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In the Russian Week of Goldchess, in the Non Stop tournament, we have 2 games of Karpov, Karpov-Akopian 2006 and Karpov-Edouard 2016, both lost by white. But in Goldchess, Karpov does not lose. In both games white wins. And that is the task of the players’. Win Karpov’s position. 
And it surely is worth trying, as the solutions are exceptionally beautiful. In the game Karpov-Edouard both wins are in the style that even Karpov would not be ashamed of.

Why don’t we share a bit of the secret. Game 1, for masters of blitz play. Only 5 moves to make and the time is 3 minutes. To Game 4 we invite the chess virtuosos, as here, traditionally, you need to be the embodiment of Tal. Task 5, is a game for true men. Here, you need to play strongly and decisevely, in a concrete manner. For this game the prize of $1000 and totle of Titan of Chess.
We especially invite the players from Russia. 
One more thing. Task 3, position from the game Kramnik-Yifan Hou, lost by white against the Female World Champion. But, as I said, in the Russian week, no Russian chessplayer loses. Ladies and Gentlemen, here we will forcibly beat Yifan.
For this tournament, we give 50 free licenses to the Russian players. They will be distributed by the „64” Chess Magazine editorial board (applicants requested to send emails to goldchess2017@yandex.ru). Non Stop Edition 12 is a tournament especially for the Russian chessplayers, but obviously, if players from other countries are not afraid to compete against them, anybody can play.
The Russian Week, Karpov Day – March 25th, at Goldchess site.
We invite Everybody

Looking at a non-author’s solution, I am never sure, who plays by themselves and who uses a strong engine. Archimedes 🙂

Task 1. Appears difficult, 21 moves to make. However, in the solution, the capturing of the queen is immediately apparent in the first 3-5 moves, and the rest is just a matter of an effective technique. However, due to the striking 21 moves, we gave as much as 15 minutes here for the Tas.
And there is the first solution! Not author’s solution. It’s a great surprise. The conditnions, capturing the queen and last move Qh6# all observed. And to that, checkmate on move 22, whole 6 moves ahead faster! Incredible, but also obvious, a GM solved it. Congrats to GM Jasto!
However, there is also the Time-Out! (15 minutes, 31 sec.) Pawel Weichhold’s. Unbelievable solution and we decided to make an exception off the regulations, and award this solution. $50.
And, Sammed Shete, India, 2 hours 50 minutes. Timeout, knock-out. But, as the only player, he managed to win the queen, like the author. Distinction and $25. 

Task 2. funny hint of Goldchess here. And also an IQ test as well as attention test, as knowing our site as well as where to find past solutions was crucial here. The position comes from the previous edition, where we asked the players to find a checkmate on move 27 involving the sacrifice of two rooks for a bishop. The solution is shown in the Non8-4 Play Off. And now it was just a matter of changing move 26, and the solution remained the same! $250 to take! And and … incredible finish! Levon Hambartsumanian of Armenia surpassed another player, the Polish Lukasz Luba by 17 seconds! And he is the winner. Both solutions almost author’s solutions!

Task 3. How to find a prescription to trick CEEC? Dear players,.. what an incredible day! One non-author’s solution, and Armenak Yeghazariyan of Armenia managed to Upload it … 3 seconds before the time passed!

Task 4. This is Tal’s corner, traditionally … Tal’s soul! One solution, non-author’s, Pawel Weichhold, there is a bit of Tal here… but not enough.

Task 5. Also a surprise, Task from previous Saturday, position from Vidit’s game, which the players managed to solve a whole move faster than the author. Now, the author gave 4 extra moves hint, and let’s see … $1.000 prize is waiting. 🙂
It’s 18.14 CET, and … no solution of 5th Task submitted… is it coming, or not? Our Team also has adrenaline flowing through its veins. 🙂 Conditions, instructions: checkmate on move 42, involving the capturing of a queen. And there is a solution! But… it’s m44, unfortunately! Out. Too bad. $1.000 has passed by the players’ noses this time.

Among the players who did not win a prize this time, we will randomly draw a free license for next week’s edition. Thank you for Your participation!

