In 2010 the Mainz Chess Classic will be a much smaller event than in other years. Financial woes have hit the annual Rapid and Chess960 event hard: only two simuls, by Anand and Kosteniuk, and the Grenke Rapid World Championship will be held. Press release.

Chess Classic Mainz 2010 – „Back to the roots“

„Making a virtue out of necessity“„ is the central theme of the 17th Chess Classic Mainz. From 06 – 08 August the major international rapid chess event in the world will be played in Mainz. The Chess Tigers would have loved to present a whole week of top level chess in all its beauty and diversity, as we did in previous editions, but in this difficult economic times many companies do not have the financial resources anymore to to support sport events.

However, the Chess Tigers are still very grateful to announce the Chess Classic Mainz this year in a different format, that goes back to the roots of the first Chess Classic tournament of 1994, which was organized in Frankfurt. Just like the first-ever Chess Classic, we will be able to present two simultanious exhibitions and a rapid chess open tournament. In the simuls no less than two world champions will battle it out with amateurs: chess world champion Viswanathan Anand and his female counterpart Alexandra Kosteniuk, who does not only hold the title in classical chess, but also in Chess960.

There is another small, but important difference to the 1994 edition: we upgraded the the rapid chess open to the Grenke Rapid World Championship. Nothing new is the top-level field with world-class grandmasters, the renowned presentation and the excellent playing conditions in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz. It is an open tournament, and the winner will be crowned rapid chess world champion. The Chess Tigers would like to thank their sponsors for the fantastic support in the past nine years. The tenth edition of the Chess Classic in Mainz is sponsored by GRENKE Group, FiNet AG, Livingston GmbH, Hilton Mainz, Congress Centre Mainz, Stadtwerke Mainz AG and our Prime-Partners ChessBase, DGT and Schach Niggemann. These companies are able to provide sponsorship in different ways to make the Chess Classic once again a great event. The prize fund for the rapid chess world championship is no less than €30.000. Chess960, the exciting chess variant that has been pushed in Mainz and even made it in the offical FIDE rules, has to take a break for a year. We are confident, that we will be able to carry on with Chess960 next year.

It is no secret that the 15. world champion Viswanathan Anand is one of the closest friends of the Chess Tigers and it goes without saying that he will play a part in the 10th Chess Classic Mainz. On the first day of the event, on 06 August, Anand will play a standard simul on 40 boards. On the same day, Alexandra Kosteniuk will play a 20-board Chess960 simul. As you can see, Chess960 will still have a place in Mainz!

The Grenke Rapid World Championship will also be a treat for chess lovers: Levon Aronian, who is the current rapid chess world champion and the winner of the 2009 ORDIX Open, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, will play the open tournament to face a unique mixture of numerous world-class grandmasters and amateurs. You do not get the chance too often to play in a tournament with so many top players and with a little luck you may face a top ten player or even a world champion on the other side of the board!

The Open will be played in the same established format as in the previous editions. On 07/08 August 11 rounds will be played, in which the time control is 20 minutes + 5 seconds per move. The ambitious Chess Tigers organization team, who all work on a voluntary basis, will present the Chess Classic with all their experience and power on the highest level with the latest technology.

The Chess Tigers team, led by main organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt and patron Jens Beutel, Lord Mayor of the Mainz, invites you to the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz from 06-08 August 2010 for three days of chess extravaganza!

More info, and the latest news, can be found throughout the year at the Chess Tigers website.

Vince Ian Nepomniachtchi!

Si è conclusa con il trionfo del ventenne russo Ian Nepomniachtchi l’edizione 2010 del Campionato Europeo, nell’ultimo turno ha travolto anche Akopian. Completano il podio Jobava e Timofeev. Nel Femminile vince Pia Cramling!

Si svolge a Rijeka in Croazia l’11° Campionato Europeo individuale, senza dubbio il più importante campionato continentale al mondo. Anche quest’anno il torneo fa parte del Ciclo Mondiale, qualificando i primi 22 giocatori alla prossima edizione della “World Cup”. Importante la lista dei partecipanti, con 9 Over2700 e ben 95 giocatori con Elo pari o superiore a 2600! Ecco la lista dei Top Players di questa edizione:

Zoltan Almasi, n°1 del tabellone

In concomitanza è previsto il Campionato Europeo femminile, nel quale queste sono le più rappresentative partecipanti:

Antoaneta Stefanova

La rappresentativa italiana è costituita del seguente gruppo di giocatori e giocatrici:

Alessio Valsecchi (foto di Dario Mione, MessaggeroScacchi)

Si gioca da sabato 6 a mercoledì 17 marzo, 11 turni di gioco, giorno di riposo il 13. Cadenza di gioco: 90’ per 40 mosse + 30’ per concludere, sempre con l’incremento di 30” a mossa.

Il montepremi ammonta a 120.000 euro per il Torneo Open (comunemente chiamato Maschile, ma in realtà aperto anche alle giocatrici), di cui 20.000 al primo classificato, 1000 euro al 25°; previsti inoltre riconoscimenti per le migliori “performances” (1.000 euro per la migliore in assoluto). Montepremi all’incirca dimezzato per il torneo femminile.

Breve storia del Campionato Europeo individuale

La manifestazione si tiene regolarmente dall’anno 2000, quando proprio in Italia, a Saint Vincent, si svolse la prima edizione: vinse il russo Pavel Tregubov. Tregubov concluse con 8 su 11, superando per spareggio tecnico Aleksandrov, Markowski e Andrei Kharlov.

Pavel Tregubov, in una immagine recente

L’edizione del 2001 vide il successo di Emil Sutovsky che superò ai tie-breaks Ruslan Ponomariov, dopo essere giunti appaiati a 9.5 su 13 nel torneo a cadenza classica.

Vincitore solitario nel 2002 fu Bartlomiej Macieja, così come nel 2003 Zurab Azmaiparashvili: per entrambi 9.5 su 13.

Nel 2004 fu la volta di Vassily Ivanchuk, il quale perse la prima partita del torneo (contro il bulgaro Julian Radulski) ma poi fu in grado di compiere un recupero eccezionale, superando con 9 su 13 Predag Nikolic.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu fu il dominatore dell’edizione 2005: 10 su 13 per lui, nonostante la concorrenza di giocatori come Aronian, Radjabov, Karjakin e dello stesso Ivanchuk.

Ancora un vincitore solitario nel 2006: si tratta del croato Zdenko Kozul. Si ritorna alla formula a 11 turni e Zdenko si aggiudica il torneo con 8 punti e mezzo.

Nel 2007 sono di nuovo necessari gli spareggi: se li aggiudica Vladislav Tkachiev, davanti ad altri 6 giocatori con 8 su 11.

Sergei Tiviakov s’impone nel 2008, 8.5 su 11 per lui.

Sergei Tiviakov, Campione nel 2008

Questo il prospetto dei Campioni Europei fino ai giorni nostri:

Ulteriori dati possono essere consultati su wikipedia

L’anno scorso si impose il russo Evgeny Tomashevsky, con 8 su 11, ma solo per spareggio tecnico davanti ad altri dieci giocatori con il medesimo punteggio. I nostri portacolori non si distinsero particolarmente: Fabiano Caruana, Michele Godena e Fabio Bruno giunsero a centro classifica con 6 punti.

Il podio del 2009, da sinistra Jobava (bronzo), Tomashevsky (oro) e Malakhov (argento)

Europeo 2010: la sede del Campionato

Lo scambio di consegne al nono turno: Nepo rimpiazza Jobava in vetta alla classifica

Sito ufficiale

Justus Williams, Josh Colas, Jehron Bryant, Nigel Bryant in action at the 2010 U.S. Amateur Team Championship. Photo by Elizabeth Vicary.

In perhaps the strongest young team assembled at the tournament, Justus Williams, Josh Colas, Jehron and Nigel Bryant competed in the U.S. Amateur Team East championship. The four have been battling on the east coast and have developed close friendships. This will become important as they continue to improve and move toward Master level.

The team scored 4/6 and the individual scores were as follows,

1. Nigel Bryant [Team Captain] 4/6
2. Joshua Colas 3.5/6
3. Justus Williams 4/6
4. Jehron Bryant 4.5/6

Justus Williams (far right) with Josh Colas and the Bryant twin brothers, Nigel and Jehron Bryant. Watch out for this crew! Photos by Elizabeth Vicary.

Rising star Justus Williams of I.S. 318 has won perhaps his first major tournament. Entering with a pre-tournament rating of 2092, the 11-year old placed sole first at the 5th Annual Empire State Open during the Christmas holidays. Justus held top-seed Igor Nikolayev to a draw in the penultimate round and the second-seed to a draw in the last round. His undefeated score of 4.5/6 gained him 48 points and his rating now stands at 2140.

Justus is one of the cadre of very talented players coming out of I.S. 318. He also participates in the Chess-in-Schools program and seems to be improving rapidly. An All-American scholastic player, Justus has played training matches in an effort to improve his game and the results are paying off. Coach Elizabeth Vicary arranged a recent match with FM Andrei Zaremba. Williams continues on having beaten FM Asa Hoffman and many strong players.

Link: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200912283231.1-13534356

An diesem Wochenende wird in der Frauenbundesliga die 3. und 4. Runde gespielt. In Baden-Baden kommt es dabei zu folgenden Begegnungen:

Samstag, 14 Uhr
OSG Baden-Baden – SK Großlehna
Karlsruher SF - SC Leipzig Gohlis

Sonntag,9.00
SC Leipzig Gohlis – OSG Baden-Baden
SK Großlehna - Karlsruher SF

Ergebnisse in Baden-Baden     Webseite OSG Baden-Baden     Einzelergebnisse 3. und 4. Runde      Partien

18 luglio 1978: inizia il mondiale Karpov-Korchnoi

Il match tra Karpov e Korchnoi del 1978 non ha bisogno di particolari presentazioni, meno che mai i due sfidanti. Questo articolo (lunghissimo, mettete su il caffè) vuole essere una raccolta delle mille polemiche che lo attraversarono e di qualche curiosità. Chi vi cercasse scacchi giocati ne resterebbe deluso, ma è comunque il benvenuto!

GLI SFIDANTI

A farlo apposta, non sarebbe stato possibile trovarli più diversi. Il ventisettenne Karpov è l'uomo del Cremlino e lo sempre stato da quando, ragazzino, mostrava il suo potenziale infinito. Russo puro a differenza di altri Campioni sovietici del passato come Tal (lettone) e Petrosjan (armeno), privo di origini ebraiche (come, tra gli altri, Korchnoi), iscritto alla gioventù comunista prima e al Partito poi. Non esce dalle righe neppure quando gli viene chiesto dei suoi gusti letterari, cinematografici, artistici in genere: è sempre pronto a parlar bene di qualsiasi paccottiglia propagandistica sia apprezzata a Mosca in quel momento (Korchnoi, che non ha molti motivi per volergli bene, nella sua autobiografia del 1976 ha scritto di non credere che potesse avere gusti così pessimi, che era solo facciata). Dopo il mondiale vinto a tavolino contro Fischer nel 1975 ha deciso di mostrare al mondo che è davvero il Campione in carica e si è buttato anima e corpo nelle competizioni internazionali. Risultati? Qualche paragone a riguardo con i suoi predecessori? Impressionanti:

Numero di importanti Tornei internazionali vinti in solitaria durante la detenzione del Titolo:

Steinitz 0, Lasker 5, Capablanca 2, Alekhine 5, Euwe 0, Botvinnik 0, Smyslov 0, Tal 0, Petrosjan 0, Spassky 1, Fischer 0, Karpov 7 (nota bene: 7 fino al 1978!). Anche ammettendo che Karpov fosse privo di quella soddisfazione, di quel conseguente rilassamento, che poterono incece avere i suoi colleghi grazie alla vittoria conquistata sulla scacchiera, non è possibile non togliersi il cappello.

Una davvero curiosa immagine giovanile di Karpov

Korchnoi, quarantasettenne, non ha mai legato con il regime. Più è andato avanti nella carriera più ha trovato difficili i compromessi, gli accordi di corridoio, gli scacchi di palazzo. La finale dei Canditati del 1974, a suo dire, è stata l'ultima goccia: si è trovato emarginato dall'intero mondo scacchistico sovietico, durante la sfida contro Karpov ha lamentato che gli era quasi impossibile trovare qualcuno che gli facesse da secondo, o addirittura che lo salutasse per strada. Sempre a suo dire, ha ricevuto oltre che forti pressioni anche minacce affinché non ostacolasse la marcia del giovane sul quale il Cremlino ha deciso di puntare. Per averci provato sino in fondo (Karpov lo batté 3 a 2 con 19 patte) il regime lo “mise in castigo” a San Pietroburgo, senza permettergli di proseguire la carriera. Durante questo forzato riposo prese la sua decisione: voleva il Titolo ed è chiaro che l'URSS non era d'accordo. Nel 1976 gli venne concesso di partecipare ad un Torneo in Olanda. Alla fine della competizione lo aspettarono all'ambasciata Sovietica per le formalità del ritorno.  Non lo videro mai arrivare: dopo una gita in macchina con degli amici entrò in una stazione di Polizia e chiese asilo politico. Per vivere da uomo libero e ricominciare la carriera.

Meno "giovanile" e meno "curiosa" ma comunque non ciò a cui siamo abituati: Korchnoi nel 1955

Non vale la pena dire che l'Unione Sovietica la prese malissimo: chiese che Korchnoi fosse sostanzialmente escluso dal mondo degli scacchi o che, almeno, sparisse dal ciclo dei candidati. Il Presidente FIDE Max Euwe obiettò che le scelte di vita personale di uno scacchista non hanno la precedenza sui suoi risultati alla scacchiera e quelli di Korchnoi, in quanto finalista nel 1974, valevano la qualificazione diretta ai Candidati del '77 senza passare per Zonali e Interzonali.

Due momenti della finale dei Candidati 1974 (Fonte della prima foto: Chessbase)

Korchnoi attraversò il Torneo sbarazzandosi dell'altro suo nemico giurato Petrosjan (6 ½ a 5 ½, con la soddisfazione personale extra di fargli perdere di conseguenza la direzione dell'importante rivista scacchistica 64) Polugayevsky (8 ½ a 4 ½) e Spassky (10 ½ a 7 ½ ), arrivando quindi a sfidare Karpov.

I risultati tra i due mostrano al momento della sfida filippina una sostanziale parità: +7 = 23 -6 a favore di Karpov, ma il conto è un po' sballato perché include una patta giocata in una simultanea tenuta da Korchnoi in cui ha incontrato un undicenne Karpov e, sopratutto, un match di allenamento del 1971 in cui Korchnoi giocò con i neri in cinque delle sei partite ed avvisò Karpov delle varie difese che intendeva adottare.

IL LUOGO

Panorama della città

Baguio è una bella cittadina di circa 300.000 abitanti situata tra le montagne nel nord delle Filippine. La sua posizione geografica le dona un clima sensibilmente più fresco di quello della capitale Manila, di modo che durante la calda estate locale si ha un esodo nazionale da sud verso nord, facendo di Baguio la capitale estiva della Nazione. I suoi numerosi giardini, le sorgenti calde, il campo John Hay (un ex base militare statunitense già allora trasformata in un resort top class), oltre ai suoi musei e la sua cattedrale, la fanno una delle principali mete turistiche nazionali.

Ma perché fu scelta per ospitare il mondiale di scacchi del 1978, l'unico a svolgersi lontano dall'Europa dai tempi della sfida tra Capablanca e Alekhine a Buenos Aires nel 1927, tra il Campione Karpov e lo Sfidante Korchnoi?

La FIDE ricevette quattro offerte considerate degne di nota per la gestione del mondiale: da prassi, chiese ai due giocatori le loro preferenze. Tanto per cominciare con il piede giusto, le scelte dei due giocatori furono opposte:

Korchnoi Elo 2665	1) Graz Austria	2) Baguio Filippine	3) Tillburg Olanda	4) Amburgo Germania Ovest
Karpov Elo 2725	1) Amburgo Germania Ovest		3) Baguio Filippine	4) Graz Austria

Perché il secondo spazio di Karpov è vuoto? Perché il Campione in carica (o, più verosimilmente, la Federazione Sovietica) non volle neppure prendere in considerazione di giocare nella Nazione che due anni prima aveva concesso a Korchnoi asilo politico.

