Today is the 75th birthday of the legendary Bent Larsen, the strongest Danish grandmaster in history and together with Bobby Fischer the “Best of the West”, before this title went to Jan Timman. We’re congratulating with unique photos from the past and present.

Photo: Peter Heine Nielsen

His full name is Jørgen Bent Larsen. He was born March 4, 1935 in Thisted, Denmark. Larsen has been a six-time Danish champion, and a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on four occasions: 1965, 1968, 1971, and 1977. He won three Interzonal tournaments: Amsterdam 1964, Sousse 1967, and Biel 1976.

Larsen is considered to be the strongest chess player ever born in Denmark, and strongest in Scandinavia at least until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen. Larsen won several dozen major international tournaments during his career, and was awarded the first Chess Oscar in 1967. Since the early 1970s, he has lived for part of the year in Las Palmas and in Buenos Aires, with his Argentinian-born wife.

Larsen became an International Grandmaster in 1956 with his gold-medal performance on board one at the Moscow Olympiad. He scored his first major individual international success by winning Mar del Plata 1958 with 12/15.

In the early 60s Larsen diversified his style, switching over to risky and unusual openings in some of his games, to try to throw his opponents off balance; this led to the recovery of his form and further development of his chess.

Clare-Benedict tournament, Copenhagen 1977, teammate IM Svend Hamann is looking on | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund

He experimented with e.g. Bird’s Opening (1. f4) and 1.b3, which is called the Larsen Opening or the Nimzo-Larsen Attack. Next Saturday a big rapid tournament will be held in the center of Copenhagen, with amongst others GM Lars Bo Hansen, GM Jonny Hector and GM Sune Berg Hansen. All games in the first round must start with 1.b3.

Larsen reached his top rank in the Elo rating system at the start of 1971, equal third in the world (with Korchnoi, behind Fischer and Spassky) with a rating of 2660. In the same year he famously lost the Candidates semi-final match in Denver 0-6 to Fischer, who went on to win the title.

Holding a Chess Informant at a lecture, appr. 1980 | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund

Larsen later claimed in a Kasparov.com interview (1998) that his one-sided loss to Fischer was due in part to his condition during the match: “The organizers chose the wrong time for this match. I was languid with the heat and Fischer was better prepared for such exceptional circumstances… I saw chess pieces through a mist and, thus, my level of playing was not good.”

Together with Fischer, Larsen was clearly the strongest tournament player from the West in the years 1965-1973. Victories include Le Havre 1966, Havana 1967, Winnipeg 1967, Palma de Mallorca 1967, Monte Carlo 1968, Palma de Mallorca 1969, Lugano 1970 and Teesside 1972. In the USSR vs Rest of the World match at Belgrade 1970, he played first board for the World side, ahead of Fischer, and scored 2.5/4 against Spassky and Leonid Stein.

In Buenos Aires, January 2010 | Photo Peter Heine Nielsen

Larsen has continued to play occasionally in tournaments to the present day. In 1999 he finished 7th of 10 in the Danish Championship, but in the 2000 event he was forced to withdraw when he became seriously ill with an edema, requiring brain surgery. He has played in only a few tournaments in Buenos Aires since then. In 2008 he playes his first tournament in four years, and avoiding theory in every game, the famous Dane only played very exotic openings and scored… 0 out of 9. It inspired us to ask the organizer of the Chess960 tournament in Mainz to invite Larsen.

For this article we used Wikipedia which has a large entry with much more details on Bent Larsen.

In 1950 Skakbladet had an annotation competition, and the winning game had the honour of being annotated game no. 2,500 in the magazine since its inception in 1904. The winner was Bent Larsen, and the editor with great political correctness told how, by a strange coincidence game no. 2,500 was won by an ordinary, totally unknown representative of the ordinary Danish club players. The winner was Bent Larsen – and the editor was never allowed to forget!

Ahead of the World Junior Championship in Copenhagen 1953, arguably the strongest ever, IM Jens Enevoldsen suggested a training match of six games between him and Larsen. He told me later that his plan was that it should end as a 3-3 draw so you historically you could say, that the old master passed the scepter to the future.

Enevoldsen was in fact very lucky that the match was still equal ahead of the last game which was a seasaw game with the players alternately better. Larsen went wrong in a better position, and disaster threatened Enevoldsen – he had a clear win, but if he won, who would ever remember the match.

So, he offered a draw that Larsen of course accepted though he didn’t understand a thing. Explanation followed when Enevoldsom immediately demonstrated the forced win, and even if a well behaved Larsen never said anything, Enevoldsen knew that he was furious, – and I never think that he forgave me!

I have had many experiences with Larsen, and I published his tournament book about the great victory in Manila 1973 on my small hobby publishing firm. It is but a very small part of a fantastic production of books and articles that still continues. Imagine what it means to a small country to have had authors like Niemzowitsch, Enevoldsen, and Bent Larsen ….!

Larsen emigrated from Denmark after a controversy with tax people and a growing dissatisfaction with the way the Danish state moved politically but he never quit his good relations to the ordinary Danish chess players – or his bad relations to the Danish Chess Federation that probably has never treated him like the world star he has been and is until these latest years.

There are lots of other memories but I would like to share one of his lesser known openings with you, played as white against Miguel Quinteros in Orense 1975. Never move you pawns too often in the opening. You know that but what do you think about…

1.c4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.e4 d6 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Be3 e5 6.d5 Nce7 7.g4 Nf6 8.f3 h5? 9.g5 Nh7 10.Qd2 f5 11.h4 Nf8 12.c5 a6 13.b4 Nd7 14.a4 O-O 15.a5

White won from this position as a matter of simple tecnique.

Svend Novrup,
President of Association Internationale de la Presse Echiquenne

To celebrate Larsen’s 75th birthday, the Danish Chess Federation has dedicated a special edition of Skakbladet to the great master. The magazine can be downloaded at http://www.dsu.dk/skakblad/sb2010/larsen.pdf (in Danish only).

Tonight Larsen will be celebrated both in Copenhagen, Aarhus and in Koege in various arrangements. We already mentioned the rapid tournament next Saturday. In connection with the strongest chess tournament in Denmark, the Politiken Cup, GM Peter Svidler (Russia) and the leading Danish player, GM Peter Heine Nielsen, will play a combined rapid and blitz match in honour of Bent Larsen. The match takes place in Elsinore August 2-5. From October 11 till 22, ten Grandmasters will play Bent Larsen’s 75th year birthday tournament in Koege. The players are still to be announced.

Three points ahead, Buenos Aires 1979

Making a speech at the closing dinner for Nimzowitsch Memorial, Næstved 1985. | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund

A portrait from 1988 | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund

Danish Championship 1994 v. IM Klaus Berg | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund

In a boxing-ring with heavyweight World Champion Brian Nielsen, 1996 in Copehagen | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund

Member of honour, 1998, with The Danish Chess Federation at that time, Søren Bech Hansen | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund

With the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Niels Helveg Petersen (a strong amateur chess-player himself), 1999 | Photo Thorbjørn Rosenlund

In Buenos Aires, January 2010 | Photo Peter Heine Nielsen

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Tomorrow the first round in Linares will be played. Last year Rick Goetzee spoke with the godfather of the tournament, Luis Rentero. “I owned 32 supermarkets and 4 hotels. I sold the supermarkets to a Belgian company but still have my hotels. Hotel Anibal is the only one with a chess theme, but sometimes visitors to my other hotels bring me chess memorabilia as they know I love the game.”

By Rick Goetzee | Photo: David Llada

Traveling to Linares is like a pilgrimage. Flying from Ireland, the flight is long enough to daydream about the days ahead and short enough not to get cramps from lack of leg room in the low fare airplane.

Every year the same lady at the Hertz desk tries to sell you extra insurance and every year she accepts refusal with a smile. You get stuck in rush hour traffic (at 9pm) on the highway labyrinth around Madrid, but you’re not in a hurry because the round will only start at 4pm the next day. The route planner guides you towards the A4 and you prepare yourself for the three hour journey south. At every kilometer sign you tell yourself that you are a bit closer to Linares, as KissFM plays lovesongs on the radio.

At kilometer 288 you get a new boost of adrenaline when for the first time Linares appears on the road signs. Ten minutes later you enter the town, in travel guides often described as ugly, but a chess player wholeheartedly disagrees. You follow Centro Ciudad and suddenly you recognise a roundabout. You feel as if you’ve come home when you arrive at Hotel Anibal, as it goes without saying that’s where you have booked a room. No need to make reservations months in advance, there always seems to be space. You park in the street next to the hotel, opposite the park where Leko always used to go for a walk just before the game, and you know for sure that you have arrived in the right place when you turn the corner and bump into Radjabov.

Hotel Anibal stopped hosting the tournament several years ago but it's still a chess hotel and the place where the players and journalists stay

This year I have come to Linares on a special mission, I have arranged an interview with the great man himself: Luis Rentero Lechuga, the founder of the Linares chess tradition.

Since last year the playing venue has moved from Anibal to the Cervantes theatre in the town centre. On entering the theatre well in time for the first round I notice a beautiful display chess set in the foyer. Admiration turns into astonishment when I see that not only the King and Queen are reversed but that there is also a dark square in the bottom right hand corner. We are used to seeing this in window displays and in movies but I hadn’t expected it at the venue of the most prestigious tournament in the game. The reparation is completed just in time before the start of the round.

My appointment with Mr. Rentero is at 6pm. I can’t find him in the pressroom so ask a member of the organisation if they have seen him. ‘Yes he is sitting in the auditorium in the front row and he is snoring loudly, so please get him out of there.’ As I move into the playing area I wonder why they haven’t woken him up themselves. Rentero’s English is almost as bad as my Spanish so I have asked María José to help me with the interview. I couldn’t have a better interpreter as she was also Kasparov’s interpreter when he announced his retirement in Linares in 2005.

After exchanging the usual pleasantries I start by asking Rentero about his own chess career. He learned the game when he was 8 years old by playing with friends at home. He has always been an e4 player and loves the Kings Gambit. He didn’t play much as he describes himself as a bad loser. ‘Especially when playing against children.’ In the end he gave up playing chess as he just could not stand losing. He has a passionate love for the game and during top tournaments he always plays over the games at home. In the press room it is a nice sight to see Rentero standing close to the monitors, totally engrossed in the positions on the screens.

From an early age onward it was clear that Rentero was better suited for organising chess events than for playing in them. When he was 15 he organised a simultaneous display in Linares by IM Roman Toran, who later became a good friend. In 1978 he organised his first tournament in Linares. At that time he didn’t have the ambition to make it a regular event, let alone make it grow into what it has become today. When Rentero talks about the 1979 tournament he grabs the opportunity to talk about his favourite topic. ‘Yes, Larry Christiansen won. That’s an aggressive player. Me gusta mucho!’ I don’t have to ask any more questions for the next five minutes as Rentero climbs on his soap box. ‘I attended a tournament in Bugojno in Yugoslavia. Ten minutes after the start of the round half of the games had ended in a draw. This was a tragedy for me. I want chess players to play, to fight, that’s why I handed out penalties for not trying hard enough. Kasparov is my favourite player, he is a fighter. Chess can be very pretty, it can be a show but only if the players fight.’

Luis Rentero in 2008, at the 'living chess' festival on the last rest day

Glowing with pleasure he tells the story that he even fined Kasparov once. The world champion had just made a draw in 32 moves when Rentero informed him that he would withhold half a million pesetas from his prize money. Kasparov was beside himself with anger: ‘It’s my friend who does this to me; I will never play in Linares again!’ Rentero didn’t budge; Kasparov paid his fine and did return the following year. Rentero obviously likes the Sofia rules and acknowledges the compliment that he was 20 years ahead of his time with a firm nod of the head. He may be getting on in years and he may still feel the impact of his car accident 10 years ago but his passion and pride for what he has created are still there.

Rentero is no longer involved with the Linares tournament but sings the praises of the members of the local government who have taken over from him. ‘It’s becoming more beautiful every year. They are doing a great job. I agree with the move to Mexico for the first half, there was no choice. Also moving to Dubai next year is good for the event, it will keep it financially viable. The people in Linares love the tournament; they may not know the rules of the game but they are proud that the most famous tournament in the world takes place in their town. They love it more than football.’

In the following days I test this bold statement in the cafés of Linares. Many people want to talk to me about the Champions League match of Real Madrid against Liverpool. Very few are able to tell me anything about the chess tournament. Some don’t even know it is actually going on. But there are exceptions. One man invites me to his home and proudly shows me the autographs of Karpov and Spassky which he collected as a child.

When I tell Don Luis that I have always been surprised about the lack of publicity for the event in the town and on the internet, his reaction is quite surprising. He slams the table and says: ‘Yes I agree and I will take measures!’ Later I find out what he means by this.

I ask him about his successful business career which gave him the financial means to organise his events. ‘I started delivering groceries to several villages by motorbike. Then I bought a large storage facility and it grew from there. I owned 32 supermarkets and 4 hotels. I sold the supermarkets to a Belgian company but still have my hotels. Hotel Anibal is the only one with a chess theme, but sometimes visitors to my other hotels bring me chess memorabilia as they know I love the game. I had a lot of people working for me and I’m proud of that, as it created employment for the area. I like having people working for me. I also like people playing chess for me. (laughs)’ Did being a bad loser in chess help him in business? ‘Yes for sure, my whole life has been a fight.’

Rentero says that he wants to go and talk to the organisers so it is time for my last question. What is your proudest memory of the tournaments you organised? ‘I received the Leonardo da Vinci prize in Russia for my accomplishments in chess. During the ceremony we talked to two astronauts in a space station. One of them was a Karpov fan and the other a Kasparov fan. When asked which Spanish cities they could name they answered: Madrid, Barcelona and …. Linares.’

After the interview I follow Rentero back to the press room. He immediately approaches one of the organisers and tells him in no uncertain terms that publicity has to improve. He points at me and then moves on to the monitors to watch the games that are still in progress. The organiser is clearly not happy with me and tells me about the banners which are hanging all over town. I reply that they were only put up the day before the first round and I tell him about the Wijk aan Zee tournament which runs a website all year long. He takes me to one of the monitors to show me the website of his tournament. A very nice site indeed but when you enter ‘Linares chess’ or ‘Linares ajedrez’ in Google the link doesn’t come up. Also the site is only in Spanish. ‘Then you will have to learn Spanish’ is the final word from the organiser. Luis Rentero may have officially handed over his tournament to the local government but his presence is still felt.

I didn’t see Rentero’s face when Radjabov and Dominguez played on till bare Kings in the 12th round, but it reminded me of another thing he said: ‘I will tell you why Linares is the greatest tournament in the world. Because in Linares the players fight!’

En 1972 à Reykjavik, Boris Spassky dira : «Les échecs, c'est comme la vie». Bobby Fischer raccourcira par «Les échecs, c'est la vie». Aujourd'hui, en découvrant sur le site cocktailmaster.net cet échiquier en verre, nous pourrions renchérir par «Les échecs, c'est la vraie vie».

