On his 41st birthday Vasily Ivanchuk defeated Jan Smeets 1.5-0.5 at the Amber tournament in Nice. Because Magnus Carlsen won one and lost one against Sergey Karjakin, Ivanchuk is now half a point ahead of Carlsen and Gelfand, who beat Aronian 2-0.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 5

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Round 5 report

Vasily Ivanchuk grabs lead on 41st birthday
In round 5 of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk, who celebrated his 41st birthday today, grabbed the sole lead in the overall standings with a 1½-½ win over Jan Smeets. Magnus Carlsen saw a winning streak of seven consecutive wins interrupted by Sergey Karjakin. The Norwegian top-seed is now in second place together with Boris Gelfand, who defeated Leinier Dominguez 2-0 (scoring his fourth consecutive win in the process).

Yesterday the participants of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament enjoyed a free day. Some of them stayed at the hotel to recharge their batteries, others joined an excursion to Gourdon, an age-old mountain village perched on a rock 780 meters above sea-level with a splendid view of the surrounding natural scenery and of Nice at a distance of some 10 kilometres (the ride there was obviously longer and lasted about an hour). The excursion included a visit to the local museum and a relaxed lunch on the outside terrace of Le Nid d’Aigle.

At the end of the afternoon the players who took part in the excursion returned to the Palais de la Méditerranée, where in the evening they were joined by their colleagues at a Quiz evening. The theme of the evening was Movies (with questions about chess interspersed) and we can reveal that Ruslan Ponomariov, who was on the winning team, astounded all and sundry with his passionate rendition of We Are the Champions. And then today, at 14.30 it was back to chess again with the games of the fifth round.

After he had won the blindfold game against Leinier Dominguez, Boris Gelfand was full of praise for his opponent’s opening play. Without going into any detail (he preferred the telling stock phrase ‘future games will have to shed more light on this variation’) Gelfand explained that the complications had been big and that he was suffering a pawn down at the ‘end’ of the opening. But Dominguez’ problem was to find a way to convert his material and this proved not so easy. And searching for a plan he got confused by the sudden advance of Black’s e-pawn that started marching down the board. Things were still fine for White, but the Cuban panicked and before he knew it he was lost.
The opening in the rapid game again was highly complicated and although in various instances the computer prefers Black, Gelfand had full confidence in the white side. To his mind his opponent went astray with 24…Rd8, where he could have stayed in the game with the ‘beautiful idea’ (Gelfand’s words) 24…Rd3 25.Nf2 Rxf3 26.gxf3 f5. Now things went rapidly downhill for Black and after 30.Qa4 Gelfand believed that he was close to winning. The game lasted another 36 moves, but indeed the result was never in any doubt and Gelfand scored his fourth consecutive win.

Vugar Gashimov and Alexander Grischuk conducted a tense battle in the Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Najdorf, with White going for the less usual 8.Qd3. White seemed to have a promising initiative and Gashimov’s hopes were rising, when Grischuk found the beautiful defending move 28…Kh7, that essentially saved the draw.
In the rapid game they also repeated the opening they had played in Linares last month and with Gashimov behind the black pieces it’s no big surprise that we saw another Benoni. The novelty came on move 12, when instead of 12…Nh5, the Azeri grandmaster now played 12…b5, an improvement he was most pleased with. Black got a fine game, but White remained ambitious and in the end it was the Russian’s wish to keep on playing on that did him in. After he had repeated moves several times (in different positions) Grischuk finally fell for the trap that Gashimov had spied many moves ago and when White proceeded 43.Bb5, Black’s answer 43…Rxc7 came very quickly.

Vladimir Kramnik scored a convincing win against Ruslan Ponomariov in their blindfold game, although he wasn’t too impressed by his achievement. To his mind Ponomariov had simply forgotten to play 6…d6 (as Ponomariov was happy to explain he had already played this exact variation without …d6, way back in 1997 against Volkov amongst others; ‘it used to be one of my specialties at the time’), which gave White a considerable space advantage. He also was critical of Black’s 10…dxe5 and believed that Black’s best chance on move 15 was 15…Bxc3+ 16.Qxc3 Qxb5, as after 15…Kg7? 16.0-0 he felt that White was almost winning. What Black probably missed was that 16…Nf6 would have been answered by 17.Bh6+ Kxh6 18.Qe3+. The remainder of the game Kramnik played with a steady hand and Ponomariov never got a chance to turn the tide again.
After the blindfold game Ponomariov mused that he should not have played so adventurously and that it was wiser to strive for a healthy position, solidly developing your pieces and all that. But once he sat down for the rapid game he had already forgotten about most of this wisdom and went for wild adventures again with 12.Be5 and 13.Bd3. Further on 20.Qa1 was not fortunate choice and 21.Rb1 was a blunder that practically immediately cost him the game.

Perhaps the question most people were asking themselves at the start of the blindfold game between Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen was whether the Norwegian would continue his winning streak or that the Ukrainian would slow him down. And indeed, despite the fact that he had the black pieces Carlsen managed to win his seventh consecutive game. In a first reaction he called it ‘a good game’ and it was certainly impressive how he first solved his opening problems and next started to look for more. By the time he had played 23…Nxe3 followed by 24…Bf2, he felt he got a grip on the position. He was even more pleased when Karjakin let himself be tempted to play 34.Bxg6, as he had sharply calculated the consequences of his move. Still, it wasn’t clear if Black’s advantage was winning, but with Karjakin in severe time-trouble and the pressure building up on him he faced an arduous task. Carlsen wasn’t entirely sure if he had played the queen endgame perfectly, but the way he played it was enough to score another point.
Carlsen’s winning streak ended in the rapid game. Dithering opening play didn’t bring him anything and when Karjakin stepped up his counterplay, dark clouds gathered over the white position. Carlsen tried his best to muddy the waters but in fact his fate was sealed well before the end of the game.

