The chess world is gearing itself up for the World Championship next month, but in the meantime there is no end of chess. In fact, there's so much chess it's hard to keep up with it all. Back in the day, the Soviet Championship always used to be among the best tournaments of the year, and now the Russian Championship is also pretty hot. World number 2 and ex World champ Kramnik is in action in a very strong field currently being led by Peter Svidler.Svidler has won the Russian Champs 6 times, more than anyone else, and if the Soviet Champs are also included, then he equals the 6 wins of Botvinnik and Tal and will go one better if he stays ahead in this one.
To be honest, the tournament of the moment should be the Masters Final tournament in Bilbao. It's strong with Aronian, Mamedyarov, Adams and Vachier Legrave in a double round robin, but not as strong as one would expect a masters final to be. However, with the World Championship taking away 2 potential players, and Kramnik playing in Russia, this is still a pretty good field. I'm glad to see the Englishman Adams leading early on. He's a great player, who might just be having his best year to date, knocking on the door of the top 10 in the world again after an impressive win in Dortmund this year. Another small double round robin is happening in Romania. The King's Tournament is a 5 player event with another strong field, Caruana, Ponomariov, Wang Hao, Radjabov and Nisipeanu. Caruana started with a win in the first round, but the tournament has only just started.
It's amazing that 3 world class events should be happening simultaneously. It wasn't that long ago when 3 world class tournaments would make a good 3 month period in chess or even longer. And it wasn't that long ago that a tournament like the Chigorin Memorial with 150 players including 3 over 2700 and over 20 players rated 2600 would have attracted a deal of attention. Now it is passed over as the fourth most important event of the moment. And the 5 player GM tournament in Spain (Rapport, Cheparinov, Bruzon, Salgado, Granda) and the GM section of the Budapest First Saturday event currently being led by English GM Stephen Gordon barely rate a mention.
Is it good that so much chess is happening at the same time? Does it diminish from the worth of one tournament that other tournaments of similar prestige are scheduled at the same time? I know some people would say that you can't have enough chess, but at the moment I'm not sure which event to look at, and I find it hard to keep up with all the top events, let alone the local tournaments here in Melbourne and Australia. Perhaps it would be better to play instead of watching so much. I'm currently playing online at chess.com trying to knock out some games every day, and playing about 20 turn based games at a time. However, when I look at the quality of my play, it's no wonder I watch others! Enjoy :)
Showing posts with label michael adams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label michael adams. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Good and Bad in Chess
I must be getting into the modern era of connected worlds, as I set up a Google alert for the term 'coffee house chess'. I've picked up some interesting emails over time but the latest is one worth sharing. Apparently, in Ohio, USA there is a Coffee House Chess League, and some great individuals doing some amazing work at grass roots level. Check out the article, it's uplifting. Of course, the success of chess in any area is largely down to the strengths of the local volunteer force. It takes dedicated individuals to run clubs, leagues, associations, and even tournaments. I've found out over the years that if you want something done, the best thing is to get up and try to do it yourself. Get a few interested, ask for a little help which will generally be given, and before you know it, a club, or league or tournament will be organised.
I guess because of this voluntary nature to much of chess officialdom (and because we're human!) most players like to see a good giant slaying game, where the higher rated player gets taken down a peg, or ten. In a few days time, the World Cup will be starting in Tromso Norway. The format is a 128 player knockout of mini matches over 2 games, with rapid/blitz tie breaks if needed. It is an exciting format, though just how well it works out a champion is up for debate which was used in the early 1990's in the famous Tilburg tournaments, causing some disdain at the time if I remember rightly. Funnily enough, that first Tilburg event in 1992 was won by the recent Dortmund Champion, Michael Adams, defeating last year's World Championship candidate Boris Gelfand in the final match. Gelfand has won a big knockout event as well, the World Cup in 2009. The number 1 seed for this event in current world number 2 Levon Aronian who has also won a previous version of this event, in 2005. Australian fans will be hoping for a miracle as Igor Bjelobrk faces number 4 seed Alexander Grischuk. And English fans will be hoping that the Gawain Jones won't be too tired after playing lots of summer chess, including the British Championships which finishes the day before the World Cup starts! Adams is also playing and will have had nearly a fortnight's break since his Dortmund win. I'm not going to be sticking my neck out with predictions, but the match of the first round that particularly interests me is Shirov-Yifan Hou. Shirov is a remarkable player, but can play fairly averagely at times, while the ex Women's World Champion is capable of almost anything on her day.
