November 2007 Archives

And then there were 32. The third round started today in Siberia and it was cold. How cold was it? So cold everyone was huddling around Shirov's board for warmth! So cold the yaks were knitting sweaters from other yaks! So cold the yaks in sweaters were huddling around Shirov's board for warmth! Ba-dum-bum! I'm here all week folks, try the chess pie. It's going to get up to -6C (20F) tomorrow in Khanty-Mansiysk before dropping down to -15C later in the week. Thank goodness it's not winter yet.

It wasn't exactly fire on board at the start of round three. But first let's take a look back and see who was left off the World Cup bus in round two. The tiebreaks were fast and furious with two going to armageddon blitz -- both won by white, which is notable. Kiril Georgiev took out former KO winner Kasimjanov. The lowest-rated player left, Zhou Jianchao (of whom I don't believe I'd ever heard before), held on against Volokitin and then won the sudden-death game out of a drawn bishop and pawn endgame. I recall Jonathan Rowson writing in NIC recently about the tenacity and perspicacity of the Chinese players in dynamic endgames. They do seem to be winning more than their share of such games in Khanty-Mansiysk. Zhou must have been lost in the second rapid game. Volokitin lost the first blitz game with white but won on demand to equalize before losing the last game with black. The 19-year-old Zhou lost game one of round three to Spiderman Adams.

Ivanchuk ko'ed Galkin in rapids with the help of a very nifty bishop drop. 16.Bc6! lodges the bishop on a powerful square followed by d5. Black was understandably startled and reacted poorly. Ponomariov completed his second comeback in as many rounds by eliminating Wang Hao. Their first rapid game was notable because the Chinese player decided to imitate Anand's catastrophic opening with black against Kramnik at the world blitz championship just a few days ago. Pono happily played Kramnik's queen sac and got a good position despite Wang Hao's computer-recommended improvement 16..Bd3. (I doubt he missed the Kramnik-Anand game.) Pono was cruising to a win, but a queen in rapids is worth more than a queen in classical chess. Black got play and a few pawns and it was was anybody's game for a while near the end. That end came when Black's pawns became blockaded and Ponomariov's pieces picked them clean. The Ukrainian, another former KO WCh winner, held the draw in the second game easily with the Najdorf, no small statement these days.

The celestial kingdom did better elsewhere. Bu Xiangzhi eliminated Motylev in blitz (with the Dragon, no less, but actually in another endgame) and Wang Yue eliminated Tiviakov. Yes, in another equal endgame. I'm starting to think Rowson was on to something. Rublevsky, my hot pre-event underdog pick, eliminated Navara in blitz after they swapped brutal attacking wins in rapids. Fan faves Carlsen and Sasikiran both advanced as well.

Round three kicked off with only five decisive games from the sixteen played, though most of the draws were hard-fought. The upset, if not much of one, was Mamedyarov losing to Cheparinov with black. He seemed to have a decent position out of the Ragozin but meandered around for too long on the queenside and Cheparinov broke through with a nice pawn sac. The computer sez 30..Rh8 is a possible defense. The Bulgarian is better known as Topalov's second and if he finishes off Shak tomorrow it won't be his first World Cup upset. During my ICC Chess.FM commentary during the Mexico City world championship, the most popular question was "why isn't Ivanchuk playing?" The answer is "because Cheparinov knocked him out of the 2005 World Cup in the second round."

Kamsky rolled over Georgiev in a nice effort and is looking every bit the former FIDE world championship finalist he was over a decade ago. After they played some 25 checks in the last 30 moves Jakovenko finally beat Almasi in an eternal increment endgame. Wang Yue beat his countryman Bu Xiangzhi in one of the many opposite-colored bishop endgames we've seen in the last day or two. Onischuk turned in some great defensive work to fend off Shirov for a draw with black. The round saw 1.e4 nine times, 1.d4 four times, and three 1.Nf3. Only one Sicilian (Alekseev) and one Caro-Kann (Bareev, of course), the rest were Spanish games with one wandering Italian from Rublevsky against Svidler. No Petroff! Nisipeanu held off Ivanchuk and Inarkiev battled Aronian to an interesting draw.

Tomorrow's second half promises many more draws but at least we're getting some chess. Svidler, Carlsen, and Aronian will be going for knockouts with the white pieces.

[By the way, I'm trying to fix the template error (I hope that's what it is) that occasionally causes the main page to show just the first item and the banner ad. The problem is it can come or go each time someone posts a new comment because of the "recent comments" list on the left. So I don't always notice it. I just tweaked a few things so please email me if you see it again. Thanks.]

Just talked to Garry at his home, where he's deluged with several rings of reporters. He was moved secretly to a different police station and then actually driven home in a colonel's car because they wanted to avoid all a big scene with all the media and supporters outside the jail. He sounds good, ready to spit fire in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. He said he had plenty of free time to work on an article. Not having a computer makes you much more productive! More here later but I thought y'all might want to know.

Another interesting day at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Only 12 of 32 second-round matches are tied after two games and will require rapid tiebreaks tomorrow. One of the rating favorites exited the scene today as Teimour Radjabov lost again to Poland's Macieja and was eliminated. Expect whining to ensue. That opens things up for Svidler or Kamsky, who may meet in the fourth round. It also potentially clears the path to the final four for Ponomariov, who once again came back from a loss in the first game to win the second and force tiebreaks. This time it was against Wang Hao and with black. Pono, as I once wrote, is as tenacious as a pit-bull selling insurance. Tough! He put on a fine technical display in this one. Radjabov's loss was the biggest upset of the round, but America's Yuri Shulman came close to another. He tossed away a brilliant win against Shirov in a wild game, losing the win and the draw at once in a razor-sharp position. Had he found either 26..Nd4+ or 26..Rxd1 or even 26..Rd2 before playing ..e2 he would have completed an American hat-trick. Kamsky and Onischuk both drew to eliminate Avrukh and Nikolic, respectively.

