Chess is certainly the most widely spread scientific amusement even known among civilized nations. The Chess-amateur must travel far indeed in these days to find himself debarred from the indulgence of that pleasant recreation, the knowledge of which will often prove to be a surer passport in foreign lands than all the mysterious symbolism of Freemasonry. Among the most remote regions of the golden East, or the fabled West, in the torrid South, or on the frozen shores of the North, amongst the great military nations and amidst men devoted to commercial enterprise, the Chess-player, who is essentially a cosmopolite, will speedily find a circle of friends through the more than Masonic influence of this ancient and absorbing game.
Howard Staunton, The Chess Tournament (1873)

Contrary to what was expressed in an open letter last week, Veselin Topalov is, after all, willing to play Candidates Matches in Russia. However, he is “refusing to play a match with a Russian player in Russia, if that match is connected to the title struggle,” his manager Silvio Danailov said in an interview with Sport Express this week.

Last week in an open letter Veselin Topalov declared that he wouldn’t “participate in any stage of the cycle for the World Chess Title that takes place in Russia, in order to avoid problems and conflicts that already took place there”. The former world’s number one anticipated FIDE’s decision to move the Candidates Matches, scheduled for March-April 2011, from Baku, Azerbaijan to Kazan, Russia. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s reaction to Topalov’s open letter was that he would send the Bulgarian a letter �asking not to take hasty decisions�.

In an interview with Sport Express, his manager Silvio Danailov has now stated that Topalov is, after all, willing to play in Russia.

You should read his letter more carefully. It doesn�t say that Topalov refuses to play in Russia. He�ll go to Khanty-Mansiysk for the Olympiad and will represent Bulgaria on board one. Topalov is refusing to play a match with a Russian player in Russia, if that match is connected to the title struggle. The chances of Topalov meeting a Russian player in Kazan aren�t high as for that they�d both need to get to the final, though it�s a possibility.

In the interview, translated at Chess in Translation, Danailov doesn’t mention the name of Vladimir Kramnik, who is the only Russian player who qualified for the Candidates Matches.

The Russian player we played a match against in 2006 in Elista doesn�t exist for us!

Danailov also talks about the World Championship match in Sofia between Anand and Topalov, and once again reacts sharply to the happenings surrounding the vulcano eruption and Georgios Makropoulos’ decision to postpone the first game one day.

Links

• Original Sport Express interview
• Translation into English

Is there a way to make a breakthrough from this position?

Study by Kling/Horwitz 1853. White to play.

Over the last few weeks we've been looking at endgames and, in particular, pawn promotion. After a queen exchange there's little chance of a checkmating attack, so getting a pawn to the other side of the board has to be the ultimate aim in most endings.

RB Somewhere in the recesses of my memory is a basic position similar to this one, though with three pawns rather than four facing each other, that allows the player with the move to create a passed pawn. So I'm going to try to drag up that position and try to use it as a starting point. Let's imagine there are no e-pawns. White would then play 1 g5 and if 1...hxg5 White can play 2 f5, and one of his two surviving pawns will queen before Black's.

Now, let's see if the same trick holds good for four pawns: 1 g5 hxg5 2 f5 gxh4 3 fxg6 (or e6) and White's pawn will queen first. So we've established that, yes, White can queen first. But we also have to take into account the king position and � here's the problem � the white king is on the back rank and opposed by Black's king, which means that queening first doesn't help because when Black promotes it is mate. The only way I can see to stop this from happening is for White to promote the f-pawn, queening with check. But I can't see how to do this and I'm also beginning to think that my whole approach may be wrong.

DK Here White has to go for an immediate breakthrough or Black's king will march over and take the pawns, but Ronan has hit the snag. It's simple to break through with a pawn sacrifice but when Black queens it is checkmate on the back rank. He has also spotted how White might win: queening with check on the f8 square. There's only one sequence that does it: 1 h5 gxh5 2 e5 fxe5 3 f5 hxg4 4 f6 and mission accomplished. After 1 h5 Black could try 1...g5, but 2 e5 is again the move.

chess@guardian.co.uk

Being a database programmer, perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised when I recently dreamt I had to develop a chess database. But it wasn’t an ordinary chess database.

Carceri XIV – Giovanni Battista Piranesi

I was told by a faceless person to make a chess database of all chess games ever played. If that doesn’t sound like much, it’s because that was not all. The man told me it must also contain all chess analyses ever made, as well as every comment, opinion or text ever written about any move. It would be a database of all existing chess knowledge -an endless chess library. It was like making the chess version of Jorge Luis Borges’ Total Library. The ultimate Mega Database – an entire chess universe.

I started by collecting all existing chess books ever written – both ancient manuscripts and newly printed books. I visited all chess libraries in the world and went through all privately owned chess book collections. But this clearly wasn’t enough. I had to visit every chess player in person to ask for any scoresheets of games that they had in their possession. Then, I went through all local club magazines and internet blogs to find games I missed. This reminded me that I had to get all chess magazines as well. And, of course, I downloaded all digital books, DVD’s, game analyses and instruction guides on chess.

When I had rubricized all material and put it in a more or less logical order, I started thinking about how to put everything in a database. It didn’t take me long to realize I wouldn’t be able to use existing chess database software. It would just be too impractical. For 1.e4 alone, hundreds if not thousands of comments somehow had to be entered in the database, and this can’t be done with a regular database program. While it is possible to add comments in different languages in some software, you can’t add comments by different sources – at least not dynamically.

So I started thinking about how to develop this chess database myself. Basically it had to contain many more dimensions than the current ones – in fact, it had to have an infinite amount of possible entries for comments and analyses. All published praise of 47…Bh3!! and 23…Qg3!! had to be entered into the database somehow. Actually, it should also be possible to add multiple annotation symbols, because perhaps some commentators had awarded these moves not with two, but only with one exclamation mark (a grave sin, I must say). The database design must take this into account as well.

With the help of data warehouse design techniques, I was able to establish which dimensions my database should have. Obviously there should be dimensions with information about the sources (the books themselves), and information related to the games, or game fragments. This could be players’ names, the year in which it was played, where it was played, and so on. The moves and sub variations (including move number, to keep track of things) should be stored in a different dimension (or, in its technical term, a ‘fact table’). Any game, including its sub-lines, could develop like a garden of forking paths, leading to an infinite amount of moves.

'Datavault' model of a data warehouse

The same was obviously true of comments. But there was an additional problem: comments could not only be related to moves, but also to people who had written them. in his books, Kasparov often refers to older authors, for example. At this point in my dream, my faceless principal interrupted my musings. He ordered me to also store all information about the people who had written the annotations: what use would the project otherwise be? This implied I had to include all biographies of chess commentators in my database. And of course, the commentators could also be chess players themselves, so they should also be linked back to the players and games dimensions.

When I had finished my design – or at least thought I had – a long-feared question arose in my head: where to start? Which data should be put into the database first? Would it be wise to work ‘backwards’ in time, starting with the most recent chess books and adding entries in the database for every name, move or comment that returned a blank? Wouldn’t it be wiser to start with the first chess manuscripts – the recent reconstruction of Francesch Vicent’s mysterious treatise, the surviving games of Ruy Lopez, or perhaps even the first ancient Arab chess problems?

In the end, I decided it wouldn’t really matter – it was a Sisyphus job in any case – and so I started with a game collection from 2010. It happened to be a new book on Capablanca. Slowly but steadily I worked my way back. Then I realized I had forgotten something crucial. Within comments, there could also be references to other works – references to database entries that didn’t exist in my digital library yet! I was suddenly faced with what is sometimes called ‘orphans’ – database references that can’t be traced back (anymore) to their primary dimension. In order to proceed, I had to put all titles in the system first. And so I started again.

My success didn’t last long. I soon found out that many chess authors use references to non-chess related literature all the time. Kasparov quotes Ilf & Petrov, Donner quotes Nietzsche. Once you start paying attention to it, chess and literature are completely intertwined. To be complete, the entire world literature should be included in the list as well. And that’s only the beginning of a myriad of problems. For instance, how to deal with references to literature that has been lost over the centuries?

I now realized the entire Total Chess Library idea would be quite pointless without having access to each and every chess book ever written; every game or analysis – including those that have been destroyed, mutilated, lost for good. I was trapped in a labyrinth I had created myself.

Then I woke up, of course. While I cycled to work, I thought about what use such a megalomanic project could be. Nobody would ever be able to use this monstrous database. The information would be sitting there in some kind of super computer without anyone ever touching it. At first I felt anger, then sadness. Then I felt like nothing had really changed. It was just like work.

As I switched on my laptop at work and opened the data warehouse environment I was currently working on, I remembered the words from another Borges story, The Library of Babel:

At that time it was also hoped that a clarification of humanity’s basic mysteries — the origin of the Library and of time — might be found. It is verisimilar that these grave mysteries could be explained in words: if the language of philosophers is not sufficient, the multiform Library will have produced the unprecedented language required, with its vocabularies and grammars.

For four centuries now men have exhausted the hexagons … There are official searchers, inquisitors. I have seen them in the performance of their function: they always arrive extremely tired from their journeys; they speak of a broken stairway which almost killed them; they talk with the librarian of galleries and stairs; sometimes they pick up the nearest volume and leaf through it, looking for infamous words.

Obviously, no one expects to discover anything.

Due to financial problems and organizational failure by the German Chess Federation, the four German top players won’t play at the upcoming Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. This is what Arkadij Naiditsch tries to make clear in an angry open letter which he sent to ChessVibes. The German top grandmaster doesn’t mince words.

Open letter by GM Arkadij Naiditsch

Why the German A-team will not participate in the 2010 Olympiad

Cc: Prof. Dr. Von Weizs�cker

This letter is not addressed to anybody directly. As a player of the German National team I would like to make some things clear about my hard working Federation and its President, Prof. Dr. Von Weizs�cker.
Let�s start with the fact that nobody from the German A-team is going to participate in the Chess Olympiad this year. These players are Georg Meier, Jan Gustafsson, Daniel Fridman and me, Arkadij Naiditsch. Why? The easy answer is that the biggest chess federation in Europe, about 100,000 active members, couldn�t manage to find money to pay the players.

So, the next question is �how could this happen�? This question is easy to answer as well: nobody in the federation has been doing anything for at least five years. The German Chess Federation has no sponsors at the moment, so the money is only coming from their members. Generally, even this should be enough to have a great and lazy life, but the main problem is the meetings attended by huge amounts of hungry officials that are being held almost monthly in expensive hotels.

Let me now become a bit more direct, because I would like to single out a few people with whom I have had to deal with personally.

1) Mr. U. B�nsch – National Coach
The first Olympiad that I played in was in Turin, 2006. I played on the first board for the German team and Mr. B�nsch was already an experienced and well-respected trainer. But the strange thing was, all he ever did was distribute the line-up for the next match and make a great black tea that we drank together every evening. Not once did he make the slightest effort to help anybody from the team chess wise.

So, year after year, the chess help from Mr. B�nsch remained the same: nothing but tea. In my opinion, our national trainer could be a hero in any teahouse!

2) Mr. Klaus Deventer – responsible for finding and distributing money for the national team. In German: Leistungssportreferent.
With regard to finding money there isn�t much to say. I think Mr. Deventer in his crushing career in the Chess Federation never even gave it a try.

In distributing money for the national team he has clear methods and opinions. That is, the national team should play for free!! By the way, to be clearer, Mr. Deventer is the individual who is responsible for fighting for us to get money. So, from a 110,000 Euro budget he manages for �top chess� in Germany, less than a quarter is left for the Olympiad for male and female teams combined.

Strangely, Mr. Deventer is a very important man in the federation. Personally, I could never understand what he is actually doing. And I think after many years of deep thinking, I finally got a little clue about his function; it is to try to stop anybody from being a professional chess player in Germany. Mr. Deventer really hates this. Rarely it is possible to meet somebody as unpleasant as Mr. Deventer.

3) Mr. Ralph Alt – Tournament Director
Mr. Alt is a famous public prosecutor in Germany. He is the organizer of many official tournaments in Germany, such as the National Individual Championship.

He only has one problem: he is always scheduling these championships to match his holidays. So, sometimes he gets lucky and there is nothing running at the same time. No such luck this year. He held the German National Championship at exactly the same dates as the European Individual Championships. A normal reaction would be, what the heck? Easy answer: Sorry, holidays are holidays. Can�t move them! So nobody participated in it from the A-team and the young German player Niclas Huschenbeth managed to win the title. Congrats to him as he showed great fighting spirit in the tournament.

My last German Championship was in 2007. In that year Mr. Alt showed absolute class. He found a city in Germany that has no train or bus (or anything else) connection. So taxi was the only way to reach it. Respect for Mr. Alt!! This is really not so easy to do. Give it a try.

4) Mr. J�rg Schulz – fifteen different positions!!
Personally, I didn�t have much to do with Mr. Schulz as he has always been responsible for the German Youth Chess Federation. (Deutsche Schach Jugend). Slowly, over the years he took over about fifteen different positions within the federation and is almost completely in charge of the whole money flow now. Bravo to Mr. Schulz!

For example, he created a chess company that is paying the players for participating in the European Team Championships as well as Olympiads. The company is making no money but paying us. Wow, really great job by Mr. Schulz.

That�s all from the main German Federation Crushers! There might be few more that I don�t know, but they are probably in hiding.

About Mr. Prof. Dr. Robert von Weizs�cker I will write a bit down below. First you will have to read his great letter that he wrote to the four of us (German A-team). For other people in the Federation, there are so many that deserve a few choice words, but I think it wouldn�t be fair to the few people who are trying to do something for German chess. Anyway, my many thanks to these few.

Dear readers, I hope you now have a bit of an overview of what is going on in my Federation.

This year, the A-team has said that we will not play for the funny money they are offering and asked for conditions. It drove almost all the guys in the Federation completely crazy! How is it possible that we will not play?? Do we have to cancel now a few dinners? No way we gonna do that!!�

Mr. Deventer immediately wrote a very long and boring letter, where he is comparing us with soccer players and asking us to play almost for free because the German National Soccer team is also not getting their normal salary for going to Africa. Funny, no? I guess then we have to compare Mr. Deventer to a Russian oligarch and ask him to support us from his own budget?!

Afterwards, we half-heartedly attempted to find sponsors ourselves, which didn�t work out. So the result was, of course, that the German A-team is not going to play the 2010 Chess Olympiad.

This is when Prof. Dr. Von Weizs�cker is coming into the game (he has been the German Chess President for the last two years).

So far, according to the words of Jan Gustafsson (all the contact was going through him) our President supported us, the players.

But on June 29th we received a letter from Prof. Dr. Robert von Weizs�cker that completely shocked me. Up to that point my opinion of our President was quite positive; he seemed to be a man with an understanding of chess players.

Here is the letter [translated into English by CV - German version in PDF here]:

Concerning: Chess Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk

Dear members of the men’s national team, dear chess friends,

In answer to my letter of May 19th, 2010 Mr Gustafsson answered by email on June 10th, 2010 that, on the given conditions you are not willing to play in Khanty-Mansiysk. Besides, he has started an initiative to find a sponsor as soon as possible, something that was clearly supported by me. To my knowledge this initiative hasn’t had the desired effect.

If no last-minute sponsor will contact Mr Gustafsson soon, this means the German Chess Federation won’t be able to send you to the Chess Olympiad. I wouldn’t only regret this terribly, but I’d be personally disappointed as well.

I can only partly understand that you keep on insisting on demands that, despite great efforts, couldn’t be fulfilled by either the German Chess Federation or the company.

Therefore I would personally like to ask you to reconsider your position and accept the same terms as two years ago. In case you’re still prepared to accept this, please declare this to the team captain not later than July 2nd 2010. After that he will be forced to nominate other players. I would have liked to push this deadline up front, if there wasn’t a deadline set by FIDE to enter the team.

At this weekend’s meeting of the Top Sport Commission it was decided that your status as selected players would become inactive for the time being, if you’re not prepared to play the upcoming Olympiad under the current conditions.

This would imply that any course of action to support you as top players would become impossible. Furthermore, for the year 2011 the team captain was requested to check whether the criteria for future support, i.e. the willingness of all players to cooperate with the federation, are still being met. I fully support this decision because in my opinion we cannot simply move on.

Support by the German Chess Federation, which partly involves a longer period of time, is naturally associated with the expectation to engage in an appropriate manner and in a responsible way for German chess.

On the other hand the German Chess Federation doesn’t want to close all doors. In any case it would be useful to have a meeting after the Olympiad, to which our Top Sport Coordinator will invite you, to discuss the situation. Still I hope that all these considerations won’t be necessary. The decision is yours.

Best regards,
Yours truly,

Robert von Weizs�cker.

Cool, no? Let me clarify a few things:

Prof. Dr. Von Weizs�cker found 0 Euros in two years of being the President of the German Chess Federation. (Maybe he simply has no time, being a Professor at a few universities?) The huge support he is threatening to cancel is this: for myself as German number one (my current ELO rating is 2684), the German Federation covers about half of my expenses for playing in exactly one tournament, the European Championship. That amounts to about 800 Euros a year, nothing more.
Now, of course, their direct threat to cancel all that help is making me sleep badly and giving me nightmares. Next time, maybe if I cover the coffee bill I hope Prof. Dr. Von Weizs�cker and my hard working Chess Federation will not cancel the important support for me?! We will see in the future if they have any mercy.

As we know, Prof. Dr. Von Weizs�cker is running his campaign for the ECU Presidency, and many European countries are giving their support to him. Now, the logical conclusion would be since he could do absolutely nothing for chess in his own country in two years, or again had no time for it, which, of course, led to the same result, can he do something for Europe? I would say probably not. So here comes the idea. Maybe we could open a charity foundation for the German Chess Federation and for Prof. Dr. Von Weizs�cker? Many people are sending small amounts for �saving the forest� so maybe it could work with my dear Federation and Prof. Dr. Von Weizs�cker, too? It is hard to find anybody coming across as more poor and helpless than the German Federation.

Hope you enjoyed reading my statement. And please don�t get the idea that I have exaggerated. I really did my best to stay as close to the facts as possible.

Grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch

Today is an official rest day in Biel, but yesterday, the young stars looked determined to make it not one but two breaks in a row.

After the fourth round, we expressed the hope that the youngsters would play more enterprising chess in the rounds to come, but they probably didn’t read our request – or didn’t care – since both in round 5 and 6, a majority of the games ended in quick draws.

For instance, we don’t have to spend much time on such fifth round games as Howell-Tomashevsky (draw in 16 moves) and Negi-Truong Son (draw in 22 moves). And this trend continued in the sixth: Tomashevsky-So (24 moves), Andreikin-Rodshtein (20 moves), Giri-Negi (20 moves) and the needlessly overlong Truong Son-Caruana (31 moves). What’s up with these guys? What are they afraid of? It’s anyone’s guess.

So let’s focus on the few exciting games that were played yesterday and the day before. First of all, there was the surprise loss of tournament leader Wesley So against Fabiano Caruana in round 5.

Black’s knight on g4 is attacked, but White’s knight on h7 is also an instability in the positon. So comes up with an fascinating solution:

16…cxd4! This is probably better than 16…Ngf6 17.dxc5 with an edge for White. However, Black had two other interesting moves, namely 16…Nde5!? and 16…Nxf2!?, the latter with the idea 17.Qxf2 f5! and the knight on h7 is trapped. The result is a double-edged position.

17.exd4 Probably best. After 17.hxg4 Ne5! 18.exd4 Nxd3 19.Qxd3 Qxd4 Black is fine despite the fact that he’s a piece down for the moment. Now, So did withdraw his knight, and after 17…Ngf6 18.Bf4 Qe7 the position was roughly equal. However, two moves later Black became active a move too soon:

Black is OK after a move like 20…Nd5, and even 20…Rxd4 seems possible, but after 20…b5? Caruana replied with the cunning 21.Bc7! totally disrupting the coordination of Black’s pieces. After 21…Rd7 22.Qc6 Ra7 23.Bb6 White had an edge due to the bishop pair. Still, it wasn’t all misery for Black until he failed to grab back a sacrificed pawn.

White is a pawn up, but after 33…Bd5! with the idea Nc6, Black seems to have sufficient counterplay. Instead, So played the active-looking 33…Rxf1+? 34.Kxf1 Bf3 but it transpired that White could hold on to his pawn after 35.Ke1 Nc6 36.Rb5 and Black didn’t have enough compensation – he never saw it back.

Also in the 5th round, Maxim Rodshtein played a good game against Anish Giri, basically outplaying him straight from the opening.

Black seems to be winning back the pawn, but alas, White has the strong pseudo-sacrifice 27.Qxc5! Bxc5 28.Rxc5 with a crushing bind, which he converted after a subsequent blunder by Giri. A well-deserved win for Rodshtein.

The only other decisive game of the past two days was Howell-Vachier Lagrave. David Howell is having a pretty miserable time in Biel, and in the sixth round, things went wrong once again after a well-played opening and middlegame phase.

Despite his doubled e-pawns, White has a pleasant plus due to Black’s weakened kingside. There are several attractive plans in the position, such as 26.Rg3 with the idea of doubling rooks, or 26.Rdf1 with the idea Qd1 and perhaps Qg4 to follow, but there’s also the tactical solution 26.Nxd6 Qxd6 27.Rxg5 after which something like 27…Rf2 doesn’t work in view of 28.Rdg1, winning.

But for some reason Howell played the defensive 26.Nc3? which gave Black to opportunity to grab the initiative with 26…Nf3!.

A few moves later, Black was fully activated:

Now, White’s 26th move might have been useful after all, as 31.Nxa4! seems possible: 31…Nxa4 32.Qa5 with serious counterplay. It wasn’t to be. Howell thought he had time for the solid-looking 31.Ka2? but was surprised by 31…Rh1! after which White has problems holding on to his e-pawns.

After 6 rounds, the Italian Fabiano Caruana has taken the lead with 4/6, closely followed by no less than five players with 3,5. Anish Giri has a bit of a disappointing tournament so far with 2,5 points. For Negi and Howell, the tournament can already be considered lost. Let’s hope the players use their offocial rest day well.

Standings after Round 6:

1. Caruana 4
2. So, Tomashevsky, Andreikin, Vachier Lagrave, Rodshtein 3,5
7. Truong Son 3
8. Giri 2,5
9. Negi, Howell 1,5

Games start daily at 14.00 CET, except July 25, which is a rest day.

Biel Young Grandmasters Games round 5 & 6

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

A few days ago, we published an open letter by GM Sutovsky about the current FIDE Candidates Matches problems. Yesterday, Veselin Topalov published an open letter in response to the news that part of the matches might be played in Kazan, Russia.

According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, the Russian Chess Federation has asked FIDE President Ilyumzhinov to move part of the Candidates Matches from Baku, Azerbaijan – not a very pleasant place for Armenian GM Levon Aronian, though Armenian sources appear to in fact deny that he won’t play in fact Baku – to Kazan, Russia.

This, in turn, has prompted Veselin Topalov to write an open letter announcing he refuses to play in Kazan or any other place in Russia, in part because of what happened back in 2006, during ‘Toiletgate’. Here is Topalov’s open letter as it appeared on Chessdom:

July 22th, Sofia, Bulgaria

Dear President of FIDE, Dear members of the PB,

I am writing an open letter to you regarding the next World Championship Cycle. After many promises and changes I learn that a new place for the Candidates matches is being discussed, the one of Kazan, Russia.

I believe that it is a strategic mistake to stage almost all the cycle in one country. Four events of the FIDE Grand Prix, the World Cup, and now possibly Candidates Matches are in Russia. This transmits the message that FIDE can’t find sponsors and Organizers from other countries, which is very sad.

I would also like to state that for me the venue of Kazan, or any other venue in Russia, is totally unacceptable for another reason. Everybody still remembers the unpleasant situations which my team and I had to face during the WCC Match in Elista 2006.

Having in mind all this, I would like to declare that I would not participate in any stage of the cycle for the World Chess Title that takes place in Russia, in order to avoid problems and conflicts that already took place there.

The venue of Baku was rejected by Aronian and this looked natural for everyone. Before that, FIDE have changed their own rules and regulations to avoid the WCC rematch Topalov-Kramnik with Sofia as a venue. I believe it is logical to ask, if I play any matches in the future, (especially against Russian GMs), that they should be outside of Russia.

With respect,
Veselin Topalov

In round 7 of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took revenge for yesterday’s sad loss while Anatoly Karpov visited the tournament he won seventeen years ago.

Perhaps the most exciting event of the day was not one of the games in the super tournament, but FIDE Presidential candidate Anatoly Karpov’s visit to the Dortmund Chess-Meeting – even though he only made one chess move today.

He did give press conferences, interviews and posed for the many photographers who had been invited to Dortmund. Karpov has been very busy lately lobbying for his presidency in various countries all over the world, so it’s no surprise he shows up in Germany. At the time of writing, it’s not yet known whether Karpov made any important announcements in Dortmund.

Karpov posing for photographers (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

But back to chess. Supposing Liem Quang Le honoured the Twelfth World Champion by playing the Caro-Kann today might perhaps be a little too far-fetched, but he certainly did good business, easily drawing Arkadij Naiditsch.

In a pretty much unknown position after just 10 moves, Quang Le went for 11…c3 after which he seemed to have no problems whatsoever. Indeed, the Vietnamese afterwards explained that “in this sideline of the Caro-Kann, Black has so many possibilities that it’s not difficult to deviate”. Quang Le continues to impress in this tournament, comfortably defending his second place in the standings, ahead of former World Champion Kramnik.

Kramnik (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Slightly more exciting was the game between the two Russians, Kramnik and Ponomariov. Kramnik no doubt wanted to try something serious with the white pieces (the opening was a Queen’s Indian) but with some accurate defensive operations, Ponomariov stayed in control all the time.

It looks like Black may be in a bit of trouble, but 18…Qh4! is a very clever move that keeps the dynamic equilibirum. After 19.Nxe4 Bxe4 20.Bxe4 fxe4 21.Qxe4 Rae8 22.e3 e5!

Black has plenty of counterplay in the center and Kramnik subsequently couldn’t find anything concrete to play for. The game was drawn after 37 moves.

Mamedyarov - Leko (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

The game of the day was, of course, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov’s sweet revenge for yesterday’s blunder against Naiditsch. Today, he beat the unfortunate Peter Leko in a fine positional game. In a quiet English Opening, the Azeri slowly but steadily increased the pressure on Leko’s position, putting all his active pieces on light squares until the moment was there to harvest.

22.Ncxb6! Rxb6 23.Nxb6 Qxb6 24.Qxc5 Qd8 25.d4!

25…exd4 26.e4 Actually the computer engines are even more enthusiastic about the natural 26.Rfd1 after which White seems to be just winning. But Shakh’s move isn’t bad at all as he still crashes through in the center sooner or later. Leko couldn’t cope with the pressure and though it still looked tricky for a couple of moves, Mamedyarov kept his cool this time and collected the point at move 39.

With his victory, Mamedyarov again moves up into second place together with Quang Le. They face each other in the next round, while Ponomariov will try to increase his lead with White against Naiditsch. We presume Leko-Kramnik is not unlikely to end in a quick draw, though perhaps the Hungarian will think back to the fifth match game in 2004. Let’s hope he’ll find the inspiration to play a great game once more against his former World Championship rival.

Standings after 7 rounds:

1. Ponomariov 4,5
2. Le Quang, Mamedyarov 4
4. Kramnik 3,5
5. Naiditsch 3
6. Leko 2

Games start daily at 15.00 CET and can be followed live here.

Dortmund Games round 7

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC
• Previous Chessvibes report on Dortmund

The Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky was recently invited by President Ilyumzhinov to discuss the current problems in the FIDE Candidates Matches cycle. Here is his open letter to the participants, with some radical solutions.

Dear colleagues!

On July 20 I was invited to meet FIDE President, Mr.Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, in order to discuss the situation with the Candidates Matches 2011. I was given few minutes to submit my proposal, and it was agreed, that I will publish an open letter on this very important matter. Please, find the text below.

Election campaigns are approaching their climax, however, there are some issues related to the professional chess, which should be discussed now. Luckily, despite being a member of the World Championships and Olympiads Committee (WCOC), I am not involved in the political fight, so I took my time to analyze the situation from the professional point of view. Unfortunately, it took me some time to be heard, but hopefully, it�s not too late.

According to the current regulations, the Candidates are supposed to play quaterfinal (4 games), semifinal (4 games) and final (6 games) matches in a succession (presumably in March-April 2011), and the winner of this marathon will challenge the World Champion in 2012.

This format has drawn a serious criticism. Indeed, it is very strange to determine the strongest player in such short matches. And, obviously, the chess world would prefer to see the real battle between the top players, while the present format hardly provides players with a possibility to show their best chess. Actually, there are many more drawbacks to the present format, but instead of specifying them all, I�d rather pass to my suggestion.

I propose to play quaterfinal and semifinal matches (6 games each) in a succession (March-April 2011), while the final match should be organized separately and consist of 8 games (September-October 2011).

The advantages are obvious:

• A. 6-games match represents much more objective way to determine a deserved winner.
• B. Two best players would have enough time to rest and prepare for the final match.
• C. The final match would get much bigger publicity, and its financial value might be much higher than 180.000 Euro, which stands in the current regulation.
• D. It is much better for the spectators � as we know, the attention span is now much shorter than it used to be � staging final match as a separate event
  will ensure maximal public attention.

Of course, there is a serious drawback � my proposal contradicts the current regulations. However, I know that most of the players would prefer to play longer matches. Still, in order to change the regulations, we need the consent of all the Candidates. That�s why, I ask the players to express their opinion,
and if you support the proposed changes, I will submit an official proposal.

Sincerely yours,

Grandmaster Emil Sutovsky

In 2006, Bessel Kok sent an emissary to Africa to try to garner support for his “The Right Move” program. English Grandmaster Nigel Short took on the task hoping to win support to unseat Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (pictured left). Short’s trip swirled in controversy as he faced tough audiences both in Botswana and Zambia, camps supporting Ilyumzhinov. Four years later, the campaigning has returned with suitors buzzing around the world making their respective cases. Ilyumzhinov’s “One World, One Vision” and Anatoly Karpov’s “Karpov 2010” are now in full gear.

This campaign has been very active with both camps trying to secure support from the various federations. When it comes to Africa, there is an idea that the region is ignored until the elections are near. This is an oft-stated argument in African circles. However, in 2010, Africa is not being ignored and the stakes are much higher than sending a cache of sets and clocks to win support.

Recently Ilyumzhinov’s “One World, One Vision” campaign organized what was billed as a “FIDE Africa Seminar“. The agenda labels the participants as “FIDE Team”. According to the letter sent out by FIDE Vice President Lewis Ncube,

The objective of the FIDE Africa Seminar is to equip the participants with updated chess administrative knowledge for the effective running of their Federations and to prepare them for effective participation in the 2010 FIDE Congress and other future events and meetings. (see invitation)

The letter was sent promising accomodation and plane tickets for participants. The hotel would be the five-star Taj Pamodzi which can run US$250.00 per night. Thus, no expense was spared to organize this event. However, problems started to surface when it was discovered that what was billed as a FIDE seminar was actually an event organized by the organization for the re-election of Ilyumzhinov. Nigel Short posted a comment on The Chess Drum blog,

Despite the deliberately misleading name �FIDE Africa Seminar� issued on official FIDE stationary, �FIDE� is not holding an Africa Seminar in Zambia. That would imply that the event in Lusaka is open to all African Federations, which it most certainly is not.

FIDE Vice President, Lewis Ncube, shamelessly admitted in a recent e-mail to the President of the Angolan Chess Federation, Dr. Aguinaldo Jaime, “The African Seminar I am hosting in Lusaka is on behalf of the Kirsan Ilyumzhinov ticket and is being funded by the FIDE President as part of our ticket�s campaign.” (see comment)

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is presented with a South African scarf by President of South Africa Chess Federation Ms. Emelia Ellappen. Photo courtesy of FIDE.com.

Angolan Federation President Dr. Aguinaldo Jaime complained at what he felt was an exclusion because he was led to believe that the seminar was for all African federations. He then produced a scathing letter condemning an event in which participants were selectively invited.

“It was my intention to attend the so-called ‘FIDE Africa Seminar’, to be held in Lusaka, from July 5th, because I mistakenly thought it was a FIDE event. In my mind, FIDE is an organization of all national Chess Federations and it is inconceivable that a Chess Federation be denied the right of participation in a FIDE initiative. To my great surprise, I came to learn, directly from FIDE Vice President, Lewis Ncube, that this event is not a �FIDE Africa Seminar� at all, but merely part of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov�s re-election campaign. With this extraordinary admission of a brazen abuse of office from a senior FIDE official, I was told that I have no right, as President of a Chess Federation, to participate.” (see letter)

If this accusation is true, it would be an embarrassing situation for the “One World, One Vision” campaign which is projected to have spent more than US$100,000 for the flights and hotel expenses. In response, Ncube told The Chess Drum,

“For the record, no FIDE funds were involved in the arranging of the seminar and you can verify this with Nigel Freeman. Dr Jaime was informed of this. Furthermore the invitations were sent from MY office as FIDE Vice President as the letterhead clearly indicates.”

One point of contention may be the use of FIDE stationary for the “One World, One Vision” campaign and the use of the name “FIDE” on the seminar banner. This practice may be attacked on that grounds that it allows the “One World, One Vision” camp to imply an endorsement from FIDE, typically considered a breach of campaign protocol in political contests. Both campaigns exist as separate entities from FIDE and have their own organizational structure and supporting units. However, there does not appear to be a document on campaign protocol in the FIDE website.

One of the most contentious aspects of a campaign is votes of support. There has been a lot of discussion on the importance of claiming federation support. “One World, One Vision” claims 75 supporters while the “Karpov 2010″ camp has not released a number. Karpov’s site has shown the flags of supporters. While each federation may give a formal endorsement (even in writing), there is still a lot of campaigning to do. In fact, there are cases where both camps are laying claim to the same federation.

There is also the problem of federations getting to Siberia to cast their votes. Covering expenses for Olympiad has always been a tricky affair in Africa. Thus, absentee voting may become important. Nevertheless, both camps will be garnering for the all-important Africa vote. There are was no significant media coverage on the “FIDE Africa Seminar,” but from the pictures taken, it appears to have drawn at least 25-30 federation officials and most of the “One World, One Vision” campaign ticket. Karpov and his team is set to convene in Luanda, Angola in the coming weeks.

“FIDE President in Zambia,” FIDE.com.
“Administrators Seminar 2010 in Lusaka,” FIDE.com.

In the most exciting round of the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund so far, Vladimir Kramnik beat Arkadij Naiditsch while the other games also ended decisively.

Report by Daan Zult

If people wondered whether Ruslan Ponomariov could recover from his loss against Quang Le in round 4, in round 5 this was answered with a convincing yes. In a highly positional game he slowly outplayed Mamedyarov, in which every time it seemed his opponent had solved his positional problem, Ponomariov presented Shakh with a new one.

In the opening, Mamedyarov accepted a double f-pawn. When he solved this problem, he was confronted with pressure on his c-pawn and an isolated h-pawn. When he solved these problems, he suddenly had to deal with an isolated d-pawn and f-pawn and weakened white squares. These last two problems finally became too much to handle and forced Mamedyarov to capitulate in a position where amateurs might have continued for a couple more moves:

Final position after 51.Kc4. Black resigned.

On top level, Pono’s advantage was evidently decisive. His victory can’t really be characterized by some single move brilliancy, but more by superior positional play all over the game. It must have been a huge disappointment to Mamedyarov, who appeared to be on a roll in the previous rounds.

Shakriyar Mamedyarov (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

The big surprise of the round was Quang Le�s victory over Peter Leko, with the black pieces no less. Against Quang Le�s Caro Cann, Leko attempted to get an advantage by temporally sacrificing a pawn, hoping to end up with the bishop pair against two nights. However, the time that was required to recover the pawn was not wasted on Quang Le, who managed to exchange one knight for a bishop and disturb Leko�s pawn formation.

