Archive for September, 2009

This Category 16 event, billed as the “highest rated international invitational tournament in U.S. history”, is named after its founder, former Women’s World Champion Susan Polgar. After six rounds GMs Kuzubov, Andreikin and Hammer lead, but Group B (Cat. 11) is also interesting, since 14-year-old IM Ray Robson is trying to pick up his final GM norm. Illustrated report.

“So we have four games played and White could not win a single game yet,” noted match commentator Klaus Bischoff. “Today we will see Nigel’s last try with the white pieces.” Try he did, and in fact pulled off a fine victory to take a 3.0-2.0 lead in this match (with one game to go). Not a single game so far has been unfought or boring. Report with GM analysis.

The Asbury Park Chess Fest 2009 is on Saturday, September 26th in Asbury Park’s Convention Hall (5th Street and Ocean Avenue) from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. I will be among those giving a simul, as I was last year. This will be the 10th anniversary of this excellent event that does a lot to promote chess to young people. You can register online. See the website for more details.

Garry Kasparov won the series of fast play games against his arch-rival Anatoly Karpov by a final score of 9-3, “exactly as their ratings predicted” according to ChessBase (which has a nicely illustrated report — as does ChessVibes). Dennis Monokroussos has annotated all of the blitz games (which Kasparov won 6-2) as well as the two remaining rapid games from the first two days of the match (which Kasparov won 3-1). See my previous post for additional links.

Everyone expected an easy win by Kasparov, but their eight-game blitz encounter started with a shock loss. Karpov drew first blood, Kasparov took a “deep breath” 17-move draw to clear his head, and then went on to score five wins in a row. The final game was a draw, leaving Kasparov winning the blitz with 6.0-2.0 and the match with 9.0-3.0 – exactly as their ratings predicted. Illustrated report.

… is a continuation which immediately springs to mind in a position – if, for example, a piece can be developed to an active square in the opening with tempo. In the diagram, playing
16.Rad1 White occupied the d-file with his rook and at the same time attacked the opponent’s queen. What is your judgement on this?
A) simple and strong, the move maintains a powerful initiative;
B) here nature is against White, Black gets the advantage; 
C) neither nor, with a precise reaction the position is kept in balance.
The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

GM Boris Gulko, immediately following his win.

The New Jersey Knockouts last night became the only US Chess League team with a perfect 4-0 record after they beat perennial rival New York 2.5-1.5 thanks to a difficult win by GM Boris Gulko. All the games were very tense, and time pressure played a role on every board. But the games were among the most interesting and hard fought this year, and the match could easily have been a draw. I have analyzed the games and posted them below (as well as a PGN file for download).

GM Joel Benjamin’s game against GM Georgi Kacheishvili featured a fascinating line of the Caro Kann that begins 1.e4 c6 2.Ne2, which was analyzed by Ruben Felgaer in Secrets of Opening Surprises #8. Though the game ended in a hard fought draw, it was certainly a good advertisement for the opening as Benjamin had several winning chances which he missed in time pressure.

One of the most balanced and hard fought games of the night was between 62-year-old GM Boris Gulko and 26-year-old GM Pascal Charbonneau. Gulko has been perfect in USCL action, with a 5-0 record in his two years of play, but Charbonneau was his toughest challenge yet. Though Gulko gained a slight edge out of the opening, Charbonneau battled back with a pawn sacrifice that gave his knights the chance to attack behind enemy lines, eventually winning back the material and gaining a dangerous outside passed pawn. Gulko found a fascinating resource, exploiting back rank mating threats to force Charbonneau to surrender a piece. But the young Canadian GM fought on, trying to take advantage of potential stalemate possibilities due to his hemmed in King. And he should have been able to force a draw late in the game, but he overlooked that last chance in time pressure (see diagram below).

Charbonneau – Gulko, USCL 2009
White to Play and Draw

Gulko was evidently very happy after the game, and it was a well-deserved win despite the drawing opportunity he had allowed.

