April 2009 Archives

"So in Europe, we had empires. Everyone had them - France and Spain and Britain and Turkey! The Ottoman Empire, full of furniture for some reason." -- Eddie Izzard

Any excuse to drop some Izzard. I'm still in disbelief that the latest episode of the ongoing courtroom drama that is the chess world will apparently invalidate the recently completed European and Women's European Individual Championships. (Won by Tomashevsky and T. Kosintseva, respectively, in Montenegro and St. Petersburg, respectively.) A lawsuit by the Turkish Chess Federation against the European Chess Union started in 2007 has concluded in favor of the TCF. According to TCF honcho and capital letter enthusiast Ali Nihat YAZICI, this means the 2009 championships will have to be replayed.

The exact complaints of the 2007 lawsuit are not made explicit, but as described in the ChessBase article by Yazici, it was over discriminatory practices regarding the awarding of the rights to host events. (Turkey, like Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, is listed as an Asian nation by the UN Statistics people but they have been treated as European nations by other organizations. They are all members of the Council of Europe, for example.) As right as they may be, invalidating the results of two enormous events like this and trying to host replacements promptly is insane.

For its part, the ECU reports the result but says it's not all over yet. Let's hope reason prevails for once and, while giving the TCF its financial due and appropriate consideration in the future, respect the results of the two completed Championships. There is little doubt the players who qualified from Budva and St. Petersburg would have their own legal challenges if these events are disappeared post-facto.

This week's ICC Chess.FM show "Chess Talk with John Watson" features Jennifer Shahade, former US women's champion, author of Chess Bitch and current editor of Chess Life Online and one of the people in charge of organizing the 2009 US championship in St. Louis. (May 7-17). Usually these shows are for ICC members only, but this one and next week's with Championship sponsor and club founder Rex Sinquefield are free to the public. Click here to listen, if the capricious gods of online audio find you in their favor.

You don't often have clear leaders facing off in the final round so let's hope they don't disappoint. Live here. GP points are more important than flexing muscles, so caution will likely be the order of the day, but we can dream. Either they will share first place after a draw or the winner will take clear first, since they are a full point ahead of the pack of Grischuk, Alekseev, and Akopian, all of whom have black tomorrow.

Leko surged up to +3 and put in a bid to become every chess fan's new favorite player with his second smashing win against the Petroff in less than a week's time. Deep opening prep, a lead in development, and a kingside attack as subtle as a sledgehammer to the cranium were all it took to drop Kasimjanov in just 30 moves. We even got a pretty rook sac for a finale. Put a pawn on h6 and it's all good, apparently. Or that fresh yak blood Leko drinks before each game must really work! (Or maybe he's back to following his old secret training regimen?) Leko is the only player to score a win over the tournament's two Petroffylactics, Kasim and Gelfand, in the dreaded Russian Defense. Let's hope there's some carry-over from Leko's work that either scares off other players from the Petroff or earns white a few more high-profile wins. It wouldn't be the first time Leko started a trend; he brought the Sveshnikov back to the top level in a big way in a single tournament, Dortmund 2002. (I exaggerate, but his crucial wins with it against Shirov and Topalov in that event put him into the match with Kramnik and various players who had never used it before started up with it after that. Leading not so much to a wave of Sveshnikovs as to countless 3.Bb5 games to avoid its success. Leko had used it before and Kramnik was about the only top 10 player to use it in the mid-90s. And "Mr. Najdorf" Kasparov startled Shirov with it earlier in 2002.)

The other decisive games in the 12th round were Karjakin's win over Svidler and Grischuk bouncing back yet again with a win over Bacrot. The Frenchman played the Benoni and did what you are supposed to do with the Benoni at this level: lose. Actually he had a likely draw deep into the tricky endgame with 45..c3! instead of wasting time taking the worthless b4 pawn. Svidler had a long defense in one of this event's epic number of Ruys but missed the infiltration 40.Qd7! right before time control and couldn't hold back the b-pawn. Unfortunately for Black he's losing another pawn in the final position. (52..Kh7 53.Rf8! f5 54.Rd8 and the knight no longer has an outpost on e6.) Another indicator of how tough this event has been is how even the players who look to be in good form keep getting whacked.

