February 2009 Archives

It was as messy a game as Kamsky could have hoped for needing a win to level the match. He had his chances but again didn't give himself enough time to find them when it counted most. Topalov, always the gambler, once again rolled a seven and outplayed his opponent in complications. After some pawn sacrifices Kamsky handled very well, the Bulgarian made the penultimate mistake in a razor-sharp position and won the game and the match. It's almost irrelevant to say that had Kamsky found 31..b4 he would have won the game. Or that the amazing queen sacs with 32..Bd3 or 32..Be4 probably hold the draw. The real mistake came with 25..Ba4, which is a perfectly reasonable move, but one that took him around half an hour to play. (..Bc8 and ..Kf7!?! were computer options.) That left him with less than 15 minutes to play as many moves. Topalov is the world's best at maintaining complications and he did so here, despite risking a loss.

After a couple of blunders with seconds left Kamsky reached time control and had all day to contemplate his rook-down position. He actually made a few more moves after a long think, more to clear his head than to actually test his chances for a draw. In the press conference Topalov said he'd gone in planning to avoid taking any big risks today! Kamsky sounded relaxed, even relieved, despite the painful conclusion today. He certainly didn't sound like someone who was contemplating a second retirement, which is of course good news.

Final score 4.5-2.5 and Veselin Topalov is now the official challenger for Vishy Anand's world title. The WCh match is supposed to take place this year, but with such a delay in getting this candidates match off the ground it's not clear to me how that's going to happen. We can hope.

A strange match all round, with Kamsky doing better in the openings and Topalov showing the better nerves when the opposite was expected. It's hard to say Topalov played well, but he played well enough and in a match that's all that matters. Kamsky had stretches of great chess and showed he could stay in the ring with the world #1. His play with black was phenomenal. We'll see if he can use this as a launching point to get back into the top 10. Lots of good stuff from Macauley Peterson on the ICC Blog. He's expecting an interview with Topalov tomorrow. Official site.

You knew it would happen eventually. Winter turns to spring, dawn follows darkness, lettuce left in the bottom of the fridge turns to evil brown muck. And 18-year-old Magnus Carlsen scored his first win over world champion Vishy Anand. It doesn't rain on the parade at all that Anand has already lost a game in Linares this week, to Aronian. This was a clash of an entirely different order, prompting Garry Kasparov to state, "It's not every day you win such an elegant game against the world champion!"

Anand hasn't cultivated an aura of irresistibility (Alekhine, Fischer, Kasparov), invincibility (Capablanca, Kramnik), or confounding magic in maneuvering (Karpov) or tactics (Tal). The dazzling speed of play that was once Anand's trademark is largely a thing of the past. He's simply a great player. He's still playing great chess, still the world champion, and this is doubtless a day that even the accomplished Norwegian prodigy will remember. Anand, like Kramnik and assorted other past world champions, hasn't dominated the chess world during his reign, but victories against such icons are to be treasured, especially the first one. It was, I believe, Carlsen's tenth classical game against Anand after four losses and five draws.

Carlsen did in style out of a line of the "Latvian Semi-Slav" ("Semi-Grob"?!,) the 7.g4 lunge developed by Shirov and Shabalov in the early 90s. They don't grab the pawn very often at the top level anymore, however, and the last word on this line was the comically oblique 11..h6 (following the similarly prophylactic 11.h3, naturally) by Morozevich against Aronian two years ago in Linares. Anand again put his endgame defensive skills to the test by voluntarily heading into a depressing technical position for the second day in row. There would be no miracles for the Indian today as Carlsen used his slightly better king, slightly better pawns, and slightly better bishop vs knight to full cumulative effect. Black surely missed a few chances to improve -- 47..Re1+ is one; the tricky 57..Rh1+ gains a crucial tempo to stop the h-pawn and White has a long slog ahead. But really it was a very impressive performance from Carlsen, who breaks his string of draws in a big way.

That big match-up between the heir apparent and the king current stole the spotlight from the more important battle taking place at the top of the crosstable. Alexander Grischuk beat co-leader Levon Aronian to move to a fantastic +3 score and clear first place with one round to go in the first half of the event. It was another razor-sharp theoretical opening, the Anti-Moscow Semi-Slav that was all the rage for a while but has recently ceded ground to the Meran. Aronian is an acknowledged expert, something today's ICC Chess.FM commentator Jan Gustafsson has intimate knowledge of himself. He was eliminated from the 2007 World Cup by the Armenian in just this line. Aronian, now on the black side, played a novelty pawn sac with 15..0-0 instead of taking on b3 as other games had gone, including Grischuk-Karjakin, 2008 (and Volokitin-Gustafsson, 2007). Jan said that previous Grischuk game was considered something of a coffin nail to this line, and he wasn't very impressed with Aronian's attempt to revive it here. He was playing very quickly (and Grischuk very slowly, as usual) and Gustafsson said, "it's either deep preparation or coffeehouse play. With Aronian it's hard to tell; he's a good bluffer. I don't trust the Black position at all." GodGusti rocks.

Grischuk, a pro poker player who knows a few things about bluffing, certainly made it look Starbucks as the game went on. Black's king is extremely loose and his queen way over on h4 isn't staying home reading abstinence literature either. Grischuk gave up a pawn to get his knight over to the kingside to join his queen to powerful effect. But it looked like Black might just survive after all, losing a pawn instead of the king, when 38..Qd6?? passed up the chance to get his knight into the defense with 38..Nf6 and Black was forced to give up the exchange to a pretty combination. Aronian hung on for a while when Grischuk missed a few quick kills, but it was never in doubt.

Wang Yue tried again to beat Radjabov's King's Indian. At Corus he got the better position and eventually lost. Today he got just about nothing and took a draw. They stay at the bottom on the crosstable at -2. Ivanchuk tried to squeeze Dominguez in a Catalan position. The Cuban doesn't enjoy slow defense and if you didn't know that you could have guessed by moves like his wild 17..g5!? The game really would have heated up had he played to win the bishop after 18.Be5 f6 and the cleric has no safe parish. White has considerable compensation after 19.Rab1 Qxc7 20.Nxe6. But Dominguez decided against it and soon it looked like Ivanchuk and his two bishops would clean up against Black's many weak pawns. Ivanchuk began to dither in his usual time trouble but didn't lose his considerable advantage. The bizarre draw, with White still clearly winning, could only have come due to extreme time trouble for Ivanchuk unless many moves are missing or Ivanchuk received an invitation to go out on a hot date with a nice Cuban lady Dominguez happened to know. The obvious 48.e4 in the final position is quickly crushing. The answer to the riddle comes from a Spanish paper on the scene:

The sporting gesture of the round was the draw Ivanchuk gave to Dominguez. Both players were very short on time and Ivanchuk on several occasions knocked the pieces over accidentally. Dominguez, displaying a sportsmanlike attitude, put the pieces back on his own time despite risking a loss. The Ukrainian, in the end, rewarded his opponent with a draw despite having a decisive advantage.

Wow. Memo to Radjabov and Mamedyarov. Pity for Ivanchuk though; it was a very nice game. He could publish an impressive "best games" collection made up only of games he drew or lost due to manic time trouble. Note that Dominguez was at Corus for the Radjabov-Smeets piece-knocking controversy and also won the world blitz championship last year in Almaty, where the rules about such things were clearly explained, according to Peter Svidler. But hey, maybe honor isn't completely dead.

Grischuk's leadership of Linares gets a stern test tomorrow as he takes black against two-time defending champ Anand. Carlsen and Aronian are on +1, Ivanchuk and Anand on even, Dominguez -1. Round 7: Grischuk-Anand, Radjabov-Carlsen, Aronian-Ivanchuk, Dominguez-Wang Yue. It's another Chess.FM live coverage double-header kicking off at 8am EST with game 7 of Kamsky-Topalov and then adding the four Linares boards into the mix at 10. Gregory Kaidanov is the piece master du jour.

Swamped with non-chess work this week so short shrift to the blogosphere. Peace ruled the day on Tuesday, with all five of our top games drawn. Kamsky-Topalov was a Caro-Kann line that gave White very little indeed. A little surprising considering that the Caro has been Topalov's recent second-tier defense to 1.e4. This "closed advance" line (instead of the wild g4 stuff) popularized by Nigel Short is a favorite of Svidler and other top players. Topalov beat Svidler with black in this line in Nanjing two months ago, playing 6..Nd7 7.Nd2 c4, but here he varied, capturing on d4. 12.c3 with more of a control game was the thought from Kamsky's second, Sutovsky. The American spent a long time on 15.Qc1 and said afterward that he already considered the position equal after 14..Bf8. GM Christiansen on Chess.FM expected 15.Rc1 with at least a try to get something going with a slight lead in development. Topalov even played on with a tiny plus for a while, declining Kamsky's draw offer on move 30. Kamsky's mild time trouble wasn't a problem and he found a way to force a repetition. Tomorrow is a rest day. Topalov leads 3.5-2.5 with two games to play. He can end the match with a win in the next game. Official site.

