January 2008 Archives

In the immortal words of Public Enemy LL Cool J, don't call it a comeback! After slowing to a halt with two draws and then a loss in the fifth round, Hikaru Nakamura won five consecutive games at the powerful Gibraltar Masters to force rapid tiebreaks against Bu Xiangzhi going on now. His last three wins, against GMs Hebden, TL Petrosian, and today against Efimenko, were typical of Nakamura's ruthlessly sharp style. Bu Xiangzhi looked to be coasting home to the $24,000 first prize after scoring an amazing 7.5/8. But he lost to Efimenko in the 9th and made a brief draw (27 moves, 22 minutes) with countryman Ni Hua in today's 10th and final round. That allowed the charging Nakamura to catch up with 8/10. It seems the full £12,000 goes to the winner of the tiebreak, leaving the loser with the £8000 ($16,000) second prize. You have to like Nakamura's chances both for momentum and well-known prowess at fast controls.

The official site has been doing a great job of keeping the homepage and other areas updated.

Update: Nakamura wins! After winning the first rapid game with white, Nakamura was defending R+N vs Q until Bu Xiangzhi avoided the repetition by walking into mate in one in the middle of the board. Bu-yah!

[Back home in NY finally. I'll need a few days to catch up on sleep, email, and various frustrated correspondents and subscribers. If you are one such, I apologize in advance! Saw some old and new friends in Amsterdam after Corus finished. Had a nice evening out with Irina Krush and David Pruess. They are now on to Moscow where they are playing in separate events. More on that soon, with some of my Corus pics and anecdotes.]

This is actually about half of the article we wrote on Fischer for Time Magazine. After telling Garry there was "no limit" to the length, they took 1300 words and chopped it to 750. Not the first time we've seen this sort of thing of course, but probably the worst case. Especially after specifically telling us not to worry about word count. Sigh. The good news is that 1) it's still pretty good I think and 2) we are going to rescue many of the lost 600 words, expand them, add some chess (Fischer's top theoretical contributions, favorite Fischer game), and give it to New In Chess! This is more logical in a way, since most of what was cut was the chessier bits. A few sentences from the time piece you already saw here in Garry's initial statement reacting to the news. Some bits from the Time article.

It was Fischer's attitude on and off the board that infused his play with unrivaled power. Before Fischer, no one was ready to fight to the death in every game. No one was willing to work around the clock to push chess to a new level. But Fischer was, and he became the detonator of an avalanche of new chess ideas, a revolutionary whose revolution is still in progress.

At Fischer's peak, even his adversaries had to admire his game. At the hallowed Moscow Central Chess Club, top Soviet players gathered to analyze Fischer's crushing 1971 match defeat of one of their colleagues, Mark Taimanov. Someone suggested that Taimanov could have gained the upper hand with a queen move, to which David Bronstein, a world-championship challenger in 1951, replied, "Ah, but we don't know what Fischer would have done!"

There was much in the original about how much Fischer did for chess as a sport. I'll ask Dirk Jan if he wouldn't mind my reprinting some of the eventual NIC piece here later. [He says no way, Jose, so if you aren't a subscriber you'd better track down a place that sells New In Chess asap!] The Time piece didn't come out badly, but it's frustrating for me because I see what isn't there instead of what is. Double sigh.

By World War II, the once strong U.S. chess tradition had largely faded. There was little chess culture, few schools to nurture and train young talent. So for an American player to reach world-championship level in the 1950s required an obsessive degree of personal dedication. Fischer's triumph over the Soviet chess machine, culminating in his 1972 victory over Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland, demanded even more.

Fischer declined to defend his title in 1975, and by forfeit, it passed back into the embrace of the Soviets, in the person of Anatoly Karpov. According to all accounts, Fischer had descended into isolation and anger after winning that final match game against Spassky. Fischer didn't play again until a brief and disturbing reappearance in 1992, after which his genius never again touched a piece in public. Having conquered the chess Olympus, he was unable to find a new target for his power and passion.

I am often asked if I ever met or played Bobby Fischer. The answer is no, I never had that opportunity. But even though he saw me as a member of the evil chess establishment that he felt had robbed and cheated him, I am sorry I never had a chance to thank him personally for what he did for our sport.

Hello from Amsterdam, where I'm resting up after a blitz visit to Wijk aan Zee and the Corus tournament. I came for chess-related meetings with Global Chess BV in the morning but how could I get this far and not drop in on my old comrades? It was quite a reunion with players and journos alike. Some of them have even forgotten whether or not they're still mad at me. I got a close-up photo of Nigel Short's right hand, the most famous mitt since Ali's, and talked about the old days with Jan van der Mortel and Mark Glukhovsky, two grade-A guys who worked for me back in the KasparovChess days and who have since gone on to better things like teaching chess in Chicago and running the famous Russian chess magazine '64'. Leko was chuffed about ending on a win and bounced about with his usual smile. Everyone was watching to see if Anand could make anything of his advantage against Kramnik, but it was not to be.

That left Aronian and Carlsen in the same tie for first they had at the start of the round. Corus has never made a big deal about tiebreaks and two people there who work for the organization told me, "it's just equal first." But sometimes they seem to look at the system tiebreaks anyway, unless "take the trophy on tiebreaks" about Vishy in 2006 was just a figure of speech. Weird. (They say the first tiebreak is head to head (draw) and second is Berger system, which goes to Aronian. At least that's who the Grand Slam people seem to have picked as the winner.) They will need a single winner to decide who gets the spot for the new Grand Slam. They'll probably let them both in, especially since it looks like Aronian has the best tiebreaks and you know they want teen dream Carlen in their event.

And who wouldn't, especially after the way he took out Kramnik with black the other day. Amazing! Kramnik loses with white about as often as Al Gore turns down a doughnut. Another win today would have marked a Fischerian achievement of sole first for young Carlsen, but he couldn't sharpen things enough against Radjabov. Aronian got a little something against Polgar with black in a Marshall ("I made trouble for myself today," Judit told me when my old reflexes turned our chat into an impromptu interview. Sorry!) but he also had to settle for a draw and equal first on +3. Gelfand finally got a win by beating his occasional second, the ailing Eljanov.

Time for dinner, more later. I'll try to get some game comments from Garry. He didn't want to come out to Wijk today but I know he was watching...

Update: Well, not much on that front. Too busy scorching my tongue with a freshly fried egg roll. Don't you hate it when you burn your mouth on the first bite of a great meal? Oh, a chess blog, you say? Garry thought that Anand had good winning chances at several points, but doubts there was a forced win. He said that Topalov played some very good chess in Wijk but seemed to be losing his perspective, a la Morozevich.

Going to hang out with some of the chess clan tomorrow here in Amsterdam. And buy some cheese and Belgian chocolate to take back to my in-laws, who are visiting back in Brooklyn. This old laptop doesn't have a card reader so you'll have to wait until Tuesday to see my wacky photo collection from my quick tour of the Corus press room. Must sleep. Must sleep. Must sleeeee.......

The final rounds are upon us. Will Aronian hold on to win clear first? Will Carlsen fend off Kramnik after a tough loss to Anand? Will Anand play to win against van Wely with black? We'll see what Chucky does, but I'm skeptical Aronian will take any big risks to win today if the position is normal. Same goes for Radjabov against Leko. Carlsen got through Kramnik's Catalan in fine style last time, at the Tal Memorial in November.

Round 12: van Wely-Anand, Kramnik-Carlsen, Radjabov-Leko, Aronian-Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov-Gelfand, Eljanov-Topalov, Adams-Polgar.

We always hope for thrilling battles and do-or-die 'tude in the final rounds of big events, but too often we see players more afraid of losing than dying to win. Leader Carlsen has white against Anand today and black against Kramnik on Saturday. If he can Ulysses his way past the Scylla and Charybdis of the world's top-ranked players Carlsen will more than deserve a first place finish. It will be remarkable if +3 wins clear first in this event. Even if Carlsen hangs on, Aronian has white against van Wely and Ivanchuk and black against the erratic Polgar coming up.

I assume everyone saw Timman-Ljubojevic in the "Honorary" Group (please change the name to something more grammatical like the "Honors" Group next year) follow the 12.Nxf7 Topalov-Kramnik detonation of the day before. Ljubo played 17..Rhg8 and won a predictably insane game. Al Gore must be alarmed by the global warming implications of all the laptops in Wijk aan Zee overheating as they grind this line into dust. Will anyone try it again in the next few days? Official site.

