Telegraph chess: Champions of child's play -- 22-Apr-08
More kids are coming. Last week there were three notable successes for young chess players around the world. In Dubai, 14-year-old Wesley So of the Philippines won a very strong Open chess tournament. So is one of the youngest chess players ever to be a GM and scored 7/9 to finish level with GMs Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran and Li Chao of China but the youngster had the superior tie break and was awarded the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup. Salem Abdulrahman Saleh of the UAE, the Asian under-14 champion who has yet to qualify for the IM title looks like he may not need to as he secured his first GM norm with a round to spare. Twenty nine GMs and twenty one IMs competed. In Ukraine 11 year old Ilya Nyzhnyk, won ... |
Telegraph chess: When disaster strikes -- 21-Apr-08
The field for the 2008 Staunton Memorial has been announced and will be the strongest yet with eleven of the twelve chess players being holders of the Grandmaster title. The twelfth player, IM Bob Wade may well be setting a world record. At the age of 87 he is thought to be the oldest chess player ever to be pitted against an all Grandmaster field. Wade has recently competed with success in both senior and Open chess events. He was for many years a researcher for Bobby Fischer and assisted the American in his preparation for the ‘Match of the Century’ against Boris Spassky in 1972. Wade is hugely out-rated but will take heart from the performance of Glenn Flear at the GLC tournament in 1986 when as the lowest rated chess player in a world class field Flear pulled off ... |
Speelman on Chess -- 20-Apr-08
I reported last week on the Russian team chess championship in Dagomys near Sochi where the top seeds Ural Ekaterinburg were in the driving seat. Ural, the only chess team which averaged over 2700(!), duly confirmed their victory last weekend, guaranteeing the win with a round to spare with the help of that blast from the past, the chess match in which all six games end in draws early on. These 'package deals' used to be very common in the latter stages of Olympiads and other international team events and certainly kept the team captains happy and busy. I'm not entirely sure of their formal status nowadays but nobody was going to object and indeed, following the three-all draw with Vassily Ivanchuk's team TPS Saransk on Saturday, they repeated this against ... |
Chess by Larry Evans -- 18-Apr-08
Chess was popular in Italy by the 16th century, and Italian chess players were regarded as the best in the world. But Ruy Lopez, a Spanish priest, defeated them on his visit to Rome on ecclesiastical business connected with the election of Pope Pius IV in 1560. A year later, his book, Libro de la invencion liberal y arte del juego del Axedrez, consisted of 95 instructive chapters. He made the first great contribution to chess ethics by advising us to place the board with the sun shining in our opponent's eyes. The opening, named after Ruy Lopez, (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5) is today a dreaded weapon in White's arsenal. Last year, a long-lost manuscript with chess diagrams possibly drawn by Leonardo da Vinci was discovered among thousands of volumes in a private ... |
Telegraph chess: Pole is poles apart -- 18-Apr-08
The former world chess champion Piotr Murdzia of Poland outperformed the finest line up of British solvers ever assembled at the Final of the 2007-2008 Winton Capital British Chess Solving Championship held at Oakham School on 16th February. Murdzia led throughout and won by a big margin. Thirty three solvers took part, including for the first time, all six titled British solvers. The British title was expected to be a duel between the defending champion and reigning World Champion John Nunn and Jonathan Mestel, himself a former World Chess Champion. Nunn had a disastrous second round, dropping 6 of the 10 points on the mates in 3, which left him in 7th place overall, 6 points behind Mestel. A determined fight back fell just short and Mestel took the title by half ... |
Telegraph chess: Tsk, tsk, Tomsk -- 17-Apr-08
Last week I wondered how Tomsk 400, a chess team composed almost exclusively of world class players could be performing so badly at the Russian Team Chess Championships recently concluded at Dagomys in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The chess tournament was won by Ural of Ekaterinburg. It has emerged that Tomsk, who are former European Team champions were fined 1000 roubles by the chess tournament organisers for what was described as a “breach of sporting discipline”. In Soviet times there were coded phrases for a variety of transgressions and this particular one often referred to drunkenness which is a rather compelling explanation as the fine was levied the morning after the rest day. What’s more, as reported last week, Tomsk 400 scored just a half point out ... |
