Linares R7: Ivanchuk beats Aronian, Grischuk leads at half-time

The first half of Linares is over and it’s Grischuk who leads the field at 5/7, a point clear of Ivanchuk and Carlsen. In round 7, the Russian grandmaster drew Anand with Black while Ivanchuk inflicted a loss on Aronian - the second in a row for the Armenian. Carlsen drew with Radjabov and Dominguez-Wang Yue saw the same result.

From February 18 till March 8 the 26th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares takes place. There is no starting fee for the players this time; the prize fund is € 314,000. The winner takes € 100,000, the second place is € 75,000 and the third player earns € 50,000.

Round 7
In the only decisive game of the round, Ivanchuk defeated Aronian with Black in a King’s Indian. The Ukrainian had also played it earlier in the tournament when Radjabov played 1.d4 against him, and apparently he had enjoyed the experience. Ivanchuk plays so much openings that it’s almost something special when he tries something the second time in the same tournament!

The new trend seems to be Gligoric’s 7.Be3 and in this game Black opted for the modest-looking 7…c6, which used to be the main line a long time ago. It was played by Kasparov in his World Championship Match against Karpov in 1990, but also for instance by Ivanchuk himself against Kasparov playing White, Reggio Emilia 1991/92 (!) which went 8.Qd2?! Nbd7 9.Rd1?! (White waits for Rf8-e8 before playing d4-d5 so that the rook will be misplaced for the f7-f5 break, but the criticism comes from Kasparov himself) 9…Re8 10.d5 cxd5 11.cxd5 and now Black could have played 11…Ng4! 12.Bg5 f6 13.Bh4 h5 with a slight plus, as was given by Nunn & Burgess in their The Main Line King’s Indian from 1996. Forgive me for bringing back some good KID memories!

Back to 2009, when Aronian-Ivanchuk was about equal for a long time but White probably chose the wrong plan in the middlegame, as Black was more comfortable with his e5 and f4 pawns, threating ideas like Rf8-f5-h5 or bringing the knight to f4. However, it seems like there was no need to panic (31.Nxf4) yet as 31.Qe1 holds things together for the moment. After a few more inaccuracies, Black’s extra piece was decisive.

Grischuk was put under pressure by Anand, but held his own nicely. His slow manoeuvering in the opening provoked the World Champion to go for 11.h4 and then the question was: why is g2-g4 better with Black’s knight on e7 than when it is on c6? Not easy to answer, but we think that in the position a few moves later it allows White to take on d4 with the bishop (if Black plays …exd4). In the game Black’s counterplay with …e5 and …b5 was typical of the opening and precisely what was needed to prevent being taken off guard completely. The rest was accurately played by both players and so we can speak of a correct draw.

Radjabov hasn’t been very successful with the Scotch lately, and so he went for the Guioco Piano against Carlsen. (Wonder what puts him off the Ruy Lopez?) It was another game with typical manoeuvres for the opening, and a balanced position from A to Z. White could have tried 31. (or 33.) Qf3 Kg8 32.Re4!? to continue the attack, but instead repeated moves. The Petroff in Dominguez-Wang Yue lasted longer than expected, but at move 57 the Cuban gave up his attempts to tear down the Chinese Wall.

Toplov to face Anand

A little slip is what the Bulgarians expected from Gata Kamsky and it happened on move 30. Gata Kamsky of Brooklyn, New York, United States was in the driver seat of game seven until move 30. He was sitting behind a clearly won position.

Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria might have been the stronger player but was certainly lucky to win this seventh game and move to challenge Viswanathan Anand for the world title later this year.

Kamsky's challenge for the title took a beating again. He played the Candidates Finals at Las Palmas against Anand in 1995. At best, he fought for the FIDE World Title in June 1996 and lost to Karpov at Elista.

His leaving chess for many years since comeback three years years back was perhaps the reason for the widening gap between him and other players like Topalov. Kamsky will find the world title more difficult to win in the coming years.

Had Kamsky won the seventh game, he would have had white in game eight. The match course could have been different.

Topalov won games 2, 5 and 7 and lost game 4. Rest were drawn. Topalov took the match 4.5-2.5 with a game to spare on Feb 26. Even before this match, Topalov was confident and said he would face Anand.

Topalov was world champion before in 2006 and was also trainer for Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine when he was world champion in 2001.

Topalov beats Kamsky 4.5-2.5, qualifies for World Championship Final

Veselin Topalov defeated Gata Kamsky today to score a 4.5-2.5 win in the Challenger’s Match in Sofia. In doing so, the Bulgarian qualified for a World Championship Match against Viswanathan Anand.

