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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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No chess software to download before playing chess.
The game interface has been designed to run in your normal browser window.
Play online chess for free - no obligations!
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Heroic Howell held at last
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David Howell’s magnificent effort just failed to clinch the world Junior Championship as he lost to the winner Abhijeet Gupta of India in the in thirteenth and final last round held at Gaziantep in Turkey. Gupta, who won his last five games took the gold medal with 10/13 as Howell ended in joint third on 9/13.
Howell’s performance was outstanding, at one point his performance was over 2700, the elite Grandmaster level and seven of his eight wins were against very strong opponents. He also displayed great determination, fighting to the end in two consecutive games that lasted over 120 moves, winning one and losing one. At this level it is extremely hard to win games yet Howell won his first six with the white pieces, a remarkable run.
Going into the final game there were three players on 9/12, Howell, Gupta and another Indian Parimargan Negi. Howell was the only one playing with the advantage of the white pieces and a seventh straight win with white looked a possibility in the opening as Howell emerged with an edge. However, instead of trying to exploit a superior pawn structure Howell, who had consumed a huge amount of time early on, went for a pawn storm on the kingside in the absence of most of his pieces and Gupta made his advantage in mobility count as Howell’s king became exposed.
At least Howell has made the job of the England selectors easier, he must play in the Olympiad after his recent performances.
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Claims of Fake Web Postings Roil the Chess World
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A dispute involving members of the governing chess organization in the United States has erupted into a legal fight that has all the passion of a Bobby Fischer tantrum.
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Hectic Schedule Has Players Racing Around the Globe
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Unlike sports, chess has no off-season. But lately, the calendar has been really packed.
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Rybka vs Meyer – pawn and two move handicap match
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Before the rating system players were generally classified by the handicap a stronger player could give them. The chess program Rybka has a higher rating than any human, and recently it beat GM Roman Dzindzichashvili in a pawn and move handicap game. Would it be able to acquit itself similarly against an IM who got a pawn and two moves handicap? Online chess
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Sochi's chess
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Michael Adams’ awesome performance with the white pieces continued in the fourth round of the Staunton Memorial. The England number one is unbeaten in three years with white at Simpsons in the Strand and extended his run to 11.5/13 with defeat of former world title Candidate Jan Timman. Adams moved to 3.5/4, one point clear of the field
It was an encouraging day for the English players all round. Adams apart, we have become used to seeing the Dutch prevail but Jon Speelman defeated Erwin L’Ami to make the overall scores between the Dutch and English, who include the Russian Alexander Cherniaev, an honorary Englishman for this occasion, level.
Scores:
Adams 3.5, Timman, Wells, Van Wely 2.5, Speelman, Cherniaev, Werle, Smeets, Short 2, Sokolov, L'Ami 1.5, Wade 0.
David Howell lost an epic 132 move game to Li Chao of China at the World Junior Championships but is still well placed on 6/8. Hopefully his energy will not have been sapped too much.
Round ten was very wild by the standards set so far at Sochi as there was only one draw from seven games. Peter Svidler lost quickly to Sergei Karjakin in a theoretical piece sacrifice in the Queen’s Indian where the latter played a published improvement and Svidler was soon out of ideas. Two young Azerbaijani GMs Teimour Radjabov and Vugar Gashimov are in the leading group. Radjabov won in short order against the back marker David Navara.
T Radjabov – D Navara
2nd FIDE GP Sochi (10)
Sicilian Defence
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Conquest conquers all
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Stuart Conquest emerged victorious as the 95th British championship went to a play off at St Georges Hall in Liverpool. Conquest defeated Keith Arkell 1.5-0.5 in a Rapid Chess tie break, drawing the first and winning the second game in style. Conquest received ?5000 for his efforts and rarely can a victory at the British have been so popular or well deserved. Conquest has been a professional player for over 20 years, this was his first championship victory and he always produced original and fighting chess. At Liverpool his aggressive style proved too good for many and he won several fine games.
