June 2005 Archives

Much is being made of Kasparov's move from chess to politics, a high-profile player entering a high-profile field. But what do other GMs get up to when they stop playing? Apart from coaching, writing, chess politics, and other chess-related activities, that is. American GMs have a deserved reputation for early departures from the chess world and so have something of a head start.

One of the highest profile GMs is Kenneth Rogoff, who was high up at the International Monetary Fund and is now a Harvard prof. He didn't exactly set the chess world on fire, but he came a close second in the US championship in 1975 behind Browne and made a respectable Interzonal score.

Gata Kamsky would be the other side of this coin, a huge chess success who fiercely kept out of the public eye in the "private sector" before his current return to the game. (He's playing at Corus next year!) Any European GMs give up the game before reaching 30? Jeroen Piket seems out of the game and into business life. Valery Salov hasn't played since 1999 and had something of a public nervous breakdown. I don't know if his bizarre sites are still being updated, or what he's doing to pay the rent these days. I hope he's found peace. Others? Many women players are "lost" to motherhood.

The oft-posited (by chessplayers) theory that being good at chess is an indicator of broader aptitudes or even genius hasn't really had much of a practical workout.

Srikanth sends in this Newindpress.com item, an interesting interview with Anand's wife, Aruna, on his training habits. It appears to have been dropped into their registration-only archives already. Some clips:

Five seconds?! That's got to be a record. Perhaps a misunderstanding?! Kasparov was always accused of having a galley full of GM slaves and super-computers cranking out novelties when it was him and Yuri Dokhoian with two, maybe three others brought in for big matches. It's hard to imagine what you would even do with five seconds, unless one is a masseur, another a chef...

More importantly, what can Kelly tell us about hubby Ben Finegold's training secrets?

Rolf Behovits, press officer of the Dortmund supertournament, is always on the ball. No other tournament gets its materials out so early and in such organized fashion. The event starts on July 8 and the press releases started coming in April!

I noticed something weird with the last one, which was issued after a press conference announcing the tournament on April 29. The tournament is back to a ten-player round-robin and included in the press release were the full pairings! Unless my mind is playing tricks, I can't recall ever seeing pairings done in advance like this. Quite pointedly they are done in public at the opening ceremony to show transparency, add some suspense, and cut down on over-preparation by the players.

Here they were included without a peep. I don't know if they were done publicly during the press conference or what. This isn't a big deal, but if you're into conspiracy theories the pairings are interesting. Both local favorites (with connections to the organizers), Kramnik and Leko, have five whites. Kramnik has crucial whites against Topalov, Adams, and Svidler. (The only German, Arkady Naiditsch, also has five whites.)

Okay, taking off the tinfoil hat, it should be a good show. Loose cannon Sutovsky has joined the field by winning the Aeroflot Open. Peter Heine Nielsen, Naiditsch, and Loek Van Wely are the other two (very) relative outsiders. We'll also see how Bacrot flexes his flashy new rating against the big boys. And we'll see if the dream pairings help Kramnik break out of his slump. He has always played well in Dortmund, but after he burned me at the Mtel I can't call him the favorite.

One thing I love about this event is that all the participants play in a blitz tournament with local players on the off day. Register for that here: marketing@sparkasse-dortmund.de

[Update: TD Stefan Toth responded to a reader's email, stating the pairings were done in a committee meeting and have been done this way since 2000. Of course the format has been double round-robin or KO since 2001, when pairings are irrelevant. His message and my reply are below.]

Just in case you're interested in keeping up with Kasparov as politician, here's an interview. If you thought he would be a dilittante about this new mission, you'll be surprised. He's currently on a trip through the south of Russia to meet with local groups and talk to the proverbial people.

Funny, a few hours after I posted this there was a CNN segment on Kasparov "planning to checkmate Vladimir Putin," in their words. It was odd to see "Garry Kasparov, Russian Politician" under him while he was speaking. Nice segment, lots of interviews with locals and shots of him as he goes through some of the small towns on his tour.

