Having talked up David Smerdon's GM chances a couple of days ago, I'm pleased to report I haven't offended the woofing gods. Today at the Queenstown Classic he defeated Lithuanian GM Eduardis Rozentalis and is now in equal first on 6/7. The win also continues his harvest of rating points, and according to my back of the envelope calculations is only 20 points away from the magical 2500 rating barrier.
Also doing brilliantly is Canberra junior Andrew Brown. Proving that his round 1 win over GM Darryl Johansen was an indicator of things to come, he defeated New Zealand IM Paul Garbett today and is currently on 5/7. This gives him a performance rating of 2528, well in excess of the 2450 needed for an IM norm. Of course he needs to play another 2 (or 3) rounds but he is well placed for his first norm. His round 8 opponent is FM Geoff Saw (2257) which keeps the average rating of his opponents at a healthy 2350. Assuming my maths is correct these are the relevant scores and the required last round opponent he needs. If he scores 2/2 in the next 2 rounds his round 9 opponent needs only to show up (due to the 2100 uplift for IM norms). If he score 1.5/2 the same conditions apply. If he scores 1/2 then he needs a round 9 opponent with a rating above 2135. If scores 0.5/2 then he needs a 2540 opponent. So basically a win tomorrow would almost guarantee a norm, either through getting a highly rated opponent, or by only having to draw with a lower rated one in round 9.
Brown,A - Garbett,P [E16]
Queenstown Classic, 2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2 b6 5.g3 Bb7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 d5 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.b3 c5 10.e3 cxd4 11.exd4 Rc8 12.Bb2 Rc7 13.Rac1 Qa8 14.Ne5 dxc4 15.Bxb7 Qxb7 16.Nxd7 Nxd7 17.bxc4 Rfc8 18.Rfd1 Qa6 19.d5 exd5 20.Qf5 Bxd2 21.Rxd2 Nf8 22.Qe5 Ne6 23.Rxd5 Qa4 24.Rcd1 Qe8 25.Rd6 Re7 26.f4 f6 27.Qd5 Rc5 28.Qd3 Qg6 29.Qe2 Qf5 30.Re1 h5 31.Rxe6 Rxe6 32.Qxe6+ Qxe6 33.Rxe6 Rxc4 34.Re2 h4 35.Kg2 hxg3 36.hxg3 Kf7 37.Kf3 b5 38.g4 a5 39.a3 g6 40.g5 fxg5 41.fxg5 b4 42.axb4 axb4 43.Bf6 Rc7 44.Re3 Rb7 45.Rb3 Ke6 46.Ke4 Rh7 47.Kd4 Rh4+ 48.Kc5 Rh1 49.Rxb4 Rd1 50.Re4+ Kf5 51.Re5+ Kf4 52.Rd5 Rc1+ 53.Kd6 1-0
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Breathing life into the Moller
The Moller/Greco Attack was one of the earliest 'romantic' openings I discovered. White sacrifices a pawn in the opening, and then offers a rook which Black does well not to take. However in not taking the rook, White still had attacking chances, until Lajos Portisch came along and took the fun out of it with 13. ... h6!
Over the years there has been rumours that a new line has been found for White which makes the opening playable again, although the fact that no one seems to play the line consistently casts some doubt on these claims.
The book where I both discovered the opening (and learned about the refutation) was The Italian Game by Tim Harding and George Botterill. This was published in the mid 70's and in some variations theory has moved on a little. Ironically, one of the attempts to resurrect the Moller Attack was by Harding himself in a correspondence game played in the mid 1990's, which I discovered while cataloguing a set of his excellent Chess Mail magazine I had recently acquired. While the game ended in a draw, it is quite possible that White stood better in the final position, and until I discover anything played later, may make the line playable for White once more.
The key ideas occur from move 21 onwards, where White repositions his knight and aims for a mating attack (which also validates the original intent of the opening!).
Harding,T - Lindblom,P [C54]
Correspondence, 1994
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 Nxe4 8.0-0 Bxc3 9.d5 Bf6 10.Re1 Ne7 11.Rxe4 d6 12.Bg5 Bxg5 13.Nxg5 h6 14.Bb5+ Bd7 15.Qe2 Bxb5 16.Qxb5+ Qd7 17.Qxb7 0-0 18.Rae1 Ng6 19.Nf3 Rfb8 20.Qa6 Rxb2 (D)
21.Nd4 Ne5 22.h3 Qc8 23.Qa3 Qb7 24.Nf5 Kh7 25.Qg3 Rg8 26.Ne7 Re8 27.Nf5 ½-½
Over the years there has been rumours that a new line has been found for White which makes the opening playable again, although the fact that no one seems to play the line consistently casts some doubt on these claims.
