Con Caruana, Godena, Brunello, Ortega, Shytaj, Dvirnyy, Piscopo… Forza Azzurri!!

Alle 15,30 bianco in moto per una gara che, come già accennato nella prima parte di questa presentazione, si annuncia con tutte le caratteristiche del grande evento. Credo che il numero di professionisti di alto livello sia  oggi molto superiore rispetto al passato e la percezione di equilibrio che emerge scorrendo il tabellone iniziale, anche arrivando ben oltre il 50° posto della griglia di partenza, sarebbe stata difficile da riscontrare in un torneo di 20 o 30 anni fa.

Una gara resa molto particolare non solo dal titolo europeo in palio ma anche dalla qualificazione alla World Cup e dall’essere un open fortissimo, con un eccellente montepremi. Il tempo di gioco è di 90 minuti per 40 mosse più 30 minuti per finire la partita con 30 secondi di incremento a partire dalla prima mossa, uno dei tempi standard validi anche per il riconoscimento delle norme. Non mi sembra di aver letto deroghe rispetto ad eventuali ritardi, quindi partita persa se non si è alla scacchiera all’inizio della partita. Sistema svizzero ad 11 turni, tutto sommato non molti per gli oltre 400 partecipanti. Si gioca sempre alle 15,30 , con giorno di riposo sabato 13 (dopo il settimo turno) e ultimo round mercoledì 17, con gli spareggi previsti per il 18.

Il moderno Zamet Center, sede di gioo

Per titolo e medaglie dell’europeo e per l’assegnazione dei 22 posti di qualificazione per la World Cup sono infatti previste partite di spareggio (prima con coppie di 15 minuti + 10 secondi per mossa, poi con blitz da 5 + 2 e eventuale “armageddon”), con metodologia da attagliare al numero di giocatori che devono disputare gli spareggi. Il sito di riferimento è http://www.eurorijeka2010.com/home , con molte scacchiere in diretta: sembra di intuire 40 dal torneo open e 15 dal femminile. Risultati su chess results e faccio nuovamente riferimento a questo link per il superlativo campo di partenza.

Difficile parlare di favoriti e una singola gara di 11 turni diventa un po’ una lotteria. I più bravi e in forma emergeranno, certo, ma a fare la differenza potrà essere una sfumatura o una coincidenza. Gara tanto difficile che francamente non saprei dire se un top player potrebbe essere tanto tranquillamente pronosticato. Se in gara ci fosse anche un Aronian, o un Carlsen, vincerebbe? Forse… Tra l’altro, 20 o 30 punti Elo di differenza dicono ben poco sui valori in campo. Verrebbe da pensare che in un torneo come questo conta di più vincere, e che quindi possano essere favoriti i giocatori che pur prendendo maggiori rischi sanno essere più incisivi, ma di fatto bisogna anche non perdere!

I precedenti dicono che a 8,5 si colloca la quota podio / primo posto, il che significa 6 vittorie e 5 patte, o 7 vittorie 3 patte e una sconfitta. Con due sconfitte diventa davvero difficile. L’esperienza dimostra che bisogna comunque saper giocare una gara solida, senza impazienza, non sempre ad un avvio “fulminante” consegue un successo. Rispetto ai super open, come l’Aeroflot o Gibilterra, sembra incidere nella tipologia di gara l’aspetto della qualificazione alla World Cup, che può portare a considerazioni ben diverse negli ultimi turni. Potrebbe aiutare in parte la “traccia” dei precedenti in competizioni analoghe, ma il mio piccolo giro d’orizzonte a ritroso, tra europei, Mosca, Aeroflot e GibTelecom, non porta facilmente a qualche conclusione. Mi limito così a qualche considerazione, necessariamente del tutto personale, su alcuni giocatori, più con “domande” che non “pronosticando”.

Le mie prime simpatie, azzurri esclusi ovviamente, vanno a due creativi come Navara e Vallejo. Non mi aspetto tuttavia una gara da podio per il 25enne campione ceco, che sembra dedicare tempi minori agli scacchi rispetto ad altri top players, mentre Paco… Il Vallejo del recente periodo è parso trovare equilibri migliori pur mantenendo un gioco molto incisivo e a Linares mi è sembrato tenere magnificamente il campo.

Paco! (foto Chessbase)

Domande su due top parzialmente usciti dal “grande giro” come Bacrot e Adams. A 27 anni Etienne potrebbe proporre una piena maturità come giocatore ma il suo percorso sembra aver deviato, un po’ per il difficile confronto con i primissimi, forse con un rapporto di odio – amore per gli scacchi (che non consiglierebbe come “carriera” a suo figlio, come ha dichiarato), con qualche digressione con il poker. Scuola e talento di primissimo livello comunque, e un Aeroflot 2009 a dire che Bacrot può esprimersi bene anche in queste gare! Adams la vetta l’ha sfiorata più volte ed è difficile dire se a 38 anni sia l’età o una certa disaffezione a incidere sul suo minor rendimento degli ultimi tempi. In ottime condizioni di forma il campione inglese sembrerebbe perfettamente adatto a vincere un torneo come questo, con buona solidità ma abbastanza incisivo, specialmente con il bianco, da accumulare parecchie vittorie.

Zoltan Almasi, n° 1 del tabellone, sembra aver raggiunto una piena maturazione come giocatore ma non sembra esprimersi al meglio nelle furenti e incerte battaglie degli open. Più navigato in questi territori Sergei Movsesian, che con tutta probabilità sarà tra i protagonisti.

Alekseev (foto Russiachess)

Trio russo tra i primi 10 con Motylev, Tomashevsky e Alekseev, giocatori che sanno di norma essere protagonisti in gare come questa. Menzione particolare per il campione in carica Tomashevsky, 23 anni, che mi sembra persino capace di raddoppiare l’impresa, cosa finora mai riuscita e molto difficile da realizzare; tuttavia, credo che troveremo Evgeny nelle posizioni di testa nella fase finale, poi starà alla “lotteria” del torneo dire la sua. Per la prima volta dal 2007 Alekseev rischia di scendere sotto quota 2700; grande solidità e grande scuola ma il 25enne russo sembra aver perso un po’ di smalto… Potrebbero essere le ultime parole famose!

Mi sono accorto di essermi orientato esclusivamente (e involontariamente) sugli over 2700… Poca fantasia! D’altra parte, troppi i protagonisti. Mi aspetto un bel torneo da Inarkiev, che non solo ha dimostrato di saper eccellere in queste gare ma dà anche l’idea di una maturazione che potrebbe condurlo tra i primi trenta del mondo. Citerei anche gli ucraini Moiseenko e Korobov, considerando invece che una gara così tesa e abbastanza lunga può non favorire guerrieri navigati come Akopian o Bareev (altre ultime parole famose?).

Tanta curiosità per il torneo di Anish Giri, che ha vinto in modo così impressionante il Corus B da andare ben oltre le pur grandi attese sul suo talento. Naturalmente una gara non brillante non inficerebbe l’impresa realizzata a Wijk aan Zee, parliamo ovviamente di un giovanissimo (16 anni il prossimo giugno), mentre una gara da protagonista sarebbe ancora più impressionante… Tra gli altri giovani presenti ancora grandi potenzialità per Sanan Sjugirov, ormai diciassettenne, rendimento ancora alterno ma creatività come pochi, con un balzo in avanti che potrebbe arrivare in qualunque momento, anche se è difficile fare previsioni sul futuro del giovane russo. In lista d’attesa per quota 2700 il 20enne Ian Nepomniachtchi, specialmente se saprà trovare equilibrio tra le sue doti di attaccante e il necessario livello di gioco dei piani alti: Nepo tra i protagonisti in questo europeo? Perché no!

Anish Giri (foto Chessbase)

Parlando di giovani una piccola citazione la merita forse anche Fabiano Caruana…   (rendere i cori da stadio scrivendo un articolo non è facile, ma fate conto di sentirli!!). Finora Fabiano non sempre si è espresso al meglio negli open, dove anzi ha disputato alcune delle sue gare meno positive, ma… World Cup e Corus ci hanno restituito a mio avviso un Fabiano ben più forte, maturo e consapevole della propria crescita e credo che riuscirà a portare tali qualità anche in questo Europeo! Il suo gioco, che tanto raramente si accontenta della patta, potrebbe essere adattissimo a un open durissimo come questo e penso conti anche la considerazione degli avversari, che credo lo rendano ormai un giocatore non solo rispettato ma anche temuto! Mi sembra che le ultime prove potrebbero averlo temprato anche dal punto di vista della tenuta nervosa. Insomma, Forza Fabiano!!

Ovviamente gara terribile per tutti gli altri azzurri, ma siamo presenti in forze e con giocatori comunque capaci di fare bene. Michele Godena é sempre Super Michele, in grado di tenere la scacchiera contro chiunque. Conterà l’avvio della gara, il feeling che Michele troverà con la competizione, specialmente se riuscirà a superare i primi scontri contro avversari di rango. Rinnovata vis agonistica per Lexy Ortega, già in crescita la scorsa estate e fino ad arrivare al titolo italiano, una soddisfazione meritata!

