Archive for December, 2009

Good news. Boosted by the world number one place of Magnus Carlsen, the Government of Norway has just released the sum of NOK 70 million ($12 million) to support the bid of Tromsø, an island city in the Arctic Circle, to host the 41st Chess Olympiad in 2014. It would be a great place for chess players to go, as we have shown in many past reports. Today we add to these with a whale of a story.

A novelty on move 36, one which nobody can refute? That happened not with the
help of a contemporary sixteen-core machine, but back in the Orwellian year of 1984, in a
game from the Soviet Championship. The beginning of the end of chess? No, as
Dennis Monokroussos shows us in this week’s Playchess
lecture. The resolution came from GM Mihail Marin in March this year. 9 p.m. ET.

Vladimir Malakhov – not the soccer star, the ice hockey player of dancer, but the 29-year-old physicist and chess grandmaster – has won this very strong rapid chess event in Poland last weekend. He did it by defeating Alexei Shirov with the black pieces in the final round. Second was Vassily Ivanchuk, who defeated top seed Vugar Gashimov in the round 13. Pictures, results and games.

Top seeds Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk lead after two rounds with 1.5 points each. The ten-player round robin is a category 18, missing only Kramnik and Morozevich. There is also a also a Women’s Championship, with the top-rated Kosintseva sisters. Number one seed Tatiana lost her first game and drew the second, while sister Nadezhda started with 2.0/2 points. First report.

Top seeds Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk lead after two rounds with 1.5 points each. The ten-player round robin is a category 18, missing only Kramnik and Morozevich. There is also a also a Women’s Championship, with the top-rated Kosintseva sisters. Number one seed Tatiana lost her first game and drew the second, while sister Nadezhda started with 2.0/2 points. First report.

The first were held in 2006 in Doha, Qatar; the second a year later in Macau. The third edition in Vietnam saw 4500 athletes from 45 Asian countries competing in 24 sports – including chess. There 19 countries participated. China won three Gold, two Silvers and a Bronze, India won Bronze in all four categories. Pictorial report by Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh.

When Magnus Carlsen convincingly outplayed that well known openings connoisseur
Peter Leko in the very first round of the tournament in Nanjing, the world of
chess pricked up its ears, because the Norwegian had done so with a Scotch, an
opening which in modern times has been associated above all with the name of
Garry Kasparov, who is now known to be Carlsen’s trainer. This game spurred Igor
Stohl on to take an extremely close look at the variation employed. Here is the
complete article, one of a total of 12 on the
DVD of
CBM 133.
Stohl: Scotch with 10.f4

‘Goal-oriented oppositionally paired dualities’ are certainly enjoyed
by our readers, whether they realize it or not. In plain English, the term means
‘games’, but not all authors seem capable of writing plainly. A
selection of pretentious and trite passages about our beloved duality is offered
by the Editor of Chess
Notes in an article which is guaranteed to have your head spinning well before Christmas.

‘Goal-oriented oppositionally paired dualities’ are certainly enjoyed
by our readers, whether they realize it or not. In plain English, the term means
‘games’, but not all authors seem capable of writing plainly. A
selection of pretentious and trite passages about our beloved duality is offered
by the Editor of Chess
Notes in an article which is guaranteed to have your head spinning well before Christmas.

Though a fan of both chess and table tennis, I hadn’t much connected the two games until we discovered the new “ping pong” table at the Kenilworth Recreation Center during the chess club’s Annual Holiday Party.  You will often see sports analogized to chess, as though baseball, football, basketball, soccer, and practically every competitive endeavor with even a modicum of strategy was somehow akin to the royal game.  But I think that trying to apply a chess analogy to team sports inevitably misses the mark, unless you are talking about the strategy used by coaches in shifting players and creating favorable match-ups.  What makes chess so different from team sports, after all, is the importance of the individual in its play. 

Table Tennis: High Speed Chess

In sports like chess and table tennis, everything relies upon the individual player.  Not surprisingly, therefore, tennis and and table tennis are among those individual sports that have always seemed most attractive to chess players.  Many chess players were fans of tennis, including Capablanca, Ed Lasker, and Boris Spassky.  Bobby Fischer swam and bowled alone.  He also played table tennis.  

