September 2005 Archives

Today's pairings: Anand-Adams 1-0, Polgar-Kasimdzhanov 1-0, Svidler-Leko 1-0, Morozevich-Topalov 0-1. Anand and Topalov lead on +2, Leko trails at -2.

Round two again stirred up the anger of the computer-addicted twits out there who wouldn't recognize a good game if it bit them in their silicon ass implants. The tablebase-endowed got all hot and bothered about all the "blunders" in the Topalov-Anand game, and they weren't even talking about the real mistakes! Both players made real human mistakes in the queen and two pawns vs queen endgame, i.e. errors that they could reasonably be expected not to make. But comparing the rest of the complicated check-fest to perfect tablebase computer play is absurd.

Back to human chess, Anand exhibited his habit of playing quickly and lazily in technical positions and allowed Topalov to create real threats with his bishop pair. (46.Bg5! was nice.) Later, the clearest win to me looks like 60.g5 Qe7 61.Qxe7 Bxe7 62.Bd4+ Kh7 63.Bxb2 Bxg5 64.Bg7. So, first Anand should have drawn, then he was clearly lost but defended with his usual tenacity and Topalov couldn't find the knockout. A thrilling game, if not a great one, and no doubt exhausting for both players.

Leko won the draw and got two whites in a row to start the event. He has used both of them to exhibit a total inability to play aggressively enough to put someone away in the Open Sicilian. Here he let his h-pawn sit around against Morozevich instead of blasting away. (31.h5 looks like a no-brainer, but surely not a forced win.) At least Leko didn't go on to lose this one, although it was close. He has reverted to Leko 1.0 at just the wrong moment.

Caught some of Seirawan's live audio commentary at Playchess.com during the round, great stuff as always from Yaz. Having done it myself I know it's tough to drone on constantly without a visible audience, but he is a stud at it. Informative and fun, he only needs to put some John Madden BANG! BOOM! into his voice so he doesn't hypnotize us all. (Unless that is his evil plan!) But he was doubtlessly as tired as the players by the third hour. He should also feel free to kick back and tell a few stories, that sort of thing, instead of worrying about giving a constant stream of variations and analysis. Maybe he did that when I wasn't listening.

[Round 3 update: White is okay! Adams lost control in complications and lost to a fine Anand attack. Polgar beat Kasimdzhanov in her style (20.Bb5!) in the same ultra-sharp, ultra-theoretical Sicilian piece sac line where she beat Anand a few years ago. But Fritz points out 22..Be5!! as saving, maybe even winning, for Black. (23.f4 Rxa2!; 24.Kb1 Kg7! amazing) So she should have taken the queen. That doesn't look good at first but White gets a rook back with an easy win: 22.Rxe8+ Kxe8 (22...Qxe8 23.Qd6+) 23.Rxe7+ Kxe7 24.Nd5+ The trick. White wins the a8 rook no matter what. 24...Kf8 (24...Kd6 25.f6!) 25.Nc7 with mate threat 25..Bf6 26.Nxa8]

Svidler beat Leko in a game that confirms Leko's horrible form. After the mindlessly passive 24..Rd8 Black is just wiped off the board. That knight on b7 is a crime against cavalry. Topalov won against Morozevich with black long after picking off a pawn with an amusing knight wheel starting with 24..Nc6. Moro is certainly not his normal aggressive self so far.

Today we have Topalov - Anand, a key battle between the early leaders and pre-tournament favorites. If Topalov starts the event with wins over Leko and Anand he becomes a huge favorite. Then it's Adams-Polgar, Kasimdzhanov-Svidler, and Leko-Morozevich. Moro is often more dangerous with black than with white and Leko will need to bounce back from his painful loss. Moro looks very tired in the photos.

An exciting first day of chess, unless you are Hungarian. Polgar was completely outclassed by Anand in a Caro. Leko missed attacking chances with 17.f4 and later 20.Nb6 and finally lost the thread against Topalov in a sharp and balanced position. I wonder if he just missed 23...Rd8! and white has to exchange or lose the Nf5. Suddenly the queens were off and Black had the two bishops, which Topalov handled forcefully.

