2015 World Cup - Nepomniachtchi dudded

Round 3 of the 2015 FIDE World Cup ended in controversy, after Hikaru Nakamura beat  Ian Nepomniachtchi in an 'Armageddon' game. Early in the game Nakamura castled with two hands, in direct contravention to Article 4.1 of the FIDE Laws of Chess. As the game was played in the presence of an arbiter, the first thing that should have happened was that the arbiter should have immediately intervened. Although the game was a blitz game (in terms of time), Article B.3 of the Laws of Chess specify that the game is played under Competition (ie standard) Rules, as it is being observed by an arbiter, and recorded by electronic means.
However the arbiter(s) did nothing and the game continued. After the game, which Nakamura won, Nepomniachtchi filed a protest which was handled by the appeals committee. The appeals committee allowed the result to stand, which only compounded the mistake made by the arbiter. The argument from the appeals committee was that Nepomniachtchi was at fault because he failed to stop the clock and inform the arbiter that an illegal move had occurred.
I have a couple of problems with this reasoning. Firstly, the job an arbiter does is not dependant upon the players playing the game. If you are tasked with ensuring the Laws of Chess are strictly observed (Article 12.1) then that's what you do. And this should have been the starting point for the Appeals Committee. Once it is established that the officials failed to do their job correctly, then the Appeals Committee should have at least ordered the game to be replayed (IMO). (Note: In at least two occasions where actions of the officials in contravention to the laws of chess have affected a games result, I have recommended the replay of the game).
The other issue is that FIDE itself have been pushing for a more interventionist role for arbiters. While a member of the FIDE Rules Commission (from 2008 to 2014), there was a clear directive from members of the FIDE Presidential Board that all competition chess should follow the same set of rules, wherever possible. This resulted in changes to the laws regarding blitz chess, where arbiters now *must* flag players, rather than leaving it up to players to notice. Personally I was opposed to these changes, but once a FIDE VP lobs into your meeting and tells you what the new rules will be, there is little room for argument.
So the notion pushed by the appeals committee that it was only up to the player to make sure the rules were enforced is somewhat contradictory. Of course, having been the subject of a disciplinary process by FIDE, having contradictory outcomes depending on the people involved is not unknown, so such inconsistencies  are not that surprising.
Small comfort for Nepomniachtchi, but at least he was refunded his $500 appeal bond.

2015 Lifeline Bookfair

That great Canberra tradition, the Lifeline Bookfair is on again this weekend, and once again provided me with an opportunity to pick up some second hand chess books. But unlike previous years, I was a little late to get going, as I was busy on Friday running a school chess event, rather than standing in a queue of 500 people waiting for the doors to open.
This gave other collectors first bite of the cherry, while I arrived a number of hours later to pick through the scraps. However, even with the delayed start there were quite a good collection of books there, although my choice was limited due to the fact that I already owned copies of most of them. To my own collection I added copies of Logical Chess Move by Move, New Traps in the Chess Opening (from 1964 mind you) and Learn Chess (to replace a missing copy). One new addition was Brilliance in Chess by Gerald Abrahams, which was a title I was previously unaware existed. Books I did not buy included Chess Praxis (there were even two copies on offer), Nigel Short's Chess Skills (which someone else pointed out is a very slim book), and Purdy's book on the Fischer v Spassky Match.
I'll intend to head back tomorrow afternoon for one final search, but I suspect that all that's left is what I have already seen. But at least the advantage of going at the end of the sale (as opposed to the start) is that everything left over is heavily discounted, so what I miss out in quality, I may make up in quantity.