Les 32 pièces de ce jeu sont représentées par des petits verres à apéritifs, avec imprimé dessus la forme de la pièce que chacun représente. Chaque verre fait 4,7 cm de hauteur, diamètre du buvant de 3,5 cm et diamètre du bas de 2,9 cm. A votre santé !

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Les appariements de la ronde 10 :

1 Gustafsson, Jan      7.0 2627 1/2 Movsesian, Sergei    7.0 2708  
2 Vallejo Pons, F      7.0 2705 1/2 Adams, Michael       7.0 2694  
3 Bacrot, Etienne      6.5 2713 1-0 Cramling, Pia        6.5 2528  
4 Bindrich, Falko      6.5 2512 - Kamsky, Gata         6.5 2693  
5 Zhukova, Natalia     6.5 2462 1/2 Fressinet, Laurent   6.5 2670  
6 Fridman, Daniel      6.5 2654 - Lenderman, Alex      6.5 2560  
7 Javakhishvili, Lela  6.5 2493 - Sandipan, Chanda     6.5 2622  
8 Boskovic, Drasko     6.5 2454 - Koneru, Humpy        6.5 2614  
9 Geetha Narayanan G   6.5 2584 - Stefanova, Antoaneta 6.5 2545 

Les résultats de la ronde 9 :

1 Gustafsson, Jan    6.5 2627 1/2 Bacrot, Etienne   6.0 2713  
2 Movsesian, Sergei  6.0 2708 1-0 Halkias, Stelios  6.0 2566  
3 Naumann, Alexander 6.0 2525 0-1 Vallejo Pons, F.  6.0 2705  
4 Adams, Michael     6.0 2694 1-0 Lemos, Damian     6.0 2556  
5 Koneru, Humpy      6.0 2614 1/2 Kamsky, Gata      6.0 2693  
6 Fressinet, Laurent 6.0 2670 1/2 Javakhishvili, L. 6.0 2493  
7 Sandipan, Chand a  6.0 2622 1/2 Boskovic, Drasko  6.0 2454 

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Les appariements de la ronde 10 :

1 Gustafsson, Jan      7.0 2627 - Movsesian, Sergei    7.0 2708  
2 Vallejo Pons, F      7.0 2705 - Adams, Michael       7.0 2694  
3 Bacrot, Etienne      6.5 2713 - Cramling, Pia        6.5 2528  
4 Bindrich, Falko      6.5 2512 - Kamsky, Gata         6.5 2693  
5 Zhukova, Natalia     6.5 2462 - Fressinet, Laurent   6.5 2670  
6 Fridman, Daniel      6.5 2654 - Lenderman, Alex      6.5 2560  
7 Javakhishvili, Lela  6.5 2493 - Sandipan, Chanda     6.5 2622  
8 Boskovic, Drasko     6.5 2454 - Koneru, Humpy        6.5 2614  
9 Geetha Narayanan G   6.5 2584 - Stefanova, Antoaneta 6.5 2545 

Les résultats de la ronde 9 :

1 Gustafsson, Jan    6.5 2627 1/2 Bacrot, Etienne   6.0 2713  
2 Movsesian, Sergei  6.0 2708 1-0 Halkias, Stelios  6.0 2566  
3 Naumann, Alexander 6.0 2525 0-1 Vallejo Pons, F.  6.0 2705  
4 Adams, Michael     6.0 2694 1-0 Lemos, Damian     6.0 2556  
5 Koneru, Humpy      6.0 2614 1/2 Kamsky, Gata      6.0 2693  
6 Fressinet, Laurent 6.0 2670 1/2 Javakhishvili, L. 6.0 2493  
7 Sandipan, Chand a  6.0 2622 1/2 Boskovic, Drasko  6.0 2454 

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Contrary to what we reported earlier, the Masters section of the Gibtelecom Festival runs 10 rounds, not 9. With two rounds to go, GM Jan ‘Gusty’ Gustafsson from Germany is in sole lead with 6.5/8. John Saunders reports.

Photo © John Saunders

The 2010 Gibtelecom International Chess Festival takes place January 26-February 4 at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. The rate of play in this 10-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.

Round 8 report by John Saunders

The presence of a chess legend has added an extra frisson to life at the Gibtelecom Chess Festival. One day I was waiting for the lift when I noticed a white-haired gentleman in his seventies move swiftly past me and put me to shame by using the stairs. Another day I was about to step into what I thought was an unoccupied lift only to notice at the last minute that it was occupied by the same man, who blinked at me in surprise as my rotundity briefly threatened to collide with his rather more svelte figure.

Yesterday I had my closest encounter yet with said gentleman, whom I’m sure you will already have guessed is the tenth World Chess Champion, Boris Spassky. I noticed him sitting in the bar with Stewart Reuben and Ruben Felgaer. At the time I was having difficulty finding somewhere to sit down and enjoy my chicken baguette and I was quite pleased to see them get up and depart, giving me an ideal place to sit down and have lunch.

About 20 minutes later a slightly perplexed Spassky returned to the same place. To my surprise, he bore down on me and asked “have you seen my glasses? I was sitting here before”. I was galvanised into action. Lifting the cushion on the chair, I caught sight of the great man’s spectacles on the floor under the chair. I fished them out and handed them to him. A trivial enough thing to do, of course, but Boris’s reaction was as if I had just given him a fully-worked, cast-iron refutation of the Benoni. Lifting his arms to the skies for added effect, he exclaimed: “This is a miracle! How did you do it?”

Trifling though the favour was, it was extremely pleasurable to have been of service to one of the greatest players who has ever lived. My life is now complete and my epitaph will surely read “here lies the man who once helped Boris Spassky find his specs”.

Now to business: 30-year-old German grandmaster Jan ‘Gusty’ Gustafsson moved into the sole lead in round eight of the Gibtelecom Masters, blowing away Natalia Zhukova with some ease though he has thirteen players still breathing down his neck as the tournament reaches its penultimate round. (I’ve been racking my brains for some more meteorological metaphors but I think I’ll call it a day at three. I don’t want a reputation as a windbag.)

Natalia Zhukova had so far been the surprise package of this year’s festival but her streak came to an end when she faced the Hamburg-born grandmaster. Despite having the white pieces, she soon found herself in a passive position and Gustafsson found a powerful tactical coup to end the game on move 33.

Other games between the eleven overnight leaders started brightly but gradually subsided into draws. Kamsky-Adams was a heavyweight encounter and promised a good struggle but after a number of exchanges the game reduced to a level endgame.

Five players in the next score group took the opportunity to move close to the leading score. Top seed Etienne Bacrot moved back into contention by defeating Alex Lenderman of the USA in a long, fluctuating struggle. Georgian International Master Lela Javakhishvili became one of two women players to reach the group in second equal place when she won impressively against Spanish grandmaster Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez.

The game of the day was almost certainly the one between Argentinian grandmaster Damian Lemos and French International Master Clovis Vernay. The Frenchman, playing Black, attempted to extract himself from difficulties with a remarkable tactical combination involving an eye-catching queen sacrifice. Many a player would have succumbed to such a dangerous attack but the Argentinian found an equally astonishing defence to neutralise the Black counterattack and convert the material advantage into victory. Great credit must go to both players for providing this feast of chess.

Leaders after Round 8: 1st Jan Gustafsson (Germany) 6½ points out of 8; 2nd= Etienne Bacrot (France), Sergei Movsesian (Slovakia), Paco Vallejo Pons (Spain), Michael Adams (England), Gata Kamsky (USA), Laurent Fressinet (France), Chand Sandipan (India), Humpy Koneru (India), Stelios Halkias (Greece), Damian Lemos (Argentina), Alexander Naumann (Germany), Lela Javakhishvili (Georgia), Drasko Boskovic (Serbia) 6 points.

Selection of games, let’s start with Lemos-Vernay

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Photos © John Saunders, more here

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Les appariements de la ronde 9 :

1 Gustafsson, Jan    6.5 2627 Bacrot, Etienne   6.0 2713  
2 Movsesian, Sergei  6.0 2708 Halkias, Stelios  6.0 2566  
3 Naumann, Alexander 6.0 2525 Vallejo Pons, F.  6.0 2705  
4 Adams, Michael     6.0 2694 Lemos, Damian     6.0 2556  
5 Koneru, Humpy      6.0 2614 Kamsky, Gata      6.0 2693  
6 Fressinet, Laurent 6.0 2670 Javakhishvili, L. 6.0 2493  
7 Sandipan, Chand a  6.0 2622 Boskovic, Drasko  6.0 2454 


 
Les résultats de la ronde 8 :

1 Koneru, Humpy    5.5 2614 1/2 Movsesian, Sergei  5.5 2708  
2 Vallejo Pons, F. 5.5 2705 1/2 Sandipan, Chanda   5.5 2622  
3 Kamsky, Gata     5.5 2693 1/2 Adams, Michael     5.5 2694  
4 Halkias, Stelios 5.5 2566 1/2 Fressinet, Laurent 5.5 2670  
5 Zhukova, Natalia 5.5 2462 0-1 Gustafsson, Jan    5.5 2627  
6 Bacrot, Etienne  5.0 2713 1-0 Lenderman, Alex    5.5 2560 

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Les appariements de la ronde 8 :

1 Koneru, Humpy     5.5 2614 -  Movsesian, Sergei   5.5 2708  
2 Vallejo Pons      5.5 2705 -  Sandipan, Chanda    5.5 2622  
3 Kamsky, Gata      5.5 2693 -  Adams, Michael      5.5 2694  
4 Halkias, Stelios  5.5 2566 -  Fressinet, Laurent  5.5 2670  
5 Zhukova, Natalia  5.5 2462 -  Gustafsson, Jan     5.5 2627  
6 Bacrot, Etienne   5.0 2713 -  Lenderman, Alex     5.5 2560  
7 Cheparinov, Ivan  5.0 2660 -  Speelman, Jon S     5.0 2525  
8 Fridman, Daniel   5.0 2654 -  Hoffmann, Michael   5.0 2508 

 
Les résultats de la Ronde 7 de lundi :

1 Adams, Michael       5.0 2694 1/2 Zhukova, Natalia   5.0 2462  
2 Sandipan, Chanda     5.0 2622 1/2 Gustafsson, Jan    5.0 2627  
3 Maze, Sebastien      4.5 2554 1/2 Bacrot, Etienne    4.5 2713  
4 Movsesian, Sergei    4.5 2708 1-0 Bhat, Vinay S.     4.5 2540  
5 Malakhatko, Vadim    4.5 2549 0-1 Vallejo Pons, F    4.5 2705  
6 Stefanova, Antoaneta 4.5 2545 0-1 Kamsky, Gata       4.5 2693  
7 Fressinet, Laurent   4.5 2670 1-0 Cramling, Pia      4.5 2528 

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Extraits des résultats de la Ronde 6  :

1 Gustafsson, Jan  4.5 2627 1/2 Adams, Michael     4.5 2694  
2 Bacrot, Etienne  4.0 2713 1/2 Felgaer, Ruben     4.0 2591  
3 Speelman, Jon S  4.0 2525 1/2 Movsesian, Sergei  4.0 2708  
4 Kamsky, Gata     4.0 2693 1/2 Lenderman, Alex    4.0 2560  
5 Guliyev, Namig   4.0 2516 1/2 Fressinet, Laurent 4.0 2670  
6 Fridman, Daniel  4.0 2654 1/2 Malakhatko, Vadim  4.0 2549  
7 Dzagnidze, Nana  4.0 2506 0-1 Sandipan, Chanda   4.0 2622  
8 Zhukova, Natalia 4.0 2462 1-0 Edouard, Romain    4.0 2608
 
Extrait des appariements de la ronde 7 :

1 Adams, Michael       5.0 2694 Zhukova, Natalia   5.0 2462  
2 Sandipan, Chanda     5.0 2622 Gustafsson, Jan    5.0 2627  
3 Maze, Sebastien      4.5 2554 Bacrot, Etienne    4.5 2713  
4 Movsesian, Sergei    4.5 2708 Bhat, Vinay S.     4.5 2540  
5 Malakhatko, Vadim    4.5 2549 Vallejo Pons, F    4.5 2705  
6 Stefanova, Antoaneta 4.5 2545 Kamsky, Gata       4.5 2693  
7 Fressinet, Laurent   4.5 2670 Cramling, Pia      4.5 2528 

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

Un adiós al Gran Francisco Benko (24-06-1910/12-01-2010)

Autor: luigiferri

Como millones de inmigrantes que llegaron a la Argentina entre mediados del Siglo XIX y mediados del XX, en 1936 arribó al país Franz Benkö, desde Alemania.

A una tierra en crecimiento y que sería el Granero del Mundo, en busca de la Esperanza. Escapando de múltiples dolores, hambre, Guerras Mundiales, Guerras Civiles, persecuciones políticas y religiosas. Y Argentina los acogió en un crisol de razas. Sin xenofobias, sin persecuciones, sin exclusiones, sin expulsiones ni deportaciones. Claro que siempre hay miserables, pero la mayoría los asimiló e integró como a uno más. Aún la Argentina fue generosa enviando alimentos a pueblos devastados por la Guerra Civil o la Guerra Mundial.

Francisco (Franz) Benkö nació en Berlín el 24 de junio de 1910^[1]. De padre húngaro y madre austríaca.

“Cuando empezó la Primera Guerra Mundial yo tenía sólo cuatro años. Mi padre había fallecido cuando yo tenía un año y medio, y mi madre murió cuando había cumplido 16 años. Sufrí hambre y frío; la falta de calcio me provocaba serios problemas en las uñas y los dientes, que se rompían fácilmente. Antes que estallara la Segunda Guerra Mundial, en 1936 decidí emigrar, teniendo en consideración la difícil situación en que se encontraban los judíos en Alemania en ese momento. Ya en Berlín jugaba al ajedrez en primera categoría. (…)” Entrevista de Juan S. Morgado, 1984, Ajedrez de Estilo / ChessBase.

"Un día estaba tan desesperado que no aguanté más, entré al aula del colegio y me bebí un frasco de tinta" dijo al periodista del Diario La Nación alguna vez (La Nación, enero 12 de 2010)

Esta historia es común a muchos de nuestros antepasados; bisabuelos, abuelos y padres que nos contaron cosas muy parecidas.

En aquella Alemania nazi, donde el régimen de Hitler perseguía a los judíos, sin un peso en el bolsillo, se embarcó con su hermana hacia Buenos Aires.^[2]

Como tantos inmigrantes hizo todo lo posible para rescatar gente que había quedado en Alemania y así consiguió traer a 9 familias en el último barco que zarpó antes del estallido de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Simplemente les salvó la vida.

