Archive for November, 2009

GM Alexander Stripunsky, GM-elect Alex Lenderman, IM Bryan Smith & IM/WGM Irina Krush tied for 1st at the National Chess Congress in Philadelphia (11/27-29)

Don Carrelli, who tied for 5th place in the U1800 section, had the best showing among Kenilworth CC members.

Daniel Zhu beat a 1941-rated in the 2nd round, finished =10th in the U1800 &, according to the Ratings Estimator, is now up to 1787!

Here’s how all the Kenilworth guys did :

U2000
Ari Minkov =44th

U1800
Don Carrelli =5th
Daniel Zhu =10th
David Pawlowski =37th
Mike Wojcio =47th

The FIDE Grand Prix was envisioned as “a series of six tournaments in leading world cities.” Many experts predicted its imminent collapse, but the first five were successfully staged, with some difficulty and change of venues. It was just the “leading world cities” bit that did not quite work. Maybe for the sixth edition? You are invited to go on a seek and find mission for the host city.

In a recent FIDE
interview in Khanty-Mansiysk Vassily Ivanchuk, devastated by a loss to 16-year-old
Filipino GM Wesley So, announced that he was giving up professional
chess. We received a lot of feedback on this decision, some urging the great
chess player to reconsider, other calling him a sore loser. Now
Ivanchuk has acted, and it will please the first set. Feedback and retraction.

That’s a good way to start the fourth stage of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk: win the first game with the black pieces. And if you manage it, as Peter Svidler did, against firebrand Alexei Shirov, who was going after your king, so much the better. A number of the other games were drawn without a real fight. But good news: everyone arrived on time, nobody was forfeited. Big illustrated report.

After the first rapid chess tiebreak game Wang Yue and Lie Chao went to the smoking area. An arbiter warned them that their games were starting in three minutes, and then again a minute before the starting gong. But the two arrived two minutes late at the board and lost their games by forfeit. Both were subsequently eliminated. Results, pictures, games and interview.

Less than two weeks ago, Magnus Carlsen won the World Blitz Championship at the Tal Memorial in Moscow. Yesterday he lost to Hikaru Nakamura, widely considered the best blitz player in the world (but who did not play in Moscow), in the final of the BNBank knockout blitz tournament in Oslo. So who’s really the champ? Check out the Oslo Blitz page created by ChessBase to play over the games and watch them on video at the same time. And does blitz even matter? Read Bobby’s Blitz Chess by Larry Parr (from the Internet Archives, which may be slow to load) for some historical perspective.

Related Links

• Oslo Blitz — Nakamura Beats Carlsen in the Final from ChessBase
• Nakamura Blitzes Carlsen in Norway by Mig Greengard
• Nakamura Wins BNBank Blitz by Dennis Monokroussos
• Carlsen Wins Tal Memorial Blitz

We take the nomenclature from the organisers on the official site. Czech Coal is staging a match between “chess legends” (Korchnoi, Timman, Hübner, Hort) and young “grandmistresses” (Humpy, Muzychuk, Lahno and Jackova) in the famous chess town of Marianske Lazne (Marienbad). After two of eight rounds the “Snowdrops” are leading 4.5:3.5. Big pictorial report with videos.

After the first rapid chess tiebreak game Wang Yue and Lie Chao went to the smoking area. An arbiter warned them that their games were starting in three minutes, and then again a minute before the starting gong. But the two arrived two minutes late at the board and lost their games by forfeit. Both were subsequently eliminated. Results, pictures, games and interview.

This low-key blitz event took part on Saturday, November 28th in Oslo, Norway. Ten players were invited and divided into two groups, insuring that the two designated finalists, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, would meet in the final. We have with difficulty managed to get some of the games in PGN. We also have a special visual treat for you: front-seat videos of the final.

That was the shocker on day two of round three: 16-year-old Wesley So held
Super-GM Gata Kamsky to a draw and eliminated him from the World Cup in Khanty
Mansiysk. Other players knocked out: Sakaev, Motylev, Tomashevsky, Wang Hao, Yu Yangyi.
Ten tiebreaks on Sunday – you can watch them from
11:00 a.m. CET on Playchess. Illustrated
report plus an interview with Gata Kamsky.

Wesley So turned 16 just seven weeks ago. He is a grandmaster and a apparently a Super-GM killer. In round two in Khanty-Mansiysk he knocked out Vassily Ivancuk; and in the first game of round three he outplayed Gata Kamsky with the black pieces. Gelfand beat Polgar and Navara beat Karjakin. Full report with pictures, commentary and an interview with Wesley So.

… is certainly no exception anymore in modern opening lines (here Ruy Lopez/Moller Variation 5…Lc5), yet it should always be treated with care. Here Black was facing the question whether he could expand even further with
18…g4, trying to win White’s central pawn d4. What do you think?
A) Black gets the advantage, thanks to his strong Nf5 he keeps firm control; 
B) this backfires, the position is weakened too much; ; 
C) White can equalize with precise play.
The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a  larger version of the diagram.

None of the top players left in the tiebreak matches faltered: Peter Svidler disposed efficiently of upstart Tomi Nyback; Ponomariov ground down Akobian; Eljanov and Karjakin were successful; and Alexei Shirov won all three games. Maybe one small surprise: Fabiano Caruana eliminated Leinier Dominguez, the highest rated player to drop out today. Pictorial report.