Poets, and anyone who ever exercises a creative and individual professions, have in common with chess players total responsibility for their actions. This happens rarely, or does not happen at all in other human activities, whether they be paid and serious or unpaid and playful. Perhaps it is not by chance that tennis players, for example, who play alone or at most in pairs, are more irascible and neurotic than soccer players or cyclists, who work in teams. … Whoever is on his own, without allies or intermediaries between himself and his work, has no excuses in the face of failure, and excuses are a precious analgesic. The actor can unload the blame of a failure on his director, or vice versa; someone who works in an industry feels his responsibility diluted in that of numerous colleagues, superiors and inferiors, and moreover contaminated by “contingency,” competition, and the whims of the market, and the unforeseen. Someone who teaches can blame the program, the dean, and of course the students. …But the person who decides to attack with the bishop, the point he considers weak in his opponent’s deployment, is alone, he has no accomplices, not even putative, and fully and singly answers for his decision, like the poet at his writing table faced by “the tiny verse” (144).

Bruce Schauble made a similar connection recently on his blog, which reminded me of Levi’s essay: 

What I like about chess: there are no excuses. There is no luck involved. Either you play well or you don’t. If you screw up, it’s on you. It’s a very pure game in that respect. 

As anyone who has missed a slam despite a perfect set-up can tell you, ping pong feels the same way. There are many other reasons why table tennis seems the most analogous to chess of all games.

Both chess and table tennis are played within the confines of a physical space that you can grasp completely within your field of vision.  There is nothing hidden in either game.  Yet, paradoxically, in order to play both successfully you need to grasp the image of the board or the table in your mind so that you actually have a feel for where the corners are.  In chess we call this “board vision,” and table tennis definitely has its “table vision.”  How else can a practiced player get the ball deep into the corner of the table with a mere flick of the wrist?  The player knows exactly where that corner is in the same way good drivers know where their car bumpers are when they parallel park on a crowded city street.  The dimensions are held within your mind and translated automatically to physical action.

Players exhibit some of the same stylistic tendencies in both games.  My problems in table tennis are the same that I have in chess: I rely too much on my openings (or my serves) and too often try to attack without first gaining a position of strength on the board.  As I played various opponents I started thinking that they had the same idiosyncrasies and stylistic approaches in both games.  Mark Kernighan is a blocker and plays table tennis with the same rope-a-dope style that he brings to chess, laying back and passively returning until his opponent over-commits enough that he can “hit him where he ain’t.”  And Yaacov Norowitz just plays both games incredibly fast….

There is also a historical connection between the two games, as they both benefitted enormously from 1970s Cold War events (1971’s “ping pong diplomacy” and 1972’s Fischer – Spassky match) that elevated their profile and status in the media and exposed the same generation of folks to both games.  And members of that generation are the ones who inhabit our club.   

Perhaps it is this last reason why I think we are going to be playing some more table tennis at the club in the years to come.

It is billed as the “Battle of the Giants”, between tenth World Champion Boris Spassky, 72, and multiple World Championship challenger Viktor Korchnoi, 78. The latter is still very active in competitive play, while Spassky has essentially retired from chess. In the first game an exhausted Korchnoi (he had rushed to Kalmykia from London) put the pressure on Spassky and won. Illustrated report.

A number of subsidiary events took place during the Chess Classic in London, one of the most attractive of which was the Women’s Invitational. It was won by a “chess tourist”, Arianne Caoili of Australia, who had planned to visit London with her boyfriend Levon Aronian to see the sights. When he did not obtain his visa Arienne decided to play in the Invitational. Big pictorial report.

There was a 3-way tie for 1st place at last night’s Handicap Partner Tournament in Kenilworth.

Winning with 4-1 scores were:

• Bob Sherry & John Moldovan (1818.0 average)
• NM Mark Kernighan & Ari Minkov (2078.5)
• SM Yaacov Norowitz & Dr. Richard Lewis (2115.5)

Bob & I upset Yaacov & Doc but lost to Mark & Ari.

The stronger side gave material odds of 1 pawn (or the equivalent) per 100 points of rating-difference.

Also taking part in the event, which featured a G/5 control, were Greg Tomkovich, Mike Wojcio, Joe Renna, Bert Shiffman, Ted Mann & Luis Ruales.

The London Chess Classic was not just about super-grandmasters. The congress was remarkably inclusive and catered for chessplayers of all abilities, from children who had just mastered how the “horsey” moved, right up to the world rated number one. The nine-round Swiss Open was won by a Norwegian prodigy (yes, there are more than one of those), GM Jon Ludvig Hammer. Big pictorial report.

… of the Najdorf used to be one of the favourite weapons of Bobby Fischer when he wanted to play for the full point (i.e. practically always). Nowadays many lines have been analysed out to a draw, yet the fascinating complications keep on attracting players. This position occurred at the last Bundesliga weekend. After
28…Ra7, which assessment is true in your opinion:
A) Black has a won position;
B) White must give perpetual check;
C) he actually wins.

