The Chess Links Project
Latest News
5/8/2008
Three New Book Reviews
Fighting the Anti-King’s Indians
By IM Yelena Dembo
Everyman Chess
By GM Nigel Davies
Everyman Chess
By IM Richard Palliser, GM John Emms,
GM Chris Ward and GM Gawain Jones
Everyman Chess
Latest News
2/8/2008
Two New Reviews
There's new reviews of:
The Chess Café Puzzle Book 2
By GM Carsten Müller
By American Master Bruce Albertson
Russell Enterprises
over at:
http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2008/07/chess-reviews-56.html
Latest News
1/8/2008
The British Chess Championship
Follow all the action here: http://www.britishchess08.com/index.htm
Jonathan 'The Hawk' Hawkins is playing in the top section for the first time and has started very well (two wins, one draw and one loss from his first four games)
Grandmaster Gawain Jones (top seed!), Bret Addison and David Eggleston are there too - all have played in our junior events in the past - just like you!
Meanwhile, closer to home...
The NCCU Junior Championships
Date: Saturday 30th August
Venue: Hopwood Unionist Club in Heywood
Open to: all players U18 who live in the North of England.
Entry Form + Info @ www.nccu.org.uk
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Latest News
24/7/2008
Four More Book Reviews!
http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2008/07/chess-reviews-55.html
Play the Slav
By FM James Vigus
The Greatest Ever Chess Opening Ideas
By IM Christoph Scheerer
Pawn Sacrifice!
Winning at Chess the Adventurous Way
By IM Timothy Taylor
Play 1 b4!
By IM Yury Lapshun and US Master Nick Conticello
(All four books from 'Everyman Chess')
Latest News
21/7/2008
UK Chess Challenge
'Gigafinal' Results
See How Our Players Performed Over at:
http://www.ukchesschallenge.com/GFResSAT_North08.shtml
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Latest News
16/7/2008
Three More Book Reviews!
100 Endgames You Must Know
By GM Jesus de la Villa
New in Chess
The Chebanenko Slav
According to Bologan
By GM Victor Bologan
New in Chess
The Flexible French
GM Viktor Moskalenko
New in Chess
http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2008/07/chess-reviews-54.html
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Latest News
10/7/2008
Four More Chess Book Reviews!
How to Crush Your Chess Opponents
By GM Simon Williams
The Art of Attacking Chess
By GM Zenon Franco
The Easiest Sicilian
By GM Atanas Kolev & GM Trajko Nedev
The Wisest Things Ever Said About Chess ============================================================================================
By GM Andrew Soltis
...now reviewed over at:
http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2008/07/chess-reviews-53.html
Latest News
4/7/2008
Lots of news this week, so have a good read!
Teesside High KO Chess Championship 2008
The annual KO Championship reached an exciting conclusion with a final match worthy of the occasion. The advantage changed hands several times before Tom finally gained a decisive initiative. So Tom is the champion!
Both players worked very hard to get to the final and Niall, although obviously disappointed, was the first to congratulate the new champion and set an excellent example of how take defeat. No doubt he will already be looking forward to next year's event and a chance of revenge.
The Final
Tom Batchelor 1-0 Niall Garner
Meanwhile, the losers of the two semi-finals battled it out to decide the other two places. Ben saved his worst game of the tournament till last, falling for a very quick Queen and Bishop checkmate. Sneaky Anastasia! She is now officially the best girl player at Teesside High.
3rd/4th Place Play-Off
Anastasia Brown 1-0 Ben Amos
Some pictures will appear in the gallery in the very near future.
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Yarm School KO Championship
The Yarm Prep School ‘Knock Out’ chess tournament proved to be one of the most dramatic and exciting of all.
There were plenty of hard fought contests and surprise results from the very first round onwards. Two boys from the Early School, Aditya and Ashvin, upset several of their older rivals and were only KO’d in the latter stages of the tournament.
The semi-finals produced two intriguing clashes. The defending champion, Dhruv Tapasvi, was playing for a place in his third consecutive final but he came unstuck against Alexander Maddison. A mistake by Dhruv led to ruinous material losses and Alexander held his nerve to make sure of the victory.
Meanwhile, Harry Bean managed to beat Arjun Tapasvi in another close encounter. Many had predicted an all-Tapasvi final. Thus, the big finale featured a surprise pairing. Harry is still the more experienced of the two, but Alexander has been one of the school’s most improved players over the last year.
Harry won a piece early in the game and looked to be doing everything right to steer towards a comfortable victory. However, Alexander then started to put together some very strong attacking moves and bravely managed to change the pattern of the game. His Rook became a rampant monster in the endgame. It infiltrated Harry’s position and started to take everything in sight. Most payers would have folded under such pressure but Harry is an excellent tournament player. He set one last trap, sacrificing one of his few remaining pawns to engineer a cunning breakthrough. Alexander saw he danger too late and suddenly found himself powerless to prevent Harry from getting a new Queen. This time Harry wasn’t going to let things slip and he finished off with tidy checkmate with his Queen and Bishop.
It had been a marvellous final and very worthy of the occasion. Both players emerged with tremendous credit, especially when they finished the game according to an excellent chess motto (made popular by the great champion GM Susan Polgar):
Win with grace, lose with dignity.
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The Mikhail Tal Memorial Trophy Donated by Ernie Lazenby of the Cleveland Chess Association, this magnificent trophy is awarded to the local junior who has achieved special things in chess over the season. Dhruv Tapasvi, chess captain of Yarm School and champion of many tournaments, won the award for 2008 and will keep the trophy for a year. 
Dhruv receiving his trophy from Sean Marsh of the Chess Links Project
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Three new DVDs reviewed (all by Chessbase)
My Best Games in the Slav and Semi-Slav
By GM Alexei Shirov
Albin’s Countergambit for Experts
By GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Endgames for Experts
By GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov
http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2008/07/chess-reviews-52.html
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Some of our top local players will be competing in the 'Gigafinal' stage of the UK Chess Challenge this weekend. It will be interesting to see well they do against the best players from all over the country. Hopefully I'll be able to round up their achievemens here soon. ======================================================= For Your Diary The first ever There are competitions, giant chess boards, and free coaching all on the schedule. Grandmaster Gawain Jones has been confirmed as the superstar guest. Go along and join the fun in the sun! The next Yarm Team Tournament is scheduled for saturday 27th September 2008. That should give you enough time to put together a school team of four players. Further details will appear here in due course. ========================================================= Live Chess Games Dortmund 28th June - 6th July 2008 http://www.sparkassen-chess-meeting.de/index.html 3-7 July, Nigel Short v Sergey Karyakin http://chess.life.com.ua/index.php?lng=en&area=video ==========================================================
UK Chess Challenge North East Summer Chess Festival will be held at Ward Jackson Park, Hartlepool, Saturday 26th July. 
For Older Items Please Visit The News Archive
http://www.chesslinksproject.btik.com/news/home.ikml