Mate on the move? Cop this!

Bill Cornwall's chess column in the South Florida Sun Sentinel yesterday is about the upcoming World Championship elimination matches at Elista. He writes:

Kamsky's Way:
Four weeks from now, 16 fearsome grandmaster challengers will face off in Elista, Russia, in a series of elimination matches leading toward the World Championship. American Gata Kamsky is one of them. Now 32, Siberian-born Kamsky is a former U.S. champion who first held the title as a teenager two years after moving to the United States. Four years later, he became the official, though unsuccessful, challenger of the great champion Anatoly Karpov. Then, he retired from chess for almost 10 years. In the last few years, he has returned with amazing success, becoming the highest-rated U.S. player and a candidate for the world title.

(You can read the column here: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/sfl-29achessapr29,0,4030245.story?coll=sfla-features-headlines).

The column ends with a game from Kamsky's clash with Kramnik in their World Championship Candidates Match played at New York in 1994. It was a game full of action and tactics and on move 31. Kramnik's queen was on h6 threatening mate on the move, supported by his pawn at f6. Neither the pawn, the queen, or the mating square could be threatened. It was all over.

Or was it?

Kamsky unleashed one of the most amazing cominations I've ever seen on a chess board and 11 moves later Kramnik resigned.

Regrettably the on-line story doesn't show the starting position but, with the magical intervention of Chess Genie you can play through the whole game here. Although Kramnik had his mate-in-one at move 31 the shenanigans started a few moves before that as Kamsky fought to stay in the game.

Play better chess -- by order!

Do you remember the song Camelot?

A law was made a distant moon ago here:
July and August cannot be too hot.
And there's a legal limit to the snow here
In Camelot.
The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the second on the dot.
By order, summer lingers through September
In Camelot.

Perhaps a law that gives us the weather we need, when we need it, must remain a fairytale but is it possible to pass a law to make us better chess players? Well, they think it might work in Azerbaijan!

The following article dated April 27 is from the Azerbaijan on-line journal, Today.az (http://www.today.az/news/society/40134.html) :

President Aliyev issues executive order to improve chess
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev issued an executive order on improving chess in the country.
According to the executive order, chess is one of the ancient games widely spread in Azerbaijan.
Taking into account potential in the sphere of chess and successes of our sportsmen in international competitions, the President commissioned related ministries to prepare draft state program on improving chess in Azerbaijan in 2008-2013.
Youth and Sport Ministry and Education Ministry along with local administrative bodies are to present the draft to the president within three months, taking into account proposals of Azerbaijan National Olympic Committee and Azerbaijan Chess Federation.

With John Howard struggling to regain his lost popularity before the November election this might be just the gimmick he needs to reverse his fortunes and snatch victory from the jaws of Labor: a law to compel Australians to play better chess.

Top computer programs clash in Elista

From the Sofia News Agency (http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=79774)

Chess landmark Elista will see one of its most unusual matches in June when the world's two strongest chess playing programs will face each other.
Deep Junior and Deep Fritz will clash between June 6 and June 12, in a tournament sponsored by FIDE head, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. The unusual tournament still doesn't have a name, but the prize has already been set - USD 60,000 for the winner and USD 40,000 for the software that triumphs.
The whole clash will be played in six games of maximum length of 75 minutes. The computers will have 5 seconds per move and in case the score in the end is even, there will be a tie-break.
Deep Fritz managed to outsmart Vladimir Kramnik in 2006, the year in which he took Bulgarian Vesselin Topalov's world crown in Elista.

Smerdon wins, Rogers 3rd at Phuket

The 7th Bangkok Chess Club Open, which was held from March 27th to April 1st, was squarely taken by up-and-coming Australian talent IM David Smerdon. Australian number one, GM Ian Rogers, was outdone by countryman, who won clear at 7.5 points from 9. The tournament was held in the sunny getaway that is Phuket Island in Thailand, and for some this made all the difference.

The pic from ChessBase shows GM Ian Rogers taking on a Thai junior.

