Fabiano Caruana reaches world No4 ranking and closes in on Vlad Kramnik

Fabiano Caruana, 21, jumped to No 4 in the world rankings this week as the young Italian's reputation continues to grow as a serious contender for the world crown. In July Caruana briefly hit the magic 2800 level, only the eighth player in chess history to do so, then dropped back.

But on Wednesday he scooped first prize at the elite Kings event in Romania, and is now only fractionally behind Vlad Kramnik, the established No 3, who dropped points in the Russian championship.

Caruana's rapid advance has sparked new backers for top chess in western Europe. As an Italian citizen with dual US nationality, living in Switzerland and with a Belgian coach, he is a natural marketing symbol for central Europe, as a likely future rival for Norway's world No1, Magnus Carlsen, whose fan base and sponsors are centered in Scandinavia.

Early next year Zurich will stage a super-elite tournament where Caruana will take on Carlsen, the world No2, Levon Aronian, the current world champion, Vishy Anand, and the US No1, Hikaru Nakamura, plus Israel's Boris Gelfand. Such a high-class field echoes the famous Avro 1938 event where all the players were world champions or candidates.

Caruana's personality contrasts with the laid back Carlsen, who placed fifth on Cosmopolitan's 2013 sexiest men list and who skis and plays footballand basketball. The introverted and bespectacled Caruana is dedicated to his chess career and has an ambitious and single-minded approach reminiscent of Mikhail Botvinnik, the first Soviet world champion. His geekish image is deceptive as he plays more events than any other top 10 grandmaster, which implies a high fitness level.

His style is more classical and geared to prepared openings than Carlsen, who thrives on messy unclear positions and marathon endgames.

Psychologically, he is vulnerable at the end of tournaments, twice tamely agreeing draws with tail-enders when the situation called for a bold approach. On Tuesday this week, poised for a 2800 rating, No2 or No3 in the rankings, and an unbeaten first prize in Romania, he blew a winning position in time pressure against China's Wang Hao. Still, at 21 such weaknesses can be cured.

Below, the game swung Caruana's way when 16…f5? (Bd6!) gave Black an isolated b6 pawn which soon fell. Black tried for an attack on the king but the cool 25 Bb2! prepared a decisive queen's side push and provoked an unsound rook sacrifice. Black could not escape by 29…Bxf3+ 30 Raxf3 Qxe2 31 Bxb8 with a piece ahead, while at the end White will meet Qxf2+ by 31 Qg2 and everything is guarded.

Fabiano Caruana v Teimur Radjabov

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 e6 4 O-O Nge7 5 d4 cxd4 6 Nxd4 Ng6 7 Be3 Be7 8 Be2 O-O 9 c4 Nxd4 10 Qxd4 Bf6 11 Qd2 b6 12 Nc3 Bb7 13 f3 Qe714 a4 Rad8 15 Ra3 Be5 16 a5 f5? 17 axb6 axb6 18 exf5 Rxf5 19 Bd3 Rh5 20 h3 Bb8 21 Bxg6 hxg6 22 Bxb6 Rf8 23 Ne2 Rh4 24 Qd3 Kh7 25Bf2! Rxh3? 26 gxh3 Qg5+ 27 Kh1 Rxf3 28 Qxf3 Qe5 29 Bg3 Qxe2 30Qxb7 1-0

• Leonard Barden
• The Guardian, Friday 18 October 2013 22.55 BST

Kasparov Faces Obstacles to Leading Chess Federation

Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who retired in 2005, is preparing to re-enter the chess arena, and his next opponent may be the most formidable, and strangest, he has faced.

Mr. Kasparov, 50, announced recently that he would run for the presidency of the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, and try to unseat Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who has led the federation since 1995. The election will be held during the Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, next August.

Mr. Kasparov would seem to have a number of advantages. He is charismatic, famous in the chess world and beyond it, and in frequent demand as a public speaker. Since he retired from competition, he has also been a political gadfly in Russia, a leader of opposition political groups and an outspoken critic of President Vladimir V. Putin.

By contrast, Mr. Ilyumzhinov, 51, is a businessman who was born in Kalmykia, an impoverished Russian republic on the Caspian Sea, and amassed a fortune after the fall of the Soviet Union, though exactly how, and how much, is something of a mystery. He was the president of Kalmykia from 1993 to 2010, serving partly at Mr. Putin’s discretion.