Telegraph chess: Pawn grabbing punished -- 16-Apr-08
Garry Kasparov turned 45 on Sunday. At the end of March the 13th world chess champion returned to the board to give two simultaneous displays, one at Pasching in Austria and another simul at Hluboka, Czech Republic. The chess games have not come to light bar a couple of fragments. Here Kasparov finishes handily after the opponent errs in a difficult, but possibly not lost position. In the position below Kasparov’s bishop is far superior to his opponent’s and he has a space advantage, a better king and there is a weakness on b5. However, the blocked nature of the position makes it hard for the white king to penetrate and Black always has a protected passed pawn on g6 to rely on if play should reach a king and pawn endgame. 1…Be8? (Black had to sit tight with 1...Kh8 2.Kf4 ... |
Telegraph chess: Adams Lopez home -- 15-Apr-08
A novelty in the chess opening was sufficient to secure the draw Michael Adams needed to ensure outright first place at the Ruy Lopez Masters chess tournament held at Mirida in Spain. Adams held last year’s tournament winner Gabriel Sargissian to a draw by improving on a previous game played by Sargissian’s fellow Armenian Levon Aronian in the Queen’s Indian Defence. The last round draw with black took Adams to 5.5/7 and a winning margin of a full point. The England number one was the highest rated chess player in the field but his victory was particularly special as he scored 3/3 in games with the Ruy Lopez. 1. Adams 2726; 2. Zhang Peng. 2640; 3. Sargissian 2676; 4. Koneru 2612; 5. Caruana 2598; 6. Granda Zuniga 2588; 7. Hou Yifan 2527; 8. Perez Cand. 2537; Here is ... |
Telegraph chess: A prodigious victory -- 14-Apr-08
A victory over the teenage chess prodigy and Italian champion Fabiano Caruana enabled Michael Adams to secure at least a share of first place with a round to spare at the 2nd Ruy Lopez Masters chess tournament at Mirida in Spain. The England number one reached the impressive score of 5/6, a point clear of last year’s winner Gabriel Sargissian. Another case of pin and win for Adams who put the teenage Hou Yifan in a deadly pin in a game given on Friday. Adams uses the Classical Defence to the Ruy Lopez and gradually equalises even though it looks like White’s pin on the e file is going to win material at any moment. M Perez Candelario – M Adams; 2nd Ruy Lopez Masters (5) Mirida; Ruy Lopez ... |
Telegraph chess: Tomsk keeps digging -- 13-Apr-08
The travails of former European Club champions Tomsk 400 continued in the seventh round of the Russian Team Chess Championships taking place at Dagomys in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. A calamitous chess tournament for the Siberian club reached its nadir in the seventh round when they subsided 0.5-5.5 to TLC Saransk. I cannot recall such a highly rated group of chess players, five of the six are in the world’s top 100, garnering just half a point between them in one match. Of course Saransk are a very strong team, but this was still quite an upset. Ural of Yekaterinburg remain in the lead but their advantage was reduced to one match point when they were held to a draw by Shatar-Metropole, a much lower-rated team. V Yemelin – V Popov; Russian Team Ch (4) Dagomys; Petroff ... |
Barden on chess -- 12-Apr-08
Fide's new list of the top 100 English chess players shows some significant changes behind the world ranked pair Michael Adams and Nigel Short. The England No 3, Luke McShane, now plays little but retains his strength, drawing with the world No1, Vishy Anand, in this season's Bundesliga. The big mover is our youngest chess grandmaster David Howell, 17, who has advanced to fifth place, the same spot as his Norwegian contemporary Magnus Carlsen has reached on the world list. Howell has regained the edge in his race with England's other young hope, GM Gawain Jones, who has dropped to ninth. It is an ageing list, with only seven of the top 100 born after 1985. Translated, this means that the Fischer babes of a quarter of a century ago, who took England to No 2 behind ... |
Telegraph chess: The queen is liberated -- 11-Apr-08
Nigel Short experienced serious difficulties with the younger female chess players at Wijk aan Zee and he may well have won the B group had he not scored just 0.5/2 against the pair of Humpy Koneru from India and the Chinese chess prodigy Hou Yifan. However Michael Adams has defeated both of them and these victories have given him the lead of the Ruy Lopez chess tournament at Merida in Spain. Adams has 2.5/3 with last year’s runaway victor Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia in second place. H Koneru – J Granda Zuniga; 2nd Ruy Lopez Masters (3) Merida; Nimzo-Indian; 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 ... |
