2013 Australian Player of the Year

In a non-Olympiad Year, picking one Australian player as a standout is just that little bit more difficult. These days it is the junior players (Under 16) who carry the flag for Australia on overseas events, while older players have the usual worries about study/work/family to keep them tied to these shores. But even on the domestic scene honours seemed shared about, with a few young players (eg Anton Smirnov and Karl Zelesco) moving to the next level, but no one completely dominating the local scene.
But there was one player who had a number of significant performances in 2013, which placed him ahead of the pack. IM (then still FM) Bobby Cheng started the year with a win in the Australian Open, ahead of a strong field. He had solid performances in the Doeberl Cup and the Sydney International Open, before scoring 10/11 in the 2013 Victorian Championship. Later in the year he scored 6.5/9 in the World Under 16 Olympiad, and finished off the year with a 4th placing in the 2013 Australasian Masters. He was awarded his IM title in May, all the while juggling his schooling.
So for 2013, IM Bobby Cheng is the Chessexpress Australian Player of the Year.

Miezis,Normunds (2554) - Cheng,Bobby (2440) [A10]
2013 Australasian Masters GM Melbourne (8.5), 21.12.2013

1. c4 b6 2. Nc3 Bb7 3. e4 e5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. g3 Bc5 6. Bg2 d6 7. O-O Nge7 8. d3 O-O 9. a3 a5 10. Rb1 Qd7 11. Nh4 h6 12. Kh1 g5 13. Qh5 gxh4 14. Bxh6 Qe6 15. Nd5 Qg6 16. Qxh4 f6 17. Bh3 Rf7 18. Be6 Nxd5 19. cxd5 Nd4 20. f4 f5 21. Bxf7+ Kxf7 22. Bg5 Kg7 23. Bd8 fxe4 24. Qe7+ Kg8 25. fxe5 Nf5 26. Qg5 Qxg5 27. Bxg5 exd3 28. Kg2 Ne3+ 29. Bxe3 Bxd5+ 30. Kh3 Bxe3 31. exd6 cxd6 32. Rf6 Rd8 33. Rbf1 d2 34. g4 Bb3 35. R6f3 Re8 0-1

Next years Xmas gift?

A little late for Santa Clause this year, but I just saw a possible, if expensive, gift for next year. Saccomatto Chess Candles are large (15-30cm) candles in the shape of chess pieces. They are produced by Seletti Botique, which are based in that well known chess locale, Queenstown, New Zealand. However, at $134 a piece, it might be a little pricey, and even if I did get one as a gift, I'd probably refuse to set fire to them.
But they are nice to look at, so if you are interested, you can find out more here.

A photo challenge

From the just completed World Youth Championship in Al-Ain. Who is the well known chess personality in this picture? And for a bonus point, who is the Grandmaster sitting beside him?

Chess Movies - Updated

While the TV series "Endgame" is the latest entry in 'Chess as a plot driver' canon, Chessbase has provided an up to date list of chess movies. Some on the list are both famous and obvious eg 'Chess Fever' or 'The Luzhin Defence' there are a few that I am less familiar with. A few of these are foreign language (ie non-English) movies, but there are some English language movies I have not seen.
The list is here, and includes a couple of films that are yet to reach the cinema.

Stalemate for the win?

Every now and then there is a proposal to award a win to a player who stalemates his opponent. Such proposals do get considered, but always rejected. One of the main reasons is simply that established end game would be upended, while another reason is the weight of history.
But history has changed in this area, as stalemate was once considered the equal of checkmate (as was 'bare king'). The shown position comes from the 9th Century and is given as White to play and win. Assuming that Stalemate wins, can you find a quick victory for White? Is there still a win for White if you had to avoid Stalemate? If you find both, which is more interesting?

Miniature of the Month - November 2013

A slight change of pace this month. Rather than going for the highest rated players I could find, I've instead aimed for greater experience. This months game comes from the 2013 World Seniors Championship, and the winner is a player whose surname looks nearly the same as mine (just a coincidence I assure you).


