March 2010 Archives

The mighty Russian Team Championship begins tomorrow in Sochi. Many of the world's elite are participating, including Ivanchuk, Svidler, Grischuk, Morozevich, Wang Yue, Gelfand, Ponomariov, Karjakin, Jakovenko, and new Euro Champion Nepomniachtchi. They have a basic English sub-site up that promises results. The live link is here. Games start at 1500 local, 7am Eastern time.

Last year Tomsk-400 took the title comfortably, but their top boards aren't back, at least not with Tomsk. They're actually stronger on paper this year with Ponomariov on board one. Four teams have three 2700 players, yikes.

In an interview with Chessdom, organizer Silvio Danailov has confirmed that there will be no MTel 2010 supertournament for the first time since its founding in 2005. The Anand-Topalov match, in Sofia a month earlier, undoubtedly siphoned away both energy and money from the event. This also messes up the Grand Slam, of which Danailov is one of the founders and organizers.

While the afterglow of the world championship match will last a while, this does leave the elite calendar rather bare until Dortmund, though Biel has become quite strong (Gelfand, Ivanchuk, and Morozevich last year). Maybe they'll finally hold the MIA final FIDE Grand Prix event? I hear Ingushetia is lovely in June and the smoke from the upcoming carpet bombing should have cleared by then.

7th World Champion Vassily Smyslov passed away Friday night in the Moscow hospital where he'd been interned with heart troubles for the past several days. He turned 89 years old on March 24. A world championship level player for over 30 years, his longevity and famously brief stint as world champion usually overshadow his sheer strength. The adjective "harmonious" is attached to his name the way "brilliant" is to Tal's and "universal" to Spassky's. I never really saw it in common currency, but I do remember someone referring to calling Smyslov "The Hand" because it seemed like his play flowed so naturally that good moves just came to his hand unbidden.

Smyslov is also well-remembered for both his enthusiasm and skill as a singer, which he was happy to share with audiences at chess events such as the Veterans vs Women tournaments. He was almost completely blind for the final decade of his life, but still enjoyed chess problems and the occasional visit to a big event if he didn't have to travel too far.

I met him for the first and final time in Moscow at the Botvinnik Memorial (irony duly noted). Watching him in the audience with his wife whispering the moves to him still lingers as a testimony to both love and a passion for chess. A few years ago I posted this candid pic of him at the reception there shaking hands with Kramnik, who took the highest title 43 years after Smyslov won it from Botvinnik. There will be many tributes and reminiscences to come, but as a quickie you could do a lot worse than #14 on #7. An excerpt.

He is truth in chess! Smyslov plays correctly, truthfully and has a natural style. By the way, why do you think he lacks that aura of mystique like Tal or Capablanca? Because Smyslov is not an actor in chess, his play is neither artistic nor fascinating. But I am fond of his style. I would recommend a study of Smyslov's games to children who want to know how to play chess because he plays the game how it should be played: his style is the closest to some sort of 'virtual truth' in chess. He always tried to make the strongest move in each position. He has surpassed many other of the World Champions in the number of strongest moves made. As a professional, this skill impresses me. I know that spectators are more interested in flaws ... ups and downs. But from the professional standpoint, Smyslov has been underestimated.

He mastered all elements of play. Smyslov was a brilliant endgame specialist, all in all his play resembled a smooth flow, like a song. When you look at his games, you have that light feeling as if his hand is making the moves all by itself while the man is making no effort at all - just like he was drinking coffee or reading a newspaper! This has the feel of Mozart's light touch! No stress, no effort, everything is simple yet brilliant. I like this feature of Smyslov and I am fond of his games.

Favorite games and stories? Please share.

We're less than a month away from the Anand-Topalov world championship match in Sofia, Bulgaria. The official website is even up already. Not much content, but there an English version of Topalov's post-Linares interview with Vasiliev of Russia's Sport Express. The sauciest bit:

The prize fund in our match is 2 million Euro - about 3 million US$ - but if Anand would have made even a minor attempt, it could easily go over 5 million. India is a vast market and Anand is very popular in his homeland. But the World Champion preferred that someone else does all the work and even play the victim. 'Well, you see, I prefer not to play in Bulgaria, but there are no other options.' We were prepared to play in India half the games or even the whole match, but Anand didn't make even the slightest effort to arrange anything about this.

