ChessVibes

FIDE: ‘Players need not worry about the Olympiad’

Peter Doggers — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:38:22 +0000

The first round of the upcoming Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk is scheduled for September 21st. A record 160 teams of chess players from all over the globe are expected to travel to Siberia, which makes the organization of transportation, accommodation and food an arduous task. Many players have their worries and complaints, but FIDE Vice President Israel Gelfer says they shouldn’t.

Tuesday FIDE published an article on its website titled ‘Travel details for Olympiad’. It informs the participants of changes in departure and arrival time of the charters for the 39th Olympiad, which will be held from September 20th till October 3rd in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It’s not the first time the charters times have been changed, and not the second either. According to WIM Arlette van Weersel, who will play for the Dutch women’s team, they have been changed five (!) times already, as she posted with clear annoyance as a Facebook status update last week.

This is not just annoying of course, but has serious financial consequences as well, as almost all players have connecting flights that need to be changed each time. On August 28th Daaim Shabazz wrote on The Chess Drum:

Several federations have already reported overstepping their budgetary limits and complaints are beginning to mount from various federations. There have been charter flights arranged, but some of the scheduled times have changed… more than once. One small federation has to disburse a total of US$5000 for charter flights! More fees are added with each adjustment in scheduling.

Khanty-Mansiysk has hosted three FIDE World Cups, in which 128 players participated. The Olympiad however will host more than ten times this number, and also the 81st FIDE Congress with delegates from almost all nations coming to vote for the presidential elections, with obvious consquences for local accommodation.

Besides chess events, biathlon World Cup competitions are annually held in the city, and “tourism infrastructure has been developed here quite well”, according to Wikipedia. The article adds: “15 hotels offered their services to tourists in 2005. All of them are fully booked during Biathlon World Cups, regional and All-Russia conferences, etc., so it’s practically impossible to book a room in a hotel during these events.” However, these biathlon events seem to be smaller than an Olympiad. More accommodation needed to be built.

On July 23rd URA.ru published an article with many photos (summarized in English by Mark Crowther) that stated that FIDE Vice President Israel Gelfer was concerned about the pace of the Olympiad preparations. Gelfer conducted an inspection of the hotel where most of the players will stay, which was still under construction. He also found out that the Organizing Committee had still not signed a contract with a service company, which will be responsible for lodging the players. According to URA, the head of the organizing committee Nikolai Bondarev explained this by saying that in fact the hotel was not yet ready for use. (You can find a full transcription of their conversation here!)

The Olympic Hotel in July | Photo URA

A few days later FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov also expressed his disappointment in an interview with Sport Express, saying “I do not want to exaggerate the situation and talk about a catastrophe, but the situation is alarming. The Olympiad organizers had promised to build three hotels, but built only one. But even this one, which was built a month ago, is not functioning.”

Do the players and team captains of the 39th Olympiad need to worry, or will transportation and accommodation turn out all right in the end? Normally we would be inclined to believe the latter, since stories like this are not unprecedented. Many Olympiads, in fact many big sporting events, including the latest FIFA World Cup, saw concerns about the ‘pace of preparations’.

However, we aren’t a hundred percent sure. From talking to players we learnt that many don’t have a clue in which hotel they’ll be staying, and whether it’s already finished or not. They are concerned about the state of Hotel Olympic, and annoyed about the charter changes. Below are a few reactions from participants.

Alexei Shirov, for one, isn’t worried at all:

“I am not worried about any Khanty issues, there have often been some minor problems in Olympiads, practically in every one which is understandable taking into account the dimensions of the event. I think the Spanish team will be fine in Khanty.”

Sergei Movsesian told us the following:

“Me and my team will be staying in “Olympic” hotel (in case it would be ready:) I stayed in 3 different hotel during my stays in Khanty and they were acceptable. Nobody knows, how the new “Olympic” will look like and hopefully we will not be forced to repeat Elista story (following the building process upon arrival…)”

Ruslan Ponomariov isn’t sure at all about the situation:

“I played in Khanty three times. The first time the players stayed in the four star hotel Ugra Valley*. But the next two times there were more options and I prefered hotel “Taray” (also four stars) because it was much closer to the tournament hall. The local food was quite nice as well.

But this time, during the Chess Olympiad, I have lots of worries about organization. In the Word Cups during the first round played just 128 players, but now it’s going to be much more people. So there are many questions about hotels, transport, tournament hall, food.

I hope that everything will be OK. But if the conditions will not allow us to concentrate on chess – I think I will quit from the Chess Olympiad.”

Yannick Pelleter mentioned the charter flights:

“In my opinion, an equally interesting story concerns the ever-changing schedule of the charter flights to Khanty. Barely a month before our journey, FIDE keeps changing the flying times. People who have already bought a ticket to Munich (like me) may simply lose their ticket because of their juggling…”

Ilia Bluvshtein, the father of GM Mark Bluvshtein and in charge of all the organizational elements of the Canadian team going to the Olympiad wrote to us:

“The organizers provide charter flights to Khanty-Mansiysk from 4 cities in Europe: Moscow, Prague, Munich, and Milan. Tentative schedule for charter flights was provided in the Official Invitation. Delegations had to book charter flights by May 20th. Essentially it meant that delegations had to purchase tickets to European airports at the same time because flights to Europe are linked to charters.

Then without any notification flight schedule was changed in another announcement issued on July 28th. What I know is that the flight Khanty-Milan was moved down significantly and some delegations would not be able to catch their flights from Milan on the way from the Olympiad. (Our Canadian situation was aggregated by the fact the we book charters from different airports: through Munich on the way to the Olympiad and through Milan on the way from the Olympiad. The registration system allowed us to do this and the Organizers told us nothing at that time. After I found out from the website that we would not be able to catch the flight from Milan to Canada, it also appeared that organizers put us on the flight Khanty-Munich instead of Khanty-Milan…without any notice! So we had to re-book the tickets and incur financial losses.)

