The Chess Mind

Antwerp wasn't an especially big test for Bu Xiangzhi, a 2700 in a field where no one else was even 2600, but he won the event and gained rating points.

Final Standings:

1. Bu Xiangzhi 7
2. Miroshnichenko 6.5
3. Timman 5.5
4-5. Vaganian, Gyimesi 5
6. Werle 4.5
7-8. Schebler, Michiels 3.5
9. Lahno 2.5
10. Van der Stricht 1

According to the live rating site, Bu is now 2715.6, good for #26 in the world.

In an ongoing event, in which 7 of 9 (another Star Trek allusion!) rounds are complete, Yuri Shulman leads the Tournoi International de Montreal with five points, half a point ahead of Mark Bluvshtein.

In one of Mikhail Tal's few trips to Poland - the one in February of 1966 - he gave a number of simuls. Generally such games disappear, but thanks to Tomasz Lissowski, six games and an additional fragment have survived and are available to a larger audience - it's but a click away.

HT: Brian Karen

Karsten Müller, The Chess Café Puzzle Book (Russell Enterprises 2008). 303 pp., $19.95. Reviewed by Dennis Monokroussos.

There is no shortage of tactics books and discs on the market, but Müller’s offering is a worthy addition to the pile. The book presents 565 puzzles*, the last 160 of which come in the form of ten tests. Before that, the training material is divided into six chapters.

The first and longest chapter, “Motifs”, is one to which I give my heartiest approval. Müller divides the material there into no less than 20 different themes and 234 puzzles. Most of the themes are standard: back rank mates, deflection, discovered, doubled, and x-ray attacks, pins, skewers and so on. But some are a bit less usual in books of this sort, like vacating lines and squares, zugzwang and zwischenzugs.

Some tactics books reject this form of presentation on the grounds that it’s unrealistic – no one is holding up a sign during the game letting you know that a back rank combination is available, so it’s silly to train that way. I disagree. It would be a mistake to always train that way, but as a way to learn, overlearn, master, and refresh one’s learning it’s an excellent technique.**

The next chapter, “Easy Exercises” consists of 100 problems that generally won’t be too easy to the average club player. (My guess is that the chapter will be a good workout for those in the 1700 range.) Here and throughout the rest of the book, the themes are unannounced. There follows a 38 problem chapter with endgame positions, a mini-chapter with 13 opening traps, a useful if brief (21 problems) chapter on defense, and then it’s on to the tests. (A nice feature: one can consult a hint section, though of course it costs one points to do so.)

I like the format and the material is fine, too, though as mentioned earlier it’s not really suitable for beginners or as a first tactics book. An interesting note about the material: most of the exercises date from 2000-2003, which means that almost all the old standards are absent. That’s a good thing for those of us – most of us who go back to the antediluvian age when books walked the earth – who have already seen the standards. (Of course if one hasn’t, then there’s nothing wrong with getting one of the oldies like the Reinfeld “1001” books.) So based on the material and the book’s structure, I warmly recommend the book for B- and A-players, and I think experts and up can benefit as well, though there are other works out more specifically aimed to that level.

I’ll offer one complaint, an aesthetic one. Not only sections but even chapters start in the middle of a page, immediately after the end of the previous section or chapter. Yuck. I’m sure this saved the publisher a few cents (or rather the customer, who’d have to pay for it), but it seems an unworthy sacrifice of production values to me. White space is not wasted space. It’s easier on the eyes, and helps readers to focus on what is more important in the material and to grasp its structure. (There’s a reason we use spaces between words, after sentences and between paragraphs! wecouldsavemoneybywritingallourbookslikethiswithoutcapitalizationpunctuationorspacesbutitwouldberevolting) This reservation aside, I’m happy to recommend the book, especially to players in the 1700-2000 range.*** The volume can be purchased here.

* It’s 567, actually, because number 18 has an A, B, and C puzzle, perhaps because they were added too late to conveniently renumber all the successors.

** Indeed, the objection is seriously misguided, and not followed in any other sport or intellectual discipline, or even by the objectors themselves. Are there any tennis players who don’t specially practice their forehands, even though it’s “unrealistic” to expect hitting dozens of forehands in a row during an actual match? Or imagine math instruction where concepts aren’t drilled in distinct units. Finally, just as no one in a real game tells us that there’s a double attack, there’s also no one telling us that there’s a tactic of any sort. So tactics practice is “unrealistic” by this standard, whether the practice occurs by theme or not.

*** I'm also a fan of the follow-up volume, the ingeniously entitled The Chess Cafe Puzzle Book 2. Despite the tactics connotation of the word "puzzle", that book presents and then tests the reader on various positional motifs. It's available here, and I'll have a longer review in a (the?) forthcoming issue of Chess Horizons.

Dear organizers,

Please stop putting together super-tournaments for at least a couple of weeks, OK? We're all exhausted!

The next abomina super-GM event starts this Tuesday; it's the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao. The grand slam events from which the six contestants qualified were Corus (Wijk aan Zee), Morelia/Linares, and the MTel Masters. The winners of those three events were Levon Aronian, Viswanathan Anand and Vassily Ivanchuk, respectively. Second-place players Magnus Carlsen and Veselin Topalov also qualified, and then finally the best all-around player not already included made it as well - Teimour Radjabov.

The event is a double round robin and runs from September 2-13. The website is here, and I trust that no one will confuse Bilbao with the subject of the following video.

It's not a bad series of short interviews, and although it would have been more entertaining had they not all wussed out about predicting, they were right to maintain their neutrality.

The Tal Memorial blitz concluded today, and Vassily Ivanchuk followed his success in the regular tournament with a victory here. It's also a repeat success, as Ivanchuk won this event last year ahead of a similar field that included Viswanathan Anand. Last year's event was also an official world blitz championship and this one wasn't, but given the strength of the field, he deserves to be recognized as at least the de jure champ.

Still, his success did not come easy. It was a close battle with Vladimir Kramnik, and when they faced off in the penultimate round they were tied for first. Ivanchuk won the game, and when both players drew (with other opponents) in the last round, Ivanchuk had won the event by a point. Magnus Carlsen had a good tournament as well, finishing in third place a point and a half behind Kramnik.

Final Standings:

1. Ivanchuk 23.5 (of 34)
2. Kramnik 22.5
3. Carlsen 21
4-5. Svidler, Mamedyarov 20
6-8. Leko, Grischuk, Karjakin 18
9-10. Kamsky, Gelfand 17.5
11. Ponomariov 17
12. Grachev 14.5
13-15. Alekseev, Karpov, Morozevich 14
16-17. Movsesian, Eljanov 12.5
18. Tkachiev 11.5

I've picked out a number of interesting games - have a look.

Meanwhile, the NH Tournament came to its grisly end today. Wang Yue drew with Bareev in nine moves, because that clinched the best score among the Rising Stars and thus automatic entry into the prestigious Amber Rapid and Blindfold tournament in Nice next year. The other four games continued normally, and two draws and two wins (Caruana over Agdestein and l'Ami over Korchnoi) left the youngsters with a 3.5-1.5 victory for the day and a massive 33.5-16.5 win overall. Here are the individual totals:

Rising Stars

1. Wang Yue 8.5 (of 10)
2. Cheparinov 7.5
3. Caruana 6.5
4. l'Ami 6
5. Stellwagen 5

Experience

1-2. Agdestein, Bareev 4
3. Ljubojevic 3.5
4-5. Korchnoi, Jussupow 2.5

In addition to traditional internet lessons (what an oxymoron!), there are other means by which I've worked with students using the web. One recent way which was enthusiastically received was a ChessVideos-style lesson, where I recorded a video of my analysis and mailed the student the resulting file. (Viewing the result requires no special software.) Interested? Inquire here.

A bit of self-congratulation to be found here, though with appropriate disclaimers and expressions of humility included therein. It's not especially instructive, but hopefully you'll enjoy it anyway!

Here's the quote again (first posted here):

Chess masters do not talk as much of sore behinds as cyclists in a six-day race but, except for that, there are certain similarities when it comes to eloquence after an unexpectedly bad showing in the spurt for points. One of the most popular excuses is "a cold". It is convenient and undefined, may mean this or that, often, it means nothing at all.

Who said it, and what was the context? The answer, as reader Jeff Scott correctly replied, is Bent Larsen, from his much praised but comparatively little-known Larsen's Selected Games of Chess. The book has been out of print for a long time, but many who are familiar with it put it on a par with the much-beloved autobiographical work The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal.

Now to the context. Larsen's comment prefaced his game with Eliskases from the 1958 tournament in Mar del Plata. Here's how he continues:

It is good to have such an explanation ready, so I have hesitated to bring my game against Eliskases and its story to the knowledge of a broader public. However, the fact remains that it is a good game, something to show and to brag about.

It was an exciting game where both players were under heavy attack. The one which Eliskases had to ward off will be seen from the moves, the one against myself was conducted with great violence by a tremendous army of bacteria.

The weather in Mar del Plata in March, the Argentine autumn, is like first-class Danish summer weather, but one day suddenly we were served cold and rain, and I had not been dressed for it. On the next day when I had to play Eliskases I coughed incessantly, and I needed every one of the big supply of handkerchiefs in my pockets...

This extended quotation gives a glimpse into Larsen's writing style, especially his wit and self-confidence. Larsen, for those who aren't so familiar with him, was one of the world's best players in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a world championship candidate on four times, and prior to his drubbing at Fischer's hands in 1971, many thought he had a reasonable shot at the highest title. He was also viewed as maverick chess thinker, somewhat like Morozevich today. Definitely one of the great players of chess history whom all fans should know about.

Finally, the game: that can be replayed here.

The most entertaining tournament of the moment, the Tal Memorial Blitz, is halfway through. It's a double round robin event, and after the 17 rounds of first round robin, Vladimir Kramnik leads with 11 points, half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk. While Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov are not playing, it's an enormously strong tournament. Fifteen of the eighteen players are over 2700, and one of the three 2600s is Karpov.

I thought carefully about annotating all 153 games in TWIC's PGN file for day 1, but that might take a little too long. Instead, I'll offer some observations on the games.

(1) Last year, Kamsky played a bunch of games with the London System. Though a painfully dull opening, the choice was a very intelligent one. Kamsky is a great grinder, so it was a good fit for his style, but the most important point is that it allowed him to hide his preparation in advance of the World Cup. (A decision that paid off, as he won that event.) The good news was that fewer of Kamsky's games went down that road, but the bad news was that a few others adopted that opening. Ugh.

(2) But most didn't, and there were plenty of open, dynamic and exciting lines. One noteworthy example was Mamedyarov's use of the Budapest Defense against Tkachiev and Ivanchuk. He has used this opening before, even in slow games, and has done quite well with it. Here he won the first game and drew the second.

(3) Interestingly, there were also a few opening "adoptions". In the Tal Memorial (the slow tournament), two of the openings surprises were Morozevich's 7.c6 (after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 O-O 5.Nf3 c5 6.dxc5 Na6) against Ponomariov in round 6, and Alekseev's 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.e5 against Leko from round 9. Those lines were reprised in the blitz: both Morozevich and Carlsen used the 7.c6 idea against Leko (both games were drawn), while Leko used Alekseev's idea against Eljanov (lost) and Mamedyarov (won). Alekseev himself re-used the opening against Ponomariov, and that game was drawn.

(4) Let's take a look at a couple of games. First, the good, an elegant bit of technique from the end of Kamsky-Tkachiev (round 6).



To make further progress, White will put his king on c6 and then look for a way to penetrate with his rook, to drive Black's king to the back rank. Kamsky therefore plays the obvious 49.Kb5, and now rather than wait around for the inevitable Black plays 49...f6, hoping to swap off the kingside pawns. There may be several ways for White to win, but the one he chose struck me as especially nice: 50.Kc4!. This switchback takes advantage of the changed situation; Black's rook is trapped and as he's powerless against 51.Rd5, trading the rooks, Tkachiev resigned. This ability to respond to changing circumstances by stopping on a dime to undo a move that was part of a previous plan is one I've regularly noticed with top players, and it's worth cultivating in one's own play.

(5) Kamsky-Tkachiev was an example of the good, now comes the bad and the ugly. This is the position after White's 43rd move in the game Svidler-Ivanchuk from round 5:



Black is better, but how does he make progress? Ivanchuk came up with something that looked like a good idea at the time: 43...a6 44.bxa6 Ka7. Black will take on a6 next, and then his king will run up and around on the queenside, while White is stuck monitoring the h-pawn. There's just one problem with Black's last move, which was a blunder: 45.Qc6! 1-0. It's mate in one, no matter what, because the only way to prevent 46.Qb7# is by taking on a6, whereupon 46.Qa8 mates. Ouch.

To see more, you can download the games from various sites. Note too that Europe Echecs is continuing their video coverage of the Tal Memorial to include the blitz as well - see for yourself. (They also have Russian-language videos on the official site.)

Now to the NH Tournament.



It's a little too late to change the overall score, unless the Experience team manages to win the final round tomorrow by a 15-0 score (unlikely, since only five games will be played), but today the veterans won their first round of the tournament. Ljubojevic defeated Caruana, and the kids were in trouble on some other boards, too, but managed to draw the other four games. That brings the overall score to 30-15 for the Rising Stars.

Despite the veterans' success, I'm giving the move of the day [could this be a future feature of this site? Maybe...] to the kids - to Stellwagen in particular.



