The Chess Mind

Those interested in following this annual Las Vegas event can do so via the Monroi site - you'll find the specific link on the right side of that page.

Six wins in a row, that is, at the Russian Championship. The latest victim is Peter Svidler, and with this win Morozevich pushed his lead to 1.5 points (over Evgeny Tomashevsky) and his TPR to 2904. Scary! (I have the feeling that within a year or two, at least 5 or 6 players will be near or over 2800.)

More info here.

Have a look here. Edward Winter, chess historian par excellence, has compiled eight standard chess problems that challenged and even thwarted the efforts of Morphy, Steinitz and Capablanca to solve them. Of course, it's a bit of a "gotcha" enterprise: one can always find instances where great players have failed where lesser lights have succeeded, ignoring all the puzzles the greats have solved far faster than we did. Still, qualifications and all, it's nice to outdo the best every once in a while. Give it a try and see if you can earn some bragging rights.

[HT: Brian Karen]

It's a fun yearly tradition over on the ChessBase site, a series of puzzles, presented one a day, starting on Christmas and continuing through the first day of the new year. Indulge yourself - the puzzles are always interesting and, if tradition holds true, there will be a nice prize waiting for one fortunate winner at the end.

Link.

It has been a while since Alexander Morozevich went on one of his amazing runs, but he's definitely at it again at the Russian Championship. Today he won his fifth consecutive game, this time over Alexander Grischuk. It has been a very impressive performance by Morozevich, but he only leads Evgeny Tomashevsky by a point, with at least two more players just another half point behind. Can he keep it up? Stay tuned.

The United States Chess League's 2007 season ended a few weeks ago, and as you'd expect in an event featuring GMs like Christiansen, Benjamin, Becerra, Serper, Friedel and Nakamura, it produced many fine games. Throughout the season judges selected a game of the week; those games, together with a number of wildcard selections, were thrown into the mix for game of the year consideration.

For the second year running, USCL commish Greg Shahade invited me to serve as a judge for the GOTY competition, and I've submitted my rankings. I'd love to tell you how I ranked the games, but then Greg would probably make sure I woke up next to a horse's head, so I'll have to refrain. My selections, along with those of my fellow judges (Alex Shabalov, Jenn Shahade, Robby Adamson and Ron Young), will be revealed a week at a time, starting the first week of the year, but you can whet your appetite now by having a look at this long article by Arun Sharma on the USCL blog.

It's an excellent article by Sharma, who starts by attempting to profile the judges, and then goes through all the games (to which links are provided, along with the comments they received from the game of the week judging). If you have any interest in the USCL, it's definitely worth your time!

It's in two parts, over on ChessVibes. Part 1 mostly retreads his anti-Putin politics, and as such won't be terribly new to readers of this blog. Part 2 returns to chess, and Kasparov is rather acid. Here's the pungent conclusion to the interview:

Q: Has Toiletgate damaged the image of chess?

A: I live in a very dangerous world. You have the physical dangers: my colleagues and friends are constantly living under the pressure of the police and the KGB. I don’t care what top players like Kramnik and Topalov are doing with the organisation of top chess right now. In my world we’re running much higher risks than those pathetic little ego problems of top chess players. I’m now dealing with matters of life and death: we fight for the future of our country against a corrupt, suppressive regime. Sure, I want to give my opinion about chess issues if people ask me, but only in my spare time. Much more important things are on the agenda now.

[HT: Brian Karen]

Link here.

After a slow start (.5 out of 2), Alexander Morozevich has caught fire, winning four in a row to take clear first just past the halfway point. Not only are his results outstanding, but his chess has been fascinating as well. Do check out his games!

Alexander Grischuk is in second with 4/6, and three players, including Peter Svidler, are another half point behind. In the women's championship, there's a surprising 4-way tie for first. A big tie isn't unusual; what's odd is that the leaders all have a big plus score: T. Kosintseva, Pogonina, Tairova and Korbut all have 4.5/6 and TPRs over 2600.

Tournament website here; if you can't read Russian, you can find the crosstables and a PGN link on TWIC.

The traditional year-ending tournament in Pamplona, Spain is underway. While no one from the current super-elite is in the field, it's a very strong tournament nonetheless. Near-elites Vallejo Pons and Sargissian are playing, as are Chinese star Wang Yue, the talented but lacking in chess culture* Movsesian and Georgian star Jobava, and former super-elite Beliavsky is in the mix as well. The field also includes Rodshtein and the little-known but still over-2600 Spanish player Khamrakulov, so it's a tournament worth keeping an eye on.

Website here.

The man simply never gets tired of chess! Despite his traditional disappointing showing in a world championship event, Vassily Ivanchuk resumed the winning ways that have elevated him near the top of the rating pile in 2007. By defeating Indian star Pentala Harikrishna in the final knockout match, Ivanchuk put a final exclamation point on a great chess year.

(More info on the TWIC page - the direct link to the story doesn't work, but you can scroll down to the information.)

I've been enjoying vacation the last week or so, but now I'm going to enjoy it in earnest! So although I reserve the right to pop on every now and then and write the occasional post, this is my last "official" post until January 1 or 2. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year, readers: see you in 2008!