Though he never won fame as a player, Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s devotion to chess seems genuine — but so are his eccentricities. He has said that he believes the game was invented by extraterrestrials, and he claims to have been abducted by aliens in yellow spacesuits on the night of Sept. 17, 1997. He built Chess City, a huge glass dome surrounded by a housing development, in Kalmykia’s obscure and inaccessible capital, Elista, and had the federation hold championship tournaments there.

In June 2011, at the height of the civil war in Libya, Mr. Ilyumzhinov appeared in Tripoli to meet with an old friend, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, ostensibly to discuss opportunities for developing chess programs in the country. The men played a game of chess for the cameras. It was the last time Mr. Qaddafi was seen alive in public before he was captured and killed four months later.

In an interview, Mr. Kasparov blamed Mr. Ilyumzhinov for one of the biggest shortcomings of the federation, known by its French acronym, FIDE: its inability to attract big corporate sponsorships. “Anybody Googling FIDE sees he is dealing with someone who is taken by aliens and is playing chess with Qaddafi,” he said.

Mr. Ilyumzhinov, who also visited President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in August 2012, said in an interview that his trips were not intended to make statements. “Chess is not political,” he said. “I am not communist, I am not socialist, I am not a democrat. I am peaceful.”

Despite Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s quirks, Mr. Kasparov faces an uphill battle to get elected. Each member country of the federation has a single vote regardless of size, so the tiny Republic of Palau in the western Pacific Ocean has the same say as the United States.

While Mr. Ilyumzhinov has had little support in most Western countries during his tenure, he has marshaled the backing of many small countries that are not at the forefront of chess, and has had no trouble retaining power. When Anatoly Karpov, Mr. Kasparov’s old chess adversary, ran for president of FIDE in 2010, Mr. Ilyumzhinov beat him handily, 95 votes to 55.

Mr. Kasparov said that while past elections were dogged by rumors of fraud and bribery and “were not transparent,” this time around “those issues have been resolved.” He added obliquely, “I have resources that can help me to run a global campaign.”

Those resources include the deep pockets of Rex Sinquefield, a retired businessman from St. Louis who is Mr. Kasparov’s nominee to lead the federation’s organization in the Western Hemisphere. Mr. Sinquefield has become the biggest benefactor of chess in the United States in recent years, and has sponsored the United States Championship.

Mr. Ilyumzhinov defended his record, saying that he had invested a lot of his own money to promote the game and had attracted some major sponsors, including Rosneft, the giant Russian energy company, which is underwriting a program to promote the teaching of chess in schools and has sponsored some tournaments.

In general, he said, chess is hard to sell to sponsors, compared with “action” sports like tennis, football and basketball that are “interesting for TV.” At a chess tournament, the audience remains quiet and minutes may go by without anything appearing to happen. “You cannot say, ‘Go! Go! Rah! Rah! Good move!’ ” he said. “People want some emotion. Chess is an art and not a spectator sport.”

Mr. Ilyumzhinov insisted that Mr. Kasparov could do no better than he had on the sponsorship issue. He said Mr. Kasparov was a poor manager and that groups he started, like the Professional Chess Association in the 1990s, had failed. He also criticized Mr. Kasparov’s political activities in Russia, including his opposition to Mr. Putin.

Mr. Kasparov said that, though he still believed that Mr. Putin was “destroying the future of my country,” he would give up his political ambitions and devote himself wholeheartedly to FIDE if elected.

That would not be a very great concession, it would seem. In 2009, Mr. Kasparov and his wife, Daria, bought a $3.4 million condominium on West 76th Street in Manhattan, and his youngest daughter attends school in New York. He has spent less and less time in Russia in recent years, and even said last June that he would not go back, for fear of arrest.

So as a practical matter, he said, “I don’t see how much this will scale back my political activities.”

-NY Times

Ex-Champion Takes Solid Lead in Fight for Chess Title

Hou Yifan, a Chinese grandmaster, may soon be the former and future queen of chess.

Ms. Hou, 19, the women’s world champion in 2010 and 2011, is playing for the current title in Taizhou, China, against Anna Ushenina, 28, a Ukranian grandmaster who is the reigning champion. Each player earns one point for a victory and a half-point for a draw, and, after four games, Ms. Hou leads 3 to 1. The winner will be the first player to amass 5½ points.

