Anand one of the Greatest Chess Players of Modern Times: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2014

Hello everyone,

The candidates tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk has completed with former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand making a huge comeback by winning the tournament. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the new World Chess Championship challenger Vishy Anand met journalists at the press-center:

– Kirsan Nikolaevich, did you expect the result of the tournament? Did you follow the course of the event?
K. I.: – On behalf of the FIDE Presidential Board I would like to congratulate the winner of the candidates tournament Vishy Anand with such a convincing victory. Also I want to thank all the players for their active play and fighting spirit. The tournament brought a lot of attention, millions of people from 211 countries followed the event. I want to thank the journalists for a high quality coverage of the competition. In my opinion, Vishy Anand’s victory is deserved and very convincing. He once again proved that he is one of the strongest and greatest players of modern times.

– Vishy, what are your impressions from the tournament and its organization?V. A.: – I want to thank the organizing committee for perfect organization of this tournament. I am grateful to the Ugra Governor and the city of Khanty-Mansiysk for their warm reception. I am obviously happy with my result, and also surprised how well everything worked out for me.

– Vishy, you have never been to Khanty-Mansiysk before. Did you have a chance to see the city?V. A.: – No, I only walked near the Chess Academy, the weather did not allow me to do more. Peter Svidler told me that Khanty-Mansiysk is very beautiful in summer.

– Kirsan Nikolaevich, Khanty-Mansiysk hosted chess events of all levels except the World Championship match. Is there a chance to see it in the capital of Ugra?K. I.: – As you know, FIDE announced the bidding for the next World Chess Championship match. Today the Presidential Board decided to extend the deadline until the end of April. Unofficially we have two bids so far. Khanty-Mansiysk is a real chess Mecca, FIDE leadership and the players love coming here, the atmosphere here is very special. The region does a lot for promoting chess, both at professional and junior level. I think if Khanty-Mansiysk submits an official bid, its chances to have the World Championship would be quite high.

– Ugra pays much attention to junior chess. Does it guarantee a World Champion coming from Ugra in future?
V. A.: – When I prepared for my games, I was very surprised to see how many key games were played in Khanty-Mansiysk. Of course it is very important for children to have direct access to high level chess.
K. I.: – Quantity sooner or later results in quality. When we are hosting major international tournaments, they influence chess development in the region, popularize the game. The “Chess at Schools” project is underway here. Recently they started another project, “Let’s remove blank spots from Ugra chess map”. Of course it increases Ugra chances to raise a true champion in future.

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Viswanathan Anand Wins Khanty Mansiysk Candidates, Qualifies for 2014 FIDE World Chess Championship Match versus Magnus Carlsen

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2014

Hello everyone,

World Chess Viswanathan Anand will have another shot at the World Chess Championship title after winning the Candidates Tournament 2014 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

In round 13 Anand held a draw against Sergey Karjakin to take his score to 8 points and secure clear first place with one round to go.

Anand is set to play a match with World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in November. The hosting city should be announced soon.

In the other games Dmitry Andreikin defeated Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik won against Veselin Topalov. Peter Svidler and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov split the point.

Anand is first with 8 points, point and a half ahead of the large group of players on shared second place – Andreikin, Kramnik, Aronian, Mamedyarov and Karjakin. Svidler is 7th with 6 points, while Topalov is last with 5,5 points.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov remained consistent and chose once again the Sicilian Naidorf. Peter Svidler answered with 6.Be3, the line in which he has huge practical experience.

The first critical junction was on move 16 when black played Nd4 instead of Grischuk’s Nce5. Next he offered exchange of the queens.

More pieces were traded soon and a rook endgame was reached around move 25. Black had the doubled f-pawns.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen tuned into live commentary with GM Peter Heine Nielsen and said that white can keep pressing for a long time without any risk.

Svidler tried for something more until the time control, but then he agreed to a draw.

Replay all the games of Round 13 with Chess King.

Levon Aronian played another very original opening, defending against the Trompowski employed by Dmitry Andreikin.

After only ten moves of play black’s pawn structure looked awful, but he still tried to stir trouble on white’s long castle and advanced pawns.

White decided to trade the queens and go into a roughly equal endgame. He offered an exchange for advanced passed pawn, but black snubbed the offer because the eventual result was likely to be a draw. Aronian needed a win to stay in contention for the first place.