Conquest drew his last round game against Simon Williams and had thought about playing on in an advantageous position before concluding that the risks were too great. Arkell reached the top score of 8/11 by defeating Gawain Jones the top seed in a stylish game, his third win in the concluding four rounds.
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New Twists From the Start in a Variation on the Game
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960 Chess shuffles the starting positions of the pieces, shifting the advantage from those well versed in openings to players good at tactics and maneuvering.
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Karjakin beats Al-Modiahki, as bomb blast rocks Sochi
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The Second FIDE Grand Prix Tournament is taking place in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi, from July 30 to August 15, 2008, with 14 players from ten different countries. The field is dominated by Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk, who is 37 point ahead of the next highest ranked player in the field. After slightly more than half the event 34 of a total of 49 games have ended in draws. That is a high 70 percent. White won 12 games (=24%) and Black three games (=6%). With his win Sergey Karjakin advanced into the group of seven players with 50% scores. Cheparinov and Radjabov lead. On Thursday a bomb blast rocked the city of Sochi, killing two and injuring 13.
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Dancing with queens
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The Croatian Grandmaster Bogdan Lalic emerged as sole leader in the seventh round of the British Championship taking place in the splendour of Liverpool’s St Georges Hall, one of Europe’s finest neo-classical buildings recently restored to its former glory. Lalic is notoriously hard to beat and is often content to split the point but when he achieves an advantage in the opening he is very dangerous and he proved this against Lawrence Trent.
Lalic has 5.5/7 with most of his main rivals half a point behind. Mark Hebden fell further back to 4.5/7 after losing Andrew Ledger. Hebden lost a piece but then put up stern resistance before succumbing on move 89. Nigel Davies came close to joining Lalic but was again unable to exploit the advantage of an extra pawn against the top seed Gawain Jones whose risky play nearly cost him dear.
Round 7: N Davies draw G Jones; D Gormally draw S Conquest; B Lalic 1-0 L Trent; A Ledger 1-0 M Hebden; S Williams 1-0 Ynojosa; B Addison 0-1 S Gordon; N Pert draw T Rendle; S Knott draw G Flear;
Scores: 1 B Lalic 5.5/7; 2-9 S Williams, S Gordon, S Conquest, G Jones, D Gormally, D Kolbus, A Ledger, N Davies 5; 10-19 L Trent, M Hebden, G Flear, S Knott, J Hawkins , A Greet, K Arkell, D Eggleston, RPert, J Rudd 4.5.
At the Fide Grand Prix in Sochi the competitors are also closely matched. There has been plenty of fighting chess but few decisive games. Online chess. The tournament leader Ivan Cheparinov was defeated by Teimour Radjabov in a wild and complex game in which both players found clever combinations involving queen traps. In an unclear position Cheparinov blundered and allowed an attractive combination that won material.
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Anand on fire
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The world champion Vishy Anand slayed the Dragon and defeated the seventeen year old prodigy Magnus Carlsen in the final of the 13th Grenkeleasing Rapid World Championship, the headline event of the Mainz Chess Classic. Carlsen has recently enjoyed success with the Dragon, one of Black’s sharpest replies to 1.e4 but in the first game of the four game match Anand stormed the kingside and won the black queen. Carlsen continued to resist and it took some deft endgame play from Anand to force the win a queen for rook ahead. Anand won the second game with black and completed a 3-1 win.
The pair had first competed in a double round all play all with Alexander Morozevich ranked number two in the world and Judit Polgar the world’s strongest ever female player. Anand drew both games against Carlsen and Polgar but his double over Morozevich put him top of the table. Carlsen finished second and the pair went through to Sunday’s final. The rate of play was 20 minutes plus five seconds a move.
