August 2007 Archives

The FIDE ethics commission has issued the expected wrist slaps a few high-profile cases, summarized nicely and linked at ChessBase. Short was reprimanded for calling FIDE veep Azmaiparashvili a "dunderhead." One can only imagine what the punishment would have been had he called him a "poopy-pants." Of more interest was what FIDE would do to Veselin Topalov and/or his manager Silvio Danailov for their scandal-mongering behavior during the Elista WCh match against Kramnik last October. Equally contentious were Topailov's continued accusations that Kramnik cheated during the match. Basically they were found guilty of breaking the ethics rules but were also issued reprimands and warned that any future violations could lead to fines or suspensions from play.

It's not as if we expected FIDE to actually DO anything, especially not to Topalov after just gifting him a world championship rematch (well, I suppose it was less a gift than a transaction). But it should mean that Topalov and Danailov will face penalties if they keep accusing Kramnik of having cheated, which is something, although considerable damage has already been done. Discussing theories about cheating, methods of preventing it, and understanding the dangers of cheating are worthwhile activities. But wild accusations, especially from the players themselves, are a road to ruin for any sport.

Update: DLM has more including some comments from Topailov in the NY Times Gambit blog here. Quoth Danailov: "I’m not angry. They are the court in this case. But I disagree. They cannot judge objectively in this case because the material evidence was destroyed. They need to ask why. If they watched the tapes and they did not agree then I would be okay with the decision." ht Markos

"Noooooorrmmmmm!" - Cheers

There are so many GMs popping up these days that it's rare we bother to mention new ones unless the title is going to someone prepubescent. Exceptions are made for GMs of one's nationality other such rooting interests. In the former category, American IM Robert Hungaski just won gold at the Pan-American Junior Championship in Ecuador, an achievement that also earned him his first GM norm. (An automatic norm, I imagine, since I doubt he faced three GMs at the event. In fact, it seems there was only one other player over 2300 in the field.) He was born in Connecticut but moved to Argentina long ago, although he still plays under the US flag. I'm sure the local players and organizers are happy about that because in Buenos Aires, as in most non-European cities, it's always hard to put together enough titled foreign players to hold norm tournaments.

Five years older than Hungaski but also with eight letters in his last name (the best segue I could manage at 4am), Zambia's Amon Simutowe earned his final GM norm with a dominating 7.5/9 performance at the Euwe Stimulans tournament in Arnhem, Netherlands. He's been living in Dallas for a while where he recently graduated from UTD and its famous chess scholarship program. The Stimulans event was practically a fancy version of a "First Saturday"-style norm tournament with none of the four GMs rated near 2500 and three illustrious veterans (Gaprindashvili, Panno, Olafsson) aged 66, 72, and 72. But it's not polite to whine about title proliferation when we could do that any day (and often do) and Simutowe has clearly been playing some excellent chess. He turned in a performance rating of nearly 2700 undefeated and now only needs to get his rating over 2500 for the GM title. Kudos! Daaim has much more at ChessDrum.

That event has led to typically tricky attempts to slap labels on first this and third that. In the Chess Life Online item, Jen Shahade avoids the unfashionable "Black" and goes with "Amon will become the third GM of African descent, after Maurice Ashley (USA) and Pontus Carlsen [sic - Carlsson] (Sweden)." This is also tricky though, because Morocco and Egypt are in Africa last I checked and have both produced Grandmasters. Perhaps the key words is "descent," which might mean to rule out African-born GMs of Arab ethnicity? Seems like a lot of trouble to avoid saying what is meant, which is "Black." (Related trivia: Some Soviets disputed Eugenio Torre's claim of being the first Asian GM because a few Soviet GMs were from their far east.)

Regardless, even though Simutowe was forced to achieve it mostly living and playing abroad, he is the first GM to come out of sub-Saharan Africa. He instantly becomes even more of an impressive ambassador for the sport in dozens of African and Caribbean nations where chess isn't exactly thriving. Those who would like to cut the world championship field down by eliminating the players from the weaker regions like Africa overlook what a powerful tool it is for free publicity. Even if they only last a round, players like Simutowe, who has played in the three FIDE KO's, are followed avidly in their home nations and regions.

Lastly, it looks like India's Humpy Koneru is set to cross the 2600 mark, only the second woman ever to do so -- after Judit Polgar of course. It looks like she'll be a tantalizing 2599 on the next list. [daniel in the comments says she'll actually be 2604.] Comparing old and current ratings is treacherous, so let's see if she can make it to the top 100 next (currently starting at 2624, good heavens), a more objective measure. She's still only 20, I believe. This odd article and interview with her in The Hindu makes it sound like 1) "super GM" is a real title and 2) 2600 is still the bar. I believe it's 2700 these days, at least! And she (or the writer) forgets to include Harikrishna in the Indian 2600+ club. ht Vaibhav

Here's a project: how many countries have exactly one GM? I'll kick the list off with Bolivia (Zambrana), Costa Rica (Ramirez), and Ecuador (Matamoros).