Telegraph chess: Fine victory for Boris -- 10-Apr-08
A defeat for Ural of Yekaterinburg in the sixth round did not deprive them of the leading position at the Russian Team Championships taking place at Dagomys in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Moscow 64 defeated the top seeds by the narrowest of margins thanks to an impressive victory for Boris Gelfand over Alexey Shirov on top board. On board five there was a replay of the 1999 FIDE Championship final at Las Vegas when Alexander Khalifman defeated Vladimir Akopian. On this occasion the game ended in a draw. Moscow 64 3.5-2.5 Ural: Gelfand 1-0 Shirov; Harikrishna draw Kamsky; Wang Hao 1-0 Grischuk; Bareev 0-1 Malakhov; Khalifman draw Akopian; Rodshtein draw Motylev. Gelfand was badly beaten in the main lines of the Gruenfeld Defence by Shirov last ... |
Telegraph chess: Svidler gets his man -- 09-Apr-08
The Russian Team Championships are being contested at what is now their traditional home of Dagomys in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. After five rounds, Ural of Yekaterinburg who boast a chess squad that would be a match for virtually any national chess team are the leaders with maximum points. Ural have the American world title contender Gata Kamsky on board three, their full squad is Teimour Radjabov, Alexey Shirov, Gata Kamsky, Alexander Grischuk, Alexander Malakhov, Vladimir Akopian, Alexey Dreev and Alexander Motylev. It is quite a luxury to have a former Russian chess champion on bottom board. Not for the first time, the old enemies Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi are playing on the same team. Other leading chess players include Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler and ... |
Telegraph chess: Big hand for Kramnik -- 07-Apr-08
Former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik gave a clock simultaneous display at Enschede in Holland yesterday to showcase a new transmission system for chess tournaments that carries live video and commentary in tandem with a board display. Kramnik took on the French WGM Marie Sebag and the Dutch GM Jan Werle, defeating them both with the white pieces. This was quite a feat but hardly compares with Garry Kasparov’s tours de force when he defeated the national chess teams of Argentina, Germany, Czech Republic and most memorably Israel, over four boards. Black’s set up with Ra7 leaves him vulnerable if he cannot organise c7-c5 and Kramnik exploits the offside queen and rook. V Kramnik – J Werle; DGT Clock Simul Enschede 90' + 30"; 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 ... |
Anand leads Fide rankings -- 05-Apr-08
Vishy Anand, the world chess champion, is the clear No1 in Fide's latest rankings but the big mover among the elite is Magnus Carlsen. The 17-year-old Norwegian is up to fifth place and will surely soon become the youngest to top the list. The leaders are Anand 2803, Vlad Kramnik 2788, Alex Morozevich 2774, Veselin Topalov 2767, Carlsen 2765 and Lev Aronian 2763. Aronian is not out of it. The Armenian has just won in Nice by a 2.5pt margin, ahead of the quintet above him in the rankings. His win against Topalov, a high-class chess game for a short time limit, showed sophisticated use of the bishop pair. The fashionable 7 g4 soon had the BK in trouble since 13...axb5 14 Bb4! Rg8 15 Bxb5 g6 16 Nxh6 Rh8 17 Rc1! favours White. If Black swaps queens by 18...Qxe5 19 dxe5 Nfd7 20 Bc3 Nc6 ... |
Telegraph chess: A Turkish delight -- 04-Apr-08
Turkey is preparing to host the Women’s World Chess Championship after an approach by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to Turkish Minister of State Murat Basesgioglu. Following the collapse of the original event, due to be hosted by Argentina, Iran offered to host the chess tournament but only on condition that all the chess players wore a headscarf. The disturbing prospect of every chess player, irrespective of background being forced to cover their heads, had a lot of FIDE officials running for cover themselves. The Iranians even demanded that men not be allowed into the playing arena. The religious issues submerged the other consequences of a chess tournament in Iran which would have been the banning of the Israeli chess teams and the extreme unlikelihood of the USA and many ... |
Telegraph chess: A smart move from 1834 -- 02-Apr-08
