Oulan-Bator, capitale de la Mongolie, est le lieu improbable choisi par la Fide pour organiser le 5ème Grand Prix féminin d'échecs, du 29 juillet au 12 août 2010.

La Française Marie Sebag (2519) - 4ème Elo sur les 12 joueuses engagées - participe à ce tournoi majeur avec pour la première fois en lice pas moins de 4 championnes du monde : Maïa Chiburdanizde (1978-1991), Zhu Chen (2001-2004), Antoaneta Stefanova (2004-2006) et Yu Yuhua (2006-2008).

Les parties sont retransmises en Direct à 8h, heure de Paris. Ce matin, la numéro 1 tricolore, Marie Sebag a annulé avec les Blancs face à la Chinoise Xu Yuhua pour le compte de la première ronde.

Tournoi de Maîtres

Le finish du Tournoi de Maîtres de Bienne a été époustouflant avec un groupe de 7 joueurs en tête à 8 points sur 11. Au départage, le podium s'établit comme suit : 1er le Russe Alexander Riazantsev, 2ème la Russe Nadezha Kosintseva (norme de GM au passage) et 3ème l'Allemand Leonid Kritz.

Superbe tir groupé des GM Français dans les premières places :

Sébastien Feller (4ème à 8 points), Christian Bauer (5ème à 8 points), Sébastien Mazé (7ème à 8 points) et Arnaud Hauchard (8ème à 7,5 points). La French Touch !

Avec le mois d'août tout proche, les tournois d'échecs sont légion en France. Alors comme vous, notre amie Nino Maisuradze, en photo ci-contre © Chess & Strategy, se pose la question du choix de sa nouvelle destination.

Créon, une jolie petite ville française située dans le département de la Gironde en région d'Aquitaine, organise son 15ème Festival International d'échecs du 26 juillet au 1er août 2010.

Le crû 2010 nous réserve une belle surprise avec un 1er tournoi fermé de maîtres. Dix joueurs participent à cet événement, dont notre ami Maxime Lagarde, médaillé de bronze au dernier championnat du monde dans la catégorie minime, en photo ci-contre © Chess & Strategy

Fabiano Caruana won the Young Grandmaster Tournament in Biel today. The Italian was the strongest in a necessary play-off with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, whom he beat in the final.

The play-off final between Fabiano Caruana and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son

The Young Grandmaster Tournament was part of the Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland, which takes place July 17-30. Anish Giri, David Howell, Fabiano Caruana, Maxim Rodshtein, Parimarjan Negi, Dmitry Andreikin, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son played.

Round 9 & play-off

As leaders Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave drew in the last round, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son was able to catch the two in the standings by beating Giri. In fact the Vietnamese finished first on tiebreak. As regulations dictated, on Thursday morning a rapid play-off was played between the players who finished on shared 1st place. It was decided that the numbers 2 and 3 played each other and the winner would play Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.

But first things first: the final round on Wednesday. From a quiet King’s Indian Attack, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son slowly outplayed Anish Giri, who might regret his 17th move (e.g. 17…Rfe8 looks close to equal). After a forced sequence of moves an ending was reached where White had more than enough compensation for the pawn.

Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son-Anish Giri
Biel 2010

Position after 28.Rxb7.

The Vietnamese continued to play strongly and although Black might have been able to hold the draw, the win seemed fully deserved.

Rodshtein must have missed a win somehere against Tomashevsky. Both 37.Qd4! and 40.Ne4! seem to lead to a decisive advantage. Andreikin reached equality remarkably easily against So, using the Old Indian. The ending was soon better for Black thanks to his superior knight, but it was never winning. Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave drew relatively quickly to secure the rapid play-off.

Play-off

And so we come to this morning’s action. Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave first both won one rapid game (10 minutes & 10 seconds increment) with the white pieces. What exactly happened in the first game is not yet clear to us – was one more move played (Bxg3) and did the Frenchman touch his queen? It’s more likely that the game was saved incompletely. In any case, he recovered well and won a nice, tactical ending to level the score.

Vachier-Lagrave continued strongly, and reached a promising position again with the white pieces in the Armageddon blitz game.

Vachier-Lagrave-Caruana
Biel 2010

Here 38.Rb2?! allowed 38…Qa4! and the tables turned, as …Qd1 and Ra1 cannot be prevented. White should still be able to hold it, but the defence proved too difficult.

Caruana had an even narrower escape in the first game of the final against Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, as he defended an ending two pawns down to a draw. In the second game he struck decisively.

Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son-Caruana
Biel 2010

Here 30.Rc2 should draw. 30.b3?! was answered by the strong 30…a3! and after 31.Ra8 Ra5 32.Rxa5 bxa5 33.Nd4 Nb4 34.Nb5 Nxa2 35.Nxa3 Nc1 Black won a pawn, which was, like in almost any knight ending, decisive.

Games rounds 9 & tiebreak

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Fabiano Caruana with the winner's medal in Biel

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Young GMs, Tiebreak via TWIC

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.

Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are sharing the lead in Biel with one round to go. The two are on 5/8. After five more draws in round 7, the 8th round saw much more spectacle.

The Young Grandmaster Tournament is part of the Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland, which takes place July 17-30. Anish Giri, David Howell, Fabiano Caruana, Maxim Rodshtein, Parimarjan Negi, Dmitry Andreikin, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son play.

Rounds 7 & 8

After our last, and slightly critical report on Biel, in which we noted the many short draws between these ten young and ambitious players, the games of the 7th round were more interesting. Nonetheless, all of them ended peacefully anyway!

From all the players it seems that Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son came closest to victory thanks to the tactical shot 16…Nxe5! but then he spoilt his advantage.

Wesley So-Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son
Biel 2010

16…Nxe5!

Today no less than four games ended in victories. Only Andreikin and Caruana split the point again; the game always looked equal and in the end Black’s activity compensated for the pawn he lost.

In another game with Black, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son now did manage win, against Tomashevsky. And with creative play, we may add. Thanks to a strong pawn phalanx the exchange sac 27…Rxb6! was the obvious way to continue, and soon White had to give back the material, but more power moves (especially 36…d5!) decided the game.

Evgeny Tomashevsky-Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son
Biel 2010

36…d5!

Giri defeated So in a pawn ending, after some interesting tactics had appeared in the middlegame. The Philippine might still have drawn the game with 35…Qf6! because in that version, if White takes on f4, he will have a distant passer. But since the ending is quite complicated, we’ll refrain from giving a definite conclusion.

Anish Giri-Wesley So
Biel 2010

35…Qf6! instead of 35…Qxh4?

Negi is having a hard time in Biel and after a bad start the Indian is ‘even going for a draw in better positions’, as a Dutch grandmaster said today. He hadn’t seen today’s game yet, but it did look like this. Against Howell’s Alapin, Negi was fine after the opening and could have played for an advantage at some point, but instead he allowed a strong exchange sacrifice and then was outplayed in the subsequent ending.

Vachier-Lagrave played a strong game against Rodshtein but then almost let it slip away. Instead of going for mate, he somehow allowed the Israeli to continue the game, but eventually the rook ending was won anyway for the Frenchman, who thus caught Caruana in the standings.

Tomorrow is the last round with Rodshtein-Tomashevsky, Negi-Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana-Howell, So-Andreikin and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son-Giri. There’s a possible tiebreak on Thursday morning if two players (or more) finish at the 1st place. In that case two rapid games (10 minutes & 10 seconds increment) will be played and if the result is 1-1, two blitz will be played.

Games rounds 7 & 8

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Ruslan Ponomariov from the Ukraine Sunday won the 2010 Sparkassen Chess Meeting, keeping his full point margin and strengthening his return to the world’s elite. Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem finished on a splendid sole second place.

I must admit that after two weeks of enjoying the Provence region in France, with nothing but sun, baguettes and beautiful little villages, I’ve not quite settled down yet behind my computer. Hundreds of emails are still waiting to be answered, and then there’s chess… what was it again, dark square down left, white queen on a white square, no?

‘The best thing of going on holiday is returning home’, my mother tends to say semi-jokingly, but even when it means saying goodbye to the mediterranean weather and returning to cloudy Amsterdam, for me returning does have one big plus. It’s something I experience not too often. I switch on the computer, open the browser and go to ChessVibes.com, and then I can read many stories and articles that are completely new to me!

I haven’t read everything yet but limited myself to the Dortmund articles for preparing this last round’s report. It’s surprising to see regular guests Kramnik and Leko underperform, although we shouldn’t forget that such things happen to every player every now and then. Le Quang Liem is clearly a force to reckon with now that he finished his very first super tournament in clear second place. Like my compatriot Robert Gesink, who cycled his first complete Tour de France this year and finished on a 6th place, the Vietnamese GM kept pace with the strong field and eventually climbed to a solid plus one score.

Le Quang Liem, who qualified by winning this year's Aeroflot, proved a more than worthy participant

It’s too difficult to find a Tour analogy for every player, but if we try a few more then we have to name Mamedyarov Dortmund’s Andy Schleck. The Azeri GM attacked aggressively and was a clear contender for victory, but his blunder against Naiditsch in round 6 was similar to Schleck letting his chain of his bicycle popping out of the derailleur in stage 15, just as he sought to distance himself from Contador.

Calling Vladimir Kramnik this year’s Lance Armstrong would be too far-fetched, but it’s clear that the 2010 edition wasn’t his tournament. The 9-times winner fell off his bike twice, against Ponomariov and Naiditsch, and compensated this with wins against Naiditsch and Mamedyarov in the last round.

Vladimir Kramnik thinking things over, before beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

This way Ponomariov kept his full-point margin in the final standings, and Kramnik caught Mamedyarov on shared third place with fifty percent. Leko finally won a game, against Naiditsch, and so the two shared last place with a minus two score.

By holding on to the yellow jersey in Dortmund, Ponomariov confirmed once more that he has returned to the world’s elite. After finishing second at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk and the final Grand Prix in Astrakhan, the Kings’ Tournament in Romania went less successful. There the Ukrainian felt he played too superficial in the opening phase, but he remained optimistic for his next strong tournament, in Dortmund. And rightly so. Ponomariov virtually re-entered the world’s top 10, for the first time since April 2006.

With strong, all-round chess Ruslan Ponomariov secured tournament victory

Games round 10

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2010 (Dortmund) | Round 10 (final) standings

The stage of the city theater in Dortmund

A happy Ponomariov with flowers and trophy

All players and some officials posing one more time

Photos by Georgios Souleidis

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

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

In the pentultimate round of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting, Arkadij Naiditsch upset Vladimir Kramnik while Peter Leko came tantilizingly close to beating Le Quang. Ruslan Ponomariov took no risk and secured his first place in the standings.

With just one round to go, the standings were seriously mixed up today after Naiditsch beat Kramnik. In the previous round, Naiditsch didn’t look half so good as Ruslan Ponomariov demolished him in an outstanding positional game.

Before moving on to today’s games, let’s see how Pono outplayed the German in round 8:

33.Be5! Rxf6 34.Rfc1! Bd7 35.Rab1! with a winning bind for White, which the Russian converted in 46 moves.

Yesterday’s other games looked bleak compared to this. As feared, Leko-Kramnik was a bloodless draw and though Mamedyarov tried hard to beat Le Quang, the young Vietnamese defended accurately and professionally secured the draw.

