Weekend Edition 31 March - 1 April
Tense draws
Monte Carlo, Monaco - It didn't look like much happened as leaders Kramnik and and Topalov drew both of their games, against Leko and Ljubojevic respectively, but there was plenty of drama in the moves.
The result was enough to leave them alone at the top for the combined prize as they had gone into the final round with a healthy lead over third-place Vishwanathan Anand. Topalov won the blindfold event and Kramnik split the rapid honors with Boris Gelfand.
But Kramnik was near total victory as he worked Leko over on the ropes, while Topalov made a horrible blunder in the last round that seemed to spoil a brilliant event ...
For the whole story , with full tables and commentary, including annotated highlights by GM Einar Gausel, click here.
*****
Dramatic finish
Warsaw, Poland - GM Robert Kempinsky has been awarded the title of Polish champion after he and tournament favorite Michal Krasenkow finished tied for first with 8½/13. A two-game rapid chess tie-breaker was played with Krasenkow winning the first and Kempinsky taking the second.
Apparently this second tie was enough, and the crown seems to have been bestowed on some kind of normal tie-break system that had Kempinsky in front to begin with - there was a preliminary announcement that he had been named champion before the rapid games.
The final days of the event were very dramatic, with Kempinsky stumbling to the tournament discovery, IM Lukasz Cyborowski in round 11. This shock result created a three-way tie for first, with Krasenkow joining these two after a draw, all of them on 7½/11. Kempinsky and Krasenkow had had enough adventures and managed to draw out, including a quick and peaceful result in their individual meeting in the last round.
Cyborowski, perhaps nervous with the degree of his success, faltered the next day in round 12, losing his only game of the event to GM Bart Macieja - a terribly painful result that in the end would leave him a half point short of a share of the GM-norm and a share of the national title. He fought to the bitter end in the final round against Blehm, but could not create real winning chances.
Final standings: 1-2 GM Kempinsky, GM Krasenkow 8½/13, 3 IM Lukasz Cyborowski 8, 4-6 GM Jacek Gdanski, GM Bartosz Socko, GM Tomasz Markowski 7½, 7-9 GM Bartlomiej Macieja, IM Pawel Blehm, GM Pawel Jaracz, 6½, 10 IM Miroslaw Grabarczyk 6, 11 GM Robert Kuczynski 5½, 12 IM Klaudiusz Urban 5, 13 Mateusz Bartel 4 14 Grzegorz Gajewski 3½.
*****
News from 29 March
Photo finish
Monte Carlo, Monaco - Rampaging Bulgarian Veselin Topalov enters the final round deadlocked with BGN world champion Vladimir Kramnik in the overall competition, both with 14/20. Kramnik leads the rapid event, Topalov the blindfold, and each is hot in pursuit of the other.
FIDE KO world champion Vishy Anand has been left behind with 12½ - though he is a full two points ahead of fourth placeholder Alexei Shirov.
Today's pairings:
Rapid
Ljubojevic-Topalov
Karpov-Piket
Anand-Shirov
Gelfand-Van Wely
Leko-Kramnik
Ivanchuk-Almasi |
Blindfold
Topalov-Ljubojevic
Piket-Karpov
Shirov-Anand
Van Wely-Gelfand
Kramnik-Leko
Almasi-Ivanchuk |
We will be covering the event daily here, with full tables and commentary, including annotated highlights by GM Einar Gausel.
*****
Quiet day at the top
Warsaw, Poland - GM Robert Kempinsky kept his half point margin over favorite Michal Krasenkow in a day where the crucial round 10 pairings ended in handshakes. There was action, however, and GMs Jaracz, Gdanski and Socko scored wins to improve their somewhat disappointing positions.
On the previous day, round 9, there was plenty of violence, with the leading duo keeping pace with shaky wins. Krasenkow appeared to be desperately trying to draw when he got a gift of a whole point in Socko's time trouble.
Kempinsky won a very tense game where Gdanski very kindly burned his bridges in an attempt to smash through with the black pieces. A spirited effort from Gdanski that created fascinating complications, though Kempinsky benefitted in the end from his opponent's ambition.