Leko -Quang Le (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

On top of that, Quang Le managed to get a �superpferd� on d5, from where the knight dominated all play.

In return, Leko was left with a seemingly active bishop on d6, but in reality it was more like a �bear without teeth� (as we say in Holland). Slowly but surely, Quang Le managed to convert his good knight vs bad bishop endgame into the a full point. The question remains whether it�s Quang Le�s second victory in a row because his opponent considered him an easy prey, or whether he can compete with the very best. Time will tell.

In his fifth round game, Kramnik finally showed his true power. When Naiditsch tried to tackle Kramnik�s Catalan the Leko-way by sacrificing a pawn for active play. Kramnik was ready to give back some material for active play of his own.

Kramnik gave a rook for a knight and two pawns with 25.Nxd4! Bxb1 26.Nc6! and managed to permanently lock out Naiditsch rook by means of Nc6xa5. The rook trap became a real problem for Black when Kramnik was able to attack the rook with… his king!

Position after 48.Kb5. Naiditsch resigned after two more superfluous moves.

With Kramnik back on 50% and only one point behind leader Ponomariov, he might still be able to defend his title in the second half of the tournament, but with three more black games to go it will certainly be a hard nut to crack. The tail enders Leko and Naiditsch, who missed their chances in their games against Kramnik and Ponomariov, will have to forget about tournament victory and do some serious damage control.

Sebastian Siebrecht makes the first move in Kramnik - Naiditsch (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Standings after 5 rounds:

1. Ponomariov 3,5
2. Mamedyarov, Le Quang 3
4. Kramnik 2,5
5. Naiditsch, Leko 1,5

Games start daily at 15.00 CET (tuesday is a rest day) and can be followed live here.

Dortmund Games round 5

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC
• Previous Chessvibes report on Dortmund

The Young Grandmasters tournament in Biel, Switzerland, has started today. World Junior Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is back where he won last year.

Report and analyses by IM Robert Ris

The Young Grandmasters Tournament is a single round-robin event with 10 players. It is being held from July 19 to 28. This year, the organizers decided to change the format from last year’s edition, when 6 players battled it out in a double round-robin. Current titleholder and reigning World Junior Champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is back in the town.

His main competitor can be expected to be Evgenij Tomashevsky, who is with 23(!) years the oldest participant. But clearly, the even younger top talents such as Anish Giri and Wesley So will no doubt think differently. With a FIDE Category 17 and an average elo of 2658, this invitation group is the main attraction of the 43rd edition of International Chess Festival in Biel.

Besides this main group, another strong Open is being held with a lot of titleholders, of whom the Russian GMs Alexander Riazantsev (2674) and Boris Grachev (2667) are topping the list of entries. This tournament will consist of 11 rounds and hence will last two days longer, until the 30th of July. Moreover, other activities such as 960 Chess and a Chess-Tennis competition are part of the agenda, which makes the festival one of the popular summer events among both professionals and chess tourists.

The first day of the Young Grandmasters started quite peacefully with two rather uneventful draws between Andreikin-Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Giri-Tomashevsky. In the former game White opted for a French Winawer with the rare 4.Nge2.

Andreikin soon started pushing his kingside pawns, but when Black subsequently castled queenside, he realized that his kingside aggression wouldn’t yield him anything. After a mass of exchanges the players didn’t see any perspective in the rook ending and hence decided to split the point on move 28.

In Giri-Tomashevsky, the veteran of the tournament deviated with 13…Na6 from a game Giri-Bitalzadeh, Hilversum 2009, where White easily took control over the c-file. Giri couldn’t find anything concrete and after the accurate 17…Rfe8 and 18…Rac8 Black easily could take care of the only weakness in his camp on c7. Ten moves later a draw was agreed.

More spectacular was the encounter between Rodshtein and Negi. Against the Catalan Defence, the Indian chose his pet system with 4…dxc4, 5…c6 and 7…Be7 and pretty easily survived the opening when White omitted to play 15.dxe5! The consequences of the positional exchange sacrifice would have certainly offered him better chances for an advantage. A complicated middlegame arose and when Black decided to release the tension by exchanging pieces, the following happened.

26…Rxd4?? 26…Ne1+ will probably lead to a draw – see the game analysis.

27.Na3! Now Black is suddenly lost. He doesn’t have time to cope with all his back rank problems.

27…Nd2 28.Ra2! Nf3 29.Rxd4 Nxd4 30.Rd2 and Black resigned in view of 30…Rc7 31.Rxd4!

In Vachier Lagrave-Caruana, the White player had more luck on his side. In an Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez with 5…Qd6, Black easily obtained equality after 16…f5! Black’s dynamic resources proved to be more valuable than White’s statical trumps. With 22.f4 White took some radical measures to defend his kingside, but soon the new Swiss resident found other ways to attack the weakened kingside. At the moment supreme, however, Caruana missed two excellent opportunities to decide the game in his favor. A few moves later, the following position was reached.

White now found a great defensive resource by means of 38.Re5! covering a lot of important squares around his king. Caruana disappointedly finished the game with a nice rook sacrifice which however only enabled him to give a perpetual check.

The last game of the day, Howell-So, saw a rather weird Exchange Variation of the Caro-Kann with 4.Bd3. During the live broadcasting, it took me some time before I recovered from the shock the Englishman delivered me by playing

10.Kf1!?!

Initially, I assumed some mistake had been made by the live relaying, but the dust in my eyes cleared when a little later, 19.h4 was executed as well. However, White’s original idea was simply punished when So’s heavy pieces entered on the queenside. With time scramble approaching, Howell committed the decisive mistake with 29.Re3? which was easily refuted by 29…Nc1! A rather simple win with Black for So, although we should hope Howell’s creativy will bear its fruits in coming rounds!

Standings after Round 1:

1. Rodshtein, So 1
3. Tomashevshi, Giri, Andreikin, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Vachier Lagrave, Caruana
9. Negi, Howell 0

Games start daily at 14.00 CET, except July 25, which is a rest day.

Biel Young Grandmasters Games round 1, analysed by Robert Ris

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

A superb lesson from Magnus Carlsen in endgame technique

Carlsen-Wang Yue, Medias 2010

It's been a while since we looked at the endgame, so this week we begin a short series on this often neglected area with a terrific demonstration of endgame technique from the ever-improving world No 1 Magnus Carlsen. Although White has the advantage of rook against bishop, Black has an extra pawn and a solid position. How did Carlsen make progress?

RB I'm pretty sure the answer lies in g4. The question is whether to nudge the pawn forward immediately or whether some preparation is needed first, perhaps exchanging on d5 or advancing the king to e3. The only way is concrete calculation, so let's see what happens after the immediate 1 g4. After 1...gxh4 2 gxh5 what would Black play? Maybe 2...Be4, threatening to block the pawn's advance. But White seems to have a whole host of good moves available � the rook could go to c7 or c4, the king could go to e3, or even g1 when it threatens to get to the black h-pawn via h2 and h3.

Does it make any difference if Black responds to 1 g4 with 1 hxg4...? Not that I can see. After 2 h5 Be4 3 Rc7 Black faces the same problem as he does in the first variation. In both cases White is completely winning, unless I'm missing something.

DK 1 g4 is the move. With this finesse White creates a distant passed pawn � quite an achievement considering that Black started with a pawn majority on this side of the board. The game continued 1 g4 hxg4 2 h5 Be4 3 Rc7. That's a really important move, not only preparing to push the pawn through, but preventing Black's king returning to block. Black tried to get counterplay with his own pawns, but White won the race with ease: 3...f5 4 h6 f4 5 h7 g3+ 6 Ke1 f3 7 h8(Q) f2+ 8 Ke2 Bd3+ 9 Ke3, and here Black resigned. He can also get a new queen, but White gets in first with the checks. For example: 9...f1(Q) 10 Qe8+ Kf5 11 Rf7+ winning the queen.

chess@guardian.co.uk

After so much (Dutch) football subjectivity over the past weeks (yeah yeah, Spain won deservedly), it’s a delight to read something objective again: Lars Schandorff has written an extremely solid and honest book on the Caro-Kann in the Grandmaster Repertoire series from Quality Chess.

I’ve never really liked the Caro-Kann. As White, I find it an extremely tough opening, and as Black, I find it so much less attractive than the Sicilian or even the French. But of course I’m wrong, as Danish GM Lars Schandorff convincingly shows in his monograph The Caro-Kann, which, although it is officially a repertoire book for Black, is highly recommended for serious White players as well. Here’s an example.

Suppose you’re one of those chess players who kind of hates the solidity of the Caro-Kann: you can bet your life that Black players who employ the Caro-Kann often know their theory better than you do, so you’re looking for something funny to get Black to think for himself right from the start.

Suppose you’re considering playing the line 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Nc5!?

This is a rare sideline that, according to my database, has nevertheless been played by giants like Fischer, Shirov, Morozevich and Carlsen. Surely this is an interesting choice for White? Well, Schandorff is not impressed. Instead of the automatic 5…b6, he recommends:

5…e5!? A radical attempt to benefit from White’s extravagance and solve all Black’s problems in one blow.

6.Nxb7 Retreating with 6.Nb3 makes little sense. After 6…Nd7 Black is already somewhat better.

6…Qb6 7.Nc5 exd4 The most natural choice. The other way of regaining the pawn, 7…Bxc5 8.dxc5 Qxc5, might in fact also be playable. On first sight the position after 9.c3 looks slightly better for White due to his bishop pair. Closer inspection reveals that it is maybe not so simple. Consider something like 9…Nf6 10.Be3 Qe7 unclear, as in Riemens-Hoogendoorn, Netherlands 1994. Black’s bishop is very active and his knight can harass the white bishop from d5.

8.Nb3 Bb4+ Basic chess knowledge: Black exchanges the dark-squared bishop before putting his pawns on dark squares.

9.Bd2 Nf6

Black certainly has no development problems, and the far-advanced d-pawn can be protected by c6-c5, so it can hardly be called a weakness. Not surprisingly, White has had difficulties proving any advantage at all. (…)

I think such a fragment is interesting for both sides: Black players will certainly gain confidence that such a sharp variation is theoretically more than OK. Also, Schandorff explains the essentials of the position (however unusual it may look) from an objective point of view, explaining that even seemingly-obvious judgements may not be so obvious after all. And White players may want to look hard for something concrete in this line, otherwise it’s absolutely useless to study. (Actually, my engine suggests the weird but at least consistently-weird 8.Na4!?, which may be worth a try.)

Schandorff’s treatment of the Classical Variation (3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5) is one of the highlights of the book. It’s clear from every page that he thoroughly understands the position, which he explains in a systematic and rigorous manner. Here’s another example where he combines objectiveness with a distinct opinion:

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bf4 Qa5+ 12.Bd2 Bb4 13.c3 Be7 14.c4 Qc7 15.0-0

Castling to the wrong side. This is quite complicated and of course playable, but come on – it can’t be better than castling long!

15…Ngf6 16.Rfe1 The most natural. We can have a quick look at a couple of alternatives [16.d5 and 16.Qe2] (…).

16…0-0 17.Nf5

An important tactical idea that is frequently seen in the Caro: rook to the e-file followed by a knight to f5.

17…Bd6! I prefer not to compromise my pawn structure and am therefore reluctant to take on f5, although some strong players have tried it. 17…exf5 18.Rxe7 Qd8 19.Re2 Ne4 seemed pretty solid for Black in Browne-L.B.Hansen, Philadelphia 2006, but I suspect White is more comfortable.

There are other ways to respond to the knight move. We do not need an alternative, but it is useful to understand White’s standard tactical ideas: 17…Rfe8 is always a good option, when 18.Rxe6!? fxe6 19.Nxg7 is spectacular, but after 19…Bf8 20.Nxe8 Rxe8 21.Re1 Bg7 the piece looks more valuable than the pawns, Jonkman-Kroeze, Netherlands 2006. (…)

18.Nxd6 The sacrifice 18.Nxh6+ gxh6 19.Bxh6 Rfe8 should of course be checked, but it doesn’t look so scary (…). White should probably settle for the quiet 20.Qd2 with some compensation after 20…Bf8 21.Bxf8 Rxf8 22.Qh6.

18…Qxd6 19.Qb3 19.Ne5? is an instructive mistake. After 19…Nxe5 20.Rxe5 Ng4 -/+ the king is not at all well placed on g1, Omarsson-Kjartansson, Reykjavik 2007.

19…a5!? with counterplay. Often it makes sense to push the a-pawn. (…)

While this is great stuff, I didn’t find Schandorff’s explanations that clear throughout the entire book. For instance, the chapter on positional lines (4.c3, 4.Be3 and 4.Nd2) in the Advance Variation (3.e5 Bf5) left a lot of questions unanswered in my head.

One of the lines that has become popular in recent years is 4.Be3 followed by Nd2-b3 with the idea of blocking the c5 square. However, after 4…e6 5.Nd2 Nd7 Schandorff lists the alternatives to 6.Nb3 but doesn’t explain the basics of the position very clearly.

For example, after 6.Ngf3, why doesn’t Black instantly ‘punish’ White for not playing 6.Nb3 (which is the main line) by playing 6…c5 himself? I suspect this may seem totally obvious to Schandorff or others players of his calibre, so perhaps it doesn’t need an explanation – but interestingly, according to my database, the move 6…c5 is Black’s second most popular move in the position, even though it has never been played by anyone rated over 2200!

I think this indicates there is a sustantial gap in knowledge between how strong and weak players understand this position – or even the Caro-Kann in general. Schandorff, unfortunately, doesn’t help us out in this case.

Actually, I’ve always found this one of the most intriguing aspects of these position lines of the Advanced Variation: White seems to want to prevent c6-c5 by all means (Be3, Nd2-b3), but then when Black gets the opportunity to play it, he doesn’t do it! In fact, Black often doesn’t play c5 at all, as Schandorff nicely shows:

6.Nb3 Ne7 7.Be2 Nc8!?

Once you see this idea you can’t get it out of your head. It will take a trained psychotherapist to delete it. 7…Bg6 with the idea …Nf5 is standard and of course is also fully playable.

8.f4 Be7 9.Nf3 0-0 Black finishes his development with the minimum of fuss and without compromising his position at all. That’s the beauty of this simple idea. By temporarily putting the knight on the back rank everything is made possible and Black demonstrates that his lack of space isn’t necessarily fatal. There is no practical evidence from this position, but I am sure Black is okay. Well, that’s not the whole truth. Black is okay, don’t worry, but there has been one game, albeit only a blitz game by me. Since there is nothing else, we will look at a few moves of my blitz effort.

10.0-0 a6 11.Rc1 b5! 12.c3 Ncb6

Black is already somewhat better because of my active play on the queenside. (…)

No c5, but b5! Useful though such a fragment may be (it certainly is an eye-opener to chronical dogmatists such as myself), Schandorff doesn’t in the end reveal the true mystery behind this type of play. His final conclusion that “if White tries to play a slow manoeuvring game then Black is well prepared”, immediately raises the question why 4.Be3 and 4.Nd2 are so popular of late. While Schandorff does admit that “where the elite leads, the masses follow”, he forgets to tell us why the elite prefers this road.

But perhaps this is an unjust complaint. After all, the series in which The Caro-Kann was published, is called ‘Grandmaster Repertoire’. It really is a very high-level book, for serious club players and beyond. I think it’s fair to say that it doesn’t have much to offer to amateurs and casual readers. But if you want to incorporate the Caro-Kann Defence into your tournament repertoire, or find out why it’s so bloody difficult to prove anything against it, Lars Schandorff is your man.

Links

• Get yourself a copy of The Caro-Kann
• Read more book reviews

Se pone muy interesante el Torneo Sociedad Democracia Centenario CajaCanarias despu�s de la disputa de la ronda 4 y es que en vista de los resultados vistos la igualdad se ha convertido en protagonista.

En esta ronda 4 hemos visto como un ingl�s de apellido Engelbrecht se un�a al grupo de l�deres del torneo. Su victoria en tan solo 26 jugadas contra Nayra Barrera lo deja con 3,5 puntos sobre 4 y en la pr�xima ronda jugar� contra �ngel Gonz�lez en lo que ser� un buen test para calibrar sus aspiraciones.

En la mesa 1 jugaron el ya mencionado �ngel Gonz�lez y el Maestro FIDE Juli�n Morales, era la partida m�s importante de la ronda 4 y el juego desplegado por ambos no defraud�. La partida finaliz� en tablas despu�s 40 jugadas y eso que comentaba el joven Jos� Mar�a Salazar, Juli�n jug� lo mejor que se le daba, el “hipop�tamo”…

En la mesa 2 Rayco Cancio tuvo tambi�n una dura partida contra el heroe de la jornada anterior, Rub�n Mart�n, que a punto estuvo de volver a dar la sorpresa ya que logr� una posici�n con pe�n de m�s aunque a la postre la partida acab� en tablas en la jugada 31.

Poco m�s que destacar en las otras mesas en donde los favoritos no fallaron en esta ocasi�n y as� Pedro Tom�s P�rez venci� al joven Alejandro Betancort. En la mesa 5 Juan Antonio C�ceres tampoco tuvo problemas en superar con una Defensa Owen al jugador de origen asi�tico Daniel Li.

Quedan s�lo dos rondas para que acabe el torneo y todav�a est� todo en el aire. En la pr�xima ronda el MF Juli�n Morales juega con blancas contra Rub�n Mart�n, duelo de veterano contra promesa. El ingl�s Engelbrecht tiene que pasar el test ante �ngel Gonz�lez.

Otros como Rayco Cancio, Juan C�ceres y Pedro Tom�s P�rez tendr�n tambi�n que ganar si quieren llegar a la �ltima ronda con posibilidades aunque seguro que sus rivales dar�n lo mejor para impedirlo.

M�xima emoci�n pues en este fant�stico Torneo Sociedad Democracia Centenario CajaCanarias, que acoger� el pr�ximo d�a 14 la pen�ltima ronda a partir de las 20:00.

