31.01.2010 – The top seed and leader of the A-Group, Magnus Carlsen, drew his final game, as did his main contenders, which left the 19-year-old Norwegian the sole winner of the tournament. His FIDE ranking in the next list will most likely be the second highest in history. Kramnik and Shirov share 2nd-3rd. In the B-Group Anish Giri was first, ahead of top seed Naiditsch. Illustrated report.
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Nigel Davies:
Build a 1.d4 Repertoire Creating a Repertoire can be a difficult and demanding job, especially for
those with limited study time. Attempts to implement a lot of new openings at the
same time can set a player adrift in a sea of unknown chess patterns. This in turn can
have a catastrophic impact on their game.
On this DVD Nigel Davies explains how to go about this process of building a repertoire
the right way, with a minimal amount of stress or sweeping wholesale changes.
The last round of Wijk aan Zee 2010 turned out to be every bit as thrilling
as one could have hoped for. The round started with Carlsen half a point ahead
of Kramnik and Shirov, with all three having the white pieces.
The first of the leaders to finish was Kramnik, who got nowhere at all against
Kariakin, and a draw was agreed after 21 moves. The real excitement came in
Shirov-Dominguez.
At this point, rather than the prosaic but promising-looking capture on d6,
Shirov uncorked 22.Nxa5!? with the point that 22...Qxa5? loses to 23.Rxh6!
Play continued 22...Rxf3 23.e5 Be8 and now, with both flags hanging,
there ensued the amazing forced sequence: 24.exd6!? Qxa5 25.Rxh6! gxh6 26.Qxh6
Bf6 27.d7 Bxc3! 28.dxe8Q+ Rxe8
And now the astonishing 29.Qh1!! But not 29.Rd7?? Rf1+ 30.Ka2 Ra1+!
when it is White who is mated. 29...Re7. The point is that White's back
rank is guarded, so now a retreat of the rook, such as 29...Rf5? loses to 30.Rd7. 30.Qxf3 Bg7?? ½½. [Click
to replay]
At this point, a draw was agreed, but in fact, Black's last move was a fatal
blunder. White can now win immediately with 31.b4! Qc7 (31...Qb6 is the same;
Black must keep control of d8, to prevent 32.Rd8+) 32.Qa8+ Bf8 33.Rf1 and Black
cannot defend f8!
An amazing finish! As the legendary British TV darts commentator, Sid
Waddell, once memorably screamed, in his pronounced Geordie accent, "They've
got Shakespeare on BBC2, but you can't beat this for drama!"
World Champion Vishy Anand with two wins and eleven draws finshed in place
four
This left Carlsen needing only a draw to clinch outright first place, but the
drama was increased by the fact that, after playing unimpressively the whole
game, his desire to win had got the better of him, and he was facing a dangerous
N+P ending, a pawn down.
46...Kg5. I suspect this was based on a miscalculation, because after
White's obvious reply, Caruana thought for some time. Taking off the a2-pawn
by 46...Nb4 47.Nxa3 Nxa2 would have left a 3 v 2 ending with all pawns on the
same side. The presence of knights should give better winning chances than normal
in such positions, but whether it is enough is not clear. 47.Nxa3 Kf4 48.Nc2
Nb2 49.Nb4 h3+ 50.Kxh3 Kxf3 51.Kh4 Kf4 52.Nd5+ Kxe4 53.Ne7 Kf3 54.Nxg6 e4 55.Ne5+
Kf4 56.Ng4 Na4 ½½. [Click
to replay]
So, the 2010 Wijk aan Zee tournament ends in outright victory for the world
no. 1, Magnus Carlsen, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Shirov. In his blog
for Magnus wrote:
I’m happy to say I won the Corus 2010 A group in the end with 8.5/13
points, ahead of Kramnik and Shirov at 8 and Anand and Nakamura at 7.5. Having
described my last round blunder and subsequent save against Short in London
in December as a narrow escape, I could better have reserved the phrase for
today. As white against 17-year old F.Caruana I settled for a closed Roy Lopez
position out of the opening, but he defended precisely and the position was
fairly equal. In the middle game I found a plan that I thought would leave
me with a nice initiative, but had calculated horribly wrong and ended up
in a very difficult position. Instead of suffering without counterplay, I
sacrificed a pawn to activate my pieces. The knight endgame a pawn down was
difficult, but we both thought it should be possible to hold with precise
defence. In the fifth hour of play he allowed a line that drew fairly directly,
while he could have made me suffer a while longer.
In the meantime Kramnik had drawn with Karjakin and Anand with Van Wely,
while Shriov against Dominguez was a sharp fight that turned out to be a real
thriller. With very little time on the clock, Shirov found an incredible resource
that turned a desperate-looking position into an unclear one. Dominguez made
a blunder and offered a draw. Shirov didn’t see the winning line either
and accepted with seconds left in a clearly winning position. After the traditional
prize ceremony with pea soup there was a closing dinner for the players and
organisers in the A-group hotel. The famous Dutch football star Edgar Davids
is a chess enthusiast and he came to the hotel for a long chat which I really
appreciated. Now I’m looking forward to a week of vacation abroad before
returning to Norway.
Finally, I cannot leave you without giving the game Short-Smeets. This bore
little resemblance to anything one would normally expect to see in a modern-day
GM super-tournament; rather, it looks as though it should have been played 150
years ago, at Simpsons-in-the-Strand, for a stake of a shilling on either side.
In Group B, Anish Giri secured the half point he needed to win the event,
and he thus qualifies for next year's A Group.
Final standings
Group A
Group B
Group C
Video reports by Europe Echecs
video
report by GM Robert Fontaine
Live commentary on Playchess by Yasser Seirawan
Playchess commentator in the last two rounds: GM Yasser Seirawan
Playchess statistics for Sunday, January 31, 2010
Addendum: Piyush Ranjan of Delhi, India draws our attention
to the fact that the number of registered Playchess users on January 31, 2010,
at 18:30h was 314,159, which is exactly 100,000 times Pi (the ratio of a circle's
circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space). We are awestricken, but still
trying to figure out the mathematical and/or philosophical implications of this
fact.
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server .
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
30.01.2010 – Vishy Anand drew the first nine games of this event, and was to be found in the bottom half of the field. Today the World Champion beat his 2008 challenger Vladimir Kramnik, and after a win in round ten he is now in place four. After a draw against Peter Leko, Magnus Carlsen leads alone, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Shirov. The final round games begin an hour earlier tomorrow. Illustrated report.
