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

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

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 In 2008, his record was later lowered to 9 years, 11 months by Nicholas Nip, a player who is no longer active.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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Bursa, nella zona nord-occidentale della Turchia, si svolge dal 5 al 13 gennaio la settima edizione del Campionato del Mondo per nazioni. La competizione si tiene nei primi giorni del 2010, in realtà però è relativa all’anno 2009 dato che la manifestazione ha cadenza quadriennale.

Il Campionato del Mondo per nazioni ha una storia relativamente recente: nasce nel 1985 e originariamente tutte le sue edizioni avrebbero dovuto tenersi ogni quattro anni a Lucerna in Svizzera, dove peraltro si erano svolte le Olimpiadi scacchistiche del 1982. Il progetto venne abbandonato dopo quattro edizioni, trasferendo la competizione in Armenia nel 2001 e in Israele nel 2005. La formula è sempre stata quella del torneo ad inviti: dieci le squadre invitate che si confrontano in un girone all’italiana. Attualmente vengono ammesse le squadre vincitrici dei Campionati Continentali d’Europa, Asia, Africa e America (in questa edizione Russia, India che ha rimpiazzato il forfeit della Cina, Egitto e Brasile), le tre squadre meglio classificate alle precedenti Olimpiadi (Armenia, Israele e USA), due squadre invitate dalla FIDE (Azerbaigian e Grecia) e il paese ospitante (Turchia).

Le squadre in campo:

Morozevich, un giocatore scintillante!

Russia:

Alexander Grischuk 2736

Alexander Morozevich 2732

Vladimir Malakhov 2716

Dmitry Jakovenko 2730

Evgeny Tomashevsky 2705

Nikita Vitiugov 2692

Nella Russia assente Kramnik, ma anche Svidler. Fallito il tentativo di schierare per la prima volta Karjakin in una formazione russa, i regolamenti FIDE l’hanno impedito e Sergey è stato sostituito da Jakovenko. Attesa per Malakhov che ha fatto molto bene nel 2009. Sono i Campioni del Mondo per nazioni in carica avendo conquistato il titolo nel 2005 a Beer Sheva, dopo un emozionante ultimo turno, nel quale hanno surclassato i Cinesi fino ad allora in testa alla manifestazione. L’edizione del 2005 vedeva presente nella squadra femminile della Cina (fino al 2005 partecipava al Campionato anche una formazione femminile), una giocatrice che farà poi sensazione, l’allora 11enne Hou Yifan.

Malakhov, ha ricevuto consensi unanimi nel 2009

Gelfand, il vincitore della World Cup 2009

Israele:

Boris Gelfand 2761

Ilia Smirin 2668

Michael Roiz 2657

Emil Sutovsky 2657

Evgeny Postny 2648

Maxim Rodhstein 2622

La squadra del vincitore della World Cup, Boris Gelfand. Attualmente è al secondo posto nel ranking mondiale per nazioni, tra Russia e la grande assente Cina.

Rodshtein, giovanissimo secondo di Gelfand a Khanty-Mansiysk

Gashimov, finalmente n° 1 dell'Azeirbaigian

Azerbaijan:

Vugar Gashimov 2759

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2741

Teimour Radjabov 2733

Rauf Mamedov 2640

Gadir Guseinov 2614

Nidjat Mamedov 2610

Campioni Europei in carica, presenta ora Gashimov in prima scacchiera al posto di Radjabov. Quarti nel ranking FIDE (da tenere conto che nella classifica FIDE uscita il 1° gennaio 2010 mancano sia l’Ucraina che l’Argentina).

Nidjat Mamedov, tra i meno conosciuti dello squadrone azero

USA:

Hikaru Nakamura 2708

Alexander Onischuk 2670

Varuzhan Akobian 2628

Yuri Shulman 2624

Robert L. Hess 2572

Ray Robson 2570

Quinti nel ranking FIDE, senza Kamsky inpegnato a Reggio Emilia e con due giovani di notevoli ambizioni, Hess e Robson (rispettivamente classe 1991 e 1994).

Robert Hess

Ray Robson

Harikrishna Pentala

India:

Harikrishna, Pentala 2672

Ganguly, Surya Shekhar 2654

Sasikiran, Krishnan 2653

Geetha Narayanan Gopal 2584

Arun Prasad, S. 2567

Adhiban, B. 2511

Naturalmente assente Anand, rimpiazza la Cina, ma è una sostituzione di lusso, visto che gli indiani sono al sesto posto nel ranking mondiale.

Adhiban

Aronian, TopPlayer in questo WTCC 2009

Armenia:

Levon Aronian 2781

Gabriel Sargissian 2680

Vladimir Akopian 2678

Arman Pashikian 2647

Tigran Petrosian 2627

Tigran Kotanjian 2537

Noni nella classifica per nazioni 2010, ma Campioni Olimpici sia nel 2006 che nel 2008!

Arman Pashikian

Vescovi, in continua ascesa

Brasile:

Giovanni Vescovi 2660

Rafael Leitao 2620

Gilberto Milos 2618

Alexandr Fier 2601

Andre Diamant 2497

Darcy Lima 2481

Hanno vinto il Campionato Panamericano 2009 davanti a Cuba. 23esimi nella classifica FIDE.

Andre Diamant

Kotronias, esperienza al servizio della Grecia

Grecia:

Ioannis Papaioannou 2625

Hristos Banikas 2608

Vassilios Kotronias 2599

Dimitrios Mastrovasilis 2571

Stelios Halkias 2566

Athanasios Mastrovasilis 2510

Forse il loro miglior risultato come squadra è stato un pregevolissimo quarto posto al Campionato Europeo di Goteborg nel 2005. 24esimi nel ranking mondiale.

Dimitrios Mastrovasilis, l'abbiamo visto spesso giocare in Italia

Adly, una delle due "perle" egiziane

Egitto:

Ahmed Adly 2591

Bassem Amin 2544

Mohamed Ezat 2471

Khaled Abdel Razik 2468

Imed Abdelnabbi 2448

Walaa Sarwat 2386

Campioni d’Africa ma anche vincitori dei “Pan Arab Games”. 40esimi nel Ranking FIDE.

Bassem Amin, altro grande talento, ma qui sarà dura

Kivanc Haznedaroglu e il dovere di una prestazione dignitosa

Turchia:

Mert Erdogdu 2513

Baris Esen 2513

Kivanc Haznedaroglu 2498

Mustafa Yilmaz 2478

Emre Can 2442

Burak Firat 2413

Paese ospitante di questa come di tante altre manifestazioni scacchistiche di primissimo livello. Non hanno ancora una squadra competitiva (e curiosamente manca il suo giocatore più forte, Mikhail Gurevich, 2597), ma sembra che in Turchia gli scacchi siano attualmente un fenomeno di massa. 43esimi nella classifica mondiale.

Emre Can, si è fatto valere in tanti tornei giovanili

Previsti dunque nove turni, si gioca su quattro scacchiere e due sono le riserve.

Cadenza di gioco: 90’ x 40 mosse + 30’ per finire, sempre con 30” d’abbuono a mossa.

La formazione USA che vinse l'edizione 1993 a Lucerna: inconfondibile Gata Kamsky!

L'Ucraina vincitrice nel 2001: si riconoscono tra gli altri Ponomariov, Romanishin e SuperIvanchuk

Sito ufficiale

The World Team Championship is a round robin event with time control 90 min/40 moves +30 min/end, with 30 seconds additional time per move, starting from move one.

