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Play Chess At Your Own Pace
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Play Opponents Anywhere In The World
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Play Without Additional Software
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Chess games can last for hours, days or even weeks.
Time per move is set at the beginning of the game, for example 'Timeout: 3 days'.
Each player then has up to '3 days' to make their move during
the duration of that chess game.
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You are not chained to your own country anymore.
Anybody with an internet connection worldwide can login and play against you.
An opponent from some exotic countries could be attacking your King!
Both of you can have 12 hours time zone difference and you will still have a nice chess game.
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Play online chess for free - no obligations!
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Respect for the youngster
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Vishy Anand showed the utmost respect to seventeen year old Magnus Carlsen in the tenth round at Linares and agreed an early draw to maintain his half point lead. Carlsen cut the world champion’s lead to half a point with a ninth round win over Alexey Shirov.
The pace finally slackened as for the first time there were four draws but the proportion of decisive games is still 50%. Vasily Ivanchuk has regained his poise and after outplaying Peter Leko with black he was unfortunate not to defeat Veselin Topalov.
Round nine:
Aronian draw Anand, Queen’s Indian;
Topalov draw Radjabov, Ruy Lopez Schlieman 3…f5;
Leko 0-1 Ivanchuk, Caro Kann 4…Bf5 Main Line;
Carlsen 1-0 Shirov, Ruy Lopez;
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Leonard Barden. March 1, 2008
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1990 is shaping up to be the best year in chess history for the birth of strong grandmasters. Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin, both 17, are close to the top 10, while at least eight of their contemporaries are also precocious GMs.
This elite group, many of whom honed their talents against each other in junior events starting with world U-10 championships, hail mostly from eastern Europe but also include Maxim Vachier-Lagrave of France and the UK's youngest-ever GM, David Howell.
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Atlantic? What Atlantic?
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The Linares tournament got underway with the players showing no signs of tiredness after the journey from Morelia in Mexico. The almost unprecedented proportion of decisive games continued. There was only one draw when Teimour Radjabov offered his hand to Peter Leko who had been defending desperately after a strong piece sacrifice from his opponent and was doubtless relieved to secure the half point.
The world champion Vishy Anand outplayed Alexey Shirov as the Sicilian Sveshnikov was made to look tame for the second time in the tournament. Shirov fought back with a pawn sacrifice but then blundered when there were some drawing chances. Anand completed a double victory over Shirov and increased his lead to a full point.
The prodigy Magnus Carlsen remains in touch with Anand after he bamboozled Vassily Ivanchuk with a dubious line in the Ruy Lopez that was 125 years old. Yet again the Ukrainian ruined an advantageous position.
The other victor in the eighth round was Levon Aronian who was the beneficiary of a 39th move blunder from Veselin Topalov that threw away an advantage and set Aronian on the path to victory.
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Prosper under pressure
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The 2nd Brentwood International took place at Brentwood School last weekend and the Masters Open section again boasted a strong field. GM Jonathan Rowson, three times the British Champion was the pre-tournament favourite and he faced a strong challenge from fellow grandmasters Matthew Turner and Neil McDonald.
Rowson was immediately in trouble and was fortunate that Martin Walker agreed to a draw in their first round game in a superior position but several other title players also failed to win in the second round. Going into the fifth and final game Rowson shared first with GM Neil MacDonald, IM Jovanka Houska, and IM Odion Aikhoje of Nigeria.
Aikhoje prospered in MacDonald’s time pressure and Rowson managed to turn round a dubious position against Houska having been somewhat outplayed in the middlegame as his opponent also fell short of time. Thus Aikhoje and Rowson shared first on 4.5/5.
Other section winners were Ali Kikoyo in the Major and Radha Jain and Adrian Riley in the Minor.
J Rowson – M Walker
2nd Brentwood Int.
Gruenfeld Defence Exchange Variation
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Creativity wins the day
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Ian Nepomniachtchi, one of the most creative young players in the world today scored the finest result of his career with victory at the Aeroflot Open recently completed in Moscow. The Russian GM took home $30,000 and, more importantly, a guarantee of a place in the elite Dortmund Chess Festival which is traditionally one of the strongest events of the year.
The 64 player A1 group was so tough that only eight of the sixty four players scored +3, 6/9 or better. The winner scored 7/9 with Russian internationals Alexey Dreev and Alexander Motylev on 6.5.