Update: Wow, what a round! More fighting chess today. This tournament has already had more than its share of great fights, even though this was the first round we had as many as four decisive games. It was also Black Friday, especially in Group B, where Black won five games and lost none. It was 2.5-4.5 for Black in the A.

The big game in several ways was Carlsen-Anand. It was critical in the standings with Carlsen leading with +3 and Anand on +1. And it was a clear symbol with the 38-year-old world champion taking on the 17-year-old future champion. This one lived up to the hype when 1) Anand played the Scheveningen Sicilian (he'd been expecting 1.d4), 2) Anand's deep experience in this line on both sides betrayed him when he played 14..Bd7 instead of the immediate 14..e5 he played against Adams two years ago (!). But his knowledge of playing this line against Kasparov surely helped him navigate the complications. 3) Carlsen reacted aggressively, going for broke and giving up two queenside pawns to gain time for a direct assault against Vishy's king. If you play through it quickly it looks like Carlsen's attack just wasn't there, which may well be the case. But the astonishing speed and precision of Anand's play after deciding to take the pawns were, well, astonishing. He just kept banging out the moves as if they were forced, which, by the way, they weren't. 10 moves later Carlsen made the losing mistake 33.Qh7+?, although Black can play on after giving up his queen after 33.Rxf5. It wasn't easy, Vishy just made it look that way. Covering the game with GM de Firmian on Chess.FM we just couldn't believe he was making all these moves in less than a minute each. Coincidentally, just a few days ago I referred to Anand as "probably the best tactical defender in the history of the game." I'll put Magnus on the mailing list.

That put both players on +2 but Aronian avoided the creation of a leader logjam by beating van Wely convincingly to move into clear first with +3. Aronian won on the black side of this Slav line in round two against Gelfand. Aronian introduced the admirably blunt novelty 15.Rb1 and van Wely's reaction lacked snap in a very precarious position. It's interesting that the comps seem to like Black, probably due to the white king on e2. But the massive white mobile pawn mass is the real power in the position. Certainly White has a lot to prove if Black castles on move 22. Instead van Wely's king stayed in the center and Aronian took advantage with a strong exchange sac. The wonderful shot 26.Nd6+! led to a decisive lead in material and position.

Boris Gelfand looked like his old self for the first half of his game against Radjabov. The Israeli is a known KID and Benoni basher. He's always well-prepared, has a deep positional sense, and doesn't get lured into tactical messes when clarity is available. He build up a strong position with typical c-file domination. But Gelfand looked like his new self in the rest of the game, the self that has blundered frequently and lost three games without a win. He got his knight tangled up on c7 and made several bad moves in a row to reach a lost position just a few moves out of theory. 25..Rf3! was typical Radjabov alertness to unusual tactical chances. He gave Gelfand a reprieve when he misses the crushing 29..Nh5, when ..Nxg3 is an unstoppable threat. T/he Israeli was close to a survival swindle with 35.Qe7+ when instead he got mated after allowing the black king to stay on g5. Horrible.

Eljanov the qualifier got his first win of the event at Judit Polgar's expense. There are consequences to avoiding the main lines of the Berlin Defense. She must have expected it since it's a staple of the Ukrainian's repertoire, but White got a lame position right out of the box. Black had the bishop pair and the only quality break in the position with a running h-pawn. White had no play and didn't have much to do while waiting for Black to load up and crash through. It was an exciting round at the time, but truth be told there was some rather low-quality play in the A Group today.

Leko-Kramnik, Petroff, draw in 28. Sound predictable? Yes, but you should look at the game anyway. Kramnik once again displayed his awesome preparation, this time with a piece sacrifice that leads to a repetition draw against the white king. It ended fast, but at least it was exciting for a moment. Ivanchuk-Adams never heated up. Topalov-Mamedyarov reached a blocked position in which only Black could achieve anything. If White makes a move he could end up losing very quickly. Mamedyarov decided a draw was all right with him and declined to attempt to make use of the open g-file.

We're setting up for a big finale in the final round on Sunday, which sees Carlsen-Radjabov and Anand-Kramnik. Polgar-Aronian is the other key game. But to paraphrase Tarrasch, before Sunday the gods have placed Saturday. Kramnik-Carlsen is the big one. I'm not expecting much from Aronian-Ivanchuk despite a track record of fun games between them, but van Wely might tempt fate with white against Anand.

Movsesian still leads the B Group but Bacrot and Short both won to move up to within half a point. (Don't miss Bacrot's 31..Rb1!) Hou Yifan took another scalp by beating Sargissian with black. Caruana won again to take a full-point lead in the C Group.

As we saw during his 2007 candidates match against Aronian, Magnus Carlsen can not only deliver a punch, he has a pretty tough jaw as well. A day after he lost to Leko after an ugly blunder Carlsen bounced back to beat Loek van Wely with the black pieces. It wasn't exactly a clean knockout. van Wely got a great position against the Benko Gambit Carlsen plays on occasion. By the time they got to move 23 it was clear things were desperate for Black. Carlsen effectively stirred things up enough to get van Wely into time trouble, not exactly a rare occurrence. It didn't pay off for a while and Carlsen blundered first with 31..Qxc2. White could have sealed the deal with the boring 33.Bxe7, when Black's position finally falls apart completely.

Black was still completely toasted, but White had to move his queen on move 39 and, in the immortal words of the Grail Knight, "he chose poorly." Qe7 would have pinned the Bg7 and made the g1 square safe for the white king. Instead Black has miraculous counterplay. 40.Kg1!? Bd4 41.Rh8+! Kxh8 42.Be5+ forces an endgame that is better for White but looks holdable. After 40.Kg3? Nc4! White is in trouble. I don't know if van Wely used 10 minutes or 1 second for his 41st move but it lost immediately. 41.Qb3 Qh1 42.Be5 is still a game. Losing track of the move number is a typical problem. Carlsen's finishing was precise. A brutal defeat for van Wely after an excellent game. It also shows that at 17 Carlsen already has the famous luck of champions. Or, as it is also known, having raw talent like Saudi Arabia's got oil.

The win moved Carlsen back into clear first with 6.5/10 with three games remaining. The first is today's white against Anand, then it's black against Kramnik and white against the occasionally, bafflingly, peaceable Radjabov. Those with good memories may recall that Carlsen beat Radjabov in the final round of Biel last year to move into a share of first (and then he won the playoff with Onischuk). Official site.

The other decisive game of round 10 was Ivanchuk outclassing his countryman Eljanov, who has confirmed his outsider status with four losses against no wins. Ivanchuk played an enterprising pawn sac novelty against the Catalan with 13..b5! and made steady progress to score his first win of the tournament after nine, count'em, nine draws.

Aronian is a half-point off the lead and a giant pack with impressive credentials is chasing a point back of Carlsen: Kramnik, Anand, Ivanchuk, Radjabov, Adams. Topalov is one of several players on an even score but the only one anyone could conceive of winning his final three games!

I voted for Tecumseh, but Vishy Anand has won the CNN-IBN "Indian of the Year - Sports" award. I honestly have no idea how prestigious or not this is, or how long it's been going on, and he's won similar things in his home country on numerous occasions in the past. But I'm a sucker anything "of the year" and Anand should be feted for his 2007 Mexico City win. Has a chessplayer ever won a national sports award in your country? Zarnicki won one in Argentina after winning the world junior ch, I recall. The Armenians went nuts when Aronian and crew took gold at the 2006 Olympiad.

Tangenting away from that tangent, everyone knows how delighted I am to have an undisputed champ again at last. However, as we're seeing in Corus, the ephemeral nature of tournaments as compared to matches rears its ugly head as soon as you play in another strong tournament. Familiarity breeds contempt and we have a good number of elite tourneys these days. If Anand finishes fourth at Corus or, worse, in Linares 2008, the Aztec gold loses a little of its shine. True, winning when it matters most is a worthy thing, but long matches were special not only because of the format but because the format was rare, pretty much exclusive to the world championship. Ah, you say, but does it make sense to have an entirely different format for a sport's world championship? Yes, as long as it adds more than it subtracts. There are differing schools of thought on that regarding match vs tournament, of course.

Anyway, maybe Anand will win the award again this year if he beats Kramnik in their October match in Bonn. And as much as these goofy extra matches risk trivializing the title and giving unfair perks to those with good political ties and deep pockets, a big extra payday isn't bad at all. The problem is the "extra" part. If Anand and Kamsky get less for losing to Kramnik and Topalov, respectively, than they would have gotten for losing the originally planned match of World Cup winner vs WCh, it's a tricky bet.

