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Garry Kasparov's How Life Imitates Chess book promotion blitz of the UK airwaves begins tomorrow. I have his personal appearance schedule so I'm not sure when some of the ones that aren't live air. I just know when he shows up at the studio. Maybe some of our UK readers can fill in the blanks. Some of the shows have sites that should have schedules up. There's a book signing in London on Tuesday.
• Sunday, April 1
11:30-12:30 - ITV, Sunday Edition with Andrew Rawnsley and Andrea Catherwood
• Monday, April 2
9:30-10:45 - BBC Radio 4, Start the Week with Andrew Marr (live)
21:45-22:30 - BBC Radio 3, Night Waves with Philip Dodd (pre-recorded, time is when this show airs according to their website)
13:15-14:00 - BBC Radio Scotland, Radio Café (live)
14:45-15:45 - BBC News 24, HARDtalk (pre-recorded with Stephen Sackur)
17:30-18:00 - BBC News 24, Five O’Clock News with Huw Edwards (live)
18:40 - BBC Radio 2, Chris Evans Drivetime (live)
• Tuesday, April 3
10-10:30 - Sky News, Sunday Live with Adam Boulton (pre-recorded)
14:00-14:45 - BBC Radio 5 Live, Simon Mayo Show (live with Phil Williams, may include listener calls!)
17:30-20:30 - Book signing at Waterstone's Piccadilly, the largest bookstory in Europe.
• Wednesday, April 4
10:00-10:30 - RTÉ Radio 1, Ryan Tubridy Show (Irish national radio) (live)
15:45-17:00 Frost Over the World, David Frost, Al Jazeera TV (pre-recorded)
Then back to Moscow in the evening. Yowza. There are plenty of print interviews and photo shoots squeezed in there too. Speaking of, there has already been something of a Kasparov wave in the press this past week. There was a great profile in the UK Times Magazine; the print version had many good photos. Garry had a new Putin-bashing editorial in The Wall Street Journal on Friday. Time Magazine just ran a piece as well.
It's a period instead of a question mark this time. FIDE's Nigel Freeman posted in the comments as follows:
With regards to Morelia-Linares etc., in order to be completely fair, the Ratings Committee has decided that only tournaments that finished a month before the rating list comes into effect should be rated. Once one starts to make exceptions, where does one stop? Why Morelia-Linares and not a whole host of others?
With regards to Gibraltar, I can only presume the ECF did not send the report in before the list was finished or it was sent in wrong.
With regards to Azerbaijan (and other countries whose players are not on the list), despite reminders, they failed to pay their dues in time and are at least a year in arrears. Once the arrears are cleared, then their players ratings will be released.
That clears it up in a literal way, but it's certainly rather cruel and unusual timing for Vishy fans (and there are at least 1.1 billion of them). Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but with only three changes at the top spot in the 35-year history of the rating list (four for pedants who want Kramnik's Jan 96 shared first to be included) and having the former FIDE world champion, world championship challenger and perennial rating list bridesmaid relegated on a sudden change of policy is notable at the very least. Acirce asks the pertinent question: "when was this decided?" Is the one month in advance rule new or are they just enforcing it now? Linares has been rated on the April list every year since the quarterly lists began in April 2001.
I say that because, just picking one example, the 15th Asian Games event finished on December 14, 2006 and was rated for the Jan. 07 list. There are also four events on the tournaments graded for this list that finished in March, although with just four of 1200 events I imagine there could be extenuating circumstances for each. For completism they are the open and women's Moldovan championships (finished March 1), the Ferme Elite A 2006 (March 9, but started in Sep 06, so probably a weekly thing), and the Asian Cities Team Championship for Dubai Cup (March 10, and submitted by FIDE ratings honcho Casto Abundo himself).
The FIDE rulebook says: 9.13: The closing dates for receipt of information for a particular list are usually one month before the publication of that list. -- 9.13a Rated play completed or received after the closing date will not normally be included in the computations for the rating list in question. The tourney list included countless events submitted in March but just the four exceptions that finished in March. So they selectively decided to enforce the "rated play completed" part of the rule and not the "received" part. Why? And again, when?
Of course this could be quickly forgotten if Anand is still in the top spot come July. Is he playing a rated event before Dortmund in June-July? Topalov is of course playing at the Mtel in May. No comment yet from the generally indifferent Anand (on getting the #1 spot, or so he thought at the time, "that's nice") or the not-so-indifferent Indian press. Now that it's been made clear it wasn't a mistake we'll undoubtedly get a reaction. I'm now told that the Indian press and the Anand household are on various levels of DefCon. Note that this would keep the Mtel event a category higher and perhaps drop Dortmund down one. Mtel will now have the #1 instead of the #3 and Dortmund will have the #2 and #3 instead of the #1 and #2. (Actually Topalov and Kramnik may have been =2-3. zakki posted his top ten calculations here after Linares. Anand 2785, Topalov and Kramnik 2772.)
The All India Chess Federation has issued a statement on the matter and is taking the issue up with FIDE. The "15 years" claim is wrong because the April lists didn't start until 2001.
dirtbag points out this new FIDE item on how this was the first list produced using the new FIDE Ratings Server, moving more of the operation online.
My thanks to FIDE treasurer Nigel Freeman, a man who knows many things, including the best place in Bermuda to get your wine poured from a ceramic rooster.
FIDE has released the April 2007 rating list with Veselin Topalov still on top. Why? Because the list does not include the Linares/Morelia tournament results that moved Viswanathan Anand up to the top spot. Linares finished on March 10, well inside the margin for inclusion unless the organizers suddenly changed their ways. Nor, as pointed out by Marky Mark, does this new list include the massive Gibtelecom tournament that finished in Gibraltar on February 1! I note the Ruy Lopez tournament won by Sargissian isn't rated either. It does include Aeroflot.
Getting the paperwork in on time is up to the organizers, although FIDE has a history of issuing repeated updates and corrections. For now I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to a FIDE blunder and expect this to be fixed in a day or two. If not, someone will have to answer some questions. The comments section is already buzzing with conspiracy theories. E.g.: Now that Topalov's manager Danailov is working on the Grand Slam with the Linares organizers, might they have let the paperwork gather dust just long enough to keep the Bulgarian in his cherished #1 spot? I really don't think so. But Linares has ended on March 10 several times in the last few years (March 11 last year) and it has always been rated for the April list, so a prompt correction, or some explanation, is required.
A Cuban news report announces that Lenier Dominguez will be one of the participants of this year's Aerosvit tournament in Yalta, Ukraine. It gives the dates as June 17-30. The article lists other invitees as well: Radjabov, Svidler, Rublevsky, Shirov, Nisipeanu, van Wely, and Karjakin. Dominguez wasn't aware of the other players in the 12-player field. Rublevsky won last year. So far this edition sounds like it will be even stronger than last year's category 18. Last year they had Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Grischuk, and Mamedyarov. It's a little tricky because it begins just a few days after the second round of candidates matches end (June 14).
If the name Jorge Sammour-Hasbun doesn't ring any chess bells for you, Jorge Zamora might. Sammour-Hasbun changed his name to its original Arab roots, which might have thrown you off the scent if you were looking for the "Latino" kid many thought was a future world championship contender back when he was playing blitz against GMs for money at age 11. His win at 12 over Kamsky led to him being called the youngest player ever to defeat a top tenner. (That game below; it doesn't seem to be in the usual databases. Fill in any info you have.) He was the US junior champ in 96, played in the US championship at age 18 and represented the western hemisphere in the long-forgotten "Europe vs the Americas" match in 1998. He was already headed out of chess at that point, and only played a few times until popping up on the radar this year. This week he concluded a most unusual comeback by winning the 8th Dos Hermanas tournament, an internet blitz event hosted by the ICC.
After qualifying for the final KO stage through over 2000 participants, Sammour-Hasbun outslugged and outlasted some big names and well-known blitz maniacs. Kamsky, Nakamura, Shipov, Mamedyarov, Guseinov, none of them made it to the final, where Sammour-Hasbun's opponent was Armenia's Tigran "not that one" Petrosian. This is Tigran L Petrosian, born in 1984. (The exact year the world champion of the same name died. Hmmm. Get your mind transplant conspiracies ready.) Sammour-Hasbun needed a draw in the last game of the six-game final match to win and it took him 227 moves to get it! That's what R vs B at a 4'+2" time control will get you. Argh. First prize was 1,800 euros, or 2,400 dollars. Beats his usual construction work, I'm guessing! Macauley Peterson has a long audio interview with Sammour-Hasbun here, but you have to be an ICC member to hear it.