There were four more draws in Linares, the second time we've had a day with no blood. For the most part it wasn't for a lack of trying, with the notable exception of Wang "Sleepy Panda" Yue. He's had two tough losses and here, with white against Aronian in a Slav line he knows well, he created a position with bind potential before acquiescing to a repetition on move 25. I really wonder if he's ill. The Corus-Linares double is rough for anyone.

Aronian used all of a dozen minutes to notch his half of that draw and keep his share of the lead on +2. Co-leader Grischuk, on the other hand, for the second time in the event, used over an hour to repeat the moves of a game he surely knew. Today it was with white against Carlsen in a deep Sveshnikov that both players saw last year. Grischuk had it up to move 20 against Illescas at the Olympiad and was nailed with the 24..Be3 shot, leading to a draw. Carlsen defended it against Leko in Linares last year and lost a long technical grind. The Norwegian banged out his moves, this time quickly grabbing the pawn that Leko made him eat a year ago. In 2007 Dominguez showed this opposite-colored bishop endgame has some poison in a long draw with Jakovenko. Grischuk, despite his long thinks, had less success with Carlsen and they drew in 34 moves.

Radjabov unleashed his Dragon Sicilian against Dominguez and they produced a lively game. Since I'm so terribly old I have trouble seeing a Bc4 Dragon in which White doesn't play g4. What happened to Bobby's old "sac, sac, mate"? After 15.f4 they headed into a line by Dragon expert Dr. Eric Moskow, who played it against Macieja last year. While admittedly out of his league against top GMs, Moskow's work on the Dragon can't be dismissed and it got an endorsement from Radjabov today. He then played a classic Sicilian sac on c3 and slowly build up a totally dominating position. Eventually Black broke through and GMs Christiansen and Har-Zvi figured it was just a matter of time. 54..Rg3+ 55.Kd4 Nc5 would have kept the threats coming and moved into a superior rook endgame. But the missed chance was enough for Dominguez to escape.

The big escape came from the Houdini of chess himself, world champ Vishy Anand. For reasons no one could fathom at the time or later, he walked willingly into the inferior endgame he had the other side of against Kramnik in their WCh match. Kramnik worked some magic to hold it with a tricky blockade, not the sort of thing you want to bet your life on being able to duplicate. Anand didn't try, varying on move 23. He still ended up in serious trouble and it looked like only a matter of time before Ivanchuk's queenside pawns would carry the day. A bizarre decision for Anand to go into this line. The R+R endgame looked totally lost. It took all of Anand's wiles to get drawing chances and suddenly it became clear he had a nasty stalemate trick by interring his own king on h6. With some tablebases running in the background we looked at many amazing drawing lines. (The computer points out 47.Kd4, keeping the black rook off c3, instead of the natural human move Ivanchuk played, 47.Kd5, making a straight line for the pawn.) Ivanchuk saw the stalemate trick, but perhaps too late to avoid the draw. According to Leontxo Garcia's coverage Ivanchuk let out an exclamation of frustration after the game. Surely there must have been a few wins in there.

How about this news? It sounds like Linares is on the move again. I guess they're lucky Gelfand hasn't been invited lately anyway, though there has been some progress in that department lately, or at least some public attention.

Dubai -- Linares - one of the most-renowned tournaments in world chess - is surrendering to the power of an Arab businessman, who is set to bring the best players to the desert in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 2010.

'We pay the expenses of players and the prizes, I think around 2 million euros (some 2.5 million dollars),' Sulaiman Al Fahim told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in an interview in Dubai.

'From 2010, the tournament will be held in Spain and the UAE,' he said.

A powerful real estate businessman, he is better known outside his native country as the architect of the purchase of Premier League club Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Game five underway with the match tied up 2-2, scheduled for best of eight. What's with the colors? The original schedule I have says Kamsky should have white in game five, which would be the usual thing since they should flip colors at the half so they don't always give white after a rest day to the same player. Now Topalov always has white after the rest days. Not a big deal, but a little weird. Sorry for telling everyone Kamsky had white, but it still says so in the rules...

3.4.1 The draw for colors will be conducted during the opening ceremony. The colors shall be reversed after game 4. (The player getting the white color in game 1 shall play game 5 with the black color).

According to Macauley Peterson there in Sofia, speaking with Kamsky's second, Emil Sutovsky, this was agreed back in Dresden during their November meetings, so definitely not a surprise to the players, at least. Macauley has an item on this from Sofia in the ICC Blog.

Anyway, 1.e4 from Topalov and a French! The first in Kamsky's life, I believe.

+ Holy heck. From a defensible if inferior IQP holding action Kamsky blundered a clean pawn with ..Nb4 in a fairly simple position. He decided to give up another to get a queen + pawn endgame instead of a very bad rook endgame, but it made little difference. Topalov cleaned up efficiently and 1-0. Incredible. Brutal. Topalov leads 3-2. Kamsky almost certainly has white tomorrow. More tonight.

A great fighting round again in Linares. Aronian and Grischuk continued to step it up, notching their second wins to keep a tie for the lead on +2. Anand played another position master class to move back up to +1. The only draw of they day was a sharp Grunfeld battle between Carlsen and Ivanchuk, leaving the both with four draws in as many days.

Radjabov built up an impressive attacking phalanx against Grischuk in an offbeat QID line with 6.d5 followed by 7.Nh4. GM Christiansen on Chess.FM was showing great line after great line that put Black on the ropes. Grischuk played closed-quarters defense with complete sang froid and even the computer can't find a knockout with all the material swirling around the black king. White's edge faded entirely after 18.e5; the queens come off and Black's extra pawn looms large. This is where a more circumspect player with white might have started looking for a way to find a draw. But Teimour Radjabov always has total confidence in his ability to outplay his opponent from any position and that is both because he does it so often and why he does it so often. Grischuk's tough defense had cost him dearly on the clock and he was down to 15 minutes with 20 moves still to go before time control. (Along with Aronian-Dominguez we had the strange experience of having two time scrambles just three hours into the round because the times were so lopsided.)

But the former world blitz champion from Russia, who hasn't played in Linares since his first appearance in 2001 as a teen, was more than up to the task of holding on. Soon White's position was desperate and Radjabov found himself in the strange position of being the one to fall apart in his opponent's time trouble. Black picked off another pawn, swapped pieces, and on the final move of the first control Radjabov, still with plenty of time on his own clock, played a final blunder. He resigned without waiting for Grischuk's 41st move. A crazy game that illustrated the old line about how when an attack fails the counterattack will be decisive. (Tarrasch? It's late.) Great creativity from the very start from both players.

Meanwhile it was time for the last couple of Linares champs to show the newcomers a little something about life in the biggest of the big leagues. Anand, two-time defending champ, played an amazing, even Kramnikian, squeeze against Wang Yue. 1.d4! by the way! Black's bishop stays so incredibly bad that it eventually dies without leaving the rectory and the Chinese resigned a move later. It's something of a role reversal to see Anand winning two python crushes without firing a shot while losing a tactical brawl. It took Aronian, Linares 2006 champ, considerably longer to beat Dominguez in another queenless middlegame. 92 moves, in fact, and Dominguez was down to just a few seconds of the final time control. I think the game ended about six minutes shy of the six hour, forty minute max. (No increment in Linares.) One oddity was the black rook going from a6, in front of the a5 pawn, to a4 when we came back to the game. It turned out to be the kingside pawns that won the day for Aronian.

So heading into tomorrow's first rest day (not for Chess.FM; the Kamsky-Topalov match is still on. Game 5 at 8am EST) it's Grischuk and Aronian on +2, Anand +1, Carlsen, Ivanchuk =, Dominguez -1, Radjabov, Wang Yue -2. Round 5 on Tuesday: Radjabov-Dominguez, Wang Yue-Aronian, Ivanchuk-Anand, Grischuk-Carlsen. Ivanchuk and Anand each have three Linares titles. Both born in my year, 1969, they first faced one another at the world U20 in 1985. They have since played over 100 games at various time controls. They drew all five of their classical match-ups last year.

