![]() |
| << SEARCH MORE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fingerprints | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I collect diagrams of chess positions. Once collected, I print these diagrams on cards for review. My cards of pawn endgame positions from Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual (2003) has been aiding my review of the instruction in that text, and has proven popular with some of my pupils. Sometimes in a chess lesson, I pull out the cards and fan them across the chessboard upside down. The student picks one, we set it up on the board, then he or she solves it. There are a few in that set that I do not yet play with full confidence. When I have mastered those, it will be time to create another set from Dvoretsky's book. Meanwhile, I'm collecting middlegame positions. I have several sets of cards that I created years ago. The oldest are index cards upon which I stamped diagrams, and laboriously stamped each piece with red or blue ink on the appropriate square. When I look at these old cards, I am reminded of time I spent reviewing them between rounds at the Dave Collyer Memorial tournament the last time Gary Younker ran it. Gary died in 2001, and shortly after his death we created a foundation to honor his memory and continue his work. The 2001 Collyer was a good event for me. I started the event rated 1400 and had an even score against three B Class opponents. My run of success started late Saturday night when I discovered a practical chance in this hopeless position. White to move ![]() I'm down two pawns, and there's no stopping my opponent's d-pawn. In a final desperate ploy, I played 31.Rf1! Keith Brownlee had several ways to counter my threat, but instead played 31...d3?? I sacked a rook to force a draw by repetition. After the game, my opponent told me that he only examined my checkmate threats, of which there were none, but not my drawing combination. He also stated that this game was the first time he failed to win against the King's Gambit. On Sunday morning I beat a B Class player in a game that summoned more tactical courage from me than was my custom. Flash cards contributed to my confidence. Within the next year, I bought some software that facilitated creating professional looking printable diagrams, and my index card collection went into storage. I collected dozens of positions from Lazlo Polgar's Chess in 5334 Positions (1994) and several databases. I printed these positions on cards with a diagram on one side and the best moves on the other. My initial non-provisional USCF rating was in the low 1400s, but before it was published I played in an event that pushed it up to 1495. That was in 1996, but in 2000 I was back down to 1400. My success in the 2001 Collyer rocketed me up to 1450, and in 2002 I climbed over 1500. I faltered briefly in 2004, dropping to 1487 before rising to 1600 in 2005. I made it over 1700 for the second time in 2008, and kept climbing over 1800 in 2009. If I am to cross over 1900 in 2010, my training must step up a notch. Ziyatdinov's Method Rashid Ziyatdinov advocates learning entire games thoroughly. In GM-RAM: Essential Grandmaster Knowledge (2000), he lays out a plan for improvement based on 300 key positions. Half of these are endgame positions--most are pawn endgames and rook endgames--and the others stem from classic games. His fifty-nine games from which the middlegame positions arise span less than a century from a few 1851 victories of Adolph Anderssen to Mikhail Botvinnik's 1936 defeat of Saviely Tartakower. I find myself drawn to certain aspects of Ziyatdinov's method. My cards from Dvoretsky's text lack the answers on the back, for example. I'm also working on memorizing games, including those in Ziyatdinov's fifty-nine. His most compelling idea is the notion that key diagrams function as fingerprints of whole games. Most collections of diagrams highlight tactical motifs. There are certainly quite a few tactical shots in Ziyatdinov's collection. But memorizing, studying, and knowing thoroughly a limited set of games--the plans that led to what happened over the board, and what might have happened--goes beyond tactical patterns. The 120 middlegame positions in GM-RAM "are like the fingerprint of the games--from this fingerprint, the associated game can be identified" (77). Karpov's Best Games Although I share with Ziyatdinov the conviction that nineteenth and early twentieth century games merit our attention, I am unwilling to limit my study to these old games. I may end up with more than the legendary 300 positions as I pursue Ziyatdinov's regimen (he expects the reader to supply nearly four dozen of the 300). As I am going through the best one hundred games of Anatoly Karpov that were published in Chess Informant (see "Coincidence?"), I am collecting diagrams. These diagrams are fingerprints for games worth knowing as thoroughly as Anderssen's "Evergreen Game". Some of the positions from Karpov's games feature tactical shots. In this position from 1973, Karpov's tactical shot provoked Spassky's resignation. White to move ![]() The following year, in the ninth game of the World Championship Candidate's Match, another tactical shot by Karpov provoked another resignation by Spassky. White to move ![]() Then, in 1977 at Las Palmas, A. Martin Gonzalez perceived the futility of further resistance when Karpov's move threatened a clever mating net. White to move ![]() Such tactical shots are the bread and butter of chess training. But, it seems to me that if I can comprehend the thought processes that went into finding the move that Karpov played against Vlastimil Hort from this position in 1971, it might become part of the knowledge that can elevate me to expert class. White to move ![]() Hort played on for another eleven moves as Karpov increased the pressure. This diagram is the fingerprint of the earliest of Chess Informant's list of Karpov's 100 best. It is a positional masterpiece, Karpov's signature. As I collect these diagrams, I aim to learn the games from which they stem. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:56:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The birth of opening theory | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There was an old saying concerning opening theory "Players of today believe that modern opening theory began the day they were born. In fact it began the day David Bronstein was born". I'm not sure who originally said it (Boleslavsky? Spassky?) but in part it does suggest that players of today be mindful of what has gone before. For example the game between Naidistch and Mamedyarov played in the first round of the Dortmund tournament started with a line thought to be bad for White for at least 14 years. Naiditsch played a sharp line against the Najdorf, although this line resulted in a loss to Topalov against Short in 1996. Where Naidistch thought the improvement was going to be is unclear, as the move he chose to move away from Topalov - Short didn't seem to change the assessment of the position. Maybe he hoped to follow one of the stem games given in the notes below, but given the strength of the players involved, improvements for Black were certain to be found. Naidistch reached a position that on the surface looked equal but he had two problems. One, only reaching equality as White is a minor victory for Black at this level, and two, it wasn't even equal, as Black had an edge in the Rook and Bishop ending, which he duly converted. Naiditsch,Arkadij (2691) - Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar (2760) [B86] Sparkassen Chess-Meeting 2010 Dortmund/Germnany (1), 15.07.2010 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Nbd7 8.f4 Nc5 9.0-0 Nfxe4 10.Nxe4 Nxe4 11.f5 e5 12.Qh5 d5 13.Re1 Bc5 14.Rxe4 Bxd4+ (D) ![]() 15.Kh1 [15.Be3 was Topalov's choice against Short.] 15...Qf6 16.Re1 Bxf5N [RR 16...g6 17.Qh6 e4 18.Bxd5 Bxf5 19.Bxb7 Ra7 20.Bxe4 Re7 21.Bg5 Bxe4 22.Bxf6 Bxf6 1-0 Ghassan,H (2013)-Issa,K/Beirut LIB 2007/The Week in Chess 668; RR 16...0-0 17.c3 Bc5 18.Rf1 Be7 19.Bxd5 Rb8 20.Be3 Bd7 21.Rae1 Bc6 22.Bxc6 Qxc6 23.Bf4 f6 24.Bc1 Rfc8 25.Rf3 Qe8 26.Qh4 Bf8 27.Rh3 h6 28.Rg3 Kf7 29.b3 Rc6 30.Qg4 Rd8 31.c4 Doghri,N (2305)-Docx,S (2275)/Cannes 1997/CBM 57 ext/1-0 (50)] 17.c3 Ba7 18.Bxd5 0-0 19.Rf1 Qd6 20.Rxf5 Qxd5 21.Rxe5 Rae8 22.Bf4 Rxe5 23.Qxe5 Qxe5 24.Bxe5 f6 25.Bc7 Re8 26.Rd1 Re2 27.b3 Rxa2 28.g3 Ra3 29.Rb1 h5 30.Bd6 Ra2 31.Re1 Rd2 32.Bb8 Bxb8 33.Re8+ Kf7 34.Rxb8 Rd7 35.Kg2 Ke6 36.Kf3 Kf5 37.h3 Rd3+ 38.Kf2 b5 39.Rc8 h4 40.gxh4 Rxh3 41.Rc7 Kg6 42.Rc6 b4 43.cxb4 Rxh4 44.Rb6 Re4 45.Kf3 Kf5 46.Rb7 g5 47.b5 a5 0-1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:10:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nigeria planning Grand Tourney in ‘11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kunle Elegbede is helping to plan something big. Recently he announced that Nigerian chess community will be holding a US$50,000 prize tournament next July in honor of Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. The tournament will be held on a grand scale in the capitol city of Abuja. A press conference was held recently at National Stadium in Lagos to announce the event. Boris Spassky has been invited to attend. All the details are laid out in a recently unveiled site. According to an article in Next newspaper, Jubril Ayinla stated:
He later added:
Left to right: Dr. Sylvanus Ebigwei, Former Chairman Nigeria Chess Federation(NCF) and one of the founding members of NCF, Sanni Mohamed, current NCF chairman, and Vice Admiral Jubril Ayinla, former Chief of Naval Staff and Minister in Nigeria and also former NCF chairman. Ifeanyi Ibeh, “Record prize money anticipated for Soyinka chess tourney,” 13 July 2010. Official Site: http://www.soyinkachesstournament.com/ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:41:37 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess in Translation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chess in Translation is a new site by Colin McGourty about chess news and interviews published mainly in Russian. You probably know Colin already a bit, from his articles here on ChessVibes, about the Ilyumzhinov-Karpov saga. For us he keeps an eye on Russian media, and summarizes and translates the most important news. He’s doing much more of the same on his own site. We give a few examples below, to give you an idea of what you can find on Colin’s site.
We recommend you bookmark Chess in Translation immediately! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:00:02 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| El Gambito de Rey en manos de Carlsen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Carlsen Reina. Gana el King’s 2010 con 7,5/10; dos puntos de ventaja sobre Radjabov y Gelfand. Ganó 5 partidas, realizó una actuación equivalente a 2920 ELO; sube 13 puntos en el nuevo listado y con 2826 se aleja y se afirma en la cima del Ajedrez Mundial, seguido por Topalov (2803), Anand (2800) y Kramnik (2790). Tras un comienzo tranquilo, con tres tablas, Magnus apretó el acelerador y ganó consecutivamente a Wang Yue, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov y Radjabov. Otro par de empates y un cierre con nuevo triunfo ante Wang Yue. Ganó 4 de los 5 mini-matches y sólo empató ante Gelfand (ambas partidas). Dio la impresión que Carlsen estaba experimentando nuevas ideas que, aunque en algunos momentos parecieron poco convincentes, permitieron mostrar cómo Carlsen se las ingenió para salir de esos senderos pedregosos y hacer aún más espectacular su victoria. Así fue que en la 4ta Ronda sorprendió con el Gambito de Rey y elegimos esa partida como eje de la nota. No obstante, para deleite, conocimiento y estudio de nuestros lectores presentamos todas las partidas de Carlsen comentadas.
Su victoria no fue espectacular pero sobre todo tuvo un despliegue interesante y su visión y plan fue estratégico, de acumulación de ventajas, espacio, movilidad y su chance se basó en un peón aislado y pasado. Wang Yue no encontró los mejores caminos y fue quedando cada vez con menos espacio. En los últimos 40 años, encuentro menos de 300 partidas en que jugadores de más de 2500 la utilizaron (incluyendo torneos blitz, rápidos y aún simultáneas). Entre los más entusiastas seguidores están el fuerte GM beloruso Alexei Fedorov (35 partidas), que la planteó ante Super GM con buen resultado (aunque la última fue en 2004, tablas justamente contra el niño Carlsen); los GM Joseph Gallager, Yuri Shulman aunque ante rivales un poco menos fuertes. De los Top, Short es quien más la utilizó en partidas a ritmo normal y ante rivales fuertes. Del resto, encontraremos en partidas rápidas, blitz o simultáneas. Cuando vi esta partida y que Carlsen había planteado el Gambito de Rey, varias historias vinieron a mi memoria. Lo primero fue el recuerdo de uno de mis ídolos, Boris Spassky y uno de los primeros libros de ajedrez que llegaron a mi biblioteca "XXVII Campeonato de Ajedrez de
{iframe height="730"}visor3/visor.php?archivo=noticias/CARLSEN_CAMPEON_KINGS.pgn?lenguaje=spanish{/iframe} | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:10:57 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The ultimate chess 'collectable' | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If you are looking for that extra special 'chess' gift, you couldn't go past the table,set and clock that was used in the 1972 Fischer v Spassky World Championship Match. And as luck would have it, one of the three tables used in that match is up for sale. The current owner, Páll G. Jonsson, was Fischer's guide during the match, and bought two of the tables at the end of the match. Now aged 77, he has decided to put one on the market. As an added bonus the table, with the built in board, is signed by both players. Further information, including contact details to negotiate the sale are in this article from the New York Times. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:38:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Historic Chess Set for Sale | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| One of the three tables used during the 1972 world championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky is for sale as is one of the sets they used. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:16:27 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Historic Chess Set for Sale - New York Times (blog) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:16:41 GMT+00:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pula Open Chess Tournament 2010 - GM Robert Zelcic takes the trophy on superior tiebreak | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 24th Pula Open chess tournament took place on 19-26th June at the hotel "Histria", under management of the Croatian Chess Federation and local Chess Club "Pula". The competition was held over nine rounds of Swiss system and with time control of 90 min + 30 sec increment. Former World Champion Boris Spassky was the special guest of the tournament. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:11:40 +0200 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cheats,Spies,Crooks and Commies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Washington Post Nikolai Krylenko, the Soviet Commissar of Justice and Prosecutor General, used to sentence innocent people to death in show trials in the 1930s, until he himself perished in 1938 in Stalin's Great Purge. He neglected his work by spending too much time on chess and mountain climbing, his accusers claimed. In chess, Krylenko had a vision: He wanted to export the game as part of Soviet culture and to establish Soviet domination in the chess world. He began a ruthless game, playing with human pawns ¿ the Soviet chess masters and champions. In 1948, Mikhail Botvinnik won the world title. The aim was achieved. Since 1931, Botvinnik was regarded as the best Soviet player and everybody thought that he, and only he, had the right to be World Champion, David Bronstein explained in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." (The second, updated and enlarged edition of Bronstein's classic was recently published by New in Chess.) With the championship came political power, and Botvinnik and his helpers used it. In 1951, Bronstein's father was not allowed to go to Moscow to see his son in the world championship match against Botvinnik. Bronstein smuggled him in anyway and almost won the match. It ended in a 12-12 tie, but there was no love lost between Botvinnik and Bronstein through the end of their lives. Shortly before he died, Botvinnik got irritated when someone mentioned Bronstein's name. Botvinnik said, "Please never mention his name in my presence ever again; he is my enemy!" Upon learning of Botvinnik's death, Bronstein quipped: "What a surprise; he was human after all!" The history of Soviet chess is full of personal quarrels and intrigues. The former world champion and Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky once compared Soviet players to spiders in a bottle, biting and kicking each other, sometimes literally, as Viktor Korchnoi and Tigran Petrosian did during one of their Candidates games. A partition under the table was installed next time they met. The Soviet players, however, united against a common foreign enemy. According to Bobby Fischer, the American Sammy Reshevsky was the best player in the world in the early 1950s. Bronstein revealed that during the 1953 Candidates tournament in Zurich, the Soviet players were asked to help Vassily Smyslov finish ahead of Reshevsky and therefore prevent the American grandmaster to reach the world championship match against Botvinnik. It was not necessary. Smyslov played too well and won the event. When the Soviet players ganged up on Fischer in the 1962 Candidates tournament in Curacao, playing hard against him but making quick draws among themselves, he called them "cheating commies" and demanded change from tournament to matches. After the change was made, Fischer was unstoppable and in 1972 won the world title. The world championship matches in 1978 and 1981 between Anatoly Karpov and Korchnoi, who defected from Soviet Union in 1976, were politically motivated. Many shadowy figures, KGB agents and parapsychologists kept coming and going during these contests. Karpov won both encounters. A few years later, with the appearance of Garry Kasparov, the Soviets had suddenly two players capable of winning the world title. The first world championship match between Karpov and Kasparov in 1984 in Moscow was the longest in history. The final outcome was discussed high up in the Soviet Politburo and in the offices of the KGB. The players were on a destructive collision course and there were fears the long match would inflict lasting damage, both physical and mental. The maneuvers behind the scenes intensified and the match was stopped without a decision after 48 games in February 1985. Kasparov won the next title match in December 1985. The continuation of the feud between the last two Soviet world champions is described in a new book, "Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part Three: Kasparov vs. Karpov 1986-1987," released by Everyman Chess. In the summer of 1986 in London, Kasparov and Karpov sat down over the board and for the first time two Soviet players contested the world title in a Western country. Newspapers covered the match on front pages, reporting on the clash between a good communist and a bad one. During the first 12 games in the English capital, both players behaved well, but when the match moved for the second half to the Soviet city of Leningrad, all hell broke loose. Kasparov wrote about treason and bribery after he lost three straight games. He named those who betrayed him and the crooks who tried to bribe them. He was still the world champion when the next match was played in Seville, Spain, in 1987, but he barely hung onto the title in the end. In a must-win situation, he won the last game. The murky world of Soviet chess, the stories behind the scenes and game analyses make for fascinating reading, but did Kasparov tell all? For example, his gamesmanship during the 11th game in Seville, unparalleled in the history of the world championships, is not mentioned. After Karpov blundered, Kasparov openly laughed in his face. One has the feeling there are more tales to be told. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:12:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A stamp of approval for the Kings Gambit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In the current Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania, World number 1 Magnus Carlsen pulled a surprise by using the Kings Gambit in his round 4 game against Wang Yue. Carlsen would certainly be the highest rated player ever to use this opening in a serious tournament game, and for fans of the opening, his opponent may well be the highest rated player* ever to lose to it. Of course at this level the opening is played with a more positional outlook than the 19th century hack and slash style you see in club chess, which makes the game all the more instructive to lower rated players. Also worth studying is the ending where Carlsen was up the exchange. In one of his books on the middlegame, Euwe stated that being up the exchange in the ending was almost always winning, and Carlsen proved this to be so (even when his opponent had an extra pawn). *Of course Fischer may well have been the 'strongest' player to lose to the Kings Gambit, in his game against Spassky at Mar Del Plata in 1960. Carlsen,M (2813) - Wang Yue (2752) [C36] 4th Kings Tournament Medias ROU (4), 17.06.2010 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 exf4 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bc4 Nxd5 6.0-0 Be7 7.Bxd5 Qxd5 8.Nc3 Qd8 9.d4 0-0 10.Bxf4 Bf5 11.Qe2 Bd6 12.Bxd6 Qxd6 13.Nb5 Qd8 14.c4 a6 15.Nc3 Nd7 16.Rad1 Bg6 17.Qf2 Re8 18.h3 Rc8 19.Rfe1 Rxe1+ 20.Rxe1 c6 21.d5 Nf6 22.Qd4 cxd5 23.Nxd5 Nxd5 24.cxd5 Qd6 (D) ![]() 25.Ne5 Re8 26.Re3 Rd8 27.Nc4 Qf6 28.Re5 h6 29.d6 Bf5 30.Nb6 Be6 31.d7 Kh8 32.a4 g6 33.Qc3 Kg7 34.a5 h5 35.h4 Rxd7 36.Nxd7 Bxd7 37.Qd4 Bc6 38.b4 Bb5 39.Kh2 Ba4 40.Rd5 Bc6 41.Qxf6+ Kxf6 42.Rc5 Ke6 43.Kg3 f6 44.Kf2 Bd5 45.g3 g5 46.g4 hxg4 47.h5 Be4 48.Rc7 f5 49.h6 f4 50.h7 g3+ 51.Ke1 f3 52.h8Q f2+ 53.Ke2 Bd3+ 54.Ke3 1-0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:46:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Un pomeriggio con Oleg Romanishin! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Le belle giornate di Roseto Roseto, sabato 12 giugno, ore 14, il torneo si è appena concluso. Per il caffè del dopopranzo ci sediamo al bar con Oleg Mikhajlovhic Romanishin: è il momento della promessa intervista. Romanishin parla ?un inglese fluente, come già dimostrato nel magnifico stage tenuto mercoledì sera. Per fortuna Scacchierando è presente in forze, con LightKnight e Stefano Bellincampi che se la cavano molto meglio di me. Per una ventina di minuti si è seduto con noi ad ascoltare anche Lorenzo Pescatore, alle prese con un gelato. Giovanissimo speciale Lorenzo, scacchisticamente e non solo! Il clima della chiacchierata è immediatamente piacevole e cordiale: non si parte con una domanda ma parlando di scacchi azzurri.
