Archive for August, 2009

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It was a weekend of the world champions. After playing simuls against 200 opponents, marking the 200th jubilee of the world’s oldest chess club, eight champions took part in an all-play-all rapid chess tournament in Zurich, Switzerland. It was won by the 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, with the current World Champion in second place. Report with pictures and videos.

It was a weekend of the world champions. After playing simuls against 200 opponents, marking the 200th jubilee of the world’s oldest chess club, eight champions took part in an all-play-all rapid chess tournament in Zurich, Switzerland. It was won by the 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, with the current World Champion in second place. Report with pictures and videos.

Steve Lopez, our ChessBase Workshop columnist, contends in his latest article that the ability to recognize threats is one of the most important chess skills for a beginner to cultivate, and describes how Fritz11’s “Threat” function will help in that endeavor. Find out more about it in the latest Workshop.

Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk won his final game in Jermuk with the black pieces against Vladimir Akopian to take overall victory with 8.5/13 points and a performance of 2830. Lev Aronian and Boris Gelfand won their games to take equal 2nd-3rd. Gelfand beat Peter Leko, who had been leading for most of the tournament, and was relegated to 4-6th place. Final report.

Another exciting round: Israeli GM Boris Gelfand beat former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov with the black pieces, knocking the Uzbek from the lead trio and into the chasing pack. Gelfand joined him, Alekseev and Aronian, a half-point behind the leaders. The thrilling conclusion comes on Sunday, with the games starting at 13:30 (instead of 15:00) local time = GMT+4. R12 report.

For a number of years now, the annual Russia versus China match has served as an opportunity for the perennial powerhouse to match wits with the rising star. Russia took the inaugural match, but China took the next three. Last year, dissatisfied with recent results, Russia turned the tables once more. This year marks the sixth such much and China currently looms large.

This Dutch event pits five talented young players against five older and experienced colleagues. In the past the latter kept getting whupped, so the organisers decided that the Experience team needed a little less experience and a little more youthful energy. The strategy seems to be succeeding, as the younger older players are in the lead after two rounds.

Steve Giddins on GMs and GOMs.

The Fifth FIDE Grand Prix continues to produce fighting chess. A relatively low 61% of the games so far were drawn, but only two of 47 draws were in less than 25 moves. In round eleven there was one 31-mover, the rest 40 moves or more. And two decisive games, which however left the top of the table unchanged. Full report with more beautiful

pictures by Arman Karakhanyan.

In our continuing ChessBase Workshop series discussing Fritz11 features for beginners we look at Fritz’ electronic chess coach. Need a hint? Want a takeback? The Fritz Coach not only lets you take back moves but also alerts you to your errors in the first place. Learn more about the Coach feature in the newest ChessBase Workshop.

Instituted this year, the Balkan Grand Prix serves as an effort to promote increased cooperation and interaction between the Balkan countries: Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Romania. In the recently completed second stage of this Grand Prix, Bulgarian grandmaster, Dejan Bojkov, finished on top. His report and pictorial impressions follow.

Remember American astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who a year ago played chess against the NASA ground stations. Well, now European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang, Sweden, is going to do the same, playing a game against the Swedish public. Right now Fuglesang is in quarantine awaiting an August 24th launch. But the game has already started, and you can take part.

The Monte Carlo Variation

I have posted an article on the Monte Carlo Exchange Variation of the French Defense (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.c4), which is an ideal short-cut or low-theory line for those who like a wide-open game with plenty of piece play. There are also several themes and tactical motifs that are easy to learn and that will score you many points over the board and in online blitz. I have also included a bibliography (reproduced below) and welcome additions.

Monte Carlo Variation Bibliography

Baburin, Alexander. “Play on the e-file.” Winning Pawn Structures (Batsford 2003): 92-101.
In his contemporary classic on the isolani pawn structure, GM Baburin devotes a chapter mostly to positions where the e-file is unobstructed by pawns. This position can arise from many openings, but especially the Queen’s Gambit Accepted (1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 e5 4.Bxc4 exd4 5.exd4) or the French Exchange Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.c4 dxc4 5.Bxc4). Baburin notes that “pressure along the e-file is particularly unpleasant for Black where it is combined with pressure along the a2-g8 diagonal.” An excellent book and a very useful chapter.

Burgess, Graham. 101 Chess Opening Surprises (Gambit 2001): 62.
Offers a brief repertoire with the line 4.c4 Bb4+ 5.Nc3 Ne7, focused around the games of Tal Shaked and biased toward Black.

Glek, Igor. “French Defence, Exchange Variation.” New in Chess Yearbook 20 (1991): 39-41.
A balanced treatment of the line with an early White c4, focused on the game Klinger – Glek, Werfen Open 1990, which began 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.c4 Bb4+ 6.Nc3 O-O 7.Be2 Ne4?! 8.Qb3! += and was eventually won by White.

Lane, Gary. “A French Farce.” Opening Lanes 46 at ChessCafe.
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/lane46.pdf

Lane, Peter. “Exeter Chess Club: The Queen’s Gambit Accepted/Isolated Queen’s Pawn.” Exeter Chess Club 1998.
http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/Openings/qga_iqp.html

Mednis, Edmar. “The Not-so-harmless Exchange Variation of the French Defence.” Practical Opening Tips (Cardogan / Everyman 1997): 110-117.
Mednis’s book is an excellent treatment of themes in the opening, but this chapter also offers a rather thorough and positive treatment of lines following both 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 c6 (which can also arise via the Slav move order 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 e5 4.e3 exd4 5.exd4 Nf6) and 4.Nf3, which can transpose.

