exd5!

17.05.2010
– The publication of the open letter yesterday by the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, on the endorsement of Anatoly Karpov for the FIDE Presidency, has led to an unprecedented number of critical emails, especially from readers in Russia. Were we not fact-checking our reports, or were we in fact actively supporting the current administration? The letters contain a number of interesting links.

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More information...

The letters, mainly from Russian readers, accuse us of publishing the original
Ilyumzhinov letter "without checking the facts", and imply that we
may be doing that out of self-interest ("do you have commercial plans with
the current FIDE leadership or with David
Kaplan, whom you are also promoting?"). Naturally we are not –
the open letter by the current FIDE President arrived on our electronic doorstep
just after midnight on Saturday and we published it as delivered. Subsequently
many chess blogs have done likewise.

The main point of criticism was Ilyumzhinov's statement in the letter that
"a meeting was originally [scheduled] for 5.00 p.m. in Mr Dvorkovich’s
office, and it was suddenly changed by Mr Bakh notifying some of the delegates
that they should meet at 4.30 p.m. at the premises of the Russian Chess Federation.
The Chairman of the Russian Chess Federation was not notified at all. This clearly
violates the statutes, which determine that all meetings are to be presided
over by the Chairman."

Apparently this is not completely accurate. Our readers sent us links –
and in fact screen shots ("in case anything is changed") of the official
announcement of the Supervisory Board, delivered by the Russian Chess Federation
on May 5th. It clearly states that the meeting would be held in the Central
Chess Club at 5 p.m. on May 14.

This notice is still up on the RCF
site. The translation of the critical passage reads

The meeting of the Supervisory Board RCF
05/05/2010 PM
Central Chess Club M. Mk Botvinnik
May 14 2010 17.00

Agenda of the meeting

1. 1. Nomination of a candidate for FIDE President of the Russian Chess Federation.
AV Dvorkovich

2. 2. Preparations for the World Chess Olympiad in 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Etc...

Executive Secretary G. Vladimirov

An updated agenda,
published two days later, also give the Central Chess Club as the venue for
the March 14 17:00h meeting.

Nomination
of Karpov against
administrative resources (video)

A New Times news page has provided full video coverage of the meeting that
took place at the Central Chess Club in Moscow. "Even before it was held
Arkady Dvorkovich announced the support of the RCF for the candidacy of Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov. But at the same time a number of leading players around the world
supported Anatoly Karpov, and the public expected Russia to support their champion.
Dvorkovich tried to move the scheduled conference to another place, where the
presence of the press would be limited. However the meeting in the Central Chess
Club was able to collect a quorum – more than 17 of 32 board members –
and the meeting began, despite a telephone warning by the Vice-Premier of Russia
Alexander Zhukov that the meeting would be considered illegitimate." [Zhukov
used to be the President of the Russian Chess Federation until Vladimir Putin
made it impossible for high-level government officials to hold such extraneous
posts.]

Delegates voting for Karpov at the meeting in the video below

The New Times provides extensive video footage of the RCF meeting that voted
to nominate Karpov as the Candidate for FIDE Presidency.

There are eight more video sequences on the New
Times report. They are naturally all in Russian, though we have found an
English transcription of Kasparov's speech to the delegates on the Natalia
Pogonina web site. The Karpov
Campaign HQ have provided an English transcript of Karpov's speech to the
delegates.

• Read also: Dvorkovich:
  I will under no circumstances work with Karpov (in Russian)

Karpov’s Letter on Receiving Russian Nomination

I am delighted to have been nominated by the Russian Chess Federation on May
14 and I will proudly stand as Russia’s nominee for the Presidency of
FIDE. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov lost an open vote and now has no basis to pursue re-election
under FIDE rules.

The events of May 14 are clear and well-documented. The meeting of the Supervisory
Council of the RCF was called by Kirsan’s supporter Arkady Dvorkovich,
the non-voting president of that body. The meeting was announced on the RCF
website, weeks in advance, to take place at the MM Botvinnik Central Chess Club,
where all such business has been conducted for decades.* Therefore, Ilyumzhinov’s
statements in his open letter to delegates on May 15 saying the scheduled location
of the meeting was changed are demonstrably false. The full story of what took
place on May 14 – that it was Dvorkovich who attempted to move and then
to cancel the meeting – is available here at my campaign website.

It is revealing that Ilyumzhinov insults the process by which I was nominated.
Council members representing regions all across Russia met in orderly fashion
in an open forum with the attendance of the media and outside observers. They
listened to statements, asked questions, and debated the decision. Then they
voted, again in full view of cameras and the world. It is a shame Ilyumzhinov
decided not to attend, he might have learned something about democracy. Full
article on the Karpov Campaign site...

• Read also: Karpov’s
  May 14 Statement to the Russian Federation

ChessBase reports on the 2010 FIDE Elections

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17.05.2010
– There are rumours
that the team of World Championship Challenger Veselin Topalov spent 100,000
Euros to secure a 112 core computer cluster, with the latest Rybka 4 program
exclusively reserved for their use until the end of the match. How did the reigning
champion Viswanathan Anand counter this awesome hardware advantage of the opponent.
Answers today at 17:00h CEST on Playchess.

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ChessBase Magazine Extra 135

biggest tournament:
European Women Championship (1. Cramling): 863 games

Amber tournaments in Nizza (1. Ivanchuk and
Carlsen)
Championships of: Bulgaria, Danmark,
Germany, Vietnam, and more
more games of players rated over 2700: French leagueCBM Extra
with videos in chess media format:

Leonid Kritz shows a classical gamee
Lasker-Capablanca
Valeri Lilov has recorded two videos:
Spassky-Tal, Tallinn 1973, and Kramnik-Deep Junior played in 2000
More information...

The story is that the Topalov team had access to four twelve-core machines
and eight eight-core systems all connected into a cluster of 112 processors.
This awesome hardware was running a cluster version of Rybka 4 that was not
available to anyone else.

This is what a computer cluster looks like – with just 52 cores. Topalov's
had 112.

What a powerful cluster is able to do is shown in a picture that was circulated
in computer chess forums. Apparently during the 2008
World Computer Chess Championship in Beijing Rybka 3 running on a 40 core
cluster announced mate in 1942 moves. We have no idea if this is accurate, but
you can see for yourself in the following photograph
circulated by the Rybka operator.

So how did Anand counter the massive hardware advantage of his challenger in
Sofia? During the match that was of course a closely guarded secret. But now
that it's over Vishy is willing to spill some of his secrets. At 17:00h CEST
(= 16:00h London, 11 a.m. New York, 19:00h Moscow) you will be able to hear
him talk about his match preparations, his seconds and the cluster he used.
All of this live on the Playchess Server.
A transcript of the most interesting passages will be provided at a later date.

In the meantime you may want to study the following picture, which shows the
Anand team in Sofia:

Standing in the front row are GM Peter Heine Nielsen, Eric van Reem, GM Rustam
Kasimdzhanov, Hans Walter Schmitt, Vishy Anand, Aruna Anand, GM Surya Ganguly,
GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek. In the second row on the left: Christian Bossert, Mark
Lefler. All of
the GM seconds worked with Anand in his 2008 match against Vladimir Kramnik.
You will learn more about what they all did this time in the Anand interview
and in future articles.

The interview with Anand will be broadcast live on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a client on the Playchess page and register online.

Chessbase.com

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17.05.2010
– The Max Euwe Veteran-Youth match challenge finished , and can be considered an unequivocal success. Five young Dutch talents had the opportunity to butt heads with experienced grandmasters in serious four-game matches, a rare opportunity to learn and gain experience. Four were beaten by the GMs, 15-year-old Dutch Champion Anish Giri, scored a remarkable 2-2 draw. Final report.

Advertisement

ChessBase Magazine Extra 135

biggest tournament:
European Women Championship (1. Cramling): 863 games

Amber tournaments in Nizza (1. Ivanchuk and
Carlsen)
Championships of: Bulgaria, Danmark,
Germany, Vietnam, and more
more games of players rated over 2700: French leagueCBM Extra
with videos in chess media format:

Leonid Kritz shows a classical gamee
Lasker-Capablanca
Valeri Lilov has recorded two videos:
Spassky-Tal, Tallinn 1973, and Kramnik-Deep Junior played in 2000
More information...

Max Euwe Matches in Amsterdam

From Thursday, May 13, to Sunday, May 16, the Max Euwe Center in Amsterdam
staged five matches for talented young Dutch players.

Results of round four

Anish Giri	1-0	Nigel Short
Robin van Kampen	0-1	Lubomir Ftacnik
Benjamin Bok	½-½	Yasser Seirawan
Lisa Schut	½-½	Sebastian Siebrecht
Anne Haast	0-1	Dennis de Vreugt

The top billed match was of course between British GM Nigel Short and the 2009
Dutch Champion, 15-year-old GM Anish Giri. Though Short had the clear Elo edge
with 2684 Elo and a 50-point advantage, one also had to wonder how valid Giri's
rating is at this point considering his youth and meteoric rise over the last
few years. Short began well, and came close to winning the second game and then
actually won the third, essentially 'stamping his authority' on the match –
or so it seemed. The fourth game took a very different direction and Giri played
an extremely unpleasant exchange sac that left Nigel short of ideas (pun intended).

Anish trying to remember the theory after Nigel Short has sprung the Chigorin
Defence on him

Giri,A (2642) - Short,N (2685) [D02]
Max Euwe Match Amsterdam NED (4), 16.05.2010

1.d4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 Bg4 4.cxd5 Bxf3 5.gxf3 Qxd5 6.e3 e5 7.Nc3 Bb4 8.Bd2
Bxc3 9.bxc3 Nf6 10.c4 Qd6 11.d5 Ne7 12.Rb1 b6 13.Bb4 c5 14.dxc6 Qxd1+ 15.Rxd1
Nxc6 16.Ba3 Rd8 17.Bd6?

The question mark is by Anish Giri, who tells us that he awarded it because
the move turns a position from strategically winning to very, very complicated.
"To be honest I played it, then went for a stroll thinking that I already
won, but when I came back, I saw Black could play Nd4 and almost cried. But
still, this way, the whole world must think that I am so cool because I had
this whole Rxd4 thing in mind." 17...Nd4! 18.c5 bxc5 19.Rxd4!?
An excellent practical exchange sac, for which White will obtain an extremely
unpleasant bind, tying down Black. Whether or not it is winning is another story
altogether, but there is no question who has the harder position to play. 19...cxd4
20.Bb5+ Nd7 21.Rg1. In order to survive, Black has two approaches: 1: find
a way to free himself from the bind, and with some luck, his material advantage
can swing the game in his favor, or 2: if there is no miracle escape, then try
to give back the material at an opportune moment, and recover a comfortable
balance. 21...a6 22.Ba4 g6 23.Ke2 f6 24.Rc1 dxe3 25.fxe3 h5 26.Rc7 Rh7 27.Kd3
Re7. An offer to return the material and try to free himself. 28.Ke4.
But Giri is having none of it, and pursues his plan. 28...Kf7?! As
ugly as it might appear, Black had to reconsider giving the exchange back as
this move amounts to a tempo loss and gives White's king further time to penetrate
into the position. 29.Bxe7 Kxe7 30.Kd5 f5 31.Rxd7+ Rxd7+ 32.Bxd7 Kxd7 33.Kxe5
Ke7 34.h4 g5 35.Kxf5 gxh4 36.Kf4 Kf6 37.e4 a5 38.a4 Kg6 39.Ke3 Kg5 40.Kf2
Kf4 41.Kg2 1-0.

Anish Giri discussing his victory over Nigel Short to the public at the
Max Euwe Center

Addendum: on the round three game in which Nigel Short beat
Anish Giri, Anatoly Guaniezo of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia wrote: " Grandmaster
Nigel Short was amazing ever since his early youth. His kind of chess is classical
and entertaining – classical in the sense of its simple clarity and
directness. In his games with grandmaster Anish Giri he shows no doubts about
his theories, even using an opening that is known to be refuted. I understand
his chess, what he means, what he want to show the world: that he is still
a unique player among the elite. I know age matters in chess, but in game
three Short vs Giri he shows his maturity against youth! Its not enough that
you have a high rating in able to beat an experience and tough player. More
power to Nigel Short! I celebrate your win against GM Giri."

The other matches went the way of experience, with victories of GM Lubomir
Ftacnik over Robin van Kampen with a score of 3-1, and GM Yasser Seirawan over
Benjamin Bok by 2.5-1.5. Though both two ladies, Lisa Schut and Anne Haast also
lost their respective encounters, Lisa losing to Sebastian Siebrecht by 2.5-1.5,
and Anne Haast to Dennis de Vreugt by 4-0, it is well worth noting that not
only did Lisa avenge her first loss to Siebrecht in the second round, but she
was also completely winning in the fourth, and could easily have tied her match
had she brought in the full point.

Lisa Schut and Sebastian Siebrecht under the watchful eyes of Dr. Max Euwe

A warm congratulations nonetheless to all participants, and to the organizers
and sponsors for the wonderful initiative.

Final scores

Nigel Short	2.0-2.0	Anish Giri
Lubomir Ftacnik	3.0-1.0	Robin van Kampen
Yasser Seirawan	2.5-1.5	Benjamin Bok
Sebastian Siebrecht	2.5-1.5	Lisa Schut
Dennis de Vreugt	4.0-0.0	Anne Haast

The players: Lisa Schut, Sebastian Siebrecht, Robin van Kampen, Anish Giri,
Lubomir Ftacnik,
Nigel Short, Anne Haast, Dennis de Vreugt, Benjamin Bok, Yasser Seirawan.

Photos by René Olthof

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are were broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. 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!

Chessbase.com

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16.05.2010
– In the second round of the Max Euwe event, the action started to heat up as the Youth struck back at the older guard with the weapons young players are usually so well-equipped with: tactics. The one exception was in fact board one, where GM Nigel Short came within a whisper of beating his opponent, 15-year-old rising star, GM Anish Giri.
Report after round three.

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For years Rybka has been the uncontested number one in computer chess and since its great breakthrough in 2006 the program has won with remarkable regularity one world title after the other. So that this state of affairs will continue in the future, the Rybka-team gathered around programmer Vasik Rajlich has developed a new version which is even better: „Rybka 4 plays more aggressively and more tactically“. Availabe from 28. May
More information...

Max Euwe Matches in Amsterdam

From Thursday, May 13, to Sunday, May 16, the Max Euwe Center in Amsterdam
is staging five matches for talented young Dutch players. The games start at
13.30h each day, and there are four rounds.

Results of round two

Anish Giri	½-½	Nigel Short
Robin van Kampen	0-1	Lubomir Ftacnik
Benjamin Bok	½-½	Yasser Seirawan
Lisa Schut	1-0	Sebastian Siebrecht
Anne Haast	0-1	Dennis de Vreugt

The next highest rated player, American GM Yasser Seirawan also shaved off
one of his nine lives after running full face into his opponent's very nice
preparation, punctuated by the following tactical blow.

Benjamin Bok

Bok,Benjamin (2430) - Seirawan,Yasser (2644) [B19]
Max Euwe Match Amsterdam NED (2), 14.05.2010

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5
Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bf4 Qa5+ 12.Bd2 Qa4 13.0-0 Ngf6 14.Rfe1 Be7 15.a3
0-0 16.Nf5N Rfe8.

17.Rxe6!! Bf8. 17...fxe6 was no better, since White would continue
with 18.Nxg7! Kxg7 (18...Rf8 19.Nxe6) 19.Bxh6+! Kh8 20.Ng5! and Ne5
to prevent Nf7 mate. (20...Rf8 21.Qg6; 20...Rg8 21.Nf7#) 21.dxe5. 18.Rxe8
Rxe8 19.b3 Qa6 20.c4 c5 21.Ng3 cxd4 22.Nxd4 Ne5 23.Qc3 Bc5 24.Re1 Rd8 25.Ngf5
Neg4 26.b4 Bxd4 27.Nxd4 Qd6 28.Nf3 Nxh5 29.Qc2 Nhf6 30.Bc3 Qd3 31.Qxd3 Rxd3
32.Bb2 a6 1/2-1/2. After the game, Seirawan readily admitted, "I was
lucky to survive. It was a big shock. I fell into some very nice preparation
by Bok."

On the other hand 16-year-old Lisa Schut,
yielding a 150 Elo handicap to her veteran opponent, GM Sebastian Siebrecht,
was able to extract revenge for her first round loss after finishing him off
in style in the second round.

Lisa Schut vs GM Sebastian Siebrecht

Schut,Lisa (2267) - Siebrecht,Sebastian (2419) [B41]
Max Euwe Match Amsterdam NED (2), 14.05.2010

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Qd3 Nc6 8.a3
Bxc3+ 9.Qxc3 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 d6 11.Be2 e5 12.Qd3 Be6 13.0-0 Rc8 14.b3 0-0 15.Bg5
Rc6 16.f4 exf4 17.Kh1 h6 18.Bxf4 Re8 19.Rad1 b5 20.e5 Nd7 21.cxb5 axb5 22.Qg3
Kh8 23.Bxb5 Rb6 24.a4 d5 25.Rc1 Qa8 26.Be3 Rxb5 27.axb5 Qa5 28.Bd4 Qxb5

29.Rxf7!! Sweet revenge and a beautiful shot. 29...Bxf7 30.e6 Nf6
31.Bxf6 Bg6. If 31...gxf6 then 32.exf7 Rf8 33.Qg6. 32.Qxg6 gxf6 33.Qxh6+
Kg8 34.Qg6+ Kh8 35.Qxf6+. Black is mated after 35...Kg8 36.Qf7+ Kh8 37.Rc7
1-0.

Robin van Kampen vs Lubomir Ftacnik

Photos provided by Bas Beekhuizen

Results of round three

Nigel Short	1-0	Anish Giri
Lubomir Ftacnik	½-½	Robin van Kampen
Yasser Seirawan	1-0	Benjamin Bok
Sebastian Siebrecht	1-0	Lisa Schut
Dennis de Vreugt	1-0	Anne Haast

The matches are schedule for four games each, and can be followed live on Playchess.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. 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!

Chessbase.com

Read Full Post »

16.05.2010
– On Friday we
reported that the Russian Chess Federation had nominated Anatoly Karpov
as its candidate for FIDE Presidency by a quorum vote of 17/32. The incumbent,
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said that this "decision" was shrouded in clear
deceit – "it makes a mockery of Karpov and his team, who believe
they are capable of running a future FIDE." Open letter.

Advertisement

:
Rybka 4
For years Rybka has been the uncontested number one in computer chess and since its great breakthrough in 2006 the program has won with remarkable regularity one world title after the other. So that this state of affairs will continue in the future, the Rybka-team gathered around programmer Vasik Rajlich has developed a new version which is even better: „Rybka 4 plays more aggressively and more tactically“. Availabe from 28. May
More information...

Moscow, Russian Federation / Saturday, May 15, 2010

Dear Presidents, Delegates and Federation members,

In certain media, it was reported that the Russian Chess Federation supposedly
“took a decision” to nominate Anatoly Karpov as its representative
for FIDE President. Unfortunately, a “decision” shrouded in clear
deceit and typical of the misrepresentations which we have become accustomed
to the last few weeks, from the troika of Karpov, Bakh and Kasparov.

A meeting was originally for 5.00 p.m. in Mr Dvorkovich’s office, and
it was suddenly changed by Mr Bakh notifying some of the delegates that they
should meet at 4.30 p.m. at the premises of the Russian Chess Federation. The
Chairman of the Russian Chess Federation was not notified at all. A grave insult
to the office of the Chairman and the Russian Chess Federation. This clearly
violates the statutes which determine that all meetings are to be presided over
by the Chairman.

A rough show of hands was called for and an immediate statement released on
this basis. These tactics are reminiscent of the behavior which Karpov and his
team, were so content to exploit, during Soviet times. From my side, I had preferred
to leave the delegates in a neutral position, but such behavior not only infringes
any sense of ethics, but makes this decision completely illegal and contestable,
apart from any other actions that are reserved against persons who knowingly
misled the delegates into taking such action.

Let me make it crystal clear, dear delegates, I will run for FIDE President
once again and I am confident that the delegates will once again put their trust
in our team.

I have the clear support of the majority of FIDE’s member Federations
who have been waiting patiently in the background, for the Russian Chess Federation
to proceed with its nomination. Today’s decision makes a mockery of Karpov
and his team, who believe they are capable of running a future FIDE. His campaign
so far has been based on misrepresentation and false accusations.

Our mission grows stronger to protect the unity, transparency and democracy
that has been created within FIDE these last fifteen years.

Gens una sumus.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
FIDE President

Chessbase.com

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