One can gauge the strength of the event by the the players near the bottom of the tournament table who included former world title Candidate Artur Yusupov and German number one Arkady Naiditsch from Dortmund who will get a chance to cross swords with the tournament winner later in the year. Alexander Cherniaev of Guildford ADC, Britain’s top team, scored 1/8 plus a point for the bye.
There were many fine games, here is a small selection.
L Le Quang – R Mamedov
Aeroflot Open Moscow (3)
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Anand leads the way
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Vishy Anand will be ahead of the field when the Morelia-Linares tournament resumes in Spain on Thursday afternoon. The world champion drew with Vassily Ivanchuk in the seventh and final round played in Mexico and has 4.5/7 with Alexei Shirov and Veselin Topalov half a point behind.
Linares, a sleepy Andalucian town is the traditional home of the event and the players will return to the familiar surroundings of the Hotel Anibal for the second set of seven games but with colours reversed.
The tournament remained exceptionally competitive with three more decisive games in round seven. Teimour Radjabov’s King’s Indian Defence was breached by Alexei Shirov who became the first player of the white pieces to secure the full point against Radjabov in this opening for some time.
Peter Leko’s poor form persisted and he spoilt a good position with white for the second time and lost badly to Veselin Topalov after blundering in a drawish position. Magnus Carlsen easily refuted Levon Aronian’s unsound, sacrificial idea in the Ruy Lopez.
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Leonard Barden. February 23, 2008
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Morelia-Linares, which concludes its Mexican half today before a venue switch to Spain, is called the chess Wimbledon, though that is an inapt name for an event with only eight elite grandmasters. In this year's renewal India's world champion Vishy Anand leads with 3.5/5 and Norway's Magnus Carlsen, 17, has 2.5/5 despite a defeat to Anand.
Carlsen is the darling of tournament promoters, with a schedule of opportunities which even Bobby Fischer never matched in his youth. But spare a thought for Ukraine's Sergey Karjakin, just turned 18 and like Carlsen a World Cup semi-finalist, whose rating is not far behind his rival's despite many fewer opportunities.
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Shock win for Carlsen
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The world champion Vishy Anand scored a third win with the black pieces in the fifth round at Morelia to take the clear lead going into the second rest day. Anand reached 3.5/5 after outplaying Peter Leko from an endgame position that looked slightly better for the Hungarian.
This looks like excellent prepared analysis from Leko and he avoided several drawing lines before spoiling his position in time trouble
P Leko – V Anand
XXV GM Morelia/Linares
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Moscow toughs it out
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The Aeroflot Open is underway in Moscow with the participation of scores of grandmasters who are chasing $200,000 in prize money including $100,000 reserved for the A1 group. The 64 player event is reserved for players rated 2550 or higher, with a few exceptions.
This is probably the toughest event of its type in the world. The winner collects $30,000 plus a more valuable award, a place in the elite Dortmund Chess Festival.
The top seed at Moscow is Vladimir Akopian rated 2700 and ranked world number 23 but the competition is so tough he has yet to win a game and is on 50%. After five rounds Ian Nepomoniachtchi of Russia and Maxim Rodshtein of Israel, two of the younger generation were in the lead with 4.5 points.
A former Fide world champion has his King’s Indian Defence brushed aside by a relative unknown.
E Romanov – A Khalifman
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Mexico suits Topalov
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Veselin Topalov is enjoying Mexico and reached 2.5/3 with an easy win over Vasily Ivanchuk in the third round at Morelia. Topalov played some of his moves in the early middlegame extremely quickly which suggests that he might have still been in the realms of his home analysis and his remarkable 24th move decided the game, see below.
The world champion Vishy Anand has yet to draw a game and he comfortably overcame the 17 year old Magnus Carlsen after steering the game into a relatively obscure line of the popular Anti Moscow Gambit. Carlsen seemed unprepared and was forced into a lost endgame of rook and h4 pawn v light squared bishop and h3 pawn. Anand demonstrated the winning plan of forcing the defending king back to the c file after which the rook can capture on h3 with the aid of the king who shepherds the passed pawn home.
Round three:
Topalov 1-0 Ivanchuk, Sicilian Najdorf 6.Be3 e5;
Carlsen 0-1 Anand, Semi Slav, Anti Moscow Gambit, 9.Ne5 h5!?;
Aronian draw Radjabov, English Opening;
Leko draw Shirov, Sicilian Najdorf 6.Be3 e5;
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Drawn out of his shell
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The Linares-Morelia tournament is underway in Mexico and will move to Spain at the half way stage when the players will get a one week break to recover from jet lag. Seven of the world’s top ten compete plus 17 year old Magnus Carlsen who shared first with Levon Aronian at Wijk aan Zee.