First, the Russian Championship Superfinal results from round 2:

Rychagov - Tomashevsky 1/2-1/2
Svidler - Dreev 1-0 (Not very sporting of Svidler, considering that Dreev was the star of my ChessBase show yesterday.)
Grischuk - Amonatov 1-0
Timofeev - Inarkiev 1/2-1/2
Sakaev - Jakovenko 1-0
Morozevich - Vitiugov 0-1

Standings after Round 2:

1-4. Rychagov, Tomashevsky, Grischuk, Sakaev 1.5
5-8. Svidler, Amonatov, Inarkiev, Vitiugov 1
9-12. Morozevich, Jakovenko, Timofeev, Dreev .5

Next, the Carlos Torre Memorial, which has moved past the qualifying stage into the knockout stage. Here are the results of the first game of the 1/8 finals:

Bruzon - Ivanchuk 0-1
Nogueiras - Dominguez 1/2-1/2
Harikrishna - G. Hernandez 1-0
Quezada - Leon Hoyos 1-0
H. Hernandez - Graf 0-1
Tregubov - Meier 1-0
Cordova - Zapata 1-0
J. Gonzales - Almeida 1/2-1/2

Finally, there was the Dallas GM Invitational, which took place from December 6-14, 2007. IM Kuljasevic of Croatia and GM Ramirez of Costa Rica (both college students in Dallas, I think) tied for first place with 7.5/11, half a point ahead of Georgian GM Izoria. Most notably for U.S. chess, 13-year-old Ray Robson achieved his third and final IM norm. Congratulations!

HT: Chess Today

In a pleasant and unusual (for FIDE) happenstance, the 2008 World Championship match between champion Viswanathan Anand and his challenger, ex-champion Vladimir Kramnik, has already been organized. It will take place in the National Art Gallery in Bonn, Germany, from October 11-30, 2008. The match will be to the best of 12 games (with a tiebreaker if necessary), and the prize fund of 1.5 million Euros will be split equally between the two players.

I'm glad that the match conditions have already been settled - all credit is due to the players, their management and the organizer (United Event Promotion) - but why does it have to be so short? Maybe the days of 24-game matches are irrevocably past, but 12 games aren't enough! In any case, this should be a truly great match, and I'm eager to see the chess these legends produce.

Only 296 days to go.

That's time as in Time Magazine, which has declared Vladimir Putin its "Person of the Year". Why? Because "[a]t significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power." The headline seems to be reported in media outlets as if they're praising Putin, but in the intro to the article is far more critical, if not as critical as Kasparov might like. File this one under possibly interesting reading.

Caro-Kann players have to be a hardy lot. There are quite a few aggressive schemes against it, and a moment's carelessness can get even a player slaughtered in 25 moves or less. (Just ask Larsen, Hort, Tal, Timman, Speelman, Akopian, Dreev, Shirov, Karpov and Kasparov!) One must be alert. Once one has survived White's early initiative, however, any result is possible. In fact, there are a number of lines in the Caro-Kann where the long term prospects tend to favor Black, and that makes this opening an attractive choice to players with good technique.

One such player is Alexey Dreev. A great player who occasionally pops into the Linares group, Dreev is an outstanding technician, and he has used the Caro-Kann to good effect throughout his career. As an example, we'll have a look at his game with Konstantin Lerner from the Rostov-on-Don Open in 1993. Lerner played 1.c4 c6 2.e4 (transposing to the C-K) d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.cxd5 Nf6 5.Bb5+ and held on to the pawn, eventually ceding the bishop pair to do so. When we take a superficial glance at the position after, say, Black's 15th move, we might think that Black's compensation isn't anything special.

When we take a deeper look, however, we'll see that Black's compensation is substantial. Dreev's technique is so powerful and logical that we're likely to do an about-face and wonder if White could have saved himself in the queenless middlegame. We'll examine this game in depth, because most of us could stand to improve our technique, and analyzing the games of players who excel in that area is a great way to improve.

So if you're a player whose technique could be just a little better, you could do a lot worse than to join us tomorrow night - Wednesday night - at 9 p.m. ET. The show is free, and you can find directions for tuning in right here.

Round 1 of the Russian Championship Megasuperduperfinal is history, and here are the results:

Svidler - Rychagov 0-1
Dreev - Grischuk 1/2-1/2
Amonatov - Timofeev 1-0
Inarkiev - Sakaev 1/2-1/2
Jakovenko - Morozevich 1/2-1/2
Vitiugov - Tomashevsky 0-1

All the games (but one) were hard-fought, with the crazy Jakovenko-Morozevich game getting top honors there. However, I'll leave working out the complications of that game to my intrepid readers (you can find the game in PGN here). Instead, we'll have a look at the spectacular finish of the Amonatov-Timofeev game.



It's White to move and win. If you think you've got it figured out, or if you want a hint, click below.

One of the most fascinating games I've played in 2007 was my battle with IM Emory Tate at the Indiana State Championship earlier this year. Every phase of the game had its interesting moments, and there was plenty of drama to go along with the game's purely chess content.

Last week part 1 was available, and earlier today the good folks at ChessVideos.tv posted part 2 for your viewing pleasure. (It's free and requires no special software: just click on the link and start watching!) Enjoy!

As mentioned in an earlier post, and as many of you are fully aware, World Cup winner Gata Kamsky and ex-FIDE champion Veselin Topalov are to play a match in 2008, with the winner getting to play for the world title in 2009 against the winner of the 2008 match between Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. In the post alluded to above, I offer some thoughts about the forthcoming match and make a lame non-prediction, but what I didn't do was to present their previous games. As there are only eight of them, I rectify that omission now: click here. (The games are given without comments but with punctuation taken from Mega 2007 for the first six games. The last two games can probably be found, with my comments, if you look them up elsewhere on my blog.)

In between arrests and other politically-based activities, Garry Kasparov has been promoting his latest book, entitled How Life Imitates Chess. One such occasion took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and you can read the transcript of that meeting here, on the Chess Horizons website. (Other pdf samples of Chess Horizons can be accessed here.)

Speaking of Kasparov and politics, his bid for the Presidency has ended. You can read more about this here, but the gist is that the Russian authorities (i.e. Putin's cronies) prevented him from formally registering for the March 2 presidential vote. As for what Putin has in mind for the future of Russia (and his leadership thereof), the following makes for helpful reading.

It has its technical moments, to be sure, but if you're interested in knowing the workings of the Elo rating system, have a look at this article by Daniel Ross. On the other hand, if you're only interested in material that relates to chess improvement, the 2008 version of ChessBase's Mega Database has been released. You can read more about it here. (It is fairly expensive, but look at it this way: how many chess books would you need to buy at $25-30 a pop to get 61,000 annotated games?)