Levon Aronian and Peter Svidler played a blindfold game that the latter called ‘wildly exciting’ and who would argue with that? In a sharp anti-Grünfeld system Black was reluctant to go for the endgame that would have arisen after 11…Qxd1+ even if a brief look afterwards convinced him that there was nothing wrong with it for him. When he played 11…Qe7+ he had missed White’s 12.Bb5+ and wild (indeed) complications began. Initially Black’s position looked under threat but with 21…Qe4 Black took over the initiative. But White crawled back into the game and a manoeuvring phase ended in a drawish position. At this point, however, Aronian had little time left and lost control. First he spurned a repetition of moves and next he put his queen en prise.
After he’d also won the rapid game, Svidler suppressed his happiness with the words ‘Today Levon had one of those days that I normally have’. Aronian’s opening turned out badly when he played 12…Re8, where moves like 12…Be6 or 12…Bd7 were called for, and was punished by 13.Nb5. Still, Svidler didn’t continue in the most powerful manner. To his mind, if he had gone 15.Qd2 Bf5 16.Rfe1, the game ‘wouldn’t have lasted twenty moves’. Now Aronian could fight back and with 18…Be4 19.Rf2 Rxf2 20.Kxf2 Qh4+ 21.Kg1 Qg4 22.Qg3 Qxg3 he would have had the worst behind him. Now White was soon in the driver’s seat again and hauled in the point without too many problems.

Jan Smeets and Vasily Ivanchuk went down a long line of Caro-Kann theory in their blindfold game. Today was Ivanchuk’s birthday (he turned 41), but Smeets had obviously no wish to present any gifts and although Black was slightly better in the endgame that appeared on the board, the Dutchman confidently secured the draw. At the very end of the game he even came close to a win on time when Ivanchuk had lost track of his bishop, but after a series of tentative mouse clicks the Ukrainian managed to trace it (if the players made an ‘impossible’ move the note ‘illegal move’ appears on their screen; there are no sanctions, however, so they can keep searching for a piece or pawn as long as you want, provided you have enough time).
In the rapid game, a Four Knights’ Opening, Smeets at first didn’t have any real problems either. But an ill-advised queen excursion on the queenside, while White was advancing menacingly on the kingside cost him dearly. His kingside proved much more vulnerable than it had appeared at first sight and within a few moves he had to resign.

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After winning 2-0 one more time, today against Smeets, Carlsen joined Vasily Ivanchuk in the lead in Nice. The Ukrainian on his turn defeated Aronian 1.5-0.5, while Kramnik went down 2-0 against Gelfand.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 4

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Round 4 report

Magnus Carlsen catches up with Vasily Ivanchuk after third 2-0 wipe-out
After four rounds of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Magnus Carlsen and Vasily Ivanchuk are tied for first in the overall standings with 6 points from 8 games. The Ukrainian grandmaster defeated last year’s winner Levon Aronian 1½-½. Magnus Carlsen continued his remarkable comeback after he lost 2-0 to Ivanchuk in Round 1. The world’s number one defeated Jan Smeets 2-0, raising his number of consecutive wins to six. Manifold Amber winner Vladimir Kramnik suffered a highly atypical 2-0 defeat at the hands of Boris Gelfand. Perhaps typical for the fighting spirit of the round was the fact that 5 out the 6 rapid games were won by black.
Tomorrow, March 17, is a rest day. Play is resumed Thursday March 18 with Round 5.

Magnus Carlsen was understandably ambitious to continue his winning streak in his blindfold game against bottom-seed Jan Smeets. Despite a modest opening set-up (that started with 1.g3) he indeed got an edge, but there was no reason for Black to despair yet. Afterwards Carlsen commented that had Smeets just stayed put, instead of becoming active with 31…Rc3, he didn’t see how he could have made progress. Smeets’ action was based on a miscalculation. After 32…Rxc4 the only reply he had counted on was 33.Rd6+, but instead Carlsen dealt a killer blow with 33.Bg5. Three moves later Black resigned, raising Carlsen’s winning streak to five.
In the rapid game the Norwegian also scored his sixth consecutive win, but this time he really had to squeeze water from a stone. After the opening he was slightly worse, but he kept looking for his chances, collecting one minimal asset after the other. On move 33 there was a minuscule victory when he exchanged his knight for a bishop and with 38…g5 he made a brave winning attempt, as he let the white c-pawn on the board. Objectively speaking all his tries would have been in vain had Smeets kept his cool, but low and time and feeling the pressure the Dutchman finally succumbed. As late as move 54 he still could have made a draw with 54.Nh2 as this saves an essential tempo compared to the move he played, 54.Nf2.