Favorites Mamedyarov and Aronian moved on, as did Svidler, Adams, Alekseev, and Grischuk. Magnus Carlsen is in tiebreaks with Naiditsch and Ivanchuk will have to play rapids with Galkin. Karjakin took out Zhang Pengxiang to whittle down the impressive Chinese contingent. Latin America stayed in the hunt as Cuba's Dominguez easily beat Germany's Baramidze. Bareev completed his KO of van Wely although it cost him to draw with white. Sasikiran, the last of the Mohicans after the first-round massacre, will go to tiebreaks with Zvjaginsev. Tomashevsky finished off the last of the true outsiders, Hossain of Bangladesh.

Shirov-Onischuk is one of the 16 third-round pairings we already know. Others are Almasi-Jakovenko, Aronian-Inarkiev, Bacrot-Karjakin, and Grischuk-Bareev. Not quite the main course yet, but at least the pasta course or a hearty soup.

The World Youth Championships in Antalya, Turkey just finished today. I haven't had time to follow this event much, but it's over if you want to check it out. If you find a link to a concise list of medal winners please post it. I've met a few of the American players at Garry's master classes in NY sponsored by the Kasparov Chess Foundation. Since I'm used to thinking of the US as an import-dependent, talent-barren backwater in the chess ocean I remember being a little surprised at how enthusiastic Garry was about the prospects of a few of the American players. Our latest GM (elect?) is three times older than these kids, who, if you listen to Garry, could make up half the US Olympiad team in 2012. Names like Marc Arnold, Brian Luo, Darwin Yang, Ray Robson, and Daniel Naroditsky are already known from adult tournaments in the US and most did well in Turkey.

Naroditsky won gold in the under-12 with an easy final-round win. He tied on 9.5/11 with Ilya Nyzhnyk, the latest wunderkind (and Scrabble nightmare) from Ukraine. Nyzhnyk made a big splash earlier this year with a 2600+ performance while winning the Moscow Open B Section at 10 years old. While carrying a teddy bear. Naroditsky -- no word on his stuffed animal preference -- drew with Nyzhnyk in their 6th round game. Sarah Chiang was the USA's other medalist, taking silver in the Girls U-10. Congratulations to both! More at Chess Life Online. Anyone who attended please share your thoughts and experiences.

For the first time in a while, the top spots were full of Russians. They took medals in just about every category and more than one medal in several. But aren't most of them the same kids who have been finishing behind Indians and Chinese in these events for the past six years? Is this a new crop or were they just slower to develop at the competitive level? I get the feeling that the broad youth selection programs in India and China run out of gas in the training department and the depth of training experience in the former Soviet countries pushes through. Of course as we've seen in recent Olympiads, and as we're seeing in the World Cup now, it all tends to balance out if they make it to the GM level and have regular access to strong competition.

This Reuters report mentions Anatoly Karpov's attempt to visit Garry Kasparov in jail in Moscow, where Kasparov has been held since his arrest at an opposition protest on Saturday.

"A person is in trouble; of course I'm not indifferent to that," Karpov told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. "In Russia right now we have, what, four world chess champions? And of course the fate of any one of them is important to other chess players, both in Russia and abroad."

Karpov told the radio station he must have spent more time at the chessboard with Kasparov than with any other player, including a grueling match that went on for four months.

"Generally speaking, I don't share his political views, but that's something different," he said. "I didn't come here to support him politically."

Karpov was turned away just like everyone else who has attempted to visit Garry, who is scheduled to be released on Thursday. Members of the Russian parliament and of the "Public Chamber" (Karpov) are supposed to have the right to visit prisoners but both have been denied. A very kind gesture from Karpov, and an unexpected one I must say. The commentariat are checking his numbers and conclude he meant himself, Kramnik, Kasparov, and Smyslov. Spassky has been in France for a long time. Kramnik recently joined him, but he still represents Russia. A pity they turned him away. We're told Garry has a set with him and they could have played the strongest jailhouse chess game ever.

What a week. You'd think you might get a little peace and quiet if your boss got jailed, but not when you're trying to rally support for his release. The World Cup continues to roll along and there were plenty of decisive games in the first games of the second round. There was little of the pro-forma "let's just play rapids" drawishness that regularly plagues KO events. One exception was Tiviakov offering a quick draw against Wang Yue in a matchup I tipped as offering interest. Didn't I say when Wang Yue had white? Tivi's openings with black are often entertainingly catastrophic. But another short draw would indicate the fix is in. Gurevich gave Adams a short draw and probably won't see the favor returned since Adams loves his Tarrasch French.

The fix was definitely not in for third seed Teimour Radjabov, although my prediction was much better for this one. Radjabov tried the Schliemann against Macieja and lost with two bishops against two knights in a very fine game by the Pole. His plan of 14.c4! with c5 coming left White with a strong and mobile pawn pair in the center. Radjabov has played 3..f5 against the Ruy quite a few times this year in rapid games, including the line in this game. Black never really came close to having enough activity to compensate for his Irish pawn center on the queenside. Macieja nabbed one of those pawns with the cute 29.Nxc6! and it was pretty much over. Hmm, perhaps there's a reason the Schliemann is so rarely seen at the top level.

Things went better for the other favorites. Mamedyarov finished off Kozul and Aronian beat Gustafsson in the razor-sharp Semi-Slav line we saw so much of in Mexico. Svidler beat Pavasovic with an e5 push that would have made Nimzowitsch proud. Check out games 14 and 16 of the 1986 K-K WCh match. Or go back to De Labourdonnais-MacDonnell to see them play this structure out of the Lopez over and over but in a very different (we might say primitive) way. Svidler offered a pawn but Black declined to go in for 23..Qxa5 and the likely 25.Ngf5!? with a strong attack. Carlsen did a good job of turning nothing into something against Naiditsch but couldn't get enough to win the rook endgame. After 67..Kf5 it's a dead draw. 67.Rf6 to cut off the king looks like a good try to keep playing for a win. Hmm, quite hard to deal with, actually.