Pressl,Harald (1802) - Trtanj,Zoran (1986) [B13]
23rd World Seniors Opatija CRO (7.88), 19.11.2013

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 e6 7. Nf3 Bd6 8. Bxd6 Qxd6 9. O-O O-O 10. Re1 Re8 11. Ne5 Bd7 12. Nd2 Ne7 13. f4 b5 14. Re3 b4 15. Rh3 Ng6 16. Bxg6 hxg6 17. Rh8+ 1-0

Post Xmas Action

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, and received suitable presents from Santa. But with that out of the way, it is back to the serious business of chess. The post Xmas period sees a couple of events starting, and a few already in progress.
Confining my list to the big ones, firstly there is the Groningen tournament which kicked off a few days ago. There is an Open event, and a couple of other subsidiary tournaments. Click on the above link for reports.
The traditional Hastings event starts on the 28th. Like Groningen it has an Open Swiss, and a number of other events.
Closer to home the Australian Championship starts on the 2nd January 2014. The championship proper has already attracted a very strong field, including a number of overseas players.
And because people keep asking me, there will be Street Chess this Saturday (28 December) at the usual time of 11am in City Walk, Canberra City,

It was the hack before Christmas

and all through the hall, not a creature was stirring, except for the pieces getting chopped of at regular intervals.
Keeping up with my sometime tradition, I've dug up another game played on Xmas Eve. This one comes from 2008, and Caruana does a number on Vallejo Pons. But it takes two players to create a masterpiece, and Vallejo Pons deserve a share of the credit for meeting fire with fire. Enjoy!


Caruana,F (2640) - Vallejo Pons,F (2664) [B90]
Magistral Pamplona ESP (3), 24.12.2008

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be3 Be7 9. Qd2 h5 10. O-O-O Nbd7 11. h3 Qc7 12. Bd3 h4 13. f4 b5 14. Rhe1 O-O 15. g4 hxg3 16. Rg1 exf4 17. Bxf4 Ne5 18. Nd4 Qc5 19. Be3 b4 20. Na4 Qa5 21. b3 Bd7 22. Kb1 Nxd3 23. cxd3 Nh5 24. Qe2 g6 25. Rdf1 Bxa4 26. bxa4 Qxa4 27. Nb3 Qb5 28. Rf5 gxf5 29. Nd4 Qe5 30. Nc6 Nf4 31. Bxf4 Qxf4 32. Nxe7+ Kh7 33. Nxf5 Kg6 34. Ne7+ Kh7 35. Nf5 Kg6 36. Rf1 Qg5 37. h4 Qf6 38. Qg4+ Kh7 39. Qh5+ Kg8 40. Nh6+ 1-0

This years Xmas gifts

I've tried to avoid too much Xmas shopping this year, and as a result I have a very short list of Xmas gifts for the chess player in your family.
For someone just starting out "Playing Chess: Step by Step" by Gary Lane might be a sensible purchase. One reason I am recommending it is that I cam across it bundled up with a glass chess set and board at my local shopping mall, and I suspect it is possibly available at a number of discount book operations that pop up around this time of year.
If you can track them down, a couple of old-ish chess movies might make a nice gift. Both "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and "Luzhin's Defence" come highly recommended, while "Black and White like Day and Night" could establish your 'art house' cred.
As for boards I'm certainly not suggesting the dead mouse chess set. I have seen a 'pop up' chess set in a couple of shops (DIY cardboard I'm guessing) while the old standby of the shot glass set might still appeal.
And finally, if you really want to give someone a surprise, but useful gift, entering them into the Doeberl Cup without their knowledge might just be it. Given how disorganised chess players are, this may be the only way they get to play!

2013 Australasian Master - Final results

The final round of the 2013 Australasian Masters threw up some surprising results, leaving a couple of players shocked and/or disappointed with the outcome. GM Normund Miezes had been leading the GM event from the start, and  with 3 rounds to go was on 5.5/6. However he managed only half a point after that, drawing with Anton Smirnov, before losing consecutive games to IM Bobby Cheng and IM Max Illingworth. This allowed Vasily Papin to close the gap, and the two players tied for 1st on 6/9.
Having beaten Meizes in round 8, Cheng then ended Anton Smirnov's chance of an IM norm by beating him in round 9. This allowed Cheng to overtake Smirnov, and tie with Illingworth as the best placed Australian players in 4th place.
The IM tournament was a little more straightforward, with Chris Wallis and Karl Zelesco tieing for first place with an impressive 7/9. The score was sufficient for Zelesco to score an IM norm, although apparently Wallis missed out, ironically due to his own high rating (ie While Zelescos ARO includes Wallis, Wallis can't  his own rating meaning his AOR is too low.) Of the other players in this event Bob Smith finished third with 6/7, while IM's Brown and Smirnov tied for 4th on 5.5

2013 ACT Rapidplay Championship

The last ACT Chess Association event of the year, the 2013 ACT Rapidplay Championship, was held today. Once again it was held outdoors, under the shade of the trees outside King O'Malley's in the centre of Canberra.
The event attracted 31 players, with the containing a mix of rapidplay veterans, up and coming junior players, and a few  old hands making a return after a number of years. As previous winners like GM David Smerdon, IM Andrew Brown and FM Junta Ikeda were out of town, it was a wide open event.
After 7 rounds, Wenlin Yin emerged as the winner on 6.5. In second place was Roger Farrell on 6 (only losing to Yin), with Willis Lo and Harry Press tied for third on 5/7. Aelfric Gardiner-Garden returned from a year away from chess to win the Under 1700 prize, while the Under 1000 prize was shared between Blair Morris, Ryan Harder, Daniel Kent, and William Rumley (just 7 years old!), on 3 points. Special mention should also go to Steven Sengstock, who bounced back from a very serious bike accident a couple of months ago, to finish on 4.5, losing only to the first and second place getters.