I have no way of knowing if and how hard Anand worked at finding sponsorship at home, but it was striking that no bid came in from India. With Anand's legend status you would think there would be at least a few "new India" companies eager to hitch their wagons to his star.

Topalov's manager Danailov made more news than his charge by announcing that Topalov wouldn't accept or offer draws during the match, essentially applying the Sofia Rules unilaterally. I suppose the implications of his words, and stating it so brashly, were more interesting than the meaning, which isn't really a big deal. It makes sense for Topalov, the younger player, to stretch the games out early and often. Danailov later told ChessVibes that they tried to get Anand to agree to play under the Sofia Rules unsuccessfully. But eliminating the offered draw is the heart of the Rules, and it takes two to agree to a draw, so it's odd they made a big deal about it. Other than passing draw offers through the arbiter, there's not much more to it. I guess Danailov didn't want to pass up a chance to call Anand a chicken.

Are we ready to start making half-assed predictions yet? 12 games.

Or whatever the trophy is at the Amber tournament, they are sharing it. Carlsen started the final round with a half-point lead over Ivanchuk in the combined standings. But the world #1 faced Grischuk, who had been on a remarkable run in the blindfold despite an awkward loss to Aronian in the 10th round, when he lost on time after mentally misplacing his queen. Karma worked quickly for Grischuk when Carlsen did the same thing, misplacing Grischuk's queen and hanging his own to lose instantly. Ivanchuk drew with Gelfand so they went into the rapid phase tied for first and both with the white pieces. Ivanchuk and Carlsen both duly won to make for a tidy symmetrical result, both had 8/11 in the rapid and 6.5/11 in the blindfold.

Their trajectories were quite different. Ivanchuk's share of first is only his second in 19 consecutive participations and his first win since the first of these Amber events (sans blindfold section) in 1992. Even more remarkably, considering the format, he went undefeated through the entire event. I don't know if that's ever been done before at Amber, but I seriously doubt it. Even Kramnik, who made something of a habit of going through the blindfold without a loss, hasn't pulled it off. And Ivanchuk gets double bonus point for mating Gelfand's Petroff in devastating fashion in the final round. Meanwhile, Carlsen lost two rapid and four blindfold but made up the distance with a remarkable 13 wins. To save you the math, that's only three draws from 22 games! His final-round win over Grischuk was typical of the precision he displayed for long stretches during the event. (33.Qxg4, offering to give up the e3 pawn with check, was very nice.) That makes his lapses all the more interesting, but at 19 he's still far from a consistent performer, as terrifying as that thought should be for everyone else.

Kramnik played some of the most interesting games this year, though it may have cost him his usual consistency. He made a go of it in the final round as well, knowing he would need some help win his 7th Amber. He could come out on top if Carlsen and Ivanchuk lost and he beat Karjakin 2-0. He got halfway there with a methodical grinding win in the blindfold. But Kramnik's Pirc didn't turn out so well in the rapid and Karjakin ripped him apart, though Vlad still got clear third place. The flipside of Ivanchuk's undefeated score was Dominguez, who managed to get through his Amber debut without a win. Even in the rapid today when he had two bishops and an extra passed pawn against Aronian it ended drawn. Away from the horrible blunders and usual time insanity, one of the most surprising games was Carlsen outplaying and beating Ponomariov in a R+4 vs R+4 all on the same side in the rapid. Heck, it was two pawns each at one point. I know it's rapid and blah blah, but the only modern player I can think of working such improbable rook and pawn magic on a regular basis is Korchnoi.

I've got a bunch of analysis notes from my Chess.FM stints I'll toss up here on the weekend.

Two lots of my used books, ending in a few hours. Auction links here and here. More details here.

