El torneo que nunca falla

Aronián, Gélfand, Leinier y Vallejo darán 
espectáculo en el Auditorio 

LEONTXO GARCÍA (Jefe de Comunicación)

Muy pocos torneos de élite se han celebrado durante 23 años consecutivos, como el Ciudad de León, donde el ajedrez ha echado raíces en el tejido social que ni siquiera la crisis económica logra romper. Cuatro primeros espadas –Levon Aronián (Armenia, 1982), Borís Gélfand (Israel, 1968), Leinier Domínguez (Cuba, 1983) y Paco Vallejo (España, 1982)- convertirán el deporte mental en un espectáculo rápido y vibrante, de nuevo en el magnífico Auditorio y con televisión en directo, del 3 al 7 de junio.

Naiditsch, Vallejo, Jobava, Pelletier, Timofeev, Martinovic, Skoberne, Krasenkow, Inarkiev, Nisipeanu, Efimenko, Maiorov and Nepomniachtchi are the names of the thirteen players who are still on 100% in Rijeka. Three rounds at the European Individual Championship have been played.

The 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship is held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new Zamet Centre sports hall. The event is organized by chess club “Rijeka”, in agreement with the Croatian Chess Federation under the auspices of the City of Rijeka and the European Chess Union. It is open to all players representing the chess federations which comprise the European Chess Union (FIDE zones 1.1 to 1.9) regardless of their title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation.

The championship is based on Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. As always, the European Championship is a qualification event for the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify.

Rounds 1-3

Top seed Zoltan Almasi started with a draw with Black against Italian GM Lexy Ortega. In this first round, played on Saturday, Russian top GMs Alexander Motylev and Evgeny Tomashevsky, the reigning European Champion, also started with draws. The biggest upsets were IM Artem Smirnov beating GM Evgeniy Najer, IM Pavel Potapov beating Viktor Laznicka, FM Burak Firat beating GM Konstantin Sakaev and FM Danny Raznikov beating GM Zaven Andriasian. On one of the lowest boards, Dutch GM Friso Nijboer was held to a draw by Denis Kadric (2171).

The second round saw two draws on the top boards, in Stefansson-Bacrot and Movsesian-Ragger. Moldav top GM Viktor Bologan lost to Bulgarian GM Valentin Iotov and GM Avetik Grigoryan defeated GM Kiril Georgiev. Ivan Cheparinov, long-time team member of Veselin Topalov, lost to Spanish GM Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez, but another Bulgarian of the same generation did better: IM Momchil Nikolov defeated GM Boris Savchenko. FM Hamitevici Vladimir managed to beat GM Mateusz Bartel in this round.

Round 3 was played on International Women’s Day, and all the women playing in the tournament received a rose “as a small sign of appreciation to all women players and all the ladies participating in the organization of this big sporting event”.

Dutch ladies Lisa Schut, Anne Haast and Arlette van Weersel, with roses at the chess boards

In the women’s section there are four leaders with a perfect score after three rounds: Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS), who is the only survivor from the ten best rated players, Monica Socko (POL), Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (SCO) and Irina Chelushkina (SRB).

Back to the men. After three rounds there are still 13 players with a 100% score. Among them are the two young international masters Sasa Martinovic (CRO) and Jure Skoberne (SLO) who in round 3 defeated GMs Vorobiov and Howell respectively. David Navara, these days boasting a 2708 rating, lost to Yannick Pelletier yesterday. Cheparinov went down again, this time against IM Artem Smirnov. IM Pavel Povatov and FM Burak Firat had more successes: the former defeated GM Tomi Nyback, the latter beat GM Gregorz Gajewski.

Today’s round will see some interesting encounters: Vallejo Pons-Timofeev, Krasenkow-Jobava, Naiditsch-Efimenko, Pelletier-Inarkiev, Skoberne-Nisipeanu, Nepomniashtchi-Maiorov and Adams-Martinovic. In the women’s section there are two clashes at the top: Arakhamia-T.Kosintseva and Socko-Chelushkina.

A nice curiosity about the European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship in Rijeka

For the first time, there will be a ‘priest’ to represent – unofficially – the State of Vaticano. Unofficially because Vaticano is not (yet) affiliated to FIDE.

The name of the priest who will partecipate to the European Championship is Don Valerio Piro, from Neapolis; he got the formal authorization from Cardinal Sepe (note that Cardinal is more than Bishop; the Cardinal reports directly to the Pope).

Don Valerio is candidate-master for the Italian Chess Federation. Officially he is registered as Italy, but he will play with the flag of Vaticano. This is the first partecipation of a representative of the little State that is not afffiliated to FIDE. But only for the moment, as there are many priest that are good chessplayer.

Historically, the first (important) was Ruy Lopez – the inventor of the famous opening. The last one is William Lombardy, assistant of Bobby Fischer.

There is the idea to organize a championship for ‘ecclesiastics’ (priests, friars, monks, nuns), then there will be the possibility to create a Chess Federation of the state of Vaticano. So may be that it will be possible to see a team fom Vaticano also in the Olympiads.

The news had a good interest in the Italian newspapers and press agency. Please find enclosed the links (sorry, but the articles are in Italian!). Please note that the most important ‘catholic’ newspaper, Avvenire, dedicated a complete page to the news.

• http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/regioni/campania/2010/02/28/visualizza_new.html_1709041681.html
• http://napoli.repubblica.it/dettaglio/scacchi-parroco-di-boscotrecase-primo-sacerdote-agli-europei/1875352
• http://www.ilvesuvio.it/index.php?page=0&news=8711
• http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Regioni/Campania/Prete-ai-Campionati-europei-di-scacchi-Al-mio-rientro-lezioni-in-parrocchia_70956501.html
• http://www.libero-news.it/regioneespanso.jsp?id=360194

Thanks and best regards!
Adolivio Capece

Selection of games rounds 1-3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

The venue is the Zamet Centre (16,830 m2), which hosts various facilities: a sports hall with max 2,380 seats, local community offices, a library, 13 retail and service spaces and a garage with 250 parking spaces.

These days the sports hall is occupied with tables, seats and chess sets...

...and hundreds of chess players

Croatian chess fans watching the games from the side

Vallejo Pons, from Linares to Rijeka, with Michael Adams next to him

Local hero GM Marin Bosiocic (r.), here against GM Ernesto Inarkiev, has many fans

Top seed GM Antoaneta Stefanova (l.), here against WGM Sopiko Guramishvili

Second seeded is IM Nadezhda Kosintseva, but another favourite...

...is her sister Tatiana, two times European Champion already

Photos courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

• Official website
• All details and statistics
• Games in PGN: Men | Women via TWIC

GM Pontus Carlsson (Sweden)

Pontus Carlsson of Sweden is currently competing in the European Individual Championship being held in Croatia. The tournament is extremely strong despite not featuring any of the top 20 players in the world. Carlsson sits in the #204 position in a field of 408 participants. Carlsson has been playing sparingly in the past year and is trying to get back on track.

