The Chess Mind

...he has a website, complete with blog.

Link.

It took quite a comeback, too. Bu Xiangzhi raced out to a substantial lead with 7.5 points after 8 rounds, while Hikaru Nakamura entered round 6 with only 3 points. From those respective high and low points, however, things turned around. In round 9 (of 10) Bu lost to Efimenko and then drew quickly with his countryman Ni Hua, while Nakamura won out, beating Efimenko in the last round. They were therefore tied for first with 8/10, but the Gibtelecom event mandated a playoff. (4000 extra British pounds went to the winner, so it wasn't trivial.)

So, the players faced off for two 10 10 games (10 minutes, plus 10 second increments). Nakamura won the first one with White, but Bu looked ready to equalize in the rematch, with an active queen against rook and knight. He was unable to figure out a way to brake Nakamura's blockade, however, and the end was tragicomic:



White's king has been running around all over the place, to no effect, but now Bu chose a less than auspicious location for the monarch: 68.Kd6?? Nxe4#. (A partial video clip from the playoff and brief interviews with Nakamura and Bu are here.)

So a fine result for Nakamura, whose 2712 TPR will push his 2679 rating a touch closer to the special and financially significant 2700 level.

Ray was a nice man and a high expert/low master I knew from my time in Las Vegas. We never played any rated games, but we had many informal battles and a few analysis sessions, and while I don't think he took any special pleasure in the competitive aspects of the game, it was clear that his was a clever and inventive mind.

He was also a great cycling enthusiast, and that, unfortunately, offered the occasion of his demise, as he was hit and killed by a car while riding between Kingman, AZ and Boulder Dam. (More about this sad event, together with some reminsicences, can be found here.) On a much brighter note, and to get a better picture of the man, you can read one of his travelogs (with lots of pictures) about a trip from Las Vegas to Oregon.

Those who knew Ray are welcome to contact his family at the phone number given here.

[HT for the links: Charles Slade]

A couple of weeks ago, I noted the presence of a new record for consecutive checks (in a composition, not a real game). That record has been broken, moving from 49 to 50 checks in a row. As I agree with Tim Krabbé that this record is likely to be short-lived, I won't reproduce it on the blog. But you can find and replay the new record here, on Krabbé's marvelous chess site. (It's entry #375.)

There's the ChessBase show tonight, of course, but I've also got two newly released videos on ChessVideos.tv. The first is the 17th-place winner in the USCL Game of the Year countdown (video here), featuring the interesting attacking game Bonin-Molner.

The second is something completely different, a fun look at some weird, fascinating backwaters in the Italian Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4). You won't learn much of mainstream theoretical value, but I hope you'll be entertained, enthused, and feeling wonder about the fascinating possibilities present in even the simplest and best-known positions. That video is here.

Q: What do these three have in common?

A: They're all still alive. Reeeeeally. Or at least maybe - see here. [HT: Boylston Chess Club blog]

From Efimenko-Bu Xiangzhi:



It's White to move; should he play 40.g4? (No comments this time, please.) The solution will be given in a day or two.

We continue to commemorate the career of Bobby Fischer, the late world chess champion, with a look at a win from the middle period of his career. By 1966 he was clearly near the top, but there was a strong case to be made for players like Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, and (by decade’s end) Bent Larsen, too. What was clear is that he was an extremely powerful player on the rise, and that power was seen in a mighty way in the Second Piatigorsky Cup in Santa Monica, California. The event was a double round-robin starring many of the best players of the day, and after the first cycle Fischer’s score was a dismal 3½-5½, leaving him 9th out of 10 players.

At this point, Fischer demonstrated his greatness as a player and turned everything around. In the next 7 rounds, Fischer scored 6½ points to pull into a tie for first with Spassky. They drew each other in the next round, but then Spassky won his last round game while Fischer could only draw against Petrosian. Thus Spassky won first place in the tournament, but Fischer’s fantastic comeback left no doubts about the threat he posed to Soviet hegemony. It took him six more years before he could break through against Spassky and win the title, but performances like this one showed that his time was coming.

As you probably guessed, we’ll take a look at one of Fischer’s games from this tournament. In round 11, he faced the “little Botvinnik”, Hungarian grandmaster and many-time Candidate Lajos Portisch. Portisch, like Fischer, was always very well-prepared in his openings, but wasn’t as good at improvisation. That cost him, as the non-standard position that arose from Fischer’s Nimzo-Indian led to a situation where Portisch followed the “rules” and got into trouble. Generally speaking, two rooks are stronger than a queen, and that’s the material balance Portisch eagerly pursued straight out of the opening. What counts, however, is how well one can coordinate one’s forces, and Fischer’s assessment proved superior, and he went on to win a strategic masterpiece.

If a player of Portisch’s exceptional caliber can seriously misassess such a position, we can too! It’s therefore in our interest to take a careful look at this game. Material imbalances like this one come up from time to time, and it’s rare that we study them in advance. So this is a wonderful opportunity to learn something new, while simultaneously taking an appreciative look at one of Fischer’s many beautiful contributions to our game. I hope, therefore, that you’ll join me tonight – Wednesday night – at 9 p.m. ET – see you then!

(Directions for watching the show live (for free) can be found here.)

Have a look at this position, from the recent game Karim - Zhu Chen.



It's White to move, but the first question that comes to mind is, why bother? Isn't this an obviously dead drawn position? Perhaps it is, but I leave proving it up to you. I'll present the rest of the game, with comments on the ending, in a few days; for now, your analysis is welcome - feel free to comment your ideas, below.

Just tidying things up. Here, with my comments, are the games from round 11. The games from rounds 12 and 13 will probably show up within 24 hours.

The game of the tournament? Granted, Kramnik's play wasn't terrific, but Carlsen's was, and it marked a double milestone for him: a win in classical chess over the former world champion - with the black pieces, at that - was a great achievement, and it helped him to win (equal first) in one of the chess world's great super-tournaments.

You can replay the game here. The annotations are mostly based on Carlsen's comments in the press conference, but I've added a few notes here and there as well.

Baczynskyj was "only" an FM, but I remember that his games were among those I watched with admiration when I was a young teenager playing in the occasional big California open. So although I never knew him personally, his presence (both as a chess player and physically, too: he was 6'6" [that's 1.98m, for those of you in countries that traded the simplicity of feet and inches for the complexity of metric measures] and quite large) in my chess childhood make me especially sorry to read of his passing.

More here. [HT: USCL]

The U.S. Chess League is counting down to the 2007 season's Game of the Year, releasing one game per week. Yesterday, the 17th place finisher, Bonin-Molner, was released; you can find the game and the judges' report here. (In a day or two, my video of the game on ChessVideos.tv will be released. You'll be shocked to read that I'll put up a new post when that happens.)

After 7 of 10 rounds, GM Bu Xiangzhi is winning with an impressive 6.5 points, half a point ahead of GMs Viorel Bologan and Zahar Efimenko, with another 33 GMs further back in this strong annual open. Other strong, noteworthy participants include Chinese GMs Wang Yue, Ni Hua and Wang Hao; former Candidates Alexander Beliavsky and Mikhail Gurevich; elite Bulgarian GM Kiril Georgiev; and from the U.S., GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Varuzhan Akobian, IM Joseph Bradford and FM Michael Langer.

Website here.

Between Corus coverage, chaperoning on Saturday and playing on Sunday, it has been a tiring weekend! But now it's time to resume blogging, and we begin with the latest Fischer remembrance to come to my attention. Frank Brady, author of the well-known Fischer biography Profile of a Prodigy, is interviewed on NPR about the late world champion.

HT: John Duffy

(Note for parents/teachers of young children: the interview has a very brief off-color moment.)

More later tonight; for now, here's a quick wrap-up.

In Group A, all the key games were drawn, leaving Aronian and Carlsen co-champs. (I'm not sure at the moment who had the better tie-breaks, but it's irrelevant as the tournament does not use them in determining the winner.) Polgar didn't achieve anything against Aronian's Marshall Gambit, while Carlsen-Radjabov went back and forth but never saw Norwegian in any serious danger. Anand tried very hard to break Kramnik down and get a third share of the title, but the latter held on and pulled out a draw.

Round 13 Results:

Ivanchuk - van Wely 1/2-1/2
Polgar - Aronian 1/2-1/2
Topalov - Adams 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Eljanov 1-0 (Gelfand's first and only win in the event)
Leko - Mamedyarov 1-0 (A bit of a massacre)
Carlsen - Radjabov 1/2-1/2
Anand - Kramnik 1/2-1/2

Final Standings:

1-2. Aronian, Carlsen 8
3-4. Anand, Radjabov 7.5
5-6. Ivanchuk, Leko 7
7-8. Adams, Kramnik 6.5
9-11. Mamedyarov, Topalov, Polgar 6
12-14. Eljanov, van Wely, Gelfand 5

Group B:

All the relevant games were drawn, so Movsesian won with 9.5 (and a 2788 TPR), a point ahead of Short and Bacrot. This means that Movesesian qualifies for next year's Group A tournament.

Group C:

Coming into the last round, Caruana led Negi by a full point, and as it turned out they were paired for the finale. Negi chose the Marshall Gambit with the Black pieces, but Caruana successfully held the pawn and went on to win. Thus Caruana, who scored 10/13 (2696 TPR) won by two points ahead of Negi and Reinderman, and automatically qualifies for the Group B event next year.

Games later!

Round 13, the final round, is underway, so I'll keep this relatively brief.

The big result of round 13 was Carlsen's win - with Black - over Kramnik. Kramnik losses are rare enough, and he loses with White just a little more frequently than Roger Federer loses a tennis semi-final. Anyway, Carlsen played very well, and, helped along by a Kramnik miscalculation on move 29, he managed to win the game and catch Aronian in first place. As all the other games relevant to first place were drawn, the key standings saw Carlsen and Aronian with 7.5 and Anand and Radjabov with 7. With Carlsen playing Radjabov in the last round, anything could happen!

Round 12 Results:

van Wely - Anand 1/2-1/2
Kramnik - Carlsen 0-1
Radjabov - Leko 1/2-1/2
Mamedyarov - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Eljanov - Topalov 1-0 (!)
Adams - Polgar 0-1
Aronian - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 12:

1-2. Aronian, Carlsen 7.5
3-4. Anand, Radjabov 7
5. Ivanchuk 6.5
6-9. Leko, Adams, Kramnik, Mamedyarov 6
10-11. Topalov, Polgar 5.5
12. Eljanov 5
13. van Wely 4.5
14. Gelfand 4

Pairings for Round 13: (The last round)

Ivanchuk - van Wely
Polgar - Aronian
Topalov - Adams
Gelfand - Eljanov
Leko - Mamedyarov
Carlsen - Radjabov
Anand - Kramnik

Other Groups:

In group B, Movesian continued his winning ways, defeating L'Ami, while his closest pursuers (Short and Bacrot) drew each other. Thus with one round to go, the leading standings are:

1. Movsesian 9
2-3. Short, Bacrot 8

Meanwhile, in Group C, Caruana continued to win. Of those entering the round within a point of the youngster, only Negi kept pace. He's still a point back with a round to go, but as they're playing each other (Caruana has White) anything's possible.

1. Caruana 9
2. Negi 8

Finally, in the finale of the Honorary Group, Timman beat Korchnoi's 1...e5 in the last round, while Ljubojevic defeated Portisch. The final standings look like this:

1. Ljubojevic 4
2-3. Timman, Korchnoi 3
4. Portisch 2

I'll be unavailable to blog until late Saturday at the earliest, so this overly brief recap will have to do until then. A pity, because it was an extremely eventful round, with Carlsen finally losing his lead in the tournament. He had White against Anand, but - thanks again, Judit - now that he's on a roll, it's trouble for the rest of the field. The world champion defeated Carlsen, and now they're tied at +2.

They're joined at that score by Radjabov, who defeated tail-ender Gelfand with his signature opening, the King's Indian Defense. (Gelfand loves queenside openings, but as long as Radjabov's playing the Schliemann he really ought to make an exception.) Yet +2 isn't good enough at this point, as Aronian defeated van Wely, and enjoys solo first at +3. Three other players are at +1, so with two rounds to go the tournament is far from decided.

Round 11 Results:

Aronian - van Wely 1-0
Ivanchuk - Adams 1/2-1/2
Polgar - Eljanov 0-1
Topalov - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Radjabov 0-1
Leko - Kramnik 1/2-1/2
Carlsen - Anand 0-1

Standings after Round 11:

1. Aronian 7
2-4. Radjabov, Carlsen, Anand 6½
5-7. Kramnik, Adams, Ivanchuk 6
8-10. Mamedyarov, Topalov, Leko 5½
11-12. Polgar, Eljanov 4½
13. van Wely 4
14. Gelfand 3½

Pairings for Round 12:

van Wely - Anand
Kramnik - Carlsen
Radjabov - Leko
Mamedyarov - Gelfand
Eljanov - Topalov
Adams - Polgar
Aronian - Ivanchuk

Other Groups:

In Group B, Movsesian continues to lead, but his 8/11 score is only good for a half-point over Short and Bacrot. In Group C, Caruana extended his lead to a full point over the chase pack; he has 8 points, while Reinderman, Nijboer and Negi have 7. Finally, in the Honorary Group Korchnoi made a colossal blunder in a dead drawn* ending against Ljubojevic, just trying to hard to win. Portisch meanwhile defeated Timman, which means that the winners caught the losers: Korchnoi and Ljubojevic lead with 3-2, while Portisch and Timman trail at 2-3.

* Positions can be objectively "dead", but experience teaches us over and over again that if a player really sets his mind to losing a game, there is almost no force in the whole of reality that can stop him.

In rounds 3 and 4 of the Honorary Group at Corus, both Viktor Korchnoi and Ljubomir Ljubojevic have been putting on a show (especially the latter). So for your entertainment, here are their games from those rounds, mostly with comments from the Corus website and Ljubojevic's round 4 press conference, but with some of my own as well. The Timman-Ljubojevic game is especially worth replaying, as it reprised the 12.Nxf7 sac from the remarkable Topalov-Kramnik game in round 9.

In this post I mentioned that the U.S. Chess League had released the identity of the 18th place game in their Game of the Year countdown for the 2007 season. The game was Mikhailuk-Schroer, and I've presented the game for ChessVideos.tv. It's an entertaining and initially mysterious game, as White seems to be in control until Black suddenly sacrifices the exchange for a whirlwind attack the finishes quite nicely. I think you'll enjoy the presentation, which you can watch for free and without any special software - it's just a click away.

Both are on the Chess Cafe website. The first, by Hans Ree, is especially interesting: At the Kibbutz with Bobby. Ree offers a reminiscence of his time with Fischer at the 1968 tournament in Netanya, Israel. [HT: Brian Karen.] Less colorful, but still perhaps worth your time if you're relatively new to Fischer's games and career, is Tim Harding's Bobby Fischer, 25 Years On. This article offers a brief overview of his results in world championship cycles, followed by light coverage of three of his games.

Just in case you were making plans to sit and watch in the morning, you can reschedule! The tournament resumes on Friday and concludes on Sunday.

That's the title of a nice article in Drexel's "The Smart Set", about an Icelandic bookstore Fischer frequented during his last years. Worth reading.

HT: Brian Karen

A couple of days ago I offered this position from a blitz game between Alexey Korotylev and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. It's Black to move and win.



Worked it out? If so, and you want to check your answer, or even if not and you simply want relief, enlightenment is but a click away.

The tournament finished a few days ago, but as far as I've seen neither TWIC nor Chess Today has reported the final results. They are available on the event website, but even there all the questions aren't answered. Here are the final standings:

1. Asrian 8 45,5
2. Minasian Art. 8 42
3. Ter-Sahakyan 7,5 43,75
4. Kotanjian 7,5 40,5
5. Petrosian T. L. 7,5 38
6. Andriasian Z. 7 38,5
7. Minasian Ara 6,5 35
8. Lputian 6 35,25
9. Pashikian 6 32,75
10. Babujian 4 21,25
11. Yegiazarian 3,5 21,75
12. Anastasian 3,5 15
13. Nalbandian 3 17,25

But now a question: are Asrian and Minasian co-champions, did Asrian win on tiebreaks, or will they have a playoff match? If someone knows, please leave the answer in the comments.

Here's a brief video interview with former world champion Anatoly Karpov, taken by ChessVibes at the Corus tournament. It's fairly short, but he has some brief comments about Carlsen and the Corus tournament, Fischer's passing, and "handshakegate". (If I recall correctly, he too has had some non-handshake games, but the interviewer didn't bring that up. It might have proved entertaining had he done so, but he was right to refrain. I don't believe he and Kasparov ever abstained from shaking hands, but I think he did abstain on several occasions involving Korchnoi and other Soviet defectors.)

Horrible. Loek van Wely was completely destroying Magnus Carlsen, but after several consecutive blunders turned a pretty straightforward win into a loss. This gave the youngster clear first, as Levon Aronian drew a quick game (with Black) against Michael Adams. That kept Aronian in clear second, half a point behind Carlsen, while Adams remained in a big tie for third another half a point back.

Also in that third-place tie is Viswanathan Anand, who got nothing with White against Peter Leko and drew in 19 moves. Teimour Radjabov almost moved into a tie for second, as he enjoyed what looked like a big advantage against Veselin Topalov, but he couldn't convert it and that too ended in a draw. Vladimir Kramnik remained in the tie as well, as his attempts to press against Boris Gelfand were in vain. Vassily Ivanchuk is the fifth member of the third-place quintet, graduating from the lower score group with a long grind 'em out win against Pavel Eljanov.

The last game, which, amazingly, was the only one not to feature someone who wound up tied for third or better, was the quick draw between Shakhriyard Mamedyarov and Judit Polgar. Even they're not so far back, though, so the tournament remains very much in the air - at least as long as Carlsen doesn't receive more gifts!

Round 10 Results:

van Wely - Carlsen 0-1
Anand - Leko 1/2-1/2
Kramnik - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Radjabov - Topalov 1/2-1/2
Mamedyarov - Polgar 1/2-1/2
Eljanov - Ivanchuk 0-1
Adams - Aronian 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 10:

1. Carlsen 6.5
2. Aronian 6
3-7. Adams, Anand, Radjabov, Ivanchuk, Kramnik 5.5
8-10. Leko, Topalov, Mamedyarov 5
11. Polgar 4.5
12. van Wely 4
13. Gelfand 3.5
14. Eljanov 3

Pairings for Round 11:

Aronian - van Wely
Ivanchuk - Adams
Polgar - Eljanov
Topalov - Mamedyarov
Gelfand - Radjabov
Leko - Kramnik
Carlsen - Anand

Other Groups:

In the B-group, Movsesian won, giving a full-point lead over Bacrot, who drew, and Short, who also won. C-group leader Caruana lost but maintained his half-point lead over Reinderman, who also lost. While Caruana's lead remains, the chase pack has grown, as Nijboer (who beat Reinderman) and Negi are also just half a point back. (In the Braun watch, he just lost his fourth game in a row, so we'll put an end to the GM-norm watch at this point.)

Last but definitely not least, the Honorary Group had a great round today. Ljubojevic decided to go macho against Timman, playing the black side of the Cheparinov knight sac from yesterday's Topalov-Kramnik game. And he won! Meanwhile, Korchnoi also won with Black, against Portisch, and now enjoys a full-point lead in that event.

Leading Standings in Group B:

1. Movsesian 7.5
2-3. Short, Bacrot 6.5
4. Nepomniachtchi 6

Leading Standings in Group C:

1. Caruana 7
2. Nijboer, Reinderman, Negi 6.5

Honorary Group Standings:

1. Korchnoi 3 (out of 4)
2-3. Timman, Ljubojevic 2
4. Portisch 1

Group A games, with comments, here.

With the passing of the 11th World Chess Champion, the legendary Robert James Fischer, it's appropriate to spend some time commemorating his great career and contributions to the game. We'll start this week with the game that launched him on the world stage, his win as a 13-year-old over the very strong master Donald Byrne, from the 1956 Rosenwald tournament.

Though it was a prestigious event, Fischer's participation was not "on the merits", as it were (his rating in 1956 was a not exactly whopping 1726!), but because he had won the U.S. Junior Championship earlier in the year. So although he was clearly on the rise, I'm sure he was still looked upon as an outside in the de facto U.S. Championship. He didn't win the event, but he finished with a very respectable -2 performance. And then there's the game with Donald Byrne...

To say that the game was brilliant is to understate things, though Hans Kmoch's label "Game of the Century" may go a bit too far. He's right in spirit, though: this was a stunning debut by the youngster. Not only was it a great game, but it was a promise of much more to come, a promise that was fulfilled - at least in chess - over the years to come. So I think this is an appropriate way to begin our tribute to Fischer's career, and I hope you'll join me tonight (Wednesday) night at 9 p.m. ET on the playchess.com server as we examine this game.

(The shows are free, and you can find more information about watching here.)

In the no-handshake game du jour (video here), Veselin Topalov exploded a three year old novelty bomb wholly prepared by his sometime second (and fellow non-handshaker) Ivan Cheparinov. Fortunately for Vladimir Kramnik, he didn't walk into this in their Elista world championship match, but it was still a magnificent and decisive victory for Topalov against an elite (and hated) opponent.



In this very popular position from the Anti-Moscow Gambit in the Semi-Slav, White generally plays 12.Nxd7 - a move we've already seen three times in this tournament (Radjabov - Anand, Radjabov - van Wely, and Kramnik - Aronian). Here, Topalov detonated a new and most unpleasant move: 12.Nxf7!?/!! As far as I can tell, White has at least sufficient compensation for the sacrificed piece, and that's just speaking objectively. From the practical standpoint, Kramnik was in a hopeless situation. Maybe he had considered this in passing at some point in his general home preparation, but Cheparinov's analysis went to move 40 in some variations. Kramnik was unable to pull a Capablanca*, and was quickly lost. Topalov blundered a valuable pawn on move 34, but his play was otherwise clean and even the blunder wasn't enough to rescue Kramnik. (For those who are interested, videos of Topalov presenting the game to the press can be found here. In my game file, linked below, I've included all of his analysis and added some of my own.)

Topalov's win brought him back to 50% and put Kramnik in danger of falling further behind tournament leader Magnus Carlsen. As it turned out, he too lost his first game of the event, to the hitherto winless Peter Leko. Leko enjoyed an edge on the White side of the Breyer Defense (closed Ruy), but it wasn't obvious that this would translate into a full point. Then Carlsen blundered a piece, and that was the anticlimactic end.

The other decisive game was Adams - van Wely, which saw Fischer's 6.Bc4 against the Najdorf. The game was well-played and balanced for a long time, but on move 32 van Wely blundered a pawn to a subtle tactical trick. The rest of the game was fairly easy for Adams, who won his first game after eight consecutive draws and moved into a third place tie with Kramnik, Anand, and Radjabov.

Speaking of draws, the four remaining games all ended peacefully, three of them extremely quickly. The most important of the draws was Aronian-Eljanov. I thought this game would give Aronian an excellent chance to take the lead, with White against a tail-ender. I was right, but not the way I thought: he drew in 20 moves, but Carlsen and Kramnik going down it was enough to move into a first-place tie.

Radjabov continued his crazy flirtation with the Schliemann, but Polgar chose a line with a lame reputation. This game did nothing to rehabilitate it, but it was still good enough for an easy draw. Gelfand-Anand was a reprise of their second game from Mexico City. In an Open Catalan, Anand used the rare 10...Bd6 to achieve easy equality in the earlier game, and it worked the second time around as well. He's now tied for third with Kramnik, Adams, and Radjabov, half a point behind the leaders. The fourth draw, Ivanchuk-Mamedyarov, was unlike the other three. It went all the way to move 41 (the others were drawn in 25 moves or fewer), and wasn't a nice, neat, tidily balanced game. Ivanchuk was better, even winning, but let his young opponent off the hook in time trouble.

Results for Round 9:

Adams - van Wely 1-0
Aronian - Eljanov 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
Polgar - Radjabov 1/2-1/2
Topalov - Kramnik 1-0
Gelfand - Anand 1/2-1/2
Leko - Carlsen 1-0

Standings after Round 9:

What had been a stratified leaderboard has turned into a horse race, and it looks like a photo-finish will be necessary. Ten players are within a point of first!

1-2. Aronian, Carlsen 5.5
3-6. Kramnik, Adams, Radjabov, Anand 5
7-10. Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov, Leko, Topalov 4.5
11-12. van Wely, Polgar 4
13-14. Gelfand, Eljanov 3

Pairings for Round 10:

van Wely - Carlsen
Anand - Leko
Kramnik - Gelfand
Radjabov - Topalov
Mamedyarov - Polgar
Eljanov - Ivanchuk
Adams - Aronian

Suddenly, just about every game is important for the standings, and that's the way we like it! Let's hope the players feel inspired and rise to the occasion.

The round 9 games can be replayed, with my comments, here. Now on to a brief summary of what's happening with the other groups.

Leading Standings for Group B:

1. Movsesian 6.5
2. Bacrot 6
3. Short 5.5

Leading Standings for Group C:

1. Caruana 7(!)
2. Reinderman 6.5
3-4. Negi, Nijboer 5.5

Sadly, Braun has lost his third straight game, and unless he gets really hot the last four rounds he'll have to wait until his next tournament to achieve his final GM norm.

Honorary Group:

A repeat of the last round, really: two draws: one perfunctory (Timman-Portisch, 1/2-1/2, 18), one - Korchnoi's, of course (Ljubojevic-Korchnoi, 1/2-1/2, 31) - full of excitement. Korchnoi and Timman still share the lead at 2-1, Ljubo and Portisch are 1-2.


*Referring to the Cuban's brilliant on-sight refutation of the Marshall's big-league Marshall Gambit debut from New York 1918.

Links and a picture here.

Here's a new one, from a 2007 blitz game between Alexey Korotylev and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov:



It's Black (Mamedyarov) to move. Try to find the right move and all the key justifications. It can't be that hard, can it? After all, it's from a blitz game.

The solution will be given in a day or two; readers are asked not to spoil others' fun by posting your answer.

Yesterday Ivan Cheparinov twice refused to shake Nigel Short's hand at the start of their 8th round game in the ongoing Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, and was forfeited for his action. Cheparinov and his manager, Silvio Danailov, filed an appeal, correctly, and the matter went to the Appeals Committee. Their decision was that Cheparinov had to apologize, the players had to shake hands, and that they'd have to replay the game today.

And that's what happened. Here's the apology - it's as unconvincing as possible, but they didn't require sincerity or tears:

Dear All,

I accept the decision of the Appeal Committee and on the name of chess ,the chess fans and showing respect to the opinion of my colleagues would like to state the following:

I apologize officially to Mr. Short, to the Organizing Committee and the sponsors of Corus chess tournament.

I am ready to play the game today at 13’30 and will shake hands with Mr.Short according to the decision of the Appeal Committee.

Best regards,

Ivan Cheparinov

Shake hands they did, and you can find a picture of that cheery event here. And then there's the game (which you can replay here). Short won, and in very good style, at that. Best of all are his post-game comments:

"I played a bloody good game." "I was going to quit the tournament but at some point I became determined." "There is a god and he's not Bulgarian."

Gens una sumus, indeed.

It feels like I posted the following puzzle about a week ago, but it was only yesterday!



It's White to move. What can he do about the terrible threat of 1...Rb1? The spectacular answer can be found here.

For your accessing convenience, I've added three new categories to the sidebar: one for the USCL Game of the Year countdown, a second for all the Corus 2008 events, and a third for posts commemorating the passing of Bobby Fischer.

The Group A tournament in Wijk aan Zee is clearly the main event, but the Group B, Group C, and Honorary Group tournaments also feature strong players and great games. (There have probably been some fine games in the amateur competition as well, but if I try to hunt them down I won't have a semblance of a life.) I've picked out four games, somewhat at random, that struck me as interesting.

The first two are from Group C, and present the losses of former leader Arik Braun. It's a pity that his wins aren't being presented, but the two losses are significant. The first one, to GM Efstratios Grivas, was a real crowd-pleaser. Grivas opened with a (temporary) knight sacrifice, and although Braun resigned one move too soon, could have concluded with a queen sac. An excellent game by Grivas, best known in the chess world as a prolific author. The second Braun loss determined the leadership of the event as of round 8, as he and co-leader GM Fabiano Caruana squared off. The quality of this game was at times erratic, but its importance makes it noteworthy.

The next two are Korchnoi's games from the Honorary Group: an eventful Queen's Gambit win over Lajos Portisch in round 1, and a well-played draw by both players, Korchnoi and Timman, in round 2.

The games, with some comments, are here. Sated yet?

First, you can find the video of the start of Short-Cheparinov here. Second, I had wondered parenthetically in my post on round 8 of Corus what would happen in Tuesday's Topalov-Kramnik game; you'll find the answer in the aforementioned video link. Here's what it says:

Addendum: Apparently there is no handshake planned for the Topalov-Kramnik game on Tuesday. In an interview an in the Bulgarian sports news agency SportNi Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov was asked: "On Tuesday Topalov plays Kramnik. FIDE has said the players will have to pay a fine of they do not shake hands." Danailov's answer: "I think there will be no shake of hands because nobody will give his hand first."

It's too late to enter it, but the various prize-winning entries can be found here as a PDF, and you can download the problems as a PGN by going here and then scrolling down for it. This tournament will keep everyone busy!

(In passing, for those who will check it out, there's a cook of the Gurgenidze & Akobia entry. It's not mentioned in the PDF, but in the PGN file the line "7.Rd3+? Kxd3 8.d8Q Kc2" is given, presumably as an argument for the necessity of 7.Rd4, the main move. Unfortunately, the position after 8...Kc2 is an easy win for White, starting with the obvious 9.Qc7/8+.)

This is the best summary of his career I've seen, with some little stories thrown for good measure.

Link.

Today's round was another lame one, as often happens before a rest day, but the four quick draws were to some degree offset by three hard-fought games. Let's start with the quickies.

Eljanov - Adams was the quickest and least interesting of the bunch, an Open Catalan that saw a novelty on move 15, liquidation of the central tension on move 18, and a draw on move 20. Van Wely - Leko was more interesting from a fan point of view, but it too followed familiar lines. The 4.Qc2 Nimzo-Indian often finds Black combating White's bishop pair by quickly opening the center, trying to use his superior development. That's what happened here, and ultimately van Wely neutralized Black's initiative by returning the bishop pair, resulting in a boringly level game. In Mamedyarov - Aronian, White seemed to have a slight edge in a Meran Semi-Slav, but he was unable to maintain it. A balanced ending with a stable pawn structure was the result, and as usual, that spelled draw. The "marathon" of the quickies, Radjabov - Ivanchuk, made it all the way to move 28 before the draw was agreed. The sideline of the Classical Caro-Kann they chose looked interesting, but had been seen before in high-level play. (Well, at least the fans probably liked it until the draw was agreed.)

Kramnik - Polgar was a meatier affair, but still drawn. Kramnik played an old favorite of his, the Queen's Indian-cum-incipient Hedgehog with 7.Re1. Polgar played an interesting pawn sac, entering an ending with queens and rooks. She never had compensation for the pawn, but that doesn't really mean that she was in serious trouble, either. Kramnik's king was a little vulnerable, and the way to handle that was to enter a drawn rook ending that Polgar held without much trouble.

If White had won in Carlsen - Gelfand, he could have increased his lead over Kramnik and Aronian to a full point. He did reach an ending with an extra pawn, but like Polgar, Gelfand defended very well and held. All rook endings are drawn (except when they aren't)!

The one decisive game du jour was Anand - Topalov, which found the current champion defeat the erstwhile champ in an English Attack. White may not have had much from the opening, but Black found it difficult to coordinate his pieces. Between the h3-c8 diagonal and then the a1-h8 diagonal, Topalov couldn't figure out how to unravel his pieces, and Anand won nicely. (Thanks again, Judit.) This should effectively eliminate Topalov from contention, but now Anand is right back in the mix.

Round 8 Results:

van Wely - Leko 1/2-1/2, 27
Carlsen - Gelfand 1/2-1/2, 67
Anand - Topalov 1-0, 40
Kramnik - Polgar 1/2-1/2, 49
Radjabov - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2, 28
Mamedyarov - Aronian 1/2-1/2, 27
Eljanov - Adams 1/2-1/2, 20

Standings after Round 8:

1. Carlsen 5½
2-3. Kramnik, Aronian 5
4-5. Radjabov, Anand 4½
6-9. Mamedyarov, Adams, Ivanchuk, van Wely 4
10-12. Polgar, Topalov, Leko, 3½
13-14. Eljanov, Gelfand 2½

Pairings for Round 9: (On Tuesday; Monday is a rest day for everyone but Short and Cheparinov in Group B.)

Adams - van Wely
Aronian - Eljanov
Ivanchuk - Mamedyarov
Polgar - Radjabov
Topalov - Kramnik
Gelfand - Anand
Leko - Carlsen

I expect draws from Carlsen and Anand, but Aronian will have a good chance to reach a first-place tie with the white pieces against tail-ender Eljanov. And Topalov - Kramnik should be entertaining, too. (Will they shake hands?) Let's turn to the other groups.

Leading Standings in Group B:

1. Movsesian 6
2. Bacrot 5½
3-5. Smeets, Stellwagen, Harikrishan 4½

Short has 4 and Cheparinov 3½, but with their game yet to be played one of them will make it onto this table.

Leading Standings in Group C:

1. Caruana 6
2. Reinderman 5½
3-5. Braun, Van der Wiel, Negi 5

Braun started with 5/6, but has lost the last two games - to Caruana in today's round - and now not only doesn't lead but has fallen below the rating standard needed for his final GM norm. Fortunately, most of his remaining games are against players on the bottom half of the crosstable, so as long as he isn't too badly shaken his chances of achieving that norm are still very good.

Honorary Group, Round 2:

Korchnoi - Timman was a real game, with the grand old man pressing hard for many moves before acknowledging the draw. Portisch - Ljubo was a damp squib of a game (drawn in 14 moves), but fortunately they'll only play each other once more.

Honorary Group Standings:

1-2. Timman, Korchnoi 1½
3-4. Portisch, Ljubojevic ½

Finally, we close the post with a link: the round 8 games, with my comments, are here.

The U.S. Chess League is counting down to the 2007 season's Game of the Year, releasing one game per week. Yesterday, the 18th place finisher was released; you can find the game and the judges' report here. (In a day or two, my video of the game on ChessVideos.tv will be released. You'll be shocked to read that I'll put up a new post when that happens.)

As noted earlier today, the Short - Cheparinov game from the Corus Group B tournament was adjudged a forfeit when Cheparinov twice refused to shake Short's hand at the start of the game. Cheparinov was willing to shake hands after the arbiter was brought into the matter, and as that seems to agree with the actual FIDE rule, Cheparinov filed an appeal. The Appeals Committee agreed, deciding the following:

1. We declare that GM Cheparinov must make a public excuse to GM Short in a written form before 11.00 hours January 21st 2008 for his refusal to shake hands. 2. Then the game between Ivan Cheparinov and Nigel Short has to be replayed on Monday January 21st 2008 at 13.30 hours. 3. Both players must shake hands at the start of the game. 4. Any player failing to comply with the present decision forfeits the game.

More info here.

That's what Icelandic GM and Fischer friend Helgi Olafsson suggested.

HT: Brian Karen

They're here. Round 8 report - and games - coming shortly.

Here's the trick: Insult your future opponents or those they are associated with. That way, when it's time to shake hands at the start of the game, they'll refuse and be forfeited, at least in FIDE events. That's what happened in today's (non-) game between Nigel Short and Ivan Cheparinov. Much more on the matter here, for those who are interested, but I'll reproduce the relevant FIDE rule here:

Any player who does not shake hands with the opponent (or greets the opponent in a normal social manner in accordance with the conventional rules of their society) before the game starts in a FIDE tournament or during a FIDE match (and does not do it after being asked to do so by the arbiter) or deliberately insults his/her opponent or the officials of the event, will immediately and finally lose the relevant game.

What do you think, readers? Is this the dumbest rule ever, an attempt to mandate hypocritical acts of respect for even the most vile opponent? (I mean this as a general point, not a remark about Short in particular.) Or is this a reasonable attempt to put the game above personal disputes and nationalistic squabbles?

For those who have enjoyed this blog and my online shows on ChessVideos.tv and on ChessBase, you're invited to consider having your humble blogger as your coach. I have room for a couple of students in my schedule, preferably on Tuesdays or on Thursdays (pre-evening, Eastern Time). (Other times can be considered.) Interested parties should contact me via this link; hurry before the slots are taken!

Last night's massive Fischer post has me too tired to enthusiastically annotate today's Group A games from Corus, but here are the results. (The games will follow in due course.)

Round 7 Results:

Eljanov - van Wely 1/2-1/2
Adams - Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
Aronian - Radjabov 1-0
Ivanchuk - Kramnik 1/2-1/2
Polgar - Anand 0-1
Topalov - Carlsen 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Leko 1/2-1/2

There were only two decisive games, but everyone put in an honest day's work. Ivanchuk - Kramnik was the shortest game, and it went 37 moves and forced Kramnik to solve some problems before he achieved the draw. Eljanov - van Wely was also drawn, but only after 72 moves and both sides - especially van Wely, near the end - missed good chances for more. Adams - Mamedyarov was a literal fight to the finish, as the game was agreed drawn only when there was no other legal possibility: the players went down to bare kings. Adams had good chances in that game as well, but Mamedyarov's did a better job of neutralizing White's advantage than Adams did of increasing it. Topalov - Carlsen and Gelfand - Leko repeated the pattern: White had an advantage, but missed chances to increase it, resulting in two further draws.

That leaves us with the decisive games, Polgar - Anand and Aronian - Radjabov. Surprisingly, Polgar achieved an advantage coming out of the opening (a double surprise, as her prep usually isn't that great while Anand's generally is), but she lost the thread and then her objectivity. That's generally a fatal combination, and so it was here. Anand won, and thanks to Polgar's present everyone else is going to suffer: once Anand gets confident, he starts chewing up the field. Finally, Aronian's win was about the only really clean performance of the round: he not only achieved an advantage, he carried it through to the finish, to the special delight of Armenians everywhere. The win brings him into a tie for second with Kramnik, half a point behind the tournament's youngest participant.

Standings after Round 7:

1. Carlsen 5
2-3. Kramnik, Aronian 4½
4. Radjabov 4
5-10. Mamedyarov, Adams, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Anand, van Wely 3½
11-12. Polgar, Leko 3
13-14. Eljanov, Gelfand 2

Pairings for Round 8:

van Wely - Leko
Carlsen - Gelfand
Anand - Topalov
Kramnik - Polgar
Radjabov - Ivanchuk
Mamedyarov - Aronian
Eljanov - Adams

Carlsen and Kramnik both have a nice opportunity to solidify their places at the top with White against underperforming opponents, while Anand - Topalov looks likely to eliminate at least one of the world champions from first place contention.

Leading Standings for Group B:

1-2. Movesian, Bacrot 5
3-6. Harikrishna, Stellwagen, Smeets, Short 4

Leading Standings for Group C:

1-2. Caruana, Braun 5 (Braun was bludgeoned by Grivas; I'll have that game for you later.)
3-5. Nijboer, Reinderman, Grivas 4.5

Honorary Group Results, Round 1:

Kortchnoi (or "Korchnoi", or "Kortschnoj") - Portisch 1-0
Ljubojevic - Timman 0-1

These games will also be presented later on.

For your viewing pleasure, here are two Fischer videos: one starring him, the other about him. The first, on YouTube (HT: Brian Karen), shows him at 15 years of age on the game show "I've Got a Secret"; the second, from chess.fm (choose Day 6, "Fischer Remembered"), is a compilation of players' reactions at Wijk aan Zee (the latter includes some especially interesting comments from Anand).

I found (and to my pleasure, solved) the following position, #497 in John Emms' The Ultimate Chess Puzzle Book (Gambit, 2000):



It's White to move, and in view of the threatened 1...Rb1 the situation looks dire. What should he do? Please don't offer answers in the comments for this one; I'll supply the answer in a day or two.

Etienne Bacrot, the current leader in the Group B event at Wijk aan Zee, won a very nice game over Jan Smeets in the Marshall Gambit in round 5. Or perhaps we could say that Bacrot, Naiditsch (his second), and their computers won the game. The game went 38 moves, and Bacrot was in his home preparation through at least move 27. (His comment to that move: "A tactic that was found just before the game.") Since recognizing the strength of that move requires at least a little examination, it's possible that at least another move or two was part of his preparation. So it was a nice accomplishment: 27+ moves at home, 11- moves at the board.

Anyway, draw your own conclusions, but enjoy the game, which you can replay here.

It's hard to distill the best of Bobby Fischer's chess, as he played so many wonderful games. Still, I've selected some of my favorites, which you can replay via the link below.

1. Donald Byrne - Fischer, Rosenwald 1956. The so-called "Game of the Century", this put Fischer, just an expert at the time, from "future talent" to the "uh oh...heaven help us" category. Just 13 at the time, his 11...Na4!! and 17...Be6!! revealed a brilliant tactician on his way to beating the world.

2. Fischer - James Sherwin, U.S. Championship 1957. This game from his first U.S. Championship featured a beautiful combination he included in Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. (Or did he? Rumors have swirled around that he didn't actually write the book.)

3. Paul Keres - Fischer, Candidates Tournament 1959. Playing Black in Round 1 of the Candidates against one of the favorites, he wins - and more or less refutes Keres' ingenious new idea in the process.

4. Fischer - Efim Geller, Bled 1961. Fischer had a poor overall score against Geller, but this game is an absolute crush. Geller, like Keres in the preceding game, had prepared a novelty, but Fischer mangles it on spec.

5. Fischer - Lajos Portisch, Stockholm Interzonal 1962. A virtuoso rook ending by Fischer, on his way to the first big international triumph of his career.

6. Fischer - Julio Bolbochan, Stockholm Interzonal 1962. This is one of several games where Fischer, on the White side of an Open Sicilian, manages to achieve a good knight (on d5) vs. bad bishop (on e7) middlegame, and he wins this in style. Fischer attacks his poor opponent all over the board until something finally gives, and it does. (Note: I covered this game on a recent ChessBase show; interested viewers can look that up in the playchess.com archives.)

7. Fischer - Miguel Najdorf, Varna Olympiad 1962. A very impressive demolition of the Polish/Argentinian great; made even more impressive by his prediction that he'd win in 25. (He went one better, winning in 24 moves.)

8. Fischer - Pal Benko, U.S. Championship 1963/4. Not a very difficult game (the Rf6 motif so beloved of chess fans was found by the 12 year old Tal 14 or 15 years earlier), but it's such a fan favorite I'll include it anyway.

9. Robert Byrne - Fischer, U.S. Championship 1963/4. The gem of the championship, which he won with an 11-0 score. Byrne didn't see what was coming until very near the end, and apparently the commentators thought that it was Fischer who resigned!

10. Fischer - Lhamsuren Miagmasuren, Sousse Interzonal 1967. Fischer would often trot out the King's Indian Attack against lesser opposition, and games like this one might encourage you to take it up as well.

11. Fischer - Leonid Stein, Sousse Interzonal 1967. A very hard-fought win against one of the world's best (and most luckless) players at the time. It's the last game in Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games, and a fitting coda to that collection.

12. Fischer - Dragoljub Minic, Vinkovci 1968. Fischer famously pronounced that he had busted the King's Gambit...and then went on to play it several times, a few years later. This was the last of his wins with the opening.

13. Milan Matulovic - Fischer, Vinkovci 1968. This is a companion piece to the Bolbochan game mentioned above. (I presented this game in that same ChessBase show, so you'll get a 2-for-1 if you track it down.) There, with White, he exploited the d5 square to get a good knight vs. bad bishop scenario; here, he prevents White from using the d5 square, and ends up with...a good knight vs. bad bishop scenario.

14. Fischer - Samuel Schweber, Buenos Aires 1970. The game is justly famous for Fischer's stupendously creative combination, starting with the semi-bizarre 18.Rg3. Whether or not that move is genuinely good, the idea is magnificent.

15. Fischer - Wolfgang Unzicker, Siegen Olympiad 1970. A terrific technical game, with Fischer using the clean 4-3 kingside majority in the Exchange Ruy to good effect. Note the move 14.f5, a concept originally introduced in the famous Lasker-Capablanca game from St. Petersburg 1914. It gives up the e5 square - at least temporarily, but in exchange White creates a kingside bind and gets the kingside pawns rolling.

16. Fischer - Ulf Andersson, Siegen (exhibition game) 1970. Fischer plays a Hedgehog with colors reversed, before that system really existed, and invented an attacking idea that's now considered a typical plan.

17. Fischer - Mark Taimanov, Candidates match (game 4) 1971. Fischer's love of bishops was well-known, and the ending of this game is the textbook example of a bishop showing its supremacy over a knight in an endgame with an open center and pawns on both sides. Probably the nicest game in Fischer's 6-0 rout.

18. Fischer - Bent Larsen, Candidates match (game 1) 1971. The first game of their match was a war, and when Fischer won it the remaining five games were a snap - another 6-0 rout.

19. Boris Spassky - Fischer, World Championship match, game 21 (Reykjavik) 1972. The last game of the match wasn't otherwise memorable, but it made him the world champion.

20. Fischer - Boris Spassky, Sveti Stefan (match, game 1) 1992. The first game of their second match had fans wondering what kind of chess he'd play after 20 years. While his play in the match had its ups and downs, this game proved there was still brilliance in that rusty mind.

21. Fischer - Boris Spassky, Sveti Stefan (match, game 11) 1992. While many of the games from the second match saw the players dispute old-fashioned opening lines, here Fischer played the Rossolimo and gave it a Romantic twist, sacrificing his b-pawn to blow the position open. He went on to win a beautiful, swashbuckling game.

22. Boris Spassky - Fischer, Sveti Stefan (match, game 30) 1992. Fischer closed out the match with a convincing win, repulsing Spassky's over-eager attacking play. This was his last competitive game.

You can replay the lot of them, with my comments, here.

You can read more about this here; the best direct link is here.

Needless to say, Fischer's passing has been observed both inside the chess world and out.

Among chess sites, you might want to check out the following:

1. Mark Crowther of TWIC.
2. Video statements by various Wijk aan Zee participants.
3. ChessBase, which includes many pictures and links - both to their previous articles on Fischer and to comments of the world press.
4. Mig's Daily Dirt, which includes a statement by Kasparov.
5. Susan Polgar's blog (many posts).
6. FIDE (the International Chess Federation) promises an announcement, but there's nothing of note as of this posting.
7. From the United States Chess Federation, there's a press release and an article by Jennifer Shahade.

I'm sure this only scratches the surface of what has been written about him in his passing, and readers are welcome to provide further links of interest. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, quite a few bloggers and other prominent sites have relatively little to say. In part this is due to his having hardly played in over 30 years, and in part due to the horrible things he has said about Jews, the United States, and other chess players. I confess to a similar ambivalence about the man as well, but I will do my best to concentrate on his legacy as a chess player.

Round 6 Results:

van Wely - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Leko - Topalov 0-1
Carlsen - Polgar 1-0
Anand - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Kramnik - Aronian 1-0
Radjabov - Adams 1/2-1/2
Mamedyarov - Eljanov 1/2-1/2

Leko - Topalov was a well-balanced English Attack with no one enjoying more than a very slight edge until move 49. Leko chose to trade queens, but Black's two connected passed pawns gave him a large advantage which he was able to convert without much trouble. A completely unnecessary loss for Leko, and a gift for Topalov, who has fought back to 50%.

Radjabov - Adams saw one of Fischer's pet lines from his later career, the Exchange Ruy, but the result was a very un-Fischerlike draw in 25 moves. Radjabov offered what was at best a micro-improvement on move 15, and Adams had no trouble neutralizing it.

Carlsen - Polgar was a 4.Qc2 Nimzo, and one of that line's main themes, the bishop pair, proved the decisive factor. Carlsen's active bishops and Polgar's shaky pawn structure led to White's winning one pawn and then another, with the result one would expect. The victory puts Carlsen in clear first, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Radjabov.

Anand - Ivanchuk saw a rather offbeat twist put to the Classical Caro-Kann, but what might have become an interesting and unusual game ended in an 18-move draw. Compared to van Wely - Gelfand, however, that was going the extra effort. Van Wely innovated on move 14 of a Queen's Indian, and it was effective. Previous games in that line had taken 27 or more moves to wind up drawn; this game, however, found its way to peace in just two more moves. That's what progress in chess is all about. (To be kind, van Wely had lost in the last round and has played hard games throughout the tournament, while Gelfand had lost two straight. So a day off is understandable, as long as they don't make a habit of it.) Mamedyarov - Eljanov was also drawn, but while it looked like the point would be split from early on, they played it to the finish.

Finally, there was the marathon game Kramnik - Aronian. Unlike the micro-novelties mentioned above, Kramnik had something major up his sleeve in the currently hot Moscow Variation of the Semi-Slav. His 26.Nc3! was a big improvement over 26.Qd3 from Radjabov-Anand, Mainz (rapid) 2006. White achieved a clear advantage in the double-rook ending, but never a clearly winning position. Kramnik maneuvered around, but ultimately found nothing better than to enter a R + f & h pawn vs. R ending. This is theoretically drawn, but like R + B vs. R, it's quite possible to lose it, even if you know the basic defensive principles. This ending started on move 57, and through 46 more moves he defended well, if not perfectly, so that the position remained drawn. But on move 103 - finally - he erred, and Kramnik seized his chance and won.

The games, with my comments, are here.

Standings after Round 6:

1. Carlsen 4.5
2-3. Kramnik, Rajdabov 4
4. Aronian 3.5
5-10. Adams, van Wely, Mamedyarov, Ivanchuk, Polgar, Topalov 3
11-12. Leko, Anand 2.5
13-14. Gelfand, Eljanov 1.5

Pairings for Round 7:

Eljanov - van Wely
Adams - Mamedyarov
Aronian - Radjabov
Ivanchuk - Kramnik
Polgar - Anand
Topalov - Carlsen
Gelfand - Leko

This could be a very meaningful round, as three of the leaders have Black against especially strong opponents (Carlsen, Kramnik, and Radjabov), while two of their opponents are serious contenders in their own right. Further, this is a great chance for Anand to begin his own comeback. Although Polgar is ahead of him in the standings and has had decent results against him the past few years, his overall record against her is very good and his opening prep is almost always far better. So it's a chance. Topalov seems able to stop on a dime and change direction (he can lose two or three games, shrug his shoulders, and then win six in a row), but Anand has long been a player who needs to get his confidence going before he can roll.

Leading Standings for Group B:

1. Bacrot 4.5
2-4. Movsesian, Smeets, Stellwagen 4

Leading Standings for Group C:

1. Braun 5
2-4. Reinderman, Caruana, Nijboer 4

Pairings for the Honorary Group: (Starts in the morning)

Ljubojevic - Timman
Korchnoi - Portisch

From Chess Today:

According to a BBC report, Robert James Fischer has died in Iceland, aged only 64. He had health problems for quite some time. Many considered Fischer as the greatest chess player ever. His 1972 match against Boris Spassky gave chess a huge boost in the west and encouraged millions of people to learn chess.

More about Fischer, and links to other reports and tributes, as they show up.

In case you needed a reminder about how difficult chess is, I think the third of our Wijk aan Zee warmup puzzles will do that with alarm bells. We started with this fairly innocent looking endgame, from a game played in Holland many years ago between G. Van Keulen and G. R. D. Van Doesburgh:



It's White to move, and although he's down a pawn his king position offers serious compensation. What's the right result? Well, I think it's a draw, but it's the proof that's difficult. In the March 1956 issue of the (now-defunct) Chess Review, Dutch legend and former world chess champion Max Euwe analyzed this ending in great detail, but as you'll see from the game file, he made many errors in his analysis. It's all so easy for us now to think we know what's going on thanks to Fritz, Rybka and the rest, but when we're forced on our own resources, things prove more difficult. The way to improve, of course, is to turn off the engine and switch on our minds and practice, practice, practice.

So give this ending a shot before you check out Euwe's analysis (with my critiques). And note: even that analysis is incomplete - it's just commentary on his commentary! I did my own analysis before working through his, which I may present in a later post. Meanwhile, readers are encouraged to offer their analytical efforts, as well as third-order comments on what's given.

The analysis can be replayed here.

The return from the rest day was a mixed bag. There were three decisive results (that's good), but the four draws were all pretty lame (that's bad). Gelfand hasn't been a drawing machine so far (that's good), but only because he has turned into a punching bag (that's bad). The national representative, Loek van Wely, has been playing very well and performing well above his rating (that's good), but he suffered his first loss today (that's bad). Rather than continuing with this and making jokes about frogurt, let's get to the details.

The Mamedyarov - van Wely contest was interesting and well-balanced until near the end, when the Dutchman apparently overlooked Mamedyarov's plan to create a passed f-pawn. Unfortunately, this was the sort of error that was practically impossible to overcome, and he fell back to 50%.

Eljanov - Radjabov was a King's Indian that turned into a sort of Modern Benoni, and things progressed smoothly for the second player. That opening often turns into a race between Black's queenside play and White's attempt to bust through the center with e5 (see for example yesterday's van Wely - Topalov game), and this time Black was ahead in the race. If White had recognized this in time and taken a defensive posture, he'd have survived. Instead, he continued aggressively with 24.f4?, and was overwhelmed. This returned Radjabov to a first place tie.

Adams - Kramnik was a Petroff with 5.Nc3, and when Adams forsook the aggressive try 17.h5 the game quickly devolved to a draw. Aronian - Anand was even less interesting. Instead of 16.Na4, which was played in four previous games that ended in a short draw, Aronian innovated with 16.Nd2...which was drawn four moves later. Ivanchuk - Carlsen was another quickie draw, but Carlsen did have to solve a minor problem (appropriately, since he's a minor) before achieving equality. He did, he did, and they drew.

Polgar - Leko took a bit longer than the three games mentioned in the preceding paragraph, but the result was never in doubt. Polgar met Leko's Marshall Gambit with an interesting idea. She played d3 (well-known) and sacrificed that pawn to reach an ending with bishop and knight against two bishops, but with Leko saddled with an isolated d-pawn. It wasn't enough: Black simply gave up the d-pawn to reach a position where the bishop pair was perfectly active, and White's choices were to make no progress or to enter a hopelessly drawn opposite-colored bishop ending. So, a draw.

Finally, Topalov - Gelfand saw Topalov escape the last-place cellar by sending the blunder-prone Gelfand to take his place. Their game, a Petroff, saw White enjoy a small advantage until Black's 26th move, when Gelfand first blundered a couple of pawns and lose his queen on the next move. Sometimes, this just happens, even to grandmasters, and this time around it's Gelfand's turn. He'll be back.

The games are here, with my comments.

Round 5 Results:

Mamedyarov - van Wely 1-0, 41
Eljanov - Radjabov 0-1, 33
Adams - Kramnik 1/2-1/2, 25
Aronian - Anand 1/2-1/2, 20
Ivanchuk - Carlsen 1/2-1/2, 20
Polgar - Leko 1/2-1/2, 35
Topalov - Gelfand 1-0, 28

Standings after Round 5:

1-3. Carlsen, Aronian, Radjabov 3.5
4-5. Kramnik, Polgar 3
6-10. Mamedyarov, van Wely, Leko, Adams, Ivanchuk 2.5
11-12. Anand, Topalov 2
13-14. Gelfand, Eljanov 1

Pairings for Round 6:

van Wely - Gelfand
Leko - Topalov
Carlsen - Polgar
Anand - Ivanchuk
Kramnik - Aronian
Radjabov - Adams
Mamedyarov - Eljanov