Strange news came in from Moscow during Linares coverage today. The hot buzz had it, and it turns out to be the case, that top Aeroflot Open seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov accused his Russian opponent Igor Kurnosov of computer-assisted cheating and dropped out of the event after resigning their round six game in 21 moves today. ChessVibes has the letter Mamedyarov wrote to the tournament organizer. His statement:

During the game my opponent went out of the playing hall after each move, took his coat and withdrew himself on the toilet. After suspicion of unfair play on move 14 I offered a draw, he refused. We quickly played 11 moves, on the 12th move I played a move which confused my opponent. The next moves from him were given as first choice by Rybka, which quickly allowed him to win the game.

Due to this series of suspicions, having to do with the unusual behaviour of my opponent, Igor Kurnosov, I hereby lodge a protest and refuse to continue participation in the tournament.

The game as given at ChessVibes: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nb6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. O-O-O f5 10. h4 fxe4 11. h5 gxh5 12. d5 Ne5 13. Bh6 Nec4 14. Qg5 Rf7 15. Bxc4 Nxc4 16. Rd4 Qd6 17. Bxg7 Rxg7 18. Qxh5 Qf4+ 19. Kb1 Bf5 20. fxe4 Bg4 21. Nge2 Qd2 0-1

I'm not really clear on what he means. I assume he is not going chronologically and that the 11 moves refer to the opening, after which the coming and going began. Peter Doggers' description above the letter, apparently gleaned from Mamedyarov and not an independent observation, says that was the case. Obviously someone leaving the hall after every move would be horrible, especially in a crazy sharp position. (I once resigned a game in protest when my opponent did this, though he was doing it on his move. On several occasions he thought for a bit, wrote down a move, left the hall for 10 minutes, came back, wrote down a different (much better) move, and played it. That went 21 moves too, coincidentally. But we weren't professionals and I didn't make a public statement about it or him. I just found his behavior obnoxious no matter what he was doing.) It sounds like Kurnosov was leaving after making his moves, which isn't terribly unusual for nervous players even at the top level.

No word if they are going to rip up the bathroom ceiling. Chief arbiter Geurt Gijssen said it wasn't a convincing claim. He also searched Kurnosov's jacket ("a pack of cigarettes, a lighter and a pen"). I dunno. I think you need much more than this to go after a 2600 GM for making five good moves out of theory. Protesting his inappropriate behavior is one thing. But it's very hard to imagine a strong young GM risking his career in round six of a prestigious open with such chicanery. Such accusations are very dangerous for the game, of course, not just the Aeroflot event. It's not for nothing that 75% of respondents here to the recent ACP poll thought that anti-cheating controls should be obligatory and tough. The threat of cheating is stronger than the execution.

This "all my opponent's moves were computer choices" stuff is incredibly annoying. You can find countless top-level games in which this is the case. Computers and GMs are strong. Lines are often forcing. There were even some comments about Kamsky-Topalov game two and how most of Topalov's moves were supposedly "first choice" computer lines. Look at the frigging game! There were only around four positions for Black in that entire game in which my computer evaluated two or more moves similarly; i.e. positions without a clear best move we would expect a strong player to find. (And the remaining few were all found by the computer-unaided Nick de Firmian during the game.) Yes, I know Topalov's manager Danailov started this disgusting trend with his open letter about Kramnik's "Fritz matching moves" in the 2006 Elista WCh match. But that doesn't mean it needs to continue. Unless proven otherwise, the only use for such statistics is "wow, he must have played really precisely." [A bit of analysis in the comments.]

We need both strong anti-cheating measures and penalties for unfounded accusations or this sort of thing could easily get out of hand. It's bad enough to yell at your anonymous online blitz opponent for supposed cheating in the privacy of your own home after an ugly loss. But if GMs make a habit of it -- and to my knowledge Mamedyarov is a pleasant lad without a history of complaints -- it could destroy reputations and create a poisonous atmosphere for years.

+ Tossed that up to avoid the thread hijacks in the Linares comments, but a few other things occur to me a few moments later. One, didn't FIDE and the Ethics Committee make some proclamations about accusations after Topalov accused Kramnik of cheating in the Spanish press after their match? There was only a probation there, but anything actually in the rules for future cases? Two, the publishing of Mamedyarov's letter to the organizer seems increasingly dubious to me. I'm sure it was with his permission, perhaps even at his request, but that wasn't its original purpose and it could land him in hot water beyond the current instant global debate. I know it's hard to resist a hot story, but I doubt he'd had time to cool down and think about the potential consequences of making it public.

++ Lots more in the comments, including someone who says Kurnosov never went to the bathroom at all, but was out on the staircase smoking. I also looked at all the moves with my own copy of Rybka and didn't find anything relevant, especially since both players' moves agreed equally... I really want to get back to Linares before someone says the word "bathroom" again. Really.

Four draws in Linares today, leaving Grischuk and Aronian in the lead and Wang Yue and Radjabov in the cellar with everyone else on even. It was endgame day, with all four games reaching technical positions. Aronian made consistent progress against Radjabov after an unusual opening twist on the Fianchetto vs the King's Indian. It looked like Aronian was getting everything he could want for a superior endgame, but somehow Black's formation seems nearly impossible to break. The knight on c8 holds the b6 pawn and there aren't enough open lines for White's superior forces to do any damage. Chess is hard.

Dominguez tried his luck at beating Anand in nearly the exact same endgame from a Najdorf that Anand should have lost to Peter Leko in Linares last year. As astutely pointed out by Joel Benjamin on Chess.FM, other than the interpolation of ..h5 and Kb1 the position after 18..Nc6 is identical to that game. Leko took his B vs N and 3 vs 2 on the queenside and reached a winning position before falling apart and losing to Anand's sudden runner in the center. Anand decided he now knew it well enough to defend it and/or he didn't credit Dominguez with Leko's endgame proficiency. Whatever his point, he proved it capably with the 45-move draw. Dominguez may have decided an endgame he could play with a tiny plus wasn't a bad choice in a Najdorf against a world champ smarting after a loss.

Wang Yue came close to repeating his Corus win against Carlsen of a month ago when the Norwegian teen blundered a pawn right before the first time control. 40.Rc5+ is just the sort of "stop short" line move that is easy to miss. (Line pieces rarely move toward one another without reaching pawn protection, especially not with a check fork as here.) Black had to capture and lose his a-pawn. Oops. The defensive power of the bishop and the powerfully placed black king gave Carlsen good drawing chances and he made the most of them. GM Benjamin, by then hitting his 7th hour of analysis, found a few close calls, but it looks like Black can always liquidate all the pawns. 50..Kf4! even makes it fairly easy. King power.

Ivanchuk-Grischuk caused bemusement and consternation at the start when Grischuk sank into thought in one of the best-known positions from 2008. The one game Kramnik won against Anand in their world championship match, a queenside demolition job out of the Nimzo-Indian, was followed up to move 19. But it took Grischuk nearly an hour to do it, including an epic think before repeating Anand's 18..c5. We started to wonder if the Linares website had gone down. Ivanchuk, naturally, gave almost all that time back before the first time control. He'd won a pawn but Grischuk exacted compensation in the form of simplification. We didn't think Ivanchuk had many real chances in the Q+R and then the R endgame, but Ivanchuk pressed on to the bitter end, as he does on occasion. It's always nice to see this from a commentator/spectator point of view.

Round 4: Radjabov-Grischuk, Carlsen-Ivanchuk, Anand-Wang Yue, Aronian-Dominguez. This is Wang Yue's first game against Anand. Dominguez beat Aronian at Corus this year.

A bit swamped with work, some of it even related to chess. Kamsky again showed his mettle in defending another sharp Grunfeld in game three. Topalov has a deep bag of tricks, but so far Kamsky is besting him in the opening battle -- his impractical turn trying to refute the Black setup in game two notwithstanding. In today's fourth game Topalov startled us by returning to 1..e5 instead of his trusty Najdorf. It's one thing if you have a surprise up your sleeve, such as game two's 4..Bc5. But Topalov has never been a slow, maneuvering player and only plays the Lopez on very rare occasions. (Against Sicilian-basher Polgar, for example.) Kamsky, on the other hand, speaks the Spanish as a native language and loves a slow grind so much you'd think he was dancing a rumba. So Topalov's choice of a classical Zaitsev mystified GMs Benjamin and Har-Zvi on Chess.FM during our 7-hour Candidates/Linares marathon. And it's always nice for commentators when the result backs up the conventional wisdom! All-star ICC kibitzer Hikaru Nakamura (joined on occasion by Fabiano Caruana) also wondered why Topalov would play something so clearly in favor of Kamsky's style and not his own.