The champion will earn 120,000 euros (about $160,000) and the runner-up 80,000 euros (about $106,000).

Ms. Hou lost in the second round of a 64-player elimination championship tournament last year when Ms. Ushenina, who was the 30th seed, won it to become the champion.

Ms. Hou earned the right to challenge Ms. Ushenina this year by winning the 2011-12 Women’s Grand Prix, a series of six tournaments featuring most of the world’s best female players.

Before the current match started, Ms. Ushenina was already considered the underdog; she is ranked No. 17 in the world, while Ms. Hou is No. 2. But the relatively short length of the match — it is scheduled for 10 regulation games, if necessary — has made defending her title even more difficult now that she has fallen behind.

Championship matches that are 10 or 12 games long are a recent phenomenon. In the ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s, the most common length was 24 games — with the notable exception of the 1984-85 match between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. It went 48 games because the winner was going to be the first player who won six games. When neither seemed able to do that, the match was stopped.

A longer match creates more opportunities for a player who falls behind to catch up. The most famous example was in 1972, when the American Bobby Fischer lost the first game against the champion, Boris Spassky of Russia, and then forfeited the second because he had complaints about the playing site. After those complaints were resolved, he resumed the match and came back to win the title, 12½ to 8½.

Since the 1995 match between Mr. Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand of India, who is the current men’s champion, the number of games has been steadily reduced — perhaps by a desire by the players to avoid grueling matches that can stretch for weeks, but also by the organizers, whose costs rise as the competitions continue.

In the current women’s title match, Ms. Ushenina has struggled the most when she has had White, losing both her games, including Game 3 on Saturday.

The game started the same way as Game 1, but Ms. Ushenina chose a different and quite aggressive fifth move.

Playing aggressively made sense, as Ms. Ushenina was trying to win the game and level the score in the match. But the particular system she chose to play may not have been a wise choice, as Chinese players are known to be very familiar with it. Indeed, Ms. Hou played a new idea on the 16th move, and Ms. Ushenina immediately blundered. Within a few moves, she had lost material and resigned after only 24 moves.

Game 4 on Sunday was a lively one, but it ended in a draw after 31 moves. Game 5 is scheduled for Tuesday.

source: NY Times

Anand held by Aronian at Alekhien Chess

PARIS: World champion Viswanathan Anand's hunt for an elusive victory continued as he played out a draw with Levon Aronian of Armenia in the third round of Alekhien memorial chess tournament. 

With his second draw in three games besides the painful loss against Michael Adams of England in the opener, Anand took his tally to one point out of a possible three and his tournament situation did not change much as the Indian remained in joint eighth spot in the 10-player super tournament.

Boris Gelfand of Israel put an end to the exploits of Adams by scoring a methodical victory in the lone decisive game of the day. Gelfand emerged as one of the co-leaders thanks to his superb effort and he now shares the lead with Adams and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France.

In other games of the third round, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia was held to a draw by Vachier-Lagrave, another local star Laurent Fressinet got the same result against Ding Liren of China while the all-Russian affair between Peter Svidler and Nikita Vituigov ended peacefully through perpetual checks.

With six rounds still to go in the unique tournament split between France and Russia (where the last four rounds will be played), the three leaders are followed by a pack of four players who have 1.5 points apiece -- Kramnik, Fressinet, Liren and Aronian. Svidler, Anand and Vituigov follow them another half point adrift.

Anand played the fashionable Closed Ruy Lopez rejecting the Berlin defense by Aronian. The idea is increasingly popular these days and Aronian had little problems in maintaining the equilibrium he was hoping for as black pieces.

The game took an easier turn in the endgame after both rooks got traded and a 'just-level' minor pieces endgame was reached. The game lasted till the 40th move but the result was anyone's guess by the 25th move.

Gelfand faced the Queen's gambit declined as white and got a slightly better middle game. Adams had to defend precisely but the overnight leader erred and landed himself a pawn less endgame. Gelfand, known for his technical display, did not give any chances and squeezed out the full point after 77 moves.

Ding Liren went for the kill but found Fressinet quite up to the task in defense. Throwing caution to the winds, the Chinese sacrificed a rook to generate attack against an uncastled black king but only managed to get perpetual checks after a right defense.

