Incredible Ivanchuk at MTel

Everyone knows Vassily Ivanchuk is a chess genius. He's also near the top of the "world champion but" lists so popular with every chess fan. The man himself has often talked about his need to work on his psychological stability, the lack of which has led to many memorable blunders and meltdowns. Despite these demons, Ivanchuk has been a consistent top-10 contender for nearly 20 years. He has three Linares wins to his name, though the last one was in 1995. Despite (or perhaps because) turning 39 last March, Ivanchuk has been having some great results lately. He shot up the rating list last year after putting up huge scores in second-tier events, although his supertournament performances were still inconsistent at best. But this week at the MTel his form and the usual bit of required luck have come together. He has won his four first games, beating Radjabov, Topalov, Bu Xiangzhi, and Cheparinov. He'll complete the first half of the event with black against Aronian on Monday.

We won't start the ancient "luck in chess?" arguments again. But there's no doubt you need some fortune to score 4/4 against such opposition. Radjabov played for a win instead of a draw and tricked himself into a loss. Ivanchuk was down to just a few seconds for the last six moves of the first time control against Topalov but managed to hold it together to complete a very nice win. Bu Xiangzhi played a horrible blunder in the opening and could have resigned in good conscience on move nine. He played the "keep it out of the papers gambit" and slogged on down an exchange and two pawns to move 32. Poor Larry Christiansen could barely stomach looking at the game as it dragged on during our live ICC Chess.FM coverage. This led to a brief online contest to come up with a nickname for this anti-immortal game. The obvious "Bu boo-boo"?

Ivanchuk is leaving the rest of the field behind in a big way. Topalov's the only other player with an even score or better. The winner of every edition of this event since its inception in 2005, Topalov is still in striking distance with 2.5. Of the other four players Cheparinov is the only one with a win to his credit.
Cheparinov has lost two in a row in much the same way. Against his boss, Topalov, for whom he has served as second for several years, he overpressed and couldn't back up his pawn sacrifices. He went all-in against Ivanchuk as well on the black side of a classic King's Indian. Once again he failed to find his way through the complications he brought on. Credit for gumption, but his judgment just hasn't been good and at this level these guys just take the material and make you pay.

So will Ivanchuk manage to hold it together for six more rounds or is a meltdown inevitable? If he can at least stay out of insane time trouble he should win the event, although Topalov has shown many times he can put together hot streaks of his own. There are various releases about the Grand Slam up on the MTel site. This one tips the Seattle event I heard rumored months ago (Erik Anderson of AF4C is involved) and mentions their desire to hold another in China as well. As ever, sponsorship is what isn't in place yet. That wasn't the best press release to come out of MTel, however. Monday night they are hosting a "Black & White Party" and the host is a well-known Bulgarian tv personality. The release included a picture of her from a recent Maxim magazine shoot, and it isn't quite SFW. It's enough to make you look forward to receiving chess press releases.

MTel 08 Starts Hot

Actually it started a little slowly on all three boards in the first round of the 4th edition of the MTel Masters in Sofia, Bulgaria. But eventually all three games heated up and finished decisively. An exciting start to this category 20 (2737) double round-robin. Four of the six players currently inhabit the top ten: Topalov, Aronian, Ivanchuk, and Radjabov. Relative outsiders Cheparinov and Bu Xiangzhi round out the field and faced each other in the first round, a win for the Bulgarian. Cheparinov and Radjabov hustled to this event directly from the FIDE Grand Prix in Baku.

Radjabov lost rather horribly with white against Ivanchuk in the first round. An inspired defensive exchange sac by Ivanchuk looked good enough to draw until Radjabov went hard for the win by giving back the exchange. This quickly led to a winning endgame for Black. If you count his last few games from Baku, Radjabov has now lost three whites in a row. Topalov took a big step toward winning his fourth MTel tournament by beating 2nd seed Aronian with the black pieces. It was classic Topalov, finding dynamic attacking chances from a calm position. He got a little excited and nearly flubbed the finish, but by then Aronian was in terrible time trouble -- 32 seconds for six moves -- and the Armenian had no time to find 37.Qxd5! Topalov could have avoided that miracle save with 36..Qf4+ 37.Kh1 Ne3 38.Qe2 Nxd1 39.Qxe8+ Kh7 with a winning queen and pawn endgame.

The other hometown player, Topalov's second Cheparinov, also started out with a win. On Chess.FM, my co-pilot GM Joel Benjamin thought that Bu Xiangzhi came out of the Najdorf quite well. But after exchanges the Chinese player drifted into a totally passive endgame and Cheparinov ground him down convincingly. Going for counterplay with 32..Rg8 is one of the last chances to keep at least one piece active. The horrible black bishop stayed locked behind the "Najdorf Pawn" on d6 for all 55 moves of the game despite shuffling between d8 and f8.