The book where I both discovered the opening (and learned about the refutation) was The Italian Game by Tim Harding and George Botterill. This was published in the mid 70's and in some variations theory has moved on a little. Ironically, one of the attempts to resurrect the Moller Attack was by Harding himself in a correspondence game played in the mid 1990's, which I discovered while cataloguing a set of his excellent Chess Mail magazine I had recently acquired. While the game ended in a draw, it is quite possible that White stood better in the final position, and until I discover anything played later, may make the line playable for White once more.
The key ideas occur from move 21 onwards, where White repositions his knight and aims for a mating attack (which also validates the original intent of the opening!).
Harding,T - Lindblom,P [C54]
Correspondence, 1994
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 Nxe4 8.0-0 Bxc3 9.d5 Bf6 10.Re1 Ne7 11.Rxe4 d6 12.Bg5 Bxg5 13.Nxg5 h6 14.Bb5+ Bd7 15.Qe2 Bxb5 16.Qxb5+ Qd7 17.Qxb7 0-0 18.Rae1 Ng6 19.Nf3 Rfb8 20.Qa6 Rxb2 (D)
21.Nd4 Ne5 22.h3 Qc8 23.Qa3 Qb7 24.Nf5 Kh7 25.Qg3 Rg8 26.Ne7 Re8 27.Nf5 ½-½
Monday, 19 January 2009
It looks like a club game
Corus, the first super GM event for the year is underway, and already there have been some exciting games. One game that particularly interested me was Wang Yue v Vassily Ivanchuk in the 2nd round of the top section. It looked like Yue launched an attack out of the opening and went desperately close to winning, just falling short due to Ivanchuk's brilliant defence.
However in looking at it again (and seeing Mikhail Golubev's annotations in ChessToday), it actually looked more like a typical club game. Not in the quality of moves, which were still very good, but in the path that the game took. Basically Ivanchuk played a novelty on move 7, which Yue tried to exploit tactically. Yue then tried an unsound idea which simply lost material. He then threw everything into the attack, and it was Ivanchuk's turn to miss the best moves. However just as he got back into the game Yue played one bad move (20.O-O-O with check!), and got wiped out by Ivanchuk's counter attack.
This kind of game is typical in the club chess I witness, mainly because players are happy to plunge into complications, hoping that the end result will be favourable for them. Normally at the highest level 'hope' is replaced by some sort of certainty (otherwise GM's will normally avoid playing the line), so I'm not sure what either player was thinking in this case.
Wang Yue (2739) - Ivanchuk,V (2779) [D30]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (2), 18.01.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Bg5 dxc4 5.Qa4+ Nbd7 6.Nc3 a6 7.g3 b5 8.Nxb5 Rb8 9.Na7 Rb4 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Qa5 Bb7 12.Bh3 Qb8 13.Qh5 Ke7 14.d5 Qxa7 15.dxe6 fxe6(D)
16.Bxe6 Kxe6 17.Qe8+ Be7 18.Qxh8 Nf8 19.Qg8+ Kd7 20.0-0-0+ Ke8 21.Qg4 Qc5 22.a3 Rxb2 23.Kxb2 Qxa3+ 24.Kb1 Qb3+ 25.Ka1 c3 0-1
However in looking at it again (and seeing Mikhail Golubev's annotations in ChessToday), it actually looked more like a typical club game. Not in the quality of moves, which were still very good, but in the path that the game took. Basically Ivanchuk played a novelty on move 7, which Yue tried to exploit tactically. Yue then tried an unsound idea which simply lost material. He then threw everything into the attack, and it was Ivanchuk's turn to miss the best moves. However just as he got back into the game Yue played one bad move (20.O-O-O with check!), and got wiped out by Ivanchuk's counter attack.
This kind of game is typical in the club chess I witness, mainly because players are happy to plunge into complications, hoping that the end result will be favourable for them. Normally at the highest level 'hope' is replaced by some sort of certainty (otherwise GM's will normally avoid playing the line), so I'm not sure what either player was thinking in this case.