Five rounds to go! Can Carlsen hold on? Can Aronian, Kramnik or Anand make a move? Will Kramnik wipe his nose with his hand before shaking Topalov's hand? Today: Ivanchuk-Mamedyarov, Polgar-Radjabov, Topalov-Kramnik, Gelfand-Anand, Leko-Carlsen, Adams-van Wely, Aronian-Eljanov.

Update: Holy heck, Topalov just sacrificed a knight on Kramnik's f7 in the Semi-Slav! Remember when he did that against Kramnik's Petroff, playing the Cochrane quite a few years ago? Nasty stuff from Topalov as usual. Cool.

By the way, nice long (and free) show on Fischer with John Watson and Andy Soltis on Chess.FM here. Also a video piece by Macauley Peterson called "Fischer Remembered" with comments from various Corus GMs on the main page.

Topalov's Masterpiece

Why me? The day I have to get ready to go boat-plane-plane-taxi back home is the day Veselin Topalov plays one of the most remarkable games in years to defeat his arch-enemy Vladimir Kramnik at Corus. It started with an explosive knight sac novelty in the hot Semi-Slav anti-Moscow line that has been all the rage lately. Kramnik had the position after move 11 himself against Aronian a few days ago, in fact, and introduced a great knight sac novelty of his own. Radjabov has played it twice at Corus. But Topalov's amazing 12.Nxf7 is a shot to the heart of the entire system.

The official site quotes Topalov making what is now an almost routine admission, that the novelty was the product of his second, Ivan Cheparinov. More surprising is that they looked at it years ago. That's quite risky these days, as with so many top players (and their identical computers) working on the same line it's unlikely any strong shot will remain undiscovered for long. Topalov played this line occasionally in 2000. He tried it again in 2006 and lost to Vallejo. After that it was adios to Bg5 until today.

One of the measures of a great game is the level of the opponent. Topalov himself has been on the wrong side of what must be a record number of fantastic games in the past decade. His undying fighting spirit and love of complications often lead him to accept unacceptable risks. Of course this philosophy has also given him many days in the sun as well. This win against Kramnik epitomizes Topalov's brilliantly speculative attacking style even if some lines had been analyzed out to move 40 at home. Sure, a computer might point out that 17..Rhg8 offered much better defensive chances for Black, but that's practically the point of Topalov's concept. His opponents aren't computers. They are humans and Topalov believes he can outplay them in dynamic positions where he get a king in his sights. Usually he's right.

I won't waste time with variations Fritz can cut through in a minute. Just play over this game and marvel at the power of the white pieces and the weakness of the black king despite the optically impressive barrier of pawns and the black knight on d5. Turn off your engine and work through the dozens of fantastic lines. Kramnik's defense was not up to its usual caliber, but no one is at his best under siege. (Maybe Anand, probably the best tactical defender in the history of the game.) Kramnik missed several chances to test Topalov's idea and by the time his king came under direct assault his clock was a major factor.

Moving in for the kill, Topalov played for the gallery with a queen sac, 27.cxd5!?, where the prosaic 27.h3 would have done the job efficiently. But with the white king perfectly safe, white pawns on the move in the middle, and the black king still under fire, the result wasn't really in doubt. Truly a gorgeous game. And no, they didn't shake hands. And after this game maybe FIDE should quickly pass a new rule banning handshakes entirely.

While all this was going on, Leko scored his first win by handing Carlsen his first loss. A Breyer exploded into tactics and Leko came out with a strong rook and pawn versus two knights with queens still on the board. Black looked to have enough checks and pressure for good drawing chances, but Carlsen blundered a piece on move 39 and resigned. Adams surprised van Wely with a Sozin but didn't get much. Steady pressure and the neat move 33.Qc3! won a pawn and eventually the game for the Englishman's first win after eight consecutive draws.

Speaking of draws, Ivanchuk somehow managed not to beat Mamedyarov's lousy Grunfeld and so fall to his ninth consecutive split point. Radjabov's Jaenisch Lopez held up to the scrutiny of classical play against Polgar. Anand looked a little better with black against Gelfand and, as usual, that meant a short draw. Similar scenario in Aronian-Eljanov. White was slipping into inferiority and rescued himself with a timely draw offer. Ban the draw offer!

From an Icelandic chess friend:

Bobby Fischer´s funeral took place this morning in peace and quiet out in the Icelandic countryside. The funeral was not public but a tiny private gathering, with no media or others around, as he wished for himself. He is buried in a small country-graveyard, according to his own wishes, close to the town of Selfoss, an hour´s drive from Reykjavik, called "Laugardælakirkjugarður".

That may drive the Selfoss tourist industry. Did anyone ever check to see if the Morphy mausoleum suffered during Katrina and the flood? I don't have access to the books and other references I wanted to put together a Fischer item here. Will do so in a few days.

And Topalov falling, again. The heavyweight matchup of the round was Anand-Topalov, but the world champ made Topalov look like a lightweight in this one. Anand locked things up on the queenside against the Najdorf and then went to work smashing through on the kingside. This should looks nicer than the crazed positions we're used to with both sides throwing their pawns forward. And it's more active than the positional lines white has been trying lately with kingside castling. It certainly looked easy, whatever it was. Topalov had no counterplay at all, which is really saying something. So not only is Anand finally at a plus score, but he's playing well, too. Topalov drops back to -1, although it's fair to mention that he may have been a little distracted by the shenanigans going on with his second and his manager during the round. (Please keep those comments to the dedicated thread. Thanks.)

That was the only decisive game of the day in the A Group. Polgar found a way to escape Kramnik's death ray. She simplified while still keeping active play for her heavy pieces. Then she bailed into a drawn rook endgame down a pawn. Not pretty, but considering Kramnik's record in these Catalan lines any draw is a good draw. Carlsen-Gelfand was the last game to finish. The leader tried a little extra in a pawn-up endgame against the tail-ender but there wasn't much there. Mamedyarov-Aronian built up and then fizzled. Ivanchuk played another very provocative line with black against Radjabov. It looks diseased, as do so many other Caro-Kann positions. But if Karpov played it, you know it can't be unsound. Radjabov heaved some pieces around but decided a repetition was best policy. Eljanov-Adams went just 20 moves. Leko hunted down van Wely's bishop pair and they drew on move 27. Carlsen still leads by a half point ahead of Kramnik and Aronian with five rounds to play. Tomorrow is an off day.

It was a great day for Brooklyn, as both Caruana and Krush won. Irina's win was a spectacular sacrificial stomp of Carlsson, who seems be something of a sac magnet. Caruana's win came against C Group co-leader Braun, so he moves into clear first again. Hou Yifan held on to draw in a wild game against Nepomniachtchi.

Minutes ago: Short-Cheparinov 1-0 (1). Yes, a one-move victory for Nigel Short today. From the Corus site:

News - Ivan Cheparinov forfeited over handshake

January 20 2008 - Corus Chess Press

At the start of round 8 of the Corus Chess Tournament, Ivan Cheparinov, top seed in Grandmaster Group B, lost his game against Nigel Short for refusing to shake the Brit’s hand. According to the FIDE Handbook,

“Any player who does not shake hands with the opponent (or greets the opponent in a normal social manner in accordance with the conventional rules of their society) before the game starts in a FIDE tournament or during a FIDE match (and does not do it after being asked to do so by the arbiter) or deliberately insults his/her opponent or the officials of the event, will immediately and finally lose the relevant game.”

Chief Arbiter Thomas van Beekum was a witness when Cheparinov refused Short’s offer to shake hands twice and the Bulgarian’s game was declared a loss as a result.

The relevant FIDE rule (actually a Presidential Board announcement on June 25, 2007, which supposedly counts as rule in immediate effect) is here. Nigel's reaction is up on ChessVibes.

The non-shake no doubt stems from Short's computer cheating related comments about Topalov, who is Cheparinov's countryman, friend, and regular boss. They also share a manager, Silvio Danailov, who is quite fond of provocation off the board, although this may have been Cheparinov's own inspiration. (Those who know him say he's a fairly quiet lad in public, but I can't say.)

Of course Short is no stranger to controversy, politics, unsportsmanlike conduct, and the workings of the FIDE Ethics Committee [sic] from the other side of the stick. The question seems to be whether or not Cheparinov was given a chance to shake hands and play on after being informed by an arbiter that he would otherwise be forfeited. That's what an appeal would be based on. By the way, the appeals committee has several players on it, including Kramnik. I hope Topalov doesn't find out about it during his game with Anand because it would obviously be a major distraction. But he must have noticed Cheparinov isn't at his board.