M. Krasenkow (2658) - B. Socko (2557)
Polish Ch. 2001, Warsaw (9)
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.g3 d6 5.Bg2 0-0 6.Nc3 Nc6 7.0-0 a6 8.e4 Bg4 9.Be3 Nd7 10.Ne2 e5 11.d5 Ne7 12.Ne1 Bxe2 13.Qxe2 f5 14.f3 Kh8 15.Nd3 Ng8 16.c5 fxe4 17.fxe4 Bh6 18.Bh3 Qe7 19.Rxf8 Rxf8 20.b4 Bxe3+ 21.Qxe3 Ngf6 22.cxd6 cxd6 23.Rc1 Qd8 24.Nf2 a5 25.a3 axb4 26.axb4 Qb8 27.Be6 Rc8 28.Rf1 Rf8 29.Nh3 Kg7 30.Ng5 h6 31.Bxd7 hxg5 32.Be6 Kh6 33.b5 Qd8 34.Kg2 Nd7 35.Rc1 [see DIAGRAM] 35...Nc5 36.h4 White seems to be pressing but his position is also rather loose. 36...Kg7! 37.hxg5 [37.Qxg5 Rf2+! and the weakness on e4 allows black to activate his rook before entering the endgame.] 37...Qa5! Now b5, e4 and white's king are rather exposed. 38.Qe2?! Nxe4! The knight is immune due to the check on d2. 39.b6!? A nice try in what must be a time scramble. 39...Qxb6?? [39...Rf2+ 40.Qxf2 Nxf2 41.Rc7+ was a draw by perpetual check, but the safe 39...Nc5 was better for black and 39...Nxg5!? is risky but perhaps best.] 40.Qxe4 Qf2+ 41.Kh3 Rh8+ 42.Kg4 and white is just a piece ahead. 42...Rh2 43.Rc7+ Kh8 44.Rc8+ Kh7 1-0
Standings after 10 of 13 rounds: 1 GM Kempinsky 7½/10, 2 GM Krasenkow 7, 3 IM Lukasz Cyborowski 6½, 4-5 GM Jacek Gdanski, GM Tomasz Markowski 5½, 6-9 GM Bartlomiej Macieja, IM Pawel Blehm, IM Miroslaw Grabarczyk, GM Pawel Jaracz 5, 10-11 GM Bartosz Socko, GM Robert Kuczynski 4½, 12 IM Klaudiusz Urban 3½, 13 Grzegorz Gajewski 3, 14 Mateusz Bartel 2½.
*****
News from 27th March
Summit meeting
Monte Carlo, Monaco - A crucial day as the event reaches its climax. Leaders Anand and Topalov meet in today's showpiece, while Kramnik can try to carve out a lead at the expense of veteran Ljubojevic. However, Ljubo has proven to be a tough customer this year, and he has handed Anand his only defeat of the event ...
The early pressure is on FIDE KO champion Anand, who went down in the rapid to Topalov. Kramnik kept in step with a win over Ljubojevic. After the second set it was Kramnik who forged ahead with a sweep while Topalov had to settle for 'only' a 1½-½ win over Anand. The race will get even more dramatic as Anand still has Kramnik to play.
Today's pairings:
Round 9, March 27
Rapid
Anand-Topalov 0-1
Gelfand-Piket 1-0
Leko-Shirov ½-½
Ivanchuk-Van Wely 1-0
Ljubojevic-Kramnik 0-1
Karpov-Almasi 1-0 |
Blindfold
Topalov-Anand ½-½
Piket-Gelfand ½-½
Shirov-Leko 1-0
Van Wely-Ivanchuk 1-0
Kramnik-Ljubojevic 1-0
Almasi-Karpov 1-0 |
We will be covering the event daily here, with full tables and commentary, including annotated highlights by GM Einar Gausel.
*****
Kempinsky is back
Warsaw, Poland - Top seed Michal Krasenkow's found a dramatic time to lose his first game of the event, as early leader GM Robert Kempinski awoke from his drawing doldrums at the same time and renewed his winning ways.
Kempinski broke a four-game drawing streak by felling highly rated colleague Tomasz Markowski. This brings Kempinski's total to an impressive +4, 6/8. He is again the sole leader.
