Happy 80th Birthday GM Victor Korchnoi!

GM Victor Korchnoi wearing the famous glasses during one of his world title matches vs. GM Anatoly Karpov! ChessBase presents a nice tribute to GM Korchnoi here.

I want to show a game where GM Korchnoi defeats GM Bobby Fischer as Black.

The London System #1, game 1

I created a London System tournament on chess.com and this is the first game completed. This is a 2 round event with 10 players participating. I'll keep you posted as games are completed!

Happy Birthday GM Vassily Ivanchuk!

GM Vassily Ivanchuk was born March 18, 1969 in the Ukraine. He plays all kinds of openings and is always exciting to watch! I've included a nice game he won vs. GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia. It is an Exchange Slav which has alot of the ideas of "The London". I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Birthday GM Joel Benjamin!

Joel Lawrence Benjamin was born on March 11, 1964 in New York, USA.
He obtained his GM title in 1986. The above picture is from last year's U.S. Championship, a game which GM Gata Kamsky won. The below game is a game from the 1991 U.S. Championship in which Gata played the London System and Joel won!

Round 3, March 2011 Monthly Club Swiss

Going into the 3rd round, I was leading the tourney with 2-0 and Joe was at 1.5-0.5. Well, I miscalculated and dropped a center pawn in my London System game. I then disregarded my King's safety and the rest is history! Joe played well and deserved the win! Nobody likes posting losses, but I felt that I learned a few things from this game and hope to play better the next time I play Joe!

Round 2, March 2011 Monthly Club Swiss

My 2nd round game was vs. James Whiddon. James is a London System player and I was a bit surprised that he chose not to play it here. He won his 1st round game in around 10 moves and I was expecting a hard battle. He started a pawn storm on the Kingside and lost track of his King's safety!

Round 1, March 2011 Monthly Club Swiss

This was Rudy's only loss in this month's tourney. It was in the 1st Round and he drops a piece early and everything falls apart for him. He did go on to win his other 2 games!

Did Fischer Play The London System?

Not exactly! This game transposed to "The London" via the Exchange Caro-Kann! This game was played in the USSR vs. the World match. GM Bobby Fischer played board 2 vs GM Tigran Petrosian. GM Bent Larsen played board 1 for the World Team vs. World Champion GM Boris Spassky.

Another Draw At Doha For GM Stefanova!

GM Antoaneta Stefanova played the London System again today at the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Doha, Qatar. Today she played IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul of Mongolia. The game ended in a draw!

Stefanova Plays The London System!

Former Women's World Champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria played the London System yesterday in Round 8 of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Doha, Qatar. She played GM Marie Sebag of France. The game ended in a draw, but it was by no means dull. It was a fighting endgame that you will find educational! The offical tournament website is located here.

A London System Victory!

The game below was played at Game/30 min + 5 sec. delay. The photo above is of Kerry and he likes playing the Dutch defence vs. 1.d4. I challenged him on the club ladder and by winning this game I moved up to #2 on the ladder!

Carl Schlechter Came Within A Whisker Of Winning The Title!

Carl Schlecter was born March 2, 1874 in Vienna, Austria.
In 1910 he played Emanual Lasker for the Chess World Championship.
Going into the final game of the match he was leading by a point, but blundered and lost. The tied match 5-5 (+1-1=8) meant that Lasker retained the title!
Here is game 5 which Schlechter won:

Happy Birthday GM Stuart Conquest!

GM Stuart Conquest was born March 1, 1967 in Ilford, England and I'd like to share a nice win vs. GM Ivan Morovic-Fernandez of Chile in this Caro-Kann!