MEGAUPDATE a fine articolo: foto in esclusiva per Scacchierando!
6T: Pono 4, Le 3,5, Mamedyarov e Kramnik 3, Naiditsch 2,5, Leko 2
15-25 luglio: Kramnik, Leko, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Le Quang Liem, Naiditsch: inizia lo Sparkassen Chess-Meeting di Dortmund. L'evento è davvero tra i più importanti della stagione, paragonabile al Corus e a Linares. I sei giocatori disputeranno un doppio girone all'italiana, di conseguenza si tratterà di un torneo a 10 turni, questa è una recente innovazione nel formato, visto che sino a pochi anni fa 8 giocatori si affrontavano unicamente ?all'andata?, totalizzando così 7 turni in effetti forse non abbastanza per dare una chiara indicazione della forma dei partecipanti.
Novità invece assoluta qui a Dortmund sarà l'applicazione della Regola di Sofia: i giocatori non potranno quindi offrire la patta ai propri avversari. A detta degli organizzatori questo ?garantirà che ogni partita sarà combattuta sino alla fine?. L'esperienza sembra dimostrare che non è proprio così, ma si apprezza lo sforzo fatto per diminuire le patte, che a detta di molti l'anno scorso sono state decisamente troppe.?
Gli Organizzatori: Gerd Kolbe (Direttore), Uwe Samulewicz (Direttore della Sparkasse di Dortmund), Birgit J?rder (Sindaco), Stefan Koth (Direttore del Torneo)
Come ovvio in un supertorneo, i ?superpartecipanti? hanno davvero poco bisogno di presentazioni:
l'ex Campione del Mondo Vladimir Kramnik (Elo 2790, numero 4 al mondo)?è chiamato a difendere il primato nel ?suo? torneo: ha infatti vinto qui a Dortmund qualcosa come 9 volte, testa di serie numero 1 quest'anno, facile voglia puntare alla doppia cifra.
Peter Leko (2734, 16)?è anche lui in qualche modo ?a casa?: secondo gli organizzatori è difficile immaginare un Dortmund senza di lui: lo ha vinto 3 volte (importante in particolare nel 2002, quando il torneo ebbe valenza di Candidati, portando Leko, vincitore su Topalov, a sfidare per il Titolo proprio Kramnik) ed è inoltre molto legato alla Germania: parla il tedesco e ha conosciuto la moglie proprio qui a nord delle Alpi.
Arkadij Naiditsch (2684, 51)?è invece davvero il giocatore di casa: benché nato a Riga, in Lettonia, rappresenta da anni il Top degli scacchi tedeschi e dal 2003 viene costantemente chiamato a difendere il nero-rosso-oro della bandiera tedesca qui a Dortmund. Non è una supercorazzata come molti degli altri partecipanti e di conseguenza ha dovuto registrare risultati non eclatanti, ma nel 2005 è riuscito a uscire vincitore in un campo che vedeva ?noti spingilegno? come Kramnik, Topalov, Svidler, Adams e Van Wely.
Benché molti non riescano a pronunciare nella stessa frase le parole ?Campione del Mondo? e ?Ruslan Ponomariov? (2734, 14)?è innegabile che non è esattamente da tutti imporsi a 18 anni come Campione del Mondo FIDE, menchemeno trovandosi di fronte in finale tale Vassily Ivanchuk. Da allora (2002) non ha fatto sfracelli ma si è dimostrato giocatore, benché con alti e bassi, capace di competere bene con gli over 2700. Arriva da un'ottima World Cup, è al varco per vedere se lo stato di forma può continuare.
?
Invitare Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2761, 6), già presente nel 2008, non sembra essere stata una pessima idea da parte degli organizzatori: ?The Shark? è noto per il suo gioco aggressivo e tattico, capace di trovare sempre nuove idee quando si tratta di mettere pressione all'avversario. Tra l'altro arriva da una vittoria alla President Cup di Baku (assieme a Kramnik e Kamsky): se è al top della forma, aspettiamoci buone cose.
I cinque giocatori fin qui nominati sono stati invitati dall'organizzazione e hanno gentilmente accettato: per essere qui?Le Quang Liem (2681, 55)?ha invece?dovuto vincere un ?torneuccio? quale l'Aeroflot di Mosca (probabilmente l'Open più forte del Mondo). Nel 2005 è diventato Campione del Mondo under 14, ha iniziato a ?farsi le ossa internazionali? rappresentando il Vietnam in 2 Olimpiadi (2006 e 2008) e ora è pronto per confrontarsi con l'élite. Come molti asiatici in rapida crescita, è quasi impossibile stabilire la sua reale forza di gioco: vedremo cosa saprà fare a Dortmund. A dargli il benvenuto sarà il Campione in carica Kramnik: la sorte gli ha assegnato il primo turno.
A proposito: ecco la tabella degli incontri:
Giorno di riposo dunque il 20 luglio. E chi passasse da quelle parti proprio il 20 luglio avrà la possibilità di incontrare i Campioni presenti, di ottenere il loro autografo e di partecipare all'estrazione di diversi premi, sono piccole chicche che si fanno apprezzare.
Il tempo di gioco previsto è di 100 minuti per le prime 40 mosse, poi 50 per le successive 20 e infine 15minuti per finire, il tutto con 30 secondi di abbuono a partire dalla prima mossa. A quanto affermato dagli organizzatori, l'esperienza indica che in 4 ore saranno finite circa la metà delle partite, mentre dopo 6 ore l'80/90 % delle sfide dovrebbero essere finite. Chi non avrà modo di essere online alle 15, orario di inizio delle partite (l'ultimo turno è invece previsto per le 13), ha quindi un'idea di quando poter tornare a casa per i risultati
La media Elo dei partecipanti è di 2734, 10 punti in meno dell'anno scorso per pura cronaca, rendendolo un torneo di Categoria XX?
La sede di gioco sarà, come da qualche anno a questa parte,?il? Teatro Cittadino
All'epoca dell'edizione 2007 (Fonte: Chessbase)
Come in ogni megatorneo che si rispetti sono stati organizzati diversi eventi di contorno: segnaliamo il Torneo dedicato all'ex Cancelliere tedesco Helmut Kohl, un round robin a 10 giocatori, evento ?minore? di tutto rispetto: 3 GM, Eckhard Schmittdiel (GER, Elo: 2485), Romuald Mainka (GER, 2484) e?Mihail Saltaev (UZB, 2495), 1 WGM, Carmen Voicu (RUM, 2346), 1 IM, Markus Sch?fer (GER, 2382) e 2 FM, Laurence Webb (ENG, 2313) e Patrick Zelbel (GER, 2345).?
Dal 17 al 25 si disputeranno anche due Open, il primo riservato a chi ha un punteggio Elo superiore a 1700 e il secondo per chi lo ha inferiore ai 1900.
Il Torneo ad oggi:
E' dal 1973 che la Sparkassen (Cassa di Risparmio) di Dortmund sponsorizza il torneo. L'evento si è rapidamente imposto tra i principali del panorama scacchistico, aggiungendo edizione dopo edizione nomi illustri sul libro dei vincitori: Ciocaltea, Andersson, Keene, Hort, Gruenfeld, Ribli, Geller...All'inizio degli anni '90, per non farsi mancare nulla, il libro suddetto ha anche incamerato i nomi di Kasparov (1992) e Karpov (1993). Ma da allora il torneo è diventato ?proprietà? di Kramnik, che lo ha vinto 4 volte di fila dal 1995 al 1998, lo ha ?lasciato? a Leko nel 1999 per poi riprenderselo nel 2000 e nel 2001. L'allora Campione del Mondo ha visto poi trionfare nuovamente Leko (2002), Bologan (2003), Anand (giusto per non avere buchi nel curriculum immagino ) (2004), il giocatore di casa Naiditsch (2005), per poi imporsi nuovamente nel 2006 e nel 2007. Leko non ha perso il vizio di interrompere le serie locali di Kramnik e nel 2008 ha nuovamente vinto. Kramnik, dal canto suo, non ha perso quello di vincere a Dortmund e nel 2009 è tornato in vetta, distanziando di un punto gli inseguitori Carlsen, Jakovenko e lo stesso Leko.
Scacchierando in diretta da Dortmund!
All'arrivo, la sede di gioco si mostra imponente
Pronti ad entrare...
...un'occhiata a come procede il Torneo...
...e finalmente siamo in Sala da gioco!
La "concorrenza" è numerosa, ma il nostro inviato si avvicina ai giocatori
Naiditsch - Ponomariov
Naiditsch - Ponomariov bis
Mamedyarov - Le
Kramnik - Leko: 1/2 1/2 fisso
Un bis anche per chi ha disputato un Match mondiale
Peter Leko all'apparente ricerca di qualcosa per riempire il bicchiere
"Aiutato" dalla programmazione del Teatro, il nostro inviato infine ci saluta
Scacchierando ringrazia Andreas Kuhn per il gentile e ottimo lavoro
Scacchierando danke an Andreas Kuhn fur die freundliche und gute Arbeit
On August 12, a week earlier than in previous years, the new edition of the NH Chess Tournament starts in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You can watch Boris Gelfand, Peter Svidler, Peter Heine Nielsen, Loek van Wely and Ljubomir Ljubojevic (the Experience team) against Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri and David Howell (the Rising Stars) with free admission and expert commentary at the Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam.
The NH Chess Tournament will take place August 12-22 in hotel Krasnapolsky, in the heart of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. As always, the tournament is a confrontation between a team of five young ‘Rising Stars’ and a team of five ‘Experienced’ grandmasters who can look back on impressive and glorious careers.
The two teams play a ‘Scheveningen’ tournament, which means that each player of one team plays against each of the players of the other team. They do so twice, once with the white pieces and once with the black pieces.
The team that collects most points wins the tournament. The best player of the ‘Rising Stars’ team will be invited to the 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in March 2010 in Nice, provided he or she scores over 50% in the NH Chess Tournament in Amsterdam.
The playing schedule:
Round 1
August 12
13.30 hrs
Round 2
August 13
13.30 hrs
Round 3
August 14
13.30 hrs
Round 4
August 15
13.30 hrs
Round 5
August 16
13.30 hrs
August 17
Free Day
Round 6
August 18
13.30 hrs
Round 7
August 19
13.30 hrs
Round 8
August 20
13.30 hrs
Round 9
August 21
13.30 hrs
Round 10
August 22
12.00 hrs
Every day the games will be commented on by experts in a nice and spacious commentary room to which the admission is free. These sessions start one hour after the start of the round, i.e. at 14.30 hrs, with the exception of the last round when the commentary will start at 13.00 hrs. IMs Hans Böhm, Jop Delemarre, Cor van Wijgerden, Gert Ligterink and GM Genna Sosonko will be doing the commentary (schedule here). At the end of the round, or towards the end, depending on the duration of the games, there will also be a press conference with one of the players in the commentary room.
Just like the last two years, and just like at the Amber tournament in Nice, both Macauley Peterson and yours truly will be providing daily video coverage and live interviews during this tournament. To get everyone warmed up, here’s the playlist of the videos from 2009 and 2008:
The gap between Magnus Carlsen (2826) and Veselin Topalov (2803) has increased to 23 points on the July 1 FIDE rating list. The Norwegian won 13 points whereas the Bulgarian dropped 9. Third is World Champion Viswanathan Anand, now with 2800 points exactly. Wang Yue dropped from 8th to 28th.
FIDE has published its July 1st rating list and since all the big events were entered in time, there’s no difference between the official top 10 and the “live” top 10 of Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website). In fact there aren’t very big changes in the top 10 compared to the previous list either.
Carlsen’s fine victory in Romania last week got him another 13 rating points and because Topalov lost 9 points in his match with Anand, the gap between the world’s number one and two is now 23 points. Those 9 points went to Anand, who thereby surpassed Kramnik to regain the 3rd spot, at a nice 2800 precisely.
At the Kings’ Tournament Gelfand lost twice to Radjabov; the two switched places on the rankings between spots 10 and 13. Malakhov and Navara are in the top 20 on this list – the latter thanks to a stunning 8.5/9 at the Czech Championship.
Vugar Gashimov, who was still 7th in the world on the January 2010 list, dropped further to a 26th spot. The biggest skydive was performed by Wang Yue, who lost 36 points and went down from 8th to 28th. Winning 16 points, Wang Hao surpassed him to become China’s number one at 2724.
After entering the top 100 on the May list, Anish Giri won 30 more points to climb to a 62nd place at 2672, but the highest rated Dutch player is Loek van Wely with five points more. Ivan Cheparinov is back in the top 100 with 2661.
The women’s list is still very stable, with very few changes in the top 10. Judit Polgar again didn’t play, but Humpy Koneru did. The Indian lost 22 points at the 3rd FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik and so the gap increased from 60 to 82 points. Below you’ll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the first two lists including the changes with the previous lists.
FIDE JULY 2010 RATING LIST: TOP 100 PLAYERS
Legend:
black color – player remained on the same position
green color – player moved up in the list
red color – player moved down in the list
blue color – player is new to the current Top list Old represents player’s position in the previous period list
Chalons en Champagne, led by Loek van Wely and Anish Giri, Sunday won the French league. The team finished just ahead of Evry Grand Roque, who played with Eljanov, Gashimov, Svidler and Vachier-Lagrave.
The last four playing days (rounds 8-11) of the French League Top 16 were held in the stadium of the French soccer club En Anan in Guingamp, a commune in the Côtes-d’Armor department in Brittany in north-western France. The time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the games with 30 seconds per move from move one.
The last round saw the clash between the two leading teams, Chalons en Champagne and favourite Evry Grand Roque, which had four players rated above 2700. Peter Svidler did his job and defeated Anish Giri with Black in a sharp Grünfeld. Giri had scored 2/3 in rounds 8-10 against Bauer, Bacrot and Housiaux. The game showed remarkable resemblance with the recent computer game Stockfish-Rybka, which we included for comparison. (All details will be explained in this week’s ChessVibes Openings by guest commentator GM Sipke Ernst!)
Loek van Wely, the other Dutchman in the Chalons en Champagne team (mainly for ‘playing Giri’s chauffeur’, as he joked last week) did well by beating Vugar Gashimov with the black pieces. Marie Sebag then managed to hold Pavel Eljanov to a draw, and Sebastien Cossin did the same against Arnaud Hauchard. This way Chalons ended first on tiebreak and became French Team Champions for the first time.
French Team Championship Top 16 2010 | Final Standings
Châlons-en-Champagne remporte le titre de champion de France 2010 d'échecs par équipe en annulant 1-1 face à Evry !
Give Me One Reason - Tracy Chapman
Le duel Châlons-Evry nous aura tenus en haleine jusqu'à la ronde 11 : Peter Svidler (2735) battant Anish Giri (2642) pour Evry, puis Van Wely égalisant pour Châlons en prenant le meilleur sur l'Azéri Vugar Gashimov (2734).
Châlons-en-Champagne, la formation de notre ami Diego Salazar, remporte le titre de champion 2010 au meilleur départage (+41 contre +32 pour Evry). Toutes nos félicitations aux nouveaux champions!
Rappelons simplement qu'au terme de la phase préliminaire du Top 16, aucun club n'avait pu résister à Evry et Châlons , créditées du total des 21 points des 7 premières rondes. Le mano à mano entre ces 2 équipes de choc s'est prolongé tout au long de la phase finale du Top 16 qui se déroulait du 3 au 6 juin 2010 à Guingamp en Bretagne.
Dans la poule Basse, Cannes avait assuré samedi son maintien en battant Drancy 3-0. Dimanche, c'est l'équipe de Strasbourg qui gagne son billet pour le Top 16 2011, en s'imposant 3-0 sur Drancy.
Eljanov wins final FIDE GP, Radjabov qualifies for Candidates
Pavel Eljanov today won the sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Astrakhan, Russia. The Ukrainian finished with a score of 8/13, a full point ahead of a group of five GMs. One of them was Teimour Radjabov, who finished second in the final GP standings and qualified for the FIDE Candidates matches.
The 6th FIDE Grand Prix took place May 10-24 in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) played. More details can be found in our first report.
Round 10
Would Pavel Eljanov be able to finish the tournament as strongly as he had played so far? How would he fare after the second and last rest day? Well, on Friday the Ukrainian had a crystal clear answer to this question. He defeated Hungarian top GM Peter Leko in 43 moves, perhaps not in the most convincing way, but the result is what counts.
Leko was more than fine after the opening (Eljanov didn’t like his 10.Ng3) and even rejected a draw offer on the 20th move. However, in the subsequent game the Hungarian made a few mistakes, and White obtained an advantage in the ending due to a strong passed pawn on the queenside. From that point Eljanov played very energetically. He did not allow Black to bring his king into the center, which would save the game for Leko. On the 43rd move White’s passed pawn became unstoppable, and Leko resigned.
Gashimov stayed half a point behind the leader after beating Inarkiev in a strong Ruy Lopez game. “I found an interesting plan with 15.Bd3 and 16.Re2,” he said afterwards. “My pawn sacrifice led to a curious position: White is a pawn down, Black pieces seem to be active, but actually White can play for a win at no risk. Soon I regained the material, keeping all the advantages of my position, then won an exchange and converted the advantage without much trouble.” Inarkiev: “I admit that Vugar played very energetically and deserved his win.”
Radjabov slowly but surely outplayed Akopian with Black in a Sveshnikov. “Maybe trading the queens was wrong,” said Akopian, “and I should have preferred 24.Qh6. I also don’t like my next moves – 26.Ndf4 and 28.f4. White’s position became very cramped, and Teimour showed good technique, not giving me any chances to survive.” 26.Ndf4 was a “serious inaccuracy” according to Radjabov.
Round 11
This round saw another Azeri derby: Radjabov versus Mamedyarov. It was an important game, since Radjabov’s win regained his chances to qualify for the Candidates matches. In the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez White got a small advantage and then developed a strong initiative following Black’s unsuccessful queen maneuver on the 19th move. The game transposed to a queen ending with a remote passed pawn for White. Black was short on time and committed the decisive error on the 38th move. Mamedyarov resigned immediately due to inevitable loss of the kingside pawns.
