Kasparov In Action(!), Beats Vachier-Lagrave 1.5-.5

Only blitz, alas, but it's nice to see Garry Kasparov in action again. It was an exhibition in Clichy, France, in two rounds. The first round saw Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Laurent Fressinet battle for the right to play Kasparov in the final round. After a pair of draws, Vachier-Lagrave won the Armaggedon game to advance. In the final, Kasparov won with White, setting up and executing a nice promotion combination, and then the former world champion held on to draw an up-and-down game with Black. (There was a tandem game after that which was surely memorable to the amateur participants and a good thing if it helps keep sponsors coming, but the play was abysmal and the game score ought to be destroyed before it gets into TWIC and other databases.)

Official site here, TWIC coverage here.

Carlsen Beats the World

The G-STAR RAW World Chess Challenge has finished, and Magnus Carlsen easily dispatched the world team led by Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Judit Polgar. The World played a King's Indian, and against the Fianchetto Variation they quickly got confused. On move 7 Polgar recommended 7...e5, which won out over the more topical 7...a6 chosen by Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave, and it was clear that they really weren't familiar and comfortable with the line. Definitely a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. White was much already much better in the opening, and already lost by move 17. Carlsen rolled, and the only drama was when the World team would resign.

I'll post the game, with some notes, later today.