July 2009 Archives

After starting off with two losses in the FiNet Chess960 championship in the Mainz Classic, US champ Hikaru Nakamura bounced back all the way into shared first place on the second day. That put him into today's final match of four games against defending champ Aronian. The Armenian lost his first two games today after his own clean 3-0 sweep on day one, but he won when it counted, beating Movsesian to seal his place the final. After exchanging wins in the first phase, the final is anyone's to take. Live games begin at 1830 local, 1230pm EDT.

[Nakamura is up 2-0 against Aronian with white in game three. -- And he just annihilated Aronian in 22 moves to take the Chess960 world title! Three-nil against Aronian, wow. (They play the fourth game anyway, which is nice for the fans. Chapeau to the Mainz folks for that. -- And we got our money's worth as well, a cute endgame bishop sac from Nakamura to force a draw. Final score 3.5-0.5. Movsesian beat Bologan for 3rd 2.5-1.5.)]

If Nakamura wins there's probably some horribly strained element of serendipity to be made about a US champion becoming the world champion in a chess variant spawned by the last US world champion. Maybe not. Speaking of world champions, shuffle chess may well be an indicator of pure tactical talent, but course where we really want to see Nakamura in Mainz is sitting across from Anand with all the pieces on their correct squares. That might happen next year if Nakamura manages to win the incredibly strong Ordix open, the participant list of which is now up. The top ten participants would make a tidy category 19 tournament! Rapid aces like Kasimjanov and Sargissian lurk below that group and there are another 20 players over 2600. Yow.

Other than just enjoying the fireworks and blunders, there are a few interesting things about watching shuffle chess. One is seeing how differently the games evolve from the same setup. This is particularly interesting once the big open starts and you have dozens of GM games going. Some are remarkably similar to each other as the players struggle to impose normal chess logic on the board while other players seem to be playing as much for chaos as anything else.

It's also notable how the players often rely on prophylaxis right from the start. Standard techniques of controlling a knight's outposts, for example, or blocking enemy diagonals, are valid regardless of the starting squares of the pieces. Humans just don't feel comfortable without such mechanisms. This is a secondary reason computers are so devastating against humans at shuffle chess, apart from the primary one that the games are pure tactics from the start. Comps don't waste time with common sense defensive moves.

Between vacation and the mountain of work that awaited my return, I just haven't had time to cover Biel much. It looks like Morozevich has blown several wins along the way. But he came back to beat Ivanchuk yesterday to give young French GM Vachier-Lagrave clear first and the opportunity of a lifetime. This wasn't the first Russo-Franco friendship gift of the tournament. Morozevich completely destroyed Vachier-Lagrave in the eighth round only to miss win after win and eventually even go on to lose the key game.

Kudos to the Frenchman for good defense, but he slipped on a banana peel and dodged a bullet. The simple 26.Rxf8+ Rxf8 27.Qxe5 was curtains. The endgame was bizarre, with two passed pawns vs a rook. It looks trivial, but looks can be deceiving. 56.b4! Bxf4 57.b5 is a little trickier than the game. But there's still a "king zugzwang" in there eventually and when the white bishop moves so does the black g-pawn, allowing the black bishop to defend g7 and h8 as in the game. Then the black h-pawn is an easy win.

But you can't call first place in a category 19 luck, especially if you're undefeated and coming with one day's break from a category 18. (Vachier-Lagrave had just played in San Sebastian.) Morozevich and Ivanchuk are a half-point behind with 5/9 and even Alekseev can hit the podium with a win. Gelfand and Caruana share the cellar on -2. Final round pairings: Alekseev-Vachier-Lagrave, Morozevich-Caruana, Gelfand-Ivanchuk. Live here at 1400 local, 8am EDT.

The Chess Tigers Mainz Classic is underway with its incredible set of large and powerful events. Most eyes are on the self-proclaimed GrenkeLeasing world rapid championship, though I liked the old straight-up match play instead of this two-stage process. World Champion Vishy Anand is there yet again to play king of the hill. Trying to knock him off and prevent his 10th consecutive and 12th win overall are Aronian, Nepomniachtchi, and Naiditsch. Anand has won every event but one since he first participated in 1997. (In 1999, the "past and future champion" edition with Anand, Kramnik, Kasparov, and Karpov in a quadruple round-robin, Garry took it.) Twice Kramnik took Anand to blitz tiebreaks before going down. The most sensational match was surely that against Judit Polgar in 2003: eight games, all decisive, with Anand trailing after five only to win the last three in a row. Over the years, in various formats, Anand has also knocked off Kasparov, Karpov, Aronian, Radjabov, Carlsen, Shirov, Grischuk, Topalov, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, and, well, Eric Lobron. I think Morozevich is 0/4 against Anand in these events.

In sum, Vishy is the favorite in Mainz until his wheelchair rusts. Aronian got some consolation revenge by beating Anand in the "Chess960" shuffle chess final last year and the Armenian is also back to defend his title. The opening ceremonies are over and group play in the two premier events begins tomorrow. The two massive opens, Ordix rapid and FiNet chess960, don't start for a few more days and are back-to-back so players can participate in both. There's even a prize for best combined score. Nakamura won the FiNet last year and so will challenge Aronian for the chess960 title, along with Bologan and Movsesian.

The all-important page of links to the live broadcasts is here. PLEASE update html results and PGN somewhere promptly, Tigers! It's always a struggle to find out what happened because the new live games replace the old ones and we spend half the day asking around if anyone saw the results of round x. Danke! [There's a round-by-round list of replay links on the bottom of that live page, which isn't as handy as having html results and crosstables, but is a help. Just add up all the scores yourself. The other reason I complain about this regularly is that like many people I'm often checking in on a mobile device that can't view Flash objects like the DGT Toma board software.]

Okay, so you'll stop writing me about it, the results of the USCF executive board elections are in. So will some knowledgeable personages capable of succinct and coherent expression please tell the rest of us what these results mean? Universal health care? Flat tax? Dark square on the right side? Public tarring and feathering of anyone in the organization with a lawyer on speed dial?

I'm still vaguely horrified that the USCF has a 'one member one vote' system in the first place. A large, largely disinterested base of hobbyists simply aren't going to take the time and effort, even supposing sufficient information about the candidates were easily available. OMOV is also a massive and generally fruitless diversion of time and resources for a small organization. The USCF isn't a co-op.

For those of you into new-fangled thingamawhatsits like online chess video, Macauley Peterson's trip to the Scottish Championship should get you all a-Twitter. From the source:

www.Chess.fm/blog

The latest is a video interview with the winner, GM Arun Prasad, of Salem, India, who knocked off his friend and compatriot, GM Magesh Chandra Panchanathan in the final round to earn the GBP £1,200.00 first prize.

Next, the highest scoring Scot was an unlikely fellow, FM Iain Gourlay, the fourteenth seed, who nevertheless finished ahead of five Scottish GMs to earn the national title.

And a bonus audio interview with the young Islandic FM Gudmundur Kjartansson, who earned his first GM norm in Edinburgh during a fantastic run that included wins over GMs Prasad, Panchanathan and Colin McNab, and an exciting last round draw with GM Mark Hebden.

Och, and who dayn't be rememberin' wee Arun McPrasad? In case you were wondering, it's the OPEN Scottish Championship, so top Scot wins the title, if not the cash. While flicking through a few recent games on vacation I paused for a brief goggle at the spectacular Panchanathan-Rowson game, after the jump. Don't forget to turn off your computer engine first so you can enjoy it. I'm now surprised to find that Rowson's 13..h5 had been played before, if not in a particularly illustrious game. It looks like a Najdorf idea gone walkabout. The Kjartansson-Hebden game Macauley mentions is also worth a look.

In the words of Victor Hugo, "When liberty returns, I will return." Except that I wasn't in exile and I'm coming back regardless. Vacation is ending all too soon. Anything going on out there in the chess world? Step right up...

Moro we missed you! After absenting himself from classical chess since Corus, Russia's mercurial Alexander Morozevich showed no rust in starting off with 2/2 in Biel. He outdueled countryman Alekseev in a typically insane Moro game in the first, finishing off with a lovely offensive king march. In the second round he was pressuring Gelfand in an endgame when the Israeli blundered a piece, abruptly ending the game. Those were also the only two decisive games in the first two rounds. Morozevich drew with black against Vachier-Lagrave in the third while Ivanchuk beat Caruana to move into clear second place.

In the Oldies But Goodies Dept. it was interesting to see two of the wins coming in archaic king's pawn openings, though they can't exactly be credited for the full points. Morozevich couldn't stand to see Gelfand's Petroff and went with 2.Bc4. Ivanchuk tested Caruana in a Four Knights that's older than its appearance in Tarrasch-Marshall. Caruana sacrificed a pawn but got into trouble with White's quick play on the g-file.

The reason I'm not covering this is the same reason I haven't covered just about any of the related Polgar/Truong/Sloan/USCF sleaze and idiocy for months. I don't care. It's boring. We don't know anything. The last time I felt forced to mention it -- because it was erupting in the comments like now -- I said I'd comment on it when there were final court decisions and/or convictions. An arrest is not a conviction. Start your own thread on it in the message boards if there aren't 10 already. Please leave this particularly noxious off-topic garbage to the Usenet and, of course, to the NY Times, where apparently it was the only thing on American chess fit to print that day. Nakamura's win in San Sebastian was the same day, but Times readers got this dribble. Maybe the US champ's big victory will make the cut next week, unless some USCF lawyer blows his nose.

The massive annual Biel chess festival is underway. The top GM event that begins tomorrow at 1400 local, 8am EDT, is just the cherry on top of a menu of events that include rapid, blitz, and even chess-tennis and chess-poker tournaments. I guess chess-tennis is a natural in the land of Federer and at least it's not chess boxing. The main GM event in Biel has usually focused on an interesting mix as well as having a spot for at least one local player, Yannick Pelletier in recent years, after he surpassed Korchnoi on the rating list. This year they've fallen in with the Elo maximalist crowd and put together a category 19. The format is the extremely tired six-player all-play-all, which they also used last year when the event was won by Alekseev in a playoff with Dominguez after they split first ahead of Carlsen. Onischuk and Carlsen tied for first in 2007, the Norwegian winning the speed tiebreak.

