September 2006 Archives

Thanks to everyone who posted it or sent it in. You may stop now. Speaking of humor, how about this from Ilyumzhinov's latest?

Excellent. Campomanes is standing by! (For you newbies, Florencio Campomanes was the FIDE president who cancelled the 1984-85 Karpov-Kasparov world championship match.) For further tragi-comic observation, sharp-eyed reader John Henderson points out that the second photo from the top on this ChessBase report may offer irrefutable (if not water-tight) evidence in Kramnik's defense. I hope that's a trick of the light.

As Kasparov just pointed out to me, Ilyumzhinov is about the only one in Elista without a vested interest in the match ending now. (That includes the appeals committee.) It may cost him $$$ to get it back on track. (HAVE THE PLAYERS ALREADY BEEN PAID??) Garry will probably have a piece on this mess in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. Also, interesting letter from John Nunn here. I don't think it's any shock to hear that Topalov is FIDE's horse in this though. He is quite literally their champion.

For you conspiracy buffs out there, how about if this is all just a PR stunt that 1) gets the game and this rivalry into the news, 2) allows everyone to leave still a champion, and 3) provides an excuse for both of them to play in the Mexico City WCh tournament in 2007, which can be billed as a showdown. Note that Kramnik's participation in this could be unknowing.

If you don't like my artsy version of this photo you can download a standard capture. The story that photo accompanies is here. As of 19:10 it's still on the NY Times homepage. The BBC is also in on the act. Since there are so few reporters on the scene, everyone (who can't speak Russian) is quoting the shrill press releases from the players' teams and Misha Savinov at ChessBase. All the docs are there now. I like the part where Hensel calls the appeals committee "biased and incompetent." Adjectives, you can't choose just one!The latest is a letter from professional peacemaker, ChessBase commentator, and 9/83 Cosmo bachelor of the month GM Yasser Seirawan with suggestions to get back on track.

I'm still going through the five stages of grief but I'm stuck on denial-ov. It's almost too depressing to keep talking about and I can't even bring myself to wade through the hundreds of comments that came in while I was out all day today. (Has anyone tried "Water(Closet) Gate" yet?) Discussing the semantics of the paragraph on bathrooms in the player contract?! Kill me now. I also have to work with these people, and taking sides in something so preposterous seems beside the point. Both Topalov and Kramnik are generally pleasant and positive, but the pressure has effects off the board, too.

Topalov's taking a borderline frivolous complaint public along with allegations of cheating was malicious. Kramnik's taking the bait and allowing himself to be forfeited was foolish, if perhaps inevitable. Of course this complaint would never have happened were Topalov leading 3-1. But it would have made sense for Kramnik to accept that his behavior (as described, since I'm not there) is unusual and not unworthy of a (quiet) complaint from a frustrated opponent. I'd like to think it could have been dealt with professionally, if not amicably. In these cases nobody wants to back down; Kramnik didn't want to give a millimeter by changing his habits at Topalov's request. It would be on his mind that Topalov "won" every time he went to the bathroom. (Which apparently means he would be thinking about it constantly, ba-dum-bump.)

So how about that contract paragraph on bathrooms? Are the whole player contracts available? It seems that Makropoulos confirmed my impression that they don't promise each player a private bathroom. I can't believe I just wrote that. And they changed the conditions with cause after a committee decision. I'm not agreeing with it, just wondering if the appeals committee really did break the rules as Seirawan states. The bit Hensel quoted read, "FIDE shall provide a rest room and toilette for the players during the WCC match in the playing hall and close to the stage (if possible backstage) to be equipped with a live monitor furnished with coffee and tea as well as with light refreshments.” But of course it's not the facilities, it's the principle.

Regardless, with outside assistance on everyone's mind these days, and with various real cases in the news, erring on the side of paranoia is a good idea. I'm not in favor of naked players and colostomy bags (yet), but searches and bathroom attendants don't seem that invasive when the stakes are this high. Then we can move on to who picks the attendants, I mean the "restroom marshals."

They should definitely overrule the forfeit by any means necessary, first off. Then make Danailov the attendant in Kramnik's restroom and Hensel the attendant in Topalov's restroom. We'll get them little uniforms and caps. Then the players should shut up and play chess. I want to wait another 12 hours before talking about the repercussions if the match doesn't continue. Then I'll have to go through the stages of grief all over again and I'm all out of Herradura Añejo. (Aka "stage 6")

Well, this isn't funny anymore. Today's game five has been cancelled. Is Topalov out of his mind? Are all chessplayers insane? I've always joked that it seems the moment someone wins a world title, any world title, they either go into the witness protection program start behaving like a pharaoh.

So now we have the old "won't shake hands" trick. What, Topalov is worried that Kramnik doesn't wash his hands in all those trips to the bathroom? No seriously, this is ridiculous. FIDE responded to Topalov's appeal, saying Danailov's claims of Kramnik's bathroom usage were exaggerated, if "unusual" in quantity. The appeals committee decided that the players' private bathrooms should be closed and they should share one. Kramnik's team protested, although the item in they quote from the rules doesn't seem to say the players get a private bathroom. The rest of it is aggro and distraction about favoritism that don't seem relevant to the original complaint.

So as it stands, it's Kramnik who didn't show up today to play and the official site lists him as having forfeited game five on time. I'm disgusted. This sort of mind-game BS has a long history in big matches, of course. Protests, counter-protests, the besmirched honor of suddenly virginal martyrs. What a joke. Topalov should be ashamed. I predict it will continue tomorrow with no forfeit. Wishful thinking?

Well, you didn't hear it here first, but even I have my standards. They're around here somewhere. As you know by now, Topalov's manager, Silvio "Stopwatch" Danailov has been watching a lot of video lately, and it's not his Simpson's DVD set. He has issued a formal complaint about Kramnik's lack of potty training and, drumroll please, says that if his concerns about Kramnik's suspicious bladder aren't addressed by 10am tomorrow "we would seriously reconsider the participation of the World Champion Veselin Topalov in this match."

The conspiracy theories have already grown their own conspiracy theories, of course. You guys have really outdone yourselves. E.g.: Topalov wants to bail out of the match because he's down 3-1 and he's looking for an excuse... Kramnik's illness has rendered him incontinent... Kramnik often comes out of the bathroom to make moves that were also recommended by computers... Alexander Zhukov, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and President of the Russian chess federation, is desperate to have a Russian champ again and KGB cronies and Ilyumzhinov are sending codes messages through the plumbing... Danailov has way too much time on his hands... Kramnik just happens to be someone who does his best thinking in the can... How about the old classic, all of the above? And someone tell ChessBase that Fritz is on the Fritz, or did Kramnik not come out of the bathroom before blundering into a mate in the second game?

