Anand wins World Championship Title

By ageeing to a last round draw with Peter Leko, Viswanathan Anand has become World Champion for the second time. In the end he finished a full point ahead former champion Vladimir Kramnik and tournament surprise Boris Gelfand. Full results from chessmexico, as well as FIDE's coverage of the event.
In the end both this tournament, and the San Luis championship event have demonstrated that a title tournament consisting of the worlds best players does attract and hold the interest of the chess community, as well as attracting sponsorship. But as a way of determining the World Champion I still think a match between the reigning champion and a Candidates Tournament winner is still the way to go.
And in a strange way so does FIDE. Even though Anand is the World Champion he still must play a match against Kramnik next year. According to FIDE regulations the match is over 12 games and will be held between May-Spetember 2008. There is also mention of a match between Topalov and the winner of the FIDE World Cup knockout, with the winner of this match playing the winner of Anand-Kramnik.
Of course this could all change (if it hasn't already!) as the rules seem to be merely a guideline to how things happen, easily replaced when a new suggestion comes along.
To this end I'd like to make an old suggestion. As if by accident FIDE have almost arranged all the events to return to the old style world championship cycle. My suggestion is a 3 (or 2) year cycle starting with Zonals (and Continental Championships) which qualify players to the FIDE World Cup (the equivalent of the old Inter-Zonals). The top players of this event qualify for the next World Championship Tournament, although this event returns to it's role as the Candidates tournament of old. The winner of this event then plays the World Champion in a match to determine the title.
But most importantly, once this structure is in place, don't change it! This way sponsors and players know in advance whether the event they are playing in counts for something, rather than the uncertainly that often surrounds FIDE events.

Hip-Hop Chess Fights Back

My first real exposure to blogs was via political blogs such as Atrios and Crooks and Liars. These blogs do an excellent job of covering US politics, as well as dispelling any notion that the intelligence of most Americans is only represented by the hosts on Fox News.
And speaking of Fox News hosts, Bill O'Reilly (think Alan Jones with a TV show) is in trouble for indulging in what some call "soft" racism. After a visit to a restaurant in Harlem, New York, O'Reilly commented that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship."
Full coverage of his remarks is available at mediamatters.org, but to be fair to O'Reilly he did claim that by publishing his comments in full, mediamatters were "quoting him out of context".

Well the Hip-Hop Chess Federation have joined the debate, sending an open letter to O'Reilly, inviting him to their next chess tournament. You can read the letter here. I would be surprised if O'Reilly takes up the offer but if he does I'll keep you posted.

It's all happening at the MCG

The Mexican Chess Games that is. A few days ago it seemed that Anand was the guaranteed winner of the World Championship tournament, holding a 1.5 lead with 3 rounds to go. But Boris Gelfand closed the gap to 1 point after a crushing win over Aronian in Round 12 (Anand drew) and as I write this Anand is trying to hold a Rook and Pawn ending a pawn down against Grischuk. If Anand loses then he only leads by 0.5 over Gelfand with 1 round to play.
After the relative snoozefest in the early part of the tournament the last few rounds have seen a lot more action. Due to a relatively favourable timezone, chess fans in eastern Australia can usually catch an hour or so of the games before having to go to work/school etc.

Aronian,L (2750) - Gelfand,B (2733) [D43]
WCh Mexico City MEX (12), 27.09.2007

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e3 Nd7 8.Bd3 dxc4 9.Bxc4 g6 10.0-0 Bg7 11.Rc1 0-0 12.Ne4 Qe7 13.Bb3 Rd8 14.Qc2 e5 15.Rfe1 Kh8 16.g4!? A gold star for bravery! Usually the follow up to such a plan is Kh1-Rg1 with a kingside attack. Aronian never gets around to it. 16...Rf8 17.g5 f5 18.gxf6 Bxf6 19.Kg2 Bg7 20.h4 Nb6! 21.dxe5(D)
21. ... Bg4 [ 21...Rxf3! was the move suggested by most computer programs (Rybka, Fritz etc) 22.Kxf3 Bf5 23.Kg2 Qxh4! 24.f4 and if Black can then find 24...Nd7! he has a decisive advantage.] 22.Ned2 Nd7! 23.e6 Ne5 24.Nh2 [ 24.Nxe5 Rxf2+!! 25.Kxf2 Qxh4+ 26.Kg2 Bxe5 wins] 24...Qxh4 25.f4 Bf5 26.Ne4 Qh3+ 27.Kg1 Nf3+ Although he had a choice of wins Gelfand decides to liquidate into a simpler position. 28.Nxf3 Qxf3 29.Ng5 hxg5 30.Qh2+ Qh5 31.Qxh5+ gxh5 32.e7 Rfe8 33.Rc5 Bg4 34.Rxg5 Rxe7 35.Kg2 Bf6 36.Rg6 Rf8 37.e4 Bf5 38.Rh6+ Kg7 39.Rxh5 Bxe4+ 40.Kh2 Bd5 0-1

Chess Prodigy - Evil Genius

I watched the latest James Bond film last night (Casino Royale) and I noted that when providing the background on the bad guy (Le Chiffre) one of his attributes was "Chess Prodigy". Having seen this device used a couple of times ("Knight Moves" and an awful action novel called "Grandmaster") I'm wondering if there are any real life examples?

btw Vesper is the worst Bond girl ever

Hacking the French

Looking through the games from the Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Open I came across this effort by Moulthun Ly. It seems a sensible method of meeting the French, using the straightforward idea of checkmating Black. Of course if Black had found 20 ... f5 instead of 20. ... Qc3?? then Moulthun had some more work today (eg 21.g4) but in a practical sense, pressure moves do cause your opponents to blunder.

Ly,M (2295) - Fraser-Mitchell,J (2097) [C05]
Monarch Assurance Isle of Man (4.33), 25.09.2007

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ndf3 Qa5 8.a3 Be7 9.Rb1 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 cxd4 11.b4 Qc7 12.cxd4 Nb6 13.Nf3 Bd7 14.Bd3 Ba4 15.Qe2 Rc8 16.0-0 0-0 17.f5 Bc2 18.f6 gxf6 19.Bh6 Bxb1 20.Bxb1 (D)
20. ... Qc3 21.Qf2 Kh8 22.Qh4 Rg8 23.exf6 1-0

A little (chess) humour

The website www.xkcd.com describes it self as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." It also occasionally strays into the area of chess. Here a couple of links to some chess related cartoons.

Chess Enlightenment
Chess Photo

I would have liked to have seen the second cartoon "before" I went to DisneyLand as I would have come back with some real interesting photos.

Note: Although the cartoons are "worksafe" the site does contain the following

Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).

Auckland and Port Erin

Two other international events that may interest followers of Australian Chess.
The George Trundle NZ Masters is underway in Auckland with GM Darryl Johansen, IM Stephen Solomon and FM Tim Reilly taking part.
The Monarch Assurance Isle of Man International is also underway with IM David Smerdon, FM Manuel Weeks and Moulthun Ly entered.
Click on the highlighted links above for current standings etc