Official site: wtcc2009.tsf.org.tr

Armenia

Levon Aronian 2786
Vladimir Akopian 2700
Gabriel Sargissian 2676
Arman Pashikian 2656
Tigran Petrosian 2615
Tigran Kotanjian 2542

Israel

Boris Gelfand 2758
Michael Roiz 2659
Ilia Smirin 2662
Emil Sutovsky 2666
Evgeny Postny 2650
Maxim Rodhstein 2650

USA

Hikaru Nakamura 2715
Alexander Onischuk 2672
Yuri Shulman 2623
Varuzhan Akobian 2624
Robert L. Hess 2572
Ray Robson 2567

Russia

Alexander Morozevich 2750
Alexander Grischuk 2736
Vladimir Malakhov 2706
Dmitry Jakovenko 2736
Evgeny Tomashevsky 2708
Nikita Vityugov 2694

Brazil

Giovanni Vescovi 2648
Rafael Leitao 2621
Alexandr Fier 2653
Gilberto Milos 2603
Andre Diamant 2493
Darcy Lima 2504

Egypt

Ahmed Adly 2583
Bassem Amin 2553
Mohamed Ezat 2472
Khaled Abdel Razik 2469
Imed Abdelnabbi 2447
Walaa Sarwat 2405

Azerbaijan

Vugar Gashimov 2758
Teimour Radjabov 2748
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2719
Rauf Mamedov 2634
Gadir Guseinov 2625
Nidjat Mamedov 2617

Greece

Vassilios Kotronias 2599
Ioannis Papaioannou 2628
Hristos Banikas 2615
Stelios Halkias 2573
Dimitrios Mastrovasilis 2569
Athanasios Mastrovasilis 2513

Turkey

Kivanc Haznedaroglu 2497
Mert Erdogdu 2489
Mustafa Yilmaz 2468
Emre Can 2449
Baris Esen 2493
Burak Firat 2392

GM Julio Granda

Esta época de diciembre parece ser la más propicia del año para jugar ajedrez. Para prueba, pueden observarse las páginas www.ajedrezenmadrid.com, www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com, http://www.europe-echecs.com/ o www.chess-results.com/, que en opinión de este colaborador le brindan muy buena información al interesado en estos temas. En estas páginas, el lector podrá informarse de la gran cantidad de torneos que hay actualmente en juego en todo el mundo.

El torneo internacional de Pamplona comprende un torneo magistral, al que aquí haremos referencia, y uno abierto, en el que hay inscritos 60 jugadores; todos españoles, con excepción del búlgaro Iván Tetimov.

Ficha del torneo magistral: 
Organizador  : IO Joaquin Perez-Seoane
Director del Torneo  : GM Jesus De la Villa García
Árbitro Principal  : IA Jesus Mena
Árbitro  : FA Gregorio Sola
Ciudad  : Pamplona
Categoría  : 13 (Elo medio: 2575)
Fecha  : 21.12.2009 A 29.12.2009

El torneo se disputará en el Hotel Blanca de Navarra de Pamplona. El acto de clausura y el reparto de premios tendrán lugar el día 29 de diciembre de 2009 a las 21′00 horas en la sala de juego.
 
El ritmo de juego será de 90 minutos para las primeras 40 jugadas más otros 30 minutos para terminar la partida.  Desde la primera jugada se añadirán 30 segundos por cada nueva jugada realizada. Se utilizarán relojes digitales. 

Listado de Participantes torneo magistral:

 Clasificación tras la 4ª ronda:

A continuación, veamos quiénes han ganado el torneo desde que se fundó en el año 90. 

Veamos ahora dos de las partidas que ha ganado el peruano Julio Granda, que en esta ocasión lleva cuatro partidas ganadas en las cuatro rondas.     
                  
Granda Zúñiga, Julio (2640) – Recuero Guerra, David (2494) [A29]
19. Ciudad de Pamplona – Magistral Pamplona ESPAÑA (2.2), 22.12.2009

 1.c4 Cf6 2.Cc3 e5 3.Cf3 Cc6 4.g3 Ab4 5.Ag2 0–0 6.0–0 Te8 7.d3 h6 8.e4 d6 9.h3 a6 10.Ae3 Axc3 11.bxc3 b5 12.c5 Ae6 13.cxd6 cxd6 14.Cd2 d5 15.Cb3 Dc8 16.Rh2 dxe4 17.dxe4 Td8 18.Dc1 Dc7 19.Da3 Axb3 20.axb3

Granda se ha quedado con la pareja de alfiles.

20…Td3 21.Db2 a5

El negro se prepara para doblar las torres en la columna ‘d’.

22.Tfd1 Txd1 23.Txd1 Td8 24.Tc1 Db7 25.c4 Cb4 26.Da1 bxc4 27.Txc4 Cc6 28.Da4 Td6 29.Tc5 Db4 30.Dxb4 axb4 31.Tc4 Cd7 32.Af1 Rh7 33.Rg2 Rg6 34.f4 f6 35.Rf2 Rf7 36.h4 exf4 37.gxf4 g5 38.e5 fxe5 39.fxg5 hxg5 40.hxg5 Cd4 41.Tc7 Rg6 42.Ad3+ Rh5 43.Tc1 e4

La situación del rey negro es delicada. Está cayendo en una red de mate. Por eso se deciden a entregar este peón.

44.Axe4 Ce5 45.Af4 Te6 46.Re3 Cg6 47.Th1+ Rg4 48.Tg1+ Rh5 49.Th1+ Rg4 50.Rxd4 Cxf4 51.g6!? Te7 52.Th7 Ce6+ 53.Rc4 Cg7 54.Ad5 Rf5 55.Txg7 Txg7

La torre está presa y el otro peón está a punto de caer.
56.Af7 Re5 57.Rc5 Rf6 58.Rxb4 Re7 59.Rc5 Rd7 60.Rd5 Re7 61.Re5 Rf8 62.Re6

Ahora la torre está obligada a tomar.

1–0
(15) Mirzoev, Azer (2617) – Granda Zúñiga, Julio (2640) [E20]
19. Ciudad de Pamplona – Magistral Pamplona ESP (3.5), 23.12.2009
1.d4 Cf6 2.c4 e6 3.Cc3 Ab4 4.Ad2 0–0 5.a3 Axc3 6.Axc3 Ce4 7.Dc2 Cxc3 8.Dxc3 b6 9.Cf3 Ab7 10.e3 d6 11.Ae2 Cd7 12.0–0 c5 13.Tfd1 De7 14.dxc5 Cxc5 15.Cd2 Tac8 16.Tac1 Tc7 17.b4 Cd7 18.Dd4 Tfc8 19.Cb3 Dg5

El peón ‘d’ es débil, pero por ahora Granda amenaza mate en ‘g2’.

20.g3

Posición después de 20.g3

Da la impresión de que esta jugada sea la causa de muchos de los problemas del GM Mirzoev a lo largo de la partida.

20…Dg6

Tampoco se puede tomar el peón ‘d’ por 21…De5, con nueva amenaza de mate.

21.Df4 e5 22.Dg4 Df6 23.Dh3 g6 24.Df1 De6 25.Cd2 Cf6 26.Af3 Aa6 27.b5 Ab7 28.Axb7

Aquí termina el capítulo del poderoso alfil blanco de las negras. Pero continua vigente la debilidad blanca en ‘c4’.
 