Then without any notification the flight schedule was changed again! The organizers simply changed flight times on the web announcement from July 28th!!! It happened somewhere between July 30th (when I checked previous time) and August 27th (when I found out the new schedule). I know that flight time for charters Khanty-Munich and Khanty-Milan were changed. Probably there were other changes as well…

I know that other Federations are also outraged at all these changes.”

We also spoke with Jeroen Bosch, Sports Director of the Dutch Chess Federation’s Office and team captain of the Dutch women’s team. He had a similar story as Mr Bluvshtein:

“The charters were changed at least four times, although it must be said that in the first documentation there was a note saying ‘these times might be changed’. At the end of July I thought I had arranged everything, but when I returned from holiday it was changed considerably – we’re talking about a twelve hour difference, leading to very inconvenient times and necessary hotel bookings.

These were supposed to be the final times, and so we booked the hotels and new connecting flights and everything was arranged on August 25th. Then we received an email on the 26th, which was about other things, and had a sidenote saying ‘by the way the charters have been changed’. Again!

Let me make it clear that I don’t want to just complain. I mean, it’s a very good thing that the organizers actually arrange charters. They don’t have to do this, as far as I’m aware of. And besides, the managed to offer them for very cheap prices. Players and captains only pay the air taxes, which is about 60 Euros. So that’s actually very positive. But the many changes, and the suboptimal communication, that’s quite negative.”

Chess Today editor Alexander Baburin this week wrote in his magazine:

A few days ago I decided not to play in the forthcoming chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansijsk. That will be only the second Olympiad I have missed since 1994. One of the reasons for my decision was the fact this Olympiad seems to be badly organised. Recently FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who backed the bid from Khanty-Mansijsk a few years ago, admitted that only one of the three promised hotels (which were to be built for this event) existed, and even that one was not ready. Student accommodation for chess teams is being mentioned.

That is not the only problem – the departure time of the charter flight from Munich (where the Irish team intends to travel from) has been changed at least twice, making it impossible to buy tickets to Munich. Some teams already bought their tickets, so they had to change them, which is never cheap.

Single rooms for captains were offered and then withdrawn. Those wishing to have a single room were asked to pay 1120 euro per room – and to pay in advance!

As already mentioned, the World Chess Federation is not happy either with the developments so far. But it seems that they’re also not happy when players express their disappointment about it. We also received the following mail exchange from Nick Faulks, who will play for Bermuda and is a member of the FIDE Qualification Commission. He communicated with the already mentioned FIDE Vice President Israel Gelfer:

From: Nick Faulks
To: ugra-chess@ugra-chess.ru
Cc: Mr. Israel Gelfer, Nigel Freeman, FIDE Secretariat
Sent: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:49:43 -0700
Subject: Re: Bermuda team – accommodation

Dear Mr. Bondarev,

I have received no reply to my email of 20th August, attached. I repeat that my federation will not authorise the release of funds for accommodation about which you cannot provide any details, and know that other federations feel the same way.

Bermuda has taken part in Olympiads since 1976, and has never before been forced to pay in advance for undescribed services. In the case of a room for the team captain, this has not even been an issue, since you are the first organisers, and I hope the last, who are failing to provide this as a matter of courtesy.

It is extremely disappointing that FIDE allows you to treat your guests in this way. But for the fact that several team members have already bought non-refundable tickets I would be withdrawing our entry.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Faulks

To this, he received the following e-mail:

From: Mr. Israel Gelfer
To: Nick Faulks, ugra-chess@ugra-chess.ru
Cc: Nigel Freeman, FIDE Secretariat
Sent: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:06:40 -0700
Subject: Re: Bermuda team – accommodation

Dear Mr. Faulks

Without going into the details of invoice you got let me just respond to your style of your mail :

I find your last message to the organizers ,and to Fide as disgraceful and unbearable and if I were the organizer

I would simply disregard any mail from you ,from now on .

Personally , I would not care if people like you would withdraw from the olympiad .

Israel Gelfer

Well, that’s not the sort of answer a chess player would expect from a FIDE official and spokesman for the Olympiad, which is of course why Mr Faulks sent this to us and other chess media. This week we spoke with Mr Gelfer, who didn’t want to say much about this email exchange except for mentioning that Mr Faulks is an ‘uneducated person’.

Naturally we also confronted him with the worries and complaints from the players about the accommodation and transportation. Mr Gelfer told us:

“For the last two years, I have been going to Khanty-Mansiysk for inspections, meetings, consulting etc. Due to a medical problem of my wife, I could not attend this time and GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili, FIDE Vice President and also a member in our Commission for World Championship and Olympiad,s went there and had three days of meetings and inspections (26 – 29 August), together with the Chief Arbiter of the Olympiad, Mrs. Sava Stoisavljevic, the TAP (Technical Pannel) Chairman Mr. Stubenvol and the Organizing Committee people. I’ve just received his report, and it is very encouraging from all points of view.

According to my (daily) talks with the Organizing Committee, I can definitely confirm that the Olympic hotel (and all others, of course) is 100% finished and ready for the Olympiad. The Olympic hotel will accommodate more than 1200 participants, out of the 1600 that we expect. The dining room, in two floors, can accommodate 1200 people simultaneously, and will be open for lunch starting 12.30 every day. Food – we took special care of this subject, including carefully checking the venue and all the facilities in the kitchen, and in the restaurant itself. Transportation from the hotel to the playing hall is very well arranged (traffic time is less then 10 minutes).”