Aronian needed all of his guile to survive against Kamsky in a wild game that was really the highlight of the round. Kamsky opened with a kingside fianchetto and d3, pretty offbeat even for him. An interesting exchange sac sharpened the game into a razor, but Aronian found all the necessary moves to survive. Another great game in a tournament full of them. And while I'm extolling the chess in this event, a shout-out to the excellent web content as well. They are finally leveraging the access to the players an official site should exploit with fun interview clips and surveys.

Alekseev pressed against Ivanchuk and it looked for a moment like he missed a simple win in time trouble when he could have swapped queens with 33.Qd3+. It's definitely a try, but after doing the happy dance for a few seconds the old quad-core hits 30 ply and says White ends up with a rook pawn in a queen endgame that is likely drawn. Instructive stuff, as it looks like the black king is leagues away while the black a-pawn falls quickly. Lots of cool breakthrough variations save Black, however. Definitely worth a look, especially if you can find a win. Eljanov survived a position he had no right surviving against Mamedyarov, who is usually the escape artist. Isn't Black just lost after 17.Be5? Allowing ..c5, ..c4 and the counterchances provided by the q-side majority must have been wrong. White got chances again in a pawn-up endgame with a passer on e6 but with his knight stuck offsides somehow it didn't win. Chess is hard.

Three decisive games in the 11th round but none of them had much impact on the top of the table. Bacrot moved back to +1 with a win over Karjakin, who dropped to -1. White would have had a lot more work to do had Karjakin played ..e5 a move earlier to get his bishop back to c8 asap. Then we had wins from the two oldest players in the field. Ivanchuk woke up to score his first win by beating Grischuk's King's Indian. Well, you can't blame it on the KID, which held up fine. But in this duel of time-trouble addicts it was Grischuk who finally hung his key d6 pawn and went for a desperation mating attack that failed. Gelfand continued his up and down ways with his fourth decisive game in the last five rounds. He beat Mamedyarov, who had his third decisive game in a row.

Am I a bad person for rooting against Mamedyarov in every game since he made those cheating accusations in January? From reading the comments I'm far from alone in this, but it feels a tiny bit unfair. Not that he knows about it or could care less, I'm sure. It feels a little obvious, but I can't help it. Should there be a statute of limitations on cheering against players who do or say obnoxious things, a la Topalov and the Elista scandals? Have you ever stopped liking someone's music, or movies, because they did or said something repulsive? I remember seeing the author Piers Anthony at a signing and talk at a Berkeley book store decades ago. He wrote punny sword-and-sorcery books my friends and I were fans of in high school (and apparently he is still cranking them out at 74!). Anyway, he was obnoxious at the signing, railing against some editors and publishers no one had heard of, insulting other authors, and taking some good whacks at people's questions along the way. I don't think any of us ever read his books again. Maybe he was just having a bad day. I suppose it might have been the sort of cantankerous talk I might appreciate from a favorite author now.

Getting back to Nalchik, with two rounds to play Aronian is still in clear first with Leko a half-point behind. They meet in Wednesday's final round. Tomorrow we have Leko-Kasimjanov and Kamsky-Aronian. The Armenian beat Kamsky on the black side of a Berlin at Corus this year.

mishamp in the comments here gives a bit of the Karjakin-Ivanchuk press conference with Ivanchuk chatting about who he considers a genius and who doesn't make the cut. The original is at the chesspro.ru site, which also has a lot of very good player photos.

As hot as it got in Brooklyn today, nearly 90 after the usual 30 minute NY springtime, it was even hotter on the boards at the Nalchik Grand Prix. I must say this has been an event full of wonderful fighting chess. There's a tendency, and I have it too, of giving short shrift to these non-traditional events that don't have the full roster of A-list names. But there have been more noteworthy battles in Nalchik than I remember from Corus this year. This is the strongest of the GP events it's an explosive mix of established stars, young players trying to make a reputation and a few veterans eager to show they aren't washed up yet. All groups are looking for a chance to get into whatever may come in the FIDE world championship cycle. Whatever the reason, and despite the misleadingly high draw percentage at the start, the chess has been spectacular.