V Anand – M Carlsen
13th GrenkeLeasing Rapid WCh Final Mainz
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Mainz 2008: Anand punishes Carlsen in Grenkeleasing final
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The final of the 13th Grenkeleasing Rapid Chess World Championship in Mainz – four 20'+2" rapid chess games – was a one-sided affair. World Champion Vishy Anand took the first two games fairly effortlessly, after which the young challenger Magnus Carlsen got two draws. In the match for third place Alexander Morozevich struggled to beat Judit Polgar in the final game.
The 2008 Chess Classic took place from July 28 to August 3 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. The event included tournaments and Opens in traditional and Random Chess, with stars like the current World Champion and world's number one Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Russian GM Alexander Morozevich and the strongest female player of all time Judit Polgar.
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Scintillating Attack and Win Signal a Cuban Resurgence
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Cuba has a proud tradition when it comes to chess, but, in some ways it, too, was stagnant for many years.
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Leonard Barden. August 2 2008
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In the 1960s and 1970s, it was Fischer fear. The American's intense eyes, long arms, talon-like fingers and air of effortless superiority overawed many opponents.
Come the 1980s, and Kasparov fear took over. The Russian's hostile glare, ready sneer, huge opening knowledge and instant tactics terrorised normal grandmasters. Jon Speelman called it "bombardment by thought waves".
The new disease is Carlsen fear. The Norwegian 17-year-old's histrionics are limited to a teenage slouch while at the board and copious refuelling with raisins and orange juice, but he is still today's charismatic superstar and that is sufficient to make experienced GMs freeze into irrational decisions.
This week at Biel, though, the wheels came off. Just a single victory away from claiming the youngest-ever world No1 ranking, Carlsen blew one game and was on the verge of defeat in the next. However, this looks a brief hiatus and for most chess fans he is still the new Fischer. This weekend Carlsen competes in the Mainz rapids against the world champion, Vishy Anand.
M Carlsen v E Bacrot
online chess
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A crisp refutation
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Grandmaster Nigel Davies is the sole leader after only three rounds of the British Championships underway at St Georges Hall in Liverpool. Davies triumphed in a tough game against co-leader at start of play Lawrence Trent who stood reasonably well until he over-estimated his chances in the fifth hour and went for a combination that met with a crisp refutation.
Davies, from Southport, moved to 3/3.It was a good day all round for local players as Gary Quillan managed to scramble a draw against GM Genn Flear from a difficult endgame and GM Stewart Haslinger, also from Southport renewed his challenge with an easy win.
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Yang makes his mark
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The Croydon schoolboy Yang Fan Zhou confirmed his recent promise by producing the upset result of the first round of the British Championship being staged at St Georges Hall in Liverpool. The youngster defeated IM Richard Pert with the black pieces and his reward is white against one of the two GMs from the north west, Nigel Davies of Southport, who got proceedings under way on Sunday as he took on forty players simultaneously. GM Stewart Haslinger also of Southport, the winner of the South Wales International earlier this month lost to IM Thomas Rendle.
Top seed GM Gawain Jones started in style as he outfoxed Graeme Buckley in the opening and made the IM from Sutton pay a very high price to get his king into safety. Jones’s Benko Gambit worked very well as he showed how to play against a set up for White that has been scoring well recently.
G Buckley (2401) – G Jones (2549)
British Ch (1) Liverpool
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Howell turns up the heat
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England’s youngest GM David Howell had a fabulous result at the Andorra Open winning with a score of 8/9. Howell finished ahead of many other Grandmasters including Maxim Rodshtein of Israel a former world under 16 champion and Peruvian Julio Granda Zuniga the reigning Pan American champion. Also in the field was Mihail Marin of Romania the leading chess trainer and theoretician. It is a shame that Howell was unable to hot foot it to Liverpool for the British Championship but he has other commitments and won’t be playing the Staunton Memorial either.
Three of England’s leading senior players competed. Ray Edwards and Professor Julian Farand scored 4.5/9 and Keith Richardson scored 5/9.
