Over at the 'Susan Polgar Chess Daily News' blog there is a story about a player who left the board, and when he returned found it had been packed away. To his displeasure he also found that the game had been awarded to his opponent. If you wish to read the whole story (and as a bonus get an insight into current US chess politics) click here.
I've actually seen this happen in a previous Doeberl Cup, in a game involving Lloyd Fell (IIRC). In this case it was during the last round, when the organisers were beginning to pack equipment away. The usual practice was to wait until a game had finished and then pack up. In the game in question it seems both players were away from the board (both I suspect having moved and gone for a toilet break), and an overly zealous helper swooped on the abandoned chess set. In this case neither player was defaulted, and the position and times were reset according to the players score sheets and memories, and the game reached a more sensible conclusion.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Monday, 6 July 2009
Early Rook Moves
In most chess openings it is normally the rooks that are the last to move (castling excepted). Sometimes the kingside rook gets into action early, but the queens rook is usually the last guy to join the party.
There are plenty of sensible reasons why this is so, but here is a warning if you try and buck the trend. In the 1953 Candidates tournament, Paul Keres plays Rb8 as early as move 5, in an attempt to counter David Bronstein's Closed Sicilian. However this rebounds pretty quickly as the rook proves to be misplaced, and Bronstein gathers the point (although it takes it 58 moves).
Bronstein,D - Keres,P [B25]
Candidats Tournament Zuerich (12), 19.09.1953
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.d3 Nc6 5.Bg2 Rb8 (D)
6.f4 d6 7.Nf3 e6 8.0-0 Nge7 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 Nxe5 11.Bf4 Nxf3+ 12.Qxf3 Ra8 13.Be3 0-0 14.Bxc5 Bd4+ 15.Bxd4 Qxd4+ 16.Kh1 Rb8 17.Ne4 f5 18.Qf4 Bd7 19.c3 Qb6 20.Nf6+ Rxf6 21.Qxb8+ Bc8 22.d4 Rf8 23.Rf2 Nc6 24.Qf4 Bd7 25.Re1 Nd8 26.d5 Nf7 27.dxe6 Bxe6 28.b3 Bd7 29.Qd4 Bc6 30.Qxb6 axb6 31.Bxc6 bxc6 32.Re6 Rc8 33.Rfe2 Kf8 34.h4 b5 35.a4 bxa4 36.bxa4 Ra8 37.Rxc6 Rxa4 38.Rc7 Ra6 39.Rb2 h6 40.c4 f4 41.c5 f3 42.Kg1 Ra8 43.Rcb7 Ra1+ 44.Rb1 Ra6 45.Rd7 Ra8 46.Re1 Ra2 47.Re3 Ra1+ 48.Kf2 Ra2+ 49.Kxf3 Rc2 50.Rc7 h5 51.Ke4 Nh6 52.Ra3 Re2+ 53.Kf4 Re8 54.Rh7 Kg8 55.Rxh6 Kg7 56.c6 Kxh6 57.Rc3 g5+ 58.hxg5+ 1-0
There are plenty of sensible reasons why this is so, but here is a warning if you try and buck the trend. In the 1953 Candidates tournament, Paul Keres plays Rb8 as early as move 5, in an attempt to counter David Bronstein's Closed Sicilian. However this rebounds pretty quickly as the rook proves to be misplaced, and Bronstein gathers the point (although it takes it 58 moves).
Bronstein,D - Keres,P [B25]
Candidats Tournament Zuerich (12), 19.09.1953
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.d3 Nc6 5.Bg2 Rb8 (D)
6.f4 d6 7.Nf3 e6 8.0-0 Nge7 9.e5 dxe5 10.fxe5 Nxe5 11.Bf4 Nxf3+ 12.Qxf3 Ra8 13.Be3 0-0 14.Bxc5 Bd4+ 15.Bxd4 Qxd4+ 16.Kh1 Rb8 17.Ne4 f5 18.Qf4 Bd7 19.c3 Qb6 20.Nf6+ Rxf6 21.Qxb8+ Bc8 22.d4 Rf8 23.Rf2 Nc6 24.Qf4 Bd7 25.Re1 Nd8 26.d5 Nf7 27.dxe6 Bxe6 28.b3 Bd7 29.Qd4 Bc6 30.Qxb6 axb6 31.Bxc6 bxc6 32.Re6 Rc8 33.Rfe2 Kf8 34.h4 b5 35.a4 bxa4 36.bxa4 Ra8 37.Rxc6 Rxa4 38.Rc7 Ra6 39.Rb2 h6 40.c4 f4 41.c5 f3 42.Kg1 Ra8 43.Rcb7 Ra1+ 44.Rb1 Ra6 45.Rd7 Ra8 46.Re1 Ra2 47.Re3 Ra1+ 48.Kf2 Ra2+ 49.Kxf3 Rc2 50.Rc7 h5 51.Ke4 Nh6 52.Ra3 Re2+ 53.Kf4 Re8 54.Rh7 Kg8 55.Rxh6 Kg7 56.c6 Kxh6 57.Rc3 g5+ 58.hxg5+ 1-0
Sunday, 5 July 2009
2009 South African Open
In future years the 2009 South African Open might be spoken of in the same sentence as the 1965 Capablanca Memorial. In that event, Bobby Fischer played the event via telegraph, after being refused permission to travel to Cuba. Despite the handicap of the lengthened playing session, and not being able to see his opponents, he still finished second.