I just posted the latest updates to the 2006 US Championship site. There are qualifiers from the National Open as well as the Senior and Junior championships.

One oddity, mentioned in the AF4C's report on the National Open, is that there were two women's spots available but only one woman paid the registration fee. This meant she would gain entry to the Championship automatically. Kelly Cottrell is rated 1684 and she scored 2/6. (Kelly was good company at the 2005 championship as she watched every move of her beau IM Ben Finegold's games. [Upgrade that to husband, I am reliable informed below.])

To paraphrase an old Saturday Night Live skit, where all da wimmin at? Last year the AF4C had to shift a spot to the men when one woman after another declined to play and they didn't want to invite anyone below the 2000 rating level. Of course this isn't Cottrell's fault, but it is almost certain that new rules will be put in place to avoid a repeat of this situation. If the number of potential qualifiers is the same or lower than the number of available spots, a rating or score minimum should be put into place.

Obviously the carrot of the US Championship isn't enough to bring out the top women players, at least not to Vegas. The number of women's spots will likely be cut in the face of such apathy. Many of the top female players aren't playing in these massive opens. It's an expensive trip under tough conditions with little chance of a prize for a player rated under 2400. Additional affirmative action on the professional level doesn't seem like the right direction.

Addendum: Best wishes to AF4C press dude and Scotsman columnist John Henderson. He broke his leg playing soccer on Friday and just got out of the hospital. Even worse, they took away his morphine drip. Soon to be replaced by a whiskey drip, no doubt.

Rediff.com has a nice chat with Vishy Anand. Nothing Earth-shattering. About his most memorable games:

He's not playing in Dortmund, so next up is his rapid match against Grischuk in Mainz.

Things have been relatively quiet at ChessBase.com because the main editor was in New York for the Accoona match and staying with the other site contributor, me. We were busy, what can we say? So many bagels to eat.

Meanwhile, Mickey Adams is being obliterated by Hydra in their London match. (Their website has been rather overwhelmed. Maybe they have a Spanish web designer.) He has a draw and two really brutal losses. I thought he would lose but fare better than this. Kasparov said that Adams wouldn't have a chance. As Mickey himself put it, Hydra is stronger than Junior and Fritz and Kasparov is stronger than him, so by rights he should have a rough time.

But the transitive theory has never done well in chess, and less so when computers are playing humans. A very well-prepared 2600 would have chances as good as a 2700 without good anti-computer preparation. Two or three extra ply is lethal against another computer, but not nearly as relevant in the clash of style against humans.

That said, Hydra has totally dominated one of the world's best players. It looks like the only way the Hydra folks are going to learn anything is to keep playing in Advanced Chess (aka "Freestyle") events, which are actually a good way for programmers to learn. When strong (or even fairly weak) humans don't blunder, they consistently beat even the strongest machines. Let's just cross humanity's collective fingers and hope Adams can notch a win.

US Champion Hikaru Nakamura has won the 2005 Samford Fellowship. That means a salary and expenses so he can concentrate on chess, although he's one winner for whom that won't be anything new. I got into the recent history of the award last year, when it was won by Rusa Goletiani.

Hikaru has said several times that he doesn't see the need for a coach yet, and that he wouldn't know who to turn to in the US anyway. Of course your trainer doesn't have to be as strong as you are, especially if most of the work focuses on openings, which is usually the case. He has expressed concern about working with a Russian (Russian speaker) when most of his competition hail from the same area. But this hasn't stopped people like Vishy Anand from working with ex-Soviet trainers.

Perhaps with his newfound wealth Hikaru can work with a few different people from around the US or the world and see if working with a trainer suits him. Whatever he does, congratulations to him! You can enjoy his annotations each month in the Black Belt newsletter.

Been hard to find time to blog for the last few weeks, with travel and events, but it's back to the pixel mines now. There's no shortage of hot topics, but I'll roll them out slowly. Consider this an open thread and topic suggestion platform.

A quick pick from the Kasimdzhanov match in progress here in Times Square. White just played 32.Ne6. Exciting stuff! You can see the game here.

