It's a Good Friday for Chess

Well, it all happened yesterday and no mistake. The London Candidates which has already surpassed my expectations for excitement brought up some new drama. Having gone to bed before the action started, I awoke this morning to a draw for Carlsen, a loss for Aronian and a win for Kramnik. These 3 players are really bringing this event alive and one of them must surely be the winner. Carlsen retains his half point lead, but now it is ex-World Champion Kramnik in second. He has leapfrogged over Aronian who is a further half point back with just 3 rounds to go. As I said in the last post, Carlsen holds his destiny in his own hands, especially as he has white in 2 of his 3 remaining games. If Carlsen can avoid losing, then it is hard to see anyone overtaking him. And a lot will depend on the momentous clash between Aronian and Kramnik later today. It will definitely be a battle of nerves in the final 3 rounds, and alas for my tipping, it looks as if Aronian's nervous energy is shot away. After over pressing against Boris Gelfand a couple of days ago, he self destructed against Peter Svidler by throwing his g and b-pawn's 2 squares down the board on consecutive moves creating serious weaknesses which were easily exploited by Svidler.

But the game that interested me most was the Grischuk-Carlsen clash. This is mainly because Grischuk chose a line of the Grunfeld that I had a look at a while back, the Zaitsev variation. It's a funny system that gets right into black's face, which, to be honest, is what black attempts to do to white when playing the Grunfeld.

The move 5.h4 (or 4.h4 without the moves 4.Nf3 Bg7) is the very aggressive idea of Alexander Zaitsev, and it appeals to the likes of me (coffeehouse hacker) because of the simplistic concept behind the move. Essentially, white is getting ready to directly attack black's king side. Typical themes involve sacrificing the c-pawn, shuffling the king to f1 or g1 for safety, trying to dominate the dark squares on the king side but playing across the entire board. It is a nightmarishly difficult system to play, but fun nevertheless. To add to the appeal, the present favourite of top GM's amongst coffeehouse hackers such as myself, Alexander Morozevich, played this system twice in Beijing towards the end of last year against Anish Giri (the blitz game is especially fun!).




On the domestic front, Doeberl started with a bang. Yesterday, the first round went pretty much according to plan, but the second round was a carnage as the seeds fell one after another: 2680ish Loek van Wely came a cropper to 2400ish Stephen Solomon; Luke Li Zuhao defeated GM Adam Horvath, Justin Tan defeated GM Attila Czebe, and IM Moulton Ly was beaten by FM Domagoj Dragicevic. Not only that, but GM Varga, GM Laxman, IM Palit Somak and IM Brown were held to draws by Tingtie Lei, FM Dusan Stojic, Anton Smirnov and John Nemeth respectively.

There were further upsets on the lower boards as well. Today the Premier sees another 2 rounds after which we should have some idea of the lie of the land. And also the 'Major' (under 2000) and 'Minor" (under 1600) tournaments start giving an even more local flavour to the Easter chess festival.

Chess Disappointments

Just like in any activity, chess can be both exhilarating and uplifting, while also sometimes disappointing. Let me give you some typical examples of disappointment, to my mind.

1. Players withdrawing from tournaments. This is very annoying for organisers, other competitors, and fans (not to mention sponsors). Players withdrawing from swiss system events can be very disruptive, sometimes leaving a bye in the field and sometimes creating some odd pairings. Especially annoying is a player who withdraws from a swiss event after a few rounds having spoiled the chances of some players, but then not having to play their competition. In a round robin, things can be even more disruptive. If the tournament is being held primarily for norm purposes, a withdrawal can, and probably will, eliminate the chances of the tournament producing a norm.

Recently at the top level the high profile withdrawal of Alexander Morozevich from the Biel tournament occurred. Morozevich left the tournament for health reasons, and that is always a worry for chess fans. The loss of Morozevich from the chess scene 2 years ago was a big disappointment for his fans, and I amongst many hoped for his recovery and return to the international chess elite. Now we can only hope he is ok to keep playing, even if he has to play less.

2. Chess politics. I don't usually get involved in politics on this blog, but the resolution offered by Turkish Chess President to penalise chess federations who took legal action against FIDE seems ludicrous. Ali Nihat Yazici has stated that the federations of France, US, England, Germany, Georgia, Ukraine and Switzerland

"must be given suspension from FIDE including players, arbiters, trainers, ratings and organising FIDE rated events, till damage is covered by those federations". To be honest, I couldn't believe that arbiters were being refused from certain countries (ie. those countries mentioned above) to act at the Olympiad. Then again, we are talking about a federation that can take action against one of its own Grandmasters in what appears a somewhat arbitrary way.

I think I'll stay away from chess politics. The more I think about it, the more disappointed I get.