I'm in favor of cracking down on gamesmanship of the surprise no-shake variety. As long as everyone understands the rules clearly there shouldn't be a problem. That doesn't mean this case is a good example of that, but it fits the profile.

On a side note, the point puts Nigel into equal first in the B Group for now. Imagine if he wins and gets to play in the A next year. No doubt he'd face Topalov... By the way, some have mentioned that that rule was promoted by Danailov because people didn't want to shake Topalov's hand after the Elista scandals. I don't recall more than rumors on that. Anything from him on that in public?

Update: Here's Danailov's appeal letter, all sic

To the Appeal Committee January 20th,2008
Corus chess tournament 2008

Mr.Adams, Mr.Kramnik, Mrs.Polgar

APPEAL

Dear All,

Today during the start of the round the following accident happened.

Mr. Cheparinov refused to shake hands with Mr. Short before the game. The reason was: some time ago in one of his interviews Mr. Short insulted him and our team gravelly.

After that, Mr.Short complained to the Chief Arbiter of the Tournament, who without previous warning immediately decide to put defeat to Mr. Cheparinov.

According to the rules of FIDE, this decision is illegal. There is a recommendation from the FIDE Presidential Board in Tallin June 2007 about the Behavioural norms of players in chess events: http://fide.com/news.asp?id=1391

First of all, this is only recommendation, not an official FIDE rule because this recommendation must be approved on FIDE congress during the chess Olympiad in Dresden, November 2008.

Even more, if the Arbiter would like to follow the recommendation of the FIDE PB in Tallin, he made a big mistake, because obviously he did not even check carefully the recommendation. Before to defeat the player he must ask him officially on the stage, that if he does not shake hand again he will be defeated.

Instead of this, the Chief Arbiter call Mr.Cheparinov to the private room and told him that he lost the game. Mr.Cheparinov replay ['replied', no doubt. -Mig], that according to the recommendation (!) of FIDE he should ask him to shake hands ,before to take any decision. Even more, Mr.Cheparinov told him very clearly that if he oblige him to do this, he is ready to do it. Unexpectedly, the Arbiter did not pay any attention to his explanations and took the decision to defeat him.

We protest this illegal decision ,and kindly ask to replay the game in one of the following rest days.

Best regards, Silvio Danailov
Manager GM Ivan Cheparinov

This "recommendation" interpretation doesn't jibe with my understanding of the Presidential Board statement, which I think is a de facto rule. After the fighting games yesterday you might wonder if all this controversy is another incidental homage to Bobby Fischer. But not so fast. Despite Fischer's protests, antics, and tantrums away from the board, it was well known that his behavior was always impeccable at the board.

Update: The game will be replayed tomorrow according to this decision by the appeals committee:

[A]ccording to the information obtained by the Appeals Committee, in the relevant case GM Cheparinov, after his initial refusal to shake hands with GM Short, didn’t clearly reject the arbiter’s request to do so.

Therefore:

1. We declare that GM Cheparinov must make a public excuse to GM Short in a written form before 11.00 hours January 21st 2008 for his refusal to shake hands.
2. Then the game between Ivan Cheparinov and Nigel Short has to be replayed on Monday January 21st 2008 at 13.30 hours.
3. Both players must shake hands at the start of the game.
4. Any player failing to comply with the present decision forfeits the game.

Short was in the rules to complain and request that the arbiter warn Cheparinov to shake hands or be forfeited. It sounds like the arbiter either didn't make this entirely clear to Cheparinov or he was simply wrong in forfeiting him without allowing him to accede to the stipulation of the warning and shake. Next tempest, next teapot.

Update: Mark sez Short sez he won't play tomorrow, although maybe if Cheparinov's apology is really really nice... There may be an irony supernova if Short is forfeited after all this.

Monday Update: Replay now in progress, a Najdorf. Cheparinov just sacrificed a pawn for some initiative. Update: Short wins in 72 moves. Nice game. Unsound pawn sac by Cheparinov but White already had a good position and Black was hard-pressed for good moves.

Could it have been thoughts of the unparalleled fighting spirit of Bobby Fischer that kept all the Corus players at their boards for so long today? It was a brutal and exciting round of uncompromising battles on every single board. After three hours all 14 players were still slugging it out. Not every game was fascinating but they all had points of interest.

Aronian bounced back with an excellent game to swap places with Radjabov in the standings. Radjabov went with the Benoni directly, the third we've seen in this event, surprisingly. The marvelously loopy move 13..Bd3 wasn't enough to shake White's advantage. The conventional wisdom is that the problem with the Benoni at the top level is that White doesn't have to do anything special to get a sizable plus. Black has to perform near miracles to gain his essential counterplay. Radjabov failed to part the waters in this one and Aronian finished cleanly with a lot of tactical subtext. Some may also find joy in Radjabov getting stuffed by an Armenian after he made scurrilous comments about beating the Armenian "enemies" at the Euro teams. (Not the first time he said such things to the press, I hear. Radjabov's response to his comments being relayed to the chess press didn't exactly deny that he made them.) Many of the top players watching the game on the ICC expressed satisfaction with Aronian's win for exactly this reason.

Judit Polgar did everything right against Vishy Anand's Sicilian except win the game. She built up a solid advantage by move 26. With 27.Ra1 the black a-pawn is falling and Anand's position would be in serious trouble. Instead Polgar lost the thread completely. She "won" two rooks for the queen but apparently misevaluated the resulting position. Anand used the reprieve to give a demonstration of the well-known attacking power of queen and knight. A tragic missed opportunity for Polgar. For Anand it shows you need a little luck when you're not in good form. Will this be enough to get him rolling now that he's back on an even score?

The other five games were drawn. Carlsen fended off Topalov in a full-bodied Ruy Lopez struggle. Topalov pushed to the bitter end as he always does and he threatened some very pretty attacking tricks in an endgame that had looked rather sterile. The computers went ping at move 40, with some afritzionados saying Carlsen had "blundered" with 40..Nd2 instead of 40..Nf6. Meh. 41.Bd5 was the touted reply, and that would definitely have made things much tougher for Black than 41.b3. Topalov kept trying, tossing his a-pawn and looking for mating chances with his king, but it just wasn't there. So Carlsen is still in clear first place with Aronian and Kramnik lurking a half-point back. Radjabov is the only other player on a plus score.

Ivanchuk got enough against Kramnik's Petroff to warrant playing on for a while, but Black never looked in real trouble. At least Kramnik made it look like he was working instead of making it look routine, like most of his Petroff draws. Ivanchuk continues to play into his opponents' strengths. This line was analyzed deeply after game one of the 2004 Kramnik-Leko WCh match. Adams-Mamedyarov was a topsy-turvy affair that confused just about every kibitzer. Black would have had a strong initiative with 38..d5 but couldn't resist the tempting 38..f3 39.Rg1 Rg4!? Great stuff, especially in time trouble, but not enough to win. Suddenly White had pressure on the g-file himself and the battle raged on back and forth for another 20 moves before they drew with bare kings. Great chess.

After recovering from a poor opening Gelfand nursed an edge against Leko for a long time but couldn't find a win in a blocked position. Eljanov and van Wely also wore out there seats today. The Ukrainian tail-ender mangled a balanced endgame in time trouble and should have lost. Then we had our second big theoretical rook endgame, the unusual a and h pawns, which I compared on Chess.FM to a 7-10 split in bowling. This is one of those endgames in which tablebases make fools of humans. Did you know that van Wely's natural 52..Kf7 is a draw while 52..Kf8 53.Rxb6 is a win? Go figure. Eljanov defended flawlessly, making quite a few only moves to save his bacon. Very impressive. I had thought that the early g4 lunge had been played in just about every variation of the Semi-Slav but apparently it was new here. Eljanov seems fond of it in just about every opening though.

Over in the B Group Movsesian beat Stellwagen to join Bacrot in the lead with 5/7. Stellwagen was just holding his defense together when he hung his rook to a two-mover. Ouch. Koneru beat Krasenkow in a nice game but Harikrishna failed to win B+R vs R against Nepomniachtchi. A win would have meant a 4/4 day for India since Negi beat Krush in the C. Hou Yifan took another scalp, beating Smeets with black in the French, an opening that has been MIA for a while at the top level. Her exchange sac was followed up with some pretty knight moves and then capable technique to reel in the full point. The final move will end up in a beginning tactics book in the "skewer" chapter. Negi's 30.Rf6 had a nice Fischer-Benko '63 flavor to it, another incidental tribute. This is the second Corus game Irina has been bludgeoned by kingside sacrifices. Caruan and Braun are tied for first in the C Group after Grivas hammered Braun flat in a fun game to play through -- if you aren't named Arik Braun.