Ominous technical developments for the chess world no longer come only from Intel and chess programmers. A new breed of high-tech and micro-sized hearing aids are appearing and the prices keep dropping. Some can double as receivers. The Wall Street Journal had an article on them yesterday (subscription). Some relevant excerpts:

I believe Phonak was the brand of the device some twit was caught with at the World Open last year (items here and here). ht John Henderson

This is a topic that is becoming dear to my heart these days, or at least dear to my auditory canal. My hearing in my left ear is continuing to diminish as the tinnitus increases. I don't feel the need for a hearing aid since my right ear is dandy, but if the noises and ringing get much worse I might look into one of the feedback devices that sometimes work at canceling out the noise, at least for wearing when I'm trying to go to sleep and the tinnitus is most noticeable.

American IM Dr. (Dr. IM?) Mark Ginsburg has popped up in the blogosphere with a personal chess history and some old photos that will bring a smile or a cringe depending on your feelings about the hairstyles of the 70's and 80's. Naturally, most are of US players, but there are a few internationals, such as this one of 18-year-old Vladimir Kramnik at the New York PCA/Intel KO event, probably in 1994 when he beat Kasparov in the final. (He was also in NY that year for the candidates match he lost to Kamsky and in 1995 for another PCA KO. Maybe Big Vlad can help us figure out exactly when this photo was taken.)

Photo by Mark Ginsburg

Mark also has analysis and other tidbits. Check it out.

Things hotted up at the NH Tournament in round six. The youth team had white on all boards but somewhere along the line they forgot that was supposed to be an advantage after the novel 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 (!!). After two wins for each side the Rising Stars team still leads the Experience team by a single point.

Smeets-Nikolic was the only draw but it was entertaining to the end. Smeets and Cheparinov are still in striking range of first place with +1. After barely doing more than showing up in the first half of the event, Khalifman shook off the cobwebs to beat Stellwagen on the black side of a Lopez. White's 25.Rb1 was out-zwischenzugged by 25..Bf6! and Black wins material. Khalifman added to his collection of excuses for his previous five rounds of attendance with, "Sometimes people forget that a draw is a natural result in a chess game." Profound, and it was also wise of him not to add, "now where can I go cash my paycheck?"

Negi, no chicken Parimarjan, did everything right against Beliavsky in another Lopez and was ready to collect a well-deserved first win. On move 39 he had his choice of wins: the subtle 39.Nf6+ Kg7 40.Rd8! (with Rd7 to follow) or the hammer to the forebrain 39.Ne7+ Kg7 40.Nxg6. Instead he played for the mate in two with 39.Qf6 (threat Rxf8+) only to see all his threats disappear after the entirely forced 39..Rc8! That loses the black queen to 40.Nc7 but actually turns the tables thanks to the passed a-pawn and the horribly out of play white queen. An amazing swindle. It's a little surprising how easily Black won the queen endgame with an extra pawn. 46..d5!?! was a risky-looking way to try to end things quicker by keeping the extra bishop.) Negi tried to keep his queen active instead of bringing it back for defense and it was only a spectator for the rest of the game. The youngest player is now on -3, but not for a lack of stretches of good chess.

Cheparinov scored his first win by beating Jussupow, who was leading the individual standings. White was making progress and then won instantly when Black whoopsed 34.Rg3. Ouchie. I'm sure I'll be lecturing in the newsletters about the hazards of pushing the pawns in front of your king thanks to Jussupow's inexplicable 27..g6. Of the many reasons to love Ljubo is that he plays my dear old Accelerated Dragon. He quickly went way off the beaten track, however, with 11..b5 against Karjakin. This is the sort of move you can describe as only being good with an inordinate amount of cooperation from your opponent. Karjakin played it safe with 12.a3 when the obvious 12.e5 dxe5 13.Nxc6 Bxc6 14.fxe5 looks very strong. But after 14..Nh5 it's not so easy. In the game Karjakin got two pieces for a rook and turned it into a nice queenless king assault to win. With +2 the top seed is now in the lead to get the ticket to next year's Melody Amber in Monaco.

Better Know Moldova™: The 2008 World Almanac for Kids has a "Did You Know?" entry for every country. For Moldova it is: "On March 1, Moldovans celebrate the beginning of spring by wearing a pin with braided threads of red (symbolizing blood) and white (symbolizing life)."

The Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF. Really.) has announced an event in San Francisco on October 13. You can get details at the HHCF blog or even check out their Myspace page, which has a soundtrack you just can't miss. Ubisoft, publisher of the Chessmaster software series, is a co-sponsor of the 1st Annual Chess Kings Invitational. The HHCF had an event last May, also in SF. Anything with The RZA can't be bad, I always say. IM Josh Waitzkin and his book are also involved with the project.

The kids are still all right at the NH Tournament in Amsterdam. After four rounds, the Rising Stars team leads the Experience team 11.5-8.5. Stellwagen for the youngsters and Jussupow for the veterans have 3/4 scores to lead the individual standings. It was looking very good for the kids today, perhaps as good as 4-1, but Smeets fell apart in a superior position against Jussupow and lost when he saw a phantom mate. Instead, 38.b3 looks playable. Karjakin did work against Nikolic for his first win of the event. Nikolic's 11..Qc8 and subsequent configuration of knights on d7 and e6 looks like a novel way to handle a well-worn position. White eventually made his bishops count with some help from a Nikolic blunder on the ever-fateful move 40.