Por sobre todas las cosas un amante de la vida. No sólo fue buen jugador de ajedrez (aparte de gran coleccionista y compositor de problemas), sino que amaba la música clásica y aún hizo una profunda investigación sobre si Shakespeare era o no el testaferro de Roger Manners.^[3]

Otra historia pintoresca es la “historia del abanico”, también referida en el reportaje de Morgado: “Cuando mi madre tenía 17 años le regalaron un abanico. A través del tiempo fueron firmándolo diversas personalidades. Mi mamá era una apasionada de la música y consiguió la firma de Johann Strauss, quien personalmente dibujó un pentagrama con las primeras notas del vals Voces de Primavera, como homenaje a mi madre. Otra de las firmas es de Katharina Schratt, que fuera la amante del Emperador Francisco José por muchos años. Yo seguí la tradición, y al reverso de las firmas de músicos, empecé a coleccionar las de grandes ajedrecistas: Alekhine, Capablanca, Kasparov, Karpov, Tal, Petrosian, Judit Polgar, Smyslov, Vera Menchik, Tartakower, y también de músicos como Friedrich Gulda.”

Ha sido testigo y partícipe de gran parte de la historia del ajedrez argentino, así que podría haber escrito libros y libros. No importa si era, con 99 años el ajedrecista activo más viejo del planeta y con 98 años y 2044 de ELO, jugaba el fuerte ProAm de Villa Martelli o unos meses antes el tradicional Abierto de Mar del Plata. No se trata de records ni tampoco de hacer un prolijo inventario de su historial ajedrecístico.

Como él decía, refiriéndose a su longevidad ajedrecística: “Creo que he batido un record mundial: ¡debo ser el ajedrecista que perdió más partidas!”

En 1928 y 1929 entabló dos partidas con Alekhine en sesión de simultáneas. Dijo, rememorando el Torneo de las Naciones de 1939^[4]: “Concurrí todos los días. Hablé varias veces con Alekhine, que se mostró muy amable. Nunca encontré en él el más mínimo vestigio antisemita. No creo que los artículos que se le atribuyen sean de él. Alekhine era demasiado inteligente para ser antisemita.”^[5]

Jugó 17 veces el Campeonato Argentino de ajedrez. En 1949 jugó por primera vez el tradicional Torneo de Mar del Plata y desde entonces fue un asiduo participante, siendo su última participación en 2008 (con 97 años!). En esa oportunidad, consultado respecto del por qué de su participación, declaró: "Lo hago en agradecimiento al ajedrez en mi larga vida, y como propaganda para todo el mundo del excelente beneficio de su práctica como antídoto contra el mal de Alzheimer".^[6]

Así relataba su encuentro en el Club Argentino de Ajedrez con Bobby Fischer: "(había) muy poca gente. Pero en eso apareció nada menos que Robert 'Bobby' Fischer. Como no había adversarios más calificados a la vista me invitó a jugar blitz. Y en la primera, sorpresivamente, lo vencí. Claro que después se puso serio y me ganó tres seguidas".^[7]

Lo había visto en el Abierto Internacional de Morón de 1981 y recuerdo que le ganó a un fuerte jugador de primera categoría de mi club.^[8]

Lo volví a ver en el 2002, en el 8vo CONGRESO NACIONAL DE PROFESORES DE AJEDREZ Y 1ero. INTERNACIONAL, donde conjuntamente con los GM’s Panno y Rossetto y el MI Foguelman, contaron parte de su historia que es gran parte de la del Ajedrez Argentino. Un juvenil Benkö (92 años entonces), refirió muchas de las cosas que acá se cuentan. Vienen a mi memoria dos comentarios que se hicieron:

“-Al viejo Benkö hubo que convencerlo que no venga manejando.-“ (impresionante).

Un importante profesor, que utiliza cuentos para acompañar problemas o ejercicios tácticos y facilitar el aprendizaje de los niños, comentaba que tenía una buena historia, pero que no le satisfacía el ejemplo ajedrecístico que había utilizado. Otro profesor le dijo: -No te preocupes, cuando venga el viejo Benkö mostraselo y el encontrará en su impresionante colección de problemas el indicado. (lo que da idea de por qué se decía que tenía la más importante recopilación de problemas de ajedrez y su amor por ellos).

Allí hizo referencia a otra peculiar historia, cómo conoció a su segunda esposa: “(Torneo de las Naciones 1939) Concurrí todos los días. (…) Simultáneamente se jugaba el Campeonato Mundial Femenino, que fue ganado por Vera Menchik. En una de las rondas me paré junto a mi esposa para ver la partida que jugaba María Angélica Berea, más tarde coronada como la primera Maestra Internacional argentina, y le comenté: ¨Mirá qué linda mujer¨. María Angélica se casó luego con el Sr. Montero, y se fue a vivir al interior. Veinticinco años después me casaba con ella, yo viudo, ella divorciada.”^[9]

Para que conozcan un poco su juego, acompaño las dos partidas con Alekhine, las que le ganó a Arturo Pomar y a Edward Lasker en 1949, una partida que le ganó a el MI Jorge Szmetan en 1993 en el Abierto Najdorf, un empate en el Continental de 2005^[10] contra el conocido jugador colombiano Juan Minaya (varias veces representante olímpico de su país) y su victoria frente al fuerte jugador Avalos Parra en el Pro-Am de Villa Martelli de 2008 (con 98 años!!!!).

Muchas veces dijo: "Este juego me salvó la vida.” Seguramente es la pura verdad en su acepción literal y en muchos otros sentidos.

Querido viejo Benkö, que me traes recuerdos de mi padre (n.1906), de mi tío (n.1909), del bisabuelo de mis hijos (n.1912) -también Franz, como vos- y de tanta gente que me enriqueció con sus historias y enseñanzas de vida; mereces un lugar en la historia, no sólo del ajedrez.

Sólo intento acercarte al conocimiento y corazón de todos los que leen esta humilde nota, que habla de una historia de vida y mucho más.

Ahora uno de tus tantos problemas, el que le costase resolver al Gran Misha Tal. Veremos si lo resuelven los lectores. Un simple Mate en 3 jugadas.

{iframe height="560"}visor3/benko_mateentres.php {/iframe}
Adiós Maestro de la Vida.

{iframe height="530"}visor3/franciscobenko.php?jugadores=Algunas partidas de F. Benko{/iframe}

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

Photos © Zeljka Malobabic, more here

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.

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.

Game viewer

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Ayer a las tres de la tarde el excampeón del mundo Boris Spassky, invitado especial de la organización, inauguró el VIII Festival de Ajedrez de Gibraltar, uno de los torneos open más importantes del mundo y, sin duda, el más fuerte que se celebra en territorio peninsular, se jugarán diez rondas del 26 de enero al 4 de febrero.

Este año la nómina de jugadores tiene especial interés para los aficionados españoles: el campeón de España Paco Vallejo, con sus 2705 puntos Elo participa por primera vez en Gibraltar, es el número tres del ranking tras el francés Etienne Bacrot y el eslovaco Sergei Movsesian por delante de figuras de la categoría de Gata Kamsky o Michael Adams. También está aquí la campeona de España Mónica Calzetta que competirá ante las mejores como la campeona del mundo Alexandra Kosteniuk, la india -número dos mundial- Humpy Koneru o la sueca Pia Cramling.

  Wijk aan Zee…

Sabato 1° turno: Caruana - Ivanchuk

Iniziando a scrivere queste righe mi sono ricordato delle occasioni in cui sfogliavo un nuovo informatore (perché poi una grande schiappa comprasse il mitico sahovski informator è tutta un’altra storia!). La prima cosa che andavo a vedere erano i tabellini dei tornei, in fondo al volumetto, ed  ecco saltar fuori eventi di mesi prima, da luoghi “noti all’orecchio scacchistico” ma che, magari, non sapevi nemmeno dove fossero… Sono così andato a prendere un vecchio informatore (il numero 11, primo semestre 1971) ed eccoli lì! A Gori (?? – Capoluogo della regione di Shida Kartli in Georgia – Wiki  ) vittoria di Gufeld, a Tallinn primo gradino del podio per Keres e Tal, davanti a Bronstejn e Stejn, a L’Avana successo di Hort davanti a Geller, a Netanya (in Israele) Kavalek e Parma precedono Reshevsky e Benko, e tanti altri tornei…

Da quell’epoca due sole tracce raggiungono il presente, il nostro Reggio Emilia (che bel torneo anche quest’anno!), con il podio composto da Parma, Benko e Damjanovic (Paoli, Cosulich e Trincardi a difendere la nostra bandiera), e Wijk aan Zee…

“Ma dove sta Wikkenziì?” “In Olanda” rispose il Prima Nazionale del circolo, ammantato da un’aura non troppo dissimile da quella di un GM… 39 anni fa nel torneo B due ventenni in testa alla gara, Jan Timman, primo, e Andras Adorjan, secondo. Nel torneo principale vittoria di Korchnoj, che superò di mezzo punto Ivkov, Petrosjan, Gligoric e Olafsson. Bene i giovani, Andersson, vent’anni, e Mecking, diciannove, nelle retrovie il grande Najdorf, all’epoca 61enne.

Il torneo Hoogovens (Corus dal 2000, con il cambiamento di denominazione della ditta produttrice di acciaio) ha mosso i primi passi a Beverwijk, nel 1938, passando a Wijk aan Zee dal 1968. Penso che sul palco del Corus si possa facilmente immaginare la “presenza” di tanti grandi campioni, da Euwe, Tartakower, Stahlberg, Keres, Larsen, Petrosjan, Portish, Botvinnik, Spassky, Korchnoi (4 volte sul primo gradino e vincitore anche della prima edizione a Wijk aan Zee, 42 anni fa), via via attraverso i decenni, con la vittoria di Karpov nella 50ma edizione, fino al trittico 1999 – 2001 di Kasparov e alle 5 vittorie (da solo o a pari merito) di Anand! Tra i grandissimi solo Smyslov e Fischer non hanno mai partecipato.

Hoogovens 1940: Euwe contro Wijnants. L’ex campione del mondo si aggiudicherà partita e torneo (foto endgame.nl)

Oggi, stesso gioco ma altri scacchi! Niente partite sospese e tutto in diretta nel nostro villaggio globale. Soprattutto, ci sono i software e il lavoro di preparazione casalingo diventa sempre più mastodontico e rilevante, tanto da far considerare che Anand difficilmente potrà vincere, dato che probabilmente riserverà tutto il suo arsenale di novità in vista del match mondiale con Topalov.

Cerimonia d’apertura il 15 gennaio e primo turno sabato 16, alle 13,30, attraverso tre giorni di riposo, 20, 25 e 28, fino all’ultimo turno del 31, anticipato alle 12,30. Sito di riferimento http://www.coruschess.com/  . La crisi economica ha ovviamente colpito anche gli scacchi. Lo scorso anno era sorto qualche dubbio sull’effettiva effettuazione del Corus, poi fortunatamente fugato. L’edizione 2010 è pienamente all’altezza della tradizione ma, con un Elo medio di 2719, resta al di sotto dell’edizione 2008 (2742) o dell’edizione 2001, con in gara nove tra i primi dieci del mondo. I partecipanti:

Giocatore – anno di nascita – nazionalità – Elo – posizione in classifica mondiale

GM Magnus Carlsen (1990) NOR 2810 (01)

GM Viswanathan Anand (1969) IND 2790 (03)

GM Vladimir Kramnik (1975) RUS 2788 (04)

GM Vassily Ivanchuk (1969) UKR 2749 (08)

GM Peter Leko (1979) HUN 2739 (12)

GM Alexei Shirov (1972) ESP 2723 (20)

GM Sergey Karjakin (1990) RUS 2720 (21)

GM Leinier Dominguez (1983) CUB 2712 (25)

GM Hikaru Nakamura (1987) USA 2708 (28)

GM Nigel Short (1965) ENG 2696 (38)

GM Fabiano Caruana (1992) ITA 2675 (51)

GM Sergey Tiviakov (1973) NED 2662 (62)

GM Jan Smeets (1985) NED 2657 (73)

GM Loek van Wely (1972) NED 2641 (104)

Fa un certo effetto vedere la scritta “ITA” in questo contesto! Da tempo si disserta sulle nostre pagine in merito alle possibilità di Fabiano in questa gara, con pareri a volte molto forti e che, francamente, è difficile attribuire ad una sola competizione, soprattutto parlando di un 17enne, ad esempio del tipo: “Sarà la prova del fuoco, e se Fabiano non dovesse ottenere un risultato almeno discreto sarebbe evidente che non può aspirare all’elite mondiale…” (??). Qualcuno, dopo la vittoria nel Corus B dello scorso anno, con la conseguente attuale partecipazione, ha giustamente osservato (rispetto alle "previsioni" di un torneo principale ancora troppo difficile per lui) che Caruana non doveva giocare in quel momento ma di lì ad un anno (e che Fabiano sia oggi ancora un po’ più forte mi sembra più evidente di quanto l’Elo non dica).

Si è considerato il precedente di Carlsen che nel 2007 (a poco più di 16 anni, Magnus è nato il 30/11/1990) è arrivato ultimo con 4,5 , 4 sconfitte e 9 patte. Questo non ha impedito a Carlsen di salire ancora qualche posizione nella classifica mondiale... L’anno dopo, a 17 anni, Magnus si piazzava sul primo gradino del podio insieme ad Aronian!! Anche Karjakin ha partecipato per la prima volta a 16 anni, nel 2006 (è nato il 12 gennaio 1990), disputando una magnifica gara, quinto con 7 su 13 (4 vittorie e 3 sconfitte)! L’anno dopo per Sergey 50% dei punti (3 vittorie e 3 sconfitte) dopo un inizio in piena corsa per il podio finale. E se Carlsen ha vinto nel 2008 è proprio di Karjakin il sigillo 2009! Paragonare Fabiano a Carlsen e Karjakin era forse eccessivo fino a 3 / 4 anni fa ma la crescita successiva lo rende ampiamente possibile e sottintende, di fatto, una probabile carriera da top 20, che negli scacchi di oggi penso sia il massimo che si possa dire di un giovane. Quanto “top” sta al futuro! (Annoto che un nostro lettore ha scritto spesso che Fabiano ha lo “shining”… Io tendo ad essere d’accordo, c’é la sensazione di quel “qualcosa in più” che…)

Dopo la prima partita un po’ più incerta con Bruzon (che resta un talento non del tutto espresso ma sempre molto “pericoloso”) il Caruana della World Cup ha impressionato per forza e sicurezza, pur impegnato contro avversari di primissimo livello. Fabiano dà la netta impressione di continuare una crescita decisamente importante e, personalmente, mi ha dato spesso la sensazione di essere già un passo oltre rispetto a quanto ci si potesse attendere. I 2700 sono ormai lì, sia che Fabiano li superi a breve che con qualche tempo in più, e hanno un “suono” già aderente alla sua statura di giocatore. Dunque, Fabiano al Corus 2010? Difficile pensare che non avverta l’emozione al primo turno, poi dipenderà dal feeling con la gara, dagli eventuali zeitnot, da mille fattori, a cominciare da come starà fisicamente. Il suo punteggio atteso è 5,59: io mi aspetto qualcosa in più e, comunque, ho la netta sensazione che Fabiano sia semplicemente dove inizia a meritare di essere, comunque vada questo torneo! Forza FAB, supertifo da ola!!