I wondered whether or not Topalov was avoiding his Najdorf because it can be vulnerable to explosive novelties. If he feels he's the stronger player he might have decided not to match his team versus Kamsky's team, always a risk in a sharp Sicilian. One of the things that makes Topalov so great is his utter confidence in being better prepared and better able to deal with complications, so this seems a little strange. How else to explain it? The same goes for the theory of avoiding the Sicilian because he's ahead in the match. Topalov has been playing the Caro-Kann with some frequency of late, but that also fits into the category of something Kamsky would feel at home with.

Mind-reading aside, the bottom line is Topalov was convincingly outplayed by Kamsky in game four and the American leveled the match with a very powerful performance. White poked and prodded in classic Spanish-torture style, then gambited a pawn to get strong play on the queenside and center. Finally it was Kamsky's turn to harvest pawns. Topalov didn't go down easy. We were impressed with how much of a fight he made of it down material and with the inferior minor piece. Kamsky didn't go for the flashiest wins but he never seemed in doubt of getting the job done. There was a lot of rooting for the nutso computer line 43.Bxf8 Rxd2 44.Qc1!!, which does seem to win quickly, but Kamsky (like just about any human would) missed 44..Rxf8 45.Rxf6 Rfd8 46.Ngf1! R2d6 47.Nf5! winning. Kamsky later showed his precision by taking on d5 with the pawn on move 54, which looked dangerous at first because of 54..Qf6. White kept it all under control, however, the point being that with the king on h3 instead of h2 there was no bishop fork on d6 later.

We'll know what Topalov has in mind soon because Kamsky comes back with the white pieces on Monday. (They always do this so each player has a chance to have white after a rest day.) GM Ian Rogers is on the scene and already has a great piece up for CLO on today's game. Now that he and ICC Chess.FM's Macauley Peterson are there they are even going to have English during the press conferences instead of just Bulgarian and Russian. Nice of them. His video reports are on the ICC Blog.

[Hah, left this saved on the server but not published last night and didn't notice till now, with round 3 in progress. Sigh.] Continuing the thought from yesterday's report, in round two Anand got just the sort of game you don't want if you are worried about a little rust! Aronian, who is turning into something of a nemesis with black for Anand, played a wild piece sacrifice in a Semi-Slav. If computers can see a way through the complications we usually assume Anand can, too, but the crazy lines against his open king were too much even for him and he went down in a hail of enemy fire. Well, actually he went down in a blizzard of enemy pawns, seven (!) (!$*%&) for the piece at one point! Going back to Linares last year, Aronian has scored 3.5/4 with black against Anand. Amazing.

Anand sacrificed a pawn in a sharp line known to both players. White gets dangerous changes on the kingside for the material. Aronian isn't the kind to defend passively and he came up with an ingenious idea to lift a rook and counter-sac a knight to get at the exposed white king. I've often called Anand the world's best tactical defender, but just like he did in his loss to Aronian in a wild Marshall kingside assault in Linares last year, Anand blundered when it looked like his defense was going to hold. Here the culprit was 33.Rg3, which allowed Black a remarkable rook maneuver that left the remaining White forces in chaos. The liquidation required to break the pressure left far too many black pawns for White to handle. As complicated as the position is, Anand couldn't have missed anything deep. The position after 35..Rg4 is lost. 33.Rxd4 looks best for White, though he still has unpleasant moments to come. If 33..Rg4 34.Ne3 Rxh4 35.Nxg2 Rh2 36.Rxd7 Bc8 37.Rc7 Rxg2 and with the bishop pair and Black having only two pawns for the piece White should even be better. 33.Rxd4 Ne5 looks very menacing but the nullifying move 34.Rd8 keeps White in control.

A remarkable achievement by Aronian, who takes a share of the lead. The other leader is Grischuk, who beat Wang Yue in a very aggressive show and a well-played endgame. Very nice to have Grischuk back to showcase his talents. Carlsen-Dominguez followed the spectacular 9.Qa4 move from Aronian-Leko at Linares last year. It's been tried a few times since then, often leading to spectacular games, so all the top players must be booked up on it deeply. Dominguez surely was, offering up his a8 rook without a pause to breath. Carlsen, on the other hand, played quickly at first and then suddenly decided he wasn't at all sure he was where he wanted to be. So instead of all the incredibly wild and woolly lines GM Christiansen was busting out on the Chess.FM analysis board with 15.e4 or 15.e3 we got an immediate repetition draw. Hard to fault Carlsen for the decision since it not at all clear he's better even with best play, and knowing your opponent had such a deadly sharp position in his computer the night before is a big factor. It's more his preparation that should be criticized in equal measure to praise for Dominguez's. A repetition a few moves out of theory in a famous line isn't what we expect in Linares! Ivanchuk gave Radjabov a taste of his own KID medicine and earned a textbook draw with the early ..Bxc3 pawn-doubling idea.

Round 3: Aronian-Radjabov, Ivanchuk-Grischuk, Dominguez-Anand, Wang Yue-Carlsen Official Linares site.

Vishy Anand's first game since retaining his world championship title against Kramnik in October was a fine way to work off any rust he may have accumulated. He played a model positional win against Radjabov to take up in Linares where he left off winning the last two editions. The other three games were drawn, leaving the Indian world champ with the (very) early lead.

It would have been intriguing, GM Jon Speelman said on Chess.FM, to see Anand take a crack at Teimour Radjabov's King's Indian. Indeed, although the new-ish 1.d4 player Anand certainly didn't book up on that in his preparation for Kramnik. There was also no reason to get into a KID mess if he could play 1.e4 and get a nice comfortable squeeze against Radjabov's Sveshnikov. The Azerbaijani relaunched this 15..d5 sacrifice line back in 2003 against Kramnik and despite losing that one tried it again various times. It doesn't seem like he's played it in recent years though and the sac's popularity waned after 2004, probably thanks to a few high-profile setbacks. Radjabov apparently thought enough of the plan with 18..f5 to try it, but very quickly it was hard to see what he was attracted to.

The position after 26.Ne3 was described as horrid for Black by Speelman despite the superficial activity of Black's queen and pawns. Black's king is uncomfortable, the pin on his rook is annoying, and the pawns create holes as they are forced to move. I was impressed and a little surprised by how down on Radjabov's position Jon was, but Anand proved him exactly right with accurate play that didn't require the extraordinary. They followed a 2006 game by Yakovich, an expert in the Sveshnikov, up to move 28, though from the clock times -- both used nearly 45 minutes -- they either weren't aware of that or confident about it. Black definitely has no reason to want to follow this again. Anand made victory appear inevitable as he planted a powerful knight and went to work on Black's weak pawns and king. Proving the old thought about queen and knight working well together, Anand infiltrated and then won nicely against Radjabov's desperate defense. Instead of prosaically winning Black's bishop the world champion played for mate and Black finally resigned. A smooth performance from Anand, who limited the dangerous Radjabov's counterplay to nil. After some bad moments with his KID in Corus this is another blow to Radjabov's adventurous/precarious black repertoire.

Grischuk played the French against Dominguez, an opening he has only lightly experimented with. They went into a wild line in which Dominguez beat Stellwagen at Corus a month ago. Grischuk decided to keep his c-pawn but to ditch his d-pawn. We were ready for the position to finally explode when Black got in 19..f6. Dominguez decided things weren't going his way and ran to get the queens off the board, hastily according to Speelman. Grischuk still had chances to play for the advantage, 26..Rde8+ was indicated, but as it was they swapped pieces and agreed the draw.

Aronian played a very attractive combination against Carlsen to net the exchange out of his favorite Catalan. It's hard to say if Carlsen saw 19.e4 coming. It turned out that Black's position was impregnable. With no way for his rooks to get an open file, Aronian may have even been a little worse. But Black had no way to make real progress either and they split the point. Ivanchuk tried to work some positional voodoo playing the Bogo-Indian against Wang Yue. The annoying 13..Bf5 encourages e4 and the play is all on the queenside. Ivanchuk eschewed the 15..Qd4 previously tried. Wang Yue fended everything off capably and wholesale exchanges led to a drawn rook endgame.

Round 2: Radjabov-Ivanchuk, Grischuk-Wang Yue, Anand-Aronian, Carlsen-Dominguez. It's double-header time on Chess.FM, with Kamsky-Topalov game three coverage beginning at 8am EST and Linares adding to the party at 10am. Larry Christiansen will be rocking the mic.

This from the AP the other day.

Iran official to US: Chess better game than boxing

"The United States needs to play on a chess set (with Iran) instead of playing in a boxing ring," IRNA quoted Ali Larijani as telling a group of visiting reporters in Tehran Saturday.