He fared better than his veteran colleague Ljubo Ljubojevic did against Stellwagen. The Yugoslav once again tried to rehab the sprained ankle that is 7..d5 in the Scheveningen. Unfortunately, this move, which would practically be a refutation of 1.e4 if it worked, is unpopular for a reason. However, Ljubo tried it against the same opponent at the same event last year and should have won the game after an insipid reaction by White. This time Black played 9..exd5 and then offered cheesecake to fate with 10..a6, chasing the white bishop but leaving his king in the center. Stellwagen showed he has worked on his aggression in the past year and sacrificed a piece for a very strong attack. Ljubo refused to grovel with 16..Be7 17.Ng7 Kf8 and instead was tied up in knots and blown away after blundering on the very next move with 17..h6. The computer says Black can survive after the inelegant 17..Qd7 18.Qe5 Kd8.

The veterans are poised to beat the whippersnappers with their canes in Sunday's fifth round when they have white in all five games.

Hey, you got your egg roll in my borscht! Hey, you got borscht on my egg roll! That must mean it's time for the annual match between chess powerhouses China and Russia. Host city Nizhny Novgorod has been a hotbed of Russian political opposition activity and counter-activity in the past year, btw.

It's ten rounds, Scheveningen style. It's really two matches, five boards for men and five for women. They combine the scores, however. ChessBase has the clearest breakdown and photos but it's a few days old. TWIC has the latest score and games (27.5-22.5 China after today's fifth round). The official site has a bunch of funny writing.

It seems like every major team event China plays in they bring a few new underrated young female talents who are then replaced by yet others a year or two later and are never heard from again. Their women would be favored in a 20-board match against the rest of the world. The men are hardly slouches of course. You'll remember that they won the silver in the 2006 Olympiad while the Russian team failed to medal. The Russians don't have their top-rated players in action, most of them are playing in the Mexico City world championship in a few weeks. The team of Inarkiev, Timofeev, Jakovenko, Tomashevsky, and Alekseev isn't exactly cold leftovers though. China brought its A-Team of Bu Xiangzhi, Ni Hua, Wang Yue, Wang Hao, and Zhang Pengxiang. The Russian men are leading by a point after going 3.5-1.5 in the fifth round. They won last year by a three point margin. The Chinese women lead 15.5-9.5. And Hou Yifan isn't even playing.

Russian champ Alekseev is out to a 4/5 start to lead the individual scores. (Zhao Xue is also 4/5 on the women's side.) That includes a very sharp counterattacking effort against Ni Hua's Maroczy Bind in the fifth round. For balance, Ni Hua's 15.e6!? against Tomashevsky in the first round deserves an eyeball. Alekseev beat Wang Yue in the crazy Slav line we saw recently in Berkes-Harikrishna and Bluvshtein-Miton. Both of those games followed the computer recommendations on the 12th move (0-0 or Ke2) but Alekseev instead sacrificed a full rook for a dominating knight, menacing passed pawn, and the bishop pair. It quickly paid off. In hindsight, Black should have left the exchange alone and taken the knight on move 14. A nice piece of analysis by Alekseev.

Today was the start of the sophomore edition of the NH Tournament in Amsterdam, organized by the Max Euwe Association. Fittingly, it's a Scheveningeningeningeningen format tournament, a team event in which every member of the "Rising Stars" team of top young players faces each member of the "Falling Stars" "Experience" team of veterans. Last year Carlsen led the Rising Stars to a +6 victory and won the main prize of qualifying to play in this year's Melody Amber rapid/blindfold event. He's absent this year but the prize remains the same.

Experience: Beliavsky, Jussupow, Khalifman, Ljubojevic, Nikolic.
Rising Stars: Karjakin, Cheparinov, Negi, Stellwagen, Smeets.

Team changes from last year: Nikolic and Khalifman replace Nunn and Andersson. Negi and Cheparinov replace Carlsen and Wang Hao. It's more balanced, but the kids are the favorites again. I'm sure there are many lessons these budding chess stars can learn from such an august assemblage of veterans. Things like, "save for retirement," and "one bottle of vodka per day should be enough for anyone."

The Stars got off to a +1 start on a slow first day with four draws and a win by Smeets over Nikolic. New In Chess editor-in-chief and friend of the Dirt Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam is again providing extensive reports after each round. He'll be happy to take some questions if you post them below.

Better Know Moldova™: Moldova's territory is 33,843 square kilometers (13,067 square miles). (Including Transnistria, a part of Moldova that is trying to break away.) That makes it a little smaller than Switzerland, Taiwan, or Maine and a little bigger than Belgium, Armenia, or South Carolina.

According to the Cuban news source Juventud Rebelde, Cuba's top player, Lenier Dominguez, is in Hungary helping Peter Leko train for the Mexico City world championship tournament that begins on September 12. Have there been any more leaks about the teams? I'll start asking around, although some players like to keep their seconds out of sight so as not to tip potential repertoire changes. The 23-year-old Cuban has started to leave his compatriot peer Lazaro Bruzon behind in the climb toward 2700. Dominguez is 2680 on the latest list. In an interview a few years ago Dominguez said, "my idol has always been Bobby Fischer but I also love the way Kasparov plays. ... I would love to see a match between them at their peaks."