Aussies and Kiwis in Malaysia

A number of Australian and New Zealand players have jetted off to Malaysia to take part in the 2015 Malaysian Chess Festival. The Festival has started with the Astro Merdeka Rapid Teams Championship, with a field of over 100 4 player teams (plus a heap more in the Under 12 section).
The two Australian teams are the Doubleroo team which includes IM Alex Wohl and IM Brodie McClymont (currently in 16th place), and the Klang Valley Koalas, with FM Lee Jones and Alana Chibnall (tied for 46th). The New Zealand team are the Klang Valley Kiwi's and they are also tied for 46th.
There are a further 6 rounds to play tomorrow, and then their is a blitz event in the evening. Following that is the Malaysian Open, which is a 9 round International swiss, with other events held alongside.
Information about the festival is at http://datchesscenter.com/ while you can check out the results from the rapidplay at chess-results.com

The Blackmar-Diemar kicks in

While I am not a fanatical Blackmar-Diemer Gambit player (no it isn't a forced win for White), I do enjoy playing it when I get the opportunity. I usually wheel it out as a response to the Scandinavian (1.e4 d5 2.d4!) as starting with 1.d4 gives Black more choices to play openings that I do not like.
The following game was played recently at chess.com, with a 3 day per move time limit. Aiming for the usual king side hack I was surprised to see my opponent exchange on f3, until he dropped 12. .. Bxh2+ on me. Luckily for me I could move my king, and resultant extra tempo was just enough to start the attack with 13. Bxf6. The key idea was to get the Queen to h6 (cutting off escape squares), and even though I gave up a piece he had to return it straight away. After that I won back all my material, chased the king across the board, and then ... took another 35 moves to win.
Of course if you are using this game as part of your BDM repertoire, I'd just look at the first  22 moves. After that it is bit more hodgepodge, although I did win queen for rook and then had great fun zigzagging my queen around the board.


shaunpress (2311) - Messi000 (2065)
Let's Play! Chess.com, 28.07.2015

2015 World Cup Round 2 - More thrills and spills

Today is playoff day for Round 2 of the 2015 World Cup and already another set of big names have been tipped out. After drawing both his regulation games Lev Aronian might have been hoping to win the rapid games, but Alexander Areshchenko had other ideas, winning 2-0 to advance to the third round. Nikita Vitiugov lost to Quang Liem Le, but Svidler, Nakamura and and Giri all went through after 2 playoff games.
There are a number of high profile players still to finish their playoff matches, including Michael Adams, Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk. As it stands they have another 2 games to play (minimum), and the closer they get to armageddon, the closer they get to going out.
Round three is where the heavyweights start to clash with the (if I have read the tables correctly), Svidler - Radjabov and Giri - Leko matches looking quite interesting.

2015 World Cup - RBvR

One of the more interesting games on the first day of round 2 of the 2015 World Cup involved the dreaded Rook+Bishop v Rook ending. It occurred in the game between Vladimir Kramnik and Lazaro Bruzon and ended in the way that a lot of games involving this ending do. Once the ending was reached on move 75, Bruzon (with the rook) defended and defended making sure he avoid any mating nets etc. Kramnik kept pushing and pushing, hoping for a slip from his opponent. Of course such defending is hard work (having done it once myself) and on move 115, Bruzon moved his king to the wrong square and resigned a couple of moves later. A real heartbreaker for Bruzon, who is now losing his second game to Kramnik as I type this.
In the other matches, David Navara has been knocked out by lower seeded Gadir Guseinov, Sethuraman has knocked out countryman Harikrishna, while Michael Adams and Sergey Karjakin have evened the score after losing yesterday.

Kramnik,Vladimir (2777) - Bruzon Batista,Lazaro (2659) [A14]
FIDE World Cup 2015 Baku AZE (2.6), 14.09.2015

2015 World Cup Round 2 - Day 1

Not sure if players are thinking ahead, or round 1 was a little tougher than expected, but there were a number of very quick draws in the first day of the Round 2 matches at the 2015 World Cup. With no 'Sofia' style rules in play, a number of players shook hands before the 2 hour mark, including Veselin Topalov, who is normally not noted for this behaviour.
Of the games that are still in progress, most are running in favour of the higher rated player, although Krjakin has lost to Onischuk in what is probably the biggest upset of the day. If you wish to follow the ongoing games, or just catch up with the results, the tournament site is here.
I'll probably begin to throw in some extra posts for this event, as not until I wake up in around 7 hours before I get an overall picture of what happened, and can select an interesting game or two to feature.