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    Monday
    Aug022010

    Shanghai/Bilbao Participants

    The Final Chess Masters event, the finale of this year's Grand Slam, will take place in two stages. The first stage takes place from September 3-8 in Shanghai, and is a qualifier for the final in Bilbao, which runs from October 9 to 15. Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Alexei Shirov and Wang Hao will battle it out in Shanghai, and the top two there go on to Bilbao, where world champion Viswanathan Anand and world #1 Magnus Carlsen await them. (Veselin Topalov also qualified for the event, but won't participate for unspecified "personal reasons".)

    More here.

    Monday
    Aug022010

    The Daily Update: Pamplona Ends, the Politiken Cup and Svidler-Nielsen Begin, and the British Championship Continues

    Taking these in order, we start with the 4th AD San Juan International in Pamplona, Spain. Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Laurent Fressinet tied with 6.5/9, with Wojtaszek coming in first thanks to better tiebreaks. Startlingly, even taking his recent inactivity into account, pre-tournament favorite Alexander Morozevich scored only 4 points, putting him in a tie for 5th-7th in this 10 player event. Hopefully the poor result will stir him back into active play, to eliminate the bitter taste of this failure.

    Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, the Politiken Cup got underway on Sunday. A number of 2600+ players are in this open swiss, and the top seed is 2755-rated Pavel Eljanov, the world's number eight by rating. Alongside this event is a four-day match (or two two-day matches, if you prefer) between Peter Svidler and Peter Heine-Nielsen. On Monday and Tuesday they'll play a series of 6 rapid games, and on Wednesday and Thursday they'll play blitz. About the blitz, there's good news and bad news. The good news it that they will honor Bent Larsen; the bad news is that they'll do it by making them play 1.b3 in all the games that day. (Yawn.) Anyway, they're both excellent rapid players, so the match should be entertaining and well-played.

    The British Championship had a rest day on Sunday; on Saturday, Michael Adams was finally nicked for a draw. Nicholas Pert had the black pieces, but still drew very easily in a Rossolimo Sicilian. None of Adams' closest pursuers won either, so his 5.5/6 is still good for a full-point lead over the next group. That group grew, and includes Pert, Stephen Gordon, Stuart Conquest, Simon Williams, Danny Gormally, Jovanka Houska and Adam Hunt. As for early hero Jack Rudd, he lost again and has fallen to 50%.

    Saturday
    Jul312010

    Part Two of A Long Review of Nikita Vitiugov's The French Defence: A Complete Black Repertoire

    (For part one of my review of Nikita Vitiugov's The French Defence: A Complete Repertoire, click here.)

    In the first part of the review, I mentioned some of the book's pluses and addressed some less-than-compelling criticisms of the book. In this part, I'll examine some criticisms that seem to me more serious, and will compare some of Vitiugov's findings with those given in Andreas Tzermiadianos's excellent 2008 book How to beat the French Defence (he advocates 3.Nd2) and with the points of overlap with John Watson's suggestions for White in his Dangerous Weapons: The French volume.

     

    More ChessPub objections:

    (1) In the line 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Bd3 Nbc6 8.Qg4 Qa5 9.Bd2 c4 10.Be2 0-0 11.h4 f6 12.f4 Qa4 13.Bd1 Qb5 14.Bc1 Qa5 15.Bd2 Vitiugov gives, and tacitly endorses, the draw by repetition that occurred in the game Short-Shulman, Dhaka 1999. That game concluded 15...Qb5 16.Bc1? Qa5 17.Bd2 and draw agree. However, "dom" rightly notes that 15...Qb6 is a serious improvement (and a reason why 11.h4 is an error). If White plays 16.Bc1 now he gets hit by 16...fxe5 followed by 17...Nxe5! after either recapture - probably with a winning advantage.

    In one sense this isn't a big deal. First of all, White doesn't have to play 16.Bc1, though he's worse even after better moves. Second, even in Vitiugov's variation, the line is still a theoretical success for Black. And of course any chess book with non-trivial content is bound to have errors. So this is far from the end of the world. It does point to something I noticed more than once, however, and it's that Vitiugov very often seems to trustingly quote games without checking them. There is independent analysis in the book, but the number of uncommented-on game references seems to me a dubious sign.