Ancora una panoramica di Baguio: in città non manca il verde

Malgrado l'offerta equilibratrice di Graz e Amburgo di dividersi il Match (in quanto prime e ultime scelte dei due giocatori), la scelta cadde infine sulla città filippina, che sembrava da sola capace di rappresentare una buona via di mezzo. Nel processo decisionale Baguio ebbe anche il vantaggio derivato dal fatto che le Filippine, Manila nella fattispecie, avrebbero dovuto ospitare il Match mondiale del 1975 tra Fischer e Karpov, Match che, non credo di doverlo ricordare, infine non si svolse. Sembra che la decisione della FIDE non fu gradita a Karpov: piuttosto curiosamente egli non aveva mai disputato un Match al di fuori dell'Unione Sovietica, ed è comprensibile che preferisse un luogo meno esotico per il suo esordio extranazionale. Inoltre le Filippine non erano per lui un luogo che evocasse ricordi felici: com'è noto, dopo essere diventato Campione del Mondo senza giocare, Karpov si lanciò nei Tornei Internazionali per dimostrare a tutti che fosse meritevole del Titolo, dopo i successi di Portoroz, Riga, Milano, Skopje e Amsterdam fu a Manila che la serie si interruppe vedendo Karpov arrivare secondo.

1978: Karpov in "Kibitz" su Larsen , sullo sfondo Boris Spassky

PROBLEMI PRELIMINARI

Inutile dire che prima della prima mossa della prima partita fu necessario affrontare una miriade di problemi, si arrivò concretamente a temere che alla fine il risultato sarebbe stato il secondo Campionato del mondo di fila a non essere giocato. Senza perderci nelle mille problematiche contrattuali (decisamente troppo tecniche e "aride") nelle note scritte in piccolo, daremo un'occhiata a qualche curiosità.

SOTTO QUALE BANDIERA?

L'URSS inizialmente pretese che Korchnoi giocasse sotto una bandiera bianca con ricamata la parola “Stateless” (Senza Stato), poiché la nazionalità sovietica gli era stata revocata e non risultava ne avesse ottenuta una nuova. Dopo una breve residenza olandese, Korchnoi si era trasferito in Svizzera, nazione a cui aveva chiesto cittadinanza ma che, tecnicamente, non gli era ancora stata concessa. Benché dalla svizzera segnalassero che era una mera questione burocratica e che garantivano al giocatore il diritto di usare la loro bandiera, l'URSS non intendeva cedere. Korchnoi, di cui tutti conosciamo il carattere, affermò allora che era dispostissimo al limite anche a giocare sotto bandiera sovietica ma, visto che si parlava di ricami, solo se le parole “I've escaped” (Sono scappato) vi fossero state cucite sopra. In alternativa, era disposto a giocare sotto il JollyRoger. Si escogitò una soluzione: i giocatori non avrebbero avuto nessuna bandierina al tavolo, mentre un'unica bandiera sovietica sullo sfondo avrebbe lasciato allo spettatore la possibilità di decidere chi rappresentasse e chi no.

Max Euwe: dopo aver affrontato 3 Mondiali "impossibili" con l'ottimo risultato di 2 su 3 riusciti il Presidente FIDE lasciò l'incarico. Qui si "gode la pensione" dando una simultanea nel 1980 (Fonte:Chessdryad)

SATELLITI SPIA & ALLARMI NUCLEARI (tanto per cominciare)

Arrivati a destinazione, entrambi i team fecero, in modi che oggi a mente fredda ci appaiono grotteschi, le loro mosse d'apertura: i russi pretesero di passare la sedia di Korchnoi ai raggi x per verificare l'assenza di dispositivi che gli avrebbero permesso di ricevere informazioni tramite onde elettromagnetiche (visto che si può escludere che temessero l'intervento dei nostri vari “amigos inumanos” forse dobbiamo pensare che immaginassero Fischer dettare le mosse da qualche parte negli Stati Uniti via satellite), mentre lo staff di Korchnoi replicò con una forte “mossa profilattica” dichiarando che avevano a disposizione strumenti per misurare, nientemeno, il livello di radioattività nella sala da gioco (sarebbe bello sapere se la risposta sovietica, “L'URSS dichiara ufficialmente di non aver sganciato bombe atomiche sul territorio filippino”, sia stata intesa come ironica o meno).

PEZZI LEGGERI (cavallo e alfiere? Non proprio)

Dopo settimane di problemi, proposte, controproposte, minacce e via discorrendo, sembrò che tutto fosse pronto per la Sfida. Il giorno precedente alla prima partita tutto era sistemato. E invece no: Karpov e Korchnoi, che probabilmente in vita loro non erano mai stati d'accordo su niente, abrogarono questa loro “tradizione” per convenire che i pezzi, che avevano già provato ed approvato, erano dopotutto troppo leggeri. Il problema sembrò inizialmente di facile soluzione, fossero stati tutti come quello, ma si scoprì che in tutta la città non si poteva trovare un set con le caratteristiche volute dai due giocatori. Furono dovuti essere spediti in tutta fretta da Manila, attraverso 200 chilometri di tortuose strade di montagna, in una corsa contro il tempo che siamo stati abituati a vedere nei film quando si tratta di vaccini o antibiotici...Pare che siano arrivati un quarto d'ora prima dell'inizio della partita....

Verso Baguio: "tortuose strade di montagna" non era una frase retorica...

SI GIOCA

Karpov in attesa del suo sfidante

POSSO MANGIARE UNO YOGURT? (possibilmente seduto comodamente)

Per le prime due partite (entrambe patte) tutto filò liscio. Ma non poteva durare: nell'intervallo tra la seconda e la terza infatti il team di Korchnoi inoltrò una protesta formale riguardo allo... yogurt di Karpov. Sostenendo che il suo arrivo al tavolo potesse trattarsi di un codice: non accettare o offrire una patta, per esempio, e così via. Sembra assurdo, ma per risolvere la questione fu necessaria una riunione fiume di diverse ore. Lothar Schmid, arbitro capo che pure aveva in curriculum il Match Fischer-Spassky del '72 con tutto ciò che ne deriva, una cosa del genere non doveva averla mai vista, ma fu comunque lui a trovare la soluzione: Karpov avrebbe potuto avere il suo yogurt ma solo ad un certo momento stabilito, portato da un cameriere stabilito e solo del gusto mangiato durante la seconda partita (per evitare che i diversi colori potessero essere una qualche sorta di codice: immaginate un arbitro del suo calibro girarsi insonne tra le lenzuola sperando di non doversi mai trovare a dirimere una questione riguardante il fatto che uno yogurt viri più al malva o al lilla).

L'Arbitro Capo: Lothar Schmid (Fonte: Chessbase)

Karpov, in mancanza di meglio e dovendo pur rispondere in qualche modo (sai mai che i toni si abbassino...), si lamentò che la sua sedia era troppo bassa. Gli venne aggiunto un cuscino ma così risultava troppo alta. Si arrivò a far spedire da Manila, altra corsa contro il tempo tra le montagne, chissà se l'autista era lo stesso, un duplicato della poltrona più alto di quattro centimetri, che però il Campione non trovò soddisfacente. Alla fine, la sedia originale con un diverso cuscino fu giudicata da Karpov sufficiente alle sue esigenze. E noi ci lamentiamo se la sala da gioco è un po' affollata...

RECORD MA POCO ENTUSIASMO

Lo schema patta, patta, polemica, patta, polemica, patta, polemica, non è il massimo per rendere entusiasmante un match mondiale. A titolo di cronaca, il prezzo dei biglietti per la sala di gioco scese costantemente in questa prima fase del match, ma la sala continuò a presentare zone vuote. Nulla vieta ad una patta di essere una partita godibile e appassionante, ma quando le patte iniziano a essere cinque-sei di fila e in conferenza stampa si parla del colore di uno yogurt è segno che le cose non stanno procedendo al meglio. La quinta partita, in ogni caso, stabilì due record contemporaneamente: la più lunga sino ad allora in una sfida mondiale (124 mosse, distribuite in tre sessioni di gioco) e la prima di sempre a finire in stallo. La settima ci regala un altro record (numero di patte consecutive) e un piccolo mistero: dopo l'aggiornamento Karpov era in netto vantaggio; il team Korchnoi lavorò sulla posizione tutta la notte e, pur trovando qualche speranza in alcune linee, non riuscì a trovare una patta sicura. Considerando che il team Karpov, ben più numeroso e titolato (tra membri ufficiali e non: Tal era a Baguio tecnicamente come “giornalista”, e giornalista lo era senz'altro, ma...), avrebbe sezionato la situazione sino alla morte, al momento della ripresa della partita, sembrava che Karpov avesse ottime possibilità di mettersi il primo punto in tasca.

L'inviato speciale del giornale Clarin, Miguel Najdorf:

il tempo per le analisi non basta mai

Dopo l'immediata stretta di mano alla ripresa del gioco, i tifosi del russo iniziarono ad applaudire il loro campione convinti della resa di Korchnoi. Invece....Karpov aveva semplicemente offerto la patta, che Korchnoi accettò immediatamente. Al che Najdorf (lui sì, era lì come giornalista davvero) esclamò “In Argentina non mi crederanno mai!”: Karpov avrebbe semplicemente potuto giocare e vedere se la patta che lui e il suo staff, evidentemente, avevano trovato fosse stata trovata anche da Korchnoi e i suoi, lui non avrebbe rischiato nulla. Forse semplice stanchezza, vai a sapere, in ogni caso sembrò un punto buttato.

PRIMA VITTORIA (o sconfitta, dipende)

Se gli scacchi, come spesso si dice, sono al 99% tattica, allora lo spazio per la strategia è scarso... Figuriamoci allora quanto ne possa rimanere per la psicologia. Tutti conosciamo la frase di Bobby “I don't believe in psychology, I believe in good moves” (Non credo nella psicologia, credo nelle buone mosse). Sino a questo punto, a torto o a ragione, di “psychology” i due team ne hanno usata parecchia. E all'ottava partita Karpov fece la “mossa” giusta: senza preavviso alcuno rifiutò di stringere la mano a Korchnoi, che rimase con la mano penzoloni nel vuoto di fronte all'audience mentre Karpov si sedeva. Nello stesso momento, in sala stampa, la delegazione sovietica comunicò che i crescenti tentativi di Korchnoi di intorbidire le acque non consentivano in coscienza a Karpov di stringergli la mano. Korchnoi, facile da immaginare, vide letteralmente rosso e non fu in grado di affrontare serenamente la partita. Contro uno come Karpov, questo basta e avanza: il Campione vinse l'ottava partita in 28 mosse. Impossibile sapere se Karpov fosse in buona fede (pativa davvero il comportamento dell'avversario e lo trovava voluto?) o meno, di certo sapeva che avrebbe notevolmente infastidito (= fatto imbufalire) l'avversario. La morale? Avanti Karpov 1-0. E, ovviamente, polemiche a non finire.

Un momento della sfida

IL MISTERIOSO DOCTOR ZUKHAR

Finalmente arriviamo al personaggio principale della tragicommedia para-scacchistica che entrambi le parti fecero tenere costantemente banco prima e dopo (quando non durante) le partite. Il principio dell'escalation che i due team avevano sino a questo momento rispettato religiosamente non poteva essere infranto proprio adesso. Di fronte alla prima sconfitta, il team di Korchnoi non poteva restare con le mani in mano, doveva inventarsi qualcosa: qualcuno si ricordò che sin dalla quinta partita l'allora noto ipnotista Dottor Zukhar era uso sedersi nella quinta fila (ricordatevi il numero...) e fissare (nientemeno!) costantemente Korchnoi. Di fronte a questo evidente (boh?) tentativo di sabotaggio fu inviata a Campomanes, allora Presidente della federazione filippina e Futuro presidente FIDE (alzi la mano chi avrebbe mai detto che lo avrebbe rimpianto), una lettera nella quale venne richiesto che il suddetto Dottore si sedesse in futuro assieme al resto della delegazione sovietica, negli ultimi posti della sala. Alla richiesta seguì l'inevitabile riunione fiume, che vide nuovamente prevalere l'opinione di Schmid: in quanto arbitro era, da regolamento, suo dovere impedire che i giocatori venissero infastiditi dal pubblico e che, di conseguenza, avrebbe chiesto a Zukhar di spostarsi più indietro nella sala. “Più indietro” non fu il termine giusto, perché troppo vago: i sovietici accettarono volentieri di far arretrare Zukhar dalla quinta alla... settima fila. 

Con il che i membri del team Korchnoi decisero che la misura era colma: richiesero che si giocasse in una sala privata. Qui si raggiunse un livello incredibile: quando fu chiesta l'opinione di Korchnoi sulla questione egli cadde dalle nuvole: di questo Zukhar, lui, non ne sapeva nulla. Furono le manovre del suo team che gli fecero rendere conto, con i problemi quantomeno psicologici che ciò gli causò nel resto del match, che c'era un ipnotizzatore in sala. Brutto errore da parte del suo team e ovvia controffensiva sovietica (picchia, picchia, che stiamo meglio): lettera firmata da Karpov in persona nella quale il Campione dichiarò che Schmid aveva travalicato i suoi poteri e che si nutrivano, niente di meno, dubbi sulla sua correttezza e imparzialità. Riunione di sei ore, ça sa van dire, per stabilire che Schmid aveva autorità quando i giocatori subivano da parte del pubblico disturbi fisici ma non quando si trattava, sentite questa, di supposti disturbi di tipo soggettivo, mentale o psicologico. La nota finale della giuria omise accuratamente di esprimersi sul “futuro” del Dottor Zukhar. Pare che sia stato raggiunto un accordo informale che lo “confinava” dalla settima fila in poi. In ogni caso, il risultato fu quello di passare il turno a Korchnoi per lamentarsi della dirigenza: quest'ultimo rilasciò infatti un comunicato in cui accusava giuria, organizzatori e Campomanes di essere filo-sovietici e che da quel momento in avanti avrebbe lottato nel Match sentendo i rumori delle catene dei suoi famigliari rinchiusi in quell'enorme campo di prigionia che era l'URSS . I sovietici ribatterono che quella non era la sede per fare propaganda per la Guerra Fredda e che tutti pensassero invece a giocare, visto che nella missione degli scacchi c'è quella, come ci ricorda il motto FIDE, di unire i popoli (suono di violini dell'Orchestra dell'Armata Rossa in sottofondo, certo che se uno poi pensa che la lettera di Korcknoi a Breznev in cui chiedeva di lasciare emigrare la sua famiglia gli fu restituita senza essere stata aperta...)

OT, ma irresistibile: Karpov e il dodicenne Kasparov (Fonte: Polito.it)

POSSIAMO GIOCARE A SCACCHI PER FAVORE?

L'undicesima partita vide prevalere Korchnoi, grazie ad un apertura inusuale dello sfidante e ad un brutto errore di Karpov alla mossa 26. Parità 1-1.

E Karpov ferma tutto. Ma, calma, tutto regolare: ogni giocatore aveva a disposizione infatti tre time-out nelle prime 24 partite per rinviare lo svolgimento della successiva. Nelle precedenti edizioni vigeva la regola scritta della necessità di esibire un certificato medico, assieme a quella non scritta di accordare il rinvio praticamente sempre. In questa edizione la pratica fu abolita, il che è un peccato se pensate a quante analisi, controanalisi, medici di parte, si sarebbero potuti scomodare nella serena atmosfera di Baguio.

Alla ripresa delle ostilità il Dottor Zukhar, con l'aria più naturale del mondo, riprese a sedersi nella quinta fila e questa volta Korchnoi sapeva chi era e cosa faceva (o, più probabile, andava in giro dicendo di saper fare) e come risultato perse tutta la serenità che la recente vittoria gli aveva infuso. Invece che insistere con la giuria che un disturbo al giocatore è un disturbo al giocatore, lasciando perdere se sia fisico, mentale o che altro, cadde nel comune equivoco che due torti facciano una ragione e, qui vi sorprendo, assunse tale Vladimir Bergina, un parapsicologo israeliano, non si capisce bene se per difendersi da Zukhar o per attaccare a sua volta Karpov, che comunque ebbe l'ottima idea di fregarsene altamente. Dopo qualche giorno il dottor Bergina venne quindi licenziato. Un acquisto decisamente più importante per il team Korchnoi fu in quei giorni Oscar Panno, grazie al quale la situazione tra gli schieramenti durante gli aggiornamenti si equilibrò un po'. Korchnoi, in ogni caso, decise di giocare portando degli occhiali da sole per "ripararsi". Contento lui...

Buenos Aires 1954: Match Argentina-Urss, in terza scacchiera la Averbach-Panno (Fonte: Inforchess)

Ma Karpov sembrò stare ingranando la marcia giusta: 13ma e 14ma partita incassate: avanti Karpov 3 a 1

Da segnalare solamente Korchnoi che durante la 15ma chiese, non proprio gentilmente, a Karpov di finirla di far scricchiolare quella maledetta sedia. Una relativamente breve riunione della giuria gli diede ragione la mattina successiva.