Sabino Brunello (foto Scacchierando)

Percorsi diversi per Sabino Brunello e Luca Shytaj, con la fase di “stasi” per un Sabino comunque atteso ad una piena crescita e un Luca che deve fare i conti con il notevole impegno universitario. Per entrambi l’idea di una norma GM, molto difficile da realizzare in un torneo come questo. In linea di massima la norma si trova intorno ai 6,5 punti su 11, anche se ovviamente bisognerà fare i conti in base agli avversari effettivi e può essere realizzata anche sui primi 9 o 10 turni. Spero però che il pensiero della norma non condizioni la loro gara, in cui il piacere di giocare in un contesto così importante potrebbe avere la precedenza ed essere un buon viatico. Poi, se il torneo si svilupperà in positivo, si vedrà!

Luca Shytaj (foto Scacchierando)

Nel frattempo grandissimo tifo qui dagli spalti di Scacchierando, a sostegno anche di Dvirnyy e Piscopo! Anche la loro una gara tutta da seguire, e se l’età di Daniyyl pone all’orizzonte anche il titolo di GM non va sottovalutata la creatività di Pierluigi, che ha a sua volta notevoli margini di crescita, e non è detto che con un po’ di convinzione…

In gara poi Lanzani, Bentivegna, Valsecchi… Approfittando della vicinanza diversi altri italiani si sono concessi il piacere di una cornice così speciale, capeggiati dai veterani Barlocco e Valenti. Insomma, un bel po’ di azzurro in questa avventura europea e… Bianco in moto!

SV OSG Baden-Baden lost their 100% record in Round 10 when they were beaten by Werder Bremen in spite of having an Elo advantage on every board and the World Champion on top board.

Rounds 10 and 11 take place 27th-28th of February 2010.

This weekend the 10th and 11th round of the Schachbundesliga are being played. On board one of the top match between Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen, Vugar Gashimov (Werder Bremen), who travelled from Linares to Heidelberg, plays the World Champ, Viswanathan Anand.

In the 10th round of the Bundesliga the German champion OSG Baden-Baden faces the most serious contender Werder Bremen. It will be the most exciting match in the history of the Schachbundesliga, and both Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen will play with their nearly best possible lineup. The elo average of Baden-Baden is 2717 and of Bremen 2679. Both teams will have only top 100 players from the current world ranking at their disposal. Bremen will play on the first two boards with the Azerbaijani GMs Vugar Gashimov and Shakhriyar Mamedayrov, both known for their uncompromising style.

Laurent Fressinet and Tomi Nyback will also defend the “green-white coloured”. After nine rounds they belong to the five top scorers of the league.

Undoubtedly the biggest attraction of the whole weekend is World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Two months before his match against Veselin Topalov in Sofia he makes a “break” in his preparation to support his team in Germany. For many years he’s maintained friendly relations to the environment of Baden-Baden so his appearance doesn’t come as a big suprise.

Etienne Bacrot and Germay’s number one Arkadij Naiditsch will also play for Baden-Baden. They belong to the five best performers of the whole league so far in this season.

Here are the line-ups and the pairings of the match Baden-Baden – Werder Bremen:

Saturday, 27th of February 2010, 2 pm
Playing venue: Kongresshaus Stadthalle Heidelberg, Neckarstaden 24, 69117 Heidelberg

OSG Baden-Baden – Werder Bremen

1	Viswanathan Anand	2788*	Vugar Gashimov		2740
2	Peter Svidler		2741	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2721
3	Alexei Shirov		2730	Pavel Eljanov		2717
4	Etienne Bacrot		2709	Zahar Efimenko		2654
5	Sergei Movsesian	2711	Laurent Fressinet	2658
6	Michael Adams		2682	Alexander Areshchenko	2667
7	Arkadij Naiditsch	2685	Michael Roiz		2658
8	Peter-Heine Nielsen	2687	Tomi Nyback		2615

*Rating at the beginning of the season

This match and of course all other matches of the Schachbundesliga will be covered live on the internet. At the day of the matches you can get access via the website of the Schachbundesliga.

Here are all matches of the 10th and 11th round of the Schachbundesliga.

10th round: Saturday, 27th of February 2010, 2 pm
Playing venue Heidelberg
OSG Baden-Baden – Werder Bremen
SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim – Hamburger SK

Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – Bayern München
SF Katernberg – Erfurter SK

Playing venue Solingen
SG Solingen – SV Wattenscheid
SC Remagen – SK Turm Emsdetten

Playing venue Trier
SG Trier – SF Berlin
SC Eppingen – SK König Tegel

11th round: Sunday, 28th of February 2010, 2 pm
Playing venue Heidelberg
Hamburger SK – OSG Baden-Baden
Werder Bremen – SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim

Playing venue Mülheim
Bayern München – SF Katernberg
Erfurter SK – SV Mülheim Nord

Playing venue Solingen
SV Wattenscheid – SC Remagen
SK Turm Emsdetten – SG Solingen

Playing venue Trier
SF Berlin – SC Eppingen
SK König Tegel – SG Trierem>
SC Remagen – SG Solingen (5pm)

Teams

The 8th and 9th round of the Schachbundesliga and three matches from round 7 will take place from the 5th to the 7th of February 2010. We provide you with the pairings at the playing venues Munich, Mülheim, Berlin and Remagen. Some famous Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar participants are joining for their Baden-Baden team…

OSG Baden-Baden is the only team of the Schachbundesliga left without any loss of points. The upcoming weekend the German champion will face the two teams of Berlin and is odds-on favourite. Under the same precondition starts the only serious competitor for the title Werder Bremen. Bremen is facing the teams of München and Erfurt. Both of them are relegation candidates. Some interesting derbies are taking place in Mülheim, where the host is facing Katernberg and Wattenscheid for the “hegemony in the West”.

All line-ups of the teams in Berlin, e.g. OSG Baden-Baden, are published two days in advance. This is carried out due to the new rule, which was implemented from the beginning of this season.

Live coverage
All games of the Schachbundesliga are covered live on the Internet. At the particular date of the matches you can get access to the games via the website of the Schachbundesliga.

8th round: Saturday, 6th of February 2010, 2 pm

Playing venue Munich
Bayern München – Hamburger SK
Erfurter SK – Werder Bremen

Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SV Wattenscheid
SF Katernberg – SK Turm Emsdetten

Playing venue Berlin
SK König Tegel – SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim

 	SF Berlin	 	- OSG Baden-Baden
1	Jan Markos	(2565)	- Etienne Bacrot		(2709)
2	Arnd Lauber	(2517)	- Sergei Movsesian		(2711)
3	Rainer Polzin	(2491)	- Michael Adams			(2682)
4	Martin Krämer	(2482)	- Arkadij Naiditsch		(2685)
5	Ilja Schneider	(2500)	- Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu	(2664)
6	Stephan Berndt	(2442)	- Fabiano Caruana		(2662)
7	Mikail Agopov	(2452)	- Jan Gustafsson		(2622)
8	Lars Thiede	(2450)	- Philipp Schlosser		(2555)

Playing venue Remagen
SC Remagen – SC Eppingen
SG Solingen – SG Trier

9th round: Sunday, 7th of February 2010, 10 am

Playing venue Munich
Hamburger SK – Erfurter SK
Werder Bremen – Bayern München

Playing venue Mülheim
SV Wattenscheid – SF Katernberg
SK Turm Emsdetten – SV Mülheim Nord

Playing venue Berlin
OSG Baden-Baden – SK König Tegel
SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim – SF Berlin

Playing venue Remagen
SC Eppingen – SG Solingen
SG Trier – SC Remagen

Matches of the 7th round: Friday, 5th of February 2010

Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SF Katernberg (4pm)

Playing venue Berlin
SF Berlin – SK König Tegel (4pm)

Playing venue Remagen
SC Remagen – SG Solingen (5pm)

Teams

Les appariements de la ronde 10 :

1 Gustafsson, Jan      7.0 2627 1/2 Movsesian, Sergei    7.0 2708  
2 Vallejo Pons, F      7.0 2705 1/2 Adams, Michael       7.0 2694  
3 Bacrot, Etienne      6.5 2713 1-0 Cramling, Pia        6.5 2528  
4 Bindrich, Falko      6.5 2512 - Kamsky, Gata         6.5 2693  
5 Zhukova, Natalia     6.5 2462 1/2 Fressinet, Laurent   6.5 2670  
6 Fridman, Daniel      6.5 2654 - Lenderman, Alex      6.5 2560  
7 Javakhishvili, Lela  6.5 2493 - Sandipan, Chanda     6.5 2622  
8 Boskovic, Drasko     6.5 2454 - Koneru, Humpy        6.5 2614  
9 Geetha Narayanan G   6.5 2584 - Stefanova, Antoaneta 6.5 2545 

Les résultats de la ronde 9 :