How much would you pay to play in a chess tournament?

An interesting new(-ish) tournament idea from the US. GM Maurice Ashley is behind a $1,000,000 tournament title "Millionaire Chess". It is planned for Las Vegas in October next year and offers a total prize fund of a million dollars.
The obvious intention behind the tournament is to try and bring some of the excitement and money of Poker to the chess board. Along with the poker sized prize fund is of course a poker sized entry fee. And this is the kicker, as the entry fee is $1000. So the gamble for the organisers is finding enough chess players with $1000 (plus enough to cover travel expenses) who would find such a tournament worthwhile.
Certainly 20 years ago I would have said that the organisers would have had no hope of attracting enough entries. And while I think the odds are still not in their favour, I do think they have a better chance of succeeding now. While chess players are still quite tight fisted, I sense that more average players  are willing to spend some extra cash to play an event, as long as the event is worth it. In part this is due to the rise in living standards in parts of the world, but it also a function of a growing chess population.
Whether this is enough to make this event go ahead (as the organisers have put some conditions on it taking place), I'm not entirely sure, but as one commentator said ,"either this event will be a huge flop, or it will change chess forever!"

Dead mouse chess set

I've been trying to avoid this story all week, as it kind of creeps me out. However, the delivery of a dead mouse by my cat in the early hours of the morning must seems to be some sort of sign from the universe.
Rachael Garcia, a Florida based Taxidermist, has made a chess set out of dead mice. It is a complete set, using the stuffed corpses of 32 rodents, and the major pieces are even adorned with crowns and other identifying paraphernalia. The mouse came from a breeding facility that normally provides frozen mice as reptile feed, but I'm not sure that the fact that (a) they were going to be eaten by snakes and (b) they were already dead, makes it any better.
Of course this intention was that it functions as an art piece, and has already been sold for $450. In the above interview Garcia recognises that such a work polarises opinions, so as an artist I guess she has succeeded in producing a successful work. Just don't buy me one for Christmas.

World Youth 2013

One of the biggest chess tournaments in the world starts this evening in Al Ain, UAE. The 2013 World Youth Championship has attracted 1850 players , competing in Girls and Open events from Under 8 years up until Under 18 years. The Under 18 Open section has attracted field that would put most international opens to shame, with GM Jorge Core as the top seed, and 9 players rated over 2500.
Australia has sent an 11 player squad, while New Zealand, Fiji, Guam and Palau are the other Oceania countries sending  players.
The first round is supposed to start around now, but due to the load on the webserver I have not been able to find the live games link. Hopefully I will be able to update this post when I do.

Sir John Cornforth (1917-2013)

Sir John Conforth, winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, has passed away at the age of 96. He was born in Sydney in 1917, but spent a substantial amount of his life in the UK.
While best known as a research chemist, he was also a fine chess player when he was younger. He played in the 1936 Australian Champion in Perth, scoring at least 6 wins, as well as the inaugural (1937) Australian Correspondence Chess Championship. He did this while completing his studies as an undergraduate at the University of Sydney, and while suffering the final stages of otosclerosis, which resulted in total hearing loss.
He maintained a strong connection with the Correspondence Chess League of Australia, and was a life member of the CCLA.


Goldstein,Maurice Edward - Cornforth,John W [E28]
AUS ch Perth (9.2), 07.01.1937

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 O-O 7. Bd3 d6 8. Ne2 b6 9. Qc2 Bb7 10. O-O e5 11. e4 Nc6 12. d5 Na5 13. Ng3 Ba6 14. Qe2 Qd7 15. a4 Nb3 16. Ra3 Nxc1 17. Rxc1 Rae8 18. a5 bxa5 19. Rxa5 Bc8 20. f3 a6 21. Ra3 g6 22. Bc2 Qe7 23. Ba4 Rd8 24. Rb1 h5 25. Qd2 h4 26. Ne2 Nh5 27. Qh6 Qf6 28. Bc6 h3 29. Rf1 hxg2 30. Rf2 Bh3 31. Qc1 g5 32. Rxa6 Nf4 33. Nxf4 exf4 34. Ra7 Qe5 35. Rb2 Kg7 36. Rbb7 g4 37. Re7 Qg5 38. e5 dxe5 39. d6 Rxd6 40. Bd5 Rf6 41. Qb1 gxf3 42. Bxf3 Re6 43. Rec7 e4 44. Qb7 Qf5 45. Bd1 f3 46. Ra2 Rd8 47. Ba4 e3 48. Rxf7+ Qxf7 49. Rxg2+ Bxg2 0-1

