The Dutch Open takes place Tuesday July 27th (Sunday rest day) - Thursday August 6 2010. 9-round Swiss Open with 13 GMs and 12 IMs. Including: 2009 winner Erwin L'Ami, Sipke Ernst, Valentin Iotov, Viacheslav Ikonnikov, Elshan Moradiabadi, Leonid Milov and Valery Neverov.

Official site has live games, downloads, round-to-round reports (in Dutch) and videos by Peter Doggers from ChessVibes.

Le tournoi des Grands-Maîtres :

Dix jeunes grands-maîtres sont les stars de cette 43ème édition du Festival d'échecs de Bienne 2010, qui se tient du 19 au 28 juillet, en 9 rondes. Après 8 rondes, Fabiano Caruana et le Français Maxime Vachier-Lagrave pointent en tête avec 5 points sur 8. Ronde décisive aujourd'hui !

Superbe reportage vidéo du Festival International d'échecs de Bienne réalisé par BNJ Multimédia, avec l'interview de l'organisateur Olivier Breisacher, qui met en avant le mariage harmonieux entre les échecs et l'internet. Notre sport a eu la chance de se développer avec Internet et ses milliers de passionnés qui suivent les parties en direct.

A voir également le témoignage du grand-maître suisse Yannick Pelletier qui explique la manière de se préparer contre un adversaire, comme celle d'un sportif. Travailler sa condition physique pour tenir la distance et regarder les ouvertures que joue son adversaire. Mais peut-on gagner sa vie aux échecs ? réponse d'Olivier Breisacher.

Chess.FM

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

Chess.Com

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

Some reasons so far to use the engines:

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

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

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

Chukcha Jokes

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

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

He found the Lenin’s Tomb line instead.

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

And for Some Dutch Scenery

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

Quel talent, ce Léo ! Aujourd'hui, le vice-président de la Fédération Française des échecs, Léo Battesti, revient sur Chess & Strategy pour nous présenter la nouvelle formule interactive du magazine fédéral Echec & Mat.

A l'ère du développement durable, on parierait qu'Internet a été créé pour servir les Echecs... Cette version numérique d'Echec et Mat en constitue une preuve supplémentaire.

Au menu, des reportages vidéos, des parties commentées, une centaine de diagrammes interactifs pour tous niveaux de jeu, des rubriques "Terre d'échecs", "Histoire", "Dossier" bénéficiant de cette nouvelle technologie. Mais aussi un sondage et un Quiz doté d'une dizaine de cadeaux !

Inscrivez-vous gratuitement en envoyant votre e-mail à la FFE.

2007-2010 © Chess & Strategy - tous droits réservés

On August 12, a week earlier than in previous years, the new edition of the NH Chess Tournament starts in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You can watch Boris Gelfand, Peter Svidler, Peter Heine Nielsen, Loek van Wely and Ljubomir Ljubojevic (the Experience team) against Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Anish Giri and David Howell (the Rising Stars) with free admission and expert commentary at the Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam.

The NH Chess Tournament will take place August 12-22 in hotel Krasnapolsky, in the heart of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. As always, the tournament is a confrontation between a team of five young ‘Rising Stars’ and a team of five ‘Experienced’ grandmasters who can look back on impressive and glorious careers.

The two teams play a ‘Scheveningen’ tournament, which means that each player of one team plays against each of the players of the other team. They do so twice, once with the white pieces and once with the black pieces.

The team that collects most points wins the tournament. The best player of the ‘Rising Stars’ team will be invited to the 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in March 2010 in Nice, provided he or she scores over 50% in the NH Chess Tournament in Amsterdam.

The playing schedule:

Round 1 August 12 13.30 hrs Round 2 August 13 13.30 hrs Round 3 August 14 13.30 hrs Round 4 August 15 13.30 hrs Round 5 August 16 13.30 hrs August 17 Free Day Round 6 August 18 13.30 hrs Round 7 August 19 13.30 hrs Round 8 August 20 13.30 hrs Round 9 August 21 13.30 hrs Round 10 August 22 12.00 hrs

Every day the games will be commented on by experts in a nice and spacious commentary room to which the admission is free. These sessions start one hour after the start of the round, i.e. at 14.30 hrs, with the exception of the last round when the commentary will start at 13.00 hrs. IMs Hans Böhm, Jop Delemarre, Cor van Wijgerden, Gert Ligterink and GM Genna Sosonko will be doing the commentary (schedule here). At the end of the round, or towards the end, depending on the duration of the games, there will also be a press conference with one of the players in the commentary room.

Just like the last two years, and just like at the Amber tournament in Nice, both Macauley Peterson and yours truly will be providing daily video coverage and live interviews during this tournament. To get everyone warmed up, here’s the playlist of the videos from 2009 and 2008:

At this moment millions of soccer fans are watching the FIFA World Cup Final, played in Johannesburg, South Africa. Perhaps we can hire commentator Andrés Cantor for one of our new videos…

Several fans pointed out to us the following video on YouTube. We decided that this was the right moment to publish it: the start of the FIFA World Cup final. In the video, a commercial for insurance company Geico, we see a combination of chess and football, with a game being played and commented by the famous Spanish commentator Andrés Cantor.

You’ll probably remember the 13-fold repetition in the game Bok-Van Wely at the Dutch Championship, two weeks ago. Afterwards Van Wely was fuming that his young opponent didn’t use the opportunity to get more experience in a real fight. As GM Luke McShane pointed out, something similar happened in a clock simul between Kasparov and the USA in 1988.

What would you do, when you played the world champion in a simul, with the white pieces, and you have the possibility to repeat moves in a theoretical position? Would you go for it, being able to tell your friends that the man couldn’t beat you? Or would you consider it bad ethics, like Kasparov, who argued that the White player should always play for a win?

In his June 10 column for the online version of the Daily / Sunday Express, GM Luke McShane picked up the Bok-Van Wely story, and demonstrated a clear parrallel with the 1988 clock simul between then World Champion Garry Kasparov and the USA, held in New York City. This event was beautifully depicted for TV and can now be found on YouTube in three separate videos (due to YouTube’s 10-minute limit).

The second video shows Kasparov being clearly upset when IM Daniel Edelman goes for the draw in the well-known Sveshnikov sequence 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Qa5+ 10.Nc3 Qd8 11.Nd5.

McShane argues that a simul and a tournament game are quite different situations.

My opinion is that forcing a well known draw (when there are more interesting options available) in an exhibition game like a simul really is spineless. Bok’s decision certainly wasn’t brave, but is harder to judge. Apparently he was aware that he could play on with h2-h4, but wasn’t familiar with the position. I’m sure his opponent was, and that’s a serious handicap against a stronger player.

I’ve occasionally gone into games eager to face my opponent’s lines A, B or C, but accepted that if he chooses D then I’ll be content with a draw. Maybe Bok was tired that day, or judged that his overall tournament would benefit from a draw. Any competitive player can sympathise with those feelings. As for gaining experience, Bok probably learned more about chess psychology from this game than he ever would have normally!

Links

• Column by Luke McShane
• Kasparov-USA on YouTube
• ‘Experimental draw at Dutch Championship’

Magnus Carlsen finished the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania in style. The Norwegian beat Wang Yue with Black in the last round to finish with a 7.5/10 score, two points ahead of the rest of the field. Ponomariov and Radjabov defeated Nisipeanu and Gelfand respectively, also with the black pieces. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco – Final Report.

Marcel Adrian Piteiu, CEO of sponsor Romgaz, and Magnus Carlsen holding the trophy

The fourth Kings Tournament took place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. It was a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue played. The rate of play was 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move. No draw agreement by the players were allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event was organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament was officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue was the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers decidede to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna after five rounds, where everyone was staying.

ChessVibes was at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 10

As Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Magnus Carlsen quickly calculated during the buffet after the closing ceremony, the final round of the Kings Tournament brought the number of Black victories to eight, against just seven for White! It was three times ‘0-1′ on the last day, and this included the fifth victory for Carlsen, against Wang Yue.

The Chinese GM played one of his worst games and thus finished with a very disappointing result. He had a very tough tournament, in which he never seemed to have recovered from his jetlag, and the 24 hours waiting at Munich airport (due to visa problems) before the start. For Carlsen it meant a relatively easy with to end with a 7.5/10 score, a 2918 performance and a new rating of 2826, the second highest in chess history.

The other two games were similar affairs, with the white players simply playing way below their normal level. Ponomariov could end a not very good tournament with a win, thanks to some big, strategical errors by his Romanian opponent. 7…Ne7 caught Nisipeanu by surprise and after that all his moves ‘deserved a question mark’, as he said afterwards. Ponomariov thought 17.d4 to be the decisive mistake.

Als Gelfand started to make mistakes at an early stage. He had his doubts about 14.Qd2, since the queen had to go to c2 soon afterwards. And after 17…c6 he suddenly saw that the planned 17.Ne3 is answered by the strong 17…Ne6 18.Bg3 f5, so there White’s position was already difficult. Radjabov thought it to be winning after 24…a5.

So the Kings Tournament ended in another great victory for Carlsen, who is getting closer to Kasparov’s record Elo. More importantly, the Norwegian showed that even after a break of a few months he can still maintain his high level, barely getting into real danger. Only Ponomariov had him on the ropes, but then missed a big chance when Carlsen created new complications.

Next on the world’s number one’s chess agenda is a rapid event with Anand, Polgar and Hammer in August in Norway and he’ll also play for Norway at the Olympiad. Soon we will find out if we will see him in one of the other big, upcoming tournaments: Shanghai, Bilbao and Nanjing. He already signed for London in December. Next top event is Dortmund, which starts July 15th and has Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Leko, Naiditsch and Le Quang Liem.

Round 10 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna vient de s'achever sur le triomphe de Magnus Carlsen avec 7,5 points sur 10, soit une performance de 2920 Elo.

Celui que l'on imagine comme le prochain champion du monde d'échecs, a donné une véritable leçon en remportant 5 parties et en concédant 5 nulles. Il laisse ses plus proches poursuivants, Teimour Radjabov et Boris Gelfand, à 2 points derrière.

1. 2010 World Chess Championship: Anand vs Topalov – Game #4 Post by Jerry This is an analysis video covering Game...
2. Chess Queens Fight – Alexandra vs Judit Post by Jerry The following is a blitz game from...
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1. Topalov vs Anand – Game #12: 2010 World Chess Championship This is an analysis video covering Game 12 of the...
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1. 2010 World Chess Championship: Anand vs Topalov – Game #4 Post by Jerry This is an analysis video covering Game...
2. Topalov vs Anand – Game #12: 2010 World Chess Championship This is an analysis video covering Game 12 of the...
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All three games of round 9 in Bazna, Romania ended in draw. With one round to go, Carlsen leads the Kings Tournament with 6.5/9. Gelfand, who celebrated his 42nd birthday on Thursday, has a point less. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 9

A bit more than an hour into the round, Radjabov and Wang Yue already finished their game. I was upstairs in my hotel room working on something else, and suddenly I saw the ‘1/2-1/2′ on the live transmission board. I went downstairs with my camera, but the players were nowhere to be seen. There wasn’t much to record anyway, since everything was theory, and analysed to a draw back in 2002.