White's low on time and sacrificing a piece against a computer. But if he goes down he did it in style!

The game ended in a draw by repetition after the usual flawless computer defense. Nice try by Kasimdzhanov though, especially considering his clock situation. He was somewhat lucky the computer took the repetition since he had only the increment left by the end.

In a few hours I'm off to Times Square to help run the broadcast of the PR match between FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan and the Accoona Toolbar, a search device that has incorporated a dandy chess element. (How cool is that? Imagine seeing a "CHESS!" button on the Google homepage. It would be a seismic event.)

It's a one-game match, Kasim gets white, 60' + 10" time control. The special opponent is a Fritz 9 prototype. There will be much more about this new engine in my interview with ChessBase's Frederic Friedel in my ChessCafe.com column appearing tomorrow.

[Btw, my suitcase arrived 36 hours later, thanks for asking. Vodka intact, and we always need plenty of that to get through these events alive.]

There's a watch live page up here now.

Call it cheaters chess, anything goes, vale tudo, advanced chess, or anything you like. The semifinals of the "Freestyle Chess" tournament were held today on the Playchess.com server. There is no cheating because there are no rules. Three of the four semifinalists were known GMs working with computer assistance. Even the mighty Hydra was no match for the combination of a strong human playing blunder-free chess.

The anonymous American fourth player/team became one of the finalists today. I won't reveal the identity of "ZackS" here since the ChessBase guys have had fun stoking the fires of public curiosity. ChessBase co-Direktor Frederic Friedel is in town – on my sofa, actually – for the June 21 Times Square match between FIDE champ Rustam Kasimdzhanov and the "AI Accoona ToolBar" (wince).

Allowing computer assistance in online events makes sense if only because most online human events become "freestyle" chess anyway. If you can't beat'em, join'em. The four-game final match between ZackS and Russian GM Vladimir Dobrov is tomorrow starting at 6:00am NY time. First prize is an impressive $10,000. Quite a chunk of change for coordinated cheating. Crime does pay!

FIDE has released its list of expected rating changes for the July 2005 list. As predicted in various quarters, it looks like Anand and Topalov will be in a dead heat at 2788 for the spot of top active player. (We need an official unofficial name for this "title" since Kasparov is going to be #1 on the list for another year whether he likes it or not. I suppose after waiting for 20 years the world can handle one more before there's a new #1.)

The other top 10 news is Kramnik being passed by the streaky Ivanchuk and dropping out of the top five. (Less than a dozen points ahead of Svidler and Polgar.) Kramnik at the closing ceremony of the London 2000 world championship match where he beat Kasparov: "The only thing I can say is that I'd just like to be first on the ratings also to prove that it wasn't accidental because I'm completely sure it was not accidental. I'll just try to prove it and not just to prove I'm the best, but to be a better player."

What we know five years later is that 1) it wasn't an accident, but that 2) he's not a better player now. Anand, Topalov, and Leko have elevated their games and it's not clear exactly why Kramnik's has suffered. Based on his play it seems he has been trying to be more aggressive, to put up big scores and achieve his stated goal of becoming the #1. This reinvention hasn't gone well so far, but I hope he doesn't give up on it yet. His title and reputation guarantee he won't suffer from a lack of invitations, although Linares can be picky about these things and he'll have to watch out there if he drops further.

Just in from a week in St. Petersburg, where I hope my suitcase isn't. It's definitely not at the Newark airport. If it doesn't turn up I hope someone gets some use out of the two bottles of vodka it contains. Not to mention my best suit, shoes, and new glasses. Grrr.

Two chess encounters on the final days of my trip. I went into the dilapidated old central club. (No, that's NOT it above. That's the Kazan Cathedral in the center.) I wanted to take pictures but they were in the middle of the nightly rapid tournament and I didn't want to be the ugly tourist. 24 people, playing in four categories instead of all playing together and using clock handicaps. Average age was over 50, just two or three teens. You can tell it used to be a lovely space, but judging by the club's decorations, times are tough. The large photos of all the world champions end with two incorrect current champs: "Kasparov 1985-" next to "Khalifman 1999-". The last club champion on the wall was 2003.