GM Zoltan Almasi of Hungary is the top seed at 2720. There are some rising young Grandmasters in the lineup such as Fabiano Caruana (Italy) along with Anish Giri (Netherlands) and Eltaj Safarli (Azerbaijan). They will be looking to make an impact among the approximately 200 Grandmasters vying for the prestigious title.

Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr29567.aspx
Official Website: http://www.eurorijeka2010.com/

• Live
  
• Caruana - GM Potkin
• Femminile
• MI Cmityle - Sedina
  

Si disputa oggi il quarto turno del Campionato Europeo. Scacchierando allestirà, per ogni turno, un articolo di rimando al sito ufficiale dove i lettori potranno commentare le partite.
Per sapere cosa è successo nel terzo turno, clicca QUI

GM Caruana, Fabiano (ITA, 2680) - GM Potkin, Vladimir (RUS, 2606)  Siciliana Scheveningen [Stefano Bellincampi/Megalovic] 
1. e4 c5 2. Cf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Cxd4 Cc6 5. Cc3 a6 6. Ae3 Cf6 7. Ae2 d6 8. f4 Ad7 Fabiano, con posposizione di mosse, è rientrato in una Siciliana Scheveningen nella quale il nero sta ritardando - contrariamente al solito - lo sviluppo del lato di re. Infatti dopo 8..Ad7 Fabiano sta analizzando da un pò. 9. g4 E infatti parte l'attacco con 9.g4!. Secondo me ha giocato g4 perchè il cavallo nero non può andare in d7. E' vero che forse Potkin può giocare 9..Cxd4 e 10..Ac6, ma Fabiano vuole sfruttare l'ordine di mosse del nero 9..h6 Ora è chiaro che il nero non potrà arroccare corto, come del resto Fabiano, che immagino giocherà Dd2 e 0-0-0 10. h4 Dc7 11. Dd2 b5 12. a3 Ca5 a questo punto Caruana potrebbe decide di arroccare lungo o di accendere la miccia giocando 13. e5 13. e5 dxe5 14. fxe5 Dxe5 15. Af4 Dc5 16. b4 De7 17. bxa5 e5 18. Cdxb5 axb5 19.

MI Cmilyte, Viktorija (LTU, 2485) - MI Sedina, Elena (ITA, 2334)
difesa slava
1. Cf3 Cf6 2. c4 c6 3. d4 d5 4. Cc3 dxc4 5. a4 Af5 6. Ch4 Ac8 7. e3 e5 8. Axc4 exd4 9. exd4 De7+ 10. Ae2 Dc7 11.  Ag5 Cbd7 12. Dd2 Ad6 13. De3+ Rf8 14. Cf5 h6 15. Ah4 Cb6 16. Cxd6 Dxd6 17. De5
 
Tempo di Riflessione 90' x 40 mosse + 30' per terminare la partita + 30" di incremento per mossa a partire dalla prima mossa.

Viktorija Cmilyte, l'avversaria di Elena Sedina

Safarlj e Golod, gli avversari di Shytaj e Dvirnyy

Ivan Cheparinov. Dopo un inizio non esaltante il bulgaro oggi affronterà Corrado Astengo

1	5		GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	ESP	2708	3		3	GM	Timofeev Artyom	RUS	2655		36
2	37		GM	Krasenkow Michal	POL	2652	3		3	GM	Jobava Baadur	GEO	2695		10
3	11		GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	GER	2691	3		3	GM	Efimenko Zahar	UKR	2640		48
4	83		GM	Pelletier Yannick	SUI	2611	3		3	GM	Inarkiev Ernesto	RUS	2667		24
5	175		IM	Skoberne Jure	SLO	2509	3		3	GM	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	ROU	2661		28

8	15		GM	Caruana Fabiano	ITA	2680	2½		2½	GM	Potkin Vladimir	RUS	2606		89
69	209		IM	Shytaj Luca	ITA	2472	2		2	GM	Safarli Eltaj	AZE	2606		90
76	219		IM	Dvirnyy Daniyyl	ITA	2450	2		2	GM	Golod Vitali	ISR	2590		102
128	33		GM	Cheparinov Ivan	BUL	2657	1		1½		Astengo Corrado	ITA	2136		345
109	135		GM	Godena Michele	ITA	2561	1½		1½	IM	Kargin Arseny	RUS	2400		256
114	149		GM	Brkic Ante	CRO	2543	1½		1½	FM	Bentivegna Francesco	ITA	2361		276
151	251		IM	Reutsky Sergei	RUS	2404	1		1		Pantaleoni Claudio	ITA	2179		336
155	257			Nedilko Vasily	UKR	2400	1		1	FM	Barlocco Carlo	ITA	2173		337
161	274		IM	Lanzani Mario	ITA	2371	1		1		Neagos Raul-Alexandru	ROU	2110		350
164	279		FM	Valsecchi Alessio	ITA	2360	1		1		Hetzer Volkhard	GER	2091		355
134	312			Feher Adam	HUN	2260	1		1	IM	Brunello Sabino	ITA	2476		205
138	320			Sgnaolin Davide	ITA	2234	1		1	IM	Vernay Clovis	FRA	2440		224
145	328			Sheskin Matan	ISR	2207	1		1	IM	Piscopo Pierluigi	ITA	2418		242
176	338			Kadric Denis	BIH	2171	½		½	GM	Ortega Lexy	ITA	2479		203

8	13		IM	Cmilyte Viktorija	LTU	2485	2½		2½	IM	Sedina Elena	ITA	2334		56
44	60		IM	Zimina Olga	ITA	2319	1½		1½	WGM	Przezdziecka Marta	POL	2254		98
42	115		WIM	Brunello Marina	ITA	2217	1½		1½	WGM	Charkhalashvili Inga	GEO	2338		54
72	118		WIM	Kazimova Narmin	AZE	2212	½		½		Brunello Roberta	ITA	2043		143
74	144			Tonel Giulia	ITA	2023	½		0	WGM	Nemcova Katerina	CZE	2264		89

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 Report fotografico di Ruigino Tonel

• Dvirnyy patta con il GM Salgado Lopez e sale a 2!
• Corrado Astengo batte il MI Pancevski
  
• Femminile
• Sedina - MI Mariya Muzychuk 1/2
  

Nel terzo turno Caruana si prende un giorno di riposo e, con il nero, patta velocemente con il GM Aleksandrov (2601). Prosegue l'ottimo torneo di Dvirnyy che patta, sempre con il nero, con il giovane Grande Maestro spagnolo Ivan Salgado Lopez (2592).

Come da pronostico, vince Shytaj che raggiunge Danyyl a quota 2. Godena patta, con il nero, con il MF Bajarani (2395). Michele sale cose a quota 1.5 insieme a Bentivegna che patta con il MI ungherse Banusz (2517). Termina con una patta anche il derby tra Brunello e Lanzani. La sorpresa negativa arriva da Ortega, che con il bianco perde contro il MF austriaco Platzgummer. Anche da Piscopo ci si aspettava qualcosa in più di una patta con il bileorusso Elkin (2189)

Tra i tanti italiani venuti a Rijeka senza particolari ambizioni, da segnalare la vittoria di Corrado Astengo contro il MI Pancevski (2423)!