Chess in Canberra over Christmas

Like most of Australia, club chess in Canberra takes a break over Christmas. A couple of clubs have already finished for the year, but for the keen player there is still enough chess to keep either occupied, or away from the family, for some of the holidays.
Belconnen Chess Club is holding its Xmas Blitz tomorrow night, Tuesday 17 December. The club meets  at the Natsem Building on Hayden Drive, Bruce (across from the University of Canberra) from 7pm. The blitz will either be a round robin or a swiss, depending upon numbers, and is the last evening event in Canberra for the year.
On Saturday, 21st December, the ACTCA will be holding the 2013 ACT Rapidplay Championship. It will be held in City Walk, Canberra City, outside King O'Malley's/Chicken Gourmet (at the usual Street Chess venue). It starts at 11am and has a guaranteed first prize of $100. Entry fee is $10 for adults and $5 for juniors. It is a 7 round swiss with a time limit of G/15m.
Of course Street Chess will be running over the Christmas break, with tournaments every Saturday from 11am in City Walk, Canberra City. And if previous years are anything to go by, the tournament that happens between Christmas and New Year will once again be very popular.

Saved by touch move

Street Chess got off to a tough start yesterday (at least for me) when I found myself in the bottom half of the draw. As a result I needed more than my fair share of luck to try and stay on the plus side of the scoreboard. It turned out I was helped by the touch move rule in not one two games, giving me wins in both cases.
The first case is shown in the diagram to the right. I was playing Black, and in the position played Qg6+. The idea was to play lots of checks, pick up a few white pawns and see whether I could get anything more than a draw. However after the check on g5 my opponent followed through with his intended move, which was Rxh6+. While this is obviously illegal, it also had the unfortunate side effect of requiring him to move the rook to block the check. As this lost a rook on the spot he resigned.
In the second case (not shown), I had captured a piece on a6 (I was white), and my opponent captured with the rook. After I attacked to rook on a6 it retreated to a8. I then built up an attacking position on the kingside, which my opponent decide to avoid with O-O-O. However, as the rook had moved to a6 and back this was illegal, and my opponent had to play another king move. He could have castled kingside (this option was still legal), but fearing my play down the g file, chose Kf8 instead. This did not help and my attack soon brought home the point.

2013 Australasian Masters

The Australian/Australasian Masters has been held fairly regularly since 1987. Some years has seen it held as a local event, while other years has seen it run as an international event, with title norms on offer.
This years event has taken a step up, running two events, and offering GM norms in the top section. The 2013 Australasian Masters GM event has 4 GM's and 4 IM's in the 10 player field. Top seed is Latvian GM Normunds Miezis, with Russian GM Valery Papin second seed. Vietnamese GM Tu Hoang Thong returns, having won the event in 1995, while inaugural GM Daryl Johansen is the 4th GM in the tournament.
The IM tournament is headed by Russian IM Vladimir Smirnov, while Andrew Brown and Mirko Rujevic are the other two IM's in the field.
The first round of both tournaments was held today, and the event runs until the 22nd of December. Each round starts at 4pm and live coverage of all games, plus tournament results, can be found at the Box Hill Chess Club website.

Miezis,Normunds - Li,Luke [C01]
2013 Australasian Masters Melbourne, 14.12.2013

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. e4 d5 4. exd5 exd5 5. d4 Bb4 6. Bd3 O-O 7. Nge2 dxc4 8. Bxc4 h6 9. O-O Bd6 10. Nb5 Nc6 11. Nxd6 cxd6 12. Bb3 Bg4 13. f3 Bf5 14. g4 Bh7 15. g5 hxg5 16. Bxg5 d5 17. Nf4 Qd6 18. Qd2 a5 19. a3 Bf5 20. Kh1 Ne7 21. Rg1 Ng6 22. Bxf6 Qxf6 23. Nxd5 Qd6 24. Rg5 Be6 25. Rag1 Rfd8 26. Qe3 Re8 27. Nf6+ gxf6 28. Rxg6+ fxg6 29. Qh6 Kf7 30. Qh7+ Kf8 31. Rxg6 Qd7 32. Rxf6+ 1-0