Some tidbits from the interview: He was world under-10 and under-12 champion. His parents are Palestinian. (His current FIDE federation status is also Palestinian, curiously.) He met and did a little training with Mikhail Tal and has always idolized him and his chess. He basically quit chess for ten years but has been trying to keep up to date. He just turned 28 and is married with two kids: an 11-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter. (If it was mentioned I didn't catch where he's living now. One site mentions Providence, RI, where he used to live. He's teaching chess in a camp in Rhode Island according to this recent news story.) He's now working on chess every day and is planning to play some big US tournaments this year. About the Dos Hermanas tournament, he was just hoping to qualify for the final. After some people expressed doubts about an untitled player bashing all these GMs, he played the final rounds with a USCF proctor watching him at his house. (Recent Dos Hermanas events have been plagued by cheating and the ICC disqualified several GMs on those grounds in past events. No word of such things this year.) He thanks Larry Christiansen for vouching for him. Three or four friends came over to watch his final games and everyone started screaming when he claimed the 50-move rule draw in the last one. His favorite game from the event was his black win over Kiril Georgiev (something of a blitz legend himself) in the quarterfinals. All the final games are in the latest TWIC, btw.
Coincidentally, Edward Winter ran this item almost exactly one year ago: "‘Not since Raoul Capablanca from Cuba has anyone from Latin or Central America generated so much excitement.’ So wrote Mark Tran on page 9 of The Guardian, 5 October 1991, in an article about a 12-year-old boy from El Salvador. ‘... At the legendary Manhattan Chess Club, where Bobby Fischer honed his game, grandmasters crowd around a phenomenon who is already compared to the American genius.’ The prodigy himself was quoted as follows: ‘If God wants, I will be champion at 20."
El Salvador? I thought his family went to Honduras and that he represented that nation when he won those junior events.
[Event "MCC"]
[Site "New York, NY"]
[Date "1991.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Sammour Hasbun, Jorge E"]
[Black "Kamsky, Gata"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B43"]
[BlackElo "2640"]
[PlyCount "89"]
[EventDate "1991.??.??"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[SourceDate "2007.03.29"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bd3 Nf6 6. O-O Qc7 7. Nc3 Bc5 8.
Nb3 Ba7 9. Kh1 Nc6 10. Bg5 h5 11. f4 Ng4 12. Qe2 d6 13. Rae1 f6 14. Bh4 Ne7 15.
f5 e5 16. h3 Nh6 17. Qxh5+ Nf7 18. Qg4 g5 19. Bf2 Bxf2 20. Rxf2 b5 21. Nd5 Nxd5
22. exd5 Bb7 23. Qf3 Rh4 24. Be4 Ke7 25. g4 Rah8 26. Rh2 Rc8 27. c3 Qb6 28. Qe3
Qxe3 29. Rxe3 Rc4 30. Kg1 Ra4 31. a3 Rh8 32. Kf2 Kd7 33. Ke2 Kc7 34. Kd3 Kb6
35. Re1 a5 36. Ra1 Ba6 37. Nd2 b4+ 38. Kc2 bxc3 39. bxc3 Ka7 40. Kb3 Bb5 41. c4
Bd7 42. Kc3 Nh6 43. Re2 Nf7 44. Re3 Rb8 45. Bc2 1-0
With three rounds to play world champion Vladimir Kramnik has a 1.5 point lead over Anand in the combined standings. As usual he's rolling along in the blindfold and reached 7.5/8 after a nice endgame win over Gelfand. Kramnik's win over Leko in round seven was also interesting, finishing with a cute blunder by Leko. Kramnik also won their rapid game, although Leko will have a chance at revenge on his home turf in the Miskolc rapid match starting April 24.
Anand, also unsurprisingly, leads the rapid by a full point. Ivanchuk is also still in the hunt, despite the continuation of his Carlsen issues. He lost twice to the teen at Linares and collapsed against him in the rapid in the eighth round. I have no idea why he declined to take the d-pawn on move 16. Amazingly it seems that Black is still surviving after 24..Kg7. Reports and pics at the official site.
The third edition of this supertournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, has been formally announced. The field was as advertised earlier with the PTBNL now named. That's Sasikiran, who joins Topalov, Adams, Kamsky, Mamedyarov, and Nisipeanu. That's category 20, a 2727 average. (That might not hold up because of all the points Topalov lost at Linares and Sasikiran lost in Spain.) As before it's a double round-robin. The dates are May 9-20. That means Adams and Kamsky will have to hustle to their candidates matches in Elista, which begin on the 25th.
Despite his dismal Linares, Topalov should be the favorite considering home-field advantage. He won both previous editions with identical 6.5 scores. Last year it was a narrow thing after Kamsky shocked the world by running out to an early lead. Topalov had to win his last four in a row to pass Kamsky and win by a half point. Kamsky is again something of a mystery because he hasn't played since winning the World Open last July.
Of course the "Sofia Rules" are in effect, with no draw offers. Yay. A recent Association of Chess Professionals poll suggested that a majority of top players are willing to have some type of limitation on draw offers, either move minimums or my preferred solution of banning draw offers entirely. It's encouraging that more are seeing the long view. Of course it's an easier life with the occasional (or frequent) non-game draw, but if we're to build sponsorship and professionalism, in theory eventually bringing more money to the players, the draw offer has to go. It's great to have an event as strong as the Mtel leading the way in this regard. I hope this also becomes a founding principle of the Grand Slam that Mtel organizer Danailov is working on.
Two strong closed events just finished, one very tight and the other a one-man show. The Magistral Ruy Lopez in Extremadura was dominated by Armenia's Gabriel Sargissian. He won the category 15 event with a 6.5/7 score two and a half points of ahead of Granda and Ponomariov. Hou Yifan beat Candelario in the last round, netting her first win and, I believe, preventing the Spaniard from getting a GM norm. Sargissian's monster performance rating is good for chatter about records, but it's more Morozevich than Kasparov or Fischer. Massive scores in events without any top-ten players aren't all that rare, at least when Moro is around. It's more impressive for being a breakout by the 24-year-old Sargissian, who is ranked just 48th in the world. He's been doing occasional seconding work with his friend Levon Aronian and now he's showing top-ten potential himself. Recently he scored +7 for the gold medal Armenian Olympiad team (10/13, with a win over Morozevich) and shared second at the Corus B.
A open Ruy Lopez thematic rapid tournament followed and is underway. The players from the Magistral are there along with many other GMs. Sargissian and Sokolov are leading with 6/7 with two more rounds to play.
Dmitri Jakovenko, who tied for first in the Russian championship but lost the title to Alekseev in a tiebreak, was the clear winner of the Karpov Poikovsky tournament. (He was also one of the players who tied with Sargissian for shared second at the Corus B.) His smooth +3 left him a clear point ahead of Onischuk, Alekseev, and Bologan. The category 17 was a rather peaceable affair with plenty of short draws -- with the stark exception, as ever, of Moldovan wild man Bologan. Of the 15 decisive games, seven were his, six of them played at a run to start the event. US champion Onischuk was solid as usual, winning one and drawing the other eight. Only two and a half points separated first from last.
Maybe Ruy Lopez was of Armenian descent? There hasn't been an Armenian descent in Extremadura so far. Gabriel Sargissian has sprinted away with the Ruy Lopez Memorial masters event, taking clear first with a round to spare with a great 5.5/6 score. Only Sokolov escaped his wrath, with a valedictory game against second-place Granda to come in the final round today. The big names are all shedding rating points galore. Ponomariov, Sasikiran, and Sokolov have been outshone by Sargissian, Granda, and local star IM Perez Candelario, who needs a draw in the final round for a GM norm.
Hou Yifan, the 12-year-old Chinese girl who charmed Corus, is getting some rough lessons at this category 15 event. She's in dead last, although with credible play throughout. Stefanova, former women's world champ, is doing slightly better. She had a crushing position against Sokolov the other day but not only missed the win but fell to a loss. It's great to see Granda Zuniga doing well at such a strong event. The Peruvian farmer/sports legend played a ton last year, mostly in opens, and now lives in Spain according to the Peruvian papers.
Speaking of runaways, I wonder if he's been asked about the tragicomic scandal involving young Peruvian star Emilio Cordova. The 15-year-old IM basically ran away from home to play chess in Brazil, refusing to return. His father turned to the media and it became a big deal in the local press, especially when it came out Emilio was in love with an Argentine stripper twice his age. (The stripper part is in question, it might just be dancer, but the media ran with it.) His father went to Brazil and brought him back to Peru, where his return received a lot of attention. Most of the English reports are tabs that focus on the "pawn for love" aspect. This is an older one with more details than most, though not all jibe with the more sober Peruvian reports. Granda Zuniga was interviewed about Cordova a few weeks ago and gave some sage advice about not giving in to the pleasures of life. I dunno, looking back at my teenage years I think could have used more time with Argentine nightclub dancers and less with, say, 6502 assembly language.