Andreikin skillfully took advantage of the poor placement of black bishop to win a pawn and proceed to the double rook ending. He converted into full point on move 44.

Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov tested the Semi-Slav Moscow variation. Again Topalov was first to insert a new move, by playing the speculative 10…c5.

Kramnik cemented the development advantage with an excellent 14.Bb5, which prevents black knight from coming into play. Magnus Carlsen also praised this move in his live commentary.

Black somehow untangled his pieces but white already had the action going on the kingside. However, after a couple of inaccurate moves, white lost all of his advantage and even started looking suspicious because black had the pair of bishops.

The resulting endgame was sharp and unclear. It was extremely difficult to find the most precise moves – only deeper analysis can tell.

Topalov was the last to make a mistake, when he allowed white rook to reach the back rank and claim a bishop. Kramnik quickly wrapped up the game.

Sergey Karjakin was fully charged to fight in the game versus Viswanathan Anand, having in mind that only a victory would have given him the chance to win the first place and match against the World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

White played a modest yet flexible setup with fianchetto on b2. Black replied with the principled strike in the center c5, but was soon left with a backward c6-pawn.

Karjakin won this pawn but the queens got exchanged and it looked like black had a good compensation for the material. Anand’s idea to trade the light-squared bishops with 17…Bd7 was criticized by Magnus Carlsen.

The reigning World Champion had a good hunch, as black soon came under pressure on the queenside.

Anand made a huge decision to give two pieces for a rook and pawn. The material favored white, but all pawns were on one side of the board and white pieces were poorly coordinated.

The Grandmasters who commented the game on Twitter believed that black had better chance to draw than white to win.

Anand succeeded in setting a fortress, and despite the huge effort Karjakin simply couldn’t find a way through.

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Chess Candidates 2014 R12: Anand takes a practical decision, draws Andreikin to Keep Lead!

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2014

Hello everyone,

Viswanathan Anand - two rounds close to Candidates victory and match with Magnus Carlsen - settles for comfortable draw versus Dmitry Andreikin in better position. Photo: FIDE

Viswanathan Anand took a practical decision to accept draw against Dmitry Andreikin in a better, but extremely complicated position. Considering the other results, Anand is coming closer to challenging World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen to another match.

Levon Aronian – Vladimir Kramnik and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – Sergey Karjakin were drawn, while Veselin Topalov won a nice game against Peter Svidler.

After 12 rounds of play in the FIDE World Candidates Tournament, Anand is first with 7,5 points, still a full point ahead of Aronian. Mamedyarov and Karjakin share the third place with 6 points each. On 5-8th place and with 5,5 points each are Kramnik, Svidler, Topalov and Andreikin.

Replay all the games of Round 12 with Chess King.

Peter Svidler’s Taimanov Sicilian was not a great surprise for Veselin Topalov, but the recapture on 8th move, dxc6 instead of Qxc6, is a rare continuation.

Topalov continued in the straightforward manner by transferring the knight to c4 and playing a key move, according to Svidler in the post-game press conference, 12.f3 to effectively stop the counterplay.

The rigid pawn structure and gapping hole on d5 were preventing black from activating the pieces. He was reluctant to part with the bishop pair to eliminate the dominant c4-knight.

White eventually broke through the d-file to win the black a5-pawn. Being unable to find a perpetual check, Svidler gave up.

The game between Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik started as a Queen’s Gambit Exchange variation, but white deviated from the theory quite early, by playing the literally unknown 8.h3.

Black immediately used the opportunity to trade the dark-squared bishops and speed up his development.

Both players castled long and tucked their kings into safety. The pieces were shuffled around until white decided to go for a central break with e3-e4.

Aronian admitted that he wouldn’t risk that much if he would be closer to the first place. The players repeated the moves for a draw in 31 moves.

Actually, instead of Ba6 in the end, Kramnik had an interesting maneuver in 28…Nb5 29.exd5 Na5! which might have given him something. Aronian was stunned when FIDE Press Officer showed him this line.

Dmitry Andreikin wanted to try a Caro-Kann against Viswanathan Anand, exactly the line that Carlsen played in game 2 of Chennai WCC match.

Anand definitely had an improvement ready, as he deviated on move 15 with Qd3-f3. In this development he kept more pieces on the board.

Black was trying for a usual queenside counterplay, while white centralised his pieces waiting to answer black’s c6-c5 break with d4-d5.