Romanishin: Gli scacchi in Italia stanno sicuramente crescendo e si disputano molti tornei. Ho incontrato molti giocatori italiani: ho giocato con Mariotti, a Leningrado nel 1977, un giocatore molto creativo, molte volte con Godena, giocatore interessante, sempre molto solido, e con tanti altri. Ho anche avuto modo di tenere un breve training con Vocaturo e Piscopo, organizzato da Nicola Pienabarca. Scacchierando: Che impressione ha di Caruana? Romanishin: con tutta evidenza un giovane di talento, ma non saprei dire di più senza conoscerlo direttamente, giocarci e analizzare con lui. S. : Qui ha giocato con Axel Rombaldoni. Romanishin: Sì, l?avevo già incontrato a Bratto. Ho vinto entrambe le volte, anche se è un giovane con buone qualità e potenzialità. Forse, per ora, tende a sbilanciarsi troppo in attacco. Ho incontrato due volte anche Denis. S. : Quando è venuto per la prima volta in Italia? Romanishin: Nel 1978, a Genova, in occasione di una Festa dell?Unità, tenendo diverse simultanee. Sono tornato nel 1984, sempre per delle simultanee, in varie città. Il primo torneo è stato quello di Reggio Emilia 1984 / 85 . Da allora sono venuto molte volte e mi trovo sempre benissimo in Italia, mi piace molto la cucina e adoro il caffè. Durante il Torneo di Frascati, nel 2006, ho avuto modo di passeggiare per Roma con la mia famiglia e di prendere un caffè a Piazza di Spagna: ho un magnifico ricordo di quella giornata. Prima di ripartire (per un torneo in Ungheria, a Heviz, sul lago Balaton) mi fermerò un giorno?a passeggiare per Roma, città che mi piace moltissimo. S. : Ha imparato a giocare a 5 anni. Romanishin: Sì, con mio padre, che era un forte giocatore, ha vinto anche un Campionato di Leopoli (Lvov), la nostra città. Mio padre aveva molti libri e a casa c?era una bella atmosfera scacchistica. Io sono l?ultimogenito: anche i miei fratelli giocavano ma con minor dedizione. S. : C?era grande spazio per gli scacchi nell?Unione Sovietica di allora. Romanishin: Ah, sì, erano il gioco più seguito dopo il calcio! Il governo promuoveva il gioco, che era davvero molto diffuso. Si parlava di scacchi sui giornali, non solo su quelli specializzati ma anche sui quotidiani, e c?erano delle trasmissioni alla radio. Durante il match tra Botvinnik e Petrosjan, nel 1963 (Romanishin aveva allora 11 anni - ndr), c?era un aggiornamento ogni ora, con le mosse giocate. Io e mio padre seguivamo le partite alla scacchiera, analizzando e in attesa delle mosse successive. S. : Poi ha studiato con Viktor Kart. Oltre che un ottimo istruttore, Kart era un forte giocatore? Romanishin: Non proprio allora, era un buon Candidato Maestro (ricordando che un CM sovietico dell?epoca corrisponde almeno a un forte FM di oggi - ndr), in un certo qual modo è cresciuto anche lui con noi, il suo primo gruppo di allievi, con me, Alexander Beliavsky e Adrian Mikhalchishin. I successi di Stejn, buon amico di Kart, avevano entusiasmato l?ambiente scacchistico di Lviv. Nel 1973 io vinsi il titolo europeo dei giovani e Beliavsky vinse il mondiale. Viktor si dedicava con passione e capacità. Invitava forti giocatori per un periodo di allenamento con noi, ad esempio Korchnoj, nel 1976. Oggi vive in Germania, ha 80 anni, siamo ancora in contatto.
Beliavsky, Viktor Kart e Romanishin a Lviv in occasione del festeggiamento dell'80? compleanno di Kart (foto Chessbase - segnalo il bell'articolo http://www.chessbase.com/newsprint.asp?newsid=5548?) ? S. : La sua crescita è stata rapida? Romanishin: Abbastanza, sono diventato Candidato Maestro a 14 anni e Maestro a 16. Ho avuto il titolo di Maestro Internazionale con la vittoria all?europeo e sono arrivato a quello di GM nel 1976 (dopo aver già partecipato a due finali del Campionato Sovietico, con un fantastico secondo posto nel 1975, con Tal, Vaganjan, alle spalle di Petrosjan? Altri tempi e altri titoli! ? ndr). S. : Come giovane promettente fu affiancato a Tal. Romanishin: No, questo non è esatto. Sono stato mandato a giocare un torneo insieme a Tal. Poi, nel 1975, abbiamo giocato di nuovo insieme e siamo diventati ottimi amici. Abbiamo svolto tre periodi di training insieme. Nel 1977 abbiamo vinto a pari merito il torneo di Leningrado, davanti a Karpov, Smyslov, Vaganjan, Taimanov, Ribli, Balashov, Beliavsky? Io sono stato fortunato, ho avuto modo di giocare e lavorare con grandissimi campioni.
Mikhalchishin, Romanishin e Beliavsky?(foto Chessbase) ? S. : Il suo stile è stato ispirato da qualcuno in particolare? Romanishin: Non direi? Si apprende da tutti, da tanti diversi stili. Era la forza dell?Unione Sovietica di allora, c?erano tanti fortissimi giocatori, una grande diversità di idee e di fermenti. Ho sempre dato molto valore alla molteplicità dei punti di vista. Ho giocato con quasi tutti, anche con Leonid Stejn (detto con un sorriso, nel ricordo del grande campione ucraino, prematuramente scomparso). Oggi i giovani lavorano molto con i database ma hanno minori opportunità di allenarsi con i grandi campioni. Gli scacchi sono cambiati, sono diventati più veloci, forse troppo, i giovani hanno l?energia giusta per gli scacchi di oggi. Io dopo una partita di 5 ? 6 ore sono esausto, per non parlare di un doppio turno. S. : Lei è un attaccante e un grande teorico delle aperture. Romanishin: Era maggiormente possibile proporre novità teoriche una volta, se lavoravi molto alla scacchiera. Oggi giochi una novità e dopo poche ore è conosciuta in tutto il mondo. Io ho sempre giocato cercando la vittoria, senza calcoli rispetto al torneo. Quando ho usato prudenza non sempre è andata benissimo. Nel 1975 giocai un torneo ad Olot, in Spagna. Ad un certo punto della gara ero in testa con 7,5 insieme a Csom e Filip. Il turno dopo giocavo con il bianco contro Csom, che usava spesso una sorta di ?Riccio?. Pensai poco prima della partita a una novità nella sequenza 1.Cf3 Cf6 2.c4 e6 3.Cc3 b6 4.e4 Ab7 , giocando Ad3 al quinto tratto (la mossa era stata già sperimentata da Huebner contro Johannessen a Oslo, l?anno precedente, ma allora non c?erano i database e Romanishin non conosceva quella partita - ndr). Tuttavia non volli rischiare, giocai in modo diverso e persi malamente. Ci restai malissimo e passai tutta la notte ad analizzare la partita e la nuova variante. Alla fine dello stesso anno, al Campionato Sovietico disputato a Yerevan, giocai con Petrosjan e stavolta utilizzai Ad3: vinsi una bella partita! ( http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1107067?) Il giorno dopo Lev Polugaevsky giocò allo stesso modo contro Boris Gulko, poi è stata una variante giocata anche da Tal e da molti altri. In quel Campionato giocai un?altra buona novità contro Geller. Ricordo che Petrosjan mi disse che potevo anche giocare due buone novità a torneo ma che poi dovevo anche giocare tutte le altre partite! C?è una piccola curiosità successiva: nel 1996, 21 anni dopo, durante le Olimpiadi di Yerevan, andai in una farmacia e l?uomo dietro il banco esclamò: ?Io la conosco! Lei ha distrutto il nostro grande Petrosjan nel Campionato del 1975!?. Mi sono trovato in una situazione simile al penultimo turno di Groningen, nel 1993, in una partita con il nero contro Beliavsky, decisiva per la qualificazione al Torneo dei Candidati della PCA. Due ore prima della partita pensai ad una novità nella variante Capablanca della Nimzoindiana, con Donna f5 (1.d4 Cf6 2.c4 e6 3.Cc3 Ab4 4.Dc2 d5 5.cxd5 Dxd5 6.Cf3 Df5 ). Stavolta, a differenza di Ad3, la giocai e vinsi! ( http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1105910?) All?ultimo turno affrontai Benjamin, non feci calcoli, giocai per vincere e andò bene, chiudendo con 7 su 11. S. : Ha giocato con molti campioni del mondo. Romanishin: Si, molte volte. Sono in vantaggio con Tal, Petrosjan, Spassky, anche con Kasparov, anche se ho giocato con lui solo quando era molto giovane, prima che arrivasse al titolo mondiale. Ho uno score tremendamente negativo con Karpov. Parlando della molteplicità degli approcci, Karpov ha una visione della scacchiera molto globale: di fronte a una posizione tende a valutare quali pezzi cambiare, quali valorizzare, a formulare un piano generale più che varianti. All?estremo opposto c?è Ivanchuk, con il quale ho svolto un periodo di training. Ivanchuk si affida alle sue eccezionali capacità di memoria e di calcolo, con varianti profondissime, anche di una quindicina di mosse! S. : Ha vinto qui a Roseto! Romanishin: Oh si, ho vinto, ma gli avversari mi hanno aiutato!
S. : Ha vinto molti tornei, ricorda quanti? Romanishin: No, assolutamente! Poi bisogna distinguere tra i diversi tornei. Un secondo o terzo posto in una gara di valore mondiale ha un peso rilevante. Ho vinto tornei importanti, come a Odessa 1974, Hastings 1976, il già citato Leningrado 1977, Jurmala 1983, Mosca 1985, ma ricordo anche con piacere, ad esempio, il secondo posto a Tilburg 1979, a mezzo punto da Karpov e precedendo tanti grandissimi giocatori, come Portisch, Larsen, Spassky, Timman, Smyslov, Huebner, Hort, Sax, Sosonko e Kavalek? Un torneo durissimo! S. : C?è una partita a cui è maggiormente legato? Romanishin: Tutte! Forse di alcune sono particolarmente orgoglioso, come quella con Tibor Karolyi, a Tbilisi nel 1986, con un bel sacrificio, una partita incredibile (?http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1118572 ). Anche quella con Amador Rodriguez, nel 1977, una partita particolare,?con tantissime mosse consecutive di pedone. Poi sicuramente la vittoria con Spassky a Tilburg (?http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1118162 ), le già citate partite con Petrosjan e Beliavsky. S. : Ha giocato alle Olimpiadi sia con l?Unione Sovietica che con l?Ucraina. Romanishin: Nel 1978, a Buenos Aires, venni convocato in quanto mancava Karpov, impegnato per il match con Korchnoj. Sono stato vicino alla convocazione altre volte ma quella fu l?unica occasione olimpica con l?URSS, mentre ai Campionati Europei ho vinto sei medaglie d?oro. Con l?Ucraina alle Olimpiadi ho vinto due argenti e due bronzi. Non mi piace molto il sistema attuale delle Olimpiadi, con i punti squadra. Soprattutto non mi piace la tolleranza zero nell?arrivo alla scacchiera, una regola idiota, in particolare alle Olimpiadi, con migliaia di persone in sala. Basta nulla per un ritardo. E? una regola insensata per gli scacchi. Nel tennis, e il tennis ha grandi esigenze televisive, è ammesso un ritardo di un quarto d?ora! E nel tennis e in molti altri sport il riscaldamento pre - gara si svolge in campo, a scacchi non è così! A Wijk Aan Zee si paga una penale per il ritardo, più alta per il torneo A. E? già un buon compromesso. S. : Gioca a scacchi da 50 anni, ha ancora la stessa passione? Romanishin: Da giovane ero più motivato, avevo molte ambizioni. Oggi vivo di scacchi, e si, comunque, li amo molto tuttora. S. : C?è un campione del passato che le piace particolarmente? Romanishin: Tutti! E? come ho accennato per la scuola sovietica, la molteplicità di punti di vista e di stili è un valore. Mi dispiace non aver mai giocato con Keres, lui ha disputato il suo ultimo Campionato Sovietico nel 1973 e io il primo nel 1974. Ma l?ho conosciuto! (con un sorriso molto simile a quello fatto ricordando Stejn, con un segnale di stima, e di affetto per il ricordo ? ndr).
La premiazione, con l'Assessore al Turismo di Roseto, Dr. Antonio Porrini? Qui si conclude l?intervista, durata ben due ore, ma non il pomeriggio con Oleg! Ci offriamo di dargli un passaggio per la premiazione, che si svolgerà nella piazza del comune; nell?attesa ci troviamo davanti a una scacchiera della sala analisi e Stefano chiede a Romanishin delle valutazioni su alcune varianti minori della Nimzoindiana. Ne esce fuori una diversa sequenza di mosse, naturalmente segreta!! Si va alla premiazione e dopo accompagniamo Romanishin a fare il biglietto per il pullman, verificando in albergo la possibilità di essere accompagnato l?indomani mattina presto alla stazione. Alla compagnia si aggiunge il Maestro Internazionale Pap. In macchina si chiacchiera, non solo di scacchi. Si parla di Roma e risulta evidente l?interesse che susciterebbe un bel Festival nella città eterna. Romanishin trova un interesse in comune con Stefano nel tennis, sport che ha scoperto tardi ma che gli piace molto. Oleg ha anche una figlia sedicenne che è una buona promessa del tennis?e disputa già tornei internazionali giovanili. Dopo il torneo sul Balaton, Romanishin giocherà un open in Germania e il suo carnet di impegni è già pieno fino ai primi di settembre, senza la previsione per ora di altri tornei in Italia. Si torna al Villaggio?e dopo cena ci salutiamo con grande cordialità. In macchina verso Roma io e Stefano commentiamo le belle giornate di Roseto e lo splendido pomeriggio. E? stato davvero un grandissimo piacere conoscere Oleg Mikhajlovhic Romanishin! ? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-06-19T20:30:00+01:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Presidential snub | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() On Chess Nixon's snub added to Fischer story Saturday, June 19, 2010 02:49 AM One of the conundrums of the 1972 chess explosion was Richard Nixon's failure to invite Bobby Fischer to the White House. Fischer, of course, had dealt an embarrassing blow to Soviet chess supremacy by defeating Boris Spassky. Washington Post humorist Art Buchwald wrote a column imagining a phone conversation between Fischer and Nixon. The chess master, as you might have guessed, presented a potpourri of demands to the president. Among them, Fischer wanted a limousine, a suite of rooms, a tennis court with a swimming pool and a coterie of 10 Secret Service men - as well as a guarantee of no conversation during a black-tie dinner at the White House. After acceding to most of the demands and telling Fischer he was an "inspiration to the young people of America," Nixon hung up and called Richard Helms of the CIA. "Dick," he said, "I'm sending the presidential plane ... to pick up Bobby Fischer. Do me a favor: After he's on board, will you see that it's hijacked to Cuba?" Source: http://www.dispatch.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-06-19T09:57:00.001-05:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Quattro chiacchere con? Evgeny Ellinovic Sveshnikov! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Le belle giornate di Roseto Dopo tante giornate di pioggia il sole ha deciso di intervenire sin dall?inizio del torneo qui a Roseto, ponendo l?ultimo tassello per una manifestazione davvero bella, che fruisce dei pregi??di un villaggio sul mare, dalle ottime attrezzature e dagli spazi ampi, a partire dalla sala di gioco, situata nella sala congressi dell?hotel. Ci si incontra, si rinnovano o instaurano conoscenze ed amicizie, e gli scacchi sono un po? dappertutto, dai tavolini della struttura a quelli delle verande delle villette che compongono la zona residence. Un bel clima per un ottimo festival, che verrà con ogni probabilità riproposto, incrementando con apposite iniziative quell?aspetto di cittadella degli scacchi che già quest?anno sta affascinando i partecipanti.
Avevo sperato di intervistare Sveshnikov già a Cesenatico 2008 ma sapevo che il grande campione e teorico non parla molto l?inglese?(nemmeno o, peraltro...)?e il mio russo non è particolarmente fluente? Scacchierando: Lei è nato a Cheliabinsk e vive a Riga. Sveshnikov: Sì, a Cheliabinsk, nel 1950. Ho 60 anni (segnalo il bell'articolo di Chessbase in occasione del?suo 60mo compleanno www.chessbase.com/ S. : A che età ha imparato a giocare? Sveshnikov: A due anni giocavo con una scacchiera e le pedine della dama! A 5 anni mio padre mi ha insegnato le regole degli scacchi. Giocavo con lui e con mio nonno, e abbastanza presto sono arrivato a batterli entrambi, anche se gli scacchi restavano solo un passatempo familiare. Le cose sono cambiate quando avevo 8 anni, partecipando ad un campeggio estivo, con ragazzi di tutte le età. Venne organizzato un torneo di scacchi e lo vinsi! Lo considero il primo dei 93 tornei che ho vinto fino ad oggi. Il premio era una grande targa di legno con inciso ?Il vincitore? e lo conservo tutt?ora! E quanto alle vittorie spero di arrivare a quota 100.
S. : Poi, ha giocato nelle Case dei Pionieri, ha avuto dei maestri? Sveshnikov: Sì, ho cominciato a giocare più assiduamente. Ho avuto un unico maestro, un candidato (non ci si inganni, un candidato maestro russo dell?epoca corrisponde a un MF o IM di oggi! - ndr), Leonid Aronovitch Gratvol, che oggi ha 73 anni e vive in Israele, siamo ancora in contatto. Non sono mai stato comunque un bambino prodigio. La mia crescita è avvenuta lentamente, studiando con impegno grazie alla mia passione per il gioco. S. : Oltre agli scacchi ha portato avanti anche gli studi? Sveshnikov: Sì, mi sono laureato in ingegneria a 22 anni e ho iniziato a lavorare. Non avevo ancora fatto il servizio militare e a 24 anni mi fu chiesto se volevo svolgerlo normalmente o, in quanto Maestro, se volevo giocare a scacchi. Scelsi gli scacchi, diventando rapidamente Maestro Internazionale e Grande Maestro a 27 anni. Da piccolo adoravo la geografia e sognavo di vedere tutto il mondo; gli scacchi mi hanno aiutato a farlo e sono pochi i luoghi dove non sono stato! S. : Ha avuto da subito l?interesse per l?approfondimento teorico? Ho letto che ha lavorato molto con Gennadi Timoshchenko. Sveshnikov: Non proprio. Anche Timoshchenko viveva a Cheliabinsk e dopo una nostra partita, in cui vinsi, mi chiese delle mie idee e degli sviluppi strategici su cui ero impegnato, lavorando insieme per un po?. Sono sempre stato interessato dal lavoro teorico e peraltro ho iniziato molto presto, a 30 anni, ad insegnare.
S. : Pensavo che come lettone e grande attaccante avesse avuto dei legami con la grande scuola di Riga, ma mi sembra di capire che non sia stato così? Sveshnikov: No, in effetti no, Gratvol è stato il mio unico insegnante. S. : Quale successo della sua carriera ricorda più volentieri? Sveshnikov: Forse nessuno in particolare, da un lato amo il gioco nel suo insieme, dall?altro sono a volte legato più alle singole partite, alla creatività, alle belle combinazioni, momenti del gioco che mi entusiasmano. Botvinnik ha lavorato molto per una visione scientifico?matematica degli scacchi, anche come pioniere della ricerca informatica, influenzando la scuola russa e lo stesso sviluppo moderno degli scacchi. Io ho sempre preferito una visone più artistica e creativa. S. : Quindi dovrebbe apprezzare particolarmente i grandi attaccanti creativi, come Tal, Nezhmetdinov? Sveshnikov: Certamente. Ho conosciuto bene Nezhmetdinov, dividendo con lui la stanza per un mese durante una fase di training. Un uomo interessante e geniale, l?unico che conoscessi capace di eccellere sia nella dama che negli scacchi. Con Tal ho uno score positivo, 4 a 3 per me, mi sembra.
In prima fila, all'estrema sinistra, il 15enne Karpov. Alle sue spalle, sempre all'estrema sinistra, Sveshnikov, qui 17enne (foto Chessbase) ? S. : Ha incontrato molti campioni del mondo? Sveshnikov: Tanti! Il mio punteggio complessivo contro i campioni del mondo è quasi alla pari, 22 a 23. Otre a Tal ho giocato con Smyslov, Petrosjan, Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand. Non considero tra i campioni del mondo i vincitori dei tornei knock-out della Fide, per me il titolo è passato da Kasparov a Kramnik ad Anand. S. : Che ricordo ha dell?Olimpiade di Torino? Sveshnikov: In generale non amo particolarmente le Olimpiadi. Ho giocato in molte competizioni a squadre, in particolare agli europei, anche con risultati lusinghieri. Di Torino ricordo particolarmente la sala di gioco, davvero splendida. Ho giocato molte volte in Italia, la prima occasione fu a Marina Romea, nel 1977. Mi piace molto la Sicilia, dove ho vinto anche un torneo. Mi sembra di aver vinto sei tornei in Italia. S. : Gli scacchi richiedono molto tempo e grande impegno. Prendono più di quello che danno? Sveshnikov: Ognuno cerca qualcosa negli scacchi e gli scacchi offrono molto. Io ho sempre avuto una grande passione e li trovo sempre meravigliosi.
2 vittorie e 1 sconfitta per Evgeny contro il grandissimo Smyslov ? S. : Lei sostiene che sarebbe necessario introdurre delle regole per tutelare i grandi giocatori, dando loro i diritti sulle partite che giocano. Sveshnikov: Assolutamente. Le partite in pochi istanti sono disponibili in tutto il mondo. Basterebbero pochi centesimi da parte di chi segue le partite in diretta per cambiare le cose. E i database rendono molto difficile giocare, innovare. Oggi è troppo facile diventare GM e troppi Grandi Maestri si limitano a ?muovere i pezzi?. Lo spazio per creare si è troppo ridotto. S. : Gli scacchi 960, il Fischer random, possono essere una frontiera? Sveshnikov: Non mi piacciono gli scacchi 960, molte posizioni iniziali sono troppo innaturali o sbilanciate (qui e in qualche altro punto abbiamo avuto qualche difficoltà a capire e speriamo di aver interpretato bene il pensiero di Sveshnikov, dato che la nostra interprete non conosceva affatto gli scacchi - ndr). S. : Un?ultima domanda, il campione del passato che ha amato di più? Sveshnikov: Ah, amando gli scacchi, tutti! Forse, ho una grandissima considerazione non tanto, o non solo, per i campioni del mondo quanto per i grandi innovatori. Mi vengono in mente Paulsen, Chigorin, Nimzowitsch, soprattutto. In epoca più moderna citerei Boleslavsky, Geller, lo stesso Polugaevsky. Sono uomini che hanno intrapreso un viaggio più profondo di conoscenza, che non hanno esplorato solo la partita ma il gioco nella sua interezza. Forse, come grandi esploratori, sono i veri vincitori della storia degli scacchi.
Qui si è chiusa l?intervista, una passeggiata per oltre un?ora nella storia e nella visione degli scacchi di un grande come Evgeny Sveshnikov. E parlando di grandi innovatori? Mark Taimanov ha definito la variante Sveshnikov della Siciliana come l?ultima grande acquisizione della teoria delle aperture. Ieri sera, 8 giugno,?lo stage. Sveshnikov ha parlato delle aperture, partendo da concetti semplicissimi e noti a tutti gli scacchisti. Pian piano, però, continuando ad utilizzare come guida l?occupazione del centro, lo sviluppo dei pezzi e la sicurezza (non solo del re), il fascino della visione della scacchiera del grande giocatore e ricercatore si è fatto strada nella percezione dei partecipanti. E Sveshnikov l?ha sentito, spendendosi con passione per tre ore, fino all?una di notte! Una considerazione dell?apertura molto legata all?occupazione del centro con i pedoni, coerente con le linee di apertura da lui sviluppate. Un ultimo dettaglio: parlando con loro della spinta e5, Petrosjan e Karpov gli dicevano che non poteva giocare così, che non poteva essere giusto. ?Ma credo che la storia abbia detto il contrario?, ha concluso Evgeny Ellinovic Sveshnikov! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-06-10T22:30:00+01:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretos de Alcoba 74 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“3ª partida” del Mundial de 1978 entre Anatoli Kárpov y Viktor Korchnoi.