Femminile giornata meno felice delle precedenti per la comitiva delle ragazze. Perdono la Zimina, Marina Brunello e la Tonel. La Sedina patta con Mariya Muzychuk e resta nelle zone alte della classifica mentre questa volta è Roberta Brunello ad ottenere un buon risultato: patta con la WGM croata Medic.

Per sapere cosa è successo nel secondo turno, clicca QUI


GM Aleksandrov, Aleksej (BLR, 2601) - GM Caruana, Fabiano (ITA, 2680)
difesa slava
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Cf3 Cf6 4. e3 Af5 5. Ad3 Axd3 6. Dxd3 e6 7. O-O Cbd7 8. b3 Ce4 9. Cfd2 f5 10. f3 Cxd2 11. Cxd2 Ad6 12. e4 Dh4 13. g3 implicita proposta di patta, confidando che dopo il sacrificio di alfiere in g3 il nero dia il perpetuo con la donna Axg3 14. hxg3 Dxg3+ 15. Rh1 Dh3+ 16.Rg1 Dg3+ Caruana decide di non andare a scoprire se il nero abbia chance di vittoria dopo la cattura del pe4, e si prende una giornata di riposo 1/2


MI Sedina, Elena (ITA, 2334) - MI Muzychuk Maria (UKR, 2444)
Francese Tarrasch

GM Dzagnidze, Nana (GEO, 2479)  - MI Zimina, Olga (ITA, 2319) 
gambetto di donna rifiutato

Il diciannovenne Grande Maestro spagnolo Ivan Salgado Lopez
L'avversario di Dvirnyy

Mariya Muzychuk, Nana Dzagnidze e Svetlana Matveeva
le avversarie di Sedina, Zimina e Marina Brunello


una panormaica della sede di gioco

1	4		GM	Navara David	CZE	2708	2		2	GM	Pelletier Yannick	SUI	2611		83
2	88		GM	Saric Ivan	CRO	2607	2		2	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	ESP	2708		5
3	89		GM	Potkin Vladimir	RUS	2606	2		2	GM	Adams Michael	ENG	2704		7
4	10		GM	Jobava Baadur	GEO	2695	2		2	GM	Kotronias Vasilios	GRE	2593		99
5	90		GM	Safarli Eltaj	AZE	2606	2		2	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	GER	2691		11

6	94		GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	BLR	2601	2		2	GM	Caruana Fabiano	ITA	2680		15
69	100		GM	Salgado Lopez Ivan	ESP	2592	1½		1½	IM	Dvirnyy Daniyyl	ITA	2450		219
102	136		GM	Maslak Konstantin	RUS	2560	1		1	FM	Valsecchi Alessio	ITA	2360		279
149	203		GM	Ortega Lexy	ITA	2479	½		½	FM	Platzgummer Fabian	AUT	2383		269
150	205		IM	Brunello Sabino	ITA	2476	½		½	IM	Lanzani Mario	ITA	2371		274
135	209		IM	Shytaj Luca	ITA	2472	1		1		Feher Adam	HUN	2260		312
160	242		IM	Piscopo Pierluigi	ITA	2418	½		½		Elkin Leonid	BLR	2189		334
101	262		FM	Bajarani Ulvi	AZE	2395	1		1	GM	Godena Michele	ITA	2561		135
113	276		FM	Bentivegna Francesco	ITA	2361	1		1	IM	Banusz Tamas	HUN	2517		161

16	14		GM	Dzagnidze Nana	GEO	2479	1½		1½	IM	Zimina Olga	ITA	2319		60
29	42		IM	Matveeva Svetlana	RUS	2373	1½		1½	WIM	Brunello Marina	ITA	2217		115
7	56		IM	Sedina Elena	ITA	2334	2		2	IM	Muzychuk Mariya	UKR	2444		25
66	114		WIM	Ivakhinova Inna	RUS	2218	½		½		Tonel Giulia	ITA	2023		144
68	143			Brunello Roberta	ITA	2043	0		0	WGM	Medic Mirjana	CRO	2279		83

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Armada Española en Rijeka, Croacia, comenzaron los Campeonatos Europeos Masculino y Femenino Individuales, con la participación y triunfos de los GM’s Francisco Vallejo Pons Iván Salgado López, Josep López Martínez, Pablo San Segundo Carrillo, Marc Narciso Dublan y el MI Marcos Llaneza Vega por el lado de los hombres; y las WGM’s Sabrina Vega Gutiérrez y Mónica Calzetta Ruiz.

El Campeonato se juega a 11 rondas, por Sistema Suizo y el Ritmo de Juego será de 90 minutos para 40 jugadas y 30 minutos para el resto de la partida con un incremento de 30 segundos por movimiento, a partir del primer movimiento; finalizando el 18 de marzo.

• Live h.15:30
• Caruana - GM Evdokimov
• Godena - Inarkiev
• Femminile
• MI Mkrtchian - Sedina
• Marina Brunello - MI Khurtsidze

Si disputa oggi il secondo turno del Campionato Europeo individuale. L'andamento del primo turno è stato, per i nostri colori, molto più positivo di quanto dica il 7.5/27 ottenuto complessivamente dai giocatori italiani. Gli azzurri erano, infatti, nettamente svantaggiati dal pronostico in ben 22 scacchiere.

Nel secondo turno Caruana è chiamato subito a dare continuità al suo cammino. Se si vuole puntare in alto non si può, con il bianco, rallentare con il GM Evdokimov. Impegno ben più arduo per Godena che affronterà il Grande Maestro russo Inarkiev. Entrambe le partite verranno trasmesse in diretta. Dvirnyy, terzo ed ultimo italiano ad aver conquistato l'intera posta in palio nel primo turno,  se la vedrà con il GM Arutinian.

Dopo le prestigiose patte del primo turno, Ortega, Piscopo e Lanzani proveranno a confermarsi contro tre giocatori sulla carta nettamente più forti: Volokitin, Postny e Romain. Dopo le preventivabili sconfitte del primo turno, Brunello e Shytaj si troveranno di fronte a due giocatori non titolati. 

Torneo Femminile La Sedina e Marina Brunello incontreranno due Maestri Internazionali di alto livello: l'armena Mkrtchian e la georgiana Khurtsidze. Le partite di ambedue le nostre rappresentanti verranno trasmesse in diretta.

