How to Access CBH, CBV and PGN Files

A brief guide for beginners on how to access chess game formats such as CBH, CBV and PGN.

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Smyslov passes away at age 89

7th World Champion Vassily Smyslov passed away peacefully on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at the age of 89.

Smyslov was known for his positional chess and superb endgame knowledge. A lesser known fact is that he was also a great combinational player, evident in a number of spectacular tactical shots thoughout his career.

Interesting fact: Apart from playing excellent chess, Smyslov sometimes gave musical performances during chess tournaments, often accompanied by fellow GM and concert pianist Mark Taimanov. In fact, he only decided upon a career in chess after when he failed an audition for the Bolshoi Theatre in 1950.

Click here to see ChessBase's tribute article to Smyslov.

Brief History of Chess

I compiled information from Encyclopædia Britannica and World Book to create a timeline on the origins of chess and other interesting historical data.

Click here to see the article "Brief History of Chess".

Best Chess Interfaces and GUIs

Chess engines are normally not standalone programs: they need an adequate interface in order to run them. Today, I'm going to run through a number of chess interfaces/GUIs (graphical user interfaces).

Nowadays, most leading interfaces support the Universal Chess Interface protocol, which is widely considered to produce the strongest engines in the world. Almost all of the following interfaces double as chess database/analysis software...

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Chess Book Recommendations

Chess books are the ultimate source of knowledge on chess. In technical terms, they can provide more detailed material than DVDs. Some players even credit 1800+ of their rating points to a single book! There is an abundance of chess literature out there and today, I'm going to go through some of my personal recommendations. I have broken the suggestions up into categories so they are easier to digest.

Opening

Opening books on specific openings are either superseded or go out of date quickly, so I'm not going to recommend any titles in that department. However, you can find some book/DVD recommendations that complement repertoires in my "opening repertoire suggestions" article...

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Sveshnikov's 60th Birthday

Evgeny Sveshnikov, born in Cheliabinsk, Russia, on February 11, 1950, is perhaps best known for the opening named after him, the Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5). To be honest, having played the Sveshnikov Variation many times before, I hadn't realised this grandmaster was so young! Evgeny Sveshnikov became an IM at 25 and a GM at 27.

It is interesting to note that in January of 1984, Sveshnikov was diagnosed with third stage cancer. He survived and went on to live a normal life.

Check out ChessBase's tribute article "Evgeny Sveshnikov turns sixty".

Review of Roman's Lab DVDs

Roman's Lab is a range of chess DVDs that have been released within the last few years and I believe the series hasn't finished yet. The DVDs are presented by famous American Grandmaster Roman "Dzindzi" Dzindzichashvili. Best known for his videos and books nowadays, he was once within the world top 10. Throughout his career, he has landed defeats on big names such as 6th World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, Bronstein, Larsen, Timman, Shabalov and Nakamura. He has worked with 12th World Champion Karpov, 13th World Champion Kasparov, Kamsky, Korchnoi and Perelshteyn. Roman has come equal first in the US Championship twice. According to Wikipedia, his peak rating was 2703 in October 1978. These days, he is much older (65 at the time of writing), but he is still well known for his very strong online play...

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