News from 5 March
Kasparov reigns supreme
Linares, Spain - The days - rounds one to three - where wins were non-existent and tension ruled seem so long ago. Now Kasparov took his fourth win in five games, clinches at least a share of first with two rounds to go, and is the only player in the traditional super-tournament with a plus score.
This event, and Corus before it, clearly demonstrate that no matter what you may choose to call him, Kasparov doesn't need a title to stand above his contemporaries. It also clearly shows that he desperately needs his new rivals Kramnik and Anand to play with him. Without them, tournaments are somewhat embarrassingly easy for him, super- or not.
Round nine is take two of rematch day, with three deadly rivalries - the Big Ks, the Hungarians, and the recent FIDE KO semifinalists. Hopefully this alone will continue to inspire the players.
Round 9
Alexander Grischuk - Alexei Shirov
Anatoly Karpov - Garry Kasparov
Judit Polgar - Peter Leko
We will post results and a wrap-up of the day's play here.
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Pigusov rampant in Geller Memorial
Moscow, Russia - This event honoring Efim Geller - one of the great Soviet players - is a remarkably well kept secret. Kasparov Club is covering the results only on their Russian site, and so far no games have appeared despite five rounds of results.
The tournament is one of those frightening fields with 22 GMs out of 187 players, and one assumes that everyone else is pretty scary too, although the traditional fear of Russians has begun to wane now that they are living in droves everywhere nowadays.
Evgeny Pigusov's 5/5 is certainly fearsome, but only good enough for a half point lead over IMs Kadir Guseinov and Alexei Ilyushin. Better known names like GMs Loginov, Kharitonov, Malaniuk and Balashov are further down the wallchart.
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Mass split in Malaga
Malaga, Spain - Grandmasters Reynaldo Vera (CUB), Zenon Franco Ocampos (ESP), Roberto Cifuentes Parada (NED), and Mihai Suba (ROM) were joined by Ecuadorian International Master Carlos Matamoros Franco, all on 7/9, and shared top honors at the fourth International Open.
The website was silent for the last two rounds so the details of the race are a little hard to piece together, but things must have been fairly conservative at the top to allow for such a large tie.
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Duller in Dhaka, Lively in Karachi
Dhaka, Bangladesh - The official site seems to have taken a break, perhaps put to sleep by a fierce outbreak of point-splitting. Six of the seven games were drawn in round 11, allowing leader Alex Volzhin to continue inching peacefully towards unshared first place.
The frantic search to find out what is happening in Dhaka did have an unexpected benefit. A new site called the Pakistan Chess Player is actually more up to date than the tournament itself. Also, there is some very heartfelt coverage of the ongoing Oman Consulate 2001 Rapid Chess Tournament in Karachi, with no punches pulled.
It has been a while since I saw praise and criticism dished out so frankly, and the site is probably not very popular with Pakistan's national federation. This alone makes it a noteworthy addition to the international news scene, and hopefully there will be enough action in the region to keep this site busy.
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10-year-old sets Indian record
10-year-old Dronavalli Harika, the World Under-10 girls silver medallist, has become the youngest player in Indian chess history to qualify for the National A - the ultimate Indian women's championship.
Harika, who has only been playing chess for two years, played "coolly and calmly to qualify" according to website Chaturangam. She tied for 7-12th place, a point off the winning score, and secured one of the 10 qualifying spots on tie-break.
Worthy of note is that this result was just half a point behind WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay, who acquitted herself well in the recent FIDE KO world championships. Harika may join the swelling ranks of Indian prodigies who make good.
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News from 4 March
Gausel, Chuchelov leave 700 behind
Cappelle la Grande, France - The two GMs outdistanced a massive field of about 700 players with impressive scores of 7½/9 to split the top prizes. We hope to have an inside report on his success from our regular contributor Einar Gausel.
Grandmaster norms were scored by Slim Belkhodja (FRA) and Karel van der Weide (NED). There were six International Master norms and two Women's IM norms achieved. More details as they become available.
