plik

Mastering

Positional

Chess

Daniel NarodUsky

�.

Pra<tlcallessons of

a Jun

or World Champion

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Mastering Positional Chess

Practical Lessons of a Junior World

Champion

by Daniel Naroditsky

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- John Donaldson

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by Viktor Moskalenko

Dismantling the Sicilian

A Complete Repertoire for White

by Jesus de

Villa

Attacking Manual

Explaining the Rules of Attack

by Jacob Aagaard

The Ruy Lopez Revisited

Offbeat Weapons

Unexplored

Resources

by Ivan Sokolov

"A substantial work, rich in ideas" - British Chess Magazine

Well-written

well-structured" - British Chess Magazine

Chess Opening Essentials,

Volume 4

1.c4, 1.Nf3, Other First Moves

by Dimitri Komarov, Stefan Diuric,
Claudia Pantaleani

The final volume in the series

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1.d4 Volume

King's Indian, Dutch, Grunfeld,

Benoni, Benko, Budapest, Modern

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Players

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Winning with White, Volume 1

by Dean Ippolito, Jonathan Hilton

The ideas & plans behind ALL chess openings

the final volume in the series

•

develop solid

•

gives casual players the ability to choose the opening that suits their style and taste

•

to test

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your rating

1900?

Get these books before you buy

ANY

other opening book!

Sure Enough

Every  chess  p l ayer  h a s   b e e n
through  the  o r d e a l   o f  making
blunders and all of us know how
hard  it is to come u p  with a  de

cent explanation for your silliness

afterwards. So how do you think
we felt when we discovered that
in New I n Chess 20 1 0iI (p.67)
we published a photo of a distin

guished gentleman in his late thir
ties claiming he was Sanan Sju
girov, the 1 6-year-old Kalmykian
debutant in the Russian S uper Fi
nal? You guessed right, we felt ut
terly silly.

The sunny side was that we were
swamped by reactions from Rus
sian chess p layers happily point

ing out the mistake and show

ing solidarity with our magazine.

Even  Vladimir  Kramnik  called
in telling us that he had laughed
his head off.  The  former World
Champion's call  was  particular
ly appreciated, as he also revealed
the identity of the  distinguished
'unknown' gentleman whose pic
ture we had published.

NEW iN

CHESS

Indeed, this is world-famous pianist

Nikolay Lugansky.

The man intently staring at the

chess pieces in front of him was
none other than his good friend,

world-famous pianist and avid

chess player Nikolay Lugansky!

Novelty of the Year

When is a novelty more impres
sive? When a player manages to

steer the game i n hitherto un
known directions after only one or
two handfuls of moves have been
played? Or if he digs up a nugget
well into the middlegame of a var
iation which colleagues have been

mining for years? To find out, our

colleagues of the Yearbook asked
readers to vote for the 2009 Year
book Novelty of the Year Award

(worth €350). Their answer was

pretty unambiguous: more than

Loek van Wely and Daniel Stellwagen

are 24 moves removed from the

Yearbook Novelty of the Year.

half of them (52.8% to be exact)
chose the novelty that Daniel Stell

wagen uncorked on move 24 in his
game against Loek van Wely at the

Tournament in Amsterdam.

& &

��K

�iV

Van Wely-Stellwagen

position after 24.tbe8

Here Radjabov continued 24 .. .  h 5
against Van Wely at t h e  Dresden
Olympiad .  Stellwagen's  investi

gations had prodded deeper and
he played:

:iYf3! and reached

a winning position:

25.tiJxd6 £.f6

26.c5

The only move to stay i n

t h e game was 26.�eI.

26 . ..tiJd5

27.exd5 e4 28. \t>e1

Stellwagen went on to win after

�g2. However, one might also

say that at this point he was a can
didate for the Missed Opportunity
of the Year, as he failed to see that
there was a forced mate: 28 .. . �C3+
29.�d2 �g3 30 . .i¥.xc3 e3 3I.�d3

J:l:fI+ 32.WxfI 'li'f2 mate.