Meanwhile at the British Championship David Howell overcame Simon Williams to maintain his half point lead in the tournament from Mark Hebden. Hebden is also half point clear of the chasing pack which includes Gawain Jones, but the two top seeds are not drawn together in this round. Howell plays another Grand Master, Gormally, while Jones plays Ameet Ghasi. In between these 2, Hebden has to play 'Mr Rock Solid' Bogdan Lalic. There are only 3 rounds left and 1.5 points between first a fifteenth. It will be a nail biting finish!
Looking at what I've written so far, there's a lot that's good in the chess world. But let's make no mistake that there's some bad as well. I'm not a big fan of FIDE, but I was encouraged to see they are trying to develop an online playing server that has built in strict anti cheating detection software. After the cheating cases in Bulgaria, Dortmund and Russia, anti cheating measures are high up in the priorities of organisers int he chess world. But will the new FIDE site really be able to provide a better online service than the established commercial sites such as ICC, Playchess and Chess.com? Well we won't know for a while, as the site is currently running as a beta test version, no doubt working out whether FIDE will be able to deliver on their promises. So I registered, and joined the site, and have 30 days free membership to check it out. I downloaded the client software and apparently, all will be up and running from October and then full memberships will be offered. So I played a game, the interface was ok but generally speaking it seems no better than playchess, ICC or chess.com. We will have to wait for the full product to see what features it will have that are new (if any) and the full playability of the site, including the number of regular members.
Finally, I'd like to say thank you to Michael Yip for mentioning my blog on a Canadian chess forum, and welcome to any new Canadian readers. And we've reached the 40 milestone! That's how many days before I'm out of here and on the holiday roadtrip of a lifetime.
I guess because of this voluntary nature to much of chess officialdom (and because we're human!) most players like to see a good giant slaying game, where the higher rated player gets taken down a peg, or ten. In a few days time, the World Cup will be starting in Tromso Norway. The format is a 128 player knockout of mini matches over 2 games, with rapid/blitz tie breaks if needed. It is an exciting format, though just how well it works out a champion is up for debate which was used in the early 1990's in the famous Tilburg tournaments, causing some disdain at the time if I remember rightly. Funnily enough, that first Tilburg event in 1992 was won by the recent Dortmund Champion, Michael Adams, defeating last year's World Championship candidate Boris Gelfand in the final match. Gelfand has won a big knockout event as well, the World Cup in 2009. The number 1 seed for this event in current world number 2 Levon Aronian who has also won a previous version of this event, in 2005. Australian fans will be hoping for a miracle as Igor Bjelobrk faces number 4 seed Alexander Grischuk. And English fans will be hoping that the Gawain Jones won't be too tired after playing lots of summer chess, including the British Championships which finishes the day before the World Cup starts! Adams is also playing and will have had nearly a fortnight's break since his Dortmund win. I'm not going to be sticking my neck out with predictions, but the match of the first round that particularly interests me is Shirov-Yifan Hou. Shirov is a remarkable player, but can play fairly averagely at times, while the ex Women's World Champion is capable of almost anything on her day.
Meanwhile at the British Championship David Howell overcame Simon Williams to maintain his half point lead in the tournament from Mark Hebden. Hebden is also half point clear of the chasing pack which includes Gawain Jones, but the two top seeds are not drawn together in this round. Howell plays another Grand Master, Gormally, while Jones plays Ameet Ghasi. In between these 2, Hebden has to play 'Mr Rock Solid' Bogdan Lalic. There are only 3 rounds left and 1.5 points between first a fifteenth. It will be a nail biting finish!
