2009 O2C Doeberl Cup - Indian Team Playing

The All India Chess Federation is sending a 13 player team to this years O2C Doeberl Cup and Sydney International Open. The team consists of 6 men (2 GM's and 4 IM's) and 7 women (4 WGM's and 3 WFM's). Along with GM's Abhijit Kunte and Neelotpal Das, the Indian contingent is the biggest overseas entry for the event. (Details for all players at the Doeberl Cup website under 'Entries')
As of today the O2C Doeberl Premier has 7 GM's, 10 IM's, 4 WGM's, 3FM's and 3 WFM's. This is over 50% of the current entry of 50 players.Of course this make earning IM and GM norms far easier, as the tournament is now exempted from the 33% overseas players requirment for norms, as well as giving players more titled players to play against.
With the entries for the Premier reaching the 50 mark, there are only 30 places left in the 80 player field. Entries are on a first come first served basis, and if last year is a guide, there will be a rush to fill the remaining places (the entry list was full about 4 weeks out from last years event).
The other tournaments are also starting to fill up, with 110 players pre-registered 6 weeks out from the start of the event.

(**Usual disclaimer: I am a paid official at this event **)

Topalov wins 4.5-2.5

Veselin Topalov has won the World Chess Challenge over Gata Kamsky, following a dramatic game 7 of their match in Sofia, Bulgaria. Topalov's win gives him an insurmountable 4.5-2.5 lead, and sets up a match with World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

As in Game 5 Topalov opened with 1.e4 and Kamsky replied with the French Defence. Although it was another Tarrasch Variation, Topalov chose a variation where he had a 3:2 majority of pawns on the queenside, rather than inflict and isolated queen pawn on Kamsky. On move 16 Topalov chose to sacrifice his b pawn, and was rewarded with both activity, and extra chances as Kamsky once again ran short of time. However he almost threw it away by pursuing a policy of playing trying to play quickly in Kamsky's time trouble as on move 31 Kamsky could have reached a winning position with b4! Instead he played two poor moves in a row and suddenly Topalov was on top. Kamsky fought on, reaching the first time control (move 40) but by that stage he was down a rook. At move 45 he decided he'd seen enough, and he resigned the game and the match.

 

Linares 1983

Speaking of Linares, I came across a book covering the 1983 tournament. The book was written be renowned chess journalist Dimitrije Bjelica, and the tournament itself was won by former World Champion Boris Spassky (still listed as USSR on the crostable). Spassky finished on 6.5/10 (+3=7) and although 40% of the games were decisive (22 out of 55) this was mainly due to an out of form Bent Larsen who score 2 wins and 8 losses. Even fighting players like Tony Miles managed 7 draws from his 10 games.
Karpov and Andersson tied for second on 6, with the next 6 players on 5.5 or 5. The top 6 players only played 1 decisive game amongst each other, which was Karpov defeating Sax.
The following game was Spassky's first win of the event, and the final position deserves a diagram.

Timman,J (2605) - Spassky,B (2605) [C73]
Linares Linares, 1983

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.Bxc6+ bxc6 6.d4 exd4 7.Qxd4 c5 8.Qd3 g6 9.Nc3 Bg7 10.Bf4 Ne7 11.0-0-0 0-0 12.Qd2 Re8 13.Bh6 Bh8 14.h4 Rb8 15.a3 Be6 16.Ng5 Qc8 17.Nxe6 Qxe6 18.Kb1 Rb7 19.Ka1 Reb8 20.Rb1 Nc6 21.f4 Bd4 22.Qd3 a5 23.Qh3 f5 24.Rhe1 Nb4 25.axb4 axb4 26.Na4 Ra7 27.Qb3 c4 28.Qa2 Rba8 29.exf5 Rxa4(D) 0-1

Linares 2009

With the World Chess Challenge starting first, the annual Linares tournament kind of slipped under my radar. They have already reached round 5 (of 14 rounds) and Lev Aronian and Alexander Grischuk share the lead on 3.5. In terms of the 'action quotient' only 30% of the games have been decisive (6 out of 20), although there have been some quite hard fought draws.
Live coverage (plus various other links) can be found here.