The full line up is: Vishy Anand, India, 2801; Vassily Ivanchuk, Ukraine, 2787; Veselin Topalov, Bulgaria, 2769; Peter Leko, Hungary, 2755; Teimour Radjabov, Azerbaijan, 2742; Levon Aronian, Armenia, 2741; Alexei Shirov, Spain, 2739; Magnus Carlsen, Norway, 2714.
The 68th Armenian Championship took place in mid January but without some of the country’s leading players who were at Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar. The winner was Karen Asrian who has been a highly rated GM for ten years now and a regular member of Armenia’s medal winning teams. Asrian won on tie-break from Artashes Minasian, a very strong tactician. The following game caught my eye because the loser, Ashot Anastasian is an excellent positional player who thrives on the exploitation of small advantages but Smbat Lputian, manages to draw him out of his shell.
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Leonard Barden. February 16, 2008
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Gibtelecom, now in its sixth year, is en route to becoming the strongest and best open event in the western world. Hikaru Nakamura, the youngest US champion since Bobby Fischer, defeated Bu Xiangzhi in last month's final to spoil what was otherwise an impressive result for China's grandmasters.
Two results were significant for UK chess. Keti Arakhamia-Grant, Britain's leading female player, tied for the women's award. Then Robert Bellin, who won his British title back in 1979, achieved his first GM result at age 55
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Upset averted
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Luke McShane is no longer playing chess professionally as he works full time in the City of London but the former prodigy still makes the occasional foray into the German Bundesliga and recently drew with the world champion Vishy Anand.
At the last Bundesliga weekend McShane played a wonderful game to defeat former Fide World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov with black. McShane was always a master of the King’s Indian Defence and this was a brilliant example of sustained attack. I will analyse it in a future column.
An upset was in prospect in the top match in Germany when the Dutch Grandmaster Daniel Stellwagen defeated Peter Svidler on the top board playing for the outsiders Solingen against the favourites OSC Baden-Baden. However Baden-Baden’s greater experience on the bottom boards swung the match in their favour.
On board three the former world title Candidate Artur Yusupov held Magnus Carlsen to a draw while another veteran, Praedrag Nikolic, also playing for Solingen, drew with Alexei Shirov in what was one of the strongest club matches in Europe this year so far.
Three more of Baden-Baden’s star players; Etienne Bacrot, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Pentyla Harekrishna were also held to draws and after Peter-Heine Nielsen of Denmark levelled the match it was left to the team’s solitary German player GM Philip Schlosser to score the decisive win.
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Boil for just 20 minutes
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The first ever Lexmark 20 Seconds Chess Tournament took place at Hammersmith in west London on Saturday 19th January. Victory in this original format went to David Howell who defeated fellow GM Keith Arkell in a tense final.
Howell overcame Laurence Trent in his semi-final while Arkell defeated Aaron Summerscale in the other semi-final although the result was in dispute after Summerscale was originally declared the winner.
The arbiters struggled to deal with the original situations caused by the ‘egg timer’ clock settings in which both players start with just 20 seconds each on the clock and one player’s time increases as the other’s decreases when they are thinking. Naturally this leads to entertaining chess, quick-fire moves and huge pressure on everyone involved.
The Open format gave all comers an opportunity to play grandmasters in the knockout stages and overall the event was judged a great success. The Organisers 20 Second Sports are planning a second tournament in mid-March.
A game from a very strong Open tournament in Moscow which is a warm up for the even stronger Aeroflot Open which has a $200,000 prize fund. Black creates counterplay on the queenside very quickly before White can get his kingside attack going with Nd2-f1-e3-g4 and h4-h5-h6 but on move 23 White misses a promising continuation.
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An entertaining gambit
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The Israeli Grandmaster Viktor Mikhalevski played entertaining if not wholly sound chess at Gibraltar. His final tally of 5.5/10 was disappointing but he was rewarded with a share of the Best Game prize for his part in a wacky King’s Gambit against the Australian junior Moultho Ly which is given below.