Impossible matches aside, what would be your dream match today? Between people who are alive and who actually play chess, that is. 12 games, classical chess, Sofia rules, with a prize fund that actually rewards the winner and also rewards wins over draws. But let's not quibble on the rules too much. That's my checklist, but I suppose you might prefer a rapid or blitz match. It's your dream, after all. Name your players for a match starting today. No titles, just chess. Right now I'd have to go Ivanchuk-Aronian. Second pick would be Topalov-Radjabov. Any mix of those four would be tremendous.

Better Know Moldova™: The official language Moldovan is actually Romanian, a romance language. It became the official language in 1989 when Moldova headed toward independence from the USSR (achieved in 1991). It was originally called Romanian in Moldova but was then changed officially to Moldovan. Many at the time assumed Moldova and Romania would unite.

Mickey Adams has a strong claim to being the strongest English chessplayer since Howard Staunton himself. I would tend to eschew Elo and to side with Nigel Short's achievement of reaching a world championship match against Kasparov in 1993. Adams just took clear first at the 5th Staunton Memorial in London. His 8.5/11 score was a full point ahead of the other two big favorites, Ivan Sokolov and Loek van Wely. van Wely lost a pretty miniature to England's newest GM, Gawain Jones, in round 10 to knock him off the pace. Sokolov had his chances to catch Adams in their final round game but missed some superior lines in the endgame. Adams also won the tournament's best game prize for a nice demolition of Werle in the 9th round.

Jan Timman was as erratic as ever and at no time more erratic than in the final round. The Dutch veteran drew only two games with five losses and four wins. In the final round Timman fell into an ugly trap that many have fallen into before. According to the site report he was shocked by 13..Qg5! Apparently so shocked that he failed to find the bail-out move 14.Kf2 that various far less illustrious players have found over the years after making the same mistake of taking on g7 right off. Instead he gave up his queen for two minor pieces and eventually went down.

In what passes for outrage from the mild-mannered Viswanathan Anand, the world #1 speaks to the press about Kramnik and Topalov's guaranteed matches. Below is a Hindustan Times version quoting Anand in the German papers. Note that the last blatant case of FIDE giving preferences and privileges also victimized Anand, back in 97-98 when Karpov played the winner of the first KO instead of playing in it. The proposed unification matches with Kasparov, Ponomariov, and Kasimjanov would also have fit the description -- if at least with a purpose -- but they never took place. Great to hear Vishy sounding off. Maybe someone in Mainz has been dosing his dosas? I say that if he wins Mexico he should be guaranteed a rematch...

Vishy Anand and Levon Aronian will face off in the Sunday final match of the Grenke Leasing rapid world championship in Mainz. After finishing a half-point ahead of Aronian in the prelim section, 4 to 3.5, Vishy is the favorite to avenge his Chess960 match loss to the Armenian two days ago, but it should be a good one. It's a pity they will only play four games, with possible blitz tiebreaks. Kasimjanov and Bacrot will play for 3-4th just as they did in the Chess960 event. Kasimjanov beat Bacrot and had excellent chances against both Anand and Aronian, but couldn't put either of the favorites away.

Meanwhile, the massive Ordix Open began Saturday and the first five rounds are already in the books. That's nothing; they play six more today in this battle of endurance. After the first day, six players had perfect 5/5 scores, including favorites Ivanchuk and Mamedyarov. David Navara is also perfect and has been playing interesting chess in both regular and shuffle. Standings are here.

Viorel (aka Viktor aka Victor) Bologan, Moldova's most famous non-prostitute export, won the mighty FiNet shuffle chess open tournament in Mainz. Gata Kamsky was an early leader but he lost to defending champ Bacrot and Ivanchuk took over. But Bolo beat the Ukrainian in the final round with black to take clear first with an impressive 9.5/11 score. The wonderful standings page (!) pointed out to me by Johannes Fischer of the Mainz site shows Kamsky, Navara, Ivanchuk, and Volokitin sharing second a half-point back. (Btw guys, it's Gata who is playing in Mainz, not his father Rustam!) Kamsky was rocking the place for a long time, beating the perennial favorite Mamedyarov in just eight moves and showing that while he can't manage his time when he has hours, it's not so bad when he just has 20 minutes! As the old saying goes, talent ages well.

I looked at just a few of the top games live and Volokitin had a cute win over Sumets in round nine. White must have been shocked by 14.0-0! breaking a pin and threatening mate at the same time. Gol-durned funky castling rules. That round also saw Karjakin castle kingside -- from b8 to g8! I imagine the win puts Bologan into the world championship against Aronian next year. Oh yah, Aronian beat Anand in the final, needing blitz tiebreaks after Vishy came back to win the fourth game to tie the match. If they do it like this did this year he will also face Anand and the winner of the Ordix rapid (non-shuffle) open that starts Saturday.