Nikolay Bondarev, Executive Director of the Organizing Committee, also sent us a comment:

“Thank you for the opportunity to comment the accommodation situation. Yesterday, on the 30th of August the final FIDE inspection left Khanty-Mansiysk. As a result of inspection there are two protocols of the working meeting. According to these protocols Khanty-Mansiysk is ready to hold the Olympiad. All construction sites are finished including Hotel Olympic. Construction of other hotels did not need because the Hotel Olympic will not completely occupied. All players and guests will be provided with transportation.”

About the charter flights Mr Bondarev said:

“Of course we understand, that these changes caused many inconveniences for Federations. Therefore we apologize for it and hope for their understanding! This situation is not pleasant for us too. But also we want you to understand, that first of all these changes are determined by the safety of the flights. And this is the decision of air-companies and airports. The OC has to agree with them, as safety of the participants is the main issue in the process of the organization the Olympiad. We apologize once again for any inconveniences! We hope for understanding!”

Naturally these comments from FIDE and the organizers are both encouraging and predictable, and hard to doublecheck. Even with a hotel that’s finished there might be issues – will basic things like water, heating, electricity and internet be of acceptable standard? Will the charters currently shown on the official website and on FIDE.com be the final timetables? Players, captains and delegates can only hope.

Review: three excellent puzzle books

Arne Moll — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:46:17 +0000

I don’t like games (except chess) and I hate puzzles. I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to solve something others have solved before, let alone trying this in the presence of someone who already knows the answer.

I’m always afraid I won’t be able to find the solution and will have to conclude I’m a horrible chess player (or a quiz participant, or a student). Still, I very much like reading chess puzzle books as long as I can look up the answer right away.

So it was with a mixture of enthusiasm and (inevitably) dread that I noted the recent appearance of no less than three chess puzzle books by major publishers: The Quality Chess Puzzle Book by John Shaw, The ChessCafe Puzzle Book 3 by Karsten Mueller and Merijn van Delft, and Coffeehouse Chess Tactics by John Healy.

There are, of course, hundreds of chess puzzle books available, and I believe all of them can make you a better chess player, as long as you really study the exercises and try not to look at the solution the moment you’re stuck. Which is exactly why I’ll never improve by doing just that, but fortunately, there’s a lot to enjoy in all three books apart from trying to become a better player. Shaw’s book gives you the most exercises (a whopping 735), while Healy is the funniest writer and Mueller and Van Delft have the best explanations.

Let’s start with John Healy’s Coffee House Chess Tactics, somewhat surprisingly published by New in Chess, which is really not a puzzle book but does contain lots of puzzles. John Healy is a unique author in the chess world, if only for the fact that he’s served a serious amount of time (12 months) in prison. Asked by a fellow inmate to teach him how to play chess, Healy soon realized he’d become hooked on chess himself and never was the same person again. Moreover, he turned out to be a great (if somewhat unsophisticated) writer. Allow me to recommend the following fragment to certain top-10 players especially:

Talent and youth, bright middle-class children with psychopathic tendencies – that’s what’s needed for success at tournament chess; with the emphasis on youth. And so their mums send them forth with the Spartan mother’s warning: come back victorious or don’t come back at all. Well, it is a discipline, codes-rules-values, and part of the code is to shake hands, win or lose, with friend a foe alike. The ritual is repeated before and after each game regardless of results.

Over come the hands: small, large, medium, enormous, dainty, delicate, strong, weak, hard, soft, limp, damp, and dry. After this sporting gesture one is free to cheat, lie, jostle, harangue, pace up and down, fart loudly, laugh, cry, sneeze, bang the pieces down, intimidate, glare and stare until the game ends once more with a gentlemanly handshake.

The prose parts are clearly the book’s best and should alone be sufficient reason to buy the book. The actually chess part of the book (consisting mostly of fragments from Healy’s own offhand games – inevitably full of ‘coffeehouse’ elements) seems really just an afterthought, though there are useful examples for players rated below 1900.

Healy-Chanel
International Students’ House, 1980

This is a puzzle that is not directly obvious – at least it wasn’t to me. Clearly, 1.Rxf7+ is the move, but after 1…Rxf7 2.Rxf7+ Qxf7 3.Qxe5+ Black has 3…Qf6 and though White is clearly winning after taking on b8, this seems a bit thin even for a sub-1900 puzzle. This is usually the moment in a puzzle where I stop and look up the solution, concluding I’m too old (and lazy) for this stuff, but then of course White has 4.Qc7+! and there’s no Qf7 so White picks up the rook with check and cashes the bishop as well.

While Healy’s puzzles are mostly about pretty straightforward tactics (and there’s nothing wrong with that!), John Shaw’s Quality Chess Puzzle Book, published, as the title suggests, by Quality Chess, is much more ambitious. From the introduction, we read that:

We often start the action a little earlier than is usual, in a position where the big punch is some moves in the future. The reader thus has to find the introductory moves that make the tactic work. Naturally, this is tougher than just spotting the Bxh7+ and then a few checks.

To be honest I did see quite a few exercises where the first move in fact is also the ‘big punch’, but there are also complex ones like the following from the chapter ‘Simple but not Easy’:

Socko-Wojtaszek
Poland (ch) 2007

The question is not whether White starts with 1.Bxg7+! (though see below) but how things continue after 1…Kxg7 2.Qg6+ Kh8. The answer is the beautiful 3.Bg8! and again this is the moment I usually look up the solution, only to discover that actually Black still has a way to stop mate with 3…Rf7! after which White still has to find 4.Qxf7! (not, as Shaw notes, 4.Bxf7? Qxd2) 4…Qxg8 5.Qxe7 and White is two pawns up. Importantly, Shaw explains how 1.Qg6 seems to lead to the same thing, but doesn’t since after 1…gxh6 2.Bg8 Rf7! 3.Qxf7 Qxg8 4.Qxe7 Rd8! the position is in fact very unclear.