Accennavo ai 9 dei primi 10 giocatori al mondo del Corus 2001 ma in quest'ultimo anno ha forse più senso parlare dei primi 5, alle cui spalle ci sono almeno una ventina di giocatori che appartengono all’elite ma restano un passo indietro, non solo per quel piccolo gap che nelle ultime liste Elo separa il 5° dal 6° ma anche per la qualità del gioco e la “sensazione” delle chance di attacco al titolo mondiale. Topalov e Aronian giocheranno a Linares, dove finora sembra che nessuno dei partecipanti al Corus sarà presente.

Anand ha appena compiuto 40 anni (l’11 dicembre). Molte interviste di recente, con un Vishy completamente concentrato verso il match mondiale di aprile, durissimo lavoro con il team di secondi (del quale è noto solo Peter Nielsen) e grande voglia di mantenere il titolo mondiale più a lungo possibile. Rinnovato amore per gli scacchi (“Mi piace ancora molto giocare”) e energie da distribuire bene, con i periodi di pausa in famiglia avvertiti come buona ricarica. Tutto, compresa la necessità di mantenere le carte coperte, sembra dire che Anand “attraverserà” semplicemente questo Corus, con un buon training alla scacchiera, in cui sarà importante però non perdere sicurezze: una partita come quella persa con Aronian al Memorial Tal può lasciare qualche strascico. Un segnale da questo 2009, forse più importante dei mancati acuti nei tornei importanti: per la prima volta Vishy è parso perdere colpi nel gioco rapid. Ciò non toglie che il match con Topalov sia da 50 – 50 e che Anand, la cui statura nella storia degli scacchi è probabilmente superiore - finora - a quella del campione bulgaro, abbia ancora “qualcosa da dire”!

Sembra così vi sia tutto lo spazio in questo Corus perché Carlsen e Kramnik continuino il loro recente duello. Dopo lo strepitoso Nanjing di Carlsen, splendida vittoria di Kramnik al Memorial Tal (con un Carlsen che sembra fosse febbricitante nei primi turni, comunque secondo e imbattuto) e London Chess Classic in cui Magnus si è aggiudicato confronto diretto e torneo, pur in modo meno convincente di quanto fatto in Cina e con un Kramnik che è parso in ogni caso incisivo e in buona forma.

Primo torneo per Carlsen da n° 1 del ranking, prossimo obiettivo il 2° posto Elo all time sorpassando i 2813 di Topalov, per i 2851 di Kasparov manca ancora un po’. Prima di questo Corus nuovo ciclo di allenamento con Kasparov: a Wijk aan Zee rivedremo il rullo compressore di Nanchino? Di sicuro sembra essere iniziato il regno di Carlsen e un primo gesto regale in Olanda potrebbe darci l’idea se si tratterà di un regno o di un impero. C’è un indizio che, se confermato nelle prossime gare, potrebbe far riflettere: Carlsen a volte vince in modo strepitoso, a volte vince in modo semplicemente volitivo, patta, anche ed ovviamente, ma non perde…

Da parte sua Kramnik sembra aver ritrovato tutta la sua forza di gioco e, se sta bene in salute, la sensazione è che resti il giocatore più profondo e completo, con quell’aria di quasi imbattibilità che sembra solo momentaneamente scalfita dai periodi meno positivi. E’ presto per pronosticare una finale dei Candidati tra Carlsen e Kramnik? Peccato che le formule della Fide sviliscano un po’ questi match e la corsa al titolo mondiale nel suo insieme.

Da questo Corus non avremo risposte ma solo indizi e in questa “investigazione” Karjakin, campione uscente del torneo, è sicuramente un osservato speciale. Appena passato alla Russia, Sergey è atteso all’ultimo salto verso la zona 2800. Nei pronostici su Scacchierando della recente World Cup è stato dato non a caso come il vincitore più probabile della manifestazione: pronostico sbagliato ma, direi, idea esatta. Il passaggio ad una federazione ancora forte come quella russa rispetto alla più debole struttura ucraina potrebbe dare a Karjakin un supporto maggiore ed essere il trampolino necessario.

Domande interessanti anche per quanto riguarda Dominguez, la cui crescita sembra essersi fermata dopo aver dato una sensazione più positiva. Tetto raggiunto o solo una fase di stasi per il bel gioco del cubano? La massima elite mondiale (intesa come inserimento tra i primissimi e lotta per il titolo) non sembra comunque alla portata, cosa che non è facile dire per Nakamura. Il 22enne geniale super talento nippo – americano saprà trovare i giusti equilibri tra la sua creatività e una più robusta padronanza strategica e teorica? Difficile dire quali possano essere i limiti massimi di Hikaru! Prova un po’ deludente al London Chess Classic ma dimostrazione di muscoli al World Team Championship conclusosi oggi, con una performance di 2851 nonostante la sconfitta con Aronian, derivata da una prestazione superba dell’armeno!

Ultima ricerca di indizi per Peter Leko, anche se forse le risposte rispetto al campione ungherese sono già arrivate. L’età, 31 anni, è da zona top ma i risultati, dopo l’ottimo periodo 2004 / 2005 con il pari nel match con Kramnik e la vittoria qui al Corus, non sembrano parlare di un trend positivo. La classe è indubbiamente molta ma sembra forse mancare quel pizzico di capacità di rischiare e voglia di vincere che a volte fa la differenza.

I tre olandesi chiudono la griglia di partenza. Splendida terra di scacchi l’Olanda ma si stenta a trovare l’erede di Euwe e Timman. Nuove speranze con il 15enne "neo-olandese" Anish Giri, ma qui l'investigazione passa al torneo B!

Basta “domande”, non prima di rendere onore però a due superbi giocatori come Alexei Shirov e Vassily Ivanchuk! Sarebbe bello vedere anche in questo Corus le “fiamme sulla scacchiera” firmate Riga! Ed è difficile trovare paragoni per le sinfonie scacchistiche di Ivanchuk, 40 anni, come Anand, ma qualche fragilità in più e troppe occasioni lasciate sfuggire. E, tuttavia, tutti sappiamo che Ivanchuk sarebbe capace di vincere anche questo Corus se quel piccolo “qualcosa” che lo fa a volte giocare in modo incomparabile “scattasse” in questi giorni. Sarebbe bello, in controtendenza con i software e il mondo online, qualcosa dal sapore un po’ più antico, sarebbe da… Wijk aan Zee!

Russian Chess House has just published: King’s Gambit.

The King’s Gambit is the favourite opening of every attacking player. It has been popular for centuries and was played by grandmasters such as Paul Keres, David Bronstein, Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer.

Even today a number of leading players, among them Alexander Grischuk, Vassily Ivanchuk, Nigel Short, and Michael Adams, keep playing the King’s Gambit as a surprise weapon.

The present book by Nikolai Kalinichenko, an international grandmaster of correspondence play, gives a systematic analysis of the King’s Gambit using more than 300 illustrative annotated games up to May 31 2009!

This book will provide you with a sound knowledge of all the standard variations, together with their typical strategic and tactical ideas.

It was about time for a new book on this ultrasharp weapon.

A new year has begun, and is there a better moment to start working some more on your openings? We’ve changed our weekly PDF (+PGN!) magazine ChessVibes Openings slightly, and it might well be even more instructive…

This week on page 4 we introduced a new, interactive section called It’s Your Move: every week two exercises, of which the solutions and explanations will follow one week later. This will improve your understanding of certain opening, middlegame or even endgame themes even further.

A new year offers the chance to start all over, with new goals and new energy, also on the chess board. A bit of preparation can be of great help, and ChessVibes Openings is a fun and instructive way to keep your openings up to date.

What is ChessVibes Openings?

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

• What’s hot? A round-up of this week’s important opening developments, with statistics about the frequence and score of the week’s most important opening novelty (page 1)
• What’s not? Which openings are not recommended at the moment, according to the top players? And why not? (page 1)
• Game of the week Each week you’ll find the theoretically most important game analysed by our two IMs, with a detailed survey of the opening phase (page 2).
• This week’s harvest Four more new important opening ideas from this week (page 3) revealed and described with explanation of the opening and early middlegame (page 3).
• It’s Your Move An interactive element: every week two exercises, of which the solutions/explanations will follow one week later. This will improve your understanding of certain opening, middlegame or even endgame themes even further.

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

This week’s issue: #53, January 6, 2010

ChessVibes Openings #53
The latest opening developments of the first week of January 2010, covering Reggio Emilia, Hastings, Rilton Cup and the World Team Championship. All about the 7.Nf3 Najdorf which was analysed in our Game of the Week Bologan-Safarli, Reggio Emilia 2010.

Other lines that are covered:

• Ruy Lopez, Anti-Marshall
• Sicilian, Alapin
• Caro-Kann, Advance
• KID, Bayonet

This week we started a new section which replaced the Opening Expert: It’s Your Move. After one year of presenting opening experts, we felt it’s time to change page 4 of our magazine and introduce an interactive element: two exercises, of which the solutions/explanations will follow one week later.

Last week’s issue: #52, December 30, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #52
The latest opening developments of the last week of December 2009, covering the Russian Championship, the Korchnoi-Spassky match, Pamplona and Reggio Emilia. All about the Ruy Lopez, Berlin Wall which was analysed in our Game of the Week Grischuk-Jakovenko, Moscow 2009.

Other lines that are covered:

• Ruy Lopez, Marshall, 15.Qe2
• Alekhine, 4…dxe5
• QGA, 7.dxc5
• KID, Mar del Plata

This week’s Opening Expert is Georgian GM Baadur Jobava.

Previous issue: #51, December 23, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #51
The latest opening developments of the fourth week of December 2009, covering the European Rapid Championship, the Russian Championship and the Korchnoi-Spassky match. All about the Fianchetto Variation of the Grünfeld Defence which was analysed in our Game of the Week Khismatullin-Svidler, Moscow 2009. Other lines that are covered:

• Scotch, 4…Bc5 5.Nxc6
• Berlin, 5…Be7
• OSlav, 4.e3 Bg4
• Chebanenko Slav

This week’s Opening Expert is Israel GM Victor Mikhalevski.

Previous issue: #50, December 16, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #50
The latest opening developments of the third week of December 2009, covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic. All about the Ragozin Defence which was analysed in our Game of the Week Kramnik-Short, London Chess Classic 2009. Other lines that are covered:

• Open Ruy Lopez
• Chebanenko Slav
• Open Catalan
• King’s Indian, 7…Na6

This week’s Opening Expert is Russian top GM and former World Champ Vladimir Kramnik.

Previous issue: #49, December 9, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #49
The latest opening developments of the second week of December 2009, covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic. All about the Open Ruy Lopez which was analysed in our Game of the Week Karjakin-Mamedyarov, World Cup 2009. Other lines that are covered:

• Queen’s Gambit Declined, 5.Bf4
• Queen’s Gambit Accepted
• Grünfeld Indian, 5.Bd2
• King’s Indian, 6.h3

This week’s Opening Expert is Russian GM Vladimir Malakhov.

Ehm… can I have a look?

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

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

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

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

What does it cost?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yesterday the World Team Championship started in Bursa, Turkey. The participating teams are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Egypt, Greece, India, Israel, Russia, Turkey and the USA. Quite a few strong players (such as Aronian, Gelfand, Grischuk and Nakamura) travelled to Turkey, where in the first round Azerbaijan defeated Armenia thanks to Mamedyarov, who beat Pashikian.

To our surprise we found out that the World Team Ch is a tournament we’ve never covered before at ChessVibes, simply because the last edition was held before this site even existed! The event, an invitational round-robin, is being held every four years, and was established in 1985. The first edition, in Lucerne, was won comfortably by the USSR. (France, led by former World Champion Spassky did surprisingly well finishing in fourth position.) The last edition was in 2005, when China was performing very well. Russia had to beat the Chinese by 3½-½ in the last round to outpace them and they did it. (More historical details at the great Olimpbase.)

The 7th edition, the ‘2009 World Team Championship’ takes place at the Merinos Congress Centre in Bursa, Turkey from January 3rd till 14th, 2010. It’s a 9-round round-robin with 10 teams of 6 players (’athletes’, according to the official website): 4 players + 2 reserves, and one coach/captain. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves +30 minutes to end the game, with 30 seconds increment from the start. At the tournament the zero-tolerance rule is in effect, and draw offers are not allowed before move 30.

Here are the participating teams with their line-ups:

Sergey Karjakin was supposed to play his first team event for Russia, after he changed federations, but due to some unclear restrictions of FIDE he was not able to play in Bursa for Russia yet. (In the comments, ebutaljib makes clear that it’s not so unclear.) He was replaced by Jakovenko.

It’s a bit of a strange event, with some very strong teams but also some weak ones. The qualifiying rules are:

Continental Champions: Russia, Brazil, China, Egypt
3 Qualifiers from Olympiad: Armenia, Israel, USA
Organiser Country and two invited federations by FIDE President’s approval: Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Greece.

Somehow the World Team Championship never became a really prestigious event, where all the top teams and players play. Dutch GM Loek van Wely already expressed his disappointment back in 2005:

Between the WTCh 2001 and the WTCh 2005 three European Team Championships have taken place, of which The Netherlands managed to win two. Unfortunately this did not give us the right to participate in the WTCh. As you can see, Fide really appreciates winning the strongest continental championships.

Back to 2010. The first round was played yesterday; it was delayed by one day and the rest day was canceled. The tournament website says that

by the Request of FIDE and consultation of the Chief Arbiter of event the first round moved to 5th January and free day cancelled. That is only for giving more time to players to prepare for their opponents. All players, and coaches as it is clearly mentioned in regulations must participate to the Opening Ceremony on 4th January at 10:00 am.

“More time to prepare” is quite a remarkable reason to postpone a first round, we must say. No doubt some players would have preferred to arrive a day later, but well, at least they can safely skip the planned excursion this way.

India replaced China, who dropped out as the Asian representative shortly before the tournament. The organizers were not very happy about this, to put it mildly, considering the way they communicate this on the tournament website:

Just one week before event starts, 23 December evening, Chinese Chess Association withdrew from event. That is very pitty [sic], considering talented young Chinese Team, and no reason beyond that scandelous withdrawal. Fortunately, the owner of the 2nd place of Asian Team Championship, India, jumped on the seat and accepted to participate.

The reason for China’s absence is probably a political one, connected to the ethnic and religious connections between Turkey and the Uyghur minority in the Western Chinese province of Xinjiang. In the last few months, diplomatic relations between China and Turkey have gone from bad to worse.

Back to chess. Here are the results of the first round, the standings and the games. Don’t miss Can-Shulman.

Game viewer

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

In October we celebrated our 25th Anniversary. Yes, we know, time flies, etc. I hope you liked our anniversary issue.

Now we have published: New In Chess: The First 25 Years.

It’s all there: Botvinnik on Kasparov’s talent, Tony Miles on winning Tilburg while lying on a stretcher, Ricardo Calvo on being persona non grata with FIDE, Bent Larsen on preparation, the death of J.H. Donner.

Remember Valery Salov annotating just one game and somehow connecting Spinoza, Bakunin, Monica Lewinsky, Garry Kasparov, Pope Clement V, Paul van der Sterren and Dr Hannibal Lector? It’s included.

