He needed a little help from his opponent in the last round, but after winning the ACP World Rapid Cup Sergey Karjakin also managed to finish first in Poikovsky. Finishing with three out of three, Viktor Bologan also scored 7/11, but the Moldav GM had a slightly worse tiebreak.

The 11th edition of the tournament named after 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov took place June 2-13 in Poikovsky, Russia. For the first time the tournament had not 10, but 12 players. See our first report for more info.

Rounds 9-11

In round 9 Vitiugov managed to surprise Rublevsky in the opening – in a well-known QGA position.

Vitiugov-Rublevsky

White went 6.d5!? and after 6…b5 7.Bb3 exd5 (7…c4 8.dxe6! Qxd1+ 9.Bxd1) 8.Bxd5 Ra7 9.e4 Nf6 10.Nc3 Nxd5 11.Nxd5 Nc6 12.O-O Be6 13.a4 Black fell into a trap with the careless 13…Be7?

Can you see how? See the game viewer below.

Karjakin couldn’t beat Onischuk, who defended a rook ending superbly. After reaching the following position, the American easily found a few only moves.

Karjakin-Onischuk

72…Kf4! 73.Ra4+ Kf3 74.Ra3+ Kf4 75.Kc6 g5 76.Kd5 g4 77.Ra4+ Kf3 78.Ke5 g3 79.Ra3+ Kg4 80.Kf6 and Karjakin offered a draw. Without Black’s f-pawn the ending is lost, but with it it’s a draw, the reason being that it protects the black king from a check on f8!

Fireworks in the following game.

Sutovsky-Vitiugov

White couldn’t resist the temptation and went 22.Rxf7!? Qxf7 23.Bxg6 and here Black should have given back a piece with 23…Qf6!! 24.Be4+ Qg5 25.Bxc7 Qxg3 26.Bxg3. Instead, after 23…Qf2+ 24.Qxf2 Rxf2 25.Kxf2 Rf8+ with 26.Kg1 White could have kept an advantage.

But Sutovsky missed another trick by playing 26.Kg3? – can you see what was wrong with that move?

Karjakin had been under pressure in a Winawer French, but again luck was not on Sutovsky’s side.

Karjakin-Sutovsky

By now the ending should end in a draw, but with 47…Rh3? Black didn’t give his rook enough checking distance. 47…Kd6 48.Kf5 Rf1+ is equal. 48.g5! Kd6 49.Kf5 and White won.

After two strong wins Bologan got yet another full point in a bishop ending against last year’s winner Motylev, who this time finished at the bottom of the standings.

Bologan-Motylev

Black erred with 61…f4? (61…g5! is a draw) 62.Bc3+ Kg5 63.Bxg7 Kxh5 64.Bd4 Kh4 65.Bc5 Bb8 66.Kd4 Kg5 67.d6 a5 68.Kd5 a4 69. Bb6 1-0

Karpov Tournament (Poikovsky) 2010 | Round 11 (Final) Standings

Games rounds 9-11

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Coups d'oeil sur le 11ème Tournoi d'échecs Karpov Poikovsky qui se déroule du 31 mai au 14 juin dans la région de Khanty-Mansijsk, sur la plaine de Sibérie occidentale.

Viktor Bologan, Dmitry Jakovenko, Sergei Karjakin and Alexander Riazantsev started with one draw and one win at the Karpov tournament in Poikovsky, Russia. The other participants are Ivan Sokolov, Emil Sutovsky, Alexander Onischuk, Baadur Jobava, Sergei Rublevsky, Arkadij Naiditsch, Nikita Vitiugov and Alexander Motylev.

The 11th edition of the tournament named after 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov takes place June 2-13 in Poikovsky, Russia. For the first time the tournament now has not 10, but 12 players. In this round-robin of 11 rounds, the rest day is on June 8th.

Poikovsky is located in the Nefteyugansk region of the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous area. It’s about 150km eastern of Khanty-Mansiysk. Its name comes from the nearby river Poyka. The population is close to 30,000 people and the main economic drive is the extraction of oil and gas.

Eleven years ago local authorities decided that a big chess tournament would do the region well. A year later a chess school for children was opened, like the tournament named after Anatoly Karpov. This year the chess school celebrated its 10th anniversary on June 1st, International Children’s Day. The festivities were opened by Karpov himself.

In the 11th tournament there are two players who never missed a single event in Poikovsky: Bologan and Onischuk. Jobava, Karjakin and Vitiugov make their debut this year. Motylev is defending his 2009 title.

Evgeny Surov posted a first photo report on Chesspro, where many players can be seen planting a tree in Poikovsky, including Anatoly Karpov himself.

Top seed this year is Sergei Karjakin, who just finished the ACP World Rapid Cup successfully a few days ago. He and the other finalist in Odessa, Dmitry Jakovenko, started with 1.5/2, and so did Viktor Bologan and Alexander Riazantsev.

Games rounds 1-2

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Dopo 4 turni conducono con 3 punti i favoriti Karjakin e Jakovenko con 3 punti.
Ecco il campo partenti di questa fortissima competizione, che rende omaggio ad Anatoly Karpov e che prevede un round robin con 12 giocatori:

Quarto turno

Terzo turno

Secondo turno:

Ecco il primo turno:

Rublevsky - Riazantsev

Il bianco ha appena giocato 49.h4 creando la possibile minaccia Dh8 matto, illudendosi di tenere legato il nero, che però vince con 49…Da1+ 50.Rg2, Ce1+ 51.Rg3, Dxa3+ 52.Rf4, Dc3! mettendo sotto controllo e5 e minacciando la semplice Cg2 matto 53.Df8+, Rh5 54.f3, Cg2+ 55.Rg3, Dxf3+ 56.Rh2, Cf4 con matto imparabile

Le partite in diretta con aiuto del motore qui: http://livechess.chessdom.com/site/

Alexander Morozevich

Alexander Grischuk

Boris Gelfand

Vitiugov (3° scacchiera dietro Ivanchuk e Svidler)

Malakhov  (2° scacchiera)

Motylev (2° scacchiera)

Tomsk-400: vincitori del campionato 2009

 La squadra di Fabiano, ShSM-64, 2° classificata nel 2009

Antoaneta Stefanova



Anna Muzychuk

Natalija Pogonina

Kosteniuk, Campionessa del Mondo

Ushenina

Monika Socko ( POL) , fresca Campionessa Europea

---

The first round was on Saturday. The Official site seems very well put together with live games, video and commentaries. However on day one they did have problems coping with the level of traffic, but there has been a steady improvement since then. It marks a trend this year which seems to indicate traffic to official sites has been increasing.