The added irony is that Topalov has been the one with rumors of remote assistance swirling around him since San Luis. Not a month goes by that I don't receive a very earnest explanation of how he and Cheparinov have set up a signalling system, or use sock transmitters. Now we get a minute by minute breakdown of Kramnik's trips to the bathroom, which number up to 50 according to Danailov. There are mating pandas that don't get this sort of scrutiny. Okay, I admit that it's pretty damn weird to wander in and out of the rest area and bathroom constantly during a world championship match.

As you could have guessed, this has hit the mainstream (stream, get it?) news in a hurry. Nothing like a good piece of toilet humor to get the wires burning. Although I seriously doubt this was Topalov's initiative, who would you rather have as a unified champion, a sore loser looking for a distraction or one who isn't house broken? Oh the humanity. My real worry is that Topalov will win the complaint and have to wear rubber boots to the board for the rest of the match. And who was just asking me when I would every get to use the 'kidneys' tag again? Triumph!

We had another Catalan in game three and Kramnik had strong pressure right after the game left theory. His nice shot 16.Bg5! forces Black to play with extreme caution. Actually, after fiddling around with it for a while just about everything looks miserable. 16..Qxg5 17.Nxe6! is the point, winning a pawn after the forced 17.Ne5 Nxg5. The immediate 16..Ne5 also looks desperate after the natural 17.Bxd8 Nxd3 18.Bxa5 Nxd2 19.Rdb1.

Topalov went for 16..Be7 and was let off the hook when Kramnik captured on e7. Everyone is abuzz about the sharp 17.Ne4!, keeping the pressure on. Black can't capture the bishop because of Nd6+ and Nxc8. Topalov would have had a serious struggle to save the game. Back to the way it went, Kramnik kept an in a heavay piece endgame activity advantage and increased it steadily. He had a chance to play for a win with the risky 32.exd5, getting two connected passers. Kramnik played it safe, but his protected passed d-pawn wasn't enough when Topalov found 35..f5!, equalizing immediately by forcing White to bail into a perpetual check. 36.Qe3 fxe4 37.Rb6 looks dangerous but Black holds after 37..Qd5. Another rich game in Elista. Troubling for Topalov's opening prep, I'd say.

Today is a big game for Topalov. Not exactly a must-win, but he desperately needs to get a positive trend going. Speaking of, I just chatted with some of the organizers of the 2007 world championship tournament in Mexico City (September). Guess who they are rooting for? First off, Topalov speaks Spanish fluently and was a big hit there during the Morelia leg of Linares. Second, they are terrified of having a tournament in which the world's top-ranked player isn't participating! Unification would ring a little hollow if there's a big WCh tournament with the #1 not playing, no doubt. (The way Topalov is going he might not be #1 for long...) I've mentioned before that I think they'll finagle Topalov in even if he loses in Elista, but who knows? And what about the Radjabov match?

Update: Game 4 drawn in 54 moves. More exciting stuff, this time some sacrificial opening prep from Topalov. Kramnik fended him off, shedded the extra pawn to liquidate and reach another complicated heavy piece endgame. Topalov tried for a while to make something of his central pawn majority but didn't get far after a few imprecisions. Another very interesting game, and Topalov didn't blunder. With his nerves under control he'll be able to make the rest of the match interesting despite his two point deficit.

For Kramnik, who was also shaky in the first two games, it looks to me that the only questions about his level are about stamina and we won't know about that until the final week. He was classic Kramnik the rock today, taking the sacrificed pawn, reorganizing his pieces, giving the pawn back to lessen the pressure.

Veselin Topalov has been written off before and come back to win. But those were tournaments and this is a match and he's already felt the difference. He has black today and obviously can't afford another loss. He can still afford not to play too sharply with Black. He has no reason to shy away, however, having reached excellent positions in the first two games. Official live broadcast here.

Mainstream coverage has been so-so. Don't miss Kavalek in the WaPo. Susan Polgar's blog is providing coverage amidst the gigantic graphics. Mihail Marin continues to rock the mic at ChessBase. The Mal and Mark show's got some flavour at TWIC. Some very good stuff at Chesspro, with some in English.

Post other links if you got'em. Feel free to update the game and the result. I have a long night of work ahead and may sleep through this one. Too bad I'm allergic to coffee.

Just an alert that the game two post-game press conference is up at the official site. Kramnik is lucky he stayed oblivious to how close he came to disaster on move 32. Had he noticed while Topalov was thinking it really could have wrecked his concentration for the rest of the game. Such oversights can dwell on you for a long time. But now that he learned it only after the happy ending it's no big deal.

Topalov's explanation of why he missed it himself is typical. He was happy Kramnik didn't play the superior 31..Kxf8, which he had analyzed out to equality. So he played the still strong 32.Qg6+ without looking for Lasker's proverbial better move.

Try to conceal your surprise. After nearly a year of ignoring them, FIDE actually mentions the long-lost candidates matches scheduled October. The news is about what you'd expect.

Well, okay, many FIDE flops come back like a boomerang to Elista sooner or later if they appear at all. Having them in Elista would at least mean having them. But why a 16-player round-robin when it would only take two rounds of six-game matches to find the final four who play in Mexico City next year? As for the last-moment date change, candidate Boris Gelfand of Israel sounds off on the matter in an open letter. Excerpt:

Sounds like Gelfand may soon be in need of the services of his fellow candidate, and lawyer, Gata Kamsky! Of course the structure has already been changed once before. It was supposed to end with a match and was changed to a tournament after San Luis went well. It shouldn't be considered a coincidence that the same FIDE Presidential Board addressed what I mentioned here a few days ago, putting professional chess into the hands of professionals to rescue it from the amateur organizers (and professional clowns and crooks) running FIDE now.

Well, how about that! I leave a drawn endgame for Rosh Hashanah dinner in the burbs and come back to the Bulgarian Blackout! Game one went perfectly according to Topalov's plan. Good preparation, steady play, and a long grind to tire Kramnik out even though there were few real winning chances. So far so good, but it was Topalov who crashed and burned, inexplicably blundering a clean pawn on move 57 with no chance to save himself after that. Kramnik finished with total precision and won game one to take the lead. A shame for Topalov, who showed off both his quality and his fighting spirit only to hand his opponent a freebie.