Radjabov: “I think after 20.Qf4 White may already be winning. Not sure if 28.d6 was necessary, but I thought I needed to force the issues. In any case, after this move it becomes extremely difficult for Black to hold.” Mamedyarov didn’t agree with Radjabov’s assessment of the opening: “In my opinion, White didn’t get any advantage. He started to take the upper hand only when I made a mistake by 19…Qd4 – this move is overambitious.”
Also relevant for the Candidates spot was Gashimov’s loss against Ponomariov. He couldn’t adopt his Benoni as the Ukrainian went for other schemes. Ponomariov about Gashimov only playing the Benoni: “The disadvantage is that he knows other lines superficially. Thus I decided to transpose to the Nimzo-Indian Defense. In my opinion, I got a very comfortable position. Perhaps in the middlegame I could play better. For example, on the 17th move I could take on g3 with the queen, making Black’s defensive task tougher. Yet, defending was unpleasant enough for such an active player as Vugar. He started to make reckless moves such as 26…h5, which helped me to win the game.”
Round 12
Five-time Russian champion Peter Svidler finally won his first game in Astrakhan. He successfully avoided Gelfand’s Petroff and used the Four Knights to beat the Israeli in 31 moves. Gelfand’s sharp f-pawn push on the 21st move proved to be a big mistake. Svidler delivered a nice tactical blow, and Black’s position collapsed.
Akopian defeated Ivanchuk in just 23 moves. The Ukrainian handled the Ragozin Variation of the Queen’s Gambit too passively. Akopian comfortably arranged his pieces and launched a kingside attack. On the 21st move the Armenian sacrificed an exchange, which turned out to be a very unpleasant surprise for Black. In two more moves Ivanchuk abandoned his resistance.
Akopian, after the game: “I’m surprised that the victory came so easily – I have a bad score against Vassily. The plan that I employed in this game is not new: White ignores the d4-pawn and concentrates on a kingside attack. Vassily played without confidence; his 14…g6 only provokes my attack. And on the next move he should have played 15…h5. After he missed this opportunity, my only problem was to choose correctly from several good continuations. The final position is so ugly for Black that Vassily just resigned. Well, this probably just wasn’t his day…”
Mamedyarov improved upon his first round game against Jakovenko, to which Leko couldn’t find a good answer. Perhaps White didn’t find all the best moves, but nevertheless Mamadyarov managed to transpose to an ending with a big advantage, which he effectively converted to the full point.
Leko: “This was a strange game. Losing to Eljanov killed my chances to qualify for the candidates matches, which obviously affected my motivation today. Of course, this is not a good excuse for my poor play against Shakhriyar…”
Alekseev-Inarkiev was the longest game of the 12th round. After interesting complications in the Slav Defense the players arrived at a very original position, in which White had three minor pieces against a rook and three pawns. White slowly but surely consolidated his pieces and launched the attack on the king. He then won a pawn and advanced to a winning ending. Despite Black’s stubborn resistance, Alekseev won the game on the 88th move.
Round 13
Eljanov needed a draw to secure sole first, and he did so with the black pieces against Gelfand. The two have worked together in the past years, but with White Gelfand did press for while. In a Nimzo he sacrificed a pawn to open up the position, but Eljanov gave back the material and after the exchange of the minor pieces the position remained balanced.
After winning the Bosna tournament in 2009, Eljanov now has a new ‘best tournament of his career’. Winning this Grand Prix, one of the strongest tournaments on average rating and of this scale ever held, is a fantastic result for the 27-year-old, who proved that his new status of Ukraine’s number one player wasn’t a coincidence.
Astrakhan Grand Prix 2010 | Round 13 (Final) Standings
Astrakhan Grand Prix 2010 | Schedule & results
After the 12th round, Ivanchuk, Leko, Mamedyarov and Alekseev were eliminated from qualifying for the runner-up position. Grischuk was also eliminated, because Radjabov scored well enough to ensure that even if he’d lose his final round, he’d gain enough GP points to surpass Grischuk.
In the final round of Astrakhan, Jakovenko was eliminated with his draw and Gashimov has been eliminated with his loss. The winner of the Radjabov-Wang Yue game decided matters: a win for the Chinese would have meant qualification, but Radjabov with White held a Petroff ending a pawn down to a draw and this was enough to end second in the overall Grand Prix. Thanks to ebutaljib for providing this table:
FIDE Grand Prix Series 2008-2009 | Overall Final Standings
And so an end has come to a long series of six super tournaments which had its ups and downs. Positive were the tournament websites, with extensive reports (disclaimer: which were written by yours truly in Baku and Sochi), sometimes videos (by the Turkish Chess Federation in Baku, Europe-Echecs in Sochi and – another disclaimer – by me in Nalchik) and sometimes game analysis by GM Sergey Shipov.
More importantly, a big number of players had the opportunity to play in big, strong events and make good money.
But of course many more things went wrong. Three host cities (Doha, Karlovy Vary and Montreux) withdrew when it became clear that the money wasn’t there. Their nominated players had to leave the series and Yannick Pelletier was hit the most, as he couldn’t play a single event. The Czech organizers were very disappointed when Adams and Carlsen had good reason to leave the series: because of the sudden change of the World Championship cycle, during the cycle.
When it all started, the idea was that the winner of the GP would play against the World Champ. (We would have had a Aronian-Anand match in 2012.) winner of the World Cup. (We would have a Gelfand-Aronian match and the winner would play Anand.) But during the Olympiad in Dresden, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov suddenly announced the Candidates ‘tournament’ (which would later be rephrased to ‘matches’), for which the numbers one and two of the GP Series would qualify.
Another point of criticism FIDE received by many (e.g. more than once by Kasparov) was about the locations of the events. The whole series never managed to leave the greater Caucasus region, and so no single event was organized in a bigger, Western city, which didn’t really help to attract corporate sponsorship either.
In general the idea wasn’t so bad. But the execution could have been much better.
Update: according to Harish in the comments, the pairings for the Candidates matches are:
1. Topalovs vs Kamsky ( 1 vs 8 )
2. Carlsen vs Radjabov ( 2 vs 7 )
3. Kramnik vs Nominee ( 3 vs 6 )
4. Aronian vs Gelfand ( 4 vs 5 )
After nine rounds Pavel Eljanov is back in the lead in Astrakhan. The Ukrainian GM drew just three games, and he’s the only one who collected 5.5 points so far.
The 6th FIDE Grand Prix takes place May 10-24 in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) play. More details can be found in our first report.
Round 6
Tournament leader Pavel Eljanov lost his first game, with White against Evgeny Alekseev. In a Queen’s Indian the Russian seemed better prepared and not only did he keep improving his position, but also his advantage on the clock. Around move 27 Eljanov had 9 minutes left for 13 moves against Alekseev’s 26 minutes. White soon lost a pawn and eventually the game.
This allowed Ernesto Inarkiev to grab sole lead, by beating Boris Gelfand with the black pieces. After 19 moves of Semi-Slav theory Black equalized comfortably and then got the upper hand. After 26…b4 White had to give up two pieces for the rook and then Inarkiev never let go.
Jakovenko and Ponomariov played a sharp game in a line of the Exchange Grünfeld that has been topical since Giri-Sutovsky, Corus 2010. In a difficult position Ponomariov blundered with 21…Qc6? missing 22.Bxb5! immediately winning an important pawn. Although he then put up a lot of resistance, the Ukrainian couldn’t prevent a loss.
This round saw yet another decisive game: Akopian-Wang Yue 0-1. In the main line of the Petroff, the Chinese GM showed once again that it’s well possible to play for a win with Black too.
Rounds 7
Inarkiev’s lead was short-lived, as he lost the next game to Eljanov. They went for the topical 6…Qb6 line of the Advance Caro-Kann, where 11.Kd2 was new. Inarkiev’s 13.g4!? was quite inventive but Eljanov’s solid answer left White with a worse position. He had to give a pawn and for an Eljanov in good form this is enough to win.
Alekseev continued with another win to move into joint second place. The Russian defeated Akopian in a (very) Closed Ruy Lopez: the 12.d5 line of the Chigorin Defence. With 23.bxc4! he opened the queenside when Black decided to go all or nothing on the kingside, but it was nothing.
Rounds 8
This round saw the all Ukrainian derby Eljanov-Ponomariov. In a Catalan/Bogo Indian hybrid, White was the first to seize the initiative, and gained the control over the c-file in a queenless middlegame. However, Black’s nice prophylactic ideas Kf8-e8 and Rb8 before breaking open the queenside proved strong. The initiative went over to Black, and he clinched the full point after another mistake on move 43 by Eljanov in the rook ending.
After two wins, Alekseev was defeated in this eight round, by Mamedyarov. In the same opening as in Eljanov-Ponomariov, Mamedyarov tried an interesting new set-up that involved leaving his queen’s knight on b1 until move 25! It looks like 18…Ng4 was wrong.
The game of the round, and in fact of the tournament thus far, was Akopian-Inarkiev. Watch what happened:
Position after 14.b3
It looked like White was crushed like a patzer when Inarkiev played the obvious 14…Nxd5, but then it became clear what Akopian had in mind: 15.Nxf7!. Inarkiev responded well and gave up his queen to get a dynamically equal position. At some point Akopian avoided a move repetition and he was rewarded with the full point after 104 moves, when he won a Q vs R ending.
Rounds 9
Eljanov did it again. His last five (!) games ended in ‘0-1′, and being Black himself, he regained the sole lead on top of the leaderboard. And he did it in nice, Capablanca style, slowly outplaying Radjabov with the black pieces in a Ragozin ending.
The only other decisive game was the second win in a row for Mamedyarov, also with the black pieces. The Azeri defeated Inarkiev, who went for the rare 3.c4 in the Sicilian and continued somewhat passively. Mamedyarov showed his usual aggressive style and occupied the center with many pawns, which at some point cost White a piece.
Today is the second and last rest day of the tournament. With four rounds to go, Wang Yue and Radjabov will have to do better to reach the second and last spot in the Candidates. Gashimov and Jakovenko seem to have better chances right now, but the calculations remain complicated. We’ll repeat here what we mentioned before, and what Thomas pointed out. It makes most sense to look at two best results of the players who still have a chance to finish second:
The idea is that the third (worst) result doesn’t matter if they do better in Astrakhan. It follows that the maximum number of points any player can get is [number above] + 180 for clear first. The players’ chances are as follows:
- Radjabov can obviously defend his qualifying spot.
- Wang Yue is through if he finishes clear first (Radjabov can tie if he’s clear second, but has the inferior fourth result which is the tiebreaker).
- If Gashimov finishes clear first, Radjabov can stay ahead of him (but then Gashimov should get the wildcard, or would it go to Mamedyarov who is currently higher-rated?)
- If Ivanchuk is clear first, Radjabov needs to be at least clear third to stay ahead of Chucky. Noone else could catch him. This is because Ivanchuk’s score is “most improvable” – he had one really bad result in Nalchik (12th-14th) which will be deleted.
Ville riche de 150 nationalités, Astrakhan, surnommée "l'étoile du Sud" par Alexandre Dumas, accueille du 10 au 25 mai la finale du Grand Prix Fide, un tournoi d'échecs majeur en 13 rondes.
Les dossiers de l'écran
L'issue du tournoi n'étant pas acquise, la pression devrait s'élever d'un cran sur les échiquiers. Radjabov est au pied du mur et ne doit plus laisser échapper le plus petit point. Gashimov est devenu favori pour la qualification s'il continue son parcours solide. Son match du jour sera sous haute tension. Jakovenko en face de son compatriote Svidler va affronter une de ses bêtes noires et devoir sortir le grand jeu pour ne pas, lui aussi, abandonner ses derniers espoirs de qualif' pour le tournoi des candidats au championnat du monde.
On refait le match de la ronde 9 : Dans sa partie, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov avec les Noirs choisit d'opposer la variante Française de la Sicilienne à 1.e4. de son adversaire. Le Russe Inarkiev opte pour la Variation Kramnik mais ne réussit pas à développer son fianchetto Roi, immédiatement mis en charpie et réfuté par l'agressivité du Shak. L'étouffement de la position blanche est un modèle.
Ukraine’s new number one Pavel Eljanov started strongly in Astrakhan. After five rounds he’s leading the sixth FIDE Grand Prix tournament with 3.5 points. His compatriot Vassily Ivanchuk started with 1/4, but yesterday he defeated another Ukrainian, Ruslan Ponomariov, with the black pieces.
The sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix takes place May 10-24 in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) play. More details can be found in our first report.
Rounds 4-5
In round 4, played on Thursday, Vassily Ivanchuk already suffered his second loss. The Ukrainian obtained a big advantage in a Caro-Kann and the game quickly proceeded to an endgame. Ivanchuk needed to make a few accurate moves to secure a win, but instead he lost the thread. He conceded the initiative to the opponent, and soon initiated an unsuccessful rook maneuver, allowing Black to promote his passed pawn.
At the press conference “Chucky” said: “I got a big advantage, and all I needed to do was to find the best way of converting it. Maybe 34.Kd4 instead of 34.Kf4 was the right move. I’d probably win the game if I played 34.Kd4. And then I made an elementary blunder…” Inarkiev: “I consciously went for an inferior ending, expecting to neutralize White’s advantage. However, I made a mistake somewhere, and my position became lost. Of course I was very lucky in the end.”
All other games ended in a draw. (With five more undecisive games in round 5, the drawing percentage is now as a high as 78%). Good games were Akopian-Mamedyarov and Eljanov-Gashimov, where both Azeri GMs had winning chances.
On Friday Pavel Eljanov took the lead by defeating Wang Yue in round 5 with Black. Quite an achievement, we’d say, since the last classical game the ultra-solid Chinese number one lost with White was art Corus 2009!
It must be said that Eljanov was forced to defend a difficult position for most of the game. In his own words: “I played terribly in the first half of the game, partly because I underestimated my opponent. My position was worse, and I wasted a lot of time… Wang Yue played well and obtained a solid advantage.”
The Chinese obtained a big space advantage following a temporary pawn sacrifice in a well-known variation of the Slav Defense. Eljanov: “I even wanted to resign at some point, but then found the only chance and sacrificed an exchange. I was almost exhausted at that moment and had nothing to lose…” Prior to the first time control Eljanov managed to complicate the game with an exchange sacrifice, and Wang Yue got nervous. First he missed the winning continuation, and then, after the control was already passed, blundered a rook instead of transposing into a better ending.
Vassily Ivanchuk won his first game in Astrakhan, defeating his arch-rival Ruslan Ponomariov. Ponomariov, having White, got a slight advantage after of the opening, but made an unsuccessful pawn sacrifice on the 22nd move and gave away the initiative. White’s problems got worse after he missed Black’s strong bishop manoeuvre. After the first control Black already had a winning position.
Ponomariov’s take on the game at the press conference: “Both players showed a lot of creativity from the start, especially after Vassily Mikhailovich played 9…Qe7. I thought I played logically, developed my pieces… Ivanchuk was taking his decisions very fast, and maybe I didn’t get enough time to fully comprehend the position. After 28…Be3 I gave away the initiative completely. Black started to attack… Maybe I had to play something more principled, but it’s hard to say without serious analysis. I thought I played well, but Black’s energetic play left me perplexed.”
Ivanchuk said: “As far as I know, 9…Qe7 occurred in the Anand-Karpov match. I misplayed something in the opening, as I didn’t like my position early on. The a6- and b6-pawns could easily become weak. 22.h4 gave me some hope. Instead of 31.Nd5 White had 31.Bc2 intending 32.Bd1 with an unclear position.”
Saturday was the first rest day of the tournament. Today the sixth round is played.
After three rounds a group of five players leads the FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan with 2/3: Gashimov, Leko, Ponomariov, Gelfand and Eljanov. In today’s third round all games ended in a draw.
The sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix takes place May 10-24 in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) play. More details can be found in our first report.
Rounds 2-3
Now that the World Championship match in Sofia has ended, many people wonder what the next cycle looks like. Well, the next big thing is the FIDE Candidates matches, which will provide a new opponent for Anand in 2012. Currently it is scheduled for April 2011, for which the following players have qualified:
Topalov, as the loser of the last match;
Kamsky, as the loser of the challenger’s match;
Aronian, as the winner of the Grand Prix Series;
Gelfand, as the winner of the World Cup;
Carlsen and Kramnik on rating.
Two more players will be added to this list: the number two of the FIDE Grand Prix Series, and a wild card from Azerbaijan, because the Candidates will be held in Baku. Which will complicate matters, since Aronian cannot play there.
So an important part of the new cycle is the FIDE Grand Prix Series, and as you know these days the sixth and last is taking place in Astrakhan, Russia, where after three rounds the drawing percentage is already as high as 77%. The third round, played today, saw draws only.
But first round 2, which was more eventful. Against Leko, Alekseev lost on time for the first time in his life, as he said himself at the press conference. Svidler blundered at an early stage against Ponomariov. In a Berlin Defence, the Russian grandmaster lost an important pawn due to a nasty trick, and resigned immediately.
After achieving not much in the opening, Eljanov managed to win a pawn against Akopian around the first time control, and then finished it off with exemplary technique.
Of the seven draws of today, some were quite interesting. Especially Gashimov-Gelfand and Inarkiev-Leko are games recommended for replay.
In the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan, Vugar Gashimov beat Vassily Ivanchuk in the only decisive game.
The sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix tournament started today in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) play.
Astrakhan is a major city in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast, a federal subject of Russia. The city lies on the left bank of the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea at an altitude of 23 metres below sea level. It has a population of a bit over 500,000 people.
This FIDE Grand Prix is the final of six events that form the 2008-2010 Series. It all started in April-May 2008 in Baku, followed by Sochi in August of the same year. After Doha withdrew, the third GP took place in December in Elista. Montreux also withdrew, and so the fourth was held in Nalchik. The fifth was in Jermuk in August last year.
All players were to play four of the six events, and for the overall standings their best three tournaments would count. Since Levon Aronian already secured overall victory after three evens, he was allowed to withdraw from this last event. The current GP standings are (thanks to ebutaljib
OK, Aronian won, but it doesn’t mean that this tournament is only for the prize money. Finishing second in the overall Grand Prix gets you a spot in the Candidates Tournament for the next World Championship cycle, so there’s still something to fight for in Astrakhan for a small number of players.
As Thomas pointed out, for this it makes more sense to look at two best results of the players who still have a chance to finish second:
The idea is that the third (worst) result doesn’t matter if they do better in Astrakhan. It follows that the maximum number of points any player can get is [number above] + 180 for clear first. The players’ chances are as follows:
- Radjabov can obviously defend his qualifying spot.