The "Honorary" Group started play today with former Wijk winners Korchnoi, Timman, Ljubojevic, and Portisch playing. The veterans showed some fighting spirit as well on this violent day. Korchnoi beat Portisch with a tactical flourish and Timman outplayed Ljubo on the black side of, drumroll please, another Benoni. I wasn't sure I'd ever need a 'Portisch' tag but I'm glad I do!

Magnus Carlsen rolled over Judit Polgar the way 17-year-olds are not supposed to roll over experienced opposition. The win moved him into clear first place with an excellent +3, 4.5/6 score. That's a half-point ahead of Radjabov and Kramnik, who swapped places with Aronian by beating him in a theoretically drawn rook endgame long after playing a spectacular novelty. The third decisive game of the day was Topalov's marvelous turnaround against Leko. "Topalov's really playing great chess," sez Kasparov, and keep in mind the Bulgarian's second win in a row only brings him back to an even score. Official site.

Over the past year we have all marveled at the development of Magnus Carlsen. Since his breakout performance at the elite level at Linares last year the 17 year old has shown he's not interested in any plateau period before hitting the top ten. His semifinal performance at the World Cup has now been followed by a startling initial six rounds in Wijk aan Zee. Polgar got an unorganized position against him today and Carlsen picked apart her pawn weaknesses like Karpov, leaving her no chances. He has a tough test with black against a surging Topalov tomorrow.

Yes, it looks like the trademark Topalov Surge(tm) is underway. He won his second consecutive game today by completely outplaying Leko on the black side of a Sicilian. Leko seemed to get everything he wanted in positional plusses but Topalov kept dynamic chances alive. 28..g3! was a nice bone in the throat move. Leko should have bailed out with 36.Rxe4 instead of allowing the e-pawn to become a monster. Very impressive game from Topalov, keeping things unbalanced and finally finding a way through against the ultra-solid Leko, who had drawn his five previous games.

Kramnik played the novelty of the year, and maybe last year, with the amazing 25.Nc3 in the popular Anti-Moscow Semi-Slav we've been seeing so much of lately. And in a position Anand had declared "lost" for White after winning it from the black side in a rapid game against Radjabov in Mainz, 2006. This move flips that evaluation on its head and suddenly Black is struggling to survive a vicious attack. Kramnik continued to play nearly instantly as Aronian pondered his predicament. It seemed to Jon Speelman on Chess.FM that Kramnik played a little too quickly at several points, missing better attacking chances to move into an endgame that surprisingly wasn't clear at all. In fact, it seems like the four-rook ending is drawn with best play. Nice to have Spess commentating, as he's one of the world's best on rook endings. He showed how Black could defend passively until White was forced to for the famous rook with f and h pawns versus rook, which is drawn.

That's what happened and it looked like Kramnik's beautiful novelty was about to be wasted. Two extra pawns sound great, but actually this endgame isn't terribly hard. (Sez I, the one who doesn't have to play it against Kramnik with my clock ticking after six hours at the board.) You check your heart out and keep your king in front of the pawns. Eventually White has to play both pawns to the sixth rank and then his king can't escape the checks. That's just how it went, but Aronian forgot to play the checks! Kramnik bided his time, not advancing until Aronian's clock was low (no increment at Corus). Black is still drawing after 100..Ra7?! according to the tablebases, but it's much simpler just to keep checking laterally. If the king comes after the rook, the rook attacks the f-pawn. Easy draw. Aronian's brain and/or clock must have been fried. Instead, Aronian had to find a few only moves and he failed to find them. With the rook on f1 just checking isn't enough, but 103..Ra5+ 104.Kc6 Ra7 is still a draw. Nice play by Kramnik and all, especially the spectacular opening idea, but it was also heroic defense by Aronian just to survive that opening detonation. A pity he had to fudge it all in endgame zeitnot.

The other Group A games were draws of varying interest. Vishy was probably worse by the time he offered a draw to Ivanchuk and his Caro-Kann on move 18. van Wely didn't get anything against Gelfand and saw no reason to play chess. Adams defended well against Radjabov's use of the Ruy Exchange in the line that has amusing exchanges but ends up looking like a Berlin. Mamedyarov-Eljanov reached a humorous blockade position that neither could win.

Brooklyn was in full effect in the C Group, where ChessNinja.com newsletter annotator Irina Krush scored her first win, over top seed Caruana. Unfortunately, Fabiano's from Brooklyn! Can't win for losing around here...

No time for a real entry now, but here's the sad news from Iceland. Post better links as they come up if you can.

Chess legend Fischer dies at 64

The US-born player was a fierce critic of his government.

Controversial former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has died aged 64, Iceland's media says. The US-born player, who became famous around the world for beating the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky in 1972, had been seriously ill for some time.

Mr Fischer was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005 as a way to avoid being deported to the US. Mr Fischer was wanted for breaking international sanctions by playing a match in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

He also had alienated many in his homeland by broadcasting anti-Semitic diatribes and expressing support for the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York. The reclusive player had lived undetected in Japan for a number of years before moving to Iceland.

Update: This from Garry Kasparov:

With the death of Bobby Fischer chess has lost one of its greatest figures. Fischer's status as world champion and celebrity came from a charismatic and combative personality matched with unstoppable play. I recall thrilling to the games of his 1972 Reykjavik world championship match against Boris Spassky when I was nine years old. The American had his share of supporters in the USSR even then, and not only for his chess prowess. His outspokenness and individuality also earned him the quiet respect of many of my compatriots.

Fischer's beautiful chess and his immortal games will stand forever as a central pillar in the history of our game. And the story of the Brooklynite iconoclast's rise from prodigy to world champion has few peers for drama. Apart from a brief and peculiar reappearance in 1992, Bobby Fischer's chess career ended in 1972. After conquering the chess Olympus he was unable to find a new target for his power and passion.

Fischer's relentless energy exhausted everything it touched - the resources of the game itself, his opponents on and off the board, and, sadly, his own mind and body. While we can never entirely separate the deeds from the man, I would prefer to speak of his global achievements instead of his inner tragedies. It is with justice that he spent his final days in Iceland, the site of his greatest triumph. There he has always been loved and seen in the best possible way: as a chessplayer.

Garry Kasparov
Moscow - January 18, 2008

Both Azerbaijani participants won today in the A Group of the Corus supertournament. Mamedyarov outplayed van Wely out of an innocuous b3 Sicilian and crashed through in the Dutchman's time trouble. Radjabov manhandled Eljanov in his favorite King's Indian, the defense that won him so many points in last year's edition. The other decisive game was Gelfand's total implosion against Topalov. We're always pleased to see someone losing in the Petroff, especially someone like Boris who was such a master of the Najdorf.

Radjabov moved up to join Carlsen and Aronian in the lead on +2. It was a quick round. Eljanov's resignation ended it 15 minutes shy of the first time control. Carlsen held comfortably against Ivanchuk's Exchange Ruy, about which Ivanchuk was critical after the game. Aronian got nothing against Vishy in the 6.Bxf6 Slav (no Bh4 this time) and made all of four new moves before offering the draw. Thrilling. Did Black really do anything exceptional in that four-move span or did Aronian just decide not to push his luck against Anand? Kramnik had a new move, 13..Nxd4, against Adams in the Petroff and drew without fanfare. Polgar took on Leko's Marshall in the all-Hungary battle and they followed the hottest line. But Polgar avoided commentary on the recent Shirov wins and played 16.Be3, giving up the d3 pawn immediately. (Down in the B Group Smeets-Bacrot also followed this line, with very different results. Bacrot sacrificed a rook and eventually played mate!) Leko confidently gave up his isolated pawn and his bishop pair held the draw without discussion.

With two quick draws and two games bone dry by the two-hour mark it looked like a rough first day for virgin ICC Chess.FM commentator GM Ronen Har-Zvi. We were starting to swap old KasparovChess.com stories out of desperation. (We worked together in the Israeli office for seven months in 1999. He's still hilarious, now living in New York State.) Things changed suddenly when Gelfand and van Wely resigned a few minutes apart. van Wely had followed my recommendation of putting his bishop on d4 and as usual my successfully predicting a plan presaged doom for the player. (One cute line earlier, pointed out by Ronen and which may have been what van Wely missed, was 17..h6? 18.Nxe6! Rxe4?? 19.Nxe4 winning thanks to mate on d8.) 25.b4! gave White a lasting initiative that Mamedyarov converted with brio as van Wely faded on the clock.