In the following game he breezed through a sideline that is potentially tricky and his opponent, an expert on unusual openings, had to resign early. (9.Nxd5!? is worth further investigation for example 9…Be6 10.d4 b5 11.Bxf4!? or 9...Kg7 10.d4 Nf6 11.Bxf4 Bd6 12.0–0
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Battle of Fischer wills
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A long legal battle seems inevitable over the estate of the late Bobby Fischer as there are conflicting claims from his wife Miyoko Watai, his brother in law Russel Targ and the mother of his daughter Marilyn Young.
A Philippino lawyer Samuel Estimo is acting for Ms Young and her daughter Jinky and is suggesting that Fischer may not actually have married Ms Watai although this seems highly unlikely as the original marriage certificate is reportedly being sent to Iceland where any claims will be settled.
Fischer's estate is worth an estimated 140m Icelandic kronur, about one million pounds and is deposited in an Icelandic bank. The one claimant who is likely to come away with nothing is the United States Inland Revenue Service. Since the Icelandic authorities turned down the attempts by the US Government to extradite Fischer for breaking UN sanctions against Serbia in 1992, they are not going to look kindly at an attempt to tax the remnants of his prize money.
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A grand old master
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Svetozar Gligoric the Yugoslav Grandmaster and former world title Candidate recently celebrated his 85th birthday and in his honour an 85 player Rapid Chess tournament was held in his home town of Pancevo.
For many years Gligoric was one of the strongest players outside of the USSR and his success contributed to the huge popularity of chess in Yugoslavia which persists today in the seven new countries that emerged after the collapse of Communism. His record in Chess Olympiads includes twelve medals of all hues and he won the Yugoslav championship eleven times.
Gligoric reached the Candidates Matches many times but could never overcome the hurdle of the Soviet chess machine. Doubtless he was hampered by a lack of strong contemporaries and trainers in Yugoslavia.
I can strongly recommend his autobiography ‘I Play Against Pieces’ published by Batsford/Anova in which he suggests that his career peaked in the late 1950s when he scored 6/8 in the USSR-Yugoslavia match, shared first with Sammy Reshevsky at Dallas in 1957 and scored 12/15 on the top board at the 1958 Chess Olympiad in Munich. His score at the Olympiad bettered that of Mikhail Botvinnik and later that year he finished in second place at the Portoroz Interzonal half a point behind Mikhail Tal.
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Whiteley shows his class
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International Master Andrew Whiteley the number one seed was a comfortable winner of the 1st English Senior Championships just completed at the Izaak Walton Hotel, Dovedale in Derbyshire.
This was by far the strongest individual tournament for Seniors, defined as over 60 in chess, held in the United Kingdom. Past British Senior champions; John Littlewood, Michael Cook, Roelof Westra, Norman Stephenson and George Ellison took part as did reigning joint champion David Anderton but none could challenge Whiteley, a former England international.
Whiteley was one of the leading lights of the King’s Head Chess Club in its heyday when chess was played continually at the pub of the same name which was, appropriately enough, sited in Moscow Rd, Bayswater, a suburb of west London.
Whiteley won his first four games and then took a quick draw in the final round with James Simpson, his only challenger, to win the first prize of ?1,025 outright. Simpson shared second place with Oliver Jackson on 4/5.
Whiteley played for England in Chess Olympiads and European Team Championships in the 1970s and pointed out that this was his first national title since he took the British Under 21 Championship in 1965. This gap of some 43 years must surely be a record.
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Big money at stake
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Fide have announced details of six new tournaments which will form Grand Prix in 2008 and 2009. All will be 14 player all play alls and held at Baku (Azerbaijan), beginning April 20th 2008, Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Doha (Qatar), Montreux (Switzerland), Elista (Russia), Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic) beginning December 7th 2009.
Each event has a prize fund of over ?100,000 and there will be a Grand Prix prize fund to be divided between the participants of over ?200,000. Unfortunately England’s number one Michael Adams has just missed out on automatic qualification and is first reserve.
The qualifiers are: Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, Gata Kamsky, Alexey Shirov, Magnus Carlsen, Sergei Karjakin, Vassily Ivanchuk, Shakriyar Mamedyarov, Peter Leko, Alexander Morozevich, Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov and Boris Gelfand. Reserves, Michael Adams, Peter Svidler, Judit Polgar, Alexander Grischuk.
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IM in holiday mode
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The 6th Gibraltar International Chess Festival recently completed at the Caleta Hotel was the most successful yet with a record number of players who were treated to fine tournaments, live commentary from Stuart Conquest, master classes and a host of other side events.
