GM Boris Gelfand wins Chess World Cup

Dec 15 - Justifying his top billing Grand Boris Gelfand of Israel won the Chess World Cup, defeating former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the tie-breaker of the final here.

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After the first three games ended in a draw, the fourth game under normal time control was intense but also ended in a draw leading to the tie-breaker which was also not devoid of venom.

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Gelfand enjoyed early lead in the rapid tie-break games and was almost closed to shut the doors on Pono when suddenly in the last (fourth) game of the rapid games the giant rose and squared the one point advantage that the Israeli had.

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The stage was thus set for the tie-break blitz games that have been known to give the seeds a taste of their own medicine. Gelfand won the second set of Blitz tie-breaker 2-0 after drawing the first set 1-1.

World Cup final

Chess

By QUAH SENG SUN

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DID anyone manage to watch the games of the Chess World Cup live from Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, in the past week?

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Someone dropped me a line to say that he visited the official website, where he downloaded the games of the first two rounds and played quickly through many of them. Then, he noticed that from the third round onwards, the field of players dwindled from 32 to just four players.

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“I just felt that the tournament became less interesting with fewer players,” he wrote. “I know the stakes may have gone higher but I miss the thrill of moving from game to game, like in the earlier rounds.”

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I know what he meant. He missed the hustle and bustle of a crowded chess room. In a virtual chess room, like what you’d get on an Internet chess server, there could be hundreds of people playing blitz chess at the same time. You would be able to watch hundreds of games and participate with other players too.
Showdown: Boris Gelfand and Rusland Ponomariov (below) are battling it out at the final of this year’s Chess World Cup.

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So when all he saw on the Chess World Cup website were just two games between four players at the semi-final stage, it was quite a letdown. Moreover, except for the rapid chess play-off games, the main games used classical time control and were ploddingly slow. As a result, they were not so interesting to watch.

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Well, the final started yesterday between Boris Gelfand and Ruslan Pono­mariov. This is played over four games with classical time control and if they are tied, they players will proceed to rapid chess play-offs. If they are still tied, then it will go down to the blitz and sudden-death games.

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In 1990, Gelfand was one of more than 10 Soviet grandmasters who were on transit in Kuala Lumpur en route to play in the Manila chess inter-zonal tournament. Today, he is an Israeli citizen.

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Gelfand went to Khanty-Mansiysk as the joint top seed, being one of two players with the highest ratings in the tournament. He has played to his top billing and is in crushing top form. Until the final, the only time he was seen to struggle was in the fourth round when his French opponent, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, pushed him to play four rapid chess games and two blitz rounds.

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On the other hand, Ponomariov’s progress in this event took him through four gruelling tie-breaking matches, including the semi-final match with Vladimir Malakhov.

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Ponomariov is a former Fide world chess champion from Ukraine. In 2002, he beat Vassily Ivanchuk by 4½-2½ to win this title at the age of 18, making him the first teenager to ever become a world chess champion. In the same year, he came second behind Garry Kasparov in a very strong tournament held at Linares, Spain.

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By the way, you may want to know what happened to Wesley So, that talented 16-year-old Filipino kid who created waves in this event. Well, soon after I had spoken so much about him last week, the lad’s brilliant run ended in the fourth round at the hands of Vladimir Malakhov. Malakhov, a physicist by profession, later downed Peter Svidler in the quarter-final and met his match in the semi-final against Ponomariov.

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So who will be the eventual winner of this year’s Chess World Cup: Gelfand or Pono­mariov? Hard to say, but let’s watch at the official website http://cup2009.fide.com/java/pgn/mon.php. The final match will be played until Sunday or Monday (if it goes to tie-breaks).

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In the meantime, here are two illustrative games from the finalists.

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White: Sergey Karjakin
Black: Boris Gelfand

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1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.Bb3 d5 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.h3 a5 9.a4 Nd4 10.Nxd4 exd4 11.Re1 Ra6 (This is a very interesting move because if White plays 12.Bxd5 Qxd5 13.Rxe7, then Black’s 13 … Rg6 threatens checkmate in one move) 12.Qh5 Nb4 13.Na3 Rg6 14.Bf4 b6 15.Qf3 Be6 16.Bxe6 fxe6 17.Qe4 Bd6 18.Bxd6 cxd6 19.Qxd4 Qg5 20.g3 Qf5 21.g4 h5 22.Re4 d5 23.Kh2 Qf3 24.Ree1 hxg4 25.Qe3 gxh3 26.Qxf3 Rxf3 27.Rg1 Rxf2+ 28.Kxh3 Rxg1 29.Rxg1 Nxc2 30.Nb5 Rf3+ 31.Kg4 Rxd3 (This is a rout. Black is three points to the good and White has no compensation at all) 32.Nd6 Ne3+ 33.Kf4 Nc4 0-1

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White: Ruslan Ponomariov
Black: Vladimir Malakhov