Speaking of pieces that don't shuffle, Anand came out ahead in the first Grenke Leasing rapid championship prelim round with Aronian, Bacrot, and Kasimjanov. So far things look to again be shaping up the way ol' Arpad intended. After the first day Anand leads with 2.5/3 followed by Aronian and Bacrot with 1.5 and the out of form Kasimjanov with 0.5 and a near long castling that was averted by a save against Aronian. As in the Chess960, the top two scorers after tomorrow's second half of all-play all will play a four-game match on Sunday and the 3-4th players will also face off.

Levon Aronian and Vishy Anand dominated the preliminary rounds of the FiNet Chess960 rapid event in Mainz. They finished 1-2 with 4.5 and 4 points out of 6, respectively. Both were undefeated. Kasimjanov and Bacrot were well back and will face off in tomorrow's match for places 3-4 while Vishy and defending champ Aronian battle it out for the shuffle chess world championship. Kasim lost all three games today. Tomorrow's final matches are four games with possible tiebreaks. The FiNet Chess960 Open begins tomorrow as well with dozens of GMs. Participants include Kamsky, Shirov, Volokitin, Akopian, Ivanchuk, Mamedyaroov, Karjakin, Dreev, Grischuk, and Harikrishna, who will have to hot-foot it from Paks, Hungary, where he just today won the Georgy Marx Memorial =1st with Acs! Sorry if I missed any big names, but the players are democratically listed in alphabetical order.

Since the Mainz website, which is otherwise extensive in both German and English, has again declined to put up simple results pages the only way to figure these things out promptly is to go through the plethora of live game pages and tally things up. Just like last year. Oddly, they do have a results link under each event listing this time, but it's a PDF download and is a day behind. Wanted, tot oder lebendig: a single html page with all the crosstables and results updated after each round. Kudos to Johannes Fischer, Eric van Reem and arbiter Hans Secelle for the fine reports as ever.

I probably say this every year (since I'm rehashing the same website complaints, why not?), but I just don't have the energy to give the Chess960 games the attention they require. In theory, it would be interesting to compare how the games evolve differently from the same starting position each day -- especially true with hundreds of games in the big open. But since they still don't/can't release the scores in a useful database format, there's an additional hurdle. (Grokking the initial position in the first place is the other one.) If they want to give the games as PGN with "illegal" moves as comments, as they are doing now, couldn't they also give them in ChessBase format or something else that can parse Fischerandom moves? I don't think there has been any advance in the problems described in this post and by Gene and others in the knowledgeable commentariat last year. CB 9 still can't create Chess960 games, but it can read them if they are created in Fritz.

Or should that be Jolly Old Britain? It should be now that the Scots keep winning the British Championship. This year it wasn't three-times-running winner Jonathan Rowson but adopted Scot Jacob Aagaard, whose last name, by the way, is the Scottish pronunciation of a synonym for worn out and exhausted. But Aagaard, Danish, a prolific author, and still just an IM if not for long, outlasted everyone else in Great Yarmouth to win with 8.5/11. He beat Flear in the final round to finish a half-point ahead of Rowson and Gordon. Note on the crosstable that Terence Chapman, he of the 2001 two-pawn handicap match against Kasparov, played this year and had a respectable 6.5-point result. I believe it was his first championship since 1983!

Meanwhile, oddly enough, the strong 12-player round-robin Staunton Memorial is underway in London. Maybe next year they'll hold the World Open and the US Championship at the same time? As last year it's a mix of top British and Dutch players. Top seeds Adams and van Wely are leading with 5.5/7 with four rounds to play. Smeets and last year's winner Ivan Sokolov are a point back. Jan Timman, whose games are always worth a look, is listing badly and taking on water (probably not water) with four losses against one win. They are also tracking the Dutch vs British score and currently the Dutch lead 20-16. There are extensive daily reports, always nice to see. Note that the crosstable on the official site isn't really a crosstable. It's the progressive score. E.g. Sokolov didn't lose to Adams. He lost to McNab in the first round. Weird.

The official site makes a bold claim that I believe was quickly bold-erized from the ChessBase report that reprinted it. Namely that the 5th Staunton Memorial is "certainly the strongest event to be held in London if not the UK since 1986." Well, if you don't include the 1993 world championship match between Kasparov and Short, I suppose. But aren't they using the date 1986 to include the third Kasparov-Karpov WCh match? (I'm sure they are actually using the 86 London tournament that included Spassky, Vaganian, Nunn, Short, Portisch, and Polugaevsky. Won by, serendipity trivia drumroll please.... Glenn Flear.) How about the PCA rapid Grand Prix in 1995 with Kramnik, Anand, and Ivanchuk. Ask the winner -- Mickey Adams -- if it counts! That event was also memorable for Tony Miles knocking out Kramnik in the first round in front of a very partisan home crowd. You could even make a good case for a few of the Lloyds Bank opens with Shirov, Morozevich, Larsen, et al. I guess "strongest closed all-play-all classical chess tournament since 1986" doesn't really roll off the tongue.

London saw several great events in 1984 alone. The big international closed won by Karpov despite his famous loss to Torre (Eugenio, not Carlos). And the USSR vs the World rematch won 21-19 by the Soviet team led by Karpov and Kasparov. Bonus serendipity trivia: Only two players at that event scored more than one win. Beliavsky (3.5/4 over Seirawan and Larsen) and.... Eugenio Torre. He scored 2/3 against Andrei Sokolov.