Volokitin, Postny e Romain
tre scogli durissimi per Ortega Piscopo e Lanzani

 Mkrtchian e Khurtsidze
due temibili avversarie per la Sedina e Marina Brunello

deep thought
una bella immagine tratta dal sito ufficiale

II turno, prime scacchiere

1	120		GM	Stefansson Hannes	ISL	2574		GM	Bacrot Etienne	FRA	2714		2
2	3		GM	Movsesian Sergei	SVK	2709		GM	Ragger Markus	AUT	2572		122
3	121		GM	Nevednichy Vladislav	ROU	2572		GM	Navara David	CZE	2708		4
4	5		GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	ESP	2708		GM	Ruck Robert	HUN	2570		124
5	7		GM	Adams Michael	ENG	2704		GM	Jankovic Alojzije	CRO	2569		126

Incontri degli italiani

11	15		GM	Caruana Fabiano	ITA	2680		GM	Evdokimov Alexander A	RUS	2564		132
19	135		GM	Godena Michele	ITA	2561		GM	Inarkiev Ernesto	RUS	2667		24
81	219		IM	Dvirnyy Daniyyl	ITA	2450		GM	Arutinian David	GEO	2576		114
90	13		GM	Volokitin Andrei	UKR	2687		GM	Ortega Lexy	ITA	2479		203
97	47		GM	Postny Evgeny	ISR	2641		IM	Piscopo Pierluigi	ITA	2418		242
107	75		GM	Edouard Romain	FRA	2617		IM	Lanzani Mario	ITA	2371		274
121	85		GM	Andriasian Zaven	ARM	2609			Sgnaolin Davide	ITA	2234		320

124	324			Mihalinec Damir	CRO	2232		IM	Brunello Sabino	ITA	2476		205
127	328			Sheskin Matan	ISR	2207		IM	Shytaj Luca	ITA	2472		209

Incontri delle italiane

6	7		IM	Mkrtchian Lilit	ARM	2503		IM	Sedina Elena	ITA	2334		56
24	115		WIM	Brunello Marina	ITA	2217		IM	Khurtsidze Nino	GEO	2434		28
46	60		IM	Zimina Olga	ITA	2319		WFM	Cherednichenko Elena	UKR	2100		140
49	125		WIM	Solic Kristina	CRO	2192			Tonel Giulia	ITA	2023		144
66	143			Brunello Roberta	ITA	2043			Papp Petra	HUN	2263		90

Regolamento

Calendario Il torneo si disputa sulla lunghezza di 11 turni (6-17 marzo). L'inizio delle partite è previsto per le ore 15:30. Unico giorno di riposo sabato 13 marzo. Il 18 marzo si svolgeranno gli eventuali Tie-breaks.

Criteri di spareggio in caso di arrivo a pari merito sono previsti i seguenti criteri di spareggio tecnico:
a)  Median-Buchholz 1
b)  Buchholz
c)  Numero di vittorie 
d) Punteggio Progressivo.

Spareggi Rapid sono previsti gli spareggi (15'+10" per mossa) solo per stabilire:
a)  il Campione Europeo
b)  i vincitori di Medaglie
c)  I qualificati (22) alla prossima World Cup.

Tempo di Riflessione 90' x 40 mosse + 30' per terminare la partita + 30" di incremento per mossa a partire dalla prima mossa. 

VISORE


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"Dear GM Alexandra,

I purchased your software for my daughter. I have been teaching her myself and she is doing well but the addition of your software in her training has made a big jump in her enjoyment of the game. I have included a shot of her practicing. I thank you for being such a positive role model and mentor to so many people.

Regards,

WS"

A new version of Aquarium 2010 (version 4.0.3) will be released soon. It’s a free update for current Aquarium 2010 users. One of the new features is a correspondence chess module that keeps track of correspondence games played on Xfcc compliant chess servers. The Xfcc protocol was designed by Martin Bennedik. Servers of this type include the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF), SchemingMind.com, and myChess.de.

Correspondence chess has changed a lot in recent years; transitioning from snail-mail to email and now to server based play. Aquarium only supports server based play, which without doubt is the most convenient method of playing.

When playing correspondence chess, you must, of course, respect the rules regarding the use of chess engines. Some servers allow them (e.g., ICCF in most events), while their use is forbidden on other servers. Some servers allow the use of engines under special circumstances. As an example, SchemingMind only allows their use in “Advanced chess.”

For the purposes of this column, I will assume that you have already registered and joined a tournament on one of the supported servers.

Aquarium for Correspondence Players

Correspondence players normally play several games at the same time and Aquarium supports simultaneous analysis of multiple games and positions using either traditional infinite analysis or the innovative IDeA (Interactive Deep Analysis) method that explores and expands critical lines automatically.

IDeA in action

Many correspondence players already make extensive use of IDeA. The improvements in Aquarium 2010 were especially useful for them (multiple projects, positions and engine instances). Although IDeA can be used as a fully automatic tool, it really shines when the player takes advantage of its interactive features. IDeA records all its results in an “analysis tree.” This is a valuable feature for correspondence players, as they can later access their stored analysis from any game where a previously analyzed position arises. If you find yourself playing the same opening again, you can expand your analysis tree, searching for interesting alternatives, novelties, etc.

The implementation of infinite analysis in Aquarium also has many convenient features (see Infinite Analysis with Rybka Aquarium) for correspondence players. Several engines can be used to analyze different games at the same time and analysis presets (see Analysis Presets in Rybka Aquarium) let you use more than one engine to analyze the same position and quickly switch between different engines and methods.

The image below shows an example of three games being analyzed with infinite analysis. One of the positions is displayed on the board with the analysis window below the board. This game is highlighted in the sidebar with a blue background.

Simultaneous analysis of three games

A red rectangle has been drawn around the three games. You can always see which games are being analyzed by the green rectangle next to the game in the sidebar as shown below.

Green rectangle indicates analysis

Many of you will notice that this is the same icon as is shown in the status bar for each active engine.

As mentioned above, both IDeA and infinite analysis support simultaneous analysis by multiple engines. In the case of IdeA, it would normally be multiple instances of the same engine. Both methods can also take advantage of analysis on networked computers as described in Networked Computers with Aquarium 2010. This means that you can combine the analysis power of several computers.

Networked analysis with thirty-four engines

There are many other Aquarium features that are useful for correspondence players. Browsing the Aquarium articles archives should give you insight into some of them. For a quick overview of various smaller features see Aquarium’s Hidden Treasures, Part One and Aquarium’s Hidden Treasures, Part Two.

The only thing that has been missing for playing correspondence chess in Aquarium is a tool for live updates of games (sending and receiving moves from the server). This may seem like a minor issue that can be solved by copy/paste to and from the server. Technically that is correct. However, correspondence players must perform this action thousands of times a year, and they need to take great care not to make a “technical” mistake, as it can easily lead to the loss of a game. It’s frustrating to see hours or days of analysis go down the drain due to such a mistake.

The Aquarium correspondence play module is designed to minimize manual intervention and thereby the chance of mistakes. It accepts moves automatically from the server. When a game is saved, all previous analysis is preserved, the game is activated and you can instantly start analyzing the position.

Getting Started

Click the Aquarium Button in the upper left corner, select “External programs” and then “Correspondence Play” from the right pane to start the module.

Starting the correspondence chess module

The Correspondence Play module will appear on the screen as shown below.

The correspondence chess module

The first step is to tell the program which correspondence chess server(s) you want to use. Click the “Server options” button and the corresponding dialog box will be displayed.

Add the servers to which you want to connect

Here you can add, edit, and remove servers. Note that you can connect to more than one server. Near the bottom you can specify how often the program checks for new information on the servers (once every sixty minutes in this case). Click the “Add” button to add a new server.

Specify a new server

Here you enter information that is required to connect to the server and retrieve information about your games.

Server name is a name you choose to identify the server; e.g., ICCF for the ICCF server. You can use any name you like.

