Archive for October, 2009

She is thirteen, rated 2132, and won the Asian U-14 title in Delhi last month. With her chess career she has made her country proud. But Saranya’s childhood is anything but a bed of roses. Her father deserted the family five years ago, and her mother sells small items made of plastic and mud on the pavement of Thiruvottiyur (near Chennai) to eke out a living. Someone must help this girl.

GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia won it, but more relevantly this GM Open was staged in a luxurious five star hotel, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, with accommodation to the GMs provided in the hotel itself. And there was the free day pleasure trip to Kandy, a world famous tourist spot, where the players got to meet the Indian Ocean and a bevy of friendly elephants.

Shen-Esserman
White to play

Due to a busy work load this week, I am only now getting around to posting my analysis of the NJ Knockouts’ stunning sweep of the Boston Blitz 4-0 on Monday night in week 8 of US Chess League action. The victory gave the Knockouts first place in the Eastern division, for which they were tied with Boston going into the match. Though it was only Boston’s second loss of the season, it was also their second 4-0 loss (the first to the Dallas Destiny in Week 3). New Jersey is now tied with Seattle (in the Western division) for the best record in the League at 7-1.

I have annotated the games below, or you can download my PGN file.

Fans were surprised that team captain and first-board anchor GM Joel Benjamin was not playing in the biggest match of the year. But the NJKO blog reports that GM Benjamin had a prior commitment that was known about since August. Fans could ask for no better substitute than GM Boris Gulko, who seems almost unfair to unleash on Board Two. He proved yet again that he is one of the strongest players in the League, beating GM Eugene Perelshteyn in a fascinating isolani position that was practically a text book illustration of how to deploy a Knight on the outpost squares c5 and e5 to provoke weaknesses or exploit tactical opportunities. The game also features a nice “GM Exchange sac,” which is often found in Gulko’s games. White had pressure throughout, and the “Gulko Garrote” eventually forced Perelshteyn to cough up a pawn, giving White excellent winning chances. In a failed attempt to generate counter-play, Perelshteyn sacrificed a second pawn, and eventually Gulko managed to get connected h- and g-pawns in a Rook ending that he marched down the board to force Perelshteyn to surrender. This was a brilliant game and a deserving candidate for Game of the Week honors.

Dean Ippolito’s victory over Jorge Sammour-Hasbun on Board Two was, like the win on Board Four, a surprising bonus. Though Ippolito solidly defended an elite-theory line of the Catalan as Black, he had a passive position throughout the game, with Sammour-Hasbun controlling the c-file and pressuring Black’s backward c7-pawn. Ippolito seemed forced into contortions to create a solid defense, and though he succeeded in doing so it seemed the most likely result would be a draw. But with trouble on the other boards, Sammour-Hasbun was not willing to split the point and so searched desperately for a winning idea, burning up time on his clock while doing so, which led to an eventual time-pressure blunder that lost a piece (his Bishop) to an interesting trap. Typically in this line, White’s Bishop goes to a5 to pressure the c7 pawn, but that Bishop can get a bit out of play there. Ippolito blocked the Bishop’s escape route by advancing a well-defended pawn to b4, which should have forced Sammour-Hasbun eventually to exchange his Bishop for a Knight at b6, allowing Black’s pawn at c7 to escape the pressure along the c-file by capturing cxb6. However, in trying for the win, Sammour-Hasbun allowed a situation to arise where the Knight had moved to d5 and his Bishop had no way to escape when attacked by Rb5. After he lost the piece, there was simply not enough compensation, and Ippolito played carefully to gain the full point.

On Board Three, NM Victor Shen gave a brilliant demonstration of why the Italian Game is still going strong, using a line that has had a 100% success rate in USCL games (see my notes) to build a powerful and sustained attack that carried him to victory. The critical move of the game is a real stunner. You can challenge yourself to find it in the diagram at the top of this post.