Play starts at 2:30pm UK time. All the live games and their results are now up along with previous rounds complete. chess-results.com has the full official results and standings and the latest pairings.

Naiditsch, Vallejo, Jobava, Pelletier, Timofeev, Martinovic, Skoberne, Krasenkow, Inarkiev, Nisipeanu, Efimenko, Maiorov and Nepomniachtchi are the names of the thirteen players who are still on 100% in Rijeka. Three rounds at the European Individual Championship have been played.

The 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship is held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new Zamet Centre sports hall. The event is organized by chess club “Rijeka”, in agreement with the Croatian Chess Federation under the auspices of the City of Rijeka and the European Chess Union. It is open to all players representing the chess federations which comprise the European Chess Union (FIDE zones 1.1 to 1.9) regardless of their title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation.

The championship is based on Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. As always, the European Championship is a qualification event for the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify.

Rounds 1-3

Top seed Zoltan Almasi started with a draw with Black against Italian GM Lexy Ortega. In this first round, played on Saturday, Russian top GMs Alexander Motylev and Evgeny Tomashevsky, the reigning European Champion, also started with draws. The biggest upsets were IM Artem Smirnov beating GM Evgeniy Najer, IM Pavel Potapov beating Viktor Laznicka, FM Burak Firat beating GM Konstantin Sakaev and FM Danny Raznikov beating GM Zaven Andriasian. On one of the lowest boards, Dutch GM Friso Nijboer was held to a draw by Denis Kadric (2171).

The second round saw two draws on the top boards, in Stefansson-Bacrot and Movsesian-Ragger. Moldav top GM Viktor Bologan lost to Bulgarian GM Valentin Iotov and GM Avetik Grigoryan defeated GM Kiril Georgiev. Ivan Cheparinov, long-time team member of Veselin Topalov, lost to Spanish GM Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez, but another Bulgarian of the same generation did better: IM Momchil Nikolov defeated GM Boris Savchenko. FM Hamitevici Vladimir managed to beat GM Mateusz Bartel in this round.

Round 3 was played on International Women’s Day, and all the women playing in the tournament received a rose “as a small sign of appreciation to all women players and all the ladies participating in the organization of this big sporting event”.

Dutch ladies Lisa Schut, Anne Haast and Arlette van Weersel, with roses at the chess boards

In the women’s section there are four leaders with a perfect score after three rounds: Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS), who is the only survivor from the ten best rated players, Monica Socko (POL), Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (SCO) and Irina Chelushkina (SRB).

Back to the men. After three rounds there are still 13 players with a 100% score. Among them are the two young international masters Sasa Martinovic (CRO) and Jure Skoberne (SLO) who in round 3 defeated GMs Vorobiov and Howell respectively. David Navara, these days boasting a 2708 rating, lost to Yannick Pelletier yesterday. Cheparinov went down again, this time against IM Artem Smirnov. IM Pavel Povatov and FM Burak Firat had more successes: the former defeated GM Tomi Nyback, the latter beat GM Gregorz Gajewski.

Today’s round will see some interesting encounters: Vallejo Pons-Timofeev, Krasenkow-Jobava, Naiditsch-Efimenko, Pelletier-Inarkiev, Skoberne-Nisipeanu, Nepomniashtchi-Maiorov and Adams-Martinovic. In the women’s section there are two clashes at the top: Arakhamia-T.Kosintseva and Socko-Chelushkina.

A nice curiosity about the European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship in Rijeka

For the first time, there will be a ‘priest’ to represent – unofficially – the State of Vaticano. Unofficially because Vaticano is not (yet) affiliated to FIDE.

The name of the priest who will partecipate to the European Championship is Don Valerio Piro, from Neapolis; he got the formal authorization from Cardinal Sepe (note that Cardinal is more than Bishop; the Cardinal reports directly to the Pope).

Don Valerio is candidate-master for the Italian Chess Federation. Officially he is registered as Italy, but he will play with the flag of Vaticano. This is the first partecipation of a representative of the little State that is not afffiliated to FIDE. But only for the moment, as there are many priest that are good chessplayer.

Historically, the first (important) was Ruy Lopez – the inventor of the famous opening. The last one is William Lombardy, assistant of Bobby Fischer.

There is the idea to organize a championship for ‘ecclesiastics’ (priests, friars, monks, nuns), then there will be the possibility to create a Chess Federation of the state of Vaticano. So may be that it will be possible to see a team fom Vaticano also in the Olympiads.

The news had a good interest in the Italian newspapers and press agency. Please find enclosed the links (sorry, but the articles are in Italian!). Please note that the most important ‘catholic’ newspaper, Avvenire, dedicated a complete page to the news.

• http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/regioni/campania/2010/02/28/visualizza_new.html_1709041681.html
• http://napoli.repubblica.it/dettaglio/scacchi-parroco-di-boscotrecase-primo-sacerdote-agli-europei/1875352
• http://www.ilvesuvio.it/index.php?page=0&news=8711
• http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Regioni/Campania/Prete-ai-Campionati-europei-di-scacchi-Al-mio-rientro-lezioni-in-parrocchia_70956501.html
• http://www.libero-news.it/regioneespanso.jsp?id=360194

Thanks and best regards!
Adolivio Capece

Selection of games rounds 1-3

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The venue is the Zamet Centre (16,830 m2), which hosts various facilities: a sports hall with max 2,380 seats, local community offices, a library, 13 retail and service spaces and a garage with 250 parking spaces.

These days the sports hall is occupied with tables, seats and chess sets...

...and hundreds of chess players

Croatian chess fans watching the games from the side

Vallejo Pons, from Linares to Rijeka, with Michael Adams next to him

Local hero GM Marin Bosiocic (r.), here against GM Ernesto Inarkiev, has many fans

Top seed GM Antoaneta Stefanova (l.), here against WGM Sopiko Guramishvili

Second seeded is IM Nadezhda Kosintseva, but another favourite...