Both the men and women are playing the "Superfinal" (let's hear it for terminological hypersuperduperinflation) of the Russian Championship, starting the 18th and continuing through the 30th. It's a 12-player round robin event, and draw offers are forbidden throughout! It's a seriously strong tournament, with three participants from this year's world championships in Mexico City. Here are the first round pairings:

Svidler - Rychagov
Dreev - Grischuk
Amonatov - Timofeev
Inarkiev - Sakaev
Jakovenko - Morozevich
Vitiugov - Tomashevsky

The championship of the Marshall Chess Club, one of the premier chess facilities in the United States, took place this past week, finishing on Sunday. The 27-player field included 5 GMs and 5 IMs, so while it might have been weak by Moscow standards it was a pretty impressive event for just about any other club in the world.

The finish was very close, with GM Jaan Ehlvest taking first place with 6.5/9, half a point ahead of GMs Stripunsky and Charbonneau and IM Hess. Another group of three, including GM Yudasin, who lost to Charbonneau in the last round, finished another half a point back.

You can read more about the event here (and find a crosstable by scrolling down to the paragraph starting "GM Jaan Ehlvest Wins $2,000 First Prize..." and clicking on it). And if you go here, you'll find the exciting last round game between Charbonneau and Yudasin, with my comments.

For those interested in the Icelandic grandmaster and his latest (alleged) literary effort, have a look here.

Now that Gata Kamsky has won the 2007 World Cup, he has earned the right to face ex-FIDE champion Veselin Topalov in a match in 2008. The winner of that match will face the winner of the Anand-Kramnik world championship match (also in 2008) in a 2009 title clash. Kamsky's World Cup win, and the upcoming match with Topalov, are thus a very big deal.

What can we expect in the upcoming match? It's hard to say, but if we only go by their past record, it will be a disaster for Kamsky. They've played eight times, with what Tal once called an "even score" (in the context of his record against Korchnoi): 4 wins and 4 draws - but all the wins were Topalov's. Their first two contests were evenly matched draws, and the third game was a tense battle that was balanced almost to the end, before being spoiled by a Kamsky blunder.

Those three games took place before Kamsky's retirement, from the years 1994-1996. Kamsky was the higher rated player then, but the reverse was true when they resumed battle in 2006. Topalov was both higher rated and completely dominant in their games that year, winning all three games in one-sided fashion. Kamsky was still finding his way back into form at that point, however, and by May of 2007, he had made good progress and drew his games with Topalov in the Sofia tournament, which he nearly won (of course, so did everyone - the distance between first and last in that event was one point).

Stylistically, they seem mostly opposite to me. Kamsky strikes me as a technical player who prefers his own somewhat out-of-the-way theory, delaying the battle until the middlegame and beyond. Topalov, of course, looks to kill the opponent throughout the game, starting almost from move 1, looking for improvements broadly within the main contours of contemporary fashion. They share an important strength, however, which should make this a great match: both are willing and eager to fight in every game, all the way to bare kings if necessary.

Normally, I'd say that Topalov is a slight favorite, based on his higher rating, big plus score against Kamsky, the possible fluctuations of form Kamsky might still suffer based on his long layoff, his lack of family responsibilities (compared to his opponent, who is married with children) and his more incisive opening preparation. Mitigating these considerations are Kamsky's fantastic form, better nerves (in my opinion), what seemed to be Topalov's loss of confidence after the Kramnik match, and his near-disappearance from the tournament stage this year.

For me, therefore, it's a pick-'em at this point, and we should see what sort of form they're in early in the year. Unfortunately, while Topalov is playing in Wijk aan Zee, Kamsky isn't (but maybe it's not so bad - he probably needs the rest now!), but maybe the latter will play in Linares. Anyway, I'm going to wait and see before pronouncing a favorite.

P.S. I'll post their career games either later today or tomorrow.

Alexei Shirov gave it his best shot, but Gata Kamsky kept as much control as necessary to draw game 4 of their match, winning overall by a 2.5-1.5 margin. It's remarkable to see Kamsky return to such a high level after his long absence*, and encouraging, too! His next battle on the road to the world championship title will be a match against Topalov some time in 2008 (we'll preview that matchup in a post later today or tomorrow); for now, let's offer a brief recap of his game with Shirov.

Kamsky's main job in this game was not to lose, and that's easier to achieve with the White pieces. Appropriately, Kamsky chose the Rossolimo against Shirov's 2...Nc6 Sicilian, and he continued in kind throughout. Shirov's proffer of a piece sacrifice with 13...cxd4 would have led to a wonderfully imbalanced position, with Black enjoying three pawns and a powerful center for a piece, but of course Kamsky rejected this.

Some time later in the game Shirov seemed to be getting an upper hand, but Kamsky proved this was an illusion - but there was a cost. He had to sac the exchange, and while it was probably a routine calculation, a lesser player - or one with weaker nerves - might not have considered such an idea. After the sac, Shirov had no winning chances at all, and the game quickly concluded in a perpetual check.

It's a pity that Shirov's outstanding play in this event didn't meet a better end. Prior to this match, he won all his matches without losing a game and without needing a single tiebreak. But Kamsky's path was similar, with no losses and only one tiebreak (against Svidler) along the way. It's clear that the two players in the best form made it to the finale, and Kamsky's preparation and play proved superior in the last match. So congratulations to Kamsky, but also to Shirov, Karjakin and Carlsen, all of whom qualified for the FIDE Grand Prix.

The final game, with my comments, is here.


*Kamsky quit in mid-1996, and except for four games in 1999, left tournament chess game until mid-2004.

Kamsky wasn't ever losing, as far as I can tell, but Shirov had pressure and a material advantage from almost the beginning of the game. Employing the Yates Variation of the Ruy Lopez, it was Shirov who seemed to have the advantage of surprise on his side in this game, especially with the unusual 13.Nc3. Kamsky's initial reaction probably wasn't ideal, but a smart pawn sacrifice for dark squared control and nuisance play on the kingside earned him a draw. Shirov could have pressed for more, but a final inaccuracy, probably in time pressure (38.Kg2) allowed an instant draw.

