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Playing a Lot (or Very Little) to Keep a Competitive Edge
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How much chess is too much? Players have long held varying opinions about how often they should compete to maintain an edge.
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Leonard Barden. July 26 2008
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The annual British Championship starts at St George's Hall, Liverpool, on Monday. As the British Chess Magazine website points out, there are no previous champions in the field for the first time since 1952.
Both Michael Adams and Nigel Short will be absentees. Instead England's top pair will be in action in the Staunton Memorial at Simpson's-in-the-Strand, London, in August and also at the European Union Championship in Liverpool in September. Liverpool's two fine events are part of the city's European City of Culture programme.
The director, Stewart Reuben, has still secured a good grandmaster entry for the British Championship in an open-looking tournament. The opponents in this week's puzzle will be favourites but I also look for a strong performance from two locals in their twenties, GM Stewart Haslinger (Formby) and IM Stephen Gordon (Oldham), who have both previously gone close to the title. IM Keti Arakhamia-Grant usually produces her best form in this event, and is looking to become the first female winner.
Several competing GMs, survivors from the golden generation of two or three decades back, are now in their forties. So what should seriously concern the English Chess Federation is the dearth of teenage talent in the British title field in an era when chess skills are developed young. GM David Howell, 17, will be away in Turkey at the Junior World Championship, where he has a medal chance, and only the Whitgift 13-year-old Yang-Fan Zhou plus two low-ranked under-16s represent future potential at Liverpool. In contrast the 1977 championship at Brighton, three decades ago, included six teenagers, most of whom became GMs and IMs.
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Cordova scores again
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Readers may recall the travails of the teenage Peruvian International Master Emilio Cordova who failed to return home from a tournament in Argentina last year and ended up in the arms of a dancer is one of Sao Paulo’s more high profile night clubs.
Well, it seems to have done him no harm at all as he recently took the honours at the IV Alajuela Open in Costa Rica scoring 8/9 to finish ahead of a strong field that included the European Individual Champion Sergei Tiviakov.
E Moncayo – E Cordova
IV Open Alajuela (3)
French Defence
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Carlsen is in luck
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A little good fortune for Magnus Carlsen gave him victory over French number 1 Etienne Bacrot in the 3rd round at Biel and the lead on 2.5/3. Bacrot’s solid defence to the Queen’s Gambit was working out very well but when Carlsen complicated matters with a dubious pawn sacrifice his opponent collapsed and was lost just a few moves later.
M Carlsen – E Bacrot
41st Biel Festival (3)
Queen’s Gambit
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Four players tie for first at Karpov Poikovsky tournament
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The event, named to honour its patron Anatoly Karpov, saw firebrand Alexei Shirov take the sole lead after seven rounds, only to lose fairly traumatically to Vugar Gashimov, a soon-to-be 22-year-old grandmaster from Azerbaijan. All other games were drawn, as were all five games of the final round. In the end Rublevsky, Jakovenko, Gashimov and Shirov shared first.
The 9th Karpov tournament took place from July 8th to 17th 2008 in Poikovsky. The average rating of the participants was 2691, making it a category 18 event.
After seven rounds of play Alexei Shirov was in the sole lead, with 5.0 points, followed half a point behind by two grandmasters, Dmitrij Jakovenko and Sergei Rublevsky (who had led the tournament before that). In round eight all games were drawn, except one: Alexei Shirov lost rather traumatically to Vugar Gashimov. That pushed the Latvian-Spanish GM into a cluster of four players, with Gashimov ascending to the same group.
In the final round all games were drawn (two in less than 20 moves), leaving everything as it was on the previous day. The finals standings for the tournament were as follows:
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Never of the Topmost Rank, Yet Vastly Influential in Theory
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Aron Nimzowitsch never played for the title, but is remembered for his book “My System,” which is considered required reading by many serious players.
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Leonard Barden. July 19, 2008
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The silicon age has taught that brute calculation can reveal amazing resources to save seemingly hopeless situations. The impact on human grandmaster play is that more encounters are random dogfights, each side scrapping for initiative and trying to avoid passive defence without counter-chances.