Server address is the URL used for Xfcc communication with the server. You will usually find the address to use in the help file or the FAQ of the server. The correct addresses for SchemingMind.com and ICCF are given as examples in the dialog box. For your convenience, here are the addresses for the three servers mentioned at the beginning of the column. You can copy the address of the server you want to connect to and paste it into the server address field:

• ICCF: http://www.iccf-webchess.com/XfccBasic.asmx
• SchemingMind.com: http://www.schemingmind.com/xfcc/xfccbasic.asmx
• myChess.de: http://www.myChess.de/xfcc/xfccbasic.php4

User name is your username on the server. As mentioned earlier, you need to register on the server through their website.

Password is the password you use when logging onto the server.

After filling out these fields, click OK and a list of your games will be fetched from the server and displayed on the screen as shown in the screen-shot below.

Connected to server

If you select a game from the list, it is displayed at the top of the screen and the current position is shown on the board.

The game list

If a game in the list is shown in bold (such as the first line in the list), it’s your turn to move. When a new move arrives, the corresponding game is shown in red type until you select the game; after that it’s shown in bold. The list above shows two red games.

The list itself consists of the following columns:

The leftmost column (#) shows the identification (game number) that the server has assigned to this game.

Col shows your color in the game. Yellow means that you have white and brown means that you have the black pieces.

Opponent is your opponent’s name.

Event shows the name of the event or tournament. It is assigned by the server when the event starts.

Your time shows how much time you have remaining until the next time control.

Opp. time shows how much time your opponent has left until the next time control.

Status shows the current status of the game. When a game is in progress it shows the current move. When a game is finished it shows the result.

Comment allows you to keep notes about the game. They are your private notes and are not sent to your opponent. This is very useful for correspondence players with many games. They can use the notes to get a quick overview of the games. The notes can be used for your evaluation of the position, what needs to be checked, how you intend to analyze, etc. The Comment column is not shown in the image, but here is an example of how it can be used.

Private comments about the games

The text wraps automatically, but you can also press Ctrl+Enter to force a new line.

Saving Games to a Database

You can enter moves and variations directly on the board in the correspondence chess module and then send your move to the server without using Aquarium at all. However, a serious player will always save his games to the database and do his analysis there. Even while playing the first few moves, he needs to research the opening repertoire of his opponent and look up the latest games in the opening variation that is being played. So, after connecting to the server and getting a list of your games, the next step is to save the server games to a local database.

First, you need to create the database. Click the “Base options” button. The “Database Options” dialog box will appear.

Create/select a database for the games

Here you should click the ellipsis button to the right of the “Save game to database” field. It opens up a standard Windows dialog for choosing a database name and a directory for storing it. After selecting a directory and choosing a name for the database, click the OK button. Your database will be created and you can start saving your games.

There are two scenarios to think about when you save new games from the server.

If you don’t have any previous analysis of the game or you don’t want to merge the game with existing analysis, just select the game from the list (by clicking it) and then click the “Save” button. The game will be appended to the database as a new game. Note that when you save the game, it will automatically be opened in Aquarium where you have full access to it and all other games in the database.

This was simple enough, but if you just started to use the correspondence chess module and already have a lot of analysis for the games, you can choose to merge the server game into an existing game. This is a convenient way of taking advantage of your previous analytical work. In this case, do the following (note that this is only required the first time you save the game):

1. Open Aquarium (if it isn’t already running)
2. Open the database that you defined above.
3. Open the game containing the existing analysis. You will merge your server game with this game.
4. Switch back to the correspondence chess module and select the game you want to save
5. Press “Save.” The following dialog box will appear.

Merge game with existing game analysis?

If you select “Yes,” the server game will be merged with the game you opened in Aquarium. If you select “No,” the server game will be appended to the database as a new game.

If you change your mind and don’t want to save the game, click “Cancel.”

Remember that this process is only needed the first time that you save this game to the database. Once you have done that, simply press “Save” when you want to update the game in the database after a new move has been made.

Note that your analysis of the games in Aquarium will stay private, so there is no need to keep one copy of the game with your analysis and another “clean” copy without annotations. If you need to see the bare game score, you can always do so in the correspondence chess module.

For the more technically minded, the link between your correspondence game and the game in the database is maintained in Config/xfccBasesList.xml. If you delete an entry in that file (you can find the game by its id), then that link is broken and you can re-link it.

Making a Move

You can make your move either directly in the correspondence chess module or start by selecting the move in Aquarium itself. Both methods are described below.

Making a move in the correspondence chess module is very simple. Just make your move on the board and click the “Make move” button. You will be presented with the following window.

Sending a move to the server

The move you are going to send is shown in large, red type at the top of the window. There are two text areas below the move. The one at the top shows your opponent’s comments for his previous move (if any). You can write a message to your opponent in the lower text area and it will be delivered with the move.

There are four radio buttons below the text areas. In this example, two of them are active and you can use them to resign or offer a draw. “Accept draw” is inactive unless your opponent has offered a draw, in which case you would select it to accept the draw. “Claim draw” is only active when you can claim a draw according to the laws of chess. That’s all there is to it when you make your move using the correspondence chess module.

You can also start by selecting your move in Aquarium if you have previously saved the game to the database as described above. Start by opening the game in Aquarium. Go to the current position in the game. Move the mouse pointer to the tree window, right-click the move you want to make (23.Nxb5 in this example) and select “XFCC Play” from the menu as shown in the next image.

Sending a move from Aquarium

The correspondence chess module will be opened and the selected move will be played on the board. Now you can submit it by clicking “Make move” as described above.

It would be interesting to receive feedback from users about this method of selecting the move from the tree window. It does have the advantage that it practically forces you to look at its evaluation before you submit it (assuming engine analysis is allowed). In the image above, 23.Nxb5 has the best score (+0.00), but you would probably hesitate and recheck everything if you saw another move with a better score. If you have a better suggestion, I’m sure that the developers would like to hear about it.

Conclusion

The new Aquarium correspondence chess module gives you a unified method of playing your games on Xfcc compliant servers. You get a quick overview of all your games in a single list, even if you have games in progress on all these servers. The list has a very useful comment field for each game, where you can enter your private notes. When you make your moves, many of the possible sources of error are eliminated. Games can be saved directly in an Aquarium database where you can check opening statistics, look up the position in endgame tablebases or use Aquarium’s analysis tools. The combination of Aquarium’s powerful analysis features and the new correspondence chess module makes Aquarium a one stop solution for correspondence players.

Chess players love wooden chess sets for their massive, easy-playing pieces, their obvious superiority over cheap plastic stuff and their distinguished classical look. But what about their sustainability?

I got interested in this question after seeing an advertisement for a truly magnificent chess set called the ‘Endangered Parrots of the World Chess Set’. Created by Grant Dawson Collections in the United States, it is “hand made from certified sustainable North American hardwoods (walnut and maple), food safe natural finishes with recycled glass ball feet, and features 32 lead-free pewter playing pieces finished in 24k gold or sterling silver.”