28… Txb7 29.Tc3 Tbc7 30.Td3 Rg7 31.h4 e4 32.Td4 Tc5 33.a4 h6 34.Dg2 d5!? 35.cxd5 Txd5 36.Cb3 Te5 37.Tb4?! De7 38.Tbd4 De6 39.Tb4 Cd5 40.Cd4 Dg4

Con unas piezas más activas, Granda no está interesado en las tablas.

41.Tbb1

Esto, por desgracia, es una necesidad.

41…Cc3 42.Df1 Cxd1 43.Txd1 Tc3 44.Ta1 Td5 45.De1 Td3 46.Rh2 g5 47.hxg5 Txg5 48.Rg1 Th5 49.Df1 Rh7 50.Te1 Rh8 51.Tc1? Txe3 52.Tc8+
 
[52.fxe3 Dxg3+ 53.Dg2 Dxe3+ 54.Rf1 Dxc1+ 55.Rf2 Dd2+ 56.Rg1 Dxd4+]

52…Rh7 53.Tc7 Txg3+

0–1

Construcción histórica en Pamplona

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Boris Gelfand. Atrás, las graderías vacías.

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

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

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

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

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

Ahora veamos dos partidas de la fase semifinal.

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

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

Posición después de 10.Te1

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

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

12.Dh5 Cb4 13.Ca3 Tg6

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

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

Posición después de 19.Dxd4

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

19…Dg5

Amenaza de nuevo el mate en “g2”. 

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

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

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

Ajedrez rápido.

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

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

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

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

Posición después de 33...Af8

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

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

Si Rxf, Te4 gana el caballo.
0–1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kiril Georgiev, numero 1 del Tabellone

LAZNICKA alla World Cup 2009

GM MEIER, Georg 2653 - IM HUERGA LEACHE, Mikel 2435
GM LOPEZ MARTINEZ, Josep Manuel 2589 - IM ALSINA LEAL, Daniel 2523
GM GEORGIEV, Kiril 2672 - IM REINALDO CASTINEIRA, Roi 2488
GM LAZNICKA, Viktor 2637 - GM GRANDA ZUNIGA, Julio E. 2640
IM RECUERO GUERRA, David 2494 - GM MIRZOEV, Azer 2617

Round 2 on 2009/12/22 at 16:00

IM HUERGA LEACHE, Mikel 2435 - GM MIRZOEV, Azer 2617
GM GRANDA ZUNIGA, Julio E. 2640 - IM RECUERO GUERRA, David 2494
IM REINALDO CASTINEIRA, Roi 2488 - GM LAZNICKA, Viktor 2637
IM ALSINA LEAL, Daniel 2523 - GM GEORGIEV, Kiril 2672
GM MEIER, Georg 2653 - GM LOPEZ MARTINEZ, Josep Manuel 2589

Round 3 on 2009/12/23 at 16:00

GM LOPEZ MARTINEZ, Josep Manuel 2589 - IM HUERGA LEACHE, Mikel 2435
GM GEORGIEV, Kiril 2672 - GM MEIER, Georg 2653
GM LAZNICKA, Viktor 2637 - IM ALSINA LEAL, Daniel 2523
IM RECUERO GUERRA, David 2494 - IM REINALDO CASTINEIRA, Roi 2488
GM MIRZOEV, Azer 2617 - GM GRANDA ZUNIGA, Julio E. 2640

Round 4 on 2009/12/24 at 15:00

IM HUERGA LEACHE, Mikel 2435 - GM GRANDA ZUNIGA, Julio E. 2640
IM REINALDO CASTINEIRA, Roi 2488 - GM MIRZOEV, Azer 2617
IM ALSINA LEAL, Daniel 2523 - IM RECUERO GUERRA, David 2494
GM MEIER, Georg 2653 - GM LAZNICKA, Viktor 2637
GM LOPEZ MARTINEZ, Josep Manuel 2589 - GM GEORGIEV, Kiril 2672

Round 5 on 2009/12/25 at 16:00

GM GEORGIEV, Kiril 2672 - IM HUERGA LEACHE, Mikel 2435
GM LAZNICKA, Viktor 2637 - GM LOPEZ MARTINEZ, Josep Manuel 2589
IM RECUERO GUERRA, David 2494 - GM MEIER, Georg 2653
GM MIRZOEV, Azer 2617 - IM ALSINA LEAL, Daniel 2523
GM GRANDA ZUNIGA, Julio E. 2640 - IM REINALDO CASTINEIRA, Roi 2488

Round 6 on 2009/12/26 at 16:00

IM HUERGA LEACHE, Mikel 2435 - IM REINALDO CASTINEIRA, Roi 2488
IM ALSINA LEAL, Daniel 2523 - GM GRANDA ZUNIGA, Julio E. 2640
GM MEIER, Georg 2653 - GM MIRZOEV, Azer 2617
GM LOPEZ MARTINEZ, Josep Manuel 2589 - IM RECUERO GUERRA, David 2494
GM GEORGIEV, Kiril 2672 - GM LAZNICKA, Viktor 2637

Round 7 on 2009/12/27 at 16:00

GM LAZNICKA, Viktor 2637 - IM HUERGA LEACHE, Mikel 2435
IM RECUERO GUERRA, David 2494 - GM GEORGIEV, Kiril 2672
GM MIRZOEV, Azer 2617 - GM LOPEZ MARTINEZ, Josep Manuel 2589
GM GRANDA ZUNIGA, Julio E. 2640 - GM MEIER, Georg 2653
IM REINALDO CASTINEIRA, Roi 2488 - IM ALSINA LEAL, Daniel 2523

Round 8 on 2009/12/28 at 16:00

IM HUERGA LEACHE, Mikel 2435 - IM ALSINA LEAL, Daniel 2523
GM MEIER, Georg 2653 - IM REINALDO CASTINEIRA, Roi 2488
GM LOPEZ MARTINEZ, Josep Manuel 2589 - GM GRANDA ZUNIGA, Julio E. 2640
GM GEORGIEV, Kiril 2672 - GM MIRZOEV, Azer 2617
GM LAZNICKA, Viktor 2637 - IM RECUERO GUERRA, David 2494

Round 9 on 2009/12/29 at 16:00

IM RECUERO GUERRA, David 2494 - IM HUERGA LEACHE, Mikel 2435
GM MIRZOEV, Azer 2617 - GM LAZNICKA, Viktor 2637
GM GRANDA ZUNIGA, Julio E. 2640 - GM GEORGIEV, Kiril 2672
IM REINALDO CASTINEIRA, Roi 2488 - GM LOPEZ MARTINEZ, Josep Manuel 2589
IM ALSINA LEAL, Daniel 2523 - GM MEIER, Georg 2653

ALBO D' ORO

Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez Perez is a world-class player known for almost always going for the absolute main lines. When David Smerdon was preparing for Dominguez, his opponent in the World Cup, the Australian GM decided not to avoid theory, but to play… the Sicilian Dragon! The diagram position contains an important finesse he found while preparing – before you click on ‘full story’, see if you can find what Black should play…

The diagram position is from the second rapid game Dominguez-Smerdon, World Cup (Khanty-Mansiysk) 2009, played last Monday, after the moves 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. O-O-O Rc8 11. Bb3 Ne5 12. Kb1 Re8 13. h4 h5 14. g4 hxg4 15. h5 Nxh5 16. Bh6 e6 17. Rdg1 Qf6 18. fxg4 Bxh6 19. Qxh6 Qg7 20. Qe3 Nf6 21. g5 Nh5 22. Ndb5 Bxb5 23. Nxb5 Red8 24. Qxa7 Nf3 25. Rg2 Qe5 26. Qe3.