Read the Chessbase story here: http://www.chessbase.com/

The SIO in Cyrillic

There's an interesting, personal article about Timoshenko's win on "Marichka's" blog here: http://marichka2.multiply.com/journal/item/18

It's in Cyrillic but don't let that stop you reading it. For the benefit of we uneducated types the story is repeated lower down the page in English. There are also some photographs.

Doeberl Cup - SIO Double

The chess equivalent of horse racing's Caulfield - Melbourne Cup double is the Doeberl Cup -SIO. Running them contiguously was a brilliant idea that has benefited both tournaments and ideas are already afoot for making next year's events even better.

For instance, although both tournaments are FIDE rated, only at the SIO is it possible to get a title norm. It's possible that the Doeberl next year will be extended to nine rounds so that our top players will get two chances for a norm instead of just one.

Sean Press who has an ear to the ground in ACT chess made some interesting comments in his blog about how it might be done. Click this link to see what he has to say: http://chessexpress.blogspot.com/2007/04/doeberl-cup-sio-future-observations.html

Dancing, Chess and Laughter

A few days ago I had the opportunity to see the Imperial Russian Dance Company's Flying Tsars at Panthers. This is a troupe that has everything -- fabulous costumes, brilliant colours, traditional music, dancers so agile and daring that you wonder what the attrition rate must be in each performance, and, oh yeah, comedy. In between the periods when the audience was totally spellbound by the dancers there was lots of laughter.

In a way it reminded me of my final game in the SIO. My opponent, we'll call him Mr Anonymous, was forty minutes late which left him fifty minutes plus thirty seconds a move to complete his game. He's a strong, resourceful player and that shouldn't have been insurmountable for him but he apparently decided to throw me off stride by adopting an outrageous opening. That's where the comedy came in. After his fourth move I burst out laughing. I thought, "This guy's having a lend of me."

Who knows? Had we been playing lightning it might have worked but I wasn't the one who was short of time.

As chess games go it isn't much to look at, but it's shown here just for the first four moves:

WSCP U1900 report

The following report was received from Leo Tenorio:

Result of U1900 games last night vs. Parramatta at Parramatta.
Rooty Hill won 2.5 -1.5
Parramatta U/1900 vs. Rooty Hill /1900
1. Arthur Hyunh 1879 0 - 1 Noel Mangrobang 1941
2. Andrew Furst 1773 .5 - .5 Leonardo Tenorio 1861
3. Kaushek Saksena 1743 0 - 1 Levi Descallar 1787
4. Chris Brown 1671 1 - 0 Frank Barisic 1726

The game was delayed due to the non availability of the chess sets and
clocks which were used in the recently concluded SIO. But after more than
15 minutes chessboards and clocks arrived. The host club was penalised for
15 minutes. But after this incident, the game went on smoothly.

On board 1, Noel was his usual self. His defensive and attacking style
were very much solid. His intention to win was very much evident. He
battled toe to toe with Arthur. After a fierce exchange of pieces, Noel
held the advantage. He then again forced his opponent to exhange the major
pieces. In the end game Noel had a rook and a pawn while Arthur had a rook
only. Noel's pawn was unstoppable for promotion. Arthur raised the white
flag later.

On board 2, I have a two pawn advantage unopposed on the queenside. On
20th moves, Andrew was in extreme time pressure. He needs to make another
20 moves over 6 minutes while I still got 27 minutes. No doubt, I was
already winning. However, my rapid playing nearly cost me the game. I
blundered in 2 consecutive moves which Andrew took advantage of it. He
then blitz his moves and was able to make the first time control. He
escape with a draw.

On board 3, After I was ahead of pawns, I stood up and went to the table
of Levi and Frank. Levi was quality up (2 rooks against Saushek's 1 rook &
knight). He was also pawn ahead. There was no way the Levi would give him
any chance of equalising. A little later his opponent gave up. After this
game Levi is our current best player with 4 wins 1 loss.

On board 4, Frank was also a quality up against Chris, but Frank couldn't
convert his advantage. After a couple of moves Chris equalises and seized
the advantage. In the endgame there was still time for Frank to forge a
losing game to a draw but luck wasn't on his side. His last move was a big
blunder. He was gone! To this point Frank is running a series of bad luck!
But I'm positive that he will comeback. He save us once, he might do it
again.

