The last big chess event of 2008, the FIDE Grand-Prix in Elista, finished on a disappointing note. All the leading players drew their games in the final three rounds. Three games were decided, all of them among those who scored 50% or less, so that there were no significant changes. The 3 joint winners are Yakovenko, Radjabov and Grischuk with 8 out of 13. Gashimov finished fourth with 7.5, followed by a group of 5 players with 6.5: Leko, Wang Yue, Mamedyarov, Bacrot and Kasimjanov.

The whole cycle has now reached the half-way stage. Each participant is supposed to play in four out of the six chess tournaments, but some has played all three so far and others have played just one. Thus it is premature to jump to conclusions. Neverthless, the overall leader is Teimour Radjabov with 363.33 points, ahead of Wang Yue 353.33; Gashimov 328.33 and Grischuk 303.33. Others in a good position are Yakovenko with 243.33 out of 2 events and Aronian who scored the maximum of 180 in his only tournament so far.

Leon Rapid Chess Event

A huge rapid chess event (over 300 participants) has concluded in Leon with an
8-way tie for first place, with Evgeny Bareev having the best tiebreak of all. Other co-winners (with 7.5 points out of 9) were Jussupow, Shirov, Fridman, Fedorchuk, Vasquez, Perez (Cuba) and Paunovic. Among those who scored 7 one can find stars of the past like Beliavsky, Timman, Ljubojevic and Suba. Former Israeli Vadim Milov scored 6.5 as well as Naiditch, Andersson and Portisch (among others). Ivan Sokolov and Victor Korchnoi had to be content with 6 points.

December 20 2008

After a lukewarm start of four draws in the Nanjing super chess tournament, it was time that the world’s No. 1 chess player Veselin Topalov would wake up – and he did! The Bulgarian exploited the white pieces to beat one after the other Svidler, Aronian and Ivanchuk. In between, he fought successfully for a draw being an exchange down against Bu Xiangzhi. Now, he is leading by a full point with 5.5 out of 8, with 2 rounds remaining to the end of the event.

In round 8, Topalov uncovered a very interesting novelty in the Sicilian Defense, and Ivanchuk had no answer. The Ukranian star looked in this event like a shadow of his former self, perhaps still under the influence of the scandal concerning his doping-test in Dresden. He is down to last place with 2.5 out of 8, and to add insult to injury, during his loss to Aronian at round 7 his chair broke down while he was sitting…

The Chinese representative Bu Xiangzhi, who has played brilliantly up to now and was equal on points with Toaplov, was defeated for the first time by Svidler, who surprised him with 1.d4, achieved a small edge and realized it gradually.

The points table: Toaplov 5.5; Aronian and Bu Xiangzhi 4.5; Svidler 4; Movsesian 3; Ivnachuk 2.5

And on the top of the updated world rankings it is a totally different scene from the density of just three months ago. Topalov surged upwards to 2806. World chess champion Anand stayed on 2791. Morozevich (2772) and Carlsen (2771) went down 16 each. Ivanchuk dropped 26 points to 2760. Kramnik and Radjabov are close to him. Aronian, Leko and Wang Yue complete the top 10.

Grand Prix Chess Tournament in Elisa

The Grand Prix chess tournament in Elista reached its first free day after 5 rounds. The leaders are the two Azeris Gashimov and Radjabov on 3.5, ahead of Jakovenko 3. The main event of round 5 was Gashimov’s win over Grischuk in a sharp Sicilian game, after the latter has spoiled a promising position.

The Women Chess Olympiad is usually under the shadow of the Open Chess Olympiad. However, in recent years the women received equal conditions and they play over the same number of boards as the men. Their level is also rising persistently. World No. 1 Judit Polgar played as usual at the Open Olympiad, and No. 2 Koneru Humpy of India was absent. Alexandra Kosteniuk, fresh from her win in the individual women’s world chess championship, led the top seeded Russian team.

The competition was extremely even, and the lead changed hands frequently. The Chinese led for many rounds, but then collapsed to finish 8^th. After some dramatic final rounds the Olympic champion was decided on a photo-finish: the Georgian women team took the gold thanks to a slightly better tiebreak than Ukraine. Both finished with 18 points ahead of USA, Russia and Poland who scored 17.

One individual performance was far ahead of all others. Maya Chiburdanidze, the top board for Georgia, scored 7.5/9, a performance of 2715 and easily took the individual gold for board 1. 30 years ago, the 17-year-old Maya beat her compatriot Nona Gaprindashvili to become world champion. During the 1990s she lost her title and her career naturally began to decline. But in Dresden, despite being her late forties, while three world champions who succeeded her have already retired from competitive chess, she played a fantastic tournament to lead Georgia to Olympic gold.

The young Israeli women chess team deserves congratulations as well. The captain and coach, GM Vitaly Golod, did an excellent job. Bella Igla (8/10) and Olga Vasiliev (7/9) led the team, who was initially seeded 21^st, to 9^th place. Masha Klinova held the top board with a 50% score. 13-year-old Marsel Efroimski made her debut and she is our hope for the future. An interesting occurrence is the absolute lack of draws in the games of Igla, Vasiliev and Efroimski.

FIDE Congress

The FIDE Congress was held concurrently. The biggest headline was the solution to the problem of the Kamsky-Topalov match, about which we reported earlier. The most important (and controversial) decision was to change the rules for the World Championship 2010, despite the cycle being already in progress, and organize a candidates event of 8 players: top 2 in the World Cup, top 2 in the Grand Prix, 2 among Kamsky, Topalov and Anand (except the would-be world champion), 1 according to rating and another 2700+ player invited by the organizer.

Nevertheless, this was a necessary decision. The World Chess Championship events in San-Luis 2005 and Mexico 2007 turned out to be a great success, as well al the Anand-Kramnik match. Therefore, this is going to be the future format of the two main stages of the world championship cycle.

After the dramatic finale to the 38^th Chess Olympiad in Dresden with unprecedented achievements for Israel, it’s time to sum it up, starting with the significant rule changes which were introduced, and made this Olympiad different from its predecessors.