On the way home through Paris there was a large advert to promote tourism to Hungary. It was mostly a large photo of none other than Judit Polgar, with a caption giving her identity and endorsement. Is she the most famous Hungarian in the world? Seems plausible. Probably a higher Q score than Leko, worldwide. No musicians or soccer players? Barring chessplayers, who comes to mind if asked to name a famous Hungarian? A living one? Is Zsa Zsa Gabor still alive?! (Kidding!)

Will the last one out of St. Petersburg please turn out the lights? I'm on a wifi spot in the center of the city at 11pm and it's still quite light outside despite the clouds. Beautiful city.

The legendary chess club isn't in very good shape. There is a calendar of events posted outside, but it's closed today and tomorrow for a national holiday so I might not see the interior. If it's anything like the run-down exterior and hallways they're in trouble. There is a little chess shop in the front. Eager chessplayers can liven up any hall, but it's still sad to see the decline. I remember first seeing the massive Moscow club the day they had rented out their main hall for a wedding reception, even though there was a tournament going on a thin wall away.

Is club play thriving elsewhere? Rents are high and the internet is tempting. Tournament play is a little different, and hard to imitate online. But paying hundreds of dollars to play blitz in a club is hard to justify. What are clubs doing to add value that can't be had online? Lectures and lessons are also online in force now.

The 18th Leon tournament is underway in Spain. Anand, Shirov, Kasimdzhanov, and the wunderkinder du jour, Magnus Carlsen, are the players. A typically over-developed and under-functional Spanish chess website hides this interesting and brief rapid event made up of three mini-matches.

Anand is consistently terrifying at this time control, but Kasim is no slouch in rapids. If you remember, this used to be an "advanced chess" event in which humans played with computer assistance. (Still reflected in the site's domain name.) Nobody seems to be mourning advanced chess much. It has potential by letting spectators see what the GMs are looking at during games, especially by downloading the ChessBase files created during play. (Classical time control would be great for this.) So even if the games are boring - no blunders no tactics no fun - the insight would be great.

My report on Kasparov's master classes with the top juniors in the USA is now up here at ChessBase.com. The Kasparov Chess Foundation has an intriguing initiative afoot, focusing on the standouts to create world-class players.

The massive number of scholastic players in the US hasn't produced another Fischer. It hasn't even produced a GM. Of course that wasn't the main point and teaching chess to kids is very good for its own sake. But many thought it would lead to a GM boom. With few avenues for chess professionals, smart American kids usually have to choose between chess or university, and they have all chosen university. The exceptions are the super-talents like Kamsky and Nakamura, for whom it was obvious very early that they could make a living at the game and reach world class.

The KCF program doesn't solve that, but creating very strong players is a good way to promote the game and open up other possibilities. Americans (like everyone else) like winners. Consistent success at the international level is the best way to popularize a sport here, as a sport. (Again, scholastic chess has its own agenda.) Obviously Fischer was the best example of this. A 2010 US Olympiad team with an average age of 20 is not impossible, considering the ages of the current top players. There is really no middle generation between the 35-45 crowd and the teenagers the KCF is working with.

I'm off to St. Petersburg tomorrow evening. (Russia, that is. My apologies to Florida.) I'll be back on the 15th. I don't know if I'll have a chance to do anything chessic, but recommendations are welcome. My online time will be limited (mostly by choice, not by connectivity limitations) but I'll try to chip in an entry or two. Blog on the road, blog on the run?

A pity I hadn't read this US Chess Federation press release before bumping into USCF President Beatriz Marinello on Sunday at Kasparov's training session for US juniors.

When most controversy about drug testing in chess is about keeping drugs (and testing) out of the sport, the USCF has gone the other way and is endorsing an event sponsored by the maker of "brain supplements." The event is set for a human chess match on June 11 in Las Vegas. At least it doesn't say the GMs (players to be announced) will be taking the "Natrol BrainSpeed" during the game.

