The 19th traditional TopGM’s blindfold and rapid tournament in Nice, France will be held from March 13th to 25th.
Players: Levon Aronian (Armenia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov, Jan Smeets (The Netherlands) and Peter Svidler.

Magnus Carlsen (2813) (NOR) brVladimir Kramnik (2790) (RUS) brLevon Aronian (2782) (ARM) brAlexander Grischuk (2756) (RUS) brPeter Svidler (2750) (RUS) brBoris Gelfand (2750) (ISR) brVasily Ivanchuk (2748) (UKR) brVugar Gashimov (2740) (AZE) brRuslan Ponomariov (2737) (UKR) brSergey Karjakin (2725) (RUS) brLeinier Dominguez (2713) (CUB) brJan Smeets (2651) (NED)

Alexander Morozevich has withdrawn from the Amber tournament, which starts in six days from now in Nice, France. The Russian is replaced by his compatriot Alexander Grischuk. To get you a bit in the mood already, today we present a video with footage from 2008 and 2009.

The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place at the Palais de la Mediterranée in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco. The total prize-fund is € 216,000.

The world’s number one player, Magnus Carlsen, is the top-seed in Nice. Also present are Levon Aronian, the winner of the past two Amber tournaments, and Vladimir Kramnik, who won the Amber tournament a record six times.

The following twelve grandmasters will take part (between brackets their country and their rating in the March 1, 2010 world rankings): Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2813), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2790), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2782), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2756), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2750), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2750), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2748), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 2740), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2737), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2725), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 2713) and Jan Smeets (The Netherlands, 2651).

Every day four sessions will be played, two blindfold sessions and two rapid sessions. The first session starts at 14.30 CET. The fourth session finishes around 20.00 CET. The final round on March 25 starts at 12.30 CET. March 17 and 22 are rest days. The rate of play is 25 minutes per game per player. With every move made in the blindfold games 20 seconds is added to the clock, with every move made in the rapid games 10 seconds is added.

Below you’ll find an appetizer video. Like in previous years, many more will be posted on the official website during the tournament. Besides, you can expect something new this year: live chess with audio commentary, streaming footage from the playing hall and live commentary sessions with the top GMs!

Video

Link

• Official website

Veselin Topalov briefly took the #1 spot during the Linares Super GM tournament, but then fell back off Magnus Carlsen (2813, +3) to remain in the #2 spot. The World Champion challenger is behind Carlsen by mere percentage points on the unofficial live list. Unfortunately, Linares did not make the calculations and the official list shows him eight points back (2805, +0). Topalov is gearing up for his big match with World Champion Viswanathan Anand (2787, -3).

Vladimir Kramnik (2790, +2) has supplanted Anand at the #3 position. He had a strong showing at Corus, but that was only worth an increase of .19 points. Levon Aronian (2782, +1) holds steady at #5 while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2760, +20) vaulted into the #6 position from #11. Alexander Grischuk (2756, +20) jumped eight places on the strength of his Russian Championship.

Peter Svidler (2750, +6) and Boris Gelfand (2750, -11) are tied for 8th-9th. Gelfand plummeted in the World Team Championship after his World Cup win. Chinese #1 Wang Yue (2749, +0) has been relatively inactive since bowing out of the World Cup. The biggest winner of the top 100 is Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem (2689, +42), the winner of 2010 Aeroflot tournament. Hikaru Nakamura also saw a big gain (2735, +27).

In women’s chess, Judit Polgar remained as “Queen of the Hill” (2682, +0) with Humpy Koneru closing in (2622, +8). At one time there was almost 200 ELO points separating the top two positions. Hou Yifan (2570, -20) dropped a ton of points after the Moscow Open. One lady rising on the horizon appears to be Nadezhda Kosintseva (2554, +21) who won the Russia Women’s Championship. Zhao Xue (2490, -16) dropped under 2500 for the first time in three years and Ju Wenjun (2500, -12) is now the nation’s #2. Zhao and Xu Yuhua (2478, +0) may be preparing to make way for the wealth of Chinese talent coming through.

As far as juniors are concerned, Carlsen will remain at the top for as long as he is eligible. At 2813, he is almost 100 ELO points from Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2727, -3). Sergey Karjakin (2725, +5) is on position #3 and Le Quang Liem (2689, +42) has been touted as the new young star on the scene. Wesley So (2665, +9) keeps gaining and is now the strongest Filipino player in history. So is in the #6 spot. Anish Giri (2624, +36) won Corus B and vaulted over 2600. He is the youngest on the top 20 junior list and has gained some notoriety for annotating games from the Linares tournament. Watch this young man!

FIDE: http://ratings.fide.com/toplist.phtml

• NANCHINO (CINA 2009) = Carlsen

• WIJK AAN ZEE (OLANDA 2010) = Carlsen

• LINARES (SPAGNA) = 12-25 Febbraio
  

• SOFIA (BULGARIA)= 25 Maggio - 5 Giugno
  

• BAZNA (?) (ROMANIA) = 10-22Giugno
  

• FINALE MASTER = SHANGHAI ( Cina, 3-12 Settembre) & BILBAO ( Spagna, 6-14 Ottobre)

Hikaru Nakamura has quite a story to tell. Born in Osaka, Japan and arriving in the U.S. at the age of two, Nakamura has been gracing the pages of chess magazines since he began breaking many of Bobby Fischer’s records. One of the first indicators of chess talent is the age record for National Master.

There have been many talented players to come through the scholastic ranks, but many either quit playing after high school, or shortly after reaching National Master. When Nakamura entered Dickinson College, there were fears that America would lose yet another promising talent along the likes of Grandmasters Michael Wilder and Patrick Wolff.

Under the early tutelage of his stepfather FM Sunil Weeramantry and the mentorship of older brother Asuka Nakamura, young Hikaru shattered the record reaching the mark in 10 years, 79 days. In 2008, his record was later lowered to 9 years, 11 months by Nicholas Nip, a player who is no longer active. Five years later, he broke Bobby Fischer’s long-standing record by earning Grandmaster status in 15 years, 79 days.

Media comparisons to Fischer immediately heightened when he won the U.S. Championship at age 16. However, Nakamura reminded everyone, “I’m not Bobby Fischer.” He was intimating the point that Fischer was an unbalanced individual who only thought of chess. Of course, this was only half the story with Fischer, but certainly he was one who could not operate comfortably outside of the chess realm.

When you talk to Nakamura, he is comfortable talking about a wide range of topics including his beloved Vancouver Canucks hockey team. He also has a variety of interests including music, finance, sports and politics. Many of the existing stereotypes of Nakamura are based on history from his teen years and commentary from online chess servers.

Chief Organizer Erik Anderson (left) stands next to GM Hikaru Nakamura and WGM Rusudan Goletiani after both were crowned the 2004 U.S. Champions.

Nakamura’s talent was hardly questioned on the U.S. scene as he had put together an impressive résumé of wins. At the closing ceremonies of the 2003 U.S. Championship, winner Alexander Shabalov singled out a young Nakamura and stated that he had a bright future in chess. In American tournaments, Nakamura’s brash style has become a breath of fresh air in a sport that had become stagnant with the same players competing every year in the U.S. Championships and the open tournaments. His victory the next year was definitely good for chess.

Once Nakamura joined the elite class in the U.S., he carried a reputation as being an isolationist and distrustful of his colleagues. He rankled many when he made comments about collusion among the U.S. elite. “That’s actually why I still work alone. It’s very hard to trust anybody.” However, as Nakamura begin to ascend to a world-class level, he enlisted some help. After the 2009 U.S. Championship, he mentioned that he had been working with National Master Kris Littlejohn. This choice of a second puzzled many, but has paid dividends.

Viktor Mikalevski ponders Gata Kamsky’s next move while Nakamura-Najer reaches the climatic stage of the 2009 World Open. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.

In U.S. chess, there had been too many “friendships” between top players which resulted in many quick draws and dispirited play. Nakamura was dismissive of these tactics and forced the issue with his ‘play-to-win’ attitude. His determination affords him psychological capital when an opponent understands that they have to fight when they are already content on drawing. This fighting spirit came into great effect when he won his first U.S. Championship at age 16. However, in an important interview in Salon magazine, there were still had doubters.

“The finish is very good but few purists will rank his play in the same league as Fischer’s — it lacks elegance,” wrote chess scribe Alan Goldsmith. Another chess writer, Bobby Ang, wondered, “When Nakamura reaches the higher echelons of the chess elite, will his style work?” Citing a benchmark of great contemporary players, Ang asked of Nakamura, “Can his brilliance overcome the tactical mastery of Alexei Shirov? Will his will-to-win be sufficient to breach the solid fortifications of Vladimir Kramnik, or Peter Leko? Is his much-touted resourcefulness of a high enough standard to battle with Rustam Kasimdzhanov? I doubt it very much.” (see link)

Nakamura’s sales pitch to Europe was more difficult, but he was beginning to pick up momentum. Tournament organizers were attracted to his brash, no-nonsense style. He has since broken through in a number of strong tournaments and is now comfortably ensconced in the top 20. Many detractors rail at the notion that Nakamura has not gotten the opportunities to face the elite level. They cite his skipping Corus “B” in 2008 for the Gibraltar Masters as a snub. Nakamura cited inadequate conditions, but made good on his trip by winning Gibraltar.