3. Chess play. We are at the end of week one of the British Championship, and my only disappointments is that my friends aren't doing better. After his great start, Don Mason has lost 3 in a row, while Mike Surtees started indifferently, but picked up toward the end of the week. The tournament itself has now seen the cream starting to rise to the top with GM's Jones, Howell and Gordon leading a pack of titled players. The live coverage is excellent and the games that I've seen (not as many as I'd like, but I'll get through more) have been exciting. It is a bit disappointing that our super GM's Adams, Short and McShane aren't playing as all have been in decent form this year and are in the 2700 club. It's also a bit disappointing that there are no aussies in the field, though WIM Sue Maroroa from New Zealand is playing, scoring just below half points in the first week including a draw against strong FM Peter Poobalasingam.

Congratulations to all the prize winners from the first week, including age group champions.

A few disappointments have occurred to me, though. First, the dour World Championship match was not a spectacle for fans who were disappointed by the tactics of both players. Since the match, Anand has stated that matches are different to tournaments and he always knew the match was going to be tough. To the untrained eye, at times it seemed as if neither player was really trying to win, but preferred to not lose.

Another disappointment came today for me when I turned up to play a match for my club to find that someone had taken my place. There must have been some mix up, as I arrived a little late to find that the match had started without me. I had expected to find my clock running, but not someone sitting in my place!


With so much doom and gloom in my post, I want to finish in inspirational mood. Probably, my favourite game of all time is the following queen sacrifice game played by Paul Keres against Max Euwe in 1939. If you haven't seen the game, you will be in for a treat, and if you have, then please enjoy it again. I find it no bad thing to go back to the things that have inspired and exhilarated us in the past!

Loading embedded chess game...

I have to play...

I thought I was going to have a bit of a break from chess, but I forgot that I'd committed to play for my club, the Melbourne Chess Club in the Victorian Teams Championship. So Sunday I am having to play a game of chess in the middle of my 'vacation'. To be honest, I'm ok with that and am looking forward to the game. It isn't until the late afternoon, so I'll be able to have a lie in and spend some time with my wife in the morning. I guess the thing that springs to mind for me is how little do you have to play to get rusty? I'm not in that shape yet, I would hope. My last serious game was only a few weeks ago, and I've been working at the game in the meantime. In fact, I'm hoping the couple of weeks without playing chess makes me fresher. We'll see come the weekend.

Looking at the field for the British Championship one name sticks out as a comeback player, GM Matthew Turner. Turner worked his way up to the GM level in the late 1990's gaining the title in 2002. However, he didn't play much tournament chess after that, though he has continued with chess as a teacher at Millfield School and as a player in the 4NCL in Britain. I wonder what it's like for a GM to play little chess and then come to a tournament like the Championship? Is Turner rusty? Not if his first game is anything to go by. I'm guessing that Charley Storey wasn't the player that Matthew Turner would have liked to have played in the first round. Storey is a dangerous attacker. But it was the GM in charge of the tactics and when the dust settled Storey had 2 rooks for a queen, but chronically weak light squares.

After 2 rounds there are now 6 players on a perfect score, GM's Jones, Gordon, Arkell, IM Hawkins and Hugh Murphy and James Jackson who both came through the acceleration to beat IM opposition in the second round. The rest of the GM's all sit half a point back along with Don Mason who won his second round game to line up a test against former champion GM Conquest.

The Championship is only the main event of the festival and in this first week there are currently age group championships for under 16, under 13 and under 11 taking place as well as non championship events of which the most notable has traditionally been the Major Open, though this year it seems smaller than in years gone by. The format of the British Championship allows for players to double up in events. For example, Radha Jain is playing the under 16 Championship in the morning and the Championship in the afternoon! Full on! To think, I'm worried about getting worn out by playing 40-50 games per year!

Stop Press: I've just heard Morozevich has had to withdraw from Biel through illness. :(

Last post of 2011

I hope 2011 has been a good year of chess for you. I'm sure Alexander Morozevich will be happy with his year. He reappeared earlier this year to win the Higher League of the Russian Champs, finished second in Biel just half a point behind Carlsen, came second in the Russian Championship just half a point behind Svidler, won the category 19 Governor's Cup in Russia and should reappear in the top 10 in the World in tomorrow's FIDE rating list. He is currently playing in Reggio Emilia where he won his first 2 games to take a lead in the tournament. Among these was a textbook attack against a king in the centre against Anish Giri

Morozevich as black senses an attack against a centralised king, but must open lines of attack. 22..e5! 23.fxe5 fxe5 24.Rg5 pinning the e-pawn

and after lines are open the attacker shouldn't be afraid to sacrifice. 24..exd4! 25.Rxa5 Rhe8 26.Bg2 dxe3

and the final picture is an exposed king with black's major pieces all aiming at it.

Since those first 2 wins, Morozevich has drawn with Nakamura and lost to Ivanchuk, this final game I've only briefly looked at but it appears to be a very complicated Spanish where Ivanchuk won 2 pieces for a rook and pawn and created dangerous threats around Morozevich's king. Morozevich was unable to defend, and Ivanchuk takes the lead in the tournament equally with Nakamura.