Topalov is the resilient sort and it's fair to say he can look back at this game and see he outplayed Kramnik in the sort of dry position the Russian usually masters. Then he can go smack his head against the refrigerator for blundering away a key half point against a guy who is terribly hard to beat. Kramnik doesn't need favors and he very rarely returns them. At least Topalov has white tomorrow to try and bounce back. There are analysis notes and links to more in yesterday's item. GM Inarkiev has commented PGN at the official site. ChessBase has Marin's typically excellent analysis. TWIC has analysis by Malcolm Pein. (I've upped the link limit for comments, sorry if you were one of those who got moderated automatically yesterday.)

Post-game update: It's 2-0 Kramnik! Unlike yesterday's game this one was sharp and tactical, but it had a few similar sporting themes. Topalov (1.d4! No Petroff! No Berlin!) was in control and got a tremendous attacking position. Then after a Kramnik blunder (31..Kxe8 32.Qg6 was still tough for Black) Topalov had a chance to win instantly with 32.Rxg4+ Bg7 33.Qc7 but misfired. Kramnik toughened up his defense and Topalov bailed into an endgame he failed to hold (first failed to win?!) against Kramnik's superlative technique. A wild, fascinating, and frequently brilliant game from both players with the significant caveat of the double blunder in the middle.

Six-man tablebases point out that both players "blundered" in the R+P vs N+P ending. 53..Re1 was a "blunder" and White needed to play 55.Kd7 for a theoretical tablebase draw. Rather irrelevant, I must say. The line to draw such a position is "only move" as the day is long. Actually, upon further review this isn't impossible to find for white at all. For Black to find that 53..Re3 is the only move is another thing. But 55. Kd7 b5 56. Ne6+ Kf7 57. Nd8+ Kf6 58. Nc6 Rb1 59. Kd6 b4 60. Kc5 b3 61. Kc4 b2 62. Kc3 is a tricky but "human" drawing line Topalov might have found with more time. Meanwhile it's a stretch to call Kramnik's 53..Re1 a blunder because it's quite arcane to figure out that 53..Re3 is the only winning move. (It's because in one line ..b3 must be played with the knight on c5. Long story.)

On the phone from Moscow, Garry Kasparov adds that he would be very surprised if 36.Qh5 isn't winning for White by force. Overall he is predictably unimpressed by Topalov's play so far.

All the cliches about nerves being a decisive factor are coming home to roost, to mangle a metaphor. Two of the worst and strangest blunders in Topalov's career in the first two games of his first big match can't be a coincidence. Topalov has outplayed Kramnik in both games and blundered fatally to lose both games. His energy and obvious skill have been overcome twice by failures of his nervous system. It's not as if the game was over after the double blunder, by the way. White's position was still probably for choice, in fact. Topalov played hard for the win and again failed to get it. Kramnik didn't need another blunder from Topalov this time. He totally outplayed the FIDE champ in the second half today, as it were. And you can't just say it's Topalov trying hard to win. At some point "showing too much fighting spirit" crosses the line into "making inferior moves and getting your butt kicked." Topalov crossed that line today. We can recall how often Kasparov and Kramnik had to save mind-bogglingly difficult positions in the 2000 match, although they had their share of technical lapses.

So is it over already or is this just the early lead Kramnik needs to balance out Topalov's typical late charge? The match is too short for Topalov to play it safe for a few games to get his equilibrium back. He's not quite to the point of having to win with black (the Benoni?!) but his back is clearly against the wall just two days into the match. Tomorrow is a rest day. More analysis and commentary coming soon here and at ChessBase.

Today is the day at long last. Kramnik will push the first pawn (or a king's knight) against Topalov in about five hours. The match will be, drumroll please, drawn after 12 games with a win apiece. Boring call, I admit, but I'm just being honest. Topalov has been playing great chess for the past year and a half. His peak tournament performances have demonstrated a level of chess Kramnik can't compete with. That is, on tournament results and game quality Topalov would be a +2 favorite. But this is a match and Kramnik is constructed to be a match player nonpareil. Unless his stamina fails him in the final week it's hard to imagine him losing more than a game even against the relentless Topalov.

To hedge constructively, I can see this pick going wrong in Topalov's favor. If Kramnik isn't back to his peak form he could be badly mistreated in the fourth hour of play if Topalov is able to press consistently. Kramnik hasn't really been under much pressure since his return, to his credit. If Topalov can avoid short draws as he usually does, Kramnik's endurance will be tested. On the other hand, if the big Russian can conserve his energy he has shown on several occasions he can win the big game. Kramnik's winning scenarios are limited, but if he can keep it even without exhausting himself he may have another upset on his hands.

I just put up a mini-preview at ChessBase.com that includes some comments from Garry Kasparov. His main concern was what happens after the match. Topalov's reaction, win or lose, seems fairly predictable. He'll stick with FIDE (and will almost surely be let into the 2007 WCh tournament even if he loses in Elista) and if he wins there's the Radjabov match we haven't heard much about lately. Kasparov is concerned that Kramnik's reaction is less predictable in both cases. He has benefited from his title claims and might not want to give them up or put them on the line in a tournament a year from now. Personally I think Kramnik will be happy to come in from the cold win or lose. He wants to play chess, not lead a movement or be an organizer.

I thought Garry would pick Topalov as a favorite if only from affinity with the Bulgarian's chess and his undisguised distaste for Kramnik's. But chess is chess and few people know the depth of Kramnik's powers better than Kasparov. Of course in just 12 games a slip here and there can matter as much or more than all our analysis and psycho-babble. It should be very evenly fought and if Topalov pushes as hard as ever we should have plenty of great chess to chew on for the next three weeks.

Feel free to post in-game updates and result.

Update 1: Topalov has the first novelty of the match, 12..Ba6 instead of the 12..Na6 Moiseenko played against Grischuk in April. Kramnik takes just five minutes and makes a typically pragmatic decision to decline the pawn sacrifice, playing 13.Qa4 instead of 13.Qxa5 Bb7! with good play. But now Black should be solid after 13..Qb6.