The blindfold game between tournament leader Vasily Ivanchuk and defending champion Levon Aronian suddenly ended when the board was still full of pawns and pieces when on move 25 White offered a draw. In a slightly unorthodox Ruy Lopez it seemed that Black had obtained a good game, but Aronian wasn’t so sure. When he was asked why he had accepted the draw, he simply replied: ‘Because I am worse.’ And he elaborated that his pieces might look nice and active, but that White can slowly continue h3, Rd1 and c4, and on top of that he didn’t like the g5-h4 pawn-structure on the kingside either.
In the rapid game Ivanchuk maintained the (shared) lead with a fine win with the black pieces. A speculative piece sacrifice by Aronian (19.Nxe6) for three pawns and the initiative failed to impress and although the game remained complicated Ivanchuk hauled in the point with determined and precise play.

In the blindfold game between Peter Svidler and Sergey Karjakin a tense Sicilian with chances for both sides saw an untimely and unfortunate end when on move 42, White put a knight en prise. Following his resignation yesterday against Carlsen when there was still everything to play for, this was a new blow for the Russian grandmaster.
Svidler found some consolation in a well-played rapid game that finally brought him a win again. In his beloved Grünfeld Defence he believed that his 12…Rd8 was a safe road to equality, but it required accurate play. Instead of 17…g5 he could also have played 17…c4, but he felt more attracted to the push of the g-pawn. Karjakin felt optimistic about his chances when he won a pawn, but in fact this materialistic decision spelled disaster, as very soon the black pieces assembled for a strong attack. One nice line that didn’t appear on the board was 24.Bf2 (in the game 24.Bd7 was played) 24…Nxf3 25.Bg3 Qxg3! 26.hxg3 Rh6+ 27.Kg2 Rh2 mate. The end of the game was less drastic, but nevertheless there was no escaping for White.

Boris Gelfand didn’t hide his contentment after he had won his blindfold game against Vladimir Kramnik. ‘It’s always nice to win against such a great player’, he almost humbly commented. The Israeli grandmaster more or less blamed Black’s defeat on the opening system he had chosen, the Bg4-system that is mainly popular among some Azeri players. One of the ideas of the black approach is the exchange sacrifice on e3 that also happened in this game. Gelfand wasn’t convinced of its correctness and suggested Black should have looked for something else at that point. He pointed out the sad offside position of the black knight on c7 in particular and quoted Tarrasch who said that if one piece doesn’t take part in the play there’s something wrong with the entire position. Gelfand was satisfied with his plan Bd1 and Ne2 which allowed him to cement his advantage and slowly but surely win the game.
In the rapid game Kramnik was perhaps too cautious in his approach, certainly if he had clear plans to level the score, and this seriously backfired. Playing actively Gelfand freely advanced his pawns and directed his pieces to active positions. Objectively speaking, White was not yet in trouble, but Black’s position was much more pleasant and easy to play. Gradually the black pressure built up and following a blunder, 31.Rc2, Kramnik soon had to throw in the towel. An impressive achievement by Gelfand.

Ruslan Ponomariov seemed determined to blow up Vugar Gashimov’s Benoni Defence in their blindfold game and judging by the comments of the kibitzing grandmasters in the hospitality lounge he was soon on his way to realize that objective. But then the Benoni is a resilient customer and although his position looked highly suspect, Gashimov seemed to have no wish to surrender without a fight. He stayed afoot in the complications and he could have even taken over the initiative if instead of 31…Rh8+ he had gone 31…Rxf4 32.Rxf4 Qh6+. But soon he was in the driver’s seat anyway when White first missed the winning continuations 32.Kg2 and next 32.Kg1. Instead the players ended up in a rook ending with one pawn (white) against two. This they played on for many more moves until on move 68 the computer indicated a threefold repetition and the game was drawn.
The rapid game was a protracted battle in which the balance was not really disturbed for a long time. Nevertheless, Gashimov managed to upset the equilibrium in the endgame and score his second win in the tournament.

Alexander Grischuk was clearly satisfied after his blindfold win against Leinier Dominguez and he had every reason to. In a Sicilian Najdorf that his opponent had clearly prepared (Dominguez blitzed out his first 18 moves), the Russian champion was in a creative mood and managed to create attacking chances with pointed play. Probably the key moment of the game was the point where White played 23.Qh5, a move that Black had missed and that netted White the important f7 pawn. Grischuk kept playing strong and incisive chess and after 63 moves he had earned a well-deserved point.
The rapid game also saw a Najdorf, but (not surprisingly) a different line. Dominguez’ troubles started when early on in the opening he played his knight to d5 and shortly afterwards had to withdraw it to c3 again, losing two precious tempi. Grischuk obtained a comfortable game and it was impressive to see how he gradually exploited his advantage to score his second win of the day.

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After beating Sergey Karjakin 1.5-0.5, Vasily Ivanchuk leads the combined standings of the Amber tournament with a score of 4.5/6. Magnus Carlsen again won 2-0, this time against Peter Svidler, who resigned in a probably drawn position in the blindfold game.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 3

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Round 3 report

Vasily Ivanchuk in sole lead
Magnus Carlsen back in business with two more wins
After three rounds of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk is in the sole lead in the overall standings with 4½ points from 6 games. The Ukrainian grandmaster, the only GM to play in all 19 Amber tournaments, defeated Sergey Karjakin 1½-½. Defending champion Levon Aronian scored his first full points at the cost of Jan Smeets. Magnus Carlsen also won 2-0, the victim being Peter Svidler. Despite his dramatic start, the Norwegian is now only half a point behind the leading Ivanchuk. And he optimistically faces the future: ‘I am hoping for two more tomorrow.’

