Another Major Rapid Event: The Mind Games in Beijing

The SportAccord World Mind Games started yesterday in Beijing, and like the London Chess Classic it's an elite rapid tournament with 16 players. (The format is different though: first a 7-round Swiss in rapid chess, then a double round-robin in blitz, and finally five rounds of the "Basque System" - a two-board simul against the same opponent. Additionally there's a concurrent women's event that is at least as strong, mutatis mutandis, as the men's/open section.) The participant list is very impressive: Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Wang Hao, Wang Yue, Sergey Karjakin, Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko, Gata Kamsky, Anish Giri, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Leinier Dominguez, Teimour Radjabov, Ruslan Ponomariov and Le Quang Liem.

Leko led at the end of day 1 with 3.5/4; Karjakin and Wang Yue were next with 3 points apiece; day 2 and the rapid is over now, and by winning with Black in the last game Wang Yue caught Leko to tie the rapid portion (and come out ahead on tiebreak). They both finished with 5/7, half a point ahead of Grischuk and Dominguez.

Larry Kaufman Q & A

GM Larry Kaufman is one of the people behind Komodo's success in the recent TCEC tournament, and he has consented to do a sort of informal Q&A on the Quality Chess website's blog. (His answers are in the comments section to this post - scroll down and you'll find them.) Among the answers that I know at least one of my readers will find interesting comes in response to a question about the relative strengths and merits of Komodo, Stockfish and Houdini. (He also has some interesting comments en passant about Rybka and Fritz.)

London Chess Classic, Day 2

The executive summary of today's action at the London Chess Classic: the favorites are well on their way to qualifying, while the two qualifiers are making a good case for invitation-only participants next time around.

In group A, both Viswanathan Anand and Michael Adams won both their games and have practically guaranteed their qualification for Saturday's quarterfinals. Anand has 10 points (3-1-0 scoring) and Adams has 8, with Luke McShane still having an outside chance with 4. Qualifier Andrei Istratescu has 0.

In group B things are a bit tighter. Vladimir Kramnik had a perfect score after the first day, but only added a single point to his total today, drawing with Matthew Sadler and losing to Peter Svidler. Kramnik and Svidler (who also beat Jonathan Rowson) have 7 points; Sadler beat Rowson to reach 5 and Rowson has 3.

In group C Boris Gelfand drew first with Hikaru Nakamura and then Judit Polgar to reach 8 points (he won both his games the first day); he is joined there by Nakamura, who defeated Gawain Jones. Polgar has 4 points and still has a chance, while Jones's 1 point total already leaves him eliminated from contention.

Fabiano Caruana is the class of group D, though he had a scare in the day's first game, against David Howell. He had to defend for a long time to save the draw, but then crushed the faltering Emil Sutovsky in the second game to reach a total of 10 points. (Sutovsky, the other qualifier, has the same score as Istratescu: 0.) Nigel Short bounced back from yesterday's poor results and odd openings with a couple of wins, and now he's in second in the group with 7 points. Howell has 5 points and still has a chance, but his loss to Short today means it's out of his hands.

Overall, the level of play was higher or at least more consistent today. Maybe the players were a bit rusty or at least weren't in the right rhythm for rapid chess, and have now started to acclimate themselves. Hopefully the trend will continue, and the final day of preliminary action will see some good chess as players fight to reach the quarterfinals.

The Return of Borislav Ivanov

Many people maintained their faith in Lance Armstrong for a long time, and faithful Linus van Pelt is still waiting for the Great Pumpkin to return. I'm sure Borislav Ivanov has his defenders too - though I bet they haven't had to play him in a tournament with money or norms on the line. Anyway, it seems he has unretired for the moment, and readers can catch up on his most recent adventures here and here.

(HT: Nate.)

London Chess Classic, Day 1

Day one of the London Chess Classic was a treat for fans of schadenfreude; those who prefer to see good chess may have another opinion.

