Archive for July, 2009

Nine players were in contention, five drew their games, two lost and two Canadians won. GM Mark Bluvshtein and IM Edward Porper beat FM Theo Hommeles and GM Surya Ganguly to take first places. Bluvshtein won the title on tiebreak. In the next slot, 3rd–8th, we find Shirov, Adams and Irina Krush! Illustrated report with round eight commentary by GM Alexander Shabalov.

The mercurial Russian GM Alexander Morozevich, 32 years old, Elo 2751, ranked 10th in the world, seems to mean business: he has scored two victories in the first two rounds of the 2009 Biel International Chess Festival, defeating last year’s winner Evgeny Alexeev and top seed Boris Gelfand. Morozevich is a full point ahead of the field. Round two report.

The organiser of the Chess Classic, which begins on July 27 in Mainz, Germany, is a self-professed “dinosaur”. Hans-Walter Schmitt has been staging the massive event since 1994. In that year he met a young chess star from India, Vishy Anand, from which grew a deep and warm friendship. The following interview with “HWS” contains some rare insights and startling revelations. Must read.

In an earlier report we told of the 2-0 victory of US GM Hikaru Nakamura in the tiebreak blitz after he and Ruslan Ponomariov had tied for first in the Dondstia San Sebastian Category 18 tournament. Unfortunately owing to a malfunction in the sensor board all the moves of the second game were not recorded. Not to worry: David Llada filmed it all and provides us with a video document of both games.

The Editor of Chess
Notes looks back at the remarkable legacy of a writer of erudition, wit and urbanity who
combined rigorous research with sparkling quips. In some quarters today, however, that writer’s
name may barely be recognized, so we have pleasure in introducing, or re-introducing,
readers to one of the great neglected figures of chess lore.

The coverage of the Canadian Open Chess Championship at ChessBase rivals that seen at the recently completed U.S. Championship, complete with photos, video, and annotated games:

• Canadian Open: Friendly Faces Congregate in Edmonton
• Canadian Open: Canadians take it all
• Americans in Canada from USCF
• Canadian Open: Nine players lead after penultimate round
• Canadian Open: Four players with 6.0/7
• Canadian Open: Five players lead with 4.0/4
• Canadian Open Chess Championship

I especially appreciate the excellent notes and commentary from GM Alexander Shabalov, whose comments on games from Round 1, Rounds 2-3, Rounds 4-6 and Round 7 can be played through online. I recommend the “master vs amateur” lessons from the early rounds, which illustrate what Shabalov at one point calls “professionalism at its best.” The final round starts at noon today, and I will likely post an update after it concludes.

Just a round ago it was four players, now a total of nine share the lead with 6.5/8 points. Shirov and Adams drew their round eight games, while Ganguly beat Zhe Quan and Perlshteyn beat Kovalyov to join them. IM Irina Krush, US, won her last three games to take a place in the top berth. Congratulations! Pictorial report with round seven commentary by GM Alexander Shabalov.

The New York Times reports (”U.S. Chess Federation Lawsuit Becomes Criminal Issue“) that Susan Polgar’s assistant, Gregory Alexander, was arrested and arraigned for alleged “computer fraud and aggravated identity theft” in stealing email messages between attorney and client in one of the USCF lawsuits. The stolen emails are just one of many apparent internet misdoings alleged in the various USCF lawsuits, which include the proven allegation that people working for or associated with Polgar posed as Sam Sloan to make obscene forum postings (often referred to as “the fake Sam Sloan posts“). Ironically, the real Sam Sloan personally witnessed Alexander’s arrest on Thursday afternoon in the U.S. Court House in San Francisco (where they were both attending a mediation hearing), as he reports online: “Gregory Alexander called out to me ‘Mr. Sloan’ as the handcuffs were being put on. I am not exactly a friend of his but I suppose that he wanted to notify somebody, anybody, before he disappeared into NeverNever Land.”

Will other arrests follow? Does the chess public really care anymore? Personally I am waiting for the matter to be resolved and hope someone finds an interesting way to use the case to illustrate problems of the internet and the law. At least then something good might come out of this mess.

Two top seeds and internationally well-known players, Alexei Shirov and Michael Adams, are accompanied by two players below 2600 on the rating scale: GM Mark Bluvshtein and IM Edward Porper at the top of the table after seven rounds of this event. We bring you extensive annotations of the last three rounds by GM Alexander Shabalov, together with pictorial and video impressions by MonRoi.

Endgames with bishops of opposite colours are very drawish? Yes.
Yet, despite that you have to be very, very careful, because there are also
a heap of dirty tricks. Our resident endgame expert and ChessBase Magazine author GM Karsten Müller shows you an example from the
Greek Team Championship. But hang on! You should analyse it for yourself first.
It is Black’s move.

Analysis of the endgame Psomiadis-Skembris

Endgame DVDs by Karsten Müller

Leader Ian Mangion lost to David Pawlowski & saw his lead over NM Mark Kernighan cut to a half-point. Greg Tomkovich split a match with Mike Wojcio to move within 1.5 points of 1st & pad his 3rd place edge. Don Carrelli & Ted Mann are now tied for 4th.

Just ten days, three hours and 54 minutes (at the time of writing) until the Chess Classic Mainz 2009 begins. This year will see World Champion Vishy Anand defend his series of titles in the Rapid World Championship against Levon Aronian, Arkadij Naiditsch and Ian Nepomniachtchi. There are many other events, including the world’s biggest Rapid Chess Open.
Interview with the sponsor.

The American GM Hikaru Nakamura had led the tournament from the start, and
looked like a slam-dunk winner. But in the last round he drew his game, while
former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov won his, and both finished at 6.5/9
points. Nakamura went on to win the blitz tiebreak games 2-0 and was thus the
winner. We bring you games and final standings in our final illustrated report.

In the past weeks three important tournaments took place in Kalithea, Greece. First, the youth individual championships, for all ages up to sixteen; secondly, the final four matches of the Greek Cup; and finally, there was the Greek National Team Championship. All were hotly contested, with no love lost, but with serenades on a guitar soon following. GM Dejan Bojkov reports.