Vasily Ivanchuk immersed in thought at the start of his blindfold game against Sergey Karjakin. Following a 1½-½ win over his former compatriot the Ukrainian grandmaster is in the sole lead.

Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand played a blindfold game that at first sight may have looked lively and entertaining for the spectators. However, they were following a theoretical line and after the game Grischuk summed up his assessment of what had happened as ‘very boring’. White had a small advantage in the ending that appeared on the board, but it never took on serious proportions and the games petered out to a draw. For Gelfand the line evoked old memories: ‘The last time I played this line was in 1988 in Vilnius. Against Goldin at the Soviet Young Masters.’ Certainly an interesting footnote to this game.
The rapid game was anything but boring. Playing adventurously Gelfand sacrificed two pawns to develop an attack against the black king and was awarded for his courage with a winning position. But just when everyone expected Grischuk to resign soon, Gelfand faltered and failed to deal the final blow. With 32.Bh7+ he let Black back into the game, where he could have decided the issue with 32.axb5 cxb5 33.Nd5 exd6 34.Bxd5+. In raging time-trouble for both, Gelfand again got a winning position, and might just as well have lost if Black had found 42…Kh6 instead of 42…Kg6, but in the end it was a draw and that was a result that definitely felt deeply unsatisfactory for Gelfand.

When Leinier Dominguez arrived at the board for his blindfold game against Ruslan Ponomariov, the Ukrainian grandmaster already sat waiting impatiently. As he laughingly told the arbiter: ‘I am nervous, let’s start!’ Once he was allowed to start the game, Ponomariov went for 4…g6 against the Ruy Lopez, a set-up that is sometimes considered slightly suspect, but mostly leads to satisfactory play for Black. Dominguez certainly obtained an edge, but with precise and active play Ponomariov comfortably equalized and once they reached a rook endgame with three pawns on each side, there were few reasons left not to draw the game.
The blindfold game presented Ponomariov with a problem that every grandmaster faces from time to time: he had to play against an opening variation that he also has played himself. A tense struggle developed in which both sides were fighting for their chances, and although those of White looked slightly more promising in the middlegame, the game ended in a draw when most pieces and pawns had left the board on move 47.

The blindfold game between Vugar Gashimov and Vladimir Kramnik saw the Russian grandmaster play another Pirc. However, this time it didn’t bring him much pleasure, as his mix of set-ups landed him in a risky position. Things looked threatening for Kramnik, especially when on move 26 Gashimov got a golden opportunity. With 26.Rxd6 he could have been a healthy pawn up, as 26…Ne8 is answered by 27.Rxh6, but instead of all this the Azeri grandmaster played 26.Nxd6 and a few moves later he agreed on a draw.
In the rapid game Kramnik emphatically wanted to be at the wheel from the word go. With gritty play he put his opponent under pressure and obtained a sizable advantage. But Gashimov had no wish to knuckle under and fought back with determination and his 37…Bg5 came as a rude awaking for Kramnik. Now suddenly the win was far off, objectively speaking no longer there, and a messy phase followed in which White kept looking for a win. And found it, because Gashimov didn’t grab his chances. The final mistake came on move 51, when the Azeri grandmaster played the right idea in the wrong order. Had he gone 51…Qf1+ 52.Kh2 Ne1, White would have had to resign himself to a draw. When he played 51…Ne1 immediately, Kramnik had 52.Qb5 and now 52…Nf3 doesn’t work because of 53.Qf8 mate.

The blindfold game between Peter Svidler and Magnus Carlsen started with a comic prologue when, once they were seated behind their laptops, the Norwegian discovered much to his dismay that he wasn’t White is this game, as he had believed, but Black. The comedy of errors was continued in the game and even after the Russian had resigned, when the spectators in the hospitality lounge switched on some engines. In the game Carlsen invited Svidler to play a full-fledged Dragon, but instead White opted for a more quiet approach. For some time there was nothing new under the sun until White played a new move, 19.Qf4 (19.Qe2 had been seen). The comedy of errors came back to life on move 20, when Svidler suddenly had second thoughts about the intended 20.Rxd7 because of 20…Qc6 21.Rxb7 Rxf4 22.Bd5 and now 22…Qf6 wins for Black. However, both players had missed 22.Rb6 with an edge for White. On move, 22 Svidler refrained from 22.Qh3 because he didn’t like 22…Nf4, but after the move he played, 22.Qe1, he was unpleasantly surprised by 22…Bxg2. Now Black developed a raging attack, but was it was deadly as Svidler acknowledged when, after 25…Nd4, he resigned? Indeed it would have been if Black had played 24…Nh4+ (instead of 24…Nf4+). But now things were different, as in the final position the engines immediately showed the amazing 26.Nd7!, attacking the rook on f8, and there is no immediate win and the position looks drawish.
At that point the players had already left for their rooms, Carlsen happily laughing off the fact that he had prepared for the wrong colour: ‘In any case it seems to be clear that in the blindfold I do better when I play the black pieces.’ Yes, but this time he needed a helping hand from his opponent. In his room he obviously also found 26.Nd7, but to his mind Black could nevertheless have kept on playing for a win with 26…Nh3+ 27.Kg2 Qc6+ 28.Bd5 Qxd7 29.Rxd4 e6.
The rapid game saw a rare sideline of the Qb3 Grünfeld, which, according to Carlsen, both players were not too familiar with. He himself seemed to suffer the least from this relative ignorance as he obtained a pleasant position. ‘And then it just got better and better’, he summed up the game. One moment he pointed out to illustrate the strength of his position was the moment when he played 22.Nd3, planning g5, pushing away the knight on d5 with e4, and then playing Nf4 threatening Nxg6 mate. To prevent such plans Svidler played 22…g5 himself, but his troubles remained and after 34 moves he had had enough and resigned.

