World number one Magnus Carlsen won the Corus 2010 chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee (pronounced "wake ahn zey" say ChessBase and ChessVibes), followed by Vladimir Kramnik and Alexey Shirov in second. All three top finishers had held the first place spot at one point in the event, with Shirov starting the tournament extremely hot with five wins in a row, Kramnik catching up, then Carlsen grabbing the lead at the finish (despite losing to Kramnik). World Champion Vishy Anand (with the tournament's only undefeated record) and U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura finished tied for fourth. The B-group was won by 15-year-old Dutch GM Anish Giri (profiled at ChessBase) who led for most of the way (see B-player profiles at ChessBase). The C-group was won by Li Chao (see C-group profiles at ChessBase). US youngster Ray Robson led the C-group by the middle of the tournament but fell back to fourth by the end following his loss to Li Chao in the Dragon. You can play over the games from the A-section at Chessgames.com. There was excellent coverage of the event by ChessBase, TWIC, Chessdom, Mig's Daily Dirt (where there is always good discussion), ChessVibes, ChessOK and others.
Werden Bremen catches Baden-Baden in the Bundesliga
The German Bundesliga is surely the strongest team championship in the world. Just look at the names: Anand, Svidler, Gashimov, Mamedayrov, Shirov, Adams (playing on board six!). In round ten the champions OSG Baden-Baden faced the ambitious team of Werder Bremen, who snatched a surprise victory to catch the leading team on match points. There are four rounds left to play. Illustrated report and games.
FIDE publishes March 1 ratings, Linares not counted
Just a few days ago Veselin Topalov won the Linares tournament and narrowed the gap with Magnus Carlsen on the live rating list to just one point. On the March 1st FIDE rating list the Norwegian leads with a personal record of 2813 and is still 8 points ahead of Topalov.
It’s already an improvement to have six rating lists a year instead of four, but today we are reminded again of the fact that a monthly, or even weekly official list might be even better. While Carlsen and Topalov are just one (in fact 0.7) rating point away from each other on the “live list” by Hans Arild Runde (which you can also find in the far right column on this website), on the official list the distance is 8 points because Linares hasn’t been counted yet.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand lost his third place to Vladimir Kramnik; between them there are just three points. This means that the upcoming World Championship match in Sofia will be played between the current world’s number 2 and 4.
Vugar Gashimov was Azerbaijan’s number one player briefly, but he’s out of the top 10 again. His 6th place is now occupied by his compatriot Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who is back among the elite after a lesser period. Grischuk and Svidler climbed to spots number 7 and 8.
Vassily Ivanchuk is out of the top 10 again; he dropped slightly from 8 to 11. Hikaru Nakamura saw a strong period awarded with a 17th place. Alexander Morozevich’ decline continued; the former World’s number 2 can now be found on spot 24. There are now 37 players with a rating of 2700 or higher.
In the women’s list nothing much changed. The difference between Judit Polgar and Humpy Koneru decreased a bit further, from 68 to 60 points. Below you’ll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the first two lists including the changes with the previous lists. All data courtesy of FIDE.
FIDE MARCH 2010 RATING LIST: TOP 100 PLAYERS
Legend:
black color – player remained on the same position
green color – player moved up in the list
red color – player moved down in the list
blue color – player is new to the current Top list Old represents player’s position in the previous period list
In what was probably the strongest Bundesliga match ever, OSC Baden-Baden Saturday lost for the first time in more than three years, against their biggest rival Werder Bremen. The two teams are leading the standings, together with SG Solingen, with 20 points out of 11 matches. Games, photos and a video.
In the 10th round of the Schachbundesliga, Werder Bremen won 5-3 against Baden-Baden. It was the first loss in more than three years for the German champion. The match took place last Saturday at the Kongresshaus of the Stadthalle in Heidelberg, and match winners were Alexander Areshchenko and Michael Roiz who defeated Michael Adams and Arkadij Naiditsch respectively. All other matches ended in a draw.
ICC Chess.FM’s Macauley Peterson was in Heidelberg too this weekend and made the following video on the victory for the ‘Green Shirts’.
On Sunday Baden-Baden recovered and easily defeated Hamburger SK with 1.5-6.5. On board 1 Anand beat Kempinski with a nice combination. Shirov, Movsesian, Naiditsch and Heine Nielsen also scored full points. Werder Bremen did even better by crushing host club Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim 7.5-0.5. Winning 2.5-5.5 against SK Turm Emsdetten, SG Solingen managed to reach a shared first place together with Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen.
SV OSG Baden-Baden lost their 100% record in Round 10 when they were beaten by Werder Bremen in spite of having an Elo advantage on every board
and the World Champion on top board.
Rounds 10 and 11 take place 27th-28th of February 2010.
This weekend the 10th and 11th round of the Schachbundesliga are being played. On board one of the top match between Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen, Vugar Gashimov (Werder Bremen), who travelled from Linares to Heidelberg, plays the World Champ, Viswanathan Anand.
In the 10th round of the Bundesliga the German champion OSG Baden-Baden faces the most serious contender Werder Bremen. It will be the most exciting match in the history of the Schachbundesliga, and both Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen will play with their nearly best possible lineup. The elo average of Baden-Baden is 2717 and of Bremen 2679. Both teams will have only top 100 players from the current world ranking at their disposal. Bremen will play on the first two boards with the Azerbaijani GMs Vugar Gashimov and Shakhriyar Mamedayrov, both known for their uncompromising style.
Laurent Fressinet and Tomi Nyback will also defend the “green-white coloured”. After nine rounds they belong to the five top scorers of the league.
Undoubtedly the biggest attraction of the whole weekend is World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Two months before his match against Veselin Topalov in Sofia he makes a “break” in his preparation to support his team in Germany. For many years he’s maintained friendly relations to the environment of Baden-Baden so his appearance doesn’t come as a big suprise.
Etienne Bacrot and Germay’s number one Arkadij Naiditsch will also play for Baden-Baden. They belong to the five best performers of the whole league so far in this season.
Here are the line-ups and the pairings of the match Baden-Baden – Werder Bremen:
Saturday, 27th of February 2010, 2 pm Playing venue: Kongresshaus Stadthalle Heidelberg, Neckarstaden 24, 69117 Heidelberg
OSG Baden-Baden – Werder Bremen
1 Viswanathan Anand 2788* Vugar Gashimov 2740
2 Peter Svidler 2741 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2721
3 Alexei Shirov 2730 Pavel Eljanov 2717
4 Etienne Bacrot 2709 Zahar Efimenko 2654
5 Sergei Movsesian 2711 Laurent Fressinet 2658
6 Michael Adams 2682 Alexander Areshchenko 2667
7 Arkadij Naiditsch 2685 Michael Roiz 2658
8 Peter-Heine Nielsen 2687 Tomi Nyback 2615
*Rating at the beginning of the season
This match and of course all other matches of the Schachbundesliga will be covered live on the internet. At the day of the matches you can get access via the website of the Schachbundesliga.
Here are all matches of the 10th and 11th round of the Schachbundesliga.
10th round: Saturday, 27th of February 2010, 2 pm Playing venue Heidelberg
OSG Baden-Baden – Werder Bremen
SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim – Hamburger SK
Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – Bayern München
SF Katernberg – Erfurter SK
Playing venue Solingen
SG Solingen – SV Wattenscheid
SC Remagen – SK Turm Emsdetten
Playing venue Trier
SG Trier – SF Berlin
SC Eppingen – SK König Tegel
11th round: Sunday, 28th of February 2010, 2 pm Playing venue Heidelberg
Hamburger SK – OSG Baden-Baden
Werder Bremen – SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
Playing venue Mülheim
Bayern München – SF Katernberg
Erfurter SK – SV Mülheim Nord
Playing venue Solingen
SV Wattenscheid – SC Remagen
SK Turm Emsdetten – SG Solingen
Playing venue Trier
SF Berlin – SC Eppingen
SK König Tegel – SG Trierem>
SC Remagen – SG Solingen (5pm)
Bundesliga 0910 | Current Standings
Teams
1. OSC Baden-Baden
1 Anand, Viswanathan GM IND 2788
2 Carlsen, Magnus GM NOR 2772
3 Svidler, Peter GM RUS 2739
4 Shirov, Alexei GM ESP 2732
5 Bacrot, Etienne GM FRA 2721
6 Movsesian, Sergej GM SVK 2716
7 Adams, Michael GM ENG 2699
8 Naiditsch, Arkadij GM GER 2697
9 Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2693
10 Nielsen, Peter-Heine GM DEN 2680
11 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2675
12 Caruana, Fabiano GM ITA 2670
13 Gustafsson, Jan GM GER 2622
14 Dautov, Rustem GM GER 2596
15 Doettling, Fabian GER 2571
16 Schlosser, Philipp GER 2560
17 Dinger, Florian GER 2391
18 Hager, Joshua Aarasch GER 2217
9. SF Katernberg
1 Volokitin, Andrei GM UKR 2678
2 Chuchelov, Vladimir GM BEL 2598
3 Firman, Nazar IM UKR 2571
4 Seel, Christian IM GER 2493
5 Bischoff, Klaus GM GER 2551
6 Halkias, Stelios GM GRE 2564
7 Glek, Igor V GM GER 2528
8 Zaragatski, Ilja IM GER 2472
9 Senff, Martin IM GER 2469
10 Ris, Robert IM NED 2421
11 Thesing, Matthias IM GER 2436
12 Siebrecht, Sebastian GM GER 2458
13 Scholz, Christian IM GER 2373
14 Hoolt, Sarah WIM GER 2240
15 Rosen, Bernd FM GER 2355
16 Geilmann, Ulrich GER 1837
17 Kotainy, Jens GER 2270
2. Werder Bremen
1 Gashimov, Vugar GM AZE 2740
2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar GM AZE 2717
3 McShane, Luke James GM ENG 2620
4 Eljanov, Pavel GM UKR 2716
5 Efimenko, Zahar GM UKR 2654
6 Fressinet, Laurent GM FRA 2667
7 Meier, Georg GM GER 2658
8 Areshchenko, Alexander GM UKR 2651
9 Roiz, Michael GM ISR 2658
10 Nyback, Tomi GM FIN 2627
11 Hracek, Zbynek GM CZE 2608
12 Babula, Vlastimil GM CZE 2566
13 Llaneza Vega, Marcos IM ESP 2521
14 Fish, Gennadij GM GER 2508
15 Skripchenko, Almira IM FRA 2450
16 Knaak, Rainer GM GER 2484
17 Lichman, Peter GER 2317
10. SK Turm Emsdetten
1 Mchedlishvili, Mikheil GM GEO 2592
2 Giri, Anish GM NED 2518
3 Spoelman, Wouter IM NED 2546
4 Hector, Jonny GM SWE 2556
5 Feygin, Michael IM GER 2546
6 Janssen, Ruud IM NED 2527
7 Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2525
8 Bellon Lopez, Juan Manuel GM ESP 2445
9 Brandenburg, Daan IM NED 2463
10 Breder, Dennis IM GER 2435
11 Fiebig, Thomas GER 2426
12 Pruijssers, Roeland IM NED 2401
13 Kabatianski, Alexandr IM GER 2425
14 Richter, Christian FM GER 2417
15 Zumsande, Martin IM GER 2403
16 Bosman, Michiel FM NED 2356
3. SC Eppingen
1 Tiviakov, Sergei GM NED 2674
2 Postny, Evgeny GM ISR 2647
3 Berkes, Ferenc GM HUN 2647
4 Balogh, Csaba GM HUN 2595
5 Gyimesi, Zoltan GM HUN 2591
6 Ruck, Robert GM HUN 2561
7 Acs, Peter GM HUN 2550
8 Braun, Arik GM GER 2529
9 Bindrich, Falko GM GER 2516
10 Medvegy, Zoltan GM HUN 2547
11 Guliyev, Namig GM AZE 2555
12 Muzychuk, Anna IM SLO 2542
13 Paehtz, Elisabeth IM GER 2474
14 Mann, Christian IM GER 2454
15 Vogt, Lothar GM GER 2422
16 Dekan, Hans GER 2179
17 Noe, Christopher GER 1798
11. SF Berlin
1 Nataf, Igor-Alexandre GM FRA 2529
2 Markos, Jan GM SVK 2555
3 Miezis, Normunds GM LAT 2572
4 Lauber, Arnd IM GER 2517
5 Polzin, Rainer GM GER 2491
6 Kraemer, Martin IM GER 2481
7 Schneider, Ilja IM GER 2508
8 Berndt, Stephan IM GER 2442
9 Agopov, Mikail IM FIN 2442
10 Brynell, Stellan GM SWE 2471
11 Thiede, Lars IM GER 2452
12 Thinius, Marco IM GER 2375
13 Degtiarev, Evgeny FM GER 2373
14 Rudolf, Henrik FM GER 2353
15 Wintzer, Joachim Dr. FM GER 2384
16 Lundin, Jan FM SWE 2382
17 Abel, Dennes GER 2328
18 Glantz, Robert GER 2239
4. SV Mülheim-Nord
1 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam GM UZB 2672
2 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime GM FRA 2703
3 Motylev, Alexander GM RUS 2710
4 Tregubov, Pavel V. GM RUS 2652
5 Landa, Konstantin GM RUS 2655
6 Fridman, Daniel GM GER 2665
7 Potkin, Vladimir GM RUS 2619
8 Golod, Vitali GM ISR 2599
9 Malakhatko, Vadim GM BEL 2570
10 Berelovich, Alexander GM GER 2550
11 Levin, Felix GM GER 2491
12 Hausrath, Daniel GM GER 2519
13 Saltaev, Mihail GM UZB 2505
14 Schebler, Gerhard GM GER 2486
15 Litwak, Aleksej FM GER 2268
16 Kaufeld, Juergen FM GER 2274
17 Wittenberg, Andreas GER 2129
18 Kahleys, Kevin GER 1986
12. SG Trier
1 Lupulescu, Constantin GM ROU 2620
2 Bobras, Piotr GM POL 2568
3 Cyborowski, Lukasz GM POL 2498
4 Haslinger, Stewart GM ENG 2538
5 Gordon, Stephen IM ENG 2537
6 Jaracz, Pawel GM POL 2539
7 Erdoes, Viktor GM HUN 2565
8 Flumbort, Andras IM HUN 2507
9 Gonda, Laszlo IM HUN 2499
10 Galyas, Miklos IM HUN 2457
11 Seger, Ruediger IM GER 2405
12 Kolbus, Dietmar IM GER 2383
13 Cioara, Andrei Nestor IM ROU 2437
14 Goriachnik, Dmitry MDA 2324
15 Rat, Dan Ovidiu FM ROU 2315
16 Jeitz, Christian LUX 2221
17 Korman, Maxim GER 2172
5. SG Solingen
1 Stellwagen, Daniel GM NED 2630
2 Smeets, Jan GM NED 2632
3 Nikolic, Predrag GM BIH 2602
4 Buhmann, Rainer GM GER 2603
5 Werle, Jan GM NED 2575
6 Edouard, Romain GM FRA 2597
7 Jussupow, Artur GM GER 2570
8 L’Ami, Erwin GM NED 2593
9 Ragger, Markus GM AUT 2563
10 Ernst, Sipke GM NED 2598
11 Naumann, Alexander GM GER 2522
12 Hoffmann, Michael GM GER 2502
13 Gabriel, Christian GM GER 2507
14 Drabke, Lorenz Maximilian IM GER 2455
15 Wegerle, Joerg IM GER 2430
16 Schaefer, Markus IM GER 2378
17 Hobusch, Alexander GER 2103
18 Hannewald, Anton GER 1931
13. FC Bayern München
1 Bezold, Michael GM GER 2517
2 Bromberger, Stefan IM GER 2510
3 Schenk, Andreas IM GER 2509
4 Marcelin, Cyril GM FRA 2498
5 Boensch, Uwe GM GER 2511
6 Stangl, Markus GM GER 2455
7 Reiss, Tibor IM HUN 2414
8 Renner, Christoph IM GER 2431
9 Belezky, Alexander IM UKR 2446
10 Meissner, Bernd IM GER 2410
11 Meister, Peter IM GER 2396
12 Reich, Thomas IM GER 2368
13 Rodewis, Thomas Dr. GER 2367
14 Unzicker, Ferdinand Dr. GER 2332
15 Deglmann, Ludwig FM GER 2329
16 Lentrodt, Thomas FM GER 2304
17 Jorczik, Julian FM GER 2352
18 Graf, Felix GER 2291
6. Hamburger SK
1 Wojtaszek, Radoslav GM POL 2637
2 Kempinski, Robert GM POL 2601
3 Ghaem, Maghami Ehsan GM IRI 2589
4 Baramidze, David GM GER 2527
5 Adly, Ahmed GM EGY 2548
6 Rogozenco, Dorian GM ROU 2541
7 Hansen, Sune Berg HDEN 2554
8 Rasmussen, Allan Stig GM DEN 2536
9 Ftacnik, Lubomir Dr. GM SVK 2525
10 Mueller, Karsten Dr. GM GER 2523
11 Heinemann, Thies IM GER 2484
12 Chevelevitch, Evgueni Dr. IM GER 2461
13 Reeh, Oliver IM GER 2442
14 Huschenbeth, Niclas IM GER 2416
15 Sebastian, Dirk GER 2443
16 Van Delft, Merijn IM NED 2360
17 Carlstedt, Jonathan GER 2309
18 Bracker, Frank GER 2280
14. Erfurter SK
1 Romanov, Evgeny GM RUS 2589
2 Haba, Petr GM CZE 2533
3 Michiels, Bart IM BEL 2451
4 Kuczynski, Robert GM POL 2505
5 Casper, Thomas IM GER 2395
6 Votava, Jan GM CZE 2561
7 Enders, Peter GM GER 2467
8 Mueller, Matthias IM GER 2410
9 Voekler, Bernd FM GER 2393
10 Schoene, Maria WIM GER 2274
11 Troyke, Christian IM GER 2350
12 Schuetze, Norman GER 2278
13 Brueggemann, Joachim IM GER 2356
14 Krueger, Rainer Dr. GER 2211
15 Troyke, Doreen WFM GER 2105
16 Duzy, Stefan GER 1545
17 Friedt, Marius GER 1885
7. SV Wattenscheid
1 Vitiugov, Nikita GM RUS 2681
2 Najer, Evgeniy GM RUS 2663
3 Macieja, Bartlomiej GM POL 2612
4 Bartel, Mateusz GM POL 2619
5 Czarnota, Pawel GM POL 2530
6 Rustemov, Alexander GM RUS 2532
7 Johannessen, Leif Erlend GM NOR 2553
8 Appel, Ralf GM GER 2552
9 Holzke, Frank Dr. GM GER 2526
10 Handke, Florian GM GER 2513
11 Souleidis, Georgios IM GRE 2435
12 Dinstuhl, Volkmar Dr. IM GER 2417
13 Tereick, Benjamin FM GER 2378
14 Straeter, Timo FM GER 2347
15 Thiel, Thomas FM GER 2280
16 Gohla, Ulf GER 2181
17 Koerber, Matthias GER 1898
15. SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
1 Ikonnikov, Viacheslav GM RUS 2556
2 Svetushkin, Dmitry GM MDA 2607
3 Ginsburg, Gennadi GM GER 2537
4 Gurevic, Vladimir GM UKR 2470
5 Chernov, Vadim IM ROU 2433
6 Solomunovic, Igor IM GER 2421
7 Gerigk, Erasmus FM GER 2335
8 Schwalfenberg, Joerg FM GER 2317
9 Maier, Christian IM GER 2347
10 Vatter, Hans-Joachim FM GER 2302
11 Syska, Albert FM GER 2268
12 Nippgen, Georg GER 2272
13 Roos, Jean-Luc IM FRA 2250
14 Neunhoeffer, Helmut Dr FM GER 2281
15 Pielmeier, Thomas GER 2231
16 Schott, Reimund FRA 2019
8. SC Remagen
1 Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2703
2 Fedorchuk, Sergey GM UKR 2655
3 Gharamian, Tigran GM FRA 2615
4 Goloshchapov, Alexander GM UKR 2580
5 Parligras, Mircea GM ROU 2557
6 Huebner, Robert Dr. GM GER 2605
7 Degraeve, Jean-Marc GM FRA 2559
8 Dgebuadze, Alexandre GM BEL 2516
9 Mainka, Romuald GM GER 2521
10 Swinkels, Robin IM NED 2516
11 Teske, Henrik GM GER 2536
12 Popovic, Petar GM SRB 2496
13 Polaczek, Richard IM BEL 2381
14 Kipper, Jens GER 2393
15 Schulz, Klaus-Juergen IM GER 2385
16 Bok, Benjamin FM NED 2360
16. SK König Tegel
1 Rabiega, Robert GM GER 2551
2 Stern, Rene IM GER 2498
3 Muse, Mladen GM CRO 2448
4 Von Herman, Ulf IM GER 2400
5 Muse, Drazen IM CRO 2374
6 Fruebing, Stefan FM GER 2305
7 Tomczak, Rainer FM GER 2287
8 Mielitz, Heinz GER
9 Sarbok, Torsten FM GER 2319
10 Breier, Andreas FM GER 2405
11 Giemsa, Stephan FM GER 2301
12 Jahnz, Fabian GER 2191
13 Jaehnisch, Frank GER 2230
14 Roth, Josef GER 2152
15 Schulz, Stefanie GER 2109
16 Rausch, Manfred GER 1689
17 Kachibadze, Georg GER 2224
Gashimov-Anand Svidler-Mamedyarov Eljanov-Shirov Live ore 14
In questo fine settimana si svolgeranno due turni del campionato tedesco a squadre, stagione 2009/10. Dopo le recenti fatiche del Corus e prima della sfida mondiale con Topalov, che si disputerà ad aprile, farà il suo esordio nella manifestazione il Campione del Mondo in carica. ViswanathanAnand occuperàla prima scacchiera del OSGBaden-Baden che sta dominando la Bundesliga: nove vittorie e 54,5/72 nelle sfide individuali! Per capire la forza del OSG Baden Baden è sufficente citare una sola cifra: 2717, media elo degli otto giocatori che saranno impiegati in questi due turni.