- Wang Yue is through if he finishes clear first (Radjabov can tie if he’s clear second, but has the inferior fourth result which is the tiebreaker).
- If Gashimov finishes clear first, Radjabov can stay ahead of him (but then Gashimov should get the wildcard, or would it go to Mamedyarov who is currently higher-rated?)
- If Ivanchuk is clear first, Radjabov needs to be at least clear third to stay ahead of Chucky. Noone else could catch him. This is because Ivanchuk’s score is “most improvable” – he had one really bad result in Nalchik (12th-14th) which will be deleted.
The opening ceremony of the final Grand Prix took place in the new Astrakhan State Drama Theatre on Sunday, a national holiday for the Russians. The ceremony was attended by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the Governor of Astrakhan Region Alexander Zhilkin, who stated that a new chess center will soon be established inside the theater. The speeched were followed by the traditional drawing of lots, and several dancing and singing acts.
On Monday the first round was played, and it was a bad start for Vassily Ivanchuk who let his queen trapped not long after the opening phase, against Vugar Gashimov. All the other games ended in a draws, and especially Wang Yue and Leko didn’t spend much time behind the chess board. They started repeating moves already on move 15 – necessary to draw early in FIDE GPs where the Sofia rule is in effect.
When I was in Baku for the first Grand Prix tournament, the plan of FIDE/Global Chess was to create a ‘media team’ that would take care of all six tournaments. This way each tournament website would be a bit better than the previous, and we’d be working to a very professional way of covering chess. Somewhere along the way this went wrong, because at the moment of writing the tournament website doesn’t have a PGN file, a bulletin, a video or game commentary. But OK, it’s only the first day, let’s give them some time.
Echecs à Astrakhan : Le Grand Prix Fide en Live à 13h
Riche de cent cinquante nationalités, "l'étoile du Sud", comme l'appelait Alexandre Dumas, accueille à partir d'aujourd'hui le Grand Prix Fide d'échecs, qualificatif pour le match des Candidats.
Le 13 heures de Mourousi
Quatorze champions d'échecs entrent en scène ce lundi dont les stars que sont Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Eljanov, Svidler... Les parties sont retransmises en Direct Live à partir de 13h, heure de Paris, soit 15h sur place.
Mais où est donc Astrakhan ? Située entre la steppe et la mer Caspienne, Astrakhan s'étale sur un des multiples bras de la Volga, jouxtant à l'est le Kazakhstan, effleurant à l'ouest les plaines du piémont caucasien. A 1 534 kilomètres de Moscou, la ville, jadis capitale du royaume des Khazars avant d'être reconquise par Ivan le Terrible, marque la fracture des mondes slave, turc et caucasien.
Takes place in Azkaban, or something like that. Starting May 9. Final qualifier spot in the candidates is up for grabs. The players: Akopian, Alekseev, Eljanov, Gashimov, Gelfand, Inarkiev, Ivanchuk, Jakovenko, Leko, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Radjabov, Svidler, Wang Yue.
VI ed ultima tappa del Grand Prix FIDE media elo 2730!
Radjabov, Wang Yue e Gashimov favoriti per la corsa al 2° posto
In corsa anche Ivanchuk, Jakovenko e Leko
Pochissime speranze per Mamedyarov e Alekseev
Completano la lista Eljanov Gelfand Svidler Ponomariov Akopian e Inarkiev
E alla fine, il Grand Prix non affondò. Nonostante la defezione di alcune sedi ed il ritiro di Carlsen, la manifestazione ideata dal vulcanico presidente della FIDE giunge al suo ultimo atto, che si svolgerà in Astrakhan (Russia) dal 9 (cerimonia di apertura) al 25 maggio. La sesta prova, nonostante la rinuncia di Aronian che ha già vinto il GP, ha una media elo impressionante per un torneo con 14 partecipanti: 2730!
Ma non sono tutte rose e fiori, anzi. Il Grand Prix era stato pensato per far svolgere le prove nel maggior numero possibile di nazioni e continenti mentre le sei tappe, compresa l'ultima, si saranno disputate solo in Russia (4) Armenia e Azerbajan. E' difficile quindi imaginare che il Grand Prix possa essere riproposto, a meno che Ilyumzhinhov (o Karpov?) riesca a rilanciare il progetto coinvolgendo anche il resto del mondo...
Nonostante il primo posto sia stato già assegnato, il torneo riveste una notevole importanza, e non solo per i premi (30.000 euro al vincitore) e per il prestigio. II secondo classificato del Grand Prix si qualificherà, infatti, per il Torneo dei Candidati che deciderà lo sfidante di Anand (o Topalov) per il Titolo di Campione del Mondo.
Otto dei quattordici partecipanti sono ancora in corsa per questo traguardo. Solo Svidler, Akopian, Eljanov e Inarkiev sono matematicamente esclusi. Gelfand si è già qualificato tramite la World Cup mentre Ponomariov è stato convocato solo per sostituire Aronian.
Di seguito presento la classifica che conta, che considera solo i migliori due risultati ottenuti dai concorrenti (il regolamento prevede che venga scartato il peggior risultato ottenuto). E' infatti quasi certo, e vi risparmio le improbabili ipotesi che dovrebbero verificarsi perchè avvenga il contrario, che i 363,3 punti sinora ottenuti da Radjabov e Grischuk non saranno sufficienti per arrivare secondi.
Pos.
Nome
Punti
1
Radjabov
303,3
2
Wang Yue
273,3
3
Gashimov
263,3
4
Ivanchuk
245
5
Jakovenko
243,3
6
Leko
240
7
Mamedyarov
185
Alekseev
185
Partecipanti alla sesta prova del Grand Prix, in ordine di elo
Rank Mondiale
Nome
Nazione
Rating
6
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
AZE
2763
8
Wang, Yue
CHN
2752
9
Eljanov, Pavel
UKR
2751
11
Gelfand, Boris
ISR
2741
12
Ivanchuk, Vassily
UKR
2741
13
Radjabov, Teimour
AZE
2740
15
Svidler, Peter
RUS
2735
16
Leko, Peter
HUN
2735
17
Gashimov, Vugar
AZE
2734
18
Ponomariov, Ruslan
UKR
2733
21
Jakovenko, Dmitry
RUS
2725
37
Alekseev, Evgeny
RUS
2700
43
Akopian, Vladimir
ARM
2694
61
Inarkiev, Ernesto
RUS
2669
Regolamento
Calendario si gioca dal 10 al 24 maggio alle ore13. Previsti due giorni di riposo, il 15 ed il 20 maggio.
Tempo di riflessione 120' x 40 mosse + 60'x 20 mosse +15' per finire finire la partita +30" per mossa dalla 61esima mossa.
Patta solo con le regole di Sofia I giocatori non possono parlare con il proprio avversario durante la partita. I giocatori non possono, quindi, offrire la patta direttamente al proprio avversario. Si potrà reclamare la patta solo attraverso il capo-arbitro nei seguenti casi:
tripla ripetizione della posizione
scacco perpetuo
posizione di patta teorica
regola delle 50 mosse senza mosse di pedone e senza catture
Premi e sistema di punteggio
Posizione
Premi in Euro
Punti per il GP
1°
30,000
140 + 40 bonus
2
22,500
130 + 20
3°
20,000
120 + 10
4°
15,000
110
5°
12,500
100
6°
11,000
90
7°
10,000
80
8°
8,500
70
9°
7,500
60
10°
6,000
50
11°
5,500
40
12°
5,000
30
13°
4,500
20
14°
4,000
10
Classifica del Grand Prix prima dell'ultima prova
P.
Giocatore
Nazione
Baku
Sochi
Elista
Nalchik
Jermuk
Tappe disputate
Totale*
1
Aronian
ARM
180,0
180,0
140,0
3
500,0
2
Radjabov
AZE
60,0
150,0
153,3
3
363,3
3
Grischuk
RUS
105,0
45,0
153,3
105,0
4
363,3
4
Wang Yue
CHN
153,3
120,0
80,0
3
353,3
5
Gashimov
AZE
153,3
65,0
110,0
3
328,3
6
Leko
HUN
80,0
140,0
100,0
3
320,0
7
Jakovenko
RUS
90,0
153,3
35,0
3
278,3
8
Ivanchuk
UKR
65,0
20,0
180,0
3
265,0
9
Gelfand
ISR
30,0
85,0
140,0
3
255,0
10
Mamedyarov
AZE
105,0
80,0
55,0
3
240,0
11
Bacrot
FRA
15,0
80,0
105,0
55,0
4
240,0
12
Kamsky
USA
60,0
120,0
55,0
55,0
4
235,0
13
Svidler
RUS
85,0
90,0
55,0
3
230,0
14
Karjakin
UKR
60,0
90,0
55,0
80,0
4
230,0
15
Alekseev
RUS
35,0
85,0
100,0
3
220,0
16
Kasimdzhanov
UZB
80,0
20,0
100,0
3
200,0
17
Akopian
ARM
15,0
140,0
35,0
3
190,0
18
Cheparinov
BUL
35,0
45,0
50,0
10,0
4
130,0
19
Eljanov
UKR
35,0
20,0
70,0
3
125,0
20
Inarkiev
RUS
15,0
15,0
20,0
3
50,0
Navara
CZE
35,0
15,0
excl.
2
Carlsen
NOR
153,3
withdrew
1
Adams
ENG
85,0
withdrew
1
Al-Modiahki
QAT
15,0
excl.
1
Pelletier
SUI
excl.
0
* si considerano i tre risultati migliori
Radjabov, il favorito per la corsa al secondo posto ..
... ma nulla è impossibile per Ivanchuk ...
... senza dimenticare Wang Yue, Gashimov, Jakovenko e Leko!
uno splendido panorama della città di Astrakhan, una delle principali città della parte meridionale della Russia
Pubblicata la Lista FIDE con aggiornamento primo maggio 2010. Un rapido “excursus”, anche se ci rendiamo conto che con la cadenza bimestrale le variazioni sono spesso minimali (in due mesi i Top Players giocano un paio di tornei se va bene), a differenza di quanto accadeva quando la cadenza era semestrale se non annuale.
Questi i primi quaranta giocatori al mondo per Elo:
Magnus Carlsen, ancora in vetta...senza giocare.
Conferma in linea di massima dei 37 giocatori Over2700 della precedente lista: rientrano Jobava e Rublevsky, fuoriescono Adams e Kasimdzhanov. La TopFive (Carlsen, Topalov, Kramnik, Anand e Aronian) sembra consolidata, difficile che ci possano essere inserimenti da parte di altri giocatori, almeno durante il 2010. I migliori risultati parziali nelle posizioni di rincalzo sono quelli di Eljanov (+15), Karjakin (+14, guadagnati tutti con la magnifica prestazione nel Campionato Russo a squadre) e Jobava (+20, tutti ottenuti col secondo posto al Campionato Europeo); debacle per Vachier-Lagrave (-17) e per Svidler (-15).
Da segnalare Ian Nepomniachtchi che raggiunge il suo massimo storico, 2695 (grazie soprattutto alla vittoria nel Campionato Europeo) con un +39 che gli vale il 42° posto in classifica; Fabiano Caruana si piazza al 57° posto, in lieve flessione, con 2675 punti (-5); entra per la prima volta nella Top100 il 15enne Anish Giri.
Ian Nepomniachtchi, proiettato verso grandi imprese
Fabiano Caruana, qui impegnato nel Master di questi giorni
Anish Giri
Per quanto riguarda la speciale classifica riservata agli Juniors, primeggiano sempre i “classe 1990”:
Come già detto, Anish Giri sta facendo grandi progressi: è suo il massimo incremento del periodo, +18, se non consideriamo appunto i ‘1990’. Sbirciando nelle classifiche dei giovanissimi per annata: non in discussione la leadership di Caruana tra i ‘1992’, di Wesley So tra i ‘1993’ e di Giri tra i ‘1994’; tra i ‘1995’ primeggia sempre l’azero Nijat Abasov (2525) grazie anche alla flessione di Jorge Cori, mentre tra i ‘1996’ l’ucraino Illya Nyzhnyk, 2544, ha ora un insidioso antagonista nell’ungherese Richard Rapport, 2509, che recentemente ha conquistato anche le attenzioni della stampa “generalista” per la sua conquista del titolo di GM.
Wesley So
Illya Nyzhnyk
Richard Rapport
Tra le donne la leader è sempre Judit Polgar che recentemente ha dichiarato di voler rientrare pienamente nell’attività agonistica; alle sue spalle Koneru Humpy è l’unica altra Over2600 di sempre (Judit però è stata anche Over2700); Hou Yifan registra il più consistente incremento del bimestre (+18) ma ultimamente procede a singhiozzo.
Magnus Carlsen (2813) tops the world rankings by one point. On the May 1 FIDE rating list Veselin Topalov has won seven rating points to reach 2812. Vassily Ivanchuk is not the highest rated Ukrainian anymore; Pavel Eljanov confirmed his steady progress and surpassed him to enter the world’s top 10. And Alexei Shirov is back there too.
FIDE published its May 1st rating list and this time there’s not a big difference between the official top 10 and the “live” top 10 of Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website). Only Anand’s and Topalov’s ratings are different because of the current World Championship match: virtually speaking Topalov has dropped back to 2806 and Anand is just 3.6 points away from the 2800 barrier.
The biggest news this time is that Vassily Ivanchuk isn’t Ukraine’s number one player anymore, for the first time in years. Winning another 15 points in 20 games, on the May 2010 list Pavel Eljanov has reached a 9th spot, while Ivanchuk lost seven points and dropped slightly from 11 to 12.
With solid results in not so many games Wang Yue climbed from 10 to 8, and the 10th place is now occupied by Alexei Shirov. Boris Gelfand is out of the top 10 again but only lost 9 rating points. Sergey Karjakin might see the first results of his switch of federations and trainers: he climbed from 21 to 14. Alexander Morozevich didn’t play this period but still dropped three places, to 27 now. Anand’s seconds Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Peter Heine Nielsen can be found next to each other on the list: numbers 39 and 40.
One of the biggest climbers was Ian Nepomniachtchi, who won no less than 39 points and went up from 78 to 42. Reaching 97, Anish Giri is a top 100 player for the first time.
The women’s list has been stable for a long time now, with very few changes in the top 10. Both Judit Polgar and Humpy Koneru didn’t play, so the gap is still 60 points. Below you’ll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the first two lists including the changes with the previous lists. All data courtesy of FIDE.
FIDE MAY 2010 RATING LIST: TOP 100 PLAYERS
Legend:
black color – player remained on the same position
green color – player moved up in the list
red color – player moved down in the list
blue color – player is new to the current Top list Old represents player’s position in the previous period list
According to our poll on the homepage Vishy Anand is the clear favourite to win the World Championship match, by 69%, where Topalov gets 31% of the votes. But what do their colleagues think? Today the opinion of Aronian, Carlsen, Gelfand and Ivanchuk.
ChessVibes asked nine of the world’s best players what they think of the upcoming World Champion match. Who is the favourite? Who is the better player? And what about Topalov’s plan to follow the Sofia rule? Will this be to his advantage? In part 1, yesterday, we gave answers from Leinier Dominguez, Vugar Gashimov, Alexander Grischuk, Sergei Karjakin and Ruslan Ponomariov. Today, in the second and last part, we get the answers from Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Boris Gelfand and Vassily Ivanchuk. Please note that the interviews were conducted a few weeks ago.
World's number 11 Vassily Ivanchuk (2748, Ukraine)
Who is the favourite to win the match? Vassily Ivanchuk I think it’s about equal chances, and I expect a very intersting fight. It’s difficult to say if one has the better chances. Fifty-fifty for me. Playing in Sofia can be an advantage but it can also be a disadvantage. I cannot definitely say this is an advantage for Topalov. As far as Anand is concerned, well, I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable about it; I played in Sofia, and when I played against Topalov, against Cheparinov I didn’t feel any problem and nobody disturbed us, because Bulgarian chess amateurs are very polite and always correct, so it’s no problem for any chess player to play in Sofia. [Magnus Carlsen, who was listening along: “You didn’t play to badly either, against Topalov and Cheparinov!”] Yes, but OK, it’s a very nice place, Sofia, with very nice people. Levon Aronian Since the match is played in Bulgaria, I guess this will be more than a home-ground advantage. As we know from experience with matches for the World Championship, Veselin’s manager is capable of producing blunders when it comes to mixing things up during the match. So even if things go really well for Vishy, you can never be sure some things will not appear. Magnus Carlsen The cances are about even, just like the match Anand-Kramnik, which I think was also pretty even. Even with the pretty crushing result I think if they had played another match I would again say that the chances were even. I mean these are all very strong players. Of course Topalov has the home advantage, but I think the Anand team has taken, or at least should have taken a lot of precautions and done some preparation to make sure they’re comfortable and all that, so I don’t think that’s going to matter much. Also I think match experience in general is overrated. [Smiles.] I mean, whether it’s tournament chess or a match, you still have to play chess and you still have to have great opening preparation. The quality of the moves is what matters. Boris Gelfand Very hard to say, but I really hope it will be a good match, because after what Topalov did in Elista, there’s a risk they’ll do it in Sofia as well. I hope common sense will prevail. Vishy took care that the Appeals Committee consists of honorable people, whose opinion can be trusted, not like it was in Elista. A far as the cances are concerned: both are fantastic players with a very high level, so both of them could win. I think playing in Sofia is a big advantage for Veselin. As he says himself, he only makes the moves, and his team does everything, his manager takes care of everything else, and I don’t trust much. After the history in Elista, judging from what happened before, and he never admitted his guilt or apologized. All over chess was compared to toilet, all over the chess world, I think it was a big damage to chess in general that we associate ourselves not with something honorable but with toilet, just be the whim of one person, that’s really damaging to all of us, to the whole chess movement.