Vituigov was in similar shoes as Liren as his attack in the French Winawer variation as black also ended in perpetual checks while Kramnik could not convert his extra pawn into a full point in the endgame against Vachier-Lagrave.

Results of Round 3: Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 1) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 1.5); Ding Liren (Chn, 1.5) drew with Laurent Fressinet (Rus, 1.5); Peter Svidler (Rus, 1) drew with Nikita Vituigov (Rus, 1); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 2) beat Michael Adams (Eng, 2); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 1.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2).

source: India Times 

First: the Chess Oscar for 2011

The Russian magazine 64-Chess Review has announced the results of the Chess Oscar of the year 2011. Grandmasters, coaches, arbiters, chess journalists and other experts from all over the world took part in the voting. The winner was the Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. It is his third Oscar so far – all three were won in consecutive years (2009-2011)

Chess Oscar for 2011: voting stats

Rnk	Player	Points
1	Magnus Carlsen	1264
2	Viswanathan Anand	1244
3	Levon Aronian	767
4	Vladimir Kramnik	570
5	Sergey Karjakin	535
6	Veselin Topalov	437
7	Ian Nepomniatchi	435
8	Vasily Ivanchuk	428
9	Hikaru Nakamura	215
10	Alexander Grischuk	169

History: all Chess Oscars so far

The Chess Oscar is an international award given to the best chess player every year. The winner is selected by a poll of chess experts across the world, including grandmasters. The award comprises a bronze statuette titled "The Fascinated Wanderer". The award had its genesis in 1967 with journalists accredited at chess events voting for the best grandmaster. The awards were given away uninterrupted until the year 1988. The award resumed in 1995. Since then, it has been coordinated by the Russian chess magazine 64. The Chess Oscar is highly regarded in the chess community, as it indicates a premier degree of peer recognition. Here are the winners so far:

Year	Player		Year	Player
1967	Larsen, Bent		1987	Kasparov, Garry
1968	Spassky, Boris		1988	Kasparov, Garry
1969	Spassky, Boris		1989-94	no awards
1970	Fischer, Bobby		1995	Kasparov, Garry
1971	Fischer, Bobby		1996	Kasparov, Garry
1972	Fischer, Bobby		1997	Anand, Viswanathan
1973	Karpov, Anatoly		1998	Anand, Viswanathan
1974	Karpov, Anatoly		1999	Kasparov, Garry
1975	Karpov, Anatoly		2000	Kramnik, Vladimir
1976	Karpov, Anatoly		2001	Kasparov, Garry
1977	Karpov, Anatoly		2002	Kasparov, Garry
1978	Korchnoi, Viktor		2003	Anand, Viswanathan
1979	Karpov, Anatoly		2004	Anand, Viswanathan
1980	Karpov, Anatoly		2005	Topalov, Veselin
1981	Karpov, Anatoly		2006	Kramnik, Vladimir
1982	Kasparov, Garry		2007	Anand, Viswanathan
1983	Kasparov, Garry		2008	Anand, Viswanathan
1984	Karpov, Anatoly		2009	Carlsen, Magnus
1985	Kasparov, Garry		2010	Carlsen, Magnus
1986	Kasparov, Garry		2011	Carlsen, Magnus

Most wins

Player	Wins
Kasparov, Garry	11
Karpov, Anatoly	9
Anand, Viswanathan	6
Carlsen, Magnus	3
Fischer, Bobby	3
Spassky, Boris	2
Kramnik, Vladimir	2
Larsen, Bent	1
Korchnoi, Viktor	1
Topalov, Veselin	1

Chess: Indian men draw with Israel, women beat Germany

Istanbul (Turkey), Sep 3, 2012 (PTI)

World's second youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi defeated Maxim Rodshtein on the third board to help India play out a 2-2 draw with Israel in the 6th round of the 40th Chess Olympiad here.

.

Up against higher ranked Israelis, Krishnan Sasikiran played out a chanceless draw against Boris Gelfand, who was the challenger to Viswanathan Anand earlier this year for the world crown at Moscow.

P Harikrishna continued to live up to expectations and did not give any chance to Emil Sutovsky on the second board before signing peace but Abhijeet Gupta was in dire straits when Parimarjan still had to convert his advantage.