...is her sister Tatiana, two times European Champion already

Photos courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

• Official website
• All details and statistics
• Games in PGN: Men | Women via TWIC

• LINARES (SPA) /12-25 Febbraio
  
• GIBILTERRA (SPA) / 26 Gennaio-4 Febbraio
  
• AEROFLOT (RUS) /  8-19 Febbraio
  
• AMBER (FRA) / 13-25 Marzo

1.	Grischuk, Alexander	8	g	RUS		2733
2.	Ivanchuk, Vassily	8	g	UKR		2779
3.	Carlsen, Magnus	7,5	g	NOR		2776
4.	Anand, Viswanathan	7	g	IND		2791
5.	Radjabov, Teimour	6,5th	g	AZE		2761
6.	Wang Yue	6,5	g	CHN		2739
7.	Aronian, Levon	6,5	g	ARM		2750
8.	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	6	g	CUB		2717

• Bu Xiangzhi,

• Alexander Motylev,

• Ivan Cheparinov,

• Gabriel Sargassian

• Evgeny Najer

1.  Aronian    14    
2.  Anand      13½
    Kramnik    13½
4.  Carlsen    13    
5.  Morozevich 11    
6.  Karjakin   10½
    Topalov    10½
8.  Kamsky     10    
    Leko       10    
10. Ivanchuk   9½
11. Radjabov   9    
12. Wang Yue   7½

1.  Aronian    7    
    Carlsen    7    
    Kramnik    7    
4.  Anand      6½
    Morozevich 6½
6.  Leko       5½
    Topalov    5½
8.  Ivanchuk   5    
    Radjabov   5    
10. Karjakin   4½
11. Wang Yue   3½
12. Kamsky     3

1.  Anand      7    
    Aronian    7    
    Kamsky     7    
4.  Kramnik    6½
5.  Carlsen    6    
    Karjakin   6    
7.  Topalov    5    
8.  Ivanchuk   4½
    Leko       4½
    Morozevich 4½
11. Radjabov   4    
    Wang Yue   4

He was the last-minute replacement for Malakhov and never lacks fighting spirit: Gata Kamsky today won in Reggio Emilia after beating Zoltan Almasi in a fantastic last-round game. The American and the Hungarian both scored 6.5/9 but Kamsky had the better tiebreak.

The 52nd edition of the “Torneo di Capodanno” took place December 28th – January 6th at the Astoria-Mercure hotel in Reggio Emilia. It was a 10-player round-robin with GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Michele Godena, GM Daniele Vocaturo, IM Sabino Brunello (all from Italy), GM Gata Kamsky (USA), GM Eltaj Safarli (Azerbajan), GM Baadur Jobava (Georgia), GM Konstantin Landa (Russia), GM Viktor Bologan (Moldavia) and GM Zoltan Almasi (Hungary).

Rounds 6-9

After five rounds, Almasi and Kamsky were leading the field with 3.5 points out of 5 games. The two kept the lead for one more round thanks to victories with the black pieces in round 6. Kamsky beat Brunello with Black in a g3 Grünfeld; the Italian’s exchange sacrifice was interesting but 29.Nd3 too passive. Almasi, who played the Berlin Wall regularly long before Kramnik used it to beat Kasparov, got under serious pressure against Bologan. However, a few moves before 40 the picture suddenly changed completely and with 44.Rf7? Bologan even lost what was probably a drawn ending.

The next round Almasi beat Safarli, who tried the Norwegian Variation of the Ruy Lopez (4…b5 and 5…Na5). The Hungarian was well prepared and played like Karjakin did to beat Mamedyarov at the World Blitz Ch in Moscow last month. Kamsky dropped back half a point after a draw with Landa, and the same scenario repeated was repeated in round 8: Almasi won, against Vocaturo, and Kamsky drew, with Bologan.

It’s always nice when the two strongest players meet each other in the last round, and this is what happened today. And what a finale it was! This time no Berlin Wall, no, Almasi went for the Archangelsk which is quite popular again these days. Already on move 17 Kamsky came with a stunning exchange sacrifice in return for a pawn and a strong initiative.

At first Almasi defended well, but soon after the second blow 24.Ba7 things went downhill for Black. Great stuff from Kamsky, and what a way to end a tournament for the organizers.

What about the young rising stars? Well, Brunello and Safarli played close to their expected score, but Vocaturo did much worse with a performance rating in the 2300s. As stated before, he played quite interesting chess and should have scored better. He will for sure, in the future. In fact he might be proving that theory already in the Corus C group which starts in ten days from now.

Selection of games rounds 6-9

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Konstantin Landa vs Daniele Vocaturo

Baadur Jobava vs Michele Godena

Eltaj Safarli vs Fabiano Caruana, who will play in Corus A

The crucial, and fantastic encounter Kamsky-Almasi...

...afterwards explained by the winner (with commentator GM Miso Cebalo)

An interview with a TV crew...

...and receiving the trophy from Silvano Ferraroni, President of Chess Club "Ippogrifo" and on of the organizers of the Reggio Emilia Tournament

Thanks to Giorgio Gozzi for providing the photos

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

After five rounds in Reggio Emilia, Zoltan Almasi and Gata Kamsky are leading the tournament with 3.5 points out of 5 games. Thus far the young Italians, Sabino Brunello and Daniele Vocaturo, have played better than their score would suggest.

The 52nd edition of the “Torneo di Capodanno” takes place December 28th – January 6th at the Astoria-Mercure hotel in Reggio Emilia. It’s a 10-player round-robin with GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Michele Godena, GM Daniele Vocaturo, IM Sabino Brunello (all from Italy), GM Gata Kamsky (USA), GM Eltaj Safarli (Azerbajan), GM Baadur Jobava (Georgia), GM Konstantin Landa (Russia), GM Viktor Bologan (Moldavia) and GM Zoltan Almasi (Hungary).

At first Vladimir Malakhov was going to play in Reggio, but because of his success at the World Cup the Russian Chess Federation wanted him on the team for the upcoming World Team Championship in Bursa, Turkey. The Italian organizers were then helped by Gata Kamsky, who was happy to step in. The rate of play in Reggio is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes to finish the game + 30 seconds per move starting from the 1st.