World's number 9 Boris Gelfand (2750, Israel)
And it you just look at the players, is it 50-50 then? Levon Aronian They’re both great players; it’s hard for me to say. I have a really good score with Anand and, not a bad score, but… Topalov plays better with me. So I might be really subjective. But a lot of people, a lot of my colleagues, tell me Anand is a better player. But we’ll see this interesting clash of a very aggressive player (Topalov), and more of a strategical player (Anand). Magnus Carlsen At least their top level, their highest possible level, is pretty even. Of course both of them are capable of playing particularly well at times. Boris Gelfand It’s clear that both of them are going to prepare very well and very profound, so we will have to see who comes in better form. I believe there will be a lot of critical momens in the match. Who will stand the pressure better? Who will prepare an extra novelty? Something like this will decide. But both are fantastic players who will have all the reasons to win.
World's number 1 Magnus Carlsen (2813, Norway)
What do you think of Topalov following the Sofia rule? Magnus Carlsen I think that’s his business, if he doesn’t want to offer a draw. That’s a right every chess player has. The Topalov team probably shouldn’t probably not try to force it on Vishy, but if he doesn’t want to, that’s his business. It would not bother me. It would bother me, however, if someone said that because I’m not following the Sofia rule, I’m offending the host. I mean that’s just crap. But Anand knows that he has to fight anyway, so that he will need to play a few further moves every now and then shouldn’t bother him too much, especially since he is known for playing quickly anyway. Vassily Ivanchuk This is a little bit strange, especially with a drawish position. I don’t think it’s a completely correct decision. For me it’s not interesting to see if the position is completely drawn and the players need to continue to play, to make a lot of stupid moves. If I remember correctly, Svidler-Topalov for example, an opposite-coloured bishop ending, and they played twenty moves. Why? For whom? I don’t understand this. The Sofia rule is acceptable, but it has to be used sensibly. Levon Aronian That’s actually… crazy. That kind of things can go through one’s mind. I don’t see a reason for Vishy to get upset about it. OK, let him play. If he wants to play till the end of the world, he’s going to exhaust himself. Boris Gelfand Very strange. Let’s say we get a rook ending with three against three, what will he do? Or Vishy would have a rook ending with two against one? What will happen? I think we have very cheap PR here; it’s not in the rules of the Championship that you should ask the arbiter in such cases. You should offer a draw to your opponent. I think in general this rule is outdated twenty years. If you look at the history, in the early 80s it really was a problem in top tournaments. Nowadays it’s not a problem; there are very few short draws. At the very top, you need to be an ambitious player, otherwise you don’t get to the top. If you make short draws, you will stop at a certain level. But OK if organizers like it, they can impose it upon the players, who can accept or decline the invitation. I think it’s just some kind of pressure, I mean, the Elista toilet scandal didn’t start from nothing. It was preceded by four or five protests on any subject, so I’m afraid it’s the start of the same campaign. I hope it’s not, I hope it will be a fair match. This is very important for the chess world, to have a great match and a fair match.
World's number 5 Levon Aronian (2782, Armenia)
Do you think longer games, as a result of the Sofia rule, would help Topalov, who is five years younger? Levon Aronian When I play against Topalov, I think that when he loses a game, he blunders things. Otherwise he’s very tough to beat, but he blunders. I think that blunder comes because he spends too much energy while he thinks, and because he doesn’t stand up during the game. So that’s one of the factors that I think may represent a threat to him. Magnus Carlsen Maybe, but the match is not that long. If it was a 24-game match I would definitely say Topalov would have a slight advantage. If it was an 18-game match probably also, but I’m pretty sure that with 12 games Vishy isn’t going to be too worn out. Boris Gelfand I don’t think it has something to do with age. We will have to see who will be in better form. There’s no reason to believe that Vishy wouldn’t be able to play long games. He has a few months to prepare physically. I think it’s just bad PR, and I hope there will be no more scandals. Some people say bad advertisement for chess is still advertisement, but I don’t think so. I think chess should position itself as a high-level sport, a high-level activity for cultural people and that’s why all these scandals are very bad for chess.
Fide world chess championship: is this Topalov's last chance?
At 35, this may be the Bulgarian grandmaster's last chance to take the title
Topalov – Anand, Sofia 2005. White to play.
On Friday, in Sofia, Veselin Topalov will begin his challenge to Vishy Anand for the unified Fide/classical chess world championship title. The high point of Topalov's career to date was in 2005 when he won the Fide world championship tournament at San Luis ahead of Anand, Svidler, Leko and other super grandmasters. It may have been that the format suited Topalov – he has always been considered a stronger tournament than match player.
The following year, at Elista, he lost his bid to unseat Anand's predecessor Vladimir Kramnik as classical chess world champion in a match marred by gamesmanship and (unproven) allegations of cheating. Topalov, now 35, will be aware that this is probably his last chance to capture the title before the pack of hungry young lions led by Magnus Carlsen see him and his generation off for good.
We know very little about Topalov the man. He rarely gives interviews and, when he does so, restricts himself to chess matters. At the board, however, he is an aggressive, attacking player. He once said. "I'm not afraid to lose. This makes the difference between me and [other players]." His play is all about heightening the tension and upsetting the balance.
The position demonstrates Topalov's characteristics: the deep opening preparation (the novelty on move 11, followed by the knight sacrifice on move 14, came after analysing – with Anand! – an earlier game against Leko), the willingness to gamble, and his liking for fiendishly complicated tactical play. Like Tal's combinations, Topalov's may not always be sound, but they are not easy to refute. In this game Anand failed to find the correct continuation and went on to lose.
But even Topalov lost track of his own creation when he played 1 Rxe7+. Winning by force was 1 Re5, when 1...Bb7 (if 1...Be6 2 Nxh8+ Qxh8 3 Rxe6 Kxe6 4 Qc6+ and White scoops up practically every remaining enemy piece) 2 Qf5+ Kg8 3 Bc4 is crushing for White.
11th Poikovsky Karpov Chess Tournament - 31st May to 14th June, 2010, 12-player round robin
The 11th International Poikovsky chess tournament in honor of former world champion Anatoly Karpov will take place from 31st May to 14th June, 2010. This time the field is extended to 12 players who will compete in round robin format. Peter Svidler is top seeded.
Chess Club “64″ from Moscow Saturday won the Russian Team Championship. The event was more or less decided on Friday when they held their main rival St Petersburg to a 3-3 tie. As expected, an easy win against Economist II in the last round secured the gold medals.
The 17th Russian Team Championship took place from April 1st to 10th in hotel complex “Dagomys”, close to Sochim Russia. The rate of play was 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 10 minutes to end the game with 30 seconds increment for each move.
The “Premier League” was a single round-robin consisting of ten teams, with no less than three of the nine teams have an average rating of 2700 or higher. The lineups:
A day before El Clásico the chess version of the Russian clasico was held in Dagomys, where the teams of Moscow and St Petersburg finally met. But where in football on Saturday night the Bernabeu stadium saw a great match, in which the coastal town defeated the capital 2-0 (with yet again an important role for Lionel Messi), in Dagomys the encounter was disappointing, with short draws on all six boards: Gelfand-Ivanchuk, Karjakin-Svidler, Wang Hao-Vitiugov, Caruana-Movsesian, Grachev-Zvjaginsev and Savchenko-Efimenko. Thus, with a 3-3 match score the capital held on to their 2-point lead in the standings.
On the same day there was a small incident in the match Economist 1 vs Chigorin Chess Club. Economist’s board 2 Pavel Eljanov had already left Dagomys, on his way to the German Bundesliga, and apparently because of some sloppy paper work the team couldn’t play with their reserve player. Maxim Matlakov scored a full point for Chigorin without playing, but Economist won the match 3.5-2.5 anyway.
On Saturday “64″ crushed Economist 2 with a 1-5 score to claim the gold medals. St Petersburg took silver after a narrow 3.5-2.5 victory over Economist 1.
Russian Team Ch 2010 | Premier League | Round 9 Standings
Hoy estamos de enhorabuena. El “Maestro de maestros” de la información ajedrecística internacional, Leontxo García, publicará mañana viernes en su columna del prestigioso periódico nacional español, El País, la partida de la tercera ronda de este torneo entre los maestros Lázaro Bruzón y Jorge Cori.
Sin duda, esta buena noticia prestigiará aún más esta ¡Universiada Lagunera!.
¡Qué estén atentos pues los buenos aficionados al juego-ciencia!.
Esta tarde no he tenido que cambiar el título de estas crónicas, porque el rival de turno del gran maestro ruso Mikhail Ulibin ha sido otro joven ajedrecista cubano, el GM Yuri González Vidal.
La partida terminó en tablas, ¡pero luchadas!. Cuando los ajedrecistas se fajan duramente en la pugna para conseguirlas, el resultado final importa bien poco.
Después de una Defensa Francesa planteada por Ulibin (piezas negras) el maestro cubano eligió la Variante Tarrasch. Pronto se llegó a una posición donde el jugador ruso estaba como “pez en el agua”. Contabilizamos hasta cuatro partidas propias en la línea de juego elegida (!?).
La partida se pudo haber igualado tras la novedad de la apertura, pero un desliz de Ulibin permitió que González tuviese la posibilidad de ganar un peón y posiblemente de obtener clara ventaja.
Después de varias escaramuzas, las negras fueron disipando poco a poco el peligro de su posición y lograron entrar en un final de torres que tras buen trabajo defensivo terminaron otorgándole un justo empate que supo bastante bien a los entendidos aficionados laguneros.
El torneo pasa de este modo el ecuador y promete ahora grandes batallas ajedrecísticas (!?). La lucha por el primer lugar está tremendamente abierta!.
Gonzalez Vidal,Yuri (2512) - Ulibin,Mikhail (2516) [C08] IV Torneo Internacional de La Laguna La Laguna (5), 08.04.2010 [Jimenez,A sobre notas de FireBird]
Analiza FireBird 1.1 w32. 1.e4 Bueno, esta partida al menos servirá para no cambiarle de momento el título a las crónicas de este torneo, porque el rival de Ulibin, también es un fuerte gran maestro de Cuba!. 1...e6 Defensa Francesa. 2.d4 d5 3.Cd2 La sólida y "educada" Variante Tarrasch (!?). 3...c5 4.exd5 exd5 5.Cgf3 Cf6 6.Ab5+ Ad7 7.Axd7+ Cbxd7 8.0-0 Ae7 9.dxc5 Cxc5 Siempre todos los temas estratégicos de esta apertura giran en torno al peón aislado de las negras, a cambio del cual, obtienen buen juego de piezas. 10.Te1 [10.Cd4 Dd7 11.Df3 0-0 12.C2b3 Cce4 13.Df5 Tfd8 14.Te1 Af8 15.c3 Dxf5 16.Cxf5 g6 17.Ce3 Te8 18.Td1 Cc5 19.g4 h6 20.h4 Cxb3 21.axb3 Ac5 22.g5 hxg5 23.hxg5 Ce4 24.Cg4 Ab6 25.Rg2 Rg7 26.Af4 Tad8 27.f3 Cc5 28.b4 Cb3 29.Ta3 Te2+ 30.Rg3 Txb2 31.c4 Te8 32.c5 Ad8 33.Txa7 Tee2 34.Txd5 Ae7 35.Txb7 1-0 Kasparov,G (2760)-Kharitonov,A (2550)/Moscow 1988/URS-ch; 10.Cb3 Cce4 11.Cfd4 Dd7 12.f3 Cd6 13.Cc5 Dc7 14.Cd3 0-0 15.Rh1 Tfe8 16.Af4 Db6 17.c3 Cc4 18.b3 Ca3 19.Dd2 Af8 20.Tfe1 g6 21.Ae3 Dc7 22.Af4 Db6 23.h3 Tac8 24.Txe8 Txe8 25.Te1 Txe1+ 26.Dxe1 Cb5 27.Ae3 Da6 28.Cxb5 Dxb5 29.Dd2 a6 30.g4 Ce8 31.Rg2 Cc7 32.Cf4 Ag7 33.h4 Da5 34.b4 Db5 35.Ad4 Axd4 36.Dxd4 Ce6 37.Cxe6 De2+ 38.Rg3 fxe6 39.Df6 De1+ 40.Rg2 De2+ 41.Rg3 De1+ 42.Rg2 1/2-1/2 Adams,M (2734)-Baklan,V (2607)/France 2003] 10...0-0 11.Cf1 Te8 12.Ae3 b5!? Diagram
pero ahora cometen una impresición que les dará peor partida. 20...f6?! [Se imponía la directa: 20...Cg5! 21.Cxg5 Txe5 22.Cf3 Te6=] 21.Ag3 b4 [21...Ab6 22.Tcd2+/=] 22.Tcd2 bxc3 23.bxc3+/= Y es que ahora se hace muy difícil aguantar la posición sin pérdida de material. 23...De7 [23...Dc6 24.Txd5 Txd5 25.Txd5 Af8 26.Dd3 Da4 27.Dd2 Cc5+/=] 24.h4 Ad6 Diagram
25.Txd5 [El módulo prefiere no debilitar sus peones: 25.Axd6! Txd6 26.Txd5 Txd5 27.Txd5 Da3 28.Dd2+/-] 25...Axg3 26.fxg3 Txd5 27.Txd5 Cc5 28.Dd4?! [Es mejor 28.Rh2 Ce4 29.Td7 De6 30.Td8 h6 31.c4 Rh7 32.Txe8 Dxe8 33.De1+/-] 28...Ce4 29.Td7 [29.Dc4 Rh8 30.Rh2 De6+/=] 29...De6 30.Cg5?! El final de piezas mayores deberá ser tablas. [30.Rh2 Dg4 31.Td8 Rf7 (31...Dxg3+ 32.Rg1 Dg6 33.Dd7 Txd8 34.Dxd8+ Rf7 35.Dxa5+/-) 32.Txe8 Rxe8 33.Rg1+/=] 30...Cxg5 31.hxg5 De3+! 32.Dxe3 Txe3 33.gxf6 gxf6 34.Tc7 [34.Ta7 Txg3 35.Txa5 Txc3=] 34...Txg3= Diagram
35.Rf2 Td3 36.Re2 Tg3 37.Rf2 Td3 38.a4 h5 [Es mucho más directo y mejor: 38...Td2+! 39.Rf3 Ta2 40.c4 Txa4 41.Re4 h5 42.Rf5 Ta2 43.g3 Ta3 44.c5 Tf3+ 45.Re6 Txg3 46.Ta7 Tc3 47.Txa5 Rg7 48.Rd6 h4 49.c6 h3 50.c7 h2 51.Th5 Td3+ 52.Re6 Te3+ 53.Rd6 Td3+ 54.Re6 Te3+=] 39.g3?! [39.Tc5!? Td2+ 40.Rg3 Ta2 41.Txa5+/= Aún así las tablas no deben correr peligro y más cuando están los grandes maestros de por medio!.] 39...Rf8 [39...Td2+!? 40.Re3 Ta2=] 40.Tc5 Unica tentativa para intentar forzar la posición. 40...Rf7 41.c4 [41.Txh5 Txc3 42.Txa5 Re6 43.Ta8+/= pero deben ser tablas.] 41...Tc3 42.Txh5 Txc4 43.Txa5 Rg6 [43...Re7 44.Ta8 Rd7+/= aunque lo dicho. Posibles tablas.] 44.Ta8 Rf5 45.a5 Tc2+ 46.Re3 Tc3+ 47.Rd4 Txg3 48.a6 Ta3 49.Rc5 Rf4 50.Rb6 Tb3+ 51.Rc6 Ta3 52.Rb6 Tb3+ 53.Ra7 f5! 54.Tb8 Ta3 55.Rb6 Tb3+ 56.Ra7 Ta3 57.Tb6 Re3 58.Rb7 f4! 59.a7 Txa7+ 60.Rxa7 Re4 Cuando las tablas son luchadas como en esta ocasión, el público se levanta y aplaude a los grandes maestros del tablero!. 1/2-1/2 .
Hello to everyone once again, my apologies for not blogging recently, but I have been extremely busy on many fronts. A few weeks ago, I finished competing in the European Club Cup Championship. At the start of the tournament, I got off to a rather bumpy start as I lost a marginally worse endgame against Peter Svidler with Black. To be fair, he played the endgame very precisely while my attempts at setting up a fortress failed. After this disappointing loss, I beat a 2400 IM and then followed this up with a draw against Czech Grandmaster, Viktor Laznicka in the Kings Indian. at this point, having scored 2.5/4 I was not doing very well. Luckily, I started to regain my form as I followed this up with a nice wins against GM Sergei Zhigalko (2601) and GM Milos Pavlovic (2533). Having recovered from the bad start, I more or less played a forced drawn line against GM Alexander Grischuk in the last round. Overall, I was more or less satisfied with my play except for the game against Svidler. Thus, I cannot complain as I felt the event served its purpose and I put on a solid showing in my last event before London in December.
In terms of the general tournament, I was pretty amazed to see that outside of Svidler's excellent performance (wins over me,Ivanchuk,Mamedyarov and Motylev) no one escaped the event unscathed. Aronian for instance trounced Grischuk, but then got steamrolled by Mamedyarov in the following round. Other notable American players in the event were Kamsky and Onischuk, but neither performed very well as they both lost two games. In the end, the super strong teams finished at the top of the event as it ultimately comes down to the board 4s, 5s, and 6s. When one team has players like Adams or Petrosian on board 6 against a 2300, it makes the odds impossible to overcome. All in all, a fun event and I hope to play several leagues next year and the European Club Cup as well.
That's all for now, stay tuned for more updates shortly!
Good morning to everyone out there from Macedonia, where it is approximately 4 AM local time. After having a nearly a perfect September, it is time to return to chess. As most everyone knows, I fell violently ill right from the start in Amsterdam and never recovered. Thankfully, this happened at the end of my long streak of traveling as I am pretty sure I would have gone and dropped more points in any following tournaments ala Ivanchuk. After this long recovery time, I feel quite rested and fresh. Since I noticed some people clamoring for my thoughts on other chess events, I will oblige the fans and talk about some chess for a change!
A few weeks back, there was the 25th anniversary match between Kasparov and Karpov. In general, other than the obvious importance of it having been 25 years since their legendary match in 1984, I did not really see any point as I thoroughly expected Karpov to get thrashed. Having seen and played against Karpov in a few tourneys over the last year, I have nothing but respect for him. The fact that he continues to play chess even though he is well past his prime is incredible. In comparison, I do not think Kasparov ever could do the same as he would simply get too upset losing games to players who he would have crushed 10-15 years ago. At the start, I expected Kasparov to roll over Karpov. I figured that 1 draw in the four rapid games would be good, and in blitz...anything. The main reason for my thinking was that Karpov had major time issues in his last tournament in San Sebastian, Spain.