He added a few more accolades including the 2009 U.S. Championship, 960 World Championship and the Cap d’Agde Rapid Tournament (over Anatoly Karpov and Vassily Ivanchuk). There were still doubters who stated that he couldn’t win in a strong classical tournament. After playing poorly in the London Classic, Nakamura finally got his coveted invite to Corus “A” and made a strong showing with 7.5/13 (4th place). Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the tournament, identified Nakamura as a new rival.

On various chess blogs, the conversation of Nakamura ascendancy is a popular topic. Naysayers continue to claim Nakamura is not worthy of “elite” status for very specific reasons. After he refutes these reasons, another set will be created and standards increased. At this point, pundits state that Nakamura has to make top 10 to be considered seriously as a World Championship. Last year, it was top 20.

Of course, the candidacy of players such as Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin or Teimour Radjabov was recognized almost immediately. What is the difference? The theory was that the European stars were “battle-tested” and Nakamura had not faced tough competition. Many top chess journals, websites and blogs take liberties to print negative portrayals of the young American star. Even his head-to-head blitz victory over Carlsen in Norway was trivialized.

So the question…”Is Nakamura the ‘Real Deal’?” Does he have World Championship potential? When Vladimir Kramnik was asked this question, he seems to believe that Nakamura is a legitimate talent, but stopped short of giving a full endorsement. Most of the fans and journalists believe that Carlsen is the heir apparent to Viswanathan Anand or Veselin Topalov, but it is not certain if Carlsen will maintain his level. The performance of Anish Giri turned some heads and the Chinese and Indians deserve attention. If one looks at Nakamura, he has many things going for him.

GM Hikaru Nakamura at 2010 Corus in Wijk aan Zee.
Photo by Fred Lucas.

Will these factors mean that he has enough to win a World Championship? Time will tell. One thing that is true is that if Nakamura has his goal set and resources are not an issue, he will have more than an adequate shot at winning the World Championship. He is only 22 years old and he will continue to get better. The downside is does not have a sponsor and gets limited help from his federation which means that he does not have the luxury of focusing purely on chess development.

In a 2005 interview with the New York Times, Nakamura summed up his chances.

”If I am able to get up there and play for the actual title of the world championship, then once again, everyone will be excited,” Mr. Nakamura said, noting how chess gained wide appeal when Mr. Fischer toppled Boris Spassky, the Soviet world champion, in 1972. ”There have been plenty of great players since Fischer but none have been American players.” (see link)

Nakamura has the tenacity, the nerves and still has some areas of improvement in his game. Given Carlsen’s breach of 2800, there will be a new cadre of players to vie for the world crown. With the right combination of training, sponsorship and tournament invitations, Nakamura hopes to be one in that number.

• Loek van Wely NED (2641) - Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
• Nigel Short ENG (2696) - Jan Smeets NED (2657)
• Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708) - Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662)
• Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810) - Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675)
• Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749) - Peter Leko HUN (2739)
• Alexei Shirov ESP (2723) - Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712)
• Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) - Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720)

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Viswanathan Anand IND (2790) - Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)
• Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) - Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
• Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) - Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
• Peter Leko HUN (2739) - Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
• Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) - Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
• Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) - Nigel Short ENG (2696)
• Jan Smeets NED (2657) - Loek van Wely NED (2641)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Jan Smeets NED (2657) - Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
• Loek van Wely NED (2641) - Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662)
• Nigel Short ENG (2696) - Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675)
• Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708) - Peter Leko HUN (2739)
• Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810) - Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712)
• Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749) - Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720)
• Alexei Shirov ESP (2723) - Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

World champion Viswanathan Anand ended his long chain of draws with a lucky victory over Spaniard Alexei Shirov in the tenth round of the ‘A’ group of the Corus chess tournament.

Having drawn the first nine games, Anand yet again tried hard to be back on his winning ways but missed a simple tactic which might have seen him on the receiving end.

However, Shirov missed the opportunity at the fag end of the first time control and instead landed in a lost position which the Indian ace converted without much ado.

Ahead of the third and final rest day, this welcome break for Anand saw him jump to joint fourth spot with just three rounds remaining in this category-19 event.

Russian Vladimir Kramnik emerged as the new sole leader on seven points after Shirov’s disastrous loss. The Russian played drew with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine on a day that also saw Magnus Carlsen uncork the French defense and winning a fine game against defending champion Sergey Karjakin.

Carlsen and Shirov are joint second with 6.5 points each while Anand shares the next position along with Hikaru Nakamura of United States, Leinier Dominguez of Cuba, Vassily ivanchuk of Ukraine and Karjakin who all have 5.5 points each.

In the ‘B’ group, P Harikrishna suffered a shocking loss against Dmitri Reinderman of Holland, while Parimarjan Negi played out a draw with Ni Hua of China.

Harikrishna was outdone in an English opening by Reinderman who stuck form. Harikrishna lost a couple of Queen side pawns in the middle game and his counter play bid did not really materialise as Reinderman won in 58 moves.

Parimarjan Negi yet again held a higher ranked opponent to an easy draw. Playing the black side of a Queen’s gambit declined, Parimarjan had no difficulties in equalizing out of the opening and timely exchanges forced the game in a level ending. The peace was signed in 51 moves.

Anish Giri of Holland remained at the top of the tables in this section after taking a draw with top seed German Arkadij Naiditsch. The 15-year old now has seven points and Erwin l’Ami of Holland and Ni Hua are still on his toes a half point behind. Parimarjan is joint fifth on 5.5 points while Hari slipped to joint seventh spot on 5 points.

Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta suffered his second reversal in as many days in the ‘C’ group as the Indian could not find an adequate method to combat Norwegian Lie Kjetil and sacrificed a pawn early in the opening. Kjetil played the ensuing middle game quite well to romp home in 53 moves.

World junior girls’ champion Soumya Swaminathan scored her first victory in the event at the expense of Swede Nils Grandelius. The Pune-based got an attacking position early in the opening and she was a treat to watch in tactical complications. Grandelius resigned in 36 moves.

Chinese Li Chao increased his lead to a whopping 1.5 points after beating Robin Swinkles and took his tally to 7.5 points in all and a group of four follow him with six points each. Abhijeet with 5.5 points is joint fifth here while Soumya stands 13th in the 14-players competition.

• Viswanathan Anand IND (2790) 1-0 Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
• Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) 1/2 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
• Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) 0-1 Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
• Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) 1/2 Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
• Peter Leko HUN (2739) 1/2 Nigel Short ENG (2696)
• Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) 1/2 Loek van Wely NED (2641)
• Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) 1-0 Jan Smeets NED (2657)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Viswanathan Anand IND (2790) 1-0 Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
• Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) 1/2 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
• Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) 0-1 Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
• Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) 1/2 Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
• Peter Leko HUN (2739) 1/2 Nigel Short ENG (2696)
• Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) 1/2 Loek van Wely NED (2641)
• Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) 1-0 Jan Smeets NED (2657)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) - Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
• Jan Smeets NED (2657) - Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675)
• Loek van Wely NED (2641) - Peter Leko HUN (2739)
• Nigel Short ENG (2696) - Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712)
• Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708) - Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720)
• Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810) - Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)
• Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749) - Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

There have been many unintended consequences, both positive and negative, of the rapid proliferation of powerful chess software. Kids love computers and take to them naturally, so it's no surprise that the same is true of the combination of chess and computers. With the introduction of super-powerful software it became possible for a youngster to have a top- level opponent at home instead of needing a professional trainer from an early age. Countries with little by way of chess tradition and few available coaches can now produce prodigies. I am in fact coaching one of them this year, nineteen-year-old Magnus Carlsen, from Norway, where relatively little chess is played.

The heavy use of computer analysis has pushed the game itself in new directions. The machine doesn't care about style or patterns or hundreds of years of established theory. It counts up the values of the chess pieces, analyzes a few billion moves, and counts them up again. (A computer translates each piece and each positional factor into a value in order to reduce the game to numbers it can crunch.) It is entirely free of prejudice and doctrine and this has contributed to the development of players who are almost as free of dogma as the machines with which they train. Increasingly, a move isn't good or bad because it looks that way or because it hasn't been done that way before. It's simply good if it works and bad if it doesn't. Although we still require a strong measure of intuition and logic to play well, humans today are starting to play more like computers.

The availability of millions of games at one's fingertips in a database is also making the game's best players younger and younger. Absorbing the thousands of essential patterns and opening moves used to take many years, a process indicative of Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 hours to become an expert" theory as expounded in his recent book Outliers. (Gladwell's earlier book, Blink, rehashed, if more creatively, much of the cognitive psychology material that is re-rehashed in Chess Metaphors.) Today's teens, and increasingly pre-teens, can accelerate this process by plugging into a digitized archive of chess information and making full use of the superiority of the young mind to retain it all. In the pre-computer era, teenage grandmasters were rarities and almost always destined to play for the world championship. Bobby Fischer's 1958 record of attaining the grandmaster title at fifteen was broken only in 1991. It has been broken twenty times since then, with the current record holder, Ukrainian Sergey Karjakin, having claimed the highest title at the nearly absurd age of twelve in 2002. Now twenty, Karjakin is among the world's best, but like most of his modern wunderkind peers he's no Fischer, who stood out head and shoulders above his peers—and soon enough above the rest of the chess world as well.

• Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)- Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
• Alexei Shirov ESP (2723) - Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
• Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) - Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
• Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) - Nigel Short ENG (2696)
• Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) - Loek van Wely NED (2641)
• Peter Leko HUN (2739) - Jan Smeets NED (2657)
• Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) - Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) 1/2 Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
• Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) 1/2 Peter Leko HUN (2739)
• Jan Smeets NED (2657) 1/2 Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712)
• Loek van Wely NED (2641) 1/2 Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720)
• Nigel Short ENG (2696) 1/2 Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)
• Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708) 1-0 Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
• Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810) 1-0 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Viswanathan Anand IND (2790) 1/2 Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
• Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749) 1/2 Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
• Alexei Shirov ESP (2723) 1/2 Nigel Short ENG (2696)
• Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) 1-0 Loek van Wely NED (2641)
• Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) 1/2 Jan Smeets NED (2657)
• Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) 1-0 Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662)
• Peter Leko HUN (2739) 1-0 Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Peter Leko HUN (2739) 1/2 Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
• Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) 1/2 Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712)
• Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) 1/2 Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720)
• Jan Smeets NED (2657) 0-1 Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)
• Loek van Wely NED (2641) 0-1 Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
• Nigel Short ENG (2696) 1/2 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
• Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708) 1/2 Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

The traditional blindfold and rapid annual Amber Super GM chess tournament will be sans Anand and Topalov this time around. With the world championship scheduled a few weeks later during April 2010, the Indian and Bulgarian Grandmaster chose to skip this event. In the just announced Amber 2010 field  World No.1 Magnes Carlsen leads the interesting pack which includes Kramnik, Aronian, Gelfand, Gashimov, Ivanchuk, Svidler and Morozevich among others.

• Viswanathan Anand IND (2790) 1/2 Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
• Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810) 1/2 Nigel Short ENG (2696)
• Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749) 1-0 Loek van Wely NED (2641)
• Alexei Shirov ESP (2723) 1-0 Jan Smeets NED (2657)
• Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) 1/2 Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662)
• Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) 1/2 Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675)
• Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) 1/2 Peter Leko HUN (2739)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) - Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
• Peter Leko HUN (2739) 1/2 Sergey Karjakin UKR (2720)
• Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) 1/2 Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)
• Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) - Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
• Jan Smeets NED (2657) - Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
• Loek van Wely NED (2641) - Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
• Nigel Short ENG (2696) 0-1 Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Viswanathan Anand IND (2790) - Nigel Short ENG (2696)
• Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708) - Loek van Wely NED (2641)
• Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810) - Jan Smeets NED (2657)
• Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749) - Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662)
• Alexei Shirov ESP (2723) - Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675)
• Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) - Peter Leko HUN (2739)
• Sergey Karjakin UKR (2720) - Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712)

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

The annual Corus Chess tournament is currently taking place in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. This years promises to be an exciting event with a variety of players from around the globe. This tournament will be bolstered by a number of young stars who have born in the past few years. Below are the participants of the Group “A”.

Title	Player	Country	Flag	Rating	rank	born
GM	Magnus Carlsen	NOR		2810	1	1990
GM	Viswanathan Anand	IND		2790	3	1969
GM	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS		2788	4	1975
GM	Vassily Ivanchuk	UKR		2749	8	1969
GM	Peter Leko	HUN		2739	12	1979
GM	Alexei Shirov	SPA		2723	20	1972
GM	Sergey Karjakin	RUS		2720	21	1990
GM	Leinier Dominguez	CUB		2712	25	1983
GM	Hikaru Nakamura	USA		2708	28	1987
GM	Nigel Short	ENG		2696	38	1965
GM	Fabiano Caruana	ITA		2675	51	1992
GM	Sergey Tiviakov	NED		2662	62	1973
GM	Jan Smeets	NED		2657	73	1985
GM	Loek van Wely	NED		2641	104	1972

Main Site: http://www.coruschess.com/

• Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720) - Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
• Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712) 1/2 Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)
• Peter Leko HUN (2739) - Alexei Shirov ESP (2723)
• Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) - Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749)
• Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) - Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810)
• Jan Smeets NED (2657) 1/2 Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
• Loek van Wely NED (2641) - Nigel Short ENG (2696)

• Le site officiel
• Les appariements du Groupe A

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  Wijk aan Zee…

Sabato 1° turno: Caruana - Ivanchuk

Iniziando a scrivere queste righe mi sono ricordato delle occasioni in cui sfogliavo un nuovo informatore (perché poi una grande schiappa comprasse il mitico sahovski informator è tutta un’altra storia!). La prima cosa che andavo a vedere erano i tabellini dei tornei, in fondo al volumetto, ed  ecco saltar fuori eventi di mesi prima, da luoghi “noti all’orecchio scacchistico” ma che, magari, non sapevi nemmeno dove fossero… Sono così andato a prendere un vecchio informatore (il numero 11, primo semestre 1971) ed eccoli lì! A Gori (?? – Capoluogo della regione di Shida Kartli in Georgia – Wiki  ) vittoria di Gufeld, a Tallinn primo gradino del podio per Keres e Tal, davanti a Bronstejn e Stejn, a L’Avana successo di Hort davanti a Geller, a Netanya (in Israele) Kavalek e Parma precedono Reshevsky e Benko, e tanti altri tornei…

Da quell’epoca due sole tracce raggiungono il presente, il nostro Reggio Emilia (che bel torneo anche quest’anno!), con il podio composto da Parma, Benko e Damjanovic (Paoli, Cosulich e Trincardi a difendere la nostra bandiera), e Wijk aan Zee…

“Ma dove sta Wikkenziì?” “In Olanda” rispose il Prima Nazionale del circolo, ammantato da un’aura non troppo dissimile da quella di un GM… 39 anni fa nel torneo B due ventenni in testa alla gara, Jan Timman, primo, e Andras Adorjan, secondo. Nel torneo principale vittoria di Korchnoj, che superò di mezzo punto Ivkov, Petrosjan, Gligoric e Olafsson. Bene i giovani, Andersson, vent’anni, e Mecking, diciannove, nelle retrovie il grande Najdorf, all’epoca 61enne.

Il torneo Hoogovens (Corus dal 2000, con il cambiamento di denominazione della ditta produttrice di acciaio) ha mosso i primi passi a Beverwijk, nel 1938, passando a Wijk aan Zee dal 1968. Penso che sul palco del Corus si possa facilmente immaginare la “presenza” di tanti grandi campioni, da Euwe, Tartakower, Stahlberg, Keres, Larsen, Petrosjan, Portish, Botvinnik, Spassky, Korchnoi (4 volte sul primo gradino e vincitore anche della prima edizione a Wijk aan Zee, 42 anni fa), via via attraverso i decenni, con la vittoria di Karpov nella 50ma edizione, fino al trittico 1999 – 2001 di Kasparov e alle 5 vittorie (da solo o a pari merito) di Anand! Tra i grandissimi solo Smyslov e Fischer non hanno mai partecipato.

Hoogovens 1940: Euwe contro Wijnants. L’ex campione del mondo si aggiudicherà partita e torneo (foto endgame.nl)

Oggi, stesso gioco ma altri scacchi! Niente partite sospese e tutto in diretta nel nostro villaggio globale. Soprattutto, ci sono i software e il lavoro di preparazione casalingo diventa sempre più mastodontico e rilevante, tanto da far considerare che Anand difficilmente potrà vincere, dato che probabilmente riserverà tutto il suo arsenale di novità in vista del match mondiale con Topalov.

Cerimonia d’apertura il 15 gennaio e primo turno sabato 16, alle 13,30, attraverso tre giorni di riposo, 20, 25 e 28, fino all’ultimo turno del 31, anticipato alle 12,30. Sito di riferimento http://www.coruschess.com/  . La crisi economica ha ovviamente colpito anche gli scacchi. Lo scorso anno era sorto qualche dubbio sull’effettiva effettuazione del Corus, poi fortunatamente fugato. L’edizione 2010 è pienamente all’altezza della tradizione ma, con un Elo medio di 2719, resta al di sotto dell’edizione 2008 (2742) o dell’edizione 2001, con in gara nove tra i primi dieci del mondo. I partecipanti:

Giocatore – anno di nascita – nazionalità – Elo – posizione in classifica mondiale

GM Magnus Carlsen (1990) NOR 2810 (01)

GM Viswanathan Anand (1969) IND 2790 (03)

GM Vladimir Kramnik (1975) RUS 2788 (04)

GM Vassily Ivanchuk (1969) UKR 2749 (08)

GM Peter Leko (1979) HUN 2739 (12)

GM Alexei Shirov (1972) ESP 2723 (20)

GM Sergey Karjakin (1990) RUS 2720 (21)

GM Leinier Dominguez (1983) CUB 2712 (25)

GM Hikaru Nakamura (1987) USA 2708 (28)

GM Nigel Short (1965) ENG 2696 (38)

GM Fabiano Caruana (1992) ITA 2675 (51)

GM Sergey Tiviakov (1973) NED 2662 (62)

GM Jan Smeets (1985) NED 2657 (73)

GM Loek van Wely (1972) NED 2641 (104)

Fa un certo effetto vedere la scritta “ITA” in questo contesto! Da tempo si disserta sulle nostre pagine in merito alle possibilità di Fabiano in questa gara, con pareri a volte molto forti e che, francamente, è difficile attribuire ad una sola competizione, soprattutto parlando di un 17enne, ad esempio del tipo: “Sarà la prova del fuoco, e se Fabiano non dovesse ottenere un risultato almeno discreto sarebbe evidente che non può aspirare all’elite mondiale…” (??). Qualcuno, dopo la vittoria nel Corus B dello scorso anno, con la conseguente attuale partecipazione, ha giustamente osservato (rispetto alle "previsioni" di un torneo principale ancora troppo difficile per lui) che Caruana non doveva giocare in quel momento ma di lì ad un anno (e che Fabiano sia oggi ancora un po’ più forte mi sembra più evidente di quanto l’Elo non dica).