Por fin nos ha llegado Deep Rybka 4!! (justo al final de nuestros análisis de esta tercera partida con la versión 3). El nuevo módulo llega totalmente reformado (suponemos que para bien) con respecto a la versión anterior (Rybka 3). En mi caso trabajando a 32-bits con un procesador con cuatro cores, pero los que quieran lo pueden usar ya a 64-bits y sobre todo con procesadores de la familia I7!. Una pasada de módulo, aunque todavía tendrá que mejorar bastante sobre todo en determinados tipos de finales que no controla, por mucha velocidad que les des; aparte de infinidad de “posiciones tipo” bloqueadas del medio juego, (? – creemos que ambos puntos irresolubles mínimo, para los próximos 25 años). Quitando la primera partida que fue el típico asalto de tanteo, ya la segunda, como vimos, reflejó una interesante estratégia teórica de Korchnoi usando por 1ª vez la Variante Abierta de la Apertura Española, que luego daría mucho que hablar sobre todo en aquel fatídico día del 26 de Septiembre de 1995, en la décima partida del mundial entre Kaspárov y Anand celebrado en las tristemente desaparecidas Torres Gemelas de Nueva York!. El día anterior a la celebración de este tercer cotejo de Baguio, el GM británico Raymond Keene, ayudante del aspirante, había anunciado que en el mismo Korchnoi iba a atacar. ¡Y vamos que si lo hizo!. También por primera vez en sus duelos, se iba a dar sobre el tablero la mágica “Defensa Nimzoindia”. Anteriormente entre ambos, sólo se habían jugado (Korchnoi con blancas) Defensas India de Dama y Gambitos de Dama. Tras un amago de Kárpov por el flanco de dama, en lugar de continuar con una línea de juego aparentemente más natural, como por ejemplo, la que realizó Spassky frente al mismo Korchnoi en el famoso Campeonato de la URSS de 1973 (partida ésta que comentaremos para el “gran público” como complementaria en http://www.ajedreztenerife.com ), Korchnoi tras los oportunos enroques de ambos bandos, pasó inmediatamente ¡al ataque!. El aspirante también propuso luego un plan más posicional por el flanco de dama, que ahora Deep Rybka 4 (¡a última hora!) brillantemente refuta. Kárpov, preventivamente, trajo su caballo de dama hacia su flanco de rey para proteger a su monarca. Korchnoi echó más leña al fuego y realizó un segundo movimiento agresivo de peón por el flanco de rey (21.g4!). Deep Rybka 4 tras preciso análisis de nuevo lo reafirma. Pero fue un movimiento más tarde cuando verdaderamente Korchnoi no acertó con el mejor plan que le hubiera reportado una clara ventaja y que habría puesto el match, de haberla materializado, favorablemente para sus intereses. Rybka aquí realiza un gran trabajo analítico que creemos que se convierte en esclarecedor de los hechos. ¡No se lo pierdan!. Por fin casi 32 años más tarde parece que le damos absoluto sentido a las cosas. A partir de esos momentos la partida siguió siendo interesante pero el gran espíritu defensivo de Kárpov hizo el resto y al final el campeón obtuvo unas merecidas tablas, en general por todo lo que se vió, que fue bastante y que de nuevo Rybka analizó, en muchos casos con profundidad. Pese a los tres empates, el encuentro se estaba desarrollando a un gran nivel y calidad. Eso lo podemos ya asegurar en este siglo XXI !. Merece la pena que para ambientar ahora la “difícil” partida que comentamos a continuación, veamos primero una foto que señala el inicio de las hostilidades en este tercer cotejo, en donde el árbitro principal, Lothar Schmid dio Vº Bº a su inicio. Como bien apuntó Leontxo García, el “Maestro de maestros” del periodismo ajedrecístico internacional, en su programa de radio semanal de Radio Nacional de España, “No es un día cualquiera” : http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/audios/20100530/innovacion-educacion-no-dia-cualquiera/785883.shtml Schmid, hoy con 82 años, es propietario de la mejor biblioteca privada de ajedrez que se conoce con más de 30.000 libros depositados en 7 habitaciones en su casa de dos plantas de Bamberg, vieja ciudad de la baviera alemana. ¡Quién los tuviera!. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:43:03 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indagando en Baguio City 1978 (II) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Partida complementaria a la 3ª partida del mundial de Baguio: Korchnoi-Spassky, 41º Campeonato de la URSS, Moscú 1973. Continuando con los artículos realizados en http://www.ajedrezcanarias.com (Secretos de Alcoba) del mundial de Baguio, 1978, entre Kárpov y Korchnoi, ya con el apoyo de Deep Rybka 4 (aclamado nuevo módulo informático salido recientemente al mercado), nos proponemos ahora comentar aquí como “partida complementaria” a la tercera de aquel mundial (Secretos de Alcoba - 74 -), la disputada en el 41º Campeonato de la URSS de 1973 entre el propio GM Viktor Korchnoi y el que fuera entonces recien ex-campeón del mundo y posterior vencedor de aquel magno certamen, Boris Spassky; que superaría entonces allí entre otros a Kárpov, Korchnoi, Petrosian, Polugaevsky, Geller, Keres, Taimanov, Tal y Smyslov. ¡Ahí es nada!. Hubo una gran partida de Spassky en aquel certamen. Fue su victoria sobre Nukhim Rashkovsky con una bonita entrega de torre, para acto después “estrellar” su caballo en la fatídica casilla “e6”. Pero para esta crónica, nos ocupa su partida contra Viktor Korchnoi, celebrada en la décimoquinta ronda. La “Korchnoi-Spassky” fue la partida central de la misma. Viktor necesitaba del triunfo para alcanzar a Boris, pero al final no pudo ser, aunque ¡por bien poco!. El empate final le permitió a Spassky ver con optimismo su inmediato futuro pues con sólo conseguir un punto (como así sucedió – dos tablas) en las dos rondas siguientes, llevando las negras contra Grigorian y las blancas frente a Petrosian, Spassky se podía proclamar vencedor. Sigue pues esta interesante partida que Korchnoi no pudo forzar más porque rápidamente se apuró de tiempo. No se pierdan la partida modelo entre máquinas partiendo desde la posición final acaecida en la misma. Deep Rybka 4 se impone a su hermano menor, Rybka 3 32-bit, en un brillante cotejo que bien pudiera servir para películas estilo “¡2010! Odisea en el espacio”. El que les escribe poco puede aportarles, al ver aquel complejo final de partida resultante que ciertamente apenas entiendo (!?). Merece la pena que, al menos, se asombren como yo y lo reproduzcan con calma sobre el tablero: Kortschnoj,Viktor - Spassky,Boris [E42]1.c4 e6 2.Cc3 Cf6 3.d4 Ab4 Por trasposición, se ha llegado a la Defensa Nimzoindia. 4.e3 c5 5.Cge2 Una idea de Rubinstein. 5...cxd4 6.exd4 d5 7.c5 Ce4 8.Ad2 Cxd2 9.Dxd2 Diagram | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:20:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| De igual a igual frente a un GM de Ajedrez | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GM Iván Salgado -Yorch [A90] 1.d4 e6 Los jugadores de Francesa suelen elegir esta jugada. Siempre recuerdo un comentario de Petrosian, respecto de su partida con Larsen en San Antonio 1972, tras 1.d4 e6 y que palabras más o menos, era así: "¿Qué es esto? Una invitación a 2.c4 f5 ¿Por qué no 3.g3 Cf6 4.Ag2 d5 Ciertamente, aquí parece aconsejarse demorar d5, jugando 4. __, c6. La idea de 4. __, c6, es “desmotivar" a las Blancas a jugar 5. Ch3, que podría ser respondido con 5. __, Ae7!, favoreciendo una estructura con d6 y e5, aprovechando que el Ch3 no controla la casilla e5, con lo que, además, se puede privar al Caballo Blanco de “su" casilla f4, amenazando con que quede de invitado durante muchos movimientos (p.e. Mils Michaelsen-Eckhard Schmittdiel, Bundesliga 1997/8, que siguió: 5. Ch3, Ae7!; 6. 0-0, 0-0; 7. Cd2, d6!; 8. b3, e5; 9. dxe5, dxe5; 10. Cf3, Dc7; 11. Ab2, Cg4!, defendiendo e5 por medios agresivos; y que terminó con victoria Negra en 36 jugadas). Sin embargo, en mi ánimo estaba, precisamente, jugar contra Ch3, porque considero que no es tan fiero el león como lo pintan. Una única cosa más, antes de seguir con la partida. Para aquéllos a quienes no les guste enfrentarse en 5.Ch3 Tal y como decíamos, una vez 5...c6 Ya tenemos el famoso Muro de Piedra, o Stonewall, que es, precisamente, lo que yo quería jugar: Stonewall contra formación Blanca con Ch3. (Yorch) 6.0-0 Ad6 Esto no tiene ningún misterio. En efecto, hoy en día se juega mucho más que Ae7. Mi intención era tratar de demostrar (o de comprobar) que el Caballo de Rey y el Alfil de Dama Blancos se pueden estorbar, poniendo en tela de juicio la estructura Blanca. (Yorch) 7.Af4
Lo usual y aparentemente el mejor plan de las Blancas. Plantea el cambio del Alfil “bueno" del Negro. (luigi) 7...Ae7 Tampoco nada novedoso. Ahora, se trata de demostrar si, en efecto, el Af4 estorba al Caballo de h3, atascando la posición Blanca. Véase cómo, además de por lo dicho, el que se muevan dos veces seguidas el Alfil Rey Negro, no puede verse como una pérdida de tiempo, porque, en todo caso, podría recuperarse más adelante, con un hipotético g5, que lo atacaría, a la vez que dejaría fuera de juego al Ch3. (Yorch). El Negro tiene su plan y su idea. La textual es la elección de estos tiempos. [Es posible 7...0-0 8.Dc2 ( 8.Axd6 Dxd6 9.Cd2 b6 ( 9...Ce4; 9...Ce4) 10.Tc1 Cbd7 11.b4 a5 = 1/2 Tunik, G (2505)-Gleizerov, E (2576); RUS-Ch, Krasnodar (1),2002.) 8...b6 ( 8...Ca6; 8...dxc4; 8...Ae7) 9.Tc1 ( 9.Cd2 Ab7 +/=; 9.Axd6 Dxd6 =) 9...Ae7 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.Cd2 Ad7 12.Ac7 De8 13.Cf4 Cc6 14.Ae5 Tc8 15.Dd1 Cg4 = Illescas Cordoba, M (2598)-Vaganian, R (2600); Casino Barcelona (7), 2007 (0-1/43) (luigi)] 8.Cd2 Db6
Soy jugador de Francesa, y ese movimiento de Dama me es conocido y, además, me gusta en esta posición. Me parecía un movimiento ágil, que ataca a la vez los Peones de b2 y d4; y, por otro lado, no me apetecía experimentar con las variantes que terminan con un Caballo Blanco en f3 y otro en f4, ni tampoco con el cambio en f4; situaciones que habitualmente vienen tras 8.__, 0-0. (Yorch) [Plausible espíritu. Interesante plan. Una jugada no común, sólo encontré 4 antecedentes. Un par del IM FIDE noruego Yvan Bern, varias veces representante Olímpico, GM de Ajedrez Postal y Campeón Mundial en el 17th WCh ICCF (Federación Internacional de Ajedrez Postal), celebrado entre 2002 y 2007. Los que han jugado 9.cxd5 [Creo que es la mejor forma de afrontar el esquema Negro. De esta manera, se defienden los dos Peones. Podrían buscarse otras soluciones, pero no me disgustaban. Por ejemplo, con el sacrificio de un Peón: 9.Dc2 Dxd4 10.Ae3 1/2 Linna Asko-Bern, I (2592); Corr WCh-17th, 2002 10...De5 11.Af4 Dd4 12.Ae3 repitiendo jugadas y forzando las Tablas.; O, más bestia, con el sacrificio de dos Peones, como, en Yakovich-Bern, Bergen 2002: 9.Cb3 dxc4 10.Cd2 Dxd4 11.Dc2 Cd5 ( 11...b5) 12.Cxc4 Cxf4 ( 12...Dc5) 13.Cxf4 0-0 14.e4 Df6 15.e5 Dh6 16.Tad1 g5 17.Cd3 f4 18.Tfe1 Ca6 19.Cd6 Cc7 con juego complejo. (Yorch) Esta fue la elección del GM inglés Keith Arkell en la que parece ser la primera partida en que se jugó 8. ... Db6. Una de las posibilidades lógicas en la posición. Se abre la columna c. El Negro tiene varias posibilidades y su sufrido Ac8 tendrá más juego. (luigi)] 9...cxd5 [No es bueno 9...Cxd5 10.Cc4 Db4 11.Dc2 Cxf4 12.Cxf4 Ag5 13.Cd3 De7 14.e4 +/-; Si era posible 9...exd5 10.Cb3 a5 11.a3 0-0 12.Dc2 Cbd7= (luigi)] 10.Cb3 La jugada que salta a la vista, protege al mismo tiempo ambos peones (b2 y d4) . Acá se ve la diferencia con la variante principal 8. ... 0-0, ya que el Cd2 suele jugarse normalmente a f3. Puede decirse que ésto da sentido a la jugada 8. ... Db6 en lugar de 8. ... 0-0 No parecen mejores ni 10.e3 ni 10.Dc2 (luigi) 10...Ad7 [La “natural" 10...Cc6 no me gustaba. No parecía bueno que, tras esa jugada, el Peón de e6 quedara sin la protección de 11.Tc1 Entre las jugadas posibles, el Blanco elige la “natural" ocupación de la columna abierta. (luigi) 11...Ca6 Desde la anterior, ya vislumbré, más o menos, cómo iba a quedar el teatro de operaciones, con posibles Ab5 o Ab4, 0-0 y Tac8, y me gustaba. (Yorch) 12.Ag5 He de reconocer que esta jugada me sorprendió. ¿Yo había tenido razón? ¿Se estorbaban el Alfil y el Caballo Blancos? (Yorch) El Blanco planea la reorganización de sus piezas y mejorar su acción. (luigi)
12...0-0 [Ciertamente, me pensé seriamente 12...Rf7 sin embargo, no yo quería que mi Ae7 dejase de controlar c5, y sabía que, tras Rf7 Negro y un Cf4 Blanco, existía una posibilidad muy seria de romper mi estructura. Tras Rf7, aunque juegan Negras y no Blancas (y me faltaría un movimiento), veía que Axf6 tendría que ser contestado con Axf6, para evitar gxf6 o Rxf6?? (horrible jugada). Con 12. __, 0-0, pretendía responder al Axf6 Blanco con Txf6, antes que hacerlo con el Alfil y perder el control de c5. (Yorch); No creo que haya problemas en jugar 12...Rf7 13.Axf6 Axf6 14.Cf4 ( 14.Cc5?! Cxc5! 15.dxc5 ( 15.Txc5? Thc8 -/+) 15...Db5 16.Cf4 Tac8 =/+) 14...Thc8 15.Dd2 Aa4 16.Tc3 Txc3 17.bxc3 Tc8 = lo que no quiere decir que sea mejor que la efectuada en la partida. Lo que quiero resaltar es que el Negro tiene varias posibilidades y esto es indicativo de la corrección de su plan, la comprensión de la posición y su toma de decisiones es consecuencia de todo ello. (luigi)] 13.Cf4 Activa el Caballo. Ésta fue la idea de Ag5. Es bueno observar que el Alfil no tiene casillas de retroceso; por eso suele aconsejarse no jugar Ag5 habiendo hecho g3, salvo que la intención sea canjearlo. Esta es la valoración del Blanco cambiarlo si fuese necesario por el Cf6 y si fuese posible por el Ae7. (luigi) 13...Tac8 [Hay que pelear por la columna “c" y seguir metiendo presión sobre c5. Yo seguía con mi leit motiv: si a 13...Tac8 14.Txc8 Txc8, seguía manteniendo el control de c5, pese a Axf6 y Axf6.; Pensé como alternativa 13...Aa4 pero me pareció que 14.Tc3 solucionaba los posibles problemas Blancos: si luego venía 14...Tac8 parecía que las Negras estuvieran ayudando a las Blancas a mejorar su posición (y, si era 14...Ab4 tras 15.Te3 tampoco me gustaban las Negras. (Yorch)) ; Durante los análisis previos me parecía interesante, aunque complejo 13...h6 14.Axf6 Axf6 15.Dd2 ( tal vez mejor, aunque pacífica sea 15.e3 Rh7 16.Dc2 Tac8 17.Dd2 Ae7 18.Txc8 Txc8 19.Tc1 Txc1+ 20.Cxc1 g5 21.Cfd3 Cb4 =) 15...g5 16.Cg6 Tf7 17.h4 gxh4 18.Cxh4 Ag5 19.f4 Axh4 20.gxh4 Tg7 y no me disgusta la posición de las Negras, pero hay que animarse.; Lo primero que se me ocurrió y me parecía interesante, como dije en su momento, era 13...Aa4 14.Tc3 Ab4 15.Axf6 Txf6 16.Te3 Ad7 17.a3 Ad6 y hay un aparente y delicado equilibrio. No creo sea preferible a la jugada en la partida. (luigi)] 14.Ch5 Esto sí que me sorprendió, pero pensé: “tanto tiempo para reubicar Caballo y Alfil, ¿para ahora cambiarlos?". Ciertamente, pensé que algo debía de estar haciendo bien. (Yorch) Llamativa jugada. Aprovecha la indefensión el Ae7 y eso es un recurso táctico; planteando la posibilidad de cambiar ya no sólo Axf. No se veía nada muy interesante para el Negro. Podía haber cambiado directamente, podía haber jugado Dd3. Pero el Negro no tiene problermas, así que realiza una simplificación y tratará de generar una mayoría de peones en el Flanco Dama y explotar alguna debilidad estática del Negro (e3). (luigi) 14...Txc1 Yorch decide cambiar y parece correcto. Tiene la posibilidad de ocupar transitoriamente o no la columna c, seguir su plan y permitir los cambios al GM. El Negro debe estar satisfecho de la posición conseguida y sus posibilidades. El GM debe encontrar algún plan que desbarate los del Negro y eso implicaría asumir algunos riesgos. Marchamos hacia un pre-final y eliminadas varias piezas ver si hay chances de desnivelar. [ Ahora 14...Aa4 15.Tc3 Tc4 no da mucho y tiene varias intermedias para analizar. (luigi)] 15.Dxc1 Aa4 [ ¿Qué debía mover aquí? Creo que 16.Axf6 [Es lo mismo 16.Cxf6+ Axf6 ( 16...gxf6 17.Ah6 +/=) 17.Axf6 Txf6 (luigi)] 16...Axf6 17.Cxf6+ Tal vez haya otros planes, pero seguramente este cambio es necesario. El Af6 apunta al d4 y a b2. No parece bueno dejar la pareja de Alfiles ni tendría mucho sentido el Ch5. (luigi) 17...Txf6 [Es posible 17...gxf6 pero no aporta mucho y obviamente la textual es lo lógico. (luigi)] 18.Cc5 Lo lógico era mover el Caballo y no permitir el cambio en b3. En esta casilla genera un cambio que da alguna chance. [No promete mucho 18.Cd2 Cb4 19.Cf3 Cxa2 20.Dc5 Dxc5 ( 20...Ac6) 21.dxc5 a5 22.Cd4 Cb4 23.Ta1 Ae8 24.Txa5 Cc6 y no se ve que las Blancas puedan llegar a mucho. (luigi)] 18...Cxc5 19.dxc5
[La verdad es que no me gustaba un Peón Blanco en c5, pero lo aceptaría si, a cambio, podía llevarme el botín de un Peón (¿?). Para la textual 19.dxc5 tenía pensado 19...Da6 y, tras la defensa (o el movimiento del e2), 20.Te1 hacer 20...Ab5 y tomar mi botín. Pero la vida no era tan bella: 21.Df4 impedía indirectamente tomar cualquiera de los dos Peones, y mi gozo en un pozo.; También luego de 19.dxc5 Da6 20.Af3 mis anteriores planes se derrumbaban y no tuve suficiente tiempo para seguir buscando soluciones (iba un poco apurado en ese movimiento). Si hubiera visto lo que aconseja Luigi en sus comentarios 20...Da5 21.a3 Dc7 22.De3 f4 23.Dd4 Ab5 24.Tc1 creo que lo hubiera hecho, pero no lo vi. La verdad es, que tras el shock de no haber visto a la primera la posibilidad de 21. Df4, tras el hipotético 20.__, Ab5, creo recordar que descarté totalmente 19. __, Da6. (Yorch); Las pequeñas posibilidades del Blanco necesitan de 20.a3 Lógica. Ahora el Negro debe mostrar su idea. De paso se prepara la cadena de peones con b4. (luigi) 20...Dd4 No es la única opción del Blanco. Aunque no se ve que sean mejores y si que no sean muy útiles. [ Desde luego no 20...Dc4?? 21.Dxc4 dxc4 22.Axb7 +- (luigi)] 21.e3 Vuelve a interrogar a 21...Dd3 Mi idea era mantener centralizada 22.b4 Una jugada lógica, natural y necesaria para mejorar y activar las piezas. (luigi)
22...g5 [Ciertamente, valoré 22...Db3 pero me pareció que ayudaba a las Blancas a hacer jugadas útiles, como Da1, controlando la gran diagonal y dejando espacio a su Torre.; También estudié 22...e5 pero 23.Db2 me forzaba a defender mi flamante e5 con mi Torre y no me apetecía ni esclavizarla de esa manera ni sacarla de la columna “f".; Por contra, 22...g5 me pareció interesante: actividad en el Flanco de Rey, con mi Torre en lo que me parecía una buena posición, y mi Dama centralizada. 23.Db2 (Yorch); Como dije en su momento no esperaba esta jugada, sino 22...e5 pero como bien analiza Yorch 23.Db2 Te6 deja un cómodo juego al Blanco y el Negro tiene que estar únicamente esperando y sosteniendo la posición.; Pero tras la modesta 22...Tf8 23.Db2 Db3 24.Dd4 Te8 25.Ta1 a6 26.Af3 Ab5 27.Ad1 Dc4 28.Ah5 g6 29.Af3 Dxd4 30.exd4 Rf7 más allá de buscar otras posibilidades o líneas que la dada, a título ilustrativo, no se ve que las Blancas vayan a ningún lado. (luigi)] 23.Db2 Por fin, 23...Rg7 [Otra posibilidad era 23...Rf7 para evitar la clavada, pero, tras la llegada de 24.Tc1 El Blanco tiene alguna iniciativa, aunque nada muy concreto. El Negro debe tomar decisiones correctas y varias posibilidades. Puede esperar o puede intentar algo no tan pasivo. (luigi)
24...f4 [Aquí, lo cierto es que busqué alguna posibilidad de poder terminar merendándome el a3, pero requería mucho tiempo intentarlo y resulta que, mientras, las Blancas también jugaban. También estudié 24...Db3 pero, tras 25.Dd4 habría sido necesario 25...g4 y, desde luego, no me había metido en ese avispero para terminar cerrando el Flanco de Rey. (Yorch); Yorch es consecuente con su plan y eso es muy plausible. El GM deberá trabajar para demostrar su teórica calidad y superioridad. 24...Db3 25.Dd4 a6 26.Ta1 Dc2 27.Af3 Ab5 28.h3 Ac6 y da la impresión que las Negras sostienen la posición. (luigi)] 25.exf4 [¿Por qué no 25.gxf4? ¡Ojalá! Me hubiera encantado poder jugar contra un GM a dar mate (aunque fuera solamente a intentarlo). (Yorch)] 25...gxf4 El Blanco debe ahora jugar con precisión para mantener la ventaja. El Negro tiene un plan claro y activo para resistir. (luigi) 26.Te1 El Blanco amenaza el peón e indefenso y planea reagrupar sus piezas alrededor de ese tema y ubicada su Dama en e5 acceder a la retaguardia del Negro (luigi). 26...Rf7 [Deshago la clavada. La otra posibilidad era 26...fxg3 27.hxg3 Df5 pero no me gustaba dejar que hicieran las Blancas 28.f4 (Yorch); Tras 26...fxg3 27.hxg3 Df5 me parece interesante 28.b5 (luigi)] 27.De5 [Vi la posibilidad de 27.Af1 pero me gustaba 27...Df5 (Yorch) Lógico. 27...fxg3 [Valoré 27...Dd2 pero no me gustaba nada la idea de 28.g4; 27...fxg3 Aquí quedó la partida. El GM no movió en tiempo y se le cayó la bandera. Evidentemente, tendría que haber seguido 28.hxg3 y mi intención era seguir con 28...Dd2 Ahora me parecía mejor, aunque no podía evitar la que me disgustaba, 29.f4 Creo que habría jugado 29...Ad7 porque me preocupaba la presión sobre mi e6, que se podría incrementar, en su caso, con Ah3, aunque no ahora mismo, porque, en caso de, por ejemplo, 29...Rg7 30.Ah3 podría ser contestada con 30...Ac2 y el Peón es intocable, ante la amenaza de Ae4. (Yorch));
27...fxg3 28.hxg3 Dd2 29.f4 Rg7 30.Af1 Ae8 31.f5 Af7 32.Te2 Dg5 33.fxe6 Dxe5 34.Txe5 Axe6 35.Ag2 Rf7 36.Axd5 Axd5 37.Txd5 Re7 38.Rg2 Ta6 39.Td3 Ta4! Un difícil final de Torres y peones en el que obviamente las Blancas llevan la ventaja. No parece muy fácil encontrar el camino hacia la victoria. Una tarea que dejo a los lectores. Tal vez alguno sea capaz de demostrar si hubo mejores caminos o si ahora los hay. (luigi) En fin, no niego que las Blancas estén más cómodas y que seguramente lleven ventaja; y tampoco niego que el GM exprimiría el Final y terminaría ganando la partida. Pero, eso ya es otra historia. (Yorch)] 0-1
POSICION FINAL
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 31 May 2010 10:09:59 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess in the Movies (PT 2) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chess in the Movies (Part 2). A brilliant game by Boris Spassky that was featured in a James Bond Movie. [9:58, ] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:39:56 PST | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess in the Movies (PT 1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Part 1 A Chess position is featured in a James Bond movie. A Classic from Boris Spassky | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:12:11 PST | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Twenty-five years of CHESS (the musical) - Chessbase News | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 26 May 2010 12:30:31 GMT+00:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretos de Alcoba 72 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“1ª partida” del Mundial de 1978 entre Anatoli Kárpov y Viktor Korchnoi. Llegó el momento de airear este gran match como se merece!. Aprovechamos ahora para hacerlo porque Anatoli Kárpov intenta volver de nuevo por sus fueros, pero esta vez como candidato a la presidencia de la FIDE: http://www.karpov2010.org/es/ . ¡Ojalá Tolia lo consiga!. Nunca me ha gustado el actual presidente, Ilyumzhinov. Tal vez porque siempre ha estado demasiado distante de todo el mundo que le rodea. Viene de la escuela de Campomanes, otro presidente, recientemente fallecido. Se denota en su comportamiento una cierta actitud imperialista… . Lo único que le deseo a Kárpov es que no eche a perder su gran prestigio conseguido en su victoriosa carrera ajedrecística. De todos es sabido que la FIDE muchas veces se ha comportado obviando los principios democráticos, algo fundamental para la convivencia entre las personas de este mundo (ajedrecistas incluidos). Espero que de llegar a presidente, Kárpov restaure el “clasicismo” en el mundo del ajedrez. Ya saben, la vuelta a la “estructura piramidal” que tan bien caracterizó al juego-ciencia desde que Alekhine (léase Aliejin) murió. Pero mientras rezamos para que eso ocurra, nos remontaremos ahora al lejano Baguío City (Filipinas) y al año 1978. Más concretamente a mediados de su mes de Julio. Aquel match fue el primero que seguí en profundidad. Yo tenía entonces 17 años. Y escribí un libro sobre el mismo (!?). No fue publicado, pero lo guardo hoy en día en mi estantería como si fuera un tesoro… . Durante 1972, la época del match del siglo, D. Antonio, un maestro de escuela de mi barrio de Somosierra nos intentó inculcar a los muchachos (sus hijos incluidos) el espíritu ampliamente competitivo de Bobby Fischer. Pero nosotros sólo nos limitábamos a escucharle (sin tener plena conciencia de sus palabras) entre partido y partido de fútbol… . Luego en 1974, ya el “virus del ajedrez” empezaba a apoderarse de muchos de nosotros y nos fuimos enterando más de lo que significaba estar en lo más alto del trono de Caissa. Llegó el triste día de la retirada de Bobby. Y entonces todos los muchachos de mi generación crecimos bajo la aureola triunfal de Kárpov, mientras leíamos con mucha atención, entre otras cosas, la biografía de Fischer.