Speaking of the Benoni, Kamsky outplayed Avrukh on the black side to put himself in an excellent position to move into the third round only needing a draw tomorrow. Maybe another Benoni, the opening of choice when you must play to win with black against 1.d4. Onischuk also scored a full point for the USA in aggressive fashion against Nikolic. He sacrificed the exchange on e6 to shatter the black kingside and held on to the initiative to the end, when Nikolic blundered a piece. Ponomariov lost with white to Wang Hao and this time a comeback won't be as easy as it was in the first round.

Results and games here. I haven't had time to follow the live broadcasts lately. How are they going? The scores I'm getting still have a few errors in them (see the score for the Svidler win).

Update: Onischuk is through already, getting the better of things with black against Nikolic after a dozen moves and accepting the draw offer on move 15. Nikolic must have been rather disgusted with himself. Hard to imagine not playing on till the bitter end in a KO situation. Aronian is also through, reaching a drawn endgame with Gustafsson. Kamsky is probably already winning against Avrukh's desperation Benoni (!).

Is it over yet? All the games complete? Don't worry, they should have the hang of it by the time they're down to eight players or so. It was KO Monday in Khanty-Mansiysk as the rapid and blitz tiebreaks eliminated the last of the 64 first-round losers. All of the real favorites are through. There were a few tight battles, including Var Akobian's loss to Roiz in an armageddon blitz game he was very close to drawing with black. That finished off a bad round for the USA. Of the eight Yanks, only Kamsky, Onischuk, and Shulman made it through, the last two on tiebreaks today. Full results chart at TWIC. The two high seed upset victims, Alekseev and Ponomariov, completed their comebacks by winning on the second day and then winning in rapids. More in a bit after I have a chance to go through the games and take a look at tomorrow's round two pairings. Still very busy.

For those interested in my day job, I'm appearing on "Special Report With Brit Hume" on Fox News tonight, 6pm-7pm EST, talking about The Boss's arrest. It'll probably last just a few seconds. It will provide a break from their 24/7 Aruba murder coverage. Latest is that Garry's mother saw him at the complaint hearing today and says he looks and sounds well. He was allowed to receive some books and a chess set. No official visits though, and the complaint was dismissed out of hand. He's scheduled for release on Thursday.

UPDATE: Okay, back in action. I hope someone in addition to my mother and sister saw me on Fox News. I was right, it was about eight seconds of screen time. But anchor James Rosen, an excellent fellow and good soul, quoted me again later, when I replied to a question about whether this jail time would dissuade Garry from his political activities with, "anyone who has followed his career in chess or in politics knows he will come back stronger and angrier."

Back to the World Cup in the frozen tundra. 64 players have said goodbye after the first round with no real shocks. Eljanov was the highest rated player to get the boot down on the 19th board. He lost to Hossain of Bangladesh. You have to go all the way down to board 31 for the next upset and at that point they really aren't upsets. It was a great round for China, with six of eight players moving on to round two. That's the second-most of any nation but nothing compared to the mighty Russian machine, which moved an amazing 16 players into the second round.

I've never been a fan of the KO system for serious events, especially the world championship. The necessity to play rapid and blitz games every third day is terrible and a single loss can doom a favorite. But when you look at the results of most of these events after a few rounds, you can see the cream rising to the top regardless. Usually we lose one or two big guys early on (Ivanchuk going out early in the last one in 2005), but swiss system tournaments produce similar effects. I'd still much rather keep the last formula and take the final eight, or at least the final four, into longer matches. (In this event only the final match is longer: four games.) But those would probably require new venues and new sponsorship, things FIDE hasn't been able to find with both hands and a searchlight.

Quick and dirty pairings for round 2:

1. Ivanchuk (UKR) - Galkin (RUS)
2. Zhao Jun (CHN) - Nisipeanu (ROM)
3. Bacrot, Etienne (FRA) - Roiz (ISR)
4. Karjakin (UKR) - Zhang Pengxiang (CHN)
5. Alekseev (RUS) - Sakaev (RUS)
6. Fressinet (FRA) - Nevednichy (ROM)
7. Grischuk (RUS) - Najer (RUS)
8. Bareev (RUS) - Van Wely (NED)
9. Aronian (ARM) - Gustafsson (GER)
10. Inarkiev (RUS) - Vallejo Pons (ESP)
11. Jakovenko (RUS) - Belov (RUS)
12. Almasi (HUN) - Socko (POL)
13. Shirov (ESP) - Shulman (USA)
14. Nikolic (BIH) - Onischuk (USA)
15. Akopian (ARM) - Ghaem Maghami (IRI)
16. Malakhov (RUS) - Volkov (RUS)
17. Mamedyarov (AZE) - Kozul (CRO)
18. Cheparinov (BUL) - Tkachiev (FRA)
19. Wang Yue (CHN) - Tiviakov (NED)
20. Motylev (RUS) - Bu Xiangzhi (CHN)
21. Adams (ENG) - Gurevich (TUR)
22. Volokitin (UKR) - Zhou Jianchao (CHN)
23. Carlsen (NOR) - Naiditsch (GER)
24. Dominguez (CUB) - Baramidze (GER)
25. Radjabov (AZE) - Macieja (POL)
26. Zvjaginsev (RUS) - Sasikiran (IND)
27. Wang Hao (CHN) - Ponomariov (UKR)
28. Hossain (BAN) - Tomashevsky (RUS)
29. Svidler (RUS) - Pavasovic (SLO)
30. Rublevsky (RUS) - Navara (CZE)
31. Kamsky (USA) - Avrukh (ISR)
32. Georgiev (BUL) - Kasimjanov (UZB)

Plenty of heavyweight matchups to savor, at least when they get the games straight. I'm interested in seeing if Radjabov plays like the favorite he is compared to two years ago when he was far too eager to draw the regular games and play rapids. (If you want to flash back you can look at the November and December 05 archive pages.) Maceija is inconsistent but has his moments. Carlsen's nerves will get a test against Naiditsch. Wang Yue-Tiviakov promises some excitement, as does Alekseev-Sakaev. In all it will be a good chance to check out some of the lesser-known and overlooked Russian players and Chinese talents under pressure.