It's Black (Stellwagen) to move, what should he do? Of course he can play 66...Rg7 and after 67.Be6 take on g4. Rook and bishop vs. rook is a theoretical draw, starting from a "normal" position like this one, but it's not a lot of fun. Even in games with titled players, the weak side loses as often as it draws. Stellwagen chose to play 66...Rxg4+, but after 67.Kf3 the threat of Re6+ looks like it will lead to a rook and bishop vs. rook ending after all. Play continued 67...Rg1 (to meet 68.Re6+ and 69.Rxf6 with 69...Rf1+ and 70...Rxf6) 68.Re6+ Kc7 69.Kf2



The tricks are over, the knight's a goner, and it's time for Black to hunker down and try to draw rook and bishop vs. rook, right?

69...Rg8!!

Wrong. Now 70.Rxf6 Rf8 is a trivial draw, because the forthcoming ...Kd7/8-e7 either regains the bishop or leads to a rook swap. Agdestein therefore took the rook, but after 70.Bxg8 Nxg8 71.Ke3 Kd7 72.Ra6 Ne7 Black had no troubles. The rook only beats the knight when it's cut off from the king or in situations where the defender's king is in a mating net, neither of which is happening here. More importantly, it's not just a theoretical draw, but an easy draw as well, much easier than the R&B vs. R ending, and after 73.Ke4 Nc6 74.Ra1 Kd6 75.Rc1 Ne7 the players called it a day.

For further coverage of that event, see the tournament website (which, like the Tal Memorial, has video coverage). Meanwhile, in other events, Bu Xiangzhi kept up his torrid pace in Antwerp (6/7, 2823 TPR) and Marc Arnold won the 14th North American FIDE Invitational. More importantly, he achieved his third and final IM norm. His rating might be a touch below 2400 still, but once he gets those last few rating points (if he hasn't already from this event), the title is his. Congratulations!

It was almost a close round in Amsterdam, but when l'Ami the drawing machine eked out a draw against Agdestein it was another beating for the Experience team. Wang Yue won yet again, taking his total to a terrific 7.5/8, while Cheparinov (6.5/8) kept his Amber hopes alive with a win as well. (The highest scorer on the junior team gets to play in next year's Amber Rapid & Blindfold tournament in Nice.) With their 3.5-1.5 win today, the Rising Stars lead by a whopping 28-12 score, and have guaranteed a win in the event even if they go 0-10 over the next two rounds.

In other events, Shulman leads in Montreal (4/5), Miroshnichenko and Bu Xiangzhi continue to lead in Antwerp (5/6), and Marc Arnold needs only a draw tomorrow/today (Friday) in the last round of the 14th North American FIDE Invitational to get his final IM norm.

Lastly, let me draw readers' attention to this recent "Quotation" post. Those are generally pretty popular, but this one seems to have been neglected by almost all the readers (possibly because it was supplanted by a second post shortly thereafter). I'll reveal the answer later today, but it would be more fun if someone got it first.

First, as Rybka 3 users everywhere might know, Kamsky missed a beautiful win against Morozevich in round 8.



Black to move played 27...Nf5, but missed a deep and spectacular win:

27...Nxg2!! 28.Kxg2 Bxf3+ 29.Kxf3 Qd5+ 30.Kg3 (The most principled try; other moves also lose.) 30...Bh4+! 31.Kxh4 Qg2 and despite White's two extra pieces, he has no adequate defense to threats like 31...g5+ 32.Kh5 Qxh2+ 33.Kxg5 Kh8 followed by ...Rg8+ and so on. Expect to see this one again in the next generation of advanced tactics books.

Next, with respect to the blitz tournament taking place the 29th and 30th in Moscow, Chess Today reports that although it will be as strong as last year's mega-event, it will not have the status of a world championship. (Not that it really matters!)

An event that does have official status, but perhaps shouldn't, is the women's world championship. Due to the Russia/Georgia/S. Ossetia/Abkhazia crisis, a number of players (e.g. Georgians and Irina Krush, to go solely off the top of my head) aren't playing, and with neither GM Polgar playing, nor some of the strong retired Chinese women playing, it's hardly the event it could be. Interested parties can follow the action here.

Finally, let's update a couple of ongoing events. After four of nine rounds in Montreal there's a four way tie for first, as Nakamura, Charbonneau, Akobian and Shulman have three points apiece. Antwerp is a round further along, and after five of nine rounds there Miroshnichenko and Bu Xiangzhi share the lead with four points.

All five last round games were drawn at the Tal Memorial, four of them very quickly. Vassily Ivanchuk therefore wins the tournament, a full point ahead of his four closest pursuers. Games (with my remarks) are here, videos (including an interview with the winner) are here, and the final standings, with TPRs and live ratings ensue:

Final Standings:

1. Ivanchuk (2866, 2787.8) 6
2-5. Morozevich (2783, 2787), Gelfand (2790, 2716), Ponomariov (2791, 2726.8), Kramnik (2783, 2771.9) 5
6. Leko (2745, 2746.6) 4.5
7-8. Kamsky (2704, 2728.5), Alekseev (2706, 2714.9) 4
9. Mamedyarov (2665, 2731.1) 3.5
10. Shirov (2620, 2725) 3

Next up in Moscow, on the 29th and 30th, is the de facto (and maybe de jure) blitz world championship. The field is made up, approximately, of the players from this event, invited guests Magnus Carlsen and Anatoly Karpov, and whoever manages to qualify from a preliminary event taking place today and tomorrow.



Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, the Experience team lost another round, by a 3-2 margin, but on the positive side an older player not named Korchnoi won a game. Bareev defeated Stellwagen in an Anti-Meran that went into an endgame that was astonishingly like the one that arises from the Panov/Botvinnik Caro-Kann with 5...Nc6 6.Nc3 Bg4 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qb3 Bxf3 9.gxf3 e6 10.Qxb7 Nxd4 11.Bb5+ Nxb5 12.Qc6+ Ke7 13.Qxb5 Qd7 14.Nxd5+ Qxd5 15.Qxd5 exd5. Perhaps Bareev's considerable experience playing the Caro-Kann gave him a leg up in the endgame; whatever the story, he won a very nice game.

One other bit of good news for the senior set is that Wang Yue was finally held to a draw (his rating has skyrocketed lately; he's now 2734.2 on the Live Top List), but with Ljubojevic and Korchnoi losing to l'Ami and Caruana (respectively), the overall sad story continues. The Rising Stars lead 24.5-10.5.

We're still early in the last round, but as a draw clinched clear first for Ivanchuk and let Shirov put a quick end to a lousy tournament, a quick handshake was the order of the day. Here's the game: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 c5 5.Bxc4 e6 6.O-O a6 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Ne5 Ke7 10.Be2 Bd7 11.Bf3 Nc6 12.Nxc6+ 1/2-1/2.

The ongoing Tal Memorial is a very fine tournament, but there's very little about the play that would remind chess fans of the man being honored. Former world champion Mikhail Tal (1936-1992), especially in his dazzling rise to the top from 1957-1960, was a man whose colossal energy, imagination, and willingness to go on sacrificial adventures made him perhaps the most beloved chess player of modern times.

Those of you familiar with his chess know exactly what I mean, and those of you who are not are in for a special treat. Some of his games are more like dreams than real life, and that holds true for his 1979 win against another grandmaster with a penchant for ultra-sharp play, Dragoljub Velimirovic. Ironically, Tal started the game with "normal", positional play, taking advantage of his opponent's positional errors. He could have continued in this vein, but at a certain point it was as if a switch was turned on, and then Tal started to create. Eschewing a safe, sound edge, Tal sacrificed a piece for an enduring, altogether non-stereotyped attack. There were few threats and Black's king had the opportunity to seek shelter in any part of the board, yet no matter what Velimirovic did Tal seemed to create a whole new swarm of threats out of thin air.

There were a few players, like Polugaevsky and Korchnoi, whose great skill in calculation enabled them to successfully withstand Tal's attacks on a regular basis, but most - including many strong GMs - could not. After hours of heavy calculation and psychological pressure, they would break. And so it was for Velimirovic. He defended very well for a while, but by about the third wave of the attack, he (and his position) started to break down, and Tal finished in style.

Reading a description of the game is well and good, but seeing the game is even better. Therefore, I hope you'll join me tonight, Wednesday night, at 9 p.m. ET as I present this gem on ChessBase's playchess.com server. (For more directions, see this post.) See you there!

On the ChessBase site, there's a nice remembrance of Arpad Elo, the founder of the rating system that bears his name* ("Elo" is not an acronym), while the ChessCafe "counter-programs" with Hans Ree's short tribute to Hoogevens/Corus (the super-tournament in Wijk aan Zee) director Piet Zwart (permalink here). Turning from beings that used to be alive** to something that never was or will be, Steve Lopez (who is alive) offers a helpful article on ChessBase 10's new tree format (permalink here). If you've spend your money on the tools, you might as well know how to use them, so it's worth a look.

* I didn't feel like using "eponymous" tonight. Sorry.

** And will be again, I believe, but that's a discussion for another day.

The Tal Memorial has been a lively supertournament, and there was more shuffling near the top of the crosstable. Ivanchuk entered the penultimate round with a half-point lead, but with Black against his personal kryptonite - Ponomariov - this lead was not secure. He was under heavy pressure for a long time, and only some neat, accurate play at the finish allowed him to save half a point.

That made life good, and it was rendered even better when Morozevich lost his second straight game. Despite the (presumed) advantage of the white pieces against Kamsky, he was soon happy to acquiesce in a draw by repetition, but the American was not interested. Kamsky was right to play on, but this could have boomeranged as the Russian secured the better position in time trouble. The adventures still weren't over, though. A Morozevich mistake on move 45 left him in serious trouble, and a last error on move 54 sealed the deal. In two rounds, Morozevich has gone from first in the tournament and the world ratings to a 4-way tie for second in the event, a full point back, and #3 (by a thread!) in the ratings. Easy come, easy go.

As I mentioned, it's a four way tie for second. Who else is in the tie? Ponomariov, for one, but also Gelfand and Kramnik. Gelfand drew a Petroff with supreme ease against Leko, who presumably had nothing special prepared for the game, while Kramnik ground Alekseev down after the latter missed a chance for some dangerous attacking possibilities.

Finally, Shirov got his first win of the event with an attacking win over Mamedyarov; his reward is Black against Ivanchuk in the last round.

[Games here, with my comments.]

Standings after Round 8:

1. Ivanchuk 5.5
2-5. Morozevich, Gelfand, Kramnik, Ponomariov 4.5
6. Leko 4
7-8. Alekseev, Kamsky 3.5
9. Mamedyarov 3
10. Shirov 2.5

Turning now to the battle of the Rising Stars against Experience in the NH Tournament in Amsterdam, the veterans finally stiffened, and it wasn't caused by arthritis or rigor mortis! For the first time in the whole tournament, they drew the round, with Black, no less, only losing one game (to Wang Yue, of course - he's 6/6 thus far) while Korchnoi won his second consecutive game. Maybe the problem is that the Experience team isn't old enough!

The overall score, with 4 rounds (20 total games) to go is 21.5-8.5 in favor of the kids, so the old(er) guys still have their work cut out for them.

Finally, in the 14th North American FIDE Invitational in Chicago, Marc Arnold seems to be running away with the tournament. There's a round missing on the Monroi site, and if it's round 3 (as it claims to be), then Arnold has a fantastic 5.5 out of 6. He thus needs only one point from his last three games to achieve an IM norm, and it would be his third and last.

My last two ChessVideos presentations (here and here) took a look back at some of my old endgames, each of which featured various painful but typical endgame gaffes. This time, in my latest presentation, the play is of a considerably higher - but alas, not quite perfect - level. The ending on display this time around is of a more dramatic nature, as the key defensive idea has a study-like quality to it. I think, or at least hope, that you'll find it both entertaining, inspirational (defensive ideas exist in almost any position, if one looks hard enough), and a good exercise too. Have a look.

Spanning the globe, to bring you the constant variety of excuses:

Chess masters do not talk as much of sore behinds as cyclists in a six-day race but, except for that, there are certain similarities when it comes to eloquence after an unexpectedly bad showing in the spurt for points. One of the most popular excuses is "a cold". It is convenient and undefined, may mean this or that, often, it means nothing at all.

Who said it, and what was the context?

We're not defending Gruenfeld, and he's not defending us! And what's the deal with this game? Could it really be the jokester himself? (Almost surely not, but it would be a pleasant surprise if it is.)

HT: Brian Karen

Round 7 of the Tal Memorial was the most dramatic one yet, and saw a major change at the top of the tournament table. Alexander Morozevich led not only the tournament but (unofficially) the world ratings after yesterday's victory over Ponomariov, but today he met his comeuppance in the form of the great Ukranian, Vassily Ivanchuk. With White in the Gruenfeld, Ivanchuk grabbed a couple of pawns and elegantly converted his material advantage in the endgame. With the victory, Ivanchuk has now taken over the lead in the tournament, and has moved up to #3 in the world ratings (just four and a half points behind Morozevich).

That was the biggest game of the day, but was hardly the end of the excitement. Ponomariov bounced back from yesterday's loss by beating Shirov, who is experiencing one of the worst tournaments of his professional career (+0 -4 =3). Shirov devised a clever but suspicious-looking amalgam of the Rossolimo and Sveshnikov/Kalashnikov and was in serious trouble almost from the jump. Ponomariov might not have played as accurately as he could have, but he kept an edge and, when Shirov went awry (again), Ponomariov capitalized convincingly.