Hot and sick and tired these days, but don't let me get you down. The Yankees are winning, Rove is leaving, and there are still a few bridges in this country standing. And Garry is back in New In Chess next month. Many here will appreciate his big hat tip to our man Chucky.

There are also a few chess events going on, by the way. The Mainz Classic series is underway, although the big rapid open doesn't start until the 18th. Right now it's mostly shuffle chess, or Fischerandom or Chess960 or whatever you want to call it this year. Instead of matches the top Chess960 "world championship" event this year is a four-player tournament with Aronian, Bacrot, Kasimjanov, and Anand. On Friday the 17th the same four players begin the "rapid world championship" with the same format of preliminary all-play-all leading to matches between players 1-2 and 3-4. On the 16th the FiNet Chess960 Open begins. The Chess960 events are also rapid chess, plus the time you spend in the first few minutes trying to scratch out your own eyeballs when you see the initial position. On the 18th the massive Ordix Open starts and that, blessedly, will find all the pieces safely back on the squares god intended.

There is always a morass of pages at the official site and often separate live pages as well. This page usually serves as an index to all the live pages, although sometimes links pop up elsewhere and results can be hard to find. Right now this main live link leads to the two games of today's first round of the Chess960 event with Anand. It should be starting at 1830 local time according to this handy PDF schedule. That means NOW.

Outspoken organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt has an interview at ChessBase. Pre-event interview with Anand with video on Chessdom ht marca. Dirt recap of last year's event or click the "Mainz" tag below for that and more.

Fresh on the heels of gaining his final GM norm, 15-year-old Fabiano Caruana was looking like he was going to run the table in the strong Hogeschool Zeeland Open in the Vlissingen, Netherlands. He won his first six games but lost in the 7th round to Tiviakov in a wild time scramble. That moved Tivi up to a share of first with 6/7 along with five others and two rounds to play. (Krasenkow and Kasimjanov are also playing.) Caruana's 2700 TPR is still tremendous. In round six he beat Dutch GM Stellwagen (2631), probably the strongest player he has ever defeated. Caruana turned 15 on July 30 and will be the youngest American-born GM ever, although he recently changed his federation to Italy and has been living in Hungary to focus on chess. Might he be coming back to the US (Brooklyn no less!) now that he's poised to crack 2600? I bet he's quite a bit taller these days.

Update:Caruana wins! He beat Barua in the 8th and then drew with Kasimdzhanov in the final round and took the first place trophy on tiebreaks ahead of three others, including Tiviakov. Congrats.

A few days ago I published a letter from David Levy documenting the collapse of negotiations between the Rybka and Junior camps, failing to agree on the rules for a match between the programs in September. Sergey Abramov, general manager of Convekta, was in charge of negotiations for the Rybka side. He sends a response to Levy's letter and I give it below in full in two parts. It sounds like he is still looking for a match for Rybka. Speaking of, Rybka is currently taking on GM Joel Benjamin in a handicap match, giving the GM a pawn in each game. I have some comments from both sides but ran into time trouble with visiting family this week. I'll have it up soon.

The rest continues at the link below. Negotiations aside, I don't agree with his statement that chess players all over the world care about high-level computer matches. Unless they are playing against a top human, that is. It's hard to measure something like interest in a sub-sub-section of a sport as marginal as chess already is. But based on the comments and traffic I've seen over the years, there is a small, vociferous band of computer chess junkies who are passionately interested in comp-comp chess. Trying to make the leap from that to the general public may actually be easier than trying to convince the rest of the chess-playing world to care. But they'll need robots making the moves and perhaps an animated movie or two.

Several people have sent in or pointed out in the comments that round six of the Arctic Challenge tournament in Tromsø, Norway, sees an interesting pairing. GM Magnus Carlsen, the top seed in the event, is having a rocky performance so far. In the sixth round he's down on board nine with 3.5 points. He's paired against an over-performing 2089-rated player who is having a good tournament to reach the same 3.5. That player is none other than Henrik Carlsen, Magnus's father! Countries like the USSR and its offspring regularly saw tournament encounters between strong parents and their even stronger kids. And of course the Polgars regularly faced each other. Several events even invited all three sisters. In Aruba 92 all three games between them were decisive.

So what's it going to be tomorrow in Tromsø? An easy conversion of the 600+ rating point advantage for a young GM trying to climb up the crosstable? Or a quick draw with poor old dad despite a possible resulting cut in allowance?

Topalov, Ponomariov, Ivanchuk, Shirov, those are just the biggest names playing in the Villarobledo Rapid two-day event in Spain this weekend. The usual confusion of Spanish websites has made it tricky to figure out what's going on but the stellar Chess-Results.com website saves the day with crosstables and results charts. They say that Ponomariov, Dreev, and Topalov have shared first with 7.5/9. Dreev and Topalov had to win in the final round to catch up with the Ukrainian. Ivanchuk started out hot and had a perfect 5/5 score after the first day. But he lost to Malakhov in the sixth round and fell off the pace. He finished in the pack a half-point behind the winners. You can replay some of the top games on the live page here. The winner usually gets his weight in wine, as we saw Anand do last year.