From February 16th to 28th the match between Kamsky and Topalov match will take place in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Challenger’s Match will consist of 8 games and possible tie-breaks. The winner qualifies for the World Championship Match 2009.

Game 7
It was the most spectacular game of the match, and so the chess fans were treated with an excellent dessert today. Just like in game 5, the Tarrasch Variation of the French came on the board but this time Topalov went for the more popular 4.exd5. Kamsky was well prepared and right after the opening the board was set on fire when White sacrificed his b-pawn, and Black took it. After a long series of forced moves, a very difficult middlegame with opposite-coloured bishops came on the board.

Until 25.Qd6, both players had used an equal amount of time (about an hour and twenty minutes) but then Kamsky took a long (almost half an hour) think over his 25…Ba4, where the computer prefers the passive 25…Bc8. A few moves later it was about equal, but still very complicated, and Kamsky was down to eight minutes for thirteen moves.

The match was more or less decided by the remarkable strategy Topalov then followed: he kept on playing quickly along with his opponent! This is usually not a very good idea, and the Bulgarian did make some inaccuracies, but with his time ticking away, Kamsky couldn’t profit from them. He was probably winning at one moment (31…b4!) but he missed Topalov’s great move 32.Qc7!, after which Black can only save himself with the impossible 32…Bd3!! but the American didn’t see it (who would have?) and when he had reached the time control, he was looking at a lost position. After twenty very disappointing minutes of thinking, nodding and looking at the big screen, he played a few more moves before offering his hand to Topalov for the last time.

Refresher Course for Arbiters

AICF sends nearly 70 tournaments every year to FIDE for rating purposes. It has been observed that most of the arbiters are not updated with the latest rules of the FIDE, with the result, are not able to enforce the rules properly. Therefore, at the request of many arbiters, it has been decided to conduct a refresher course for all the arbiters including International Arbiters on 04th and 05th April, 2009 at Ooty, Tamilnadu

Prof.R.Anantharam and Mr.K.Muralimohan, Rating Officer, AICF will handle the classes.

The Tamilnadu State Chess Association and the Nilgiris District Chess Association have come forward to host this refresher course. The Invitation is produced here under.

”Greetings from Nilgiris District Chess Association”

The NDCA feel honoured to host the All India Chess Arbiter's clinic on 4th and 5th of April 2008 at St.Jude's Public School,St.Jude’s Public School & Junior College,Montford, Nihung PO, Kotagiri - 643217 The Nilgiris. The TNSCA and NDCA are jointly organizing this event on behalf of All India Chess Federation.

The District Association is happy to provide free boarding and furnished dormitory lodging from 3rd Night to 5th Night. Kotagiri is the oldest and third largest of the hill station in the Nilgiris. Its climate is claimed to be one of the best in the world. At an elevation of
1985 m.the town has developed around numerous knolls and valleys. The Kotagiri weather is more bracing that that of Coonoor and balmier that that of Ooty. The town is 20 km from Coonoor and 28 km from Ooty and is directly accessible to the plains over a very good gradient of road (30kms) with only four hair-pin bends. It is 71 kms from the nearest Railway Station Coimbatore”

Those interested may kindly fill the attached form and register their names with the All India Chess Federation by sending the Demand Draft of Rs.250/- as registration fee favouring "Nilgiris District Chess Association" payable at Coonoor, before 10th March, 2009. The form may be sent by mail also.

Copies may be sent to

1. Mr.G.Premanand, Secretary, NDCA

email : mountymca@rediffmail.com ; Mobile : 09443089976

2. Tamilnadu State Chess Association, email : tnchess64@gmail.com

3. Mr.R.Anantharam email : vranantharam@gmail.com

Please note that the first 100 applications alone will be entertained. Hence, kindly hurry up with your entries.

Note : - AICF has the right to accept or reject any application without assigning any reasons.

All games drawn in 5th round Linares

Levon Aronian and Alexander Grischuk are still sharing the lead in Linares after all round 5 games ended in a draw. Aronian accepted a quick peace offer by Wang Yue while Grischuk’s White repertoire had no answer to Carlsen’s Sveshnikov. Anand miraculously saved a rook ending against Ivanchuk and Dominguez had a narrow escape against Radjabov.

From February 18 till March 8 the 26th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares takes place. There is no starting fee for the players this time; the prize fund is € 314,000. The winner takes € 100,000, the second place is € 75,000 and the third player earns € 50,000.