Smashing the Sicilian

Don't you wax nostalgic when you
think of the golden years of theme
tournaments? Well, you prob

ably don't, as most of them took

place at the start of the 20th cen
tury,  such as the King's  Gambit
tournament in Vienna in  1 903 or
the Gambit tournament in Baden,
close to Vienna in  1 914, where all

gambits were allowed except for

NIC'S CAFE

the  Queen's  Gambit.  P robably
the last big theme tournament was
the Sicilian tournament in Buenos
Aires in  1 994 organized by JooP
van Oosterom for his good friend
and Sicilian advocate Lev Poluga
evsky.  Why is it that  theme tour
naments seem to have lost their at
traction? One possible reason may
have come to the fore in the Sicil

ian theme match that Judit Pol
gar and Gregory Kaidanov played

in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Despite the fact that the match
seemed to propagate the Sicilian,

Kaidanov/Polgar-Sicilian: 6-0

White won all four regular games

and also the two ensuing blitz

games! Only in the Armageddon
game that decided the match did

Polgar score a point with black.

S1 1 8.6 - 878
Judit Polgar
Gregory Kaidanov

Hilton Head Sicilian Theme Match
2 0 1 0 (2)

1 . e4  c 5   V L lf3  d 6   3 . d4  cxd4
4.tiJxd4  tiJf6  5 .tiJc3  g 6   6 .ile3
jt,g7  7 .f3 tiJc6 B:iWd2 0-0 9.ilc4

jLd7 1 0 .0-0-0 �cB 1 1 .�b3 tiJe5

1 2.�b1 l:leB 1 3.h4 h5 1 4.g4 hxg4
1 5.h5 tiJxh5 1 6.l:tdg1  e6 1 7  .�h6
'iWf6 1B.fxg4 jLxh6 1 9.'iWxh6 'iWg7
20.'iVd2 As it goes with Dragons,
only  this  was  a  new  move.  Be
fore, 20.'iVe3 and 20.'iVxg7+  had

been seen. 20 .. . tiJf6 2 1 . g 5 tiJh5
22.tiJce2 tiJc4 Now Black ends up
in trouble. Perhaps he should have
tried 22 .. . d S . 23.�xc4l:txc4 24.b3
J::!.c5 25.tiJg3 tiJxg3 26 Jbg3 J:tecB
27.J::!.gh3 e5

NIC'S CAFE

�

.i.i

.i'i¥

fijI'!,

I'!,

::r

I'!,�

�

::r

2B . .!:lh4! A fine move that essen

tially decides the game. 2B ... exd4
2 9 . 'iV h 2 �fB 3 0.'iWxd6 + � g B
31,'ij'xd7 d3 32.c4 'iW c 3 33.�4h2
b5 34.e5! 'iWxe5 35.l:th7 l:t5c7

�

.i �

::r

'i¥

I'!,

�

::r

36.'iWd6! An  elegant finish. After
36 . . .  'iVc3 3 7 .'iWf6!  'iWC2+ 3 8 .�a 1
Black i s  mated .

Fischerman

It's a well-documented fact that
Bobby Fischer loved comic books.
Superman, Tarzan,

he loved them

all and openly said so, although he
hated  the  Soviets  for  ridiculing
him for  his predilection .  I n  this
light it is safe to say that the Amer
ican  would  have  welcomed  the
news (although i

t's equally safe to

say that in his later years there was

hardly anything that triggered his
approval or consent) that Tobey
Maguire has accepted to play the
role of Bobby Fischer in a movie
that for the moment has the work

ing title 'Pawn Sacrifice'. Accord
ing to the website firstshowing.net,
this move will take Maguire, who

rose to stardom with his brilliant
renderings of Spider man in Spi-

der11lan I, II

and III, 'from com

ic book geeks to a whole new level
of nerd'. For the moment informa

tion about the project is scarce, but

the script will be written by Ste
ven Knight and the story is based

Tobey Maguire, 'from comic book geek

to a whole new level of nerd'.

on the acclaimed Bobby Fischer
Goes to War

about the I 972 World

Championship match in Reykja

vik by David Edmonds and John

�

Eidinow.