The open teams were reduced from 6 to 5 players (which means, more workload on players and less rest). The number of rounds was cut to 11. Players were forbidden to be late for their chess games (with a controversial draconian penalty of loss by default), and also to agree draws in less than 30 moves (a praiseworthy rule change which abolished the scene of quick draw agreements on all boards). And most important of all – a change in the scoring system: 2 points for a team win, no matter how high, and 1 point for a tie. The tiebreak system combined individual and team scoring: the sum of the opponents’ team points, multiplied by the number of individual points scored against them.

The significance of all this for the top of the table fight was far reaching. Unstable chess teams who alternated big wins and small losses reached nowhere. In order to get a medal, it was necessary to build a stable team which regularly wins even by narrow margins or at the worst case ties. This had ramifications concerning the roster selection. The value of “combative” players who play for a win at all costs, which was previously very high, went down, and the value of solid players went up.

Bronze Medal – USA Chess Team

The USA team managed to repeat the 2006 tale – a 3.5:0.5 win in the final round brought an unexpected bronze medal. But two years ago it was against lowly Norway and this time they did it amazingly and against all odds vs. the formidable Ukraine. And most importantly – this time it was not at the expense of Israel! The Ukrainians who played extremely well up to that match were very disappointed to finish fourth, and most disappointed of all was of course Russia, the top seed, who had a mediocre Olympiad and finished 5^th. Thus for the second time in a row they failed to capture a medal and they will have to put their house in order. The most pleasant surprise was Vietnam who was seeded 37^th but finished 9^th.

Silver Medal – Israel Chess Team

The selection of the Israeli chess team proved perfect. Two pillars of the team during the last decade, Emil Sutovsky and Ilia Smirin, were left out. Both are very combative and they produce many wins, but sometimes also irritating losses. That turned out to be a brilliant move by the team captain, GM Alon Greenfeld. The actual roster included very stable players with deep chess knowledge like Boris Gelfand and Michael Roiz at the top boards, as well as Postny and Rodshtein who have a very solid opening repertoire. They developed into a unit which played extremely responsibly, thus managing to beat (almost) all inferior teams one after the other, even though by minimal margins. They fought on equal terms against the strongest chess teams. All this, combined with a rather comfortable Swiss pairing (after all one needs luck as well), amounted to an unprecedented achievement of 2^nd place. As a matter of fact, Israel’s chess team was quite close to victory over Ukraine and a potential first place, but it has to be admitted that Armenia was way above the others in this Olympiad and they did deserve the gold. They did it with only 4 players, mute evidence to the absence of the late Karen Asrian.

The best individual results among the Israeli chess players were scored by Gelfand and Rodshtein, each winning an individual silver medal. Boris was probably the most disappointed player in the last round, as he drew with Van-Wely whose rating was relatively low, and enabled Peter Leko who won after 130 moves to catch up with him and win the gold medal for the top board. However, it was an amazing achievement by Gelfand, after an unsuccessful year in elite events. It turns out that Boris is at his best at the most important moments – the individual world championship and the Olympiad.

The former Israeli champion Maxim Rodshtein accumulated many wins on Board 5 and became a pillar of the team. Maxim constantly lives to expectations and in future championships he may be assigned a higher board. Another important link in the team is Michael Roiz at board 2, the most stable of all. He is able to get a small edge even against extremely strong players, and torture them for a long time. He often draws, but also wins when needed – it was he who brought the decisive win in the final round.

Gold Medal – Armenia Chess Team

Among the other teams we have mentioned the excellent Armenians. Their 3^rd board player, Gabriel Sargissian, was the outstanding player of the Olypiad with 9/11 and a performance level of 2869.

Almost all the elite players were present in Dresden, expect world chess champion Anand who preferred to rest. Obviously the results had a lot of significance for the top of the world ranking. World No. 1 Topalov made a great score of 6.5/8, but other top chess players like Ivanchuk, Carlsen and Morozevich didn’t do very well. This resulted in a gap between the top 2 (Topalov and Anand) and the rest. Kramnik continued to trample (all his games but one were drawn) and he is now close to losing even the 6^th spot. The Israelis are led by Gelfand who climbs back to 13^th after a lean period. The “2700 club” is more crowded than ever, with many young and fresh talents.

GM Boris Avrukh is Israel’s new chess champion. Avrukh, who was member of Israel’s chess team at the 2008 Dresden Chess Olympiad, was leading throughout most of the tournament. The 9th and final round ended with a tie with four of the leading players scoring 6.5 points (out of 9 matches) including Avruck who played Victor Mikhalevski and Ilia Smirin who competed against Maxim Rodshtein, who competed against. Avrukh was crowned Israel’s chess champion due a Bucholtz tie breaker, allowing him to win with a draw, with total score of 48.5, only 0.5 more than Smirin, while Rodshtein and Mikhalevski stayed behind with 44.5 and 44.0 correspondingly.

Boris Avrukh championed one of the strongest chess teams in the world and a 1st prize of 10,000 ILS (equivalent of $2,570 or €02,030), courtesy of PlayE4 chess software. Although Avrukh exhibited strong and solid play throughout Israel Chess Championship, it is arguable whether a Bucholtz tie breaker is the most appropriate way to crown a national chess champion, as opposed to a chess match or fast chess competition between contestants as common in Russia and other championships worldwide.

Israel’s 2008 Women Chess Champion, WIM Olga Vasiliev, was also crowned with the help of Bucholtz tie breaker. Vasiliev had 3.5 points, the same as number 2 Natalia Vovinkina. Maya Porat finished third with 3 points.

In its 79th Congress, FIDE approved over 35 Grandmaster (GM) titles, as well as International Master (IM), FIDE Master (FA), Women Grand Master and Women International Master. The list of newly awarded FIDE titles can be a good indicator of the next trend in the chess world. In that case, the next generation of chess champions will come from Latin America.

This tendency might have already begun at the 2008 World Blitz Chess Championship, held last November in Kazakhstan, with the victory of Cuban GM Lenier Dominguez-Perez, the first 18+ world champion since the Capablanca era. It continued during the 79th FIDE Congress with three new Cuban Grandmasters and three chess Grandmasters from Argentina. For comparison sake, India had one representative at FIDE GM list, China and the United States had two each, while Russia, the natural habitat of chess greatness had three new Grandmasters on the list.