In the first session, Viswanathan Anand blundered against Luke McShane and was quickly in trouble; that turned into "dead" lost after 22 moves. Result? He won. Michael Adams beat Andrei Istratescu relatively cleanly, but Vladimir Kramnik also had something of a "charity" win against Peter Svidler. (Incidentally, that game featured the Arctic Defense - 1.Nf3 g6 2.e4 Nf6!?/?!, which Magnus Carlsen used against Adams 2-3 years ago, if I recall correctly. He got a slightly worse but playable position, but eventually lost.) The game went normally for a while, with the evaluation fluctuating between slightly better for White and equal, but at some point Kramnik missed something and was soon lost. No matter: Svidler played imprecisely, allowing Kramnik to escape, and then 54...Kg6?? blundered the bishop and the game. Finally, Matthew Sadler was winning against Jonathan Rowson, but he too was unable to maintain the advantage and eventually lost. In sum: four decisive results, with three of the winners coming back from lost positions.

In the second session, Boris Gelfand beat Judit Polgar - cleanly - and likewise for Fabiano Caruana against Emil Sutovsky. Sutovsky is a very creative player who loves tactical complications, but Caruana outcalculated him and won convincingly. Gawain Jones and Hikaru Nakamura drew their game after a long fight, with both sides missing winning opportunities. Essentially it was a matter of Nakamura trying to turn a drawish position into something more, and while he did have one chance to win he also gave Jones a couple of chances to collect a full point as well. As for the game between Nigel Short and David Howell, there too both players had chances to win. For Short, it was just a flicker of an opportunity, while Howell had a serious advantage for between a third and a half of the game. There too, however, the game finished in a draw.

In session three, Anand pressed with White against Adams, but the latter defended well and it ended in a correct draw. Likewise in Svidler-Sadler: something went slightly wrong for Svidler in the early middlegame, so he went for an attack that proved good for an exciting perpetual but not more. Kramnik beat Rowson convincingly, but it wasn't as convincing as Kramnik thought until Rowson played 24...Ncxa4(?). McShane had a pull against Istratescu, but it didn't become serious until after 25...f3(?); after that Black was lost. McShane didn't play perfectly, but he did well enough and was completely winning by the time Istratescu blundered into a mate in two.

In the final session of the day, more strange reversals occurred. Polgar had a big, maybe winning advantage against Nakamura, but let him slip away. 28.Rc1? was a serious error, and soon it was only Nakamura who could play for the win. Polgar's position remained tenable for a long time, but eternal defense is hard for everyone - especially with rapid time limits - and she finally broke. Howell-Sutovsky was a salutary warning to everyone who plays against his opponent's time trouble. Howell was down to the increments (10 seconds per move) while Sutovsky had five or six minutes left, but rather than accede to a draw once Howell had reached a pretty safe position Sutovsky kept on pushing, only to blunder (35...Kh8? got the ball rolling, though further inaccuracies were to follow) and lose. Gelfand defeated Jones pretty cleanly, while Short lost a one-sided game that began with 1.b4 and soon saw g4 as well. Caruana let Short make all the weaknesses he wanted, and in due course slaughtered him with his counterattack.

Scoring summary: In group A, Anand and Adams lead with 1.5/2 - or rather, 4 points, as the London Chess Classic is continuing their tradition of using the 3-1-0 scoring system. In group B, Kramnik has 6 points; Rowson(!) is in second with 3. Gelfand leads group C with 6 points, whlie Nakamura is in the second qualifying spot for now with 4. Finally, Caruana has 6 points to lead group D, while Howell is in second with 4.

The London Chess Classic's Main Event Starts Today (Wednesday)

This year's London Chess Classic has a radically new format. Instead of a single round-robin of classical chess, this year's creation is a multi-stage rapid event. There are four four-player groups, and within each there will be a double round-robin taking place from Wednesday through Friday. The top two from each group proceed to Saturday's quarter-finals, and the semi-finals and finals will take place on Sunday.