There are many things to like about this book. Apart from the high quality material, the vast majority of the exercises are from very recent games (700 of 735 puzzles are from after the year 2000.) I also liked the fact that there’s a chapter with ‘Contributions from our Readers’. As a matter of fact, there was no immediate need for such an original approach as the author has made sure the puzzles in this book “have not been used in other puzzle books, so the reader has to solve the puzzle, not remember the answer from old books.” Finally, I found it extremely convenient that the solutions to the puzzles aren’t given in some obscure section at the end of the book, but on the very next page.

Although I recommend both Healy’s and Shaw’s books, I’ve saved the best for last. Karsten Mueller and Merijn van Delft don’t give the solutions to their exercises on the next page, but we can easily forgive the authors for this minor inconvenience because The ChessCafe Puzzle Book 3, published by Russell Enterprises, is really an absorbing book. Instead of everything being about tactics, here it is about improving one’s defensive skills, and the authors go to great lengths to explain this subject. In the very first chapter (Principles and Methods of the Defender), it already becomes clear how this book differs from the other two.

Speelman-Ricardi
Las Vegas 1999

28…Bxh2+? Black couldn’t resist the temptation to execute the classical double bishop sacrifice. Instead he should have settled for the modest 28…Qe7.

29.Kxh2 Bxg2 The standard procedure 29…Qh4+ 30.Kg1 Bxg2 doesn’t work because the rook is hanging.

30.Rd1! A strong zwischenzug. White refuses to be a victim of Black’s brilliant attacking play. 30.Kxg2? only leads to a draw after 30…Qg5+ 31.Kf3 Qh5+ 32.Kg2 while Black should stay clear of 32…Re5? since after 33.Bxf7+ all tactics neatly work in White’s favor.

30…Qh4+ 31.Kxg2 Qg4+ 32.Kf1 Qxc4+ 33.Ke1 Qc3 34.Rd2 b5 Perhaps Black missed that 34…Rd8 is refuted by the strong 35.Qc2!

35.Qb3 Now White is simply a piece up.

It’s true such a nuanced approach is hardly new, but the authors generously acknowledge chess writers like Rowson and Dvoretsky for their groundbreaking work in the area of improving one’s defense. Moreover, the way they have arranged their material is in my view very original. For instance, how often do you encounter a chapter called ‘Defense against a Minority Attack’? Usually, it’s all about setting up one, isn’t it? Here’s the first exercise from that chapter:

Pelletier-M.Gurevich
Gibraltar 2006

White has announced his ambitions on the queenside. How to defend?

18…Nc8! Heading for the ideal square on d6.

19.Qb2 19.Nb3 Nd6 20.Nc5 g6 21.Nf4 Bf5 and Black is fine.

19…Nd6 20.a4 Bf5! Good timing to get rid of those bishops.

21.Bxf5 Nxf5 22.Nc3 22.b5?! runs into 22…Nxe3!

22…Ng6 23.b5 Ngh4! As it appears Black is suddenly having a strong initiative on the kingside. Now 23…Nxe3?! is answered by 24.Re1 (…).

The ChessCafe Puzzle Book 3 (the first two were written by Mueller alone; now Van Delft joined him, bringing important psychological expertise along) also contains 16 ‘Tests’ where the reader has one hour for each of the tests – sure to be great material for chess trainers. In the introduction to these tests, the authors casually note a very important paradox:

If on the one hand you are comfortably reading a chess book, feeling you understand everything, you may in fact not be learning anything. If on the other hand you really put a lot of effort in and feel stupid because you couldn’t solve the exercise (”looking for the edges of your comfort zone” in Rowson’s words), in reality you may in fact be learning something.

They’re right, of course. I shouldn’t be so afraid to explore the edges of my own comfort zone – and perhaps more serious players, desperately wanting to improve their game, should be a bit more relaxed about things. Chess really is an endlessly paradoxical game. Reading Healy, I wanted him to show some of the versatility of Shaw. Reading Shaw, I wanted the book to have the depth of Mueller and Van Delft’s approach. And reading Mueller and Van Delft, I wished they had a bit more of Healy’s flourish in their style of writing.

The truth is, these are three highly entertaining chess books that will teach you as much as you allow them to.

New: Coffeehouse Chess Tactics

New in Chess (ADVERTORIALS) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:03:04 +0000

Just in from our printers: Coffeehouse Chess Tactics.

John Healy, the author of ‘The Grass Arena’ takes you on an astonishing trip into the world of competitive chess. Healy shows how to turn bad positions to our advantage and describes the beautiful, sometimes terrible, world of chess.

Fascinating, compelling & vintage John Healy!

Carlsen beats Anand, Hammer comes third

Peter Doggers — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:39:13 +0000

Magnus Carlsen won the Arctic Securities Chess Stars rapid tournament by beating Viswanathan Anand 1.5-0.5 in the final. Jon Ludvig Hammer came third after he won his minimatch against Judit Polgar with the same score.

The Arctic Securities Chess Stars rapid tournament took place August 28-30 in Kristiansund, Norway. Anand, Carlsen, Polgar and Hammer first played a double round robin on Saturday and Sunday and then on Monday they played the final and bronze final.

The time control was 20 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 10 seconds per move. More info in our previous report.

Day 3

Carlsen today started with a very powerful white game, which, it must be added, was also affected by an early mistake by Anand. The World Champion was very critical of himself at the press conference: “Obsiously it’s a pity, because it would have been nice to play some decent games today, but essentially I threw way the game in one move. 21…a5 loses a pawn on the spot.” It does indeed, but it looks like Carlsen didn’t respond the best way.

