Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013
Hi everyone,
The second round of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund saw four out of five games starting with 1.e4 e5. Wang Hao and Michael Adams both won their games with white in rather long struggles. After two rounds, four players are sharing first place with 1.5/2. The elite German event is just beginning. The players chose slow fighting lines today. The Russians went for the Berlin Defense: Vladimir Kramnik held yet another draw with his beloved defensive weapon while his colleague Dmitry Andreikin suffered a loss against experienced GM Michael Adams. Daniel Fridman loss with the Petrov against Wang Hao.
German GM Daniel Fridman has used the Petrov effectively for a long time. This Defense has a reputation of extreme solidity and was the chosen weapon of players such as Boris Gelfand and Vladimir Kramnik for a long time. Today, Wang Hao was able to break the Russian wall in 48 moves thanks to his active accurate play.
The setup with opposite side castling was chosen by white. Even though this spoils the queenside pawn structure, it allows for a kingside attack. Wang Hao advanced his pawns fearlessly and started to handle his initiative carefully. By move 35, black had the pair of bishops, but they were highly uncomfortable sitting on c1 and d1. White’s queen was already close to the opposite king and things seemed pretty unclear. Fridman started to falter under pressure and the Chinese showed his class to get the full point after yesterday’s loss.
Dmitry Andreikin got an invitation to this event very deservedly. He is the current Russian champion and has proved his strength in events like the Tal Memorial. However, he started with the wrong foot in Germany; today was his second loss in a row. Michael Adams demonstrated how patient he can be when he has a small edge in seemingly lifeless positions.
The game started with a Berlin Wall put up by the Russian. The players went into the usual path, exchanging queens, giving black the pair of bishops and creating a long strategical battle. Everything seemed to be heading for a draw when bishops of opposite colors appeared on the board. Adams evaluated the position as slightly better for him and started to maneuver in order to get a win with his kingside pawn majority. The plan worked as Andreikin had to offer his hand in resignation after 64 moves.
The Berlin Wall that made Vladimir Kramnik world champion worked as a charm for the Russian. Arkadij Naiditsch avoided a heavy theoretical battle and decided that a draw was enough against such a strong opponent. The players signed the score-sheets after 38 moves.
Peter Leko and Fabiano Caruana discussed the very fashionable lines of the Spanish with d3. Caruana found a way to force a threefold repetition and get a solid draw with the black pieces. Locals Igor Khenkin and Georg Meier played a Queen’s Gambit Declined that finished peacefully after 45 moves. (www.chessdom.com)
Standings after 2 rounds: 1 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2784 1½ 2 Meier, Georg GER 2610 1½ 3 Caruana, Fabiano ITA 2796 1½ 4 Adams, Michael ENG 2740 1½ 5 Khenkin, Igor GER 2605 1 6 Leko, Peter HUN 2737 1 7 Wang, Hao CHN 2752 1 8 Fridman, Daniel GER 2629 ½ 9 Naiditsch, Arkadij GER 2710 ½ 10 Andreikin, Dmitry RUS 2727 0
Dortmund Chess 2013 Round 1: Kramnik, Caruana and Meier Start with Wins
Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013
Hi everyone,
Yet another edition of the long-standing elite Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund has begun. This time it is a single round-robin with ten players. Six international stars are joined by four members of the German team to get a very dynamic lineup. The highlight of the event is, once again, the presence of ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who pretty much “owns” Dortmund, having won the event no less than ten times.
The Russian began with the right foot, beating Wang Hao with white. Replay the game with Chess King. The other two winners of the day were defending champion Fabiano Caruana, who beat Dmitry Andreikin with black, and Georg Meier, who outplayed Germany’s number one player Arkadij Naiditsch. Replay the game with Chess King.
The first result of the day left everyone wondering if there was a mistake in the relay. The game that faced Vladimir Kramnik and Wang Hao began as a very positional affair where a lot of simplifications took place rather quickly. The Russian, as usual, chose a continuation where he got a pawn advantage in a rook endgame. When the grinding was just beginning, the Chinese made a huge blunder and resigned immediately after his opponent played the obvious response. The game only lasted 26 moves.
In last year’s edition, Fabiano Caruana obtained what almost seemed impossible in the past decade: to win Dortmund instead of Kramnik. This result now has a special meaning, given that Caruana also took over Kramnik’s third place in the ratings after having a great first half of 2013. With today’s victory, the young Italian also arrived provisionally to the coveted 2800 mark in the live ratings list. Replay the game with Chess King
The game saw the defending champion using the Gruenfeld. Dmitry Andreikin avoided the main lines and tried to surprise his opponent in slow positional style. Caruana answered accurately, playing actively when needed and defending his king’s position if necessary. An opposite-colored bishop middlegame was reached and black started to gain the initiative. The Russian decided to sacrifice an exchange to avoid a quicker loss, but ended up resigning on move 43 anyway.