Today, Shakriyar Mamedyarov surprised tournament leader Ponomariov as early as move 5:

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.g4!?

This has only been played 5 times according to the database, but never by a 2500+ player. Ponomariov bravely ‘castled into it’ with 5…0-0 but grabbed the g-pawn a couple of moves later anyway. White, of course, obtained decent compensation for it and actually seemed to be fine after the opening. However, just when thinks started to look exciting, Ponomariov traded queens after which the game suddenly became drawish.

In this position, Black has a number of interesting alternatives, such as 25…Qxf4, 25…Rae8 or 25…Bxf4, with a very exciting and complicated game. Instead, Black chose to play it safe in this stage of the tournament with 25…Qc5 26.Qxc5 bxc5 = . He is now one point ahead of his competitors, so naturally he had every reason to be satisfied!

Ponomariov, certain of (shared) first place already (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Peter Leko finally looked ready to win his first game of the tournament with Black against Le Quang, but had to satisfy himself with a draw after 119 moves anyway. He got his chance after Le Quang played too optimistically in an otherwise normal position.

29.Rc7? bxa4 It’s hard to see what White had in mind here. Perhaps he wanted to play 29.Rc6 but ‘overstretched’ by one square. Now, after 30.Bc4 Qb8 White remained a pawn down. To the delight of his fans, Leko seemed to be making steady progress in the endgame.

Le Quang - Leko (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

However, by now we should all know how tough it is to really beat Le Quang. He kept on making tough moves and though many moves were played, Leko couldn’t find a clear win until, finally, White was on the verge of collapsing.

103.Rd7 The funny 103.Bd3 is the computer’s suggestion. 103…Rh2+ 104.Kf1 Ke3 It suddenly looks very dangerous for White, but fortunately for him, the theoretical endgame after 105.Rxd5 Rf2+ 16.Kg1 Rxe2 107.Rxe5+ Kxf3 108.Rf5 is a book draw. No doubt heavily disappointed, Leko tried for 10 more moves before offering a draw.

Naiditsch - Kramnik (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Arkadij Naiditsch is having a weird tournament, but after today, he will probably be happy after all. He recovered excellently from yesterday’s loss by beating Vladimir Kramnik in 34 moves. It was a complex game (Kramnik played the Pirc Defence), with some very interesting tactics. Let’s have a closer look.

14…Qh4+ 15.Kd1!? After 15.Bf2 Qg5! things are also highly unclear. 15…Bxd4 Also interesting is the natural-looking 15…Re8.

16.Bxa6! e5 17.Bxc8 Rfxc8 18.c3 It looks like White is on top after all, but Black has tremendous counterplay: 18…Rab8 19.Qc4

Here, it seems Kramnik faltered with 18…c5?! where the principled 18…Rxb2 would have led to a very difficult position, offering Black a very dangerous initiative after 19.cxd4 Rxg2. Instead, after the text, White played the very strong 19.Bc1! after which he appears to be better.

Still, things were far from clear until Black again moved his c-pawn:

25…c4? A bettter chance was 25…Reb8. 26.Qd1! After this strong defensive move, White can hold on to his extra piece. Black’s attack quickly faded and Naiditsch collected the point.

Naiditsch(photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Standings after 9 rounds:

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

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

Dortmund Games round 8 & 9

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

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

Le tournoi des Grands-Maîtres

Dix jeunes champions sont les stars de la 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet. Qui de Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave et Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son va l'emporter ?

Le tournoi des Grands-Maîtres

Dix jeunes champions sont les stars de la 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Fabiano Caruana et Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finissent tous trois en tête avec 5,5/9. Départages demain à partir de 11h.

Née le 22 décembre 1986 à Manille aux Philippines, cette joueuse d'échecs australienne est une danseuse rendue célèbre par l'émission de télévision Dancing with the stars.

Elle a appris le jeu à l'âge de six ans et atteint en 2002 un classement Elo de plus de 2300, mais il a décliné ensuite quand elle s'est consacrée à ses études. Elle reste néanmoins l'une des meilleures joueuses d'Australie et a défendu le premier échiquier de l'équipe féminine à l'Olympiade de Dresde en 2008. Cette championne a obtenu le titre de maître international féminin de la Fédération internationale des échecs.

Alors pourriez-vous citer le patronyme de cette jolie joueuse d'échecs ?

Chaque mardi, notre ami le maître international canadien d'échecs Jean Hébert nous propose sa lettre d'information HPE.

Le tournoi d'échecs Sparkassen Chess-Meeting de Dortmund se déroulait du 15 au 25 Juillet avec 6 super grands-maîtres d'échecs.

Le tournoi des Grands-Maîtres :

Dix jeunes grands-maîtres sont les stars de cette 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet, en 9 rondes. Après 8 rondes, Fabiano Caruana et le Français Maxime Vachier-Lagrave pointent en tête avec 5 points sur 8. Ronde décisive aujourd'hui !

Le Festival international d'échecs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, fête son quart de siècle avec un nouveau record de popularité à 354 participants.

Superbe reportage vidéo du Festival International d'échecs de Bienne réalisé par BNJ Multimédia, avec l'interview de l'organisateur Olivier Breisacher, qui met en avant le mariage harmonieux entre les échecs et l'internet. Notre sport a eu la chance de se développer avec Internet et ses milliers de passionnés qui suivent les parties en direct.

A voir également le témoignage du grand-maître suisse Yannick Pelletier qui explique la manière de se préparer contre un adversaire, comme celle d'un sportif. Travailler sa condition physique pour tenir la distance et regarder les ouvertures que joue son adversaire. Mais peut-on gagner sa vie aux échecs ? réponse d'Olivier Breisacher.

Dix jeunes grands-maîtres sont les stars de cette 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet, en 9 rondes.

Dix jeunes grands-maîtres sont les stars de cette 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet.

Final Standings

Ruslan Ponomariov (2734) – Vladimir Kramnik (2790) [E00]
Dortmund Dortmund GER (2), 2010-07-16
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Be7 5. Bg2 d5 6. Nf3 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. Qc2 b6 9. Rd1 Ba6 10. Ne5 Qc8 11. Nc3 Nbd7 12. Rac1 Nxe5 13. dxe5 Nd7 14. cxd5 cxd5 15. Bf4 g5 16. Bxd5 exd5 17. Nxd5 Qd8 18. Nc7 Rc8 19. e6 fxe6 20. Qc6 Qe8 21. Qxe6+ Qf7 22. Qxf7+ Kxf7 23. Nxa6 gxf4 24. Rxc8 Rxc8 25. Rxd7 Rc2 26. Nb4 Rxb2 27. Nc6 Rxe2 28. Rxa7 f3 29. h4 h5 30. Rxe7+ Rxe7 31. Nxe7 Kxe7 32. g4 hxg4 33. Kh2 Ke6 34. Kg3 Kf5 35. a4 Ke4 36. Kxg4  1 – 0 (view game)

Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!

G. Umnov
1999

White to play and win

Next week the solution.

Solution last week

A. Sochnev
2007

Game viewer by ChessTempo

In the fourth round of the Young Grandmasters Tournament in Biel, the players showed their mature attitude by collectively avoiding too much risk.

Report and analyses by IM Robert Ris

With the help of a Tartakower Defence in a Queens Gambit Declined, Parimarjan Negi secured his first half point of the tournament. Against the Idian, tournament leader Wesley So avoided the critical line in this variarion by going for 11.Bxe7, whereas 11.Bg3 is the main line. The imbalanced feautures of knight vs bishop were soon gone when So opted for 18.Na4. The emerging ending didn’t offer either side any prospects and hence on move 28 the players shook hands.

Hardly more inspiring was Evgeny Tomashevsky’s effort to slay Fabiano Caruana’s favorite Meran Defence. The rock-solid Russian tried to avoid the sharp theoretical lines with the modest 10.Bd2, but Caruana seemed well aware of all finesses in the position.

Here Caruana played the accurate 16…a5! to prevent White from playing b2-b4, burying the bishop on b7. Tomashevsky replied with the theoretically new move 17.Rac1, but it couldn’t change the evaluation of this harmless line. Not surprisinlgy, the players decided to call it a day just four moves later.

In the encounter between Dmitry Andreikin and David Howell, the Englishman totally misplayed his beloved Grünfeld.

In a well-known line, Howell made the surprise move 11…Nb4?! which isn’t likely to attract many followers. (11…Ne7 and 11…Na5 are the main moves, with the last one being played among others by Kasparov against Karpov in Amsterdam, 1988.) Andreikin anticipated strongly to this dubious concept: with natural developing moves, he forced Black’s pieces to retreat until they lacked all coordination.

Howell desperately sacrificed a pawn, which was duly returned few moves later, as White’s rooks entered powerfully on the 7th rank. In a very sad position for Black, it was Andreikin’s turn to convert his advantage into his first full point.

25.Ng5! Bxg2 (25…fxg5 26.Bxe4 +-) 26.Nxh7! A strong intermediate move, threatening Nxf6+ and Rh7 mate. Black resigned four moves later.

In Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son vs. Maxim Rodsthein, the older watchers must have been relieved to see that the lessons of the legendary masters are not forgotten by the computer generation! The first 14 moves were copied from a classic: the twelfth match game Botvinnik-Smyslov, Moscow 1958, which was won by Mikhail Moiseevich.

In this position, Smyslov played 14..Qc7 with the idea Rfc8, but Rodshtein deviated with 14…Rc8, a move that was seen in another old game Ornstein-Ogaard from 1978. In fact, it is considered dubious by GM Marin. (Probably Smyslov was right after all, and Qc7 is the best move here.)

A few moves later, the Vietnamese didn’t play Ornstein’s brave attempt 17.Qxc8!? which needs to be carefully checked again. In the game, although White’s a-pawn might have been quite annoying for Black, Truong Son’s advantage was of marginal value. With precise play, Rodshtein managed to keep the balance and find a move repetition.

Last but certainly not least, there was the theoretical battle between Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier Lagrave. Perhaps fearing his opponent’s thorough preparation, the World Junior Champion opted for a King’s Indian instead of his usual Grünfeld. Giri was not impressed and obtained a pleasant edge, despite Vachier’s improvement in the opening.

15…Nd4 This is better than 15…Bf6 which turned out to be somewhat better for White in Fressinet-Stellwagen, Novi Sad 2009.

However, Black’s dynamic possibilities didn’t really work out and so White’s positional trumps started to count when he finally succeeded in bringing his kingside pieces into play again. However, suddenly Giri offered a draw in a position where his advantage was really starting to grow.

In the final position, White can play on without any risk and in fact Black’s position seems very annoying to defend. Let’s conclude it’s just my silly opinion…

This round showed that the next generation may be young, but is also wise and knows all about the importance of sometimes taking a draw instead of going for broke. While this may be good for their development, let’s hope for just a little more action in the rounds to come.

Standings after Round 4:

1. So 3
2. Tomashevski, Caruana, Andreikin 2,5
5. Vachier-Lagrave, Giri, Rodshtein, Truong Son 2
9. Howell 1
10. Negi 0,5

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

Biel Young Grandmasters Games round 4, analysed by Robert Ris

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

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

Wesley So won his second game in the third round of the Young Grandmasters Tournament in Biel, grabbing the sole lead in an extremely strong field.