The Delhi-based Negi, however lived up to his reputation, coming out with a spirited display to draw 2-2 even as Gupta suffered his first loss in the Olympiad. The Indian eves bounced back from two dismal results to beat Germany 3-1 with Tania Sachdev and former world junior girls' champion Soumya Swaminathan coming good on the last two boards.

Post a draw with lower ranked Serbia and a thrashing at the hands of fancied China, this was a good comeback by the Indian girls and they now match their male counterparts on nine points out of a possible 12 in this section. Former world champion, Vladimir Kramnik laid the foundation but Russia could not pull it through against Armenia as Sergei Movsesian pulled out an unexpected victory against Alexander Grischuk on the second board.

The 2-2 draw left Russia and Armenia at the top on 11 points along with fast-catching-up Azerbaijan that crushed Croatia 3-1 quite easily. With five rounds still to go, China, Philippines, Ukraine, Hungary and Spain share the fourth spot, while the Indian men are now joint tenth in the standings on nine points.

In the next round Krishnan Sasikiran and team will take on Argentina.

In the women's section, Chinese eves could only draw parity with holders Russia, while Poland caught up with the overnight leaders. Russia and Poland share the lead on 11 points each, while China, Georgia Ukraine and France remain on the heels of the leaders a full point behind.

The Indian girls are in joint seventh spot here and will meet Estonia in the next round. Negi proved his mettle against Rodshtein with a fine performance on the third board. The Caro Kann defense by the Israeli did not come good in the advance variation and the Indian seized the initiative to forcibly win a pawn in the middle game.

Rodshtein tried a comeback through a pawn roll but Negi was relentless in this round. For once Gupta fumbled after attaining a good position as black against Avrukh who is a known theoretician. The Israeli pounced on his chances in the middle game to launch a king side attack and Gupta had no answers.

Tania Sachdev returned to her top form to script another Indian victory in the women's section. Melanie Ohme of Germany was on the receiving end as Tania scored her fifth victory in six games so far.

Soumya Swaminathan also added to the Indian delight on the fourth board defeating Marta Michna. 

Important results, Round 6 open: Russia (11) drew with Armenia (11) 2-2; Azerbaijan (11) beat Croatia (9) 3-1; Germany (9) drew with USA (9) 2-2; Czech Republic (8) lost to Spain (10) 1.5-2.5; Philippines (10) beat Bulgaria (8) 2.5-1.5; Bosnia & Herzegovina (8) lost to China (10) 0.5-3.5; Hungary (10) beat Poland (8) 3-1; England (9) drew with Italy (9) 2-2; Montenegro (8) lost to Ukraine (10) 1-3; India (9) drew with Israel (9) 2-2 (Krishnan Sasikiran drew with Boris Gelfand; Emil Sutovsky drew with P Harikrishna; Parimarjan Negi beat Maxim Rodshtein; Boris Avrukhbeat Abhijeet Gupta); Moldova (9) beat Slovenia (8) 3.5-0.5.

Women: China (10) drew with Russia (11) 2-2; Poland (11) beat Serbia (9) 3.5-0.5; Slovakia (9) lost to Georgia (11) 1.5-2.5; Hungary (9) drew with Spain (9) 2-2; Ukraine (10) beat Azerbaijan (8) 3.5-.5; France (10) beat Philippines (8) 3-1; Czech Republic (8) lost to Vietnam (10) 1-3; Montenegro (9) drew with Estonia 99) 2-2; Greece (9) beat Belarus (7) 2.5-1.5; Peru (9) beat Latvia (7) 3-1; India (9) beat Germany (7) 3-1 (D Harika drew with Elisabeth Paehtz; Tetyana Melamed drew with Eesha Karavade; Tania Sachdev beat Melanie Ohme; Marta Michna lost to Soumya Swaminathan; Israel (7) lost to Uzbekistan (9) 1.5-2.5. -Deccan Herald

Magnus Carlsen Wins Strong Chess Tourney in Moscow

Top-rated Magnus Carlsen won the 7th Tal Memorial in Moscow, one of the strongest chess tournaments of the year. The Norwegian grandmaster was the only undefeated player in a field of 10 world-class players.

He didn't play for more than four months and it took him a few games to shake off the cobwebs. Not only did he start slowly, but he was in danger of losing a couple of times. "I was suffering," he admitted. In round four against Russia's Alexander Grischuk, Carlsen played like the magician Mikhail Tal, leaving his bishop under attack for eight moves. " It was the energizer," he said and although he only drew that game, he was in the driver's seat in the remaining games.