That put Ponomariov in third place, where he is tied with Kramnik. Gelfand-Kramnik was the only draw of the day, but before everyone feigns shock it's worth looking at the game. Kramnik played very well, outplaying Gelfand on the Black side of a 5.e3 + 6.Qc2 Semi-Slav. Unfortunately he, like Kamsky the other day, went awry when having a "Tal moment". Kramnik's idea was too clever by half, and when the smoke had cleared it was he who needed to hold the draw - which he did.

Kramnik was thus left on 50%, where he was joined by Alekseev and Leko. Alekseev won one of his characteristic technical games, efficiently grinding Mamedyarov's Open French (I think that's a good label for 3...dxe4 systems, but it's not an official name for them...yet) into the dust. Leko likewise won, but his win over Kamsky came when the latter went speculating in complicated waters. Leko emerged from the mess with an extra pawn, and his realization of the advantage was characteristically flawless. [All of these games can be replayed, with my commentary, here.]

With two rounds to go, then, here are the standings:

1. Ivanchuk 5
2. Morozevich 4.5
3-4. Gelfand, Ponomariov 4
5-7. Alekseev, Kramnik, Leko 3.5
8. Mamedyarov 3
9. Kamsky 2.5
10. Shirov 1.5

In part, these results show just how tough and tightly bunched elite chess is these days, but it's also a bad sign for fans of the K's - Kramnik and Kamsky - as they approach their matches with Anand and Topalov, respectively.

Meanwhile, the NH Tournament saw the Experience team have its most successful day since the event began. They didn't lose a single game! If they can repeat the performance on a non-rest day, it will be even more impressive.

There are other events going on now too. There's a category 13 tournament in Montreal (top seed: Nakamura) that started Sunday and continues through September 2. There's a category 12 event in Antwerp (see also this site) that started on Saturday; top seed Bu Xiangzhi is off to a flying start with 3/3. And finally, the 14th North American FIDE Invitational is well underway (round 5 of 9 is going on as I write this), and FM Marc Arnold leads with 4/4, putting him in great shape for an IM norm.

Did I say "finally"? There's one more event, and it's starting tonight: it's the opening week of the 2008 United States Chess League. U.S. readers might want to check that out, and support their local teams (when they have them).

Kenneth Rogoff is a retired American grandmaster now best known as an economist, but there are some interesting materials on his website (see this page) looking back at his chess career. One such article, from the October 1969 Boys Life, looks at his win over Steve Spencer from that year's U.S. Junior Championship (won by Rogoff). The article is by none other than Bobby Fischer, and thus especially worth a look.

In the current main event, the Tal Memorial in Moscow, Alexander Morozevich won his third game to maintain a half point lead over Vassily Ivanchuk. Morozevich found an interesting new idea on the white side of a 4.Qc2 Nimzo-Indian against Ponomariov, and whatever its objective merits Ponomariov was kind enough to blunder on move 11. The game went to move 37, but it was really over much sooner. Ivanchuk, meanwhile, defeated Leko with the black pieces - no mean feat - after Leko's 31.g3 allowed Ivanchuk's Sveshnikov Sicilian-style to destroy White's kingside. In clear third was the day's other winner, Boris Gelfand, who won with Black in an Anti-Moscow Gambit.

Round 6 Results:

Morozevich - Ponomariov 1-0
Mamedyarov - Gelfand 0-1
Kramnik - Kamsky 1/2-1/2
Leko - Ivanchuk 0-1
Shirov - Alekseev 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 6:

1. Morozevich 4.5
2. Ivanchuk 4
3. Gelfand 3.5
4-6. Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Kramnik 3
7-9. Alekseev, Leko, Kamsky 2.5
10. Shirov 1.5

Morozevich Watch: Current live rating: 2794.9 (3.1 points behind Anand!)

UPDATE/CORRECTION: I looked at the site before it was updated; as it turns out, Morozevich is the new #1 player, by rating, in the world!

In the French Championship, former prodigy Etienne Bacrot and current prodigy (and defending champion) Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tied for first with 8.5/11, but Bacrot won the playoff 1.5-.5 to win the title for the sixth time.

As for the NH Chess Tournament, the Rising Stars continue to lead (obviously) and won round 5 by a 3-2 score, but finally lost a game when Korchnoi used the white pieces to defeat l'Ami. Still, the kids cling to a razor-thin 19-6 edge at the end of the first Scheveningen-style round robin.

The Moscow games can be replayed here, Korchnoi-l'Ami here.

There were more troubles today for the senescent set in the NH Tournament. Ljubojevic and Agdestein drew, but Bareev, Korchnoi and Jussupow all lost. None of the Experience team is having an event to remember, but it's especially grim for Korchnoi and Jussupow, who have laid four eggs in a row. Overall score: Wang Yue 4 - Experience 4. Add the other Rising Stars' totals in, and it's 16 - 4. (Maybe the organizers should "discover" a plumbing or electrical problem in the building that renders further play unsafe and cancel the remaining rounds.)

More info here and here. In brief, it starts today (Saturday, August 23) and runs through Friday, August 29. It takes place at the Holiday Inn Northshore Hotel in Skokie, IL, can be followed live (hopefully) on the Monroi site, and stars the following lineup:

IM Kirill Kuderinov
IM Angelo Young
IM Mesgen Amanov
FM Florin Felecan
FM Marc Arnold
FM Aleksander Stamnov
FM Teddy Coleman
Robert Loncarevic
Parker Zhao
Michael Lee

I don't see the norm requirement listed on the tournament website, but it has almost always been 6.5/9 so that's probably a fair assumption to make about this event as well. With four juniors in the mix (Arnold, Coleman, Zhao and Lee), it should be especially exciting, too, as this is probably their last norm chance for a while thanks to the pending start of the school year.

The Kramnik videos are part of Europe Echecs' Tal Memorial package. They're fairly brief but interesting, and you can watch them here.

You can read about something even more interesting here. During ChessBase's German-language video coverage of round 5 of the Tal Memorial on the Playchess.com server, they had Levon Aronian as an in-studio guest for about 70 minutes. After a five minute mini-interview with Frederic Friedel, he spent more than an hour commenting on the Tal Memorial and (more briefly) the NH Tournament games. His comments, and how he approached commenting, was extremely interesting (at least to me), and he also broached some other topics as well. So if you want to see his commentary, learn a bit about his life and career, to learn what his favorite chess book is, who he thinks is the most creative player around and hear his (tentative) prediction for the Anand-Kramnik match, follow the directions here and check it out. It might be the best 25 cents you ever spent. (Yes, I forked over my own ducats, in case anyone's wondering!)

More info here. It's about time!

Classical King's Indian games are often very exciting, with White trying to crash through on the queenside and Black attempting to give mate, and Korchnoi-Cheparinov from round 3 of the NH Tournament ("Experience vs. Rising Stars") followed the template to a tee. Viktor Korchnoi is a legend and a long-time anti-King's Indian specialist, but Ivan Cheparinov is not only the stronger player, but also one of the world's greatest experts in opening preparation. The battle was short but dramatic, and I hope my notes will provide a good start for King's Indian mavens in their aim to make sense of the game. Have a look.

Round 5 of the Tal Memorial in Moscow saw some excellent chess and some movement near the top of the tournament table. In the battle of the leader and the tailender, Shirov played the main drawing weapon of the early 2000s, the Sveshnikov Sicilian, and it worked: Morozevich achieved nothing against it. A nice "professional" draw by Shirov.

Ivanchuk and Leko came into the round half a point behind Morozevich, but only one left it the same way. Ivanchuk had White against Kramnik, and although the latter's Petroff looked wobbly back in Dortmund, he held today without any problem. As for Leko, he completed our trifecta of drawing openings, essaying the Marshall Gambit against Ponomariov. Unlike Mssrs. Shirov and Kramnik, however, he failed to hold. Ponomariov returned the gambit pawn for a slightly better ending, and while his advantage had been growing the decisive moment came after a Leko blunder. Ponomariov's win vaulted him over Leko into a second-place tie, where he and Ivanchuk were joined by the day's other winner, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Mamedyarov's success came at the expense of Gata Kamsky, who was simply outplayed in a Scheveningen Sicilian. Many avoid that variation with Black from fear of the English Attack, but Mamedyarov's Taimanov move order precluded that worry. In the 6.Be2 Scheveningen that resulted, Kamsky chose a rare and positionally risky line with 15.b4. This may have sowed some of the seeds of his later problems, but the real culprit was the wonderful 21.Bg7. It was spectacular and suitable for a Tal Memorial, but when the dust had settled Black had a bishop, two pawns and a better position for a rook. Maybe White could have held, but it would have been very difficult, and Kamsky resigned after the players made it to the time control.

The last game, Gelfand-Alekseev, would have placed a fourth player in second had White won, but Gelfand only drew, unable to convert a clearly better endgame into a win.

Standings after Round 5:

1. Morozevich 3.5
2-4. Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Ivanchuk 3
5-7. Gelfand, Leko, Kramnik 2.5
8-9. Alekseev, Kamsky 2
10. Shirov 1

Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, the Kevorkians juniors continued to kill off the old people, though this round was the fossils' best one so far. With White in all five games, they managed to draw three of the games - doubling their overall score! Yes, the Experience team now has three points out of 15, equaling Wang Yue's solo total. C'mon guys, sharpen those gums! Anand's almost 40, so it's still possible for those of us in the post-acne crowd to fight successfully against youngsters.

Here are the round 5 games from Moscow, with my comments; some round 3 and 4 games should appear later, along with selected highlights from the massacre.

Astronaut Greg Chamitoff, currently hard at work on the International Space Station, is also engaged in a chess game against a team made up of the various flight control centers around the world (in the U.S., Russia, Japan and Germany). And he's winning, as you can see for yourself.

HT: Bob Jacobs

There were no effort-free games in the Tal Memorial today, but all five games were drawn nevertheless. That leaves Morozevich in clear first, half a point ahead of Ivanchuk and Leko. It also means, happily, that Shirov is on the scoreboard.

Standings after Round 4:

1. Morozevich 3
2. Ivanchuk, Leko 2.5
4-8. Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Gelfand, Kramnik, Kamsky 2
9. Alekseev 1.5
10. Shirov .5

Almost the reverse scenario took place in the NH Chess Tournament, as four of the five games had a winner - a young winner. Only Ljubojevic was able to save half a point today, and that wasn't easy. L'Ami was unable to put him away, but Wang Yue, Stellwagen, Caruana and Cheparinov were all able to put the white pieces to good effect against Agdestein, Bareev, Korchnoi and Jussupow, respectively. That leaves the massacre standings massacre at 8.5-1.5 overall in favor of the kiddies.

(Time to editorialize: If this keeps up a couple more rounds, I hope they'll consider the mercy rule. This format made sense a few years ago, before kids sprang from the womb with 2200 ratings, but doesn't make a lot of sense now. Why pair higher-rated, active kids with lower-rated, mostly retired and semi-retired veterans? The younger players are still rising compared to where they will be, but they've risen like the noonday sun compared to the Experience team.)

I'll try to present some games from one or both events later today or tomorrow.

Annotated games will have to wait, but here at least is an update on yesterday's action in the Tal Memorial in Moscow and the NH Rising Stars vs. Experience tournaments.

In the Tal Memorial, only one game, Ivanchuk(!)-Alekseev, was bloodless - a Petroff that followed well-known theory for many moves. Finally, on move 22, Black played something new, White responded, and they shook hands. Boooo. On the other end of the spectrum, Ponomariov tried for 87 moves to grind Mamedyarov into pestle, but in the end the opposite-colored bishops proved enough to overcome the pawn deficit - barely. Kamsky-Gelfand was also drawn, although Kamsky outplayed him from an equal position and had a winning chance. Despite spending most of his remaining time in the second control considering the decisive blow, he refrained and allowed Gelfand a narrow escape.

The other two games were impressive wins by White. Leko outplayed Shirov in his inimitable style, slowly squeezing the life out of his unfortunate opponent. That put Leko at +1, while Shirov has opened the tournament by "castling queenside" (0-0-0). The remaining contest, Morozevich-Kramnik, was clearly the game of the day. Morozevich essayed the Shabalov-Shirov Gambit (Semi-Slav, then 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.g4). Kramnik played the greedy 7...Nxg4 8.Rg1 Nxh2, a line with a somewhat dodgy reputation. (Of course, since Kramnik is probably playing Plan C openings, hiding his real prep from Anand, these slight liberties aren't so surprising.) Kramnik had prepared this line, judging by his speed in the opening, but once the players were both on their own Morozevich absolutely crushed him. I hope this isn't going to be indicative of Kramnik's form when the match with Anand rolls around; if it is, Kramnik will be toast.

The win put Morozevich in clear first while bouncing Kramnik back to 50%, but there's a long way to go before this event is over.

Standings after Round 3:

1. Morozevich 2.5
2-3. Ivanchuk, Leko 2
4-8. Mamedyarov, Gelfand, Ponomariov, Kramnik, Kamsky 1.5
9. Alekseev 1
10. Shirov 0


There's also a long way to go in the Rising Stars vs. Experience, at least in terms of the number of rounds, but if round 1 is indication they might need to stop it early for mercy's sake. The way the tournament works is this: there are five players on each team, and all the players on team A face all the players on team B twice (once with each color). Another feature of these events is that everyone on a team has the same color in a given round. Thus in round 1, all the Experience players had White, and in round 2 they'll all have Black.