In a way the field of players is similar to that of the London Chess Classic: a mixture of strong, international players and local, rising stars. Where favourites such as Almasi and Kamsky seriously try to win the tournament, young stars like Vocaturo and Safarli have not much to lose and can go all or nothing in almost every round. This has led to quite a fightful event so far, with a drawing percentage as low as 44%.

Selection of games rounds 1-5

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In the first round, all victories were scored with the black pieces. Safarli defeated Brunello in an ending that should have been a draw (after 31.e4) – 36.Be1 seems to be the decisive mistake. Caruana started strongly with a Black victory against Bologan in an Archangelsk Sicilian. White resigned because of 42.Rxg3 Bxe4!.

Godena was under pressure throughout his game against Almasi but held the draw. Against Kamsky, Vocaturo got his pawns running in a Sicilian, but positionally Black was better and in the second phase of the game White could only defend, but not safe himself.

In round 2, Godena beat his young compatriot Vocaturo using an Alapin Sicilian. Black was well prepared and absolutely fine after 25 moves, but blundered on move 34 where 34…Qd2! was necessary. Bologan had just reached equality with Black against Jobava, but was suddenly outplayed completely in the ending.

The Moldav GM recovered in the next round and defeated Brunello, who repeated Aronian’s unsuccessful answer to Dominguez’ 8.d4 Anti-Marshall played at Corus, almost year ago. Brunello’s new 16…Ba8 is interesting, and he was doing fine for a long time, but in timetrouble things went downhill.

Almasi played very strongly against Jobava and beat the Georgian GM in a Rauzer Sicilian.

Vocaturo scored his only point so far in this third round. He beat Caruana, who won an exchange but then committed several mistakes.

On December 31st, Jobava decided to start early with the fireworks. Against Vocaturo he played aggressively and directed the game into a Four Pawns KID. His 21.Rxf7!? was extremely interesting, but not necessarily good for White, as Vocaturo showed with a series of strong moves. This probably cost him too much time on the clock, because the Italian completely threw away a much better position in the phase after move 30. A pity. In another g3 Grünfeld, Almasi was too strong for Brunello while Bologan managed to beat Landa with the black pieces in a King’s Indian, Bayonet variation. One mistake of his opponent (24.Rc7?) was all he needed.

Vocaturo must do his best to forget about the first five rounds, to be able to do better in the remainder of the tournament. Also in yesterday’s game against Brunello he reached an excellent position, but let it slip away, first to an unclear ending, and then to a lost one. In a very irregular, almost coffeehouse English Opening, Kamsky castled queenside against Jobava, who blundered his rook on move 34.

The last four rounds will be played Sunday, January 3rd till Wednesday, January 6th. Interestingly, Almasi and Kamsky will play each other in the last round.

Photos: Giorgio Gozzi

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

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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Il maestro Paoli (vedi foto) sarebbe molto orgoglioso di questa 52a edizione del suo torneo di Capodanno, che permette ai quattro più forti maestri italiani (di cui ben 3 under 21) di cimentarsi contro sei temibili grandi maestri stranieri. Infatti, quando intorno agli anni ‘80 Paoli aveva incominciato a trovare sponsor per la sua manifestazione, questi cercavano principalmente pubblicità attraverso la forza del torneo (in parole povere la media ELO), e quindi per i maestri italiani non vi è quasi mai stata la possibilità di competere contro avversari nei primi 50 al mondo, ma soprattutto questa occasione non la hanno mai avuta dei ragazzi così giovani.

Nelle fotografie sopra (tratte da “LItalia Scacchistica”), vediamo due giocatori italiani, il MI Giustolisi e il M° Contedini impegnati contro forti avversari nella 4a edizione del torneo, la prima che vede un successo italiano: Giustolisi con 8/11 precede un forte lotto di partecipanti, gli MI Lehmann, Ghitescu, Padevski e Haag e i GM Pirc e Canal.  Meno bene va a Contedini, che giunge 10°-12°.

E giungiamo al 1970 con il secondo e per adesso ultimo successo in solitario di un nostro portacolori: Sergio Mariotti (foto da “L’Italia Scacchistica”) si impone di forza su di un buon lotto di giocatori, comprendente il GM Damjanovic e i MI Kozma, Bertok, Mista e Troianescu.

Le edizioni si susseguono, nella foto sopra  (da “L’Italia Scacchistica” ) vediamo il gruppo dell’anno 1972, torneo vinto da Soltis che vede l’esordio internazionale del giovane bolognese Renato Cappello.

Negli anni ‘80, come già detto, entrano gli sponsor e spariscono gli italiani in gara: nella foto sopra (da “L’Italia Scacchistica” ) alcuni partecipanti all’edizione 1986/87, vinta da Ribli, con i primi cinque classificati imbattuti, indice di scarsissima combattività, e purtroppo nessun italiano in campo.

Ed ecco finalmente i campionissimi: Karpov nel 1989/90 (foto da “Scacco” ) giunge secondo alle spalle di Ehlvest, nel 1990/91 vince e nel 1991/92 arriva dietro ad Anand, in compagnia di Kasparov (che così non ha il suo nome nell’albo d’oro).

E qui finiscono i soldi, forse a causa del mancato successo di Kasparov,….fatto sta che l’edizione dopo è molto interessante, perchè vede ben otto maestri italiani (foto tratta da “Torre e Cavallo”) contendersi il titolo di campione nazionale in un torneo a cui partecipano anche 3 super GM: Vaganjan, Portisch e Azmaiparashvili. Godena giunge terzo (battendo tutti e tre gli stranieri e non vincendo nemmeno una partita agli altri 8 italiani!) e si aggiudica meritatamente il titolo, anche se solo per spareggio tecnico sui bravi Manca ed Arlandi.

Negli anni ‘90 la forza dei giocatori presenti tende a diminuire, ma questo può essere utile per far mettere in luce qualche giocatore italiano. L’edizione 2000/01 è vinta da Oleg Romanishin (foto Chessbase), giocatore che vent’anni prima era giunto tra i primi al mondo.

