December 2010 Archives

World champ Vishy Anand has won two in a row to move into a tie for the lead at the London Classic. Luke McShane, winner of his first two, has held on with two draws to keep his surprising share of the lead. On the other hand, McShane just won an event a few days before this one and Anand hasn't won a classical tournament since Linares 2008, nearly three years. That's a bizarre stat even considering he's won a pair world championship matches during that span. His tournament record since that Linares win: Bilbao 08, -2; Linares 09, even; Tal Memorial 09, +1; Corus 10, +2; Bilbao 10, +1; Nanjing 10, +2. Not horrible, of course, but it shows it's not just that he's falling behind someone on a hot streak putting up a huge score. Three years without a +3 result is startling even if it's just six events. And while WCh match preparation takes energy and occasionally requires keeping your best new stuff under wraps, there is usually a bonus later when you get to use all the WCh prep you did in tournaments. Is Anand our new Mr. +2?

Going into London I would have considered +3 clear first and +2 a good shot at equal first. It's a short event and too strong for anyone to run away with. Losses by favorites Kramnik and Carlsen confirmed that theory. The two leaders are the only undefeated players in the field now that Nakamura fell to Carlsen in today's fourth round. Kramnik notched his second win to move back into contention. Nakamura, Carlsen, and Adams are all on even scores. Howell is on -2 and saved from the cellar by Short, who lost with white again today, to Anand.

By the way, this tournament is using the "3-1-0" scoring system that nearly always does nothing but serve as a tiebreak at best and a distraction at worst. I can't really bring myself to relay the standings this way, and not just because ChessBase tables don't show them. I don't mind Carlsen being listed as ahead of Nakamura by dint of his two wins and two losses against one and one. Again, it's basically a tiebreaker that rewards decisive games, which I'm okay with. In an event this short it's unlikely to be of significance. Just don't tell me someone at, say, Corus, who went +5 -5 =3 should finish ahead of someone who went +2 =11. I'm for anti-short-draw rules and banning draw offers because chessplayers should play chess the way woodchucks should chuck wood. But I'm not for trying to manipulate HOW the chessplayers play chess. If you think someone is boring, don't invite him.

I haven't had much time to go over the games or read much of the analysis out there, I'm sure you're glad to hear. I'm still marveling that Kramnik missed a beautiful draw in his endgame against Nakamura in round two. (41.Kg2! in case this is, tragically, your only news source.) Anand's win against Carlsen in the third round was the big news, an oversight by the Norwegian allowing Anand to fracture his pawn structure and torture him for hours. Howell managed to escape Nakamura's deep Grunfeld prep with speed and pluck and a blockade, but wasn't as lucky against Kramnik today. 38..Ke5 is a good example of harmful activity when hanging back would have given better chances. Nobody likes to suffer passively, but learning to be pragmatic and put up tough defense when called for is a hallmark of the greats. Kramnik, for example, turned an iron stomach for inferior positions into a world championship title.

An even score from blacks against Anand, Kramnik, and Carlsen sounds like the result of a lifetime, but Hikaru Nakamura is not interested in the ambitions of other men and is no doubt disappointed with his loss to Carlsen today. Nakamura's English-Dutch Defense ended up with the usual weak pawn misery and he had to battle to hold the balance until things fell apart in time trouble. 4 vs 3 on the same side might have been defensible, but Carlsen found a desperado shot on g6 and 4 vs 2 with a weak black pawn on the other side was too much. As for Short's third loss, not much to be said. His strategy of getting slightly inferior positions out of the opening with white followed by getting mated hasn't paid dividends yet.

The leaders meet on Sunday. Round 5: Adams-Kramnik, Anand-McShane, Nakamura-Short, Howell-Carlsen.

