Chessbuff on Chess

2011-01-21T11:42:00.000-08:00

This position comes from Fressinet-So, Round 6 of the TATA Steel Tournament 2011. So won a pawn early in the game, but it has not been easy for him since then. Here, we have a very instructive rook and multiple pawn ending.

If you follow the game from the beginning, as I did, it will be harder to realize that white is already lost at this point. That's why it has been suggested that we stop at the transition point from the middlegame to the ending and assess the position de novo. I know, we continually asses the position as the game goes on, but I am talking about wiping the slate clean and putting on a fresh new outlook. If you come into this game at this point, without knowing its prehistory, or being under its influence, then you will realize sooner that white is lost, barring a tremendous blunder by black.

First, black is a pawn up. Second, black has two pawn islands and white has three. White has three isolated pawns while black has three connected passed pawns. Black's G pawn is two squares from the queening square while white's c pawn is three squares away. The rook on c7 is in the way, and white has to spend a tempo just to get that rook out of there. Black does not have such a problem. Black's rook is behind his passed pawn and his H pawn is threatening to kick the white rook on g2 out of the way.

Play went 39. Ra7 h4 and the C pawn still cannot advance because of the rook on f6. Fressinet went 40. Ra3 but So's 40...h3 forces the win. The H pawn will be able to go past white's rook and promote, all this without the help of the black king, largely because the black rook is placed behind his pawn. Play continued 41. Rag3 Rg3 42. Rg3 h2 and white's rook check on h3 will not work because of rook to h6.

2010-12-29T06:50:00.000-08:00

This was a 5-min blitz game on Chess.com and only a few seconds remained in both our clocks. It was the kind of position where one must realize the very imminent danger posed to him....It was White's move. There were factors that point to a possible win by black. Black controlled the F file particularly the F1 and F2 squares. White's E3 square is weak and ripe for a bishop check, pushing the white king into the H file. By then, the H5 square would be accessible to the black queen. White played 43. Be4? You can figure out the win and see if you even needed the H file.

2010-08-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post. But here we are at a point where the Black queen has invaded my space and the C pawn is hanging. Or is it really? Sometimes, the most innocent-looking captures can lead to big time trouble fast. After 24...Qc2 25. Bd3 and Black is in trouble. Can the queen make it out? Just barely, but it will cost him dearly. Black played 25...Qb2 26. Rab1 and the queen is trapped. Fortunately for Black, there is a counter attack in 26...b6 and this move will let his queen get out through the a3 square. So, after 27. Qc6 Qa3, the black queen escaped but black lost a piece and ultimately the game as well.

2010-05-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is from my third round game of the Bergen County Open 2010 held at the Bergen Chess Mates in Ridgewood, New Jersey. As Black, I had a two-pawn advantage, and pressing my C pawn to promotion. It's only two squares from its queening square, but the C pawn isn't about to walk in there without opposition. Certainly, blockading it is imperative before it advances another square. The move I expected from White was 38. Qc2 which by itself isn't a life-saving move because 38... Rd2 is problematic. However, sometimes, chess players, including myself, make desperate game-losing moves when behind in the game. Here, White played 38. Re6? which I had already calculated to be immediately losing. Why did White play this move? Perhaps, he didn't realize that Black will have a temporizing move that will help the C pawn to promote. The game continued, from the diagram, 38. Re6 Qe6 39. Qe6 Re6 40. Re6 Rd1+ and the pawn will reach the queening square.

2010-04-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ernest Marx Memorial 2010. Bergen Chess Mates ( Ridgewood, NJ). Finally, I get to play an opponent at or near master level, and I screwed up a great chance to get back into the game. So far, no big blunders yet at move 32 but black has managed to keep the bishop pair while I tried to keep the pawns on the board. Here, I played 33. Nb5 attacking that pesky bishop. Post game analysis showed that 33. Qh2 was much better. That move would have provided some initiative via 33...Bf5 34. Qf4 Rf8 35. Nf5 Rf5 36. Qh4 Kh6 and then 37. d6. A lost opportunity!

2010-03-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Deep Freeze Quads, 2010. Bergen Chess Mates ( Ridgewood, NJ). I had expected my opponent to put up stiffer resistance, but in this game at least he didn't play very well. So much so that I was two pieces up before the 31st move, and I was threatening an obvious winning sacrifice. I reckon he might not have seen it coming after all because he played 30. Qc1-f4 d6 31. Bd5... and you have the position above. All is set for the winning move 31... Nd3! attacking the white queen and threatening mate on b2. Moving the queen back to c1 doesn't work. White ultimately lost sight of the mate threat and played 32. Qa4???

But all was lost for white anyway. Consider 32. cd3 Bd3+ 33. Kc1 Qc3+ 34. Kd1 Qc2+ 35. Ke1 Qe2 mate.

2010-02-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

This is from the second game of the Deep Freeze Quads 2010 (Feb) at the Bergen Chess Mates based in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

If this position looks complicated to you, well, it is. As black, I had foregone castling to save a move and commence a pawn storm on the kingside on the tenth move. It worked pretty well, wresting the initiative from white, until about now, when that pesky pin of the bishop on e5 against my king made it very clear that castling early does have its benefits. I had temporarily sacrificed a knight on d5 for a tempo, to allow my queen to invade white's castled position.

The previous moves were 24...Qh1+ 25. N(e2)g1... In my calculations earlier, I relied on 25... Bd4 but didn't realize that the bishop would be pinned, preventing the move. So, I thought for a while and decided to castle 25... 0-0 to get out of the pin, connect my rooks, and set a trap as well. Now, my very own bishop on e5 isn't truly hanging as you will see. White would have won if he played 26. Ne7+ Kg7 27. Nc6! ( not 27. Nc8). A reversal of fortune greeted white when he took the bait with 26. Re5? because after 26...Bd5!( diagram ) he had too many threats to deal with at the same time.

White's queen is attacked, his rook on c1 is hanging, and there's a mate threat on g2. With two pieces up, white is losing. White played 27. Qd5 27...Rc1+ 28. Re1 Re1+ 29. Ke1 Qg1+ 30. Kd2 Qf2+ 31. Kc3 Rc8+ 32. Kb3 Qb6+ 33. Ka2 Qc6 34. Qe5 h4 35. f6? allowing the exchange of queens Qe6+ 36. Qe6 fe6 and black easily won the endgame.

2010-01-27T15:31:00.000-08:00

Here's one of those positions in blitz chess wherein one would find the right continuation if he had more time to think about it. I played 34... Qe4 holding the position together with a threat on e8. That's good enough for blitz. However, post-game analysis led me to 34...Rf2! So, if white took the rook with 35. Qf2, then 35...Qf2+ 36. Kf2 Bd4+ forks the king and rook on a1. The a pawn will promote. If white played 35. Qg6+ , then 35...Qg6 36. Bg6+ Kg6 37. Kf2 Bd4+ and again we have the double attack on the king and rook. Perhaps, the best continuation for white was 35. Qb7.

2010-01-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

Liberty Bell Open, Philadelphia, Pa. January 2010. I had to be a wee bit creative here to convert my quality advantage into a win. Lo and behold, my opponent's bishop controls the queening square and my king just made it to e1 from g1 in time to help the rook. What to do? I decided to jettison my C pawn in exchange for black's A pawn, make my own A pawn into a threat, and get my rook behind black's passed pawn. I found that there is enough time to stop the pawn because D2, being a dark square, cannot be controlled by the bishop. So, 37. Rb1 was my move.

The game went 37...Kc3 38.Rb5 d4 39.Ra5 d3 40.Rd5 and this was the winning setup. The winning strategy is to advance the A pawn and move the rook up and down the D file until black will be forced to give up his bishop for the A pawn when it promotes. There was this wonderful rook check along the C file that would push the black king away from his D pawn after which white can play Kd2. This is a great illustration of the power of the rook over a bishop in pawn endings.

2010-01-23T07:06:00.000-08:00

Now, what are the chances that the text book BxRP sac will occur in your games? They do come up, but I'd say rare. Many players will not allow it to happen, but my opponent in the penultimate round of the 2010 Liberty Bell tournament in Philadelphia did. There was an exchange right before this position came up : 9. e5 N(f3)d5 10. N(c3)d5 ed5. So, move eleven, I had to be sure this sac would work. I needed to win this and the next game to be in contention for a cash prize. It looked to me that all the prerequisites were all in place, and so after at least a 5-minute think I went for 11. Bh7+. My opponent refused the sac with 11...Kf8 and off we went into the game that I ultimately won. But, let's take a look at what could have been. After 11. Bh7+ Kh7, then 12. Ng5+ Kg8 13. Qh5 and here the variation tree forks a bit.

If, 13...Re7, then 14. Qh7+ Kf8 15. Qh8#. The same thing would occur if black played 13...Qe7 or 13...g6.

In my calculations, what concerned me the most was 13...f6 and I had to be sure that the move wouldn't work for Black. So, here is what I saw: 13....f6 14. Qh7+ Kf8 15. Qh8+ Ke7 16. Qg7#. Everything was forced.

There was also 13...Rf6 14. Qf7+ Kh8 15. Qh5+ Rh6 16. Nf7+ and white is having a field day. Black chose the right move, or the lesser evil, when he played 11...Kf8.

2010-01-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

It has been approximately five years since my last big tournament, and that was held at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. I play regularly on Monday nights at the Bergen Chess Mates now based in Ridgewood, New Jersey, but our club tournaments cannot be compared to the ones run by Continental Chess in terms of size and prize money.

This past weekend, I played at the 2010 Liberty Bell in Philadelphia in the Under 1900 section. There were seventy-three players in that group and I shared third place with three other players. Out of seven rounds, a score of five points did not win any cash prize. We were tied at 5.5 points while first and second places were tied at six points. Of course, a lot of " what ifs " went through my mind but such is chess. Your winning chances hinge not on bad versus good moves, but between good and best moves. As usual, my drawn game was a won game compromised by an inaccurate move while my only loss was a won game lost in the time scramble at sudden death. My score was five wins, one draw, and one loss. That's pretty good, and my post-tournament rating jumped one hundred points. I choose not to be bitter about the half point, but to be positive about my performance and experience. I will be posting some of the more interesting positions I got myself into in my next posts.

One of the last games to finish on the last day of competition in the Master Section involved a local master from New Jersey who could not figure out a mate with a bishop and knight against a lone king, no pawns. That was textbook chess, and a basic knowledge for a master-rated player. Over the board is not the place to relearn this skill. A group of spectators circled his board, and it became quite apparent that the master didn't know how to mate with a knight and bishop. The game was finally and mercifully declared a draw due to the 50-move rule. The master blamed a long day of chess for his inability to win the position, but it was obvious to everyone that, judging from his moves, he just didn't know what to do!

2009-12-29T09:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, people can't leave a good thing alone. Some players try to get fancy and end up throwing a good game away. I had misplayed my ending, giving my opponent in blitz a tremendous advantage. All he had to do here was 40...Qa1 and game over. But no, he had to play 40...Qf4+. I suspect he expected me to play 41. g3 and then he could harrass my king further on the second rank. Great. He can pick up my pawn on a7 on the way out. Unfortunately, 40...Qf4+ put his queen out of the way after 41. Rg3! There was no tempo-gaining move for black. The A pawn promoted to a queen and the game went to white.

2009-12-15T06:26:00.000-08:00

The Bergen Chess Mates had its annual holiday party last night at one of the function rooms of Ridgewood's United Methodist Church on Dayton Street, across from the park. Not everyone attended but those who were receiving a trophy and a cash prize did. It was also awards night for the just concluded 5-round, club championship. I won the U-1800 section with a score of 4 ( 2 draws and 3 wins ) edging out another member for first place via tie breaks.

A 4-round, G10 blitz tournament immediately followed the party, and that took us to almost midnight before all the rounds were done. Once again, good fortune was upon me and I managed to win first place in the non-master section with a score of 3.5 ( 3 wins, 1 draw ). I must be doing something right nowadays, but I don't know what it is. Above is a good faith reconstruction of a position that occurred in one of my games, just to show the winning idea. My opponent moved his rook to f3 to load up on my pawn on f2 and get his rooks connected somehow, but that allowed me to go for 1. Qf3 taking advantage of black's weak back rank. Play continued a bit more, but black could not recover from being a rook down. Nothing brilliant, but it was the winning move.

2009-12-03T06:48:00.001-08:00

It was Round 4 of the Bergen Chess Mates club championship held in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The club used to be known as the Dumont Chess Mates, but after it moved from Dumont to Ridgewood a name-change was necessary. The club met on Monday nights for forty years at the cafeteria of the Dumont High School, but it only took an unsympathetic school official to kick us out of there. We're quite happy at our new site, the United Methodist Church. The church offered their basement area for our purposes, and now we have a tournament room, a skittles room, a receiving room, and a living room that doubles as the local AA meeting room. We're just dandy!

Anyway, at this point of the game, I could either take the pawn at a5 and get my opponent's knight at the edge. That would cost him another tempo just to get his knight back into the frey. Or, I could advance my queenside pawns, and move up my king in support. The black knight would spend several tempi just to get at my pawn on a2 before black could make threats over in that area. So, I thought for a while and settled on a move my opponent didn't see coming... from the position above, 1. f5+ . Fritz9 advised to take the pawn on a5, like 1. ba Na5 2. g6 Nc4 3. Nd6... Anyway, I thought my move was good as well. Play continued 1...Kf5 ( making life easier for me )2.Nd6+ Kg5 3. Nc4 bc4 4.ab and black resigned.

2009-09-26T10:51:00.001-07:00

Although there was still a lot of play ahead, I felt that white's position was losing to black's and I needed some good counterplay before black's A & B pawns became a real problem. Post game analysis with Fritz9 also assessed the position as good for black. So, I played 27. g5 to create some targets and counterplay. In fact, Fritz9 recommended this move for white. Black, already a pawn up and in the throes of a strong queenside attack, could have maintained the pressure by simply playing 27... Qc4 or 27...h5. But, no. He had to grab the pawn! This pawn-grab initiated a series of forced moves that led to his demise. After 27... hg5?, the attack commenced with 28. Rh3 ( threatening mate on h7 ) g6 ( forced ) 29. Qc3 ( threatening mate on h8 ) f6 ( forced and covering the diagonal ) and then the very lovely sacrifice 30. Rh8+ and black resigned with a mate in two coming.

2009-08-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

I was thumbing through some of my chess books, and I found this sweet endgame study whose underlying principle should be basic knowledge for every chessplayer. There are no fancy moves here, just straight-forward positional play. It's the kind of position that you'd enjoy practicing against Fritz. White to move and win.

2009-08-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

If you were black, would you simplify or not? After some exchanges, as white, I came out a piece up and it looks like a decisive advantage. That's why I sought an exchange of queens, and black seemed to see it that way as well. Black played Qa6, attacking my rook and avoiding further simplification. Now, I am not so dull as to miss the three connected passed pawns on the queenside. With the exchange of queens and some accurate play, I should be able to stop those pawns that are still in their initial squares. But to win that way is a lot more work than what happened in the game. Black's move, Qa6, allowed white to gain tempo for an attack that would not have been possible if the queens were exchanged. Play continued after Qa6 with Bh7+ Kh8 Re3 g6 Bg6 fg6 Qg6 and black was lost.

2009-07-21T06:52:00.001-07:00

This was black's French Defense gone awry, having allowed white a decisive space advantage on the kingside with all of black's pieces bottled up behind a wall of pawns, including the proverbial bad bishop. Black made a dash for freedom with 29...Ra8-Rd8 (diagram). The object, of course, is the pawn on d4 after the rook takes the bishop on d6. Black gets some counterplay once his queen penetrates into white's position. But I had some tricks of my own, and sprung 30. Bf5 on my opponent. My opponent concentrated on which pawn to capture my bishop with that he missed a better reply in 30... Nd4, a sac of his own. Taking my bishop with 30... ef5 makes 31. Qd5+ possible and white will win 31...Qf7 32. Rg6+. So, he took with the G pawn, 30...gf5, and expected 31. Re6 in return. However, the h5 square is now undefended and I played 31. Qh5 instead. This was the winning move. The game went 31... Rd6 32. Qe8+ Qf8 33. Rh8+ Kh8 34. Qf8+ Kh7 and then 35. ed6. 1-0

2009-07-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

Once in a while you end up with a position that is noteworthy just by dint of its peculiarity. You will see that white is a rook up but his queen and king have become the unfortunate victims of the black rook when he played 36... Rh8. Well, there is a way out. I played 37. Rf7+ Kg1 (forced) and then 38. Ra8+ wins it for white even after 38...Qb8. My king and queen remained skewered by the rook.

2009-07-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

I misplayed this ending, and ended up with a draw. My excuse, it was a blitz game. What else? Sometimes, this rule that we have to centralize our king in the endings gets in the way of a won game. But, it is when to apply the rule or not is what makes chess a game of good judgment. My immediate inclination was to get my king into the action, and I played 42. Kf2? Bad move. The trick here was to push the D pawn immediately where the black king would catch up to it at d7. By then, the bishop can support the pawn while the white king moves up to confront black's G & H pawns. In some variations, there are themes of zugswang. The pivotal point here is that black's king is tied down to the defense of D8, and his counterpart is free to roam.

2009-07-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

Oh, how wonderful it is to find humor in missed opportunities. One thing that chess surely teaches everyone is that no one is infallible. There are optical illusions, and there are quirks of the brain. My opponent may have two pieces for a rook, but I had two more pawns on the queenside. I had just played my rook to d2, intending to double up on the f2 square with my other rook, when my opponent relied with Bd1??? I was so fixated on my plan that I simply decided that the e2 square is no longer mine. So, like any red-blooded chessplayer, I grabbed a pawn, Rb2. Sometimes, I need a mate in one to land and peck me on the head.

2009-07-01T05:02:00.000-07:00

Who has never lost a game? Tell me, who? If we go over our games and identify where we erred, we should also critically look at how we behave after losing a game. It's not a problem for most people. Most people possess the maturity and the grace to not take away anything from the winner. But you've met the people who I've met, those who are uncouth enough to demean your victory. They may not be exactly the same people, but essentially they are. I defeated a young man once who declared our game " boring " and left without showing me how much more exciting the game could have been. And there was this guy who kept staring at me after I played a move that turned his winning game into a draw, like I wasn't suppose to do my best for my own interest. I don't see any problems with the game, but I see them in the people who play the game. Take a look at Korchnoi against Peter Leko. Yes, this is just one more manifestation of Korchnoi's crankiness. The dismissive wave of his hand in the end could only mean, " Your game is crap and you shouldn't have won the game. "

2009-06-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

This one is from a blitz game, g/5, at Playchess.com. You're looking from Black's point of view so lower left corner is actually the H8 square. I despise a pesky, forky, and treacherous knight, much more two of them. There comes a time in a man's life when safety in simplicity is preferred over glory!

Hey, a won game in hand is better than two on the pairing board. So, when my opponent played 34. Nb6-d7, I went 34...Rf2+ 35. Nf2 Rf2+ 36. Kg3 Rd2 and I was able to promote the C pawn several moves later. Don't fool around with a good thing!

2009-06-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a great video of Karpov and Kasparov in their world championship match in 1987 in Seville. You can see Karpov fidget under pressure although he had the advantage. We all know how that feels, don't we? So you can follow the moves, I am reproducing the position on the board at the point where Karpov played 53. Bh6, attacking Kasparov's queen on f8.

As you can see, Karpov was a rook up for Kasparov's isolated passed pawn and a 2-1 pawn majority on the kingside. Fritz gives white a +-3.83 advantage over black. In the comments section of the video, there was mention about Kasparov losing his queen, and this is actually not the case. The moves went 53. Bh6 Rd3 54. Bf8 Rh3+ 55. Kg2 Rg3+ 56. Kh2 Rg1 57. Bc5 d3. 1-0 . It would be wrong for Karpov to take the rook ( 58. Kg1) because the D pawn will promote. The move here is 58. Bb4.

2009-06-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

There's no happiness no matter what. Last Monday night, the club, Dumont Chess Mates, had a scheduled 4-round G/10 tournament wherein I scored four wins and two losses with two games per round/opponent. Yeah, it should have been eight games but we ran out of time and several players expressed their willingness to cut it down to three rounds. We had to be out of the Teaneck Jewish Center by 11 pm. The club will be meeting there throughout this Summer. Six games of G/10 was good enough for me actually. I was beginning to tire and an onsetting headache made me want to not think anymore. Ah, it would be nice to have the stamina and retentive powers of a young person but at fifty-two years I am already qualified to play in seniors only tournaments. Anyway, when my son asked about my results, he said that winning four out of six was good. Good? I don't think and feel so. Like most chessplayers, I relive the blunders in my head and curse the moments when I made mistakes. It's always, " I could have done better. " Chess is hard on and off the board, and the emotional toll is definitely there.

2009-06-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

I was a bit surprised when my opponent resigned at this point, having played my queen from f3 to b3. A rook, knight and bishop against my queen is advantageous to my opponent, but there is that pawn on b7. Don't get me wrong. I thought I had a winning chances here, but there was still a lot of work to be done. His problem, of course, is the move b7-b8 (Q) coupled with a closed backrank. Exchanging bishops would deny black the bishop pair plus his white-squared bishop could be very problematic for me. Let's take a look : 27... Be2 28. b8 (Q) Bc4 29. Qe8+ Ne8 30. Qe3 double attack. Another way is, 27... Re2 28. b8(q)+ Re8 29. Qe8+ Ne8 30. Qb5 Kf8 31. Qb4+ and white is looking better. And if 27... Rb8, then 28. Bg4 Ng4 29. Qd5 h5 30. Qc5 Be5 31. Qa7 Bc7 32. a4 and white has a very good game.

2009-06-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

Looking over this game between Tal & Botvinnik, 1960, Moscow, Game 1, on Fritz9, I wondered if this could be a rare gross blunder by Botvinnik. I have the book on the match but I haven't consulted the analysis found there. The Fritz engine did not suggest Botvinnik's next move, preferring 29...Kb7 or 29...Kb8, evaluating the position as +- 2.58 for white. I was quite surprised to see Botvinnik allow Tal to skewer him after he played 29...dc4 30. Bc4 Qg7 31. Bg8 Qg8 32. h5 1-0

2009-05-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

I was playing my third and last round of the Ernest Marx Memorial 2009 at the Dumont Chess Mates when my opponent played 14. Qd2-Qg4. It sure looked like a strong move, initially, but it actually leads to a bad game for white. I countered with 14...Nf4 and white is in trouble. The queen exchange on f6 will lose the bishop on e2 with a check. White could try 15. Rfe1, but after 15...Ne2+ 16. Re2 Qa1+ black is completely winning. If white plays 16. Kf1 instead, then 16...Bf3 17. Qf6 gf6 18. gf3 Nd4 and black is a piece up.

In the game, white carelessly played 15. Bd1 and after 15...Qa1 16. Qf4 black was winning. Fritz, however, improved on the line with 15...Nh3+ 16. gh3 Qa1.

2009-03-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

From the second round of the Bergen County Open 2009, we've got Kushner-Santana where black played 13...cd5, allowing white to penetrate with 14. Rc7. The bishop on b7 is threatened, but there is also indirect pressure on f7 due to the bishop on b3. How to defend? Keeping the white-squared bishop along the a8-h1 diagonal protects the rook on a8 against 15. Bd5. So, black played 14...Rd7 which turned out to be costly because of the game-ending 15. Rb7!

The position below is from my own game. My opponent seemed most distracted by the impending discovered check that he went for the perpetual. His move here was 32...Qe1+ and we agreed to a draw in two more moves. Black could have won the game by the very lovely move 32...Bh4+. I'm not going to spoon-feed you, just follow line of attack along the G and H file.

2009-03-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

The Bergen County Open 2009 started last Monday, the 9th, with three sections and forty-one players. It has been, for many years, a closed tournament. That means in order to compete you must be either a resident of New Jersey, work in NJ, or a member of the Dumont Chess Mates. This year, it is an open tournament with no restrictions. I don't think you even need to be a member of the club to play in the tournament. Anyway, we're a good club with friendly and respectful members, regular playdates, but we need to beef up our master level. Here's a point in my game where I have to decide to burn the bridges behind me or not.

My opponent has just played 15. Nd2-g6. I was expecting him to do someting about his bishop on b2, like 15. Bc1, or get this knight out to c4 or b3. To put the knight on f3 is to invite a sacrifice on g4. I had to think about this sac carefully, foreseeing how life will be for me after the white king ends up on h2 and h1. I decided it was worth the try. So, I went in with 15...Ng4 16. hg4? Accepting the sac is the worse white can do. White could have tried 17. Rh1, Nf6 18. Kh2 with the G file open for his rook. Play continued 17...Qg4+ 18. Kh1 Nf4 19. Rg1 Qh5 forcing 20. Nh2 Qe2 getting my minor piece back. With two pawns up and after the exchange of queens, my game was pretty much winning.

2009-03-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

Here is GM Igor Kursonov's reply to the accusation of cheating by GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. It's a pretty good reply, not a rant nor a tyrade against his accuser. So far, Kursonov has shown all the class and dignity of an honest person. Mamedyarov still has to prove his case and not look like a very sore loser and a horse's ass. Mamedyarov, argue your case and prove your point instead of pinning labels on anyone who displeases you!

"Dear colleagues and chess fans! In response to the letter circulated in the press by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, I have to clarify the situation. I suggest you take a look at the game Mamedyarov-Kurnosov from round six of the Aeroflot Open, together with my brief comments. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nb6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.Be3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.0-0-0 f5 10. h4 fxe4 11.h5 gxh5 - A well-known theoretical position, which I believe, favors black. Here my opponent made a move that was new to me - 12.d5 Ne5 13.Bh6 Nec4. I have also considered Rf7, but I did not like that, after taking Rh5, the Knight loses tempo [13 ... Rf7?! 14.Bxg7 Rxg7 15.Rxh5] 14.Qg5 Rf7. The only move 15.Bxc4. This seemed questionable to me, even though objectively it is not bad. 15 ... Nxc4. After the 40-minute thought on the previous move, my opponent offered a draw. But I felt that I had serious advantage and didn't see the grounds to accept the draw. 16.Rd4? - I thought that Qd6 would give me strong initiative. It turned out that Nb2 led to decisive advantage, but this move I had not considered. Imagine what would be the story had I previously analysed this variation at home!? 16 ... Qd6?! 17.Bxg7 Rxg7 - The only move! 18.Qxh5 Qf4 + - Also unique, the checkmate was threatening and the Knight was in danger. Now I invite all qualified chess players to set this position and withing three minutes find the next three simple moves for Black! I believe most if will be forced! 19.Kb1 Bf5 20.fxe4 Bg4 21.Nge2? loses immediately! [21.Qh6 Qf2] 21 ... Qd2! 0-1.

Black is in winning position. Here the opponent stopped the clock and, without shaking my hand or signing the formular, reached out to the arbiter's table. The rest of the story you already know... I believe that all players, regardless of title or rating, should respect themselves and their colleagues, instead of blaming them on computer assistance without reason. At the same time playing relatively weak!

Mamedyarov's claim that I took the coat and went to the toilet after each move, does not correspond to reality. On the first 12 moves, which we played relatively fast, I did get up from the table. When my opponent thought for 40 minutes on the move 15, I went twice to the smoking area which is only 2 meters from the hall entrance, and always full of players, arbiters, there was also a guard. And on few occasions I went to wash my face with cold water, but I never talked to anybody while doing so. The arbiters had no pretensions towards me, either before or after the protest.

Thereat, I simply did what I always do. While opponent thinks, it is much easier for me to contemplate about the position while walking and not looking at the board. As far as I know, most players do the same. Unfortunately, all this negativity affected my play later in the tournament ... I would also like to thank all those who supported me on the Internet or in private conversation!

I would suggest:1. Organizers of major tournaments to equip the entrance of the playing area with metal detectors and other means which would exclude the possibility of assistance, and would eliminate all baseless accusations and insults, which affect the image of the player.2. International chess organizations to develop a set of rules that would execute serious sanctions for those who use assistance, as well as for those who unjustly accuse the others of receiving the aid!

GM Igor Kurnosov, 28.02.2009 "

2009-02-25T22:55:00.000-08:00

Linares 2009. Round 6. This was the draw that got everyone talking. Ivanchuk, playing white, agreed to a draw with Dominguez Perez in this position. Who said that a draw can't be reached in a winning position? There must be something else aside from chess that led to this draw. All white had to do was to play 48. e4, threatening a fork on e5 and ultimately crashing through the kingside. Fritz9 scores this position as +- 3.39. So, it was drawn, regardless of positional and tactical factors.

2009-02-18T12:41:00.000-08:00

Topalov just scored the first win in the match, and that's going to put Kamsky in a deep psychological hole. He hasn't won a single game against Topalov ever, and it was imperative that Kamsky score the first win in this match. I am afraid that with this first win Topalov will set the tone in the match, and that will require Kamsky to play riskier. After two rounds, they get a day's rest and that will work in Kamsky's favor. Speaking of riskier play, these first two games are not exactly play-safe games. I think we have seen fighting chess in these first games, and they foretell an exciting match. In today's game, Kamsky's bishops, both of them, were hanging at one time.

Wesley So is playing in the Aeroflot 2009 tournament with a first round win over a GM and a loss to an IM in the second round. He's in Group A1. Let's wish him the best.

2009-02-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

Some people have asked about my game with IM Alex Lenderman, and so here it is on Lenderman's move 16...f6 17. ef6. This wasn't a French, but a Sicilian Alapin with black fianchettoing his king's bishop. Frankly, I dislike maintaining pawn centers like such because ultimately they crumble and you have to come out of it not a pawn less. I felt that I had better chances at defending the d4 pawn than a pawn on e5. And Fritz9 suggested the same move. The game went 17... Bf6 18. h3 Bf3 19. Bf3 Nc6 and we have the position below.

There are three pieces attacking my D pawn which is only twice defended at the moment. I don't mean to make excuses, but keep in mind that this was a G/60. Not much time to check out all the lines of analysis. I played the very passive 20. Ne2, defending the D pawn which at the same time opened up the C file for tactical possibilities. Clearly, black has the initiative. There was another option other than 20. Ne2. More active was 20. Bg4 Nce7 21. Nb5 a6 22. Rc8 Rc8 23. Nd6 Nd6 24. Be6+ Kg7 25. Bc8 Ndc8 26. g4 and black is still somewhat ahead. Lenderman played 20...Ncd4 (below)

Here, I made a game-losing move, 21. Rc8. This was simply awful. The check on f3 had to be addressed, and capturing on c8 ignored it completely. The knight on d4 must go one way or another. There was 21. Nd4 Rc1 22. Bc1 Nd4 23. Bg4 h5 24. Be3. The other way was to capture via 21. Bd4 Rc1 22. Rc1 Bd4 23. Nd4 Nd4 24. Bg4. These two lines are much better than 21. Rc8. When Lenderman played 21...Nf3+ , white's position lost all hope. Game over on the 27th move.

2009-02-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

Consistency. I wish I knew the secret to it. Is it a good night's sleep? Is it diet? I am a vegetarian, and so my results should be consistently good. There hasn't been a dead animal in my body for a long time. Should I not play when I don't have the killer instinct? Is it a matter of concentration? Good Lord, there are just too many variables in the equation.

Take a look at my ratings chart on Chessbase's Playchess.com. It shows my performance over roughly four hundred games. If this was a ride in a theme park, I'd be bragging about this roller coaster. The part not shown, games 1-290, is equally zigzaggy. It would, however, include a similar soaring climb to my best rating just like the one shown here. Pretty volatile, don't you think? I don't know if and when I will surpass my all-time high of 1670. Mind you, 1670 here is not 1670 USCF. It's a good rating at Playchess.

I think what I need to do is to take every game seriously. By that, I mean to invest in a few seconds of reflection before every game, for serious and casual games, a period of mind-clearing, to begin a state of good concentration. And when I suffer successive losses, I need to lay off chess for a few hours if not days. I need to recognize when I am in a funk. No, it is not going to get better in the next few games. It's only going to get worse. If I knew when to quit, I wouldn't have such dreadful dives as the chart clearly shows.

2009-02-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

It was a chess-filled weekend, and if I wasn't philosophical about my losses it I would have gone berserk with frustration. I mean, cops would have to hold me down for my own good. I trust that many of you know the feeling. After a year's hiatus, I should be more realistic in my expectations. But that is not the only reason for my miserable performance, 1.5/4. I suspect that age and the breakdown of analytical ability is beginning to manifest themselves. The hardware is getting old, and an old engine's compression suffers when the seals are no longer as tight as before. Heck, I am only 52 years old and I am already talking sunset years.

The International Chess Academy in Teaneck, New Jersey held its annual Winter Open at the Bergen Academies in Hackensack. This is a well-run tournament, offering both open and scholastic sections. Our president at the Dumont Chess Mates, Lawrence Constance, performed TD duties for the Open section. He does a very good job at the club, having infused the club with new vitality and spirit. We spoke about how our respective wives are turning into chess widows, the grumblings, the seemingly endless excuses we make so we can attend a chess event. If I heard Lawrence right, he said he almost forfeited a GM when his cell phone rang during the game. All were requested to turn off their cell phones at the beginning of every round.

It was heart-warming to see scores of school children compete, little eager beavers with great expectations and remarkable resilience. Their parents transformed the hallways into their respective battle stations, laid out with their reading materials, laptops, and life-giving food. You know the scene. I thought about approaching a couple and warn them about over feeding their son between rounds. It's all about blood circulation, and how a full stomach keeps blood away from the brain. Well, on second thought, I decided that might be true for older people only.

It was just my damn luck to face IM Alex Lenderman in the second round, having won my first. I played white and the C3 Sicilian. He went into the fianchetto variation with 2...g6. I survived the opening until around the 18th move when that eternal pest of a move Qb6 came up. I hate that move and its counterpart, when you're playing black, Qb3. I reckon the young IM has got everything figured out, and he must have fought valiantly from falling asleep during our game. I remember looking at his clock and he had spent ten minutes to my thirty. Anyway, the outcome was never in question. If I sounded negative, that's not the case. I felt it was a good experience to play against someone rated above 2500. Normally, we would never have been paired but it was a comparatively small open section. In my last round, I was up a bishop but lost it in the rapid play that occurs when each of you have only three minutes left. We drew. What a spoiler. That was Sunday.

Came Monday at the Dumont Chess Mates. I played my last round of quad, thus three rounds altogether but one round a week only. I played a beautiful first round win, then a loss for the second round after my pieces refused to cooperate and coordinate. I always have trouble telling my pieces what to do. This last game, I don't know who was making the moves for me because they were so outrageously weak. I got my two rooks forked, after losing my center pawn gratis. This game, I want to forget. There must be a bubble in my brain, a kind of dead zone or black hole where the electrical messages enter but never leave. Maybe it's time for my first senior tournament.

2009-02-08T19:18:00.000-08:00

Here's the finale to one of my blitz games on Playchess.com. It shows you that playing on, seeking chances, is better than resigning early. I had already in mind a drawing mechanism which caught my opponent by surprise. All I needed was one tempo. He played 34. Qd7+ Ka6 35. Qc8+ Ka7 36. h7? allowed 36...Rb2+! and the perpetual checks followed.

2009-02-01T07:45:00.001-08:00

Corus 2009. Group C. Round 13.

It shouldn't surprise anybody that Wesley So and David Howell drew their last round. That clinches sole first place for So in Group C. I am not even going to put up a diagram of the final position because it was a draw of convenience more than anything else. Congratulations to Wesley So. This performance will qualify him to, at least, Group B next year. If So continues to play competitively during the course of this coming year, he may even end up in Group A which isn't a stretch, in my opinion. He deserves a hero's welcome in Manila. I think he is the best player the Philippines has ever produced, notwithstanding Torre and Balinas. I hope that I have provided some good coverage of his games in Corus 2009.

2009-01-31T10:07:00.000-08:00

Corus 2009. Group C. Round 12.

The great matchup occurred today between the two leaders of Group C, and Wesley So defeated Hillarp Persson to secure first place with nine points. A. Giri is in second place with eight points, and Hillarp Persson in third with 7.5 points. With one round to go, Wesley So needs only a draw to secure sole first place. If So loses to D. Howell in the last round and Giri wins, then So and Giri will have the same number of points in first place. I reckon a tie-breaker will sort that one out. Giri has to play Gupta for the last round, and that's not an easy assignment. If there is a tie-breaker, I think So's only loss to F. Holzke will cost him because Holzke has not performed well---four losses. Giri's only loss was to Hillarp Persson. We will see.

The first game-losing sign for Hillarp Persson came when no good square could be found for his queen. HP had already lost a valuable pawn to the bishop on f4. In the position above, HP played 20. Nb3. Fritz at this point was recommending two king moves : Kf1 or Kd1. That's because it anticipated a possible check on D4 by the knight, and also a discovered check on the E file. So, the sharp player that he is, played 20...Rfc8. This further threatened the white queen. With a rook on c8, Fritz estimated a -+ 3.95 advantage for black. Again, the computer recommended a king move for white, 21. Kf1. But play continued with 21. de5 Be5 Now, the white queen is boxed in. The bloodbath began with 22. Qc5 Nd4+ 23. Qd4 Bd4 24. Nd4 Ne4 25. Rag1 g6 26. Be4 de4 27. h4 Rc4 28. Bc3.

Now, here's a great lesson for all of us. Black converted his advantage in material into a positional advantage, one that gave him open lines of attack. So played 28... Rc3 29. bc3 Qc7 hitting on two pawns 30. Kf1 Qa5 31. h5 Qa1+ 32. Kg2 Qc3 and So won in seven more moves.

2009-01-30T12:15:00.000-08:00

Corus 2009. Round 11. Group C.

Round Eleven was good for Wesley So. He beat the early leader of Group C, M. Bosboom, in a Center Counter. Hillarp Persson lost to Bitalzadeh, and that gave So the lead with 8 points. Hillarp Persson is now in second place, half a point behind. With two more rounds to go, we don't really know who's going to win this group. Tomorrow will be the great matchup between the two leaders. In today's game, So dominated but on the 25th move he played a line that Fritz9 wasn't even considering. Here is the position:

So played 25. Ra6. The line that Fritz9 was considering went 25. f4 Nc6 26. fg5 Re3 27. Qc6 Rg3+ 28. Kh2 Re3 29. gh6 Re6 and the computer gave white a + - 4.13 advantage over black. So's line gave black more play, but a losing game anyway. The game went 25. Ra6 Qf5 26. Kg2 Qc8 27. Ra4 Rd8 28. Qb5 Rd2 29. Re5 Rb2 30. Rc5 Rf2+ 31. Kf2 Qh3 32. Ra8+ Kh7 33. Rh5 1-0

2009-01-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

Corus 2009. Group C. Round 10.

The good news is, Wesley So won again today against Pruijssers. The wet blanket is that Hillarp Persson also won. That put Hillarp Persson in clear first place, ahead by half a point of So who is in clear second with seven points. Now, we can see the high cost of So's loss the other day. Yes, So could have had a draw there, at least, but he blundered a knight away under his opponent's time pressure problems. Anyway, both So and Hillarp Persson can help their chances when they play each other in round twelve. Here is today's final position after 47...g3 :

That G pawn will be supported by the F pawn while white needs make time to advance his B pawn. White's king is effectively cut off from supporting the E pawn and joining the action on the kingside. Fritz gave us this line : 48. Nd2 Ng5 49. Nf1 f4 50. Kb2 f3.

2009-01-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

Corus 2009. Group C. Round 9.

After a victory in Round 6, Wesley So was held to a draw by D. Harika in the next round. It was one of those rook and pawn endings where So had an outside passed pawn, but trading pawns will result in a draw. Just when So looked poised to take a commanding lead in the group, he suffered his first loss to Gm Frank Holzke of Germany in round 8. It was even for most of the game, but So committed an inaccuracy coming into the endgame. He ended up having two connected passed pawns against a bishop. These pawns, without the help of their king, would not make it to promotion because they were not advanced enough. The bishop will have no problem mopping them up.

But in Round 9, probably quite irritated by his loss, So defeated Bitalzadeh who opened with the English. Things started coming apart for White in the position you see below:

Here, 16...e6 put white between a rock and a hard place. White's only options are f4 or e3. Both will mean cutting off the bishop's escape route. Bitalzadeh played 17. Re1 which delays the inevitable for a moment. Play continued 17...Kf7 18. Nf4 h6 19. Ne6 Re8 ( better than 19...hg5 ) 20. Nd8+ Rd8 21. Bd8 Qd8 and black went on to win in 36 moves. Final position is below after 36...gh5:

The black knight can go c6 and d4. White can't double up with the rooks on the E file because the bishop controls the e1 square.

2009-01-23T14:17:00.000-08:00

Corus 2009. Group C. Round 6.

Wesley So took the lead in Group C, Corus 2009 after defeating Leon Hoyos in what has been the most tactical game so far for the 15-yr old GM. So's got 4.5 / 6, half a point ahead of the former leader Hillarp Persson. In third place is Bosboom with the same score as Hillarp Persson. Wesley's opponent tomorrow will be D. Harika who has 3 / 6. Well, So came out slugging for this game. You could almost smell the supreme confidence in his play, coming to the board with a win from yesterday. Leon Hoyos chose to defend with a Sicilian and play became very tactical right from the starting gate. His position started to seriously come apart after a very fine tactical shot by So at this point in the game:

So played 34. Rd6! Folks, pay good attention to the f6 and h6 squares. Is that a 3-way fork I see? And how about that double attack on the king and queen on h6? Houston, we have a problem. Play continued with 34...Re3 35. Rh6+ Qh6 36. gh6 f4 37. Qh4 Ra2+ 38. Rf2 and black resigned.

2009-01-22T14:52:00.000-08:00

Corus 2009. Group C. Round 5. Finally, So gained a full point after three consecutive draws. With this second win in round five, he moves up to second place in Group C with 3.5 / 5. Hillarp Persson is leading the group with 4 / 5. After Iturrizaga made a dubious sacrifice with 20. Rf6 ( diagram ), So just took off by reducing material and advancing his queenside pawns. I think the sacrifice was meant to draw the black king out of his fortress, but the second wave of attack never materialized. From the diagram, play continued with 20. Rf6 gf6 21. Ne4 d5! giving back a pawn and freeing the black queen to join the fight. Iturrizaga played 22. Nf6+ Kg7. Black has got this all figured out. Then, 23. Nd5 Qe6 24. Qc3+ f6 25. e4 Qe5. Reduction of material is good for Black. White accepted 26. Qe5 ef5 27. Re1 Nd5 28. ed5 Kf6 29. Kf1 b5. The pawns started advancing. Then, 30. Re3 b4 31. a4 c4 32. Ke2 c3 33. b3 ( if 33. bc, then 33...b3) c2 34. Kd2 Rbc8 35. Kc1 Rc5 ( preparing to double up the rook on the C file since white is expected to pile on the pawn on c2 ) 36. Be4 Rdc8 37. Re2 Rc3 38. Rc2 Ke7 Now, this move seems to be aimed at keeping an eye on the passed d pawn or So has decided to advance his king via the queenside route. Play continued 39. Kd2 Rc2+ 40. Bc2 Rc3. Just cutting off the king and hitting on the b3 pawn. Then, 41. h4 Kd6 42. g4 Rh3 43. Be4 Rh4 44. f3 Rh1 45. Kc2 Kc5 46. Kd2 Rh2+ 47. Kc1 Kd4 48. d6 Kc3 and white resigned.

2009-01-20T11:11:00.000-08:00

It's another draw for GM Wesley So, and that makes three draws and one win in four rounds at Corus 2009. Considering that he is the top rated player in Group C, this is not the performance we would expect from him. But he is in the hot seat and not us. Let's not overlook who he played against today, GM A. Gupta, the reigning world junior chess champion. We should commiserate with Wesley, and wish him the best. There is nobody else out there who would want to win more than Wesley himself. It must be very tough for a 15-yr old, even a gifted one like So, to stand up to the pressure of a highly publicized tournament and run the gauntlet of world class opponents. Could the weather have more of an effect on him than we thought? In an interview with ICC, So deplored the cold temps of Holland, much colder than Dresden according to Wesley. Well, Wesley, if you are going to make the circuit of international tournaments, you better get use climate changes and plummeting mercury readings. You have a long and promising career ahead of you.

The final position is a bit bizarre, after 27...Qe1+. Obviously, there is a perpetual check in the works here but not via 28. Kg2 because 28...Ne3 mate. As one observer remarked, sometimes it is not easy to make a good move when you're two pieces ahead. Well, that's true even before they got to this position. Here at this very moment, white actually has a two piece and a rook advantage. So's rook and dark-squared bishop are still in their original squares. They were unable to participate in defending the white king from attacks. Take note that Qb8 will lead to mate so black must not waste a tempo. In this position, Fritz9 suggested 28. Nf1, giving a piece back but the perpetual is still there via the f1 and h3 squares. If 28. Qg1, then 28...Qh4+ 29. Kg2 Nf4+ 30. Kf1 Qh3+ 31. Kf2 Nd3+ and Fritz scores it as 0.00.

2009-01-19T11:37:00.000-08:00

Corus 2009. Round 3. Group C. GM Wesley So 's game against FM Giri was drawn after thirty-eight moves. Perhaps, it wouldn't be wrong to say that So got away with a draw since Giri launched an attack along the H file that looked pretty bad for So. Giri, playing white of a Slav defense, pegged his winning chances on So's weakened kingside squares plus sole control of the open H file. I was worried for So especially when the weak h6 square looked like an open door for white's queen.

Here's the position after 26. Qb2. Above. Here, So found what probably is the only life-saving move which was 26...e5. Maybe So always had this move in mind, but it looked to me like So was giving up his last dollar to the mugger and hoping he goes away. It's a good idea, to give up the extra pawn in order to displace the rook on e5. Ok, 27. Re5 Rd4 and there you see the point of it all. Not only is the white rook on a less favorable square on e5 but black has blocked the white queen's wonderful avenue of attack along the a1-h8 diagonal. Earlier, So faced a similar now or never move in the position you see below.

After 24. Rh1, you can taste danger in the air. It's counter-intuitive to give up the bishop that controls the dark squares around the king, but So did just that to relieve the pressure on his king. It went 24...Bd4 25. Qd2 ( eyeing the h6 square ) Bb2 26. Qb2 and you come to the first position above. Play continued with ( from the first diagram ) 28. Qe2 c5 29. Re8+ Kg7 30. Rd8 Rd8 31. Qe3 Qc6+ 32. f3 Qf6 and later on queens and rooks were exchanged for a drawn king and pawn ending.

Tomorrow, So faces A. Gupta who has lost two of his three games, both losses with the white pieces.

2009-01-18T15:15:00.000-08:00

Corus 2009. Round 2. Group C. Well, our man Wesley So didn't do badly today. His fans, like myself, would like to see him win every game, but today it was a draw. He was up against the old guard Oleg Romanishin, rated 2533, approximately 100 points less than So. Their Ruy Lopez followed the usual opening lines, and ended up with a rook and pawn ending with So nursing a passed C pawn and Romanishin with a passed H pawn up his sleeve. The position above was after 40...Rd4, both Romanishin and So obviously wanting to get behind the C pawn. Play continued 41. Ke2 h5 42. Rc1 Kf7 43. Ke3 Rd8 44. f4 h4 45. f5 h3 46. Kf3 rd3+ 47. Ke2 Rd8 48. Kf3 Draw. There is 41. c6 to consider, instead of 41. Ke2, and we would have seen something like 41... Rc4 42. Rb8+ Kf7 43. Rb7+ Ke6 44. Rg7 Re4 45. Rh7 Rc4. That looks like a draw as well. Both sides played very accurately. The endgame guru, Karsten Mueller, himself would have been proud.

Mecking, by the way, suffered his second consecutive loss, in a Ruy Lopez, playing black against GM Caruana. Mecking gave up a knight for two pawns, and then lost a pawn in the endgame.

2009-01-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

Corus 2009 has begun, and 15-yr old Filipino GM Wesley So won his first round game as black against Nijboer. You will find GM So in Group C where there is plenty of good competition, but I think he can hold his own in Group B. Swap Mecking, who is in Group B, for So. With all due respect to the man, Mecking is no longer the world class player that he was. I know, he got sick and had to stop actively competing. Yes, what could have been. But, again, the reality is that he is no longer the same player he was in the 1970s. What are his latest successes? Is there a place for sympathy voting in chess? Looks like there is.

This game started out as a Sicilian, and ended as a rook / knight / pawn ending. Take a look at that white knight on c8. It will take one move to just get it back into the action. White actually has material advantage here. So's superior knight and king position plus a more advanced passed pawn made this a winning endgame. Here is the final position after 67...e3. A pawn race will be your first scenario, but that will be good for black : 68. g6 e2 69. g7 e1(Q) 70. g8(q) Qc3+ 71. Ka4 Qb4 mate. Nijboer could also hassle So with a few knight moves, but it's pretty late in the game really : 68. Nd6 e2 69. Nf5+ Kc5 ( there's no way to stop black's pawn from queening ) 70. Kc3 e1(Q) + and the win is much easier now.

2009-01-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

I just received my copy of Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov written by Tibor Karolyi and Nick Aplin. Ordered from Overstock.com, this book cost me less money than if I ordered it from Amazon.com. It normally cost $29 on the shelf, but I got it online for $18.92 plus $3 shipping. It is not big savings, but savings nonetheless. Amazon.com does not have the best prices out there, and it pays to shop around online. Furthermore, Amazon sells items pertaining to animal cruelty, like items encouraging dogfighting and cockfighting. Forget Amazon. Don't patronize them.

Let's get back to chess.

On page 57, you'll find Karpov's game against Eugene Torre, Asia's first grandmaster. They played this game at the world junior chess championship in Stockholm in 1969. The book devoted ten pages to this 77-mover Ruy Lopez with Torre playing white. Heck, that must be some endgame and it was. Rook, bishop & pawns and the outcome remained unclear until the end. You breeze through most of the game until 44. Kf4 and you have the position shown here. Torre was about to win another pawn, but can he win the game? Play continued wtih 44... Be6 45. Rg7+ kH6 46. g4 hg4 47. fg4 Rf8+ 48. Kg3 Rf7 and I'll leave the rest for your investigation and delectation.

2009-01-03T05:38:00.000-08:00

I was checking out the Kings Indian Defense for black, having grown tired of the stodgy Slav Defense. The Slav is solid but it isn't as dynamic as the KID, I've learned. In choosing our opening repertoire, we have to consider our taste for combat. I thought I was well-suited for the Slav which is a great equalizer, solid but it can get cramped and slow. But I have been getting good results from the KID, playing to keep my pieces active and mindful of the traditional pawn breaks at e5 and c5. Anyway, here is a position where black has just played the 6...e7-e5 move. Kinda strange because for the hawkeyes among you it seems that black will lose a pawn. So, if you don't know theory, you wouldn't play this move. But you can play it because 7. de de 8. Qd8 Rd8 9. Ne5 you can play 9... Ne4 and you have gotten your pawn back with an open game ahead of you.

Joe Gallagher, author of Starting Out : The Kings Indian, comes down heavy on those who choose the Exchange Variation, above, and refers to them as wimps ( actually, the line without 9. Ne5 ). He claims that the Exchange takes out the wind out of the sails and makes the game drawish albeit black can still make white work for it. So, those who want to play safe and " wimp" out, that's 7. de for you. Anyway, I don't really like this macho/wimp talk in chess. Remember, we are playing nothing but a board game. The only time we make contact is when we shake hands. For those who appreciate macho, there is always rugby, football, soccer, and hockey.

2008-12-26T10:10:00.000-08:00

This game comes to us from 1970 Beograd between Bent Larsen and Boris Spassky. Larsen played a hypermodern opening as white, and things just didn't work out as he wanted to. White has just played 14.Rg1 when Spassky made chess history by responding with 14...Rh1! Fantastic move, and definitely one that should be included in chess' greatest moments. Spassky took advantage of his weak but advanced G pawn. Larsen played 15. Rh1 g2 16. Rf1 giving back the sacrificed rook ( 16. Rg1 Qh4+ 17. Kd1 Qh1 18. Qc1 Qg1+ 19. Kc2 Qc1+ Bc1 and black will win ). Spassky continued his attack with 16...Qh4+ 17. Kd1 Gf1(Q)+ and Larsen resigned. If 18. Bf1, then 18...Bg4+ 19. Kc1 Qe1+ 20. Qd1 Qd1 mate.

2008-12-06T10:05:00.000-08:00

Kasparov - Spassky
Linares , 1990
Nimzo-Indian Defense

It's quite enjoyable to follow this game between Kasparov and Spassky in Linares with just enough analysis for the average player. This game illustrates how good Kasparov was, probably not as good anymore since retiring several years ago. Like many things, if you don't use it, it goes to pot. But, Kasparov and Fischer are probably the greatest players ever to play the game. This game gives us an idea of how deep Kasparov's analysis can be, noting that there are more lines to this game than the ones explored here.

2008-11-14T03:00:00.000-08:00

The first round of the olympiad for the Philippine team could be better, but they did not perform badly either. They scored one win, one draw, and two loses. Keep in mind that the Chinese team is one of the best teams in the olympiad, and they should finish near the top. Nevertheless, we always want to see the Filipino players do great. GM Wesley So scored the only win for the team, and IM John Paul Gonzalez drew his game against Chinese GM Li Chao.

I am partial to endings, and you will see mostly endgame analysis on this site. As you know, some people love the openings, and all the new theory. You will see very little opening theory here. In the endings, there are very few new theories. The winning principles of rook and pawn endings haven't changed in a long time, and so with minor piece endings. What has changed is the medium of instruction. In my early days of playing chess, books were the only way to acquire knowledge aside from a tutor. Back then, Reuben Fine's endgame treatise was the standard, but it has been revised recently after numerous inaccuracies were discovered over the years. Nowadays, there are DVDs and software, and many of them are just wonderful to use.

You will see in the diagram above the drawn rook and pawn ending between Gomez and Li Chao. Sure, black is a pawn up but we know that in rook and pawn endings an extra pawn does not mean a win. In fact, rook and pawn endings are notorious for being drawish inspite of an extra pawn. If you reach this position in a non-master tournament, you better play on because your opponent can misplay this position and your extra pawn might win the game. However, among those who know, this is drawn. After 50... Kd7, you come to the position above. Play continued 51. Kc4 Ke7 52. Kd4 Kf7 . Taking the rook with 53. Ke5 loses for white. So, 53. Ra6 Re7 and black keeps the white king from crossing the E file. White played 54. Kd3 Re8 55. Rb6 and white needs to keep the black king from crossing the sixth rank. Black played 55...Kg7 56. Ra6 DRAW. The point here is to keep the black king as far away from the advancing G pawn so that when the white rook swings over to attack the pawn the black rook is the only one to defend it from behind. The white king can then approach the G pawn since the rook will no longer be keeping him from crossing the E file. The G pawn will fall and the game drawn.

2008-11-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

Dresden Chess Olympiad, 2008

The 2008 Dresden Chess Olympiad got underway today, and the Philippine team faced the Chinese team for Round One. Tough assignment, but GM Wesley So (2610) defeated GM Ni Hua (2710) in 42 moves. That was a Ruy Lopez by Ni Hua. By the 24th move, 24. cd5 Nc8 ( diagram ), it became obvious that Black's game had nothing to offer, and only a matter of correct technique kept GM So from gaining the point. Double passed pawns in the middle for White, a bad bishop on F8 and a miserable rook on G8, the writing was on the wall. The thing is, GM Ni Hua kept on playing even when the position looked like one of those textbook rook and pawn endings that even a B player would have no trouble winning. In the end, Black's passed A pawn meant nothing but a burden on his very own rook while all White had to do was to advance his three pawns on the kingside along with his king, his rook behind the A pawn, making sure black doesn't give that check on the white king and then promote his A pawn due to the tempo gained.

41. f4 a2 42. Kf5

2008-11-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

Eric Sevillano, 2008 U.S. Open Champion

Because of my long hiatus from chess, a period of non-chess and I-couldn't-care-less, the latest issues of Chess Life magazine ended up in a pile of paper recyclables as soon as they arrived in my mail box. I tell you, when you're out of chess, the game and all its accompanying events, seem utterly boring. I'd rather cut my dog's nails than study a featured game. This ebb and flow, in and out of chess has plagued me most of my life, and that's most likely the reason why I have never achieved a master rating. It's like a farmer sowing the seeds, but doesn't stay to water and nurse the saplings.

However, this month's issue made me stop and look. My old friend Enrico Sevillano is on the cover. Lord, it must have been five years since I last saw him, maybe longer. I remember him from way back when he was in his late thirties ( Eric is 40 now, according to the article ) as a man of all-chess, living and breathing chess, and only mildly worried about where his next meal will come from or where he will lay his head overnight. If you're looking for a man who is a true chess devotee, here he is. It was reported that Eric has married, and that makes me happy. I hope that he is happy and contented in his life and he must be. He is quoted as saying that his wife tolerates his chess. For all his supreme talent, Eric has earned only one GM norm but he wins tournaments, or does very well in them, all the time. I can only surmise that he has been playing in the wrong tournaments, GM norm-wise. Anyway, Eric, I wish you all the best and I look forward to meeting you again.

2008-11-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

Gee, it's been a long time since my last post. I reckon one could say that I took the Summer off. No kidding, I am not sure what was the last tournament I played in, and much more do I not remember the last game I played. It must have been one at the local chess club. Well, right now, I've got no game analysis ready, but I do have something to share. My wife and I drove to Andover, NJ this afternoon to look at some antiques, and we chanced upon this chess set for sale. It's in very good condition, and I estimated this set to be from the middle of the first half of the 20th century. Of course, I could be wrong but the design of the knight tells me that I could be right. It's in perfect condition and it is a complete set. My wife usually takes hours going through store after store while I make one quick survey of the place and see if there is something that would interest me. An old chess set is always a good find.

2008-03-01T07:28:00.000-08:00

GM Boris Gulko to Simul

New Jersey resident GM boris Gulko has accepted an invitation from the Dumont Chess Mates to do a 30-board simul on April 14, 2008. It will cost you $20 plus a $5 admission fee to play against him. The admission fee includes some refreshments. You don't have to be a member of the club to play in the simul. The games will begin at 7:45pm. Believe it or not, there will be demonstration boards as well. GM Gulko will be playing white in all boards. You can have 3 passes per move. Beyond that, you need to make your move or be forfeited. The games will be played at the usual club meeting place at the Dumont High School cafeteria at 103 New Milford Avenue, Dumont, NJ, 07628.

If you are interested in playing, you can email our club President, Lawrence Constance, at
lacon1963@yahoo.com.

2007-12-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

World Cup 2007 : Khanty - Mansiysk, Russia : Here is the crucial position in Game 2 of the final match between Gata Kamsky and Alexei Shirov. They played four games, three of which were drawn. This is the game that put Kamsky over the top. At first glance, it is not easy to ascertain who has the advantage since black's rooks on the second rank looked very menacing plus the C3 pawn is ready for capture. With the C3 pawn gone, black will have a tremendous 3-pawn advantage on the queenside. The g8 square is defended by both the knight on h6 and the bishop on a2. White had to come out slugging, and at this point Kamsky played 32. Rd8+ Ng8 ( 32...Kg7 33. f6# ) 33. Ngf3...It was just fantastic how this knight ultimately played a decisive role in this game having started so far away on the g1 square. Shirof went 33...Rc3+ 34. Kf4 Rh5 35. Rg1 Rf6 ( 35...b5 36. Rgg8+ Bg8 37. Nf7+ Kg7 38. Nh6 Bb3 39. Ne5 Rc1 40. Kg5 Rg1+ 41. Neg4 and the black king is alone and very vulnerable ) 36. Ng5 h6 37. Ngf7+ 1 - 0. If play continued, it would have gone 37... Bf7 38. Nf7+ Rf7 39. Rgg8 Kh7 40. Ke5 and black does not have the time to promote his queenside pawns.

So, we now have an American in the coming WC cycle. Kamsky's next assignment is to beat Topalov (Sept. 2008) and then play the winner of the Kramnik-Anand match. Congrats to Gata Kamsky!

2007-12-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

World Youth Chess Championship 07: Although the Philippine team did not do exceptionally well in this tournament, there are good things to report about it. In the U18 category, Paolo Florendo placed considerably higher ( 32nd place ) than his initial ranking ( 101st ). He scored 6.5/11 points and that made him the highest ranked unrated player in his group. His performance rating was calculated to be at 2353.

In the U16 group, Carl Ochoa ended up in 58th place, down four slots from his initial ranking with an initial rating of 2164. He scored 5.5/11 with a performance rating of 2040. There were 125 players in his group. Now, in the U16 Girls, there were 103 participants, and one of them was Kimberly Cunanan who scored 5 /11 points and placed No. 62, down from being ranked no. 41.

U14, we've got Haridas Pascua coming up with 6/11 points, placing him at No. 47, down from his ranking at No. 28. He was rated 2177. U14 Girls, Chardine Camacho placed 23rd out of 114 players with 6.5/11 points. Chardine was ranked No. 9 with a rating of 2094.

For the U12 Girls, Brena Membrere did quite well when she place 50th after being ranked intially at No. 84. There were 121 participants in her group. Brena scored 6/11 points.

U10 Girls, we've got Mira Mirano with 6.5/11 points and placed No.30 from an being initially ranked No. 70. Congrats.

And, finally, we get to the U8 Girls where Samantha Glo Revita scored 6/11 points putting her in the No. 31 spot out of 73 participants. Samanthat was ranked No. 56 at the beginning of the tournament.

Eleven rounds of chess are grueling and just by participating in this tournament these young people deserve a well-earned congratulations.

Here is Brena Membrere's ending, in Round 3, playing white, against Tasmin Amra at the 31st move. Membrere moved her king up with 31. Ke2 Ke5 32. Kd3 h5 33. f4+ Kf5 34. Kd4 1-0 and you can already see that white will produce the extra passed pawn in the kingside and then head for the queenside to mop up the black pawns there for the win.

2007-11-21T08:39:00.000-08:00

World Youth Chess Championship 07 : Well, this event opened on Nov. 17th, and it will run through the 29th at Antalya, Turkey. It's no small fry since 1450 players from 103 different countries are playing in 12 different categories. If you add the support groups, you've got 2600 people in three different hotels. Instant Boom Town, I'd say.

Let's take a look at how the Philippine team is faring. After three rounds, the Girls Under8 hopeful, Samantha Glo Revita, has two losses and a win. Below is her endgame, playing black, against Kahliogullari of Turkey:

On her move, Revita played 34...Kd6 and proceeded to march her E pawn and king down the board while her opponent's king tried to block its way. When the white king was fully engaged on the first rank in front of the E pawn, Revita began turning her kingside pawn majority into a win with 43...g6. Score one for Revita in 50 moves.

Ok, for the Girls Under10, we've got Mira Mirano with 1.5 points out of three. Mira got an unbelievable break when her opponent hung a knight on the 25th move. Below is the position at white's 37th move which was 37. b5. In a nutshell, Mirano created a passed A pawn and simplified the position after the exchange of her knight for the bishop, and an exchange of one set of rook as well. Pushing her A pawn to the a7 square, Mirano won over Pinar Aktas in 55 moves.

As for the Boys Under18, there is Paolo James Florendo with one point out of three. His only win, so far, came in the first round against Espen Forsaa. Their game was a complicate stew of pieces, a slam bang affair that ended (29 moves) in a position that I thought was not clearly a win for white. Could it have been a time forfeiture by Forsaa? And, here's another cunumdrum for me :

Here, Florendo played 25. Bb6. I can't make sense of this move. Maybe the PGN is wrong. Play continued with 25...cb6 26. Nd5 Qd6 27. Qb3 f4 28. Kg2 Rd8 29. Ra8 1-0.

I will report on the other members of the team in my next post.

2007-11-20T11:05:00.000-08:00

Distracted but not Out : I have to admit, I haven't been posting as aggressively as before. Till a couple of weeks ago, I posted an average of twice a day and scoured the web for more news on chess like a tiger after a gazelle. Not that I have given up the game, but it is more like rubber necking an accident on the other side of the highway. My attention shifted to what I consider a more serious matter---Animal Welfare. I have other interests besides chess like cycling and aviation ( I am a licensed pilot ), but Animal Welfare is urgent, controversial, and every bit of fighting game like chess.

Only yesterday, on my other blog, I wrote about a vet in Ohio who believes that hanging pigs, using a steel chain and a forklift, does not constitute inhumane slaughter. It took an average of 10 minutes for pigs to die. Neither is it inhumane, according to him, to drag them and drop them from a ledge. This was his testimony as an expert witness in court in Ohio. On my home front of New Jersey, there is Congo, a 2 1/2 yr old German Shepherd who leaped into action after a landscaper tackled his master to the ground while his ( the landscaper's ) partner was hitting the other dogs ( Congo's pups ) with a rake. Believe it or not, Judge Russell Annich of Princeton declared Congo a viscious dog and sentenced him to death. Congo's case is under appeal in a higher court. These are just a couple of cases, not very gory ones, that have taken my attention from chess.

About chess, I am, at the present time, one round away from concluding a club championship. My performance has been dismal since I have not played a serious tournament game in a while. Out of four rounds, I have two loses, a bye, and a draw. Last night's game proved that I did not have the will to win nor the energy to give it a good think. Out of the G/90, I used up only 30 minutes for the entire game ( a draw ) while my opponent was down to his last 8 minutes. I gave the position a once-over, and made my move. It's amazing I didn't lose.

Oddly, when I went back to ICC and played a few games, I earned approximately 100 rating points in five games including a win over a player rated nearly 1900. At ICC, that's a good rating. These games are all 5-min blitz. It seems that my time away from chess actually helped my speed chess.

Here's an example of how one of my opponents painted himself into a corner:

The position above isn't particularly sinister, but with my opponent's help it became so. Black moved 21...Qf5, an aggressive-looking move that backfired. Play went on with 22. f3 Bc2 and black won a pawn. Nice? Well, then came 23. g4! and the bishop was lost.

2007-11-12T10:19:00.000-08:00

Zurich, 1953: Let's go back to David Bronstein's highly regarded book on the Zurich Tournament of 1953. It was Round 8 between Reshevsky and Kotov, Game 51 in the book. Kotov had just played the strong-looking move 34...Qd3-e2. The obvious threat is 35...Qe1 mate. White was unable to capture the queen on e2 because of 35...Rd1+ and mate in the next move. According to Bronstein, Kotov's move also had the dangerous threat of 35. Rf1 Rd1 36. Nd2 Qd2 and only 37. Bc4 can save the day for white.

Reshevsky came up with a lightning bolt of a move 35. Qf8+, a move Kotov probably never considered. Boom! Bronstein's side note said that at this point Reshevsky asked how many moves have been made ( not acceptable GM practice ) to which a spectator responded ( illegal ). Interesting. Anyway,play continued 35...Rf8 36. Re2 Rc6 37. Re7 and Reshevsky went on to win the game in 42 moves.

2007-10-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

Nakamura wins Magistral D'Escacs in Barcelona : The American GM Nakamura scored 7/9 points to win the tournament. His performance rating went over 2900 with six wins, two draws, and a loss to GM Josep Pallise Oms of Spain. Geez, that must have thrilled the local fans. Well, Hikaru, you can't win all the time. Second and third places went to GM Dominguez Perez 6/9 and GM V. Gashimov 5.5/9 respectively. Here's the endgame between Nakamura ( white) and Dominguez:

White was a piece up at the moment, but black had a 3-1 pawn majority on the queenside which was under fire. Black's rook and bishop's positions are inferior to their counterparts in white, and the same can be said about the king positions. Domiguez, instead of capturing the knight on a5, played 25...c6 and Nakamura returned the piece with 26.Nc6 bc 27.Bc6 Bc6 28.Rc6 Ra2 29.Rc2 and here you can see that white is very much in control. Black's B pawn looked ripe for the picking and the black king had no part in the action at this point. Play continued 29...b3 30.Re2 Ra1 31.Kd2 Ra6 32.Kc3 Rb6 33.Kc4 ( to allow the rook to attack the B pawn ) Ke7 34.Re3 Rh6 and black started thrashing around, looking for counter play 35.h3 Rg6 36.Re2 Rb6 37.f4 h5 38.g3 h4 trying to create weaknesses ( 38.g4 Rf6 39.f5 hg4 40.hg4 Rh6 ) 39.g4 Rd6 40.Re3 ( securing the h3 pawn and finally the fall of the pawn on b3 is imminent ) Rd2 41. Kb3 Rf2 42.f5 f6 43. e5 fe5 44. Re5 and white won in another six moves.

2007-10-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

Krasenkov

- Nakamura

The black queen is under attack, and what follows is a kinghunt of legendary proportion. Nakamura starts it off with 21...Qf2+. Krasenkov must have gone into the proverbial " Whatda *$#@ is this? " He accepted the sac with 22. Kf2 Bc5+ ( 22. Kh1 Rf6 23. Ne4 Qa7 24. Nf6+ Nf6 25. Ra1 Qb2 26. Ra5 Bb7 and white has two pieces for a rook and a passed C pawn which might be better than the text move which drew the white king into the open) 23. Kf3 Rf6+ ( another piece comes into the attack) 24. Kg4 Ne5+ ( and another!) 25. Kg5 Rg6+ ( 25. Kh3 Rh6+ 26. Qh5 Rh5# ) 26. Kh5 f6 ( 27...Rh6 is the threat ) Diagram 2

( 26. Kf5 Bc8+ 27. Kf4 Nd3+ ) The hunt went on with 27. Re5 Re5+ 28. Kh4 Bc8 and white resigned. Let's see, there's a threat of 29... Rh6#, if white went 29. g4, then 29...Bf2+ 30. Kh3 Rh6#. If 29. Bd5+ ( making room for the king actually ), then 29...Rd5 30. g4 Rd3 31. Qf3 Bf2+ 32. Kh3 Rg4 and black is completely winning. This game was played at the Casino de Barcelona, 2007.

2007-10-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

Kasparov on CNN : Here's Kasparov with Wolf Blitzer of CNN, discussing issues such as his personal safety, polls in a police state, Putin's popularity and so on. Political pundits are asking the same old questions. However, this interview includes a quote from Vladimir Posner who suggested that Kasparov, essentially, has a snowball's chance in hell if elections were held in Russia. Posner, of course, put it in a more dismissive way. Blitzer's second quote came from Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's interview with Der Spiegel, and that one presented a somewhat favorable view of Putin. Hear Kasparov's responses: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tv4_mBAp4KE

2007-10-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Kasparov on Bill Maher : Kasparov did pretty well in the show although he wasn't part of the debating panel. Nobody challenged him. I mean, things could turn out differently if there was somebody there to take up the opposing view. Even Maher turned soft ala Larry King. I am not familiar with the format of Bill Maher's show ( I don't have cable TV or else I would watch it ), but it seems Kasparov was there as a guest speaker only, a plug for his book. Maher lined up all the fast balls for Kasparov to hit out of the park, and the audience was ready to applaud him. When Maher began to ask about Putin's popularity in Russia, Kasparov came out with his stock answer. That is, polls in a police state cannot be trusted and even Bush and Cheney would enjoy great approval rates if they could employ the same strong-arm tactics. See for yourself : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRvb9gO-XDA

2007-10-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

Filipino Inmates Thrill: This video gives new meaning to prison life. Sure, this group's collective wrap sheet will run the gamut of offenses from animal abuse, premeditated murder or simply too poor to put up a good legal defense. But, it seems that they have been busy with something more than just scratching plaintive cries on their cell walls. I wouldn't like to be the one to go from cell block to cell block convincing criminals to participate in a... well, have a look: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1023211&fr=yvmtf Are they on the road to perdition or stardom? You'll find the more talented lawbreakers in the middle pack while the four-footed ones make their bid to fame on the wings. Not exactly a film by Martin Scorcese, but it will do for now.

2007-10-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

Chess and Politics: Our good friend at Chesslodge has an interesting post about the intrusion of politics into chess:
http://chesslodge.blogspot.com/2007/10/politics-killing-sport.html

2007-10-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

World Junior Chess Championship, 2007, Final: The second half of this tournament was certainly a slambang affair with several players taking the lead at every turn. Well, in the end, it was Egypt's GM Ahmed Adly who triumphed over a field of 80 players. He scored 10 points in 13 rounds, leading after the 6th round and then falling behind to come back on top in the end. GM Adly won his last three rounds. Second place went to GM Ivan Popov of Russia with 9.5 points followed by GM Wang Hao with 9 points in third place. For those of you who follow IM Wesley So, he settled in 20th place with 7.5 points. Considering that this young man of 14 was leading the pack at around midpoint and then lagged behind after successive loses, it seems to me that he might have ran out of steam. GM Parimarjan Negi took 8th place with 8.5 points.

Here is GM Adly's last round game against G. Meier after his 51. Kh3 when black resigned. Let's take a look: 51...Bd6 52. Rd6 Rc8 53. Nd2 Rc5 54. Nf3 and white has won another pawn...Rb5 55. Kg4 Ke7 56. Rd5 Rb6 57. Ne5 and white has a very superior position.

2007-10-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

World Junior Chess Championship, 2007, Rd 10 : Things have changed quite a bit since the last report. The former front runner, IM Wesley So ( Philippines), is now at number 16 ( 6 points) after ten rounds. First place has been up for grabs for almost every round, and now it is IM Avetik Gregoryan who leads the pack with 7.5 points. I am sure the hometown crowd is very proud of him. The next Armenian after him is at 10th place, GM Arman Pashikian with 6.5 points. For a while, Egyptian GM Ahmed Adly looked like the run away winner, but GM is now in 6th place with 7 points. He lost to GM Ivan Popov in Round 10 and to GM Wang Hao in Round 9. Nobody is safe in this tournament. IM Wesley So lost in Rounds 7, 8, and 10 after a stellar performance. Nevertheless, the official website announced that Wesley So and Avetik Grigoryan have already earned a GM norm in this tournament. The number one seed, GM Wang Hao, climbed from the middle of the pack to second place with 7.5 points after 10 rounds. Two more rounds to go.

2007-10-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

World Junior Chess Championship, 2007, Rd 6: After six rounds of the scheduled thirteen, IM Wesley So of the Philippines took the lead with 5 points. This tournament is being held at Yerevan, Armenia from Oct. 2 through the 17th. It's a long and grueling tournament, and so the competitors need to pace themselves. GMs Ahmed Adly (Egypt) 5 points, Maxim Rodshstein (Israel) 4.5 points, and Daniel Stellwagen ( Netherlands) 4.5 points, are in second to fourth places respectively. Players who enjoy better name recognition fared less than the aforesaid players: GM Wang Hao, 4.5 points at 6th place, Gm Parimarjan Negi, 4 points at 16th place, GM David Howell, 3.5 points at 22nd place, and GM Gawain Jones, 3.5 points at 25th place. Here is the game between Wesley So and David Howell:

Wesley So enjoyed pawn majorities on both wins and simplification favored him with 30...Rc2 31. Qa7...Howell needed to activate his queen with 31...Qe8 and So sought an exchange with 32. Qe3. Play continued 32...Qc8 33. Qe7 ( threatening 34. Rd8+ ) Qf5 with Howell making threats of his own on f2.

Here, So dove head first with 34. Rd8+ Kg7 35. Qf8+ Qf6 36. Qd6+ Kg5 ( 36...Kg7 37. Qd4+ Qf6 [ 37...Kh6 38. Rh8+ Kg5 39. Qh4# ] 38. Rd8+ nasty ) 37. h4+ and black resigned. If 37...Kh4, then 38. Qg3+ Kh5 39. Rh8#. If 37...Kg4, then 38. Qg3+ Kh5 39. Rh8#. Let's take a look at 37...Kh6, 38. Qf8+ Kh5 39. Qh8+ Kg4 40. Rd4+ and black has to cover with his queen.

2007-10-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

World Blitz Championship 07: A recent post at the DailyDirt chess blog got me scratching my head. According to the post, FIDE is planning another World Blitz Championship this year to be held right after the World Cup in November. There was one held in Israel last year, and Grischuk won that one. He, therefore, is regarded as the reigning World Blitz Champion. As reported, FIDE will seed a few well-known personalities into the final, and all others will have to qualify. Included in the group who have to claw their way to the top is none other than the reigning champion. The illogicality of this decision makes me leery of the report's accuracy. But, knowing FIDE's propensity for byzantine procedures ( world championship cycle ) and unabashed mood swings ( Topalov rematch ), this could very well be the case. Wow. And we play a game based on logical deduction?

2007-10-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

A new GM for the Philippines : Darwin Laylo, a 27-yr old from Marikina, is headed for the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia) after placing 7th in the VI Asian Individual Chess Championship in Cebu, The Philippines. The World Cup begins on November 23, 2007. When the young man said that it was a dream come true, he was not referring to the his spot in the World Cup but to his newly-minted GM title. His performance at the tournament earned him the last GM norm and enough points to boost his 2486 rating beyond the required 2500. Laylo became the 7th GM the country has ever produced. Congratulations to Darwin Laylo and good luck at the World Cup.

2007-10-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

ChessMexico 07, The End : Well, I am glad this tournament is finally over. I am already looking forward to a World Championship reMATCH in 2008 between Kramnik and Anand. I predicted that Kramnik and Aronian will emerged as the top two, and so I was mistaken on Aronian. Aronian lost to Gelfand in both games, and that made Gelfand the only player to win both games against the same opponent. Aronian's two other losses occurred against Anand and Kramnik. Levon, maybe next time.

Nevertheless, congratulations to Anand for winning this tournament, for finishing without a loss, and for having the most wins in the group. Anand scored 9 / 14 points ( 4 wins and 10 draws ) while second placer Kramnik scored 8 / 14 ( 3 wins, 1 loss, 10 draws ). Gelfand has the same stats as Kramnik, but he took third place. The Israeli's armor sports a new luster, and no doubt numerous invitations to compete will be coming.

I remember watching the Kasparov-Anand Match at the World Trade Center in New York in 1995 where Kasparov proved too much for Anand. It has taken Anand 12 years since then to become unified world champion. He stayed the course, kept hacking away at the dream, eyes on the prize, and finally attained the highest honor in all of chessdom. I reckon this victory will make him a greater national hero in India.

Anand's game against Grischuk ( Round 13 ) represents the only time when he could have been beaten at the board. Had he lost that game, Anand would have created a 3-way tie between himself, Kramnik, and Gelfand ( assuming the last two performed as they did ). Those favoring match play would have seen some of that after all. Here is one of the critical positions in that game:

Anand had just played 51...Ra2-h2. From here, the game went into a pawn race that looked hopeless for Anand especially with the white king helping out in the promotion of the white A pawn. Ultimately, Anand sacrificed his rook for the Queen on a8. Anand's H pawn, however, started advancing by then and his king shepherded the H pawn home. Ironically, Grischuk's king performed the same task for his A pawn, but this placed the white king too far afield of the H pawn. For the record, here is the continuation: 52. Rd4 Rh4 53. Ra4 Rh1 54. Rb4 Ra1 55. a4 Kg6 56. Kd5 Ra3 57. Kc6 Rf3 58. a5 f5 59. a6 Ra3 60. gf5+ Kf5 61. Kb6 h5 62. Rb5+ Kg4 63. Ra5 Rf3 64. a7 Rf8 65. a8(q) Ra8 66. Ra8 h4 67. Kc5 h3 68. Kd4 h2 69. Rh8 Kg3 70. Ke3 Kg2 71. Rg8+ Kf1 72. Rh8 Kg1 73. Rh2 Kh2 Draw.

2007-09-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

The Maine Thing

Before the weather gets seriously cold, I made the 6-hour drive to the eastern part of Maine and revisited the sights that I haven't seen in more than a decade. Summer is over and the mad rush of vacationers ended weeks ago. Hotel/motel rooms, cabins, and campsites ran abundant, and the coastal highway U.S. Route 1 experiences less traffic at this time of the year. Aside from its awesome natural beauty, Maine is also known for its seafood. People settled the coastal areas in the 1600s, and since then the sea has provided the local population a means of livelihood and a proud maritime tradition. Here's a photo of the dock and bay area in Boothbay Harbor (above). This scene is typical of the area. Maine's lobsters are world famous, and sat high on my must-have list..Together with family, I found a nice restaurant by the water where we chose the lobster(s), and then they were cooked in a huge vat of boiling water right in front of us. In a few minutes, they resurfaced as a dish for our immediate and unabashed consumption. I added an order of steamers, corn, cole slaw, and pints of golden ale to ease them down our systems. This salubrious undertaking was made better by the location of our picnic bench on a raised deck, overlooking the water. In situations like these, conversation is kept at a minimum. Life is good!

2007-09-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

ChessMexico 07, Rd 12: This round begins today and we have Anand with a 1.5 point lead over his closest pursuer, Gelfand. Anand's victory over Morosevich in Round 11 could be the push that made him a virtual world champion. Barring catastrophic losses in these last three rounds, it looks like Anand will become the official world champion on Saturday. The reigning champion's performance remains uninspired and a great disappointment. I am very interested in how Kramnik will sum up his performance after the tournament.

2007-09-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

ChessMexico 07, Rd. 10 : It was again one of those days for draws except for one game between Aronian and Grischuk. Here is the position on move 39...d2 ( below ). That pawn was almost home and it just shows us how these games are decided via razor's edge. Aronian makes a dash for victory with 40. Rf7+ Ke8 ( forced ) 41. Nf6+ Bf6 ( forced ) 42. Rg7+ ( discovered check ) and black resigned. If 42...Kf8, then 43. h8(Q) checkmate.

Round 9 : In my predictions, I categorized Morozevich as a player who could rock the boat and upset the balance of things. He did just at in Round 9 when he defeated Kramnik who is now 1.5 points behind Anand after ten rounds. Kramnik's only win in ten rounds, ironically, was against Morozevich. The rest of his games were drawn. I don't think Kramnik is putting in an impressive performance in this tournament. Now, unbelievably, Gelfand also lost his game against Grischuk. They drew the first time around. After ten rounds, Gelfand is still in second place except that now he is a full point behind Anand. Anand, by the way, has scored three wins and Gelfand, Aronian, and Morozevich have two wins. As for losses, Gelfand, Kramnik, and Leko have lost only once. Anand is unbeaten.

This world championship is turning out to be just another super grandmaster tournament. I don't get the sense that one player is beating another for the crown. It's a tournament, and so you earn as many points as possible and hope that others help you along with upsets. There is no gladiatorial combat here, mano a mano. I've seen more excitement in the Aronian-Carlsen match than in this tournament.

2007-09-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

ChessMexico, Rd 7: After seven rounds, at half-time, we've got Anand leading the pack with 5 points, Gelfand at second with 4.5 points, and the reigning World Champion Kramnik at third with 4 points. Well, Anand and Kramnik do not surprise me, but Gelfand does. If my memory serves me right, Gelfand drew almost all of his Candidates Matches game except for one win and here he is almost at the top in the championships. It seems predicting results in a chess tournament is like predicting profit at the stock market. This is not to deny Gelfand his due, of course. Earlier, I predicted Kramnik and Aronian on top and if I were to add one more name it would be Anand's. So, I am still hoping that Aronian turns in a string of victories in the second half of this tournament. Let's look at two positions in the Anand-Grischuk game:

Play continued 47...Rff8 ( 47...Rf1+ 48. Kf1 Rd7 [ 48...Kf8 49. Rh7 Nd3 49. Ng6+ ] 49. Rd7 ) 48. Rf8+ Kf8 49. Rh7 c3 50. Ng6+ 1-0

This is the final position. Let's take a look: If 50...Kg8, then 51. Rh8+ Kf7 52. Rd8 Nc6 53. Rc8 ( that C pawn did not have a chance to promote really ) Ke6 54. Nf8+ Kd5 55. Rc6 and black has lost all avenues for counterplay.

2007-09-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

Kudos to ICC

It's no secret that some people would rather quit than graciously resign their game. If you play chess online, you'd been there before. At ICC, you send a " request-win " to the moderators and wait for their reply. It could take a while, and usually they come back with something like " give it another week before you request a win. " Well, this is understandable since there are legitimate disconnections. I have been disconnected myself and my game resumed as soon as the time was propitious. Things start getting suspicious when your repeated request to " resume " a stored or adjourned game is declined by your opponent. Time to make your case again with the moderators.

However, in this example, I felt things were quite different. We did not experience a slow down of transmission ( you know, those little hiccups between the moves ). I had seen the very nice check on g4 earlier, but I thought I'd wait a bit until a bigger catch got caught in my net. True enough, after a few probing queen moves by white, I chased his queen one last time with 22...Rd8 and my opponent plunked his queen on e3. I,then, delivered the coup de grace 23...Nf6-g4+. Several quiet seconds went by, and then click! The opponent disconnected and the game went " stored. " I wasn't willing to be denied my win or wait for it over several days. It was obviously someone hightailing it out of a losing game. No Sir.

So, I messaged the moderators and made my case, arguing that the disconnection could not have occurred by happenstance at the moment when my opponent's king and queen were forked. The odds were just tremendous. In an hour, the game was adjudicated a win for black. I don't know what goes on behind closed doors at the ICC. Perhaps, they can tell the difference between an unintentional disconnection from an intentional one. Perhaps, it was just human instinct. I can imagine the moderators swamped with requests to adjudicate on a daily basis, and it could certainly lessen their workload if a clear message of intolerance was sent to quitters, like a suspension. Anyway, that's one story at the ICC.

2007-09-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

ChessMexico, Rd. 4 : Aronian scores his first win in a game that started out slow, seemingly endless jockeying for position and a lot of saber rattling. I thought 24. f4 signaled the beginning of hostilities since it was a very committal move, but the following moves were jockeying moves again. Until, Aronian played 28. e5. See below:

Here, Leko moved 28...de5, giving up a piece for two pawns. Obviously, Leko pinned his hopes on these two connected pawns which Aronian blocked with his knight, for a while, as he sought to create a passed pawn on the queenside. Play continued 29. Rd7 ef4 30. Qe2 e5 31. Ne4 Be7 ( there was a threatened fork on d6 ) 32. c5 bc5 33. bc5 ( there's the newly minted passed pawn ) Bc6 34. Rdd1 Bb5 35. Qb2 Qa7 36. Bb5 ab5 ( Aronian seems to have strategized to reduce material ) 37. Bf2 Qa8 38. Nd6 ( more simplification ) See below:

Leko decided to cross the Rubicon and go for broke by playing 38... e4, planning to crash into Aronian's kingside for some counterplay. So, Aronian went on with 39. Ne8 ( threatening mate on g7 ) Re8 40. Nd4 ( now, Aronian was quality up after winning a piece for two of his pawns ) Bf6 41. c6 e3 42. Be1 f3 43. gf3 ( I think this capture took out the bite in this pawnroller ) Nf4 44. Bg3 Ne6 45. Qb4 1-0. I have wondered about 44...e2 and it could have gone 45. Bf4 ed1(Q)+ 46. Rd1 Bd4 47. Qd4 Qc6 and white is a bishop up but no longer has a passed C pawn. It would have still been a winning game for Aronian.

2007-09-14T16:48:00.000-07:00

ChessMexico 2007, Round 2 : You might be happy to know that there was some blood spilled on the chessboard today after yesterday's play-safe. Kramnik overcame Morosevich to score his first full point. Aronian, my other favorite, lost today against Anand but we will get to that later.

Above, Kramnik, playing white, sacrificed his knight after 13. ed5 fe5 14. bc4 ed4 15. dc6 Be6 16. cb5 d3 17. c7 Qd4 18. Qa4 Nd7 19. Be3 Qd6 20. Ba8 Ra8 21. Bf4 Qf8 22. b6 and white's pawns were too much to handle for black.

Here is the final position after 27. f3. Play could have gone 27...Qe5 28. Qd3 Bb7 29. QcC4+ and white wins one of the two black bishops and his advantage will be overwhelming.

Aronian - Anand after 18...Qe7. At first glance, looks like 19. Bd6 would be just great but Anand has taken full account of this position. Anand must have considered 19...Qh4 20. g3 Qh3 21. Nb5 Ne5 22. Be5 Be5 23. Bc4 Rfc8 as good for him. Aronian did not take the bait but played 19. Kh1 instead. Later on, Aronian managed to get his rook trapped on the H file and had to settle for a knight in exchange.

Here is their final position after 41...fg3+. It's very hard now for Aronian to survive. For example, 42. Kg1 Qf7 43. Qh6+ Kg8 44. Qf6 ( to prevent Qf2+ ) Qf6 45. gf6 Rc3 and white cannot put up any significant defense or counter-attack. 0-1.

2007-09-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

ChessMexico 2007, Round 1 : All games were drawn thursday, the first round, but it does not mean that you'll find drawish final positions. It seems to me that the final positions still held a lot of fight in them, but somehow the players wanted to get points on the board. As if, there was this mad rush not to end up with a zero. The final positions appear in suspended animation. Let's hope that these guys start grappling and clawing for a win very soon, like the next round. I believe the first to draw was Anand vs. Gelfand. That was a 22-mover affair.

Above, we have the final position of Morosevich - Aronian. This game was drawn in 25 moves. Things could have gone 26. Ra8 Ra8 27. Kg2 Ra4 28. Be7 b5 29. Rd1 Bh8 30. Bd6 g5 with a very slight advantage for white.

Here, we have Kramnik - Svidler drawn in 23 moves. A possible continuation is 23... cd4 24. Bd3 Nd5 25. Nd4 Bd3 26. Qd3 Qb4 27. Nhf3 and somewhat even game. There is an interesting line that goes 23...Qe8 24. Rd6 Bb5 25. Qe4 Nc4 26. Qh7+ Kf8 27. Ng4 a4 28. Nh6! Be5 29. Rdd1 Ke7 with a very good game for white.

2007-09-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

Mexico 2007, World Chess championship

This double-round robin tournament begins today in a matter of hours. Predictions have been made by pundits and bloggers, and so I need to make mine before the first move is made. I think in the very end, we can expect to see Kramnik, Aronian, and Anand battle for first place. Gelfand hardly qualified for this tournament and so with Grischuk. They will lag behind and finally tail off. Leko, as I have always felt, is erratic. You don't know which Leko will show up and this unsteady aspect of his play will never make him a world champion. Svidler is very good, but he is somewhat like Leko. I think Leko and Svidler will occupy the midsection of the roll. Morozevich? He comes up with a brilliant game or two occasionally, but he is not consistent against elite opposition. He might upset the favorites along the way and have an effect on the final outcome. Aronian is rock-steady and he keeps his focus very well as we have seen in his match against Carlsen. I would have loved to see Carlsen in this group instead of Gelfand or Grischuk. It is also because of his elimination of Carlsen in the Candidates matches that I think Aronian should make his presence count, if not earth-shaking. In the absence of Kasparov, I now follow Aronian's games more than anybody else's. Wishing upon a star, I would be very pleased to see either Kramnik or Aronian emerge on top and I think that they will.

2007-09-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

Dunderhead Revisited

Sanctioned with a warning by the FIDE Ethics Commission, Mr. Nigel Short granted that he would refrain from calling Mr. Azmaiparashvili a " dunderhead " , but he would certainly call him " a cheat." We have heard Mr. Short assert that the FIDE Deputy President cheated in one of his games, but do you know the specifics of this claim? What cheating? Where and how? Against whom? Well, I looked around for the answers.

It seems that the story began with the position depicted above with Mr. Azmaiparashvili having the black pieces. Vladimir Malakhov sat across the board from him in a game that started out as a Pirc. As you may have already notice, the white king is in check. Malakhov played 25. Rd1 to which Azmaiparashvili replied 25...Be5, leaving his rook en prise. Realizing the mistake, Azmaiparashvili retracted this move and played 25...Rd1+ instead. Someone on the web speculated that Malakhov was so stunned and stupefied by this retraction that he failed to object. The true reason, perhaps, for allowing the retraction was Azmaiparashvili's written note on his scoresheet as 25...Rd1+, signifying that this was his true intention and not 25...Be5? Azmaiparashvili went on to win this game in 59 moves. Experiencing a pang of conscience, he offered to score the game a draw but Malakhov stood by his loss. Malakhov, by the way, finished in second place behind Azmaiparashvili ( the 4th IECC in Istanbul, Turkey 2003) .

I must stress that I have not found a direct quote or a full statement by either Malakhov or Azmaiparashvili about this incident. The most I can say is that this is the prevailing story on the web. If there is a statement from either one about this incident, please send me the url. Now, assuming that this is pretty close to the truth, you can see why every fair-minded chessplayer can become alarmed by this incident. It's rule-bending by a high official of FIDE to say the least. I'd say that Azmaiparashvili's retraction of his move was, in reality, rule-breaking. One has to move the piece that he touched, or capture the piece if the piece belongs to the opponent. I mean, we're talking about a basic, bare bones, fundamental rule here. You could not get away with this stuff at your local club championships much more in an international chess tournament. This is absolutely wrong even if your opponent agreed to the retraction because the rules are not made up along the way between the players but are set even before the game started. In the long run, this retraction will cost Azmaiparashvili more than a point. It's going to be the gadfly that won't go away, and it will forever tarnish his reputation that he sought to defend against the concept, or unflattering image, that we all know now as dunderhead.

2007-09-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

FM beats Three GMs

Imagine the things that go on in the chess world that we hardly notice...Take for example the Prenestini International Festival held in Roma from August 17-19. Officially called 1° Festival Scacchi dei Castelli Romani e Prenestini, this six-round tournament ( Open A ) included four GMs, two IMs, four FMs, sixty-eight players altogether. Well, the undefeated winner was a mere FM who beat three of the four GMs and drew with someone else, scoring 5.5 points out of a possible 6. FM Virgilio Vuelban of the Philippines ( rated 2332 ) put in a performance rated 2713. Quite an impressive performance, I'd say. The finalist were: 1st Veulban 5.5 pts, 2nd GM Rausis 5 pts, 3rd IM Mrdja 5 pts, 4th GM Korneev 4.5 pts, 5th GM Naumkin 4.5 pts, 6th IM Andonov 4.5 pts, 7th GM Popchev 4.5 pts. Vuelban intends to pursue IM and GM norms in Europe. Good luck and congrats on your win. Website http://www.scacchiroccapriora.it/Loc%20Agosto%20WORD%20con%20coord.doc

2007-09-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

Kalmyk Chess Academy

When it comes to government support for chess, it is hard to beat the Kalmyk model. Chess, Kalmykia, and Ilyumzhinov could be treated as synonyms in the next issue of Roget's Thesaurus. Although some form of it already exists, the FIDE and Kalmyk President announced the establishment and building by decree of the New International Chess Academy of the Republic of Kalmykia ( Sept.5, 2007).

This development should hardly surprise anyone au courant with international chess scene. The announcement was made at the FIDE website, stating its mission as, " The aim of the "Chess Academy" in Elista is to train chess players on a professional level, in order to achieve stable results, to perform norms of "FIDE Master", "International Master", "International Grandmaster." The new building will contain sixty rooms with the source of the financing already determined. I guess that's speaking euphemistically about someone.

Ilyumzhinov has appointed FIDE Office General Director Mr. Vyacheslav Namruev as Director of academy. The call is out for national federations and their members to cooperate with the Chess Academy in Elista. The Kalmyk government made it clear that they are interested in your proposals, questions, applications to have lessons in the Academy and to send them to namruev@fide.com

2007-09-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

UK - China Match, more... I will flatter myself by saying that some of you may have noticed that I have a propensity for showcasing endings more than any other part of the game. This is true; I love endings. Here, we have a very instructive ending between the young WGM Hou Yifan and GM Nicholas Pert. Geez, it pains me to distinguish GM titles by gender but at the present time I can only hope that gender chess be abolished. By the way, WGM Hou won this game and so it seems that her WGM is as good as Pert's GM title. I digressed; let's get back to the game, shall we?

From the position above, Hou enjoyed a 3-1 pawn advantage plus a very passively positioned black king. Her rook on g2 was well-placed behind the passed G pawn and still able to influence the queenside; there are five ranks behind the passed G pawn along which the rook can travel. The 2-1 pawn situation in the queenside needed to be simplified into one outside passed pawn, and so Hou moved 56. Kc5 Rb1 57. c4 bc4 58. Kc4 Rc1+ 59. Kb5 Rb1+ 60. Ka5 Rb8 ( looks like the white king was seriously cut off from the rest of the board, but not really ) 61. a4 ( good time to advance the outside passed pawn ) Ra8+ 62. Kb5 Rb8+ ( black was reduced to harassing checks while white made progress )

From here, Hou demonstrated her deep knowledge of rook and pawns endings by approaching the menacing rook. In other words, Hou meant to cut its checking distance in order to move her passed pawn closer to promotion. Play continued 63. Kc6 Rc8+ 64. Kb7 ( now, black has to spend a move ) Re8 65. a5 ( time to advance one more square ) Re7+ 66. Kc6 ( again, cutting the checking distance of the rook ) Re6+ 67. Kd7

From here, I stopped to wonder if the white king had advanced too far to save her passed A pawn. In fact, she had but a new strategy kicks in once black goes after it with 67...Re5. The strategy dictates giving up the G pawn to get the white rook behind the A pawn while the king closes in on the queening square/defending rook. The black king will be too far to participate in any of this action. For example, 67...Re5 68. Ra2 Kg6 69. a6 Rd5+ 70. Kc6 Rd8 71. a7 Rc8+ 72. Kb7 Rd8 73. a8 (Q). So, from the position above, 67...Rf6 68. Rg5 Rf1 ( 68...Kh6 69.g7 ) 69. Kc6 Ra1 70. Kb6 Re1 71. a6 Re6+ 72. Kb7 Re7 73. Kc8 ( doesn't this look familiar already? ) Re8+ 74. Kd7 and black finally resigned ( position below ).

For example, 74...Ra8 75. Ra5 Kg6 76. a7 white wins as in the previous analysis. Superb endgame technique by WGM Hou Yifan.

2007-09-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Elevages Perigord and fine culinary dining...really?
I am getting a bit sick of chess lately, and so I will focus on another important aspect of life. It has not escaped my notice that some chess websites blend their content with other genres without truly blurring their focus on chess. I am almost convinced that all chess and no other makes for a boring site. So, let me turn to an area that is close to my heart and that is the welfare of animals. I consider myself blessed with an ability to be compassionate to animals especially when they are caught in an abusive situation, caught in a no-win situation, not even a draw. We have at least one thing to our advantage as human beings, and that is our ability to articulate our feelings and thoughts, like asking for help. This is the part that moves me the most; abused animals cant speak for themselves in a world that is highly verbal. So, as with bullied kids in the schoolyard a long time ago, female friends who could not get away from an abusive boyfriend, and non-English speaking people who can't explain their situation to a police officer or a judge, I am always willing to help.

I recently discovered a group that is doing excellent work in this area. I have added a link to their website on my sidebar but here it is anyway: http://www.farmsanctuary.org/ You can read all about their work by clicking on the many links, but mind you there is stuff there that could upset you. Click on the Foie Gras Assembly Line, and you see how it isn't so chic to eat it, particularly from a company named Elevages Perigord of Canada. They are being accused of numerous violations of Canadian law pertaining to the ethical treatment of animals, even those meant for food. Here's a link to the complaint written by Gene Baur, President, and Andrew Plumbly, Director of Global Action Network to the Quebec provincial police: http://www.farmsanctuary.org/media/Letter_police.pdf Okay, I know that these things can weigh heavy on your heart and it can be depressing. There are ways to help like donating, spreading the word, and not patronizing products/companies born from this situation. I do know that Amazon.com sells the foie gras from this company, and I have written Amazon ( I've spent a lot of money at Amazon.com ) that I will no longer buy from them until this matter is resolved. I consider it a conflict of interest. Please do not confuse the effort for the ethical treatment of animals with blind faith, militancy, bleeding hearts, or a push for all of us to turn vegetarians. Animals slated for slaughter for food should be treated with dignity and not abused ( read the complaint). There are serious cases of abuse out there, and we should all be concerned. This is my opinion.

2007-09-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

UK versus China, again. So, I harshly criticized Wang Hao yesterday but now I am full of praise for the young man. Here he is, in Round Two, against one of the newest GMs of the UK, David Howell. There guys are very young. I think Wang Hao is 18 and Howell only 16. Howell owned a pair of bishops, but Wang controlled the G file plus a pawn anchor on H3. Howell never got to enjoy his bishop pair due to Wang's blitzkrieg along the G file and the H1-A8 diagonal. Wang Hao was simply top class in this game.

From the position above, Howell played 29. Be3. Why not challenge Wang on the G file with 23. Rg1? Well, there is 23..Ng4+ 24. Kh1 Nf2+ ( 24. Rg4 Rg4 ). Okay, lets continue with 29...Rg2+ 30. Kh1 Bc6 and black sets up for a very nasty discovered check. What to do? Howell fired off 31. Bf7 ( position below ). This move surprised me, but I quickly realized that there is nothing Howell can do to prevent the discovered check. Say, 31. Rg1 would fail against 31...Rf2+ 33. Rg2 Rg2.

From here, Wang played 31... Bf3. I wondered why not 31... Rg7+? Well, there is 32. d5 Nd5 33. Be6+ Kc7 34. Kh2 and white isn't as bad as in the game continuation. So, the game continued 32. Be6 Kb8 33. Bh3 Rdg8 ( what a move! ) 34. Bg2 Rg2 and white resigned (position below).

There is a serious threat of 35...Ng4 followed by 36...Rg3. If white played 35. Rg1 here, Wang could go 35...Rf2+ 36. Rg2 Rg2 37. Rf1 Bd4 with his victory secured.

2007-09-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

UK versus China Match

What a match-up! You won't find my name listed in that exalted group. This one is being held in Liverpool, and instead of writing up the specifics I will just send you to the very source of information http://www.liverpoolchessinternational.co.uk/ where you can see some photos of the venue, list of participants, round pairings and results. The PGN files are still in the oven and they will be served up as soon as they are ready. Anyway, I followed Nigel Short's game against Wang Hao on ICC where kibitzers lamented Short's bad form and Wang's inability to crush him when the position looked very desperate for the Englishman. I think Wang Hao squandered away a decisive advantage by exchanging queens at a point when he ( Wang ) should have applied more pressure on Short's disorganized position. Short's rook lay trapped on h8, his knight on the edge of the board on the queenside, his e7 and f6 squares crater-like, and his d6 pawn weak. But, no overwhelming attack came from Wang who chose to exchange queens on f6.

Short recovered from his problems but Wang Hao, ultimately, won the game by using a combined force of a rook, knight, and a passed F pawn. From the diagram, 18...Rc8 19. Ng5 Bg5 20. Hg5 Qe8 21. Qf3 Qd8 22. Qf6 Qf6 23. gf6 Ke8 24. Rac1 Rc6 25. b4 Nb7 26. Ne7 Rc7 27. Nd5 Rc6 28. Re3 Kd7 29. Rec3 Rb8 30. Rc4 Nd8 31. a4 h5 32. g3 Rb7 and Black had somewhat recovered but still not better than white. Wang won in 54 moves.

2007-09-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

Let's take a look at the 4th Datu Artur Tan Open 2007 one more time. We've got IM Barlo Nadera (black) against GM Nguyen Dung on white's 25th move. Basically, white doubled up on the knight on a6 but the white knight on c7 is pinned against the queen. This same knight (c7) is protected three times by the bishop on g3, the queen and rook on the c file ( diagram 1). So, here, white played 25. Qe2? The question mark is mine. This move left the rook on c1 unprotected. At this level of competition, I am sure that all sorts of red flags went up in Nadera's mind, and we will see that white might have overlooked a finesse move by his opponent. In response, Nadera moved 25...Nc7. At this very moment, black is a piece up. Recovering the piece does not work because after 26. Bc7 there is the very nice 26...Bd6! Look to the h2 square. Taking this bishop 27. Bd6 will mean 27...Rc1+. Also, 27. g4 is answered by 27...Qh3. And there you see how deep a hole white dug for himself with 25. Qe2. Okay, the game went on via 26. Ra7 Nd5

(diagram 2) with a discov. attack on the white rook. Clearly, 27. Rb7 won't work. White played 27. Rc8 and of course Nadera captured with his bishop 27...Bc8, preserving his piece advantage. Black, ultimately, won this game. I, sometimes, wonder why GMs commit obvious blunders against their equally superior opponents, but they will never make such mistakes against mortals like us. I suppose it takes a good player to make another good player look easy to beat.

2007-09-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

Some chess from Asia...

Li Chao of China won the 4th Datu Artur Tan Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with a score of seven wins and four draws. This young man of eighteen is untitled and so is the second placer, Wan Yunguo, also from China, half a point behind the winner. It just shows you that China is still an unexplored area of chess, relatively unknown GM-strength players lurking in the shadows. The field consisted of six GMs, thirteen IMs, seven FMs, two WGMs, one WIM, and one WFM. Eighty-seven players competed from fifteen countries ( Malaysia, Philippines, China, New Zealand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, United States of America, India, Bangladesh, Russia, England, Scotland). Evidently, in 2005, an untitled player also won the tournament. This person is now a recognizable name around the world as GM Wang Hao.

Okay, I am going to play favorites here and ask how well the Filipino players fared in this tourney. IM Barlo A Nadera was 6th (7.5), IM Julio Catalino Sadorra 9th (7.5), IM Ronald Bancod, 13th (7.0), and IM Oliver Dimakilling, 15th (7.0). Not bad at all considering there were 87 players total.

Here's an instructive rook and pawn ending between IM Bancod (white) and GM Adianto from Indonesia (Diagram 1 above). The position seemed drawish but white's rook is more active and it is his move. Bancod played 43. Rb6+ Ke5 44. Rh6 Rd3+ 45. Kg2 Ra3 46. f4+ Kd4 (Diagram 2 below). Bancod managed to get behind one of black's pawns and seemed poised to capture it. It must indicative of a player's maturity and mastery of the game when in this position he elected to play 47. Rd6+, attempting to push the opposing king away from his pawns. Adianto moved 47...Kc4 and the black king stood a good two files away from the nearest pawn ( 47...Ke3 48. Re6+ Kd4 49. Kh3 Ra8 50. Re5 and white has an excellent position ). Play continued 48. Kh3 Ra1 49. Rf6 ( the point of 47. Rd6; Bancod wanted to capture the F pawn first ) Kd4 50. Rf5 Ke4 51. Rh5 Kf3 ( threatening mate ) 52. Kh4 and white won on the 69th move.

2007-08-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

Ethics plus 3...

Back in May, I reported that the Ethics Comm. of FIDE planned to conduct a hearing involving GM Nigel Short and two FIDE officials namely GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili and Georgios Makropoulos, Fide Deputy President and Vice President respectively. The case centers around name-calling and claims of ineptitude by Short. The two FIDE bigshots felt that the statements were damaging to their honor and reputation. So, they reacted. To be exact, Short claimed :

"FIDE deputy president Georgios Makropoulos and vice-president Zurab Azmaiparashvili spent more time in San Luis at their hotel 16 km away than they did in the tournament hall despite being paid thousands of dollars, plus considerable expenses, to do their job on the Appeal’s Committee. It came as absolutely no surprise to me that these dunderheads would flunk the first crisis that they were presented with i.e. Elista toiletgate. I might add that Azmai is singularly inappropriate for such work having, by his own admission, cheated in winning the 2003 European Championship".

Zurab Azmaiparashvili took exception to the term " dunderhead, " a word he felt was used to define him as a stupid person, that it was a personal insult to him. Anyway, all these verbal shrapnel supposedly violated par. 2.2.10, and 2.2.11 of the FIDE Code of Ethics.

The end of July came in Athens, and the Ethics Commission handed down its decision. As for the matter relating to Azmaiparashvili being a dunderhead, the ruling stated:

" using the word "dunderhead," Mr. Nigel Short exceeded in the expression of his opinions, abusing of the right to criticism and committed a conduct likely to injure or discredit Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili’s reputation, thus violating art. 2.2.11 of the FIDE Code of Ethics. "

The EC further argued that " dunderhead " was a " needless insult, integrating a conduct likely to injure or discredit the reputation of the plaintiff and a violation of the FIDE Code of Ethics." Score one for GM Azmaiparashvili.

So, what is the punishment? As the EC put it, " Mr. Nigel Short is sanctioned with a warning. " Boy, that was easy. Short evens the score.

As for the comments relating to ineptitude and inappropriateness:

" criticising Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili in an interview, Mr. Nigel Short exercised his right to criticism and did not violate the FIDE Code of Ethics, thus on this part the complaint against him has to be dismissed. " Make that Two-to-One in favor of Short.

As for the comments damaging the reputation of the two gentlemen from FIDE and by extension FIDE itself, the EC ruled that

" the complaint filed by Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili is not admissible nor receivable and the charge concerning the violation of art. 2.2.10 of the FIDE Code of Ethics has to be dismissed. " Short wins the game.

If you want to read the full text of the decision, you can find it here: http://www.fide.com/news/download/Judgement02-07.pdf

For the record, the members of the FIDE Ethics Commission are:

Mr. Roberto Rivello (Chairman), Mr. Ralph Alt, Mr. Laurence Ball, Mr. Dirk J.A. De Ridder, Mr. Noureddine Tabbane, and Mr. Ian Wilkinson.

2007-08-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it is that time of the year again. Summer comes to an end, but we are looking at three months of pleasant Fall weather. Soon, it will be time to check the foliage map, and drive out there to see the colors change. It's not too bad that Summer's gone. There's Thanksgiving, Halloween, and the holiday season in December. I didn't finish the book I chose for my summer reading, but I will get to the end of it soon. This weekend, we salute the working people of America.

I remember in 1978, still a young man back then, I walked up 5th Avenue in Manhattan, straight to the New York Public Library's main building, and asked to be employed. I was interviewed, and sent uptown to the Performing Arts Research Center at Lincoln Center for another interview. By 12 noon, I was an employee and working a job. Thirty years ago, that was.

To all my readers from America, I wish you a great and happy Labor Day weekend.

2007-08-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

Viking
Chess
Last
Saturday
Quads

Just a short entry here. Time scramble. Fast and loose moves. I have lost count, no more writing. Nervous hands and rapid eye movements. I captured the pawn on h5 with a check, and his king moved up from f4 to g5 ( diagram ). Uh oh moment. I have lost my knight. G3 and F6 are taken. Only fools rush in. But, wait a minute, I've got Nf4!!! So, it was a draw.

2007-08-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and his dreams...

There is a wonderful video of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Al Jazeera, the news network, in Kalmykia wherein the head of FIDE talks about his kidnapping by interstellar aliens. Yup, it happened near his apartment in Moscow. Uh huh. How the aliens pulled it off was not discussed. The reporter should have pressed him on this point. According to Ilyumzhinov, the aliens flew him to another star and brought back to Earth so he wouldn't miss an appointment. I have heard of this story before, but I haven't seen the video. All this happens in the early part of the interview. However, the entire 12-min video is worth watching as it shows how the man has transformed his country for the better(?).

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCmHi50Mve0

2007-08-24T08:23:00.001-07:00

Chess CSI: Identify this photo...

When I first saw this photo, it immediately reminded me of another photo featuring Tal and Pal Benko at play. In that photo, the latter wore dark glasses to combat Tal's legendary basilisk stare. It's a famous photo and you have probably seen it in older chess books. A basilisk, by the way, is a mythical creature, invariably portrayed as a serpent, lizard, or dragon, said to kill by its breath or look. You might have one at your work place actually. Seriously now, the photo above portrays Tal employing the same deadly stare at his opponent, but the who, where, and when are unknown. Perhaps, somewhere in a dusty and musty photo/newspaper archive the information lies waiting. But, we don't know that. So, I investigated.

Fortunately, we can see a significant portion of the position on the board and we can extrapolate some information from it. That will be our key to identifying this photo. There are the obvious clues: Tal had the white pieces and it was black's move. Although not crucial in identifying the photo, the time on the clocks showed that Black was behind in time by approximately 33 minutes. With the a8 and b8 squares out of view, we can't see what pieces occupy them. Because one black bishop and a knight can be seen at Tal's left, obviously captured pieces, we know that there must be a rook and another knight out there on the board. We can also safely deduct that this was an official tournament game based on the cordoned off spectators.

The photo must be studied carefully for minute details. The white pieces appear bleached out, and the task requires serious eyeballing. There is no question that a white rook stands of g1. From there, we can proceed westward for a roll call. The bishop on f1, Queen on d1, and the Knight on e2 ( it stands one square north of a dark square that must be e1 ) do not present a problem. But where is the King? He stands tall in front of the Queen and to the left of the Knight, partially blocked block from view by the black Queen, on what could only be d2. The remaining rook can be see at the far corner on a1. In the foreground, you can see the captured white pieces: a knight with its back towards you and two hard-to-discern pawns. So, where is the other bishop? If you look closely, you can see its miter between the tops of the Queen, Knight and King. It's very hard to see. If there are two captured pawns, there must be five pawns out there. Again, sharpen your vision by looking at the latest issue of FHM or Maxim magazine, and then come back to the photo. You can see them at a3, c3, d4, h2, and on g4, in the shadow of the black Queen---the hardest to see of them all. We are almost done, but one more problem. I count only one captured black pawn and six on the board. Where's the eighth pawn? I could not figure it out and so I decided to call it AWOL.

It was time to look for the game with what we already know about it. I whipped out my trusty travel drive, plugged it into the USB port, opened my Fritz9 program, searched my saved databases, and found one with 3,111 of Tal's games. I used the Edit/Filter Games function of Fritz9 to search the database after setting up the position. I was not getting any hits in the beginning. I looked at the photograph again and reconfigured the setup in Fritz9. Initially, I had the g4 pawn on g5 and the black bishop on d5. After the changes, and an assumption that the missing black rook and knight were on a8 and b8 respectively, I got a hit. The found position appears here:

We are almost there except that the missing black pawn showed up on c5, a square that is empty in the photograph. What the devil is this? Checking the game score, I saw that this position appeared two moves prior to the one in the photograph. The next moves were 13...cd4 14. ed4 and that brings us to the photograph. So, if the C pawn was exchanged, where is it in the photograph? Of course, it could have been taken off the table but that is highly unlikely. Have you ever taken a captured pawn, or piece, completely off your table? Kinda strange, don't you think? Okay, back to the photograph we go.

I've got it. Look very closely at the area encompassed by the tops of the white king and the rook on a1. It could be mistaken as part of the woman's skirt, but it has a different shade of black. It is the head of the missing eighth pawn. So, it was there after all. The puzzle is complete.

The photograph shows Tal playing against Nikola Padevsky in 1960 in Leipzig ( Nimzo-Indian, Samisch, E-25). Padevsky was about to make his fourteenth move which was 14...Qg5+ ( from the photograph). Padevsky earned the IM title in 1957, the GM title in 1964. He won the Bulgarian championships for 1954-55, 1962, 1964. BTW, Tal won the game. You can play over the entire game here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1139509

I would like to give credit to the photographer, but his/her identity is still a mystery to me. That will be your homework for this weekend.

2007-08-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

Drawn

Zarko

2007-08-23T07:03:00.001-07:00

A
Knight
saves
the
day...

It looks simple, but some care is needed to avoid a draw. Remember that a King and Knight cannot mate, and so how the pawns are managed plays a crucial part in the outcome. Looking ahead, there is also a possibility of stalemate on a8. Black played 46...f4, seeking simplification in hope that his lone pawn on the kingside will detain the knight in that area. Black's best chances also lie in getting his pawn as close as possible to a queening square. Both 47.g4 and 47.gf4 are playable here. In post-game analysis, I concluded that 47.g4 would be the simpler way to win, leaving my A pawn to the mercy of the Black King while I move my King over to the kingside and mop up both pawns, leaving me with a passed G pawn rather than a rook pawn and a better King position. Anyway, the game went 47.gf4 gf4 48.Nf3 Ka8 49. Kb6 Kb8 50. a5 Ka8 51. a6 Kb8 52. a7+ Ka8( Diagram 2).

It would have been a draw if the Knight and pawn were not in the picture. Now, a bit more imagination is required to win this game. Taking the F pawn with either the King or Knight will result in a draw. However, a Knight on c7 equals a mate. What to do? Simple math, my boy. It will take three moves for the Knight to get to c7 while it will take the F pawn as many moves to promote on f1. However, it is White's move, and he gets there first. So, 53.Ng5 f3 54.Ne6 f2 55. Nc7#.

2007-08-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

It's a Numbers Game...

It's time to pause for a moment and observe a numerical occurrence as rare as the Comet Kohoutek, perhaps more rare. Today, my counter ran up six numbers in consecutive order and I was there to capture the moment. Using the cut and paste method---a procedure that Michaelangelo himself would find useful--- I present it here in glorious orange. I changed the background color so it doesn't look like part of the main page. You're allowed five seconds to gawk, and then please move on so others can see. Thank you.