This year's time control is 40/90' + g/60', no increment. The players are inside a soundproof double-paned glass cage on the stage. The 1995 Kasparov-Anand WCh match used something similar with mediocre results in both the sound and temperature departments. According to Macauley Peterson, there on the scene for the ICC, the players are sitting on 16th century chairs (oddly not visible in the photo), which will be auctioned off later. This reminded me of my favorite chess chair ever, Karpov's in the 1997 FIDE WCh mini-match against Anand. Vishy was in a regular office chair and Karpov shows up with something from the Wizard of Oz meets Captain Kirk. I couldn't find a pic online but apparently I scanned that one from an Argentine paper 11 years ago. My archives are scary.

Round 2 (8am EDT, 1200 UTC; 1500 local): Topalov-Ivanchuk, Bu Xiangzhi-Radjabov, Aronian-Cheparinov.

Underdogs Bite in Baku

Wang Yue and Vugar Gashimov wouldn't have made many pre-event lists to pick the winners of the first FIDE Grand Prix in Baku. Well, unless you count the millions of increasingly patriotic Chinese sports fans who might have put their man on top. Gashimov was only the third-highest-rated player from Azerbaijan in the event and has long played in the shadow of top-tenners Radjabov and Mamedyarov. Of the 14 players, Gashimov was rated 12th and Wang Yue 11th. (Inarkiev (13th) and Navara (14th) better fulfilled Elo's command to finish at the bottom.) Gashimov is ranked 42nd in the world. They both drew in the final round to share first with +3 scores. They were joined by the top seed, Magnus Carlsen, who handed the imploding Bacrot his third loss in a row to finish the event. Gashimov and Wang Yue were the only undefeated players, quite an accomplishment in this very tough event.

Nice work by Carlsen, who won his last two games to leap up the dense crosstable. He didn't seem comfortable with his first big top-seed role but lived up to it in the end. I hereby open the betting pool for which FIDE rating list will be the first to have Magnus Carlsen as #1. Is April 2010 too pessimistic? (Pick Jan, Apr, Jul, or Oct plus a year to participate.) Most will go with 2009 but he's still just 17 and will likely still have a few downs to go with the ups. Vishy is looking ageless, but he has at least one tough match coming up...

Mamedyarov and early leader Grischuk finished a half-point behind with 7.5/13. This is a relatively impressive showing for Mamedyarov, who has a history of disappearing in big events despite his lofty rating. It was a return to form for Grischuk, who looked set to become a top-10 staple a few years ago. Apparently distracted by poker and trichology for a while, the still-young Russian (24) has shown improved preparation of late. A late loss to Gashimov cost him a share of first here. Note he took clear second in the Russian superfinal in December. Veterans Adams and Svidler, the only players other than Kamsky over 25 (!), finished on even scores after very uneven performances. Svidler won his last two games to salvage what was looking like a disaster. Don't miss his spectacular win against Inarkiev in today's final round.

Kamsky was looking good and had a share of the lead on +2 after six rounds. Then he lost to Gashimov and couldn't get his feet under him after that, losing twice more to finish on -1. He was met there by Radjabov and Karjakin, who had very different routes to six points. Radjabov lost three games with white but was in the fight for the lead for much of the way. He was unlucky and/or overoptimistic several times, turning very good positions into losses. Hard to say what was up with Karjakin. He beat Adams in the third round but played some very bad chess in spots. He finished with five straight draws to complete the lackluster impression of his time in Baku.

Everyone except Bacrot scored at least two victories. Inarkiev, who finished equal last with Bacrot on a -3, 5/13, won three games! Navara looked overmatched and off his game most of the way but he got a consolation win against Cheparinov in the final round. (His win against Radjabov should have been a loss, but he did find a cute save.) Topalov's second Cheparinov lost his first four games but showed impressive moxie by winning three before losing again today.

I don't know if this signals a new contender for the King of Baku crown in Gashimov, but he won't surprise anyone after this. What a team the Azerbaijanis have. Mamedyarov, Radjabov, and Gashimov are all under 24 years old. This also seems to be the biggest-ever tournament win by a Chinese player, not including their long list of achievements in women-only events. China has been impressive in team events for years, and Wang Yue (21) and others have put up some impressive numbers in open events. But +3 undefeated in a cat. 19 with a 2800 TPR is another kettle of sweet and sour fish balls. Fluke or new star? Is he now the leading contender to be the first Chinese player in the top 10? With Ni Hua (24), Bu Xiangzhi (22) and Wang Hao (18) also showing signs of increasing maturity they may all bum rush the show at once! (NB Wang Yue eliminated Bu Xiangzhi at the last World Cup.) It seems the top Chinese players are being allowed to play in leagues more now, which can only help their comfort level and ambition. The many special "China vs" matches are the envy of any chess nation, but it's nice to see more mixing. The Chinese players are still largely viewed as aliens and they've tended to hold themselves/be held apart.