�

COLOPHON

PUB II S H I R,

Allard Hoogland

I TO R S ,I N, C H IIF,

Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Jan Timman

Rene Olthof, Peter Boel

ART,DIRICTION,

Steven Boland

PRODUCTION,

Joop de Groot

TRANSLATORS:

Sarah Hurst, Ken Neat, Piet Verhagen

SALIS AND AOVIRTISINC,

Casper Pieters

No part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system or transmitted in any form or by allY means, recording or

otherwise, without the prior

permiSSIOn

of the publisher.

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NEW iN

CHf.S4j

Dirk Ja n ten

Geuze n d a m

ast year w e witnessed a teenage

revolu tion in Wijk aan Zee. In

the absence of 'old hands' Anand,

Kramnik and Topalov, 1 9-year

old Sergey Karjakin won the
Corus top group, while 16-year

old Fabiano Caruana topped the

B-group  and  Is-year-old  Wes
ley  So took the  spoils  i n  the  C
group.  In  the  remainder of 2009
this trend of teenagers conspicu

ously coming to the fore contin
ued, the undisputed leader ob
viously being Magnus Carlsen,

who at 19 wrote history by be

coming the youngest ever world's

WIJK

A A N Z E E

number one  thanks  to  splendid
wins i n  Nanjing and London . Yet
the race is far from run, and  the

generation that has been dominat
ing chess for the  past two decades
is still very much around .  Alexey
Shirov won the 2009 MTel Mas
ters,  Vladimir  Kramnik was  the
strongest both in Dortmund and
i n  the Tal Memorial, Boris Gel

fand claimed the World Cup and

shortly Vishy Anand and Veselin
Topalov will play a match for the
World Championship.

For the chess world this battle of

the generations is a boon that adds

suspense to the top events and cre
ates  new rivalries such  as the one
between  Carlsen  and  Kramnik,
which has already produced sever
al epic battles. Typical of the un
derlying tension that comes with
the new situation  was  the effect
that a  relatively innocent remark
by Hikaru Nakamura had in Wijk
aan Zee. S howing his win against
Shirov from Round

to the press,

the American champion called

his opponent's decision to play
the Sicilian 'a mistake'. Nakamu
ra, who at that point was trailing
the leading Spaniard by 1

'/z

points,

felt that  S hirov  would  have done
wiser to play a  solid  I . . .es open
ing. After all, he, as White was in
a must-win situation, whereas Shi
rov would only strengthen his lead
if he drew the game. Nakamura's
words were not taken for the objec
tive remark he had intended them
to be. On chess forums they were
seen as an insolent and uncalled for
snide at  the great experience and
fighting spirit of Shirov.  Funnily
enough, it was Shirov's old rival

Kramnik who retaliated for him

when the Russian defeated Naka
mura the next day. Making sure

that no one missed his comment he

smilingly said that the American's

choice to play the Dutch Defence

was not a wise one, as he should
have known that he had excellent
results against that opening. And

one round later Kramnik rubbed

in  some  more  salt  after  beating
Magnus  Carlsen .  Relishing  the
words as he spoke them, he com
mented that  his opponent's choice
to play  the  Catalan had not  been
very wise, as he had excellent re
sults in that opening both as Black
and While.

As said, for the fans these witty

gibes and expressions of relatively
innocent acrimony only liven up
the proceedings, and it is tempt
ing to look at the 20 1 0 Corus tour

nament as a conflict of genera
tions. In that case the old guard

struck first. Alexey Shirov started

off by winning his first five games

and for three of these wins he re
ceived the €500 daily prize for the
best game. The win he liked best
was the one against Sergey Tivia
kov in Round 3 .