Here Smerdon played 26…Ne1! because 26… Qxb5 fails to 27. Qxf3 Qe5 28. Rxh5!! and wins. After 27. Rxe1 Qxb5 28. c3 Qe5, ChessVibes Openings editors IM Merijn van Delft and IM Robert Ris write:

In the first round of the World Cup five interesting Dragon games were played. After 9.0-0-0 d5 10.exd5 Nxd5 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Bd4 Shabalov beat Baklan with 12. ..Bxd4 13.Qxd4 Qb6 14.Na4 Qa5 15.b3 Rb8!? while the first game Dominguez-Smerdon (with 12…Nxc3) saw Black neutralising 17.Bd3 with 17…Qe3 18.Rd2 Rfe8!N 19.Qh4 Bxa2! although 19.Qf6 seems to be the critical move here. In the next encounter Dominguez went for the big 9.Bc4 line, to be confronted with the new 25…Qe5! 26.Qe3 Ne1! distracting the White pieces from a succesful exchange sacrifice on h5. The engines think White is better in the diagram position, but Black turns out to be rock solid. Finally Dominguez managed to beat Smerdon with 7.Be2, but that can never be a theoretical problem for Black. Areshchenko-Corrales followed Motylev’s recent victories in the old 10.h4 labyrinth.

All this was published yesterday in ChessVibes Openings #47, only two days after this theoretically important Dragon game was played!

What is ChessVibes Openings?

Every issue consists of a PDF Magazine and the accompanying PGN file. The PDF consists of four pages (A4 size) with the following contents:

• What’s hot? A round-up of this week’s important opening developments, with statistics about the frequence and score of the week’s most important opening novelty (page 1)
• What’s not? Which openings are not recommended at the moment, according to the top players? And why not? (page 1)
• Game of the week Each week you’ll find the theoretically most important game analysed by our two IMs, with a detailed survey of the opening phase (page 2).
• This week’s harvest Four more new important opening ideas from this week (page 3) revealed and described with explanation of the opening and early middlegame (page 3).
• Opening expert Every week an opening expert is covered, explaining the GM’s expertise and showing a key game with annotations (page 4). Examples from the first two issues: Teimour Radjabov (King’s Indian with Black), Alexey Dreev (White: Nimzo-Indian; Black: Caro-Kann and Slav).

This week’s issue: #47, November 25, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #47
The latest opening developments of the fourth week of November 2009, covering the Tal Memorial World Blitz Championship and the complete first round of the FIDE World Cup. All about the Marshall Gambit of the Slav which was analysed in our Game of the Week Jobava-Robson, Khanty-Mansiysk 2009. Other lines that are covered:

• Scotch, 4…Bc5
• Dragon, 9.Bc4 main line
• French, Rubinstein
• Slav, 6.Ne5, 11…g5

This week’s Opening Expert is Swiss GM Yannick Pelletier.

Last week’s issue: #46, November 18, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #46
The latest opening developments of the third week of November 2009, covering the Tal Memorial, the Bundesliga and the Haije Kramer tournament. All about the Najdorf/Scheveningen (English Attack) which was analysed in our Game of the Week Carlsen-Ponomariov, Tal Memorial 2009. Other lines that are covered:

• Ruy Lopez, sidelines
• Ragozin, 8.dxc5
• Vienna, 8.e5
• Slav, 11…g5

This week’s Opening Expert is Ukrainian top GM Pavel Eljanov.

Previous issue: #45, November 11, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #45
The latest opening developments of the second week of November 2009. All about the Grünfeld, Exchange Variation which was analysed in our Game of the Week Kramnik-Svidler, Tal Memorial 2009. Other lines that are covered:

• Sicilian Rauzer, 6…Bd7
• Anti-Moscow Gambit
• Grünfeld-Indian, 8.Rb1
• Nimzo-Indian, 4.Qc2

This week’s Opening Expert is the World Champion, GM Vishy Anand.

Ehm… can I have a look?

Here’s what ChessVibes Openings #16 (April 22, 2009) looks like:

FREE SAMPLE ISSUE – ChessVibes Openings #16 – click to download!

• What’s hot? A round-up of the most important opening developments of mid-April, including statistics about the frequence and score of the Chebanenko position after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.c5 Nbd7 6.Bf4 Nh5 7.Bd2 Nhf6
• What’s not? This week 1.e4 e5 was hot, as the top players categorically avoided the Semi-Open Games. Interestingly, the classical 1…d5 was also much more popular than the more modern answers to 1.d4, at the FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik.
• Game of the week “‚ÄúI didn‚Äôt spend much time on it before the game, but I prepared seriously for this tournament and we did investigate this line,‚Äù Peter Leko said at the press conference in Nalchik, after his game against Sergei Karjakin. Page two has a closer look at this highly interesting draw in the Chebanenko.
• This week’s harvest For more opening ideas from the Ruy Lopez Marshall, Sicilian Taimanov, Queen’s Indian and Ragozin Defence.
• Opening expert This week Rustam Kasimdzhanov is highlighted. The former FIDE World Champion and current second of Anand has a broad repertoire, switching from hypersharp openings like Dragon and Anti-Moscow to positional Queen‚Äôs Gambit lines.

FREE SAMPLE ISSUE – ChessVibes Openings #16 – click to download!

What does it cost?

As a subscriber you’ll receive the PDF Magazine and accompanying PGN files in your mailbox every week.

A one-year subscription is € 25 (that’s less than € 0.50 per issue!) - for price in US $ click here

Please note that it’s still possible to start your subscription as a first-week subscriber.
Just let us know and we’ll send you all previous issues!

July 1, 2009: Eugene Manchester reviews ChessVibes Openings for ChessCafe

In the July 1 issue of ChessCafe’s Book Review (mirror here) ChessVibes Openings was reviewed by Eugene Manchester. Some quotes:

“So, who-ya-gonna-call? Opening busters? Not quite. For the reasonable price of 25 euros per year, once a week you can receive intelligent, interesting opening surveys and analysis presented by a team lead by Dutch IMs Merijn van Delft & Robert Ris.”

“The format and presentation are consistently of high quality, with variety of coverage and opening analysis.”

“The cost per year is roughly equivalent to a good chess book. Each week you get a four- page issue packed with opening analysis, at least two thoroughly annotated games with one or more of that week’s featured openings, a glimpse into the world of the latest opening novelties, in short, a quality weekly opening report.”

May 7, 2009: GM Hedinn Steingrimsson reviews ChessVibes Openings for Chess Today

In issues 3103 (Thursday, May 7) of Chess Today, the daily chess newspaper which also comes into your inbox by email in PDF, ChessVibes Openings was reviewed by GM Hedinn Steingrimsson from Iceland. Some quotes:

“What I like about ChessVibes Openings is their focus on the trend and discoveries that are revealed in super tournaments and by very strong players. It makes sense for all tournament chess players and opening theoreticians to follow these developments and getting an overview from ChessVibes Openings definitely saves time.”

“I find it positive that there is consistency in the openings covered so that the readers will with time have a certain repertoire available based on different theoretical articles from ChessVibes about e.g. the Anti-Moscow Variation.”

“For those that really want to find out how to get a better position out of the opening and are willing to enter complications and do some homework in order to succeed, ChessVibes Openings can be recommended.”