186,000 miles per second, piffle. It was Vassily Ivanchuk showing off some speed and flash today at the Melody Amber tournament with a remarkably high-class effort against world champion Vladimir Kramnik in their rapid game. Big Vlad was the clear leader of the combined standings going into today's fifth round, but it was Chucky's day to shine. He outplayed Kramnik with the black pieces in what Garry Kasparov called, "a brilliant game. He may blunder everything tomorrow but today he was a genius!" Kasparov highlighted the move 11..b5! for special praise, disrupting the white flank. After that Black steadily took over the position. It was all finely calculated out to 26..Nb6! and Black keeps the piece. Not spectacular, but as rarely as you see Kramnik lose, you even more rarely see him squeezed like this with white. They'd already drawn the blindfold game so Ivanchuk moved into a tie with Kramnik and Aronian in the combined standings with 7/10. Aronian and Anand top the rapid, Kramnik leads the blindfold.
Other highlights included the Leko-Carlsen match. Both games were amazing. (And what's up with the sudden reappearance of the Nimzo at Amber? White was all about the QID at Linares. Fashionistas!) Carlsen went kitchen sink style in the blindfold but Leko held on and could have played for a win had he had more time. Their rapid game also caught Garry's attention, "an amazing game!" Is there any position in which White can't play g4 and get away with it these days? Leko didn't exactly get away with it here though. He must have been busted. Carlsen missed a chance to shut things down with 14..Qd8! and also 16..Qg4+ would have won White's queen. But instead he took the rook and Leko scammed enough counterplay to draw when it was Carlsen's turn to force a perp instead of playing on with 20..Kb8. Slam-bang stuff.
Anand polished off van Wely in pretty fashion in their blindfold. White to play and win after 20..Kh8. The final mating sequence of their rapid game, also an Anand win, is an unusual Q+N mate against a fianchettoed king. Onsite reports and photos at the official site.
It's bad enough that newspaper chess columns in the US, when they exist at all, are stuck in with the comics and that it's usually only enough room for a puzzle. I'm sure we're also competing for space with mental jumping jacks like the epic vapidity that is sudoku. (They say that sudoku delays the onset of senility, but has it occurred to anyone that enjoying sudoku IS the onset of senility?) Anyway, tragic news from the front of this very one-sided war. The best newspaper column in the US, that of my friend GM Lubos Kavalek in the Washington Post, is being threatened with the knife, if not yet the axe. Lubos not only brings a wealth of knowledge and insight, but he also has the strength to give quality analysis and the space to present it.
Please join me in writing and asking your friends to write to save this essential resource. And back it up by reading regularly; every hit counts. Follow the link below and bookmark that baby. Forward liberally. While you're at it, this is also a good time to hassle your local paper about intruducing a chess column and/or adding chess event coverage, one of my regular rants.
Readers of GM Lubomir Kavalek’s chess column in the Washington Post might have noticed that today’s column (March 19, 2007) is shorter than usual. It is not an optical illusion. The Washington Post decided to reduce the award-winning chess column by almost a third to accommodate other features on the comics pages. Readers who would like to make comments about the change or about the chess column can contact the Washington Post by e-mail: comics@washpost.com; by phone calling the comics hotline 202-334-4775; or writing Comics Feedback, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington D.C. 20071.
You can read GM Kavalek’s column here. Some older columns can be accessed here.
So don't complain tomorrow if you don't write today! To the ramparts!
Some really fun rapid games this round, paired with some typical blindfold blunders. The heavyweight Kramnik-Anand battle fizzled a bit at the start when Vishy, apparently under the assumption that the white rook was on f2 and not f1, hung half his pieces before realizing his mistake and resigning. In the rapid game Anand sacrificed a rook for a blistering attack but Kramnik defended well and even had the better half of the endgame draw. (31.g6!! Bxg2 32.Bxf7+ was winning for White, sez Fritz. So maybe Black had to give up the queen with 29..d5 and pray for rain. Or 28..Bc8! 29.fxg6 (29.Rg2 Kh8) 29..Bxh3 30.gxf7+ Kh8 31.fxe8Q Rxe8) Kramnik, who has always shown a special talent for blindfold, is now 4/4 in that section and leads the overall with 6.5/8, a half point ahead of Aronian. Morozevich has also had tremendous blindfold success over the past few years but he's off his game so far.
Ivanchuk-Radjabov was the real thriller of round 4. It looked like Radjabov, in another King's Indian, had found a clever clearance sac that would at least force a draw with 36..Bd7. If 37.Nxd7 Rh8 forces a perpetual check. But Ivanchuk found a great counter with 37.Rxf6! Rh8 38.Rxf7+! Kxf7 39.Bc4+ Ke8 40.Qe2 and the bishops are much better than the rook. 37..Kxf6 38.Nxd7+ Ke7 would have been a better choice for Black, although White is still doing okay after 39.Nxe5 Ngxe5 40.Qxd4. Svidler beat Vallejo with a speculative queen sac. He also won their blindfold game when Vallejo hung his queen. I'm not sure where he thought the black king was based on the previous few moves. [Ah, the official site now reports the thought the previous king move had been a rook move.] Aronian beat Carlsen in the blindfold in a theoretically drawn endgame. 63..Nc8+ 64.Kc7 Ne7! 65.Bxh6 Ke6 is a miracle draw.
From the official site:
Napkingate!
Events for every taste underway right now. The super-elite have come together in Monaco to play less-than-super chess in this annual blindfold and rapid traditional event. Pieces fly and pieces hang with no rating points on the line and the players like to put on a show. I'll never get the blindfold part – if you aren't watching them do it the gee-whiz factor is gone and all have are some less-than games and the occasional bizarre blunder. But the rapid games are often a glory. The first two rounds have been no exception, with lots of great action for your viewing pleasure. Radjabov-Anand was a wild one. Radjabov-Kramnik saw the youngster go bonkers in the opening -- can 10.Nb5 be for real? The kid's got chutzpah! Carlsen is new to Amber but not to blindfold. I don't think Gelfand has reached a total of 100 moves with his four draws so far. I believe my main man Dirk Jan is on the scene writing round reports on the official site.
Pieces move at a slower pace at the Poikovsky Karpov tournament in Siberia. This is the eighth edition and it's practically an annual reunion, with many of the same players there every year. Founder Bologan and Onischuk and Rublevsky are back. It's a very tight field with four players tied with 2.5/4. Bologan, combative as ever and without a draw, scored his only win in R+B vs R against Rublevsky. The 50-move rule would have kicked in on move 126 and Rublevsky resigned on move 124 with mate in two on the board (but the first move of it was a capture). The first edition of this event, in 2000, seems to have fallen down a memory hole. NIC 7/2000 has a report by the winner, Bologan, but no games in TWIC or the MegaBase?!
The seven-round masters event at the Ruy Lopez Festival is two rounds gone in Zafra, the birthplace of the eponymous Spaniard. This is the third edition according to the nice official website (Spanish). It's an interesting field that includes Ponomariov, Sasikiran, Sargissian, Granda Zuñiga, and Hou Yifan. Local player IM Manuel Pérez Candelario is the surprising co-leader with Sargissian after two rounds. Next there will be a thematic rapid event, all games in the Lopez.
Just tying up some loose ends here and there before moving on to new horizons. The "most brilliant game" prize of Linares 2007 went to Aronian's win over Anand. That's the one I voted for by proxy, btw. I also got a lot more out of Anand-Carlsen than I thought was there at the start when I annotated it the other day. There was a strange mix of great games, bad play, and short draws this year.
Linares commentator Leontxo Garcia has an interesting post-Linares inteview with Magnus Carlsen in his paper El Pais. Carlsen talks about his innate talent and desire to be treated like other kids. He says his chances of reaching the Mexico City world championship tournament "aren't better than 35%." (He plays Aronian in the first round and then either Shirov or Adams.) He says the thought of going back to Mexico for more spicy food will inspire him. A man after my own heart(burn)! I'll translate more later. Links posted below to a video of a Norwegian TV interview with Carlsen. Subtitles in English by simsan. Good stuff!
China's Wang Yue won Cappelle la Grande on tiebreaks. It's a massive open that lets you learn how many GMs there are in the world you've never heard of. And how many more there will soon be thanks to all the norms. A remarkable nine GM norms went out this year.
Garry Kasparov's blitzkrieg of the German-speaking world is underway. I just spoke to him in Cologne, where's he was headed off to talk about Strategie und die Kunst zu leben, or How Life Imitates Chess in its English title (which isn't the same title, I know). ChessBase has his itinerary here along with some pics of Garry in Hamburg, where he was recording more DVD lessons.