Report and analyses by IM Robert Ris

After a long hard working day yesterday, fellow countrymen Dmitry Andreikin and Evgeny Tomashevsky didn’t really want to hurt each other. The impact of their marathon games was still visible when soon out of the opening, a funny kind of English hybrid, an endgame with opposite coloured bishops was reached. Not much later hands were shaken.

Three rounds into the tournament, at least one thing can be concluded so far: it’s not yet Parimarjan Negi’s week. After two unfortunate losses with Black, the Indian totally lost track against Fabiano Caruana in mishandled Closed Sicilian, which is normally not Negi’s style at all. And indeed, almost everything went wrong for White right from the beginning. Caruana could easily could penetrate on the queenside, whereas White’s forces couldn’t even dream of finding reasonable squares.

Here Negi made a strategical error with 17.Nd5? Better would have been e.g. 17.Nb2 when at least Black can’t immediately force a breakthrough on the queenside.

17…Nxd5 18.exd5 Bxa4 19.bxa4 Rb4 and Black was better already.

“Fortunately” for the Indian, the game ended abruptly after a bad blunder, which may actually make it easier for him to forget the game than if he had been tortured for fifty more moves.

The most dramatic game of the day was the encounter between Maxim Rodshtein and Wesley So. Evidently, both players have studied the recent developments of the topical Grünfeld Indian with 7.Bc4, and it was So’s turn to be the first to deviate from the recently played game Giri-Bok, Dutch Championship 2010, in which after 19 moves the following position was reached:

Bok had played the cautious 19…a6 and indeed, So’s 19…gxf5!? looks very suspicious at first glance -really, who would want to open the residence of his majesty? – but soon Black’s intentions became clear when all his pieces were directed to g2! White’s kingside seemed to be under severe pressure, but the Israeli had everything well protected until move 38.

One move ago, White could have easily transformed the game into an dead equal ending. 38.Qf4 is still possible now, but instead Rodshtein blunders horribly:

38.Qh4?? Bxg2+! 39.Bxg2 Qc1+ and White resigned in view of 40.Kh2 Nf3+ 41.Bxf3 Qg1 mate.

Maxime Vachier Lagrave hasn’t yet reached the level we may expect from a player of his calibre. Against Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, he didn’t get anything with White again, despite Black’s somewhat “modern” opening setup (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 h6!?) and actually White had to be a little careful.

However, Black’s pawn centre was soon stopped by the white rooks. Further on in the endgame, when Black threatened to get his other rook on the second rank (always a sign for extreme caution), the Frenchman correctly gave a pawn away. His activity assured him a liquidation into a rook ending with f against g+h which was once more proven to be an easy affair: draw.

Finally, David Howell decided to test Anish Giri’s memory in a tricky Petroff with 8.Nc3 and 9.Qe1!?, a line many GMs have fallen victim to. Giri passed the test with honour and accepted his opponent’s proposal for a draw on move 27.

Standings after Round 3:

1. So 2,5
2. Tomashevski, Caruana 2
4. Rodshtein, Vachier-Lagrave, Giri, Andreikin, Truong Son 1,5
9. Howell 1
10. Negi 0

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

Biel Young Grandmasters Games round 3, analysed by Robert Ris

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Tournoi de Grands-Maîtres : Maxime Vachier-Lagrave second à 3,5/6

Formule originale cette année pour le tournoi majeur puisque dix jeunes grands-maîtres sont les stars de cette 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet.

Le Festival international d'échecs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, fête son quart de siècle avec un nouveau record de popularité à 354 participants.

Née le 24 Décembre 1983 à Odessa (URSS à l'époque et l'Ukraine aujourd'hui), cette championne d'échecs naturalisée américaine a remporté le championnat national US féminin en 1998, 2007 et 2010.

Cette très forte joueuse d'échecs a gagné en popularité en dehors même de la communauté échiquéenne lors du match très médiatisé "Kasparov contre le Monde" en 1999. Garry Kasparov jouait côté blanc face au public avec les Noirs.

Le vote du public par internet était guidé par les recommandations de cette joueuse, alliée à celles d'Étienne Bacrot, d'Elisabeth Pähtz et de Florin Felecan. Au 10ème coup noir, elle proposa une nouveauté théorique que le public valida. Garry Kasparov expliqua plus tard qu'il avait perdu le contrôle de la partie à partir de ce coup magistral.

Alors pourriez-vous citer le patronyme de cette championne du jeu d'échecs ?

Le tournoi d'échecs Sparkassen Chess-Meeting de Dortmund se déroule du 15 au 25 Juillet avec 6 super grands-maîtres d'échecs, et en 10 rondes.

Cet exercice tactique est tiré d'une partie d'échecs jouée lors du 35ème Mémorial Capablanca à Varadero (Cuba) en 2000. Le grand-maître espagnol Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez était opposé au Cubain Juan Borges Mateos. Dans cette position, les Blancs ratèrent un mat en 5 coups. Et vous ?

Tournoi de Grands-Maîtres : Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 6ème à 2,5/5

Formule originale cette année pour le tournoi majeur puisque dix jeunes grands-maîtres sont les stars de cette 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet.

Tournoi de Maîtres : Le Français Sébastien Feller seul leader à 4/4 !

En plus du tournoi des jeunes Grands-maîtres, le Festival de Bienne organise de nombreuses compétitions, comme par exemple le très fort tournoi de maîtres avec la participation cette année de 7 joueurs à plus de 2600 points Elo, dont les Français Christian Bauer, Sébastien Mazé et Sébastien Feller, récent vainqueur du Fide à Paris.

Le grand-maître Sébastien Feller (2611), vainqueur à Paris © Chess & Strategy

Tournoi de Grands-Maîtres : Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 5ème à 2/4

Formule originale cette année pour le tournoi majeur puisque dix jeunes grands-maîtres sont les stars de cette 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet.

Et si on dansait sur le thème des échecs au cinéma ? C'est possible grâce à la série Chess Rhapsodie. Notre ami Dominique Dervieux a trouvé aiujourd'hui la perle du net. Chess Rhapsodie n° 2 propose une avalanche d'extraits de film comprenant a minima une scène avec un échiquier.

Essayez de déterminer le titre de ces films a tempo ! Bon courage à tous... la solution n'est pas donnée dans le générique.

Le Festival international d'échecs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, fête son quart de siècle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Le tournoi d'échecs Sparkassen Chess-Meeting de Dortmund se déroule du 15 au 25 Juillet avec 6 super grands-maîtres d'échecs, et en 10 rondes.

Le tournoi d'échecs fermé Sparkassen Chess-Meeting de Dortmund se déroule du 15 au 25 Juillet avec 6 super grands-maîtres d'échecs et en 10 rondes.

International Master Irina Krush was seen more than a decade ago selling autographed cards at the World Open. There was never been a question of her talent and in the 2010 she has shown again why her chess spirit gets so much acclaim. Krush came into the tournament with a sour memory from the 2008 tiebreak against IM Anna Zatonskih. That tournament ended famously in a dispute with Zatonskih getting the win.

In this tournment Zatonskih admitted to not playing her best chess, but still held the lead until the last round when Krush squeezed a win against the hapless Abby Marshall. Krush stated that it was her toughest battle. She ended on +7 (TPR 2686) which has to be considered a dominant performance. In the post-game interview, Krush felt good about her play and credited yoga with helping her calm her nerves. It is already well-known that Krush is an avid fan of rap music and vowed to do a number at the closing ceremonies if someone would write one!

Krush will play in the Moscow Blitz before representing the U.S. Women’s team in Khanty-Mansiysk for the 2010 Olympiad. Zatonskih and WFM Tatev Abrahamyan, both ending on 7.5/9, will join her as teammates. Abrahamyan was in top form losing only to Krush.

IM Samuel Shankland, won the under-18 championships two years ago, has two GM norms, but has had a rough go lately. After narrowly missing his last GM norms and playing badly as of late, he entered the U.S. Junior with high hopes. As the number-two seed, he would be in competition with GM Ray Robson and other promising juniors for the crown. His start was not auspcious. He promptly lost his first two games which may have cemented his notion of quitting chess, a pronouncement made prior to the tournament. However, Shankland steadied himself and made perhaps one of the greatest comebacks in U.S. history by scoring 6/7 to force a tiebreak.

Perhaps Robson is the most disappointed of all after coasting through the tournament and building what was thought to be an unsurmountable lead. He would face FM Warren Harper needing on a draw to clinch. Harper had lost five straight games and a draw seemed doable. However, things went terribly wrong for Robson as he was brutally crushed. Parker Zhao then had a chance to win the tournament if he beat FM John Bryant. Going into the ending two pawns up, it appears that Zhao would win, but he made some serious errors in the ending and Bryant was able to hold a draw. This would force a three-way playoff.

Since Robson had the best tiebreaks, he could take a bye and play the winner of Shankland-Zhao. After beating Parker Zhao in a nice attacking game, Shankland would face top junior in Robson, who many feel represents the future of American chess. In an unusual twist, Shankland bid 31 minutes for his time and would receive black with draw odds. In the “Fantasy Variation” of the Caro Kann (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3), he passed the test with flying colors and stated in the post-game interview that he was surprised at his opponent’s choice.

By virtue of his win, Shankland earns a spot in the 2011, but in the post-game interview had nixed the World Junior Championship citing previous committments. However, it may well be the opportunity for earning the final GM norm and may help put the young star back on track for future chess endeavors.

Official Site: http://www.uschesschamps.com
Games: Women | Juniors

Le Festival international d'échecs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, fête son quart de siècle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Quel talent, ce Léo ! Aujourd'hui, le vice-président de la Fédération Française des échecs, Léo Battesti, revient sur Chess & Strategy pour nous présenter la nouvelle formule interactive du magazine fédéral Echec & Mat.

A l'ère du développement durable, on parierait qu'Internet a été créé pour servir les Echecs... Cette version numérique d'Echec et Mat en constitue une preuve supplémentaire.

Au menu, des reportages vidéos, des parties commentées, une centaine de diagrammes interactifs pour tous niveaux de jeu, des rubriques "Terre d'échecs", "Histoire", "Dossier" bénéficiant de cette nouvelle technologie. Mais aussi un sondage et un Quiz doté d'une dizaine de cadeaux !

Inscrivez-vous gratuitement en envoyant votre e-mail à la FFE.

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Jour J pour les dix jeunes grands-maîtres qui seront les stars de la 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010 du 19 au 28 juillet.

Le surdoué des échecs français Maxime Vachier-Lagrave était interviewé lundi 19 juillet dans l'émission "Le 12h30" de la Radio Suisse Romande. L'occasion de mieux connaître la pratique professionnelle des échecs lors du tournoi de Bienne 2010.

Les sujets abordés

Comment devient-on grand-maître international ? Comment Maxime a-t-il débuté aux échecs ? Quel est le régime alimentaire des joueurs de haut-niveau et leur travail préparatoire avant un tournoi. La question du dopage et du contrôle anti-dopage est également évoquée.

Une très intéressante interview du champion du monde d'échecs junior 2009 à écouter et/ou télécharger sur le site de la Radio Suisse Romande.