Resultados, emparejamientos y clasificaciones en chessresults

Galer�a de fotos de la ronda 4 (gentileza de Antonio Mart�n)

Galer�a de fotos de la ronda 2 y 3 (gentileza de Antonio Mart�n)

Galer�a de fotos de la ronda 1 (gentileza de Antonio Mart�n)

First of all, I apologize to my regular readers for this extended absence. I am battling an annoying intestinal ailment that has deprived me of much of my usual zest for over two months. Unfortunately, it is still not cured, although the doctors can't seem to find anything wrong in my medical test results.

The 8th Silicon Valley Challenge hosted by the Sun Chess Club will be this coming Sunday! As in recent years, the event will be held at Susan's Dance Studio in NE San Jose.

This year takes on a little more significance since Charles graduated from Saratoga High School and will begin classes at UC Berkeley next month. I began teaching him in 2004 and had the pleasure of watching him grow into a smart and confident young man. Charles was never one of my star students, but his success at big money tournaments (Las Vegas!) remains unparalleled by my students. I still remember watching him improve from 1394 to 1806 in the summer of 2005. He attributed that quantum leap to learning to pay attention to tempo in chess.

In high school, Charles took over the leadership of the Saratoga High School club, extending the streak of state titles to a record six straight years. He also began organizing a couple of rated tournaments each year. Read about last year at this blog post. Over four years, a total of 350 players participated in 11 events, with an impressive peak of 62. Charles generously treats his players to free snacks and drinks, which may help explain why many come back each year.

• Event: Silicon Valley Challenge #8
  
• Date: this Sunday, July 11
• Location: 2146 Ringwood Avenue, San Jose (off I-880 near Milpitas).
• Format: 4 round swiss in 2 sections (Open and U1600).
• Open schedule: Reg: 8:30-8:50. Rounds: 9:00, 11:30, 1:45, 4:00.
• U1600 schedule: Reg: 10:30-11:15, Rounds: 11:30, 12:30, 1:45, 3:00.
  
• Time control: G/60 for Open; G/30 for U1600.
• Entry fee: $45 adults, $40 juniors on-site. Masters FREE!
  
• Prize fund: $510 total including $100 for 1st place in Open section.
• Go to Sun Chess Club website for the entry form
  
• Or check the advance entry list.
• Site capacity: 54 players.

�(�) alejado del �xito deportivo, se encuentra en el juego de ajedrez, como una manera de arte, una belleza particular y dif�cil de explicar.

Un est�tica como de la m�sica cl�sica, pero que aparece en una forma cristalina delante nuestros ojos, en vez de los o�dos.

Puede ser que se palpe como un peque�o acontecimiento de iluminaci�n, si desde la niebla y el caos de una posici�n complicada se revela de repente una idea maravillosa.

O bien, despu�s de una excursi�n agotadora de monta�a, si al final atrae la cima como premio una vista panor�mica a un valle precioso.

Sin embargo, la belleza en el ajedrez tiene que ver tambi�n bastante con el humor por resultar unas ideas sorprendentes y divertidas as� como constelaciones grotescas y c�micas, por las cuales el jugador de ajedrez est� ri�ndose como si fuese un chiste acertado.

�Es un propio mundo, que podemos pisar en cualquier momento. La puerta consiste en el tablero y las piezas, entonces, todav�a un adversario y la magia comienza!� Frank Mayer; Ajedrez y Pasi�n; Academia de Ajedrez, Munich. Revisado por Sergio Diaz, Buenos Aires, febrero de 2007, para la Tabla de Flandes

El problema que presentamos fue compuesto por Julius Buchwald (1909-1970); aunque nacido en Alemania, en 1945 se radico en USA.� Compositor de problemas de ajedrez con muchos premios en su haber.

La posici�n es simple, sin muchas piezas, con bastante espacio y aire para el Rey Negro. La belleza de una movida clave y varios mates a partir de ella. As� que el que se anima seguramente pensar� en quitar algo de aire al Rey.
{iframe height="680"}visor3/problema_sinboton.php?archivo=Mate en 3 Jugadas_Buchwald_Sencillez_y_Belleza.pgn?lenguaje=spanish{/iframe}
SOLUCION PROBLEMA ANTERIOR

Mate en 3 Jugadas - El Problema de Ajedrez: La Voluntad de Crear

Sammelius,C - Mate en 3 Jugadas

3er Premio Probleemblad, 1962

1.Tf3!!

Fracasan

-1.Cf4 Cf3!! 2.Cfxd5+�( 2.Dxf3 Re5! 3.Ac7+ d6 4.Cfg6+ fxg6+ 5.Cxg6#;�2.Tc3 Ac4! 3.Txc4 e5 4.Cc8#) 2...e5! 3.Cc7+ Cd4! 4.Txd4#;

-1.Dg8 Cc6 2.Dg4 Cb4 3.Dxb4+ Re5 4.Df4#;�1.De3 Cxd3 2.Dxd3 Re5 3.Dc3+ Rd6 4.Cc8#;�1.Df2 Cxd3 2.Dd4 Cf4+ 3.Cxf4 e5 4.Dxd5#;

-1.Dh4 Cxd3 2.Cc8+ Re5 3.Dd4+ Rf5 4.Ce3#;

-1.Cxd5 exd5 2.Tc3 Re6 3.Cf4+ Rxf6 4.Ad8#;

-1.Te3 Af3+! 2.Rxh6 Ae4! 3.Axe4 b1D 4.Cc8#;1.Tc3 Af3+! 2.Rxh6�( 2.Dxf3 Cc4! 3.Txc4 e5 4.Dd5#) 2...Ac6! 3.Cc8+ Rd5 4.Ce3#

1...Ab3

1...Ac6 2.Cc8+ Rd5 3.Ce3#;

1...Ac4 2.Df4! Ae2 3.Dd4#;

1...Ac4 2.Df4! Ad5 3.Db4#;

1...Aa2 2.Te3 Ac4 3.Dxe5#;

1...Ae4 2.Axe4 b1D 3.Cc8#;

1...Axf3+ 2.Rxh6 Ad5 3.Da3#

2.Tf1!! Ad1+

2...Ad5 3.Da3#;

2...Ac4 3.Da3#

3.Txd1# 1-0

Chaque mardi, le ma�tre international canadien d'�checs Jean H�bert nous propose sa lettre d'information HPE.

Dans son num�ro de Juillet, le tr�s s�rieux magazine Pour la science publie un dossier de R�mi Coulom sur le classement dans le sport, et notamment les �checs. Un article qui remettrait en cause la pertinence du classement Elo...

During my holidays I received a lot of chess books from various publishers. There’s lot to look forward to! One of the most interesting books is the latest volume of John Watson’s ambitious project to explain and analyse all chess openings. But the book became much more than just another opening manual.

Two years ago, I wrote a generally positive review of Mastering the Chess Openings Volume 3 (I also liked the first and second volumes), but in the fourth part of his series (published by Gambit), Watson goes a step further than he had gone before. In fact, he’s returning to some of his favourite chess themes, which were also discussed in his most famous books Secrets of Grandmaster Strategy (1998) and Chess Strategy in Action (2003).

This fourth volume begins conventionally enough, with two very solid chapters on the R�ti Opening and an excellent overview of black kingside fianchetto systems such as ‘Tiger’s Modern’ and the Averbakh Variation (although I didn’t know it was called that way) starting with 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.c4, but then Watson switches to a more experimental way of explaining openings. In the chapter called ‘Modern Queenside Fianchetto’, he discusses various (you’ve guessed it) queenside fianchetto systems from the perspective of both Black and White. This means he not only writes about the Owen Defence (1.e4 b6) and the English Defence (1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6), but also about Larsen’s Opening (1.b3).

True to his style, Watson clearly explains the differences between playing the queenside fianchetto with Black and playing it with White. the author thereby takes a look at Ilya Odessky’s recent book on 1.b3 (which I reviewed last year) as well and comes up with some sensible improvements. For instance, in the line 1.b3 e5 2.Bb2 Nc6 3.e3 d5 4.Bb5 Bd6 5.f4 (Watson: “This is certainly the usual continuation in both the Owen and the English Defences: when the f-pawn can’t be captured, it makes sense to use it to break up the opposing centre.”) 5…f6 Odessky gave 6.Nh3

a ‘dubious’ sign (?!) because of the line 6…Nge7 7.fxe5 fxe5 8.0-0 Bf5! after which 9.Qh5+ and 9.Bxc6+ are unconvincing, but following Watson’s suggestion 9.c4 a6 10.Bxc6+ bxc6 11.d4!? with the threat c4-c5, White seems to be on top.

After this chapter, the book steers into even more broad-ranging waters, starting off with a chapter on gambits (in general) in which Watson discusses and explains gambits as diverse as the G�ring and Morra Gambit, the Millner-Barry Gambit, various Wing gambits (both with b2-b4 and g2-g4), the famous Evans Gambit and, of course, the Benk� Gambit.

This chapter contains good stuff (although I don’t think serious gambit-players or gambit-busters will find too much shockingly new in it), but I was even more intrigued by the book’s next chapter, called ‘f-Pawns and Reversed Openings’. I’m sure some people would dismiss it as too philosophical for an opening book, but many fragments – however digressive they may appear to the practical player – had me on the edge of my seat:

The study of reversed openings will increase your understanding of what can and cannot be achieved in openings. Many chess players are mathematically oriented, with a facility for logical thinking. So it’s only natural to assume that there must be some way to make use of an extra move. After all, chess moves have value, and you wouldn’t voluntarily give a move away under normal circumstances. However, as we’ve talked about throughout these volumes, the worth of an extra move isn’t a straightforward matter. In reversed positions of the English Opening, for example, it’s remarkable how seldom White can actually claim to have the better game. For one thing, any advantage is limited by the fact that he will usually be playing what are essentially defensive or counterattacking lines. In addition, there’s a paradoxical benefit of not having to move, in that Black gets a better look at what his opponent is up to and is able to react accordingly. (…)

Stepping outside the practical realm, this difficulty (of converting a move into something of value) is also revealing about the nature of chess itself. The paradox of information applies to every move, whether in a reversed position or not. In some sense, however sound and logical a move is, it contains the risk of leaving you worse off! That enormously magnifies the complexity and subtlety of the game. If advantages and disadvantages were additive in some linear fashion, chess would be a minor game at best. But we have geniuses who do little else but study and play chess from the time they are five years old into their forties, and they make multiple mistakes in nearly every game, often quite serious ones! As an exercise, set up a reversed opening and try to find ways to make even modest improvements to your position without destabilizing something elsewhere on the board. You’ll find that the most trivial-seeming change always seems to show up in one or another line of analysis where you’re least expecting it.

Watson then goes on to explain the subtleties of the Dutch Defence and the Bird Opening (1.f4) in lucid fashion, but as said, he also discusses other reversed openings such as the Ponziani (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3) which Watson points out, after 3…f5!? is in fact “a Vienna Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4) with reversed colours and as if Black had an extra …c6!” Or what about 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5, which the entire world knows as the Schliemann or J�nisch Defence of the Ruy Lopez, yet is described by Watson as…

[A] Vienna Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4) in which White has the extra move Bb5. Strange to say, this would hurt White if he tried the standard remedy to the Vienna position, which is 4.d4 fxe4 5.Nxe5?! (5.Bxc6 dxc6 6.Nxe5 Nf6 is about equal) as 5…Nxe5 6.dxe5 c6 (in the reversed position, White’s bishop is still on f1, so this tempo-gain isn’t possible) 7.Bc4 (having come this far, White normally tried the unclear piece sacrifice 7.Nc3 cxb5 8.Nxe4) 7…Qa5+ followed by 8…Qxe5 wins a pawn. (…)

OK, I can’t resist one more example:

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Bb4

Now we have a reversed Classical Variation of the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5), with Black a whole tempo down. The Classical can be a pretty active system, so let’s see if White can make good use of the extra tempo.

4.Nf3 (…) 4.f4 has White playing the Schliemann Defence to the Ruy Lopez but with the extra move Bc4. The problem is that this gives Black the tactic 4…Nxe4! Then if White follows the normal Vienna Game strategy of 5.Qh5 (…), Black plays 5…0-0!, a move unavailable in the Vienna Game. (…)

4…Bxc3 5.dxc3 d6

The last reversal: Black has played the Exchange Ruy Lopez, and apparently given White much better development than he gets in the reversed position. But in fact, Black doesn’t generate many powerful attacks in the Exchange Ruy Lopez, and in this reversed position, White has nothing to be particularly excited about.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think I have seen this funny perspective applied in Vienna or Ruy Lopez text books before. Similarly, the chapter ‘Symmetry and its Descendants’ offers a refreshing point of view to infamously ‘boring’ openings such as the Petroff and the Four Knights Game. The chapter on ‘Irregular Openings and Initial Moves’ continues in this vein. What are irregular or ‘unorthodox’ openings anyway? Watson points out that

[t]he Trompowsky Attack 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 has become popular and universally accepted, but one could argue that 2.Bg5 itself is not an ‘orthodox’ move; on the flip side, the form of the Torre Attack with 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg5 is orthodox by the classical standards of development, but it isn’t very popular any more. In a similar way, classically oriented openings such as the Ponziani Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3) and the Hungarian Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Be7) are orthodox in strategic terms, but rare in master practice; today, they could legitimately be called ‘irregular’.

Apart from this terminology issue, there’s what’s Watson calls ‘the appeal of the irregular’:

You make counterintuitive moves, waste time, or sacrifice pawns, and yet some not-so-obvious factor is working in your favour to give you positive chances. It’s a break from the drudgery of ‘correct’ play and following those tired old principles. Even if you don’t secure the better game, you can at least irritate your opponent and present him with multiple opportunities to go wrong. The most entertaining irregular openings also contain tactical traps into which one innocent victim after another falls.

These are not trivial, run-of-the-mill observations. Many opening book authors and even chess-improvement books fail to mention these human and very recognizable aspects of chess openings, even though keeping them in mind might help avoid some well-known mistakes in practical play. Thus, for instance, the line 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 f5!?

in the Nimzovich Opening, which is played by some fairly strong members of my local chess club and which Watson also mentions in his book, is not just ‘irregular’, ‘ugly’ and ‘bad’, but does contain some ‘not-so-obvious factors’ working in Black’s favour. White should be aware of this or he will get tricked, as I’ve personally seen many times.

Actually, I was particularly interested in what Watson wrote about the Nimzovich Opening because I sometimes play it myself and because I’ve seen lots of crazy analysis over the past years from enthusiastic club members. Crazy analysis which are often not so bad for Black as they look on first sight! And indeed, to his credit, Watson doesn’t dismiss the opening easily at all and calls it “one of the best of the irregular openings versus 1.e4.”

One of the lines Watson analyses is 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e5 Ng4 4.d4 d6 5.h3 Nh6.

His nuanced look at even such an obscure line is characteristic of his approach:

Black has a pretty ugly position that nevertheless has some merits. His decentralized knight is an undoubting disadvantage, but he has prospects of chipping away at White’s centre, after which that piece might be reintroduced by …Nf5. Of course, White can hardly complain about his prospects, but he shouldn’t expect too much from the capture Bxh6, which gives up the bishop-pair. 5…Nh6 introduces a wide a range of eccentric possibilities that are typical of irregular openings.

Watson now analyses no less than four alternatives for White, but in the end concedes that “Black’s position is within playable boundaries”. This is rather more realistic than my own initial opinion (”absolutely horrible for Black”) of this particular variation! (To my defence, I pretty soon realized that things were not so simple once I started studying the line in more detail.) I hope this small digression shows to what lengths Watson is willing to go to illustrate the versatility of various lesser known opening lines.

The book’s penultimate chapter on ‘Choosing and Preparing Openings’ is equally insightful, although some advices may of course sound familiar to readers who’ve bought other recent books on more general aspects of opening play. To my delight, Watson also quotes the great Korchnoi who “bluntly” said that if you want to improve your chess, you should play a new opening. Interestingly, Watson also recommends playing blitz games as a way of practising your opening preparation (”in sensible, non-addictive quantities”).

Watson ends his book with yet another philosophically-inclined chapter on the future of openings. Unavoidably, there are some echoes from his earlier books here, but it’s useful and entertaining all the same. Mastering the Chess Openings vol. 4 is a book any chess lover should have a look at – if not for its openings, then surely for its general awesomeness.

Links

• Get yourself a copy of Mastering the Chess Openings vol. 4
• Read more book reviews

After weeks of speculation and uncertainty we now know that the 2010 FIDE Presidential Election will be contested between the incumbent, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and former World Chess Champion, Anatoly Karpov. The deadline for nominations passed on 28 June, though not, as we�ve come to expect, without controversy.

By Colin McGourty

There were two unknowns right up until the last moment. The first was the full line-up of Karpov�s ticket. We knew about his candidates for Deputy President � Richard Conn Jr (USA), Treasurer � Viktor Kapustin (Ukraine) and Vice President � Alisa Maric (Serbia). The new additions are: General Secretary � Abd Hamid Majid (Malaysia) and Vice President � Dr. Aguinaldo Jaime (Angola).

The greater mystery, however, was which candidate the Russian Chess Federation would finally choose to nominate. After the fiercely disputed events of 14 May (when a majority of the RCF Supervisory Board voted for Karpov), the expulsion of Chairman Alexander Bakh from his office on 20 May, and Ilyumzhinov suing Karpov earlier this month, there was a strange lull in proceedings. The election campaign moved to Latin America and Arkady Dvorkovich, Chairman of the RCF Supervisory Board and economic advisor to President Medvedev, seemed oddly reluctant to engineer a new vote in his favour. There were even rumours that after all the RCF had nominated Karpov, leaving Ilyumzhinov in a tricky position.

Yesterday, however, the FIDE website published the nominations received by the deadline. Ilyumzhinov’s ticket was already known as well: Deputy President – Georgios Makropoulos (Greece), Vice President – Lewis Ncube (Zambia), Vice President – Beatriz Marinello (USA), General Secretary – Ignatius Leong (Singapore), Treasurer – Nigel Freeman (Bermuda).