Howell’s best game was against another excellent English junior prospect Callum Kilpatrick who played his part in an entertaining encounter. Black can be forgiven for underestimating White’s sacrificial concept.
D Howell – C Kilpatrick
Andorra Open (2)
Gruenfeld Defence
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Playing a Lot (or Very Little) to Keep a Competitive Edge
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How much chess is too much? Players have long held varying opinions about how often they should compete to maintain an edge.
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Leonard Barden. July 26 2008
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The annual British Championship starts at St George's Hall, Liverpool, on Monday. As the British Chess Magazine website points out, there are no previous champions in the field for the first time since 1952.
Both Michael Adams and Nigel Short will be absentees. Instead England's top pair will be in action in the Staunton Memorial at Simpson's-in-the-Strand, London, in August and also at the European Union Championship in Liverpool in September. Liverpool's two fine events are part of the city's European City of Culture programme.
The director, Stewart Reuben, has still secured a good grandmaster entry for the British Championship in an open-looking tournament. The opponents in this week's puzzle will be favourites but I also look for a strong performance from two locals in their twenties, GM Stewart Haslinger (Formby) and IM Stephen Gordon (Oldham), who have both previously gone close to the title. IM Keti Arakhamia-Grant usually produces her best form in this event, and is looking to become the first female winner.
Several competing GMs, survivors from the golden generation of two or three decades back, are now in their forties. So what should seriously concern the English Chess Federation is the dearth of teenage talent in the British title field in an era when chess skills are developed young. GM David Howell, 17, will be away in Turkey at the Junior World Championship, where he has a medal chance, and only the Whitgift 13-year-old Yang-Fan Zhou plus two low-ranked under-16s represent future potential at Liverpool. In contrast the 1977 championship at Brighton, three decades ago, included six teenagers, most of whom became GMs and IMs.
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Cordova scores again
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Readers may recall the travails of the teenage Peruvian International Master Emilio Cordova who failed to return home from a tournament in Argentina last year and ended up in the arms of a dancer is one of Sao Paulo’s more high profile night clubs.
Well, it seems to have done him no harm at all as he recently took the honours at the IV Alajuela Open in Costa Rica scoring 8/9 to finish ahead of a strong field that included the European Individual Champion Sergei Tiviakov.
E Moncayo – E Cordova
IV Open Alajuela (3)
French Defence
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Carlsen is in luck
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A little good fortune for Magnus Carlsen gave him victory over French number 1 Etienne Bacrot in the 3rd round at Biel and the lead on 2.5/3. Bacrot’s solid defence to the Queen’s Gambit was working out very well but when Carlsen complicated matters with a dubious pawn sacrifice his opponent collapsed and was lost just a few moves later.
M Carlsen – E Bacrot
41st Biel Festival (3)
Queen’s Gambit
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Four players tie for first at Karpov Poikovsky tournament
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The event, named to honour its patron Anatoly Karpov, saw firebrand Alexei Shirov take the sole lead after seven rounds, only to lose fairly traumatically to Vugar Gashimov, a soon-to-be 22-year-old grandmaster from Azerbaijan. All other games were drawn, as were all five games of the final round. In the end Rublevsky, Jakovenko, Gashimov and Shirov shared first.
The 9th Karpov tournament took place from July 8th to 17th 2008 in Poikovsky. The average rating of the participants was 2691, making it a category 18 event.
After seven rounds of play Alexei Shirov was in the sole lead, with 5.0 points, followed half a point behind by two grandmasters, Dmitrij Jakovenko and Sergei Rublevsky (who had led the tournament before that). In round eight all games were drawn, except one: Alexei Shirov lost rather traumatically to Vugar Gashimov. That pushed the Latvian-Spanish GM into a cluster of four players, with Gashimov ascending to the same group.