Washington Post’s Alan Cooperman recommends on two chess books: the fictional chess thriller Zugzwang, authored by Ronan Bennett and the nonfictional White King and Red Queen written by Daniel Johnson on chess during the cold war, starting from the Red Army’s command to organize “shock brigades of chess players” to the Fischer-Spassky and Fischer-Kasparov rivalries.

What is a Chess Thriller?

Zugzwang (refers to the chess tactics in which a player forces the opponent into a disadvantageous position when every legal move can weaken him, German for forced to move), is not an ordinary thriller with chess playing characters, the genre defining book actually integrates the chess positions into the plot. Similar to White King and Red Queen, the story takes place in Russia, more particularly in the St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament and in the minds of the entrepreneurs of the czar assassination.

Jacket Copy disagrees with Cooperman’s claim that Zugzwang is the first and only chess thriller and suggests including Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union in the genre. The detective-fictional historic novel revolves around a mysterious murder of a chess player, who was checked in as Emanuel Lasker, investigated by the son of a chess player who grew up hating the game, and involves “chess-like moves”.

The rest day of the Dresden Chess Olympiad provided an opportunity to resolve the issue of the Topalov-Kamsky match, which troubled the chess world for almost a whole year. After tedious negotiations an agreement has been reached between two chess players, and the chess match will be held in Sofia on February 2009.

Below you will find a summary of the development of events concerning this chess match:

December 2007 Gata Kamsky wins the world cup chess tournament in Khanty-Masyinsk and earns the right to meet Veselin Topalov in a match where the winner will be the next challenger for the World Chess Championship.

January 2008 Kamsky announces his refusal to play the match against Topalov at the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Ferbruary 2008 A tentative decision by FIDE to accept the Bulgarian offer to host the match for a prize fund of 150,000 US$. Rival bids may still be presented till April 11.

March 2008 Kamsky’s Ukrainian managed, Olekasnder Chernenko, claims in an interview to the Russian paper “Sport Express” that the match is going to take place in Lviv, Ukraine for a prize fund which is substantially higher than the Bulgarian offer.

April 2008 FIDE extends the deadline for offers. The Bulgarians protest. Chernenko discloses the full details of the Ukranian bid to organize the match for a prize fund of 750,000 US$.

May 2008 Alexey Shirov, who was beaten by Kamsky in the world cup final, is annoyed that FIDE has not yet decided where the match will take place, and claims that due to Kamsky’s refusal to play in Bulgaria, he should replace him.

June 2008 FIDE president Ilyumzhinov announces that the Topalov-Kamsky match will be held at Lviv, Ukraine between 26 Nov – 14 Dec, 2008, and guarantees the prize fund from his personal finances.

July 2008 It is reported in the internet that Topalov and Kamsky have not yet signed the contract to play their match, since the organizers have not yet prepared such a contract.

September 2008 The president of the Bulgarian Chess Federation demands clarification from FIDE concerning the match which is at the moment under a cloud.

November 4 2008 FIDE presents Chernenko an ultimatum to transfer the prize fund to FIDE’s bank account till November 5.

November 6 2008 Ilyumzhinov announces that despite many promises by Chernenko, FIDE has not received bank guarantees for holding the chess match in Ukraine, nor has the prize money been transferred to its account. Therefore, he is revoking his personal guarantee and announces that the Bulgarians can win back the match, if they present until November 14 a written bid to organize the match for a prize fund of 250,000 US$. Should they fail to present such an offer, an open bid shall be held until December 31. Both players have to sign a written obligation to play the match by November 14. Should Kamsky refuse, he shall be replaced by Shirov.

Novermber 7 2008 Ilyumzhinov’s announcement provokes angry protests from the Kamsky camp: Gata’s father Roustam releases an open letter, where he protests against Ilyumzhinov not keeping his word, and even claims that Gata’s life “might be in danger”. The president of the USCF, Bill Goichberg, demands FIDE to back the guarantee given by Ilyumzhinov in June, and hold the match at Lviv as planned.

November 8 2008 Gata Kamsky publishes an open letter, claiming that there is no longer any point in negotiations with FIDE, and that the only way to handle the matter is in a court of law.

November 10 2008 The Bulgarian Chess Federation guarantees, as required, a prize fund of 250,000 US$, and offers to hold the match at Sofia between February 3-15, 2009.

November 13 2008 Oleksander Chernenko says via e-mail that the reason the prize money has not been transferred to FIDE is that FIDE has not presented him the match contract, and he promises that after that contract is approved, the money will be transferred, and that he is going to handle the matter during the Dresden FIDE congress.

November 18 2008 Topalov and Kamsky meet for about 4 hours during the rest day of the Olympiad. According to an unofficial report on Michael Greengard’s site, they have agreed to play in Sofia and the dates are probably February 16-28. That means Toplaov will have to cancel his participation at Linares. According to on-the-spot reports, Chernenko is no longer representing Kamsky, and his Israeli second Emil Sutovsky has become his manager! Senior FIDE officials are now busy formulating the official press release and the official contracts for the match. The players have been required to make no comments for the moment.

November 19 2008 An official announcement on the FIDE website confirms that Kamsky and Topalov shall meet at Sofia between February 16-28, 2009 for a prize fund of 250,000 US$ which shall be equally shared between them. Both chess players have also agreed the names of the members of the Appeals Committee and the arbiters. Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky has become Kamsky’s official representative.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, the legendary chess champion Jose Raul Capablanca of Cuba conquered the chess world by storm. However, in his homeland there were no heirs of similar stature, and for many years the island remained on the fringe of the chess map – till 2008.

The name Lenier Dominguez-Perez has already appeared on the headlines a few months ago, when he joined the 2700 club and almost won Biel (ahead of Magnus Carlsen). Now he can be called a world chess champion. The annual blitz chess World Championship took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and the Cuban won convincingly with 11.5 out of 15 undefeated, raking in the first prize of 80,000 Swiss Francs.

The favorite and 2007 blitz chess world champion, Vassily Ivanchuk, who recently won an even stronger blitz chess event in Moscow, finished second with 11 points. He started poorly with a loss in White and 2 draws, but then almost made it with a finish of 7.5 out of 8. However, in the final round Dominguez managed to beat Bassem Amin of Egypt from an uncomfortable position, thus retaining his half point lead.