Wang Yue (2739) - Ivanchuk,V (2779) [D30]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (2), 18.01.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Bg5 dxc4 5.Qa4+ Nbd7 6.Nc3 a6 7.g3 b5 8.Nxb5 Rb8 9.Na7 Rb4 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Qa5 Bb7 12.Bh3 Qb8 13.Qh5 Ke7 14.d5 Qxa7 15.dxe6 fxe6(D)
16.Bxe6 Kxe6 17.Qe8+ Be7 18.Qxh8 Nf8 19.Qg8+ Kd7 20.0-0-0+ Ke8 21.Qg4 Qc5 22.a3 Rxb2 23.Kxb2 Qxa3+ 24.Kb1 Qb3+ 25.Ka1 c3 0-1
Sunday, 18 January 2009
David Smerdon closing in on GM Title
Canberra's Number 1 player IM David Smerdon is moving closer to his elusive Grandmaster title. David picked up his final GM norm in 2007, but still needs to get his rating above 2500 to be awarded the title. For the past 2 years he has been within 50 points of the target, but as yet hasn't quite bridged the gap.
However in the Queenstown Classic he has got off to an excellent start, lying in equal 3rd with 3.5/4. In todays round he drew with top seed GM Victor Mikhalevski while yesterday he caught Hong Kong No.1 WGM Anya Corke in an opening trap and won in 16 moves. Tomorrow he is paired against another GM, England Olympiad captain Peter Wells, and a win or draw for David will gain him more of the rating points he needs.
Leading the tournament are GM Gawain Jones and GM Eduardis Rozentalis who are the only players with 4 straight wins. However their top board clash will have to wait for another day, as Rozentalis is taking advantage of the generous tournament conditions and receiving a half point bye while he does some sight seeing.
However in the Queenstown Classic he has got off to an excellent start, lying in equal 3rd with 3.5/4. In todays round he drew with top seed GM Victor Mikhalevski while yesterday he caught Hong Kong No.1 WGM Anya Corke in an opening trap and won in 16 moves. Tomorrow he is paired against another GM, England Olympiad captain Peter Wells, and a win or draw for David will gain him more of the rating points he needs.
Leading the tournament are GM Gawain Jones and GM Eduardis Rozentalis who are the only players with 4 straight wins. However their top board clash will have to wait for another day, as Rozentalis is taking advantage of the generous tournament conditions and receiving a half point bye while he does some sight seeing.
Saturday, 17 January 2009
Online Databases (and being organised)
Are online databases worth it? For most of my chess career I've mainly used databases stored on my local machine. I'm pretty sure I had a copy of Chessbase version 1 a long time ago, and also copies of Nicbase and Tascbase. Now I (like almost everyone else) use Chessbase, although I do use Scid on my linux box.
However I recently took out a subscription to Chessgames.com. It wasn't expensive and in purely money terms is about a quarter of the cost of Chessbase, although that is on a per annum basis. I've also taken free subscriptions to a couple of other services, such as openingmaster.com. In a sense it's not the data I'm paying for (as with enough searching I can find petty much every important game ever played), but someone elses organisational skills.
And as if this isn't enough even Chessvibes.com have got in on the act, but in a different way. They are producing a weekly newsletter that covers opening developments of the past week! However they assume that the customer has access to the data, as the newsletter discusses what's new and hot in opening theory, but doesn't present the games themselves. But while it is tempting, I'm still tossing up whether my total expenses on these services is entirely warranted!
However I recently took out a subscription to Chessgames.com. It wasn't expensive and in purely money terms is about a quarter of the cost of Chessbase, although that is on a per annum basis. I've also taken free subscriptions to a couple of other services, such as openingmaster.com. In a sense it's not the data I'm paying for (as with enough searching I can find petty much every important game ever played), but someone elses organisational skills.
And as if this isn't enough even Chessvibes.com have got in on the act, but in a different way. They are producing a weekly newsletter that covers opening developments of the past week! However they assume that the customer has access to the data, as the newsletter discusses what's new and hot in opening theory, but doesn't present the games themselves. But while it is tempting, I'm still tossing up whether my total expenses on these services is entirely warranted!