It's just been one of those weeks. You know, the ones where your body seems to be falling apart and you end up with electrodes all over your head and in your ears? Yeah, one of those. The tests will continue, it seems, but the worst of them are over for now with nothing conclusive having appeared yet. For now I'll just have to get used to having a nine-piece brass band in my left ear. I just wish they could learn to play in tune.
Been busy while having my head examined. Garry Kasparov is on the march, and not just in Russia, where he led a big rally in St. Petersburg on March 3. He had two business speeches in Sweden on the 14th and 15th, in Stockholm and Goteborg. Of course we couldn't miss the chance to make a cautionary tale out of the famous Argentine fiasco in the Najdorf at the Goteborg Interzonal in 1955. But Garry didn't want them to go away thinking the Goteborg Variation was synonymous with disaster and he added that Bobby Fischer himself revived it against Gligoric a few years later. And we tossed in a few IKEA jokes as well. "If I seem a little sleepy at the beginning it's because all the furniture at my hotel is made by IKEA. It took me hours last night to assemble my bed!"
The other news is on the book front. How Life Imitates Chess is finally hitting the shelves, first in Germany this month. Garry is there now for signings and other appearances. Strategie und die Kunst zu leben is the German title. You can see it here on Amazon. They actually used a photo of mine for the cover, although they replaced the wooden board he was actually standing on with a sharper black and white.
The UK version hits the shelves next month. I just received a copy from the publisher, Heinemann, and it looks great. It's really exciting to be holding the end product after spending so much of my life on it for the past two years. (To answer the usual question, my name is on the title page. By Garry Kasparov with Mig Greengard. Only one font size smaller, heh. I told them that otherwise they were missing out on many sales because now my mother will buy dozens of them.) It's a manuscript that has gone through many changes and travails. We'd already found a few small errors in the text, unfortunately, for which I have duly flogged myself. The US version, which is quite a different book, comes out in the fall. There will be nine editions this year and deals have been arranged for 18 so far, last I heard. Buy at least three of each! (I comment more on the development of the book in the comments here.)
Garry appeared in the NY Times last week and will have major items on him in The Times (UK) and TIME Magazine next week. Time, time, time. Forbes is also in on the act and jumping on the Kasparov bandwagon. It's almost all politics, although the book gets the occasional mention.
A translated transcript of the press conference by Anand today after he won the Linares 2007 supertournament. The video is here. I didn't bother exactly translating the questions as they are obvious in most cases and also hard to hear in the recording I was sent.
Result: As you might imagine I'm very happy. The last time I won here was in 1998. And I didn't play in every edition but I had several chances to win it. I made more points in Morelia but I think I played well in both places. I think I won because I took advantage of my opportunities to the maximum. I can't think of any half-points I let get away. In general I didn't have any trouble with jet lag. When we got here from Morelia I was fine. I enjoyed myself a lot there, both in Patzcuaro and Morelia. And of course Linares is like a second home.
Grand Slam: I don't know. We'll see when the details come out.
Games: I think my second win against Carlsen was the most beautiful I played. Perhaps the most important was to save the half, well really point, against Leko in Morelia. First because Peter is a tough opponent and to beat Leko with black is going to help you in a tournament. Also it was the seventh game and I would have had five days to think about losing had it not gone well. So it was important not to lose that one and it gave me a good state of mind for the second half. About my tough games, I got a half point from the second game with Svidler, I won against Morozevich, and both games with Ivanchuk were difficult. I fought hard for half points in many games. I think Ivanchuk was the one who pressured me the most. In both games with him I had many problems. I had problems in other games too, but the games with Ivanchuk were the ones that bothered me the most.
Magnus: I, like most, consider him a great talent. I think it's almost impossible to believe he won't be world champion some day. Although he still has weaknesses - like everyone, not just him - his performance here has demonstrated what we already suspected for a while now. And he might have finished in clear second. But others, like Morozevich - well two Morozevichs played in this event, one in Mexico and another here.
There are those who say you've always had talent to be world champion but for your pleasant and peaceful character you haven't made it.
Well, I have done it. - Yes, but, for example the match with Kasparov. - No, I did it. I won the championship in Delhi. - Well okay, they say you are too nice a person... - Well, I don't think that needs a reply! - (Another speaker interjects: "It's better to be a good person than world champion.")
You are one of the great representatives of the last generation. Is your new goal to be the #1 on the FIDE list?
Well, Kasparov retired, but there are still many of that generation, if not the same age, like Kramnik, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, they haven't disappeared. I don't think much about these things and there really hasn't been a big change. Life goes on. The first tournament after Kasparov's retirement you didn't really think about him. There are new rivals, new problems and new talents are coming. But of course I would like to be number one in the ranking and I suppose in April I will be.
Would you like to return to Morelia for the 25th edition of Linares?
I'd return to Morelia in an instant. We had a good time, the acclimatization in Patzcuaro was great and the whole tournament in Morelia was excellent. I'm fortunate to return to Mexico for the world championship and, I hope, more times.
Is that your next challenge?
Well, I'm going to play in a few tournaments first so I'm not going to think about it too much. But yes, clearly the big objective will be the world championship in Mexico.
Generational differences between new and old?
Of course, I mean, the new generation, well, a prodigy is a prodigy, but all the new ones, let's say, Radjabov, Magnus, I'm not sure if I should really include Aronian but he's not much older than them. So there's a group of guys who are incredibly talented, but of course they reflect their times. They are all comfortable with the computer and they know how to weave it into their work. In general they are all very strong. The second thing of course is it's very hard to compare across generations. 15 in Bobby Fischer's time is not exactly 15 today and so on. So I don't think you should make too much of the age thing because clearly the sport is getting younger. But, umm, I think to a yardstick you measure these three names. I think Carlsen here showed that at the Tal Memorial in Moscow and Wijk aan Zee he didn't quite perform but he's shown he's gotten over these sort of blues and is doing fine.
Reaction about his world #1 ranking
Of course it's definitely a satisfying thing, I wouldn't deny it. It's something that has to happen by itself. If you aim in a tournament, "oh I need so many points to become #1" or something it won't happen. But if you just play and you find yourself in the #1 spot that's nice. It's kind of funny that at 2803 I was second in the world but that now at something less I'll probably be #1 in April.
Compare Carlsen's achievement at 16 here with Kasparov's at that age (Banja Luka).
I didn't find out about Kasparov's result until three or four years later so it's difficult to compare (laughs). But as I said, every prodigy demonstrates something of his era, of his generation, but you can compare [these results]. What Magnus has done here is among the super-elite. There is no tournament stronger than Linares. What Kasparov did in Banja Luka also…, but it's hard to compare, really. That was 1979 and now we're in 2007. It's very difficult to compare.
About playing against computers.
I don't know, if someone proposes the idea to me I'd listen, but I prefer to think about Mexico in September. - But you have a favorable score against computers. - Yeah, but a program in 2003 is not a program in 2007, they are advancing very quickly.
It's all over! Three of the four games in round 14 were Queen's Indians, a strange sight. Topalov-Aronian was a quick draw. Ivanchuk-Anand didn't see any real action but Vishy had to work on defense. Morozevich beat Svidler in a French and Leko beat Carlsen.
Viswanathan Anand wins his second Linares trophy and his first #1 ranking at the same time. Congratulations to him on both counts. It's a little strange since his #1 rating on the April list (probably 2785, ahead of Topalov's 2772) won't even be his personal best (2803 a year ago), but #1 is #1 and it's a rare and special thing. That specialness might not last, however. From the looks of the list we may finally be headed into the primus inter pares era that was predicted when Kasparov retired, before Topalov turned into super-Topalov. Aronian will be right up there with Anand, Topalov, and Kramnik now, according to zakki's calculations in the comments.
Getting back to Linares, second place was shared between, amazingly, Magnus Carlsen and, also amazingly but for different reasons, Alexander Morozevich. Carlsen lost to Leko today after missing a long queen maneuver that cost him a pawn. I feel good for Leko getting his only win of the event especially since for Carlsen it's a spectacular result no matter what. It could have ended instantly with 40.Rxf7! but both players were under a minute. Moro was doing well with black against Svidler out of a nicely prepared opening and then won quickly when Svidler went for a dangerous-looking but totally unsound exchange sac. Not really like Peter at all. It completed an astounding -3 to +1 Spanish sprint for Morozevich. He won his last three in a row. Topalov-Aronian was a quick "wouldn't you rather?" "yes, me too" draw. Ivanchuk built up a maximal Maroczy Bind against Anand but decided there was no way to get through and no good reason to try.