Le ultime due edizioni, vinte da Almasi e Ni Hua, hanno visto una buona crescita qualitativa, e questa che sta per iniziare, la 52a, promette ancora meglio, sia per il temibile gruppo di GM stranieri, che per la presenza dei 4 migliori giocatori italiani. Sotto vi presento una carrellata fotografica sui 12 protagonisti (foto tratte da Chessbase):

Zoltan Almasi (Ungheria, 2704)

Baadur Jobava (Georgia, 2696)

Gata Kamsky (USA, 2695)

Viktor Bologan (Moldavia, 2692)

Konstantin Landa (Russia, 2664)

Fabiano Caruana (Italia, 2652)

Eltaj Safarli (Azerbaijan, 2592)

Michele Godena (Italia, 2537)

Sabino Brunello (Italia, 2507)

Daniele Vocaturo (Italia, 2500)

Un augurio a Sabino Brunello che possa realizzare la definitiva norma di Grande Maestro, e agli altri 3 italiani che possano tenere alta la nostra bandiera in un torneo così impegnativo.

Ecco infine dove potete seguire le partite del torneo ed avere ulteriori informazioni ed aggiornamenti:

Circolo Scacchistico Ippogrifo
Messaggero Scacchi

Da parte mia cercherò di riproporvi ogni sera le partite più interessanti, con qualche commento.

Except for snow, Christmas trees and fireworks, the period just before and after New Year is also known for the many big open chess tournaments. Some of them have a very rich tradition, like Reggio Emilia, the Rilton Cup and, of course, the Hastings Chess Congress, the oldest tournament in the world still running.

Photo © Rilton Cup

Reggio Emilia

The 52nd edition of the “Torneo di Capodanno” takes place December 28th – January 6th at the Astoria-Mercure hotel in Reggio Emilia. It’s a 10-player round-robin with GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Michele Godena, GM Daniele Vocaturo, IM Sabino Brunello (all from Italy), GM Gata Kamsky (USA), GM Eltaj Safarli (Azerbajan), GM Baadur Jobava (Georgia), GM Konstantin Landa (Russia), GM Viktor Bologan (Moldavia) and GM Zoltan Almasi (Hungary).

The rounds start at 14:30 CET and GM Miso Cebalo annotates the games for the public at the venue every day; admission is free. The rest day, missing since the 40th edition (1997-98), has been reintroduced: no games will be played on January 1st. A nice preview on the tournament can be found here. Results round 1: Brunello-Safarli 0-1, Landa-Jobava 1/2, Bologan-Caruana 0-1, Almasi-Godena 1/2, Vocaturo-Kamsky 0-1.

At first Vladimir Malakhov was going to play in Reggio, but because of his success at the World Cup the Russian Chess Federation wanted him on the team for the upcoming World Team Championship in Bursa, Turkey. The Italian organizers were then helped by Gata Kamsky, who was happy to step in.

Rilton Cup

The 39th edition of the Rilton Cup takes place December 27th – January 5th in the beautiful Mälarsalen, Münchenbryggeriet in Stockholm, Sweden. The stars at this big, 9-round Swiss are Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland), Luke McShane (England), Eduardas Rozentalis (Lithuania), Igor Lysyj (Russia) and Jon Ludvig Hammer (Norway), who won the open in London earlier this month.

Ever since I played in the 2004/2005 edition I’m planning to return to Stockholm and the Rilton Cup. It’s a wonderful tournament with a fantastic tradition and history which they keep reminding you of. For instance, on the tournament website you can find a nice picture gallery of participants from the early years onwards. In this year’s event two rounds have been played so far; in the first Lysyj and Hammer were held to a draw by FMs Mads Andersen and Osmo Kauppila and already in the second round Wojtaszek played an IM (his name was Arnd Lauber and he manageg to draw) and McShane even a GM (Aleksandr Shimanov, who also held the draw). A tough event for the top seeds.

Hastings Chess Congress

Hastings, like Wijk aan Zee, is a coastal town of minor importance. However, it plays a major role in British history and the reason is of course the Battle of Hastings: on October 14, 1066 the Norman army led by Duke William of Normandy defeated the English army led by King Harold II. It is said that the Normans introduced chess to Hastings: this William the Conqueror was a chess player and once broke a chess board over the head of his nephew, Louis the Fat, having accused him of cheating…

One of the strongest chess tournaments ever held was Hastings 1895, but it wasn’t won by one of the favourites, amongst them Lasker, Steinitz, Chigorin or Tarrasch. No, it was Harry Nelson Pillsbury from the USA.

Which tournament can say that over the years all world champions except Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov have played? Here’s an impressive list of the winners. This year to favourites are Yuri Drozdovskij (Ukraine), Zbynek Hracek (Czech Republic), Andrei Istratescu (Romania), Romain Edouard (France) and David Howell (England). The games of the top boards of round 1 can still be replayed at the live section.

And more…

Naturally more tournaments are being played these days. I’ll mention one, the Groningen Chess Festival, which I visited yesterday to make a video report. This will be published later this week. In the open Ukrainian super-talent Ilya Nyzhnyk is leading with two rounds to go, while the 4-game match between Jan Timman and Robin van Kampen is 1.5-1.5 after three games. Later more on this event.

Links

• Reggio Emilia
• Games in PGN via TWIC
• Rilton Cup
• Games in PGN via TWIC
• Hastings Chess Congress
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Because of clashes with other events the Russian Superfinal was postponed till the end of December this year and so it’s the last classical event of 2009 in which a top 10 player is active. That’s Peter Svidler, who defends his title and is leading the Championship with 2.5 points after 3 rounds.

At Moscow’s Central Chess Club the 62nd Russian Championship Superfinal for men and 59th Russian Championship Superfinal for women takes place December 19-30. Play starts daily at 15:00 hrs Moscow time, which is 13:00 CET and 07:00 EST. The last round starts two hours earlier and the only rest day is on the 25th.

The time control in the men’s section is 1 hour and 40 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 10 minutes to end the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the first. In the women’s section it’s 1 hour and 30 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes to end the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the first. The prize fund is US $100,000 for the men and US $40,000 for the women.

Rounds 1-3

In most parts of Europe snow has covered the streets, and it’s not different in Moscow. Everyone is preparing for celebrating Christmas and New Year, but not the Russian top players. No, they are playing their national championships, which were postponed till the very last weeks of 2009 (last year they were held in October).