This 42nd edition is the strongest yet, even with Ivanchuk's abnormally deflated current rating bringing down the expected average. The field: Gelfand, Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Alekseev, Vachier-Lagrave, and Caruana. Not a Swiss player in sight. Maybe the fact that Pelletier's rating has dropped to 2574 hurt him, or perhaps it was his horrific 1.5/10 score last year. Or maybe he's just busy? The tournament breaks down the middle into veterans with high ratings versus young guns with big aspirations. 16-year-old Brooklynite-playing-for-Italy Caruana will turn 17 at the end of the event and it's been another impressive year for him. His last event, the Ruy Lopez tournament in Spain, wasn't very good for him, however, and it can be dangerous trying to bounce back against such a powerful veteran crowd. It's like having Paris Hilton as your rebound girlfriend. But Caruana has no fear of 2700s and he pummeled a few of them at the Russian Team Ch this year.

The pairings are up and the first round is: Morozevich-Alekseev, Gelfand-Caruana, Vachier-Lagrave-Ivanchuk. Live games here. Ivanchuk, of course, is coming directly from the Greek Team Ch and Vachier-Lagrave had only a day of travel after his wild (and illness-marred) San Sebastian. Morozevich has barely played in the last few months. Alekseev also seems to have taken the last few months off, which is a bit odd.

Ole! I think we need to set up a fund to bribe Nakamura into wearing that San Sebastian champion's txapela to his next tournament. And/or his next date. There are a few more final pics in the Donostia Flickr set, randomly mixed in with the rest.

Definitely, more tournaments should include headgear for the winners. And maybe a big dunce cap for the losers. That would provide some fighting chess at the bottom of the crosstable in the final round.

From San Sebastian event organizer Felix Izeta in the comments. First, at the start of the final round:

I'd like to apologize for not including the Sofia rules, even if we had not too many short draws here.

I guess this is the price we have to pay in order to learn from experience. Please understand this is our first big event. By the way, if we continue next year, the tournament would be by knockout system (2 games, then blitz tie break if needed), which I think decreases the risk of having short draws anyway.

Interesting, though I liked the 10-player all-play-all just fine. If it's a KO, I'd like to suggest using one of the formats in which the eliminated players continue playing each other to establish final placing. (Like the FIDE rapid grand prix did.) More games that way so your favorite guy doesn't get sent home in three hours. Just don't make it another double all-play-all with six players!

And more from GM Izeta after the final round:

Thank you all for the nice words I'm reading when I'm back home from the closing dinner. At the end of the second game Ponomariov had about 4 seconds when he resigned, Nakamura more than 1 minute. Anyway [Ponomariov] was totally outplayed in both blitz games. These games have been recorded by video so we will provide the correct moves.

Nakamura's play has been impressive both in the normal games and in the blitz. In my humble opinion he has huge potential and this tournament is only the start of a successful career at the world's top. Incidentally, Capablanca also won San Sebastian 1911 when he was very young and relatively unknown, like this nice American guy. We are very happy about Nakamura winning our tournament although Ponomariov would have been also a great winner as he's very nice too. Greetings from the Basque Country, time to go to bed here!

Gabon! I thought the old quote was "nice guys finish last" so I'm not so sure about that part! Zing! Bang! Plop. Oh well, thus ends a great event, short draws aside. A pity about Svidler and Vachier-Lagrave getting sick, as well, as it clearly took a toll on their play. It looks like Nakamura will settle in at the #17 spot on Hans Arild Runde's Live Top List as the meat in a Chuk sandwich. Here's some trivia for you brainiacs. Who was the last American other than Kamsky to be in the top 20? And in what year did that person first do it and when did he leave?

[US champ Hikaru Nakamura drew with black against Kasimjanov while Ponomariov beat Vallejo to tie for first on +4, 6.5/9. In a blitz playoff for the title, Nakamura beat Ponomariov 2-0. Woo! Congrats to both for tremendous results.] (Photo from David Llada's Donostia Flickr set.)

This is it! Final round: Kasimjanov-Nakamura, Ponomariov-Vallejo, Granda-Svidler, San Segundo-Karpov, Movsesian-Vachier-Lagrave. The round begins an hour earlier than usual, so 1600 CET, 10:00am Eastern. Live here. If Kasimjanov doesn't get anything with white I doubt either of them will tempt fate. Ponomariov will probably push till the clock falls apart if he gets any edge. Blitz playoff if they tie for first. It's technically possible to have a three-way tie and a mini blitz tournament, but unlikely. (Nakamura loses, Ponomariov draws, Svidler wins. Or Nakamura loses, Vallejo wins, Svidler wins.) Call'em like you see'em.

In the Kutxa 'B Group' tournament, van Wely's smooth cruise to victory was sunk by a wild loss to Hamdouchi in the 7th round. The Dutchman now trails Magem Badals by a half-point. Flear and Prie are tied for first in the Euskal Xake Eskola Tournament, Flear with good chances since he's paired with the low-rated tail-ender. Sophie Milliet of France beat her co-leader Melnikova to take over clear first by a point in the Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa Tournament.

Update: Looks like we're headed for a blitz playoff. Nakamura handled his business and held Kasimjanov to a quick draw. But Vallejo is defending rather horribly an exchange down after a direct attack by Ponomariov netted him a big plus. (And he could have won instantly with 26.exd6! winning the black queen.) -- Yep, there it is, 1-0. Now it's two 5-minute blitz games for the title with a 5'-4' armageddon game if needed. Though the real tournament is over with impressive +4 scores for both Nakamura and Ponomariov. Great job by both. The arrival of a new star -- Nakamura now joins the top 20 -- and the return of an old one?

High-pressure blitz is a crapshoot of course and the conventional wisdom is that the player who came from behind has some sort of psychological advantage. We'll see, but these shootouts are usually such a mess I find it hard to show much interest. I suppose they are necessary to a point, and better than system tiebreaks. But I'm of the standard opinion that in these situations the players tied for first and so-and-so got the title on tiebreaks. Don't know how much of a break they'll give the players. Blitz relays are notoriously tricky.

If you couldn't guess, all the other games were drawn without much work.

Update: Nakamura wins first tiebreak game with white. (33.Qxe5!! is an instant immortal. Ow.) After the usual blitz relay mess it appears he has also won game two! (No score yet.) And they said all those years smashing people on the ICC were a waste of time! US champ Hikaru Nakamura is the San Sebastian champion and winner of the txapela!

The score of the second blitz game will likely remain unknown/incomplete until they go over the video David Llada made of it. The first one was sure a crusher. Not sure if they split the first two prizes as is usual or if Nakamura gets the full 9,000 euros ($12,700). Second is 6,000. [Now confirmed that Nakamura gets the full 9,000.]

In progress, live here. The only game to finish so far is Nakamura-Movsesian, a 17-move draw in the Philidor. (Didn't the Philidor used to be considered just bad? (Other than by Bent Larsen.) It actually has a plus score in games between 2600+ players over the last few years! From people trying to pound it and failing, I assume, but still.) No doubt the pressure of running out to a big lead in the biggest event of his life is having an effect on Nakamura, not to mention the energy it took. Obviously it's always a tough choice between wanting to fight when you're in good form and not wanting to risk ruining such an amazing result as the end nears. I'm not sure whether to criticize the short draws with white or commend his professional pragmatism in the home stretch. Had he forced the issue in an equal position and gone on to lose we'd be calling him an idiot for not being realistic, mature, etc. So I'll have it both ways and say they were lame, smart draws! I can do that, I'm just a blogger.

I should also mention the importance of accumulating rating points, as lame as that sounds, and is. Until you push up high enough you're just another schmuck unless you're under 17 or so. That's just the reality of the way the invitations go out and the top players are well aware of it. That's why we see so many pragmatic draws near the end from guys having bad tournaments instead of the do-or-die fights the fans want. Pragmatism isn't a spectator sport and without Sofia rules and organizers who look beyond Elo, this is what we're going to get. Once again with feeling: the players aren't stupid. They will use the rules to their advantage and would be dumb not to. So shame the players a little and root for the fighters we love, but it's the rules that need changing.

Svidler has the flu (Vachier-Lagrave was also in a bad way for a few days) and was expected to use white against Ponomariov to make a quick draw today, but so far that hasn't happened. [They drew ten minutes later.] The position after move 20 does look pretty even though, so it looks like Nakamura will take the black pieces tomorrow against Kasimjanov needing a draw to guarantee himself at least a share of first even if Ponomariov beats Vallejo with white. Tiebreaks for first place are two blitz games followed by an armageddon game and you know Nakamura would be the favorite there. Btw, in the all-Spanish match-up San Segundo just totally lost control of a wild tactical mess against Vallejo and is now dead lost. [He just resigned, so Vallejo is now in a tie for 3-4 with Svidler on 5/8. Ponomariov has 5.5, Nakamura 6.]

Update: Damn, poor Karpov just lost again, this time blundering a piece sac against his kingside against Kasimjanov. Terrible. 31.Be2 heading to f3 and White is probably only a little worse. He has black against San Segundo tomorrow and I hope the veteran can get out with a draw and a little dignity. I also hope this doesn't mean he stops playing entirely. He just needs to be a little more realistic about how much prep he needs to do and the category of event he can handle these days. Maybe he believed his own rating, which has been kept artificially high for many years due to inactivity. I always figured the hyper-competitive Karpov would be one of those guys who refused to play in any serious tournament he didn't think he could win, or at least manage a plus score. I was glad when he proved me wrong and eased into a sort of ambassadorial role and maintained a little activity. But this is rough. I'm trying to think of any other former WCh being knocked around this this. It's hard to imagine a worse result.

