World Cup: press conference Kamsky & Shirov

We return once more to the World Cup, and especially to the tournament’s website, which has grown into a beautiful collection of chess information in the past three weeks. OK, the live games didn’t go well, but we chess fans are kind of used to that. But all that content! Photos, videos, analysis by Sergey Shipov, daily bulletins in PDF, and last but not least transcripts of the press conferences (called “interviews”). Here are some fragments of the last press conference, with Kamsky & Shirov, after the fourth game. full story »

Kamsky wins World Cup 2007 (update)

Article updatet with photos and videos

Today, after 23 days of the World Cup, it’s now all decided: Gata Kamsky has just drawn the last game of the final against Alexei Shirov and thus he won the match 2.5-1.5. The player from Brooklyn, New York, who emigrated to the US a long time ago and who, after a long break in his chess career, fought himself back into the absolute world elite, and has now won the Cup, 120.000 USD and the right to challenge Veselin Topalov. Truly a wonderful result by the man who was in fantastic shape throughout the whole tournament. Shirov, who can also look back at a really great tournament, goes home with 80,000 USD, a bunch of rating points (just like Kamsky) and probably the desire to go on a long vacation now. The fans favoured him, but again, Caïssa didn’t grant him a match. full story »

World Cup (3): another draw, 2-1 Kamsky

In the third game of the World Cup Final, Kamsky again managed to draw against Shirov with Black. Shirov avoided Kamsky’s Breyer with 9.d4 and an old line came onto the board, in which White clearly got an advantage. But right from that moment Kamsky started to show excellent defence, and although White won a pawn, it was never clear if he could win somewhere. full story »

World Cup Final (1): Shirov-Kamsky draw

A very correct draw on a high level, the first of four games Shirov-Kamsky, FIDE World Cup Final 2007. Today we were even more interactice: ChessVibes provided live commentary, but not in one direction – that’s sooo last year. Together with regular updates, we added the Chat Box again, and many visitors joined the commentary. full story »

World Cup: Shirov qualifies for final

Experience has conquered youth. After Gata Kamsky, Alexei Shirov has also qualified for the World Cup by beating Sergei Karjakin convincingly; the score was 1.5-0.5 in the rapids, while the draw should have been a win as well. The first game was a fantastic fight in a Sveshnikov Sicilian that resulted in the terribly difficult NN vs RB ending, that needs over a 150 moves to win with perfect play. Shirov had to settle for the draw but wasn’t affected at all by this misfortune, and showed fantastic endgame technique in game two, with White in a Marshall Gambit, that also did the trick against Jakovenko. full story »

World Cup: Kamsky eliminates Carlsen

For Magnus Carlsen the World Cup has now come to an end as well. He was defeated by Gata Kamsky today, who placed “a knight on the rim” with decisive effect. A very logical plan had put Magnus’ heavy pieces on very unfortunate squares, as it turned out, when White’s simple Qg4 threatened both Nf6+ and Nf4. The many Carlsen fans need not cry for too long, because one thing we know for sure: Magnus will be a world title candidate very soon again. (If only because the semi-finalists have already qualified for the new Grand Prix 2008-2009 series.) Karjakin-Shirov was another draw and so a tiebreak tomorrow has to decide who will be the other finalist. full story »

Tiebreak 5.2: Karjakin also through

OK, we’re now at the Weser Stadium of Werder Bremen, in the Business Lounge to be specific, with a view of the football field, and the two Bundesliga matches have begun about half an hour ago. More on this very soon, but first a small update on the World Cup. (I can already reveal that Anand is indeed playing for Baden Baden! Live games here). Karjakin has qualified for the semi-finals quite easily, with a 1,5-0,5 victory in the rapids against Alekseev. full story »

Ronde 5.2: Carlsen, Kamsky and Shirov through

From an internet cafe in Bremen, where after some delay I’ve just arrived, I see that Carlsen, Kamsky and Shirov have already qualified for the semifinals (and it makes me happy - for a moment I’m doing without objectivity). How wonderful to see Carlsen getting so strong so unbelievably fast. And how great it is to see the last two left in the World Cup from their generation, Kamsky and Shirov, seeming to get stronger by the round. In a big hall Alekseev and Karjakin are playing their own little rapid tournament. So if you’re disappointed by the lack of internet chess on your free Saturday, you can always tune in at the Bundesliga… full story »

Round 5.1: Carlsen & Shirov score

In the first game of the World Cup’s quarter finals (or round 5.1) both Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov have won their White games. Alexei Shirov did it very convincingly: he got a big advantage out of the opening (and probably had made a thorough study of a recent Stellwagen game, who won with White against a Marshall Gambit in October at the World Championship under 20) and finished it smoothly. Carlsen-Cheparinov was one of the most exciting games from Khanty-Mansiysk so far, and after many complications a study-like (and terribly difficult) ending arose. After mistakes from both sides Magnus eventually found the very nice winning line. full story »