Carlsen-Anand
Kristiansund (final, 1st game) 2010

In this position very strong looks 22.cxd5 exd5 23.Rc5, and indeed the pawn on a5 drops, because 23…Qc7 fails to 24.Bxd5. However, Carlsen played 22. Bc3 when 22… b6?! is obviously wrong because of 23. c5 bxc5 24. Bxa5, but in this position the simple 22… Qc7 seems possible. Anand continued 22…dxc4 23. Bxa5 cxb3 24. Rb2 Rdc8 25. Rxb3 and had to fight against annoying pressure along the b-file, and later also in the centre. After Carlsen had opened the centre with e3-e4, the Norwegian could deliver the decisive blow soon.

41. Bxh5! Now 41… gxh5 is answered by 42. Qh7+ and in most lines White will win back a full rook: a) 42… Kf8 43. Qh6+ Kg8 44. Qg5+; b) 42… Ke8 43. Qxh5+; c) 42… Kf6 43. Rg5! Rxg5 44. hxg5+ Kxg5 45. Qg7+ Kf5 46. Qf7+ Kg5 47. Rc5+ +-. In the game Anand tried 41… Rxe5 42. dxe5 Qd5+ 43. Bf3 Qxe5 which turned out to be pretty hopeless too. In the next game he got nothing with White in a Breyer Ruy Lopez and offered a draw at move 28.

The bronze final started with an interesting Scotch Four Knights where Polgar had a slight advantage at some point, but Hammer held his own in the ending. Like the first game of the final, the second game of the bronze final was also decided more or less by a one-move mistake.

Hammer-Polgar
Kristiansund (bronze final, 2nd game) 2010

Here Polgar played 19… c4? and after 20. e4! the loss of a pawn was inevitable, because she had missed that after 20… Rd6 the move 21. exd5! comes with tempo and c4 hangs.
Hammer finished the game showing excellent technique, though Polgar perhaps could have put up a bit more resistance. For example at the very end:

Here she went 54… Kd8 and resigned after 55.c6. The move 54… Ke8 at least forces 55. Bxa2 though White is also winning after 55… Nxa2 56. Kf6.

It seems that this Arctic Securities Chess Stars was to some extent part of the lobby for the possible Tromsø Olympiad in 2014. It was certainly an example of the growing interest in chess in Norway. It should also be mentioned that Arctic Securities is Carlsen’s personal sponsor, so there’s enough reason for the Norwegians to be happy today.

As a nice bonus, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (Norsk Rikskringkasting – NRK) provided live coverage on its website through several video cameras. In our view this could have been done better, as for example there were no good close-ups of the players’ faces. Maybe something for next year?

Games day 3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Carlsen and Anand in their second game, just moments before Anand will admit defeat

Judit Polgar resigns against Jon Ludvig Hammer in game 2 | Screenhots from Norsk Rikskringkasting

Gelfand beats Leko 4.5-3.5 in theoretical rapid match

Peter Doggers — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:44:20 +0000

There was more rapid chess this week, as the traditional match with Peter Leko in Miskolc, Hungary was also held. This year his opponent was Boris Gelfand, who won a very theoretical match 4.5-3.5.

Peter Leko played his 6th rapid match in a row in Miskolc, Hungary. In 2005, he drew 4-4 against Michael Adams in a match where only the last two games ended in a draw. A year later, the Hungarian beat Karpov 4.5-3.5. In 2007 Leko lost 4.5-3.5 to Kramnik and in 2008 Carlsen proved too strong: 5-3. Last year Leko lost to World Champion Anand 5-3.

This year Leko played against Boris Gelfand, who came straight from the NH Tournament where he had performed very well. In general the Israeli has had quite a strong period lately, while the Hungarian hasn’t found his best form yet this year. In Wijk aan Zee and Astrakhan Leko scored 50%, and in Dortmund even worse: minus two.

Again the rapid match took place in the National Theater of Miskolc, Hungary. Eight rapid games were played over four days; on August 25, 26, 28 and 29. The time control was 25 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 10 seconds at each move.

The match was a highly theoretical affair and preparation played an important role. In seven out of eight games the Semi-Slav came on the board; five of them saw the Anti-Moscow variation (all of Gelfand’s white games and Leko’s last white game) and three of them the Moscow variation.

It won’t surprise you that especially the Anti-Moscow games led to interesting games. Let’s have a look at what exactly happened there. After the moves 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5

we start with the last game of the match, where Leko copied Grischuk’s recent piece sacrifice with 9.Ne5 Bb7 10. h4 Bg7 11. hxg5 hxg5 12. Rxh8+ Bxh8 13. Bxc4!? bxc4 14. Nxc4 Kf8

Here Leko deviated from Grischuk’s 15.e5 (played at the Russian Team Championship in April this year) but instead played 15.Bd6. But, Gelfand wouldn’t be Gelfand if he wasn’t prepared for that move as well. He defended accurately and was even clearly better in the final position.

Gelfand himself played 9.Be2 in all his games. After 9…Bb7

he tried the move 10.0-0 once, in the third match game. For a long time the two followed a game Harikrishna-Sandipan played this year in the USA: 10…Nbd7 11. Ne5 Bg7 12. Nxd7 Nxd7 13. Bd6 a6 14. a4 b4 15. Bxb4 Qb6 16. Ba3 Qxd4 17. Qc2 c5 18. Rad1 Qe5 19. Bxc4 Qc7

Here Gelfand played the novelty 20.Ne2 (instead of 20.Bb5) but Leko drew relatively easily.

