Grandmaster

March 14, 2010 Position No. 6098: White to play and win. From the game Joel Banawa-Lawrence Stevens, U.S. Amateur Team West, Woodland Hills 2010. Solution to Position No. 6097: White wins with 1 Ra5! (not 1 Kc8?? because 1 . . . Kd5 2 c7 Kxc5 3 Kd7 Rd2+ draws) Rc2 2 Kb7 Rb2+ (routine is 2 . . . Rxc5 3 Rxa2) 3 Kc8 Ke7 4 c7 Ke8 5 Rxa2! Rxa2 6 Kb7 Rb2+ 7 Kc6. If 3 . . . Kd5, easiest is 4 Kd7 Rh2 5 c7 Rh7+ 6 Kc8 Kc6 7 Ra6+ Kxc5 8 Kb7, winning. Richard Rapport of Hungary just completed the requirements to become a grandmaster at age 13 years, 11 months, 15 days, the fifth-youngest ever.

BERLIN - The 63rd Berlin Film Festival opened Thursday with an elegant bang - of fists, feet and questions. Kicking off the 11 days of cinematic offerings was jury president Wong Kar Wai's epic martial arts drama, “The Grandmaster” - a graceful telling of the history of Ip Man, the mentor of Bruce Lee. First, though, came the morning's presentation of the jury to the international press in a conference full of polite but pointed queries and...

The 1985-86 edition of the Guinness Sports Record Book is just out, and following are some selected bits of information: --The largest fish ever caught on a rod is an officially ratified man-eating great white shark weighing 2,664 pounds and measuring 16 feet 10 inches, caught by Alf Dean at Denial Bay, near Caduna, South Australia, April 21, 1959. --The smallest fish ever to win a competition was a smelt weighing 1/16th of an ounce, caught by Peter Christian at Buckingham Ferry, England, Jan.

Simon Gourdine Former NBA executive Simon Gourdine, 72, who became the highest-ranking black executive in professional sports when he was named deputy commissioner of the NBA in 1974, died Thursday in Englewood, N.J. The NBA confirmed his death but did not release the cause. Gourdine helped negotiate a labor deal that created free agency in the NBA in 1976 and helped the league absorb the San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, New York (now New Jersey) Nets and Denver Nuggets from the upstart ABA. He left the NBA in 1981 but returned to pro basketball in 1990 as general counsel for the National Basketball Players Assn.

Reporting from Santa Clara, Calif. -- The two chess masters hunched over their royal armies, lost in thought. On one side, playing white, was 10-year-old Sam Sevian, who a few months ago became the youngest chess master in the history of the U.S. Chess Federation. His opponent, playing black, was David Adelberg, 14, who had been crowned Arizona's youngest chess master when he was 12. Sam had lost a match to David two years earlier. This time, he vowed, would be different.

American grandmaster Yasser Seirewan defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov of the Soviet Union on Sunday in the 27th World Chess Olympiad. The upset came when Kasparov resigned his adjourned game against Seirewan, 26, of Seattle. It was Kasparov's first defeat since he successfully defended his world title in October against countryman Anatoly Karpov. The United States and Hungary are tied for first place after seven rounds of play.

Former champion Anatoly Karpov won the World Chess Championship Candidates Final, beating fellow Soviet grandmaster Andrei Sokolov in the 11th game and earning the right to challenge Gary Kasparov for the world title in the fall. Karpov, 35, defeated Sokolov 7 1/2 to 3 1/2 points and never lost a game in the 14-game match at Linares, Spain. Winning a game counts for one point and a draw scores half a point.

World chess champion Gary Kasparov took his third and final timeout Monday in his title match with Anatoly Karpov, postponing the 19th game until Wednesday. Experts said Kasparov would use the rest to calm his nerves, frayed by two consecutive losses to Karpov. The champion had a seemingly invincible lead of 9 1/2 points to 6 1/2 for Karpov after the 16th game of the 24-game match. But Karpov fought back to win the 17th and 18th games, narrowing the score to 9 1/2 to 8 1/2.

It's been 16 years since Igor Ivanov, then a virtual unknown in the chess world, defeated World Champion Anatoly Karpov. But Ivanov's memories of the stunning upset are in mint condition. For The Game was the essential link in Ivanov's circuitous, boy-to-man odyssey from the rubble of post-World War II Leningrad in the Soviet Union to a home in the exclusive foothills of northern Utah's Wasatch Mountains. Today, chess remains the focus of Ivanov's life, as both player and teacher.

After Adam Lief, a Los Alamitos High School senior, won his national title this summer, he contacted several universities to check on the availability of scholarships. Despite his accomplishments, he was turned down. "They don't give out chess scholarships," he said, "but it will help me get in. They're looking for people a little bit different, and," he grinned, "I'm fairly decent at chess."

The '60s gave us "Blowin' in the Wind," folk-poet Bob Dylan's challenge to the brutal status quo. The '70s served up Neil Young's "Ohio," an anthem of generational rage against the military-industrial machine. The '80s laid down "The Message," Grandmaster Flash's hip-hop jeremiad about the vicious cycle of race-based poverty. The '90s broke loose with Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade," a rap-rock rant targeting corporate greed and cultural imperialism. And the '00s? It's produced some memorably sardonic screeds (Green Day's "American Idiot")

Reporting from Santa Clara, Calif. -- The two chess masters hunched over their royal armies, lost in thought. On one side, playing white, was 10-year-old Sam Sevian, who a few months ago became the youngest chess master in the history of the U.S. Chess Federation. His opponent, playing black, was David Adelberg, 14, who had been crowned Arizona's youngest chess master when he was 12. Sam had lost a match to David two years earlier. This time, he vowed, would be different.