He lost in round two of the World Cup against 16-year-old Wesley So of the Philippines. Vassily Ivanchuk, one of the all-time greats of chess has taken it to heart and announced that he no longer considers himself a professional player. “Chess will become hobby for me from now on – I will just be a chess fan,” said the heart-broken Ivanchuk. FIDE interview.

I have uploaded the outline of FM Steve Stoyko’s Oct. 15th lecture on “Evaluating Chess Positions, An Introduction” plus the java-replay & PGN of games that were presented.

If you have any thoughts about the system, please leave a comment. Any feedback will be forwarded to Steve.

NM Victor Shen took clear 1st in Sunday’s Westfield Grand Prix, with a 4-0 score. FM Tom Bartell & SM Yaacov Norowitz tied for 2nd, a half-point back.

Other prize-winners included :

• Sam Chatsky, Leonid Fleysher, Kevin Dresher (U2100)
• Dr. Richard Lewis, Jackson Hueckel, John Moldovan (U1850)
• David Johnston, Anthony Decinque (U1600)
• Leon Wu, Robert Lachausse, Darren Knaub & Melissa Biegel (U1350)

There were 25 participants, including 9 who were rated >2100!
All the Kenilworth CC, Checkmate CC & Garden State CL players collected prizes!!

I had an up & down event. After missing a forced mate & losing the opener to Shen, I played like a zombie against tail-ender Sasha Prystupa (a lucky win after 2 lost positions) & NM Peter Radomskyj (a bad opening & quick loss) but closed-out with a nice victory over Konstantin Mazur to finish =8th.

Here are all 4 of my games (fully annotated) in java-replay & PGN.

That would be fourth seed Alexander Morozevich, who lost 0-2 to Czech GM Viktor Laznicka; fifth seed Teimour Radjabov, who went down against Konstantin Sakaev, and Vassily Ivanchuk, who was eliminated by 16-year-old Wesley So. Top seed Boris Gelfand had a narrow scrape against Farrukh Amonatov, and Peter Svidler equalised against Tomi Nyback. Impressions by GM Peter Heine Nielsen.

Games full of tactical ups and downs and mating motifs rightly charm every
chess fan, and so it will come as no surprise that a successful attack
on the king always represents a dainty morsel for all chess lovers. We have
selected and annotated two attractive attacking games from the Russia Cup
in Saint Petersburg. In the first of them (diagram) we see how Ian
Nepomniachtchi sets about an uncastled Sicilian king. In the second game, a
Ruy Lopez, Alexei Fedorov managed to reduce to rubble the castled position
of the black monarch. IM Michael Kopylov for ChessBaseMagazine Online.

A very shocking day: Peter Svidler and Teimour Radjabov lost their games with the black pieces, Alexander Morozevich and Vassily Ivanchuk with white, making a comeback in the return round on Wednesday even harder. We have to go down to board eight to see a favourite (Grischuk) actually win. We bring you a full updated report with highlights and pictures by Galina Popova.

There is a wonderful lecture series by GM Ronen Har-Zvi at ICC on what he calls the “Pseudo-Steinitz Variation of the French,” where Black plays 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Ne4!? to mess up White’s plans, with one continuation being 5.Nce2!? f6!? (see for example Nijboer – Kujif, Wijk aan Zee 1991). FM Steve Stoyko was apparently inspired by Har-Zvi’s lecture enough to try the same idea against the Two Knights French after 1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Ne4!? 5.Ne2 f6!? (see diagram above). I have annotated Milonovic – Stoyko, Hamilton Quads 2009 (or download the PGN) to explore this idea, which turns out to be much more interesting for Black than the result of the game would indicate.

After Bobby Fischer and before Magnus Carlsen, the “Best in the West”
was the Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman. He played many games against Anatoly Karpov
– including two title matches – beating the former world champion
no fewer than eleven times. One remarkable game is the subject of this week’s
Playchess lecture by FM Dennis Monokroussos. Be there and watch.

The two big names that will leave Khanty-Mansiysk after the first round are Emil Sutovsky of Israel and Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia. The were knocked out by Chinese GMs Li Chao and Zhou Weiqi respectively (but not respectfully). Promising youngsters Parimarjan Negi and Hou Yifan are also out, while Dominguez, Navara and Bacrot made it to the next round. Illustrated report.

A total of 1324 participants from 90 countries took part in six age groups, for boys and girls, at this World Youth Championship in Turkey. A great success for the host nation was the bronze medal for local talent Kübra Öztürk in the Girls U18 section. A protest has been submitted by the Israeli Chess Federation because no anthem was played for the winner of the Girls U14 section. Results and games.

Yaacov Norowitz’s Lecture & the Kenilworth Chess Club’s Annual Business Meeting have been pushed back 1 week to accommodate a match between the Karpovs & Hamilton.

Here’s the updated December schedule :

Dec. 3rd – Garden State League match : Karpovs vs. Hamilton
Dec. 10th – Yaacov Norowitz Lecture on Color Complexes ($5)
Dec. 17th – Business Meeting & Holiday Party
Dec. 24th – no meeting
Dec. 31st – no meeting

The big names – Gelfand, Gashimov, Svidler, Morozevich, Radjabov, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Grischuk, Jakovenko, Eljanov, Karjakin, Mamedyarov, Shirov – all are through after two rounds of play in Khanty-Mansiysk. Biggest upset so far: Chinese GM Yu Yangyi, 113th seed and rated 2527, knocked out 16th seed Sergei Movsesian, rated 2718. Day two report.