Grandmaster Gawain Jones is on a tour of Australia and shared first at the Sydney Open. Jones employed a rarely seen line of the Sicilian Defence to hold one of India’s leading chess players with black. Final position after 30...h5. The move 4…e5 was first played by Louis Charles de la Bourdonnais in his celebrated contest against Alexander McDonnell in 1834. De la Bourdonnais was the strongest French chess player of the time and McDonnell, a native of Belfast, the strongest chess player in England. Several matches and a total of 87 games were played at the Westminster Chess Club over four months. It is believed that the stress of the contest contributed to McDonnell’s death the following year. Janos Jakab Lowenthal, a native of Hungary had a colourful life and settled in ... |
Telegraph chess: Aronian plays a blinder -- 31-Mar-08
Levon Aronian was three times a winner at the Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess at Nice. As well as winning overall, Aronian won the Rapid Chess and shared first in the Blindfold with Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Morozevich and Veselin Topalov. World chess champion Vishy Anand scored below 50% at Rapid Chess, the first time I can recall him doing that. Final scores overall: 1 Aronian 14.5/22; 2-5 Carlsen, Kramnik, Leko, Topalov 12; 6-8 Anand, Ivanchuk, Morozevich 11; 9 Karjakin 9.5; 10-12 Gelfand, Mamedyarov, Van Wely 9. The British Women's Chess Association held the National Girls Championships at the Elmbank House, York, in February. The chess event was opened by the Lord Mayor of York Irene Waudby. There was free coaching at the event provided by ... |
Telegraph chess: Now for second place -- 29-Mar-08
Levon Aronian kept it solid against Vladimir Kramnik, securing two draws and the overall first place with a round to spare of the 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess at Nice. Aronian maintained his 2.5 point lead as his rivals were unable to narrow the gap. Now it is only a battle for second place in the last round between Magnus Carlsen, Kramnik, Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov. Vishy Anand is out of the running after an entertaining 1-1 draw with Boris Gelfand as black won both games in the Slav Defence. B Gelfand – V Anand; Amber Blindfold (10) Nice; Slav Defence; 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 (The Meran Variation) ... |
Barden on Chess -- 28-Mar-08
China's golden girl Hou Yifan, 14, is closing in on a record-breaking grandmaster title at men's level. Last week Hou won the Ataturk women's invitational in Istanbul with an unbeaten 7/9 and a rating performance well above the required 2600 points. Normally an all-female chess event would not count for the open GM title but two of her rivals were full GMs and a third awaited title ratification, so she should be going for her third and final GM norm when she competes in Merida, Spain, next week, where the top seed is the England No1 Michael Adams. Hou can become a GM nearly a year younger than the all-time No1 female chess player, Judit Polgar. It is less than two decades since many experts argued that women could never achieve the highest male standards, and even after ... |
Telegraph chess: Aronian scents victory -- 28-Mar-08
Levon Aronian is almost certain of victory at the 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess at Nice after defeating Alexander Morozevich 2-0 in the ninth round. Aronian is two and a half points ahead overall with only two rounds and four games remaining. He leads the Rapid Chess outright and the Blindfold is a three way tie at the top between the Armenian, Vladimir Kramnik and Morozevich. Kramnik was fortunate to defeat Magnus Carlsen in their Blindfold game as the young Norwegian lost on time in a position where he stood better although it was far from clear whether he could win. The seventeenth edition of this ‘no expense spared’ chess party is once again sponsored by the Dutch chess enthusiast Joop van Oosterom and is being staged by the Association Max Euwe in the luxurious ... |
Telegraph chess: Dark side of the bishop -- 27-Mar-08
Levon Aronian sent Vishy Anand plummeting down the rankings in the eighth round of the 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess at Nice. The Armenian world title Candidate defeated the world chess champion in a wild blindfold game and then used his favourite Marshall Attack against the Ruy Lopez to draw the Rapid game. Aronian leads Anand by 1.5 points in Rapid Chess and overall he has a one point lead with three rounds to go. Seventeen year old Magnus Carlsen is second overall after he convincingly outplayed Shakriyaz Mamedyarov twice. Carlsen described his win in the Blindfold game below as: 'a rare case of domination'. The dark side of the force prevails, Black’s light squared bishop is no match for White's dark squared prelate after the opening exchanges and such is ... |
Telegraph chess: Carlsen cashes in -- 25-Mar-08