When Sergey Karjakin, who is now playing for Russia, sat down to play his former compatriot Vasily Ivanchuk there was little doubt that a fierce clash would follow. In the blindfold game Ivanchuk gradually managed to took over the initiative and when he pushed 19…c4! it was clear that Karjakin faced a difficult defence. The final mistake White made on move 32, when playing his bishop to a3, he allowed Black to invade his position and force his surrender.
In the blindfold game Ivanchuk got promising play and tried various ways to improve the position of his pieces. But Karjakin defended tenaciously and when his opponent failed to make any headway a draw was the result after 44 moves.

Jan Smeets was happy with the outcome of the opening of his blindfold game against Levon Aronian. After all he was allowed to play the improvement he had suggested after his game against Karjakin in Round 2, 17.Be4 instead of 17.Ne4. White got an edge, but failed to exploit it. His first inaccuracy was 24.Rac1 where 24.a4 was called for, but the real mistake was 26.Bxd8?, an exchange that was prompted by his fear that Black’s knight would come to e6 and White’s bishop on f6 would end up out of play. Now Smeets suddenly found himself in an unpleasant rook endgame, which Aronian first converted in a winning pawn endgame and then into a winning queen endgame.
The rapid game was a tumultuous affair that started out with an opening that was popular at the start of the 20th century (the rather unusual 4…Nc6 followed by 5.e4). Aronian was pleased with his position but commented afterwards that he should have played 13.Qa4+ instead of 13.Bxf4, as he had underestimated 15…Qd7. Further on he had planned the imaginative 19.Kf1 until he saw 19…0-0 20.Rd6 Bc4!. Black’s troubles started with 24…Qh1, where he could have secured a level position with 24…Qxf2+ 25.Kf2 Ne4+ 26.Kg2 Nxd6 27.Bxa7. His final mistake was 25…Qh5, when he should have gone 25…Qxh6 26.Nd5 Qh4. Now his king was too vulnerable and as Smeets was also in time-trouble it didn’t come as a surprise that Aronian quickly hauled in the point.

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Magnus Carlsen today recovered completely from his bad start in Nice. The Norwegian defeated Levon Aronian, the winner in 2008 and 2009, in both the blindfold and the rapid game. Ukrainians Ivanchuk and Ponomariov lead the combined standings after two rounds.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 2

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Round 2 report

Carlsen bounces back with 2-0 win over defending champion Aronian
After two rounds of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov are in the lead in the overall standings with 3 points from 4 games, followed at half a point’s distance by Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler. Top-seed Magnus Carlsen recovered from his poor start with a 2-0 win over defending Amber champion Levon Aronian. The Norwegian admitted that he had been upset about his 2-0 loss on the first day (particularly the rapid game, where he believed he was in no danger of losing), but said that he certainly had not despaired: ‘With twenty rounds to go there is always time to recover.’ The first two of those twenty rounds were certainly encouraging for him.

Magnus Carlsen fared excellently in Round 2 with two wins over Levon Aronian. After the round the Norwegian was happy to comment on his blindfold game for the tournament website.

Just like last year the second round of the Amber tournament clashed with the final stage of Paris-Nice, the 8-stage cycling race that started in Paris (you had guessed that much) a week ago. For many hours the Promenade des Anglais was crowded with people waiting for the denouement of the 68th edition of this legendary race and we can tell you that quite a number of chess fans mingled among these spectators. But after, early in the afternoon, Alberto Contador had won his second Paris-Nice, three years after his first victory, they could concentrate on chess again. Right they were. After the drama in Round 1 there was every reason to look forward to the developments in Round 2.

The final stage of the cycling course Paris-Nice finished today, about two hundred metres from the venue and about two minutes after the second round started | Photo Nadja Wittmann

Alberto Contador after winning the final stage of Paris-Nice | Photo Nadja Wittmann

Magnus Carlsen was obviously eager to fight back after yesterday’s dramatic 2-0 loss, but with Levon Aronian as opponent this was easier said than done. Moreover the Norwegian had the black pieces in the blindfold game and one would think that his first concern should be not to lose again. Already before the tournament Carlsen had prepared the King’s Indian and his ambition to steer for a highly complicated struggle worked out beyond expectation. To begin with he got the chance to implement an idea he had seen in a game Eljanov-Radjabov; a quick counter-push on the queenside to undermine White’s centre followed by a piece sacrifice (20…Nxd5) to break up that same centre. The tactical complications that ensued demanded a lot from both players and it was soon clear that Carlsen felt more at ease. Aronian missed the push 22…e4, a seemingly contradictory move that seems to contribute little to Black’s wish to open up lines and files, but which in fact is the right move to keep his initiative going. White could still have put up some resistance with 25.Bg5 (instead of 25.Nxf2), but Aronian had also missed 25…Qh4, which in case of 26.Be1 is followed by the deadly 26…Be5. Three moves later Aronian threw the towel. Carlsen found it easy to smile again when a couple of minutes later he spoke to the press.
Aronian’s worries were compounded when he also lost the rapid game. And perhaps this loss hurt even more as it was completely unnecessary. From a Four Knights’ Defence the players ended up in a totally drawish rook endgame. Probably the main factor that kept the game going was that neither of the players were willing to offer a draw. And as they plodded on Aronian got himself into trouble. A first moment where he was inaccurate was when he played 42…Ra2, when he could have thwarted all White’s further tries with 42…g5. He further pleased Carlsen with 50…h5 when he should have played 50…Kh7. Now his position became very unpleasant, and when he missed a last chance to stir up complications with 59…d5 he was inexorably counted out.