I'm not sure if the challenge is the 9-round swiss open field with over a dozen GMs or just getting to the Norwegian town of Tromsø. Or maybe it's because Russia just claimed the Arctic? Magnus Carlsen's presence brings attention wherever he goes and it's great to see him playing in events on his home turf. These days it's rare to see top-20 players in their national championships. One of the reasons why that is came true for Carlsen in the first round of the Arctic Challenge when he drew with a local player rated nearly 700 points lower, Brede Hagen (2034). (In a g3 Najdorf that Hugo Spangenberg used to beat Garry Kasparov in a clock simul ten years ago. Game below.)

So many organizers and players obsess over rating points that dropping a dozen of them in one game to someone you would usually only meet in a simul is usually not considered worth the risk. Combine with conditions that don't meet super-GM standards and you see why it's rare to see a 2700+ in an open event like this one. I'm sure Magnus will make up in goodwill whatever he may drop in Elo. He also probably had to endure some parental ribbing after that draw because after the first round he was trailing his father Henrik in the standings! Other top seeds include Mikhail Brodsky, Bartlomiej Macieja, Mikhail Gurevich, and Vugar Gashimov.

I know you and I know you don't have anything better to do this weekend than read an eight-page article that gives the blow-by-blow behind the scenes action of a computer match that isn't going to happen. Coincidentally, just the other day IM David Levy sent me just such a document! It details the negotiations behind a planned match between the programs Rybka, by Vasik Rajlich and Junior by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky. (Full b-ball disclosure: I know exactly how many free throws out of 10 Shay can hit and I once went to a WNBA game with his sister.) It was intended to take place alongside the Mexico City world championship in September. Pics of all the programmers here.

You'll remember Rybka offered a challenge to FIDE and the winner of their "Ultimate" computer match last June. This match wasn't really that one. No handicap or winner-take-all. The gist of this epic, which is just begging to be set to music, I might add, is that everyone on all sides supported a match. FIDE and the Mexico organizers were on board. It would be between the 2006 (Junior) and 2007 (Rybka) world computer champions. Rybka dominates the computer vs computer rating lists and Junior just beat Fritz in a match in Elista. The company that distributes Rybka, Convekta, was offering to guarantee a $100,000 prize fund. Convekta's Sergey Abramov represented Rajlich in the negotiations. The major issues in the negotiations were 1) Time frame, 2) Tiebreaks, 3) Financial guarantees, 4) Hardware. The first three were settled rather quickly, the first two conceded by the Junior team, but the fourth became complex. The main issue was whether or not the computers the programs ran on would have to be on-site or if remote was acceptable.

To summarize Abramov's position, such a high-stakes match cannot allow any possibility of cheating. As such, the machines must be on site and available for inspection. The Junior team responded that there is a long tradition of using remote terminals and that this was the only way they could be sure to be playing on the strongest hardware possible. The expense of bringing/arranging a top-level machine in Mexico would be prohibitive. Eventually Abramov accepted that position but wanted a set of controls to be put in place to assure the probity of the contest. This included providing the log files and copies of the program to the arbiter after each game, something that at least at some level has been done many times in the past. Abramov then asked that the log files and engines also be provided to the opposing team after the match was completed, something that Levy describes as out of bounds.

That turned out to be the sticking point. It was either on-site hardware or handing over executables and logs. Eventually they overstepped the July 30 deadline set by Abramov without a resolution. You can read the full Levy article in all its original formatting glory here in PDF format.

I'm not really torn up about this. More chess is always good, but as I said about the Junior-Fritz match, this isn't high-stakes chess. Both engines are commercially available, if not in their absolutely latest versions perhaps. It's a fun academic exercise to play an annual championship between the comps, but it's not really much of a spectator sport. You might make the argument that with computers being as strong as they are this is the best chess ever played on the planet. But making that argument would make you a silly person. Compare it a potter making a vase. A machine can crank out countless perfect replicas that have fewer flaws and that possess perfect symmetry. But is it art?

The slight imperfections are what make human chess a sport. Computers make mistakes of course, even big ones, but it's more of a science in finding out how and why the algorithm coughed up a hairball. That's not sport, that's debugging. As a programmer I'm all for the argument that great coding has artistic merits and this is even more the case with chess programming. I've oohed and aahed over elegant code the way we coo over a brilliant mate. That's art. Still, when it comes to chess matches, the principles of competitive tension, winning when it counts, and results being what matter are alien to machines. I watch, I'm interested in the games, but it's hard to care. Yes, the programmers get worked up plenty, but this isn't the same. Watching NASCAR is bad, although millions apparently do so. Imagine watching NASCAR with the cars being remote-controlled. Or driven by robots as the robot designers cheer from the sidelines. Not so much.

As an aside, unless the machines are of roughly similar processing power there is even less of a point in holding competitive events. I'm aware of all the reasons this can be difficult, but since most progs are running on standard PC architecture these days it's not hard. (I.e. a program that can only run on a Cray would require some serious equivalence calculations. And a hardware-based program like Hydra is another thing altogether.) It also makes marketing sense to want them on the fastest machines available. Faster machine, better chess. But if one is on 16 cores and the other 8, it's a bit silly to talk about the programs and sport. It's like having a Ferrari vs a Hyundai to find the best driver.