Kamsky thus leads 2-1, and needs only a draw with the White pieces tomorrow to win the World Cup and the right to play Topalov in 2008, with the winner going on to face the winner of the Anand-Kramnik match for the world championship in 2009.

Today's game, with my comments, can be replayed here.

Gata Kamsky won an excellent game today, and took a 1.5-.5 lead in the 4-game match. Kamsky prepared a novelty in the Anti-Sveshnikov line with 3.Nc3, offering a pawn for a kingside attack. Shirov rejected the sac and pursued his own attacking chances. The game grew very complicated, and on this occasion Kamsky did a better job of finding his way through the maze, surviving Shirov's attack with an extra pawn. Finally, he returned the pawn, threw in a couple more, and finished the game with a crushing attack. Beautiful play, and you can view the game (with my comments) here.

The game made it to move 42, but in a higher sense the game was over before it started. Kamsky, with Black, had devised a very new idea in the Breyer Variation of the Ruy Lopez, and neither Svidler in round 4 nor Shirov today managed to figure it out. Kamsky offered up an improvement on his earlier game on move 20, equalized immediately, and was never in any real danger the rest of the way. (The opening gets some credit, but Kamsky dserves the lion's share for his strong defense.)

The next game is tomorrow, while today's game, with some fairly offhand comments, is right here.

A month and a half ago I noted the game Thesing-Marin, which repeated a line of the Open Ruy generally condemned on the basis of the 8th game of the 1978 world championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi. Both games started 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3 and now 10...g6. Korchnoi was crushed in 28 moves and his 10th move found few followers, but one of them was Korchnoi himself! Still later Marin used it against Thesing, though the large rating disparity should give us pause before declaring the line safe and sound.

In the post linked above, I tried to discern the truth of the matter. My conclusion was that 10...g6 is very risky and probably advantageous for White, but it's at least playable. This update doesn't undermine that conclusion or the novelty devised in that post, but adds to the source material and Black's troubles. The source is the man himself, Viktor Korchnoi, in the updated Olms Edition of Chess is My Life. Click here to see his analysis (it's all his except when preceded by "DM"), with which I'm largely in agreement. The news, then, isn't news at all: Black will continue to struggle in this variation against best play.

As promised earlier, here are the games from the Shirov-Karjakin tiebreaker. (Shirov and Kamsky start the finale on Thursday.)

I don't intend to jinx Gata Kamsky (not that I believe in such things), who has made it to the finals of the World Cup, where he'll face Alexei Shirov, but in this week's ChessBase show we'll take a look at one of the games from his 1996 world championship match with Anatoly Karpov. Kamsky lost the game we'll examine - game 6 - and the match as well, but the contest remained in a very close, dynamic balance until just before the end.

One of the marks of high-level chess that's generally absent from the game played by the rest of us is the competitors' ability to sustain the tension for a long period of time. In amateur chess, if one side finds a good idea or two, perhaps an attacking plan, a subtle tactical trick, or a strategic idea, the game is won. Their games generally aren't won by virtue of having super-GM-sized ideas, but by their ability to keep finding new ideas while stopping those of their opponents for hour after hour after hour.

And few players have been stronger in this respect than Karpov and Kamsky. It has made their chess somewhat less accessible (or rather, less seemingly accessible) than players like Kasparov, Topalov and Anand, but if we're willing to apply a little elbow grease, we can appreciate and learn from their play, too.

So that's what we'll do this week, Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET. We'll take this game apart, move by move, piece by piece, until we understand every bit of it. We'll see how both players keep the game tense and dynamic, until finally Kamsky stumbles and Karpov pounces. Maybe Karpov was objectively stronger than Kamsky, but where he had his big edge was in his extra experience. For all Kamsky's experience, patience, and strong nerves, this was his first time playing for the title, while it was Karpov's ninth - tenth if you count the 1974 match with Korchnoi!

In sum, the game was fascinating both for the chess and the psychology, so I hope to have encouraged you to attend tomorrow night. The show is free, as always, and you can find instructions for tuning in, here.

Sergey Karjakin put up a terrific fight, but Alexei Shirov put the second 17-year-old semi-finalist in his place, even if it took 173 moves (between the two games) to do it. The first game was a fantastically complicated Sveshnikov Sicilian (the 5...e5 kind, not the 2.c3 version). Both sides were attacking, but when it became clear that Shirov's was the more dangerous, Karjakin bailed out to an ending with two knights against Shirov's rook, bishop and pawn. One would think Black's hefty material balance should be enough to win, but it wasn't. Shirov tried and tried, but after 103 moves finally gave up the ghost.

In game two, Shirov allowed Karjakin to play the Marshall Gambit, and he reprised his 16.Bxd5 cxd5 17.Qxd5 idea from round 5 against Jakovenko. In due course Karjakin reached a pawn down opposite-colored bishop ending - with rooks - but that wasn't enough to guarantee a draw. Shirov's technique was immaculate, and he went on to win a beautiful endgame.

This means that Shirov will face Kamsky in the final. Tomorrow is the first and only official day off for the event, and then they'll play a best-of-four match, with the usual tiebreak scheme in case they remain tied. Who's favored? Probably Shirov, who is both higher-rated player and has been more efficient throughout the tournament, but neither factor is all that convincing. As for their head-to-head record, it too favors Shirov, but only slightly. In 19 games, spanning from their junior days in the 1980s to the year of Kamsky's retirement in 1996, Shirov leads by a tiny +6 -5 =8. Kamsky won the last three decisive games, but they were from the Amber rapid and blindfold, and so not necessarily of any special significance (two of those three were blindfold games). So it's pretty close to a pick 'em.