Blindfold: Carlsen beats Aronian with Black in a spectacular King's Indian

Jan Smeets had no trouble acknowledging that he had been completely lost in his blindfold game against Sergey Karjakin, as he was happy enough with the half point that he had saved miraculously. In a Ruy Lopez with 3…Nge7 and 4…g6, White drifted into trouble when he played his knight to e4 on move 17 (better 17.Be4) and followed this up with 20.Nf6+. Things quickly went from bad to worse and with 35…Kf8 Black could have forced his resignation. But even the pawn ending that Karjakin allowed his opponent, was lost for Black if only he had found 46…h5. Now the Dutch grandmaster could save the draw, even if, as usually, he was very short of time for the greater part of the game.
The blindfold game was another eventful affair and again the surprising outcome was a draw. In a Ruy Lopez Smeets lost his c-pawn after a heavy manoeuvring phase. Things looked bleak, but it wasn’t too easy for White to make further progress and when Karjakin made the move Smeets had been waiting and hoping for (58.h4), the vulnerability of his king suddenly became a source of sorrow. In fact, White would have been totally lost had Smeets played 59…Qg1. But being short of time (just like Karjakin) he failed to see this opportunity and the game ended in a repetition of moves. Ironically, Smeets could still play Qg1 in the final position, but he didn’t complain that the threefold repetition had ‘only’ brought him a draw.

Dutchman Jan Smeets managed to draw twice with Sergey Karjakin

The blindfold game between Vasily Ivanchuk and Peter Svidler not surprisingly saw a Grünfeld Defence, an opening in which the Russian is one of today’s greatest specialists. Afterwards he called the opening phase of ‘mild theoretical importance’, as Ivanchuk deviated on move 11 from an earlier game Gelfand-Svidler. In that game White played 11.Be2, Ivanchuk preferred to first play 11.Nf3. Almost forced the players ended up in an ending that Svidler had (of course) looked at before and although Black’s play is not entirely carefree he felt that it should be a draw objectively speaking. As a possible improvement for White he indicated 21.Bc6, the way it went now the point was quickly shared.
In the blindfold game Svidler felt he had missed a good chance when he played 13.Qd2 instead of 13.Qc1. ‘The idea is essentially the same, but it would have saved me a tempo in almost any variation’, as he explained afterwards. He even got into slight problems when Black played 22…Qe7, effectively stopping Ng5, the move White had hoped to make. In the final phase of the game the Russian had to be careful not to lose any material, but when he managed this task the game was drawn.

Boris Gelfand recovered from his poor performance in the first round with a win in the blindfold game against Vugar Gashimov. Nevertheless he called it ‘a stupid game’, as he had spoiled an excellent opening position to end up in a problematic situation. The last trick he wanted to try in order to extricate himself from this situation was 20.Nxd5. Now he was lucky as Gashimov could have played 22…Qb4 and White might as well resign. After 22…Qc7, White’s problems were not over yet, but when Black blundered with 23…Qxc4?, he suddenly was presented with a winning position. For the rest of the game Gelfand kept his eyes on the ball and converted his advantage without further problems.
The blindfold game started slowly. White got a slight edge but nothing for Black to get worried about. The game turned around when Gelfand opened the position and Gashimov snatched a pawn, that his opponent called ‘poisoned’. Soon White was totally lost, but the game was far from over yet. Gelfand spoiled his advantage and in the end he had to win an opposite-coloured bishop ending in a study-like manner (although the Israeli grandmaster was the first to say that he was not sure if this win was waterproof). Gelfand was certainly pleased with his two wins, but he didn’t forget how he obtained them: ‘Two points with bad play’.

The blindfold game between Vladimir Kramnik and Leinier Dominguez was a fascinating fight. Obviously Kramnik emphatically played for a win, but Dominguez fought back in his customary razor-sharp style. The game was decided when in a highly complicated position the Cuban grandmaster continued 36…Kh7 where his only chance was 36…Bf8. With the text-move he invited a forced mate and a couple of moves before this mate would become reality, Dominguez resigned.
In the blindfold game Kramnik played the Pirc Defence, the opening with which he surprised (and beat) Smeets in the recent Corus tournament. Again it looked as if this rather offbeat opening would give him easy and pleasant play, particularly after he bagged a point. But White had compensation for his material deficit and although Kramnik remained better for the rest of the game, Dominguez hung in tenaciously and was rewarded with a draw after 88 moves.