In vista dello scontro diretto del X turno contro il Baden Baden, che si disputerà nella città di Heidelberg, il Werder Brema (media melo: 2679) ha richiamato alle armi Gashimov e Mamedyarov, sinora tenuti a riposo. Ad inizio stagione la squadra di Brema era considerata l'unica possibile antagonista dei campioni in carica, ma il suo cammino è stato rallentato dai due pareggi ottenuti con l'Amburgo e con gli ultimi in classifica dell'Erfurt. Dopo nove turni il Werder è terzo in classifica dietro il SG Aljechin Solingen (Smeets e Nikolic), vera sorpresa di questo campionato e che sinora ha perso, di misura (3.5-4.5), solo con i primi della classe.
Nei precedenti due turni la squadra del OSG Baden Baden ha schierato Fabiano Caruana. Potrete trovare i visori delle due vittorie di Caruana ed altre informazioni nell'articolo di Scacchierando pubblicato il 6 febbraio.
Gashimov-Anand e Svidler-Mamedyarov, due sfide di altissimo livello
Il poster del Werder Brema, edizione 2005 della Bundesliga. Sicuramente l'avrete riconosciuta, lei è Almira Skripchenko
Le due partite del OSG Baden Baden
Decimo turno, sabato 26 febbraio, ore 14
OSG Baden-Baden
Werder Bremen
1
Viswanathan Anand
2788
Vugar Gashimov
2740
2
Peter Svidler
2741
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
2721
3
Alexei Shirov
2730
Pavel Eljanov
2717
4
Etienne Bacrot
2709
Zahar Efimenko
2654
5
Sergei Movsesian
2711
Laurent Fressinet
2658
6
Michael Adams
2682
Alexander Areshchenko
2667
7
Arkadij Naiditsch
2685
Michael Roiz
2658
8
Peter-Heine Nielsen
2687
Tomi Nyback
2615
Undicesimo turno, domenica 27 febbraio, ore 10
Hamburger SK
OSG Baden-Baden
1
Robert Kempinski
2616
Viswanathan Anand
2788
2
Ehsan Ghaem Maghami
2579
Peter Svidler
2741
3
David Baramidze
2532
Alexei Shirov
2730
4
Dorian Rogozenco
2541
Etienne Bacrot
2709
5
Thies Heinemann
2484
Sergei Movsesian
2711
6
Oliver Reeh
2442
Michael Adams
2682
7
Niclas Huschenbeth
2411
Arkadij Naiditsch
2685
8
Dirk Sebastian
2443
Peter-Heine Nielsen
2687
NBl'elo considerato è quello che i giocatori avevano all'inizio della manifestazione
Tutti gli incontri del X e XI turno
Turno 10 27 febbraio ore 14
No.
Squadra
Squadra
Ris.
:
Ris.
1
SV Mülheim-Nord
FC Bayern München
:
2
SF Katernberg
Erfurter SK
:
3
SV Heidelberg Handschuhsheim
Hamburger SK
:
4
OSG Baden-Baden
Werder Bremen
:
5
SG Aljechin Solingen
SV Wattenscheid
:
6
SC Remagen
SK Turm Emsdetten
:
7
SG Trier
SF Berlin
:
8
SC Eppingen
SK König Tegel
:
Turno 11 28 febbraio ore 10
No.
Squadra
Squadra
Ris.
:
Ris.
1
FC Bayern München
SF Katernberg
:
2
Erfurter SK
SV Mülheim-Nord
:
3
Hamburger SK
OSG Baden-Baden
:
4
Werder Bremen
SV Heidelberg Handschuhsheim
:
5
SV Wattenscheid
SC Remagen
:
6
SK Turm Emsdetten
SG Aljechin Solingen
:
7
SF Berlin
SC Eppingen
:
8
SK König Tegel
SG Trier
:
Classifica dopo 9 turni
1
OSG Baden-Baden
9
9
0
0
18
54.5
2
SG Solingen
9
8
0
1
16
45.5
3
Werder Bremen
9
7
2
0
16
43.5
4
SV Mülheim Nord
9
6
2
1
14
44.5
5
SV Wattenscheid 1930
9
6
1
2
13
42
6
Hamburger SK
9
5
1
3
11
41.5
7
SK Turm Emsdetten
9
5
0
4
10
39.5
8
SC 1950 Remagen
9
5
0
4
10
39
9
SF Katernberg
9
4
0
5
8
32
10
SC Eppingen
9
3
1
5
7
35.5
11
SF Berlin 1903
9
2
2
5
6
32.5
12
SG Trier
9
2
0
7
4
28.5
13
Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
9
0
4
5
4
26
14
FC Bayern München
9
1
1
7
3
27
15
SK König Tegel
9
0
2
7
2
23
16
Erfurter SK
9
0
2
7
2
21.5
Regolamento
Calendario il torneo vede la partecipazione di 16 squadre e si svolge con un girone all'italiana di sola andata (15 turni). I prossimi turni si svolgeranno il 20 e il 21 marzo e il 10 e 11 aprile.
Sistema di punteggio i match si disputano su 8 scacchiere e vengono assegnati 2 punti per la vittoria, 1 per il pareggio e 0 per la sconfitta. In caso di arrivo a pari merito, si considera la somma dei punti individuali ottenuti.
Tempo di riflessione 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita più 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.
Visore
Per vedere le altre partite spostare il Visore a destra e scegliere Solingen, Muhlheim o Trier
I remember being a rising junior in Chicago and a Sicilian fanatic. In my arsenal were the Najdorf, Dragon and Sveshnikov. I walked around with a large amount of theory… in some cases reaching into the endgame. I also cherished a book called “Sacrifices in the Sicilian” and was influenced a great deal by sacrificial attacks with white and spectacular counterattacks with black.
I recall with joy the Lev Polugaevsky theme tournament in Bueno Aires in 1994 where all games began with 1.e4 c5! The tournament was won by GM Valery Salov, who would retire unexpectantly in 2000 leaving the world wondering how far he could have gone.
The tournament also included luminaries such as Viswanathan Anand (2nd place), Vassily Ivanchuk, Judit Polgar, Anatoly Karpov, Gata Kamsky, Alexei Shirov and Ljubomir Ljubojevic. All players lost at least one game and the games with exciting and cutting-edge. A beautiful book came out chronicling the event. It included a history of the Sicilian Defense as well as historic games featuring the dynamic defense.
One of my favorite games in that tournament was between Judit Polgar and Alexei Shirov. (see game). My chess life was forever changed when I saw Polgar’s 10…g5! This display and dynamism is why the Sicilian is such a dangerous weapon. I would later employ this same idea years later against Jamaican Master Geoffrey Byfield. (see game)
Polgar has been a Sicilian expert for decades and has had thrilling victories from both sides of the board. Rekindling this affection for the most vigorous black defense, a match was set up between Polgar and Gregory Kaidanov in Hilton Head, South Carolina by Jeff Smith. Smith is a board member on the Susan Polgar Foundation and agreed to host the event in an attractive tourist haven.
The game were as exciting as billed although many expected Polgar to run away in the four-game series. The match was drawn at 2-2 with white winning all the games. Of course the Sicilian did not fare well in this tournament, but it remains a fierce weapon in the hands of capable handlers.
This is what happens when you travel half-way around the globe, accept more and more opponents in a strong simul, agree to play with white and black pieces, and start at 1 a.m. body time. You blunder a game against a 12-year-old and make it into the Canadian press. Alexei Shirov showed great sporting spirit in this Ottawa simul. Gordon Ritchie reports.
Super-Großmeister haben es auch nicht leicht. Arbeitsplätze sind rar gesät und
liegen zumeist weit von zuhause entfernt. Lange Anfahrtzeiten sind die
Folge. So wurde Alexei Shirov nach einem kürzlich beendeten Einsatz in Holland
und nur kurzer Verschnaufpause daheim in Riga schon gleich zu einem weiteren
Auftrag gerufen - in Ottawa. Nach über 16 Stunden Reisezeit traf der Lette mit
spanischem Pass nachts um 2 Uhr Ortszeit am Zielort ein, irgendwie aber zur
falschen Zeit: sechs Stunden Zeitunterschied! Abends um 7 Uhr begann das
vereinbarte Simultan. Dort warteten 35 ausgeschlafene und starke Gegner, davon
vier sogar mit einer Elozahl von über 2300 auf den Ehrengast. Nach 5 Stunden
Herumgehen im Kreis hatte Shirov das besonders unter diesen Bedingungen
beachtliche Ergebnis von + 25 =9 -2 eingefahren. Eine Partie verlor er gegen
einen 12-Jährigen. Das war dem Ottawa Citizen sogar eine Seite-Eins-Meldung
wert. Gordon Ritchie berichtet aus Ottawa.
Meldung bei Ottawa Citizen... Bericht und Bilder...
1? Parte foto dal Corus Wijk Aan Zee per Scacchierando !
72° Wijk Aan Zee : centinaia di foto per Scacchierando !
Riceviamo e pubblichiamo le prime 30 di una quantità industriale di bellissime foto che un lettore appassionato ci ha gentilmente inviato da Wijk Aan Zee dove si è recentemente conclusa la 72esima edizione del supertorneo vinto dal norvegese Carlsen. Iniziamo oggi con i primi piani e alcune fasi di gioco dei tre tornei ( A-B-C).
Domani pubblicheremo le foto dei giocatori rilassati in sala analisi, della sede di gioco e altre curiosità. Come al solito saranno poi tutte visibili nella nostra galleria fotografica.
Anna Muzychuk
Naiditsch (GER)
Negi (India)
Wesley So (Filippine)
Li Chao (Cina)
Grandelius (Svezia)
Maria Muzychuk (UKR)
Ray Robson (USA)
Soumya Swaminathan (IND)
Robin van Kampen (NED)
Daniele Vocaturo
Bok
Carlsen incurvato sulla scacchiera
Shirov guarda spaventato il fotografo cecchino
Caruana interrogato dal Prof. d'inglese Short
Giovani star al confronto : So VS Giri ( Olandese di origini nepalesi). Vincerà il nero con un forte attacco con doppio sacrificio !
Quanto scotta il thè indiano...
Caruana vs Nakamura (USA)
quelle bandierine non ci convincono...
ci vorrebbe un barbiere...
derby olandese nel torneo A
derby indiano nel torneo C
Anand "gufa" Carlsen arrampicato sulla sedia
Muzychuk - So
Carlsen - Caruana
Kramnik - Karjakin, sfida tra neo compagni di nazionale...
42-year-old Konstantin Chernyshov won the strong Moscow Open with 7 out of 9. The Russian GM finished shared first with another 40+ grandmaster, Evgeny Bareev, and both Le Quang Liem and Ernesto Inarkiev also ended on 7 points. Chernishov had the best tiebreak: most wins.
The 6th Moscow Open took place January 30-February 7 at the Russian State Social University in Moscow, Russia. The festival consisted of many different events, and attracted 1,500 participants from 30 countries worldwide. The main event, a very strong 9-round Swiss, consisted of 187 players, including 73 grandmasters and 49 masters. The time control was 1 hour and 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move 1.
The tournament was surprisingly won by 46th seeded Konstantin Chernyshov. In the last round the grandmaster from Voronezh drew with Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem and so the two ended the tournament with 7 points, together with Evgeny Bareev and Ernesto Inarkiev. Chernyshov was declared winner as he had the highest number of wins. Le Quang Liem ended second and Bareev third. The prize fund of the main tournament was 2,500,000 rubles (60,000 Euros) and the first prize 500,000 (12,000 Euros).
Chernyshov and Liem shaking hands for their last-round game
Another famous name who could be found in the playing hall almost every day was Alexei Shirov. The reason? He came to support his girlfriend Olga Dolgov, who played in the women’s tournament (and who could be found in the playing hall of the Corus Chess Tournament almost every day, supporting her boyfriend). Besides, Shirov decided to meet with relatives and school friends, as he mentioned in an interview at the tournament website.
Apparently the two believe in the power of love. The interview was conducted when Sasikiran was leading the tournament. Shirov: “Naturally, he is very high class player. Besides, not so long ago he got married, and this also gives an additional impetus.”
Winter in Moscow, chess in Moscow
One of the playing halls in the university
Second on tiebreak: Le Quang Liem
Third on tiebreak, still going strong: Evgeny Bareev
Fourth on tiebreak: Ernesto Inarkiev
Krishnan Sasikiran had a good start, but finished on shared 5th-15th
Vladimir Belov, also shared 5th-15th
Bu Xiangzhi, also shared 5th-15th
Open tournament tiger Evgeny Najer, this time shared 15th-28th
Top seed Alexander Motylev, also shared 15th-28th
Giovanni Vescovi from Brazil, shared 15th-28th
Semen Dvoirys ended on 5.5 points
Ian Nepomniachtchi, also shared 15th-28th
Hou Yifan ended on a disappointing 4.5/9
Evgeny Sveshnikov still plays and ended on 4 points
GRANDE SLAM: LA FINALE DEI DUE MONDI ! A Shanghai (Cina) e Bilbao(Spagna)
Sorpresa per il Master 2010, manifestazione giunta alla terza edizione e che vedrà in campo i vincitori dei principali tornei al Mondo ( Nanchino, Wijk Aan Zee, Linares, Sofia e forse il Kings Tournament di Bazna in Romania ) facenti parte del Grande Slam.
Per il 2010 infatti è previsto un rilancio dell'evento dopo una seconda edizione nel 2009 in tono minore che fu caratterizzata dal taglio dei premi e che portò lo sfidante mondiale bulgaro Topalov a declinare l'invito.
La novità sarà che la Finale del Grande Slam sarà divisa in due parti e si disputerà in due città diverse : Shanghai (Cina, dal 3 al 12 Settembre) e la tradizionale Bilbao (Spagna, dal 6 al 14 Ottobre). Infatti ad interrompere momentaneamente la manifestazione ci saranno le Olimpiadi 2010 in Russia !
Anche San Luis (Argentina) e Londra (Inghilterra) stanno valutando se entrare a far parte del circuito. In ogni caso il Comitato organizzatore del Grande Slam ha posto una regola per i nuovi tornei, ovvero che questi diano garanzia di svolgere almeno 3 edizioni.
CALENDARIO 2010 GRANDE SLAM:
NANCHINO (CINA 2009) = Carlsen
WIJK AAN ZEE (OLANDA 2010) = Carlsen
LINARES (SPAGNA) = 12-25 Febbraio
SOFIA (BULGARIA)= 25 Maggio - 5 Giugno
BAZNA (?) (ROMANIA) = 10-22Giugno
FINALE MASTER = SHANGHAI ( Cina, 3-12 Settembre) & BILBAO ( Spagna, 6-14 Ottobre)
Nakamura at the 2004 World Open. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
Hikaru Nakamura has quite a story to tell. Born in Osaka, Japan and arriving in the U.S. at the age of two, Nakamura has been gracing the pages of chess magazines since he began breaking many of Bobby Fischer’s records. One of the first indicators of chess talent is the age record for National Master.
There have been many talented players to come through the scholastic ranks, but many either quit playing after high school, or shortly after reaching National Master. When Nakamura entered Dickinson College, there were fears that America would lose yet another promising talent along the likes of Grandmasters Michael Wilder and Patrick Wolff.