The Russians Svidler and Grischuk, co-winners of the 2006 championship in Rishon-Lezion, shared 3^rd place with 10 points, ahead of the Azeris Rajabov and Mamediarov 9.5 and the host country’s representative Kazhgaleyev. Morozevich finished on a disappointing 7.5, while Israel’s top chess player Boris Gelfand shared 9-10 places with Gata Kamsky (7 points). The American had at least an excuse, since he was troubled recently with the developments of the unending tale of his match with Topalov. In last place we find Judit Polgar with an uncharacteristic score of 2.5/15.

Here is a game by the new world blitz chess champion – World No. 2 Alexander Morozevich strays off the main lines and receives a severe punishment.

Dominguez Perez,L (2719) - Morozevich,A (2787) [C70[

IV World Blitz Almaty KAZ (6), 08.11.2008

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 b5 5.Bb3 Na5 6.0-0 d6 7.d4 exd4 8.Qxd4 Ne7 9.Qd3 c5 10.c4 Be6 11.Nbd2 Nxb3 12.axb3 b4 13.Rd1 Nc6 14.Nf1 Bg4 15.Bf4 Bxf3 16.Qxf3 Nd4 17.Rxd4 cxd4 18.e5 Rc8 19.Re1 dxe5 20.Bxe5 Be7 21.Bxg7 Rg8 22.Bf6 Rc7 23.Ng3 Kf8 24.Be5 Rd7 25.Qh5 d3 26.Qh6+ Ke8 27.Qxh7 Rf8 28.Nh5 Qa5 29.Nf6+ Kd8 30.Nxd7 Kxd7 31.Qxd3+ Kc8 32.Qf5+ 1-0

Nov 09, 2008

The new World Senior Chess Champions have been crowned in Bad-Zwischnahen, Germany. In the men event, there was a surprising winner, the 17^th seed American IM Larry Kaufman who took 1^st place with 9 out of 11, edging out by a better tiebreak the top seed, well-known Romanian GM Mihai Suba, who scored 9 as well. Both went through the event undefeated.

Kaufman has been known as a staff member of the lauded chess software RYBKA. Recently he has been organizing matches in which RYBKA gave various odds to masters and grandmasters. It turns out that this work was beneficial for his own play.

3^rd place (8.5 points each) was shared by Miso Cebalo (Croatia), Boris Kanukov and Alexander Zakharov (Russia) and Yanis Klovans (Latvia).

35 chess players competed for the parallel Women Senior title. There was a surprise here, too, when the 9^th seed Tamara Villerte of Latvia won with 8 out of 11, ahead of the Russian Galina Strotinskaya, the Estonian Tatyana Fomina and the Amerian Esther Epstein who score 7.5.

The Russian chess team Ural Sverdlovskaya won the 24^th edition of the European Club Cup, held in Kallithea (Greece), with the participation of 63 men and 18 women teams, which included the best chess players of the continent (actually the best chess players in other continents as well).

The winners (Radjabov, Kamsky, Shirov, Grischuk, Malakov, Motylev and Dreev) scored 12 out of 14 match points (6 wins and a single loss) and 32 individual points, finishing ahead of the Bundesliga champion Baden-Baden which had the same match point record but only 27.5 individual points.

Places 3-6 were shared by Kiev (UKR), Bosna Sarajevo (BIH), Economist Saratov (RUS) and TPS Saransk (RUS) with 11 match points. Israeli GM Michael Roiz played for Saratov, the town where he was born.

Israeli chess champs Ashdod Illit shared 7-13 place with 10 match points, and Beer-Sheva finished with 9 (14-17 place). Two players won every one of their games, the Russian Vladimir Malakhov (7/7) and the Armenian Artashes Minasian (6/6).

The Women European Club Cup was awarded to Monte-Carlo from Monaco (Koneru, Cramling, Dzagnidze, M. Socko and Skripchenko) who emerged without loss with 12 match points (5 wins and 2 ties).

Two Israeli chess clubs participated in this event: Madatech Haifa finished 13^th with 6 match points, and Herzliya finished 16^th with 4. Despite their rather modest team performance, the Israeli chess players did score some notable personal achievements. Among the men, 17-year-old Tamir Nabaty from Beer-Sheva made a GM-norm, and among the wome,n Maya Porat (Haifa) took the silver medal for Board 4 with 5/7 and Irina Botvinnik (Herzliya) made a WIM-norm.

Viswanathan Anand was interviewed by Susan Polgar right after his successful defending of the 2008 World Chess Championship. Post world championship Anand is impressed by today’s strong chess computers, but warns from drowning in the information. His life is a continuous effort to keep the balance between intensive practicing and taking time offs.

Anand was the first Indian to be awarded with a FIDE Grandmaster title and the first Indian World Chess Champion. Currently, there are about 17 Indian Grandmaster and dozens of Women Grandmasters, International Grandmasters and Fide Masters. In addition, India grabbed 17 chess championship titles of different levels since Anand, known as Vishy, won the World junior championship. Perhaps it has something to do with the inclusion of chess in the Indian school’s system:

“VA: We currently have a program called Mind Champion’s Academy… so something like 4,000-plus schools, with a total student population of more than 1.4 million. And of that, more than 70,000 have played in a competition this year. The nice thing is that we also reach out to non-traditional areas; not only the cities, but small towns and villages as well. So hopefully in five to ten years, we will start to see the effect of this as more and more people enter the chess world.”

The new chess queen, 2008 Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk gave her first interview after the winning to The Guardian and, once again, emphasized the role of chess in her life as opposed to her other occupations (now described by her as distractions). Unless she will be offered a main part in a good film (Kosteniuk played in the Russian movie “Blagoslovite zhenshinu” or “Bless the Woman” in English), she plans to concentrate on chess and motherhood.

Ylon Schwartz used to be a chess master with 2366 rating points. He also used to be a day care center worker, a special education assistant in a public school, a horserace bettor, but now he is aiming for the $900,000 prize offered to the winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.

Talking with the New York Times, Schwartz spoke about the similarities between chess and poker. In both games, he says, players have to have good memory, outstanding strategy skill, and a sense for geometry:

“In chess, it is the shape and size of the board and positions of the pieces. In poker, it is the positions of the players betting on a hand and the number of chips they have.”

