IMChess Details Blog

Chess at the Grassroots - Sangli

2009-01-04T10:06:00.001-08:00

If you wonder how India keeps churning out those child prodigies, head to Sangli. A rare, spacious town nestled 400 km to the south east of Mumbai, Sangli lays a claim for being the largest trading hub for Turmeric in Asia. The town derives its name from the vernacular, Saha Galli (Six Lanes in Marathi.)
The region is also known as the Sugar belt of India, and for the high quality grapes that it produces.

Location of Sangli. Look carefully and you’ll notice another important tourist location, Goa to the South west of Sangli.

When it comes to Chess, very few big cities can compete with the dedication and ferocity with which tournaments are churned out of Sangli. The Chess culture prevalent here is attributed to the iconic Shri Bhausaheb Padsalgikar. Bhausaheb, as he is popularly called, took part in the Commonwealth Chess Championship at the age of 90!. He has spared no effort to take Chess to the masses over the last few decades. He has received numerous awards for his contribution to Chess and his enthusiasm for Chess is to be seen to be believed. His driver says that it is difficult to stop Bhausaheb from reaching the tournament venue regularly even though he has had an important operation recently. His breath-taking knowledge of chess is awe inspiring even to seasoned professionals boasting high FIDE ratings. He is regularly seen kibitzing and giving valuable tips to youngsters.

Such is the cultural significance of Sangli Chess, that even Anand has played here early in his career. Anand sends encouraging messages to the organizers even now.

Anand vs Kasparov,Tilburg 1991

2008-11-13T00:38:00.000-08:00

Anand vs Topalov 2000

2008-10-31T03:59:00.000-07:00

Anand beat Topalov with a terrific attack.

Anand vs Topalov Linares 1994

2008-10-31T00:25:00.000-07:00

Anand vs Topalov, Las Palmas 1993

2008-10-31T00:17:00.000-07:00

Kamsky Topalov, Dos Hermanas 1996

2008-10-21T01:45:00.000-07:00

Kamsky vs Topalov 0-1

Kramnik vs Anand Wijk Aan Zee 2007

2008-10-14T00:42:00.000-07:00

World Computer Chess Championships

2008-10-06T00:27:00.000-07:00

Rybka duly won the World Computer Chess Championship. Sjeng won the Rapid Computer Chess Championship ahead of strong rivals such as Rybka, Hiarcs, Shredder, and Junior.

1 Rybka USA Cluster, 40 cores 8.0
2 Hiarcs GBR Intel Skulltrail, 8 x 4Ghz 7.0
3 Junior ISR Intel Dunnington, 12 x 2.67Ghz 6.0
4 Cluster Toga DEU Cluster, 24 cores 5.5
5 Shredder DEU Intel Core 2, 8 x 3.16Ghz 4.5
6 Falcon ISR Intel Core 2, 2 x 2.1Ghz 4.0
7 Jonny DEU Cluster, 16 cores 4.0
8 Sjeng BEL Intel Core 2, 4 x 2.8Ghz 3.5
9 The Baron NLD AMD Opteron 270, 4 x 2Ghz 2.5
10 Mobile Chess CHN Nokia 6120c 0.0

Rapid Computer Chess Championship

The Final Tally:

1 Sjeng BEL Intel Core 2, 4 x 2.8Ghz 6.5
2 Rybka USA Cluster, 40 cores 6.0
3 Falcon ISR Intel Core 2 @ 2.1Ghz 6.0
3 Hiarcs GBR Intel Skulltrail, 8 x 4Ghz 6.0
5 Shredder DEU Intel Core 2, 8 x 3.16Ghz 6.0
6 Cluster Toga DEU Cluster, 24 cores 4.5
7 Junior ISR Intel Dunnington, 12 x 2.67Ghz 4.5
8 The Baron NLD AMD Opteron 270, 4 x 2Ghz 3.0
9 Jonny DEU Cluster, 16 cores 2.5
10 Mobile Chess CHN Nokia phone 0.0

Russian Superfinal, 61st Russian Chess Championship - Svidler in Sparkling Form

2008-10-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

Peter Svidler seems to be in a hurry to reach back to where he really belongs. He's started with 3/3 in the gruellingly tough event, even beating World No. 2 Morozevich with black on the way.

Key Moments of the game Morozevich vs Svidler 0-1

Svidler played a precise game right from the opening against a surprisingly subdued Morozevich.
__________________________________________
34. Re1 was a mistake, e3 was more sound.
39. Qg4 was another. The simple line 39. f6 Re1 40 Qg4 g6 should have been considered.
By move 43, Svidler was winning and Morozevich played an aimless 44. Qc7 when 44. Qxh6 would have given some him some chance to create confusion.