After our big win with Parramatta, we now have a very good chance of
wrapping up the Premiership when we play the Mounties in the last round at
home on the 30th April 2007. No matter what happens there we can have our
heads held up high for being the only team in our division with only 4
players committed to playing all the way.

Chess at Casa Descallar

The following report was received from Pinoy chess master, Marlon Bernadino. It's an account of the "invitational" chess tournament held at Levi's home following the SIO. (Marlon is the man who defeated GM Sergei Shipov on Saturday morning.)

The Levi Invitational:
Filipino and United States Chess Master Almario Marlon Bernardino Jr. emerged over-all champion in the 10-man invitational blitz chess tournament here at the Descallar house in Plumpton last Sunday.

Bernardino who holds an Elo Fide rating of 2146 edged out fellow national master Homer Cunanan, 1.5-0.5, in the finals of the double round robin format, enroute to the title which was hosted by the Descallar family.

Bernardino, a chess and billiard reporter back home in Manila finished with 14.5 points, 1.5 points ahead with runner-up FM Jesse Noel Sales, the 2005 Australian Masters Open champion, with 13.0 points.

In third place was Ed Agulto with 12.5 points followed by NM Cunanan with 11.5 points.

Other players who participated were Levi Descallar, brother Jonathan and Jesson Montenegro, Francis Picart , Benny Galvez and Ronald Manila, a former Philippine kiddie champion. Ronald works here with a Filipino language radio program.

The SIO
Bernardino was also adjudged over-all top Filipino finisher (on tie break) with 5.5 points in the inaugural Sydney International Open Chess Championship, the feature event of the Parramata Chess Festival. The tournament was won by third seed, Ukrainian GM Georgy Timoshenko (2566) late on Saturday.

On the other hand, Bernardino, who caught the attention of the audience in the penultimate round by beating top seed, GM Sergei Shipov (Russia, 2592), to finish in 33rd place. He failed to earn his first possible IM norm after losing his final round match against FM Igor Bjelobrk (NSW, 2386) after a marathon 50 move Reti Opening.

Easter Cup
The Descallar win was Bernardino's second in his Sydney international chess campaign. Immediately preceding the SIO the Cabravale Digger’s Chess Club hosted it's annual Sydney Easter Chess Cup dubbed as lightning chess or much popular blitz chess game in Cabramatta and Canley Valle RSL here. He finished with an impressive 10/11 points to take the title.

The last time Bernardino saw action in oversees chess tournament was when he finished runner-up to eventual champion Hilton Bennett of New Zealand in the 2006 Palau International in Koror, Palau.

Bernardino was awarded the Filipino NM title when he finished in the top 10 of 1998 RP elimination round in SSS, Quezon City. He earned his elusive US CM title in the 1998 National Chess Congress in Philadelphia.

Sydney International Open

Those players who attended the Sydney International Open last week expecting atmosphere and excitement were not disappointed. The high-powered field comprised 143 players of whom 72 were rated above 2000.

It was a long week, with play over five days extending from Tuesday to Saturday, and many players were feeling the strain by the final round. (I saw one man doze off during the game as he waited for his opponent to move.) The weariness must have been even more acute for the many players who were doubling up after spending the previous four days at the Doeberl Cup in Canberra.

There were many upsets during the tournament and top seed GM Sergei Shipov would have been disappointed with his performance. He drew with Sam Chow (Victoria, 2220) in round 2, lost to Manthan Chokri (India, 2168) in 4, drew with Hilton Bennett (NZ, 2134) in 5, drew with Ilia Zvedeniouk (NSW, 2121) in 6, and lost to Pinoy Almario Bernardino (Philippines, 2146) in 8.



But there were others who might have hoped for better things. IM David Smerdon finished only a point off the lead but it wasn’t enough to secure his third GM norm; and Magic Moulthun—that’s Moulthun Ly of Queensland—was half a point further away and probably missed his third IM norm.

It seems likely that Gareth Oliver (ACT, 2110) was the only player to get a norm (IM) while Tomek Rej (NSW, 2260) missed out by only half a point.