Again. The newly 41-year-old Ukrainian wizard started out this year's Amber tournament with a 2-0 win over Carlsen. Then he kept up a solid pace -- he's still undefeated -- only to watch Carlsen's string of seven wins in a row pass him by. But Carlsen's excellent imitation of an unstoppable killing machine was dispelled at last and he lost today's mini-match with Gashimov, allowing Ivanchuk to again take over the overall lead by a half-point. Ivanchuk won this event the first time it was played, way back in 1992, if you stretch the facts a bit. That event was a double round-robin of rapid only; they didn't add the blindfold set until the following year, when, inky bait, Ljubo Ljubojevic won. It's still a nice testament both to Ivanchuk's longevity and his brilliance. Gelfand is a year older and isn't doing too badly either, tied for 3-4th with Karjakin a point behind Carlsen.

Aronian is the two-time defending champ at Amber but at this point he could play the blindfold with sight of the board and still not contend. Today in the 7th round he got greedy and was blown away by Kramnik in instructive fashion. Big Vlad hasn't been up to his usual fantastic standard in the blindfold either, losing more games so far, three, than in his last three appearances combined. Carlsen has shown remarkable skill and tenacity in the endgame several times, overpowering opponents from equal positions. In the sixth he won a wildly complicated tactical battle against Gelfand in the rapid out of a King's Indian. (Even Kramnik gave the KID a try against Gelfand a few days earlier. Probably won't repeat that experiment any time soon.) Gelfand missed an lovely perpetual check draw with 37.Ra8+ Nc8 38.Rxc8+! Bxc3 39.Qg6+ Rf7 40.Qg8+ Ke7 41.d6+! Kxd6 and both taking the rook and Qd8+ draw as long as White is precise.

The KID wasn't Kramnik's only opening surprise with black. After he dropped his usual Petroff for the Pirc to beat Smeets at Corus, the former world champ made some jokes about it, which I heard as light-hearted sarcasm but that others thought was a little tasteless. But he's played or offered the Pirc several more times at Amber and even allowed Smeets another crack at it in the blindfold. Bad idea. Perhaps Smeets picked up the book on the Pirc Kramnik said he picked up in Wijk aan Zee before their last game. He played the aggressive Austrian attack this time, although for a while it looked like he was again outplayed in the opening. Kramnik got his knights tangled up when he missed a clever shot that exposes the lack of coordination of the white pieces. A sighted LarryC also missed it, but the computer finds the geometry easily, of course. 14..Bxc3! 15.Bxc2 Qa6! and suddenly White is in trouble. 16.Rd1 Qe2 is obnoxious, so White might have to find 16.Kg1!? and Black is doing well. After that chance passed Kramnik was down a piece and Smeets played exceptionally well fending off Kramnik's creative kitchen sink attack for his first Amber win. No comment from Kramnik about whether or not he wished he'd played the Petroff.

The official site is doing its usual excellent job of putting up daily reports and there are amazing videos courtesy of Peter Doggers of ChessVibes.com, Macauley Peterson and ICC Chess.FM. I haven't had time to catch them all, but the post-mortems alone are great.

Young Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi won the European Individual Championship in style yesterday, going in with the lead and crushing Akopian to finish with a fantastic 9.5/11 and clear first. Two of the other top boards were also decisive as those who had pretty much locked up qualification for the next World Cup made a push for a bigger chunk of the prize money. Jobava beat Khismatullin in an exciting game and Timofeev beat Mamedov in a great performance. That settled the top spots, almost. They are sticklers for tiebreaks in these events and Jobava beat Timofeev in the rapid games for the silver medal.

Congrats to Ian "Finding" Nepo on the biggest win of his career. at 19 he's already had a few great results and plays a very exciting brand of chess. He was being compared to Morozevich even before he impressed with his big run at Corus C in 2007, where he started out with 7.5/8. A formidable speed player, he hasn't impressed enough, or raised his rating enough, to break into the elite alongside the biggest names in his cohort, Carlsen and Karjakin. His surprisingly solid +1 undefeated at Dortmund 2008 surely should have resulted in more attention, but he also sufferers from Russian Disease, for which there is currently no cure. But this is a very big win and I hope we get more chances to see him soon, even if it means a lot of ctrl+v.

