Wijk aan Zee 2012, Rounds 4 & 5: Carlsen, Aronian Lead

Round 4 of Wijk aan Zee was on Tuesday, and by defeating Gata Kamsky in an impressive technical display Levon Aronian bounced back into a shared first place in the A Group with Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen drew with Fabiano Caruana in a Berlin, and not easily, either. As no less a kibitzer (and Berlin expert!) than Vladimir Kramnik noted, 30.f5, not fearing a rook incursion, would have given Black some serious worries.

The day's other winner was Sergey Karjakin, who continued bouncing back from his 0-2 start with a second straight win. This too was a Berlin, and this time around Black was fine. Karjakin was happy to repeat from moves 22-25, but on move 26 David Navara felt obliged to try for more with White. His fighting spirit was not rewarded, at least not on this occasion, and he went on to lose the ending. Fans of king and pawn endings will want to check out the play from move 50 on, as Karjakin had everything calculated perfectly. In the final position, Navara resigned not because he'll lose a long queen ending, but because the queens will come off and Black will have a two pawns-to-nothing advantage. After 61.Kxa1 f1Q+ 62.Kb2 Qe2+ 63.Ka3 Qd3+ 64.Kb2 Qb3+ followed by 65...Qc3+ swaps the ladies. Or 63.Kc1 Qe3+ 64.Kc2 Qd3+ 65.Kb2 (else 65...Qc3+ trades queens) 65...Qb3+ and again 66...Qc3+ is the winning sequel.

Wednesday was a rest day (for all three groups), and then round 5 occurred on Thursday. Both leaders drew, and while no one else caught them the immediate chase pack grew a bit larger. Fabiano Caruana and Teimour Rajdabov stayed half a point behind, and they were joined by Vassily Ivanchuk at 3/5, behind Carlsen's and Aronian's total of 3.5 points.

Carlsen drew, but again only with effort. Giri pressed hard with Black, and if anything missed some opportunities to make life harder for the world's top-rated player. Aronian too had an easy life with Black, as van Wely played a well worked-out line of the Queen's Gambit and got nothing.

There were three wins today. Hikaru Nakamura got back to 50%, as did Boris Gelfand, by defeating Navara and Karjakin, respectively. Navara is in pretty poor form so far (dead last with 1/5), and although Nakamura denied that the game was an easy one he made it look that way. Navara didn't seem to understand very well the particular line of the English Nakamura chose, and he was lost before move 20. As for Gelfand, it was nice to see his old Najdorf-playing self come out for a change. His diligence and bravery were rewarded, as he won the theoretical dispute against Karjakin in a 6.Be3 Ng4 Najdorf. Finally, the third win saw Ivanchuk defeat Vugar Gashimov with Black in an odd Pirc. Gashimov's plan of 12.Ne1 followed by 13.g4 was too ambitious - foolhardy, even - and his attacking hopes never materialized or even came close. Like Nakamura, Ivanchuk was probably winning by move 20.

In the day's other action, Radjabov's game with Veselin Topalov was a short and bloodless draw while Gata Kamsky had to hang on grimly for a long time against Caruana before he could save his half a point.

Standings After Round 5 (of 13):

1-2. Carlsen, Aronian 3.5
3-5. Caruana, Ivanchuk, Radjabov 3
6-10. Giri, van Wely, Topalov, Nakamura, Gelfand 2.5
11-12. Kamsky, Karjakin 2
13. Gashimov 1.5
14. Navara 1

Round 6 Pairings:

• Topalov - Ivanchuk
• Aronian - Gashimov
• Caruana - van Wely
• Giri - Kamsky
• Navara - Carlsen
• Gelfand - Nakamura
• Radjabov - Karjakin

In the B Group, Pentala Harikrishna drew his last two games but still enjoys the clear lead with 4/5; Alexander Motylev is in clear second with 3.5 points. Erwin L'Ami and Jan Timman are tied for third-fourth with 3 points apiece.

In Group C, Maxim Turov is trying his best to run away with the event. After five rounds he has five points, but four of his five opponents have been significantly lower rated while the fifth has been in very bad form so far. Thus it's a bit early to crown him the champion, but so far, so good. His most obvious competition, judging by ratings, is Matthew Sadler, but he is in a drawing rut. After four straight draws he has just three points overall. It's still early, though, and far too soon to write him off from the battle for first.

Wijk aan Zee 2012, Round 3: Carlsen Beats Aronian and Leads

Garry Kasparov's all-time rating record is in trouble! Kasparov reached 2851 (twice, if I recall correctly), and with his win over world #2 Levon Aronian the young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen has taken the lead in Wijk aan Zee and reached a live rating of 2842.6. (Egads - he's still just barely 21 years old!)

Carlsen's win over Aronian started smooth and grew bumpy, but in the end he brought home the point and his score of 2.5/3 bumped Aronian out of first. The latter is still in second with 2 points, tied with Teimour Radjabov, who crushed David Navara, and Fabiano Caruana, who drew with Hikaru Nakamura. The round's other winner was Sergey Karjakin, who lost his first two games but bounced back with a win over Anish Giri.

In the B-group, there was a lot more blood: five of the seven games finished with a winner. One was Pentala Harikrishna's victory over countrywoman Dronavalli Harika; he leads the group with a 3-0 score. Erwin L'Ami is in clear second with 2.5 points and Sergei Tiviakov is the lone remaining plus score, with two points. Fans of Jan Timman will be pleased to learn that he bounced back to an even score with a win over Ukranian prodigy Ilya Nyzhnyk. It took 97 moves, but he ground the youngster down in a rook ending that became a queen ending. The finale was especially nice, and what one would expect from a great study composer like Timman:

Timman played the spectacular 97.g7!! and Nyznhyk resigned. It's not the only winning move, but it's the fastest and most elegant. After 97...Qxg7+ 98.Kf5+ Kh7 (98...Kh5 99.Qh2#) 99.Qc7 eliminates the queens, when the b-pawn will promote.

In the C-group Maxim Turov continues to roll. The second seed beat Lisa Schut (tied for the second-lowest seed) is at 3-0. Meanwhile, top seed Matthew Sadler only managed a draw with Elizabeth Paehtz, and is in a tie for 3rd-6th at 2-1. In second - for now - is bottom seed Etienne Goudriaan. Along with Turov, he was the only winner in the group, and it propelled him to a 2.5/3 score.

Group A Pairings for Round 4:

• Topalov - Gashimov
• Ivanchuk - van Wely
• Aronian - Kamsky
• Caruana - Carlsen
• Giri - Nakamura
• Navara - Karjakin
• Gelfand - Radjabov

Wijk aan Zee, Round 2: Aronian Leads with 2/2

Levon Aronian is again confirming his status as one of the world's top two players. After defeating Hikaru Nakamura in a crazy, imbalanced game, he has taken a clear lead with 2/2 in the A-group at Wijk aan Zee. Round 1 co-leaders Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri drew with Vassily Ivanchuk and Teimour Radjabov, respectively, and are now tied for second half a point behind Aronian. They are joined by the day's other winner, Fabiano Caruana, who defeated Sergey Karjakin. (Poor Karjakin is alone in last at 0/2.)

In the B-group Pentala Harikrishna is alone at 2-0 after a win over Kateryna Lahno. Lahno should have drawn a sharp double rook ending, but goofed up on the final move of the time control: 40...Rxa7 41.Rxa7 Rxh2 would have drawn easily. L'Ami and the two heroes of last year's C-group, Nyzhnyk and Vocaturo, are half a point behind. Timman's fans had a bad day, as he lost to Tiviakov and fell to a -1 score.

In Group C, second seed Maxim Turov is the sole leader on 2-0. He's half a point ahead of five players, including top seed Matthew Sadler. Sadler overextended against Tania Sachdev and lost a piece, but managed to hang on by a hair to draw.

Round 3 Pairings for the A-Group:

• Gelfand - Topalov
• Radjabov - Navara
• Karjakin - Giri
• Nakamura - Caruana
• Carlsen - Aronian
• Kamsky - Ivanchuk
• van Wely - Gashimov

A Long Q & A Session with Judit Polgar

The ongoing Crestbook series of "conferences" with notable players has moved on to the greatest female player of all time, Judit Polgar, who is simply a great player, period. Some of the other interviews may be more informative for readers looking for good advice, but Polgar's interview reveals her to be a marvelously optimistic and upbeat person, and there's no doubt that has played some role in her success. Happy reading!