Carlsen's stunning +1 is clearly the story of the tournament, with Anand's new #1 ranking ranking #2. That Anand can score +3 isn't exactly big news and it never looked like a safe lead. He really battled hard. Everyone had at least one win and one loss. It was a very balanced tournament and even the players who finished on the plus side took their lumps. As usual, the winners were the ones who made the most of their chances and had a little luck. Anand fought like a tiger and won two inferior positions; Carlsen got a free half-point from Topalov and came back twice after losses to win; Morozevich may have had worse luck than anyone and still came back with an amazing +4 in Spain to finish =2-3 with Carlsen. There were many draws, most with at least some fight, and many wild back-and-forth games.
I doubt Aronian and Svidler are happy with their +1 -1 =12 scores although neither of them lost rating points. Quite a forgettable event for both of them, although their sole wins were very nice. Ivanchuk had a typical Ivanchuk tournament. He played some of the best chess of the event but let two wins slip away in time trouble. Topalov and Leko finished equal in the cellar at -2, a big surprise on both counts. Leko is usually Mr. Consistency but just couldn't get anything going. He was indecisive and that led to time pressure and more trouble. Topalov showed the occasional flash but never put together a coherent effort. Someone who doesn't work as hard as he does at the board could have finished on -4 or worse with such poor form. He's always the strong finisher but his play looked tired from the start. I don't doubt that all the recent distractions have taken some toll on his nerves. Let's hope he can get back to just chess and recover his shape. I think Kramnik knows the address of a good spa.
I'm sure there will be plenty of discussion about whether or not Carlsen's was the greatest performance by a 16-year-old ever. As Anand said in the closing press conference you can't really compare across generations, adding "15 in Bobby Fischer's time is not exactly 15 today." But Linares is Linares, a double round-robin of super-elite only and having an unproven player of any age go +1 is incredible. As I've acknowledged a dozen times a day for the past two weeks, I was way off in saying Carlsen didn't deserve a spot. I'd make the same comment again because it was based on his prior results, but obviously he transformed before our very eyes. Someone as young as Magnus probably hasn't seen the last negative score of his life just yet, but it's safe to say that Levon Aronian really did get shafted. As I semi-joked when the candidates were postponed from October to May, "I'd say Aronian got a raw deal against Carlsen as 16th seed. The teen will probably be 50 points stronger in May than he was in October!" So not all my predictions suck, nyah nyah! Actually Carlsen's rating won't skyrocket because he lost almost as many points at Corus as he'll gain in Linares.
I'll put up a transcript of Anand's press conference in a bit. Macauley Petersen (there for the ICC and sending reports to uschess.org) sent me a recording and I've transcribed it. It was mostly in Spanish and had some nice bits on his own performance and Carlsen's. Many spectacular games were played, although only a few of them were sound. Morozevich-Leko, Aronian-Anand, and Anand-Carlsen have to make any shortlist for the best game prize. Carlsen's win over Topalov was a great game, but Topalov resigning in the drawn final position is just too weird. Carlsen-Morozevich was also fascinating most of the way, if marred by Moro's dreadful endgame play.
Melody Amber (rapid/blindfold) is next on the elite calendar. The MTel tournament begins in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 9 but I don't think the field has been released yet, at least not beyond Topalov. (I'm now told it's Topalov, Adams, Mamedyarov, Kamsky and Nisipeanu with one more TBA. Also told that quite a few top players declined.) The Topalov site said they were going to release the list last month. Then the candidates matches begin in Elista at the end of May. That takes us right into Dortmund, where Kramnik will be in action.
This is it, the big finish. Anand is a half point ahead of Carlsen going into today's final round and has black against Ivanchuk. Carlsen is a half-point behind and has black against Leko. Svidler is still in the mix a half-point back of Carlsen and has white against Morozevich. Topalov-Aronian is for pride and Elo, although Aronian could move up to the podium if Svidler slips.
If Anand draws and Carlsen wins, Carlsen takes the Linares trophy on the first tiebreak of fewest draws (or you can call it most wins, or most losses if you're a glass half-full sort of person). If Anand loses and Carlsen draws Anand wins the trophy on the second tiebreak of most wins with black. (I believe third tiebreak is head-to-head but it can't come to that.)
Round 13 was mostly fizzle but Larry Christiansen managed to make it interesting, as always. We also had a special guest on the air in the person of legendary Yugoslav GM Ljubo Ljubojevic in the Linares press room (he lives in Linares). He commented on all the games, the players, the differences between today's players and those of his generation, and discussed his most memorable Linares game. Of course all of that took Ljubo around ten minutes. And the Chess.FM people think I talk fast. Great stuff. Ljubo should definitely take up chess broadcasting, not that he hasn't been doing it for 40 years. He just hasn't had a radio. When I asked him about his most memorable Linares game (he played over 100) he didn't hesitate long. "Against Kasparov in 1989 [sic, 1991] I had him. I set a trap and he fell right into it! I was up a full rook and waiting for him to resign! But he kept playing and I couldn't believe it!" He went on in his wonderfully emotional style as if the game had been played that afternoon and not 16 years ago. (Kasparov kept causing trouble and eventually Ljubo fell apart in time pressure and lost.) It was like listening to a fisherman talk about the one that got away. Great stuff.
Carlsen played it safe against Svidler's Grunfeld with the fianchetto variation. Ljubo insisted that "any experienced player" would have found 20.e4 with very good chances. But Christiansen looked at it for a while and wasn't convinced. Ljubo's optimism was always his strongest point. Aronian-Ivanchuk got spicy for a little while but liquidated. It looked like White might have been able to set up a net with pawn, knight, and rook, but Black had enough activity. Anand-Leko fizzled out when Black found 21..Bxe4!
That left Morozevich-Topalov, the pairing that produced a wildly inaccurate and thrilling melee in round seven. There's no love lost between them after Moro (and his friend Barsky) made comments about the potential for Topalov to be cheating. No handshake, no quarter. This one saved the drama for the endgame where Moro missed several better chances with knights still on the board but managed to win anyway in a queen and pawn endgame the tablebases announced as drawn several times. Earlier, 53.Kf3 looks superior. The tablebases say ..Qh1+ drew on move 69 or 70. Moro was very accurate after that. He was -3 in Mexico and is now +3 in Spain! Tip of the hat to Larry, who called the Moro win before the round.
Round 13: Carlsen-Svidler, Anand-Leko, Morozevich-Topalov, Aronian-Ivanchuk. The penultimate round and Carlsen's chance to make another move into the record books. Youth vs experience in the Grunfeld? Pop your popcorn now, but they both might be content with quick draw, alas. Topalov should look to claw back to an even score against Morozevich. Topalov's only win of the event so far was their flabbergastingly sloppy battle in round 7.
OOOooooooOOOOklahoma! The 2007 US championship, fresh from jilting A4FC sponsorship, has landed in Stillwater, Oklahoma starting May 15. I dunno how deep those waters run, but the pockets are looking pretty short. They're looking at a prize fund of around $50,000 for a nine-round swiss-system tournament with 34 players. If that's the case I could see half the players taking a loss on the trip. Still, sponsor Frank K. Berry of course deserves thanks for his efforts and his cash. So many players had already qualified under the old system that when the USCF decided to break off with AF4C it was too late to have a format under which $50K might sound like a decent prize fund. Oh well, as long as only the players suffer.
That leads us to the next innovation, selling spots in the championship. You heard that right, "patron entry fees" is the name they've given to this scheme, which is either brilliant or an abomination, or perhaps that rarest of beasts, a brilliant abomination. Actually it will probably be a washout. Top poker tournaments are like this, pay to play. Good players are often sponsored and split their winnings with the people who put up the money for their entry fee. In poker there is a large luck factor that attracts the thousands of people you need to have millions of dollars in prizes. This luck factor doesn't exist in chess beyond the occasional fingerfehler so it's unrealistic to expect a crowd of people willing to pay thousands of dollars to get their head kicked in. That's what S&M parlors are for. I suppose there might be a few wealthy masters out there who want the US championship on their resume, we'll see. Or maybe some Trump type will do it on a lark. (In a swiss a patzer patron will probably only get one or two games against the top players anyway.)
Even stranger is that these patron entry fees, if there are any, don't all go into the prize fund! The first $15K (first?!) goes to the USCF. This, if not the concept itself, led GM Joel Benjamin, veteran of 23 consecutive championships, to write "the angriest letter I have ever written in my life" to the USCF. (Also on the hit list is that the USCF pocketed part of the $25K AF4C chairman Erik Anderson gave them for the championship as a parting gift.) With such a small prize fund I doubt any GMs will pay the $5,000 to play for a small chance to win first place and get his money back.