Since the FIDE elections I've been hinting that there are various forces at work to take on pieces of the Bessel Kok agenda, either inside or outside of FIDE. It's all been off the record so far, so I was happy to receive a copy of a Sep. 21 article by Rob Velthuis in the Dutch newspaper Trouw sent in by Ian Rogers that discusses one of the plans that had been floating around. As described, FIDE would put Kok in charge of all professional chess operations, including the current world championship cycle. You know, the one with the disappeared candidate matches that lead to the San Luis-style world championship tournament in Mexico City next Fall. (Also the Olympiad and the women's and junior's titles.) FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Kok met last Friday in Ukraine to discuss it. Amsterdam would likely be the base of this new operation.

In the article, Kok said "I let him know my conditions and he shook my hand and promised he would come back to me with a complete proposal. It's mad, but everything is bizarre in FIDE. We had a deal about this in 2002 and nothing came of it." I believe he then makes a joke about Kirsan's blaming the collapse of the Prague agreement on astrology. It all looks very pie-in-the-sky so far.

If this all sounds like it could just be a way for Ilyumzhinov to hand off a problem child so he can blame someone else if it fails, that doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad idea. If Kok is given actual authority instead of just the responsibility, this could be a Good Thing. This FIDE presidential board might produce some news, but of course it's entirely Ilyumzhinov's personal decision. There is also a new wildcard, a third party with a proposal to run the next world championship (2007-2010). That pitch is taking place right now in Elista. I recently ate excellent blini and chocolate cake with the person doing the pitching, so I expect to have good info on how things went when it's over!

Let's get ready to RRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrumble!!! It's FIDE champ Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria vs classical champ Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. 12 games. The opening ceremony is over in Elista and the party has already started in other threads, where Misha Savinov let us know that Kramnik will have white in Saturday's game one. FIDE has a live games page here and the full schedule here. Post your coverage and news links and items below and I'll move good ones up here. Games start at 3pm Elista time, 1pm Germany, 12pm in the UK, 7am in NY, 4am in CA, 1am Hawaii. The Internet Chess Club and Playchess.com are promising live relays with commentary. GM Yasser Seirawan will do his fantastic audio show at Playchess during the games.

Of course we probably wouldn't be paying much attention to this if the winner weren't a future world championship contender – and current world championship candidate. (Continuing to pretend that the FIDE candidates matches still exist on some ethereal plane.) 15-year-old Magnus Carlsen beat his old mentor Simen Agdestein 2-0 in a rapid playoff after two classical playoff games were drawn. Agdestein was up a piece in the second classical game but a dramatic counterattack in time trouble saved the draw for Carlsen.

This is Carlsen's first national championship win. Last year he lost to Agdestein in a similar playoff. I hope he continues to play in his country's championship. Too many top players stop participation in national championships as soon as they hit the world elite, considering the prizes too small and the potential loss of rating and prestige too great. There are quite a few strong players who have never even bothered to play in their national championships and others stopped participating before they hit their peak years. In Norway's case, other than Agdestein there may just not be enough competition for Carlsen in coming years.

The Russian championship has recovered its luster with a "superfinal" in recent years, bringing top players back to the event. Kramnik played in the last USSR championship in 1991 when he was just 16 and never appeared in the considerably weaker Russian championships, although Morozevich and Svidler made regular appearances. Kasparov had to share first in his USSR championship wins in 1981 and 1988, the only two national championships he played in after early appearances at 15 and 16. He played in and won his first and only Russian championship in 2004, the first of the superfinal events. Kramnik played in his first Russian championship last year. Adams and Short have missed far more UK championships than they've attended. Leko and Polgar haven't seen a Hungarian championship in many years. Indian players start avoiding their grueling championship as soon as they can, it seems. I don't blame them on that one, however. 20 rounds, often with two-a-days.

Top players aren't necessarily busier than their lower-rated compatriots, but they often have better offers on the table. It's often the same story with the Olympiad, although there are only rarely competing events in that case (such as MTel this year).

Just in case you’re busy packing your bags for Elista for the Topalov-Kramnik match, make sure you don’t try to fly in on the day of the opening ceremony on Thursday, September 21. I just heard from someone who was planning to do exactly that. There is a daily flight from Moscow to Elista every day except for Tuesday. But exactly this week, that hole in the flight schedule was changed to Thursday! In honor of the world championship? Or maybe all the best people have private jets. Now one of my Elista spies has to take a take a 150-mile taxi ride from Volgograd to Elista. Ouch.

Good news, the Topalov-Kramnik match has broken through in a few mainstream newspapers. The Times (UK) has a report from Tony Halpin on the scene in Kalmykia. (Note there is a second page to the article.) It sounds like the Elista Olympiad in at least one respect:

This also sounds like the last US championship in San Diego, with the doors not on the building the day before it started.. Mmm, cake. I'm hungry. And they have horses. I'm a little scared of horses. I remember Kramnik not being very happy to pet the camels in Bahrain for photos. Where was I? Oh yah, Elista. Kramnik, a small-town boy himself, sez:

True, although I prefer cities that generate more mainstream coverage that catches the eyes of potential sponsors. Not that I don't love a golden pagoda as much as the next guy. Still, this is a good start. FIDE says they have issued several dozen "international journalist credentials." The FIDE website has more photos of the players' arrival.

ChessBase has a brief item on Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik arriving in Elista with some nice pics of Kramnik on the plane. (Game 1 begins Sep 23.) This pic on the left, however, comes from another match and is a fairly rare shot of Vlady without his glasses. It was taken at his London residence right before he took the title from Kasparov in 2000. It was taken by Valery Krylov, his physical trainer then and now.

Some insight into what goes on behind the scenes in the camp. Here's Kramnik second Evgeny Bareev after the London 2000 world championship match.

It's usually vodka in Elista, but I'm sure Ilyumzhinov has ways around the various Russian embargoes on fine Georgian wine. Both Topalov (Vallejo) and Kramnik (Illescas again) have Spaniards on their team...

I'm going to hold off to the last minute to make a prediction on the result and score. Topalov's incredibly strong finishing is a bad match-up for Kramnik's potentially still inferior stamina. The last week of the match could be bad for Kramnik regardless of how things are going up to that point. The memory of Kramnik's amazing play to tame Kasparov in 2000 stays with us, but he was far less impressive in Brissago against Leko two years ago. That was ice versus ice, and maybe he's really only at his best when he's neutralizing a "hot" player like Kasparov - and Topalov. Including rapid, blitz, blindfold, hopscotch and everything else, Kramnik has a significant +10 score from 61 encounters. Kramnik is +7 -2 against Topalov in classical chess and started out +6 -0. [I forgot I was counting from a more recent set of games I'd searched for. It's actually +10 -5 =24 for Kramnik.] The last time they played was Dortmund 2005, a win for Kramnik.