Overall, Poland-Armenia 2:2, with a tiny bit of favor for Poland 🙂
We announce Play-off!

Goldchess Team

In February Goldchess will have the Indian Week in the Non Stop Tournament. In March 25 we will organize the Russian Week and the American Week in April. The players form the host countries will receive 50 free licences for the participation in the Non Stop tournament.
In India the licenses will be distributed by our patron GM Vidit Gujrathi, in Russie by the “64” chess magazine and there you should apply for free licenses at goldchess2017@yandex.ru.The licenses will be awarded to first 50 players but if the number of apllicants is significantly bigger we may organize a draw.

The Goldchess website has a new patron. It is the talented Indian Grandmaster, the hope of Indian chess, Mr. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi.
To honor him, we will hold an Indian week in February. Vidit will have 50 free licenses for players from India.
The Non Stop Tournament will include problems starting with positions from the Vidit vs Arun Prasad game, and from the game played by the prodigy child from Iran, Alireza Firouzja against Sahaj Grover, who won both Goldchess Tournaments in India. Both those parties were lost by…. the White.
But, Ladies and Gentlemen, at the Goldchess website our Patron is invincible, and in the world of Goldchess prodigy children do not loss, either. I had the pleasure to meet Alireza personally, during the Goldchess Tournament in Yerevan, Armenia.
Therefore, the players will be required to win all the games-problems with the white pieces.
If GM Sahaj Grover takes part in the Tournament, he will have an opportunity to defeat himself, as he will play against his position from the game played against Alireza. Alireza in turn will have an opportunity to see how Grover could be defeated. Although it is not entirely true, as GM Grover makes much stronger moves than CEEC, our chess computer.
Additional tournament
So, the Tournament promises to be quite exciting. But please be advised: if the players fail to solve any of the problems, it will be available for an entire week, after the entry fee and the prize are verified, until it is solved by one of the tournament or new players. However, players from India will have priority as far as prizes are concerned. Only if no Indian player submits a correct solution, the prize will be awarded to a contender from another country, provided, of course, that he or she sends in a correct solution.
Feel invited!

Day of Krystian
Excitement … excitement… for us too! 🙂
This time it was a European week. No players from India or China. Instead, a few brilliant players, among them today’s best Krystian Jacek.
Problem 1: two players submitted author’s solutions, first GM Jasto, time 5:13, second Krystian Jacek 6:33.
Problem 2: only one player, Krystian Jacek. However, without winning the queen, no prize.
Problem 3: first four solutions identical, prize only for the first player, Krystian Jacek
Problem 4: one solution only, but aurhor’s solution: Krystian Jacek
This player truly shows an incredible shape tonight. But will he solve the 5th too?
$1.000 is a nice lump sum for the 5th problem. Here, we need to play the game Wojtaszek-Caruana, and sacrifice the queen. Problem 5: Krystian didn’t make it, didn’t submit any solution. We had, however, three winners here. They all brought something original and beautiful, so I am obliged to award all 3 of them. It is surprising, that 3 distinct solutions were submitted, and the author’s solution is still different from all of those! Beautiful!
The first and the winner, GM Gianni. Synthetic, correct solution to the problem. Unexpected queen sacrifice.
Two distinctions go to: GM Jasto for the nicest solution, the beginning just like the winner, but then forced mate in 7 moves, a truly virtuoso solution.
Sargis Manukya, originality bonus.
And this is it for tonight. We invite everybody to the future editions of our weekly Non Stop tournament!
Problem 2 is still active for players; new license need to be purchased to continue solving this problem.

