Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 8:40PM Just a quick note to say what's coming up. From April 20-29 the massively strong Grenke Chess Classic will take place, with Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand and other mega-stars, plus one of the top prodigies these days, 14-year-old Vincent Keymer. I'm also hoping to write up 1-3 book reviews in the near future as well. Stay tuned.
[Note: I've corrected the dates for the tournament.]
Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 12:33PM In the end, the 2019 Vugar Gashimov Memorial was a complete triumph for Magnus Carlsen. While everyone else was getting the tournament over with, Carlsen played for keeps against Alexander Grischuk, and won his third consecutive game and fifth overall to finish the tournament with an undefeated 7-2 score. As a result he won the tournament by two points, achieved a ridiculous 2988 TPR, gained 15.8 rating points* and now enjoys a 44.4 point rating lead over Fabiano Caruana. Order in the chess world has been re-established.
His victory over Grischuk was a masterpiece. It was hard to even figure out where Grischuk lost the game, both for Grischuk and this commentator. Carlsen's play was brilliant, most especially the pawn sacrifice set up by his 29th move. If you've ever wondered why GMs harp on the value of the bishop pair, this game offers a powerful demonstration of that theme. Have a look, learn, and especially enjoy - the game is here, with my comments. (The other games are there too, but without notes.)
Here are the final standings:
* I'd say 16 points, but he's playing in the Grenke Chess Classic later this month, so it won't necessarily be rounded up.
Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 12:14AM It wasn't all that long ago that Magnus Carlsen's championship reign and his spot atop the rating list were in jeopardy. It wasn't that long ago according to the calendar, but the current reality is that he is the dominant #1 player in the world. After a sluggish start to Wijk aan Zee in January, he has turned on the afterburners, and with his fourth win in this event he has clinched clear first place in the 2019 Gashimov Memorial with a round to spare.
His victim in this round was Sergey Karjakin, who entered the round just half a point behind Carlsen. Karajkin had White, too, making the matchup all the more interesting. He decided to join the crowd testing Carlsen's world championship prep in the Sveshnikov Sicilian, continuing the recent trend with 7.Nd5. Carlsen sacrificed the h-pawn for compensation, and absolutely hammered Karjakin to death with powerful play on the kingside and in the center. Some of what happened to Karjakin had to do with Carlsen's preparation, I think, but not all of it, and Carlsen's play was very convincing.
Congrats to the champion, who leads Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, and Ding Liren by a point and a half. He has picked up a dozen rating points so far, and has achieved a 2963 TPR thus far. I don't know if it'll hit 3000 if he defeats Grischuk in the last round, but it will be close.
About Grischuk and Ding, they also won in round 8. In Grischuk's case, he won convincingly with White against David Navara; as for Ding, his win over Veselin Topalov was remarkable. Topalov was a pawn down in a rook ending, with all the pawns on the same side of the board, and his somewhat shaky play was still good enough to reach an ending of knight vs. rook, with no pawns on either side. It's generally drawn when the king isn't in the corner and the knight isn't cut off, but it was an in-between situation where the draw was precarious, not trivial. Ding did a great job of making Topalov's task difficult, and he eventually cracked.
The other two games were drawn. In the case of Teimour Radjabov and Viswanathan Anand, it was a short, correct draw, but the battle between Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was anything but correct. Giri was winning practically out of the opening (18.e5 would have kept a decisive advantage), but let the advantage drip away, and near the end he was even in some trouble. Fortunately for him Mamedyarov's inaccurate 39th move let Giri off the hook.
(The games are here, with my notes to Carlsen's and Ding's wins.) One round remains, and here are the pairings:
Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 6:26PM Magnus Carlsen entered round 6 half a point in front of Sergey Karjakin and Viswanathan Anand, and exits round 7 with that same half point lead, still over Karjakin, with Anand having dropped a further point behind. Karjakin caught Carlsen in round 6, winning a very good game over Anand that was part good preparation, part excellent technique at the board. Carlsen only managed to draw against Ding Liren, and only after some anxious moments.
Veselin Topalov got back to 50%, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's bad 2019 continues. Mamedyarov was alright most of the way, but a miscalculation on move 29 led to a loss. (29...Qe7 was equal.)
The other two games - Anish Giri vs. David Navara and Alexander Grischuk vs. Teimour Radjabov - finished in draws. Grischuk had a nice advantage coming out of the opening, but 17.Bxc6 gave it away. (17.Ne1 was correct.)
Carlsen bounced back in round 7, and in a big way, crushing Giri with a vicious attacking plan the Dutchman didn't see coming. After 16...c6 Giri expected 17.d4, and was seriously surprised by the champion's 17.f4 instead. He didn't react well, and was completely lost just a few moves later. Carlsen didn't find the best way to finish Black off, but given a slight chance to resist Giri almost immediately re-collapsed, losing before the time control.
The other four games were drawn, including that of the co-leader, Karjakin. He had some difficulties in the opening against Navara, but was let off the hook by the Czech GM's 19.Nc3 instead of 19.Nd6. The right move would have given Navara a clear advantage; after the error, Karjakin drew without any further trouble.
Mamedyarov-Ding was a long game that finished with a dramatic king and pawn ending that both sides played correctly, resulting in a drawn queen ending. Mamedyarov has been having a poor tournament, so it's to his credit that he stayed resilient through his long defensive task.
Finally, Radjabov-Topalov and Anand-Grischuk were fairly uneventful draws.
The games, with my notes to Karjakin's win in round 6 and Carlsen's win in round 7, are here. Here are the pairings for round 8, and it features THE pairing of the tournament: Karjakin-Carlsen:
Thursday, April 4, 2019 at 11:30PM There were three decisive games in round 5 of the 2019 Vugar Gashimov Memorial, but none affected the race for first. (Or so it seems at the moment. It may turn out by the end of the tournament that one of those three games played a critical role in that race.)
The leader entering the round, and exiting it too, was Magnus Carlsen. He achieved a slight edge with White in a somewhat offbeat Tarrasch, but Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was able to hold. He even gained the upper hand himself, momentarily, but in the end it was a well-played draw by both players.
Had Sergey Karjakin won with Black against Teimour Radjabov, he would have caught Carlsen in first. This was never in the cards, though, and Radjabov had a semi-serious pull before it drifted towards a drawish (and ultimately drawn) ending.
Ding Liren also had the opportunity to catch Carlsen, but he was even less successful in his try to defeat David Navara with the black pieces. They contested a very sharp line of the Semi-Slav, and while Ding's position in the opening and early middlegame was fine, he soon got in trouble in an with two minor pieces against a rook and pawn (plus two more pawns for each side). That material balance is generally in favor of the side with the minor pieces, but this time the rook was the better piece. Finally, Ding got his knight stranded and had to resign when he was about to lose it for a mere pawn.
While Ding fell out of second place, Viswanathan Anand joined Karjakin there, half a point behind Carlsen. His victim was Anish Giri, who came out of the opening in good shape (with Black) before being outplayed step by step by the former world champion.
Finally, Alexander Grischuk defeated Veselin Topalov in a long game. Topalov had to suffer a long time with a queen and two knights against Grischuk's queen and two bishops. Breaking through wasn't easy, but neither was defending, and Topalov eventually broke.
The games, with my comments, are here. Friday is a rest day, and on Saturday round 6 will be played, with these pairings:
Wednesday, April 3, 2019 at 10:06PM With the Gashimov Memorial in full swing, it's worth reminding ourselves about the player it's celebrating. Vugar Gashimov was one of the world's top players before he died from a brain tumor in 2014 at the age of 27. He was liked by everyone, and was a great player with a lively and dynamic style.
To piggyback on the Memorial, ChessLecture's free video this week is one I did showing a Gashimov miniature against no less a player than Boris Gelfand. (An account is necessary - and a free one will do.) It will be available on-demand until a week from this coming Monday.
Wednesday, April 3, 2019 at 9:57PM Magnus Carlsen pulled out in front with a win in round 3 to become the sole leader of the 2019 Vugar Gashimov Memorial. Viswanathan Anand also won in round 3, and the other three games in that round and all five games in round 4 were drawn. Thus Carlsen leads with 3/4, half a point ahead of Ding Liren and Sergey Karjakin.
I've annotated all ten games here (to varying degrees of depth); hopefully that will make up for the delay in presenting round 3's material. And here are the pairings for round 5:
Monday, April 1, 2019 at 10:18PM In a desperate attempt to catch up with the United States, whose patriotic, true blue chess juggernaut consists of players born in Japan, the Philippines, and Cuba, together with a player who spent half his life in Europe, the Russian Chess Federation has decided to take action. In conjunction with the Russian government and the country's oligarchs (all of whom have a great sense of humor and wouldn't dream of having a smart-alecky blogger poisoned with polonium), they have decided to rebuild their reserves by "inviting" players from Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Moldova to join them. Russian President Vladimir Putin thought it would be fun to "get the whole gang back together again." (More here.)
In completely unrelated news, Western European countries and the United States received an unexpected influx of new grandmasters.
Monday, April 1, 2019 at 10:11PM Demonstrating a sudden rush of responsibility, consultants to a forthcoming Hollywood blockbuster engaged in serious research (2-3 minutes on Wikipedia) about the game, learning to their surprise that each side's queen is set up on a square of her color, while the right-hand corners are supposed to be white, not black. One of the consultants expressed surprise about how informative the page was, and expressed an interest in learning how the horsey and the castle moved and ate pieces.
More here.
rules Monday, April 1, 2019 at 9:47PM Happy March 32nd!