Si è considerato il precedente di Carlsen che nel 2007 (a poco più di 16 anni, Magnus è nato il 30/11/1990) è arrivato ultimo con 4,5 , 4 sconfitte e 9 patte. Questo non ha impedito a Carlsen di salire ancora qualche posizione nella classifica mondiale... L’anno dopo, a 17 anni, Magnus si piazzava sul primo gradino del podio insieme ad Aronian!! Anche Karjakin ha partecipato per la prima volta a 16 anni, nel 2006 (è nato il 12 gennaio 1990), disputando una magnifica gara, quinto con 7 su 13 (4 vittorie e 3 sconfitte)! L’anno dopo per Sergey 50% dei punti (3 vittorie e 3 sconfitte) dopo un inizio in piena corsa per il podio finale. E se Carlsen ha vinto nel 2008 è proprio di Karjakin il sigillo 2009! Paragonare Fabiano a Carlsen e Karjakin era forse eccessivo fino a 3 / 4 anni fa ma la crescita successiva lo rende ampiamente possibile e sottintende, di fatto, una probabile carriera da top 20, che negli scacchi di oggi penso sia il massimo che si possa dire di un giovane. Quanto “top” sta al futuro! (Annoto che un nostro lettore ha scritto spesso che Fabiano ha lo “shining”… Io tendo ad essere d’accordo, c’é la sensazione di quel “qualcosa in più” che…)

Dopo la prima partita un po’ più incerta con Bruzon (che resta un talento non del tutto espresso ma sempre molto “pericoloso”) il Caruana della World Cup ha impressionato per forza e sicurezza, pur impegnato contro avversari di primissimo livello. Fabiano dà la netta impressione di continuare una crescita decisamente importante e, personalmente, mi ha dato spesso la sensazione di essere già un passo oltre rispetto a quanto ci si potesse attendere. I 2700 sono ormai lì, sia che Fabiano li superi a breve che con qualche tempo in più, e hanno un “suono” già aderente alla sua statura di giocatore. Dunque, Fabiano al Corus 2010? Difficile pensare che non avverta l’emozione al primo turno, poi dipenderà dal feeling con la gara, dagli eventuali zeitnot, da mille fattori, a cominciare da come starà fisicamente. Il suo punteggio atteso è 5,59: io mi aspetto qualcosa in più e, comunque, ho la netta sensazione che Fabiano sia semplicemente dove inizia a meritare di essere, comunque vada questo torneo! Forza FAB, supertifo da ola!!

Accennavo ai 9 dei primi 10 giocatori al mondo del Corus 2001 ma in quest'ultimo anno ha forse più senso parlare dei primi 5, alle cui spalle ci sono almeno una ventina di giocatori che appartengono all’elite ma restano un passo indietro, non solo per quel piccolo gap che nelle ultime liste Elo separa il 5° dal 6° ma anche per la qualità del gioco e la “sensazione” delle chance di attacco al titolo mondiale. Topalov e Aronian giocheranno a Linares, dove finora sembra che nessuno dei partecipanti al Corus sarà presente.

Anand ha appena compiuto 40 anni (l’11 dicembre). Molte interviste di recente, con un Vishy completamente concentrato verso il match mondiale di aprile, durissimo lavoro con il team di secondi (del quale è noto solo Peter Nielsen) e grande voglia di mantenere il titolo mondiale più a lungo possibile. Rinnovato amore per gli scacchi (“Mi piace ancora molto giocare”) e energie da distribuire bene, con i periodi di pausa in famiglia avvertiti come buona ricarica. Tutto, compresa la necessità di mantenere le carte coperte, sembra dire che Anand “attraverserà” semplicemente questo Corus, con un buon training alla scacchiera, in cui sarà importante però non perdere sicurezze: una partita come quella persa con Aronian al Memorial Tal può lasciare qualche strascico. Un segnale da questo 2009, forse più importante dei mancati acuti nei tornei importanti: per la prima volta Vishy è parso perdere colpi nel gioco rapid. Ciò non toglie che il match con Topalov sia da 50 – 50 e che Anand, la cui statura nella storia degli scacchi è probabilmente superiore - finora - a quella del campione bulgaro, abbia ancora “qualcosa da dire”!

Sembra così vi sia tutto lo spazio in questo Corus perché Carlsen e Kramnik continuino il loro recente duello. Dopo lo strepitoso Nanjing di Carlsen, splendida vittoria di Kramnik al Memorial Tal (con un Carlsen che sembra fosse febbricitante nei primi turni, comunque secondo e imbattuto) e London Chess Classic in cui Magnus si è aggiudicato confronto diretto e torneo, pur in modo meno convincente di quanto fatto in Cina e con un Kramnik che è parso in ogni caso incisivo e in buona forma.

Primo torneo per Carlsen da n° 1 del ranking, prossimo obiettivo il 2° posto Elo all time sorpassando i 2813 di Topalov, per i 2851 di Kasparov manca ancora un po’. Prima di questo Corus nuovo ciclo di allenamento con Kasparov: a Wijk aan Zee rivedremo il rullo compressore di Nanchino? Di sicuro sembra essere iniziato il regno di Carlsen e un primo gesto regale in Olanda potrebbe darci l’idea se si tratterà di un regno o di un impero. C’è un indizio che, se confermato nelle prossime gare, potrebbe far riflettere: Carlsen a volte vince in modo strepitoso, a volte vince in modo semplicemente volitivo, patta, anche ed ovviamente, ma non perde…

Da parte sua Kramnik sembra aver ritrovato tutta la sua forza di gioco e, se sta bene in salute, la sensazione è che resti il giocatore più profondo e completo, con quell’aria di quasi imbattibilità che sembra solo momentaneamente scalfita dai periodi meno positivi. E’ presto per pronosticare una finale dei Candidati tra Carlsen e Kramnik? Peccato che le formule della Fide sviliscano un po’ questi match e la corsa al titolo mondiale nel suo insieme.

Da questo Corus non avremo risposte ma solo indizi e in questa “investigazione” Karjakin, campione uscente del torneo, è sicuramente un osservato speciale. Appena passato alla Russia, Sergey è atteso all’ultimo salto verso la zona 2800. Nei pronostici su Scacchierando della recente World Cup è stato dato non a caso come il vincitore più probabile della manifestazione: pronostico sbagliato ma, direi, idea esatta. Il passaggio ad una federazione ancora forte come quella russa rispetto alla più debole struttura ucraina potrebbe dare a Karjakin un supporto maggiore ed essere il trampolino necessario.

Domande interessanti anche per quanto riguarda Dominguez, la cui crescita sembra essersi fermata dopo aver dato una sensazione più positiva. Tetto raggiunto o solo una fase di stasi per il bel gioco del cubano? La massima elite mondiale (intesa come inserimento tra i primissimi e lotta per il titolo) non sembra comunque alla portata, cosa che non è facile dire per Nakamura. Il 22enne geniale super talento nippo – americano saprà trovare i giusti equilibri tra la sua creatività e una più robusta padronanza strategica e teorica? Difficile dire quali possano essere i limiti massimi di Hikaru! Prova un po’ deludente al London Chess Classic ma dimostrazione di muscoli al World Team Championship conclusosi oggi, con una performance di 2851 nonostante la sconfitta con Aronian, derivata da una prestazione superba dell’armeno!

Ultima ricerca di indizi per Peter Leko, anche se forse le risposte rispetto al campione ungherese sono già arrivate. L’età, 31 anni, è da zona top ma i risultati, dopo l’ottimo periodo 2004 / 2005 con il pari nel match con Kramnik e la vittoria qui al Corus, non sembrano parlare di un trend positivo. La classe è indubbiamente molta ma sembra forse mancare quel pizzico di capacità di rischiare e voglia di vincere che a volte fa la differenza.

I tre olandesi chiudono la griglia di partenza. Splendida terra di scacchi l’Olanda ma si stenta a trovare l’erede di Euwe e Timman. Nuove speranze con il 15enne "neo-olandese" Anish Giri, ma qui l'investigazione passa al torneo B!

Basta “domande”, non prima di rendere onore però a due superbi giocatori come Alexei Shirov e Vassily Ivanchuk! Sarebbe bello vedere anche in questo Corus le “fiamme sulla scacchiera” firmate Riga! Ed è difficile trovare paragoni per le sinfonie scacchistiche di Ivanchuk, 40 anni, come Anand, ma qualche fragilità in più e troppe occasioni lasciate sfuggire. E, tuttavia, tutti sappiamo che Ivanchuk sarebbe capace di vincere anche questo Corus se quel piccolo “qualcosa” che lo fa a volte giocare in modo incomparabile “scattasse” in questi giorni. Sarebbe bello, in controtendenza con i software e il mondo online, qualcosa dal sapore un po’ più antico, sarebbe da… Wijk aan Zee!