51 44. 6

823

Sergey Tiviakov
Alexey Shirov

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 (3)

1 .e4 c5 2 .tLlc3 No 2.C3 this time,

but another Tiviakov specialty.
2 . . .tLlc6 3.�b5 tLld4 4.�c4 e6
5.tLlge2 tLlf6 6.0-0 a6 7 .d3 b5 8.

�b3 tLlxb3 9.axb3 �b7 1 0.14 De
viating from a game Tiviakov

tronias, in which Black got excel

lent play (and went on to win) af
ter 1 0.tLlg3 d6 1 Lf4 h 5 . 1 0 ... d5 1 1 .

e 5 d4 1 2.exf6 dxc3 1 3.fxg7 �xg7
1 4.bxc3l:tg8 1 5.l:m

& &

1 5 .. . �xc3 S hirov had original
ly planned 15 .. . �d 5 , but seeing

NEW iN

CHESS

that Black would be worse after

1 6.�fI �f6 1 7 . f5 �h+ 1 8 . ttJ g3

�xg3 1 9 · hxg3 1:[xg3 20.�f+, he

decided to regain his pawn right

away. 1 6 . ttJ x c 3 �d4 1 7 . �f1

'iV

xc3 1 B

l:t

2 At this point Shirov

had the feeling that they were still
in Tiviakov's preparation and that
Black still had to fight for  equal
ity.  1 B  .. .  �d4  1 9 .�h5  c4  Set
ting a trap.  2o.bxc4 bxc4 21 .1:[a4
�d5 22.f5 e5 23.�xh7  And Ti
viakov  falls  for  it.  According to
Shirov, White  should have played
2 3 . � h 6 ,   when  Black  answers
23 .. .  �d7. 23 ... �d7 24.�h6

�

.t.��

��

f'::,

24 . . .

..IiL

xg2 + ! This was Black's

i n t e n t i o n . 2 5 . � e 1 A s S h i
roy showed, White cannot play

2 5 .1:[xg2,  because  of  25 . .  Jhgz
Z 6 . � x g 2   1:[g 8 +   Z 7 . � f3  q+
z 8 . d x e4  � d 1 +   Z 9 . � fz  �g 1 +
3 0 . �f3  �f1 +  3 1 . �e3  �

C 1 + ,

and Black can resign. 25 . . . ..\td5
2 6 .

�

a 3 1:[g1 + 2 7 .�e2 �g4 +

2B.�e3 1:[e1 + 2 9 . � d 2 �d1 +
3o.�c3 �a1 + 3 1 .�b4 1:[b1 +
White resigned .

Despite his explosive start, Shirov
didn't get carried away. He point

ed out that at various points he

had been lucky, and he also knew

that he had yet to meet his big
gest rivals. Three of his wins were

against the three Dutch GMs, who
not only happened to be the three

bottom seeds, but who would also
finish in these designated spots.

S hirov was certainly not dream
ing of the record of Viktor Kort

chnoi, who in 1 968 won his first

NEwlNCH�

eight games in  Wijk aan Zee, and
calmly accepted the draw against
Short in Round 6. His lead of one
and  a  half points  dwindled  to  a
mere half point when  he  lost  to
Nakamura in Round 7 .

S1 3 6 . 1 - 833

Hikaru Nakamura

Alexev Shirov

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 ( 7 )

1 .e4 c5 As a draw would not have

been bad for Shirov, Nakamura

believed that 1 . .. e 5 would have
been a better decision. 2.ttJf3 ttJc6

3.d4 cxd4 4.

ttJ

ttJf6 5.ttJc3 e5

6.ttJdb5 dS 7 .�g5 as B

gxfS

9.ttJa3  f5  Nakamura  was  happy
to  see  this  move,  as  he believed
that having left  the well-trodden
Sveshnikov  paths,  both  players

derstand i n g   that  Black  has  to
tread  carefu l ly.  15 ... �xe3  1 6 .
ttJxe3  �b6  1 7 .0-0  ttJf4

1 B

�

1:[gB 1 9.�f3

�

� �

��

�

.t.