So how did the veterans do? Not well: Agdestein drew Cheparinov and Bareev held against l'Ami, but Ljubojevic, Jussupow and Korchnoi lost to Wang Yue, Caruana and Stellwagen, respectively. Starting 1-4 with White and when they're fresh isn't a good sign, but let's be positive: maybe they just needed to warm up!

American great Samuel ("Sammy") Reshevsky wasn't really known as a freewheeling player (in fact, he wasn't known as a freewheeling anything); it's not an accident that one of his chess books had the sober title The Art of Positional Play. Reshevsky was a great player though (a small portion of the evidence: he was twice a Candidate, participanted in the 1948 World Championship match-tournament, won the U.S. championship six times and drew a match with Bobby Fischer), and like any great player he could do everything well.

Case in point: his last round game from the 1944 U.S. Open in Boston. Having already clinched first place going into the last round, he decided to have some fun against the young Brazilian player Fernando Vasconcellos. Facing Vasconcelles' French Defense, Reshevsky played a sideline and then went into 19th century mode, sacrificing a pawn and then a piece for attacking chances. Reshevsky crushed his opponent, concluding the game with a magnificent combination that's worth seeing, but what happens in between the sac and the finale is interesting too. It's far from clear that Rehevsky's piece sac was sound, and we'll go exploring to find the truth of the matter.

To see this truth, or at least our initial approximation to it, and to discover this wonderful game that's not (yet) in your Mega database, join me Wednesday night (tonight for those of us in the Western hemisphere) at 9 p.m. ET. The show is free - just show up in the broadcast room of the playchess.com server, find Reshevsky-Vasconcellos in the game list, and start watching and listening! (Further instructions here.) Hope to see you there.

There were four draws today, and although three were rather short (31 moves or fewer), all were full of content. The most exciting game was Kramnik-Leko. Kramnik played the popular 7.d5 pawn sac in the 4....Ba6 5.Qc2 Queen's Indian, and chose a rare but logical continuation. Leko was first to innovate, though I don't know whether it was prepared in advance or OTB inspiration. A very complicated position resulted with Black's king in danger and pieces hanging everywhere, but the players successfully navigated the maze. Leko wound up with an extra pawn, but Kramnik was able to force a repetition.

Mamedyarov-Morozevich was almost as sharp. White played what looked like a headhunter line against Morozevich's Gruenfeld, but after his opponent's incisive response Mamedyarov was clearly in trouble. Black was clearly better in the rook and two bishops vs. two rooks and knight ending reached on move 22, a Morozevich blunder on move 28 allowed Mamedyarov to survive.

The other two games were more sedate, but merit a thoughtful look nevertheless. Alekseev-Ponomariov was a quick draw by repetition, but the short battle over the light squares was instructive. Gelfand-Ivanchuk, similarly, showed the power of controlling a color complex in overcoming other disadvantages; in this case, White's B vs. N in an open board.

That left one decisive game, and that was Kamsky's win on the Black side of a Chebanenko Slav against Shirov. White had some extra space, but Black's control over d5, pressure against the backward pawn on d4, and finally his kingside pressure pushed Shirov over the edge. This convincing win brought Kamsky back to 50%, while leaving Shirov alone in last place with a continued goose egg.

Standings after Round 2:

1-3. Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Kramnik 1.5
4-8. Gelfand, Leko, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Kamsky 1
9. Alekseev .5
10. Shirov 0

Games, with my comments, here.

The Tal Memorial in Moscow got off to a rousing start, with the three biggest stars winning their opening games. Vladimir Kramnik, in need of a good result in advance of his upcoming world championship match with Viswanathan Anand, especially in the wake of a terrible performance in Dortmund, crushed Alexei Shirov. Kramnik found an interesting new idea in the Meran Semi-Slav, "winning" a piece for four pawns and achieving a bind. Shirov was unable to solve the new problems Kramnik set before him, and when the number of pawns for the piece drained down to zero, he gave up.

Alexander Morozevich also won convincingly, defeating Evgeny Alekseev on the white side of a Tromp-turned-Torre Attack. The players went right from the opening to the endgame, and Morozevich was able to parlay his extra space and Black's vulnerable pawns on e4 and c4 into an easy technical win.

Finally, the third winner, Vassily Ivanchuk, also obtained a large advantage with White and succeeded in grinding his opponent, Gata Kamsky, into the dust with apparent ease. All three performances were impressive, and hopefully they reflect good form at least as much as they do good preparation.

The other two games were drawn. Ruslan Ponomariov tried the 5.Nc3 Anti-Petroff, but Boris Gelfand's well-worked out novelty on move 23 enabled him to hold the balance. Ponomariov enjoyed the better of the play on the kingside, but Gelfand's queenside counterplay left White with nothing better than a draw by perpetual, which occurred shortly after the first time control at move 40. Lastly in this summary, but first to finish, was Peter Leko's draw against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Leko, with White, had a slight edge in the queenless middlegame, but was unable to make anything of it as the pieces flew from the board.

The games from this excellent round can be replayed here (with my comments). The tournament site is here, and video reports are here.

As you can see here.

Way back in 'ought five, I reviewed Paraguayan GM Zenon Franco's Chess Self-Improvement for Chess Today. The book had its virtues, with 50 well-annotated, high-level games that didn't suffer from excess familiarity. I enjoyed the games and appreciated the annotations, but took a pretty dim view of what I considered Franco's rather gimmicky "solitaire chess" framework to the games.

Let me state that I have nothing against solitaire chess (i.e. replaying games, trying to guess the moves in advance) in the most general sense - I do it myself and recommend that my students do it too. What I didn't like about the book's version was that it wasn't an every-move puzzle, but intermittent, multiple-choice, and with the right move often foreshadowed by earlier annotations. Another way in which the book could have been improved, I thought, was if there had been some sort of thematic unity to the games.

Fast forward to the present, or at least 2006. Franco has written another book, Winning Chess Explained, and it too comprises 50 well-annotated games. (There are 13 additional supplemental games that aren't deeply annotated but serve to help illustrate themes in the section - more on that below.) I have no idea if GM Franco or Gambit Publishing took my earlier review into account, but whether they did or not, I'm very happy to say that what I liked in the earlier work is present in this one too, and what I didn't like has been changed for the better. The games are grouped in four well-defined sections (sacrifice, maneuvering, simplification and pawns), each of which is intelligently divided into subsections. Better still, there are exercises here too - 45 in all - and they aren't included in the games but are separate, coming at the end of each section. Very good!

This is a work I'm happy to recommend to a wide range of players, but I believe that players around 2000 and up will derive the most benefit from this book, and trainers will find this work useful too.

The fun starts tomorrow, Monday, at 7 a.m. ET (blecch), and runs through the 27th with a rest day on the 23rd. Here are the first round pairings:

Vladimir Kramnik (2772) - Alexei Shirov (2739)
Peter Leko (2746) - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2740)
Alexander Morozevich (2788) - Evgeny Alekseev (2714)
Ruslan Ponomariov (2718) - Boris Gelfand (2707)
Vassily Ivanchuk (2777) - Gata Kamsky (2730)

(Note: ratings given are from the Live Top List.)

A few days ago I presented my first show on endgame misadventures on ChessVideos.tv; and those who didn't think I suffered enough in those games will be pleased with the results of this program. Available for free, on-demand, and requiring no special software, it affords viewers the chance to see some very bad endgame technique on my part. While some readers might revel in Schadenfreude, the primary value comes in learning from my mistakes - they're not unique to me, after all.

Watch, enjoy, and (hopefully) learn!

Poor humanity.

Two side notes about Eugene Meyer, the loser of this match. First, back in his active days, he was a player with an experimental turn of mind. I remember an old Chess Life article about his use of 1.a4, 2.a5 and 3.e3, with the idea of 4.a6. The point wasn't merely psychological; rather, it was to soften up Black's queenside light squares by inducing ...b6. Second, he was the first titled player I ever beat, albeit only in a speed game. There was no internet back then, so this happened over the board, back in the 1983 U.S. Open blitz championship. After defeating Meyer with Black in a Symmetrical English, I almost defeated GM James Tarjan and came pretty close to qualifying for the final. Alas! - but it was a great experience.

The Tal Memorial* takes place in Moscow from August 17-31 (I don't know if this really means the 18th through the 30th) and features a colossal lineup: Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich, Evgeny Alekseev, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov, Gata Kamsky, Ruslan Ponomariov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Peter Leko and Boris Gelfand.

A few days after the Tal Memorial starts, one of the more entertaining events on the yearly calendar will commence. The NH Chess Tournament takes place from August 20 to 30 in Amsterdam and pits a "Rising Stars" team against an "Experience" squad. The rising stars are Wang Yue, Ivan Cheparinov, Fabiano Caruana, Daniel Stellwagen and Erwin l'Ami; the veterans are Evgeny Bareev, Viktor Korchnoi, Artur Jussupow, Simen Agdestein, Ljubomir Ljubojevic. (Most of the "veterans" seem pretty young to me, but if they tried to stay faithful to the concept the kiddies would win by a colossal margin.) Each member of one team will play two games against every member of the other team.

* Warning: it has been quite a while and I imagine the site has been fixed in the meantime, but apparently it was attacking visitors with malware a month or two ago.

Abhijeet Gupta of India is the new World Junior champion, scoring 10/13, and his countryman Parimarjan Negi took clear second half a point behind. Meanwhile, in the girls' event, Harika Dronavalli of India came in first with 10.5/13, a full point and a half ahead of four players (one of whom was, of course, Indian). (Tournament site here.)

The last round was one of the best. Five of the seven games had a winner, and three of the top four entering the round were involved in those decisive contests. Going into the last round, Aronian led with 7.5 points, with Wang Yue, Karjakin and Radjabov half a point behind.

Let's start with the chase pack. Wang Yue had Black against Ivanchuk, and he was never in any danger of winning. He might have been losing at one moment, but Ivanchuk let the advantage slip and the game was drawn. Wang Yue could have tied for first if Karjakin drew with Radjabov and Aronian lost to Grischuk, but neither result occurred.

Radjabov took a page out of Carlsen's book and essayed the Dragon, using the same line that led Black to a devastating defeat in Anand-Carlsen in Mainz a week and a half ago. I recommended 17...Rc5 instead of Carlsen's 17...Rc3, but Radjabov found another idea: 17...Bf6. This exchange sac looks like a good idea, and a few moves later he sacrificed the second one for good measure. They reached an ending where White was up two exchanges for two pawns, but Black was in complete control.

Karjakin was in a nearly resignable position, but found an ingenious idea. Radjabov could have prevented it, but probably underestimated it (quite possibly in time pressure), and Karjakin could have escaped with a draw. Unfortunately for the young Ukranian, he failed to find a second subtle idea, and Radjabov then finished the job.

That meant that Radjabov would at least tie for first unless Aronian won, but that's just what happened. Aronian-Grischuk followed the fourth game of the Topalov-Kramnik world championship match (Elista 2006). Kramnik saved that game with a little trouble, but after Aronian's strong novelty (though Bareev had already recommended it in From London to Elista) Grischuk just suffered, suffered some more, and then lost.

Thus Aronian finished in clear first and Radjabov in clear second. Wang Yue was third, caught there by Kamsky, who was the beneficiary of a Navara blunder. Navara could have forced a draw by repetition, and should have, but hallucinated and lost. Karjakin's loss pushed him all the way back to fifth place, and even worse, a three way tie for fifth. Svidler caught him by winning a fascinating knight ending against Gashimov, and Jakovenko completed the troika by outplaying Cheparinov on the white side of the Berlin. (Both endgames are worth replaying.)

The only remaining game was Al-Modiahki-Gelfand, which was basically a quick handshake so the players could put an end to their difficulties.

Round 13 Results:

Aronian - Grischuk 1-0
Karjakin - Radjabov 0-1
Ivanchuk - Wang Yue 1/2-1/2
Navara - Kamsky 0-1
Gashimov - Svidler 0-1
Jakovenko - Cheparinov 1-0
Al-Modiahki - Gelfand 1/2-1/2

Final Standings: (with TPRs)

1. Aronian (2816) 8.5
2. Radjabov (2792) 8
3-4. Wang Yue (2765), Kamsky (2764) 7.5
5-7. Svidler (2735), Jakovenko (2737), Karjakin (2735) 7
8-9. Ivanchuk (2702), Gashimov (2707) 6.5
10-11. Grischuk (2677), Cheparinov (2681) 6
12. Gelfand (2650) 5.5
13-14. Navara (2572), Al-Modiahki (2579) 4

Tournament site here, video reports here, and all the last round games (most with my comments) here.

The U.S. Open finished this past weekend in Dallas, Texas, and was won by the triumvirate mentioned above. All three scored 8/9, finishing half a point ahead of Root and a point ahead of a group of 14 that included three experts. (Full results here.) The overall attendance (379 players) doesn't seem to have been too bad for a 9-day event (but with 6- and 5-day schedules), but I'm amazed by how light it was at the top - only two GMs (Shabalov and Yermolinsky) and approximately eight IMs participated. What happened? Were all the GMs spread out in events around the globe? Are they all JFK fans on a permanent boycott of the city? One might hypothesize that they rejected it because of its length, but the shortest schedule is only a day longer than e.g. the World Open. It's a tournament that has seen (much) better days, so I hope that whatever went wrong this year will be fixed by next year's edition. (In Indianapolis!)

