Il torneo dei Candidati assegnato alla Russia!

• la decisione presa nonostante le precedenti minacce di ritiro di Topalov
• update la reazione del Manager di Topalov
  

Il Presidential Board della FIDE, riunito in Tromso, ha assegnato alla città di Kazan (Russia) il Torneo dei Candidati che determinerà lo sfidante del Campione del Mondo Anand e che si dovrebbe disputare in un periodo compreso tra il 1 Marzo e il 31 Maggio 2011. La notizia, pubblicata dal sito chessdom.com, ha sorpreso l'intera comunità scacchistica. Tutti davano, infatti, per certo che almeno una parte della manifestazione sarebbe stata ospitata dall'Azerbajan, la cui federazione aveva già provveduto a versare un acconto di 150.000  euro. La Federazione Internazionale, sempre secondo Chessdom, ha però cambiato idea facendo comunque  salva la nomina dell'azerbajano Mamedyarov quale giocatore invitato dagli organizzatori.  Con la scelta di una sede russa viene dunque superata definitivamente la questione Aronian che, a causa delle tensioni esistenti tra Armenia e Arzebajan, avrebbe avuto serie difficoltà a disputare il torneo in Azerbajan. Proprio per questo motivo sembrava, infatti, ormai certo che quarti e semifinali del Torneo dei Candidati si sarebbero disputati in due sedi diverse.

E tutti vissero felici e contenti? Macchè! Pochi giorni prima Veselin Topalov, seguendo il solco della tradizione degli scacchisti che amano complicare la vita a chi deve gestire questo sport, aveva fatto sapere, tramite una lettera aperta, che per lui sarebbe stata inaccettabile una seconda sede  russa. Secondo Veselin, infatti, il trattamento riservato a lui ed al suo team durante il Match Mondiale, perso contro Kramnik in Elista (Russia) nel 2006, era stato decisamente "unpleasant." Questa situazione, con una evidente forzatura, era stata paragonata proprio alla questione Aronian. Ma la decisone presa dalla FIDE ha comunque superato questa possibile obiezione. E', poi, per certi versi paradossale che la dichiarazione di non voler giocare contro un russo in Russia sia stata rilasciata proprio da chi ha da poco giocato, nella propria patria, un match valevole per il Titolo Mondiale contro il Campione in carica. La FIDE non ha, comunque,  tenuto in alcuna considerazione la lettera del bulgaro ed ha assegnato alla città di Kazan  addirittura tutta la manifestazione! Come reagirà l'ex Campione del Mondo FIDE? Nel caso in cui si dovesse davvero ritirare dalla manifestazione, Topalov sarebbe sostituito dal russo Grischuk (3° classificato del Grand Prix FIDE) ma è difficile immaginare che il bulgaro rinunci effettivamente alla possibilità di riconquistare il Titolo.

update 30 luglio La reazione di Danailov, Manager di Topalov e Candidato alla presidenza ECU

Come era ampiamente prevedibile, arriva l'immediata (mezza) marcia in dietro di Silvio Danailov. Il Manger di Topalov, intervistato dal sito russo sport-express.ru, parla diffusamente del Match Mondiale perso contro Anand e successivamente si sofferma sulla lettera aperta di Topalov precisando che Veselin non intendeva affermare che non avrebbe disputato un Torneo dei Candidati in Russia, ma che non avrebbe sfidato un giocatore russo in Russia! L'unica riserva posta da Danailov prima di confermare la presenza dell'ex Campione del Mondo FIDE in Kazan riguarda, e su questo non si nutrivano dubbi, i termini del contratto ed il montepremi.  E se la Finale dovesse essere  tra Topalov e Kramnik? la risposta di Danailov è stata: "Veselein si è espresso chiaramente nella sua lettera".

la lettera aperta di Topalov

Alexander Grischuk spera ...




... ma c'e' da scommetere che Topalov non rinuncerà!?