Final round: Kasimjanov-Nakamura, Ponomariov-Vallejo, Granda-Svidler, San Segundo-Karpov, Movsesian-Vachier-Lagrave. The round begins a half and an hour earlier than usual, so 10:00am Eastern.

Any thought that the second half of the San Sebastian "City of Culture" main event was going to be little more than a victory lap has been dispelled by former FIDE champion Ruslan Ponomariov. Super-mariov beat Vachier-Lagrave today to move to +3 just a half-point behind Nakamura. The American was pressed for an incremental eternity by Granda, who applied the famous Peruvian Slow-Roasted Chicken Attack by going all the way down to bare kings. The draw dropped Nakamura's performance rating to a mere 2900. Karpov suffered yet another loss, his fifth, this time watching his Caro-Kann turn into a Caro-Kouldn't against Vallejo. San Segundo took a pass against Svidler's Grunfeld.

Movsesian-Kasimjanov looked like a great match-up on paper, with two of the sharpest players around going at it. But lately, perhaps on a pilgrimage to worship at the shrine of St. Arturo of Llusupovia, the Uzbekistani picked up the Petroff. He played it four times in the Nalchik Grand Prix and now twice in San Sebastian. And thus another Ruy Lopez and Sicilan player joins the ranks of the undead. Maybe Kramnik bit Kasim on the neck while he was seconding for Anand in Bonn last year. Even Movsesian's attempt to liven things up with the nutty old Morozevich fave 5.Bd3 led to a draw in 24.

So with just two rounds to play Nakamura is finally feeling a little heat. He may have reason to second-guess his quick draw against Ponomariov yesterday if the Ukrainian's surge continues. In the last two rounds Nakamura faces the two other sharpest players in the field, Movsesian and Kasimjanov -- his Petroff notwithstanding since he has white against Nakamura in the final round. Ponomariov has an even tougher road to climb with the solid Svidler and Vallejo in his path. Svidler is still in with a chance a half-point back of Ponomariov, but would likely need some help to come from behind to win.

Granda showed again he's no pushover by doing some pushing of his own against the leader. Nakamura showed he was happy to play for a win with black to seal the tournament by playing the Dutch against Granda's 1.d4. (He also played it a couple of times last year, including a win against Karpov.) Things got wild quickly when White played the sideline 5.b4 and Nakamura responded with an even rarer "anyway" move 5..Nc6. They were already off the map by move 7, which would be quite unusual if Granda weren't playing. The Peruvian part-time farmer has long been well-known for his self-taught and idiosyncratic play in every phase. But though he's hardly as consistent as he used to be, don't doubt his creativity or skills. Out of the insane opening he swapped down into a superior rook endgame. Eleven captures in a row (!) has a way of doing that. It became a R+5 vs R+4 with an extra rook pawn for White. This is usually not a big deal for the defender, but here Black had the extra weakness of doubled e-pawns. That gave Granda more than enough reason to play on, especially since he could do so at no risk to himself. The lack of a second or third time control is another factor, since it makes endgames into a pure torture test of nerves, thinking exactly 25 seconds per move for what seems like forever.

So it's no surprise the endgame doesn't seem to have been played perfectly by either player, though it will take more time than I have right now to find a big mistake or chance for a win if any exist. That doesn't seem to be the case after a quick run-through, however. According to a report from the scene, Nakamura let his frustration with Granda show on his face a few times as the position simplified into a relatively obvious draw. Such displays were once an established part of young Nakamura's repertoire and I'm sure I'm not the only fan who hopes they go the way of his Qh5 now that he's a two-time US champion and the top-rated American. Admittedly, Kasparov was also known for occasionally pulling derisive faces at the board (apart from his generally open-book emotions), but it was one of the few ways in which the 13th world champion should not be imitated at the board! Plus, the more the top guys know something bugs you the more likely they are to push your buttons. Anyway, since we're not going to the videotape, as they say, and the game ended in a tidy draw, it's hardly worth a paragraph. But hey, the way Naka has been rocking the boards we have to have something to complain about, right?

More on the other games later, a bit pressed for time these days.

Update: Okay, had a little time to poke around on the games. Van Wely has played the 5.b4 in Granda-Nakamura quite a few times, it seems, but few have played Nakamura's provocative 5..Nc6. Fun stuff. Who says chess openings are played out. You don't need shuffle chess, just shuffle in some players willing to be creative and think on their feet. I wonder how White solves his problems after 9..a6!? and ..d5 is going to come harder than in the game. As for the endgame, I don't have my books handy and computers are typically horrible in these positions. The inability of the stronger side to make progress and the inevitable repetition are such a long way away, what they call the horizon effect. If the comp can wander around with an extra passer on the 7th for 30 moves without repeating, it's still +2.48 or whatever. But that doesn't mean it will ever win. Just keep playing out the computer's main line and it will often eventually flatline at 0.00 without making progress.

But it seems there are definitely a few tricks in the position. At the risk of blowing your mind, and/or making an idiot of myself, I think 40.h4 was a blunder that cost White a forced win! The short version is that with the pawn back on h2 instead of h4, the white king can go to c6 and then Rc8 with ..Rxa7 Rc7+ and the pawn endgame is winning (or the king to d8 and the rook to c8 with the same plan of ..Rxe7 Rc7+). Even with the white king seeming far away on c7, the pawn on h2 is too far away from the black king and the white king scoops up the black d-pawn, winning. Fantastic! The black rook can't check on c1 because Kd5 then wins the e4 pawn when the rook has to get back to the a-file. And the black king can never come up to shield off or cover the e-pawn because eventually the black rook runs out of checks and the white rook will step out of in front of the a-pawn with check. I love rook endgames, really I do. I get the feeling that if I leave the beast running overnight it will announce mate in 40 or something after 40.Kf4 (40..Rxf2+ 41.Ke5!). Let us know if you find a confirmation or refutation. But with the pawn on h4 the drawing routine is fairly straightforward from what I can tell, since the rook swap is now just a draw. So I have a little more sympathy with Nakamura's frustration at that point. And Granda was clearly just hoping for a blunder by the time the a-pawn came off. Or maybe he was just enjoying having an extra pawn and a better position even if was a purely symbolic one.

Vachier-Lagrave defended this same line of the Grunfeld just a few weeks ago against Aronian in the Armenia-France rapid match. Ponomariov improved with 16.dxc5 and played a bizarrely simple game of winning the c-pawn. Precision was required, but Black looked helpless. Vachier-Lagrave must have missed the strength of 21.Qc5! hitting the knight and the a-pawn. 31..Rb4 is weak, but the d-pawn is already too strong to stop. A very smooth win from Ponomariov to move into striking distance. What to say about poor Karpov? His Caro-Kann has gone from brick to straw, from filet mignon to happy meal. And yet here he was, fighting off Vallejo on pure instinct until once again falling apart in complications and losing. The pressure on Black's center after 16.Rh3! is just too much to bear without computer-perfect play. Karpov's open king made the heavy-piece endgame impossible, though he once again fought on bravely in a hopeless cause. Vallejo, born in 1982 and during Karpov's reign as world champion, brought home his extra pawns without much trouble.

Round 8: Nakamura-Movsesian, Svidler-Ponomariov, Vachier-Lagrave-Granda, Karpov-Kasimjanov, Vallejo-San Segundo. Svidler can swap places with Ponomariov in the standings with a win.

I see the comments have been getting testy about the world's most popular chess news site declining to provide much in the way of coverage of San Sebastian, a category 18 that includes the reigning Russian and American champions and a mighty impressive hot streak by the latter. So far they've provided equal coverage to Michael Jackson's chess set, with one article on each. The nice photo story after round two didn't even include a pic of Nakamura. I mean, maybe he's no Brad Pitt but he was already leading the event. It should be noted they have daily updates on San Sebastian on their Spanish page. It is a little strange the English page is ignoring it since the traffic I know about elsewhere has largely validated my prediction that Nakamura's presence at a big event (let alone such astounding success) would draw a lot of viewers from the large -- and often highly partisan -- online chess community in the US.

Plus, there are some fun items right up the usual ChessBase alley. First off, the bevy of photogenic young female chessplayers in the Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa event. The way the usual ChessBase Olympiad reports would lead you to believe the Guatemalan women's team was the most important story there you'd think they'd be all over San Sebastian based on the pics in the official site's Flickr page. And then there's the history angle as we come up on the 100th anniversary of the legendary 1911 San Sebastian tournament. Capablanca was an unknown whose participation there was protested against by some of the established masters. He went on to win what was then one of the strongest tournaments of all time and a legend was duly launched. Now another young man from the Americas is in San Sebastian and headed for a shocking victory. At 21, Nakamura is a year younger than Capablanca was in 1911. Okay, okay, I exaggerate for effect, but go with it. Organizer David Llada was even wondering if he should go with "Nakablanca" or "Capamura" for a new nickname.

To be fair, I think they also mostly ignored the Poikovsky tournament, also a cat. 18, last month, running only a concluding report. But that event didn't have Kasimjanov or, more importantly from the usual ChessBase perspective, his wife.

Leader Nakamura took a DIY rest day in San Sebastian after running out to an incredible 4.5/5 start. He played a forced drawing line of the Najdorf against one of his two closest pursuers, Ruslan Ponomariov. They played just 14 moves without ever exiting theory, leaving Nakamura in clear first by a point with three rounds to go. (Play can continue if White wants, but there is also a forced repetition they didn't bother to play out.) Today's non-game was no doubt disappointing for fans of Nakamura and of chess in general, but as in most of these cases there are endless arguments for why such a draw makes perfect sporting sense for both the players. (Svidler, who is tied with Ponomariov a point behind of Nakamura, also used the white pieces to draw in just 12 moves against Vallejo, which makes less sense to me.) This is why, as I say for the 1000th time, Sofia rules or something similar are needed.