As it usually happens, Svidler gave a chance by making a mistake on move 52 with Rae1. Morozevich played on and simplified to a Rook vs Rook and pawn ending but it was not enough as the Rook and the King were well placed to nurse the pawn to the 8th rank. Morozevich gave up before this could happen.
_____________________________
Leader Board after Round 3:
_____________________________
Svidler 3
Lastin 2.5
Jakovenko, Vitiugov 2
Alekseev, Morozevich, Timofeev, Riazantsev 1.5
Sakaev, Tomashevsky 1.5
Maslak 0.5
Inarkiev 0

World Blitz Chess Championships at Almaty

2008-10-03T05:30:00.000-07:00

The 350, 000 Francs World Blitz Chess Championships will be held at Almaty, Kazakhstan. The time control is 5 minutes for the entire game.

Players

In addition to the following, 4 more players are yet to be announced

Alexander Morozevich (Russia)
Leinier Domiguez Perez (Cuba)
Rafael Vaganian (Armenia)
Sergey Rublevsky (Russia)
Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan)
Vladislav Tkachiev (France)
Peter Svidler (Russia)
Alexander Grischuk (Russia)
Boris Gelfand (Israel)
Judith Polgar (Hungary)
Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine)
Murtas Kazhgaleev (Kazakhstan)

Official Web site:

http://worldblitz2008.kz/

Commonwealth Chess 2008

2008-10-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

The Commonwealth Chess Championships for 2008 is being held at Nagpur, India. Nagpur is situated right at the center of India.

Live games are available here: http:://www.monroi.com/watch/?tnm_id=1120

Official site: http://www.commonwealth-chess.com

Some strong players including Nigel Short, current world junior champ Abhijeet Gupta are participating.

Short had a disastrous start losing to a local player. Last heard, he is trying to claw his way up the standings, but will find it difficult to battle against youth. His world ranking has slipped in the recently announced FIDE rankings. If he loses any more games, he'll soon be out of the top 100, unfortunately for him.

Top standings after Round 5

IM Sengupta Deep 2454 IND 5
IM Deshmukh Anup 2284 IND 5
GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2631 IND 4½
IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu 2414 IND 4½
IM Suvrajit Saha 2367 IND 4½
IM Arun Prasad S 2492 IND
IM Ashwin Jayaram 2436 IND 4½
Murali Krishnan B T 2412 IND 4½

FIDE World Chess Rankings Announced

2008-09-30T03:58:00.000-07:00

FIDE has announced the October world chess rankings. Topalov is back in the saddle. There is an ironic twist to the World Chess Championship match between Anand and Kramnik since it will now be No. 5 vs No. 6. Not good for aggressive sellers of this match.

Top 20 Rankings Open Section

1 Topalov, Veselin BUL 2791
2 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2787
3 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2786
4 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2786
5 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2783
6 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2772
7 Aronian, Levon ARM 2757
8 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2751
9 Leko, Peter HUN 2747
10 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2737
11 Wang, Yue CHN 2736
12 Adams, Michael ENG 2734
13 Movsesian, Sergei SVK 2732
14 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2731
15 Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2730
16 Kamsky, Gata USA 2729
17 Svidler, Peter RUS 2727
18 Shirov, Alexei ESP 2726
19 Eljanov, Pavel UKR 2720
20 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2719

Top 20 Rankings Women

1 Polgar, Judit HUN 2711
2 Koneru, Humpy IND 2618
3 Hou, Yifan CHN 2578
4 Xie, Jun CHN 2574
5 Cramling, Pia SWE 2550
6 Stefanova, Antoaneta BUL 2548
7 Sebag, Marie FRA 2533
8 Kosteniuk, Alexandra RUS 2525
9 Zhao, Xue CHN 2518
10 Danielian, Elina ARM 2513
11 Kosintseva, Tatiana RUS 2513
12 Cmilyte, Viktorija LTU 2512
13 Muzychuk, Anna SLO 2508
14 Dzagnidze, Nana GEO 2503
15 Ushenina, Anna UKR 2496
16 Ruan, Lufei CHN 2496
17 Zhu, Chen QAT 2496
18 Chiburdanidze, Maia GEO 2489
19 Lahno, Kateryna UKR 2488
20 Zhukova, Natalia UKR 2488

Kramnik vs Anand Dortmund SuperGM 2001

2008-09-29T00:41:00.000-07:00

Kramnik vs Anand Dortmund SuperGM 2000

2008-09-29T00:33:00.000-07:00

Kramnik vs Anand Investbanka Belgrade 1997

2008-09-29T00:13:00.000-07:00

After the Las Palmas game, Kramnik and Anand next met at the board at Belgrade in 1997. Anand had to win this game to even their head to head score.

Enjoy the game.