Running a school chess championship

I spent today helping run the Amaroo School Chess Championship. It was open to students from 4th grade up to Year 10 (it is a K-10 School) and attracted around 90 players. The bulk of players were in the younger age bracket but it was still nice to get 20+ players from the High School students.
While there were enough sets to cope with the number of players, we had to be inventive with the clocks. The system used was to start the round without clocks and after 20 minutes, put clocks on any games still going. The time left to complete the game was 5m each, meaning that each round lasted around 30 minutes. There were no problems with this method, and at most we needed 5 clocks to finish any particular round. Most players were happy to move reasonably quickly, and I only had 1 complaint of a player 'sitting' on their position.
We only had time for 6 rounds, and it was a close run thing to see if we could find a single winner. The number of perfect scores went 40->20->10->5->2 after each round. The loss by one of the players on 4/4 against someone on 3/4 avoided the need for a later playoff. However there was still a huge tie for second place (9 players on 5/6), with the minor awards being distributed by tie-break.
This years winner was Vivian Lam, the second year in a row that the tournament has been won by a female player (Jennifer Ton won last year). This is not that much of a surprise as Amaroo does a lot to encourage girls chess, as well as the fact that around half the field were female.

New FIDE Arbiters Manual

The FIDE Arbiters Commission have just released their new Arbiters Manual. Essentially it is a collection of the major documents that any qualified arbiter needs to use in running/directing a tournament, interspersed with explanatory comments. While the majority of the documents are simply collected from the FIDE handbook, the commentary is original content supplied by members of the FIDE Arbiters Commission.
As it is the first release of this manual, it does have a few errors it, although these will be fixed in the 2014 edition. It is of course a valuable resource for any practising arbiter, especially as it reduces the need to go hunting through different sources for Rules, Norm Forms, Tie-Break methods etc
Even if you aren't an arbiter I still recommend having a look through it (especially the Laws of Chess section), as it will provide an insight in how arbiters will interpret some of the more contentious rules.
The document is in pdf format and can be download from here.

2013 London Chess Classic

This years London Chess Classic sees a change in format, with the Super-GM tournament giving way to a larger rapidplay event. The 16 player event sees 4 groups of 4 playing a 6 round double round robin, with the top 2 from each group going through to a knockout final. 14 players were invited to the rapidplay, with the other 2 slots going to the highest placed players after the first 4 rounds of the concurrent FIDE Swiss tournament. Emil Sutovsky and Andrei Istratescu were the qualifiers with 4/4, although the odds were in their favour, as in case of a tie then the highest rated players would qualify (NB in this case Sutovsky and Istratescu were the only players on 4).
Live coverage of the event can be found at the tournament website. The Rapidplay begins tonight/early tomorrow, starting at 1am Canberra time.

My oldest novelty?

I was somewhat fortunate to win my game of chess tonight. In the spirit of the season my opponent missed a simple pin and gave me a piece quite early on. But what I found interesting about the game was that we had followed some old opening theory for quite a while. This was mainly due to the fact that I tried to play the Dutch against 1.Nf3 and my opponent then wheeled out 2.e4 (the Lisitsin Gambit) to put me on the spot. Despite having never played the Latvian Gambit in a serious game before I decided to meet gambit with gambit and played 2. ... e5. Certainly I was in uncharted waters but my opponent said that the Latvian is an occupational hazard if you play the Lisitsin (as he does).
Despite my unfamiliarity with it all we managed to follow theory for a reasonable number of moves ( 3.Nxe5 Qf6 4.d4 d6 5.Nc4 fxe4 6.Nc3 Bf5 7.Ne3 c6 8.d5 Nd7 9.Be2 ) before I finally stumbled upon a new move. 9. ...Ne7N was what I found, but I suspect it doesn't improve upon previous theory. However it does seem to be the first new move in this line since 1876. Doing a bit of checking, this may be the oldest line that I have played a new move in, although I would probably need to do some more exhaustive research to be sure.
For interest sake the original game went   9...Be7 10.0-0 Nh6 11.f3 exf3 12.Bxf3 Qe5 13.dxc6 bxc6 14.Bxc6 Rd8 15.Qh5+ Bg6 16.Ned5 Nf5 17.Nc7+ Kf8 18.Qf3 Nf6 19.Bd5 Nd4 20.Qf2 Rc8 21.Bf4 Qh5 22.Ne6+ Nxe6 23.Bxe6 Rc5 24.Rad1 Salvioli-D'Aumiller,A/Venetie 1876/1-0 so at least I scored a better result than D'Aumiller.