All in all, a rousing start to the new Grand Prix. Kudos to the players and the organizers. Nice job on the website as well. It incorporated several of the things we've been whining about for years. The ridiculously low average age of the Baku event can only presage good things for the chess world. Are these young fireballs ready to take out Topalov, Kramnik, and Anand? The next GP event is scheduled for Sochi on July 30.

The rocking MTel tournament starts on May 8 with Topalov, Ivanchuk, Aronian, Radjabov, Bu Xiangzhi, and Cheparinov.

Où Sont les Joueurs d'Échecs?

Well, a long walk around the gorgeous Jardin du Luxembourg here in Paris turned up all of two pairs of chessplayers with one spectator each. Neither board was using a clock and in both games in progress one player was down at least a rook in an irrational position and looking entirely unconcerned, insouciant even, about the state of things. I can only assume the chessplayers of Paris have run before me like a warm reblochon. It's also a four-day weekend for many here thanks to the May 1 holiday, and this seems to have cut down on the park population despite the spectacular weather after a rainy week. We took a walk here last weekend -- it's a block or so from our hotel -- and there were far more people.

That isn't to insult French cheese, of course, which is one of life's true pleasures. A great quote from our guidebook refers to someone saying a local cheese shop "smells like zee feet of angels." Perfect. Speaking of French things that stink (now there's a segue), former guillo-teen wonder Etienne Bacrot has a promising position against Inarkiev in the 11th round in Baku, underway here. It's a good time for Bacrot to get something going because he finishes against contenders Mamedyarov and Carlsen, who will try to shake the Frenchman out of his +1 -1 =8 malaise the hard way.

Update: Just when I was feeling bad about the stink joke, Bacrot first fritters his good position and then proceeds to hang his queen to a simple capture those guys at the Jardin would have noticed. A horrible moment of chess blindness. An instant hall of shame worst move ever candidate. Poor guy. Wang Yue beat the sloughing Svidler to join Grischuk at +3 with two rounds to play. Best individual tourney result ever for China if he holds on?

Quiet at the Top in Baku

Several days of tense fighting haven't done much to the top of the crosstable in the Baku Grand Prix. Grischuk eventually outmaneuvered Inarkiev to move into clear first place in the 9th round. He's the only player to reach +3 in this very even event. The excellent Scrabble score pair of Vugar Gashimov and Wang Yue are still in an unlikely tie for 2-3 at +2. Mamedyarov has won two of his last three to move up to the +1 group. There he joins Carlsen and Mickey Adams, who beat fellow veteran Svidler in the 9th round in typically arachnid fashion. Kamsky continued to fall from his early state of grace with a loss to Radjabov in the 9th to land at an even score. Cheparinov deserves some credit for battling back to a -1 score after starting the event with four straight losses. True grit.

The games have been unusually long and hard-fought, with many positions you would expect to be drawn played out. This has been both instructive and entertaining and credit goes to the Grand Prix rules, section 4.4 to be precise.

4.4 The players are not permitted to speak to their opponents during the games. Appropriate sporting behaviour is expected from all participants and FIDE rules of conduct are to be strictly followed at all times.

Players will not be allowed to offer draws directly to their opponents. Any draw claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter in the following cases:

* a triple-repetition of the position,
* a perpetual check,
* in theoretically drawn position and
* Applying the rule of 50 moves

The Chief Arbiter may consult with the Technical Adviser before accepting any claim by players for a draw. The Chief Arbiter is the only authority who can acknowledge the final result of the game in these cases.

4.5 The Technical Adviser must be a Grandmaster, rated at least 2500, who has held the title of Grandmaster for at least ten years and is an active player as defined by the rating system.

Allow me a hearty Boo-Yah. The draw offer, that bane of sporting professionalism and common sense (and symbol of opportunistic unprofessionalism), does not exist in the Grand Prix. Let's hope this continues to catch on. Thanks and congrats to Global Chess and FIDE for insisting on this. And a shout-out to the organizers in Corsica and Sofia (MTel) who pioneered anti-short-draw rules at the elite level. (By the way, MTel starts in a few days and they've done all sorts of interesting things to promote the event at the official website. Nice job.)

Another interesting rule is 4.1, which states: "A individual player's visits to the restroom are limited to 12 while his or her game is in progress. A 13th visit will result in the automatic destruction of the bathroom's ceiling."

The final three rounds in Baku contain a few key match-ups. Gashimov-Grischuk in the 12th should be relevant, especially since Grischuk has white against Carlsen and Radjabov in his other games. Wang Yue also has two whites. Adams has the chance to make a move, or at least be a spoiler, which his last three games against Mamedyarov, Carlsen, and Gashimov.