How have your live experiences been? The official site now has the complete fixture up. Nigel Short's fine stuff is appearing first at ChessBase.com. Games are there too. A rather low-tech list of high-resolution photos is at the official site here: www.wccsanluis.net/fotos/

FIDE has hastily changed the dates for their recently announced World Cup KO tournament. Now it's Nov. 26-Dec. 17, having been moved up a week so as not to clash with the Russian championship final. It's not nice to mess with Comrade Zhukov.

First! First! Got the first round pairings right here, baby! Get'em while they're hot. Morozevich-Kasimdzhanov, Polgar-Anand, Leko-Topalov, Svidler-Adams. Games start at 2pm EST, 6pm GMT, 3pm Argentine time. Full schedule here. A great round, with winning chances for all eight players. But they're all going to be great rounds. Message board winner prediction poll results: Anand 48%, Leko 20%; Topalov 16%; Polgar 8%; Svidler 4%; Morozevich 3%; Adams 1%; Kasimdzhanov 0%. Not even a courtesy vote for Kasim, but maybe that's because the pollster misspelled his name.

The official site doesn't even have the pairings up yet, failing its first test. [Update: Now if you click the player photos you get SOME of the pairings?! Only the player's games with white. Bizarre.] They are also trying to charge $40 to register to watch the games live. This isn't a money-making scheme because anyone with a brain knows by now that no one pays. Nor do they even have the Dortmund 05 pretext of attracting more spectators to San Luis. So why? To stop the server from being totally crushed is one reason. Not that it will help too much, as they will find out. Countdown to free live games and/or none at all due to traffic 10, 9, 8...

[This is the official r1 thread, so feel free to post results as they come in.]

Forget having Kramnik play in San Luis and let Vassily Ivanchuk in instead. The Chuckster has his rating up to 2752 and looks set to add a pile more points. He just scored 6/7 for Polonia Plus in the Euro Cup (admittedly on board 2 behind the solid Boris Gelfand). As usual, his games were great. I annotated his win over Volkov for Black Belt a few days ago, what a game. (See below.) He gives up a knight right out of the opening for long-term pressure against Black's open king and keeps creating threats and nabbing pawns for the next 30 moves until Volkov collapses. Don't show this game to any beginner students; they'll never respect the value of the pieces again.

In a Sport Express interview, FIDE prez Kirsan Ilyumzhinov acknowledged that FIDE might allow the San Luis winner to play a unification match against classical champion Vladimir Kramnik. Good to hear, if not exactly a surprise to these pages. It's been translated on the FIDE site, so it's clearly meant as a signal flare.

This is basically as expected. There is no reason for FIDE to refuse such a match categorically if there's a buck in it for them. And note that it isn't clear Kramnik would become the FIDE champion if he wins. Assuming that's the case, the problem is Kramnik showing up with the money. I've always said that if Big Vlad can knock on FIDE's door with a sack full of loot we'll have a unification match faster than you can say "no draw odds and an extra rest day." Let's hope he's still in good with Ms. NAO.

I doubt the schedule of the just-announced 2005 FIDE World Cup is set in stone, but there could be time issues. Will the San Luis winner feel like putting his/her title on the line so quickly? I guess it wouldn't matter if this unification match happened after the World Cup. None of the San Luis players are more or less likely to go for a big money unification match, except maybe Anand. He doesn't need the cash or the legitimacy and likes a low-stress lifestyle. Topalov himself isn't an issue, but his manager is the same guy who did such wonders for Ponomariov's match with Kasparov.

An item on a May Kramnik interview is here. Other stuff on FIDE and unification here and here.

Veselin Topalov was first to arrive in San Luis, Argentina for the 2005 FIDE world championship tournament, two days ago. (The first round is Wed., Sep. 28.) Yesterday Peter Leko and Rustam Kasimdzhanov showed up at the airport, met by governor Saa and some of his cabinet members. Adams, Polgar, and Svidler are scheduled to arrive today. There is a major airline strike in Argentina right now so they will have to take a charter to San Luis. There was an inauguration concert at the playing site starring one of the last great tango artists, Mariano Mores. I think Topalov was the only player there.

Comments were minimal, typified by Kasimdzhanov's, "the winner will be the one who deals best with the pressure." My favorite comment so far from El Diario de la Republica, the local paper providing by far the best coverage, is "[Leko] is known for his aggressive play..." They have some grainy photos, including this one of Leko learning the Uzbek soul handshake from Kasimdzhanov.