Endgame

Pay-TV in Australia has just started showing the Canadian TV series, Endgame. It is about a former World Champion Arkady Balagan, who becomes a detective, after his fiancée is killed. In the tradition of Nero Wolf, he does not leave the hotel (due to Agoraphobia), and so requires others to gather evidence for him.
The first episode was quite interesting, although the ending seemed a little rushed. The creators of the series have resisted the temptation to play Balagan as the 'crazy' Grandmaster (agoraphobia notwithstanding), but they do give him a healthy does of arrogance. As for the chess content, there wasn't a lot, but at least they didn't muck it up.
The series was made in 2011, but only 13 episodes were produced. There was talk of it coming back at a later time, but this has been ruled out by the producers. If you do have Foxtel in Australia, it is being shown at 7:30pm on Monday nights on FX, and I'm sure it will be repeated at various times during the week.

Richard Morton (1939-2013)

Richard Morton, a regular on the Canberra chess scene in the 1990's, passed away last week. He was a member of the Belconnen Chess Club, and was one of the strongest players at the club.
Born in England in 1939, he moved to Canberra in the late 1970's, working with the CSIRO as a researcher in mathematics and statistics. He joined the Belconnen Chess Club in the early 1990's and played there for around a decade. Suffering from poor eyesight since birth, he eventually had to retire from active chess, not due to a decline in ability, but due to difficulty in getting to and from the chess club at night. Nonetheless he still maintained an active interest in the game, often chatting to me about what was happening in the world of chess when our paths crossed.
Away from the chess board he had a successful career as a mathematician, rising to the level of Senior Researcher at the CSIRO. He was also played Bridge in his spare time, and had a great love for music. He is survived by his wife and 4 children.


Morton,Richard - Rout,Ian Clive [B20]
Premier Belconnen Premier (4), 1997

1. e4 c5 2. b3 Nc6 3. Bb2 e5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Nf3 d6 6. h3 g6 7. Bc4 Bg7 8. O-O O-O 9. d3 a6 10. Nd5 Nh5 11. a4 Rb8 12. Nc3 Nf4 13. Ne2 Ne6 14. Qd2 b5 15. axb5 axb5 16. Bxe6 Bxe6 17. Ra6 Rb6 18. Rfa1 Rxa6 19. Rxa6 Qc8 20. Ra1 f5 21. exf5 gxf5 22. Ng3 f4 23. Ne4 Bxh3 24. gxh3 Qxh3 25. Neg5 Qg4+ 26. Kf1 h6 27. Ke2 hxg5 28. Rg1 Qd7 29. Nxg5 Nd4+ 30. Bxd4 exd4 31. Qd1 Qf5 32. Kf1 Re8 33. Qh5 Re5 34. Qh1 d5 35. Nf3 Re6 36. Rg5 Qf8 37. Rxd5 Qa8 38. Qh5 Rh6 39. Qf5 Rf6 40. Qe4 Qc8 41. Rh5 Rh6 42. Rxh6 Bxh6 43. Qg6+ Bg7 44. Ng5 c4 45. Qe6+ Qxe6 46. Nxe6 Be5 47. dxc4 bxc4 48. bxc4 Kf7 49. Ng5+ Ke7 50. Ke2 Bf6 51. Ne4 Be5 52. f3 Kd7 53. Kd3 Kc6 54. Nd2 Kc5 55. Nb3+ Kc6 56. Nxd4+ Kd7 57. Ke4 Bc7 58. Ne2 Kc6 59. Nxf4 1-0

When to keep thinking

The diagrammed position is from a book I recently acquired. It was used to demonstrate a point about calculation and thinking, and is White to play and ...
Of course if I told you the desired result that would make the problem far easier, but even now I've already given you a big clue. But this kind of illustrates the point I'm trying to make, in that we often don't know when to keep thinking.
If we know the problem to solve, we will try and find a solution. If we don't, we are often happier with a lesser one. And sometimes, just thinking about a problem, without knowing our goal, helps us recognise that a better solution may be obtainable.
It turns out the best line in this position isn't very long, but it might be hard to spot the key idea. Of course if the position just before the key move was required was presented it would be a far easier problem. So the solution does not so much hinge on the key move, but instead knowing one is required!

Hooray for the underdog

From the final round of the World Teams Championship comes the following game. On paper Vladimir Kramnik should have had no trouble beating Egyptian IM Mohamed Ezat, but as the game was not played on paper, it turned out quite different. Ezat, who is well known to Canberra players after playing in the 2000 Australian Open, even tried a speculative queen sacrifice out of the opening. It was a sacrifice in the true sense of the word, as he never recovered the queen, although he eventually ended up with enough material to more than make up for it. After a very long battle the game ended in a draw, which turned out to be significant for tournament standings, as it gave Russia the half point needed to secure outright first place (they beat Egypt 2.5-1.5).
Russia finished with 15 match points, one ahead of China, with Ukraine in third place.