There will also be three places for local players, and I assume this means all of Oklahoma and not just Stillwater (pop. 40,000).
Well, it had to happen. After Hydra did everything to Mickey Adams short of giving him a noogie and Fritz beat Kramnik despite playing under dubious rules, human-machine handicap matches were inevitable. Zap!Chess, TPFKA Zappa, drew two games with young Dutch GM Erwin L'Ami. The machine had 30 minutes for the entire game and couldn't think on its opponent's time. L'Ami had 30/2 30/2 g/15+15. Unsurprisingly, this dropped the strength of the program significantly. ChessBase has a report on that match that also mentions a match between Jaan Ehlvest and the program Rybka, which has dominated the computer rating lists for over a year now.
This one was an eight game match with equal time, although 45+10 is fast enough to tilt things far into the computer kill zone against a human. Ah, but there was a twist. Rybka played every game with white and was missing a different pawn in each game! The machine won +4 -1 =3, starting out with three straight wins. Perhaps Rybka, like Morphy, will now refuse to play anyone without ceding a pawn. Game and discussion here. No word on whether or not Rybka programmer Vas Rajlich can now park in handicapped spots. The match all the afritzionados want to see now is Hydra-Rybka, but the UAE Hydra team seem to be lying low these day. Or maybe it's just their potential opponents are lying low.
Rybka is interesting because most of the time it actually appears to be playing chess, which is no small feat. Clearly it represents the turning point at which more knowledge actually means beating the fast engines instead of being a, umm, handicap. Since I trust my own positional eval more I'm usually looking for fast tactics when I use an engine to analyze, so I still stick with Fritz most of the time. (And to give credit, Fritz 10's evaluation is a clear improvement over previous incarnations. We saw this in the Kramnik match.) But Rybka is perhaps the first engine that could consistently teach amateurs something useful about how to play chess beyond tactics. It's sold engine-only and there are free interfaces like Arena that can run it, but if you are used to the lush ChessBase programs it's hard to use anything that looks like it's running on Windows 3.1. The good news is that you can use the Rybka UCI engine under ChessBase and the Fritz interfaces so you don't miss out on all their cool training features and other gadgets.
If not forever at least until 2014, which is where the new FIDE world championship plan leaves off with ".. and so on." It may as well say 3014 from an organization that has changed its world championship format three times in the past year on paper and three other times in practice in just three years. Knockouts and round-robins and matches, oh my! FIDE prez Ilyumzhinov has signed off on "Proposal A," which won out by a narrow margin over "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "Preparation H". Since it's from FIDE it's definitely from outer space, but it remains to be seen if this new world championship scheme will relieve the painful inflammation in the chess world. (The instructions read "Apply directly to Azmaiparashvili and Makropulos, repeat as necessary." And "Don't Sit and Suffer" would be an excellent motto for this FIDE.)
a2. 2009: The winner of the "a1" match plays a World Championship match against the winner of the 2007 World Cup which will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk.
a3. 2010: The World Champion (winner of "a2") plays a World Championship match against the winner of the 2009 World Cup
Rinse and repeat. A qualifying tournament on odd years, a world championship match on even years. Of course the real news is the first paragraph, which shouldn't be news to anyone reading this. Topalov gets to challenge Kramnik if Kramnik wins Mexico City and Kramnik gets to challenge anyone else. This does create the tasty irony of Topalov having to root for Kramnik to win the tournament. Kramnik is getting a rematch clause, as predicted. (The sound you heard was Garry Kasparov's head exploding.) This is a reward in exchange for Kramnik's playing in Elista and Mexico City. This means there will be a Kramnik match in early 2008, at least if reality for once resembles FIDE plans. Either Kramnik against the Mexico winner or Topalov against Kramnik, unless Topalov's bank guarantee expires. So even the succession purists can take heart. There's less good to be said about the freakish World Cup system they're using to find the challenger.
Matches are good, but it's a little amusing to see Kirsan claiming that this was reached after discussing it with the players. This is literally true, although most of the players I hear from prefer any system that gives them the most chances to play and that lowers the priviliges of the incumbent. This will change if the matches lead to big time sponsorship that trickles down to the qualifier and to other events. I.e. a WCh qualifier with a two million dollar prize fund is a lot better than a world championship tournament with exactly the same format and a prize fund of one million. You don't often hear professionals who have mouths to feed blathering on about Steinitz because Steinitz doesn't pay the bills.
I'm very glad they ditched the over-ambitious tournament championship for now. The schism and not having a unified world champion has been a huge problem. FIDE splitting the title into pieces itself would be phenomenally -- if typically -- self-destructive. The "FIDE Masters Cup" mentioned by Ilyumzhinov sounds nice but is just another slice of pie in the sky. FIDE needs to show they can sell a working championship calendar first. Bessel Kok is moving forward and the 2007 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk seems to be on solid ground.
On the tournament front, don't forget about the Grand Slam plans to unite several traditional tournaments and create a Masters event with the winners in Bilbao. I'm enthusiastic about it but can't speak on the chances. They issued a very brief release during Corus that said it was going to happen in 2008, but I was hoping for some details. Are they following the original outline, which said the top players had to appear in all the events or none, or is it just the winners playing in a final event? The players generally refuse to organize for their own benefit and many of the game's politicians are crooks. There could be worse things than people with a proven track record of bringing in money getting together.
TD points out below that the FIDE Masters Cup is scheduled to clash with the Grand Slam final, ticking off the Bilbao organizers. Only in chess can we have conflicts about events that haven't even come into being yet. I say who ever can show more funding first, wins.
Just two rounds to play after Thursday's off day in Linares. Round 12 was a lot of fun, with three games full of interesting imbalances and action. Only the leader's game was a fizzle. Anand got a bucket full of squat against Aronian's Spanish, but the draw was good enough to preserve his half-point lead over Carlsen, who also drew.
Aronian has had fine results with black in this popular anti-Marshall line so it could hardly have been a surprise. That showed on the clock as both players trotted through the line following the games Bruzon-Aronian and McShane-Aronian from a few weeks ago in the Bundesliga. Anand, Kasimdzhanov, and Shirov have all contributed a lot to it, including 14.Bg5 instead of c3 or Ne3. White didn't add anything to the discussion today and Black didn't have to. Taking on e6 doesn't seem to accomplish much for White in these positions. A snoozer.
The other short draw of the day had ten times the interest value in about the same number of moves. Topalov-Carlsen was previewed as a showdown between the world #1 (for how long?) and a potential future #1. Topalov badly needs a win or two to make a respectable showing and many have been buzzing about the possibility of Anand taking over the top spot on the next rating list at long last if the standings finish this way. Topalov gained at Corus while Anand shed a few, so it's going to be tight. I believe Anand will gain 13 points in Linares if he finishes on +3.
Getting back to the game, Topalov surprised at least the commentators with the unusual 8.d4 instead of 8.cxd5. It was hard to imagine White making much with the symmetrical structure that arose, but it's not the fight in the opening it's the fight in the players. Carlsen allowed the white queen into b7 and went for counterplay with his knights. GM Benjamin was expecting 19..f6 with good play for Black after 20.Bf4 or 20.hxg4. After the game it turned out that's what Topalov was expecting as well. But Carlsen went for the exotic with the remarkable move 19..Nc6!? The computer quickly works out that it's quite sound after 20.Nxc6 Nxf2 21.Ne7+ Kh8! 22.Qxc8 Nxd1 23.Kg2 Nxc3! Amazing stuff! You almost get the feeling that it would be hard to resist playing such a move for Black even if you saw that 19..f6 was also good. Topalov didn't take long to become a believer and chop on g4 instead. It didn't look like there was any reason for Black to try for more and avoiding the repetition is bad for White. A lot of action packed into three moves between a boring opening and a three-fold repetition!
Ivanchuk and Morozevich took another unpopular line, 5.Nb3 in the Scotch, and turned it into an opposite-side castling adventure. It looked like a sharp Sicilian with a rogue pawn on c7. Moro invited positional havoc with his 14..a3 but it paid off in the very long run. Black played to win, avoiding the repetition with 21..Ne8. It was interesting to see Morozevich retreat his knights to hang on to his weak pawns, biding his time to later exploit the a-file. Ivanchuk finally grabbed the d-pawn, but Black's clever ..b5-b4 created threats while White was simply running out of moves. Ivanchuk went for a big swap into a pawn race that never got started. Black's pieces were so active just about any white move created weaknesses. Very nicely done by Moro, who moves up to -1. He also repeated his technique of dragging his victim down to his score, first employed against Leko. It was Ivanchuk's second loss in a row.