Meanwhile, the real tooth and nail battles were going on Thursday as the massive train wreck of 30 players with 7.5 were dumped into a marathon of tiebreak games. These were to decide the final placings and therefore, who would get the 12 remaining of the 22 spots in the next FIDE World Cup. (It usually doesn't turn out to be just the top 22, since some end up qualifying in other ways.) The first rapid game between Navara and Movsesian deserves a look, wow. After poring over the pages of live tiebreak games at the official site I'm still not sure who got those last dozen spots. It does look like that of the three final-round losers who ended on 7.5, Mamedov and Akopian went through, but Khismatullin did not. Ouch. They must have finished quite late, perhaps after any sensible webmaster's bedtime. Speaking of...

Someone in the comments recently asked for an update on the littlest (outside-the-womb) member of the family. (Her brother arrives next month.) She's getting big, as this picture from last Saturday attests. At 20 months she needed help getting up into the chair, but after that she had no trouble exploiting her opponent's kingside weaknesses to sac a bishop and rook for mate. Her opponent is a member of a local Brooklyn K-5 school club that was having a fundraiser at our local Barnes & Noble. They leafleted us outside and of course I couldn't resist stopping by. Especially when I saw the name of their club, the Chess Ninjas!

Since we're off topic, one for the "told you so" files. Kasparov went to Georgia for the big 50th birthday bash of his old friend and former second Zurab Azmaiparashvili yesterday. Azmai has plenty of Georgian political contacts, and, when they heard Kasparov was coming, there were rumors that President Saakashvili might even show up. (If there's anyone Putin hates more than Kasparov, it's Saakashvili, and of course the feeling is mutual.) A few days ago Garry joked about the rumors, saying that if this happened the news reports would say "President Saakashvili meets with Kasparov" and poor Azmaiparashvili's birthday wouldn't even be mentioned. Truth. (Well, okay, he was also invited to the presidential palace and residence...)

After 10 rounds, with only tomorrow's final round remaining, Russia's young Ian [ctrl+v] Nepomniachtchi leads the European Individual Championship in Rijeka alone after beating long-time leader Jobava convincingly in round nine. All the leaders drew today. Eight players are a half-point back with 7.5/10. In the final round, [ctrl+v] Nepomniachtchi has white against Akopian. The scheduling works out nicely as the final round in Croatia comes on the first free day at the Amber tournament. The jockeying for one of the 22 World Cup qualifying spots has begun in earnest and +4 (7.5/11) will be required this year just to make the massive tiebreak session on Thursday. So even the eight players entering the final round on +5 aren't guaranteed a spot. Tomorrow's pairings leave most of them playing each other, however, so unless somebody gets particularly ambitious for that 20,000 euro first prize we might have quick draws on those boards. The real bloodbath can be expected further down, as the dozens of players with 6.5 must win to have a shot at the the tiebreak extravaganza.

These are leftovers from the Recycling Revel. I didn't have the heart to donate books in descriptive notation to schools, so I'm auctioning them in two lots on Ebay. It's a mixed bag, might fill a few holes in your collection or start a collection. A few very good ones, some junk. The lots are cleverly sorted by weight, not by quality or anything else, so some might evaluate one lot as much better than the other!

All proceeds go to the Recycling Revel postage fund. I just dropped off another box of books and software at a Brooklyn school. The kids (and teachers) are very appreciative. Thanks to everyone who has donated and also thanks to everyone who has suggested a destination class or club where the materials can benefit kids. Auctions end in five days. I'll also start auctioning individual and lots of older ChessBase software, from playing programs (Fritz 9!) to training DVDs.

Click for larger version or just go the auction pages for Lot 1 and Lot 2.