Both players have been so inconsistent (if always top 10) over the past few years that an old head-to-head score isn't very useful here in September 2006. Topalov wasn't the same player in 2005 that he was in 2004 and Kramnik had several poor years until coming back from health problems this summer with a brilliant Olympiad performance and a super-solid equal first at Dortmund last month. Kramnik has only played 16 games this year, but he's undefeated and has been more active than Topalov recently. The Bulgarian hasn't played a classical game since winning the MTel in May. Let's hope they don't spend too many of the 12 games shaking off the rust!

By they way, the conventional wisdom that says Topalov will be somehow escorted into the 2007 FIDE WCh tournament even if he loses this match is looking pretty solid from what I hear. Fair enough, but the method isn't clear. I'd wager on the field being expanded.

The second group of the Spanish team championship played its third of five rounds today. Gelfand won a tremendously tactical game against Tiviakov on board one in today's top matchup. Great stuff. (Game below.) His favored Gros Xake Taldea team barely held on to win, however, thanks to an upset on the lower boards. It's always heartening to see a team of IMs and FMs hold off a team full of known Grandmasters. The untitled Jaime Valmana (2282) beat Harikrishna (2682) with a pretty tactic 17.Rxg6! (game below). (Although it looks like Black could have swindled a win with 34..h5!)

The team format also means you can find drama anywhere. In the second round, the heavyweight teams drew on the first five boards. Mamedyarov-Aronian, Jakovenko-Ponomariov, Harikrishna-Shirov, all drawn. So it came down to board six and IM Candelario vs IM Jerez. Perez won to give victory to Linex Magic. Actually, the drama can depend more on the length of the games. That decisive victory only lasted 24 moves and was probably over before most of the draws on the higher boards. And since a win on a higher board is worth more, any victory by the other team would have changed the team result. There are two more rounds to play. The top finisher will go to the final match in November.

By virtue of tardiness I once became the undeserving focus of a big match between the two largest Buenos Aires clubs, Club Argentino and Torre Blanca. The top boards were all GMs like Ricardi, Zarnicki, Sorokin, Spangenberg, et al. Because I arrived late and they were having trouble finding enough room for all the games, my game and one other started around half and hour later than most. (It's a massive match for the Najdorf Cup. I think it was 50 boards including a few dozen special ones for juniors and women.) I was in a superior endgame and it turned into the last game in progress when my teammate next to me went down in flames in time trouble after having a totally winning position. That was important because I had figured I had draw odds in that the score was tied 24-24 with our two games still going. Now if I failed to win we would lose! I managed to win and was treated like a hero since we drew the match, although of course my point wasn't worth any more than those scored on the top boards. The sad epilogue is that it was only the first half of the match and we got totally wiped out on our home turf a week later to lose the Cup. (I had to work and couldn't play in the second leg, but my replacement won.)

Speaking of team play, even if it's over the internet, the US Chess League is still rolling along and its website is full of interesting clips and games. Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston are all 3-0 in team play. Pascal Charbonneau beat Larry Christiansen for NY in a game he (and Irina Krush, I believe) will be annotating for an upcoming issue of Black Belt.

The FIDE website has announced the teams Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov will bring with them to their 12-game reunification match in Elista, starting September 23. The event page also includes a small version of the official logo, which includes one of the homelier animals on the planet, the improbably proboscised saiga antelope, which apparently roam the Kalmyk steppe. Much like the world championship it represents, the saiga is endangered and somewhat deformed.

But we'll take it, won't we? What choice to we have? 12 games and unification and a tournament instead of a match and no candidates, but at least it's chess, classical chess, and it should be good and interesting chess at that. If Kramnik is in 2000-02 form this won't be an easy ride for the favored Topalov. If the FIDE champion does get into trouble it won't be due to a lack of support. He's showing up with an entourage that would make Jay-Z proud, nine members. They include his longtime Bulgarian second Ivan Cheparinov and, a surprise, US champion Alexander Onischuk! The other player on the team is Spaniard Vallejo Pons.

Kramnik's team has undergone some changes from his last big match, Brissago 2004 against Leko. Spain's Miguel Illescas is the only player to be on both, and he was also on Kramnik's team in the London 2000 match against Kasparov. Bareev was there in 2000 and 2004 but is gone now, replaced by fellow Russians Motylev and Rublevsky. Legendary sports trainer Valery Krylov - who once worked with Karpov's teams as well as Soviet Olympic teams - is with Kramnik again. (I have his brilliant business card and when I find it I'll scan it in.) No sign of Arfo Aziz, the kickboxing champion bodyguard he had with him in Bahrain. (Kramnik's seconds there were Christopher Lutz and Tigran Nalbandian.)

Ah, girls always want to go to the mall. At least Kateryna Lahno and Elisabeth Paetz did. This ChessBase report illustrates the wacky chess event that was held at a giant mall complex in Linz, Austria. (Where Hitler went to school, for you trivia buffs.) Living chess, painted models for queens, Kasparov and Korchnoi, what more could you want? Garry's now in NY and was telling me about the event the other day, but the CB report doesn't mention that Korchnoi played two rapid games with Lahno, beating her 1.5-0.5. The Ukrainian teen was in time trouble in both games!

The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts high school teacher and chess coach/organizer Severine Wamala "has been arrested on felony rape and incest charges." Another report adds, "Court records show the previous arrests were on charges including stalking and violating restraining orders." Another says the charges "don't involve his employment." I vaguely recalled his name from scholastic reports here and there; at least two of his kids have had successful scholastic chess careers. Several people who sent this in to me did so because they know Wamala (and/or his kids) and wanted to speak well of him and his work in chess. A cursory web search also turns up positive comments. Let's hope for the best for the family.

We're in a bit of a lull after the frantic summer festivals and the start of the Topalov-Kramnik reunification world championship match on September 23 in Elista. The European Union Individual Championships has two rounds to go. The open event in Liverpool is headlined by Short and McShane, who are in the pack of leaders with 6/8. A few leagues are in motion, including the powerful Spanish "Honor Division" with Ivanchuk, Sasikiran, Volokitin, Vallejo, Bologan, and a few other names.