"The victory is nice," Carlsen said. "There were twists and turns nobody could foresee." Whoever was in the lead was pulled back by the crowd. Only Russia's Alexander Morozevich looked invincible. He was running away with the tournament, piling up three wins and draws. He could not do anything wrong or so it seemed. But when everything looked wonderful he did what he sometimes does: he self-destructed, losing three games in a row.

Others jumped at the opportunity and with two rounds to go five players shared first place. It was a brutal final stretch for Vladimir Kramnik. Unbeatable for most of his career, the former world champion suddenly lost two games and took himself out of contention. The youngest player, the Italian GM Fabiano Caruana, 19, was in the lead going into the last round, but he lost, too.

It was up to Carlsen to grab first place and he did it in an impressive way. He didn't strike like Misha Tal, but like another legend, the late Estonian grandmaster Paul Keres. More than 50 years ago, Keres created a perfect model against white's passive play in the twice-delayed Exchange variation of the Spanish. Did Magnus know the game?

McShane,Luke (2706) - Carlsen,Magnus (2835)
7th Mikhail Tal Memorial, Moscow 18.06.2012

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.d3

("Play proceeds slowly," said Carlsen. "It is more or less equal." Against Max Blau in Zurich in 1959, the legendary Estonian grandmaster Paul Keres provided a blueprint for how to play this variation with the black pieces: 7.Qe1 Be6 8.d3 Nd7 9.b3 c5! 10.Bb2 f6 11.Nbd2 0-0 12.Qe3 Nb8 [Bringing the knight to c6 where it controls the square d4.] 13.Rfd1 Nc6 14.c3 Qe8 15.Rac1 [After15.d4 cxd4 16.cxd4 Nxd4 17.Nxd4 Bc5 black is better] 15...Rd8 16.Nf1 Rf7 17.Ng3 Bf8 18.Rd2 Rfd7 19.Rcd1 a5! 20.Ne2 a4 21.bxa4? Ra8 22.Nc1 Rxa4

White is besieged and Keres went on to win in 59 moves. It is incredible how similar Carlsen's 
game turns to be more than a half century later.)

7...Nd7 8.b3 0-0 9.Bb2 f6 10.Nc3 Re8 11.Kh1 Nf8 12.Ne2 c5!

(Containing the central d-pawn.)

13.Nh4 Ne6 14.Nf5 Bf8 15.Ne3 Nd4

(Jumping into white's territory, Carlsen claims a slight space advantage.)

16.f4

(McShane is not going to wait like Blau and seeks some play on the kingside.)

16...Be6 17.fxe5 fxe5 18.Ng1 g6 19.c3

(Pushing the annoying knight back creates weaknesses. After 19.Nf3 Carlsen considered 19...Bh6 20.Nc4 Bg4 and black is slowly gaining speed.)

19...Nc6

(Carlsen's knight finally made it to the square c6.)

20.Nf3 Bg7 21.Qe1 a5!

("I forgot about a5," said McShane. Like in Keres's game, the rook pawn will shatter white's queenside. McShane was hoping for 21...Qxd3? 22.Rd1 Qb5 [22...Qxe4 23.Ng5 wins.] 23.Nd5 with white's advantage. )

22.Rd1 a4 23.bxa4 Rxa4

(The correct decision, although Carlsen briefly considered 23...Bxa2.)

24.a3

(White is positionally lost. Black only needs to consolidate.)

24...Rf8 25.Bc1 Ra8

("Reconnecting the rooks," Carlsen explained.)

26.Qg3 Bb3 27.Rde1

(Too optimistic, but after 27.Rd2 Bh6 28.Qe1 b6 29.Rb2 Be6 30.Qe2 Qd7 black is gradually improving his position. White has no counterplay.)

27...Qxd3 28.Ng4 Be6 29.Nh6+ Kh8 30.Qh4 Bf6 31.Bg5 Bxg5 32.Qxg5 Kg7 33.Qc1

(White has problems with the knight on h6, but after 33.Ng4 Bxg4 34.Qxg4 Rad8! black is ready to pick up a few loose pawns.)

33...Rf4 34.Rd1?