As for the predictions about pressure, the last-place finisher will be the one who deals worst with it. But the winner is going to have to play some kick-ass chess. At least I hope so. I would hate to see an epidemic of short draws and a +2 winner. In Linares and Sofia this year we saw that doesn't have to be the case with this format. Topalov is playing the best chess these days, but his habitual loss or two could doom him here. I'm sticking with Leko as my prediction for first place. Then I want to see him ask for draw odds in a rematch with Kramnik!

FIDE has announced the sponsorship of its 2005 KO World Cup tournament, the first stage of the new world championship cycle. ChessBase has a handy report that includes maps and the full press release.

The World Chess Federation has reached an agreement with the leadership of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region-Yugra in respect of the organisation of the 2005 World Chess Cup. The tournament will be taking place from 3 to 24 December 2005 with the total prize fund of USD 1,572,000. [On the 28th this was changed to Nov. 26 - Dec. 17 to accomodate the Russian Championship final.]

The respective document was signed today between FIDE and the Executive Direction of "Yugra-Intersport". According to the Agreement, the first tranche of 200,000 USD has been transferred to FIDE today. The balance of the agreed prize fund should reach the FIDE Bank account by 15 October 2005.

The Organiser covers the organizing costs and USD 1,300,000 of the prize fund. The FIDE President H.E. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has also contributed with a sponsorship to the tune of USD 300,000.

My former ESL teacher self loves seeing 'dictionary words' and hokey idiomatic expressions in press releases. Next: "Sponsorship costs a pretty penny!" This is yet more good news from FIDE, what's up with that? This is taking all the irony out of the "I heart Kalmykia" button my friend Kat made me last year. Oh, a return to the halcyon days in the romantic Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Region-Yugra... Just rolls right off the tongue. How about K-MARY instead?

That they already have money lined up for the first stage of the cycle makes the case for unification with Kramnik ever more marginal. Maybe it's not too late for him to Tonya Harding someone in San Luis and sneak in.

The powerful Euro Club Cup is underway in Saint Vincent (Aosta), Italy. It seems most of the world's top hundred players are in action. The elite are represented by Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Bacrot, and Gelfand, among others. (Half are on one team...) Here's the list of teams and players. Karjakin is on 3/3 playing board 7 (!) for the defending champ NAO team lead by Kramnik, who didn't play last year. Five teams have perfect 3/3 team scores.

The Java-crazed official website almost outdoes last year's for horribleness. They are keeping their chins up, however: "We are keen on clarifying that the fault was never on the website, which works perfectly under a huge number of daily contacts and is being constantly improved by our designers, who have spent a lot of working time on it (we are very proud of them and of their results!)." I'm guessing they haven't tried to look at the pages on a standards-compliant browser. On the bright side, I've learned many error messages in Italian, even in IE. "Errore di compilazione di Microsoft VBScript error '800a03ea'" and "Errore di sintassi" are my favorites so far. Works perfectly? As Dubya might put it, "Brownini, you're doing a heckuva job!"

[Several people have posted links to the results and more at the Weiner Zeitung site.]

Anatoly Karpov is on a tour of Argentina (Spanish) in the run-up to the FIDE world championship in San Luis. The typically error-ridden local news reports don't agree on whether or not he'll show up in San Luis. (One says he's playing in San Luis, another that he was world champ for 17 years, etc.) Barn-storming the country at the same time and not going would be odd. But it would be a bit awkward appearing alongside Ilyumzhinov, whom Karpov called a "dickhead." (Well, not exactly. But saying one would do a better job isn't much better.) If so, I hope he packed all his faces.

From the 17th to he 29th, Karpov has a full slate of activities, from handing out awards, to receiving commendations, to appearing at the Najdorf festival. Of several simuls, he's going to give one in Salta, in the far northwest of the country. Beautiful place. He may meet with president Kirchner, but bigger than that will be his blindfold game against Diego Maradona tonight on Maradona's new "La Noche del 10" television variety show, which is all the rage.