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Nigel Davies:
Build a 1.d4 Repertoire Creating an can be a difficult and demanding job, especially for
those with limited study time. Attempts to implement a lot of new openings at the
same time can set a player adrift in a sea of unknown chess patterns. This in turn can
have a catastrophic impact on their game.
On this DVD Nigel Davies explains how to go about this process of building a repertoire
the right way, with a minimal amount of stress or sweeping wholesale changes.
The penultimate round of Wijk aan Zee 2010 saw major developments at the top
of the table, with world number one Magnus Carlsen the chief beneficiary.
In Leko-Carlsen the players repeat the same line of the Najdorf that had featured
in their game at the 2009 Tal Memorial. There , Carlsen had outplayed his opponent
to win a long endgame, but today the result was a series of early exchanges
and an inevitable draw. However, this half point sufficed to give the Norwegian
outright first place, going into the final round, as the World Champion handed
co-leader Kramnik his first defeat of the tournament.
21.Qc3 b6 22.Rad1 Qf6 23.Qg3 Nc6 24.Ng4 Qg6 25.d5 Na5 26.Bxc7 Bc2?! Here,
Fritz 12 suggests that Black is holding satisfactorily after 26...Bc5. Kramnik's
move is the start of a mistaken manoeuvre, which walks into a powerful exchange
sacrifice. 27.Rc1 Nb3?
28.Rxc2! Kramnik must have under-estimated the consequences of this
move. 28...Qxc2 29.Nh6+ Kh8 30.Nxf7+ Kg8 31.Nh6+ Kh8 32.Nf7+ Kg8 33.Nh6+
Kh8 34.Be5! White has two pawns for the exchange, and his main threat is 35.Bh5.
34...Qg6 35.Bg4 Rxc4 36.Qxb3 Rxe5 37.Rxe5 Rc1+ 38.Kh2 Bd6
39.f4. 39.Qe3 is possibly still more incisive, but the text seems good
enough. 39...Bxe5 40.fxe5 gxh6 41.Qe3 Qb1 42.d6 Rh1+ 43.Kg3 Re1 44.Qf4 Rf1
45.Bf3 1-0. []
Anand in the press conference after the game
World Champion on the rise: Anand now has a mathematical chance of winning the
event
Kariakin-Shirov saw another theoretical battle in the 6...Bc5 Spanish, which
has been one of the opening tabiyas of the event. Kariakin tried the
pawn sacrifice 18.e5, and although he achieved somewhat the better chances in
the ending, the draw always looked likely. The most remarkable feature of the
game, and a testament to the depth of Kariakin's preparation, is that
when the draw was agreed at move 39, his clock showed 1.52 remaining, some twelve
minutes more than he started the game with!
The game Smeets-van Wely must have caused the latter an embarrassing sense
of deja vu. Just as in his round four game with Ivanchuk, van Wely
faced 8.Qe2 against the Najdorf, and just as in the earlier game, he was in
dire trouble just a handful of moves later.
The other games were all drawn. Caruana-Nakamura was fought down to bare kings,
whilst Nigel Short's surprise opening choice of the 5...gxf6 Caro-Kann led only
to a steady draw against Tiviakov. Finally, Dominguez escaped with a draw against
Ivanchuk, in a game which the Ukrainian star will have been disappointed not
to win.
So, as we head into tomorrow's final round, Carlsen leads with 8.0, followed
by Kramnik and Shirov on 7.5, and Anand on 7.0. The relevant last round pairings
are Carlsen-Caruana, Kramnik-Kariakin, Shirov-Dominguez, and van Wely-Anand.
For the Norwegian the equation is simple – if he can beat Caruana, undisputed
first place is his. Play in the final round begins one hour earlier than usual,
at 12.30 pm European time.
Standings
Group A
Group B
Group C
Video reports by Europe Echecs
video
report by GM Robert Fontaine
Live commentary on Playchess by Yasser Seirawan
Today on the server Playchess.com GM Daniel King entertained the visitors with
three hours of live commentary. In the last round (January 31) we will have
GM Yasser Seirawan covering the games For a charge of fifty Ducats (about five
Euro) a visitor gets a twelve hour pass to listen to the live commentary. Premium
members can watch for free.
Playchess commentator GM Yasser Seirawan
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Schedule of commentators live on Playchess
16th Jan
FM Valeri Lilov
5:00 p.m.
17th Jan
GM Yasser Seirawan
5:00 p.m.
18th Jan
GM Yasser Seirawan
2:15 p.m.
19th Jan
GM Yasser Seirawan
2:15 p.m.
20th Jan
Free Day
21st Jan
GM Daniel King
3:30 p.m.
22nd Jan
GM Daniel King
3:30 p.m.
23rd Jan
GM Yasser Seirawan
2:15 p.m.
24th Jan
GM Yasser Seirawan
2:15 p.m.
25th Jan
Free Day
26th Jan
GM Yasser Seirawan
2:15 p.m.
27th Jan
GM Daniel King
3:30 p.m.
28th Jan
Free Day
29th Jan
GM Daniel King
3:30 p.m.
30th Jan
GM Yasser Seirawan
2:15 p.m.
31st Jan
GM Yasser Seirawan
1:00 p.m.
Schedule and results of Grandmaster Group A
Group A: Round 1 - Sat. Jan. 16th
Sergey Karjakin - Vishy Anand
½-½
Leinier Dominguez - Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Peter Leko - Alexei Shirov
0-1
Fabiano Caruana - Vassily Ivanchuk
½-½
Sergey Tiviakov - Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Jan Smeets - Hikaru Nakamura
½-½
Loek van Wely - Nigel Short
1-0
Group A: Round 2 - Sun. Jan. 17th
Vishy Anand - Nigel Short
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Loek van Wely
1-0
Magnus Carlsen - Jan Smeets
1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk - Sergey Tiviakov
½-½
Alexei Shirov - Fabiano Caruana
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik - Peter Leko
½-½
Sergey Karjakin - Leinier Dominguez
½-½
Group A: Round 3 - Mon. Jan. 18th
Leinier Dominguez - Vishy Anand
½-½
Peter Leko - Sergey Karjakin
½-½
Fabiano Caruana - Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Sergey Tiviakov - Alexei Shirov
0-1
Jan Smeets - Vassily Ivanchuk
0-1
Loek van Wely - Magnus Carlsen
0-1
Nigel Short - Hikaru Nakamura
0-1
Group A: Round 4 - Tues. Jan. 19th
Vishy Anand - Hikaru Nakamura
½-½
Magnus Carlsen - Nigel Short
½-½
Vassily Ivanchuk - Loek van Wely
1-0
Alexei Shirov - Jan Smeets
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik - Sergey Tiviakov
½-½
Sergey Karjakin - Fabiano Caruana
½-½
Leinier Dominguez - Peter Leko
½-½
Wednesday, January 20th –
Free day
Group A: Round 5 - Thurs. Jan. 21st
Peter Leko - Vishy Anand
½-½
Fabiano Caruana - Leinier Dominguez
½-½
Sergey Tiviakov - Sergey Karjakin
½-½
Jan Smeets - Vladimir Kramnik
0-1
Loek van Wely - Alexei Shirov
0-1
Nigel Short - Vassily Ivanchuk
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Group A: Round 6 - Fri. Jan. 22nd
Vishy Anand - Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Vassily Ivanchuk - Hikaru Nakamura
½-½
Alexei Shirov - Nigel Short
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik - Loek van Wely
1-0
Sergey Karjakin - Jan Smeets
½-½
Leinier Dominguez - Sergey Tiviakov
1-0
Peter Leko - Fabiano Caruana
1-0
Group A: Round 7- Sat. Jan. 23rd
Fabiano Caruana - Vishy Anand
½-½
Sergey Tiviakov - Peter Leko
½-½
Jan Smeets - Leinier Dominguez
½-½
Loek van Wely - Sergey Karjakin
½-½
Nigel Short - Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Alexei Shirov
1-0
Magnus Carlsen - Vassily Ivanchuk
1-0
Group A: Round 8 - Sun. Jan. 24th
Vishy Anand - Vassily Ivanchuk
½-½
Alexei Shirov - Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik - Hikaru Nakamura
1-0
Sergey Karjakin - Nigel Short
1-0
Leinier Dominguez - Loek van Wely
½-½
Peter Leko - Jan Smeets
1-0
Fabiano Caruana - Sergey Tiviakov
1-0
Monday, January 25th –
Free day
Group A: Round 9 - Tues. Jan. 26th
Sergey Tiviakov - Vishy Anand
½-½
Jan Smeets - Fabiano Caruana
1-0
Loek van Wely - Peter Leko
1-0
Nigel Short - Leinier Dominguez
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Sergey Karjakin
0-1
Magnus Carlsen - Vladimir Kramnik
0-1
Vassily Ivanchuk - Alexei Shirov
½-½
Group A: Round 10 - Wed. Jan. 27th
Vishy Anand - Alexei Shirov
1-0
Vladimir Kramnik - Vassily Ivanchuk
½-½
Sergey Karjakin - Magnus Carlsen
0-1
Leinier Dominguez - Hikaru Nakamura
½-½
Peter Leko - Nigel Short
½-½
Fabiano Caruana - Loek van Wely
½-½
Sergey Tiviakov - Jan Smeets
1-0
Thursday, January 28th –
Free day
Group A: Round 11 - Fri. Jan. 29th
Jan Smeets - Vishy Anand
½-½
Loek van Wely - Sergey Tiviakov
1-0
Nigel Short - Fabiano Caruana
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Peter Leko
½-½
Magnus Carlsen - Leinier Dominguez
1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk - Sergey Karjakin
½-½
Alexei Shirov - Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Group A: Round 12 - Sat. Jan. 30th
Vishy Anand - Vladimir Kramnik
1-0
Sergey Karjakin - Alexei Shirov
½-½
Leinier Dominguez - Vassily Ivanchuk
½-½
Peter Leko - Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Fabiano Caruana - Hikaru Nakamura
½-½
Sergey Tiviakov - Nigel Short
½-½
Jan Smeets - Loek van Wely
1-0
Group A: Round 13 - Sun. Jan. 31st
Loek van Wely - Vishy Anand
Nigel Short - Jan Smeets
Hikaru Nakamura - Sergey Tiviakov
Magnus Carlsen - Fabiano Caruana
Vassily Ivanchuk - Peter Leko
Alexei Shirov - Leinier Dominguez
Vladimir Kramnik - Sergey Karjakin
Schedule and results of Grandmaster Group B
Group B: Round 1 - Sat. Jan. 16th
Ni Hua - Erwin l'Ami
½-½
Emil Sutovsky - Dimitri Reinderman
1-0
Tomi Nyback - Liviu Nisipeanu
0-1
Anish Giri - Pentala Harikrishna
1-0
David Howell - Parimarjan Negi
½-½
Anna Muzychuk - Varuzhan Akobian
½-½
Arkadij Naiditsch - Wesley So
½-½
Group B: Round 2 - Sun. Jan. 17th
Erwin l'Ami - Wesley So
½-½
Varuzhan Akobian - Arkadij Naiditsch
0-1
Parimarjan Negi - Anna Muzychuk
½-½
Pentala Harikrishna - David Howell
½-½
Liviu Nisipeanu - Anish Giri
0-1
Dimitri Reinderman - Tomi Nyback
0-1
Ni Hua - Emil Sutovsky
1-0
Group B: Round 3 - Mon. Jan. 18th
Emil Sutovsky - Erwin l'Ami
½-½
Tomi Nyback - Ni Hua
0-1
Anish Giri - Dimitri Reinderman
½-½
David Howell - Liviu Nisipeanu
½-½
Anna Muzychuk - Pentala Harikrishna
0-1
Arkadij Naiditsch - Parimarjan Negi
½-½
Wesley So - Varuzhan Akobian
½-½
Group B: Round 4 - Tues. Jan. 19th
Erwin l'Ami - Varuzhan Akobian
1-0
Parimarjan Negi - Wesley So
½-½
Pentala Harikrishna - Arkadij Naiditsch
1-0
Liviu Nisipeanu - Anna Muzychuk
½-½
Dimitri Reinderman - David Howell
0-1
Ni Hua - Anish Giri
½-½
Emil Sutovsky - Tomi Nyback
0-1
Wednesday, January 20th –
Free day
Group B: Round 5 - Thurs. Jan. 21st
Tomi Nyback - Erwin l'Ami
½-½
Anish Giri - Emil Sutovsky
1-0
David Howell - Ni Hua
1-0
Anna Muzychuk - Dimitri Reinderman
½-½
Arkadij Naiditsch - Liviu Nisipeanu
1-0
Wesley So - Pentala Harikrishna
½-½
Varuzhan Akobian - Parimarjan Negi
0-1
Group B: Round 6 - Fri. Jan. 22nd
Erwin l'Ami - Parimarjan Negi
1-0
Pentala Harikrishna - Varuzhan Akobian
½-½
Liviu Nisipeanu - Wesley So
0-1
Dimitri Reinderman - Arkadij Naiditsch
½-½
Ni Hua - Anna Muzychuk
1-0
Emil Sutovsky - David Howell
1-0
Tomi Nyback - Anish Giri
0-1
Group B: Round 7 - Sat. Jan. 23rd
Anish Giri - Erwin l'Ami
½-½
David Howell - Tomi Nyback
1-0
Anna Muzychuk - Emil Sutovsky
½-½
Arkadij Naiditsch - Ni Hua
½-½
Wesley So - Dimitri Reinderman
1-0
Varuzhan Akobian - Liviu Nisipeanu
½-½
Parimarjan Negi - Pentala Harikrishna
½-½
Group B: Round 8 - Sun. Jan. 24th
Erwin l'Ami - Pentala Harikrishna
½-½
Liviu Nisipeanu - Parimarjan Negi
½-½
Dimitri Reinderman - Varuzhan Akobian
1-0
Ni Hua - Wesley So
½-½
Emil Sutovsky - Arkadij Naiditsch
½-½
Tomi Nyback - Anna Muzychuk
½-½
Anish Giri - David Howell
1-0
Monday, January 25th –
Free day
Group B: Round 9 - Tues. Jan. 26th
David Howell - Erwin l'Ami
0-1
Anna Muzychuk - Anish Giri
1-0
Arkadij Naiditsch - Tomi Nyback
1-0
Wesley So - Emil Sutovsky
½-½
Varuzhan Akobian - Ni Hua
0-1
Parimarjan Negi - Dimitri Reinderman
1-0
Pentala Harikrishna - Liviu Nisipeanu
½-½
Group B: Round 10 - Wed. Jan. 27th
Erwin l'Ami - Liviu Nisipeanu
½-½
Dimitri Reinderman - Pentala Harikrishna
1-0
Ni Hua - Parimarjan Negi
½-½
Emil Sutovsky - Varuzhan Akobian
½-½
Tomi Nyback - Wesley So
0-1
Anish Giri - Arkadij Naiditsch
½-½
David Howell - Anna Muzychuk
½-½
Thursday, January 28th –
Free day
Group B: Round 11 - Fri. Jan. 29th
Anna Muzychuk - Erwin l'Ami
½-½
Arkadij Naiditsch - David Howell
½-½
Wesley So - Anish Giri
0-1
Varuzhan Akobian - Tomi Nyback
½-½
Parimarjan Negi - Emil Sutovsky
½-½
Pentala Harikrishna - Ni Hua
½-½
Liviu Nisipeanu - Dimitri Reinderman
½-½
Group B: Round 12 - Sat. Jan. 30th
Erwin l'Ami - Dimitri Reinderman
½-½
Ni Hua - Liviu Nisipeanu
½-½
Emil Sutovsky - Pentala Harikrishna
½-½
Tomi Nyback - Parimarjan Negi
1-0
Anish Giri - Varuzhan Akobian
½-½
David Howell - Wesley So
½-½
Anna Muzychuk - Arkadij Naiditsch
0-1
Group B: Round 13 - Sun. Jan. 31st
Arkadij Naiditsch - Erwin l'Ami
Wesley So - Anna Muzychuk
Varuzhan Akobian - David Howell
Parimarjan Negi - Anish Giri
Pentala Harikrishna - Tomi Nyback
Liviu Nisipeanu - Emil Sutovsky
Dimitri Reinderman - Ni Hua
Schedule and results of Grandmaster Group C
Group C: Round 1 - Sat. Jan. 16th
Ray Robson - Soumya Swaminathan
1-0
Robin Swinkels - Abhijeet Gupta
½-½
Mariya Muzychuk - Nils Grandelius
0-1
Stefan Kuipers - Kjetil Lie
½-½
Peng Zhaoqin - Robin van Kampen
½-½
Benjamin Bok - Li Chao
0-1
Daniele Vocaturo - Sjoerd Plukkel
1-0
Group C: Round 2 - Sun. Jan. 17th
Soumya Swaminathan - Sjoerd Plukkel
½-½
Li Chao - Daniele Vocaturo
½-½
Robin van Kampen - Benjamin Bok
½-½
Kjetil Lie - Peng Zhaoqin
0-1
Nils Grandelius - Stefan Kuipers
0-1
Abhijeet Gupta - Mariya Muzychuk
½-½
Ray Robson - Robin Swinkels
1-0
Group C: Round 3 - Mon. Jan. 18th
Robin Swinkels - Soumya Swaminathan
1-0
Mariya Muzychuk - Ray Robson
½-½
Stefan Kuipers - Abhijeet Gupta
0-1
Peng Zhaoqin - Nils Grandelius
½-½
Benjamin Bok - Kjetil Lie
0-1
Daniele Vocaturo - Robin van Kampen
1-0
Sjoerd Plukkel - Li Chao
0-1
Group C: Round 4 - Tues. Jan. 19th
Soumya Swaminathan - Li Chao
0-1
Robin van Kampen - Sjoerd Plukkel
1-0
Kjetil Lie - Daniele Vocaturo
1-0
Nils Grandelius - Benjamin Bok
0-1
Abhijeet Gupta - Peng Zhaoqin
½-½
Ray Robson - Stefan Kuipers
1-0
Robin Swinkels - Mariya Muzychuk
1-0
Wednesday, January 20th –
Free day
Group C: Round 5 - Thurs. Jan. 21st
Mariya Muzychuk - Soumya Swaminathan
1-0
Stefan Kuipers - Robin Swinkels
½-½
Peng Zhaoqin - Ray Robson
0-1
Benjamin Bok - Abhijeet Gupta
½-½
Daniele Vocaturo - Nils Grandelius
1-0
Sjoerd Plukkel - Kjetil Lie
½-½
Li Chao - Robin van Kampen
½-½
Group C: Round 6 - Fri. Jan. 22nd
Soumya Swaminathan - Robin v. Kampen
0-1
Kjetil Lie - Li Chao
0-1
Nils Grandelius - Sjoerd Plukkel
1-0
Abhijeet Gupta - Daniele Vocaturo
1-0
Ray Robson - Benjamin Bok
1-0
Robin Swinkels - Peng Zhaoqin
½-½
Mariya Muzychuk - Stefan Kuipers
0-1
Group C: Round 7 - Sat. Jan. 23rd
Stefan Kuipers - Soumya Swaminathan
½-½
Peng Zhaoqin - Mariya Muzychuk
½-½
Benjamin Bok - Robin Swinkels
0-1
Daniele Vocaturo - Ray Robson
1-0
Sjoerd Plukkel - Abhijeet Gupta
0-1
Li Chao - Nils Grandelius
0-1
Robin van Kampen - Kjetil Lie
½-½
Group C: Round 8 - Sun. Jan. 24th
Soumya Swaminathan - Kjetil Lie
½-½
Nils Grandelius - Robin van Kampen
1-0
Abhijeet Gupta - Li Chao
½-½
Ray Robson - Sjoerd Plukkel
½-½
Robin Swinkels - Daniele Vocaturo
½-½
Mariya Muzychuk - Benjamin Bok
½-½
Stefan Kuipers - Peng Zhaoqin
0-1
Monday, January 25th –
Free day
Group C: Round 9 - Tues. Jan. 26th
Peng Zhaoqin - Soumya Swaminathan
½-½
Benjamin Bok - Stefan Kuipers
1-0
Daniele Vocaturo - Mariya Muzychuk
1-0
Sjoerd Plukkel - Robin Swinkels
0-1
Li Chao - Ray Robson
1-0
Robin van Kampen - Abhijeet Gupta
1-0
Kjetil Lie - Nils Grandelius
0-1
Group C: Round 10 - Wed. Jan. 27th
Soumya Swaminathan - Nils Grandelius
1-0
Abhijeet Gupta - Kjetil Lie
0-1
Ray Robson - Robin van Kampen
0-1
Robin Swinkels - Li Chao
0-1
Mariya Muzychuk - Sjoerd Plukkel
1-0
Stefan Kuipers - Daniele Vocaturo
1-0
Peng Zhaoqin - Benjamin Bok
0-1
Thursday, January 28th –
Free day
Group C: Round 11 - Fri. Jan. 29th
Benjamin Bok - Soumya Swaminathan
1-0
Daniele Vocaturo - Peng Zhaoqin
1-0
Sjoerd Plukkel - Stefan Kuipers
0-1
Li Chao - Mariya Muzychuk
1-0
Robin van Kampen - Robin Swinkels
1-0
Kjetil Lie - Ray Robson
0-1
Nils Grandelius - Abhijeet Gupta
0-1
Group C: Round 12 - Sat. Jan. 30th
Soumya Swaminathan - Abhijeet Gupta
0-1
Ray Robson - Nils Grandelius
½-½
Robin Swinkels - Kjetil Lie
½-½
Mariya Muzychuk - Robin van Kampen
1-0
Stefan Kuipers - Li Chao
½-½
Peng Zhaoqin - Sjoerd Plukkel
0-1
Benjamin Bok - Daniele Vocaturo
1-0
Group C: Round 13 - Sun. Jan. 31st
Daniele Vocaturo - Soumya Swaminathan
Sjoerd Plukkel - Benjamin Bok
Li Chao - Peng Zhaoqin
Robin van Kampen - Stefan Kuipers
Kjetil Lie - Mariya Muzychuk
Nils Grandelius - Robin Swinkels
Abhijeet Gupta - Ray Robson
Schedule (playing days)
January 2010
M
T
W
T
F
S
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Games begin at 13:30h local time (15:30 Moscow, 12:30 London, 7:30 a.m. NY),
except for the last round on January 31st, which begins at 12:30h. There are
three rest days, on January 20th, 25th, and 28th. For all three groups the rate
of play is 100 minutes/40 moves + 50 minutes/20 moves + 15 minutes + 30 seconds/move.
Location: The tournament takes place in the De Moriaan Community
Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee). There is running commentary on
the games of the Grandmaster Groups in a special Chess Pavilion, on the Village
Green in Wijk aan Zee (one minute walk from De Moriaan).
30.01.2010 – The Chess Festival in Gibraltar has set up an innovative broadcast suite called Archie, costing £100,000, which provides live audio and video streaming from the playing venue. The host is GM Stuart Conquest, who yesterday invited the guest of honour Boris Spassky to join him "for a few minutes". This turned into nearly three hours! Here are links and the solution to our Tannhäuser puzzle.
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Nigel Davies:
Build a 1.d4 Repertoire Creating a Repertoire can be a difficult and demanding job, especially for
those with limited study time. Attempts to implement a lot of new openings at the
same time can set a player adrift in a sea of unknown chess patterns. This in turn can
have a catastrophic impact on their game.
On this DVD Nigel Davies explains how to go about this process of building a repertoire
the right way, with a minimal amount of stress or sweeping wholesale changes.
Boris Spassky Steals The Show
By John Saunders
The Gibtelecom Chess Festival has always been at the forefront of new technology
and this year is no different. As many of you covering the event will have seen
the Masters tournament is being transmitted
live on the internet daily as from 3 pm (Gibraltar time). Grandmaster Stuart
Conquest delivers his commentary, and is joined by a number of guests during
the time of play.
The live-streaming in this new broadcasting suite known as the Archie Suite
captures play in the main Conference Hall where the competition is happening.
It has meant new cabling infrastructure within the hotel, including Structured
and Fibre cabling to increase the reach and quality of service for the chess
team at the hotel. A Camera Dome in the middle of the Chess Playing Hall allows
for better viewing of games. The Video and Audio Streaming of the live commentary
has this year been off loaded to a specialized online system, which has greatly
improved its quality, picture-in-picture features and reachability to all chess
viewers. The broadcasting facility has seen an investment of £100,000
from the Caleta Hotel in conjunction with engineers from Gibtelecom.
GM Stuart Conquest behind his desk in the Archie Suite
Round four
There was some great round four action here at the 2010 Gibtelecom Chess Festival,
but the show was stolen by a legend of chess, Boris Spassky. Around 1½
hours into the round, Boris strolled into the commentary room to watch the play
with GM Stuart Conquest and his audience (both physical and virtual, of course).
Stuart invited him to sit beside him and chat "for a few minutes".
This turned into nearly three hours! Within a few minutes we had the camera
on Boris and it didn't leave him for the full duration of his stay in the commentary
room. And the really, really good news, readers, is that you can enjoy every
minute of this video as, thanks to some great new facilities provided by Gibtelecom,
it has been stored for posterity and can be watched online right here.
Top standings after four rounds
#
Player
Pts
Nat.
Gen
Rtng
Perf
W-We
1
GM Bacrot, Etienne
3.5
FRA
M
2713
2764
+0.17
2
GM Adams, Michael
3.5
ENG
M
2694
2849
+0.63
3
GM Fressinet, Laurent
3.5
FRA
M
2670
2834
+0.67
4
GM Fridman, Daniel
3.5
GER
M
2654
2790
+0.51
5
GM Gustafsson, Jan
3.5
GER
M
2627
2829
+0.85
6
GM Sandipan, Chanda
3.5
IND
M
2622
2780
+0.60
7
GM Koneru, Humpy
3.5
IND
F
2614
2741
+0.47
8
GM Edouard, Romain
3.5
FRA
M
2608
2766
+0.60
9
GM Felgaer, Ruben
3.5
ARG
M
2591
2647
+0.21
10
GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal
3.5
IND
M
2584
2737
+0.57
11
GM Movsesian, Sergei
3.0
SVK
M
2708
2640
-0.26
12
GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco
3.0
ESP
M
2705
2694
+0.00
13
GM Kamsky, Gata
3.0
USA
M
2693
2658
-0.11
14
GM Istratescu, Andrei
3.0
ROU
M
2607
2507
-0.36
15
GM Lopez Martinez, Josep
3.0
ESP
M
2593
2510
-0.28
16
GM Halkias, Stelios
3.0
GRE
M
2566
2603
+0.26
17
IM Lenderman, Alex
3.0
USA
M
2560
2468
-0.33
18
GM Lemos, Damian
3.0
ARG
M
2556
2516
-0.12
19
GM Maze, Sebastien
3.0
FRA
M
2554
2960
+0.25
20
GM Malakhatko, Vadim
3.0
BEL
M
2549
2574
+0.15
21
GM Cramling, Pia
3.0
SWE
F
2528
2568
+0.30
22
GM Naumann, Alexander
3.0
GER
M
2525
2544
+0.20
23
GM Speelman, Jon S
3.0
ENG
M
2525
2428
-0.38
24
GM Guliyev, Namig
3.0
AZE
M
2516
2396
-0.44
25
GM Dzagnidze, Nana
3.0
GEO
F
2506
2524
+0.17
26
IM Shankland, Samuel L
3.0
USA
M
2491
2578
+0.42
27
GM Carlsson, Pontus
3.0
SWE
M
2476
2511
+0.27
28
IM Harika, Dronavalli
3.0
IND
F
2471
2505
+0.26
29
IM Zatonskih, Anna
3.0
USA
F
2466
2491
+0.21
30
WGM Zhukova, Natalia
3.0
UKR
F
2462
2607
+0.78
31
IM Krush, Irina
3.0
USA
F
2455
2469
+0.17
32
GM Bellon Lopez, Juan Manuel
3.0
ESP
M
2440
2476
+0.25
33
IM Hirneise, Tobias
3.0
GER
M
2421
2676
+1.34
34
Battaglini, Gabriel
3.0
FRA
M
2411
2605
+0.99
35
IM Sarkar, Justin
3.0
USA
M
2378
2333
-0.18
36
IM Saravanan, V.
3.0
IND
M
2356
2383
+0.24
37
IM Sedina, Elena
3.0
ITA
F
2335
2366
+0.26
38
IM Zozulia, Anna
3.0
BEL
F
2321
2375
+0.33
39
Kantans, Toms
3.0
LAT
M
2303
2235
-0.25
40
Dasaolu, Adeoye
3.0
ENG
M
2068
2420
+1.73
Chess and the Opera
You may remember our first Gibtelecom
Festival report, in which Norwegian GM Simen Agdestein had cancelled his
participation because he had to take part in Wagner's opera Tannhäuser
(we wish we had a dollar for every time we heard that excuse!). Agdestein
doesn't actually have a singing role, and we added a trivia question for our
readers: The children of which strong, active grandmaster actually sing
in Tannhäuser?
It does not come as a surprise that only one reader was able to answer this
question correctly: it was Michalis Kaloumenos of Athens, Greece, and the reason
he knew the answer was that his son Perikles sang in the same opera alongside
the son of the grandmaster.
Perikles Kaloumenos and Nicholas Short in full costume for Tannhäuser
So the correct answer is Nigel Short. His children Nicholas and Kyveli are
members of the Children's Choir 'Rosarte', which in early 2009 took part in
performances of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser. As Kyveli tells us: "It
was a production by the San Francisco Opera, directed by Graham Vick and the
musical director was Philippe Auguin. The adult choir as well as the corps de
ballet were from Greece's National Opera. The performances took place in the
Athens Concert Hall."
Ready for Tannhäuser: Kyveli Aliki and Nicholas Darwin Short
Kyveli continues: "Rosarte is directed by the inspirational Rosie Mastrosavva
who had, a year before, won a Gold Medal at the 2008 World Choir Games in Graz,
Austria, with the Children's Choir of the City of Athens, many of whose members
are also members of Rosarte. Rosarte Children's Choir has also taken part in
Greece's National Opera's production of Ruggero Leoncavallo's 'Pagliacci'. The
members are from 10 to 19 years old and the choir's reportoire ranges from pre-Classical
vocal music to contemporary Broadway songs. There is a Fan
Page on Facebook where one can find Youtube videos of some of our performances,
but sadly not from Tannhäuser due to copyright reasons. Also, a quick search
on YouTube will come up with videos from some of our performances."
Michalis Kaloumenos did send us a video of the choral of the young pilgrims
at the end of Act II, which is sung backstage. This is not a rehearsal, this
is an actual performance.
The choir is singing the German lyrics of Tannhäuser:
[Am hohen Fest der] Gnad und Huld
in Demut büß ich meine Schuld,
gesegnet, wer im Glauben treu!
Er wird erlöst durch Buß und Reu.
"Look how concentrated the children are, writes Michalis. "They are
aware that their song is being heard on the other side of the stage, in the
auditorium. Their eyes are fixed on the conductor's hands, and she (Rosie Mastrosava)
keeps an eye on the main conductor (Philippe Auguin) whom she can see on the
big monitor to her left. When their singing is over the children are very happy
for having done their job right and they hug each other while trying to stay
silent. As the orchestra finishes Act II and Tannhäuser follows his destiny:
Nach Rome!"
Scene from the San Francisco Opera production of Tannhäuser in Greece's
National Opera
A selection of games will be broadcast live on the official web site
and on the chess server .
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
29.01.2010 – Vladimir Kramnik was in a bit of trouble with his Petroff against Alexei Shirov, but his defences held. Meanwhile his main rival in this tournament, Magnus Carlsen, kept up the pressure and his opponent Leinier Dominguez cracked in time trouble. With that he caught up with Kramnik on the scoreboard. Carlsen's trainer Garry Kasparov showed us some lines in a previous game. Illustrated report.