It was great to see FM Mackenzie Molner back in action for New Jersey, since his games have always been the most tactically deep and exciting. Molner, who has had success in poker of late, is not afraid to take risks and to enter very complex positions, and his game against NM Matt Herman was no exception. Molner had the advantage throughout, but he only kept his attack going with some aggressive play late in the game that allowed him to get every piece into the action. Though he started out well ahead on the clock, he ended the game in time pressure and even missed a mate in three (with 27. Ng6+ fxg6 28. Qf6+ Ke8 29. Qf8#). But he eventually put the game away with a nice Queen sacrifice that forced a Rook-up ending.

Though it had its share of errors, I think that will be a candidate for Game of the Week.

Anna Matlin played bottom board against Kenilworth Chess Club Champion Yaacov Norowitz, who is certainly unbeatable at that position. Yaacov has been playing a lot of chess recently and his current rating is 2349 USCF, which is tremendously better than the 2212 rating he had last year (and which is used for determining team averages). That’s not to mention his ICC blitz rating, which hovers well over 3000. His blitz experience alone gives him a tremendous advantage in USCL play, where the Game-90 with 30 second increment inevitably puts players in time pressure. Norowitz used his favorite anti-KID system (which he described in a lecture on the Stonewall Attack at the KCC), but he seemed to be playing the clock more than the board throughout his game with Matlin, risking his advantage in order to put the onus on her to come up with a plan when she was already far behind on the clock. That strategy worked perfectly, and Matlin missed a chance to complicate the game and instead allowed Norowitz to exchange into a winning endgame which he played perfectly to the finish.

Though it was the toughest match so far this year, and could easily have been a draw, it was also a great demonstration of New Jersey’s strength and character under pressure. As the only team at 4-0 after four weeks of play, the NJ Knockouts are doing everything right to guarantee a spot in the playoffs and a chance to claim the championship title.

Related Links

• USCL Week 4 Opening of the Week by IM Mark Ginsburg
  Ginsburg continues his excellent “Opening of the Week” series with a close look at Molner – Herman. Personally, I thought Benjamin’s game deserved the spot, but his opening play was featured last week. The NJKOs are certainly making an impression.
• Knights Fall to New Jersey by Matt
  Good summary of the night’s action.
• Knockouts to Beat Dead Horse by Joseph Criscuolo and Robert Bernard
  Typically colorful pre-match predictions at the official NJKO blog.
• NJ Knockouts Blog
• NJ Knockouts Webcam
• NJ Knockouts on Twitter
• NJ Knockouts on Facebook
• US Chess League

He was a much-loved member of the Uzbek national team, playing in numerous Olympiads, Asian and World team championships. He was a gentleman and a chess altruist, who never hesitated to share his home preparations with teammates. He was the loving father of two girls and a boy. Shukhrat Safin died on 20 September of blood cancer. Eulogy by Jamshid Begmatov.

“Enjoy your free day,” our commentator GM Klaus Bischoff imagined the arbiter saying, though Bischoff assumed both players would spend it in front of their laptops. Not quite. Nigel Short went on an outing to Mukachevo Castle, located at the dizzying height of 68 meters, where he made a number of new friends, some of flesh and some in bronze. After that the fourth game was drawn. GM analysis.

Day two of the commemorative rapid chess match saw Anatoly Karpov win a fine game against the man who dethroned him as World Champion 25 years ago. In the final game Garry Kasparov only needed a draw, but put on the pressure until Karpov crumbled and lost – again – on time. The final score of 3.0-1.0 is exactly what the ratings predicted. Illustrated report with videos.

The Petroff is reputed to be a really safe
opening, and there is no doubt that Boris Gelfand is one of the top experts in
it. And yet the Israeli recently succumbed in only 16 moves. The variation
chosen by Vugar Gashimov (4.dxe5) is a sort of secret tip, although of course
Gelfand was not surprised by it. In CBM 132 (available from 1st October) Alexey
Kuzmin will be be revealing a few secrets of this very promising variation.

Gashimov-Gelfand with
annotations