[Sorry about the page errors preventing comments. I was swamped with Garry's arrest and running out the door and didn't have time to check things or see any notes letting me know. Back in NY now.]

Well, the live coverage was mediocre while it lasted. The official site is on its third viewer in two days and the occasionally reliable DGT system has coughed up hairballs all over round 1.2. More than half of the games are missing. Most of the scores have garbage and/or are incomplete. No idea if the accompanying results on the live page are accurate. Is it so hard to rehearse this stuff? This isn't the moon landing; it's all been done before. And they wonder why dissatisfied folks like me theorize about corruption in the event bidding process. We're told time and again to be patient and understanding when the quality just seems to get worse. Every single aspect of online event presentation is getting cheaper and easier on practically a monthly basis and yet chess sites frequently continue to choke on providing even the barest minimum of coverage. The example set by the ones that consistently get it right (e.g. Corus) refute the perennial excuses of other organizers. (A relatively trivial PS to the webmasters of the official site. The new live page has broken the relative links in your left nav bar, putting every link there under the tfd directory.)

Okay, back the games, not that we know what's going on. Today is KO time for many players. Two games vs the risk of frostbite and you may consider the Mexican no-show Zamora to be the smart one. First-round losers do dog-sled away with $6,000. FIDE is saving a bundle by having the prizes listed in dollars! Btw, the ever-helpful Nigel Freeman on the scene confirms that Peralta flagged yesterday while pondering how to win B+N vs K. Three cheers for the lottery time control. It's 90'+30"/40, 30'+30"/g, which is slightly better than the old 90'+30"/g nerve-destroyer. There is no way a GM should be flagging that endgame with a 30 second increment. If karma means anything Peralta will duly lose to Inarkiev today and be eliminated. One rarely spits in Caissa's face without paying a price. Those matches finished on 1-1 after today play rapid tiebreaks tomorrow in sets of increasing speed. 25'+10 then 5'+10" then a 6' vs 5' armageddon game with black having draw odds.

Until they get round 2 figured out, ChessBase has some pics and analysis from round one. Post your coverage links below, folks.

It was mostly the usual slaughter on the top boards in the first round of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansyisk, Russia. The first cracks in the Elo pyramid started to appear on board seven, where Adams was nicked for a draw by Canada's Igor Zugic. Oh Canada. It got worse for the favorites on the next table over where Alekseev lost a sharp battle against the wonderfully named Anuar "Who You Callin' Borat Now?" Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan. Let's keep our fingers crossed for an Ismagambetov Gambit. Speaking of pyramids, an even bigger surprise was El Gindy's win over Ponomariov, who fell apart in time trouble and saw his king hunted to ground. That was the main highlight for Egypt on the day. I was startled to discover there are four Egyptians playing in the event. That's more than France or Germany. Hmm. They went 2.5-1.5 on day one.

Over on board 11, Gata Kamsky couldn't take out newly minted world junior champ Ahmed Adly of Egypt with the white pieces. That was the leading indicator for a crash on the US market in general. The eight Americans went 3-5 on the day without a win. US champion Shabalov, Becerra, and Kudrin lost. Onischuk had the better of the draw with black against last year's junior champ Andriasian. Hungary's Hera obviously isn't a Dirt reader. He ignored the warning I posted in yesterday's item and was blindsided by Rublevsky's 17.d5! and the pretty shot 19.Qd7+! It takes a minute to figure out the point of 17.d5: 17..exd5 18.Na4! and the black queen is stuck and will be collected with Ra1 next. Great stuff. Inarkiev-Peralta is given as a draw after a few moves of N+B vs K, which surely didn't happen, unless Peralta flagged trying to remember the winning method. It got there from the rare 2B+N vs R.

Garry Kasparov was just arrested in Moscow after an opposition rally. An hour or so ago he was sentenced to five days in prison in a joke of a court. The police admitted they had been ordered prior to the march to arrest Garry and the two police reports read in court were completely contradictory. No defense witnesses were allowed in. The judge first announced that it was too late (past 10pm Moscow time) to continue the hearing, but then left the bench for a few minutes and came back saying it would continue. She got a very important phone call, no doubt. I've been working the phones, emails, and faxes for the past many hours trying to get the story out to the press and to get details from Moscow. I haven't talked to Garry, who is now incomunicado, but his mother said he is okay, "just bruised," and they are trying to see if they can visit him at the location he was taken to after leaving the courthouse. His wife is very worried, obviously, especially when it came out in court they had planned in advance to arrest Garry. It's not clear yet if he's going to be released soon or not. I'll let everyone know below as info comes in or you can check www.theotherrussia.org, the site I run.

The first international step on the road to the world championship begins Saturday in Khanty-Mansyisk, Russia. The 128-player knockout event sends the winner into a match with Veselin Topalov, who "earned" this privilege by winning the world championship tournament in San Luis in 2005 and then losing the title to Kramnik in 2006. The winner of that match will face the winner of the Kramnik-Anand world championship match, which is to take place in 2008. If you think all those matches are going to go off without a hitch you are smoking some fine Kalmykian yak dung. Speaking of hitches, my attempt to reach the official English site resulted in a 404, so keep your fingers crossed and pass the yak dung. The Saturday forecast for Khanty-Mansyisk is for a high of -6C (21F) [Excruciatingly slow and oddly empty official site is up here. Other coverage links below.] The games begin at 1500 local time, 1000 GMT, 5am EST, 2am PST. Live game links here.

