Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 10:44AM This is the next super-tournament on the schedule, and takes place from June 11-22. It's a ways off yet, but to whet your appetite you can watch a very brief preview here. It includes a short video which (starting at about 1:15) recaps a Carlsen crush over Radjabov from the 2009 tournament.
HT: "svej"
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 10:42AM This very strong team event just finished, and there's a nice write-up with a couple of annotated games and links to the rest of them, here.
Monday, April 25, 2011 at 10:09PM Three of the four semi-final matches went to tiebreaks, and the fans got their money's worth, too. In the top match, Shulman drew the first game with Black pretty easily in an IQP Tarrasch French and then won a very nice game with White. Hess may have surprised Shulman with his choice of opening (the King's Indian), but it looked like Shulman had a better feel for the resulting positions. The losing move might have come as soon as 19...f5. Hess hoped for kingside play, but it was Shulman who took over on that wing and won with a terrific demonstration of power chess, culminating in a finely conducted mating attack.
In the first ladies' semi-final to finish, Abrahamyan won both games against Baginskaite. In the first game, Abrahamyan stood a little better with White when - probably in time trouble - Black blundered with 40...f5??, when it was soon over. (40...Rxc3 still favors White, but Black's position remains playable.) Game two was a similar story: Abrahamyan stood a bit better and Baginskaite was getting short of time when she blundered the game. This time the culprit was 38.Rf7? (38.Rxd3=+) Qd6? (38...Qh4-+) 39.Rxg7+?? Nxg7 and 0-1.
Finally, there was the utterly crazy match between Krush and Zatonskih. Recall Krush beat Zatonskih in the preliminary rounds, lost the first "regular" game of their semi-final match and then bounced back to force a playoff. In the first game Krush had White, and the position eventually reached bishop (for Krush) vs. two pawns, dead draw. Krush could have held the game in 1-minute chess without a sweat. Somehow, though, her mind switched off, and rather than, say, give up the bishop for one of the pawns (e.g. with 63.Bxb4) and draw the king and pawn vs. king ending, she allowed her opponent to force promotion. 64.Kb1 was the normal move, but 64.Bb2+?? left White without a defense to the straightforward plan ...Ka2, ...b3, ...a4-a3, ...b2+ and ...b1Q.
I'm not sure I'd be able to face another human beings for a few hours after such a loss, let alone play another game, but to Krush's considerable credit she not only showed up for game two but won it with Black. Wow! The key points there were Zatonskih's 34.Rc1?, blundering a pawn, and then the "exchange of courtesies starting with Black's 40th move. Had Krush met 40.Qe3 with 40...e5, she would have won straightforwardly and collected a well-deserved point. Instead - in mutual time trouble - she played 40...Qxa2??, and after 41.hxg6 hxg6 Zatonskih could have made it game, set and match with 42.Qh3. This threatens mate on h8, and the problem is that 42...e5 hangs the rook on c8, while 42...Kf8 43.Bf6 Ke8 almost escapes, but not quite: 44.Rxe6+! is a crusher. Fortunately for Krush, White played 42.Bf6??, and after 42...Bf8 the scare was over and Black soon won.
Then it was time for the Armaggedon game, and just as they did last year, they held a bidding procedure to determine colors and clock times. Both players bid on how much time they would be willing to take with Black, and the low bid gets Black with the amount of time she bid, plus draw odds - meaning that if the game ends in a draw Black "wins" the match. The bids could be anything from 45 minutes on down, and Zatonskih bid 27 minutes while Krush requested...45 minutes! She had been obtaining advantages with White and felt confident that replaying the same variation would give her good chances.
She got the line she wanted, but Zatonskih played better this time around. Krush had a tough time finding a plan, and after Zatonskih's 19...Nh5! with the idea of ...f5, Black achieved a very nice blockade. Krush's last chance to do something was around move 24. She didn't have any advantage, but perhaps some exchange sac ideas like 24.Rxh5 gxh5 25.Rg1+ Kf8 26.Bf4 or 24.Rcg1 Ng7 25.h5 h6 26.Rxg6 Bxg6 27.hxg6 could help her create some practical problems. After 24.Rg2 Ng7 25.Ke3 Ne6 26.Bf4 Rd5 there was just nothing for White to do but wait and see if her ossified center would collapse. (It did.)
So Zatonskih, who must be physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted by now will take on Abrahamyan in the women's final, while last year's finalists, Kamsky and Shulman, will vie for the championship a second straight year. Remarkably, both players have been undefeated the past two years (last year's championship was settled by an Armaggedon draw in Kamsky's favor).
Monday, April 25, 2011 at 12:48PM There appears to be evidence that chess benefits schoolchildren, though it has so far been on a somewhat elective basis. Even in the good old days of the bad old USSR, the ultimate chess factory, chess wasn't mandated but offered through clubs like the Young Pioneers. If it worked well on a voluntary basis, though, why not just make it part of the curriculum? That's what they're going to do in Armenia, and it will be interesting both as an educational experiment and to see how much more powerful that already chess-crazy country will become.
HT: Bob Banta.
Monday, April 25, 2011 at 1:25AM There was quite a turnaround from day one to day two of the semi-finals, as only one match continued the "trend" from the previous day's results. To recap day one: Shankland-Kamsky and Shulman-Hess were both drawn, while Zatonskih-Krush was won by White and Abrahamyan-Baginskaite was won by Black.
In game 2 (of 2, not counting rapid tie-breaks), only Hess-Shulman was drawn. The game was a Tarrasch French with Eingorn's unusual 3...h6, a rare move that worked out pretty well. Hess had only a micro-edge at best out of the opening, and as the game progressed Shulman's position looked better and better...just not better enough. On to the rapids.
For defending champ Gata Kamsky, it was a good day: he advances and gets a rest day while his opponents battle on. Shankland played a Najdorf, which Kamsky met by the semi-popular 6.h3. Shankland played for a quick ...d5, and the result was an endgame where White's queenside majority was damaged (doubled, isolated c-pawns in particular) but White positively enjoys the bishop pair and active pieces. After 19...Rxd3 20.cxd3 White's pawns were undoubled, but with 20...h5 Black may have had enough counterplay to maintain the balance. Instead, Shankland played a series of inaccurate moves that added up to trouble: 20...Re8 21.Bb6 Be6 22.Bc5 b5 and now after 23.a4 (not 23.Bxc6? Rc8 24.Bxb5 Rxc5 25.Bxa6 Rxc3 26.a4 Ra3 with approximate equality) White was in great shape. Later, 33...Be6, giving up the b-pawn, seems like another error; after 33...Ne5! White's advantage is still far from decisive. After 33...Be6 the win was probably inevitable, but Shankland's 40...Kxh4?? sped it up considerably, as it blunders a piece. The problem is that after 41.Bxc6 Bxc6 42.Rxc6! Rxc6 43.Be7+ forces mate on the next move, so Shankland varied with 41...Rg7+ but resigned after the simple 42.Kf2.
In the women's championship, Irina Krush was in a must-win situation, but at least had the white pieces against Zatonskih. She obtained a slight advantage in a 5.Bf4 QGD, and both players showed good form through 25.Qc2. Any hack-happy club player would intend (with White) or fear (with Black) the Bxg6 sac, but Zatonskih either completely missed it or completely misevaluated it, because her 25...Rae8 was an outright error. After 26.Bxg6, Black could not play 26...hxg6 because of a trivially simple mating line: 27.Qxg6+ Kh8 28.Qh6+ Kg8 29.Rg3+ followed inevitably by Rg7#. Zatonskih could have played 25...Re7 though, when she has some compensation for the pawns, though not enough. Instead, she kicked in the exchange as well with 25...Qd7, but Krush never let her within a mile of anything resembling genuine compensation. So Krush tied the match, and it's on to tiebreaks for them as well.
Finally, while Krush at least had White in her comeback effort, Tatev Abrahamyan didn't even have that going for her against Camilla Baginskaite. It didn't matter, though Baginskaite did enjoy a little advantage after the opening. White's main trump was the far-advanced pawn on c6, which helped cramp Black's position. White was in really good shape for a while, but her decision to trade queens on move 27 was ill-advised. Black no longer had to worry about king safety, while the pawn on c6 started looking more like a weakness than a strength. White's doubled f-pawns were no help either, while the Black pawn on h3 proved quite useful. After 37...Kf7 White's position was practically lost: there was no real way, in the long-term, that she could keep watch over c6, b3, e3 and the second rank (e.g. g2). Sooner or later, something was bound to give, and it did. When White resigned after Black's 54th move, White was down two pawns and about to go down four, and so that means tiebreak games for them as well.
All three matches will have two g/25' + 5" battles, followed by an Armageddon game if necessary.
Sunday, April 24, 2011 at 1:48PM In many churches, Pontius Pilate is mentioned in every service during the recitation of the creed, but it's not often that he's the subject of Easter reflections. I came across a couple of interesting pieces this year, however, and I pass along the links to those who are interested, here and here.
Happy Easter!
Easter Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 8:10PM Both games in the US Championship were a bit nervy, and as they finished in draws the tension will carry over into the second game of these two-game mini-matches.
Speedy Sam Shankland, who can sometimes move a bit too quickly, got careless on move 12 when he castled, overlooking Gata Kamsky's simple but effective shot 12...Nxc5. Fortunately for Shankland, the damage wasn't too severe - he went from being perhaps a little better to just a little worse. On move 15, he may have received a gift back. Instead of the greedy 15...cxb2, when White has just about enough for the pawn but not more, Kamsky came up with an interesting attacking idea involving the piece sac 17...Bxh3. It seems that he probably overlooked Shankland's defense with 23.Qf4 followed by 24.Qh2, however, after which his attack was at an end. It was his good fortune that even then his drawing chances were quite good, with two pawns, activity, and his opponent's lousy kingside pawn structure all compensating for the piece. Only Shankland had chances to win, but he never came too close, and Kamsky escaped.
Shulman - Hess saw the second player choose an old-fashioned Queen's Indian line updated with a new idea, 9...Nc6. Whether it's good enough for a second try if they reach a rapid playoff remains to be seen, but Hess had no trouble to speak of this time around. Shulman enjoyed a big wall of pawns, but they could have easily become targets as assets. Near the end, Hess was perhaps a little careless in allowing 37.b5, but after 37...Be7 38.Nd4 there was still everything to play for when they agreed to a draw. Perhaps Hess was disturbed by the Ba4's now slightly precarious and offside position, while Shulman was just relieved to escape after having been a bit worse for a while.
The women's championship went very differently. Anna Zatonskih continued her amazing recovery in the tournament from near-elimination with her fifth consecutive win, this one coming against the other event favorite, Irina Krush. The 2.c3 Sicilian isn't generally considered a particularly dangerous weapon, but something caught Krush by surprise as she was already losing a pawn for inadequate compensation by move 12. Subsequent play wasn't perfect by either player, but Zatonskih was always better and then capitalized on another Krush error in mutual time trouble. After 34...Bf5(? - something like 34...Rc4 or 34...Bf6 would have been better, though White's position is seriously better in any case) 35.Re5 g6 36.Bh6+ Ke8 37.Bg5 White was winning a second pawn (for no compensation), so Krush resigned.
The other game, Tatev Abrahamyan vs. Camllia Baginskaite, didn't have the same clean storyline as the first. Abrahamyan played the Evans Gambit for the second time in the event (but there was nothing "romantic" about the middlegame position that arose - sorry, 19th century chess fans!) and was a little better until she played 24.Bc4 (24.Ndc4 would have maintained an edge). From here Baginskaite started outplaying her until time trouble reared its ugly head and the game turned into a mess. White blundered a piece with 28.Be1??, but Black didn't find 28...f6. Still, Baginskaite was better until she played 31...Qa6, when the position was equal. Instead, 31...Bxc4 32.Nxc4 Qe7! gives Black a winning attack - she threatens to take the rook on b4 and checks on both h4 and along the a7-g1 diagonal. White still needed to be very careful with her exposed king, and it was too tough a task in terrible time trouble. 32.Qd2 was better than 32.Ne3, 33.Rxb5 was better than 33.Qb3+, 34.N5c4 was better than 34.Rxb5 and finally 35.h4 or 35.g3 would have given Abrahamyan more chances to survive than 35.Nc2, because after she played that and Baginskaite replied 35...Ra5 it was all over. The Rb5 can't be sensibly protected, and if it moves anywhere normal Black has 36...Qe2+ followed by 37...Qxg2, which is either mate on the spot or in one more move. With White tomorrow Baginskaite looks like the surest qualifier at this point, but Abrahamyan can point to many comeback stories in this tournament for inspiration.
Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 12:55PM A few years back I did a long series on the Sicilian Defense for ChessVideos.tv. The context was a request in the viewer question thread that I give an overview of the Sicilian, which was not exactly possible in that context - generally I spend no more than about 15 minutes on a given question there. So I joked about it, and then finally started the series, trying to present that opening in a quick but useful way. Needless to say, even going quickly, it must have taken around ten full length shows to get through that complex.
At the time, and again recently, someone suggested doing something similar with the Ruy Lopez. For many years I resisted, but at last I've caved, and you can watch part 1 of what is bound to be a pretty long series, here. In this week's installment, I examine the 3...d6, 3...g6, 3...Nge7, 3...Nd4 and 3...Bc5 lines. The next shows will cover the Berlin and the Schliemann/Jaenisch, and then it will be on to 3...a6.
As usual, the show is free (free registration is required, in case you haven't already done it) and will be available for the next month or so. If you've been waiting to learn the Ruy with White, here's your chance!
Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 12:00PM Thanks, readers!
Here are the pairings: in the Championship, it's Shankland - Kamsky and Hess - Shulman; in the Women's Championship it's Krush - Zatonskih and Abrahamyan - Baginskaite. As usual, it starts at 2 p.m. St. Louis time (= 3 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CET). Each match will consist of two classical games (one today, one tomorrow), followed if necessary by a pair of rapid games and then by an Armageddon game, if necessary.
Friday, April 22, 2011 at 10:55PM About a week ago I presented the following quotation and asked who said it:
I divide chess players into six categories. The first ones are the killers. Players who, figuratively speaking, are trying to kill their opponent. The second type is that of the fighters. They try to win with all means, but it's not necessary to kill. The third type are the sportsmen. For them chess is a sport like any other kind of sport. Number four are the 'players' or gamblers. Karpov, for instance, is a typical player. He wants to play any game. These four all have very strong motivation. Then we have two more, number five the artists, for whom not only the result is important, and number six the explorers.
The answer, as noted in the comments section to that post, is that it's from Yuri Averbakh, from a May 1997 interview with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam in New In Chess (reprinted in The Day Kasparov Quit, on page 131). I had not only promised to reveal the author, though, but also who he put into what category. So now, here's the rest of the story:
I am category six...
[In category one there's] Botvinnik, Fischer, Kortchnoi. Of course, not everyone fits just in one category. For instance, Tal had something of both the fighter and the artist. Karpov and Kasparov also have some killer characteristics, but not as strongly as Botvinnik. As a rule, the main definition of a killer is a man who was raised without a father. Sportsmen we have a lot. Spassky, Keres, Capablanca. They are normal people, but when they play it is for them just like any other sport.
Bronstein is a fighter He tries to pose as an artist. Maybe he has something of the artist but his main strength is that of the fighter.
I believe that Simagin was a real artist. Nicolas Rossolimo was an artist. Maybe Yanofsky was half artist and half gambler. And Zukertort fitted in this category.
...not only I [, but] Nimzovich was an investigator, Rubinstein, Fine.
So there you have it.