The prize fund of ?63,000 attracted many of the world’s finest and a significant portion of the total was allocated to a women’s tournament subsumed into the main event, the Gibtelecom Masters. This was won jointly by IM Viktoria Cmilyte of Lithuania, GM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria, IM Harika Dronavalli of Indian and IM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant who it should be emphasised will now play under the Scottish and not Georgian flag. The leading score was 6.5/10.
Ms Dronavalli had an enormous slice of luck when she was paired against a club strength player in the final round as all her rivals faced very strong Grandmasters and measures will doubtless be taken next year to prevent a recurrence.
Antoaneta Stefanova’s Tournament Performance Rating was close to 2700 while Ms Cmilyte scored a Grandmaster result.
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Short shrift by short shift
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The B and C groups at Wijk aan Zee produced a feast of entertaining chess as the traditional combination of experienced Grandmasters and young and ambitious players produced many decisive games. The organisers also added some of the world’s best young female players into the mix. Online chess. Group B was won by Sergei Movsesian and Nigel Short shared second place with Etienne Bacrot. In the following game Short employs the sharp McCutcheon Variation of the French Defence characterised by 4…Bb4 and seeks complications at every turn. Jan Smeets started well but then lost his way in the tournament.
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'H-Bomb' flattens Bu
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There was a dramatic finale to the GibTelecom Masters as the American GM Hikaru Nakamura won a fifth game in a row and then defeated the Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi in a Rapid Chess playoff. Nakamura secured the ?12,000 first prize while Bu took home ?8,000.
Nakamura, one of the world’s finest Blitz and Rapid players was faster and better and after a convincing victory in the first play off game he chose to defend with the solid Queen’s Gambit Declined in the return. Bu took the initiative but Nakamura fought off an attack by sacrificing his queen to set up what proved to be an unbreakable fortress.
Bu tried all sorts of ideas to dismantle Nakamura’s formation of rook, knight and king but there was no way through and Nakamura’s body language said it all. Playing quicker than his opponent the man known as the ‘H-Bomb’ for his aggressive play looked into Bu’s eyes and he seemed to be saying: “I can see all your tricks and they don’t work”. Bu’s king was allowed to penetrate all the way to eighth rank but it made no difference and when Nakamura offered a draw Bu responded by walking into a rather pretty mate. It was magical to watch.
Earlier in the day Nakamura forced a play off with a crushing last round victory over the Ukrainian Zahar Efimenko a former winner of the event. Victor Bologan could have been in the mix but failed to overcome the rising Indian star GN Gopal. Bu reached the top score of 8/10 after a quick draw with his compatriot Ni Hua.
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Bellin gets his result
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The Gibtelecom Masters is wide open again after the Ukrainian Zahar Efimenko ended the wonderful run of Bu Xiangzhi in the penultimate round held at the Caleta Hotel. Bu’s tournament rating performance had exceeded 3000 and with his score of 7.5/8 he could have secured outright first place but Efimenko gave a classic exposition of how to use the bishop pair and forced victory on the 47th move.
Six players remain in contention for the first prize. Leading scores with a game to play.
Bu Xiangzhi (China), Zahar Efimenko (Ukraine) 7.5/9
Victor Bologan (Moldova), GN Gopal (India), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Ni Hua (China) 7
Congratulations to Robert Bellin who achieved his first Grandmaster result at the age of 55. Bellin won the British Championship in 1984 ahead of a field that included Nigel Short and Tony Miles but this did not qualify as GM result on a technicality.
Bellin has played a fine tournament in his third appearance at Gibraltar. He defeated the Swedish GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson in round eight whom he regularly challenges for supremacy at the Guernsey International. A round nine draw against another Swede Emmanuel Berg secured the GM result and a tenth round pairing against the American Varuzhan Akobian will mean that Bellin has faced eight GMs in ten games.
At the other end of the spectrum the Australian Zong-Yuan-Zhao became Australia’s third GM at the age of 21. Zhao’s outstanding performance included the defeat of American GM Hikaru Nakamura
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Bellin is Rock of Gibraltar
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The Chinese challenge holds sway at the Gibtelecom Masters being held at Gibraltar’s Caleta Hotel. The Chinese have sent a very strong contingent with many of the team that defeated the UK at Liverpool last autumn. Bu Xiangzhi is the sole leader on 6.5/7 with five of his compatriots in the chasing pack.
Antoaneta Stefanova’s fine run was ended in the seventh round by Viktor Bologan, he shares second with Zahar Efimenko who has recovered from his travails at Robert Bellin’s hands, see below.