The last round was full of drama. Georgy Timoshenko led after round 8 but drew his last game with Victor Mikhalevski while Dejan Antic defeated Murray Chandler to snatch a share of the lead. The Australian GMs, Darryl Johansen and Ian Rogers, both had six points starting the round but Johansen won and got a share of 3-6. He was joined by Victor Mikhalevski, Zong-Yuan Zhao, and Rooty Hill club member, IM Gary Lane. Gary lost only two games—to GM Ian Rogers and Marc Repplinger (Germany, 2239)—and won his other seven to finish half a point from the winner.

Other Rooty Hill players were Leo (“the Terminator”) Tenorio (4.5), Levi Descallar (4), David Evans (3.5) and Carrie Evans (3).

Joshua Christensen who holds dual membership of the Parramatta and Rooty Hill clubs deserves a special mention. He finished with the rather ordinary score of 3.5 but that score is no indication of his play. In Round 1 he tangoed Arianne Caoili (2153) to a draw, followed that by defeating India's Kumar Saha Uttam (2016) then whupped Domagoj Dragicevic (2196). That put him up on the stage for Round 4 where he lost to NZ FM Robert Smith (2294), lost again to Vladimir Smirnov (2319) in Round 5, and again to Richard Voon (1886) in Round 6. In Round 7 he drew with Oleg Korenevski (1879) lost to Parramatta club-mate Arthur Huynh (1879) in Round 8, and finished the comp by drawing with David Lovejoy (2003). So only 3.5 points but against a remarkably strong field. It's worth can be seen in his tournament performance rating of 2011. Not bad for somebody with an Oz rating of 1605. Not bad at all!

Outside the Parramatta Town hall activities included simuls by IM Leonid Sandler, individual tables for casual play, and a giant chess set. Leonid also gave a series of lectures during the event.

Leading scores after nine rounds were:
Equal 1st: Georgy Timoshenko and Dejan Antic – 7.5/9.
3-6: Victor Mikhalevski, Zong-Yuan Zhao, Darryl Johansen, Gary Lane.
7-14: Ian Rogers, Tejas Bakre, George Xie, Carlos Matamoros Franco, David Smerdon,
Stephen Solomon, Igor Bjelobrk, Igor Goldenberg.
The top placed woman in the event was Spain’s Paloma Gutierrez Castillo with 6 points.

We understand that plans are already under way for the event to be held again next year. Put it in your calendar and try to be there. This tournament shouldn’t be missed.

The photograph on this page is courtesy of Amiel Rosario (The Closet Grandmaster). He took many photographos at the tournament including one of Leo Tenorio playing Kiwi IM Paul Garbett. You can view them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/closetgrandmaster/sets/72157600061085122/

You'll find SIO7 archive games at:

http://www.rootyhillchess.org/sio7.html

Oz players take Doeberl

Benefiting from the SIO commencing at Parramatta tomorrow, the Doeberl Cup was able to attract 8 GMs for the first time in the tournament's history. The results spoke well for the strength of Oz chess: GM Ian Rogers, with 6/7, finished ahead of a triumvirate of Australian IMs Stephen Solomon, David Smerdon and Gary Lane, all on 5.5.
Behind them on 5 points were GMs Mikhalevski, Matamoros Franco, Antic, and Shipov who shared 5-12 place with Sales, Toth, Stojic, and the improving ACT junior, Junta Ikeda who counted three GMs among his opponents and managed a win, a loss and a draw against them.

The Major was won by Adrian de Noskowski of the ACT with 6.5/7 ahead of Sherab Guo-Yuthok and Richard Voon. Rooty Hill's Joshua Christensen scored a creditable 4/7. He won the Minor here last year.

The Minor went to Jonathan Shen also with 6.5/7 just half a point clear of Campbelltown Chess Nut Trent Parker.