Today's 10th round of 13 was the bloodiest yet, with five of seven games decisive. Aronian won while his co-leader Alekseev lost, so the Armenian is in sole position of first on +3. We even got the rare treat of a loss for the Petroff in Leko's excellent win over Gelfand. Leko's second, Jan Gustafsson, was quite chuffed about his boss's handiwork. He also commented on the general level of play in Nalchik, opining many of the participants came loaded with sharp theoretical work and ready to fight after fairly long layoffs.

Almost all of today's wins were long affairs in which the losing side was steadily outplayed from minimal disadvantage. Aronian slowly squeezed Eljanov with a bishop pair vs a rook. Bacrot was uncharacteristically sloppy in defending an endgame against Akopian. Grischuk had a bishop pair too, though he left one buried on b2 almost to the end of the game. Bishops are long-range, but they are also long-term. Svidler's loss to Mamedyarov was of a different ilk. The ilk that makes you want to pound your head into a wall. Black was holding a wickedly sharp position when he made the wrong choice after a check and got hit by a nice tactic. Perhaps he should have taken up smoking before the game.

The two draws weren't much to look at. Kamsky's 4.Nc4 line didn't get much against Kasimjanov's Petroff despite enterprising attempts. Karjakin, who has a horrible record against his (former) countryman Ivanchuk, which might be why he was happy to repeat 37 (!) moves of a Sveshnikov he played against So a year ago before drawing three moves later.

The Lurking Leko, the only undefeated player in the field, is in clear second place. Speaking of Leko, his response about superstitions and rituals on the official site is classic Leko. "The main ritual is to check the analysis of the opening variation before the game." I'm sorry, but if this is your real answer, just make something up! "Well, some say it's a little silly, but right before each game I like to chug a half-liter of fresh yak blood." For example. Overall it sounded like most players didn't have anything beyond the occasional lucky pen. Grischuk, Alekseev, and Akopian are a full point behind Aronian. Alekseev is the only contender with the white pieces in tomorrow's 11th round. We might have some drama in the final round, when we get the Aronian-Leko pairing. Live here.

Yet more from the War for Drugs. This is a long New Yorker piece of the sort more comfortably read in print, but it's a good read worth the effort even on the screen. Nothing groundbreaking if you've been following the neurodrug news like we do here in the Dirt, but a good overview with lots of personal anecdotes and stats. They talk with a drug-taking pro poker player but no chessplayers.

Last April, the scientific journal Nature published the results of an informal online poll asking whether readers attempted to sharpen "their focus, concentration, or memory" by taking drugs such as Ritalin and Provigil--a newer kind of stimulant, known generically as modafinil, which was developed to treat narcolepsy. One out of five respondents said that they did. A majority of the fourteen hundred readers who responded said that healthy adults should be permitted to take brain boosters for nonmedical reasons, and sixty-nine per cent said that mild side effects were an acceptable risk. Though a majority said that such drugs should not be made available to children who had no diagnosed medical condition, a third admitted that they would feel pressure to give "smart drugs" to their kids if they learned that other parents were doing so. . . .

And it's not just alertness and concentration drugs anymore. Who wouldn't want to improve their memory, which is what Bobby Fischer famously said was the key to being a good chessplayer?

Among the drugs in the pipeline are ampakines, which target a type of glutamate receptor in the brain; it is hoped that they may stem the memory loss associated with diseases like Alzheimer's. But ampakines may also give healthy people a palpable cognitive boost. A 2007 study of sixteen healthy elderly volunteers found that five hundred milligrams of one particular ampakine "unequivocally" improved short-term memory, though it appeared to detract from episodic memory--the recall of past events. Another class of drugs, cholinesterase inhibitors, which are already being used with some success to treat Alzheimer's patients, have also shown promise as neuroenhancers. In one study, the drug donepezil strengthened the performance of pilots on flight simulators; in another, of thirty healthy young male volunteers, it improved verbal and visual episodic memory.

Some of the research implications are interesting. One, that the closer you already are to high-performing in a cognitive area the less these drugs are likely to help. This is commonsensical, but it's also in the peak performance areas where a tiny edge can make all the difference.

The societal implications are also well discussed, addressing the "so what?" argument that I largely embrace.