I'll work on annotating the games later, for now, here are the bare scores.

This was a very exciting game, played a couple of months ago in the Indiana State Championship. Part 1 of my presentation on ChessVideos.tv just went up a little while ago, and you can access it here. Enjoy! (And if you do, pass the word around.)

A couple of days ago this innocent-looking diagram may have reflected photons to your eyeballs:



The task: Figure out how Nigel Short, White against Hannes Stefansson (Reykjavik 2002), managed to win.

The first move is pretty obvious: 1.Bd5. Black can't defend f7 a fourth time, and 1...Rxd5 is met by 2.e7. But if you left it at that, you didn't really solve the problem, because after, say, 2...Re5 3.exf8Q+ Kxf8 or 2...Rd2+ 3.R1f2 Rxf2+ 4.Rxf2 Bd7 5.exf8Q+ Kxf8 6.Kg3 Be6 White has a lot of work ahead of him.

The real key to the position, after 1.Bd5! Rxd5 2.e7 Re5 (2...Rd2+ 3.Kg3 will come to something similar, while 2...Rg5 3.Kh3 forces Black to play something like 3...Re5 - essentially the main line), is the move 3.Rxg6+!!



That is the heart of the solution, and Stefansson resigned here. After 3...hxg6 4.h7+ Black's king is overloaded: 4...Kg7 5.exf8Q+ Kxf8 6.h8Q+ and, for good measure, 7.Qxe5+ with complete destruction. A beautiful combination!

To replay that combination, together with the rest of the game, click here.

The Bundesliga is a German league competition, and while it goes beyond chess the royal game is spectacularly represented. Just about every super-GM in recent memory has played, excepting Kasparov (I think), and Anand and Kramnik are regulars. Kramnik has sat out this season, but Anand has played in some of the matches, including those this past weekend. His results weren't spectacular - draws with McShane and Wojtaszek - but what his games lacked others made up.

I'll leave you to explore the weekend's games for yourself, except for two games by Artur Jussupow (Yusupov). In the first, he picks apart David Baramidze in an Anti-Meran. Baramidze made a positional error well-known to those who were around in the mid-90s, when Jussupow's line was popular. Unfortunately for the 19-year-old Baramidze, he was wasting his time back then riding a tricycle and working on coloring books. If only he had known!

You're probably thinking that Jussupow should pick on someone his own age. That's just what he did in the next game (approximately): the 47-year-old Jussupow took on the 42-year-old Petr Haba. Our hero didn't gain any opening advantage this time, and when he missed Haba's 18.f4! he faced a clear disadvantage. The point is that Black would need at some point to play ...exf4, which cleared d4 - and then e6 - for a White knight. Worse still, Nd4 threatened a king + queen fork on e6, so it even came with tempo, preventing Black from capturing a hanging bishop. So what did Jussupow do? He sacrificed the queen, of course! In return, he received one bishop, one knight, one pawn. (Well, I ain't seen my baby since I don't know when...oops, wrong song.) Objectively, the sac was unsound, but practically it was fantastic. Black's position was easier to play (at least in a very few moves), and his psychological situation was simpler (he could have fun, while his opponent would be the "idiot" who failed to win with an extra queen). In the game, the sac worked perfectly. Haba couldn't figure out how to stop the Liliputians, and was speedily outplayed.

Lots of fun, really, and you can have a look for yourself, right here.

A few days ago, I offered four studies for your solving pleasure. Each is contemporary, reasonably gamelike, and shows something special in its solution. Here are the positions again:


Pervakov 2000; White to move and draw.


Matous 2003; White to move and win.


Matous 2003; White to move and win.


D. Gurgenidze and Akobija 2005; White to move and win.

When you're ready to see the solutions, click here.

It's almost routine now, but the latest impressively young player to become a grandmaster is 14-year-old Filipino Wesley So. You can read (and see) more about him here.

The Kasparov interview this weekend was a re-run. If you're interested and didn't catch it the first time around (or the second time, for that matter), here are the transcript and the video.

Fiction fans can read Ronan Bennett's chess thriller (that names the genre, not my reaction) Zugzwang, about which you can read more in this ChessBase article. As a work of fiction, I found it enjoyable as an airport book: it's a quick, easy and pleasant read on the flight, and once it's over you promptly forget it for the rest of your life.

As a work of chess fiction, it's less pleasing, as once again poor Akiba Rubinstein is once again the butt of the joke, the psychologically disturbed chess player on display yet again. (Isn't it remarkable that the paradigm of chessplayers as either nerds or nuts get repeated as nauseam, although the only evidence trotted out is poor Rubinstein [excepting an occasional cameo by the Icelandic grandmaster].)

Another Rubinstein-related issue: In the video linked to above, Bennett says that Rubinstein was the favorite to win St. Petersburg 1914 (the setting for his book), and that chess fans have debated for years why he didn't win the tournament. Response: You're kidding! Rubinstein's result was disappointing, but he was rusty and was at best a co-favorite with Lasker, who won, and Capablanca, who collapsed at the end to finish half a point behind.

There are other quibbles, but I'll close with a word to parents thinking of giving this book to your chess-playing kids: don't. There are a couple of clearly and needlessly X-rated chapters.

There's only one crass (but very funny) passage in Garry Kasparov's How Life Imitates Chess (he's quoting Boris Spassky's advice on how to play Tigran Petrosian), a fresh entrant in the glutted and somewhat stereotyped Business/Success genre. Many of those books are one part Aristotle's virtue ethics and one part positive thinking, but Kasparov's book offers more specific ideas. It also includes discussions of chess players and events I had never read anywhere else, so even if you have no interest in the Business/Success genre, you might still want it for the stories.

The chess world has grown stronger since 1996, when Gata Kamsky battled Anatoly Karpov for the FIDE half of the world championship, but Kamsky is approaching that same rarified air once again. With his win over Magnus Carlsen in the semi-finals of the World Cup, Kamsky is one match away from a showdown with Veselin Topalov, the winner in turn to play the winner of the world championship match between champion Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik.