(Missing the last chance to fight back: 34.Ng5 Qd6 35.Rxf4 exf4 36.Rd1 Qe5 37.Nxe6+ Qxe6 38.Qxf4 Rf8 39.Qe3 Ne5 40.h3 b6 but black still has the edge. But McShane didn't have much time to think.)

34...Qc4! 35.Rfe1 Raf8 36.Ng5 Bc8 37.g3 Rf2 38.Nf5+ gxf5 39.Nh3 Re2 40.Qg5+ Kh8 
White resigned.

-huffingtonpost

Not quitting just yet, says chess champ Vishy

Chess champ Vishy says World Championship title has made him hungrier

India’s chess legend Viswanathan Anand yesterday ruled out any possibility of retirement and said winning the fifth World title has given him the boost to carry on as long as he enjoys the game.

Viswanathan Anand during a media briefing in Chennai yesterday. Pic/AFP

In his first interaction with the Indian media, during a felicitation ceremony organised by his sponsor NIIT, after returning at home from Moscow, Anand said he is still enjoying his game and the win over Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand in the World Championship meant a lot for him.

“There are definitely no thoughts of retirement. In fact, quite the opposite. (Winning a fifth world title) has been a huge boost to my morale. As long as I enjoy, I don’t see any reason to retire. Winning in Moscow meant a lot emotionally. It’s not only about records. It’s just that you hate losing and you love winning. I am looking forward to playing chess and winning tournaments,” Anand said.

Asked what the fifth world title meant for him, Anand said: “For me, the number has been irrelevant. Every title defence is special. I simply want to enjoy playing chess. There is no checklist.”

Meeting Putin
Anand said his interaction with Russian president Vladimir Putin, after winning the title, was witty. Putin during the meeting remarked ‘so, we brought this on ourselves’ when the Indian told him how developed his game while training at the Russian Culture Centre.

“Well we laughed because I thought it was a witty line. The meeting was almost half an hour. He is very knowledgeable about chess. He spoke about how chess is important in Russian culture. He was generally very gracious. I thought that was a quick one,” he recalled.

On his preparations leading up to the match, Anand said: “My training was from January 15 to April 15. This time my preparation was very intensive because I did not have a camp. Last year I was busy playing tournaments.

“We worked very hard and developed some thoughts. I had several systems prepared with black and white. You always had to start with something new. I knew Gelfand since 1989 and always thought he was very professional and disciplined chess player.

“With the white pieces, he managed to steer clear of our dangerous ideas. This reflected how seriously he was taking the match. It was only in game 11 and 12 that we were able to break out a bit,” he said.

Anand also said that whether he caught Gelfand by surprise he reacted aggressively. “I was excited about what was to come. I thought I could put him under pressure. The turning point happened very quickly. He made some wrong moves and I was very happy that I could get back into the match. I cannot emphasise how important this moment was,” Anand said.
Praising Gelfand, Anand said: “We both felt genuine respect for each other. I am really happy to have retained my title. Now I can really relax and enjoy this.”

Dig at Kasparov
Anand hit out at his former bitter rival Gary Kasparov, saying the Russian wizard has been trying since 2011 to get him to retire. Anand feels Kasparov, who retired in 2005, misses the attention he got during his playing days. “We were asked about his remarks. He is the man who regrets leaving chess. He misses the attention he got in chess, somehow wants to be there. May be he should play again,” Anand said. “Kasparov retired in 2005, he has been trying to make me retire since 2011. You just have to develop a thick skin as a public figure,” he said. Kasparov before the World Championship said that the Indian lacked motivation and was “sliding downhill”.  -mid-day

Tan Chin Nam the doyen of local chess

CHESS
By QUAH SENG SUN

Datuk Tan Chin Nam, 85, is still up to playing chess.

LAST week, I wrote about the youngest faces that had come to play in the main event of this year’s Malaysian Chess Festival, the Arthur Tan Malaysian open chess championship.

It then struck me that if I want to do a similar story on the oldest player in the festival, I would have to look at the Lee Loy Seng seniors open chess championship.

Everybody in the chess circle knows that the oldest active chess player in the country is none other than Datuk Tan Chin Nam himself.

Tan, 85, is the doyen of Malaysian chess. He may have been frailer than when I last saw him a year ago, but his mind was as keen as ever. “Still up to playing chess,” he said when we sat across the chessboard in the second round.