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Fallait bien que cela arrive un jour. L'été est propice à la sieste et aux échecs tranquilles... C'est pour cela qu'Olibris nous gratifie aujourd'hui d'un ouvrage adapté à la saison et en moins de 200 pages.

Le tournoi d'échecs fermé Sparkassen Chess-Meeting de Dortmund se déroule du 15 au 25 Juillet avec 6 super grands-maîtres d'échecs et en 10 rondes.

Née le 24 Décembre 1983 à Odessa (URSS à l'époque et l'Ukraine aujourd'hui), cette championne d'échecs naturalisée américaine a remporté le championnat national US féminin en 1998, 2007 et 2010.

Cette très forte joueuse d'échecs a gagné en popularité en dehors même de la communauté échiquéenne lors du match très médiatisé "Kasparov contre le Monde" en 1999. Garry Kasparov jouait côté blanc face au public avec les Noirs.

Le vote du public par internet était guidé par les recommandations de cette joueuse, alliée à celles d'Étienne Bacrot, d'Elisabeth Pähtz et de Florin Felecan. Au 10ème coup noir, elle proposa une nouveauté théorique que le public valida. Garry Kasparov expliqua plus tard qu'il avait perdu le contrôle de la partie à partir de ce coup magistral.

Alors pourriez-vous citer le patronyme de cette championne du jeu d'échecs ?

Chaque mardi, notre ami le maître international canadien d'échecs Jean Hébert nous propose sa lettre d'information HPE.

Aux échecs, la plupart des joueurs préfèrent avoir les Blancs car ils ont l'initiative du premier coup. Ici, George Bush semble en difficulté face à Vladimir Poutine, mais un miracle échiquéen va se produire au détour d'une combinaison noire.

Dans notre échec & mat du jour, Vladimir avec les Blancs envoie un missile stratégique SS 4 en g7, destiné à un rôle d'intimidation. George avec les Noirs réplique avec un projectile autopropulsé et guidé américain Polaris à longue portée lancé depuis un sous-marin en b8... pour mater en 5 coups. La guerre sur l'échiquier est plutôt chaude, non ?!

Nous vous invitons à aiguiser votre habilité technique avec notre rubrique quotidienne S'entraîner dans notre ligne de Menu.

Chess & Strategy Tactic pour s'entraîner aux échecs

Résolvez nos exercices de mat en 2 coups, 3 coups ou même beaucoup plus, côté blanc comme côté noir peu nous importe finalement ! A chaque fois, le niveau est indiqué (Facile, Moyen ou Fort), un indice facultatif est proposé, et bien sûr la solution est donnée. Pour un entraînement optimal des neurones, ne pas bouger les pièces sur un échiquier et bien sûr, pas de logiciel d'échecs.

Trouvez le tacticien en vous sur Chess & Strategy Tactic !

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Le Festival international d'échecs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, fête son quart de siècle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Le Festival international d'échecs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, fête son quart de siècle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Le tournoi d'échecs fermé Sparkassen Chess-Meeting de Dortmund se déroule du 15 au 25 Juillet à 6 joueurs et en 10 rondes.

Aux échecs, la plupart des joueurs préfèrent avoir les Blancs car ils ont l'initiative du premier coup. Mais parfois, on rencontre des amateurs qui ont un penchant pour les Noirs et la contre-attaque. Ceux-là jouent volontiers la sicilienne contre 1.e4 et l'Est-indienne ou le Gambit Benko sur 1.d4, quand ce n'est pas la très tranchante défense Nimzovitsch.

C'est juste une question de goût et de style. L'important est de progresser aux échecs dans la compréhension stratégique du jeu et dans le calcul des variantes. A ce propos, nous vous invitons à tester votre habilité technique au calcul avec notre rubrique quotidienne S'entraîner.

Chess & Strategy Tactic pour s'entraîner au quotidien

Résolvez nos exercices de mat en 2 coups, 3 coups ou même beaucoup plus, côté blanc comme côté noir peu nous importe finalement ! A chaque fois, le niveau est indiqué (Facile, Moyen ou Fort), un indice facultatif est proposé, et bien sûr la solution est donnée. Pour un entraînement optimal des neurones, nous vous conseillons de ne pas bouger les pièces sur un échiquier et bien sûr, sans l'aide d'un logiciel d'échecs.

Trouvez le tacticien en vous sur Chess & Strategy Tactic !

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Le club d'échecs de Strasbourg organisait son 1er Open International du 14 au 17 juillet 2010, le 1er tournoi international d'envergure dans la capitale européenne depuis 1973. A cette occasion, France 3 a réalisé un superbe reportage vidéo mettant en avant les valeurs de notre sport.

Mark Izrailovich Dvoretsky a la réputation d'être le meilleur entraîneur aux échecs du monde. Ces écrits et chroniques sont tous de qualité supérieure et ses conseils ne vieillissent jamais. C'est ce que nous avons voulu monter ce matin sur Chess & Strategy. Alors Pourquoi et comment ?

Né le 9 décembre 1947 à Moscou Russie, Mark Dvoretsky est d'abord devenu un maître international de très haut niveau. En 1973, il remporte le championnat de Moscou et en 1975, il gagne le tournoi B de Wijk aan Zee ce qui lui confère le titre de maître. Ensuite, Dvoretsky choisit de s'orienter vers la profession d’entraîneur et de formateur avec ses qualités de psychologue échiquéen.

Une reconnaissance unanime des professionnels

Tous les joueurs d'échecs quel que soit leur niveau, fussent-il même champion du monde, trouvent dans les écrits de Mark Dvorestky des conseils et des «trucs» extraordinaires qui leur permettent de progresser dans leur quête de vérité échiquéenne. Ces écrits et chroniques sont toutes de qualité supérieure et ses conseils qui pratiquement ne vieillissent jamais vu qu’il nous met en garde contre l’épreuve du temps. Universels, ses conseils peuvent être adressés à tous les joueurs quel que que soit leur niveau ainsi qu’à tous les entraîneurs. On trouve chez Mark Dvoretzy l’esprit et l’essence de toute l’expérience échiquéenne contenue dans le formidable engouement pour le plus ancien des jeux déclenché à partir des années vingt et après la période soviétique.

L'entraîneur des meilleurs joueurs du monde

De nombreux joueurs de l'élite ont travaillé avec lui : Anand, Topalov, Lautier, Kasparov... Mark Dvoretsky a écrit de nombreux livres, dont plusieurs en collaboration avec Arthur Youssoupov, qui sont très estimés dans le milieu échiquéen. Nous vous invitons à découvrir ses ouvrages, et notamment son célèbre manuel des finales, pour progresser aux échecs.

Le Festival international d'échecs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, fête son quart de siècle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Aux échecs, de belles combinaisons tactiques s'apparentent au jeu de la séduction entre la dame blanche et le roi noir avec souvent un feu d'artifice à la clé.

Dans le même registre, le magicien de Riga, Mikhail Tal raffolait des sacrifices qui, bien que souvent douteux, étaient quasiment impossibles à réfuter devant l'échiquier. Une mine d'or pour s'entraîner aux échecs !

Nous vous invitons à tester votre habilité technique au calcul des variantes grâce notre rubrique quotidienne S'entraîner.

Résolvez nos exercices de mat en 2 coups, 3 coups ou même beaucoup plus. A chaque fois, le niveau est indiqué (Facile, Moyen ou Fort), un indice facultatif est proposé, et bien sûr la solution est donnée. Pour un entraînement optimal des neurones, nous vous conseillons de ne pas bouger les pièces sur un échiquier et bien sûr, pas d'ordinateur avec un logiciel d'échecs entre nous.

Trouvez le tacticien en vous sur Chess & Strategy Tactic !

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Le Festival international d'échecs d'Avoine, qui se tient du 17 au 25 juillet 2010, fête son quart de siècle avec un nouveau record de participants.

Le tournoi d'échecs fermé Sparkassen Chess-Meeting de Dortmund se déroule du 15 au 25 Juillet à 6 joueurs et en 10 rondes.

Le fort Open d'échecs de Saint-Chély d'Aubrac se déroule du 10 au 17 juillet dans une ambiance festive autour de l'aligot et des champignons géants. Suspense garanti sur le plateau volcanique et granitique situé au centre du Massif central.

Ci-contre, Jean-Claude Moingt, le président de la Fédération Française des échecs © Patrick Van Hoolandt

Le point avant la 9ème et dernière ronde : Trois hommes pointent en tête avec 6½ sur 8, le Roumain Vasile Sanduleac (2451) et les deux Français Jean-Noël Riff (2500) et Jean-Marc Degraeve (2569). Un peu plus bas au classement, Jean-Claude Moingt (2290) occupe la 14ème place à 5 points en compagnie d'Anne Müller (2184), actuelle première féminine. Président, fallait-il goûter à ces champignons ?

La 9ème édition du Festival international d'échecs de Condom se déroule du 10 au 17 juillet 2010 sous le soleil de la région Midi-Pyrénées.

Née en 1906 à Moscou d'un père tchèque et d'une mère anglaise, cette joueuse d'échecs s'installe en Angleterre à partir de 1921.

La même année, elle remporte le championnat féminin d'Angleterre et devient l'élève de Geza Maroczy l'année suivante. À partir de 1927, il est organisé en marge des Olympiades d'échecs masculines (il n'y a pas encore d'olympiades réservées aux femmes) un tournoi individuel féminin considéré comme un véritable championnat du monde féminin. Cette brillante championne d'échecs gagne tous les tournois d'avant-guerre, ne laissant aucune chance à ses concurrentes : en sept tournois consécutifs, elle enregistre 78 victoires, 4 nulles et une seule défaite !

Elle rivalise avec les meilleurs joueurs, n'hésitant pas à participer aux tournois masculins. Elle termine 2e à Ramsgate en 1929 derrière Capablanca, ex aequo avec Rubinstein, et 3e à Maribor en 1934.

Alors pourriez-vous citer le patronyme de cette championne du jeu d'échecs ?

Nolan tips his hand regarding his view of the cinema, and of the dream-world he’s constituting within it, by means of the name of the young heir being “incepted”: Robert Fischer, i.e., Bobby Fischer. The film is constructed with the coherent hermeticism of chess: Nolan lays down rules of dream-manipulation that are finite, clear, and complex, guiding a personal, intimate, inchoate realm into discernible patterns. The film’s chess-like precision and self-containment that accounts for much of the adolescent passion the movie arouses. Its remarkably complex conceits yield a remarkably callow film, in which motives are as simple and highlighted as if sketched in a scriptwriting class, and the near-futuristic society that’s depicted with a vast armamentarium of physical and computer effects is narrowed to a B-movie thinness.

After yesterday’s rest day, Arkadij Naiditsch scored his first victory of the tournament while the other two games ended in relatively quiet draws.

In today’s round, Naiditsch did excellent business after a slightly bleak tournament so far, while Ponomariov and Le Quang consolidated their leading positions.

Le Quang had pretty good chances today against Kramnik after some fine opening preparation. In a topical line of the Catalan Defence, the Vietnamese had prepared a novelty that got Kramnik thinking.

After 16 moves of well-known theory, the following position was reached:

Instead of the still known 17.Nxd7 (Dominguez-Carlsen, Nizza 2010), Le Quang played 17.Rac1! – a move he said afterwards to have found at home – after which White retained his slight but certain opening advantage. A couple of moves later, Kramnik faced an ‘octopus’ on d6 which got him in some serious (practical) trouble.