Three times Gelfand went for 10.h4 and these games were theoretically most important, as after 10… g4 11. Ne5 Rg8 12. Bxg4 Nbd7 13. Nxd7 Qxd7 14. Bf3

Leko had prepared the new move 14…c5!? and he played it all three times. It’s probably OK for Black, but practically speaking it proved dangerous, as Gelfand won this theoretical fight 2.5-0.5. Interestingly, Leko only scored a win in the one 1.e4 game of the match. He managed to beat his opponent in a Petroff.

Miskolc Rapid 2010 | Final Score

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The players at the closing ceremony...

...where they received vases especially made for the occasion

Photos © Gabor Veroci, more here

Anand & Carlsen reach Arctic final

Peter Doggers — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:05:57 +0000

Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen today play the final of the Arctic Securities Chess Stars in Kristiansund, Norway. The bronze final will be played between Judit Polgar and Jon Ludvig Hammer, who beat Carlsen with White yesterday.

This rapid event takes place August 28-30 in Kristiansund, Norway. Anand, Carlsen, Polgar and Hammer first played a double round robin on Saturday and Sunday; today the final and bronze final start at 14:00 CET. The time control is 20 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 10 seconds per move. More info in our previous report.

We didn’t really have a look at the games of the first day yet, so let’s just see how Anand and Carlsen, naturally the two big favourites, reached the final. In short: Anand reigned supreme and scored 5/6, while Carlsen dropped 2.5 points, but still qualified.

Day 1

On the first day both Carlsen and Anand played the Berlin Defence against Polgar. In the first round the Hungarian went for the main line – the famous ending:

Polgar-Carlsen
Kristiansund 2010

Polgar now seeks adventure with 15. Nb5!? a6 16. Nd6+! cxd6 17. exd6 Nd5 18. c4 Nxf4 19. d7+ Kd8 20. Ne5 Be7 21. axb6 Ne2+ 22. Kf1 Nd4 23. dxc8Q+ Kxc8

24. b4? (24. Re1! and now 24… Nc2 25. Nxf7 Nxe1 26. Rxe1 Re8 27. Nd6+ Bxd6 28. Rxe8+ Kd7 29. Rh8 h6 might be a bit better for White while 25… Rf8 25. Ng6 fxg6! 26. Rxe7 Rf6 would have been unclear. 24… f6 25. Nd3 cxb4 26. c5 Nc6 and Black was just up material.

Anand-Hammer
Kristiansund 2010

Hammer had been doing alright all the time, partly because Anand had played his Giuoco Piano very pianissimo. If Black plays 50…Nf8 here, it’s probably a draw. However, he cracked in the end with 50…f5? 51. exf5 e4 52. Kc6 Ne5+ 53. Kd5 Nd3 54. Bd2 Nf2 55. Bxg5 Nxh3 56. Be3 1-0

Like Carlsen, Anand wanted to play the Berlin Defence against Polgar, but this time she went for the quiet 4.d3 line. After 4…Bc5 5.0-0 Nd4! Black has almost equalized there, and after a few more moves Anand was already better, and then nicely outplayed his opponent, adding threat after threat in an ending. A very instructive game.

You’ve probably already seen what happened in the following game, but we’ll show it for the ones who haven’t. Even for rapid it’s a rare example of mutual chess blindness.

Carlsen-Hammer
Kristiansund 2010

39. Rd2?? Rhxd2?? 40. Bxd2 and White won.

The last two games on Saturday, Hammer-Polgar and Anand-Carlsen, ended in a draw. The latter was a Sicilian Dragon where ‘Black probably always had enough counterplay’, according to the World Champion. Let’s move on to what happened on Sunday.

Day 2

Again, Hammer played a fine game against Anand, but at some point it all became a comedy of errors.

Hammer-Anand
Kristiansund 2010

30. h3?! Good for White is 30. Qh5! and now after 30…Qc6 (30… Qxa2 31. Qe8!) 31. Bb4 Bb7 White can try to win the ending after 32. Re8+ Kh7 33. Qf5+ g6 34. Qxd7+ Qxd7 35. Re7+ Qxe7 36. Bxe7 without running any risk. 30… Bb7!

31. c4?? Here White should probably have taken the draw with 31. Bxg7! 31… Qxa2? 31… Qe6! wins on the spot. 32. Qf5? Qa4?! Again 32… Qe2! would have decided the game instantly, e.g. 33. Qb1 Qf3. 33. Qe6+ Kh7 34. Kh2 Qc2 35. Bc5 Rd2 36. Kg1 Qd3

37. g4? 37. Qe3 Qd7 38. f3! still holds. 37… Rd1! Now Black is winning again. 38. Bb4 Rxe1+ 39. Bxe1 Qxh3 40. Qf5+ Kh8 41. f3 Qxf3 42. Qxf3 Bxf3 0-1

In this fourth round Carlsen drew with Polgar, using the non-theoretical set-up 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3 b6 4. Bd3 Bb7 5. O-O Ne7 6. Re1 Ng6 7. Bb2. Now after 7… Nc6

the Norwegian went 8. Na3!? and the point was eventually split at move 108, after Carlsen had taken too much risk trying to win, and then successfully defended a worse position. The next round Anand copied the setup, but went 8. Bf1 and easily beat Polgar with it.

Hammer got a second chance against Carlsen, and this time he didn’t falter:

Hammer-Carlsen
Kristiansund 2010

45… Qd4?? 45… Qg6 46. Bxe5 Nxe5 47. Qxd6 Nf3+ 48. Kg2 Nxg5 49. Rhf1 should end in a draw. 46. Qc2 Oops. 46… Nxg5 47. Qg6+ Bg7 48. Qxg5 Rf7 49. Qg6 Rcc7 50. Kg2 Rxf4 51. Qh7+ Kf7 52. Rxf4+ Qxf4 53. Rf1 Qxf1+ 54. Kxf1 Rc5 55. Ne4 1-0

Round 6 saw two relatively quiet draws in Polgar-Hammer and Carlsen-Anand, and so the final standings of the preliminary fase looks like this.