It seems that Lithuanian GM Sarunas Sulskis was very near a share of first place but could not convert an advantage against GM Ibragimov.
Vladimir Chuchelov beat highly ranked Alexander Goldin in the final round in an amazing, dramatic game to reach his winning total:
A. Goldin (2595) - V. Chuchelov (2539)
Cappelle la Grande (9)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Nc3 c5 7.e4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nc6 9.Nxc6 Bxc6 10.Be2 Qc7 [10...Qb8 11.f4 Bc5 12.e5 Bxg2 13.exf6 Bxh1 14.fxg7 Rg8 15.Qxh7 Ke7 with complicated play has been seen often.] 11.f4 Bc5 12.b4!? This looks like a very risky new idea. For some reason the analogous sacrifice with e5 is not played with the Q on c7. White's idea looks to be to prepare e5 by creating the option of Nb5 later, but... 12...Bd4 13.e5 [see diagram] 13...Nd5!! 14.Ne4! [14.cxd5 Ba4! 15.Qxa4 Qxc3+] 14...Nxf4 15.Nd6+ Qxd6!? 16.exd6 Nxg2+ 17.Kd2 Bxa1 18.Bb2 Bxb2 19.Qxb2 0-0 20.Rg1 f6 21.Qc3 Nh4 22.b5 Bb7 23.c5 bxc5 24.Qxc5 Ng6 25.Qc7 Bd5 26.Rc1 Ne5 27.Qa5 f5 28.Rc7 f4 29.Qc3 Rf5 30.a4 f3 31.Bf1 f2 32.Kc1 Rg5 33.Rc8+ Kf7 34.Rxa8 Rg1 35.Qh3 [35.Qxe5!? Rxf1+ 36.Kd2 Rd1+ 37.Kc3 Rc1+ 38.Kd2=] 35...Bxa8 36.Kd2 Be4 37.Ke3 Bd3 38.Qh5+ Kf6 39.Bh3 f1Q 40.Bxf1 Rxf1 41.Kd2 Rf4 42.Qd1 Bxb5 0-1
Gausel could coast into first with a quick draw and wait to see if anyone could catch him. He laid the groundwork for his victory the round before, when he tore the tournament favorite limb from limb:
M. Gurevich (2694) - E. Gausel (2481)
Cappelle La Grande (8)
1.c4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.Qb3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.Qxc4 b5 8.Qc2 Bb7 9.Bxf6 Qxf6 10.e4 Nd7 11.e5 Qd8 12.Nc3 Be7 13.0-0-0 Gurevich is a specialist in justifying calculated risk, but this is extremely chancy. 13...b4 14.Na4 Qa5 15.Nd2 0-0 16.Nc4 Qc7 17.f4 Rfd8 18.Ne3 c5 19.d5 [see diagram] 19...Nxe5!! A sacrifice that completely shatters white's position - black will get pawns, attack and white's Na4 is horribly shut out of the game. 20.fxe5? [Declining the offer with 20.fxe6 must be better.] Bg5 21.Qf2 Qxe5 22.Re1 Bxd5 23.h4 Bf4 24.Bb5 [24.Kb1 Bc6] 24...Bxa2 25.Rh3 c4 26.Rf3 Qf5! 27.Qc2 Bxe3+ 28.Rexe3 Qxb5 29.Rxf7 Kxf7 30.Qh7 Rd3 0-1
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Chess Odyssey
Yet another major computer chess event is being held, the 15-round Odyssey with top programs facing each other and strong international commentary promised on every round to give an informed human angle on what is often a rather specialist event.
Two rounds have already whittled down the perfect scores to two programs, Shredder 5 and Junior 6a. The event will take months to complete as a 'round' consists of a 13-game match played at serious tournament time controls (as opposed to the new speedy FIDE controls - machines still have some self-respect).
The site assembles quite a bit of information though it is a bit scattered. This really is a different world from what the average player is used to. One can see this in the quick commentary on the rounds where the turning points are determined by relative search depths and by regulations like: "Programmers (companies) are allowed to upgrade from round to round, but not when (the) pairing is already known."