21…c4? (21…f6! had to be played – Le Quang) 22.b3! after which White opened the c-file with a huge positional plus. Sadly for Le Quang, he let his advantage slip away and the Russian managed to flee into a drawish endgame where his bishop and rook proved sufficiently solid against Le Quang’s queen. A narrow escape for Kramnik!

Le Quang - Kramnik (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Ponomariov never really got into trouble against Leko in yet another Catalan variation. Optically, it looked a bit tricky for Black at some point, but Pono was apparently just in time to free his bishop and get his counterplay going.

Leko - Ponomariov (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Obviously, it’s not Peter Leko’s tournament so far, especially not after Naiditsch passed him in the standings today.

Actually, the German was “lucky” to beat Mamedyarov – except that there is no such thing as luck in chess, of course. Still, it must be admitted that White was better during most of the game. Consider the position after Naiditsch has just played 24…Qb2:

Here, the machine suggests 25.Qd3! with a big advantage in all lines. On 25…Qb7, White continues with the logical 26.Ng4 and 27.f4 with a strong attack, while 25…Rc6 runs into 26.Rab1 Rxc1+ 27.Bxc1 Qa2 28.Ng4 Kg7 29.Rb7 with a very nasty initiative for White. However, Mamedyarov played 25.Nf3 after which Black seemed to be OK again, until Black mistakenly exchanged rooks and White was back in the driver’s seat.

Mamedyarov again decided to make a knight move (32.Nh2) but 32.Bxg5! looks absolutely killing since after multiple captures on g5, the black rook will be left hanging on d8, and after 32…Qb6 White has the extremely difficult-to-find 33.Bf6! Rg8 34.Ng5+!! followed by Qd3+ and Rxd7 with a winning game.

Instead of this, Mamedyarov totally ruined his day when a few moves later he committed a really horrible blunder:

Now 36.Qd3+ looks about equal, but here the Azeri suddenly played 36.Rxd7?? and resigned furiously without waiting for the obvious. A small tragedy, indeed.

Mamedyarov - Naiditsch (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Standings after 6 rounds:

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

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

Dortmund Games round 6

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

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

In the second round of the Young Grandmasters Tournament in Biel, four of the five games ended in a draw. Hero of the day was Evgeny Tomashevsky, who managed to grind down Parimarjan Negi.

Report and analyses by IM Robert Ris

Like yesterday, the games in Biel all started quietly. In Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son-Howell, White opted for a Trompovsky opening, which is a brave choice against an Englishman. Various coffeehouse chessplayers have incorporated this uncompromising opening into their repertoire, though the Vietnamese clearly had other intentions by continuing in the more solid Colle style. From a strategical point of view, however, his opening plays deserves some criticism.

9.Bxf6?! It’s hard to understand why White gives up his bishop voluntarily.

Howell equalized fairly easily after this, despite his huge time investment. This may explain why he overlooked 19…Qd7!, missing an opportunity to punish White for his primitive approach. Quickly after a mass of exchanges took place when neither side could hardly play for anything on.

An even shorter affair was the game between Caruana-Rodshtein, though it had important theoretical relevance. In a 7.Nf3/8.Be3 Grünfeld, the Israeli opted for the topical 8…Bg4, but soon the game returned to very well-known territory.

In this position, Rodshtein’s 13…Nd7! is an important innovation in a line which was considered quite dubious for Black.

Caruana accepted the invitation by taking the pawn, but Black obtained sufficient compensation due to the weakened black squares. White didn’t hesitate to return the pawn in order to mobilize his centre. Black might have prolonged the battle with 18…Nf6!?, but instead opted for liquidation which finally resulted in an unavoidable perpetual.

The third game saw an unusual Grünfeld/Slav hybrid in the duel between Wesley So and Maxime Vachier Lagrave. The Frenchman deviated from the common paths as early as move 8, but had to accept a slight edge for his opponent. The Philipino GM tried everything possible to extend his advantage, but Vachier didn’t crack. On move 64 White stopped his efforts and offered a draw.

The most spectacular encounter of the day by far was the game Giri-Andreikin. The outcome of the opening must have satisfied Black, as Giri couldn’t get anything with White. While White hesitated to execute an central thrust, Black quickly seized the initiative on the queenside. A complex middlegame arose, where Black certainly missed some chances.

Here Black took on f3, whereas 34…Qa5! would have remained better for Black.

Giri showed his tactical abilities and survived the complications. After the time-control Black had to defend a famous ending of rook against bishop with both sides having an h-pawn. Andreikin actually had an extra d-pawn, but as soon his king was driven to the edge, he correctly understood he had to give it up.

(Position after 67…Ke6)

This ending is reminiscent of Kasparov-Yusupov, Linares 1993 (in a mirrored position) and, more recently, Naiditsch-So, Corus 2010. (The famous Timman-Velimirovic, Rio de Janeiro 1979 ending was with pawns on a2 and a3.) Kasparov in fact could have won that Linares game, and it’s instructive to see what Black has to avoid in this ending.

Kasparov-Yusupov
Linares 1993

Here, Kasparov missed his chance with 102.Re7+? allowing the black king to escape. Instead, 102.Rd8!! was the correct way to proceed. White carefully needs to put Black into zugzwang: 102…Kc7 103.Rd4! (targeting a4) Kb7 104.Rd7+ Kc8 105.Kc6 Bc2 106.Rd4 Bb3 107.Kb6 and Black has no move.

Andreikin didn’t let it come that far. On move 109, Giri abandoned the struggle and settled for the inevitable draw.

The only decisive game was Tomashevsky-Negi, with the Indian again as the victim. In a QGD with 5.Bf4, White obtained an edge typical for this variation. When Negi was finally close to equalize, he lost a pawn and had to suffer an unpleasant ending with a minus pawn. However, the Indian fought like a lion and accurately defended – until he missed a clear-cut way to draw.

Now, 64…Kf6 would have probably just been a draw, but unfortunately for Negi, he went for 64…Qe4+? after which he had to suffer for many more moves to come. The Russian Club-2700 member didn’t give him another chance and on move 94, Negi had to resign.

Standings after Round 2:

1. Tomashevsky, So, Rodshtein 1,5
4. Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana, Giri, Andreikin, Truong Son 1
9. Howell 0,5
10. Negi 0

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

Biel Young Grandmasters Games round 2, analysed by Robert Ris

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

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

Sometimes the big new titles from the big publishers get all the attention. It’s true these are often great buys, but there’s also the risk of overlooking little gems by smaller publishers. Or, as the great Italian philosopher Calimero used to say, “Life’s so unfair when you’re small”.

Even though it’s only 130 pages and looks decidedly modest in size, Modern Ideas in Chess by Richard Réti (1889-1929) is a real classic in chess literature. First published in 1923, Russell Enterprises recently published a “21st century” edition in English with figurine algebraic notation and a foreword by Andrew Soltis. I hadn’t read the book before. I wish I had.

Modern Ideas in Chess is a compilation of 45 essays on the evolution of chess understanding from the mid-1850s until the 1920s. After almost ninety years, it is still as fresh and insightful as it was to contemporaries of the great Slowakian player. In fact, one of the reasons why the book still looks so modern is probably because of its compact size. Réti’s style of analysing is also very sober and his prose quite imaginative. Most importantly, he had an incredibly sharp eye when observing the chess style of his great predecessors.

The book starts with some lucid chapters in praise of Paul Morphy, whom Réti saw as “the first positional player”. For instance, he points out that in the following position after 5.Ng5, a move “Morphy would certainly never have made”, players before Morphy often used to play 5…Ne5, because it looked attractive to protect the pawn at f7 and attack the bishop on c4 at the same time.

However, after 5…Ne5? 6.Bxf7+ Nxf7 7.Nxf7 Kxf7 8.Qh5+ g6 9.Qxc5 White has a clear advantage. Morphy, on the other hand, simply played 5…Nh6! and if White proceeds in similar fashion by taking on f7 and then picking up the bishop at c5,

The pawn at d4 is protected, as Morphy (in consequence of his developing move 5…Nh6) exchanged the otherwise undeveloped piece and not the already developed knight at c6. White has a bad game and the premature attack by 5.Ng5 is refuted.

Actually this example served as a good wake-up call to myself, since it made me realize chess is not about making nice moves, but about making good moves. (It’s the rule I tend to forget most in chess.) It is a point Réti makes time and again in his essays. Here’s another great example from his analysis of Morphy’s fourth match game against Anderssen in 1858, which is also a good illustration of Réti’s often original way of describing chess moves.

Anderssen – Morphy
Paris (4) 1858

13.Nc3 Does Anderssen intend to make a developing move here? Certainly not. That it happens to be one is merely chance. It is essentially an attacking move which threatens 14.Nxd5, 15.Qd3, while 14.Qd3 can at once be parried by Black with 14…Nf6.

One of the things that make Réti’s book such an entertaining read, even today, is his constant comparison between great players. This is something that isn’t often seen those days. Kasparov, in his monumental My Great Predecessors series, explicitly says comparing players from the past is pointless because each great player contributed something valuable to the development of chess. This is in fact the same point of view Réti expresses in his book, but Réti doesn’t shy away from comparing the great players with concrete examples, which is something Kasparov never does.

Steinitz-Chigorin
Havana (4) 1892

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3

One sees here at once the difference between Morphy and Steinitz. The former was always anxious to press on at the earliest possible moment with d2-d4. Steinitz on the other hand does not want to break through the center, but is more concerned with buidling up for himself a strong position, to enable him subsequently to prepare an attack on the kingside.

Réti constantly comes back to the points he previously made, maintaining a clear line throughout the book. One of the highlights is the chapter on Capablanca. Probably my favourite fragment is where he describes a consultation game he once played together with the great Cuban. It proved to be a turning point in Réti’s own development as a chess player.

Fähndrich & Kaufmann – Capablanca & Réti
Vienna 1914

A position was arrived at here in which the opportunity presented itself to develop a hitherto undeveloped piece and indeed with an attack. The move 14…Re8 would have had that effect and was in accordance with the principles prevailing when I grew up and which correspond almost entirely with Morphy’s principles (for he would without considering have chosen that move).

To my great astonishment Capablanca would not even consider the move at all. Finally he discovered the following maneuver by means of which he forced a deterioration of White’s pawn position and thereby later on his defeat:

14…Bd4 15.Qd3 Bxc3 16.Qxc3 Ne4! 17.Qd4 g5 18.Ne5 Bf5

With this game began a revolution in my conviction as to the wisdom of the old principle, according to which in the opening every move should develop another piece. I studies Capablanca’s games and recognized that contrary to all the masters of that period he had for some time ceased to adhere to that principle.

Réti goes on to explain that Capablanca, of course, also had to develop his pieces in order to carry out any plan at all, but that the difference lies in “those particular and unusual moves” which made Capablanca so vastly superior. Again, he doesn’t shy away from comparing Capablanca’s new technique with that of the older masters. The following position is from a well-known line in the Four Knights game.