Another positional Gruenfeld was seen in the German battle between Georg Meier and Arkadij Naiditsch. However, the final result favored the white side led by the younger grandmaster. These players already faced each other earlier this year in another German super-tournament, in Baden-Baden.
The game was a very technical affair where the key factor was Meier’s dominance of the c-file with his pair of rooks. A slow process of increasing the pressure was handled masterfully by the young German and the players reached a rook endgame where white’s advantage of two pawns proved enough to get the full point. Naiditsch resigned on move 53.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
Just like in previous rounds of Norway Chess 2013, round 6 offered a lot of entertainment for the audience. We saw one pretty brutal win, one pretty boring draw, one exciting draw where none of the players ever seemed to get the upper hand, one nail biting draw where the worse side held on by the slimmest of margins and finally a totally exhausting end game squeeze where the relentless pressure eventually became too much for the defending side.
In other words, Hammer lost rather brutally to Aronian, Topalov and Wang Hao played a peaceful draw, Nakamura and Svidler both stayed in control in their sharp battle, Karjakin barely saved a draw against World Chess Champion Anand and Carlsen managed to bank another full point in a long grind against Radjabov.
In the first game to finish, Hammer ventured down a daring path in his Grünfeld game against Aronian, giving up a pawn in the hope that his a-passer should provide sufficient counterplay, only to realize that it simply wasn’t enough. Topalov vs Wang Hao was a Queen’s gambit where the tension in the center was resolved early with queens coming off resulted in a symmetrical pawn structure with no weaknesses in either camp. The game never became very exciting, and it finished uneventfully with a repetition and a draw on move 32.
Nakamura’s Ponziani against Svidler turned into a sharp, tactical battle already in the opening, leaving the mainlines. The game was a draw. Anand vs Karjakin started rather quietly, but sharpened up as the time control approached. Anand found a way to open the h-file and was close to beating Karjakin at some point, but the game went for a draw.
The last game to finish was another Carlsen vs Radjabov marathon, reminiscent of their 13th round battle in the London Candidates. The game saw yet one rather unassuming setup with white by Carlsen, with black taking on an isolani in the d-file quite early on, seemingly without any kind of problems. The isolani turned into two hanging pawns in the c- and d-file when white exchanged off his bishop for a knight on c6, and the battleground was set. However, Carlsen went for the long haul and eventually beat Radjabov.
Karjakin is still in the lead after 6 rounds, now only half a point ahead of Carlsen, who’s been going full steam ahead since round 4. Aronian’s win brought him up to shared 3rd with Nakamura, a full point off the pace of Karjakin, but half a point ahead of Anand and Svidler, who still have some chances to catch up with the guys in front. The rest of the field is probably too far behind by now to be considered real contenders for the tournament victory. (Read the full report by Hans Arild Runde at the official website.)
Men's Chess Grand Prix Series 2012/13 Cumulative Points
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
Fide has just released the latest men's chess grand prix scores in the 2012/13 series. Below is the graphic. GM Adams replaced GM Svidler for London 2012 only.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013 Hi everyone,
Just how brutal can chess get? The guess is all yours ;) Check out these videos to light up your weekend with chess and figure out the question about brutality. The Exchange, a lesson in swordplay. East meets West in this epic video of swordfighting. Shot at Smashbox Studios in Los Angeles, The Exchange shows gold medal fencer Machi Block pairing off with Yoshi Ando, one of the most notable samurai sword fighters in Hollywood. The second video is an awesome slow-motion between two very strong chess grandmasters- 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia and GM Wang Hao of China.
Norway Chess May 7-18 with Carlsen, Kramnik, Aronian, Radjabov, Karjakin, Anand, Topalov, Nakamura, Hao, Hammer
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
How about a chess summer 2013 in Norway? You won't say 'no' if we tell you the list of players who have already confirmed their participation in the Norway Chess super-grandmaster event along with the the Stavanger Open. Stavanger Chess Club invites all Norwegian and international chess players to participate in Stavanger Open NGP 2013 – an open tournament parallel to Norway Chess.
Player FIDE-rating: (Feb. 2013) Magnus Carlsen 2872 Vladimir Kramnik 2810 Levon Aronian 2809 Teimour Radjabov 2793 Sergey Karjakin 2786 Viswanathan Anand 2780 Veselin Topalov 2771 Hikaru Nakamura 2767 Wang Hao 2743 Jon Ludvig Hammer 2629 Average rating: 2776,0
Have you seen the promo video with Magnus Carlsen?