The 72nd traditional Corus Chess tournament will be held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands from Jan 15th to Jan 31st. There are going to be three groups as usual

Group A average ELO is 2719. It is 19th FIDE tournament category.
All rounds except for the final round start at 12:30 GMT. The Final round will start at 11:30 GMT.
ChessOK is going to broadcast all games of group A tournament with Rybka Aquarium commentary.

Magnus Carlsen (2810) (NOR) brViswanathan Anand (2790) (IND) brVladimir Kramnik (2788) (RUS) brVassily Ivanchuk (2749) (UKR) brPeter Leko (2739) (HUN) brAlexei Shirov (2723) (SPA) brSergey Karjakin (2720) (RUS) brLeinier Dominguez (2712) (CUB) brHikaru Nakamura (2708) (USA) brNigel Short (2696) (ENG) brFabiano Caruana (2675) (ITA) brSergey Tiviakov (2662) (NED) brJan Smeets (2657) (NED) brLoek van Wely (2641) (NED)

Round 1 - Jan 16th

Round 2 - Jan 17th

Round 3 - Jan 18th

Round 4 - Jan 19th

Round 5 - Jan 21st

Round 6 - Jan 22nd

Round 7 - Jan 23rd

Round 8 - Jan 24th

Round 9 - Jan 26th

Round 10 - Jan 27th

Round 11 - Jan 29th

Round 12 - Jan 30th

Round 13 - Jan 31st

In just five days from now, one of the most important international chess festivals, and certainly that of The Netherlands, takes off: the Corus Chess Tournament. By now traditionally, ChessVibes will be there to cover the event with lots of videos, including the press conferences.

With Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, the A group will be stronger than last year. Anand won the tournament already five times, and this year his opponent in the 2008 World Championship match, Vladimir Kramnik, will be among his main rivals. The two will obviously encounter strong competition from Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian, who started working with Garry Kasparov last year, has become the youngest player ever to reach the number one spot on the FIDE rating list.

Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk are two more familiar names in Wijk aan Zee but reigning U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura makes his debut in the top group. The American played in Corus B in 2004 and this year he’ll be a force to reckon with on the highest stage, as he’s currently showing great form at the World Team Championship in Turkey. Fabiano Caruana, who promoted from Grandmaster group B last year, played a solid tournament in Reggio Emilia recently.

Former World Championship contender Nigel Short missed promotion last year in a nail-biting last-round game against Caruana, in which the Englishman threw away a winning position and even lost. However, Short can look back at an excellent year in which he brought his rating over 2700 again, and so the Corus organizers invited him to the A group anyway.

Of course we’ll see the glorious winner of 2009, Sergey Karjakin, back in Wijk aan Zee (now under the Russian flag) and this counts for Cuba’s number one Leinier Dominguez as well, who also did very well this year. Besides another public favourite, Alexei Shirov, three Dutch players complete the field: Jan Smeets, Sergey Tiviakov and Loek van Wely.

In the B group Arkadij Naiditsch, Emil Sutovsky, Ni Hua, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Pentala Harikrishna are the biggest favourites. Rising star Wesley So promoted from the C group and former world’s youngest grandmaster Anish Giri plays as well.

Due to the financial crisis the continuation of Grandmaster Group C was in doubt for a while, but in September it was given the green light by main sponsor Corus. As always, the winner will promote to Grandmaster Group B next year.

The youngest participant this year is Dutch FM Benjamin Bok (14); the oldest is 11-times Dutch Women Champion GM Zhaoqin Peng (41). Reigning Dutch champion under 20 IM Robin van Kampen (15) was also invited, as well as Soumya Swaminathan from India, who won the 2009 World Junior Championship for girls (U-20) in Argentina.

Both Muzychuk sisters are coming to Wijk aan Ze this year. The strongest, Anna, who represents the chess federation of Slovenia, is participant of Grandmaster Group B. Maryia, who still has ‘UKR’ behind her name, plays in group C.

Below once more we give the participants of Grandmaster Groups A, B and C. The 72nd Corus Chess Tournament takes places Jarnuary 15-31 2010 in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. The tournament website will be providing many videos, all produced by ChessVibes, and at this site you can watch the very popular press concerence videos. We’re looking forward to another exciting Corus!

Yesterday the World Team Championship started in Bursa, Turkey. The participating teams are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Egypt, Greece, India, Israel, Russia, Turkey and the USA. Quite a few strong players (such as Aronian, Gelfand, Grischuk and Nakamura) travelled to Turkey, where in the first round Azerbaijan defeated Armenia thanks to Mamedyarov, who beat Pashikian.

To our surprise we found out that the World Team Ch is a tournament we’ve never covered before at ChessVibes, simply because the last edition was held before this site even existed! The event, an invitational round-robin, is being held every four years, and was established in 1985. The first edition, in Lucerne, was won comfortably by the USSR. (France, led by former World Champion Spassky did surprisingly well finishing in fourth position.) The last edition was in 2005, when China was performing very well. Russia had to beat the Chinese by 3½-½ in the last round to outpace them and they did it. (More historical details at the great Olimpbase.)

The 7th edition, the ‘2009 World Team Championship’ takes place at the Merinos Congress Centre in Bursa, Turkey from January 3rd till 14th, 2010. It’s a 9-round round-robin with 10 teams of 6 players (’athletes’, according to the official website): 4 players + 2 reserves, and one coach/captain. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves +30 minutes to end the game, with 30 seconds increment from the start. At the tournament the zero-tolerance rule is in effect, and draw offers are not allowed before move 30.

Here are the participating teams with their line-ups:

Sergey Karjakin was supposed to play his first team event for Russia, after he changed federations, but due to some unclear restrictions of FIDE he was not able to play in Bursa for Russia yet. (In the comments, ebutaljib makes clear that it’s not so unclear.) He was replaced by Jakovenko.

It’s a bit of a strange event, with some very strong teams but also some weak ones. The qualifiying rules are:

Continental Champions: Russia, Brazil, China, Egypt
3 Qualifiers from Olympiad: Armenia, Israel, USA
Organiser Country and two invited federations by FIDE President’s approval: Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Greece.

Somehow the World Team Championship never became a really prestigious event, where all the top teams and players play. Dutch GM Loek van Wely already expressed his disappointment back in 2005:

Between the WTCh 2001 and the WTCh 2005 three European Team Championships have taken place, of which The Netherlands managed to win two. Unfortunately this did not give us the right to participate in the WTCh. As you can see, Fide really appreciates winning the strongest continental championships.

Back to 2010. The first round was played yesterday; it was delayed by one day and the rest day was canceled. The tournament website says that

by the Request of FIDE and consultation of the Chief Arbiter of event the first round moved to 5th January and free day cancelled. That is only for giving more time to players to prepare for their opponents. All players, and coaches as it is clearly mentioned in regulations must participate to the Opening Ceremony on 4th January at 10:00 am.

“More time to prepare” is quite a remarkable reason to postpone a first round, we must say. No doubt some players would have preferred to arrive a day later, but well, at least they can safely skip the planned excursion this way.

India replaced China, who dropped out as the Asian representative shortly before the tournament. The organizers were not very happy about this, to put it mildly, considering the way they communicate this on the tournament website:

Just one week before event starts, 23 December evening, Chinese Chess Association withdrew from event. That is very pitty [sic], considering talented young Chinese Team, and no reason beyond that scandelous withdrawal. Fortunately, the owner of the 2nd place of Asian Team Championship, India, jumped on the seat and accepted to participate.

The reason for China’s absence is probably a political one, connected to the ethnic and religious connections between Turkey and the Uyghur minority in the Western Chinese province of Xinjiang. In the last few months, diplomatic relations between China and Turkey have gone from bad to worse.

Back to chess. Here are the results of the first round, the standings and the games. Don’t miss Can-Shulman.

Game viewer

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

Karjakin - Gelfand
Position after 11....Ra6!

• Gelfand bests Karjakin with Black at ChessBase (photos and some notes)
• Gelfand beats Karjakin on first day of semi-finals at ChessVibes (photos and brackets to follow the standings)
  

Many of the world’s top chess federations will assemble in the Bursa province of Turkey for the World Team Championships. Some of the notable teams represent perennial powers Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Israel and USA. Also included in the field is India, the world’s #6 team Despite the fact that World Champion Viswanathan Anand is busy preparing for his match, India will trot out two young talents as reserves.

Perhaps the favorite will be the reigning European Champion, Azerbaijan who will field their strongest possible team. Other teams vying for the crown have one or more players missing from the top. Russia is missing Vladimir Kramnik, but still has a formidable 2700 team. This tournament will be key for Russia to prove that they are capable of winning a team event after struggles in the past decade. In coming years, the team may get stronger if they add Sergey Karjakin.