There were some interesting performance ratings in the Doeberl. Jonathan Paxman, posting on Chess Chat Forum, gives these figures:
"Solo performance rating: 2690. Smerdon: 2595, worth another 10 rating points or so - probably only 15 points or so away from the magic 2500 now. Ikeda: 2519! And not least, of course Rogers 2716." (See the whole thread here: http://chesschat.org/showthread.php?t=5688&page=6)

For full Doeberl Cup details, results and cross tables, visit Ian Rout's web page here: http://www.netspeed.com.au

Gary Lane, Sass and the SIO

The following article appeared in Sass magazine this week:

Gary Lane International Master (chess player) and author
My brother taught me to play chess when I was about eight and I haven’t stopped since.
These days it doesn’t take young kids very long to become great at it because they can play all sorts of people 24 hours on the net.


Chess is like tennis, you play circuits around the world – competing against the top players from each country. I’ve played exhibition matches with world champion Gary Kasparov but my proudest moment was winning the Australian Championship in 2004.
Playing a chess game is a bit like sitting for a school exam. You do a bit of background reading to prepare and try to remain composed. The game is quite psychological because you need to look at people’s expressions. You’ll find that many poker professionals are ex-chess players.
Some people try to cheat because there’s a lot of money involved if you win. There was one Indian guy banned for 10 years for taking a portable computer into the competition with him. He was a moderate player and people started wondering why he was beating chess legends all of a sudden!
I’ll be coming to Parramatta to play in the Sydney International Open Chess Tournament at Parramatta Town Hall from April 10–14. It’s a premier event, the biggest in Australia, and it will attract a lot of international chess players.

You can see this article, together with a photograph of Gary holding a giant chess piece, at http://www.sassmagazine.com.au/people.php

Anand is world No.1

New Delhi, April 2 (IANS) India's Viswanathan Anand was formally crowned world No. 1 Monday when the world chess governing body corrected its mistake and gave the pride of place to the grandmaster.
Anand, with 2,786 rating points, becomes numero uno following his triumph at the Morelia-Linares tournament in Spain last month - the last tournament taken into calculation for determining the rankings.
The 37-year-old Indian thus displaces Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria from the top. Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik are now joint second with 2,772 points, though the Bulgarian has been given the second spot.
The Indian's elevation marks the first time in a decade that Anand, who has been among the world's top three players for 15 years, had officially been named No. 1. He won the World Championships in 2000 but then Russian Garry Kasparov was the world No. 1.

This report comes from andhracafe.com. You can read the full article here: http://www.andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=21098

Sydney International Open

With just seven days to go before the SIO lifts Australian chess another notch up the world ladder, the excitement is already building.

The 152 entries include 9 GMs, 10 IMs, 6 FMs and a swag of Rooty Hill members.

GM Rogelio Antonio Jr of the Philippines had entered but his flight is unconfirmed and it is assumed that he will not be attending. Of the nine remaining GMs all except Murray Chandler will play in the Doeberl Cup at Canberra over Easter.

While I was away there was a flood of entries at the lower end of the rating spectrum but the standard remains very high indeed with the average rating being 2142. There are a number of overseas players who have neither FIDE nor ACF rating but who are likely to be quite highly rated according to the systems in place in their own countries. They'll be given a provisional rating before the tournament starts based on their performances at home, and that's likely to lift the mean rating even higher.

Among the later entries is media favourite, and Dancing with the Stars finalist, Arianne Caoili. She hopes to keep a low profile during the event but is bound to attract media attention.

It's too late to enter the SIO if you haven't already done so but if you have any time to spare during the event (it runs from April 10-14) why not pop in to see what's happening and share in the excitement.

Even if you can't join in the tournament at this late stage you'll be able to play at one of the tables set up in the Parramatta Mall outside the town hall, or on the giant chess set by the fountain.

Click here to view the list of entrants: http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/open/index.cfm?p=section&a=Entries

During the event the results can be viewed here: http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/open/index.cfm?p=section&a=Results

Mea culpa

The blog has gone to pot over the past couple of weeks and it's all my fault. I've been on holidays in a world of sun and sand.

Tiona is located 20 kms south of Forster on a strip of sand about 500 metres wide between Wallis Lake and the Pacific Ocean. There are no shops, no houses, no internet cafe and no mobile phone service. It's perfect!

My apologies for not advising that the blog would be unattended, but now I'm home it will slowly pick up again.

But don't expect much until mid-April. I'll be spending next week at the Sydney International Open.