The match itself started much like San Sebastian with Karpov being unable to manage his time and losing both games in a horrible manner. However, he played a great third game and won which shocked me completely. Clearly, these few years of retirement have made Garry a bit rusty. Nevertheless he returned to form and won the final game to win 3-1 at rapid. The blitz games were not really anything to write home about either as Kasparov won 6-2. Overall, I found the games to be extremely dry and did not enjoy having to watch the Queens Indian Declined every other game. The irony for me is that Kasparov played like Kramnik despite his constant remarks about Kramnik's style being too dry. I had some mild expectations for the match, but it certainly did not do it for me. A fun match for the general chess observer/enthusiast, but no real pertinance to modern day chess.
The other tournament I will make a few comments about is the Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing,China. Obviously the major story is Carlsen and his great results there. However, I do think the field is particularly suited to his advantage as all the other players are extremely solid with the exception of Topalov. In terms of Topalov, I do not really know what to make of his play as it would seem he is trying to save his preparation for the match with Anand when and if it happens. As is, a great result for Carlsen and I can't wait to get a crack at him in December in London.
Now, onto the European Club Cup which is why I am in Ohrid, Macedonia. Having never played in this tournament before, it is interesting and a bit different than the norm. They style of the event is essentially a mini olympiad without the weaker teams. This definitely makes for a more exciting event when it comes to the quality of chess as almost all teams have 1-2 GMs at the top and some, have 2600's on board 6! My team, Husek Wien which I played for in the Austrian League is reasonably strong with me on one, Georgiev and Chernin on board 2 and 3. Compared to the very top teams, we will probably get crushed on the bottom boards, but it should be a fun experience anyway. In the first round, we played a team from Denmark which had only 1 IM and a couple FMs on the preceding boards. Despite our massive rating advantage, it took a lot of endgame technique from myself and Chernin tricking his opponent for us to win on these boards. We won on boards 2,4 and 5 pretty easily while losing the toss up on board 6. A solid 5-1 opening round is nothing to complain about. It gave me a chance to shake off the rust from a 1 month break while serving as a tuneup to future rounds. In the second round, it appears that I will be facing Svidler on board 1 and now that I am not sick, I will try to play better than I did in Amsterdam.
That is all for now, time to go rest and study for the second round!
This weekend the 14th and 15th round of the Schachbundesliga will be played. At the playing venues Baden-Baden and Bremen most probably it will be decided who will win the championship.
Two rounds before the end of the season Baden-Baden, Solingen and Bremen are fighting for the title in the Schachbundesliga. Most probably the following pairings will decide who will win the championship.
14th round: Saturday, April 10, 2010, 2 pm Playing venue Bremen:
Werder Bremen – Solingen
Playing venue Baden-Baden:
OSG Baden-Baden – SV Mülheim Nord
These are the four best teams of the league so anything can happen.
In the case that two teams have the same team points at the end of the season there will be a tiebreak at the end of April. The board points are not relevant as second criteria for the title.
As in the previous rounds the Schachbundesliga publishes the lineups of the teams involved at the venue, where Baden-Baden is playing:
14th round: Saturday, April 10, 2010, 2 pm Playing venue Baden-Baden
OSG Baden-Baden SV Mülheim Nord
1 Alexei Shirov 2730* Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2718
2 Etienne Bacrot 2709 Pavel Tregubov 2649
3 Michael Adams 2682 Daniel Fridman 2661
4 Arkadij Naiditsch 2685 Vitali Golod 2602
5 Francisco Vallejo Pons 2696 Alexander Berelowitsch 2551
6 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2664 Felix Levin 2481
7 Jan Gustafsson 2622 Daniel Hausrath 2528
8 Rustem Dautov 2596 Gerhard Schebler 2486
SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim SF Katernberg
1 Viacheslav Ikonnikov 2558 Vladimir Chuchelov 2598
2 Gennadi Ginsburg 2537 Christian Seel 2493
3 Vladimir Gurevic 2470 Klaus Bischoff 2561
4 Vadim Chernov 2433 Ilja Zaragatski 2475
5 Erasmus Gerigk 2335 Sebastian Siebrecht 2456
6 Jörg Schwalfenberg 2317 Christian Scholz 2373
7 Hans-Joachim Vatter 2321 Sarah Hoolt 2225
8 Jean-Luc Roos 2260 Jens Kotainy 2243
*Ratings at the beginning of the season
This match and of course all other matches of the Schachbundesliga will be covered live on the internet. At the day of the matches you can get access via the website of the Schachbundesliga.
Here are all matches of the 14th and 15th round of the Schachbundesliga.
Playing venue Bremen
Werder Bremen - SG Solingen
Hamburger SK - SC Remagen
Playing venue Eppingen
SC Eppingen - SV Wattenscheid
SG Trier - SK Turm Emsdetten
Playing venue Erfurt
Erfurter SK - SF Berlin
Bayern München - SK König Tegel
15th round: Sunday, April 11, 2010, 10 am
Playing venue Baden-Baden
SF Katernberg OSG Baden-Baden
1 Vladimir Chuchelov 2598 Alexei Shirov 2730
2 Christian Seel 2493 Etienne Bacrot 2709
3 Klaus Bischoff 2561 Michael Adams 2682
4 Ilja Zaragatski 2475 Arkadij Naiditsch 2685
5 Sebastian Siebrecht 2456 Francisco Vallejo Pons 2696
6 Christian Scholz 2373 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 2664
7 Sarah Hoolt 2225 Jan Gustafsson 2622
8 Jens Kotainy 2243 Rustem Dautov 2596
SV Mülheim Nord SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2718 Viacheslav Ikonnikov 2558
2 Pavel Tregubov 2649 Gennadi Ginsburg 2537
3 Daniel Fridman 2661 Vladimir Gurevic 2470
4 Vitali Golod 2602 Vadim Chernov 2433
5 Alexander Berelowitsch 2551 Erasmus Gerigk 2335
6 Felix Levin 2481 Jörg Schwalfenberg 2317
7 Daniel Hausrath 2528 Hans-Joachim Vatter 2321
8 Gerhard Schebler 2486 Jean-Luc Roos 2260
Playing venue Bremen
SG Solingen - Hamburger SK
SC Remagen - Werder Bremen
Playing venue Eppingen
SV Wattenscheid - SG Trier
SK Turm Emsetten - SC Eppingen
Playing venue Erfurt
SF Berlin - Bayern München
SK König Tegel - Erfurter SK
Live coverage
All games of the Schachbundesliga are covered live in the internet. At the particular date of the matches you can get access to the games via this website.
Bundesliga 0910 | Current Standings
Teams
1. OSC Baden-Baden
1 Anand, Viswanathan GM IND 2788
2 Carlsen, Magnus GM NOR 2772
3 Svidler, Peter GM RUS 2739
4 Shirov, Alexei GM ESP 2732
5 Bacrot, Etienne GM FRA 2721
6 Movsesian, Sergej GM SVK 2716
7 Adams, Michael GM ENG 2699
8 Naiditsch, Arkadij GM GER 2697
9 Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2693
10 Nielsen, Peter-Heine GM DEN 2680
11 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2675
12 Caruana, Fabiano GM ITA 2670
13 Gustafsson, Jan GM GER 2622
14 Dautov, Rustem GM GER 2596
15 Doettling, Fabian GER 2571
16 Schlosser, Philipp GER 2560
17 Dinger, Florian GER 2391
18 Hager, Joshua Aarasch GER 2217
9. SF Katernberg
1 Volokitin, Andrei GM UKR 2678
2 Chuchelov, Vladimir GM BEL 2598
3 Firman, Nazar IM UKR 2571
4 Seel, Christian IM GER 2493
5 Bischoff, Klaus GM GER 2551
6 Halkias, Stelios GM GRE 2564
7 Glek, Igor V GM GER 2528
8 Zaragatski, Ilja IM GER 2472
9 Senff, Martin IM GER 2469
10 Ris, Robert IM NED 2421
11 Thesing, Matthias IM GER 2436
12 Siebrecht, Sebastian GM GER 2458
13 Scholz, Christian IM GER 2373
14 Hoolt, Sarah WIM GER 2240
15 Rosen, Bernd FM GER 2355
16 Geilmann, Ulrich GER 1837
17 Kotainy, Jens GER 2270
2. Werder Bremen
1 Gashimov, Vugar GM AZE 2740
2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar GM AZE 2717
3 McShane, Luke James GM ENG 2620
4 Eljanov, Pavel GM UKR 2716
5 Efimenko, Zahar GM UKR 2654
6 Fressinet, Laurent GM FRA 2667
7 Meier, Georg GM GER 2658
8 Areshchenko, Alexander GM UKR 2651
9 Roiz, Michael GM ISR 2658
10 Nyback, Tomi GM FIN 2627
11 Hracek, Zbynek GM CZE 2608
12 Babula, Vlastimil GM CZE 2566
13 Llaneza Vega, Marcos IM ESP 2521
14 Fish, Gennadij GM GER 2508
15 Skripchenko, Almira IM FRA 2450
16 Knaak, Rainer GM GER 2484
17 Lichman, Peter GER 2317
10. SK Turm Emsdetten
1 Mchedlishvili, Mikheil GM GEO 2592
2 Giri, Anish GM NED 2518
3 Spoelman, Wouter IM NED 2546
4 Hector, Jonny GM SWE 2556
5 Feygin, Michael IM GER 2546
6 Janssen, Ruud IM NED 2527
7 Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2525
8 Bellon Lopez, Juan Manuel GM ESP 2445
9 Brandenburg, Daan IM NED 2463
10 Breder, Dennis IM GER 2435
11 Fiebig, Thomas GER 2426
12 Pruijssers, Roeland IM NED 2401
13 Kabatianski, Alexandr IM GER 2425
14 Richter, Christian FM GER 2417
15 Zumsande, Martin IM GER 2403
16 Bosman, Michiel FM NED 2356
3. SC Eppingen
1 Tiviakov, Sergei GM NED 2674
2 Postny, Evgeny GM ISR 2647
3 Berkes, Ferenc GM HUN 2647
4 Balogh, Csaba GM HUN 2595
5 Gyimesi, Zoltan GM HUN 2591
6 Ruck, Robert GM HUN 2561
7 Acs, Peter GM HUN 2550
8 Braun, Arik GM GER 2529
9 Bindrich, Falko GM GER 2516
10 Medvegy, Zoltan GM HUN 2547
11 Guliyev, Namig GM AZE 2555
12 Muzychuk, Anna IM SLO 2542
13 Paehtz, Elisabeth IM GER 2474
14 Mann, Christian IM GER 2454
15 Vogt, Lothar GM GER 2422
16 Dekan, Hans GER 2179
17 Noe, Christopher GER 1798
11. SF Berlin
1 Nataf, Igor-Alexandre GM FRA 2529
2 Markos, Jan GM SVK 2555
3 Miezis, Normunds GM LAT 2572
4 Lauber, Arnd IM GER 2517
5 Polzin, Rainer GM GER 2491
6 Kraemer, Martin IM GER 2481
7 Schneider, Ilja IM GER 2508
8 Berndt, Stephan IM GER 2442
9 Agopov, Mikail IM FIN 2442
10 Brynell, Stellan GM SWE 2471
11 Thiede, Lars IM GER 2452
12 Thinius, Marco IM GER 2375
13 Degtiarev, Evgeny FM GER 2373
14 Rudolf, Henrik FM GER 2353
15 Wintzer, Joachim Dr. FM GER 2384
16 Lundin, Jan FM SWE 2382
17 Abel, Dennes GER 2328
18 Glantz, Robert GER 2239
4. SV Mülheim-Nord
1 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam GM UZB 2672
2 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime GM FRA 2703
3 Motylev, Alexander GM RUS 2710
4 Tregubov, Pavel V. GM RUS 2652
5 Landa, Konstantin GM RUS 2655
6 Fridman, Daniel GM GER 2665
7 Potkin, Vladimir GM RUS 2619
8 Golod, Vitali GM ISR 2599
9 Malakhatko, Vadim GM BEL 2570
10 Berelovich, Alexander GM GER 2550
11 Levin, Felix GM GER 2491
12 Hausrath, Daniel GM GER 2519
13 Saltaev, Mihail GM UZB 2505
14 Schebler, Gerhard GM GER 2486
15 Litwak, Aleksej FM GER 2268
16 Kaufeld, Juergen FM GER 2274
17 Wittenberg, Andreas GER 2129
18 Kahleys, Kevin GER 1986
12. SG Trier
1 Lupulescu, Constantin GM ROU 2620
2 Bobras, Piotr GM POL 2568
3 Cyborowski, Lukasz GM POL 2498
4 Haslinger, Stewart GM ENG 2538
5 Gordon, Stephen IM ENG 2537
6 Jaracz, Pawel GM POL 2539
7 Erdoes, Viktor GM HUN 2565
8 Flumbort, Andras IM HUN 2507
9 Gonda, Laszlo IM HUN 2499
10 Galyas, Miklos IM HUN 2457
11 Seger, Ruediger IM GER 2405
12 Kolbus, Dietmar IM GER 2383
13 Cioara, Andrei Nestor IM ROU 2437
14 Goriachnik, Dmitry MDA 2324
15 Rat, Dan Ovidiu FM ROU 2315
16 Jeitz, Christian LUX 2221
17 Korman, Maxim GER 2172
5. SG Solingen
1 Stellwagen, Daniel GM NED 2630
2 Smeets, Jan GM NED 2632
3 Nikolic, Predrag GM BIH 2602
4 Buhmann, Rainer GM GER 2603
5 Werle, Jan GM NED 2575
6 Edouard, Romain GM FRA 2597
7 Jussupow, Artur GM GER 2570
8 L'Ami, Erwin GM NED 2593
9 Ragger, Markus GM AUT 2563
10 Ernst, Sipke GM NED 2598
11 Naumann, Alexander GM GER 2522
12 Hoffmann, Michael GM GER 2502
13 Gabriel, Christian GM GER 2507
14 Drabke, Lorenz Maximilian IM GER 2455
15 Wegerle, Joerg IM GER 2430
16 Schaefer, Markus IM GER 2378
17 Hobusch, Alexander GER 2103
18 Hannewald, Anton GER 1931
13. FC Bayern München
1 Bezold, Michael GM GER 2517
2 Bromberger, Stefan IM GER 2510
3 Schenk, Andreas IM GER 2509
4 Marcelin, Cyril GM FRA 2498
5 Boensch, Uwe GM GER 2511
6 Stangl, Markus GM GER 2455
7 Reiss, Tibor IM HUN 2414
8 Renner, Christoph IM GER 2431
9 Belezky, Alexander IM UKR 2446
10 Meissner, Bernd IM GER 2410
11 Meister, Peter IM GER 2396
12 Reich, Thomas IM GER 2368
13 Rodewis, Thomas Dr. GER 2367
14 Unzicker, Ferdinand Dr. GER 2332
15 Deglmann, Ludwig FM GER 2329
16 Lentrodt, Thomas FM GER 2304
17 Jorczik, Julian FM GER 2352
18 Graf, Felix GER 2291
6. Hamburger SK
1 Wojtaszek, Radoslav GM POL 2637
2 Kempinski, Robert GM POL 2601
3 Ghaem, Maghami Ehsan GM IRI 2589
4 Baramidze, David GM GER 2527
5 Adly, Ahmed GM EGY 2548
6 Rogozenco, Dorian GM ROU 2541
7 Hansen, Sune Berg HDEN 2554
8 Rasmussen, Allan Stig GM DEN 2536
9 Ftacnik, Lubomir Dr. GM SVK 2525
10 Mueller, Karsten Dr. GM GER 2523
11 Heinemann, Thies IM GER 2484
12 Chevelevitch, Evgueni Dr. IM GER 2461
13 Reeh, Oliver IM GER 2442
14 Huschenbeth, Niclas IM GER 2416
15 Sebastian, Dirk GER 2443
16 Van Delft, Merijn IM NED 2360
17 Carlstedt, Jonathan GER 2309
18 Bracker, Frank GER 2280
14. Erfurter SK
1 Romanov, Evgeny GM RUS 2589
2 Haba, Petr GM CZE 2533
3 Michiels, Bart IM BEL 2451
4 Kuczynski, Robert GM POL 2505
5 Casper, Thomas IM GER 2395
6 Votava, Jan GM CZE 2561
7 Enders, Peter GM GER 2467
8 Mueller, Matthias IM GER 2410
9 Voekler, Bernd FM GER 2393
10 Schoene, Maria WIM GER 2274
11 Troyke, Christian IM GER 2350
12 Schuetze, Norman GER 2278
13 Brueggemann, Joachim IM GER 2356
14 Krueger, Rainer Dr. GER 2211
15 Troyke, Doreen WFM GER 2105
16 Duzy, Stefan GER 1545
17 Friedt, Marius GER 1885
7. SV Wattenscheid
1 Vitiugov, Nikita GM RUS 2681
2 Najer, Evgeniy GM RUS 2663
3 Macieja, Bartlomiej GM POL 2612
4 Bartel, Mateusz GM POL 2619
5 Czarnota, Pawel GM POL 2530
6 Rustemov, Alexander GM RUS 2532
7 Johannessen, Leif Erlend GM NOR 2553
8 Appel, Ralf GM GER 2552
9 Holzke, Frank Dr. GM GER 2526
10 Handke, Florian GM GER 2513
11 Souleidis, Georgios IM GRE 2435
12 Dinstuhl, Volkmar Dr. IM GER 2417
13 Tereick, Benjamin FM GER 2378
14 Straeter, Timo FM GER 2347
15 Thiel, Thomas FM GER 2280
16 Gohla, Ulf GER 2181
17 Koerber, Matthias GER 1898
15. SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
1 Ikonnikov, Viacheslav GM RUS 2556
2 Svetushkin, Dmitry GM MDA 2607
3 Ginsburg, Gennadi GM GER 2537
4 Gurevic, Vladimir GM UKR 2470
5 Chernov, Vadim IM ROU 2433
6 Solomunovic, Igor IM GER 2421
7 Gerigk, Erasmus FM GER 2335
8 Schwalfenberg, Joerg FM GER 2317
9 Maier, Christian IM GER 2347
10 Vatter, Hans-Joachim FM GER 2302
11 Syska, Albert FM GER 2268
12 Nippgen, Georg GER 2272
13 Roos, Jean-Luc IM FRA 2250
14 Neunhoeffer, Helmut Dr FM GER 2281
15 Pielmeier, Thomas GER 2231
16 Schott, Reimund FRA 2019
8. SC Remagen
1 Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2703
2 Fedorchuk, Sergey GM UKR 2655
3 Gharamian, Tigran GM FRA 2615
4 Goloshchapov, Alexander GM UKR 2580
5 Parligras, Mircea GM ROU 2557
6 Huebner, Robert Dr. GM GER 2605
7 Degraeve, Jean-Marc GM FRA 2559
8 Dgebuadze, Alexandre GM BEL 2516
9 Mainka, Romuald GM GER 2521
10 Swinkels, Robin IM NED 2516
11 Teske, Henrik GM GER 2536
12 Popovic, Petar GM SRB 2496
13 Polaczek, Richard IM BEL 2381
14 Kipper, Jens GER 2393
15 Schulz, Klaus-Juergen IM GER 2385
16 Bok, Benjamin FM NED 2360
16. SK König Tegel
1 Rabiega, Robert GM GER 2551
2 Stern, Rene IM GER 2498
3 Muse, Mladen GM CRO 2448
4 Von Herman, Ulf IM GER 2400
5 Muse, Drazen IM CRO 2374
6 Fruebing, Stefan FM GER 2305
7 Tomczak, Rainer FM GER 2287
8 Mielitz, Heinz GER
9 Sarbok, Torsten FM GER 2319
10 Breier, Andreas FM GER 2405
11 Giemsa, Stephan FM GER 2301
12 Jahnz, Fabian GER 2191
13 Jaehnisch, Frank GER 2230
14 Roth, Josef GER 2152
15 Schulz, Stefanie GER 2109
16 Rausch, Manfred GER 1689
17 Kachibadze, Georg GER 2224
64 (Moscow) leads in Dagomys, meets St Petersburg today
Chess Club “64″ from Moscow is the favourite to win the Russian Team Championship. The team with Boris Gelfand on first board leads with a 2-point margin. They play their nearest rival today, St Petersburg, whose women’s team won already. Again we selected 14 games and annotated them.