Six games were drawn in this, the penultimate round, and the one win wasn't of much importance to the race for first. (It was a very entertaining game, though, and I therefore cover it here.) With one round to go, therefore, Aronian maintains a slim half-point lead over Wang Yue, Karjakin and Radjabov. Here are all the details you'll need prior to tomorrow's last round:

Round 12 Results:

Kamsky - Gashimov 1/2-1/2
Svidler - Jakovenko 1-0
Cheparinov - Al-Modiahki 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Karjakin 1/2-1/2
Radjabov - Aronian 1/2-1/2
Grischuk - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Wang Yue - Navara 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 12:

1. Aronian 7.5
2-4. Wang Yue, Karjakin, Radjabov 7
5-6. Kamsky, Gashimov 6.5
7-11. Ivanchuk, Jakovenko, Grischuk, Cheparinov, Svidler 6
12. Gelfand 5
13. Navara 4
14. Al-Modiahki 3.5

Final Round Pairings:

Navara - Kamsky
Ivanchuk - Wang Yue
Aronian - Grischuk
Karjakin - Radjabov
Al-Modiahki - Gelfand
Jakovenko - Cheparinov
Gashimov - Svidler

Tournament site here, video reports here.

This is an experiment; whether it will be repeated depends on how it goes this time around. I try to keep comments relevant to the posted topic, and while I think that's a useful strategy, it may also preclude some interesting discussions. So here's your chance to steer the conversation - just keep things clean, polite, and at least tangentially related to chess, and we'll see how it goes.

The other day I was preparing a summary sheet on the French for one of my students, and while looking through Powerbook 2008 within ChessBase 10, I came across a shocker. After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Nf6, I was under the impression that 5.c4 would be the main move. It was well represented, but absolutely swamped, by a 3503-272 margin, by 5.Ne5. What?!



I'm far from being aware of all the sidelines in every opening - it's unlikely that even Kasparov and Anand know every sideline in every opening. But to be unaware of such a popular move in a reasonably common sideline? It took me a few seconds, but then I realized what was going on. ChessBase is handling the opening book in a fashion that's helpful in one way but misleading in two others. The first way it's misleading is that 5.Ne5 isn't ever played there; rather, 5.Ne5 transposes to a known position. (A slight exaggeration: 5.Ne5 shows up a whopping 22 times out of 4797 games in ChessBase's online database.) But that too is misleading. It's not that 5.Ne5 transposes to a position that White normally reaches, but one that occurs from the opposite side of the board:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5



The Petroff is a perfectly viable opening, but it's still better to have White there, not Black. To be fair, even though ChessBase doesn't explain that, one could still gather from the scoring percentages that White should avoid 5.Ne5 in the Exchange French. Still, users might wonder why the move is so popular, and think that it must be good, despite its scoring percentage, if its frequency so overwhelmed that of other moves. I'm not sure if this sort of error/misleading info occurs often enough to be a problem, but if it is, perhaps ChessBase ought to consider adding one or two notations in such cases: one indicating that it arises with colors reversed (at least a certain portion of the time), and a second indicating that it's a transpositional move.

Two comments, by way of tidying up. First, some of you might see the first position and think 5.Ne5 looks good, and then be led to wonder how Black could possibly stand worse (or at least have the burden of proving equality) in the Petroff. The answer is that the knight's advanced location isn't an unmitigated blessing. The opponent (let's assume it's a Petroff, so that would be White) can try to show that it's overextended, playing moves like Bd3, Re1 and c4. Sometimes White will also continue with Nc3 or Nbd2, and if Black captures, as he usually does, the knight will have left its fine post and exchanged itself off with a loss of time.

The second point returns to this post's title. A few weeks ago I (following Alex Baburin in Chess Today - it's his fault!) presented a similar "backwards" position, so it's only fair that I should be similarly afflicted. And then before that there was some April Fool's business...

Adams has 4.5/5, Wade has 0/5, and everyone else's scores lie somewhere in between. More details here.

Back in 1971, Anatoly Karpov was a rapidly rising star, but no one thought the 20-year-old grandmaster would become world champion in just four more years. Vassily Smyslov, his 50-year-old opponent, was a former world champion and still one of the best players in the world. Neither was at his prime, but they were still very strong and this clash in the 39th Soviet Championship was intriguing and significant to the final standings. Although the title was won that year by Vladimir Savon in one of the great surprises in Soviet chess history, Smyslov had a fantastic result, going undefeated and tying for second with Mikhail Tal. Karpov was half a point behind Smyslov, finishing alone in fourth place, ahead of such luminaries as Stein, Bronstein, Polugaevsky, Taimanov and Geller in only his second shot at the national title. The event was a good sign for players: for Karpov, of his inevitable rise to the top, and for Smyslov, an indication that age was far from catching up with him. Indeed, 13 years later, at the age of 63, he would play Kasparov for the right to face Karpov for the world championship – an incredible achievement.

Turning from the broader picture to the game itself, which was won by the older man, we might think that the win came as the result of technical prowess. After all, Smyslov is known as a great endgame technician, and it’s what we would expect from an older player beating a youngster. That’s an understandable assumption, but a mistaken one. Smyslov is a fine attacking player, and especially adept at handling isolated queen pawn (IQP) structures. Karpov is completely overwhelmed by Smyslov in this game – strategically, tactically, every which way! It’s a tremendous performance by the 7th world champion, and one we can learn from in at least two ways. First, there are the general lessons of the IQP we can glean from the game. These are enduring ideas that show up in a wide range of openings, from the Caro-Kann to the Nimzo-Indian to a host of Queen’s Gambit lines. Second, there’s a nifty trap Karpov fell for – and that Smyslov failed to take advantage of! Remarkably, quite a number of strong players have fallen into this trap (and a few others with White have failed to take advantage), so this is something you can add to your own bag of tricks.

Entertainment and instruction thus awaits you tonight – Wednesday night – at 9 p.m. ET in the Broadcast room on the Playchess.com server. I’ll be presenting the game live, free for those with server access. ("How-to" details are here.) Hope to see you there!

As in round 10, there were plenty of wins today, too. In contrast to the more impressive games we saw yesterday, however, three of the four wins in round 11 could be chalked up to blunders. Let's start with the most egregious example, from Aronian-Gelfand.



This was a main line Queen's Indian with 4.g3 Ba6, and nothing much has happened. If Gelfand were to play 25...Rfe8 or 25...Nc3 and offer a draw, Aronian would be hard pressed to justifiably refuse. Fortunately for Aronian, who now sits alone in first place as a result of this win, Gelfand chose 25...Rfd8?? and resigned after 26.Qe5. Black's knight can't move due to the hanging queen on a5, and the only sensible way to protect it, 26...Rxd7, allows mate in two starting with 27.Qe8+.

Our second example is a bit more subtle, but if one discounts the probable time trouble Gashimov was under, it's only a bit more subtle.



It's Black to move (White has just played 38.f6), and he would of course like to reestablish material equality. Black must be careful though, as his choice, 38...Rxd5?/??, leads by force to a win for White: 39.Re3! (threatening 40.Re8+ followed by 41.Qe4+, mating) 39...Rd8 (forced) 40.Re8+ Rxe8 41.Qxe8+ Qf8 42.Qxf8+ Kxf8 (all forced for Black) 43.Kg1 with a winning pawn ending. Instead of 38...Rxd5, a continuation like 38...Qb7 39.Qxc4 Qxd5 40.Qxd5 Rxd5 would suffice for a draw. White's b-pawn can't get past b3 without the rook's help, but that can't happen without White losing his f-pawn. And that, in turn, makes the resulting endgame an easy draw.

Example #3, from Karjakin-Cheparinov; it's Black to move:



White's passers are a danger, of course. On the queenside, White would like to play a7 and then Rc7-b7-b8, while using his g-pawn, if necessary, to stretch Black's defensive resources. Objectively, the position is equal, but the burden of accuracy rests more with Black than White. The best defense is 48...Ra8!, putting the rook where it belongs right away, and after 49.a7 to play 49...Nb2! This has two very important ideas. The first is purely defensive: to play 50...Na4, either eliminating the bishop or chasing it from the defense of the a7 pawn. The second is altogether aggressive: ...d3-d2-d1Q. White can't stop both threats and maintain winning chances, so the game could have ended in a draw after, e.g., 50.g6 d3 51.Be3 Ke4 52.Bc1 Rxa7 53.Bxb2 Rd7 54.Bc3 d2 55.Bxd2 Rxd2 56.g7 Rd8 etc.

Finding this wasn't impossible for a player of Cheparinov's caliber, but it wasn't trivial either. Instead of 48...Ra8!, he blundered with 48...Nb4?, and now he's lost after 49.Rf6+! Kxg5 50.a7 Ra8 51.Rd6! This last move is especially fine, cutting off the Black knight (no ...Nc6xa7 or ...Nd5xb6/-c7), threatening 52.Rd8 and helping to combat Black's passers. Black could have put up more resistance with 51...Kf4, but erred again with 51...d3?, resigning after 52.Kf2! Rc8 53.Rd8 Rc2+ 54.Kg3.

The day's other winner was Peter Svidler, who convincingly outplayed the overmatched Al-Modiahki. (The tournament is so strong that although Al-Modiahki's score is 3-8, he has basically performed to his 2556 rating.) Wang Yue-Kamsky, Ivanchuk-Radjabov and Navara-Grischuk were drawn.

Round 11 Results:

Aronian - Gelfand 1-0
Wang Yue - Kamsky 1/2-1/2
Karjakin - Cheparinov 1-0
Jakovenko - Gashimov 1-0
Ivanchuk - Radjabov 1/2-1/2
Navara - Grischuk 1/2-1/2
Al-Modiahki - Svidler 0-1

Standings after Round 11:

1. Aronian 7
2-4. Wang Yue, Karjakin, Radjabov 6.5
5-7. Jakovenko, Kamsky, Gashimov 6
8-10. Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Cheparinov 5.5
11. Svidler 5
12. Gelfand 4.5
13. Navara 3.5
14. Al-Modiahki 3

Tournament site here, video reports here.

This was the most exciting round of the competition, with only two draws in seven games. Cheparinov and Wang Yue led entering the round, but when it was over Cheparinov had fallen, to be replaced by Gashimov, Aronian and Radjabov.

Round 10 Results:

Gashimov - Al-Modiahki 1-0
Radjabov - Navara 1-0
Cheparinov - Aronian 0-1
Kamsky - Jakovenko 1/2-1/2
Grischuk - Wang Yue 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Ivanchuk 1-0
Svidler - Karjakin 0-1

I have no comments about the draws, but each of the wins were fascinating in their own way. Gashimov defeated Al-Modiahki in a Sicilian with the straightforward but powerful attacking plan of f4-f5, combining threats to the king with powerful centralization. Likewise, though the means to the end was different, Radjabov crushed Navara on the white side of a Sicilian, again by combining kingside threats with play in the center. Neither Al-Modiahki nor Navara managed to organize counterplay or to impede their opponents' plans, with predictable results.

Cheparinov-Aronian was less straightforward. The game saw a line of the Slav that would not seem conducive to a Black win, but White's unsuccessful maneuvering starting around move 16 allowed Black to...combine kingside threats with play in the center. (Notice a theme here?) White did manage to keep control on the kingside, but he was done in by the avalanche of Black pawns in the center.

Ivanchuk seemed unprepared against Gelfand's opening, and found himself clearly worse at an early stage. Soon he had to surrender his queen, and although he received adequate material compensation Gelfand was able to punish Black with an irresistible initiative. A very impressive win by Gelfand, who gave his opponent a savage beating.

Finally, Svidler-Karjakin looks like a triumph of preparation for the young Ukranian. Svidler essayed the pawn sac in the Queen's Indian that has been all the rage for some time now, and continued with a piece sacrifice that had been tried by Radjabov against Leko earlier this year in Morelia/Linares. The earlier game was drawn, but after Karjakin's novelty on move 19, he was able to gradually neutralize White's attack without giving up the extra material. The ball, as they say, is now back in White's court.

Standings after Round 10:

1-4. Wang Yue, Gashimov, Aronian, Radjabov 6
5-7. Cheparinov, Kamsky, Karjakin 5.5
8-10. Grischuk, Jakovenko, Ivanchuk 5
11. Gelfand 4.5
12. Svidler 4
13-14. Navara, Al-Modiahki 3

Tournament site here, video reports here, and the five won games (with my comments) here.

One of the approximately 30,000 events this August finished a few days ago, the Mercosur Cup in Villa Martelli, Argentina. It wasn't a super-GM event, but was a respectable Category VII tournament with an average rating of 2410. The winner? Pocket Fritz 3, scoring 8-2 (six wins, four draws) and achieving a 2690 TPR. I hope tournament directors of open Swisses are taking note.

The first event, the Najdorf Memorial, was a strong event that would have received coverage in olden days (e.g. last year), before there were 10 strong events going on at the same time. I'm sure many fine games were played there, but as some websites require 2/3 of a day to comment on a single round and annotate one game, I'd better stick to a link and mentioning the winners. First place was taken by the (relatively) young Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran with 6.5/9 (an impressive 2765 TPR); GMs Tomi Nyback and Emanuel Berg tied for 2nd-3rd a point behind.

Next, the Argentinian Championship. This ended in a three-way tie between IMs Anton Kovalyov, Diego Flores and GM Ruben Felgaer, with all three gentlemen scoring 8/11. According to the website, Kovalyov had the better tiebreaks, but Wikipedia gives Felgaer as the champion, so either there was a playoff or a tiebreaking system other than Berger was used.