This game is typical of the uneven, messy battles which can emerge from the new philosophy. The former Russian champion Sergei Rublevsky declined his opponent's 9 e4 gambit (Nxe4 10 d5), fearing home preparation, but the young Chinese GM Wang Hao still went for a quick attack down the f file.
Rublevsky's 16...Qd5 (Bd5) hoped for too much from the counter-threat to g2, and 18 Nxf7! (18 fxe6 is also possible) launched dangerous threats. After Rublevsky erred again by 20...Re8 (d3) Wang Hao could have got on top by 22 Qf2 or R1f5 when Black has to return his extra piece by Qxg2+. And at move 27 any novice would play 27 e8Q+ and draw by perpetual check, but Wang Hao instead promoted to a knight and was rapidly forced into a lost endgame. Online chess
Wang Hao v S Rublevsky
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Nab him, jab him, tab him
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When faced with his favourite weapon, the Sicilian Najdorf, Bobby Fischer countered with Bc4. Garry Kasparov also used the move and it has had a renaissance recently. On c4 the bishop is immensely powerful as it attacks f7 and if Black castles kingside the bishop’s influence extends all the way to the king on g8. Black typically plays the move e7-e6 to limit the bishop but often has to reckon with a White sacrifice on e6 that gains two pawns and access to the black king.
This year we have seen many games where Black has failed to exchange the bishop after its customary retreat to b3 and suffered the consequences. The games Naiditsch – Van Wely from Dortmund and Nisipiean-Grischuk from Aerosvit come readily to mind and there was another at the 9th Karpov Poikovsky tournament in Siberia where Alexei Shirov leads with two play.
If I was defending this kind of position I would hasten to exchange the bishop. In this ‘Wacky Race’ to deliver checkmate the lesson has to be, as the song ‘Catch the Pigeon’ from the wonderful 1970s cartoon series goes (almost) ‘Nab him, jab him, tab him, grab him, stop that bishop now!
V Gashimov - A Volokitin
9th Karpov Poikovsky (6)
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Great Scot! A Dragon...
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Alan Tate of Wandering Dragons Chess Club is the Scottish Champion after winning on tie break from defending champion IM Andrew Muir in a keenly contested competition held at Glasgow Academy. This was the 115th edition of the championship, first held in 1884. The tournament is usually invitation only but the SCA changed the format to an international Open with a pounds 2000 first prize as part of the centenary celebrations of the Glasgow Chess League.
GM Jan Markos of Slovakia and Tautvydas Vedrickas of Lithuania shared first place in the Open on 7.5/9. For Markos, a visiting student at Glasgow University this was the latest in a string of first prizes in Scottish tournaments. The change in format and increase in prize money rather surprisingly did not attract any of Scotland’s leading players. Online chess
S Brunello – A Tate
115th Scottish Ch Glasgow
Gruenfeld Defence g3
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A Top-10 Player Whose Style Lacks Flash, but Wins Games
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Peter Leko of Hungary is as close to a metronome as there is in chess. He is not an exciting player, but he is steady.
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Leonard Barden. July 12, 2008
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Nigel Short made a brave move last weekend when he visited Kiev for a 10-game rapid match against Sergey Karjakin. Ukraine are Olympiad champions and 18-year-old Karjakin is the young star. He is behind his Norwegian contemporary Magnus Carlsen but still ranks No15 in the world while Short, the 1993 world title challenger, is now aged 43 and has dropped to No 68 in the rankings. Moreover, the match was rapid chess, at the now established international time rate for such events of 25 minutes on the clock for each player, plus a 10-second increment for each move made. Karjakin is one of the best fast players, both over the board and on the internet.
Short had fears of a whitewash and it looked bad when he went 3-0 down at the start. Game four, below, ensured he would at least have a moment to savour. Karjakin, who at 12 became the youngest ever grandmaster, knows all the hot lines of the Sicilian 1 e4 c5, so Short chose an offbeat yet stable formation. Black still got an edge for the opening, and 12...fxe4 13 fxe4 would take the initiative, as would 19...f7-f5. Instead Karjakin's 22...Qxa2? (still f5!) grabbed a hot pawn and Short's direct 25 Qd2! aimed at the black king. Karjakin tried an exchange sac but the England No2 preferred to offer his own rook by 28 Rxg6+! which was quickly fatal. If hxg6 29 Qxg6+ Kh8 30 Qh6+ Kg8 31 Rg1+ is curtains. The Ukrainian king tried to stagger to the Q-side but after heavy material loss Karjakin had to resign. It all shows again that successful defence becomes harder at a fast time rate.