As Mark Gluhovsky and Misha Savinov wrote in their first report for the official website, the women seemed more eager to start their tournament than their male counterparts.

All female players were present a few minutes before three...

...but the men's section looked quite differently. Was it because the organizers don't use the zero-tolerance rule, but the system of a fine (5,000 rubles)?

This fightful mood was also represented in the results of the first round: in the women’s section not one game ended in a draw. In the mens’s section, Alexander Grischuk defeated Evgeny Tomashevsky after 75 moves in a Closed Ruy Lopez while Denis Khismatullin, who had spent the time before the game in the press room playing blitz and darts (!) beat Alexander Riazantsev. (I met Khismatullin at the Grand Prix in Sochi last year, where he had even more time for blitz during the rounds because back then he was a second. He played many entertaining games with Viktor Bologan.)

In the second round this original way of preparing backfired: Khismatullin lost with the white pieces against title holder Peter Svidler – the only decisive game of the round. Yesterday Svidler added another win to his score, with White against Riazantsev. The game, an Advance Caro-Kann, reached a remarkably similar pawn structure as Svidler’s round 1 game against Vitiugov (a French Defence) – see the game viewer below.

A good start for Peter Svidler

Svidler leads with 2.5 points, followed by Jakovenko and Grischuk who are on 2/3. In the women’s section, both Nadezhda Kosintseva and Alisa Galliamova started with three wins.

Still on a 100% score: Nadezhda Kosintseva...

...and Alisa Galliamova

Photos by Mark Gluhovsky and Misha Savinov – more at the official website.

Selection of games rounds 1-3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Men | Women

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

In the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, many of the higher-rated players went through to the third round in today’s tiebreaks of round 2. Leinier Dominguez however was eliminated by Fabiano Caruana. But the biggest news might be Ivanchuk’s declaration yesterday that he’ll leave professional chess.

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).

Tiebreaks round 2

After a loss and a win in the regular games, Svidler easily set aside Nyback by scoring two smooth wins with White in the Ruy Lopez, and a draw in a Grünfeld. Ponomariov won two and drew two against Akobian; especially the first game with White was very impressive play by the Ukrainian.

Ruslan Ponomariov, without mouth mask, through to round 3

His compatriot Eljanov, who started his second round with a loss on Tuesday, eventually reached the third round today thanks to one victory with Black. This game unfortunately doesn’t seem to have been recorded till the end.

Also staying in Khanty-Mansiysk a bit longer: Pavel Eljanov

Like his former compatriot, Karjakin reached the next round with three draws and one win. In game 2, a Bb5 Sicilian, he won the bishop pair thanks to a trick known from the 8.d4 Ruy Lopez and subsequently outplayed his opponent nicely. Interestingly, where half a point was enough, Karjakin played game 4 in very sharp style, following the unwritten rule ‘if you want a draw, play for a win’.

Sergey Karjakin, now one of the many Russians to go through

American Italian Caruana and Cuban Dominguez continued their interesting theoretical discussion in the current main line of the Exchange Grünfeld, which Dominguez kept drawing in this minimatch. It looks like everything was eventually decided by the clock in game 4, since the position is a draw of course. After what looked like an unnecessary loss yesterday, today Shirov made clear who was the strongest in his match with Fedorchuk, winning three games in a row (the last in just 14 moves!).

Strong rapid chess by Alexei Shirov

Another very tight match was Vachier-Lagrave-Meier. After three draws, a very interesting King’s Indian in game 4 should also have ended in a draw, but Meier decided to continue with 35.Re2? which was just losing. Alekseev won two games and drew one against Fressinet while Tomashevsky defeated Khalifman by winning one White game.

'El Khalif', Alexander Khalifman, is out

Viktor Bologan was the slight favourite in his match against Cheparinov, and indeed defeated the Bulgarian by winning the last two rapid games. Polgar needed four rapid games and two blitz games to beat Nisipeanu.

Judit Polgar beats Nisipeanu in the blitz

Navara won two games against Shabalov and then got tricked in the opening to lose the third, but then the Czech held the draw with Black to qualify.

A funny and helpful advice - David Navara and his coach Vlastimil Jansa

On the tournament website already a number of interesting interviews have been published so far, but today a disturbing one was added. At yesterday’s press conference, apparently Ivanchuk announced that he’ll quit (professional) chess:

It has nothing to do with the number of games! Unlucky days started when I could not win Vladimir Kramnik in the finals of Memorial Tal. But I could. The real tragedy started then. I was so much unlucky at the Moscow blitz, as I have never been unlucky in my life. I blundered all possible pieces: queen, rooks, and pawns. At that blitz tournament I was as if I was thrown out of a saddle. And plus, I was losing.

To my mind I should leave the professional chess now. Chess becomes hobby for me from now on. As for the signed contracts, yes, I will play in all tournaments where I have to. Perhaps I will even participate in a tournament before the New Year. I should win SOMETHING! And that will be the end. No serious plans, no professional goals.

After the disappointing course of events in Moscow and Khanty-Mansyisk, it’s understandable that Ivanchuk suffers some sort of chess depression right now. And hey, he’s human too – finally fed up with chess for a moment. Let’s hope he’ll quickly take back his words and will play for many years more, because the chess world wouldn’t be the same without our beloved Chuky.

All photos by Galina Popova | courtesy of FIDE

Tiebreak games round 3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Peter Svidler and Alexander Shabalov between games

Ray Robson, still in Khanty-Mansiysk, enjoying the tiebreaks

Erwin l'Ami is also still there; here with Aleksander Delchev

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

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

Unfortunately I lack the time to comment on all top level games that appear on this site, but this week it’s a bit quiet in the chess world and therefore I could have a closer look at some games. In fact two gems were played this week, one by Nigel Short and one by Ivan Sokolov.

Nigel Short, England’s new number one with a rating of 2706 (on which he comments in an interview here), is currently playing the 4th Kolkata Open in the city that was formerly known as Calcutta. The tournament runs from September 1st to 10th and the players get two hours for the entire game. Besides Short, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is also playing, by the way.