Deep concentration: Leinier Dominguez and Vladimir Kramnik

The blindfold game between Ruslan Ponomariov and Alexander Grischuk saw a Catalan Opening, similar to a game Ponomariov had played with colours reversed against Gelfand in the final of the recent World Cup. Instead of 10…Bb7, as Ponomariov had played, Grischuk went 10…Ba6. White obtained the bishop pair, but with a symmetrical pawn-structure it was difficult to exploit that slight advantage. Both players invested a lot of time as there were always tactics to be considered with opposing rooks on the c-file, but when Grischuk offered the opportunity to repeat moves and agree to a draw, Ponomariov saw no good reason to play on.
At the end of the rapid game Ponomariov walked into the hospitality lounge and wondered what people had thought of his rapid game. He himself wasn’t too happy as he had hoped to play something active, but somehow his Grünfeld ended up in a static position in which he had to suffer for a draw. When on move 32 the queens left the board, Grischuk offered that draw and Ponomariov didn’t have to think long before he accepted.

Report & photos © official website, more here

Videos

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Blindfold | Rapid, via TWIC

“The 40-year old Ukrainian has a reputation of being an unpredictable genius, capable of producing absolutely brlliant games, as well as amateur-like losses from time to time,” Magnus Carlsen wrote on his blog yesterday. Today, at the Amber tournament in Nice, he met with a Chuky in excellent shape, and lost 2-0.

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 following twelve grandmasters take part: 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).

Games round 1

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Round 1 report

First day sensation: top-seed Carlsen loses 2-0 to ‘Mr Amber’
Last night the opening ceremony of the 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament took place at the Chateau de Cremat, a stylish wine chateau perched on a hill overlooking Nice at a half and hour’s drive from the Palais de la Mediterranée, the five-star luxury hotel on the Promenade des Anglais where the grandmasters are staying and playing. The evening started with a degustation of various wines of the house and then the guests of the Van Oosterom family and the players sat down for a delicious dinner. In the opening speech there was special attention for the totally unique place that the Amber tournament occupies in chess history. There have been chess benefactors who sponsored one tournament, two or even three. But no one ever came even close to the astounding 19th edition that the Amber tournament reaches this year.

There were also references to Steely Dan’s Hey Nineteen, Joe Jackson’s Nineteen Forever and Chanel 19 (by some strange coincidence Coco Chanel was presented the famous Chanel logo – two C’s elegantly locked together – by the owner of the Chateau de Cremat about a century ago!) and of course the twelve grandmasters were welcomed, with a special mention for Vasily Ivanchuk, ‘Mr Amber’, who participated in all 19 tournaments. Once the drawing of lots had taken place, we could start to think about the pairings for the first round and the overall chances of the participants. Who is the top-favourite for first place? Vladimir Kramnik, who won a record of six Amber tournaments? Levon Aronian, who won the last two editions? Or Magnus Carlsen, the world’s number one, who very appropriately celebrated his 19th birthday a couple of months ago? In any case the opening round didn’t go as they may have hoped. Not at all.

Today at 14.30 the first round started of a blindfold and rapid spectacle that will keep us entertained for the coming fortnight (the 11th and last round is on March 25). As always the players started with two blindfold sessions (in each of which six GMs played) followed by two rapid sessions and immediately there were some intriguing pairings.

When Ruslan Ponomariov saw at the drawing of lots that he had to play Boris Gelfand in the first round, he wondered aloud if he had to play Gelfand for the rest of his life. What he meant to say was that this was his first official competition since the dramatic final Gelfand and he played in the World Cup last December, a lengthy final that was only decided in the blitz games. Ponomariov’s second remark was that he wanted to have his revenge for that lost final. The only problem was that the first game was a blindfold game and his experience in that discipline was almost zero. In fact he had asked to play a training game on the day of his arrival in Nice. To avoid any complications he decided to play fast and to remain fully concentrated, not even considering the option of going to the toilet if needed. The approach worked well, as with the help of Gelfand his opening was a great success and after 15.Ng5 he felt that he was spoiled for choice when looking for a way to exploit his advantage. The game was practically decided when Ponomariov captured Black’s h-pawn. The rest was simple and he converted without any problems. After the game he was greatly relieved that this game for which he had been so nervous had gone so well. ‘Perhaps it turns out that I am not so bad at blindfold chess.’ He also shared his impression of playing chess on a screen that only shows an empty chess board: ‘It’s just like a computer game!’
Ponomariov completed his ‘revenge’ (to avoid any misunderstanding, he was the first to point out that, of course, these two games cannot be compared to the World Cup final) in the rapid game. Spoiling for a fight he came up with an interesting plan in the Grünfeld, sacrificing an exchange for promising play. He indeed got wonderful compensation when Gelfand played 14.f3? where he should have tried 14.Qe3. Suddenly it was a delight to sit behind the black pieces and Ponomariov fully enjoyed the next phase. White still managed to get into an ending with opposite-coloured bishops, but the two extra black pawns quickly carried the day.

Russian champion Alexander Grischuk had his work cut out for him when he immediately had to play Vladimir Kramnik. There could be no misunderstanding about Kramnik’s intentions as he played almost all his moves instantly. ‘He wanted to trick me’, smiled Grischuk after the game. Playing with white he had to leave the initiative to Black, but to his mind Kramnik went too far in his winning attempt. But even if Black ended up in a difficult position, the situation was still far from lost and things only got hopeless when he reverted to the desperate 38…Nxg4, where it seemed that Black could have stayed in the game with 38…Nf3. Now things were easy for Grischuk and the handful of seconds he still had on the clock proved enough to win an important scalp.
Kramnik struck back in the rapid game. After a strongly played opening he obtained a clear advantage and looking back he concluded that Black’s position was difficult after 34.Rd4. But Kramnik praised his opponent for his inventive defence in the next phase and expressed his doubts whether the position was really winning for White (‘That has to be checked with the computer’). However, Grischuk was once again low on time and after 40…Nc3 (he should have played 40…Nb6) Black certainly was lost. The rest wasn’t difficult anymore and Kramnik wrapped up fairly effortlessly.