FIDE has the list of qualifiers and the first-round pairings up here but Mark's list is better. Who will no-show this year? You can download the complete pairing tree there as well. The rating favorites for the final four are Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Mamedyarov, and Aronian. Aronian has Jakovenko and Shirov in his bracket. His countryman Akopian can also be dangerous. Mamedyarov has Adams and Carlsen. Radjabov has Svidler, Kamsky, and Ponomariov. Ivanchuk has Alekseev and Grischuk in his group, as well as Karjakin and Bacrot. Name your final four now. Also pick someone not in the top 40 who will make it to the final eight. I'll plump for Alekseev, Aronian, Radjabov, and someone from China. PS: beware Rublevsky! For potential collapses I'll contradict myself and say Aronian. He's been wild lately and I could easily see him losing to Vallejo or Jakovenko. Mamedyarov is also a basket case at times with the black pieces and is surrounded by aggressive players like Cheparinov and Motylev.

How many Americans will get out of the first round? We have Onischuk-Andriasian, Roiz-Akobian, Shabalov-Pavasovic, Kamsky-Adly, Kudrin-Vallejo, Gurevich-Kaidanov, Shulman-Leitao, and Ivanov-Navara. We look set for four Yankees into the second round, five with luck. Onischuk could meet Shirov in the 3rd round but might be set for a deep run. He's been in great form lately and has been working hard. These KO events are all about nerves and form. Chess Life Online has various items on the World Youth event in Turkey but doesn't seem to have noticed yet that eight Americans are playing in Khanty-Mansyisk. Maybe Jen is headed there from Antalya?!

Update: To answer my own question above on no-shows, the official site now lists match 31, Cheparinov-Gonzalez Zamora and match 53, Izoria-Ghaem Maghami, as won on disqualification. Nigel Freeman below says Izoria and Gonzalez Zamora dropped out at the last minute and Svidler's opponent Iturrizaga of Venezuela appears to be a no-show after getting lost between Russian airports! acirce and others have quotes below on why some of the elite aren't playing. A month ago ChessBase ran items with comments from Leko and Morozevich saying that Topalov's absurd presence in a spurious final match put them off.

Several Spanish-language newspapers online are quoting the Argentine paper Pagina/12 saying Bobby Fischer has been hospitalized in Iceland. I can't find the original piece -- the Pagina/12 website doesn't have it -- and the quoted material is annoyingly vague and cryptic. The main line is that "Bobby Fischer has been hospitalized in Reykjavik for serious physical problems and strong signs of paranoia." This leads most of the derived reports to the headline "Bobby Fischer hospitalized for paranoia." Only some of them mention he's been in the Landspitali, the hospital of the University of Reykjavik, for "over a month" (another says "several weeks"). There are various quotes from people who don't seem to know Fischer or the case, including neighbors. E.g. "It's more than paranoia, but his disease isn't serious. His life isn't in danger, but they are continuing to perform tests on him to figure out what he's suffering from." Another adds, "he's afraid of everything."

Ah, after, umm, Fischering around for a minute, there's a long Fischer item in the major Argentine daily La Nacion, no doubt what the other papers are quoting. They just got the name of the paper wrong and then copied the mistake over and over. Typical. The piece in La Nacion is datelined Reykjavik and ran November 19. It's a very shoddy piece that misattributes quotes repeatedly and steals much from an August El Pais article (see below). This year has seen more attempts to reach Fischer due to his chessy 64th birthday last March.

The article makes the problem clear. Fischer cuts off anyone who speaks about him publicly, so no one who actually knows him will speak to the press about his condition. That's why the reporter relies on hearsay and what isn't being said. GM Helgi Olafsson said he won't speak about Fischer publicly and Fischer's partner, Miyoko Watai of Japan, won't take calls at all. The hospital would only confirm that Fischer is there. Even his neighbors won't give their names. Locals say he often exhibits "paranoid behavior" when seen in public. Fischer's ever-shrinking circle of confidants has been documented over the past year or two since he arrived in Iceland after his detention in Japan. Leontxo Garcia had the best update in El Pais last August and ChessBase had an item last year that included audio.

Leontxo mentioned that Fischer's friends were worried about his health because he has largely ceased to go out walking and has been putting on a lot of weight. I wonder if hospitalization for physical problems could lead to treatment for his mental problems, which have gone untreated for so long. Such things often go untreated if the person is still self-sufficient, not a danger to others, and has no family or friends nearby who will take responsibility.

Hello from sunny California. I thought I'd check in again before the annual feasting officially begins tomorrow. Across the country, vast swaths of turkey will fall beneath millions of swords, tens of millions of children will be told to quiet down and behave if they want any pie. Mmm, pie. Pie pie pie pie pie.

Meanwhile, let us give thanks for the incredibly strong blitz world championship (whatever) taking place in Moscow right now. 20 players are battling it out in a double round-robin that includes just about everyone you can imagine winning it other than Aronian, Topalov, and perhaps Kasparov (who still wields a mean mouse in the online blitz world). At the halfway point, with 19 games in the books, Ivanchuk leads with 13.5 in a very hotly contested event. Defending champion Grischuk follows (with wins over both Kramnik and Anand), pursued by Kamsky, Leko, Anand, Kramnik, Morozevich, and Rublevsky. The time control is 4'+2" so there shouldn't be many time forfeits. But there have either been plenty of them regardless or there are quite a few incomplete scores. (e.g. Mamedyarov-Kasimjanov is 0-1 when White still has an extra piece.) The second half is Thursday.

As you'd expect, there have been many spectacular combinations and just as many notable blunders. One of the prettiest examples of the former in the first half took place between the present and former world champions. Kramnik blew Anand out of the water with a nice queen sacrifice in the 11th round, winning in just 21 moves. Black would have had decent chances with 15..Nd7 and castling with a long fight ahead. This isn't exactly a new tactical theme in this branch of the Slav (or any line with your light-squared bishop off the board or on the wrong side of the e6 pawn), but it was still good value. A round earlier Kramnik was on the other side of the miniature coin, losing horribly to Grischuk in 24 moves. There are many errors in the scores, as usual in blitz, especially in the final moves. We can be sure ..Bxf3 Qxf3 was inserted somewhere in Ivanchuk-Kramnik, and it seems unlikely Black resigned on move 19 as he does in the score I have, although his position is definitely unpleasant.