Sotto di due punti si è nervosi. Sotto due punti contro Anatoly Karpov non si vogliono sentire ragioni: quando all'inizio della 17ma partita Korchnoi, con il proprio orologio già in moto, vide nella sua “solita” quinta fila il Dottor Zukhar fissarlo si alzò di scatto e iniziò a urlare che se qualcuno non lo cacciava in fondo alla sala ci avrebbe pensato lui a sbatterlo fuori. Campomanes in persona scortò il presunto ipnotista in fondo alla sala, avvisandolo che non ci sarebbe stata una seconda volta. Non so quanto Karpov sapesse di questo Zukhar, ma di certo in quel momento non era infelice (o forse sì? Pensiamoci un po': forse Karpov non le sopportava certe cose, forse voleva solo giocare a scacchi. Aveva o non aveva, chiediamocelo, voce in capitolo negli “scacchi fuori scacchiera”? Cosa ne pensava?): Korchnoi aveva perso 13 minuti e, più importante, il controllo dei nervi: finì con l'abbandonare a due mosse dal matto.

Avanti Karpov 4-1. E a molti i giochi sembrarono finiti.

Panorama di Manila in una foto "quasi d'epoca" (metà anni '80)

Korchnoi si giocò il tutto per tutto: si spese entrambi i due time-out che gli restavano per “andare in vacanza” a Manila, allo scopo di ricaricarsi le batterie e, possibilmente, dimenticare tutto quanto di orribile era successo nell'ultimo periodo.

In sua assenza il suo team riuscì finalmente nell'ottenere un accordo scritto con i sovietici: Zukhar si sarebbe seduto in fondo alla sala assieme al resto della delegazione. Ma attenzione! Per la seconda volta le comunicazioni interne tra lo sfidante e il suo team fallirono. Si stava ancora brindando all'accordo raggiunto quando da Manila Korchnoi fece sapere che o si installava uno specchio unidirezionale tra giocatori e pubblico (affinché il pubblico potesse vedere i giocatori ma non il contrario) oppure lui minacciava di dare forfait. Ora, non solo “minacciare” di dare forfait quando si perde 4 a 1 non è forse una grande idea, ma il gesto rischiò di buttare via settimane di tentativi verso un accordo, unicamente a causa di malintesi tra il giocatore e i suoi assistenti. In ogni caso, dopo essere stato avvisato via telegramma degli sviluppi Korknoi ritirò la richiesta. Sul 4 a 4 sicuramente i Sovietici avrebbero risposto scatenando un mezzo inferno, ma con tre punti di vantaggio si concessero il lusso bonario di non fare polemiche.

FINALMENTE LA PACE?

Durante la lunga pausa nelle ostilità fu tenuto un party di riconciliazione all'aperto che ebbe un buon successo. Danze europee alternate a cocktail, balli locali, frutta fresca durarono fino a tarda notte. Karpov, penso, non si annoiò al party: decise infatti di usare ora lui un time-out, benché la partita del giorno dopo non fosse prevista che per il ragionevole orario delle 17.

Particolare di uno dei tanti "giardini" di Baguio

CI MANCAVANO GIUSTO LE SETTE...

Il team Korchnoi ebbe l'idea di invitare alla ripresa della sfida un gruppo di ragazze, studentesse di parapsicologia all'Università di Manila. Fin qui tutto bene, i sovietici non mostrarono di curarsene e Korchnoi disse di apprezzare l'aura che queste giovani emanavano con i loro pensieri positivi e auguri mentali di vittoria. Assieme alle ragazze, però, giunse anche una coppia di Guru appartenenti alla setta chiamata Ananda Marga, che Korchnoi aveva incontrato durante la sua “vacanza” a Manila, che si piazzò in turbante e posizione del loto vicino alla delegazione sovietica. Scoperto che questa coppia era attualmente sotto processo d'appello per tentato omicidio, tramite accoltellamento, di un diplomatico e che si era presa 17 anni a testa nella sentenza di primo grado, i sovietici diventarono un qualcosa più che nervosi. Sentivate la mancanza delle riunioni fiume? I sovietici ne richiesero una urgente per la mattina successiva. Non volevano fanatici in tuniche zafferano e turbante vicino a loro, menchemeno seduti in strane posizioni, menchemeno se condannati per tentato omicidio (chissà poi quanti dei sovietici avevano ben chiaro il concetto “processo d'appello”, ma questo ora è gratuito e lascio perdere). Bene: dalla 21ma partita in poi nessuno con precedenti penali avrebbe avuto accesso alla sala (una legge “ad personam” ante littera se vogliamo). Durante la ventesima, i due furono convinti a vestirsi “in borghese” e a sedersi normalmente.

Alcuni odierni membri della setta

Ah, gli scacchi giocati?

Patta la 20ma e vittoria di Korchnoi alla 21ma. Una vittoria importantissima per la classifica e per il morale, sopratutto perché fu la prima che Korchnoi e il suo team ottennero dopo l'aggiornamento, segno importante che la tensione nervosa stava dalla parte dello sfidante. I russi, forse, avevano già un po' di testa a Mosca.

Avanti Karpov 4-2.

Tre patte di fila, con importante innovazione di Korchnoi a riguardo, visto che a offrire patta attraverso l'arbitro come si era fatto sino a quel momento era già troppa cordialità: alla 42ma mossa della 23ma partita semplicemente scrisse sul suo formulario ½ ½ e lo firmò, aspettando che Karpov facesse altrettanto. Il russo, che era stato in svantaggio tutta la partita prima di riuscire a fermare l'attacco di Korchnoi, preferì non fare polemica sull'atteggiamento non esattamente correttissimo del rivale e provvide a completare il formulario.

Korchnoi sul lato di Donna (Fonte: Chesstigers)

LE SETTE: CRESCENDO

4 a 2, più di venti partite giocate in due mesi ma ci fu ancora modo di rischiare di annullare tutto. Ebbene sì, vediamo come. Dopo la comparsa in sala dei due Ananda Marga, Campomanes decise di indagare con cura sul loro processo e sulla setta in generale. Non apprezzò i risultati: sulla setta sembravano gravare molte ombre (en passant ironico: quella di essere di ispirazione comunista) e fu espressa grande preoccupazione per il fatto che ci fosse un legame tra i due membri e uno dei giocatori. Non ci fu, a dire il vero, grande organizzazione nell'affrontare il problema con la giuria della partita che chiese a Campomanes di prendere, se il caso, dei provvedimenti e quest'ultimo che ripassò la palla rispondendo che era il caso di sospendere il match fino a che la giuria non avesse risolto la questione. Altrimenti, proseguì Campomanes, non vi era altra scelta di terminare il match per questioni di sicurezza generale e personale (personale di chi?). Il team Korchnoi, dopo aver accettato di far uscire i due dalla sala, accettò anche di farli trasferire dal Hotel Pines, dove stavano tutti coloro che ruotavano intorno alla sfida, alla villa concessa a Korcknoi per uso personale suo e del suo staff.

Ancora in attività: l'Hotel Pines

Qualche tempo dopo fu annunciato che i due non facevano parte della squadra di Korchnoi. Quest'ultimo in ogni caso trasse a quanto pare giovamento dalla frequentazione dei due Guru. A dire il vero, l'intera villa dove risiedeva si era trasformata in una sorta di centro meditativo: oltre ai due Ananda Marga vi erano anche le ragazze dell'Università di Manila. Si facevano sedute meditative con una ventina di persone sedute in cerchio nella posizione del loto ricercando armonia, energie positive e quant'altro.

Ma non era ancora finita: la Giuria convocò una riunione nella quale si diceva che era stato violato l'accordo che prevedeva l'allontanamento dei due Guru dall'albergo, poiché erano stati visti nella lobby. Questo non fu considerato affatto corretto da Korchnoi e il suo team: i due risiedevano nella villa di Korchnoi, dove poi passassero il loro tempo non era cosa che potesse decidere il team dello sfidante, tanto più che i due non facevano parte della squadra. Inoltre la protesta non era stata fatta dalla delegazione sovietica ma dalla giura, cioè lo stesso organo che doveva esprimersi a riguardo, il che non sembrava esattamente una cosa corretta...

MAGIA NERA, RIMONTA E FINALE

Come se le cose avessero bisogno di essere complicate ulteriormente, furono arrestati tre tizi che avevano chiesto a Korchnoi 15.000 dollari per servizi di magia nera che lo avrebbero favorito. Perché arrestarli? Perché Korchnoi non aveva chiesto assolutamente i loro servizi e, pensa un po', i tre avevano fatto notare che avrebbero garantito la sua sconfitta se non li avesse accettati.

Inquietante coincidenza, dopo il loro arresto si giocò la 27ma partita: vittoria di Karpov che a quel punto conduceva 5 a 2. Nelle successive partite nella sala da gioco furono notati “pezzi grossi” appena arrivati da Mosca, il presidente della federazione sovietica tra gli altri, evidentemente in attesa di poter presenziare alla premiazione nei giorni successivi.

Korchnoi non era d'accordo: vinse la 28ma e la 29ma, pattò con i neri la 30ma e vinse la 31ma: parità, 5-5. Era già successo che un giocatore riuscisse a recuperare tre punti di svantaggio in una sfida mondiale (Steinitz e Euwe) ma mai quando all'avversario bastava una sola vittoria per conquistare il Titolo. Giocare con una spada di Damocle come quella è psicologicamente devastante, onore a Korchnoi.

Karpov, saggiamente, decise di interrompere questo “momentum” di Korchnoi: usò un time-out e fu il suo turno di “andare in vacanza” a Manila.

Notevole tramonto sull'odierna Manila

Nel mentre la delegazione sovietica dovette cercare di inventarsi qualcosa per fare polemica, intorbidire le acque, alzare la tensione, insomma cercare di rovinare il mood di Korchnoi. Mica si poteva fare finta di niente, dopo che in quattro partite aveva azzerato quello che Karpov aveva costruito in venticinque...Non gli riusci di trovare niente di meglio che ritirare fuori la questione degli Ananda Marga: benché nulla fosse cambiato dalle ultime decisioni prese, adesso i sovietici pretesero che i due fossero allontanati anche dalla villa (privata) di Korchnoi. La giuria acconsentì, benché non si capisse bene che ragioni potevano avere i sovietici e Korchnoi la prese come un attacco nei suoi confronti e delle sue possibilità di prepararsi mentalmente alla resa dei conti.

Non paghi, l'inizio della 32ma partita vide il buon vecchio Zukhar seduto in quinta fila, in barba a quanto, faticosamente, accordato.

Karpov giocò bene, ma giocò contro un Korchnoi irriconoscibile da quello che aveva vinto le ultime tre partite su quattro. Alla 41ma mossa la partita fu aggiornata. Korchnoi abbandonò senza riprenderla.

Come ultimo atto del Campionato del Mondo più movimentato di sempre, rifiutò di firmare il formulario come segno di protesta per la pressione che aveva ricevuto prima di quell'ultima partita.

Tre mesi, 32 partite, Karpov si confermò Campione del Mondo con 6 vittorie, 21 patte e 5 sconfitte.

Tutte le partite del match, QUI.

FINE

Inizialmente avevo in mente di scrivere una chiusa finale a questa storia, tirando le somme, parlando del precedente Fischer - Spassky, in cui c'era sì la Guerra Fredda e le sue tensioni ma anche rispetto e stima personali, o del Toiletgate Kramnik - Topalov, durante il quale la prima era abbondantemente finita ma non c'erano i secondi, insomma dire un po' quello che penso di tutto questo... Ma poi mi sono ricordato che i commenti dovete farli voi.
Allora, alla fine, ho deciso di limitarmi all'aggiunta di un'unica altra foto. Mi piace pensare ci mostri che, in fondo, c'è speranza, sempre,  che le cose migliorino. Proprio per tutti

Bibliografia

Horowitz, Israel Albert: The World Chess Championship

Keene, Raymond: Karpov-Kortchnoi 1978 – Parapsycology, Gurus and the KGB

Kasparov, Garry: My Great Predecessors, Vol 5

Korchnoi, Victor: Chess is my life

"Sitografia"

Wiki italiana e inglese

chessdryad,com

chesshistory.com

chessgames.com

chessbase.com

www3.polito.it

Chesstigers... Zu den Interviews...

Beating Ian Nepomniachtchi 3-1 in the final, Armenia’s number one grandmaster Levon Aronian won the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship last night. Eaerlier on Sunday the strong Ordix Open was won by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

The Mainz Chess Classic, the big, annual festival of rapid chess (20 minutes for the game + 5 seconds increment per move), is held July 27-August 2 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. During the day many open events take place while at night two unofficial World Championships are held: Tue-Thu the 6th Rapid Chess960 Wch with Aronian, Bologan, Movsesian and Nakamura, and then Fri-Sun the 14th Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship with Anand, Aronian, Nepomniachtchi and Naiditsch.

Aronian wins final in smooth style

By Johannes Fischer

After World Champion Vishy Anand failed to qualify for the final of the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship Levon Aronian was clear favorite to win the title against the Ian Nepomniachtchi. And indeed, the Armenian had no trouble to become Rapid World Champion. In fact, the biggest surprise of the final might have been the smooth way in which Aronian won.

World Champion Anand, however, made his fans wonder. Apparently he did not manage to overcome the bad shape he had shown in the preliminaries and his play in the match for place three against Germany number one Arkadi Naiditsch was strangely uninspired and lacked punch. But maybe the explanation was much simpler. “Well, as there is not that much at stake in the match for third place, it is very difficult to motivate oneself”, he later explained at the press conference.

The first game showed how difficult both Anand and Naiditsch – who had also played in the Ordix Open where he finished second to Mamedyarov – found it to motivate themselves. Anand had White and chose a quiet Italian game, which ended in a listless 26-move draw.

In contrast Aronian lived up to his role of favorite in his first game against Nepomniachtchi. On the white side of an English Opening he managed to convert positional pressure into something tangible when winning two pawns. Yesterday, the Russian managed to overcome a two-pawn-deficit against Anand, but against Aronian Nepomniachtchi was not that lucky. In fact, his only hope was the clock. Aronian had only seconds on the clock but the 5 second increment per move proved to be enough for the Armenian.

The second round proceeded in similar fashion. Naiditsch and Anand went into a well-known line of the Ruy Lopez and did not mind a draw when all rooks were swapped on the a-file.
Meanwhile, Nepomniachtchi did everything one tells beginners not to do. He neglected his development, left his king in the centre and advanced both his a- and his h-pawn in an effort to put pressure on Black. Unperturbed, Aronian developed quietly and when all his pieces were ready and his king had castled, he countered in the center. And suddenly things were critical for White. With little time on the clock, Nepomniachtchi went astray and fell victim to an assault on his king who was still stuck in the centre.

Black played 30…Nxf2 31.Kxf2 Bb6+ 32.Ne3 Nxe3 33.Be5+ Kxb7 34.Qf3+ Qc6 and White resigned.

With two clear wins from the first two games Aronian was on the brink of winning the match and becoming new Rapid Chess World Champion. Indeed, he had no problems to clinch the title in the third game. With Black, Nepomniachtchi put his hopes on the Grünfeld Defense, but Aronian always had things under control and in an ending where Nepomniachtchi had no winning chances at all, the Russian finally accepted the inevitable: he agreed to a draw and Aronian was new Rapid Chess World Champion.

In the other match, however, Anand and Naiditsch continued to avoid all excitement. Both sides did not seem to mind a draw and after 23 moves the game was over. Score: 1.5:1.5.
Now, the fourth game between Naiditsch Nepomniachtchi and Aronian was a mere formality. And even though it was drawn after 25 moves the spectators saw some entertaining chess. With 1.e4 e5 2.d4 Nepomniachtchi played an unusual opening, which inspired Aronian to an unusual rook maneuver in the opening. And after this rook had done his duty, Aronian decided to sacrifice him. Black had a serious material disadvantage but the computer still liked Black’s chances better. However, Aronian decided not to tempt fate and opted for a draw through perpetual check. Final score: 3-1.

[What Mr Fischer doesn't mention is that computer engines show a -5.00 or so advantage for Aronian in the final position of the 4th game. The Armenian missed the winning line, but in the "Gourmet Club", the VIP room of the Mainz Chess Classic, so did a table of GMs including Mamedyarov, Gashimov, Sargissian, and Ivan Sokolov, who analyzed the position a move or so before the draw with Sebastian Siebrecht moderating for 7 or 8 minutes!]

Anand and Naiditsch again did not do much harm to each other and played the fourth draw of their match to share third and fourth place – traditionally in Mainz no tie-break is played in the match for third place.

So, Anand will have to wait for next year’s Chess Classic to get “his” title back. Aronian certainly welcomed such a rematch. As he said during the press conference: “It’s fun to play against someone who is tough. And Anand is really tough.”

It might well be that next year Aronian will indeed have a chance to see how tough Anand is. At the prize-giving ceremony organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt promised Anand a wild card – and the World Champion will not be the only one who is happy to return to the Chess Classic. To say it with the words of the new Rapid World Champion Levon Aronian: “This is such a wonderful tournament – everybody likes to play here.”

All Rapid World Ch Final and 3/4 Final games

Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. More info on our new game viewer can be found here.