Magnus Carlsen achieved his first ever victory over the world chess champion Vishy Anand in round seven of the 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess at Nice. Carlsen’s win came in the Rapid Chess after he had been badly mauled in the Blindfold game. Playing white, Carlsen avoided opening theory and when Anand blundered a pawn the seventeen year old chess prodigy made no mistake – see below. The seventeenth edition of the Amber tournament is again sponsored by the Dutch chess enthusiast Joop van Oosterom and is being staged by the Association Max Euwe in the luxurious surroundings of the Palais de la Mediterranee on the Promenade des Anglais. The twelve invited chess players are competing for a prize fund of 216,000 Euros with prizes for the best performance in ... |
Telegraph chess: Anand edges closer -- 24-Mar-08
Vishy Anand edged closer to Levon Aronian in the sixth round of the 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess at Nice. The world champion defeated the Ukrainian chess prodigy Sergey Karjakin in the Blindfold game and with Aronian held to two draws by Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov, Anand cut his lead to half a point. Karjakin is making his debut at Amber after qualifying thanks to his performance at last year’s NH Youth v Experience chess tournament at Amsterdam. Traditionally, newcomers struggle to adjust to the Blindfold Chess but Karjakin has been doing quite well although he was comprehensively outplayed here. S Karjakin – V Anand; Amber Blindfold Nice (6); Sicilian Najdorf; 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 ... |
Barden on Chess -- 23-Mar-08
Monaco's annual Amber chess tournament offers Ł165,000 prize money, so the elite rarely turn it down. Moreover, the format of blindfold and rapid chess does not affect world rankings, so in theory a bad result can be shrugged off. But it could be different after this week's game, where the world chess champion, Vishy Anand, sacrifices his queen to mate Vladimir Kramnik, who meets the Indian in a 12-game title match in October. Below Kramnik could have saved himself quite late, by 41 Qa5 Qxf4 42 Re1 d4 43 Be4+ Kf7 44 Bxh7 Rxh7 45 Qd8 when Black draws with Qh2+. One cannot go too far with the concept that such a win can influence the coming match result. Of course Boris Spassky had beaten Bobby Fischer five times without reply after game two at Reykjavik 1972 and look what ... |
Telegraph chess: No talking, just winning -- 22-Mar-08
The grudge match between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov ended in victory for the Russian in the fifth round of the 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess at Nice. Kramnik held the draw with black in the Blindfold and then massacred his great rival in the Rapid game given below. The win must have been particularly satisfying for Kramnik as he lost a spectacular game to Topalov at Corus Wijk aan Zee in January. The pair have perfected the art of ignoring each other. As ever, there no words, no handshakes and scarcely any eye contact. Topalov also appears to ignore Kramnik’s king’s bishop in the following game, 26…Kg8 accelerates White’s main threat. V Kramnik - V Topalov; Amber Rapid (5) Nice; King’s Indian; 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 ... |
Telegraph chess: Birthday surprise -- 21-Mar-08
Vassily Ivanchuk celebrated his 39th birthday by taking a share of the lead at the 17th Amber Blindfold and Rapidplay being held at Nice. Ivanchuk defeated his compatriot and Ukrainian young pretender Sergei Karjakin with a stunning opening novelty he prepared last week. Ivanchuk sacrificed his queen for two pawns but created such immense threats to the black king that this was no ‘sub prime’ investment, he regained it with interest. The world chess champion Vishy Anand was outplayed by Peter Leko in the Rapid game and suffered a rare defeat. The Hungarian was playing ‘at home’ as the opening was a sharp Perenyi Attack developed by his fellow Hungarian the late Bela Perenyi. ... |
Idaho Turns to Chess as Education Strategy -- 20-Mar-08
Once a week, Deborah McCoy, a third-grade teacher in Donnelly, Idaho, unpacks chessboards and pieces and spends an hour teaching her 20 students how to play the game of chess. Mrs. McCoy does not do this because she is passionate about chess; she barely knew how to play before this school year. But she began teaching it as part of an unusual pilot program under way in more than 100 second- and third-grade classrooms across Idaho. On Thursday, state officials will announce in Boise that the program will be extended in the fall to all second and third graders — making Idaho the first state to offer a statewide chess curriculum. The state’s $1.5 billion education budget, passed two weeks ago, includes a guarantee to finance the chess instruction. Tom Luna, the state’s superintendent of ... |
Telegraph chess: Kramnik loses again -- 19-Mar-08
