Hello from the sunny Bahamas. Fried grouper, a Goombay Smash, and pink sands sure help melt away thoughts of NY snow, website bugs, and loco Time editors.
Not too far away from my sister's house here in Spanish Wells (a tiny island even other Bahamians often have never heard of), Vassily Ivanchuk continued his habit of winning second-tier events off the beaten track. He again took the top spot at the Carlos Torre Memorial tournament in Merida, Mexico. The Ukrainian beat India's Pentala Harikrishna in a final match that required rapid tiebreaks.
There were some remarkable games and many upsets in the event. Cuban favorites Bruzon and Dominguez both went out in the first round of the KO portion. Bruzon lost to Ivanchuk in an awkward pairing to start off, but in what style! Chukky won with black in 20 moves in a Petroff that started off 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 Bc5!?! 5.Qd5 Bxf2+ and continued on in equally spectacular fashion. ¡Viva Ivanchuk! The otherwise fine official website doesn't seem to have the games for download anywhere. Mark will probably come to our rescue tomorrow.
I like to think about the following situation regarding Chuky's rating waves. Like, 2760 to 2720, 2720 to 2770, 2770 to 2730, 2730 to 2787, 2787 to 2749, 2749 to 2792. These are samples of the waves he goes but imagine if just once he applies himself during the Strong tournaments among the tigers and somehow gains, what then ?
Well, 2792 to 2823 or something :-)
If only wishes were ....
Whatever, Chucky is Chuky, keep trying. But one thing is always true. The way he squeezes the life of lesser mortals (read players), its a treat to watch. Its very rare to get to see that because an Anand or Kramnik never have to play those tournaments. So, we'll never know how or indeed if they are capable of squeezing those very same players with that Anacondian strength !
So, thank God for Chucky and an occasional Moro.
What has happened to Bruzon? Not too long ago he was playing in Corus with the big boys; now his rating is barely over 2600.
You can download an unofficial PGN file of the games from the Carlos Torre tournament from http://www.worldtimeexplorer.com/Torre2007.pgn
- Jesper Nørgaard Welen
Anand and Kramnik have played in Olympiads.
Perhaps they don't play more than is necessary because if they played "too much," there would be a lot more for their opponents to study?
IMHO there is burnout in chrss, to stay hungry for most players it is best not to compete too much. Plus the energy expended in a tournament like the Russian Championship is why the top Russian players avois struggling and losing rating points. Chess is their lives, each must do the best so they can to survive, not everyone is a Anand, Leko, Kramnik, or Topalov. Lets appreciate Ivanchk, Moro, and the like for they play not for the glory as much for the love of the game. (and by thw way entertaining all of us and aqsking for nothing in return)
ps Happy hollidays to you all and yours :)
Btruzon was never nothing, he has just settled in at his prorper rating, forget about him, he will never do anything, hes just a random gm, which is of course 1 million times better than any im aor f, of course,
Do be so kind as to read what you intend to post before you do so, john darius. I am quite confident that this would save your intended readers much strain.
Say what u want wbour5 Ivantchoke nbut he hqad his chance against a rookie Pono and couls not beat him when it it mattered, he is a choker and alwqys will be. He has the nerves of a scared 3rd grader ib thr playground without milk money. He is no where near Moro's class hes just a cowaard.
John Darius... Go away.
As for the "loco Time editors", I must say, that for someone living in Venezuela, it’s with great relief that we see they picked Putin, so as Chavez didn’t get the nod.
Saludos,
Pbdsnrfct
Is it me or the whole purpose of Kasparov's piece was the last paragraph?!
"Vassily Ivanchuk continued his habit of winning second-tier events"
Isn't that kind of like saying "continued his habit of masturbating successfully"?
Sorry for the image.
Congrats, Yuriy Kleyner, you've ruined Christmas. "Successfully", huh? After some deliberation, I've decided to not pursue the topic of what it would mean to do it unsuccessfully.
Let's just hope Putin doesn't start enforcing Godwin's Law.
Yuriy,
You surprised me with that one. Too much "nog" perhaps?
gk,
Anything is possible. Hitler and Putin probably have more in common than just Time magazine "Man of the Year." But it is the Christmas Season and I digress...
CT--
Oops. Thanks for the reminder.
A Merry Christmas to us all; God bless us, every one!
Chesstraveler: your arguments are really strong - fox tv standard.
Hitler; Democratically elected, German, western culture
Putin: Non-democratically elected (according to Kasparov and Mig), Slav, eastern-orthodox tradition
Z.D.
I wasn't arguing anything. I was just replying and saying hello to gk at Christmas time. In fact, I would like to wish you and any hardcore liberals and thought police out there: Merry Christmas!...Merry Christmas!...and a Happy New Year!
Russianbear,
That's the point--success in that endeavor is probably as difficult as winning second-tier events is for Ivanchuk :)
Merry Xmas to all you bloggers and the blog meister. I have enjoyed reading the posts here, and got nuggets of thought,knowledge and refreshingly varied insight into lots of issues. Even the occasional (frequent) incivility has been amusing when not exasperating. Hope 2008 brings a feast of chess as promised. 3 hearty cheers to our chess idols and the blogmeister.