His opponent in the final match of the World Cup remains undetermined. Sergey Karjakin pressed for a while on the White side of a Zaitsev Ruy Lopez, given an unusually quiet interpretation by Alexei Shirov, but was unable to make meaningful progress. So they're off to tiebreaks, and remarkably, this is the first tiebreaker for Shirov in the entire event!

Both the Karjakin-Shirov draw and Kamsky's surprisingly easy win over Carlsen in a sideline of the Petroff, can be found here, with my comments.

Today marks 60 revolutions around the sun for famed übertrainer Mark Dvoretsky, and 20 for American talent Hikaru Nakamura (HT: Chess Today). Both are worthy of commemoration, but the celebrations seem incommensurable. To mark Nakamura's birthday in a chess-appropriate way, one ought to play a bunch of 1-minute games. A proper Dvoretsky celebration would involve setting up some impossibly complicated tactical positions and spending 30-60 minutes trying to work it all out, only to find that you saw about 1/10 of what was there. (And that's for the grandmasters!) Whatever you decide, it's worth remembering them and their contributions to our game - they have made the chess world richer in their distinctive ways.

Both games were drawn, but they had their interesting points. Carlsen-Kamsky was of theoretical interest, as Kamsky chose the rare 5...bxc6 in a 4...Bc5 Scotch and drew with utter ease. In fact, he was slightly better out of the opening, so if you're unhappy facing the Scotch, you might want to take a close look at this game.

Shirov-Karjakin was a 6.Bg5 Najdorf, but Shirov chose a more positional interpretation. After a flurry of exchanges White reached a slightly better endgame, but after an inaccurate 29th move Karjakin achieved the draw without any trouble.

Games here.

Just a reminder: there are excellent bulletins being put out on the World Cup site after each round, featuring interviews with many of the eliminated contestants and annotated games by GM Sergey Shipov. The annotated games are worth your time, and the interviews are generally amusing. That they're amusing may not have been the interviewer's intent, though; the reason seems to be that the interviewees are annoyed by a fair number of the questions.

This is a nice one:



Can White (to move) make something good happen? (And if so, how?) The answer will be given in a couple of days. (Please don't put your answers/guesses in the comments.)

And not only did Sergey Karjakin advance, defeating Evgeny Alekseev 1.5-.5 in the rapid tiebreaks, he did it in brilliant style. The first game, with Alekseev playing White, was drawn quickly, though close analysis reveals some interesting moments behind the scenes. Alekseev might have missed a minor chance or two, but in the second game, Karjakin didn't miss a thing. In a sharp line of the Najdorf (almost a redundancy, but not quite), Karjakin showed a new move and a very powerful attacking plan that bowled his poor victim opponent over. [Recommendation: Use that game as a solitaire chess exercise, starting with White's 19th move.]

Our semi-final matches are both set, and the pairings look like this:

Shirov - Karjakin
Kamsky - Carlsen

Youth, or experience? While I'm rooting for my compatriots in chess senior citizenry, I wouldn't be too disappointed to see Karjakin and/or Carlsen progress to the final. Actually, while it would have been nice to see Ivanchuk go farther, I can't think of a player in this quartet I'd want to eliminate to have had that happen!

Semis start tomorrow; for now, here are today's games, with my comments.

For those looking to get their Kasparov fix, he'll again be on the (Wall Street) Journal Editorial Report this weekend. It airs on the Fox News Channel, and the viewing times can be found here. For those interested in seeing what he says, but can't or won't watch, go to this page on Monday and you'll be able to access the transcript.

By this I don't mean that it's time for us to study, but time to look at and solve some studies. Some time ago, when I was lamenting about the 2006 "Study of the Year" (not that it's a bad study, but just one that seems unworthy of such an honor), I wrote a prominent study composer of my acquaintance. His remark was that while some shared my view about the SOTY, there were still plenty of fantastic, accessible, gamelike studies being composed, and he passed along four of them. And now, I pass them along to you.


Pervakov 2000; White draws


Matous 2003; White wins


Matous 2003; White wins


D. Gurgenidze and Akobija, 2005; White wins

The answers will be given in a few days. (Reminder: please be courteous; do not comment solutions here or elsewhere on the blog.)

In this post of several months ago, I presented the spectacular game Ahn-Ruck.



Here White played 9.a4, a plausible move but a mistake, only to get wiped out with the brilliant 9...Nxe4!!. Along with my sources at the time, I praised Ruck for his brilliant new move. Indeed, it is brilliant, and it's the first time the move has been played in that exact position. If you take a look at Tim Krabbé's latest Open Chess Diary entry (#368), you'll see that it has been played (at least) twice before, but with colors reversed and without a4 (...a5) having been played. Actually, the trap is far more likely to arise in that context, so you might want to have a look.

Shirov won quickly, completing his smooth entry to the semi-finals with a 2-0 victory over Jakovenko. Playing Black in an English, Shirov took some risks in an equal position, and his opponent could have obtained an edge. For whatever reason, Jakovenko's responses were consistently passive, and a blunder in an already difficult position cost him the game.

In the currently popular 4.Nf3 Nimzo-Indian, Cheparinov gained a edge, quickly reaching an ending with both sides having a queen, two rooks and six pawns. Carlsen was faced with the choice of maintaining material equality and allowing a bind, or surrendering a pawn for counterplay. Of course, he chose the latter (in this case, it's not a matter of "style" but of good sense!) and Cheparinov was unable to make further progress. As Carlsen had won the first game, he thus won the match and advanced to the semi-finals.

Kamsky defeated Ponomariov, outplaying him in a Richter-Rauzer after a bit of opening trickery. Ponomariov went for the Poisoned Pawn with 7...Qb6, probably expecting Kamsky's usual bail-out line with 8.Nb3. Kamsky instead played 8.Qd2!, and now it was Ponomariov who chickened out with 8...Nc6. The play proceeding along typical lines for a while, but after Kamsky's 21.f5 it was clear that the American better understood the position. Within 10 moves Ponomariov was lost, and Kamsky advanced with a 1.5-.5 win.