Under the early tutelage of his stepfather FM Sunil Weeramantry and the mentorship of older brother Asuka Nakamura, young Hikaru shattered the record reaching the mark in 10 years, 79 days. In 2008, his record was later lowered to 9 years, 11 months by Nicholas Nip, a player who is no longer active. Five years later, he broke Bobby Fischer’s long-standing record by earning Grandmaster status in 15 years, 79 days.
Media comparisons to Fischer immediately heightened when he won the U.S. Championship at age 16. However, Nakamura reminded everyone, “I’m not Bobby Fischer.” He was intimating the point that Fischer was an unbalanced individual who only thought of chess. Of course, this was only half the story with Fischer, but certainly he was one who could not operate comfortably outside of the chess realm.
When you talk to Nakamura, he is comfortable talking about a wide range of topics including his beloved Vancouver Canucks hockey team. He also has a variety of interests including music, finance, sports and politics. Many of the existing stereotypes of Nakamura are based on history from his teen years and commentary from online chess servers.
Chief Organizer Erik Anderson (left) stands next to GM Hikaru Nakamura and WGM Rusudan Goletiani after both were crowned the 2004 U.S. Champions.
Nakamura’s talent was hardly questioned on the U.S. scene as he had put together an impressive résumé of wins. At the closing ceremonies of the 2003 U.S. Championship, winner Alexander Shabalov singled out a young Nakamura and stated that he had a bright future in chess. In American tournaments, Nakamura’s brash style has become a breath of fresh air in a sport that had become stagnant with the same players competing every year in the U.S. Championships and the open tournaments. His victory the next year was definitely good for chess.
Once Nakamura joined the elite class in the U.S., he carried a reputation as being an isolationist and distrustful of his colleagues. He rankled many when he made comments about collusion among the U.S. elite. “That’s actually why I still work alone. It’s very hard to trust anybody.” However, as Nakamura begin to ascend to a world-class level, he enlisted some help. After the 2009 U.S. Championship, he mentioned that he had been working with National Master Kris Littlejohn. This choice of a second puzzled many, but has paid dividends.
Viktor Mikalevski ponders Gata Kamsky’s next move while Nakamura-Najer reaches the climatic stage of the 2009 World Open. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
In U.S. chess, there had been too many “friendships” between top players which resulted in many quick draws and dispirited play. Nakamura was dismissive of these tactics and forced the issue with his ‘play-to-win’ attitude. His determination affords him psychological capital when an opponent understands that they have to fight when they are already content on drawing. This fighting spirit came into great effect when he won his first U.S. Championship at age 16. However, in an important interview in Salon magazine, there were still had doubters.
“The finish is very good but few purists will rank his play in the same league as Fischer’s — it lacks elegance,” wrote chess scribe Alan Goldsmith. Another chess writer, Bobby Ang, wondered, “When Nakamura reaches the higher echelons of the chess elite, will his style work?” Citing a benchmark of great contemporary players, Ang asked of Nakamura, “Can his brilliance overcome the tactical mastery of Alexei Shirov? Will his will-to-win be sufficient to breach the solid fortifications of Vladimir Kramnik, or Peter Leko? Is his much-touted resourcefulness of a high enough standard to battle with Rustam Kasimdzhanov? I doubt it very much.” (see link)
Nakamura’s sales pitch to Europe was more difficult, but he was beginning to pick up momentum. Tournament organizers were attracted to his brash, no-nonsense style. He has since broken through in a number of strong tournaments and is now comfortably ensconced in the top 20. Many detractors rail at the notion that Nakamura has not gotten the opportunities to face the elite level. They cite his skipping Corus “B” in 2008 for the Gibraltar Masters as a snub. Nakamura cited inadequate conditions, but made good on his trip by winning Gibraltar.
Nakamura winning the 2009 U.S. Championship. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
On various chess blogs, the conversation of Nakamura ascendancy is a popular topic. Naysayers continue to claim Nakamura is not worthy of “elite” status for very specific reasons. After he refutes these reasons, another set will be created and standards increased. At this point, pundits state that Nakamura has to make top 10 to be considered seriously as a World Championship. Last year, it was top 20.
Of course, the candidacy of players such as Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin or Teimour Radjabov was recognized almost immediately. What is the difference? The theory was that the European stars were “battle-tested” and Nakamura had not faced tough competition. Many top chess journals, websites and blogs take liberties to print negative portrayals of the young American star. Even his head-to-head blitz victory over Carlsen in Norway was trivialized.
So the question…”Is Nakamura the ‘Real Deal’?” Does he have World Championship potential? When Vladimir Kramnik was asked this question, he seems to believe that Nakamura is a legitimate talent, but stopped short of giving a full endorsement. Most of the fans and journalists believe that Carlsen is the heir apparent to Viswanathan Anand or Veselin Topalov, but it is not certain if Carlsen will maintain his level. The performance of Anish Giri turned some heads and the Chinese and Indians deserve attention. If one looks at Nakamura, he has many things going for him.
Killer Instinct – Nakamura is unparalleled in the intensity he brings to the board. While it should not be taken literally, Nakamura seems to have an assassin’s mentality when approaching his chess encounters. His play is relentless, hyper-energetic, provocative and aggressive. One of his greatest assets seems to be making opponents uncomfortable, both over the board and in his confident posture.
Independence – Kris Littlejohn selection as Nakamura’s assistant was a bold step that bucks another trend… having a peer as a second. Nakamura theory seems to be based more on work chemistry than the talent of his second. In the 2008 U.S. Championship, he stated that Littlejohn helps him in many intangible ways and understands his style very well. What we now know is that Kris is a computer specialist and can use his understanding of Nakamura’s style with his chess knowledge to create powerful intelligence. “Team Nakamura” has been a rousing success thus far. This doesn’t preclude Nakamura from adding additional members to his camp.
Flexibility - Chess pundits may now be convinced at Nakamura’s resilience and ability to adapt. There are still a lot of doubters who insist on viewing him based on his online persona of a “blitz god” with an arrogance far exceeding his accomplishments. One thing critics may overlook is Nakamura’s maturation over the past few years. He is willing to experiment at a high level and to reignite debates on acceptable play. One of the difficulties at top level is preparing for an opponent like Vassily Ivanchuk or Nakamura. While Nakamura doesn’t have the depth in opening knowledge of Ivanchuk, he still poses difficult problems and is comfortable in a variety of positions.
Self-Critic – Nakamura is openly critical of his play. On his silver-medal performance in the World Team Championship and his Corus “A” debut, he was quick to point out improvements… even in victory. This is a good sign and is contrary to the belief that he doesn’t work hard to improve his game. His ability to be self-critical will keep him alert and hungry enough to know that he can still improve. Approaching the 2750 mark, he will continue to vault over many of the veterans as he continues his march. At some point, he may enlist the help of a world-class player to help him in specific areas.
GM Hikaru Nakamura at 2010 Corus in Wijk aan Zee.
Photo by Fred Lucas.
Will these factors mean that he has enough to win a World Championship? Time will tell. One thing that is true is that if Nakamura has his goal set and resources are not an issue, he will have more than an adequate shot at winning the World Championship. He is only 22 years old and he will continue to get better. The downside is does not have a sponsor and gets limited help from his federation which means that he does not have the luxury of focusing purely on chess development.
In a 2005 interview with the New York Times, Nakamura summed up his chances.
”If I am able to get up there and play for the actual title of the world championship, then once again, everyone will be excited,” Mr. Nakamura said, noting how chess gained wide appeal when Mr. Fischer toppled Boris Spassky, the Soviet world champion, in 1972. ”There have been plenty of great players since Fischer but none have been American players.” (see link)
Nakamura has the tenacity, the nerves and still has some areas of improvement in his game. Given Carlsen’s breach of 2800, there will be a new cadre of players to vie for the world crown. With the right combination of training, sponsorship and tournament invitations, Nakamura hopes to be one in that number.
Grand Slam dates announced; Masters Final in Shanghai and Bilbao
This year’s Grand Slam Masters Final will be split into two parts. One will be held in Shanghai, China (just before the Olympiad) and one in Bilbao, Spain (just after). This was announced last week in Wijk aan Zee, were the board of the Grand Slam had a meeting to discuss matters. All dates for the coming year were announced.
Linares: Feb 12-25
In five days from now, the second Grand Slam tournament in 2010 will already start. Linares runs from the 12th till the 25th of February . Like last year it will be a six-player, double round-robin with rest days on February 17th and 22nd. The players are Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Vugar Gashimov, Alexander Grischuk and Francisco Vallejo.
MTel Masters: May 25-June 5
Two weeks after the Anand-Topalov match (April 23rd – May 12th), Sofia will again host the MTel Masters. This year the tournament runs May 25th – June 5th.
Bazna: June 10-22
Last year it was already terribly strong, with Radjabov, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Gelfand, Kamsky and Nisipeanu. This month the Kings Tournament in Bazna will decide whether they’ll be part of the Grand Slam; the Romanian tournament runs June 10th – 22nd this year.
Masters Final: Sep 3-12 & Oct 6-14
The biggest news from the Grand Slam board is about the Masters Final, which was organized twice in Bilbao, Spain. The first year it was a 6-player double round-robin won by Topalov, and the second year Aronian won a group of 4 with Karjakin, Grischuk and Shirov. This year the event will be split into two parts: one part in Shanghai, China (September 3rd – 12th) and one part in Bilbao, Spain (October 6th-14th). In between, the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk takes place September 19th – October 4th.
Nanjing: Oct 17-29
The third edition of the Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing, China will start already three days after the Final Masters ends. It runs October 17th till 29th.
Corus: January 14-30
The 73rd Corus Chess Tournament will take place January 14th till 30th in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands.
As always, the winners of the Grand Slam tournaments will qualify for the Masters Final. Since Magnus Carlsen won two consecutive Grand Slam tournaments (and might win more), the organizers we will wait until all tournaments have finished, and then look at best performances of the runner-ups.
The above information was announced last week by Corus tournament director Jeroen van den Berg, after the Grand Slam board meeting held in Wijk aan Zee. (We have entered all super-GM tournaments in capitals in our tournament calendar. Organizers of open tournaments are invited to enter their events there.)
When Vishy Anand drew his first nine games at Corus Wijk aan Zee last week, opinions were divided on whether the world champion had lost his edge or was simply taking a well-paid rest before his April title defence in Sofia against Veselin Topalov. Then Anand acted as Corus king-maker, beating Alexei Shirov and Vlad Kramnik, so that the pair finished half a point behind Magnus Carlsen.
Norway's world No1 had previously won at Pearl Spring in China and the London Classic and finished second at the Tal Memorial, His fine run continued at Wijk, and the live ratings now make him the all-time No2 to Garry Kasparov. Carlsen had final-round luck in Holland, and the impression is that Anand would still beat him in a match. But their 20-year age difference means that he is Andy Murray to Anand's Roger Federer, and a clearer dominance of his peers will come.
Overall Anand's controlled play at Wijk sent a confident message to Topalov, especially in the best game of the tournament below. His 17 Qc1 novelty induced the passive 18...Bf8 (Bd6) and, when White won a pawn by 26 Bxc7, Kramnik mixed it up when 26...Bc5! gives counterplay. The Russian missed the force of the exchange sac 28 Rxc2! with the follow-up 34 Be5! (idea Bh5) and 35 Bg4! (even better than the queen swap). Anand's one slip was 39 f4 (39 Qe3) as 40...Qe4! makes the win a lot harder. Missing this trick, Kramnik was overrun by Anand's central pawn duo.
Caruana fa il suo esordio nella Bundesliga 2009/10
Caruana - Berndtsabato Live h.14 Fruebing - Caruana domenica Live h.10
In questo fine settimana si svolgeranno tre turni (7°, 8° e 9°) del campionato tedesco a squadre, stagione 2009/10. Dopo le recenti fatiche del Corus farà il suo esordio nella manifestazione Fabiano Caruana, impegnato con lo squadrone del OSGBaden-Baden. La squadra campione in carica annovera, tra le sue file, Super Campioni del calibro di Anand, Carlsen, Svidler e Shirov, con i primi due che però non sono stati ancora impiegati.
Fabiano, che nella precedente stagione è stato utilizzato in due occasioni (due patte, con il GM Dgebuadze ed il MI Kolbus) affronterà due giocatori tedeschi: il trentaseienne MI Stephan Berndt (2442) e il MF Stefan Fruebing (2337), di 22 anni, che si sta comportando ottimamente in questa Bundesliga (3/5, performance 2574).
i due avversari di Caruana, MI Berndt e MF Fruebing
Per comprendere il livello del torneo sono sufficienti pochi numeri: 275 giocatori, 23 nazioni e 13 over 2700, anche se sinora hanno giocato solo Svidler, Shirov, Vachier-Lagrave, Eljanov, Movsesian e Bacrot. Dopo sette turni l'OSG Baden-Baden guida la classifica a punteggio pieno, tallonato ad solo un punto di distanza dal Werder Brema (Gashimov e Mamedyarov, non ancora schierati, ed Eljanov). Il Big Match si svolgerà il 27 febbraio.
Bacrot, Movsesian e Adams, prime tre scacchiere del Baden Baden in questo w-end
Nei turni precedenti precedenti segnaliamo un clamorosoinfortunio occorso al Super GM Alexei Shirov contro il GM tedesco Michael Bezold
Calendario il torneo vede la partecipazione di 16 squadre e si svolge con un girone all'italiana di sola andata (15 turni). I prossimi turni si svolgeranno il 27 e 28 febbraio, il 20 e il 21 marzo e il 10 e 11 aprile.
Sistema di punteggio i match si disputano su 8 scacchiere e vengono assegnati 2 punti per la vittoria, 1 per il pareggio e 0 per la sconfitta. In caso di arrivo a pari merito, si considera la somma dei punti individuali ottenuti.
Tempo di riflessione 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita più 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.
... es el eslogan que se ha convertido en la marca registrada que relaciona a Alexei Shirov y su estilo de juego. En el torneo Corus, en el que Shirov comenzó con 5 victorias consecutivas, el mago del ajedrez de 37 años, nacido en Riga, demostró otra vez más que existe una buena razón para ello. Logró presionar sobre sus oponentes en muchas de las posiciones que surgían en el medio juego, atacándolos de manera imaginativa y agresiva. Siempre, incluso en los finales hay que estar preparado para un posible incendio ajedrecístico a cargo de Shirov. Y eso fue lo que ocurrió en la undécima ronda, en su partida contra Vladimir Kramnik, cuando Shirov jugó 35.c5! (Véase el diagrama) El GM Karsten Müller analizó el final para ChessBase Magazine Online. - Diagrama más grande...
The 8th and 9th round of the Schachbundesliga and three matches from round 7 will take place from the 5th to the 7th of February 2010. We provide you with the pairings at the playing venues Munich, Mülheim, Berlin and Remagen. Some famous Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar participants are joining for their Baden-Baden team…
OSG Baden-Baden is the only team of the Schachbundesliga left without any loss of points. The upcoming weekend the German champion will face the two teams of Berlin and is odds-on favourite. Under the same precondition starts the only serious competitor for the title Werder Bremen. Bremen is facing the teams of München and Erfurt. Both of them are relegation candidates. Some interesting derbies are taking place in Mülheim, where the host is facing Katernberg and Wattenscheid for the “hegemony in the West”.
All line-ups of the teams in Berlin, e.g. OSG Baden-Baden, are published two days in advance. This is carried out due to the new rule, which was implemented from the beginning of this season.
Live coverage
All games of the Schachbundesliga are covered live on the Internet. At the particular date of the matches you can get access to the games via the website of the Schachbundesliga.