After been squeezed by Kramnik yesterday, Eljanov again looked out of his league today against Radjabov. Black didn't seem to be doing anything special as he swapped off the right pieces and took over the board. Is chess this easy? Eljanov headed for the -3 cellar where Gelfand was waiting for him. Topalov got pressure against Gelfand's ..Bd6 experiment and the game ended abruptly when Gelfand blundered with 26..Qe7?? instead of ..Qh7. Topalov seemed a little embarrassed by the easy win after the game, saying "you don't have to be a genius to find such moves in positions like that." Ouch to Gelfand, but he's playing atrociously so far, with bad blunders in all his losses.

Bacrot now leads the B Group with 4/5 while top seed Cheparinov lost for the third time, this time horribly to L'Ami. IM Braun was finally held to a draw in Group C and still leads Caruana by a half point with 4.5/5

We got some decisive games today and the quality of play at Corus was a mixed bag all round. The match-up between the leaders was a fascinating encounter with divided evaluations. Carlsen didn't seem to get much against Aronian with the Ruy Lopez. Black had at least equality and it wouldn't have surprised anyone had they agreed to a draw. But Aronian had other plans and played a speculative exchange sac to open up the white king despite having few attacking forces in the area. The debate over the correctness of 20..Rxf3 raged for a long time during the game, with titled players on both sides. The majority, including Chess.FM analyst John Federowicz, thought that Aronian had overreached (or lost his mind) and that Carlsen was going to move to 3.5/4 without too much effort. After the game Aronian opined that in fact it is White who is lost after the sac, but it's hard to back up that traditional post-game optimism with analysis. The white a-pawn is speedy and it's much easier to find improvements for White than for Black. Carlsen's lovely 26..e5 idea (played almost instantly) slowed Black's play and should have made the game hard to save for Aronian. The obvious 35.Rxa6 looks like a win. Carlsen got caught up playing quickly in his opponent's time trouble and allowed an immediate repetition draw.

Leko-Ivanchuk was another draw with lots of action in the notes. Apparently Ivanchuk decided he liked what he saw after watching Leko bash Bareev's Caro-Kann in last year's candidates match. Leko loves grinding these positions. Black is basically playing most of the game a rook down, so what's not to love? Leko girded his forces for the inevitable penetration against the black kingside. Just when the position was screaming for more more more, the Hungarian's resolve went limp. 21.Nxg6! is a pretty shot, and not a rare one in such positions (often it's the bishop instead). The tactics are not at all easy, however, so we shouldn't be too harsh. White was still much better, but now he was in bad time trouble. Leko tried to cash in with 32.Rf5!?, sharpening play with just a few minutes on his clock. White still has chances after 35.Qc7+, but he practically chose to force a repetition instead.

Gelfand-Polgar was an entertaining battle right from the start. Polgar had prepared an aggressive (surprise) idea in what might be called the "Grunfeld Declined Anti-Catalan Variation." Gelfand skipped d5, allowing Black to capture on d4. Then Black uses the threat of check on a5 to push ..d4, ..e5, overextending the pawns. This is a well-known line and Gelfand has faced it before. Black's new idea was 13..Ne4, sacrificing a pawn for activity. It doesn't look like the d3 pawn can possible survive, but even the computers call the position about even, confirming the tangible compensation. Gelfand started sliding into time trouble just as he went on a pawn hunt, a dangerous combination against Polgar. She has a unique ability to whip up tactical complications out of nowhere and she showed that again in this game. Polgar will sacrifice and attack out of positions of weakness, something that violates general principles. She relies on her ability to outplay her opponents in complications and more often than not she's right. 26..Ne6!?? sacrificed a piece to turn the d2 pawn into a real threat and Gelfand didn't play the necessary 31.Rab1. He blundered with 31.Bf3 and Black won the exchange. Polgar finished off neatly with more help from Gelfand, by then down to seconds. She is really something special.

Significantly less special was the draw between Radjabov and his countryman Mamedyarov. The 8..e5 trick goes back to Flohr in 1950. Black played a useful pawn sac to break up the White structure. Simplifications ensued with a clean draw on move 28. Adams outplayed Anand on the black side of a stonewall Queen's Indian and held a small edge in a B+Q endgame that he was unable to convert well into the second time control. Black could have won material with 22..Bb4, although White's minor pieces are impressive after 23.Rxc8 Bxd2 24.Rxd8+ Qxd8 25.Rxd2. Adams has lost so many games against Vishy he probably isn't sure if it's safe to play for a win.

Kramnik beat Eljanov in vintage fashion, with active play in the center leading to structural weaknesses he later picked apart. He won with surprising speed in a R+N+3p vs R+N+2p. Lots to learn from in games like this from Big Vlad, as usual. He makes this sort of thing look easy, the way Karpov used to. He sees weaknesses with x-ray eyes. Topalov lost his second game of the event by biting off even more than he can chew in a Benoni against van Wely. The dynamic Bulgarian has outplayed many players from these tangled positions but this was too much to ask. van Wely may only be 2681, ceding 100 points to Topalov, but the Benoni is tough enough in its dubious theoretical lines. Here Black gave up a lot of time and put his pieces on unusual squares. 15..g4 was a sad necessity by process of elimination. White was threatening Nxe5 and e5 with major atrocities. Topalov gave up the exchange without much to show for it. White's king was safe and van Wely played accurately to swap down and clinch the full point.

Carlsen and Aronian lead with 3/4. Polgar, Kramnik, van Wely, and Radjabov trail on +1.

Sorry, didn't get up in time to put up a round 3 item before the games started. But if you slept through this entire round of the Corus tournament you didn't miss a whole lot, at least not on the crosstable. Unless Radjabov errs in his defense of a theoretically drawn but tricky endgame against van Wely, all seven games in the A Group will finish without a winner today. As far as I can recall that hasn't happened in the many years I've been covering Wijk aan Zee. Lots of days with six draws, but never seven. So come on, Loek! [Now drawn.] The 50-move rule will likely kick in on move 95... [Garry sez Black missed an easy win with 36..Bf5. Regarding the endgame, he points us to the well-known Salwe-Rubinstein, Prague 1908, game in which Black won thanks to White wandering his king into the center.]

Most of the games were fairly interesting and ended with obvious equality so don't get all preachy about giving 3.14 points for a win or whatever the anti-draw conspiracy of the week is. As I predicted at the start of the round, having the heavyweights with black is often a recipe for short draws. Anand and Kramnik equalized without undue effort and were happy to accept quick draw offers from Eljanov and Mamedyarov. Ivanchuk-Gelfand only lasted 22 moves but it took a long time. Ivanchuk spent 50 minutes on his fourth move! Gelfand faced 1.c4 e5 2.g3 c6 3.d4 e4!? with White last week against Karjakin (and lost) and decided to give it a try today with black. Ivanchuk pondered deeply before playing 4.d5 instead of Nc3. A promisingly unbalanced position led to rapid exchanges and a draw. Another sharp opening, the d5 pawn sac line of the QID, also fizzled in Aronian-Leko. Eljanov played an enterprising g4 sac against Anand but got nothing against accurate play.

Similar things were afoot in Polgar-Topalov, a rare, if here expected, Sicilian sighting. Larry Christiansen was enthusiastic about Polgar's attacking chances on Chess.FM, but the Qg3-f4 plan didn't pan out for her. White had a few more weaknesses in the endgame but it was never more than a draw. That game was part of the plague of opposite-colored bishop positions we had today. Adams-Carlsen was another. The teenage co-leader defended well in his Open Ruy and seemed to have the better chances before simplifying and forcing the draw. 29..Rc2, keeping the active rook, looked logical enough. Mamedyarov got a tiny something of something against Kramnik's Petroff but his passed pawn never had any gas in the engine.

So Carlsen and Aronian stay in the lead with 2.5/3, nicely setting up their encounter in tomorrow's 4th round. It's a rematch of their thrilling candidates battle of last summer in Elista. Carlsen took Aronian to the limit before finally succumbing in blitz.

The main excitement of the day, other than wondering if Chucky was going to flag on move 4, was Nigel Short going down in spectacular flames against Hou Yifan. It was sort of a Berlin, only after the Allied bombing. What on earth is that knight doing on b7? It was pretty much over by move 18, although he hung on to move 23. Quoth the Nige: "It's embarrassing to lose to someone who is three years younger than my daughter!" She turns 14 next month. At this rate in a few years she'll be in the A Group with Short in the C! Of course the chess world already had to deal with this sort of onslaught when Judit Polgar came up. In fact, she has a terrific record against Short. Macauley Peterson, on the scene in Wijk aan Zee for the ICC, reported that Short was keeping his spirits up.