Big chess in London! Upset! Nail-biting defense! Sacrificial attack! Checkmate! The English Opening in England! Best of all, a Berlin Defense getting blown off the board. Such is the day that was at the London Classic. The biggest blow was landed by underdog Luke McShane, or should that be English Bulldog? His bite was definitely bigger than his bark today as he took out world #2 Magnus Carlsen in a wonderful attacking game. McShane's raw talent has never been in doubt; when he gets a chance to attack he can be as good as anyone this side of Topalov. It's the "raw" part that was always likely to limit him to the occasional good result and spectacular game as a semi-pro. You don't make 2700 playing a few dozen league and open games a year. But McShane played regularly in 2010 and pushed his rating up some 50 points. Now he's started the London Classic off with a big bang, which has added value in that Carlsen will now have to push hard to come back in this quick, seven-round event.

Not that Carlsen wasn't pushing hard already. All credit to McShane, but Carlsen clearly was looking for a fight with black all the way through. Moves like 19..f5 aren't generally made if you are looking for equality. The provocation started earlier though, with the Tarrasch-burning move 9..Ne5, moving the knight a second time only to retreat it to the d7 square a few moves later. That was more than enough tempi to serve as waving a red flag in front of the English bull(dog), and he didn't disappoint. Carlsen could have groveled with 19..a5 or perhaps 20..e6, but such passivity and weak-square creation are more for computers to enjoy. After that it was a romp, with McShane offering the same knight to the black b-pawn first on c6 and then on a6. Lovely stuff. The former Goldman Sachs trader finished cleanly, scoring the biggest win by a Brit since, well, since Adams beat Carlsen at the Olympiad a few months ago.

Since just about everyone on the planet has a poor record against Vladimir Kramnik it's no insult to say Nigel Short consistently has trouble with the former world champion. He's lost to Kramnik three times since he last beat him way back in 1997 (Kramnik played the Dragon. Seriously.) and even the former WCh challenger's draws feel like losses. At Corus this year Short built up a crushing position that Svidler or Ivanchuk might well have resigned. But Kramnik, perhaps relying on their personal hoodoo, kept on and was rewarded with several mistakes and a draw. Short, who plays the King's Gambit on occasion, went Romantic again with the Bishop's Opening. Kramnik was not impressed and built up a massive center that eventually, inevitably, crashed through Short's position like a hot knife through a Christmas pudding.

One of two Berlin Defenses was an admirably brief encounter between Adams and young David Howell, who both accomplished plus scores at this event last year. Howell grabbed a few pawns on the queenside and paid a very high price. The computer sez 16..Ba6 is already the only move to save the game and that's not pretty at all if White finds 17.Re7!! Bxc3 18.R1e3! and Black is in serious trouble. None of that was called for after Howell blundered with 16..Bxg5 and White's attack is irresistible. 20.Nxh7 is nice, but nothing to strain a player of Adams' caliber once he found 25.Re5. Howell, probably in his usual time scramble, played until being mated on e6 by a knight. The gallery is appreciative.

It's a bit rude to put the game between the world champion and the US #1 at the end, but I do usually go with decisive games first around here. Nakamura also went for the Berlin -- he drew with it twice at the Tal Memorial last month -- and soon had reason to regret it. Anand played the now-typical e5-e6 pawn sac for strong play and scooped up a pawn on the kingside during the general liquidation. But Nakamura found a remarkable blockade setup and there was nothing White could do. By some miracle the position with two extra doubled pawns is drawn, even with the bishops of the same color. Wow. Anand has always been a bit lackadaisical in his approach to technical positions so it would be interesting to see where he might have diverged to keep more material and winning chances on the board. The game has a faint smell of "well of course this must be winning so I'll get there and then figure out the details." Or maybe it's just as Nakamura tweeted post-game, "Pretty horrendously bad game against Anand today, but luckily the Berlin Wall is a forced draw!" And happy birthday to him, btw!

Blockades are always a tough test for computers. They can't push the horizon all the way to see every repetition so they piddle around endlessly with "+1.5" or whatever until finally seeing it's 0.00. So it's interesting to see this endgame given everything from +1.7 down to +0.2 by different engines. But as I said above, humans aren't immune to this weakness, if for different reasons. Anand may have seen this coming and figured it was at least +1.7, so to speak, while Nakamura may have figured out it was likely drawn. I wasn't watching live, so am curious what the commentators were saying as the game went into the ending.