The confident and strong play of Gulko and Shen eventually made it seem that victory was assured for the Knockouts, and the wins by Ippolito and Andrew Ng on Board Four were just the “icing on the donut.”

Shen and Ippolito on Bioniclime’s live BlogTV

No one expected Cadet Champ Andrew Ng to pull out a win against Andrew Wang on Board Four. In fact, until late in the game, I would have been surprised if he had been able to draw. But Ng has demonstrated in several games that he has a strong fighting spirit that more than makes up for occasional mistakes in the opening stages. Ng played a well known line against the Moscow Variation of the Sicilian (with 3.Bb5+ Nd7!?) that had been used even by Kasparov with success. But he could not find the best way to get his Nd7 into play and wasted critical tempi by playing Nb6 and then Nc8(?), which allowed White to force the win of a pawn. However, Ng never quit and forced his opponent to find strong moves at every turn, until late in the game, with mutual time pressure (both players were down to the increment at one point), when Wang could not sustain his otherwise excellent effort and faltered, allowing Ng a pair of Bishop forks that won the day.

Sweeping perennial league rival Boston in the most critical game of the season surely will boost New Jersey’s already lofty spirits. I hope they can carry on this effort through the remaining two matches. Next up are the Philadelphia Inventors (who they beat in Week Two) on Wednesday, October 28th at 7:00 p.m. and then the Queens Pioneers on November 4.

Related Links

• Knockouts Massacre Blitz: Boston Cremed, Score a Donut by Robert N. Bernard
  Bernard continues the running joke that NJ needs donuts to fuel its victories. For the match against Boston, they had Boston Creams with red letter Bs on them and even posted a YouTube video showing one being beaten with a hammer (see my previous post).
• Live Blog: Versus Boston
  Posted live during the match.
• Boston Blitz 0-4 New Jersey Knockouts
• NJ Knockouts on Twitter
• NJ Knockouts on Facebook
• US Chess League
• US Chess League News

“I saw GM Koneru Humpy’s letter on your website,” wrote D.V. Sunder, Honorary Secretary of the All India Chess Federation. “You normally seek the reaction of the other side, as you have earlier agreed that there is always the other side of any episode.” Indeed there usually is. We bring you in full what we received from the AICF: a letter of clarification.

Last September the League of Central Serbia took place in Vrnjacka Banja – one of the second divisions of the country, but with twelve GMs and many IMs and FMs (even the fifth and sixth boards have 2300-2400 rated players). The winner qualifies for the highest Serbian division, while the last one was relegated from the group. GM Dejan Bojkov reports.

… was only one of White’s problems here after 21… Qxg2, since Black not only threatens 22…Qxe2, but also to take the whole kingside apart.
What is the best continuation for the first player?
A) 22.Nxe6
B) 22.Rd8
C) 22.Bf1

The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a  larger version of the diagram.

The first round of this massive event – 38 men’s and 28 women’s teams, with four boards per round each – brought a number of surprises: Croatia held Russia, Italy defeated Bulgaria, Switzerland beat Ukraine. In the women’s section Russia, Georgia and Ukraine won convincingly. We bring you results, games, photos and video reports by Europe Echecs.

After returning safely to Earth from the 128th mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle program, during which he played a game of chess against the readers of a Swedish newspaper, the astronaut Christer Fuglesang was given a prize (in spite of losing the game). It was a Rybka program, signed by five World Champions. One of his reader opponents received a similar prize. Illustrated report with videos.

December is cold and wet in most of Europe. In Spain it is warm and sunny – very nice to spend a few days playing in an interesting Open. Here’s your chance: take part in our special qualifier on the Playchess server this Sunday and win accommodation and participation in the VIII Benidorm Chess Festival. In addition there are valuable software packages to be won. Give it a try.