Meet Spassky, Portisch, Krabbé, Tal, Campo, and other colourful characters. Relive Karpov’s 1994 Linares win, and Kasparov self-destructing against Deep Blue. Read Kasparov on Fischer.

Plus of course : the very best games of chess by Anand, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Topalov, Morozevich et al. Compiled by Steve Giddins.

Only available here: the 400-page anthology of New In Chess.

These are hard times for newspapers, which have been struggling for years with the question how to adapt to the digital era. Almost all of them need to cut costs, and among the victims are the writers of chess columns. Yesterday, after 23 years, Lubosh Kavalek wrote his last column for the Washington Post.

For about a year Kavalek’s columns only appeared online; earlier the Washington Post had cut if from their print version to reduce costs. According to the New York Times, a source at the company with knowledge of the situation said that “the decision to discontinue the column altogether was a further cost-cutting move”.

Kavalek’s column of January 4th, 2010 is a wonderful goodbye to his readers, in which he gives his view on the last decades in chess, and shares a few more anecdotes about Bobby Fischer.

Although I was reporting for Voice of America, I did not hesitate when Bobby asked me to help him with the adjournment of the 13th game. From then on until the end of the match we analyzed together.

Bobby was obsessed with winning and was not happy until he had exhausted all possibilities. This became clear when we analyzed the adjourned position of Game 18. We soon realized that every winning attempt was doomed. The chances tilted to Spassky, but was Boris winning? Bobby’s eyes lit up when I suggested a queen maneuver, forcing Spassky to repeat the moves. “Great! We have a draw. Let’s go for the win again,” and we spent four more hours trying to find something that wasn’t there. For a single victory, Bobby would work himself to exhaustion, always giving his all.

Don’t miss Kavalek’s last column.

Eccovi il video che ho creato come omaggio ad Anatoly  Karpov, utilizzando una ventina di fotografie inedite della sua giovinezza, che spaziano dai vari matches contro Victor Korchnoj (quello del 1974 e quello del 1978) a simultanee e tornei internazionali. Tra le immagini potrete vedere anche Spassky (vedi anche foto sotto) e la Gaprindashvili.

Vi ricordo anche il link del nostro canale su Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SoloScacchi

Though a fan of both chess and table tennis, I hadn't much connected the two games until we discovered the new "ping pong" table at the Kenilworth Recreation Center during the chess club's Annual Holiday Party.  You will often see sports analogized to chess, as though baseball, football, basketball, soccer, and practically every competitive endeavor with even a modicum of strategy was somehow akin to the royal game.  But I think that trying to apply a chess analogy to team sports inevitably misses the mark, unless you are talking about the strategy used by coaches in shifting players and creating favorable match-ups.  What makes chess so different from team sports, after all, is the importance of the individual in its play. 

Table Tennis: High Speed Chess

In sports like chess and table tennis, everything relies upon the individual player.  Not surprisingly, therefore, tennis and and table tennis are among those individual sports that have always seemed most attractive to chess players.  Many chess players were fans of tennis, including Capablanca, Ed Lasker, and Boris Spassky.  Bobby Fischer swam and bowled alone.  He also played table tennis.  

Poets, and anyone who ever exercises a creative and individual professions, have in common with chess players total responsibility for their actions. This happens rarely, or does not happen at all in other human activities, whether they be paid and serious or unpaid and playful. Perhaps it is not by chance that tennis players, for example, who play alone or at most in pairs, are more irascible and neurotic than soccer players or cyclists, who work in teams. … Whoever is on his own, without allies or intermediaries between himself and his work, has no excuses in the face of failure, and excuses are a precious analgesic. The actor can unload the blame of a failure on his director, or vice versa; someone who works in an industry feels his responsibility diluted in that of numerous colleagues, superiors and inferiors, and moreover contaminated by “contingency,” competition, and the whims of the market, and the unforeseen. Someone who teaches can blame the program, the dean, and of course the students. …But the person who decides to attack with the bishop, the point he considers weak in his opponent’s deployment, is alone, he has no accomplices, not even putative, and fully and singly answers for his decision, like the poet at his writing table faced by “the tiny verse" (144).

What I like about chess: there are no excuses. There is no luck involved. Either you play well or you don't. If you screw up, it's on you. It's a very pure game in that respect. 

2009 was a tough year, also for the chess world. Sponsors left, prize funds were lowered and in one (quite important) event the list of participants counted just four players. But it was also an interesting year, with successes for rising stars as well as experienced grandmasters. Let’s look back at the chess year that’s behind us, in our traditional annual survey.

Like we did on December 31 last year, the year before and the year before that, here’s our annual survey of 2009.

One of the first strong round-robins finishing in the new year is always Reggio Emilia. In 2009 the Chinese rising start Ni Hua clinched the title in the small Italian town convincingly. He ended 1.5 points ahead of number 2 Zoltan Almasi! In a very strong period Ni Hua collected enough rating points to pass the 2700 barrier, which got him an invitation for the London Chess Classic at the end of the year.

Another early winner was Peter Svidler, who won the Aker Chess Challenge in Gjovik, Norway. In the final he defeated Magnus Carlsen, who at that point had no idea yet that 2009 would go down into history as the year he would rise to the absolute top. Vassily Ivanchuk is known for his many ups and downs, but he started his chess year well with a 3.5-2.5 rapid victory against Peter Leko. Our next two items in January both provoked many comments. In the column ‘The new founding fathers in chess?’ we compared remarks by Henrik Carlsen (representing his son Magnus) and Vladimir Kramnik on the world championship cycle and their ideas for a future set-up. It was interesting to see that Kramnik’s opinion seemed diametrically opposed to Carlsen’s. The next day we reported about a 14-year-old chess player from Australia who had been caught cheating with a Playstation Portable, but instead of just bringing the news, we asked our readers the question whether cheating is always newsworthy.

The year 2009 made clear once more that successful chess players are getting younger and younger. Just before Corus the big news was that a 9-year-old player in India had beaten a GM. We’ll probably hear more about Hetul Shah soon. But of course the Corus Chess Tournament itself confirmed this trend much better: the headline of our final report, ‘Youth triumphs at Corus 2009′, said enough. It had been a wonderful success for Sergei Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So.

Also for the ChessVibes team 2009 was quite an interesting year. We tried some new things, and the first was launched just before Corus. We’re still quite proud of our very first product, ChessVibes Openings, which reached it’s 52nd issue this week! I’m not an objective person here, but when I try to forget that I’m the publisher and pretend I’m only a chess player, I must say IMs Merijn van Delft and Robert Ris have done an awesome job in keeping track of the opening developments, every week, without taking a single week off. Great stuff guys!

February was the month of Linares (as always) and the month of Kamsky-Topalov. To start with the latter: it was a controversial match for several reasons. The history of how the match finally got there is a story in itself, and how it was organized in Sofia was another matter. For the journalists who had travelled to the Bulgarian capital it was a disappointing event (they were well quarantined off from the players, taking a back seat to local television) and for several online spectators as well. They became victim of what seems like a war between the Bulgarians and Chessbase, who were threatened with legal actions if they would continue broadcasting the match at Playchess. This situation would repeat during the MTel Masters in May. Our column about copyright and chess moves provoked 127 comments. We’d almost forget that Topalov won the match after volatile play from both players. The Bulgarian thus qualified for next year’s World Championship match against the reigning champ, Viswanathan Anand.

Linares saw a slightly surprising, but no less deserved winner in Alexander Grischuk. The Russian grandmaster won on tiebreak after finishing shared first with Vassily Ivanchuk, and after Sergei Karjakin he was the second qualifier for the Bilbao Grand Slam Final in September. However, arguably the biggest news story of February was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov accusing Igor Kurnosov of cheating, just after their game in round 6 of the Aeroflot Open. As far as we know thus far Mamedyarov hasn’t apologized to Kurnosov, despite the fact that almost anybody in the chess world agrees on the simple rule that, despite feeling pretty sure about it, one should never express such accusations without proof (and comparing moves with Rybka’s choices can never be called proof).

Every year in March the crème de la crème of elite chess gathers for 11 rapid and 11 blindfold games: the Amber tournament. This year the tournament was held in Nice for the second time, and again Macauley Peterson and I made daily videos. Levon Aronian successfully defended his title. Vladimir Kramnik won the blindfold section on tiebreak, finishing shared first with 7/11 together with Carlsen and Aronian. The rapid section also ended in a tie, between Anand, Kamsky (!) and Aronian.

In 2009 I visited less tournaments and so I created less videos than the year before. However, one I quite like was created close to home, early April: about Amsterdam chess cafe the Laurierboom. If you’ve missed it you can still watch it here. In the same month a sad incident involved one of our editors, IM Robert Ris. He was one of the victims of tournament organizer Gabor Pali, who damaged both the hotel and the participants of a closed round-robin financially. The Barcza Memorial was cancelled after one round when it became clear that Pali never paid anyone and wasn’t planning to.

Later in April, the 4th FIDE Grand Prix started in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, and I was there to do videos. It was quite a nice event, but also tough and long. After 13 rounds, Levon Aronian won his second tournament in two months. He had been leading together with Peter Leko with one round to go, in which they were paired against each other. The Armenian beat the Hungarian nicely. One of the participants was Sergei Karjakin and during the tournament he announced that he and his family would move to Russia and become Russian citizens. “I need to train with good coaches” was his explanation, and in fact his coach in Nalchik was former second of Garry Kasparov: Yuri Dokhoian.

April-May was also the period of the lengthy debate on the K-factor. At the President’s Cup, a rapid event held in Baku, Azerbaijan was crushed by the ‘FIDE World’ team led by Anand and Kramnik. Pavel Eljanov had a very good year, and among his successes was his victory at the Bosna tournament. We had an exclusive interview with the Ukrainian. In a crucial last-round encounter, Alexei Shirov defeated Magnus Carlsen to win this year’s MTel Masters. Also with him we had an exclusive interview, this time on video. Together with Gelfand’s victory at the ACP World Rapid Cup it was a good month for the older generation.

Vassily Ivanchuk, who had scored badly in Nalchik and Sofia, used a medicine that only works for him: play more chess! He defeated David Navara 5.5-2.5 in a rapid match in Prague (and a month later he would win in Bazna). In a similar (rapid) format, Viswanathan Anand defeated Peter Leko 5-3 and in yet another rapid event which I visited in Leon, Spain it was Magnus Carlsen who finally grabbed a first prize.

To China’s growing number of strong grandmasters, another name was added this year. 16-year-old Ding Liren won the Chinese Championship after a surreal finish which involved an incident related to the zero-tolerance rule. Russian rising star Alexander Motylev ended first at the Poikovsky tournament. In a year with mixed results, Ivan Cheparinov had one big success: his first place at the Ruy Lopez tournament in Zafra, Spain.

On the day that Michael Jackson passed away, the rapid match in Paris between Armenia and France ended in a 19.5-12.5. On July 1st, 2009 the new FIDE Laws of Chess were introduced (and to our surprise this received little attention in other media). In a very Drawful Dortmund Vladimir Kramnik clinched his 9th (!) title.

After winning the US Championship earlier in the year, Hikaru Nakamura collected even more rating points in San Sebastian. The American grandmaster won the tournament using his speciality: blitz chess. He beat Ruslan Ponomariov 2-0 in the tiebreak (here on video).

After an earlier, partly successful attempt with a Silverlight game viewer, we introduced ChessTempo’s game viewer in Javascript and we’re still quite happy with it. It’s Javacript and so it works like a charm in almost any browser, including the special version of Safari running on iPhones. (And that was how the voluntary guard at the London Chess Classic was following the games: on his phone, via the live page of ChessVibes!)

A great result for the new generation was scored by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who won Biel at the end of July. His game against Morozevich was one of the gems of 2009. Nakamura continued his fanastic year so far by winning the Chess960 section of the Rapid World Championships in Mainz. Success and failure were closely connected in Mainz: on the second day of the unofficial Rapid World Championship, eleven times winner Viswanathan Anand failed to qualify for the final. An era came to an end. This one was won by Levon Aronian; Mamedyarov took the Ordix Open title.

A much more important result for Aronian, however, was his second place at the Grand Prix in Jermuk (where Ivanchuk emerged as the winner). With this result, Armenia’s number one player secured overall victory in the FIDE Grand Prix Series with one tournament still to be played. Also in August, ten world famous chess champions gathered in Zurich, where Kramnik won the rapid tournament. By now traditionally, the month ended with the Rising Stars vs Experience tournament in Amsterdam. Again Macauley and I made daily videos at the event, where the Experience team won and Jan Smeets qualified for Amber 2010.

September started with chess reaching main stream media, but as so often it wasn’t a story that improved the reputation of the royal game. At the Kolkata Open in India, French top GM Vladislav Tkachiev showed up drunk at the venue and fell asleep several times during a game. Eventually he had to be carried off. Later Tkachiev would apologize.

Then, on September 7th, a long period started in which Magnus Carlsen would make the headlines. On that day his cooperation with Garry Kasparov was made public. “The goal is to make the Norwegian, who currently ranks as the fourth-best chess player in the world, the world’s best during the course of the coming year. (…)” was written in the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang. Who would have guessed that just four months later this goal would be reached? No doubt “the world’s best” needs to be read as “World Champion” by now! In any case, we had an exclusive interview with Carlsen about the matter and later we published Kasparov’s side of the story.

Levon Aronian scored yet another success in Bilbao, where he won the second Grand Slam final. Winning four games in a row, he eventually finished five points ahead of Grischuk (one and a half according to the classical system). With our Dutch roots it wasn’t too difficult to have the scoop on the ‘Tiviakov story’: the already seriously weakened Dutch Championship lost its top seed after the third round. Tivi had prearranged a draw for his last-round game on Sunday and had told the organizers that he couldn’t attend the closing ceremony and possible tiebreaks. This was not accepted, after which Tiviakov decided to withdraw immediately. ChessVibes spoke with all people involved.

Also in September, I had the opportunity to get one player before the camera (and even ask a few questions) whom I had never seen playing before. No-one less than Garry Kasparov himself played chess again! His opponent was his old nemesis Anatoly Karpov, and the two played a rapid and blitz match in Valencia, Spain. Unfortunately Karpov wasn’t up to the challenge; Kasparov won easily (9-3).

Soon it was Carlsen, Carlsen, Carlsen again. For a while it was the only name to be heard in the chess world, but it was fully deserved. By winning the Pearl Spring Grand Slam tournament with a devastating 8 out 10 and an unbelievable 3002 performance rating, dropping just four half points with the black pieces in ten games against the world’s best, Magnus took home € 80,000 and a total of 28.8 rating points. In doing so he broke the magical 2800 barrier.

It was also a period chuck full of strong chess tournaments, that lasted until the rest of the year. There was the European Club Cup, the European Team Championship, Hoogeveen (with videos!), the Anand-Karpov rapid match, the World Youth (another victory for Vachier-Lagrave).