The 17th Russian Team Championship takes place from April 1st to 10th in hotel complex “Dagomys”, close to Sochim Russia. Play starts daily at 15:00 local time which is 13:00 CET (GMT/UTC +3) with a rest day on April 6th. The rate of play is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 10 minutes to end the game with 30 seconds increment for each move.
The “Premier League” is a single round-robin consisting of ten teams, with no less than three of the nine teams have an average rating of 2700 or higher. The lineups:
After the rest day on Tuesday, the Russian Team Championship resumed on Wednesday with the 6th round. Co-leader “64″ from Moscow continued strongly with a 4.5-1.5 victory over Economist 1. Karjakin defeated former compatriot Eljanov to reach a score of 4/5. Wang Hao (also 64) beat Tomashevsky and Riazantsev deafeted Ni Hua; the other three games ended in draws, including Gelfand-Wang Yue. St Petersburg lost a tough match against Ural 3.5-2.5, where all games ended in a draw except for Ponkratov-Zvjaginsev, where Black sacrificed a rook on c3 in a Sicilian but couldn’t get enough compensation.
The next day 64 won their sixth match, a 1-5 victory over the Chigorin Chess Club, to reach a score of 13 match points. St Petersburg recoved with a narrow 3.5-2.5 win against Yugra, with a theoretically important victory for Ivanchuk against Grischuk’s Najdorf (Poisened Pawn).
Russian Team Ch 2010 | Premier League | Round 7 Standings
Today, in the 8th round, the big clash between number one “64″ and St Petersburg is scheduled, with the following games: Gelfand-Ivanchuk, Karjakin-Svidler, Wang Hao-Vitiugov, Caruana-Movsesian, Grachev-Zvjaginsev and Savchenko-Efimenko. Number three Economist plays the Chigorin Chess Club.
In the women’s section the Championship only lasted seven rounds. In the decisive last round, St Petersburg overtook Giprorechtrans with a 2.5-3.5 victory and so the team led by Cmilyte and Socko finished 1 match point ahead.
Campionato russo a squadre: diretta del VIII turno
VIII turno Movsesian - Caruana 1/2
la squadra di Fabiano ad un passo dal titolo
domani IX ed ultimo turno Live h. 13
Dopo il turno di riposo concesso dal suo capitano nel settimo turno, Fabiano Caruana torna in pista nell'ottavo e penultimo turno della "Premier League" del Campionato Russo che prevede lo scontro diretto tra la squadra di Fabiano e l'SPb Chess Fed di Ivanchuk e Svidler, sfida che probabilmente sarà decisiva per le sorti di questo Campionato. Il nostro portacolori se la vedrà con il Grande Maestro slovacco Sergei Movsesian.
Nel frattempo si è conclusa l'11esima edizione del Campionato Russo a squadre Femminile che ha visto la vittoria del SPb Chess Fed della Cmilyte e della Socko. Delusione per le favorite della vigilia dell'AVS (Stefanova, Anna e Mariya Muzycuk e Pogonina), giunte solo terze.
Cmilyte, Socko, Ketevan, Atalik e Bodnaruk, le vincitrici del campionato femminile
Movsesian, Sergei (SVK, 2705) - Caruana, Fabiano (ITA, 2680) 17th Capionato russo a squadre, Premier League. VIII turno. Dagomys (Sochi/Russia), 09.04.2010 1. e4 c5 2. Cf3 d6 3. Ab5+ Ad7 4. Axd7+ Dxd7 5. c4 Cf6 6. Cc3 g6 7. d4 cxd4 8. Cxd4 Ag7 9. h3 Dc7 10. b3 Da5 11. Ad2 Cxe4 12. Cxe4 De5 13. Db1 f5 14. Ac3 Dxe4+ 15. Qxe4 fxe4 16. Cb5 Axc3+ 17. Cxc3 Rf8 18. Cxe4 tutto come la Movsesian - Dominguez Perez 1/2 Corus A 2009 18.. Ca6 Dominguez Perez sviluppò il cavallo in c6 . Lo sviluppo del cavallo in a6, anche se dopo qualche mossa, si ebbe nella partita Stevic - Predojevic 1/2, campionato sloveno a squadre del 2009. 19. Td1 Tf520. 0-0 adesso con 20...Rd7 si rientrerebbe nella partita del campionato sloveno citata, che subito dopo terminò con una patta d'accordo 1/2 una patta veloce per Fabiano che ha indovinato la preparazione casalinga della partita
l'avversario odierno di Caruana
VIII turno gli incontri della squadra di Caruana
4
3
[28.5]
ShSM-64
3-3
SPb Chess Fed
[26.5]
6
1
[3.0]
2750
Gelfand, Boris
1/2
Ivanchuk, Vassily
2748
[3.0]
1
2
[4.0]
2725
Karjakin, Sergey
1/2
Svidler, Peter
2750
[3.5]
2
3
[3.0]
2715
Wang, Hao
1/2
Vitiugov, Nikita
2710
[3.5]
3
4
[3.5]
2680
Caruana, Fabiano
1/2
Movsesian, Sergei
2709
[4.5]
4
5
[2.5]
2667
Grachev, Boris
1/2
Zvjaginsev, Vadim
2643
[3.0]
5
8
[3.0]
2652
Savchenko, Boris
1/2
Efimenko, Zahar
2640
[4.5]
6
Classifica dopo 8 turni
Place
SNo.
Team
Local
Match Points
Total
vs+
Wins
B.1
1
3
ShSM-64
2700
14.0
31.5
8;9;2;10;4;5;
6
4.5
2
4
Economist-SGSEU - 1
2704
12.0
30.5
7;9;2;10;5;
5
6.0
3
6
SPb Chess Fed
2700
12.0
29.5
5;10;7;9;2;
5
4.0
4
2
Yugra
2689
10.0
26.5
9;1;10;5;7;
5
4.5
5
1
Ural
2618
9.0
25.5
10;6;7;
3
5.0
6
8
Tomsk-400
2687
8.0
26.0
10;9;
2
4.5
7
9
Etude-Contact
2555
6.0
22.5
5;7;10;
3
5.0
8
5
M.Chigorin Chess Club
2584
6.0
19.5
7;8;1;
3
3.0
9
7
Economist-SGSEU - 2
2548
3.0
16.5
10;
1
2.5
10
10
BelGU
2493
0.0
12.0
0
1.0
Classifica Finale del campionato femminile
Place
SNo.
Team
Local
Match Points
Total
vs+
Wins
B.1
1
1
SPb Chess Fed
2461
9.0
15.0
2;3;5;7;
4
4.0
2
7
Giprorechtrans
2409
8.0
13.0
2;4;5;
3
3.0
3
4
AVS
2507
7.0
14.5
1;2;3;
3
4.0
4
6
ShSM
2448
6.0
13.0
5;
1
3.0
5
3
Economist-SGSEU
2446
6.0
11.5
2;5;
2
3.5
6
5
Dvorets
2294
3.0
9.0
4;
1
1.5
7
2
M.Chigorin Chess Club
2296
3.0
8.0
6;
1
2.0
Regolamento
I dieci Team si affrontano in un girone all'italiana di sola andata. Le sfide si disputano su sei scacchiere.
Calendario si gioca dal 1 al 10 aprile. Unico giorno di riposo il 6. Inizio delle partite previsto per le ore 15 locali (13 in Italia)
Tempo di riflessione 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 30" di incremento per mosse dalla prima mossa
La squadra di Fabiano travolge i favoriti dell' Economist e balza in testa
VII turno primo turno di riposo per Caruana
Ivanchuk-Grischuk 1-0
Jakovenko- Svidler 1/2
Il capitano del ShSM-64 ha concesso a Fabiano Caruana un giorno di riposo nel 7° turno della "Premier League" del Campionato Russo a squadre che si disputa oggi a Dagomys, nei pressi di Sochi, sul Mar Nero. Ieri, nel 6° turno, il nostro portacolori ha pattato con il Grande Maestro russo Alekseev. Domani, nell' 8° e penultimo turno, la squadra di Caruana affronterà l' SPb Chess Fed di Ivanchuk e Svidler, scontro diretto che probabilmente sarà decisivo per le sorti di questo Campionato.
The team of the St Petersburg Chess Federation and Chess Club “64″ from Moscow are sharing the lead at the Russian Team Championship. After five rounds the two teams scored 9 match points. We selected 14 games and annotated many of them.
The 17th Russian Team Championship takes place from April 1st to 10th in hotel complex “Dagomys”, close to Sochim Russia. Play starts daily at 15:00 local time which is 13:00 CET (GMT/UTC +3) with a rest day on April 6th. The rate of play is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 10 minutes to end the game with 30 seconds increment for each move.
The “Premier League” is a single round-robin consisting of ten teams, with no less than three of the nine teams have an average rating of 2700 or higher. The lineups:
The 4th round saw a tough fight between reigning champions Tomsk-400 and St Petersburg which ended in 3-3. Ponomariov defeated Ivanchuk on board one, but Tomsk’s Movsesian beat Kurnosov to level the score. Ural and Economist also drew 3-3, while “64″ defeated Yugra 2-4. In round 5 “64″ continued strongly with a 5-1 victory over BelGu while St Petersburg won 3.5-2.5 against Etude-Contact. Tomsk-400 was held 3-3 by Economist-2.
Today is a rest day in Dagomys. In round 6 St Petersburg meets Ural, while “64″ plays Economist 1. The 8th round will see the clash between the current leading teams.
Russian Team Ch 2010 | Premier League | Round 5 Standings
Working on an update of the Russian Team Championship, we came across a marvelous game. A game between two current Russian kings of chess: Ian Nepomniachtchi, the reigning European Champion, and Alexander Grischuk, the winner of the Amber Blindfold tournament. Besides, in this game both kings played an important role. Enjoy a thorough analysis.
The 17th Russian Team Championship takes place from April 1st to 10th in hotel complex “Dagomys”, close to Sochim Russia. Play starts daily at 15:00 local time which is 13:00 CET (GMT/UTC +3) with a rest day on April 6th. The rate of play is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 10 minutes to end the game with 30 seconds increment for each move.
The “Premier League” is a single round-robin consisting of ten teams, with no less than three of the nine teams have an average rating of 2700 or higher. The lineups:
After three rounds Yugra (Khanty-Masniysk) and the team of the St Petersburg Chess Federation lead with three victories; the latter has collected most board points so far.
Russian Team Ch 2010 | Premier League | Round 3 Standings
Below is the game we mentioned in the lead of the article. A great fight.
Si disputa oggi a Dagomys, nei pressi di Sochi sul Mar Nero, il quarto turno della "Premier League" del Campionato Russo a squadre, competizione che per il secondo anno consecutivo annovera tra i propri protagonisti il nostro Fabiano Caruana. Quest'oggi il nostro portacolori se la vedrà con il russo Sergei Rublevsky
After three rounds out of nine in the Russian Club Cup in Sochi, the men's premier event is being led by the SPb chess federation team headed by Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Svidler (pictured).
After three out of seven rounds the women's event is c...
Today the 17th Russian Team Championship takes off. In the mens’ section ten teams play a round-robin of nine rounds; the women’s section has seven teams. Favourites in the men’s section are Economist (with Wang Yue and Eljanov on top boards), 64 (with Gelfand and Karjakin), St Petersburg (with Ivanchuk and Svidler) and reigning champs Tomsk-400 (with Ponomariov and Motylev).
The Russian Team Championship takes place from April 1st to 10th with a rest day on the 6th. The men’s section has a “Major League” and a “Premier League”; the women’s section is called “Major League” as well. The Premier League has been put back from seven rounds last year to nine rounds this year.
The championship takes place in Sochi, Russia – the city where the 2nd FIDE Grand Prix tournament was held, and which has been selected to be the host of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014. It’s a resort city situated in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, just north of the northern Republic of Georgia border and the southern Russian border fronting the Black Sea.
The championship is held in hotel complex “Dagomys”. Dagomys is a microraion of Sochi, located about 18 km north of the city centre. It’s known for its resorts, vacation spots and tea plantations. It was developed as a resort since before the Russian Revolution, when a botanical garden was founded by order of Nicholas II. The hotel complex was opened there in 1982.
In the Premier League no less than three of the nine teams have an average rating of 2700 or higher. The lineups:
The women’s section has seven teams this year. The strongest teams are SPb Chess Fed (with Cmilyte, Socko and Arakhamia-Grant), Economist-SGSEU (Zhao Xue, Ushenina), AVS (Stefanova, Muzychuk) and ShSM (Kosteniuk, Kovalevskaya). Apparently the Kosintseva sisters don’t participate.
Play starts 15:00 local time which is 13:00 CET (GMT/UTC +3). The rate of play is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 10 minutes to end the game with 30 seconds increment for each move.
We return once more to the 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, which finished a few days ago. The final round was a thrilling affair, and the closing ceremony a pleasant one, when both Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus gave a brief speech. Final video.
The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament took place at the Palais de la Mediterranée in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event was 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 took 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).
Magnus Carlsen overcomes queen blunder to record Amber win | Leonard Barden
The world No1, Magnus Carlsen, lost his queen to a one-move blunder on Thursday, but still notched up another important tournament victory.
The annual Amber tournament sponsored by the computer millionaire Joop van Oosterom is the most opulent occasion on the grandmaster calendar. The invitees stay and play at a top Nice hotel and compete for a near-£200,000 prize fund. Half the games are blindfold, with the players seated in front of computer screens showing just an empty chessboard and notation for the opponent's last move, and half are rapid chess, one hour for the whole game. World ranking points are not at stake.
The blindfold games used to be replete with oversights, but in recent years the event has become more competitive and mistakes fewer. So Carlsen's megablunder against Alexander Grischuk was untypical, and the 19-year-old Norwegian then won the rapid against the Russian in style to share first prize. Final leading scores were Carlsen and Vasily Ivanchuk 14.5/22, Vlad Kramnik 13, Grischuk 12.5.
Significantly, Carlsen has developed a maximalist streak, grinding out points from tiny advantages in the miserly tradition of Bobby Fischer and Carlsen's mentor Garry Kasparov, who both preferred to work for hours rather than concede draws to lesser lights.
Ivanchuk, a veteran at 41, has competed in all 19 Ambers but this was his finest performance. He began by crushing Carlsen 2-0 and played all 22 rounds unbeaten, a remarkable feat for the tactical melees of rapid and blindfold.
This game features the same Grunfeld Defence line as last week, but White's play here is much more convincing as Carlsen sprang the bomb 10 Qd5! (book is 10 Qb3) followed by switching his queen to king side attack, an idea which looked straight out Kasparov's secret database.
Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk shared first place at the Amber tournament in Nice. Carlsen blundered a full queen in his blindold game against Alexander Grischuk, but then won the rapid game convincingly. Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Boris Gelfand 1.5-0.5 to join the Norwegian in first place in the combined standings. There’s no sole winner; the two share first prize.
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).
Carlsen and Ivanchuk win 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament
The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament has ended in an overall victory for Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Ukraine’s Vasily Ivanchuk. In the 11th and final round Ivanchuk caught up with Carlsen thanks to a 1½-½ victory over Boris Gelfand. In the rapid session Carlsen had to defeat Alexander Grischuk to assemble the same number of points as Ivanchuk after he had dropped his queen in the blindfold game. Alexander Grischuk won the blindfold section one and a half point ahead of Carlsen, Ivanchuk and Kramnik. In the rapid section Carlsen and Ivanchuk finished on top together.
The blindfold game between Vugar Gashimov and Peter Svidler ended in a draw by threefold repetition, but also saw both players drop a pawn at quite different moments in the game. Gashimov sacrificed a pawn in the opening because he believed that he could win Black’s queen, but once that ‘moment’ arrived he realized that after 21.b4 Qxb4 22.Bd2 Black has the simple 22…Qa4 and no queen is lost. After that oversight Svidler was a healthy pawn up and winning until it was his turn to throw a pawn for nothing. Slightly low on time he erred with 40…Nb6 (correct was 40…Bd8 41.Bb2 Bc7) and was immediately punished for his oversight (if you can call it that way in a blindfold game) by 41.Bxf7+. In the ensuing situation White had the better chances, but when Gashimov didn’t exploit them optimally the game ended in a draw.