More interesting were the other two games, but these two also ended in draws. Ponomariov-Gelfand had quite a disappointing finish, since there was still enough going on in the final position. The reason for this draw? Ponomariov was suddenly wondering what he was doing. He didn’t like his last few moves at all, and thought that if he’d continue that way, he’d certainly lose. Then he saw Gelfand had just two minutes left on the clock, and it was a good moment for a draw offer.

Nisipeanu surprised Carlsen by playing the Jänisch Gambit of the Ruy Lopez. This variation has mainly been played at top level by Radjabov recently, and Carlsen said he knew those games, but that he was less comfortable when he saw 5…d5 played. Therefore he didn’t go for the critical 9.Nxa7+, but the more solid 9.f4.

In his recent book The Ruy Lopez Revisited, Sokolov says about 16.Qf1 “this is considered to be White’s best. A number of other moves have been tried – almost everything. Black has adequate counterplay and the tables can easily turn,” and then 16.Nf7 Bxf7 17.Bxf7 Rhf8 (Timman-Speelman, London Candidates 1989), 16.Kb1, 16.a4, 16.Rdf1, 16.Bxe6+ and 16.g4 are mentioned. After 16.Rdf1 (instead of Carlsen’s 16.Rhf1) Sokolov gives 16…Rhe8 17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.Nf7 (18.Rxf6 Bxe5 as in the game is only possible with a rook on d1 instead of h1) 18…Rd7 Lau-Schiffer, Bundesliga 1996/97.

Nisipeanu played very accurately, e.g. his 21…Qh6+ and 25…Kc7! were strong. When Dorian Rogozenco told him that it had all been played in correspondence games, Nisipeanu said he ought to update his correspondence database, but in fact his second Iordachescu admitted they had looked at it. After the game Carlsen and Nisipeanu analysed a possible pawn ending for about half an hour.

At night, just like last year, Gelfand was given a birthday cake and we all toasted to his health with a glass of champagne. A very nice gesture from the organizers.

Round 9 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

La 4ème édition du Kings Tournament d'échecs de Bazna se déroule du 14 au 25 juin à Medias. Ce tournoi d'échecs se joue en 10 rondes aller-retour, avec 6 grands-maîtres dont le n°1 au Elo Magnus Carlsen. Nous suivrons la partie Wang Yue - Magnus Carlsen lors de cette ultime ronde.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu defeated Wang Yue with the black pieces in round 8 of the Kings Tournament in Bazna, Romania. Gelfand-Carlsen and Radjabov-Ponomariov ended in a draw. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 8

The eighth round saw the clash between the numbers one and two in the standings. For Gelfand, who played with the white pieces, it was an excellent opportunity to do something about Carlsen’s supreme reign in the tournament. And the Israel grandmaster got his chances, when his opponent allowed some complicated tactics on move 16.

In a more or less forced sequence of moves, both sides ‘won’ an exchange and the resulting position was analysed in the hotel lobby by Ponomariov and Radjabov, who had drawn a quiet game in thirty moves. “It looks promising for White, but Carlsen is a tricky guy, very tricky,” Ponomariov said.

And indeed the Norwegian appeared to be safe throughout the game, and even had the better chances in the end. Black’s activity is more important than White’s a-pawn, but there is no clear way to profit from the pin.

Nisipeanu was rewarded for his persistance in an ending against Wang Yue. At move 36 his second Viorel Iordechascu couldn’t find more ideas for Black and expected a draw soon, but his boss managed to find a way to get his king in. Then, on move 63, he said he wasn’t sure if ‘Dieter’ would find 63…Kc3 and especially 65…Rf1, which he called a ‘computer move’ to cut the king. But Nisipeanu found it (depicted below).

Round 8 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

In the seventh round of the Kings Tournament, which has returned to Bazna, Carlsen won against Radjabov. Gelfand is still a point behind the Norwegian after beating Nisipeanu with Black. Games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

Round 7

Monday morning the tournament organizers decided to move back to Bazna, where the first three editions of tournament were held as well. It was clear that the players weren’t really fond of the half an hour drive to Medias and back each day, but the final ‘drop’… were the drops of rain that fell on Carlsen and Ponomariov’s board in round 6.

To avoid any further problems as result of the unpredictable weather, all boards, pieces and other things were moved to the conference room of the hotel complex. The players and seconds were all quite happy about this. One of the reasons might have been that they now have some more football to watch each day!

After a somewhat slow start (certainly from hindsight) it’s now full steam ahead for Magnus Carlsen, who won his fourth game in a row. His tournament performance rating is now 2960 according to TWIC, 2955 according to Chessbase. (Who is right? Well, it doesn’t matter too much.) His live rating is now 2825.

“I thought it was a very good game actually,” said a cheerful Carlsen afterwards. The Norwegian pointed out that both he and his opponent Teimour Radjabov had probably played the strongest moves up till the rook ending. “He handled the position very well. I thought I should at least make him work a little bit for the half point,” said Carlsen, and after the inaccurate 32…Rc5 Black indeed needed to work hard. Radjabov had gotten into timetrouble and after 39…Kg8 the rook ending was lost. We are using Carlsen’s own words when we say that the rest was a ‘matter of technique’.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu was clearly disappointed after his loss against Boris Gelfand, which brought the local hero on minus two. The Romanian was mostly disturbed by the simple tactics he missed in the middlegame. He had planned 21.Rxe4 dxe4 22.Qxe4 but this is refuted by 22…Qxc6.

Ruslan Ponomariov had no reason to be happy either after his draw with Wang Yue. The Ukrainian had been clearly better and a healthy pawn up, but couldn’t win the ending. It was surprising that he didn’t play the positional standard move 28.h4, and later he simply overlooked 37…Ng6 completely.

Round 7 games commented by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

El Gran Maestro serbio Aleksa Strikovic, se convirtió en el ganador del IV Torneo Internacional de la Bajada de la Virgen, que concluía en la mañana del domingo 20 de junio en el Real Club Náuticos de Santa Cruz de La Palma. Strikovic, con 7,5 puntos, superaba en medio punto a el Gran Maestro Ruso Korneev y el Gran Maestro serbio Dragan Barlov, segundo y tercero de la clasificación general.

Con 7 puntos tres ilustres del ajedrez canario,  la WFM Belinda Vega, el aruquense Fernando Hidalgo y la gran sorpresa del torneo el jugador de Los Llanos de Aridane, Sergio Hernández León en la sexta plaza del torneo.

Gustavo de la Cruz, en el décimo puesto con 6,5 puntos fue el mejor palmero (sin contar a Sergio), seguido del infantil Juan Manuel Acosta en el puesto 15 con 6 puntos. José Antonio Herrera con 5,5 puntos en el puesto 20 y Borja Rodríguez Ferraz en el 24 eran los mejores jugadores palmeros del campeonato.

El mejor juvenil correspondió a Pablo Rodríguez lapetra en el puesto 14, seguido por el palmero Nauzet Pérez en el puesto 30 de la general con 5,5 puntos. Kevin Meneses fue el mejor cadete, seguido de Nathaniel Capote.

El MI Francisco Javier Sanz, se llevo el premio al mejor veterano, quedando a continuación Francisco de La Banda, Miguel Angel Morcuende y Tomás Cano. Isolina Majul se llevo la mejor Fémina, seguida de Carolina Quiza.

Tuvieron premios especiales Borja Molina (mejor sub.2200), Hector López (mejor sub.2000), Aitor Piñero (mejor sub.1900) y Adián Pérez Barreto como mejor sub.1800.

Daniel Guerra se llevo la categoría infantil seguido de Johanna Capote; Alain Pérez y Odama Santana resultaron los primeros Sub.12; Diego Acosta Moreno fue el mejor sub.10 seguido de Andrés García, mientras que los mejores Sub.8 fueron para José Luis Hernández y Angel Luis Cubas.

El Campeonato Internacional de la Bajada de la Virgen se disputó el 19 y 20 de junio en el Real Club Náutico de Santa Cruz de La Palma con más de 100 ajedrecistas participantes en el torneo.

Las principales autoridades políticas de La Palma, se dieron cita en el evento encabezados por el Alcalde de Santa Cruz de La Palma Juan Ramón Felipe, el Consejero de Deportes del Cabildo de La Palma Adolfo Pérez Acosta, Nieves Davila en representación de Cajacanarias, José Miguel Fraguela como Presidente de la Federación Canaria de Ajedrez, Alejandro Hernández, concejal de Deportes de Santa Cruz de La Palma, Miguel Angel Morcuende vocal de la Federación Canaria de ajedrez y José Carlos Martín el responsable del ajedrez en la isla de la Palma.

Todos ellos se congratularon por lo bien que va el deporte ciencia en La Palma, y que cada cinco años la familia del ajedrez de la isla pueda festejar con el ajedrez canario la principal fiesta de La Palma, La Bajada de la Virgen de Las Nieves.

Toda la información del torneo en el siguiente enlace:

Torneo Internacional Bajada de la Virgen 2010

En ajedrezlapalma.com  hay también una importante colección de fotos del evento y en días próximos se pondrá un par de vídeos del mismo.

Desde La Palma agradecer a toda la familia del ajedrez palmero y Canario, su colaboración con este evento y en especial a las entidades que lo patrocinan: Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de La Palma, Patronato de la Bajada de la Virgen, Cabildo de La Palma y CajaCanarias.

El Centro Insular de Ajedrez de La Palma y el Club Cajacanarias de La Palma, fueron los organizadores, siendo los árbitros del evento, Jacinto Iglesias, José Antonio González Valero y David Rodríguez.

La clasificación del torneo fue:

El Gran Maestro serbio Aleksa Strikovic, se convirtió en el ganador del IV Torneo Internacional de la Bajada de la Virgen, que concluía en la mañana del domingo 20 de junio en el Real Club Náuticos de Santa Cruz de La Palma. Strikovic, con 7,5 puntos, superaba en medio punto a el Gran Maestro Ruso Korneev y el Gran Maestro serbio Dragan Barlov, segundo y tercero de la clasificación general.