Nevertheless, he has to admit that chess and poker have at least one significant difference:

“Poker is a game of incomplete information…Chess is a game of complete information.”

Among the numerous young stars who participated in the French rapid chess event, the name of former World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov stood out. The former chess champion has cut down his activity in recent years, and he managed only 50% in group B. However he qualified for the quarter finals by beating the 14-year-old Chinese prodigy Yifan Hou in a special playoff, and then he surprised the group A winner, Fabiano Caruana and beat him in a blitz decider.

He was joined at the semifinals by world blitz chess champion Ivanchuk (who beat Radjabov in blitz), Carlsen (who beat Bu-Xiangzhi) and Nakamura (who defeated Vachier-Lagrave). Karpov’s run was interrupted in the semi final by the American Hikaru Nakamura. The two favorites, Ivanchuk and Carlsen, were paired in the other semifinal. Ivanchuk won, and in the final he will try to add another trophy to his splendid list of wins in 2008. However, his opponent is a very original and talented player, specializing in blitz chess.

In another rapid chess playoff tournament, held in Moscow on October 28, Peter Svidler was crowned for the 5^th time as the champion of Russia, scoring 3/4 ahead of Jakovenko 2.5 and Alekseev 0.5. Those three shared the first place in the Russian chess championship which ended about two weeks ago.

The 2008 World Chess Championship had ended earlier than expected with 2 points gap between Indian Viswanathan Anand and his Russian challenger Vladimir Kramnik. Anand had won in three of the eleven games played, lost once and drew in seven games, including the final determinant game where he was playing White.

Anand did not earn his second undisputed World Chess Championship title without sweating. On the final game, Anand went for the conventional 1. e4, while most of the chess match he preferred to open with a 1. d4. Kramnik responded with an atypical Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense, a response that surprised Anand and put Kramnik in an awkward situation, playing an unfamiliar line at this crucial chess game. Yet, it took 19 moves for Anand to feel assured with his predictable victory and 24 moves for Kramnik to give all hopes regarding an upcoming win and to offer a draw.

Viswanathan Anand, 38, also known as the “Tiger from Madras” was defeating Vladimir Kramnik and claiming the World Chess Championship title for the second year in a row; in the 2007 World Chess Championship in Mexico City, he was challenging Kramnik, then the defending 2006 Classical World Chess Champion, thus becoming the first Indian World Chess Champion. In 2009, Anand will be defending his title against either FIDE 2005 World Chess Champion Veselin Topolov or Gata Kamas, who won the Chess World Cup in 2007.

The Earth vs. Space chess match started out on September 29. Spaceman Chamitoff made the first move, 1. d4 on his Velcro fastened chessboard. Assisted by about 700 voters, Stevenson’s chess team has chosen to respond with a 1… Ng8-Nf6, which was followed a spacey 2. Ng1-f3. Most of the earthy public voted for 2… d7-d5 as the ultimate respond for Chamitoff’s second move, and after strolling more than 210 miles above Earth, Chamitoff had found the time to float around the chessboard to play the London System, which was answered by his eager opponents with a 3… c7-c5.

White’s 4. e3, was responded with Black’s 4…Nb8-c6; playing his 5th move, White-Chamitoff had deviated from the common lines of the London System and went for a risky 5. Bb5, which was responded due to the majority of votes with a 5…Qd8-a5+. Next up, White had managed to block the expected check and protect his queenside bishop by playing 6. Nc3. This time, there were almost no arguments that Black should go for the aggressive respond and play 6…Nf6-e4.

White followed the Earth’s attack with a 7. Bxc6+, checking Black’s king while in the meantime neglecting his pinned knight. Having no alternatively, Stevenson chess club responded immediately 7… bxc6. Greg Chamitoff from up above responded with a castling, and the young chess champions, assisted by the public’s votes, replied with the capture of the c3 knight. Once again, Chamitoff surprised his opponents by pinning the knight, so the opponents answered with a 9…Nc3-e2+.

And so, after a month of this chess playing, consulting and voting routine, the Earth vs. Space chess game, Space is threatened with a check. Stevenson Elementary School chess team seem optimistic about the continuation of the chess game, believing that their last desperado maneuver will have a prolonging impact on the next moves to come.

Which brings us to introduce chess etiquette – a list of do’s and don’ts in a chess game:

1. Shake your opponent’s hand before the game begins and after it ends. (If you are playing chess online, greet him/her with some words of courtesy).
2. Do not commit any acts purposed to take the opponent’s mind off the course of the game, including chatting, advising, commenting or using any other forms of communication.
3. If a suspect rises about the legality of the opponent’s move, call the tournament official for decreeing.
4. If you win – do not express malicious satisfaction over the occasion

1. If you lose – do not frown, grumble or role over the chessboard furiously.

The most highly anticipated event in the chess world started out on the 14th of October at the forum of the Art and Exhibition of the Federal Republic of Germany. Sponsored by local Evonik Industries and the world’s largest gas company Gazprom, the Art and Exhibition Hall was filled with chess players and spectators who have come from different parts of the world to watch previous World Chess Champions Vladimir Kramnik challenging current champion Viswanathan Anand in a series of 12 chess games.

In the meantime, both opening games had ended with a draw. On the first, hardly meeting its expectations game, Anand played the Black pieces and chosen the Slavic defense and White Kramnik opened the game with the 1.d4 d5. Despite Anand’s attempt to gain control over the c-file by sacrifice a pawn, a draw was inevitable.

Even though the end of the second game was identical to the first one (draw after 32 moves), White Anand did gain a slight advantage. Anand opened with an untypical 1.d4, while Kremnik responded with a surprising Nimzo-Indian defense - the second part of the battle for the world chess title had already grabbed much more attention than its preceding. The third game of the 2008 World Chess Championship is scheduled for Friday, October 17.

From the headquarters of the Dresden Chess Olympiad it has been announced that a record number of over 140 countries have registered for the notable chess tournament, scheduled to November 12-25, 2008.

