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Your Voice In Chess

The Pubering Brain

I just watched a weekly Dutch television show called “Boeken” (”Books”). In it the host interviews writers about their new books. Today the guest was Eveline Crone. She is a psychologist and researches the developing brain. The book she wrote is entitled “Het puberende brein” (”The brain in puberty”). Crone states that young adolescents obviously have not yet developed their frontal cortex in the same way as adults have. The frontal cortex is the area of the brain that does a lot of controlling and directing. Whereas the frontal cortex of adults functions much like a speedy motorway and has solutions for most problems and situations, the frontal cortex of children in their puberty is more like a set of meandering paths in the wood. One consequence is that the young adolescent has a more natural access to creativity and intuition. This outline prompted me to think about my own rusty, albeit speedy, motorways in chess. (more…)

Hi all,

I’m doing an extensive video series on the Anand - Kramnik World Championship Match that was recently held in Bonn, Germany. As we all know Vishy has retained the title in convincing style. Congratulations to him! (more…)

IGM Karel Van Der Weide from The Netherlands continues his discussion of recent discoveries and experiences in the Wolga Gambit.
This time he discusses the finer points of the main line.

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An instructive game fragment between two of the strongest Russian chessplayers.
This time it is Svidler who pulls rank on Morozevich by equalizing from an English opening, optimizing the activity of his pieces and litting the fire with a nice sparky pawn-sacrifice.
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IGM Karel Van Der Weide from The Netherlands discusses recent discoveries and experiences in the Wolga Gambit.
The topic of this video survey is the fianchetto line.

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In this video I discuss the famous combination that Fischer played against Donald Byrne during the Rosenwald Chess Tournament, New York 1956. The combination in itself I find not that transcendental - if compared to Kasparov v. Topalov, Wijk aan Zee 1999 f.i. - but the fact that the thirteen-year-old Bobby must have seen it coming and trusted to it as a way of solving his opening problems I find very impressive… I hope you do too! (more…)

By Renzo Verwer (Translation from Dutch: Kaarlo Schepel)

“This has got to be hell. One hour and 33 minutes in the Dam-to-dam race ! It was horrid, I thought that one hour 06 minutes would be possible. It was very challenging, especially the idea that I was only capable of staying just ten minutes ahead of you. I had to stand still and rest a few times during the last six kilometres, and I was afraid that you would pass me … that would have been the ultimate humiliation ! I overrated myself once more. ” (more…)

IGM Karel Van Der Weide from The Netherlands continues his discussion of recent discoveries and experiences in the Sicilian. This time he discusses the finer points of the Sveshnikov main line with 9.Bxf6 and 15….f4.
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Hi all, apologies for being away a bit longer. I have accepted a new position as a student coach and that has taken up some of my time. But don’t worry I will also remain chess coach! Back to chess now. Bilbao has provided us with a number of interesting games and this time I’m taking a closer look at the Sicilian Dragon from Topalov - Carlsen. Enjoy! (more…)

I am very happy to introduce you to International Chess Grandmaster Karel Van Der Weide from The Netherlands. Karel has kindly agreed to do a video lecture for us here at Chessedelic.com. In this video he discusses the finer points of the Sicilian Sveshnikov main line with 9.Bxf6 and 14.Re1. Thank you Karel! (more…)