Daniel Naroditsky Takes Over as NY Times Columnist
Here is his first column (HT: Marginal Revolution), which is not so much a column as an annotated puzzle. Hopefully he will be given the freedom to have more substantive installments in the future.
Here is his first column (HT: Marginal Revolution), which is not so much a column as an annotated puzzle. Hopefully he will be given the freedom to have more substantive installments in the future.
Now, it just wouldn’t a Chess Mind blog without the occasional striking up the band to cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame, now would it? It’s not football season, but that’s okay: Notre Dame is excellent in many sports.
The most recent case in point: baseball. By virtue of their upset victory over the top-seeded Tennessee Volunteers, the Fighting Irish have qualified for the College World Series. Unlike the better-known Major League Baseball World Series, this is an eight-team affair; they haven’t yet made it to the final two. That will take some doing, starting with a battle against Texas this coming Friday. The full bracket is here; we shall see!
Kasparov's early trainer passes away at the age of 87.
Alexander Nikitin’s own career as a player did not make him a legend of the game. That’s not an insult—he became an International Master, which is a genuine accomplishment that most of us would be delighted to add to our resumes. But in a world with nearly 2000 grandmasters and around twice that many IMs, “legend” status requires more.
In Nikitin’s case, his claim to fame is as a trainer; specifically, as the trainer of one Garry Kasparov, from 1973 (the year Kasparov turned 10) until 1990 (the year of Kasparov’s last world championship match with Anatoly Karpov). While Kasparov was a hard working genius who may very well have become the dominant world champion he became with any number of other trainers, it was with Nikitin that it happened, and he has received widespread acclaim for his work. (He also, subsequently, worked with other very accomplished players like Etienne Bacrot and Dmitry Jakovenko, both of whom were at one time in the world’s top ten.) Nikitin recently wrote two very good books on his years with Kasparov, which I warmly recommend to you.
There’s a good obituary of Nikitin, who died on June 5 (as did Paul Keres, back in 1975), in the New York Times. As for his own chess games, you might have a look at his page on Chessgames.com; in particular, the win over Kupreichik was entertaining. His best-known game is probably this spectacular loss to Mikhail Tal. It’s a pity, perhaps, to have one’s most famous game be a loss, but it wasn’t a game for him to be ashamed of. Tal played wonderfully. And there’s a happy ending: in their only other game, Nikitin won.
Rest in peace.
On the verge of turning 50, the legend is still playing his brand of chess with success.
Alexei Shirov was one of the world’s absolute top players in the 1990s and the 2000s, but starting in the mid-2010s he took a dip. Not only did he fall from the tier of world championship contenders, but he also even dropped below the 2700 level. For younger chess fans, this may not mean very much, but for those of us who were watching Shirov in his best years it was a real shame. He was one of the most exciting players of his era, possibly of all time, and hardly a tournament went by when he didn’t manage to win at least one mind-blowing game.
It was therefore a pleasant surprise when he made it back over 2700 late last year while qualifying for the Grand Prix. His results there weren’t fantastic, to understate the matter, but in the last week or so he has once again righted the ship, crushing Jorden Van Foreest 3.5-0.5 in a short match to return to the promised land (i.e., to return to the 2700 club). Doing so also required one other win, against Gawain Jones in the 4NCL.
The five games were all entertaining (well, the four wins were), and as they flew under the radar while Norway Chess was going on, I’ve decided to annotate them for you - have a look. Shirov will turn 50 on the 4th of July, so we should enjoy these performances from him while he can still produce them. For those of you who are unfamiliar with chess - and for that matter, even for those of you who are - I can very strongly recommend his two “Fire on Board” books. His best chess is incandescent and inspirational, and worth your time if you are a chess fan.
I have been posting at thechessmind.net for many years now, but the combination of the expense and the technical difficulties that have cropped up from time to time have me searching for a different location.
Substack, for now, will be the place. Many of the writers I read have migrated to this platform, which seems to work well for them and for their subscribers (myself included). Let’s give it a shot and see how it goes—I look forward to your feedback, and hope that the change will give the blog a shot in the arm.
For now and possibly/probably through the Candidates, I will post both there and here, on the old site. If it goes well on Substack, I will stop posting here; if it doesn’t, I’ll stop posting there.
One question some of you may have, if you’re familiar with Substack, is this: will I start charging for my posts? The answer is that I may in time put some posts behind a paywall, but (a) not right away, (b) it will only be some of the posts, and (c) I will think of some perks for those who do subscribe. Some of you may be unhappy that content I have been offering for free for 17 years will now come at a price. I hear you, but would ask you to think about it the other way around: it’s not unreasonable for me to hope for some generosity after 17 years of free (and ad-free) work on your behalf. (Or rather, free for you. I’ve had to pay for the domain and the domain name.)
So, I hope there won’t be any hard feelings about this, and remember, even at worst you’ll still be able to see a substantial chunk of my forthcoming work for free. I hope you’ll continue to follow my work and to contribute as you have over the years with your comments, suggestions, and alerts about chess news and articles that escaped my attention. Thanks to you all, and I hope to see you all over there (at the Substack site) for years to come!
I've disappeared for a few weeks, with some reason. First, I was sick; second, I was traveling; third, I ran a chess camp. Now I'm back, just in time for the Candidates, which start tomorrow, and in fact I resumed blogging a couple of days ago, over on Substack. I'm going to repost that material over here now, and will do so for a while - probably through the Candidates, though I will post there first and repost here later. (So go there and subscribe if you want to get my material right away.)