Reenter the Dragon

With apologies to Bruce Lee. Just when you thought it was safe to bash the Sveshnikov, the Dragon Sicilian has reappeared in Baku. Grischuk dealt it for an easy draw against Bacrot in the 6th round and Carlsen won with the Dragon in the next round against Radjabov. Great to see this sharp line back for another whirl. The last time a 2650+ played the Dragon was Zvjaginsev's 23-move loss to Rublevsky's quiet line in the Russian Team Ch that just finished a few weeks ago. Nakamura has used it to good effect in the past year. Carlsen tried the Dragon a few times when he was winning the Corus C back in 2004, but it's hard to say why the Dragon bug bit Grischuk, who hasn't played it in a serious tournament before.

As often happens when White is surprised by something sharp, (see the Dragon's first appearance in the 1995 Kasparov-Anand match) Bacrot played a tepid line that allowed Grischuk to equalize easily. Radjabov, perhaps now forewarned, didn't back down and played the Yugoslav against Carlsen, but he lost a typically double-edged and sacrificial battle. The comp sez Radjabov could have scammed an undeserved perpetual check draw with 32.Qd7. He tried the same thing with 32.Qf3+ but ran out of checks.

This first Grand Prix tournament has turned into a real battle. Most of the favorites have been tagged for losses while even the tail-enders have proven to be dangerous. Ivan Cheparinov is trying to show his Bulgarian boss's trademark late surge after starting the event with a rare Audi. He has come back to win two against Inarkiev and Mamedyarov to dig out of the cellar. That place is now occupied by David Navara, the only winless player. Leaders Gashimov (with wins over Kamsky and Svidler), Wang Yue, and Grischuk are all +2 undefeated after eight rounds with five to play. Carlsen and Kamsky are a half-point back.

Quite a few nice games in this hard-fought event. Svidler hasn't attacked anything bigger than a ham sandwich in a while so it was nice to see him show the old fire and rip into Karjakin for his sole win. Lots of interviews and other material on the official site.

Missus Mig and I are currently enjoying a last-trip-before-baby fling in Paris. And though our hotel has wee-fee, as it's pronounced in the quaint local idiom, chess and blogging aren't tops on the agenda.

Hmm, maybe if I can play a few games in the park and annotate them I can write this trip off as a business expense.

Beasts Loose in Baku

The kids are all right in the first new FIDE Grand Prix tournament. The 14-player all-play-all got underway today in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and the birthplace of a certain Garry Kimovich Kasparov. (And Emil Sutovsky, just so he doesn't feel left out.) Not all seven games were action-packed, but overall it was an exciting first round. The many young guns in the event showed they came to play, although only two games were decisive.

One win was by the not-so-young American, former retiree Gata Kamsky. My Brooklyn homie managed to outplay Inarkiev, who gave up a piece for a strong initiative but couldn't follow up. Worries about Kamsky's openings might be past their expiration date. He reeled of 20 moves of Lopez until Inarkiev played the wacky 22.Kh1, which looks like a wasted tempo to me. Or maybe he foresaw 40.Qg1, ha ha. Was 35.Bd4+ just a blunder? Keeping the piece with a queen check instead looks quite strong. Nice defense and counterattack by Kamsky when he got his chance. The other win was Grischuk taking out Cheparinov on the black side of a French Poisoned Pawn. Haven't seen one of these at a supertournament in a long time. Timman and Korchnoi used to suffer a lot in these lines.

Mamedyarov didn't make much progress against Svidler. Carlsen and Wang Yue battled down to the bitter end in their draw. Radjabov-Adams was a correct draw in a Lopez Exchange. Karjakin played a pretty piece sacrifice against Navara but the Czech found the precise counter-sac drawing sequence. Flashy stuff. My idiot computer wants to try to play on with 28.Ne4, but I don't.

It looked certain that Gashimov's knight and better king would find a way to beat Bacrot's bishop in the endgame, but White couldn't find a way through. Much earlier, he could have won quickly on move 34 in the diagram. It's a cute shot, but I'm assuming not something he would have missed without serious time trouble. Tomorrow is Svidler-Carlsen. Full pairings and schedule here. Off days are 26/4 and 01/5.

Elsewhere, not much in the way of surprises in the first round of the Euro Ch in Plovdiv. Wake me for the final rounds when the qualifying spots are hanging in the balance. Vallejo must not have made it in time to play his game, but it doesn't look like he was forfeited. I wonder if they asked his opponent to approve a postponement. Speaking of the Spaniard, Topalov duly beat him in the final of the Dos Hermanas Rapid, 2.5-1.5. Topalov defeated Polgar by the same score (losing the meaningless final game) in the semis.