After so many upsets yesterday, it was almost inevitable that some of the top seeds had to leave the World Cup after round 2. And indeed: Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk and Teimour Radjabov are out. Morozevich was beaten by Laznicka again, Ivanchuk couldn’t create winning chances with Black against So and Radjabov was held to a draw by Sakaev. Svidler is still in the race after beating Nyback in a fine game.

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

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

Round 2, day 2

When Alexander Morozevich refused to participate in the FIDE Grand Prix Series, early 2008, he basically limited his options in the current World Championship cycle to his participation in the World Cup. However, after easily defeating Khaled Abdel Razik from Egypt in the first round, Morozevich didn’t stand a chance against Czech Republic’s 2nd player, Viktor Laznicka.

Out of the World Cup already: Alexander Morozevich

In a must-win situation with Black, the Elo-favourite tried a kind of Benoni set-up with a knight on e7, but with simple developing moves followed by strong miniplans (b2-b4, Nf3-h2-g4) Laznicka held a nice advantage, and then easily countered Black’s attacking ideas on the queenside. Morozevich is out, and the strange thing is: the 2-0 for Laznicka is fully deserved.

Viktor Laznicka, well-dressed for a day to reach the headlines

Except for his lost final against Ponomariov in 2002, Vassily Ivanchuk hasn’t done very well in FIDE knockout events. Still, it comes unexpected to see the brilliant Ukrainian having to leave Khanty-Mansyisk already after round 2. But as so often he has himself to blame: his impractical decision yesterday to decline the draw in heavy timetrouble cost him the full point. After his strong defence in game 1, Wesley So didn’t flinch today either and easily held the draw with the white pieces using the Exchange Slav. Perhaps there was one moment where Ivanchuk could have hoped for more (with 33…Qe2!) but that was it.

Eliminating Vassily Ivanchuk, a great result for Wesley So

Radjabov was the third top GM who can book his flight back home already. Azerbaijan’s number 2 player had to win with the white pieces. He went for 1.d4, got a 5.Bf4 QGD and ‘of course’ castled queenside. In the early middlegame Radjabov decided to swap queens to reach a better ending, but as could be expected from an experienced Russian grandmaster like Sakaev, he didn’t make any big mistakes and simply held the rook ending (the Rp-R was always a draw).

Konstantin Sakaev proved too strong for Teimour Radjabov

As you’ll remember, Peter Svidler also lost yesterday, but this top GM did manage to level the score by winning an excellent Ruy Lopez with White against Nyback (check his great moves 33 and 34!). After draws in the first game, Gelfand and Gashimov went through smoothly today by beating Amonatov and Zhou Jianchao respectively. Well, smoothly isn’t the correct word in the case of Gelfand, who erred on move 36 and 37 and could have been eliminated if Amonatov would have found 40…Kg7!.

Even better did Jakovenko, Wang Yue, Wang Hao and Bacrot, who all won their matches 2-0. Like Svidler, Eljanov and Fedorchuk managed to come back from yesterday’s loss against Inarkiev and Shirov respectively.

The surprise of the first round, Yu Yangyi, also went through to the third: he defeated Bartel 0.5-1.5. Grischuk, Motylev, Kamsky and Naiditsch went through with the same score.

Reaching the third round, Yu Yangyi's tournament is already a big success, whatever happens

Tomorrow there will be tiebreaks in the following matches: Svidler-Nyback, Ponomariov-Akobian, Eljanov-Inarkiev, Timofeev-Karjakin, Fedorchuk-Shirov, Dominguez-Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave-Meier, Fressinet-Alekseev, Tomashevsky-Khalifman, Navara-Shabalov, Smirin-Malakhov, Areshchenko-Rublevsky, Milos-Vitiugov, Bologan-Cheparinov, Pelletier-Li Chao and Nisipeanu-Polgar.

Some round 3 matches are already known: Jobava-Grischuk, Mamedyarov-Wang Hao, Wang Yue-Bacrot and So-Kamsky.

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Games round 2, day 2

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Players in bold have reached the third round; players in italics have been eliminated.

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

The first day of the World Cup’s second round saw quite a number of big upsets. Svidler lost with Black against Nyback, Morozevich went down with the white pieces against Laznicka, Sakaev defeated Radjabov, Ivanchuk lost to So and Inarkiev defeated Eljanov.

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

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

Round 2, day 1

It was the world upside down today in Khanty-Mansyisk. The first seven rating favorites scored only 1.5 points and big names such as Ivanchuk, Svidler, Morozevich and Radjabov are in danger of an early knockout!

Top seeded player Boris Gelfand was again the first to finish his game today. Besides his famous “game after game” approach, his strategy in Khanty-Mansyisk is clear: draw with Black, try to win with White, and save energy wherever possible. His Petroff against Amonatov lasted just twelve moves, so the Israeli grandmaster clearly bets on his White game. And why not.

Many of the underdogs did well or very well today. Zhou Jianchao played an excellent game against Gashimov; in a Berlin Wall the Chinese 21-year-old even played a positional exchange sacrifice that kind of forced the draw immediately when Gashimov decided to go for an ending with opposite-coloured bishops.

Peter Svidler lost to Finnish grandmaster Tomi Nyback (against whom yours truly once managed to draw in a King’s Indian; perhaps a better choice than the Grünfeld for a Peter? ) and here too all credits should go to the lower-rated player for what looks like a fine game. Nyback grabbed his chance at the right moment with the strong 30.e6!.

Peter Svidler, in danger of an early knockout

The third upset was Alexander Morozevich going down against Viktor Laznicka from the Czech Republic. The world’s number 10 tried to trick his opponent but Laznicka gladly fell for it: he got a pawn and the bishop pair for the lost exchange, and then duly won when got a passed pawn on the queenside.

A bad start of round 2 for Alexander Morozevich

Radjabov was the next to falter on this crazy first day of round 2. Sakaev ran with his king from e1 to b3, but with all the important squares and the centre protected, White was fine. Soon an ending was reached where Black should have been fine as well, but suddenly Radjabov couldn’t prevent the loss of a piece on the kingside.

Teimour Radjabov also needs a win tomorrow

The biggest surprise perhaps was the loss of Vassily Ivanchuk, the favourite to win this World Cup according to the ChessVibes visitors, against super-talent Wesley So. It seemed that the Ukrainian was totally outplaying his Pinoy opponent, but when he couldn’t find the knockout blow he should probably have taken the draw. Instead, in terrible timetrouble already, Chuky decided to play on but then lost in the ending.

Ernesto Inarkiev, who was a bit lucky to qualify in yesterday’s tiebreaks against Gustafsson, continued very well by defeating 84 points higher rated Pavel Eljanov – White powerplay in the Berlin Wall this time. Yu Yangyi proved to be more than a one-day fly and beat Polish GM Mateusz Bartel.

Ernesto Inarkiev: a good follow-up after yesterday's tiebreaks

World Cup 2007 finalist Shirov and winner Kamsky won their first game while Polgar, who had qualified without playing, started with a draw against Nisipeanu. Tomorrow 11:00 CET is the start of day 2 of round 2.

Alexei Shirov, still a favourite among the fans, did win his first game of round 2

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Games round 2, day 1

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

Key matchups are on tap for the FIDE World Cup. While most of the top seeds moved on, they will face stiffer tests in round two. Judit Polgar will start her first match today against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania. This tournament may see the rise by a number of young players.