Fantastic start! Round 2: Kramnik-Nakamura, Howell-Anand, Short-McShane, Carlsen-Adams. Live here at the special time of 1600 local, 11am NY.

An entirely token post about a somewhat token event, but hey, it's still chess. The KO system is alive and well at the women's world championship, this year taking place in Turkey. Official site. Defending champion Kosteniuk is there, with Koneru, Hou Yifan, and the Kosintsevii as the top challengers. For the US, Zatonskih just moved into the third round.

While the overall rating average of the women's list has risen much the way the men's list has (minus 200 points, more or less), we still have yet to see anyone stepping into Judit Polgar's sensible pumps. Paehtz, Lahno, Koneru, and Hou Yifan have all held the heiress apparent title, but only Hou Yifan at 16 is young enough to credibly claim the potential for another big jump and she's the youngest player on the entire women's top 100 list. And the Chinese chess overlords have already shortchanged her three prime developmental years by putting her into these women-only events on a regular basis. They show no sign of changing their ways, so unless she emigrates it's very unlikely she'll ever make much of a dent on the 'open' top 100 list.

As I've pointed out in the past, Hou Yifan has spent those years being rated far higher than her opposition on yearly average, a catastrophe for a developing talent. Since Jan 2009, her opposition has averaged 2484, compared to her 2580. For comparison, in the years they moved over 2600, Nepomniachtchi, Caruana and Giri played opposition of 2550 or higher on average.) Obviously there's no way to know how much stronger she'd be now had she been able to abstain from women-only events, or even if she would be stronger at all. But based on everything we know about improvement, a steady diet of stronger opponents is what it's all about. She switches back and forth between top events like Corus B and Aeroflot and segregated events like the FIDE Women's Grand Prix. It's also important to to point out that saying she should be dominating all these women's events is a false argument. Judit Polgar got incredibly strong while playing only in non-segregated events. Her talent was challenged and she thrived.

The second London Chess Classic begins Wednesday. The already-impressive field has received huge boost with the participation of world champion Vishy Anand. He replaced last year's last-place finisher Ni Hua. Carlsen, Kramnik, and Nakamura are the other foreign invaders, back from 2009. Defending the honor of Blighty is four-fifths of the English Olympiad team: Adams, Short, McShane, and Howell. Last year's event was something of a triumph for the local squad, with plus scores from Adams and Howell. But Carlsen stole the show and the title, beating Kramnik in a terrific game in the first round, marking the difference between them in the final standings.

Of course Anand is a big ticket, but honestly the match-ups between Kramnik, Carlsen, and Nakamura are more intriguing to me these days. They are all playing great and have turned in some of the most interesting chess and storylines of the past year. Kramnik beat Carlsen twice this year, running up his career plus. Big Vlad also beat Nakamura at Corus and narrowly escaped the American in a wild game a few weeks ago at the Tal Memorial. Nakamura and Carlsen have drawn their handful of classical games while swapping blitz blows. If they both hold their rating spots in London Carlsen will recapture the #1 from Anand and Nakamura will enter the top ten for the first time.

Anand might be warming up, however, and turned in a solid second-place performance in Nanjing in October. But he was a full point behind Carlsen despite winning in the final round and the Norwegian has made it clear that when he's on his game, second is the best everyone else is playing for. He's not going to win every event, but right now he's capable of results nobody else can approach.

The English side are known quantities and, rating expectations being what they are, will be jockeying for best score for the home team. But I guess anything can happen in just seven rounds. Adams has been on the rebound this year and went through the Euro Club Cup undefeated. Short tried his best to mix chess with politicking for Karpov until the FIDE election, so we'll see if he's got yet another comeback up his sleeve. McShane just won a short warm-up event in the Netherlands ahead of Giri. But the game to see from that one is L'Ami-van Wely, which has a hilarious twenty-check finish that must be seen. PGN after the jump.

There are an impressive number of side events, turning it into a real festival. Most of the Classic rounds begin at 1400 (2pm) local time, but the second round is two hours later and the final round two hours earlier. Garry will be on hand to commentate the final round. I'll toss in any comments he has before then. I'm still buried with looming book deadlines until February, but I'll try to keep up the threads at the very least.