Kramnik,Vladimir (2793) - Ezat,Mohamed (2454) [A14]
World Teams Antalya TUR (9.1), 05.12.2013

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O Be7 5. c4 O-O 6. b3 c5 7. Bb2 Nc6 8. e3 b6 9. Nc3 Bb7 10. cxd5 Nxd5 11. Nxd5 Qxd5 12. d4 Rad8 13. Ne5 Qxg2+ 14. Kxg2 Nxe5+ 15. f3 cxd4 16. exd4 Nc6 17. Rc1 Rd7 18. a3 Rfd8 19. Qe2 Bf6 20. b4 e5 21. d5 Rxd5 22. Rfd1 Nd4 23. Bxd4 exd4 24. Rc7 Bc8 25. Rxa7 d3 26. Qe4 Be6 27. a4 d2 28. Qe2 Rd4 29. Qe3 h6 30. a5 bxa5 31. bxa5 Rd3 32. Qe2 Bb3 33. Ra8 Bxd1 34. Qxd3 Rxa8 35. Qxd2 Rd8 36. Qe3 Ba4 37. a6 Bc6 38. a7 Ba8 39. Qf4 Bg5 40. Qb8 g6 41. Qe5 Rf8 42. h4 Bd8 43. h5 gxh5 44. Qxh5 Bg5 45. Kh3 Kg7 46. f4 Bf6 47. Qg4+ Kh8 48. Qf5 Kg7 49. g4 Rd8 50. Kg3 Re8 51. Qc5 Rd8 52. Qb5 Rc8 53. g5 hxg5 54. fxg5 Ba1 55. g6 Bf6 56. gxf7 Rc3+ 57. Kg4 Kxf7 58. Qd7+ Kf8 59. Kh5 Rc6 60. Qd2 Ke7 61. Qb4+ Kd7 62. Qb5 Be7 63. Qd5+ Bd6 64. Qg8 Rc8 65. Qf7+ Kc6 66. Qc4+ Kb7 67. Qb5+ Kc7 68. Qa5+ Kc6 69. Qa6+ Kd7 70. Kg5 Bc6 71. Qb6 Rf8 72. Kg6 Ra8 73. Kf6 Rf8+ 74. Kg7 Rc8 75. Kf6 Re8 76. Kf7 Bd5+ 77. Kg6 Re6+ 78. Kf5 Re5+ 79. Kf6 Re6+ 80. Kf5 Be4+ 81. Kg4 Rg6+ 82. Kh5 Rg8 83. Qb5+ Ke6 84. Qe2 Kf5 85. Qf2+ Ke6 86. Qe3 Kf5 87. Qh3+ Kf6 88. Qh4+ Kf5 89. Qh3+ Kf6 90. Qh4+ Ke5 1/2-1/2

Have tablets killed the computer chess market?

Chess Computers used to be quite the thing. The ability to have your own portable opponent was a big selling point for chess computers, ever since they hit the market in the early 1980's. Such was their popularity, they were usually the profit drivers for many chess businesses, especially as the target market was the casual player, rather than the serious, but parsimonious, regular chess competitor.
However the rise of the PC probably put a dent in the market, with software becoming more important than hardware. However there was still plenty of money to be made in writing a good chess playing program, and they still sold well.
But I suspect the rise of the tablet/smart phone has even wounded this market. All the advantages of a chess computer are now encompassed by portable devices, and the availability of cheap/free programs means that you don't have to look far for a testing opponent. Of course this is great for the consumer, but not so much for the developer. There are still a few dedicated products out there (eg the cheap 'touch chess computers' you can get from Dick Smith, or this piece of kit from Chess Baron), but unless they are competing on price with more general devices, I can't see them grabbing much of a market share.

A pretty (cheap) trap

I played a game this evening at the ANU Chess Club that was essentially decided by a pretty cheap trap. But having looked at it afterwards, even if White avoids the worst of it, Black still has enough for the pawn.
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.d3?! c6!? (This is the start of the trap) 4.Nf3 d5 5.exd5 cxd5 6.Nxe5? d4 (This is the idea behind 3. .. c6). In the game White went wrong straight away with 7.Ne2?? Qa5+ 8.Bd2 Qxe5 -+, but even after the best reply 7.Qe2 Be7 Black is still slightly better.
So while the win of the piece might be 'cheap', the line itself may have some merit. The only issue is that the position after White's third move would be so rare, that you might go some time before you get a chance to play it.

The earliest perpetual

Imagine you are looking for a quick draw (as is your opponent), but you are playing under the Sofia/Corsica/No agreed Draws before move X rules. From the starting position, what is quickest way to draw by perpetual check? (NB Both sides have to co-operate to get to the position, and if you did it in a real game, you would run the risk of a double default!)