The encounter between debutants Dominguez and Gashimov took a relatively quiet course, although the grandmaster from Azerbaijan offered to play a sharp Benoni, an invitation that was quietly turned down with Rodriguez. They ended up in a rook endgame that was slightly better for Black, but it was his lavish use of time that did Dominguez in. With more than ten minutes less on the clock he committed a few inaccuracies and when Gashimov stormed down the board with two passed pawns it was clear that the fight was over. After the game Gashimov was congratulated on his blindfold debut and confessed that he had not especially prepared for this unusual type of chess. ‘I played one training game two days ago against Ruslan (Ponomariov), this was my second game.’
The rapid game was a variation of the Italian Game ‘in which many games have been played’, as the database experts call it these days. The key question was if the knight that Gashimov managed to post on e7, was an asset or a weakness. Frantically he calculated variations, considering sacrifices here and there, but there was nothing that worked. In the meantime, Dominguez just stayed put and maintained his position. After some further manoeuvring it was clear that this balance was not going to be upset and a draw was agreed.

Magnus Carlsen openend his blindfold game against Vasily Ivanchuk with 1.a3, aiming for an open battle, unburdened by theory and steering clear of any possible preparation of his opponent. The plan wasn’t a success, even if he managed to win a pawn, but Black got such good compensation that the Norwegian top-seed must have regretted his unorthodox approach. He kept looking for his chances, but Ivanchuk remained fully concentrated and his advantage was such that at some point the white position should collapse. An oversight on move 31 sped up the end of the game and floored another top-favourite.
In the rapid game Carlsen tried to fight back with the Poisoned Pawn of the Najdorf Defence. Afterwards Ivanchuk felt that he again had had sufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn, but was reluctant to give a concrete assessment of the game as it had been so ‘very complicated’. One move he criticized was 25…Kf7, which allowed him to increase the pressure. They ended up in a rook endgame of three pawns versus two, which Black failed to defend, leading to a sensational 2-0 defeat of the top-seed.

‘It’s been a while, clearly’, Peter Svidler commented after he had beaten Jan Smeets in his first Amber blindfold game in three years. Svidler had an edge from the opening, but Smeets should have been able to hold a draw. Things got funny when Svidler, played his 39th move thinking Black’s bishop was on e6 (it was on d7). That it was not, he found out when Black played 39…Ne6+ and picked up the pawn on g5. This was not a problem in itself as now White can go 40.Nd5+ and pick up the b6 pawn, but not knowing where the black bishop was, Svidler now reasoned that it was on c6, which ‘prevented’ this knight jump. Smeets on his part got confused by White’s 44.Bxg6 and panicked with 45…Be6 when 45…Kg5 was still a draw. Well, in fact he would have even won, as (still thinking the black bishop was on c6) Svidler had planned to answer 45…Kg5 with 46.Be4 Kxh6 47.Bc6, thinking he would capture a bishop but in fact giving one away. After this comedy of errors had ended, Smeets was left with a lost position and had to resign soon.
The rapid game ended in a draw. In a classical Ruy Lopez Black got good play and when he started piling up on White’s a pawn, Smeets decided that instead of defending a pawn that will drop off anyway at some point, he better hand it over immediately for some activity. This turned out to be an excellent exchange and at a certain point his compensation even seemed to turn into more. But his advantage got never concrete and both players could live with the draw that materialized.

Sergey Karjakin obtained a winning position in the blindfold game when in a sharp opening tussle Levon Aronian committed a serious error. Instead of 19…Bg5?, the Armenian grandmaster should have played 19…Bh4 or 19…Rb4. Things looked bleak for Aronian, but then he didn’t win himself a reputation for ‘slow-motion’ swindling for nothing last year. And this time, too, he almost escaped when Karjakin allowed a repetition of moves. But Aronian was going for the whole hog and thinking he was winning he didn’t repeat moves, but played 36…Nxc3, which turned out to be a losing move.
In the rapid game Levon Aronian showed a different face and put his opponent under pressure right from the opening. Perhaps this permanent pressure also explained the mistake Karjakin made at the end of the game. Instead of hanging on in a dubious ending he blundered and even got mated.

Report & photos © official website, more here

Videos

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Blindfold | Rapid, via TWIC

Tomorrow the first round of the 2010 Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament will be played, and we have a second preview video to get you warmed up. The world’s number one, Magnus Carlsen, is there. Vladimir Kramnik, who won many times, is there. Levon Aronian, who won the last two editions, is there. Who do you think will win?

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.

Preview video by Macauley Peterson

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. These three players are clearly the big favourites, but what about Alexander Grischuk, who replaced Alexander Morozevich less than a week ago? Or the ever unpredictable Vasily Ivanchuk? Or Ruslan Ponomariov, who is back among the world’s elite?

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.

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!

Link

• Official website

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

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

  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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