Other teams competing from the various regions are Brazil, Egypt, Greece and host Turkey. Ali Nihat Yacizi has fueled the engine of chess growth in Turkey and this is the latest of his efforts to make Turkey a competitive chess country. Although his projections are ambitious, he claims to have two million youth playing chess. Certainly many out of this number will be inspired by seeing the elite players and may one day represent their country at this same tournament.

Main Site: http://wtcc2009.tsf.org.tr/

Hot from the press: the organizers of the 2010 Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament today announced the list of participants – Carlsen, Kramnik, Aronian, Gelfand, Gashimov, Ivanchuk, Svidler, Ponomariov, Morozevich, Karjakin, Dominguez and Smeets.

PRESS RELEASE

The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place at the Palais de la Mediterranée, a legendary hotel on the world-famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco.

The new number one in the world rankings, Magnus Carlsen, is the top-seed in Nice. Also present are Levon Aronian, the winner of the past two Amber tournaments, and Vladimir Kramnik, who won the Amber tournament a record six times.

The following twelve grandmasters will take part (between brackets their country and their rating in the January 1, 2010 world rankings): Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2810), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2788), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2781), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2761), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 2759), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2749), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2744), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2737), Alexander Morozevich (Russia, 2732), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2720), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 2712) and Jan Smeets (The Netherlands, 2657).

Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov were invited, but apparently they decided to skip this year’s event because just a few weeks later their World Championship match is scheduled. In fact half of the field of last year is different: Leko, Radjabov, Kamsky and Wang Yue also don’t play next time; new compared to last year are Gelfand, Gashimov, Svidler, Ponomariov, Dominguez and Smeets.

For the 2010 edition we should consider Aronian, Carlsen and Kramnik as the big favourites. But what about the rest of the field?

There is a new king in the world ranking of chess. The nineteen-year old Magnus Carlsen (2810, +9) has officially vaulted over 2800 mark to become only the 5th person in history to eclipse the magical figure. It appears as if 2800 is the old 2700.

Approximately 10 years ago, there were only a handful of players having reached the 2700 level. There are currently 34 players over 2700 with a number of players having reached the mark previously and fallen below. Carlsen has had a meteoric rise to the world’s number one position and some project that he may break Garry Kasparov’s 2851 mark.

Being knocked from his comfortable perch, Veselin Topalov (2805, -5) is more focused on his upcoming match with World Champion Viswanathan Anand (2790, +2). The match will take place in Bulgaria in April 2010. Some believe Carlsen will be vying for the title in the next cycle. However, there are a lot of viable candidates in the loop.

Vladimir Kramnik (2788, +16) scored a nice victory in the recent Tal Memorial placing 1/2-point ahead of Carlsen. Kramnik had dropped precipitously prior to winning the ‘Toiletgate’ match against Topalov, but has overcome ailments to regain his form. In fact, many state that he is playing more aggressively. Armenia’s Levon Aronian (2781, -5) switched places with Kramnik and dropped to the #5 spot.

Rounding out the top ten, you have FIDE World Cup winner Boris Gelfand (2761, +3) who gained only a few points are the tournament performance is added to his tally. Vugar Gashimov (2759, +1) is Azerbaijan’s #1 and in an recent interview he stated the possibility of becoming the top-rated player one day. He lead his nation to a win in the prestigious European Team Championship and they will be a favorite to win a medal at the 2010 Olympiad.

Vassily Ivanchuk (2749, +10) continues his fluctuation in and out of the top ten. He regained some points are a strong showing at Tal Memorial, but had an early exit from the World Cup losing to rising star Wesley So (2656, +14) of the Philippines (pictured left). A Chinese player has reached the top ten for the first time in history and his name is Wang Yue (2749, +15).

With his solid style and consistency, Wang continues to climb the rating ladder and can clearly be considered in the elite class. With invitations rolling in, he has had opportunities to show the talent that had been developing since his youth days. There seems to be more talent in the Chinese pipeline.

Peter Svidler (2744, -10) rounds out the top ten, but has hit skids lately. He bombed in the Tal Memorial with 3.5/9, was eliminated in the FIDE World Cup quarterfinals and just a week ago he lost in 23 moves to talented junior, Sanan Sjugirov (2610, -2).

In women’s chess, nothing has changed in terms of the order. Judit Polgar has been on top for decades and is now regaining form. Hou Yifan (2590, +2) is hot on the heels of world #2 Koneru Humpy (2614, +11).

Humpy scored a good result in the match featuring the Queens vs. Veterans, but entered in a public dispute with her federation about her contractual committments. While she continues to play primarily against women, her improvement has not been very dramatic since reaching 2600 two years ago.

Former World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova (2545, +4) has remained steady over the past year, but the new sensation in the women’s section is Nadezhda Kostineva (2533, +15) of Russia. She has vaulted over 2500 and is now the top-rated Russian woman.

Kostineva overtakes World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (2523, -6) who had held the top position since she first won the title at age 17. She will most probably keep the top board at the Olympiad regardless of the rating difference. Kosteniuk was blanked by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2741, +22) in the FIDE World Cup but helped Russia win the European Team Championship.

As the world’s number one Carlsen leads the Juniors and French #1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2730, +12) is now second and Sergey Karjakin (2720, -3) is third. All were born in 1990 and will dominate the list for a few more years. Karjakin has recently changed his federation from Ukraine to Russia.

GM Fabiano Caruana is knocking at the door of the 2700 club. Here he plays Sweden’s GM Pontus Carlsson enroute to winning Corus ‘C’ earlier last year.

Italian #1 Fabiano Caruana (2675, +33) has pilled up points at a rapid pace and is approaching 2700. He made the fourth round of the FIDE World Cup finally losing to Gashimov. Ian Nepomniachtchi (2658, +32) of Russia gained a whopping 31 ELO points in the Russia Final with 8.5/10!

Perhaps one of the junior receiving the most praise (besides Carlsen) is Wesley So of the Philippines (2656, +14). He got to the 4th round of the FIDE World Cup beating Gadir Guseinov (2614), Vassily Ivanchuk (2749) and Gata Kamsky (2693).

One of the best thing about the juniors list (and other lists) is the wide diversity of nations represented, a fact not solely because of emigration from strong nations. Out of the top 20 juniors, 12 countries are represented. For the top 20 girls, two nations dominate the list… Russia (6) and China (4). Hou Yifan (2590, +2) is the #20 junior, but the top girl.

Jorge Cori and sister Daysi of Peru.

Daysi Cori of Peru is the sole representative on the girl’s list from the Western Hemisphere. Her brother Jorge recently made headlines by fulfilling the requirements a Grandmaster at age 14 and earlier winning the under-14 title. Daysi won the under-16 girl’s title.

FIDE: http://ratings.fide.com/toplist.phtml

Boris Gelfand. Atrás, las graderías vacías.

Ha llegado a su fase final la 3ª Copa Mundo de ajedrez. Los finalistas son el ruso-israelí Boris Gelfand y el ucraniano Ruslán Ponomariov. Se trató de un evento en grande, que comenzó con 128 jugadores y en el que se jugaron alrededor de 500 partidas.

 La Copa FIDE Mundial De ajedrez 2009 empezó en Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, del 20 de noviembre al 15 de diciembre de 2009. Se jugó bajo un sistema de eliminación simple. Los jugadores pareados jugaban un mini-match. Primero jugaban dos partidas de ajedrez clásico a 90 minutos para los 40 primeros movimientos, con 30 minutos para el resto del juego, con una adición de 30 segundos por movimiento. Si había empate, jugaban cuatro partidos de 25 minutos + 10 segundos de incremento por movimiento. Si persistía el empate, jugaban 4 partidas de blitz, con un tiempo de 5 minutos + 3 segundos por movimiento. Si el empate seguía persistiendo, una campaña “Armagedón” o “muerte súbita”, con 5 minutos para las negras y 6 minutos para los blancas, los que fueran necesarios para ganar, con una adición de 3 segundos por movimiento. 

La Copa del mundo de ajedrez 2009 es parte integral del ciclo 2011 del campeonato mundial. El  vencedor jugará el torneo de candidatos de 2011. De acuerdo a los planes de la FIDE, éste deberá ser el papel de la Copa del mundo de ajedrez en los ciclos venideros.

Jugadores que tuvo que eliminar cada semifinalista para llegar a la final:

Muchos famosos cayeron a lo largo del camino. Entre ellos podemos recordar a Judith Pólgar, Vasily Ivanchuk, Gata Kamsky, Étienne Bacrot, Máxime Vachier-Lagrave, Peter Svidler, Alexander Morozevich, Teimour Radjabov, Dimitri Jakovenko, David Navara, Alexander Khalifman, Evgeny Alekseev, Yue Wang, Ernesto Inarkiev, Pavel Eljanov, Leinier Domínguez, Alexei Shirov, Mamedyarov Shak., Fabio Caruana, Entre los semifinalistas: Sergey Karjakin y Vladimir Malakhov. Y un desconocido que se hizo famoso eliminando famosos, el filipino Wesley So.

Ahora veamos dos partidas de la fase semifinal.

Karjakin, Sergey (2723) – Gelfand, Boris (2758) [C55]
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (6.1), 06.12.2009
Ajedrez clásico.