Grand Prix! Euro Ch!

April is suddenly a big chess month. The first of the new (classical!) Grand Prix tournaments begins Sunday. (The first round is probably Monday.) There is a clean template site up, committing the cardinal sin of putting up nav items without content. (Here there will be games! Here there will be interviews!) But at least it's not covered with Flash like most of the Spanish sites and doesn't batter you with sound, like the homepage of this year's European Individual Championship. Turn your volume off before you go if you're at work.

The Baku Grand Prix participants: Magnus Carlsen (2765), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2752), Teimour Radjabov (2751), Peter Svidler (2746), Sergey Karjakin (2732), Michael Adams (2729), Gata Kamsky (2726), Alexander Grischuk (2716), Etienne Bacrot (2705), Ivan Cheparinov (2695), Wang Yue (2689), Ernesto Inarkiev (2684), Vugar Gashimov (2679), David Navara (2672). That's a 2715 average rating. And that's three local Azerbaijani players from the 14. Rather shocking to see Carlsen as the top seed, isn't it? Amazing he's already #5 in the world.

Does that make him the favorite in this tough event, however? Will Svidler's Bunratty Massacre help him shake off his family-man apathy? Will Grischuk and Bacrot stop playing five-card stud long enough to be studs at the chessboard? Are Kamsky's openings up to the scrutiny? Will Cheparinov step out of Topalov's shadow with a breakout performance? Will the event site put up a schedule so we know when the first round is and when the two rest days are? My three picks are Kamsky, Carlsen, and Radjabov. Mamedyarov never seems to show much when he's up against the big boys so it will be interesting to see him playing at home as one of the top seeds.

Meanwhile, over in Plovdiv, and give yourself a hot cup of bob chorba if you know where that is without looking it up, the first round of the 11-round European Championship also begins on Monday. There are 71 players rated 2600 or higher, #71 being my latest Facebook friend, Erwin L'Ami. (I'm going to stick with Scrabulous in his case.) First prize is a tasty 15,000 euros, which is roughly a million dollars. Why don't China and Saudi Arabia just buy the US wholesale in one go and get it over with? Movsesian is the top seed of this incredibly strong event that sends 22 players to the next World Cup, the winner of which challenges for the world championship, probably after playing Topalov.

The second seed in Plovdiv is Spain's Paco Vallejo, who may have trouble in his first round game no matter whom he faces. He just knocked out Shirov in the first round of the Dos Hermanas rapid, meaning he'll have to face either Topalov or Polgar in the Dos Hermanas final on Sunday and then hustle to Bulgaria for the first round Monday. That's 2677.1km to make the 14:30 start time when the fourth game of the final won't end before 19:00 Spanish time, not including tiebreaks! Vallejo said he has let the Plovdiv organizers know he might be late if the logistics don't work out. Don't miss the spectacular 2nd Shirov-Vallejo game, btw. Shirov arrived tired from the Russian Team Ch but said that shouldn't take anything away from Vallejo's win.

Winners and Losers

Catching up a bit this week with various spring events. My old Kentucky homeboy Gregory Kaidanov showed he's still got the chops to mix it up on the international scene in Gausdal, Norway. He dominated the Norwegian round-robin event with 7/9, a full point ahead of India's Gopal. Erstwhile Ninja commentator Irina Krush got no love from her countrymen, losing to Kaidanov and giving up one of Erik Moskow's two draws. (Moscow, an esteemed Florida doctor and enthusiastic chess amateur and sponsor, has reinvented the pay-to-play model for the 21st century. He also tagged GM Lie for a half point.) Kaidanov played his usual steady chess, but no word on whether or not he wore an American flag lapel pin.

From an email from the winner (deleting my questions, which are obvious):

My first time in Gausdal was 1991. There were two tournaments in a row; I won one of them and also won the first prize on combination [of scores]. They also had a very nice seafood buffet back then, which turned me into a "fishetarian" (and I have stayed this way since then).

Not much has changed. The same hotel, the same (excellent) food and even my result was the same :) For the first time in many years I didn't have any jetlag. That helped :) I was very relaxed and played some good chess. People who know me don't hear those words too often. I am usually very critical about the quality of my games. Playing chess used to be very hard work for me. Now it's just a vacation from chess lessons :)

I like my win against Lie, when I improved on Aronian's play. Hard to believe, but I actually remembered his game against Carlsen, but thought that my move might be better.

(Aronian played 20.Re3 (and won a long game) against Carlsen in the first tiebreak rapid game of their Elista candidates match in June 2007. Game after the jump.)