Leko-Svidler was a battle between the only two winless players and it didn't peter out. We got another 7.Nb3 Najdorf and another lesson why White has been playing the calmer Nf3 lines so much lately. Not that the funny-looking 10..a5 is going to refute 1.e4, but Svidler must have liked the looks of it when Bu Xiangzhi played it against him in the Bundesliga in February (although Svidler won). Leko punted his a-pawn a square short to a3 instead of the expected a4. Black broke classically with ..d5 while White grabbed the a-pawn. Svidler had plenty of compensation with his bishops and safe king. Leko was also in time trouble, something that has been happening to him regularly in this tournament. White couldn't find a plan and went down hard and fast against Svidler's well-coordinated attack. 31.c4 may have been the last best hope to suffer on. Instead it came on the next move when it was a blunder. 36.Rxe4 loses to 36..Qxb2+! Svidler's first win after eleven consecutive draws.
The pairings in the final two rounds offer one hope for a wild finish. Carlsen has white against Svidler on Friday and Svidler has a troubling habit of getting his Grunfeld chopped off at the knees at inopportune moments. Peter's only a half-point behind Carlsen now though, so he has to go for it if he's going to make a move. It may turn into a difficult choice for Carlsen to go for it himself or play it safe. Anand has white against a dejected Leko and black against a fading Ivanchuk and can pick his spots.
We spoke on the air with Peter Heine Nielsen, Carlsen's second. He was also with him at the Tal Memorial and at Corus. As funny as it sounds, he said Carlsen matured a lot in the weeks between Corus and Linares. Note that he'll be at the Melody Amber rapid and blindfold elite event next month thanks to his top score at the NH Tournament last year.
Round 11 was a fairly tranquil affair, with one brutal exception. Magnus Carlsen again showed he's got resilience as well as talent by bouncing back from a loss. He followed the same formula as in the first half: loss to Anand and win against Ivanchuk the next day. The teen mangled Ivanchuk's dubious line of the Grunfeld and Black could have resigned on move 25. The line is under a theoretical cloud for good reason, but it was also dubious because it gave Carlsen just the sort of attacking position he clearly enjoys and plays as well as anyone. Carlsen finished flawlessly to move back up to +2 and clear second place behind Anand. Ivanchuk fell back to even.
Anand equalized confidently against Morozevich and some GMs thought he might have played for more. Leko came out better against Aronian and nabbed a clean pawn with a tactic. Aronian defended well to hold the draw. Svidler-Topalov was another illustration that Black is doing quite well in the Najdorf lines with 7.Nb3, which is why we saw Ivanchuk and Leko play Nf3 against Topalov. In this 8..h5 line in particular it just looks like Black is having all the fun. Black leaves his king in the center and gets great attacking chances on the queenside. White maneuvers around and hopes for play in the center. Karjakin made this work against Topalov at Corus but he had some help there. Here Svidler was on the defensive for a long time before jumping at a chance for perpetual check. Christiansen liked 16..Na4 (or ..Nc4) instead of ..b4.
Round 12: Leko-Svidler, Topalov-Carlsen, Ivanchuk-Morozevich, Anand-Aronian. When we interviewed him on Chess.FM after his win over Ivanchuk, Carlsen said "there maybe is nothing tougher than playing Black against Topalov." (Playing black against Carlsen is turning into something of a chore too. Just ask Ivanchuk.) In contrast, Moro is often at his best with black and we'll see if Ivanchuk can get off the mat yet again.
Not much time for chess last weekend but of course Anand's very one-sided win over Carlsen was the news. More later, and I have a woodpile of items to toss up when I get back from picking up yet more medication. I'm on steroids now, so my breaking the home-run record is probably going to be reviewed, dammit. Thanks for keeping up the good works in the comments.
Round 11: Morozevich-Anand, Svidler-Topalov, Carlsen-Ivanchuk, Aronian-Leko.
Round nine was dominated by the clock. Leko's excellent defense was holding off Moro's marvelous attack, just the sort of fire and ice battle we could have expected. Morozevich played a boring recapture with 9.exd5 (instead of the Benoni-esque play we were expecting with 9.cxd5) but quickly turned it into a wild attacking position as only he can. Leko is one of the best defenders around but here was handicapped by terrible time trouble. Moro kept the tension with savvy moves like 26.Bd2 instead of allowing Leko to escape into an endgame after 26.Bxh6 Qxh6 27.Qxh6 Rxg3+. It didn't look like White has great chances but Moro saw deeper and kept the pressure on. Leko played a series of second-best moves and was down to a few seconds when the mistakes added up to a blunder on ye olde final move of the time control. White finished off his sequence of brilliant maneuvers with the hammer-blow 41.Rxg7! and all Black had was a few checks and resignation. Fire 1, Ice 0. That dragged Leko down to -2 with Morozevich, proving that misery loves company.
Topalov built up an impressive-looking slow-mo attack against Ivanchuk's kingside but could never bring up enough attacking forces to achieve anything. His uncoordinated knights in particular left a poor impression. Ivanchuk's defensive play was wonderfully classical in nature, countering in the center and picking his pawn breaks perfectly. GM Akobian thought Topalov let things really start slipping away when he eschewed b4 and allowed Black to play it himself. Ivanchuk fought through his typical time trouble and took control. Then, showing his Dr. Jekyll side, he proceeded to get right back into time trouble. The man is insane. An insane genius, but insane. Of course that soon led to a second time scramble that didn't allow Ivanchuk to press home the win. He had to settle for a perpetual check, truly a shame to ruin another masterful performance from the Chuckster. This is exactly how he missed a win against Leko in the first round. Akobian liked the simple 41..Qxg5 42.Qg2 Qxg2+ 43.Bxg2 f6 and he thought that endgame was nearly winning for Black thanks to White's split pawns.
Svidler shook off eight rounds of hibernation to play a nice squeeze against Anand's Petroff. Anand has made a living this tournament from turning around inferior positions but it didn't look like he was going to get out of this one. It just took one slip, however, for Anand to pounce with a cute tactic that Svidler had clearly missed. Svidler has been having a hallucination or three every event lately and today it was thinking 32..Rxc6 was impossible due to 33.Nd4. He was wrong thanks to the tricky 33..Rb6. Miracle save. Anand = slipperiest player evar. 32.Rc5 and White can keep grinding with great winning chances.
Magnus Carlsen's father/blogger Henrik tried, but it's hard to paint his son's whiff against Aronian as anything other than a total pass with the white pieces. He repeated Topalov-Leko from round three and agreed to a draw. Horrible. Carlsen is still in equal first so I suppose this is where we add the old refrain about never criticizing the winner. Still horrible. Let us hope that Caissa pardons the young!
Round 9 Chess.FM trivia questions and winners:
1) Who is the only player in this Linares field to make a negative score at this year’s Corus tournament? Winner: CrazyIvan
2) Name the three players here this year who didn’t play in Linares last year. Winner: Mr-Brain.
3) Linares takes place in Spain, but has no Spanish players this year. Name the three top-rated players who represent Spain. Winner of a one-year subscription to New In Chess: pawnpicker
Sunday's round 10: Leko-Topalov, Ivanchuk-Svidler, Anand-Carlsen, Aronian-Morozevich. Let's hope the co-leaders come to play. Aronian and Moro played a great one in the first half.
US Grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian will be appearing on the hit MTV program "The True Life," airing March 8. I believe it's at 9pm PST, but check your local listings. The episode is titled "I Am a Genius," following their "I am a..." naming format. Speaking of Varuzhan, I'm on with him today on ICC Chess.FM while Joel Benjamin calls an exorcist to fix his internet.
Round 8 was our second round of four draws, although there was a modicum more interest to them today compared to the abysmal sixth round. Aronian-Svidler and Anand-Topalov both looked like they were headed into waters fast and deep out of the opening. Aronian's offbeat old 6.b4 was met in kind with ..a5 b5 a4 and Svidler dropped his queen on a5 -- on the wrong side of his a-pawn. What started looking like a Sam Loyd composition opened up when Svidler employed a handy piece of Grunfeldish sneakery with 12..e5. Things really could have gotten interesting had Aronian played 14.dxc6!? It was still looking interesting enough when Aronian offered a draw on move 16, probably not liking the looks of 16..Qb4. Sadly this is routine enough. Sharp position, White no longer has an advantage, offers draw, Black accepts. Aronian has lost a couple of games to Svidler's Grunfeld lately (not in the opening though) so maybe he was happy to just get out of this one.