McShane-Short was played in the eighth round and reached an unusual material balance, White's rook, bishop, and two pawns versus Black's rook and seven pawns. Yes, seven. It finished in an honorable draw. Capablanca played this material balance as a tot in his famous 1901 match aganst Corzo. A ChessBase search reminds that Svidler-Vallejo also played it in an amazing game from their Leon, 2004 rapid semifinal match. It was Vallejo's only draw in the four games.

Speaking of unusual material, Ivanchuk beat Sasikiran in the Spanish team event's second round. Down the exchange, Sasi then gave up a knight to go down a rook with little in the way of compensation. Hard to say what he was looking at and he resigned not long afterwards. Weird. Lastly, Bologan made hash out of a drawn rook endgame against Nisipeanu. He must have been in time trouble to stay in the pin with 47.Kd3 instead of Kd2. The same game is worth a look for the middlegame combo by black and the mate trick at the end. Also note the "white to play and win" final move of Delchev-Giorgadze. Giorgadze struck back in the third round with a speculative piece sac against Pelletier that eventually won the day. Many fun games in this event. PGN downloads at the bottom of this page.

The heavily favored Intel - Tiendas UPI team led by Ivanchuk won despite losing a match. In November they will face the team that comes out of the second group, currently in action. C.A. Linex Magic is the heavy favorite with Aronian, Ponomariov, Shirov, and Karjakin. Tiviakov, Gelfand, and van Wely are also playing.

The Russian championship superfinal at the end of the year is going to see a lot of new names, at least new outside of Russia. A pack of under-2600 players qualified out of the championship in Tomsk. I haven't seen dates for the final yet - last year it was over Christmas. The seven qualifiers include the winner, Inarkiev, who took clear first with a solid 6.5/9 score that illustrates how strong and hard-fought this event was. All the other qualifiers had six points, with Najer being left out on tiebreaks. The others include Tomashevsky, who was the only sub-2600 player to make last year's superfinal, where he finished last with 4/11. Rublevsky won ahead of Kramnik, Svidler, Morozevich, et al.

This year those big guns will also be joined by relatively low-rated members of the Russian youth movement that hasn't really shown much in the past few years. I believe Ian Nepomniachtchi is just 16. Khismatullin, Vitiugov, Alekseev, and Grigoriants are all in their early 20's. (Khairullin, also around 16 years old, finished with 5.5.) That is, all younger than Alexander Grischuk, the only Russian born after 1980 to hit the top 10. It's a stark contrast with last year's event, won by veterans Bareev and Khalifman. Perhaps this largely ignored generation of Russian players is ready to make a belated impact. Give or take a few months and unknown exact birth dates, there are currently no Russian players under 21 rated over 2580. Amazing. zakki points out below that the 20-year-old Tomashevsky is over 2580, so back to my original thought of 2600. He's the only Russian on the FIDE top-20 juniors.]

Breaking News: It barely rang a bell, and the only reports so far are in Spanish, but it looks like the Grand Slam Association tipped at the MTel this year came into being furreal in Spain yesterday. [With blurry photo.] MTel, Linares, and Corus are obvious, but the inclusion on the list of the Spanish city of Bilbao – the meeting took place in nearby Santurtzi – is a surprise. Morelia and Dortmund are mentioned as potential candidates for inclusion, as well as "maybe a Russian city." Bilbao has been the home of the human-machine rapid tournaments over the past two years.

Danailov was there for MTel, Antón Madariaga, Juan Carlos and Josu Fernández for Bilbao, and Linares mayor Juan Fernández sounded excited: "We are delighted with the idea. It's something that's been missing. It will bring a new dimension to chess and create more resources. This sports needs to modernize. It needs greater diffusion and better marketing and the union of all the big tournaments will help this be achieved." The Morelia and Wijk aan Zee organizers were there by telephone. The Grand Slam won't just mean a "new shared logo," and "a single corporate image," although not all the listed ideas sound like good news. A few seem contradictory. Some translated excerpts from the various reports, all emphasis mine:

First off, this is generally good and overdue news. With FIDE intent on destroying the value of chess (time controls, KO events) and the world championship (tournaments, challenge matches, dead cycle), it's good to see the real professionals coming together to save themselves and the sport. Combined sponsorship, ensuring the top players participate, a stable calendar, and guaranteeing professional standards are all good things.

Common format? Ick. That would be like playing all the tennis Grand Slam events on the same surface or golf events at the same course. I would particularly hate to see every event become a super-exclusive six or eight-player double round-robin. But one report gives 6 and 14 for minimum and maximum, fitting with previous events, so let's hope standardization is dropped.

Obviously the Bilbao hosts were running the show, but a human-machine rapid event isn't the same as a super-tournament. Including them with no track record, and no confirmed dates on the schedule, is a little odd. (Bilbao was in October 2004 and November 2005.) They should have released a calendar at the same time. But they must have been convincing because I have faith in Corus organizer Jeroen van den Berg. I hope a few documents will be released soon.

It's been gone over so many times it's barely worth mentioning, but every new organization, tournament, website, server, and guy on the street wants to reopen the can of worms of copyrighting live game transmissions online. ("Piracy" above.) This isn't even a can of worms anymore, it's more like a can of dead horse. The instant a move is transmitted online it becomes a fact, news that can be relayed and reproduced anywhere just like the score of a basketball game (which is where this went to court in the US years ago).

In a way it would be nice if broadcasts could be protected since it would give organizers a better chance to monetize their web traffic, but it's a pipe dream and one with a train wreck track record of stupidity and failure. At the 1998 Olympiad FIDE tried to charge for PGN downloads (rounds 1-4 for $19.95!); KasparovChess.com (among others) threatened lawsuits to protect event transmission; in London 2000 Braingames briefly stopped showing the Kasparov-Kramnik moves to journalists in the press room they were so paranoid (and deservedly so; one of the techs running their server passed the moves to me via IM anyway); Dortmund didn't show live games at all for a while in 2005 and got nothing but grief. What you CAN protect is multimedia, what is called "robust content" like audio and video, even live chat commentary. (My memory credits Eric C. Johnson bringing up that argument six years ago. Chess Pride!) Use those things to attract people to your site or just be happy that so many people can follow your event worldwide.