Para este match voy a utilizar toda la bibliografía que tengo disponible que es bastante. Pero no me voy a detener a comentar las partidas usando la misma, porque lo que los grandes maestros han escrito sobre este encuentro es mucho, variado y en su mayor parte de buena calidad. Me limitaré solamente a indagar en los momentos más complejos del mismo con la ayuda de mi favorito módulo Rybka. Mientras espero a la versión IV, iremos utilizando la versión 3_32bit. La primera partida fue de tanteo. En realidad fue un match con una guerra psicológica muy fuerte. Korchnoi pidió jugar bajo pabellón suizo, pero le fue denegado. Al final se jugó el campeonato sin banderas. Momentos antes de empezar el mismo, todavía no habían piezas para usar. Gracias a la aportación de unas de un empresario de Manila, se pudo subsanar el problema, quince minutos antes de su comienzo!. Creo que motivados negativamente por todo aquel ambiente inicial, los ajedrecistas prefirieron dejar pasar la primera partida, porque entre otras cosas las tablas no contaban y se proclamaría vencedor el primero de ellos que consiguiese seis victorias. La partida fue un gambito de dama (Kárpov con negras) y pronto se sucedió un cambio de varias piezas que llevaron a una fácil posición de igualdad. Lo único medianamente reseñable de este cotejo fue que años más tarde, en Merano 1981 y luego en Moscú 1984, tanto Korchnoi como Kaspárov volvieron a jugar esta línea de juego contra Kárpov. Antes de pasar al desarrollo del cotejo que abre esta nueva serie de 32 partidas por un campeonato del mundo (os aseguro que voy a tardar bastante en terminarlas – no tengo prisa -) me gustaría relatarles cuál es la bibliografía que voy a utilizar para intentar descifrar con la ayuda de Rybka, los todavía enigmas que encierran muchas posiciones de aquellos enfrentamientos: - El libro de Keene sobre el campeonato. - El libro de Larsen sobre el campeonato. - El libro de Hartston sobre el campeonato. - El libro ruso (estilo informator) de antología de los campeonatos del mundo. - Mi libro basado fundamentalmente en los análisis de Román Torán. - Todo lo que ChessBase aporta sobre el campeonato: Análisis de Filip en el Informator, de Raúl Ocampo, de Mikhalevsky, de JvR (Jan van Reek), Luis Sieiro, Mednis, Donev, Dvoretsky, Jorge Luis Fernández y Scherbakov. - El libro Anatoli Kárpov, un virtuoso en los finales. - El Libro Soviet Chess de Soltis. - El libro Aprenda de sus derrotas, de Kárpov. - El libro de Angel Martín sobre Kárpov. - El libro Aprender y progresar de Kárpov. - El libro Mosaico Ajedrecístico de Kárpov y Gik. - El libro sobre Kárpov y Korchnoi de Mis Geniales Predecesores de Kaspárov. - El libro de las Leyendas del ajedrez, de Marin. - Un libro en ruso sobre Tolia. - El libro de la Edit. Paidotribo sobre Kárpov. - El libro de la editorial OLMS de Kárpov. - El libro de Técnica de Dvoretsky. - El libro de Mednis sobre Kárpov. - El libro Chess is My Life de Korchnoi. - Y el libro From Baguio to Merano, de Kárpov y Baturinsky. - La revista Jaque. - La revista British Chess Magazine. Y todo lo que más pueda encontrar entre miles de libros (que seguro que aparecerá) en lo que voy escribiendo estas apasionantes crónicas, que como siempre digo, espero que les gusten tanto como a mi elaborarlas. Eso sí, pretendo degustarlas como el que prueba un buen vino. Con calma y paciencia y sobre todo saboreándolas!. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 26 May 2010 00:32:25 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretos de Alcoba 71 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“24ª partida” y última del Mundial de 1966 entre Tigran Petrosian y Boris Spassky, cuando el mismo ya estaba decidido a favor del entonces campeón mundial, Petrosian. Coincidió nuestro relato final de este magno campeonato del mundo de 1966 con el comienzo del disputado en este año 2010, entre el campeón Anand y el aspirante Topálov. Se imponía por tanto dejar de escribir momentáneamente estas crónicas y disfrutar primero de las partidas en directo de este actual certamen, gracias al avance que supone hoy en día Internet. Una vez acabado el evento con el triunfo “in extremis” de Vishy Anand, retomamos pues ahora la última crónica de nuestro mundial de 1966. El 24º cotejo fue otro encuentro muy difícil de jugar para el campeón Petrosian. Pero esta vez, con blancas, al menos planteó una partida en donde siempre obtuvo la iniciativa. Spassky consideraba la posibilidad de igualar el match, sobre todo a efectos del reparto de premios, pues en caso de empate final bien era sabido que los 20.000 francos suizos se repartirían entre ambos contendientes ¡en partes iguales!.
Acababa pues, oficialmente, este Campeonato Mundial de 1966 con la victoria de Petrosian por 12,5-11,5 puntos. El resumen final podría ser que Petrosian mereció el triunfo debido a una excelente preparación teórica y a una clara ¡agudeza táctica! que invalidó los esfuerzos de Boris Spassky que declaró al término del encuentro no conocer el método óptimo para “coger” a Petrosian (!?). Sigue la partida sin comentarios, pues no merece la pena darle excesiva importancia deportiva y una bonita foto que bien muestra la actitud de todo un campeón ante el tablero de ajedrez!. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 26 May 2010 00:28:06 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indagando en Baguio City 1978 (I) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Partida complementaria a la 2ª partida del mundial de Baguio: Fischer-Larsen, Piatigorsky Cup 1966. Después de haber comentado en http://www.ajedrezcanarias.com (Secretos de Alcoba) el mundial entre Tigran Petrosian y Boris Spassky de 1966 con el apoyo de los mejores módulos informáticos, empezamos ahora a investigar, también en la misma web, sobre uno de los campeonatos del mundo más polémicos de los últimos tiempos, el celebrado en la ciudad filipina de Baguio City entre Anatoli Kárpov y Viktor Korchnoi. Me he propuesto también sólo indagar en las variantes críticas, para probar la fuerza de los módulos (sobre todo del que seguro que será nuevamente aclamado “Rybka IV” que en breve saldrá al mercado-!?). Para hacerlo más ameno, utilizaremos mientras hacemos este nuevo trabajo, que próximamente irá saliendo a la luz, poquito a poco, en "ajedrezcanarias.com", este blog de noticias del ajedrez tinerfeño, para ir comentando las partidas complementarias críticas sobre aquel campeonato del mundo. En la primera partida de aquel evento, poco se pudo contar de la apertura, que no sea que luego Kárpov volvió a enfrentarla con Korchnoi en Merano 1981 y contra Kaspárov en Moscú 1984. Sin embargo, el desarrollo a nivel de la apertura de la segunda partida sí que fue interesante. Korchnoi, con negras, siguió una receta de Bent Larsen, que éste utilizara para derrotar a Bobby Fischer en Santa Mónica 1966. Merece la pena comentar esa "partida complementaria" aquí, para el gran público, con más letras que variantes. Bobby, raro en él, sufrió en el ataque que desarrolló ¡una alucinación!. Veamos qué fue lo que le sucedió y no desesperen que pronto Samuel Correa colgará en http://www.ajedrezcanarias.com este match por el campeonato del mundo de Baguio 1978. ¡No se lo pierdan!: Fischer,Robert James - Larsen,Bent [C82]La idea es comentar brevemente, para el gran público: 1.e4 e5 2.Cf3 Cc6 3.Ab5 Apertura española. 3...a6 4.Aa4 Cf6 5.0-0 Cxe4 La Variante Abierta. 6.d4 b5 7.Ab3 d5 8.dxe5 Ae6 9.c3 Ac5 10.Cbd2 0-0 11.Ac2 Af5 Una línea que estaba en boga y que Bent Larsen había estudiado en profundidad, hasta llegar a escribir en aquel tiempo un libro sobre ella. 12.Cb3 Ag4 13.Cxc5 Cxc5 14.Te1 Diagram | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 24 May 2010 14:24:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| La chronique échecs de Samir | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A voir avec modération ! C'est le titre de la chronique hebdo sur les échecs de notre ami Samir. Prenez donc le temps de découvrir son nouvel article du journal Paris-Normandie, un surprenant voyage dans le monde des cases blanches et noires, raconté avec passion chaque semaine sur notre site échiquéen. Laam - Jamais loin de toi Au sommaire, un mat en 2 coups signé K. Hasenzahl, tiré du périodique Hamburger Problem-Nachrichten, de 1948. Puis, Samir nous offre la partie Reinisch - Traxler dont la combinaison de mat est fabuleuse. Aux échecs, les combinaisons nous éblouissent par la beauté et la clarté de leur conception. Celle-ci illumine depuis plus d’un siècle le ciel de l’échiquier. Place ensuite à la curiosité de la semaine. Aussi incroyable que cela puisse paraître, dans la partie Heidenfeld – Kerins de 1973, les blancs ont roqué deux fois : ils ont fait le petit roque au 10e coup et le grand roque au 33e coup ! Place alors à la technique avec la traditionnelle finale de la semaine entre Spassky et Antoshin. Puis une citation de Mikhaïl Tal (1936-1992), champion du monde, et pour finir ce festin de Roi, un piège d'ouverture. Merci Samir ! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 13 May 2010 23:09:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Fabulous 10s: The US Championship Begins! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The US Championship is underway in St. Louis!Rex Sinquefield’s gala event has started at the new USA Chess Mecca, St. Louis! Let’s kick things off with two cagey veterans battling: [Event "US Champ 2010"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 Dmitry remains true to his Classical Sicilian. 6. Bg5 Larry also has lots of experience with the Sozin 6. Bc4. 6…Qb6 7. Nb3 e6 8. Qe2!? Unusual. 8…a6(?!) Black misses a very cute potential tactic. Stronger is 8…Be7! hoping for 9. O-O-O O-O 10. g4 – plausible, right? This would seem to be the idea of 8. Qe2, since it occurred in the game too. Take a look at this for a second. Now black has the amazing shot 10…Nd5!! and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that move in this type of position. It at least equalizes in all lines! Rybka points out here the amazing 10…Nd5!! 11. exd5 Bxg5+ 12. f4 exd5 13. fxg5 and now guess the right move for black! Hint: it’s not obvious. 9. O-O-O Be7 10. g4 Qc7 11. Be3 b5 12. f4 b4 13. Na4 Rb8 14. Bg2 Na5 15. 19. Nb2 Bb5 20. Qf2 Qc7 21. h4 Rc8 22. Rd2 a5 23. h5 a4 24. bxa4 Ba6 25. Bf1 Bxf1 26. Qxf1 Qb7 27. Qg2 Nc5 28. Bxc5 Rxc5 29. Rf1 O-O 30. f5 Re8 31. Qg4? It was very unLarry-like to miss 31. f6!! Bf8 (31… Bd8 32. Rxd6 wins prosaically) 32. g6!! (Very aesthetic!) and wins. This position deserves a diagram. That would have been a real cruncher! The bone crushing conclusion would likely have won white the round’s brilliancy prize (I am saying this not knowing if there is one): 32. g6!! hxg6 33. hxg6 gxf6 (what else) 34. gxf7++ Kxf7 35. Rxf6+! (Of course!) 35…Kxf6 (35…Ke7 36. Rdf2 wins) 36. e5+! and wins the black queen – clearance motif! 31… exf5 32. exf5 Bf8 33. g6 Re4? Now black is lost again. 33… Qe4! puts up a good fight and the issue is not yet resolved. 34. Qg2 hxg6 35. hxg6 fxg6 36. fxg6 Rf5 37. Qh3 Rxf1+ 38. Rd1 1-0 And for Something DifferentI got this photo from ChessBase covering the Corus “C” group in 2010. It’s Nils Grandelius from Sweden; wouldn’t he fit into the Twilight series? Search Engine TermsReaders used these search terms to reach my site. Note, as always, the immense popularity of Russian supermodel Anne V. Some of the more mysterious phrases include “model boxing” and “levon altounian lightning.”
![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 15 May 2010 00:19:08 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Anand v Topalov - Final game | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The final game of the 2010 Anand v Topalov World Championship match is being played at the moment, although if it ends in a draw then we will see tie-breaks at a faster time control. At the moment they have reached the 25th move and Anand has the opportunity to make a 'silent' draw offer by allowing Topalov to repeat the position. The fact that they are going into the final game in a position where a draw may suit both players says to me that a 12 game match is far too short. I have always been a fan of the 24 game match, and none of the recent 12 game matches have changed my opinion. Apart from simply providing more chess I feel the longer matches provide a greater chance of a decisive result. At the moment neither player has to dig too deep into their opening prep, meaning a couple of solid systems is all that is required to at least split the match. Compare the narrow choice of openings in the more recent matches with the fact that Fischer v Spassky saw 8 different opening systems played over 21 games. With 11 out of the 12 games in this match starting with d4 the only really surprising opening choice was Anand's adoption of the Grunfeld. Otherwise it was a lot of what had been seen previously, with a similar kind of predictability on the scoreboard. Of course longer matches are unlikely to return, for financial reasons, but it would be nice to see a match where the players didn't just play for "two" results. *As I reached the end of this post Anand made the 'silent' offer, but Topalov declined to repeat the position. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 11 May 2010 13:52:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Echecs & Match : le Direct Live à 11h et 14h30 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Le Match des générations met aux prises, le champion du monde Senior le Croate Miso Cebalo, 65 ans, au champion du monde Junior, le Français Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 19 ans. | Echec à la Dame - Claire et ses radis Au programme du jour à Porto Vecchio, deux parties, jouées à la cadence 15'+3", retransmises en Direct Live à 11h (partie 1) puis 14h30 (partie 2). C'est une tradition corse d'organiser, chaque année, courant mai, au centre culturel de Porto Vecchio un match entre deux des meilleurs joueurs d'échecs du circuit international. S'étaient déroulés ainsi en 2006 le Match des légendes (Karpov-Spassky), en 2007 le Match des espoirs (Carlsen-Radjabov), en 2008 le Match des champions (Bacrot-Tkachiev), en 2009 le Match des championnes (Kosteniuk-Milliet). Ce match sera suivi par 350 scolaires la région qui disputeront, le même jour, leur tournoi scolaire. Ce jeune public pourra bénéficier des commentaires des formateurs de la ligue corse. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 11 May 2010 04:46:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Andor Lilienthal dies at 99 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In his long career, Lilienthal played against ten male and female world champions. He beat Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Botvinnik and Smyslov, as well as players like Bronstein, Larsen, Geller, Najdorf, Taimanov and Tartakower. Only three days ago he turned 99 years old. Today he passed away. Lilienthal was the oldest living grandmaster, and the last one from the original group of grandmasters awarded the title by FIDE in 1950: Botvinnik, Boleslavsky, Bondarevsky, Bronstein, Euwe, Fine, Flohr, Keres, Kotov, Lilienthal, Najdorf, Reshevsky, Smyslov, Ståhlberg, Szabó, Bernstein, Duras, Grünfeld, Kostic, Levenfish, Maróczy, Mieses, Ragozin, Rubinstein, Sämisch, Tartakower and Vidmar. Andor Arnoldovich Lilienthal was born May 5, 1911 in Moscow to Hungarian Jewish parents. He moved to Hungary at the age two. He learned playing chess quite late: when he was 16 years old. He quickly fell in love with the game and dreamt about playing with professional chess players. In Budapest he tried to play for money in cafes, as he told the magazine 64. One day he travelled to Vienna, where he played with Grünfeld. He would soon also meet Lasker, and Alekhine:
Indeed it was the time when chess was still largely played in coffee houses, and Lilienthal played at many of them and made his living this way. It was also where he first met with José Raoul Capablanca, who gave a simul in Vienna in 1929.
Lilienthal soon became strong enough to play in international chess tournaments. His career started in 1930, and his first opponent was 65-year-old Jacques Mieses, born in 1865.
Andor Lilienthal played for Hungary in three Chess Olympiads: Folkestone 1933 (scoring +7 =6 -0 as the reserve, the fifth player on the team), Warsaw 1935 (scoring +11 =8 -0 on second board), and Stockholm 1937 (scoring +9 =6 -2 on first board, leading his team to the silver medal). He won the individual gold medal for his board (reserve and second board, respectively) at the 1933 and 1935 Olympiads, and had the fourth-best result on first board in 1937. His total score in the Olympiads was a remarkable 75.51%. One game will always be connected with the name of Lilienthal. His evergreen was his win over Capablanca, played on January 1st, 1935 in Hastings.
20.exf6!! Qxc2 21.fxg7 Rg8 22.Nd4 Qe4 23.Rae1 Nc5 24.Rxe4+ Nxe4 25.Re1 Rxg7 26.Rxe4+ 1-0 Chessbase added the following paragraph to this game:
Emigrating to the Soviet Union in 1935, Lilienthal became a Soviet citizen in 1939. He played in the USSR Chess Championship eight times. His best result came in the 1940 championship, when he tied for first with Igor Bondarevsky, ahead of Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, Isaac Boleslavsky, Mikhail Botvinnik and fourteen other players. He qualified for the Candidates Tournament once, in 1948. From 1951 until 1960 he was Tigran Petrosian’s trainer. Lilienthal was a good friend of the recently deceased Vasily Smyslov, and was Smyslov’s second in his World Championship matches against Botvinnik. Lilienthal retired from tournament play in 1965 and returned to Hungary in 1976. His last tournament was Zamárdi 1980, where he finished sixth in the B group, scoring +3 =11 -1. His last game in the database is a draw against Emil Ungureanu. Lilienthal was 69, and rated 2385. Lilienthal was also a close friend of another World Champion he survived: Bobby Fischer. As Slobodan Adzic wrote five years ago for Chessbase:
As Dutch GM and author J. H. Donner noted, Lilienthal had the unique ending of two knights versus pawn not once, but twice in his career (Norman-Lilienthal, Hastings 1934 and Smyslov-Lilienthal, URS ch 1941): “The great natural talent Lilienthal had the endgame on the board twice in his life and on both occasions he failed to convert a winning position. Apparently, it was too difficult even for his very refined chess sensitivity.” Lilienthal was the last famous player of the pre-World War II era. From this period Lasker, Alekhine, Euwe, Capablanca, Rubinstein, Tarrasch and Nimzowitsch are still remembed, but not many more. The games we give below, prove how strong he really was – well into the 21st century, his strength is unjustly forgotten and underestimated. Kasparov only mentions Lilienthal once in his Great Predecessors series, when he includes Capablanca-Lilienthal, Moscow 1936. A classic, also according to Kasparov, so we’ve included it in the game viewer below. A few months ago Arne and I were talking about travelling from Amsterdam to Budapest, to interview Mr Lilienthal. He was clearly the only chess player in the world for whom we’d consider doing such a thing. Unfortunately we were too late. ![]() Andor Lilienthal at the Turin Olympiad in May 2006. It was the first international chess event I visited, before this had turned into a serious website. On June 5, 2006 I wrote: 'A photo I'm proud of. This is the last living player of the pre World War II era and the oldest grandmaster in the world. He beat Marshall, Tartakower, Alekhine and Capablanca. Everyone had to wear a badge in Turin; the players had access '1' (Olympic Village)', '2' (Residential Area) and '3' (Oval Access). We had the luxury to enter '4' (Parterre) and '5' (Media Area) as well. The fact that this gentleman had 1,2,3,4,5,6 on his badge, suggested that he had to be Lilienthal. And he was. And he didn't mind posing for a photo.' Game viewerGame viewer by ChessTempo Links | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 08 May 2010 17:29:42 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Echecs & Match : Cebalo face à Vachier-Lagrave | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
C'est une tradition corse d'organiser, chaque année, courant mai, au centre culturel de Porto Vecchio un match entre deux des meilleurs joueurs d'échecs du circuit international. S'étaient déroulés ainsi en 2006 le Match des légendes (Karpov-Spassky), en 2007 le Match des espoirs (Carlsen-Radjabov), en 2008 le Match des champions (Bacrot-Tkachiev), en 2009 le Match des championnes (Kosteniuk-Milliet).
Place en 2010 au Match des générations qui opposera le champion du monde Senior le Croate Miso Cebalo, 65 ans, au champion du monde Junior, le Français Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 19 ans. | Ce match sera suivi par 350 scolaires la région qui disputeront, le même jour, leur tournoi scolaire. Ce jeune public pourra bénéficier des commentaires des formateurs de la ligue corse. Au programme, deux parties, jouées à la cadence 15'+3", retransmises en Direct Live mardi 11 mai à 11h (partie 1) puis 14h30 (partie 2). Pour en savoir plus : La Ligue corse des échecs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 10 May 2010 04:56:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Torneo di Capodanno 20092010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(Foto tratta da scacchi.files.wordpress)Questa è senza dubbio la partita più attesa qui a Reggio Emilia, da un lato il nuovo genio degli scacchi Fabiano Caruana, dall'altro Gata Kamsky, l'ex pretendente al titolo mondiale. Caruana,F (2652) - Kamsky,G (2695) B18