Anand-Topalov, #2 vs #1, a Najdorf Sicilian, what more could you ask? How about another 20 moves? Anand tried the short-side castling line that Ivanchuk used to beat Topalov in the second round. Topalov gave Ivanchuk's 10.Bxe6 another stamp of approval by playing 9..Nc6. A blocked center that looked straight out of a Ruy Lopez arose, knight dancing included. GM Larry Christiansen quite liked White's position after 21.Nh4. Topalov bit the bullet and played the hairy 21..g5 in response. Now 22.Qf3 must be the acid test, although it looked like White still had play in the game. Instead of finding out, we got a draw on move 25. Black is probably fine with his bishop nicely deployed.
Leko and Ivanchuk went into a known endgame in which White tries to make something of his knight vs bishop. It's practically playing for a triangulation win from the start. White does have some annoying tricks but it's hard to imagine a technical player of Ivanchuk's pedigree losing this. I could see Kramnik beating 2600 players three out of five in it though. Carlsen busted out the Open Ruy he used against Karjakin at Corus this year against his good client, Morozevich. Black gave up a pawn and it wasn't clear he was going to get it back when Morozevich helped out with the wacky 17.Nd4. Moro just hates being up material. He continued his flamboyant play all the way into a clearly inferior endgame. Somehow he survived, although it's probable Carlsen had improvements along the way. We missed a ludicrous line with 17.b4 d4 18.b5 dxc3 19.bxc6 Qxc6 20.Qc2! cxd2! 21.Qxc6 d1Q 22.Qxc7 and White keeps the extra pawn.
The official website and broadcast was, por supuesto, a disaster. Spanish chess sites are like garbage trucks -- they stink but you miss them when they don't work. Every year the same thing. It's not so much that I think the fans "deserve" anything for free as such. But clearly they want people to watch. The money they spend is on the design, such as it is, and the salaries of the people who run the site. The bandwidth and server power is chump change compared to that. For $400 they could host the site on a machine that could handle the traffic for Christina Aguilera doing profane things with a bishop. (Catholic or Episcopalian, your choice.) Centimo wise and peseta foolish. It's all euros now, alas. Thanks to Macauley Petersen in Linares for getting the moves out to the ICC.
Round 8 Chess.FM trivia questions and winners (for account extensions, t-shirts, and one year-long subscription to New In Chess each day).
1) Which player in Linares has drawn all his games so far? Winner: RueeLopaith
2) The legendary bullfighter Manolete was killed in Linares. Which actor will play Manolete in this year’s movie about him? Winner: zenpawn
3) Which two Linares players are scheduled to play each other in the first round of the FIDE world championship candidates matches in May (May 26-June 14)? Winner: Akselborg
Saturday, March 3. Round 9: Morozevich-Leko, Topalov-Ivanchuk, Carlsen-Aronian, Svidler-Anand. Hoping for some big chess in Topalov-Ivanchuk.
Have four days gone by already? Maybe if I'd spent fewer of those hours at various doctors' offices it wouldn't have passed so quickly. Bleh. I've been trying out more drugs than Timothy Leary and with considerably less enjoyment. And they still aren't sure why I have a cross-country ski team dancing to a techno beat in my left ear. More scans next week. If they do pluck one of these out of my skull I promise I'll auction it on Ebay. Ick.
Anand and Carlsen lead at the start of the Linares second half today. Round 8 is Anand-Topalov, Aronian-Svidler, Morozevich-Carlsen, Leko-Ivanchuk. Carlsen continued his hoodoo over Moro in the first round in the only decisive game of these matchups. All games drawn.
I'm still alive, but check back tomorrow. My left ear has decided it doesn't like me anymore and has invited a horrible ringing and scratching in to share my headspace. If van Gogh had this, now I understand. I won't bore you further, at least not with my health.
Round seven in Linares, if you still remember Linares, certainly shouldn't have bored you. Not only did we get three decisive games for the first time but they jumbled the standings and included one of the messiest top-level games you'll ever see. Anand beat Leko to join Carlsen in first on +2 when the Norwegian held Svidler with black. Ivanchuk swapped places with Aronian by beating him with white. Chucky is in clear third on +1. Aronian and Svidler are on 50%, Peter the Swede having drawn all seven of his games in the first half. Topalov's phenomenally wild and sloppy win over Morozevich moved him up to -1 to join Leko. Moro dropped to -3.
If you want exciting, tactical chess you have to be prepared to accept a few blunders along the way, but Topalov-Morozevich took this proposition to the extreme. Morozevich's fabulously provocative play with his trademark ..g5 in the French failed to discombobulate Topalov, who steadily fortified his position on the kingside. After 19.fxe5 White was solid and it was clear Black was going to have to sac something in the center or eventually be overrun due to his bassackwards development. 19..Nxd4 was playable but doesn't confuse the issue sufficiently. Moro went for a knight sac on e5 that put Topalov under tremendous pressure, although it's important to remember that Black also has to play very accurately in the attack to have a chance.
Of course this is just the sort of insane tactical position computers excel at and humans often fumble, so I got into it with the roving packs of afritzionados on the ICC. Watching patzers, and I use that term with affection, instantly saying that a super-GM has blundered, or is "totally lost" drives me insane. I promised to stop boring you so I'll skip my well-practiced rant on chess being a human game. (More immediately below in the comments, however.) That a computer says +1.72 for white after 23.Qxd4 in a boggling position with both kings in danger is trivially interesting and the lines can be amusing -- even revealing on occasion -- afterwards. They are essential for serious analysis, of course. But if you have to find 23..Bd7! 24.Nb6! Bc6+ 25.Kh2 Rd8 26.Nc4!! to call Black lost (and he's not), you really need to turn off your engine and enjoy the game.
That said, it didn't take Fritz to see that Topalov was soon getting the better of things. His king had a shelter behind the black f-pawn and the black queenside was still undeveloped. But quite uncharacteristically, Topalov pardoned Black again and again. Part of this was because he tried to play quickly in Morozevich's time trouble, but overall he was just very inaccurate. Moro climbed back into the game with his own threats and it looked like he might have a miracle draw in the making. Even as late as 35..Kc7 (instead of one move later) Black is battling despite playing with a rook on a8 and a bishop on c7. Crazy. Topalov could have ended things immediately with 38.Qg7 but Black got yet another life. Black could have met the worst of the threats by covering g5 with 40..Qf4 (or 40..Qe3). After he missed that he got no more chances. Ironic that the killer turned out to be the g-pawn-turned-e-pawn. White still needed precision against Moro's sharp defense. Hard to call such a blunder-filled game a great one, but it was lots of fun. Twenty years ago it would have taken months to analyze this one, if not years. Now the engines cut through the tactics in minutes. No wonder some spectators don't understand how difficult this game is.
As he did against Morozevich, Anand once again slithered out of an inferior position to win. Anand got a miserable opening with black and Leko could have put him away with a spectacular combination pointed out by Jon Speelman. It's long, but quite forcing. 25.Bxc6+! Rexc6 26.Bd8! Qf8 27.Qe5+ Be6 28.Qxb5! Bg4 29.Bf6! Bxd1 30.Rxd1 Bb6 31.Qe5+ Re6 32.Qd5 Rd6 33.Qxd6 Qxd6 34.Rxd6 with an easy endgame win. After that reprieve Anand defused Peter Leko's pretty 23.e6 blow and was better long before finishing things off with a perfunctory exchange sac. I dunno how he does it, but let's hope he keeps doing it.
Ivanchuk was trying to find a way to pressure Aronian in the endgame when the Armenian went to sleep and allowed his rook to be trapped. He had to give up a pawn to save it and after that Ivanchuk made quick work of it. Carlsen played my dear Accelerated Dragon, even with the unusual 8..e6, which I picked up from Hugo Spangenberg in Argentine semi-lento tournaments. Malakhov played it against Carlsen last year and Carlsen must have liked what he saw. It looked like Svidler was going to make him suffer for a long time but he hallucinated with his 17.Nc2 move and Black found the ugly but effective 18..f6! and held on.
Considering that Topalov is actually doing better at the halfway point this year than last year the only real shocker on the crosstable is Carlsen at +2, a truly fabulous result no matter what happens in Spain. The four rest days can't but help the teenager. Everyone has a loss except for Svidler and if things continue this way +4 will be clear first and +3 a shared first, as expected. Things kick off in Linares on Friday, March 2. The games start at 15:30 local time, 9:30am EST.
The local Morelia paper has had some interesting color items (on Henrik Carlsen and Aruna Anand in particular) I'll get to later. Their editorial page has had an ongoing debate about whether or not the tournament is doing anything good for the city or even for chess in the city. Some of the editorials were critical of the funding, much of which is apparently undisclosed. Another said that Morelian chess hasn't shown any progress over last year. But many city and state officials came to the final day and one said he hoped to have the tournament back in Morelia next year.