Archive for October, 2009

In “US Chess League Nears Playoffs,” USCL VP Arun Sharma gives a team-by-team recap of the year so far, with some games from Round 7. League Standings show Boston and New Jersey at 6-1 in the East and Seattle at 6-1 in the West. On Monday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. on ICC, Boston plays NJ to determine who leads the East (expect previews from the Blitz Blog, NJKO Blog, and BCC Weblog). Meanwhile, at the NJ Knockouts Blog, IM Albert Kapengut annotates his game with Uesugi and Joseph Criscuolo discusses the victory over Baltimore (”Kingfishers Get Royally Plucked by Knockouts: NJ in Playoffs!“).

The opening festivities at the 2009 US Women’s Chess Championship lasted two days and included a jazz concert, a bounty blitz tournament and a five-board simultaneous blindfold exhibition by Anna Zatonskih. There was also a demonstration of hula-chess, a new variant of the game that made it to the Francis M. Naumann gallery in New York and Fox news. Pictures and videos.

… in this position where you are to decide which of the following assessments are true – one, two or even all three?

A) White checkmates by force after …Rxa6; 
B) White checkmates by force after …Bxc6, 
C) Black can checkmate himself.

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

Black to Play and Win

Looking through Chess Review from 1956, I came across the forgotten amateur game Collins – Rankis, New York State Championship 1956 (PGN here). In the position above, Black is up a pawn and can eventually win by many means, but the puzzle really asks you to find Black’s most stunning, artistic, and forceful method.

Almira Skripchenko is an International Chess Master, rated 2450. She has won the World U16 title, the European Women’s Championship and a number of other top events. Originally from Moldova, she now lives in France and is moving away from chess – to poker. Recently she made it to the final table at the World Series in Las Vegas. Portrait and interview.

In today’s meeting of the 80th FIDE Congress in Halkidiki bids for a world championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov were presented: Sofia, backed by the Bulgarian government, undertook to provide three million Euros for prize, organisational costs and FIDE fees. The world championship, scheduled for April 2010, was awarded to Sofia.

Gulko – Kaufman
White to play and win.

The New Jersey Knockouts beat the Baltimore Kingfishers last night 3.5-.5 in a match that was a lot closer than the score would indicate. Except for the bottom board, every game was quite tense and two games seemed to be decided by divine intervention (or just time pressure blunders). However, with donuts on deck the NJKO lucked out and won on Boards 2, 3 and 4. I have analyzed the games below and you can download my PGN.

GM Joel Benjamin has been a rock for New Jersey on Board One. Other than his loss last week against Ramirez (where he seemed to be holding the draw until an unfortunate blunder), he has won or drawn in every match this season. Against IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat, he certainly was at a disadvantage in a somewhat passive position, but he played a solid game to draw without many worries.

On Board Two, GM Boris Gulko’s game with GM Larry Kaufman looked at first like a typical “Gulko Garrote,” with constraint and slow torture. But Kaufman showed remarkable resilience and actually emerged from a difficult middlegame into a slightly advantageous endgame, at which point Gulko (who has a perfect record so far in the USCL) actually offered a draw. Since the match had already been decided, a draw seemed a foregone conclusion, but to the surprise of all spectators Kaufman refused the draw offer and proceeded to demonstrate that he indeed had a strong enough advantage that he could force the win of a pawn. However, with little time left on the clock, Kaufman soon allowed Gulko to equalize and then blundered in time pressure, missing a tactic for White that wins a Rook (see diagram above). So Gulko actually won the game, keeping his perfect record intact. Lesson? You don’t decline a draw offer from Boris Gulko.

IM Albert Kapengut’s game was the most difficult to call. Though it appeared that FM Shinsaku Uesugi’s exchange of two pieces for a Rook gave Black the advantage, the position was far from clear. Eventually, Uesugi got two connected passed pawns on the queenside and in the final position it was really impossible to judge who was better. Most viewers assumed that Uesugi was even winning because Kapengut offered a draw despite his opponent’s severe time pressure. In any event, Kapengut’s draw offer was left on the table as Uesugi lost on time.

Anna Matlin’s win against Jared Defibaugh on Board Four was probably the most assured and technically flawless game of the night. Playing a line of the Scotch right out of the Kasparov playbook (which is now serving Magnus Carlsen so well), Matlin eschewed snatching a dangerous gambit pawn and instead offered a queen exchange with 12.Qg5 headed for a more positional struggle. Black did fine in a previous game against that move by exchanging queens immediately, but Defibaugh hesitated (perhaps thinking he was gaining time) and suddenly was under pressure that probably required him to gambit a pawn. However, he tried to hold onto the material, and Matlin capitalized, building up a powerful position that eventually forced him to surrender a pawn anyway. She then played a superb ending to bring home the point.

With the win over Baltimore, New Jersey secures a berth in the playoffs. Next week, on Monday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m., they play their biggest match of the year against the Boston Blitz, with whom they are tied for first in the Eastern division. Let’s hope they can be as lucky then as they were last night.