By contrast, players like Teimour Radjabov and Ruslan Ponomariov seem like veterans compared to some of the participants. One such player to watch is the unheralded 15-year old Yu Yangyi of China (right). Yu has slipped under the radar since being elevated from an untitled straight to the GM title. He has done so by quietly scoring good results since 2004.

Results: http://cup2009.fide.com/results.php
Games (PGN): Round #2 1.1, 1.2
Games (PGN): Round #2 (all)

Chi vincerà per K.O.?

Boris Gelfand, più alto rating del torneo


Vugar Gashimov, più alto rating del torneo


Sergei Karjakin, semifinalista nel 2007


Alexei Shirov, finalista nel 2007


Gata Kamsky, vincitore della World Cup 2007


Fabiano Caruana ci farà sognare


Lazaro Bruzon,
l'avversario di Caruana nei 64esimi


Ahmed Adly
Campione del Mondo Under 20 nel 2007


Abijeet Gupta,
Campione del Mondo Under 20 nel 2008


Alexandra Kostenjuk
Campionessa del Mondo in carica

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

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

La suggestiva Chiesa della Resurrezione di Cristo


Il centro polivalente, sede della World Cup

Fantascacchi World Cup 2009 di LightKnight

Sito ufficiale

(En juego)

El Torneo más fuerte del año.

El 4º Memorial Mikhail Tal, se inició el jueves 5 de noviembre, en Moscú. El actual Campeón Mundial Viswanathan Anand de la India, el ex Campeón Vladimir Kramnik de Rusia, el prodigio Magnus Carlsen de Noruega y otros Super-GM. Competirán en un torneo por sistema round robin. Finalizará el miércoles 18 de noviembre, el control de tiempo es el clásico.

Del último listado ELO de la FIDE, son 10 de los 13 primeros Super-GM. Faltan el 1º Veselin Topalov (2810), el 6º Vugar Gashimov (2758) y el 11º Teimour Radjabov (2748).

Ordenados por ránking, participan Carlsen, Magnus (NOR-2801); Anand, Viswanathan (IND-2788); Aronian, Levon (ARM-2786); Kramnik, Vladimir (RUS-2772); Gelfand, Boris (ISR-2758); Svidler, Peter (RUS-2757); Leko, Peter (HUN-2752); Morozevich, Alexander (RUS-2750); Ivanchuk, Vassily (UKR-2739); Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR-2739).

Many of you have probably seen the great attacking game Bacrot-Aronian, played only three days ago at the European Team Championship in Novi Sad. But what exactly did it mean to the theory of the Anti-Moscow Gambit? ChessVibes Openings #43, published yesterday, answers this and several other topical theoretical questions.

“The latest novelties in your mailbox”

Yes, that’s been our slogan from the start, and that’s what you’ll get. Bacrot’s 17.f4N was a novelty played only three days ago, and according to our editors it starts a completely new chapter in the theory of the Anti-Marshall. Why wait until you’ll see this move included in a magazine or a book, while you can already learn about the impact and relevance of Bacrot’s play today?

This week’s issue: #43, October 28, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #43
The latest opening developments of the fourth week of October 2009. All about the Semi-Slav, Anti-Moscow Gambit which is analysed in our Game of the Week Bacrot-Aronian, European Team Ch (Novi Sad) 2009. Other lines that are covered:

• Ruy Lopez
• Caro-Kann, 4…Nd7
• Slav, 7…Nb6
• Grünfeld Indian

This week’s Opening Expert is French GM Etienne Bacrot.

Last week’s issue: #42, October 21, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #42
The latest opening developments of the third week of October 2009. All about the Nimzo-Indian, 4.Qc2 d5 line which is analysed in our Game of the Week Klimov-Harikrishna, St. Petersburg 2009. Other lines that are covered:

• Semi-Slav, Moscow
• Semi-Slav, Meran
• Slav, 4…Bf5
• Réti Opening

This week’s Opening Expert is Ukrainian GM Michail Brodsky.

Which openings are hot in top level chess? Which are not? Receive the latest opening novelties right in your mailbox with ChessVibes Openings, a weekly PDF magazine (+ PGN!) covering the latest openings news, co-authored by International Masters Merijn van Delft and Robert Ris and published by ChessVibes.

What is ChessVibes Openings?

Every issue consists of a ZIP archive file, including both the PDF Magazine and the accompanying PGN file. The PDF consists of three pages (A4 size) with the following contents:

• What’s hot? A round-up of this week’s important opening developments, with statistics about the frequence and score of the week’s most important opening novelty (page 1)
• What’s not? Which openings are not recommended at the moment, according to the top players? And why not? (page 1)
• Game of the week Each week you’ll find the theoretically most important game analysed by our two IMs, with a detailed survey of the opening phase (page 2).
• This week’s harvest Four more new important opening ideas from this week (page 3) revealed and described with explanation of the opening and early middlegame (page 3).
• Opening expert Every week an opening expert is covered, explaining the GM’s expertise and showing a key game with annotations (page 4). Examples from the first two issues: Teimour Radjabov (King’s Indian with Black), Alexey Dreev (White: Nimzo-Indian; Black: Caro-Kann and Slav).

Ehm… can I have a look?

Here’s what ChessVibes Openings #16 (April 22, 2009) looks like:

FREE SAMPLE ISSUE – ChessVibes Openings #16 – click to download!

• What’s hot? A round-up of the most important opening developments of mid-April, including statistics about the frequence and score of the Chebanenko position after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.c5 Nbd7 6.Bf4 Nh5 7.Bd2 Nhf6
• What’s not? This week 1.e4 e5 was hot, as the top players categorically avoided the Semi-Open Games. Interestingly, the classical 1…d5 was also much more popular than the more modern answers to 1.d4, at the FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik.
• Game of the week “‚ÄúI didn‚Äôt spend much time on it before the game, but I prepared seriously for this tournament and we did investigate this line,‚Äù Peter Leko said at the press conference in Nalchik, after his game against Sergei Karjakin. Page two has a closer look at this highly interesting draw in the Chebanenko.
• This week’s harvest For more opening ideas from the Ruy Lopez Marshall, Sicilian Taimanov, Queen’s Indian and Ragozin Defence.
• Opening expert This week Rustam Kasimdzhanov is highlighted. The former FIDE World Champion and current second of Anand has a broad repertoire, switching from hypersharp openings like Dragon and Anti-Moscow to positional Queen‚Äôs Gambit lines.

FREE SAMPLE ISSUE – ChessVibes Openings #16 – click to download!

What does it cost?

As a subscriber you’ll receive the PDF Magazine and accompanying PGN files in your mailbox every week.

A one-year subscription is € 25 (that’s less than € 0.50 per issue!) - for price in US $ click here

Please note that it’s still possible to start your subscription as a first-week subscriber.
Just let us know and we’ll send you all previous issues!

July 1, 2009: Eugene Manchester reviews ChessVibes Openings for ChessCafe

In the July 1 issue of ChessCafe’s Book Review (mirror here) ChessVibes Openings was reviewed by Eugene Manchester. Some quotes:

“So, who-ya-gonna-call? Opening busters? Not quite. For the reasonable price of 25 euros per year, once a week you can receive intelligent, interesting opening surveys and analysis presented by a team lead by Dutch IMs Merijn van Delft & Robert Ris.”

“The format and presentation are consistently of high quality, with variety of coverage and opening analysis.”

“The cost per year is roughly equivalent to a good chess book. Each week you get a four- page issue packed with opening analysis, at least two thoroughly annotated games with one or more of that week‚Äôs featured openings, a glimpse into the world of the latest opening novelties, in short, a quality weekly opening report.”