Friday, 16 January 2009
European Open 1988
One of the small Canberra second-hand books shops I frequent is closing down. I feel partly responsible as although I was a frequent visitor, I rarely brought anything. It had a small collection of chess books (including copies of books I co-wrote), but I always felt they were over-priced.
But I did buy a book today, as the closing down sale has everything at half price. I would have brought more, except Henrik Mortensen (visiting from Denmark) cleaned out most of the better books just after Christmas!
The book I did get was of the 1988 European Open Chess Tournament. This event was slightly mis-named as although their was a large open swiss, the event was in fact headed by a 10 player Round-Robin. On the cover of the book is GM Ian Rogers, signifying the fact that he was a very convincing winner of this event. In a field that included Joel Lautier, Alexander Khalifman and John Nunn, Ian started with 5.5/6 and finished a full point in front with 6.5/9. Now my Dutch isn't that great (almost non-existent) but I think the book remarks that Ian was a late replacement for Jan Ehlvest, who I'm sure the rest of the field might have been happier playing!
Nunn,J (2620) - Rogers,I (2535) [C19]
Groningen Groningen, 1988
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Nf3 Qa5 8.Bd2 Nbc6 9.Be2 cxd4 10.cxd4 Qa4 11.Rb1 Nxd4 12.Bd3 Ndc6 13.0-0 Qxa3 14.Rb3 Qc5 15.Rb5 Qa3 16.Qb1 a6 17.Rb3 Qc5 18.Rc3 Qa7 19.Be3 Qb8 20.Qb6 Bd7 21.Rb3 Qd8 22.Qc5 Bc8 23.Qc3 h6 24.Bb6 Qd7 25.Re1 0-0 26.h3 f6 27.exf6 Rxf6 28.Rbb1 Qe8 29.Bc7 b5 30.Ne5 Bd7 31.Ng4 Rf7 32.Qd2 Nf5 33.Ne5 Nxe5 34.Bxe5 a5 35.f4 a4 36.Ba1 Qf8 37.Re5 Rc8 38.Rf1 Nd6 39.Qe2 Nc4 40.Rxe6 Bxe6 41.Qxe6 Qc5+ 42.Kh1 Qc6 43.Bf5 Ne3 0-1
But I did buy a book today, as the closing down sale has everything at half price. I would have brought more, except Henrik Mortensen (visiting from Denmark) cleaned out most of the better books just after Christmas!
The book I did get was of the 1988 European Open Chess Tournament. This event was slightly mis-named as although their was a large open swiss, the event was in fact headed by a 10 player Round-Robin. On the cover of the book is GM Ian Rogers, signifying the fact that he was a very convincing winner of this event. In a field that included Joel Lautier, Alexander Khalifman and John Nunn, Ian started with 5.5/6 and finished a full point in front with 6.5/9. Now my Dutch isn't that great (almost non-existent) but I think the book remarks that Ian was a late replacement for Jan Ehlvest, who I'm sure the rest of the field might have been happier playing!
Nunn,J (2620) - Rogers,I (2535) [C19]
Groningen Groningen, 1988
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Nf3 Qa5 8.Bd2 Nbc6 9.Be2 cxd4 10.cxd4 Qa4 11.Rb1 Nxd4 12.Bd3 Ndc6 13.0-0 Qxa3 14.Rb3 Qc5 15.Rb5 Qa3 16.Qb1 a6 17.Rb3 Qc5 18.Rc3 Qa7 19.Be3 Qb8 20.Qb6 Bd7 21.Rb3 Qd8 22.Qc5 Bc8 23.Qc3 h6 24.Bb6 Qd7 25.Re1 0-0 26.h3 f6 27.exf6 Rxf6 28.Rbb1 Qe8 29.Bc7 b5 30.Ne5 Bd7 31.Ng4 Rf7 32.Qd2 Nf5 33.Ne5 Nxe5 34.Bxe5 a5 35.f4 a4 36.Ba1 Qf8 37.Re5 Rc8 38.Rf1 Nd6 39.Qe2 Nc4 40.Rxe6 Bxe6 41.Qxe6 Qc5+ 42.Kh1 Qc6 43.Bf5 Ne3 0-1
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Queenstown Starts
The 2009 Queenstown Chess Classic started today in the New Zealand holiday resort of the same name. Organiser GM Murray Chandler has put together a fantastic tournament with $50,000(NZ) in prizes and a field that includes 9 Grandmasters.