Speaking of flags, 15-year-old Fabiano Caruana bounced back from a poor showing in the main event at the International Ruy Lopez Festival in Merida, Spain, to win clear first in the Ruy Lopez thematic rapid open that followed. All the games started with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5. The big guns from the main event were there too, but Mickey Adams -- the winner of the round-robin, a Spanish expert on both sides, rapid chess stud, and the big rating favorite -- was slowed by four draws. He couldn't match Caruana's excellent 7.5/9 showing, which earned the Brooklyn native the 3,000 euro first prize. I haven't seen any games from the rapid event yet; I hope they make it into TWIC. The main event was neatly bifurcated. Four players on +2 or better: Koneru, Sargissian, Zhang Pengxiang, and Adams on +4. Then four players with -2 or -3, including Caruana and Hou Yifan.

This was an impressive showing for Humpy Koneru, who is concreting her 2600 status. 2700, her performance rating in Merida, is another story at an ancient 21 years of age. What do you think? I've said before that if you aren't in the top 10 by the time you're 21 you likely never will be. (Barring late jumps to edge in for a list or two, of which there are many, who mostly serve to prove the rule.) This doesn't hold quite as true for the top 20, of course. Still, not many late bloomers in that group either.

Perhaps the formulation "if you aren't in the top 20 by age 21 you'll never make it to the top 10" is more precise. Former world's youngest-ever GM Etienne Bacrot just creeped in under this deadline, I believe. He hit #17 at 21 after years of a plateau in the 30's and 40's and then got up to #9 before falling back. Aronian is the refutation of this theory, if not by much. He was #21, his highest yet at the time, at age 22. He's now been in the top 10 for three years solid, joining a very short list of people who can say that in this age of post-Kasparov parity. Anand, Kramnik, and Topalov are the obvious members. Topalov has been there straight since dipping out briefly in 2001. Kramnik fell to 9 during his health swoon. Anand has been 1, 2, or 3 since Karpov strode the earth. The other member, now a tenuous member, is Leko, the current #10. Polgar and Bacrot used to be top 10 but are no longer top 20. That's better than Krasenkow, who hit #10 in 2000 and now isn't in the top 100. USAer Nakamura is at his highest-ever spot -- #34 at 2686. Three years ago he was at #43, but he seems to be taking things more seriously this time around. He just added a few more points in the French team championship.

Team Drinking

It seems like the Tomsk 400 squad at the Russian Team Championship put several meanings of "to get hammered" in play when they lost in the seventh round. The high-powered team led by Morozevich lost 5.5-0.5 to TPS-Saransk, where Ivanchuk is on board one. The sole draw was acquired by Karjakin on board two. Not only did his five compatriots lose, but they almost all lost ugly. Jakovenko and Timofeev sashayed into losing endgames with white. van Wely and Belozerov were getting mated with black by move 25 and 20, respectively. Morozevich managed to put up some fight with white against Ivanchuk but couldn't exploit the few chances he got after Black gained a superior position. The goofy and typically philosophical reports by IM Ilya Odessky at ChessPro.ru said that the team seemed to be "minimally impaired" at the start and that they were fined 1000 rubles for "violating the sporting code" of the event. A Russian source said that the Tomsk team had money issues and that the players may have chosen this as an enjoyable form of protest.

Long, long ago, in my "Chess Madness" column at ChessBase, I put up some ideas for more suggestive Informant-style symbols. One was for situations like this. Instead of giving van Wely's 24..e5 the usual "??", just put a little wine glass after the move. Forget the idiotic "chess boxing" combinations and go with something more natural, like team chess drinking. Now that could find sponsors. It would be Botvinnik meets Beerfest.

By the way, the top-rated Ural-Ekaterinburg team won with a round to spare. Radjabov, Shirov, Kamsky, Grischuk, Malakhov, Akopian, Dreev, and Motylev. Kudos, gentlemen. Morozevich came alive in the final round to beat Gelfand in a very nice game. Mamedyarov-Nepomniachtchi uses a lot of letters but lasted only 23 entertaining moves. Wang Hao was the top scorer in the event, with 8/11 on board four of the "64" Moscow team. His countrymen Ni Hua and Bu Xiangzhi also did very well for their teams. Ivanchuk likely had the highest TPR with 7.5/11 on board one for TPS-Saransk. Movsesian also had 7.5/11, on board 3 for FINEK-St.Peterburg.

Dead Means Dead

Unless it's FIDE. The term "deadline" has never meant much in FIDE-land, but at least this time they took the trouble to announce one was moving. The spiffy new FIDE website sez that the deadline for bids for the Kamsky-Topalov WCh candidates match has been extended to April 23. So what are you waiting for?! Don't wait around for some jerk to outbid you at the last moment the way you lost out on that mint copy of X-Men #137 (Phoenix Must Die). The current (and only) bid is $150,000 from Topalov's hometown of Sofia, Bulgaria. For some reason Kamsky isn't keen on playing there. Chessdom has a handy chronology of the match machinations up to this point. C'mon Lviv, show me the money!