Alekseev-Karjakin got off to a lively start, and although the game was relatively short (32 moves), they worked through the complications this time. The result was the same, a draw, so they will face off in tomorrow's only tiebreaker. The winner will play Shirov, and Kamsky and Carlsen meet in the other semi-final, starting Sunday.

Games, with comments, here.

We're down to the elite eight, and two players are on the verge of the final four: Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov. Carlsen's game with Ivan Cheparinov took an unusual course: a dry opening (the Torre Attack) followed by a wild middlegame leading into an apparently routine ending. I emphasize apparently, as the bishop and pawn vs. pawns ending they reached was, while "easy" to anyone using their tablebases, proved a great challenge to the players, who took turns giving away half a point. Carlsen wisely made the next-to-last error and brought home the point.

The Shirov-Dmitrij Jakovenko game was unusual in its own right. White normally doesn't grab the second Black d-pawn in the Marshall Gambit (the one arising on those occasions when White plays Bx(N)d5), but in this game Shirov not only grabbed that one with his queen, but the a6-pawn as well! In theory such a policy would be suicidal, with Black's light-squared bishop and queen hanging around the White king, but the muse deserted Jakovenko. His attempt at an attack was short-lived, and Shirov won handily.

Carlsen and Shirov should have been joined in the winners' circle by Ponomariov, who enjoyed an enormous opening advantage against Kamsky. Kamsky is nothing if not dogged, however, and Ponomariov's hasty attempts to push him around only let the lone remaining American escape with a draw.

Finally, Karjakin and Alekseev seem determined to make sure we'll have something to watch on the tiebreaks day, as they drew a non-drawn position in just 20 moves. I enjoy watching the rapid games, so as long as most of the players are fighting I'm not going to complain.

Here are the games, with my comments.

There were only three tiebreaks today - Aronian-Jakovenko, Svidler-Kamsky, and Alekseev-Bareev - and they were disastrous for the favorites. (Though all three winners were over 2700, so it's not that bad.)

Levon Aronian was looking like the favorite to win it all, but his attempt to use one of the quasi-Marshall Gambits popular these days (8.h3 Bb7 9.d3 d5!?) didn't work out. Jakovenko was able to keep the pawn, gradually neutralize Black's trumps, and win the ending. In the second game, with White, Aronian tried forever to win a drawn ending, but without success. Another favorite down!

Next up, the unusual match between Svidler and Kamsky. In the first game, Kamsky, with White, had an advantage almost throughout; often a serious advantage. Svidler held though, and enjoyed a nice advantage coming out of the opening of the second game. At some point early in the middlegame, however, he seemed to lose the thread, and Kamsky took over in a big way. This time Svidler didn't escape. Considering Kamsky's great pre-retirement results and his near-qualification for Mexico City, this can't be considered a big upset, but it is an upset nonetheless.

Finally, Alekseev did manage to get past the lower-rated Bareev - 2-0, at that - but it wasn't easy. Alekseev overextended in the first game, and had Bareev found 28...e5! it probably would have been him in round 5 instead of Alekseev. After losing the first game, Bareev was pretty much safe throughout, but the need to avoid a draw may have induced him to take a risk that eventually cost him that game as well.

Round 6 Pairings:

Alekseev - Karjakin
Shirov - Jakovenko

Ponomariov - Kamsky
Carlsen - Cheparinov

Games, with comments, here.

The 15-year old dynamo strikes again, and in impressive fashion. While the 2007 edition of the Italian Championship won't be confused with Linares in terms of strength, Caruana's achievement was tremendous nonetheless: he went 9.5/11, won by three full points, and achieved a 2740 TPR.

All together now, U.S. readers: (Italy,) send him back!

The last few weeks have seen us take a critical look at double king pawn openings where Black plays an early ...f7-f5, and the results haven't been pretty. This week we take aim at the granddaddy of f-pawn pushes in the Open Game, the King's Gambit. It's a wonderfully entertaining opening with a great history, but its soundness has certainly come into question the past few decades.

To claim that it's completely busted would be an overstatement, but it's not for want of trying. The most famous pronouncement of the KG's death came in 1961, when in the wake of his 1960 KG loss to Boris Spassky (though from a won position!), Bobby Fischer proclaimed that he had refuted it with 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6! Fischer never got the chance to try his refutation - in fact, he subsequently played the King's Gambit on several occasions, but with 3.Bc4 - but another world class grandmaster did, with great results.

That player is Yugoslav legend Svetozar Gligoric, a 3-time candidate and elite grandmaster for more than 30 years. Gligoric's resume as a player, theoretician, writer and even as an arbiter places him as one of the great figures of chess in the 20th century. (A rigorous proof: Kasparov devotes a mini-chapter to him in part III of My Great Predecessors. QED.)

Putting it all together, we'll look at Gligoric's two deliriously successful outings with Fischer's "bust" of the King's Gambit: his 27-move win over Albin Planinec (a remarkable player in his own right) and his even faster win over Ricardo Calvo; both games played in 1977. They're entertaining, of theoretical interest, and they remind us that there is no guarantee that White will have all the fun in the King's Gambit!

I look forward to seeing all you later today (Wednesday, at 9 p.m. ET; early Thursday for those of you "across the pond" in Europe); if you need directions for watching the show (free, as always), have a look here.

After two and a half years of this blog being free to any and all...it's going to remain free. If, however, any of you would like to express your gratitude to the blogger in a monetary way, there's now a PayPal "Donate" button on the right side of the blog.

Thanks in advance to any and all contributors!

Five matches down, three to go. Jakovenko-Aronian, Kamsky-Svidler and Bareev-Alekseev were all short and fairly bloodless draws, and we'll see the six of them save their thunderbolts for tomorrow's rapid tiebreaks. The other five games made up for what those games lacked, so let's turn our attention to them.