Related Links

• NJ Knockouts Blog
• Baltimore Kingfishers Blog
• NJ Knockouts on Twitter
• NJ Knockouts on Facebook
• US Chess League

Magnus Carlsen’s victory in Nanjing belongs to the twenty best tournament
results of all time; with white he even succeeded in winning all games (5). His
encounter with Wang Yue resulted in a complicated endgame in which, due to
the reduced material, a draw seemed more than probable. However,
Magnus’ knights managed to lay so many pitfalls that finally Black
stumbled after all. GM Karsten Müller has annotated this impressive endgame
for ChessBase Magazine Online, explaining among other things what importance
the Troitzky line has here.
Endgame analysis of Carlsen-Wang Yue.

It was won, as you know, by Anna Zatonskih, who scored a remarkable 8.5/9, leaving the next best player two points behind. The tournament featured the highest ever prize fund in US Women’s Championship history – over US $64,000, of which Anna picked up a cool $15,000. And a pair of glamorous Susan’s Costume Shoes. Big pictorial by Betsy Dynako.

It came as a shock to some: after discussing the matter with his trainer Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen has decided to skip a planned participation in the ETCC, which takes place from Oct. 21-31 in Novi Sad, Serbia. Instead he will concentrate on rest and preparation before the Tal Memorial (Moscow, 5-14 Nov.), where he faces Anand, Aronian, Kramnik and Ivanchuk. Press reports.

KCC member Don Carrelli reports at the Kenilworth Kibitzer blog that he recently tried to visit The World Chess Hall of Fame only to find that it was closed. Does anyone have any information on the future of this chess institution and the relics it housed?

Anna Zatonskih has won the 2009 U.S. Women’s Championship with the incredible score of 8.5/9, allowing only a draw to her closest competitor, Camilla Baginskaite, who finished two points back at 6.5/9. Last year’s playoff challenger Irina Krush and rising star Alisa Melekhina finished tied for third and fourth at 5.5/9. Zatonskih won the championship last year in a controversial “armageddon” playoff with Krush, but this year demonstrated conclusively that she deserves the championship title. I recommend that you explore the excellent 2009 U.S. Women’s Championship website (part of the excellent website of the Saint Louis Chess Club), where you will find every game annotated by GM-elect Ben Finegold in both java replay (an excellent deployment of Palview) and PDF bulletins. I was especially impresed by Zatonskih-Krush from Round 3 and the hard fought game Goletiani – Krush from Round 2.

In an earlier report we brought you a series of new pictures of the reclusive World Champion Bobby Fischer, during his 1973 visit ot the Philippines at the invitation of President Ferdinand Marcos. Today we have screen shots of the same visit from a second video that appeared on YouTube, together with one of an earlier (1967) visit for a “Beat Bobby Fischer” match. Again: strangely moving.

Women make up about 10% of the World Chess Federation’s estimated one million members. The caliber of the top female players is rising dramatically, yet FIDE persists in the “anachronistic and demeaning practice of awarding separate titles for women at lower levels of accomplishment.” Time to drop gender-segregated titles for women, says Barbara Jepson in the Wall Street Journal.

Remember the very dramatic final playoff game between Anna Zatonskih and Irina Krush? The former won the title with milliseconds on the clock. This year it was calmer sailing for Anna, who won the event one round before it finished. In the end she had a very impressive score of 8.5/9, with Camilla Baginskaite trailing two full points behind. Big illustrated report with pictures by Betsy Dynako.

It is one of the most famous games in chess history, one which used to be a
part of every player’s education back in the book era. It has even found its
way on to a postage stamp. In his Wednesday night Playchess
lecture Dennis Monokroussos takes another look at the heavyweight battle between
two all-time greats. Be there at 9 p.m. ET or 3 a.m. CEST.

A Renaissance châteaux on the banks of the River Loire, with splendid gardens and stately rooms. The owner a great chess enthusiast, as well as a music aficionado. The participants: two young French players and two from China. The event: a friendship match which includes a “mixed double”. And on the side: a concert of Chinese and French classical music. We have pictures and videos.

Retzsch’s Die Schachspieler (1831)

In Die Schachspieler and the Morphy Anecdote, Part I and Part II, Sarah Beth Cohen reproduces multiple interpretations of a fascinating painting by Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch depicting the familiar theme of a chess game with the devil. She then goes on to reproduce the interesting Paul Morphy anecdote that became attached to that painting by a series of articles in the Columbia Chess Chronicle (which can be found online at Google Books). According to the “Anecdote of Morphy” (August 18, 1888, p. 60), the American chess champion joined a dinner party at a home in Richmond, Virginia, where a copy of Retzch’s painting hung on the wall. After studying the painting for some time, Morphy said that he could “take the young man’s game and win,” which he proceeded to prove several times to the other dinner guests in turn. The story provoked some controversy in the Chronicle, and Ms. Cohen reproduces the letter exchange that followed in its pages. She neglects to include, however, the letter of Charles Gilberg (see below, from September 22, 1888) which purports to reproduce the game position that Morphy defended.


