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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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.
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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.
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.
29.01.2010 – An Englishman, a Frenchman and a German sounds like the start of a tired old music-hall joke are in the lead with 3.0/3 points in the Masters group of the 8th Gibtelecom Chess Festival in Gibraltar. They are Michael Adams, Laurent Fressinet and Jan Gustafsson. Notworthy: Super-GM Ivan Cheparinov drew after a queen-sac brilliancy by Norwegian amateur Victor Havik. Round three 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.
And then there were three
By John Saunders – with photos by Zeljka Malobabic
The pace hotted up in the third round of the 2010 Gibtelecom International
Chess Festival as the leaders were whittled down to three, consisting of an
Englishman, a Frenchman and a German (sounds like the start of a tired old music-hall
joke but we’re being deadly serious here).
On the way up: British GM Michael Adams
The Englishman is Michael Adams, who was the long-time English number one
– and indeed the world number four for some time in the 2000s. Nigel Short
took back the English number one spot a few months ago but Michael Adams’
recent fine run of form may seem him regain the top spot and also his 2700 rating
status. In the tournament so far Michael has beaten Woman Grandmaster Dagne
Reizniece, Indian International Master (and also Woman Grandmaster) Harika Dronavalli
and now Greek Grandmaster Stelios Halkias.
French GM Laurent Fressinet
The Frenchman is Laurent Fressinet, who has beaten Belgian International Master
(and Woman Grandmaster) Anna Zozulia, German Grandmaster Sebastian Siebrecht
and Greek International Master Spyridon Kapnisis. 28-year-old Laurent was to
come to Gibraltar with his chess (and poker) playing wife Almira Skripchenko
but Almira unfortunately had to drop out. Laurent seems to be doing very well
in her absence.
German GM Jan Gustafsson
The German Grandmaster sharing the lead with Michael Adams and Laurent Fressinet
is Jan ‘Gusty’ Gustafsson, who only entered the tournament field
very late in the day. So far Jan has beaten Gordon Andre, also of Germany, International
Master Drasko Boskovic of Serbia and Georgian Grandmaster Nana Dzagnidze who,
incidentally, won the Gibtelecom Festival women’s first prize in 2009.
In tomorrow’s fourth round games Laurent Fressinet will have the advantage
of the white pieces against Michael Adams, while Jan Gustafsson will have the
black pieces against Grandmaster Paco Vallejo Pons, who heads the Spanish contingent
in Gibraltar.
Top standings after three rounds
#
Player
Pts
Nat.
Gen
Rtng
Perf
W-We
1
GM Adams, Michael
3.0
ENG
M
2694
3195
+0.66
2
GM Fressinet, Laurent
3.0
FRA
M
2670
3168
+0.64
3
GM Gustafsson, Jan
3.0
GER
M
2627
3158
+0.74
4
GM Bacrot, Etienne
2.5
FRA
M
2713
2662
-0.11
5
GM Movsesian, Sergei
2.5
SVK
M
2708
2692
-0.02
6
GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco
2.5
ESP
M
2705
2732
+0.11
7
GM Kamsky, Gata
2.5
USA
M
2693
2718
+0.11
8
GM Fridman, Daniel
2.5
GER
M
2654
2704
+0.19
9
GM Sandipan, Chanda
2.5
IND
M
2622
2694
+0.25
10
GM Koneru, Humpy
2.5
IND
F
2614
2643
+0.11
11
GM Edouard, Romain
2.5
FRA
M
2608
2684
+0.26
12
GM Lopez Martinez, Josep
2.5
ESP
M
2593
2532
-0.14
13
GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal
2.5
IND
M
2584
2643
+0.19
14
GM Felgaer, Ruben
2.5
ARG
M
2573
2515
-0.13
15
GM Lemos, Damian
2.5
ARG
M
2556
2563
+0.06
16
GM Malakhatko, Vadim
2.5
BEL
M
2549
2627
+0.27
17
GM Stefanova, Antoaneta
2.5
BUL
F
2545
2714
+0.63
18
GM Cramling, Pia
2.5
SWE
F
2528
2537
+0.06
19
GM Naumann, Alexander
2.5
GER
M
2525
2510
-0.02
20
GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra
2.5
RUS
F
2523
2704
+0.66
21
GM Bindrich, Falko
2.5
GER
M
2512
2689
+0.65
22
GM Hoffmann, Michael
2.5
GER
M
2508
2667
+0.59
23
IM Javakhishvili, Lela
2.5
GEO
F
2493
2481
-0.02
24
IM Shankland, Samuel L
2.5
USA
M
2491
2576
+0.28
25
IM Cmilyte, Viktorija
2.5
LTU
F
2489
2670
+0.67
26
IM Cori, Jorge
2.5
PER
M
2483
2901
+0.27
27
WGM Zhukova, Natalia
2.5
UKR
F
2462
2641
+0.66
28
IM Hirneise, Tobias
2.5
GER
M
2421
2731
+1.16
One of the joys of open competition is the element of surprise when an unfancied
player stands up to a seasoned grandmaster. The third round of the Gibtelecom
Festival had a wonderful example of this (in fact, it was quite reminiscent
of the third round of the English FA Cup which also throws up amazing upsets).
Ivan Cheparinov is a very strong grandmaster from Bulgaria who has been rated
above 2700 and spends most of his time seconding former FIDE World Champion
Veselin Topalov at major events. In a few months he will almost certainly be
the leading figure in Topalov’s support team when he challenges current
World Champion Vishy Anand for the World Chess Championship.
Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov
But today Cheparinov faced a humble amateur – 31-year-old Victor Havik
from Norway. Victor doesn’t have a chess title and his rating (whisper
it softly) is even lower than the current writer. And I haven’t pushed
a pawn for a few years now. With a 567 rating difference this should have been
a walk in the park for the higher rated player. But maybe the Norwegian amateur
had one thing going for him – the Magnus Carlsen factor. Norwegian chess
has had an almighty shot in the arm with the advent of the teenaged genius.
Untitled Norwegian amateur Victor Havik
It was a very long game but Victor kept Ivan at bay for more than six hours.
Even so, wise heads were still predicting ultimate victory for the Bulgarian
when Victor found an improbably beautiful queen sacrifice. It didn’t win
the game (that would have been too much of a fairy story) but it did hold a
draw.
61...Qxd6!! In fact, other moves should also hold a draw but
super-grandmasters have a way of playing on and winning if you allow them to
play on and on. The beauty of this move is that it is forcing. 62.Qxd6.
Some incredulous spectators, watching the game on the electronic chess displays
scattered around the hotel, though that Black had taken leave of his senses
and thrown away the game.
62...Ng4+ 63.Kh3 Nf2+ 64.Kh2 Ng4+ 65.Kh3. If 65.Kh1, Black
simply plays a perpetual check with 65...Nf2+, etc, and if White were rash enough
to try escaping the checks with 66.Kg1?? then Black would even win with 66...Ne4+,
discovering a check on the king and winning the queen for nothing. 65...Nf2+
66.Kh4. Now for the clever sting in the tail...
66...Bg5+!! ½–½. Now White has no choice
but to play 67.Kxg5 when 67...Ne4+ forks king and queen. Then, after 68.Kf4
Nxd6 69.Ke5 Nxc4+ 70.Kd5, the king eliminates the final pawn and secures a draw. []
Guest of honour: tenth World Champion Boris Spassky
French Super-GM Etienne Bacrot
World's number two ranked female player Koneru Humpy, India
Former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria
Maidens fair: IM Tania Sachdev, India and GM Nana Dzagnidze, Georgia
Women's world champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, adoring fan
The Gibtelecom International Chess Festival is taking place in the Caleta
Hotel in Gibraltar. The Festival is now the leading tournament of its type
in the world, with a prize fund of over £100,000 and is sponsored by the
Gibraltar Government Sports and Leisure Authority, Gibtelecom, Anglo Hispano
Co. Ltd., Bentley Property Services Ltd., Canillas, Casais, Gibmaroc Ltd., Deloitte,
Gibro Group, Isolas, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, Party Gaming, Saccone &
Speed, The Caleta Hotel and Tradewise Insurance Company Ltd.
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!
Power