If we eventually decide that neuroenhancers work, and are basically safe, will we one day enforce their use? Lawmakers might compel certain workers--emergency-room doctors, air-traffic controllers--to take them. (Indeed, the Air Force already makes modafinil available to pilots embarking on long missions.) For the rest of us, the pressure will be subtler--that queasy feeling I get when I remember that my younger colleague is taking Provigil to meet deadlines. All this may be leading to a kind of society I'm not sure I want to live in: a society where we're even more overworked and driven by technology than we already are, and where we have to take drugs to keep up; a society where we give children academic steroids along with their daily vitamins. . . .

t makes no sense to ban the use of neuroenhancers. Too many people are already taking them, and the users tend to be educated and privileged people who proceed with just enough caution to avoid getting into trouble. Besides, Anjan Chatterjee is right that there is an apt analogy with plastic surgery. In a consumer society like ours, if people are properly informed about the risks and benefits of neuroenhancers, they can make their own choices about how to alter their minds, just as they can make their own decisions about shaping their bodies.

Another way to accelerate our culture doesn't sound very attractive, especially if it's only among those who can afford it. It would add another layer to the better neighborhoods, better schools, and other advantages of wealth. Chess pros with enough money to work more with coaches and seconds have an advantage as well. (Though unlike with drugs, they usually earned that money by doing very well without the entourage first.) And there is no way you are ever going to find a 12-year-old international-class wunderkind whose family can't afford a computer today.

But as dystopian as our drugged-out chess future may sound, I do hope people will be open about their experiences so that at least we get to learn something. They don't have to wear "I'm taking 20mg of Adderall today" stickers to the tournament, but I'm sure the science people would love to hear from chessplayers who play and/or train under the influence.

With nobody making much a move near the top, Aronian's +2 is good enough for first place after eight rounds of the Nalchik Grand Prix with five rounds still to play. Five players are tied for 2-6 on +1, giving flashbacks to the massive tie in the last round of Corus. Most of the action has been the early duds coming back and a few early success falling apart. In the latter category, Gata Kamsky has lost three of his last four. In the 7th he was a move away from a wild win over Karjakin but blundered and lost. In the 8th he ran into Eljanov, his bête noire. I think this is the fifth time the Ukrainian has beaten Kamsky in five tries over the past year and a half. Bizarre.

Kamsky still hasn't reached Ivanchuk at the bottom of the crosstable. The great Vassily is en route to dropping another massive pile of rating points. After plunging on the last list he might do it again in July unless he rights the ship. Bacrot is the drawing master of the event with eight in a row of varying degrees of dullness and inferiority. Svidler moved back to +1 with a nice Grunfeld win over Eljanov in the 6th. The next day he made 22 moves against Kasimjanov's Petroff Defense. When teased about his theoretical efforts not keeping Petroff players up at night he replied that in fact, his game was a fine demonstration of positional sacrifice to equalize with the white pieces... But overall it should be said that there have been a great number of very interesting and hard-fought games so far in Nalchik.

The official website has a nice little item with comments from a few of the players on seconds and seconding. Not listed, Peter Leko is there with German GM Jan Gustafsson, who has been seconding regularly lately. Having a sort of professional pal with you to keep you focused must be a good thing, even if, as Akopian says, having someone you can trust around you is more important than the chess work.

The strongest event in this first Grand Prix series is turning out to be another tight affair. Hard fighting, lots of draws, and a few surprises on the crosstable. Ivanchuk, fresh from dropping buckets of rating points on the April list, is in the cellar with two miniature losses. The latest happy recipient of a visit from Ivanchuk's dark side was Kasimjanov, who found the nice 22..d4! (23.exd4 Nxd4 24.Qb4 and ye olde double knight fork trick on f3 wins.) Ivanchuk might have been able to suffer on for a few more moves in full grovel mode with 24.Qd1. But he put himself out of his misery and allowed a pretty finish instead. Chalk this one up in the "removing the guard" and "overloading" sections of your tactics archive.