What is the easiest way to learn the functionality of ChessBase programs? Our
new video workshop provides you with an easy access to ChessBase 10 and Fritz
12. In his today’s lecture Steve Lopez, who has been providing written ChessBase
Workshop installments for the last twelve years, will explain to you the myth
about Search Boosters in streaming
video.

“I am very unhappy to inform that I have withdrawn my participation in the Asian Indoor Games 2009 to be held at Vietnam due to some nasty circumstances caused by Mr. D.V. Sundar, Secretary, All India Chess Federation.” That is the start of a press release sent to us by Koneru Humpy, the second strongest female player in the world, and the second to cross the 2600 rating mark. Humpy’s protest.

After returning safely to Earth from the 128th mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle program, during which he had played a game of chess against the readers of a Swedish newspaper, astronaut Christer Fuglesang was given a prize (in spite of losing the game). It was a Rybka program, signed by five World Champions. One of his reader opponents got a similar prize. Illustrated report with videos.

Behind the kings of the chess world, there’s a crack team of knights – or ‘seconds’, as they are called. They work day and night, and spend months together locked up, and once in a while they want to break the tension. In the team of World Champion Viswanathan Anand Coldplay is staple music, but “the guys now also listen to Tamil music.” Jaideep Unudurti reports on Outlook Business.

Viacheslav Ragozin, who passed away in 1962, was one of the trainers of Mikhail
Botvinnik. He became famous for blowing smoke into the legendary World Champion’s
face in order to steel the non-smoker for opponents who did the same. In his
Wednesday night Playchess lecture Dennis
Monokroussos shows us Ragozin at his best against Andor Lilienthal. Be there at 9 p.m. ET or 3 a.m. CEST.

The endgame Carlsen-Wang Yue, which was presented last week by GM Karsten
Mueller for ChessBase Magazine
Online, one variation ended in the
diagrammed position with two knights against two pawns. This position is won
for the knights’ side although, as is well known, two knights alone can’t
force checkmate. Pivotal for victory is on which square a remaining pawn has
to be blocked, determining the so-called Troitzky line.
Since this has led
to many requests, Karsten Mueller will explain the subject once more in
detail in the following.

I’m breaking my hiatus to complain about the Newark Star-Ledger pulling the chess column from its 10/18 issue.

Here is the email that I sent (minor edit for grammar) :

I was disappointed to find that the 10/18 issue of the Newark Star-Ledger did not feature the usual chess article by Steve Doyle & Peter Tamburro.

Their column, long a weekly staple for the NJ chess community, has been the NY-area’s best for the past several years. It provides better analysis than those in the Times and Post while highlighting games played by local amateurs!

In the future, I would appreciate that you don’t skip the Doyle/Tamburro pieces. Quite frankly, they are the only reason I buy your paper on Sunday.

…the response I received :

Thank you for taking the time to write.

It was nice to know that there were a few fellow chess players out there who take note when the ChessMate column doesn’t run in our Sunday section. (But surely you are getting a lot more in your Sunday Star-Ledger for your $2 than a chess column…)

As noted in the Sunday section, the chess column will return next week. We had to hold it this week because it came in too long for us to publish. Typically, Doyle and Tamburro don’t write about matches that are longer than 30 moves, which is the ideal for the space we have allotted for ChessMate. Yesterday’s column, which I pasted below (without the puzzle), was a match that went for 121 moves. The chess columnists wrote about 61 moves. I just don’t have that much space for chess. And, yes, we did ask them to show restraint moving forward.

A relevant side note, I waited all day Sunday and yesterday to see if there were any other complaints about chess not appearing in the paper, and sadly we only had a handful of readers who called or emailed. On the other hand, when I hold Bridge or when the TV Jumble puzzle moved, I had an avalanche of mail.

I hope you enjoy the column below and that my reply satisfied your query.

Enrique Lavin
Assistant Managing Editor

… and my rebuttal :

Thank you for sending the omitted column. I realize there are space requirements but good games are usually more than 30 moves long. In shorter games, one person typically plays well and the other plays poorly. So, you see, 30 should not be the guide. 50 moves would be more appropriate.

