March 2009 Archives

San Sebastián, Spain, in Basque country not far from where the Grand Slam final will take place in Bilbao later in the year, will host a chess festival with a very strong GM event this July. The dates are July 6-16 and the main event's field was just finalized today: Sergei Movsesian (2747 - SVK), Peter Svidler (2726 - RUS), Ruslan Ponomariov (2726 UKR), Hikaru Nakamura (USA - 2701), Rustam Kasimjanov (2695 - UZB), Francisco Vallejo (2688 - ESP), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2684 - FRA), Anatoly Karpov (2644 - RUS), Julio Granda (2610 - PER), Pablo San Segundo (2560 - ESP). (Average: 2687; category 18.)

It will be held in the same playing hall that saw the famous 1911 San Sebastián tournament won by Capablanca over Rubinstein, Vidmar, Marshall, and Tarrasch. In fact, this event can be considered a sort of warm-up for the events they want to organize to celebrate the centenary of that event. There are three other all-play-alls, a cat. 11, a cat. 8, and a women's event. The top event has a 34,000 euro prize fund with the winner receiving 9,000. (As is often the case, appearance fees, aka "the conditions" of the tournament, are surely substantially more.)

Remarkable to see Karpov taking on this field. You never know what to expect with veterans who don't play that often. Obviously he knows more about chess than the rest of the field combined, and can defend himself and get the occasional win against anybody on sheer Karpovness. But age plus a lack of practice is a faulty combination for anybody and this is too strong to be a warm-up event. Maybe he'll get in a few games. I'll certainly be rooting for him. It will also be interesting to see Granda Zuñiga back in an elite event. The Peruvian is in Spain pretty much full time these days but hasn't recaptured the magic that once made him the strongest Latin American player since Mecking. San Segundo might look out of place here, but he's a dangerous and experienced player who has quite a few elite scalps in his collection. I'll see if I can dig up a very funny interview I did with him when we met in Buenos Aires some 15 years ago.

Of course many eyes will be on America's Hikaru Nakamura, who hasn't had many opportunities in strong round-robin events while doing well enough in opens and league events to push his rating to 2700. Looks like a great event. Thanks to David Llada for the info.

The entire thing is probably an April Fools' joke, but if it's not, IKEA has an ideal spokesperson from the chess world for its new car. You may now begin the "how many draws to the gallon?" jokes. Thanks to everyone who sent this in. Please stop now.

In a recent article, the NY Times summarizes what has been known for a long time: caffeine is a performance enhancing drug. I wrote about this years ago when FIDE wanted to start testing along IOC guidelines to make chess eligible for IOC recognition (achieved) and potential inclusion in the Games (denied). After reading two books on coffee and caffeine in 2002 it was obvious why so many chessplayers swear by the stuff. That is, for the same well-known reasons office workers today and the coffeehouse philosophers, poets, and scientists of yesteryear drank it. It's a very effective stimulant. Excerpt below, but read the whole thing.

Caffeine, it turns out, actually works. And it is legal, one of the few performance enhancers that is not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

So even as sports stars from baseball players to cyclists to sprinters are pilloried for using performance enhancing drugs, one of the best studied performance enhancers is fine for them or anyone else to use. And it is right there in a cup of coffee or a can of soda.

Exercise physiologists have studied caffeine's effects in nearly every iteration: Does it help sprinters? Marathon runners? Cyclists? Rowers? Swimmers? Athletes whose sports involve stopping and starting like tennis players? The answers are yes and yes and yes and yes. . . .

"There is so much data on this that it's unbelievable," he said. "It's just unequivocal that caffeine improves performance. It's been shown in well-respected labs in multiple places around the world."

That it may not help every chessplayer all the time begs the question. What matters about caffeine (which isn't banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and therefore not in chess competitions) and other similar things, is whether or not it's potentially harmful or constitutes an unfair competitive advantage. If the answer is no, who cares? If data came out that showed eating a pound of Skittles before every game improved your Elo 30 points, should we then ban Skittles? What about vitamins or a more homeopathic source like ginkgo biloba or St. John's Wort? What about an Ethiopian chewing khat (qat) or a Peruvian or Bolivian munching coca leaves at the board? The point of training, including diet, is to enhance performance, and the point of regulation and testing must be to prevent abuse, i.e. harm. The "unfair competitive advantage" angle is even more fraught, since biochemistry being what is even the most innocuous of substances has wildly variable effects on different people. Caffeine might turn some people into jittery wrecks or cause others to crash into catatonia. It is then unfair that for others a few cups of coffee sharpens their focus and alertness levels substantially, especially in those morning rounds?

The Times article focuses on caffeine's effects on running and other sports far more physical than chess. But many recent items in the mainstream press have pointed out the virtues of various mind drugs new and old that quell anxiety, improve concentration and calculation, and maintain an alert state for longer periods of time. (Click the "drugs" tag above for links to many of them over the years.) Students taking exams and Olympic athletes in sports like shooting (biathlon) are enthusiastic proponents of such drugs. (And journalists, as described in this excellent and funny Slate article from 2005.) Assuming they could be obtained without a prescription (or even with?), and do no harm, is there anything wrong, even on a moral/sportsmanship level, with taking them? The equation should change when you get into drugs with demonstrable negative physiological effects and diminishing returns, such as amphetamines, especially since as with all things, kids are going to do what the pros do, steroids being the best example. You cannot and should not assume moderation will be employed.

The argument often seen in the chess community is that there is no need for testing until there is proof that some drugs actually enhance performance. Apart from the fact that some drugs can obviously do just that for many people, the argument itself is a red herring. "So what?" is the response that must be dealt with. If the answer is because it's potentially harmful to the individual, or to the sport, then that should be discussed in a rational manner. Harmful to the individual is difficult enough because of long-term effects and quantities. Harmful to the sport is incredibly tricky, especially in chess since we have FIDE, national federations, organizers, and the players to contend with instead of one centralized authority entrusted with the commercial outlook of the game. But if elite chess becomes perceived as a battle between the players pharmacists, we've got trouble. On the other hand, new sponsorship from Eli Lilly and Pfizer could be just around the corner.

That complying with the IOC testing regime qualifies some chess federations for additional sponsorship monies is another issue altogether. If they think it's worth it, that's their business (and I do mean business, as the testing industry is quite lucrative).

Lull or no lull, the Bundesliga is still on and world champ Vishy Anand just showed Stellwagen that his surprising use of the Najdorf Poisoned Pawn against Grischuk in Linares last month wasn't a one-off. The Dutchman went for 13.Bb5, which in some lines is little more than a spectacular forced draw -- one of many in the PP. (Shabalov-Areshchenko 2006 is typical of the breed.) But Anand gave up his queen right off in a sideline that goes back to 1968 and both sides played to win. A wild game ensued with White pinning hopes on his passed h-pawn and Black generating threats and hoping to keep his king safe long enough to use his material advantage. Wonderful chess. Vishy won the day, but it's wasn't as one-sided as you might think. PGN after the jump. Svidler beat Nikolic, who missed class the day discovered attacks were covered. Ouch.

It's a slow news time, the dreaded Spring Lull, shorter than usual this year because of the April Grand Slam event starting in a few weeks. Meanwhile, ChessBase has put up an entertaining photo gallery of top players at the 2007 candidates matches in Elista at the local bowling alley. Obligatory Obama reference included. Note the chessboard pattern on the walls. Maybe Ilyumzhinov will soon make this chess set mandatory.

I actually bowled in a friendly league with some college buddies one year. Not much on style, but I broke 200 a couple of times relying on the "big guy, heavy ball" approach. (My average was far below that.) I had to buy my own shoes because the one or two pairs of 13s they had were often out. My memory on the details is understandably hazy, but I'm pretty sure my roommate and I took our girlfriends bowling on New Year's Eve one year, probably 1990. My practically blind, if functional and with a driver's license, roommate Jimi performed the immortal feat of throwing his ball into the adjacent lane on two bounces only to get a strike in that lane. Of course we counted it. Hey, Pinole Valley Lanes is still there. If I've bowled in the last 15 years I don't recall it.