1 Gustafsson, Jan    6.5 2627 1/2 Bacrot, Etienne   6.0 2713  
2 Movsesian, Sergei  6.0 2708 1-0 Halkias, Stelios  6.0 2566  
3 Naumann, Alexander 6.0 2525 0-1 Vallejo Pons, F.  6.0 2705  
4 Adams, Michael     6.0 2694 1-0 Lemos, Damian     6.0 2556  
5 Koneru, Humpy      6.0 2614 1/2 Kamsky, Gata      6.0 2693  
6 Fressinet, Laurent 6.0 2670 1/2 Javakhishvili, L. 6.0 2493  
7 Sandipan, Chand a  6.0 2622 1/2 Boskovic, Drasko  6.0 2454 

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Les appariements de la ronde 10 :

1 Gustafsson, Jan      7.0 2627 - Movsesian, Sergei    7.0 2708  
2 Vallejo Pons, F      7.0 2705 - Adams, Michael       7.0 2694  
3 Bacrot, Etienne      6.5 2713 - Cramling, Pia        6.5 2528  
4 Bindrich, Falko      6.5 2512 - Kamsky, Gata         6.5 2693  
5 Zhukova, Natalia     6.5 2462 - Fressinet, Laurent   6.5 2670  
6 Fridman, Daniel      6.5 2654 - Lenderman, Alex      6.5 2560  
7 Javakhishvili, Lela  6.5 2493 - Sandipan, Chanda     6.5 2622  
8 Boskovic, Drasko     6.5 2454 - Koneru, Humpy        6.5 2614  
9 Geetha Narayanan G   6.5 2584 - Stefanova, Antoaneta 6.5 2545 

Les résultats de la ronde 9 :

1 Gustafsson, Jan    6.5 2627 1/2 Bacrot, Etienne   6.0 2713  
2 Movsesian, Sergei  6.0 2708 1-0 Halkias, Stelios  6.0 2566  
3 Naumann, Alexander 6.0 2525 0-1 Vallejo Pons, F.  6.0 2705  
4 Adams, Michael     6.0 2694 1-0 Lemos, Damian     6.0 2556  
5 Koneru, Humpy      6.0 2614 1/2 Kamsky, Gata      6.0 2693  
6 Fressinet, Laurent 6.0 2670 1/2 Javakhishvili, L. 6.0 2493  
7 Sandipan, Chand a  6.0 2622 1/2 Boskovic, Drasko  6.0 2454 

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Contrary to what we reported earlier, the Masters section of the Gibtelecom Festival runs 10 rounds, not 9. With two rounds to go, GM Jan ‘Gusty’ Gustafsson from Germany is in sole lead with 6.5/8. John Saunders reports.

Photo © John Saunders

The 2010 Gibtelecom International Chess Festival takes place January 26-February 4 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The rate of play in this 10-round Swiss is 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 moves in 50 minutes plus 15 minutes for all remaining moves with 30 seconds per move added from the start. Draws by mutual agreement in under 30 moves are not allowed, but genuine draws by repetition or stalemate are acceptable.

Round 8 report by John Saunders

The presence of a chess legend has added an extra frisson to life at the Gibtelecom Chess Festival. One day I was waiting for the lift when I noticed a white-haired gentleman in his seventies move swiftly past me and put me to shame by using the stairs. Another day I was about to step into what I thought was an unoccupied lift only to notice at the last minute that it was occupied by the same man, who blinked at me in surprise as my rotundity briefly threatened to collide with his rather more svelte figure.

Yesterday I had my closest encounter yet with said gentleman, whom I’m sure you will already have guessed is the tenth World Chess Champion, Boris Spassky. I noticed him sitting in the bar with Stewart Reuben and Ruben Felgaer. At the time I was having difficulty finding somewhere to sit down and enjoy my chicken baguette and I was quite pleased to see them get up and depart, giving me an ideal place to sit down and have lunch.

About 20 minutes later a slightly perplexed Spassky returned to the same place. To my surprise, he bore down on me and asked “have you seen my glasses? I was sitting here before”. I was galvanised into action. Lifting the cushion on the chair, I caught sight of the great man’s spectacles on the floor under the chair. I fished them out and handed them to him. A trivial enough thing to do, of course, but Boris’s reaction was as if I had just given him a fully-worked, cast-iron refutation of the Benoni. Lifting his arms to the skies for added effect, he exclaimed: “This is a miracle! How did you do it?”

Trifling though the favour was, it was extremely pleasurable to have been of service to one of the greatest players who has ever lived. My life is now complete and my epitaph will surely read “here lies the man who once helped Boris Spassky find his specs”.

Now to business: 30-year-old German grandmaster Jan ‘Gusty’ Gustafsson moved into the sole lead in round eight of the Gibtelecom Masters, blowing away Natalia Zhukova with some ease though he has thirteen players still breathing down his neck as the tournament reaches its penultimate round. (I’ve been racking my brains for some more meteorological metaphors but I think I’ll call it a day at three. I don’t want a reputation as a windbag.)

Natalia Zhukova had so far been the surprise package of this year’s festival but her streak came to an end when she faced the Hamburg-born grandmaster. Despite having the white pieces, she soon found herself in a passive position and Gustafsson found a powerful tactical coup to end the game on move 33.

Other games between the eleven overnight leaders started brightly but gradually subsided into draws. Kamsky-Adams was a heavyweight encounter and promised a good struggle but after a number of exchanges the game reduced to a level endgame.

Five players in the next score group took the opportunity to move close to the leading score. Top seed Etienne Bacrot moved back into contention by defeating Alex Lenderman of the USA in a long, fluctuating struggle. Georgian International Master Lela Javakhishvili became one of two women players to reach the group in second equal place when she won impressively against Spanish grandmaster Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez.

The game of the day was almost certainly the one between Argentinian grandmaster Damian Lemos and French International Master Clovis Vernay. The Frenchman, playing Black, attempted to extract himself from difficulties with a remarkable tactical combination involving an eye-catching queen sacrifice. Many a player would have succumbed to such a dangerous attack but the Argentinian found an equally astonishing defence to neutralise the Black counterattack and convert the material advantage into victory. Great credit must go to both players for providing this feast of chess.

Leaders after Round 8: 1st Jan Gustafsson (Germany) 6½ points out of 8; 2nd= Etienne Bacrot (France), Sergei Movsesian (Slovakia), Paco Vallejo Pons (Spain), Michael Adams (England), Gata Kamsky (USA), Laurent Fressinet (France), Chand Sandipan (India), Humpy Koneru (India), Stelios Halkias (Greece), Damian Lemos (Argentina), Alexander Naumann (Germany), Lela Javakhishvili (Georgia), Drasko Boskovic (Serbia) 6 points.

Selection of games, let’s start with Lemos-Vernay

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Photos © John Saunders, more here

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Stars include: Etienne Bacrot, Sergei Movsesian, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Michael Adams, Gata Kamsky, Laurent Fressinet, Ivan Cheparinov, Daniel Fridman etc.

The Masters section of the Gibtelecom festival enters an exciting final phase, as no less than 11 players are on shared 1st place with 5.5 points out of 7 games. Meanwhile, some famous names decided to climb the Rock and meet its famous residents.

Photo © Zeljka Malobabic

The 2010 Gibtelecom International Chess Festival takes place January 26-February 4 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The rate of play in this 9-round Swiss is 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 moves in 50 minutes plus 15 minutes for all remaining moves with 30 seconds per move added from the start. Draws by mutual agreement in under 30 moves are not allowed, but genuine draws by repetition or stalemate are acceptable.

Rounds 5-7

In round 5, Michael Adams and Jan Gustafsson took the lead in the Masters group. Both profited from early slips by their Indian opponents (Humpy Koneru and GN Gopal respectively) to win in some comfort. After the next round there was a a four-way tie for the lead as the top six pairings all ended in draws. Two players who had been on 4/5 took the opportunity to catch up with Adams and Gustafsson by winning their games: Indian grandmaster Chanda Sandipan defeated Nana Dzagnidze, and Ukrainian woman grandmaster Natalia Zhukova beat French GM Romain Edouard.

After several more draws, the round 7 standings table has a ‘dream team’ of eleven players topping the standings: Sergei Movsesian (SVK), Paco Vallejo Pons (ESP), Michael Adams (ENG), Gata Kamsky (USA), Laurent Fressinet (FRA), Jan Gustafsson (GER), Chanda Sandipan (IND), Humpy Koneru (IND), Stelios Halkias (GRE), Alex Lenderman (USA), Natalia Zhukova (UKR) all have 5½/7.

The player who was closest to breaking clear of the pack was Michael Adams, who played some very enterprising chess against Natalia Zhukova and seemed likely to win. However, some active defence by the Ukrainian woman grandmaster saved the day for her and kept her amongst the leaders.

Thanks to John Saunders who writes for the official site

Selection of games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Again, we’d like to mention the live commentary by Stuart Conquest during the rounds, starting at 15.30 CET every day. The older sessions can still be watched at livestream. Here’s yesterday’s show:

As I know from personal experience, one hasn’t really visited Gibraltar until one has been up to the top of the Rock to meet the monkeys. Together with resident photographer Zeljka Malobabic, some parties of players climbed the Rock to meet its most famous residents and here are some photos.