Nel frattempo l'invito di Mamedyarov è salvo!




mentre Anand, al riparo da ogni polemica, attende sereno lo sfidante




Il cremlino di Kazan




Kazan, sede del Torneo dei Candidati nel 2011

Partecipanti al Torneo dei Candidati ordinati in base all'elo della lista del 1° gennaio 2010, con Topalov numero 1 in quanto perdente del match mondiale di Sofia.

1. Topalov 2805, perdente del Mondiale 2010
2. Carlsen 2810, rating (media lista elo luglio 2009 - gennaio 2010)
3. Kramnik 2788, 2° giocatore con il rating più alto
4. Aronian 2781, 1° Classificato Grand Prix
5. Gelfand 2761,  1° Classificato World Cup 2009
6. Mamedyarov 2741, over 2700 nominato dagli organizzatori
7. Radjabov 2733, 2° Classificato Grand Prix
   
8. Kamsky 2693,  perdente della sfida Topalov-Kamsky

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

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

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

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

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

Round 9 & play-off

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

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

Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son-Anish Giri
Biel 2010

Position after 28.Rxb7.

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

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

Play-off

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

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

Vachier-Lagrave-Caruana
Biel 2010

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

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

Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son-Caruana
Biel 2010

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

Games rounds 9 & tiebreak

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Fabiano Caruana with the winner's medal in Biel

Links

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

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

Carceri XIV – Giovanni Battista Piranesi

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

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

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

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

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

'Datavault' model of a data warehouse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Obviously, no one expects to discover anything.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vladimir Kramnik thinking things over, before beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

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

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

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

Games round 10

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

The stage of the city theater in Dortmund

A happy Ponomariov with flowers and trophy

All players and some officials posing one more time

Photos by Georgios Souleidis

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Le Quang - Leko (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

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

Naiditsch - Kramnik (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Naiditsch(photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Standings after 9 rounds:

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

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

Dortmund Games round 8 & 9

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Links

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

Dear Chess Friends!

Attention to all FIDE Federations! Please be informed that July 28, Wednesday is the last day for any possible changes or amendments, concerning the composition of your teams, bookings for charter or accommodation.

After July 28 any changes will not be considered!

Please pay attention to the last confirmed charter schedule:

Official Olympiad web-site www.ugra-chess.com

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

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

Chess.FM

Over at chessclub.com (aka ICC), I have been doing some Game of the Days for Chess.FM online broadcasts. I remember way back when Tony Rook started Chess.FM.  At some point, I suggested Skype be used.  Tony Rook was bought out, new leadership took control of ICC, and … Skype was introduced as a broadcast platform.   I did Game of the Day for Rounds 9 and 10 of Dortmund 2010 Sparkassen (Naiditsch-Kramnik and Leko-Naiditsch).  I learned from a viewer that Naiditsch is pronounced NIGH-ditch not NAY-ditch.

Chess.Com

Over at chess.com, I composed some video lectures on “When to Use (and When Not To Use) Computer Engines.

Some reasons so far to use the engines:

1) you play a game or observe a game where the opponent plays an inferior opening and you forget what to do (or, if you are observing, the inferior side “gets away with it” illogically) – check later with a computer!

In Lecture 1, I went over 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Qb6? 6. e5! Bc5 7. Ndb5! as an example to see the comprehensive, computer-backed, refutation.

2) you see a high level game giving an inferior opening some rough treatment and you want to meld that into a complete way of dealing with it – check with the computer!  In lecture 2, I went over the Blumenfeld Declined (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 b5 5. Bg5!) as an example.  Why am I the only person who heard of the Dutch Blumenfeld theme tournament?

Chukcha Jokes

Chukcha (Russian Eskimo) is going to Moscow and his friends ask him to bring back some butter.

They tell him to find it on sale, simply find the longest line.

He found the Lenin’s Tomb line instead.

When asked why he did not bring back any butter, he said “I found the longest line, but when I got closer, I found out the salesman was dead.”

And for Some Dutch Scenery

Mark Ginsburg and Christine Syben in Delft, Holland December 1989 - photo E. Tall

• Event: Fremont Open
  
• Date: July 31 - August 1.
• Location: Club Sport.
  