The next big event was the biggest event of 2009: the Tal Memorial. For a tournament with Anand, Aronian Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Svidler and Ponomariov we couldn’t resist the temptation – we just had to bring live coverage. It was quite successful, and we repeated the service during the semi-final and final of the World Cup, and the London Chess Classic. Unfortunately we couldn’t welcome enough subscribers to continue it as a paid service in 2010, but we will do our best to find other ways to fund it. Because it’s just too much fun not to have it. Before I forget, Vladimir Kramnik won this super-tournament in Moscow, and Magnus Carlsen took the (world) blitz title. (Not long afterwards, Carlsen unofficially ‘lost’ that title to Hikaru Nakamura at the BNBank tournament.)

For the chess fan who still had some appetite left for top chess, there was the World Cup, which lasted no less than 23 days. Few of you will hear something new when I mention the semi-finalists: Karjakin, Malakhov, Gelfand and Ponomariov. The latter two played the final and 41-year-old top seed Boris Gelfand eventually took home the first prize of US $120,000. In London Magnus Carlsen finished a fantastic second half of 2009 by winning the Chess Classic with three wins and four draws, in a wonderfully organized event where it was a joy to work and create a few more videos.

At the end of month and the year, Korchnoi and Spassky played a match in Elista that ended in 4-4 and Alexander Grischuk won the Russian superfinal.

Before I end this survey I’d like to mention the many thought-provoking columns by Arne, his book reviews, the ‘Beauty in chess’ series by Michael, the weekly endgame studies by Yochanan and the reports written by Merijn and Robert. Enough material for a second look, on a free New Year’s Day perhaps!?

With this we come to an end of this annual survey, and of the chess year 2009. The ChessVibes team thanks you for your support and your comments, and we wish everyone a healthy 2009, with happy chess and good vibes!

Riceviamo da "Tellaro" e volentieri pubblichiamo un reportage sulla realtà scacchistica di Sant'Eufemia d'Aspromonte, in vista del Festival "Costa Viola" del 2-6 gennaio.

Sant’Eufemia è una piccola cittadina dell’Aspromonte pedemontano, situata su un tratto del versante tirrenico che si affaccia sulla mitica “Costa Viola”, così denominata dal filosofo Platone, che rimase colpito dalle tonalità violacee che il paesaggio suole assumere al tramonto.

Non diversa da tante altre, la nostra è una comunità integra, fieramente legata alle proprie radici culturali; purtroppo interessata da un lento inesorabile declino demografico.

Dai 6.500 abitanti del 1961 si è passati gradualmente agli attuali poco più di 4.000, segno inequivocabile di un’emigrazione massiccia, di famiglie che partono in cerca di lavoro e di migliori condizioni di vita.

A Sant’Eufemia le giornate scorrono tranquille e non succedono grandi cose. L’ammodernamento dell’arredo urbano di una piazza, l’inaugurazione della biblioteca comunale, la ristrutturazione dell’oratorio e l’apertura al pubblico del piccolo museo della civiltà contadina, sono fra gli ultimi eventi importanti che si ricordino.

Persino l’inaugurazione della mensa scolastica dell’Istituto Comprensivo Statale “Don Bosco” diventa un’occasione da solennizzare e da registrare negli annali della nostra cronaca cittadina.

Il “Don Bosco” è una struttura didattica pubblica che ospita la scuola materna, quella elementare ed anche quella media. Insomma, per questo è comprensiva, perché accoglie ed avvia agli studi tutti, ma proprio tutti, i bambini della nostra comunità.

L'Istituto Comprensivo "Don Bosco"

Una grossa responsabilità per Rodolfo Attinà, il dirigente scolastico che da anni guida con passione e competenza il corpo insegnanti preposto all’importante servizio formativo ed educativo.

E non si tratta di preparare solo i nostri percorsi didattici, perché in un piccolo centro la scuola è anche un punto di riferimento socio-culturale per tutta la comunità, una finestra aperta nel contesto territoriale intesa a favorirne la socialità.

Grazie al suo impegno, in questi anni, molti progetti educativi e di sensibilizzazione civica promossi dall’Amministrazione comunale, sono passati attraverso il coinvolgimento delle nostre classi e dei loro educatori.

Il nostro Preside oltre ad essere un affermato referente scolastico è anche un appassionato scacchista. Gli scacchi rappresentano per lui qualcosa più di un semplice passatempo. Essi riproducono l’idealizzazione dello scontro incruento, in cui il confronto avviene in condizioni di equità e le soluzioni risiedono solo nelle proprie risorse intellettive.

Egli è, inoltre, un convinto assertore dei valori di questa disciplina che educa alla lealtà ed esige la massima correttezza, non potendosi fare alcun affidamento su fattori casuali e di fortuna, o peggio ricorrendo ad espedienti subdoli, poiché nel mondo degli scacchi vige il motto ““In me vis sortis nulla sed ingeniun””.

Sfortunatamente per lui, fino a qualche anno fa, erano però veramente poche le occasioni di disputare qualche partita con gli amici. Le case eufemiesi, dove trovare una scacchiera, erano veramente rare.

Ma il nostro Preside, profondamente convinto dell’alta funzione educativa del nobile gioco, non è il tipo che si perde facilmente d’animo e qualche anno si è fatto convinto che era arrivato il momento di coinvolgere in un progetto formativo i suoi studenti. Per poter trasmettere ai giovani la sua intensa passione è ritornato a vestire i panni dell’istruttore.

E’ il suo mestiere e sa come catturare l’attenzione dei suoi allievi. Con parole suggestive ci ha raccontato le imprese di Gio’ Leonardo di Bona, lo straordinario scacchista cutrese detto “Il puttino”, che nel XVI secolo meravigliò e stupì con la sua arte le principali corti europee, suscitando ovunque rispetto ed ammirazione. E poi ci ha descritto la grandezza della figura ed i viaggi avventurosi di Gioacchino Greco “Il calabrese”, che ereditò l’arte ed il talento del suo conterraneo e li portò a vette altrettanto eccelse.

E mentre il nostro interesse era ancora avvinto alle imprese epiche dei nostri grandi conterranei, è stato più facile accompagnarci nell’apprendimento delle regole del gioco.

Una nostra giovanissima campionessa

E subito dopo si è passati allo studio delle aperture che, nonostante i secoli trascorsi, conservano in gran parte nel nome la grande teorizzazione ad opera della scuola italiana: “Difesa italiana”, il “Gambetto di re” o la “Difesa siciliana”.

E sono tante le ore dedicate all’apprendimento della tattica e della strategia, inframmezzate da pagine leggendarie di storia scacchistica come lo scontro memorabile che, in pieno clima di guerra fredda, appassionò il mondo intero, tra lo statunitense James Robert Fischer, divenuto poi campione del mondo, ed il rappresentante della insuperabile scuola sovietica, Boris Spassky.

Giorno dopo giorno, facendo pratica fra di noi, abbiamo imparato in fretta sotto la guida attenta del nostro “maestro”.

Nel 2002, attraverso la manifestazione “Scacchitour”, abbiamo avuto l’occasione di esordire nei circuiti scacchistici giovanili.

Nel frattempo è cresciuto l’entusiasmo che ha, immancabilmente, coinvolto anche i nostri genitori.

La nostra preparazione è continuata a migliorare ed alcuni di noi già eguagliano e superano in bravura il nostro stesso istruttore.

Il Prof. Rodolfo Attinà premia la Campionessa Regionale Pulcini Arianna De Crea

Le nostre famiglie hanno anche deciso di tassarsi per ingaggiare qualche professionista che è venuto a tenerci brevi stages ed i risultati non sono tardati ad arrivare.

In questi anni molti tra noi hanno conquistato numerosi titoli regionali di categoria, facendo il loro ingresso nella lista ufficiale dei classificati, conquistando diverse categorie nazionali, il primo gradino verso la scalata ai titoli magistrali.

E così che Sant’Eufemia, nel giro di pochi anni, è diventata uno dei principali poli scacchistici giovanili regionali. E quando il Prof. Attinà ha proposto ai nostri genitori la costituzione del circolo scacchistico eufemiese “Zatrikion” (un richiamo alle radici storiche della “ΜεγÜλη ΕλλÜς”), l’adesione è stata unanime.

Un'affollata seduta scacchistica nell’istituto

 Da due anni il circolo è affiliato alla Federazione Scacchistica Italiana e abbiamo iscritto la nostra compagine al Campionato Italiano a Squadre (attualmente militiamo in serie C).

Il logo dell’A.S.D. "Zatrikion"

Ma intanto anche le pubbliche istituzioni si sono lasciate coinvolgere dall’entusiasmo collettivo, tanto che il nuovo circolo ha avuto l’opportunità di inaugurare l’attività mediante l’organizzazione di un’importante manifestazione internazionale, inserita nel calendario della Fédération Internationale des Echecs, in programma ogni anno dal 2 al 6 gennaio.

Il Festival internazionale “Costa Viola”, che apre la stagione scacchistica calabrese, comprende un torneo di categoria magistrale, uno di categoria nazionale ed uno riservato ai giovani Under 16.

Per molti di noi rappresenta l’esordio in assoluto in un torneo che conta e l’occasione di poter ammirare all’opera dei veri interpreti della scacchiera (diversi grandi maestri stranieri ed anche il maestro internazionale Duilio Collutiis, campione italiano assoluto nel 2002).

E’ stato l’unico a costringere alla resa Björn Borg sulla terra rossa di Parigi. Lo svedese dagli occhi di ghiaccio è stato colui che, in epoca moderna di professionismo, ha vinto più edizioni degli Internazionali di Francia, ben sei, ed in quelle uniche due occasioni che ha partecipato e non è riuscito a sollevare al cielo l’ambito trofeo a fermarne la corsa è stato sempre lui: Adriano Panatta. Nel 1973, anno d’esordio parigino per Borg, e nella memorabile edizione del 1976, anno del trionfo per Panatta che sconfigge lo svedese nei quarti di finale. Se si pensa che Borg sulla terra rossa di Parigi ha giocato ben 51 incontri vincendone 49 ci si rende conto in pieno di quanto grande sia stata l’impresa di Adriano. Ma di altre grandi imprese quell’istrione della racchetta che è stato Adriano Panatta, ai suoi tifosi ne ha regalate davvero tante: dalle sfide, appena ragazzino contro quel vero monumento del tennis che è stato Nick “mano fredda” Pietrangeli, a quei veri spettacoli di gags e acrobazie funamboliche che erano le sfide contro il rumeno Ilie Nastase, altro campione inimitabile di quei mitici e irripetibili anni ‘70 per il tennis mondiale. Se pensiamo che tra i nomi che in quel decennio si sfidarono sui campi di tutto il mondo si annoverano calibri da novanta come Vilas, Connors, Pilic, Gerulaitis, Newcombe, Orantes, Borg appunto, fino al giovane McEnroe per non parlare di ragazzini terribili come Wilander, Noah ed un certo Ivan Lendl… ecco, giusto per rendere l’idea, non c’è stato uno dei campioni di cui sopra che Panatta non abbia sconfitto almeno in un’occasione e proprio Ivan Lendl, alla sua prima partita contro Panatta rimediò un memorabile “cappotto” tipo 6-0 6-0.

Adriano, come racconta egli stesso nel suo imperdibile libro uscito di recente “Più dritti che rovesci” [non è pubblicità occulta, non temete: Martin Eden la sua brava copia l'ha pagata in libreria in denaro contante...], non è certo arrivato al tennis dalla porta principale, come invece tanti ragazzi di buona famiglia, aspiranti campioncini accompagnati al Circolo da mamma e zie a prendere lezioni dai migliori maestri. Adriano proveniva da una famiglia modesta, suo padre era il custode di un Tennis club di Roma e neppure il più in vista della capitale, quel “Tennis Club Parioli” a cui invece approderà solo successivamente. Be’, le imprese di Panatta… impossibile dimenticare la Coppa Davis vinta in quel memorabile 1976 nel Cile del dittatore Pinochet con una squadra in cui schieravamo anche Corrado Barazzutti, Paolo Bertolucci e Tonino Zugarelli. Oppure la semifinale sfiorata a Wimbledon nel 1979 quando Adriano, come racconta egli stesso, era partito di buzzo buono per l’Inghilterra ben una settimana prima dell’avvio del torneo per allenarsi come non aveva mai fatto prima. Arrivato oltre Manica e messo piede sull’erba del vecchio Centre Court s’accorge subito che qualcosa non andava in quel clima freddo e piovoso, pentitosi immediatamente dell’errore sale su un taxi ancora coi calzoncini corti addosso, le scarpette e la maglietta e si dirige all’aeroporto di Heathrow per imbarcarsi sul primo volo, destinazione Roma, obiettivo una settimana di bagni e sole per rilassarsi. Presa un po’ di tintarella risale sull’aereo e riparte per Wimbledon la vigilia stessa del primo giorno di gare. In quelle due settimane di permanenza sul suolo inglese Adriano prende a pallate tutti quanti: da Jimenez a specialisti dell’erba come Jan Smith e Sandy Mayer, fino ad arrivare nei quarti quando il compito sembra veramente alla sua portata: l’avversario è Pat Dupré, buon giocatore ma non certo un fuoriclasse. Adriano sogna già la finale con Borg, irrilevante che dovesse vincere ancora la semifinale con quel Roscoe Tanner dal servizio fulminante e soprattutto, dettaglio importante, appunto i quarti contro quell’americano di origine belga. Commette per la prima volta, è lui stesso a riconoscerlo, l’errore imperdonabile in uno sport di nervi e concentrazione come il tennis, quello di sottovalutare il suo avversario e questo, come a scacchi, si paga caro: avanti di due set a uno, qualcosa s’inceppa nel “serve and volley” del tennista romano, convinto di aver in pugno il suo opponente, la testa forse altrove e via… addio sogni di gloria, addio semifinale contro “boom-boom” Tanner e soprattutto addio finale contro l’amico-rivale Björn Borg.

Pazienza, una carriera, quella di Adriano, forse contraddistinta dall’avvicendarsi di alti e bassi, ma quegli “alti” son stati veramente alti, cime irraggiungibili per la maggior parte di tanti grandi tennisti, italiani e stranieri, e soprattutto pochissimi altri giocatori son riusciti a regalare le stesse indimenticabili emozioni di cui Adriano Panatta ha saputo imbastire la sua favolosa carriera. Come dimenticare infatti le sue rimonte quando ormai sembrava più che spacciato, oppure i suoi incredibili crolli in partite già praticamente vinte? Il suo gioco a rete, quando sornione come un puma si tuffava in indimenticabili voleé da un capo all’altro della rete oppure le sue “veroniche” inimitabili in cui, spalle alla rete, con un salto quasi alla cieca infilava palla e corridoio dell’attonito avversario?!? E le sue sceneggiate “ante-litteram”? Non avevano quel aspetto da nevrotico schizzato alla McEnroe bensì un sapore latino che rendeva perfino simpatico quell’atteggiamento da guascone del ragazzaccio romano in cui, all’epoca, tutta l’Italia tennistica s’identificava. Memorabile, a questo riguardo, la semifinale al Foro Italico contro lo spagnolo José Higueras detto “el loco” tanto per inquadrare bene il personaggio. Oppure la finale, il giorno successivo contro Borg che, menomato dalla puntura ad un’occhio di un’ape, dà a tutti l’illusione di mollare da un momento all’altro, durante tutto l’arco dell’incontro, salvo poi riprendersi miracolosamente e rimontare, game dopo game, lo svantaggio per concludere trionfalmente al quinto set.