Game viewer by ChessTempo

It’s a beautiful day for Mamedyarov

By Eric van Reem

Finally he made it! He has tried six times to win one of the Opens in Mainz, but this year the Azeri grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won the ORDIX Open with a fantastic score. After 11 incredibly tough rounds he scored a record-breaking 10 points. Never before has a winner scored 10 points in the ORDIX in Mainz. Vugar Gasimov, Vladimir Akopian and Arkadij Naiditsch scored 9,5 points.

Immediately after the last game against Akopian, Mamedyarov spoke about the Chess Classic to the press officers Harry Schaack and Eric van Reem. A few statements from the 24-year old, who won the world junior chess championship in 2003:

“I am very happy that I finally won one of the Open tournaments here in Mainz. I have played in six tournaments and I always had a very good start. I often won the first five or six games in a row, but when I lost one game, things went from bad to worse. It is a probably a psychological problem, because the same thing also happened in other tournaments. I can remember that I played the Tal Memorial blitz tournament and started with with 8/8. I won every game, against Anand, Polgar, you name it. Then I lost a game against Karpov, although I had a completely winning position. After that game I lost track and lost 16 games in a row! Incredible, but I am working on it. Therefore, this victory is very important for me.”

“I like to play Chess960. I enjoy the FiNet Open in which I can play Chess960. This year Grischuk was unbeatable in Chess960. It is a pity that I can only play it once a year on top level here in Mainz. I get bored from playing openings like the Slav over and over again. I think that in about 15 or 20 years we will only be playing Chess960.”

“My best game was against Evgeniy Najer and in the fourth round I played a good game against Stanislav Novikov as well. The crucial game against Nakamura was a normal game for me. Well, maybe not a good game, but still very interesting. I had a lost position in my game against Sargissian, but somehow I even managed to win the game. You need a little luck to win an Open like this. I think that you can afford to lose one game in the Open, but not more than one.”

For your pleasure, we show you a pretty combination from by the winner against Najer from the 7th round:

Mamedyarov-Najer
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.g4 h6 8.h3 e5 9.Bd2 0–0 10.0–0–0 Re8 11.g5 hxg5 12.Nxg5 exd4 13.exd4 Nf8 14.Rg1 b5 15.c5 Bc7 16.Bd3 a5 17.Rg2 b4 18.Ne2 Ba6 19.Rdg1 Bxd3

20.Nxf7!! and White won.

Photos © Christian Bossert / Mainz Chess Classic.

Links

• Official website
• LIVE PORTAL
• Chess.FM’s Macauley Peterson (video) blogging from Mainz
• 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 6th Chess960
  Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 8th FiNet Chess960 Open | Games in PGN
• 16th ORDIX Open | Games in PGN
• 5th Livingston Chess960 Wch | Games in PGN

Last night in Mainz, an era came to an end. On the second day of the unofficial Rapid World Championship, eleven times winner Viswanathan Anand failed to qualify for the final. During the press conference after the games, Anand proved to be a fair sportsman and congratulated his opponents: “I think the two people who deserved to qualify, qualified. That’s life. If you play badly you get punished.”

The Mainz Chess Classic, the big, annual festival of rapid chess (20 minutes for the game + 5 seconds increment per move), is held July 27-August 2 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. During the day many open events take place while at night two unofficial World Championships are held: Tue-Thu the 6th Rapid Chess960 Wch with Aronian, Bologan, Movsesian and Nakamura, and then Fri-Sun the 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship with Anand, Aronian, Nepomniachtchi and Naiditsch.

Anand fails to qualify after dramatic second day

By Johannes Fischer

Will World Champion Vishy Anand strike back? Will he be able to qualify for the final? On the first day of the GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship Anand, 11 times winner of the Chess Classic Mainz, had only scored 1 point from 3 games and was trailing 1,5 points behind Aronian and Nepomniachtchi. However, everybody knew that an Anand in good shape can work miracles on the chess board.

But the first game of day 2 seemed to indicate that Anand had not yet overcome his bad form. Playing with Black against Aronian Anand opted for the Grünfeld and got an almost equal position after the opening. This, however, developed into an endgame in which Aronian had a passed b-pawn and every right to play for a win and it took Anand a fine defensive effort to draw.

Meanwhile, Arkadij Naiditsch took his revenge for yesterday’s first-round loss by beating Nepomniachtchi. In a Sicilian Najdorf, Naiditsch sacrificed a pawn to gain the initiative and this strategy paid off when the young Russian crumbled under the pressure:

Black “defended” with 30…Rbc8 31.Rxc8 Rxc8 but after 32.Bxf7 he found himself in a lost position. Yet, similar to the day before, Naiditsch made life difficult for himself and later lost the better part of his advantage. Fortunately, his position was good enough to still win the game.

But Naiditsch’s technical weaknesses proved fatal against Levon Aronian. With the white pieces the German grandmaster obtained a very good position after the opening, which together with the fact that he had much more time on the clock gave him every chance of winning. And when he cashed in on c7 things again seemed a matter of technique.

But now Aronian demonstrated why he is considered to be one of the most stubborn, creative and inventive players. With little time on the clock he made life increasingly difficult for Naiditsch who suddenly was faced with a number of unexpected difficulties.

Trying to find a way to bypass all tactical traps and to win safely cost Naiditsch most of his time. This in turn later made him overlook a decisive knight fork.

Here Naiditsch played 49.Rc3 to resign immediately after 49…Nd1+. This win secured Aronian a spot in the final – no matter how he would play against Nepomniachtchi in the final round.

The other fifth round game between Nepomniachtchi and Anand was less tactical but no less dramatic. On the black side of a Caro-Kann Anand carefully converted an equal position into a slightly better one. This slight advantage led to a better queen endgame, which in turn led to a queen endgame, in which Anand was two pawns up.

However, his king could find no place to rest. A win would have given Anand three points and every chance to qualify for the final and the World Champion indeed tried hard. But White relentlessly pursued Black’s king all over the board and after 50 moves in which no pawn advanced and no piece was captured, a draw was agreed.

Now, ironically, before the sixth and final round, Anand could only hope that Aronian would help him to qualify for the final by beating Nepomniachtchi.

While a lot of people expected Aronian to agree to a quick draw to avoid playing Anand in the final, the Armenian showed true sportsmanship by playing a real game against Nepomniachtchi. However, after committing an error in the opening he was unable to put any pressure on his opponent and finally had to agree to a draw, which secured Nepomniachtchi a place in the final.

While constantly having an eye on Nepomniachtchi’s game, Anand tried his best to win against Naiditsch – but he also failed to get any tangible advantage. And shortly after Aronian and Nepomniachtchi drew their game Anand and Naiditsch also drew.

11 times Anand won in Mainz, now he failed to qualify for the final. An era came to an end – which might have been the reason for the gloomy atmosphere during the press conference after the games. Here Anand proved to be a fair sportsman and congratulated his opponents: “I think the two people who deserved to qualify, qualified. That’s life. If you play badly you get punished.”

Still, with all the pressure lifted of him, he may come back to form when playing against Naiditsch for third place tomorrow. And hopefully he will be back in Mainz next year and the years to come to play many more wonderful games – and possibly to reclaim his title.

All Rapid World Ch games day 2 for replay

Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. More info on our new game viewer can be found here.

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Eight players with a perfect score after first day of 16th ORDIX Open

By Eric van Reem

The ORDIX Open is a fixed date in the chess calendar for many rapid chess lovers and this year no less than 694 participants made the yearly pilgrimage to Mainz. After the first five rounds, there are still eight players with a clean sheet: Grischuk, Sargissian, Meier, Mamedyarov, Naiditsch, Navara, Landa and Nielsen. Six more rounds will be played on Sunday.

However, Saturday kicked off with the second signing session of the week. Many chess players took the opportunity to meet and greet some of the world’s best chess players. Cups, T-shirts, books, pictures, you name it – everything was signed with a smile from the grandmasters. Even WGM Natalia Zhukova obviously misses some signatures in her collection and queued up to get some pictures signed.

Hard to believe, but the Chess Classic is already counting down the days to the end of the chess festival. However, in Mainz we try to keep the best for last and in the final weekend the tradition ORDIX Open is held. For many chess lovers the ORDIX is a fixed date in their chess calendar.

The big names in the ORDIX this year are Gashimov, Grischuk, Kamsky, Movsesian, Nakamura, Naiditsch and Kasimdzhanov but there are many experienced grandmasters who love to play the rapid open in Mainz each year like Rafael Vaganjan, Vlastimil Hort, Ulf Andersson and Klaus Bischoff. We counted 172 (!) players with an international title and 67 grandmasters! Two ex-chess world champions started in the ORDIX today, Rustam Kasimdhzanov and Alexander Khalifman.

In the first few rounds the grandmasters have a relatively easy job, although some of players who just finished the Chess960 Open obviously had some difficulties with position 518, the normal starting position which is played this weekend. Hikaru Nakamura, who won the Chess960 world championship this week, had a day off on Friday and seemed to have an “off day” in his first round game against Chess Classic bulletin maker Timo Schönhoff. The German amateur had a really promising position and the crowd gathered round the board to follow the game. However, Schönhoff missed a tactical blow by Nakamura and lost the game.

It is difficult to spot the gems in a tournament with 347 games per round. If you go through the endless rows you see an exciting sacrifice on one board, a dreadful time scramble on another board, a dramatic blunder somewhere else. On the top boards on stage some strange things happened. In the game Brkic-Gashimov the highestrated player in the ORDIX missed a tactical blow:

In this position Gashimov played 25…Rc4. A rook move was OK in this position, but 25…Rxc2!! would have been winning! 26. Kxc2 Rc8+ 27. Bc5 Bxe4! This combination should not be too difficult for a 2700+ player, but Gashimov missed it. After some up and downs the game ended in draw.

In the same round, Alexander Grischuk, who desperately wants to win this ORDIX to become the first player in Chess Classic history to win both Opens in one year had some difficult moments in his game against Gofshtein:

Not a pleasant position for white-to say the least. White is a pawn down and Grischuk had only twenty seconds left on the clock. However, the time control in Mainz is 20+5 and by making a few quick moves you can gather some time on the clock. After 29. Qd4 b6? 30. Rde1! Bxc5 31. Qxe4 Qxe4 32. Rxe4+ Kf8 33. Re2 Rd8 34. Rdxg2 Rxg2 35. Rxg2 white suddenly had a slightly better endgame, that Grischuk won with remarkable ease.

Interesting stuff, and you can play through the top games of the ORDIX yourself to spot some nice combinations here and there. All transmitted games can be downloaded from the official site, the easiest way to do that is by clicking on the LIVE portal and scroll down to the 16.ORDIX Open. Then download the transmitted games in .pgn format. Tomorrow six more rounds will be played, and the 6th round starts at 10.00 AM.

Photos © Christian Bossert / Mainz Chess Classic.

Links

• Official website
• LIVE PORTAL
• Chess.FM’s Macauley Peterson (video) blogging from Mainz
• 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 6th Chess960
  Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 8th FiNet Chess960 Open | Games in PGN
• 16th ORDIX Open | Games in PGN
• 5th Livingston Chess960 Wch | Games in PGN

Im 16. ORDIX Open stehen die Favoriten ganz vorne. Noch 8 Spieler haben 100%.
Von Harry Schaack

Das ORDIX Open begann heute pünktlich mit 694 Teilnehmern, obwohl sich noch dutzende Schachfreunde kurzfristig entschieden, am stärksten Open der Welt teilzunehmen. Unter den 172 Titelträgern befinden sich 67 GMs und mit Chalifman und Kasimdzhanov spielen gar zwei Ex-Weltmeister mit. Der Schnitt der ersten 10 Spieler beträgt unglaubliche 2718 und die Top 20 haben immer noch 2700 – das ist neuer Chess Classic Rekord! Auch sonst wird man schwerlich ein offenes Turnier finden, das stärker besetzt ist.
Bei einem so großen Feld dauert es eine Weile, bis sich eine Spitzengruppe formiert hat. Der erste Tag war in dieser Hinsicht ein kleiner Aufgalopp. Noch immer gibt es 8 Spieler, die bislang unbeschädigt aus dem Massenkampf hervor gegangen sind: Grischuk, Sargissian, Meier, Mamedyarov, Navara, Naiditsch, Landa, Nielsen.     Partien

(more…)

He probably never had a worse start at the Chess Classic. On the first day of the GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship, World Champion Viswanathan Anand lost his first two games and now has to worry about qualifying for the final. Earlier on Friday, Alexander Grischuk emerged as the winner of the FiNet Chess960 Open.

The Mainz Chess Classic, the big, annual festival of rapid chess (20 minutes for the game + 5 seconds increment per move), is held July 27-August 2 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. During the day many open events take place while at night two unofficial World Championships are held: Tue-Thu the 6th Rapid Chess960 Wch with Aronian, Bologan, Movsesian and Nakamura, and then Fri-Sun the 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship with Anand, Aronian, Nepomniachtchi and Naiditsch.

Bad start for Anand in Mainz

By Johannes Fischer

The first game already indicated that Anand was not in top shape. Playing with White against Aronian he used an unusual amount of time in the opening – which, however, seemed to be well invested: Anand managed to secure himself the bishop pair but, as he later explained in the press conference “things were a bit complicated. Therefore I was ready to draw but did not want to sit too passively. But with little time on the clock I went astray.” Which gave Aronian, who the day before had suffered a bitter defeat against Hikaru Nakamura in the final of the Chess960 Rapid World Championship, an important point and a confidence-booster.

Indeed, in chess there is hardly anything as motivating as winning a worse game. Ian Nepomniachtchi definitely knows how this feels. In his first round game against Arkadi Naiditsch he was on the brink of defeat, but Naiditsch found no way to push him over the edge, which allowed Nepomniachtchi to neutralize the enemy threats slowly to achieve a better endgame, which he finally won.

In the second round the young Russian had to face Anand with Black and again Fortune was on his side. Nepomniachtchi opted for the sharp Poisoned Pawn variation of the Najdorf Sicilian and as Anand later admitted in the press conference, „I did not quite know what I was playing and could not clearly remember what to do in this line.“ This blackout of the World Champion gave Nepomniachtchi a better endgame and a second point. With 0 from 2, Anand, however, could not have had a worse start.

That Arkadi Naiditsch did not fare any better was no real consolation. After his unfortunate loss in the first round the German number one lacked the energy to offer significant resistance against a revitalized Aronian. Immediately after the opening Naiditsch went astray and had to give a pawn to prevent worse – but his game was still practically lost.

Demoralized, he did not do much better against Anand in the third round. With White he chose a harmless line against the Caro-Kann and again he lost a pawn right after the opening. And even though Anand, as he remarked at the press conference with a grim sense of humor „almost managed to spoil even this game to a draw”, Black’s extra pawn permitted a certain degree of inaccuracy. Anand scored his first win – which he bitterly needed to keep up his hopes to qualify for the final.

Viswanathan Anand kept slim chances to reach the final by beating Arkadij Naiditsch

Meanwhile, Nepomniachtchi and Aronian proceeded carefully in their third round game. The Russian in particular did not take any risks. Playing with White he played rather cautiously and it took a pawn sacrifice by Aronian to provide some excitement. However, as the balance was never seriously disturbed the game soon ended in a draw.

Ian Nepomniachtchi with White against Levon Aronian

Halfway through the tournament Aronian and Nepomniachtchi are 1,5 points ahead of Anand. But despite this bad start one should not write the World Champion off. In the past he again and again proved how good he can cope with critical situations. And after all, Nakamura showed how to do it: after losing the first two games in the Chess960 World Championship he won seven games in a row. Saturday, 18:30, Anand has the chance to catch up. Live transmission on the website. Don’t miss it.

All Rapid World Ch games day 1 for replay

Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. More info on our new game viewer can be found here.

Game viewer by ChessTempo

FiNet Chess960 Open: Going once, going twice, going three times, Grischuk!

By Eric van Reem

The man with the cap was the sole leader after 10 nerve-breaking rounds in the 8. FiNet Chess960 Open, but in the final round, Gata Kamsky lost his only game against former world champion Rustam Kazimdzhanov. This loss paved the way for Alexander Grischuk, who won the massive Ordix Open twice, to clinch home his third Mainz Open title. He kept his cool in the last round against German ace Rainer Buhmann and won the 8. Edition of the FiNet Chess960 Open with 9,5 points.

This last minute victory avoided a total American Chess960 domination in Mainz. Hikaru Nakamura won the Chess960 world championship and the American program Rybka won the Livingston Chess960 computer tournament for the third time in a row. The late Bobby Fischer, the inventor of this fascination chess variant that gets more and more attention on all levels, would have smiled in heaven.