Con 7 puntos tres ilustres del ajedrez canario,  la WFM Belinda Vega, el aruquense Fernando Hidalgo y la gran sorpresa del torneo el jugador de Los Llanos de Aridane, Sergio Hernández León en la sexta plaza del torneo.

Gustavo de la Cruz, en el décimo puesto con 6,5 puntos fue el mejor palmero (sin contar a Sergio), seguido del infantil Juan Manuel Acosta en el puesto 15 con 6 puntos. José Antonio Herrera con 5,5 puntos en el puesto 20 y Borja Rodríguez Ferraz en el 24 eran los mejores jugadores palmeros del campeonato.

El mejor juvenil correspondió a Pablo Rodríguez lapetra en el puesto 14, seguido por el palmero Nauzet Pérez en el puesto 30 de la general con 5,5 puntos. Kevin Meneses fue el mejor cadete, seguido de Nathaniel Capote.

El MI Francisco Javier Sanz, se llevo el premio al mejor veterano, quedando a continuación Francisco de La Banda, Miguel Angel Morcuende y Tomás Cano. Isolina Majul se llevo la mejor Fémina, seguida de Carolina Quiza.

Tuvieron premios especiales Borja Molina (mejor sub.2200), Hector López (mejor sub.2000), Aitor Piñero (mejor sub.1900) y Adián Pérez Barreto como mejor sub.1800.

Daniel Guerra se llevo la categoría infantil seguido de Johanna Capote; Alain Pérez y Odama Santana resultaron los primeros Sub.12; Diego Acosta Moreno fue el mejor sub.10 seguido de Andrés García, mientras que los mejores Sub.8 fueron para José Luis Hernández y Angel Luis Cubas.

El Campeonato Internacional de la Bajada de la Virgen se disputó el 19 y 20 de junio en el Real Club Náutico de Santa Cruz de La Palma con más de 100 ajedrecistas participantes en el torneo.

Las principales autoridades políticas de La Palma, se dieron cita en el evento encabezados por el Alcalde de Santa Cruz de La Palma Juan Ramón Felipe, el Consejero de Deportes del Cabildo de La Palma Adolfo Pérez Acosta, Nieves Davila en representación de Cajacanarias, José Miguel Fraguela como Presidente de la Federación Canaria de Ajedrez, Alejandro Hernández, concejal de Deportes de Santa Cruz de La Palma, Miguel Angel Morcuende vocal de la Federación Canaria de ajedrez y José Carlos Martín el responsable del ajedrez en la isla de la Palma.

Todos ellos se congratularon por lo bien que va el deporte ciencia en La Palma, y que cada cinco años la familia del ajedrez de la isla pueda festejar con el ajedrez canario la principal fiesta de La Palma, La Bajada de la Virgen de Las Nieves.

Toda la información del torneo en el siguiente enlace:

Torneo Internacional Bajada de la Virgen 2010

En nuestra página web hay también una importante colección de fotos del evento y en días próximos se pondrá un par de vídeos del mismo.

Desde La Palma agradecer a toda la familia del ajedrez palmero y Canario, su colaboración con este evento y en especial a las entidades que lo patrocinan: Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de La Palma, Patronato de la Bajada de la Virgen, Cabildo de La Palma y CajaCanarias.

El Centro Insular de Ajedrez de La Palma y el Club Cajacanarias de La Palma, fueron los organizadores, siendo los árbitros del evento, Jacinto Iglesias, José Antonio González Valero y David Rodríguez.

La clasificación del torneo fue:

Magnus Carlsen increased his lead at the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania to a full point. Today the Norwegian beat Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces, while Wang Yue-Gelfand and Radjabov-Nisipeanu ended in a draw. For now the games, later more.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

• Round 5
• Interview Elisabete Polihroniade
• Round 4
• Radjabov
• Round 3
• Interview Mayor of Medias
• Round 2
• Round 1
• Interview Tournament Director

Round 6 games

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

After five rounds, Carlsen is in sole lead at the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. The world’s number one defeated Nisipeanu with Black. Gelfand also won, against Ponomariov, while Wang Yue and Radjabov drew. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

• Round 5
• Interview Elisabete Polihroniade
• Round 4
• Radjabov
• Round 3
• Interview Mayor of Medias
• Round 2
• Round 1
• Interview Tournament Director

Round 5

After hours of beautiful, sunny weather, for a few days in a row it has started to rain in the afternoon, here in Romania. On Saturday it was especially rough, with a thunder storm and hail shower which lasted for about twenty minutes, just when the players arrived at the venue.

They even waited in their cars for about ten minutes, before Henrik and Magnus Carlsen decided to go first. They took their shoos off and ran for their lives inside the building, after which the others followed, helped with umbrellas.

The bad weather continued for Nisipeanu and Ponomariov. The Romanian grandmaster faced the rare move 13…Re8 and already on moves 15 and 17 he played in accurately, sort of missing the feel for danger in that phase. Soon it became clear that his knight on a7 was never going to get back into the game.

Ponomariov was also caught by surprise, in his game against Gelfand, and was soon looking at a hopeless ending. He tried to make something out of it, but his opponent had no mercy. The Israeli GM was even more happy after the game when he heard Holland had won their second match at the World Cup.

Wang Yue was better for most of the middlegame, but it was hard to think of a clear plan. The ending was probbly already equal and at move 41 the players called it a day.

Round 5 games

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Three victories for the white pieces shook up the standings completely at the Kings Tournament in Media, Romania. Carlsen and Radjabov took over the lead from Gelfand and Nisipeanu, going into the first rest day. Now with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco & a long video with Radjabov explaining in ‘Corus style’ his win against Gelfand.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Source files: (for iPhone users and others)

• Round 4
• Radjabov
• Round 3
• Round 2
• Round 1

Round 4

It was three times 1-0 at the Kings Tournament in Media, Romania today. In the best round so far, Carlsen used the King’s Gambit to beat Wang Yue; Ponomariov came up with novelty of his second Moiseenko to defeat Nisipeanu in a Blumenfeld and Radjabov managed to outprepare Gelfand in a Petroff.

Especially Carlsen’s second move attracted the attention at the start of the round. He is now clearly the highest rated player to ever try the most romantic of all openings, the King’s Gambit, in an official game, and who would mind to see it more often as a way to avoid the Petroff?

Unfortunately for decades more than one way to reach (at least) full equality has been known, and Wang Yue wasn’t worse after the opening either. However, after some inaccuracies White’s d-pawn became strong, and thanks to a nice tactic Carlsen managed to get it all the way to d7. Getting into a king of Zugzwang, China’s number one then decided to give an exchange to get rid of it, and thought the ending might have been a draw, if he hadn’t blundered with …g5.

Ponomariov recovered well from his loss in round 3, and used the strong novelty 7.e4! of his second Alexander Moiseenko to beat Nisipeanu in the Blumenfeld Gambit. White soon got a huge space advantage and only optically the Romanian seemed to get back in the game. “It was always very bad for me,” he said himself after the game.

The first game that finished was Radjabov-Gelfand, where the Azeri GM managed to outprepare his opponent in the Petroff. When Black went …Bd6 instead of …Bf6 it was basically already over. Don’t miss the 20-minute video with Radjabov explaining the game with a demo board!

Round 4 games with commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Teimour Radjabov defeated Ruslan Ponomariov in the third round of the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. Gelfand and Nisipeanu kept their slim lead; the Israeli drew with Carlsen while the Romanian split the point with Wang Yue. Games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Round 3

“I don’t agree,” Nisipeanu answered to the question whether there should be tournaments where the Petroff is not allowed. “It’s just an opening where White needs to work more.” Wang Yue improved upon a recent game between his compatriots Li Chao and Bu Xiangzhi, which ended in romantic style, as can be seen in today’s video. Nisipeanu couldn’t find anything tangible against the improvement and so the game ended quickly.

Carlsen tried an interesting plan with f4 and Rf1-f3, but soon found out that it was’t very dangerous, due to some accurate moves by Gelfand over the c-file. In fact it was Black who had the advantage in the second phase of the game, but the Israeli regretted playing …e5 too quickly. “If I prepare it with Kg7 first it’s much stronger.”

Gelfand’s reaction to Spain’s 1-0 loss against Switzerland at the World Cup: “It’s always better to lose the first game than the last.” He said he was rooting for Spain, and Holland. “I always root for Holland.” Carlsen also said he liked the Spanish team, despite the fact that, being a Real fan, he sees Barcelona delivering most players. “No, I don’t mind.”

Ponomariov reached a promising postion out of the opening against Radjabov, but then played too slowly. He agreed with his opponent that he should have tried b4-b5 at some point. In fact Radjabov could have won earlier, as he explains in the video, but “There I trusted my opponent too much.”

More comments by the players in the round 3 video, now up.

Round 3 games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco

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Photos © Tournament website

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

All three games in round 2 of the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania ended in a draw. Magnus Carlsen tried for a long time to win an ending against Teimour Radjabov, who said he was simultaneously “fighting against a flu.” Games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco & new video.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna, where everyone is staying.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Round 2

Although the temperature in the playing hall was much better thanks to some improvements by the organizers, Ruslan Ponomariov again finished first in round 2. He said that by now he’s quite “fed up with these Catalans”, but still “Black is quite solid”. Wang Yue, who had to wait 20 hours at Munich airport and then had a 7-hour game in the first round, wasn’t unhappy with a short game.

More interesting was Gelfand-Nisipeanu, where we saw a clash between the bishop pair and the knight pair. Black was just in time with the risky but necessary …b5 move, because otherwise White would have had time for Rd1 and Be3, with an advantage. The players agreed that in the final position Black is probably a bit better, but continuing wouldn’t have been without risks. As Gelfand said it, “bishops are bishops.”

Carlsen was a bit surprised about Radjabov’s opening choice, but he thought he “handled it quite well,” as he reached a promising position. He thought he shouldn’t have gone for the luiquidation in the middlegame. “I thought I would win a pawn, but I didn’t.” Radjabov played carefully till the end, as he didn’t want to spoil it by falling for a trick after playing so long. “It was probably a draw all the time.”

More comments by the players in the round 2 video, now up.

Round 2 games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco

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Photos © Tournament website

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu made headlines in the local newspapers after beating Teimour Radjabov in the first round of the Kings Tournament in Medias, Romania. Carlsen and Ponomariov drew relatively quickly, and Boris Gelfand defeated Wang Yue in the longest game of the round. Games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco & videos with comments by all six players!