Round 4.1: Carlsen, Shirov and Ponomariov win

Sixteen players left, eight games to play, and this resulted in five draws and three wins today. Carlsen and Shirov beat their opponents Adams and Akopian in fine endings, while Ponomariov profited from Sasikiran’s weakened king. A new concept in the Advanced Caro-Kann allowed Nisipeanu to draw easily with Black against Karjakin. In his game with Cheparinov, Wang Yue showed that the Queen’s Gambit Declined is OK after 5.Bf4. Jakovenko used the same opening to draw even quicker with highest seed Aronian, Kamsky used the Breyer Ruy Lopez to do the same against Svidler (but needed 60 moves) and Alekseev-Bareev’s draw added up to the material for a possible second article by GMs l’Ami & Smeets on the Moscow Variation. full story »

Tiebreak round 3: ouch, Ivanchuk out

Most of the chess fans, if not everyone except from those from romanians, are a bit shocked to learn about the early elimination of Vassily Ivanchuk. He didn’t survive the third round of the World Cup as he was beaten by Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in the blitz session of the tiebreak today. The other players who went through to round four together with the Romanian, were Karjakin (who beat Bacrot), Bareev (defeated Grischuk), Aronian (Inarkiev), Sasikiran (Macieja) and Svidler (Rublevsky). full story »

Update your Moscow! – GM analysis World Cup

ChessVibes is proud to present the following lengthy analysis, by GM Erwin l’Ami & GM Jan Smeets, of several games played at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk.

When deciding which World Cup games to analyse for ChessVibes, we simply had too much choice. We chose to neglect many of the interesting, already annotated games. Instead we bring you the latest developments in the Mockba Variation of the Semi-Slav. The Moscow (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6) is one of the main tabiya’s in present day theory. 6.Bxf6 is the positional choice, with – surprisingly – Mamedyarov as its main advocate. We will focus on the sharper 6.Bh4 in this article. Anand won the world championship title using this opening as his main weapon. In Mexico most of the players joined the discussion (Kramnik, Gelfand, Aronian, Svidler, and Grischuk). In Khanty-Mansiysk the firework continues… full story »

Round 3.2: Mamedyarov out

Alekseev, Jakovenko, Shirov, Akopian, Ponomariov, Kamsky, Adams, Carlsen, Wang Yue and Cheparinov have qualified for the 4th round by eliminating Fressinet, Almasi, Onischuk, Malakhov, Tomashevsky, K.Georgiev, Zhou Jianchao, Domiguez, Bu Xiangzhi and Mamedyarov respectively. Six matches are playing the tiebreaks today. full story »

Round 3.1: five wins for White

The games (and especially the resuts) in the World Cup start to look like those of these days’ super tournaments. In meetings between players of about the same (high) level White doesn’t lose that often and in this first session of round 3, 11 times the game ended in a draw and 5 times it was White who won. Mamedyarov was defeated by Cheparinov and Adams, Kamsky, Jakovenko and Wang Yue also started with victories. full story »

Tiebreak round 2: Volokitin & Kasimdzhanov out

Volokitin and Kasimdzhanov are the biggest names that were kicked out of the World Cup tournament in the tiebreaks of round 2, and both players lost their mini-matches in sudden death games. Despite his loss in game 1 on Tuesday, Ponomariov went through in the tiebreaks, just like Ivanchuk, Carlsen and the other hot shots that had to play the rapids today. The only relatively unknown player left is Jianchao Zhou from China, rated 2566, who beat Volokitin today and now faces Adams. Round 3 pairings & full tournament schedule. full story »

Round 2, game 1: Radjabov & Ponomariov lose

Former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov will face his second must-win situation tomorrow after he lost his first match game again, this time against Wang Hao from China, after the latter calculated a long and forcing variation more deeply. Ponomariov finds himself in good 2700 company because Teimour Radjabov also had to throw the towel today, against Polish GM and ACP General Secretary Bartlomiej Macieja. full story »

Tiebreak round 1: Short, Khalifman & Harikrishna also out

After the tiebreak of the first round, three more big names had to say goodbye to the World Cup and to their own hopes. Former candidate Nigel Short was kicked out by Baramidze (who, according to Sergei Shipov, arrived in the playing hall 56 seconds before his flag would fall and still won this game with the 10 seconds increment!). Former FIDE World Champion Khalifman went down to his compatriot Belov and Harikrishna lost to Jun Zhao. Round 2 pairings! full story »

World Cup starts tomorrow

Tomorrow the first round of the FIDE World Cup will be played; a knockout tournament with no less than 128 players that runs November 23 till December 17 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Seven round of two-game matches, except for the last round (the final) which will have four games. Total prize fund: 1,600,000 US dollars. full story »

Results of the Executive Board Meeting at the 78th FIDE Congress

Ilyumzhinov will continue his efforts to make chess an Olympic sports, Kramnik has signed the contract for the match against Anand already but Vishy “raised several points” and the contract between FIDE and Global Chess has finally been signed. These are some of the results of the Executive Board Meeting at the 78th FIDE Congress, held from November 11 till 16 in Antalya, Turkey. The members reviewed the developments of the chess world since the last Olympiad in Turin, examined the work of the FIDE Commissions and offices and communicated their future plans. full story »

Henrik Carlsen speaks out

On his increasingly popular blog, Magnus Carlsen’s father Henrik made some interesting statements about the current world championship cycle and the World Cup in December. He analyses the current situation and the privileges that both Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov received. Henrik’s insider’s point of view clarifies the complicated matter a bit more and therefore deserves mentioning. full story »

Next Page »