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Here's an interesting chess boxing video from Paris to light up your Sunday. The match took place between Leonid “Granit” Chernobaev and Frank “Anti-Terror” Stoldt on February 1 at the Gallery Artcurial, Champs-Elysées, Paris. The live commentary was by Grandmaster Jean-Luc Chabanon with the recording by Chess & Strategy. A nice report is there in newspaper L’Equipe.
75th Tata Steel Chess 2013 R11: Magnus Carlsen Leads Despite Draw with Wang Hao; Levon Aronian a Point Behind
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
In an exciting 11th round at the 75th Tata Steel Chess Tournament Magnus Carlsen was put to the test by Wang Hao (see picture) who managed to reach a better endgame in a Sicilian Rossolimo. Just when the squeeze seemed to be on, the Chinese Grandmaster traded his active knight for the passive black bishop, missing a clever defense that allowed Carlsen to completely equalize in the ensuing rook endgame. In the meantime it had become apparent that both Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand were en route to victories. As it turned out, only Aronian made good on the promise of his position and, albeit with a slight hiccup along the way, outplayed Hikaru Nakamura with the black pieces.
World Champion Anand dropped the ball against former Women's World Champion Hou Yifan. What seemed destined to become a model endgame victory turned tragic for the Indian Grandmaster when he decided to transpose a winning knight endgame into a drawn pawn endgame.
Click on game links to view game in the super Chss King applet.
Tashkent Chess Grand Prix: Karjakin, Morozevich, Wang Hao Joint Winners
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Morozevich and Wang Hao have jointly won the second stage of the FIDE Grand Prix in Tashkent. The results were clear only after the final round thanks to big fights on all the boards throughout the tournament. In the final round, Rustam Kasimdzhanov decided to enter Sveshnikov, but Boris Gelfand once again proved to be absolutely ready in this opening and managed to equalize the position without much trouble. Shakhriyar Mamedjarov and Wang Hao finished the game after four hours of play. Chinese player not only outplayed one of the leaders but got quite good theoretical chance for the sole victory in the tournament if Morozevich would lose against Svidler and other players with +1 would fail to win. Wang Hao said at the press-conference he felt he was going to play good in this tournament: Last period in my life was so difficult, I suffered so much, that I had feeling I deserve some luck! Nevertheless, Alexander Morozevich pulled off a draw and caught Wang Hao.
The game between two Russian players - Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich - turned to be spectacular despite the final result of a draw. Check out the game with Chess King.
Sergey Karjakin got a huge advantage but Ruslan Ponomariov was stoically defending till the end and had some chances to save half a point. After 6,5 hours of play Sergey finally defeated his opponent to share the first place in Grand Prix. Fabiana Caruana and Peter Leko made a draw after the long struggle in Scandinavian Defence, so Fabiano lost his chance to join the group of winners. Lienier Dominguez succeeded to win one game in the tournament. His opponent Gata Kamsky played a bit risky today and Cuban player got a decisive advantage.
Earlier, the tenth round was equally exciting. Three decisive games were played bringing new leaders to the top of the table. Sole overnight leader of the tournament, after the ninth round, Sergey Karjakin was defeated by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who replaced his opponent on the top of the table. Alexander Morozevich rejoined the lead once again after his victory over Peter Leko. Ruslan Ponomariob outplayed Lenier Domingues and shared the third place with Caruana Fabiano, Sergey Karjakin, Wang Hao and Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
London Chess Grand Prix R10: Mamedyarov Leads, But Last Round to Decide Champion!
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
The London Chess Grand Prix draws to a close but not without plenty of excitement. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has a half-point lead over the others after the end of Round 10. Anything can happen in the last round which is being played on Wednesday.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov took the lead yesterday for the first time and he keeps on leading after the tenth round as five out of sixth games were drawn. In the tenth round the rating number one in the tournament Hikaru Nakamura managed to win against Anish Giri after four defeats in a row! The last tweet of the American player spoke for itself: “While I do my absolute best to commit harakiri, (chess) at least her calming presence from afar puts it all in perspective. So far, Hikaru was losing 26 rating points and was falling down to the 11th place in the World ranking but improved his situation. One round to go Topalov, Gelfand and Grischuk share the 2nd place with six points each, just half-a-point behind the leader.