Levon Aronian showed his class by winning this year's super-strong Melody Amber tournament. This was his second win in a row, achieved with neat symmetry with a share of first in both the rapid and blindfold on 7/11. That's a half-point less than his combined score last year. Trailing by a half-point were Anand and Kramnik, who took very different paths on the final day of action. Anand reached the infamous "Halley's Comet" endgame against Wang Yue in the blindfold. The defunct American magazine Inside Chess had an article on two knights versus pawn and gave it that name because you should only see it once in your lifetime. It's a very difficult endgame to win even if you've worked on it for some reason (insomnia?) and Anand couldn't pull it off blindfold. Aronian somehow managed to draw his blindfold game with Topalov and then took a short draw in the rapid. Anand's rapid win over Wang Yue wasn't enough to catch the Armenian. Topalov accepted a repetition in a position where he's still completely winning. He must have "seen" some ghosts with the b3 pawn that scared him away from 45.Kd6.

Kramnik had been lurking for a while but not looking his best. Today, however, he gave Peter Leko a taste of the lash in a 2-0 rout that put him on the podium when Carlsen could only split with Radjabov. In yesterday's 10th round Kramnik beat Carlsen 1.5-0.5 thanks to a roll with black in the blindfold. Kramnik even trotted out the Sicilian to beat Leko today in a game with a nice exchange sac and pretty mating net at the finish. Carlsen tired in the stretch, getting his queen trapped by Radjabov in the blindfold. Things like a major piece being run out of squares are extremely visual and often missed in regular games unless you're actively looking for them. The Norwegian did win his final game, bouncing back in the rapid with a deceptively simple plan against Black's queenside structure.

Karjakin had a poor event but must have been happy to break his hoodoo against countryman Ivanchuk with a 2-0 beating on the final day. The Corus winner was getting hammered as usual in the rapid but hung tough and won when Ivanchuk totally fell apart. Somewhat oddly Karjakin won with R+B vs Q in both games. Kamsky was clearly at sea in the blindfold, finishing last, but his rapid score, equal first with Anand and Aronian, showed his hierarchy. If anyone thinks his World Cup win was a fluke they will be proven wrong if they haven't been already. Wang Yue finished a distant last in the combined standings, ending an incredibly busy and tough stretch for a relative newcomer to the elite scene. Olympiad, Nanjing Grand Prix, Corus, Linares, Amber. 50 classical games in around four months. At least he won't lose any rating points from this outing. Radjabov also played that same set of events, btw. The Chinese #1 will be back at M-Tel in May.

Never one to wait until the last second when the last minute will do, FIDE has announced the new location of the fourth tournament on the Grand Prix circuit. It's Nalchik, in the Caucasus a few miles from the border with Georgia. The slogan is "Come for the chess, stay for the artillery barrage!" I jest of course. Why, it's been over three years since a massive armed assault on the city claimed dozens of lives. Apart from hosting the occasional terrorist onslaught, Nalchik was also the site of last year's women's world championship, won by Kosteniuk. As with the last leg of the Grand Prix that was moved to Elista after Doha canceled, this leg of the Grand Prix was also originally planned for someplace visible on more maps; in this case, Montreaux. The 14-player round-robin runs April 14-29; the FIDE press release and more at Chessbase.

But to break custom and be fair for a moment, despite scaring off sponsors and players alike with these breakdowns, the events have taken place, money has mostly gone out, and the tournaments themselves have been hard-fought and entertaining elite events. It was sad to lose Adams and Carlsen, who decided they were tired of being jerked around. (Al-Modiahki and Pelletier were booted when their nations' ceased to be hosts.) It was quickly proven, however, that there there is never a shortage of players eager to be jerked around by FIDE. This Nalchik event will be the strongest of the series with this field: Akopian, Alekseev, Aronian, Bacrot, Eljanov, Gelfand, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Karjakin, Kasimjanov, Leko, Mamedyarov, Svidler. Current Grand Prix standings leaders Radjabov, Wang Yue, and Gashimov take a break. Grischuk will be the only player to have participated in all four events and so is almost sure to become the new leader.

With one round to play, defending champ Levon Aronian of Armenia has the lead in the combined standings of the Melody Amber tournament in Nice, France. His 13/20 score is based on solid second-place standings in both the rapid and the blindfold chess sections. Carlsen is leading the blindfold and Kamsky (!) is in first place in the rapid section after demolishing Topalov with black today. Too late! But I'm sure it felt good. 24..Nf3, wow. But Kamsky's blindfold play has only been enough for a share of last place, so he's well out of the picture in the combined standings. He last played blindfold at Amber in 1996.

Aronian only needs to split against Topalov tomorrow to be guaranteed at least a share of first place. Anand will press for a sweep against poor Wang Yue, who might never be seen again after he returns to China after probably finishing last in both the rapid and blindfold. Who knows, perhaps a period of reeducation in a labor camp is good for your chess. Nah, he's already signed up to play at the M-Tel Masters in May, and maybe he'll be back to his boring solid self by then. This tournament is tough on rookies. Carlsen has Radjabov in the final round.

"VA-SSIL-YYYY!" That is how you know Vassily Ivanchuk has added to his legend. "A brilliant game! Amazing! He would be proud to play such a game in rapid!" said Garry Kasparov of Ivanchuk's Amber blindfold win with black over Kramnik yesterday. "Many players would be happy to play such a game in classical! Great chess!" I was clueless, having spent the last hour on subway and ferry. Unfortunately, Garry's 'annotations' to the game were limited to head shakes of admiration at several points in a Grunfeld that turned into an endgame by move 20. Ivanchuk made magic with his knight, always the toughest piece to visualize in action, even with your eyes.

I bring this up mostly because of our recent discussion here on just how well these super-GMs play blindfolded. It's impossible to put an Elo on it unless they are playing against sighted players. I.e. there's no objective way to evaluate the intrinsic strength of a given chess game. They don't play their normal game when both players are blindfolded, that much is pretty clear. As I said in the comments, you can't have a computer look at 100 Petroff games and conclude the players are far more accurate (let alone stronger) than the players of 100 wild Najdorf games. It's apples and oranges since the types of positions are very different and some aren't conducive to blunders, especially not the sort computers detect. The players tend to be cautious in blindfold, so apart from the occasional hung piece, it's hard to say how much worse they play, or would play against sighted GMs.

I asked Garry about it, although he never played at Melody Amber or in any serious blindfold competition. (Not really considering it dangerous as much as unserious, from what I can tell. He did play a blindfold simul against computers in 1985. The new Eliot Hearst and John Knott book on blindfold chess even says this one should be added to his list of great combinations.) He thought it was mostly a question of energy, that for a game or two you might be able to come close to a decent level, but after that it would drop and fluctuate dramatically. (He acknowledged that Ivanchuk just played his masterpiece in the 9th round.) If he has time to do a New In Chess column for the next issue I hope he'll expand on this a bit.

Adding to the English wisdom on this topic is Luke McShane in his Sunday Express column. Included in his fine notes to Pashikian-Bacrot, Aeroflot 99 is this remark.

Sometimes when you're tempted to agree a draw, it's worth considering this question - would you, in your opponent's shoes, earn a comfortable draw against Kasparov?

If Kasparov could create problems for you, it's likely that you could create problems for your opponent. If that's the case, it's worth carrying on looking for chances. But staying circumspect is essential, as you also don't want to get overambitious and lose.

I always recall Nigel Short's saying something along the lines of "whenever your opponent offers a draw, stop for a moment and figure out why he thinks he's worse." I do like McShane's formulation of trying to not only put yourself in your opponent's shoes, but to imagine a sort of worst-case scenario. You could equally say "would this be an easy draw against a computer?" If the answer is no, lay on, MacDuffShane. (And, of course, ban the draw offer!)

Such role playing, with Kasparov or any other name that might inspire you, is a good motivational trick if you profit from such things. During a recent ICC Chess.FM gig we did together, Peter Svidler, self-deprecating as always, said how "even I would play on here" to indicate how even a relatively peaceable player like him thought there were sufficient winning chances to go on. The point is that he's aware of that "get it over with" tendency in himself, which means he can fight it. He added that while he was always aware that some players would surely play on in some positions where he took draws (or resigned), he just felt too miserable playing some of them out and avoiding that sort of feeling was worth more to his morale than becoming a die-hard.

On the other hand, El Svid has a famous draw in a forced winning position (Anand, Dos Hermanas 1999. Mate in 21 on the board!) and a well-known resignation in a drawn position (Kramnik, Corus 2004), though that can happen to anyone over a career, I suppose. As Mikhalevski noted about that 1999 game, even the sun has spots!