8th round: Saturday, 6th of February 2010, 2 pm
Playing venue Munich
Bayern München – Hamburger SK
Erfurter SK – Werder Bremen
Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SV Wattenscheid
SF Katernberg – SK Turm Emsdetten
Playing venue Berlin
SK König Tegel – SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
SF Berlin - OSG Baden-Baden
1 Jan Markos (2565) - Etienne Bacrot (2709)
2 Arnd Lauber (2517) - Sergei Movsesian (2711)
3 Rainer Polzin (2491) - Michael Adams (2682)
4 Martin Krämer (2482) - Arkadij Naiditsch (2685)
5 Ilja Schneider (2500) - Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2664)
6 Stephan Berndt (2442) - Fabiano Caruana (2662)
7 Mikail Agopov (2452) - Jan Gustafsson (2622)
8 Lars Thiede (2450) - Philipp Schlosser (2555)
Matches of the 7th round: Friday, 5th of February 2010
Playing venue Mülheim
SV Mülheim Nord – SF Katernberg (4pm)
Playing venue Berlin
SF Berlin – SK König Tegel (4pm)
Playing venue Remagen
SC Remagen – SG Solingen (5pm)
Bundesliga 0910 | Current Standings
Teams
1. OSC Baden-Baden
1 Anand, Viswanathan GM IND 2788
2 Carlsen, Magnus GM NOR 2772
3 Svidler, Peter GM RUS 2739
4 Shirov, Alexei GM ESP 2732
5 Bacrot, Etienne GM FRA 2721
6 Movsesian, Sergej GM SVK 2716
7 Adams, Michael GM ENG 2699
8 Naiditsch, Arkadij GM GER 2697
9 Vallejo Pons, Francisco GM ESP 2693
10 Nielsen, Peter-Heine GM DEN 2680
11 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter GM ROU 2675
12 Caruana, Fabiano GM ITA 2670
13 Gustafsson, Jan GM GER 2622
14 Dautov, Rustem GM GER 2596
15 Doettling, Fabian GER 2571
16 Schlosser, Philipp GER 2560
17 Dinger, Florian GER 2391
18 Hager, Joshua Aarasch GER 2217
9. SF Katernberg
1 Volokitin, Andrei GM UKR 2678
2 Chuchelov, Vladimir GM BEL 2598
3 Firman, Nazar IM UKR 2571
4 Seel, Christian IM GER 2493
5 Bischoff, Klaus GM GER 2551
6 Halkias, Stelios GM GRE 2564
7 Glek, Igor V GM GER 2528
8 Zaragatski, Ilja IM GER 2472
9 Senff, Martin IM GER 2469
10 Ris, Robert IM NED 2421
11 Thesing, Matthias IM GER 2436
12 Siebrecht, Sebastian GM GER 2458
13 Scholz, Christian IM GER 2373
14 Hoolt, Sarah WIM GER 2240
15 Rosen, Bernd FM GER 2355
16 Geilmann, Ulrich GER 1837
17 Kotainy, Jens GER 2270
2. Werder Bremen
1 Gashimov, Vugar GM AZE 2740
2 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar GM AZE 2717
3 McShane, Luke James GM ENG 2620
4 Eljanov, Pavel GM UKR 2716
5 Efimenko, Zahar GM UKR 2654
6 Fressinet, Laurent GM FRA 2667
7 Meier, Georg GM GER 2658
8 Areshchenko, Alexander GM UKR 2651
9 Roiz, Michael GM ISR 2658
10 Nyback, Tomi GM FIN 2627
11 Hracek, Zbynek GM CZE 2608
12 Babula, Vlastimil GM CZE 2566
13 Llaneza Vega, Marcos IM ESP 2521
14 Fish, Gennadij GM GER 2508
15 Skripchenko, Almira IM FRA 2450
16 Knaak, Rainer GM GER 2484
17 Lichman, Peter GER 2317
10. SK Turm Emsdetten
1 Mchedlishvili, Mikheil GM GEO 2592
2 Giri, Anish GM NED 2518
3 Spoelman, Wouter IM NED 2546
4 Hector, Jonny GM SWE 2556
5 Feygin, Michael IM GER 2546
6 Janssen, Ruud IM NED 2527
7 Cramling, Pia GM SWE 2525
8 Bellon Lopez, Juan Manuel GM ESP 2445
9 Brandenburg, Daan IM NED 2463
10 Breder, Dennis IM GER 2435
11 Fiebig, Thomas GER 2426
12 Pruijssers, Roeland IM NED 2401
13 Kabatianski, Alexandr IM GER 2425
14 Richter, Christian FM GER 2417
15 Zumsande, Martin IM GER 2403
16 Bosman, Michiel FM NED 2356
3. SC Eppingen
1 Tiviakov, Sergei GM NED 2674
2 Postny, Evgeny GM ISR 2647
3 Berkes, Ferenc GM HUN 2647
4 Balogh, Csaba GM HUN 2595
5 Gyimesi, Zoltan GM HUN 2591
6 Ruck, Robert GM HUN 2561
7 Acs, Peter GM HUN 2550
8 Braun, Arik GM GER 2529
9 Bindrich, Falko GM GER 2516
10 Medvegy, Zoltan GM HUN 2547
11 Guliyev, Namig GM AZE 2555
12 Muzychuk, Anna IM SLO 2542
13 Paehtz, Elisabeth IM GER 2474
14 Mann, Christian IM GER 2454
15 Vogt, Lothar GM GER 2422
16 Dekan, Hans GER 2179
17 Noe, Christopher GER 1798
11. SF Berlin
1 Nataf, Igor-Alexandre GM FRA 2529
2 Markos, Jan GM SVK 2555
3 Miezis, Normunds GM LAT 2572
4 Lauber, Arnd IM GER 2517
5 Polzin, Rainer GM GER 2491
6 Kraemer, Martin IM GER 2481
7 Schneider, Ilja IM GER 2508
8 Berndt, Stephan IM GER 2442
9 Agopov, Mikail IM FIN 2442
10 Brynell, Stellan GM SWE 2471
11 Thiede, Lars IM GER 2452
12 Thinius, Marco IM GER 2375
13 Degtiarev, Evgeny FM GER 2373
14 Rudolf, Henrik FM GER 2353
15 Wintzer, Joachim Dr. FM GER 2384
16 Lundin, Jan FM SWE 2382
17 Abel, Dennes GER 2328
18 Glantz, Robert GER 2239
4. SV Mülheim-Nord
1 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam GM UZB 2672
2 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime GM FRA 2703
3 Motylev, Alexander GM RUS 2710
4 Tregubov, Pavel V. GM RUS 2652
5 Landa, Konstantin GM RUS 2655
6 Fridman, Daniel GM GER 2665
7 Potkin, Vladimir GM RUS 2619
8 Golod, Vitali GM ISR 2599
9 Malakhatko, Vadim GM BEL 2570
10 Berelovich, Alexander GM GER 2550
11 Levin, Felix GM GER 2491
12 Hausrath, Daniel GM GER 2519
13 Saltaev, Mihail GM UZB 2505
14 Schebler, Gerhard GM GER 2486
15 Litwak, Aleksej FM GER 2268
16 Kaufeld, Juergen FM GER 2274
17 Wittenberg, Andreas GER 2129
18 Kahleys, Kevin GER 1986
12. SG Trier
1 Lupulescu, Constantin GM ROU 2620
2 Bobras, Piotr GM POL 2568
3 Cyborowski, Lukasz GM POL 2498
4 Haslinger, Stewart GM ENG 2538
5 Gordon, Stephen IM ENG 2537
6 Jaracz, Pawel GM POL 2539
7 Erdoes, Viktor GM HUN 2565
8 Flumbort, Andras IM HUN 2507
9 Gonda, Laszlo IM HUN 2499
10 Galyas, Miklos IM HUN 2457
11 Seger, Ruediger IM GER 2405
12 Kolbus, Dietmar IM GER 2383
13 Cioara, Andrei Nestor IM ROU 2437
14 Goriachnik, Dmitry MDA 2324
15 Rat, Dan Ovidiu FM ROU 2315
16 Jeitz, Christian LUX 2221
17 Korman, Maxim GER 2172
5. SG Solingen
1 Stellwagen, Daniel GM NED 2630
2 Smeets, Jan GM NED 2632
3 Nikolic, Predrag GM BIH 2602
4 Buhmann, Rainer GM GER 2603
5 Werle, Jan GM NED 2575
6 Edouard, Romain GM FRA 2597
7 Jussupow, Artur GM GER 2570
8 L’Ami, Erwin GM NED 2593
9 Ragger, Markus GM AUT 2563
10 Ernst, Sipke GM NED 2598
11 Naumann, Alexander GM GER 2522
12 Hoffmann, Michael GM GER 2502
13 Gabriel, Christian GM GER 2507
14 Drabke, Lorenz Maximilian IM GER 2455
15 Wegerle, Joerg IM GER 2430
16 Schaefer, Markus IM GER 2378
17 Hobusch, Alexander GER 2103
18 Hannewald, Anton GER 1931
13. FC Bayern München
1 Bezold, Michael GM GER 2517
2 Bromberger, Stefan IM GER 2510
3 Schenk, Andreas IM GER 2509
4 Marcelin, Cyril GM FRA 2498
5 Boensch, Uwe GM GER 2511
6 Stangl, Markus GM GER 2455
7 Reiss, Tibor IM HUN 2414
8 Renner, Christoph IM GER 2431
9 Belezky, Alexander IM UKR 2446
10 Meissner, Bernd IM GER 2410
11 Meister, Peter IM GER 2396
12 Reich, Thomas IM GER 2368
13 Rodewis, Thomas Dr. GER 2367
14 Unzicker, Ferdinand Dr. GER 2332
15 Deglmann, Ludwig FM GER 2329
16 Lentrodt, Thomas FM GER 2304
17 Jorczik, Julian FM GER 2352
18 Graf, Felix GER 2291
6. Hamburger SK
1 Wojtaszek, Radoslav GM POL 2637
2 Kempinski, Robert GM POL 2601
3 Ghaem, Maghami Ehsan GM IRI 2589
4 Baramidze, David GM GER 2527
5 Adly, Ahmed GM EGY 2548
6 Rogozenco, Dorian GM ROU 2541
7 Hansen, Sune Berg HDEN 2554
8 Rasmussen, Allan Stig GM DEN 2536
9 Ftacnik, Lubomir Dr. GM SVK 2525
10 Mueller, Karsten Dr. GM GER 2523
11 Heinemann, Thies IM GER 2484
12 Chevelevitch, Evgueni Dr. IM GER 2461
13 Reeh, Oliver IM GER 2442
14 Huschenbeth, Niclas IM GER 2416
15 Sebastian, Dirk GER 2443
16 Van Delft, Merijn IM NED 2360
17 Carlstedt, Jonathan GER 2309
18 Bracker, Frank GER 2280
14. Erfurter SK
1 Romanov, Evgeny GM RUS 2589
2 Haba, Petr GM CZE 2533
3 Michiels, Bart IM BEL 2451
4 Kuczynski, Robert GM POL 2505
5 Casper, Thomas IM GER 2395
6 Votava, Jan GM CZE 2561
7 Enders, Peter GM GER 2467
8 Mueller, Matthias IM GER 2410
9 Voekler, Bernd FM GER 2393
10 Schoene, Maria WIM GER 2274
11 Troyke, Christian IM GER 2350
12 Schuetze, Norman GER 2278
13 Brueggemann, Joachim IM GER 2356
14 Krueger, Rainer Dr. GER 2211
15 Troyke, Doreen WFM GER 2105
16 Duzy, Stefan GER 1545
17 Friedt, Marius GER 1885
7. SV Wattenscheid
1 Vitiugov, Nikita GM RUS 2681
2 Najer, Evgeniy GM RUS 2663
3 Macieja, Bartlomiej GM POL 2612
4 Bartel, Mateusz GM POL 2619
5 Czarnota, Pawel GM POL 2530
6 Rustemov, Alexander GM RUS 2532
7 Johannessen, Leif Erlend GM NOR 2553
8 Appel, Ralf GM GER 2552
9 Holzke, Frank Dr. GM GER 2526
10 Handke, Florian GM GER 2513
11 Souleidis, Georgios IM GRE 2435
12 Dinstuhl, Volkmar Dr. IM GER 2417
13 Tereick, Benjamin FM GER 2378
14 Straeter, Timo FM GER 2347
15 Thiel, Thomas FM GER 2280
16 Gohla, Ulf GER 2181
17 Koerber, Matthias GER 1898
15. SK Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim
1 Ikonnikov, Viacheslav GM RUS 2556
2 Svetushkin, Dmitry GM MDA 2607
3 Ginsburg, Gennadi GM GER 2537
4 Gurevic, Vladimir GM UKR 2470
5 Chernov, Vadim IM ROU 2433
6 Solomunovic, Igor IM GER 2421
7 Gerigk, Erasmus FM GER 2335
8 Schwalfenberg, Joerg FM GER 2317
9 Maier, Christian IM GER 2347
10 Vatter, Hans-Joachim FM GER 2302
11 Syska, Albert FM GER 2268
12 Nippgen, Georg GER 2272
13 Roos, Jean-Luc IM FRA 2250
14 Neunhoeffer, Helmut Dr FM GER 2281
15 Pielmeier, Thomas GER 2231
16 Schott, Reimund FRA 2019
8. SC Remagen
1 Ivanchuk, Vassily GM UKR 2703
2 Fedorchuk, Sergey GM UKR 2655
3 Gharamian, Tigran GM FRA 2615
4 Goloshchapov, Alexander GM UKR 2580
5 Parligras, Mircea GM ROU 2557
6 Huebner, Robert Dr. GM GER 2605
7 Degraeve, Jean-Marc GM FRA 2559
8 Dgebuadze, Alexandre GM BEL 2516
9 Mainka, Romuald GM GER 2521
10 Swinkels, Robin IM NED 2516
11 Teske, Henrik GM GER 2536
12 Popovic, Petar GM SRB 2496
13 Polaczek, Richard IM BEL 2381
14 Kipper, Jens GER 2393
15 Schulz, Klaus-Juergen IM GER 2385
16 Bok, Benjamin FM NED 2360
16. SK König Tegel
1 Rabiega, Robert GM GER 2551
2 Stern, Rene IM GER 2498
3 Muse, Mladen GM CRO 2448
4 Von Herman, Ulf IM GER 2400
5 Muse, Drazen IM CRO 2374
6 Fruebing, Stefan FM GER 2305
7 Tomczak, Rainer FM GER 2287
8 Mielitz, Heinz GER
9 Sarbok, Torsten FM GER 2319
10 Breier, Andreas FM GER 2405
11 Giemsa, Stephan FM GER 2301
12 Jahnz, Fabian GER 2191
13 Jaehnisch, Frank GER 2230
14 Roth, Josef GER 2152
15 Schulz, Stefanie GER 2109
16 Rausch, Manfred GER 1689
17 Kachibadze, Georg GER 2224
Mikhail Tal 1968 beim Blindspiel (Screenshot vom Video - siehe Text)
Darbietungen von Blindschach und besonders Blind-Simultan-Schach sind immer eine Attraktion. Ein solches Spektakel fand vor zehn Jahren in Berlin statt, als Robert Hübner im Blindsimultan an acht Brettern gegen die erste Mannschaft des SC Kreuzberg antrat und fünf Siege und drei Remis erzielte. Harald Fietz hat darüber einen sehr schönen Bericht – “Blinder Durchblick” – geschrieben. Spektakulär ist auch das jüngst aufgetauchte Videozeugnis eines Blindsimultans von Mikhail Tal an zehn Brettern. Steve Giddens hat das Geschehen in einem Chessbase-Artikel zusammengefasst und teilweise ins Englische übersetzt. Bei dem Video handelt es sich übrigens um einen Ausschnitt aus dem 1968 gedrehten Dokumentarfilm “Seven Steps beyond the Horizon”.
Warum Blindschach-Training?
Das Spiel ohne Ansicht des Brettes ist beeindruckend. Aber auch am Brett müssen die Spieler gewissermaßen “blind” spielen. Denn die sichtbaren Bewegungen der Figuren auf dem Brett sind ja nur die Spitze des Eisberges. Größtenteils bleibt das Geschehen einer Schachpartie unsichtbar und spielt sich nur in der Vorstellungswelt der Spieler ab. Im Aufsatz “Die Psychologie des Schachspielers” (1909) schreibt Siegbert Tarrasch: “Eigentlich ist ja auch die gewöhnliche Partie, ist ja auch das ganze Schach Blindspiel. Man geht von einer gegebenen sichtbaren Stellung aus, kommt aber dann beim Berechnen auf eine ganz andere, die man sich völlig deutlich, durchaus plastisch vorstellen muss, um von ihr aus seine Berechnungen fortzusetzen. Man muss also völlig von der auf dem Brette sichtbaren Stellung abstrahieren, ja im Gegenteil, diese Stellung wird nur störend, denn sie erschwert die plastische Veranschaulichung der im Geiste geschauten Zukunftsstellung.” (zitiert nach W. Kamm: Siegbert Tarrasch. Leben und Werk, Unterhaching 2004, S. 562)
Siegbert Tarrasch 1908
Tarraschs Schilderung lässt an Jonathan Tisdall’s “Stepping-Stone-Technik” denken. Aber das ist ein Thema für einen anderen Beitrag. Hier möchte ich Tarraschs Hinweis folgen, dass die sichtbare Stellung durchaus zum Störfaktor werden kann. In seinem Artikel “Reflections on Becoming a Master Player” (2000) erinnert sich Kevin Spraggett an die 80er Jahre. Damals sorgte eine neue Generation sowjetischer Spieler für Aufsehen, weil sie während der Partie weniger auf das Brett als an die Decke, in die Zuschauer oder auf einen Punkt in der Ferne blickten. Die Ergebnisse waren allerdings ziemlich beeindruckend. Für Spraggett kombiniert diese neue Methode die gewöhnlichen Techniken (“usual ‘visual’ chess thinking”) mit Techniken des Blindspiels (”‘blindfold’ chess thinking“). Der Erfolg der neuen Methode beruht laut Spraggett darauf, dass sich die beiden Techniken ergänzen, man also mit ihnen zusammen besser “sieht” als mit einer allein. (”There are many things you don’t ’see’ in chess which you do ’see’ when you close your eyes, and of course, the reverse is equally true. I suggest you try some experiments!“) Laut Spraggett verwendeten diese von sowjetischen Trainern neu entwickelte Methode z. B. Shirov, Ivanchuk, Gelfand und auch Anand. Blindschach dürfte mithin für jeden Schachspieler ein wichtiges und spannendes Thema sein!
Das Brett und immer nur das Brett
Womit könnte ein Blindschach-Training beginnen? Hinweise dazu lassen sich bei Tarrasch in “Das Blindspiel” (1897) finden : “Ein Punkt ist nicht zu übersehen. Wer blind spielen will, muss das Brett beherrschen; er muss von jedem Felde die Farbe kennen, muss wissen, wohin von jedem Felde aus ein Springer ziehen kann, muss wissen (abgesehen davon, dass er es geistig sehen wird), dass ein Läufer auf b1 nach h7 zieht etc. Das Brett und immer nur das Brett! Die Figuren sind viel weniger wichtig! Am Brett ohne Figuren spielen, ist sehr leicht, kaum schwerer als mit Figuren.” (zitiert nach W. Kamm: s.o., S. 567) Das Brett und immer nur das Brett, schreibt Tarrasch. In der Tat ist es bereits für Anfänger und Kinder wichtig, sich mit dem Schachbrett vertraut zu machen. Dazu gehört die Benennung der Felder, der Linien, Reihen und Diagonalen, die Geometrie des Schachbretts, die Zugmöglichkeiten der Figuren sowie deren Wirkungen und Wechselwirkungen etc. Und vertraut macht man sich durch kleine Übungen, sowohl auf dem Brett als auch blind.
Kevin Spraggett (Foto von Mikel Larreategi)
Auch Spraggett betont im bereits genannten Aufsatz “Reflections on Becoming a Master Player” die Bedeutung des Schachbretts: “It has always surprised me how little time books spend explaining the importance of the chessboard in itself. It has an importance more than just being the ‘table’ onwhich the game takes place… Knowing the characteristics of the board is extremely important. Books spend too much time on the pieces, not realizing that much is missed by neglecting a closer study of the relationship of the board with each separate piece.” Wie gesagt, das Studium und die Verinnerlichung von Schachbrett und der Beziehungen der Figuren und Brett ist von Anfang an ein wichtiger Bestandteil der Schachausbildung. Tatsächlich haben aber selbst erfahrene Spieler hier oft Defizite. Dazu Spraggett: “A lot of players have difficulty visualizing a chess board. You can ask them to close their eyes and then quiz them on squares (what colour they are), on diagonals (what squares are attached to them), files, etc. My experience as a trainer is that many players have difficulty doing so. This is compounded by the popularly held belief that it is unimportant…”
Trainieren der schachlichen Einbildungskraft (Visualisierung)
Aber die Vertrautheit mit dem Schachbrett ist wichtig. Und Spraggett erklärt auch warum das so ist. Beim Schachspielen sehen wir nicht nur mit den Augen, sondern auch mit unserem Geist. Wobei es hier nicht auf die Worte ankommt. Wichtig ist, dass wir in unserer Vorstellung das Brett nicht als Ganzes sehen, sondern zerlegt in Teile. Es ist daher nötig, diese Fragmente sozusagen immer zusammen denken. Und damit dies funktioniert, müssen wir uns mit dem Schachbrett und den Figuren sowie deren Wechselwirkungen so gut vertraut machen, dass das Zusammendenken möglichst automatisch und fehlerlos abläuft. In Spraggetts Worten: “But it is important because of how the brain works! The thinking process in chess involves the use of our eyes as well as our ”mind’s eye”. Our mind’s eye sees the board in a different way, as it can not ‘visualize’ the board as a whole it must break the board down into components, with each component being geometrically related to the others. If we haven’t consciously understood the geometry of the board sufficiently and all of the implications with respect to each and every piece, then our mind’s eye (our way of imagining the board) will not appreciate the whole board, and hence certain tactical oversights may go unnoticed.”