LOT 1:

1. Ban: The Tactics of Engames 2. Byrne: NY Times Great Chess Victories and Defeats 3. Coles: Battles Royal of the Chessboard 4. Dvoretsky: School of Chess Excellence 1 5. Estrin: Gambits 6. Evans: Chess Catechism 7. Fine: Basic Chess Endings 8. Fine: Great Moments in Chess 9. Hensley & Whitworth: Endgame Magic 10. Keres & Kotov: The Art of the Middlegame 11. Konig: Chess from Morphy to Botwinnik, a Century of Chess Evolution 12. Korn: The Brilliant Touch in Chess 13. Lasker, Em.: Common Sense in Chess 14. Mednis: How to Play Good Opening Moves 15. Nunn & Cozens: The King Hunt 16. Pachman: Decisive Games in Chess History 17. Pachman: Semi-Open Chess 18. Pritchard: First Moves: How to Start a Chess Game 19. Reinfeld: British Chess Masters 20. Reti: Modern Ideas in Chess 21. Russ: Miniature Chess Problems 22. Suetin: Modern Chess Opening Theory 23. The Golden Treasury of Chess (1943 1st ed.) 24. Znosko-Borovsky: How Not to Play Chess

LOT 2:

1. Alexander: The Penguin Book of Chess Positions 2. Chernev: Winning Chess Traps 3. Clarke: Cien Miniaturas Rusas 4. Fine: A Passion for Chess 5. Freeborough & Ranken: Chess Openings Ancient and Modern 6. Gambito de Rey 7. Horowitz: Chess Self-Teacher 8. Keres & Kotov: The Art of the Middlegame 9. Keres: Practical Chess Endings 10. Lasker, Ed.: Modern Chess Strategy 11. Mednis: How Karpov Wins 12. Nimzovich: My System 13. Pachman: Complete Chess Strategy 14. Pandolfini (ed.): The Best of Chess Life and Review Vol. 2 15. Pritchard: Begin Chess 16. Reinfeld & Fine: Lasker's Greatest Chess Games 17. Renauld & Kahn: The Art of the Checkmate 18. Spielmann: The Art of Sacrifice in Chess 19. Staunton: The Chess-Player's Handbook

Open your mouth and close your eyes... Well, at least close your eyes. Actually, the blindfold chess in the Amber (they seem to have dropped the "Melody" part of the name at some point) tournament doesn't even require eyes to be closed. They use computer board with invisible pieces instead of the more theatrical blindfolds. Ah well, without spectators this isn't much of a concern, I suppose. And there's little doubt that players today are much more accustomed to visualizing computer boards and pieces than wooden ones.

As always, it's an incredible field. Anand and Topalov decided they would rather spend the time trying to break down the Semi-Slav, but just about everyone else who's anyone is there. Carlsen, Kramnik, Aronian, Grischuk, Gelfand, Svidler, Gashimov, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Ponomariov, Dominguez, Smeets. Each round the same pair of opponents play one rapid and one blindfold game. Aronian has won the combined event two years in a row. Last year he topped Anand and Kramnik by a half-point. Morozevich, an infernally strong blindfold player, dropped out at the last minute ("personal reasons") and has been replaced by Grischuk.

What's up with Moro these days? Not that he doesn't have entirely legit personal reasons for dropping out of what is generally considered the most luxurious event in the world, but his latest rating plunge is bad even by his loopy standards. Last at the Tal Memorial, knocked out of the World Cup in the second round by Laznicka, then dropping three games to Papaioannou, Mamedyarov, and Akopian at the World Team in January. I had kind of hoped that age would bring a certain stability to his wild and amazing chess, making him more of a super-tournament threat. Right now it's all downhill. Any recent interviews with him?

ICC Chess.FM will be providing daily live coverage for the first time, and I'll be chipping in. Thanks to a deal with the official site you don't even have to be an ICC member to listen and watch the GM's analysis board. Check it out. Games begin at 1430 local time in Nice, 8:30am ET.

Two players jumped out to 4/4 starts in this year's European Individual Championship in Croatia, Ukraine's Efimenko and Georgia's Jobava. They drew with each other in the 5th round, which allowed two others to match them at 4.5. Then in today's 6th round Jobava and Efimenko beat the newcomers, Timofeev and Nisipeanu, to stay on top with very impressive 5.5/6 scores. In big swisses with only the very top prizes worth the trip, you have to play to win every round. But here, where the qualification to the next World Cup is the main goal and 22 players make it, we often see those who reach solid plus scores playing cautiously and taking draws with each other. After the first two rounds of mismatches it's rare to see more than half the games on the top boards finish decisively.