I would be in favor of occasionally dropping the chess puzzle to fit in a longer game.


If you want to protest as well, contact Mr. Lavin at 973-392-1745, elavin@starledger.com or the following address :

The Star-Ledger | Features
1 Star-Ledger Plaza
Newark, NJ 01702-1200

Fill in the blank… More in this space tomorrow. PGN here (no notes yet).

It used to be known as the Essent Tournament, but the 13th edition of this
chess festival has a new sponsor, the Dutch insurance
company Univé. There are a number of sections, including a strong
international Open. Of greatest interest is the Crown Group, a four-player
double round robin, with Vassily Ivanchuk, Sergei Tiviakov, Judit Polgar and
15-year-old Anish Giri. Round two report.

Bulgaria’s newly elected Prime Minister, Boyko Metodiev Borissov, has delivered a three million Euro guarantee for the World Championship match Anand vs Topalov to be held in Sofia next year. “I personally guarantee the budget of three million euro for the match and we will be ready to transfer the money and to sign the contract with FIDE in two months from now,” Borissov writes. Facsimile.

If an author himself plays what
he is writing about, this is certainly an advantage. If on top of that he has
been employing a variation for almost 20 years successfully against the
strongest opponents, then anything he has to say is a revelation.
Michal Krasenkow is the greatest specialist of the King’s Indian with 6.h3. In
his three-part article (CBM 132-134), he lets you in on plans, ideas,
variations and secrets of this somewhat underrated system against the King’s
Indian. Here is the complete Part 1 which deals with lines without 6…e5.
The DVD of CBM 132
contains eleven further opening articles. Krasenkow: King’s Indian with 6.h3

Johan Golden is a Norwegian TV host and a colorful figure in the country’s comedy, musical and political scene. In his show Golden Goal he recently had a special guest: Magnus Carlsen, Norway’s chess wonder and one of the greatest sports heros the country has had. A light-hearted trademark Golden exchange (in Nowegian) ensues. We bring you a video and English transcript.

According to Gareth Williams’s book Master Pieces: The Architecture of Chess, in the 18th Century “the turning of a chess set was an important part of an apprentice turner’s course” — so important that “a seal of the Hanover Turners’ Guild…displays a chess knight, with a double headed horse as its symbol” (65). The manufacturers of automated metal lathes are doing the same thing as lathe turners in the 18th Century: demonstrating their skills by making chess pieces. There are several videos on YouTube (especially the one above) that most chess players will find hypnotic.

• Turning a Chess Rook by Glacern Machine Tools
• SolidCAM Chess Video
• CNC Chess Piece – Queen
• CNC Lathe — Pawn

The 2011 World Championship challenger is decided in a Candidates Tournament with eight participants (including World Chp and Grand Prix winners). At the 80th FIDE Congress in Greece this week FIDE decided, remarkably, that the tournament, scheduled for 2010/2011, would be split into two parts, to allow candidate Levon Aronian, who is from Armenia, to avoid playing in Azerbaijan.

The Schachbundesliga is the strongest team competition in the world. The 2009/10 season started this weekend, with the top matches taking place in Solingen, where the German champion Baden-Baden faced the top teams of Solingen and Remagen, Eppingen, Wattenscheid and Hamburg, where we spent a pleasant afternoon watching the action. Pictures, results and games.

Jennifer Shahade’s “Glamour and Big Bucks Close the U.S. Women’s” shows you just how far women’s chess has come: strong players, interesting games, big prizes, great sponsors, a fantastic venue, and brilliant PR. Scroll down to see the glam shots of the contestants by Suzy Gorman. Great Betsy Dynako photos at the 2009 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship website and at ChessBase (”Photo Impressions…,” “Anna Zatonskih Wins…,” and “US Women’s Championship: jazz, blindfold and hula chess“).