• Format: 4 round swiss in 3 sections (M/X, A/B and U1600).
• Schedule: Register: Saturday 9:00-9:45. Rounds: both days at 10:00 and 3:30.
• Time control: 30/90, G/60.
• Entry fee: Postmarked by 7/26: $60. On site: $70. Play up for $10 per section.
  
• Prize fund: $2400 based on 70 paid entries, including $350 for 1st place in M/X.
• Contact: kenneth.zowal (at) sbcglobal (dot) net
  
• Tournament Flyer
  
• Advance Entry List
  

Preparando unas notas para Recursos Tácticos, sobre Dobles y Descubiertos, recordé que en la Base de Minipartidas 2009/2010 (hasta 10 jugadas) que estaba organizando; varias partidas se definían con un Doble de Dama (15%).

Burradas, como decíamos en Errores en la Apertura – Minijuegos:

“Hay errores por desconocimiento, lisa y llanamente una burrada. Fallas que no son por no conocer la apertura, sino por no conocer el concepto, ni la estrategia ni la táctica. Claro que hay “celadas”, más o menos sutiles y todos podemos caer. Pero lo que son burradas, son burradas.”

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

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

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

Karpov posing for photographers (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

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

Kramnik (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

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

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

Mamedyarov - Leko (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

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

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

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

Standings after 7 rounds:

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

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

Dortmund Games round 7

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

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

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

Dear colleagues!

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

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

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

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

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

The advantages are obvious:

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

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

Sincerely yours,

Grandmaster Emil Sutovsky

When you support a team in any game you are anxious about win. It is the same feeling in chess as in other sport, when your team wins you feel relief for the win. I am member of E.E.S.Korydallou. In the Greek championship we played against strong team OS Triandrias. The score is 6-5 and we have still a game that is not so clear who is winning

And I captured the moment that we see the opponent of Maria Ikonomopoulou gave her hand to resign. In smiles you can see the relief of my teammates.

Many friends often ask me about Greek tournaments. Last year I tried to make a guide for Greek chess open tournaments but I didn’t manage to complete it before I left my pc to complete my military service. And actually I have not personal experience for all the greek tournaments except 3. (Summer Cup, Kavala & Nikea).
The last 2 years I am the chief arbiter of “Summer Cup “. Usually in a place that I go 2 times, 2nd I believe that was worst than first. But not in Porto Carras hotel. I like this tournament not only because is a quiet chess tournament that players have everything to play good games (silence, room between boards) and that makes it an easy job for the chief arbiter (almost no complaints) but also because of the place. 5 star hotel next to Neos Marmaras that has a real exciting night life, and beautiful beaches.

So if someone asks me about a tournament that he would the best conditions I am sure is “Summer cup “.
Of course there always some disadvantages, summer cup has no sponsors so it does not invite any player. But this makes easier for strong players that everywhere pay to go for the 1st prize that is 1000€. Last year won FM Antonis Hadzimanolis and this year GM Trajko Nedev won the first prize almost easily. So even for GM maybe is a good tournament that will give them more money that other with too strong competition.

  VISORE

Sito Ufficiale

Articolo di presentazione di Darkstorm

• 5° T Bentivegna - GM Evgeny Sveshnikov 2487 0-1
  
• GM Jakubowski 2506 - Bove 1-0
• 6° T LIVE h.17
• MI Staniszewski  2389 - Bentivegna
• Bove - MI Wieczorek 2315

GM Sergej Zhigalko, bielorusso, n°1 di tabellone



GM Jon Ludvig Hammer n°3, un altro campione dalla Norvegia!



MF Alessio Valsecchi



MF Alessandro Bove



MF Francesco Bentivegna



"Rynek", la piazza mercato della città vecchia di Varsavia

• SITO UFFICIALE

• RISULTATI

MEGAUPDATE a fine articolo: foto in esclusiva per Scacchierando!