Kamsky missing the stalemate draw trick 93..Rxe7 against Akopian was old news ten minutes after it happened. Rough stuff. That it happened on move 93 when Kamsky was already averaging 79 moves per game without a rest day provides a little mitigation. It still puts a tiny dent in Kamsky's deserved reputation as an ironman. It also knocked him back down to an even score. The day before that, Kamsky did the same thing to Peter Svidler in another long technical grind, the only decisive game of round 4. Leko again showed he came fully loaded with another sharp novelty, this time 14.Nxd5 against Karjakin. Fun stuff, including the rare chance to see White play 0-0-0 with a black knight on d2. Ivanchuk gave up his queen against Eljanov in another wild battle. A coincidence that Jan Gustafsson is seconding Leko in Nalchik? I think not. The fighting spirit of Nalchik also produced a spectacular piece sac from Boris Gelfand against Bacrot, though this one also ended up in a draw.

Grischuk still leads alone on +2. Karjakin, Leko, Aronian, and Alekseev follow. Leko-Alekseev leads round six. Live here.

An evil stomach bug has laid me low for the last few days. I'm so ready for the illness months to be over. I don't think the three of us have been healthy at the same time since October. Bleh. Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Nalchik, the winners of this year's two supertournaments are doing well. Grischuk has the early clear lead with 2.5/3, reminiscent of his early Linares sprint. His won both his whites against Gelfand and Kasimjanov. Both are excellent efforts, especially the sharp win against Kasim in today's round. Big, risky chess.

Mamedyarov's short, sharp, loss with white against Aronian in the first round has led to a few jokes, but I'm happy to point out that Rybka disagrees with exactly one of Black's moves. Had Aronian played 29..Qxc2 instead of the simple liquidation 29..Rg8 near the end, who knows what might have happened. (Kasparov has an original take on Mamedyarov-Kurnosov in the upcoming New In Chess, btw.) Another game of note is Leko's win over Akopian today. He played a rather un-Leko-like pawn sac out of the opening. A nice piece of prep that he followed up aggressively. Karjakin scored a fun win today against Aronian, who started out with 2/2 and perhaps forgot for a moment he's not completely invincible. After all the horrible positions he saved (and even won) at Amber he might have figured he could just give Karjakin a pawn. Or he thought there was no way to save the e-pawn and decided 16..Nd5 was the best way to bail out.

Karjakin has made more news off the board lately. According to Russian journo Vasilyev and Karjakin's Ukrainian countryman Mikhail Golubev in Chess Today, Karjakin is preparing to switch federations to play for Russia. Such a high-profile jump hasn't happened in quite a while, at least since the collapse of the USSR spread strong players to the four winds, or at least three. Was Shirov the last top player to make such a move? If news like this was going to come out about a star changing to the Russian federation I would have thought first of another K, Kamsky. With money being so scarce it's a little surprising there aren't more high-profile defections. Ponomariov has been sitting out Ukrainian team events for a while already. Still, it does smack of poaching, doesn't it? It's one thing if you move, settle down, marry a local, that sort of thing.

Speaking of Kamsky, he's drawn all his games but each was an adventure. He earned a miracle draw against Leko, holding with knight and rook against queen. He was on the other side of it a day later as Bacrot held an opposite-colored bishop ending despite being down two connected passed pawns. That such things are drawn seems to be a crime, but at least they give us one of our few remaining chances to laugh at computers. They will call this +2.65 or similar forever and never get any closer to a win. In the 3rd round Kamsky defended a typically horrific-looking Grunfeld against Mamedyarov. White gets such optically overwhelming positions in so many of these lines it was really more than my already traumatized stomach could bear.

Leaders face off in round four with Aronian-Grischuk and Leko-Karjakin. Live here.

The latest chapter of the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't FIDE Grand Prix series begins tomorrow in Nalchik, Russia. Live game link. Also on the ICC. Our spy on the scene sends in this remarkable report from the inevitable music and folkdancing segment of the opening ceremony.

The highlight was some cute little girls singing "I want to play like Svidler". As I'm sure Peter is too humble to mention it himself, I figured I'd do him the favour.

Indeed! And I'm sure the Dirt readers can come up with equally inspiring song titles and lyrics in honor of El Svid and other participants in Nalchik. They are: Aronian, Leko, Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Bacrot, Kamsky, Mamedyarov, Karjakin, Alekseev, Gelfand, Eljanov, Akopian, Kasimjanov.