At first glance we can conclude: 1) Both candidates had a Plan B � Ilyumzhinov is also nominated by Argentina and Mexico, while Karpov is nominated by France, Germany and Switzerland, and 2) Ilyumzhinov was the final choice of the RCF. This latter point is handled with customary modesty by the Ilyumzhinov campaign website:

However, let there be NO MISTAKE, no bits of��curiosity� here�

THE CHOICE IS CLEAR FOR RUSSIA�RUSSIA�S ONLY CHOICE IS KIRSAN ILYUMZHINOV!

A second glance at the FIDE website, however, paints a different picture. Given there in Russian and hasty English translations are the minutes of a meeting of the RCF Supervisory Board held on the deadline day itself, and an exchange of letters between FIDE and the RCF.

What they reveal is that Alexander Bakh did actually write to FIDE to nominate Karpov as late as 23 June. From the screenshot at the bottom of this Chessbase report we can also see that Karpov had accepted the RCF�s nomination on 22 June. Holding a new meeting as late as the 28th might therefore seem like a reckless piece of brinkmanship, but in fact it appears to have provided a smooth technocratic solution to the problem.

In a curious symmetry with the meeting where Karpov was nominated, 17 delegates voted unanimously on all points raised (4 of the Karpov voters seem, as long predicted, to have switched sides). Those present were informed that Bakh had tendered his voluntary resignation, to come into effect on the 10 July. The reason for this can only be speculated upon, though Mark Crowther�s suggestion of a �go quietly or you’ll really regret it kind of ultimatum� seems spot on. His replacement is to be the 30-year-old Ilya Levitov, previously better known to a chess audience as Evgeny Bareev�s co-author on From London to Elista. He also appears to have headed the PR Department of the Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners law firm, whose legal opinion Dvorkovich relied on to declare the nomination of Karpov on 14 May invalid.

The short meeting included no discussion of the nomination for FIDE President, but there was a sting in the tail: point 4 voted Dvorkovich the right to represent the RCF to third parties. He sat down afterwards and used his new powers to write to FIDE and confirm his earlier (likely invalid) letter announcing the RCF�s support for Ilyumzhinov. The only other loose end to be tied up was the letter Bakh sent to FIDE. Levitov responded to FIDE�s query by writing that Bakh�s document was �not a legally valid document�.

And so the dispute in the Russian Chess Federation ends, �not with a bang but a whimper�. Of course the Karpov campaign may choose to legally challenge the Russian nomination, but in a way the current state of affairs might suit all involved: Ilyumzhinov has avoided the embarrassment of losing his own federation�s support,�Dvorkovich has taken a step back from the damaging PR of his earlier actions and is free to concentrate on other matters (here he is on the BBC talking about his plans to bring the FIFA World Cup to Russia in 2018 � while on his Twitter account he wrote, �Yesterday I held the first [sic] Supervisory Council of the Russian Chess Federation, we’ve started to get out of our nosedive�), Bakh has regained the emperor�s favour and can organise chess events without fearing criminal charges relating to his time at the RCF, while Karpov� Karpov has in any case been nominated and still has strong claims to be the moral victor of the Russian campaign. It�s true that technically his candidacy could still be challenged (FIDE�s regulations include �No person can be elected to a FIDE-office against the will of his national federation�), but in the absence of a third challenger it�s hard to imagine that even FIDE would contemplate an �election� with a single candidate.

So now it�s all down to winning the votes of chess federations worldwide. Ilyumzhinov appears to be leading in endorsements by around two to one (claiming 55 supporting federations at the moment), though as the case of Honduras demonstrates (where both candidates can provide signed statements of support) what finally matters is the vote in Elista this September. There�s still a long way to go.

What qualities does it take to play world-class chess? What�s the appeal of chess? These and other questions were answered by 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov in an interview with Big Think.

The following interview with Anatoly Karpov was conducted May 17, 2010 by Paul Hoffman of Big Think, a global forum connecting people and ideas. In their Experts series, other big names include Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist William Phillips, author Isabel Allende and comedian Stephen Fry.

Question: What qualities does it take to play world-class chess?

Anatoly Karpov:� A lot of things.� Chess is a very tough game, and psychologically a tough game.� And of course chess needs a lot of qualities, human qualities.� And so you must have very strong nervous system and then you must be well prepared, you must be able to work a lot. Chess need good preparation and so you must work for hours if you play, let�s say, for world championship.

(…)

Question: How do remain calm after you realize you�ve made a poor move?

Anatoly Karpov: No, this is a very important and this is good question because many people would call back the situation, they missed chances, and then of course it will spoil the rest of the game.� But it is concerning not only special situation during the game, but also the bad result of previous game for the next game you play.� So, in my life, I tried and I succeeded in many cases to forget everything that was in the past.� So, of course you need to make some analysis and not to repeat mistakes, but it�s extremely important to accept situation like it is, the real situation, not with thoughts of regrets of what you missed and okay, two moves ago you had winning position now, you have to defend a difficult position and probably you might lose the game.� So, this thought shouldn�t be when you play chess game.� And so later on maybe you analyze and then you will, how to say, make some conclusions.� But during the game… and this is also very important part for chess education because chess is getting ideas how to accept the real situation and how to be objective.� To be objective and to meet unexpected situations and to adapt to this immediately and to start to think and to solve the problems.

You have to develop this.� I don�t think it comes from your childhood or with birth.�

Question: What are your weaknesses as a player?

Anatoly Karpov: Weaknesses?� So, I didn�t know so well chess theory, the theory of chess openings.� And so, of course I knew the theory, but not on the level of the best players, so this was my… this was always my weakness.� But this is you know, this is weakness and this is advantage because if I would know Chess theory so well, so probably I would not work out this style to defend difficult positions because from my childhood I could receive difficult positions against even weaker players, but okay nothing happened, so I was continuing to fight.� And so this is weakness, this is positive thing, but still more this is weakness.� It is better to know Chess Theory and not to get in difficult positions from the beginning.�

The full interview can be read here.

• Report sulla 31esima edizione del Torneo
• Foto della premiazione
  
• Relazione sull'attivit� didattica effettuata nelle scuole

Il vincitore del torneo magistrale internazionale Mogliano scacchi 2010 GM Meijers Viesturs (Riga- Letonia) riceve la coppa e la medaglia del Presidente della Repubblica Giorgio Napolitano pi� 500 €.



2� class. il tedesco IM Klundt Klaus-



3� Classificato, IM Seletsky Grigory (Ucraina)



4� Classificato FM Jurkovic Ante



5� Classificato IM Aleksic Nenad Serbia con 3.5



1� Classificato Torneo B, Boraso Alessio con punti 4,5 su 5



1� Classificato Torneo C, Minei Giovanni 4,5 su 5

Magnus Carlsen finished the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania in style. The Norwegian beat Wang Yue with Black in the last round to finish with a 7.5/10 score, two points ahead of the rest of the field. Ponomariov and Radjabov defeated Nisipeanu and Gelfand respectively, also with the black pieces. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco – Final Report.

Marcel Adrian Piteiu, CEO of sponsor Romgaz, and Magnus Carlsen holding the trophy

The fourth Kings Tournament took place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. It was a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue played. The rate of play was 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move. No draw agreement by the players were allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event was organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade�. This year the tournament was officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue was the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers decidede to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna after five rounds, where everyone was staying.

ChessVibes was at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 10

As Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Magnus Carlsen quickly calculated during the buffet after the closing ceremony, the final round of the Kings Tournament brought the number of Black victories to eight, against just seven for White! It was three times ‘0-1′ on the last day, and this included the fifth victory for Carlsen, against Wang Yue.

The Chinese GM played one of his worst games and thus finished with a very disappointing result. He had a very tough tournament, in which he never seemed to have recovered from his jetlag, and the 24 hours waiting at Munich airport (due to visa problems) before the start. For Carlsen it meant a relatively easy with to end with a 7.5/10 score, a 2918 performance and a new rating of 2826, the second highest in chess history.

The other two games were similar affairs, with the white players simply playing way below their normal level. Ponomariov could end a not very good tournament with a win, thanks to some big, strategical errors by his Romanian opponent. 7…Ne7 caught Nisipeanu by surprise and after that all his moves ‘deserved a question mark’, as he said afterwards. Ponomariov thought 17.d4 to be the decisive mistake.

Als Gelfand started to make mistakes at an early stage. He had his doubts about 14.Qd2, since the queen had to go to c2 soon afterwards. And after 17…c6 he suddenly saw that the planned 17.Ne3 is answered by the strong 17…Ne6 18.Bg3 f5, so there White’s position was already difficult. Radjabov thought it to be winning after 24…a5.

So the Kings Tournament ended in another great victory for Carlsen, who is getting closer to Kasparov’s record Elo. More importantly, the Norwegian showed that even after a break of a few months he can still maintain his high level, barely getting into real danger. Only Ponomariov had him on the ropes, but then missed a big chance when Carlsen created new complications.

Next on the world’s number one’s chess agenda is a rapid event with Anand, Polgar and Hammer in August in Norway and he’ll also play for Norway at the Olympiad. Soon we will find out if we will see him in one of the other big, upcoming tournaments: Shanghai, Bilbao and Nanjing. He already signed for London in December. Next top event is Dortmund, which starts July 15th and has Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Leko, Naiditsch and Le Quang Liem.

Round 10 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Apr�s MVL, Christophe Gu�neau, le Directeur sportif de l'�chiquier Chal�nnais nous offre l'interview du fort Ma�tre International d'�checs fran�ais, Jean-Ren� Koch, soit JRK.

A d�couvrir, la pr�sentation d'un atout-ma�tre de l'�quipe de Metz, � la veille de la finale de la coupe de France face au tenant Evry. Joli coup, Christophe !

Ci-contre, Jean-Ren� Koch face � la num�ro un fran�aise, Marie Sebag � efe Metz

Extraits choisis

Jean-Ren�, pourrais-tu avoir la gentillesse de te pr�senter ?

Je suis n� en Alsace le 8 novembre 1970. Je suis mari�, j'ai quatre enfants. Je suis ing�nieur. Sur le plan �chiqu�en je suis MI depuis 1989. J'ai deux normes de GMI � mon actif. Je compte quelques titres de champion de France chez les jeunes et un titre de vice-champion � Angers en 1990. Par �quipes j'ai obtenu quelques titres de champion de France et aussi quelques coupes?! Depuis un peu plus de vingt ans au plus haut niveau, je n�ai jou� que pour quatre clubs?: Strasbourg, Clichy, Mulhouse et Metz.

Depuis quand es-tu licenci� au club de Metz-Fischer et pour quelle raison as-tu choisi ce club plut�t qu'un autre??

C�est ma 4e saison avec le club. Lorsque j�ai d�, dans l�urgence en septembre 2007, trouver un club jouant le Top 16, c�est avec Metz que j�ai eu les contacts les plus rapides et les plus s�rieux. Je pense avoir fait le bon choix et aujourd'hui personne ne regrette cette collaboration.

Maurice Ashley is leading a chess camp at Huber Memorial Church in Baltimore. The Brooklyn-based Grandmaster has been singing the virtues of chess for two decades and has been a player, coach, commentator, author and even a fan. Ashley’s story is well-known, but each time he tells it provides an opportunity for him to inspire a few more to join the chess world.

Ashley contends that chess as a game is a misnomer.

“It teaches problem solving, concentration, focus, setting a goal, sticking to it, going all the way, never giving up. It teaches them self-esteem and a belief in themselves that they’re really, really smart and intelligent,” said Ashley.

Kenneth Tabor, who organized the camp, is part of the Knights of Valor Chess Club and believe Ashley has a novel story to tell. Forty-one camp attendees attended the event and many seem to have understood the message.

Link: http://wjz.com/seenon/chess.grandmaster.camp.2.1765925.html

The Bulgarian is an aggressive player. But the Catalan doesn't bring about a quick victory

Topalov-Leko, Amber Blindfold 2008. Concluding our look at the Catalan, White to play.

RB When you see that the player with the move is Topalov you immediately start thinking tactics � quiet, careful improvement is not the Bulgarian's style. So, using the player's identity as a clue, and with an additional hint provided by the absence of a knight on f6, my eye is immediately drawn to 1 Ng5, with the twin threats of 2 Qxh7 mate and 2 Bxb7.

Let's have a look at how Black might counter: 1...g6 might not be as bad as it first appears. After 2 Bxb7 Rb8 both the bishop and knight are en prise. Here I would be tempted to play 3 Bc6, rather than retreat the bishop all the way back to its defensive post at g2, and try to maintain it there, cramping Black's queenside pawns. Black might be better off playing 1...Bxg5, in which case 2 Bxb7 Rb8 also allows the same idea of taking advantage of Black's backward c-pawn and light-square weakness with 3 Bc6.

DK Unmasking the Catalan bishop is a common tactic. Here it does not force the win of material, but allows White to take a firm hold of the position. 1 Ng5 Bxg5 (Ronan is wrong about 1...g6 because 2 Bxb7 Rb8 3 Ne4 Rxb7 4 Qc6 Rb6 5 Qxd7 wins) 2 Bxb7 Rb8 3 Bc6 was the game continuation. Black's backward c-pawn is a long-term problem: he could easily find himself condemned to passive defence. That's why Leko countered with 3...Nb6 4 Rd1 Qd6 5 Bg2 e5, but after 6 Nc3 (threatening Ne4) 6...f5 (preventing Ne4 but weakening the king) 7 dxe5 Qxe5 8 Nd5 Nxd5 9 Rxd5 White was still in control. See online for the rest of the game.

If you play the Catalan with White, don't expect a quick victory, but enjoy the space advantage, the solid king position and the sound pawn structure. Last week we recommended Play the Catalan by Nigel Davies (Everyman Chess, �14.99). For more advanced players, Grandmaster Repertoire 1 d4 Volume One by Boris Avrukh (Quality Chess, �24.99) has an excellent section on the Catalan.

chess@guardian.co.uk

In the seventh round of the Kings Tournament, which has returned to Bazna, Carlsen won against Radjabov. Gelfand is still a point behind the Norwegian after beating Nisipeanu with Black. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade�. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 7

Monday morning the tournament organizers decided to move back to Bazna, where the first three editions of tournament were held as well. It was clear that the players weren’t really fond of the half an hour drive to Medias and back each day, but the final ‘drop’… were the drops of rain that fell on Carlsen and Ponomariov’s board in round 6.

To avoid any further problems as result of the unpredictable weather, all boards, pieces and other things were moved to the conference room of the hotel complex. The players and seconds were all quite happy about this. One of the reasons might have been that they now have some more football to watch each day!

After a somewhat slow start (certainly from hindsight) it’s now full steam ahead for Magnus Carlsen, who won his fourth game in a row. His tournament performance rating is now 2960 according to TWIC, 2955 according to Chessbase. (Who is right? Well, it doesn’t matter too much.) His live rating is now 2825.

“I thought it was a very good game actually,” said a cheerful Carlsen afterwards. The Norwegian pointed out that both he and his opponent Teimour Radjabov had probably played the strongest moves up till the rook ending. “He handled the position very well. I thought I should at least make him work a little bit for the half point,” said Carlsen, and after the inaccurate 32…Rc5 Black indeed needed to work hard. Radjabov had gotten into timetrouble and after 39…Kg8 the rook ending was lost. We are using Carlsen’s own words when we say that the rest was a ‘matter of technique’.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu was clearly disappointed after his loss against Boris Gelfand, which brought the local hero on minus two. The Romanian was mostly disturbed by the simple tactics he missed in the middlegame. He had planned 21.Rxe4 dxe4 22.Qxe4 but this is refuted by 22…Qxc6.

Ruslan Ponomariov had no reason to be happy either after his draw with Wang Yue. The Ukrainian had been clearly better and a healthy pawn up, but couldn’t win the ending. It was surprising that he didn’t play the positional standard move 28.h4, and later he simply overlooked 37…Ng6 completely.

Round 7 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Chaque mardi, le ma�tre international canadien d'�checs Jean H�bert nous propose sa lettre d'information HPE.

This week's puzzle diagram marks the start of an open-to-all national championship in which Guardian readers have performed notably well over the years. The annual Winton Capital British Solving Championship has a �1,000+ prize fund and any British resident can take part. White is to play and force checkmate in two moves, however Black defends.

To enter, simply post White's first move before 31 July to Paul Valois, 14 Newton Park Drive, Leeds LS7 4HH. Mark your answer 'Guardian' and include a cheque for �3 payable to British Chess Problem Society. In mid-August all entrants will be sent the solution to the starter problem plus a copy of the BCPS magazine, and those who get it right will also receive a postal round of eight harder problems, with plenty of time to solve them.

If your answer is among the best from the postal round you will qualify for a one-day final of about 25 solvers staged in the Midlands early in 2011. Top finishers there qualify for the British world solving championship team, backed by Winton Capital, which is among the best in Europe.

The opening-round puzzle looks easier than in most years because Black's only legal moves are with his queen. This drastically reduces the number of options but, offsetting this, White has a whole range of plausible attempts. You have to be careful of black tricks, such as my own first thought which fails to a subtle defence. But if you remember that obvious checks or captures are hardly ever the key to a two-mover, and make sure that your answer works against all possible replies, you can surely succeed.

Players on San Francisco’s Market Street.
Photo by cormac70 (flickr).

Many major cities around the world have their chess watering holes. The U.S. is replete with these cultural icons. In New York, there is Washington Square Park; in Los Angeles, there is Venice Beach; in Chicago there is North Avenue Beach; in Washington, DC there is Dupont Circle; in Atlanta there is Woodruff Park; in Boston there is Harvard Square. Until recently, San Francisco on Market near Mason Street (by the BART station) was the chess spot.

Chris Torres, who runs the chessmusings blog, told The Chess Drum that city officials of San Francisco is proceeding to ban chess activities in the downtown area. According to reports, chess players have been at the location for nearly 30 years and like most of the places above had become a part of the surrounding city culture. Some of these chess spots are even mentioned in tourist guides.

