Archive for June, 2009

Playing a quiet move with the enemy king being completely exposed can be very
difficult, and even an absolute attacking artist like World Champion Mikhail
Tal often could not resist the temptation of giving check. In this position
White had just gone for 34.Rf1-f2. How would you assess this move? A) Just the
right thing to do, White is not in a hurry and will safely rake in the full
point after this. B) A mistake allowing the opponent a spectacular draw. C)
This blunders the game – now a double attack decides for Black. The solution
is here, but first ponder
over it with a larger
version of the diagram. larger version of the diagram.

Vassily Ivanchuk chalked up the third win in succession at the Romgaz Turneul Regilor in Romania, beating Alexei Shirov in a beautifully entertaining game. The Ukrainian, who came last in the Sofia Super-GM in May, with a performance of 2610, is now playing at 2946! Teimour Radjabov scored his first victory in this event against Gata Kamsky, who is having a really bad tournament. Round seven report.

I have posted A Black Fianchetto System in the Open Games, Part One, which is the first of a projected seven-part series on a classical way of playing against 1.e4 with 1…e5 and an eventual g6.

The viability of a black fianchetto in the open games was demonstrated by Wilhelm Steinitz in the late nineteenth century (see, for example, Rosenthal – Steinitz, Vienna 1873 and Mackenzie – Steinitz, London 1883), and it has been played with success by the likes of Alekhine, Keres, Geller, and Smyslov. Black has had success with a fianchetto against many lines in the open games:

• Spanish / Ruy Lopez, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6
• Scotch Game, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 g6
• Three Knights, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 g6
• Scotch Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 g6
• Italian Game / Giuoco Piano, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 g6
• Ponziani Opening, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.c3 Qe7!? 4.d4 d6 5.Bd3 g6
• Center Game, 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 g6

Where a fianchetto system is not so successful is against lines where White can play an early f4, such as the Vienna, the Bishop’s Opening, and the King’s Gambit. But we will examine an alternative system against these lines where the Bishop is often developed to b4.

In this first of a planned seven-part series, we examine lines where White plays c3 followed by d4, striving to establish a classical center. This is one of the best places to begin our discussion because it helps us see the g6 system as a potential tabiya that can work across various opening lines that are typically treated quite separately in the opening manuals.

The Tabiya of the Fianchetto System

In subsequent articles, we will look at:

• historical games with the g6 line
• various gambit tries for White with d4 followed by c3
• attacking tries with d4 followed by Bg5
• lines with d4 and Nxd4
• attempts to attack by h4
• and various closed systems for White with d3

The Black fianchetto system in the open games fits very well into an opening repertoire that involves the King’s Indian Defense or other fianchetto lines against the d-pawn openings. For ideas on how you can build an entire repertoire around these lines, see my earlier article, “Repertoire Renovations.” As always, I welcome reader feedback.

Vassily Ivanchuk chalked up a second win in this event when his opponent Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu once again fell victim to over-creativity. Alexei Shirov tricked his opponent with a nice bishop manoeuvre on moves 9 and 10. Boris Gelfand and Teimour Radjabov drew in a complicated strategical battle. Ivanchuk leads with 3.5/6. GM commentary by Dorian Rogozenco.

On June 5, 2009 WGM Natalia Pogonina and Peter Zhdanov got married – she a Women’s Grandmaster, he a successful IT-specialist and debate expert. Peter is also Natalia’s
manager, together they are writing a book called “Chess Kamasutra”.
Today they share with us their views on the perennial topic why women are worse at
chess than men, and take a look at the future of women’s chess.

When you think of international chess it is unlikely that Scotland springs to mind. Steinitz, the future first World Champion, participated in an international tournament in Dundee 1867. After this promising start Scotland has rarely featured on the map for strong players. However this year’s Scottish Championship is a step in the right direction. Jonathan Grant, Director of Chess Scotland, explains how.

Top-class training for ambitious chess players – that is the recipe for
success of ChessBase Magazine. Star annotators like Anand, Aronian and Gelfand
explain their games,
leading experts present new opening ideas, and test your skill in
tactics, strategy and endgame.
Read about and order
CBM 130 or order the
CBM
taster + Anand DVD, or watch GM Karsten Müller’s
CBM 130 introduction.

At half-time in this double round robin the two oldest players are leading: Boris Gelfand, who defeated Alexei Shirov, when the latter blundered a pawn; and Vassily Ivanchuk, who profited from an error by his opponent Gata Kamsky. Ivanchuk and Shirov are leading at half-way time and have 3.5/5 points. Friday is a free day. GM commentary by Dorian Rogozenco.

Nisipeanu produced a move nine novelty in the Ruy Lopez, gained the initiative but saw it neutralised by his opponent Shirov. Ivanchuk played a strong novelty against Radjabov and got a very promising endgame, which in the end he was unable to turn into a full point. Gelfand-Kamsky was an important theoretical game, which was drawn in 37 moves. GM commentary by Dorian Rogozenco.

The First SCS International Open GM tournamnent hosted more than 80 title holders, was held in the state of Orissa, India. Five players tied for first, with Ukrainian GM Yuri Drozdovskij taking first on tiebreak points. We bring you games and results, plus a spectacular travelogue on this very popular tourist spots in India by GM Sergey Tiviakov. Enjoy the temples and animals.

At last a quick draw: against Gata Kamsky Romanian GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who had lost his first two games, went for a well-known 16-move draw. Ivanchuk tried to improve in Gelfand’s Petroff, but settled for a draw after 37 moves. The most exciting encounter was the Gruenfeld between Radjabov and Shirov, in which Black walked along the brink. GM commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.