Okay, sorry for hijacking my own item, but this is a pet peeve and one I fought from the other side for a few years. Back in 2000 we had lawyers looking into proving that the value of live moves is high enough to count as protected broadcast content. All those arguments make economic sense, and you can find a lawyer to sue anyone for anything, but they didn't really stand up. The real value is exclusivity – being the only site to show the moves would have the same high value ten minutes or ten days later as long as no one else knew the moves and results. Organizers might intimidate some sites into cooperation or submission with legal threats, but it's just bad blood and spilt milk. Multimedia is already here, so let the games go. Chess moves want to be free!

Getting back to the Grand Slam, it's a good start and we must realize there will some false steps at first. The players will have to give up some of their freedom in the name of professionalism and sponsorship. (Trivial things like a dress code seemed blatantly offensive to many players just a dozen years ago.) A real calendar that can guarantee the participation of the top players is a minimum and they will benefit too. Having top guys drop out at the last minute for anything less than serious illness is even worse than Rublevsky in a neon Hawaiian shirt.

There's an inevitable element of the rich getting richer, but that's the nature of any professional sport. As many have pointed out, for the world #50 to make $100,000 a year, the #1 probably has to make five or ten million. Sport is elitist by its very nature; this isn't a socialist democracy. The rest of the NBA didn't complain (at least not the owners) when the Lakers and Celtics were winning all the championships in the 1980's because the hot rivalry made the league boom and soon there was more money for everyone. If chess booms at the top it will trickle down, and I'm not talking Ronny's voodoo economics. More demand, more tournaments, bigger prizes. It all starts with the consistency we must have to be commercially marketable. The ACP and the Grand Slam can be critical ingredients. It's a pity FIDE is still part of the problem and not the solution.

Let's hope there's a press release of some sort soon – and that they let the Dutch or anyone but the Spanish do the website... I've written to various of the participants and we'll see what we get for a report at ChessBase later.

The mighty 2006 Russian championship is underway in Tomsk. Various Russian sites are covering it, this one in English. The top seven finishers qualify for the Russian superfinal, which will include another five (?) seeded players of the 2700 denomination. Kramnik, Svidler, Morozevich, Grischuk, and defending champion Rublevsky are the likely choices. After five of nine rounds, Timofeev, Inarkiev, and IM Vitiugov are leading with 4/5. Bareev, last year's winner, isn't playing. Nor is Jakovenko, another qualifier last year. Tkachiev was listed but isn't playing.

It's an incredibly strong event, as usual. It's also an e4 crowd, with 81 of 145 games starting with the king's pawn and Black answered with 1..c5 in 48 of those. If Anand wants to improve against the Sveshnikov next time he plays Radjabov, maybe he should follow Timofeev, who played 16.Nce3 instead of 16.0-0 and demolished Smirnov in 24 moves. I see Karjakin played that move when he was a tot back in 1998. It certainly looks natural, if hardly devastating. I find I've played it myself in all four of the four online blitz games in which I've reached that position so it must be obvious indeed. Malakhov played Zvjaginsev's 1.e4 c5 2.Na3 against Vorobiov. The knight then went c4-d2-b3-c5, not exactly a useful performance.

The field of sixteen is complete for the world blitz championship final in Israel. The qualifier produced more than a few home-town surprises considering the caliber of the visiting players. Israeli IMs Zoler and Livshits made it, along with Israeli GMs Smirin, Sutovsky, Erenburg, and Roiz. Talk about home team advantage! Bareev, Milov, and Dlugy were a few of the favorites who didn't make it out of the qualifier. The actual results of the qualifer aren't up on the site, just the names of those who made into tomorrow's main event. No idea if any games will ever appear anywhere.

After the way Carlsen demolished van Wely in a blitz match of four games I'd have to rate his chances for a top-four finish highly. I'll take him, Smirin, and Gelfand against the rest of the field the way the locals seem to be inspired by the media attention. Sure, Svidler and Anand are Svidler and Anand, and Radjabov is quick on the draw, but the Magen David seems to be shining brightly in Rishon this week. Let us know your experiences with the live broadcast. I couldn't care less about live video, but it would be nice to have a PGN file of games at the end of the day.

Update: Well, it looks like the locals used up all their good karma on the qualifier. The winners were Grischuk first over Svidler after an armageddon tiebreak game. Anand, Gelfand, and Polgar followed according to ussr in the comments. I only have around half the games, TWIC has others, let's hope more come. Messy fun. Full standings at the official site, which was down most of the day.

What FIDE and the organizers are calling the 2006 World Blitz Championship is taking place in the lovely town of Rishon LeZion, Israel. Qualification for the event started a few weeks ago online at the ICC and an OTB qualification tournament is tomorrow. The final, a 16-player round-robin with eight qualifiers and eight seeded players, is on the 7th. According to the ICC, 153 FIDE titled players, 38 of them GMs, took place in the online qualifier. It was actually won by China's Zhao Jun, but he's playing in another event already (a France-China match; another China team match?!) so the other spot went to Merab Gagunashvili on tiebreaks, joining USA's Dmitry Gurevich.

The eight seeded players are an impressive lot: Anand, Svidler, Gelfand, Radjabov, Polgar, Grischuk, Bacrot, Carlsen. I'm not sure who all was invited to chase the $92,000 prize fund ($16K first prize!) or what it takes to get something called a FIDE world championship. (Mainz is calling itself the world rapid championship, but without a FIDE imprimatur, whatever that's worth these days.) It should be a good show if they can get the games out, always tricky with blitz. Israeli GM Boris "Deep Boris" Alterman, who has pounded me in more blitz games than I care to recall, is the organizer. Too bad he's not playing. The time control is 4'+2" increment (cumulative, not Bronstein).

Speaking of the live games, an Israeli site called IchessU (which sounds somewhat saucy – "I chess you long time") is in charge of the broadcast, but it's not clear how this is supposed to work. Anyone want to guinea pig and install their client, if that is how it's done?

Rishon is known as the city with the world's highest concentration of Grandmasters, becoming the home of imported and homegrown talent alike. I'm not sure what the count is these days, but last I heard the town of 200,000 had around 25 GMs! When I lived in Israel in 1999 while we were developing KasparovChess.com in Herzlia, little weekend club tournaments in Rishon would turn out over a dozen GMs.

World computer champion Junior 10 beat the Israeli Olympiad team 3-1 in a preliminary event. If this was also blitz it's amazing the humans got two draws, which were scored by Avrukh and Mikhalevsky.