With a further draw in the rapid game Svidler was happy that he finished on plus-1, which means that now his overall Amber score is positive as well (he started the event with 22 points from 44 games played in two previous Ambers). In the opening Gashimov simplified into a position that Svidler was quite pleased with. When on move 17 he put his knight on d6, he believed he was much better, but actually this knight didn’t bring him much at all. Still, he got the clearly better position when Black committed some inaccuracies and after 28…Rc8, a remarkable position arose in which White had an extra pawn, but Black a threatening front of central passed pawns. The position remained complicated, but as Svidler summed up the final moves ‘it seems to be a draw tempo by tempo’.
In their blindfold game Leinier Dominguez played an opening line against Levon Aronian that the Armenian had been studying recently with the intention to play it as White! Perhaps that was the reason why afterwards the Armenian grandmaster could easily point out the mistakes his Cuban colleague made. To begin with the only move with which White can play for an advantage is 10.e4, as all other tries are fine for Black. It would also have been safer for Dominguez to exchange queens himself and on move 13, it would have been better to look for play with 13.g4. And next 16.a3 had to be played as White was simply lost after 16.Bg2. However, Aronian also made a slip, when he missed that he could have won immediately with 18…Rfd8+ 19.Kb1 Ba3! Fortunately for him the idea was still winning one move later, after which the rest was easy.
The rapid game seemed to be giving Dominguez good chances for his first win, but it wasn’t to be. In the opening Aronian believed he was repeating a Kramnik game from the 1993 Amber tournament, but his memory wasn’t entirely clear. In hindsight he believed his move 19.Bxd4 was too optimistic (a move like 19.Na4 was called for) and from that moment onwards he was slightly worse. He got optimistic again when he managed to stir up counterplay, but it was not enough. As he remarked with a resigned expression: ‘You can’t win if you’re opponent has a passed a-pawn.’
Ruslan Ponomariov and Jan Smeets played an Exchange Slav in their blindfold game in which Black got a backward pawn that he compensated by active play. This play might have been even more active if he had interpolated 26…Qb8 to challenge White’s weakness on g3 (White therefore continues 27.f4), but as it went chances remained balanced. White might have stirred up complications with 30.Qxa1 Qxe3+ 31.Kd1 Bd3, but when he didn’t go for this possibility the game was soon drawn.
The rapid game was a lively exchange of exchange sacrifices, that ended to Ponomariov’s advantage when the third exchange sacrifice lacked punch. Smeets got a pleasant position from the opening and his first exchange sacrifice had its merits in view of Black’s fractured pawn-structure. Nevertheless he preferred to call it ‘completely nonsensical’ after the game. Still, his game improved when Ponomariov felt forced to give back the exchange and this improved position even inspired Smeets to sacrifice another exchange. However, as said, it was hard to explain its strength and without too much effort Black hauled in the point.
Boris Gelfand was confronted by an interesting novelty in his blindfold game against Vasily Ivanchuk. In a well-known position the Ukrainian grandmaster introduced an inspired exchange sacrifice. Commenting on the game Gelfand said that it was hard to say if Black’s compensation was fully sufficient or not, but in any case it was easier to play the black position, particularly in a blindfold game. In the game Gelfand looked hard to find ways to exploit his material advantage, but when he failed to see a concrete way to make progress he accepted a draw by a repetition of moves on move 33.
The rapid game saw a Petroff with 5.c3 that soon got very complicated. Gelfand seemed to be in control, but Ivanchuk was relentless and whipped up a devastating attack that crashed through in only 32 moves.
‘It’s getting hot all of a sudden’, commented Vladimir Kramnik after he had won the blindfold game against Sergey Karjakin, obviously referring to the overall standings that suddenly also offered chances for him again. The game was a repeat of their last-round encounter in this year’s Corus tournament, with Kramnik deviating with 14.Nb5. On his next turn he introduced a novelty, 19.Bg5, which proved a pretty strong improvement. After the bishops had been exchanged ‘things were no longer funny for Black’ as Kramnik put it. In fact he believed that from this moment onwards White was winning and although Karjakin managed to create some counterchances he thought that that assessment held true for the rest of the game. ‘A rather clean game’, he concluded with a satisfied smile.
In the rapid game Kramnik fought for his last chance with a Pirc. Not hiding his intentions he sacrificed a knight for two pawns, but he failed to shock Karjakin, who called the sacrifice ‘dubious’. White got a slightly better position, but he needed to make some precise moves to really shake off the black pressure, such as 21.Nc3 and 22.Ra4. Gradually Karjakin took over the initiative and decided the game in a fierce kingside attack.
The blindfold game between Alexander Grischuk and Magnus Carlsen, the leader and runner-up in the blindfold standings, took a dramatic turn when the Norwegian believed that his opponent’s queen was on a different square. Till that point he had conducted an excellent game and had gradually outplayed Grischuk on the black side of a King’s Indian. If instead of 23…Qh4 Carlsen had played 23…Qf6, White would have faced a tough task after 24.Qd2 Qd4 and White can barely move. But Carlsen believed White’s queen was on d2 and thought he was capturing an unprotected pawn on e4. Once he realized this was not so there was no choice but to resign.
In the rapid game Carlsen was happy with the position he got from the opening. He didn’t obtain a real advantage, but it was ‘complicated enough’. And he felt that his position was easier to play, which he proved in the middlegame when he managed to create a serious advantage. By the time Ivanchuk won his rapid game against Gelfand and walked over to have a brief look at Carlsen’s game, the Ukrainian grandmaster understood that he and Carlsen were going to be the joint winners of the 19th Amber tournament.
Le tournoi d'échecs Melody Amber 2010 se tient du 13 au 25 mars au Palais de la Méditerranée à Nice.
Fin en apothéose pour les deux champions d'échecs qui se sont relayés en tête tout au long de la compétition niçoise. L'Ukrainien Vassily Ivanchuk et le Norvégien Magnus Carlsen finissent ex aequo à la première place. Le Russe Vladimir Kramnik monte sur la 3ème marche du podium.
Magnus Carlsen today reclaimed first place in the overall standings of the Amber tournament with a 2-0 win over Ruslan Ponomariov. With one round to go the Norwegian grandmaster is half a point ahead of Vasily Ivanchuk, who drew twice with Vladimir Kramnik.
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).
Carlsen back on top with one round to go
In round 10 of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Magnus Carlsen reclaimed first place in the overall standings with a 2-0 win over Ruslan Ponomariov. With one round and two games to go, the Norwegian grandmaster is half a point ahead of Vasily Ivanchuk and one and a half points ahead of Vladimir Kramnik. Ivanchuk and Kramnik drew their mini-match today after two hard-fought games. Tomorrow in the last round Carlsen (13½) plays Grischuk (11½). Ivanchuk (13) is paired against Gelfand (11), while Kramnik (12) faces Karjakin (11). Round 11 starts two hours earlier than normal: at 12.30 hrs.
The blindfold game between Levon Aronian and Alexander Grischuk saw a sad end when the Russian champion lost on time in a level position, because he had briefly forgotten about the position of his queen. In the final position, believing his queen was on d5, he tried to play 38…Rc5, a move that obviously was not possible with the queen on c6. Grischuk still had 14 seconds on his clock when he made his first attempt. Realizing there was something wrong he tried to exchange queens, but the move 38…Qd5xb5 was not possible either. He didn’t get a third chance to find out the position of his pieces as his time expired. An unfortunate turn of events for the leader in the blindfold rankings, as up that point he had played well. Very well, even, in the eyes of Aronian, who was duly impressed by Grischuk’s clever 29…Ba7 giving the pawn on d5, a material deficit that he quickly corrected after 31…Nf6. Grischuk admitted that it had indeed been a clever ploy, but he was also honest enough to reveal that in actual fact he had really blundered the pawn and that he was just lucky to recover it so easily. But that luck soon ran out.
The rapid game was an interesting Catalan that seemed to give White good play. A critical moment appeared on move 27, when Grischuk could have pushed 27.d5 obtaining a potentially dangerous passed pawn. When he let that opportunity go by, Aronian equalized quite comfortably.
In the fight for the last place Jan Smeets seemed to be doing very well in the blindfold game when Leinier Dominguez ‘didn’t know what he was doing in the opening’. Dominguez got a clearly worse position in which he was two pawns down. The only chance he saw was to play fast and hope that Smeets would once again end up in time-trouble. Indeed the Dutch grandmaster took his time for his moves and Dominguez saw his hopes to stay in the game come true. After 63 moves of mainly defending he saved the draw. A heroic role was played by Black’s knight on d6 that set up an impressive blockade.
In the rapid game Smeets did win and one might say that he was rewarded for brave play. In an Open Ruy he chose an aggressive approach with 12…g5 and even more audacious was his castling queenside. As might be expected White tried to break open the queenside and aim for the black king, but the black queenside front was firm and strong and actually more menacing than its white counterparts. As Dominguez discovered when his position collapsed after Black’s 40th move.
Magnus Carlsen scored a relatively uncomplicated win against Ruslan Ponomariov in their blindfold game. The Ukrainian more or less dug his own grave when he opened his kingside position with 21…g4. With White’s bishop pair and most of his pieces ready to jump at the Black’s king this was indeed a poorly judged advance. Or, as Carlsen out it: ‘Once the position opens you can immediately see who is mating who.’ White’s attack grew almost by itself and on move 41 Ponomariov had seen enough.
The rapid game was quite a different affair. ‘It pays off to play on’, said with a grin, when he walked into the hospitality lounge after he had ground down Ponomariov in 102 moves. In a Grünfeld Defence he had been slightly worse for a long time, but he kept looking for chances. These finally came in the endgame, a rook ending with both players having four pawns on the kingside. Carlsen explained that he had some practice with exactly this ending as he had played it four years ago in Norway. At that time he had to work out the principles himself, now he already had some essential knowledge. His first step forward he made when he managed to isolate White’s e-pawn. But it was still a far way from a win and much more manoeuvring was required. Carlsen kept plodding on, and bit by bit he achieved what he was looking for. Of course he should be praised for his perseverance, but it also must be said that Ponomariov put up feeble resistance.
The longest game of the day was the blindfold encounter between Vasily Ivanchuk and Vladimir Kramnik, a key game between the tournament leader and one of his main rivals. The game lasted 112 moves and more than two hours (and thus seriously delayed the start of the first rapid session). At first Kramnik had no problems at all in his favourite Petroff Defence, but a couple of inaccuracies on the Russian’s part combined with Ivanchuk’s fighting spirit led to a big advantage for the Ukrainian phenomenon. White’s passed pawns forced Kramnik to give up a piece for two pawns and now the question was whether this ending was won for Ivanchuk. After the game Kramnik exchanged views with a host of grandmasters in the hospitality lounge and opined that to his mind it was an ‘absolute draw, but unpleasant to defend’. Not everyone was convinced, but definite conclusions were not reached. Ivanchuk stated that he had thrown away his winning chances with 49.h4, ‘a terrible move’. Of course he was right, but frustrated by this missed chance he kept playing on and only accepted a draw in a rook and knight versus rook endgame more than sixty moves later.
The rapid game was also a gritty fight and this time it was Kramnik who got the winning chances. At least that was his opponent’s conviction after he had managed to escape with a draw. Ivanchuk indicated 18…bxc5 as a critical moment where he had to calculate a lot. He gave up an exchange for a pawn and from that moment onwards he had to work hard to earn a precious half point. Which he managed after 46 moves, leaving him the only player in the tournament who has not yet lost a single game.
Peter Svidler was ‘reasonably satisfied’ after his blindfold encounter with Boris Gelfand, as he felt he had played an interesting game (even if the ultimate result was only a draw). And he held a promising position for most of the game. Gelfand was critical of his move 13…Nf8 as with 14.c5 White scored an important triumph in the fight for the f4-square. But there were various dangers looming (such as 13…dxc4 14.0-0-0 b5, trying to hold on to the pawn and Black will not survive long after 15.Bh5). Svidler was optimistic and believed that the sacrifice 24.Rxg6+ would lead to a winning attack, but in fact Black could stay afoot with careful play. The ending also looked very promising for him, but he had missed 40…f3 and now White’s pawns are too fragmented to offer real winning chances.
In the rapid game Svidler got the opportunity to play his umpteenth Grünfeld Defence and as it is his specialty he obviously had no objections. Certainly after Gelfand missed 20…Bh6 which effectively cost him a pawn. And in case you wonder if White could have prevented losing this pawn with 24.axb5 then the following line will show you that this was not the case: 24…axb5 25.Rxa8+ Bxa8 26.Kf2 Nd5 and the pawn goes anyway (27.Nf1 Rxe2+). A pawn down Gelfand kept trying to save the game, but Svidler didn’t falter and gained the full point after 75 moves.
Sergey Karjakin and Vugar Gashimov showed a good sense of Amber history in their blindfold when they repeated the queen sacrifice with which Vasily Ivanchuk baffled the spectators two years ago. Of course, at the time ‘Mr Amber’ also baffled his opponent, who happened to be … Karjakin. Well, actually Karjakin hadn’t specifically prepared it for his occasion (and neither had Gashimov), but stumbled into it as he hadn’t expected his opponent to play the Najdorf. In the past two years the knowledge about this variation has grown rapidly and the general consensus is that Black should be fine. That assessment was confirmed by this further example, as the game ended in a draw by repetition on move 25.
The rapid game also saw a theoretical discussion, with Karjakin taking on the role of Grischuk who recently has played three games in this line of the Najdorf Poisoned Pawn with 8.Qd3 against Gashimov. The new move was played by Gashimov, who tried 18.0-0, where he played 18.Rf1 against Grischuk. Karjakin reacted correctly with 18…d5 and after a series of exchanges the game ended in a draw by perpetual check.
In round 9 of the Amber tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk defended first place in the overall standings with two draws against Vugar Gashimov. With two rounds to go the Ukrainian grandmaster has a half-point lead over Magnus Carlsen, who defeated Leinier Dominguez of Cuba 1½-½.
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).
Carlsen closes in on tournament leader Ivanchuk
In round 9 of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk defended first place in the overall standings with two draws against Vugar Gashimov. With two rounds and four games to go the Ukrainian grandmaster has a half-point lead over Magnus Carlsen, who defeated Leinier Dominguez of Cuba 1½-½. Vladimir Kramnik also improved his position, moving into third place, half a point behind Carlsen and one full point behind Ivanchuk. Kramnik shares third place with Alexander Grischuk, who defeated Jan Smeets 2-0. In round 10 Ivanchuk plays Kramnik, while Carlsen faces Ponomariov. Grischuk meets Aronian.
Following a day of relaxation the players returned to work today for round 9. Unfortunately the second free day was not a perfect day to enjoy the attractions of the Palais de la Méditerranée (the outdoor swimming pool, for example) or of Nice in general (the beach, for example) as the sun was barely seen and the sky was mainly cloudy with occasional showers pouring down. The ‘official program’ offered two ‘excursions’, the traditional laser game and a guided tour through Baroque Nice. Only few players joined the guided walk, but as always the enthusiasm for the laser game was heart-warming. All participants showed great fighting spirit, but in all honesty the true stars of the event were Peter Svidler’s wife Olga and John Nunn’s son Michael. But all that was well forgotten when this afternoon at 14.30 hrs the clocks were started again (while outside the sun had returned with a vengeance attracting a considerable crowd to the beach!).
The blindfold game between Vugar Gashimov and Vasily Ivanchuk was a brief fierce cash that ended in perpetual check after 30 moves. White grew optimistic when he obtained a beautiful space advantage and could freely push his pawns to g5 and f5. And after the inspired 22.Nc5 Gasimov felt he was winning. He still felt this way after the game, even if in the final position he had not seen a way to proceed. But he believed a remark from a colleague in the hospitality lounge who opined that he could have played for a win with 28.Kg2 Rc6 29.Qd5+ Kc8 30.Rxc4 and Black is indeed in trouble. However, when Gashimov had a brief look at the position with a computer, he immediately found the considerably stronger 28…Qd4 and concluded with some relief that he had not missed a golden chance to inflict Ivanchuk’s first defeat and that it was a draw after all.
The rapid game was a balanced positional act in which pieces were exchanged in rapid succession. On move 38, when both players had only one knight and five pawns left, the game ended in a draw by repetition of moves.
Vladimir Kramnik steered clear of all Grünfeld main line theory against Peter Svidler (‘Apparently he is impressed by my Grünfeld skills’) and opted for a sound but harmless approach. Black had many ways to equalize, but as Svidler put it, he still managed to create some problems for himself. Problems which he next managed to solve. One of the improvements he indicated was 21…f6 to put his bishop on f7. And a possible improvement for White that he suggested was 24. Qd4 Kg8 25.e5. Kramnik had been under the impression that on move 29 he could play 29.Rd6 as on 29…Bxb3 30.Qxb3 Qxe5 he briefly believed that he could go 31.Qe3, but when the moment arrived he spotted that this would hit on the embarrassing 31…Qa1+ and he loses his queen. A few moves later there was little to fight for anymore and the players agreed on a draw.
The rapid game was a painful loss for Svidler. In a fashionable variation that Kramnik called ‘slightly difficult for Black but playable’, he committed a big strategic mistake when he pushed his pawn to f6 on move 20 and robbed himself of all play. The rest of the game Kramnik described as easy, he only needed to remain concentrated and choose the right moment to break through on the queenside. Once he broke through White lost material and soon had to resign.
The blindfold game between Boris Gelfand and Sergey Karjakin only took half an hour and 18 moves, but it did contain a small story. They repeated a game played by their seconds, Maxim Rodshtein and Alexander Motylev at the recent Aeroflot Open in Moscow. In that game White was a bit better after 12…0-0 13.Nb5. Karjakin improved with 12…a6, which allowed White pushing e4 and e5, but after 15…Nc5 Gelfand failed to find a way to keep his initiative alive. As he had various weak pawns in his position he was not too eager to make an all-out winning attempt and went for the repetition of moves that was on offer.
The rapid game saw a long discussion in the Petroff with Karjakin introducing a novelty, 18.Bd3 in combination with g4. The true merits of the new move may only become clear in future games. White seemed to get good chances, but didn’t find the right follow-up. In the hospitality lounge Ljubomir Ljubojevic and Fabiano Caruana believed that White could have improved his play with 25.Qf5 Rd8 followed by gain of space with h4 and a4, and afterwards Gelfand agreed with this assessment. As it went, he played the right countermoves and drew comfortably.