Holding Rook v Rook+Bishop (or tl;dr)

Rook v Rook and Bishop is one of those endings which is almost always drawn in theory, but often lost in practice. I only had the ending once, on the defending side, and although I managed to hold out for 50 moves before getting mated, it was when FIDE had extended the '50 move rule' to 75 moves for this specific ending.

So it is often the case that the ending is reached, and the stronger side will play on, in the hope (or expectation) that the defender will slip up. And when they do, the game often appears in a magazine or blog with a comment about how hard it is to hold (or even worse, point out that there was a mate in 22, according to their tablebase).

So to balance the scales, I have picked a very recent game from the World Teams Championship. Lev Aronian captures Mamedov's last pawn on move 77, reaching RB v R. But Mamedov knows what to do and successfully holds out for the next 50 moves, before the draw is claimed. Although it is quite a long game, it might be worth playing through, if you want to pick up the correct defensive ideas.

Aronian,Levon (2801) - Mamedov,Rauf (2647) [E60]
World Teams 2013 Antalya TUR (5.4), 30.11.2013

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 c6 6. Nc3 d5 7. cxd5 cxd5 8. Ne5 Nc6 9. O-O Bf5 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. Na4 Nd7 12. Bg5 Re8 13. Rc1 Rc8 14. b3 Qa5 15. Bd2 Qd8 16. Bb4 e5 17. dxe5 Nxe5 18. Bc5 Qa5 19. Re1 Bh6 20. f4 Ng4 21. e3 Bg7 22. h3 Nf6 23. Bd4 Be4 24. Bf1 Nh5 25. Kf2 Nf6 26. Qe2 Nd7 27. Bxg7 Kxg7 28. Red1 Kg8 29. Qb2 g5 30. Nc3 gxf4 31. gxf4 Bg6 32. Re1 Qd8 33. Kg1 Qh4 34. Qf2 Qxf2+ 35. Kxf2 Nf6 36. Bg2 Be4 37. Bf1 Bf5 38. Red1 Re7 39. Bg2 Rce8 40. Re1 Re6 41. b4 Be4 42. Bf1 Bg6 43. a3 Kf8 44. Bg2 Be4 45. Bf1 Bg6 46. Rcd1 h5 47. Bg2 h4 48. b5 Rc8 49. Rc1 d4 50. exd4 Rxe1 51. Rxe1 cxb5 52. Nxb5 a6 53. Nd6 Rd8 54. f5 Rxd6 55. fxg6 Rxd4 56. gxf7 Kxf7 57. Re5 Ra4 58. Re3 Kg6 59. Bb7 Kg5 60. Ke2 Kf4 61. Re6 Rxa3 62. Rxf6+ Kg5 63. Rb6 Rxh3 64. Rxa6 Rb3 65. Bd5 Rc3 66. Ra4 Rc2+ 67. Kd3 Rc8 68. Be6 Rd8+ 69. Ke4 Rd1 70. Ra5+ Kf6 71. Bh3 Rh1 72. Ra3 Rg1 73. Kf4 Rg3 74. Ra6+ Kg7 75. Bg4 Kf7 76. Rh6 Ke7 77. Rxh4 Ra3 78. Rh6 Ra4+ 79. Kg5 Rd4 80. Re6+ Kd8 81. Rc6 Ke7 82. Bf5 Rd1 83. Kf4 Rd6 84. Rc3 Kf6 85. Rh3 Rd4+ 86. Be4 Ra4 87. Rh6+ Kg7 88. Rg6+ Kf8 89. Ke5 Ra7 90. Bd5 Re7+ 91. Kf5 Rg7 92. Rh6 Ke7 93. Be4 Kd8 94. Ra6 Rf7+ 95. Ke5 Re7+ 96. Kd4 Ke8 97. Rf6 Kd8 98. Bc6 Rg7 99. Re6 Rg5 100. Bd5 Rg7 101. Kc5 Re7 102. Rg6 Rc7+ 103. Bc6 Rf7 104. Re6 Re7 105. Rd6+ Kc7 106. Bd5 Rd7 107. Ra6 Kd8 108. Be6 Rc7+ 109. Kd5 Ke7 110. Ke5 Rc5+ 111. Bd5 Kd7 112. Rh6 Kc7 113. Rh7+ Kb6 114. Kd6 Rb5 115. Bc6 Rb4 116. Rh8 Rd4+ 117. Bd5 Rb4 118. Rc8 Ka7 119. Kc5 Rb5+ 120. Kc4 Rb8 121. Rc6 Rb7 122. Kc5 Kb8 123. Rh6 Rc7+ 124. Bc6 Re7 125. Kd6 Rg7 126. Rh8+ Ka7 127. Kc5 1/2-1/2