Gata Kamsky listens carefully to the advice of an experience player

Did it just take the chess queen's queen? Let's hope Alexandra Kosteniuk got a nice pic in return

Irina Krush seems to be missing a nice shot here

Anna Zatonskih posing, with our little friend closeby

Photos © Zeljka Malobabic, more here

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Although the Corus tournament always dominates the chess news in the last two weeks of January, for one event we have to make an exception. The 8th Gibtelecom International Chess Festival in Gibraltar is on its way and in fact already four rounds have been played. Yet again the field of players is a very nice mixture, including many top female players.

The 2010 Gibtelecom International Chess Festival takes place January 26-February 4 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The rate of play in this 9-round Swiss is 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 moves in 50 minutes plus 15 minutes for all remaining moves with 30 seconds per move added from the start. Draws by mutual agreement in under 30 moves are not allowed, but genuine draws by repetition or stalemate are acceptable.

The festival is the Rock’s biggest annual international event now in its eighth edition. This year the field is stronger than ever with top names such as Etienne Bacrot from France, Sergei Movsesian from Slovakia and Francisco Vallejo Pons from Spain, participating in the tournament for the very first time. Some 41 countries are represented in this edition of the festival.

Most significant though is the very strong women’s field which has attracted the top women in the world – the current Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk from Russia, the world number two woman player Humpy Koneru from India, and the world number three, Hou Yifan from China. Almira Shripchenko, who this year made the final table of the world poker series in Las Vegas is also be playing in Gibraltar. Other competitors are GM Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), and GM Chen Zhu (Qatar), and Pia Cramling (Sweden), a previous European women’s champion.

Reigning World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is one of the many female top players in Gibraltar

The Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar again plays hosts to the Gibtelecom International Chess Festival, which also includes several amateur tournaments. The festival’s total prize fund is £112,500 (EUR 129,750, US $179,910). The Masters has £96,600 in prizes, there are two Challenger Tournaments, each lasting five days, with prizes for each of £5,500. Two five-day Amateur Tournaments are also played with prize money of £2,300 each.

The Caleta hotel, where the tournament takes place

Over the years the festival has seen some of the world’s most famous players play in Gibraltar including Alexei Shirov, Emil Sutovsky , Hikaru Nakamura and Peter Svidler. Returning again this year is Michael Adams from England, and Gata Kamsky (USA).

As always, GM Stuart Conquest provides live commentary during the rounds from the Caleta hotel, starting from 15:00 (GMT+1) for up to six hours. These are unmissable – in every sense of that word. If you have not been able to tune in to his live broadcasts, you can still hear them at your leisure. They have all been stored online and can still be watched here.

2008 British Champion Stuart Conquest provides live commentary

Photos © Zeljka Malobabic, more here

Yesterday afternoon (29 January) was very special indeed. You can watch five hours of commentary here and if you move to a point around 1:26 hours into the video, Boris Spassky (who celebrates his 73rd birthday today!) made an unscheduled visit to the commentary room. Seeing him in the audience, Stuart Conquest persuaded him to come alongside to talk “for a few minutes” – which turned into nearly three hours! At first Boris is off-camera (the organizers weren’t expecting him) but around 1:42 you can Boris talking about the games. After that there’s nearly three hours’ video film of the legendary ex-world champion.

After four rounds there’s no player left with a 100% score. Bacrot, Adams, Fressinet, Fridman, Gustafsson, Sandipan, Koneru, Edouard, Felgaer and Gopal are all on 3.5/4.

Two games from round 3 caught our eye; Adam’s brilliant win over Halkias and Cheparinov being held to a draw by a 2000-player beautifully.

Game viewer

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Ayer a las tres de la tarde el excampeón del mundo Boris Spassky, invitado especial de la organización, inauguró el VIII Festival de Ajedrez de Gibraltar, uno de los torneos open más importantes del mundo y, sin duda, el más fuerte que se celebra en territorio peninsular, se jugarán diez rondas del 26 de enero al 4 de febrero.

Este año la nómina de jugadores tiene especial interés para los aficionados españoles: el campeón de España Paco Vallejo, con sus 2705 puntos Elo participa por primera vez en Gibraltar, es el número tres del ranking tras el francés Etienne Bacrot y el eslovaco Sergei Movsesian por delante de figuras de la categoría de Gata Kamsky o Michael Adams. También está aquí la campeona de España Mónica Calzetta que competirá ante las mejores como la campeona del mundo Alexandra Kosteniuk, la india -número dos mundial- Humpy Koneru o la sueca Pia Cramling.

L’Open di Gibilterra, che si gioca dal 26 gennaio al 4 febbraio, è uno dei tornei più ricchi del circuito con le sue 112.500 sterline di montepremi (circa 128.000 euro). Giunto alla sua 8^ edizione, il “Gibtelecom International Chess Festival” può vantare un albo d’oro notevole: l’anno scorso vinse Peter Svidler (dopo tie-break contro Milov), nel 2008 Nakamura (anche lui al tie-break, contro Bu Xiangzhi). Prima ancora Akopian, Kiril Georgiev, Shirov e Aronian, Short. D’altronde non capita spesso un 1° premio di 15.000 sterline (17.000 euro)!

Peter Svidler, vincitore dell'edizione 2009

 La manifestazione non si limita al torneo principale, aperto a tutti, denominato “Gibtelecom Masters”, ma comprende anche una serie di tornei minori che permettono ai giocatori con Elo inferiore a 2250 che lo desiderano di fare una vera e propria full immersion scacchistica di 10 giorni! Infatti le partite del “Gibtelecom Masters” si giocano alle 15.00, quindi per “ingannare l’attesa” si possono giocare i tornei mattutini di 5 turni previsti dal 26 al 30 gennaio e dal 31 gennaio al 4 febbraio, denominati “Challengers” (per under 2250) e "Amateurs" (under 1800). In teoria un under 2250 può portare a casa 6.000 sterline vincendo entrambi i tornei minori ed il premio di fascia nel torneo principale!

Un torneo nel torneo sarà quello femminile, perchè è previsto un consistente montepremi riservato alle signore, con un 1° premio di ben 8.000 sterline! Ecco spiegata la presenza della n° 2 mondiale, l'indiana Humpy Koneru, Elo 2614, della n° 4, la bulgara Antoaneta Stefanova (2545), della Campionessa del Mondo Alexandra Kosteniuk (2523)  e di molte altre, tra le quali la nostra Elena Sedina (2335).

Humpy Koneru, n° 2 della classifica mondiale femminile

La Campionessa Mondiale Alexandra Kosteniuk

Al torneo partecipano 3 over-2700: il francese Etienne Bacrot, Elo 2713, lo "slovacco" di origine georgiana Sergei Movsesian (2708) e lo spagnolo Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705).

Etienne Bacrot

Francisco Vallejo Pons

Vediamo l’elenco degli over-2600 presenti:

GM Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2713
GM Movsesian, Sergei SVK 2708
GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco ESP 2705
GM Adams, Michael ENG 2694
GM Kamsky, Gata USA 2693
GM Fressinet, Laurent FRA 2670
GM Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2660
GM Fridman, Daniel GER 2654
GM Gustafsson, Jan GER 2627
GM Sandipan, Chanda IND 2622
GM Koneru, Humpy IND 2614
GM Edouard, Romain FRA 2608
GM Istratescu, Andrei ROU 2607

Sono previsti 10 turni di gioco dal 26 gennaio al 4 febbraio con inizio alle ore 15. Nell’ultimo turno inizieranno alle 10 solo le partite riguardanti i giocatori in lizza per il 1° premio, per permettere la disputa in giornata di eventuali spareggi. In caso di arrivo a pari merito di più di 4 giocatori la classifica finale verrà stilata in base alla performance realizzata.

Tempo di riflessione: 100 minuti per 40 mosse + 50 minuti per 20 mosse + 15 minuti per finire oltre all’incremento di 30 secondi a mossa.

 E’ permesso presentarsi alla scacchiera con un ritardo massimo di 30 minuti. Entro il 6° turno è possibile prendere un turno di riposo (bye) incamerando mezzo punto in classifica, ma non è consentito fare patta prima della 30^ mossa.

Partite in diretta, QUI

Sito ufficiale, QUI

Today we give you the second set of ten questions of our Big ChessVibes Christmas Trivia Quiz! Good luck!

Today questions 11-20; tomorrow the last ten will follow. Send your answers before Sunday, December 27th, 23:59 CET to christmas09@chessvibes.com and who knows, you might end up winning one of the following prizes:

Prizes

First prize: 1-year subscription New in Chess Yearbook	Second prize: 1-year subscription New in Chess Magazine	Third prize: 1-year subscription Internet Chess Club (ICC)

Big ChessVibes Christmas Trivia Quiz – Part II

11. The World Junior Chess Championship has been organized since 1951.
11A Of the following ten players, five won the title once, and five never. Which of these names won the title? Aronian, Bielicki, Carlsen, Fischer, Hübner, Ivkov, Kaplan, Leko, Spassky, Timman.
11B Four of the sixteen World Champions also won the World Junior title. Which four?