That was the start of a bloodbath in the B Group, which saw only one draw today. Smeets and Bacrot are in the lead now with 2.5/3. Caruana and Braun were the only leaders to win in the C, so both stay perfect. Macauley interviewed Caruana yesterday and he said he was disappointed when Miroshnichenko dropped out due to visa issues since now he won't be facing anyone higher-rated than he is. (How about taller?)

Playing as the favorite is often difficult for young stars, but so far Caruana hasn't "suffered" the fate of Radjabov and Karjakin and other prodigies, who are often thrown in with the sharks so early it's hard for them to shift gears to playing for anything other than survival. Carlsen mostly avoided this and learned to play for a win, although Radjabov seems to have recovered well enough. I admit that despite my frequent cheerleading for stronger opposition for Hou Yifan I was a little concerned for her tender hide against 2700's in the B Group, especially after she started with two losses. But obviously she's tough, not just strong, and will keep fighting even if she does finish near the bottom as expected.

By the way, after the round Anand said it was the first he'd heard of missing the repetition claim against Radjabov in round one! He said he'd lost the thread by then and didn't think about it. Fair enough, as it wasn't consecutive by a long shot. But still, in such a position and not in time trouble it would be worth keeping it in mind and checking your scoresheet, I would think. So the gaff ruling on the field stands.

Kramnik, Topalov, and Anand will take the white pieces into action in Sunday's second round of the Corus supertournament. The latter two are recovering from losses. Topalov-Ivanchuk is usually a good matchup. van Wely-Polgar promises sharp action. Will Radjabov again risk the King's Indian against Kramnik? He did it here last year and looked to be in a spot of trouble before Kramnik played an inexplicable simplifying line.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but Anand-Kramnik takes place in the 13th and final round on Sunday the 27th. (Which, oddly, is the day I arrive in Amsterdam for some work with Garry. Maybe I'll see some of the players at the airport on the way back.) Or, looking at the first-day standings, perhaps the final round matchup of Carlsen-Radjabov will be more important? Nah.

By the way, didn't Anand miss a repetition draw claim against Radjabov in round 1?! The position is identical after black moves 57..Kf6, 59..Kf6, and 63..Ra7 (instead of 63..Ra8). Holy heck. And try out 55.fxg6?!! in Peng Zhaoqin-Caruana, a try for a Halley's Comet endgame of pawn versus two knights. Very tough to win for Black.

Round 2: Anand-Mamedyarov, Kramnik-Radjabov, Topalov-Ivanchuk, Leko-Adams, Gelfand-Aronian, Carlsen-Eljanov, van Wely-Polgar.

UPDATE: CARLSEN!

Wow, Magnus Carlsen just won his second in a row with a fine squeeze of Eljanov. He's now in the lead with 2/2 along with Aronian, who beat Gelfand with black in attractive style in the Israeli's own pet line of the Semi-Slav. Kasparov is certainly not alone in being very impressed with Carlsen's play so far. "The kid is tough! He outplayed both of his opponents gradually and kept up the pressure." All the other games drawn, assuming Adams doesn't fall asleep against Leko in Q+4p vs Q+3p. Lots of interesting chess today. More tonight.

Well, not much more. As we knew at the time, Gelfand's 29.Rxg6 was a horrible blunder. But he'd already been outplayed out of the opening by Aronian. Kramnik got a tiny plus against Radjabov's King's Indian and parlayed his activity into a worthless extra pawn in R+B vs R+B. He still tortured Radja for a good extra hour though. Speaking of torture, Leko maneuvered around for nearly the full seven hours against Adams trying to make something of his extra pawn in the queen endgame, but it didn't happen.

A Group virgin Eljanov's nerves got the better of him and he traded into a horror show of an endgame against Carlsen. Hard to believe a Grunfeld player would grab with 18..Qxc3 like that. Leko knew better when he was 13 years old, as a 1992 game shows. Still, very nicely done by Carlsen and, to be fair, GM Benjamin evaluated the endgame as "equal" at one point. Ivanchuk played a rare Benoni (rare in elite classical tournaments, at least), and against Topalov no less, one of the few top GMs who has the Benoni in his repertoire for more than desperate occasions. Chucky's odd move order seemed to give White an optimal version but Topalov couldn't prove it.

Anand-Mamedyarov was a similar tale. Black played an unbalanced line but Anand couldn't capitalize. Funny how no matter what Mamedyarov plays with black it always seems to come out looking like a Pirc. Both games were rich and complex draws. That could also be said for van Wely-Polgar, which wasn't the slugfest I expected. White won a pawn and looked in good shape but Polgar is the queen of counterplay. 28..Rf8! was a nice blow to confuse the issue. The Dutchman must have thought victory was in his grasp until 30..Qe2! landed on the board, forcing the draw. Great save.

Down in the C Group, Carlsson-Peng Zhaoqin was an 11-move draw in a book position. Nobody does this sort of thing in the C Group so I wonder illness or something else external was involved. Otherwise, that's a quick way to make sure you aren't invited back. Braun beat Negi with a cute final move. Four players in the C have 2/2 scores. No one in the B does.

Sent in by Oscar:

Dutch TV broadcasted an interview with Kasparov yesterday. It can be seen here.

And then, all at the bottom of the page, you have to click "bekijk uitzending".

The program lasts 90 minutes. We get to see some favorite movie clips from Kasparov, he even comments the soccer game Brazil-Italy from 1982 when watching it.

The beginning of the program is with some short clips, a voice over in Dutch, but after a few minutes we get to see the former chess player himself. A lot of politics, less chess, but that is his life nowadays. When asked why he doesn't leave Russia (it is dangerous there) for e.g. London, he is very surprised. "But why? This is my country!" and makes clear he wants to do something positive for his country, besides playing chess.

In March they will broadcast a documentary showing "Kasparov on the road" doing politics. A short preview can be seen after the program above. Unfortunately there are only Dutch translations of the Russian voices, but even without knowing the language you get the gist, I presume. The poor man has no easy life at all.

I was in touch with the producers when they were preparing this show for the movie clips and other things mentioned in How Life Imitates Chess that could provide TV appeal. The Brazil-Italy game is used in the book (originally in business speeches) to compare a clash of styles, in this case jogo bonito versus catenaccio, with parallels to Garry's early losses to Petrosian's defensive mastery.

When I said in my preview that I thought Anand might have a tough time I wasn't thinking about round one. It's a little early for fatigue to be setting in. But Teimour Radjabov just beat him in a tough 2R vs R+B endgame (not Anand's strong suit, as a side note) after another adventure in the Anti-Moscow Semi-Slav. Magnus Carlsen won with black against Mamedyarov and Aronian beat Topalov. Mamedyarov played an insipid g3 closed Sicilian but probably shouldn't have lost. He got into time trouble and fell apart. It was early to resign and some of the afritzionados insisted that White's position wasn't even worse. Carlsen said afterwards that he was sure he was winning. A computer might find a way to grovel on for a while without losing a piece to a rook infiltration, but it's long-term ugly.

Topalov played his usual brilliant dynamic chess to get a plus after surprising Aronian with the Grunfeld. But the Bulgarian has always been better off sacrificing the exchange than winning it. He tightened up and White had full compensation with the mighty knight on d4. It was still hard to imagine Topalov losing but he declined to swap rooks White got a lot of play. (21..Rac8 was suggested by GM Christiansen on Chess.FM.) A topsy-turvy slugfest between two of last year's co-winners. The third of whom, by the way, beat Anand with the white pieces. It looked like the world champ had weaseled his way out of opening difficulties with the ..Qf4-d2 trick, but Radjabov found a nice queenside mating idea that led to the win of the exchange. We were 50-50 on whether or not White should win the endgame. Eventually he worked his king up to f6 for the victory. Impressive technique and it will be interesting to see how well Anand defended. He often loses patience in defending technical positions but this one may have been hopeless from the start.

So the world champ and the world #3 lost today, and the youngest participant won with black. The other four games had less action than a Merchant Ivory film about sloths. It looked like Kramnik had great chances with white against van Wely but he allowed a queen trade and then decided there was nothing in the endgame. Strange. van Wely worked as Kramnik's second in Mexico City but there's no mercy at this level when you have a 180-point rating advantage. Adams-Gelfand was a short Petroff draw. Sad to see such a great Najdorf player doing so well with the Petroff. Ivanchuk passed up an opportunity for an interesting exchange sac and quickly ended up with no advantage against Polgar. The draw offer was a little obnoxious, however, since the board was still full of pieces. Leko equalized easily against Eljanov's listless play but decided not to play for more, accepting another short draw.