Arctic Securities Chess Stars 2010 | Final Standings Preliminaries

Games day 2

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Emanuel Berg won the top group of the 6-round open tournament which was held alongside the rapid event, from Thursday the 26th to Sunday the 29th. The Swede edged out Vladimir Georgiev and Evgeny Romanov on tiebreak.

Kasparov-Marcote clinch Spanish title

Peter Doggers — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:09:36 +0000

Escuela International Kasparov Marcote won the Spanish Team Championship. In the final the top seeded team defeated reigning champions Linex-Magic from Mérida 4.5-1.5 with victories for Gashimov against Shirov, Smeets against Sargissian and and Salgado against Pérez Candelario.

Gustafsson, Smeets, Vallejo (and Gashimov) | Photo © FEDA

The 2010 Spanish Team Championship took place August 23-28 in the Polideportivo La Benedicta sports complex in Sestao in Northern Spain. Spain’s top ten teams, the División de Honor, competed over six rounds in this stage. The time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with a 30 second increment from move 1.

In a newly introduced system, the teams started with four rounds of Swiss. Then the first four teams play semi-finals and the winners played a final to decide the champion.

Spanish Team Ch 2010 | Teams & Players

Semi-finals and final

Having secured a place in the semi-finals with six draws on Thursday, the teams of Solvay and Linex-Magic met each other again the next day. Again, five out of six games ended peacefully but this time the players did fight. The decisive game was Negi-Sargissian, where the Armenian won with Black in a Spanish Four Knights and thus made sure that his team was still champion of Spain for at least one more day.

Negi-Sargissian
Sestao 2010

In an already slightly worse position, Negi committed a tactical error with the natural looking 25.h3? which was refuted by 25…Rxf3! 26.gxf3 (if White takes with the rook there’s a nasty Bf2 at the end) 26…Bxh3 and Black won.

Reverté Albox vs Kasparov Marcote finished in 3-3. Especially board one was a short affair, where Dreev and Gashimov drew in 12 which gave them time to visit the Henri Rousseau exhibition at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, or something else. Krasenkow, who had suffered a lost by default the day before against the same opponent because of back problems (as Vallejo told us), turned up this time and the two drew in 67 moves in an interesting Sveshnikov.

The other teams also continued playing, eventually to determine which teams would relegate. Another down side of the new system in use in Spain was that e.g. Sestao Naturgas played U.G.A. for the second time. This time they beat them with a bigger margin: 5-1. Hikaru Nakamura even played the same player, and again with the white pieces! He told us he didn’t want to prepare again, started with 1.g3 and beat Daniel Elsina Leal the second time in one week.

To the final then. There was no doubt who was the strongest in the match between Linex-Magic and Kasparov Marcote, as the latter won their three black games and drew their three white ones. On board one the Petroff Defence once again turned out to be an opening in which Black can win too.

Shirov-Gashimov
Sestao 2010

38.Nc1? Too passive; 38.Qa4! keeping an eye on the e8, c2 and d1 squares was about equal. 38…Be4! 39.Bg4 Ne5 and White couldn’t prevent the loss of a pawn, and the game.

Smeets beat Sargissian in an instructive ending.

Sargissian-Smeets
Sestao 2010

Which is better, the bishop or the knight? Usually it’s the bishop, but not this time. 45…e4! 46.Bd1 g4! Black puts the pawns on the colour of the bishop, but this is a second exception to the rule. Here it restricts the bishop and fixes the pawn on f2, which will fall at some point. See the game viewer for the rest of the game.

Besides Kasparov Marcote, Linex-Magic, Reverté Albox and Solvay, the teams Sestao Naturgas and Gros X.T. will play the Division Honor also next year, while Mérida Patrimonio, SCC Sabadell, C.E. Barbera and U.G.A. have relegated.

Games rounds 5-6

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The winning team: Escuela International Kasparov Marcote

Weekly Endgame Study (184)

Yochanan Afek — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:10:05 +0000

Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving!

J. Fleck & C. Lutz
1999

White to play and win

Next week the solution.

Solution last week

E. Iriarte
1995

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Three days of Arctic Securities Chess Stars (UPDATE)

Peter Doggers — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:12:42 +0000

The coming three days world’s number one Magnus Carlsen and World Champion Viswanathan Anand meet with the world’s best female player Judit Polgar and Norway’s number two player Jon Ludvig Hammer in a rapidplay event in Kristiansund, Norway. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK is broadcasting live on their website with several cameras. Games day 1 added.

Hammer, Anand, Polgar and Carlsen at the press conference | Photo Roger Hojem

It is a huge event for the chess fans in Kristiansund and Norway which takes place this weekend (including Monday). The first round is played today and the second on Sunday the 29th. Each player will meet twice. The finals will be played on Monday 30th of August. The time control is 20 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 10 seconds per move.

Games start at 14.30 CET on Saturday and Sunday while the final and bronze final will start at 14.00 CET on Monday. Pairings:

Saturday
Opening (13.30)
Round 1 (14.30): Polgar-Carlsen, Anand-Hammer
Round 2 (16.00): Polgar-Anand, Carlsen-Hammer
Round 3 (17.30): Anand-Carlsen, Hammer-Polgar

Sunday
Round 4 (14.30): Carlsen-Polgar, Hammer-Anand
Round 5 (16.00): Anand-Polgar, Hammer-Carlsen
Round 6 (17.30): Carlsen-Anand, Polgar-Hammer

Monday
Finals & bronze finals (14.00)

The official website is the Kristansund club website and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (Norsk Rikskringkasting – NRK) website will provide live coverage through several video cameras. Update: as Jochem remarks, live games here.

