World Team Chess Round 1: Russia - Armenia Draw
Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hello everyone,
The World Team Chess Championship 2013 has begun in Antalya, Turkey. The most important pairing of the first round was Russia versus Armenia, but it ended in a hard-fought draw!
The top game of the day, Vladimir Kramnik versus Levon Aronian was a very sharp struggle in a Botvinnik Slav. The exchange sacrifice by Kramnik resulted in an queen+bishop vs. queen+rook ending, where Kramnik had two pawns for the exchange. The position was in dynamic equilibrium and although Kramnik tried a bit to play for a win, but Aronian didn't let him get anything.
On the second board Movsesian, achieved a nice advantage and wanted to torture Karjakin which didn't materialise in the end as Karjakin managed to exchange pieces to relieve the pressure and save the game. Also on the fourth board Armenia seemed to have the advantage but when Sargissian missed the double attack 39...Qa7 he had to concede the draw to his resourceful opponent Nepomniatchi.
The last game was Grischuk-Akopian in which the Russians hoped that Akopian would falter under the pressure of Grischuk in a rook endgame up a pawn but the game was drawn.
The other big fight was the Ukraine versus USA match. Nakamura wanted to employ the impenetrable Berlin Wall (possibly inspired by the recent Anand - Carlsen World Chess Championship), but Ivanchuk preferred not to bother dealing with it and chose instead the old Two Knights System. As he didn't manage to create something out of this well-studied line, the game ended in a draw. Moiseenko-Onischuk was also a quiet affair in which neither side could imbalance the game.
On the remaining two boards Akobian couldn't convert his nice positional edge into a full point due to the dynamic defense of Kryvorouchko and thus when Korobov punished Kamsky's over-optimistic pawn sacrifice in a long endgame it was time to cheer for Ukrainians.
USA will for sure try to make a comeback in the race for the world team champion title.
Actually the first match to finish in the first round was Netherlands-China. On first board after a Caro Kann opening Anish Giri decided to force a repetition in a balanced position pretty quickly whereas second and fourth boards saw two longer draws in which Dutch players showed strong and solid play, giving their Chinese opponents no chance to take advantage of white pieces.
The only decisive result of the match came from the Tiviakov-Bu Xiangzhi game. Bu had obviously prepared thoroughly for Tiviakov's pet line Alapin Sicilian and even being perhaps the most formidable expert of the variation Tiviakov couldn't achieve any advantage with white.
To make things worse for Netherlands he soon lost control of position under time pressure and collapsed giving China the chance to score an important match victory.
One of the most exciting games of the round was played on the fourth board of Germany-Egypt match between Bassem Amin and David Baramidze. Feeling perhaps the need to win as the leading player of Egypt, Amin didn't allow a threefold repetition and instead moved his king to h4 in a complicated middlegame with queens on the board! It was a very risky decision which was at the end efficiently punished by Baramidze. What was perhaps unfortunate for the representative of Africa was the fact that although in the first three boards they were definitely the underdogs they managed to held their ground and their cause of defeat came from the most unexpected board. But such is chess!
Finally, in the first round the hosts had a tough challenge against the Azerbaijani team but they were obviously hoping to get a good start to the championship. The positions of Turkish players were looking mostly fine at one point however Azeris didn't give them a chance to score a win in the end and the defeat of Yilmaz at the hands of Nidjat Mamedov meant a disappointing loss for the Turkish team.
In the second round pairings include USA-Russia! Also don't forget to follow the live commentary by GM Oleksienko and IM Arduman.
Labels: Ivanchuk, levon aronian, movsesian, nakamura, sergey karjakin, vladimir kramnik, world team chess
Thessaloniki Chess Grand Prix 2013 Round 6: Caruana, Kamsky, Dominguez in Joint Lead
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
Fabiano Caruana and Gata Kamsky won their games in the 6th round of Thessaloniki Grand Prix 2013 to join Leinier Dominguez in shared lead. Dominguez outplayed Hikaru Nakamura, but couldn't convert the winning position into the full point. Vassily Ivanchuk collapsed again and lost to Ruslan Ponomariov after only 19 moves and barely 75 minutes of play.
Ponomariov - Ivanchuk
Again the game of Vassily Ivanchuk finished quickly, as the legendary Ukrainian fell down to his compatriot Ruslan Ponomariov. Ponomariov kept his options open, with possibility to play on either of the flanks. Ivanchuk underestimated white's flexibility and carelessly castled long and lost. Replay the full game with Chess King.
Ivanchuk apologised to Ponomariov - "I am sorry that I played this bad," and then resigned. Ponomariov said that after five draws in a row he wanted to play for a win. Yesterday he missed some chances against Grischuk and is happy that today he won so quickly.
On question about opponent's form, Ponomariov said that it would have been easier for Ivanchuk if this was a knockout event where - "...You lose and you go home, but here you have to stay until the end and suffer."
About the World Chess Championship match in Chennai, Ponomariov said, "Everyone is claiming that Carlsen is clear favorite to win the WCC match, but as you can see he also loses some games. Besides, the match is being held in India, so I don't think everything is so clear. Having been World Champion at the age of 18, I am always rooting for younger players, so I am Carlsen's fan in this match."