Réti first shows how in a game Tarrasch-Lasker from 1908, White developed normally by means of 11.Bg5, which develops a piece and looks in accordance with everything we know about chess. But then he points out that

The essential element of the position is due to the center pawn formation at e4 and d6. By means of it White can get the knight on to the fifth rank and it would be well protected. In order to avail himself of that possibility Capablanca in same position [Capablanca-Fonaroff, New York 1918] played 11.Qc3 so as to land the knight on b5 via d4 on the favourable square f5.

(Interestingly, it seems that the move 11.Bg5 has prevailed after all, since it is by far the most popular choice in my database. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that last year, the strong Brazilian grandmaster Vescovi did play Capablanca’s 11.Qc3. In the end, of course, Réti’s point is not about the objective value of Qc3 over Bg5, but about Capa’s creative – and revolutionary – vision.)

Réti’s description of chess evolution brings him, naturally, to the Hypermodernists. Interestingly, here not all attention goes out to Alekhine automatically. This is, of course, partly due to the fact that Alekhine hadn’t become World Champion yet at the time of Reti’s writing. In fact, Réti attributes a lot of Alkehine’s development of strength to Capablanca:

When Alekhine divided with Nimzowitsch the first prize at the all-Russian tournament of 1914, everybody said that he had been lucky. Alekhine’s friendship with Capablanca, who went to Russia in 1914, marked a turning point in his chess career. During his intercourse with Capablanca, he learnt the latter’s new technique, the lively dynamics of which suited Alekhine’s disposition, and added a methodical groundwork to his originality, whereupon he was able to build still further.

But besides Alekhine, Réti also pays tribute to now lesser-known players such as Gyula Breyer, and the book contains very interesting and nuanced portraits of Akiba Rubinstein and Efim Bogolyubov. (More nuanced than Kasparov’s, I’d say.) Réti’s open-mindedness and constant self-reflection also shows in the following fragment on the youngest generation (which included young Max Euwe):

He who with inward struggles and frequent doubtings has co-operated in elaborating a new school of chess [i.e. Hypermodernism - AWM], experiences a remarkable feeling when he realizes how the younger masters, without trouble, and almost as a mattter of course, accept and make use of recent technical acquisitions as if such acquisitions had been merely presented or handed down to them.

Richard Réti

Tellingly, one of the very few fragments in the book from Réti’s own games is a crushing loss against Bogolyubov (Berlin 1919). It’s a pity that his own games and the impression he made on others are strangely absent from Modern Ideas in Chess. We have to be content with such marvellous quotes as:

The layman thinks that the superiority of the chess master lies in his ability to think out 3 or 4, or even 10 or 20, moves ahead. Those chess lovers who ask me how many moves I calculate in advance, when making a combination, are always astonished when I reply, quite truthfully, “as a rule not a single one.”

It’s only fair that history has given Richard Réti, who died at the age of 40, a firm place in Caissa’s eternal Hall of Fame. His grand idea of chess as an ever developing science is still the foundation of every chess improvement book that appears on the market. But before buying those, you should read Modern Ideas in Chess.

Small in size though it may be, in importance it is enormous.

Links

• Get yourself a copy of Modern Ideas in Chess
• Read more book reviews

In round 4, Quang Le from Vietnam showed he did not come to Dortmund to serve as cannon fodder! After the 2700+ aggression he faced in round 3, Quang Le was able to gear up and confront Ponomariov with some tactics of his own.

Report by Daan Zult

Until move eleven of a Grünfeld Indian, both players were familiar with the position from the white perspective. Earlier this year the position arose in Quang Le – Sasikiran (Moskou, 1-0) and Ponomariov – Carlsen (Nice, 0-1). Now Ponomariov was the first to deviate from both games with 11… b6, where Sasikiran played 11… Bd7 and Carlsen 11… Rd8.

Ponomariov’s move was only played twice before, both times by Gata Kamsky in 1991, in which he won and lost a game. The move might be a little bluff, because after 12.dxc5 dxc5 13.Qd5 or 12.dxc5 Ne5 the move is essentially a pawn sacrifice in a complicated position where white seems to have the better chances. This is further confirmed by the loss of Kamsky against Rao Vivek, who did accept the sacrifice and won the game. Quang Le rejected the sacrifice and played the more solid and careful 12.Bf4, after which he retained a small but evident advantage.

Whether Ponomariov tried to complicate the position in an eager to win or whether he thought it was a wise plan is unclear, but with 18… h5? he asked too much of his position.

It gave Quang Le the opportunity to show his true color, when with 19.Nxg6! Nxg6 20.Bd6 he unleashed some excellent tactics that gave him a pawn and the bishop pair. Fortunately for Ponomariov the position did not end in a clear cut win position and he might still have drawn it with accurate play. However, in an ending with bishops of opposite color Ponomariov showed once more it was not his day.

With 31… h4, he gave Quang Le the opportunity to create two connected passed pawns, starting with 32.f4, 33.e5, followed by g2-g3, which Quang Le confidently converged into a full point. With his victory Quang Le bounced back to a 50% score and brought new tension into the tournament standings. He also once again showed that Vietnam is a chess country to reckon with in the future. Kudos to Quang Le.

Liem Quang Le (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

In terms of ‘fire on the board’, the other games where less interesting. In particular Mamedyarov – Kramnik, which was a big exchange feast in the QGD and could be considered the first rest day for both players, although in fact Black seemed slightly more pleasant after the opening.

Mamedyarov - Kramnik (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Mamedyarov will probably be happy now that he is in sole lead. Kramnik can also be satisfied with his play, and he can now try to get back in the tournament with white against Naiditsch in round 5.

The game Naiditsch – Leko, a Ruy Lopez Arkhangelsk, was not much different. With 15.Qd2 Leko was the first to deviate from a game Leko – Shirov, played in 1997, where he played 15.Qg3. This new move is unlikely to attract a bunch of screaming fans, because it did not change the evaluation and result of the game, which after a couple of exchanges ended in a drawn rook endgame.

Naiditsch - Leko (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

The big winners of round 4 were Quang Le and Skakhriar Mamedyarov, who is now in sole lead. Round 5 (played today) might show some fighting chess, because in Leko – Quang Le and Kramnik – Naiditsch, the rating favorites have white and might not let black walk with an easy draw.

Moreover, we have the number 1 and 2 of the standings competing against each other, where Pono might try to get back on top by having a shot at Shakh with white. However, the statistics on the FIDE site show this would be a surprise, because all their six previous rated games ended in a draw.

Standings after 4 rounds:

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

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

Dortmund Games round 4

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Karpov: I think talent accounts for 20 percent of success and up to 80 percent is training hard and gaining experience from your own games.

Q: To develop chess, which conditions does a country need?

Karpov: The prerequisite condition is a broad chess movement. Then chess players must show their professionalism. In addition, the assistance of the government and businesses is very important.

Q: What do you know about Vietnam’s chess?

Karpov: You have Le Quang Liem, who has played at world leading tournaments. I believe that Vietnam has many talents and it will be the home to many world chess champions.

Q: Chess players have good mathematical thinking. Is it better if you don’t play chess, but research mathematics?

Karpov: I don’t know, but chess helps life a lot. Through chess, people can train their discipline and logical thinking ability to perfect themselves and improve their memory.

Q: How does chess playing benefit students?

Karpov: Chess playing has really developed in the last two decades. More masters and grandmasters of chess have appeared. In many countries, chess is taught at schools. That’s the nursery to discover who will become grandmasters of chess and excellent mathematicians.

Q: If you are elected as FIDE Chair, what will you do to further develop chess?

Karpov: If I’m elected, I will exempt appointment fees for grandmaster and master titles and I will do my best to support chess playing movements in developing countries.

Developing chess must originate from mass movements, so I will set up at least one chess club for each age in nations with chess movements.

In Vietnam, I have thought of building two chess clubs, one in HCM City and one in Hanoi.

Source: Tuoi Tre

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

El viernes 30 de julio a las 19:30 horas se disputará el Blitz Verano 2010 “La Caja de Canarias”. El ritmo de  juego será de tres minutos más dos segundos por jugada. Las inscripciones estarán abiertas hasta media hora antes del inicio del torneo.

TORNEO BLITZ  (3 minutos + 2 seg.)   VERANO 2010 ” LA CAJA DE CANARIAS ”

BASES TÉCNICAS

DÍAS DE JUEGO: Viernes 30 de julio de 2010.

CUOTA INSCRIPCIÓN: 5 euros.

SISTEMA DE JUEGO: Suizo a 7 rondas.

RITMO DE JUEGO: 3 minutos más 2 segundos por movimiento para cada jugador.

PARTICIPANTES: Podrán participar todos aquellos jugadores que lo deseen.

INSCRIPCIONES: En el Club de Ajedrez de La Caja de Canarias hasta media hora antes del inicio del Torneo, rogándose llevar a cabo las mismas con varios días de antelación, bien telefónicamente, de 19,00 a 22,00 horas, al número 928.24.87.14 o al contestador del propio Club, fuera de dichas horas), y al correo electrónico: clubajedciac@gmail.com Esta dirección electrónica esta protegida contra spam bots. Necesita activar JavaScript para visualizarla

ÁRBITROS: Pablo Arranz Martín  /  Leandro Brito Pérez

HORARIO DE JUEGO: A partir de las 19:30 h.

S. DESEMPATE: Se aplicarán los siguientes sistemas: Bucholz  Brasileño (quitando el peor resultado), Bucholz completo, progresivo, mayor número de victorias y sorteo.

REGLAMENTO: En lo no dispuesto en las bases, se aplicará el vigente de la F.I.D.E. para este tipo de torneos.

PREMIOS: Los mismos se comunicarán antes del comienzo de la segunda ronda.  La entrega de premios se realizará a la finalización del torneo.

NOTA: Queda terminantemente prohibido el uso de móviles en la sala de juego. El incumplimiento de esta norma lleva consigo la pérdida de la partida.

Se pasará lista diez minutos antes del comienzo del torneo a fin de confirmar la participación de cada jugador, quedando excluido el que no esté presente.

El Club de La Caja de Canarias convoca un torneo activo de verano, que tendrá lugar los días 27, 28 y 29 de julio a partir de las 20:00 horas. Las inscripciones podrán formalizarse hasta el próximo 26 de julio.

TORNEO ACTIVO VERANO 2010 “LA CAJA DE CANARIAS”

B A S E S

Participantes: Abierto a todos los jugadores que lo deseen.

Local de Juego: Club de Ajedrez de La Caja de Canarias, C/. Joaquín Blume, 13 (trasera Avenida de Escaleritas).

Cuota Inscripción: 5 euros.

Días de Juego: 27, 28 y 29 julio de 2010.

Horario de juego: 20:00  a 22:00 horas.

Sistema de juego: Suizo a 6 rondas.

Ritmo de juego: 25 minutos por jugador

Inscripciones: Del lunes 19 al 26 de julio a las 22:00 horas. En el Club de Ajedrez Caja Insular de Ahorros de Canarias, teléfono: 928.24.87.14, (contestador) Árbitro Principal Pablo Arranz (609.083.077), correo electrónico: clubajedciac@gmail.com Esta dirección electrónica esta protegida contra spam bots. Necesita activar JavaScript para visualizarla .

Reglamento: El vigente de la F.I.D.E. para este tipo de torneos.

