Archive for August, 2009

In the final round the Dutch team were three points down and ready to fight for victory. Jan Smeets did the necessary against Luke McShane, but just as Loek van Wely appeared to have Nigel Short on the ropes the Rejuvenated One struck back and took the full point. Nigel is now over 2700 on live ratings and, at 44, once again Britain’s top grandmaster. Final report by Steve Giddins.

This unique event, which takes place in the heart of Amsterdam, pits five highly talented young chess players against five older and experienced colleagues. You may remember that last year the Experience team got a painful drubbing. They lost to the Rising Stars for the third time in a row, but never was the score so dramatic: 33½-16½. For this year’s event drastic measures were required.

With six rounds completed, the Baltic Queen has turned into a two-woman show, with GM Pia Cramling and IM Ekaterina Atalik opening a one point lead over their opposition. With the leaders meeting in the final round, a climatic finish is expected, though Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant and Viktorija Cmilyte, the two-membered chasing pack, will certainly make a statement as play resumes.

Watching games on the Fritz Server – a high-class tournament or a blitz match between top players – is great fun. As a kibitzer, you feel the tension of such encounters, and even if you are “only” a hobby or club player, you enjoy the pleasant feeling that you have learned something. But there is much more, especially when you upgrade to ChessBase Light 2009 Premium (Euro 49.99). Take a look.

Entering into the final round, Zoltan Almasi and Ferenc Berkes held the joint lead, a half-point ahead of their nearest competitor, Csaba Balogh. After an indecisive final round, with all games drawn, Almasi and Berkes emerged as the tournament’s top finishers. Unfortunately, for Berkes, with a superior Sonneborn Berger score, Almasi takes home the title.

Round seven was a slugfest, with six decisive games to one draw. Round eight was the other way around: six draws to one decisive game. The outcome: Vassily Ivanchuk and Peter Leko are in the lead with 5.5/8 points, followed by Rustam Kasimdzhanov half a point behind. We bring you a report of both rounds and once again some very insightful pictures by Arman Karakhanyan.

In round eight of the Howard Staunton Memorial the Dutch players struck a fearsome blow: a 1.5-3.5 victory to equalise their overall score against the Brits. But in round nine the island inhabitants hit back with a 4:1 win that put them in the overall 24-21 lead. With one round to go. In individual scores Nigel Short leads with 7.0/9, two points in front of his nearest rivals. Report by Steve Giddins.

Entering into a free day, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave enjoyed a half-point cushion in accompaniment with his sole lead. With half his games ending in sixteen move draws, however, one wonders whether it is a matter of time before he is overtaken. Tkachiev has already had his opportunity to provide resistance, and now only Laurent Fressinet truly stands between Maxime and the title.

Innovations after move 20? There is no need to wait that long.
In Aronian-Kamsky, Jermuk 2009, the Armenian came up with his
innovation on move five! And five moves later he basically had a
winning position. What the bizarre opening moves 1.c4 g6 2.e4 e5
3.d4 have to do with the Grünfeld Defence was explained by Mihail Marin in CBM
126
(buy it now!); we reproduce here a shortened version of his article. Kamsky certainly
hadn’t had a look at Marin’s analysis – you better do it!
Aronian-Kamsky with annotations
Mihail Marin on the variation 1.c4 g6 2.e4 e5 3.d4

Pawlowski-Mangion from round 6 (replay, PGN) & Sherer-Kernighan from round 9 (replay, PGN) have been uploaded.

After five rounds of fairly tumultuous play – very few unfought draws – the players in the Fifth FIDE Grand Prix in Jermuk, Armenia had earned a well-deserved rest day and outing. This took them to a famous monastery which documents the origins of Christianity in Europe, and a wildlife sanctuary, where the more intrepid of them risked life and limb in a rock climbing adventure. Well, sort of…

It was bear hugs in the final round: GMs Alexander Areshchenko Boris Avrukh had the black pieces but squeezed the life out of top contenders GMs Yuriy Kuzubov (30 moves in a Meran) and Alexander Morozevich (55 moves in a QGA) to take equal first at this strong event. We bring you more picture portraits by Georg Kradolfer of interesting players and faces in our final report.

Coming out of a free day two players, Aronian and Kasimdzhanov, showed gritty determination and took full points (the latter with black) to join the leaders Leko and Ivanchuk at the top of the table. Vassily Ivanchuk was in a tough position against US GM Gata Kamsky, but saved the day in an unusual ending in a unique way. Big illustrated round six report.

Nigel Short won another game, in round six of the Staunton Memorial, which put him on 5.5/7 with a 2842 performance that could take him above the 2700 mark on the next FIDE list. David Howell won a beautiful queen sacrifice game in round seven, while Viktor Korchnoi upset the course of events in the all play all group by beating the leader, Jan Timman, with the black pieces.
Round 6-7 report.

What a day, what a round! Ivanchuk beat Cheparinov with the black pieces and joined Peter Leko in the lead; Kamsky scored his first win, defeating Inarkiev; Kasimdzhanov beat leader Aronian; Gelfand produced
his first victory, against Akopian; and Karjakin took a full point, his first,
against Bacrot. Full report with great photos by Arman Karakhanyan.

The Caro-Kann Defence is considered to be one of the safest and most reliable
replies to 1.e4. No fewer than four world champions have made extensive use
of it – and you should consider using it as well. In his training DVD
top Moldavian grandmaster Viktor Bologan presents a repertoire for Black which
is easy to assimilate and yet playable at the highest of all levels. Brand new
product.

Tragedy! I blundered while a Rook ahead, had to go into a pawn-up Q ending, picked the wrong path despite a 16-minute think & had to settle for a draw against a ‘C’ player.

Now, my margin of error is gone & I need to beat my remaining opponents (1917 & 1501-rated) to win on tiebreaks.

• java-replay & zipped PGN of last night’s games
• Annotated replay of last Week’s draw vs. HaimPilosof
• Complete WCL section PGN for rounds 4, 5

Update 8/15 @ 12:29 a.m. – Two games added, to complete the 6th Round PGN.

Tragedy! I blundered while a Rook ahead, had to go into a pawn-up Q ending, picked the wrong path despite a 16-minute think & had to settle for a draw against a ‘C’ player.

Now, my margin of error is gone & I need to beat my remaining opponents (1917 & 1501-rated) to win on tiebreaks.

• Annotated java-replay& zipped PGN of last night’s game.
• Annotated replay of last week’s draw vs. HaimPilosof.
• Complete WCL section PGN for rounds 4, 5

The Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø ended last Sunday, with four players sharing the top score of 7.0/9 points. One of them, a 14-year-old lad, stood to make a GM norm. But to do so Ray Robson had to hold the Swedish Champion GM Emanuel Berg to a draw in the final round, with the black pieces. To compound matters Berg was desperate to win. Pictorial report by Misha Savinov.

Older readers will remember that Nigel Short played Jan Timman in 1993 for the right to meet defending World Champion Garry Kasparov (Short won). Today Nigel is 44, and Jan 57. Thes are playing in the Scheveningen and round robin groups of the Staunton Memorial, and both are dominating. England and Holland are tied 12.5:12.5 in the team event. Rounds 1-5 report.

“The first to draw blood today was Peter Leko who celebrated the arrival of his wife Sophie in Jermuk by beating Sergey Karjakin,” the official tournament bulletin tells us. Armenia’s top GM Levon Aronian did it without the his Australian girlfriend turning up in Jermuk, to stay in the lead with Leko. Vassily Ivanchuk also won to join Cheparinov half a point behind the leaders. Round four report.