The fourth Kings Tournament takes place in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play. The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

The event is organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna (where everyone is staying) after the rest day, because they fear the daily, half-an-hour ride to Medias (and back) might prove too uncomfortable.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website:

Videos

Round 1

On the first playing day the temperature was again well above 30 degrees Celcius and this could be felt at the venue. Naturally there is airco, but somehow this seemed to work better in the press room (thus far only occupied by press officer GM Dorian Rogozenco and yours truly) than in the playing hall. Ruslan Ponomariov could be found in the slightly cooler corridor often during the game, and in fact the Ukrainian was happy to be able to draw as soon as move 30 was reached. Carlsen “did notice it was a bit warmer than usual” but wasn’t much affected, he said.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu started well, with a nice victory over Teimour Radjabov, who played too much “on intuition”, as he said after the game. Nisipeanu thought 21…f5 was “too ambitious” and he basically decided the game by the strong concept 23.Bxc6! and 24.f4, which left Black with a bad bishop and a bad structure.

Gelfand continued his strong form which he showed last week in Leon (though he’s still playing “game by game”, as he said afterwards), and played the best game of the round. It looked like Wang Yue had put up an impenetrable middlegame fortress, but in fact White’s way to break through with taking on h7 and g6 could’t be prevented according to Gelfand. He didn’t look at 50.Nxc6, which wins quicker, because he had correctly evaluated the endgame as technically winning.

Round 1 games annotated by GM Dorian Rogozenco

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Magnus Carlsen arriving at the venue - good to see him play again - with his father Henrik on the right and FIDE Treasurer Nigel Freeman on the left

The first move executed by the mayor of Medias, Teodor Neamtu

A good start for local hero Nisipeanu...

...and a tough one for Wang Yue

Henrik Carlsen (r.) and yours truly

Photos © Tournament website

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Today the opening ceremony and drawing of lots of the Kings Tournament in Romania took place. Tomorrow we’ll have Gelfand-Wang Yue, Nisipeanu-Radjabov and Carlsen-Ponomariov. Your editor-in-chief writes this brief, first report in Bazna, from where I’ll provide daily videos throughout the event.

The fourth Kings Tournament takes off tomorrow with the first round. Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin, with two rest days. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play in Medias, Romania from June 14 till 25. Again it’s organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters.

Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna), but the organizers are considering to move back to Hotel Complex Balnear Expro in Bazna (where everyone is staying) after the rest day, because they fear the daily, half-an-hour ride to Medias might prove too uncomfortable. It’s been pretty hot here the last few days, with temperatures way above 30 degrees Celcius (I was quite shocked when I left the airplaine in Sibiu) which isn’t normal for this area.

The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move. This is one reason why Gelfand loved to return to Bazna, as it is his favourite time control. I shook hands with him and all other five players in the hotel restaurant tonight, and everybody is in a good mood. They’re already talking about a possible football match between the players and the journalists on the first rest day! Soccer fan Carlsen was wearing the outfit of the Norwegian national team and is surely watching lots of FIFA World Cup here when not preparing…

The rounds start each day at 15.30 which is 14.30 CET and 08.30 EDT. They can run well into the evening, as we won’t see ultra-short draws in this tournament – no draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30, except for cases of a triple-repetition, a perpetual or a theoretically drawn position.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website and thus having the opportunity to bring on-the-spot reports. I had to miss the drawing of lots, but chief arbiter Faik Gasanov handed me a piece of paper with the full pairings, which I give below:

Links

• Official website

Today the Dutch Championship started at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. In the first round Nijboer beat Van Kampen and Bok upset Reinderman.

The Dutch Championship takes place June 11-20 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The rate of play is 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 30 minutes to end the game, with 30 seconds increment from move 1.

Venue is the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, a technology center at the site of the former ‘NatLab’, the Philips Physics Laboratory. Eindhoven is the home town of the world famous Dutch company Philips, and soccer club PSV, of which the ‘P’ stands for Philips as well, the club’s life-long sponsor. The Campus houses a wide variety of high tech companies that collaborate in the development of new technologies, focusing on key technology areas such as microsystems, semiconductor products, Embedded Systems, signal processing and nanotechnology.

High Tech Campus Eindhoven | Photo HHahn, GNU Free Documentation Licence

This year’s The Dutch Championship sees the strongest field ever, which includes reigning champion Anish Giri, but also six-times champion Loek van Wely and one-time champion Jan Smeets. In addition, as many as five of the ten participants have an Elo rating of over 2600. The average rating is 2581. In the women section Zhaoqin Peng defends her Dutch title, and tries to win her 12th (!) championship.

Loek van Wely, Anish Giri and Robin van Kampen at the opening ceremony

Zhaoqin Peng, Bianca Muhren, Caroline Slingerland, Anne Haast and Marieke Dirksen

The games start each day at 13.30 CET, except for round 8 on Saturday, June 19th. Then it starts two hours later, to give the players the opportunity to watch the World Cup soccer match Netherlands-Japan, which starts at 13.30! Holland is a football minded country, and so the organization decided to avoid any complications and simply let the participants watch the games.

Therefore the rest day is already after three rounds, on Monday, because… indeed, the national team also plays on that date. The women, who don’t have a rest day at all, start their games on Monday at 15.30 as well.

Loek van Wely has a completely different schedule altogether. He was allowed to play in a different tournament on Saturday, and will play his second round game on Monday, also at 15.30, against Robin van Kampen.

Below are all details, pairings and results:

Games round 1

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Two videos (in Dutch)

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

The fourth Kings Tournament takes off on Sunday with the opening ceremony and on Monday with the first round. This year Carlsen, Gelfand, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Radjabov and Wang Yue play in Medias, Romania and ChessVibes will be there too!

The fourth edition of the Kings Tournament will take place June 14-25 in Medias, Romania. Again it’s organized by Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade”. This year the tournament is officially part of the Grand Slam, substituting the cancelled MTel Masters.

Against it’s a 6-player, double round-robin with a rest day after five rounds. Venue is the brand new Romgaz Center in Medias (near Bazna). The rate of play is 2 hours for the first 40 moves, one hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.

No draw agreement by the players are allowed before move 30. Any such draw claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter in the case of a triple-repetition of the position, a perpetual check or a theoretically drawn position.

Norwegian GM and world’s number 1 Magnus Carlsen is, not surprisingly, top seed. Last year’s winner Vassily Ivanchuk is playing the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba and was been replaced by his fellow countryman, the ex-FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov. The other participants are the 2009 World Cup winner Boris Gelfand, the best Chinese player Wang Yue, Azerbaijan’s number two Teimour Radjabov and the best Romanian player Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Together they create an average rating of 2742.

ChessVibes will be at the tournament from start to finish, providing videos for the official website and thus having the opportunity to bring on-the-spot reports from Medias, Romania. Don’t miss it!

Vincennes TV et Chess & Strategy s’associent en 2010 pour la réalisation d’une série de 15 émissions vidéos inédites. Ces vidéos d’initiation au jeu d’échecs s’adressent à tous, de 4 à 104 ans minimum !

Après une première émission présentant le but du jeu d'échecs, l'échiquier et les différentes pièces, puis la seconde émission sur les pions, place au déplacement de la pièce la plus importante du jeu d'échecs, sa majesté le Roi.

Le Roi peut se déplacer dans n’importe quelle direction, mais d’une seule case à la fois. Deux Rois ne peuvent se côtoyer. Il doit toujours y avoir au moins une case entre les deux monarques adverses. Nous découvrons aussi l'échec au Roi avec un pion et comment le parer.

Vous souhaitez en savoir plus sur les règles du jeu ? Alors retrouvez-nous pour un nouvel épisode la semaine prochaine sur Chess & Strategy !

The Bulgarian organizers of the Anand-Topalov World Championship match take Chessbase to court for “violating copyright rules”. Chessbase transmitted the moves of the match live on their Playchess server, against the will of the Bulgarians.

During the Anand-Topalov World Championship match it already became clear that the organizer were planning to take legal action against Chessbase for transmitting the moves of the match live on Playchess. On May 27th the Bulgarians filed a case at a court in Berlin, and Chessdom has now quoted Silvio Danailov on the matter:

“Before the start of the World Chess Championship we explicitly stated that no company can use the moves without the official site’s staff permission. And this was violated by Chessbase, they put themselves above the law in Europe, above the general FIDE ethical rules. (…) I believe in European law and in our Attorney who is presenting the case – Mr. Rainer Polzin. What’s more, I am candidate for President of the ECU and as such I have to stand behind the rights of professional chess. Such actions, as the one by the German company Chessbase, affect the sponsors of events negatively, which damages sponsorship, from there future organization and level of events. In the long run the biggest damage is made on the chess fans, who are the most important part of the game – they certainly deserve to enjoy high level events and have chess sponsorship on all levels. Thus, by defending our rights through European law, we will be defending all fans and the future of chess.”

In an article by Dnevnik, Danailov states that the Bulgarians would expect to win at least 500,000 euros from this court case.

The attorney of the Bulgarian organizers, GM Rainer Polzin, has a law firm in Berlin. We asked him for some more details. He told us:

“The case has been filed at a court in Berlin [Landgericht - CV]. The action is partly based on the German Copyright Law, which is based in the protection of databases mainly to European directives. The EU directive (EU Directive) 96/9/EC of 11 March 1996 will play an important role.

Further claims from the Competition Law will be invoked. It is essentially a question of whether the live acquisition of content from a website, which is funded by sponsors, put onto another website, with the intention of generating profits, is admissible.

There have been some cases in Germany on broadcasting rights of football matches. But there it’s clear what is copyrighted: photos, moving pictures and radio reports. The problem for the clubs is when reporters without prior permission for sale, after buying a ticket, make photos or videos. These are fascinating cases. But it’s not comparable with our case, as ChessBase had no reporters in Sofia.”

Media rights
The organizers of the Anand-Topalov World Championship match, which took place in Sofia, Bulgaria last month, managed to collect a prize fund of 3 million Euros: 2 million for the players, 400,000 for FIDE taxes and 600,000 for organizational costs. In an attempt to earn back at least part of that money, they tried to sell the rights to cover the event to other media. For instance, the Bulgarian national TV channel are said to have paid the organizers to have the right to film the players with cameras inside the playing hall.

The organizers also attempted to sell the media the right to transmit the games live on the internet. Silvio Danailov, the manager of Veselin Topalov but also one of the main figures responsible for the organization of the match, told ChessVibes a few weeks before the match that we needed to pay 15,000 Euros if we wanted to transmit the games live. Although we weren’t sure about the legal situation, we were not inclined to fight this over court. Chessbase apparently was. All twelve games could be followed on the Playchess server.

During the match, the official website transmitted the games live on a page with a standard DGT game viewer. Below the viewer, the following note was seen throughout the match:

Warning! It is absolutely prohibited the live broadcast of the moves or video during the game on other websites, media or software without the explicit permission of the organizers of the match. This prohibition is being violated by ChessBase.