Finally, the Arctic Chess Challenge was won by GM Igor Kurnosov of Russia with 7.5/9, half a point ahead of Norwegian GM, former world junior champion and erstwhile Magnus Carlsen trainer Simen Agdestein and English GM Matthew Turner.

One old (but more interesting to a general audience), one new.

HT: Jaideepblue

When I've examined endgames on this blog or presented them on my ChessBase or ChessVideos shows, they have usually been models of good play. Maybe not everything was done to perfection, but most of the time, there was something positive to be learned by watching the players in action.

Not this time. In my latest ChessVideos show, I present a couple of games from my youth in which at least one player did something really wrong. These aren't games that will make anyone's "greatest games collection", but I suspect that some of my viewers will find them useful in spite of the egregious errors - or perhaps because of them. It may take a pretty advanced player to fully appreciate the finesses of a high-class rook endgame, but I can assure everyone reading this that there was absolutely nothing hifalutin about the mistakes made in these games. Yet (with one exception) the errors weren't outright blunders, either; rather, they're the sorts of mistakes anyone can make until acquiring a certain amount of experience. We've all got to get that experience somewhere, and it's best if we can learn from other people's mistakes.

I hope you'll learn from mine: the link is here, and the show is available for free and on-demand, and requires no special software.

One of the odder games from the just-completed British Championship was G. Flear-Surtees, which began 1.d4 c6 2.c4 f6?!:



I'm not sure what the idea of this opening is, aside from the cheapo that sprang up after 3.Nf3 e5 (4.dxe5 fxe5 5.Nxe5?? Qa5+ wins a piece), but after 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.dxe5 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qa5 7.Qd4 Flear had an extra pawn and the compensation to boot. Flear won in 35 moves, but since he outrated his opponent by 300 points, it might be more fair to evaluate this as a practical weapon based on games played between strong peers. More tests are needed, as they say, though I doubt that too many tests are required. The whole game can be seen and replayed here.

Once again, a downpour of draws drenched the dais, but the one win was significant. Wang Yue defeated Teimour Radjabov with a fine technical demonstration in a same-colored bishop ending, and traded places with him in the tournament table. Wang Yue now shares first with Ivan Cheparinov, while Radjabov falls back into a five-way tie half a point back.

Round 9 Results:

Wang Yue - Radjabov 1-0
Ivanchuk - Cheparinov 1/2-1/2
Aronian - Svidler 1/2-1/2
Grischuk - Kamsky 1/2-1/2
Karjakin - Gashimov 1/2-1/2
Navara - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Al-Modiahki - Jakovenko 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 9:

1-2. Cheparinov, Wang Yue 5.5
3-7. Gashimov, Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Kamsky, Aronian 5
8-10. Grischuk, Jakovenko, Karjakin 4.5
11. Svidler 4
12. Gelfand 3.5
13-14. Navara, Al-Modiahki 3

Tournament site here, videos here, Wang Yue-Radjabov (with comments) here.

Note: Tomorrow is the final rest day for the tournament; play resumes on Monday.

Stuart Conquest won the event, defeating Keith Arkell in a rapid playoff, while IM Jovanka Houska had the best score among the women and thus won the distaff version of the title. More info and videos here.

The coverage on TWIC has been reasonable if a day late, but this is the doing of tournament co-organizer Ray Keene. (See his explanation here; your comments on this are eagerly desired.) Three rounds are presumably in the books, but after the two Keene et al have seen fit to share with the outside world, Michael Adams and Jan Timman lead with perfect 2-0 scores. Adams' wins have been clean, but Timman's second win was doubly lucky. Playing Black against Nigel Short, he was completely busted in the opening, but Short missed a very nice tactic (more on this here) and let Timman avoid immediate demise. Still, Short was better all the way, but lost on time making his 40th move, the last move of the time control.

That was the flashiest moment of the second round; the high point of round 1 was Adams' win against Jan Smeets. Steve Giddins discusses this game in his round 1 report, about which I'd like to make two comments. The first is that Giddins seems to treat White's 18th and 19th moves as if they were distinct and unrelated errors. Of course it's true that they are objectively distinct, as is evident if you check the position with an engine. Smeets could have chosen a different 19th move, had he seen what was coming. Nevertheless, if one takes the time to look at the game with one's own eyes, it's just as evident that they really constitute one mistake spread over two moves. Black's knight is trapped after 19.Ke4 (that's the whole point of 18.Kd3), but it turns out that Black can not only save but even win material after this move.

Point 2: There's a neat echo-variation unnoticed or at least unmentioned by Giddins. Black's 19...Nxe5! has the neat point that 20.Kxe5 is met by 20...Be7 followed by ...Bf6 (as Giddins notes), but Adams also had 19...c5, with the amusing point that 20.Kxf3 fails to 20...Bb7+ and 21...Bxh1. It's not that Giddins should have mentioned this variation on its merits (while it too offers Black some advantage, Adams' choice was the best), but it deserves to be noted for reasons of aesthetics and humor.

I didn't intend to play in a small event about 30 miles from home, but did need to show up at some point to visit one of the participants. Getting there near the end of the second round (of four), I was given the option to play, starting with two half-point byes. Neither of the players most likely to be affected (my third and fourth round opponents) minded, so I joined in. Both games went well, and I finished with a 3-1 score, as did my two opponents...and two other players. The three prizes were thus split five ways, and when entry fees were taken into account, that left each of us with the princely sum of $4 for our efforts. (Should I mention the $2.50 spent on tolls and the cost of gasoline? Probably not.) Eat your heart out, Vishy Anand!

Ivan Cheparinov and Teimour Radjabov still lead, but the chase pack is getting bigger. Yesterday only two players (Vugar Gashimov and Levon Aronian) were half a point back, but they have now been joined by three other: Gata Kamsky, Wang Yue, and Vassily Ivanchuk. Kamsky defeated the rapidly sinking Al-Modiahki on the white side of a Rossolimo Sicilian. Black's queenside structure was fragile, and Kamsky was able to win a pawn and convert it in the endgame. Gelfand-Wang Yue was a 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6 Slav, and turned out to be a model game for Black. The position was roughly balanced most of the way, but Black had two related long-term advantages. The first was the more useful majority (on the queenside), and the second was White's potentially weak a-pawn. That pawn eventually dropped, and the resulting 3-1 majority decided the game. Finally, Svidler-Ivanchuk was a Berlin with 4.d3. This is a fairly slow line, and yet despite an early queen swap, Svidler lost in just 25 moves, as Black's bishops and central pressure decided the game.

The other games were drawn. Radjabov enjoyed an initiative against Grischuk, but perhaps failed to make the most of his chances and let his opponent escape. Cheparinov had a long-term advantage against Navara, thanks to the latter's permanently weak c-pawn, but like Radjabov failed to get the most from the position. Navara somehow managed to maintain material equality, and eventually held in the single-rook ending. Gashimov-Aronian was a Berlin endgame that Aronian held without any difficulty. (And I'm happy that Aronian eschewed the ugly 9...Be7 line!) Aronian was even a little better at one point, but a draw was the most logical result. Finally, Jakovenko-Karjakin was a Slav/Semi-Slav hybrid that quickly turned to Karjakin's advantage. Jakovenko defended well, and eventually found refuge in a drawn opposite-colored bishop ending.

Round 8 Results:

Cheparinov - Navara 1/2-1/2
Radjabov - Grischuk 1/2-1/2
Gashimov - Aronian 1/2-1/2
Kamsky - al-Modiahki 1-0
Jakovenko - Karjakin 1/2-1/2
Svidler - Ivanchuk 0-1
Gelfand - Wang Yue 0-1

Standings after Round 8:

1-2. Cheparinov, Radjabov 5
3-7. Gashimov, Kamsky, Wang Yue, Ivanchuk, Aronian 4.5
8-10. Jakovenko, Grischuk, Karjakin 4
11. Svidler 3.5
12. Gelfand 3
13-14. Navara, Al-Modiahki 2.5

Tournament site here, video reports here.

Remember this, from the end of a recent Vladimir Kramnik interview?

EURO: People abroad perceive Putin’s Russia with suspicion. Do you feel it as a Russian living in Paris (and previously in Germany)?

KRAMNIK: In general it can be said that people are afraid of a powerful Russia. I am convinced that it is an irrational fear, that Russia is no threat to anybody. I can guarantee you that Russians just want to lead a good quality life, and not to attack anybody. I am convinced that just as Germans have never tried to overrun the world after World War Two, Russians too do not want to rule the world any more. In the last twenty years Russia has never attacked another country, it has not been aggressive in international politics, there were no Russians planes and Russians soldiers bombarding another country, contrary to some other “democratic states”… On the other hand, why shouldn’t Russia be one of the most powerful countries? It has huge mineral resources as well as intellectual capacity. I don’t wish Russia to rule the world, because I don’t want that any one country should dominate all others. The best thing would be if the power was balanced among a few strong players. And if one of them is Russia, that would not be bad for the world, in my opinion.

Hmm...

There were six draws (mostly long games though), and it looked like they'd go seven for seven, but Al-Modiahki seriously misplayed queen ending against Karjakin and lost a long game. (Culprit: failure to centralize.) Here are some highlights from the day's action:



The game Wang Yue-Cheparinov is in its final stages, on the way to a draw. It's White to move, and it looks like anything will do. Since I've highlighted the position and drawn it to your attention, you're of course going to be suspicious, but what's your inclination? What would you "intuitively" play here? Speaking for myself, I would probably play 49.Kd3(??) in a blitz game, and lose - 49...Re3+ 50.Kd2 Re2+ and 51...Rg2 would cause much gnashing of teeth. That's why Wang Yue correctly played 49.Kd1!, and the game was drawn after 49...Ke3 50.h4 gxh4 51.Rxh4 Kd3 52.Rh3+ (Setting up Philidor's after 52...Kxc4 53.Kc2) 52...Re3 53.Rxe3+ Kxe3 54.Kc2 Kd4 55.Kd2 Kxc4 56.Kc2.



This position from Radjabov-Kamsky arose after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Bd2 Bg7 6.e4, and now the usual move is 6...Nb6. White's 5.Bd2, attributed to Smyslov, is supposed to make 6...Nxc3 less attractive, because after 7.Bxc3 Black lacks the counterplay against White's center he enjoys in the 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 lines. Why can't Black play 7...c5? He can, but the thought is that after 8.d5 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 Black will miss his dark-squared bishop. That's just what Kamsky did, however, and although Radjabov had a little pull for a while, it was never too serious and by the end it was Kamsky who enjoyed the ever so slightly better half of the draw. Perhaps the traditional assessment of 6...Nxc3 should be reconsidered.



This is a well-known position from the sleepy Four Knights (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 [Even Ivanchuk is giving in to anti-Petroff desperation] Nc6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.O-O O-O 6.d3 Bxc3 7.bxc3 d6 8.Bg5), and the usual, almost automatic continuation here is 8...Qe7 9.Re1 Nd8 10.d4 Ne6 11.Bc1 c6 12.Bf1 and so on. But Gashimov chose 9...Bd7 instead, and after 9.Nd2 h6 10.Bh4 g5 had no problems whatsoever. The game continued 11.Bxc6 Bxc6 12.Bg3 Ne8 13.d4 f6 14.Re1 Ng7, and with all the entry points covered and his pawns on the right squares to complement his bishop and constrict his opponent's, Gashimov drew without any problem at all.



Here's a known position from the 6.Bc4 Najdorf; here, Navara offered up a novelty against Svidler: 13.Bd5. It's picturesque, but the tactical justification is pretty simple: if 13...exd5, White regains the piece with 14.Nf5, threatening both 15.Qxg7# and 15.Nxe7+. Pretty as Navara's move was, it was also bad. Svidler reacted calmly with 13...Nxd5 14.exd5 Ne5 and already stood better. Svidler continued to outplay Navara and won a pawn, eventually reaching this position:



If White sits and waits, Black will bring his king to c8, and when the white rook retreats, the king will approach the b-pawn. White needs to make something happen, but what? Navara found an ingenious solution: 46.g4! Kf8 47.g5! h5 48.h3! (see the idea yet?) 48...Ke8 49.Rxb3! Rxb3 - stalemate. If Black had seen this coming, he could have tried 46...g5+, but after 47.Kh5 Rh3+ 48.Kg6 Kf8 49.Kf6 Ke8 50.Ke6 Kd8 51.Kd6 Kc8 52.Rb5 I don't see any way for Black to make progress. Like 13.Bd5, 46.g4 was clever; unlike the earlier pseudo-sac, it was also sound.



In this position from the game Karjakin - Al-Modiahki, White has already achieved a little more than he should have, but it's still not very much. A move like 72...Qc4, maintains equality. On c4, the queen protects the a-pawn, keeps an eye on White's c-pawn, and threatens to give perpetual check starting with ...Qd4+. If White's king goes left, Black plays ...Qc4+, ...Qb4+, ...Qa4+ and so on. If the king goes to the e-file, then ...Qe4+, and if 1.Kf2 Qd4+ 2.Kf3 Qd3+ 3.Kg2 Qe2+ 4.Kh3 Qg4+ with instant perpet. Whether or not one sees the perpetual idea, there are still two good rules of thumb Black should follow: centralize the queen, and keep White's king exposed. But watch what happens!