May 7, 2009: GM Hedinn Steingrimsson reviews ChessVibes Openings for Chess Today

In issues 3103 (Thursday, May 7) of Chess Today, the daily chess newspaper which also comes into your inbox by email in PDF, ChessVibes Openings was reviewed by GM Hedinn Steingrimsson from Iceland. Some quotes:

“What I like about ChessVibes Openings is their focus on the trend and discoveries that are revealed in super tournaments and by very strong players. It makes sense for all tournament chess players and opening theoreticians to follow these developments and getting an overview from ChessVibes Openings definitely saves time.”

“I find it positive that there is consistency in the openings covered so that the readers will with time have a certain repertoire available based on different theoretical articles from ChessVibes about e.g. the Anti-Moscow Variation.”

“For those that really want to find out how to get a better position out of the opening and are willing to enter complications and do some homework in order to succeed, ChessVibes Openings can be recommended.”

Since October 21st is taking place, in Novi Sad, Serbia, the 17th European Team Championship.

In the fifth round Azerbaijan, led by Teimour Radjabov, beated Georgia and took the lead. The surpising French team won over Armenia with a win of Bacrot over Aronian.

In the sixth round two of the strongest teams met: Azerbaijan vs Russia. With all games drawn the encouter was decided. Ukraine vs Georgia and Netherlands vs France were also drawn. And the big surprise was the defeat of Bulgaria by Czech Republic. Topalov drew his game and Ivan Cheparinov lost a decisive game against Laznicka.

The current stands are: Azerbaijan 5/1/0, Russia 3/3/0 and Armenia 4/1/1.

Bacrot,E (2709) - Aronian,L (2773) [D43]
17th TCh-Eur Novi Sad SRB (5), 2009-10-26
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5 9. Be2 Bb7 10. O-O Nbd7 11. Ne5 Bg7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bd6 a6 14. a4 e5 15. Bg4 exd4 16. e5 c5 17. f4 dxc3 18. bxc3 Bf8 19. Qe2 Bxd6 20. exd6+ Kf8 21. fxg5 hxg5 22. Be6 Rh7 23. Qc2 Kg8 24. Rxf7 Rxf7 25. Rf1 Nf8 26. Qf5 Nxe6 27. Qxf7+ Kh8 28. Rf6 Qxf6 29. Qxf6+ Ng7 30. d7 b4 31. cxb4 cxb4 32. d8=Q+ Rxd8 33. Qxd8+ Kh7 34. Qb6 Be4 35. Qxb4 Bd3 36. Qa5  1 - 0 (view game)

Radjabov,T (2757) - Svidler,P (2741) [D97]
17th TCh-Eur Novi Sad SRB (6), 2009-10-27
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Qb3 dxc4 6. Qxc4 O-O 7. e4 a6 8. Qa4 Nc6 9. d5 Na7 10. Be3 c6 11. Rd1 cxd5 12. e5 Ng4 13. Nxd5 Nxe3 14. Nxe3 Qb6 15. b3 Qc5 16. Nd5 Be6 17. b4 Qxd5 18. Rxd5 Bxd5 19. Be2 Nc6 20. O-O e6 21. a3 Nxe5  ½ - ½ (view game)

Cheparinov,I (2667) - Laznicka,V (2634) [B46]
17th TCh-Eur Novi Sad SRB (6), 2009-10-27
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. e5 Qc7 8. Bf4 f5 9. g4 Nh6 10. gxf5 Nxf5 11. Qf3 Bb4 12. Bd3 O-O 13. Rg1 Bb7 14. O-O-O Bxc3 15. bxc3 c5 16. Qg4 Rf7 17. Bxf5 exf5 18. Qh5 Qc6 19. Rd3 Qa4 20. Qh6 Qc6 21. Rd6 Qe4 22. e6 dxe6 23. Rxe6 Qc4 24. Be5 Bg2 25. Bxg7 Rxg7 26. Re7 Qxc3 27. Rxg2 Qa1+ 28. Kd2 Rd8+  0 - 1 (view game)

 Campionato Europeo per Nazioni

Bulgaria-Italia 1.5-2.5! Femminile: Armenia-Italia 2.5-1.5

2° t.: Olanda-Italia LIVE h.15.00; Femm: Italia-Norvegia

La 17^ edizione del Campionato Europeo per Nazioni si disputa a Novi Sad in Serbia dal 22 al 30 ottobre.
Questa la TopTen delle squadre partecipanti:

1. Russia (RUS 2740)

1 GM Svidler Peter 2741
2 GM Morozevich Alexander 2750
3 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2742
4 GM Alekseev Evgeny 2725
5 GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2688

Alexander Morozevich

Teimour Radjabov

Levon Aronian

Veselin Topalov

Pavel Eljanov

Emil Sutovsky

Arkadij Naiditsch

Alexei Shirov

Etienne Bacrot

Zoltan Almasi

Michele Godena

Alexandra Kostenjuk

Eleonora Ambrosi

28 le Federazioni partecipanti al Campionato Femminile.

Si gioca tutti i giorni dalle ore 15.00, tranne l'ultimo turno previsto alle 13.00.
Cadenza di gioco: 90' x 40 mosse + 30' per concludere, sempre con 30" di abbuono a mossa.

Premi:

- Premi di squadra:

MEN TEAMS
1st place 10.000 Euro
2nd place 7.500 Euro
3rd place 5.500 Euro

WOMEN TEAMS
1st place 7.000 Euro
2nd place 5.000 Euro
3rd place 3.000 Euro

- Migliori scacchiere:

MEN
1st place 1.000 Euro
2nd place 700 Euro
3rd place 500 Euro

WOMEN
1st place 1.000 Euro
2nd place 700 Euro
3rd place 500 Euro

Foto dal sito ufficiale


Un esordio col botto dell'Italia: battuta la Bulgaria!


Nonostante la sconfitta, un buon esordio anche per l'Italia Femminile,
battuta di misura dalla forte Armenia


Occhio a questa squadra: dopo lo scivolone della Russia al primo turno
diventa ancor di più candidata alla vittoria finale


La sede di gioco,
non particolarmente elegante ma, si spera, funzionale

La precedente edizione si è giocata sull'isola di Creta nel 2007. Dominio delle squadre russe sia nell'Assoluto che nel Femminile, con in particolare una prestazione "monstre" di Svidler (performance 2989!); secondo e terzo posto per Armenia e Azerbaigian, il podio più probabile anche per l'edizione 2009. Per gli Azzurri nel 2007 un 29° posto nell'edizione assoluta, che aveva confermato il "ranking" iniziale. Non aveva partecipato la squadra femminile.

Lo stemma di
Novi Sad

1. Sergey Karjakin 12 ans, 7 mois, 0 jour
2. Parimarjan Negi 13 ans, 4 mois, 22 jours
3. Magnus Carlsen 13 ans, 4 mois, 27 jours
4. Bu Xiangzhi 13 ans, 10 mois, 13 jours
5. Teimour Radjabov 14 ans, 0 mois, 14 jours
6. Ruslan Ponomariov 14 ans, 0 mois, 17 jours
7. Wesley So 14 ans, 1 mois, 28 jours
8. Etienne Bacrot 14 ans, 2 mois, 0 jours
9. Jorge Cori 14 ans, 2 mois
10. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 14 ans, 4 mois
11. Péter Lékó 14 ans, 4 mois, 22 jours
12. Hou Yifan 14 ans, 6 mois, 16 jours
13. Anish Giri 14 ans, 7 mois, 2 jours
14. Yuriy Kuzubov 14 ans, 7 mois, 12 jours
15. Dariusz Swiercz 14 ans, 7 mois, 29 jours
16. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 14 ans, 10 mois
17. Ray Robson 14 ans, 11 mois, 16 jours
18. Fabiano Caruana 14 ans, 11 mois, 20 jours

2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Anish Giri could enjoy the title for about eight months, but now there’s a new youngest grandmaster in the world: Ray Robson from the USA. By winning the Panamerican Junior Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay Robson clinched his 3rd GM norm, just 14 years 11 months and 16 days old.