Bellin is having a fine tournament and on 4.5/7 is playing at Grandmaster level. He has faced four GMs and one Woman GM and remained undefeated until he lost to the winner of the Hastings Masters Vadim Malakhatko in round seven.
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Stefanova hits her stride
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The Gibtelecom Masters at Gibraltar’s Caleta Hotel has a significant portion of the prize fund set aside for a Women’s event and former Women’s World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova was an early leader after a superb run of results.
Ms Stefanova defeated former world title Candidate Mikhail Gurevich and drew with former Candidate Alexander Belyavsky. Her win over world junior champion and ICC speed chess wizard Tigran Petrosian - no relation to his namesake the late world champion – was typical of her combative style.
Stefanova accepted the Evans Gambit which we saw used to good effect by Nigel Short last week. Her defence, 5…Bd6 blocking the d pawn looks odd but dates back to the seminal tournament at London in 1851 where it was employed by Lionel Kieseritsky against Adolph Anderssen. Black’s position does not inspire confidence out of the opening but after …Nh4! all the tactics work; a nice game.
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Magnus Carlsen triumphs
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A momentous day at Wijk aan Zee saw Vladimir Kramnik, the 14th world champion, toppled by the 17-year-old prodigy Magnus Carlsen.
The youngster’s play was original and bold and sufficiently unsettled Kramnik to induce a blunder.
The 57-move win gives the youngster a share of the lead of the Corus tournament going into the last round.
Carlsen shares the lead with Levon Aronian on 7.5/12 with world champion Vishy Anand and Teimour Radjabov both half a point behind and still very much in the mix.
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Leonard Barden. January 26, 2008
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This week's game was the brilliancy of Corus Wijk aan Zee, which ends tomorrow. It was the first tie between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik since their Toiletgate world title match in 2006 which left them bitter enemies.
No handshake at the start, then Topa unleashed an openings bomb (12 Nxf7 and 13 e5) which the Bulgarians had discovered three years ago but saved for a major occasion. Kramnik's defence skills could not cope with this at the board. Missing a couple of chances (22...Rfg8! 29...Qe2!) he went down in flames.
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No compromises
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The world champion Vishy Anand was far from convincing but still managed to put the young pretender Magnus Carlsen in his place and open up the competition in the eleventh round of the Corus tournament at Wijk aan Zee. The new leader is Levon Aronian with Anand now level with the seventeen year old Norwegian on 6.5/11, half a point behind with two to play.
Anand confused himself in the opening and stood clearly worse before Carlsen launched an imaginative sacrificial attack giving up bishop, knight and two pawns. With best play the game should have ended in a draw but Carlsen missed the best continuation before Anand coolly marched his king to safety. online chess
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Beyond the blunders
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The seventeen year old Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen is riding his luck at Corus but retains a half point lead with three to play after emerging victorious from a blunderful game against Loek Van Wely in the tenth round. Carlsen lost in round nine to Peter Leko after another blunder but his rivals have been unable to take advantage.
Carlsen has 6.5/10, half a point ahead of Levon Aronian with the chasing pack that includes England’s Michael Adams, Vladimir Kramnik, world champion Vishy Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk and Teimour Radjabov another half a point adrift.
Against Van Wely Carlsen completely mishandled the Benko Gambit and the game looked rather like Malakhatko-Pavlovic from Hastings given in this column earlier this month where Black’s compensation for the pawn was non-existent. Carlsen didn’t panic and after the debacle on the queenside he switched plans and launched an unsound attack on the kingside which crashed through in Van Wely’s time pressure. Online chess...
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A hands down winner
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The Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov turned from villain to hero at Corus overnight as his boss Veselin Topalov won the grudge match of 2008 against Vladimir Kramnik courtesy of an explosive opening novelty found by his trainer and kept tucked away on the laptop for three years.
Internet chess guru Mark Crowther’s prediction proved correct; Cheparinov’s antics against Nigel Short, when he refused to shake hands were indeed a dry run for the Topalov-Kramnik encounter. However neither player could refuse to shake hands this time as neither player offered.
Cheparinov’s idea was a knight sacrifice that appears to refute one of the lines of the Anti Moscow Gambit, the current theoretical battleground of some of the leading players. Kramnik plays it with both colours.
Topalov revealed that they had analysed some lines to move 40 and he bashed out his moves very quickly while Kramnik expended most of his thinking time unsuccessfully trying to find a defence
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