It was an even split today, with a bunch of quick draws on the top ten, but the action on the top three made it feel like a win. Efimenko's brutal demolition of Nisipeanu's Alekhine's Defense in particular is worth a look. It won't take long. Black must have missed something big because the position is unplayable with g7 bishop flushed out by the h6 pawn. I've only had time to take occasional glances at the games there are so many. Pelletier's king's run to daylight against Navara is fun to watch. The Swiss's (ss's?!) defense was perfect. Adams played a nice smash of Jankovic with 26.Rxg7+! The follow-up isn't as obvious as it might seem. In fact, Adams missed the mating line 30.Qxf6!, but taking a full rook isn't bad either.

The streaky Cheparinov might have been considered a dark horse for a strong run here, but so far he's been more of a dog. He got blown out of the water by Spain's Lopez Martinez in just 23 moves with white against a French. The winning combination, a double piece sac, is pretty. The game Lysyj-Erdogdu probably wasn't on your radar either, but despite being sloppier than eating soup with a knife and from an already winning position, the series of tactics starting on move 40 with c4! are quite fun. Iordachescu-Schmidt is another mismatch that was winning in 20 ways, but the way White chose is good stuff. 19.Nxf7! Kxf7 20.Qg3 picks up the black queen. I'm a sucker for a quiet diagonal retreating winner. Jobava hasn't just been winning, he's been winning pretty. 33..Bd4!! against Krasenkow must have made the Pole vault, if you don't mind. You can tell it was a shock (and/or time trouble) because White then allowed the nasty 35..Ne3, ending things instantly. Lupulescu was already doing very well with black out of a Benoni against Moiseenko, but he really rubbed it in with the lovely 29..Rxf4!, stealing a piece out of thin air. 30.exf3 Nf3+ 31.gxf3 gxf3+ is mate. Cool and unusual punishment.

Big Al Beliavsky missed a very interesting shot that might have saved his game against Gdanski. 32..Rxb2! is the sort of tactic that combines various themes that are so easy for a computer to spot. 33.Rxb2 Rxc3+ 34.Kd2 Rd3+ 35.Kc2 Nxf4 and the pin on the g3 pawn wins back the piece with excellent comp for the exchange. 23-year-old IM Jure Skoberne of Slovenia deserves a shout-out for his run so far. He beat Volkov and Howell to move to 3/3. He lost to Timofeev but bounced back to beat another 2600 today. This latest, against Gelashvili, is also a wonderfully dynamic game.

If the announcement, made just a few months ago, that Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov were working together was news, then I suppose the announcement that they aren't working together is worth mentioning. At least they felt it was worth a whole press release, which is really more of a time-honored way of keeping names in the news when there isn't really news. Other than tweaking the press release a tiny bit before it went out, I don't have any inside info on this. I'm certainly not privy to their financial arrangements.

From casual conversations and public information, including the release itself, I sum it up as follows. They had a one-year arrangement and now that year is up. With Carlsen already the #1, the goal they had set at the start, perhaps as a two-year plan, already achieved, it didn't make much sense to continue as before. So Carlsen is taking the next step, which is taking charge and building up all the muscles he needs to be a complete pro. He also saves the no-doubt-considerable expense of hiring the former world champ. Kasparov's role will be more of an occasional consultant, with Carlsen setting the agenda and asking for advice instead of following another's gameplan. They both keep some benefits from what turned out to be a great PR (and chess) move for both of them -- and great PR (and chess) means money. The announcement also keeps some of the GK shadow around when Carlsen plays, which can't hurt. Even if they don't work together much the threat can be stronger than the execution.

I'd say that the impact of their collaboration will be debated endlessly, but of course that's already happened. Carlsen has candidates matches coming up at some point, and I'm sure Kasparov's input there will be useful. And if Magnus makes it to a world championship match, their relationship could be a major factor. Especially if his opponent is Anand.