The ICC Qualifer wins the Chess960 Open: Alexander Grischuk

Despite his tremendous victory, Grischuk was not too happy with the way he played in the Chess960 Open. “I had a lost position in three games”. But Grischuk, winner of the online Chess960 qualification tournament on the Internet Chess Club, showed that he is a tough player to beat. “And you need a little luck as well to win an Open like this”, the Russian smiled. He added: “My main goal is to win both the FiNet and the Ordix Open in one year”. Maybe he can be the first player in Chess Classic history to reach this unearthly goal. He will give it a shot tomorrow!

Gata Kamsky

Kamsky, who scored nine points in the end, was downhearted after his terrible loss in the final round. He was in the lead from the word go and losing the final game is an experience that even a hard-boiled chess professional like Kamsky will not easily forget. He just needed a draw to win the tournament. His opponent Kasimdzhanov showed his ambitions and all his class in his last game against the American. In the end he shared 2nd place with Kamsky.

From a German point of view, the tournament was very successful. Arkadi Naiditsch and Georg Meier scored 8,5 points but the big German surprise was Rainer Buhmann, who played a fantastic tournament. He even had a chance to win the tournament, but he lost against Grischuk in the last round. He played an excellent Chess960 game, had a pawn up and was on the upper hand, but the Russian top player showed his perseverance, power and experience. Buhmann was very disappointed after the game: “I might never get such a good occasion to win the FiNet anymore”. Symbolically, in the end he landed on 13th place…

The best female player in the FiNet was Kateryna Lahno with 8 points, Irina Gaponenko and Marie Rachel Sebag scored 7,5 points. Vlastimil Hort was the best senior player.

A great FiNet Chess960 open came to an end today. Never before, the tournament attracted more top level players. We even counted 106 players with an international title! The top ten had an ELO average of 2718, the total average of all 263 players in the FiNet Chess960 Open was 2170. The end of the FiNet Open marked the end of the Chess960 events this week in Mainz. The GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship started on Friday, on Saturday the massive Ordix Open with around 700 players starts at 12.30.

The stage, with during the day the top boards of the Opens, and at night the 'rapid world championships'

Peter Heine Nielsen, regular guest in Mainz, and NH Chess Tournament participant later this month

Sergei Movsesian also joined the big group during the day - here playing Georg Meier

Photos © Christian Bossert / Mainz Chess Classic.

Links

• Official website
• LIVE PORTAL
• Chess.FM’s Macauley Peterson (video) blogging from Mainz
• 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 6th Chess960
  Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 8th FiNet Chess960 Open | Games in PGN
• 16th ORDIX Open | Games in PGN
• 5th Livingston Chess960 Wch | Games in PGN

There’s just no stoppin’ him. U.S Champ and Donostia winner Hikaru Nakamura last night defeated Levon Aronian three times in a row to clinch the Chess960 “World title” in the most convincing manner. Movsesian won the match for third place against Bologan 2.5-1.5. Video added.

The Mainz Chess Classic, the big, annual festival of rapid chess (20 minutes for the game + 5 seconds increment per move), is held July 27-August 2 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. During the day many open events take place while at night two unofficial World Championships are held: Tue-Thu the 6th Rapid Chess960 Wch with Aronian, Bologan, Movsesian and Nakamura, and then Fri-Sun the 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship with Anand, Aronian, Nepomniachtchi and Naiditsch.

Update: Chess.FM’s Macauley Peterson sent us the following video which is published under the Creative Commons license (”BY-NC-ND“), meaning it may be freely re-posted and shared, with attribution:

Nakamura clinches Chess960 Wch title on Day 3 in Mainz

By Johannes Fischer

When Levon Aronian and Nakamura sat down to play the final of the Chess960 World Rapid Chess Championship last night, it was difficult to name a clear favorite. In the preliminaries Aronian had dominated the first day, Nakamura the second. Both are known as extremely strong blitz and rapid players, and both had shown their Chess960 skills on more than one occasion.

Taking this into account, the match was surprisingly one-sided. Nakamura simply won the first three games to become new World Champion – in a very convincing manner.

Nakamura and Aronain in the Chess960 'Wch' final

In the first game Aronian opted with Black for an elastic, dynamic set-up. But when White managed to create weaknesses in Black’s camp, which he soon occupied with his pieces, Black seemed to be in trouble. In a bid for counterplay Aronian decided to give material but Nakamura defended coolly and sent his king from the queenside to the kingside, where it finally was safe. With his last swindling chances gone Aronian resigned.

1.f4 f5 2.Bd4 d6 3.Qg1 c5 4.Bc3 Nc7 5.g4 e6 6.d3 Bf7 7.e4 Ne7 8.Ne2 Qg8 9.Nb3 b6 10.O-O-O g6 11.Nd2 O-O-O 12.Bh3 fxe4 13.Nxe4 Ned5 14.Bf6 Rd7 15.c4 Nb4 16.a3 Nc6 17.Bc3 Be7 18.g5 d5 19.Nf6 Bxf6 20.Bxf6 Qf8 21.Nc3 Qd6 22.Qf2 Kb7 23.Kb1 Rf8 24.cxd5 Nxd5 25.Nxd5 Qxd5

26…e5 27.Bxd7 Nxd4 28.Rxd4 cxd4 29.Rxe5 Qa2+ 30.Kc1 Qa1+ 31.Kc2 d3+ 32.Kxd3 Qd1+ 33.Qd2 Bc4+ 34.Ke3 Qg1+ 35.Kf3 h5 36.Re1 Qc5 37.Be7 Bd5+ 38.Kg3 h4+ 39.Kh3 1–0

The first game in the fight for third place between Bologan and Movsesian took a different course. Here it was Bologan who pressed with White and advanced his pawns early on. However, this gave Black good counterchances. He forced an exchange of queens and attacked the weak white pawns afterwards. Bologan found no good way to defend them and soon had a lost position, which Movsesian converted into a full point.

Movsesian with the black pieces against Bologan

Inspired by this win Movsesian played a little brilliancy in the second game. Sacrificing an exchange, he pushed on the kingside, in the center and finally on the queenside, where he mated Black’s king.

1.g4 g5 2.Qh3 Ne6 3.e3 Nd6 4.d4 h5 5.d5 Ng7 6.gxh5 Ngf5 7.Nd3 O-O-O 8. e4 Nd4 9.Ne3 f5 10.e5 f4 11.Ng4 Nc4 12.O-O-O Ne2+ 13.Kb1 Nxg1 14.Rxg1 b5 15.Rd1 Qf5 16.b3 Nb6 17.Nc5 e6 18.Be4 Qf8 19.d6 f3 20.Bxa8 Nxa8

21.Nf6 g4 22.Qf1 c6 23.Qe1 1–0

While Movsesian was brimming with confidence Aronian appeared shaken after his loss in the first game. At any rate, it hard to find another explanation for the blunder he committed in the second game against Nakamura: After to a relatively simple oversight Aronian lost knight and game. “Probably I had a bad day”, he commented wryly in the press conference.

1.b3 b5 2.f3 f6 3.d4 f5 4.Nd3 g6 5.Qf2 Bf6 6.g3 Qh6 7.e3 Ne6 8.Qe2 Nb6 9.Nc3 a6 10.Nc5 Nxc5 11.dxc5 Qg7 12.Qd3 b4 13.cxb6 cxb6 14.Nd5 Bxa1 15. Nc7+ Kf7 16.O-O Bc3 17.f4 Bxh1 18.Kxh1 Qf6 19.Rbd1

19…Qc6+ 20.Qd5+ Qxd5+ 21.Rxd5? (21.Nxd5 was better) 21…Rb7 22.Nxa6 Ra8 23.Nxb4 Bxb4 24.a4 Bc5 25.Re1 e6 26.Rd3 d5 0–1

With Nakamura and Movsesian both leading 2-0 the final seemed to come to a swift end. The match Aronian vs. Nakamura in fact ended quickly. To get back into the match Aronian used lots of time in the third game – time which he later lacked. He got lost in the middlegame complications and fell victim to a surprising attack by White.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 c6 4.g3 d6 5.d4 Bd7 6.Rd3 Na6 7.a3 Bh6+ 8.Bd2 Bg7 9.Be3 exd4 10.Bxd4 Nc5 11.Rd2 Nf6 12.Ng5 Rf8 13.O-O-O O-O-O 14.e5 Ng4 15.f4 Ne6 16.Nxe6 Bxe6 17.h3 dxe5 18.Bxa7 Nf6

19.Ba6 e4 20.Qg1 Rxd2 21.Bxb7+ Kxb7 22.Qb6+ 1–0

A convincing victory, which made Nakamura new Chess960 Rapid World Champion.

Now the fourth game between Aronian and Nakamura was just a formal affair, and maybe it was the lack of tension which made Aronian spoil an advantageous position into a draw which led to a final result of 3,5:0,5 for Nakamura.

The new Chess960 World Champion: Hikaru Nakamura

Things went less smoothly for Movsesian. In the third round he was not able to cope with Bologan’s aggressive play and lost, which made the fourth game crucial. But Movsesian quickly recovered from the loss and played the fourth game in a very professional manner. Despite Bologan’s efforts to stir up trouble Movsesian managed to keep everything under control and steered the game into a completely drawn rook ending. After a couple of moves Bologan accepted the inevitable and agreed to a draw. Movsesian thus won the match 2,5:1,5 and became third in the Chess960 Rapid World Championship.

With only 2 draws from 20 games it was an altogether exciting World Championship, which may help to give Chess960 the popularity it deserves. As Levon Aronian remarked at the press conference: “Chess960 is healthy and good for your chess. If you get into it and not just move the pieces to achieve the known position it really improves your chess vision.”

Tomorrow, in the GRENKE LEASING Rapid World Championship, where he will meet Vishy Anand, Arkadij Naiditsch and Ian Nepomniachtchi Aronian has a chance to show how Chess960 improved his classical chess vision.

FiNet Chess960 Open
Meanwhile, yesterday was the first of two days of the ultra-strong 8th edition of the FiNet Chess960 Open. It’s the same rate of play (20 minutes + 5 seconds) with the first five rounds on Thursday and then rounds 6-11 today. At the moment of writing, after eight rounds, Kamsky, Mamedyarov, Grigoriants and Grischuk are sharing the lead with 6.5 points.

Alexei Grischuk, who came to Mainz after winning the ICC Qualifier

Gata Kamsky, like almost all participants in a relaxed outfit...

...including Ian Nepomniachtchi, apparently a fan of Barcelona's 'beauty in football'

Photos © Christian Bossert / Mainz Chess Classic.

Links

• Official website
• LIVE PORTAL
• Chess.FM’s Macauley Peterson (video) blogging from Mainz
• 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 6th Chess960
  Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 8th FiNet Chess960 Open | Games in PGN
• 16th ORDIX Open | Games in PGN
• 5th Livingston Chess960 Wch | Games in PGN

Fehlstart des Weltmeisters

Von Johannes Fischer

Einen schlechteren Start hatte Weltmeister Vishy Anand bei den Chess Classic wohl noch nie. Bei der GRENKELEASING Rapid Weltmeisterschaft verlor er am ersten Tag die ersten beiden Runden und muss um die Qualifikation fürs Finale bangen.

Gleich in der ersten Runde zeigte sich, dass Anand nicht hundertprozentig in Form war. Er spielte mit Weiß gegen Levon Aronian und verbrauchte schon in der Eröffnung viel Zeit. Zwar schien Anand dank seines Läuferpaars dafür auf den ersten Blick betrachtet besser zu stehen, aber wie er in der nachträglichen Pressekonferenz meinte, war die „Stellung kompliziert“. Deshalb „wollte ich Remis machen, ohne mich jedoch in eine zu passive Stellung drängen zu lassen. Mit wenig Zeit auf der Uhr habe ich jedoch den Faden verloren.“ Das bescherte Aronian, der gestern im Finale der Chess960 Rapid Weltmeisterschaft eine bittere Niederlage gegen Hikaru Nakamura erlitten hatte, einen wichtigen Punkt und neues Selbstvertrauen.     Partien

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2007-2009 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

263 Spieler fighten im stärkstbesetzten Chess960-Turnier der Welt. Nach dem ersten Tag haben nur noch Mamedyarov, Movsesian, Malakhov und der ehemalige Vize-Weltmeister Kamsky eine weiße Weste.

Von Harry Schaack

Die Chess Classic gehen in die heiße Phase. Mit dem Start des FiNet Opens war die Mainzer Rheingoldhalle erstmals richtig gefüllt. 263 Teilnehmer, darunter fast 60 Großmeister, kämpfen im stärksten Chess960-Turnier der Welt um den ersten Platz, der gleichfalls die Qualifikation für die nächste Chess960 World Championship bedeutet. Der Eloschnitt der Top Ten beträgt unglaubliche 2717, die besten 20 haben noch einen Schnitt von fast 2700.
Die Schachvariante Chess960 geht auf Bobby Fischer zurück. Vor Beginn der ersten Runde bat Organisator Hans-Walter Schmitt um eine Schweigeminute für den verstorbenen amerikanischen Ex-Weltmeisters

Da die Figurenstellung auf der Grundreihe ausgelost wird, sind eröffnungstheoretische Kenntnisse unbrauchbar. Auch die Weltklassespieler müssen hier von Beginn an konzentriert zu Werke gehen. Selbst TopTen Spieler mussten in Mainz schon schmerzlich am eigenen Leibe erfahren, wozu eine zu gelassene Einstellung führen kann. Einer der diesjährigen Favoriten, Mamedyarov, verlor vor zwei Jahren im Spitzenduell gegen Kamsky in nur 8 Zügen. Partien
Um ein Open bei den Chess Classic zu gewinnen, benötigte man in der Vergangenheit mindestens 9, meist aber 9,5 Punkte. Viele Fehler darf man sich nicht erlauben. Und bei so vielen Spitzenkönnern spielt auch der Faktor Glück keine unwesentliche Rolle. Jedes Remis mindert die Chancen auf einen der Geldpreise, weshalb sehr kampfbetont gespielt wird. Kurzremisen wie in anderen Turnieren sind beim FiNet Open unüblich.

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Hello everyone! It just somehow has worked out that I have a few hours of downtime today before I go take care of business in New York City, so I will attempt to recap the past week.

Vancouver: "The Return"

In my last blog, I really wore out my fingers with the blog I wrote as I had to race against the clock and I promptly passed out immediately once I boarded the flight due to massive sleep deprivation. I did wake up a few hours later and had the luxury of sitting next to a couple of cute girls from New Jersey who were headed up to Whistler for some hiking. Immediately, I started giving them many ideas of what to do out there which really reminded me of all the great memories I had from last summer. Once I arrived in Vancouver, I promptly went out and enjoyed the afternoon with my friend Bruce out in the burbs. It involved many games of Seirawan Chess which was highly enjoyable for both of us.

These are the two pieces which can come onto the board much like in crazyhouse, but with different move abilities. The hawk can move like a knight&bishop while the elephant can move like a rook&knight. I find this game to be a fun distraction when I am not playing serious chess as there is a lot of creativity to it. Hopefully in time, it will become popular, but for the meantime it remains a game which is only played in Washington&Vancouver primarily.

After all this fun, I headed downtown to stay at my friend Jack's place in the West End. When I was living in Vancouver last year, I lived in Yaletown which was on the other end of downtown. Sorry if the image below is not perfect, but it is the best I can do to illustrate. Nevertheless, after having been gone for seven months, it was really nice to be situated right next to Stanley Park which I have explored on many, many different occasions. However, I must admit that after leaving Vancouver on such a sour note at the end of last year, I really enjoyed being back now that I am at peace and happy compared to where I was at the time. On Sunday, I chose to explore the North Shore and Granville Island which were both a lot of fun. The perfect sunny days of summer in the Pacific Northwest cannot be beaten anywhere else in the world.

Having spent both Saturday and Sunday in Vancouver, I caught the ferry from Tsawwassen Terminal. The ferries here serve as to the Gulf Islands and Victoria. Surprisingly, I never had a chance to get out to Victoria last summer, and I was out of town when several of my friends took a trip out to Salt Spring Island. Nevertheless, as an experience Vancouverite in many ways, I would recommend that anyone who comes to British Columbia MUST take the ferry to Victoria or the Gulf Islands at some point. The views of the mountains and islands are spectacular and must be seen during the summer (See pictures at the bottom).

Once I arrived at Schwartz Bay Ferry Terminal in Victoria, I was greeted by Canadian Youth Chess Championship organizer, Brian Raymer. After my arrival, we then went to the Victoria International Airport where we were joined by GM Mark Bluvshtein who was fresh off of his win in the Canadian Open. Mark and I first played way back at the World Youth Chess Championship in Oropesa, Spain in 2001. I won that encounter and we didn't really speak much after that. But during the Montreal International and Dresden Olympiad, I had the opportunity to hang around Pascal,Mark and Igor a lot, so we all became friends. One thing which I have found about the Canadian chessplayers in general is that many of them have a much more laid back attitude than most of the current top American players.