Of course even Sofia rules wouldn't prevent the repetition draw line Nakamura played today. You can't force a player to lose and there are many well-known drawing lines like this one they can use instead of playing. If doing that becomes a pattern of behavior, subverting the intent if not the letter of the rules, then the only defense is to stop inviting those players. But I think we are quite far from that and the Sofia rules have proven largely successful. (The average length of the draws at MTel is usually over 40 moves. Dortmund was 32. Dortmund also had ten draws of 25 or fewer moves; MTel had zero.) And of course this is far from the case with someone like Nakamura, whose combative attitude is well known. The bottom line is that players are smart enough to use the rules to their advantage, so if this is really going to be considered a problem and a solution is wanted, legislation will be needed.

FYI, Nakamura used some of his extra free time to add another detailed and insightful entry on the event to his blog, so definite compensation there! Hey, there's an idea for an organizer. Anyone who plays a short draw has to write an update for the official website or something like that.

The crosstable remains quite unbalanced, with three undefeated players at the top and San Segundo and Karpov taking most of the damage at the bottom. Both lost again today, Karpov's loss with white to Movsesian being particularly painful. He played very well in a sharp position and it looked like the veteran might score his first win of the event. Kasparov sounded cheerful about this possibility for his old rival, Garry gaining no joy from watching his great predecessor bashed around by kids who couldn't carry Karpov's stamp collection back in the day. Speaking of those kids, Kasparov did have praise for Nakamura's will to win in every game, if not today's obviously. (Regular readers know Garry rarely casually compliments chess quality and is more interested in effort and attitude. I've actually been a little surprised with his interest in Nakamura and San Sebastian since he usually only has words for the top ten. My guess is that Nakamura's recent surge has put him back on the radar.)

Back in Karpov-Movsesian, White must have been completely winning after his 30.Rh6! Killing the black attack with 31.Bd2 would have just about wrapped it up. But it was not to be and Karpov made a few small slips and then a few big ones to get blown out of the water once he was in increment time. That gave Movsesian his first win of the event, a stat that is itself something of a surprise for the sharply-inclined Slovakian representative. Back when this event was announced Movsesian was the top seed, but his fall from the top ten has been steep and he'll lose more points here unless he does very well in the final three rounds. He may even have an impact on the tournament since he has yet to face Nakamura, which happens in the eighth round.

Kasimjanov also scored his first victory, slowly outplaying Granda in a tactical melee. Granda isn't doing well, but he never backs down from a chance to complicate. Here he pinned his hopes on an advanced pair of pawns only to be surprised when Kasimjanov snapped one of them off the board. Black resigns because White gets his piece back by playing a rook to the c-file after the knight exchanges, x-raying the bishop on c7. Vachier-Lagrave returned to a positive score with a very attractive king walk up the board against San Segundo. The beauty of the idea is illustrated if White takes the c-pawn with 27..Rxc3 28.Kd4 Ra3 29.Kc5 and White dominates the queenside. I'm not sure if San Segundo flagged or not, as the final position is tough for Black but not readily resignable.

With three rounds to play Nakamura has black against a choppy but always-dangerous Granda. The rest of round 7: Ponomariov-Vachier-Lagrave, San Segundo-Svidler, Movsesian-Kasimjanov, Vallejo-Karpov. If you're calculating Nakamura's chances of coasting home, note that Svidler and Ponomariov face off in the 9th round. It's hard to imagine anyone catching him unless he loses a game.

Check out Lars Grahn's blog, which promises more of his collection of chess photos. If the rest are half as good as this one of Seirawan and Robert Byrne, and another of Korchnoi he showed me, it's going to be an amusing resource. Oh man, fear the 'stache. Google can help you with the Swedish if a picture isn't worth a thousand borks.

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. For the fourth time in five days, Hikaru Nakamura emerged victorious in San Sebastian. And now he's doing it with both colors. He outplayed San Segundo in a sharp line of the Cambridge Springs QGD with 9..e5, an offbeat move that didn't catch on after Smyslov lost with it against Kasparov in their 1984 candidates match. That moved the American to a spectacular 4.5/5 and a full-point lead with four rounds to play. Top seed Svidler moved up in the standings to +2 with his second straight win, adding to Karpov's woes.

Always a "show me" player, Nakamura grabbed a pawn on a3 instead of Smyslov's retreat with 10..Bd6. White gets space, the bishop pair, and some initiative for the pawn, but 14.cxd4 looks a little funky. It gave Black two connected passers instead of just the passed a-pawn. Black kept improving, though it looked like it was going to be a very long slog to mobilize the pawns when San Segundo made things very hard for himself by letting the queens come off. He achieved an opposite-colored bishops position but with knights still on the board no blockade would work. 32..Rc4! is the sort of petite tactic that typifies Nakamura's games. The unexpected stabs and jabs keep coming in the service of an overall strengthening of the position.

San Segundo hung tough and put up enough resistance to give himself drawing chances thanks to those mismatched bishops and some inaccuracies by Nakamura. After 47.Nb6 it's not clear how Black is going to make progress. The white d-pawn is dangerous and the a-pawn is locked down. But once again Nakamura handled the complications better than his opponent and two weak moves were enough to return White to the critical list. Allowing a fork to remove his bishop removed many of the drawing possibilities. 51.Nf5 Be4 52.Ne3 was still a fight, it seems. Black allowed no second chances and finished cleanly.

An incredible run, but the tournament's not quite over yet. Nakamura has white tomorrow against one of his two closest pursuers, Ponomariov. He's already faced the other, Svidler, both on +2. Nobody else is even in the picture for the top spot, which is rather unusual. Svidler made beating the Petroff look easy today with the nice Nimzowitschian clearance sac 15.e6! Karpov defended quite well at first and a computer probably would have been happy with the black position even after the ominous 19.g5. But the veteran just can't handle these sharp positions these days and he went downhill fast. The wheels completely came off the Karpov ZIL with 30..c6? and 31..g4?, though it was probably already over. As fun as it is watching Nakamura's star shine so brightly in Donostia this past week, it's pretty painful seeing Karpov ripped up so badly. I knew it was going to be bad, but not this bad. Let's hope for a consolation win for him in the final four rounds.

Did Vallejo really play 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 a6 3.g4?!? against Vachier-Lagrave as the official site and score say? This comes a few days after I received the latest NIC Yearbook and its article on "White playing g4 against just about everything." But this? I would believe it was a typo and that he played the usual 3.g3 except for one thing. On move 24 (until then there as no real difference) Black could have played the strong 24..f5 if the pawn had been on g3 instead of g4. (Also ..f5 on move 25.) Wild. Granda-Movsesian was a congested King's Indian with a nominal advantage for White he couldn't exploit. Ponomariov was pushed back in his Catalan by Kasimjanov in an interesting game that ended too soon.

Round 6: Nakamura-Ponomariov, Svidler-Vallejo, Vachier-Lagrave-San Segundo, Kasimjanov-Granda, Karpov-Movsesian.

If Nakamura wins again just invoke the softball slaughter rule and hand him the trophy. Not to get ahead of things, but even if he doesn't win another game Nakamura could start the event barely in the top 30 on the rating list and finish it tantalizingly close to the top dozen.

Number nine, number nine... Vladimir Kramnik added some emphasis on his amazing ninth Dortmund title by beating Naiditsch in the final round to take the tournament by a clear point on +3 undefeated. Leko, Jakovenko, and Carlsen all finished on +1. Carlsen led the event most of the way before being crushed by Kramnik in the eighth round. Leko didn't lose a game but nine draws, several of the pathetic variety, kept him off the pace. Jakovenko proved his mettle at the top-ten level, bouncing back from an unnecessary loss to Carlsen in the first round to play some of the most interesting chess in the event. My impression was that Bacrot played worse than his -2 score while Naiditsch played better than his -4. The Frenchman successfully defended some inferior positions while the German had mental lapses after playing very well for most of several games.

Kramnik didn't need much help against him in the final round. For the second day in a row the big Russian's opponent decided to replay a long line from a previous round. Leko-Naiditsch in round eight went 18.a4?! Qxe4 19.Qxf6 Rg8 and Leko bailed with 20.Qf3 and drew seven moves later. I wasn't able to follow the final round today and since the chess world wantonly discards most clock information it's hard to say how far Kramnik's improved preparation went today. All the way to the exchange sac on move 24? Quite possible, even for both players to have seen it in their analysis since it seems holdable for Black, if quite unpleasant. Naiditsch, as he has several times played accurately under pressure for a long time only to fall apart. His king was already under fire when he blundered (time pressure?) on move 38. Always nice to see an old primer maxim like the one about how the queen and knight work so well in attack together proven out on the board. Nicely done and a pleasing show of ambition from Kramnik.

We saw another deep line in Leko-Jakovenko in another Marshall Gambit endgame variation. This one actually got a little spicy when Leko sacrificed (!) the exchange for a mob of queenside pawns. It looked like White was getting good chances but Leko was unable to make progress against Jakovenko's accurate defense. 40.Nf3 looks interesting. Carlsen and Bacrot also broke the last-round jinx with another full-bodied and intricate game. 21..Nc5! gave Black enough counterplay and this time Bacrot didn't blunder in complications.

A difficult tournament to rate. The early rounds were incredibly dreary and overall there were far too many non-game draws for an invitational event of this stature. We got compensation with several spectacular games, although the most beautiful lines took place only in the notes in a few. Kramnik saved the event from its own dismal inertia by wresting the lead from Carlsen's hand by brute force in the 8th round in a smashing sacrificial game. Despite his seemingly symbolic negative score here last year, losing twice in his beloved Petroff, Kramnik definitely showed Dortmund is still his house. Just for emphasis he went +1 in the Petroff and came close to +3 with it!

Attention now moves to the ongoing San Sebastian tournament and Biel, which starts on the 18th with, argh, another six-player double round-robin. Gelfand, Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Alekseev, Vachier-Lagrave (! one day after the end of San Sebastian), and my Brooklyn paisan Fabiano Caruana.