The fifth annual M-Tel Masters will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria from May 12-23. (First round May 13, off days 17, 22.) This event still feels new to me so it's remarkable it's already in its fifth year. We're getting old, people. Local hero and world #1 Veselin Topalov leads the field as always. Last year's fourth edition was the first time he failed to take clear first place. The man who did, and with an incredible 8/10 score, Vassily Ivanchuk, is back again as well. The rest of the field is different, if not exactly new. Cheparinov and Bu Xianzhi are out; the ubiquitous Red Twins, Dominguez and Wang Yue, are in. (The strongest players in Latin America and East Asia.) Aronian and Radjabov are out; Carlsen and Shirov are in.

The players are back inside a "glass pavilion" a la the Bilbao Grand Slam final last year. It's in the square in front of the Ivan Vazov National Theater. Double round-robin as always. Control is 40/90 + g/60. No mention of increment. Sofia anti-short-draw rules, of course. M-Tel has been a consistently exciting event since its inception and other than the addition of Wang Yue's Petroff that looks set to continue. The official site is here, but hasn't been updated with the 2009 material yet.

I guess casinos are the only places with money these days. I've been deluged with offers from poker and gambling-related sites to advertise on the Dirt -- some automated, some not. For reasons that would take too long to go into there -- not least of which is that I'm really not sure why myself -- I'm really not a fan of the the massive casino boom that has taken place in the US in the past 20 years. It's one of those things that is great in free market theory but tends to have pernicious effects in practice. I have nothing against poker despite the many who have tried to present it as the winner over chess in some zero-sum competition for adherents, especially IMs and GMs.

Nor am I a big fan of ads in general, though I make exceptions for friends and purveyors of products I actually like or use and imagine readers would be interested in. (I mean, we really like chess books, magazines, and software.) There aren't really that many ethical quandaries available in chess blogging, mind you. It's not as if there would be many offers for my soul were I to put it up for sale. But if I can keep the Miglette in organic baby food by selling a relatively minor amount of space (e.g. where the Ninja "buy something" banner is now) to a casino or poker site, it doesn't seem to do any harm. I also understand they want their ads here because of the large crossover demographic in game playing, which means many of my readers would probably see them as an obvious and even useful presence. (Go to the US Chess League site to see what I mean.)

If I do go this way is there a point to distinguishing between casino and gambling related sites and actual playing/gambling sites? Or is that just a lame attempt to split hairs? No matter what, I do draw the line at anything animated. Oh, and nothing even vaguely resembling porn. ChessBase doesn't need the competition.

Your new desktop wallpaper awaits. One of a series of ads for Sky TV running the Alien vs Predator movie. The others are the two playing billiards and some kind of tetherball game with paddles. Brilliant. The very large full size version of the chess one is here.

ht Gizmodo

And if the board's not right, who would tell them? I imagine the original Predator movie was the only film with two future US state governors in it, but I might be wrong. Reagan was in so many films somebody else might have slipped in there. But as far as the sheer unlikelihood, Predator must deserve some sort of prize. I think I've only seen the first two Alien films. Classics.

I will go to bed before I give in to the urge to go back and retag all of the entries with Ilyumzhinov with the new "aliens" tag. If you know what I mean.

Russia's Evgeny Tomashevsky staggered across the finish line of the European Individual Championship. He outlasted countryman Malakhov in the final match of rapid and blitz KO tiebreaks to find the winner. ChessBase has the details. There was another big set of tiebreak matches to find the qualifiers to the next FIDE World Cup. Motylev got to play a nice queen sac against Mikhalevski in their second game; just ignore that he was already winning. Jobava's 24..Rxd6! is a very nice deflection shot (24..Re8 25.f3 and the bishop defends the Ne1). 11.Bh6 is quite a looker in Kurnosov-Nisipeanu, but as so often happens it turns out to have been played many times before, first in 1995, and a couple of times against Nisipeanu. Our man Kurnosov lost the second game, losing even the theoretical chance of a World Cup meeting with Mamedyarov, who will likely make it in on rating.

A rather slapstick finish to such an impressive event, but I guess KO blitz to qualify for a KO makes some sort of sense. I already listed the many high-profile names who won't be in the tiebreaks due to their failure in this event. There seems like there are so many cockamamie ways to get into the world championship mix these days it's hard to take anything seriously as a last chance.

[danyplayer points out that some players who already qualified for the World Cup at last year's Euro Ch in Plovdiv skipped the tiebreaks since they don't decide any money, just qualification. He mentions Bologan and Papaioannou.]

After four rounds of the Amber rapid/blindfold event in Nice, Vladimir Kramnik is leading with 5.5/8 in what is shaping up to be another balanced event. His usual dominance in the blindfold, now 3.5/4, is the difference. He is pursued by Morozevich and Aronian at a half-point distance and then Radjabov, Carlsen, and Topalov on 4.5. Anand still isn't looking good and is on an even score. There have been the usual blind blunders, dropped queens, etc, as well as a few nice games that wouldn't have looked out of place in the 2500 section of Aeroflot. (Those who think the blindfold games are exciting should watch more games between IMs and the under-2600 crowd in general. They aren't as worried about Elo, are more speculative, and also make more mistakes, therefore leading to more tactical action. This is also why some people say elite women's chess is more exciting than elite "men's" chess. It may well be, but it's not because they are women. It's just that fans don't pay attention to 2500-rated men but the women are stars at that level. High stakes + more mistakes = exciting games.)

Instead of having them play each other, I really would like to know what the average Elo decrease is and have them play blindfold against sighted players. One thing you notice after looking at a lot of these blindfold games is the tendency toward long sequences of direct threat-and-react moves, which makes sense. It's hard to focus on full-board dynamics and planning when you are concerned about not hanging a piece.

I've enjoyed quite a few of the rapid games, which are like potato chips after the heavy meals of Corus and Linares. They are many worth a look. Aronian-Leko saw White win with a very nice rook sacrifice on g6. The quiet move 26.Rd1 is cool stuff. Wang Yue has been horrible so far, with or without his eyes. Ubiquity has its drawbacks and he's got to be exhausted after so many brutal events in a row. Apart from the blunders, his loss with white to Morozevich was truly a rare work of domination by Moro. Aronian was busted right out of the opening against Kamsky but battled along into a bad knight endgame. Kamsky sealed the deal with the non-obvious 43.Ne4 when both Nxg4 and e6 allow Black excellent drawing chances with the a-pawn.

Rapid play is unkind toward endgames in general, of course. Leko missed a chance to beat Carlsen by waiting too long to play f5, which lost its sting after 47..Bc8. A miracle save by Carlsen, with ..Bxf5 on tap if Bxf7. Even with White's dominating king position he can't make progress. Both 44.f5 and 47.f5 look good. Topalov, fresh from playing the Zaitsev and Caro-Kann against Kamsky, essayed the Petroff against Karjakin and was duly punished by the vengeful jilted gods of the Najdorf. Karjakin had something to do with it, I suppose. Petroff, hah! 20.f5 was nice and 31.e6! even nicer. The queen check ladder to pick off the black pawns is also cool, and not just for show. The immediate 39.Rf7 is only a draw because the white queen doesn't control a2, so it's a perpetual. Great stuff. Topalov got some of his own back against Morozevich today. The unexpected 21.g5! led to a brutal direct kingside attack. If 22..Qxg5? 23.Qxf7+ Kh7 24.Re3 is curtains.

From the YouTube description: "Claymation of the chess game Roesch - Willi Schlage (Hamburg, 1910). The position after 13...Bh3, and the ones that follow, were used in Stanley Kubrick's movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" for the game between Frank Poole and the HAL-9000 Super Computer." PGN after the jump.

I like the way it starts out simply and then turns into battle chess.

ht Vikram, via Andrew Sullivan

The massive 11-round European Individual Championship in Budva, Montenegro turned into the usual pile-up at the top. 11 players scored 8/11 and no fewer than 23 were a half-point back. Qualification to the next FIDE World Cup is the real goal in this event, so caution tends to be the name of the game. None of the top boards were decisive in today's final round with draws being good enough to guarantee everyone safe passage. This is in stark contrast to the bloodbath on boards 13-23, where it was all or nothing for the players with 6.5 points. Malakhov, Jobava, and Navara had seven and won today to guarantee themselves Cup spots and a shot at the title.

