This Week at the Chess Cafe

There's a nice collection of new articles on the Chess Cafe this week, of which I'll mention and briefly comment on several.

1. Howard Goldowsky's edited work Masters of Technique is given a rave review. My own reaction was rather more muted though generally positive, but given my professed lack of expertise I'm happy to refer everyone to a second opinion.

2. The Endgame Study (#799, by Allgaier) really isn't much of a study - there's no surprise or other aesthetic value to it. It's really more like an exercise or a theoretical ending. Dullness notwithstanding, all club players should check it out, because if you can't solve it there's a very important and fundamental technique to be learned there.

3. Bücker's opening column. Last time he looked at and agreed with Avrukh's conclusion about some lines in the latter's second 1.d4 repertoire book; this time, he looks at and disagrees on some other lines.

4. Hans Ree's "Dutch Treat" looks at the recently completed Dutch Championship and tells some interesting stories I hadn't heard about. Definitely worth reading.

5. The CC Chronicles column gives good tips on how to computer cheat. (That's mostly a joke, meant to express my distaste at the fact of computer use in correspondence chess.) Among his points, which applies to anyone who uses chess engines for anything more than blunder checking and not only to correspondence players, is that different engines have different strengths and weaknesses in their evaluation function. Thus Rybka tends to have a better "feel" and understanding of complicated, imbalanced positions, while Fritz may be more reliable in balanced and closed positions.

King's Tournament, Round 8: Gelfand-Carlsen Drawn; Nisipeanu Wins

Boris Gelfand was probably the last, best chance for the rest of the field to catch Magnus Carlsen, and although the game was very lively he really didn't come very close to a win. Thus with two rounds to go, Carlsen is still a point ahead of Gelfand, two points ahead of Radjabov, and further ahead of everyone else.

Radjabov-Ponomariov was also drawn. Ironically, Ponomariov offered the same piece sac Gelfand played against him in last year's World Cup. The sac leads to a draw, if accepted, so both Ponomariov last year and Radjabov in 2010 rejected it, but neither player got anything for their troubles. Gelfand won the game last year, and while Radjabov didn't lose, he was the one trying to prove equality pretty much from start to finish.

There was one decisive game, and it was the local representative and alleged tournament outsider Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu who won it. He was Black against Wang Yue in a King's Indian sideline, and managed to outplay his opponent in a technical ending. That's no mean feat, as Wang Yue is a good technician, but he did it anyway. The game was slowly drifting away from the Chinese player, but it still could have been drawn with 56.Rf6! rather than 56.Rxg4? After that error, Nisipeanu played brilliantly, winning in study-like fashion. The result is that he went from a three-way tie for last into clear fourth with two rounds to go.

Standings After Round 8:

1. Carlsen 6

2. Gelfand 5

3. Radjabov 4

4. Nisipeanu 3.5

5. Ponomariov 3

6. Wang Yue 2.5

Round 9 Pairings:

Radjabov - Wang Yue

Ponomariov - Gelfand

Carlsen - Nisipeanu

Official site here; the games, with my comments, are here.

King's Tournament, Round 7: Carlsen, Gelfand Win Again

Magnus Carlsen is on a roll! By defeating Teimour Radjabov in his characteristic way (winning what should have been a drawn endgame), he managed to win his fourth game in a row, and he leads with a very impressive score of 5.5/7. That's good enough for a TPR of 2955 and a live rating that will probably be about 2826 or so - he's threatening to enter video game territory.

Fortunately, there's still some battle, as Boris Gelfand also managed to win, and with the Petroff! Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu was offered a salutary reminder that although the Petroff is a solid opening that's often used as a drawing weapon, chess is still a complicated enough game that Black can sometimes win even there. Gelfand's score of 4.5 points (and 2835 TPR) is none too shabby, and since he'll have White against Carlsen tomorrow it's not too late for him to put on his superhero cape (or maybe just his kryptonite?) and do something extra-special.

As yesterday, so today: Ruslan Ponomariov started well against Wang Yue, and enjoyed a winning advantage before things went wrong. Yesterday that meant a loss; today, it was only half a point squandered.

After 7 rounds, here are the standings:

1. Carlsen 5.5

2. Gelfand 4.5

3. Radjabov 3.5

4-6. Nisipeanu, Wang Yue, Ponomariov 2.5

And these are the pairings for round 8:

Wang Yue - Nisipeanu

Gelfand - Carlsen (Probably the last chance to stop the Carlsen Express.)

Radjabov - Ponomariov

The tournament site is here. As for notes, I'll send you to this page, where GM Dorian Rogozenko seems to have done a nice job with today's action.

King's Tournament, Round 6: Carlsen Swindles Ponomariov

After a lackluster start to the tournament, world #1 (by rating) Magnus Carlsen has won three games in a row and leads the King's Tournament by a full point over Teimour Radjabov and Boris Gelfand. His score of 4.5/6 gives him a TPR of 2921 and an actual rating (according to the Live Top List) of 2821; if he maintains it, he will be officially the second highest-rated player of all time.

His win in the latest round wasn't so smooth, however. As Black in a King's Indian against Ruslan Ponomariov, he seemed to be in big trouble, down a pawn with no obvious compensation. (If anything, Ponomariov had the pawn and the compensation too.) But Carlsen's 21...Rxd2!?(?), which looks like it was at least half-bluffing, worked perfectly when Ponomariov tried to bail out with the unprincipled 23.Rf2. After that Black was better and not even down any material. Carlsen briefly gave Ponomariov a chance to fight with an error on move 28, but White missed his chance and went down without too much of a fight.

The other games were drawn: Wang Yue - Gelfand was everything you'd expect from those two, i.e. not much, while Radjabov - Nisipeanu was a crazy game that should have been continued. I suppose the players were both scared and in time pressure, so it was understandable, but the board was full of play.

You can see for yourself here, where you can replay the games with my annotations.

Standings:

1. Carlsen 4.5 (out of 6)

2-3. Radjabov, Gelfand 3.5

4. Nisipeanu 2.5

5-6. Wang Yue, Ponomariov 2

Round 7 Pairings:

Ponomariov - Wang Yue

Carlsen - Radjabov

Nisipeanu - Gelfand

The Daily Update: Havana, Danzhou and Eindhoven Finish

As if by design, three big tournaments have simultaneously finished, just in time for the start of summer.

1. Starting with the Capablanca Memorial in Havana, Vassily Ivanchuk has taken first, drawing quickly in the last round with Ian Nepomniachtchi. "Nepo" was the only player who could catch him, so while fans in search of a show may be disappointed, it's hard to criticize this from a pragmatic point of view.

Ivanchuk's score of 7/10 was good for a TPR of 2841, good enough to bring him back up to #13 in the world. Nepomniachtchi's performance was excellent as well: 6 points and a 2773 TPR, good enough to push his rating over 2700. (As a demonstration of his fine performance in this event, have a look here at his round 8 win over Short, with my comments.)

2. Danzhou: This elite all-Chinese event finished with a tie for first. For most of the tournament it was a two-man race between Bu Xiangzhi and the youngster Ding Liren, but in the last rounds it became a four-man race. In round 7, Bu was beaten by Wang Hao, who won again in round 8. Bu won in round 8 as well, and at that point he was half a point ahead Ding Liren, Wang Hao and Li Chao, who had won in round 7 to briefly tie for first.

In the last round Ding had Black against Ni Hua, who may have had the worst tournament of the super-GM phase of his career. Ni has been over 2700, but in this tournament his performance rating was only 2397. Nevertheless, he was solid enough in this game, and it was drawn. Wang Hao was also unable to win with Black, only managing a draw with Zhao Jun. Bu also had Black, and he too drew his game, again Hou Yifan. That left Li Chao, who took advantage of the White pieces to beat Yu Yangyi and tie for first, though Bu was the winner on tiebreaks.

(In sum: Bu Xiangzhi and Li Chao scored 6/9, Ding Liren and Wang Hao 5.5.)

It was a very exciting tournament, with only 21 draws in the 45 games, almost all of them hard-fought. This was billed as the "1st Annual" Danzhou tournament; let's hope that subsequent editions are as interesting as this one.

3. Eindhoven (Dutch Championship): Jan Smeets is the champion, thanks in good part to his win in the penultimate round over Erwin L'Ami (in 95 moves!) combined with Anish Giri's loss to a resurgent Loek van Wely. Giri came back to win in the last round, but he finished half a point behind. Smeets had 6.5/9, Giri 6, and Sipke Ernst was third with 5.5.

Back to Blogging Tonight...Make it Tomorrow

I've been playing in tournaments yesterday and today (one round left today), and the power was out from yesterday until just a little while ago. So I'm even further behind in knowing what's going on in the chess world than nearly all of my readers, but I'll be back later with a recap of the last two days' action. (I'm looking forward to finding out what happened myself!)

UPDATE: After finishing the second tournament, the adrenalin worked its way out of my body, and now I'm ready to sleep if not hibernate. So new update, except to note that Carlsen beat Nisipeanu and Gelfand beat Ponomariov in the King's Tournament. Carlsen therefore finished the first cycle with 3.5/5, and has a half-point lead over Gelfand and Radjabov.

Also, the Ruy Lopez tournament finished on Friday, I believe, and Cheparinov won with an impressive 6/7 and a 2902 TPR. Given his performance and the praise Topalov heaps upon him, maybe he should played against Anand instead? (Don't write in, I'm not being serious.)

We'll catch up on the other events tomorrow, I hope. As for my tournaments, I won them both with a combined score of 8.5/9, and played pretty well overall, albeit against mid-1900 to low 2000 opposition. (The draw came in the last round of the Friday tournament, and clinched clear first.)

This Week's ChessVideos Show: A Budapest Brilliancy

Tactics, tactics, tactics. Have a look at a super-spectacular Budapest Gambit game, here. The show is free (free registration required), and will be available on-demand for the next month or so. Go check it out - you'll be glad you did!

The Daily Update: Havana, Danzhou, Eindhoven and More

1. Havana (Capablanca Memorial): Ivanchuk and Short played unambitiously today, and both finished their games quickly with the Black pieces. The only winner was Ian Nepomniachtchi, whose second straight win brought him into a tie with Short for second place. Ivanchuk has 5/7, Short and Nepo 4. Three rounds remain in this 6-player double-round robin event.

2. Danzhou: Bu Xiangzhi won in round 6 (over Ni Hua), while Ding Liren only managed to draw. Thus Bu leads by half a point with 4.5 points; here too, three rounds remain.

3. Eindhoven (Dutch Championship): Smeets and Giri drew quickly with each other, leaving them tied with 4.5/6. Ernst is half a point behind, the only winner in round 6, and here too there are three rounds to go. [Website warning: The link I gave works fine, but when I've tried the tournament website it has consistently crashed my browser.]

4. Greece scored the first goals in its World Cup history, and even managed to win the game. Congrats!

5. The L.A. Lakers won their 16th NBA Championship; better still, their victims were the Boston Celtics. Good times.

King's Tournament, Round 4: Carlsen & Radjabov Lead

It was a great day for the White pieces: 3 for 3. Carlsen defeated Wang Yue with the King's Gambit, of all things; Radjabov proved that Gelfand's Petroff isn't quite impenetrable; and finally, Ponomariov defeated Nisipeanu's odd-looking interpretation of the Blumenfeld Gambit.

It was a great day for fans of opening preparation, as all three winners were cleary ready in their own ways. Carlsen didn't land any knockout blows, but Wang Yue's response was rather easygoing and gave Carlsen a very comfortable (if slight) edge. Radjabov had a bombshell of an attack ready for Gelfand's Petroff, but since Gelfand chose a rare 13th move and played a novelty on move 15, maybe Radjabov's attack was all over the board inspiration. Finally, Nisipeanu repeated a dubious-looking line in the Blumenfeld that he gotten away with twice before; this time, Ponomariov's direct approach with 7.e4 and 9.e5 looked very effective, and Black's position looked awful straight out of the opening.

Here are the standings:

1-2. Radjabov, Carlsen 2.5

3-5. Nisipeanu, Ponomariov, Gelfand 2

6. Wang Yue 1

(It may not be Lake Wobegon, but only one of the "kids" is below average.)

Here are the round 5 pairings (for Saturday; they have Friday off):

Wang Yue - Radjabov

Gelfand - Ponomariov (a replay of the World Cup* final)

Nisipeanu - Carlsen

Tournament site here; the games, with my commentary, are here.

* That's the real World Cup - the chess one - not the one with the hooligans and defeaning trumpets in the stands cheering for easily injured actors with miraculous powers of recovery as they kick a defective ball around every four years.**

** A mini-rant. Some people can be a little obnoxious rooting for their country in this event, but (as long as they don't get too obnoxious, or violent) I'll take them anyday over people who think it's hip to bash and root against their own country. A sense of irony and humility is one thing - generally a good thing - but to wish your country ill for the sake of impressing others is pretty low.

(Yes, these are tangents. Fire away, people - just keep it clean and as polite as you can!)

Book Notice: Masters of Technique

Howard Goldowsky, ed., Masters of Technique: The Mongoose Anthology of Chess Fiction. Boston, Mongoose Press 2010. $24.95, 286 pp.

Using chess as a metaphor or a prop is pretty typical in fiction and elsewhere, but well-crafted stories in which chess plays a meatier role are comparatively rare. Howard Goldowsky seems dedicated to changing this state of affairs, and he "has collected the best work from twelve of the most talented chess fiction writers of the past decade."

That's what the book jacket says, anyway, and who am I to argue with the publisher's promotional materials? Kidding aside, I don't take myself suitably qualified to judge the literary merits of the book's 12 short stories. They're all quite readable and could be read even by pre-teens, though I'd suggest that the themes and language make the book more like a PG-13 work.

The stories varied considerably in content, so if you don't care much for one genre or theme, the next story might better suit your fancy. There's a Sherlock Holmes story, a couple of stories with religious/mystical themes; several stories in which chess plays or played an important role in the lives of the elderly, but also stories where the (chess-playing) protagonists are very young. And so on - the stories are unified only in having chess play some role in all of them. Even that role varies considerably: sometimes it's as little as seeing a chess set and reflecting on what it meant to its owner.

As stated above, I'm not going to play literary critic. Generally speaking, it's light entertainment, so if you pick it up in search of a couple of hours of easy reading, you might enjoy it.