Earlier warnings
It was not the first time the Bulgarian organizers did this. The same warning was placed on the official website of the Topalov-Kamsky match, also held in Sofia in February 2009. Back then the Bulgarians “won”, since after being threatened with a law suit, Chessbase did stop transmitting the games. Arne wrote a column in which he discussed philosophical, legal and historical aspects of the issue. It led to 127 comments.

Meanwhile, we discovered that already in 2006 a similar note was published on the website of the MTel tournament:

(Sofia, May 13, 2006) Pirates broadcast the super chess tournament M-Tel Masters in internet. The biggest game server in the world ICC (www.chessclub.com) announces the live broadcast of the moves from the games in the tournament. The transmission is being done by using signal from the official web site of M-Tel Masters 2006 – www.mtelmasters06.com, which is violation of the copyrights of the organizes of the competition.

Interestingly, the Bulgarian organizers first attacked ICC, but in recent years they only seem to point their attack to the German company Chessbase. It’s well known that the relationship between the Bulgarians and Chessbase has become very bad, especially after a video was embedded by Chessbase on February 11th, 2007 that was claimed to show “assistance given to the world’s top-rated player Veselin Topalov during his games”.

Why only Chessbase?
We asked Silvio Danailov why other media, like ICC, Chessdom, Susan Polgar and Crestbook (Sergey Shipov) were not taken to court. He answered:

“With Chessdom we have commercial agreement signed. Susan Polgar and Sergey Shipov I respect very much. Both are excellent professionals, doing a lot for chess, making it more popular. They are not commercial and don’t resell the games. Having in mind all this, they had our permission.

With ICC I have long collaboration with mutual interest for both sides. But I explained already before that this is the last time; next time they should paid like everybody else.”

Danailov added that the situation in the US is complicated, and would probably ask for more research, and more attorneys.

Motorola vs NBA
We asked John Henderson of the Internet Chess Club (ICC) about their experience with events wanting to copyright the games. He answered “Many threatened but never followed through” and then referred to the “Motorola vs NBA case”, which to his knowledge basically settled matters until now in the States.

In that case, from 1997, the National Basketball Association demanded the exclusive right to transmit scores of basketball games, which Motorola was doing with their “Sports Trax” pagers. These were electronic devices which transmitted the scores, ball possession, and time remaining. Motorola obtained those scores by using public information, e.g. by watching basketball games on TV. Initially, in a New York court, the case was won by the NBA (comparable to the Bulgarian organizers). However, later Motorola (comparable to Chessbase) won the case, at the United States Court of Appeals For the Second Circuit.

Last year, the Staunton Memorial didn’t even make its games available for free live; visitors had to pay five pounds to watch the tournament games. One and a half years ago, the organizers of the World Championship match in Bonn, between Anand and Kramnik also attempted to prevent other media from broadcasting the game live (they only allowed the broadcast elsewhere with half an hour delay), to benefit as much as possible from their new broadcasting system Foidos. This never became a commercial success.

Copyright: an old issue
The copyright-over-chess-moves issue is about as old as the game itself. During the very first big, strong, international chess tournament, London 1851, rule number 12 said:

“As the managing committee guarantee to every subscriber of a guinea and upwards, a correct copy of the whole games, and as considerable expense must attend the recording of so many games and their subsequent publication, it must be understood that no-one will be allowed, in the first instance, to publish any part of them without the express sanction of the committee.” Source: Chess Notes

In many later disputes, the main point was always that if anyone would own the copyright over a game, it was the players themselves. The contract over the 1886 Steinitz-Zukertort match included a clause that gave the property right in the record of all games played in the match to each player. In negotiations for a match with Capablanca as early as 1911, Lasker wanted to claim the rights personally, because of his “activity in chess extending over more than 20 years”. As was also pointed out by Arne in his column, Capablanca’s point of view has always been taken as the general rule:

“A chess game, from its very nature and the manner of its production, must be the joint property of the two persons producing it … You can charge what you like for the publication of the games in any form you may deem to your advantage. But, unfortunately, that is a common privilege, of which anyone may take advantage.” Source: Chess Notes

Asked whether he thought the Bulgarian organizers had a chance, attorney Rainer Polzin answered us:

“Chances are good. You never know in court cases, but I’m a chess player. I don’t make a move when I know my opponent can mate me in one or two moves.”

Naturally we also asked Chessbase to comment on the lawsuit, but thus far we didn’t receive an answer from them.

© 2010, José Diaz

In case you missed it, we below give the Hikaru Nakamura vs Yury Shulman game from the U.S. Championship again, for replay.

Nakamura-Shulman
U.S. Championship 2010

Game viewer by ChessTempo

We also give the show player with the videos from the U.S. Championship once more. The top one is new, and contains an 8-minute interview with Gata Kamsky just after his exciting playoff win over Shulman, including Kamsky’s short speech at the closing ceremony. By scrolling down you can still find the ‘Shulman brilliancy – The Nakamura-Shulman climax’ video about this game.

Macauley Peterson was primarily responsible for the live show, and co-produced the recap videos with Spectrum Studios. There were many others actively involved, including staff and consultants from the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, and ICC Chess.FM. See the U.S. Championship sponsors page, for details.

These videos are licensed under the Creative Commons license (”BY-NC-ND“).

Links

• Interview with José Diaz
• José Diaz Official Website

Apple lance en France vendredi matin à 8h l'Ipad, sa nouvelle tablette multimédia. L'iPad est à l'ordinateur portable ce que l'iPod a été au walkman.

Face à la ruée attendue à l'entrée des magasins ce matin, les deux Apple Store français, situés à Paris et Montpellier, ont décidé d'ouvrir leurs portes dès 8 heures.

Les lecteurs de Chess & Strategy pourront aussi se procurer la précieuse tablette dans les magasins Boulanger, Surcouf, Darty et Fnac. Pour l'événement, tous les magasins Fnac parisiens accueillent le public à partir de 9 heures ce matin, une heure plus tôt qu'habituellement, et le site en ligne du distributeur commercialisera l'iPad dès 8 heures.

Attention, une bonne nouvelle peut en cacher une autre !

La sortie de l'Ipad va ravir les joueurs d'échecs puisque Gameloft, leader dans l'édition et le développement de jeux vidéos téléchargeables, accompagne le lancement de l'Ipad par la sortie en juin de 7 nouveaux titres dont Chess Classics.

Un logiciel d'échecs qui fonctionne déjà sur Iphone et qui sera adapté à l'ergonomie de l'Ipad. A vous de jouer !

Gata Kamsky won the U.S. Championship today in St Louis by beating Yury Shulman in a playoff (rapid) game. Sunday the two eliminated Alexander Onischuk and Hikaru Nakamura respectively, and yesterday they drew each other.

The 2010 U.S. Chess Championship takes place May 13-25 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Missouri. The event features a new format, which includes a 24-player, seven-round Swiss tournament followed by a four-player Championship final. In the event that there is no clear U.S. Champion after the quad finals, there will be a championship playoff. More info in our first report.

Quad finals: Saturday

As we reported earlier, Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk, Hikaru Nakamura and Yury Shulman qualified for the quad finals. The four would play each other one more time, in games on Saturday, Sunday and if necessary Monday.

In the first round (or rather round 8), the top two seeds, Nakamura and Kamsky, met for the second time, though with colors reversed. Nakamura had a promising initiative, but then Kamsky turned the tables on the attacking player by offering several pawns to gather a piece storm near Nakamura’s king.

The first surprise from Kamsky came when he played 16…Bf8. “It’s a quad, everyone’s trying to win a game, and in that sense, Bf8 was a good try,” Nakamura said. “Bf8 makes a lot of sense,” Kamsky agreed. “I get my structure ruined but I didn’t see any way for White to exploit it.”

Later, Nakamura’s White queen went gallivanting in search of queenside pawns. Kamsky took the opportunity to amass all of his pieces menacingly near Nakamura’s castle king. As commentator GM Maurice Ashley has been fond of saying all tournament: “When one queen is away then the other one plays.”

“I think I just miscalculated the resulting variations,” Nakamura said. “I missed how strong the Re6, Rg6, Ng5 idea is.”

Onischuk and Shulman had played each other also on Thursday, and so they met for the second round in a row. Unlike round seven when both players were playing it safe to qualify for the quad, Onischuk had White and more of a reason to create complications. Still, after a benign opening, no initiative was created for either side. Shulman said he felt very little stress during the rematch. “I felt that Alex didn’t get what he wanted out of the opening,” Shulman said.

Quad finals: Sunday

In the most dramatic and meaningful round so far, GM Yury Shulman upset defending champion GM Hikaru Nakamura on board one. On board two, GM Gata Kamsky dug out of a hole, and after his draw offer was refused, he delivered GM Alex Onischuk his first loss in nearly five years of U.S. Championship appearances.

Nakamura played quickly in the opening and sacrificed a center pawn to gain pressure on the kingside. He won a few pawns and pinned all his hopes on advancing his passed h-pawn. But Shulman’s pieces arrived too quickly, and the pawn never seriously threatened Shulman’s position.

“The first mistake was the opening choice,” Nakamura said. “I wasn’t 100 percent prepared.”

“In the opening I had to recall,” Shulman said. “I was having a hard time. Once I played h6 I realized I was back in my preparation. [The move] h6 was quite a problem for Hikaru to solve.”

Alexander Onischuk refused a draw offer to pursue a slight advantage but was eventually overrun by a relentless Gata Kamsky.

In the post-mortem, the players agreed that after 20…Rc8 21. Qd3 Qh7 22. Qh6 was an improvement, when White has a better chance of holding the balance. “It’s probably just a draw,” Nakamura said. “That was the best I have.”

Instead, after the queens remained and Nakamura played 22. f4, his king was too open to last much longer. Shulman’s rook got to the second rank, his queen to the king’s diagonal, and his knight was poised to jump to f5 and g3. “I forgot about these stupid ideas,” Nakamura said.

Shulman said that after his rook got to c2, he found the idea of sacrificing Rxg5 and the only thing that remained was getting the move order right.

Nakamura-Shulman

Here Shulman played the brilliant 24…Rxg5!! and after 25.Qxg5 Qd4+ 26.Kh1 Qe3 Nakamura resigned.

Below is a screenshot of the wonderful live show of this game, which can still be watched in the video player below. It’s called “LIVE: Shulman Brilliancy” and is really recommended.

This game only lasted 26 moves and ended well before board two, meaning Kamsky and Onischuk knew the result while their game was still in progress. This may help explain why Onischuk turned down Kamsky’s draw offer after 41. Ne4, the first move after time control. If Onischuk had accepted, he would no longer control his own fate since he already played Shulman in the first game of the quad finals.