Smallville, H-Bomb, Star Wars -- those are a few of the names that US champion Hikaru Nakamura goes by, at least online. But with the proximity of San Sebastian to Pamplona, where the annual Running of the Bulls is currently underway (with one fatality), and the way Nakamura is trampling the field, perhaps El Toro, or more in Spanish style, El Torito, should be another. In round four it was Paco Vallejo's turn to play matador as Nakamura charged with the white pieces for the third time. The Spaniard held his ground for a while, but in the end the pressure was too much and he was as badly gored as Karpov and Vachier-Lagrave before him. The win put the American on 3.5/4 and a 3030 performance rating. The next five rounds aren't going to be easy, of course, and maybe overconfidence will be a problem after how casually he has destroyed his opponents so far. If so, it's not a bad problem to have!

The game was a Scandinavian Defense that I believe transposed into a ..Nd7 Caro-Kann, or at least something that looks a lot like one. The queens and knights came off and GM Nick de Firmian on Chess.FM didn't think White should have great winning chances with his minimal space advantage. But Nakamura played his usual game of pushing until the wheels fall off and he turned very little into something when Vallejo slipped up in complications. 32.Bc5! is a surprising and nasty move to deal with when you're down to little more than the 30-second increment. The natural reaction 32..Rec8 lands Black in a very bad endgame after 33.Rxe5! fxe5 34.Bd6+ Rxd6 35.Rxd6. Black needed to find 32..Bf5 to have holding chances and he failed. With 32..Kc8 Vallejo was probably hoping for 33.Bb5? Bc3+! and Black is has some chances. But after 33.Re3! Nakamura was lethally precise and he wrapped things up quickly. Can El Torito be stopped or will every matador and picador in San Sebastian be trampled?

Ruslan Ponomariov was the only immediate pursuer to keep the pace. Movsesian played the topical 6.h3 against Pono's Scheveningen and they followed several recent and well-known games for around a dozen moves. Like Dominguez did against Topalov at MTel a few months ago, Movsesian castled queenside. He burned his bridges with a piece sac on d5 that netted him a rook for a rook and two pawns for a bishop and a knight. White also got time to push his kingside pawns into the attack. An incredibly complicated middlegame arose, one that seemed to go back and forth on nearly every move as the black bishop pair dueled with the white rooks and pawn army. Finally White broke through with a nice queen retreat, 35.Qe1! and broke through with 36.f6! Ponomariov's toughness is legendary and he needed all of it to survive this one. It paid off when Movsesian blundered with 39.Qe6?, allowing a nasty shot against his king. Just about any other move would have left Black helpless. Even the amusing 39.a3, making a2 available for the king, was killing. But after White's move Ponomariov pounced with 40..Ba3+! and the tables were well and truly turned. The king hunt was on an the Ukrainian finished off cleanly. A wild and wonderful slugfest that puts Ponomariov into clear second place.

Speaking of being slugged, Vachier-Lagrave's chin is probably still sore after the haymaker Peter Svidler landed on him in the Russian's favorite Marshall Gambit today. Apparently the young Frenchman, who has yet to draw a game, mixed up his opening line and walked right into a pretty sacrificial series that totally destroys the white position. In the final position mate is forced on h1, really pretty stuff. The Russian champ barely used any time at all as he chalked up his first win in just 29 moves. After draws of 22, 24, and 24 moves and now this you have to wonder if Peter has set himself a personal 30-move limit.

Kasimjanov was outmaneuvered in the opening by San Segundo in a typically dense and messy Bb5 Sicilian. But the former FIDE KO champion held on and gradually liquidated into a roughly equal position. Just when it looked like a draw was imminent an unusual exchange of blunders occurred. Neither player noticed that 37.g6+! cleared the g5 square for a knight check and so created just the breakthrough neither player had been able to achieve. After 37..Kg8 38.gxh7+ Kh8 39.Ng5 White has both pawn and position. Instead it fizzled to a draw five moves later. Karpov-Granda quickly turned into a maneuvering endgame that was right up Karpov's alley. You get the feeling that 20 years ago he would have won such a position against just about anyone in the world. Or maybe that's just nostalgia talking. Regardless, they fought it out down to the bitter end before splitting the point.

Meanwhile, in the B Group, or the "Kutxa Tournament" in Ewok, van Wely is outdoing Nakamura with 4/4. He outrates the field by a huge margin but it's still nice to see him getting his swings in after he had such a miserable 2008. In the women's event, or the "Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa Tournament," one of the lowest-rated players, Yana Melnikova, is leading with 3.5/4.

Round 5: San Segundo-Nakamura, Svidler-Karpov, Vallejo-Vachier-Lagrave, Ponomariov-Kasimjanov, Granda-Movsesian.

Round 9: Jakovenko-Kramnik, Bacrot-Leko, Naiditsch-Carlsen. Carlsen and Leko won these match-ups with white in the first half.

Update: I hope you'll agree that FTW is better than the usual "Petroff WTF." It's clearer than ever that as much as we always hope and pray for some Petroff bashing, if White forces the issue he can become the bashee instead of the basher. Jakovenko went to heroic lengths to beat Kramnik's Petroff today despite being outprepared in the same line Kramnik drew with against Bacrot two days ago. Kramnik isn't booked up in these lines; he IS the book. His compatriot threw caution to the wind after a long think, going for a real exchange sac with 24.Qd6!? instead of the various draws that involved getting his material back with Bxf8. Brave and beautiful, if perhaps not entirely sound. Kramnik found all the necessary defensive moves. A wild pawn race developed with both sides playing accurately until Jakovenko let his time get low (Kramnik still had around 50 minutes) and blundered with 33.Re3? This allowed an immediate and spectacular win for Black with 33..Rd7!! thanks to White's back-rank problem and the far-advanced black pawns. 34.exd7 Rxe5 35.Rxe5 Qxf6 36.Re8+ Kg7 37.h3 c3 and Black wins. Or 35.Bxe5 Qe7 and the d-pawn falls. 36.fxg6 Qxd7 (36..hxg6?? 37.Rh3! Oops.) Fantastic. Thanks, computer! Nor does White have a tempo to spare. 34.h3 Rd1+ 35.Kh2 Qd6 is the simplest.

That would have basically ended the game and left Kramnik needing only a draw with Naiditsch tomorrow to clinch clear first place. (Bacrot-Leko and Naiditsch-Carlsen were already drawn.) But quite uncharacteristically, Kramnik played 33..b4 very quickly in Jakovenko's time trouble, continuing with the obvious plan and breaking Lasker's (?) maxim of "whenever you see a good move, stop and see if you can find a better one." (Not that any human would find such a move easily, of course, if at all, but unless the clock times are wrong he didn't really look around at all.) The razor-sharp play continued apace with many lines saving White only by a miracle. But finally Kramnik had to choose to take a serious risk and play for three results with 41..Kh7 (or 41..Kg7) when White has serious counterplay with Re6 coming. Instead he made the practical choice considering the standings and tomorrow's pairings and went for 42..Qb5. Now 43.axb4 axb4 is still tricky. 44.Qd6? Qb8! 45.Qxb8 Rxb8 46.e8Q+ Rxe8 47.Rxe8+ and the black pawns are too strong even a rook down. But White keeps hope alive with the remarkable 44.Qd4! c2 45.Qd7! and draws, incredibly. 45..Qb8+ Rg3 and the threat of Qe6+ with mate gives White enough play to hold. Wow.

Kramnik has a Spider-Man-like danger sense and the squiggly lines appeared over his head at this point. He went into a rook endgame with 43..Qxc5 and even that wasn't simple. But Jakovenko kept his head and centralized his king to hold without somersaults. Great stuff from both players. Naiditsch and Carlsen went at it in a Sveshnikov but once the queenside pawns come off these positions usually end drawn. Bacrot-Leko was another bad joke of a game. After massing their armies in a Hedgehog they abandoned their trenches and lay down their weapons to put on pink tutus and read their favorite passages from "Twilight" to each other.

So going into the final round Kramnik leads on +2 still followed by Jakovenko, Leko, and Carlsen on +1. I would assume that Kramnik has the better system tiebreaks (doesn't he always in Dortmund?!) due to his win over Carlsen in case Kramnik draws with Naiditsch while one of his pursuers wins. Not 100% sure on that, however, and I don't see any info about it on the German sites.

Can you believe it's been a year?

Most amazing year ever, no doubt. La Miglette continues to be the happiest baby ever, which we imagine is a ploy to get a little brother or sister out of us. Now if only she'd start sleeping past six in the morning...

Finally a showdown that acted like a showdown. Eight-time Dortmund champion Vladimir Kramnik took a big step toward his ninth title by destroying leader Magnus Carlsen to swap places with him and take over clear first with two rounds to play. Kramnik has a history of winning on demand in Dortmund, but rarely has he done it so spectacularly. Carlsen was fending off the brutal attack very well for a while, but eventually blundered with 25..Qc7 (instead of 25..Qc5!, though there are still many ways to go wrong) and the sacrificial barrage Kramnik had been wiring up finally detonated. Faced with mate or the loss of his queen, Carlsen resigned. A fantastic game that was all the more entertaining for having tactics czar Larry Christiansen working out line after wild line for hours live on ICC Chess.FM. Whew!

Jakovenko got ye olde minimal endgame edge in a theoretical Marshall (is there another kind) against Bacrot. The Russian then proceeded to show why the top guys still play this tedious stuff by outplaying Bacrot in an opposite-colored bishop endgame. Game notes on both decisive games later. Leko got less than nothing against Naiditsch when he turned back from some interesting lines to liquidate with 20.Qf3. Now it's Kramnik on top with +2 and a mob with Leko, Carlsen, and Jakovenko on +1 still in the mix heading into the final weekend. Today was almost interesting enough to make you forget how dreary this event has been overall.

Round 9: Jakovenko-Kramnik, Bacrot-Leko, Naidtisch-Carlsen.