That's not the weirdest rumor I've heard about this match and its participants, mind you. One was the possibility of Kamsky repatriating to Russia, which would then host the match! Truth be told, it would be hard to criticize. The dollar is worthless, the American chess scene can barely host its own national championship let alone sponsor a candidates match, and Mayor Bloomberg won't be around much longer to keep NYC running smoothly. And not everyone can be seduced so easily by America's superior deep frying technology.

This leads us to an interesting tangent. How many of the dozens and dozens of foreign GMs to come to the US over the decades have gone back (or gone elsewhere)? Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery, they say.

Onischuk's Second-Coolest T-Shirt

From the entertainingly deranged chesspro.ru photo report on the Russian Team Championship in Dagomys comes this pic of former US champion Alexander Onischuk, who is playing on board one for his Moscow-based team. According to the report he's an avid Obama supporter, helping out even though he can't vote in the US yet. (Of course we know what his coolest shirt is.) Earlier in the report you'll see Alexander Grischuk, formerly with rocker curls and even dreadlocks, with a new Michael Stipe look. Grischuk's team, Ural Ekaterinburg, is still leading. With a former Russian champion on board eight, that's not exactly surprising. Three teams are a point behind.

ZP Leads in Mérida

Asian Champion Zhang Pengxiang is leading the Magistral Ruy López in Spain with 2/2. The locals have nicknamed him ZP -- no word on how he feels about this or if he's even aware of it. This is the second edition of this event honoring the best-known name in Spanish chess. (Speaking of nicknames, what dolt started calling the Ruy Lopez opening "the Spanish torture" instead of "the Spanish inquisition," which was begging to be played?) The all-play-all Magistral again has an interesting field with something for just about every affirmative action fan. We've got kids, girls, Asians, Latinos, and Mickey Adams as the token high-Elo white guy. I don't know whether to look at the games or wait for Hillary and Obama to show up for a photo-op.

Brooklyn's 15-year-old Fabiano Caruana is still playing for Italy and living in Hungary. He won the Corus C group in January, had a rough time at the Aeroflot, and recouped some rating points with a strong performance at the Reykjavik Open last month. He's up to 2620 on the April FIDE list, though that's no longer enough to crack the top 100. Dirt favorite Hou Yifan, now 14, is there again, as is India's Humpy Koneru. They are #4 and #2, respectively, on the women's rating list. I expect Hou Yifan will be in the #2 spot a year from now. The big question is will she be in the number one spot two years from now? Well, at the moment in Mérida she's on .5/2 after a loss to Caruana, so let's not put the rickshaw before the horse. Last year's runaway winner, Gabriel Sargissian, is already sure of not repeating his amazing 6.5/7 score of a year ago.

After the main event, beginning April 13, they will repeat the Ruy Lopez opening thematic rapid tournament. All games begin with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5. Or, if you prefer it the way the locals would have it, 1.e4 e5 2.Cf3 Cc6 3.Ab5. I remember writing a Word macro to change English notation into Spanish back in the day of primitive chess tools in Argentina. (Running on my 486 laptop, natch.) Just remember to change the rooks to torres before changing the kings to reyes... I was one of the few people at the club with internet access and I'd bring in stacks of printouts of recent games from this new "website" called The Week In Chess.

Russian Team Spirit

Forget the top-ten stars like Svidler, Morozevich, and Ivanchuk in action in the Russian Team Championship in Sochi. The big sight is seeing Karpov and Korchnoi on the same team. Who woulda thunk it? Actually they both played for Southern Ural Chelyabinsk last year too, but I don't think I noticed. Was that the first time? (Not including their many USSR appearances of course. Post-defection.) This year Karpov is still on board one while Korchnoi is up to board three instead of board five. Korchnoi will probably play more games though. Riazantsev is the board 2 meat in this legend sandwich. He's also having a terrible event so far. No pressure, sitting there between Karpov and Korchnoi... They have Sveshnikov on board five, so maybe they were going for a Rolling Stones 70's reunion tour vibe with the team. The format is 12 teams in an all-play-all that ends April 13.

USAian Onischuk is holding down board one for his Moscow team like a rock. So far he has draws against Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, and Svidler. Kamsky is also there, playing board three no less. He's played 3/3 games with black, including a nice win over van Wely. Radjabov and Shirov are ahead of him on the mighty Ural Ekaterinburg team. Grischuk is down on board four. Yikes. I haven't had more than a glance at the games, which usually provide plenty of action. Grischuk-Timofeev was violent good fun. I'd be up for a Nxf7 thematic tournament any time. Gashimov-Ponomariov was a triumph of greed over initiative. There was so much wood-grabbing in that game it should be up for a trophy at next year's AVN Awards.