12. Where do they live?

13. Thirteen games in the match between Anand and Kasparov in 1995 ended in a draw. How often was Kasparov the one who offered a draw?
13A zero
13B two
13C eleven
13D all thirteen

13E There are only three players who played more than one classical game against Kasparov and have a plus score. Name all three players.

14 Three photos. One of them is a former World Champ, the other a former FIDE President and the third a former World Junior Champ. Name these three famous players.

14A	14B	14C

15 Four album covers. Name the albums and artists!

15A	15B
15C	15D

16 IM Christoph Wisnewski wrote a monograph about 1…Nc6, the Nimzovich Opening, for Everyman. Last year a book about opening traps was published by the same publisher, this time written by Christoph Scheerer. ‘Previously Wisnewski’, according to Everyman. This question is about players whose name was changed significantly during their chess career. Connect the old names to the correct new names.

17. A question about the World Senior Chess Championship.
17A From what age are you allowed to participate in this event?
17B Which player won the title three times?
17C Of the following names, six players won the title at least once, and six didn’t. Which players won the title?
Yuri Averbakh, Jacob Murey, Ewfim Geller, Jusefs Petkevich, Larry Kaufman, Lajos Portisch, Viktor Korchnoi, Vassily Smyslov, Bent Larsen, Boris Spassky, Henrique Mecking, Mark Taimanov.

18.There are many couples of two chess players in the chess world. Create the correct couples!

19. For a long time Peter Svidler thought the Marshall Gambit of the Ruy Lopez to be dubious, but eventually he started playing the move 8…d5 himself. Who inspired him?
19A Michael Adams
19B John Nunn
19C Jimi Hendrix
19D Billy Joel

20A Who are the two men in the left picture?
20B Which chess player is chosen for the sculpture on the right?

That’s it for today. Tomorrow the last ten questions! Feel free to discuss the quiz in the comments, but needless to say, no answers please!

After a very successful World Cup tournament, Vladimir Malakhov managed to keep his top form this weekend. The 29-year-old physicist from Russia won the European Rapid Championship with 11.5/13, beating big favourites such as Gashimov, Ivanchuk and Shirov. Update: games added.

The 9th European Rapid Championship took place December 19 & 20 in Warsaw, Poland. It was open to all players representing one of the ECU federations (FIDE Zones 1.1 to 1.9).

It was sponsored by Amplico Life S.A. and organized by the Polish Chess Federation, the Torwar Sports Centre and the Polonia Warsaw Chess Club under the patronage of the City Office of Warsaw, the Marshal Office of the Mazovian Voivodeship and the Central District of Warsaw.

Venue was the Torwar Show Hall, which is primarily used for music concerts, ice hockey and other indoor sports. It is the home of the hockey team UHKS Mazowsze. Some of the biggest popstars including Placebo, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, Depeche Mode, R.E.M., Simply Red, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, KoRn, The Cure, Rihanna, Mark Knopfler and Alicia Keys have performed here as well.

The venue also hosted the 2007 European Figure Skating Championships | Photo Beax, Wikipedia

The tournament was a 13-round Swiss. The rate of play was 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increment per move. Eight rounds were played on Saturday; five on Sunday. The first prize of € 4,000 went to Vladimir Malakhov who scored an amazing 11.5 out of 13. He won all of his games on Saturday which included important victories with Black against Ivanchuk in round 7 and with White against Gashimov in round 8. On Sunday Malakhov drew with Dreev, Bartel, Movsesian and he defeated Krasenkow and Shirov (in the last round, with Black) to become the deserved winner in Warsaw.

The silver medal went to Vassily Ivanchuk, who only lost to Malakhov. Radoslaw Wojtaszek took bronze after tiebreaks, finishing on 10.5/13 together with Alexei Dreev, Daniel Fridman and Sergei Movsesian. Update: Below you’ll find all games of the winner; the complete game file (PGN) can be downloaded below.

All 13 games of Malakhov

Game viewer by ChessTempo

The playing hall of the European Rapid Championship...

...and another one but now with a fisheye lens

A tournament for young & old

L-R Anna Muzychuk - best woman; Vladimir Malakhov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Radoslaw Wojtaszek - medal winners; Lukasz Kalinowski - president of Amplico Life (main sponsor)

Vladimir Malakhov clinches gold in Warsaw

Photos by Piotr Gilarski

Link

• Official website
• Games in PGN

Eliminados Morozevich e Ivanchuk

Shirov, Domínguez Perez y Milos al desempate el jueves.

El GM chino Yu Yangyi (2527) que había eliminado a Sergei Movsesian (SVK-2728) volvió a ganar, esta vez a Bartel, Mateusz (POL-2618) y clasificó para la 3ª Ronda. Sin dudas la sorpresa.

Shirov, Alexei (ESP-2719)-Fedorchuk, Sergey A. (UKR-2619), una victoria cada uno; Leinier Domínguez Pérez (CUB-2719)-Caruana, Fabiano (ITA-2652), dos tablas y Milos, Gilberto (BRA-2603)- Vitiugov, Nikita (RUS-2694), dos tablas, tendrán que jugar su chance en el desempate de mañana. Iturrizaga, Eduardo (VEN-2605) no pudo con Jobava, Baadur (GEO-2696).

Sergei Movsesian is the strongest player who already has to leave the World Cup after two days of play. After losing the first game to Yu Yangyi, the Slovak GM was held to a draw in the second game today. Zahar Efimenko was eliminated 1.5-0.5 by Gilberto Milos; Yannick Pelletier beat Bu Xiangzhi with the same score while Ivan Sokolov lost both his games to Sergey Fedorchuk.

The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place November 20th-December 15th inn Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It’s a seven-round knockout with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round. The final seventh round consists of four games.

The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (11:00 CET).

Round 1.2

During the second day of the World Cup the live transmission went well, although we’re not too enthusiastic about the choice of game viewer which is the free Montreux Java applet. During replay the games often jump to the final position, and another downside of it is that it doesn’t respond to the keyboard arrow keys, which we find much more convenient quickly replaying lots of games. Anyway, enough complaining.

Boris Gelfand, top seed at this event, was indeed the first to reach the second round because he didn’t care too much about losing a few rating points and agreed to a draw at move 12. Gashimov, Svidler, Morozevich, Radjabov, Ivanchuk, Wang Yue, Mamedyarov, Ganguly, Fressinet and Fedorchuk reached the next round by 2-0 victories; the latter by upsetting the higher-rated Ivan Sokolov.

15-year-old Chinese super-talent (already a GM with 2527 and an expected rating change of 29.7) Yu Yangyi knocked out Sergei Movsesian, who avoided theory today with a Closed Sicilian with c3, but didn’t come close to kingside attack. He had to repeat moves to avoid a disaster on the queenside.

Yu Yangyi surprisingly knocks out Sergei Movsesian

The third surprise in this first round so far is the elimination of Zahar Efimenko, who yesterday lost with the white pieces against 46-year-old Gilberto Milos. Today the young Ukrainian reached an ending with three pawns against a knight, but the experienced Brazilian grandmaster didn’t falter. Bu Xiangzhi was defeated 0.5-1.5 by Yannick Pelletier, who heroically defended a very difficult position with Black yesterday and then crushed his opponent today in a Grünfeld.

A nice thing about the World Cup is that you get to see top 10 players playing against IMs or “weak” GMs, the kind of opponents almost all of us would lose against. The way these top GMs beat them is often very instructive. In most cases the lower-rated players can go along quite well for a while, but after a few hours of play they inevitably start to make small mistakes, which are immediately punished.

Tomorrow are the tiebreaks of the first round:
Dominguez-Smerdon, Navara-Laylo, Bacrot-Nijboer, Hou Yifan-Naiditsch, Li Chao-Sargissian, Kryvoruchko-Cheparinov, Zhou Weiqi-Sutovsky, Iturrizaga-Tiviakov, L’Ami-Sasikiran, Shabalov-Baklan, Khalifman-Fier, Grachev-Bartel, Negi-Milov, Timofeev-Leitao, Gustafsson-Inarkiev, Savchenko-Shulman, Tkachiev-Le Quang Liem, Akobian-Tregubov, So-Guseinov and Nyback-Andreikin.

The rules for the tiebreaks are:

3. 8. 1. a. If the scores are level after the regular games, after a new drawing of colors, four (4) tie-break games shall be played. The games shall be played using the electronic clock starting with 25 minutes for each player with an addition of 10 seconds after each move.