If you're in a philosophical mood, here's an amusing YouTube mash-up with astronomy, "there's something out there" text, and Bobby Fischer video clips voiced over one by of the less scurrilous segments of the many interviews Fischer gave to Philippine radio during, I believe, his captivity in Japan. Most of it sounds like the epiphany of a 9th-grade science student, but there is an innocent charm to it for that. ht DC

"Can I go off the air singing a little "All You Need Is Love?"

And he does. Sort of. Fischer would have been 67 today. He died two years ago in Iceland, ending one of the greatest and then saddest stories in the history of chess. It's a pity that "the pride and sorrow" was already taken by his countryman Paul Morphy.

The Euro Ch is a strong and strange event, a massive swiss limited to European players and functioning mainly like the interzonals of yesteryear as an early stage of the world championship cycle. Top finishers, 22 of them, head to the next World Cup, which seems like something of a redundancy to me. I remember the first of these, won by Pavel Tregubov in 2000. The official site of this years event in Rijeka, Croatia, has a handy list of all the events with winners and runners-up. It's been a very democratic event, without multiple winners from the same country until Tomashevsky duplicated Tregubov's feat for Russia last year. It hasn't been a particularly memorable event, at least not to me, a neither-fish-nor-fowl that's a messy semi-open swiss but one with the prestige of an official world championship cycle qualifier. The winner gets 20,000 euro from a total prize fund of 120,000. The only game that comes to mind from its decade of history is Azmaiparashvili's takeback game against Malakhov in 2003, after which the Georgian FIDE VP went on to win the title and his opponent to finish second.

But very strong it is once more, no doubt. Even if none of the top 10, or top 20, is there, half of the top 100 is playing! Full list here. Almasi is the top seed, with Bacrot, Movsesian, Navara, Vallejo, Motylev, and Adams also there from the 2700+ crowd. Dutch Corus B winner Anish Giri is the 64th seed, a good chess number. Another teen, Caruana, is also playing. The official site looks well put together and has live games here, although their promise of "live parties!" is like a bit of false (cognate) advertising. The first of 11 rounds begins Saturday at 1530 local, 9:30am eastern.

The dreaded post-Superbowl, pre-March Madness lull in big American arena sports was filled quite nicely by the Winter Olympics this year. We're not so lucky in the chess world, where we're cooling our heels for the Melody Amber tournament on March 13. Last year we had the Topalov-Kamsky match, although that also overlapped with Linares, which was nuts.

At least we have a new rating list, best contextualized here at TWIC. More frequent lists is a very welcome step, but a more dynamic rating formula is also badly needed. Linares wasn't rated this time around. As discussed in the comments the other day, they used to make an exception and rate Linares at the last minute, but it never really made much sense. Of course what would really make sense would be to have at least the top 100+ players' games rated in real time. Of course this is sort of what Hans Arild Runde's Live List has been doing for a while now. Sure, daily rating updates are mostly for the real geeks like us, but that wouldn't be the case if the list were more dynamic and FIDE did a job of promoting rating as a marketing tool.

On the other hand, the importance of rating at the top rose with the confusion of the world championship title. When the title was split and the asterisks were flying, we turned to the relative reliability of the rating list (at least after Kasparov and Short were reinstated). I'm traditionalist enough to wax nostalgic about the importance of the highest title and the status of unofficial titles like world championship challenger and candidate. But I'd also like to see chess move into the modern sports world and the rating system is a great way to do that, both at the top and the bottom.

Anyhoo, as long as we're treading water here, may as well look at the actual list. Carlsen is still #1, Topalov will be in the #2 spot for his match against Anand, who slips a few points behind Kramnik to #4. Leko lost points for the 3rd consecutive list and is now way down at #18. That's a spot below US champion Hikaru Nakamura. Morozevich is still languishing in limbo, down to 2715 from his 2787 a little more than a year ago. It's still a jarring to see just two English and two Dutch players on the top 100 list. Two great chess powers on the ropes. Adams and Short have renewed their battle for UK primacy, but it's taking place well down the list these days. English chess is waiting for Howell. No pressure. Vietnam's Moscow avenger Quang Liem Le shot up over 40 points. Let's hope he gets a few invites to closed events asap. Most importantly, Jan Gustafsson is back on the list.