According to the regulations there will be a massive set of tiebreak games tomorrow to decide who makes the cut of 22 players going to the World Cup. Wild. They also have tiebreaks to decide the champion and the other medal winners, so it's going to be a hectic day of rapid chess tomorrow in Budva. They regulations aren't specific about what format they will use in the tiebreaks, listing it as TBA.

Since they appear to require tiebreak games for just about everything, I guess the system tiebreaks are just to decide the cash awarded to the lower places? Notable failures to make the qualifier tiebreak cut include top seeds Akopian and Vallejo Pons, as well as well-known players like Volokitin, Cheparinov, van Wely, Caruana, and defending champion Tiviakov. Veterans Timman and Beliavsky also missed the cut. Tough event! Come back and play for Brooklyn, Fabiano!

I was surprised to see The Toronto Star with an article on how the organizers of the Kamsky-Topalov candidates match threatened ChessBase/Playchess into abandoning their live broadcast of the games. Unfortunately, the article gets lost in a discussion about copyrighting the ideas behind the moves, which, while it has come up on a regular basis in chess history, is entirely beside the point. They speak with a well-known expert on these matters, Professor Michael Geist. (Who, not coincidentally, I corresponded with for advice when the Canadian company MonRoi threatened me with litigation over some critical remarks I and some commenters here made regarding their US Ch coverage in 2007.) The article gets to the real point here only to drop it quickly.

And while neither Kamsky nor Topalov's moves could be protected, the rights to their being broadcast certainly could.

In the much larger arena of NFL football, the same issue has recently come to bear over the surfeit of bloggers gaining accreditation as official members of the media covering the games.

Last season, most were barred from live blogging at the stadiums themselves on the grounds that their presence infringed on the official, live-broadcast-rights owners (though, oddly, sitting on the couch at home and doing the same thing would constitute no such infringement).

That's the issue, the right to broadcast moves. And the answer certainly isn't "certainly could." Trying to maintain personal (or organizational, or intellectual) rights to moves and scores as such goes back at least to Lasker and more recently with Sveshnikov and Kamsky. Organizers have done it too -- Aeroflot comes to mind a few years ago and FIDE briefly tried to sell each round's PGN files during the 1998 Olympiad, I believe. But the Bulgarians' beef with ChessBase had nothing to do with that. They simply didn't give permission for them to rebroadcast the games live on Playchess. (They did give permission to the ICC, sparing us the initial hassles we had when the Anand-Kramnik WCh organizers demanded other sites broadcast with a delay. Well, some other sites, which was the problem.) Of course this assumes ChessBase needs their permission to copy the moves from the official site and relay them on their own. This argument is as old as the internet, if not Lasker, and we've killed billions of pixels debating it here. Are the moves reportable information or an element of content? The former is very difficult to protect.

For example, in one of the early relevant cases in the US, the NBA sued Motorola's content service for providing near real-time scores. Many sports sites skirt the "robust content" provisions in many broadcast rights cases by giving live updates of everything statistical, which can be classified as reported fact instead of media content. As in the NFL case The Star article mentions, if you sit at home watching a game and update your blog with the score (or whatever else descriptive as long as you don't post audio, video, etc., "robust content") as fast as you can, you're okay. You are reporting facts. Are chess moves already played and broadcast facts or content? This has been a regular battleground in many sports just in the US, so when you throw it open into the courts of the world I'm sure you would get as many rulings as judges. The lawyers would make a lot of money and nobody else would.

I've been on both sides of this argument, as an organizer events we wanted to show live exclusively on KasparovChess and as a journalist trying to cover events. While I think it would be dandy if the moves could be protected and rights to them sold (or freely given), as it would provide a potential revenue stream for organizers, however small, it just doesn't hold water. Of course you'll always find a lawyer or ten who will be happy to take your money to try to prove it will, and maybe they'll even succeed in some cases in some places. But I would rather put it to the organizers to come up with something actually worth paying for, or coming to see, instead of trying to shut down coverage of an event they are trying to promote. Leverage the advantages of being the organizer by producing a rich media experience people will want to see and that can't be seen anywhere else. Some sites are finally doing this fairly well, if in a haphazard way, with webcams and post-game video.

Chess, schmess. Doesn't this look like more fun?

Poor girl has no idea it's possible to be outside without a thick coat. I'm beginning to doubt it myself. I hope it's warmer in Tennessee in a few weeks. Do I need to bring my passport? Shotgun and overalls?

The field in this year's 18th Melody Amber is even stronger than usual. Levon Aronian is back to defend his title. Past winners Morozevich, Kramnik, and and Anand are there, as are Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Radjabov, and world #1 Topalov. Kamsky, Karjakin, Leko, and the suddenly ubiquitous Wang Yue are also there. The Chinese player qualified by dominating last year's "Rising Stars" tournament, which works as a qualifier. Carlsen and Karjakin were also once qualifiers. This is probably the first event without a Dutchman (the sponsor is Dutch chess Macaenas Joop van Oosterom) as van Wely has been given the wooden boot. Aronian started out strong today, beating Ivanchuk 2-0. The blindfold game is quite spectacular, though the opening queen sac is old published analysis.

The format has not changed. Each day the players play face an opponent in one blindfold and one rapid game. I probably say the same blah blah every year about not seeing (ahem) the point of blindfold chess between professionals, but it's a good show and the players fight hard despite the cushy surroundings. There are always a few gems. Some players have a knack for blindfold and two of them met in the first round. Kramnik always put up amazing scores in the blindfold section, until Morozevich arrived in Monaco (now it's played in Nice) in 2002 and scored 9/11. The two have battled for blindfold supremacy ever since, with a few exceptions. Moro's record 9.5/11 in 2006, three points (!) clear of Anand, illustrates that blindfold talent doesn't overlap 100% with overall chess talent. The competition has stiffened, however, and Morozevich and Kramnik could only tie for first last year with a humble 6.5 points. In today's blindfold battle Kramnik played the very nice shot 15.Bxf7+! and went on to win.

The blindfold is just half of the action; it's the combined score with the rapid that makes the Melody Amber champion. Last year Aronian's tie for first in the blindfold and 8/11 in the rapid was enough to wrap up the title with plenty of room to spare. The official site has plenty to offer, especially if the videos are back. The daily reports by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam are well worth the trip. ICC Chess.FM has live coverage and Macauley Peterson is there as well, posting to the ICC Blog.

10-player round-robin tournament starts in Kingston on March 16, so pack your bong bags and get moving. But contact Ian Wilkinson first.

This one seems to have slipped through the cracks. While his visit to New Delhi was devoted to politics and his speech (with link to full transcript there, which is quite unusual), of course Garry was asked about Anand while in India last week. Here are some clips from this rather haphazardly written article in the Mail Today.

"Vishy is a brilliant player. But it is very difficult to compete at 40. He is up against people half his age. I will be surprised if he can go on any longer. He can fight against anyone but time," Kasparov said, on the sidelines of the India Today Conclave 2009 in the Capital on Friday.

When pushed to explain his deduction, the Russian said that more than Anand's style, it is the adroitness of the current crop of players which has changed the way chess is played.

"About 50 years ago, the average age of a chess player was about 35 years. Nowadays, 14-year-olds are becoming Grandmasters. This is due to (the advent of) computers and sophisticated software," he said.

Not too impressed by youngsters challenging the might of much older competitors, the 46-year-old had an interesting take on the precocious talent sprouting all over the world.

"Nowadays, a 13-year-old would probably know more than Bobby Fischer knew when he retired. They analyse all the moves and prepare themselves on their computers. But that doesn't mean they are special."

But it's not the youngsters' fault that they are better prepared to learn the nuances of the game. Just because they have technology to sharpen their skills doesn't mean that they have an undue advantage, does it? "Physics students nowadays know more than Einstein and Newton did. That doesn't make them smarter, does it?" quipped the Russian, who quit the sport in 2005.

He's still 45 until April. And "go on any longer" is no doubt "last much longer" as WCh, instead of making it sound like Vishy is going to drop dead at any moment! He called Anand's play against Kramnik some of the best chess Vishy has ever played, after all. And of course the bit about how not every knowledgeable 13-year-old being special doesn't mean there aren't a some who are. He's been complimentary of Carlsen, for example, since the earliest days. Mainstream journos' paraphrases are always a bit dodgy.