Here is the composition of each of the four groups:

Group A:

• Luke McShane
• Viswanathan Anand
• Adrian Istratescu (by qualification)
• Michael Adams

Group B:

• Vladimir Kramnik
• Peter Svidler
• Jonathan Rowson
• Matthew Sadler

Group C:

• Boris Gelfand
• Judit Polgar
• Gawain Jones
• Hikaru Nakamura

Group D:

• Nigel Short
• David Howell
• Fabiano Caruana
• Emil Sutovsky (by qualification)

The expected qualifiers from groups B and D seem fairly obvious, but in both groups A and C three players would seem to have very good chances. The world's #1 - the world champion! - and #2 players are missing, but a good chunk of the world elite is here. Play begins at 2 p.m. local time/9 a.m. ET.

Shirov Beats Dubov 5-1

And so the exhibition match between Alexei Shirov and Daniil Dubov has come to an end with a draw in game 6. As after game 1, a draw in the classical game meant they had to play blitz afterwards, and the results were a repeat of what happened in game 1: a draw followed by a Dubov win. In the part that counted, however, Shirov proved his dominance, and while Dubov is an impressive young talent this will have reminded him that he still has a long way to go to reach the elite. For Shirov, it netted him some points and probably some confidence, and hopefully presages a return to better things for him. There's nothing wrong with 60-move rook endings, but as chess fans most of us - myself included - would rather see his "fire on board" approach instead.

Dubov: Thank You Sir, May I Have Another?

Shirov 4.5, Dubov .5. The match ends tomorrow.

Shirov Wins Another Wild One, Leads 3.5-.5

Mr. Fire On Board is having his way with young Russian GM Daniil Dubov in their six-game match, consistently outfoxing him in the crazy complications. If you enjoy tactically rich positions, this match is a feast for you.

Russia Wins The World Team Championship - Barely

After coming back from a bad start in the World Team Championship and beating Ukraine yesterday in the match of the tournament, round 9 against the heavily outrated and winless Egyptian team should have been a near-triviality. Instead, it was a near-disaster. They drew their Black games easily enough, and Ian Nepomniachtchi took advantage over Samy Shoker's characteristically energetic but positionally careless style to grind out a win, but it was Vladimir Kramnik whose chess proved rather unwieldy.

His opponent, Mohamed Ezat, went for a queen sac line against Kramnik's Reti that looks exciting if you've never seen it before, but which is generally considered a way to suffer one's way to a draw - if all goes well. Indeed, Kramnik was not surprised and was probably winning, but somewhere around moves 25 and 26 (or both) he lost the thread, and soon it was only Ezat who could play for the win.

The game resolved itself into an ending after White's 35th move in which Kramnik had a queen and an a-pawn against a rook and two bishops, with both players having f-, g- and h-pawns. To win, Ezat needed to do one of two things: round up the a-pawn, or keep the a-pawn under control while going after White's f-pawn. Ultimately Ezat didn't manage to execute either aim, and Kramnik achieved enough counterplay to save the game. (As it turned out, the Russians would have won the gold on board points even if Kramnik had lost, but even that wasn't clear until fairly late as Ding Liren was pressing Mustafa Yilmaz before that game finished in a draw.)

In the meantime, the Chinese team defeated Turkey 3-1 and assured themselves of the silver, ahead of Ukraine on board points. To their credit, the Ukranians bounced back from yesterday's disappointment to defeat Armenia 2.5-1.5 thanks to Anton Korobov's victory over Vladimir Akopian.

With a win in that match the Armenians might have taken the bronze; instead, they finished behind the Americans (who drew their final match against the Dutch team) on tiebreaks.

And so another exciting event comes to a close, but chess fans don't have to wait long for the next big thing. The Shirov-Dubov match continues tomorrow, and the latest edition of the London Chess Classic starts on Saturday, with the "real" event starting Wednesday, December 11. (Among the participants are Kramnik, Anand, Nakamura, Caruana, Gelfand, Adams and Svidler.)