Kamsky claimed he was worse out of the opening but praised his defensive idea of Rd4 and f4. He said he still preferred Onischuk’s position after the offer was refused. But after the game became a rook-and-pawn endgame, Onischuk may have had better chances with 43…b4. He then ran low on time and slipped with 45…Kd5. “He played Kd5 really quickly, and I was really surprised,” Kamsky said.

Onischuk-Kamsky

Here Black played 45…Kd5?.

Quad finals: Monday

Kamsky and Shulman were expected to play safely, but in fact the game started as a very sharp Exchange Grünfeld. Last year the two had the same line on the board, and back then Kamsky opted for the safer 11…Ne5. About Kamsky, who this time grabbed the pawn with 11…Bxc3+, commentator Maurice Ashley said: “I think he really wants to win this game.”

Shulman responded instantly with 13.h4, trying to attack the king that just lost its defender on g7. Kamsky played very quickly for many moves to come, making clear that he had analysed this variation deeply, perhaps already for his match against Topalov last year. When the queens were exchanged, thanks to the increment Kamsky had a minute more on his clock than when the game started.

The tactical phase of exchanges led to a dead drawn rook ending and so the players shook hands at move 30, knowing they would meet again the next day. Kamsky and Shulman played again in a rapid tiebreaker on Tuesday morning, at 10AM local time (17:00 CET).

Playoff on Tuesday

Last year the base time for the Armageddon game was 60 minutes+ 5 second increment. This time Kamsky got to bid, and he went for the following: play with Black and draw odds for the title with 25 minutes, versus 39:55 minutes for Shulman.

After the game Kamsky regretted his choice of the clock times, as he felt I didn’t have enough time. His reason for going for the black pieces, he said, was “because I’m more solid with Black”. And indeed he seemed to equalize comfortably in his favourite Slav/Slechter/Grünfeld hybrid, when the queens got exchanged.

Then Shulman found the very nice idea of 34.Rc5! (”yeah, I blundered Rc5″ – Kamsky) and won a pawn. But as so often in these cases, this allowed the black pieces to become active and Kamsky soon won the pawn back. Around move 42 Shulman had lost his time advantage – both had about 1.5 minutes left (plus 5 seconds per move). When it became clear that he couldn’t win anymore, Shulman offered his hand.

At the press conference GM Maurice Ashley said that, winning the U.S. title again, 19 years after his first title, Kamsky must feel content. The champ shouted “yeah!” with his hands in the air and a big smile.

Shulman’s comment was: “‘Alekhine said that one had to beat him three times. I could only beat Gata twice. He had nine lives today and showed brilliant defence.”

Besides the $35,000 first place, Kamsky also got an automatic spot on the 2010 Olympiad Team.

The Challenger’s Swiss was won by Alex Shabalov, who beat Alex Stripunsky in only 25 moves. Shabalov takes home the top prize of the Swiss, which is actually fifth-place money – $10,000.

Shabalov vs Krush, who missed a GM norm by half a point

Report borrowed heavily from FM Mike Klein’s excellent round-by-round coverage.

Photos © Betsy Dynakov, more here.

Games for replay

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Videos

The organizers allowed us to embed their video show player, which is licensed under the Creative Commons license (”BY-NC-ND“).

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN | Quads via TWIC

Pavel Eljanov today won the sixth and final FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Astrakhan, Russia. The Ukrainian finished with a score of 8/13, a full point ahead of a group of five GMs. One of them was Teimour Radjabov, who finished second in the final GP standings and qualified for the FIDE Candidates matches.

The 6th FIDE Grand Prix took place May 10-24 in Astrakhan, Russia. Akopian (2694), Alekseev (2700), Gashimov (2734), Gelfand (2741), Eljanov (2751), Inarkiev (2669), Ivanchuk (2741), Jakovenko (2725), Leko (2735), Mamedyarov (2763), Ponomariov (2733), Rajabov (2740), Svidler (2735) and Wang Yue (2752) played. More details can be found in our first report.

Round 10

Would Pavel Eljanov be able to finish the tournament as strongly as he had played so far? How would he fare after the second and last rest day? Well, on Friday the Ukrainian had a crystal clear answer to this question. He defeated Hungarian top GM Peter Leko in 43 moves, perhaps not in the most convincing way, but the result is what counts.

Leko was more than fine after the opening (Eljanov didn’t like his 10.Ng3) and even rejected a draw offer on the 20th move. However, in the subsequent game the Hungarian made a few mistakes, and White obtained an advantage in the ending due to a strong passed pawn on the queenside. From that point Eljanov played very energetically. He did not allow Black to bring his king into the center, which would save the game for Leko. On the 43rd move White’s passed pawn became unstoppable, and Leko resigned.

Gashimov stayed half a point behind the leader after beating Inarkiev in a strong Ruy Lopez game. “I found an interesting plan with 15.Bd3 and 16.Re2,” he said afterwards. “My pawn sacrifice led to a curious position: White is a pawn down, Black pieces seem to be active, but actually White can play for a win at no risk. Soon I regained the material, keeping all the advantages of my position, then won an exchange and converted the advantage without much trouble.” Inarkiev: “I admit that Vugar played very energetically and deserved his win.”

Radjabov slowly but surely outplayed Akopian with Black in a Sveshnikov. “Maybe trading the queens was wrong,” said Akopian, “and I should have preferred 24.Qh6. I also don’t like my next moves – 26.Ndf4 and 28.f4. White’s position became very cramped, and Teimour showed good technique, not giving me any chances to survive.” 26.Ndf4 was a “serious inaccuracy” according to Radjabov.

Round 11

This round saw another Azeri derby: Radjabov versus Mamedyarov. It was an important game, since Radjabov’s win regained his chances to qualify for the Candidates matches. In the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez White got a small advantage and then developed a strong initiative following Black’s unsuccessful queen maneuver on the 19th move. The game transposed to a queen ending with a remote passed pawn for White. Black was short on time and committed the decisive error on the 38th move. Mamedyarov resigned immediately due to inevitable loss of the kingside pawns.

Radjabov: “I think after 20.Qf4 White may already be winning. Not sure if 28.d6 was necessary, but I thought I needed to force the issues. In any case, after this move it becomes extremely difficult for Black to hold.” Mamedyarov didn’t agree with Radjabov’s assessment of the opening: “In my opinion, White didn’t get any advantage. He started to take the upper hand only when I made a mistake by 19…Qd4 – this move is overambitious.”

Also relevant for the Candidates spot was Gashimov’s loss against Ponomariov. He couldn’t adopt his Benoni as the Ukrainian went for other schemes. Ponomariov about Gashimov only playing the Benoni: “The disadvantage is that he knows other lines superficially. Thus I decided to transpose to the Nimzo-Indian Defense. In my opinion, I got a very comfortable position. Perhaps in the middlegame I could play better. For example, on the 17th move I could take on g3 with the queen, making Black’s defensive task tougher. Yet, defending was unpleasant enough for such an active player as Vugar. He started to make reckless moves such as 26…h5, which helped me to win the game.”

Round 12

Five-time Russian champion Peter Svidler finally won his first game in Astrakhan. He successfully avoided Gelfand’s Petroff and used the Four Knights to beat the Israeli in 31 moves. Gelfand’s sharp f-pawn push on the 21st move proved to be a big mistake. Svidler delivered a nice tactical blow, and Black’s position collapsed.

Akopian defeated Ivanchuk in just 23 moves. The Ukrainian handled the Ragozin Variation of the Queen’s Gambit too passively. Akopian comfortably arranged his pieces and launched a kingside attack. On the 21st move the Armenian sacrificed an exchange, which turned out to be a very unpleasant surprise for Black. In two more moves Ivanchuk abandoned his resistance.

Akopian, after the game: “I’m surprised that the victory came so easily – I have a bad score against Vassily. The plan that I employed in this game is not new: White ignores the d4-pawn and concentrates on a kingside attack. Vassily played without confidence; his 14…g6 only provokes my attack. And on the next move he should have played 15…h5. After he missed this opportunity, my only problem was to choose correctly from several good continuations. The final position is so ugly for Black that Vassily just resigned. Well, this probably just wasn’t his day…”

Mamedyarov improved upon his first round game against Jakovenko, to which Leko couldn’t find a good answer. Perhaps White didn’t find all the best moves, but nevertheless Mamadyarov managed to transpose to an ending with a big advantage, which he effectively converted to the full point.

Leko: “This was a strange game. Losing to Eljanov killed my chances to qualify for the candidates matches, which obviously affected my motivation today. Of course, this is not a good excuse for my poor play against Shakhriyar…”

Alekseev-Inarkiev was the longest game of the 12th round. After interesting complications in the Slav Defense the players arrived at a very original position, in which White had three minor pieces against a rook and three pawns. White slowly but surely consolidated his pieces and launched the attack on the king. He then won a pawn and advanced to a winning ending. Despite Black’s stubborn resistance, Alekseev won the game on the 88th move.

Round 13

Eljanov needed a draw to secure sole first, and he did so with the black pieces against Gelfand. The two have worked together in the past years, but with White Gelfand did press for while. In a Nimzo he sacrificed a pawn to open up the position, but Eljanov gave back the material and after the exchange of the minor pieces the position remained balanced.

After winning the Bosna tournament in 2009, Eljanov now has a new ‘best tournament of his career’. Winning this Grand Prix, one of the strongest tournaments on average rating and of this scale ever held, is a fantastic result for the 27-year-old, who proved that his new status of Ukraine’s number one player wasn’t a coincidence.

Report based on the tournament website

Photo courtesy of FIDE, more here

Games rounds 10-13

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Astrakhan Grand Prix 2010 | Schedule & results

After the 12th round, Ivanchuk, Leko, Mamedyarov and Alekseev were eliminated from qualifying for the runner-up position. Grischuk was also eliminated, because Radjabov scored well enough to ensure that even if he’d lose his final round, he’d gain enough GP points to surpass Grischuk.

In the final round of Astrakhan, Jakovenko was eliminated with his draw and Gashimov has been eliminated with his loss. The winner of the Radjabov-Wang Yue game decided matters: a win for the Chinese would have meant qualification, but Radjabov with White held a Petroff ending a pawn down to a draw and this was enough to end second in the overall Grand Prix. Thanks to ebutaljib for providing this table:

Source used: Wikipedia page on the GP

And so an end has come to a long series of six super tournaments which had its ups and downs. Positive were the tournament websites, with extensive reports (disclaimer: which were written by yours truly in Baku and Sochi), sometimes videos (by the Turkish Chess Federation in Baku, Europe-Echecs in Sochi and – another disclaimer – by me in Nalchik) and sometimes game analysis by GM Sergey Shipov.

