The Chess Mind

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

So thanks, Ken, for offering to share your analysis of the ending with us; readers, here it is.

And now, finally, the last round games - right here.

A little late, you say? Think of it as dessert.

Games here. Note that Kramnik-Carlsen was already annotated in a separate post; also, I hope to have IM Ken Regan's very detailed analysis of the Adams-Polgar pawn ending some time later tonight or this weekend. (An after-dessert mint?)

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

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

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

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

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

Round 13 Results:

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

Final Standings:

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

Group B:

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

Group C:

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

Games later!

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

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

Round 12 Results:

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

Standings after Round 12:

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

Pairings for Round 13: (The last round)

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

Other Groups:

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

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

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

1. Caruana 9
2. Negi 8

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

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

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

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

Round 11 Results:

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

Standings after Round 11:

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

Pairings for Round 12:

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

Other Groups:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Round 10 Results:

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

Standings after Round 10:

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

Pairings for Round 11:

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

Other Groups:

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

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

Leading Standings in Group B:

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

Leading Standings in Group C:

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

Honorary Group Standings:

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

Group A games, with comments, here.

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



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

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

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

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

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

Results for Round 9:

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

Standings after Round 9:

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

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

Pairings for Round 10:

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

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

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

Leading Standings for Group B:

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

Leading Standings for Group C:

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

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

Honorary Group:

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


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

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

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

Dear All,

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

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

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

Best regards,

Ivan Cheparinov

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

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

Gens una sumus, indeed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Round 8 Results:

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

Standings after Round 8:

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

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

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

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

Leading Standings in Group B:

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

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

Leading Standings in Group C:

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

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

Honorary Group, Round 2:

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

Honorary Group Standings:

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

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

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

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

More info here.

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