NRK consists of three main TV channels, three main radio channels, several niche channels on the radio, the Internet, podcast and mobile phone. NRK is Norway’s largest media company.

It is the first time World Champion Anand visits Norway since he played in the 1980’s World Youth
Championship. For Judit Polgar it’s the first time she’s visiting Norway. Kristiansund is a city and municipality on the western coast of Norway, in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal county. It is located about 500 km northwest of capital Oslo and about 1300 km southwest of Tromsø.

Storkaia harbour in Kristiansund | Photo Harald Oppedal

Parallel to this high-class rapid tournament there’s a 6-round open tournament with two groups, from Thursday the 26th to Sunday the 29th of August. The first prize is 10,000 NOK (about 1253 Euros). The strongest participants are GMs Emanuel Berg, Evgeny Romanov, Vladimir Georgiev, Tiger Hillarp Persson and Women World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Games day 1

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Chaotic Spanish League reaches semi-finals

Peter Doggers — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:58:59 +0000

The first phase of the Spanish Team Championship has concluded. Today the semi-finals will be Escuela Int. Kasparov-Marcote vs. Reverté Albox and Solvay vs. Linex-Magic. The new system being used this year has led to problems already.

The 2010 Spanish Team Championship takes place August 23-28 in the Polideportivo La Benedicta sports complex in Sestao in Northern Spain. Spain’s top ten teams, the División de Honor, compete over six rounds in this stage. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with a 30 second increment from move 1.

Spanish Team Ch 2010 | Teams & Players

Rounds 3-4

In our previous report we stated that “the final two rounds will settle the qualification for the play-offs later this year”, as it’s always been. However, this is not true. In fact the Spanish federation changed the system completely, and after four rounds it has become clear that it hasn’t been an improvement.

A similar system is being used as in this year’s U.S. Championship. After four rounds of Swiss, the first four teams play semi-finals and the winners play a final to decide the champion. The first four rounds we re paired according to the Swiss system.

In team competitions this is asking for trouble, if you ask us, and indeed already in the fourth round the first problems arose. What was the case? After three rounds Escuela Int. Kasparov-Marcote, Reverté Albox and Solvay were on five points, Linex-Magic on four and the rest of the field on two points or less. The teams of Linex-Magic and Solvay had to play each other, and so a draw would secure a spot in the semis.

And indeed the players agreed to draw all games before the first move – something the arbiters found out about. The round was delayed for fourty minutes and at some point the arbiters were threatening to declare one team as the winner and one as the loser. All this was told to us by one of the players in Sestao.

Eventually the match was played and the teams drew quickly on six boards. Ironically, Linex-Magic and Solvay meet each other again, today.

On Wednesday the teams of Solvay (with Indians Harikrishna, Ganguly and Negi on the first three boards) and Reverté Albox (with Dreev, Krasenkow and Mchedlishvili) drew on all six boards.

L-R Indians Parimarjan Negi, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Pentala Harikrishna

Escuela Int. Kasparov-Marcote defeated SCC Sabadell where the results on boards 1 and 2 were decisive: Gashimov and Vallejo defeated Navara and Laznicka respectively.

Ivan Cheparinov was the man of the match for reigning champs Linex-Magix by scoring the only win, against Miguel Llanes Hurtado of Mérida. Gros X.T. played only 3-3 against Barbera. Bauer beat Doncea but Loek van Wely lost to Yuniesky Quesada Perez.

Sestao Naturgas, the hosting club, finally won in this third round, but only 3.5-2.5 against U.G.A. On boards 4 and 5 IMs Vila Gazquez and Fluvia Poyatos managed to beat Sestao’s GMs Edouard and Del Rio De Angelis, but the top guns Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave and Moiseenko on boards 1-3 decided matters.

On Thursday Escuela Int. Kasparov-Marcote crushed Reverté Albox 5-1, though it must be said that one of these wins was a non-game. Vallejo’s opponent Krasenkow got ill and couldn’t play. The Spaniard opened 1.a3 and collected the free point after fifteen minutes – the allowed amount of time for arriving late in Sestao.

Gros X.T. vs Sestao Naturgas was a tough match with many draws, e.g. in Bacrot-Nakamura, Kasimdzhanov-Vachier-Lagrave and Van Wely-Short. The match was decided by Frenchman Romain Edouard who beat Hichem Hamdouchi.

L-R Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nigel Short and Alexander Moiseenko

Spanish Team Championship 2010 | Round 4 Standings

Games rounds 3-4

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L-R Jan Gustafsson, Jan Smeets, Francisco Vallejo and Vugar Gashimov

ChessVibes

FIDE: ‘Players need not worry about the Olympiad’

Review: three excellent puzzle books

Links

New: Coffeehouse Chess Tactics

Carlsen beats Anand, Hammer comes third

Day 3

Games day 3

Links

Gelfand beats Leko 4.5-3.5 in theoretical rapid match

Game viewer

Links

Anand & Carlsen reach Arctic final

Day 1

Day 2

Games day 2

Links

Kasparov-Marcote clinch Spanish title

Spanish Team Ch 2010 | Teams & Players

Semi-finals and final

Games rounds 5-6

Links

Weekly Endgame Study (184)

Solution last week

Three days of Arctic Securities Chess Stars (UPDATE)

Games day 1

Chaotic Spanish League reaches semi-finals

Spanish Team Ch 2010 | Teams & Players

Rounds 3-4

Games rounds 3-4

Links