Hilfsmittel für Blindschach-Übungen
Womit wir endlich bei den angekündigten Hilfsmitteln für das Blindschachtraining wären. Im Folgenden möchte ich kurz eine Website und zwei Programme vorstellen, die Übungen zum Vertraut werden mit dem Brett bieten. (Die Wiedergabe der Bilder und Screenshots erfolgt mit der freundlichen Genehmigung der Autoren.)
Kurz ein paar Bemerkungen zum Vokabular: Im Englischen spricht man von “Vision”, “Board Vision” oder “Visualisierung”. Im Deutschen wird Visualisierung eher im engeren Sinn von Verbildlichung gebraucht, einer Umsetzung von Daten oder Sprache in Bilder. Beim Schach genügt vielleicht der alte Ausdruck “Vorstellung”. Allerdings gefällt mir “Einbildung” noch besser. Etwas altmodisch ließe sich von Trainieren der “schachlichen Einbildungskraft” sprechen. Wobei heutzutage für die gleiche Sache allerdings “Fantasie” und Trainieren der “schachlichen Fantasie” gebräuchlicher sind. Wie auch immer. Wichtig ist, dass es sich um eine aktive, schöpferische Tätigkeit handelt, die sich üben lässt!
Die “Chess Drum-Chess Academy” von Daaim Shabazz
Die Website “The Chess Drum” bietet im Rahmen ihrer “Chess Academy” eine ganze Reihe von Aufgaben. Klicken sie auf diesen Link und scrollen sie weit hinunter. Dann kommen Sie unter der Überschrift “Improve your Chess Skills!” zur Rubrik “Board Vision” (siehe Screenshot unten). In drei Tests finden Sie jeweils in vier verschiedenen Abschnitten insgesamt 155 Übungen.
Übersicht der "Board Vision"-Aufgaben auf "The Chess Drum" (Screenshot)
Klicken Sie auf einen der Tests, kommen Sie zu den Abschnitten. Ich habe hier “Test 2″ gewählt (siehe Screenshot unten). Unter “Square Dancing” finden Sie Fragen nach Felderfarben, etwa: Ist das Feld c6 ein weißes oder schwarzes Feld? Auch bei “Board Stretch” gibt es solche Fragen, allerdings auf einem größeren Brett. Eine sehr schöne Idee!
Übersicht der 50 zum "Test 2" gehörigen Aufgaben (Screenshot)
Bei “Board Geometry” kommen die Figuren ins Spiel (siehe Screenshot unten). Sie werden z. B. gefragt, von welchen Feldern ein Springer sowohl nach e6 als auch nach h7 ziehen kann.
Zwei Fragen aus dem Bereich "Board Geometry" (Screenshot)
Im Abschnitt “Blindfold Chess” geht es dann um Blindspiel-Aufgaben (siehe Screenshot unten). Sie werden etwa gefragt, welchen Zug Sie als Weißer in der Stellung nach 1.e4 e5 2.Sf3 f5 3.exf5 Kf7 4.Sx5+ Kf6 5.d4 Kxf5 6.Dg4+ Kf6 machen würden.
Eine Frage aus dem Bereich "Blindfold Chess"
Für die Eingabe der Lösungen genügt bei den Felderfragen ein Klick auf den entsprechenden Button. Bei den weiteren Aufgaben müssen Sie ein Feld, eine Zahl oder einen Zug in ein Feld eintragen. Dabei ist zu beachten, dass Sie die Vorgaben beachten (englisches Buchstabenkürzel für die Figuren, x für Schlagen etc.). Eine Kurzanleitung finden Sie auf der Webseite. Feedback erhalten Sie entweder sofort, oder indem Sie nach Eingabe der Lösungen einen Button klicken. Die Auswertung erscheint dann in einem Pop-up-Fenster. bei mir hat alles gut funktioniert.
Fazit: Wer solche Übungen noch nicht ausprobiert hat, findet hier eine bequeme Möglichkeit zum Einstieg. Ein tolles Angebot!
Der “Chess Blindfold Trainer” von Alf Magne Kalleland
Wie die Übungen bei “The Chess Drum” ist auch der “Chess Blindfold Trainer” von Alf Magne Kalleland in Javascript geschrieben. Sie bearbeiten die Aufgaben ebenfalls im Browser. Hier der Link für die Online-Demo. Sie können sich die Dateien aber auch herunterladen und lokal auf Ihrem Rechner aufrufen. Hier der Link zum Programm auf dhtmlgoodies.com und hier der Link zu Beschreibung und Anleitung.
Ich habe das Programm heruntergeladen und auf meinem Rechner die html-Datei des Programms mit dem Browser geöffnet (siehe Screenshot unten). Klicken Sie auf das Bild, kommen Sie zur Online-Demo, die genauso aussieht. Rechts sehen Sie, welche Übungen der Blindfold Trainer anbietet. “Color of Squares” sind Fragen zur Feldfarbe, “Diagonals” und “Knight Moves” zu Figurenbewegung und Brett. “Correct Move” und “Correct move (from sequence)” sind Aufgaben zum Blindschach. “Mixture” bietet eine Mischung aus allen. Wie viele Aufgaben es insgesamt sind, habe ich nicht gezählt. Aber es sind eine ganze Menge. In der Anleitung wird zudem beschrieben wie man selbst weitere Übungen ergänzen kann.
Die Oberfläche des "Blindfold Chess Trainers" (Screenshot - zur Demo auf das Foto klicken)
Ein Beispiel für eine “Diagonals”-Aufgabe (siehe Screenshot unten). Liegen die Felder c8 und g4 auf einer Diagonale?
Frage aus dem Bereich "Diagonals"
Und noch ein Beispiel aus dem “Correct Moves”-Abschnitt (siehe die beiden unteren Screenshots). Eine Stellung wird angesagt und der nächste Zug ins Feld eingetragen werden. Nach Bestätigung der Eingabe öffnet sich eine Antwortseite, die das Ergebnis und die richtige Lösung mitteilt.
Frage aus dem Bereich "Correct Moves"
Antwort zur Frage aus dem Bereich "Correct Moves"
Fazit: Der “Chess Blindfold Trainer” ist ein schönes kleines Programm. Praktisch ist zudem, dass man selbst eigene Aufgaben hinzufügen kann. Ausprobiert habe ich dies aber noch nicht.
Die “Chess Training Tools” von Dietrich Kappe
Die “Chess Trainings Tools” (aktuelle Version ist 1.4) sind in Java geschrieben. Daher muss die Java-Laufzeitumgebung auf Ihrem Rechner installiert sein. Diese können Sie hier herunterladen. Diese “Chess Trainings Tools” finden Sie zum Download entweder hier auf der Site von sourceforge.net oder hier auf der Site “Chess Training” von Dietrich Kappe. Nach dem Entpacken starten Sie einfach die jar-Datei und schon sehen Sie die Programmoberfläche mit geöffneter Hilfe-Datei vor sich (siehe Screenshot unten).
"Chess Training Tools" mit geöffneter Hildedatei (Screenshot)
Alles ist sehr übersichtlich und aufgeräumt. Für leichte Verwirrung sorgen nur die verschiedenen Namen für das Programm: “Chess Training Tools 1.4″ kennen wir ja schon. Unter dieser Bezeichnung haben wir es gefunden und heruntergeladen. In der Titelleiste heißt es jetzt “Chess Trainer 1.4.0″. Das klingt etwas anders, aber noch ähnlich. In der Hilfedatei ist nun aber die Rede von “CVT” für “Chess Visualisation Trainer”. Ich vermute, dies rührt von der gemeinsamen Herkunft mit dem kommerziellen Programm “Chess Eye” her. Eine teilweise freie Ergänzung ist “CVT Online“, wo nach Anmeldung jeder online Aufgaben bearbeiten kann. Allerdings ist die Menge der Aufgaben beschränkt. In welcher Weise, habe ich allerdings nicht ganz verstanden. Auch über die Geschichte von “Chess Eye” und “Chess Training Tools” weiß ich nichts zu berichten. Zurück zum Programm, das so einiges zu bieten hat.
In der Menüleiste am oberen Rand können Sie die gewünschten Aufgaben auswählen. “Color”, “Same Color”, “Diagonal 2″, Diagonal 3″, “Knight” und “Knight 2″ beinhalten die uns schon bekannten Übungen zu Brett und Figuren. Daneben gibt es aber noch “Mate”, “Vision”, “Blindfold” und “Vince”. Bei “Mate” bekommen Sie eine Stellung in Schriftform (Stellung der Figuren) und müssen angeben, ob es sich um eine Mattstellung handelt oder nicht. D. h., Sie müssen die Stellung in Ihrer Fantasie aufbauen und prüfen. Und bei “Vision” bekommen Sie in Diagrammform die Stellung von König und Turm vorgegeben und müssen angeben, von welchen Feldern ein Doppelangriff durch die Dame möglich ist (siehe Screenshot unten). Im Beispiel habe ich nur ein Feld markiert (grün). In der Lösung werden mir meine Auslassungen gezeigt (rot).
Übung "Vision" - Der Doppelangriff der Dame auf e5 wurde erkannt (grün), die beiden anderen auf c7 und g3 übersehen (rot). In der Lösung werden diese Fehler angegeben. (Screenshot)
So weit, so gut. Der Hit des Programms von Dietrich Kappe sind aber die Übungen “Blindfold” und “Vince”. Bei “Blindfold” kann man selbst eine beliebige Partie im pgn-Format einfügen und wird dann Zug für Zug blind durch die Partie geführt, wobei man nach jedem Zug immer wieder fünf Fragen zur aktuellen Stellung beantworten muss (siehe Screenshot unten).
Übung "Blindfold" - Zur Stellung nach dem 10. Zug sind fünf Fragen zu beantworten (Screenshot)
Diese Übung hat einiges Potential. Wie man damit am günstigsten arbeitet, weiß ich noch nicht. Z. B. könnte man die Fragen auch nur alle drei oder fünf Züge beantworten. Oder man könnte nach verschiedenen Kriterien ganz bestimmte Partien auswählen. Die letzte Übung ist “Vince”, bei der man die Figuren in Teilen des Brettes oder auf dem ganzen Brett unsichtbar machen kann. Vor allem aber kann man gegen eine eingebaute (nicht sehr starke) Engine spielen und dabei eine Verzögerung der Darstellung einstellen. Dann wird auf dem Brett die bis zu sieben Halbzüge zurück reichende Stellung angezeigt. Man spielt real also immer “vor” der Brettstellung. Eine interessante Übung. Ich glaube, das kommerzielle Programm “Chess Vision Trainer” (man muss bei den Namen echt aufpassen!) von www.chesstechno.com ist auf dieser Idee aufgebaut.
Fazit: Die “Chess Training Tools” sind eine tolle Sache und stehen dazu noch unter der GNU GPL. Ein Dankeschön an den Autor.
Nachtrag
Nach Fertigstellung des Artikels habe ich noch ein paar Online-Übungen im Web entdeckt, und zwar bei www.chessvideos.tv als Chess Visualization Trainer.
Weitere Hinweise, Ergänzungen oder Kritik sind sehr erwünscht.
... has become Alexei Shirov's trademark. In the tournament in Wijk aan
Zee, which Shirov started with 5 wins in a row, the 37 year old chess
magician from Riga once more proved that there is a good reason for this.
In many middlegame positions he managed to put his opponents under
pressure with inventive attacking play. And even in the endgame, one
always has to take into account that Shirov might set the board on fire.
This happened in the eleventh round in his game against Vladimir Kramnik, where he played 35.c5! in the diagrammed position.
GM Karsten Müller analysed the Endgame for ChessBase Magazine Online.
"Fire on board" ist zum Markenzeichen Alexei Shirovs
geworden. Beim Turnier in Wijk aan Zee, bei dem Shirov mit fünf Siegen in Folge
startete, hat der 37-jährige Schachmagier aus Riga wieder einmal bewiesen, dass
dies zurecht besteht. In vielen Mittelspielstellungen verstand er es, seine
Gegner durch fantasievolles Angriffsspiel unter Druck zu setzen. Und selbst im
Endspiel muss man bei Shirov immer damit rechnen, dass er das Brett in Flammen
setzt. So wie in der Partie aus der elften Runde gegen Vladimir Kramnik, von
Karsten Müller für ChessBaseMagazin Online kommentiert.
There was a dramatic end to the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee as Alexey Shirov agreed a draw in a winning position and then saw world number one Magnus Carlsen save a draw from what appeared to be a hopeless endgame against Fabiano Caruana and take yet another first prize.
Vladimir Kramnik had to engineer an escape from a difficult endgame as Alexey Shirov brought the former world champion to the brink of defeat at Wijk aan Zee.
Magnus Carlsen won the tournament alone on 8,5/13 but only after a very difficult day saving a game against Fabiano Caruana and a draw in the game between Alexei Shirov and Leinier Dominguez Perez which could easily have turned into a win for Shirov.
The 72nd Corus tournament took place in Wijk aan Zee 15th-31st January 2010.
Final Round 13 Carlsen saved a tricky position against Fabiano Caruana and secured first place alone as his rivals Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik both drew.
Magnus Carlsen joined Vladimir Kramnik in the lead with two rounds to go. Carlsen beat Leinier Dominguez Perez in a Gruenfeld
where time trouble played a part in the Cuban's loss. Kramnik was put under some pressure by Alexei Shirov but eventually held on.
Vishy Anand may have taken Vladimir Kramnik's world title but he did him a favour in tenth round at Corus tournament when he broke his run of nine draws and defeated the co-leader Alexey Shirov.
Vladimir Kramnik drew a wild game against Vassily Ivanchuk. Joint leader Alexei Shirov had chances against Viswanathan Anand but time trouble meant he couldn't take advantage and went on to lose.
Round 8 news. Vladimir Kramnik defeated Hikaru Nakamura, Alexei Shirov drew a theoretical dual against Magnus Carlsen to retain the lead. Nigel Short misses drawing chance against Sergey Karjakin.
Kramnik defeats Carlsen to join Shirov in the lead.
In a key day Vladimir Kramnik won a very sharp struggle against Magnus Carlsen to join Alexei Shirov in the lead after he drew against Vassily Ivanchuk. Carlsen had jokingly on facebook said that he was going to "crush Kramnik like a bug." Both players went at the struggle in an uncompromising way and on the run up to the first time control first a pawn sacrifice and then an exchange sacrifice set Carlsen problems he could not solve.
Vladimir Kramnik moved into second place alongside Magnus Carlsen who held the leader Alexei Shirov with black in Round 8. Notes and photos by Michiel Abeln.
Le norvégien Magnus Carlsen n'en finit plus de s'affirmer comme n°1 mondial. Après sa victoire au tournoi de Londres fin 2009, il vient de rafler la palme du tournoi d'échecs Corus. Le prodige norvégien affiche désormais un classement Elo de 2813 points, devançant Topalov et Kramnik.
En effet, Carlsen s'est adjugé dimanche la 1ère place du Corus A avec 8,5 points sur 13. Vladimir Kramnik a pris la seconde place et Alexei Shirov la 3ème à 8 points tous les deux.
Corus Wijk aan Zee 72th En un tenso final Carlsen Campeón. El reloj impidió que un impresionante Shirov compartiera el Primer puesto. Caruana estuvo muy cerca de ganarle a Carlsen y Shirov con dos segundos en el reloj para 10 jugadas en posición ganada hicieron que este Final pueda ser adjetivado como increíble, impresionante, maravilloso y todo lo que se os ocurra.
While the win by Magnus Carlsen in the 2010 Corus Tournament is yet another outstanding result for the undoubtedly future World Champion, in later years this event may be more remembered as Shirov's tournament. Not for his placing in the event (equal second with Kramnik), but for both how he started the event, and then how he finished it. After beginning the tournament with 5/5, Shirov began to slow up before two losses allowed the other contenders to catch up. However he almost had a chance to reclaim a share of first place if he could win his final round game against Dominguez. Following the standard Shirov strategy of waiting until the opponent commits his king, and then going the hack, he almost pulled it off in game full of sacrifices. However the calculation ate up all of Shirov's time and he played it safe by agreeing to a draw. Unfortunately in the position where he halved the point, he had a winning move. This missed half point allowed Carlsen to take first place after he drew a messy game with Caruana.
The 2010 Corus Chess Tournament, which was composed of three 14-player groups and took place on 16-31st January, had a thrilling finish with the last round deciding on who will win the main group A.
Magnus Carlsen sat for the final game with a half point advantage ahead of the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and tournament's earlier leader Alexei Shirov. Kramnik was the first to give up on the ambition to claim a full point after the last year winner Sergey Karjakin comfortably held equality with black pieces in the Queen's Indian defence.
Meanwhile, Carlsen tried to squeeze something out of the equal position against Fabiano Caruana, and Alexei Shirov jumped into the fire hoping to clear the way to Leinier Dominguez's King by sacrificing the material. The developments in this game provoked Carlsen to risk more while searching for a win and secured clear first place.
However, Shirov burned his clock to find precise moves which maintain the attack and consequently run into the horrible zeitnot. On the 30th move Dominguez erred but accompanied his move with a draw offer, which Shirov, with only few seconds remaining, accepted. Now Carlsen needed only half a point to become a sole winner, but Caruana was already pressing for a full point in the slightly better endgame. After the persistent defence, Carlsen took a well deserved draw and trophy for the first place.
Dutch champion Anish Giri battled his way through a higher rated opposition to win the Corus B and qualify for the next year's main event. He collected 9.0 points from 13 games and practically secured the first place even before the last round. The Chinese GM Li Chao B, top-seeded in the Corus C, also reserved the first place in advance, but he finished the tournament in style, with a win over the Netherland's GM Zhaoqin Peng.