Wang Hao – Mamedyarov:
Mamedyarov appeared very relaxed when he arrived at Simpson`s with his manager. Shakhriyar decided to play the Caro Kann defence – his opening of choice for this tournament. Wang Hao prepared a surprise for his opponent 5.Nc5 trying to defuse any preparation. “Shak” paused for thought, and then replied 5…e5!? which caught Wang Hao unprepared, as he had not expected Mamedyarov to know this line deeply. The forced line that followed saw a quick exchange of queens which led to the endgame with a slightly better pawn structure for white. “Hao”-ever it was not enough and a draw was the result.
Leko – Gelfand:
The main question is how Gelfand will recover from the Round 9 loss. Boris seemed in a good mood and was smiling before the game. Peter Leko went for a quiet line based on Nc3-Bc4 in close Sicilian. Nothing much happened until move 20 after which some pieces were exchanged. White started to take the initiative by opening the “f” file, and putting a strong bishop on d5. White started to control the black squares, and the knight on e3 defended the whole white pawn centre.
Kasimdzhanov – Grischuk:
Almost all the players of the tournament want to avoid the Marshall Gambit. In this game there was no exception, as Rustam chose the exchange variation of the Spanish opening. White decided to open the centre and found a very interesting plan, putting the queen on “b1” in order to push c3-d4. Sasha took a long time to play the first 15 moves and had just 14 minutes left for 22 moves. The two times World Blitz champion is quite used to time trouble…Taking initiative on the king’s side and centre, Grischuk increased his advantage, pressuring on the f2 pawn.
Kasimdzhanov survived from the attack when Grischuk offered the exchange of queens with 38…Qf3? The rook endgame, which appeared, was finally drawn. A disappointment for Grischuk who could have taken the lead.
Nakamura – Giri:
Giri didn’t change his main weapon against 1.e4 and the Petrov appeared once again on the board. Hikaru exchanged the queens after 5 moves and decided to play a long endgame. White pieces had more space but black pieces found good placing. The bishop on b6 protected by the a5 pawn was controlling the queen side. Hikaru settled his other bishop on a second strong square e6.
The position of Anish was very solid with the bishops on c6 and d6 but Hikaru managed to break through and finally won the game!
Topalov – Adams:
The only chance for Veselin to catch the leader was to win today with the white pieces against Michael Adams. We saw one of the first Queen’s Gambit of the tournament, which looked pretty safe for black. Veselin managed to double black’s pawns on the “b” file and took a small advantage in the endgame but it was not enough to implement it into more.
Dominguez – Ivanchuk:
Vasily was in a good mood before the start of the game, looking at the pictures of Staunton on the wall of the Simpson’s in the Strand. The famous Immortal Game was played in the same building between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky on 21 June 1851. The Ukrainian player decided today to play a rare line of the Spanish opening (4…d6). Leinier replied with a safe line, putting all his pieces in the centre and obtained a slight advantage, due to the doubled black pawns on c7 and c6.
Ivanchuk managed to exchange queens and equalized by putting a strong Bishop on e3. Draw.
London Chess Grand Prix R6: Wang Hao Wins on Nakamura Blunder
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012 Hi everyone,
Here is GM Robert Fontaine's summary report from the sixth round at the London Fide Grand Prix where Israel's Boris Gelfand continues to be in lead.
We had a fight of continents between Hikaru Nakamura and Wang Hao! Surprisingly, Hikaru chooses a quiet line with double fianchetto 2.g3 and 4.b3. Wang Hao had a pretty safe position and waited the time control to see a big blunder (45.Nxa4??) from the American player. You can see the game in the Chess King applet.
Alexander Grischuk and Peter Leko in pursuit of Gelfand have white pieces today and tried to reduce the gap. Alexander avoided the main weapon of Michael Adams (Marshall gambit) and went for 6.d3. White opened quickly the centre forcing black to give away a pawn. In compensation, Adams had pair of bishops. It was enough to secure the draw in the endgame.
The last game of the day saw Veselin Topalov facing Dominguez. Veselin faced the 4…a6 Slav defence and decided to take immediately space with 7.Ne5 and 8.f4. Topalov took gradually the advantage, sacrificed a piece to win beautifully on the endgame.
Meanwhile, Boris Gelfand (3,5/5) played against Vasily Ivanchuk. The Israeli player went for an aggressive line against Queen’s Indian, sacrificing a pawn very early in the game. Both players said it was a complicated game and finally the draw was agreed before the time trouble, on move 25.
The Uzbek player Kasimdzhanov plays the Azeri Mamedyarov in one of the latest modern lines of the Meran. The position became very sharp when Mamedyarov decided to develop his initiative on the King’s side, pushing his “f” and “h” pawns. The 38th move was a terrible blunder from the Uzbek player and “Shak” jumped on the opportunity to score a full point.
