jan Timman (left) and the new book.
Who won the bottle of Jenever in the quick composing tournament Arves 12th Jenever 2019 ?
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Jan Timman wins the Pal Benko 90 Jubilee Tournament 2019.
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Amos Gilboa and Yochanan Afek win the Velimir Kalandadze MT 2019
Wladimir Kuzmiczew of Russia wins the Polish Chess Federation 2018 tournament.
NEW: Replayable studies now available: Polish Chess Federation 2018
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Sadly Dutch composer Balemans, Teun 1951-2019 had died last April.
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Sergey Didukh wins the FIDE World Cup 2019
38 of the world's top composers competed in one of the most prestigious events of the year, the FIDE World Cup. Judge Tarasiuk (Ukraine) awarded 10 of the studies. The winner was Ukrainian Sergey Didukh, who presented two perfectly matched sacrificial main lines. Both second and third prizes were awarded to purely tactical studies. Martin Minski (Germany) secured second prize with a study showing both subtle foresight and an array of sacrifices. In third prize 12 year old Christopher Yoo (USA) once again showed his talent with mutual queen sacrifices and other tactics. The awarded studies can be replayed here:
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Amatzia Avni has dedicated an original study to the participants of Netanya nternational Chess Festival (June 23nd- July 2nd)
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Peter Krug composed a study dedicated to Timothy Whitworth:
Sad news:
At 17.4 Timothy Whitworth died.
A tribute to him you may read at the John Beasley Website.
Picture found of russian composer Prigunov, Vjatcheslav 1950
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The amazing Chess Query Language (CQL) developed by Gady Costeff and Lewis Stiller
has got it's final 6.0 release !
Look here for the latest Release Notes with the improvements and changes.
You may download this FREE software from their website.
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The Problemist march 2019 by Yochanan Afek
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Eddy van Beers wins the Arves solving contest at Nunspeet:
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Anna Haast wins the 10th International Solving Contest Arves 2019 at Wijk Aan Zee
during Tata Steel chess tournament
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Tip: the Chessify app on your mobile phone
(Apple and Android):
Chessify is a must-have tool for chess lovers.
It allows to scan and digitize chess diagrams from books, journals, pdf files,
or other sources with acceptable recognition efficiency,
which makes its scanner the best chess OCR tool (optical character recognition) in the market.
The app also allows the users to analyze the digitized positions either locally or on cloud servers for free.
The strongest chess engines are used for analysis, such as Stockfish 10.
The cloud Stockfish engine can be used for free at about 25.000 kN/s speed for 10 seconds.
If you want to play or analyze interesting chess positions and puzzles, Chessify is a perfect and free app for you.
Notably, you can also save the needed positions (FEN) in the app’s storage and share them with other chess applications.
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At the website by Arpad Rusz the announcement is made about the publication of the studies
for the World Championship in Composing for Individuals (WCCI 2016-18)
organized by the World Federation of Chess Composition.
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Cook found in 2nd prize study in Hillel Aloni 80 MT 2017
Correction is created and added to this page.
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Fide Master Peter Krug has composed a study in memory of Vandecasteele, Ignace 1926-2018
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Sadly to inform you that Grandmaster Virgil Nestorescu died at 21.6.2018.
More about it him can also be found at the Romanian website: http://www.stere.ro/
and at Nestorescu, Virgil 1929-2018
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EG 213 is issued. Many interesting articles ...
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New picture found with young Max Euwe behind Alexander Rueb (1924?).
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New article Endgamestudy Presentations on Video where all Video Presentations which explain studies, can be found.
It is organised by Language Tabs.
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At Chessbase.com there is a video by Grandmaster Karsten Müller where he explains the significance of Tablebases.
The introduction in the Chessbase newsletter about this:
"Revolutions in endgame theory" is the exciting title of a video Karsten Müller recorded on the occasion of the release of the new Endgame Turbo 5.
In this video, the endgame expert looks back to the beginnings of computer-assisted endgame analysis and links in his own analysis methods,
in which he also regularly integrates the "Syzygy" tablebases.
Of course, Müller does not pass over the opportunity to present some of the most spectacular discoveries made over the course of this development.
The 9th World Championship match between Karpov and Kasparov in 1984 is just one of many examples:
a whole series of winning proofs were developed for the position below for White - one of them by Karsten Müller himself.
And yet: they all turned out to be false, as we now know thanks to the tablebases!
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GrandMaster Loek van Wely (King Loek) with his young son, pointing at the Arves website,
showing his interest for Endgame studies and the Arves website.
(Picture taken at the Dutch otb Chess Championship in Amsterdam 2018)
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Sadly we have to inform that honorary member of Arves, Roger Missiaen has passed away on 19.6.2018 at an age of 93.
Picture taken in 2016 where he had an age of 91.
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You may find some nice presentations (in Dutch) of studies
composed by Leonid Kubbel
at Vimeo by
GM Matthew Sadler
(uploaded by Ed van de Gevel).
Links:
2 studies
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Arpad Rusz has created Syzygy Endgame Explorer (SEE) which is software for mining the newly generated 7-man endgame tablebases.