Caruana - Bacrot
The Italian Grandmaster refrained from Ruy Lopez and used the Scotch opening. He has pleasant memories about the system as he used it to defeat the great Vladimir Kramnik. Caruana said his preparation finished after 21.f3, where computer is giving advantage to white, and pointed that e5-e6 is a very dangerous threat. Eventually, Caruana ground down Black. Replay the full game with Chess King.
Grischuk - Morozevich
The two Alexanders, who kept confusing our commentators used to mention the players by their first names, were involved in an interesting discussion of a Ruy Lopez sideline. Grischuk played the quiet 5.d3, and Morozevich answered with kingside fianchetto, carefully preparing the expansion with the pawns.
Black pieces started looming around the opponent's King, but the timely reaction in the center allowed white to weather the storm. Grischuk said that he played in a logical manner, he didn't see many alternatives, just kept going with the natural moves, bu Morozevich played creatively and kept posing challenges. The draw was recorded shortly after the time control.
Topalov - Kasimdzhanov
Another game with d3 in Ruy Lopez, only this time played on the 6th move. The setup was similar to Dominguez - Svidler, but Kasimdzhanov jumped his Knight to a5 instead of d4. He considered this to be a slight improvement. Topalov was satisfied after 12.b4 - "I like this structure. But sometimes this pawn can be a target for counterplay with a6-a5." He criticised 16.h3 and felt that is was unnecessary I saw something like he pushes d6-d5, I answer e4-e5, and his Knight jumps to g4. I am not sure if this was any good."
About the exchange 18.bxc5, Topalov said - "I was not afraid of advance c5-c4 because I always have this nice Bb4." 22.f4 might have been a little too ambitious as it allowed Kasimdzhanov to sacrifice a piece for two pawns and get the avalanche rolling. Rustam believed he was nearly winning after 24...Qxc2.
Apparently Topalov wasn't too concerned about the pawn mass, but later he admitted that he underestimated its potential. There was an interesting endgame with B+N+2P for white and R+4P for black. Kasimdzhanov was definitely pressing for a win, but with reduced material and accurate defence Topalov held a draw.
Kamsky - Svidler
As usual, Gata Kamsky avoided theoretical discussion and started calmly with the English opening. In reply, Svidler set the reversed Sicilian Dragon. The play developed slowly with lots of maneuvering, but as the time was passing by, white attained better pawn structure. Black decided not to wait too long and started operating on the kingside. However, the position opened to white's benefit. The game still remained very complicated and Kamsky was not sure by how much he was better until he played 42.Rh2. Already after the next move Svidler resigned. Replay the game with Chess King.
Dominguez - Nakamura
We are already used to have Hikaru Nakamura playing the longest game of the day and closing the press center with the final interview. He surprised tournament leader Leinier Dominguez with the Scandinavian defence. In any case, the Cuban couldn't really prepare for the last two rounds because his computer has broken down. According to Nakamura, 7.Bd3 was a clever way to take advantage of black's move order. He also considered 8...e6 to be a mistake and said that he planned 8...Qa6 (recently played by tournament commentator GM Papaioannou), but he can't explain why he forgot about it. 10.Qg3 reminded black that he will have serious trouble to get the King into castle. Nakamura suggested that he should have dug in with Be7 and if Bf4 to play Qc8, where he is clearly worse but he could play on - "After 14.Qxf6 black is simply lost".
Nevertheless, the American put up a stubborn defence. It looked like Dominguez was trying to always be on the safe side, but he said he just played a normal game. The players have agreed that 34.f5 was premature and that it was better to start with preparatory 34.Ke3 and then f5 on the next move. Dominguez confirmed that the resulting endgame was winning but difficult to convert.
Nakamura said he was preparing to resign, but he changed his mind when white traded the Rooks with 46.Rg4 "because then suddenly black has drawing chances." Both players promoted to Queens and the resulting endgame is worthy of teaching manuals. It looked like white should be winning, but the magical dance of black pieces saved the draw for Nakamura who defended brilliantly.
The players have suggested possible improvements for white - probably 60.Kg7 instead of 60.h5 should win because black king cannot move closer. Also 61.Kg5 was mentioned by Nakamura. (Report by Goran Urosevic/official website).
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Labels: bacrot, caruana, dominguez, Grischuk, Ivanchuk, kamsky, kasimdzhanov, morozevich, nakamura, Ponomariov, svidler, thessaloniki chess grand prix 2013, topalov
Funny Chess Videos Featuring Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Grischuk, Kuka Monster, Anand and Kasparov!
Tal Chess Memorial R5: All games drawn after ballistic chess;
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
Even though all the games were drawn in the fifth round at the VI Tal Chess Memorial in Moscow on Sunday, the round was an exhausting one. Absolutely. Nepomniatchtchi, Aronian and Carlsen were all poised to win but the defenses were equally tenacious.