72...Qb2+ 73.Kd3 Qb1+ 74.Kd4 Qd1+ 75.Kc4 Qe2+ 76.Kd5 Qf3+ 77.Ke6 Qb3+ 78.Kd7 Qd5+ 79.Qd6 Qb7+ 80.Kd8 Qa8+ 81.Kc7 Qa7+ 82.Kc6 Kg5 (82...Qa8+ 83.Kb6) 83.Qc7 Qa8+ 84.Kb6



A painful transformation: Black's hapless queen is buried in the corner, and White's c-pawn is on the way to promotion, helped mightily by the white king. The game ended shortly, after 84...Kg4 85.c6 Qg8 86.Qb7 Kxg3 87.c7 Ke6 88.Ka7 Qe3+ 89.Ka8 1-0.

Round 7 Results:

Radjabov - Kamsky 1/2-1/2
Aronian - Jakovenko 1/2-1/2
Wang Yue - Cheparinov 1/2-1/2
Grischuk - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Gashimov 1/2-1/2
Karjakin - Al-Modiahki 1-0
Navara - Svidler 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 7:

1-2. Cheparinov, Radjabov 4.5
3-4. Gashimov, Aronian 4
5-11. Kamsky, Wang Yue, Svidler, Jakovenko, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Karjakin 3.5
12. Gelfand 3
13. Al-Modiahki 2.5
14. Navara 2

Tournament site here, video reports here.

Dusan Popovic is a young Serbian grandmaster, but more importantly, he's suffering from kidney failure. For some time now appeals have been made around the chess web to help raise funds for a kidney transplant, and now ICC is getting into the act. They're sponsoring a simul with Magnus Carlsen this upcoming Monday (August 11). Want to play? More details here.

This was the bloodiest round so far of the Grand Prix event in Sochi, Russia. Only three of seven games were drawn, and they had their interesting moments as well. We'll omit them from the summary, however, as the other four games were interesting enough.

Ivan Cheparinov bounced back from his defeat in round 5, winning a nice, clean game against Alexander Grischuk in a 4.e3 Slav. The game was almost a textbook example: White grabbed the bishop pair early on (4...Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 etc.), opened the position when the time was right, and the bishops wreaked havoc. Cheparinov is joined in first place by Teimour Radjabov, who was a little lucky to win. Boris Gelfand had an enjoyed an advantage almost all the way through Radjabov's King's Indian, and even up until his 47th move maintained equality. Only then did he blunder, and the resilient youngster picked up the full point.

Aronian defeated Al-Modiahki on the Black side of a particularly insipid anti-Berlin. Al-Modiahki had been enjoying a successful tournament thus far, but in this game he seemed to be begging for a draw from the start. They reached a bishop and knight vs. bishop and knight ending that was probably still well within the drawing margin, but a little concession here and another one there, and Aronian won. Finally, Gashimov defeated Navara on the white side of a Closed Ruy, but only after standing significantly worse through the early middlegame. Persistence pays off!

Round 6 Results:

Cheparinov - Grischuk 1-0
Gashimov - Navara 1-0
Svidler - Wang Yue 1/2-1/2
Kamsky - Karjakin 1/2-1/2
Jakovenko - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Radjabov 0-1
Al-Modiahki - Aronian 0-1

Standings after Round 6:

1-2. Radjabov, Cheparinov 4
3-4. Gashimov, Aronian 3.5
5-10. Svidler, Wang Yue, Kamsky, Grischuk, Jakovenko, Ivanchuk 3
11-13. Gelfand, Karjakin, Al-Modiahki 2.5
14. Navara 1.5

A couple of days ago, I presented this position:



It's White to move and win, though not immediately, and there are some beautiful points. Unfortunately, part of the game's continuation was flawed, but it led to an incredibly elegant finish, which you can replay here. Very deep, very enjoyable.

The 6th Staunton Memorial Tournament starts today in Simpsons in the Strand, and it's an impressive event - "the strongest event to be held in the UK since 1986", the site says. [Stronger than Kasparov-Karpov in 1990, Kasparov-Short in 1993, or Kasparov-Kramnik in 2000? Maybe "the strongest tournament in the UK since 1986" would be a wee bit more accurate.]

Here are the players:

GM Michael Adams
GM Nigel Short
GM Jan Timman
GM Loek Van Wely
GM Ivan Sokolov
GM Jon Speelman
GM Jan Smeets
GM Jan Werle
GM Peter Wells
GM Erwin L'ami
GM Alexander Cherniaev
IM Bob Wade

The tournament is held in the memory of the UK's first great player, Howard Staunton, and would appear to be in some sense under the aegis of the Staunton Society (though the site says the sponsor is Dutchman Jan Mol). About the Staunton Society, we read the following:

The Staunton society [sic] exists to perpetuate the name of Howard Staunton, Britain's only ever claimant to be world chess champion, and to promote uk [sic] chess and in particular give young british [sic] players the prospects for gm [sic] norms and titles.

I have some questions about this. How do we know that Staunton was the "only ever claimant" from Britain to the world championship? Maybe Staunton's grandfather's neighbor had a pint too many, and also made such a claim! Perhaps what the webmeister meant to say is that Staunton was the only British world champion. If so, then this is false, as no chess historian I'm aware of acknowledges that such a title even existed prior to Steinitz's possession of it. (One could try to argue that Staunton was the best player in the world when he beat Saint-Amant in their series of matches. Maybe - but that's a different claim.)

Further, even if we generously make Staunton a sort of honorary world champion, there have been other British world chess champions. In the U-20, for instance, Tony Miles won the world junior championship in 1974, and Harriet Hunt won the women's U-20 in 1997. Granted, they weren't world champions in some unqualified sense, but they were world champs!

Switching gears: does the Staunton Society sponsor other events? If this is it, it's hard to see how it promotes UK chess, when its occurrence prevents that country's two strongest players (Adams and Short) and two other strong GMs (Speelman and Wells) from taking part in the overlapping British Championship. Also, since the only players under 35 years of age in the event are already GMs and from other countries, it's difficult to see how this event benefits young British norm aspirants, unless they turned down some centenarians in favor of the young Mr. Wade - all 87 years of him.

I'm curious too why this event overlaps with the British Championship. Not only does it seriously weaken the latter, if any of Mssrs. Adams, Short, Speelman and Wells had wanted to play in the BC, it also harms the publicity for both events. I don't know whose fault the overlap is, but at minimum there seems to have been a failure to communicate.

However, whatever the organizational mishaps, it looks like an attractive tournament. And I hope Wade scores!

Two of the strongest young players in the world today are Ian Nepomniachtchi and Francisco Vallejo Pons. Nepomniachtchi is one of the three extraordinary talents born in 1990 (the other two are Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin), whose developing resume includes a victory earlier this year in the Aeroflot Open. Vallejo Pons is a more established player. 25 years old, he has participated in several Linares events, has wins over Anand, Kramnik and Topalov to his credit, and is the strongest native-born player in Spain. Both players have a lively and aggressive style, and it’s not surprising that a game between the two young lions would be a display of ferocity.

That’s just what happened when they played in the 2007 Aeroflot Open. Nepomniachtchi had the temerity to play the Center Game (1.e4 e5 2.d4!?), an opening that sees White sacrifice a pawn and castle long in the hopes of whipping up an attack on Black’s king. Black generally tries to keep things under control, while White assumes the initiative as a matter of course and tries to make something happen. Not in this game! Nepomniachtchi played a rare line, and his 14th move was an OTB novelty, having played only once before, more than 35 years ago, in a correspondence game. Though Black in the earlier game was a very strong postal player, he didn’t find the brilliant rejoinder Vallejo sprung on his poor opponent. His new move was imaginative, deep and accurate, and enabled him to completely take over the initiative. When the smoke cleared, Black had three pawns for the exchange and a better position as well, and went on to win in an endgame.

The game was voted one of the 10 Best in Informant 99, and it also caught the eye of none other than Viktor Korchnoi, who annotated the game for ChessBase Magazine. Some of the strongest players in the world have voiced their approval of this game, but it’s not the sort of game whose appeal is limited to the highbrow set. Players of every level will find this a wonderfully entertaining contest, and it’s also a good excuse to take a look at a rare but important opening for those who meet 1.e4 with 1…e5. Interested? Then join me tonight, Wednesday night, at 9 p.m. ET in the Broadcast Room on the playchess.com server.* The show is live, free, combines downloadable analysis with my audio commentary, and makes for an all-around good time. See you there!

* Full directions for watching the show, whether live or in the archives, can be found here.

As everyone involved was a little busier than usual, I didn't have a ChessVideos show go up last week. No matter: this week you'll get two for the price of one (i.e. free). The first one went up a little while ago, and in it I present five very attractive endgame studies. Two are big favorites of mine (and of many others, I'm sure), while the other three aren't quite as majestic but are still worthy of your time. The great thing about studies is that they offer at least three benefits: tactics practice, aesthetic pleasure from the composition itself, and the joy of the "Eureka!" experience.

Have a look here, and see for yourself.

A few weeks ago, I came across a clever tactical idea IM Willy Hendriks discovered (entry 382) with Fritz's help, an idea he almost got to play in a 2006 game against Timothy Spanton. Since then, I discovered a more recent Hendriks game (thank you, Chess Today), and this time things were different: the spectacular idea was his, not his software's, and he was able to demonstrate it on the board. There was one other difference: at one point he chose a beautiful but mistaken continuation that could have allowed his opponent to escape.

Here's the starting position, with White to move. (Hendriks' choice here was completely correct and gave him a winning position.)



I'll present the full game, with my analysis, either tomorrow night or the day after.

Today's a rest day at the FIDE Grand Prix in Sochi, Russia, so we'll use the time off to catch up on yesterday's action. Only one game saw a winner, and that was Radjabov's victory over Cheparinov, who had hitherto enjoyed clear first.

Round 5 Results:

Radjabov - Cheparinov 1-0
Grischuk - Svidler 1/2-1/2 (exciting, but all very well-known theory)
Gelfand - Kamsky 1/2-1/2
Wang Yue - Gashimov 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Al-Modiahki 1/2-1/2
Aronian - Karjakin 1/2-1/2
Navara - Jakovenko 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 5:

1-3. Radjabov, Cheparinov, Grischuk 3
4-12. Gashimov, Svidler, Gelfand, Jakovenko, Kamsky, Wang Yue, Al-Modiahki, Ivanchuk, Aronian 2.5
13. Karjakin 2
14. Navara 1.5

Video reports here, Radjabov-Cheparinov here.

Here are some notable events I won't be covering in any detail:

Completed Events:

(1) The North Urals Cup. This was a sort of super-tournament for women, but with no Polgars, Lahno, Hou Yifan, Kosteniuk or Xie Jun (ok, she retired) that might be a slight exaggeration. Still, it was a strong women's event, won by Antoaneta Stefanova.

(2) The Gyorgy Marx Memorial. Reasonably strong, won by French prodigy Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, a point ahead of the legendary Alexander Beliavsky.

Ongoing:

(1) The World Junior Championships. This is the "real" one, for players under 20 years of age. It's certainly not as strong as it could be, as the best players (e.g. Carlsen and Karjakin) aren't bothering, but with more than 25 grandmasters it's no club Swiss, either. (Sadly, the sole U.S. entrant is rated 2161.)

(2) The U.S. Open. Just started; heavier hitters will show up during the faster schedules.

The much-awaited showdown between world champion Viswanathan Anand and the rapidly rising Magnus Carlsen took place today (Sunday), and at least this time around Anand was the convincing winner. In the first game, he played more dynamically against Carlsen's Dragon, and the latter went wrong almost immediately. Anand could have won much more quickly than he did, but the full point was never in danger. In game two, Carlsen achieved nothing with the Catalan; in fact, he was worse after the opening. Anand went on to win that game as well, and needed just half a point more in the two remaining games to retain the title of rapid world champion. That happened in game 3. Anand played 3.Bb5+ and kept things safe from start to finish. He probably could have won that game had he needed to do so (he enjoyed a decisive advantage through much of the game), but when it was clear that he could force a draw and secure the title, he did. There was no point to playing game 4, and so the players drew in eleven moves.

So Anand reclaimed his title for something like the eleventh time, and Carlsen finished second. As for the third and fourth places, they were settled in an incredible match between Alexander Morozevich and Judit Polgar. Morozevich had gone 2-0 against Polgar in the preliminaries, but in the final match things weren't so simple. In the first game - the only clean game of their match - Morozevich won a pawn on the white side of a Modern Benoni, but with Black's pawns on dark squares his light-squared bishop wasn't much of an asset, so the game was drawn.

Game two was unbelievable. It was a Zaitsev-turned-Breyer, and despite playing Black Morozevich entered the middlegame with a slight edge, an edge he maintained for a long time. (There was an exchange of mistakes on moves 29 and 30, where first Polgar erred, giving her opponent the chance to win a pawn for nothing, but Morozevich erred in turn.) This state of affairs continued into a queen ending where Black seemingly lacked losing chances, but when he kept pushing and pushing to make something happen, he did. From moves 48 through 58 his better position became the worse half of equality, and from moves 59 to 67 he went from that to simply lost in a four queens endgame. That neither side had a mate or even a serious attack was remarkable enough, but what was even more surprising was that when Polgar chose to swap a pair of queens to reach a queen plus a- and b-pawn vs. queen ending, she did so at a point when it was drawn. (She could have reached a comfortably winning version of the same ending several moves earlier, but forsook the opportunity.) Morozevich had to play perfectly to hold it, and he did. Polgar had to give up one of the pawns, and Morozevich continued to play precisely until move 126(!). At that point, he finally erred, but she immediately reciprocated, and the game was drawn on move 146. Great stuff.