I think the name "Levon Aronian" has great musicality and can be sung to the tune of Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again." E.g. "Levon Aronian, I just can't wait to play Levon Aronian. The life I love is following Marshall Gambit trends, and I just can't wait to play Levon Aronian." Don't worry my daughter, I'm not quitting my day job.

chess observer in the comments rocks the mic with a full rendition of "Mamedyarov Rhapsody." A can't miss. This will help you sing along.

"I see a little cigarette in his hand,
Scaramouche, scaramouche where did the man go?
Empty pack and lighter - nothing too indicting"

You can find occasional amusement digging through the digitized troves of chess material Google Books is accumulating. Many are from the Harvard College Library. For example, two books of chess poetry from the end of the 19th century by the Brooklyn Chess Club Treasurer, William Duval. Some of his campy doggerel even approaches poetry at times. And when it approaches it closely enough it beats it to death. Still, always a cool feeling to read about Pillsbury at Hastings 1895 from someone writing in 1895. Duval was worthy of a tiny obit in the NY times when he died in 1902.

Not everything is so atrocious, mind you. You can read The Book of the 1st American Chess Congress of 1857. You can even see the book itself was a donation from none other than James Russell Lowell! Cool. I have a facsimile edition of the book, Olms from the 80s I think, but somehow it's better to see this original, even online. The first chapter is a long history of chess, the second is an overview of the state of chess in the USA at the time. The incredible detail of every aspect of the organization and run-up to the event is a little tedious at times, but you do get the sense of being there. The decor of the hall is described in minute detail. Great description of Paulsen's blindfold exhibition and the contemporary coverage of it.

Or how about a complete run of the American Chess Magazine, with its quirky, chatty stories, jokes and fiction tossed in, and including the enlightening report on Blackburne's comments about the benefits of whiskey on chess (page 494 of the 1898 volume). Love the ads as well, especially for "the telephone service." Several volumes of The British Chess Magazine are also there.

How about this tidbit from Lasker's Chess Magazine, 1905, just in case you weren't sure that we just keep asking the same questions with new names, ad infinitum.

The faculty of always doing one's best in chess, as also in the general affairs of life, is granted to but few. It is largely a matter of temperament; the daring and imaginative man comes to grief occasionally though his successes may be great and striking. This winning gift in chess Tarrasch and Lasker possess almost to perfection. Blackburne never had it, and perhaps Marshall, of great masters, least of all, whilst Steinitz, with an overweening affection for the products of his own brain, lost many important games. No wonder the old conundrum always comes to the front:-- How would the Morphy of forty-seven years ago (given equal advantage of time) fare with the Lasker of to-day? Meanwhile we wait for Paul's successor. -- Yorkshire Weekly Post

The Google Books tools are also handy. You can see how often certain chess phrases and quotations were used and reused over the decades, which people and places were most often mentioned, etc. Great research tool. Any good chess finds of your own?

Tab dump:

Former world junior champ Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan won the Foxwoods Open title by defending the black side in an armageddon blitz playoff game against US champ Yury Shulman, who led most of the way. Robert Hess, on the wing from winning the SuperNationals with 7/7, scored his final GM norm despite a late loss to Sadvakasov. He beat Ehlvest and Nakamura (who dropped out with two rounds to play). Is Sadvakasov based in the US now?

Birthday wishes to the Boss from Lubomir Kavalek, whose excellent Washington Post column was recently axed from the print paper but will continue online.

I stumbled across this interview with Topalov in Gazeta in my daily Russian news crawl. His usual frankness is on display, criticizing his play against Kamsky, impressed by Kamsky's opening prep, acknowledging he'll have to be much better against Anand, doesn't like the new candidates tournament since he's sure it wouldn't have existed has Kramnik beaten Anand (agreed, though it's stupid for other reasons and we can't ignore Topalov and Kamsky also get free rides), added pressure of 12-game match vs 24 since any loss can be fatal. Good stuff, if not groundbreaking. Girly Sue in the comments points out Chessdom has some of it in English here.

The 4th FIDE Grand Prix starts in Nalchik on the 15th. The strongest of the series, top seeds are Aronian, Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Leko. Quotable from the official site: "The FIDE Grand Prix is a series of six tournaments held over two years (2008-2009) in leading world cities." Someone needs to update the copy they used at the GP launch...

