Carlsen gets hacked

Magnus Carlsen started the World Cup with 4 from 4, befitting his number 1 seeding. However the first game of the third round didn't go according to plan, as he got hacked by Xiangzhi Bu from China. Carlsen played the Bishops Opening, and Bu sensibly played the Black side like a Ruy Lopez. He even went as far as playing a Marshall Gambit type sacrifice, and after Carlsen accepted, went nuts on king side. Carlsen could have taken an immediate draw after the sacrifice on h3, but decided to play for a win instead. However this blew up in his face, not so much because of his position, but that he spent so much time working out what to do. As a result, he got into severe time trouble and played a couple of second best moves. Bu gave him one chance at the end, but after Carlsen missed it, the upset was on the scoreboard.
In other weird news, Anton Kovalyov (CAN) walked out of the tournament after getting into an argument with the organisers over his choice of attire. He had worn shorts for the first two rounds, but was told that this was unacceptable just before the third round was due to start.  He then exchanged words with tournament organiser Zurab Azmaiparashvili, was apparently called a 'gypsy', and then left. Normally he may have decided to appeal to the FIDE appointed appeals committee over Azmai's actions, but FIDE appointed Azmai as the chairman of the appeals committee, so that option seemed pointless. (As an aside, being on a FIDE appeals committee is a sweet gig, and is used as part of the FIDE reward and patronage system, so Azmai's appointment makes sense, but only from that point of view)


Carlsen,Magnus (2822) - Bu,Xiangzhi (2710) [C55]
FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi GEO (3.1), 09.09.2017

Maximum Haulage

The Canberra Lifeline Bookfair is on this weekend, and if you are looking for chess books, there are plenty to be had. I got in nice and early this morning (along with a few other collectors), and I'm pretty sure this year saw the biggest chess collection I can remember. There were a number of familiar titles, but there were also a few surprises. Someone donated quite a large number of Informators, including a No. 1, which I snapped up. Curiously there were a few books on the Laws of Chess, so I grabbed those as well, as they contained snapshots of the Laws for the years they were published.
Even the Board Games section had more than the usual amount of chess stuff, and I saw one shopper snap up every chess set she could fine. I found a Pavilion Talking Electronic Chess Computer for $8, adding to my growing collection of chess computers at home.
When I left there were plenty of books on the table, so you should be able to get something if you drop in over the weekend.

Today's Google Doodle

Today's Google Doodle commemorates Sir John Cornforth, who won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1975. Of course in the chess community he is was also known as a strong player, competing in the 1936 Australian Championship, as well as the first Australian Correspondence Chess Championship. Today is the 100th anniversary of his birth, and he passed away in 2013. Apart from an obituary I posted at the time, there was a very good article about his chess life written by Paul Dun in a recent issue of Australian Correspondence Chess Quarterly.

Know the Classics - Pirc Edition

The Pirc/Modern is often a system that aggressive players have some difficulty with. As Black's strategy is to sit back and wait till White over reaches, White can fall into the trap of playing too cautiously. If that happens, Black has already scored a small victory, as White is out of their comfort zone.
My personal preference is to take it head on, aiming for an early Bh6. Over the years there have been a number of crushing wins for White in this line, and they are worth studying. Probably the most famous was Kasparov's win over Topalov at Wijk aan Zee in 1999. Kasparov was not afraid to leave his queen out on h6, even after Topalov castled queenside, as he was busy getting his other pieces across to the queenside. Of course Kasparov's choice of opening in itself was not winning, as he needed to find 24. Rxd4!! but he did get a position where such an attack was possible.


Kasparov,Garry (2812) - Topalov,Veselin (2700) [B07]
Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee (4), 20.01.1999

The Perils of Prediction

At the time I was off to bed last night, I had chalked up a win for GM Alex Fier against higher rated GM Etienne Bacrot in the 2017 World Cup. When I awoke this morning, the win had turned into a draw. It was a lucky escape for Bacrot, and might explain why they drew so quickly in Game 2.
Meanwhile Australian IM Anton Smirnov continues to impress, holding GM Sergey Karjakin to another draw, and sending the match into tie breakers. At this stage there are already a few matches that will continue tomorrow, but like Smirnov, almost all of them are via the draw-draw path. Only Vladimir Fedoseev has bounced back from losing the first game to even the match, but I am sure there will be a few more as the round goes on. Of the tournament favourites, Svider, Giri and Nakamura are already through to the second round, while Number 1 seed Magnus Carlsen is still trying to overcome bottom seed FM Oluwafemi Balogun from Nigeria.

Draw for Smirnov

The first round of the 2017 FIDE World Cup is underway, and a few of the early results have come in. Significantly for Australia, IM Anton Smirnov has drawn his first game against GM Sergey Karjakin. The opening was a fairly sharp line of the QGD (with Bf4) but eventually simplified into a heavy piece ending that was drawn on move 30. The two players return to the board tomorrow, with Karjakin having the advantage of the white pieces.
Most of the other games to finish have ended in draws, with a few highly rated players (Ivanchuk, Radjubov) taking the peaceful route. So far there has only been one real upset, with Sambuev (CAN) cracking GM Yi Wei, but Alex Fier (BRA) is looking good against Bacrot (FRA) and that may also end in a win for the lower rated player.

Three Puzzles

Here are 3 puzzles to put your mind to, with 2 of them being related to chess, to some degree.

1. How many distinct ways can 6 knights be placed on a 4 by 4 chess board, so that no knight attacks another knight? (And by distinct, rotations don't count as a separate solution)
2. How many ways can N Queens be placed on a NxN chess board so that no queen attacks another queen? (NB There has been a flurry of reporting suggesting a solution to this problem will win you $1,000,000. In fact the prize is for solving the P v NP problem, of which this is just one example of an NP problem)
3. N students are playing a variant of 'Duck, Duck, Goose'. In this variant, Student 1 goes around the ring of players (which now excludes Student 1), announcing Duck N-1 times, and Goose the Nth time. Student 1 then sits out while the 'Goose' repeats the process. Who is the last student to be the Goose?