Victoria: "Heavendom on Earth"

Right after Mark and I arrived in downtown Victoria, we had about one hour before our live exhibition. I checked into the Grand Pacific Hotel (Pictures from my room will be at the bottom) and immediately rushed out to get some quick lunch. I took a nice stroll down Government Street which is the main street with tourist shops and restaurants. Considering what I had heard from one of my friends who lives there about it being boring, I was pleasantly surprised. After eating a quick ham and cheese panini, I headed to the Royal British Columbia Museum for the live exhibition with Mark. For the game itself, we used actual people as pieces to make it a public event in which all the kids could participate as well. However, due to the side view which Mark and I had of the board; for us, it became a blindfold game as we could not really assess the position with all these pieces obstructing our view. As far as the game itself is concerned, Mark got White and I played the Two Knights Tango. Mark made a rather serious error pretty quickly and was losing before long. However, I tried to get cute and simplify it into a winning king and pawn endgame for the audience only to realize to my horror that instead of being up a pawn in the endgame, I had sacked my h7 pawn for the initiative earlier! This led to a king and pawn endgame which was drawn. Despite the heat and sun tan which I got during the game, it was a positive experience for everyone and local media covered the event.

Having finished the live exhibition, I returned to the hotel and comfort of my room so I could cool off before my simul which was scheduled to begin an hour later. Surprisingly, I did not follow my own advice and I instead went out and bought some souvenirs from local shops on Government Street! This left me a bit rushed and I ran back to my hotel and dropped off the gifts before I started my simul. I assumed the simul would be much like others I have played in, but of the 40 players who I faced, very few were simply blown off the board in 15 moves like I was expecting. In fact, in most of the games, it took me 20 moves before people started cracking. By the end of the simul, I had won 37 games, drawn 2 and lost 1. Congrats to the three people who scored points off of me! I can assure you that it won't happen in a real game, at least not for the next 8 years since they won't be GMs before then! In the evening, Mark and I went out to a nice Irish Pub/Restaurant where I had a delicious Halibut burger and spent a lot of time reminiscing about the past while drinking pitchers of beer! Overall, it was a great day despite being rather long and hectic for me.

On the second day, Mark and I were present for the official opening ceremony of the Canadian Youth Chess Championship. At the start we both said a few words, although neither of us were particularly brilliant with our choice of words, the general message went over well and off the tournament went! Having completed my obligations for the tournament, I went out and explored the waterfront and contemplated kayaking in the harbour but deciding against it due to the heat of the day. I also walked through more of downtown Victoria including Antique Row, Bastion Square and other notable landmarks. I returned to the Grand Pacific in the early evening to drop in and see how the actual games were going. It was at this point, that I was approached by FM Eric Hansen about playing some time odds blitz. For those who aren't aware, Eric already has a 2400 Fide rating and two IM norms. Surprisingly, he also hails from Calgary, AB, Canada which is rather surprising considering the general lack of strong talents on the west coast of Canada. Nevertheless, we played 18 games at 3-1 time odds with me winning 11-7. Unfortunately, I seem to have hit a certain point where I can still win, but nowhere near as much as I once could. I strongly suspect this has a lot to do with my very serious approach and attitude towards classical chess these days. After this, Mark,Eric and I went out to a Ric's Seafood Grill where we enjoyed a few drinks while talking about all the bizarre and wild events which we have seen recently at the various tournaments.

The following morning, I left the hotel quite early and caught the 8:45 AM ferry back to Vancouver as it takes approximately 90 minutes on the ferry and 60 minutes to get from Tsawwassen to downtown Vancouver. By leaving when I did, this also gave me an opportunity to enjoy the HSBC Celebration of Lights which opened that evening with Team Canada fireworks. In the early afternoon, my good friend Jack got off of work and we went out and had a few drinks out on the patio's while watching English Bay become progressively more and more crowded as the afternoon turned into the evening. It is hard for me to come up with a comparison, but the atmosphere becomes crazier and crazier as 100,000 people come from the suburbs of Vancouver and simply invade all the surrounding beaches (English Bay, Kits Beach, Jericho Beach). For those who are interested in actual video of the fireworks, I have uploaded them to my facebook page. Jack and I went off and ate some excellent sushi at this quaint Japanese restaurant called Yoshi's on Denman Street near Stanley Park about an hour before the fireworks were supposed to begin (they start at sundown). Finally with all the streets closed off and everyone swarming, the fireworks from Team Canada kicked off the show and it was exciting and enjoyable. Having said that, I would still not compare it to the July 4 celebrations as these firework shows have specific themes and don't last as long. Once the show ended, it was amusing seeing thousands of people walking the other direction. Thus ended the spectacle which always becomes funnier every year.

On Thursday morning, I finally packed my bags and got ready to leave but not before heading off to my favorite Chapters spot on Robson&Howe for some Starbucks with Jack,Bruce and Michelle. Sadly, it all ended too quickly, but as I am moving to Seattle in September, I will be back to see everyone in the near future! So ends another chapter in my summer, but if every tournament/vacation is this much fun, I am going to want to always be traveling (let's hope I don't lose my mind like Ivanchuk) and enjoying life. On that note, I hope everyone enjoyed this posting and I will add a couple more once I am in Mainz for the Chess Tigers Festival which I played in last year having much success. That's all for now, folks!

P.S. Enjoy the following pictures below!

Some clown trying to look cool with sunglasses and a New Yorker magazine sticking out of his bag!

A spectacular view of the water and mountains!

A view of the Queen of New Westminster. Enough cannot be said about BC Ferries and the great services they provide for British Columbia residents.

I am not sure why, but I just like this view looking back in the opposite direction.

A view of the harbour and downtown Victoria from my room at the Grand Pacific Hotel!

A view of the parliament buildings.

The famous Empress hotel in downtown Victoria.

A view of the Royal British Columbia Museum where Mark and I did our live exhibition.

One last view of the parliament buildings at night time and what a view it is!

Especially Nakamura was determined to do better on the 2nd day, and decided to spend more time in the difficult Chess960 opening phase. This approach brought the American three wins, and qualification for today’s final, where he will meet Aronian, who also ended on 4/6.

The Mainz Chess Classic, the big, annual festival of rapid chess (20 minutes for the game + 5 seconds increment per move), is held July 27-August 2 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. During the day many open events take place while at night two unofficial World Championships are held: Tue-Thu the 6th Rapid Chess960 Wch with Aronian, Bologan, Movsesian and Nakamura, and then Fri-Sun the 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship with Anand, Aronian, Nepomniachtchi and Naiditsch.

Draws Don’t Count: Exciting Day 2 at Chess960 World Championship in Mainz

By Johannes Fischer

A strong comeback: Hikaru Nakamura

The second day of the Chess960 World Championship promised exciting chess: While Levon Aronian with 3 out of 3 seemed to be almost certain to play in the final, Hikaru Nakamura, Victor Bologan and Sergei Movsesian all had 1 point and could still cherish hopes for a spot in the final – provided things went right. Things became exciting indeed, but differently than expected.

Nakamura in particular was determined not to repeat the events from the previous day. As a result he invested much more time in the opening, which proved to be a good approach. Aronian was the first to suffer from the “new” Nakamura. The Armenian got nothing out of the opening and made life really difficult for himself when blundering a pawn. Nakamura seized the opportunity, grabbed the pawn and steered the game safely into a won endgame.

Meanwhile Bologan suffered from a miscalculation in the opening, which gave his opponent Movsesian a clear advantage. Though Movsesian let some of this advantage slip and gave Bologan more chances than he might have hoped for, Bologan returned the compliment in mutual time trouble, by missing the most stubborn defense and allowing Movsesian to score.

With 1 out of 4 Bologan really had to get going. And that’s exactly what he did by defeating Levon Aronian in a well played game. Meanwhile, Nakamura and Movsesian continued the strange gambit they like to employ in their games. As Nakamura said in the press conference: “Every time we play, the player who has an advantage after the opening, seems to lose.” Which led Movsesisan to remark: “next time I know what I have to do. I will give him the better position.” In Mainz, however, Movsesian lacked this wisdom. He was clearly better after the opening but suddenly Nakamura’s pieces came into play and in an attempt to bail out Movsesian sacrificed a piece to achieve a perpetual. But Nakamura’s king found a way to escape the checks and secured his boss the second win of the day.

Thus, with one round to go, Movsesian and Bologan had 2 out of 5 while Aronian and Nakamura had 3 out of 5. But because Bologan had to play against Nakamura and Movsesian had to play Aronian all four players still had a chance to qualify for the final.

Levon Aronian vs Sergei Movsesian

Probably Aronian needs a rush of adrenaline to play his best. At any rate, when his place in the final seemed to be in danger, he suddenly rediscovered the form he had shown on day 1 and scored a fine win against Movsesian. Going back to the form he had shown on day 1 was exactly what Nakamura did not want to do. So he continued to play in the same determined fashion he had shown in the two previous games and won quickly against an overly aggressive Bologan – and “got the job done” as he put it in the press conference.

Thus Aronian and Nakamura both finished with 4 out of 6 to qualify for the final while Bologan and Movsesian will fight for place three.

Today, the players did their best to make it difficult to name a clear favorite for the matches. While Aronian dominated day 1 by scoring 3 out of 3 Nakamura did the same on day 2. But if the preliminaries are anything to go by, we can expect a wonderful and exciting final. Twelve games were played in the preliminaries, none ended with a draw. Not to mention the many interesting motifs and fine combinations the spectators saw.

Game viewer

Unfortunately only Chess960 games where both colours don’t castle can be included in the viewer. Click on the pairings at the top of the board to reveal a drop down list of all the games. More info on our new game viewer can be found here.

Game viewer by ChessTempo

The final will begin today, Thursday, 30th July, 18:30. Games will be transmitted live on the internet – and should not be missed. The same counts for Chess.FM’s Macauley Peterson (video) blogging from Mainz!

All photos courtesy of the Mainz Chess Classic.

Links

• Official website
• LIVE PORTAL
• Chess.FM’s Macauley Peterson (video) blogging from Mainz
• 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 6th Chess960
  Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 8th FiNet Chess960 Open | Games in PGN
• 16th ORDIX Open | Games in PGN
• 5th Livingston Chess960 Wch | Games in PGN

Levon Aronian scored 3 out of 3 against Bologan, Movsesian and Nakamura during the first day of the Rapid Chess960 World Championship, part of the Mainz Chess Classic. At the moment of writing they’re playing their second stage of preliminaries.

This week the big, annual chess festival of rapid chess is held in Mainz, Germany: the Mainz Chess Classic. As always, the first few days it’s all Chess960 (or “shuffle chess”, or “Fischerrandom”, whatever you prefer) before the players return to the classical starting position. The rate of play is 20 minutes for the game + 5 seconds increment per move.

It’s held in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. During the day many open events take place while at night two unofficial World Championships are held: Tue-Thu the 6th Rapid Chess960 Wch with Aronian, Bologan, Movsesian and Nakamura, and then Fri-Sun the 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship with Anand, Aronian, Nepomniachtchi and Naiditsch.

One more event (of many!) we’ll mention is the 5th Livingston Chess960 Computer Chess World Championship with title holder Rybka (Vasik Rajlich), Shredder (Stefan Meyer-Kahlen), Deep Sjeng (Gian-Carlo Pascutto) and Ikarus (Muntsin & Munjong Kolss).

Rapid Chess960 World Championship: Day 1, Tuesday, July 28th – Tactics Rule

By Johannes Fischer

As Viktor Bologan explained in yesterday’s press conference, in Chess960 the random position of the pieces simply forces you to think of everything. In interviews Levon Aronian also stressed how important tactics are in Chess960. The first three rounds of the Chess960 Rapid World Championship confirmed this view. The games featured quite a number of unusual tactical situations – and it was Levon Aronian who handled them best.

Right from the start he showed how good he coped with them. In his first round game against Nakamura he gave his queen for two rooks after just a couple of moves and afterwards he simply brought his pieces to strong squares. Nakamura came under pressure and had to give an exchange but then Aronian used his material plus to mate the enemy king with rook and two knights.

The game between Sergei Movsesian and Viktor Bologan was also characterized by tactics. Tactical tricks gave Bologan an advantage, and a tactical trick allowed Movsesian to extricate himself from a difficult position. However, he could not solve all of his problems and Black still had some pressure. This in turn provoked an inaccuracy from Movsesian which Bologan used to secure a winning position and soon after the point.

However, after this promising start followed a sobering second round, in which Bologan miscalculated and fell victim to a violent mating attack from Aronian.

1.e4 e5 2.d4 d6 3.f3 Ng6 4.Bc4 c6 5.Bb3 Nc7 6.Ng3 exd4 7.Bxd4 Ne6 8.Bc3 Nc5 9.Nf5 Nxb3 10.axb3 f6 11.Qe3 Qc7 12.Nd3 Ne5 13.Be1 g6 14.Nd4 Bf7 15.Bf2 Bg7

Now White played 16.Rxa7 Rxa7 17.Nb5 cxb5 18.Qxa7+ Kc8 19.Nxe5 fxe5 20.Bb6 Qe7 21.Qa8+ Kd7 22.Bxd8 and Black resigned.

With 2 out of 2 Aronian showed why he was considered to be the favorite to win this tournament. The secret favorite Hikaru Nakamura fared much worse. After his first round loss against Aronian things also went wrong against Movsesian. The American played with White, built up pressure in the opening, avoided a repetition and a draw – only to lose his way and the game soon after. „After ten moves I was almost winning, but then I got careless“, he remarked during the press conference after the game.

However, he managed to pull himself together in the third round and won with Black against Bologan. Both players were fond of the enemy pawns, but Nakamura managed to snatch one more pawn than his opponent, which gave him a clear endgame advantage that he finally converted to a full point.

The game between Movsesian and Aronian quickly developed into a sharp encounter. Both players wanted to gain the initiative and did not shy away from material sacrifices. At first it seemed as if Movsesian, who played with White, set the pace, but the tide turned after a strong counter by Aronian.

1.b4 Nf6 2.Ng3 e6 3.e4 b6 4.Bf3 Ng6 5.h4 d6 6.d4 d5 7.h5 dxe4 8.Be2 Nf8 9.h6 Rg8 10.c4 c5 11.bxc5 bxc5 12.Rxb8 Qxb8 13.d5

Suddenly White’s position was critical and Movsesian’s search for counterplay only accelerated his end. There followed: 13…e3 14.Bd1 exf2+ 15.Kxf2 gxh6 16.N1e2 Ng4+ 17.Kg1 Bg5 18.Ba4+ Ke7 19.Qc2 Be3+ 20.Kf1 Bf4 21.Nf5+ exf5 22.Rh3 Be5 23.Nc3 Kf6 24.Qd3 Rg5 25.d6 Kg7 26.d7 Nxd7 27.Bxd7 Ld4 28.Ke2 Nf2 0–1

This led to an amusing situation: three players with 1 out of 3 share places 2 to 4 and will fight hard to qualify for the final tomorrow. At the same time Aronian scored 3 out of 3 and is the sole and dominant leader and more than ever favorite to successfully defend his title of Chess960 World Champion. „All games were hard and tough fights“, Aronian said during the press conference. Maybe – but he still seemed to play all of them with effortless and playful ease. Often a sign of real great skill.

All photos courtesy of the Mainz Chess Classic.

Links

• Official website
• LIVE PORTAL
• 14th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 6th Chess960
  Rapid World Championship | Games in PGN
• 8th FiNet Chess960 Open | Games in PGN
• 16th ORDIX Open | Games in PGN
• 5th Livingston Chess960 Wch | Games in PGN

Von Eric van Reem
 
 Die fünfte Livingston Chess960 Computer Chess World Championship findet vom 29. bis 31. Juli im Rahmen der Chess Classic Mainz statt. Vier starke Programme treten Mittwoch und Donnerstag in den Qualifikationsturnieren gegeneinander an, und die zwei besten Programme spielen dann am Freitag einen Wettkampf über vier Partien. Nach zwei offenen Turnieren 2005 und 2006 entschieden sich die Organisatoren für ein doppelrundiges geschlossenes Turnier mit den besten Chess960 Programmen der Welt und haben so die Computerweltmeisterschaft den Wettkämpfen der Menschen angepasst. 
 
 Doch wie stellt man fest, was die besten Chess960-Programme der Welt sind? Die zwei Finalisten des Vorjahres, Rybka von Vasik Rajlich und Shredder von Stefan Meyer-Kahlen, werden von zwei Programmen herausgefordert, die sich im Internet qualifiziert haben. Das ist einmal ein von Gian-Carlo Pascutto entwickeltes belgisches Programm, das sich diesen Platz durch den Sieg in einem

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Von Harry Schaack
Mit der Pressekonferenz und dem anschließenden Simultan an 40 Brettern von Levon Aronian begann heute mit den Chess Classic das weltgrößte Schnellschachfestival in Mainz.