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:20:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Florencio Campomanes, condolences from FIDE President and others | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() On behalf of the International Chess Federation, FIDE Presidential Board and myself, I wish to express my most sincere condolences to the family, the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and numerous fans of this great man on the unfortunate passing away of the Honorary FIDE President and my dearest friend Florencio Campomanes. He was known to the entire chess community as Campo – a personification and symbol of superior style, wisdom, diplomatic talent, brilliant professionalism and deep integrity. I had the greatest respect for him and will miss playing chess with him, his generous nature and sharing his remarkable sense of humor. For me, you will always remain in my heart. We will never forget what you have done for chess. You always served faithfully to this clever game and could save the chess world from splitting. You are a big loss to the chess world. I join his family, his wife and children in mourning. With deepest Sympathy, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov President of FIDE Head of the Republic of Kalmykia From National Chess Federation of the Philippines We have lost an institution. It is a great loss for Philippine chess and for world chess. He was a man who dedicated his whole life to the advancement of chess. Prospero A. Pichay, Jr. Chairman / President National Chess Federation of the Philippines From Asian Chess Federation Please extend our condolences to the family of Florencio Campomanes. Campo raised Asian chess to great heights. His work lives on in Asia and in the chess world. Thank you Campo. Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan President From Turkish Chess Federation I have just learnt that the father of the World chess, Honorary President Mr.Florencio Campomanes has passed away. Considering what he had contributed to World chess, and to Philippines, and to all us, I want to express my deep condolences for this important lost. On behalf of Turkish Chess Federation and myself, I wish patient to his Family, and to Philippine Chess Federation and to all World chess. We will make a ceremony in Turkey in very next chess event on his memorial for respect. Best regards, Gens Una Sumus… Ali Nihat YAZICI From Malaysian Chess Federation On behalf of the Malaysian Chess fraternity, it is with sadness that we send this condolence to the family of the late Campomanes. He was a leader among men and the king on the chess board. He was a friend of Malaysian Chess. Thank you, Campo. May you rest in peace. Dato' Tan Chin Nam, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib, Hamid, Laurence How, Quah Seng Sun, Lim Chong & Victor Vijiarungam From New Zealand Chess Federation I have just been made aware of the sad passing of FIDE Honorary President Florencio Campomanes. Would you please pass on our sincere condolences to officials at FIDE and also to the executive of the Philippines Chess Federation. I first met Campo in 1977 when he came to Auckland as Team Captain of the Philippines team to compete in the Asian Teams Championship and remember his great enthusiasm and passion for the game taking on everyone in blitz chess. I also bumped into him on several occasions at chess events around the world and last spoke to him at the Dato Tan Chess Festival in Kuala Lumpur in August last year. He will long be remembered as the driving force behind Asian and World chess during the the 1970's and 80's. Kind regards Paul Spiller President of NZ Chess Federation From International Committee of Silent Chess The death of Florencio Campomanes, Honorary President of FIDE (International Chess Federation) struck my heart. He was a President of FIDE from 1982 to 1995 and as a player has represented the Philippines in four editions of the FIDE Chess Olympiad. The ICSC President and the ICSC Board Member send my deepest condolences to the family of Campomanes. Michele Visco President of International Committee of Silent Chess From Armenian Chess federation Armenian Chess Federation, all the Armenian chess players and chess lovers are deeply saddened on the death of the great chess organizer, FIDE Honorary President Florencio Campomanes. Mr. Campomanes was very well known in Armenia. He has been in our country for many times and had a lot of relatives here. Please extend our deepest sympathy to his wonderful family. May we all find the strength and courage to get through the days ahead. With sincere simpathy, Armenian Chess Federation I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of my good friend, FIDE Honorary President Florencio Campomanes and I would like to express my sincere sadness and condolences to the world of chess and members of his family at this difficult time. I hope that his family will find peace and comfort in knowing that his suffering is over and that his just rewards await him. My thoughts and prayers will be with his family. Sincerely, Vanik Zakarian FIDE Honorary Vice-President I condole on the death of the FIDE Honorary President, Florencio Campomanes. During his many years in chess, his dedication and selfless nature was always something that many others could only hope to attain and all who knew him regarded him with great respect and admiration. He helped the chess move forward in great strides and his efforts and contributions will never be forgotten. Campo was very well known in Armenia where he has been frequently. Please, convey my heartfelt condolences to the relatives of the deceased. Sincerely, Gaguik Oganessian President, FIDE Zone 1.5 Adviser for Chess Media Project, FIDE From Nepal Chess Association My deep condolence for the demise of the Ex.Fide President Mr.Florencio Campomanes. We never forget his contribution towards the growth of global chess. Regards, Rajesh Hari Joshi President We are in great sadness knowing that Honorary FIDE President, Florencio Campomanes has passed away. Please convey my condolences to his family. Honorary FIDE President Campomanes was true friend of Nepal Chess and myself. With Regards. Bhawani Limbu Vice-President From Norwegian Chess Federation I was informed by the Turkish Chess Federation of your great loss. Campomanes was a very important part of the chess family. Our thoughts are with his family and many friends around the world. He will be remembered for his great work for the whole chess world. Please accept our deepest condolances. Jøran Aulin-Jansson President Norwegian Chess Federation I have received the sad news regarding Campo and it gives an opportunity to look back on the numerous occasions the last 20 years where I have had the pleasure to work with this extraordinary man. Not always did we see things the same way and some battles we fought were tough, but still we managed to maintain a good relationship in the best interest of chess. I have seldom come across a person of Campo’s strength, intellect and wisdom and he will always stand out from the crowd of chess leaders. Because of his work, chess is now organized in almost every corner of the world, and enjoys the respect and admiration this great game deserves. The first time we met was during the Open Norwegian Championship in 1983 where he participated as a player, and with success as he shared 2nd place without losing a single game. I was then a young arbiter and little did I know that our paths would cross so many times later. The Chess World has lost its great leader and since Campo was “one of a kind” we will never see his like again. Oslo, 3 May 2010 Morten Sand IA, Former FIDE Vice President From Indonesian Chess Federation On behalf of the Indonesian Chess Community I would like to express my condolences. May his soul go to heaven with his belief. And to the family may the Lord give them strength. Utut Adianto Deputy President From Ghana Chess Association Our hearts bled as we learnt with shock the death of Florencio Campomanes. This was one man who did so much for Ghana Chess during his tenure as FIDE President. Campo as he is affectionately called was very happy to see us in Dresden, Germany. He received us warmly and shared many memories with us on his visit to Ghana (the first and only by a sitting FIDE President). Ghana Chess has lost a true friend. Ghana Chess is dedicating its next competition (coming on on May 22, 2010) to the memory of Mr. Florencio Campomanes. Please accept our condolence. Eddie Thompson Vice Chairman of Ghana Chess Association From Boris Spassky Please accept my sincere condolences on the occasion of passing away Mr. Florencio Campomanes. I have always cherished correct and friendly relations with Florencio, and during the political opposition between Korchnoi and Karpov he showed outstanding diplomatic talent. He managed to preserve the chess world from its split. Bagio 1978 and his further Presidency are evidence to this. Boris V. Spassky 10th World Champion From Arab Chess Federation On behalf of the Arab Chess Federation, and Arab Board members I am sending my deep sadness and sincere condolences to FIDE family on the death of the FIDE Honorary President, Florencio Campomanes, who pass away this week. He was a great man how developed chess in many countries especially in Arab region. He was a friend of us as well known in Arab Countries especially of Emirates. I would like to express my sincere sadness and condolences to his family. Sincerely, Ibrahim Al Bannai President of Arab Chess Federation From GM Dr. Wong Meng Kong I last met Campo in September 2009 in Manila when he came for the closing ceremony of the GMA cup. He was in good spirits, had fully recovered from the Turkish car accident, but then already had prostate cancer which had spread, so he decided against spending much of his limited finances on expensive but probably ineffective drugs, wanting to pass something on to his family. We'll miss his wit, his domineering presence, and his passion for developing Asian chess. From Dr. Andrzej Filipowicz Campo was the best FIDE President in the history. He made so much for chess and FIDE. I respected him very much. We met each other in the 1960 during the chess Olympiad in Leipzig. We start be friends in the 1966 Olympiad in Havana. His room was close to mine and we played first blitz games. Later on I played many hundred blitz games with him, in Poland, even in my home, in Argentine (1992), drinking even three botles of wine during games and also in many other countries. I had with him a lot of meetings official and private. I liked very much to discuss with him on many matters.. Sometimes we had the different opinions expressing them quite sharp, but I remember well that after exchanging some different conceptions, we still were good friends. Last time I saw him in Dresden, during Chess Olympiad, I was sitting with him on the stage and talking a few times. He called to me many times during many years just to say a few words or clarify some questions. My last conversation was in June 2009 by the phone, just before the FIDE PB in Krakow. He called to me twice and I called once to talk about his arrival to Krakow. But he was already too sick to travel. I lost a good friend and we lost the most clever chess Organizer in the World. He was also a fantastic speaker and an actor. He was a real leader of the Chess World many years, over 20 I think. Regards Andrzej Filipowicz From Georgian Chess Federation Passed away the World movement’s famous representative, the honour President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) Florencio Campomanes. As the big chess manager Florencio Campomanes input an important a lot of share in development of chess popularization in the World. The Georgian Chess Federation on behalf of legendary chess players is very sorry because of death of Campomanes and is sending its condolence to his family. With the Best Regards President Giorgi Giorgadze From Continental President for America With deep worry I received the news of Campo passing away. Although it was expected it was a shock for me. Campo was the spearhead that boomed chess to a really planetary level, it is impossible to write chess history without mentioning him. He understood the way to do it, supported a lot of small and "weak" federations through CACDEC program and let them to join the top, scores of titleholders coming entered the FRL in a way that was impossibe to think in the past. Perhaps his biggest sucsses was to show that FIDE Presidence could be won by a member of a small Federation. As a close friend of him I shared the good and bad moments, his 1982 campaign, the division of chess and the aftermath. I hereby express my deepest condolence to his family being sure that he will remain forever in our thoughts. Jorge Vega Continental President for America | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 05 May 2010 06:05:50 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| sobre el VISOR en PAGINA APARTE pETROSIAN Y SPASSKY | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Este visor es solo probando .... ya saldrá como es debido en breve ... espero !! Aqui hay solo algunas partidas de ejemplo pero en el futuro esperamos poder poner las nuestras ... !!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 02 May 2010 02:41:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Anand scores a brilliant win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I recently purchased a copy of "Heroes of Classical Chess" by Craig Pritchett. It covered a group of players (Rubenstein, Smyslov, Fischer, Anand and Carlsen) who Pritchett felt played chess in a "classically direct" style. In his introduction he admits that "style" is an elusive quaility, but he defines the "classically direct" style as having in part "a fundamental sense of analytical correctness". Clearly game 4 of the current World Championship Match is evidence of Anand's expertise in this regard. Cleverly choosing an opening system designed to keep the game on his terms, rather than Topalov's, he aimed for a position that wasn't aggressive of defensive, but one that was simply good (in the sense that he could dictate the course of the game). As it turned out that the position he achieved offered him good attacking chances, which he then exploited with a brilliant sacrificial attack. If some commentators felt that 15.Qa3 in game 2 was reminiscent of Fischer's 11. ... Nh5 in Game 3 of the 1972 match against Spassky, then this game could be compared with Fischer's win in Game 6 in the same match, in both style and significance. Anand,Viswanathan (2787) - Topalov,Veselin (2805) [E04] ![]() WCh Sofia BUL (4), 28.04.2010 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 a5 7.Qc2 Bxd2+ 8.Qxd2 c6 9.a4 b5 10.Na3 Bd7 11.Ne5 Nd5 12.e4 Nb4 13.0-0 0-0 14.Rfd1 Be8 15.d5 Qd6 16.Ng4 Qc5 17.Ne3 N8a6 18.dxc6 bxa4 19.Naxc4 Bxc6 20.Rac1 h6 21.Nd6 Qa7 22.Ng4 Rad8 (D) 23.Nxh6+ gxh6 24.Qxh6 f6 25.e5 Bxg2 26.exf6 Rxd6 27.Rxd6 Be4 28.Rxe6 Nd3 29.Rc2 Qh7 30.f7+ Qxf7 31.Rxe4 Qf5 32.Re7 1-0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:05:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Progressez aux échecs avec Jean Hébert ! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chaque semaine, le maître international canadien d'échecs Jean Hébert nous propose sa Newsletter. A la Une, un départ percutant pour le championnat du monde d'échecs. Aux échecs, les championnats du monde ont l'habitude de commencer lentement. En général les joueurs s'observent avec précaution, d'abord dans l'intention de connaître les ouvertures sur lesquelles l'adversaire a l'intention de baser sa stratégie de match. Mais pour Anand et Topalov la guerre a débuté dès le premier coup de la première partie! D'abord une victoire écrasante du Bulgare, apparemment mieux préparé pour une défense Gruenfeld dont Anand n'est pas un grand spécialiste. Puis dès le lendemain, le champion réplique avec une belle victoire stratégique sinon psychologique, entraînant son adversaire dans un milieu de partie sans dame avec un plan de jeu difficile à tracer. Y-a-t-il déjà eu un championnat du monde avec une partie décisive de chaque côté pour inaugurer le match ? En 1954, Botvinnik avait remporté les deux premières parties contre l'aspirant Smyslov, puis en 1972, Spassky gagne la 1ère contre Fischer, de même que la seconde, mais cette fois par défaut, car l'Américain proteste contre la présence des caméras qui filment le match.
| | En fait, il faut retourner aux deux matchs entre Alekhine et Euwe de 1935 et 1937 pour voir deux parties décisives d'entrée de jeu. Dans les deux cas, les deux premières parties avaient été remportées par les Blancs. | de Jean Hébert dans | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:34:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretos de Alcoba 70 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“23ª partida” del Mundial de 1966 entre Tigran Petrosian y Boris Spassky, cuando el mismo ya estaba decidido a favor del entonces campeón mundial, Petrosian. ¿Cómo explicar esta vigésimotercera partida de aquel match?. Como muy bien dijo el GM belga y árbitro principal del duelo, Alberic O’Kelly, no se le puede decir al que está harto de comer que coma con apetito. Petrosian, venía ya de las celebraciones resultantes de su renovación del título tras la partida 22. No estaba para jugar el ajedrez de “alta tensión” que requiere un campeonato mundial. Realizó con negras, tras una defensa francesa, un plan de juego muy dudoso, permitiendo que le doblaran dos peones en el flanco de dama y sobre todo dejando que Spassky simplificara la posición lo suficiente como para llegar a un final técnicamente ganado por las piezas blancas, como así sucedió. Moralmente no podemos comentar esta partida, ni tan siquiera buscando mejoras para el entonces campeón del mundo. ¡Y no lo vamos a hacer!.
Pero como estamos ofreciendo esta serie de interesantes crónicas sobre el campeonato del mundo celebrado en 1966, que comenzamos a narrarles el 1 de Febrero de este año, ¡nobleza obliga!. Ahora, lo que si merece la pena es adornar la “partida sin comentarios” con una foto de la época en donde vemos a Petrosian, teléfono en mano, ofreciendo entrevistas tras haber revalidado brillantemente su título. ¿Quién iba a pensar en jugar bien al ajedrez entonces, si todo eran felicitaciones, fiestas y alegrías?… . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:53:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Youngest chess author shares secrets - Joplin Independent | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 18 Apr 2010 23:29:05 GMT+00:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretos de Alcoba 69 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“22ª partida” del Mundial de 1966 entre Tigran Petrosian y Boris Spassky. Victoria de Petrosian que le hizo automáticamente renovar su título de campeón del mundo al alcanzar los 12 puntos exigidos para ello. El marcador quedaba entonces situado en un 12-10 para el gran maestro armenio. Se tenía todavía que disputar al menos una partida más para dictaminar un posible vencedor del match, pero lo importante estaba por fin conseguido. Boris Spassky no había alcanzado pues su propósito. Su repertorio de aperturas en este match dejó mucho que desear. De hecho el análisis histórico (siempre tan objetivo) nos enseña que tres años más tarde, en 1969, Spassky que de nuevo se clasificó para enfrentarse contra Petrosian, sí que llegó a aquel match con la lección bien aprendida y haciendo entonces uso de variantes de aperturas mucho más clásicas, pudo por fin doblegar a su rival.
Merece la pena ahora reproducirla con las opiniones de los módulos de análisis en los momentos críticos. Con la disputa de la siguiente partida, la vigésimotercera, quedaba por tanto de momento la “honrilla” del aspirante en juego. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 18 Apr 2010 10:12:26 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretos de Alcoba 68 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“21ª partida” del Mundial de 1966 entre Tigran Petrosian y Boris Spassky. Fue representativa del llamado “arte de la defensa”. ¡Qué bien planteó la apertura Petrosian!. En realidad rozó la perfección. Spassky necesitaba atacar a toda costa para intentar empatar de nuevo el match, pero el gran maestro armenio, no lo dejó. Contragolpeó en el centro con una idea de su entrenador Boleslavsky y luego protegió magníficamente su flanco de rey. Permitió que Spassky tomara la siempre peligrosa columna “h” pero en realidad esta vez fue más por apariencia que por pura efectividad. Con este empate a Petrosian le quedaban dos partidas con blancas y una sóla con negras. La posibilidad de remontar para Spassky era realmente mínima. Petrosian se dirigía firme hacia la reválida de su título de campeón del mundo.
Adorna el artículo una foto de aquel tiempo de Petrosian “relajándose”, con otro juego de mesa, con su esposa Rona, que siempre controló muy bien los pasos de su marido por el Olympo del ajedrez. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:06:49 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretos de Alcoba 67 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“20ª partida” del Mundial de 1966 entre Tigran Petrosian y Boris Spassky. Poco tiempo le duró la alegría a Boris Spassky. El “tigre” Petrosian, sintiéndose herido, planteó una buena apertura contra la nueva Defensa Nimzoindia jugada por Spassky en esta partida. Fue la décimotercera variante de apertura diferente en este match (!?). Petrosian pronto quedó con mejor posición y pareja de alfiles. Avanzó por el flanco de dama, donde tenía el control de la columna “b” y consiguió una posición prácticamente ganadora. Fue sin duda una gran partida estratégica del campeón del mundo. Lo cierto es que pudo haberla rematado mucho tiempo antes de cuando lo hizo, según análisis del genio de Riga, Mikhail Tal. Permitió con una imprecisión que Spassky obtuviera contrajuego. ¡Y de milagro no se salvó!. El público presente disfrutó muchísimo porque vió posibilidades de tablas para el aspirante. Pero un error de éste al final, permitió retomar la ventaja a Petrosian, que ya no la soltó. Era muy difícil que el campeón armenio fallara dos veces en un mismo cotejo!.
Parecía difícil entonces que Spassky pudiese salir vivo de aquel encuentro. No obstante ambos rivales se tenían un enorme respeto mutuo, como muy bien muestra la foto de esta crónica, tomada después de una partida de aquel match, donde todavía tenían ánimos para hablar “con deportividad” sobre ella… . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:01:37 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretos de Alcoba 66 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
“19ª partida” del Mundial de 1966 entre Tigran Petrosian y Boris Spassky. ¡Por fin ganó Spassky e igualó el match!. Pero bien es verdad que fue por los apuros de tiempo de Petrosian. En realidad la línea de juego ofrecida por el maestro armenio no daba más que para defenderse. Quedó inferior toda la partida. Pero fue muy difícil concretar para Boris Spassky. Los maestros analistas apostaron por el juego de las blancas. Criticaron algunos movimientos del campeón del mundo. Pero para los módulos informáticos, la situación no fue tan delicada para Petrosian, como pareció… . Ofrecen dos bonitas líneas salvadoras para Tigran.