Mega festival ahead: Datuk Tan Chin Nam promises that next year’s edition will be the grandest Malaysian Chess Festival of all.

Tan soon found out to his dismay that results still favoured the younger seniors as he finished the event with a modest 1½ points that he collected from nine games.

Despite the setback, he took pride in his final game of the tournament. He lost – but for much of that game, he showed he could still mix it up as well as his opponent. He absorbed the attack in a complicated game and then simplified the position to a point where he held a piece advantage. It was only a gross blunder in the critical last hour of play when tiredness had crept into both players’ game that spoilt everything for Tan.

A draw would have been an equitable result in that game, seeing that both he and his opponent had fought and defended well.

At last year’s Malaysian Chess Festival, Tan announced that he intended to take a two-year sabbatical from sponsoring the festival. He wanted to enjoy playing the game without thinking about pumping money into organising it. There could be other reasons and I would think that one of them was that he wanted to see how the organisers would rise to the challenge, and continue with this chess festival with only his moral support.

I believe he was encouraged by what he saw: the hard work put in by the organisers in the last two to three months to get their act together. At the closing ceremony of the festival, he promised to end his sojourn and make next year’s edition the grandest Malaysian Chess Festival of all.

By the way, Tan was at least 10 years older than the next most senior competitor at the festival – Thailand’s 74-year-old Pricha Srivatanakul.

source: The Star

Three times a winner

CHESS
By QUAH SENG SUN

Dr Nicholas Chan scores a hat-trick at the 38th Selangor open chess tournament.

NOW, don’t start me off. I’m not going to launch myself with superlatives to describe Dr Nicholas Chan’s feat in winning the annual Selangor open chess tournament for the third year in succession. All I’m going to say to him is, congratulations. Short and simple.

Really, there are no big words to describe Dr Chan’s hat-trick of Selangor open achievements. He was the champion in 2009, made a great defence of this title last year and then, earlier this week, he overcame some mid-tournament jitters to become the Selangor open champion again.

Hat-trick: After a close and intense fight, Dr Nicholas Chan emerged winner of the Selangor open chess ournament.

Add his tournament victory in 2004, and Dr Chan has won this event four times in the past eight years.

It wasn’t all plain sailing, though. He led until the sixth round and even reeled off five wins in a row which included a win over international master Jimmy Liew. Then Dr Chan hiccupped in the seventh round, losing to Indian international master Srinath Narayanan. Suddenly, he found Liew, Srinath and familiar Filipino player Ian Udani leap-frogging half a point over him.

With two rounds remaining, the tournament became alive. There were four contenders who could easily be winner of the tournament. However, some of them had still to play one another and so, there would be no easy gallop towards the finish line. The event was wide open.

In the eighth round, two of the leaders met. Udani and Srinath were paired together, but their game was drawn. Then Dr Chan beat Mohd Irman Ibrahim to draw level with the Indian and the Filipino. In the meantime, Liew took advantage of their lapse by disposing of his opponent, Abdul Rahim Ramli, to take the sole lead for the first time in the tournament.

So by the end of the eighth round, the standings were: Liew in front with seven points followed by Udani, Srinath and Dr Chan just half a point behind. The ninth and final round would be crucial.

To be champion, Liew would need to win his final game. A draw might have been enough, too, but he could possibly be subjecting himself to a tie-break with two other players. It wasn’t a completely appealing situation but maybe, it would be better than nothing. In any case, his final-round opponent, Udani, refused to follow the same script and in a tensely fought game, the Filipino prevailed over Liew.

Srinath was also in a good position to join Udani at the top of the standings if he could beat his opponent, the newly minted national closed champion Lim Zhuo Ren. But Lim proved to be a tougher nut than expected and he put paid to any idea that the Indian player could have.

These unexpected results presented Dr Chan with a precious lifeline which he gladly seized. Among the top contenders, he had possibly the most comfortable pairing of all. Sitting across from Mark Siew, Dr Chan outplayed his opponent to win the game and thus finish on equal points with Udani.

But this is not the end of the story. Two players stood at the top of the standings with equal points. Who would be the champion? For Dr Chan, his spurt of five wins in his first five games would now ensure him a much superior tie-break than Udani. And with this better tie-break came the coveted winner’s purse at the conclusion of this 38th Selangor open chess tournament.

source: The Star