Round 5
Ivanchuk has made a close study of the Anand-Kramnik world championship match. In the third round in Linares he followed the 10th matchgame from Bonn for a long time and in round five he copied the seventh match game for 23 moves, in the footsteps of Anand, but this time his opponent was… Anand! The world champion didn’t follow Kramnik’s plan of 23…g5 and Kg8-f7, but instead tried 23…a5. He quickly had to give up a pawn, but then defended very well and used a stalemate trick to draw the rook ending.

Wang Yue “improved” upon one of his own games with 12.c5 but it wasn’t very dangerous and already at move 26 he agreed to a draw against one of the tournament leaders, Aronian. The other leader, Grischuk, threw 23 known moves on the board against Carlsen’s Sveshnikov, and the Russian then didn’t have a real improvent either. Ten moves later the scoresheets were signed. Such games are being played more and more at top level, and even the greatest theory junks can’t be too exciting about it anymore.

But there was enough to enjoy at the last board, since Dominguez rarely avoids a sharp battle and so he happily accepted Radjabov’s invitation to fight it all out in a Sicilian Dragon. The Cuban had peeked at a recent Macieja game but Radjabov too, and he improved with 17…gxf5! after which it was very unclear. In the ending, Black was the only one who could try for a win and he came close - 55…Rg3+! would have been very strong.

watch games>>>

Kamsky blunders and loses fifth game

In a slightly worse position that was probably tenable, Gata Kamsky blundered horribly today dropping a healthy pawn. He then decided to try his luck in a queen endgame two pawns down, but the American had to resign at move 51. In the Challenger’s Match in Sofia, Veselin Topalov now leads 3-2.

The Kamsky-Topalov World Championship Semi-Final Match takes place February 16th to 28th in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Challenger’s Match consists of eight games and possible tie-breaks and has a prize find of US $250,000 which will be shared equally by the players. The winner qualifies for a World Championship Match against Viswanathan Anand.

Game 5
To the surprise of many chess fans and journalists, Topalov played with the white pieces today, and not Kamsky. Even after the fifth game had finished, match regulations on the official website still quoted the rule:

“The colors shall be reversed after game 4. (The player getting the white color in game 1 shall play game 5 with the black color).”

This idea was borrowed from the Anand-Kramnik match of last year, the idea being that there wouldn’t be just one player profiting from a White game after a rest day.

However, during the negotiations that took place in November in Dresden, this idea was abandonded for being too complicated for such a short match, and so an amendment to the rules had been signed by all parties prior to the match, but this hadn’t (and still hasn’t) made it to the official website.

A funny consequence of all this was that online commentator Sergey Shipov, who always annotates the game live in Russian at Crestbook, had mixed up the names of the players and was discussing reasons for Topalov to chose the French, and recognizing the style of Sutovsky in Kamsky’s handling of that opening!

Unfortunately there’s not much more to say about the game than what you’ve already read in the intro. Just when the worst was over for Kamsky, he blundered a pawn and then he had to make a choice between two evils: continuing with a pawn down in a hopelessly passive position or going for a queen ending with two pawns down. He chose the latter, but this was clearly lost too, as was shown by Topalov, who finished the game off accurately.

A huge setback for the Kamsky team, who again have to deal with the situation of being one down. But on the positive side, they have two Whites to work on against just one left for the Topalov team.

replay games

Mamedyarov accuses opponent of cheating, withdraws from Aeroflot

Breaking news from Moscow, Russia. At the Aeroflot Open, top seeded player Shakhryiar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan Sunday accused his opponent Igor Kurnosov (Russia) of cheating, and after talking to the organizers, Mamedyarov has now withdrawn from the tournament.

GM Shakhryiar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) was the top seed in Moscow this year and after five rounds he shared the lead with GM Alexander Moiseenko (Ukraine) and GM Igor Kurnosov (Russia). In the sixth round, Mamedyarov played Kurnosov with White and lost quickly: click here to watch games

[by : Chess Vibes]

Four draws in third round Linares

Levon Aronian kept the lead in the third round of Linares, after all four games ended in a draw. They were all hard-fought games, in which Ivanchuk (versus Grischuk) probably had most chances to win the game, although Aronian (against Radjabov) also enjoyed a nice endgame advantage for a while.

From February 18 till March 8 the 26th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares takes place. There is no starting fee for the players this time but instead the prize fund is quite high: € 314,000. The first prize is € 100,000, the second € 75,000 and the third € 50,000.