The set is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, but it’s not exactly cheap: if you’re interested, you can buy it here for the nice sum of $5000. It’ll buy you this:

Endangered Parrots of the World Chess Set

That’s much more expensive, for instance, than the slightly less serious Freshwater vs. Saltwater Fish Chess Set or the various Animal Chess Sets that are sold on the internet. (”Endangered species will live on, healthy and free, in your own controlled temperature living room. Beware if you lose a piece or you could be in trouble with the Feds.”)

This is all good fun, of course (in fact, I can’t help mentioning a marvellous – if not really environmentally ‘correct’ – Through the Looking-Glass chess set, with pieces vanishing as soon as they are captured!) – but what about regular, Staunton-style chess sets?

I personally became interested in deforestation and sustainability issues after a visit a few years ago to Easter Island (which was completely deforested by its original people) and after reading Jared Diamond’s influential book Collapse (2005) about the collapse of great civilizations in the past and present, which deals about deforestation in great detail. As Diamond writes:

More than half of the world’s original area of forest has already been converted to other uses, and at present conversion rates one-quarter of the forests that remain will become converted within the next half-century. Those losses of forests represent losses for us humans, especially because forests provide us with timber and other raw materials, and because they provide us with so-called ecosystem services such as protecting our watersheds, protecting soil against erosion, constituting essential steps in the water cycle that generates much of our rainfall, and providing habitat for most terrestial plant and animal species. Deforestation was a or the major factor in all the collapses of past societies described in this book.

I tried searching for the word ’sustainable’ on a couple of well-known chess vendor sites such as The House of Staunton and the online shop of the London Chess Centre, but got a No products matched your search criteria in all cases. (One of the very few hits I got at all on Google was for a recyced chess set on Cool Gadgets.com. Pretty cool indeed, but hardly useful for even the smallest-sized chess tournament.)

I looked for more information online on the type of wood that’s used in chess sets. Again, it’s not easy finding out about this. On one site, I learned that “rosewood is a very popular type of wood used for chess men.” This would be bad news, since rosewood is in fact a tropical hardwood which is hugely overexploited. Still, a quick look at some retailer’s sites show that this is indeed one of the most commonly used wood for chess sets. According to the BBC,

The most reliable way to choose environmentally friendly timber and wooden products is to look out for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo. The FSC is a charity which certifies wood, paper and other tree products that have come from sustainability managed forests. (…) Wood from trees native to Europe, such as pine, oak, beech and birch, pose lower environment risks than those from tropical and subtropical trees such as mahogany, teak, rosewood and ebony.

The widely-used Digital DGT wooden boards are made of rosewood. On the website of the USCF Shop, too, most chess sets (both pieces and boards, and both ‘tournament’ and ‘luxury’ sets) seem to be made from rosewood, ebony or mahogany. And on this site, too, the word ’sustainable’ doesn’t return any pages. (There are ecologically sustainable types of rosewood, such as Santos Palisander, but again it is unclear (at best) whether this palisander type is used for the chess boards advertised on these websites.) In fact, one of the very few websites that explicity features ’sustainable chess sets’ is the English ShopWiki, which links the so-called Negiel Decorative Staunton Wooden Chess Set:

Folding wooden chess set by Negiel, comprising of an ornate stained wooden chess board and traditional Staunton style weighted chess pieces. Quality product made in Europe from carefully selected high quality sustainable wood.

The sustainable Negiel Staunton chess set doesn't look so bad, does it? (Apart from the wrongly placed king and queen, that is.)

It’s also quite cheap (certainly compared to the Endangered Parrots one!): £44.99, and it will be in stock from April this year on. But again, on the above-mentioned online shops, you’ll search in vain for the Negiel chess set, as far as I can tell.

I phoned Joris van Vuure of Chess and Go Shop Het Paard in Amsterdam, one of the largest chess equipment sellers in The Netherlands, to ask him what, if anything, he knew about sustainable chess sets. “Well, to be honest I’ve never thought about it,” Joris van Vuure told me. “Our customers – including the Dutch Chess Federation – simply never ask for it. They are obviously interested in the price and quality of the chess sets, but not their sustainability. Our top-selling chess sets are mostly made of mahogany, palissander or boxwood. Boxwood pieces are usually painted, which you can easily recognize because the black pieces are really black, whereas the others have a natural dark wood colour. I personally thought boxwood is sustainable, but I’m not sure.”

In fact, the sustainability of boxwood (or buxus as it says on the chess sets) is questionable. It’s an extremely hard type of wood which makes it very suitable for many things, including chess pieces, but it’s often overexploited and its sustainability really depends on where the plant was cultivated. Even if some boxwood would deserve to get the benefit of the doubt (Het Paard sells a lot of them, which is a good thing!), rosewood, mahogany and other tropical hardwoods wouldn’t.

Van Vuure says their shop would be interested in marketing explicitly sustainable chess sets, possibly even with an FSC logo, but he doubts whether customers would want to pay more for them. “In fact, many of our customers explicitly say they want nice wooden products rather than plastic ones, which obviously look cheap and actually have a bad image environmentally speaking. It’s a complicated issue, but if we could market it in a good way, without confusing customers, why not?”

Exactly how bad is it that we chess players mostly use unsustainable wooden chess sets, and what can be done about it? To quickly answer the first question: I have no idea – but it certainly doesn’t help. As often with these things, it’s clearly better in any case to be part of the solution, instead of the problem. Besides, I’m pretty sure more chess sets are being sold each day than expensive musical instruments made of the same materials, so there’s another clue. Finally, while unsustainble furniture at least looks really nice, I really wouldn’t be able to spot the difference between a maple chess set and a boxwood one. Nor would I much care: as long are the pieces are heavy (which can be achieved in other ways as well) and they don’t look too distracting, it’s all perfectly fine by me.

The second question seems tougher. I can advice you to buy a sustainable chess set next time, and you can tell your chess-playing friends, but even if you’d be willing to follow my advice, when will that be? And how effective will that be in the grand scheme of things anyway? It’ll also look decidedly pedantic to complain with your local club staff about the nice sets they just bought to please their club members: gee, thanks for the support!

This is an example of what marine scientist Jennifer Jacquet, who studies the overfishing problem, calls horizontal agitation:

Horizontal agitation is peer pressure combined with a pejorative element of what is socially or environmentally unacceptable. One friend lambasts me if she sees me with a disposable coffee cup. Another one does when I drive instead of walk. A British colleague in fisheries told me he could no longer bear dinner with his “middle-class friends” because they would pester him about the hypocrisy of his seafood consumption.

Although horizontal agitation can be beneficial, as studies have shown, Jacquet thinks there’s a better way: vertical agitation.

Choosing a MSC-certified fish over another is not going to relieve overfishing — not when one trawler today can remove 60 tonnes of fish from the ocean in a single haul. The way to get big changes quickly and maximize the effect of our scrutiny is with vertical agitation.

Vertical agitation means working higher in the demand chain. Rather than consumers hassling consumers, vertical agitation implies consumers hassle mega-consumers (chefs, managers, retailers, universities) or government. Today’s conservation movement, like the industries it seeks to revolutionize, must make big changes quickly. It can do this best with vertical agitation. (…) [A] colleague, Claire Nouvian, managed to arrange a meeting with President Sarkozy and vertically agitated him into supporting a CITES listing of bluefin tuna.