While South Africa in 2009 doesn't present the same difficulties for players wishing the travel there, there are 3 players taking part in the 2009 South African Open, who are half a world away. GM Gawain Jones (Eng), IM Mirko Rujevic (Aus) and IM Puchen Wang (Nzl) are playing in this event from Melbourne, Australia. Of course technology has progressed from the telegraph age (with the internet being used to transmit the moves), but I suppose the some difficulties arise. Instead of tranmission time, it is now session times, with some rounds starting at 2:30am Melbourne time. Not only does this make it difficult for the players, it also requires the supervising arbiter IA Gary Bekker to forgoe his sleep. However they all have seemed to cope so far with the 3 of them starting the event with 4/4.
Live games can be found at http://www.chesscube.com while the tournament results can be found at the link at the top of this post.
While South Africa in 2009 doesn't present the same difficulties for players wishing the travel there, there are 3 players taking part in the 2009 South African Open, who are half a world away. GM Gawain Jones (Eng), IM Mirko Rujevic (Aus) and IM Puchen Wang (Nzl) are playing in this event from Melbourne, Australia. Of course technology has progressed from the telegraph age (with the internet being used to transmit the moves), but I suppose the some difficulties arise. Instead of tranmission time, it is now session times, with some rounds starting at 2:30am Melbourne time. Not only does this make it difficult for the players, it also requires the supervising arbiter IA Gary Bekker to forgoe his sleep. However they all have seemed to cope so far with the 3 of them starting the event with 4/4.
Live games can be found at http://www.chesscube.com while the tournament results can be found at the link at the top of this post.
Saturday, 4 July 2009
The PNG 1-2
Todays edition of Street Chess saw 75% of the current PNG Olympiad team in action. FM Rupert Jones has spent an extra week in Canberra after the completion of the Zonal on the Gold Coast, and joined myself and Craig Skehan in the 19 player field.
We were a little fortunate that players like David Smerdon and Endre Ambrus were otherwise engaged, but still we managed to do PNG chess proud. Enjoying the rare opportunity to play Street Chess from round 1 (I'm normally chess coaching until midday on Saturdays), I started with 6 wins before drawing my final game. Rupert Jones had a slower start but managed to take equal second place on 5/7 with a final round draw.
Now if you connect the dots (my last round draw, Rupert's last round draw) you will have guessed it was against each other. It ended in a quick perpetual, but don't try and use this in any of your own games as a way of circumventing any 'no agreed draws in under 175 moves' stipulations as after Black played 7. ... g6 (instead of 7. ... d5) White is just winning.
Press, S v Jones, R
Street Chess, Canberra 2009
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nxc3 5.dxc3 Be7 6.Nxe5 O-O 7.Qh5 g6 8.Nxg6 hxg6 9.Qxg6+ Kh8 10.Qh6+ Kg8 11.Qg6+ 1/2
We were a little fortunate that players like David Smerdon and Endre Ambrus were otherwise engaged, but still we managed to do PNG chess proud. Enjoying the rare opportunity to play Street Chess from round 1 (I'm normally chess coaching until midday on Saturdays), I started with 6 wins before drawing my final game. Rupert Jones had a slower start but managed to take equal second place on 5/7 with a final round draw.
Now if you connect the dots (my last round draw, Rupert's last round draw) you will have guessed it was against each other. It ended in a quick perpetual, but don't try and use this in any of your own games as a way of circumventing any 'no agreed draws in under 175 moves' stipulations as after Black played 7. ... g6 (instead of 7. ... d5) White is just winning.
Press, S v Jones, R
Street Chess, Canberra 2009
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nxc3 5.dxc3 Be7 6.Nxe5 O-O 7.Qh5 g6 8.Nxg6 hxg6 9.Qxg6+ Kh8 10.Qh6+ Kg8 11.Qg6+ 1/2
Friday, 3 July 2009
New Rules in Force
The updated FIDE Laws of Chess that were agreed upon at the Dresden Olympiad came into force on the 1st July 2009. On Chessvibes the Chairman of the Rules and Tournament Regulation Committee Geurt Gijssen discusses what the changes mean.
Unfortunately, at the time of this post, FIDE haven't updated their own website, so the rules from 1 July 2005 are the ones still shown. If you are interested in my take on the process involved changing the rules, you can read my report of the RTRC meeting here.