As usual, there was plenty of excitement in Groups B and C. Short looked lost in 16 moves against Harikrishna, apparently blundering 16.Qe4. The Indian played enterprisingly instead of greedily and got three pieces for his queen and a withering attack. (20.Qf5 was the consensus crusher for White.) Short failed to wither, however, and things really got messy. LarryC suggested an early h4 for White to open up the h-file for his rook. In the game Black got a pair of rooks of the board and enough play to force a draw. All seven games in the C Group were decisive. Unfortunately that included a loss by Irina Krush. Top seed Caruana won with black to get off to a good start.

More tonight when I've had a chance to actually look at the games. Official site. Many other coverage links in yesterday's item.

Kudos to today's New In Chess / Chess.FM trivia winners Trebejo, Siddhu, and Murkes (one year of NIC). Respectively, they were the fastest to answer: 1) What is the average age of the Group A field? 2) After the Netherlands, which country has the most total representatives in groups A, B, and C? 3) Of all the participants in the history of Group A, who is listed first, alphabetically by last name?

Almost. Saturday marks the start of my favorite event of the year that doesn't involve nudity. The Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands is a true chess fest and a true chess feast. Three groups of fourteen players each, plus assorted amateur events, add up to plenty of drama and at least a few good games every day. They also provide adequate and reliable web coverage. The Dutch site ChessVibes has been running little group previews and we hope they provide the post-mortem videos everyone enjoyed so much last year.

Of course most of the attention is on Group A and in that, the top three players in the world: Kramnik, Anand, and Topalov. All three participated last year as well. Do you remember which of them was one of the three players who tied for first? Moving down the rating list, new Russian champ Morozevich is sitting this one out, as is his compatriot Svidler. Then we come to Mamedyarov, who has yet to really impress in a supertournament, Leko, a former Corus winner, and the ever-unpredictable Ivanchuk. Radjabov and Aronian tied for first with Topalov last year and are back again. Both will find it very hard to match their +4 scores of a year ago.

Boris Gelfand's 2735 rating marks the start of the second half of the field, an impressive stat. And you can't have a tournament without Magnus Carlsen, who will surely improve on his atrocious -4, no-win performance here a year ago. It will be interesting to see Adams and Polgar in action. They had one supertournament between them in 2007 and despite their well-known quality it's getting harder every year to say they still have what it takes to make it back to the top ten with the youngsters coming up. Ukraine's Eljanov won the B Group last year to qualify. He's a hacker who won't go winless but could put up losses in streaks. Sticking with that topic, van Wely is about the only Dutchman who can play in the A Group without getting pawn odds these days. The hosts are still praying for Stellwagen and L'Ami to make a move before Sokolov and van Wely start collecting pensions. At least Tiviakov isn't here. He used white to play one short draw after another last year.

Radjabov's King's Indian rocked the Wijk last year and he jumped out to an early lead. Then his incomprehensible conservative streak showed up and he needed a late win over Motylev to take a share of first. If he's going to win more of these events and get back into the top ten to stay he's going to need more killer instinct. Or never lose, but only Kramnik can get away with that. And speaking of Big Vlad, he made it look very easy at the Tal Memorial in November. He's always had trouble, relatively speaking, at Wijk because the large field means someone is always going to get hot and put up +4, a number that is usually outside the range of his conservative style. But that's just what he scored at the Tal, so we'll see.

Anand, oddly enough, seems like the wildcard to me. He's won this event four times and it's easy to say that the world champ should score +3 just by getting up every morning, and +5 is clearly in his range. But these long events get tougher every year for the older generation, although 2007 was practically a victory march for veterans. (A point Garry Kasparov expounds on in his upcoming review/preview article in New In Chess.) Vishy finished a full point behind the winners last year and he'll have to show more fire to keep up the pace.

With all the top stars showing such good form lately it's hard to imagine any breakouts this time. If you're looking for surprises and big scores you might be better directed to the B and C, where massive scores are routine. Several veterans of the A Group are down there, including Bacrot, Short, and Krasenkow. You might remember the rainbow hair of Dimitri Reinderman in the A Group in 1999 (scoring 3 points); This year he's back and in the C Group. Everyone will be watching supertots Caruana, Negi, Nepomniachtchi, and Hou Yifan. And of course Black Belt newsletter annotator extraordinaire Irina Krush! Go Brooklyn!

I'm going to brave the vagaries of the Bahamian internet to attempt some live commentary at ICC Chess.FM, which is always a good time, at least for me. Games start at 13:30 local time, that's 7:30am EST, bright and early. Yawn.

The ACP has shown it can put money where its mouth is two years in a row with this repeat event in Odessa, Ukraine. It's a tidy 16-player KO event that brushes uncomfortably against Corus, but it's a good show. Last year it was won by Peter Leko over Ivanchuk in the final. The sponsor is the Ukrainian Pivdenny Bank, who also sponsored an eponymous rapid event last summer, won by Ivanchuk.

Three of the four favorites advanced in the first half of the first round: Jakovenko, Radjabov, and Ivanchuk. Shirov was upset by Inarkiev after losing a wild first game with white. Inarkiev must have really hot-footed it over from the Russian superfinal. Russiachess.org is showing live games. (They play one match at a time, so only one broadcast board is needed.) Saturday we'll see Polgar, Karpov, Gelfand, Svidler, Leko, and Karjakin playing. And US champion Alexander Shabalov, don't forget. Didn't see the pairings or a full tree anywhere. [Full tree here, in Russian. ht József.]

We already have "chessy" and "chessic" but chess might soon achieve the dubious feat of getting "fightless" into the dictionary. (It's not in any of the online dictionaries and I don't have my OED discs down here in the Bahamas. Sad because I've always been known to carry a big dic, as we used to say in AEU back in the pre-clicky-clicky days.) It's true enough that "peaceful" is boring and "fight-free" is awkward to say the least, but I'm not sure a new term is required. Plus, it reminds me of ostriches, never a good thing.

Moving on, ChessBase has the latest babble in the eternal quest for a solution to the problem of short draws. The new (old) hotness in the ChessBase discussion is the suggestion of letting a draw offer ride, as it were, either for the entire game, which is ludicrous, or for a limited number of moves. No one in his right mind would give his opponent such a free ride for the rest of the game. As is pointed out by many of the correspondents on the CB page, the recipient of the offer would just play on forever at no risk of anything other than mate in one or early-onset senility.

The extended draw offer (XDO) is interesting (and hardly new) but it has only a little to do with the problem of what have become known, to our shame, as GM draws. I.e. those that aren't necessarily prearranged, but are due to circumstances in which both players find a draw to be a satisfying result. True, the recipient of the XDO would almost certainly play on until the offer is about to expire, extending the game x number of moves. During those x moves he can try whatever risky scheme he desires while keeping the draw in his pocket like a "get out of zugzwang free" card. And the XDO would also cut back on draws due to mutual fear in sharp positions.This will both lengthen the short draws a certain amount and eliminate the few in which the recipient of the offer makes good on his plans.

It will also lead to some absurd finishes with draws being claimed before their expiry date in totally lost positions. Why not throw away all your pieces and then take the draw? I'm not sure I want to endure such garbage for the sake of slightly longer draws. It would practically force a few things I've ranted about for a long time when it comes to game recording, however. Embedding draw offers (and time used) permanently into the gamescore would be essential. It's pathetic we discard all this vital information. American football keeps track of something called "hurries" for god's sake, and we don't even know when time trouble started or if someone used five seconds or 20 minutes for a move.

As I've made clear many times, I'm not against draws, just short, non-game draws, and this is the key distinction. There's no need to change chess or the scoring system or just about anything. It's a wonderful game that doesn't need to be improved because a bunch of patzers want to see more blunders or because they don't understand endgames or the Catalan. Just ban the draw offer and play chess as it was meant to be played. Instead of having players sitting at the board thinking about draws -- whether to offer, whether to accept, and with the XDO how many moves left until the offer expires -- they can relax and just play chess. The draw was never intended to be a strategic element or a sporting device; it's an occasionally dull necessity. The MTel/Sofia events have shown that despite theoretical flaws -- players could collude to play convoluted forced short draws -- anti-draw offer rules work as intended at the elite level. Ban the draw offer!