Looking at what I've written so far, there's a lot that's good in the chess world. But let's make no mistake that there's some bad as well. I'm not a big fan of FIDE, but I was encouraged to see they are trying to develop an online playing server that has built in strict anti cheating detection software. After the cheating cases in Bulgaria, Dortmund and Russia, anti cheating measures are high up in the priorities of organisers int he chess world. But will the new FIDE site really be able to provide a better online service than the established commercial sites such as ICC, Playchess and Chess.com? Well we won't know for a while, as the site is currently running as a beta test version, no doubt working out whether FIDE will be able to deliver on their promises. So I registered, and joined the site, and have 30 days free membership to check it out. I downloaded the client software and apparently, all will be up and running from October and then full memberships will be offered. So I played a game, the interface was ok but generally speaking it seems no better than playchess, ICC or chess.com. We will have to wait for the full product to see what features it will have that are new (if any) and the full playability of the site, including the number of regular members.
Finally, I'd like to say thank you to Michael Yip for mentioning my blog on a Canadian chess forum, and welcome to any new Canadian readers. And we've reached the 40 milestone! That's how many days before I'm out of here and on the holiday roadtrip of a lifetime.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Rest Day at the British
The British Championship is a 2 week marathon tournament with a rich history. The series of Championships goes back to 1904 when William Napier became the first champion. Since then, the event has been a showcase for British talent, and at times Commonwealth talent. Traditionally (though I'm not sure how far back this tradition began) the middle Sunday of the British Championship has been a rest day, or at least a day with no Championship games. This year, extra events included a weekender, a team blitz tournament, and a cricket match against a local team. It gives the Championships a social feel as well as the tough competition that is the main event.
However, just how tough is the British Championship this year? Certainly at the top it looks pretty good with over 10 Grand Masters, but it has been suggested that the event has become one of quantity rather than quality. I remember trying to qualify for the British back in the 1990's and early 2000's and it was a tough job. Automatic qualification went to anyone over 2320 (if my memory is correct) and the rest of us had to qualify through one of the weekend tournaments. This meant that the tournaments tended to be top heavy, with the majority of players over that 2320 threshold and some under that who qualified. As an example, lets compare the current event with the first event to feature Michael Adams, the 1985 Championship. First a big congratulations to Michael for winning the Dortmund Super Tournament ahead of Kramnik among others. Michael raced to an early lead which he didn't relinquish, and his play in the early rounds seemed remarkably easy, yet deadly effective.
Anyway, in 1985 there were 76 players though one had to withdraw after 5 rounds. The 2013 event has 106, though that in itself is not an issue in my mind so long as the standard is upheld. Naturally, you'd expect more players to be achieving greater standards. So players above 2320: 42 in 1985, compared to 21 in 2013. (the 1985 figure doesn't include Guy West, now an IM but 2310 at the time, or Joe Gallagher, 2305 then, and a GM now). However, at the top level 1985 looks weak compared to 2013, with the highest rated being only 2560. But when one realises that this mere 2560 player was Tony Miles, and other players of the quality of Chandler, Rogers, Speelman, Hodgson, King, Hebden etc were playing, it would be foolish to merely look at the top ratings and assign quality because of it. In my mind, the 1985 event was far superior in terms of overall quality than the 2013 event, it was an elite closed swiss event. The 2013 is also closed to an extent, but with so many players below FM standard, it can barely be called elite.
So the question I suppose must be is this what is really wanted? I mean, I tried hard to qualify for the British, and eventually managed it in 2003, though I emigrated to Australia a few months before the 2003 tournament, so have never played. And here in Australia, a similar debate happens over our Championship, though the ACF have stuck to their guns, and kept it at an elite level, ensuring that only the top 50 or so players in the country will be eligible to enter. Personally, I believe that the National Championship should be an elite event, and whatever needs to be done to make it so should be undertaken. To me, the British Championship has become a fairly decent swiss event, but without the international flavour. Compared to the annual events on the Isle of Man (unfortunately not happening any more) and Gibraltar, the British is a bit of a joke. But I think that the British has evolved to become this tournament, and nothing is going to change it from its current trend.