More importantly, a big number of players had the opportunity to play in big, strong events and make good money.

But of course many more things went wrong. Three host cities (Doha, Karlovy Vary and Montreux) withdrew when it became clear that the money wasn’t there. Their nominated players had to leave the series and Yannick Pelletier was hit the most, as he couldn’t play a single event. The Czech organizers were very disappointed when Adams and Carlsen had good reason to leave the series: because of the sudden change of the World Championship cycle, during the cycle.

When it all started, the idea was that the winner of the GP would play against the World Champ. (We would have had a Aronian-Anand match in 2012.) winner of the World Cup. (We would have a Gelfand-Aronian match and the winner would play Anand.) But during the Olympiad in Dresden, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov suddenly announced the Candidates ‘tournament’ (which would later be rephrased to ‘matches’), for which the numbers one and two of the GP Series would qualify.

Another point of criticism FIDE received by many (e.g. more than once by Kasparov) was about the locations of the events. The whole series never managed to leave the greater Caucasus region, and so no single event was organized in a bigger, Western city, which didn’t really help to attract corporate sponsorship either.

In general the idea wasn’t so bad. But the execution could have been much better.

Update: according to Harish in the comments, the pairings for the Candidates matches are:

1. Topalovs vs Kamsky ( 1 vs 8 )
2. Carlsen vs Radjabov ( 2 vs 7 )
3. Kramnik vs Nominee ( 3 vs 6 )
4. Aronian vs Gelfand ( 4 vs 5 )

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Previous reports

• Astrakhan FIDE GP R1: Gashimov beats Ivanchuk
• Many draws so far at Astrakhan FIDE GP
• Eljanov leads in Astrakhan
• FIDE GP: Eljanov back ik the lead

Vincennes TV et Chess & Strategy s’associent en 2010 pour la réalisation d’une série de 15 émissions vidéos inédites. Ces vidéos d’initiation au jeu d’échecs s’adressent à tous, de 4 ans à 104 ans minimum !

Après une première émission présentant le but du jeu d'échecs, l'échiquier et les différentes pièces, découvrons maintenant ensemble les pions. Les pions sont l'âme du jeu d'échecs affirmera Philidor en 1749 dans son ouvrage révolutionnaire "Analyse du jeu d'échecs". Ainsi, dans cette seconde émission de la série, nous vous présentons le mouvement du fantassin. Le pion possède deux modes de déplacement.

Pour avancer, il progresse toujours tout droit d'une case, ou éventuellement de deux cases s'il n'a encore jamais bougé. Pour capturer une pièce de l'ennemi, le pion évolue en diagonale. Vous souhaitez en savoir plus sur les règles du jeu ? Alors retrouvez-nous pour un nouvel épisode la semaine prochaine sur Chess & Strategy !

Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk, Hikaru Nakamura and Yury Shulman Thursday reached the quad finals of the U.S. Championship in St. Louis. After a rest day, the tournament resumes today with the first of the decisive three rounds.

The 2010 U.S. Chess Championship takes place May 13-25 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Missouri. The event features a new format, which includes a 24-player, seven-round Swiss tournament followed by a four-player Championship final. In the event that there is no clear U.S. Champion after the quad finals, there will be a championship playoff. More info in our first report.

Rounds 5-7

Of the seven players who we sharing the lead after four rounds, only two continued with victories. Gata Kamsky and Alexander Onischuk, the second and third seeds, both won as White, against Larry Christiansen and Varuzhan Akobian respectively.

Against Christiansen’s off-beat Ruy Lopez, Kamsky put up a strong center and then thought up some subtle queen moves. “I had to do something,” Kamsky said afterwards. “My experience with Larry is that he’s a very aggressive player.” Instead of “attacking” he thought this game should be called “positionally-based, with aggressive intentions”.

Onischuk extended his U.S. Championship unbeaten streak to a record 46 games by beating Akobian. 28…a5 was a mistake and Black’s final chance to save the game may have been 31…e3.

Onischuk-Akobian, after 31.Qc5

After 31…e3!? 32.fxe3 Qxe3+ 33.Qxe3 Nxe3 34.Kf2 Nxf1 35.Kxf1 the ending is drawn according to Onischuk.

In round 6, an uneventful draw between the pre-round leaders and two decisive games on boards two and three landed Kamsky, Onischuk, Nakamura and Shulman atop the tables with 4.5 points. “I played the Catalan,” Nakamura said. “Generally speaking that is a draw. I just felt like playing something simple rather than going for complications.” The reigning champ fell behind on the clock for one of the first games in the event and became worried that Kraai’s celerity meant some home cooking. “I didn’t want to walk into anything,” Nakamura said.

Kraai said he simply missed the pin 26…Rc8, which offered better resistance. Kamsky, advising Kraai after the game, claimed even before the wholesale trades Black should have played …a5 before White played it. “But okay, I can defend passive positions,” Kamsky said. Understanding Nakamura’s reputation, Kraai said he did not feel comfortable crouching into a ball and defending for several hours.

Also winning to tie for the lead was Shulman, who beat Alex Stripunsky. Like Nakamura, Shulman won a rook-and-pawn endgame due to his more active rook.

On Thursday the three top boards ended in a draw, and so indeed the four names to proceed to the quad finals were Kamsky, Onischuk, Nakamura and Shulman. Only Shulman and Onischuk split the point in a peaceful manner, though.

Kamsky’s draw against Shabalov didn’t go smoothly. The 2007 World Cup winner began shaking his head in disbelief when he overlooked Shabalov’s cunning defence 22…Bg6 at the end of a long variation. He had only considered 22…Kg8, which wins for White after 23. Qd5+.

Kamsky-Shabalov

Here Black played 22…Bg6!.

Though short on time, Kamsky gathered himself and found a way to capture several pawns whilst simultaneously weakening Shabalov’s king. “It was a pretty unpleasant scenario,” Kamsky said. “I was looking to minimize the damage.” Kamsky then found what he called an “extremely strong defensive maneuver” – bringing his rook to the fourth rank to defend his king on the g-file. Black then ran low on time and after Shabalov whispered “draw,” Kamsky ran his clock down to 1:20 and agreed.

The last qualifier for the finals would come down to board two. Christiansen, a veteran of decades of championships, needed to win as he began the round one half point behind defending champion Nakamura. Known for his attacking style, Christiansen built up a strong center and spatial advantage. “I was guardedly optimistic,” Christiansen said. Nakamura was not content playing passively and struck with the strange-looking thrust 8…g5. World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand, calling in from Spain live during the on-air commentary [see video Calling Anand below!], questioned the move. “I’m not sure if Nakamura knows how to (play solidly),” Anand said. “But he doesn’t lack confidence, that’s for sure.”

As the game petered out into a pawn-up endgame for Christiansen, the crowd at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis gathered around the monitors. Players who generally left the club after their games stayed to see the result. GM Maurice Ashley, commentating on the game, saw Christiansen move his rook around to press for the win. “You’re going to sit here and you’re going to suffer young man,” Ashley said of Christiansen’s mindset. Eventually, too many pawns were traded and Nakamura held on to qualify.

Today is the first of three rounds of quad finals, with Nakamura-Kamsky on the program. The winner of the final will win $35,000. The other 20 players will play two more rounds of the Swiss event, where the winner takes home $10,000.

Report borrowed heavily from FM Mike Klein’s excellent round-by-round coverage.

Photos © Betsy Dynakov, more here.

Selection of games rounds 5-7

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Videos

The organizers allowed us to embed their video show player, which is licensed under the Creative Commons license (”BY-NC-ND“).

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Hikaru Nakamura, Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk et Yuri Shulman finissent ex aequo à 5 points sur 7.

A great attacking game (or aggressive positional game, as Kamsky seemed to prefer to think of it) by the erstwhile world championship finalist. First Kamsky builds, then he induces weaknesses, and then he crashes through.

Retour en force au classement pour Nakamura et Shulman, qui au prix d'une victoire hier ronde 6, sont maintenant en tête à 4,5 points. Ils rejoignent les leaders Onischuk et Kamsky, incapables de se départager.

Filtrage intense à Saint-Louis ! On est passé d'une situation confuse mardi à 7 joueurs en tête à quleque chose de plus clair : deux leaders ce mercredi matin. Gata Kamsky et Alexander Onischuk sont les heureux élus à 4 points sur 5, vainqueurs hier respectivement de Larry Christiansen (3) et Varhuzan Akobian (3). Ca tombe bien puisqu'ils se rencontrent ce soir à 21h, heure de Paris.

GMs Nakamura, Kamsky, Onischuk, Shulman, Akobian, Christiansen and Stripunsky tie for first after four rounds of the U.S. Championship in St. Louis. These seven players all scored three points. After three more rounds there will be a four-player final.

The 2010 U.S. Chess Championship takes place May 13-25 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Missouri. The event features a new format, which includes a 24-player, seven-round Swiss tournament followed by a four-player Championship final. In the event that there is no clear U.S. Champion after the quad finals, there will be a championship playoff. If after seven rounds, there are ties for the four places into the final round-robin quad, then there will be a concise fourth-place playoff on May 21, the scheduled rest day.

Participants

• The defending U.S. Champion – GM Hikaru Nakamura
• The winner of the 2009 U.S. Senior Open Championship – GM Larry Christiansen
• The winner of the 2009 U.S. Junior Championship – GM Ray Robson
• The top five qualifiers from the 2009 U.S. Open Championship – GM Alex Lenderman, GMs Sergey Kudrin, Alex Yermolinsky, Dmitry Gurevich, and Jesse Kraai
• The winner of the 2010 ICC State Champion of Champions – IM Levon Altounian
• The top 11 U.S. players by rating of the United States Chess Federation:
  • GM Gata Kamsky
  • GM Alexander Onischuk
  • GM Varuzhan Akobian
  • GM Yury Shulman
  • GM Jaan Ehlvest
  • GM Alexander Shabalov
  • GM Gregory Kaidanov
  • GM Robert Hess
  • GM Melikset Khachiyan
  • GM Joel Benjamin
  • GM Ben Finegold
• Four wildcard spots:
  • GM Alexander Stripunsky
  • GM Vinay Bhat
  • IM Sam Shankland
  • IM Irina Krush

Prizes

The winner of the final will take home $35,000. The total prize fund was increased from $135,000 to more than $170,000, the largest per capita prize fund in U.S. Championship history according to Tony Rich, executive director of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.

Players who do not make it into the top four places after seven rounds will play two more rounds of the Swiss event. They will also have much to play for as fifth place will be awarded $10,000 and the total prize fund of the “Challenger’s Swiss” will exceed $90,000.