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

The final agreement between FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation Stefan Sergiev was signed in Sofia, Bulgaria. The prize fund is two million Euros (we are told that it is to be transferred to FIDE on January 10th). Ilyumzhinov met with the President Georgi Parvanov of Bulgaria, who is guaranteeing the conditions of the match. FIDE press releases.

The London Chess Classic ended today with very well-contested draws by Magnus Carlsen (against Nigel Short, in a game played “to the kings”) and Vladimir Kramnik (against Hikaru Nakamura) that kept Carlsen’s one-point margin in place.  Luke McShane was awarded the brilliancy prize for his innovative Round 5 victory over Nakamura using the King’s Indian Defense with Na6. Carlsen’s countryman, Norwegian GM Jon Ludvig Hammer, won the concurrent London FIDE Open a full point ahead of the field.  And WIM Arianne Caoili won the London FIDE Women’s Invitational by a point and a half over the rest of the field.  You can find games from all of the events in the Downloads / PGN Games section of the official website, and you can easily find and play over main event games at Chessgames.com.  I have found some of the games in the lower tournaments to be of great interest and may return to them in future posts.

I have put together a round-by-round webliography of articles analyzing the games from the main event.  Long ago I got in the habit of looking at GM games using multiple sets of notes, finding that every commentator focuses on different questions in the game that are worth considering, and that opinions often diverge even where the same issues are considered.  Edward Winter once very nicely explored the case of “Analytical Disaccord” surrounding the game Capablanca – Bogoljubow, Moscow 1925 which was only an extreme example of just how differently various annotators can see things.  I hope readers find this collection of notes useful.  I will add more as they become available and welcome links from readers.



With his performance in this tournament, Carlsen guarantees that he will keep his world  number one ranking on the official FIDE ratings list, making him the youngest official number one player in history.  Next up for the champ will be the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee (January 15 – 31).

Round 7

• ChessBase Express Report
• Video Interview with Magnus Carlsen by Peter Doggers at ChessVibes
• Round 7 Games Annotated,  Mark Crowther at TWIC
• Carlsen Wins; Nakamura Mid-Field by Ian Rogers at USCF
  
• Short – Carlsen, Jason Juett at Chessdom
• Round 7 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  

Round 6

• Kramnik and Ni Hua Win, Carlsen Escapes by John Saunders at ChessBase
  
• Kramnik and Ni Hua Win in Round 6 by Peter Doggers at ChessVibes
  Includes video of Short and Ni Hua analyzing their game.
• Carlsen – Adams, Raymond Keene at Times Online
  
• Carlsen – Adams, Pete Karagianis at Chessdom
  
• London Classic Final Round by Mig Greengard
  In a post looking toward the final round of play, Greengard nicely sums up the penultimate round action.
• Round 6 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  

Round 5

• Carlsen and McShane Win by John Saunders at ChessBase
• Ni Hua – Carlsen, John Saunders
• Nakamura – McShane, John Saunders
• Round 5 Games Annotated, Dennis Monokroussos
• Round 5 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  
• Ni Hua – Carlsen, Jason Juett at Chessdom
  
• London Classic: Kramnik Comeback; Carlsen Human (Maybe) by Mig Greengard
  A good summary of the action through round 5.
  

Round 4

• All Games Drawn but Fighting Chess by John Saunders at ChessBase
• Round 4 Games Annotated, Dennis Monokroussos
• Round 4 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther at TWIC
• Round 4 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  
• Carlsen – Nakamura, John Saunders
• Short – Ni Hua, John Saunders
• Carlsen – Nakamura, Ian Rogers at USCF
• Carlsen – Nakamura, Jason Juett at Chessdom
  
• Carlsen – Nakamura, Malcolm Pein in the London Telegraph
  

Round 3

• Kramnik Wins Again, Carlsen Leads by John Saunders at ChessBase
• McShane – Kramnik, John Saunders
• Howell – Carlsen, John Saunders
• Howell – Carlsen, Malcolm Pein (also at TWIC)
  
• McShane – Kramnik, Malcolm Pein (also at TWIC)
• Howell – Carlsen, Jason Juett and Peter Karagianis at Chessdom
• Round 3 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  

Round 2

• Kramnik and Carlsen Analyzed by John Saunders at ChessBase
• Kramnik – Ni Hua, John Saunders
• Carlsen – McShane, John Saunders
• Round 2 Games Annotated, Vallejo Pons at the official site
  
• Round 2 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther at TWIC
• Round 2 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  
• Thirty Love, Carlsen Beats McShane photos by Frederic Friedel at ChessBase
• London Classic: Carlsen Starts Hot by Mig Greengard
• Kramnik – Ni Hua, Malcolm Pein at TWIC
• Carlsen – McShane, Christian Bauer and Peter Karagianis at Chessdom
  
• Adams – Nakamura, Christian Bauer and Peter Karagianis at Chessdom
  

Round 1

• C is for Carlsen by John Saunders at ChessBase
  Carlsen explains his win over Kramnik in the first round.
• Round 1 Games Annotated, Dennis Monokroussos 
• Round 1 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther
• Round 1 Games Annotated, Vallejo Pons at the official site
• Round 1 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  
• Carlsen – Kramnik, John Saunders
  
• Carlsen – Kramnik, Lubomir Kavalek, Washington Post
• Carlsen – Kramnik, Malcolm Pein
• Carlsen – Kramnik,  Hector Leyva at InforChess
  
• Carlsen – Kramnik at Chessdom
• Nakamura – Ni Hua at Chessdom
  

• People and Personalities at the London Chess Classic, photos by Frederic Friedel
  
• London Chess Classic Photographs at The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog

The London Chess Classic ended today with very well-contested draws by Magnus Carlsen (against Nigel Short, in a game played “to the kings”) and Vladimir Kramnik (against Hikaru Nakamura) that kept Carlsen’s one-point margin in place.  Luke McShane was awarded the brilliancy prize for his innovative Round 5 victory over Nakamura using the King’s Indian Defense with Na6. Carlsen’s countryman, Norwegian GM Jon Ludvig Hammer, won the concurrent London FIDE Open a full point ahead of the field.  And WIM Arianne Caoili won the London FIDE Women’s Invitational by a point and a half over the rest of the field.  You can find games from all of the events in the Downloads / PGN Games section of the official website, and you can easily find and play over main event games at Chessgames.com.  I have found some of the games in the lower tournaments to be of great interest and may return to them in future posts.

I have put together a round-by-round webliography of articles analyzing the games from the main event.  Long ago I got in the habit of looking at GM games using multiple sets of notes, finding that every commentator focuses on different questions in the game that are worth considering, and that opinions often diverge even where the same issues are considered.  Edward Winter once very nicely explored the case of “Analytical Disaccord” surrounding the game Capablanca – Bogoljubow, Moscow 1925 which was only an extreme example of just how differently various annotators can see things.  I hope readers find this collection of notes useful.  I will add more as they become available and welcome links from readers.



With his performance in this tournament, Carlsen guarantees that he will keep his world  number one ranking on the official FIDE ratings list, making him the youngest official number one player in history.  Next up for the champ will be the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee (January 15 – 31).

Round 7

• ChessBase Express Report
• Video Interview with Magnus Carlsen by Peter Doggers at ChessVibes
• Round 7 Games Annotated,  Mark Crowther at TWIC
• Carlsen Wins; Nakamura Mid-Field by Ian Rogers at USCF
  
• Short – Carlsen, Jason Juett at Chessdom
• Round 7 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  

Round 6

• Kramnik and Ni Hua Win, Carlsen Escapes by John Saunders at ChessBase
  
• Kramnik and Ni Hua Win in Round 6 by Peter Doggers at ChessVibes
  Includes video of Short and Ni Hua analyzing their game.
• Carlsen – Adams, Raymond Keene at Times Online
  
• Carlsen – Adams, Pete Karagianis at Chessdom
  
• London Classic Final Round by Mig Greengard
  In a post looking toward the final round of play, Greengard nicely sums up the penultimate round action.
• Round 6 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  

Round 5

• Carlsen and McShane Win by John Saunders at ChessBase
• Ni Hua – Carlsen, John Saunders
• Nakamura – McShane, John Saunders
• Round 5 Games Annotated, Dennis Monokroussos
• Round 5 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  
• Ni Hua – Carlsen, Jason Juett at Chessdom
  
• London Classic: Kramnik Comeback; Carlsen Human (Maybe) by Mig Greengard
  A good summary of the action through round 5.
  

Round 4

• All Games Drawn but Fighting Chess by John Saunders at ChessBase
• Round 4 Games Annotated, Dennis Monokroussos
• Round 4 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther at TWIC
• Round 4 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  
• Carlsen – Nakamura, John Saunders
• Short – Ni Hua, John Saunders
• Carlsen – Nakamura, Ian Rogers at USCF
• Carlsen – Nakamura, Jason Juett at Chessdom
  
• Carlsen – Nakamura, Malcolm Pein in the London Telegraph
  

Round 3

• Kramnik Wins Again, Carlsen Leads by John Saunders at ChessBase
• McShane – Kramnik, John Saunders
• Howell – Carlsen, John Saunders
• Howell – Carlsen, Malcolm Pein (also at TWIC)
  
• McShane – Kramnik, Malcolm Pein (also at TWIC)
• Howell – Carlsen, Jason Juett and Peter Karagianis at Chessdom
• Round 3 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  

Round 2

• Kramnik and Carlsen Analyzed by John Saunders at ChessBase
• Kramnik – Ni Hua, John Saunders
• Carlsen – McShane, John Saunders
• Round 2 Games Annotated, Vallejo Pons at the official site
  
• Round 2 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther at TWIC
• Round 2 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  
• Thirty Love, Carlsen Beats McShane photos by Frederic Friedel at ChessBase
• London Classic: Carlsen Starts Hot by Mig Greengard
• Kramnik – Ni Hua, Malcolm Pein at TWIC
• Carlsen – McShane, Christian Bauer and Peter Karagianis at Chessdom
  
• Adams – Nakamura, Christian Bauer and Peter Karagianis at Chessdom
  

Round 1

• C is for Carlsen by John Saunders at ChessBase
  Carlsen explains his win over Kramnik in the first round.
• Round 1 Games Annotated, Dennis Monokroussos 
• Round 1 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther
• Round 1 Games Annotated, Vallejo Pons at the official site
• Round 1 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
  
• Carlsen – Kramnik, John Saunders
  
• Carlsen – Kramnik, Lubomir Kavalek, Washington Post
• Carlsen – Kramnik, Malcolm Pein
• Carlsen – Kramnik,  Hector Leyva at InforChess
  
• Carlsen – Kramnik at Chessdom
• Nakamura – Ni Hua at Chessdom
  

• People and Personalities at the London Chess Classic, photos by Frederic Friedel
  
• London Chess Classic Photographs at The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog

With a nail-biting draw against Nigel Short, the top seed Magnus Carlsen finished the London Chess Classic a point clear of his nearest rival, Vladimir Kramnik. The 19-year-old Norwegian GM will appear on the next FIDE list at number one in the world, with a 2810 rating. Michael Adams and David Howell won their final round games. Full illustrated report with analysis.

In this week’s Playchess lecture by
FM Dennis Monokroussos will introduce you (presumably) to one of the best players
in the world in the 1930s. Grigory Levenfish, whom you may know for his 6.f4
line against the Dragon, and from his endgame books, will be discussed,
with highlights from his great career. Before that IM Merijn van Delft discusses
current games. Be there and watch.

Many amateur players have enormous respect for the knight, to a great
extent as a result of painful experience. In an analysis of his Bundesliga
game against Wattenscheid at the weekend, GM Karsten Müller shows
that the knight can show off its tactical abilities not only in the
middlegame
but also in the endgame. In the position in the diagram, it was Black’s
move,
and it looks as though all he has to do to win the game is to advance his
queenside pawns. But, which pawn should he advance? What do you think?
55…b3 or 55…c3?
The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a  larger version of the diagram.

Live commentary on top events, online training with titled players,
simuls with IMs or GMs – all of this is free in the new full
year premium membership that comes with Fritz 12. Premium members can watch Magnus Carlsen’s
postgame analysis of his first round win in London against
Vladimir Kramnik at full length. Here’s a three-minute
taster or read more about the Premium membership here.

For a while it looked as though Magnus Carlsen was going to lose with the white pieces against Michael Adams, but the latter did not play the best continuation and let the Norwegian off the hook. Vladimir Kramnik won a scrappy game against Nigel Short to move within a point of Carlsen. Ni Hua won his first game, against Luke McShane. Illustrated report with analysis.

If you want to improve your understanding of a complex opening with a
huge history the best that can happen is to have a really strong player
with many years of experience teach it to you. That’s exactly what GM Lubomir
Ftacnik offers you on his
Sicilian
Scheveningen and
Gruenfeld DVDs.
Carsten Hansen from chesscafe.com tested the former thoroughly. Read his review with sampler.

After drawing the regular games Ruslan Ponomariov and Boris Gelfand and into the tiebreaks. They won a rapid chess game each and drew two to proceed to the blitz, where again each won a game. Game three and four went to the Israeli, who thus won the World Cup. Gelfand is now part of the eight-player tournament to find a challenger for the World Champion. Final report and interview.