The shortest game (36 moves) was another draw, between Shirov and Akopian, but it was a lively game. Shirov, with White and needing only a draw to advance, did the right thing: he stayed true to his style. Rather than trying to dry things up, he allowed the Najdorf and then produced a novelty - a piece sac at that! That said, he didn't go too far afield, and when the chance came to force a draw, he took it. A very comfortable match for Shirov, who has been in excellent form thus far.

The next shortest game - 37 moves - was a win, with Black, for Karjakin against last round's hero (or villain, if you're an Ivanchuk fan), Nisipeanu. This game was in a way the evil twin of the Shirov game. Another Najdorf, and again White produced a novelty involving a sacrifice (though only a pawn gave its life this time around). Karjakin quickly proved that the sac was without any value, and he went on to convert his pawn advantage to a win, winning the match 1.5-.5.

After a draw in the first game Wang Yue also lost with White, to Cheparinov, marking the end of China's presence in this year's World Cup. Cheparinov won a brilliant game, sacrificing a pawn in the opening for open lines on the queenside, and then later a bishop and rook for a long-lasting attack. Wang Yue did well to get to a hopelessly lost ending, but Cheparinov played perfectly, never giving his opponent a chance.

The last two games were marathon draws, as first-game losers tried their best to win the rematch. Sasikiran and Adams had the white pieces against Ponomariov and Carlsen, respectively, but despite trying for more than 80 moves neither player succeeded.

Match Standings: (again, given in pairing format - the winner of the first pair plays the winner of the second pair; the winner of the first quartet plays the winner of the second quartet, etc.)

Karjakin 1.5 - Nisipeanu .5
Bareev 1 - Alekseev 1 (tiebreaks tomorrow)

Jakovenko 1 - Aronian 1 (tiebreaks tomorrow)
Shirov 1.5 - Akopian .5

Ponomariov 1.5 - Sasikiran .5
Kamsky 1 - Svidler 1

Carlsen 1.5 - Adams .5
Cheparinov 1.5 - Wang Yue .5 (thus Carlsen plays Cheparinov next round)

Games, with comments, here.

As the stage gets barer, the dramatic tension is increasing - but not for Aronian. His policy, as one of the best rapid players in the world - maybe the best, except for Anand - is D&D: draw and defer (to the rapid tiebreaks). Despite having the white pieces against Jakovenko, Aronian was satisfied with a 24-move draw. Karjakin-Nisipeanu was also a quick draw, one both players might have welcomed after their harrowing tiebreaks the day before.

Most of the games were drawn, but all the rest saw a lot of fight. Svidler-Kamsky had its dramatic moments, especially after Svidler's interesting 40.Ra4. Maybe he miscalculated, overlooking that Black's nimble knight wins one a-pawn while stopping the other, but I'm not sure. He didn't have anything after 40.Rc5 anyway, and he was never in real danger after 40.Ra4. If nothing else, the game confirms the non-existent adage that all knight endings are drawn.

Alekseev-Bareev was a very exciting draw in the Anti-Moscow, one of those games where both sides are playing to win up to the very end. Cheparinov-Wang Yue was far less interesting, but an instructive lesson on drawing with the bishop and isolated d-pawn against a good knight.

On to the wins. Ponomariov continues to improve his day 1 score, notching up his first win. Sasikiran played the QGA, but it didn't go so well. The decisive moment, strategically, may have been Black's decision to play 23...g6. That kept White knights off of f5, but the weakened dark squares on the long diagonal induced further weaknesses, and in the end Sasikiran was bludgeoned to death.

Akopian met a similarly grisly fate - but with White - against Shirov. There wasn't any fire on board, but there wasn't any need, given White's pawn structure:



Akopian eventually returned the pawn (not willingly!) and managed to get rid of his doubled pawns, but this was the result:



Not a big improvement! Akopian soon lost the e- and g-pawns, and was forced to resign.

Finally, one expects good technical chess in an Adams game, and that's just what we saw. Unfortunately for the Englishman, Carlsen-Adams displayed the youngster's excellent technique. If you ever wondered why strong players rant and rave about the advantage of the bishop pair (in most positions), this game will make the point clear.

Games here.

For round 3 I've taken a brief look at six games for your viewing pleasure, but you can find many more on the official site, in GM Shipov's round 3 bulletin, and several more in the ChessBase reports for day 1, day 2 and day 3.

On to the games. From day 1, there's Gata Kamsky's too-smooth light square sonata against Kiril Georgiev. It's rare to see a game between two elite GMs where "one side plays and the other side applauds", but that's what happened here.

One game from day one, two from day two. Alexei Shirov was the only player to win a game with the black pieces the first two days, and he did it in style, blowing Alexander Onischuk off the board with a speedy kingside attack. The other game from day two, by contrast, featured excellent endgame technique by Ruslan Ponomariov against Evgeny Tomashevsky. Ponomariov entered the ending with several trumps - better rooks, a better minor piece and a superior pawn structure, but even so the win required fine technique.

From day three: three games. The game Ernesto Inarkiev - Levon Aronian was amazing: Inarkiev had devised some deep preparation in the Anti-Moscow variation of the Semi-Slav, and after 20+ moves he had a big time advantage (more than 20 minutes to around 3 minutes) and was up a queen for two minors and a pawn. And he lost! His position was probably somewhat better initially, but proving it wasn't easy, as Black's forces enjoyed excellent coordination.

The next two games featured disasters. Alexander Grischuk had an ideal anti-French N vs. B ending against Evgeny Bareev, where all seven of Bareev's pawns were on light squares. Despite this, and despite having several ways to win, Grischuk could only draw (and was eliminated in the next game).

Finally, there's the latest Vassily Ivanchuk vs. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu tragedy. In the FIDE World Championship in Las Vegas, in 1999, Ivanchuk lost to Nisip