Someone might wish to point out to him that the mullahs in Iran have, on occasion, banned chess as un-Islamic. (A centuries-long argument not limited to Iran, of course.) Not at the moment though, which is nice. Anyway, I'd take team USA over their guys any time. Iran did field an all-GM Olympiad team in Dresden and drew Hungary in the first round. Led by Ghaem Maghami they finished in 40th, exactly where seeded. I think I noted at the time that only Iran and England (#15) finished exactly where seeded. Ah, trivia.

Karpov is supposed to begin training the Iranian team, which was recently coached by Nigel Short.

The next challenger for Vishy Anand's world championship title is currently playing in Sofia, Bulgaria. But most of the next crop of challengers is with him in Linares, which starts tomorrow. Anand is looking to defend the title he won in 2007 and 2008 and he'll be doing it against much the same field as last year. The players who finished last in 2008, Shirov and Leko, have been swapped out for Wang Yue and Leinier Dominguez. Topalov, busy with Kamsky in Sofia, is replaced by Grischuk. Then come the heavyweights: Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Aronian, Radjabov. There have been some interesting interviews, particularly one with Grischuk, who arrived in Spain early to give a blindfold simul.

With three months of rest and a stockpile of preparation from his match with Kramnik, Linares could be considered Anand's to lose. He's at the age now, 39, that he's going to hear rumbles about his inevitable decline with every outing. Kasparov got the same treatment and had little trouble holding on to the top spot until his retirement at 41. With such a talented younger generation it's really less about Anand holding on than about their reaching a new level. If Aronian settles down and if Carlsen, well, just keeps on being Carlsen, they have quite a few Linares trophies in their futures.

It's the same usual late local start time of 1600, 10am EST. ICC Chess.FM has full coverage and we're pulling double-header duty on the days when Kamsky-Topalov starts at 8am on the same days. The commentator line-up over the next few weeks includes de Firmian, Jan Gustafsson, Speelman, Benjamin, Christiansen, Kaidanov, Har-Zvi, and, I was just told, celebrated chess author and NIC columnist Jonathan Rowson. Every day we're giving away New In Chess subscriptions and primo chess sets from House of Staunton in our trivia contests.

Anand beats Radjabov, Wang Yue-Ivanchuk, Aronian-Carlsen, Dominguez-Grischuk drawn.

Watching game two of the Kamsky-Topalov candidates final match was like living in one of those Salvador Dali paintings with the melting clocks. On Chess.FM Nick de Firmian and I were gobsmacked by Kamsky's self-destructive clock handling from start to finish. That finish, by the way, was the American's loss on time on move 32, not something you see very often at the top level. Perhaps along with his listed seconds Kamsky is also getting advice from Ivanchuk? Topalov was good, but this time the immovable object wasn't Kamsky, it was his clock.

The position was completely lost for White by the time his flag fell, so no surprises there. What was shocking was seeing Kamsky continue his time-management issues from game one and blow them into a total crisis right at the start. The time-per-move log, in its entirety after the jump, shows how bad it was. Kamsky seemed taken aback by Topalov's choice of 4..Bc5, skipping the usual instant-endgame version of the Berlin. But Kamsky had a similar position against Adams a few weeks ago at Corus (different order, so no 5.Nxe5 possible) and one of Topalov's seconds, Vallejo, played it three times last year, including twice against Topalov!

Okay, you can't know it all, but you can be practical. Kamsky spent 20 minutes before taking on e5 on move 5, a move far less popular than 5.c3, which was likely Kamsky's point. Then another 25 minutes to get through the choices, admittedly intriguing ones, on the next few book moves. By this point Topalov must have smelled blood and he used literally less than a minute during all this time. Kamsky gave up a pawn but GM de Firmian agreed he had fine compensation with the central files and bishop pair. Perhaps desperate to finally get the well-prepared Bulgarian out of his book, Kamsky spent nearly a half an hour before playing the slightly wild 10.Qh5, when 10.Be3 was expected. It's to Kamsky's credit that he consistently avoided the queen exchanges and played for the attack, but at the same time it looked almost nuts to go into complications down over an hour on the clock and still with 25 moves to go before control.

This time, unlike round one, the time handicap + Topalov was too much to overcome. Kamsky refused to grab his pawn back and bail out with moves like 9.Bf4 or 15.Bxg6. Already well below a minute per move he went for it with 15.f4 and then the tactical shot 17.Bf5?! Here we first thought Black had a pretty queen sac win with 17..Nexf4! 18.Rxf4 dxc3! and the queen is immune because a white rook falls after 19.Be6+ Bxe6 20.Qxc5 cxd2. Cool. White isn't lost after 19.Be3 Qd5 (19..Qd6!?) (19..Qe7!?) 20.Bxg6 hxg6 21.Qxg6 cxb2 22.Bd4. Kamsky was basically blitzing by this point and fell into the bizarre situation of having a chance to win a piece with 22.Nxc8, but this would have given Black a huge amount of play with his rooks. Instead Kamsky lashed out with 22.c4 and got pushed off the board in short order by Topalov's commanding play. Kasparov suggested alternatives on move 19 with 19.Ng3 or 19.c4?!, which looks very nice until the computer cure-all 19..dxc3 20.Bxc3 Nc7!

So what to say? Kamsky again looked outprepared and unwilling to trust known lines and his instincts. You can't spot the world #1 an hour on the clock in every game and hope things will turn out well for you. One must credit his fighting spirit, looking to play the best moves instead of bailing out even when the clock must have been telling him it was the wrong way to go. Topalov's killer instinct was apparent; he picked up the tempo to push Kamsky's clock even harder, playing natural strong moves. Kamsky has a day to rest up before having to defend the black pieces on Friday. Meanwhile, Linares starts up on the first match off day and Aeroflot is in full swing.

An interesting draw in the Grunfeld to start us off. Kamsky showed he's not afraid to walk right into Topalov's preparation in the sharpest lines. Cheparinov, Topalov's long-time second, played this same line against Kamsky last year. With that in mind, Kamsky's early time handling was mystifying. He must have expected this line and yet he spent what seemed like forever (really about 15 minutes) to play the same 12..e5 he played in the previous game at Sochi. The really big think came against Topalov's novelty 17.e5, after which the Bulgarian had used all of six minutes. The American used 44 minutes on his next, leaving himself an hour behind on the clock. It's hard to imagine Kamsky and his team ignored this line and this move, but you don't spend 44 minutes just to fake someone out about your preparation. Strange.

But at least 17..Bd7 looked like time well spent. I had the luxury box seat of being on ICC Chess.FM with Peter Svidler, the world's top Grunfeld advocate, and he provided tremendous insight into the various dangers in the position for Black. He also kept our heads spinning with amazing analysis and bonus cricket score updates as usual. Kamsky then picked up the pace and played with great accuracy to escape intact. Topalov started to give back the time once he realized his initiative was slipping away. He kept pushing with 25.Qh6 and later 27.h3, but Kamsky dealt with all the threats and his extra pawn was starting to loom a bit larger on every move. One moment of interest came on move 28, when Kamsky could have tried for what looked like a better pendgame with 28..Kg8!?. He had a long think and Svidler said he was nearly sure Kamsky would go for it if he saw it. But he went with the solid 28..Rg8 instead and the draw was pretty clear after that. Deeper analysis shows the draw probably wouldn't have been too far off after 28..Kg8.

So Kamsky got out-prepared a little, Topalov got outplayed a little. Of course a draw with black after coming through some tough moments in a sharp line against Topalov is something most would be delighted with. A good start to the match with both players showing their strengths. Kamsky's time usage was a little troubling, as was the apparent hole in his preparation. Irresistible Force 1/2 - Immovable Object 1/2. As for game two, Kamsky has had some rough times against the Najdorf, but he showed today he's going to come back with his shield or on it.

Kamsky kept his team under wraps for as long as possible. It's Sutovsky, who he's been working with for a while, Najer, and Volokitin. Svidler was impressed, crediting Volokitin as a very creative and hard-working theoretician. Topalov has Cheparinov, Vallejo, and L'Ami, who has worked with Cheparinov in the past. If you search around the official site you can find a video of the player press conference after the game, but it's in poor audio and Russian and Bulgarian with no text or translation. Genius. Someone asks Kamsky about the stem game against Cheparinov in Sochi in Russian and Gata smiled and gave a very brief retort. Keep'em guessing!

This is it! After months of moving deadlines, spurious bids, and assorted shakedowns, the Kamsky-Topalov candidates final is set to get underway in Sofia, Bulgaria, just hours from now. The first pawn will be pushed tomorrow at 8am EST, 1500 local time. Topalov drew the white wine and so will have the first move in tomorrow's first game. I'll be on ICC Chess.FM live with none other than Peter Svidler for the first game.