    (2) In the Winawer with 7.Qg4, derdudea found serious improvements for both sides in one of Vitiugov's lines. After 7.Qg4 cxd4 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 Qc7 10.Ne2 Nbc6 11.f4 Bd7 12.Qd3 dxc3 13.Qxc3 Nf5 14.Rb1 d4 15.Qd3 0-0-0 16.Rg1 Na5, 17.g4 is his main move but he also addresses 17.Rb4. From there we have 17...a6 18.g4 Nh4 (he covers 18...Ne3 parenthetically, citing Sharma-Riedel, Bad Wiessee 2009 through move 26, when White is winning) 19.a4 f6 20.exf6 e5 21.f7 Rgf8 etc., following the game Steflitsch-Poldauf, Chalkidiki 2002 which was eventually winning for Black.

    As derdudea notes, however, 21.fxe5! is winning for White, and it's not hard to discover. It was played in one OTB game, admittedly not one with high-rated players, but it was also played in a pretty high-rated correspondence game. (In case some of you think this is hard to access, it shows up automatically in ChessBase's online database, which you can quickly and search in ChessBase.) And even if you miss it in your research, Rybka recommends the move instantly and gives it a big score. (+1.5 in a second or two, and it fluctuates from there to almost +2 thereafter.) To find it, it's enough to flip on the engine and give your eyes a chance to focus on the evaluation box.

    As for 18...Ne3, mentioned above, it's the right move. After 19.Bxe3 Bb5 20.Qd2 dxe3 21.Qxe3 Qxc2 22.Nd4, Black should not play Riedel's 22...Rxd4? but 22...Qxh2, which is complicated but about equal after 23.Nxb5 axb5.

    In sum, we have at least some initial indications of gaps in his research and a failure to use, or at least an underuse of, his engines.

     

    Tzermiadianos vs. Vitiugov:

    As they overlap in three chapters - 3.Nd2 c5, 3.Nd2 Be7, and 3.Nd2 dxe4 - there's quite a bit of material here. If I reproduce everything from my computer file it will take a couple of hours for me to finish the review, so I'll briefly summarize my findings here. Tzermiadianos (and White) get the better of the argument in the 3...c5 and 3...Be7 lines, while I found Vitiugov's judgment more reliable in the 3...dxe4 variation.

    In the first two cases, it seems that Tzermiadianos has investigated more deeply and has some important original ideas. That's part of the story, but there's a second part as well. Vitiugov has the very odd habit of offering some variation for White that gives him an advantage, and instead of offering improvements for Black or at least some help via punctuation, he simply leaves the reader with some disastrous evaluation and moves on to the next thing.

    The third part of the story is that Tzermiadianos engages in research. His bibliography includes all the monographs you'd expect, plus the Informant (all issues as of that time), Chess Today, New in Chess (both the magazine and the yearbooks), the TWIC and Mega databases, ChessPublishing.com, correspondence databases and Greekbase 2007. How about Vitiugov? Well, he looks at Khalifman's books (ditto Tzermiadianos for the Tarrasch volume), Psakhis' books (ditto again), Sveshnikov's Win against the French (not relevant to 3.Nd2), and Moskalenko's The Flexible French (too recent for Tzermiadianos). And that's it.

    Now you might say "Big deal! Andreas Tzermiadianos is an ordinary IM. His rating is 2425. That's nothing to sneeze at, but Vitiugov is 2722! He's #23 in the world! Why should he care what all these relative fish think? Would you, Dennis, care what a low expert had to say about the openings you knew best?"

    I think this objection is deeply confused. If there's a Vitiugov-Tzermiadianos match in the cards and I have to bet, my money's going on the 2700. But that's not what we're evaluating here. First of all, Tzermiadianos and his sources are running engines, and if I have to bet on a Rybka-Vitiugov match, my money is NOT going on the 2700. Second, it's pretty clear that most of the time Vitiugov isn't using an engine at all (or if he is, he's not telling us). The vast majority of the time, he's happy to supply a game citation with no further commentary or punctuation. That's something that doesn't require 2700-level talent. Third, let's assume Vitiugov's results are all the product of at least cursory analysis and computer checking on his part. While I'm sure that he would be more reliable, minute for minute, than Tzermiadianos in his findings, the latter is using other sources as well. Even if Vitiugov is better than each of them singly, together they are going to find things that he doesn't. Whether it's because they're spending more time, or leading each other to investigate more deeply, or because each of them as a special little spark for each line taken individually, the accumulated product of all these good players working together will often exceed the solo product of a great player.