N Short v S Karjakin
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Negi shows potential
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The Indian prodigy Parimargan Negi,15, was one of the winning quartet of GMs at the big money World Open just concluded at the Sheraton Hotel in Philadelphia. Negi warmed up by winning a smaller event in Philadelphia and continued his good run to score 7/9 and share first with Evgeny Najer of Russia, Ljubomir Ftacnik of Slovakia and Alexander Moiseenko of Ukraine. In the absence of Gata Kamsky and Hikaru Nakamura the American challenge was eclipsed. Najer won a blitz tie break against Negi to win the title but the $55,000 for first to fourth place was shared. Overall, event organiser Bill Goichberg handed out $320,000 in prize money among the many graded sections.
A great game played at 5 minutes for White and 6 for Black with Black having draw odds. Negi had one chance but once he misses it he succumbs to blow after blow.
E Najer - P Negi
World Open Armageddon Play off
Sicilian Najdorf
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Victory for Karjakin
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Nigel Short was 5.5-2.5 behind at the end of the fourth day’s play in his ten game Rapid Chess match against the Ukrainian prodigy Sergei Karjakin. Karjakin secured victory with a day to spare outplaying Short in the seventh game before Short unleashed the King’s Gambit and won the eighth. The exhibition match was staged at the Kiev Puppet Theatre and sponsored by the Ukrainian mobile operator life :)
Short lost the first three and he might have been a bit punch drunk but he hit back in style. Game 4 was a bit Punch and Judy, Nigel was Punch.
N Short – S Karjakin
Rapid Match (4) Kiev
Closed Sicilian
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Back to the drawing board
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Peter Leko rather predictably took no risks with the white pieces and secured tournament victory at Dortmund by steering play into a known drawing variation in the Marshall Attack to the Ruy Lopez. Of course Leko needed the cooperation of his opponent, Dortmunder Arkady Naiditsch but Naiditsch probably felt he had already given his home crowd enough entertainment by defeating former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in round three. Leko finished clear first, undefeated on 4.5/7, half a point ahead of the field.
Kramnik had a terrible event and finished on a negative score after losing a middlegame battle against Vasily Ivanchuk. The position was roughly equal for much of the game although Ivanchuk had a slight edge with queen, rook and bishop against queen, rook and knight on an open board. Ivanchuk was pressing when Kramnik blundered and had to resign immediately. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Kramnik, and his trainer Loek Van Wely had their minds on the former’s world title match in the autumn against Vishy Anand.
I doubt if Kramnik has ever lost twice with the solid Petroff Defence in the same event but some might say that this is good for chess as games in this opening are often uneventful.
V Ivanchuk – V Kramnik
Sparkassen Dortmund (7)
Petroff Defence
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Ranking System Is Questioned After a Wealthy Russian’s Rise
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The sudden ranking of Vladimir Afromeev as a master in the World Chess Federation has raised eyebrows in the chess world.
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A fiendish trap
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Nigel Short lost the first two games of his Rapid Chess match against the Ukrainian prodigy Sergei Karjakin. The eight game contest is sponsored by the Ukrainian mobile operator life and played at the Kiev Puppet Theatre. Short could easily have emerged ahead at the end of the day but somehow Karjakin seemed to be pulling the strings at the critical moments.
The second game saw a terrible finger fehler from Short that transformed a totally won position into a lost one. Short’s F4 Sicilian gave him no advantage but Karjakin kept sacrificing pawns in search of a non-existent mate and in the diagram below he is four down with just a few random tactical ideas to keep him interested. Short doubtless saw 47.c5 Rb2 with strong threats and with very little time on the clock appears to panic.