Here are some rosters of the leading countries:

Russia: Kramnik, Morozevich, Svidler, Grischuk, Yakovenko
China: Bu Xiangzhi, Ni Hua, Wang Yue, Wang Hao, Li Chao
USA: Akobian, Kamsky, Nakamura, Onischuk, Shulman
Hungary: Leko, Judit Polgar, Almasi, Balogh, Berkes
India: Sasikiran, Harikrishna, Ganguly, Sandipan, Gopal

The most conspicuous absentee is World Chess Champion Vishy Anand. Several young starts are going to lead national teams of a lower class. Most notable are Magnus Carlsen leading the Norway team and Fabiano Caruana leading Italy.

And the reigning Olympic champion? Remember? Armenia of course. They have lost Karen Asrian who died tragically several months ago, but they still appear with a strong roster: Aronian, Akopian, Sargissian, Minasian and Petrosian.

The two chess superpowers are conducting these days at Ningpo (some prefer to call it Ningbo) their fifth confrontation. The chess tournament is held separately on 5 men and 5 women boards, Scheveningen system in 3 categories: classical, rapid and blitz chess.

The classical time-limit chess games, which ended first (September 18-23), emphasized the new trend concerning the balance of forces between the countries in 2008. Formerly China may have been outstanding among the women and slightly backward in the men’s category. Not any more! In a direct follow-up of their excellence in tournaments (for instance, Wang-Yue’s meteoric rise to the world top ten chess players), and exploiting the absence of Kramnik and Morozevich from Russia’s lineup, the Chinese men won convincingly by 14.5:10.5, with Wang Hao scoring 3.5 ahead of Wang Yue and the youngest among the group, Li Chao 3. No Russian male player did better than 50%.

However, Russia had the upper hand in the women’s section, again in direct follow-up of Kosteniuk’s victory in the Women’s world Chess Championship (over Chinese Yifan Hou). Both were absent from this match, but the other Russians performed to the tune of 13.5:11.5, with Pogonina, Korbut and Nadiezhda Kosintseva scoring 3 out of 5. The outstanding player was the surprising Chinese Shen Yang with 4 out of 5, but her fellow team members did not follow suit.

Rapid Chess

Ten rounds of rapid chess were held between Sepemner 24-26, with the Russian men having their revenge, winning 28:22 individually and 13:7 in the team scoring, while the women’s rapid match was tied at 25:25.

More Chess News & Updates

• 56 leading Russian chess players, most of whom grandmasters, were engaged in the “Higher League of the Russian Championship”, a swiss event serving as a qualifier to the Russian super championship due to be held at the end of the year. And the winner was Artyom Timofeev with 8 out of 11, ahead of Vityugov and Inarkiev 7.5; Lastin, Sakaev, Kobalia, Riazantsev, Galkin, Maslak, Nayer and Grachev 7; etc.
• Hungary decided to hold their chess championship for 2008 according to the KO system, and the winner was the favorite Zoltan Almasi, who in the final beat Csaba Balogh by 2.5:1.5, while Robert Ruck defeated Gabor Kovacs in the 3^rd place playoff.

The “Grand Slam Final” chess tournament, with the participation of the six most outstanding chess players in the Wijk-aan-Zee, Morelia/Linares and Sofia tournaments, started on the first week of September in Bilbao, Spain.

Despite the recent multitude of super-tournaments in the chess world, the Grand Slam Final is still a unique event, and not only due to the high average rating. First of all, the games are held in the town square, with the players in a special noise-proof glass facility. Consequently, the spectators are able to be very close to the players and talk about the chess games without disturbing the players.

Secondly, the ranking is determined by the system of 3 points per win and 1 for a draw, while draws by agreement are allowed only with the approval of the chief arbiter. In addition, the speed of play is accelerated (as in Sofia) – 90 minutes for 40 moves and then 1 hour for the rest. The goal, obviously, is to create a very attractive chess event for the local crowd and to increase the number of decisive games.

During the first 3 rounds, it seemed that the scoring system does not stand to the test. 7 out of 9 games were drawn, and the other two ended in a Black win, after the players of White tried too much and took a risk of early material sacrifice. Thus, Carlsen beat Aronian in Round 1, but lost to Topalov in Round 3.

There were several fascinating drawn games, most of them involving Ivanchuk. In Round 1, he used the Marshall against Anand, with the World Chess Champion reacting feebly. Black had a big, almost decisive, advantage, but after move 40 Ivanchuk started to forget about time, and when he had less than half a minute remaining for the whole game, he proposed a draw. Such agreement was supposedly prohibited by the “Sofia rules”, but Anand, always a gentleman, did not wish to win merely on the clock, and the arbiters did not object; In Round 2 Ivanchuk and Carlsen entered the wild Dragon variation and the game ended in a perpetual after a spectacular series of sacrifices.

In Round 4, the trend totally changed, and all the games ended in a win for the White pieces! Anand played feebly again in a popular variation of the Queen’s Indian against Topalov, and after 25 moves he had to lay down his arms. Thus the Bulgarian climbed into 1^st place. It is unusual to see Anand displaying such weakness in the openings, the only logical explanation being that he is keeping secret his preparations for the Kramnik match.

The Dragon reappeared in Calrsen-Radjabov, the Azeri trying to hoist the Norwegian with his own petard. But this attempt proved costly – Black’s attack reached a dead end while his king was being mated.

In the third game of the round, Aronian defeated Ivanchuk after a long battle of attrition in which he exploited the weakness of the isolated pawn on d5.

Standing after Round 4: Topalov 8; Carlsen 7; Aronian 5; Anand, Ivanchuk and Radjabov 3.

Somewhat surprising, but one should keep in mind that all of those six are roughly of the same level, so that any result between them is possible. For the time being it seems that Carlsen is adapting best to the 3 point system and his games are the sharpest. But the leader is Topalov, who plays a bit more solidly, exploiting well his opponents’ errors.

The winner of the 4th EU Open Individual Open Chess Championship 2008 was not planning to take part in the most prestigious chess tournament in the European Union. The Dutch Grandmaster, who had arrived to Liverpool to accompany his girlfriend, Iozefina Paulet of Romania was persuaded by the event’s organizers to compete. Surprisingly, his last minute decision led to his finest achievement. (His girlfriend, though, finished the competition with a score of 4 points).