Stay tune for a pile of posts, and I look forward to hearing from you soon, and seeing you over there.
Anish Giri continued his efficient play in the qualifying stage of the Chessable Masters, and finished with an impressive, undefeated 11/15, half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen (who only lost one game, to Praggnanandhaa) and a point ahead of Ding Liren (who was also undefeated).
A further point back was the trio of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, early leader Wei Yi, and Praggnanandhaa. Finally, in seventh and eight and taking the last two qualification spots, were David Anton and Aryan Tari. Fortunately, as tiebreaks without playoffs always have some element of arbitrariness to them, the player in ninth place, Pentala Harikrishna, was a full point back.
However...those aren't really the scores, because they used a 3-1-0 scoring system for the preliminaries. This doesn't change the qualifiers - the top 8 remains the top 8 - but it does change the order of finish for the players who were tied for 4th-6th. Instead of Mamedyarov, Wei Yi, and Praggnanandhaa, in that order, it's now the reverse: Praggnanandhaa, Wei Yi, and Mamedyarov. (In fact, Pragg was even with Ding Liren on points, with 25 apiece, but behind him on tiebreaks.)
I don't see the pairings on the official site, but assuming that the traditional knockout format of 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, etc. takes place, we'll have Giri vs. Tari, Carlsen vs. Anton, Ding vs. Mamedyarov, and Praggnanandhaa vs. Wei Yi. N.B.: In previous years, Meltwater tour events required two-day knockout matches comprising a two four-game mini-matches, with an Armageddon game if necessary at the end in case the matches were split 1-1. That format will still be in place for the final, but the quarter-final and semi-final matches will be one-day only.
With one exception, the players who finished in the top six of the rapid of the Superbet Rapid & Blitz were in the top six of today's blitz, the first of a double-round robin. But within that top six, the order was topsy turvy, far closer to the reverse than a repetition of the original order. To refresh your memory, here was the top six after the rapid:
1. Anand 14 (of 18)
2. Rapport 13
3. Duda 12
4. So 11
5. Aronian 10
6. Caruana 9
And here are the scores from the first blitz round-robin:
1. Caruana 8(!!) out of 9
2. Aronian 7
3. Duda 5.5
4-5. Anand, So 5
6. Wojtaszek 4.5
7-8. Gavrilescu, Rapport 3.5
9. Shevchenko 2.5
10. Korobov 1
Here then are the overall standings for the top six:
1. Anand 19
2. Duda 17.5
3-4. Caruana, Aronian 17
5. Rapport 16.5
6. So 16
It was a great performance by both Caruana and Aronian - so good, in fact, that they are now in third and second on the blitz rating list, just ahead of Magnus Carlsen and only behind Hikaru Nakamura.
On the previous days, I looked through all of the games, but was otherwise occupied today. Readers, if any games especially caught your attention, please mention the game(s) in the comments - thanks!
A reminder: the preliminary section of the Chessable Masters, as with all the Meltwater Tour events, is only important in a pass/fail sense: a player needs to be in the top eight to qualify for the knockout stage. So while it's terrific for Anish Giri to lead with an impressive, undefeated 9/12, half a point ahead of Ding Liren (also undefeated) and Magnus Carlsen, none of the points will carry over to the knockout.
Tomorrow, they'll play the last three games of the preliminaries, and several players currently on the outside looking in have a shot at making it into the top eight. Here are the full standings:
1. Giri 9 (of 12)
2-3. Ding, Carlsen 8.5
4-5. Mamedyarov, Wei Yi 7.5
6. Anton 7
7. Praggnanandhaa 6.5
8. Harikrishna 6
9. Tari 6 (but critically, behind on the tiebreaks)
10-11. Vidit, Grandelius 5.5
12. Shankland 4.5
13. Hansen 4
14-15. Mishra, Van Foreest 3.5
16. Jones 3
A game that caught my eye - and probably everyone else's - was Carlsen's round 12 game with Wei Yi, featuring 1.h4. The jokey first move aside, it was a rich game, full of content, and both sides can be proud of their play at certain moments in the game. Here it is.
Viswanathan Anand enjoyed a great performance in the rapid section of the 2022 Superbet Rapid & Blitz, though the last game may leave a sour taste in his mouth going into the blitz. He won his first five games before giving up a draw in the last round of day 2, and today opened with an impressive win over David Gavrilescu and an interesting draw with Fabiano Caruana. Unfortunately for the former World Champion, he lost a crazy, up-and-down game to Richard Rapport in the last round, and finished only half a point ahead of him. (Or rather, a point ahead, given the 2-1-0 scoring for the rapid.)
Interestingly, he could easily have finished half a point (or rather, a full point) back, had Rapport finished off his winning advantage against Wesley So in the penultimate round. Had he won that game, and still defeated Anand in the final game, he would have finished with six wins in a row.
Here are the standings, both normal and doubled-up, after the rapid. The next two days will see blitz round robins scored in the usual 1-.5-0 system.
1. Anand 7/9 (14/18)
2. Rapport 6.5 (13)
3. Duda 6 (12)
4. So 5.5 (11)
5. Aronian 5 (10)
6. Caruana 4.5 (9)
7-8. Wojtaszek, Shevchenko 3.5 (7)
9. Korobov 2.5 (5)
10. Gavrilescu 1 (2)
Finally, here are Anand's games from today.