Game 3 was like unto it. Another Modern Benoni, and in an equal position Polgar offered up a dubious and highly unnecessary piece sacrifice. She did receive some attacking chances from this, but Morozevich played well and earned a winning position. Nothing in this match came easy though, and after mistakes on moves 38 and 43 he had to save the game, which he did without too much trouble.

Maybe Polgar had the psychological momentum at this point, but if so it didn't really pay off. For the third time against Polgar (including the prelims), Morozevich came out of a Closed Ruy with the better game, and this time he kept his grip. Black enjoyed the advantage on the queenside and in the center, and was able to utilize those trumps without letting Polgar obtain meaningful play on the kingside. It took 71 moves, but Morozevich finally reeled in the full point and the third place crown.

By this time, the Ordix Open had concluded, and at the end of 11 rounds it was the young Ian Nepomniachtchi who won with 9.5 points, defeating Pavel Eljanov on tiebreak. Nine players were half a point behind, including GMs Kateryna Lahno* and FiNet Open winner Hikaru Nakamura. This means that Nepomniachtchi gets an invite to the rapid world championship next year, along with (I think) Nakamura. (Final standings here; report here.)

The event website is here, and I highly recommend browsing it for the stories, videos, game downloads and the rest. As for the Anand-Carlsen and Morozevich-Polgar games, with my notes, you can find them here.

* She has the full GM title, but for no obvious or good reason the tournament site gives her the far lower title of WGM. (Worse still, it's a title she doesn't possess!)

Now that Mainz is over, I might be able to spend a little more time on this event next week. For now, we'll keep it to results and standings:

Round 4 Results:

Cheparinov - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Gashimov - Grischuk 1/2-1/2
Jakovenko - Wang Yue 1/2-1/2
Kamsky - Aronian 1/2-1/2
Svidler - Radjabov 1-0
Al-Modiahki - Navara 1-0
Karjakin - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 4:

1. Cheparinov 3
2. Grischuk 2.5
3-12(!!). Gashimov, Gelfand, Jakovenko, Kamsky, Radjabov, Svidler, Wang Yue, Al-Modiahki, Ivanchuk, Aronian
13. Karjakin 1.5
14. Navara 1

(Has there ever been such a large tie four rounds into a round-robin event?)

Tournament site here, video reports here.

With a last-round win over Alexei Shirov, Veselin Topalov took clear first in the 23rd Ciudad de Villarobledo tournament. His final score of 8/9 in this rapid event could have been equaled by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, had he defeated Vladimir Malakhov with Black, but he only drew. That gave him clear second at 7.5, and then sharing third through seventh places with 7 points were Ponomariov, Palac, Malakhov, Ljubojevic(!) and Arizmendi. In case the tournament doesn't seem all that strong yet, consider that those tied for for 8th-17th included Shirov, I. Sokolov, van Wely and Dreev. The event may have been overshadowed by Mainz ("may have been"?), but it's definitely worth getting the games from tomorrow's TWIC and looking for the highlights.

Let's take these in reverse order. The Ordix Open is the regular chess version of the FiNet Open: a two-day, 11-round rapid event featuring a cast of stupendously strong players. After the five rounds of day 1, nine players lead with perfect scores: Vaganian, Movsesian, Najer, Nepomniachtchi, Z. Almasi, A. Horvath, Tregubov, Kosteniuk and Jaracz. Twenty more players, including FiNet champ Nakamura, are but half a point behind. (More info here.)

Now to the biggest of the events, the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship. The preliminaries ended Saturday, and were almost a complete copy of Friday's rounds. In round 4, as in round 1, Morozevich beat Polgar while Anand and Carlsen drew. In round 5 as in round 2, Morozevich drew with Carlsen and Polgar drew Anand. Coming into the last round, three players were tied for first, but only two could advance to the finals. Alas, Morozevich seems helpless against Anand, and he was busted straight out of the opening. That too mimicked round 3; the only difference was that Carlsen didn't have to push against Polgar, and so they split the point. Thus Anand and Carlsen will play a best-of-four match for the title, and Morozevich will play Polgar for third.

Tournament site report here, games with comments here.

Here's an interesting site, commemorating "Under-Anthologized Games". Depending on how long you've been at the game and your familiarity with its literature (you know - the chess material made out of trees), it's quite possible you'll recognize some to a lot of the games there. You'd have to be a supreme chess bibliophile (or just lucky) to have seen the last and third-to-last entries in his list, though. You can check them out on his site, or right here, on this one. (His version comes with comments, especially to the last game, which he played.)

HT: Brian Karen

Enough is enough! Won't someone make them stop? There are just too many tournaments going on now! There's a two-day rapid event in Villarobledo, Spain, and it's as loaded as anything going on in Mainz or Sochi - top GMs here include Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexei Shirov and Ruslan Ponomariov.

At the end of day 1, four players lead with 4.5/5 points: Malakhov, Topalov, Mamedyarov and Fedorchuk; 22 more players have 4 out of 5. I'm sure TWIC will have some or all of the games Monday night/Tuesday morning, but I don't see anything on TWIC or the tournament site just yet.

HT: Susan Grumer

Round 3 Results:

Cheparinov - Kamsky 1-0
Radjabov - Gashimov 1/2-1/2
Grischuk - Jakovenko 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Svidler 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Aronian 1-0
Wang Yue - Al-Modiahki 1/2-1/2
Navara - Karjakin 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 3:

1. Cheparinov 2.5
2-3. Radjabov, Grischuk 2
4-10. Gashimov, Jakovenko, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Aronian, Wang Yue
11-14. Al-Modiahki, Svidler, Karjakin, Navara 1

Tournament site here, videos here.

Another very exciting round at the Sochi Grand Prix, and I'd recommend exploring the tournament site and finding the games. Here are the results and standings:

Round 2 Results:

Aronian - Navara 1-0
Kamsky - Ivanchuk 1-0
Gashimov - Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Jakovenko - Radjabov 1/2-1/2
Al-Modiahki - Grischuk 1/2-1/2
Svidler - Cheparinov 0-1
Karjakin - Wang Yue 1/2-1/2

Standings after Round 2:

1-5. Aronian, Cheparinov, Radjabov, Grischuk, Kamsky 1.5
6-9. Gashimov, Jakovenko, Gelfand, Wang Yue 1
10-14. Al-Modiahki, Svidler, Karjakin, Ivanchuk, Navara .5

First, the FiNet Open, a super-strong Chess960 tournament, concluded today (Friday) with Hikaru Nakamura taking clear first. After 9 of 11 rounds, he was leading by a full point with a frightening 8.5 points, but after losing to Arkadij Naiditsch in round 10 it was a free for all going into the last round. Nakamura had an advantage against Vladimir Potkin, but could only draw, while Naiditsch was winning against Alexander Motylev - and fell for a simple mate, a queen ahead! Motylev caught Nakamura, as did Sergei Movsesian, but Nakamura won on tiebreak. I think, but am not completely sure, that this puts him into next year's "final four" event. The tournament table is here, and a video interview with Nakamura can be watched here.

Next: the finals of the 4th Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship were won by Rybka 3, defeating Shredder 11 2.5-1.5 in the final.

Last but not least, the main event. Alexander Morozevich enjoyed the lead after rounds 1 and 2, but when he lost to Anand and Carlsen defeated Polgar in round 3, it was they who took the lead with 2-1 scores. Morozevich has 1.5, and Polgar a sole half point. The games were lively (if not always perfectly played), as you can see for yourself, here.

You can browse the stories yourself, starting here, but here's a quick summary:

Anand Interview: The world champion speaks about his great successes in previous editions of the event, his (so far) relatively disappointing results in 2008, and about his rivals (Carlsen, Morozevich, J. Polgar) in the main event.

Polgar Interview: Pretty perfunctory, but I'm just passing the info along.

There are several Chess960 competitions underway. The first is the incredibly strong FiNet Open, and after five rounds only Hikaru Nakamura and Rustam Kasimdzhanov have perfect scores. In that report, you can find pictures, links to download the games, and immediately see a couple of embarrassingly quick losses by grandmasters. (This always seems to happen in Chess960 events.)

An even stronger Chess960 event stars the tin cans. The preliminaries of the Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship are complete, and Rybka will face Shredder in the final. Rybka dominated the prelims, scoring 9/12 and defeating Shredder 2-0 on the second day. Shredder's preliminary score was only 6.5/12, but (to pretend to coin a phrase) tomorrow is another day.

One Chess960 event concluded, and that was the FiNet Chess960 Female World Championship (I'm glad it's over, if only so I don't have to type that again). Alexandra Kosteniuk won, defeated Kateryna Lahno 2.5-1.5. (No direct link available at this time.)

Finally, there's the Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship - the main event. Starring Viswanathan Anand (world champion and #1 in the world), Alexander Morozevich (#3 in the world), Magnus Carlsen (#4) and Judit Polgar (#25; #1 female), they'll play six games over the next two days to decide which two play a four game match on Sunday for the title and which two for the bronze. Round times each day: 6:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. (the fourth game on Sunday will be at - you guessed it - 9:30 p.m.) local time; that's 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m. etc. Eastern Time in the U.S.

All the chess fun you can stand, and then some!

The chess glut continues without a break, as the second Grand Prix event of 2008 began today (Thursday) in Sochi, Russia. Having had a busy day with Biel and especially real life, I'm not going to even attempt analytical coverage of the first round. I do suggest having a look at the two decisive games of the round, Radjabov - Al-Modiahki and Grischuk - Karjakin, but for analysis you'll have to turn elsewhere. (Sorry!) Mainz (or rather, the featured attraction therein) starts tomorrow and runs through the weekend, so maybe after that we'll take a closer look at the Grand Prix.

Round 1 Results:

Grischuk - Karjakin 1-0
Radjabov - Al-Modiahki 1-0
Cheparinov - Gashimov 1/2-1/2
Gelfand - Jakovenko 1/2-1/2
Navara - Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Svidler - Kamsky 1/2-1/2
Wang Yue - Aronian 1/2-1/2

Didn't see that one coming! Though Evgeny Alekseev was tied with Magnus Carlsen for the most of the first half, and then, after falling behind defeated Carlsen in round 7 to close within half a point of the lead, his eighth round loss to Lenier Dominguez seemed to close the deal. How, with two rounds to go and a 1.5 point deficit, could he possibly catch Dominguez? But catch him he did. In round 9 he defeated Onischuk while Dominguez split the point with Carlsen, and that brings us to round 10.

Let's start with the evil fate that befell Dominguez. With Black against Bacrot, he chose a risky line of the Queen's Gambit Accepted. On move 13 he played a novelty, but it was what a friend of mine used to call a TL (instead of a "TN" - a theoretical novelty): a theoretical lemon. With a couple of accurate moves, Bacrot obtained a clear advantage. Maybe from a computer's-eye perspective, Bacrot let the advantage slip a little, but from a practical, human point of view, he was in trouble throughout. A very bad loss for Dominguez, who had been undefeated throughout and dominant in the second half of the tournament. On the other hand, Bacrot deserves tremendous praise, going +4 in the last 6 rounds after a horrible .5-3.5 start.

This meant that Carlsen and Alekseev could catch Dominguez with a win. Since both players had White against the event "bottom-markers", it was a very real possibility. Unfortunately for Carlsen, his effort against Onischuk was a failure. His idea of playing 6.d3 in the Ruy Lopez, avoiding forcing lines, was sensible, but just seven moves later Carlsen offered a TL of his own, initiating a long series of exchanges. From Black's 13th move to White's 22nd, the players swapped off both rooks, both knights, a bishop and two pawns, and all to reach a position where it's Black if anyone who enjoys the marginally better half of the draw. Onischuk held with supreme ease - Carlsen didn't even come close.

On the other hand, Alekseev succeeded where Carlsen failed, though there were some similarities between the two games. Alekseev played an ambitious system against Pelletier's Gruenfeld, but like the less ambitious Carlsen, achieved no advantage with the white pieces. A further similarity is that this game too reached an equal ending with queen, minor piece, and six pawns. Where Onischuk held fast, however, Pelletier faltered. Whether due to time trouble or miscalculation, errors on moves 33 and 34 transformed the game from equal to lost for Black. Alekseev won a pawn and traded queens, and the rest was a short matter of his fine technique.

That meant that like last year, the title of champion would have to be settled in a playoff match. (Last year, Carlsen won the title by finally defeating Onischuk in an Armageddon game.) The first three games were drawn, but in a wild and error-filled fourth game, Alekseev won with Black to claim the title.

Congratulations to Alekseev, and to Dominguez too, who had a great tournament, the last round notwithstanding. It wasn't such a bad tournament for Carlsen, either, as his TPR was only 34 points below his published rating. Still, it must have been at least a little disappointing: he went -1 over the last four rounds, and two of his three wins were against Pelletier. If the culprit for his poor finish - even after the Alekseev loss - was a lack of energy, then he might really get hammered in Mainz. Bacrot can be happy with his performance, too, and Onischuk can feel good about his performance in the first half, prior to the rook and knight vs. rook fiasco in round 6. For Pelletier, the sooner it's forgotten, the better. (From an emotional perspective. Of course he should learn whatever objective lessons he can from the tournament.)

Final standings, with TPRs:

1. Alekseev (by playoff) 6.5 (2792)
2. Dominguez 6.5 (2792) [They started with identical 2708 ratings]
3. Carlsen 6 (2741)
4. Bacrot 5.5 (2722)
5. Onischuk 4 (2618)
6. Pelletier 1.5 (2414)

Tournament site here, last round and tiebreak games (with my comments) here.