Apparently there had been some complaints to the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) about disruptions from the chess players. There were stories of fighting and in one video an angry person said, “let’s shoot this (expletives shouted)”. Here is an excerpt from a SF Weekly article,

SFPD had received several complaints from citizens about players’ conduct — fighting, drinking, and some outstanding warrants, according to Lt. Lyn Tomioka, a police department spokeswoman.

The warrants and also the stay-away orders — apparently some chess players had been warned to keep away from area businesses and area merchants, including the artists who peddle their wares on Market Street near the chess games — were the biggest problems. The organizers of the chess matches were asked to move their act a block down the way to the 1000 block of Market Street, Tomioka said, but sometime between then and now the games fell apart and are today gone.

It appears the police action was a step in a confluence of factors leading to the games’ demise. Soon after the chess players were told to move, organizer Hector Torres landed in the hospital, according to Bob Offer-Westort, the Coalition on Homelessness’s Civil Rights Organizer. Without Torres, nobody bothered to set up the tables from their storage home at 66 Turk Street, and the games died out. (See article)

Chris Torres raised the question of whether it was the chess players or the urban environment causing some of the disturbances. Despite assertions that these incidents are isolated, the group has apparently been forced from the area. Police were recorded as saying there had been gang activity. Players such as Hector Torres and John Powell had been two players to help keep this tradition going, but their past-time has been threatened.

This case is not unprecedented. Back in 2002, chess players in Chicago had the exact same case when the chess tables were moved from the famous Harper Court mall in Hyde Park. It was a famous location and chess was a spectacle in the area. A few local businesses complained about crime in the area and that chess players were not patronizing the businesses. They added that some of the customers were scared away from the area because chess attracted some unsavory observers. The chess community launched a big fight, but the chess tables had been sold. After some time an agreement was reached to allow players to set up folding tables every Saturday, but the activity soon died since the tables were not available 24-7. (See article)

Torres wrote a letter to San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom. In it he says,

With funding for various organizations that help the homeless population being hit hard by the financial meltdown, I feel it is irresponsible if not mean-spirited for the city of San Francisco to take away one of the few possibilities left for free and legal entertainment. Furthermore, for a city that entices tourists to come on the basis of its many cultural opportunities, it does not seem fitting for San Francisco to be shutting down harmless attractions such as chess. (See article)

There are a number of issues here. One may view this through the lens of race or of class. Many of the men are in economic straits and are of “minority” ethnic groups. Proprietors may say that the chess group hurts business because it attracts a homeless element that scares away shoppers who prefer not to be harassed. There has not been an official statement released from the city. In a city that parades itself as a diverse Mecca, this development will certainly be a blot on the history of the city.

El pasado s�bado 12 de Junio se disput� en la Sede del Junonia, la �ltima ronda del Campeonato Individual Absoluto de Ajedrez de� La Gomera, en la que se dilucidaba qui�n ser�a el Campe�n.� Tres jugadores ten�an muchas posibilidades de conseguirlo, pero solo uno lo pod�a lograr.

En la Mesa 1, Reinhartd Pietjohn, �l�der en solitario al comienzo de la �ltima ronda con 7 puntos, era el que m�s opciones ten�a, ya que ganando su �ltima partida consegu�a el T�tulo. �Sin embargo, �le tocaba enfrentarse a un jugador con mucha experiencia, Rafael Cernuda. �Desde el comienzo de la partida se notaba que a Reinhartd le pod�a la presi�n del l�der, intent� jugar a la defensiva y dej� que Rafa tuviera la iniciativa, por lo que el jugador con blancas consegu�a una superioridad de espacio y de movilidad para sus piezas, que le sirvi� para romper el juego con el avance de un pe�n central y atacar fuertemente al Rey negro, que se hab�a quedado en el centro, logrando alcanzar la victoria a pesar de la fuerte resistencia que ofreci� Reinhartd.

En la Mesa 2, Pedro Mach�n estaba obligado a ganar y esperar que Reinhartd y Vicente Padilla M�ndez pincharan para quedar campe�n. �Ten�a enfrente en esta ocasi�n al Veterano Antonio Vera, jugador que si tiene un buen d�a, puede ganar a cualquiera. Sin embargo Mach�n, consiente de lo que se jugaba no le dej� ninguna opci�n y termin� anot�ndose el punto en juego.

En la Mesa 3, Vicente Padilla que part�a con la misma puntuaci�n que Pedro Mach�n, �necesitaba que tanto Reinhartd como Pedro no lograsen ganar para tener posibilidades de conseguir el Campeonato. �Se enfrentaba en esta ocasi�n a su alumno aventajado y promesa local, Severo Arteaga, que con solo 12 a�os ha realizado un excelente torneo. �Partida muy igualada en la que incluso Severo se qued� con pe�n de ventaja, pero por contra Vicente consigui� una gran actividad de sus piezas pesadas, dominando la gran diagonal con Dama y Alfil �y al mismo tiempo la columna con torres dobladas, que al no hacer jugadas �nicas, Severo termin� quebrando la posici�n.

El resto de las partidas tambi�n fueron muy interesantes, ya que estaban en juego diferentes premios. �Destacar la librada entre Carlos Castilla y Sergio Aguilar, ya que ya que pod�an optar a premio en los primeros puestos. Al final fue Sergio el que se llev� el gato al agua y se anot� un punto importante, que lo clasifica entre los primeros; despu�s de un inicio de Torneo un poco dubitativo, apret� en la parte final lo que le vali� colocarse en la 5� posici�n.

Tambi�n Aron Wolf y Gonzalo Castilla, hicieron tablas tras una dura batalla. Con 5.5 puntos, Aron consigue el premio al Mejor Sub-18 y el 10� puesto en la General.� Eva Wolf, result� una de las revelaciones del Torneo, gan� su �ltima partida ante Alexander Ebert Kurz y con 6 puntos logr� colocarse entre los 10 mejores del Torneo y se llev� el Premio a la Mejor F�mina. Otra agradable sorpresa fue el retorno a la actividad despu�s de muchos a�os en el dique seco de Juan Ram�n Herrera Castro, que se impuso en dura pugna a Alfredo Herrera, terminando el Torneo clasificado en 7� lugar con 6 puntos. Cuidado con �l cuando est� de nuevo en plena forma. A los jugadores del Universidad, como los hermanos Santos y Fernando Hidalgo, les resultar� conocido.

Otros 2 puntales del ajedrez gomero, Mois�s Herrera y Marcel Baartz, libraron otro duelo interesante. En esta ocasi�n fue Marcel, uno de los jugadores m�s fuertes del torneo el que termin� anot�ndose el punto.

Tanto Jos� Misael como Klaus Neuhaus, realizaron tambi�n un buen torneo, pues han mejorado much�simo. �En esta �ltima ronda, Klaus se anot� el triunfo, sumando 5.5 puntos en la clasificaci�n general� y quedando 3� mejor Veterano.
Otro aspecto positivo es la participaci�n de chicas en el torneo, la mayor�a alumnas de Vicente del Municipio de Vallehermoso. Como la fuerte lucha protagonizada por Marta Perdomo y Cecilia Rodr�guez, una partida muy interesante que tenia a muchos pendientes del desenlace. Al final el punto se lo anot� Cecilia, que termina en un meritorio puesto 22 de la clasificaci�n con 5 puntos� y obteniendo el 2� premio de F�minas.

Angelica Moreno, t ambi�n con 5 puntos se coloc� en el puesto 23� de la general �y 3� como Sub-18. ��En la �ltima ronda se enfrent� al veterano Karl Werner, �al que termin� ganando en una c�moda victoria.

Otro duelo interesante fue el de �Carlos Ebert Kurz y Marco Rodr�guez Garc�a, este �ltimo se anot� la victoria y con 5 puntos se coloc� en el puesto 21� de la general� y obtiene el 1� puesto en Categor�a Sub-10.

A la ni�a Valentina M�rquez le toc� un hueso duro de roer, Airam Exposito Cruz, �otro de los infantiles que particip� con �xito en los juegos escolares �y que al vencer a Valentina termin� el torneo logrando 4.5 puntos, lo que no est� nada mal. Que refleja una vez m�s de este extraordinario juego es que la diferencia de edad no es un problema para disputar una re�ida partida.

Por �ltimo, destacar la constancia y el esfuerzo logrado por el benjam�n del torneo, Isaac M�rquez Quintero, que con tan s�lo 6 a�os, se mantuvo en pie hasta el final;� esperemos que sea una de nuestras futuras promesas.

Terminada la 9 ronda �y como quiera que hubiera igualdad de puntos entre Pedro Mach�n y Vicente Padilla con 7.5 puntos cada uno, hab�a que desempatar; �por lo que se jugaron un match de 2 partidas r�pidas de 10 minutos por jugador. �Con una gran igualdad en las 2 partidas, fue Vicente el que consumi� la totalidad de su tiempo, mientras a Mach�n le sobraban unos pocos segundos. ��Logrando de esta manera, podemos decir “in extremis”, el T�tulo de Campe�n Absoluto de La Gomera 2010.

Lo mismo suced�a entre Reinhardt y Rafael, ya que terminaron el Torneo con 7 puntos cada uno. En esta ocasi�n la igualdad fue casi absoluta, ya que cada uno gan� 1 de las partidas, �por lo que se disput� una tercera definitiva a muerte, siendo finalmente Rafael Cernuda el ganador y qued� clasificado en 3� Posici�n, �mientras Reinhardt al final se qued� con un meritorio �4� puesto.

El pr�ximo domingo, tambi�n en las instalaciones del Junonia, a cuya directiva queremos agradecerle p�blicamente la utilizaci�n de su Sede para celebrar este Campeonato Insular, se disputar� un Torneo de r�pidas a partir de las 10 de la ma�ana y posteriormente, se har� entrega de los Premios y un acto de Clausura.

En definitiva, un gran Campeonato con m�s de 50 participantes, que deben ser todos ellos felicitados por el exquisito comportamiento y deportividad, �ya que durante las 9 rondas no se produjo ning�n incidente y aunque durante las partidas cada uno intenta dar lo m�ximo para conseguir la victoria, una vez que finalizan las relaciones entre los jugadores son extraordinarias. TODOS UNIDOS EN EL MISMO EQUIPO: �CLUB AJEDREZ GOMERA.

Recordar el enlace de Chess-Results.com:� http://www.chess-results.com/tnr32894.aspx?ix=1&art=2&rd=2&lan=2&flag=30&m=-1&wi=1000&turdet=YES o� en la p�gina del mundillo del Ajedrez en La Gomera: http://ajedrezlagomera.blogspot.com/

Se adjuntar�n en breve,� las partidas que faltan del torneo gracias a la colaboraci�n prestada por Marcel Baartz.

Como Director del torneo, fue el que les habla, Pedro Mach�n, que junto con Vicente Padilla nos hemos encargado de que este proyecto haya salido para adelante.�� Pero por supuesto, todo ello fue gracias a la colaboraci�n prestada por entidades como CajaCanarias,� Cabildo Insular de La Gomera,� Ayuntamientos de la isla, Comercial Ferreter�a Anfrabar (a trav�s del legendario Antonio Vera Padilla),� Profesionales Seguros (Gin�s Medina S�nchez), Centros Veterinarios Gomeros, S.L. (Pedro Mach�n), jugadores del Club Ajedrez Gomera (Miguel Chico Arbelo, que particip� en la prensa local; Rafael Cernuda, Carlos Castilla, Mois�s Herrera de Radio Insular, Marcel Baartz, monitor de Playa Santiago; Juan Pelegrino Fdez Jerez, etc)� y por supuesto la Federaci�n Tinerfe�a de Ajedrez, que ha colaborado y� ayudado a que el torneo sea oficial� y Valedero para elo FIDE, FEDA y Canario.

Adem�s, en este torneo gracias a la labor realizada por el arbitro internacional� de Tenerife� D. Jos� Antonio Bl�zquez M�rez,� todos aquellas personas interesadas en saber el desarrollo de este Torneo,� lo pueden hacer “pinchando” en el siguiente enlace de Chess-Results.com:� http://www.chess-results.com/tnr32894.aspx?ix=1&art=2&rd=2&lan=2&flag=30&m=-1&wi=1000&turdet=YES

Habr� premios en met�lico y con trofeo para los 5 primeros clasificados,� por categor�as de todas las edades, mejor f�mina y mejor Veterano.� Adem�s coincidiendo con el I Centenario de la CajaCanarias, est� entidad� a trav�s de los coordinadores de Ajedrez� D. Luis Francisco Aguirre Lorenzo y el GM� D. Jos� Lu�s Fern�ndez Garc�a,� no s�lo ha ayudado log�stica y econ�micamente al Campeonato, sino que adem�s nos ha ofrecido 2-3 plazas con todos los gastos pagados para que los primeros clasificados participen en el Campeonato Abierto de Espa�a a celebrar en Tenerife en el mes de septiembre.

Por �ltimo, decir que los veteranos del Ajedrez Gomero estamos otra vez muy ilusionados en ver que la llama prendida muchos a�os atr�s por los fundadores Antonio Vera Padilla,� Miguel Chico Arbelo y Rafael Cernuda, y luego continuada por Pedro Alexis Mach�n Arbelo,� despu�s de llevar algunos a�os casi apagada, se ha vuelto a prender con fuerza principalmente gracias a la nueva labor realizada por los monitores de la isla, principalmente� D.Vicente Padilla Mendez junto a Marcel Baartz y Reinhardt PiepJohn.� Esperemos que de esta vez no se apague nunca m�s y como sue�o personal sugerir que� quiz�s de esta maravillosa isla salga alg�n d�a el primer GM internacional de Ajedrez� nacido en Canarias.

Como colof�n, la opini�n de Pedro Mach�n, es que por fin no se encuentra s�lo en la isla, donde hasta el a�o pasado llevaba m�s de 6 a�os reinando en un reino vac�o de jugadores de nivel� y lleno de aficionados. Actualmente, por fin, ya para demostrar que sigue siendo el l�der, no le vale cualquier jugada medianamente correcta, pues al m�nimo desliz pierde su reinado.

Por tanto, me encuentro muy satisfecho de que hasta la �ltima ronda no se sab�a quien iba a ocupar el trono, �as� que es un orgullo el tener a m�s de una decena de jugadores con posibilidades de ganarme. Esto es muy bueno para todos pues es indicativo de que el nivel ha progresado mucho en la isla, gracias al granito de arena aportado por todos durante estos �ltimos a�os; pero sobre todo recalcar a Miguel Chico Arbelo en los inicios� y actualmente al magn�fico Vicente Padilla M�ndez, un gran personaje lleno de energ�a al que hay que cuidar mucho.

Hasta la �ltima cr�nica, �que ser� despu�s del Blitz de clausura y la entrega de premios, el domingo 19 del presente.

Clasificaci�n final (pdf)

Lista de jugadores premiados (pdf)

�El dinamismo t�pico del combate ajedrec�stico no es menos efectivo que el problema, donde la voluntad de vencer queda sustituida por la voluntad de crear.

(�) El compositor s�lo se distingue del jugador en que, al no tener que contar con la oposici�n de un adversario, puede dar rienda suelta a los caprichos de su imaginaci�n. Libre de actuar a su modo, el artista del ajedrez idealiza las fuerzas de combate, y se su antagonismo hace surgir la belleza.

Esta belleza de �ndole particular (�) no es menos real ni de menor calidad que la de la partida, pues tambi�n solicita lo mejor de nosotros mismos, dirigi�ndose sobre todo a nuestra inteligencia y sensibilidad.

Ser�a superfluo describir las diversas emociones que se experimentan ante la ingeniosidad de ciertas maniobras, el goce puro que nos procura una composici�n sin tacha. El estudio de un problema produce el mismo efecto que la contemplaci�n de un buen cuadro, la audici�n de una c�lebre melod�a o el espect�culo de un ballet prestigioso: nos sume en un mundo de maravillas y no permite so�ar en alas de la fantas�a, m�s all� de las vanas agitaciones de lo cotidiano.

Partida y problema corren hoy unidos en la misi�n de hacernos part�cipes de los beneficios de una seducci�n profunda.�� Camil S�neca; Problemas de Ajedrez; Ediciones Mart�nez Roca, S.A.; Barcelona; Espa�a; 1984; Colecci�n Escaques N� 74

• Old habits are strong.
• The area covered by the knowledge is too broad. There isn't simply enough time to evaluate everything. What you don't do automatically you can't do at all during a game. Due to lack of time and short term memory overload.
• On the other hand there are area's in the game that aren't covered at all. Examples are openings and dynamic positions.

Garry Kasparov es probablemente el mejor jugador de todos los tiempos, que me perdonen los seguidores del Bobby Fischer. En la cabeza de muchos a�n sigue vivo el recuerdo del match que jug� contra Deep Blue, un ordenador fabricado por IBM, en el a�o 1997.

No obstante antes de ese match se enfrent� a otras “m�quinas”, en el a�o 1989 venci� a Deep Thought y siete a�os m�s tarde se enfrent� a la primera versi�n de Deep Blue, en el a�o 1996.

En ese primer duelo contra Deep Blue, Kasparov perdi� una partida contra la “m�quina” d�ndole a esta el honor de ser la primera “m�quina” que lograba vencer a un campe�n del Mundo jugando bajo condiciones de torneo. Kasparov apret� despu�s y de las cinco partidas que vinieron a continuaci�n gan� tres e hizo tablas en dos. Al final el resultado contra la primera versi�n de Deep Blue fue de 4-2 favorable a Kasparov.

Dolida en su orgullo, la todopoderosa IBM decidi� ponerse manos a la obra con la “m�quina” y para el a�o 1997 sac� una versi�n mejorada llamada “Deeper Blue” (nombre extraoficial). En mayo de ese a�o se disput� la revancha pero antes veamos las mejoras que ten�a el nuevo Deep Blue.

Adem�s de una considerable mejora en aspectos t�cnicos de hardware tambi�n se le dio un buen “tuneo” de conocimientos ajedrec�sticos. Por ejemplo, el libro de aperturas pas� a tener unas 4.000 posiciones y 700.000 partidas de grandes maestros. La base de finales conten�a los finales con 6 piezas o menos. Entre los grandes maestros que ayudaron al “tuneo” se encontraban Joel Benjamin, Miguel Illescas, John Fedorowicz y Nick de Firmian.