Krasenkow's short stint at the head of the tournament ended with a thud as GM Pawel Jaracz decided to notch up his first victory of the event. In any case we have an exciting race and a dream final round pairing - where Krasenkow and Kempinski meet!
*****
War of Words
The chess press is suddenly running hard with an interview with FIDE Commerce head Artiom Tarasov and Octagon Marketing's Senior Vice-President Aidan Day in Interbusiness Magazine, where the FIDE business heads make it quite clear that they are prepared to muscle the game's traditional tournaments off the map if they don't accept their offer to join FIDE's Grand Prix.
Although this interview is not new, perhaps FIDE's redesign of the news section on its website has made it more obvious. The offending passage reads: In certain cases, for the progressive good of chess, we will organise new tournaments in the capital cities of some of these countries. This would be a slightly unfortunate situation for some events as the new Grand Prix events will be likely to take place at the same time as those events rejecting our proposal.
in response to what FIDE intends to do to events (like Linares, Wijk an Zee and Dortmund) that do not see the Grand Prix as an offer they cannot refuse.
Leading Spanish chess journalist Leontxo Garcia, one of the game's opinion-setters, has an interesting take on the FIDE line in his column today, where he muses on Nimzovich's maxim that "the threat is stronger than the execution". Leontxo cannot see the attraction of joining FIDE's new commercial vision for the august establishment of super-tournaments, and thinks that FIDE needs them more than they need FIDE.
It is a hard-hitting piece, where Garcia clearly equates FIDE's new approach with that of the Putin/Ilyumzhinov attitude to rebellion at home - and predicts that FIDE commerce will find chess harder to govern if he chooses to proceed using a currency of threats.
One also has to wonder about FIDE Commerce's ability to run things properly at all. The recent World Cup of rapid chess and FIDE.com trophy were so poorly publicized that even the rules were a mystery to the press - and the latter event did not even run on the days scheduled.
*****
News from 26 March
FIDE.com Trophy Cup
Moscow, Russia - The FIDE popularization push continues as the international body launches yet another event designed to capture media interest. Ex-FIDE KO champion Alexander Khalifman meets former FIDE breakaway Nigel Short today and tomorrow in a rapid chess challenge match in the center of the Russian capital.
The first game was drawn with Khalifman playing white in an old-fashioned Spanish that turned into a King's Indian position. White appeared to be doing well, but Black's attack proved to be dangerous and it was Short who seized the initiative.
A. Khalifman - N. Short
FIDE.com Trophy Cup (1), Moscow
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.c3 g6 6.d4 Bd7 7.0-0 Bg7 8.d5 Nce7 9.Bxd7+ Qxd7 10.c4 h6 11.Nc3 f5 12.Ne1 Nf6 13.f3 0-0 14.Nd3 g5 15.Bd2 Ng6 16.Nf2 f4 17.b4 Rf7 18.c5 Bf8 19.Na4 Re8 20.Rc1 h5 21.c6 Qc8 22.cxb7 Qxb7 23.Qe2 Rg7 24.Rc6 Ra8 25.Rfc1 Nh4 26.h3 g4 27.fxg4 hxg4 28.Nxg4 Nxg4 29.hxg4 Qb5 30.Qd1 Be7 31.Be1 Rf8 [see DIAGRAM] 32.Nc3 Qxb4 33.Rb1 Qd4+ 34.Qxd4 exd4 35.Ne2 Nxg2 36.Kxg2 f3+ 37.Kf1 fxe2+ 38.Kxe2 Rxg4 39.Rxc7 Bg5 40.Kd3 Rf3+ 41.Kc4 Rxe4 42.Rb8+ Rf8 43.Rxf8+ Kxf8 44.Bf2 Re2 45.Bxd4 Rc2+ 46.Bc3 Rxa2 47.Kb3 Re2 48.Rc6 ˝-˝
After a tense draw in game two where Short built up a big advantage from a rather limp opening, the match mysteriously went to what the FIDE site called a tie-break. Since there are no match rules published about either the time control or the match format, it is not easy to puzzle out why a tiebreak is necessary on day one of what is billed as a two-day match - maybe day two is a blitz event?
In any event Short won the tiebreak/third game with black - and perhaps the match?
Games 1-3 can be downloaded in pgn format here.
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