In the final round all games were drawn (two in less than 20 moves), leaving everything as it was on the previous day. The finals standings for the tournament were as follows:
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Never of the Topmost Rank, Yet Vastly Influential in Theory
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Aron Nimzowitsch never played for the title, but is remembered for his book “My System,” which is considered required reading by many serious players.
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Leonard Barden. July 19, 2008
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The silicon age has taught that brute calculation can reveal amazing resources to save seemingly hopeless situations. The impact on human grandmaster play is that more encounters are random dogfights, each side scrapping for initiative and trying to avoid passive defence without counter-chances.
This game is typical of the uneven, messy battles which can emerge from the new philosophy. The former Russian champion Sergei Rublevsky declined his opponent's 9 e4 gambit (Nxe4 10 d5), fearing home preparation, but the young Chinese GM Wang Hao still went for a quick attack down the f file.
Rublevsky's 16...Qd5 (Bd5) hoped for too much from the counter-threat to g2, and 18 Nxf7! (18 fxe6 is also possible) launched dangerous threats. After Rublevsky erred again by 20...Re8 (d3) Wang Hao could have got on top by 22 Qf2 or R1f5 when Black has to return his extra piece by Qxg2+. And at move 27 any novice would play 27 e8Q+ and draw by perpetual check, but Wang Hao instead promoted to a knight and was rapidly forced into a lost endgame. Online chess
Wang Hao v S Rublevsky
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Nab him, jab him, tab him
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When faced with his favourite weapon, the Sicilian Najdorf, Bobby Fischer countered with Bc4. Garry Kasparov also used the move and it has had a renaissance recently. On c4 the bishop is immensely powerful as it attacks f7 and if Black castles kingside the bishop’s influence extends all the way to the king on g8. Black typically plays the move e7-e6 to limit the bishop but often has to reckon with a White sacrifice on e6 that gains two pawns and access to the black king.
This year we have seen many games where Black has failed to exchange the bishop after its customary retreat to b3 and suffered the consequences. The games Naiditsch – Van Wely from Dortmund and Nisipiean-Grischuk from Aerosvit come readily to mind and there was another at the 9th Karpov Poikovsky tournament in Siberia where Alexei Shirov leads with two play.
If I was defending this kind of position I would hasten to exchange the bishop. In this ‘Wacky Race’ to deliver checkmate the lesson has to be, as the song ‘Catch the Pigeon’ from the wonderful 1970s cartoon series goes (almost) ‘Nab him, jab him, tab him, grab him, stop that bishop now!
V Gashimov - A Volokitin
9th Karpov Poikovsky (6)
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Great Scot! A Dragon...
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Alan Tate of Wandering Dragons Chess Club is the Scottish Champion after winning on tie break from defending champion IM Andrew Muir in a keenly contested competition held at Glasgow Academy. This was the 115th edition of the championship, first held in 1884. The tournament is usually invitation only but the SCA changed the format to an international Open with a pounds 2000 first prize as part of the centenary celebrations of the Glasgow Chess League.
GM Jan Markos of Slovakia and Tautvydas Vedrickas of Lithuania shared first place in the Open on 7.5/9. For Markos, a visiting student at Glasgow University this was the latest in a string of first prizes in Scottish tournaments. The change in format and increase in prize money rather surprisingly did not attract any of Scotland’s leading players. Online chess
S Brunello – A Tate
115th Scottish Ch Glasgow
Gruenfeld Defence g3
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A Top-10 Player Whose Style Lacks Flash, but Wins Games
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Peter Leko of Hungary is as close to a metronome as there is in chess. He is not an exciting player, but he is steady.
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Leonard Barden. July 12, 2008
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Nigel Short made a brave move last weekend when he visited Kiev for a 10-game rapid match against Sergey Karjakin. Ukraine are Olympiad champions and 18-year-old Karjakin is the young star. He is behind his Norwegian contemporary Magnus Carlsen but still ranks No15 in the world while Short, the 1993 world title challenger, is now aged 43 and has dropped to No 68 in the rankings. Moreover, the match was rapid chess, at the now established international time rate for such events of 25 minutes on the clock for each player, plus a 10-second increment for each move made. Karjakin is one of the best fast players, both over the board and on the internet.
