Search the Community

A new edition of the Sinquefield Cup has just started, the St. Louis tournament with $ 300,000 in prizes. One of thh tournament highlights will no doubt be the match between Carlsen and Caruana, a pretty significant game considering the these two will meet again in November for the World Championship! In the first round, Mamedyarov (who, by the way, thanks to this victory climbs to second place on the Elo lis) caused some turmoil thanks to his interesting opening choice on move six of his Queen's Gambit (6.Qc2!?) Participants: Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Grischuk, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin , Viswanathan Anand and Wesley So. Please find attached all the games from round 1, including the notes to the Mamedyarov game! [pgn3][Event "Sinquefied Cup (EN)"] [Site "?"] [Date "2018.08.18"] [Round "1.3"] [White "Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar"] [Black "So, Wesley"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D30"] [WhiteElo "2801"] [BlackElo "2780"] [Annotator "I.M. Javier,Gil"] [PlyCount "101"] [EventDate "2018.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 O-O 6. Qc2 {This is a very unusuarl move order in the Queen's Gambit, and hardly ever seen at GM level. There is a game played by Andrikin from 2017, but it transposed into well known variations. And there's another game played by Predke, which is included here. Possible now are ...c5, ...b6, ...Nbd7, or the move played in the game.} h6 (6... Nbd7 7. Nc3 h6 8. Bh4 c5 9. dxc5 Nxc5 10. Rd1 Qa5 11. Nd2 Rd8 12. a3 d4 $2 13. exd4 Rxd4 14. b4 Qxa3 15. Bxf6 Bxf6 16. bxc5 {Black doesn't have enough compensation.} Bd7 17. Be2 Bc6 18. Nb5 Bxb5 19. cxb5 Rad8 20. O-O Qb4 21. Nb3 {1-0 (21) Predke,A (2601)-Vunder,A (2161) St Petersburg RUS 2017}) 7. Bxf6 $5 Bxf6 8. h4 g6 9. Nc3 (9. g4 Bg7) 9... c5 10. dxc5 dxc4 11. h5 $1 g5 12. Bxc4 Qa5 13. Rc1 Nd7 (13... Qxc5 14. Ne4 $5 (14. Qe2 Nc6 15. O-O Bg7 16. Rfd1 $14) 14... Qa5+ 15. Ke2 Bg7 16. Nfxg5 $1 $16) 14. O-O Bxc3 (14... Nxc5 15. Rfd1 (15. Nd4 $5) 15... Bd7 16. Qb1 $5) 15. Qxc3 Qxc3 16. Rxc3 Nxc5 17. Ne5 b6 18. f4 (18. Rd1 Bb7 19. Ra3 $5 $16) 18... Ne4 19. Rd3 Ng3 20. Rf3 Ne4 (20... gxf4 21. exf4 Nxh5 22. Rh3 $1 Nxf4 23. Rdg3+ Kh7 24. Rh4 Ng6 25. Bd3 $18) 21. Rd4 Bb7 22. f5 $1 Nf6 23. Rf1 Rae8 24. fxe6 fxe6 25. Ng6 Rf7 26. Ne5 Rff8 27. Rd6 Bd5 $2 {The resulting endgame after this move is just lost for Black.} (27... Nd5 28. Rxf8+ Kxf8 29. Rd7 $18) (27... Kg7 28. Bxe6 $16) 28. Rxf6 Rxf6 29. Bxd5 exd5 30. Rxf6 Rxe5 31. Rxh6 Rxe3 32. Rg6+ Kh7 33. Rxg5 Re2 34. Rxd5 Rxb2 35. Kh2 Rxa2 36. Kh3 a5 (36... Kh6 37. g4 a5 38. Rd6+ Kg5 39. Rg6+ Kf4 40. Rf6+ ( 40. h6 Ra1 $11) 40... Kg5 41. Rf5+ Kh6 42. Rb5 Ra1 43. Rxb6+ {And White wins.}) 37. g4 a4 38. g5 a3 39. Rd7+ Kg8 40. Rd8+ Kh7 41. Rd7+ Kg8 42. Rd8+ Kh7 43. g6+ Kh6 44. Rh8+ Kg7 45. Rh7+ Kg8 46. Ra7 Ra1 47. Kg2 $1 $18 Rc1 48. h6 Rc8 49. Rxa3 b5 50. Ra7 Rb8 51. Kg3 (51. Kg3 b4 52. Kg4 b3 53. h7+ Kh8 54. Kg5 b2 55. Kh6 $1) 1-0[/pgn3] sinqfield1EN.pgn

The Zurich 2014 Super Chess Tournament has just begun ( January 29 to February 4 ) with an average ELO of 2801. (BTW , I've looked it up and to get an IM norm in this tournament, you'd only need 0.35 points (!!), which is like showing up for the games! XD ) Is this the strongest tournament ever . In my opinion, no, not even close!. The reason is that only 5 slow games will be played . The other 5 will semi-rapid , and the remaining 5, a blitz tournament. But not just that, there are big names missing: Kramnik or Topalov are much tougher than Gelfand (and they have a higher rating). Still, a pretty tough tournament! The preliminary blitz tournament was won by Carlsen (equal first with Aronian). Magnus began like legendary Tal used to, with a loss in the first round (Later Carlsen said: , quote: "I have almost never played as badly as I did in the beginning here. It was so bad that I could not even get mad" ) , but then he got a couple of draws and ended up with two wins against Anand and Nakamura, the one against Anand in just 21 moves ( ! ). I don't think Anand has ever been beaten up like this, not even in a blitz game... here are my notes to the game: [pgn][Event "Zurich CC Blitz 2014"] [site "Zurich SUI"] [Date "2014.01.29"] [Round "4.2"] [White "Carlse n, Magnus"] [black "Anan d, Viswanathan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A06"] [WhiteElo "2872"] [blackElo "2773"] [Annotator "I.M. Javier Gil"] [PlyCount "41"] [EventDate "2014.01.29"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. b3 c5 3. e4 {Javier: This is a reversed Budapest Gambit with the extra tempo b3, which is a rather useful move in these positions.} dxe4 4. Ng5 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bc4 e6 7. Bb2 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Ncxe4 Nxe4 10. Nxe4 e5 $6 { Javier: Yes, this cuts off the long diagonal, but reopens the other one, c4-g8, and makes f4 possible.} (10... b6 $1 {Javier: This seemed like the correct choice here.} 11. Qg4 Nd4) 11. f4 $1 exf4 12. Qh5 $6 (12. Rxf4 $1) 12... Nd4 $2 (12... Be6 $1 13. Rxf4 (13. Bxe6 fxe6 14. Qg4 Nd4 {Javier: And black is doing just fine.}) 13... Bxc4 14. bxc4 Nd4 15. Ng3 $11) 13. Rxf4 $16 g6 14. Qe5 $1 b6 15. Raf1 Bf5 16. g4 (16. Rxf5 {Javier: This would have been very strong also.} gxf5 17. Rxf5 $18 {Javier: White has 2 basic ideas in this position, either to attack f7 by means of Ng5 or Rf4-g4.} b5 (17... Rc8 18. Ng5 Qe8 (18... Rc6 19. Nxf7 $18) 19. Nxf7 Rxf7 20. Bxf7+ Qxf7 21. Rxf7 Kxf7 22. Bxd4 cxd4 23. Qf5+ $18 ) (17... h6 18. Rh5 Kh7 19. Qf4 $18) 18. Rf4 $1 Qb6 19. Rg4+ Qg6 20. Rxg6+ hxg6 21. Bxb5 $18) 16... Be6 17. Bxe6 fxe6 18. Rxf8+ Bxf8 19. Nf6+ Kh8 (19... Kf7 20. Nxh7+ $18) 20. c3 (20. Ne8+ $1 {Javier: Not that it matters much, but this was more accurate.} Kg8 21. Qh8+ $3 Kxh8 22. Rxf8#) 20... Nc6 21. Ne8+ 1-0[/pgn] Tournament's official website: http://zurich-cc.com/

The 45th edition of the Biel Tournament begins today in Switzerland. 6 Gms are taking part: Magnus Carlsen (Norway, Elo 2837) Hiraku Nakamura (USA, Elo 2778) Alexander Morozevic (Russia, Elo 2770) Wang Hao (PRC, Elo 2739) Etienne Bracto (France, Elo 2713) Anish Giri (Holland, Elo 2696) The tournament is a double round robin, as it should be!. Giri has just won the Dutch Championship and a few people are expecting him to do well here as well, but how well? His rating is actually a little higher (2710 at present) but FIDE only publishes chess ratings on a monthly basis. By the way, Switzerland would be an awesome country to defect to for Wang Hao, although I can't think of any Chinese Elite player who has "migrated" in recent times. But give them time... Official website: http://www.bielchess...val.ch/en/home/

The ACP (Association of Chess Professionals, website: http://www.chess-players.org ), in collaboration with Science Park Amsterdam Chess, is proud to announce the "ACP Golden Classic" that will take place in Amsterdam from 14 to 22 July, in the same venue and at the same time as the Dutch Championships and the SPA Open. Seven great players from seven different countries will be battling for the ACP Golden Classic title in an unprecedented way in the computer era: they shall be competing under the same time control as was used in the World Championship matches in the Golden Era of chess: 2,5 hours/40 moves + adjournment! This should provide an occasion for producing highly spectacular and imaginative chess, by giving the seven gladiators the most important ingredient needed for exploiting their skills and fantasy: time to think. The players who will be fighting for the overall prize-fund of 35000 USD make up for a Category XIX tournament. They are: Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR, 2764) Gata Kamsky (USA, 2741) Baadur Jobava (GEO, 2721) Krishnan Sasikiran (IND, 2720) Le Quang Liem (VIE, 2703) Emil Sutovsky (ISR, 2687) Anna Muzychuk (SLO, 2598) Tournament Director and ACP Board Member Jeroen van den Berg underlined: "I am honoured that the ACP chose the Netherlands as host country for this unique event. The players, renowned for their fighting spirit, are very diverse in style, generation, country and even gender. I do expect them to battle out every game to the last inch." ACP Board Director Yuri Garrett adds: "Hopefully the formula of the event should finally present chess lovers worldwide with a selection of high-level endgames and not only with opening duels, something which the ACP thinks could be very beneficial to chess." In a nutshell, the ACP is wondering whether the future of chess lies in its past. Follow the "ACP Golden Classic" on http://www.amsterdamchess.com/ to give your personal answer to this ever intriguing question!