Karjakin
Short
Position after 46...Rb3
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Pawns get racing
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Ian Nepomniachtchi who qualified for the Sparkassen tournament at Dortmund by winning the Aeroflot Open in Moscow joined the leaders after a comfortable win over Loek Van Wely of Holland in round four. The Dutchman played sharply and sacrificed rook for bishop and pawn but then immediately blundered – see below - and was in a lost endgame before he could think of making a fight of the game. There was a pawn race as the time control approached but there was only ever going to be one winner.
Vladimir Kramnik’s chances of scoring a morale-boosting tournament victory in his last outing before the WCC match in the autumn receded further when he repeated moves against Peter Leko. The lowest rated player Jan Gustafsson played an interesting idea in the opening which put Vasily Ivanchuk under early pressure but the game ended in a draw.
How did White clarify his advantage here ?
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A Naiditsch in time...
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Vladimir Kramnik will have mixed feelings about his crushing defeat at the hands of Arkady Naiditsch in the third round of the Sparkassen tournament at Dortmund. Although he hardly ever loses in this, his favourite event, if he is going to have one of his main lines of defence to 1.e4 refuted then at least it has happened before his world title match against Vishy Anand and not during it.
This was a fine piece of home analysis by Naiditsch who found a clever new wrinkle on move 19 in what was a known rook sacrifice. Kramnik will be disappointed not to have found the best defence but the practical problems the defender faces when confronted with a new idea in such a sharp position are considerable. Naiditsch’s novelty might have made an appearance in 2000 during Kramnik’s title match against Garry Kasparov. Kasparov revealed that he looked at an enhanced version of the same idea in 1999 but Kramnik avoided his analysis by defending 1.e4 with the Berlin Defence to the Ruy Lopez.
Previously 16.Qb3 0–0 17.Nxe7+ Qxe7 18.Qxb5 a6 19.Qb3 Rfd8 20.Be3 Rac8 21.Rac1 h6 22.h3 Nd4 was agreed drawn in Kasparov - Karpov, Moscow WCC 1985; Kasparov was planning 16.a4!? b4 17.Bf4 and this is clearly better than Naiditsch's idea as the b4 pawn is en prise with check in the critical variation given on move 19, see below. After 17...Nxf4 18.Rxe7+ Kf8 19.Re5 Qd6 20.Qd2 Qxe5 21.Qxb4+ Ke8 22.Re1 Ne2+ 23.Kf1 Rc8 24.f4 Qxd5 25.Rxe2+ Kd7 26.Rd2 Qxd2 27.Qxd2+ Kc7 28.Qc3+ Kb8 29.Qxg7 Rhd8 White is better but Black may be able to draw with accurate play.
A Naiditsch – V Kramnik
Sparkassen Dortmund
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Carlsen misses out
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The latest Fide rating list has stirred controversy in the chess world. After conflicting statements from the governing body, the recent Aerosvit tournament held at Foros in Ukraine was excluded from the calculations thus depriving Magnus Carlsen of the number two spot. The event was dominated by the 17 year old Norwegian prodigy and although the tournament ended a few days after the deadline for the submission of results, exceptions have been made before. Instead Carlsen is number six.
The top twenty, published yesterday is:
1 Vishy Anand, India 2798
2 Alexander Morozevich, Russia 2788
3 Vladimir Kramnik, Russia 2788
4 Vasily Ivanchuk, Ukraine 2781
5 Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria 2777
6 Magnus Carlsen, Norway 2775
7 Teimour Radjabov, Azerbaijan 2744
8 Shak Mamedyarov, Azerbaijan 2742
9 Alexei Shirov, Spain 2741
10 Peter Leko, Hungary 2741
11 Peter Svidler, Russia 2738
12 Levon Aronian, Armenia 2737
13 Michael Adams, England 2735
14 Alexander Grischuk, Russia 2728
15 Sergei Karjakin, Ukraine 2727
16 Sergei Movsesian, Slovakia 2723
17 Gata Kamsky, USA 2723
18 Boris Gelfand, Israel 2720
19 Russialan Ponomariov, Ukraine 2718
20 Vugar Gashimov, Azerbaijan 2717
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That's entertainment
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The first round of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting at Dortmund was rather low key. Two of the games reached drawn endings very quickly and your correspondent was having chess deja vu as they unfolded. Sure enough, when I consulted the database it confirmed that Kramnik, who was black, had played virtually his whole game with white against Peter Svidler in last year’s Amber tournament.
Kramnik does not want to reveal his openings before his match against Anand and so he played the Gruenfeld Defence and Jan Gustafsson, as the lowest rated player obviously did not want to take too many risks, yet I can’t help feeling that the spectators were short-changed.
Dortmund only has four games per day so if a couple end early then there is a problem. Mamedyarov and Leko played a variation of the Nimzo - Indian that leads to total equality but at least Leko had to demonstrate some good preparation. Loek Van Wely’s defence was also sound and he forced perpetual check against Vasily Ivanchuk.
It was left to the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi to provide the entertainment and he played some bold moves with black in the Sicilian Defence. His opponent, local GM Arkady Naiditsch was not to be outdone and sacrificed a knight but as we shall see, he could do no better than repeat moves.
A Naiditsch – I Nepomniachtchi
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A Rare Elite Meet in New York
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Last week, top-flight competition returned to New York when the Marshall Chess Club on West 10th Street held a tournament that attracted a strong field of 40 players.
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Leonard Barden. June 28, 2008
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Long ago when I debuted in the Hastings Premier Reserves my first opponent was Jacques Mieses, who had competed at Hastings 1895 and crossed pawns with Wilhelm Steinitz, the first official world champion. At 84, Mieses was still a dangerous tactician who kept fit with daily dips in the Serpentine. He began our game 1 e4 d5, lost a piece early, then swindled me so well that I was glad to draw.
Decades earlier in his own chess youth at Breslau 1889, Mieses won the imaginative but slightly unsound attack below where Black can safely take a second pawn at a2 and could still hold at move 24 with the computer idea Ne8 25 Ng5 Rxg5 26 Qxg5 Rc5 instead of the mistake h6?
The loser, Louis Paulsen, was an openings innovator and strategist, but was most famous as the opponent of the legendary Paul Morphy in the final of the first US congress, New York 1857.
There may be a few others alive who met Mieses in 1950s Hastings events but I guess I am the only one still chessically active. So if you happen to meet me at five-minute blitz at www.chessclub.com you can secure your own historic niche on the shortest possible chain link to Morphy.
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In the mood for Lvov
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Following months of wrangling and uncertainty the world title eliminator between Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Gata Kamsky of the USA looks certain to take place at Lvov in Ukraine and have a prize fund of $750,000. The Bulgarians had originally offered to stage the match in Sofia for a fraction of the money but Kamsky was unwilling to play in his opponent’s home city.
One of Kamsky’s advisors was able to raise funds to stage the match in Ukraine which was the least worst option for Topalov and his team who were desperate not to play in Russia after the Toiletgate scandals at Elista during Topalov’s failed attempt to wrest the title from Vladimir Kramnik in the 2006 unification contest.
The eight game match will start on November 28 and will last twenty days including possible tie breaks.
Kamsky’s record against Topalov is dire, four defeats and four draws but perhaps he should take heart from the last American to take a shot at the world title. Bobby Fischer had never beaten Boris Spassky before they played their match at Reykjavik in 1972.
V Topalov – G Kamsky
Corus Wijk aan Zee (1) 2006
Scandinavian Defence
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Random successes
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GM Hikaru Nakamura of the USA nicknamed the ‘H Bomb’ over the board and operating under the handle ‘Smallville’ online reasserted his authority as top dog on the Internet Chess Club on Sunday by winning the Mainz Chess Classic online Chess960 title. After winning the first qualifier, Nakamura beat three opponents in head to head matches en route to the six-game final where he overcame the young Russian Dmitry Andreikin, one of the few players who out-rate the American speed chess wizard online. Nakamura won the $1090 first prize and an expenses paid invitation to the FiNet and Ordix opens at Mainz this August.
Chess 960 is also known as Fischer Random Chess as the pieces are jumbled up on the first two ranks at the start of the game. This eliminates opening theory and looks very odd but it is remarkable how quickly the positions begin to resemble normal openings or middlegames.
Nakamura sacrifices a pawn to open the h file and this fits in so nicely with the positioning of his bishop on b8 at the start of the game.
Smallville - DSquared
Mainz Qualifier Internet Chess Club
Chess 960
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An elegant finish at Sparkassen Chess Meeting
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The traditional Sparkassen Chess Meeting, sponsored by the German bank in Dortmund begins on Saturday. Once again the event is an 8 player all play all with the fourteenth world champion Vladimir Kramnik as top seed although it is possible he will be out-rated by Vasily Ivanchuk in the next list which will be published during the tournament. This is Kramnik’s first Classical Chess event since his failure at Corus Wijk aan Zee and his last before he attempts to wrest the title from Vishy Anand in the autumn.
The talented Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi who plays fine attacking chess qualified for Dortmund as the winner of the 2008 Aeroflot Open at Moscow and this year the organisers have added a second German player, Jan Gustafsson. Arkady Naiditsch, a resident of Dortmund always plays.
The line up is:
Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) 2788
Shakriyaz Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) 2752
Peter Leko (Hungary) 2741
Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) 2740
Loek van Wely (Holland) 2676
Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) 2634
Arkady Naiditsch (Germany) 2623
Jan Gustafsson (Germany) 2603
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A 17-Year-Old From Norway Is Poised to Grab No. 1 Ranking
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A player can define an era. The 1960s and early ’70s belonged to Bobby Fischer. In the ’80s and ’90s, Garry Kasparov held sway. This may go down as the Magnus Carlsen era.
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Leonard Barden. June 21, 2008
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Bobby Fischer was 23 when he became world No2 behind Boris Spassky. Garry Kasparov was 19 when Fide ranked him second to Anatoly Karpov.
Last weekend Norway's wunderkind Magnus Carlsen eclipsed the immortal pair when daily Fide ratings showed that, after elegantly solving the puzzle below, he had jumped over Russia's Vladimir Kramnik and was now No2, only five points behind the world champion, Vishy Anand of India. Carlsen is aged 17 years and six months.
The Anand v Kramnik title match in Germany this October was billed as the ultimate showdown between the two current active greats after Kasparov's retirement. Now, however, it starts to have the look of a warm-up bout before the crown prince stakes his inevitable claim to the throne.
So impressive has been Carlsen's surge to the top that I predict a growing clamour from chess fans and media for the ultimate match: Carlsen v Kasparov. Kasparov never played Fischer. Fischer never met Karpov. Chess needs an encounter between legends.
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Defeating the dangers
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Magnus Carlsen was forced to defend carefully in the last round of the Aerosvit tournament at the Crimean resort of Foros as another prodigy, Sergei Karjakin at eighteen, a year older, sacrificed a pawn and attacked him on the kingside. The position looked dangerous but computer analysis suggests that Carlsen was never in real danger of defeat and when he reached a level endgame a draw was agreed.
Carlsen had already secured tournament victory and won by a full point. At present Carlsen’s rating makes his second in the world, ahead of Vladimir Kramnik and behind Vishy Anand. However the Aerosvit tournament ended a few days after the deadline for submission of results for the July rating list. Perhaps Fide will include it, they really should.
Online chess
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Fast Finish and Controversy at Women’s Championship
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A series of rapid tiebreakers between Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih ultimately brought victory to Ms. Zatonskih.
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Aronian speeds to victory
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Levon Aronian the Armenian number one was able to record another Rapid Chess triumph in his home city of Yerevan as he overhauled Peter Leko on the final day of the Karen Asrian Memorial. The event was renamed following Asrian’s sudden death at the age of 28 just hours before play was due to start. The Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian officiated at the closing ceremony and declared that the event will continue to keep the memory of Asrian, who won a gold medal playing for Armenian at the 2006 Chess Olympiad, alive.
It’s hard to imagine a senior British politician turning up at a UK chess tournament and making such a speech but in Armenia chess has the status of a major sport, tournaments are held under the patronage of government ministers and the players are major celebrities.
Aronian defeated the then world champion Vladimir Kramnik at the same venue last year and the crowds at Yerevan’s Opera House were able to laud their man again as he came from half a point behind to finish half a point ahead of Peter Leko with a victory and a draw on the final day’s play.
Aronian’s cause was helped enormously by a finger slip by Michael Adams who had a decent position before his seventeenth move.
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