There was another dramatic game at the 17th Amber Blindfold and Rapidplay chess tournament and Vladimir Kramnik was again the loser. The fourteenth world chess champion was undone by a Budapest Gambit played by Shakriyaz Mamedyarov. You have to admire Mamedyarov for playing such an offbeat – one could almost say ‘dodgy’ line against the great Kramnik but perhaps that is the way to unsettle him. Undoubtedly it is preferable to suffering for a long time in an endgame where the 14th champion has a small edge which is what tends to happen in games when Kramnik is white. Kramnik seemed to have a great attacking position but when his opponent sacrificed the exchange it was clear that there was serious danger on the light squares and the white position collapsed. I suspect ... |
Telegraph chess: A surprise Easter egg -- 18-Mar-08
The pairings for the 17th Amber Blindfold and Rapidplay chess tournament pitted the 15th and reigning world chess champion Vishy Anand against the 14th champion Vladimir Kramnik in the first round. The pair will contest a world title contest in the Autumn so there was quite a lot more riding on the games than just a battle between the two favourites. After the blindfold game had been drawn it was Anand who struck a psychological blow as he won the Rapid game with black quite brilliantly, see below. Anand and Levon Aronian were the only chess players on a perfect score after two Rapid games, no player was able to win both blindfold games. Anand, Aronian and Vassily Ivanchuk lead the combined standings with 3/4. The drawing of lots was conducted by Mr Van Oosterom’s daughter ... |
Telegraph chess: Tied up in triplicate -- 17-Mar-08
The Reykjavik Open coincided with the 65th anniversary of the birth of Bobby Fischer who died this year in the Icelandic capital. To mark the occasion, on March 9th, there was a memorial chess tournament comprising four of Fischer’s contemporaries; Pal Benko, Lajos Portisch, Vlastimil Hort and Fridrik Olafsson. The Chief Arbiter was the 10th World Chess Champion Boris Spassky who lost to Fischer in the Match of the Century at Reykjavik in 1972. GM William James Lombardy, who was Fischer’s second in 1972 was present as commentator. The Open ended in a three-way tie for first between the Icelandic GM Hannes Stefansson and two of the leading Chinese players; GM Wang Hao and GM Wang Yue. Wang Hao had to recover from a shock defeat at the hands of tournament organiser Bjorn Thorfinnsson, ... |
Barden on Chess -- 15-Mar-08
China's advance towards the international chess peak has entered a new phase. Women chess grandmasters led the climb as Xie Jun, Zhu Chen and Xu Yuhua all won the world title. Chinese men had good team results but no outstanding individual. Now Xie and Xu are semi-retired mothers; Zhu married a GM from Qatar and emigrated there. Hou Yifan, 14, has become the flag-bearer and promises to rival Hungary's Judit Polgar as the best ever female chess player. Four of China's elite men are now ranked in the world top 50. In recent months they have won team matches against Russia and Britain and scored highly in Ottawa, Siberia and Gibraltar. Their latest success came this week when Wang Hao and Wang Yue tied first in Reykjavik. China's men are approaching the top; all that ... |
Experts link Leonardo da Vinci to chess puzzles in long-lost Renaissance treatise -- 14-Mar-08
Leonardo da Vinci has drawn everything from war machines to anatomy sketches. Now it seems he may have also been an early illustrator of the chess puzzles. Experts say the Renaissance genius, whose interests ranged from painting to botany, may have drawn the puzzles found on a long-lost chess treatise recently recovered in the library of an aristocratic family in northern Italy. The manuscript was penned around 1500 by Luca Pacioli, a mathematician and friend of Leonardo, and experts believe the artist may have come up with the striking and elegant chess pieces that illustrate the puzzles the treatise discusses. ... |
Telegraph chess: Adams enters Grand Prix -- 13-Mar-08
The England number one Michael Adams will participate in the FIDE Grand Prix circuit after a quartet of the world’s leading chess players declined their invitations. Adams had been first reserve. The Grand Prix will be a fine addition to the tournament calendar but has lost some of it’s lustre as the world’s four highest rated chess players; Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and Alexander Morozevich decided not to play. Anand, Kramnik and Topalov are all committed to playing world title matches of one sort or another and their schedule is just too crowded. Morozevich issued a statement in which he pointed out the inconsistencies in Fide’s plans to make the Grand Prix a qualifier towards the world title. Bessel Kok’s new commercial organisation Global Chess BV must ... |