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News from 3 March
The passing of a giant
On February 24th, one of the truly great minds of the 20th century was lost with the passing of Professor Claude Shannon. One of the most brilliant thinkers of recent times, Shannon's work made reading this article possible - his theories of communication made the storage and transmission of images and data possible, once technology had caught up to the ideas he had envisaged.
Shannon could also have been a household name as the man behind the seminal thoughts of programming computers to play chess. His original paper on this topic in 1950 is still widely influential today. We pay tribute to the man with an obituary which can be read here.
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Gausel alone, one round left
Cappelle la Grande, France - Norwegian GM and MSO commentator Einar Gausel took sole possession of the lead in this mammoth open event, defeating heavy pre-tournament favorite Mikhail Gurevich (BEL) with the black pieces to run up a score of 7/8 and a performance rating of 2775 according to the site's info charts.
Gurevich, rated 2694, needed to win in order to fully erase his handicap of starting the tournament in round two, but instead he became Gausel's latest victim. The loss sends him all the way down to 84th place. When there is a field of 700, a point is worth a lot.
Six players are half a point behind the leader. Gausel will face highly ranked Danish GM Heine Nielsen on the last day, and will have the advantage of the white pieces, and of knowing Nielsen very well. I predict that Gausel will secure at least a share of first place.
Other top pairings for round nine:
Alex Goldin (2595) - Vladimir Chuchelov (2539)
Laurent Fressinet (2581) - Stanislav Savchenko (2519)
Sarunas Sulskis (2501) - Ildar Ibragimov (2571)
All of these players are on 6½ except Goldin who has 6.
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No surprises in San Francisco (yet)
San Francisco, USA - The Charles Linklater Memorial has been relatively kind to the favorites so far, and even at this early stage the chances for a home country GM-norm are rather remote. Belorussian GM Yuri Shulman has taken the lead with 3/4, hotly pursued by top seed Alex Baburin (IRE) with and IM Mladen Vucic (USA). 2½/3.
The top candidate for a GM-title norm is probably Gregory Shahade, but a modest start of 2½/4 is rather slow when a high-octane result of 7½/10 is needed.
The coverage at the site is very thorough, with games and commentary posted every day.
Here is a bold and romantic effort by the tournament favorite that should provide a few hours of entertainment for those who try to unravel its mysteries. Baburin uncorked his long and very unclear attack on move 20 with both players already in time pressure (this event is the first in the Americas to use FIDE's new accelerated time limit).
A. Baburin (2598) - C. Lakdawala (2436)
Linklater Memorial San Francisco (4)
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nbd2 Nbd7 6.Bd3 b6 7.0-0 Bb7 8.b3 Be7 9.Bb2 0-0 10.Qe2 Qc7 11.Rac1 Rac8 12.Ne5 c5 13.f4 dxc4 14.bxc4 Rcd8 15.f5 Bd6 16.Ndf3 Rfe8 17.fxe6 Rxe6 18.Nxd7 Nxd7 19.d5 Re7 20.Bxh7+!? Kxh7 21.Ng5+ Kg8 22.Qh5 Nf8 23.Rf3 Bxh2+ 24.Kh1 Rd6 [see diagram] 25.Bxg7!? Kxg7 26.Rcf1 Bf4 27.Rh3 Ng6 28.Rxf4 Nxf4 29.exf4 Re1+ 30.Kh2 Kf8 31.Qh8+ Ke7 32.Qh4 Re2 33.Ne6+ Kd7 34.Nxc7 Kxc7 35.Qh5 Re7 36.f5 b5 37.Qh4 Red7 38.Qf2 Kb6 39.Rb3 1-0
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Second time around
Linares, Spain - The top flight event resumes after the second rest day with what will probably be the last chance for excitement to be reinjected into the tournament after Kasparov shifted gears and won three in a row.
The only player within spitting distance is Judit Polgar, and she will have a crack at the ex-champ on Saturday. If she can hand Kasparov his first ever chess defeat at the hands of a woman, and pull herself up to first place at the same time, we would have a day of historic drama.