Black immediately went astray by allowing the pawn to advance further, all the way to d7. In addition, white launched an attack against the enemy king.

However, Andreikin didn’t roll over, and he sacrificed a bishop to lead the white king out in the open field.

His efforts paid off when Anand conceded a draw by “taking a practical decision” to repeat the moves.

Anand commented later – “I looked at Kd2, but there are two rooks, queen, knight jumping around, and I couldn’t see it through.” He added that 36.Bd2 might have been a better try.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Sergey Karjakin played the longest game of the day. Karjakin took note of Mamedyarov’s handling of the sharp f3 Nimzo-Indian in the earlier clash with Aronian.

The Russian team prepared a Benko-like counterblow 5…b5. As it was expected from the tactically gifted Azeri, he quickly expanded to grab space in the center.

Karjakin was pleased with his opening, but at the pres conference he criticized 20…Ndc5, which took the knight far away from the defence of the king.

Black did win three pawns, but he was running low on time and white was constantly endangering the king. At one moment black had only 14 seconds to complete six moves (there is no increment before first time control).

Karjakin beat the zeitnot, but by then white simplified the position and in the next hour held a draw in a double rook endgame despite being one pawn down.

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Khanty-Mansiysk Chess Candidates R2: Three Decisive Games!

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2014

Hello everyone,

Round 2 in Khanty Mansiysk at Candidates 2014. Photo: FIDE

World Chess Candidates 2014 Round 2: The dust was off and three decisive games out of four marked Friday's scoresheets in Khanty Mansiysk.

Levon Aronian was quick to recover from his first-round shock loss to Viswanathan Anand. Aronian chose a quiet line, but one careless Knight move left Mamedyarov's Queen trapped after a knight sac. Aronian gave up a a rook and minor piece for the Black Queen to earn a quick point. 

Replay all games of Round 4 with Chess King

The two former World Chess Champions Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand went into the Reti set-up which is a kind of Bulgarian specialty and Viswanathan Anand steered the game into the his favourite Slav structure. Topalov's extra pawn was isolated and of little use from preventing a win.

Andreikin's Sicilian was strategically successful versus Svidler, but Black eventually self-destructed. Black tried rolling central pawns, but white was very much in control with extra pawns.

Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin played a sharp line of Queen’s Gambit Accepted. Kramnik was in no mood for any mercy, obtained a strong passed-pawn and used an exchange sacrifice as Karjakin went into time pressure. 

The FIDE World Candidates Tournament is taking place March 11th-April 1st, 2014 at the Ugra Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The event is sponsored by the Khanty–Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug and Sibur, and organised by FIDE, Russian Chess Federation and Ugra Chess Federation.

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FIDE World Chess Candidates’ Tournament 2014 Preview

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2014

Hello everyone,

The World Chess Federation is all ready to host the 2014 FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament. The FIDE Candidates’ Tournament takes place March 12th-April 1st, 2014 in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia). Here is a preview via the official website.

The Prize Fund to be shared by the players totals 600,000 EUR. The FIDE Candidates Tournament will determine the challenger who will face, later this year, the current title holder World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen for the prestigious FIDE World Championship.

The eight participants are Viswanathan Anand of India, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and four Russian players – Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler, Sergey Karjakin and Dmitry Andreikin.

The average rating of this event is 2766. The first round will start Thursday, March 13th 2014 at 3 p.m. local time, following the opening ceremony on 12th of March.

The participants will play a double round robin tournament (14 rounds). The players who are from the same federation will play each other in rounds 1, 2, 3 and 8, 9, 10. The parings have been done one month before the start of the tournament and are published here.

The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.

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World Chess Candidates 2014 Quiz

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2014

Hello everyone,

The World Chess Candidates 2014 is set to begin March 11 with the first round on March 13. It's just the excitement chess fans are waiting for as the event will give the world the challenger to reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway. Here's a short quiz. How ready are you for the big chess event:

1 - Who is the highest rated player among the eight players of the Candidates 2014?
2 - How many Russians are there among the eight - in fact can you name all eight and their countries?
3 - Who is the oldest among the players and the youngest?
4 - How many of these eight have played the Candidates in 2013?
5 - Which players from the London Chess Candidates 2013 are not there in the 2014 edition?

Happy solving! Meanwhile, here's the update on the official website that went live recently. 

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