Round 3
Again, World Champion Anand did not steer away from theoretical lines and made clear that he wanted to keep winning chances with Black, by going for the Najdorf. In fact it was a Najdorf the way Topalov likes to play it, and so we saw if on Saturday after all, but not in Sofia! However, Dominguez’ preparation is on a high level and the Cuban only deviated from a known game at move 20, when the ending already looked very drawish.

It’s always nice to see someone trying the most tested opening in World Championship matches: the Queen’s Gambit Declined. This time it was Carlsen and he soon threw in some QG Accepted flavour in it too, following (yes again) a Topalov game. In the ending Black did have the bishop pair, but was also passive for a while so it was Wang Yue who kept the game going. After Black’s little trick at move 30 it looks about equal.

The 4.Nf3 c5 Nimzo is still a regular guest at the highest level (Kramnik beat Anand in Bonn with this line, remember?) and a new test was seen in Ivanchuk-Grischuk. Again, it didn’t go too well for Black, who lost a pawn while his passed c-pawn was easily blocked. Perhaps 29.e6 should have been replaced by something like 29.f4 or 29.Qb7 because from that moment Black had not much to fear.

Aronian and Radjabov got a rare Grünfeld line on the board - how rare becomes clear when you learn that it hasn’t been played by players above 2535 and a natural move like castling at move ten hasn’t been tried before! In the ending White seemed to have a clear plus, but it was not easy to make progress.

watch games...

Kamsky wins game 4 to level match score

Gata Kamsky defeated Veselin Topalov in the fourth game of the Challenger’s Match to level the score: 2-2. In a Zaitsev Ruy Lopez, the American sacrificed a pawn for strong pressure, won two pawns back and then converted his material advantage in the ending.

The Kamsky-Topalov World Championship Semi-Final Match takes place February 16th to 28th in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Challenger’s Match consists of eight games and possible tie-breaks and has a prize find of US $250,000 which will be shared equally by the players. The winner qualifies for a World Championship Match against Viswanathan Anand.

Game 4
Again, Topalov went for 1…e5 and this time it was the Zaitsev Variation he had prepared. With 12.Ng5 (a move sometimes played back in the seventies) Kamsky avoided the topical lines and then came up with a very creative pawn sacrifice (26.b3) to untangle his queenside. The American had judged correctly: his pressure on the c- and d-files meant more than enough compensation. After a few inaccuracies by Topalov, Kamsky won his pawn back and then another one, and eventually this decided the game.

watch online games>>

Aronian beats Anand, takes over lead

The reign of World Champion Viswanathan Anand in Linares was short-lived. In the second round he went for 1.d4 against Aronian and tested an early pawn sacrifice. The Armenian GM took the pawn, then gave a knight for three pawns to take over the attack but only because of a big mistake by Anand, he won the game after 53 moves. The second round also included a superb performance by Grischuk, who beat Wang Yue in great style.

From February 18 till March 8 the 26th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares takes place. There is no starting fee for the players this time but instead the prize fund is quite high: € 314,000. The first prize is € 100,000, the second € 75,000 and the third € 50,000.

Round 2
The answer to the question whether Anand would be using 1.d4 more often, after his match against Kramnik, can now be answered by a clear yes. In his game against Aronian he came up with the interesting novelty 12.Ng5!? which involves the sacrifice of a pawn. His compensation was clear: a strong center, nice development and good attacking chances.

With 23.g4 the Indian took some risks, and indeed by giving his knight for three pawns, Aronian took over the initiative. Anand kept on defending accurately, until 33.Rg3? (where 33.Rxd4! was necessary). In the resulting ending Black had five pawns for the piece, which was simply too much.

Grischuk’s victory over Wang Yue looked very impressive and should not be missed either. Carlsen-Dominguez was spectacular for as long as it lasted; they followed Aronian-Leko, Morelia/Linares 2008 and the novelty 10…Qxf2 was analysed to a draw by Dominguez, apparently. Radjabov-Ivanchuk (yes, not the other way around!) was a King’s Indian - apparently Radjabov was inspired to reach for the queen’s pawn too, and Ivanchuk want to treat him with his own opening! It seemed fairly level throughout the game.

Watch online Games>>>

Anand takes early lead in Linares

World Champion Viswanathan Anand showed the way in the first round of Linares. Using his good old 1.e4, he beat Radjabov in a highly theoretical Sveshnikov, while all other games ended in a draw.

From February 18 till March 8 the 26th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Ciudad de Linares takes place. It’s the first tournament of Viswanathan Anand after he retained his world title in October last year, when he beat Vladimir Kramnik in a match for the world title. Corus participants Carlsen, Radjabov, Aronian, Ivanchuk, Wang Yue and Dominguez are there as well and the last name is Grischuk, who replaced Topalov, who is currently playing the Challenger’s Match against Kamsky.

Linares 2009 | Participants

No.	Name	Country	Live rating*	FIDE rating	Born
1	Viswanathan Anand	India	2791	2791	11 Dec. 1969
2	Magnus Carlsen	Norway	2764	2776	30 Nov. 1990
3	Teimour Radjabov	Azerbaijan	2762	2761	12 Mar. 1987
4	Levon Aronian	Armenia	2757	2750	06 Oct. 1982
5	Vassily Ivanchuk	Ukraine	2741	2779	18 Mar. 1969
6	Wang Yue	China	2739	2739	31 Mar. 1987
7	Alexander Grischuk	Russia	2733	2733	31 Oct. 1983
8	Leinier Dominguez	Cuba	2721	2717	23 Sep. 1982

*Before the start of the tournament

There is no starting fee for the players this time but instead the prize fund is quite high: € 314,000. The first prize is € 100,000, the second € 75,000 and the third € 50,000.

Round 1
World Champion Anand took a few months off from work - well, tournaments that is. Today he showed that during the last few months he did more than just relaxing: in one of the most theoretical opening lines that currently exist, the 9.Bxf6 Sveshnikov, he reached a slightly better position and then demonstrated why queen and knight are supposed to be better than queen and bishop. Great manoeuvering, and a nice finish too.

With his win Anand immediately took sole lead, because all other games ended in a draw. Aronian-Carlsen had one great move, 19.e4, but with a positional exchange sacrifice Carlsen quickly showed that Black had not much to fear there.

Dominguez-Grischuk was also quite interesting from a theoretical point of view. For thirteen moves the two repeated their game of last year at the World Blitz Championship (we’re talking about the sharp French Winawer where Black sacrifices his g- and h-pawn) and this time Dominguez went for 14.Rg1, but Grischuk only needed to play the standard stuff (sacrife the d-pawn, improve the position of the bishop and play …f6 somewhere) to equalize - in fact he got a promising position, but couldn’t find a way to make us of it.

As so often, Ivanchuk tried a relatively rare opening and today it was the Bogo-Indian. Wang Yue couldn’t prove an advantage and instead allowed almost the whole board to be exchanged. All in all, this first round was not a bad start at all!

read more>>

National Cities

National Cities - The Asian Chess Federation has announced the conduct of Asian Cities Chess Championship at Beirut, Lebanon from 16th to 25th April, 2009. In view of this we need to organise the National Cities Chess Championship. We are likely to organise the same in the second week of March, 2009. All State Associations are hereby informed that the venue / dates will be finalised shortly. Kindly keep your teams informed.

Topalov wins second game with Black

Veselin Topalov won the second game today in his Challenger’s Match with Gata Kamsky. With Black he answered 1.e4 with 1…e5 and came under pressure after grabbing a dangerous pawn, but Kamsky used too much time in the opening phase and couldn’t make use of his activity.

The Kamsky-Topalov World Championship Semi-Final Match takes place February 16th to 28th in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Challenger’s Match consists of eight games and possible tie-breaks and has a prize find of US $250,000 which will be shared equally by the players. The winner qualifies for a World Championship Match against Viswanathan Anand.

Game 2
Like yesterday, we start with something that appeared on the official website. This time it was a note on the home page which said IMPORTANT, so we decided to read on:

In order to put an end to any attepts at speculation by match participants, their teams, and the public at large, the Organising Committee with the consent of FIDE publishes the full text of the signed agreement between Gata Kamsky and Veselin Topalov, as well as the agreement between FIDE and the Bulgarian Chess Federation on the organisation of the Challengers’ Match.

Wow, that’s not bad, not bad at all! Remember this column of January 7th? We praised Henrik Carlsen for stressing the importance of transparancy, predictablility and fairness. Well, at least we have some transparancy here!

Some quotes from the agreement between FIDE and the Bulgarian Chess Federation (full texts downloadable here):

The Organizer will host and finance all necessary costs of the Challengers’ Match 2008, according to the official regulations of the event.

This includes:
a. The amount of 250.000 USD as prize fund (net and free of all local taxes).
b. The amount of 50.000 USD as contribution to FIDE.
c. The amount of 25.000 USD as stipend to the Principals of the Challengers’ Match 2008.
d. The amount of 10.000 USD towards the preparatory budget of FIDE’s Worid Championship Committee.
e. The amount of 1,500 USD for renting the high power jammer system from FIDE.

TOTAL of 2a + 2b + 2c + 2d +2e = 336.500 USD

As always, FIDE make quite a lot of money themselves, and it would be interesting to hear from them on what it will be spent, exactly. And we needed Google to learn that the “high power jammer system” is destroying the possibility of using a cell phone within the playing hall.

The Organizer is given all the commercial rights connected to the Tournament, and is entitled to exploit all the rights, including but not limited to; sponsorship rights, ticketing rights, Internet rights, televisions rights, graphic, media, SMS rights, all kind of transmission through cellular phones, all sort of electronics broadcast rights aheady existing or to exist , souvenir rights, merchandising rights, advertising and promotion rights, as well as all the source of income through this agreements. The Organizer will print and distribute tickets, VIP passes and working passes needed to enter the Venue.

As was also noted by me (no, not yours truly, but someone who couldn’t think of a better name), this paragraph is probably related to yesterday’s post about the odd legal note referring to Playchess. It’s still being discussed under yesterday’s report, but the one question that needs to be answered is: can you copyright a chess move? This has been debated heavily over the years, and to our knowledge, the answer thus far has always been no.

for more click here

[ by : Chess Vibes]

Allotment of National Championships – 2009

S.No.	Event	Allotted to
1.	National Under -7 Boys & Girls	Ahmedabad
2.	National Under -9 Boys & Girls	Tamilnadu
3.	National Under -11 Boys & Girls	Karnataka
4.	National Under -13 Boys & Girls	Delhi
5.	National sub Junior and Sub Junior Girls	Maharashtra
6.	National Under -17 Boys & Girls	Kolkata
7.	National Junior & Junior girls	Kerala
8.	National Under – 25	Rajasthan
9.	National Team	Kerala
10.	National “A”	Maharashtra
11.	National Schools	Ahmedabad

Topalov-Kamsky Match to Start

The Chess Challengers match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky will be held February 16 - 28 in Sofia in the 6th Hall of NDK.

The match will consist of 8 games. If there is a tie at the end of these games a tiebreak will be played on the last day of the competition.

The prize fund, which will be split equally between the players is $250 000.

The games will be commented live on Chessdom.com (http://live.chessdom.com/topalov-kamsky-2009-g1.html") by GM Dimitrov.by GM Dimitrov and of course at all major international news websites.

The official site of the event is www.wccc2009.com and via our mini website at http://sofia2009.fide.com with highlights after every game published on our front page.

Humpy wins PSPB Inter Unit Chess

20th PSPB Inter Unit Chess Tournament 2008-09

New Delhi (13 Feb 09): World No. 2 Women Player Grandmaster Koneru Humpy won the PSPB Inter Unit Chess Tournament 2008-09 hosted by Engineers India Limited here at Vishwa Yuva Kendra, Chankyapuri on Friday.
At the end of final round, Grandmaster Koneru Humpy tied for the pole position with 7 points along with Indian No.2 Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran, National Champion Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly and M R Lalith Babu. But better bucholz tie break score helped humpy to take the top honours while Ganguly finished second and Lalith Babu third.
In the final round encounter Sasikiran defeated Ganguly while Humpy signed peace treaty with Grandmaster G N Gopal.
In the closing ceremony Shri, Mukesh Rohatgi, Chairman & Managing Director Engineers India Limited gave away the prizes in presence of Shri R S Jadeja, Joint Secretary PSPB, Shri. B D Paliwal, Chairman EIL Sports Committee and Shri. AK Juneja, Organising Secretary.

Three share lead

20^th PSPB Inter Unit Chess Tournament 2008-09

New Delhi (12 Feb 09): National Champion Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly of IOC along with World Junior Champion Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta of BPCL and Grandmaster Arun Prasad of IOC are leading the table with 4.5 points at the end of 5^th round of Individual event of the ongoing 20^th PSPB Inter Unit Chess Tournament hosted by Engineers India Limited here at Vishwa Yuva Kendra, Chankyapuri on Thursday.

In the fifth round encounter. Ganguly defeated team mate International Master B Adhiban while Arun Prasad and Abhijeet Gupta signed the peace treaty. A pack of seven players including top seed K Sasikiran are trailing behind the leaders with a drift of half point.

68 players from 11 Oil Sector Organisations are participating in this 9 round swiss system tournament.

Important Results Round 5 :- GM Abhijeet Gupta of BPCL (4.5) drew with GM Arun Prasad of BPCL (4.5) ; GM G N Gopal of BPCL (4) drew with GM K Sasikiran of ONGC (4) ; IM B Adhiban of IOC (3.5) lost to GM SS Ganguly of IOC (4.5) ; GM Koneru Humpy of ONGC (4) beat WGM Soumya Swaminathan of IOC (3) ; FM Vidit Gujarathi of ONGC (3) lost to GM Sandipan Chanda of ONGC (4) ; M R Lalith Babu of IOC (4) beat IM Deep Sengupta of IOC (3) ; IM Lanka Ravi of ONGC (3) lost to GM Deepan Chakravarthy of IOC (4) ; IM M R Venkatesh of BPCL (4) beat WGM Nisha Mohota of OIL (3).

IOC ‘A’ WINS PSPB INTER UNIT CHESS

New Delhi (11 Feb 09) : Indian Oil Corporation ‘A’ team won the 20th PSPB Inter Unit Chess Tournament hosted by Engineers India Limited here at Vishwa Yuva Kendra, Chankyapuri today.
In the final round encounter, IOC ‘A’ easily overcame IOCL (AOD) team 4 – 0 and tied for the top spot along with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited ‘A’ team and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited with 10 points each. IOC ‘A’ team lead by National Champion Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly along with former National Champion Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte, Grandmaster Deepan Chakravarthy and International Master B Adhiban take the pole position in better tie break score. Defending Champions ONGC ‘A’ settled for second spot while BPCL satisfied with third.
Engineers India Limited ‘A’ team comprising of J Suryanaryana, M K Sahu, Dr. D K R Nambiar and S S Solankhi finished first among unrated teams.
Earlier in the penultimate round, ONGC ‘A’ defeated IOC ‘A; 2.5 – 1.5 while BPCL whitewashed HPCL 4-0. In another fifth round match, IOC ‘B’ team got better off ONGC ‘B’ 2.5-1.5.

Final Standings

1 IOC 'A' 10 19
2 ONGC 'A' 10 18½
3 BPCL 10 18
4 ONGC 'B' 8 15
5 OIL 6 14½
6 IOC 'B' 6 13½
7 EIL 'A' 6 11½
8 GAIL 6 11
9 IOCL (AOD) 6 10
10 HPCL 5 9
11 NRL 4 9
12 BRPL 3 9
13 MRPL 2 6
14 EIL 'B' 2 4

Results Round 6 :- ONGC ‘A’ beat OIL (4 - 0) ; BPCL beat IOC ‘B’ (2.5 – 1.5) ; IOCL [AOD] lost to IOC ‘A’ (0 – 4) ; HPCL lost to ONGC ‘B’ (0 – 4) ; EIL ‘A’ beat NRL (3-1) ; GAIL beat EIL ‘B’ (4 – 0) ; MRPL drew with BRPL (2 – 2).
Results of Round 5 :- IOC ‘A’ lost to ONGC ‘A’ (1.5 - 2.5) ; BPCL beat HPCL (4 - 0) ; ONGC ‘B’ lost to IOC ‘B’ (1.5 – 2.5) ; GAIL lost to IOCL[AOD] (.5 – 3.5) ; BRPL lost to OIL (4 – 0) ; EIL ‘B’ lost NRL (1 - 3) ; MRPL lost to EIL ‘A’ (.5 – 3.5).

Happy Birthday Parimarjan!!

Ponomariov wins eight games blindfolded

Ex-World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov beat eight Basque players in a blindfold simultaneous chess exhibition that took place during the annual chess tournament organized by Eire tavern, in Gipuzkoa, Spain. Despite being totally unexperienced in this discipline of chess, Ruslan didn’t hesitate to accept the challenge.

By Jesus Maria Rodriguez

The event took place on Sunday, January 25. It started at 12:30, after the official welcome with the music of txalapartas (a Basque musical instrument made of wooden logs) and the traditional welcoming aurresku (Basque dance). The games started immediately afterwards. At the beginning Ruslan seemed quite nervous and had some communication problems when telling his moves. For this task he received the useful help of Inés Goñi Alonso, whose perfect English and knowledge of the game enabled her to execute the moves that Ruslan said aloud.

After the first four moves on each board, the communication went smoothly and Ruslan was clearly much more relaxed and focused in the games, we witnessed a display of absolute control on each and every board. And so, the eight finalists from last year’s Eire tournament started resigning one by one: when there were only two or three boards left, the result was clear.

When the last board resigned, the public broke into a deafening applause that went on for five minutes. Then Ruslan finally relaxed and the face that had looked so serious during the last three hours wore now a bright triumphant smile on it. It was a very moving moment for all, difficult to describe in words. He had achieved what seemed impossible.

click here to watch games

[source: Chess Vibes]

Corus Chess- Karjakin Wins It All!

The smoke has cleared, and out of the six leaders who have entered the last round with a shot at the title, Ukrainian Sergey Karjakin emerged as a the sole winner. Playing black against Dominguez, Sergey might have had the toughest task of all leaders With both sides playing to win and reach first place, a very energetic game arose. As early as move eight the Ukrainian surprised first, playing 6...Ng4 instead of his usual 6...e5. The Cuban showed his aggression with 17.g4, leading to a wild game, and Karjakin said in the press conference that he felt he had to play 23...a3 as if 23...Ra5 white plays 24.0-0-0 with an edge. White was still in time for sanity had he played 24.b3, and after 24...Qa5 25.0-0-0 the position would now be equal. In his all-out attempt to win, Lenier sacrificed the exchange, but after 29.Bxg7? (see diagram 1) where 29.Bxg6 would have been only somewhat better for black, find himself in a lost position. The black king traveled arrogantly to safety, and a dejected Dominguez was forced to acknowledge defeat.

Another drama occurred in the game between Wang and Carlsen. Needing a win, the Norwegian tried his utmost to sidestep theory, and managed to equalize in the early middlegame. When the queens were traded off, it was black who looked preferable, thanks to his space advantage, and white’s weak b3 pawn. Right after the tome control however, black lost his passed b pawn for white’s pawn g2, and the game was heading for a draw. It was black’s 50...Bh4?! that put Magnus in danger, and 60...Re5?, where 60...g6!? was much better, that brought disaster on Magnus. 61.f6! (see diagram 2) was a fantastic resource, after which there was no more saving.

Morozevich overpowered Ivanchuk in a long game of piece shuffling and maneuverings. The position in the opening seemed balanced, and white’s 15.a3! was his best chance to try for an advantage. The middlegame with white’s pair of bishops against the black knights was evenly matched, since black had the stronghold center square of e4. When the Russian erroneously captured on e4, matters looked very good for black. The often fatal last move before the time control once again proved painful for the Ukrainian, who must have been surprised by 40.Rf4!? (see diagram 3). Had he played 40...g4! his advantage would not have been in doubt, but alas instead there was a collapse. First he played 40...gxf4?, after which black took over the initiative, and then with the horrid 44...Kd7?? (44...Kb7 keeps fighting on), mate became inevitable. A bitter disappointment for Ivanchuk.

Aronian could not make any headway against Smeets on the black side of a Sicilian. White chose a safe variation, but got a slight pull after 17.Nb5 (see diagram 4). After the game the Dutchman said that had it been a less formidable opponent, he might have played on, but with 30 minutes left on the clock, he opted for a repetition of moves.

In the Radjabov - Stellwagen white went for a very quiet treatment of the Scheveningen Sicilian. His 9.Nb3 (9.f4 is the normal continuation) is usually played after black goes ...Bd7, to avoid knight exchange. Then the bishop has to make its way back to c8 and b7, something black managed to achieve in the actual game without time loss. The Azeri realized he didn’t have much, and on move 24 sent a peace offering, which was accepted.

Adams felt he had some advantage against Van Wely in a typical Scheveningen Sicilian, but that he later squandered it with his queen maneuver to g3. After the game the Englishman said that both players played a reasonable game, and since the position was equal, his decision to go for a drawing combination starting on move 28 was a sensible one.

The Kamsky - Movsesian game had white enjoying a small plus in the middlegame, thanks to his grip on d5. Black was holding his own however, never allowing the American to comfortably place a piece there. Before long the queens were off, as were three sets of minor pieces. With only one weakness for black in the form of the backward d6 pawn, white could not generate anything meaningful, and the players shook hands after move 47.

Italian-American Fabiano Caruana (see picture) overtook Nigel Short after the latter blundered in a winning position. His win left him on top of the GM B group, with 8.5/13, and a ticket to the ‘big leagues’ of GM A next year. Three players tied for second through fourth places: Nigel Short, Alexander Motylev who beat Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and Rustam himself.

Philippine Wesley So (see picture) quickly drew with David Howel to claim his unshared first place in GM group C, with 9.5/13. GM Elect Anish Giri captured second position with 8.5/13, after his draw with Harika Dronavali. Tiger Hillarp Persson joined Anish on the second spot by beating Manuel Bosboom.

See you all in 2010!!