I'm more interested in what Garry thinks of Anand's mediocre performance in Linares. We talked day-to-day during the tournament, but no overview. He often contradicts my impressions of how players performed. (I.e. play, not results.) My general feel from his comments on the games was that Anand had some bad luck (the loss to Aronian) and lost a great game to Carlsen, hardly a crisis. I'm hoping he'll do a New In Chess column on his old favorite tournament.

I don't know how you postpone something that wasn't really scheduled, but if anyone can pull off the rare preemptive postponement, it's FIDE. The chances of this match taking place in 2009 dropped to nil when the Topalov-Kamsky candidates match was delayed for so long. Now they have "agreed to postpone the World Championship match between World Champion GM Anand and Challenger GM Topalov until the latest April 20th, 2010 and asked for bids for the match." Yes, bids would be good. More on the FIDE meeting at ChessBase and FIDE.

Of more interest: "In 2011, there will be a Candidate Matches/Tournament consisting of GM Kamsky, the loser of the Anand-Topalov match, two players from the Grand Prix series and one player from the World Cup, two highest rated players not already qualified and a player nominated by the organizer. The winner will play the World Champion in 2011." That's the out-of-thin-air kickback candidates event Ilyumzhinov dropped on us last year with no justification whatsoever. As I said at the time, he doesn't make this up unless there was already money in play. Ridiculous. Giving the same players chance after chance until one of them wins is corrupt hackery.

And then they came for the Go players. A Wired article on how Go computers are suddenly beating professionals after years of being patzers, or however you say patzer in Japanese. Interesting they use the Monte Carlo method, originating in physics and prevalent in economic and behavioral modeling of all sorts. And of course in chess analysis as implemented in ChessBase's Rybka and explained here. In 2002 I suggested that computers might use this method in search for endgames, mostly to extend the computer's reach into tablebases and to find/avoid blockades that often confound search. Straightforward search is now so fast that it might not be of much use.

I sincerely hoped that Shakhriyar Mamedyarov would man up and apologize for making entirely unfounded accusations of computer-assisted cheating against Igor Kurnosov after his loss to the Russian at the Aeroflot tournament last month. True, it would take more sense and courage than it took to write the letter to back down now, but he could claim it was a crime of passion, heat of the moment, post-game stress disorder, whatever, make his apology and hope fans and organizers would put it in the past. Instead, Mamedyarov has done the forgetting, either that or he never heard the phrase "the first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."

But here he is, shovel in one hand and Rybka in the other. His latest letter not only fails to apologize for making unfounded and false accusations (cheating unfounded and essentially impossible to prove or disprove, some descriptive details disproved), but continues down the the same road of attempted computer move matching with Kurnosov's games. His ingenious conclusion is that all of Kurnosov's moves match the computer's first choice, except when they don't. Sherlock Holmes, hang up your pipe you've met your match. That a computer agrees with the moves of the winning side in a short, sharp game is one of the most obvious things one can imagine.

If Mamedyarov continues down this destructive and self-destructive path we can expect things about nobody else really understanding, despite a plethora of GMs weighing in to say they saw nothing at all unusual in Kurnosov's play. Has the FIDE Ethics Committee said anything about this yet? If they were hoping it would blow over Mamedyarov just disabused them. Such accusations cannot be taken lightly, and by that I mean people who make them need to be punished or else we're going to see this garbage all the time. If Mamedyarov and others are really worried about computer assistance -- and it is a big worry in the opinion of most -- he should refuse to participate in events without stern anti-cheating measures in place. That instead of accusing his opponents with no evidence.

Last time I put these entirely unneeded details in the comments, but Mamedyarov's statement about all of Kurnosov's moves matching "strictly from the first line of Rybka" is piffle even given what I said above about how this is often be the case with GM miniatures. His cited win over Onischuk in the second round contains several very nice moves, no doubt, but it's certainly not a game that was garnering particular attention. Once again to the specifics. If no alternative moves are given it's because they are evaluated at least a half-pawn worse.

-- 13..Ba6 (-0.02) is close enough to 13..Na6 (-0.06) and 13..Bxb2 (-0.03) as to define "meaningless." Note it's the third move, not the first, on my machine, but of course with such tiny disparities it could switch back and forth on each iteration. The ..Ba6 idea against the white king's bishop with a knight on b8 is as old as Ernst Grunfeld himself. More recently, by Morozevich in 2008. Against Onischuk!
-- 14..Qc8 (0.04) vs 14..Bxc4 (0.00) and 14..Bxb2 (0.05). ibid.
-- 15..Kxg7 (0.04) vs 14..Bxc4 (0.04) the bishop must be recaptured and taking on c4 first is the only intermezzo.
-- 16..e6 (0.00) vs 16..Bxc4 (0.00) and 16..h6 (0.11). Again, worthless and debatable. I don't doubt ..e6 might be first by a hundredth or so depending on how long you wait.
-- 17..exd5 (-0.57) vs 17..Bxc4 (-0.57) and 17..Re8 (0.22). Meaningless transposition to the computer, since it wants to take on c4 before or after. The computer doesn't believe in White's pawn gambit.
-- 18..Bxc4 (-0.63) vs 18..Qe6 (-0.38). Unremarkable exchange. 18..Qe6 looks entirely bizarre and computer-like.
-- 19..Nc6 (-0.63) Routine development. Any other move would be odd, and bad.
-- 20..Rd8 (-0.63) Challenging the d-file. Again, other moves are significantly worse and would be hard to explain.
-- 21..Qf5 (-0.75) A strong move and the first one going slightly beyond the obvious. The close alternative, 21..Rxd6 (-0.74), is passive.
-- 22..Nxe5! (-1.29) vs 22..Rxd6 (-1.14). A powerful exchange sac and a Grunfeld player isn't happy unless he's playing one. As in various cases during this game, the closest alternative is a passive and unattractive option for any human Grunfeld player. Black has two pawns, a mighty knight, and threats against the white king.
-- 23..Nxf3 (-1.29). Or taking the rook first. Meaningless transposition and forced.
-- 24..Rxd8 (-1.29). Or Black is just worse.
-- 25..Nd4 (-1.29) vs 25..Nh4 (-0.88) or 25..Ne5 (-0.87). The centralization is natural and strong. Black threatens mate and will win another pawn after 26.Qd1 Qxf2.
-- 26..Qb1 (-6.39). The first move of a winning three-move combination after White blunders. The ..b5 deflection theme is pretty, but not hard to find from the attacking side.
-- 27..b5 (-6.39) Having said A, B. White resigns. The white pieces lose control of d1 and ..Ne2 will mate.

So, to wrap up, it looks for all the world like a typically dynamic Grunfeld. White sacrificed a pawn in the opening and Black took over the initiative with a nice exchange sac and then won with a cute tactic missed by White that was instantly lethal. As for Moiseenko-Kurnosov in r4, it was a 25-move liquidating draw of mostly captures. Not only do all of Kurnosov's moves match Rybka's first (or infinitesimally different alternatives), but all of Moiseenko's as well. Elementary, my dear Watson! As for Kurnosov not playing his best after being accused of cheating in front of the whole world by a former top-10 player, go figure.

Four draws in the final round, not much of a surprise there. This gave Grischuk his first Linares title on tiebreaks over Ivanchuk, both finishing with 8/14 +2 scores. First tiebreak is head-to-head, second is most wins (or fewest draws, as you like), and Grischuk's three of a kind beat Ivanchuk's pair. (NB: Had there been a three-way tie with Carlsen involved, he would have won.) They split the prize money, so 87,500 euros each. More later, interview clips on the ICC Blog. Anand did not sound happy, as you might expect.

+ Finally had time to review the tournament a bit. First I should note my failure to remember, and therefore to mention, that they were playing with a 30-move minimum rule this year. The impression that this was a particularly hard-fought event most of way, despite the high rate of draws, was no doubt influenced by this welcome step. I'd prefer just going with the Sofia rules and getting it over with, but change only comes incrementally. Speaking of, adding increment to the final control was another felicitous modernization. I've long since given up trying to predict or explain tournament draw percentages. You can toss in young newcomers, known firebrands, and jigger the rules and prizes all you want, but when draws happen, they just happen. The 73% draw rate in Linares year, up from a very low 55% last year, wasn't keenly felt because many of the draws were sharp, interesting, and fought to a sufficient degree of sterility to appease all but the most bloodthirsty among us. (It's no coincidence that the record draw level events of 2000 (77%) and 2004 (79%) marked Vladimir Kramnik's two Linares victories. The ultimate energy-sensitive pragmatist, Kramnik is like a surfer who knows how to make the most of small waves. He allows the tournament to come to him, where's waiting with +2.)

We had plenty of high class novelties in Linares this year, in the expected fashionable Semi-Slavs and Grunfelds and surprises like the Grischuk-Anand Poisoned-Pawn Najdorf. Leinier Dominguez finished last and was the only player without a win, but his excellent preparation against Carlsen and Anand earned him impressively smooth draws with black. On the other end of the crosstable, Grischuk spent oceans of time in well-trod positions again and again. Like Radjabov and Carlsen, the winner was there without a second. Wang Yue's repertoire looked seriously punctured in this, his third super-event without much of a break to replenish his ammunition supply. As with most of the Chinese team, he plays a narrow set of openings and guys at this level don't need long to find weak spots. It's worth noting that his losses came against 1.d4; his Petroff still looked like, well, the Petroff.

Aronian, Anand, and Carlsen bobbed up and down wildly, alternating between brilliant wins and serious blunders. Aronian in particular was never in good form. Two of his three wins, against Anand and Carlsen with black, owed more to pluck and his opponents' unforced errors than his acumen. Anand had the wind taken out of his sails by his second loss, to Carlsen's excellent effort in round six. After that Vishy really looked like his heart and mind were far away from Linares and he drew his last eight games. He stayed out of trouble rather easily, but didn't cause much trouble either. After duplicating his frustratingly slow start from Corus, Carlsen started to force the issue. He reaped the benefits and setbacks of such aggression, scoring wonderful wins over Anand and Grischuk but losing to Wang Yue's brilliant counterattack and throwing away what would have been a gorgeous win over Radjabov with hasty endgame play. His raw power is terrifying, especially since it comes with the knowledge that he won't be making so many mistakes as he matures.

What about the players who shared equal first? I admit it would have felt like a shame had Grischuk been pipped at the post after leading for more than half the tournament. True, he pulled in his horns quite a bit in the second half to ride his lead and nearly paid the price. You don't see many tournament winners with a negative score in the second half. But he played great chess in the first half and it's great to have Grischuk back in a big way. He still suffers from the "Russian Disease" of competing for invitations with organizers unwilling to host too many players from the same country. With Kramnik, Morozevich, Svidler, and now Jakovenko all in the elite, a Linares victory on his resume is a big help. Ivanchuk was under the radar just about the entire way, scoring his first win in the 7th round and beating the clearly diminished Aronian again in the 13th. He was no doubt distracted by the agony of missing various wins in his game against Anand in the 5th round. As with fellow veteran Anand, when Ivanchuk isn't pushing he is basically unbeatable and draw-prone. Here that was enough for a share of first, if not his fourth Linares title (89, 91, 95).

Radjabov somehow fell between the cracks, unable to recover from his two early losses to Anand and Grischuk despite playing hard. His only win came against a nearly unrecognizable Aronian. As mentioned above, sometimes draws happen for a reason and sometimes they don't. This was one of the latter cases. Radjabov played games both sharp and long and just couldn't generate enough sparks to start a fire. His King's Indian flag remained unsullied, drawing all three appearances. His years dedicated to the resuscitation of the KID was apparent on other boards as well and the it scored +1 -0 =5 in the event.

Eyes now turn to Nice, France, where the Melody Amber blindfold/rapid extravaganza gets underway on March 14 with a cast even more impressive than usual. Right before that, the 10th Dos Hermanas internet tournament starts on the ICC. The massive European Individual Championship is already underway in Montenegro. It's a qualifier for the next World Cup.

Vassily Ivanchuk and Levon Aronian continued their torrid rate of decisive games between them in round 13 of Linares today. This time it was Ivanchuk's second win of the tournament and his second win of the tournament against Aronian. That brought the Ukrainian wizard up to +2 undefeated and a share of the lead with Alexander Grischuk, who had lead alone since beating Aronian in the sixth round. Grischuk came close to moving back to +3 in a wild game against Anand in what turned into a spectacularly rich day of chess. All four games were slugfests with chances for both sides. Perhaps the best of the lot was also the most disappointing when Carlsen played his second fabulous effort in a row only to needlessly rush in the endgame and allow Radjabov a miracle save. Wang Yue and Dominguez battled it out to the bitter end in sharp Grunfeld despite playing mostly for pride and Elo at this point.

Ivanchuk worked up winning chances very quickly against Aronian's oddly slow and meandering play. This and his atrocious loss to Radjabov the other day were really far below his level. The Armenian #1 spent a long time considering ways to sac the exchange on move 18 before humbly moving his rook. Then he decided to pitch a pawn that Ivanchuk was happy to grab. Just a few moves later Black was on the brink of a spectacular catastrophe when he played 24..Qe7? All the computer kibitzers went berserk at this point, but Ivanchuk played the human, and strong, 25.Nxf6+ instead of the fantastic shot 25.Nf5!! gxf5 26.Nxf6 Qxf6 27.Bxe5 Rxd1 28.Bxf6 Rxc2 29.Rxc2 and Black loses the bishop on b8 because of the mate threat. Ivanchuk's fans started getting a little nervous when he later missed another quick win with 28.f4. But he kept things under control and was spared having to convert his extra pawn when Aronian blundered on move 31.

What to do about this Carlsen guy? He plays with the inconsistency of a teenager for chrissakes! After a great effort to gain a big advantage against Radjabov in a Bb5 Sicilian, he got all the way to a winning, if quite tricky R vs N endgame before his youthful impatience reached over and punched his Mozart talent in the face. 50 seconds says it all. That's how long he took to turn a beautiful win into an agonizing draw with 47.Kf3? instead of 47.Kf1. To bore you with more comments from an old politician, I got Kasparov's input on this game at two moments. First, right as the players made the time control and he gave a few lines that looked like wins for White in the endgame, which isn't simple at all. Rooks are bad against connected passers and White has to watch out for knight sacs. We were still on the line when Carlsen played 43.h6 and Garry was very surprised he had made such a committal move so quickly. He was soon convinced that it was the best move, however, and this, he said, showed Carlsen was concentrating well. He gave a longish winning sample line I relayed on the ICC with White eventually playing f5 to push his g and h pawns with mate threats before the black pawns arrive. The computers concurred, if with a different winning method. Carlsen had his own plan that was also winning, and with less risk than the early f5 idea. His rook froze the pawns and then his king had time to come over to help. It was with that last bit that the aforementioned trouble arrived. 47.Kf3? allows a threatened knight fork to save the day and Radjabov jumped at it. Miracle save. 47.Kf1 avoids the check and Black can resign or wait for 47..b2 48.Rb4 Nc4 49.Ke1 Kg8 50.f5! and the white pawns end the show.

The next time I talked with Garry it was well after the game was over and he was equal parts angry and horrified at how such a brilliant effort could have been thrown away with such an incautious and over-confident slip. (When I say angry I don't mean at Carlsen as such. He has a low tolerance for what you might call "crimes against chess," and squandering such a good game like that is felony caliber.) The 50-second blunder cost Carlsen more than a great game. He would have gone into the final round tomorrow in a three-way tie for first. Now he goes in a half-point behind and with black against Anand.

Speaking of the world champion, GM Kaidanov was at first elated by his game with Grischuk, then disillusioned, then elated again. I had to leave early so I don't know how he felt at the end. The Poisoned Pawn Najdorf isn't played much at the top level anymore, mostly because Black had been getting too much poison for the pawn. So we wondered what Anand had up his very long sleeves. Then Kaidanov realized that Grischuk, in the lead and smarting from a tough loss, might be heading into one of the forced drawing lines computers have found in these variations. (I think Kasparov stopped playing it after ceding two draws in nearly identical games back in 2004 when his opponents were happy to get a half-point with white.) That's where we were going until Grischuk took a very long think before dropping the 20.Bd3 bomb on the board. Suddenly all three results were possible. The silicon insanity of 23..Qd5!? would mean having to see 24.Rh3 Rg7! 25.Be2 Be7!! Though even there White is probably winning after the comical 26.Rh5. Getting back to the game, Anand sent his queen to rehab via a5 and set up a decent defensive perimeter in exchange for the exchange. Grischuk couldn't find a way in against Anand's precise defense after declining to grab a pawn with 27.Qxc6. Anand offered a draw when he was getting the exchange back. An unexpectedly wild game; hats off to both players.

If the final round is half as exciting as this one we're in for a good show tomorrow on ICC Chess.FM with GM Joel Benjamin. All the contenders have black though, which isn't usually a good sign. They are happy with draws and the guys with white are usually focused more on not chalking up another zero. But the fighting spirit has been high so far so let's be optimistic. Macauley Peterson is on the scene in Linares for Chess.FM and you shouldn't miss his videos and other goodies at the ICC Blog. Round 14: Radjabov-Wang Yue, Dominguez-Ivanchuk, Anand-Carlsen, Aronian-Grischuk. Hmm, Dominguez is the only player without a win and Ivanchuk the only one without a loss. Fate?

Round 11 in Linares contained two quick and boring draws and two long and interesting draws. Moving on... In round 12, with Alexander Grischuk still a point ahead, Magnus Carlsen shook up the tournament with a tremendous win over the Russian. Amazingly, Grischuk is still in clear first place, but now Ivanchuk and Carlsen are just a half-point behind. This was the only decisive game of the day, leaving this year's edition of Linares steady on its course of 70% draws. Ivanchuk held a Berlin with only slight discomfort against Anand. Aronian wound up for some kingside action against Wang Yue but the Chinese calmly defused it. Radjabov must have had something at one point against Dominguez but couldn't find a way to make progress against the Cuban's resourceful defense, which got him to a drawn R+2 vs R+1 endgame.

It was the Carlsen game that mattered, and what a beauty it was. Just moments after it concluded, Garry Kasparov -- on the line from New Delhi -- exclaimed "Carlsen just won a brilliant game!" And he knows a thing or two about this line, since they followed the famous Moscow game 24 Scheveningen that brought Kasparov the world championship title in 1985. The position after 11..Re8 was also the battlefield of half a dozen games from his 1995 WCh match with Anand. Carlsen and Grischuk both have recent experience in this line from the white side. Anand beat Carlsen with it in a spectacular game at Corus last year. This year Carlsen showed he'd learned a few new tricks.

Going against standard praxis, White captured on e5 immediately on move 15 and then retreated his knight to b3 instead of the usual e2. As is his habit, Grischuk used considerable time in navigating known waters. He was already down to 12 minutes before move 30. Things were already getting ugly for Black by that point. The passive 27..Rab8 gives White his way. 27..Rec8 is very tricky but analysis shows Black gets enough counterplay to prevent destruction at the hands of the d-pawn. Carlsen played an exchange sac on f6 that had been tipped by ICC Chess.FM debutante Jonathan Rowson (who was fantastic) much earlier. (Something like "A GM sees a rook against a knight on f6 like that and is just dying to sac.") Obvious or not, it was very strong and White's pawns are terribly hard to stop. Grischuk, blitzing by this point, couldn't find any way to halt the tide of pawns. Carlsen finished elegantly, offering up both his remaining pieces to get his pawns home. 31..Bg7 was a blunder with 31..Kg7 a tougher defense, but the pretty Ba6! shot is going to come anyway. The quiet killer 36.Rc1 completed the gorgeous picture. Fantastic stuff and in a critical game against the previously undefeated leader.

Grischuk still has the lead on +2 but has white against Anand and black against Aronian to finish. He also made a seer out of GM Ronen Har-Zvi, who put the hex on Grischuk the other day by predicting he would lose at least one of his final three games. Carlsen finishes with white against Radjabov and black against Anand. Ivanchuk has white against Aronian and black against Dominguez. Let's see if Vishy is looking to kick Grischuk while he's down tomorrow. Round 9: Grischuk-Anand, Carlsen-Radjabov, Ivanchuk-Aronian, Wang Yue-Dominguez.

Tomorrow's hot commie-on-commie action will apparently continue at MTel this May, by the way. Are Wang Yue and Dominguez a matching set, or mandatory participants in every super-tournament now? I sort of assume this has something to do with the Grand Slam's influence. They definitely want to keep China, and a Chinese player, in the mix. Dunno about Dominguez. Nothing against them, it's just funny to see them as new blood and suddenly they are both in every single event. Leko, Svidler, and Shirov must be wondering if their breath stinks. How about Morozevich, or Jakovenko? Last I checked he was #7 in the world. Can a Russkie homeboy get an invite?

New Delhi isn't exactly Anand's old stomping ground, but Garry Kasparov's first visit to India is surely worth a mention. My boss The Boss is there to deliver a speech at the "Challenges of Change - India Today Conclave" on Saturday. Other speakers include former Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf and the Dalai Lama. I'd managed to work in a few cricket jokes to lighten the mood but after the attack on the cricket team in Lahore this week they might best be scratched. No chess at all during the short trip, not even a simul. Maybe next time.

"Though the Giant Panda is often assumed to be docile, it has been known to attack humans, presumably out of irritation rather than predatory behavior." -- Wikipedia

The Sleepy Panda might look harmless, but if you get into his cage and try to steal his bamboo shoots you're in for a serious mauling. Magnus Carlsen pushed only to find Wang Yue can push back hard. In Linares round 10 the Chinese player launched a beautiful kingside attack that Carlsen couldn't handle in his time trouble. It started with the exchange sac 24..Rxb6 and tactical operations didn't cease for another 20 moves. Wang Yue missed a silicon crusher with 33...Bc8+! 34.Ka6 Bd7! and astoundingly there is nothing White can do about the black queen coming back to chop off his king's head. "Very hard to see" according to Fabiano Caruana, kibitzing on the ICC. To say the least! With seconds left Carlsen missed his last best chance with 38.Qd7 and White only survived the control to be stuck in a losing endgame with two rooks vs an active queen and extra pawns. Wang Yue cleaned up accurately to score his first win of the event and his second in as many months against Carlsen. A wonderful attack.

Another favorite also had trouble with white. Vishy Anand was outprepared by Dominguez in the Cuban's favorite Grunfeld. Even Peter Svidler sounded impressed by Black's new idea with 12..Ng4 and 13..Qb8. White navigated the tactical waters well enough to emerge with a tiny endgame plus but it never looked like much. Ivanchuk played the Petroff against the leader and Grischuk followed a plan of his countryman Jakovenko with 17.g4. All of his pawn pushing looked like it might land Grischuk in some trouble but he found enough against Black's open king to earn a perpetual check at the end.

Radjabov was the second player to score his first win today, doing it with a kingside fianchetto opening that one kibitzing German GM called "junk." But as I always say, it's not the fight in the opening, it's the fight in the players and Radjabov was feeling ambitious with white today. He grabbed the chance to lunge his d-pawn deep into enemy Armenian territory when Aronian failed to clip the button on d5. That left Black with an awkward jumble of pieces and Radjabov was quick to exploit the empty black kingside with a piece sac on h6. Black couldn't accept but was down a clear pawn when the smoke cleared. Aronian played the four-rook endgame like a sleepwalker, allowing doubled rooks on the seventh and putting up surprisingly little resistance.

So Grischuk, despite four draws in a row, has improved his position on the crosstable nicely thanks to a little help from the cellar dwellers. Carlsen and Aronian fall back to 1.5 behind with Anand and only Ivanchuk remains a full point back. Dominguez is now in the cellar alone and the only player without a win. And that's what a 2700 performance will get you in Linares these days! +3 has been enough to win Linares three years in a row. Can anyone bring Grischuk down?

On with the Zohan himself tomorrow, GM Ronen Har-Zvi. Round 11: Grischuk-Radjabov, Ivanchuk-Carlsen, Wang Yue-Anand, Dominguez Aronian.

Magnus Carlsen wanted to bounce back after his painful loss in a drawn endgame to Aronian in the previous round. That he had black didn't matter considering that he has the Dragon Sicilian in his repertoire. Dominguez has already shown himself both game for tackling the shiniest of the Dragon's scales and vulnerable to being outplayed and, unusual for him, outprepared. He had the worse of things with white against Radjabov's Dragon back in round five and he must have had flashbacks today. Carlsen went for the 10..Rb8 "Chinese Dragon" line Radjabov used against him in their spectacular Bilbao game last year, a win for the Norwegian with white. Dominguez played the most consequent move, 12.Bh6, and they banged out theoretical moves until Carlsen dropped the fascinating 17..Rb6 on the board. As with just about anything these days, this piece of Petrosianesque prophylaxis has been played before, though by an amateur in an open event. Regardless of its pedigree it was clearly part of Carlsen's prep and it put Dominguez in the tank for a long time. The lift keeps an eye on the d6 pawn in many lines involving the push ..e5, a key idea that takes squares away from the white pieces.