Despite the lame beginning, which included losing to the German Fide Master Hannes Langrock on the second round of the EU chess event, Werle scored 8 points in 10 rounds, leaving behinds two of the favorites to win, local players Michael Adams and Nigel D Short, who eventually shared the 2nd place with Czech Viktor Laznicka, with 7.5 points and a £3,000 cheque each.

The Women`s World Chess Championship returns to Russia after 46 years where it was under the dominance of Georgian (1961-1990) and the Chinese chess players (1991-2008 with short breaks ruled by the Hungarian-American chess grandmaster Susan Polgar and Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova). This year event took place without the Georgian players, who protested against the Russia-Georgia war, and without the number 1 woman chess player Judit Polgar and the number 3 player and 2-times Women’s World Champion Xie Jun.

Alexandra Kosteniuk became the 12th Women`s World Chess Champion after defeating chess prodigy Hou Yifan 2.5-1.5 at the final match, veteran Pia Cramling and Anna Ushenina at the semi-finals. Hou Yifan, who became the youngest finalist in WWCC history, had arrived to the finals exhausted from playing her Indian rival Koneru Humpy at the semi-finals, and lost on the first game against Kosteniuk. The following games had ended in draws and on the fourth and final game, Kosteniuk played a solid game against Hou’s Scheveningen Sicilian, yet the latter did not surrender quickly and continued setting traps for her opponent, who’d also refused to fall, and the two agreed on a draw on the 56th move.

The Ukrainian chess genius Vassily Ivnachuk is recently soaring into new heights, and he is undoubtedly the hottest player of the 2008 summer.

The Mikhail Tal Memorial chess tournament was merely the first part of the festival in honor of the magician from Riga. Immediately afterwards (August 29-30) a great chess blitz tournament was held. It comprised the 10 participants of the super-tournament, the invitees Magnus Carlsen and Anatoly Karpov, as well as six players who qualified from the preliminary stage (August 27-28). The average rating of the 18 participants was 2726!

The level of play was also sky-high in the context of blitz chess. A good many players would be happy to play like that in a classical competitive game. The prize fund was identical to that of the super-tournament – a testimony for the importance of the event.

It was a double round-robin over two days – a marathon distance of 34 games. At first Morozevich led, but he faded quickly and the leader at the end of the first cycle was Vladimir Kramnik, who is little by little approaching his best form as the match with Anand nears.

However, during the second day, Ivanchuk started marching forward. His success in blitz doesn’t come as a surprise to those who watched his (classical) games vs. Topalov in Sofia or vs. Morozevich in the Tal Memorial, in which he overcame a formidable time-trouble of 10 moves in a couple of seconds, finding the precise moves towards the victory. Besides, he had already won a similar event in November 2007, and had been crowned the World Blitz Champion.

Two rounds before the end Ivanchuk and Kramnik led together with 22 out of 32, and then they met for the decisive game, with Ivanchuk scoring a pretty win with the Black pieces, exactly as he had done it in the last round in 2007 against Anand.

We present this chess game, as well as Ivanchuk’s important win in round 30 against his bogey opponent, Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian prodigy played well too (3^rd place), and in round 25 he created the pearl of the event – an amazing game against Ponomariov where he sacrificed first an exchange and then a while rook, completely tying up his opponent’s pieces in the process.

Final Standings:

1. Ivanchuk 23.5

2. Kramnik 22.5

3. Carlsen 21

4-5. Svidler, Mamediarov 20

6-8. Leko, Grischuk, Karyakin 18

9-10. Kamsky, Gelfand 17.5

11. Ponomariov 17

12. Grachev 14.5

13-15. Alekseev, Karpov, Morozevich 14

16-17. Movsesian, Eljanov 12.5

18. Tkachiev 11.5

Ivanchuk had exactly one day to celebrate his brilliant victories, since on September 1 he had to start competing in Bilbao (Spain) for the “Grand Slam final” – a double round-robin together with Anand, Carlsen, Topalov, Aronian and Radjabov! Thus he is going to complete an apparently impossible task of almost non-stop 33 classical games in the elite level. His rivals arrive rather fresh. Anyone ready to bet against Ivanchuk?!

Kramnik,V (2788) - Ivanchuk,V (2781) [D93]

Tal Memorial Blitz Moscow RUS (33), 30.08.2008

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 c5 7.dxc5 Qa5 8.Rc1 dxc4 9.Bxc4 Qxc5 10.Bb3 Nc6 11.0-0 Qa5 12.h3 Qa6 13.e4 Rd8 14.Qe1 Nb4 15.Ne5 Be6 16.Na4 Bxb3 17.axb3 Nd3 18.Nxd3 Qxd3 19.Nc5 Qb5 20.e5 Nd5 21.Bg5 Rac8 22.b4 h6 23.e6 f5 24.Bd2 a5 25.Nd7 axb4 26.Ne5 Rxc1 27.Bxc1 Kh7 28.Nf7 Rc8 29.Qd2 b3 30.Rd1 Rc2 31.Qe1 Qc6 32.Bxh6 Bxh6 33.Qe5 Nf6 34.Rd8 Rc1+ 35.Kh2 Rh1+ 36.Kxh1 Qc1+ 37.Rd1 Qxd1+ 38.Kh2 Qd2 39.Qc5 Bf4+ 40.g3 Ne4 41.Qb6 Bxg3+

0-1

Ivanchuk,V (2781) - Carlsen,M (2775) [E15]

Tal Memorial Blitz Moscow RUS (30), 30.08.2008

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Nbd2 Bb4 6.Qc2 Bb7 7.Bg2 c5 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.b3 Be7 10.Bb2 d6 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.Rd1 Qc7 13.Ne4 Be7 14.Qd3 Na6 15.Nxd6+ Bxd6 16.Qxd6 Qxd6 17.Rxd6 Ke7 18.Rd2 Rad8 19.Nh4 Bxg2 20.Nxg2 Nb4 21.Nf4 Rxd2 22.Kxd2 Rd8+ 23.Nd3 e5 24.f3 f5 25.Ke3 Nc2+ 26.Kf2 e4 27.fxe4 fxe4 28.Nf4 Rd2 29.Nd5+ Ke6 30.Rb1 Ke5 31.Rb2 Rxd5 32.cxd5 Nb4 33.a3 Nxd5 34.Rc2 a5 35.Rc4 g6 36.h4 h5 37.Rc6 Kf5 38.Rd6 1-0