En vista de la situaci�n, Kasparov, antes de empezar el match, solicit� a IBM algunas partidas jugadas por Deep Blue, de cara a comprender mejor el juego de la “m�quina”. Su petici�n fue rechazada as� que Kasparov se tuvo que conformar con estudiar partidas de otras m�quinas para comprender mejor el juego de estas.

La nueva Deep Blue logr� derrotar a Kasparov por 3,5 a 2,5 en un duelo a seis partidas, con error grave incluido en la apertura de Kasparov en la sexta partida . La noticia corri� como la polvora por los medios de comunicaci�n de todo el planta �era este el comienzo de la supremac�a de las m�quinas sobre el hombre?

Como en toda buena historia, no tardaron en llegar las teor�as conspiran�icas sobre la sucedido en el match. Las teor�as “del bolsillo” afirmaban que Kasparov se hab�a dejado ganar buscando un tercer encuentro que engrosara un poco m�s su bolsillo. Tambi�n que Kasparov hab�a comprado acciones de IBM meses atr�s y que despu�s de la victoria de Deep Blue est�n se hab�an disparado.

El documental Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine habla de toda esta historia relacionada con el segundo enfrentamiento con Deep Blue desde el punto de vista de Kasparov. Ahonda en la parte psicol�gica del juego y toda la paranoia y sospechas surgidas entorno a IBM y los intereses de la compa��a por ganar a toda costa.

A destacar las entrevistas que recogen las opiniones del manager de Kasparov, expertos ajedrec�stas y miembros del equipo de IBM que fabric� y program� a Deep Blue.

Los interesados en ver el documental no tendr�n problema alguno porque es relativamente reciente, se estren� en el a�o 2003. Es cuanto al idioma est� en ingl�s aunque se pueden conseguir los subt�tulos en espa�ol.

Para aquellos que est�n pregunt�ndose si es posible encontrarlo en internet, la respuesta es s�, s�lo tienen que buscar, no es dif�cil cr�anme. Los m�s puristas pueden tambi�n comprarlo en cualquiera de las t�picas tiendas de dvd que hay en internet.

Como regalo aqu� tienen un link a un trailer del documental en youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9UMt-8gfW8

Ficha t�cnica del documental

Nombre: Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine.
A�o: 2003
G�nero: Documental.
Director: Vikram Javanti.
Distribuida por: THINKFilm.
Duraci�n: 90 minutos.
Pa�s: Canada y� Reino Unido.
Idioma: Ingl�s.

Copper State, Version 2!

The second installment of Danny Rensch’s Copper State International was a big success, especially for norm hunters.� The event was made possible by the generous support of John Lalonde and his Abstrax, Inc. playing site in Mesa, AZ.

Mackenzie Molner made a 2nd GM norm with a superb score of 6/9 in the “A” group round-robin and what a bunch of games he played!� In the “B” Swiss, numerous norms were made too.� All the games posted here are from the Monroi website.

GM Timur Gareev (left) watches as Mackenzie Molner shows him the last round Bartholomew-Molner game that gave Mackenzie a GM norm

Here’s Molner’s last round game, a romantic 19th century Evans Gambit!

[Event "2010 COPPER STATE INTERNATIONAL"]
[Site "Mesa, Arizona"]
[Date "2010.06.09"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Molner, Mackenzie"]
[Black "Bartholomew, John"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "2439"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackELO "2451"]
[BlackTitle "IM"]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4

GM Nigel Short did much to bring this opening back at top-level.� Kasparov has also toyed with it.

4…Bxb4 As is well known, this gambit must be accepted.� Declining gives white an edge.

5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.Qb3 Qe7 8.O-O Bb6 9.cxd4 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Bxd4 11.Nc3 Nf6 12.Bg5 c6 13.Rad1 Qe5 14.Bxf7 Kd8 15.Ne2 Bc5 16.Bf4 Qxe4 17.Qg3 Rf8 18.Nc3 Qf5 19.Rde1 d6 20.Qxg7 Nd7 21.Bg5 Kc7 22.Re7 Bd4 23.Qxf8 Qxg5 24.Ne4 Qf4 25.Qe8 Be5 26.Ng3 Kb6 27.Rxd7 Bxd7 28.Qxd7 Rf8 29.Bh5 d5 30.Qxh7 Qd2 31.Bf3 Bxg3 32.hxg3 Ka6 33.Qe7 1-0

Weirdly, earlier in the tournament Bartholomew playing black lost to Stopa in… a similar Evans.� But in that game Stopa was dead lost and only Bartholomew’s time trouble made him go wrong.

And from Round 3, a game that won Molner the brilliancy prize (this prize covered both A and B sections):

[Event "2010 COPPER STATE INTERNATIONAL"]
[Site "Mesa, Arizona"]
[Date "2010.06.05"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Shankland, Samuel"]
[Black "Molner, Mackenzie"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "2507"]
[WhiteTitle "IM"]
[BlackELO "2439"]
[BlackTitle ""]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 5.dxe6 fxe6 6.cxb5 a6 7.bxa6 Bxa6 8.g3 Nc6 9.Nc3 Be7 10.e4 Qb6 11.Be2 Bxe2 12.Qxe2 Nd4 13.Nxd4 cxd4 14.Nd1 Qa5 15.Bd2 Bb4 16.f3 O-O 17.a3 Bxd2 18.Qxd2 Qa6 19.Qxd4 d5 20.e5 Nd7 21.Kf2 Rac8 22.Ne3 Nc5 23.Rae1 Nb3 24.Qd1 Qb7 25.f4 d4 26.Nc2 g5 27.Nb4 gxf4 28.g4 d3 29.Qf3 Qb6 30.Kg2 Nd2 31.Qxd3 Qb7 32.Kh3 Nf3 33.g5 Rcd8 34.Qa6 Nxg5 35.Kg4 Qf3 0-1

A very creative treatment in the Blumenfeld and an impressive relentless hunt of white’s king!

More Chess

A rout by IM Pruess playing black over a strong GM!

[Event "2010 COPPER STATE INTERNATIONAL"]
[Site "Mesa, Arizona"]
[Date "2010.06.06"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Panchanathan, Magesh"]
[Black "Pruess, David"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "2549"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[BlackELO "2361"]
[BlackTitle "IM"]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Qc7 8.g3 e5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Bf4 Nfd7 11.Bg2 g5 12.Bxe5 Nxe5 13.Nxe5 Qxe5 14.O-O Be6 15.a5 a6 16.e4 h5 17.Nd5 O-O-O 18.f4 gxf4 19.gxf4 Qg7 20.Nb6 Kc7 21.Qe2 Bb4 22.f5 Rd2 23.Qf3 Rg8 24.Qf4 Rd6 25.Qf3 Rd3 0-1

A last round rout by Pruess over the tournament leader GM Fridman!� Fridman had been leading by a full point but this shocking defeat sent him back to a three-way tie for first.� Fridman recovered and won the blitz playoff (over GMs Kacheishvili and Kekelidze).

[Event "2010 COPPER STATE INTERNATIONAL"]
[Site "Mesa, Arizona"]
[Date "2010.06.09"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Pruess, David"]
[Black "Fridman, Daniel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "2361"]
[WhiteTitle "IM"]
[BlackELO "2654"]
[BlackTitle "GM"]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 dxe4

As Pruess tells it, he wanted to see black play 3….e6 as he was in the mood to just play that closed game.� In the game, Fridman goes a much riskier route (Fridman has even written about this in magazines) but gets annihilated!��� 3….Qb6!? is all the rage and favored by Georgian grandmasters.� For example,� the recent game annotated in New In Chess, Nepomniatchi – Jobava saw 3…Qb6!? 4. a4!? with insanity.

4.fxe4 e5 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Bc4 Nd7 7.O-O Ngf6 8.Bg5 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 Qb6 10.Nd2 Qxd4 11.Kh1 b5 12.Bb3 Be7 13.Rad1 Qb6 14.Qf5 Rd8 15.Nf3 g6 16.Nxe5!

It’s so pleasing to land an elementary and decisive tactical blow like this versus a tough professional who competes in the top German Bundesliga!� How often does it happen?� Not often!

Rf8 17.Qf4 Nxe5 18.Qxe5 Rxd1 19.Rxd1 Ng8 20.Bxe7 Nxe7 21.Qd6 Rg8 22.Qd7 Kf8 23.Bxf7 Kxf7 24.Rf1 Kg7 25.Qxe7 Kh6 26.Rf3 1-0

Here’s a smooth effort by GM Amanov, a contender for best game prize.

[Event "2010 COPPER STATE INTERNATIONAL"]
[Site "Mesa, Arizona"]
[Date "2010.06.06"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Amanov, Mesgen"]
[Black "Bercys, Salvijus"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "2479"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[BlackELO "2427"]
[BlackTitle "IM"]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 c6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5 9.Be2 Bb7 10.O-O Nbd7 11.Ne5 Bg7 12.Qc2 h5 13.Nxd7 Nxd7 14.Rad1 e5 15.dxe5 Qe7 16.e6 Qxe6 17.Rd6 Qe7 18.Rfd1 Nc5 19.R6d2 Be5 20.b4 cxb3 21.axb3 Bxg3 22.hxg3 a5 23.e5 Qxe5 24.Bxb5 O-O 25.Bc4 Kg7 26.Re2 Qf6 27.Re3 Ba6 28.Bxa6 Rxa6 29.Rf3 Qg6 30.Qe2!

Incredibly strong.� The rook on a6 is tied to the knight on c5; the knight cannot move, but the queen by force picks up the knight!� Black cannot defend it!

Kg8 31.Qc4 1-0

And the actual winner of the Best Game prize was this nice game by veteran IM Nikolai Andrianov, coming off a three year period of no chess!�� His victim, talented young player IM Jacek Stopa, was one of the pre-event favorites by rating, but had a horrible start.� He recovered somewhat in the 2nd half.

[Event "2010 COPPER STATE INTERNATIONAL"]
[Site "Mesa, Arizona"]
[Date "2010.06.04"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Andrianov, Nikolai"]
[Black "Stopa, Jacek"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "2409"]
[WhiteTitle "IM"]
[BlackELO "2474"]
[BlackTitle "IM"]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.Nf3 e6 2.b3 b6 3.g3 Bb7 4.Bg2 f5 5.Bb2 Nf6 6.O-O Be7 7.d4 O-O 8.c4 Qe8 9.Nc3 Ne4 10.d5 Na6 11.Nd4 Qg6 12.Nxe4 fxe4 13.dxe6 c5 14.Nf5 Qxe6 15.Nxg7 Qc6 16.Nh5 Bg5 17.h4 Be7 18.e3 Rf7 19.Qd2 h6 20.Rad1 Rd8 21.Qc3 Kh7 22.Rd5 Qe6 23.Nf4 1-0

My own play was unconvincing.� I made� solid draws as black vs GM Yermolinsky and IM Altounian but early on I had an incredible miss, one that I definitely thought about after it was over.

[Event "2010 COPPER STATE INTERNATIONAL"]
[Site "Mesa, Arizona"]
[Date "2010.06.04"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Ginsburg, Mark"]
[Black "Troff, Kayden"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteELO "2393"]
[WhiteTitle "IM"]
[BlackELO "2201"]
[BlackTitle ""]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6 4.e3 Bg7 5.d4 cxd4 6.exd4 d6 7.d5 Ne5 8.Nxe5 Bxe5 9.Be2 Bd7?! 10.O-O Rc8?! 11.Be3 Qa5? This queenside demonstration greatly worsens black’s position, losing multiple tempi, and these are important tempi helping white with the break that he wants, c4-c5.

12.a3 Nf6? Leaving the bishop out to dry.

13.b4 Qc7 14.Rc1 a5 15.f4 White also had Nb5-d4 with a huge advantage.

Bxc3 16.Rxc3 axb4 17.axb4 h5 18.Bd4 With this forever bishop, white is winning easily.

Rg8 19.Re1 Kf8 20.Bf1 Bf5 21.Rce3 h4 Black is making rather aimless moves all over the board.� Well, he has to, he’s almost in total zugzwang already. But an important principle comes to mind:� if black has played very weakly so far (far below his published rating) he has to be good at something!� And that something in this game is resourcefulness in lost games.� Still, the position has put black well over the edge into losing territory.� White’s next elementary tactical blow requires only a small amount of accuracy.

22.Rxe7 One way to win. Another elementary win is 22. Qe2 and e7 collapses. �� I am not sure why I did not look at the obvious 22. Qe2.� After 22. Qe2 black has to resign.

22…Qxe7 23.Rxe7 Kxe7 24.Qe1+ Ne4 25.Bd3

25. c5! wins.��� 25. c5! Rge8 26. Qxh4+ Kf8 27. cxd6 and black collapses. The text also wins.

25…Rge8 26.Qxh4+? What a bad move! The first simple miss.� 26. Bxe4 Kf8 (forced) 27. Qxh4 Rxe4 28. Bf6! Ke8 and now do you see it?� I thought black’s king was running so I didn’t go for this line, but here white wins easily. The answer is the nice quiet move 27. Qh7! (I overlooked this) and the threat of Qg8+ and Qxf7 is unstoppable and wins immediately.

26…Kd7 Black takes his chance to run in another direction but this should have been hopeless.� For some reason, I started playing quickly for no reason and let him totally escape. Quite an upsetting turn of events.� From this point forward, my calculation ability was non-existent!

27.c5! Of course.� White is still winning.� So far, so good.

27…dxc5 28.Bb5+? White doesn’t understand that better is 28. bxc5! Nxc5 29. Bb5+ Kd6 30. g4! and wins. For example, 30…Bd7 31. Qf6+! (this is why white needs to get the black knight away from e4!) 31…Kc7 32. Bxc5! and wins.

28…Kd6 29.Be5+?? A terrible blunder.� If white had paused a little, there are two wins remaining.� Win 1.� 29. Bxc5+ Nxc5 30. Qf6+ (this resource was never on my radar) 30…Kxd5 31. Bxe8 Rxe8 32. Qxf7+ and wins.� Win 2.�� 29. bxc5+ Nxc5 30. g4! and wins decisive material.

29…Rxe5 What am I doing? 30.fxe5 Kxd5 31.g4? Yet another terrible move blitzed out.� 31. Qe7 keeps good winning chances.� For example, 31. Qe7 cxb4 32. Qxf7+ and white will also pick up b4 and should convert the win.

31…Be6 Now all the wins have disappeared.� What an amazing number of bad blunders to not win!

32.Qe7 cxb4 33.Bd3 Kxe5 34.Qxb4 Nd6 35.Kf2 Bc4 36.Qe1 Kd5 37.Qe3 Bxd3 38.Qxd3 Ke6 39.h4 Rc4 40.Kf3 b5 41.h5 gxh5 42.gxh5 Nf5 43.Qd8 Rh4 44.Qe8 1/2-1/2

In a later round I played another little talented kid and� played better, but only won one rating point.� That’s the problem playing little kids.

[Event "2010 COPPER STATE INTERNATIONAL"]
[Site "Mesa, Arizona"]
[Date "2010.06.07"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Gurevich, Daniel"]
[Black "Ginsburg, Mark"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "2007"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackELO "2393"]
[BlackTitle "IM"]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.f4 a6 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.g3 d5 6.d3 Nf6 7.e5 Nd7 8.Bg2 Be7 9.O-O O-O 10.g4 b5 11.Qe1 b4 12.Ne2 f6 13.exf6 Nxf6 14.g5 Nh5 15.Qh4 g6 16.Ng3 Ng7 17.Bd2 Bd6

White never took his chance to play c2-c3 or c2-c4 in the early stages of the game, moves he needed to get chances.

18.h3 Ra7 19.Nh2 h5! Stopping the obvious threat of Nh2-g4. Now white’s king side pawns are fixed awkwardly. 20.Nf3 Raf7 21.Ne2 Nf5 22.Qf2 Qc7 23.Nh4 Nxh4 24.Qxh4 Nd4! Simple chess.� The f4 point collapses and the game.

25.Nxd4 cxd4 26.Rf2 Bxf4 27.Bxf4 Rxf4 28.Qg3 h4 29.Qh2 Qe5 30.Rxf4 Rxf4 31.Kh1 Qxg5 32.Rg1 Qf6 33.Re1 Kg7 34.Qg1 Rf2 35.Qh2 Qf4 36.Qxf4 Rxf4 37.Rc1 e5 38.c4 dxc3 39.bxc3 Bf5 40.cxb4 Rxb4 41.Bxd5 Bxd3 42.Re1 Rb1 0-1

In the fourth round, I was astounded to see this discredited opening appear:

[Event "2010 COPPER STATE INTERNATIONAL"]
[Site "Mesa, Arizona"]
[Date "2010.06.06"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Pruess, David"]
[Black "Ravichandran, Siddharth"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "2361"]
[WhiteTitle "IM"]
[BlackELO "2454"]
[BlackTitle ""]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Qb6? Amazing brinkmanship but unplayable!� Joel Benjamin annotated the game Hess-Lapshun in US Chess Online but both players were not familiar with that.� Ravichandran had apparently consulted some other theory source.� Ravichandran said after the game he wanted to catch white by surprise with this.� Well, it’s a shock for sure.

White starts out responding in the best way.

6.e5! Correct.�

6…Bc5 Black blitzed this out; he has no choice.

7.Be3!? This move is not bad.�� Hess found the more forcing 7. e4-e5! and now Lapshun lost miserably with 7…Ng8.� The f2 pawn is untakeable.

For fun, look at 7. e5! Bxf2+ 8. Ke2 (8. Kd2 Qe3 mate would be embarrassing!) 8…Nd5 9. Nd6+ Ke7 10. Nxd5+ exd5 11. Qd5 Rf8 12. Bg5+f6 13. exf6 gxf6 14. Qe5+!! and forced mate!