The tool can not only find mutual zugzwangs but can also identify positions where interesting moves are the only winning ones
(like when a piece moves to a corner square or it is sacrificed).
His goal is to write a tool similar to CQL which searches tablebases instead of pgn files.
Look at his nice website for more information about it.
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At YouTube GM Niclas Huschenbeth is presents (in German language) many amazing (Unglaubliche Studien) Endgame studies.
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Sadly we have to inform that honorary member of Arves, Ignace Vandecasteele has passed away on 31.5.2018 at an age of 91.
Vandecasteele, Ignace 1926-2018
Vladimir Samilo has composed two twin studies to remember Ignace
and both are inspirated by studies of Ignace:
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Many new tournaments are opened see: Tournament Calendar;
EG 212 issued, almost 100 pages !
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Yifan Hou misses study like win against Caruana !
In the game Caruana - Yifan Hou in the Grenke Chess Classic tournament in Germany, Karlsruhe/Baden Baden the following position came up.
Black played 64... a5 and the game ended in a draw, but black had the following study like win !
64. ... Kd2 65. Bxa6 Nd3+ ! 66. cxd3 d4 !
To replay:
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Argentinian magazine special issue Finales Y Temas 102 by Jose Copie.
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Mystery about composer J.Fauchner, as pointed out by Rainer Staudte.
Was it Julius Fauchner (1820-1878) who composed one in 1854?
Because most of the known studies are composed from 1995 to 2005 (published in Chess Life & Review) it seems to be someone else?
Who can help us out here?
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Registered users are able to download compressed zip-files with all the PGN-files on this site.
See menu: Collections, Downloads.
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Otb GM Christian Chirila from the St.Louis Chess Club presents at YouTube nice examples of studies composed by Mario Garcia.
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The award of Stigter-64 JT 2017 is published.
More PDF files of the website of the late Iuri Akobia are copied to Arves to secure them.
Most of them are added to the Awards page.
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Study section of the German magazine "Problem Forum" now coming available at Arves.
Look at menu: Collections, Problem Forum.
Thanks to Martin Minski.
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Martin Minski has created an endgamestudy (for Chessstar 2018)
inspired by the finish of the game by Vishy Anand - Grischuk,A
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Yochanan Afek best study solver at Nunspeet.
In this PDF you may find the 6 studies to be solved.
The result table:
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Who can provide some basic information (with a picture) about the following composers to create a personal page to honor them?
Vassily Pomogalov, C. Sansom, VN. Kondratev, V.Khenkin, J.Szulc, A. Kuryatnikov, Sergei Manyakhin,
R.Bania, V.Zheltukov, E.Kolsenikov, V.Nikitin, L.Sedlak, D.Blundell, L.Mozes,
R.Svoboda and also others not yet having a page here, see list: Ranking Composers.
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At Chessbase.com the study of the month article is about the Platov brothers, written by Siegfried Hornecker..
Also at Chessbase.com Yochanan Afek presents an article with more information about the Solving Contest at WijkaanZee.
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On request did some menu changes. Hope it is more clear now?
On request new articles with Miniatures are added.
See menu Endgame studies, miniatures.
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Yochanan Afek at Chessbase.com reports extensively about the Jan Timman 65 JT.
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Picture found of Louma, Josef 1898-1955.
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Twan Burg wins 9th Arves Solving Contest 2018.
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Wouter J.G. Mees
(6.8.1921 – 25.1.2018)
It is with great regret that we inform you that the patriarch of Dutch endgame study composition
passed away on January 25 at the age of 96.
He was one of the founders of the Alexander Rueb Vereniging voor Eindspelstudie (ARVES).
An obituary by Harold van der heijden is published in EG212 (April 2018)
and in Dutch in the magazine of the KNSB.
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Vladimir Samilo (Ukraine) composed the following study in memory of Wouter Mees.
The study is made after a study by Wouter Mees created in 1939!
Peter Krug also has created a study in Memory of Wouter Mees.
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EG211 has been issued, contents and cover:
Supplement Jan Timman 65 JT Award report and analyses:
From left to right: Jan Timman, Hans Bohm, Yochanan Afek and Harold van der Heijden.
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The mysterious French/Canadian composer F.Chapais (17th century) identified as Gaspard Monge !
See in article: Chapais, F 1746-1818
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Database Harold van der Heijden has grown to 89.000 collected endgame studies.
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Another fresh study presented by Renan Araujo (Portugese) about a study of Martin Minski and Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen at You Tube.
Look at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XrB8_QOHRs&t=11s and http://viladorenan.blogspot.de/
and an amazing ending with Yochanan Afek:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Read: Study of the month by Siegfried Hornecker at Chessbase with tributes to John Roycroft, Harold van der Heijden and more.
He issues monthly interesting articles about Endgame studies !
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New book from Thinkers Publishing.