Pero había un importante hándicap para el aspirante: De las cinco partidas restantes, tres las iba a jugar con las piezas negras. Y eso en un match es muy peligroso. Y si enfrente estaba el “maestro de la defensa”, pues mucho más aún. Frotémonos realmente las manos pensando en lo que nos queda aún por ver … . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:01:07 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mis partidas, mis libros y mis cosas. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mi enhorabuena a Pia que aparte de jugar muy bien es muy sencilla y simpática. Mi primer libro de ajedrez me lo regalaron mis primos de la plaza cuando yo era un pequeñajo, no sé como se titula pues le faltan las pastas, es de Román Torán y aparte de trucos tácticos nos hace un resumen de la historia del ajedrez con biografías y partida de cada uno de los campeones del mundo desde Steinitz hasta Spassky (creo que también venía Fischer pero esa hoja no la tengo), me gustaba mucho leerlo y desde entonces he comprado un montón. "El maestro de la improvisación" de David Bronstein, es muy ameno y nos acerca al tal David como un genio sencillo, humilde, fiel,... fantástico, además era muy barato. "Como ganar a tu papá al ajedrez" de Murray Chandler, este lo compré para mejorar el ajedrez de mis niños y me gustó tanto que compré el siguiente de Chandler (tácticas de ajedrez para niños), los dos son estupendos y muy didácticos. "Mis geniales predecesores vol I" de Garry Kasparov, una de mis últimas adquisiciones, empecé por el vol II, III, IV, V y dejé este primer volumen de la colección para el final, imprescindibles para los que nos gusta el ajedrez. "El ataque Trompowsky" de Jesús de la Villa, lo compré hace unos cinco años a raiz de una conversación en el chat de ajedrez21 con Antonio Torrecillas (atorreci), yo siempre salía de rey y el me dijo que este libro era bueno para aprender una linea desconocida saliendo de dama para los que sólo jugábamos 1.e4 y la verdad es que es cierto, posteriormente he comprado otro libro de finales del mismo autor y tanto uno como otro los uso con frecuencia. No he comentado mis últimas tres partidas de la liga canaria (rondas 7, 8 y 9) así que al ataque: Ronda 7.- Gané con negras a Pedro Ruiz del Anand "B", me salió con d4 y traté de montar una especie de defensa merano pero aquello salió de otra forma y en la jugada 8 no sabía como continuar, decidí complicar un poco el follón de piezas y peones que había en el centro y avancé mi peón de c6 un pasito, a la postre me dijo que era mala y de hecho en el intercambio que se produjo quedé con peón de menos, pero mi rey estaba cómodo en el enroque y mis piezas jugaban fácil, conseguí iniciativa que logré transformar en ventaja decisiva en un final ventajoso. Ronda 8.- Esta vez en casa con el Vecindario"C" frente al San Andrés "C" volví a ganar, volví a llevar las negras y monté una siciliana que tuvo poca mordiente, partida equilibrada y aburrida en el medio juego con simples cambios, final de damas 4 torres y peones en el que me llevé el gato al agua tras un doble a rey y torre favorecido por el escaso tiempo de Rodriguez Muela J. ![]() Ronda 9.- Repito en casa con el Vecindario"B", soy tercer tablero y me toca Romen (por cuarta vez este curso escolar y todas yo de blancas), salgo con 1.d4 para evitar su francesa, c5, creo que me quiere jugar el gambito Volga así que no tomo y tras 2.c3, g6 3.Af4,d5 4.Cf3, cxd4 estoy fuera de teoría y juego a desarrollar, enrocar y ver que pasa. Mis sensaciones son de que estoy algo mejor y trato de atacar pero su posición es sólida y repele el intento, mis piezas se baten en retirada perdiendo un peón y después otro más por el camino, entonces pienso que tengo la partida perdida y trato de cambiar un par de piezas y mi peón "e" provocándole peones doblados y alfiles distintos y sin quererlo ni beberlo observo que mis piezas tienen mucha actividad, recupero un peón con 25.Dxd5+ y encuentro amenazas por todos lados, se defiende como un fenómeno pero al final el pto se queda en casa. Romen es de esos jugadores que siempre tienen una sonrisa, cuando sea pequeño quiero ser como Romen. ... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:53:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IV Torneo Internacional Ciudad de La Laguna (I) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Primera ronda. ¡Bajo el influjo de Capablanca! Comenzó la ¡Universiada Lagunera!. La IV edición de un Open Internacional que siempre brilla a gran altura: http://www.lalagunainternacionalajedrez.com/ . No se pudo ver hoy en día en toda Canarias un espectáculo cultural que supere a la partida de ajedrez que comentamos a continuación. Corresponde a la disputada por el gran maestro cubano Lázaro Bruzón en esta primera ronda de la competición. Después de José Raúl Capablanca, Cuba ha dado al mundo del ajedrez buenos ajedrecistas, pero no cabe duda que tanto Leinier Domínguez como Lázaro Bruzón son dos de los mejores jugadores cubanos de todas las épocas (!?). En este evento de La Laguna, los tinerfeños tenemos ahora la suerte de poder presenciar en directo las partidas de Bruzón. ¡Todo un lujo para el buen aficionado al juego-ciencia! que tendrá la oportunidad de degustar su talento ajedrecístico. El contrincante de hoy del maestro cubano fue el veterano ajedrecista local Luis Darias, que con 73 años de edad, está curtido en mil y un combates ante el tablero. Ha sido un ídolo de muchos aficionados tinerfeños que siempre veíamos en él a todo un referente del ajedrez local. Sin embargo poco pudo hacer Darias para contener el gran brío ajedrecístico de Bruzón. No cabe duda que su partida fue toda un “auténtico dechado de perfección”. ¡Les invito a que la vean ahora conmigo!. Bruzon Bautista,Lazaro (2641) - Darias Darias,Luis (1931) [B00] IV Torneo Internacional de La Laguna La Laguna (1), 05.04.2010 [Jimenez,A sobre notas de RobboLito] Analiza RobboLito 0.085g3 w32. 1.e4 a6 El veterano jugador local Luis Darias, de 73 años, tiene su propio recetario particular. 2.d4 e6 3.Cf3 b5 4.Ad3 Ab7 La defensa del fianchetto de dama, una idea de Nimzovich. 5.0-0 Ae7 [5...c5 6.c3 Cf6 7.e5 Cd5 8.dxc5 Axc5 9.Cbd2 Ae7 10.Ce4 Cc6 11.a4 bxa4 12.Ag5 f6 13.exf6 gxf6 14.Ah6 Dc7 15.Txa4 a5 16.Cd4 1/2-1/2 Hawksworth,J (2340)-Short,N (2510)/London 1984] 6.Te1 [En la primera edición del torneo al propio Darias le jugaron: 6.a4 b4 7.Cbd2 d6 8.De2 Cf6 9.e5 Cfd7 10.Ce4 Axe4 11.Dxe4 d5 12.Dg4 Rf8 13.Cg5 g6 14.h4 h5 15.Df3 Axg5 16.Axg5 De8 17.Axg6 Cc6 18.Df4 Cxd4 19.Ah6+ Rg8 20.Ad3 Txh6 21.Dxh6 f5 22.exf6 Df7 23.Tfe1 Cxf6 24.Te5 1-0 Eggleston,D (2284)-Darias Darias,L (2029)/La Laguna 2007] 6...d6 [6...Cf6 7.a4 b4 8.c4 bxc3 9.bxc3 c5 10.e5 Cd5 11.Ae4 Dc8 12.c4 f5 13.Axd5 exd5 14.Cc3 dxc4 15.d5 0-0 16.a5 d6 17.e6 Af6 18.Ab2 Cc6 19.Ca4 Axb2 20.Cxb2 Ce7 21.Cxc4 Axd5 22.Cb6 Dc6 23.Cxa8 Dxa8 24.Tb1 Tf6 25.Tb6 Dd8 26.Db1 Tf8 27.Cg5 Cc8 28.Cf7 De7 29.Txa6 Axe6 30.Cxd6 Cxd6 31.Db6 Td8 32.Txe6 Ce4 33.g3 Dd7 34.Dc6 Dd1+ 35.Rg2 Dh5 36.Ta8 Txa8 37.Dxa8+ Rf7 1-0 Prie,E (2435)-Lebel,P (2255)/Challes 1990] 7.c3 Cd7N Diagram [7...g5 8.a4 bxa4 9.Ca3 h5 10.Cc4 g4 11.Cfd2 Ch6 12.Txa4 Ac6 13.Ta5 h4 14.Th5 Af6 15.Cf1 Ag7 16.Ag5 f6 17.Axh6 Txh6 18.Dxg4 Txh5 19.Dxh5+ Re7 20.d5 Ae8 21.Dg4 1-0 Roa Alonso,S (2367)-Ramos Aldoradin,J (2047)/San Fernando 2005] 8.a4! Interrogando la estructura negra y obligando a la jugada que sigue donde el alfil de "b7" quedará mal ubicado. En http://www.ajedrezcanarias.com, en mi sección "Secretos de Alcoba" estoy recordando el match por el título de campeón del mundo entre Petrosian y Spassky de 1966. No se pierdan la crónica de la vigésimosegunda partida (todavía no ha salido a la luz) en donde casualmente Petrosian aplicó el mismo plan que ahora aplica Bruzón aquí, ¡ambos con el mismo éxito posicional!. 8...c6 9.Cbd2+/= Estable ventaja posicional. 9...e5 [9...Cgf6 10.b4 Dc7 11.Cb3+/=] 10.b3 [10.c4!? y si las negras tratan de buscar un inmediato contrajuego con 10...g5 sigue 11.h3 h5 12.axb5 axb5 13.Txa8 Dxa8 14.cxb5 g4 15.hxg4 hxg4 16.Ch2 g3 17.fxg3 Cgf6 18.Chf3 exd4 19.Cxd4 Ce5 20.bxc6 Axc6 21.De2+/-] 10...g5 [10...Cgf6 11.axb5 axb5 12.Txa8 Axa8 13.c4 exd4 14.Cxd4 Ce5 15.Ab1 0-0 16.cxb5 cxb5 17.Ab2 (17.Cxb5 Db6 18.De2+/=) 17...b4 18.De2+/=] 11.Cf1! buscándole un hueco importante al caballo. 11...h6 [11...h5 12.Cg3 g4 13.Cd2 Cgf6 14.Cf5+/-] 12.Ce3! Diagram ![]() El gran maestro cubano parece que se mueve bajo el "influjo" de su paisano José Raúl Capablanca y pronto se dirige hacia "f5", una casilla totalmente debilitada por el impulsivo juego de las negras. 12...b4 Darias trata de buscar contrajuego a toda costa. [12...Af8 13.Dc2 Ce7 14.dxe5 dxe5 15.h3+/-] 13.Ab2+- La posición de las negras se puede considerar estratégicamente perdida. [13.cxb4 Cgf6 (13...exd4 14.Cxd4 d5 15.Cef5 Axb4 16.exd5+ Axe1 17.Dxe1+ Ce7 18.dxc6+-) 14.Ab2+-] 13...bxc3 14.Axc3 f6 Difícil sugerir algo. Todas las casillas blancas han quedado debilitadas. [14...Dc7 15.Dd2 c5 16.dxe5 Cxe5 17.Cf5 Rf8 18.Tad1 Cf6 19.Cxe5 dxe5 20.Aa5 Dc6 21.Db2 Cd7 22.Ac4 Th7 23.Te3 Te8 24.Ad5 Dc8 25.Ted3 Cf6 26.Ac4 Axe4 27.Cxe7+-] 15.Cf5! El caballo ¡a la garita!, como diría Nimzovich. [15.Ac4 Rf8 16.Ta2 Dc7 17.dxe5 dxe5 18.Aa5+-] 15...Rf8 pues el caballo apuntaba más tarde o más temprano a visitar "e6" vía "g7". 16.Ac4! [16.Cd2 c5 17.d5 h5 18.Cc4+-] 16...h5 17.dxe5 [17.Ta2 Ac8 18.Td2 Dc7 19.dxe5 Cxe5 20.Cxd6 Cxc4 21.bxc4+-] 17...dxe5 [17...Cxe5 18.C5d4 Re8 19.Ce6 Db8 20.Cg7+ Rf8 21.Cxe5 fxe5 22.Ce6+ Re8 23.Aa5+-] 18.Ta2! Diagram ![]() ¡Qué espectáculo para el intelecto!. La torre pasa también al ataque por el camino más corto. 18...Dc7 [18...De8 19.Td2 Ac8 20.Cd6 Axd6 21.Txd6 Rg7 22.Dd2+-] 19.Td2! Td8 20.Te3! Todas las piezas blancas son importantes. Se amenaza triplicación por la columna "d". [20.Cxe7 Rxe7 21.Cxg5 fxg5 22.Df3 Ch6 23.Dxh5 Cf6 24.Dg6 Tdf8 25.Dxg5 Cf7 26.Axf7 Rxf7 27.Axe5 De7 28.Axf6 Dxf6 29.Td7+ Re8 30.Dxf6 Txf6 31.Txb7+-] 20...Cc5 [20...Cb6 21.Txd8+ Dxd8 22.Td3 De8 23.Cxg5 fxg5 24.Axe5 Th7 25.Tf3 Dd7 26.Cxe7+ Rxe7 27.Dc1+-] 21.Cxe7 [21.Cxe5 fxe5 22.Axe5 Txd2 23.Ag7+ Re8 24.Dxd2+-] 21...Txd2 22.Dxd2 [22.Cg6+ Rg7 23.Dxd2 Rxg6 24.Ab4+-] 22...Cxe7 Diagram ![]() 23.Cxe5!! Toda sinfonía estratégica tiene que terminar con un brillante golpe táctico. ¡Cómo marcan los cánones!. 23...Rg7 [23...fxe5 24.Tf3++-; 23...Ac8 24.Cd3 Cd7 25.Tf3 Re8 26.Axf6 Cxf6 27.Txf6+-] 24.Cf7! Y Luis Darias, agobiado ya por el reloj y cansado de soportar tanta presión decidió abandonar en una posición completamente perdida. Gran partida de Lázaro Bruzón en su estreno en la UNIVERSIADA LAGUNERA!. Viva Cuba!. Viva Capablanca!, Viva Leinier Domínguez! y como no, ¡Viva Lázaro Bruzón!. Bienvenido a Tenerife, maestro!. Lo seguiremos con lupa!!. [24.Cf7 Cd5 (24...Tf8 25.Axf6+ Rxf6 26.Tf3+ Rg6 27.Dxg5+ Rh7 28.Dh6+ Rg8 29.Dh8#) 25.Cxh8 Cxc3 (25...Cxe3 26.Dxe3 Rxh8 27.Dxg5+-) 26.Dxc3 Rxh8 27.Dxf6+ Dg7 28.Tf3 Dxf6 29.Txf6+-] 1-0 Un saludo. Angel Jiménez Arteaga http://www.ajedrezcanarias.com (Secretos de Alcoba) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:56:00 +0000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fischer-Spassky 1992 sponsor extradited to Serbia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last April the fugitive Serbian banker Jezdimir Vasiljevic was arrested in Holland for submitting false asylum documents. He was on the most wanted list in his country, accused of stealing more than $130 million in a Ponzi scheme. Some of this went to the 1992 rematch between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. On Friday Vasiljevic was extradited to Serbia, as the New York Times reports. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pomar-Vallejo o Vallejo-Pomar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Paco Vallejo tiene en la actualidad 27 años y está jugando un gran torneo de Linares 2010, que en el momento de escribir esta crónica, va por el último día de descanso a la espera de que se desarrollen las dos rondas finales que le quedan. En la séptima jornada estuvo a punto de vencer al GM armenio Levon Aronian, en gran estilo. Lo cierto es que no lo logró por muy poco (!?). Hay que decir que Vallejo tiene mucho talento, como en su momento lo tuvo otro paisano suyo, Arturo Pomar. Ojeando un viejo periódico de Chess Life (que luego se convertiría en revista) del 20 de Enero de 1955, me encontré con una partida comentada de Pomar, bastante inédita en España. Se trata de una disputada en el US Open del año 1954, que Pomar, entonces con 23 años de edad, empató en el primer puesto (!?) con Larry Evans, otra vieja gloria del ajedrez estadounidense. Sin duda fue este uno de los mayores éxitos deportivos de la carrera ajedrecística de Arturo Pomar. Aquel Open se celebró en Nueva Orleans, el lugar de nacimiento del gran Paul Morphy. La prueba se jugó por el sistema suizo a 12 rondas, con gran expectación. El maestro español resultó imbatido y obtuvo junto con Evans 9,5 puntos de los 12 posibles, tras brillantes creaciones. Siguieron en la clasificación Bisguier y Steinmeyer con 9 puntos, mientras el gran maestro Rossolimo, al que Pomar dominó de principio a fin en su enfrentamiento particular, consiguió la cuarta plaza con 8 puntos. Hay que destacar también la lucha sin cuartel entre los dos líderes, que finalizó en tablas tras 98 jugadas!. Esas dos partidas vienen con lindos comentarios en el reciente libro homenaje del ajedrez español dedicado a nuestro héroe, de la Editorial Paidotribo, titulado ARTURO POMAR – Una vida dedicada al ajedrez – y del que hemos escrito en este blog un bonito reportaje: ARTURO POMAR: Una vida dedicada al ajedrezSin embargo, la que hemos seleccionado ahora para esta crónica fue la que Pomar disputó contra otra “vaca sagrada” del ajedrez americano, Anthony Edward Santasiere (9-12-1904 / 13-1-1977), maestro que obtuvo varios triunfos en el campeonato del Marshall Chess Club. Legendario ajedrecista que en tiempos de juventud se enfrentaría a reputados valores internacionales como Capablanca, Carlos Torre, Marshall… y por supuesto que contra todos los grandes jugadores estadounidenses. En 1945 ganó también el US Open y fue campeón del Estado de Nueva York en tres ocasiones. Y es que nació allí, donde trabajó como maestro hasta retirarse. En el encuentro radiofónico que enfrentó a americanos y soviéticos en 1945 disputó (y perdió) sus dos partidas en el tablero nº 10 contra Bronstein. Recordamos todos con cariño su victoria contra Bobby Fischer en el Log Cabin Open, West Orange, New Jersey de 1957!, donde en realidad debió haber conseguido un empate, pero una jugada de doble signo de interrogación en el movimiento 41 de Bobby, hizo perder a éste ipso-facto. Con otro movimiento, Fischer hubiera ganado la partida (!?). En algunos tratados de apertura se menciona como la “locura” de Santasiere a los movimientos 1.Cf3 Cf6 2.b4 (!?). Lo cierto es que Arturo Pomar lo hizo trizas y en poquísimas jugadas se hizo con una gran ventaja. Bien es verdad que casi lo estropea, pero cuando retomó el mando de la lucha, Pomar volvió a ser el de siempre y no sólo ganó la partida en gran estilo sino casi también el magno certamen, llevando el nombre de España por todo lo alto, en un momento en donde las autoridades franquistas no lo apoyaron como debía. Insisto, como insistí en mi anterior artículo sobre Pomar (aquí referenciado): ¿Qué hubiera pasado si Pomar llega a tener un entrenador de relevancia?. Estoy casi seguro que en el Interzonal de Estocolmo de 1962, ¡otro gallo hubiera cantado!... . Pomar Salamanca,Arturo - Santasiere,Anthony Edward [B18] Ojeando el entonces periódico Chess Life de 20 de Enero de 1955 me encontré esta bonita partida de Pomar, casi inédita en España, pues en las bases de datos no aparece comentada y en el libro sobre Pomar publicado en España en 2009 por la Edt Paidotribo: ARTURO POMAR - Una vida dedicada al ajedrez - de Antonio López Manzano y Joan Segura Vila, no viene. 1.e4 c6 Veamos como se desenvuelve Pomar jugando contra una de sus defensas favoritas (cuando lo hace con negras), la Caro-Kann. 2.d4 d5 3.Cc3 dxe4 4.Cxe4 Af5 Inspirado por Petrosian, esta mañana casualmente la jugué contra mi Palm Hiarcs 12.1 y no salí muy mal de la apertura. Digamos que es una línea muy fácil de aprender y sobre todo muy sólida. 5.Cg3 Ag6 6.h4 h6 Diagram |
Gli occhi
“Quel viso chino sulla scacchiera, quello sguardo con gli occhi fiammeggianti che trafiggeva scacchiera e avversario…” (Genna Sosonko).
Gli occhi. Sì, gli occhi. Uno sguardo bruciacaselle, incorniciato con il passare degli anni in un volto mefistofelico che faceva riemergere dal mondo fiabesco visioni di Orchi cattivi, di Mangiafuoco terribili. Capaci di bucare il futuro, di prevedere al di là di ogni possibilità umana…
Mikhail Nekhemevic Tal, per gli amici Misha, nasce a Riga il 9 novembre 1936, secondogenito di un medico. Bambino prodigio inizia la scuola dalla terza classe, conosce gli scacchi a sette anni, a nove frequenta il famoso circolo scacchistico della casa dei Pionieri. Il Grande Maestro Ivkov intuisce la sua forza “Tal! Ricordatevi di questo nome!”. Destino giocherellone, però, che a dieci anni si becca il matto del barbiere. Se la sarà legata al dito…
Sotto la guida di Koblentz progredisce velocemente. Alle prime Olimpiadi di Monaco del 1958 è primo con tredici e mezzo su quindici. Impressionante. Euwe ne rimane affascinato. Al torneo dei Candidati del 1959, svoltosi nelle città iugoslave di Bled, Zagabria e Belgrado deve incontrare degli assi di primordine: Smyslov, Keres, Petrosjan, Gligoric, Olafsson, Benko, Fischer. Niente lo ferma e rifila pure un 4-0 a Fischer. Una furia scatenata, una polveriera in continua esplosione. I sacrifici scoppiavano come petardi impazziti. Che fossero del tutto corretti poco importava, stava agli avversari dimostrarne l’inconsistenza e la fallacità. E gli avversari continuavano a sbagliare.
Il segreto? Gli occhi. Voi non ci crederete ma Tal muoveva i pezzi con gli occhi. Sì, lo so, erano le mani quelle che all’apparenza danzavano sulla scacchiera ma per me erano gli occhi. Tal muoveva i pezzi con gli occhi. Grandi, smisurati, terribili…
Eppure non riesce a convincere tutti. Chi lo esaltava e chi, non potendo dare una ragione plausibile al suo gioco, lo criticava. Per Petrossian poteva fare miracoli, per Kortschnoi non aveva originalità. Se Ivkov era convinto che fosse un genio, Smyslov lo considerava un trucchettaro che andava avanti con un sacco di espedienti. Bronstein lo adorava, Bobby Fischer storceva un po’ la bocca, Euwe scrisse che era perfino più forte dello stesso Alekhine. Per Taimanov si trattava solo di un giocatore avventuroso e Botvinnik arrivò addirittura a sentenziare “Se Tal sacrifica un pezzo prendilo. Se lo do io controlla le varianti. Se lo dà Petrossian non lo accettare”, dove tutta la creatività e la profondità dei suoi sacrifici veniva ridotta a pura e semplice sciatteria di giocatore da caffè.
Già Botvinnik, il campione del mondo in carica con il quale ora se la doveva vedere. Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik aveva visto la luce a Pietroburgo il 17 agosto 1911 e si era dato anima e corpo agli studi scientifici. Aveva conosciuto tardi gli scacchi (si fa per dire) solo a dodici anni ma aveva fatto subito vedere di che pasta fosse fatto battendo, da imberbe giovincello, il mitico Capablanca durante una simultanea tenuta a Mosca nel 1925. Era praticamente diventato il successore di Alekhine nel 1948 dopo avere sbaragliato Smyslov, Reshevsky, Keres ed Euwe. Nel 1951 aveva respinto l’assalto scatenato di David Bronstein in un match durissimo terminato in parità. In seguito se l’era dovuta vedere con il solito Smyslov al quale aveva ceduto e poi ripreso lo scettro di comando.
Se un computer avesse dovuto scegliere un giocatore completamente (o quasi) opposto a Tal non avrebbe fatto altro che puntare il suo freddo indice su Botvinnik. Con due tipetti così eterogenei se ne sarebbero viste delle belle! I bookmakers del tempo li davano praticamente alla pari. La forza giovanile, dirompente di Tal avrebbe travolto anche l’esperienza e la tenacia del più vecchio Botvinnik?
La risposta non si fece attendere. A Mosca nel 1960. Vince Misha e chi non ricorda la fantastica 21…Cf4!?! nella sesta partita che ha fatto il giro del mondo e solo oggi confutata dal computer? (almeno così sembra). Il secondo incontro quasi un anno dopo ancora a Mosca. Botvinnik è preparatissimo in modo da “predisporre aperture legate a un piano del mediogioco in cui la lotta assumesse un carattere chiuso, con la scacchiera frazionata in singoli settori e i pezzi poco mobili, accettare posizioni magari oggettivamente un po’ inferiori, ma in cui l’avversario non fosse in grado di estrinsecare le sue qualità”. Per Tal, invece, era più importante “conservare la mente fresca, piuttosto che arrivare alla scacchiera con due valigie colme di novità teoriche poiché la stanchezza impedisce di sfruttare i vantaggi acquisiti in apertura”.
Devo dire che a Tal mancarono un po’ entrambi, anche se c’è da sottolineare che poco prima dell’incontro si ammala piuttosto gravemente e chiede un rinvio che non viene accettato. Botvinnik, come sappiamo, vince con un secco 13-8 (+10-5=6) che non ammette repliche.
Ed è lo stesso detentore del titolo a riconoscere, in quel momento, la superiorità dell’avversario “Egli iniziò il match del 1961 con estrema concentrazione, aggressività e disponibilità ad affrontare le complicazioni che potevano portargli qualche vantaggio, caratteristiche che gli avevano fatto difetto durante il match precedente. Le maggiori responsabilità per quanto riguarda l’esito del match appartengono dunque al vincitore”. Onore, dunque, alla sua classe e alla sua sportività.
La salute, un tasto dolente per il Nostro perseguitato da una tremenda malattia renale che non smise mai di tormentarlo insieme al vizio del fumo che certo non gli recava giovamento. Fumo, alcol e…e una memoria stupefacente. Basta questo aneddoto. Durante il torneo internazionale di Zurigo del 1959 tiene una esibizione in simultanea al termine della quale uno dei trent’otto opponenti gli chiede un giudizio sulla sua partita. Egli risponde che aveva trascurato di giocare una mossa migliore al diciassettesimo tratto, al che il giocatore si meraviglia che possa ricordare l’intera partita. Allora Tal trascrive senza sforzo le mosse di tutte le partite!
La sconfitta con Botvinnik non lo frena più di tanto. Nel 1965 piega l’ostinata resistenza di Portisch, poi quella di Larsen ma è fermato da uno straordinario Spassky che proprio in quegli anni raggiunge la pienezza della sua maturità scacchistica. Un colpo duro, eppure il “Vulcano” non si spenge e continua a sussultare fino all’ultimo respiro con una serie ininterrotta di successi e piazzamenti anche nei momenti più cupi della sua vita. Nel 1992 , benché stanco e disfatto, lascia l’ospedale di Mosca per partecipare al torneo di Barcellona dove riesce a piazzarsi tra i primi dieci! Rientrato in Russia il brontolio cupo del magma infuocato si acquieta. Il 28 giugno 1992 le ultime scintille volano verso il cielo.
Gli occhi. Ciò che mi hanno sempre colpito di questo campione sono gli occhi. Anche quando il male ha ormai devastato il suo volto rendendolo quasi un teschio vivente, gli occhi mantengono il loro fascino, conservano il loro terribile mistero. Gli occhi del grande, indimenticabile Mikhail Tal.