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1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 5. Be2 dxc4 6. Bxc4 b5 7. Bb3 e6 8. O-O Bb7 9. d4 c5 10. e4 Be7 11. e5 Ne4 12. Nxe4 Bxe4 13. Qe2 Bb7 14. dxc5 Bxc5 15. Ng5 Nc6 16. Qh5 g6 17. Qh6 Bf8 18. Qh3 Qc7 19. Rd1 Rd8 20. Be3 Bg7 21. Bxe6 fxe6 22. Nxe6 Rxd1+ 23. Rxd1 Qf7 24. Nxg7+ Qxg7 25. Bc5 Qf7 26. e6 Qf5 27. Qxf5 gxf5 28. Rd7 Bc8 29. Rc7 Bxe6 30. Rxc6 Kf7 31. Rxa6 Rd8 32. h3 f4 33. a4 Rd5 34. b4 bxa4 35. Rxa4 f3 36. Ra3 fxg2 37. Kxg2 Rh5 38. Rf3+ Ke8 39. Rc3 Bd7 40. Re3+ Kd8 41. Be7+ Kc7 42. h4 Rf5 43. Kg3 Bc6 44. Bc5 h5 45. f4 Bb5 46. Re7+ Kc6 47. Rg7 Kd5 48. Kf3 Bd3 49. Rd7+ Kc4 50. Ke3 Bb1 51. Rd1 Bc2 52. Rc1 Kb3 53. Rxc2 1-0

Norwegian, 18, Is Youngest to Be Ranked No. 1 at Chess

By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
Published: November 14, 2009
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The chess world has a new No. 1 player, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, and he is only 18 years old — the youngest player ever to hold the rank.

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On Saturday, Mr. Carlsen beat Peter Leko, a Hungarian player now ranked No. 11, in the final round of a tournament in Moscow. Though Mr. Carlsen only tied for second in the tournament, his performance was good enough for him to edge out Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria for the top world ranking. Mr. Topalov, 34, did not compete in the tournament.

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Mr. Carlsen, who turns 19 on Nov. 30, is only the seventh No. 1-ranked player since the ranking system began in 1970. Garry Kasparov, the Russian former world champion, became No. 1 in January 1984, when he was 20 years and 9 months old. He held the spot for 18 months, lost it, and then regained it and held it for 20 consecutive years before retiring in March 2005.

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The other players to be No. 1 are all former world champions, including Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand.

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Rankings are based on cumulative performances, measured by something called a rating. Mr. Carlsen’s rating is now 2,806, and Mr. Topalov’s is 2,805. Mr. Anand, 39, the current world champion, finished in a tie for fourth in Moscow and is now No. 3, with a rating of 2,790.

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Last year, during a tournament in Bilbao, Spain, Mr. Carlsen briefly took over the top spot, but he lost the following the day and slipped back to No. 4. In an e-mail message just after the tournament ended in Moscow, Mr. Carlsen said of his current No. 1 status that he “hopes it lasts much longer than the short stay during Bilbao last year.”

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Mr. Kasparov is now training Mr. Carlsen. They began working together in December 2008, though Mr. Carlsen said the training sessions became more intensive over the summer.

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Though Mr. Carlsen is No. 1, he cannot become world champion yet. World champions have historically been determined in a match of many games between two players, and Mr. Anand and Mr. Topalov have already signed to play a title match next April in Bulgaria.

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The World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, has also not settled on a format for selecting a challenger after next year’s match, so Mr. Carlsen will have to wait until at least 2011 and possibly 2012 to even have a shot at the title. But he still has a few years to become the youngest world champion, as Mr. Kasparov did not do it until he was 22. -NY Times

Carlsen-Morozevich

Carlsen

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[Event "Tal Memorial"]

[Date "2009.11.06"]

[Round "2"]

[White "Carlsen, M."]

[Black "Morozevich, A."][ECO "E25"]

[WhiteElo "2801"][BlackElo "2750"]

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1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. dxc5 Qa5 9. e4 Nf6 10. Be3 O-O 11. Qb3 Na6 (A lesser known move. Most popular is 11...Nfd7) 12. Nh3 += (I expect Morozevich to play Nd7 here. Even though Black is down a pawn, he can recapture at c5 at will.

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However, I am not very impressed with Black's position. The Bishop on c8 is stuck.) 12... Nd7 (Now, White's best option is to take the Knight on a6. Even when Black recaptures with the Queen, White does not worry about the castling problem because White always has the f2 square for the King. White can also play c4 to block the Black Queen.)

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13. Ba6 Qxa6 14. c4 (White can now castle safely.) 14...Ne5 (The only decent square for the Knight) 15. Rc1 Bd7 (Pretty much a must since Black has to begin to develop his Bishop.)16. Qc3 f6 17. 0-0 Ba4 += (The idea is to block the White's Rooks from the d file.)

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18. Nf4 Rfd8 (White must chase the Black Knight from the best square e5. Bd4 would solve this problem. White can also solidify his Bishop with Ne2 eventually.) 16. Bd4 (Black has many choices to retreat his Knight. A logical spot is on f7. Nc6 is no good because of Nxe6. Ng6 is also playable.)

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