Telegraph chess: Topsy-turvy rollercoaster -- 12-Mar-08
The world chess champion Vishy Anand described the Linares Morelia chess tournament as ‘a classic’ at the post tournament press conference. Anand described the quality of chess as ‘spectacular’ and highlighted the ‘topsy turvy, rollercoaster’ nature of the event. ‘As a chess fan I enjoyed it’ he said, ‘there many interesting concepts.’ Anand noted that his victory was similar to last year as he won four games and lost one to Levon Aronian and as in 2007, he came off the plane from Mexico on +2, 4.5/7 . Your correspondent notes that there wasn’t a single Petroff Defence ( 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6) played in the entire chess event which doubtless contributed, to a degree to the high level of fighting chess. Linares Morelia crosstable ... |
Telegraph chess: Cambridge edge ahead -- 11-Mar-08
The 2008 Varsity Chess Match, the longest running chess fixture in the world was held at it’s now traditional home of the RAC Club in Pall Mall. The 126th edition was again supported by Henry Mutkin of the RAC Chess Circle. IM Bob Wade and David Sedgewick were the arbiters. The guest of honour Daniel Johnson opened the proceedings by playing the first move for Tom Eckersley-Waites the Oxford board 1. The chess teams were fairly evenly matched on paper and the match was closely fought with the score 2-2 at the first time control. In the fifth hour Cambridge edged ahead but honours ended even after Steffen Schaper mated Mykhaulo Tyomkyn. Cambridge maintained their lead in the series by 56 wins to Oxford's 51, with 19 matches drawn. Oxford 4-4 Cambridge: Tom Eckersley-Waites 0-1 ... |
Telegraph chess: Duo come to a sticky end -- 10-Mar-08
Careful play from the world chess champion Vishy Anand secured the draw he needed against Veselin Topalov to guarantee first place at Linares. Seventeen year old Magnus Carlsen tried for 69 moves to break down the defences of Teimour Radjabov but eventually acquiesced to the draw and ended in clear second place, half a point behind. Carlsen’s performance was nevertheless outstanding as it follows his shared first place at Corus when he finished ahead of Anand, Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik and he may rise to as high as number four in the world chess rankings. Morelia Linares was one of the most entertaining chess events in recent memory even if the last round was relatively subdued. Aronian vs. Shirov; Position after 58.Ke8; The round twelve game between Alexey Shirov and Levon Aronian had ... |
Barden on Chess -- 07-Mar-08
Magnus Carlsen, 17, edged closer to the No1 ranking at Morelia-Linares, which ended last night. The Norwegian began slowly but was soon chasing the world chess champion, Vishy Anand, who led throughout. With one round left, Anand had 8/13, Carlsen 7.5. Fide's ratings due on April 1 could put Carlsen as high as No 4 in the world. Bobby Fischer was in a similar spot when he was 17 in 1960 but Carlsen's situation is better, since he is 15-20 years younger than the top pair Vladimir Kramnik and Anand. Carlsen could head the rankings in a year or so but he may have to wait longer for the world title. He has to qualify via the World Cup, a chancy knock-out, or via Fide's new Grand Prix series, which looks vulnerable to the global recession. V Ivanchuk v M Carlsen ... |
Telegraph chess: Blessed by a blunder -- 06-Mar-08
An astonishing blunder by Veselin Topalov enabled the 17 year old chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen to stay in the hunt at Linares. Topalov stood better for some of the game but just when a draw by perpetual check seemed inevitable he allowed an elementary mating combination. Carlsen scored his fifth win to close the gap on the world chess champion Vishy Anand to half a point with two to play. Anand drew for the fourth straight game as Peter Leko comfortably defended the Ruy Lopez. He may feel he needs one more win to secure chess tournament victory. In rounds thirteen and fourteen Anand plays black against Ivanchuk and white against Topalov while Carlsen is black against Aronian and then white against Radjabov. M Carlsen – V Topalov XXV Morelia/Linares (12) ... |
Telegraph chess: Second time unlucky -- 05-Mar-08
Peter Leko may be bottom of the tournament table but the former world title finalist can still beat anyone on his day and he handed out a tough chess lesson to the prodigy Magnus Carlsen in the eleventh round at Linares. The world chess champion Vishy Anand was the main beneficiary and leads by a full point with three to play after a short draw with black against Teimour Radjabov. The first lesson was: be extremely careful if you are going to play the same opening line twice at a chess event like this. Carlsen used the same variation he employed to draw quickly with Anand in round nine. Speaking after that game Anand said ‘White has to play the sharp stuff with h4 but I couldn’t remember it’. Leko obviously prepared it in depth in the intervening three days and headed for ... |