Corus A final standings:
1. GM Magnus Carlsen, Norway - 8.5 2-3. GM Alexei Shirov, Spain and GM Vladimir Kramnik, Russia - 8.0 4-5. GM Viswanathan Anand, India and GM Hikaru Nakamura, USA - 7.5 6-7. GM Vassily Ivanchuk, Ukraine and GM Sergey Karjakin, Russia - 7.0 8-9. GM Leinier Dominguez Perez, Cuba and GM Peter Leko, Hungary - 6.5 10. GM Fabiano Caruana, Italy - 5.5 11-12. GM Loek van Wely, Netherlands and GM Nigel Short, England - 5.0 13-14. GM Jan Smeets, Netherlands and GM Sergey Tiviakov, Netherlands - 4.5
Corus B final standings:
1. GM Anish Giri, Netherlands - 9.0 2. GM Arkadij Naiditsch, Germany - 8.5 3. GM Ni Hua, China - 8.0 4-5. GM Wesley So, Philippines and GM Erwin l’Ami, Netherlands - 7.5 6-7. GM Parimarjan Negi, India and GM Pentala Harikrishna, India - 6.5 8-9. GM David Howell, England and GM Emil Sutovsky, Israel - 6.0 10-11. WGM Anna Muzychuk, Slovenia and GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Romania - 5.5 12-13. GM Tomi Nyback, Finland and GM Dimitri Reinderman, Netherlands - 5.0 14. GM Varuzhan Akobian, USA - 4.5
Corus C final standings:
1. GM Li Chao B, China - 10.0 2. GM Abhijeet Gupta, India - 8.5 3-4. GM Daniele Vocaturo, Italy and IM Robin van Kampen, Netherlands - 8.0 5-6. GM Ray Robson, USA and GM Robin Swinkels, Netherlands - 7.5 7. FM Benjamin Bok, Netherlands - 7.0 8-10. WGM Marya Muzychuk, Ukraine, FM Stefan Kuipers, Netherlands and IM Nils Grandelius, Sweden - 6.0 11. GM Kjetil Lie, Norway - 5.5 12. GM Zhaoqin Peng, Netherlands - 5.0 13-14. WGM Soumya Swaminathan, India and Sjoerd Plukkel, Netherlands - 3.0
Corus R 12: Anand vence a Kramnik; Carlsen lidera en solitario
En la duodécima y penúltima ronda del torneo Corus, en Wijk aan Zee, Anand venció a Vladimir Kramnik. De esta manera, Magnus Carlsen, que firmó tablas con negras en su partida contra Peter Leko, ha tomado el liderato en solitario con 8/12 puntos. Kramnik y Shirov comparten el segundo lugar con 7,5 puntos y Vishy Anand va por detrás a medio punto de distancia. En el grupo B sigue en cabeza Anish Giri (8/12) y en el grupo C, Li Chao (8,5/12). Hoy se ha celebrado también la reunión del Grand Slam de Ajedrez con los representantes de Holanda, España, Bulgaria y China. Ronda 12...
After a thrilling final round, the world's #1 ranked player Magnus Carlsen (pictured) won the 72nd Corus tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.Â
Going into the final round, Carlsen could only be caught by Kramnik, Shirov and Anand. Kramnik made no impres...
Eine Runde vor Schluss sieht es beim Corus-Turnier in Wijk aan Zee tatsächlich
so aus, als könnte Magnus Carlsen sein erstes Turnier als Nummer Eins der
Welt gewinnen. Carlsen selbst spielte in Runde 12 Remis gegen Peter Leko, aber
Weltmeister Vishy Anand zeigte sich gegen Vladimir Kramnik hoch motiviert und
gewann eine schöne Partie. Da sich Alexei Shirov und Sergey Karjakin Remis
trennten, liegt Carlsen eine Runde vor Schluss mit 8 aus 12 alleine an der Spitze,
einen halben Punkt vor Kramnik und Shirov mit je 7,5. Für die zweite Gewinnpartie
des Tages in Gruppe A sorgte Jan Smeets, der Loek Van Welys Najdorf-Variante
in wenigen Zügen demontierte. In Gruppe B führt Anish Giri das Feld
mit 8,5 Punkten mit einem Punkt Vorsprung an und braucht nur ein Remis zum Turniersieg.
In Gruppe C steht der Sieger bereits sicher fest: mit 9 Punkten liegt der Chinese
Li Chao mit anderthalb Punkten Vorsprung uneinholbar vor seinen Konkurrenten.
Turnierseite... Tabellen, Partien, Bilder...
Magnus Carlsen has won Corus 2010. In the last round, he drew Fabio Caruana. Anish Giri has won the B group and Li Chao takes C. We’ll bring you the Corus Chess Tournament live, with regular updates.
The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.
13:20 CET
The board is on fire in Short-Smeets, despite the fact that it started as a Petroff. (This tournament once more confirmed that it’s not just the opening that’s boring, but more what the players are doing with it!) It’s easy enough to follow the start: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 Bc5 5.Bc4 Nxf2 6.Bxf7+ (wow!) which was in fact mentioned in one of the our ChessVibes Openings issues. Our main line was 6…Kf8; in the game 6…Kxf7 7.Qd5+ Kg6 8.Bg5 got Smeets thinking.
Carlsen takes up Caruana’s Ruy Lopez carefully, in Steinitz style while Kramnik and Karjakin are in a theoretical Queen’s Indian. Negi can still spoil Giri’s tournament, but in another Petroff the 15-year-old tournament leader looks OK after the opening.
13:44 CET
Smeets has only just made a move after 8.Bg5! Meanwhile, Shirov must be happy with the Najdorf hybrid (mixing a Bg5 and Bc4 setup) that he has on the board: it looks perfect for playing for a win today. Nakamura will be pressing Tiviakov a bit with the pair of bishops, but Black’s position looks quite solid.
15:10 CET
Things are heating up in the A group! Kramnik decided to make a draw against Karjakin, securing a good tournament, and Ivanchuk and Leko have called it a day already as well. But what about the other games? Of course all attention in the press room is focused on Short-Smeets, a true Romantic classic! After 10.Nd2, the computer supposedly prefers 10…d6 11.Ndf3+ Kg4! 12.h3+ Kg3! with completely unclear consequences. Several prominent players have already said they’re rooting for Short, not so much because they like the Englishman personally but because they like the way he’s playing the game, reminding them of Morphy and Anderssen and taking us all back to the 19th century. Time trouble will probably decide the game, however.
Shirov and Carlsen, both playing White, are still trying to win, although objectively, Dominguez doesn’t seem to have much to complain about. Carlsen-Caruana is a mess, only time will tell who’s better here. In the meantime, Anish Giri has made a draw to make sure he’s promoting to the A Group next year: a formidable achievement from the young Dutchman!
16:05 CET
With the time control coming up, the tournament can be decided any minute now. Carlsen seems to have an inferior position against Caruana, and Shirov’s attacking chances seem very realistic all of a sudden, so who knows what kind of upsets we’ll see this afternoon.
Meanwhile, Loek van Wely drew his game with Anand even though the experts claimed he was lost at some point, so this is definitely a small Dutch success. The same can be said for Jan Smeets, who managed a draw as well. His opponent Short apparently couldn’t find the win (and neither could the computer) so he decided to repeat moves with his clock ticking away. A disappointing end of a very promising game but perhaps this round will go down in history anyway if Shirov would miraculously manage to win the tournament after all! We’re sure many chess fans are rooting for him very hard right now…
16:45 CET
Well, the tournament will definitely end in dramatic fashion after Shirov accepted a draw in a completely winning position! We have exclusive video footage of the last minutes of the game and we’ll bring it to you as soon as possible, but for now we should mention Shirov’s last seconds were ticking when he accepted the draw, obviously not having seen the move 31.b4!!
Immediately after the game, Karjakin came up to him to tell him about it, but Shirov still couldn’t believe it. However, it may just be his lucky day after all, since Carlsen’s position against Caruana looks very, very bad, probably losing. This would mean Kramnik, Shirov and Carlsen will share first prize. Who would have thought?
On a more quiet note, Chao added another win to his successful tournament; the Chinese beat Peng. Robin van Kampen is best Dutchman in this group. In B, Erwin L’Ami lost his first game of the tournament against Naiditsch.
17:26 CET
It’s official: Magnus Carlsen drew his game with Caruana and has won the 72nd Corus Chess Tournament with 8,5/13. Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik share 2nd place with 8 points. In a tight knight ending, Carlsen defended successfully and now has added the most prestigious chess tournament to his victory list. Carlsen and Giri will be doing the press conference and we’ll have coverage of that later on, of course.
17:55 CET
Carlsen says the knight ending against Caruana should be a draw, although both players thought that Black had great winning chances during the game. According to Carsen, his best game of the tournament was against Karjakin. He also said Shirov reacted ‘remarkably calm’ to the fact he failed to grab 1st place by playing 31.b4, and that Anish Giri played ‘great chess’ in this tournament , especially in his game against Nisipeanu.
A il N° 1 del ranking mondiale soffre per portare il mezzo punto a casa
Kramnik e Shirov non ne approfittano e Magnus si aggiudica il torneo
BVince Anish Giri
CVocaturo chiude in bellezza travolgendo la Swaminathan e arrivando 3°
Si svolge oggi l'ultimo turno della 72^ edizione di Corus Wijk aan Zee. Carlsen, che ha già vinto il gruppo A nel 2008 (ex-aequo con Aronian), è ad un passo dalla vittoria ma dovrà superare l'ostacolo Caruana. Kramnik e Shirov inseguono a mezzo punto, e dovranno affrontare rispettivamente Karjakin e Dominguez. Ridotte ad un lumicino le speranze di vittoria di Anand, distanziato di un punto e impegnato con van Wely. Il campione del mondo in carica, dopo un inizio di torneo anonimo (9 patte consecutive), ha voluto ristabilire le gerarchie superando negli ultimi turni Shirov e Kramnik, che sino a quel momento erano in testa alla classifica.
GM Carlsen, Magnus (NOR, 2810) - GM Caruana, Fabiano (ITA, 2675) [Megalovic] Corus Chess 2010, Gruppo A, XIII turno. Wijk aan Zee 31.10.2010
1. e4 e5 2. Cf3 Cc6 3. Ab5 a6 4. Aa4 Cf6 5. d3 Carlsen evita la linea principale della spagnola (0-0) per provare a sorprendere Fabiano 5..d6 6. c3 g6 7. Cbd2 Ag7 8. Cf1 0-0 9.Ag5 d5!? in questa linea poco usuale della spagnola si gioca più spesso h6 (Golod e Khalifman). La mossa del testo la troviamo nella Gvetadze (2411) - Shen (2440) 0-1 campionato mondiale a squadre femminile, Ekaterinburg 2007 10.De2 Novità dopo la prima lunga (15') riflessione del norvegese. La Gvetadze catturò in d5 10..Dd6 11.Axf6 Axf6 12.Ce3 Ce7! ottima mossa che difende il pd5 e da strada al pc7 che potrà così dedicarsi alla lotta per il centro 13.Ab3 c6 14.h4 Carlsen rompe gli indugi e si muove sul lato di re. Adesso Fabiano potrà reagire spingendo i pedoni sul lato di donna (a5 b5) o intensificando la lotta al centro (Ae6). La spinta d4 è meno attraente perché chiude la posizione e da più forza alla coppia dei Cavalli di Carlsen (Caruana ha mantenuto la coppia degli Alfieri) 14..Ae6 15.Cg5 momento psicologicamente critico. La mossa più logica sembra Ad7 per conservare la coppia degli alfieri, ma ci vuole sensibilità per rigiocare un pezzo appena mosso mentre i pezzi avversari si avvicinano al tuo re 15...Ad7 sensibilità che ovviamente non manca a Caruana 16.Td1 momento posizionalmente critico. La posizione si va delinenado (Carlsen non potrà arroccare lungo) ma è notevolmente complessa, di quelle che mettono in difficoltà l'amigo inhumano. Fabiano deve però evitare di ridursi con poco tempo sull'orologio (adesso ha 30' in meno di Carlsen) per non doversi poi trovare ad affrontare momenti tatticamente complessi in zeitnot. Adesso sembra indicata una normale mossa di sviluppo come Tad8 16..Tad8 17. Df3 mossa molto aggressiva alla Carlsen, che in caso di h6 lascia il ph4 in presa 17..h6 18.Cc4!? dxc4 19.dxc4 Cd5! splendida mossa che da un'ottima casa (e7) alla donna di Caruana, e il Cg5 di Carlsen è ancora in presa. Attenti a metterla sulla rissa con Fabiano 20.Ch3 il pedone h4 è in presa, ma ci vuole tanto tanto coraggio per prendelo 20.. h5 Caruana mira più in alto minacciando Ag4 21.Dg3 ora la donna difende il pedone h4, ma in g3 è un po' scomoda21..Ag4 minacciando De7 in caso di f6? 22.Td2 Axh4!? forzando il cambio delle donne ed entrando in un quasi-finale con una struttura pedonale e una disposizione dei propri pezzi migliore 23.Dxh4 Dgf3 Dxf6 Cxf6 25.Cg5 c5! fissando il pc4su case bianche 26.f3 Ac8 27. Aa4 Rg7 l'intenzione di Fabiano dovrebbe essere quella di cambiare il Cavallo con l'Alfiere (dopo Cg8 e f6, forzando il Cg5 ad andare in h3) 28.Txd8 Txd8 giocata per riservarsi la possibilità di andare con il Re sulla seconda traversa e spostare la torre sul lato di Donna , unico luogo della scacchiera dove il norvegese può tentare di costruirsi un controgioco che bilanci la maggioranza di Caruana sul lato di Re 29.b4?! sembra prematura, visto che permette Td3 29..Td3! 30.bxc5 Txc3 31.Rd2 Txc4 32.Ab3 Txc5 33.Cxf7 Carlsen ha preferito sacrificare un pedone pur di stravolgere il tema posizionale del finale e puntando a rifarsi sul pe5 di Fabiano. Riuscirà nel suo intento? nel frattempo Caruana ha 4' più incremento per arrivare al controllo della 40esima 33...a5 34.Tc1 Txc1 35.Rxc1 adesso l'amigo inhumano propone una linea che porta ad un finale di pedoni e Cavalli favorevole al nero, ma molto molto difficile da vedere in zeitnot 35..a4 36.Ac4 b5! 37.Cd6 bxc4 38.Cxc8 h4 l'ha giocata!! 39.Cb6 Ch5 40.Cxc4 recuperando il pedone ma ... 40.Rf6! la migliore e trovata in tremendo zeitnot. Non c'e' fretta di posizionare il Cavallo in f4 e si difende prima il pe5. I giocatori hanno raggiunto il controllo della quarantesima e Fabiano è l'unico che può giocare per vincere questo finale, visto che il pg2 dovrebbe cadere forzatamente 41.Rd2 Cf4 sembra incredibile, ma Ce3 non va per Rg4 seguita da Cxg2! e il cavallo non si può catturare, pena la promozione del pedone h 42.Re3 Cxg2+ 43.Rf2 a3 45.Cc4 Cd3+ 46. Rg2 Rg5 ritenendo di non poter giocare per vincere dopo la variante Cb4 47.Cxa3 Cxa2, Caruana decide di restituire il pedone provando un'altra strada che probabilmente prevede Rf4!? 47.Ca3 Rf4!? 48.Cc2 Cb2 il finale sembra comunque patto 49. Cb4 h3+ 50. Rxh3 Rxf3 51. Rh4! Rf4 52. Cd5+ Rxe4 53. Ce7 Rf3 54. Cxg6 e4 55. Ce5+ Rf4 56. Cg4 Ca4 1/2 una partita splendida da parte di Caruana e c'e' voluto il miglior Carlsen per portare a casa il mezzo punto!
Carlsen, al primo trionfo in solitario nel Corus A
12° turno: Anand si appresta ad infliggere una dura lezione alla russa di Kramnik
Corus A incontri del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno
L. van Wely - V. Anand
1/2
N. Short - J. Smeets
1/2
H. Nakamura - S. Tiviakov
M. Carlsen - F. Caruana
1/2
V. Ivanchuk - P. Leko
1/2
A. Shirov - L. Dominguez
1/2
V. Kramnik - S. Karjakin
1/2
Classifica Finale
1.
M. Carlsen
8½
2.
A. Shirov V. Kramnik
8
4.
V. Anand
7½
5.
S. Karjakin V. Ivanchuk
7
7.
H. Nakamura L. Dominguez P. Leko
6½
10.
F. Caruana
5½
11.
L. van Wely N. Short
5
13.
S. Tiviakov J. Smeets
4½
Corus B incontri del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno
A. Naiditsch - E. l'Ami
1-0
W. So - A. Muzychuk
½-½
V. Akobian - D. Howell
1-0
P. Negi - A. Giri
½-½
P. Harikrishna - T. Nyback
½-½
L. Nisipeanu - E. Sutovsky
½-½
D. Reinderman - Ni
½-½
Classifica Finale
1.
A. Giri
9
2.
A. Naiditsch
8½
3.
Ni
8
4.
W. So E. l'Ami
7½
6.
P. Negi P. Harikrishna
6½
8.
E. Sutovsky D. Howell
6
10.
A. Muzychuk L. Nisipeanu
5½
12.
T. Nyback D. Reinderman
5
14.
V. Akobian
4½
Corus C incontri del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno
D. Vocaturo - S. Swaminathan
1-0
S. Plukkel - B. Bok
½-½
L. Chao - Z. Peng
1-0
R. van Kampen - S. Kuipers
1-0
K. Lie - M. Muzychuk
0-1
N. Grandelius - R. Swinkels
0-1
A. Gupta - R. Robson
1-0
Classifica Finale
1.
L. Chao
10
2.
A. Gupta
8½
3.
D. Vocaturo R. van Kampen
8
5.
R. Robson R. Swinkels
7½
7.
B. Bok
7
8.
M. Muzychuk S. Kuipers N. Grandelius
6
11.
K. Lie
5½
12.
Z. Peng
5
13.
S. Plukkel S. Swaminathan
3
REGOLAMENTO
Tempo di riflessione: 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita, con 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.
Calendario: sono previsti 13 turni. Si gioca tutti i giorni alle ore 13.30, ad esclusione dell'ultimo turno, anticipato alle ore 12.30. Sono previsti tre giorni di riposo: 20, 25 e 28.
In caso di arrivo a pari punti, il Corusnon prevede alcun criterio dispareggio tecnico ma assegna la vittoria ex-aequo
Magnus Carlsen wins Corus Chess 2010! - Carlsen qualifies for the Bilbao Grand Slam Chess final
Magnus Carlsen is the new champion of Corus! He won the 2010 competition with 8,5/13. This guarantees him a clear first ahead of Shirov and Kramnik, and a place in the Bilbao Chess Grand Slam final 2010, to be played later this year.
Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788) - Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720)
Le traditionnel tournoi d'échecs Corus se déroule du 16 au 31 Janvier 2010 à Wijk aan Zee, une station balnéaire de Hollande. Cette année encore, le plateau est particulièrement relevé, avec la présence de Magnus Carlsen (2810), Vishy Anand (2790) et Vladimir Kramnik (2788) parmi les 14 participants. Ce tournoi majeur - un catégorie 19 - affiche la moyenne Elo stratosphérique de 2719 points, identique à celle de l'édition 2009.
I just watched Vladimir Kramnik's brilliant (open, transparent, objective, super-clear, etc.) presentation on his victory over Hikaru Nakamura in the Leningrad Dutch at Corus. You can view the game online at Chessgames.com, along with all of the games from the A-section of the tournament, where Kramnik has now moved into a tie for second with Magnus Carlsen (whom he plays today just beat moments ago) behind Alexey Shirov (whom he plays Friday). The other tournaments are also very interesting, with the B led by Anish Giri and C led by American Ray Robson.