For completeness, 7. e5! Bxf2+ 8. Ke2 Ng4 9. h3! Ng4 and now white goes on a king walk to win: 10. Nd6+! Ke7 11. hxg4 Qf2+ 12. Kd3 Nc6 and now white can win a brilliancy prize: 13. Nf5+!! exf5 14. Nd5+ Kf8 15. Be3! and wins!� If black put his king on f8 in this line, white can vary with 13. Nce4! and wins a piece.

I asked Ravichandran after the game and he said he intended 7….a6.� Apparently his theoretical source points to that.� Well, it’s the best move!

Pruess said after the game (separately) he was concerned about the 7…a6 resource since 8. Nd6+ is not clear.

Some junior at the tournament ran 7….a6 through an engine and told me later on that 7…a6 8. Qf3! (a resource not seen by Pruess but known to his opponent) is strong.� Computer power! Nevertheless, 8. Qf3 Nd5 9. Nxd5 exd5 10. Nc3 Bb4! and black can fight on with a worse, but defensible, position.� What did we learn?� Not much, except that black in this game was successful with the early brinkmanship!

7…Nd5 8.Nxd5 exd5 9.Nf5? A big lemon.� White must have miscalculated something.

After the strong 9. Nb5! white can still fight for an edge.� 9…Bxe3 10. fxe3 Qxe3+? 11. Qe2 is terrible for black. He loses after, e.g., 11…Qxe2+ 12. Bxe2 Na6 13. Nd6+ Ke7 14. O-O Rf8 15. Nf5+ and wins.� Needless to say, taking on e3 is not forced. 10..O-O 11. Qd4! leaves white with an edge but again black can defend.�� Another example line:� 9. Nb5! O-O 10. Bxc5 Qxc5 11. Qd2 a6 12. Nd6 Nc6 13. O-O-O with a white plus.

Qxb2 10.Nxg7 At this stage, it was impossible to realize the computer recommendation of 10. Bd4 is stronger with equal chances.

Kd8 11.Bg5+? The real losing move.� White must have been totally disoriented and thinking about earlier missed chances. After this white is just dead.� 11. Be2 Bxe3 12. fxe3 and white can play that position and have good prospects to draw.� 11. Be2 Bb4+? is bad: 12. Kf1 and black can’t take on e5 due to Bd4.

Kc7 12.Bf4� Qc3+ A lethal intermediate check well known to Sveshnikov lovers, this occurs in many early Be6 lines of the Sveshnikov forcing white to do acrobatics.

13.Bd2 The problem is that 13. Ke2 Qc4+ 14. Kf3 Qe4+ 15. Kg3 Bxf2+!� wins.

13…Qxe5 14.Be2 Qxg7 15.O-O d6 16.Bf3 Be6 17.c4 dxc4 18.Qa4 Nd7 19.Qb5 Rab8 20.Ba5 b6 21.Qc6 Kd8 22.Rad1 bxa5 0-1

So this dubious variation is marginally playable and in the game above, even netted black a quick victory!� It seems a little unjust.

GM Alejandro Ramirez (center) recycles girls

Catorce entradas de tres a cinco l�neas m�s o menos y esta de la p�gina 174.

…Cuando sal�, ella miraba mi tablero de ajedrez como si fuera un espect�culo apasionante, un peque�o parque de diversiones.

Recuerdo con exactitud la posici�n de las piezas. Era la variante del Ataque Panov que Dami�n Reca refut�, de la manera mas hermosa, en su libro sobre la defensa Caro Kann. El alfil negro ha salido a cinco caballo rey. La dama blanca ya est� en quatro torre dama. Juegan las negras. Christiane levanto el caballo negro de tres alfil, lo mir� y lo apoy� suavemente en su mejilla. Pens�: ahora mueve ese caballo a dos dama y resuelve, en un segundo, un problema de apertura que a Reca le llev� toda la vida. Por fortuna, no hizo nada de eso. Puso otra vez el caballo donde estaba, solo que al derecho, con la cabecita apuntando hacia delante. Me sent� en la cama, luchando por no cometer la senil imbecilidad de preguntarle si le gustaba el ajedrez y, sobre todo, evitando mencionar el cuaderno.

Durante sus vacaciones en el apartado paraje de la sierra argentina de C�rdoba, un profesor de historia descubre que el pol�mico arque�logo Estanislao van Hutten, dado por muerto, vive oculto de sus detractores con el secreto documento que har� temblar las m�s arraigadas creencias religiosas.

En la ajetreada tarde de ayer, y decimos ajetreada porque se tuvieron que jugar tres rondas, se llegaba al final del Campeonato Juvenil de Lanzarote 2010 que se ha celebrado durante las �ltimas semanas en las instalaciones del Centro Insular de Ajedrez de la capital conejera.

El campe�n de la edici�n 2010 es el joven Daniel Torrens que con un impresionante resultado de 8,5 puntos sobre 9 posibles se mostr� intratable durante el transcurso de la competici�n. La clave de su victoria se ciment� en la solidez de su juego, sin duda alguna un resultado m�s que merecido.

En segundo lugar qued� Rub�n Mart�n, principal favorito para el triunfo final al que algunos errores durante la competici�n lo dejaron descolgado de cara al primer puesto.

En tercer lugar qued� Ridu�n Gonz�lez con 6 puntos, los mismos que Jos� Mar�a Salazar, cuarto clasificado, aunque este �ltimo con peor desempate.

A pesar de quedar en cuarto lugar la diosa Fortuna le gui�� un ojo y ser� Jos� Mar�a Salazar quien represente a Lanzarote en el Campeonato de Canarias Juvenil, debido a problemas de estudios de los tres primeros clasificados que no podr�n viajar para disputar el campeonato.

Buen premio para el ilusionante Jos� Mar�a que intentar� repetir los buenos resultados que consigui� hace poco en La Palma, durante los Campeonatos Infantiles y Cadetes, junto a sus compa�eros Ridu�n Gonz�lez y Alejandro Betancort en Infantiles y Rub�n Mart�n y Daniel Torrens en Cadetes. Tambi�n rese�able en estos pasados campeonatos la actuaci�n de Lissette Maridue�a que fue la mejor clasificada femenina Cadete con 5 puntos de 7 posibles y sac�ndole un punto a la siguiente clasificada.

Clasificaci�n final – Campeonato Juvenil de Lanzarote 2010

Me parece muy bien que se anime a estos equipos que han estado luchando por el ascenso m�s que nosotros (Alfil Blanco). Seguramente se les conoce m�s tanto al equipo como a los jugadores, los cuales parece conocer todo el mundo a la perfecci�n, sobre todo los redactores de esta p�gina. Mi intenci�n no es la de recriminar, ya que de poco servir�a, al fin y al cabo la desici�n de colgar este art�culo o no es de los redactores y obviamente no les gustara que se les recrimine nada, pero me parece que un poco de solidaridad y darle oportunidades a quien se esfuerza por tenerlas no est� de m�s, es decir a casos como el nuestro. A mi me gustaba leer en otras temporadas las p�gina sque como este hablaban de las ligas tanto por equipos como por individual ya que el ajedrez siempre a sido una de mis mayores pasiones, aunque se que no le dedico el tiempo suficiente (realmente es que no lo tengo), pero lo cierto es que ahora me doy cuenta de la imparcialidad de estas p�ginas y de lo que hay en ellas y que yo cre�a a pies juntillas. Cuando me refer�a a que deber�an de darse igualdad de oportunidades y hablarse de todos por igual era porque nosotros tuvimos que esforzarnos mucho y dejar cosas de lado para poder jugar sin contar con el problema del transporte, sal�n, etc. ya que hasta la fecha (5/6/2010) no tenemos patrocinador. �Hab�a sido m�s f�cil no hacerlo? Ciertamente s�, pero como he dicho a nosotros nos gusta el ajedrez y decidimos hacer el club. �Qui�n me iba a decir entonces que ganar�amos? Cuando me entere ya que no pude asistir lo primero que pens� fue: Ahora, despu�s de ir toda la temporada entre el tercer y cuarto puesto, al fin se nos nombrar� como m�nimo (No con esas palabras, porq lo cierto es que casi nadie piensa con ese lenguaje y yo no soy una escepci�n). Pues no, y de milagro nos nombran como el equipo, pero eso no es lo peor, lo peor es que no somos un equipo del monton, desde luego que ninguno de nuestro equipo es un Kasparov, un Anand, ni nada por el estilo, aunque hasta donde llega mi memoria no pueda decir que me ganen ya que jam�s he perdido una partida con ellos, jajaja, sin embargo somos los que hemos ganado, y tampoco pido que nuestros nombres salgan en may�sculas ni marcados, solamente que se hable un poco de nosotros, de los miembros, �es mucho pedir? �no conocen nuestros nombres? Pues basta con entrar en la p�gina de la federaci�n y mirarlo en los exels. De cualquier forma el trabajo que aqu� hacen merece reconocimiento, ya que es un gran esfuerzo para que se mantenga visitada. Que esto siga as� de bien, pero cambien un poco de punto de vista, que lo cierto es que cualquiera, hasta alguien que apenas sabe escribir como yo podr�a sacar mucho jugo a un articulo de equipo debutante asciende a primera. Por favor, creo que no pido mucho, si alguien opina que s�, pueden responderme en: mikelanyelo_alter_ego@hotmail.es

(Cualquier cosa que quieran comentar conmigo en particular o con el equipo yo no tendr� ning�n problema para acerselo llegar al resto de componentes del equipo).

Muchas gracias por prestarme unos minutos de su tiempo, Miguel Angel Moleiro.

Un recente sondaggio ha eletto come vestito pi� bello della storia del cinema il tubino targato Givenchy, indossato da Audrey Hepburn in �Colazione da Tiffany� del 1961. Quando la forza della semplicit� vince su sfarzo e provocazione in sole due mosse fatte di sobriet� e raffinatezza. Lo Stile con la esse maiuscola che oltrepassa mode di stagione, caduche tendenze del momento, gusti che scivolano via come acqua corrente, reperti d�antan dimenticati in armadi zeppi di ricordi e di naftalina.

Pu� sembrare azzardato saltare da una riga all�altra, per passare dagli occhiali scuri dell�affascinante Audrey alle spesse lenti del brizzolato Vassily Smyslov, che in un pomeriggio monegasco del 1969 affronta quel satanasso di Pal Benko, che di occhiali � chiedere a Mikhail Tal per conferma � a suo modo se ne intendeva.

A detta del Grande Maestro d�origine ungherese, il buon Vassily non ha mai avuto dimestichezza con le sottili tecniche della psicologia, appartenendo alla categoria di coloro che credono pi� alle mosse buone che agli astratti furori. Forse l�amico-nemico di Bobby Fischer non ricordava bene questa partita quando ha scritto Vincere a scacchi con la psicologia. Sar��

Di Smyslov, in occasione del campionato sovietico del 1967, malelingue dissero pure� che grazie all�innato talento posizionale sapeva vincere entro la venticinquesima mossa con grande facilit�, ma se arrivava alla trentacinquesima, inadeguato al calcolo, finiva quasi sempre col perdere. Se ne dicono tante, ma proprio tante… Troppe, diciamo noi.

Smyslov in questa partita gioca d�inganno, finge il buonismo di facciata, il pareggio a portata di mano, accondiscende a semplificazioni repentine, mentre la partita scivola in un batter di ciglia dall�apertura al finale, illudendo nella facile patta Benko, poco incline a trattare posizioni dove il gioco prende a scorrere lento nell�arido trattamento della simmetria. Sar� dal diciottesimo tratto in poi che il GM americano comincer� a rendersi conto che la posizione non era poi pari come sembrava al primo sguardo. Benko rincorrer� l�iniziativa senza mai agguantarla, mentre Smyslov, padrone incontrastato del gioco sapr� volteggiare Torre e Cavallo con la tecnica sopraffina del vero maestro dell�armonia, dedicando la massima attenzione al minimo dettaglio.

Il momento clou � raggiunto alla ventinovesima mossa: qui l�ex campione del mondo sa mediare l�esigenza strategica con la soluzione tattica di sublime eleganza: il vestito da lui confezionato � dono impareggiabile della perizia d�un sarto d�alta scuola, una rete di matto attillata che calza a pennello sulle spalle del povero Benko, vittima di uno zugzwang senza scampo. �La partita, poco nota, � da entusiasmi lenti e cadenzati non da scorrimento veloce a rintocco di colpi di mouse.

Chapeau� grande Vassily!

Smyslov V. � Benko P.

Inglese�� A 30

Monte Carlo (3), 02.04.1969

1.c4 c5 2.Cf3 Cf6 3.g3 g6 4.b3 Ag7 5.Ab2 b6 6.Ag2 Ab7 7.0�0 0�0 8.Cc3 d5 Siamo nella linea del doppio fianchetto della Variante Simmetrica della Partita Inglese. Il Nero, che si � sin qui limitato a copiare, finalmente rompe gli indugi e gioca di testa propria. Ci� nonostante i cambi che ne seguiranno portano al tipo di gioco desiderato da Smyslov. 9.Cxd5 Cxd5 10.Axg7 Rxg7 11.cxd5 Dxd5 12.d4 Inutile dire che la percentuale di patte derivante da tutti questi scambi sia elevatissima, tuttavia il vantaggio del tratto del Bianco � un dettaglio che nelle mani di un campione assoluto pu� fare la differenza. Non a caso Smyslov ed Ulf Andersson sono esperti in materia. 12…cxd4 13.Dxd4+ Dxd4 14.Cxd4 Axg2 15.Rxg2 Tc8 Il Nero si affretta ad occupare la prima colonna aperta a disposizione. In precedenza allo stesso Smyslov era capitata 15…Ca6 16.Tfd1 Tfc8 17.Tac1 Rf6 18.Cb5! Cc5 19.b4! Ce6 20.Txc8 Txc8 21.Cxa7 � Smyslov-Castro, Biel (izt) 1976. 16.Tac1 Con immediata contestazione. 16…Cd7 17.Tfd1 Normalissima, certo, ma insidiosa, poich� minaccia 18.Txc8 Txc8 19.Ce6+ seguita da 20.Txd7. 17…Cc5 L’alternativa 17…Cf6 18.Cb5 Txc1 (18…a6? 19.Cc7 Tab8 20.Cxa6 Txc1 21.Txc1 Ta8 22.Cb4�) 19.Txc1 a6 20.Cd4 Td8 21.e3 vide alla distanza prevalere il Bianco nella Andersson-Marovic, Banja Luka 1976; curiosa la seguente partita dove un Re egocentrico si erge ad assoluto protagonista del gioco del Nero: 17…Rf6 18.Cb5 Txc1 19.Txc1 Cc5 20.b4 Ce6 21.Tc6 Re5 22.f4+ Re4 23.Rf2 a5 24.bxa5 bxa5 25.Cc3+ Rd4 26.Cb5+ Re4 27.Cc3+ Rd4 28.e3+ Rd3 29.Ce2 a4 30.Rf3 Ta5 31.Tc3+ Rd2 32.Tc4 Rd3 33.Tc3+ Rd2 34.Tc4 Cc5 35.g4 Cd3 36.Cc3 Ce1+ 37.Rf2 Cd3+ 38.Rf3 Ce1+ 39.Rf2 Cd3+ 40.Rf3 Ce1+ ��� Andersson-Nyback, Antalya 2004. 18.b4! Ca4?

Posizione dopo 18...Ca4?

Benko sbaglia strada: la scelta pi� accurata era 18…Ce4 19.Cb5! Txc1 20.Txc1 a5 21.Tc4 dove il Nero riusc� a strappare il mezzo punto, Lisitsyn-Levenfish, URS (ch)1948. 19.Cb5! Un Cavallo fastidiosissimo, dal momento che non pu� essere scacciato con 19…a6 a causa di 20.Cc7 e se �Ta7? 21.Ce6+.� 19…Txc1 20.Txc1 Ed intanto la colonna “c” � rimasta sotto il controllo del Bianco. 20…a5 21.a3 Td8 Anche il Nero si accaparra una colonna aperta, ma il tratto � sempre dalla parte di Smyslov, che per primo guadagna la settima. 22.Tc7 La struttura pedonale � omogenea, ma la differente collocazione dei pezzi in campo arride al Bianco. 22…Td5 23.Ca7!

Posizione dopo 23.Ca7!

Naturalmente proporre il cambio dei Cavalli con Cc3, sarebbe un favore concesso all’avversario. 23…axb4 24.axb4 e6?! Pare strano, ma questa imprecisione, che indebolisce la settima traversa, peser� come un macigno sull’esito della partita. Un’astuta risorsa poteva essere 24…Rf8! 25.Cc6 Td2 26.Txe7 Tc2 27.Ta7 Txc6 28.Txa4 portando alla perdita di un pedone, che in un finale di Torri di questo tipo potrebbe non essere determinante. 25.Cc6 I problemi del Nero aumentano di colpo: la Td5 non pu� conservare contemporaneamente il controllo delle case e5 e d8 a cui ambisce il Cc6, mentre il Ca4 non riesce ancora a rientrare, giacch� a 25…Cc3 segue 26.Ce7.� 25…Td2 26.Ce5 Txe2 27.Cxf7 Mossa dopo mossa la posizione del Nero peggiora. 27…h5 28.Cg5+! Rf6 Lasciare la settima assoluta con 28…Rg8 sembra comunque una follia. 29.Rf1!!

Posizione dopo 29.Rf1!!

Un tratto dall’incredibile forza tattica. Smyslov, grazie a questa opportuna schiodatura, sta invischiando l’avversario in una rete di matto senza scampo. 29…Txf2+ La cessione della qualit� � una dolorosa necessit�. Se 29…Tb2 30.f4! Rf5 31.h3! il Re nero non ha vie d’uscita. 30.Rxf2 Rxg5 31.Re3 Rg4 32.b5!

Posizione dopo 32.b5!

32…Rh3 33.Tc4 Cb2 Non si pu� nemmeno 33…Cc5 34.Txc5 bxc5 35.b6. 34.Tc2 e dopo 34…Ca4 35.Rf4! lo zugzwang totale condanna il Nero. (1/0)