Chaque semaine, le maître international canadien d'échecs Jean Hébert nous propose sa Newsletter.
A la Une : Un site pour s'entrainer Chess Tactic Server
Le web regorge de ressources à l'intention des amateurs d'échecs. On y trouve de tout pour tous les domaines d'intérêts reliés au jeu d'échecs. Parmi les plus populaires on retrouve bien entendu les serveurs tel que Internet Chess Club, qui permettent de jouer à toute heure du jour ou de la nuit contre des adversaires de son niveau de partout dans le monde. Qui plus est, les meilleurs serveurs permettent aussi de suivre en direct les parties des grands tournois, d'avoir accès à des vidéos de grande qualité consacrés à l'analyse de parties, de profiter de cours privés avec un entraîneur parfois résidant à l'autre bout de la planète, et maintes autres possibilités que je connais moi-même plutôt mal...
Hommage à un Titan : Le vénérable ex-champion du monde Vassily Smyslov vient de décéder à Moscou le 27 mars dernier à l'âge de 89 ans, trois jours après son anniversaire. Sa feuille de route plus qu'éloquente confirme l'opinion de plusieurs champions dont celle de Boris Spassky qui le décrit comme l'un des grands génies des échecs du 20e siècle.
Ci-dessus, la 5ème partie de son match des candidats à Londres en 1983 face à Zoltan Ribli, commentée par Jean dans sa superbe newsletter hebdomadaire.
7th World Chess Champion Vasily Smyslov died on Saturday of heart failure, Russian television reported. Smyslov, who turned 89 on Wednesday, was taken to a Moscow hospital earlier in the week after complaining of heart problems. He died on Saturday morning.
TV report vesti.ru
Vasily Vassilievich Smyslov (Moscow, March 24, 1921) learned the game in 1927, from his father, who himself had received chess lessons from the great Mikhail Chigorin. In 1938, at the age of 17, he won the Junior Championship of the Soviet Union, and three years later, in 1940, he scored a great result by finishing 3rd in the overall Soviet Championship, ahead of Mikhail Botvinnik. Chess was of secondary importance during the war, although Smyslov managed to play actively, winning the Moscow Championship in 1944-1945.
After the war, Smylsov didn’t score so well in a few tournaments, but his third place at the legendary Groningen 1946 tournament (which was won by Botvinnik) was a sign of what was destined to come. There followed some tremedous results, most importantly his 2nd place in the The Hague/Moscow World Championship tournament of 1948 (again finishing behind Botvinnik) and his victory in the Candidates tournament, Zürich 1953, possibly the greatest tournament ever held.
By this time, it was clear Smyslov and Botvinnik were the two strongest players in the world, and they were to play three matches for the World title in the following years. The first match, held in Moscow, 1954, ended in a 12-12 tie, which allowed Botvinnik to keep his title. After winning the Amsterdam Candidates Tournament in 1956, 1,5 point ahead of Paul Keres, he went on to play his second match against Botvinnik, held in 1957 in Moscow, and this time his play was so strong that he beat his rival with a 3 points difference: 12,5-9,5, thus gaining the title of seventh World Champion. However, Botvinnik had the right to a revanch match and regained the title just a year later, in 1958, beating Smyslov (who claimed to be ill during the match) 12,5-10,5.
After this defeat, Smyslov’s star declined somewhat, which no doubt was also due to the arrival on the scene of another great star: Mikhail Tal. In the 60s and 70s, Smyslov still played at the highest level, but he never again succeeded in seriously competing for the world title, until 1983, when to the amazement of the entire world he qualified for the World Championship Candidate final against Garry Kasparov, a match (played in 1984) which he lost only after some very interesting chess.
Garry Kasparov wrote about Smyslov in his My Great Predecessors, part II:
Because of the apparent simplicity of his style, Smyslov is rarely mentioned among the players who have made the greatest contributions to the development of the ancient game. However, his victories at the peak of his career are amazing for the lack of a clear defence for his opponents, and a careful study reveals that no one in the world could withstand Smyslov’s very fine technique. His credo was as follows: ‘I will make 40 good moves and if you are able to do the same, the game will end in a draw.’ But it was precisely this ‘doing the same’ that was the most difficult: Smyslov’s technique was ahead of his time. (…)
I think that it is this innate sense of harmony which has helped Smyslov to break all records for chess longevity. (…) This phenomenon was wittily explained by Spassky: ‘Vasily Vassilievich has an incredible intuition, and I would call it his “hand” – that is, his hand knows on which square to place every piece, and he does not need to calculate anything with his head.’
The great Dutch writer/grandmaster J.H. Donner liked to philosophize about Smyslov’s magic touch:
Smyslov is the great magician who masters all problems, but in the way of an elegant animal. His play has something incomprehsibly superficial, opportunistic. And this is typical for the talent: it is only interested in the surface of things, for all deep problems are human, and talent is in fact ’super’-human. Therefore we must admire players like Smyslov, but it is always admiration mixed with a touch of jealousy. It is admiration for something we do not have, and cannot have.
Smyslov’s played his last tournament in Amsterdam, 2001, in the so-called ‘Klompendans’ tournament. In the 6th round, I watched him play Alisa Galliamova. Smyslov was already almost completely blind at the time. He exchanged queens on move 7 and went to win the endgame in impressive, typical Smyslovian style. Smsylov made an even bigger impression on me in 1994, when I was a board boy at the Donner Memorial tournament, also in Amsterdam. During the first round, I happened to be sitting next to Smyslov’s board for the entire game. Against Svetozar Gligoric, he played a quiet line of the French Winawer and manoeuvred his way to victory in immaculate fashion. I realized that this was indeed chess from another world, and in retrospect I think Donner was absolutely right in his assessment of Smyslov.
Vasily Smyslov loved music and was a gifted baritone singer, auditioning for the famous Bolshoi Opera in 1950. He was a fine endgame composer and various chess opening variations bear his name, among others, in the King’s Indian 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Nf3 followed by Bc1-g5 and, of course, in the Grünfeld Indian, 3…d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 0-0 7.e4 Bg4, which he first played in 1945 (against Kotov, a game that he lost) and which was also played by Bobby Fischer in his famous game against Botvinnik at the 1962 Varna Olympiad.
With Smyslov’s death, the chess world has lost one of its greatest living legends.
24/03/1921 – 26/03/2010
Una galleria di immagini in memoria di Smyslov, Campione del Mondo, superbo finalista, ricercatore di armonie e straordinario amante del gioco, al quale dedicheremo ovviamente in futuro un articolo nella Sala della Gloria.