Grande Adriano, grande Tennis…

Affinità con gli scacchi?!? Entrambi, abbiam detto, sport di “nervi e concentrazione” e non è un caso che tanti scacchisti abbian scelto per la propria preparazione fisica proprio il tennis, da Capablanca e Szabo fino a Keres e Spassky, tanti campioni delle 64 caselle si son dati battaglia anche con la racchetta in mano. Forse tuttavia non tutti sanno che c’è stato uno scacchista, l’inglese (e baronetto) Sir George Alan Thomas che sul campo da tennis forse non è stato inferiore in quanto a talento scacchistico. Per sette anni consecutivi, dal 1919 al 1926 ha partecipato al torneo dei tornei: Wimbledon! E nel 1922 ha raggiunto addirittura i sedicesimi di finale! Figura singolarissima e irripetibile vinse in ben due occasioni il Campionato inglese di scacchi e per ben sette volte quello di badminton, sconfisse tra gli altri (a scacchi) ben tre campioni del mondo (Capablanca, Euwe e Botvinnik) ed altre figure leggendarie come Reti, Tartakower, Flohr, Tarrasch e Maroczy. Contro Alekhine nessuna vittoria ma soltanto (!) sei pareggi…

Suo più grande successo scacchistico fu la vittoria nella quindicesima edizione del celebre Torneo di Hastings, che si disputa proprio in questo periodo, a cavallo di capodanno, quando nel 1934-35 giunse primo a pari merito con Euwe e Flohr.

[e Roland Garros? ...non si sa se fu un bravo scacchista o meno ma sicuramente fu, come Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, un grande aviatore]

Rubinstein, Alekhine, Capablanca, Euwe, Fine, Keres, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Spassky, Tal e Karpov, giusto per citare qualche nome, chi non darebbe un mese di stipendio per finire in questo albo d’oro alzi la mano! Eppure scopro con somma sorpresa che il campo dei partecipanti non è certamente all’altezza della storia del torneo, forse complice un primo premio di “sole” 2.000 sterline…..

Hastings, amena località balneare nella costa meridionale dell’Inghilterra….beh, diciamo subito che a dicembre fare un bagno in quelle acque non è che sia il massimo, forse è meglio giocare a scacchi. Perchè la cartolina dice famosa dal 1066?

Semplice, perchè nel 1066 vi si tenne una importante battaglia tra le truppe di Aroldo II Re degli Anglosassoni e Guglielmo II Duca di Normandia, che aveva in neri (cioè doveva invadere l’Inghilterra)  e che vinse con una brillante combinazione: “Guglielmo convinse i suoi a fingersi spaventati e, al successivo attacco, quando i Normanni cominciarono a ritirarsi, gran parte dei Sassoni si gettò all’inseguimento. Scesi dal colle, i cavalieri si voltarono e caricarono sulla scompigliata formazione nemica.”

Dal 1066 passiamo direttamente al 1895, anno che vede il primo grande torneo di Hastings, non ancora  disputato nel periodo di Capodanno,  ma in pieno agosto, per la gioia degli accompagnatori che potevano fare il bagno. Quel memorabile torneo, al quale partecipò anche l’italiano Beniamino Vergani, si concluse con l’inatteso successo dello semi-sconosciuto americano Pillsbury davanti a tutti i più forti giocatori dell’epoca, Lasker, Steinitz, Cigorin e Tarrasch in testa.

Nel 1919 si disputa un’altra edizione estiva, vinta da Capablanca (la terza ed ultima è del 1922 e vincerà Alekhine), e finalmente giungiamo all’inverno del 1920, quando parte la prima edizione a cadenza annuale, quella 1920/21, che vedrà il successo di Frederick Dewhurst Yates (foto sopra da Chessbase). Da allora ecco i vincitori:

Avete visto che nomi? Fino agli anni ‘90 la politica era quella di fare un torneo con pochi giocatori (normalmente 10), invitando qualche asso straniero e molti giovani britannici, ma negli ultimi anni dopo una edizione ad eliminazione diretta, si è passati al sistema svizzero, e purtroppo è diventato quasi impossibile convincere qualche forte giocatore a cimentarsi in un torneo-lotteria.

Nella foto sopra (tratta dal bell’articolo “A Pilgrimage To Hastings 2003/4″ che trovate qui: hem.passagen.se/tjmisha/1066/hostings.html ) potete vedere una delle pareti del locale circolo scacchistico di Hastings, ricoperta di fotografie di campioni transitati da lì, e non sempre risultati vincitori.

Questa è la sede di gioco, io sinceramente mi aspettavo uno di quegli enormi palazzi dell’800 tutto guglie……comunque qui si tengono l’open principale e gli altri tornei minori.

Vediamo il campo dei partecipanti 2009/10, che poi non è così scarso, a cominciare da Yuri Drozdovskij, l’ukraino che vanta un punteggio Elo di 2625:

DROZDOVSKIJ Yuri, UKR, gm, 2625
HRACEK Zbrynek, CZE, gm, 2624
EDOUARD Romain, FRA, gm, 2620
ISTRATESCU Andrei, ROU, gm, 2624
HOWELL David, ENG, gm, 2597
WILLIAMS Simon, ENG, gm, 2550
HEBDEN Mark, ENG, gm, 2522
ARKELL Keith, ENG, gm 2464
SHALNEV Nikolai, GER, gm, 2450
COLLINS Sam, IRL, im, 2431
PHILIPPE Christophe, FRA, im, 2430
BREDER Dennis, GER, im, 2427
GREET Andrew, ENG, im, 2423
MARTIN Andrew, ENG, im, 2423
ZDEBSKAJA Natalia, UKR, wgm, 2408

Quest’ultima è la signora del già citato GM ukraino. Come possiamo contare, 15 giocatori con un Elo superiore a 2400 punti, e sicuramente altri si aggiungeranno.

Attenzione anche al talentuoso 19enne britannico David Howell (foto Chessbase sopra), che nel recente torneo di Londra è rimasto imbattuto con avversari del rango di Carlsen e di Kramnik, e che se non ha un calo di forma dovrebbe essere il naturale favorito.

Durante lo svolgimento del torneo cercherò di aggiornarvi sulla situazione ed eventualmente presentarvi qualche bella partita.

il GM inglese David Howell - Hastings Master 2008

Hastings 1895 - una edizione di grande spessore

una veduta della sala di gioco



una veduta della città

Stoccolma /Svezia ? Dal 27 dicembre al 5 gennaio si disputa la Rilton Cup, classico appuntamento giunto ormai alla 39esima edizione.

Il torneo principale è riservato ai giocatori con elo > 2200 e il tempo di riflessione è 2 ore per 40 mosse + 1 ora per terminare la partita. Primo premio 20.000 SEK - corone svedesi, ovvero circa 1.900 euro.

Ecco l'elenco dei top players in lista:

	1.	GM	Radoslaw Wojtaszek		2637
	2.?	GM	Luke McShane		2615	Cup
	3.?	GM	Igor Lysyj		2609	Cup
	4.?	GM	Eduardas Rozentalis		2603	Cup
	5.?	GM	Valerij Popov		2588	Cup
	6.?	GM	Jon Ludvig Hammer		2585	Cup
	7.?	IM	Pavel Ponkratov		2575	Cup
	8.?	GM	Gleizerov Evgeny		2553	Cup
	9.?	GM	Elshan Moradiabadi		2547	Cup
	10.?	GM	Ionov Sergey		2545	Cup
	11.?	GM	Normunds, Miezis		2544	Cup
	12.?	IM	Nils Grandelius		2540	Cup
	13.?	GM	Pia Cramling		2535	Cup
	14.?	GM	Mikhail Ulibin		2533	Cup
	15.?	GM	Sergey Ivanov		2530	Cup
	16.?	IM	Nijat Abasov		2522	Cup

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Radoslaw Wojtaszek ( POL) e Jon Ludvig Hammer ( NOR)

L'anno scorso si impose il polacco Wojtaszek. Quest'anno tra i giovani bisognerà tenere d'occhio anche il GM Jon Ludvig Hammer che viene da ottime prove. E' divenuto GM nel 2009 grazie all vittoria del torneo di?Gj?vik ed ha ottenuto un soddisfacente?+ 4 ? 2 = 4 alle Olimpiadi? del 2008 di Dresda . Il suo allenatore è?Simen Agdestein. Presente quest'anno alla Rilton Cup anche il Campione del Mondo U14 Abasov.

Sito ufficiale

He hadn’t played a classical game of chess since 2002, so Boris Spassky needed a few games to get warm. In the second half of his match against Viktor Korchnoi he played much better, beating his opponent in games 5 and 7. In game 6 he was also better but blundered terribly. The two legends ended their match yesterday with a quick draw.

Photo © Official site

The match between 10th World Champion Boris Spassky and former World Championship contender Viktor Korchnoi was the final event in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the union between Kalmykia and Russia. The two played a total of eight games in Elista from December 17th until 27th, for a prize fund of US$ 20,000. The time control was 90 minutes + 30 seconds per move.

Games 5-8

The second half of the match was very different from the first, and it was Boris Spassky who dominated in games 5, 6 and 7. In the first encounter after the rest day the 10th World Champion crushed his opponent with the black pieces in just 26 moves. In an English Opening that quickly became a reversed Taimanov Sicilan, Spassky played aggressively with …f5 and …g5. To avoid an avalanch of pawns on the kingside Korchnoi sacrificed a piece, but with less space he kept on struggling to find good squares for his remaining arsenal. Three strong black minor pieces decided the game quickly.

Then, in game 6, Spassky again reached a promising position. From a modest Four Knights he manoeuvred strongly in the middlegame, creating a passed d-pawn by tactical means. However, in what looks like timetrouble, he first dropped a pawn and then bigger material in just two moves – a pity.

Also in game 7 Spassky outplayed Korchnoi in the early middlegame – a nice knight manoeuvre on move 21 and 22 yielded the bishop pair. It’s not clear whether Black’s advantage in the ending was enough to win the game, but his position was clearly easier to play. After a few inaccuracies Korchnoi lost a pawn, and then forgot about the clock and lost on time (”for the third time already this year!” he lamented during the press conference). Spassky had levelled the score again.

After all this excitement the two legends had seen enough, and they agreed a draw after 11 moves in the last game. A quick draw in a Petroff – normally something we’d disapprove of, but in this case fully deserved. The job was done, the crowd finished cheering. As I’m typing this, I’m watching Bruce Springsteen and Bono singing I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, because 25th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is on Dutch TV. Two fantastic performers together on one stage, doing what they do best. It was a similar pleasure to see Korchnoi and especially Spassky at the chess board facing and fighting each other again, like in their best days.

Games 5-8

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Links

• Our first report on the match
• Our second report on the match
• Official website
• Games in PGN

La Grand - Place de Béthune (del Panoramio de Lutetios)

• El Open FCA terminó con la victoria del GM ruso Barsov, y en el Torneo Gambito de Ajedrez Random-Fischer venció Enrique Tejedor. En este último caso, parece que se sorteaban las posiciones iniciales de los dos bandos, lo que llevaba a situaciones en las que uno de los jugadores quedaba perdido desde el comienzo.
  

• Sección Internacional (I): 35 años después de su último match de Candidatos, Kortchnoi y Spasski están jugando un match a 8 partidas, en el que el primero vence 2-1. Os enlazo el minisitio de TWIC y la web oficial (en ruso, pero con las partidas en directo). Los dos veteranos héroes suman 150 años...
  

• Sección Internacional (II): El Campeonato Ruso se disputa entre el 20 y el 30 de diciembre, con la participación de fieras como Svidler, Jakovenko y Grischuk. Podéis informaros más a fondo con la previa en Chessdom (dedicada para Charly), la web con las partidas en directo y una entrada del blog de Spraggett, en la que el GM canadiense analiza varios momentos interesantes de la 1ª ronda.

• Sección internacional (III): estas vacaciones Juan Carlos y yo jugaremos entre el 26 y el 30 el Open de Béthune, quizá el más fuerte de los que se disputan en Francia por estas fechas. A falta de 5 días para el comienzo soy el 13º del ranking, de un total de 126 inscritos. Os paso link a la web del torneo, con la promesa de más información si la cosa me va bien :)
  

Rybka 3 32-bit - Jimenez,A [A90]
Blitz:25' Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 01.11.2009
[Jimenez,A por sus propios medios...]

Rodriguez Govea,Alejandro Jose (1525) - Korneev,O (2554) [B23]
Escuela CajaCanarias El Sauzal El Sauzal (1.1), 30.10.2009
[Jimenez,A sobre notas de Rybka 3 32-bit]

Today we give you the second set of ten questions of our Big ChessVibes Christmas Trivia Quiz! Good luck!

Today questions 11-20; tomorrow the last ten will follow. Send your answers before Sunday, December 27th, 23:59 CET to christmas09@chessvibes.com and who knows, you might end up winning one of the following prizes:

Prizes

First prize: 1-year subscription New in Chess Yearbook	Second prize: 1-year subscription New in Chess Magazine	Third prize: 1-year subscription Internet Chess Club (ICC)

Big ChessVibes Christmas Trivia Quiz – Part II

11. The World Junior Chess Championship has been organized since 1951.
11A Of the following ten players, five won the title once, and five never. Which of these names won the title? Aronian, Bielicki, Carlsen, Fischer, Hübner, Ivkov, Kaplan, Leko, Spassky, Timman.
11B Four of the sixteen World Champions also won the World Junior title. Which four?

12. Where do they live?

13. Thirteen games in the match between Anand and Kasparov in 1995 ended in a draw. How often was Kasparov the one who offered a draw?
13A zero
13B two
13C eleven
13D all thirteen

13E There are only three players who played more than one classical game against Kasparov and have a plus score. Name all three players.

14 Three photos. One of them is a former World Champ, the other a former FIDE President and the third a former World Junior Champ. Name these three famous players.

14A	14B	14C

15 Four album covers. Name the albums and artists!

15A	15B
15C	15D

16 IM Christoph Wisnewski wrote a monograph about 1…Nc6, the Nimzovich Opening, for Everyman. Last year a book about opening traps was published by the same publisher, this time written by Christoph Scheerer. ‘Previously Wisnewski’, according to Everyman. This question is about players whose name was changed significantly during their chess career. Connect the old names to the correct new names.

17. A question about the World Senior Chess Championship.
17A From what age are you allowed to participate in this event?
17B Which player won the title three times?
17C Of the following names, six players won the title at least once, and six didn’t. Which players won the title?
Yuri Averbakh, Jacob Murey, Ewfim Geller, Jusefs Petkevich, Larry Kaufman, Lajos Portisch, Viktor Korchnoi, Vassily Smyslov, Bent Larsen, Boris Spassky, Henrique Mecking, Mark Taimanov.