Wijk aan Zee, Round 1: Carlsen, Aronian and Giri Win

The world's #1 and #2 players increased their rating edge over their closest competitors by starting the tournament with wins. Magnus Carlsen used Ulf Andersson's old anti-Hedgehog line to obtain a slight but persistent edge, and when Vugar Gashimov got mistakenly excited about his own tactical possibilities Carlsen won material and converted the winning opposite-colored bishop ending.

Levon Aronian defeated Sergey Karjakin with Black in a non-mainline Closed Ruy. The position became surprisingly complex in a hurry, and Aronian negotiated the complications better than his opponent.

Finally, Anish Giri won with the black pieces against Boris Gelfand in some kind of oddball Slav. Gelfand's pawn sac in the opening looked pretty interesting to me, and in return his bishop pair seemed to offer some chances. As things went, though, Giri was able to absorb the pressure a bit at a time, and finally went on to win a long double rook ending. The champion of Reggio Emilia has continued his winning ways!

The other four games were drawn, so Carlsen, Aronian and Giri lead the A group after the first round. In the B group, Harikrishna, l'Ami, Nyzhnyk and Lahno were the first-round winners, while I'll note that Timman drew with second seed and current European champion Potkin. Finally, top seeds Turov and Sadler led the pack in the C group, with Adhiban, Tikkanen and Goudriaan also winning.

There's lots of good coverage on the tournament site, while TWIC's report on the first round is also worth a look.

Here are the round 2 pairings for the A group:

• Topalov - van Wely
• Gashimov - Kamsky
• Ivanchuk - Carlsen
• Aronian - Nakamura
• Caruana - Karjakin
• Giri - Radjabov
• Navara - Gelfand

Wijk aan Zee 2012: Round 1 Pairings for Group A

You can find the pairings for all the rounds of all three groups here, but I'll stick here to the round 1 pairings for Group A:

• Navara - Topalov (sportsmanship vs. gamesmanship?)
• Gelfand - Giri (the world championship contender vs. the winner of Reggio Emilia)
• Radjabov - Caruana
• Karjakin - Aronian
• Nakamura - Ivanchuk (a chance for Nakamura to gain revenge)
• Carlsen - Gashimov (can Carlsen threaten Kasparov's peak rating of 2851 by tournament's end?)
• Kamsky - van Wely (a chance for Kamsky to get off to a good start, facing the lowest-rated participant)

A Quick Review of The Modern Morra Gambit

Hannes Langrock, The Modern Morra Gambit: A Dynamic Weapon Against the Sicilian, 2nd edition (Russell Enterprises, 2011). 320 pp. $29.95.

Many years ago, the Smith-Morra Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3, henceforth SMG) was my preferred way to meet the Sicilian Defense, and while I'm not sure I ever completely believed in it it was generally fun to play and I scored extremely well with it. I only lost with it once - a fairly short loss, and of course that's the only Smith-Morra game of mine to get published - but I won something like 13 times while only giving up a couple of draws. I was almost always the higher-rated player, but even taking that into account my results were quite good.

Maybe this is because most people hate to defend, and thus never take the time and energy needed to get good at it. Whatever the case, the Gambit was generally effective. On balance, though, I didn't believe in it then and don't believe in it now. Further, the results in the database aren't very good for it either, which may reflect that above a certain rating - the sort of rating that gets one's games into databases in the first place - the aforementioned distaste for defense has dissipated.

Anyway, despite the unpleasant loss mentioned above, my memories of the SMG are generally fond. Further, while I haven't played it in a long time, I used to trot it out in blitz every now and again, and have had a couple of nice successes with it. But can it be played in serious chess?

Some pretty serious players have used it: GM Alex Lenderman and IM Marc Esserman in the U.S. have played it as an occasional weapon with success, even against very strong players. German GM Karsten Mueller has done some deep work on it, and FM Hannes Langrock, the author of the volume under review, has put in a tremendous amount of his own work trying to demonstrate its viability.

Whether he has succeeded in proving the gambit fully viable is for time to tell, but while his tone is often enthusiastic his evaluations seem objective: I found plenty of lines where the assessment was equality. (Of course, for gambit-haters that might be taken as a lack of objectivity!) He also notes on a regular basis places where his recommendations in the first edition (2006) had to be scrapped. I spot checked a few lines I used to know something about, and while I was able to add to his analysis his claims weren't crazy and he taught me a few things as well.