Kramnik-Carlsen has an interesting shot, 34.Bxg7! but Carlsen hung a rook almost immediately, ending the drama. Mamedyarov-Morozevich went in favor of black eventually, but could have finished efficiently after 32..Ncd4! In the game, 35.Rc3 is a pretty move that doesn't come naturally. Mamedyarov continued with his risky Modern/KID lines. Anand hammered him with an exchange sac in the same line Kramnik beat Mamedyarov in at the Tal Memorial a few days ago. Speaking of openings, 1.d4 is still bashing 1.e4 and against e4 1..e5 is still doubling up the Sicilian, although Kamsky and Gelfand are letting fly. From 19 games the Sicilian has five wins against six losses. Meanwhile, 1..e5 has the same five wins but ten losses from 28 games. Only four Petroffs, oddly enough. Glad the elite are going for activity at least in blitz games. In the "other" column, Bacrot and Mamedyarov both tried 1.b3. Bacrot lost to Adams and Mamed lucked into a draw when Kamsky missed a forced mate. Kamsky continued his hoodoo over Bacrot and Anand and even broke the spell against his nemesis Gelfand in the first round. The secret of his success? Playing ..a6 early in just about every game with black, whether it be a Modern, a KID, a Sicilian, or a Slav!

Will Ivanchuk be able to hold on? (Nah.) Will Grischuk defend his title? (Maybe.) Will Anand and Kramnik make a push for the top spot? (Yep.) Will Kamsky continue to stun the world with ..a6 to win? (We can dream.)

In his best tournament performance in many years, Vladimir Kramnik has dominated the Tal Memorial in Moscow. Today he won his fourth game against no losses to take the top prize with a round to spare. The quality of his technique was on an entirely different level. The rest of the field were relegated to spectator status by battering each other out of contention. As things stand now, with the final ninth round tomorrow, there is only one other player with a plus score -- Shirov with two losses! He's a point and a half behind Kramnik and a half-point ahead of a big pack on even: Carlsen, Jakovenko, Leko, and Gelfand, who has drawn all eight of his games. If you remove Kramnik from his lofty perch on top of the crosstable it looks like a very balanced, hard-fought event with a high percentage of draws (70%). Only a handful of those draws were under 25 moves and even those were almost all of the scorched earth variety. Only Kramnik and Gelfand have gone undefeated so far and only 1.5 points separate the field not including the winner. Alekseev and Ivanchuk (and Gelfand of course) have gone winless. Tomorrow's final round matchup between Kramnik and Ivanchuk could have been seen as well-timed climax between the top seeds, but now it's an irrelevancy.

Sure, there was no Anand or Topalov in the field, but +4 is a tremendous score in a category 20 event. Kramnik cruised while everyone else was struggling to stay above the waterline. Leko and Mamedyarov could have been expected to challenge for a top spot and Kramnik beat them both. (He also beat Shirov, his closest competitor.) Ivanchuk's sky-high rating was shot down as he has failed score a single win. It's not like he's a fraud or anything, but he and Morozevich have spent many years in the top ten without coming close to winning a supertournament. Ivanchuk should have beaten Carlsen, which is really the point. His nerves consistently fail him in these big events against stout opposition. Carlsen lost to a Shirov brilliancy suffered in a few other games, but hung tough and again showed the resiliency required to excel at the highest level. Nice to see Shirov picking up some quality wins. With him, Kamsky, Gelfand, and Ivanchuk in the field it was like a 1992 flashback event.

Still one round to go, then the blitz championship and the mad rush to Khanty-Mansyisk for the World Cup.

Just time for a quick note. Kramnik is showing his stuff with a little help from his trusty Catalan Death Ray and leads the Tal Memorial after five rounds with a +2 3.5/5 score. Having reached his usual score so soon he might even be revving up for a +3! Carlsen and Mamedyarov are a half-point behind him. Carlsen received more than a few smiles from fortune and probably none at all from Ivanchuk in round five. Ivanchuk missed wins galore and eventually fell into a perpetual. The kid, as Kasparov told said afterwards, is a real fighter from start to finish. Live here.

It took him awhile, but top seed Veselin Topalov finally made it to the top of the Vitoria-Gasteiz tournament in Spain. Yesterday he beat Ponomariov in a typical Topalov win to swap places with him in the standings and take a half-point lead into today's final round. It was Topalov's second consecutive win, and his trademark push in the final rounds is part of why this win was typical. It also illustrated his supreme fighting qualities at the board. He just keeps pushing and pressing until his opponent cracks. His comeback was required due to a bizarre blunder against Polgar in round four. He had an extra pawn and a superior position with white against her Petroff (ugh) when he captured a pawn on a7 that wasn't just poisoned, it was covered in polonium and labeled with the skull and crossbones. Two moves later his queen was trapped and he had to give up a full piece.

That wasn't the last piece of good fortune for the first lady of chess. In the 7th round she was well on her way to a loss against Karpov, who was performing a little trademark play himself with a classic squeeze in an IQP position. He collected the pawn but got himself into time trouble and couldn't keep up with the tactical shots Polgar kept tossing at him. (39..Nc5!?! isn't what you want to see when you're worried about your clock.) Finally Karpov blew the win and the draw in one move, 41.Rc1?? when he needed to find 41.Kg1. Things got worse for Karpov in yesterday's 9th round when he was blown off the board by Kasimjanov, who finished strong after a lousy tournament. He completed Ponomariov's fall from grace in the final round today by beating him with black.