We are impressed. Beautiful solutions, new, efficient, creative and brilliant players, GM Sahaj Grover from India and Levon Hambardzumyan from Armenia. Yet, the tournament was won by the old players.The new ones could not understand the meaning of victory.It is explained in multiple locations on our website, so it was not our fault.But let me provide some additional explanation.A victory is a win where the computer surrenders and displays a –resign- message after the last move of the white.A winning position is not enough.
To make things absolutely clear: it can happen that, let’s say, the computer surrenders one move before a checkmate to a player playing a variant other than the one required by the author, which is, for example, a checkmate in the 30th move.If that is the case, even though the checkmate is imminent, the computer has not been actually checkmated and the solution cannot be counted as a checkmate.A checkmate is a must.
Let me also remind you that as a maximum a half of the prize is awarded for solutions other than the author’s one.
Now, let’s discuss the fourth in this year edition of the Non Stop 4 Tournament.
Problem 1 – only four moves to make. No correct solution was provided.
Problem 2.
In the previous edition of the Tournament there were 3 problems to solve: capture the queen in the 20th move and, starting from that position, achieve a victory in the 29th move and a mate in the 33th move.Nobody managed to find out how to capture the queen in the 20th move, so today we’ve shown the solution and continued with the v29 and m33 problems.
v29 – Problem 2.
Sahaj was the first to submit a solution. Unfortunately, it was an incorrect one, a certain position with no –resign- message displayed.
Manukyan from Armenia submitted a solution as the second player. Nevertheless, it was an irrelevant one – a mate in the 29th move.But it was a good solution to Problem 3.
Only the third solution was correct. It was submitted by a brilliant player from Poland, Krystian Jacek, who is the winner.
Problem 3. A difficult choice amongst many nice solutions. However, only 2 of them fulfilled the prerequisite of capturing the queen in the 20th move.And it was so simple.Just 2 moves… The undisputable winner would be Łukasz Luba, as he had the best, unbelievable time of one minute and six seconds. But he captured the queen in the 21st move, so no prize could be awarded.The authors of the 2 solutions in which the queen was captured as required are the winners.
1. Krystian Jacek – the most beautiful game, a forcing mate in 8 moves.
2. GM Gianni – a mate with a knight in 32 moves.
An honorable mention went to Sargis Manukyan, who was the fifth player to submit a solution. His solution was the quickest one, with a mate in the 28th move, but he captured the queen only in the 26th move.

Problem 4-v27, a position from the Wojtaszek-Caruana game. Nobody managed to solve it.We received two incorrect solutions. But we would like to mention Levon Hambardzumyan, whose solution included a mate in the 29th move, last 5 moves are forced. A nice solution.

And the hit of the Non Stop Tournament – Problem No. 5.With a prize of $1,000 for a solution identical with the author’s one.Nobody submitted such a solution, but we chose two solutions and awarded prizes for their beauty. You must see them! Medal Winners-Non4-5.
As an exception, we would like to show also an unsolved author’s problem, as the two rewarded solutions impressedus very much and we would like to show that we can play chess, too.

It’s amazing that nobody managed to solve Problem 1, which required only 4 moves.So, we leave the Problem available for solving. The person who is the first to submit a correct solution will be awarded the full price.New players can try to solve Problem 1 as well. Entry fee: $2.
Feel invited to play.

The results were generally poor. Maybe that’s because players from India, USA and Russia did not take part?
Problems 1 (with a prize of $300), 2 and 3 (2 x $150) were interconnected.The first problem was to capture the queen in the 20th move, and that solution was the key to problems 2 and 3, as they required the players to win in 29 moves and to checkmate in the 33th move, starting from the position which was the solution to problem 1.
However, nobody provided the author’s solution to problem No. 1, so there was no “continuation” in solving problems 2 and 3.
At the same time it turned out that the players submit solutions that simply “come out”.
Problem 1 – the unquestionable winner was LevonHambardzumyan.That 19 years old player from Armenia was the quickest to capture the queen. He did that in the 18th move.
Problem 2 – the winner was GM Jasto, who won in the 20th move (the shortest solution) after capturing the queen.
Problem 3 – no winner.Here the drawback of solutions other than the author’s one became apparent.The players submitted checkmates in 28, 27, and 26 moves.But after a Goldchess revision which revealed in one of those solutions a checkmate in the 23th move, all the solutions were rejected.That was done in accordance with the Goldchess Rules and Regulations.
Problem 4 – that was a very difficult one, not solved in other games. Nobody submitted a solution.
Problem 5 – a single solution, different than the author’s one, was submitted.It was a correct one.Nevertheless, as it was not a solution identical with the author’s one, and after a comparison with the quality of the author’s solution, the prize was reduced to $150.
Solutions other than the author’s one are not always worse.If they are better, we admit that and award a prize.Even double ones, as in Gold 0 Problem 3, where we awarded the Super Genius title and, of our own volition, a double prize.Check out that solution by Hayk Yeritsyan and you will understand at once what is most important and valuable for Goldchess.
To sum up, in this Non Stop 3 edition the players won only $375 out of a pool of $2100.You must admit that it’s not an impressive result.But we need to look into the future with optimism.Things will become better.And that’s what we wish you.Sincerely, as Goldchess is about the fun of creating the beauty of chess, and we want you to create it with us and win.
Goldchess team