A 14 anni, con il padre, Vasily Osipovich, ingegnere e forte scacchista che aveva studiato con Tchigorin e che vantava anche una vittoria con Alekhine, ottenuta nel 1912 (da math.uww.edu/~mcfarlat/chess)

(da tobychess.com)

1946: Boleslavsky, Euwe e Smyslov (da chessvibes)

Keres, Smyslov, Reshewsky, Euwe e Botvinnik (da texastechchess.blogspot.com)

Una vignetta da Mosca 1951: Smyslov. Petrosjan e Geller (da endgame.nl)

Il lungo duello con Botvinnik (da chessgames.com)
Due sacrifici di donna contro il Campione del Mondo!

(da mrfixitonline.com)

Smyslov, Gligoric, Botvinnik e Taimanov (da ajedrezargentina.org)

(da twic)

Contro Tal (da chessville.com)

Nel 1960 (da chessbase)

Con il giovane Fischer (da echecs-photos.be)

(da thechesszone)

(da ilianceausescu.wordpress)

Reggio Emilia 1986 / 87, Spassky scruta la posizione (da wikipedia)

In simultanea (da kraftaheimar.net)

(da chessbase)

2006, 85° compleanno (da chessbase, come anche la seguente)

Ottimo baritono, in qualche occasione Smyslov si é anche esibito accompagnato al pianoforte da Mark Taimanov, a sua volta valido concertista.
"Ho sempre vissuto tra gli scacchi e la musica"
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov
- -



The time machine has landed me in a small little remote town in the eastern part of California near the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The year is 1975 and 44 chess players are arriving in this town that is about 10 blocks long and three blocks wide. All the games were played at the Lone Pine Town Hall, which Mr. Statham had built for the sole purpose of the anual event.
Back in 1965, a wealthy engineer and inventor named Louis D. Statham, sold his home in Los Angeles to none other than Hugh Hefner to settle into a quieter location in Lone Pine. Statham was a correspondence player and had a modest Class A rating. He loved chess so much that he wanted some chess players around Lone Pine. So he set up a series of masters tournaments footing the entire bill!
1971-1974 the participants were mostly American and Canadian with the exception of a couple Eastern Europeans traveling abroad.
Drave were the elder statesmen at 61 and 65 respectively.
David Fincher will direct Tobey Maguire (Spiderman) as Chess Wizard Bobby Fischer in Sony/Columbia Pictures’ “Pawn Sacrifice”, according to Deadline Hollywood Daily.
Fischer, who died in 2008, was the eleventh World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time.
The film will tell the life story of American chess icon Bobby Fischer leading up to his historic world championship match against Boris Spassky.
The flick, which Maguire will also produce, is slated to film this Fall.



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


Thirty years later, we still believe in miracles Orlando Sentinel We got a measure of payback that same year when Bobby Fischer beat the vaunted Boris Spassky in chess. 'I have been chosen to teach the Soviets some ... |
1. New In Chess issue 2010/1
The World’s Premier Chess Magazine by The NIC Editorial team
NIC’s Caf? – Carlsen Claims London Chess Classic – A Country for Old Men – Roulette Chess – Alexander Grischuk Russian Champion – Alexander Alekhine’s Paris Years – Kortchnoi-Spassky Reunion – Chess Metaphors – Old Hands and Young Talents – Just Checking – did they play your opening? In this issue games with the following openings were annotated by world class players read more…
2. New In Chess: The First 25 Years
An Anthology, edited by Steve Giddins
Ever since its launch in 1984, New In Chess has been the most popular and widely-read chess magazine in the world, with a readership that ranges from world champions to the humblest club player. No other magazine in chess history can boast such a glittering array of world-class grandmasters amongst its regular contributors. Now, to mark the 25th anniversary of the read more…
3. Revolutionize Your Chess
A Brand-new System to Become a Better Player, by Viktor Moskalenko
A breakthrough in chess teaching by Former Ukrainian Champion and experienced chess coach Viktor Moskalenko. A new concept which teaches players how to develop their personal skills and presents five new basic rules for improving at chess. Moskalenko’s Five Touchstones provide players with tools to assess any position. Club players are shown how to get a read more…
4. Attacking Manual 1 & 2
SAVE 10% on volume 1 & 2 Combined, by Jacob Aagaard
Jacob Aagaard explains the rules of attack (the exploitation of a dynamic advantage), balanced between understandable examples, and deep analysis. Where Volume One was about the laws of dynamics, the font of all attacks. Volume Two deals with weak kings, sacrifices, various minor attacking themes, intuitive sacrifices, opposite castling, modern king hunts, and read more
5. Chess Strategy for Club Players
The Road to Positional Advantage by Herman Grooten
AWARDED: ChessCafe 2009 Book of the Year! With this book, International Master Herman Grooten presents to amateur players a complete and structured course on: how to recognize key characteristics in all types of positions, how to make use of those characteristics to choose the right plan. His teachings are based on the famous “Elements” of Wilhelm Steinitz, but Grooten read more…
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 !
Retrouver notre rubrique les perles du netHikaru 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.