Desempates: Se aplicarán los siguientes sistemas: Bucholz Brasileño (quitando el peor resultado), Bucholz completo, Progresivo y Sorteo.

Premios: Se darán a conocer antes del comienzo de la segunda ronda. La entrega de los mismos tendrá lugar, el viernes 30 de julio a la finalización del Torneo de Blitz.

Aceptación de las bases: El hecho de participar lleva implícita la aceptación de las mismas.

NOTA: Queda terminantemente prohibido el uso de móviles en la sala de juego, por lo que deberán permanecer apagados. El incumplimiento de esta norma acarrea la pérdida de la partida.

El Club de Ajedrez Firgas convoca la primera edición del Blitz “Copa Ayuntamiento de Firgas”, que tendrá lugar el lunes 9 de agosto a partir de las 18:00 horas en la Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Firgas. Las inscripciones podrán formalizarse hasta el viernes 6 a las 21:00 horas. La organización corresponde al Club de Ajedrez Firgas, CEMENA, y colaboración del Ayuntamiento de Firgas.

BASES:

I Blitz Copa Ayuntamiento de FIRGAS

ORGANIZA: Club de Ajedrez Firgas CEMENA

COLABORA: Ayuntamiento de Firgas

LUGAR: Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Firgas

DÍA DE JUEGO: lunes 09 de agosto

HORARIO DE JUEGO: 18:00 horas
SISTEMA DE JUEGO: Suizo a siete rondas
RITMO DE JUEGO: 5 minutos por jugador.

REGLAMENTO: El vigente de la FIDE para este tipo de torneos.

DESEMPATES: 1) Bucholz Brasileño (excluyendo el peor resultado); 2) Bucholz completo; 3) Sistema Acumulativo; 4) Sorteo.

INSCRIPCIONES: Hasta el viernes 6 de agosto a las 21:00 horas en la Federación Insular de Ajedrez de Gran Canaria: Tfno: 928.33.55.38 y correo: federacion@grancanariajedrez.com Esta dirección electrónica esta protegida contra spam bots. Necesita activar JavaScript para visualizarla

Concejalía de Deportes del Ayuntamiento de Firgas: 928.61.65.77 y CEMENA 928 93 50 05

Premios:

1º 60 € COPA DEL AYUNTAMIENTO

2º 50 € TROFEO

3º 40 € TROFEO

1º VETERANO 30 €

1º FIRGAS 30 €

1º C. OCUPACIONAL 30 € TROFEO

1ª FEMINA 20 €

1º SUB 14 TROFEO

2º MEDALLA

3º MEDALLA

DIRECTOR: José María Salazar Martín

ARBITRO: A desginar.

NOTA IMPORTANTE: A TODOS LOS ALUMNOS DE LOS COLEGIOS DE LA ZONA, SE DARÁ UN CURSO DE AJEDREZ.

The 3th round showed some interesting, some aggressive and some tenacious chess. Shakriyar Mamedyarov beat Le Quang and is now in shared first place.

Report by Daan Zult

Arkadij Naiditsch played an excellent game against tournament leader Ponomariov. In a Berlin Wall, Pono played 15… Kb7, a move intended to improve upon a game between Nisipeanu and Sasikiran in 2006. To the amateur eye it seemed he did, because Pono won a pawn and gave Naiditsch a double f-pawn.

Naiditsch-Ponomariov (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

However, Naiditsch had more than enough compensation up his sleeve because of his active piece play.

Unfortunately for him, the German went for the maneuvre 28.Ng2 followed by 29.Ne3, where he missed the promising continuation 28.Bc1! with the idea 29.Rxf7 and the bishop covers the check on e3.

After 28…Nh7 29.Ne3, Naiditsch still had some pressure, but Ponomariov’s position became very solid. However, Pono chose to open up the position, professionally transposing his slightly cramped position into a rook+bishop vs rook endgame, which he confidently converged into a draw.

Shakh Mamedyarov confronted his young Vietnamese opponent Quang Le with some intimidating 2760 aggression. With 12.Nh4 Mamedyarov unbalanced the position, where he got the bishop pair and some central space for a double h-pawn and a slightly weakened king position. After some subtle moves, Mamedyarov continued his agression and opened the position for his bishops and acquired a strong passed pawn on e6.

Mamedyarov finished the game with the nice move 49.Qf3! luring the a8 rook to the seemingly active square d8, where a few moves later (after 52.e7) it turned out to be misplaced.

Kramnik – Leko seems to be a typical top level draw at first sight. However, on closer inspection, we see that Leko played an excellent game and only faltered on the 40th move. Until than, even though the game was in the realms of Kramnik’s beloved Catalan, Leko acquired the better chances with a long term pawn sacrifice.

Kramnik - Leko (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

The position made Kramnik decide to desperately sacrifice his bishop with 39.Bxf6, hoping for a perpetual check.

Unfortunately for Leko, he unnecessarily let Kramnik have his perpetual after 39…gxf6 40.Qd5, which could have been avoided with 40… Rg4. Instead Leko played 40… Bd3? ruining an excellent chance for victory.

Peter Leko and the tournament stage (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

After three rounds we’re already seeing a substantial gap between the number 1 and 2 and 3 to 6 of the standings. Ponomariov and Mamedyarov share first place with 2.5 points while the others have only 1 point. However, with seven more rounds to go, the tournament is far from decided.

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

Dortmund Games round 3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!

A. Sochnev
2007

White to play and draw

Next week the solution.

Solution last week

Y. Afek
2008

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Ruslan Ponomariov showed great form by also winning his second game in the Dortmund Sparkasse Chess-Meeting. He beat Vladimir Kramnik in just 36 moves. Peter Leko was close to victory against Mamedyarov.

Report by Daan Zult

It’s not Vladimir Kramnik’s tournament so far, even though the 14th World Champion managed to win the Dortmund tournament nine times already, including last year. In the second round of this year’s edition however, Ruslan Ponomariov managed to beat him in spectacular fashion in a Bogo-Indian.

Ponomariov-Kramnik (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Pono introduced the new move 12.Rc1, which was later followed by the crushing 16.Bxd5!

Vlad gave Pono an easy day when after 16…exd5 17.Nxd5 he played 17… Qd8? instead of the more tenacious 17… Bd8, and a move later 18… Rc8 instead of 18… gxf4, which was Kramnik’s last hope for survival. Pono kept his head cool and transformed his advantage into a winning pawn endgame. Another excellent game by Ponomariov.

The other games, Leko – Mamedyarov and Quang Le – Naiditsch where not uneventful, but ended in a draw nevertheless.

Mamedyarov gave Leko serious winning chances with 20… f5, but Leko faltered with 35.Rc7 where 35.Rf1! would have retained the advantage.

Hereby Leko missed an excellent opportunity to bounce back in the tournament after his loss against Pono the day before.

Peter Leko (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Quang Le seemed to have developed a nice initiative against Naiditsch, but with some accurate play Naiditsch managed to keep the game within bounds of equality.

After two rounds, Quang Le is the only player with a 50% score, while Pono is leading the pack with 2 out of 2, closely followed by Mamedyarov with 1.5 points. Kramnik, Leko and Naiditsch share the end of the tail with half a point.

Quang Le-Naiditsch (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

Dortmund Games round 2

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

In the first round of the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting 2010 in Dortmund, Germany, which started yesterday, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Ruslan Ponomariov had a great start with wins over Arkadij Naiditsch and Peter Leko respectively. Elo-favourite Vladimir Kramnik drew his game against 19-year old Liem Quang Le.

The elite tournament in Dortmund is a double round robin, lasting until July 25th. The tournament is played under the Sofia rule, which means a draw can only be declared after intervention from the arbiter.

The first round no doubt contained a small surprise: Vladimir Kramnik couldn’t beat young Quang Le with the white pieces. Looking at the game, one gets the impression the Vietnamese close-to-2700 GM simply held himself very well in a relatively quiet Slav encounter. Kramnik naturally tried for a long time to achieve something in a QR vs. QR ending, but in the end he gave up his winning attempts and the peace was signed.

Liem Quang Le (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Naiditsch-Mamedyarov was a much more explosive duel. In a razor-sharp 6.Bc4 Najdorf, Mamedyarov played the strong theoretical move 12…d5! – which is already known since Topalov-Short, Amsterdam 1996 – after which Naiditsch’s initiative seems to have simply faded away into nothingness. It leaves one wondering what the German had actually prepared.

Ruslan Ponomariov said he wanted to surprise Leko in the opening (he played the Scotch), but his experienced opponent didn’t seem too impressed. However, at move 17, Leko made a mistake (according to Pono) by exchanging queens, after which White seems to be better.

Ruslan Ponomariov (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

According to Ponomariov, the decisive mistake was 29…a5? after which White was clearly on top in the resulting rook ending. Today, Pono faces another tough client: Vladimir Kramnik, but judging from his fine play yesterday, he seems up to the challenge. The other games are Leko-Mamedyarov and Quang Le-Naiditsch.

Vladimir Kramnik (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

Dortmund Games round 1

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

On August 12, a week earlier than in previous years, the new edition of the NH Chess Tournament starts in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You can watch Boris Gelfand, Peter Svidler, Peter Heine Nielsen, Loek van Wely and Ljubomir Ljubojevic (the Experience team) against Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri and David Howell (the Rising Stars) with free admission and expert commentary at the Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam.

The NH Chess Tournament will take place August 12-22 in hotel Krasnapolsky, in the heart of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. As always, the tournament is a confrontation between a team of five young ‘Rising Stars’ and a team of five ‘Experienced’ grandmasters who can look back on impressive and glorious careers.

The two teams play a ‘Scheveningen’ tournament, which means that each player of one team plays against each of the players of the other team. They do so twice, once with the white pieces and once with the black pieces.

The team that collects most points wins the tournament. The best player of the ‘Rising Stars’ team will be invited to the 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in March 2010 in Nice, provided he or she scores over 50% in the NH Chess Tournament in Amsterdam.

The playing schedule:

Round 1 August 12 13.30 hrs Round 2 August 13 13.30 hrs Round 3 August 14 13.30 hrs Round 4 August 15 13.30 hrs Round 5 August 16 13.30 hrs August 17 Free Day Round 6 August 18 13.30 hrs Round 7 August 19 13.30 hrs Round 8 August 20 13.30 hrs Round 9 August 21 13.30 hrs Round 10 August 22 12.00 hrs

Every day the games will be commented on by experts in a nice and spacious commentary room to which the admission is free. These sessions start one hour after the start of the round, i.e. at 14.30 hrs, with the exception of the last round when the commentary will start at 13.00 hrs. IMs Hans Böhm, Jop Delemarre, Cor van Wijgerden, Gert Ligterink and GM Genna Sosonko will be doing the commentary (schedule here). At the end of the round, or towards the end, depending on the duration of the games, there will also be a press conference with one of the players in the commentary room.

Just like the last two years, and just like at the Amber tournament in Nice, both Macauley Peterson and yours truly will be providing daily video coverage and live interviews during this tournament. To get everyone warmed up, here’s the playlist of the videos from 2009 and 2008:

You’re searching for a way to escape everyday stress? You’re looking forward to finally get to do some chess in your holidays, but you don’t necessarily feel like playing a tough nine round open with chess only?