The standings after Round 5 have Aronian, Carlsen, Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi with 3 points, Anand, Ivanchuk and Svidler 2.5 points, Kramnik and Nakamura 2.0 points and Gelfand with 1.5 points.
Vladimir Kramnik at the Tal Chess Memorial
Here are all the games of Round 5 while you can access the official website at this link.
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Labels: anand, Aronian, Carlsen, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Kramnik, nakamura, nepomniachtichi, svidler, tal chess memorial 2011
Ivanchuk wins 45th Capablanca Chess Tournament
Hello Everyone!
The tournament had three groups - Elite, Premier and Open. The Elite Group was category 18 event with an average rating of 2700 with double-round robin format. Ivanchuk has already won it three times in a row from 2005 to 2007.
In the 45th edition, 19-year-old Ian Nepomniachtchi, the reigning European champion, was the runners-up.
Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk won his first round with black against Nigel Short. He continued with three more wins and no losses. Ivanchuk is the first player to win the tournament for the fourth time in the history of this auspicious event.
In second places is newcomer, 19-year-old Ian Nepomniachtchi, with three wins and one loss. Local player and second strongest GM in the Americas (after Hikaru Nakamura) Leinier Dominguez scored nine draws and one win to share 3-4th place with former World Championship challenger Nigel Short, who won three, lost two and drew five games. You can check the official website here for more details.
Here is a nice game by Ivanchuk from the 9th round. You can run it in our pgnplayer or see the flashplayer below.
PGN: 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 b5 5. O-O c5 6. c3 Nbd7 7. a4 b4 8. cxb4 cxb4 9. Ne5 Ba6 10. Bg5 Nxe5 11. dxe5 h6 12. Be3 Nd7 13. Bd4 Bc5 14. Re1 Bxd4 15. Qxd4 Qb6 16. Qxb6 Nxb6 17. Nd2 Rc8 18. Nf3 Ke7 19. b3 Nd7 20. e4 d4 21. Nxd4 Nxe5 22. Nb5 g5 23. Red1 Rc5 24. Nxa7 Ra8 25. Nb5 Bxb5 26. axb5 Rxa1 27. Rxa1 Rxb5 28. Ra7+ Kf6 29. f4 gxf4 30. gxf4 Ng6 31. e5+ Kg7 32. f5 Nf4 33. fxe6 Nxe6 34. Bf1 Rxe5 35. Bc4 Rg5+ 36. Kh1 Kf6 37. Rb7 Nd4 38. Rxf7+ Ke5 39. h4 Rg4 40. Kh2 h5 41. Kh3 Nf5 42. Rb7 Rxh4+ 43. Kg2 Ne3+ 44. Kf2 Nc2 45. Bd3 Rf4+ 46. Kg1 Na3 47. Kg2 h4 48. Be2 Nc2 49. Kh3 Kd4 50. Bd1 Kd3 51. Rc7 Ne3 52. Bh5 Kd2 53. Bg6 Nd1 54. Bh5 Nf2+ 55. Kh2 Nd3 56. Bg6 Rf2+ 57. Kh1 Ne5 58. Be4 Nf3 59. Rc2+ Ke3 60. Rxf2 Kxf2 61. Bd5 h3 62. Be6 h2 63. Bg4 Kg3 0-1
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Ivanchuk leads midway in 45th Capablanca Chess Memorial Tournament
 Ivanchuk
Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk was leading at the half-way mark at the 45th Capablanca Memorial Chess Tournament being held in Cuba. The Ukranian is being closely followed by GMs Nigel Short and Leinier Dominguez.
The tournament was first held in 1962 thanks to Ernesto 'Che'. Che used to be a fanatic chess player himself. Cubans love chess!
Ivanchuk is at four points out of a possible four and full point ahead of GM Nigel Short whom he beat in the first round. Short had sacrificed a piece for four pawns but went down fighting.
Here is the Short-Ivanchuk game. You can also run it in our pgnplayer.
PGN: 1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 Ne4 3. Bf4 c5 4. f3 Qa5+ 5. c3 Nf6 6. Nd2 cxd4 7. Nb3 Qf5 8. Bxb8 Rxb8 9. Qxd4 b6 10. e4 Qf4 11. Nh3 Qc7 12. e5 Ng8 13. O-O-O e6 14. f4 Ne7 15. Ng5 Bb7 16. Bd3 Bxg2 17. Rhg1 Bd5 18. Nxh7 Rxh7 19. Bxh7 g6 20. Kb1 Nf5 21. Qd3 Qc4 22. Qxc4 Bxc4 23. Nd4 Be7 24. Rxg6 fxg6 25. Bxg6+ Kf8 26. Nxf5 exf5 27. Bxf5 Rd8 28. Rxd7 Rxd7 29. Bxd7 Bc5 30. Kc2 Be3 31. f5 Bf4 32. e6 Ke7 33. h4 Be2 34. Bc6 Bg3 35. h5 Bxh5 36. Kd3 Kd6 37. Bg2 Ke5 38. Bh3 Bh4 39. b4 Be7 40. a3 Bf3 41. Kc4 Be2+ 42. Kb3 Bd3 43. a4 a5 0-1
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