And at least we can be pretty sure it's not a harmful product. Most of these supplements are overpriced, overhyped herbal cocktails that hover around 10% ingredient potency. (E.g. chewing on fresh gingko biloba is one thing, popping a dried capsule of the stuff is another.) You can read the ingredients here. Clubmoss, anyone?

Of course many players already take similar things, not to mention caffeine, energy bars, and power drinks. And as long as it's not harmful, I don't see the problem. Having the USCF endorse it seems a little odd. On the other hand, it's probably healthier than Pepsi.

*This post has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This post is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

I've updated the US Championship website to include the qualifiers from the Chicago Open. That report and also the update to the Qualifier Grand Prix race were prepared by AF4C press laddie John Henderson.

The Qualifier Grand Prix is a fun idea, a last-chance spot for someone who did well in many of the qualifying events but never managed to get a spot. It seems likely to go to a non-GM, since most of the heavyweights qualify directly or make it in by rating. Another roundabout way to qualify is via the "champion of state champions" event. It's nice to find a way to promote state championships, most of which are languishing. In general, open qualification adds a lot of interest to the build-up and to the event itself. 19 players still qualify by rating, a dozen too many in my opinion.

As explained in more detail here at ChessBase, Garry Kasparov has started a new column in the magazine New In Chess. It's mostly going to be punditry, although I don't think he'll be as hard on anyone as he is on Putin in the Wall Street Journal.

NIC, expensive and elitist in all the good ways, is sort of the paper of record for the GM set. (I remember being quite delighted when Peter Svidler mentioned my name in NIC right after I started out writing at TWIC. Unbeknownst to Peter I was totally unknown, and wanting to appear in the know he wrote as if everyone knew who I was. I'm sure 98% of NIC's readers thought, "who?!") Many amateur readers of NIC probably don't spend much time with the analysis, but the interviews and tourney reports and columns are more than enough for many subscribers. It's well worth the price.

Kasparov has written most entertainingly when he has dropped the pompous "this is how the champion should talk" tone and shown his humorous side. I've worked on countless writing projects with him and he's gotten quite good, even in English. Anyway, I hope he lets his remaining hair down and has fun with it, which will make these columns a good read. The first one, out this week, covers Linares. He discusses his favorite games, various scandals, and, most importantly, who will get his hotel room now that he's gone!

Not to start a tradition of previewing events too far in advance, but there's a talking chicken out there you just can't miss. The "Fire on Board" website for the June 25-26 four-game match between Alexei Shirov and Viktor Korchnoi has a bizarre Flash animation for the ages. Don't skip that intro until you hear the talking chicken!

It's an interesting event, as much for the sponsorship and web presentation as the chess, which looks like a mismatch despite the amazing Korchnoi's latest resurgence up the rating list at the age of 74. They are trying to make this out as a big rivalry, although they've only played each other three times since 1996. There are many side events online and off and they plan on live web coverage. The event is sponsored by the Best Western Hotel de Ville. Comically, and in typical miss-the-obvious fashion, you have to work a little to find out what country the event is in. (Unless you know where "Right at the heart of the Euregio" is.) It's in Eschweiler, Germany.

Shirov's "Fire on Board, Part 2" just came out last month, but I haven't picked it up yet. The fireonboard.com website is registered to the hotel chain, which is somewhat odd. I hope that implies a continuing committment to chess and/or Shirov.

If you aren't too distracted by the Miskolctapolca Cave and Thermal baths or the Junior Men's Handball World Champoionship [sic] you should check out the eight-game rapid match between Peter Leko and Michael Adams in Miskolc, Hungary. June 2-5. Adams is famous for his nerves of steel in rapid play (he was ranked #1 on the rapid list for quite a while). Leko is no slouch of course, and didn't play at the recent Mtel. If I were a betting man, I'd go with the Hungarian on his home turf. Both will play in Dortmund next month.