Round 7
Alexander Grischuk - Anatoly Karpov
Judit Polgar - Garry Kasparov
Alexei Shirov - Peter Leko
We will post results and a wrap-up of the day's play here.
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Trio on top in Malaga
Malaga, Spain - A strong open international in this traditional Spanish venue is reaching its climax. After seven rounds the grandmaster trio of Reynaldo Vera (CUB), Zenon Franco Ocampos (ESP) and Mihai Suba (ROM) have managed six points. Vera faces Franco while Suba is paired "down" to top rated Russian Oleg Korneev.
Other players with designs on a top place include GMs Evgeny Gleizerov (RUS), Bojan Kurajica (BIH), Rob Cifuentes Parada (NED) and Pia Cramling (SWE), all on 5/7.
The following fine game toppled the second seed from the leader board.
Franco Ocampos (2487) - Gleizerov (2586)
Malaga
1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.e4 d6 6.Nge2 h5 7.h4 Bg4 8.f3 Be6 9.d3 Qd7 10.Nd5 f5 11.Bg5 Nd8 12.exf5 gxf5 13.d4 Nf7 14.Qd2 Nxg5 15.hxg5 Ne7 16.Nf6+ Bxf6 17.gxf6 Ng8 18.0-0-0 Nxf6 19.dxe5 dxe5 20.Qc3 Qe7 21.Rhe1 Kf7 22.Qxe5 Bxc4 [see diagram] 23.Qc3!! Bxe2 24.Bf1 Rad8 25.Bxe2 Kg7 26.Bd3 Qf7 27.Bxf5 Rxd1+ 28.Rxd1 Re8 29.g4 hxg4 30.fxg4 Kg8 31.Bc2 Ne4 32.Qe3 Nf6 33.Qg5+ Qg7 34.Bb3+ Kh8 35.Rh1+ Nh7 36.Qf5 Qe7 37.g5 1-0
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News from 2 March
And then there were three
Cappelle la Grande, France - The MSO's man in France, GM Einar Gausel (NOR), split the point with co-leader Sarunas Sulskis (LTU) to reach a score of 6/7. Not bad, and only one other player managed to scramble up to join them, Ukrainian GM Stanislav Savchenko, who beat compatriot IM Andrei Volokitin.
The luck of the draw has dealt Gausel a harsh blow, floating him down to meet clear tournament favorite GM Mikhail Gurevich (BEL). Gurevich has now climbed to 5½ points, which is not bad for a guy who started the event in round two.
There are a total of 17 players on 5½, and I spotted a well-known GM in 123rd place - there may be others farther down the 700-man field.
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Record Simultaneous Display
The webmaster of the excellent site Chess in Greece is still searching for more details about WGM Anna-Maria Botsari's world record simultaneous, reported yesterday. He can inform us that the highest rated player was 2100.
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Peaceful in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv, Israel - This 10-man round-robin is not producing a lot of thrills. The three grandmaster favorites are on top in a rather low-scoring event. Second and third seeds Zoltan Gyimesi (HUN) and Andrei Kovalev (BLR) lead with 4½/7, followed by top rated Alon Greenfeld (ISR) on 4 - no one else has a plus score.
Things might liven up in round eight as the leaders meet. Dutch International Master Johannes van Mil is doing his best to make things exciting, having made his 50% score with six decisive games.
Israel's Tal Haimovich, needs to score 1½/2 to reach an even score and secure an IM norm.
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News from 1 March
Greek bid for Guinness
Kalavryta, Greece - On 28th February 2001 at 12:45, Greece's Women's Grandmaster Anna-Maria Botsari broke the world record for simultaneous exhibitions held by the Chinese player Ye. She faced 1102 players in 29 hours and posted the remarkable score of +1095 =7 –0.
We are trying to get more information about the details of the record, and something about her opponents. She seems to have earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, for at least one edition ...
Full details are available (in Greek) here.
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Nobody knows the troubles ...
Linares, Spain - Spanish star chess journalist Leontxo Garcia continues to report about Kasparov's mysterious complaints, which began in the middle of his ill-fated 'title' defence against Vladimir Kramnik in London's BGN championship last year.
Leontxo recounts that despite having taken clear first at the halfway stage in the Linares super-tournament, and having won a brilliant attacking game against old rival Anatoly Karpov, Kasparov remains vaguely depressed. The king tells Garcia that "At the moment, I have enough to do solving my problems," his mysterious personal troubles being a familiar, though unresolved, theme since London.
A collection of Garcia's recent columns (in Spanish) can be found here.
Today's pairings might give Judit a chance to catch Kasparov, as he faces the immovable object Leko while she takes on the wobbling kid Grischuk.
Round 6
Anatoly Karpov - Alexei Shirov
Garry Kasparov - Peter Leko
Judit Polgar - Alexander Grischuk
We will post results and a wrap-up of the day's play here.
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Two on top
Cappelle la Grande, France - A pair of surprise GMs have now put a half a point between them and their 700 rivals at the French mega-open. Lithuanian Sarunas Sulskis and Norwegian GM and MSO regular Einar Gausel now have 5½/6 and will square off today for the right to break in front as the finish line approaches.
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Dull day in Dhaka
Dhaka, Bangladesh - There was not much fight in the 10th round of 5th United Insurance GrandMasters Chess Tournament. Leader Alex Volzhin kept a point between him and his rivals with a very peaceful draw with Jann Ehlvest, who didn't seem interested in trying to extend his winning streak past three.
Uzbek Tahir Vakhidov took advantage of the outbreak of laziness to join Ehlvest in second on 6/10.
G. Prakash (2453) - T. Vakhidov (2482)
Round 10
42...Rxe2+! A neat simplifying combination. 42...Bc5 43.Qe8+ Kg7?? 44.Qe5+ and b2 falls. 43.Rxe2 Bc5+ 44.Re3 44.Kg2 Qg1+ 45.Kf3 Qf1+ 46.Kg4 f5+ wins. 44...Qd2+ 45.Kf3 Qxe3+ 46.Qxe3 Bxe3 47.Kxe3 Kg7 and black devours the kingside while white is distracted with the b-pawn. 0-1
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News from 28 February
FIDE to consider compromise
International chess federation (FIDE) president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has reacted to the controversy around the executive decision to reduce drastically the time control for all major events.
Massive petitions and protests from several European federations have convinced Ilyumzhinov that he should offer a compromise position of using the speedy time control (reducing the total game time to about four hours) for the world championships and only recommending it for other major and title events.
Ilyumzhinov is a master of getting drastic changes implemented by suggesting outrageous schemes and then backtracking to something more palatable yet far more extreme than would normally have been accepted.
It remains to be seen if the outcry to preserve 'serious' chess will survive what Ilyumzhinov calls "the inevitable changes that our sport must undergo, if it is to move with the other sports of the modern era." One has to wonder if the scattered federations and protestors really have the determination to fight this one out.
This is hardly a matter that lends itself to compromise - if FIDE titles are decided at speeds that would never have been taken seriously before, chess will already have been so seriously undermined that having a few hold-out 'slow' tournaments will hardly make much of an impact on what the current FIDE crew want to make of the game.
The entire document can be read in the Press Release section of the FIDE site.
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Rematch day in Linares
A closer look at today's pairings reveals some heavy revenge and rivalry on the agenda:
Round 5
Garry Kasparov - Anatoly Karpov
Peter Leko - Judit Polgar
Alexei Shirov - Alexander Grischuk
Another classic K-K duel, the super Hungarian championship and a replay of the excellent semifinal duel from the recent FIDE KO world championship - this should be another good day at ringside.
We will post results and a wrap-up of the day's play here.
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Leaders double in Cappelle
Cappelle la Grande, France - The leading trio of Jaracz, Belkhodja, and Saltaev could only draw their games and are joined by the Grandmaster trio of Sarunas Sulskis (LTU), Stanislav Savchenko (UKR) and MSO commentator Einar Gausel (NOR), all on 4½/5.