Carlsen,M (2775) - Ponomariov,R (2718) [B90]

Tal Memorial Blitz Moscow RUS (25), 30.08.2008

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3 g6 7.g4 Bg7 8.Bg2 0-0 9.Be3 Nc6 10.0-0 Bd7 11.Nde2 b5 12.f4 b4 13.Nd5 Nxd5 14.exd5 Na5 15.b3 Bxa1 16.Qxa1 Rc8 17.Nd4 Nb7 18.f5 f6 19.fxg6 hxg6 20.Qe1 a5 21.Qh4 Rf7 22.Qh6 Rg7 23.g5 Nc5 24.Nc6 Bxc6 25.dxc6 f5 26.Bd4 Qf8 27.Re1 e6 28.Rxe6 Nxe6 29.Bd5 Re8 30.c7 Kf7 31.Bxg7 Qg8 32.Bd4 Ke7 33.Bb6 Kd7 34.Qh4 Qg7 35.Qc4 Qc3 36.Bxe6+ Rxe6 37.c8Q+ 1-0

The chess match between the Experience team and the Rising Stars has reached the halfway point, and for the time being it is characterized by the undisputed supremacy of the youngsters. In round 4, they once again defeated their experienced but somewhat rusty chess opponents 4:1, while both Korchnoi and Jussupow suffered their 4^th successive defeat! Only in round 5, in which the veterans lost by a “respectable” 2:3 margin, they won a game at last, when 77-year-old Korchnoi forced the resignation of Erwin L`Ami. Incidentally, on the eve of that game, Petra, the old lion’s wife, could be seen seeking the participant’s help in spelling the name of the young Dutchman, whose chess games Victor had not managed to locate in his databases.

On the other hand, the young Chinese star Wang Yue is galloping towards the top of the individual rankings after winning all of his first 5 games, closely followed by the Bulgarian Cheparinov on 4.5. The veterans are led (rather limply) by the Norwegain Simen Agdestein, who for many years (until the emergence of his pupil Magnus Carlsen) was his country’s leading chess player and was also well-known as a talented soccer player.

A strange thing happened to him last night against the youngest participant Fabiano Caruana (15). In crazy time-trouble the Norwegian dropped a piece, but the Italian, having no idea how many moves remained toward the time control blundered in reply, when all experts and spectators were sure that his immediate resignation was inevitable. But then, after recovering from the initial shock, the boy suddenly discovered his only chance of survival – a surprising queen sacrifice which caused his opponent to sink into lengthy thought… which was followed by a draw offer (which was accepted)! Jussupow recorded his first draw, interrupting his run of defeats. Bareev finds himself in severe time trouble every game, and his results are accordingly.

Round 4

Cheparinov – Bareev 1:0

Wang Yue – Korchnoi 1:0

L`Ami – Jussupow 1:0

Stellwagen – Agdestein draw

Caruana – Ljubojevic draw

Round 5

Bareev – Wang Yue 0:1

Korchnoi – L`Ami 1:0

Jussupow – Stellwagen draw

Agdestein – Caruana draw

Ljubojevic – Cheparinov 0:1

Halftime standings: Young Stars 19 Experience 6

]]> http://blog.playe4.com/korchnoi-refuses-to-give-up/feed/ http://blog.playe4.com/ivanchuk-wins-the-tal-memorial-tournament/ http://blog.playe4.com/ivanchuk-wins-the-tal-memorial-tournament/#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 07:17:43 +0000 admin http://blog.playe4.com/?p=162 By Ram Soffer

Vassily Ivanchuk has completed another shining competitive achievement, winning the Tal Memorial chess tournament (category 20) by a full point from his nearest rivals.

Until round 6, it didn’t seem a likely conclusion, but everything changed in round 7, when Alexander Morozevich, who was dominating the event, was knocked out of the top spot in a direct confrontation with Ivanchuk.

Round 8 was no less decisive. Ivanchuk was playing Black against Ruslan Ponomariov, who had previously beaten him in the final of the FIDE world championship. And the younger Ukranian again got the advantage. In case of a Ponomariov win they would have been level on points, but Ivanchuk managed to force a draw after a prolonged battle. Perhaps this is the difference between the recent Ivanchuk and the Ivanchuk of old – more solid and responsible play, and an ability to extricate himself from uncomfortable situations.

Meanwhile, Morozevich lost for the second time, playing White vs. Kamsky. The world’s No. 1 kibitzer, Gary Kasparov, added insult to injury when he demonstrated how Morozevich could force a draw a couple of moves before he resigned.

There were two more decisive results in Round 8 – Kramnik beat Alekseev with the White pieces, thereby reaching a 50% score in classical chess events in 2008; Shirov, who started terribly with 0 out of 3, beat Mamediarov nicely with the help of an exchange sacrifice. This didn’t move him up the rankings, but at least restored some pride.

In the last round, the exhausted warriors concluded all their games with draws. The first to finish was, as expected, the top vs. bottom encounted Ivanchuk – Shirov, with Ivanchuk securing the tournament win. Mamediarov and Kramnik didn’t continue much beyond theory, too.

Gelfand and Morozevich spent a lot of thinking time before settling for a repetition of moves, but in the final position the Israeli missed a good chance of winning, at least according to leading chess programs.

Ponomariov made a serious attempt to clinch sole second place, thereby completing a Ukranian “double”. He gained a pawn right after the opening vs. Kamsky, but the American fought hard and held the endgame. However, his score of 4/9 provided little encouragement on the eve of his match with Topalov, The same can be said about Kramnik, who is going to face Anand in about 6 weeks.

Final Standings

1. Ivanchuk 6

2-5. Morozevich, Gelfand, Ponomariov, Kramnik 5

6. Leko 4.5

7-8. Alekseev, Kamsky 4

9. Mamediarov 3.5

10. Shirov 3.

The Tal Memorial Festival is not yet over. Its second part will be held during the weekend, when the ten stars will participate in a big blitz tournament together with the invitees Carlsen and Karpov, as well as the qualifiers from a preliminary tournament. A similar chess tournament last November was won by Ivanchuk, who won the title of the World Blitz Champion.