Um 14:00 Uhr begannen die Chess Classic 2009 mit der Pressekonferenz. Bis zum Sonntag misst sich die absolute Weltklasse in der Mainzer Rheingoldhalle in insgesamt acht Entscheidungen. Höhepunkte sind die beiden Weltmeisterschaften: Die Nr.4 der Welt, Levon Aronian, versucht zunächst von Dienstag bis Donnerstag seinen Titel im Chess960 - jener vom verstorbenen Ex-Weltmeister Bobby Fischer vorgeschlagenen Schachvariante, bei der die Anfangsfigurenaufstellung ausgelost wird - gegen Hikaru Nakamura, Viktor Bologan und Sergei Movsesian zu verteidigen. Von Freitag bis Sonntag muss sich der amtierende Weltmeister und elfmalige Gewinner der Chess Classic, Vishy Anand, bei der GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship gegen Levon Aronian, Arkadi Naiditsch und Ian Nepomniachtchi behaupten.

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27. Juli - 2. August 2009 Rheingoldhalle, Mainz

Wenn man von der Angebotspalette und der starken Besetzung des Events in Mainz  ausgeht, gibt es nichts vergleichbares auf der Welt. Die Weltelite und Hunderte von Spielern aus aller Herren Länder, treffen sich in der Rheingoldhalle des Hilten-Hotels in Mainz, um ein einmaliges Schacherlebnis zu genießen. Es ist das Mekka des Schachs. Jeder Schachspieler sollte wenigstens einmal in seinem Schachleben dabei gewesen sein. Ein unvergessenes Erlebnis. Ein Vergnügungspark des Schachs. Nicht nur der aktive Teilnehmer hat sein Vergnügen, sondern auch die vielen Zuschauer, die mit der ganzen Familie angereist kommen. Selbst für die Kleinen der Familien ist gesorgt, die während der Veranstaltungen von Fachkräften betreut werden.
Nirgendwo ist man so nah bei den Stars, die man sonst nur aus der Ferne beobachten kann. Vom 27.Juli bis zum 2. August geht es Schlag auf Schlag:

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From July 27th to August 3rd the German city of Mainz will be the epicentre of rapid chess and Chess960 again. The organizers of the Mainz Chess Classic provided an interview with one of the sponsors, Wolfgang Kögler, CEO of the ORDIX AG, about parallels between chess and business, commitment, service and a high class product.

Wolfgang Kögler is CEO of the ORDIX AG, 16 year sponsor of the Chess Classic Mainz and the company giving the Rapid Open its name. A successful cooperation, which will again bring hundreds of chess players from July 27th to August 3rd to Mainz to visit the Chess Classic and to play in the ORDIX Open, the world’s biggest and strongest chess tournament, which will take place 1st and 2nd August. Harry Schaack spoke with the businessman about parallels between chess and business, commitment, service and a high class product.

HARRY SCHAACK: Mr. Kögler, allow me to start with a somewhat provocative question: We are in the middle of one of the most difficult financial crises of the last hundred years, yet ORDIX continues to support the Chess Classic in Mainz, the world’s biggest and strongest open chess tournament. Do you have too much money?

WOLFGANG KÖGLER: No, definitely not. But one year ago I promised to support the tournament and I will keep this promise. Today, I would probably decide somewhat differently.

ORDIX is an independent software and consulting company, which offers service, training, and products such as relational databases for UNIX, Linux and Windows. Has the IT business been spared from the crisis?

The crisis first of all affected the motor industry and its suppliers and the machine building industry. We happen to have only few contacts to these fields. Unlike others we are thus fortunately not that much affected. Our order situation is still okay. If I wanted to be heretical, I might add: because we work for banks, which were bailed out by the government. And the banks do not stop their IT-projects, because these projects are too important.

But the climate has changed.

That’s right. But this development began a couple of years ago. It has nothing to do with the crisis. A while ago you could still rely on handshake-agreements, but nowadays even contracts are not always kept or they are „improved“ afterwards.

A couple of months ago World Champion Vishy Anand was invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos to talk with leading scientists and other authorities about economics. Where do you see similarities between chess, economics or your field?

One should not take the comparison too far. But competitive sports – and I think chess is one – and economics do indeed have things in common. To successfully lead a company is a kind of competitive sport. Chess focuses on the individual, but in a company things depend on teamwork. Even though a strong personality at the top is not bad, in a company interaction is more important.

Can business learn something from chess?

Well, I wished some managers would think as much as chessplayers (laughs).

You have been supporting the ORDIX Open since 1994, for 16 years your company has been an established part of the Chess Classic. You are the only sponsor who supported the tournament from the very start. Which connection do you see between sponsoring and consistency?

In general, consistency is something which distinguishes us. In the work with our customers we are very steady, which in itself signalizes reliability. This approach to our work obviously is reflected in our long term support of the ORDIX Open. Short term commitments are not what we are looking for.

You saw the continuous growth of the event. With 762 participants the ORDIX Open 2007 was the world’s biggest open tournament ever. What does this success mean to you?

Such things make you happy. I do not know whether there’s potential for further growth. However, this is not the primary goal of our sponsoring. It is a huge tournament, people from many countries come to Mainz and all over the world people hear about the ORDIX Open. That is fantastic, but this success is not only due to the money we give, but also due to the efforts of the Chess Tigers team organizing the event. The joy of the volunteers transpires to the entire event.

In contrast to patronage, sponsoring is an investment for which a company expects some value in return. What did ORDIX get from the Chess Classic?

We did not have a concrete, measurable benefit. However, our support is pretty clear and straightforward and this is no absolute must. We wanted to establish a brand and to make the name of ORDIX better known in an environment, in which not only IT-people move. We hope that maybe the one or the other wants to find out more about ORDIX and about what our company does. Which in turn might yield results.

Your commitment as sponsor mainly focuses on minority sports …

Yes. I like to give money to fields, where I feel my contribution might change something. For me, it is more satisfying to get a direct feedback from the person I gave the money to. And I can more easily see what is done with it. In minority sports I can also more easily support amateur sport and junior sport, which are dear to me.

Recently, you even increased your support for the Chess Classic. This year will be the third, in which you support the Mini-ORDIX Open.

When Hans-Walter Schmitt asked, whether I would like to support the Mini-Open as well, I immediately agreed. He just hit a nerve. I always look forward to this tournament.

Mainz Chess Classic organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt (l.) with Wolfgang Kögler (r.)

By now, the world’s best players come to Mainz to play in the ORDIX Open. As prizes are scaled, even relatively weak players can win unusually high prizes in their rating-class. How do you see the relation between amateurs and professionals?

It is good that we offer something for everyone. But the top level chess is necessary to attract the many others. I think every amateur is happy to have an opportunity to play against the top players.

Does this ratio of mass and class work in business?

While there is a good ratio of professionals and amateurs in the ORDIX there are too many amateurs in business. The „class“ should actually have prevented a crisis such as we have now. Unfortunately, too many just look for short term profit.

You are a regular visitor of the Gourmet Club of the Chess Classic. Do you also invite your customers to this club?

Yes, for instance last year. I like it there: the rooms are dignified, grandmasters explain the games in entertaining fashion, and there is good food and good wine.

You also play chess yourself, even though you have little time for it. Did you ever play in a club?

No, I never did. At university I used to play regularly for some time. I know the rules and if a commentator explains the characteristics of the position I can even follow the high-class games well. The computer evaluations, now common at the Chess Classic, also help a lot.

An important aspect of your work is customer orientation. If you look at the Chess Classic: what does service mean in chess?

The Chess Classic is a great event. It offers so much. Not only to chessplayers but to whole families. You can leave the „little ones“ in the children’s club where a number of educators take care of them. This allows you to focus on the games. The Gourmet Club is also to my taste, because I like good food.

Another advantage of this festival might be that the games reach their crucial point quickly and you thus see a lot of highlights. This is certainly very attractive for visitors. The Chess Classic is a quick-decision-event – another parallel to our IT-business. In IT, slow people won’t get far.

Are you also interested in top level chess apart from the Chess Classic?

I am generally interested in sports and I follow the top chess events, last year, for instance, the World Championship in Bonn or the Olympiad in Dresden.

Do you have personal contacts to the top players who regularly play in Mainz?

Yes, but only in connection to the Chess Classic. 16 years ago Hans-Walter Schmitt introduced Vishy Anand to me and said that this one could really go far. To be honest, at that time I was rather skeptical. However, I see things differently now (laughs).

At the opening ceremony, the Champions Diner, I once sat at a table with Vladimir Kramnik and we had a very entertaining conversation. I enjoy contact with the top players on such occasions.

How do you and the ORDIX staff follow the Open?

One or two members of our staff played in the Open and in the simultaneous event. They were rather taken with it. We also publish regular reports on our website.

You know the Chess Classic from the very beginning. This successful festival is also a business product, which has adapted to changed times and circumstances. What do you think distinguishes this product? And what were the most important innovations of the tournament?

The most important innovation was to move from Frankfurt to Mainz. The ambience of the Rheingoldhalle by far surpasses everything the tournament had in Frankfurt. Since then the event had a fixed place and surrounding. This was not the case in Frankfurt. I think this is good for the whole event. Being close to the Rhine and downtown Mainz is also attractive. I would even say: if the event had not moved to Mainz, it might no longer exist by now.

You mainly started to sponsor the Chess Classic because the organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt had been a long time acquaintance of you. What is the secret of a 16 year long cooperation?

It simply worked. Two people, who others might occasionally be somewhat uncomfortable with, met. The chemistry between us was simply right.

If you look back to the 16 years: what were your personal highlights?

A personal highlight was the winning ceremony of the Mini-ORDIX Open, where I gave the prizes to the winners. It was moving to see how the sometimes very small children stumbled on stage.

Moreover, I think it’s satisfying that we increased our value for the event over the years. We have never been the biggest sponsor. But some other sponsors no longer exist today or they quickly stopped their commitment because they had no long-term concept.

Thank you very much for the interview.

More information about ORDIX is offered under: www.ordix.de

Translation by Johannes Fischer

CHESS CLASSIC / ORDIX OPEN 2009

In 2007 the Chess Classic ORDIX Open attracted 762 participants to become the world’s biggest tournament. At that time it already was the world’s biggest open. For 16 years the world’s best players have been fighting here for fame and honor.

For this year’s ORDIX Open, which will take place from 1st to 2nd August, a large number of strong grandmasters want to come and all is set for a new record. 320 players have registered, among them 75 GMs, plus a number of IMs and FMs. As far as quality is concerned the tournament already tops the record year 2007. The best ten players do have a fantastic Elo-average of 2716 and the top 20 can still boast of a 2695+ average. Currently, the highest rated player in the field is Vugar Gashimov with 2740, followed by Grischuk, who qualified in the ICC tournament, Bacrot, who just played in Dortmund, last year’s candidate’s finalist Kamsky, former World Junior Champion Mamedyarov, the American rapid chess phenomenon Nakamura, the previous ORDIX winners Navara and Bologan, former World Champion Kasimdzhanov, the Armenian Olympic gold medal winners Akopian and Sargissian, and many more. With Arkadi Naiditsch, Daniel Fridman and Georg Meier the best Germans also take part.

2007 schwang sich das ORDIX Open im Rahmen der Chess Classic mit 762 Teilnehmern zum größten Turnier der Welt empor. Das stärkste Open war es freilich schon vorher. Die gesamte Weltklasse kämpft hier seit 16 Jahren um Ruhm und Ehre.
 Für die diesjährige Veranstaltung vom 1.-2. August haben schon jetzt so viele starke Großmeister ihre Teilnahme zugesagt, dass ein neuer Rekord zu erwarten ist. Bislang sind von insgesamt 320 Teilnehmern 75 GMs gemeldet, dazu gesellen sich noch etliche IMs und FMs. Qualitativ liegt das Turnier schon jetzt über dem Rekordjahr von 2007. Die Top Ten haben einen Elo-Schnitt von sagenhaften 2716 und die Top 20 noch über 2695. Bester Spieler im Feld ist im Moment Vugar Gashimov mit 2740, dann folgen Grischuk, der sich im ICC Turnier qualifiziert hat, Bacrot, der gerade in Dortmund spielte, der letztjährige Kandidatenfinalist Kamsky, der ehemalige Juniorenweltmeister Mamedyarov, das amerikanische Schnellschach-As Nakamura, die früheren ORDIX-Sieger Navara und Bologan, Ex-Weltmeister Kasimdzhanov, die armenischen Olympiasieger Akopian und Sargissian, u.v.m.. Neben Arkadi Naiditsch sind mit Daniel Fridman und Georg Meier auch die drei besten Deutschen im Feld vertreten. Die vollständige Liste der Großmeister können Sie der angehängten Exel-Datei entnehmen.
 Das ORDIX Open ist mit dem stattlichen Preisfonds von 40.000 Euro ausgestattet. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Turnieren kann hier nicht nur die Spitze gewinnen. In mehreren Ratingklassen unter 2400 TWZ kommen auch schwächere Amateure in den Genuss eines der lukrativen 157 Preise.

Interview mit dem Vorstandsvorsitzenden der Firma ORDIX AG, Herrn  Wolfgang Kögler   Bisher angemeldete Großmeister    Chess Tigers     Foto: Wolfgang Kögler zusammen mit Turnierorganisator Hans-Walter Schmitt

Top seed Alexander Grischuk of Russia was in majestic form on Sunday as he easily won the Mainz Chess Classic Chess960 online title hosted on ICC. Besides 750 Euros and accommodation and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel, Grischuk won an automatic seat in two tournaments at the Mainz Chess Classic.

From June 23rd to 28th the Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers of the ever-popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, organized a free online qualifier for ICC members to win 700 Euro, accommodation and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel by the banks of the Rhine, just one block from the picturesque Old Town.

Like the previous two ICC champions Tigran Petrosian (2007) and Hikaru Nakamura (2008), the winner would go on to receive an automatic seat into two of the biggest and most prestigious series of rapid chess tournaments in the world, playing among many of the game’s top grandmasters at the FiNet Open, the world’s biggest Chess960 tournaments, and the Ordix Open, one of the biggest and strongest rapid tournaments.

En route to the main event of the 16-player final, Grischuk (depressnyak) beat with ease IM Anatoly Bykhovsky of Israel (3-1) and GM Dmitry Koneonenlo [presumably Kononenko - PD] of Ukraine (3-1) to face fellow Russian IM Artur Gabrielian (Dinamit) - who caused an upset by beating second seed and last year’s champion GM Hikaru Nakamura (Smallville) in the quarter-finals - in a Moscow showdown for the title.

But again Grischuk proved unstoppable as he eased to victory by a resounding score of 3.5-0.5 to take the 750 Euro first prize, invitation and hotel to the upcoming Mainz Chess Classic later next month in Germany.

Four open qualifiers were held on ICC earlier last week to determine the 16-player final that saw a record number of 973 ICC members playing Chess960 (FischerRandom).

(Report by John Henderson, ICC)

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

The Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers of the ever-popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, are again offering ICC members a unique chance to play in a free online qualifier to win 700 Euro, accommodation and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel by the banks of the Rhine, just one block from the picturesque Old Town.

Like the previous two ICC champions Tigran Petrosian (2007) and Hikaru Nakamura (2008), the winner will go on to receive an automatic seat into two of the biggest and most prestigious series of rapid chess tournaments in the world, playing among many of the game’s top grandmasters at the FiNet Open, the world’s biggest Chess960 tournaments, and the Ordix Open, one of the biggest and strongest rapid tournaments.

And in the evening, you will also have the best seats in the house for the main attraction of the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship featuring World Champion Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniatchi and Arkadij Naiditsch.

This exclusive qualifier — which combines a series of Chess960 online tournaments running June 23rd-26th, with the final 16-player KO on June 28th — is restricted only to ICC members. So don’t delay, sign-up today!

Checkout out the Mainz Chess960 Qualifier page with all the rules and guidelines by clicking here.

John Henderson
ICC

In this and the following examples, I've stripped out nonessential header tags like players' ratings and nationalities. The minimum chess960 tag set is the standard PGN seven tag roster plus the [SetUp] and [FEN] tags. I'm not sure why the [SetUp] is required -- the [FEN] tag should be enough to trigger a nonstandard position -- but I believe the PGN standard calls for it. My personal preference is to document the SP in the [Annotator] tag, which is the only extraneous tag here.

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "W"]
[Black "B"]
[Result "*"]
[Annotator "SP579"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "bqrnkrnb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BQRNKRNB w KQkq - 0 1"]

*

Next is a PGN file produced by Arena, an engine interface I described in Chess960 Engines. It defaults to the last engine I had loaded, Rybka 2.2, even though it's not chess960 compliant.