Just the latest entry in the eternal - and eternally fruitless - debate about whether or not chess is a sport. (Of course it just depends on how you define the word "sport," which we can skip.) Actually, this one is about competitive video games, a category in which chess also fits these days. It might surprise some old hands for whom online chess is a novelty - and the only online game they play - that for many chess is just one of various online, umm, sports.

Quite a lot in common with chess. Physical conditioning, commercialization, sponsorship. No, wait, we don't have all of that in chess... Btw, even if that's in Singapore dollars it's still $30,000. Yow. I mean, Hau.

An overdue and controversial redesign of legendary Washington Square Park in New York City includes news for the famous chess corner:

I've heard of USCF events (and national events in other nations) being held in informal and/or outdoors spots before. There is a massive set of chess tents in the center of the zocalo in front of the Fine Arts museum in Mexico City where there are constant tournaments. That the USCF seems involved in these changes to the park is a welcome sign of sapience on their part.

The hustlers (who aren't likely to disappear regardless) are quite a sight, but a majority of them are more likely to scare people away than attract them. There's someone camped out at each board most of the time, challenging passers-by and refusing to get up without payment for "renting" the board from him. The chess and checkers pavilion in Central Park is usually empty.

We've covered public places to play here before. Add some more here or under that item.

The Lausanne Young Masters is underway in Switzerland. It's a KO again this year and the first games of the second round are already in the books. US champion and Black Belt contributor Hikaru Nakamura and Ukraine's Andrei Volokitin are both rolling so far, winning with white against Mamedyarov and Harikrishna, respectively. They'll meet in the final if they hold with black today.

Another junior in the news lately is Chinese 16-year-old Wang Hao, whose name is an Abbott and Costello skit waiting to happen. He scored an impressive 10/11 at the Malaysia Open a week ago. In April he won clear first in the Dubai Open ahead of some 50 GMs.

Maybe I've become jaded, but in the past few years I've started to feel like "wake me when you hit the top 40" when it comes to all the so-called prodigies coming down the pipe year after year. Sergey Karjakin set the gold standard and it should stand for a while. And if you aren't in the top 50 by the time you're 18, you're just another player trying to make it to the top. Still, Hao is not just playing well or making contrived norms, but winning tournaments.

He's already leaving the Golden State, headed for a week of politicking in the far east of Russia. Kasparov spent a one-day visit in San Francisco, across the Bay from my hometown. He was there for a short address to executives and clients of consulting giant Deloitte today. The ZDNet blog [thanks to xplor] already has notes about it online and CNET should have something more substantial up tomorrow.

I talked to Garry before and after the address and he said people showed a great deal of interest in his upcoming book, which combines memoir with a sort of how-to guide to the decision-making process. We just spent a few days here in NY working on it. The focus is on strategy and decision-making, but of course I'm more into the chess stories. Apart from the inevitable classics that will be new to the intended general audience, there's a lot you haven't heard before.

Colorado news sources are full of reports about chess author and coach Robert Snyder being held on charges of sexual assault against two "boys between the ages of 11 and 13." [Umm, 12?] Snyder wrote the very popular Chess for Juniors, among other books. He was found not guilty of similar charges in 1983. Innocent until proven guilty is critical when the alleged crimes are so heinous. Outraged and terrified parents don't always make for balanced investigations, as has been shown many times in the past.

Speaking of guilty, another junior coach and author, John Walker, may still be in prison for molestation, for which he was arrested in 2000. Be careful out there.

And the sweatshirt, mousepad, tote bag, and thong.

Because some of you demanded it! I've set up a quickie online shop with my awesome new ninja logo by artist Paloma Campo-Urrutia. I stuck with just one image and the more popular items. If sales are enough to pay for the effort I'll add some Daily Dirt logo items. If you really, really want teddy bears, BBQ aprons, and baby-doll t-shirts, let me know.

1993 world championship challenger Nigel Short, formerly chess columnist at the Sunday Telegraph, has started a new column at The Guardian newspaper, also the home of Leonard Barden and Jonathan Speelman, a formidable chess section, mentioned here before.

At least at the start, the column is focusing on Short helping a Guardian journalist go from patzer to, well, something better. Together with Short, journo Stephen Moss will document his own progress as described in this intro. The first installment is here. If this seems an odd role for an internationalist like Short, currently ranked #30 in the world, it is, though it's sure to be an entertaining ride. I might be able to offer some background. A few months ago an editor at The Guardian contacted me about becoming a chess columnist for them. Although we never got to the point of specifics, it seems they were looking for something instructional, perhaps already having this dual column in mind. Definitely looking forward to it.

FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has issued the letter you'll find below. It's a mini state of the union address with more spin than content. Mentioning FIDE's work with the ACP is a good sign. Not long ago they wouldn't even acknowledge the existence of the players' group.

This newfound call for suggestions from someone long prone to unilateralism is doubtless a consequence of the serious support being shown for an alternative ticket, likely led by Anatoly Karpov. Ilyumzhinov's comment about having "the full support of the Russian Government" is no doubt directed toward blunting opposition momentum, but last I checked Putin didn't have a vote, only a veto. Other items in the release sound like they've actually been listening to the many complaints regarding professionalism and corporate sponsorship and the lack thereof. But a press release doesn't mean action.

The putative opposing ticket may run into trouble if Karpov's name continues to be involved in a Russian banking scandal. Two people have sent me items from the Russian press about a fraud affair over a bank of which Karpov is/was (honorary?) chairman. More details if I get a decent translation, but it seems incredibly unlikely that Karpov could be in any way liable. Celebrities are often on dozens of boards with little or zero contact with operations.

[Back from a short vacation, more mental than corporal. Taking a break from your computer is a vacation in itself these days.]

Top seed Evgeny Bareev won the 2005 Russian championship qualifier ahead of Alexander Khalifman on formula tiebreaks after they both finished with 6.5/9. Both winners scored very entertaining wins in the final round. A good source tells me that little is fixed about the December championship final. Most of the seeded players haven't confirmed yet. Morozevich and Svidler are prepping for San Luis.

The 13th World Computer Championship was held last month in Iceland, but you might easily have missed it. Despite a great deal of organizational effort and a fine official site, news coverage was sparse. And there was news in Reykjavik, thanks to two relatively unknown amateur programs finishing in the top two spots ahead of the usual suspects.

The American program Zappa scored an impressive 10.5/11 in the round-robin for clear first. The open source program Fruit from France was second, two points behind. Shredder, which collects these titles, was tied for third and defending champion Junior was equal 5th-6th. As with human chess, a single tournament win doesn't say anything definitive, but it's an intriguing result nonetheless. I mentioned the event and how you can use some of these programs in my latest column at ChessCafe.com. (PDF) Shredder programmer Stefan Meyer-Kahlen has a diary of the event with photos.

ChessBase, publisher of the top commercial programs Shredder, Junior, and Fritz, covered this event exactly not at all, quite a switch from previous years when the WCCC often received daily coverage. Basically they feel the publicity and scientific returns from comp-comp events have diminished to the point of negativity. The small but vociferous computer chess community spends a lot of time bashing ChessBase, much the way the computer geeks bash Microsoft. (Note that they had decided not to cover the event before it started (and didn't enter Fritz), so the lack of coverage is not about the relatively poor results of Shredder and Junior.)

I did a quickie email interview with Anthony Cozzie, the programmer of the new champion. Most of the questions are evident from the answers, so I've skipped them where possible. Here's a pic he sent of himself with the trophy.

I am a graduate student in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (I live in Urbana). This is my first year. I already have an MS in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, home to Hitech & Deep Thought. I managed to take a class in parallel computing from Nowatzyk. I found him a very interesting guy, except that his voice put me to sleep. In my spare time I play basketball and watch anime (I speak some Japanese as well).

I began the program during the spring of my Junior year at Carnegie Mellon (2000 or so) and have worked on it ever since. As a computer scientist I find the parallel search the most interesting part, but I have also worked on the chess knowledge factor. About 2 years ago, just after CCT6.

[How much has it improved since the last version, which you said was significantly weaker than the top commercial programs?] I would say that the program is quite a bit stronger, but to be honest I have no hard proof. I have never run a match of (say) 100 games vs Shredder, nor have I ever tested my parallel speedup on more than 3 positions. I tend to 'fly by the seat of my pants' so to speak :) This has gotten me in trouble from time to time, though.