Photo report and analyses by IM Merijn van Delft

You like fresh air, but you hate loud commercial / touristic camping sites and beaches? The perfect solution may well be Camping La Rochade, a camping site in Naujac sur Mer, a village north of Bordeaux, France. Together with my wife Evi and a bunch of friends I stayed for a few weeks in Naujac sur Mer for the fifth year in a row now.

La Rochade is a very relaxed place to stay: in the woods, 10 km from the beach. It is founded and run by the charming Armas family: IM Jules Armas, WIM Rike Wohlers-Armas with the help of their daughters Lara and Lena.

Camping La Rochade

Highlight of the chess summer at Naujac sur Mer is the Open des Vins (Wine Tournament), but since there are all sorts of blitz and rapid tournaments, chess trainings, lectures and a whole variety of other events all summer long, you can stop by whenever is best for you.

The playing venue of the Wine Tournament

This year, the Wine Tournament was held from June 27th until July 4th. The special thing about the wine tournament is that the winner gets his weight in high quality wine. The number two half of his weight, and so on, until the number six one sixth. And, of course, the winners are weighted live at the prize giving ceremony. Besides, there are many category and special prizes.

IM Colovic is weighted at the prize giving ceremony

An aggressive approach in my games – combined with some luck with the pairings – made me the proud winner of the 13th edition. My early loss against Sebastian Siebrecht was compensated by six Sicilian wins. The key games were my wins in round 6 and 9 against young dangerous opponents:

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Demuth and Van Delft analysing their game

Second place was shared by Macedonian IM Aleksandar Colovic, the Germans GM Sebastian (’Sebi’) Siebrecht and Christian Koepke, as well as Frenchmen Michel Saucy and IM Kevin Terrieux. But as you can see, there were lots of other things going on besides chess!

Impressions from Naujac sur Mer

Watching the Football World Cup

Camping barbeque

Château Tour de By, famous for its excellent wine

Links

• Official website
• Camping La Rochade

La 9ème édition du Festival international d'échecs de Condom se déroule du 10 au 17 juillet 2010 sous le soleil de la région Midi-Pyrénées.

Le tournoi d'échecs fermé Sparkassen Chess-Meeting de Dortmund se déroule du 15 au 25 Juillet à 6 joueurs et en 10 rondes.

Pendant la période d'été, l'hémisphère nord de notre bonne vieille planète Terre joue intensément aux échecs. Tenez, aujourd'hui, six super GMI - Kramnik, Ponomariov, Leko, Le, Mamedyarov et Naiditsch - vont pousser leurs premiers pions à Dortmund.

Sauriez-vous résoudre nos exercices tactiques aux échecs en moins de temps qu'Alice ?

Pour le savoir, rien de plus facile !

Nous vous invitons à tester votre habilité technique au calcul des variantes grâce notre rubrique quotidienne S'entraîner.

Résolvez nos exercices de mat en 2 coups, 3 coups ou même beaucoup plus. A chaque fois, le niveau est indiqué (Facile, Moyen ou Fort), un indice facultatif est proposé, et bien sûr la solution est donnée. Pour un entraînement optimal des neurones, nous vous conseillons de ne pas bouger les pièces sur un échiquier et bien sûr, non plus d'ordinateur avec un logiciel d'échecs entre nous. Bonne chance à tous !

Rendez-vous avec Alice sur Chess & Strategy Tactic

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

La majorité d'entre vous a trouvé le bon coup : 20...Tg6 ! qui permet de récupérer deux pièces légères contre la tour. La reprise est forcée et le cavalier doit être repris avec le roi : 21.Cxg6,Rxg6. On constate alors que le fou n'a plus de case de repli. Mon adversaire, qui je vous rappelle avait un elo de 2497, a joué 22.Fe3 pour récupérer un pion mais a buté sur : 22...dxe3 23.fxe3,Fd2 24.Td1,Fxe3+. La fin a été précipitée et mon adversaire a jeté l'éponge au 27e coup.

From July 5th to July 11th, the 38th Greek Team Championship took place in Athens, Greece. This year’s edition was clouded by the economic crisis which has been keeping the country busy for many months.

Report and photos by IM Georgios Souleidis

Until the end of May, I couldn’t get a clear confirmation if the Team Championship would even be organised this year. In the end it was mostly thanks to the organising club of Peristeri (Athens) and their sponsor that the Greek chess scene didn´t have to suffer a lapse in its major competition.

As a Greek citizen born in Germany – and living there all my life – I’ve always somehow felt trapped between two cultures. Of course, I’m trying to extract only the advantages of both cultures for my own life. I prefer living in Germany: everything is so well organised! For example, you always know how much a taxi driver will charge you, and that he’ll leave you alone when you don’t want to have a chat.

Whenever I’m visiting Greece (basically every summer), I look forward to the friendly people, the multiple hugs and kisses, the nice weather, the “wealthy food”, the “Frapé”… I simply look forward to the mediterranean way of life. But, of course, my “double nationality” – and this is not a real advantage – qualifies me to answer some existential questions which are related to both countries. This year, I had to answer the following question: “What is Merkel doing to us?”

In the light of the financial crisis, Germany and its female chancellor Angela Merkel nowadays are seen as the chief portrayal of the enemy – at least, this was my superficial perception. Greek taxi drivers in particular can be very, very annoying when it comes to politics (but not only that). It’s not at all easy to avoid talking about it.

Though I´m a chessplayer and so should be able to calculate the possible answers in advance, I tried to convince them that Merkel is not the author of some modern-day Greek tragedy. I learned this was a big mistake – never again, dudes, never again… Next time I’ll just respond with: “Yes, Sir you are absolutely right”, and vehemently nod my head for the rest of the ride.

While I´m talking about big mistakes, let me just show you what happened to me in the second round of the Greek Championship:

Georgiadis, Ioannis (2457) – Souleidis, Georgios (2410)
38th Greek Team Championship Olympic Boxing Center, Peristeri (2.1), 06.07.2010

Here is the position after 48.Kf1. Tactics for beginners lesson 10: Move and mate in one and a half!

No, I didn´t play 48…Qd1+ etc. Come on guys, that would have been too easy!

I decided to torture my opponent and myself for one and a half more hours and played 48…Qf5+ …

My position is still won, so what? But in the end I felt so sorry for my opponent that I made a draw after exactly 100 moves. Well, it was my birthday, after all, and people were so nice to me, so I had to give something back… Actually, I just found the perfect moment for one of the most pleasant details of my report: on the same day as me, a Dutch girl named Lisa Schut has her birthday. Lovely Lisa, now 16 years old, joined my team Kydon Chania (Crete) this year, and made sure that we now have ascertained a full point on one of the junior boards.

Lisa Schut scored 6,5 out of 7 and conquered the heart of Kydon Chania

Wait, junior board? Yes, not only Greek taxi drivers are different – the playing system in the Greek league is also unique. We play on twelve boards, as follows:

Board 1-5: Men’s boards
Board 6: Women’s boards
Board 7-12: U18 (Boys and Girls) U16 (Boys and Girls) U14 and U12

Every team has the right to include two foreign players (one EU and one Non-EU player). This year, 22 teams took part in the Championship, but there was nearly no team from Northern Greece. One reason is the financial crisis – at least, everybody says this is the reason – another is that many clubs were “not amused” about the playing conditions/venue etc. In my opinion, the current location was the best playing hall of the past decade: built for the 2004 Olympic Games, it is a modern and airconditioned boxing hall. Perhaps a small disadvantage was the fact that the players were located in a hotel in the centre of Athens and had to be brought to the playing venue by public transport .

Olympic Boxing Center Peristeri

As I mentioned above, Peristeri (Athens) organised this year’s Championship. Apart from this fact, they were also the clear favourites to win the title. On the men’s boards, the team boasted five GMs: a certain Mr. Kotronias played on board 5 (!), and in order not to leave anything to chance, they even “bought” some of the best Greek junior players in their respective categories. Under these circumstances, the wire-to-wire victory came as no surprise. The question whether one of their grandmasters would lose a game was much more exciting. (The answer was no.)

The winning team of Peristeri with Vassily Ivanchuk holding the cup

The teams from Chania (Crete) respectfully followed. Kydon Chania won the silver and S.A. Chania took the bronze medal. Despite the one-sides championship, chess lovers enjoyed watching the first six matches live in the internet – there was some real fighting and first-class chess. This was first of all due to the fact that draws before move 30 were forbidden, and secondly, because the first two boards were mainly occupied by top grandmasters.

The absolute highlight of the championship was the appearance of Vassily Ivanchuk, who played for Peristeri. He scored 6 points out of 7, mainly against grandmasters above 2600. Ivanchuk was by far the best player of the championship. Another player who scored very well was Jon Ludwig Hammer. The young Norwegian achieved 5,5 out of 7 on the first board.

Jon Ludwig Hammer scored 5,5 out of 7

I’ve selected 17 games, mainly played on the top two boards and by top grandmasters. I included some brief annotations. Enjoy!

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Impressions from the 38th Greek Team Championship

GM David Navara (Czech Republic)

GM Evgeny Postny (Israel)

GM Stelios Halkias (Greece)

Impressions from the 2010 Greek Team Championship

Impressions from the 2010 Greek Team Championship

The German GMs Arik Braun and Arkadij Naiditsch

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

At this moment millions of soccer fans are watching the FIFA World Cup Final, played in Johannesburg, South Africa. Perhaps we can hire commentator Andrés Cantor for one of our new videos…

Several fans pointed out to us the following video on YouTube. We decided that this was the right moment to publish it: the start of the FIFA World Cup final. In the video, a commercial for insurance company Geico, we see a combination of chess and football, with a game being played and commented by the famous Spanish commentator Andrés Cantor.

Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!

Y. Afek
2008

White to play and draw

Next week the solution.

Solution last week

Below you see the position from the game Gelfand-Wang Yue, Russian Team Ch 2010. In the dropdown selector above the board you can pick the position with the rook on g1, which was the ’study’ Gelfand showed to Carlsen at the Kings’ Tournament in Bazna.

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Née en 1906 à Moscou d'un père tchèque et d'une mère anglaise, cette joueuse d'échecs s'installe en Angleterre à partir de 1921.

La même année, elle remporte le championnat féminin d'Angleterre et devient l'élève de Geza Maroczy l'année suivante. À partir de 1927, il est organisé en marge des Olympiades d'échecs masculines (il n'y a pas encore d'olympiades réservées aux femmes) un tournoi individuel féminin considéré comme un véritable championnat du monde féminin. Cette brillante championne d'échecs gagne tous les tournois d'avant-guerre, ne laissant aucune chance à ses concurrentes : en sept tournois consécutifs, elle enregistre 78 victoires, 4 nulles et une seule défaite !

Elle rivalise avec les meilleurs joueurs, n'hésitant pas à participer aux tournois masculins. Elle termine 2e à Ramsgate en 1929 derrière Capablanca, ex aequo avec Rubinstein, et 3e à Maribor en 1934.

Alors pourriez-vous citer le patronyme de cette championne du jeu d'échecs ?

Avec l'été qui commence, les tournois d'échecs sont légion en France, alors comme vous, notre amie Nino Maisuradze se pose la question du choix de sa destination. Un choix véritablement cornélien pour les pratiquants du noble jeu face à l'offre pléthorique.