Kramnik's lecture on his game with Nakamura is really worth watching in full. Afterward he has some very nice things to say about Nakamura and the rest of the rising stars featured in the tournament and he predicts that Naka will be in the top ten and have a shot at the title by next year. I will be posting a tournament summary and webliography at the conclusion of the event and may include the other sections as well. I am predicting that Kramnik may just come from behind to win this thing.
Round 12 of the Corus Chess Tournament live, with regular updates.
The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.
15:09 CET
We have a winner already! The leader of the C grop, Li Chao, offered a draw to Stefan Kuipers after 9 moves in a Petroff, and the young Dutchman, who already scored an IM norm yesterday, had no reason to decline. The Chinese grandmaster has thus qualified for the B group next year as he’s on 9 points out of 12 games, and Robson, Vocaturo and Van Kampen have 7 points while still playing.
Leko and Carlsen (whose sister Ingrid, by the way, is currently playing in the amateur tournament in Gibraltar) repeated their game of the 2009 Tal Memorial until 12.0-0-0; today the Norwegian castled first before playing …Nc6. After one and a half hours of play they’ve reaced a rook ending that looks very drawish.
Yet again Van Wely, who remains faithful to his Najdorf, seems to have fallen into some nasty 6.Bg5 preparation, this time by compatriot Jan Smeets. Against Dominguez, Ivanchuk copied Kramnik’s set-up during the World Blitz in Moscow last year: the Scandinavian with …g6. Kramnik himself uses the Petroff against Anand; not much has happened there yet.
Shirov is in another theoretical Archangelsk Ruy Lopez against Karjakin; the two reached an ending in no time where White’s extra pawn doesn’t seem to be very relevant. Caruana-Nakamura is a Rauzer Sicilian that has some French tendencies while Short went for the rare 4…Nf6 Caro-Kann against Tiviakov.
16:17 CET
Two, not very surprsing draws: Leko-Carlsen – the rook ending was a draw indeed, and Karjakin-Shirov, which also remained equal. Also on the other boards it’s rather quiet so far, except for Smeets-Van Wely where White’s atack has already decided the game on move 23. “I like my Najdorf, but I don’t like my results. Apparently I mixed up something in the opening again,” Van Wely said after the game. We’ll have him and Jan in tonight’s Corus News video.
O, and strictly speaking we’ve been cheering too early for Li Chao, who can still be caught of course if he loses tomorrow. Sorry about that.
Although the Corus tournament always dominates the chess news in the last two weeks of January, for one event we have to make an exception. The 8th Gibtelecom International Chess Festival in Gibraltar is on its way and in fact already four rounds have been played. Yet again the field of players is a very nice mixture, including many top female players.
The 2010 Gibtelecom International Chess Festival takes place January 26-February 4 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The rate of play in this 9-round Swiss is 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 moves in 50 minutes plus 15 minutes for all remaining moves with 30 seconds per move added from the start. Draws by mutual agreement in under 30 moves are not allowed, but genuine draws by repetition or stalemate are acceptable.
The festival is the Rock’s biggest annual international event now in its eighth edition. This year the field is stronger than ever with top names such as Etienne Bacrot from France, Sergei Movsesian from Slovakia and Francisco Vallejo Pons from Spain, participating in the tournament for the very first time. Some 41 countries are represented in this edition of the festival.
Most significant though is the very strong women’s field which has attracted the top women in the world – the current Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk from Russia, the world number two woman player Humpy Koneru from India, and the world number three, Hou Yifan from China. Almira Shripchenko, who this year made the final table of the world poker series in Las Vegas is also be playing in Gibraltar. Other competitors are GM Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), and GM Chen Zhu (Qatar), and Pia Cramling (Sweden), a previous European women’s champion.
Reigning World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is one of the many female top players in Gibraltar
The Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar again plays hosts to the Gibtelecom International Chess Festival, which also includes several amateur tournaments. The festival’s total prize fund is £112,500 (EUR 129,750, US $179,910). The Masters has £96,600 in prizes, there are two Challenger Tournaments, each lasting five days, with prizes for each of £5,500. Two five-day Amateur Tournaments are also played with prize money of £2,300 each.
The Caleta hotel, where the tournament takes place
Over the years the festival has seen some of the world’s most famous players play in Gibraltar including Alexei Shirov, Emil Sutovsky , Hikaru Nakamura and Peter Svidler. Returning again this year is Michael Adams from England, and Gata Kamsky (USA).
As always, GM Stuart Conquest provides live commentary during the rounds from the Caleta hotel, starting from 15:00 (GMT+1) for up to six hours. These are unmissable – in every sense of that word. If you have not been able to tune in to his live broadcasts, you can still hear them at your leisure. They have all been stored online and can still be watched here.
2008 British Champion Stuart Conquest provides live commentary
Yesterday afternoon (29 January) was very special indeed. You can watch five hours of commentary here and if you move to a point around 1:26 hours into the video, Boris Spassky (who celebrates his 73rd birthday today!) made an unscheduled visit to the commentary room. Seeing him in the audience, Stuart Conquest persuaded him to come alongside to talk “for a few minutes” – which turned into nearly three hours! At first Boris is off-camera (the organizers weren’t expecting him) but around 1:42 you can Boris talking about the games. After that there’s nearly three hours’ video film of the legendary ex-world champion.
After four rounds there’s no player left with a 100% score. Bacrot, Adams, Fressinet, Fridman, Gustafsson, Sandipan, Koneru, Edouard, Felgaer and Gopal are all on 3.5/4.
Gibraltar 2010 | Round 4 Standings (top 30)
Two games from round 3 caught our eye; Adam’s brilliant win over Halkias and Cheparinov being held to a draw by a 2000-player beautifully.
Dal 16 al 31 gennaio si svolge la 72^ edizione di Corus Wijk aan Zee. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale nel quale i lettori potranno seguire e commentare l'andamento degli incontri. Domani l'ultimo turno avrà inizio alle 12:30, con un'ora di anticipo sul consueto orario di inizio.
Corus A incontri del dodicesimo turno
V. Anand - V. Kramnik
1-0
S. Karjakin - A. Shirov
1/2
L. Dominguez - V. Ivanchuk
P. Leko - M. Carlsen
1/2
F. Caruana - H. Nakamura
S. Tiviakov - N. Short
1/2
J. Smeets - L. van Wely
1-0
Classifica dopo dodci turni (provvisoria)
1.
Carlsen
8
2.
Shirov Kramnik
7½
4.
Anand
7
5.
Karjakin
6½
6.
Nakamura Ivanchuk Leko
6
9.
Dominguez
5½
10.
Caruana van Wely Short Tiviakov
4½
14.
J. Smeets
4
Accoppiamenti del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno
L. van Wely - V. Anand
N. Short - J. Smeets
H. Nakamura - S. Tiviakov
M. Carlsen - F. Caruana
V. Ivanchuk - P. Leko
A. Shirov - L. Dominguez
V. Kramnik - S. Karjakin
Corus B incontri del dodicesimo turno
E. l'Ami - D. Reinderman
Ni - L. Nisipeanu
E. Sutovsky - P. Harikrishna
T. Nyback - P. Negi
A. Giri - V. Akobian
D. Howell - W. So
A. Muzychuk - A. Naiditsch
Classifica dopo undici turni
1.
A. Giri
8
2.
Ni E. l'Ami
7
4.
A. Naiditsch W. So
6½
6.
P. Negi
6
7.
D. Howell P. Harikrishna
5½
9.
E. Sutovsky A. Muzychuk
5
11.
L. Nisipeanu
4½
12.
D. Reinderman
4
13.
T. Nyback
3½
14.
V. Akobian
3
Accoppiamenti del tredicesimo ed ultimo
A. Naiditsch - E. l'Ami
W. So - A. Muzychuk
V. Akobian - D. Howell
P. Negi - A. Giri
P. Harikrishna - T. Nyback
L. Nisipeanu - E. Sutovsky
D. Reinderman - Ni
Corus C incontri del dodicesimo turno
S. Swaminathan - A. Gupta
R. Robson - N. Grandelius
R. Swinkels - K. Lie
M. Muzychuk - R. van Kampen
S. Kuipers - L. Chao
Z. Peng - S. Plukkel
B. Bok - D. Vocaturo
Classifica dopo undici turni
1.
L. Chao
8½
2.
R. Robson D. Vocaturo R. van Kampen
7
5.
A. Gupta
6½
6.
R. Swinkels
6
7.
S. Kuipers B. Bok N. Grandelius
5½
10.
Z. Peng K. Lie
5
12.
M. Muzychuk
4
13.
S. Swaminathan
3
14.
S. Plukkel
1½
Accoppiamenti del tredicesimo ed ultimo turno
D. Vocaturo - S. Swaminathan
S. Plukkel - B. Bok
L. Chao - Z. Peng
R. van Kampen - S. Kuipers
K. Lie - M. Muzychuk
N. Grandelius - R. Swinkels
A. Gupta - R. Robson
Tempo di riflessione: 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita, con 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.
Calendario: sono previsti 13 turni. Si gioca tutti i giorni alle ore 13.30, ad esclusione dell'ultimo turno, anticipato alle ore 12.30. Sono previsti tre giorni di riposo: 20, 25 e 28.
Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675) - Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708)
Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662) - Nigel Short ENG (2696)
Jan Smeets NED (2657) - Loek van Wely NED (2641)
Le traditionnel tournoi d'échecs Corus se déroule du 16 au 31 Janvier 2010 à Wijk aan Zee, une station balnéaire de Hollande. Cette année encore, le plateau est particulièrement relevé, avec la présence de Magnus Carlsen (2810), Vishy Anand (2790) et Vladimir Kramnik (2788) parmi les 14 participants. Ce tournoi majeur - un catégorie 19 - affiche la moyenne Elo stratosphérique de 2719 points, identique à celle de l'édition 2009.
Vlad Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen go toe-to-toe at Wijk aan Zee
Corus Wijk aan Zee, the most popular event on the chess calendar, ends tomorrow with ex-champion Vlad Kramnik and the world No1 Magnus Carlsen competing for the lead in the closing rounds. Kramnik won their individual game impressively, but the 19-year-old Norwegian has the easier finish. Carlsen is not yet dominating his peers in the style of Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov at their peaks, but he is already the man to beat.
The reigning world champion Vishy Anand has played an uncharacteristically low-key tournament, drawing his first nine games. Nigel Short, in his strongest event for years, has struggled in some games but missed a clear win against Kramnik.
David Howell, 19, was seeded low in the B group, but the young British champion is in mid-table and scored one of the best attacks at Wijk.
Below, White's opening system is less effective than 2 Nf3 and 3 Bb5 so Shirov soon has the initiative. White takes a hot pawn by 23 Qxh7? (23 Qh6!) missing 23...Kd7! and 24...Bxg2+! with a crushing attack (25 Rxg2 Rxg2 25 Kxg2 Rg8+ 27 Kf3 e4+! leads to mate).
Howell's improved results with the white pieces have coincided with his increasing readiness to ditch the insipid 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Bishop's Opening in favour of the sharp Scotch 3 d4. When Finland's No1 lost time with his knight (13...Nf6) Howell blitzed the black king with an incisive attack. Black's 20...Na5? (Qh4) allowed 21 f6! with the point Nxc4 22 Qh5! Nxe3 23 Qg5 winning.
Magnus Carlsen defeated Leinier Dominguez in round 11 of the Corus Chess Tournament to join Vladimir Kramnik in the lead. The Russian drew with Black against Alexei Shirov. In the only other decisive game of the day, Loek van Wely beat Sergei Tiviakov after 88 moves.
The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.
15:13 CET
The top game of this 11th round is Shirov-Kramnik, and before anything else I’d like to mention that Ian Rogers is doing live commentary at the tournament website. In fact he’ll be doing the same tomorrow and Sunday, as a prelude to plans of the organizers for 2011 to bring live commentary throughout the event.
Shirov is trying an exchange sacrifice similar to what often happens in the Marshall Gambit (or rather Attack) of the Ruy Lopez. The concept had been mentioned before by Anand, who didn’t think much of it, but apparently Shirov has his own ideas. Meanwhile the two have reached an ending that looks about equal.
Smeets and Anand have already draw – they started repeating at move 13 already. Unfortunate, especially since the two had the nowadays rare Keres Attack of the Scheveningen on the board. Carlsen and Dominguez have entered a very complicated Grünfeld (Russian System), and the Dutch encounter between Van Wely and Tiviakov is a relatively quiet Queen’s Indian.
In B, So-Giri is already extremely sharp and interesting. All in all, this year’s Corus tournament has been great and continues to be. Later more!
16:18
Jan (Smeets) was totally unprepared for Vishy’s Scheveningen, and didn’t have the critical lines ready. For instance he could have tried 11.Bg2, but “the truth is I didn’t mind to split the point against him”, he told me.
According to Nakamura, who already drew with Leko, the accurate 12…Qd7! basically “kills everything”, after which it was dead equal.
With three pawn islands versue two, Shirov seems to be slightly worse in the ending now. Kramnik also looks more confident in fact. Short has managed to get another IQP position on the board but Caruana looks alright. Carlsen is better according to some experts in the press room, but it’s certainly not easy. Ivanchuk won a pawn but his king isn’t as safe as Karjakin’s.
Giri sacrificed a piece against So and is now moving all his pieces to his opponent’s king. Anything can happen there. In C, Li Chao totally crushed Muzychuk and is pretty sure of qualifing for B now.
23:44 CET
Indeed White’s advantage wasn’t much and so Short and Caruana drew an equal endgame. Carlsen defeated Dominguez and just did the press conference, which we’ll put up as soon as possible.
After a tumultuous time trouble phase, former compatriots Ivanchuk and Karjakin also drew. It seems that 36.Nxa5 allows too much counterplay, but it’s not easy to think of something else. In the game 40.Qe2 b6 followed by 41…Qxb3 also looks drawish. Kramnik has just sacrificed his knight for Shirov’s passed pawns and will probably draw the endgame, according to the experts, including Magnus Carlsen. Van Wely has a nice advantage against Sergei Tiviakov and will certainly keep on pressing for a long time.
Anish Giri had an angel on his shoulder today; his attack didn’t work out and he was basically lost against So from move 30 onwards. 35.Qe2! Nf2 36.Rf1! Nxh3+ 37.Kh2 would still have won for White, but instead the pinoy GM fell for a mating trick. Giri was the first to admit that he had been very lucky. He increased his lead to a point as all other games in B ended in a draw.
Shirov and Kramnik drew a very interesting game where the Russian found a series of only moves to hold the balance.
Loek van Wely eventually won against Sergei Tiviakov. His ending with bishop and two passed pawns against rook (and two fixed pawns on the queenside) looked like a draw, but KingLoek managed to find a winning set-up in the end.
Tomorrow Kramnik plays Anand with Black, and in the last round the Russian has the white pieces against Karjakin. Carlsen has Black against Leko tomorrow and then White against Caruana on Sunday.
Blancas: V. Anand (India, 2.790). Negras: A. Shírov (España, 2.723). Apertura Española (C78). Festival Corus (Grupo A, Grand Slam). Wijk aan Zee (Holanda), 27-1-2010.
S. Karjakin V. Anand L. Dominguez H. Nakamura V. Ivanchuk
5½
9.
P. Leko
5
10.
F. Caruana S. Tiviakov
4
12.
L. van Wely N. Short
3½
14.
J. Smeets
2½
Accoppiamenti del dodicesimo turno
V. Anand - V. Kramnik
S. Karjakin - A. Shirov
L. Dominguez - V. Ivanchuk
P. Leko - M. Carlsen
F. Caruana - H. Nakamura
S. Tiviakov - N. Short
J. Smeets - L. van Wely
Corus B incontri dell'undicesimo turno
A. Muzychuk - E. l'Ami
A. Naiditsch - D. Howell
W. So - A. Giri
V. Akobian - T. Nyback
P. Negi - E. Sutovsky
P. Harikrishna - Ni
L. Nisipeanu - D. Reinderman
Classifica dopo dieci turni
1.
A. Giri
7
2.
Ni E. l'Ami W. So
6½
5.
A. Naiditsch
6
6.
P. Negi
5½
7.
P. Harikrishna D. Howell
5
9.
E. Sutovsky A. Muzychuk
4½
11.
L. Nisipeanu
4
12.
D. Reinderman
3½
13.
T. Nyback
3
14.
V. Akobian
2½
Accoppiamenti del dodicesimo turno
E. l'Ami - D. Reinderman
Ni - L. Nisipeanu
E. Sutovsky - P. Harikrishna
T. Nyback - P. Negi
A. Giri - V. Akobian
D. Howell - W. So
A. Muzychuk - A. Naiditsch
Corus C incontri dell'undicesimo turno
B. Bok - S. Swaminathan
D. Vocaturo - Z. Peng
S. Plukkel - S. Kuipers
L. Chao - M. Muzychuk
R. van Kampen - R. Swinkels
K. Lie - R. Robson
N. Grandelius - A. Gupta
Classifica dopo 10 turni
1.
L. Chao
7½
2.
van Kampen R. Robson R. Swinkels D. Vocaturo
6
6.
N. Grandelius A. Gupta
5½
8.
Z. Peng R. K. Lie
5
10.
S. Kuipers B. Bok
4½
12.
M. Muzychuk
4
13.
S. Swaminathan
3
14.
S. Plukkel
1½
Accoppiamenti del dodicesimo turno
S. Swaminathan - A. Gupta
R. Robson - N. Grandelius
R. Swinkels - K. Lie
M. Muzychuk - R. van Kampen
S. Kuipers - L. Chao
Z. Peng - S. Plukkel
B. Bok - D. Vocaturo
Tempo di riflessione: 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita, con 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.
Calendario: sono previsti 13 turni. Si gioca tutti i giorni alle ore 13.30, ad esclusione dell'ultimo turno, anticipato alle ore 12.30. Sono previsti tre giorni di riposo: 20, 25 e 28.
Le Direct Live à 13h30 + Toutes les parties à Visualiser et/ou Télécharger
Les appariements de la ronde 11 :
Jan Smeets NED (2657) - Viswanathan Anand IND (2790)
Loek van Wely NED (2641) - Sergey Tiviakov NED (2662)
Nigel Short ENG (2696) - Fabiano Caruana ITA (2675)
Hikaru Nakamura USA (2708) - Peter Leko HUN (2739)
Magnus Carlsen NOR (2810) - Leinier Dominguez CUB (2712)
Vassily Ivanchuk UKR (2749) - Sergey Karjakin RUS (2720)
Alexei Shirov ESP (2723) - Vladimir Kramnik RUS (2788)
Le traditionnel tournoi d'échecs Corus se déroule du 16 au 31 Janvier 2010 à Wijk aan Zee, une station balnéaire de Hollande. Cette année encore, le plateau est particulièrement relevé, avec la présence de Magnus Carlsen (2810), Vishy Anand (2790) et Vladimir Kramnik (2788) parmi les 14 participants. Ce tournoi majeur - un catégorie 19 - affiche la moyenne Elo stratosphérique de 2719 points, identique à celle de l'édition 2009.