[According to GM Golubev in the comments, "17...Rb6 is actually the main line of the Chinese Dragon Chapter in the "Opening for White According to Anand Vol. 11" book." Not sure what Anand has to do with it, but okay then! Do you think Carlsen actually reads chess books though?]

The white "Plan A" of pushing the h-pawn and mating comes up short in those lines, so Dominguez tried to play more subtly. After getting in ..e5 Black continued with a pretty rook reload to the c-file and it was clear White had to shift to defense, never a good omen in a sharp Sicilian. Dominguez was down below a minute a move as the complications started with 27..d3! and even the world blitz champion wasn't up to the task. The white back rank is a disaster waiting to happen and it didn't have long to wait. Going into full grovel mode with 29.Qd2 would have given White some defensive chances down a pawn. His 29.d4? got into deep trouble. 30.Re1 allows 30..Rxb3! The kibitzers watching their computers were cheering for a quick end with the remarkably slow coup 31..Rf2!! Had Carlsen played that, with limited time on his clock and a relatively simple solid plus alternative, he would have deserved to have more than his jacket searched! The silicon point is 32.Re1 Rxb2! 33.Kxb2 Rc2+ 34.Ka1 Qc6! (The only move that doesn't lose for Black, winning immediately thanks to the dual threats of ..Qc3+ and ..Rxa2+. Few humans would take the risk of missing something in that line with a good alternative available.) Though it was probably too late to save the game Dominguez played the rest of the complications with great accuracy, limiting the tangible damage to a pawn. But he erred with 39.Qc4+ and was forced into a very awkward pin that left him close to zugzwang. The Cuban decided to see if Carlsen would blunder in a totally dominating position out of frustration and played on to the bitter end with scant stalemate prayers. Carlsen took his time, eschewing the pretty 50..Qd4! but netting the full point and returning to a plus score a few prosaic moves later. Fear the Dragon!

GM Larry Christiansen and I were lucky that game packed several suitcases full of action and violence because the other three round nine games made Kung-Fu Panda look like a Quentin Tarantino movie. Wang Yue-Grischuk and Aronian-Anand were G-rated start to very early finish. Radjabov rolled out his Schliemann Ruy Lopez against Ivanchuk and we figured we were in for some action there. But after a promising start Ivanchuk rejected what looked like a very good line with 11.a4 a6 12.Bc4 and White has a serious pull. Instead the Ukrainian humbly castled and didn't have much to do against Black's structural weaknesses. He spent a long time in the opening so he must have seen something we missed. Either that or something that wasn't there, as can happen sometimes. We had a brief thrill when Larry tried to mate White with the amazing 26..Nf5!? 27.Qd3 Nxh4?! but there's a defense with 28.gxh4 Rg6+ 29.Kh2 Rf4 30.Qh3. One of the few days in Linares this year where we didn't get full value on just about every board. It happens.

Grischuk continues to lead by a full point on +3 ahead of Carlsen, Ivanchuk, and Aronian. Anand is on even and the trailing trio on -2. Round 10: Radjabov-Aronian, Anand-Dominguez, Carlsen-Wang Yue, Grischuk-Ivanchuk. Back on with GM Christiansen Monday unless the snow blocks up the intertubes. Official site. ICC Chess.FM.

Levon Aronian is rarely boring on or off the board. He alternates between high-class hackery to filigreed Catalans and is always looking to provoke and entertain in person and in interviews. The winner of the 2006 edition of Linares started out strong this year. A wild sacrificial attack unexpectedly (for everyone but him) paid off against Anand. Then he ground out a steady Catalan win over Dominguez that wouldn't have shamed Kramnik. In round seven he went pawn grabbing against Ivanchuk's King's Indian and got spanked. Today in round eight he had to switch hats in the middle of the game against Carlsen, going from an ultra-sharp theoretical opening line to a technical endgame before bagging the full point when Carlsen blundered on move 84.

(I was complaining about the lack of increment in the final control when someone pointed out the ICC Linares info listing says there is. The official site has nil on boring things like rules and regulations. The first news item from the Spaniards didn't mention increment and listed the control as 40/2, 20/1, g/20. But I just got a response from Mr. Linares Journo extraordinaire, Leontxo Garcia, who confirms that the control is actually 40/2, 20/1, g/15'+30". So there IS increment in Linares this year. That also shows how tricky this endgame was. I'm against increment in the first controls -- time management should matter -- but allowing our top players to finish a long game like humans and not piece-flinging chimpanzees is possible now thanks to digital clocks. I'm glad all the top tournaments are coming around at last.)

That was the only decisive game in another day of hard-fought battles and endgames in Linares. Grischuk-Dominguez was an old line of the Grunfeld that looks very dangerous for Black. They followed Jussupow-Timman from 1983, way back when White was still a Soviet and his name still written as "Yusupov" in the non-Russian chess world. Tournament leader Grischuk looked like he might run out to a nigh-unassailable +4 score as his d-pawn gathered momentum. Dominguez's 16..Re8 looked riskier than Timman's 16..Rd8 but when Grischuk mistimed his Bd5, suddenly, in the habit of the Grunfeld, White's passed pawn was gone and Black was playing for the win. 19.Bd5 doesn't look like much of an improvement but it disturbs Black's defensive setup just enough for White to keep up the pressure. Black would likely sac the exchange, again in Grunfeld style, with 19..Be6. In the game, Dominguez won a pawn and looked to have decent winning chances, especially considering Grischuk's habitual time trouble. It's hard to say exactly where Black went wrong, perhaps allowing hxg6 splitting his pawns. Another tough draw by Grischuk, who has been pushed hard in his last two games. In round seven Anand got some pressure on him from a deep King's Indian Saemisch but the Russian held nicely.

Speaking of Anand, he got the better of another sharp Semi-Slav against Radjabov from the black side. He lost to the Azerbaijani another line of it at Corus last year. Anand played an interesting sac of his h-pawn to mobilize his pieces against the white king, which turned directly into a pawn-up four-rook endgame. (26..Qf6, keeping the g8 rook in action on the back rank where it can go to b8, might have been a slight improvement.) Radjabov held the endgame without much trouble. Ivanchuk-Wang Yue continued the day's pattern of white defending inferior rook endgames. The Chinese pressed for a while but Ivanchuk's hyper-active defense held just as well as the commonly prescribed method of the king hanging out behind the pawns. Poor Carlsen, down to seconds in the last control, was the only one who couldn't hold. He finally slipped into just about the last possible trap in the position. 84.Kf2 draws, Carlsen's move didn't. Aronian still had plenty of time to wrap up the win with precise play.

So Grischuk still leads by a point, now over Ivanchuk and Aronian. Not to jinx it, but this has been one of the hardest-fought tournaments, round for round, pound for pound, I can remember. Round 9: Ivanchuk-Radjabov, Wang Yue-Grischuk, Dominguez-Carlsen, Aronian-Anand. Maybe Ivanchuk and Radjabov can continue their King's Indian discussion, which has carried on even with colors reversed. On with Larry Christiansen for the live show at 10am EST. Macauley Peterson chimed in from Sofia before heading off to Linares tomorrow. He played a clip from his interview with Kamsky and should have a video interview with Topalov up at the ICC Blog. Good stuff.

Chessdom has a translation of GM Igor Kurnosov's reply in the Russian site e3e5 to the letter sent out by Mamedyarov accusing him of computer cheating. It's as reasonable as could be hoped for and I do hope that 1) Mamedyarov apologizes and 2) FIDE puts together a committee, with organizers and players, to formulate rules to do what Kurnosov suggests: prevent cheating and punish unfounded accusations of cheating.

Bacrot won the Aeroflot tournament on tiebreaks (more games with black) over Moiseenko, by the way, winning his last two games to pull it off. As far as I know that means he'll be in Dortmund this year. It won't be his first time. In 2005 the Frenchman made a good +1 score despite starting out with two losses.

Just thought you and some people we know might want to know.

Media Need Not Reveal Web Posters' Identities

Ruling Applies 1st Amendment to Internet

Operators of newspaper Web sites, blogs and chat rooms that allow readers to post anonymous comments using pseudonyms do not have to readily reveal the posters' identities in defamation suits, Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday, further shaping an emerging area of First Amendment law in the Internet age.

Full story here.