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Studies presented on YouTube in Portuguese by Renan Araujo:
Video about a study by Oleg Pervakov (1st prize, 7th Jenever ARVES Ty 2014):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkmUa0j7lEM&t=7s
Video about a study by Martin Minski (4th prize, 7th Jenever ARVES Ty 2014):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8gSxtyXN5A&t=101s
Video about a study coproduction by Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen & Martin Minski (Troitzky-150 MT 2017):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTySjtjruyg&t=129s
Video about a study by Martin Minski (Malyshko-105 MT 2017, task of three anti-stalemate queen sacrifices, not awarded!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGwyAq_huvo&t=12s
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Yochanan Afek has written: Extreme Chess Tactics, where he uses many endgame studies as examples.
The book has 144 pages in 16 chapters with the following tactical themes:
Fork, Battery Play, Pinning and Unpinning, The Skewer, Deflection and Decoy, Trapping a Piece, Removing a Guard,
Line-Opening and Line Closing, Back-Rank Weakness, Pawn Promotion, Zwischenzug,
Devious Draws: Perpetual Check, Devious Draws: Stalemate, The Ultimate Goal: Mate, Combined Motifs.
Each Chapter has game-examples played by worldchampions and about 20 diagrams with exercises where a question or hint is given.
The solutions are explained very clearly.
Besides all over the board examples (a bit more than a half of the total exercises) are from world champions practice (men and women).
The rest are of players and solvers friendly endgame studies.
The book is recommended because many of the examples and exercises are taken from beautiful endgame studies !
The book starts with the famous finish of world champion Magnus Carlsen in 2016 against Kariakin (See below ...)
where he brings forward his own pattern recognition of a game played in Beltsy, 1979 between Popov and Novopashin,
where white even combined a deeper (5 moves in advance) same win.
He emphasize the importance of pattern-recognition in the process of training chess capabilities in general
and in improving tactical skills in particular.
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Improved definition of an Endgame study is given by Harold van der Heijden and added in: What is an Endgame study?
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14 December 2017
ARVES congratulates Jan Timman on his 66th birthday today.
We are very proud that we can also publish the award of the Timman-65 JT on our website.
The tourney was a great success (many entries, and beautiful studies) and attracted both famous and novice composers.
For more information find the PDF report in Awards
and look at the replayable studies in: Jan Timman 65 JT Section1 and Jan Timman 65 JT Section2 (please register).
---------------------------------------
Page about Whitworth, Timothy 1932 extended with Picture and many of his studies.
Recently, in October 2017, the second edition of the book Endgame Magic, which he wrote with John Beasley was issued.
It contains 160 studies (20 new ones) with extensive commentary. 192 pages.
After an Introduction the book has 3 parts with in total 17 chapters.
The chapters show studies with themes:
"Winning material", "Giving mate", "Creating stalemate", "Racing to promote", "Fighting to promote", "Perpetual harassment",
"Losing the move", "Underpromotion", "Decoys and diversions", "Shielding and obstruction", "Fortress and blockade",
"Corresponding squares", "Echoes and repetitions", "Cut and thrust", "Frolics and fantasies" and "The grand manner".
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26 EG PDF files have improved quality.
Harold van der Heijden has corrected some problems (e.g. missing pages) in the PDF-files of the following EG issues:
8, 12, 27, 44, 48, 56, 74, 93, 98, 102-1, 106-1, 106-2, 109, 113, 114, 115, 117, 118, 122, 124, 124-supplement, 125, 134, 136, 138, 153.
You may download these NEW files from: EG numbers 1 to 190 PDF+
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The Belgium Thinkers Publishing issues very high quality chess books. Also about endgames, like:
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5 new tournament announcements (see: Tournament Calendar)
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More than 40 new PDF files of magazine EG (8 years) are added !!.
Thanks to Harold van der Heijden and Luc Palmans.
See article: EG numbers 1 to 190 PDF+
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This websites has more than 1250 subpages .... !! with:
More than 550 PDF files with articles or awards to view or download;
More than 500 PGN files with studies to download;
More than 800 pictures (mainly about composers);
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Lewis Stller has provided many CQL 5.1 conversion codes to the older 3.02 examples. They are added to the pages here on Arves.
Because of the better CQL 5.1 he has improved many examples. Look for instance at: CQL Indian theme.
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WFCC List of most succesfull Endgame study composers 2013-2015.
Top 6:
1. Richard Becker
2. Oleg Pervakov
3. Martin Minski
4. Yuri Bazlov
5. Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen
6. Peter Krug
--------------------------------
Study of the year 2015
is decided !
The winning study is:
See also Study of the year 2015.
------------------------------
Magnus Carlsen finished brilliantly with a study-like move in the 15th and last (rapid) game against Karjakin in NewYork 2016
on move 50 he played Qf4-h6+ !
(When 51... Kxh6 51.Rh8# or 51...gxh6 51.Rxf7#)
Vladislav Tarasiuk and Peter Krug have composed studies which are inspired on this finish.
Tarasiuk dedicates the study to Magnus Carlsen.
(More about: Tarasiuk, Vladislav 1968)
Peter Krug study has both mating concepts based on this finish in his creation:
