The Chess Mind

Round 9 Results:

Aronian - Anand
Topalov - Radjabov
Leko - Ivanchuk
Carlsen - Shirov

Another hard-fought round! Aronian-Anand was a slight exception: Aronian sacrificed a pawn in the opening for enduring pressure, but his 25.Qe2 allowed Anand to return the pawn and reach comfortable equality. That kept Anand in first, a full point ahead of Aronian, but Carlsen closed to within half a point by winning an amazing, tragic game against Shirov. The game see-sawed throughout between a big Carlsen advantage and near-equality (19…c6 and 25…Rfd8 helped Carlsen, while 19.Na3 and 27.Bxd5 made Shirov’s life a bit easier), but Shirov’s stubborn defense led him to an objectively drawn position – albeit one in which a good deal of preliminary suffering was required to achieve the half-point. Unfortunately, his 79…Ke5?? spoiled 7 hours of work, and the game ended immediately.

Topalov utilized an anti-Schliemann line that has been advocated by a flock of IMs (John Shaw, Larry Kaufman, Andrews Martin and Greet), and it went pretty well according to the recipe: White had a position where he could torture Radjabov indefinitely with no risk whatsoever. Unfortunately, when Topalov seemed to have a genuine winning chance, it slipped away: 44.Kg4 e2 45.Rxe2 Rxd5 (or 45…bxa5 46.bxa5 Rxd5 47.Re7+ Kb8 48.Kxf4 Ra5 49.g4+-) 46.Re7+ Kb8 47.axb6 Rb5 48.Re4 Rxb6 49.Kf5 won.

Finally, Ivanchuk outplayed Leko on the Black side of the Classical Caro-Kann. It was an impressive performance, and had it not been for his “accidents” in rounds 4 and 8, he’d have been in the thick of the race for first.

Games here.

Standings after Round 9:

1. Anand 6
2. Carlsen 5.5
3. Aronian 5
4. Topalov 4.5
5-7. Radjabov, Shirov, Ivanchuk 4
8. Leko 3

Pairings for Round 10:

Anand - Carlsen (The big game! For the third time in a row, Anand plays a player in second place.)
Shirov - Leko
Ivanchuk - Topalov
Radjabov - Aronian

You can watch the games live tomorrow on the Playchess.com server - I'll be presenting live commentary starting at 10 a.m. ET/4 p.m. Central European Time. Hope to see you there!

Won't this month ever end?

The United States Chess League is doing a countdown of the 20 best games of the 2007 season, and this week we're down to #13: Molner-Arnold. The game was a characteristically sharp Najdorf Sicilian with 6.Bg5, and saw Molner devise not one but three major sacrifices for long-term compensation. It was a very interesting game, in my opinion, and you can watch my video presentation here.

Anand will defend his title against Kramnik in Bonn, Germany later this year, but apparently at least one item remains unresolved. Historically, in a match with a fixed number of games, the champion has retained the title in case of a drawn match - a privilege utilized many times in chess history. (See Lasker against Schlechter in 1910, Botvinnik against Bronstein in 1951 and against Smyslov in 1954, Kasparov against Karpov in 1987 and Kramnik against Leko in 2004.) On the other hand, recent FIDE tradition has apparently scrapped this: Topalov forsook it against Kramnik (though that's an unclear case, as Kramnik brought his own title to the table), Kramnik forsook it in Mexico City (though that was a tournament, so it would have been a little anomalous), and apparently Kramnik had agreed to forsake it for the Topalov rematch had he won the Mexico City tournament.

Anand, apparently, is negotiating for the traditional privilege. That's good negotiating strategy, I think, but I hope he doesn't succeed - for at least three reasons. The least noble is that I'm a Kramnik fan, and that would make the latter's victory even more difficult. Second, I think it's a nobler position, and if Kramnik had in fact forsaken it in advance, then I'd hope his successors would follow suit. And third of all a tiebreaker, a la Kramnik-Topalov, would be very exciting. It's not like boxing, where overtime rounds would put the competitors' health in danger, so I can't see any great reason not to continue the match until there's a clear winner.

You can read more about this debate here. (HT: Chess Today)

There was another great round today in Linares; it's nice to see that the change of venue and the days off didn't cool the players' ardor. Three of the four games were decisive, and the one draw may have been the most interesting game of all.

Round 8 Results:

Anand - Shirov 1-0
Ivanchuk - Carlsen 0-1
Radjabov - Leko 1/2-1/2
Aronian - Topalov 1-0

Coming into the round, Anand enjoyed a slim half-point lead over Shirov and Topalov, so today's results were absolutely wonderful from his perspective. First of all, he defeated Shirov in good fashion, exploiting the weaknesses that are sometimes left in Black's wake in the Sveshnikov Sicilian. Black could possibly have created more problems with 28...g4 instead of 28...Qh4, but in the endgame resulting from the latter move Anand's technique was exquisite (his 44th move was particularly fine), and Shirov could not save the draw.

Anand's other near-rival, Topalov, also lost, and in a characteristically Topalovian way. The position was balanced through move 36, but his provocative (and good) 36...f5 introduced some imbalances. Aronian's decision to sacrifice the exchange (see his 38th move, but the decision had clearly been made the move before) should have given Topalov a slight edge, but after 39...Qxg2+? (instead of 39...Bd6!) he entered an inferior ending. Ultimately he was unable to hold it, and Aronian took over second place.

Or rather, joint second place, shared with Carlsen, a point behind the leader. Carlsen should not have been there, as he was completely lost in the opening against Ivanchuk. Fortunately for him, Ivanchuk used gobs of time to make inferior moves, most notably 20.Qc4? (20.Qd1+-), and Carlsen had completely outplayed him by the time Ivanchuk's flag fell on move 40. A fortunate win by Carlsen, and a catastrophe for Ivanchuk.

Finally, Radjabov-Leko was a very sharp, see-saw draw that ended prematurely. Radjabov utilized a pawn sac that Gelfand introduced into big-time chess, and then followed up with an interesting piece sac a few moves later. The position was very complex and both players made some inaccuracies, as far as I can tell, and in the final position there is still everything to play for. Understandably, the players seemed to have had enough action by that point, however, and agreed to a draw - alas for us.

The games can be replayed here.

Standings after Round 8:

1. Anand 5.5
2-3. Aronian, Carlsen 4.5
4-5. Topalov, Shirov 4
6. Radjabov 3.5
7-8. Leko, Ivanchuk 3

Pairings for Round 9:

Aronian - Anand
Topalov - Radjabov
Leko - Ivanchuk
Carlsen - Shirov

Remember, you can catch my online commentary on the Playchess.com server starting at 10 a.m. ET, 4 p.m. Central European Time. Hope to see you there!

Why wait for my post-round recap, when you can watch my commentary live? You can do just that tomorrow (and possibly for all the rounds of Linares) by logging on to the Playchess.com server, entering the Broadcast room during the round (which starts at 9:30 a.m. ET/3:30 p.m. Central European Time), and finding my broadcast. (Look for "Live Broadcast" in the games tab, with my name in the slots for the White and/or Black players.) It'll run you 10 ducats (approx. 1 euro/$1.50) for 24 hours (that's good whether you're on the whole time or not - if you get disconnected, need to eat lunch, etc., you can come back without getting hit up for ducats a second time), but even chess players need to eat.

So support this operation, check out some great games, and hopefully learn a thing or two in the process! Hope to see you there!

Or rather, starts tomorrow; it's Morelia/Linares that's resuming. When we left off, at the end of the Morelia leg of the event, the standings were as follows:

1. Anand 4.5
2-3. Shirov, Topalov 4
4-5. Aronian, Carlsen 3.5
6-7. Radjabov, Ivanchuk 3
8. Leko 2.5

Of course, with several days off and a change of scenery, anything can happen in the second half. Here are the pairings:

Anand - Shirov
Ivanchuk - Carlsen
Radjabov - Leko
Aronian - Topalov

The games start tomorrow, and it's possible that I'll be commenting live on playchess.com (the "Fritz"/ChessBase server). (I'll confirm/disconfirm later tonight.) Please support your blogger and tune in! The games start at 9:30 a.m. ET/3:30 p.m. Central European Time.

Updates: I corrected the show time - the right numbers are given now, and I can confirm that I will be doing live commentary on playchess.com for tomorrow's round. Hope to see everyone then!

Peter Leko may not be the most popular player among amateurs, but to neglect his chess would be a pity both aesthetically and instructionally. He is one of the world’s strongest players, after all, and came within a single draw of the world title back in 2004. His wins have a strategic clarity reminiscent of players like Capablanca and Fischer, and that makes them very useful to study. We’ll have a look at just such a model game in this week’s show, a win over Alexander Beliavsky from the 2002 Olympiad in Bled.

Beliavsky, no slouch himself, essayed the Breyer Variation of the Ruy Lopez, and despite many years of experience on the Black side of the Ruy, he found himself on the receiving end of a chess clinic. First, Leko put into action a then little-known prophylactic plan which neutralized Black’s hopes of queenside and central counterplay. With that taken care of, he started augmenting the pressure on the kingside, forcing a series of small concessions along the way. The next step was to stretch Black’s defenses too thin, and that required finding the game’s best move. Having found the move, and the various plans it made possible, it was time to administer the denouement, and Leko finished the game in style.

The win was beautiful and strategically complete, and very much worthy of our attention. I hope therefore that you’ll join me tonight, Wednesday night, at 9 p.m. ET (3 a.m. CET) as we examine this masterpiece; you’ll be glad you did! Watching the show live is free, and you can find out how to do so if you don't already know, here.

Silman's Complete Endgame Course, over From London to Elista (my choice) and San Luis 2005. I think it's the least worthy of the three finalists, but also the one likeliest to benefit the amateur, both in theory and in practice. More info here, including links to reviews of the first and last books mentioned above.

Still getting caught back up on my regularly scheduled life, and part of that involves catching up on the biggest tournament on the calendar...now that mine has passed. I'm referring, of course, to the Morelia/Linares tournament, which just completed its first half, the Morelia half. Round 7 was yet another exciting round, though much of the excitement resulted from rather unsuccessful play rather than good moves.

Round 7 Results:

Anand - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Shirov - Radjabov 1-0
Carlsen - Aronian 1-0
Leko - Topalov 0-1

Anand-Ivanchuk looked like a correct draw, but the other three games had their strange moments. Radjabov is perhaps the world's current leading expert on the Black side of the King's Indian, but his plan of 13...h5 and 15...g4 has long been considered rather slow, and nothing in his game with Shirov would seem to overturn that judgment. Against Carlsen, Aronian chose a very sharp but dangerous approach, weakening his kingside in return for a pawn and some activity. As soon as the critical position arose, however, Aronian devised a plan that cost a piece. He had three pawns in return, but they were weak and a non-factor, and Carlsen rolled him in excellent style. Finally, Leko-Topalov was strange as well. Leko concluded the opening with a slight edge, but Topalov played more successfully and took over that edge. Normally resilient, Leko practically collapsed, wrongly choosing an endgame with two uncoordinated rooks against an excellent queen, and then simply blundering on move 37.

Standings after Round 7:

1. Anand 4.5
2-3. Shirov, Topalov 4
4-5. Aronian, Carlsen 3.5
6-7. Radjabov, Ivanchuk 3
8. Leko 2.5

The action resumes this Thursday in Linares, Spain, birthplace of Andres Segovia. My coverage of that half of the event will be more thorough, but just to get things started in that direction, I've offered some notes to the Carlsen-Aronian game, here. (You can replay all the games, but without notes, here.)

One of the nice features of the Informant is that in each issue they present the best games and the best novelties of the previous issue. Nicer still is that those who are interested in the Informant can check out the top 10 games of the previous issue on the Chess Cafe website, which presents them when the winners are announced. Have a look here. (Permalink here in PDF, and a list of all the Chess Cafe articles from Informants are here.)

My self-training is going well enough that after four months I've gone from really rusty to nearly getting an IM norm this past weekend. If that sounds good to you, then maybe you can consider dropping me a note asking about lessons! I can't promise you'll be playing for an IM norm by the end of the year, but your chess will definitely improve.

If you're interested in lessons, or training games, or having me analyze your games, help you develop your opening repertoire or in some other way help speed along your development as a chess player, please drop me a note here!

Sevan Muradian, the founder of the North American Chess Association and the organizer and arbiter of the IM norm event that gave us all such excitement this last week, has started "a blog for organizers and directors, by an organizer and director" (Muradian himself). Here's how he introduces it:

There are a number of blogs out there dedicated to the various facets of chess - analysis, equipment, gossip, news, improving your game, etc.

But I cannot find a blog or website to give advice to those seeking to become organizers or directors / arbiters. So I've decided to start documenting my experiences so others can learn. Most of this though will focus from the organizers point of view.

When I started to discuss this idea with a few chess friends of mine these questions were posed:

Q1 - Why show others what you've learned with your own time, money, and pain? A1 - Simple - to grow chess we have to work together or agree to not work together and leave each other alone. The more chess, the better. It gets chess in front of people's eyeballs. That's the key.

Q2 - Are you going to show them all of the tricks you've learned, like how to identify, approach, and talk to sponsors? A2 - I'll show everything up to a point. It's impossible to document everything. Also having something documented and having some execute it are two different things. An individuals personality and the image they project when you meet them or talk to them is something that no advice can help with.

Q3 - What are your goals for doing this? A3 - To educate. First for those that don't know me personally, I've been teaching at Northwestern University since 2001 as an adjunct in their Graduate program of Computer Information Systems and their Non-Credit Degree program in Information Security. So I like to teach. It helps make connections, it helps keeping presentation and communication skills sharp, and it's fun. But from a chess point of view there are not many organizers out there which is one reason why we have a decline in local area chess. If a large out of state organizer doesn't come in to fill the gap then there isn't much chess going on. So if I can help educate and get people to become organizers, then I think we'll see a resurgence of local tournaments, by local organizers.

Here's the site.

A brief remembrance, here.

Well, that went mostly the way I planned...until the last round. For those who haven't seen it or read the comments to the round 7 post, I drew with Ray Kaufman in round 8 (that's good) - and played well, too - but lost in the last round to Jon Burgess after throwing everything at him. I'm a little disappointed, of course, but not too much: I'm pretty pleased with my play in the event (considering the length of time I've been working on my game again in earnest), and it showed that my training is going in the right direction.

I'll be back.

The importance of this win is that the 17-year-old Russian GM automatically qualifies for this year's Dortmund tournament. More info (and pictures) here.

Ok, time for another super-superficial recap, based on my spending all of 1-2 minutes on each game. (Better than nothing, hopefully!)

Round 6 Results:
Topalov - Anand 1/2-1/2
Aronian - Leko 1/2-1/2
Radjabov - Carlsen 1-0
Ivanchuk - Shirov 1/2-1/2

Topalov and Anand played a full game, but after Anand's 19th move it always had the flavor of a draw. The tactical skirmish that started with 10...d5 looked very interesting, but it doesn't seem that they missed any obvious alternatives. (As always, I welcome correction by those who know better.)

Aronian-Leko started off insanely, with Aronian's 9.Qa4 inviting wild complications if Leko took on f2. The Hungarian spent more than 80 minutes before deciding to avoid the complications (apparently he hasn't internalized the lessons of Tal's hippopotamus). Aronian had an initiative as a result of Leko's comparatively safe approach, but Leko fought very hard and saved the draw. This would be an amazing game to analyze in depth, but I'm otherwise disposed at the moment.

Radjabov-Carlsen was an instructive game. It seems at first that the position after White's 19th move is pretty dull, but Radjabov has an edge thanks to the bishop pair and the central pawn. I'm not sure that Carlsen's "cure" was the right one, however, winning a pawn but giving up the d-file and accepting a very passive position. Radjabov's 27.Ba6 was a nice move, and after the exchange of bishops I believe the rest was a matter of (very good) technique.

Finally, Ivanchuk-Shirov started off interesting, but White managed to hold with a "perpetual" on Black's light-squared bishop. Without it he'd be worse, but it was enough to hold the balance.

Standings after Round 6:

1. Anand 4
2. Aronian 3.5
3-5. Radjabov, Shirov, Topalov 3
6-8. Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Leko 2.5

Pairings for Round 7: (The final round of the Morelia leg.)

Anand - Ivanchuk
Shirov - Radjabov
Carlsen - Aronian
Leko - Topalov

Still alive! I thought the best way to handle things was to make things technical (often a good idea against kids anyway) and to see what would happen. Fortunately, the plan succeeded, and now I need 1.5/2 to get the norm. That'll be tough, but it's nice to be in a position where it's possible.

About the game: his 8...Bd6 took me by surprise, and I don't think it's best. My reaction, however, wasn't the best, either, as 9.Qa4 was well-met by the sham sac 9...O-O! At that point I basically had nothing, but slightly strange moves like 10...Qc7, 12...a6 and 16...Qa5 let my advantage grow.

His 21st move was interesting but mistaken: he should have played 21...Rb6 and force me to prove that I can win one of his queenside pawns at some point. Likewise, I think 26...Rxa2 would have been better - there are no successful Rc8+ tricks and the win would have been challenging. There was just such a trick on my 28th move: it would have been better had I played 28.Rc5. The point is that after 28...Rxa2 29.Rxa2 Qxa2 30.Rc8+ Kf7 31.Rc7+ Kg6 I have 32.Qb4, threatening to infiltrate. Black can stop this with 32...Qa3, but then 33.Qc5 is decisive. If he doesn't take the queen, the b-pawn rolls, but if 33...Qxc5, 34.dxc5 Bxb5 35.Nd4 is winning. That gave Black a last chance to stay alive, but his position was irrevocably lost after his 30th move. Instead, 30...Bd3 continues to resist: 31.Rb7 Rxa2 32.Ree7 g5 and White still has something to prove. After 30...Bc4, however, the rest was, as they say, a matter of technique, and on this occasion I was up to the job.

On to tomorrow!

Tonight I had a quick game with Angelo Young, which ended in a draw. So far, so good, but winning "to order" with White isn't an easy task. Next round, tomorrow night, I have White against Michael Thaler, and then on Saturday I'm Black against Ray Kaufman in the morning and White against Jon Burgess in the afternoon. If I can scrape out 2.5/3, I'll get the norm!

And now, the nightly Morelia/Linares recap:

(Rest day.)

Round 5 Results:

Leko - Anand 0-1
Topalov - Carlsen 0-1
Aronian - Shirov 1/2-1/2
Radjabov - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2

It's a slight pity that I haven't been able to follow the games from Morelia more closely, as this year's edition has been really hard-fought so far. No less than 11 of the 20 games have had decisive resuls, which is a veritable bloodbath by super-GM standards! Today's two decisive games were both Black wins, and as far as I can tell from a quick look, both games were a bit strange.

First, Anand's win over Leko seemed really odd to me. Leko had B vs. N along with the rooks, and although Anand's having the central majority gave him a trump, it's still incredible to me that Leko failed to hold the game. The most obvious culprit was excessive ambition - maybe he overestimated his chances in the race after 28.Rxb5 - maybe he should have just swapped the minor pieces with a sure draw. (Those who have looked at this, or heard GM commentary, or run through the game with a chess engine are welcome to fill in the details.)

Topalov's loss to Carlsen was odd, too. I don't know what Topalov had in mind with 13.Be4, but if it was the big exchange that started with 15.Qb3, it involved some miscalculation. After 19...Bg7, Carlsen has simply absconded with an extra pawn, as 20.Rxd5 Rad8 21.Rxd8 Rxd8 leaves Black on top after either 22.Be3 Bxb2 23.Rb1 b6 or 22.g3 Rd1+ 23.Kg2 with (at least) a crippling bind. Carlsen's technique was fine, bringing him back to 50%.

Radjabov-Ivanchuk was a Taimanov Sicilian that turned into a Classical French - one of Rajdabov's former favorites - and Ivanchuk held the draw comfortably. Meanwhile, the other game, Aronian-Shirov, was rather a dud. The position on the board after move 18 looked interesting enough; the problem was that no more moves were made. Under some conditions I'd whine about this, but both played very long games the day before, and neither is known for being a quick-draw specialist. So they get a pass on this one - as long as it doesn't happen again. (And maybe they shouldn't even get a pass this time, as the day before round 4 was a rest day and they're getting another one now!)

(Games here.)

Standings after Round 5:

1. Anand 3.5
2. Aronian 3
3-5. Carlsen, Shirov, Topalov 2.5
6-8. Ivanchuk, Leko, Radjabov 2

Pairings for Round 6: (On Friday)

Topalov - Anand
Aronian - Leko
Radjabov - Carlsen
Ivanchuk - Shirov

Hopelessly inaccurate predictions: Anand, Aronian, Carlsen and Shirov win.

Tonight vs. Tsyganov: a draw. I felt somewhat disappointed at the time, but a quick run-through with Fritz leaves me feeling better, as neither of us seemed to have missed anything big. Anyway, while it wasn't a bad game or a bad result, it leaves me with my work cut out for me to make the IM norm - I'll need three points from my last four games. While I face lower rated opponents in my two remaining White games, I'm looking up against IM Angelo Young (tomorrow's round) and Ray Kaufman in round 8, both games with Black. It won't be easy, but I'm going to give it my best!

We're down to #14 in the countdown to the U.S. Chess League's 2007 Game of the Year, and this week's entrant was perhaps unique among the year's games. Some judges thought its distinguishing feature was the Tangborn's poor play, while others were more impressed by Kuljasevic's attacking buildup and the nice combinational finish. I think there's something to be said for both points of view, as well as the meta-point that it's easy to play comparatively weakly when faced with an unfamiliar sort of position. That both mitigates the criticism against the loser and increases the value of the winner's play - after all, he did manage to successfully navigate the unfamiliar terrain.

However you come down on the matter, I think you'll find it was an interesting game, and you can see my video presentation (free and on-demand) here.

[Fans of my ChessBase show are especially invited to join in, as for obvious reasons (obvious if you read this blog, anyway!) there won't be a CB show tonight, as I'm playing in an IM norm tournament all week.]

Time for another super-superficial report on this event. (I need a strong guest blogger to help out!) First, the results:

Round 4 Results:

Anand - Radjabov 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Aronian 0-1
Shirov - Topalov 1-0
Carlsen - Leko 1/2-1/2

Now for some incredibly "insightful" comments. First, I'm ridiculously amazed that Radjabov played the Schliemann against Anand - and got away with it! If he starts playing the Latvian, it will be time to give up chess. Anand repeated the line Macieja used to slaughter Radjabov a few months ago, but this time around Radjabov found some improvement and held with ease.

That's weird, but nowhere near as weird as Ivanchuk's latest gaffe. In a completely winning position two pawns ahead, he fell for about the only cheapo Aronian could muster in that position. Maybe he could still have drawn (I'm not sure about that), but he didn't come too close as things transpired.

Shirov-Topalov was a second failure for the Sveshnikov today, but Shirov's win looks at a glance like a brilliant technical display rather than the fruit of a theoretical atomic bomb. It's probably a great game to study in depth as a way of improving one's endgame technique. (Are you reading this, O students?)

Finally, Carlsen tried to Leko Leko to death in a Classical Nimzo-Indian, but how can you out-Leko Leko? You can't, so the game was drawn.

Games can be replayed here.

Standings after Round 4:

1-3. Anand, Aronian, Topalov 2.5
4-5. Leko, Shirov 2
6-8. Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Radjabov 1.5

Pairings for Round 5:

Leko - Anand
Topalov - Carlsen
Aronian - Shirov
Radjabov - Ivanchuk

My pointless predictions have been completely worthless, but hey: why stop now? I say Topalov wins and everyone else (well, except for Carlsen, obviously) draws.

Two straight! Better still, I won this game rather than receiving it as a gift. (That said, gifts will be gratefully accepted.) I spent quite a bit of time preparing for Vishnuvardhan's Sveshnikov Sicilian, and when he played 11...Ne7 it all went to waste. My thought at the time was "Geez, how did I not prepare for this!" - but it turns out he simply forgot what he was doing!

After that, White gained a healthy advantage, and even if there were small improvements here and there, I think my play was both reasonable and purposeful. The 24.Rfb1 idea was pretty strong, with the idea of lifting to the fourth rank, where it creates the possibility of doubling, but more importantly ideas like a4 and also Rxg4. 28.Nf6 was a nice shot, and the picturesque 31.Qb1! was an enjoyable (near-) final move. Black lost on time, but he's quite lost on the board, too, thanks to my passed b-pawn after 32...Rxb5 (he made this move as his flag fell) 33.axb5 Qb6 34.Ra6 etc.

Tomorrow, or rather, today, I'm up against FM Igor Tsyganov. He's a good, solid player and he's got White, so my work will be cut out for me once again. There are no easy rounds here!

Tonight I played FM Mehmed Pasalic, and a game that seemed headed for a draw came to an abrupt end when he played 23.Rc2?? - 23...Rxe3 finished the job. The point is that if he plays 24.Rxe3 (there's nothing else worth thinking about there), he gets mated: 24...Rd1+ 25.Kf2 (OK, he could play 25.Re1, but that's essentially like not playing 24.Rxe3 - Black's up a piece for nothing) Qh4+ and White can only choose between two mates in one (25.g3 Qxh2#; 25.Ke2 Qe1#). Had he not played 23.Rc2 (preventing which was one of my previous move's aims) and played something like 23.Qe2 instead, then White has only a symbolic edge, though he can continue to try things indefinitely.

Tomorrow (today, ET) I have White against the second IM on my schedule: Arjun Vishnuvardhan. Keep watching! And now it's time for my report on tonight's Linares games:

I'm done. (They had a day off.)

Having spent only the time since the previous post looking at the games, this will be an incredibly superficial "report", but here's the recap with my initial impressions.

Round 3 Results:

Carlsen - Anand 0-1
Leko - Shirov 1/2-1/2
Topalov - Ivanchuk 1-0
Aronian - Radjabov 1/2-1/2

It looks like both Anand and Topalov won pretty comfortably. Anand continues to show he's the boss on the black side of the Anti-Moscow Gambit; Carlsen never seemed to have anything, and already by move 20-22, his compensation for the pawn looked essentially nonexistent. Turning to Topalov-Ivanchuk, I don't off the top of my head know what theoretical twists and turns went into the opening, but if Black can't safely castle on move 22, then he's probably just about busted. Ivanchuk sacrificed a pawn on move 25 so he could get a little space and finally castle, but after 31.Bxb8 the resulting ending was probably just winning for White.

In the other games, Leko played the increasingly trendy 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3 against Shirov's Najdorf, but his hopes of dominating the d5 square never came to fruition. Finally, Aronian-Radjabov was a fairly short but lively draw in a King's Indian-cum-English. (Games, sans notes, can be replayed here.)

Standings after Round 3:

1. Topalov 2.5
2. Anand 2
3-5. Aronian, Ivanchuk, Leko 1.5
6-8. Carlsen, Radjabov, Shirov 1

Pairings for Round 4: (On Tuesday - Monday is a rest day):

Anand - Radjabov
Ivanchuk - Aronian
Shirov - Topalov
Carlsen - Leko

Pointless Predictions: Anand and Topalov win.

I'm pretty tired from the travel and at least the second game of the day, so I'll keep this brief. I drew both games today: first a quick perpetual check against Al Chow, and then a not so quick draw - also by perpetual, ironically - against Dave Vigorito.

In the first game, I knew that the perpetual was a possibility, but that wasn't really my intention. Black can choose to sac a pawn instead of playing ...Nxg4, but without receiving full compensation. C'est la vie. The quick draw gave me more time to review my preparation for Vigorito, which, it turned out, was completely useless. If he has played the Caro-Kann before, I hadn't noticed, and unfortunately he played a variation I really wasn't prepared for. He knew what he was doing and I didn't, and although I did an okay job of figuring things out, it wasn't good enough. He obtained an advantage and things were going downhill until he played 31...Rd2 (probably 31...Be7 would have given him a winning advantage). Thanks to 32.Qc3 (and not 32.Qh7) I equalized and even enjoyed what winning chances there were, but his 39...Kg8 ensured the draw. Winning the a- or the f-pawn offered nothing, nor would an attempt to swap queens. So, a second draw.

Tomorrow I play FM Mehmet Pasalic with the black pieces - it's one strong player after another, but at least this time there's only one opponent to deal with.

For reasons that should be evident if you read the previous post, I'm not paying the loving attention I'd normally lavish on a super-tournament like Morelia/Linares. Still, here's the news in brief, starting with the results:

Round 2 Results:

Anand - Aronian 0-1
Radjabov - Topalov 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Leko
Shirov - Carlsen 1/2-1/2

When world champion Viswanathan Anand has White against Levon Aronian, the Marshall Gambit is the usual result. So it was here, too, and it looked like Anand would follow up his win in their last Marshall with another today. The position was roughly balanced until Aronian's 24...f5, when 25.Qb3! would have given White a serious edge. Anand's 25.Bg5 doesn't seem to have been as strong, and although he won a second pawn Aronian's counterplay kept a rough balance. That balance ended with Anand's 30th move, an outright blunder that cost him the game after Aronian's 30...Re3!

Radjabov-Topalov was a Berlin Defense, and Radjabov enjoyed the traditional slight edge coming out of the opening. I don't know if Radjabov missed 18...Nxe5, but that turned the tables and left Black a little better - which is to say, White still enjoyed a slightly better position, but now minus a pawn. With 20...Nf7 rather than 20...Ng6 he returned (blundered?) the pawn, and from there on White's space and better pawn structure were balanced by Black's bishop pair. The players made the time control and drew.

Ivanchuk's game with Leko was the last to finish, and it saw a second first-round winner suffer the opposite result. Ivanchuk played an unusual but not unknown anti-Marshall. His decision to give up the queen for two rooks may have been a new twist on the line, and although Leko's position after the exchange is better developed and finds him with a space advantage, White's position seems to have more room for improvement. At any rate, that assessment seems to have been borne out in the game: Leko could only try to maintain his advantages, but couldn't increase them, while Ivanchuk's position grew visibly better every few moves. In the final position, it's not that Leko is losing catastrophic quantities of material, but that he can't do anything against White's pursuit of whatever he wants, starting with the c-pawn.

Shirov-Carlsen was a Kan Sicilian that wound up looking like an old-style Tarrasch French, minus a pair of knights. Black accepted an isolated d-pawn, but Shirov never achieved anything against it (or the isolated pawn couple that took its place on move 22). The game made it to move 39, but it never looked like anything but a draw from at least the early 20s.

Standings after Round 2:

Ivanchuk, Topalov 1.5
Anand, Aronian, Carlsen, Leko 1
Radjabov, Shirov .5

Pairings for Round 3:

Carlsen - Anand
Leko - Shirov
Topalov - Ivanchuk
Aronian - Radjabov

Prediction: Four draws.

Games can be replayed here.

Starting tomorrow and continuing through next Saturday, your humble blogger will leave the safety of his blogging chair and do battle in an IM norm tournament. The event takes place at IM Angelo Young's Touch Move Chess Center in Chicago, IL, and is run by Sevan Muradian of the North American Chess Organization. It's a nine round round-robin tournament, the time control is game/90 + 30" increments, and draw offers are not permitted before move 30 without the arbiter's permission.

On Sunday there are two rounds, and for me those rounds find me facing FM Albert Chow in the first round, with Black, and IM Dave Vigorito in the second, with White. Chow is a dangerous but inconsistent player with a propensity for terrible time trouble, while Vigorito is the tournament's top seed and well-known as an openings expert. (Of course, as top seed, he can play more than just the opening.)

It should be exciting (hopefully for me, too, and in a good way), and you can follow the action on the Monroi website - just follow the "LIVE GAMES" link on the left side of the tournament site. Tomorrow's games are at 10:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Chicago time; that's 11:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET. Wish me well!

Jenn Shahade and I liked it, Robby Adamson and Alex Shabalov hated it (relatively speaking), and Ron Young came down somewhere in between. It all came down to whether you were impressed by Kuljasevic's attacking ideas or turned off by Tangborn's bad choices in the early middlegame. Have a look yourselves, here, and stay tuned later in the week for my video presentation of the game on ChessVideos.tv.

While waiting for the first round of Morelia to begin, I took an occasional glance at a very long series of games between Hikaru Nakamura and an engine called "TransWarp" on ICC. As far as I know, Nakamura didn't win any games (though he should have won one, but ran out of time while trying to mate with five or six knights), but he managed a pretty fair number of draws by playing a Hippopotamus + blockade strategy with both colors.

I've linked to one of them for your entertainment and anti-computer instruction. While many of the games were pretty similar, this was perhaps the most impressive of the lot. That's because he didn't achieve a particularly good version of the Hippo this time around, and was already in serious trouble on move 16. His solution (see especially move 17) was an ingenious one, and he was just as clever on move 86. You'll get the idea - have a look.

Erich Eliskases isn't a household name for most chess players, but he was a strong grandmaster who enjoyed a long career. He's also one of a very few players who can count among his scalps tournament wins against both Jose Capablanca and Bobby Fischer.

The following little highlight [HT: Chess Today] wasn't against a heavy hitter, but it's cute and memorable. Here's the position before the final move of the game, with Eliskases to move against Franz Hoelzl, Austria 1931:



White to move and win - click on "(show)", below, to see the answer.

This is the way to start a tournament:

Round 1 Results:

Shirov - Anand 0-1
Carlsen - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Leko - Radjabov 1-0
Topalov - Aronian 1-0

This was a great first round, with aggressive, exciting games across the board. Shirov played the very aggressive 6.Bg5 against Anand's Najdorf, but after allowing the stock ...Rxc3 sac it turned out this attack was (much) slower than his opponent's.

Carlsen-Ivanchuk was another Najdorf, but a more positional interpretation prevailed (6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3). Carlsen enjoyed a slight edge, but whether because Ivanchuk defended well or because the young Norwegian overlooked or underestimated 29...Qb6 and its sequel, the game ended in a draw.

Showing maturity beyond his years, Radjabov abandoned the ridiculous Schliemann and returned to another opening which focuses on ...f5, the Sveshnikov Sicilian. Something very strange happened in this game: Leko's 23rd move was a novelty, Radjabov responded, and then Leko thought for more than 40 minutes over his 24th move. I watched the games for a while on both ICC and Playchess, and on ICC the French GM Igor Nataf was chirping merrily away. I don't think Nataf is his second - though he might be - but it's clear that they're friends and work together from time to time. When things are going well for Radjabov, Nataf will fill the screen with happy comments and promising variations, but after Leko's 28.Be6! things got miiiiiighty quiet. Radjabov had to lose material and/or suffer serious king problems, and within 7 moves he was a piece down.

Finally, there was Topalov-Aronian, and my prediction about that game could hardly have been more wrong. Not only did Topalov win, he had a colossal advantage on the clock and the board by his 17th move. Black's queenside was in a terrible bind, and he was able to achieve freedom only at the cost of an exchange and a lost ending. Looks like Topalov has decided to avoid the big-comeback approach this time!

The games (sans notes, sorry - too much to do before traveling tomorrow) can be replayed here.

Round 2 Pairings:

Anand - Aronian
Radjabov - Topalov
Ivanchuk - Leko
Shirov - Carlsen

Now for some questionable predictions: Anand and Topalov win; other games drawn.

The games are scheduled to start in about 5 minutes; here are the pairings:

Shirov - Anand
Carlsen - Ivanchuk
Leko - Radjabov
Topalov - Aronian

I'll even make predictions. In order: draw, Carlsen, Leko (especially if Black plays 3...f5?!), Aronian.

A few days ago I noted that Ernesto Inarkiev had won seven games in a row in the Moscow Open and led that event by half a point going into the final round. Unfortunately, he lost in the last round to Artyom Timofeev in 117 heartbreaking moves, and so Timofeev finished in clear first with 7.5/9. Nine players finished half a point back, including Inarkiev; in order of tiebreaks they are Alexander Riazantsev, Sergey Volkov, Zahar Efimenko, Alexander Lastin, Baadur Jobava, Inarkiev, Murtas Kazhgaleyev, Alexander Moiseenko and Igor Kurnosov.

On to the current main event: the Aeroflot Open. (It's not the biggest event to start this week - that's Morelia/Linares, which starts tomorrow - but it's the biggest event starting today!) The winner of this super-strong Open tournament will play in the elite tournament in Dortmund later this year, so it counts! In fact, two previous Aeroflot winners, Viorel Bologan and Arkadij Naiditisch, not only qualified for Dortmund but actually won the tournament! That makes Aeroflot a special event on the yearly calendar, one of the very few chances for a Cinderella story in the chess world.

Here's the original, and here's Mig's translation.

HT: Chess Today, and JDB.

Here's the position, from the game Karim-Zhu Chen, Gibtelecom Masters 2008:



It's White to move, and in this post (see also its successor) I challenged my readers to determine whether the opposite colored bishops suffice to ensure that Black can draw. Happily, many readers responded with some thoroughgoing and plausible analyses mostly suggesting that White can win.

They're probably right, too, but I haven't spent as much time on this as I'd like to, or as much as I'd need to in order to agree with a completely clear conscience. So in part to stall(!), and in part to keep the fun going, here's another bit of information for my analytically-inclined readers to chew on:



This is Kramnik-Svidler, Wijk aan Zee 2004, and rather than move Svidler threw in the towel. This was an unfortunate decision on his part, not merely because he could still cause Kramnik some technical problems, but because the final position is objectively drawn! (Click here for the details.)

Returning to our main game, there are variations that the readers devised that reach positions akin to Kramnik-Svidler, so before I fully delve in, I'd like to give all of you one more chance to draw your conclusions with this last bit of background info in mind. Have fun!

We're down to #15 in the countdown to the U.S. Chess League's 2007 Game of the Year, and this week's entrant is the long battle between the San Francisco Mechanic's Vinay Bhat and the Dallas Destiny's John Bartholomew. It's a game worth checking out, both for the important opening ideas (Bhat's 18th move looks significant for Center Counter theory) and the interesting endgame as well.

You can read the judges' report here, and - best of all! - you can see my video presentation (free and on-demand) here. [Note: while there were technical problems with some recent videos, the problems have been solved!]

After three weeks of Bobby Fischer's games, it's time to take a look at his great predecessor, Boris Spassky. Spassky is a legend of the game, but he had the bad luck of being continually overshadowed by others, especially Mikhail Tal and Fischer. Boris Spassky became a grandmaster at 18 and a Candidate at 19; only to have Fischer achieve both titles at the age of 15. Having become a GM and a Candidate, he'd at least seem the likeliest Soviet to achieve great successes. But Tal zipped past him to win a couple of Soviet Championships and ultimately the World Championship, while Spassky suffered from bad nerves and bad luck, missing out on two consecutive Candidates' cycles.

It looked like one of the greatest talents in chess history up to that point might go to waste, but in the mid-60s Spassky finally pulled it all together. He made it to the World Championship in 1966, losing a tough match to Tigran Petrosian, and the next time around he again qualified and this time beat the great Armenian.

We'll look at a game from his second run to the title match, from his 1968 Candidates match with Efim Geller. In all of his games with White in that match, Spassky faced the Sicilian with the Closed Variation, and each time it turned into a race between Geller's queenside counterplay and Spassky's king-hunting. In the second and fourth game of the match, Geller managed to get a better position, though Spassky's outwitted him in the complications and won both games. In game six, however, everything worked perfectly for Spassky. He found the best way to handle the opening, and he conducted the attack perfectly.

It's a beautiful game, and it also gives us the chance to take a look at the ever-popular Closed Sicilian. If you're interested in playing or meeting this line, or if you just want to see Spassky's fine creative achievement, you'll want to tune in tomorrow - Wednesday - at 9 p.m. ET. It's free, and you can find directions for tuning in here. Hope to see you then!

The Morelia half of the 2008 Morelia/Linares tournament starts this Friday (February 15), and here are the participants:

Viswanathan Anand (2799)
Veselin Topalov (2780)
Alexei Shirov (2755)
Peter Leko (2753)
Vassily Ivanchuk (2751)
Levon Aronian (2739)
Teimour Radjabov (2735)
Magnus Carlsen (2733)

The tournament is a double-round robin; the first go-round is in Mexico, and after a few days off for traveling and rest they do it all over again (with colors reversed) in Linares, Spain. How will the players do? Here are some fallible predictions. (I didn't do too badly with Corus - predictions here, results there - but hopefully I'll do even better this time around.)

Let's start with background information: here are the results from Corus 2008 and Morelia/Linares 2007, with participants playing in this year's Morelia/Linares tournament bolded.

Morelia/Linares 2007:

1. Anand 8.5 (out of 14)
2-3. Carlsen, Morozevich 7.5
4-5. Aronian, Svidler 7
6. Ivanchuk 6.5
7-8. Topalov, Leko

Corus 2008:

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

OK, now for some predictions:

Anand: It's hard to vote against him, although prior to 2007 he tended to be more successful in events like Corus than Linares. I don't think he'll do as well as last year, but I also think he'll do better than he did at Corus a month ago. I think he'll either win or come in second, half a point back.

Topalov: At his best, he can win this, but his results since the Kramnik match haven't been that good. He might have one good run, but I'm expecting him to finish around fifth.

Shirov: As Aronian was my wildcard at Corus, so is Shirov this time around. I'm guessing he'll finish with an even score or at +1, but he could well do even better.

Leko: He's always solid, but it won't be enough here, at least this time around. I expect something from -1 to +1, without ever being in contention.

Ivanchuk: I'd like to be wrong, but I think he'll come in last or next to last.

Aronian: I think he'll contend for first.

Radjabov: He was supposed to play there last year, but when his laptop was stolen and he felt the locals were insufficiently helpful he bailed. Will the unpleasant memories of this affair affect him? I predict that youth will be served, and he'll be in the top half of the table.

Carlsen: Kids can be inconsistent, so it's possible that he'll follow up last month's success with a disaster...but don't count on it. I think he too will contend for first. (And if he achieves it, look out!)

Predicted Standings:

1. Carlsen
2-3. Anand, Aronian
4. Radjabov
5-6. Shirov, Topalov
7-8. Ivanchuk, Leko

It's not about Jesus or even Santa, but one of the nice traditions for chess players is the yearly set of Christmas puzzles put out by ChessBase from the 25th of December to the first of January. If you haven't tried them yet, go here and give them a shot - I think you'll enjoy it. If you have, the second set of solutions, covering the last four days, are here.

Former FIDE champ Rustam Kasimdzhanov is starting his own weekly show on ChessBase, albeit with the slight difference that watching him comes with a 10 ducat fee. The show will take place Tuesdays from 9-10 p.m. CET, which means, alas, that this week's show finished an hour ago. But there's always next week, and presumably CB will archive his shows too.

Maybe, maybe not. But are we at least mentally quicker than chimps? There are obviously all sorts of things we can do that they can't, but have a look here and select the video entitled "Genius Chimp Outsmarts Tube".

The FOX series continuing the Terminator saga is on right now, Eastern time, and picks up the chess theme from a couple of weeks ago. Have a look now if you're so inclined, or wait a couple of days to watch it, on demand, on the FOX site.

This blog post (dated February 8, 2008) includes a partial video of Fischer's 1972 appearance on Cavett's talk show. (HT: Maverick Philosopher)

The really interesting tournament(s?) start next weekend, but some worthy events are taking place now and feature some big stars. First and foremost, it's a Bundesliga weekend. The Bundesliga (auf Deutsch - schade), for those unfamiliar with this yearly league competition, is a competition that takes place in Germany but isn't limited to Germans. Anand, Kramnik, and practically every other world class player has participated in this event, some on a regular basis. The second event is the strong Moscow Open, currently led by Ernesto Inarkiev with 7/8 (on a 7-game winning streak!). It's not as top-heavy as the Bundesliga, but with players like 1999 FIDE World Championship runner-up Vladimir Akopian and 2004 Dortmund winner Arkadij Naiditsch, it's strong enough.

Now to the games. I've attached four, with light notes. The first two are from the Bundesliga and feature super-heavy hitters: a win for Ivanchuk over McShane on the black side of an Open Ruy, and a Svidler loss in an interesting Schevingen (with a fun bonus game in the notes, courtesy of Chess Today). The third game isn't included on its merits as a game, but as a reminder to those of you who play in FIDE events - you'll see why. Finally, there's a dizzying Naiditsch-Lastin contest, which reminds us of how much fun the 4.Nc3 lines of the Advance Caro-Kann can be. (Especially if one is spectating.)

Here's the link - enjoy.

Actually, I already gave the solution in the original post, but my readers are so well-trained by my usual habit of waiting a day or two to provide the answer that at least some of them seem not to have noticed. Go to the end of the post, click on "(show)", and voila!

On a recent episode of the new FOX TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, our favorite game shows up - and in a non-embarrassing way. There's a character who has created a Hydra-like computer (and then some), has a poster of the 2006 Kramnik-Deep Fritz match on his wall...



...and (correctly) downplays the objective significance of the second Kasparov-Deeper Blue match in 1997. It's nice to see a show that actually listens to its chess consultants!

About the episode: you can catch it on the net here. (You may need to install their player first.) Click the "Watch full episodes" button, then go to the drop-down menu below the video and find the 1/21/2008 episode, "The Turk". (Note to parents: it's a typical prime-time show, so use your judgment before letting the kiddies watch.)

HT: Michael Bagalman

Very early Friday morning I presented this position, in which White can survive his desperate plight by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin:



But how? You need not huff and puff to find the answer; just click on the last word of this sentence. If you'd like a little hint first, then click on "Show":

Regular readers of this blog will instantly recognize Tim Krabbé as the author of the wonderful Chess Curiosities website (of which the Open Chess Diary is just one significant part). Those of you who have enjoyed his site over the years might be interested in this interview over on Chessville. It's about three years old, but in some ways that actually enhances its interest, given his comments about the 11th and 13th world champions.

From the game Palevic-Luzniak, corr. 1981.



White to move and draw; the solution will be given in a day or two.

Nothing too deep, but energetic and entertaining. Have a look. ("Smallville" = Nakamura; not sure who White was, except that he was a GM.)

In chess as in life, it's rare that you can have everything you want. We have goals, but to achieving one thing of value, we generally have to give up sacrifice something else - money, goods, time, the opportunity to gain some other thing, etc.

Occasionally, though, one can have everything - at least in chess. Here's a position from a blitz game I played at the club last night:



It's White to move, and, truth be told, just about everything wins. But still, I want to find a clean and quick kill if I can. Of course 1.Nd6+ came to mind, but I like the knight on e4 - it would be nice if a better version of Nd6+ would be possible later, and I might want to put it on g5. On the other hand, putting the knight on g5 means blocking the g-file, so my queen won't hit g6 any more. Naturally, Ne5+ would be ideal, but that darned knight on c6 takes care of that. Hmmm...if only there were some way to exploit all of those possibilities.

Figured it out?

It's not about Jesus or even Santa, but one of the nice traditions for chess players is the yearly set of Christmas puzzles put out by ChessBase from the 25th of December to the first of January. If you haven't tried them yet, go here and give them a shot - I think you'll enjoy it. If you have, the first set of solutions, covering the first four days, are here.

Once a week, the U.S. Chess League reveals a new game in its countdown to the winner of the 2007 season's game of the year. This week, they announced the 16th place finisher: Julio Becerra's win over Ron Burnett from the regular season match between Miami and Tennessee.

You can read the judges' report on this game here, and then get the full benefit by watching my video presentation. That's here, and you can watch whenever you want, for free.

And so we come to the end of our three-part series commemorating the chess of Bobby Fischer (though it's my intent to revisit more of his games in the future). We started with a look at his early career, looking at his brilliant 1956 win over Donald Byrne. Last week we continued with a game from his middle period, a nice victory of Lajos Portisch in 1966. And now we conclude with a game from the culminating event of his career, his 1972 World Championship match against the defending champion, Boris Spassky.

Fischer started off down 2-0, losing the first game on a blunder and the second game with an intentional forfeit. It seemed the match might not continue, but after much cajoling from others and tremendous sportsmanship from Spassky game three finally occurred, and it was a Fischer win. After a narrow escape in game 4, Fischer won again in game 5 to tie the scores. And now we come to game 6, the subject of our show this week.

The game was notable for several reasons. First, the opening. While Fischer had occasionally dabbled with non-1.e4 openings with White, those outings were rare and hadn't occurred even once in his three Candidates matches. When Fischer opened this game with 1.c4, it came as a palpable shock to most observers, and Spassky, as I'll explain during the show, didn't react as he should have during the game. The second noteworthy aspect is the game's quality: this is widely thought to be one of Fischer's two strongest creative achievements in the match. And third, this game him the lead for the first time in the match, a lead he never relinquished.

It is therefore a game not only of aesthetic and instructional value, but of historical significance to boot. All told, a fine reason to join me tonight - Wednesday night - at 9 p.m. ET on ChessBase's playchess.com server. The show is free, and you can find directions for tuning in here. Hope to see you there!

Tonight I came across a couple of webpages that might of interest to some of you. First, 10 chess blogs (including this one) were profiled on Chessdom - so visiting this page might introduce you to nine blogs you were previously unfamiliar with. (Just don't let that get in the way of your time here!)

Second, this post on the Kenilworthian blog discusses some useful Web 2.0 tools for chess bloggers. At times I've been a little tempted by some of them, and have considered moving this blog to a new location. The main impediment is a concern that doing so will cause much of my audience to disappear, at least for a while. Any thoughts about this? There are some exciting things I'd like to do with this website, so your feedback is especially welcome.

Yesterday we saw this innocent-looking position, brought to us by the fertile mind of study composer David Gurgenidze:



It's White to move and win in this 1974 composition, and the solution seems absurdly obvious at first.

1.hxg7 looks like an instant winner, threatening both 2.f8Q+ and 2.gxh8Q. Yet if Black's rook wasn't on h8, the simple 1...Bxf7 would solve all of his problems. So here's the deal: we need to move the Rh8, but only if we can do so with check. And that in turn can happen only if White's king is lured to h1 or, much more likely, to the second rank. Black's rejoinder is thus 1...Rg2+!.

The adventures aren't over yet, but rather than spoil all the fun right away, I'll let you find the rest of the story here, when you're good and ready.

David Gurgenidze (not to be confused with Bukhuti Gurgenidze, who devised the system in the Modern with ...c6, ...d5, ...g6 and ...h5) is one of the world's leading study composers, and efforts like this one will help you see why.



It's White to move and win; the solution will be given tomorrow. (Don't comment the answer, please.)

FIDE has devised a ridiculously intricate system for their World Championship, of which this year's proceedings constitute the easy part. As many of you already know, World Champion Viswanathan Anand will play his predecessor, Vladimir Kramnik, in a match in Bonn, Germany later this year. That's the main event, but there will also be another very important match between Veselin Topalov (Kramnik's predecessor as FIDE champ) and Gata Kamsky (winner of the 2007 World Cup). The winners of the two matches will play in 2009 in another World Championship match.

But now we add a new layer to the complexity with the Grand Prix, a series of 6 tournaments starting April 20, 2008 in Baku, Azerbaijan and concluding December 23, 2009 (yes, 2009) in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. (Other locations: Krasnoyark, Russia; Doha, Qatar; Montreux, Switzerland; and Elista, Russia. Reserve cities, in case one or more of the intended sites fall through, are Istanbul, Turkey and - this could prove a serious problem for Israeli Boris Gelfand - Teheran, Iran.) The overall winner of this series of 14-player round robin tournaments gets to play the winner of the 2009 World Cup for the right to challenge the World Champion in 2010. (The winner is determined by his (or her, though Polgar is only a reserve at this point) cumulative score from his three most successful performances.)

The qualifiers for this series are: Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, Kamsky, Shirov, Carlsen, Karjakin, Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov, Leko, Morozevich, Aronian, Radjabov and Gelfand. The reserves are, in order, Adams, Svidler, Polgar and Grischuk.

Those fascinated by detail can read even more about this here, on the FIDE website.

[HT: Chess Today]

The first event, the Moscow Open, started today and should suffice to tide chess fans over until Morelia/Linares starts. You can find a list of the top 20 seeds here - #1 is Vladimir Akopian (2700).

Next is the second super-tournament of the year, Morelia/Linares. The first half of this double round-robin takes place in Morelia, Mexico, from Friday, February 15 to Saturday, February 23, and then they take a few days off to travel to Linares, Spain. The second half starts Thursday, February 28 and concludes on Friday, March 7. Here's the lineup:

Viswanathan Anand (2799)
Veselin Topalov (2780)
Alexei Shirov (2755)
Peter Leko (2753)
Vassily Ivanchuk (2751)
Levon Aronian (2739)
Teimour Radjabov (2735)
Magnus Carlsen (2733)

Not bad, to put it mildly: the top 6 finishers from Wijk aan Zee (Corus) are playing, plus Topalov and Shirov.

If that feels a bit too high-brow for you, there's a much weaker but still interesting tournament starting around the same time in Chicago: the 8th North American FIDE Invitational. The event starts February 17 and runs daily through the 23rd; be forewarned that blogging might be a little slower than usual during that period.

When International Master Kenneth Regan takes a fancy to a position, he analyzes it deeply. Very deeply. But as you'll see from this abridged (yes, abridged) analysis of the pawn ending from Adams-Polgar (Corus, Round 12), he has a fine ability to explain what's going on as well - you'll see the trees and the forest,too. (Update: Tree lovers can download the unabridged version here.)

So thanks, Ken, for offering to