Chess News

Both the Russian grandmasters left in the World Cup played their first game of the semifinals with White. Realizing that the stakes are very high (there are only three tickets to the World Championship, not to speak of the substantial money prize) everyone played very carefully. The result: two draws, in 20 and 22 moves. On Tuesday the Ukrainians have white and thus the advantage.

The first games of the World Cup semi-finals did not produce a lot of material for commentary. So we use this analytical pause to bring you two endgame lessons by GM Dr. Karsten Müller. The examples are taken from earlier games in Khanty-Mansiysk and give you insights into complex opposition and a classical winning technique that Ruslan Ponomariov executed perfectly.

After the fourth and fifth rounds, Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue were first joined in the lead by Anna Muzychuk in round four, and then by Tan Zhongyi and Ruan Lufei in round five. The rest day, after the fourth round, coincided with a special Chinese holiday that celebrates the moon's brightest and most beautiful appearance in the year, including colorful festivities around it.

The second stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix cycle 2011-2012 is being staged from 5th to 20th of September in the Wuzhou Hotel in Shenzhen, China. It includes a current and a former women's world champion, the reigning European champion and a bevvy of top female players. After three rounds Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue lead.

Azeri GM Taimour Radjabov lost his first game against veteran Vassily Ivanchuk; in the second he struck back and equalised, forcing a tiebreak on Sunday. David Navara and Alexander Grischuk are also tied and meet in the tiebreaks. Peter Svidler tricked Judit Polgar and Ruslan Ponomariov won a black game against Vugar Gashimov. Both are now in the semi-finals.

Three games were decided quickly – in 14, 16 and 28 moves. But even short games can be of considerable theoretical interest, as the annotation of Svidler-Polgar by GM Efstratios Grivas clearly show. There was one decisive game: Taimour Radjabov overlooked a tactical shot by Vassily Ivanchuk and, playing a queen for rook and bishop down, lost in 41 moves.

Alexander Griswchuk won his first rapid chess game against David Navara and survived the second to proceed to the next round. Vassily Ivanchuk managed to hold a difficult ending against Teimour Radjabov and then went on to outplay him in the second game. On Monday Grischuk plays Ivanchuk, and Peter Svidler faces Ruslan Ponomariov.

On the last day of the three-day Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow there were no more battles among the grandmasters. This day was dedicated to remembering the 6th World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. On the program was the inauguration of a plaque dedicated to Botvinnik, and a simul by the participants against 80 juniors from around the country.

In the second game of round four in the World Cup the amazing Judit Polgar, a loss down against Cuban GM Lenier Dominguez, actually pulled back with a black-piece win. Navara, Svidler and Radjabov went through, the former two with 2-0 wins, with Peter Svidler eliminating Gata Kamsky. Five of the eight games were decisive, five pairings go to the tiebreaks on Thursday.

The magic of chess seized Barquisimeto, Venezuela, and lived up to its expectations for the First International Chess Festival held there in a tribute to IM Wiston Boada, to celebrate 25 years of chess and selflessness in promoting it. AjedrezVinoTinto put together a beautiful festival with 80 players and even invited renowned Spanish journalist Leontxo García to lecture.

Round four in the World Cup was another uncompromising day – six games out of eight were decisive! White won four times, Black scored two wins, and of the two draws one was well fought out. Dominguez, Navara, Gashimov, Potkin, Radjabov and Svidler go into the second game on Wednesday with a win under their belts, the first two with the advantage of the white pieces.

The drama surrounding the game David Navara vs Alexander Moiseenko continues to occupy the chess world, and has made it into the mainstream media. In his Huffington Post chess column GM Lubomir Kavalek felt a deja vu: a game he had played in 1965 wound down to a similar Q vs R+P ending which he proceeded to win. Kavalek also philosophises about offering a draw in a winning position.

In its fifth edition, the Lyudmila Rudenko Memorial, dedicated to the second Women's World Champion, brought together 43 female players, vying for a spot in the Russian Women's Cup later this year. In spite of a field including no fewer than eight WGMs, the surprise winner was 13-year-old Alexandra Goryachkina, a full point ahead of the field.

It was an incredibly bloodthirsty round of tiebreaks with nine of the first ten games ending in a decisive result. For those wondering whether Navara's sports-manship would cost him the potential $8000 he risked losing, it did not, and he beat Moiseenko to pass forward. The biggest surprise was 18-year-old Zherebukh's victory over World Championship Candidate Mamedyarov.

In recent weeks two strong GMs have sent us their solutions to the problem of draws in chess (have rapid game deciders on the same day, they propose). This has caused quite a stir in the chess world. We asked chess statistician Jeff Sonas to scientifically analyse the problem – it's got to be good to know exactly what we are talking about.

Game two of the third round of the World Cup produced an extraordinary display of fairness. First David Navara accidentally touched a piece, but his opponent, Alexander Moiseenko did not insist on the "touch-move" rule that would have lost him the game. Moiseenko was subsequently outplayed by the Czech GM, who with a forced mate on the board offered him a draw.

How would you like to build your own full-sized wooden electronic board. Sound impossible or highly improbable? Not so. If you are the type of person who enjoys building models, or challenging projects, Bryan Whitby has created a website with step-by-step instructions, and plenty of pictures, showing you how to build a USB chess board that can be hooked up to Fritz.

In this game from the current World Chess Cup, White's f-pawn had eaten its way to h7 early on and just remained there. What does that mean for the postion? The strike 28.Rxg7 now leads to ...
A)... victory for White
B)... perpetual check
C)... advantage for Black

The solution is here.

Carlsen dropped both Anand and Aronian from his jaws on day one of the rapid tournament while Kramnik pleased spectators with a flamboyant piece sacrifice. Aggression in the women’s section reigned high with only two draws from nine games. Check out the incredible blunders, oversights and missed opportunities of these grandmasters, Here is the report with pictures by Anna Burtasova.

At the end of the day’s scrambling, Vishy Anand’s solid showing fetched him the title in the open section and Viktorija Cmilyte’s sharp play brought her the women’s top honours. Rating favourites Carlsen and Humpy finished tail enders. The mixed blitz doubles were won by Anand-Humpy, making it a fine day for Indians. Report with lovely photographs by Anna Burtasova.

Round three of the World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk saw top players finally encountering each other, with upsets still possible. The big one was the victory of the only remaining female in the event, Judit Polgar, over top seed Sergey Karjakin. Emil Sutovsky brought down the great Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Grischuk outwitted Alexander Morozevich with an obscure line of play.