6T: Pono 4, Le 3,5, Mamedyarov e Kramnik 3, Naiditsch 2,5, Leko 2

15-25 luglio: Kramnik, Leko, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Le Quang Liem, Naiditsch: inizia lo Sparkassen Chess-Meeting di Dortmund. L'evento è davvero tra i più importanti della stagione, paragonabile al Corus e a Linares. I sei giocatori disputeranno un doppio girone all'italiana, di conseguenza si tratterà di un torneo a 10 turni, questa è una recente innovazione nel formato, visto che sino a pochi anni fa 8 giocatori si affrontavano unicamente ?all'andata?, totalizzando così 7 turni in effetti forse non abbastanza per dare una chiara indicazione della forma dei partecipanti.

Novità invece assoluta qui a Dortmund sarà l'applicazione della Regola di Sofia: i giocatori non potranno quindi offrire la patta ai propri avversari. A detta degli organizzatori questo ?garantirà che ogni partita sarà combattuta sino alla fine?. L'esperienza sembra dimostrare che non è proprio così, ma si apprezza lo sforzo fatto per diminuire le patte, che a detta di molti l'anno scorso sono state decisamente troppe.?

Gli Organizzatori: Gerd Kolbe (Direttore), Uwe Samulewicz (Direttore della Sparkasse di Dortmund), Birgit J?rder (Sindaco), Stefan Koth (Direttore del Torneo)

Come ovvio in un supertorneo, i ?superpartecipanti? hanno davvero poco bisogno di presentazioni:

l'ex Campione del Mondo Vladimir Kramnik (Elo 2790, numero 4 al mondo)?è chiamato a difendere il primato nel ?suo? torneo: ha infatti vinto qui a Dortmund qualcosa come 9 volte, testa di serie numero 1 quest'anno, facile voglia puntare alla doppia cifra.

Peter Leko (2734, 16)?è anche lui in qualche modo ?a casa?: secondo gli organizzatori è difficile immaginare un Dortmund senza di lui: lo ha vinto 3 volte (importante in particolare nel 2002, quando il torneo ebbe valenza di Candidati, portando Leko, vincitore su Topalov, a sfidare per il Titolo proprio Kramnik) ed è inoltre molto legato alla Germania: parla il tedesco e ha conosciuto la moglie proprio qui a nord delle Alpi.

Arkadij Naiditsch (2684, 51)?è invece davvero il giocatore di casa: benché nato a Riga, in Lettonia, rappresenta da anni il Top degli scacchi tedeschi e dal 2003 viene costantemente chiamato a difendere il nero-rosso-oro della bandiera tedesca qui a Dortmund. Non è una supercorazzata come molti degli altri partecipanti e di conseguenza ha dovuto registrare risultati non eclatanti, ma nel 2005 è riuscito a uscire vincitore in un campo che vedeva ?noti spingilegno? come Kramnik, Topalov, Svidler, Adams e Van Wely.

Benché molti non riescano a pronunciare nella stessa frase le parole ?Campione del Mondo? e ?Ruslan Ponomariov? (2734, 14)?è innegabile che non è esattamente da tutti imporsi a 18 anni come Campione del Mondo FIDE, menchemeno trovandosi di fronte in finale tale Vassily Ivanchuk. Da allora (2002) non ha fatto sfracelli ma si è dimostrato giocatore, benché con alti e bassi, capace di competere bene con gli over 2700. Arriva da un'ottima World Cup, è al varco per vedere se lo stato di forma può continuare.

?

Invitare Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2761, 6), già presente nel 2008, non sembra essere stata una pessima idea da parte degli organizzatori: ?The Shark? è noto per il suo gioco aggressivo e tattico, capace di trovare sempre nuove idee quando si tratta di mettere pressione all'avversario. Tra l'altro arriva da una vittoria alla President Cup di Baku (assieme a Kramnik e Kamsky): se è al top della forma, aspettiamoci buone cose.