Even without Topalov and Cheparinov it was the strongest team competition ever in Bulgaria. The team of Lokomotiv Sofia scored a double victory, winning in both groups. The Team Championships for men and women was held from 8-14 June 2009 at Sunny Beach, a resort with a remarkable mixture of styles. GM Dejan Bojkov, who played in the event, has sent us a report and pictures.

Were he still alive, Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian, the tenth World Chess Champion,
would be 80 years old today. He was nicknamed “the boa constrictor”
for the remarkable way in which he could suffocate even the greatest opponents
over the chessboard. In this week’s Playchess
lecture Dennis Monokroussos uses a game against Botvinnik to illustrate Petrosian’s
technique. Be there at 9 p.m. ET.

Exciting games: Alexei Shirov played the Rossolimo and sacrificed a knight against Vassily Ivanchuk, but the latter sacrificed back and the action-packed game was drawn. Even more stunning was Boris Gelfand vs Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, in which the Romanian GM also produced a surprising knight sacrifice but went wrong in time trouble to suffer a second defeat. GM Dorian Rogozenco annotates.

Sometimes bad things happen and your chess data gets corrupted. In the last ChessBase Workshop we looked at ways to back up a database. This time we show you how to use a ChessBase 10 tool which can help you retrieve data you might have thought was lost; it’s all described in the latest ChessBase Workshop.

Criterion’s re-release of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, with its stark black and white compositions and famous chess game between Death and a returned crusader (played by Max von Sydow), will likely cause many to reconsider this classic film. Dennis Lim’s review (”A Second Look: ‘the Seventh Seal‘”) suggests that it still has power despite its many parodies and campily serious tone:

A heavily symbolic allegory of faith and doubt set in plague-ridden medieval Sweden, this seminal movie was the height of midcentury existentialist chic and ground zero for the cinephile golden age. It gave the cultural intelligentsia permission to take film seriously.

“The Seventh Seal” has since fallen victim to changing tastes and to its own popularity. (If anything, it is now more middlebrow emblem than highbrow badge of honor.) And it is precisely its unabashed seriousness, once so seductive, that has contributed to its somewhat diminished reputation.

Many of the film’s images have passed into cinematic immortality, none more so than the recurring motif of a brooding knight locked in a mortal chess game with Death, assuming the form of a cowled, white-faced ghoul, and the final hilltop danse macabre, led by the scythe-wielding Grim Reaper. But the hooded figure of Death also has proved spoofable, popping up in such places as Bergman mega-fan Woody Allen’s “Love and Death,” Monty Python skits and “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.”

It might not be possible to liberate “The Seventh Seal,” reissued in a new two-disc edition this week by the Criterion Collection in both standard definition and Blu-ray, from the historical baggage that surrounds it. But first-time viewers, and those revisiting it after many years, might be surprised to find a movie that feels at once dated and timeless: Its deadly earnest sensibility harks back to another era, but its stark iconographic power is undimmed, stubbornly resistant to parody. Read the rest online>

The category 20 tournament – average rating 2729 – that is being staged in Romania started on Sunday with a dramatic round, which saw two black wins, by Ivanchuk and Shirov. We brought you the games in the our first report. Thankfully GM Dorian Rogozenco, who is working in the press room of the tournament, will be sending us annotated game. Here is the first installment from round one.

The category 20 tournament – average rating 2729 – that is being staged in Romania started on Sunday with a dramatic round, which saw two black wins, by Ivanchuk and Shirov. We brought you the games in the our first report. Thankfully GM Dorian Rogozenko, who is working in the press room of the tournament, will be sending us annotated game. Here is the first installment from round one.

Romgaz and the Chess Club Society “Elisabeta Polihroniade” are staging
a double round robin tournament with six top GMs in Bazna, Romania. In the first
round Alexei Shirov defeated Gata Kamsky and Vassily Ivanchuk beat the country’s
to GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, bot with the black pieces. Live coverage on the
official site and Playchess.com. We bring
you a first introductory report.

The entire subject of prodigies in chess is fascinating from many standpoints, but, as the Editor of Chess Notes observes, no book has yet given it in-depth treatment. While marvelling at the exploits of such Wunderkinder as Capablanca and Reshevsky we should spare a thought for some truly obscure youngsters also praised by journalists for their exploits, whether real or dubious.

China is an emerging super-power – in chess. The 2009 Championship brought forth a sixteen-year-old winner, one of the strongest female players in the world is a fifteen-year-old grandmaster. The championship was overshadowed by event deciding game defaults, but sweetened by some great photography and beautiful portrait impressions by GM Ye Rongguang.

Saemisch Attack, Alekhine’s Defense
White to play.

I have posted some analysis of a specific line in the Saemisch Attack vs. the Alekhine Defense beginning 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. Nc3 Nxc3 4. bxc3 d6 5. f4 dxe5 6. fxe5 Qd5, when White has to watch out for tricky tactics with Bf5 followed by Qe4+ and Qxc2. Recently, a reader sent me a game he played based on my advice in “The Saemisch Surprise,” where I suggested sacrificing the c-pawn. I still think that is a viable option, but I now prefer simply 7.Nf3! followed by Be2 and O-O, avoiding the whole discussion. Those interested in learning more about the line should also see “Saemisch Surprise Revisited,” where I analyze Smith – Yermolinsky, Washington D.C. 2008.

Chess players have outstanding abilities in things like… well, playing chess. And anything else? Economists at the University of Kassel (Germany) want to find out and invite you to join a simple online experiment. All you have to do is choose a number between 0 and 100, as explained in the test. You can win ChessBase vouchers worth €350. Deadline: June 28th 2009.