Videos

The Championship not only stands out as a far as prize money is concerned. Like last year, the official website is of outstanding quality. There’s live commentary with WGM Jennifer Shahade and GM Maurice Ashley, and already many high-quality videos have been produced and posted.

There are promos, ’round recaps’ and montages of the live shows, including yesterday’s top clash Kamsky-Nakamura, which by the way was interrupted by a phone call with Magnus Carlsen, who talked about visiting the Karpov fundraiser in New York, which is tonight. This is all in the second video from the top, at the moment of writing – it’s called Live-Calling Carlsen.

The organizers allowed us to embed their video show player, which is licensed under the Creative Commons license (”BY-NC-ND“).

After four rounds, seven grandmasters tie for first with 3/4. So far the tournament has seen many interesting fights – the drawing percentage is as low as 42%.

Selection of games rounds 1-4

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC

Regroupement général après la 4ème ronde, puisque 7 joueurs pointent en tête à 3 sur 4. Nakamura, Kamsky, Onischuk, Akobian, Shulman, Christiansen et Stripunsky.

Yesterday, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov responded with an open letter to the nomination of Anatoly Karpov by the Russian Chess Federation on Friday, at the Central Chess House in Moscow. As it turns out his letter contradicts the facts. Meanwhile Garry Kasparov’s address to the RCF has been posted on YouTube. Developing story.

We already published Ilyumzhinov’s open letter as an update to our previous article on the FIDE elections, but we’ll repeat it here for the sake of clarity:

Moscow, Russian Federation / Saturday, May 15, 2010

Dear Presidents, Delegates and Federation members,

In certain media, it was reported that the Russian Chess Federation supposedly “took a decision” to nominate Anatoly Karpov as its representative for FIDE President. Unfortunately, a “decision” shrouded in clear deceit and typical of the misrepresentations which we have become accustomed to the last few weeks, from the troika of Karpov, Bakh and Kasparov.

A meeting was originally for 5.00 p.m. in Mr Dvorkovich’s office, and it was suddenly changed by Mr Bakh notifying some of the delegates that they should meet at 4.30 p.m. at the premises of the Russian Chess Federation. The Chairman of the Russian Chess Federation was not notified at all. A grave insult to the office of the Chairman and the Russian Chess Federation. This clearly violates the statutes which determine that all meetings are to be presided over by the Chairman.

A rough show of hands was called for and an immediate statement released on this basis. These tactics are reminiscent of the behavior which Karpov and his team, were so content to exploit, during Soviet times. From my side, I had preferred to leave the delegates in a neutral position, but such behavior not only infringes any sense of ethics, but makes this decision completely illegal and contestable, apart from any other actions that are reserved against persons who knowingly misled the delegates into taking such action.

Let me make it crystal clear, dear delegates, I will run for FIDE President once again and I am confident that the delegates will once again put their trust in our team.

I have the clear support of the majority of FIDE’s member Federations who have been waiting patiently in the background, for the Russian Chess Federation to proceed with its nomination. Today’s decision makes a mockery of Karpov and his team, who believe they are capable of running a future FIDE. His campaign so far has been based on misrepresentation and false accusations.

Our mission grows stronger to protect the unity, transparency and democracy that has been created within FIDE these last fifteen years.

Gens una sumus.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
FIDE President

As was confirmed to us by Russian chess journalist Denis Bilunov, Ilyumzhinov’s version of the facts is incorrect. This was also indirectly pointed out in a press release by what seems to be the Karpov side of the Russian Chess Federation, published on the Russian chess site e3e5 (curiously, not on the site of the RCF itself, where only an older statement by Dvorkovich can be found see also the official announcement of the Supervisory Board on the RCF website):

On our site of the Russian Chess Federation was a press release that read: “May 14, 2010, at the Botvinnik Central House of Chess in Moscow, meeting of the Supervisory Board of RCF”. Of the place and time of the meeting, as well as on the proposed agenda, Council members were informed in advance. Relevant information messages were also posted on the official website of the RCF.

But on the eve of the meeting, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, A.V. Dvorkovich, suddenly decided to change the place of the meeting. He suggested a meeting in his office, namely Dvorkovich’s place. Most members (17 of 32) rejected this proposal – given the special historical status of the Central House of Chess, as well as the large interest from the chess public and the media for the meeting. Chairman of the Board of the RCF, A.G. Bach, informed A.V. Dvorkovich about this decision by telephone and invited him and other members of the Supervisory Board to arrive at the Central House of Chess. On the previously scheduled time (17:00), the Council meeting started under the chairmanship of A. Selivanova. (…)

Heart of the matter is the fact that the meeting of the RCF was originally scheduled not at Mr. Dvorkovich’s office, but at the Botvinnik Central Chess House on Gogol Boulevard in Moscow. The announcement with place and time was already posted on the site of the Russian Chess Federation on 5 May 2010 and again on 7 May 2010. Therefore, President Ilyumzhinov’s interpretation is simply wrong on this point and casts serious doubt on the rest of his (legal) points as well.

Meanwhile, WGM Natalia Pogonina has linked to a video (made by Oleg Kozyrev) of Garry Kasparov’s speech to the Supervisory Board, right before the start of the meeting last Friday.

Pogonina also provided a transcript in English, which we reproduce here as well:

I could answer some questions, but maybe I would rather address a common falsification of facts that is going on in the world. Even though we live in the age of the Internet and other modern technologies, some news spread slowly. There are a few myths in the chess world on which people try to base their ungrounded decisions. The situation itself is somewhat surreal: I and Karpov have clashed at this very building a couple of times, we have always been antagonists. A lot of issues have been sorted out, sometimes everything ended in an ideologic debate, sometimes in “bad peace”. It has always been a confrontation.

As you might understand, today is a totally different case. I believe this day is very important for Russian chess. The sole fact that there is a dilemma, and it it seriously discussed – Karpov or Ilyumzhinov – seems strange to me. Not because it’s a candidate master vs a world champion; but because nowadays in chess and the professional world in general reputation is the key factor. I don’t think there is any challenge in determining who is more reputable.

It’s a disgrace that they are trying to impose the 15-year old (as Ilyumzhinov’s reign) mythology on the Russian Chess Federation. The other members of the Supervisory Board (who haven’t joined us) are under the impression that the whole world supports Ilyumzhinov. It’s a lie. I haven’t been in the chess circles for a while, but I visit a lot of countries. I can estimate in what condition the world is. That statement is not true. In fact, the chess world is in a disastrous condition. The leading chess website – ChessBase – has posted a trivia. People had to guess where the 6th Grand Prix stage will take place. Baku, Jermuk, Sochi, Nalchik, Elista, where will the next one be? The answer was Astrakhan, to form a circle on the map. Just think about the names of the cities! (Then some polite remarks aimed at showing he means no offense towards the locations).

When we were playing with Karpov, where was it? Moscow, London, New York, Seville, Leon. And where are we today? It didn’t happen just all of a sudden. Chess is not at the circumference because everywhere else it is not taken seriously. And it’s not just a problem of world’s chess, it’s a problem for Russia. When all the world media is showing the FIDE president recalling his meeting with aliens. One can live in the world of hallucinations. But when the future of chess depends on such people… It’s obvious that this situation won’t change, and everyone understands it in (lists countries). You have been provided with a presentation by Anatoly Evgenievich Karpov with a list of the countries which support him. The chess countries (USA, Germany, England, Spain, Switzerland) are on the list. Also many others (mentions them). Even Ukraine. I.e. the countries which have traditionally been supporting Ilyumzhinov. Just think about it.

This support stands for something. Supporting someone at an early stage is a risky step. It’s a serious risk to oppose the current President (who has been the head of FIDE for 15 years) at such an early stage of the elections. The situation has changed dramatically. 21 countries already, before the elections, are supporting Karpov. About half of them have been supporting Ilyumzhinov before. Ukraine – it’s actually a very uncommon thing. Before they have been supporting Iyumzhnova vs Bessel Kok, now they have expressed their support for Karpov…

Per Anatoly Evgenievich request I have been communicating with many leaders of chess federations and grandmasters. Everyone is afraid of just one myth: that in Khanty-Mansiisk (where the elections will take place – Pogonina.com) everyone will be “buried”. Today’s meeting will be decisive in the confrontation. People somehow believe that Ilyumzhinov controls everything in Russia. Today we have a chance to show that it is not the truth. Kirsan has no support in the world, all the can rely upon is the so-called “administrative resource”. Dvorkovich, Ilyumzhinov, Magomedov? And Karpov? How can one compare them?

This discussion is extremely important. It’s not only about Russian chess, it’s about the future of world chess. These things are interconnected. The agenda which we were supposed to discuss today has some unreal items. Let’s talk about the real problems. We can’t win 3 Chess Olympiads in a row. I have been brought up in the system of coordinates where 2nd place was a failure. Has something happened, now people approach it in a different way. For the first time since 1921 (Lasker-Capablanca) no Russian (or Soviet) representative is playing at the WC match. Look at our teeenagers. Karjakin (although he is not a teenager already), and came from Ukraine. Anyway, it’s clear that he is not a future world champion due to…(pauses) format. We are on the decline everywhere. That’s what we should be discussing.

Today we have a great chance to start affecting the process. Not by hiring legionaries from (names countries), but by working with Karpov’s strong team. This can be discussed properly. And where is Ilyumzhinov? Why is Kirsan not here? Why is he not telling us about aliens, his connections, banks, Chess City, New Vasiuki? He has nothing to say because 15 years is a lot of time. It has been understood everywhere. The only reason why not everyone has supported Karpov already is that they are afraid and waiting for the decision here. We have to prove that it’s not like that. It’s a house of cards.

A great chess player on one side and a cardsharper on the other. You have the power to change this. If you have any questions on the situation in the world, feel free to ask. I know it pretty well, and have contacted a great number of people during the last two months. I am surprised. I also had the same instincts: everyone in Africa and the Carribean region is bribed; and then you start talking to people and see that people have understood everything. They are contacted once in 4 years, and then forgot about. They want changes, they want to see grandmasters, some programs.

Campomanes (although we had many controversies with him), at least tried to do something. Not much, but now nothing is being done at all. This situation can be changed, because the potential of chess is absolutely incredible. Modern technologies would allow create chess communities on the Internet, but nothing of that type has been done. Once again, we’re faced with some sort of delirium: David Kaplan is going to teach us how to live. We have got more professional experience. And the reaction from the federations that have already supported Karpov show us that it is the right moment, people are ready for a change. Questions?

Update: many more videos of the meeting on Friday can be found on the New Times website.

Ce soir, double duel au sommet du championnat d'échecs des USA 2010, Akobian-Kamsky et Nakamura-Onischuk - les 4 leaders à 2,5 points sur 3. The show must go on !