In terms of chess sets, the problem is obviously not as big as, say, slavery or the extinction of the bluefish tuna. Nor will buying sustainable chess sets alone save the world’s rainforests. But, as Joris van Vuure says, why not give it a try? At least unsustainable chess sets are not subsidized by FIDE! Chess organizers and federations could use nicely made plastic chess sets only (there are nice plastic sets, I’ve seen them myself!) or they could ask retailers about sustainable wooden sets. They might even be subsidized because of it!

Retailers, especially small ones already offering that little ’something extra’ to customers, should in my view seriously consider importing (and marketing) more sustainable wooden chess sets made of, for instance, oak or beech, even if perhaps they don’t always look as posh as some of the tropical of subtropical hardwood products. After all, in no-nonsense tournament chess, nobody ever really looks at the pieces for their beauty, do they? As long as they’re not distracting, surely it’s the chess that matters, not the board and pieces?

Finally, FIDE (Gens una sumus) itself should also be listening closely. Since they seem to have a liking for introducing weird new rules, here’s a suggestion for them: order all FIDE-rated tournaments to play with plastic or sustainable wooden chess sets. And they shouldn’t just do it because they like new rules, either. Like most ’sustainability’ initiatives, it could actually save them real money in the long run. What with all the financial troubles of our dear World Chess Federation, might this not be music to their ears?

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

The 2010 Reykjavik Open ended in a four-way tie between Abhijeet Gupta, Yuriy Kuzubov, Ivan Sokolov and Hannes Stefansson. The four grandmasters all ended on 7/9; Dutchman Sokolov had the best tiebreak.

The Reykjavik Open took place February 24 – March 3 in the capital of Iceland. It was a 9-round Swiss with 104 players (20 GMs, 16 IMs). The rate of play was 1.5 hours for 40 moves plus 30 minutes to end te game, with an increment of 30 seconds starting from move 1. The main sponsor was MP Bank, the bank started by grandmaster Margeir Pétursson and the only bank in Iceland that more or less managed to avoid the biggest damage in the crisis so far.

As always the Reykjavik open was quite a strong event, with 11 GMs rated higher than 2550 and six rated 2600 or higher. Besides the usual suspects (Baklan, Dreev…) there were the sometimes quite famous veterans (Westerinen, Ehlvest, Romanishin) and some of the biggest talents around (Nyzhnyk, Jorge and Deysi Cori).

In the end the first place was shared between Abhijeet Gupta (India), Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukraine), Ivan Sokolov (The Netherlands) and Hannes Stefansson (Iceland). Sokolov recovered well from his terrible result at his last open, the open in Cappelle-la-Grande. For local hero Stefansson it was the third time in a row that he ended (shared) first, and the fifth time in total.

Selection of games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Veterans meet: Alexey Dreev (Russia) vs Oleg Romanishin (Ukraine)

Newcomers meet: Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukraine) vs Ilya Nyzhnyk (Ukraine)

Peruvian rising star Jorge Cori vs Iceland's number two (on rating still behind the inactive Johann Hjartarson) Hannes Stefansson

Ivan Sokolov (The Netherlands) vs Irina Krush (USA)

A draw in the last round between Hannes Stefansson and Abhijeet Gupta

The fifth victory for Stefansson

Photos courtesy of the tournament website

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

He watched Max Euwe become World Champion. He chatted with Emanuel Lasker, and saved dozens of Jewish babies during the Second World War. Last night I had the privilege to play a club game against 99-year-old Professor Dr Johan van Hulst. I couldn’t beat him.

Photo: Fred Lucas

Professor Dr Johan Wilhelm van Hulst was born in Amsterdam on January 28th, 1911. He’s a Dutch emeritus professor of education and a politician. Starting as a teacher and mentor, from 1942 to 1960 Van Hulst was Principal of the Pedagogical Academy in Amsterdam and in that capacity he was responsible for rescuing hundreds of Jewish babies and children from the nursery of the Hollandsche Schouwburg. For this he received the Yad Vashem Distinction in 1973. About this period he said:

“The director of the kindergarten, our neighbor, asked me if she could use the school because the nursery was full. I made available an empty room and a part of the garden. Soon, this became the flight route for the children. Many children were smuggled away from the school. Members of the resistance could just walk in and out, because the Germans did not notice the school. Probably because I deliberately acted like I didn’t want anything to do with the Hollandsche Schouwburg and the Jews.” Source: Verzetsmuseum

Van Hulst earned a doctoral education and psychology and graduated in 1961. From 1956 to 1981 he was member of the Senate of the Dutch government and from 1961 to 1968 Member of the European Parliament. He’s a former Chairman of the political parties CHU and CDA and held many other functions. Van Hulst is also author of numerous scientific publications and books; the last was published when he was 95.

Consultation between (L-R) Gerard Leijenhorst, Johan van Hulst (CDA chairman for the Senate) and Ruud Lubbers (chairman CDA for the Parliament)

In the chess world he is no stranger either. He was quite a strong player himself and in fact was once invited to play for the Dutch team at one of the Olympiads. However, Van Hulst had to decline the invitation, with the knowledge that he would lose his job as School Principal if he would play. This was the moment he decided that he wouldn’t pursue a chess career. But for decades he has played in the special group for (former) parliamentarians at the Corus Chess Tournament, and won it many times, including the 2010 edition, at 99 years old.

Johan van Hulst giving one of his famous speeches,
during the 2010 Corus Chess Tournament | Photo Fred Lucas

I play chess myself very little these days. This season I’ve probably played just three or four games at my Amsterdam club Caïssa. Last year the ‘Max Euwe’ chess club ceased to exist and its members transferred to Caïssa. On the first club night in September last year, we met with our new club members, and one of them was the distinguished Professor Van Hulst. He is an honorary member of the Caïssa Chess Club, and has been a member for about seventy years.

“I have been a spectator at all of Max Euwe’s matches in Holland,” he told us on that Tuesday night. “During one of the early games of the 1935 match, Emanuel Lasker was one of the spectators. I asked him what he’d think of Euwe’s chances.” We were listening in awe to Mr Van Hulst, a magical figure already, who saw Euwe play, who talked to Lasker… Of course we immediately asked: “What did Lasker answer?” Van Hulst, smiling: “I remember very clearly. He said Alekhine should be considered slight favourite, considering the time control they were playing.”

Johan van Hulst in 2007 | Photo Fred Lucas

Later that evening he also told about the period of the Second World War. “I was the chairman of a chess club here in Amsterdam. At the end of the 1930s the situation for our Jewish members became more and more difficult. At some point they weren’t allowed to play anymore, so we decided to secretly play at their houses instead of at the club. Later this had to stop as well.

One night an SS officer walked into our club. ‘I want to be come a club member and play here,’ he told me. I had to think deeply, and then I responded: “Are you a Christian? You have to be a member of our Christian community too, you know.’ This way I managed to get rid of him.”

Van Hulst still plays almost every week. He’s being brought and picked up by taxi, and needs a walker or a stick to move around. “Not long ago he had to skip a club night,” the current chairman of the club told me. “The next week he came and apologized for his absence, but he had a very good reason. His daughter had turned 60.”