Telegraph chess: Just add a five-year-old -- 04-Mar-08
The 2008 US Amateur Team East was held at Parsippany New Jersey. This is one of those chess tournaments where the emphasis is more on having fun than serious chess. Your correspondent played in 2002 and recalls being snowed in for an extra day which was spent mostly playing ‘Exchange Chess’, known as ‘Bughouse’ in the USA, in which teams of two face each other and captured pieces are transferred to partner. The teams of four have to be below a specified average grade but this does not preclude International Master or Grandmaster participation providing the rest of the team have low ratings. This year the chess event was won by a team named ‘G G G (g)’ for reasons which will become apparent when you see the team list which was GM Zviad Izoria, GM ... |
Telegraph chess: Respect for the youngster -- 03-Mar-08
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 chess 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; Round ten: Anand draw Carlsen, Sicilian Sveshnikov; Radjabov draw Aronian, ... |
Barden on Chess -- 01-Mar-08
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 chess 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. The latest success for the golden '90 class came last week when Ian Nepomniachtchi won Moscow Aeroflot, the world's strongest open, and so qualified to take on the chess elite at Dortmund this summer. His name is a spelling challenge for journalists and a pronunciation test for other chess players, who ... |
Telegraph chess: Prosper under pressure -- 28-Feb-08
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 Chess Champion was the pre-tournament favourite and he faced a strong challenge from fellow chess 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 ... |
Telegraph chess: Creativity wins the day -- 27-Feb-08
Ian Nepomniachtchi, one of the most creative young chess 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 chess 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 chess 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 ... |
Telegraph chess: Anand leads the way -- 26-Feb-08
Vishy Anand will be ahead of the field when the Morelia-Linares chess tournament resumes in Spain on Thursday afternoon. The world chess 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 chess 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 chess 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 ... |
Telegraph chess: Vishy's defence holds firm -- 25-Feb-08
The world chess champion Vishy Anand retained his half point lead with one game to play before the chess tournament moves from Morelia in Mexico to its traditional home of Linares in Andalucia. Although the sixth round was not as entertaining as some of the previous days’ play, the chess was of high quality. Veselin Topalov pressed Vishy Anand throughout their 42 move game but the world chess champion’s defensive play denied him any winning opportunities. The only decisive game of the round saw Teimour Radjabov formerly the world’s strongest junior chess player defeat his successor Magnus Carlsen with some deft tactics in the endgame. Round six: Topalov draw Anand, Nimzo-Indian g3; Aronian draw Leko, English Opening; Radjabov 1-0 Carlsen, Ruy Lopez Berlin; Ivanchuk draw ... |
Chess column: The next title match -- 24-Feb-08
A match, not a tournament, is the best way to determine who is the best chess player. FIDE, the world chess body, has sanctioned a 12-game title match between India's Vishy Anand, 37, and Russia's Vladimir Kramnik, 32, from Oct. 11-30 in Bonn, Germany. Evonik, a conglomerate with 43,000 employees in more than 100 countries, is putting up a $2.1 million purse to be divided equally by both chess players — win or lose. Anand became the reigning world chess champion last September at a tournament in Mexico City. Kramnik, undefeated in three title matches, was runner-up. Fans are keenly anticipating their next showdown. Their games will be played under classical time controls followed by a quick playoff if the match is tied 6-6. FIDE rightly nixed Anand's request for draw odds, letting ... |
Barden on chess -- 23-Feb-08
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 a chess event with only eight elite grandmasters. In this year's renewal India's world chess 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. In the Fischer-Mikhail Tal era 6. Bg5 used to be standard against the Sicilian Najdorf but nowadays GMs prefer ... |
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