3. 8. 1. b. The tie-break games shall be played according to the following:

1. Play is governed by the Technical Regulations (annex 1), which apply with the exceptions mentioned below in (2), (3) and (4).
2. The player do not need to record the moves. An arbiter shall record the moves.
3. The player who has the move may stop the clock and consult the Arbiter’s score sheet and if his next move will produce a threefold repetition of position (according to Article 9.2a of the Technical Regulations), or the 50 moves rule (according to Article 9.3a of the Technical Regulations), he himself must write the intended move on the score sheet and claim the draw if he wants. A player can also claim a draw according to articles 9.2b and 9.3b of the Technical Regulations. If the claim is found to be correct, the game is immediately ended as a draw. If the claim is found to be incorrect, the Arbiter shall add three (3) minutes to the opponent’s remaining time and the game continues with the intended move in accordance with Article 4 of the Technical Regulations. A maximum of two (2) incorrect claims for a draw can be made by each player. If a player makes a 3rd incorrect claim, the arbiter shall declare the game lost for this player.
4. If a game has ended by resignation, checkmate, time loss, stalemate, triple repetition or any other of the ways described in article 5 of the Technical Regulations, no claim for irregularities shall be accepted (irregularities include clock settings and all other described in article 7 of the Technical Regulations).

3. 8. 2. a. If the scores are level after the games in paragraph 3.8.1a, then, after a new drawing of colors, a match of 2 games shall be played with a time control of 5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment after each move. In case of a level score, the same match will be repeated to determine a winner. If still there is no winner after 5 such matches (total 10 games), one sudden-death game will be played as described below in 3.8.3a.

3. 8. 2. b. The games shall be played according to the Rules mentioned in 3.8.1.b.

3. 8. 3. a. If the score is still level after five matches as described in 3.8.2a, the players shall play a single decisive sudden death game. The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces shall receive 5 minutes, the opponent with the black pieces shall receive 4 minutes whereupon, after the 60th move, both players shall receive an
increment of 3 seconds from move 61. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.

3. 8. 3. b. The games shall be played according to the Rules mentioned in 3.8.1.b.

3. 8. 4. Between the tie-break games as well as before the start of the sudden death game there shall be a pause of at least 10 minutes, unless the Chief Arbiter decides otherwise.

Games round 1.2

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Players are queuing for a security scan...

...here Radjabov just passes, followed by Onischuk and Bologan

Adly-Bologan, a 0.5-1.5 victory for the Moldavian GM

Parimarjan Negi faces Vadim Milov tomorrow again in the tiebreaks

Mamedyarov-Kosteniuk: 2-0 for the Azeri GM

Sergei Tiviakov will play tiebreaks tomorrow against his young opponent Eduardo Iturrizaga

Jan Gustafsson won the first, but lost the second game to Ernesto Inarkiev

Ivan Cheparinov and Yuryi Kryvoruchko are going to play rapid and possible blitz games as well

In the clash between the Romanians, Nisipeanu qualified 1.5-0.5

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

The day of the FIDE World Cup saw few surprises. The biggest upset was Yu Yangyi beating Sergei Movsesian, while e.g. Ponomariov, Shirov, Grischuk and Dominguez were held to a draw by their lower-rated opponents.

The FIDE World Chess Cup takes place November 20th-December 15th inn Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It’s a seven-round knockout with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round. The final seventh round consists of four games.

The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. Games start at 15:00h local time (11:00 CET).

Round 1.1

We cannot understand that a tournament as important as the World Cup, organized for the third time already in Khanty-Mansiysk, still has trouble presenting 64 games of chess on the internet. On the first day the “live broadcast is stopped due to techncial reasons”, the tournament website said. And at the moment of writing, an hour after the games of the second day started, a complete PGN file still isn’t available (how difficult is it to enter some missing moves from a few scoresheets?). No doubt the technical problems are the result of a lower budget than in previous years, but with so many chess fans around the world rooting for their local hero, this is a major failure which cannot stay unmentioned.

The first round was played, don’t worry about that. Except for one minimatch, though. Judit Polgar has already qualified for the 2nd round because her opponent GM Dusko Pavasovic was not able to make it to Khanty-Mansiysk in time. According to a comment on Susan Polgar’s blog, Pavasovic had an accident while playing football a few days ago.

Most top players won without difficulty, although many of them had to claim the point after a long ending against their stubbornly defending underdogs. Some of them couldn’t convert their advantage; Ponomariov for example (btw playing with a mouth mask!) drew in a rook ending with El Gindy, and Grischuk did the same against Sriram. Australian GM David Smerdon, whom we mentioned in our previous report, managed to draw his first game with Black against Dominguez in a Sicilian Dragon.

Alexander Morozevich scored a nice, quick win in a Grünfeld against Abdel Razik. The surprise of the round was 15-year-old Yu Yangyi from China beating Sergei Movsesian in a Sicilian Taimanov. Yu Shoateng drew comfortably with Black against Vachier-Lagrave. Against Adly, Bologan gave a fine example of an attack in a middlegame with opposite-coloured bishops. Romanians Nisipeanu and Lupulescu were paired against each other in the first round and yet again it became clear how much stronger Nisi is that the other GMs in his country.

Games round 1.1 (a number of them incomplete)

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov with mouth protection...

...like one of the arbiters

Leinier Dominguez from Cuba drew his first game...

against David Smerdon (Australia)

Sergei Movsesian: in danger of an early knock-out

The favourite in the ChessVibes Poll: Vassily Ivanchuk

Shakhryiar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan

Rising star from the US Ray Robson lost his first game to Jobava

Russian GM Sergei Rublevsky

GM Ilyia Smirin from Israel

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

Earlier today the 3rd FIDE World Cup was officially opened, with the opening ceremony taking place in the House of Culture “Oktyabr” in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. No less than 128 strong chess players have travelled to the small, Siberian oil town and for most of them their journey took a long, long time.

As we can read on the tournament website, the epicentre of all the info on this huge individual tournament for the coming weeks, the

governor of Khanty Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra Alexander Filipenko and the Vice Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Zhukov warmly welcomed the participants of the World Cup 2009. Alexander Zhukov called Khanty Mansiysk one of the chess capitals in Russia.

New beautiful chess palaces will be constructed by the start of the Chess Olympiad in 2010, – said the Vice Prime Minister. – In particular, the construction of one of the best chess palace of Russia, to my mind, will be finished. (…)

After the official opening words, chief arbiter Ashot Vardapetian was responsible for the drawing of lots. The top seeded GM Boris Gelfand picked a box with a white king in it, which means that all the participants with odd numbers will start the first round with White tomorrow.

Chief arbiter Ashof Ardapetian and top seed Boris Gelfand

After the official part the art groups of Yugra region showed some performance: young club “Druzhba” with its chess fashion show “Yugra chess”, young and talented designers from Nyagany Elena Goncharova and Elena Chernysh, Ob-yugorsk theatre “Solnze”.

Theatrical performances at the opening ceremony

Below we’ll give you all the important data on the World Cup once more. But before that, we’d like to mention two players who have already started blogging about their long journey. Because, Khanty-Mansiysk is not only tough to pronounce and impossible to spell, but it’s also darn far away. From just about everywhere.

American GM Josh Friedel, who played tournaments in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands and Bad Wiessee, Germany before the World Cup, writes:

Traveling to a desolate village in the middle of Siberia may sound like a hassle, but in fact it is… well OK it sucks. The first leg of my journey went easily enough. I travelled from Zurich to Moscow via Vienna. After arriving in Moscow is where the fun began. A couple days previous, I was notified that my flight from Moscow to Khanty-Mansiysk was cancelled. Luckily, I managed to book a new flight. Unfortunately, this flight was from a different airport in Moscow (there are three), so I had four hours to go from Domodedovo Airport to Vnukovo airport. Sound like enough time? The bus between airports I thought existed turned out hadn’t been running for two years, but this was unsurprising, as that would have been too easy. Cabs in Russia are a known hazard, so I took a train to the city, went on the metro for four stops, then waited for another train to take me to Vnukovo. I managed not to get lost during this process, which was in my mind nothing short of miraculous, but sadly I was still going to be too late! The woman at the train station told me the next airport train didn’t leave for almost an hour, so I’d only arrive thirty minutes prior to my flight, which wasn’t enough. Of course, I think that’s what she said, with my limited Russian and her speaking quickly she might have said the next train to the sheep factory didn’t leave for an hour. Still, I decided to try my luck at Vnukovo airport, maybe they would let me on.

(Continue reading here.)

An interesting question is: who had to travel the most to get there? The answer might well be GM David Smerdon from Australia. He recently started a blog on www.davidsmerdon.com and he also has a few tidbits about the long journey:

The domestic trip was quite an experience. As you might expect, there wasn’t much written in Roman letters in the domestic airport, but I’m getting quite good at pronouncing words written in Russian text (though knowing what they mean is another matter). We also found a fantastic lady from Utair, our carrier, who was very enthusiastic about the chance to practice her English with us. While the plane was tiny and the usually anal safety procedures weren’t exactly followed (seatbelts, mobile phones, and upright seats optional), we made it safely and relatively painlessly.

On board our plane was Sergei Movsesian, a 2700 player I met a while ago in the Czech Republic (where he now resides). His English is flawless, so the bus ride to the hotel was a good chance to get the inside scoop on the town. But the big star-gazing moment came in the hotel itself, when Fi and I shared a tiny lift ride with none other than former world champion Anatoly Karpov (non-chessplayers: think Andre Agassi, but with more hair).