After three rounds Short is leading with a 100% score, together with GMs Eltaj Safarli, Magesh Chandran Panchanathan, Chanda Sandipan and Enamul Hossain. Especially his third-round game against Gagunashvili was pretty impressive and similar to the way Short defeated l’Ami last month, in the same, quiet Caro-Kann ending.

The other game I am giving below is one from the Serbian Team Championship, which is currently taking place in Kragujevac, the fourth largest city in Serbia after Belgrade, Novi Sad and and Niš. The strongest players participating are Sergei Rublevsky, Evgeny Miroshnichenko, Viktor Bologan amd Emil Sutovsky.

Ivan Sokolov still lives in The Netherlands but recently changed back federations from ‘NED’ to ‘BIH’ (Bosnia and Herzegovina). He plays in the VSK Sveti Nikolaj Srpski team and in the second round match against Politika PEP he met Viktor Bologan with the white pieces. In recent years his results have been changeable, but in this game the former world’s number 13 shows what he’s still capable of.

Game viewer

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Levon Aronian scored 3 out of 3 against Bologan, Movsesian and Nakamura during the first day of the Rapid Chess960 World Championship, part of the Mainz Chess Classic. At the moment of writing they’re playing their second stage of preliminaries.

This week the big, annual chess festival of rapid chess is held in Mainz, Germany: the Mainz Chess Classic. As always, the first few days it’s all Chess960 (or “shuffle chess”, or “Fischerrandom”, whatever you prefer) before the players return to the classical starting position. The rate of play is 20 minutes for the game + 5 seconds increment per move.

It’s held in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. During the day many open events take place while at night two unofficial World Championships are held: Tue-Thu the 6th Rapid Chess960 Wch with Aronian, Bologan, Movsesian and Nakamura, and then Fri-Sun the 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship with Anand, Aronian, Nepomniachtchi and Naiditsch.

One more event (of many!) we’ll mention is the 5th Livingston Chess960 Computer Chess World Championship with title holder Rybka (Vasik Rajlich), Shredder (Stefan Meyer-Kahlen), Deep Sjeng (Gian-Carlo Pascutto) and Ikarus (Muntsin & Munjong Kolss).

Rapid Chess960 World Championship: Day 1, Tuesday, July 28th – Tactics Rule

By Johannes Fischer

As Viktor Bologan explained in yesterday’s press conference, in Chess960 the random position of the pieces simply forces you to think of everything. In interviews Levon Aronian also stressed how important tactics are in Chess960. The first three rounds of the Chess960 Rapid World Championship confirmed this view. The games featured quite a number of unusual tactical situations – and it was Levon Aronian who handled them best.

Right from the start he showed how good he coped with them. In his first round game against Nakamura he gave his queen for two rooks after just a couple of moves and afterwards he simply brought his pieces to strong squares. Nakamura came under pressure and had to give an exchange but then Aronian used his material plus to mate the enemy king with rook and two knights.

The game between Sergei Movsesian and Viktor Bologan was also characterized by tactics. Tactical tricks gave Bologan an advantage, and a tactical trick allowed Movsesian to extricate himself from a difficult position. However, he could not solve all of his problems and Black still had some pressure. This in turn provoked an inaccuracy from Movsesian which Bologan used to secure a winning position and soon after the point.

However, after this promising start followed a sobering second round, in which Bologan miscalculated and fell victim to a violent mating attack from Aronian.

1.e4 e5 2.d4 d6 3.f3 Ng6 4.Bc4 c6 5.Bb3 Nc7 6.Ng3 exd4 7.Bxd4 Ne6 8.Bc3 Nc5 9.Nf5 Nxb3 10.axb3 f6 11.Qe3 Qc7 12.Nd3 Ne5 13.Be1 g6 14.Nd4 Bf7 15.Bf2 Bg7

Now White played 16.Rxa7 Rxa7 17.Nb5 cxb5 18.Qxa7+ Kc8 19.Nxe5 fxe5 20.Bb6 Qe7 21.Qa8+ Kd7 22.Bxd8 and Black resigned.

With 2 out of 2 Aronian showed why he was considered to be the favorite to win this tournament. The secret favorite Hikaru Nakamura fared much worse. After his first round loss against Aronian things also went wrong against Movsesian. The American played with White, built up pressure in the opening, avoided a repetition and a draw – only to lose his way and the game soon after. „After ten moves I was almost winning, but then I got careless“, he remarked during the press conference after the game.

However, he managed to pull himself together in the third round and won with Black against Bologan. Both players were fond of the enemy pawns, but Nakamura managed to snatch one more pawn than his opponent, which gave him a clear endgame advantage that he finally converted to a full point.

The game between Movsesian and Aronian quickly developed into a sharp encounter. Both players wanted to gain the initiative and did not shy away from material sacrifices. At first it seemed as if Movsesian, who played with White, set the pace, but the tide turned after a strong counter by Aronian.

1.b4 Nf6 2.Ng3 e6 3.e4 b6 4.Bf3 Ng6 5.h4 d6 6.d4 d5 7.h5 dxe4 8.Be2 Nf8 9.h6 Rg8 10.c4 c5 11.bxc5 bxc5 12.Rxb8 Qxb8 13.d5

Suddenly White’s position was critical and Movsesian’s search for counterplay only accelerated his end. There followed: 13…e3 14.Bd1 exf2+ 15.Kxf2 gxh6 16.N1e2 Ng4+ 17.Kg1 Bg5 18.Ba4+ Ke7 19.Qc2 Be3+ 20.Kf1 Bf4 21.Nf5+ exf5 22.Rh3 Be5 23.Nc3 Kf6 24.Qd3 Rg5 25.d6 Kg7 26.d7 Nxd7 27.Bxd7 Ld4 28.Ke2 Nf2 0–1

This led to an amusing situation: three players with 1 out of 3 share places 2 to 4 and will fight hard to qualify for the final tomorrow. At the same time Aronian scored 3 out of 3 and is the sole and dominant leader and more than ever favorite to successfully defend his title of Chess960 World Champion. „All games were hard and tough fights“, Aronian said during the press conference. Maybe – but he still seemed to play all of them with effortless and playful ease. Often a sign of real great skill.

All photos courtesy of the Mainz Chess Classic.

