Welcome to Claus Jensen Chess!

I love chess - it's really as simple as that!
On this site you'll find 150+ annotated game videos, rating test utilities and chess downloads.
And everything is absolutely free of charge!

Let me introduce myself by showing you a video analysis of one of my best correspondence games.

2700chess.com for more details and full list

36th Correspondence World Championships, preliminary report #1

25.06.2012

For the first time I have qualified for the world championships! My preliminary group was started March 10th 2012. It's a category 3 tournament with 15 players. I am the 7th highest ranked of the 15. To score an IM norm 10 of 14 is required. Not possible, at least not for me!
The first results are slowly rolling in and I have finished one game where I once again played my pet line 6.h3 against the Sicilian Najdorf. My opponent, an International Master, chose a very drawish line and the game was drawn in only 20 moves. The game is a good illustration of one of the drawbacks of 6.h3 against the Najdorf. It's easy for black to equalize.
I do have quite good success with it however, so a quick draw every now and then is not discouraging me from playing it in the future...!

UPDATE 05.07.2012
My second game has finished. I was playing the black pieces against the highest ranked player in the group. I chose a Sicilian Sveshnikov against his 1.e4 and never had real problems equalizing. Almost eqvivalent to what happened in the WCC match where Gelfand had no problems equalizing against Anand's 1.e4

UPDATE 12.07.2012
Finished my third game. Another draw in the 6.h3 variation of the Najdorf. My opponent chose 6...e5 and we soon had an interesting setup, but the game never really left equilibrium.

UPDATE 20.08.2012
Fourth game ended today. Another draw. This time I played the black side of the Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez.
We followed a line played previously played in Svidler-Kamsky all the way back in 1995. White gives back the pawn and black cannot prove any advantage so a draw was a logical outcome.

UPDATE 22.09.12
Play is still on in the remaining 10 games. It's not easy to evaluate, but I expect something like +3 =6 -1 from the remaining games.
If this comes true I will have an 8 of 14 score which is of course far from a IM norm but satisfactory for me since I never scored above 50%
in a category 3+ tournament before!


Anand retains his title!

30.05.2012

Anand has retained his world chess champion title after winning the tiebreak rapid match 2½-1½

All games are video analysed. Click any of the games to watch the analysis of that particular game.

Standings after 4 rapid games: 2½-1½

Rapid Game 4: Anand - Gelfand ½-½
Rapid Game 3: Gelfand - Anand ½-½
Rapid Game 2: Anand - Gelfand 1-0
Rapid Game 1: Gelfand - Anand ½-½

Standing After 12 classical games: 6-6

Game 10: Anand - Gelfand ½-½
Game 11: Gelfand - Anand ½-½
Game 10: Anand - Gelfand ½-½
Game 9: Gelfand - Anand ½-½
Game 8: Anand - Gelfand 1-0
Game 7: Gelfand - Anand 1-0
Game 6: Gelfand - Anand ½-½
Game 5: Anand - Gelfand ½-½
Game 4: Gelfand - Anand ½-½
Game 3: Anand - Gelfand ½-½
Game 2: Gelfand - Anand ½-½
Game 1: Anand - Gelfand ½-½

Anand Gelfand World Championship Match Preview

05.05.2012

The Anand Gelfand match is only a week away. Reigning champion Anand takes on candidates tournament winner and therefore official challenger Gelfand.
Thursday, May 10th we have the opening ceremony and the day after, Fri May 11th we have game 1.
Check the official website for full details on schedules and more.

To warm up for the match I have done a few videos on some of their memorable previous encounters.

Check my youtube channel or go to the videos section of this site to watch my warm up videos.

Kramnik Aronian match

24.04.2012

The long awaited exhibition match between Aronian and Kramnik is underway

Aronian took the first game, they drew the second and today came game 3 - and what a cracker of a game that was!
Kramnik opened 1.e4!! and chose the scotch 4 knights. Game was out of book already at move 9 and after Kramniks 11.Bg5 this was the position:

Aronian spent only 2 minutes here. Clearly he had prepared this next move already when he played 9...d5!?
So after just 2 minutes Aronian sac'ed his queen with 11...Nxc3!?!?!?

As it turned out, Aronian got 3 light pieces for the queen and although they were fairly well coordinated, Kramniks centralized queen made the difference. Kramnik won in 42 moves...

Check the video section for a full game analysis of this fantastic game