Reading the chessvibes article I was nonetheless surprised with the claim that the rules for Chess960 were included in the appendices. I have no way of confirming this (given the FIDE website showing the old rules) but I am certain that the RTRC did not add the rules for Chess960 to the FIDE Laws of Chess, and indeed explicitly decided to hold it over for a future discussion. So I have no idea how the rules have made it into the final version (if indeed they are there at all).
The final thing to note, that as the new rules have come into effect, the whole process of deciding on the rules in 2012 has now started. So if you think that there are some silly rules that need changing (and I can think of a few), you can begin to make you suggestions to the FIDE RTRC.
Unfortunately, at the time of this post, FIDE haven't updated their own website, so the rules from 1 July 2005 are the ones still shown. If you are interested in my take on the process involved changing the rules, you can read my report of the RTRC meeting here.
Reading the chessvibes article I was nonetheless surprised with the claim that the rules for Chess960 were included in the appendices. I have no way of confirming this (given the FIDE website showing the old rules) but I am certain that the RTRC did not add the rules for Chess960 to the FIDE Laws of Chess, and indeed explicitly decided to hold it over for a future discussion. So I have no idea how the rules have made it into the final version (if indeed they are there at all).
The final thing to note, that as the new rules have come into effect, the whole process of deciding on the rules in 2012 has now started. So if you think that there are some silly rules that need changing (and I can think of a few), you can begin to make you suggestions to the FIDE RTRC.
Thursday, 2 July 2009
More pawn ending fun
After blundering in my last K+P ending (as shown here), I decided to have a look at some other K+P positions, if only to reacquaint myself with some of the standard endgame ideas (or tricks!). I came across the given position, which is a study by Troitzky. It is white to play and win, and without giving too much away, it shows that a lone king can hold back 3 connected (but unassisted) passed pawns.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
A 20 year quest
I have a policy when meeting junior players for the first time. I try to beat them as heavily as possible. Not because I am a cruel person, but because I know that they will one day become much stronger players and I want to retain some sort of advantage over them when they do. (A testament to this policy is that I have a 5-0 score against an Australian WIM, although to be fair, we haven't played since she was a teenager).
And if you can string together a couple of wins, every time you sit down against a promising young talent, the losing streak surely plays on their mind.
But it is possible to overcome such a psychological block. Lee Forace has been playing chess for near on 20 years (I can remember coaching him when he was still in primary school!). And for 20 years he has never beaten Milan Grcic. That is until last Monday night, when he inflicted the following defeat on him. (Of course Grcic didn't go down easily, dragging the game out until the almost the bitter end)
Forace,L - Grcic,M [B15]
Brindabella Snows, 29.06.2009
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.f3 e5 5.d5 Bb4 6.Bc4 exf3 7.Nxf3 Nf6 8.0-0 Bg4 9.Qe1 e4 10.Ne5 0-0 11.Bg5 Qb6+ 12.Kh1 Nbd7 13.Bxf6 Nxf6 14.Rxf6 gxf6 15.Nxg4 f5 16.Nf6+ Kg7 17.Qh4 h6 18.Nh5+ Kh7 19.Qf6 Rg8 20.Qxf7+ Kh8 21.Qf6+ Kh7 22.Qxf5+ Kh8 23.Qe5+ Kh7 24.Qxe4+ Rg6 25.Nf4 Rag8 26.Bd3 Bxc3 27.bxc3 cxd5 28.Qe7+ Kh8 29.Nxg6+ Rxg6 30.Bxg6 Qxg6 31.Re1 Qf5 32.Qe5+ 1-0
And if you can string together a couple of wins, every time you sit down against a promising young talent, the losing streak surely plays on their mind.
But it is possible to overcome such a psychological block. Lee Forace has been playing chess for near on 20 years (I can remember coaching him when he was still in primary school!). And for 20 years he has never beaten Milan Grcic. That is until last Monday night, when he inflicted the following defeat on him. (Of course Grcic didn't go down easily, dragging the game out until the almost the bitter end)
Forace,L - Grcic,M [B15]
Brindabella Snows, 29.06.2009
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.f3 e5 5.d5 Bb4 6.Bc4 exf3 7.Nxf3 Nf6 8.0-0 Bg4 9.Qe1 e4 10.Ne5 0-0 11.Bg5 Qb6+ 12.Kh1 Nbd7 13.Bxf6 Nxf6 14.Rxf6 gxf6 15.Nxg4 f5 16.Nf6+ Kg7 17.Qh4 h6 18.Nh5+ Kh7 19.Qf6 Rg8 20.Qxf7+ Kh8 21.Qf6+ Kh7 22.Qxf5+ Kh8 23.Qe5+ Kh7 24.Qxe4+ Rg6 25.Nf4 Rag8 26.Bd3 Bxc3 27.bxc3 cxd5 28.Qe7+ Kh8 29.Nxg6+ Rxg6 30.Bxg6 Qxg6 31.Re1 Qf5 32.Qe5+ 1-0
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