The Chess Mind Blog

Aeroflot 2012: Korobov Leads After 6 of 9 Rounds; Two-Time Defending Champ Le at -1

Dennis Monokroussos — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:19:20 +0000

It's so far, so good for yet another strong Ukranian grandmaster. 26-year-old Anton Korobov has been overshadowed by countrymen Vassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, (ex-countryman) Sergey Karjakin and Pavel Eljanov, but he seems to be on his way up in general and in this tournament in particular. He defeated second seed Fabiano Caruana in round 4, and with his round 6 win over Maxim Rodshtein he finds himself in clear first with 5/6. The aforementioned Eljanov has 4.5 points, as do Mateusz Bartel and the resurgent Caruana.

There's a big group with 4 points, and one of them is former FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman, who defeated defending two-time champ Le Quang Liem in round 5. Le lost yet again in round 6, and with 2.5 points may already be mathematically eliminated from defending his title. As I mentioned a few days ago, I hope the Dortmund organizers recognize his terrific achievements the past two years (twice having qualified by winning Aeroflot and both times taking second at Dortmund) and give him an automatic entry to the tournament. One can hope! Meanwhile, I hope he manages to salvage this event with a strong finish.

Finally, lest American readers accuse me of "forgetting" Ray Robson, he's having a decent event and has a +1 score.

Tournament website here.

Candidates News: The Field and Location Are Set

Dennis Monokroussos — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:28:27 +0000

Practically, anyway. Continuing what's starting to look like a trend, the organizer's spot was again given to an Azeri player: Teimour Radjabov. It's objectionable that there should be an "organizer's spot" for an event like the Candidates, but as Radjabov (#5 in the world) was the highest-rated player not to qualify by other means it's at least as unobjectionable as such a decision could be.

Anyway, here's the field and how they qualified:

Peter Svidler: 2011 World Cup Winner
Alexander Grischuk: 2011 World Cup Runner-Up
Vassily Ivanchuk: 2011 World Cup Third-Place Finisher
Magnus Carlsen: Qualified by rating (#1)
Levon Aronian: Qualified by rating (#2)
Vladimir Kramnik: Qualified by rating (#3)
Teimour Radjabov: Organizer's pick
The Loser of the Viswanathan Anand-Boris Gelfand match

The site has been set: It will take place in London this fall from October 23 to November 13. (More on this, and a bit of editorializing besides, over at TWIC.)

This Week's ChessVideos Show: The Quick Ruy XX, Archangelsk Part 1

Dennis Monokroussos — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:03:06 +0000

We bravely trudge on in our seemingly eternal series on the Ruy Lopez with part one of what will probably be three videos on the Archangelsk/Neo-Archangelsk Variations. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Black can choose between 6...Bb7, the Archangelsk, and 6...Bc5, the Neo-Archangelsk. In both cases Black commits one bishop to remain flexible with its counterpart. Thus in the Archangelsk Black delays developing his dark-squared bishop, waiting to see how White handles the central pawns, while in the Neo-Archangelsk he commits the dark-squared bishop and waits to see if White plays an early h3. If he does, then the light-squared bishop goes to b7; if not, it's off to g4.

This time around we start with the Archangelsk, and after 6...Bb7 White chooses between 7.c3, aiming to build an ideal pawn center with d4, and 7.d3. The latter move is more patient and has a modest appearance, but may well be the best choice, aiming to blunt the fianchettoed bishop on b7. 7.d3 will (likely) be the subject of next week's video; this time around it's the 7.c3 approach we'll focus on. As we'll see, Black is doing quite well, as long as he's willing to play bravely and able to handle active, sacrificial chess.

The show is here and it's free - as always. (One-time free registration is required.) Eventually it will be archived, but for the foreseeable future it will be available on demand.

Happy Birthday, Yuri Averbakh

Dennis Monokroussos — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:49:47 +0000

The world's oldest living grandmaster is 90 years old today. Yuri Averbakh can count among his many accomplishments having been a candidate in 1953 and nearly qualifying for that stage again in 1958, winning the USSR Championship in 1954 and tying for first (but coming in second after a playoff) in 1956. Nowadays he's best known for his classic series of endgame volumes, but his contributions to chess are both deep and wide.

More on Averbakh, and his birthday, on the ChessBase and ChessVibes websites.