As I write this (I started last night, as you can probably tell), Topalov is finishing off Polgar with black with the tournament title already in the bag. He's up two pawns and a lot of time, but doesn't want to pull a Karpov so he's being cautious. Yet another tremendous finish from Topalov, who looks to be winning his third game in a row to close out the tournament.

In the online audio stream with Leontxo Garcia, Ponomariov complained about the "claustrophobic" playing area, although overall the players were complimentary about the tournament and the organization. In particular, there was no place to go if you are prone to wandering on your opponent's move. As Leontxo said, it was a first effort by these organizers and they deserve some slack. Especially since this was a major charity event, raising money for a local hospital.

If you're like me and check TWIC every nine minutes, you may have noticed that you get an error from your usual bookmark, www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html. They are moving servers and have experienced some glitches that have nothing to do with too many pints at the pub. TWIC is still up and running here: http://chess.co.uk/twic/twic.html and the chesscenter.com links will work as soon as they get the redirect working.

Azerbaijan's young star Teimour Radjabov has made the occasional hysterical comment in the past, but this latest requires some verification. The message boards at my old pal Sergey Shipov's "Crestbook" site are abuzz over Radjabov's interview about the Azerbaijani team's bronze-medal result at the Euro Team Championship that just finished in Greece. [ht dz] In particular, when asked about the key matchup against Armenia, Radjabov is quoted as responding, "One must admit to being worried. No matter where you meet, the enemy remains the enemy. We all hated them. But at such times you try to suppress these feelings so they don't interfere. In chess it is necessary to play with a clear head, otherwise you won't achieve your results."

A little cross-Caucasus jingoism to play to the local press or an exaggeration by a reporter eager to please his state news service bosses? This might not sound like much unless you are aware of the bitter history between the two communities. Of recent vintage were the "Black January" pogroms against Armenians in Baku, Azerbaijan as the USSR broke up. (Best known to the chess community from Garry Kasparov's dramatic escape from Baku with friends and family in a chartered plane.) And then open warfare between the two countries in 1992 over the (still) disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, including the massacre of hundreds of Azerbaijani civilians.

Of course there is going to be special motivation when opponents represent nations in conflict. You are playing for your country, after all. But background or no, it's disturbing to have this sort of "enemy" and "hate" talk from a leading sportsman. Not exactly gens una sumus material. These two teams are going to be leaders in chess for at least a generation and a public element of racist/nationalist hatred is something nobody needs.

A B Group with two (three?) former members of the world's top ten, yikes. The Corus site just added the full list of the B Group for Wijk aan Zee 2008. (A Group is here.) Bacrot is the top seed at nearly 2700. Krasenkow has played in all three groups over the years. He won the C last year with an amazing 10.5/13 score, passing the gratuitously-belettered Russian teenager Nepomniachtchi, who finished with 10 but got invited to the B Group anyway. The rest of the field: Sargissian, Cheparinov, Movsesian, Harikrishna, Short, Stellwagen, Humpy, l'Ami, Smeets, Hou Yifan, Spoelman. It begins January 11.

I wonder why Timman has never played in the B Group. I suppose it would feel a little insulting after his long history in the main event going back to 1972, but the great veteran and Dutch chess hero would add a lot to the event and teach the youngsters a few things. (Most of them illegal at their age in any country but the Netherlands, mind you, but there is more to life than chess.) Coming in last and mostly trying not to make a Tiger Woodsian under par score in the A Group was clearly too rough to take anymore. 2.5 in 2003 and he came back in 2004 to score 4.0. Still in last, but anything to erase that 2.5 from his memory. Actually, at Timman's current 2559 he would be rated higher than only three players in next year's B Group. Okay, there's always the C Group. Short won the A Group in 86 and 87. Lots of great stats on the official site now, including a list of everyone who has ever played there with their results. Kasparov played three times, first each time, 39 games with a ridiculous 73% of points scored.

Not as in the dead world champion himself, but the Tal Memorial tournament that is supposed to be starting today in Moscow. All I've heard are rumors for this since they announced the players list a few weeks ago -- and that through back channels instead of a formal announcement or official site. (Kramnik's website has a "waiting for news" paragraph up.) russianchess.org should be it, and they have an announcement up with regulations and schedule in Russian, but nothing new for over a week. They do have a live games link, which is good. Games begin tomorrow at 1500 local Moscow time, 1200 GMT, 7am NY time. Game days are the 10-19th with a single free day on Thursday the 15th. System tiebreaks. Oh yes, the players: Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Mamedyarov, Leko, Shirov, Gelfand, Kamsky, Carlsen, Alekseev, and Jakovenko.

First prize is 30,000 dollars, which these days will buy you a pretty good cup of coffee in Europe. Somewhat horribly, the subsequent blitz tournament, touted as the blitz world championship, which includes all the Memorial players, plus six qualifiers, plus special guests Anand and Karpov, has a prize fund of equal size. First place in that is $25K. Then on the 23rd there's a rapid advanced chess match of two games between Anand and Kramnik.

This is the first elite event Ivanchuk has played since shooting up to #2 by bludgeoning the competition in lesser events this year. Is that all there is to it or is the Chuckster really enjoying a rebirth and will he contend in Moscow? I'm going with Kramnik unless Leko wakes up. In the interview podcasts I did with Garry Kasparov the other day for the ICC and ChessBase (sharing the love), Garry made a few predictions on this event when I asked. One, that Ivanchuk was too unstable to take first here and two, that Carlsen would at best reach an even score, or "maybe +1 with luck." Garry also talked about the Mexico City tournament, Anand as #15 (or not, and why, sparked by a question he got here in NY from a Dirt reader!), Karpov's development, and some items related to his most recent books, How Life Imitates Chess and Revolution in the 70's. I don't know how Chess.FM and ChessBase are going to distribute these or when.