Outstanding problems, thrilling emotions. The players managed to solve only 1 out of 5 problems. They did not provide any solution identical with the author’s one, although for problem 3 they submitted a solution better than the one devised by the author. But one thing at a time. Game 1, time: 10 minutes, two solutions. Problem: capture the queen in the 15th move. The first solution was a witty one. The player (IM) captured the queen one move earlier – in the 14th one – but was checkmated in the 15th move. . The problem can be found amongst the featured solutions as an example of brilliant play by… our computer.  For the player – a consolation prize of $50.
Problem 2, time: 10 minutes, 2 solutions, both with time-out, provided after the lapse of the set time. One of them was bad, v21, the other one was better, but late. Oh, excuse me. There is also a third one, with a time of 1 hour 47 seconds. Timeout. Knockout. 
Problem 3 was the only one where the players showed some skill. Although no solution identical with the author’s one was submitted, there were 4 other solutions. One was handed in after the lapse of the time limit, three received some token prizes. The games are available in Winners-Non1-3, 2017.
Problem 4, time: 15 minutes, one solution, checkmate in the 34th move. Not to the point, as the task was as follows: win in the 30th move and time-out, time: 21 minutes.
Problem 5. The same position, as in problem 4, but a checkmate with a pawn in the 31st move is required to win. Nobody submitted a solution, although the time limit for this problem was the longest one – half an hour. The prize was $100, and we also proposed that the player submitting a correct solution would receive ANY title he or she wanted.
Those of you who have read carefully our announcements know that the last Non Stop Tournament in 2016 was unlucky for the players. The beginning of the new year was similar. Is that a temporary slump in form? Or do we need some new strength, talented players, amateurs and professionals?
Therefore, we invite you to take part on 14 January in the 2nd Edition of the Non Stop Tournament, and to play our free games – Genius Test, Gold 0 ( for players not older than 16), and Grandmaster Corner, for Grandmasters, with a prize of $1,000.
Best greetings,
Goldchess team

The last week of the year, a black week for the players of the saturday’s Non Stop tournament.
They solved only one of the 5 tasks.
We wish you better results in the New, 2017 Year.
Goldchess team

When I started my Goldchess adventure I wondered how the problem solving will influence my practical chess playing abilities. I confess that I had several concerns because solving consists in playing a sort of game against CEEC engine which is set to a relatively weak 5th level. Actually it always meant playing against a much weaker rival. Of course, I cannot say that I played “normal” games, because in Goldchess you start from a given position and look for solution “upon request” (taking into account specific requirements, such as checkmate in 30 moves after sacrificing the queen), which means solutions that are far from being standard and that enrich the chess player’s imagination.
I also believe that solving Goldchess problems enhances the player’s creative powers and sharpens his or her tactical skills which constitute basic chess competence that all the players should possess.

Since the moment I started to solve Goldchess problems, almost 2 months ago, I have played 15 tournament games, of which I won 7 and tied 8 without suffering any defeat. Maybe it is much too early to jump to some definite conclusions but I can certainly say that solving had no negative impact on my playing skills. Moreover, I get the impression that all this makes me play better. Particularly when it comes to counting variants.

If anyone still has any doubt I can say that the tests performed on myself brought forth some positive results 🙂

GM Artur Jakubiec