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Nigel Davies:
Build a 1.d4 Repertoire Creating an can be a difficult and demanding job, especially for
those with limited study time. Attempts to implement a lot of new openings at the
same time can set a player adrift in a sea of unknown chess patterns. This in turn can
have a catastrophic impact on their game.
On this DVD Nigel Davies explains how to go about this process of building a repertoire
the right way, with a minimal amount of stress or sweeping wholesale changes.
Wijk as in Wake?
Before we embark on the report on round eleven we need to clear up a mistake.
In our round nine
report we stated that the name "Wijk" rhymes with bike, like,
Mike, pike or tike (and not with weak, beak, geek, reak, meek, seek or Greek).
Well, close, as Jo Devriendt of Belgium tells us, but not yet accurate: It is
pronounced like "wake", "take" and "make". The
"aan" is pronounced "ahn" as in the name of German football
player Oliver "Kahn" (so with a long "ah"), and "Zee"
is "Zey" as in "they", "may", "play".
Anyway, Jo Devriendt continues, since you're apparently interested in the local
linguistic aspect, here's why the Flemish and Dutch people would never just
say just "Wijk". A "Wijk" is an area in a city – for
instance the "student's quarter" would be translated "studentenwijk".
It shows resemblance with the English suffix "-wich" as in "Greenwich",
or the Norse "-vik" as in "Reykyavik". Sander Devriendt
of Bruges, Belgium, confirmed all of the above in a separate email.
Addendum: Jan Maarten van den Boogaart of Utrecht tells us
we were right the first time: "It's obvious that Flemish and Dutch people
often pronounce words differently, although they use the same language. When
I say Wijk it rhymes on bike." Merijn van Delft confirms this. What next?
Woik?
In the day's big clash, Shirov and Kramnik rattled out a long line of Petroff
theory, which had clearly been subjected to a serious amount of frybkation (computer
analysis) by both players. Like most long forcing lines in the Petroff, it led
to a level ending, and although Shirov subsequently outplayed his opponent to
the extent of putting him under serious pressure, Kramnik's defences held.
Kramnik and Shirov in the post mortem of their game in the press centre
This allowed Carlsen to join Kramnik in a share of the lead, after beating
Dominguez in typical fashion. Black fell behind on the clock early on, and eventually
cracked under the pressure.
Magnus Carlsen at the start of his round eleven game
Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez, the fifth victim of the Norwegian top seed
Carlsen,M (2810) - Dominguez Perez,L (2712) [D97]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (11), 29.01.2010 [Annotated by Carlsen for the
press] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5. Carlsen: He usually plays the Grunfeld Indian,
so that was expected. 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 00 7.e4 a6 8.e5. This
is more or less the main line. 8...b5 9.Qb3 Nfd7 10.Ng5. A bit primitive,
as it doesn't threaten anything.
Carlsen in the press room after the game: 10.Ng5 surely came from Kasparov?!
10...Nb6 11.Be3. It's hard for Black to play c7-c5. 11...Nc6 12.Rd1
Bf5. A bit unexpected, but I was happy with the position I got. 13.Be2
Na5 14.Qb4 Nac4 15.0-0. I was considering 15.Bc1 Bc2 16.0-0 Bxd1 17.Rxd1
but it's not very clear. 15...f6 16.Nf3 Nxe3 17.fxe3. I have
a space advantage and the Bg7 is not very good. 17...fxe5.
17...Bh6 18.e4 is very strong. 18.dxe5 Qe8 19.Qc5
19...Rc8. 19...Nd7?! 20.Qxc7 Rc8 21.Qa7 Nxe5 22.Nd5 is complicated,
but White should be coming out on top. 20.a4! If I can play
20.Nd4 without trouble, I would be much better. But now he has Nd7.
20...Nxa4 21.Nxa4 bxa4 22.Nd4. I was sure this was going
to be promising for me. If I can get Nc6 in, Black will be paralyzed. 22...Rb8!
23.g4 A bit of gamble. I was calculating 23.Nc6 Rxb2 24.Bc4+
Kh8 25.Rd8 Qxd8 26.Nxd8 Rxd8 27.Qxe7 Rbb8 but it's not at all obvious for me
White is winning. 23...Be4. Probably also not bad. 23...Bd7
24.Rxf8+ Bxf8 25.e6 looks strong, but maybe he can survive after 25...Bc8. Doesn't
look very healthy, but I didn't see anything clear, for example 26.Nc6 Rb6 27.Rd8
Rxc6 28.Qd4 Qxd8 29.Qxd8 Bxe6.
24.Ne6 Rxf1+ 25.Bxf1 c6 26.Ng5. Maybe a stupid move, overestimating
my position. He was in a big time trouble, which explains some of his decisions
later on. 26...Bd5 27.e4 Bb3 28.Bc4+ e6 29.Nxe6 Bxc4 30.Qxc4
30...Kh8?? Now White is winning! 30...Bxe5 is by far his best
choice. Black could even be better, for example 31.Rf1 Qe7 32.Nd8+ Kh8 33.Nxc6
Bxh2+. 31.Nxg7 Kxg7 32.e6 Rb7 33.Qc3+ Kg8 34.Rd6 Re7 35.Rxc6 Qf8 36.Rc8
There are many ways to win, but this is quite simple. 36...Re8 37.Rxe8
Qxe8 38.Qf6 Qc8 39.Kg2 Qc2+ 40.Kh3 Qc5 41.Kh4. I kind of like this
move, as he doesn't have any checks. 41...Qb4 42.Qf7+ Kh8 43.e7 Qe1+
44.Kg5 Qe3+ 45.Qf4
I was hoping for 45...Qc5+ 46.Kh6 Qxe7 47.Qb8+. I was really tired today, but
of course I'm happy to win. 1-0. [Click
to replay]. We add that there is another neat point: 45...h6+
46.Kxg6 Qxf4 47.e8Q+ and mates.
Magnus Carlsen, now in the lead together with Vladimir Kramnik
Ivanchuk had much the better of Kariakin for most of the afternoon, but his
advantage disappeared after the excessively rapacious capture on a5.
There were short draws in the games Smeets-Anand and Nakamura-Leko, and a Short
draw in Nigel-Caruana.
B Group leader Anish Giri had a monumental slice of luck, when closest rival
Wesley So blundered into a mate in two, in a game he had been completely winning.