Ruslan Ponomariov was a bit surprised that Levon Aronian chose the Grünfeld Defence for their blindfold game, as it is an opening he doesn’t normally play. His surprise only increased when it became clear that the Armenian grandmaster hadn’t prepared anything particular and committed a couple of inaccuracies, such as 11…e6, where 11…Nc6 is a better option. The rest of the game Ponomariov summed up with the words ‘I just took his pawns and pieces and didn’t know why he didn’t resign’. Ponomariov could even blunder a pawn and still be winning (he should have played 30.Bxf4 Qxf4 31.d8Q Qxc1+ 32.Kg2 and the queen on d8 is untouchable because of mate). Aronian finally resigned when he was three moves away from mate.
Aronian hit back in the rapid game. ‘The variation isn’t that good’, he commented after he had won, ‘Of course we both made inaccuracies, but it was difficult for him.’ White could have finished the game quicker with the nice 46.g7 Qf7 47.g8N!, but as it went, Ponomariov had to resign soon enough.
With his win over Jan Smeets, the leader in the blindfold standings, Alexander Grischuk, raised his total score in the blindfold to a most impressive 7 out of 9. Nevertheless the Russian champion was mainly modest after this further win. ‘I played the opening so badly, that I both needed to get lucky and needed the help of my opponent’. One of the moves he criticized was 11.d4, which he called ‘an amazingly bad move’. The chances in the game fluctuated with White getting the better game, spoiling his advantage and being clearly worse and then being on top again. After 44.Qg4 it was clear the black position was going to collapse soon and so it did.
The rapid game was a much smoother performance of the Russian champion. In a Sicilian Hedgehog he carefully manoeuvred behind the lines, preparing the central break that almost inevitably came. And once he pushed 30…d5, Smeets immediately erred. He should have tried 31.f4, as after 31.exd5, Grischuk could strike hard with 31…Nxf3+ 32.gxf3 Bxg3 and White was fighting a lost battle.
The blindfold game between Leinier Dominguez and Magnus Carlsen started with a peculiar ‘intermezzo’, when after the third move of his opponent the Norwegian had to heed nature’s call and left the playing room in the company of the assistant arbiter. Carlsen returned quickly, but the excursion nevertheless cost him some three minutes. The game developed along the lines of an everyday Catalan with Dominguez getting slightly optimistic after 19.Qf3 and 20.Rac1. Carlsen was in time with his counterplay (21.b4 and 22…Qa4) and from that moment onwards Black exerted some pressure, but couldn’t really achieve something with the strong white knight on c4. ‘A pretty normal game’, Dominguez concluded after it had been drawn after 50 moves.
At the start of the rapid game it seemed as if Dominguez wanted to offer some compensation for the time Carlsen wasted in the blindfold game when the Cuban thought for one minute before he replied to White’s 1.e4 with his pet 1…e4. Most probably he had expected Carlsen to play something else. Once Dominguez played his favourite Najdorf, Carlsen opted for 6.Be2 and got a good game. Still, he wasn’t completely happy with his play and felt that he could have won quicker once he had gotten his knight to f5. What he did like were the three connected passers he got on the queenside and his move 27.Qh3 that threw Black on the ropes, particularly so as Black immediately blundered with 27…f4, where he would have put up more resistance with 27…g6. The rest wasn’t too difficult anymore and Carlsen won without much difficulty. As said, he still had his doubts about his play, but he also concluded that with four games to go he had already won more games (ten) than in the previous years.
Le tournoi d'échecs Melody Amber 2010 se tient du 13 au 25 mars au Palais de la Méditerranée à Nice.
Spécificité de cet événement échiquéen majeur, les 11 rondes se jouent d'une part à l'aveugle (25mn+20sec) et d'autre part en rapide (25mn+10sec). Au programme du jour, la ronde 10 à 14h30.
Résumé de la ronde 10 : Magnus Carlsen reprend l'avantage au classement général grâce à sa superbe victoire 2-0 face à Ruslan Ponomariov. A une ronde de la fin (et deux parties à jouer) la tête de série n°1 a une demi-longueur d'avance sur Vassily Ivanchuk, et un point et demi sur Vladimir Kramnik. Dernière ronde demain à 12h30.
Le tournoi d'échecs Melody Amber 2010 se tient du 13 au 25 mars au Palais de la Méditerranée à Nice.
Spécificité de cet événement échiquéen majeur, les 11 rondes se jouent d'une part à l'aveugle (25mn+20sec) et d'autre part en rapide (25mn+10sec). Au programme du jour, la ronde 10 à 14h30.
Résumé de la ronde 9 : Vassily Ivanchuk conserve la première place au classement général après son match nul face à Vugar Gashimov. A deux rondes et 4 parties de la fin, Magnus Carlsen revient en force en s'imposant sur Dominguez sur le score de 1½ à ½. Tout reste possible également pour les Russes Kramnik et Grischuk à 1 point du leader.
Hello to everyone once again, my apologies for not blogging recently, but I have been extremely busy on many fronts. A few weeks ago, I finished competing in the European Club Cup Championship. At the start of the tournament, I got off to a rather bumpy start as I lost a marginally worse endgame against Peter Svidler with Black. To be fair, he played the endgame very precisely while my attempts at setting up a fortress failed. After this disappointing loss, I beat a 2400 IM and then followed this up with a draw against Czech Grandmaster, Viktor Laznicka in the Kings Indian. at this point, having scored 2.5/4 I was not doing very well. Luckily, I started to regain my form as I followed this up with a nice wins against GM Sergei Zhigalko (2601) and GM Milos Pavlovic (2533). Having recovered from the bad start, I more or less played a forced drawn line against GM Alexander Grischuk in the last round. Overall, I was more or less satisfied with my play except for the game against Svidler. Thus, I cannot complain as I felt the event served its purpose and I put on a solid showing in my last event before London in December.
In terms of the general tournament, I was pretty amazed to see that outside of Svidler's excellent performance (wins over me,Ivanchuk,Mamedyarov and Motylev) no one escaped the event unscathed. Aronian for instance trounced Grischuk, but then got steamrolled by Mamedyarov in the following round. Other notable American players in the event were Kamsky and Onischuk, but neither performed very well as they both lost two games. In the end, the super strong teams finished at the top of the event as it ultimately comes down to the board 4s, 5s, and 6s. When one team has players like Adams or Petrosian on board 6 against a 2300, it makes the odds impossible to overcome. All in all, a fun event and I hope to play several leagues next year and the European Club Cup as well.
That's all for now, stay tuned for more updates shortly!
The best Danish chess player ever, GM Bent Larsen, is turning 75 Thursday the 4th of March. To celebrate Larsen, the Danish Chess Federation has dedicated a special Edition of “Skakbladet” to the great master. The magazine can be downloaded here: http://www.dsu.dk/skakblad/sb2010/larsen.pdf but beware that it is in Danish only. In the evening of the 4th of March, Larsen will be celebrated both in Copenhagen, Aarhus and in Koege in various arrangements. Saturday a big rapid tournament is held in the center of Copenhagen, among the participants you will find GM Lars Bo Hansen, GM Jonny Hector and GM Sune Berg Hansen. All games in the first round must start with 1. b3 ! In connection with the Strongest Chess Tournament in Denmark, Politiken Cup (www.ksu.dk/politiken_cup) GM Peter Svidler, Russia, and the leading Danish player, GM Peter Heine Nielsen, will play a combined rapid and blitz-match in honor of Bent Larsen. The match takes place in Elsinore from the 2th to the 5th of August. In the autumn 10 Grandmasters will play Bent Larsen’s 75th year birthday tournament in Koege from the 11th to 22th of October. The players are still to be announced. Please find enclosed a recent photo of Larsen in front of his birthday gift from the Danish Chess Federation, a computer. Feel free to use the photo, but please mention that the photographer is GM Peter Heine Nielsen. For further information please contact Thomas Vestergaard: webmster@skak.dk telephone: +45 24 64 28 62
Zwei Runden vor Schluss bleibt das Amber Blind- und Schnellschachturnier in
Nizza spannend. In der neunten Runde spielte Tabellenführer Vassily Ivanchuk
gegen Vugar Gashimov zwei Mal Remis und liegt jetzt mit 12 aus 18 nur noch einen
halben Punkt vor Magnus Carlsen, der 1,5:0,5 gegen Leinier Dominguez gewann.
Gute Chancen auf den Gesamtsieg haben auch noch Vladimir Kramnik und Alexander
Grischuk. Grischuk gewann gegen Jan Smeets sowohl die Blind- und auch die Schnellpartie,
während Kramnik im Blindschach gegen Peter Svidler Remis spielte, aber
anschließend seine Schnellpartie mit Schwarz gewann. Offizielle Seite... Ergebnisse, Tabelle, Partien, Impressionen...
Sarà possibile ammirare dal 1 aprile a Dagomys, nei pressi di Sochi sul Mar Nero, la "Premier League" del Campionato Russo a squadre (10 team), competizione di livello assoluto che per il secondo anno consecutivo annovera tra i propri protagonisti il nostro Fabiano Caruana, una delle punte del team di ShSM-64. In squadra con lui ci saranno campioni del calibro di Gelfand e Karjakin, l'italiano in terza e poi Wang Hao e Grachev.
Jakovenko,campione 2009 come prima scacchiera del Tomsk-400, è passato invece nella squadra di Ugra dove milita anche Malakhov. Quest'ultimo russo sta attraversando un buon periodo di forma, infatti si è messo in mostra nelle ultime uscite ed in particolare nella recente World Cup arrivando fino alle fasi finali. Tra le favorite vanno sicuramente citate l'Ural (con Grischuk e Shirov) e San Pietroburgo (con Ivanchuk e Svidler).
Tra i giovani russi si segnala Vitiugov (San Pietroburgo) e Tomashevsky (Ekonomist) che hanno contribuito fortemente alla vittoria della Russia al recente Mondiale a Squadre. Il loro apporto è stato fondamentale per riportare la loro nazionale ad una medaglia d'oro dopo alcuni anni di cocenti delusioni. In quell'occasione inoltre hanno sfoderato anche alcune partite di bellezza assoluta. Tra i possibili protagonisti da tenere d'occhio anche il teenager Sjugirov, ormai qualcosa in più di una promessa.
Tornando a Fabiano va ricordato chel'anno scorso fu il miglior giocatore in termini di perfomance, infatti giocando in terza e quarta scacchiera realizzò un ottimo 5 su 6 ottenendo una perfomance pari a 2856 punti elo. Purtroppo la sua squadra vide svanire i sogni di vittoria facendolo riposare all'ultimo turno e la ShSM-64 perse contro SPbChFed a causa della sconfitta in ultima scacchiera dove Efimenko(SPbChFed) ebbe la meglio su Savchenko(ShSm-64).
Ad impreziosire la manifestazione ci saranno come al solito altri due tornei in contemporanea:la "Higher League" e il Campionato a squadre femminile, entrambi a 7 squadre.
Probabilmente sarà possibile seguire alcune fasi del Campionato Femminile sul blog della Kosteniuk e sul suo canale youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/chessqueen).
Caruana premiato nel 2009
Riportiamo ora la composizione dei team, anche se da oggi all' 1 Aprile potrebbero ancora avere luogo dei piccoli cambiamenti.
Premier League
Ekonomist SGSEU-1 (Saratov): Alexander Morozevich Wang Yue Ni Hua Pavel Eljanov Evgeny Tomashevsky Evgeny Alekseev Michael Roiz Dmitry Andreikin
Alexander Morozevich
Ural (Sverdlovsk): Alexander Grischuk Alexei Shirov Emil Sutovsky Evgeny Bareev Alexei Dreev Vadim Milov Igor Khenkin Vladimir Epishin
Alexander Grischuk
ShSM-64 (Moscow): Boris Gelfand, Sergey Karjakin Fabiano Caruana Wang Hao, Boris Grachev Boris Savchenko Evgeniy Najer Alexander Riazantsev Vladimir Potkin
Boris Gelfand
Sankt-Petersburg Chess Federation: Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Svidler Nikita Vitiugov Sergei Movsesian Zahar Efimenko Konstantin Sakaev Vadim Zvjagintsev V.Emelin
Vitiugov (3° scacchiera dietro Ivanchuk e Svidler)
Ugra (Khanty-Mansiysk): Dmitry Jakovenko Vladimir Malakhov Alexander Khalifman Sergei Rublevsky Sanan Sjugirov Konstantin Landa
Malakhov (2° scacchiera)
Tomsk-400: Ruslan Ponomariov Alexander Motylev Ernesto Inarkiev Viktor Bologan Denis Khismatullin Farrukh Ammonatov Artyom Timofeev Sergei Tiviakov Igor Kurnosov
Motylev (2° scacchiera)
In gara ci saranno anche altre 4 squadre, ovvero:
BelGU (Belgorod), Ekonomist SGSEU-2 (Saratov), Chigorin Club (Sankt-Petersburg) e Etud-Kontakt (Moscow)
Tomsk-400: vincitori del campionato 2009
La squadra di Fabiano, ShSM-64, 2° classificata nel 2009
Women's Premier League
AVS: Antoaneta Stefanova, Anna Muzychuk, Natalia Pogonina Maria Muzychuk
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On August 12, a week earlier than in previous years, the new edition of the NH Chess Tournament starts in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You can watch Boris Gelfand, Peter Svidler, Peter Heine Nielsen, Loek van Wely and Ljubomir Ljubojevic (the Experience team) against Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri and David Howell (the Rising Stars) with free admission and expert commentary at the Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam.
Every day the games will be commented on by experts in a nice and spacious commentary room to which the admission is free. These sessions start one hour after the start of the round, i.e. at 14.30 hrs, with the exception of the last round when the commentary will start at 13.00 hrs. IMs Hans Böhm, Jop Delemarre, Cor van Wijgerden, Gert Ligterink and GM Genna Sosonko will be doing the commentary (schedule 
The gap between Magnus Carlsen (2826) and Veselin Topalov (2803) has increased to 23 points on the July 1 FIDE rating list. The Norwegian won 13 points whereas the Bulgarian dropped 9. Third is World Champion Viswanathan Anand, now with 2800 points exactly. Wang Yue dropped from 8th to 28th.
Carlsen’s fine victory in Romania last week got him another 13 rating points and because Topalov lost 9 points in his match with Anand, the gap between the world’s number one and two is now 23 points. Those 9 points went to Anand, who thereby surpassed Kramnik to regain the 3rd spot, at a nice 2800 precisely.
Chalons en Champagne, led by Loek van Wely and Anish Giri, Sunday won the French league. The team finished just ahead of Evry Grand Roque, who played with Eljanov, Gashimov, Svidler and Vachier-Lagrave. 
Pavel Eljanov today won the sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Astrakhan, Russia. The Ukrainian finished with a score of 8/13, a full point ahead of a group of five GMs. One of them was Teimour Radjabov, who finished second in the final GP standings and qualified for the FIDE Candidates matches.
After nine rounds Pavel Eljanov is back in the lead in Astrakhan. The Ukrainian GM drew just three games, and he’s the only one who collected 5.5 points so far.
Ukraine’s new number one Pavel Eljanov started strongly in Astrakhan. After five rounds he’s leading the sixth FIDE Grand Prix tournament with 3.5 points. His compatriot Vassily Ivanchuk started with 1/4, but yesterday he defeated another Ukrainian, Ruslan Ponomariov, with the black pieces.
After three rounds a group of five players leads the FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan with 2/3: Gashimov, Leko, Ponomariov, Gelfand and Eljanov. In today’s third round all games ended in a draw.
The final FIDE Grand Prix is held in in Astrakhan from May 9th to 25th.
PGN
In the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan, Vugar Gashimov beat Vassily Ivanchuk in the only decisive game.
The biggest news this time is that Vassily Ivanchuk isn’t Ukraine’s number one player anymore, for the first time in years. Winning another 15 points in 20 games, on the May 2010 list Pavel Eljanov has reached a 9th spot, while Ivanchuk lost seven points and dropped slightly from 11 to 12.
According to our poll on the homepage Vishy Anand is the clear favourite to win the World Championship match, by 69%, where Topalov gets 31% of the votes. But what do their colleagues think? Today the opinion of Aronian, Carlsen, Gelfand and Ivanchuk.
Chess Club “64″ from Moscow Saturday won the Russian Team Championship. The event was more or less decided on Friday when they held their main rival St Petersburg to a 3-3 tie. As expected, an easy win against Economist II in the last round secured the gold medals.
This weekend the 14th and 15th round of the Schachbundesliga will be played. At the playing venues Baden-Baden and Bremen most probably it will be decided who will win the championship.
Chess Club “64″ from Moscow is the favourite to win the Russian Team Championship. The team with Boris Gelfand on first board leads with a 2-point margin. They play their nearest rival today, St Petersburg, whose women’s team won already. Again we selected 14 games and annotated them.
Working on an update of the Russian Team Championship, we came across a marvelous game. A game between two current Russian kings of chess: Ian Nepomniachtchi, the reigning European Champion, and Alexander Grischuk, the winner of the Amber Blindfold tournament. Besides, in this game both kings played an important role. Enjoy a thorough analysis.
We return once more to the 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, which finished a few days ago. The final round was a thrilling affair, and the closing ceremony a pleasant one, when both Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus gave a brief speech. Final video.
Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk shared first place at the Amber tournament in Nice. Carlsen blundered a full queen in his blindold game against Alexander Grischuk, but then won the rapid game convincingly. Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Boris Gelfand 1.5-0.5 to join the Norwegian in first place in the combined standings. There’s no sole winner; the two share first prize.
Magnus Carlsen today reclaimed first place in the overall standings of the Amber tournament with a 2-0 win over Ruslan Ponomariov. With one round to go the Norwegian grandmaster is half a point ahead of Vasily Ivanchuk, who drew twice with Vladimir Kramnik.
In round 9 of the Amber tournament, Vasily Ivanchuk defended first place in the overall standings with two draws against Vugar Gashimov. With two rounds to go the Ukrainian grandmaster has a half-point lead over Magnus Carlsen, who defeated Leinier Dominguez of Cuba 1½-½.