What could happen, and perhaps should, is the ECF (important now it isn't the British Chess Federation) could organise an elite English Championships. The British could continue in its format and no one would worry about the drop of standard because that is how the tournament has developed. But the real Championship for English players should be an elite event, perhaps going back to the rating limit cut off and allowing for a few qualifiers and wild cards, such as talented and perhaps under rated juniors. Or even a round robin format with a swiss qulifier for the following year, like what happened at Hastings. Ok, let's go the whole distance. Why doesn't the ECF work alongside the Hastings organisers and turn the dwindling New Year tournament into an English Championship? And before anyone starts shouting that Hastings isn't dwindling, I suggest they compare Michael Admas first appearance in the Premier in 1989/90, a category 14, 8-player double round robin event where Candidate Arthur Yusupov could only finish 5th, to the latest tournament over New Year 2012/13 which was a swiss with about 20 players above 2400, another run of the mill event. I hate to point it out, but the 1989/90 challengers event was probably stronger than the 2012/13 Masters!
But to be honest, I don't know why I'm grouching so much here. It's only 42 days till I go on holiday!! And at the top level of the 2013 British, the competition is genuine. David Howell leads the event by half a point, but there is a big pack of elite players close behind. In fact, the first 26 players are separated by just 1.5 points, and another half point behind are Emms, Lane and Bates who are all capable of making a charge in the second week. The fun starts again tonight, and this week there are 5 more rounds to sort things out.
However, just how tough is the British Championship this year? Certainly at the top it looks pretty good with over 10 Grand Masters, but it has been suggested that the event has become one of quantity rather than quality. I remember trying to qualify for the British back in the 1990's and early 2000's and it was a tough job. Automatic qualification went to anyone over 2320 (if my memory is correct) and the rest of us had to qualify through one of the weekend tournaments. This meant that the tournaments tended to be top heavy, with the majority of players over that 2320 threshold and some under that who qualified. As an example, lets compare the current event with the first event to feature Michael Adams, the 1985 Championship. First a big congratulations to Michael for winning the Dortmund Super Tournament ahead of Kramnik among others. Michael raced to an early lead which he didn't relinquish, and his play in the early rounds seemed remarkably easy, yet deadly effective.
Anyway, in 1985 there were 76 players though one had to withdraw after 5 rounds. The 2013 event has 106, though that in itself is not an issue in my mind so long as the standard is upheld. Naturally, you'd expect more players to be achieving greater standards. So players above 2320: 42 in 1985, compared to 21 in 2013. (the 1985 figure doesn't include Guy West, now an IM but 2310 at the time, or Joe Gallagher, 2305 then, and a GM now). However, at the top level 1985 looks weak compared to 2013, with the highest rated being only 2560. But when one realises that this mere 2560 player was Tony Miles, and other players of the quality of Chandler, Rogers, Speelman, Hodgson, King, Hebden etc were playing, it would be foolish to merely look at the top ratings and assign quality because of it. In my mind, the 1985 event was far superior in terms of overall quality than the 2013 event, it was an elite closed swiss event. The 2013 is also closed to an extent, but with so many players below FM standard, it can barely be called elite.
So the question I suppose must be is this what is really wanted? I mean, I tried hard to qualify for the British, and eventually managed it in 2003, though I emigrated to Australia a few months before the 2003 tournament, so have never played. And here in Australia, a similar debate happens over our Championship, though the ACF have stuck to their guns, and kept it at an elite level, ensuring that only the top 50 or so players in the country will be eligible to enter. Personally, I believe that the National Championship should be an elite event, and whatever needs to be done to make it so should be undertaken. To me, the British Championship has become a fairly decent swiss event, but without the international flavour. Compared to the annual events on the Isle of Man (unfortunately not happening any more) and Gibraltar, the British is a bit of a joke. But I think that the British has evolved to become this tournament, and nothing is going to change it from its current trend.