    Maybe it's difficult for Vitiugov to access many of those sources. It's possible, though I'd prefer a more innocent explanation like the first one, that he doesn't bother with them out of a sort of snobbery or laziness. Whatever the case, I think it's a mistake for ChessStars not to give him access to those other works and strongly insist that he use them. It's not just that others could have something valuable to say; it's also good business. Let's say that some poor French player has been taking a beating from a player at his local club using the Tzermiadianos book. Eager for help, he rushes to buy the Vitiugov book, only to discover that the older book has the fuller, more up-to-date analysis in several places where they overlap. If I'm that club player, I'm pretty annoyed, and maybe I get on ChessPublishing.com's forum and write about what a lousy book this is.

    Now, it's not a lousy book, but it's nowhere near as good as it could have been. And I will say this: on occasions where it's clear that Vitiugov has done his own thinking and isn't just supplying some game reference, his judgments hold up. Unfortunately, he doesn't always supply verbal or analytical defenses of those judgments, but they still proved to be reliable where I checked them. One such example (see the game file for full details) comes in the 3...Be7 Tarrasch. Both Vitiugov and Tzermiadianos cite a 2007 game Rozentalis - N. Pert, where the latter offers an interesting gambit that gave him good play. As usual, Vitiugov just gave the game score without any punctuation, while Tzermiadianos gave the game continuation, along with a couple of improvements for both sides. He's quite enthusiastic about the line, but Vitiugov tells us he doesn't trust it. He's right: 14.d6! (instead of Rozentalis's 14.Ne4) is very strong, e.g. 14...b6 15.Ne5 bxc5 16.Ndc4 Ba6 17.Rd1! with a frankly miserable position for Black. Vitiugov's judgment is right, but why not just give the line and not bother with the full game score?

     

    Watson vs. Vitiugov:

    I only spotted two areas of possible overlap here between the two books. One of John Watson's "dangerous weapons" against the French is 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.exd5 exd5 5.Qf3. Whatever its merits, we can't compare what he has to say with Vitiugov's analysis, because the latter doesn't so much as consider 5.Qf3.

    Round 1: Watson, by default.

    Second, Watson tries to rehabilitate the variation 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.Qg4. The key position comes after 5...Ne7 6.dxc5 Nbc6! (my exclam) 7.Qxg7 Rg8 8.Qxh7 d4 9.a3 Qa5 10.Rb1 dxc3 11.Be3 Bd7. Vitiugov's acerbic comment: "it is sufficient to calculate the number of developed pieces of both sides in order to evaluate the position correctly." No further analysis is given; again, for better or for worse, he is trusting the reader. Watson's analysis continues, and starts with 12.Nf3 cxb2+. Once again, Vitiugov's judgment is correct, and with 12...0-0-0 instead Black has a very nice advantage.

    Round 2: Vitiugov.

     

    The Bottom Line:

    (Yes, I know you've had to wait a while for this. Don't feel bad, it has taken me a lot longer to prepare and write this post than it did for you to read it.) By now you should have a pretty good idea about this book. It offers a wide-ranging repertoire, but it's sometimes superficial and often rather clipped in its presentation. His judgments look pretty reliable, but they're often in need of further elaboration from him (or computer work from us). His game references are generally sensible, but he misses important games sometimes and rarely consults with what contemporary analysts are doing. In sum, it's a good guidebook, but not so good on the details. If you can deal with the need to fill in the gaps and check his work, then it's worth your time; if not, then don't get it. (And if you play the French or the Tarrasch against it, you should certainly get Tzermiadianos' book!)

     

    Finally, you can replay all the lines I've discussed in these two posts and much more, here.

    Saturday
    Jul312010

    Part One of A Long Review of Nikita Vitiugov's The French Defence: A Complete Black Repertoire

    Nikita Vitiugov, The French Defence: A Complete Black Repertoire (Chess Stars, 2010). 228 pp. No price given. Reviewed by Dennis Monokroussos.