With much of the attention on visiting dignitaries like Loek van Wely and top seed Hikaru Nakamura, US champion Yury Shulman has moved out to an impressive 5.5/6 score in the powerful Foxwoods Open at the casino resort of the same name in Connecticut. He leads alone with Shabalov, Akobian, Lenderman, and young Robert Hess a half-point back. Hess made news in the fifth round by beating Nakamura from the black side. It's a nine-round event with a $10,000 first prize.

A strange thing happened on the way to the Gedeon Barcza Memorial in Budapest. Even stranger things happened after the tournament started. It went all of one round before it fell apart for financial reasons. One of the players, Robert Ris of the Netherlands, tells the sad tale from his perspective in an open letter on TWIC. Basically the players ended up having to pay their own travel to and, abruptly, from Budapest, while the hotel was apparently stiffed for a few days before finally kicking the event and the players out when no money was forthcoming from organizer Gabor Pali.

Aside from his eponymous System -- involving playing g3 promptly, pretty much -- Barcza is most familiar to me from his book on the 1942 so-called European Championship, which took place in Munich at the height of WWII. Alekhine and Keres starred, with the world champion winning by a point over Keres thanks to a victory in their head-to-head matchup. Barcza's Wikipedia page has some career highlights. Not exactly a world-beater, but certainly the poor guy deserves better than having his name sullied by a catastrophe like this one.

Does someone have to call for a FIDE investigation that might lead to stripping a fraudulent and/or incompetent organizer of the ability to organize FIDE events? A few years ago they eventually came down pretty hard on Jean Paul Touze, who epically bungled the World Youth Games in Belfort in 2005.

The mighty Russian team championships are underway. Ivanchuk, Svidler, Movsesian, Jakovenko, Grischuk, Gelfand, Caruana (2-0 with two wins with black so far), and many other top players are in action. Or "action" if you judge things based on the percentage of draws, which has been very high so far. It's seven rounds. Check out Nepomniachtchi-Kharitonov and Timofeev's nice queen sac. Shirov has a pretty finish in his mini over Wang Hao, showing that just because Anand can do well with the Poisoned Pawn it doesn't mean everyone can pull it off. PGN after the jump.

Wow. I could exhaust a thesaurus of adjectives on how incredible this event is. Just so fantastic to see so many chess kids, parents, coaches, and everyone else having such a blast here at the Nashville SuperNationals. Despite having to navigate the wonderful chaos constantly, I've had a pretty cloistered view of it all, following along behind Garry through the massive Gaylord Convention complex. Garry's keynote presentation, "My Life in Chess," went over well today, if to certainly the easiest audience he's ever had. As he said in the intro, usually in his speeches he has to worry about how much chess the audience can handle. Here it was practically the opposite, as each anecdote from his chess childhood led to another and it was clear he was enjoying the reminiscences of youth tournaments and Botvinnik as much as the audience of 300+.

That number was really the only negative, since it was obvious from how fast the free tickets were given out (and by the hordes of disappointed) that there could have been five times that number of spectators, if not ten. But for whatever reason, no larger room was made available, so it was a relatively intimate affair. Garry's 25-minute talk turned into 45 and then another 20 of Q&A after that. Slides showed childhood photos, including one of a 10-year-old Kasparov in plaid pants looking at a position with Botvinnik, and a brief montage of recent Hollywood movies with prominent chess placement. (Righteous Kill and Traitor, the first two.) Aside from the biography, the message to the scholastic crowd centered on hard work and how the lessons of chess will stay with everyone. The conclusion:

For most of my life, my life was chess. That will not be the case for most in this room. What is important is to take chess, and what chess teaches you, everywhere for the rest of your life. The enjoyment, the concentration, the work ethic, the pride, the friendships - all are more important than rating points or the ability to find a mate in four. But for a few, chess is like a native language, as beautiful as any music, as any work of art. And maybe it will become as special to you as it was, and is, to me. Thank you.

I'll put up some pics of our trip later, here or elsewhere. If you don't think it occasionally got a little wild for the world's most famous chessplayer negotiating around 10,000 chessplayers, check out this photo from the opening of today's 5th round at the 4-6 grade section. He made the honorary first move on board one and was asked to give a brief "go get'em" from the podium.