I cinque giocatori fin qui nominati sono stati invitati dall'organizzazione e hanno gentilmente accettato: per essere qui?Le Quang Liem (2681, 55)?ha invece?dovuto vincere un ?torneuccio? quale l'Aeroflot di Mosca (probabilmente l'Open più forte del Mondo). Nel 2005 è diventato Campione del Mondo under 14, ha iniziato a ?farsi le ossa internazionali? rappresentando il Vietnam in 2 Olimpiadi (2006 e 2008) e ora è pronto per confrontarsi con l'élite. Come molti asiatici in rapida crescita, è quasi impossibile stabilire la sua reale forza di gioco: vedremo cosa saprà fare a Dortmund. A dargli il benvenuto sarà il Campione in carica Kramnik: la sorte gli ha assegnato il primo turno.

A proposito: ecco la tabella degli incontri:

Giorno di riposo dunque il 20 luglio. E chi passasse da quelle parti proprio il 20 luglio avrà la possibilità di incontrare i Campioni presenti, di ottenere il loro autografo e di partecipare all'estrazione di diversi premi, sono piccole chicche che si fanno apprezzare.

Il tempo di gioco previsto è di 100 minuti per le prime 40 mosse, poi 50 per le successive 20 e infine 15 minuti per finire, il tutto con 30 secondi di abbuono a partire dalla prima mossa. A quanto affermato dagli organizzatori, l'esperienza indica che in 4 ore saranno finite circa la metà delle partite, mentre dopo 6 ore l'80/90 % delle sfide dovrebbero essere finite. Chi non avrà modo di essere online alle 15, orario di inizio delle partite (l'ultimo turno è invece previsto per le 13), ha quindi un'idea di quando poter tornare a casa per i risultati

La media Elo dei partecipanti è di 2734, 10 punti in meno dell'anno scorso per pura cronaca, rendendolo un torneo di Categoria XX?

La sede di gioco sarà, come da qualche anno a questa parte,?il? Teatro Cittadino

All'epoca dell'edizione 2007 (Fonte: Chessbase)

Come in ogni megatorneo che si rispetti sono stati organizzati diversi eventi di contorno: segnaliamo il Torneo dedicato all'ex Cancelliere tedesco Helmut Kohl, un round robin a 10 giocatori, evento ?minore? di tutto rispetto: 3 GM, Eckhard Schmittdiel (GER, Elo: 2485), Romuald Mainka (GER, 2484) e?Mihail Saltaev (UZB, 2495), 1 WGM, Carmen Voicu (RUM, 2346), 1 IM, Markus Sch?fer (GER, 2382) e 2 FM, Laurence Webb (ENG, 2313) e Patrick Zelbel (GER, 2345).?

Dal 17 al 25 si disputeranno anche due Open, il primo riservato a chi ha un punteggio Elo superiore a 1700 e il secondo per chi lo ha inferiore ai 1900.

Il Torneo ad oggi:

E' dal 1973 che la Sparkassen (Cassa di Risparmio) di Dortmund sponsorizza il torneo. L'evento si è rapidamente imposto tra i principali del panorama scacchistico, aggiungendo edizione dopo edizione nomi illustri sul libro dei vincitori: Ciocaltea, Andersson, Keene, Hort, Gruenfeld, Ribli, Geller...All'inizio degli anni '90, per non farsi mancare nulla, il libro suddetto ha anche incamerato i nomi di Kasparov (1992) e Karpov (1993). Ma da allora il torneo è diventato ?proprietà? di Kramnik, che lo ha vinto 4 volte di fila dal 1995 al 1998, lo ha ?lasciato? a Leko nel 1999 per poi riprenderselo nel 2000 e nel 2001. L'allora Campione del Mondo ha visto poi trionfare nuovamente Leko (2002), Bologan (2003), Anand (giusto per non avere buchi nel curriculum immagino ) (2004), il giocatore di casa Naiditsch (2005), per poi imporsi nuovamente nel 2006 e nel 2007. Leko non ha perso il vizio di interrompere le serie locali di Kramnik e nel 2008 ha nuovamente vinto. Kramnik, dal canto suo, non ha perso quello di vincere a Dortmund e nel 2009 è tornato in vetta, distanziando di un punto gli inseguitori Carlsen, Jakovenko e lo stesso Leko.