    The French Defense is a major opening, but it's perhaps a bit under-represented in chess literature. That makes the prospect of a brand-new book on the French, and by a young 2700-rated player to boot, all the more exciting for fans of the opening. Chess Stars generally puts out very good material (the Khalifman books on Anand's opening repertoire, for instance, and the new Kiril Georgiev book Squeezing the Gambits looks very good to me too, as far as I've been able to tell so far), so one would expect something really terrific here.

    The book does have its strengths. For one thing, it's very up to date. Chess Stars is always great about that - somehow they manage to get their books translated and published with remarkable speed, and in this book there are games from earlier this year. Second, I think Vitiugov succeeds in directing the reader to the crucial lines, so if nothing else the reader will know where he needs to do further research for the future.

    Third, the reader is always given several major alternatives to choose from. Against 3.Nd2, for instance, one can play the very classical 3...c5 4.Ngf3 cxd4 5.exd5 Qxd5 variation. If you want something a bit more avant-garde, he has a chapter on Morozevich's 3...Be7. And finally, if you're in a super-solid mood, there's Rubinstein's 3...dxe4. Likewise, you can choose Rubinstein's 3...dxe4 as well, but he also presents the Winawer (3...Bb4) and Classical 3...Nf6. This is a definite strength of the book.

    Now let's turn to problems. In chess, it's sometimes difficult to tell whether an apparent weakness really is one. (For instance, a player might have a pawn that's isolated but absolutely inaccessible to the enemy pieces. In that case, despite its isolation, it's not weak.) Likewise, some readers of this book have taken Vitiugov to task for omitting or at least dealing in cavalier fashion with some lines - see especially the thread in the ChessPublishing.com forum dedicated to the book. Let's consider some of their complaints.

    1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 d4. Vitiugov spends two and a half pages on 4.Ne2, but about 4.Nb5 he says this: "White has played 4.Nb5? too. Fortunately, this book is not an opening encyclopaedia and I do not feel obliged to analyze moves like this". One reader on the aforementioned forum, and he's not kidding, as far as I can tell (and I've re-read his remark several times to be sure!), finds Vitiugov's omission and attitude "intolerably arrogant".

    Seriously? The preceding post is in large measure a parody of this objection. And maybe less of an exaggeration than you might think. There are 61 games in my database with 4.Nb5, and 36 with the ridiculous 2.Be2. So if it's "intolerably arrogant" to brush 4.Nb5 aside with the wave of a hand, isn't it at least objectionable snobbery to ignore altogether the noble 2.Be2? Even worse, some further research reveals a whopping 114 games in one of my databases with the move 2.c3. How in the world can Vitiugov even look at himself in the mirror, writing a book on the French without mentioning that move? Talk about hubris - this man would make Napoleon blush with shame!

    Enough satire; let's make a serious point. If you include everything, you might as well tell the readers to buy the Mega database and wish them luck. If you include nothing, then there's no product. You have to make choices based on what you think is important in terms of relevance and instructional value, together with considerations of space and effectiveness. And all of this is going to be indexed by the reader's presumed abilities. It's simply impossible to cover every move, and at a certain point you have to have faith in your reader (and the reader needs to have a little faith in himself as well). If you're seriously concerned about a move like 4.Nb5, then you need to develop more as a chess player before you get a book like Vitiugov's. (I don't mean that 4.Nb5 is a blunder, only that it's nothing anyone should be worried about.) The same is true of my 2.Be2 "brilliancy". It has an idea behind it, but the previous post was at least 90% humor. It's very easy for Black to handle that move, and to obtain an advantage against White's extravagant play. (Black is probably somewhat better after 6...0-0 in the "main line", for instance.)

    So I don't take this first example too seriously, but "Sleepy kitten" has a more interesting example. After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Qb6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.a3 Nh6 7.b4 cxd4 8.cxd4 Nf5 9.Bb2 Bd7 Vitiugov covers 10.g4, which is the most common (and best) move, but doesn't so much as mention 10.Be2, which is also played fairly often - over 400 times, in my database. Shouldn't Vitiugov have covered this move?

    Here I think the answer is a qualified yes. The reason White plays 10.g4 most of the time is that Black's knight on f5 is extremely strong, and once it's kicked it will take Black several moves to put it on a tolerable square still inferior to f5. It was worth a couple of sentences to explain that and to give a mini-plan of what Black should aim for after 10.Be2, but that's about it. 10.Be2 is not a good move, and Black has scored over 50% against it.

    Next, another complaint from the first critic. In the Exchange Variation with 4.Nf3, Vitiugov prefers 4...Bd6 to 4...Nc6. The reason is that after 4...Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd6 6.c4 dxc4 7.d5 a6 8.Ba4 b5 9.dxc6 bxa4 10.0-0 Ne7 11.Qxa4 he thinks that "White does not risk anything while Black must still make several very accurate moves." The forum commentator finds this unacceptable too, noting that after 11...Rb8 Black has scored very well and has gone undefeated in the databases. He therefore thinks that Vitiugov owes it to the reader to show where White gets the advantage.

    I wouldn't mind further details myself (if they can be provided quickly, without taking space from material Vitiugov thinks is important to his readers), but I disagree with the objection on two counts. First, Vitiugov didn't say that White was better. He said that Black would have to find some very accurate moves. In one sense you might think that means White is better, but if so it's not the same sort of "better" as += in ECO. As I interpret that symbol, it generally means that White has some sort of stable advantage; there's no clear-cut series of moves such that Black can prove that the game is fully equal. It's open-ended. As I understand Vitiugov, that's not the story. My impression is that if Black can successful clear some hurdles in the short-term, then White won't have anything.

    Second and more importantly, I disagree that Vitiugov has any such obligation. He's responsible for what he does advocate for Black, not for what he doesn't. Unless 4...Nc6 is clearly the superior choice according to current theory, there's no reason why he should have to "prove" that it's actually inferior. And if he does need to prove it, then I demand an explanation why Vitiugov should even be allowed to write a book on the French unless there's analytical proof that 1...e6 is superior to 1...e5 and 1...c5!

    That's enough by way of preliminary skirmishing. In part two of this review, we'll look at some serious theory.

    Saturday
    Jul312010

    A Bust of the French Defense

    Dear chess fans!

    Are you tired of the French Defense and its annoying, blocked-up positions? Do you wish the people who invented the French pawn chain were themselves chained up? Well, have I got the solution for you! Here at Monokroussos Labs, Inc., our leading research scientist* came up with the answer this morning in the shower and several seconds of intense thought**.

    Ready?

    It's 1.e4 e6 2.Be2!!, and after 2...d5 3.exd5! exd5 4.Bf3!

    Now, I must distinguish this from two lines which might look similar but are in fact incredibly different. There's 1.e4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Bg2, but this isn't as good. The move g3 is weakening, and now after 4...Nf6 5.Ne2 (if 5.Nf3, what is the bishop doing on g2?) Black has 5...Bg4! The Monokroussos Variation is aimed to prevent this!

    Second, 1.e4 e6 2.d4? d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Be2 is not the same either, because Black can profitably develop his light-squared bishop to f5 and fight for the e4 square. In the Monokroussos Variation, White still has the option of d3!

    Indeed, our new variation has two principal points. The first is to avoid the gruesome French pawn chain, which has probably caused mass suicides and unprecedented levels of depression worldwide. Second, the aim is to avoid this chain while simultaneously keeping Black's bad bishop bad. Thus we keep g4 under control and make f5 (and a6 and b7) worthless. Having achieved these aims, the game will win itself.

    Here's a sample variation illustrating the nightmares facing Black:

    1.e4 e6 2.Be2!! d5 3.exd5! exd5 4.Bf3! Nf6 5.b3!

    White will play Ne2 in due course, but here it would allow ...Bg4. We may play h3 at some point to prevent it, but we'll get Black to waste a tempo with the Bc8 first if we can. Note too that not playing d4 lets White avoid the traditional bad Bc1 in the Exchange French - and indeed, many variations of the French.

    5...Bd6 6.Bb2 Qe7+

    Aiming to force Ne2. Be careful what you wish for, French fiends...

    7.Ne2! Bg4 8.Bxf6!! Qxf6 9.Bxg4! Qxa1 10.Nec3

    The cage is shut! 10.Bc8 is good, too.

    10...d4 11.Qe2+ Kd8 12.0-0! dxc3 13.Nxc3 Qb2 14.Qb5 b6 15.Qd5 Qxc2 16.Qxa8

    16.Bf5 first might be even better.

    16...c6 17.Qb7 Rf8

    If 17...Re8, then 18.Qc8+ Ke7 19.Re1+ wins. Or if 17...f5, then 18.Qxg7 Re8 19.Qf6+ and 20.Qxf5, with two free extra pawns.

    18.Qc8+ Ke7 19.Nd5+! and here Black resigns, as he loses the queen (19...cxd5 20.Qxc2). (This exquisite masterpiece can be replayed here.)

     

    As it turns out, 2.Be2 actually exists in the databases, though my interpretation of it seems to be unique. Neverthless, the mere fact of its existence demonstrates that all the existing monographs on the French are utterly worthless, and their authors should hang their heads in shame. They should return their royalty checks (or better, forward the proceeds to me) and start from scratch, being sure to cover this new, brilliant line in tremendous detail. (While they're at it, the Bücker/Monokroussos Variation 1.e4 e6 2.c4 d5 3.cxd5 exd5 4.Qb3 should finally get mentioned by a French Defense author, too.)

     

    * That would be me. After all, I'm its only research scientist.

    ** It wasn't that intense.

    Friday
    Jul302010

    The Daily Update: Adams Keeps Rolling, Plus Pamplona and the Latest Computer Event

    In the British Championship, Michael Adams moved to 5-0 with his victory over Russian FM Alexei Slavin. (I guess citizen of the world Alexandra Kosteniuk was unavailable.)  The key moment came when Slavin rejected the obvious (and correct) 20.Qxe4 for 20.Ng5(?). After 20.Qxe4 Ne7 Black will regain the pawn (e.g. 21.Qe3 Nf5 22.Qd3? Ba6-+) with a slight advantage thanks to his better bishop, but nothing serious. 20.Ng5? just gifted Black a pawn, and Slavin compounded his troubles with the outright blunder 23.Nxf7??

    Several players are a point back, but Jack Rudd isn't one of them. His position against Jovanka Houska started off fine, but he fell apart in the complications. His piece sac 12.Bxd5 wasn't a blunder, though I wouldn't be surprised if he missed Houska's 13...Qc6! (Maybe he expected a quick draw with 13...Qd8 14.Bb6 Qh4+ 15.Bf2 Qd8 16.Bb6 etc.) The point is that 14.Nxa5 is met by 14...Bb4+!, but the funny thing is that it's just what Rudd should have done. After 15.Nxb4 Qxh1+ 16.Kd2 Qxh2+ 17.Kc1 Black must play very well to prove an advantage; indeed, if she's careless bad things can happen to her position.

    Apparently Rudd just saw that the rook could be captured and got scared off, but the result of his 14.Qd4? was a completely lost position. After 14...Nxb3 15.axb3 Ne7 16.c4 Bxg4 White had a pawn and no attack in return for the piece, and after Black's 20th move it was already time to resign.

     

    Pamplona: The status quo was maintained, as all five round 7 games were drawn. Wojtaszek and Fressinet lead with five points; Fedorchuk, Zvjaginsev and Morozevich have four.

     

    Computers: First, the Houdini 1.03a - Stockfish 1.8 match is over; Houdini won 17.5-14.5. Second, there's a new event underway, a round-robin with Rybka 4, Houdini 1.03a, Stockfish 1.8, Shredder 12, Naum 4.2 and Critter 0.80. Here too the book is truncated, only going through move 8. (At this point I'm inclined to say let the computers use their books. One reason is that it's part of the product, and it's worth knowing, before spending money buying Rybka or whatever program, just how much of a difference the book might make. Maybe the best way is to run the events twice: once with practically no book, and once with it.)

    Friday
    Jul302010

    This Week's ChessVideos Show: Viewer Games for July 2010

    It's just what it sounds like: viewers submit their games, and every so often (about once a month) I go through them in a video presentation. For the latest crop, featuring almost exclusively attacking games, have a look here. (The video is free [free registration required] and will be available on-demand for the next month or so.)

    N.B. For some reason there were problems with the sound quality, so you'll have to crank your speakers a bit. I'll do what I can to make sure that doesn't happen next time.

    Friday
    Jul302010

    The Daily Update: Caruana Wins Biel and Adams Wins Again. Plus Pamplona and Computers

    As was the case at the U.S. Junior, the player with the bye in the tiebreak stage failed to benefit. Against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana won the first game with White and lost the second with Black, and it was on to Armageddon. Caruana had Black, and his draw odds forced his opponent to overpress in the queen and rook ending: 0-1. Against Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son he was fortunate to draw his white game, but managed to win with Black. He is thus the winner of Biel - a fine accomplishment! He is now over 2700 - a fine achievement for anyone, and all the more so in his case, as he is currently the youngest 2700 (though not the youngest ever).

    In the British Championship, Michael Adams put an end to Jack Rudd's Cinderella story, at least for now, bludgeoning him in just 23 moves. Ouch. Even so, Rudd is having a great tournament, and if he can maintain the form he showed in the first three rounds, he'll have terrific chances for a GM norm. Meanwhile, Adams is in clear first with a 4-0 score, half a point ahead of Alexei Slavin (of Russia?! - eh??) and Adam Hunt.

    Pamplona: Wojtaszek and Fressinet won again, and they continue to lead with 4.5/6, a point ahead of pre-tournament favorite Morozevich, Zvjaginsev and Fedorchuk.

    Houdini 1.03a vs. Stockfish 1.8: This battle of computer engines, based loosely on Magnus Carlsen's 2005-2010 opening repertoire, is down to its last game. Houdini leads 17-14 and has clinched overall victory in the match, but Stockfish seems to have the advantage in the final game. Note, by the way, that both engines are freely available on the internet.

    Wednesday
    Jul282010

    The Daily Update: Biel, British Championship, Pamplona

    (1) It was another good round in Biel, and there's more chess to come. The leaders coming into the "last" round, Vachier-Lagrave and Caruana, both drew their games (against Negi and Howell, respectively), which allowed Nguyen to catch them by beating Giri. (The other two games were drawn.) Tomorrow (Thursday), therefore, there will be a playoff at 11 a.m. local time. Nguyen gets a first-round bye while the other two face off in a pair of blitz games (followed by an Armageddon game, if necessary). He'll take on the winner in a pair of 10' + 10" games, followed by 5' + 2" if necessary, followed (if necessary) by an Armageddon game.

    (2) In the British Championship, an intriguing story is afoot. Michael Adams won again in round 3, over Richard Pert, and now stands alone at 3-0...or rather, almost alone. Joining him there, and thus ready to face him tomorrow, is the 2236-rated IM Jack Rudd. (Yes, the Jack Rudd.) In round 1, as already noted, he beat GM Keith Arkell. In round 2 he demolished IM Andrew Greet (with Black), and in round 3 he had no problem crushing GM Simon Williams. Very impressive!

    (3) In Pamplona, the 4th AD San Juan International has a new leader. Morozevich was upended by Polish GM and sometime Anand second Radoslaw Wojtaszek in round 5, and now Wojtaszek and French GM Laurent Fressinet co-lead with 3.5/5, half a point ahead of Morozevich, Sergey Fedorchuk, Vadim Zvjaginsev and Julio Granda Zuniga.

    Wednesday
    Jul282010

    Candidates News

    There are several very interesting pieces of information about the 2011 Candidates matches to report here.

    (1) Pairings. This is the most interesting bit, of course, and here they are:

    Veselin Topalov - Gata Kamsky (Hmm, where have we seen this before?)

    Magnus Carlsen - Teimour Radjabov

    Vladimir Kramnik - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

    Levon Aronian - Boris Gelfand

    (2) Location. Note that Aronian is playing, which leads to this: in what is at least in part a concession to Aronian's unwillingness to play in Azerbaijan (the originally intended location was Baku), the event is now scheduled for Kazan, Russia. And this in turn leads to...

    (3) Topalov's Protest. Based on his experience against Kramnik in Elista, where he suffered by receiving a free point and destroying Kramnik's equilibrium by accusing the latter of cheating, Topalov has pronounced himself unwilling to play against a Russian (i.e. Kramnik, the only Russian in the event) in Russia. What arrangement, if any, will be made for this is unclear, but in the unlikely event that no concession is made and Topalov cuts his nose to spite his face, he will be replaced by Alexander Grischuk. (Note: though I find the behavior of Topalov (and Danailov) extremely unpleasant, I do hope that if he and Kramnik meet in a final match, it occurs in a neutral site. It would be even better, however, if he simply lost to Kamsky in the first round.)

    More info here.