Peter Leko played Giri in a very fashion line of Sicilian Najdorf. Peter gives a pawn quickly in order to have initiative and two bishops. Anish started the counter attack on the “a” file and managed to equalize. Both players decided than to repeat quickly the moves and agreed for a draw.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Wang Hao: Click on photo to go to official website
The Biel Chess Festival needed no more excitement but to have the victor's decision go right down to the tape to the last round No. 10. World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen went into the last round with a lead over Wang Hao and Anish Giri. While Hao and Giri were to play each other in the last round, Carlsen was to take on Etienne Bacrot. That meant, whoever of Hao and Giri would win could take the title.
Wang Hao and Anish Giri finished their game the fastest in the round with White's error being mirrored by Black and allowing Wang Hao to get back into the game with tactical finesse to win.
Magnus Carlsen - under pressure as he now required a win to get the overall title - could only draw with Bacrot. In the third game of the last round, US chess champion Hikaru Nakamura beat Viktor Bologan.
The Sofia rule of scoring was used. Chinese No. 1 Wang Hao finished the 45th Biel Chess Festival with 19 points. Defending champion Magnus Carlsen though had no losses, but because of the Sofia Rule had to finish with 18 points. Giri and Nakamura shared the third place with 16 points.
More information is available at the official Biel Chess Festival website. Here are some nice links related to the Biel Chess Fest that you would love to explore:
Brutal Chess Knockout Video: Must-Watch Chess Queen Kosteniuk vs Wang Hao
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012 Hi everyone,
Don't you think chess is as brutal as boxing? Look at this knockout chess video that has already gone viral on the Internet. It stars none other than Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk and Super-Grandmaster Wang Hao. Click on the photo.
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
In a sensational show at the world’s most prestigious exhibition blitz tournaments, in Biel, Switzerland, Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk was in her elements. She was up against super-Grandmasters and beat Wang Hao (2739), rated almost 300 points above her in the first round. Check out her personal blog entry by clicking on the photo!
Here is a video interview with the eventual winner of the exhibition blitz - Hikaru Nakamura.
Congratulations to GM Wang Hao for winning SportAccord World Mind Games Rapid 2011
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hello everyone,
Congratulations to GM Hao Wang for winning the WorldAccord Mind Games Rapid 2011 in Beijing today. He notched up the win with a steady performance ahead of GM Vugar Gashimov (second) and GM Gata Kamsky (third).
Here is the list of final standings and you can access some links for more details.
Sportaccord World Mind Games Rapid – Men Final standings: 1. GM Wang Hao CHN 2736 – 5.5 2. GM Gashimov Vugar AZE 2757 – 5 3. GM Kamsky Gata USA 2732 – 4.5 4. GM Dominguez Perez Leinier CUB 2712 – 4 5. GM Ponomariov Ruslan UKR 2723 – 4 6. GM Grischuk Alexander RUS 2752 – 4 7. GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE 2733 – 3.5 8. GM Wang Yue CHN 2697 – 3.5 9. GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA 2710 – 3.5 10. GM Karjakin Sergey RUS 2763 – 3.5 11. GM Nielsen Peter Heine DEN 2693 – 3 12. GM Vallejo Pons Francisco ESP 2705 – 2.5 13. GM Almasi Zoltan HUN 2707 – 2.5 14. GM Le Quang Liem VIE 2714 – 2.5 15. GM Giri Anish NED 2714 – 2.5 16. GM Ivanchuk Vassily UKR 2775 – 2
Shanghai Chess Masters Grand Slam: Shirov leads after five rounds
Kramnik: Nice win against Aronian
Hello Everyone,
Building on his win after the fourth round, Alexei Shirov of Spain notched up another win in the fifth round at the Shanghai Chess Masters Grand Slam tournament. He has already qualified for the Bilbao section of the Grand Slam event.
In the other game of the fifth round Vladimir Kramnik beat Levon Aronian with Black. That makes the sixth round decisive about which of the two will join Shirov in Bilbao along with Anand and Carlsen in October.
The first part of the 2010 Grand Slam Masters Final takes place 3-8 September in Shanghai, China. The Bilbao section will be held from October 9-15 in Bilbao, Spain.
Here is the nice Hao-Shirov game that you can look at in our pgnplayer or in the flashplayer below. You can also check the official tournament website here.
Don't be shy about contacting me
to share women's chess news
or to propose collaboration
Best chess wishes to you! Alexandra Kosteniuk
12th Women's World Chess Champion
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube
