Garry Kasparov's latest New In Chess column (#7/2005) is themed on young players. He touches on the Needleman affair, Nakamura's Qh5 repertoire, and the dearth of young Russian talent.
The "mostly unwarranted" at the top refers to the attention being paid to the openings and the resignations, not Nakamura. As in, "who cares, let him play chess." Just to clarify. Meanwhile, in a recent issue of Black Belt, long before Kasparov's remarks, Hikaru took his punishment like a man before annotating his win over Mamedyarov.
After losing this game I had to recoup very quickly as the next game began at 10 A.M. the next day (not the normal 2 P.M. start). As such I got the idiotic idea to just play 2.Qh5 against the Sicilian! To Volokitin's credit he was ready for it and proceeded to whoop me in very convincing fashion. So although I lost in the final I still played reasonably well.
Lausanne: What to say about it? Lausanne has quite a different beauty about it than either Biel or Geneva. Biel tends to be a quiet city with a very small night life. Lausanne on the other hand...it seems to have a lot of night life. Unfortunately, I was not able to experience this as the hotel that the players were staying at was about thirty minutes from the center of town.
The game which I will provide for this month's edition of ChessNinja is my first round game from the semi-final matchup with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, a GM from Azerbaijan. Of all the possible matchups which could have occurred this one was definitely amongst the most anticipated. Shakhriyar and I have played many games against each other on ICC; (Smallville and Azerichess) with the score being a whopping 10.5-.5 in my favor (blitz only). [They are also two of the highest-rated players at Playchess.com.]
After playing this very good game I proceeded to play one of my worst games in recent memory in round two. I, for some reason, decided to trust the comp engine which said "Bg4" was equal! Of course after a few more moves the whole position turned very sour and I lost badly. Thus we had to play a tiebreak. I won the first game, and barely held on to draw the second game."
Well, at least it sounds like we won't see Qh5 against the Sicilian again anytime soon. Hikaru just got back from Armenia where he finished equal second in the category 17 Karabakh tournament. Yesterday he played a six-board blindfold match (6-0) at an prestigious art gallery here in NY that is opening a cool exibition of famous chess sets. I saw most of them in Philly at a special exhibit a few years ago.
The exhibition is a reprise of one done in the 1940s. At that exhibition, George Koltanowski played a six-board blindfold simul. He played against the likes of Alfred Barr, founder of MOMA. Marcel Duchamp ran the simul (had he played, he might well have beaten Koltanowski).
are there any stories of blindfold/simul disasters?
I thought it was Woody Harelson who played 2.Qh5 vs. Garry in their excibition game. Later Seirawan joined Woody and reduced the opening damage...
Maybe they/ he was trying for a quick three move mate against Kasparov.
First of all Nakamura should play for his native Japan but looking at how Japan treats its Chess Federation (looking like an averagely priced B&B) you can hardly blame him for selling his talant under the stars and stripes...Secondly, Garry is too harsh on him. He's playing exactly like an american champion. What is an american champion? -a Bundasliga Division 3 or at best the British 4NCL (second division). Besides, in the days of Great Soviet dominance chess was not just a means to make a few bucks, it was treated as a sport and accompanied by appriate esthetics. You will not find a Russian GM (even today) without a university degree...and now look at the 'grandmasters'...
First of all Nakamura should play for his native Japan but looking at how Japan treats its Chess Federation (looking like an averagely priced B&B) you can hardly blame him for selling his talant under the stars and stripes...Secondly, Garry is too harsh on him. He's playing exactly like an american champion. What is an american champion? -a Bundasliga Division 3 or at best the British 4NCL (second division). Besides, in the days of Great Soviet dominance chess was not just a means to make a few bucks, it was treated as a sport and accompanied by appriate esthetics. You will not find a Russian GM (even today) without a university degree...and now look at the 'grandmasters'...
Nabunaga,
Do you follow chess closely?
Nakamura (2662 FIDE, #42 in world) playing in Bundasliga (3rd division) and British 4NCL (2nd division)? You've got to be kidding. Besides Adams (2719 FIDE) and Short (2673 FIDE) all other Britishers couldn't play in HIS league. Matthew Sadler is the 3rd British player at 2617... not even close to Nakamura. A forty-two point difference is far and wide.
Nakamura came to U.S. at age two and didn't know how to play chess at that time. He didn't "sell" his talent to anyone.
Correction: forty-five point difference
Mig,
I just noticed the World Team Chess Championship webpage, http://www.wccisrael.com/
Nakamura has been left out of the US team again... can you please enlighten us whether it was a USCF decition, or Nakamura's decision, or scedule of conflicts, or some other reason?
Hehe, I wrote "scedule of conflicts". I meant of course "conflict of scedules".
If Hikaru doesn't have a schedule conflict and was left off the team purposely, it would be a national outrage and the USCF should be disbanded.
I'll wait to hear an answer from someone.
I thought the teams that qualify for the World Team Championship were the SAME teams that participated in the previous Olympiad. So Nakamura isn't on now because he wasn't on then.
Or am I confused?
http://www.wccisrael.com/Regulation1.asp
What was the gist of Kasparov's comment on the Needleman affair?
Duif,
I think the _teams_ qualify from the Olympiad, but I see nowhere in the regulations they have to consist of the same players.
I can also see that the Russian and Israeli teams to the WTCC are not the same one as participated in the Olympiad (Khalifman is absent for Russia, Huzman replaced by Erenburg for Israel). So I don't think the regulations require the same lineup of players, and the reason for Naka's absence is different.