This event in Vitoria-Gazteiz, Spain, exhibits the popular attempt by organizers to add some sort of theme to their tournament. This one is a steal from the traditional Essent event, inviting only players who are world champions of one stripe or another. It's a double round-robin with six players: Topalov, Karpov, Ponomariov, Polgar, Kasimdzhanov, and Nisipeanu. The Romanian was a last-minute replacement for Alexander Khalifman, who was hospitalized a few days ago. Any word on his status? I wish him well. Nisipeanu hasn't won any world championships I'm aware of, but he did win the European championship in 2005. Polgar hasn't won any world championships either (junior titles in 88 and 90), but the "best woman ever" title has gotten her into better events than this over the years, which is no crime.

It's great to see Topalov in action again after a long layoff and he looks to be back in devastating form. He crushed a couple of overmatched opponents at the Euro Team event in Crete before coming straight to Spain and winning his first two games against Karpov and Kasimjanov. Nisipeanu slowed him down in the third round with his trademark 7.Nde2 against Topalov's Najdorf. I was also happy to see Karpov continue to get out there after it looked like he was going to limit himself to occasional rapid forays. This is his second classical round-robin this year, but it's much stronger than the Gorenje tournament in June where he was in the running for first place for a while. He's already lost two out of three and is being kept out of the cellar by Kasimjanov, who has two losses and a postponed game with Nisipeanu.

Ponomariov isn't letting Topalov run away with the tournament. He pulled even with the Bulgarian on 2.5/3 with an impressively smooth win over Karpov with black in the third round. Karpov has played this 6.Nh4 line before lately, with g3 was well, but if Nxg6 and Kf2 are the best White has against 6..a6 it's time to hang it up. Pono finished nicely with a knight sacrifice when Karpov tried to go on the attack. More subtle was the pawn offer 22..Nc4, seizing the d5 square for the black knight if White takes the pawn. Polgar beat Kasimjanov after a Marshallesque 14..d5 in a topical line of the Ruy.

Monday is a rest day. Meanwhile, Russia is walking away with the Euro Team Ch after beating France thanks to another win from Morozevich, who now has 6/7. The Russian team has yet to lose a game. Don't miss the wild game Sargissian-Tratar that finally slowed down the underdog Slovenian team. Socko won with a fun piece sac against Shirov, who is having a miserable event.

This event in Chicago has seven of its nine rounds in the books. It's an IM norm tournament that is mostly of interest because Ray Robson, who just turned 13 a week ago, is still in the hunt for a norm. He just needs to score one point from his final two games. IM Dave "fluffy" Vigorito has dominated the event and has 6/7, a half-point ahead of Robson. They meet in today's 8th round and the 9th round is played later in the day. Incredibly, Robson's 7th-round win over IM Angelo Young came on a cell-phone forfeit on move 13. According to organizer Sevan Muradian this won't ruin Robson's norm since it took place over the board. In 2003 Dominguez and Ponomariov both lost games this way.

No matter what happens with him here or in the future, Robson has a place in my heart for his startling result at Foxwoods this year. All nine of his games were decisive -- with eight wins by black, including seven in a row! (He scored 5/9.)

Update: Robson not only got his first IM norm, but he beat Vigorito and took clear first in the tournament with 7/9.

ChessBase has clips from a somewhat oblique interview with Vladimir Kramnik in Izvestia. The stuff about not caring about results we've heard before. Ditto with the tennis comparison, although I must say it's clear Anand is Federer to Kramnik's Nadal in that one and that's where you want to be.

Kramnik did say what we knew he was thinking (because he said many times before unification) when it comes to what was lost, umm, lent, in Mexico City.

It's one thing to say you lost the title and want to win it back. But the "on paper" and "lent Anand the title" comments are pretty weak. When Kramnik beat Kasparov in 2000 he had not a word to say about the man who had held the title for 15 years before him. I charitably chalked that up to nervous shock and naiveté. I hope he can come up with something better than this if Anand beats him in Germany next September. As for the politics, it has come up several times that forces in the Kremlin would love to exploit the guy who beat Kasparov in 2000 by having Kramnik come out against him in domestic politics as well. This is obviously rather close to home for me and my work with The Other Russia, and I hope Kramnik isn't eager to go from king to pawn in that way.

More relevantly for us, let's hope he's not eager to give up chess while he's playing so well and has many good years ahead of him. So back to chess. Kramnik will be in action in a few days at the Tal Memorial in Moscow. He's the second seed behind Ivanchuk, but I'd make him the favorite to win the event. Then he'll play in the subsequent blitz tournament. I'm going to be ticked if they don't produce all the games from that.

In round 5 of the European Team Championship in Crete, the top-seeded Russian team put the young Azerbaijani squad over its knee and administered a firm 3.5-0.5 spanking. Svidler beat Mamedyarov, Morozevich beat Radjabov, and Alekseev beat Guseinov. Gashimov used white to play a short draw against Grischuk, which might look like the smart play considering what happened to his compatriots. After this win Russia is the only team to have won all its matches. Today is a free day and there are four more rounds to go. Russia has yet to face the tough Ukrainian team and a few other medal favorites, so it's not a done deal yet. Israel, Azerbaijan, and the unlikely Slovenian team (led by Beliavsky) have eight match points, two behind Russia's ten.

The game of the round might have been the wild one on the top board of Bulgaria-Czech Republic. And Topalov wasn't even playing! The Bulgarians lost him to a tournament in Spain after he won his last two with black, so it was his second, Cheparinov, who faced David Navara. We've been talking about Nakamura's ..Qxf2+! against Krasenkow in Barcelona just days ago, and here we got another one. Bizarre. Navara's 27..Qxf2+! was completely forced, however, and it also looks completely winning. And so it was, but the computer points out the saving move 31.h4! The difference is that after the game line White can give up his a1 rook with Kc1, allowing Re1+ and Rxa1 because then he has a miracle mate with Qc8+ thanks to the pawn on h4 controlling the g5 square. Other moves by Black allow a perpetual. There were no miracles in the game after 31.Bg8? and Navara finished cleanly.

Some videos here.