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2009.05.12"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Mark"]
[Black "Rybka 2.2 32 bit"]
[Result "*"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "nbrknqbr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NBRKNQBR w KQkq - 0 1"]
[PlyCount "0"]

*

The next example is from Chess Classic Mainz 2008 (CCM8).

[Event "CCM8 - FiNet Chess960 Women's Wch"]
[Site "Mainz"]
[Date "2008.07.29"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Kosteniuk, Alexandra"]
[Black "Cmilyte, Viktorija"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Annotator "Chess Tigers"]
[Variant "chess 960"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "bnrbkrqn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BNRBKRQN w FCfc - 0 1"]
[PlyCount "143"]

{SP 353} 1. c4 c5 2. Ng3 e6 3. e3 b6 4. Nc3 Nc6 5. Nge4 Be7 6. Nb5 O-O-O [...]

The next is an engine vs. engine game from CCRL 404FRC : Downloads and Statistics,

[Event "CCRL 404FRC"]
[Site "CCRL"]
[Date "2006.09.21"]
[Round "1.1.867"]
[White "Loop 10.32f"]
[Black "Fruit 2.2.1"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Opening "BQRNKRNB"]
[PlyCount "151"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "bqrnkrnb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BQRNKRNB w FCfc -"]

1. b4 {+0.11/13 10s} Nf6 {+0.10/13 11s} 2. Bxf6 {+0.31/13 18s} exf6 [...]

The last example is from SchemingMind.com, an online play site that I've mentioned in several posts.

[Event "Chess960: Pyramid challenge from Apocalypse"]
[Site "SchemingMind.com"]
[Date "2007.09.20"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Apocalypse"]
[Black "Chess Tiger"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Variant "fischerandom"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "bqrnkrnb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BQRNKRNB w KQkq - 0 1"]

1. b4 b5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Bxf6 gxf6 4. c5 Nc6 5. e3 e6 6. d4 f5 7. Ne2 Rg8 8. h3 Ne7 [...]

The most important difference across the various files is in the [FEN] tag. The 'KQkq' designation taken from traditional chess has been replaced by 'FCfc' in two examples. 'F/f' and 'C/c' are the files where the Rooks start, as described in X-FEN (Wikipedia).

The distinction between 'KQkq' and 'FCfc' (or 'HAha' etc.) is not important at the start of the game. It would be important if the FEN string described a position later in a game where one of the Rooks had crossed over to the other side of the King. In this case, 'Kk' (or similar) would not be sufficient to indicate which of the two Rooks could castle O-O.

Another difference is the use of the [Variant] tag. The Arena and CCRL examples omit it, the CCM example uses 'chess 960', and the SchemingMind (SM) example uses 'fischerandom'. I can imagine that 'chess960', 'fischerrandom', and 'FRC' are also in use on other chess960 services.

Finally, I like the way the numbered SP '{SP 353}' has been embedded as a comment in the CCM example. The Arena and SM examples don't document the SP, while CCRL uses the [Opening] tag to give the same information that is already available in the [FEN] tag.

From July 27th to August 2nd, Viswanathan Anand will defend his title of Rapid World Champion, which he won already 11 times, against Levon Aronian, Arkadij Naiditsch and Ian Nepomniachtchi. In an interview with Harry Schaack the World Champion reviews the events of the last half year – and looks ahead to the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship in Mainz.

Photo: Christian Bossert

From July 27th to August 2nd, once again the best players in the world will meet in the Rheingoldhalle in Mainz, Germany to play the most important rapid chess festival in the world: the Chess Classic. The world championships in rapid chess and Chess960 will be staged in a tried and trusted double round robin format with four players, after which the players battle it out in mini-matches to determine the top spot. During the GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship the chess world champion and Chess Classic serial winner Vishy Anand will try do win his title 12th title.

However, with the leader of the successful Armenian Olympic Team, Levon Aronian, who won both the Amber tournament in Nice and the FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik this year, he faces a formidable opponent who already showed his strength in rapid chess in Mainz in the past. The winner of the ORDIX Open 2008, Ian Nepomniachtchi from Russia and local hero Arkadij Naiditsch will try do their best to put a spoke in the favourite’s wheel. Since the German number one showed an upturn in form in the last few months, he will certainly be the one to watch out for.

More information on the Mainz Chess Classic can be found at the Chess Tigers website. The experienced organizers know how to bring their tournament under the spotlights at an early stage: they distributed the following in-depth interview with Viswanathan Anand to the media.

Translation: Johannes Fischer

Harry Schaack: Several months passed between the World Championship in Bonn in October and the Linares tournament. A rather unusual break for a World Champion. What did you do in that time?

Vishy Anand: After the exhausting match I needed this break, but there was not much time for regeneration. Shortly after the World Championship I went to India. The first days were pretty chaotic. There were many tributes, receptions and parties. Basically, I was incredibly busy. In two months I flew more than 6.000 km all over India. The enthusiasm I encountered was of course fantastic. However, it was also rather demanding.

Back in Europe you immediately went to Davos…

…where I had been invited to take part in the annual conference of the World Economic Forum. It was a new experience for me. A lot of scientists, influential politicians and businessman met in Davos. I had a lot of interesting discussions.

For the first time in many years you decided against playing in Wijk aan Zee. Only in Linares, where you had won the previous two years, you came back to the tournament arena.

Yes, and despite the break I played quite well in the beginning. I won the first game against Radjabov. But against Aronian I suffered a blackout in a clearly better position, which cost me the game. In the second part of the tournament my luck returned, particularly so in the games against Ivanchuk and Grischuk. All in all, I cannot complain. My result reflects my play. Altogether my performance was not as steady as it was in the two previous years. But I did not think that I played badly.

Grischuk wins Linares 2009

Somewhat surprisingly, Grischuk won. Considering his permanent time trouble it is amazing that he is so successful.

If I have only five minutes left on the clock, I start to get nervous. For Grischuk time trouble only begins, when he has five seconds left. Before that he carefully writes the moves on his scoresheet, including minutes and seconds spent by each player – all that with unbelievable calm. Maybe he needs the thrill. At any rate he is an excellent blitz player. One must never underestimate him in time trouble.

In Bonn you surprised your challenger Kramnik with 1.d4 after having almost exclusively played 1.e4 before. In Linares you tried your new opening repertoire for the first after the World Championship match in a regular tournament. Were you happy with the results?

Yes, I could use a couple of things I had prepared for the match in Bonn. For me it was important not to lose the feeling for 1.d4-openings because I have worked very hard to get it. The mistakes I made in Linares did not happen in the opening.

Did you have problems to play after your long break?

That’s difficult to say. The first part of the tournament went better for me than the second. I did not necessarily play better with more practice. At the end of the tournament I made eight draws in a row. That is not really satisfying. It simply was no particularly good tournament – but neither the worst. This happens. 50% in Linares is no disaster.

In the Amber tournament in Nice, which followed right after Linares, and where blindfold and rapid chess were played you at first seemed to follow a similar pattern as you did in Spain.

I again started somewhat shaky. But you play 22 games in the Amber tournament and you can quickly recover losses by winning. After the first rest day things went pretty well. With a little bit of luck I would have won the tournament. However, in the end Aronian finished first, closely followed by me, Kramnik and Carlsen.

Anand-Kramnik (blindfold) at Amber 2009

In the blindfold game you won against Kramnik, who played his beloved Petroff. How important was this success against your rival?

Well, every win against the Petroff is great – particularly against Kramnik. Of course it was nice to win against him and to draw the following rapid game rather easily with Black. But these things are only nice for a short moment because the tournament goes on.

The encounter with Kramnik had no particular significance for you?

Maybe it was more important than I would like to admit to myself. But I try not to take it too seriously. You play so many games in Nice. It is difficult to really cherish a win because you quickly have to focus on the next game.

In the blindfold game against Wang you had a funny endgame: two knights against pawn. According to the tablebases you missed a forced win a couple of times…

Yes, at one time I had a forced win in a bit more than 40 moves, another time in more than 60 moves … (laughs) It is incredibly difficult to play this endgame in a blindfold game. At a certain point I was a bit confused and did no longer exactly know where my knights were. A couple of years ago – also at the Amber tournament – Topalov won the same endgame against Karpov, but in a rapid game and with a better version of this endgame.

Were you happy about your result in Nice?

I cannot complain. I had been leading for a long time, I won the rapid tournament, and almost won the overall tournament. I left Nice with a good feeling.

There were reports that Carlsen angered you in the second game. You had lost the blindfold game against him and in the rapid game the Norwegian declined your draw offer even though the position was equal.

I was only slightly angry but not really furious. I decided to take it more as a joke. However, when he declined my draw offer I was really astonished because the position was completely equal. When he offered peace a couple of moves later I wanted to go one on top of him and declined (laughs). But I did not realize that I did that in such a loud way that everybody in the playing hall could hear it. But that was okay. I have good relations with Magnus and we analyzed the game afterwards in a friendly way.

After Amber you played in the Bundesliga.

It was the final round. Even if the whole team had played horrendously badly we would have won the title. I won both of my games and was happy about my performance. But I have to admit that my team colleagues had finished the job a bit earlier. My wins were no longer important.

The Baden-Baden team with Peter Heine Nielsen, Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Michael Adams and Pentala Harikrishna | Photo: Christian Bossert

Do you like to play in a team?

I’ve now been playing for a couple of years for Baden-Baden. Unfortunately, I did not have much time in the last two seasons. In the previous years I sometimes played no less than seven games in one season. I like my team colleagues, the team spirit is excellent. It is fun to play together with the guys.

Your game against Stellwagen was very complicated…

I had prepared for the sharp Poisoned Pawn variation of the Najdorf-Sicilian. He surprised me with a sideline and I had problems to remember the theoretical lines. All the classical games by Tal, Tolush and the great players of the 50ies came to my mind. It took me 20 minutes to get everything in order. One wrong move in this position and mate can follow quickly. I decided to give the queen for three pieces, which led to a very complex position. I calculated so many lines that my head was spinning. However, my opponent did not fare any better. A lot of my team colleagues and the spectators liked this game. But we, the players, suffered (laughs).

Next year, 2010, you will have to defend your title of World Champion. What did you think about the match between Topalov and Kamsky, in which your challenger was established?

The duel turned out to be much closer than I had thought. I had assumed that Topalov would win because of his excellent preparation, even though I had expected stubborn resistance by Kamsky. In fact, it was exactly the other way round. More than once Topalov had problems in the opening, but Kamsky did not finish the job. Topalov showed excellent nerves – for which his opponent is renowned. If Kamsky had defended a bit better the match would have gone over the whole distance. However, he had great problems with the clock.

Anand and Topalov analyzing their blindfold game at the Amber tournament this year

A World Championship requires months of preparation. When will you begin your preparation?

I can only start when I have some more details. For the time being the match is scheduled for April but a lot of things are still unclear. At the moment, I only make general plans.

The qualification cycle for the World Championship came under threat in the last months because the Grand Prix Series was about to collapse. Now, a candidates tournament shall be played. What do you think about the change of rules that directly affect you?

I think it incredible that the FIDE changes the rules within a running cycle. One could have sought a new mode for future events. But the way it is now, things are quite unpleasant for our sport. One of the main problems is communication. Those in charge should have discussed the changes much more openly with the players. I think, FIDE simply has to make better contracts with the organizers to prevent similar things in the future.

Let us talk a bit about the Chess Classic, which will take place from 27. July – 2. August in Mainz. You won the title no less than eleven times – an extraordinary success. In fact, you achieved everything in your sport. You have been in the top for more than 20 years, you won World Champion titles in three different formats, and you won all important tournaments once or several times. How do you motivate yourself?

The most important is to enjoy playing chess. I don’t believe you can only motivate yourself with titles or tournaments. Of course, these are goals that are necessary and that give you a direction. But the motivation comes from the game. I am aware that my drive will diminish at a certain point of time. But at the moment I just need a little break when I had too much. I still find chess very interesting. Moreover, in 20 years you always meet new players who pose new challenges. Talents such as Radjabov, Carlsen or Karjakin take care that things don’t get boring.

Sponsor and chess fan Wolfgang Grenke chatting with Anand | Photo: Christian Bossert

At the Chess Classic you won all of the last nine rapid chess events. Can you even imagine that you will not win in Mainz?

I have to admit that this record is indeed a great success. Every year at the Chess Classic I keep my fingers crossed, and hope that Lady Luck will continue to smile at me. However, I know that in the past things could easily have been different. It was hardly ever as clear as it seemed to be afterwards. Even my most successful tournaments had one or two key moments. If they had turned out differently, things would have been more complicated.

This year your main rival will be Levon Aronian, who not only plays for the crown in rapid chess but will also defend his Chess960 title. Is it an advantage for you that he has to play two tournaments?

Hard to say. You never know in advance whether you get tired or whether it keeps you in shape. In the last two years Aronian had good results against me. At any rate, he is a tough and dangerous opponent. And I have to be very careful.

Could you characterize Aronian’s style of play?

As far as his openings and the structures he strives for are concerned, he is positionally oriented. But he plays these positions very tactically. Though he opens with 1.d4, he treats these positions like an e4-player. If things get complicated he always sets small traps for his opponents. He is a very gifted tactician, calculates excellently and hardly ever misses chances offered to him. All this makes him extremely dangerous.

Anand-Aronian at the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao 2008, with Topalov watching

You will also have to play against Arkadij Naiditsch. Since last year you are team colleagues in Baden-Baden. What can you say about him?

We played a couple of times in Dortmund, but no rapid games. He is a promising „youngster“. Being 23 years of age, he probably won’t like to hear that, but it’s arguably still the case. He works hard on his openings. For some time I thought he might have his breakthrough in 2004, when he had a number of good results. In 2005 he won Dortmund in sensational fashion. After that he had no really bad results but was not playing steadily enough. After some minor setbacks he made great progress in the last year. His rating went up and in the April list he has more than 2700 Elo.

The fourth player in the GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship is Ian Nepomniachtchi. In last year’s Chess Classic he won the Ordix Open.

From the three players, this is the one, I know the least. I have not played against him yet. He tries to emulate Morozevich a bit. His play reveals that he admires his countryman very much. But it is very difficult to copy Moro’s style because it is so unique. It requires an enormous amount of positional understanding. If you continuously strive for unknown positions, in which you cannot rely on theory or your preparation, you much more have to rely on your own sense of direction. Which in itself indicates his outstanding talent – after all, he can play that way. At any rate, he has the most unusual style of this year’s participants in the Chess Classic.

Nepomniachtchi had a couple of good results in the last years, but failed to achieve a major breakthrough. Despite some excellent tournament results his rating is still relatively low…

Nowadays a lot of young talents compete with each other. Sometimes things do not go well for a year even though you make no mistakes. Maybe you just did not get the right invitations. Then again, you have the necessary luck and you suddenly play on a different level. I am certain that Ian will be very motivated in Mainz and that he will show his skills. I am looking forward to him.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Link

• Chess Tigers website

Mike Rosa, aka Chess Tiger on the SchemingMind.com correspondence server as well as being a CCM insider, sent me an email with the missing games attached. Scheming Mind, in addition to chess and chess960, features many other chess variants from the well known to the hopelessly obscure. His Scheming Mind photo, shown reduced to the left looks a lot like GM Artur Jussupow in full wizard garb, and indeed, Mike informs that he is Jussupow's 'Co-Trainer for Chess960 and Traditional Chess'. [NB: Jussupow is better known to English speaking chess players as Yusupov, although you'll find web pages under any variation of the names '{J/Y}-u-{s/ss}-upo-{v/w}', thereby rivalling Korchnoi, Kortchnoi, Korschnoi, etc. as World Champion for difficulty in name transliteration.]

After forwarding the games, Mike left a flurry of comments on some of my other chess960 blog posts. On Chess960 @ CCM9, he noted that an 'English site for the CCM9 will follow soon!' It can now be found at Chess Classic Mainz 2009 (CCM9) 27. Juli - 2. August, along with info on the many chess and chess960 events like the forthcoming 6. Stadtwerke Mainz Chess960 Rapid World Championship with GMs Aronian, Bologan, Nakamura, and Movsesian.

On Chess960 Rules Formalized by FIDE?, he confirmed that 'FIDE added Chess960 to their "Laws Of Chess"' and gave a Chesstigers.de link to a PDF copy of the laws. I couldn't find the file on Fide.com.

Against Comments on Chess960 Opening Theory, he linked to the
W|NC|A Rating Library, which he called the 'Chess960 World Ranking'. The top five players are currently Ivanchuk (2818), Anand and Kamsky (both 2815), Aronian (2800), and Nakamura (2777). Aronian, several times winner of the Chess960 Rapid World Championship, is only 4th?

And on Chess960 World Championships, he noted 'Being a Chess Tiger and a member of the Chess Classic Team I can probably help you (all) to learn a little bit more about the so called "Chess Classic (Mainz)".' He followed this with an outline of CCM events since 1994.

Thanks, Mike!