[How much do you pay attention to other programs?] Quite a bit. Its simply much easier to start a Zappa-Shredder match than a Zappa-Kasparov match to see whether the program plays better chess or not. I think that Zappa and the Erdogan [opening] book are simply a beautiful fit. Erdo's book simply needs a deep searching aggressive engine, and Zappa fits the bill. I myself am probably 2000 USCF or so, so yes, I bug any strong chessplayer I can find :) It is also something of a problem living in the US where there aren't as many strong chess players.

I leave the book work to Erdo. You'd have to ask him how many hours he spent on it, but I suspect it's in the thousands. I think the book is extremely important: just look at the emphasis top GMs place now on the opening. Good programs are now of similar strength, and the opening is just as important for them. This is especially true because to win open tournaments you have to get an insane score, and that means winning a lot with Black. There simply aren't many pushovers in computer-chess these days, so you need a good Black opening book.

Sourcing is thin, but this report says that Will Smith - known to my generation as the Fresh Prince and not the Men In Black guy - will star in the Disney film adaptation of the Salome Thomas-EL book/story "I Choose to Stay." (Since he was speaking in the town in Oregon where the paper is based, I imagine he's the source.) It was mentioned here last year.

Smith often makes the "celebrities who play chess" lists that are regurgitated on a regular basis. Thomas-EL is on the AF4C board and his book is an interesting and important one. Here's the official site. Positive education and chess images on the screen and in the hands of one of the most popular stars in the world can hardly be anything other than a great thing.

[Update: Salome Thomas-EL comments below after a long thread I haven't been following while taking a few days off.]

The mighty qualifier for the Russian Championship super-final in December is getting underway in Kazan. The sites are in Russian, news and games will trickle out to ChessBase and TWIC, and some helpful Russian-enabled readers always post here and in the message boards. (That's a link to a list of the players and discussion about the event.) This qualifier is a nine-round swiss with Bareev the top seed. The top seven finishers go to the superfinal, joined there by rating seeds (Svidler and Morozevich are the only ones mentioned on the official site, though Kramnik lists it on his schedule) and by Dreev and Grischuk, who are in the final automatically for finishing 2-3 last year. Kasparov is the defending champ but has retired and isn't factored in. That still leaves a few of the 14 final spots unfilled by my count.

I'm told on good authority that a Russian-American GM who played in last year's US championship wanted to play in Kazan, which apparently was okay with the Russians. But he was told that this would make him ineligible to play in the next US championship.

If you are having trouble with the cyrillic names at the nice ChessPro page on the event, here's a helpful key to some of the photos.

Alexander Khalifman = Russell Crowe in LA Confidential
(Bonus: Alexander Motylev as the teenage Crowe)
Sergey Rublevsky = John Candy in Stripes
Vadim Zvjaginsev = James Spader in Less Than Zero
Dmitrij Jakovenko = Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby
Konstantin Sakaev = Wayne Knight in Seinfeld

Whether or not chess is permissable under Islam has gone around many times, including in the mainstream press. The Taliban said no, but then they said no to everything. Iran used to say no, but lately have said yes, even hosting the FIDE world championship final in 2000. Now that the Bush administration looks set to succeed where Bin Laden failed in turning Iraq into a Sharia state, this is again a hot topic, or at least a hot symbol of repression.

But I hadn't seen the Q&A section of Grand Ayatollah Sistani of Iraq's website myself until now. The items on chess are quite categorical. It is "absolutely forbidden," coming in worse than anal sex on the sin chart and at the same level as abortion. Chess even gets this charming exposition:

Well that settles that. Obviously this is all debatable, at least if you are far enough away not to be stoned to death for debating it. The Shiites in Iran and most other Muslims don't seem to agree. Some old-tyme Christian and Puritan sects also banned chess and other games. Even today Jehovah's Witnesses frown on chess because of its "military nature."

[Pointed out below that Tim Krabbé looked at Sistani's site and chess opinions (though not the one above about debauchery. Hey, I LIKE debauchery) in item 275 here. He even got a ruling that perhaps composing and solving chess puzzles might be okay, but it seems clear that such things are more like playing than not in that they are a similar "waste of time." So I wouldn't risk it.]

I first looked into chess and Islam when the US invaded Afghanistan in November, 2001. The following is part of a column I wrote at the time (Mig on Chess #155). Most of the info on Islam comes from HJR Murray's "A History of Chess."