Last night I decided to go to my club, and to my surprise I was paired against Professor Van Hulst. Remembering the many stories, and with deep respect for my opponent, I had trouble concentrating. But that’s no excuse; I simply played badly. More importantly, except for the opening I believe he played quite strongly, as if there was no age difference of 65 years.

Van Hulst-Doggers
Amsterdam (Caïssa) 2010

Game viewer by ChessTempo

After the game I said: “I won the opening, you won the ending.” He answered with “I’m an old man, you know. I’m getting tired after a few hours of play.” Then he asked me about my rating. I told him it was a bit over 2200. “Aha! Well, perhaps I shouldn’t tell you mine, then. Well, OK, it’s 1600.”

After that he stood up, grabbed his walker, adding “I’m satisfied about the game.” He went for his coat. “I’m satisfied too,” I replied, having enjoyed the evening, and feeling OK about a draw against this man. But he was quick in pointing out that this was just nonsense: “I don’t think you have any reason to be satisfied!” I smiled, knowing that he was right. In the end he was the one who had won.

Photo © Fred Lucas;
for another photo see also Schaaksite

• 1^ scacchiera Ortega - Almasi
• 3^ scacchiera Brunello - Movsesian
• 7^ scacchiera Shytaj - Adams
• Todorovic-Caruana
• Piscopo - Roiz
  

Ma la notizia di questa prima giornata sono gli accoppiamenti  di Ortega, Brunello e Shytaj che giocheranno rispettivamente in prima, terza e settima scacchiera contro Almasi, Movsesian e Adams! Anche per Piscopo impegno tutt'altro che semplice con il GM israeliano Roiz. Lanzani se la vedrà con Iordachescu. Il colore sorteggiato potrebbe giocare a favore dei nostri portacolori, che hanno pescato tutti il bianco. Sfide difficilissime anche per i due MF Bentivegna e Valsecchi che incontreranno i forti GM Markus e Khairullin.

Impegno sulla carta molto più semplice per Godena. Il Michelone nazionale affronterà  un giocatore croato non  titolato.

Infine le ragazze. La Sedina e la Zimina hanno pescato due giocatrici della parte bassa del tabellone mentre l'europeo parte subito in salita per le sorelle Brunello e la Tonel. A Marina è toccata la  WGM Zdbeskaja  mentre Roberta sfiderà la WGM Kochetkova. Anche Giulia affrontera una WGM, la Zakurdjaeva.

I turno, prime scacchiere

1	203		GM	Ortega Lexy	ITA	2479	0		0	GM	Almasi Zoltan	HUN	2720		1
2	2		GM	Bacrot Etienne	FRA	2714	0		0	GM	Carlsson Pontus	SWE	2478		204
3	205		IM	Brunello Sabino	ITA	2476	0		0	GM	Movsesian Sergei	SVK	2709		3
4	4		GM	Navara David	CZE	2708	0		0	IM	Durarbeyli Vasif	AZE	2476		206
5	207		GM	Arkell Keith C	ENG	2474	0		0	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	ESP	2708		5
6	6		GM	Motylev Alexander	RUS	2705	0		0	GM	Maiwald Jens-Uwe	GER	2474		208
7	209		IM	Shytaj Luca	ITA	2472	0		0	GM	Adams Michael	ENG	2704		7

Incontri degli italiani

15

217

GM

Todorovic Goran M

SRB

2453

0

0

GM

Caruana Fabiano

ITA

2680

15

39

241

IM

Piscopo Pierluigi

ITA

2418

0

0

GM

Roiz Michael

ISR

2652

39

71

273

IM

Lanzani Mario

ITA

2371

0

0

GM

Iordachescu Viorel

MDA

2621

71

73

275

FM

Bentivegna Francesco

ITA

2361

0

0

GM

Markus Robert

SRB

2618

73

76

76

GM

Khairullin Ildar

RUS

2617

0

0

FM

Valsecchi Alessio

ITA

2360

278

116

116

GM

Yemelin Vasily

RUS

2576

0

0

Sgnaolin Davide

ITA

2234

318

132

132

GM

Evdokimov Alexander A

RUS

2564

0

0

Pantaleoni Claudio

ITA

2179

334

133

335

FM

Barlocco Carlo

ITA

2173

0

0

GM

Grigoriants Sergey

RUS

2562

133

35

337

Sikanjic Bojan

CRO

2170

0

0

GM

Godena Michele

ITA

2561

135

Incontri delle italiane

36

36

WGM

Zdebskaja Natalia

UKR

2390

0

0

WIM

Brunello Marina

ITA

2217

115

56

56

IM

Sedina Elena

ITA

2334

0

0

WFM

Baciu Diana

MDA

2146

135

59

138

WFM

Coimbra Margarida

POR

2123

0

0

IM

Zimina Olga

ITA

2319

60

64

65

WGM

Kochetkova Julia

RUS

2313

0

0

Brunello Roberta

ITA

2043

143

65

144

Tonel Giulia

ITA

2023

0

0

WGM

Zakurdjaeva Irina

RUS

2313

66

impegno di grande prestigio per il Campione Italiano: Almasi N°1 del tabellone

Caruana, chiamato a fare decisamente meglio della scorsa edizione

le avversarie delle nostre ragazze: Zdebskaja Baciu Coimbra Kochetkova Zakurdjaeva

Regolamento

Calendario Il torneo si disputa sulla lunghezza di 11 turni (6-17 marzo). L'inizio delle partite è previsto per le ore 15:30. Unico giorno di riposo sabato 13 marzo. Il 18 marzo si svolgeranno gli eventuali Tie-breaks.

Criteri di spareggio in caso di arrivo a pari merito sono previsti i seguenti criteri di spareggio tecnico:
a)  Median-Buchholz 1
b)  Buchholz
c)  Numero di vittorie 
d) Punteggio Progressivo

Spareggi Rapid sono previsti gli spareggi (15'+10" per mossa) solo per stabilire:
a)  il Campione Europeo
b)  i vincitori di Medaglie
c)  I qualificati (22) alla prossima World Cup.

Tempo di Riflessione 90' x 40 mosse + 30' per terminare la partita + 30" di incremento per mossa a partire dalla prima mossa. 

VISORE


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risultati su chessresult

 articoli di presentazione di Angelmann   prima parte  seconda parte

Dans le Top 100 mondial, le prodigieux norvégien Magnus Carlsen se maintient à la place de numéro 1 avec 2813 points Elo (+3 points). Il devance le bulgare Veselin Topalov à 2805 (=). A noter, la progression de Kramnik (+2) qui grille la politesse au champion du monde en titre Anand (-2). Rappelons que le record historique appartient toujours à Garry Kasparov avec 2851 points, obtenu en Janvier 2000.

Petit recul sans conséquence pour le numéro 1 tricolore Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2717, -3). Le champion du monde junior 2009, occupe désormais la 19ème place du classement général (-1). De son côté, le n°2 français Etienne Bacrot (2714) engrange un petit point et pointe en 26ème position. Côté féminin, Marie Sebag (2506, -4) règne toujours sans partage en France.

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