I noticed that the US Chess League site says it's sponsored by a giant online poker site. (Shahade, like so many chessplayers, is a serious online poker buff). They are quite aware that chessplayers are a good market for their wares. Every month I used to have to go into our ad network at KasparovChess and turn off the casino ads, which are generally viewed as not kid friendly.

I'm not moralizing about vice and sin, but just like I wouldn't run ads for porn sites, I do think some expressions of our free will can be more destructive than others, and/or less conducive to a pleasant atmosphere. In the last few years, thanks to the poker boom, people are more prone to think of gambling as a career, and it very well can be for a tiny minority. For another minority it can be addictive and dangerous. Of course online poker ads are hardly going to destroy today's youth. Kids can't gamble anyway, at least in theory. (Regulating over-21 online must be a joke, no?) Casino ads can even land you on some net nanny lists in the US, which has never seen a vice it wouldn't simultaneously embrace and condemn. Of course this is a subjective and personal thing. I wouldn't run a gambling ad here, but if, say, a giant Vegas casino wanted to host the US Championship I wouldn't stress about it. So many US and international chess events are at casinos already.

I've been contemplating ads and sponsorship deals here after years of not bothering about it and just linking to a few sites I work with or support. I'm certainly not going to subject readers to flashing ads for a few hundred bucks a month. But shop affiliations and such are innocuous enough, especially if connected to real content such as chess book and software reviews. I'm particularly interested in engaging the community here to create peer-reviewed reviews with practical tips and advice in the comments, the best promoted to the main item.

My interest in monetizing traffic here to promote a few causes and prizes. One is the creation of a yearly brilliancy prize for top American chessplayers. My initial thought was that it should also be a game played on US soil. Players rated over 2400 (say) would submit one, maybe two, of their games to a small panel of judges. I'd want fan donations, sponsorship, and Ninja to combine to at least four or five thousand dollars to give it some traction. Plus a trophy/medal/certificate, natch.

Another cause is the creation of low-budget matches to give young pros and potential pros a chance to meet strong competition in match play. I'm not really interested in getting into organizing, a laborious and thankless task, but I'm not above promoting some things I'd like to see.

The US Chess League season two is underway. There are ten teams from eight large cities, one state (Tennessee) and two-state combo, Carolina. (A pro American football team is the Carolina Panthers, also combining North and South.) The games take place on the Internet Chess Club. The teams have eight-player rosters and names like the Baltimore Kingfishers and the Miami Sharks. Each match is of four players who must have an average rating of 2401 USCF or less. Full rules here.

League director Greg Shahade is wearing various hats, as well as his usual fedora, so I'm only a little surprised I wasn't sent anything about the launch of season two. I tipped the league last year in this item, but didn't really pay much attention after that. The quaint homebrew website has all the basics. They have well thought out rules on supervising the games, which are played together at an open site with TD supervision. There are a few new teams this year and you can donate to a specific team or the league in general at the site. Clearly Brooklyn needs its own team next year.

Okay, so the nachos were pretty stale after all. It would have been surprising to get anything else I suppose, but it does highlight Leko's choice of opponent. Perhaps he just wanted to add the match scalp of a former world champion and living legend, however aged, to his career achievement list? He duly achieved this by drawing games 7 and 8 to win the Miskolc Rapid match 4.5-3.5. One win and seven draws with lots of dry endgame play. Again, no surprise. It was a match between two premier technicians, both deservedly known for being less than aggressive and prone to avoiding risk and tactical adventures.

The last two games today again reflected this, although game seven had a sort of anti-excitement excitement. I'm not sure I can recall a game with a blockade starting on move 24 and lasting the next 40 moves. Karpov gave up queen for rook and bishop and held on for dear life to draw. Inspired, if tragically so. Karpov also suffered in game eight, and although he turned the tables in time trouble there were few serious winning chances throughout. If this had been a classical time control event it would have been of more interest to endgame fanatics, but rapid chess precision is something of an oxymoron.

Leko and Karpov drew two more swapfests in the Miskolc Rapid yesterday. Leko played 1.d4 again and kept a small edge into another endgame. White finally got a pawn but in exchange Karpov was guaranteed a perpetual or an easily drawn Q ending. Game six was a Semi-Slav with some creative exchanges and another draw. ZZzzzz.

The two game rapid match between Carlsen and Svidler at the Spitsbergen Chess Festival was considerably more excitement. Svidler won the match by winning with white with a spectacular bishop and rook sacrifice on move 13. Fritzy sez Black could have drawn with 15..Kf8 instead of 15..Kd8, but that would have been a shame for everyone except for Carlsen. 15...Kf8 16.Bd6+ Kg8 17.Re7 Kh7 18.Qxf7 Rg8 19.Be5 Qxc2 20.g3 Qc5 21.d6 If White wants to play on, although now it's anyone's game. (Or White can just force the draw with 21.Qxg7+ Rxg7 22.Rxg7+ Kh8 23.Rxg6+ Kh7 24.Rg7+ Kh8 25.Rg5+) 21...Qxe5 22.Rxe5 Rf8 23.Qe7 b6 24.f4 and Black has hopes of unwinding.

Vassily Ivanchuk rolled to a 10/11 win in the Odessa-Istanbul Cruise g/15 rapid tournament.

The Russian championship starts today in Tomsk. The top seven finishers in this brutal event move on to the superfinal. Tkachiev is playing, the same Tkachiev who won the French championship a few days ago! When is the Kazakh championship? Is there a list of people who held two national championships simultaneously?

Etc. Not to start up the "definition of greatness" debate again, but this mainstream paragraph on the EU Championship (aka the Liverpool International) caught my eye.

Nigel has mentioned this in passing several times, never coming out and saying "I'm the greatest" but often enough to make it clear to that it irks him Mickey Adams' higher rating is often given precedence over his 93 world championship challenger status. I'm not debating the item itself, although even "strongest" can be tricky. Short hit #3 on the rating list, something Adams never quite managed (he hit #4). MIckey's seven years of top-ten consistency speak for themselves. Elite tournament wins would probably go to Nigel. Discuss.

As for the event, I had zero recollection of this European Union Individual Championship, but it did happen last year as well, in Cork. Gyimesi and Bartel shared first. Short is the top seed this year and McShane makes an appearance. It's a ten round swiss system; the first round is Wednesday the 6th. The event was launched in a pub, a fine tradition to start.