Pedersen, Steffen. French Advance and Other Lines (Gambit 2005): 104-106.
Focuses on the line 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.c4 Bb4+ 5.Nc3 Ne7 6.Nf3 Bg4 as illustrated by the games of Miezis as White and Shaked as Black. Pedersen’s main line goes 7.Be2 dxc4 8.Bxc4 O-O 9.Be3 Nbc6 10.O-O Nf5 11.Qd3 Nd6 12.Bd5 which has occured in numerous high level games (including at least one of the author’s own).

Razuvaev, Yuri. “You were right, Monsieur La Bourdonnais!” Secrets of Opening Preparation. Ed. Mark Dvoretsky and Artur Yusupov. (Olms 2007): 170-180.
A wonderful article that reinforces my favorite theme in these pages: that there is still a lot of opening knowledge to gain from the great players of even the most distant past. Razuvaev considers the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 e5!? as contested in the classic LaBourdonnais – McDonnell match — a line that typically transposes to the Monte Carlo Variation after 4.Bxc4 exd4 5.exd4. Thanks to reader Jose for pointing me to this article, which I had initially overlooked.

Van der Sterren, Paul. “Transposition from the Queens Gambit.” New in Chess Yearbook 32 (1994). Considers the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 e5 4. Bxc4 (Queens Gambit Accepted or Monte Carlo French) 4…exd4 5.exd4 Nf6 6.Nf3 Be7 7.0-0 0-0 8. h3 Nc6, which is now a Petroff, as in Gelfand – Adams Wijk aan Zee 1994. Thanks to reader Jose for this information.

Watson, John. Play the French, 3rd Edition (Everyman Chess 2003): 71-73.
Focuses on the games of Watson’s former student Tal Shaked with the line 4….Bb4+ 5.Nc3 Ne7 — as he notes, “A move this book helped to bring to attention.”

I badly misplayed the opening to middlegame transition in a Milner-Barry Nimzo-Indian (much as I did against Kernighan in March) & lost a rematch with Haim Pilosof.

Grandmaster Monika Socko is from Poland, married to Polish GM Bartoz Socko, who is two hundred points higher than her on the FIDE scale. Still, Monika finished first in the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø, with 7.0/9 and a rating performance of 2639, while her husband came 13th, a full point behind her. Son Szymon also played. Misha Savinov spoke to the winner.

The three leaders drew their games – 82, 73 and 65-move battles – while Aronian, Inarkiev, Alexseev and Gelfand won theirs, providing more excitement and potentially ranking this tournament amongst the best for entertainment value in the recent past. Those who suffered withdrawal: yesterday was a free day that took many of the players to an outing in the wild Jermuk landscape. Big pictorial report.

… in order to
show off their maximal strength, so it’s no wonder that they tend to be
particulary strong in endgames. Here Black had just played 32…Rxd5. How would
you assess the situation now?
A) The position is balanced, both sides have active rooks.
B) Black can realize the advance …d6-d5 when his mobile pawn centre will give
him the edge.
C) No need for endgame subtleties, White can employ a winning combination.
The solution is here
but first ponder it with a larger version of the diagram.

This weekend sees the climax of two weeks of celebration for the 200th jubilee of the world’s oldest chess club: the Schachgesellschaft Zürich. Kasparov, Anand, Karpov, Korchnoi, Kramnik, Spassky, Ponomariov, Judit Polgar, Topalov and Hug will be participating in simuls and a rapid chess event. Richard Forster and Christian Rohrer retrace the historical development of the club.

I played badly misplayed the opening to middlegame transition in a Milner-Barry Nimzo-Indian (much as I did against Kernighan in March) & lost a rematch with Haim Pilosof.

240 players participated, from 14 different countries. For one week the 2009 edition of the Asian Youth Championships witnessed the vibrant and energetic activities of children on and off the board, in New Delhi. The Indian contingent faced little resistance and grabbed gold medals in seven categories, mustering 23 out of 36 medals in total. Illustrated report with Bhangra dance instructions.

At eighteen years of age, WFM Abby Marshall is making waves in the United States. In addition to being the only girl to hold two Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls titles, achieved consecutively in 2005 and 2006, she has recently added a victory at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions to her mantle – the first female to do so. We follow her activities in Indianapolis.

Remember the study we showed you in one of our Chess Classic reports? The one which top grandmasters failed to solve, while the program Rybka succeeded in just over a minute? We promised to give you the astonishing solution, which we now do, together with a number of interesting – and sometimes delicate – anecdotes describing how the humans fared. 1-0 for the computers on this one.

Six draws from seven games – but happily there was quite a bit of excitement in at least two games. One was of course Rustam Kasimdzhanov’s victory over Ivan Cheparinov, which brought the former FIDE World Champion into the lead group of Peter Leko and Vassily Ivanchuk, a full point ahead of the field. We bring you a big illustrated report with impressions by Arman Karakhanyan.

It was arguably the most dramatic match in chess history. Challenger Anatoly
Karpov was on the verge of winning it, when he took game 23, but was foiled
by World Champion Garry Kasparov in the very last game. History only remembers
the winners, but as Dennis Monokroussos shows in his Wednesday night Playchess
lecture, Karpov’s best efforts are worth another look. So are these videos.