I haven't seen a list of individual scores, but as far as I can figure out from the game file, Motylev is the only one with a perfect score: 3/3 on board 8 (!) for Ural Ekaterinburg. Quite a few players have 3/4. Timofeev might be tossed overboard by his Tomsk-400 teammates soon. He's 0/4 on that star-studded team. (Stupid ChessBase Tricks Dept: Select all the games from a team event and press T to make a results table of the entire thing to show you the individual scores.)

Chess on the Internets

Whoo-hoo, really picking up the pace around here. This week marks the Dos Hermanas tournament, which has become an online-only affair. The decrepit among you may recall that this used to be a flesh-and-blood tournament in Spain, one that deserved the overused "super" appellation in its heyday. The 1993 edition included Polgar, Adams, and a pre-bloat Karpov, who won the event by a full point with 7.5/9. 1994 was even stronger, with Topalov and winner Gelfand entering at the expense of jettisoning a few more of the local Spanish players. By 1995 the only local boy was Illescas. (I don't think Shirov played for Spain until 1996, but he may have already changed federations.) Kamsky tied for first with Karpov and Adams in a powerful category 18 event, stronger than that year's Linares event. It got even tougher in the next few years, reaching category 19 (2700 elo) in 1996, 97, and 99. Kramnik, Anand, Ivanchuk, and Svidler joined the impressive list of participants.

1999, won by Adams, was the end of the elite round-robin under the Dos Hermanas name. In a radical move, starting in 2000 the tournament took place as an online KO blitz event on the Internet Chess Club. The system has been refined over the years to its current format: a 12-round Swiss qualifier that puts 32 players into the KO final of mini-matches. The first prize is two thousand euros, which, by the time you read this, should be roughly three million dollars. There are various side prizes for ICC members and special gifts from the Spanish magazine "Péon de Rey".

There is still an OTB event in Dos Hermanas, however. On April 18-20, a quadrangular rapid event takes place with Topalov, Shirov, Polgar, and Vallejo. The last big Dos Hermanas Open was in 2006.

The time control for the online event is three minutes with no increment, which has become the de facto standard of choice by the GM community for online blitz. They believe it is the best compromise between quality and not giving enough time to cheat, although this has been exposed as wishful thinking any number of times. A quick and sloppy study I did years ago on the games of this event showed that they were often more "computer accurate" than those played at classical time controls, occasionally scoring 80%+ agreement with Fritz. Several titled players have been disqualified in the past for getting caught cheating and others have confessed to playing improvised advanced chess. It would be interesting to see if the "Fritz Agreement Index" has dropped, although that could just mean the players have gotten savvier about it. Note that this sort of broad statistical comparison has only a superficial commonality with Danailov's attempt to use such numbers to slander an opponent.

The list of players this year, ironically or perhaps not, includes former Dos Hermanas supertournament participant Illescas, though Kamsky seems to be giving it a miss this time. Blitz maniac Hikaru Nakamura is another hot favorite. Last year's surprise winner, Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (the artist formerly known as Jorge Zamora), is back and is again showing fine form. He won his qualifier with 11/12, as did Nakamura, Tigran Petrosian, and Baadur Jobava.

Aronian Running Blind

Levon Aronian ran away with the Melody Amber tournament. Well, mostly he stayed steady while everyone else took turns being bashed. Aronian had a tepid showing in 2007, but this time he was firing on all cylinders in both the rapid and the blindfold sections. With one round to play, Armenia's finest has a share of first in the blindfold with 6/10 along with Kramnik and Morozevich, who typically dominate the sans voir section. It's in the rapid where Aronian is running away. His 7.5 is two full points ahead of the rest of the field. That gave him the tournament win in the combined standings with a round to spare. He's leading the combined standings by two and a half points. Kramnik, Topalov, Carlsen, and Leko follow. The surprise of the event is Vishy Anand's mediocre play. He usually doesn't enjoy the blindfold very much, relying on his rapid chess dominance to keep him in contention for the top spots. Right now he's in equal 8-9th in the rapid with a relatively respectable 5.5 in the blindfold. He's played a couple of truly horrid games, prompting Kasparov to wonder if the world champ is ailing in Nice.

Leko and Carlsen drew their two games in the 10th round. It was a preview of this year's Miskolc rapid match, which has become an annual affair for Leko on his home soil. This year's opponent in the eight-round affair is Magnus Carlsen. The match opens on May 27. Last year Kramnik beat Leko by the narrowest margin. It should be an interesting test for both players. Leko has been a problem for Carlsen, notching three wins in the past year against no losses. Barring oddities, Carlsen will be ahead of Leko on the rating list by the time the match takes place.