The San Sebastian Centenary tournament in Donostia has a great new format where players play 2 games against the same opponent with different colours simultaneously! The tournamnet is a knock out, where losing players can join a swiss tournament that is running alongside. Players joining the swiss are put on the same points as the leader in that tournament. All in all, it is a refreshing change from the usual events of swiss or round robin, and the games are not FIDE rated so no one is playing to defend or gain points. While there have been some upsets, I think it's a bit rich to claim a victory by a 2600+GM is much of an upset. The field is very strong with the top 5 players:

Gashimov 2757
Mamedyarov 2733
Ponomariov 2723
Moiseenko 2715
Bacrot 2714

All these players got through their first round simuls and we are now at the last 16 stage, so we're soon going to get some 2700-2700 clashes!

At Hastings the preliminaries are over and the tournament is settling into a rhythm. There are all GM clashes and each game is important in this 9-round swiss. Only 2 players are on a perfect 3/3. Istracescu of Romania and Howell of England will meet in round 4 at the top of the table. 2697 rated Wang Yue was held to a draw in the third round by Indian GM Sengupta Deep, but Wang heads a group of 8 players on 2.5 just half a point behind the 2 leaders. In this group are 2 interesting players. Sam Franklin is 17, close to 2200 and playing well above it here. He has just beaten one GM in Glenn Flear and has to face another now. That  GM is none other than the ginger Simon Williams, champion of the Dutch Defence and an all out aggressive styled player.

Like Morozevich, David Howell also knows how to attack a king in the centre. Here is his first round game against FM Ryan Griffiths from Ireland. Howell as white makes it as difficult as possible for black's king to find safety. When he eventually castles, he castles into an attack. 16. g4 Nfd4 17. Qe4+ Be6 18. Be3 f5 [18..O-O loses material to 19.Bxd4 Nxd4 20.Rxd4 Bxd4 21.Qxd4] 19. gxf5 gxf5 20. Qg2 Qd7 [20..O-O defends the Bg7, but also pins it, so it isn't defending d4] 21. Nf4

O-O-O [Finally black feels he can hide his king away, but..] 22. Bxd4! [Wins material] Nxd4 [22..Bxd4 23.Nxe6 Qxe6 24.Qxc6+] 23. Qa8+ Kc7 24. Qxa7+ Kc8 25. Qxb6 1-0

Chess heroes

There are some great tournaments around the World at the moment. Forgive me for promoting my English heritage, but tonight the annual Hastings tournament starts. It's an excellent field, and I know a few players and I've played against quite a few. Unfortunately, the time difference between here and England at the moment means that to watch the games, I'll have to stay up half the night which won't be happening. It's tremendous for the tournament to have a player of the strength of Wang Yue 2697 at the top of the field. But I'll be hoping that one of the locals takes the title. Top English player is David Howell 2633 and he is the second seed and main hope for England. But not the only hope. I'd love to see Mark Hebden or Keith Arkell do well even though (or maybe because) they kept beating me up in weekend tournaments in the UK.

Meanwhile, there are 2 top World class events happening this new year period. Reggio Emilia started yesterday with everybody's favourite comeback player, Alexander Morozevich.

Morozevich was the little player's favourite, he played unorthodox openings and had interesting games. Since his return this year, Morozevich has played much more orthodox openings, and had outstanding results. He still plays interesting positions, as can be seen from the complicated game he played last night against Fabiano Caruana. The Closed Spanish is the most orthodox of openings but when 2 dynamic players come together things can get very interesting.

Morozevich is black, and has given a pawn for amazing play, a knight on d3 is going to be a pain for white, and black's dark squared bishop will work its way to the long diagonal. This had all been played before in the game Anand-Kamsky (m7) PCA Candidates Final 1995, and is typical of Morozevich's dynamic style. It is great to have top players who are not scared to take risks to win games.

Later the game reached this position, where Moro has been outplayed by his younger opponent. Caruana took his advantage now by playing, 42. Nxc4 Qf6 43. Qf1 Be8 44. d6 Qd8 45. Nd5 Bb5 46. Rxf7 Nxe4

and could have won, but erred with 47.Nc7? [47.Nf6 Kh8 48.Qb1 wins] and Morozevich didn't need another invitation 47..Bxc4 48. Qxc4 Nxd6 49. Ne6 Nxc4 0-1

Nakamura also won a game against Vitiugov while Ivanchuk and Giri drew their game. Funnily enough, Morozevich wasn't going to be playing in this tournament, but rather Gashimov was in the event. However, Gashimov chose to play at the other interesting event, starting later today in San Sebastian. Celebrating the centenary of the 1911 San Sebastian tournament won by Capablanca, the Donostia Chess Festival will be a 7 round knockout event. With 10 players over 2700 in the field, it looks to be an exciting prospect.


In the 1911 event Capablanca scored 9.5/14 ahead of Rubinstein, Vidmar, Marshall, Tarrasch, Schlechter, Nimzowitsch,     Bernstein, Spielmann, Teichmann, Maroczy, Janowski, Burn, Duras, Leonhardt.

Now that's a field to try to emulate!

Capablanca is 7th from the right, sitting and looking calm at San Sebastian 1911