There are a couple of good places for coverage of the event. The most obvious is the tournament website itself, which is carrying the top 3 boards live, as well as a webcam showing the top boards in action. The other place to go is the Closet Grandmasters blog, where he is once again providing live blogging during the round.
As with all big tournaments, the first round has very few upsets, meaning that when they happen, they tend to stand out more than in later rounds.In fact there were only 3 wins by lower rated opponents, and 2 drawn games. Significantly 2 of the upset wins, and one of the draws were by Canberra juniors. On board 10 Andrew Brown, fresh from his 3rd place in the Australian Junior, defeated GM Darryl Johansen, while further down Sherab Guo-Yuthok beat WGM Karolina Smokina of Moldova. Sherab's younger sister drew with the FM Peter Hohler from Switzerland, a set of results which caused TCG to exclaim "STAND UP ACT...STAND UP ACTJCL....STAND UP CANBERRA!!!" on his blog!
Here is the top board clash between GM Victor Mikhalevski and New Zealand Olympiad Captain Hilton Bennett. In part it demonstrates why DGT boards always come with an extra set of queens.
Mikhalevski,V - Bennett,H [E94]
Queenstown Classic Dortmund, 15.01.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 e5 7.0-0 Na6 8.Be3 Ng4 9.Bg5 Qe8 10.c5 exd4 11.Nd5 Qxe4 12.Ne7+ Kh8 13.Bc4 d3 14.Bd5 Qe2 15.cxd6 Nc5 16.dxc7 f6 17.Nxc8 fxg5 18.Nd6 Qe7(D)
19.c8Q Raxc8 20.Nxc8 Rxc8 21.b4 Rd8 22.bxc5 Rxd5 23.Rb1 Qc7 24.Qb3 Rd7 25.Qe6 Nf6 26.Rxb7 Qxb7 27.c6 Qb5 28.cxd7 Qxd7 29.Nxg5 Qxe6 30.Nxe6 Bh6 31.f4 Ne4 32.Rf3 d2 33.Rd3 Kg8 34.Rd7 g5 35.fxg5 Nxg5 36.Nxg5 Bxg5 37.Kf2 1-0
There are a couple of good places for coverage of the event. The most obvious is the tournament website itself, which is carrying the top 3 boards live, as well as a webcam showing the top boards in action. The other place to go is the Closet Grandmasters blog, where he is once again providing live blogging during the round.
As with all big tournaments, the first round has very few upsets, meaning that when they happen, they tend to stand out more than in later rounds.In fact there were only 3 wins by lower rated opponents, and 2 drawn games. Significantly 2 of the upset wins, and one of the draws were by Canberra juniors. On board 10 Andrew Brown, fresh from his 3rd place in the Australian Junior, defeated GM Darryl Johansen, while further down Sherab Guo-Yuthok beat WGM Karolina Smokina of Moldova. Sherab's younger sister drew with the FM Peter Hohler from Switzerland, a set of results which caused TCG to exclaim "STAND UP ACT...STAND UP ACTJCL....STAND UP CANBERRA!!!" on his blog!
Here is the top board clash between GM Victor Mikhalevski and New Zealand Olympiad Captain Hilton Bennett. In part it demonstrates why DGT boards always come with an extra set of queens.
Mikhalevski,V - Bennett,H [E94]
Queenstown Classic Dortmund, 15.01.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 e5 7.0-0 Na6 8.Be3 Ng4 9.Bg5 Qe8 10.c5 exd4 11.Nd5 Qxe4 12.Ne7+ Kh8 13.Bc4 d3 14.Bd5 Qe2 15.cxd6 Nc5 16.dxc7 f6 17.Nxc8 fxg5 18.Nd6 Qe7(D)
19.c8Q Raxc8 20.Nxc8 Rxc8 21.b4 Rd8 22.bxc5 Rxd5 23.Rb1 Qc7 24.Qb3 Rd7 25.Qe6 Nf6 26.Rxb7 Qxb7 27.c6 Qb5 28.cxd7 Qxd7 29.Nxg5 Qxe6 30.Nxe6 Bh6 31.f4 Ne4 32.Rf3 d2 33.Rd3 Kg8 34.Rd7 g5 35.fxg5 Nxg5 36.Nxg5 Bxg5 37.Kf2 1-0
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