35.Qc1? [35.Qe2 Nf2 36.Rf1 was winning.] 35...Qg3?! [35...Nf2
was safer] 36.Ne2?? Rf1+ and mate on the next move. 0-1. That
keeps Giri in first place in the group. In Group C, Li Chao won again, and has
a lead of a point and a half, with just two rounds remaining. [Click
to replay]
Addendum (by Frederic Friedel)
On Thursday evening I had the somewhat intimidating pleasure of analysing a
few games on the phone with Garry Kasparov. He had just arrived in New York
on a flight from Moscow. Naturally I was armed with a Fritz-on-steroids, while
he sat in his apartment staring intensely at the wall (he had not yet booted
up his notebook). The games we went through were all by his protégé
Magnus Carlsen. I took notes of the rapid-fire lines he produced as best I could
– any errors in the following must be blamed on my limited ability to
grasp what an impatient 2800+ master is saying.
18.Bh3? After 18.Rfd1 d4 19.Qf5 Black is objectively on the
verge of collapse. 19...Re8 (19...Bd6 20.axb4 Bxe2 21.bxc5 Bxd1 22.Rxd1) 20.Nxd4
cxd4 21.Rxd4 Qc7 (21...Rc7 22.Be4) 22.Rxd7 Qe5 23.Qxe5 fxe5 24.Nb6 Rc2 25.Nd5
and it is an open question whether Black can survive.
18...Bb5 19.axb4 axb4 20.Rfd1 d4 21.Bf5 Ne5 22.Bxh7+. [22.Nxe5
fxe5 23.b3 and White has an easy game.] 22...Kg7 23.Nxe5 fxe5 24.Bf5
Rc6 25.Qe4 Rh8 26.Qxe5+ Bf6 27.Qe4 Re8 28.Qg4+ Kf8
29.Be4? 29.Bd7 Bxe2 (Kramnik looked at this variation in the
press conference and said "Maybe just 29...c4". But Kasparov thinks
that after that 30.e3 must be close to winning for White) 30.Qh3 Bxd1 31.Rxd1
Ree6 32.Bxe6 fxe6 33.b3 and White probably cannot lose: 33...Qd5 34.Qh6+ Bg7
35.Qf4+ Kg8 36.Qb8+ Kh7 37.Qe8 etc. Black cannot win with such a king.
29...c4 30.Bxc6 Bxc6 31.Qh5 Re5 32.Qh6+ Ke7
33.e4. Garry mused that 33.Qd2 Qd5 34.Qxb4+ Ke8 35.Qb8+ Bd8
36.f3 Rxe2 37.Qf4 d3 38.Rf1 might be playable – "it requires Black
to show something great." 33...d3 34.Qe3 Bxe4
35.Nb6?? Naturally this was a terrible blunder, but Kasparov
concedes that White might already be lost in this position. 35...Bb7
36.Qf4 Qxb6 37.Qxc4 Re2 38.Rf1 0-1.[Click
to replay]
The steel mills of Wijk aan Zee
Standings
Group A
Group B
Group C
Video reports by Europe Echecs
video
report by GM Robert Fontaine
Live commentary on Playchess by Yasser Seirawan
Today on the server Playchess.com GM Yasser Seirawan entertained the visitors with
three hours of live commentary. In the last two rounds (January 30 and 31) we
will have GM Yasser Seirawan covering the games For a charge of fifty Ducats
(about five Euro) a visitor gets a twelve hour pass to listen to the live commentary.
Premium members can watch for free.
Playchess commentator GM Yasser Seirawan
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"Edit Payments Fill up account". This takes you to a special purchase
page with your account name automatically passed on, to simplify the process.
29.01.2010 – You know him from the live commentary of Wijk aan Zee on Playchess. Grandmaster Daniel King has been a professional chess player for more than twenty years. At the same time he has distinguished himself as a coach, helping many of Englands younger generation to achieve their potential. He can help you too, with his popular Power Play DVDs, of which there are now a dozen.
Advertisement
Nigel Davies:
Build a 1.d4 Repertoire Creating an can be a difficult and demanding job, especially for
those with limited study time. Attempts to implement a lot of new openings at the
same time can set a player adrift in a sea of unknown chess patterns. This in turn can
have a catastrophic impact on their game.
On this DVD Nigel Davies explains how to go about this process of building a repertoire
the right way, with a minimal amount of stress or sweeping wholesale changes.
Power
Play 12 – The Hedgehog
By Daniel King
The Hedgehog is not just an opening, it is a system. A system that can be
used against 1.c4, against 1.e4 and also 1.d4. Some players, such as the Swedish
Grandmaster Ulf Andersson, appear to play very little else with black. Blacks
pieces curl up behind a row of pawns on the third rank and invite White to attack
at which point they spring out from behind the barricades to give the aggressor
a nasty shock. The Hedgehog can easily transform into a tiger... This is modern
chess.
Karpov was one of the first great exponents of the counter-attacking Hedgehog,
Kasparov was also a great devotee and Kramnik and Anand are also experienced
users. This DVD not only gives you specific theoretical advice on the main Hedgehog
lines, but also looks at general strategy for both sides. Whether you play with
White or Black, this DVD will help your game. Throughout the DVD, specially
selected positions will enable you to test your understanding of the subject.
The Power Play series is suitable for anyone looking to improve their chess,
but also provides ready-made lessons and exercises for a trainer. Video running
time: 5 hours.
Grandmaster Daniel King has been a professional chess player for more than
twenty years. During that time he has represented his country on many occasions,
including an historic match victory over the Soviet Union in Reykjavik, 1990.
At the same time he has distinguished himself as a coach, helping many of Englands
younger generation to achieve their potential. Besides his chess career, he
has built up a reputation as a commentator on television, radio and the internet.
He is also an award-winning author of more than 15 books.
The games of the current Wijk aan Zee tournament are being broadcast live on
Playchess. Anyone who uses Fritz 12 to log into the server will appreciate the
new features, like the following:
In the broadcast room the different events are listed as separate tournaments.
Click one if the tournaments and the games that are being broadcast are displayed
below, so you can load any that is of interest.
If you double-click the tournament all the games or at least the eight most
important all the are loaded in one window. You can start an analysis engine,
which follows any board you click. Naturally all boards are kept up-to-date
as the moves come in.
Live audio commentary today was by GM Daniel King, who discussed the games
with the kibitzers
Playchess (and ChessBase Magazine) commentator GM Daniel King
During the Wijk aan Zee tournament there are usually over 7000 members online
on Playchess.com. Each dot on the map represents a player and his or her place
of residence the dots in the middle of the ocean are people who have not given
their location correctly, or have entered weird geo coordinates.
Power