Links

• Official website
• LIVE PORTAL
• 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 6th Chess960
  Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 8th FiNet Chess960 Open | Games in PGN
• 16th ORDIX Open | Games in PGN
• 5th Livingston Chess960 Wch | Games in PGN

Von Johannes Fischer
 Auf die Taktik kommt es an. Wegen der zufälligen Aufstellung der Figuren müsse man im Chess960 einfach alles sehen, hatte Viktor Bologan bei der Pressekonferenz erklärt und auch Levon Aronian hatte in Interviews betont, wie wichtig die Taktik im Chess960 ist. Die ersten drei Runden der Chess960 Rapid World Championship gaben ihnen Recht. Immer wieder ergaben sich ungewöhnliche taktischen Konstellationen – und es war Levon Aronian, der damit am besten zurecht kam.

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Von Harry Schaack
Mit der Pressekonferenz und dem anschließenden Simultan an 40 Brettern von Levon Aronian begann heute mit den Chess Classic das weltgrößte Schnellschachfestival in Mainz.

Um 14:00 Uhr begannen die Chess Classic 2009 mit der Pressekonferenz. Bis zum Sonntag misst sich die absolute Weltklasse in der Mainzer Rheingoldhalle in insgesamt acht Entscheidungen. Höhepunkte sind die beiden Weltmeisterschaften: Die Nr.4 der Welt, Levon Aronian, versucht zunächst von Dienstag bis Donnerstag seinen Titel im Chess960 - jener vom verstorbenen Ex-Weltmeister Bobby Fischer vorgeschlagenen Schachvariante, bei der die Anfangsfigurenaufstellung ausgelost wird - gegen Hikaru Nakamura, Viktor Bologan und Sergei Movsesian zu verteidigen. Von Freitag bis Sonntag muss sich der amtierende Weltmeister und elfmalige Gewinner der Chess Classic, Vishy Anand, bei der GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship gegen Levon Aronian, Arkadi Naiditsch und Ian Nepomniachtchi behaupten.

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At 15.00 CET today the first round of the Dortmund super-tournament takes off with Leko-Kramnik, Carlsen-Jakovenko and Naiditsch-Bacrot. It’s yet another six-player, double round-robin and we’ll be providing daily coverage.

The Sparkassen Chess-Meeting 2009, part of the Internationalen Dortmunder Schachtage, takes place from July 2nd to 12th, 2009. It will be played for the 37th time. Since 1992, the Sparkassen Chess Meeting has belonged to a very restricted group of annual top events in the chess world (which has become a little bit bigger now with Nanjing and Bazna).

This year six players will participate in a double round robin tournament:
Magnus Carlsen (Norway, born in 1990, number 3 on the world rating list, Elo 2772),
Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia, 1983, 5, 2760)
Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 1975, 6, 2759)
Peter Leko (Hungary, 1979, 7, 2756)
Etienne Bacrot (France, 1983, 17, 2721)
Arkadij Naiditsch (Germany, 1985, 36, 2697)

Sparkassen Chess Meeting (Dortmund) 2009 | Schedule & results

Antti Parkkinen collected some statistics for us. Of this year’s players, both Kramnik and Leko will participate for the 15th time. Naiditsch has previously played in Dortmund 6 times, Bacrot and Carlsen once each. Jakovenko is the only first-timer.

Kramnik and Leko have been the players most often seen in Dortmund (14 times each before this year), followed by Michael Adams and Vishy Anand (10 times each). In 2000, the public could witness a silicone brain challenging the top humans. The computer JUNIOR 6 didn’t do too bad: it scored 4.5 points out of 9. The experience has not been repeated since in Dortmund.

The most successful player in the history of Dortmund tournaments has been Vladimir Kramnik. He took first or shared first no less than 8 times (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2007). Anand (1996, 2000 and 2004) and Leko (1999, 2002 and 2008) did the same 3 times.

The complete list of winners (outright or shared):
1 1973 Ulf Andersson, Hans-Joachim Hecht and Boris Spassky
2 1974 Victor Ciocaltea and Laszlo Szabo
3 1975 Heikki Westerinen
4 1976 Oleg Romanishin
5 1977 Alexander Kochyev and Jan Smejkal
6 1978 Ulf Andersson
7 1979 Tamaz Giorgadze
8 1980 Raymond Keene
9 1981 Lubomir Ftacnik, Gennadi Kuzmin and Jonathan Speelman
10 1982 Vlastimil Hort
11 1983 Mihai Suba
12 1984 Yehuda Grünfeld
13 1985 Vlastimil Hort, Stefan Kindermann and Yuri Razuvaev
14 1986 Zoltan Ribli
15 1987 Yuri Balashov
16 1988 Smbat Lputian
17 1989 Efim Geller
18 1990 Alexander Chernin
19 1991 Alexander Chernin and Igor Stohl
20 1992 Vassily Ivanchuk and Garry Kasparov
21 1993 Anatoly Karpov
22 1994 Jeroen Piket
23 1995 Vladimir Kramnik
24 1996 Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik
25 1997 Vladimir Kramnik
26 1998 Michael Adams, Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler
27 1999 Peter Leko
28 2000 Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik
29 2001 Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov
30 2002 Peter Leko
31 2003 Viktor Bologan
32 2004 Viswananthan Anand
33 2005 Arkadij Naiditsch
34 2006 Michael Adams, Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler
35 2007 Vladimir Kramnik
36 2008 Peter Leko
37 2009 ?

Who will win Dortmund 2009? Magnus Carlsen Dmitry Jakovenko Vladimir Kramnik Peter Leko Etienne Bacrot Arkadij Naiditsch View Results  Loading …

Perde Radja: Wang Yue in testa con Cheparinov!

Questa la classifica dopo il nono turno:

Teimour Radjabov
(foto dal sito ufficiale)


Al-Modiahki con il suo coach, Viktor Bologan
(foto ChessPro)

Le intenzioni di Gashimov sembrano essere quelle
di ripetere lo splendido torneo di Baku


Cheparinov ha avuto fortuna nei primi turni,
ma con Grischuk ha vinto in maniera convincente


Wang Yue, "muraglia cinese", ha iniziato anche a vincere

Il 5 agosto è previsto un giorno di riposo, un altro è previsto per il 10.