Update: Wish I had the time and energy to relay half the spectacular variations Larry went through in Kramnik-Carlsen today. They didn't all work for White, but they illustrated the fantastic dangers to Black's king at an early stage. Carlsen actually defended quite well, but one slip was enough. Kramnik showed his aggressive intentions with the pawn sac 18.f5. Carlsen went for a tactical defense 19..Qb6 (20.Qxd7? Rd8). With 25.Rd6 suddenly the severe danger Black was facing became apparent, as sacs on e6 are everywhere. The saving move every kibitzer's computer spit out, 25..Qc5, is fraught with danger. 26.Ne4! Qxc4 27.Nf6 and now Black is forced to take a leap of faith on par with bungee-jumping in the Grand Canyon. 27..Ke7. By some miracle there is no winning discovered check here for White. 28.Rd1 Nd4 29.Nxe8+ Kxe8 30.Qg8+ Ke7 31.Qxa8 Qd5 and by another minor miracle the threat of ..Nf3+ forces White to return the exchange with a roughly equal queen endgame.

Hard to blame Carlsen for rejecting that line. How about 25..Rd8, when you have to work out 26.Rxe6, (or after Qh6+) 26..Qd4 is now the only move that doesn't lose instantly. 26..fxe6 loses to a whirlwind of checks and a ridiculously counter-intuitive knight move: 27.Qh6+ Kf7 28.Qxe6+ Kg7 29.Qg8+ Kf6 30.Qf8+ Ke5 31.Nb5!! With d6 controlled white is threatening a remarkable mate with Qg7+, Nc3+ and Be2#. So 26..Qd4! it is, sayeth the silicon oracle, and the lunacy continues. 27.Rf6!? Bizarrely, White isn't really threatening anything and hangs a bishop to boot. Material is equal. 27..Qxc4 28.Rxc6 Qxc6 29.Qxd8 with a slightly better endgame. Back in the game, Black could have grovelled on with 29..Qc8, which is what we expected. (Various spectators (well, their computers, surely) suggested 29..Qxd6, but the position without the queen is entirely hopeless. The white h-pawn is more than enough to win.) But simply 29..Qc8 30.Qxh7, with the killing threat of Rxe7+, is enough, though it takes some precision. 30..Nd8 31.Qh4+ Kf8 and now the charming switchback 32.Rd4!, plotting Qf6, Rh4, Rh8 mate.

Fabulous stuff, and so let us not be too critical of young master Carlsen for faltering under the strain of such a load. It would be interesting, of course, to know exactly what he didn't see both in the 25..Qc7 line he didn't see and the apparently sufficient alternatives 25..Qc5 and 25..Rd8. A great win by Kramnik both in the sporting sense and as a piece of chess art against a mighty foe.

Looking at Jakovenko-Naiditsch it's hard to see how it's possible for Black to lose the endgame until he actually does. Jakovenko ground the young German down in the first half as well, and Naiditsch has repeatedly broken down in long endgames in Dortmund. To be fair, it appears he had a draw today in the endgame only if he finds 76..Bb8. It takes a few minutes to figure out why the bishop should draw there and lose on g3, but it's instructive. The point is that the black king needs the d5 square to hustle across the board to stop the h-pawn. With the bishop on g3, as in the game, the king would cut the bishop's control of c7. With the bishop on b8, that isn't the case and black draws with the Reti-esque diagonal king march to h8. The bishop can then be freely given up since the h-pawn is the wrong color. Good stuff.

It's certainly not over in Dortmund with so many players a half-point back. Kramnik finishes with black against Jakovenko and then white against the miserable Naiditsch. You have to like Carlsen's chances to score 1.5/2 finishing with black against Naiditsch and white against Bacrot.

To get to the important facts first, top group leader Hikaru Nakamura held the draw with black against Svidler quite easily, even threatening to play for an advantage with the Caro-Kann at one point. (17..Qb3 looked promising, instead of swapping queens and retreating the knight.) That left the American in clear first in the "City of Culture" main event with 2.5/3. Ponomariov, Vallejo, and Vachier-Lagrave follow a half-point back. Maybe Svidler is still too into the big cricket match (if that is indeed what they are called) between England and Australia. The big Russian's opponents in the final week of the event should be warned that the cricket ends Sunday. Friday is a rest day.

A few of the results were initially reported incorrectly today, but all seem to be okay now. Apparently San Segundo and Movsesian really did draw in 12 moves, none of them new or interesting. Haven't heard anything about that yet, but doesn't it seem like it needs some kind of explanation? This wouldn't have raised many eyebrows in the no-go 80s, but in today's world of Sofia rules and professed professionalism, it's notable, and quite dubious barring illness. The Petroff between Vallejo-Kasimjanov extended just a few moves beyond well-known theory.

Everyone knows that chess is increasingly a young man's game. Although our world champion, Vishy Anand, will turn 40 this year, and despite the continued successes of a handful of other evergreens like Ivanchuk and Gelfand, the onslaught of youngsters cannot long be resisted. Six members of the top 20 were born after Kasparov became world champion in 1985. Two more of that up and coming generation, Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave, are playing in San Sebastian. In the past three days both have scored wins against one of the game's all-time legends, 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov. You used to be able to count Karpov's yearly losses on one hand. Now that's only true because the 58-year-old rarely plays. When he does it's usually rapid, so it was a bit surprising he was lured to this very strong tournament in San Sebastian.

It might be hard for younger fans to realize how terrifying Karpov was as recently as a dozen years ago. As GM Jon Speelman, close to a contemporary of Karpov's, put it today on ICC Chess.FM, "these kids aren't scared of Karpov, are they?" No, and, alas, so far they have no reason to be. I don't doubt the great man is still capable of outplaying anyone in the world on a given day and given the sort of position he enjoys, but chess is too rigorous a profession these days to succeed without regular work and practice, especially if you're pushing 60. Regardless, it was a little sad to see Karpov beaten up again in the third round, this time by Vachier-Lagrave. It dropped the veteran into last place and elevated the Frenchman back into contention after his loss to Nakamura yesterday.

The other winner on the day was one of the two FIDE KO champions in the field, Ruslan Ponomariov. He demolished Peru's Julio Granda. Super-mariov, as I once christened him, is something of a mystery. He was clearly destined to be a perennial top-ten player when he burst into the top tier by winning the FIDE KO WCh in 2001-02 in Moscow. A few weeks later he finished clear second in a mighty Linares and the winner, Kasparov, welcomed the Ukrainian into the elite with effusive praise. Fast-forward to the long and gnarled negotiations around what was to be the start of a world championship unification series, a match between Kasparov and Ponomariov. (Ponomariov's representative was Silvio Danailov, before he became infamous for the toilet show with Topalov against Kramnik in Elista in 2006 and before he became known as the guiding hand of the excellent MTel Masters and the long-overdue Grand Slam.)

Without reliving all the pathos from 2003, the match broke down. Kasparov kept on being Kasparov, but it seems like Ponomariov was never quite the same after missing what would have been, win or lose, the opportunity of a lifetime. Correlation isn't causation of course, but Pono himself has talked about how badly he was affected by all the distraction and attention. After a year and a half in the top ten, he's been out of it on all but two lists since 2004, though never falling lower than #21. All reports say he's enjoying life away from the brightest lights and has rounded into a happy young man from the sallow youth who always wore the same ugly sweater. Still only 25 years old there's plenty of time for him to get his groove back, if he's willing to do the work.

In round three Ponomariov turned a Catalan squeeze against Granda into a surprising direct kingside attack with an h-pawn lunge. Classical stuff if you look at the way all of Black's pieces are stuck on the queenside. He finished with a nice little queen sac. Here are the round four pairings for Saturday: Nakamura-Vallejo could be a key game. If Nakamura beats another close rival to move to +3 he'll be hard to catch. Karpov-Granda, Movsesian-Ponomariov, Kasimjanov-San Segundo, Vachier-Lagrave-Svidler.

Fight or flight in Dortmund today? R7: Bacrot-Kramnik, Naiditsch-Jakovenko, Carlsen-Leko. Jako beat Naiditsch in the first half.

I can come up with a good argument for every single player in the field to desire a quick draw today. A tempo: Having a bad tournament and playing the former WCh; have black and am an artist; having a horrible tournament and want to go home to mommy; have black and my opponent didn't risk; leading the tournament and can now legally drink; have black and had my medula surgically removed.

See how easy top-level chess is? Okay, okay, I'll put my happy face back on. We have had some interesting games and some great lines in the notes. Don't miss the spectacular 38..Rxb3 39.Qg4 Rxb1 40.Qg6, 'winning' in Jakovenko-Carlsen, except for 40..Qf3+!! You may now pick your jaw up off the floor. Jon Speelman is on the mic today, so let's hope for some rook endgames.

Quickie update: We did get an endgame. Wow what an epic and epically flawed struggle in Naiditsch-Jakovenko. Naiditsch had KO chances aplenty but could never put it together. Miracle save from the Russian, but it really shows what horrid form Naiditsch is in. Meanwhile, the short draw bug seemed to catch on in San Sebastian. Nakamura outplayed Svidler on the black side of a Caro-Kann but retreated to take a quick draw and still leads. Non-violence pact between teammates? Several of the other reported results must be wrong (Karpov and Granda are totally lost in the final positions given) so take grains of salt there for now. More later.

Hikaru Nakamura has used drawing the one spot in the draw to good effect in San Sebastian by winning his first two games with white. In the first round the new US champion completely outplayed former world champ Karpov before almost letting him off the hook and then winning on time (in a winning, if still a bit tricky, endgame position). Today he took on young Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave's two names and theoretical Najdorf (into a Scheveningen structure). Vachier-Lagrave is just 18 and has worked his way quickly to the 2700 level. As with Nakamura, three years his elder, this powerful round-robin with established stars is seen as a chance to make a mark. That added some extra spice to their encounter today, which even attracted the attention of the busy Garry Kasparov, who watched live online off and on. That the Frenchman is a diehard Najdorf player might also have something to do with that.