If you're thinking of buying the book and taking up the SMG, be aware that Black need not accept the pawn. First of all, there's 3…Nf6, which certainly makes sense for anyone who meets 2.c3 against the Sicilian with 2…Nf6. (The other stock response to 2.c3, 2…d5, does not transfer over: 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 d5 isn't nearly as good for Black. More on both of these lines below.)

Second, there's the 3…d3 line. When I was a teenager I had an old Chess Digest booklet on the Smith-Morra declined, and Ken Smith and his co-author considered 4.c4 Nc6 5.Bxd3 Nf6 6.Nc3 d6 7.h3 g6 8.Nf3 Bg7 9.Bf4 0-0 10.0-0 to be slightly better for White. (I'm not sure that's the exact move order given in that small book, but it's probably close.) Langrock doesn't quite affirm that White has an edge, but he does think that Black must play actively on the queenside to neutralize what he calls the Morra Maroczy Bind. That sounds encouraging for White, but I think most reasonably serious club players using 3…d3 already know that. Based on Langrock's analysis, I'd suggest the following for Black: 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 d3 4.Bxd3 Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.0-0 g6 7.h3 Bg7 8.Be3 Nf6 9.c4 0-0 10.Nc3 Nd7! (his punctuation here and throughout this citation) 11.Rc1 Nc5 12.Bb1! a5! 13.Qd2 Re8! (to meet Bh6 with …Bh8) 14.Rfd1 Be6 15.b3 (15.Nd5 a4 16.Bh6 "with a complicated position in Volman-Tyomkin, ISR 2005") 15…a4!? ("In this case this typical positional pawn sacrifice is a pure drawing attempt and Black gets what he wishes for") 16.Bxc5 dxc5 17.Qxd8 Raxd8 18.Nxa4 Nd4 19.Nxd4 Bxd4 20.e5 Bd7 21.Be4 Bxa4 22.bxa4 b6 23.Bc6 and the 2007 correspondence game Tinture (2455) - Goncharenko (2570) was agreed drawn. Langrock's comment seems slightly bitter, but the theoretical burden of proof is on White to prove an advantage. Black's job isn't to accept a worse position so he can fight for a win and make White happy.

Turning to 2…Nf6, Langrock doesn't cover this move. That's understandable, as it would expand the book's length greatly and in a way change the subject from the Smith-Morra to the 2.c3 Sicilian. Nevertheless, SMG fans need to know it while 2.c3 Nf6 advocates are freed from the responsibility of learning anything new against the SMG. As for 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 Qxd5, I'm a little surprised that Langrock chose not to cover this but, again, immediately sends his readers to the 2.c3 literature. The reason I'm surprised is that this is not a clean transposition to 2.c3 d5. There, after 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.d4 Black generally plays 4...Nf6. Instead, 4...cxd4 transposes to what you'd get via the SMG move order, but it's considered risky at best. So I think that a few paragraphs would have been useful here.

Anyway, it looks like a good, thorough volume, and if you like the gambit it's surely a must-have book. I don't think it's out just yet, but the Chess Cafe is likely to have it first.

This Week's ChessVideos Show: Rubinstein's Pawn Endings

The great Akiba Rubinstein (1882-1961) was perhaps the strongest player never to have a chance to play for the world championship, and a giant of early 20th century. In addition to his great practical strength in the middlegame, his openings were remarkably modern while in the endgame he had few if any peers.

He was most famous for his rook endings, but he won some classic pawn endings as well, and in this week's ChessVideos show I take a look at three of them. They're very instructive, and clearly illustrate that small advantages in a king and pawn ending are often enough to win the game. (You'll also have a good workout if you stop the recordings to try to solve the positions for yourself.)

So have a look: the show is free, as always (free registration required), and will be available on-demand for the next month or so.

Topalov Interview

ChessVibes' series of pre-Wijk aan Zee interviews concludes with a chat with former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov. He seems surprisingly mellow - almost a little too mellow and unambitious. Maybe he's just trying to stay under the radar; we'll see, starting tomorrow, when Wijk aan Zee gets underway!

Timman Interview

ChessVibes has a nice interview with Dutch GM Jan Timman, a former world championship finalist. Timman is playing in the B-group in Wijk aan Zee starting Saturday, and I appreciate his attitude about his chances there. He's realistic about where he is now, at 60 and some years separated from his time at the top, but this realism isn't a depressed fatalism. He is confident about his ability to play good games and doesn't rule out the possibility a successful result. I hope he has one!