Tournament favorite Mikhail Gurevich can be found in a tie for 7-37th places (this is a biiiig tournament) ... with a perfect score of 4/4 - he turned up a day late. Fourth ranked Simen Agdestein (NOR) has fallen to 99th place, and a perusal of the wall chart finds GMs hundreds of places lower than their worst nightmare. Players from 55 nations are taking part!
Van den Doel,E (2564) - Jaracz,P (2477)
Cappelle La Grande (4)
White to move
White has been netting pawns and attacking for an invested piece but now must mind the pressure exerted by the black queen. He very logically decides to defend the sensitive c2 pawn and keep black pinned down to defending mate on a7 ...
31.Qc5? Nd4!! 32.Bxd4 [32.Qd5+ Bb7 33.Qa5+ Kb8] 32...Rxc5 33.Bxc5 Qxe4 and white gave up in a few moves.
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Ehlvest awakes
Dhaka, Bangladesh - Russian GM Alexander Volzhin continues to set the pace in the 5th United Insurance GrandMasters Chess Tournament but draws in rounds 8 and 9 have changed the situation behind him a bit.
Tournament favorite Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia has shaken off his bad start and won three in a row to move into clear second with 5½/9, a point behind the leader.
Local heroes Niaz Murshed and Reefat Bin-Sattar are in the next group, with 5/9, as are English GM Nigel Davies and Uzbek IM Tahir Vakhidov.
Volzhin leads the event because he started like this:
A. Volzhin (2539) - N. Davies (2464)
Dhaka, Round 1
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 Nc6 7.exd6 cxd6 8.d5 Na5 9.Qd4 f6 10.Bd2 Nxb3 11.axb3 Bg7 12.Ba5 Bd7 13.Bxb6 axb6 14.Rxa8 Qxa8 15.Qxb6 Qa6 16.Qxa6 bxa6 17.Nc3 Kf7 18.Ke2 Re8 19.Nd4 f5 20.Kd3 Rb8 21.Ra1 Bc8 22.Nc6 Rb6 23.Na4 Rb5 24.c4 Rxb3+ 25.Kc2 Rb7 26.Nd8+ Ke8 27.Nxb7 Bxb7 28.Rd1 e6 29.Re1 e5 30.Rd1 Bf8 31.c5 dxc5 32.d6 1-0
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News from 27 February
Linares result(s)?
Three rounds of draws, draws, draws should come to a close in today's action at Linares, the original super-tournament. The pairings:
Round 4
Alexander Grischuk - Garry Kasparov,
Anatoly Karpov - Peter Leko
Judit Polgar - Alexei Shirov
Two out of three ain't bad - the middle pairing has the makings of a snore-fest, but the wild boy vs. Kasparov match should be as interesting as the usually volatile Polgar-Shirov pairing.
Judit used to slap Alexei around, but Shirov completely dismantled her in an exhibition match to (probably) gain the psychological upper hand. Draw is not a popular word with either of them, especially against each other.
We will post results and a wrap-up of the day's play here.
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Upsets Galore in Cappelle
Cappelle la Grande, France - The unknown Polish GM Pawel Jaracz tops the 702-player field with a perfect 4/4 after dispatching highly rated grandmasters Simen Agdestein (NOR) and Erik van den Doel (NED). Jaracz shares a perfect score with IM Slim Belkhodja (FRA) and Mihail Saltaev (UZB).
What is terrifying about this event is the kind of household names one can find literally hundreds of places back, and the scoretable at the site makes awesome reading.
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Speed test
San Francisco, USA - The Mechanics Institute Chess Club hosts the Charles Linklater Memorial, an 11-player GM norm invitational that becomes the first tournament in the Americas to feature the speedy new FIDE time control (40/75 + Game/15 with a 30 second increment from Move 1).
The favorites in the event are GMs Alex Baburin (IRE), Alex Wojtkiewicz (POL) and Yuri Shulman (BLR). The latter two drew with each other in round one, and Baburin did not play.
