As you'd expect from a blitz event, even and especially the World Blitz Championship, there was lots of excitement, with a fair share of both high-level play and blunders. We'll note some of the best and worst of the play below, but first, a few words about the competition.
Sergey Karjakin won the rapid event that finished yesterday, and led most of today too, but losses in the last two rounds to Magnus Carlsen (he played that game as if intimidated, something he'll have to overcome if he wants to best his contemporary in the long run) and his former countryman Vassily Ivanchuk.
Magnus Carlsen is the favorite by rating, but it took him a very long time to get going. After four games he was -2, and was still -1 as late as round 11! In round 1 he was clobbered by Dmitry Andreikin, while in round 8 he lost to Nikolay Chadaev (who??) and the ridiculous gambit 1. e4 g6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nf3. (It must be bad, but in a way I approve. The Norwegian Defense strikes me as an "I can beat you with anything; you're not even worthy of a real opening" approach, so if you have the nerve to one-up your opponent and the ability to succeed once you do, then so much the better.) Finally he got on a little winning streak at the end of the day, winding up at +2.
The leader is Alexander Grischuk, who lost a couple of games (to Andreikin and to Peter Svidler) but won against many of his closest rivals, including Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk (who is also tied for second with Karjakin and - as you might have wondered by this point - Andreikin), Morozevich and Radjabov.
Other notable performances thus far: Chadaev is +1, having defeated not only Carlsen but (just counting the big names) Le Quang Liem, Veselin Topalov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Notable, though not in an especially good way, is Boris Gelfand's -1 score. It's not that bad a performance, but it's not what one would expect of a "vice-champion", as FIDE often labels world championship runners-up. (Is the title-holder the "virtue champion"?)
Now to discuss some highlights, for those of you who might wish to look at the games, but not necessarily all 120 of them. First, some opening highlights (or lowlights, depending on your point of view). There was plenty of experimentation, as is to be expected in blitz. (This is both because it's easier to get away with nonsense there, and because it's prudent to hide one's best material for slower time controls.) Morozevich played the Albin Counter-Gambit a couple of times, and you've already read about Chadaev's goofy gambit. (He played some other minor oddities as well over the course of the event.) Carlsen played a King's Gambit in round 2, and after 2...exf4 he trotted out 3.Nc3. He drew, but it took a little work.
Carlsen's opening idea was pretty shaky there, but Karjakin trotted out a far worse opening with White against Gelfand. He showed too much respect for Gelfand's Najdorf and played a terrible anti-Sicilian line instead, was quickly worse, and lost the sort of clumsy game one would expect from a player of my level, not his. Carlsen played a better version of the same feeble line against Gelfand later on, and while it didn't cause any problems for Black at least White could (and did) draw without much worry. There's nothing wrong with the Dutch, of course - especially when your opponents play it - but it's rare to see this from Carlsen. Morozevich played a sideline and went on to win a really crazy game.
It's one thing for Carlsen to make questionable opening choices - he is #1, after all. But sometimes others made questionable choices against him. Teimour Radjabov, for instance, may not have deserved censure for taking the white side of a Hedgehog. But the way he played it, with 15.h3, 16.g4 and 17.f4 had the naive look of the 1970s to it. Back then those on the white side thought that with all that extra space they could expand and kill Black, and it was only after enough games where Black exploded the center and massacred White that players started taking the Hedgehog seriously. (Have a look at the fantastic game Polugaevsky-Ftacnik, Lucern Olympiad 1982 for an example.) Well, apparently some lessons must be learned anew, and when Carlsen played 18...e5! 19.Nde2 d5! the fertilizer hit the air circulation system.
In the technique department, there were plenty of good games. Andreikin's win over Carlsen in round 1 was a surprise entry, and he later won a nice rook ending against Gelfand and a great rook ending against Radjabov. Karjakin won a slew of fine endgames - against Chadaev, for instance, and then in a marathon queen ending vs. Mamedyarov as well.
Other interesting games: Gelfand vs. Viktor Bologan featured a slew of interesting exchange sacs, Svidler-Bologan was a nice positional massage, Karjakin won a terrific-looking game vs. Morozevich, while Morozevich-Bologan and Bologan-Chadaev are also both worth a look.
Finally, the blunders. There were lots of them! Here's what is surely just a partial list of games: Radjabov-Chadaev, Kotsur-Bologan (which had a nice finish), Gelfand-Ivanchuk, Bologan-Karjakin, Grischuk-Morozevich (49...Rg8 was the lemon; but maybe it shouldn't be called a blunder), Radjabov-Le Quang Liem, Kotsur-Topalov, Gelfand-Bologan, Andreikin-Svidler, Jumabayev-Bologan, Carlsen-Ivanchuk (and how!), Chadaev-Jumabayev, Topalov-Andreikin, Radjabov-Kotsur (27...Qg7??), Jumabayev-Grischuk, Mamedyarov-Le Quang Liem, Topalov-Ivanchuk (21.Rxd2??) and Grischuk-Mamedyarov (but this is so incredible I suspect a problem with the DGT board/relay system).
There are also some pseudo-errors caused as usual by the dumb DGT system in conjunction with poorly trained/forgetful/incompetent arbiters. All chess fans should know by now (even if arbiters don't - why can't the Turkish Chess Federation President ban them instead?) that if the last move given is Ke4/e5/d4/d5 by either side and it makes absolutely no sense at all, it's a DGT "move" and can be disregarded.
Let me conclude with a note about all the blunders. It's remarkable that these players do as well as they do in blitz - it's very difficult to play a blitz game against a strong opponent without making serious errors. As the players are surely a bit tired from the previous days' games and their travel to Kazakhstan, my suggestion would be to enjoy a little pleasure from their blunders - it reminds us that they're only human too - but to enjoy even more the very good chess they play the rest of the time.
Sunday, March 24, 2013 at 9:01PM