New official site here. They play two days on, one day off until the finish. Eight-game match with rapid tiebreaks. Time control is 40/2, 20/1, g/15'+30". The winner will face Anand in a title match that is currently unscheduled. Chessdom has minute-by-minute coverage of today's press conference and opening ceremony. Not much to thrill to, with this a highlight:

[Kamsky] is not happy that there is light into the playing hall. Kamsky and his team want the windows to be covered with dark cloth, while the lamps to be directed only towards the playing tables.

Gripping stuff. And of course there was folk dancing. Always with the folk dancing. (Chessdom also mention that Kabardino Balkaria will be hosting one of the fugitive FIDE Grand Prix tournaments. The capital of this Russian republic in the Caucasus region is Nalchik, which hosted the 2008 women's world championship.)

Topalov is the clear favorite against Kamsky for well-known reasons. The Bulgarian is the world #1 and his 2796 is well up on Kamsky's 2725, which puts the American in the #17 slot on the FIDE list. Topalov has also dominated their personal encounters since Kamsky's return, winning three in 06-07 and drawing two at the MTel Masters last year. Lastly, the importance of opening preparation is often accentuated in match play and Topalov's prep is explosive while Kamsky's has often looked fragile, if recently improved. Topalov comes in on an impressive hot streak, putting up great scores in his last three events -- Bilbao, the Dresden Olympiad, and Nanjing. Kamsky had an even score at the more recent Corus, but had wins over Svidler and Ivanchuk at the Olympiad. But recent results don't say much if we recall Anand's horrible Bilbao result right before his demolition of Kramnik last year.

Those looking for Kamsky's chances point to his experience and his legendary toughness; he has the calm nerves and tremendous instincts that can make the difference in high-tension match situations. The conventional wisdom is that he has to rope-a-dope it Muhammad Ali-style, survive Topalov's shots long enough to get in a counterattack. Kamsky has had good success in match play, though his big wins over guys like Kramnik, Short, and Anand were over a decade ago. Kamsky for his part says he's a more balanced person now, and that this stability gives him confidence. He'll need every bit of it, and a little more, to survive eight rounds with Topalov.

Just to shoot the breeze a bit, it should be noted that Topalov's only other big match outing, his WCh match against Kramnik in 2007, showed him at his best and worst. His play was often fantastic, but he badly misplayed several superior positions and it's just that sort of instability Kamsky will be ready to punish. If his nerves cost Topalov early, the pressure factor could almost level the chances. I'm very curious about Kamsky's black repertoire. He's been playing the Grunfeld a lot lately and Topalov must have one of the best records against that defense of anyone in history. It also contains many of the ultra-sharp lines Topalov and his team excel in blowing away with sharp novelties. Not that I'm in love with the ..a6 Slav either, so Kamsky has some tough choices. Topalov is simply devastating with white against just about anything and has scored +9 =4 with white over his last three events.

Both players are ambidextrous and regularly play both 1.e4 and 1.d4. Kamsky scores better with the king's pawn, Topalov better with the queen's pawn, but such database generalities don't mean much here. Topalov's nearly two months off shouldn't mean any rust. Kamsky has had serious problems with his clock now and then since his return. Prompt play on his part will be a good sign his confidence level is good. All bets are off if the match is tied after the eight classical games and the rapid tiebreak games are required. By that point Kamsky's sang froid must be worth any number of novelties. And if there are any off the board shenanigans don't expect Kamsky to get ruffled. I'll toss in the random stat that back when candidates matches were a regular occurrence, the few to take place on one player's home turf almost always went in favor of the visitor. (6-1 was my quick count.) Just sayin'.

My head says Topalov but my heart has to go with the underdog from Brooklyn. And if there's anything to be said for caissic karma, that will help Kamsky since his World Cup win should have qualified him directly for the Anand match. But that's an old sad song. Btw, Chess.FM will also be covering Linares, which begins on the first Kamsky-Topalov off day on Thursday the 19th. On several days there will be a chess double-header!

Theorist in the comments reminds me of my little piece on first match games from Anand-Kramnik.

The Association of Chess Professionals and ChessBase are distributing a questionnaire about various chess format and rule issues to the world championship contenders. If you're rated 2690 or lower, stop reading now. What, you're still here? Oh what the hell, let's let the unwashed masses participate, too. Who knows, maybe after the politicians get everything they want and the super-elite players get everything they want, it will occur to them both that they don't get much of anything unless chess fans and the sponsors we bring get what we want. Power to the people.

Despite the many easy jokes I left out a few questions that are a bit redundant or only relevant to the players' preferences such as dress code. Though I put back the cube one because I find it funny they asked. I added some options to the rating system question so it's not just "it's great" vs "other". I made a few other little modifications and additions here and there as well, but you probably won't notice.

Seven more questions after the jump. Yes, you have click "vote" on each one separately for now.

The following from Macauley Peterson today:

For two long months, Vassily Ivanchuk's future in chess was in some doubt. After failing to respond to a request for a drug test following his last round loss at the Dresden Olympiad, he faced a potential two year suspension.

During the Corus tournament, of January 21st, all eyes were on Wijk aan Zee, as a committee arranged by FIDE was scheduled to meet with the popular Ukrainian GM to discuss the rules violation.

The following day, FIDE published a news item, "Decision of the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel," which exonerated Ivanchuk.

To arrive at this conclusion, Chess.FM has learned that a preliminary meeting was held on January 20, after round four of Corus. According to the as-yet unpublished official decision from the FIDE Doping Hearing Panel, Ivanchuk, along with his lawyer Galiena Oleksii, met with four of the five members of the panel to plead his case. Also present was Polina Nikolopoulos-Tsedenova, the FIDE Administrative Manager, acting as an interpreter. The decision states in part:

This preliminary meeting was arranged to give Mr Oleksii the opportunity to give his view on the case, because Mr Oleksii had to leave Wijk aan Zee before the time of the hearing.

Full story from the ICC Chess.FM blog

I never believed they would do anything serious to Ivanchuk, but the money quote, literally, is later in the piece:

The remaining rationale for IOC anti-doping compliance in chess is that certain national federations receive government funding so long as chess is recognized as a sport by the IOC, and chess events, in turn, abide by the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) regulations.

The German Chess Federation, for example, receives approximately €200,000 annually from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, according to the Federation's general secretary Horst Metzing, and that funding is contingent upon compliance with national anti-doping regulations, which are based on the WADA standards.

Metzing stressed that the German Chess Federation was not directly involved in the Ivanchuk case, but it is clear from the accounts of Doping Hearing Panel members, that appeasing the WADA was a priority. The bulk of the time at the January 21 meeting in Wijk aan Zee was spent discussing the appropriate language for the final decision. Said Hofstetter, "It was hard to find the right words...because we had to give it to WADA." Although he was not aware of the process by which the WADA will review the panel's decision, or the time frame for doing so, Hofstetter was confident that they would accept the judgment.

Always nice to know the exact price tag on one's dignity and logic. This is the rationale many give for continuing the testing, but it's a shame these bureaucracies are so stupid and the applicants so uncreative. This is another reason chess should be funded like opera houses and museums, under "culture," at least when it comes to state funding, and at least in places that otherwise make insane demands. By all means, get all the funding you can by any means you can, but not at any cost. Drug testing in chess is a travesty and a scam. Pimping the honor and dignity of our sport and the great players who lead it is a scandal, and another black mark on the Ilyumzhinov legacy.

The Open, that is. 2006 US champ and fashion model Alexander Onischuk just took an impressive clear first at the terribly strong Moscow Open tournament ahead of a raft of GMs. ChessBase has an illustrated report. Onischuk's 7.5/9 score brought him the whole $14,000 first prize. Five players, including Tiviakov and Nepomniachtchi, were in the chasing pack a half-point behind. A hair-raising round-eight win over the powerful Russian GM Boris Savchenko with black gave Onischuk the margin he needed. (See game below.) He sealed the deal with a 10-move draw with white against Tiviakov in the final round. This is Onischuk's second triumph in a row, after his win at the Carlos Torre tournament in December. And don't forget his fine +3 performance helping the US win bronze at the Olympiad before that.

Onischuk has a few days of rest before starting up at the even tougher Aeroflot Open. I believe Bacrot, Naiditsch, and Sargissian are still the top seeds there, but there is a raft of 2600+ GMs in action. Defending champ Nepomniachtchi is also back.

From Macauley in the comments: "I spoke to Onischuk by phone briefly this afternoon at his family's home in Sevastopol. He's recovering from a minor illness after a tiring event, but hopes to be rested and ready to go back to Moscow by the weekend."

Onischuk now has a report up with some analysis here at CLO. That's good service!

This is oldish news and not the sort we'd usually get to, but I just stumbled into newly minted GM Larry Kaufman's piece at the Chess Life website and it's definitely worth a read. Especially if you don't think the World Senior Open is a serious event! Also, by complete coincidence I just met Kaufman a few weeks ago at an elementary school in Maryland where he teaches chess classes. I was there because, and this gets complicated, one of his students is the son of Andrei Illarionov. Illarionov is a former economic adviser to Vladimir Putin who went rogue, resigned after being squeezed for telling the truth a bit too often in public, and became a leading voice of opposition and economic common sense. Like many such people he soon found it, well, healthier, to find his way abroad. He currently lives near Washington DC and is a fellow at the prestigious Cato Institute.

Okay, too much information already. Garry and I were in DC for meetings and got together with Illarionov along the way. As a surprise for Illarionov's son's birthday, Garry went out to that day's chess class for a quick visit. Where, if you've been able to keep track of things, is where we bumped into Larry Kaufman. Garry was quite impressed to find out Kaufman was part of the Rybka team, something you'll learn more about if you read the Chess Life piece. Pic from our visit after the jump.

Just a few weeks after his victory over Carlsen and Nakamura at the Aker rapid tournament in Norway, Peter Svidler won the strong Gibtelecom Masters Open in Gibraltar. He finished tied for first with Milov on 8/10 and then beat the Swiss #1 2-0 in the rapid (10'+10") playoff. Svidler was the co-top seed along with Azerbaijani Vugar Gashimov, who drew in the final round with defending champ and this year's comeback kid Nakamura, leaving them both in the pack at 7.5 with Akobian and Berg.

Here are the results of an impromptu interview with the new Gibtelecom winner, five-time Russian champion, and, most prestigious of all, occasional ICC Chess.FM commentator extraordinaire Peter Svidler. It sounds like he'll be back with me on the 17th to open our coverage of Kamsky-Topalov.

What was your best game of the event? - That would probably have to be the last round against Harikrishna.

Were you in trouble at any point in Gibraltar? - I was losing in one move to Gurevich. [Likely 22..Bd6 instead of 22..Rd6]

Any plans for that big £15,000 ($22,363) check? (Other than not converting it into the free-falling ruble?) - [Something about a fireplace and home improvements we aren't supposed to quote him on.]

How were the site and the organization? - I loved the tournament and the people running it, especially the net sessions before the event started (have you seen that horrific video?)

Any thoughts on the upcoming Kamsky-Topalov candidates match? - It will either be unclear or will be decided in the openings, and then you know who the favorite is...

Svidler continues his tour of the English-speaking nations of the world, sort of, by heading next to the Bunratty tournament in Ireland.

ChessBase has an item merging an interview with Topalov's manager and event organizer Silvio Danailov and a proposal from UEP to organize the 2010 candidates and 2011 world championship in Bonn, Germany.

The home-field dis/advantage must be different for every player. It's not like a football game, but wouldn't some people feel more comfortable at home than on the road or in a hostile environment (your opponent's home nation)? Neutral sites are preferred for a reason, aren't they? But the pressure and added attention from playing at home must be unpleasant to a degree. I hope an outside security specialist does check the venue and stay there throughout the event. Cheating isn't a problem in my opinion, but it is essential to remove the possibility of cheating and the accusations that can arise when there is any room for doubt.

The UEP bid for the 2010 candidates is based on the assumption that Lord Kirsan's recent pronouncement about inserting a new candidates event into the current cycle is law. To my knowledge that isn't the case yet, but as I said at the time, it's 1) very unlikely he would have announced it had he not already had an offer lined up and 2) that offer would probably have something to do with Vladimir Kramnik, who is affiliated with UEP.

Old one from the archives I'd forgotten about. Last month a note in the NY Times apparently shot down the Bobby Fischer film mentioned in this Variety magazine item.

Universal and Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner have tapped Kevin Macdonald to direct "Bobby Fischer Goes to War."

The drama about the upstart chess whiz's triumph over Boris Spassky in the World Chess Championship in 1972 is scripted by Shawn Slovo, based on the book by David Edmonds and John Eidinow. Bevan and Fellner will produce.

A prodigy from Brooklyn who reached grandmaster stature at 15, Fischer became a global celebrity at 29 after defeating the world's best player, becoming the only American to win that title. The matches [sic], held in Reykjavik, Iceland, were covered like a sporting event [sic! What was it really, a goddamn fashion show?!] and became a symbol in the posturing between Cold War superpowers.

Fischer, who died earlier this month, became known in his later years for outspoken comments, anti-Semitic rants and an eccentric and reclusive nature.

Macdonald won an Oscar for the documentary "One Day in September" before making his scripted directing debut on "The Last King of Scotland."

But in the Times piece on the effects of the economic downturn on Hollywood:

Thus, Universal Pictures now says it is not planning to shoot the once seemingly imminent "Bobby Fischer Goes to War," a drama about the 1972 chess showdown between Mr. Fischer and Boris Spassky.

Darn. It's not clear if this was planned to be a documentary or a "based on" dramatization, which seems much more likely. I'm sure a doc would cause us chess people far less gnashing of teeth than seeing Fischer acted on the screen, even if it's by Nicholas Cage, as the person who sent me the old Varity item proposes. h/t Paul B. Who would you suggest playing Fischer? With Benjamin Button effects you only need one actor, I suppose, though two actors for "young Bobby" and the "old Fischer" make for better chit-chat. Daniel Day-Lewis for Fischer in his prime?

I just sent off the last of the signed copies of Kasparov's "Modern Chess Part 2: Kasparov vs Karpov 1975-1985" won by ICC members during our live Corus coverage on Chess.FM. Winners were from Japan, Kentucky, Australia, and Oregon, and nearly a dozen more places. The books were prizes from Everyman Chess for our 'call of the day' contest, in which people would leave a voicemail with a question, comments, or, in one case (thankfully just one case), an Obama impersonation. New In Chess sponsored our daily trivia contests with ICC account extensions and one-year NIC subscriptions. House of Staunton contributed 13 Reykjavik II Series chess sets for our 'game of the day' trivia, which was done by email. Thanks to all the sponsors and congrats to all the winners.

Here are some of the better questions. That is, ones that didn't just rely on speed and good guessing, which are as integral a part of our NIC trivia as knowledge since it's done live and first correct answer wins. Over-thinking and attempts at pedantry are generally not rewarded. (E.g. if I'd wanted to include the girls' world junior championship in #1 I would have said so.) Wijk aan Zee is generally meant to include every edition of the event, going back to before it was held in Wijk aan Zee. A few are trivially (ahem) looked up, but the answers are interesting.

For best results, don't look anything up and pretend you have to answer each in under 10 seconds (3 seconds was more realistic for most of them) to have any chance at winning.

1) Gupta in the C group is the current world junior champ. Who is the only other player in all three groups to have won it?

2) Which two participants in the A group have the most games played in Wijk aan Zee events?

3) Name all three Dutch representatives the last time the Corus A group had this many.

4) Name all the players in the Corus A group who were not yet born when Garry Kasparov won the world championship. [Imagine if we included all groups. Yikes.]

5) Which world champion won his first and last appearances at the Wijk aan Zee tournament, 18 years apart?

6) Who, in a recent interview, said he "expected no great performances" from the current Dutch generation?

7) Which B group player won his national championship at the age of 13?

8) Aronian surprised in a 2008 interview when he said *who* could not play chess?

9) Name three of the players in group A who did not play board one for their 2008 Olympiad teams.

10) Last year at Corus Nigel Short made news when which player refused to shake his hand?

11) Name *all* the players in the a group who have played in a FIDE world championship final match.

12) Kasparov referred to Movsesian as a 'tourist' at the 1999 FIDE KO. Name one of the other players included as a 'tourist' in Kasparov's article.

13) Which Corus A players are #1 and #2 in the FIDE Grand Prix standings?

14) Name two players who were in the A group the first time van Wely participated. [Hint: nobody else in this year's A group was there.]

15) Which elite player *not* at Corus this year said "a lot of people think that chess deprived me of my childhood. This is absolutely wrong." [No doubt many prodigies have expressed similar sentiments.]

16) Put these players in order of age, youngest to oldest: Movsesian, van Wely, Morozevich, Carlsen, Kamsky. [Because of his retirement break most people assume Kamsky is older than most of the other top players.]