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Romantic machinery
The perennial international computer championship at the University of Paderborn was a narrow but convincing victory for Deep Shredder 5.0 with 7½/9, half a point ahead of "rival" Deep Fritz Paderborn.
In many respects the turning point was round two, where both programs showed an admirable feel for initiative over material, something which tends to be a very human trait.
Shredder won most of its games with impressively patient strategy and technique, but here it lets loose:
 Diep 2.0 - Deep Shredder 5.0
IPCCC 2001 Paderborn (2), 21.02.2001
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Be7 5.Nc3 d5 6.Nf3 0-0 7.e3 Nbd7 8.c5 c6 9.Bd3 e5 10.dxe5 Ng4 11.Na4 (Diagram) Ngxe5! 12.Nxe5 Nxe5 13.Bxh7+ Kxh7 14.Qh5+ Kg8 15.Qxe5 b5 16.Nc3 [16.cxb6 axb6 Gives more open lines for black and the option of keeping the white king in the center with ...Ba6.] 16...Re8 17.Nd1 Bg5! preventing the defensive Qh5. 18.Qd4 Bh3 White's paralysis should be fatal, and he (it) doesn't manage much resistance. 19.a4 Bf6 20.Qb4 a5 21.Qb3 b4 22.Rg1 d4 23.g4 Bh4 24.g5 Qb8 25.g6 Ra7 26.Rg3 Bxg3 27.hxg3 Qe5 28.f4 0-1
Fritz's sacrifice was inspired, romantic and risky, and the program paid the price for boldness, eventually undone by typically silicon materialism from its opponent:
Deep Fritz Paderborn - ZChess 2.30
IPCCC 2001 Paderborn (2), 21.02.2001
Here Fritz started to dazzle:
19.f5!? exf5 20.Qxe7 Rxe7 21.Rxe7 Ba4 22.Bxf7+ Kh8 23.Bxf6 gxf6! [23...Bxd1 24.Be5!! gives white the better chances.] 24.Rde1 Bc6 and white's compensation gradually evaporated. (0-1 in 85)
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News from 26 February
Extra large
The traditional open in French Cappelle-la Grande (24 February to 3rd March) continues to grow on the strength of its legendary hospitality. The 2001 edition has a whopping 702 entries, breaking last year's mark of 643.
How strong is the tournament? There are 92 Grandmasters, 72 IMs and 24 Fide Masters. The massive field contains 277 players rated over 2200, 122 over 2400, and 56 of those are over 2500.
| Cappelle Top Ten |
| 1 |
Gurevich, M |
2694 |
| 2 |
Landa, K |
2610 |
| 3 |
Goldin, A |
2595 |
| 4 |
Agdestein, S |
2591 |
| 5 |
Degraeve, J |
2589 |
| 6 |
Kuzmin, A |
2588 |
| 7 |
Kengis, E |
2586 |
| 8 |
Nielsen, P |
2585 |
| 9 |
Fressinet, L |
2581 |
| 10 |
Liang, C |
2581 |
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Deep Shredder wins Paderborn
Paderborn, Germany - Deep Shredder has reportedly won the prestigious International Computer Chess Championship. The University of Paderborn held its 10th edition of this top event which ended Sunday, 25 February.
Full details should appear on the official site.
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Volzhin in front
Dhaka, Bangladesh -
While the superstars in Linares takes a day off after three straight rounds of non-decisive results, the 5th United Insurance GrandMasters Chess Tournament in Dhaka is taking place (19 February to 4th March). The event is a common and garden category 10, which means it produces a lot more entertainment than some elite events.
GM Alexander Volzhin (Russia) has raced out to a formidable lead with 5½/7, leaving the rest of the 14-man field a point and a half behind. Nigel Davies, Alexei Barsov, Normunds Miezis and Reefat Bin-Sattar are the chasing pack on 4 points.
Surprise results so far: Ehlvest's losses to Sattar and Murshed - though Bangladeshi GM Murshed was a great talent, he has been inactive in recent years.
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