Kramnik beats Carlsen and then takes over the lead when Anand beats Shirov. Round 11: Shirov-Kramnik, Carlsen-Dominguez, Ivanchuk-Karjakin, Nakamura-Leko, Short-Caruana, Smeets-Anand, van Wely-Tiviakov.
Heute gab es eine Reihe von Entscheidungen in Wijk an Zee, von denen der Sieg
Kramniks über Carlsen im Spitzenspiel die aufregendste war. Der Norweger legte
seine Partie ehrgeizig an, wurde aber von Kramnik eiskalt ausgekontert. Der
Unglücks"rabe" der Partie war ein weißer Springer auf a4, der dort außer Spiel
geraten war und dann bei seinem ersten Zug vom Brettrand weg durch ein Versehen
verloren ging. In komplizierter Position hat Carlsen zuvor an kritischer Stelle
die beste Möglichkeit verpasst. Kramnik zog dadurch mit Shirov gleich, der gegen
Ivanchuk remis spielte. Zu Siegen kamen außerdem Van Wely gegen Leko, Smeets
gegen Caruana und Karjakin gegen Nakamura. In der B-Gruppe büßte Giri nach einer
Niederlage einen Großteil seines Vorsprungs ein. Naiditsch gewann gegen Nybäck.
In der C-Gruppe wurde Robson von Li Chao an der Spitze abgelöst. Turnierseite... Bericht, Bilder, Ergebnisse, Partien...
It wasn’t the most convincing victory of his career, but still Vishy Anand was reasonably happy with it, after nine consecutive draws in Wijk aan Zee. The World Champion explains his victory against tournament leader Alexei Shirov. Enjoy!
Anand was lucky to beat Shirov in Corus Chess tourney
World champion Viswanathan Anand ended his long chain of draws with a lucky victory over Spaniard Alexei Shirov in the tenth round of the ‘A’ group of the Corus chess tournament.
Having drawn the first nine games, Anand yet again tried hard to be back on his winning ways but missed a simple tactic which might have seen him on the receiving end.
However, Shirov missed the opportunity at the fag end of the first time control and instead landed in a lost position which the Indian ace converted without much ado.
Ahead of the third and final rest day, this welcome break for Anand saw him jump to joint fourth spot with just three rounds remaining in this category-19 event.
Russian Vladimir Kramnik emerged as the new sole leader on seven points after Shirov’s disastrous loss. The Russian played drew with Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine on a day that also saw Magnus Carlsen uncork the French defense and winning a fine game against defending champion Sergey Karjakin.
Carlsen and Shirov are joint second with 6.5 points each while Anand shares the next position along with Hikaru Nakamura of United States, Leinier Dominguez of Cuba, Vassily ivanchuk of Ukraine and Karjakin who all have 5.5 points each.
In the ‘B’ group, P Harikrishna suffered a shocking loss against Dmitri Reinderman of Holland, while Parimarjan Negi played out a draw with Ni Hua of China.
Harikrishna was outdone in an English opening by Reinderman who stuck form. Harikrishna lost a couple of Queen side pawns in the middle game and his counter play bid did not really materialise as Reinderman won in 58 moves.
Parimarjan Negi yet again held a higher ranked opponent to an easy draw. Playing the black side of a Queen’s gambit declined, Parimarjan had no difficulties in equalizing out of the opening and timely exchanges forced the game in a level ending. The peace was signed in 51 moves.
Anish Giri of Holland remained at the top of the tables in this section after taking a draw with top seed German Arkadij Naiditsch. The 15-year old now has seven points and Erwin l’Ami of Holland and Ni Hua are still on his toes a half point behind. Parimarjan is joint fifth on 5.5 points while Hari slipped to joint seventh spot on 5 points.
Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta suffered his second reversal in as many days in the ‘C’ group as the Indian could not find an adequate method to combat Norwegian Lie Kjetil and sacrificed a pawn early in the opening. Kjetil played the ensuing middle game quite well to romp home in 53 moves.
World junior girls’ champion Soumya Swaminathan scored her first victory in the event at the expense of Swede Nils Grandelius. The Pune-based got an attacking position early in the opening and she was a treat to watch in tactical complications. Grandelius resigned in 36 moves.
Chinese Li Chao increased his lead to a whopping 1.5 points after beating Robin Swinkles and took his tally to 7.5 points in all and a group of four follow him with six points each. Abhijeet with 5.5 points is joint fifth here while Soumya stands 13th in the 14-players competition.
Corus: Shirov unterliegt Anand, Kramnik alleine in Führung
Im Fernduell der beiden Führenden erlitt Alexei Shirov heute gegen Viswanathan
Anand eine bittere Niederlage. Mit Schwarz auf Königsangriff spielend verpasste
der Spanier eine Gewinnmöglichkeit und verlor die Partie am Ende noch. So
reichte Vladimir Kramnik gegen Vassily Ivanchuk ein Remis, um in der Tabelle die
alleinige Führung zu übernehmen. Zu einem Sieg kam Magnus Carlsen gegen Sergey
Karjakin. Erstmals in seiner Profikarriere griff der Norweger zur Französischen
Verteidigung. Zum ersten vollen Punkt kam Sergey Tiviakov gegen Jan Smeets. Turnierseite... Bericht, Bilder, Partien, etc...
Alexei Shirov lost his pole position in a dramatic game against Viswanathan Anand today. The Spaniard reached a winning position against the World Champ, but as both players missed an important tactic, the game went on and Anand eventually won. Carlsen defeated Karjakin with Black in a French and Kramnik and Ivanchuk drew.
The Corus Chess Tournament takes place January 16-31 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Next to hundreds of amateurs, three Grandmaster Groups (A, B and C) with 14 players each play a closed round-robin. The rate of play is 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and 30 seconds increment starting from move 1.
13:12 CET
Another great round is ahead of us, with Anand-Shirov , Kramnik-Ivanchuk and Karjakin-Carlsen in A, Giri-Naiditsch in B and Swinkels-Li Chao as today’s main attractions.
14:21 CET
Ivanchuk played the Vienna against Kramnik’s 1.d4 and the two have already reached quiet unfamiliar territory after eleven moves. Kramnik’s Qe2 & Rad1 concept seems to be new, and Ivanchuk is thinking now.
Against Karjakin, Carlsen went for the French. A surprising choice since according to the database the Norwegian played this defence only once before, when he was 11 and rated 2214! Karjakin decided to play it safe and castled kingside.
Anand doesn’t want to risk too much either against Shirov and closed the queenside with 10.a5 in another Archangelsk Ruy Lopez. Dominguez and Nakamura are still in a well-known Accelarated Dragon position while Caruana and Van Wely are also looking at a familiar middlegame position – there it’s a Sicilian Scheveningen.
Smeets got Tiviakov thinking after11…Nxc5, which is still known however, e.g. from J.Polgar-Skembris, Moscow OL 1994. Nigel Short tried the Alekhine against Leko; an opening played by ‘people with a difficult childhood and by Short’, as I heard in the press room, but that’s how we used to describe the opening two decades ago. In the 90s Ivanchuk sometimes tried it, and these days it’s slightly more popular. Recently Carlsen defeated Topalov with Black using 1…Nf6.
15:28 CET
Nakamura came up with an interesting pawn sacrifice on move 14 and instead of trading on c1, 18…Bxd5 followed by 19..Ne4 was possible as well. It seems that Shirov still hasn’t equalized completely against Anand, who will probably try to get something going against the black king. Kramnik seems to be thinking in that direction too, but Ivanchuk’s manoeuvering looks solid enough. Not much excitement on the other boards so far.
In the B group, Giri and Naiditsch already drew in a Semi-Tarrasch. The game of the round is l’Ami-Nisipeanu; a King’s Indian in which the always creative Romanian GM sacrificed a piece for two pawns and an attack. In C, Swaminathan-Grandelius is very sharp and Li Chao looks already more than fine with Black against Swinkels.
03:52 CET
The talk of the town was not about chess this time, but about the sudden failure of the internet connection in the venue, including the press room. The boards were not transmitted correctly to the press room, and some TV screens in the playing hall also showed wrong positions. Besides, the tournament website was down for a long time as well (at the time of writing it still is, but that’s simply because the ISP cannot be contacted before 9 AM). And so nobody exactly knew what was going on, sometimes players would suddenly finish their games and journos would ask what had happened, this time wondering not only about the course of the game, but also about the result.
Shirov suffered a terrible loss against Anand – terrible, because for one moment he could have won. As Anand showed at the press conference (without having looked at a computer), 39.Ne6? could have been met by 39…Ng3! – a tactic he had seen before in a slightly different version, but one which both players missed in that exact position.
Carlsen defeated Karjakin with surprising ease but left the playing hall quickly anyway, like his opponent, so the exact details of this game will have to be checked by the computer. Although he thought for about an hour in the opening phase while the position was still known, Tiviakov did beat Smeets, who basically tricked himself.
In B, Giri kept his slim lead because both l’Ami and Ni Hua drew, while in C Li Chao is very close to tournament victory after beating one of his rivals, Robin Swinkels. The young Chinese GM leads by 1.5 point.
Sergey Karjakin (20) is from Ukraine but has recently moved to Moscow and is in the process of switching federations. His is currently trained by Dokhoyan, a former associate of Kasparov. Karjakin became a Grandmaster at 12, the youngest ever, and is famous for being a second for FIDE Knockout World Championship winner Ponomariov at the age of 11! We are both born in 1990 though nearly a year apart, and he was already a master player when I played my first children tournament. For many years he was the top rated player born in 1990 and earlier until I briefly past him in October 2004 and permanently (up to now) from October 2006 onwards.
Against his 1.e4 I chose the French Defence, an opening I haven’t played at a serious level before. He did not get any advantage out of the opening and seemed quite uncomfortable in the middle game when my counterplay got going. After several inaccuracies from him the tactics in the position all favoured black, and he found nothing better than to sacrifice an exchange for my active knight. I found a precise way to force the exchange of queens and one pair of rooks, and the endgame was easily won. Finally! All our previous classical chess encounters have ended in draw.
I felt focused and determined today and was of course very satisfied to win after yesterday’s dismal result. Shirov lost to Anand while Kramnik drew against Ivanchuk. Kramnik is sole leader with 7/10 while Shirov and I are sharing 2nd at 6.5 with three rounds to go. I’m white against Lenier Dominquez, Cuba after the free day.
Carlsen supera Karjakin e raggiunge lo spagnolo al 2° posto
A Caruana - Van Wely 1/2
C Kuipers - Vocaturo 1-0
Dal 16 al 31 gennaio si svolge la 72^ edizione di Corus Wijk aan Zee. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale nel quale i lettori potranno seguire e commentare l'andamento degli incontri. Domani è previsto l'ultimo giorno di riposo.
Corus A incontri del decimo turno
V. Anand - A. Shirov
1-0
V. Kramnik - V. Ivanchuk
1/2
S. Karjakin - M. Carlsen
0-1
L. Dominguez - H. Nakamura
1/2
P. Leko - N. Short
1/2
F. Caruana - L. van Wely
1/2
S. Tiviakov - J. Smeets
1-0
Classifica dopo dieci turni
1.
V. Kramnik
7
2.
A. Shirov M. Carlsen
6½
4.
S. Karjakin V. Anand L. Dominguez H. Nakamura V. Ivanchuk
5½
9.
P. Leko
5
10.
F. Caruana S. Tiviakov
4
12.
L. van Wely N. Short
3½
14.
J. Smeets
2½
Accoppiamenti dell'undicesimo turno
J. Smeets - V. Anand
L. van Wely - S. Tiviakov
N. Short - F. Caruana
H. Nakamura - P. Leko
M. Carlsen - L. Dominguez
V. Ivanchuk - S. Karjakin
A. Shirov - V. Kramnik
Corus B incontri del decimo turno
E. l'Ami - L. Nisipeanu
1/2
D. Reinderman - P. Harikrishna
1-0
Ni - P. Negi
1/2
E. Sutovsky - V. Akobian
1/2
T. Nyback - W. So
0-1
A. Giri - A. Naiditsch
1/2
D. Howell - A. Muzychuk
1/2
Classifica dopo dieci turni
1.
A. Giri
7
2.
Ni E. l'Ami W. So
6½
5.
A. Naiditsch
6
6.
P. Negi
5½
7.
P. Harikrishna D. Howell
5
9.
E. Sutovsky A. Muzychuk
4½
11.
L. Nisipeanu
4
12.
D. Reinderman
3½
13.
T. Nyback
3
14.
V. Akobian
2½
Accoppiamenti dell'undicesmo turno
A. Muzychuk - E. l'Ami
A. Naiditsch - D. Howell
W. So - A. Giri
V. Akobian - T. Nyback
P. Negi - E. Sutovsky
P. Harikrishna - Ni
L. Nisipeanu - D. Reinderman
Corus C incontri del decimo turno
S. Swaminathan - N. Grandelius
1-0
A. Gupta - K. Lie
0-1
R. Robson - R. van Kampen
0-1
R. Swinkels - L. Chao
0-1
M. Muzychuk - S. Plukkel
1-0
S. Kuipers - D. Vocaturo
1-0
Z. Peng - B. Bok
0-1
Classifica dopo dieci turni
1.
L. Chao
7½
2.
van Kampen R. Robson R. Swinkels D. Vocaturo
6
6.
N. Grandelius A. Gupta
5½
8.
Z. Peng R. K. Lie
5
10.
S. Kuipers B. Bok
4½
12.
M. Muzychuk
4
13.
S. Swaminathan
3
14.
S. Plukkel
1½
Accoppiamenti dell'undicesimo turno
B. Bok - S. Swaminathan
D. Vocaturo - Z. Peng
S. Plukkel - S. Kuipers
L. Chao - M. Muzychuk
R. van Kampen - R. Swinkels
K. Lie - R. Robson
N. Grandelius - A. Gupta
Tempo di riflessione: 100' x 40 mosse + 50' x 20 mosse + 15' per terminare la partita, con 30" di incremento per mossa dalla prima mossa.
Calendario: sono previsti 13 turni. Si gioca tutti i giorni alle ore 13.30, ad esclusione dell'ultimo turno, anticipato alle ore 12.30. Sono previsti tre giorni di riposo: 20, 25 e 28.
Sometimes you get into a 'drawing rut' and no matter what you do, you can't seem to get out of it. Depending on who you are it may be your fault (happy to draw with higher rated opponents) or the fault of your opponents (happy to draw with you). In the current Corus tournament, World Champion Viswanathan Anand has halved the point in every game he has played so far. Given his title and rating, I suspect this doesn't make him as happy as it does his opponents. At the top end of the tournament Shirov is still in first place, tied with Vladimir Kramnik, who joined him after defeating Magnus Carlsen in Round 9.
And speaking of mate in 1's as I was a few days ago, US GM Ray Robson walked into one in the top of the table Group C clash with Li Chao. However it wasn't as egregious as the example I previously gave, as Robson's final move didn't create the mate in 1, instead merely ignoring it. In the diagrammed position Robson played 33. ... Qf5?? which at least threatened Qxc2 and offered the exchange of queens. Unfortunately it was refuted by 34.Qh8#
Just a few days ago Veselin Topalov won the Linares tournament and narrowed the gap with Magnus Carlsen on the live rating list to just one point. On the March 1st FIDE rating list the Norwegian leads with a personal record of 2813 and is still 8 points ahead of Topalov.
In what was probably the strongest Bundesliga match ever, OSC Baden-Baden Saturday lost for the first time in more than three years, against their biggest rival Werder Bremen. The two teams are leading the standings, together with SG Solingen, with 20 points out of 11 matches. Games, photos and a video.
This weekend the 10th and 11th round of the Schachbundesliga are being played. On board one of the top match between Baden-Baden and Werder Bremen, Vugar Gashimov (Werder Bremen), who travelled from Linares to Heidelberg, plays the World Champ, Viswanathan Anand.
42-year-old Konstantin Chernyshov won the strong Moscow Open with 7 out of 9. The Russian GM finished shared first with another 40+ grandmaster, Evgeny Bareev, and both Le Quang Liem and Ernesto Inarkiev also ended on 7 points. Chernishov had the best tiebreak: most wins.
Another famous name who could be found in the playing hall almost every day was Alexei Shirov. The reason? He came to support his girlfriend Olga Dolgov, who played in the women’s tournament (and who could be found in the playing hall of the Corus Chess Tournament almost every day, supporting her boyfriend). Besides, Shirov decided to meet with relatives and school friends, as he mentioned in an 
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This year’s Grand Slam Masters Final will be split into two parts. One will be held in Shanghai, China (just before the Olympiad) and one in Bilbao, Spain (just after). This was announced last week in Wijk aan Zee, were the board of the Grand Slam had a meeting to discuss matters. All dates for the coming year were announced.
Fabiano, che nella precedente stagione è stato utilizzato in due occasioni (due patte, con il GM Dgebuadze ed il MI Kolbus) affronterà due giocatori tedeschi: il trentaseienne MI 
The 2010 Corus Chess Tournament, which was composed of three 14-player groups and took place on 16-31st January, had a thrilling finish with the last round deciding on who will win the main group A.
Magnus Carlsen has won Corus 2010. In the last round, he drew Fabio Caruana. Anish Giri has won the B group and Li Chao takes C. We’ll bring you the Corus Chess Tournament live, with regular updates.
Round 12 of the Corus Chess Tournament live, with regular updates.
Although the Corus tournament always dominates the chess news in the last two weeks of January, for one event we have to make an exception. The 8th Gibtelecom International Chess Festival in Gibraltar is on its way and in fact already four rounds have been played. Yet again the field of players is a very nice mixture, including many top female players.
Magnus Carlsen defeated Leinier Dominguez in round 11 of the Corus Chess Tournament to join Vladimir Kramnik in the lead. The Russian drew with Black against Alexei Shirov. In the only other decisive game of the day, Loek van Wely beat Sergei Tiviakov after 88 moves.
Big Match Shirov-Kramnik Live h. 13:30
It wasn’t the most convincing victory of his career, but still Vishy Anand was reasonably happy with it, after nine consecutive draws in Wijk aan Zee. The World Champion explains his victory against tournament leader Alexei Shirov. Enjoy!
Alexei Shirov lost his pole position in a dramatic game against Viswanathan Anand today. The Spaniard reached a winning position against the World Champ, but as both players missed an important tactic, the game went on and Anand eventually won. Carlsen defeated Karjakin with Black in a French and Kramnik and Ivanchuk drew.