GM-elect Ray Robson at the Panamerican Junior Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay

Ray Robson was born October 25th, 1994 in Guam, an island in the western Pacific Ocean and an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States. An only child, Ray learned the rules of chess at the age of 3, from his father Gary, a professor in applied linguistics. Ray’s mother Yee-chen is a kindergarten teacher. Currently the family lives in Largo, Florida (USA).

Ray stepped into the limelight for the first time in April 2005, at the “Super Nationals” (the world’s largest scholastic chess tournament) in Nashville, Tennessee. There he won all of his games and emerged as the national champion in the elementary age division. By winning this title, he earned a four-year scholarship covering full tuition and fees, along with a housing stipend, to the University of Texas (Dallas) – not bad for a 10-year-old (and no doubt very useful in later years).

In 2007 Robson earned his three IM norms in only six weeks: the first at the 6th North American FIDE Invitational on November 3, 2007, in Chicago, Illinois; the second on November 27 at the World Youth Chess Championship in Antalya, Turkey, and the third and final norm on (December 10) at the University of Texas GM Invitational in Dallas, Texas, making him the youngest IM-elect in the United States.

On July 16, 2009, Robson became the youngest player ever to win the U.S. Junior Chess Championship and soon afterwards, just like his IM norms, the three GM norms were scored in a very short time frame. In August he tied for first at the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromso, Norway, and in the same month Robson earned his second GM norm by winning the 23rd North American FIDE Invitational in Skokie, Illinois.

Last Sunday, Robson drew his game against Andres Gallego in round 8 of the Pan-American Junior Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay. This way he secured first place in the tournament as he had won his first seven games! Robson’s dad Gary confirmed that for winning this tournament, Ray automatically earns a GM norm, despite the fact that he only played eight games against just one IM (Chami Luis Ibarra) and one GM (Andre Diamant).

Double-checking the FIDE Handbook we assume that the Panamerican Junior Championship falls in the same category as the “Continental U-20 ASEAN”, the “Arab U-20″, the “Centroamerican-Caribbean U-20″ and the “Southern American U-20″ mentioned in the table under 1.24 – tournaments where the gold medal equals a 9-game GM norm. (Not that we’re questioning Ray’s level or anything; so far he has beaten already five 2600+ players! See the game viewer below.)

Since Ray Robson’s rating is already over 2500, he’s now officially “GM-elect”, and soon officially the youngest GM in the world. He beat Fabiano Caruana’s record by four days, and also broke Nakamura’s and Fischer’s records to become the youngest American Grandmaster in history. [Update answering Thomas' remark: the First Saturday tournament where Fabiano scored his 3rd GM norm was in July 2007, so it started on Saturday, July 7th, 2007. It seems there wasn’t a rest day in that tournament and so the last round was played on Sunday, July 15th. His birthday is July 30th and if we assume he clinched the norm in the last round, he was in fact 14 years, 11 months and 15 days, just one day quicker than Ray! Besides, since Fabiano was a citizen of both the United States and Italy, he did break Nakamura’s record.]

Recently Ray Robson was interviewed by John Watson for almost an hour; Robson was the guest at the weekly Chess.FM show Chess Talk with Watson on September 8th. Robson tells about being coached by Gregory Kaidanov and Alexander Onischuk and reveals a bit about the mystery of chess improvement. For instance, Kaidanov gave him opening files and Dvoretsky puzzles, which Ray described as “hard to solve, but very helpful for me.” His advice to young players: “Keep studying chess is the best way to improve. Different books, tactics, everyone can improve that way.” And he confirmed the importance of tactics: “At the beginning I studied tactics a lot. I didn’t really study positional chess until I was much higher rated.” Later in the interview Ray mentioned “USCF, Chessbase, ChessVibes” as the chess websites he visits, so we’ll take the opportunity: congratulations Ray!

Selection of Ray Robson’s games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Photos courtesy of the Jóvenes Promesas del Ajedrez Uruguayo blog

Links

• Arctic Chess Challenge website
• 23rd North American FIDE Invitational
• Pan-American Junior Championship
• Selection of Robson games in PGN

Drawing quickly with Teimour Radjabov in a Grünfeld, Magnus Carlsen today secured sole victory at the Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing, with one round to go. The Norwegian thus scored his best career performance ever, finishing clear first at a Grand Slam tournament. Wang Yue-Topalov and Jakovenko-Leko ended in a draw.

The 2nd Pearl Spring tournament takes place September 27 – October 9 in Nanjing, China. It’s a 6-player, double round-robin with Topalov (2813), Carlsen (2772), Leko (2762), Radjabov (2757), Jakovenko (2742) and Wang Yue (2736) playing for a € 250,000 prize fund. The rate of play is 40 moves in 90 minutes plus 1 hour.

Round 9

The tournament has been decided in the penultimate round, in which Carlsen kept his 2-point lead once more. Half a point was enough today (trying to win would be too much to ask), and this is what he got, and quite easily. In yet another Grünfeld Defence, this time the Exchange Variation, Radjabov didn’t go for the most ambitious lines. His 12.h3 cannot be critical in the position, and although his pawn sac a few moves later was interesting, the simple 20…b5! led to an instant draw.

Leko quickly neutralized Jakovenko’s “controlled aggression”, the Latvian Gambit Semi-Slav, probably in his preparation. Right out of the opening a position with only heavy pieces appeared on the board which was dynamically balanced and also here the recipe for Black was: give back the pawn at the right moment. White’s king turned out to be less safe than his colleague and so Jakovenko went for a queen exchange which could be interpreted as a silent draw offer.

The most interesting game was clearly Wang Yue-Topalov, and mainly because of the Bulgarian’s winning attempts. And he got quite far. In fact, Topalov was outplaying his opponent from an equal ending, which was impressive enough, but then mysteriously refrained from the simplest way to end up with an extra pawn. From that moment the Chinese defended strongly and even was a pawn up himself for a while, but the game was drawn anyway.

Tomorrow the round starts five hours earlier, and Carlsen plays Jakovenko with the white pieces. He can choose between a quick draw or trying to get that performance rating over 3000 again and win even more rating points. Our guess is that he’s much less concerned with the latter than his fans, and therefore opts for the former.

Games round 9

Game viewer by ChessTempo

2nd Pearl Spring (Nanjing) 2009 | Round 9 Standings

2nd Pearl Spring (Nanjing) 2009 | Schedule & results

Nobel prize winner Robert Alexander Mundell, who also visited the 1st edition of the tournament, together with IM Silvio Danailov and GM Adrian Mikhalchishin...

...watching the games, at quite a distance, but helped by TV screens

Links

• Pearl Spring website
• Gujuan Tzu’s blog
• Ye Rongguang’s photo blog
• Pearl Spring games in PGN
• Women GP website
• Women GP games in PGN