"Ip Man" told the fact-based origins of how a man named, yes, Ip Man learned the ways of Wing Chun kung fu, and the sequel "Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster" moves forward to 1940s Hong Kong under British colonial occupation. With director Wilson Yip, screenwriter Edmond Wong and star Donnie Yen all returning, the film's fight choreography is again handled by the legendary Sammo Hung ? he also now has a supporting role and incredibly shot his own fight scenes while recuperating from heart surgery ?

Larry Evans was a rarity in competitive chess ? a five-time U.S. champion who wrote widely about the game, including a book once considered the chess players' bible. A chess grandmaster, he also gained fame for helping Bobby Fischer train for, and win, the 1972 world chess championship. Evans died Nov. 15 at a hospital in Reno from complications after a gall bladder operation, according to the U.S. Chess Federation, the governing body for the game. He was 78. "There's a void now in American chess," said Anthony Saidy, an international chess master.

Position No. 6134: White to play and win. From the game Ray Robson-Eugene Perelshteyn, Spice Cup, Lubbock 2010. Solution to Position No. 6133: Black wins with 1?Rh8! 2 Qe7 Bxh2! 3 Qe6+ (not 3 Rxh2 Qg2 mate) Qxe6 4 dxe6 Bf4+ 5 Kg1 Be3+ 6 Rcf2 g4 7 Re1 Bxf2+ or 7?Ba7 8 c4 g3. The Tal Memorial in Moscow ended in a three-way tie last Sunday among Levon Aronian of Armenia, Sergey Karjakin of Russia and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan. Each scored 51/2-31/2 in the round robin, a tribute to the late world champion Mikhail Tal. All 10 competitors are ranked among the world's top 18. U.S. champion Hikaru Nakamura tied for fourth place at 5-4 with Alexander Grischuk of Russia and Wang Hao of China.

Position No. 6132: White to play and win. From the game Joseph Bellinger-Yoshio Dupree, La Palma 2010. Solution to Position No. 6131: Black wins the Queen neatly with 1?Nxg3+ 2 Kf2 Bc5! 3 Qxc5 Ne4+. Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen won the third Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing, China, with an undefeated score of 7-3. The double round robin was the first ever to feature three players with ratings above 2800. A year ago, Carlsen won the second Pearl Spring tournament with a fantastic 8-2 score, probably his career peak.

Position No. 6126: White to play and win. From the game Craig Clawitter-Robert Xue, Southern California Open, Los Angeles 2010. Solution to Position No. 6125: White gains material by 1 Nb3! Qd6 2 Nxc5 Qxc5 3 Rxh6+! gxh6 4 Qxf6+ Kh7 5 Qxd8. If 5…e3, then 6 f6 e2 7 Qd7+ leads to mate. The 39th Chess Olympiad began Tuesday in Khanty-Mansiysk, a small Siberian city in Russia. The immense tournament has attracted 146 men's teams and 114 women's teams representing 142 nations.

Jan. 17, 2010 Position No. 6090: White to play and win. From the game Gudmundur Kjartansson-Jason McKenna, Hastings 2009. Solution to Position No. 6089: White wins with 1 Nxe5!, as 1 . . . Bxd1 allows 2 Nf6+ gxf6 3 Bxf7 mate. The U.S. team won silver medals at the 10-nation World Team Championship on Wednesday in Bursa, Turkey. The fifth-seeded team far exceeded expectations, leading the tournament until an eighth-round loss to Armenia. Russia survived a shocking upset against Greece to win the gold medals with a score of 7 1/2 -1 1/2 . India lacked world champion Viswanathan Anand but matched the U.S. score of 6 1/2 -2 1/2 and took third place on tiebreak.

Position No. 6126: White to play and win. From the game Craig Clawitter-Robert Xue, Southern California Open, Los Angeles 2010. Solution to Position No. 6125: White gains material by 1 Nb3! Qd6 2 Nxc5 Qxc5 3 Rxh6+! gxh6 4 Qxf6+ Kh7 5 Qxd8. If 5…e3, then 6 f6 e2 7 Qd7+ leads to mate. The 39th Chess Olympiad began Tuesday in Khanty-Mansiysk, a small Siberian city in Russia. The immense tournament has attracted 146 men's teams and 114 women's teams representing 142 nations.

Position No. 6110: White to play and win. From the game John Daniel Bryant-Andranik Matikozyan, Memorial Day Classic, Los Angeles 2010. Solution to Position No. 6109: White wins with 1 d7 Bc7 2 Rxc7! Kxc7 3 Rc1+ Kb8 4 Rc8+ Rxc8 5 Qa8+! Kxa8 6 dxc8Q mate. Both 3…Kxd7 4 Qd5+ Ke8 5 Rc8+ and 3…Kd8 4 Qa8+ Kxd7 5 Qd5+ lead to mate. Ukraine grandmaster Pavel Eljanov, probably the least-known of the world's leading players, won the sixth Grand Prix tournament in Astrakhan, Russia.