The sea of raised cell-phones always looks funny to me. It took 10 minutes to walk the 20 feet to the exit! Basically this happened any time he stopped out in the open for more than 20 seconds. Everyone was very friendly and all the kids adorable, but the sheer force of numbers could be overwhelming. The book signings were also astounding, with well over 300 books on each day in the two allotted hours. Garry had a good time and was beyond impressed with the turnout here in Nashville. I met quite a few Dirt readers and ICC Chess.FM listeners, always fun. Of course I haven't followed the actual tournaments here at all, which I feel a little bad about. And leaving before the end is a bit weird. But already tonight it was back to the much less enjoyable topics of mayoral races in Sochi and battered human rights activists. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. Congrats and thanks to the USCF for this opportunity.

There were a few surprises awaiting me upon arrival in Nashville. Not the helpful Ghanaian cab driver -- "The food at the hotel is overpriced. There's a liquor store two blocks over there and you can just take things back to your room." How did he know just from looking at me that I was the type of guest who was likely to want to make bulk purchases of alcohol? Like every other airport cabbie in town he'd been ferrying hundreds of chess kids here to the gigantic Gaylord Opryland Convention Center, which has more rooms than Johnny Cash had black shirts.

The first surprise was being told at check-in to wait for the "Celebrity Services" concierge to come attend to my every need. Other than actually getting a room, mind you, since that wasn't ready yet. But I guess there is some celebrity spillover from Garry since I'm here as part of his "delegation." I'm hoping to figure out how exactly to leverage this status other than by making lovely VIP concierges with adorable southern accents appear at will. Which isn't bad, I suppose. My room is nice, but it's good to be the king. Garry's suite is big enough to swallow entire hotels I've stayed in with room to spare. (USCF Executive Director Bill Hall's suite is said to be the same. Not that there's anything wrong with that.) I suggested to Garry that I should move in to one of the distant regions of his suite and we could sublet mine.

The next surprise could be called the Gaylord micro-climate. The massive roofed-in complex seems to contain several rivers and forests of types montane, coniferous, and possibly subcutaneous. I'm sure I can hear a waterfall from my little balcony.

So while I'm waiting for Dr. Livingstone to pop up through the canopy, there is quite a bit going on. The 11am (central time, I'd forgotten) opening ceremony is at the Grand Ole Opry itself, one of the most famous venues in the music world. Garry is going to speak for a few minutes, along with the astronaut who played chess from space and a honcho from the University of Texas at Dallas, which provides scholarships and probably other things I'm entirely ignorant of. The capacity is 4300, but nobody seems sure how many people are going to schlep over there (it's a 10-minute walk, I think) to listen to remarks, announcements, and, who knows, maybe folkdancing. Would be a shame if there isn't any music.

by Betsy Dynako for ICC/WCL

Barely enough time to hang my hat after getting back from DC before I'm headed back out again, this time to the amazing SuperNationals scholastic event in Nashville, Tennessee. That's the official site; a full schedule can be downloaded here.

I wish I was in Nashville, guitar on my back
Maybe someday I will ride in the back of a big Cadillac

I don't know about the Cadillac. I doubt anyone will even pick me up the airport at 7:44 Friday morning. But get there I will, all the way to the Grand Ole Opry. I'll be there all Friday and Saturday with Garry Kasparov, who is a special guest and keynote speaker. He'll make a few remarks at the 11am opening ceremony on Friday, make the first move on board one of the high school section at 1pm, then has a book signing at 4pm. Saturday is the main event, an hour with a lecture and slideshow plus Q&A. Another book signing at 4.

The Nashville schedule is full of other great events, including simuls and lectures from Kosteniuk, Benjamin, Shabalov, Ashley, Zatonskih, Stripunsky, Shulman, and many others. I'll be the tall one with the shaved head, relatively easy to spot in the inevitable massive crowd around Garry. Please say hello and offer to buy me alcohol.

Oh, we're such wacky fellows. I'm headed to DC for an entire day of entirely unfunny political meetings. Amuse yourselves with Chessbase's shenanigans (only one is a joke) and point out any other good items out there.