Scacchierando in diretta da Dortmund!

All'arrivo, la sede di gioco si mostra imponente

Pronti ad entrare...

...un'occhiata a come procede il Torneo...

...e finalmente siamo in Sala da gioco!

La "concorrenza" è numerosa, ma il nostro inviato si avvicina ai giocatori

Naiditsch - Ponomariov

Naiditsch - Ponomariov bis

Mamedyarov - Le

Kramnik - Leko: 1/2 1/2 fisso

Un bis anche per chi ha disputato un Match mondiale

Peter Leko all'apparente ricerca di qualcosa per riempire il bicchiere

"Aiutato" dalla programmazione del Teatro, il nostro inviato infine ci saluta

Scacchierando ringrazia Andreas Kuhn per il gentile e ottimo lavoro

Scacchierando danke an Andreas Kuhn fur die freundliche und gute Arbeit

Il sito ufficiale http://www.sparkassen-chess-meeting.de/2010/

• IV turno MI Shytaj - GM Lazaro Bruzon 2653 1/2!
• V turno MI Shytaj - GM Kogan 2541 1/2
• VI turno GM Almeida Quintana 2559 - MI Shytaj 

3º turno: la Fierro patta con il GM di casa, De la Riva




WGM Cory T. Deisy

? and the winner is....

2 INVITI PER I GIOVANI per i TORNEI DI SENIGALLIA !

Il Blog Scacchierando è lieto di annunciare i nomi dei due fortunati e meritevoli giovani che hanno vinto il "pass gratuito" per i due Festival di Senigallia di fine Luglio ed inizio Agosto:
RosaMaria Casolino e Nicola Altini !

L'iniziativa prevede la partecipazione gratuita (soggiorno + iscrizione) ad alcuni Festival Internazionali organizzati da Scacchi Randagi e ASD Alto Cosentino (per i nati dal 1992 in poi).Tali gratuità sono messe a disposizione di Scacchierando che decide a quali giovani attribuirle? tra quelli che hanno scritto una email alla redazione per proporsi.

Negli ultimi mesi si sono avvalsi di tale opportunità con successo:

• Giacomo Gregori e Roberto Palazzotto che hanno partecipato al torneo Costa Viola in Gennaio.

• Gerardo Consalvo che ha disputato il Festival di Fabriano a Giugno.

• Ed ora è la volta di RosaMaria Casolino e Nicola Altini a Senigallia.

Chi saranno i giovani che meriteranno di partecipare ai prossimi tornei di Fermo, Amantea e Livigno? Sta a voi deciderlo, leggendo il regolamento a fondo pagina ed inviando una mail di candidatura per il concorso/progetto di crescita.

REGOLAMENTO e PROSSIMI EVENTI

I giovani Under 18 possono scrivere una email a info@scacchierando.net per candidarsi? per i tornei di:

• FERMO (Marche) = 20-28 Agosto
  
• AMANTEA (Calabria) = 29 Agosto- 5 Settembre ( 4 inviti !!!)
  
• LIVIGNO (Lombardia) = 10 -18 Settembre

REGOLAMENTO DEL PROGETTO INVITI per i GIOVANI QUI

? ?? ?

?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Le Quang - Kramnik (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

Leko - Ponomariov (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mamedyarov - Naiditsch (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

Standings after 6 rounds:

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

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

Dortmund Games round 6

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

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

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

Report by Daan Zult

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

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

Final position after 51.Kc4. Black resigned.

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

Shakriyar Mamedyarov (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

Leko -Quang Le (photo by Georgios Souleidis)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Standings after 5 rounds:

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

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

Dortmund Games round 5

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anderssen – Morphy
Paris (4) 1858

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

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

Steinitz-Chigorin
Havana (4) 1892

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

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

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

Fähndrich & Kaufmann – Capablanca & Réti
Vienna 1914

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Richard Réti

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

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

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

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

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