17) List all the first names in the A group of fewer than five letters. [It comes in handy that both of Wang Yue's names qualify.]

18) Who knocked out Kamsky at the 1999 FIDE KO world championship in Las Vegas?

19) Name the two countries represented in the A group with the smallest populations. [Only two people from over 60 guesses got this right.]

20) Name three participants in the current Gibraltar Masters tournament who gave live commentary on ICC Chess.FM in the last year.

21) Which legendary player wrote a book with the title, in approximate translation, "Understanding the World"?

22) Who was the first Soviet player to win Wijk aan Zee? [This was an email question and many people tried too hard here, submitting Rossollimo, Tartakower, and even Pirc. The Corus site caused the problem, listing Tartakower, for example, as "RUS." And as many sites do now, they list deceased Soviet players under their non-Soviet nationalities, when known. E.g. Tal as Latvian and Petrosian as Armenian, which is inappropriate in most cases. Tal squeaks in, though calling him a "Latvian player" still sounds odd, but Petrosian was born and died in the USSR. Just because a country has ceased to exist does not mean we should retroactively change people's nationalities.]

23) Name both participants in the first world championship match held in Dominguez's home of Cuba.

24) Which Dutch player won the first online supertournament?

25) Who holds the record for most Wijk aan Zee tournament titles?

You don't have to write your answers in the comments, but how many did you know for sure and how many did you guess correctly vs how many no clue, unsure?

Tab dump:

A mostly factually correct story on Anish Giri, who, they say, just became the world's youngest GM (at the moment, not ever) at Corus, where he finished in =2-3 in the C group. We also learn what NRN means, though here it seems like a bit of a stretch. For the record, Ukraine's Illya Nyzhnyk, mentioned, is two years younger, not older, than Giri.

From young to old, a remarkable line-up of chess champions past and present will be in Zurich on Aug. 22 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the local club. Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Spassky, Ruslan Ponomariov, Veselin Topalov, Viktor Korchnoi, and current world champion Viswanathan Anand will be there. They give simuls and then all but Kasparov and Spassky will play blitz. Judit Polgar and Swiss veteran Werner Hug replace them. If you wonder why Garry declines even to play blitz competitively, imagine what it would do for Arnold Schwarzenegger's credibility as a politician if he took a break to make Terminator 4. (Okay, Californians might prefer the movie to his politics by now, maybe a bad example.)

Russian champ Peter Svidler beat Switzerland's Vadim Milov in a rapid playoff to take the title at the 2009 Gibtelecom Chess Festival. In the final round of regulation, Svidler beat Harikrishna and Milov beat Avrukh to tie each other at 8/10. Nakamura drew with Gashimov to both finish at 7.5. The American was surely winning the sharp battle but his queen sac was only good for a repetition draw after Black's counter-sac. 30.e5 instead would have made Nimzowitsch proud and opened e4 for the knight, winning. With two wins in as many events, this is starting out to be a very good year for Svidler.

Chess, beer, sword. You know this isn't going to end well. "He said he'd stabbed the guy but he didn't know why." Why? You just know there was a Petroff Defense on the board. If so, any decent defense attorney ought to get him off as justifiable homicide.

This otherwise entirely missable addition to the "chess club opens somewhere in the world you don't care about" file stands out for several strange assertions. One is that you "won't find a chess club in many small towns" (eh?) and the real winner, "You very rarely find an immodest chess player." Stay in Temecwhatever, guys, must be nice there.

Things are hotting up in the 2009 Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar. This is the 7th edition of what has become a very powerful 10-round open. Russian champion Peter Svidler and Grand Prix standout Vugar Gashimov are the top seeds while Hikaru Nakamura is back to try to defend his 2008 title. That looked very unlikely after he lost two of his first five games, but the swiss system is about nothing if not redemption and he's right back in the mix with 6/8, a half-point behind leaders Gashimov and Milov, who meet in the 9th round. Nakamura may be rounding into form right on time. His win in the 8th round over Israeli GM Golod is vintage, with one sharply calculated tactical blow after another. Brutal stuff. (Game below.) Since I always complain when event websites suck -- and even the typically smooth Corus site went under regularly this year -- hats off to the Gibtelecom site, which is excellently produced without being fancy.

The 26th Linares tournament begins on Thursday, February 19. That's the first round. The cast of the double round-robin: Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk, Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov, Wang Yue, Alexander Grischuk and Lenier Dominguez. Topalov, Leko, and Shirov are the changes from last year's field. Funny how two players who had never played in a supertournament a year ago, Wang Yue and Dominguez, are now playing Corus and Linares back to back. Topalov's and then Kramnik's exit opened up a few spots and it will be interesting to see how they do in the deepest of the deep end of the chess world. Nice to see Grischuk back as well. Topalov's 9/14 decisive games in 08 will surely be missed, especially by Carlsen, who beat him twice. The official Linares site is still showing last year's event -- typical Linares webmastering. The games usually have a late 4pm local, 10am EST start.

The Kamsky-Topalov candidates match in Sofia, Bulgaria, will already be underway by the time Linares starts. The eight-game match begins on the 16th, though I don't know if that's the first round or the opening ceremony. Assuming the latter. Haven't seen the round starting time or an official site either. It's a pace of a rest day after each two games, until the end when they put an extra rest day between rounds seven and eight.

The 21000 euro first prize Aeroflot Open begins in Moscow next week as well. Bacrot, Naiditsch, Sargissian, and Onischuk are the top seeds listed so far. That's a whole lot of chess coming our way. Who wants to go outside in February anyway?

From six leaders to one, that must be some sort of record. Ukraine's Sergey Karjakin took clear first in the Corus A group with a +3, 8/13 score. He defeated Cuba's Lenier Dominguez in the final round in the only game to pair two of the half-dozen players sharing the lead on +2. Karjakin did it with black thanks to sharp defensive and counter-attacking calculations after Dominguez decided to burn all bridges with a sacrificial kingside attack. A worthy effort from both players to decide the tournament. Congratulations to Karjakin for the biggest win of the 18 19-year-old's career.

Most of the other leaders played the predictable fizzles, despite an encouraging menu of Open Sicilians. As much as we would like them to play to the death, the players are more realistic than that and know you can't always beat an elite opponent by sheer will, especially with black. Aronian was forced to concede a draw to Smeets. Radjabov fiddled around with some mystifying moves with white against Stellwagen until offering a quick draw when he realized he was probably going to be worse. Movsesian was squeezed by Kamsky for a while but reached a drawn rook endgame. That left Magnus Carlsen, giving it his all to share the top spot in an endgame against Wang Yue. But the Norwegian got his pieces tangled up and he ended up down a pawn. Well past when the organizers would have liked to start the press conference Carlsen was forced to resign, leaving no undefeated players in any of the groups.

At the start of the event you couldn't have imagined that the last-round pairing Morozevich-Ivanchuk would be a meaningless consolation game, but that it was. A shame, as it was a fascinating back-and-forth affair. Moro found the spectacular 40.Rf4, a dreadful move to face on the last move of time control. Ivanchuk took the rook, which should have led to a perpetual check draw after 44..Kb7. (Or White can play on with chances in B vs N after 45.Qg7+ Ka6 46.Qg8 Kb7 47.Be5 Qf2+ 48.Qg2 fxe3.) Instead he played 44..Kd7?? and resigned immediately after 45.Qe7+, forcing mate in 7. Ugh. That brought Ivanchuk down and Morozevich up to -2, both shedding piles of rating points.

In the B it was a bad day for the leaders. Kasimjanov lost to a spectacular queen sac by Motylev. Short needed only a draw to win the tournament, but he blundered horribly in a sharp position he was surely winning against Caruana (47..cxd2 48.Rxc6 dxe1N+!), missed a perpetual check draw (57..Qd3+) and then lost. That meant the Brooklyn-Italian teenager became the clear winner with 8.5/13. Crazy stuff. I guess Short was serious about not wanting to play in the A group again! Wesley So coasted to victory in the C with a short white draw against Howell. So a 15-year-old won the C, a 16-year-old the B, and a n 18 19-year-old the A. (Birthday Jan. 12.) A few players at Corus this year are older than all three winners combined. More later...

Update 1: There was a press conference for the Grand Slam today. One of the announcements was that they are retroactively adding last December's Nanjing Pearl Spring event to the current cycle, so Topalov is in the Bilbao final already. An almost FIDE-esque maneuver! Along with Corus, Linares, and MTel another event is still up in the air, perhaps landing in my dear Argentina. Might have to go visit that one, if so. Haven't had a choripan in a long, long time.