Key Moments of the Game

The game is a semi-slav. Anand plays aggressively out of the opening and pushes pawns with attacking intentions.

Kramnik sacrifices his bishop to attack the open King.

Kramnik is clearly behind on material by move 14 and Anand can easily win the game with precise play, but Anand's 15. Nd7 is a mistake and Kramnik can force a perpetual by sacrificing another bishop (16. Bxc4).

Anand again misses a winning line on move 17, giving Kramnik another chance to draw.

After a couple of more mistakes, Anand starts making the right moves, sacrifices his Rook, regains it and finishes Kramnik off.

Anand's connected pawns are also threatening to Queen. Kramnik cannot give any more checks.

Kramnik vs Anand Las Palmas, 1996

2008-09-28T23:52:00.000-07:00

Kramnik went into the head to head lead by beating Anand again in 1996. The game was played at Las Palmas and the opening was a Symmetrical English Double Fianchetto Hedgehog.

A fascinating game, but one riddled with major errors, where Kramnik applied tremendous pressure without his Queen.

Anand played aggressively right from the word go despite having the black pieces. From move 18, Kramnik embarked on a sequence where he eventually sacrificed his Queen. He was counting on his active pieces and the advancing d pawn.

Kramnik played the continuation accurately until Anand blundered with 26 ... Qc4. His previous move 25 .... Rd8 was already a mistake.

Kramnik exchanged to position where he had a Rook and Bishop for a Queen. Not enough, except that he had a pawn on the sixth rank.

Kramnik blundered on move 30 with Rd3 thus giving Anand a chance where he had to play the simple Kf8. But Anand probably wanted to do some damage to the pieces first or see if he could attack King and so he went 30 .... Qe4. It was all over and just a matter of time. The only challenge for Kramnik was to muster courage to get his King out even while approaching the 40th move. He eventually did move the King out of the safety net of the pawns. Anand resigned a few moves later when it is clear that the King can safely hide and the pawn can be Queened.

Kramnik vs Anand Dos Hermanas, 1996

2008-09-28T23:24:00.000-07:00

We continue the Kramnik - Anand matches with the game at Dos Hermanas, 1996. By this time, the two players were among the very top players in the world, with Anand having the advantage of having played the World Championship match against Kasparov.

Kramnik won the second decisive game between the two in an Exchange Gruenfeld.

Anand's 19 ... Rae8 and 20 ...Nc4 were one mistake after another, which enabled Kramnik to win an exchange by move 22. Kramnik went for more with 23. h4 which was a mini-blunder. Both the players lost the thread a bit for the next couple of moves.

The game was drawish even as late as move 59, but in a game of several mistakes, Anand played 59. .... Ne5 which was another mistake. 64 ... Bb2 more or less sealed his fate.

From this point on, Kramnik maintained the plus position and Anand's defence brilliance could not save him even though he presented some tricks to Kramnik.
When Anand resigned, one of his pawns was about to fall and the other one could be collected with simple manouvres.

Harikrisha finishes first on tie break at SPICE Cup, Texas Tech

2008-09-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

The Category 15 Spice Cup took place at the Texas Tech Student Union Building. Pentala Harikrishna finished first on tie break although he tied with GM Onischuk, GM Kritz, and GM Akobian. Defending champion Eugene Perelshteyn finished 7th.

Final Standings:

1-4 Pentala, Harikrishna g IND 2668 5½
Onischuk, Alexander g USA 2670 5½
Kritz, Leonid g GER 2610 5½
Akobian, Varuzhan g USA 2610 5½
5. Becerra, Julio g USA 2598 5
6. Mikhalevski, Victor g ISR 2592 4½
7. Perelshteyn, Eugene g USA 2555 4
8-9. Kaidanov, Gregory g USA 2605 3½
Miton, Kamil g POL 2580 3½
10. Stefansson, Hannes g ISL 2566 2½

First Decisive Result Kramnik - Anand, Amsterdam 1996

2008-09-27T02:39:00.001-07:00

Anand achieved the first decisive result in games between the two great rivals (normal games). It was a long Sicilian Maroczy Bind game that lasted for 108 moves before Anand prevailed.

The most interesting aspect of this game was that Anand played like Kramnik ! Yes, he ground Kramnik out by gaining advantage bit by bit around the middle game stage.

Anand first erred with 19 ... h5 (Ra3 or h6 was required.) The next mistake came at move 26 where Anand played 26 ... Rxc5 (again Ra3 was definitely the best)
Anand escaped a bad position and moved to a slight plus soon enough.

Kramnik found the going tough even as both players played a technically accurate game until move 70-73 when the tired Kramnik made small errors to make the win possible for Anand. After that, it was Anand all the way as he nursed the two extra pawns in a won end game. Kramnik gave up when Anand threatened to Queen his advanced e pawn.