Before we go beyond the headline we have to include a subheadline: "Ties for first with Alexander Onischuk and wins the tiebreak in blitz armageddon game." They both finished with 5.5/9, +2 scores valued at around 2760 performance. In the playoff they drew two rapid and two blitz games and finally Carlsen got black in the armageddon game and won. It's a bit silly to have such things after a round-robin that isn't producing a qualifier or anything else necessitating a sole victor. But it's a little extra fun for the fans as long as Onischuk's name isn't forgotten. Biel often gets relegated to second tier behind Linares, Corus and Dortmund, but despite having just two top-ten players this was a powerful event. It was a category 18, a 2678 average. I don't think an American has tied for first in such a strong closed since Kamsky 1.0 over ten years ago. (Kamsky's performance rating at the 2006 Mtel was over 2800 though.) Onischuk has been on a brutal regimen of powerful European tournaments and it's clearly paying off. It's becoming the year of the Chuckies!

Carlsen deserves maximum kudos, however, both for beating his co-winner in their regular game -- Onischuk's only loss -- and for fighting back after two late losses knocked him out of the lead. Carlsen played a very creative attacking game to snatch the lead away from Radjabov in the final round. The white rooks dominated the center and split the board in two with Black's king on one side and most of his pieces on the other. Playing these oddball Pirc and Pirc-ish 1.e4 d6 defenses at this level is something Radjabov and his countryman Mamedyarov get away with on a regular basis, but they also have more than a few shattering losses like this one. In this game, which was really more of a Philidor as pointed out below, it's hard to understand why Black would want to activate the Ra1 by capturing on a3 instead of just playing ..d5 immediately. After that Black can take on a3 when White has to recapture with the pawn.

Grischuk nabbed his second win in the final round. He came close to a few others and had a decent event despite some notable glitches. In round 9 he beat Avrukh with Black in the Ragozin we've seen from his fellow Russian Jakovenko lately. The Israeli helped out, missing a good saving try at the bitter endgame with 52.Nxa2 with drawing chances in R + N vs R after 52..Nxa2 53.Ra7+ Kg6 54.Kc5 and the e-pawn falls. van Wely finished with a flourish, winning his second in a row to come blinking out of the cellar into the daylight after a rough event. His win with Black over Bu Xiangzhi created a curious crosstable. Two winners with +2, four +1 scores (Pelletier, Polgar, Grischuk, Radjabov) and four players at -2 (Bu, van Wely, Motylev, Avrukh). Every player had a win and a loss, which usually signifies fighting chess like we saw in Biel.

Mainz begins on August 13. The UK Championship is underway.

Just when you thought it was safe to make predictions, chess happens. Magnus Carlsen was well on his way to a solid and professional tournament win at the GM Group in Biel. He was +3 undefeated with a full-point lead and only three rounds to go. Suddenly Swiss hero Pelletier broke his neutrality and beat the Norwegian teenager in round seven. That dropped Carlsen into a tie with Radjabov, who was waking up after five straight draws to start the event. I'd predicted a surge from the top seed, but I'd forgotten to factor in the automatic full point Radjabov gets against van Wely when he has black. The many-time Dutch champion has a head harder than a five-year-old Gouda and insists on trying to bash Radjabov's King's Indian in some wild lines. van Wely tagged Radjabov when it counted at the World Cup in 2005, but this year it's been payback. This was the third win for Radjabov this year. For van Wely it's been EEEEEE!97.

In yesterday's eighth round things really got messy. Carlsen lost again, this time in a spectacular game by van Wely. (Carlsen obviously should have played the King's Indian.) van Wely got a pile of kingside pawns for a knight. In the end it didn't look close and the pawns, four connected passers no less, cruised to victory. The elegantly patient 21.Qh6! is a star move. Onischuk moved into a tie for first with Radjabov on +2 by beating Avrukh's Grunfeld. The American found a very nice pawn grab 27.Qxe7! and his technique brought home the full point.

Pelletier won again to move to a pleasantly surprising plus score. He beat Bu Xiangzhi with a massive wall of pawns and sent China's finest back to the negative score he had after the first round. Rather remarkably, considering the interesting chess he's been playing, van Wely is still in last place! Grischuk outplayed Polgar and was headed to victory in an unusual N+2 vs N endgame with connected pawns. That sounds easy, but there was exactly one trap in the position and Grischuk fell into it. There's a very cool stalemate trick after 61.Kf3? Ng4! and it's a theoretical draw. Amazing to see this in real life. 61.f5, giving up a pawn, forces a complex win.

Going into today's final round, Onischuk and Radjabov are tied for the lead with 5/8. Carlsen, Pelletier, and Polgar are chasing a half-point back. Carlsen can right the ship with a win with white against Radjabov. The Azerbaijani took one of his patented rest days with white in round eight against Motylev. But this time he can't be blamed since he looked clearly worse when they agreed to the draw on move 16. Onischuk has black against Motylev and Polgar has white against Pelletier. May the best American win!