Topalov hits back

Veselin Topalov has hit straight back in his match against Gata Kamsky in Sofia, Bulgaria. Kamsky won in game 4 to tie the match 2-2, but Topalov's win in game 5 now puts him a point ahead.
The first surprise of the game was that Topalov was White, rather than Kamsky, as I (and many others) had assumed. Apparently both players had agreed during earlier negotiation to keep a strict alternation of colour throughout out the match, rather than reversing the alternation at the half way point.
Topalov also sprung a minor surprise with his choice of 1.e4 and Kamsky replied with 1. .. e6. Topalov chose to play the Tarrasch variation and a typical Isolated Queen Pawn position was soon reached. Once again the middle game was all about the position manoeuvring that GM's seem to do effortlessly, (and the rest of us manage to screw up), but just before the first time control, Kamsky miscalculated and dropped the d pawn. Missing the toughest defence he dropped a second pawn, and Topalov won the subsequent queen ending.

Cheating accusations at Aeroflot Open

Chessvibes is reporting that 2009 Aeroflot Open top seed Shakhryiar Mamedyarov has withdrawn from the event following his round 7 loss to Igor Kurnosov. Mamedyarov had asked the Chief Arbiter Geurt Gijssen to watch his opponent during the game, as Kurnosov was leaving the board after every move. He then made an official protest at the conclusion of the game, and withdrew from the event after no action was taken.

Now whether the accusations are true or baseless is not for me to decide, but it does identify a challenge for organisers in the future. Not so much players cheating (although that is worry enough) but the accusations that players are cheating. Anyone who has been involved in junior chess is probably already familiar with this issue, where any behaviour out of the ordinary by parents, right down to smiling at their own child, is considered 'proof' that cheating is taking place. Contract Bridge historically had similar issues, where players had to remember to hold their cards the same way, make sure they placed their cigarettes in the same corner of the ash tray etc, lest they be accused of signaling their partner.
Some are suggesting the way to deal with this is by searching every player etc etc. Hopefully it will never have to come to this. Instead the solution may instead lie with the organisers control of the playing environment. Already players are already restricted in where they can go, and what they can do (eg not leave the board when it is their move) and adequate enforcement of these rules is enough to prevent most 'suspicious' behaviour. There may have to be a more stringent area that the players must remain inside of during the game, such as playing room, designated toilet, refreshment table and arbiters desk only.

Here is the game in question. It is worth noting that (a) it was played between players rated 2724 (Mamedyarov) and 2602 (Kurnosov) and (b) it was theory up till move 16.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nb6 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. Be3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. O-O-O f5 10. h4 fxe4 11. h5 gxh5 12. d5 Ne5 13. Bh6 Nec4 14. Qg5 Rf7 15. Bxc4 Nxc4 16. Rd4 Qd6N 17. Bxg7 Rxg7 18. Qxh5 Qf4+ 19. Kb1 Bf5 20. fxe4 Bg4 21. Nge2 Qd2 0-1

Kamsky levels match with win in Game 4

Gata Kamsky levelled the World Chess Challenge match with Veselin Topalov by defeating him in the 4th game of the match. The game began as a Ruy Lopez, but unlike Game 2, Topalov reverted to more familiar lines with 3. ... a6 (rather than 3. ... Nf6). After the usual Ruy manoeuvring, Kamsky sacrificed a pawn on move 26, which paid dividends as firstly he was able to develop on the queenside, and then he won back the sacrificed pawn, and then a second one just as the players reached the first time control. The loss of the pawn probably affected the rest of Topalov's game as he felt after the game that he could have defended the ending better.

The win by Kamsky was his first ever over Topalov, and sets up an exciting second half of the match. After the rest day, Kamsky has another White, as the order of colours is reversed at the halfway point to stop the same player (in this case Topalov) from having White after every rest day.

Additional coverage of the match can be found at the USChess where GM Ian Rogers is doing the reporting.