Short had fears of a whitewash and it looked bad when he went 3-0 down at the start. Game four, below, ensured he would at least have a moment to savour. Karjakin, who at 12 became the youngest ever grandmaster, knows all the hot lines of the Sicilian 1 e4 c5, so Short chose an offbeat yet stable formation. Black still got an edge for the opening, and 12...fxe4 13 fxe4 would take the initiative, as would 19...f7-f5. Instead Karjakin's 22...Qxa2? (still f5!) grabbed a hot pawn and Short's direct 25 Qd2! aimed at the black king. Karjakin tried an exchange sac but the England No2 preferred to offer his own rook by 28 Rxg6+! which was quickly fatal. If hxg6 29 Qxg6+ Kh8 30 Qh6+ Kg8 31 Rg1+ is curtains. The Ukrainian king tried to stagger to the Q-side but after heavy material loss Karjakin had to resign. It all shows again that successful defence becomes harder at a fast time rate.
N Short v S Karjakin
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Negi shows potential
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The Indian prodigy Parimargan Negi,15, was one of the winning quartet of GMs at the big money World Open just concluded at the Sheraton Hotel in Philadelphia. Negi warmed up by winning a smaller event in Philadelphia and continued his good run to score 7/9 and share first with Evgeny Najer of Russia, Ljubomir Ftacnik of Slovakia and Alexander Moiseenko of Ukraine. In the absence of Gata Kamsky and Hikaru Nakamura the American challenge was eclipsed. Najer won a blitz tie break against Negi to win the title but the $55,000 for first to fourth place was shared. Overall, event organiser Bill Goichberg handed out $320,000 in prize money among the many graded sections.
A great game played at 5 minutes for White and 6 for Black with Black having draw odds. Negi had one chance but once he misses it he succumbs to blow after blow.
E Najer - P Negi
World Open Armageddon Play off
Sicilian Najdorf
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Victory for Karjakin
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Nigel Short was 5.5-2.5 behind at the end of the fourth day’s play in his ten game Rapid Chess match against the Ukrainian prodigy Sergei Karjakin. Karjakin secured victory with a day to spare outplaying Short in the seventh game before Short unleashed the King’s Gambit and won the eighth. The exhibition match was staged at the Kiev Puppet Theatre and sponsored by the Ukrainian mobile operator life :)
Short lost the first three and he might have been a bit punch drunk but he hit back in style. Game 4 was a bit Punch and Judy, Nigel was Punch.
N Short – S Karjakin
Rapid Match (4) Kiev
Closed Sicilian
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Back to the drawing board
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Peter Leko rather predictably took no risks with the white pieces and secured tournament victory at Dortmund by steering play into a known drawing variation in the Marshall Attack to the Ruy Lopez. Of course Leko needed the cooperation of his opponent, Dortmunder Arkady Naiditsch but Naiditsch probably felt he had already given his home crowd enough entertainment by defeating former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in round three. Leko finished clear first, undefeated on 4.5/7, half a point ahead of the field.
Kramnik had a terrible event and finished on a negative score after losing a middlegame battle against Vasily Ivanchuk. The position was roughly equal for much of the game although Ivanchuk had a slight edge with queen, rook and bishop against queen, rook and knight on an open board. Ivanchuk was pressing when Kramnik blundered and had to resign immediately. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Kramnik, and his trainer Loek Van Wely had their minds on the former’s world title match in the autumn against Vishy Anand.
I doubt if Kramnik has ever lost twice with the solid Petroff Defence in the same event but some might say that this is good for chess as games in this opening are often uneventful.
V Ivanchuk – V Kramnik
Sparkassen Dortmund (7)
Petroff Defence
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