18.There are many couples of two chess players in the chess world. Create the correct couples!

19. For a long time Peter Svidler thought the Marshall Gambit of the Ruy Lopez to be dubious, but eventually he started playing the move 8…d5 himself. Who inspired him?
19A Michael Adams
19B John Nunn
19C Jimi Hendrix
19D Billy Joel

20A Who are the two men in the left picture?
20B Which chess player is chosen for the sculpture on the right?

That’s it for today. Tomorrow the last ten questions! Feel free to discuss the quiz in the comments, but needless to say, no answers please!

Enjoying a small Christmas holiday on December 24, 25 and 26, these days instead of news, reviews or columns the ChessVibes team offers a quiz: the Big ChessVibes Christmas ‘09 Quiz! And yes, you can win prizes!

Recently, the editor of the New in Chess Yearbook Series, René Olthof, turned 50. For his birthday he organized a trivia quiz, and came up with 64 questions about chess. Many of them were quite interesting and almost all of them quite difficult! He agreed to share the questions with the ChessVibes audience and so now you also get a chance to answer a selection of them. Leaving out the ones that are going into too much detail about the Dutch chess scene, we’ve selected 30 questions for you to answer.

Today we present the first set of ten questions. Tomorrow ten more will follow, and the day after the last ten. Send your answers before Sunday, December 27th, 23:59 CET to christmas09@chessvibes.com and who knows, you might end up winning one of the following prizes*:

Prizes

First prize: 1-year subscription New in Chess Yearbook	Second prize: 1-year subscription New in Chess Magazine	Third prize: 1-year subscription Internet Chess Club (ICC)

*Participants of the Olthof 50 Quiz are not eligible for prizes.

Big ChessVibes Christmas Trivia Quiz – Part I

1. In this quiz we call Wilhelm Steinitz the first World Champion, and Viswanathan Anand the sixteenth. We don’t count the FIDE World Champions Khalifman, Ponomariov and Kasimdzhanov.
1A Which number has Garry Kasparov?
1B How many World Champions are still alive?
1C True or not true: every deceased World Champion won the last game he played?

2. Of all chess players, Paul Keres beat the most World Champions. How many did he beat?

3. Where were they born?

4. This questions is about five important chess cities: Dortmund, Hastings, Linares, Reggio Emilia and Beverwijk/Wijk aan Zee.
4A The five winners of the first editions of these tournaments are mentioned, but which winner belongs to which tournament? Philip Bakker, Jaan Eslon, Otto Marthaler, Fritz Sämisch, Frederick Yates.
4B Hastings is traditionally held in the winter, but in 1895, 1919, 1922 and 1995 there was a summer edition. Name three of the four winners.

True or not true?
4C Boris Spassky won in Dortmund at least once
4D Boris Spassky won in Hastings at least once
4E Boris Spassky won in Linares at least once
4F Boris Spassky won in Reggio Emilia at least once
4G Boris Spassky won in Beverwijk/Wijk aan Zee at least once

5. Vladimir Kramnik played a total of eight matches in different World Championship cycles.
5A Name his opponents.
5B If we count only the classical games (not rapid or blitz), what would be his score? (How many matches did he win, if only classical games would count, how many did he lose and how many ended in a tie?)

6. Of which Chess Olympiads are the following logos?

6A	6B
6C	6D
6E	6F
6G	6H

7. A question about the FIDE rating list, invented by Hungarian Professor Arpad Elo.
7A Six players have occupied the number one spot. Name them all.
7B Which five players have had, at least once, a published rating of over 2800?
7C Which two Dutch grandmasters were ever in the top 10?

8. What do the following artists have in common?

9A Two of the sixteen World Champions never played at an Olympiad. Name them.
9B Reigning World Champions have lost only 9 games out of a total of 23 games ever played by a reigning World Champion at an Olympiad. Four World Champions lost two – name all four.

.
10A Openings and variations are often named after countries, cities or other geographical terms. One of the following, however, isn’t. Which? Bled, Cheliabinsk, Donau, Kecskemet, Kemeri, Saragossa, Siesta, Steenwijk, Wilkes-Barre.
10B Another favourite source for nomenclature are the names of chess players. Which of the following names is not a chess player? Bogoljubow, Petroff, Kalashnikov, Makogonov, Panov, Smyslov, Sveshnikov, Taimanov, Urusoff, Veresov.
10C Some names are not well known. Which of the following variations or systems is not named after a chess player? Brentano, Canal, Cordel, Cozio, Damiano, Dilworth, Döry, Knorre, Muzio, Pin.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow ten more questions! Feel free to discuss the quiz in the comments, but needless to say, no answers please!

Games 3 and 4 both ended in a draw and so Viktor Korchnoi still has a small lead in his match against Boris Spassky. The match in Elista will consist of eight games in total, and after four games the score is 2.5-1.5 for the oldest of the two legends.

Photo © Official site

The match between 10th World Champion Boris Spassky and former World Championship contender Viktor Korchnoi is the final event in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the union between Kalmykia and Russia. The two play a total of eight games in Elista from December 17th until 27th, for a prize fund of US$ 20,000. The time control seems to be 90 minutes + 30 seconds per move.

The third game was a Nimzo/Queen’s Indian hybrid where the players left theory at an early stage. Spassky’s positional a5-a4 move was an attempt to refute White’s Qb3, but he might have regretted it later when Korchnoi had regrouped his king’s knight to c3. After Korchnoi missed an opportunity to reach a favourable rook ending, Spassky easily drew the resulting rook ending.

Yesterday in game 4 Korchnoi again employed the French Defence, just like in game 2 and in their famous match in Belgrade in 1977. Then he only went for the Winawer with 3…Bb4, but 32 years later his preferred move is 3…Nf6. At the press conference Korchnoi explained that he’s working on a book on the French Defence (great news, in our opinion – how can it be anything else than an instant classic, like Uhlmann’s Ein Leben Lang Französisch?) and therefore at the moment plays it without exception.

Spassky didn’t follow the current main line (4.e5) but chose 4.Bg5, and then seemed caught by surprise by Korchnoi’s plan which delayed the thematical …c5 pawn break. He played the new move 10.a4, which allowed the Black queen to b4. About ten moves later it was clear that White was not better, and so Spassky decided to repeat moves. Today is a rest day in Elista.

Games 3 & 4

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Links

• Our first report on the match
• Official website
• Games in PGN

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Spassky - Korchnoi ad Elista! Smetteranno mai?

(noi speriamo di no...)

La prima sensazione è quella di aver sbagliato decennio, poi sopravvengono curiosità e, ovviamente, rispetto. Nell'ambito dei festeggiamenti per il 400esimo anniversario dell'unione tra Russia e Calmucchia, l'ex Campione del Mondo (1969-1972) Boris Spassky, 72 anni, e il già Pretendente al Titolo (1978-1985) Viktor Korchnoi, 78, si sfidano ad Elista in un match sulla distanza delle 8 partite.

La sfida si svolge dal 17 al 27 dicembre, per un montepremi di 20.000 dollari (circa 14.000 euro), il tempo di gioco previsto è di 90 minuti per l'intera partita + 30 secondi di abbuono a partire dalla prima mossa.

Panorama di Elista....

...e il centro cittadino

Fin da prima della prima mossa, il carattere dei due avversari è parso lo stesso di sempre: Korchoi si trovava sino a pochi giorni fa a Londra, dove ha tenuto una simultanea all'interno delle tante attività che hanno ruotato intorno al Torneo Chiuso che ha visto prevalere il sempre più talentuoso Magnus Carlsen. Bloccato da una tormenta di neve a Mosca, lo svizzero ha potuto raggiungere la sede di gioco solo con grande ritardo, con poco tempo per recuperare il jet lag e per acclimatarsi. Spassky ha quindi, cavallerescamente da par suo, proposto che il match si svolgesse sulle 6 partite, aggiungendo un giorno di riposo. Korchnoi ha, combattivamente da par suo, risposto che andava tutto bene com'era, non aveva intenzione di stravolgere il regolamento. Una bella coppia

40 (!) anni fa: Spassky è Campione del Mondo

In 50 anni (!) di sfide i due hanno ovviamente avuto modo di incrociare i legni diverse volte, spesso ai massimi livelli. Nella finale dei Candidati del 1968 a Kiev, Spassky arrivò a sfidare Petrosian ?liberandosi? dell'ultimo avversario per 6,5 a 3,5, ma nove anni dopo a Belgrado Korchnoi restituì il favore imponendosi per 10,5 a 7,5. Il computo totale tra i due, rapid incluse, segna un +22 =33 -14 a favore di Korchnoi.

Korchnoi in una simultanea del 1981: solo Kasparov potrà allontanarlo da una sfida mondiale

Malgrado jet lag e clima, Korchnoi si è subito mostrato incline a proseguire questa ?tradizione? imponendosi nella prima partita e, con una precisa difesa, ottenendo una buona patta nella seconda.

Un'immagine del primo turno

Tutti all'erta per vedere come saprà reagire un ex Campione!

Vale appena la pena ricordare quanto questi due giocatori abbiano dato al gioco. Le loro sfide contro Fischer e Karpov sono forse gli incontri mondiali più noti, più rocamboleschi, che si siano svolti, subito alle spalle di quelli tra Kasparov e Karpov. Loro due, entrambi sconfitti, hanno tuttavia guadagnato una reputazione inattaccabile, il rispetto e spesso l'amore di tutta la comunità scacchistica.

Con il pubblico ormai a casa, gli attori hanno ancora qualcosa da dirsi: analisi post partita (Fonte: Chessbase)

Una curiosità, forse scontata: le bandiere al tavolo sono ovviamente quella svizzera e quella francese.?

Tra chi ancora gioca a scacchi "tra di noi", difficile trovare due esempi migliori? per dimostrare che si ha sempre qualcosa da dare agli scacchi e che sempre gli scacchi hanno qualcosa da dare a noi. Gli auguriamo buona fortuna per i loro prossimi impegni, che siamo sicuri ci saranno, e li seguiamo con piacere in questo.

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Two of the most legendary chess players still alive are currently playing an 8-game match in Elista, Kalmykia: 78-year-old Viktor Korchnoi and 72-year-old Boris Spassky. Korchnoi won the first game; the second ended in a draw today.

Photo © Official site

The match between the two chess legends, 10th World Champion Boris Spassky from Russia and former World Championship contender Viktor Korchnoi from Switzerland, is the final event in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the union between Kalmykia and Russia. The two will play a total of eight games in Elista from December 17th until 27th, for a prize fund of US$ 20,000. The time control seems to be 90 minutes + 30 seconds per move.

According to the Mega2009 database, Korchnoi and Spassky played a total of 69 games (including rapid) against each other in exactly half a century: between 1955 and 2005. Korchnoi has the best score: 22 wins, 14 losses and 33 draws. The most important games were of course played in their two Candidates final matches. In 1968, in Kiev, Spassky won 6.5-3.5 while nine years later in Belgrade it was Korchnoi who won with 10.5-7.5.

After two games of a much more friendly character, Korchnoi leads this new match against Spassky 1.5-0.5. According to the official website, Spassky had arrived in Elista in advance. However, Korchnoi, who travelled from London where he had played two simul exhibitions at the Chess Classic, had got stuck in Moscow due to a snow storm. He eventually arrived late in the evening on Thursday the 17th, and Spassky proposed to play just six games and add a second rest day. “However, Victor L. did not go against the regulations, bravely agreed to start the game, as planned.” And won, outplaying his opponent in an ending with rook and knight for both sides. Today Spassky got an advantage but Korchnoi held the draw instructively.

Game viewer

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Links

• Official website
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Three rounds so far have been played in this year’s edition of the Czech Coal Match, and the team of “Snow Drops” (Humpy Koneru, Anna Muzychuk, Kateryna Lahno and Jana Jackova) are in the lead: 7 points versus 5 for the “Old Hands” (Jan Timman, Vlastimil Hort, Robert Hübner and Viktor Kortchnoi).

The Czech Coal Chess Match 2009, a double-round Scheveningen match, takes place November 28 – December 5 at the Chrystal Palaca Hotel in Marianske Lazne (the former Marienbad), Czech Republic. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes and 30 seconds increment to finish the game. The tournament is organized by the Prague Chess Society.

Last year the “Snow Drops” versus “Old Hands” tournament was very even but nevertheless it was won by the quartet of men (Anatoly Karpov, Vlastimil Hort, Fridrik Olafsson and Wolfgang Uhlmann). Of the four ladies (Viktorija Cmilyte, Anna Ushenina, Jana Jackova and Katerina Nemcova) it was the Czech number one, Jana Jackova, who was the most successful. She managed to take down former world champion Anatoly Karpov already in the first round.

This year the “Snow Drops” team is a bit stronger, led by the world’s number 2 player Humpy Koneru, and after three rounds they are leading with a small margin: 7-5. And again it was Jana Jackova who started strongly; this time with the black pieces she defeated the now 78-year-old Viktor Kortchnoi in the first round. In the next round she would lose to Hübner with White, while Koneru defeated Hort. Yesterday Muzychuk also beat Kortchnoi, and by now we’ve already mentioned all decisive results so far in this friendly tournament.

Rounds start at 16:00 CET (except for the last round which starts at 13:00 CET), live here.

Games rounds 1-3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

The venue, like last year, is the Chrystal Palace Hotel in former Marienbad

Music at the opening ceremony...

...and the eight participants presenting themselves

Arbiter Pavel Votruba and guest and former FIDE President Fridrik Olafsson

Another famous guest: Mark Dvoretsky, together with organizer Pavel Matocha..

...and perhaps the most famous guest: 10th World Champion Boris Spassky

Round 1: Viktor Kortchnoi vs Jana Jackova...

...a win for the Czech lady

These organizers know how to set up a commentary room. There's the live boards, there's Chessbase and there's GM Marek Vokac, sometimes aided by Boris Spassky

Anna Muzychuk vs Jan Timman

Robert Hübner versus Kateryna Lahno

Timman and Lahno analyzing, Spassky kibitzing

Pavel Matocha with Bessel Kok

A unique experience for Humpy Koneru: advice from Olafsson, Dvoretsky, Timman and Spassky!

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

Chess is interesting, and chess openings are interesting too. There is nothing scary about opening theory, but there is nothing sacred about it either. This is the message Paul van der Sterren wants to give his readers in his 468-page book Fundamental Chess Openings, published by Gambit. He succeeds wonderfully in bringing this message home.

A casual reader, superficially browsing through the Dutch GM’s latest book, may easily get confused by it. Suppose he lands on page 296, where the Marshall Gambit of the Ruy Lopez is explained. After 14 moves, the following well-known position is reached:

Van der Sterren writes:

This position illustrates the character of the Marshall Attack very well. White’s position is not exactly bad, but he will have to work hard to catch up on his piece development and for the moment his extra pawn has no significance. An opponent with a good eye for attackin