Of course, a comparison of the position with the painting should prove to anyone that Gilberg’s rendition is completely incorrect. Just for starters, he does not notice that all of the devil’s remaining pieces stand on dark squares (since he represents the dark side, of course). In fact, the one thing he could get right about the position — which is the situation of the pieces — he gets completely wrong.

However, while it seems possible to reconstruct the situation of the pieces (see below), a close examination of the pieces themselves quickly reveals that no definitive statement can be made about the chess pieces they represent. After all, the pieces are intended to depict a battle between the seven (or eight) virtues and the seven deadly sins, and chess seems to function in the painting mostly as a metaphor. However, in my opinion, the fact that no definitive statement can be made about the chess pieces depicted only lends credence to the “Anecdote of Morphy,” since it seems entirely possible to construct a chess position (and probably several) that would be quite competitive or even winning for White using the situation of the forces given in the painting.

Unfortunately, the only view of the painting I have available is the one online at ArtFact that Ms. Cohen references and reproduces with her article. But even from this rather limited view I think I can reconstruct the situation:

The situation of the pieces

We can say only a few things definitively, however, about the pieces depicted:

• the board is set up correctly, with a light square on the right;
• the small pieces are clearly intended to represent pawns;
• since all of the Black pieces remaining stand on dark squares, the piece that the young man has captured must be the light-squared Bishop;
• and the painting does not depict a full set of pieces and pawns for both sides.

Here is one possible way of rendering the position on a chessboard:

Morphy vs. Mephistopheles?

I think from that position, Morphy would have offered his challengers a sporting chance (Fritz thinks Black still has a slight edge after 1.Qxd4+). And he might even have held that “Modern Mephistopheles,” the chess computer, to a draw. Below is one possible continuation (or see PGN) with best play for Black–something Morphy would certainly not have encountered in Richmond.

A Renaissance château on the banks of the River Loire, with splendid gardens and stately rooms. The owner a great chess enthusiast, as well as a music aficionado. The participants: two young French players and two from China. The event: a friendship match which includes a “mixed double”. And on the side: a concert of Chinese and French classical music. We have pictures and videos.

AMP is an energy drink distributed by PepsiCo under the Mountain Dew brand. The makers have launched a campaign where a person wearing an AMP can costume challenges athletes to a game of whatever they are good at. Recently it was chess, in a well-known hustler’s paradise. The AMP can man – obviously a disguised grandmaster – gave a ten-board simul. Anyone know who he was?

Born in Poti, Georgia (USSR), Nana learned chess at the age of four. At ten she started formal lessons and within six months became the girls’ champion of Tbilisi. By the age of twenty she had won the USSR Women’s Championship three times. Traumatically she missed becoming World Champion by tiny margins, but devoted her life to promoting women’s chess. Today Nana Alexandria turns sixty.

What GMs have to do for money these days…. Shades of “the Turk.” Hat tip Lizzy.

Goeller – Boudreaux, NC GP 1981
White to Play and Force a Draw

A small wave of nostalgia for the Smith-Morra Gambit has been building in me of late, culminating in my finding an old scorebook from 1981 where it featured in at least half my games as White. I have posted analysis of two of the better ones I unearthed in “Youthful Smith-Morras” (along with a PGN to download). I am impressed by the creativity in these games, and playing them over (even the ones with too many errors by both sides to show) I am surprised by how well I was doing as White in every game. In fact, I would say that none of my losses were due to the opening, while it gave me many quick wins.

I had been thinking about the Smith-Morra since I saw a series of lectures by GM-elect Alex Lenderman at ICC back in late 2007. The recent game Esserman – Bartell, USCL 2009 revived my interest to some extent. Then last week I stumbled upon a super Smith-Morra webliography at The Bishops Bounty (a great blog by the way). And today I came close to buying The Modern Morra Gambit by Hannes Langrock. I didn’t buy it, though (not yet, anyway). You’d think Tim McGrew’s “The Power of Ideas” and “A Little Learning” would have convinced me that the Smith-Morra is not just some youthful indulgence. Maybe I’ve grown old and curmudgeonly in my attitude, sort of like IM Mark Ginsburg (author of “Defending the Smith-Morra“) who analyzes the Esserman game at his blog, under the title “The Smith-Morra, again?” (you can just feel his exasperation). I should just dismiss the thought. But it is hard to resist the Smith-Morra Gambit’s siren call.

Goeller – Glickman, NJ Junior 1981
White to Play and Win

Once a great world center of chess, London is once again playing host to a very high level tournament, the highest in the city for 25 years. Participants in the eight-player Category 19 include Carlsen, Kramnik, Nakamura, Short and Adams. The event will be staged in December at the Olympia Conference Centre in West London. There will be free live broadcast on the Internet. Tournament details.

With his 8.0/10 score at the recent Pearl Spring tournament 18-year-old Magnus Carlsen will certainly go into the record books. But how does his result fit among the all-time great performances? Using a new formula that takes the length of a tournament or match into consideration, chess statistician Jeff Sonas evaluates Magnus’ Nanjing performance and puts it into historical perspective.