Nakamura definitely knew it was going to be a Najdorf and the players didn't spend a great deal of time getting to a well-known position on move 20. This position after 20.Ne2 has been seen in games by Anand, Kasparov, and even Nakamura himself in 2003. I think it's been under something of a cloud after 20..c4, but apparently Vachier-Lagrave thought 20..Bc6 was okay for Black. If he's right he didn't prove it today. White's new 21.Qc4, ignoring the a6 pawn while giving up the f3 pawn, put on the pressure with the queen on the very annoying c3 square. Black grabbed the pawn and if he's looking for a place to improve, perhaps the 23..Qb7!? Kasparov glanced at during the game is worth a deeper look. Back in the game it was remarkable how quickly it dissolved into a much better endgame for White. From there it was slow but sure progress. Black never blundered; it's hard to even figure out where he went wrong. Incredibly smooth stuff from Nakamura, who we can expect to face a sterner test with black against top seed Svidler tomorrow.

That dropped Vachier-Lagrave back to even after his spectacular win over Kasimjanov's Dragon yesterday. The other player who won in the first round was unable to reproduce his success, so Nakamura stands alone in the lead. Spaniard Vallejo Pons, who brutally swindled Granda from a lost position in round one, used the French to hold Movsesian without much effort. Karpov got nothing in a less-than-consequential line of the Grunfeld against Ponomariov. They played it down to the bitter end though, which is always nice to see, especially when contrasted with Dortmund. The Grunfeld between Kasimjanov and Svidler was a lot more interesting but was drawn in just 24 moves of a repetition.

Granda played a very sharp duel with San Segundo out of one of Granda's typically oblique Reti openings. Really fun tactics to play through if you turn your engine off and realize how hard this game is. San Segundo was close to a win but Granda's wonderful desperation push 24.e6!? induced a blunder and turned the tables. Interpolating 24..c3! would have turned Black's combination into a winner. The check on f7 is worse than useless. After 25.Ba3 Bxe6 White's game move f5 no longer works because the black knight has e5, unlike in the game. So 26.hxg4 Bd5 and the threat of ..Rh3 mate can't be met without giving up loads of material. A real slugfest and a bit unlucky for San Segundo.

Round 3: Svidler-Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave-Karpov, Vallejo-Kasimjanov, San Segundo-Movsesian, Granda-Ponomariov. Live here at 11 EDT. We'll be relaying on the ICC as well, which will come in handy if Dortmund craps out on us again. Van Wely is the clear leader in the B group, aka the Kutxa Tournament, with wins over Cifuentes and Fernandes.

After the break at the half Carlsen leads with +2 and Kramnik and Leko follow on +1. Jakovenko is on even, Bacrot on -1, and Naiditsch -3.

The pairings today: Kramnik-Leko, Jakovenko-Carlsen, Bacrot-Naiditsch. Live here at 9:15 EDT, or on the ICC where I'll be chiming in while Nick de Firmian fulfills his destiny as the Jack Johnson of live chess analysis.

Update: All games drawn. I set Fritz to auto-analyze the games and my comp went into sleep mode. Jakovenko got a little something against Carlsen's Sveshnikov but couldn't make any progress after losing time with a rook shuffle. Others drawn with symmetrical structures in 24 and 25 moves. It was nice of Ambien to sponsor the tournament this year, but I think the free samples for the players were a bad idea.

Over in Spain, where they're actually playing chess, US champion Nakamura just torched Vachier-Lagrave's Najdorf to move to 2/2 and clear first place in San Sebastian. So much for jetlag. It looks like Nakamura got the jet and the other guys got the lag. He has black against top-seeded Svidler tomorrow, so put your seat backs into the full upright position. Have to run; separate entry later today.

It's been a wild week or two here on the Russian front, even if I'm still in Brooklyn. US president Barack Obama is in Russia -- if you noticed amid all the gnashing and wailing over the death of Michael Jackson. Today Obama gave a speech in Moscow and early in the evening he met with a group of opposition figures, including my boss Garry Kasparov. Here is the statement Garry made at the meeting and a brief post-meeting interview on his impressions.

In short, Garry was pretty impressed with the guy, and this wasn't a speech at a football stadium. Obama was clearly worn out from a long day but he was still engaged and active in the wide-ranging discussion. You can tell most of the rest from the interview above, as far as Garry's impressions about what Obama actually said and didn't say.

But you come here for the dirt, so here's one amusing exchange that isn't going to make the press. When there was a little informal talk after the statements and discussion, Obama chatted briefly with Garry and former reform parliamentarian Vladimir Ryzhkov. Obama says to Garry, "it's not often you get to meet someone who is the best in the world." "Well I was," Garry replied, "for 20 years, but that's the past." Obama: "Oh, so we're talking like Federer or Tiger Woods." Ryzhkov jumps in, "No, even more!"

Yah, because who'd want to be compared to those losers Federer and Woods? Okay, not a riveting story, but it's all I got.

So how about some chess? I wasn't sure when the Spanish press was going to run it so I didn't tip it here first, but Kasparov is going to play a short exhibition match against none other than his great predecessor Anatoly Karpov in Valencia, Spain, September 21-24. The four rapid games and eight blitz games commemorate the 25th anniversary of their first world championship match. It's also part of a set of events the Spanish city is organizing around a "Valencia, birthplace of modern chess" program. This refers to the fairly recent discovery that the newly empowered queen was first documented there in the 15th century.

Before trying to pump up the old rivalry, recall that Kasparov was very much touched by Karpov's attempt to visit him in jail in 2007, when Garry was arrested for leading a pro-democracy march in Moscow. I'm not saying they're going to film "The Bucket List 2" together, but I'd expect more nostalgia and mutual respect than trash-talk this time around. Of course the competitive juices will still get flowing, no doubt. As for the quality, who knows? Garry hasn't played more than some online blitz and a few simuls in years while Karpov is 12 years older, so it might be tight.

But we'd watch these two play checkers or have a pillow fight. Anyone old enough to remember their epic five world championship matches knows how relatively pale the chess world seems today without a white-hot rivalry like theirs. More top players now, and more big events, but still not the same. Wow, two unrelated Karpov items in a row and Karpov makes the cloud!

US champion Hikaru Nakamura and 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov at the opening party in San Sebastian. They meet in round one. Photos from David Llada's Donostia 2009 Flickr set.

The Donostia Chess Festival begins today in Spain. The main event is a 10-player round-robin with a 2682 average rating. The games begin at 1700 local, 11am EDT. Live link on official site is here, should crash at 1710 local, 11:10am EDT. Buena suerte, David!

The pairings are up and they start with a bang: Nakamura-Karpov! Nakamura handled the former world champ, now 58, at a rapid event last year. We'll see how well the legend is holding up without much in the way of practice. I'm pretty sure losing a blitz match to Ghaem Maghami in February doesn't count as Botvinnik-style training for an elite tournament. The other pairings: Vachier-Lagrave-Kasimjanov, Svidler-Movsesian, Vallejo Pons-Granda, San Segundo-Ponomariov.

There is also a GM B event, a GM norm event, and a women's event in this inaugural festival. They are prepping for what is hoped to be an even mightier event in 2011 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the famous 1911 San Sebastian tournament won by Capablanca over Rubinstein, Vidmar, Marshall, Tarrasch, et al. Time control is the speedy 90'+30". And at least we'll have something else to tune in to should the Dortmund crowd slip back into a coma. I assume there's a rest day in there somewhere, but the site doesn't seem to say when it might be. [It's on Friday the 10th, no doubt to coincide with my daughter's first birthday.]

UPDATE: After dominating Karpov for the entire game and then missing a forced mate, Nakamura finally won when Karpov apparently flagged in a losing but still potentially tricky R vs N+B endgame. (Well, tricky when you're blitzing. The final position is just a mere mate in 67!) The 90'+30" time control is a torture chamber. No confirmation on exactly what happened yet. Vachier-Lagrave won a wild game against Kasimjanov and Vallejo beat Granda. Svidler decided he'd rather watch cricket than play Movsesian. That's just not cricket, old chap, but I guess it was.

Two Berlin Defenses against Carlsen so far in Dortmund and two wins for the young Norwegian. In the first round it was Jakovenko and this time Naiditsch went down. In both games it looked like Black had solved the worst of his problems only to err under pressure and go down to defeat. The win put Carlsen back in clear first at the halfway mark on +2. Leko scored his first win, outplaying Bacrot convincingly in a finely controlled effort typical of Leko's style. A positional edge against an IQP was turned into an attacking opportunity and Bacrot couldn't defend in time trouble. That puts Leko into a tie on +1 with Kramnik.

Speaking of Kramnik, he passed up a very promising continuation against Jakovenko's somewhat dubious handling of the antique Ragozin Queen's Gambit. (Doesn't 13.Qb1 a6 14.axb5 cxb5 15.Nxc4! get the pawn back with considerable advantage?) Perhaps inspired by his attacking win yesterday, Kramnik went for kingside action only to realize halfway there that he didn't have much and that Black could play for a win with 19..h5. (20.Qxh5 f5! wins a piece thanks to the threat of ..Rh6.) So he offered a tactical draw and Jakovenko accepted. Disgusting.

For the Nth time, it's not fair to put all the blame on the players, though I don't mind shaming them a little for such a preposterous cheat. They are looking out for their best professional interests and not doing anything the rules don't allow them to do. (They don't seem to have post-game interviews in Dortmund so here's a DIY press conference: Kramnik: "I was worse, so a draw is good for me. It's up to him to play for a win if he wants." Jakovenko: "A quick draw with black against Kramnik is a great result so why risk for more?" Applause.) The fact that situations like this can be to the benefit of both players made it clear a long time ago that banning the draw offer or at least having move minimums is essential. It's been a while since we've had a spate of GM draws like this in a super event and that makes it even harder to swallow. What a joke.

Busy day on the work front with Obama in Russia, so more later. Tomorrow is an off day in Dortmund.