(Continue reading here.)

Khanty-Mansiysk

Khanty-Mansiysk is an oil boom town in Russia, the administrative center of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. It is located on the Irtysh River, 15 km from its confluence with the Ob. Besides the two previous World Cups (won by Levon Aronian and Gata Kamsky respectively), Khanty-Mansiysk was the venue of the 2003 Biathlon World Championships, and in 2005 the first Mixed Biathlon Relay (4×6 km) took place there.

World Cup format

There shall be 6 rounds of matches comprising two 2 games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round, plus the final seventh (7th) round comprising of four (4) games.
Round 1 (November 21-23): 128 players
Round 2 (November 24-26): 64 players
Round 3 (November 27-29): 32 players
Round 4 (November 30-December 2): 16 players
Round 5 (December 3-5): 8 players
Round 6 (December 6-8): 4 players
Round 7 (December 10-14): 2 players

The time control shall be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. For the first 6 rounds, each match shall be played over 2 games and the winner of a match shall be the first player to score 1.5 or more points. The final 7th round will be a match played over 4 games and the winner of the World Cup will be the first player to score 2.5 or more points.

Extended tiebreak

This edition will feature an extended format for tiebreaks. A maximum of four rapid games will be played, and if the score is still equal, there will be up to five pairs of blitz games. If the tie is broken after any pair of games, the tiebreak will end. Failing that, an armageddon game will be played, where players will have three-second increments beginning with move 61.

Prize fund

Round 1 losers:   64 x   USD   6,000  (net 4,800)  USD 384,000
Round 2 losers:   32 x   USD  10,000  (net 8,000)  USD 320,000
Round 3 losers:   16 x   USD  16,000  (net 12,800) USD 256,000
Round 4 losers:    8 x   USD  25,000  (net 20,000) USD 200,000
Round 5 losers:    4 x   USD  35,000  (net 28,000) USD 140,000
Round 6 losers:    2 x   USD  50,000  (net 40,000) USD 100,000
Runner-up:         1 x   USD  80,000  (net 64,000) USD  80,000
World Cup winner:  1 x   USD 120,000  (net 96,000) USD 120,000 

Total:                                           USD 1,600,000

Tomorrow the first round starts at 15:00 locat time which is 11:00 CET. The pairings for the first round, with the correct colours, can now be found on the official website.

The audience in the House of Culture 'Oktyabr'

The chess theme, entering between black and white...

...but some beautiful colours as well

And many women beautifully dressed...

...and some with a mischievous look in the eye

Links

• Official website
• More info at FIDE

Chi vincerà per K.O.?

Boris Gelfand, più alto rating del torneo


Vugar Gashimov, più alto rating del torneo


Sergei Karjakin, semifinalista nel 2007


Alexei Shirov, finalista nel 2007


Gata Kamsky, vincitore della World Cup 2007


Fabiano Caruana ci farà sognare


Lazaro Bruzon,
l'avversario di Caruana nei 64esimi


Ahmed Adly
Campione del Mondo Under 20 nel 2007


Abijeet Gupta,
Campione del Mondo Under 20 nel 2008


Alexandra Kostenjuk
Campionessa del Mondo in carica

Dal 24 novembre al 4 dicembre si tiene in contemporanea con la World Cup, la V "Governor Chess Cup of Khanty-Mansiysk", torneo in due sezioni (Over2350 e Under2350) che tra l'altro intende dare la possibilità ai 64 eliminati della prima tornata della World Cup di continuare la propria permanenza in Khanty-Mansiysk.

In Khanty-Mansiysk si sono già disputate le edizioni della World Cup del 2005 e del 2007; nel 2010 si svolgeranno in questa sede le Olimpiadi scacchistiche, dopo Torino 2006 e Dresda 2008. Khanty-Mansiysk si trova in Russia aldilà degli Urali, dunque in Siberia, non lontano dallo scorrere del fiume Ob; in questo periodo la temperatura è quasi sempre sotto i –10…

La suggestiva Chiesa della Resurrezione di Cristo


Il centro polivalente, sede della World Cup

Fantascacchi World Cup 2009 di LightKnight

Sito ufficiale

Three of the seven rounds have been played at the European Club Cup in Ohrid, Macedonia and in the open section there are six teams left with a perfect score. In the women section, Samaia Tbilisi is the sole leader with 5 board points.

The 25th European Club Cup and the 14th European Club Cup for Women take place October 3-11 in Ohrid, Macedonia. The time control is 90 min. for 40 moves + 30 min. & 30 sec. increment. The winning open team receives € 11,000; the best women team € 3,750. The best individual player gets € 700; the best female player € 250.

Round 3

The reigning European Champion Ural Svedrdlovskaya (Russia) dropped their first match point yesterday against the Ukrainians with the cryptic, and surely sponsored name A DAN DZO & PGMB. Four of the games in this match ended in a draw, but Ural’s Alexei Shirov lost to Yuri Drozdovskij. It was Evgeny Bareev’s experience that prevented a complete failure – he beat Yaroslav Zinchenko.

Eternal German champion OSC Baden-Baden, currently first on board points, crushed SK Slovan Bratislava but Ljubomir Ftacnik saved the Slovenian honour with a fine win over Sergei Movsesian on board one. Peter Svidler’s win with the black pieces against Vassily Ivanchuk (check that beautiful exchange sacrifice!) was crucial for SPbChFed Sankt-Peterburg’s victory over the Israeli team Ashdod Illit Chess Club.

Today’s top pairings: Economist-SGSEU-1 Saratov vs Beer Sheva Chess Club, OSG Baden-Baden vs Mika Yerevan and SPbChFed Sankt-Peterburg vs Alkaloid Skopje.

In the women section it’s anyone’s game. At the top boards, both Samaia Tbilisi vs Spartak Vidnoe and Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo vs Economist-SGSEU Saratov ended in a 2-2 tie. Mika Yerevan, in the open section one of the big favourites, is in last place here.

All results round 3

Selection of games round 3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

The laptops providing the live transmission of the top boards

Kiev (Ukraine; Onischuk, Miroshnichenko, Areshchenko, Beliavsky, Baklan and Vysochin) vs Yerevan (Armenia; Aronian, Akopian, Sargissian, Pashikian, Andriasian and Petrosian)

The Slovenian team from Bratislava (GM Ftacnik, IM Vavrak, FM Pacher, IM Banas, Havlicek and Komora) were far too weak for German champs Baden-Baden (Movsesian, Bacrot, Vallejo, Naiditsch, Adams and Nisipeanu)

Evgeny Alekseev, board 1 for Economist-SGSEU-1 Saratov (Russia)

Gata Kamsky, board 2 (after Mamedyarov) of Alkaloid Skopje (Macedonia)

Andrei Volokitin, board 3 of the same team

Boris Gelfand and Sergei Karjakin at the top boards of ShSM-64 Moscow (Russia)

Daniel Fridman, board 1 of HMC Calder (Netherlands)

Tomi Nybäck, board 2 (after Fressinet) of German team Werder Bremen

Normunds Miezis, board 1 of Moss Schakklubb (Norway)

Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo vs Economist-SGSEU Saratov

Former World Champions meet: Chiburdanidze-Stefanova, top board of the match Samaia Tbilisi - Spartak Vidnoe

Photos courtesy of the official website

Links

• Official website
• Open section at Chess-Results
• Women section at Chess-Results
• Games in PGN: Open section | Women section

Alright, this blog is definitely a few days later than I would have originally liked, but due to my incredibly erratic sleep schedule and brutally long days of chess, it somehow slipped my mind. Since the tournaments are now over, I will recap the Mainz Chess Classic in the separate segments since I have much to say about both events which I participated in. I hope everyone enjoys the blog!

Day 1: "Arrival"

Coming off so many trips in a row, it was nice to arrive in Mainz a full two days before playing in the 960 Rapid World Championship. There really is nothing much to recap except that I arrived at the Frankfurt International Airport at around 9 AM after one of the more annoying flights in recent memory. Getting from Frankfurt to Mainz is quite convenient as it only requires a short 45 minute train ride during which one gets a great view of the countryside. After checking in at the Hilton Mainz on the Rhine, I decided to completely crash as I was tired from jetlag and all the recent traveling I have done with no break in between. In retrospect that very well might have been a mistake as I never completely was able to get on the time zone.

Day 2: "I love Sleeping"

Keeping in tune with my schedule from the previous day, I spent much of the evening and early morning awake before falling soundly asleep at around 7 AM. I had looked at the schedule the previous night and thought the press conference was at 3 PM. It was not a particularly enjoyable moment when I got a call at 1:55 PM saying the press conference would, in fact, be starting in five minutes! Therefore, I very quickly attempted to make my hair look respectable and showed up looking a bit groggy and out of it. However, I was able to answer the one important question which was asked and, so I accomplished my mission of not looking like a total fool! After this, I promptly went back to my room and feel back to asleep as quickly as I could.