1.e4 e5 2.Ac4 Cf6 3.d3 Cc6 4.Cf3 Ae7 5.0-0 0-0 6.Ab3 d5 7.exd5 Cxd5 8.h3 a5 9.a4 Cd4 10.Cxd4 exd4 11.Te1

Posición después de 10.Te1

La amenaza de las blancas es AxC, seguido de TxA, pero: 
 
11…Ta6! Novedad

[12.Axd5 Dxd5 13.Txe7 Tg6 – con la amenaza 14...Dxg2#]

12.Dh5 Cb4 13.Ca3 Tg6

No es normal a estas alturas de una partida ver una torre en posición tan amenazante.

14.Af4 b6 15.Df3 Ae6 16.Axe6 fxe6 17.De4 Ad6 18.Axd6 cxd6 19.Dxd4

Posición después de 19.Dxd4

Las negras entregan este peón en aras de mantener su ataque.

19…Dg5

Amenaza de nuevo el mate en “g2”. 

20.g3 Df5 21.g4 h5 22.Te4 d5 23.Rh2 Df3 24.Tee1 hxg4 25.De3 gxh3 26.Dxf3 Txf3 27.Tg1 Txf2+ 28.Rxh3 Txg1 29.Txg1 Cxc2 30.Cb5 Tf3+ 31.Rg4 Txd3
 
Con tres peones de desventaja, el blanco no durará mucho.

32.Cd6 Ce3+ 33.Rf4 Cc4 0-1.

(4) Malakhov, Vladimir (2706) – Ponomariov, Ruslán (2739) [E35]

Ajedrez rápido.

World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk/Russia (6.4), 08.12.2009

1.d4 Cf6 2.c4 g6 3.Cc3 d5 4.cxd5 Cxd5 5.Ad2 Cb6 6.Af4 Ag7 7.e3 0–0 8.Cf3 c5

No sabemos cómo se clasificará esta apertura. Creemos que sea una especie de Grünfeld diferida.
 
9.dxc5 C6d7 10.Cd5 e5 11.Ag3 Cc6 12.Tc1 Cf6 13.Cxf6+ Dxf6 14.Ad3 e4 15.Axe4 Dxb2 16.0–0 Ae6 17.Ad6 Tfe8 18.Ad5 Df6.
 
Aunque las negras tienen un peón de menos, la posición está equilibrada.

19.Tb1 Ca5 20.e4 Tac8 21.e5 Df5 22.Tb4 Axd5 23.Dxd5 De6 24.Dxe6 Txe6 25.Tb5 b6 26.cxb6 axb6 27.Cd2 Cb7 28.Ce4 Cxd6 29.Cxd6 Ta8 30.f4 f6 31.f5 gxf5 32.Cxf5 fxe5 33.Tfb1 Af8

Posición después de 33...Af8

Se ha restablecido el equilibrio material. Pero en el final resultante el alfil negro tiene mejores perspectivas que el caballo blanco.

34.T5b2 Ac5+ 35.Rh1 e4 36.Te2 Rf7 37.Tbe1 Ta4 38.g3 Rf6 39.Tf1 Re5 40.Rg2 Tf6 41.g4 h5 42.h3 hxg4 43.hxg4 Tg6 44.Rh3 Ta3+ 45.Cg3 e3 46.Cf5 Tg8 47.Rg3 Tga8 48.Rf3 T8a4 49.Tfe1 Tf4+ 50.Rg3 Re4 51.Tb1 Tf3+ 52.Rg2 Rf4 53.Tc1 Tf2+ 54.Txf2+ exf2 55.Tc4+ Rg5 56.Cd4 Te3 57.a4 Te1

Si Rxf, Te4 gana el caballo.
0–1

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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!

Chess has a storied history. There are many theories of its origin stemming from either India or China and going to Persia through the Middle East across the Sahara and into Europe. Some say that chess went through Central Asia and into Eurasia. Regardless of where chess started and how it got there, the form the Moors brought into Spain appears to be the precursor to the form that we play now.

Today there is a question circulating… it pertains to the apparent changing of the guard in chess. With the retirement of Garry Kasparov, the changing of the guard had begun. The transition was not a smooth one and a scramble ensued within the disjointed chess world. Before Kasparov, several Soviet champions drew inspiration from Mikhail Botvinnik who became a symbol of the Soviet School of Chess. There would exist a single line of domination for 50 years effectively ending with Kasparov. Vladimir Kramnik had this to say about the World Champion:

Botvinnik’s example and teaching established the modern approach to preparing for competitive chess: regular but moderate physical exercise; analysing very thoroughly a relatively narrow repertoire of openings; annotating one’s own games, those of past great players and those of competitors; publishing one’s annotations so that others can point out any errors; studying strong opponents to discover their strengths and weaknesses; ruthless objectivity about one’s own strengths and weaknesses.

In the modern era, there were a lot of new talented players and the chess behemoth representing the Soviet Union was led by Anatoly Karpov followed by Garry Kasparov. The era from Botvinnik to Kasparov represented the glory years of the Soviet tradition and it remains an important time in chess history.

While many of the strongest chess nations were once a part of the Soviet empire, does the “Soviet School of Chess” still reign supreme in the face of rising powers such as China and India? One may believe the proof is still evident when approximately 70% of the world’s top 100 players are from Russia and the former Soviet republics. However, there are some changing trends.

The trend of globalization has brought about a “chess wave” and currently the top three players are from Norway, Bulgaria and India. When Viswanathan Anand (right) became World Champion, it signaled a new era. Certainly a different time from when there was at least one “K” in the top ten for three decades.

As the largest Soviet remnant, Russia has not scored an Olympiad medal in three straight Olympiads and its players no longer dominate tournaments as before. In addition, tournament winners span a variety of countries. The former Soviet bloc still represents an influential and formidable tradition, but what has become of the “Soviet School of Chess”? Does it still exist? Did it ever exist in the magnitude of its reputation?

During the recent FIDE World Cup, there were 27 players from Russia competing out of 128. Nearly eighty-percent of the total players were from the former Soviet bloc. The tournament was won by a veteran from Belarus, Boris Gelfand, who now plays for Israel. Despite the high percentage of players from the outset, Russia did not place a player in the final match. However, the last eight players were from the “Soviet tradition”. Perhaps one can argue that the tradition is alive, but there are also other developments indicating that the balance of power is shifting. Does it remain a monolithic ideology or is it a deep-seated culture that has diverged into different approaches to chess?

Back in 2006, Vladimir Kramnik complained about the lack of young talent coming up in Russia. He remarked that the veterans were indeed very strong, but needed to make way for young players with great stamina. Other nations in the former Soviet bloc seem to be thriving despite their small size. The Ukraine won the Olympiad in 2004 and Armenia has won in 2006 and 2008. Azerbaijan recently won the European Team Championship. Each of these teams have young stars making of a great part of their success. Of course, we cannot forget that both Israel (#3 in the world) and the U.S. (#8) consist of a number of of Soviet emigres.

Russia’s Peter Svidler and Vladimir Kramnik at the 2008 Olympiad in Dresden. These two elite players work to bridge the gap of the old and new. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.

If one has to answer whether the Soviet School is still relevant, there is no question that it is very much a force. However, times are changing and the method of assimilating mass amounts of knowledge in a short time (to reach a critical analysis) has overtaken the method of deeply analyzing select classic games and positions. Other regions have proved that other techniques can be used with great effect. Many of the promising juniors being produced today are from many parts of the world who do not have the benefit of a rich chess culture, yet they are making a mark and entering the upper echelon with improvised techniques.

If we look at the rise of China, there may be an argument that there is a “massification” of talent, but that argument has not panned out yet. China has a very well-defined system for producing talent… a strong player as national trainer (GM Ye Jiangchuan) and government support. The number of players they produce is selective, yet all of the players appear to be very strong and well-prepared. Liu Wenzhe wrote a book about the “Chinese School of Chess” but it is not clear how close that model is being followed today.

The nation has created a powerhouse in less than 30 years and its women have dominated chess for more than two decades. China currently holds the #5 ranking (behind Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Azerbaijan). They have produced four 2700s and have a cadre of young strong players who are unrated and indeed ready to enter the chess stage. Li Chao and Yu Yangyi showed great promise in the FIDE World Cup, not to mention Hou Yifan, a legitimate talent.

Wesley So represents a new era of chess players. Photo by Galina Popova courtesy of FIDE.

India has the benefit of a great icon in World Champion Anand and perhaps more of a massification effect in terms of young talent. We are witnessing the “Anand Effect” or “Anand Boom” similar to what happened in the U.S. with Bobby Fischer. India has excelled in many of the age group world championships and in 2008 won both the boy’s and girl’s junior titles. Overall, India is now ranked as the #6 federation (counting the top 10 players). The players have strong support from the corporate sector, but internal rankling could slow process.

Vietnam and the Philippines have begun to show promise with young talent such as Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Wesley So, respectively. Cuba has led the way in showing that there are other methods for producing elite players and have Lenier Dominguez. Iran has also made tremendous strides in producing strong talent. In North America, there is Hikaru Nakamura who has soared over 2700 and is has developed a unique approach to chess development.

What does all this mean? It means that while the Soviet School of Chess still has tremendous influence in terms of chess training, literature and tradition, methods are evolving quickly. The methods still show results, but is perhaps losing ground. Kramnik has made such comments in a 2006 interview when asked about the rising Russian players.