... along with the absentee Hikaru Nakamura, who exhibited the highest possible efficiency in reaching his 7/9 score. He played the three-day schedule, which means the first five games are 45 minutes per player, all played on the same day. For some reason this year the three-day schedule was relatively weak and except for a draw with GM Yudasin Nakamura buzzed through his heavily outrated opponents to reach 4.5/5. Then he played two regular games Saturday: a 14-move draw against Smirin and an insane win with black over Najer, who must have wondered if the rules of the game had been repealed as his excellent position came crashing down around him. And then he was gone! Nakamura is playing in the Donostia San Sebastian tournament that begins on the 7th in Spain and so had asked in advance for two half-point byes in the final two rounds of the World Open! Wild.

That left the rest of the field starting Sunday knowing they'd have to reach his 7/9 score and only Najer, making an admirable comeback, managed to do it. He beat Shabalov in round eight and then he beat Ehlvest's dreary opening into the dirt in the final round to take his second consecutive title by default since Nakamura wasn't around for the traditional blitz playoff, something he no doubt would have enjoyed. But he'll enjoy his half of the first prize ($15,000) for two day's work! Mikhailevski was tied with Nakamura going into the final day with 6/7 but lost his last two games. He beat Kamsky in the 7th round in an fine game.

Akobian had white and six points going into the final round but played just 16 moves against Smirin. All of them theory (from an old game by... Smirin). Strange. It looks like five players finished with 6.5: Kamsky, Akobian, Smirin, Stocek, Yudasin. Alex Lenderman got a GM norm, apparently his final one. Congrats!

Sort of, and not good for the lower-rated guys. Bacrot and Naiditsch seemed intent on hanging themselves with bad prep with white against Carlsen and Kramnik respectively. Bacrot-Carlsen followed the famous Ivanchuk-Shirov 1996 game in the Botvinnik Semi-Slav. (The game known only by Qg7!!!) After spending a huge amount of time reinventing the wheel Bacrot used it to run over his foot. He managed to earn himself an inferior position he saved by achieving a R vs Q fortress. Not exactly what you're shooting for with white. Bizarre. Was it no prep, bad prep, idle inspiration to repeat what has been considered inferior for White since Shirov struck back with this line and beat Ponomariov in 2003? Only Bacrot knows.

But that was still better than what Naiditsch ended up with. After dazzling with his Petroff prep in his win against Kramnik last year, he played what looked like the Wounded Hamster variation against it today and was quickly worse. Kramnik played a routine tactics 101 bishop sac on h3 and Naiditsch even allowed himself to get into time trouble, guaranteeing he wouldn't have a chance to fend off the attack. Nice execution by Kramnik (except missing a mate in three at the end), but really all the GM kibitzers and commentators on the ICC put the credit firmly in the hands of Naiditsch for his feeble effort. Notably, this was Kramnik's first win with the black pieces in a classical game since late 2006. Perhaps Naiditsch forgot that it was actually legal for Kramnik to beat him. Really a brutal pounding. The last half-dozen moves look like something out of the 1600 section of the World Open.

Jakovenko-Leko was shaping up to be interesting as well, but the Russian decided otherwise and offered a draw on move 22, which was accepted. Lame.

Round 5: Kramnik-Jakovenko, Leko-Bacrot, Carlsen-Naiditsch.

It's less than an hour into the round in Dortmund and Carlsen, apparently caught in a line he wasn't comfortable with against Kramnik, just forced a repetition draw in 15 moves. It ended on move 19. Maybe they had a nice 4th of July BBQ to get to? Opposite-colored bishops Berlin in Bacrot-Jakovenko. So it's all up to Leko's game to provide the excitement. Excuse me while I go stick sparklers between my toes.

Update here later. If required...

Not so much. All drawn without fanfare. Thanks to GM Kaidanov for at least making it instructive on ICC Chess.FM! Round 4 tomorrow: Naiditsch-Kramnik, Bacrot-Carlsen, Jakovenko-Leko. Last year Naiditsch beat Kramnik's Petroff with a very nice novelty. The way this event is going we'll be happy if they make six moves beyond theory.

Dmitri Jakovenko, now the #1 ranked Russian and #5 in the world, redeemed his endgame cred today by grinding down Naiditsch in a deep and fascinating game. Yesterday he seemed nervous and lost a drawable endgame against Carlsen just when it looked like he had defended well. Today he swapped down out of a sharp theoretical Najdorf (see Karjakin-van Wely, Corus) and outplayed Naiditsch in a very difficult and instructive endgame. There are plenty of fantastic lines in the ending, which at first looks relatively easy for White and his passed b-pawn after 34.Re6! Naiditsch could have complicated things quite a bit with 47..Rb2+ 48.Kc3 Kh7!! 49.Bb4 Rb1! with Bf4 next. It seems impossible but Black's h-pawn is really quite annoying.

After 47..h4? 48.Bc3 the b2 square was covered. Both players queened and the game went into the third time control, but Jakovenko had calculated well and his king quickly found respite from the checks. Just for fun, a move of rare beauty would have occurred had Jakovenko blundered with 52.Rd8??, which looks like a pretty way to allow Black to queen and then give mate. But Black has 52..Rb2+!! and suddenly White is on the ropes. Sweet. Kudos to Argentine IM German Della Morte for pointing that out well in advance on the ICC. Thanks to Larry Christiansen for all his remarkable analysis as always.

That moved the Jakovenko back to an even score and dropped Naiditsch into the cellar. Carlsen still leads on +1 after comfortably holding Leko to the Hungarian's second straight short draw with the white pieces (25 moves, beating yesterday's 24). Leko continued without much success in his plot to imitate Kramnik's repertoire instead of his usual 1.e4. Yesterday it was the Catalan, today it was 1.Nf3 2.c4. Speaking of the man himself, Bacrot defended aggressively (..a5!?, ..g5!) against Kramnik's typical slow-roll in the QID. The Frenchman impressed by even having a tiny plus before ceding the draw. You don't see Kramnik's white pieces defused this capably very often.

The big showdown tomorrow in round three, Carlsen-Kramnik. Then Bacrot-Jakovenko and Naiditsch-Leko.

ICC Chess.FM New In Chess subscription trivia winner for round 2: Arv123. Q: "Three of the Dortmund players have never won their national championships. Name two of them." (Not only was Arv123 first to answer, in less than two seconds, but he named all three!)

It's go time in Dortmund. In memory of Michael Jackson they start out with a real Thriller in round one, Leko-Kramnik! Har har, I could go on all night. But I won't, because I am merciful. The other games are Carlsen-Jakovenko and Naiditsch-Bacrot. Games start at 9am EDT, 3pm local, but they are using a 15-minute broadcast delay as an anti-cheating measure, something I fully support. Although they haven't figured out a good way to deal with jumping to the end when the game is over. There will be a daily live link on the official site (above). There seem to be dueling official sites, btw. That one, plus this one and what appears to be a subsite of it. Weird.

I'm on ICC Chess.FM with the inimitable LarryC. Updates here after the round. Call the action. Or "action" since Leko hasn't beaten Kramnik in classical chess since their 2004 WCh match (shades of Kasparov's dominance over Anand post-1995 WCh match) and Kramnik hasn't won a classical game with black against anybody since 2006, one of the more remarkable stats in top chess. But hey, let's stay positive. A black win in his favorite event would be a heck of a way for Big Vlad to shake off seven months of rust.

UPDATE: A pretty slow day at the board from the spectating point of view, with a Berlin, a deep Marshall endgame, and a Catalan. You know you're in trouble when the Berlin game is where the excitement is. But that was the case today. Leko-Kramnik fulfilled one of the easier predictions I've made with a 24-move snoozer. Leko tried 1.d4 and tried to use Kramnik's favorite Catalan against him. Vlad was unimpressed and liquidated the queenside to reach a totally drawn endgame. The ambitious exchange sac offer 17.e3!? would have livened things up a bit, though it doesn't seem to promise more than equality for White.

Naiditsch-Bacrot was an endgame variation of the Marshall Gambit that both played on the other side recently. White gets such an infinitesimal advantage in these lines you're basically waiting around for Black to screw up. As LarryC put it, White might win two or three out of twenty of these with some luck, but with zero risk of a loss and that seems to be what many of today's players are happy with with white. Ugh. They politely played on for a bit in an opposite-colored bishop endgame before leaving Carlsen-Jakovenko as the only game in town.

The Berlin doesn't seem a natural fit for Jakovenko, but he's had success with it on both sides, indicating a gift for its desert-like maneuvering positions. (He lost to Svidler with it last month, but to be fair Svidler dodged the usual endgame with 4.d3.) Carlsen made steady progress, however, and Black had some tough choices to make when the rooks came off the board before the first time control. Jakovenko hadn't been in any time trouble but nerves seemed to get the best of him in his Dortmund debut. He let his time tick down and then made several poor decisions, avoiding a couple of natural attempts at a draw Larry looked at and ending up in a lost position. He passed up the chance to play ..c5 twice and after that he was going to be tortured for a long time at the very best. Instead it ended quickly with another dithering move, 41..Bd3. One nice drawing line: 37..c5 38.bxc5 Kxc5 39.h5 gxh5 40.gxh5 f6 41.h6 Bg8 42.Ne6+ Kd6! 43.Nf8 Ke7 44.h7 Bxh7 45.Nxh7 Kf7.

Round 2: Kramnik-Bacrot, Jakovenko-Naiditsch, Leko-Carlsen.

ICC Chess.FM New In Chess subscription trivia winner for round 1: Flaneur. Q: "The last time Dortmund used this format, a player outside the top 20 won ahead of Kramnik and Anand. Who?"

Hours after I posted the item on Nanjing Pearl Spring, Anand and Topalov disappeared from the event website and were replaced with "to be determined"! [The sharp-eyed Torrelio in the comments notes that if you click the first blank square you still get Topalov's picture. Hasty cover-up!] Maybe the organizers' announcements got a little ahead of their contracts? Inquiries as yet unanswered.