Day 3: "So it Begins"

Luckily for me, keeping a US time schedule seemed to be ok as the games started at 6:30 PM local time which was pretty good since I woke up around 5 PM. As far as the games themselves went, it was anything but good. In the first round I was White against GM Levon Aronian from Armenia. I was really unsure what to expect as the last time I played a variant of normal chess (s-chess) I played like a complete maniac and ended up in some really wild positions.

The first game of the 960 World Championship seemed to follow this form as well when I decided to sacrifice two rooks for a queen while stopping Levon from being able to castle. However, despite what I felt was ample compensation, Levon played quite well and dodged all of my potential tricks. This led to an endgame in which he had a rook and two knights for my queen. Unfortunately, my kingside pawns never really got going and I lost in a fairly routine manner. In the second round, I had my second consecutive White against GM Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia who I played a few weeks back in San Sebastian. This game, at the very least, got off to a much better start as I had an advantage pretty much from the get go. In fact, it turned into pretty much a decisive advantage.

Nakamura-Movsesian, Position after 12...dxc6.

Here, I chose to play 13.Nxe5? Instead of 13.Bxc5 Bxc5 14.Nxe5 Bd6 15.Nxc6 Kb7 16.a4! a5 17.e5 after which I am up a clear pawn and should simply win. Unfortunately for me, after 13...Nxe4! the best I probably had was a draw. Nevertheless, from a psychological standpoint it is very hard to "give up" on the idea of playing for a win after you've let it slip. After my mistakes, Movsesian played extremely accurately and I never really had a chance to get back in the game. It goes without saying that being on 0/2 after all my recent successes was a bit of a shock. However, I was not expecting to win the event and simply wanted to just qualify for the final if possible. At this point, my prospects looked quite bleak, but I was able to rebound nicely with a solid win as Black against Moldovan GM Viorel Bologan. Due to a bit of luck, Levon was able to beat Sergei in a very sharp game of counterattacks which left me in the unique position of being tied for second. I recently had a similar situation last December in Norway when Carlsen>Svidler>NakamuraMovsesian>Nakamura>Bologan.

I have to admit that all in all, it was definitely a positive development for me to be in this situation considering how mediocre my overall play was on the first day. For me, I think the first game with Levon, I can chalk up with being too optimistic and simply trying to avoid a return to a normal chess position. In the second game against Sergei, I got a dream position out of the opening but messed it up which was incredibly unfortunate. However, the fact that I completely overlooked 13...Nxe4! was absolutely unacceptable and the outcome is completely fair. In the third game, I simply buckled down immensely since it was a must win game and I performed a lot better. I have to say that of the three of us, I felt that I had the most positive ending to day 1. Viorel had lost two games in a row and Sergei got punished by Levon. Going into day 2, my goal was to try and beat Sergei and Viorel, thereby controlling my destiny and most likely guaranteeing myself a spot in the final.

Day 4: "Where Did That Come From??"

Much to my chagrin, the pairings from the previous day repeated themselves except with colors reversed. This meant that in the fourth game, I got Black against Aronian. Going into this game, I knew I desperately needed to put a score on the board or it would make my task much, much tougher as I'd have two must win games. Unlike the previous day when I played based on intuition more than calculation in the opening, I changed my strategy. Instead of trusting my instincts, I figured that I had to get out of the opening with a decent position or else, my odds of even scoring against Levon would go down dramatically. As it turned out, this decision of being much more careful and precise paid dividends right away as I came out of the opening with a more or less completely equal position.

Aronian-Nakamura, Position after 14...Rxa7

At this point, Levon made a huge blunder with 15.Ba2 after which I am simply up a pawn with 15...Nxb2 16.Kc1 Bxa2 17.Kxb2 Bf7! The rest of the game was simply a matter of technique and I was able to covert without getting into any bad time pressure. What can I say? WOW. Of course, somewhere in the back of my head I knew that it was possible to beat Levon, but I definitely did not go into this game with the mindset. This result was a huge boost to my confidence as it made my job a little bit easier since the other two guys still had to face Levon. In the fifth game, I got Black against Sergei again and we resumed our general pattern of someone obtaining a huge edge out of the opening. In this case, it was Sergei who got the big edge as I misjudged the opening considerably and was significantly worse. I decided to sac a pawn to try and liven up the position, but it did not work out particularly well and I had a lot of work to do just reaching a satisfactory position. Luckily for me, Sergei returned the favor from the previous day and misplayed the middlegame giving me near equality. Slowly, I started building up my advantage and outplayed him. At this point, as he was getting worried, Sergei panicked and sacrificed a piece thinking he had a perpetual check. Although I did not play it completely accurately, Sergei missed the one drawing variation and I duly converted the position up one and then eventually two pieces. With this result my score was 3/5 and with Levon's absolutely shocking loss to Viorel, everything became wide open. Going into the final round there was a really comical possibility of a four way tie if Levon lost to Sergei and I lost to Viorel since everyone would then end up on 3/6! However, both Levon and I clearly wanted to avoid any such drama and we both came out of our respective openings with a big advantage. Without any real difficulty, we both converted our advantages into wins which set up a dramatic final the following day between Levon and I for the 960 World Rapid Championship.

Either later tonight or tomorrow  (It is now approaching midnight) I will add the second and final installment recapping the final day of the 960 World Rapid Championship and my epic showdown with Levon followed by the wild Ordix Open which I will have quite a bit to talk about.

The Mainz Chess Classic is probably the most professional, well-organized and streamlined tournament in the world. On top of that, Mainz itself is an interesting city to visit, with a rich history and a more than fascinating architecture. Arne Moll paid a visit to the Chess Classic, and to Mainz itself.

By Arne Moll

Despite its fantastic lineup and highly attractive events, the Mainz Chess Classic tournament is still mainly visited by German chess players – non-titled players, that is. On the first day of the open rapid tournament, I couldn’t find a single Dutch compatriot among the almost 700 (!) players. This wasn’t a big deal for me, though, for there were plenty of other interesting players to follow.

The hall & bar next to the playing hall, with Viktorija Cmilyte on the video screen

The super-strong Ordix Open, with GMs like Bologan and Moiseenko on boards 13 and 16!

GM Alexander Grischuk with White against GM Leonid Gofshtein

Germany's top GM Naiditsch also on stage

Former top 5 player Vlastimil Hort still enjoying the game...

...as does Rafael Vaganian

Aronian's girlfriend and Australia's top player Arianne Caoili

Ian Nepomniachtchi doing well on Saturday in the preliminaries...

...here playing against the World Champion who was in bad shape

GM Daniel Fridman

Chess960 winner Hikaru Nakamura came close to winning the Ordix Open as well

Former FIDE World Champ Alexander Khalifman

Sergei Movsesian

Gata Kamsky

Mainz was so heavily bombed during the second World War that practically the whole city has been rebuilt after the war. Many of the ancient buildings have been renovated or redecorated entirely,often in very bright colours, while many new buildings have arisen in the city center as well. As a result, Mainz now offers a curious mixture of renovated and repainted baroque buildings next to either completely neglected, or very modern and futuristic stores and apartments – a rather deadly combination in some cases.

A view from the Weiszliliengasse

Around the Marktplatz, modern and old architecture don't always go together very well

Still, Mainz rightly prides itself, among other things, as the city where Johannes Gutenberg invented the book press around the year 1450 and printed his famous Gutenberger bibles, some of which can be seen together with even older medieval manuscripts in the Gutenberg Museum. In my opinion, this piece of world heritage alone is worth the trip to Mainz – even if you don’t particularly care for bibles.

The Gutenberg Museum has many ancient manuscripts on display

Interestingly, the city has a number of exceptionally striking (modern) statues.

A refreshingly sober and thought-provoking tribute to the Mainzer episcopate

Walking towards the Rheingoldhalle, where the tournament is held, from the riverside along the stately houses, it’s hard not to think of the famous ‘rheingold! reines gold!’ end tune from Wagner’s first Nibelungen opera, not in the least because this is indeed the ‘golden’ neighborhood of Mainz – something which can also be discovered by looking at the cars parked here.

A view from the tournament hall at the famous Dom

The boulevard along the river Rhine as seen from the playing hall

You’re probably wondering what this all has to do with chess, and perhaps the answer is that the interesting but strange mix of beautiful and ugly as seen in the city centre of Mainz, definitely isn’t applicable to the tournament itself. At the Mainz Chess Classic, everything is just perfect. The huge entry hall with its book stalls, chess computer exhibitions, gigantic movie screens (showing ChessVibes videos as it turns out) and monitors displaying the main boards together with the most actual evaluation of either Rybka or Fritz, and even grandmasters commenting on the games, are just the main eye catchers.

GM Sebastian Siebrecht commenting on the games from the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship

What struck me most while walking around the tournament area was something which in my opinion is rarely seen at chess tournaments: an extreme concern and care for visitors and chess lovers. The tournament organization looks extremely skilled and professional, and this shows in just about everything. On top of that, they’re friendly and helpful and easy going. It truly is chess players (and chess journalists!) heaven.

The Rapid World Championship beautifully set-up on stage, with big screens showing thepositions and smaller TV screens showing computer evaluations