With regard to Russia I am not aware of the most recent developments; actually it is Evgeny Bareev who is working with the main players in his school. But unfortunately I don’t see much talent coming from our country and this is scaring for me as we shall not get any younger. Some of the players in this team already played in 1994, so you need some new blood at some point and at the moment I can’t see who can bring some new resources to the team. OK, we have some good players such as Malakhov, we have Jakovenko, but they are not much stronger than the rest of the guys. Bareev is already 40 you know, but I hope that he will be able to prepare in his school some young players for the Olympiad in two years time in Dresden. (Link)

In Dresden, it was not to be. Armenia would take gold again on the strength of Levon Aronian and Gabriel Sargissian. Israel took silver and the U.S. took the bronze. For the time being, Russia, the Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Armenia will keep the tradition strong, but how long can we continue to identify success as a result of the “Soviet School”?

Garry Kasparov was perhaps the first player from the Soviet School to make effective use of the traditional methods along with the use of databases. Players like Ruslan Ponomariov, Teimour Radjabov and Sergey Karjakin are steeped more in the information age than previous generations, but one can still see the influence of the Soviet tradition. The idea of studying classic games is invaluable as are the deep studying of middlegame positions, but the means by which that is done will change drastically. Younger players are finding other ways to practicalize their preparation.

Viktor Korchnoi has been very critical of the new generation by saying that too much reliance is placed on computers and databases. One thing for sure… computers and databases are here to stay. Other nations are certainly benefiting from the mass amount of data, powerful engines and access to strong players on the Internet. In interviews, Anand has described the role of computers in “leapfrogging” and leveling the field.

I think that happened with chess. I think that is exactly right. Not only in India but there has been a sort of levelling in the world. The rest of the world has been able to catch up with Russia much faster than it would have had these things not come into play. And now I would say even the expertise is being levelled because you have computers that are so strong. I mean most programs on a PC would beat almost any grandmaster. Even when I play, or any top GM, we have to really concentrate to have a chance. If you are casual, the machine is too strong. So you have such a strong computer with which you can work, all your doubts can be cleared much easier. That is why the sport has become much younger. The time needed to accumulate a certain amount of experience and understanding has dropped. So yes, first the lag in information, then the lag in expertise or knowledge and geographical boundaries through the Internet. Each of these things we have bypassed. We are still as far away as we used to be, but we have bypassed them. (Link)

The methods as taught by many Soviet trainers will still have some relevance, but will require some adaption if they are going to continue to be affective against players who require speed and volume of many games over the depth and critical analysis of fewer games. The Soviet School as we know it will never be the same. Eventually, it will have to give way to a more dynamic pedagogy. It’s going to be exciting to see where the world of chess is headed.

Two decades after the USSR broke up, Soviet training methods remain potent at the chessboard. When the field of 128 was reduced to the quarter-finals in the current World Cup, all eight grandmasters remaining had their education from Soviet coaches.

The final four-game match now in progress to decide who qualifies for the 2010 candidates is between Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov, who won the 2002 World Cup as a teenager, and Boris Gelfand, the 41-year-old top seed. In the semi-finals Ponomariov beat Vlad Malakhov 4-2 while Gelfand eliminated Sergey Karjakin 2-0. In both the semi-final and in the game below the Israeli veteran defeated opponents more than half his age.

Sergey Karjakin, 19, who lost to Gelfand 0-2, chose the 'safe' Bishop's Opening in an attempt to avoid the Petroff 2 Nf3 Nf6, but after 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nf6 3 d3 Nc6 4 Nf3 Be7 5 0-0 0-0 6 Bb3 d5 7 exd5 Nxd5 8 h3 a5 9 a4 Nd4 10 Nxd4 exd4 11 Re1 was rocked by the new plan Ra6! White should have bailed out for a draw by 12 Bxd5 Qxd5 13 Rxe7 Rg6 14 f3 Bxh3 15 Re2 Qxf3 16 Qf1 Bxg2! but instead fell to a crushing attack on his king.

Gelfand's 1 c4 English Opening had a tiny edge against France's junior world champion when Black erred by 16...f5? (better c6 17 bxc6 bxc6 18 Ne3 Rb8) after which 17 Nh4! and 19 Qh5! homed in on the weak light squares. When Gelfand launched a second front down the open b file, Black's defences collapsed.

B Gelfand v M Vachier Lagrave

1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e5 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 a3 g6 5 g3 Bg7 6 Bg2 O-O 7 O-O d6 8 d3 h6 9 Rb1 Be6 10 b4 Qd7 11 b5 Nd8 12 a4 Bh3 13 Nd5 Bxg2 14 Kxg2 Ne8 15 e4 Ne6 16 Bb2 f5? 17 Nh4 Kh7 18 exf5 gxf5 19 Qh5 c6 20 bxc6 bxc6 21 Ne3 f4 22 Nef5 Rf6 23 d4 exd4 24 Nxd4 Nxd4 25 Bxd4 Re6 26 Qf5+ Kg8 27 Rfe1 Nc7 28 Bxg7 Kxg7 29 Rb7 Re7 30 Rxe7+ Qxe7 31 Qxf4 Kg8 32 Nf5 1-0

3117

P Svidler v V Malakhov, World Cup 2009. Black (to play) can choose a plausible move which loses instantly or a less obvious one which wins instantly. Can you find both?

3117 1...dxe1Q?? 2 Bxf7+ Rxf7 (Kg7 3 Qg6+) 3 Qxf7+ forces a speedy mate. The game ended dxe1N+! and White resigned due to 2 Rxe1 Qf2+ and Ng3 mate.

Boris Gelfand has reached the final of the 2009 FIDE World Cup. Today he again defeated Sergey Karjakin, who had to take many risks in a must-win situation. Malakhov and Ponomariov drew again and so tomorrow’s tiebreaks will decide who will be Gelfand’s opponent.

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 6, day 2

How to beat Boris Gelfand with Black? For Sergey Karjakin it was a mission impossible today, but he certainly tried. His 16…h6 was very risky, but at least if forced some complications, and complications is already something, isn’t it. However, as it turned out they favoured White, and an accurately calculating Gelfand had no trouble in finding the flaws of Black’s play. He had seen that the trapped bishop on h7 could simply be sacrificed for a devastating attack.

Malakhov-Ponomariov was quite an interesting Nimzo which ended rather abruptly when already at move 27 the players decided it was enough. They will battle it out in the tiebreaks tomorrow, starting from 11:00 CET. It will be covered live by us, as well as the first round of the London Chess Classic. (You can still replay IM Robert Ris’ annotations on the live page until tomorrow morning.)

We’re covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic for free; starting from 2010 our live commentary will be subscription-based. You’ll find more info here.

Games round 6, day 2

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

• Ruslan Ponomariov (2739 UKR) 3-1 Vladimir Malakhov (2706 RUS)

• Le site officiel
• La galerie de photos
• Les résultats complets
• Le Live avec ChessBomb
• Le cycle du championnat du monde d'échecs

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

• Boris Gelfand (2758 ISR) 1-0 Sergey Karjakin (2723 UKR)
• Vladimir Malakhov (2706 RUS) 1/2 Ruslan Ponomariov (2739 UKR)

• Sergey Karjakin (2723 UKR) 0-1 Boris Gelfand (2758 ISR)
• Ruslan Ponomariov (2739 UKR) 1/2 Vladimir Malakhov (2706 RUS)

• Le site officiel
• La galerie de photos
• Les résultats complets
• Le Live avec ChessBomb
• Le cycle du championnat du monde d'échecs

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

On the first day of the World Cup’s semi-finals Boris Gelfand delivered a big blow to his 22 years younger opponent Sergey Karjakin. The Israeli grandmaster continued his fantastic World Cup tournament with a win with the black pieces today, and only needs a draw with White tomorrow to reach the final. The game Ponomariov-Malakhov ended in a draw.

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 6, day 1

Boris Gelfand is playing very, very strongly in Khanty-Mansiysk. The ease with which he set aside Dimitry Jakovenko yesterday in the tiebreaks of the quarter-finals was impressive, and today he came with an excellent follow-up: a win with the black pieces against Sergey Karjakin.

Already on move 11 Gelfand sacrificed a piece, but accepting it would be too dangerous:

11…Ra6!?
Now 12.Bxd5 Qxd5 13.Rxe7 Rg6 14.g4 f5 and White is playing with fire. However, just a few moves later Black got his attack anyway, thanks to a strong pawn sac.

18.Bxd6? cxd6! 19.Qxd4 Qg5 and Black’s attack was so strong that Karjakin could only avoid mate by giving back three pawns, which of course was too much.

Where many other GMs failed as well in the earlier rounds of this World Cup, Ponomariov couldn’t get anything tangible either against Malakhov’s Chebanenko Slav. White’s endgame advantage was only a theoretical one as it was impossible to profit from Black’s isolated pawns on the kingside.

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Tomorrow at 11:00 CET is the second and last classical game of the semi-finals and again we’ll have live commentary. (You can still replay GM Sipke Ernst’s annotations on the live page until the new round starts.) We’re covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic for free; starting from 2010 our live commentary will be subscription-based. You’ll find more info here.

Games round 6, day 1

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