What could happen, and perhaps should, is the ECF (important now it isn't the British Chess Federation) could organise an elite English Championships. The British could continue in its format and no one would worry about the drop of standard because that is how the tournament has developed. But the real Championship for English players should be an elite event, perhaps going back to the rating limit cut off and allowing for a few qualifiers and wild cards, such as talented and perhaps under rated juniors. Or even a round robin format with a swiss qulifier for the following year, like what happened at Hastings. Ok, let's go the whole distance. Why doesn't the ECF work alongside the Hastings organisers and turn the dwindling New Year tournament into an English Championship? And before anyone starts shouting that Hastings isn't dwindling, I suggest they compare Michael Admas first appearance in the Premier in 1989/90, a category 14, 8-player double round robin event where Candidate Arthur Yusupov could only finish 5th, to the latest tournament over New Year 2012/13 which was a swiss with about 20 players above 2400, another run of the mill event. I hate to point it out, but the 1989/90 challengers event was probably stronger than the 2012/13 Masters!
But to be honest, I don't know why I'm grouching so much here. It's only 42 days till I go on holiday!! And at the top level of the 2013 British, the competition is genuine. David Howell leads the event by half a point, but there is a big pack of elite players close behind. In fact, the first 26 players are separated by just 1.5 points, and another half point behind are Emms, Lane and Bates who are all capable of making a charge in the second week. The fun starts again tonight, and this week there are 5 more rounds to sort things out.
Friday, August 31, 2012
England-France
I am currently sat in my beanbag, writing this while waiting for the live coverage of round 4 of the Olympiad to begin. Tonight I have my English head on, as the classic battle between England and France is being played. Both these teams are outside chances for medals in this Olympiad with France ranked 8th and England ranked 11th at the start of the tournament. Both teams have won all their games, and both have had to overcome some pretty tough opposition. In the previous round, France played Bulgaria who were ranked 10th before the tournament and who fielded the dangerous duo of Topalov and Cheparinov on the top 2 boards. However, Topalov was beaten by French board 1 Maxime Vachier-Legrave and the rest of the games were drawn. England also had an impressive victory in the 3rd round against Cuba (ranked 15th) with 2700+ players Dominguez and Bruzon on the top 2 boards. England's board 1 Adams won against Dominguez, while England also won on board 3 where they have the hugely experienced Nigel Short. With the other games drawn, this was a decisive 3-1 victory. The match has just started, and if either side can pull out a victory, then they will put themselves in great position at the head of the field.
Most of the top teams are near the top, but the big exception is Holland. I'm not sure what is going on here. The Dutch team seem to be missing Anish Giri, but still have 4 players rated above 2600 with the hugely experienced van Wely and Ivan Sokolov on top boards. However, none of their team is currently performing and from a starting rank of 9th they have currently won only 1 of their 3 matches including losing to Venezuela who are ranked a lowly 58th.
However, besides Holland, the top nations are there or thereabouts and this is shown in the 4th round pairings. USA(5)-India(13), Russia(1)-China(6), Azerbaijan(7)-Germany(14), and of course France(8)-England(11). The rest of the top teams are just behind these.
Australia narrowly lost out to Mongolia yesterday and find themselves down the field playing Pakistan, where hopefully they will bounce back up the field. In the 2.5-1.5 loss there was a good win for Max Illingworth on board 4 against a higher rated opponent. Max grabbed some material early on, and held on. There were some nervous moments through the middle of the game, but I get the feeling that Max felt comfortable, and he finished the game off in style.
Most of the top teams are near the top, but the big exception is Holland. I'm not sure what is going on here. The Dutch team seem to be missing Anish Giri, but still have 4 players rated above 2600 with the hugely experienced van Wely and Ivan Sokolov on top boards. However, none of their team is currently performing and from a starting rank of 9th they have currently won only 1 of their 3 matches including losing to Venezuela who are ranked a lowly 58th.
However, besides Holland, the top nations are there or thereabouts and this is shown in the 4th round pairings. USA(5)-India(13), Russia(1)-China(6), Azerbaijan(7)-Germany(14), and of course France(8)-England(11). The rest of the top teams are just behind these.
Australia narrowly lost out to Mongolia yesterday and find themselves down the field playing Pakistan, where hopefully they will bounce back up the field. In the 2.5-1.5 loss there was a good win for Max Illingworth on board 4 against a higher rated opponent. Max grabbed some material early on, and held on. There were some nervous moments through the middle of the game, but I get the feeling that Max felt comfortable, and he finished the game off in style.
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