�

f'::,f'::,

��

M�

1 9 ... ttJh3 + This turns out to be a
mistake. According to Nakamura,
Black should have tried 1 9 .. . 0-0-0,

as White cannot play ZO. ttJ d 5

ttJxd5 Z 1 .'iVxd5 now i n view o f
Z I . . .�xbz, and White is j u st a

Despite his explosive start, Alexev Shirov didn't get carried away.

were on their own now. 1 o.ttJc4

ttJd4 1 1 .exf5 ..IiLxf5 1 2.ttJe3 �g6
More Sveshnikov-like would have

been  1 2 . . .�e6. 1 3 .ttJcd5 �hS The
alternatives were 13 . . .  �g7 or 1 3  .. .
f5 .  1 4.c3 ttJe6 1 5.�d3 Now Shi
roy thought for  a  long time,  un-

pawn down . 2o.�h1 ttJxf2 + 21 .

l:txf2 �xe3 22

1:[bB 23.

1:[

�b6 24.�d5 Black's king is stuck
in the middle, which complicates

the coordination of his pieces.
24 ... 1:[g7 25.�d2 f5 26.1:[f1 �d7
27 .b4 f4 2B.a4 Afterwards, N aka-

WIJK

A A N Z E E

mura opined that 28.a3 , followed
by C4

CS was better. 28 ... a5 29.b5

�d8 3D.g3 White has to play ac
tively, to prevent Black from tak

ing his king to safety on b8, fol

lowed  by  transferring  his  rook
to  cS.  3D ... fxg3 31 . hxg3 �c8 32.
c4  �b8  33.1:[f6  I ntroducing the
threat CS ! .  33 ..  ..l:re7  34.�h2  e4
35.�c3 �c8 3Ule3 �a7?

i �

�

This  quickly  loses,  but  Black's
position was difficult anyway.  37.
�c6  l:rd8  38.c5  dxc5  39.ibe4
The black position collapses. 39 ...

.a:d6 4D.�xd6 �xd6 41 .�xa5+
Black resigned.

Nakamura now shared second

place with Magnus Carlsen . The
American had been playing strong
and energetic chess and he wasn't

the  only  one  who  believed  that
in this shape he might beat any
one.  Carlsen  closed in on S hirov
thanks  to  a  slightly  bizarre  win
against  Ivanchu k .   The  Ukrain
ian arrived at the board sporting
a gaudy tie and no doubt anxious
to show his best against the lead
er in the world ran kings. His plans
were upset early on in the open

ing when in the position he had

been aiming at he discovered that

his intended move had a serious

downside. As he would otherwise

have been playing a healthy pawn
down, he nevertheless went for
his original plan. A fterwards he
praised the precision with which
Carlsen had exploited his mistake
and admitted that his tie had not
been such a good idea either.

WIJK

A A N Z E E

After his loss to Magnus Carlsen, Vasily Ivanchuk regretted both his opening

strategy and the gaudy tie he had chosen for the occasion.

SL 1 1 .1 2 - 0 1 0
Magnus Carlsen
Vasily Ivanchuk

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 [ 7 )

1 .d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.tLlc3 tLlf6 4.e3
a 6 5.�c2 g 6 6.�d3 �e6 7 . b 3

� g 7 8.tLlge2 c5 9.cxd5 tLlxd5 1 0.

tLlxd5 �Kd5 1 1 .e4 �e6 1 2.�xc5
tLlc6 1 3 .�e3 J:l:c8 1 4.�a3 0-0 1 5.
l:!d1

The position Black had been aim

ing for. Only now did Ivanchuk

begin to doubt, but he couldn't
stop himself from making the
move he had originally planned.

15 ... tLlxd4? 1 6.�xd4 �xd4 1 7 .

�b1 �c5 1 8.b4 Now Black has to

choose between giving up a piece
or going for the following desper
ado action. 1 8 ... �xd1 + 1 9.�xd1

�xf2 2D.tLlf4 �c4 21 .�d3 l:!fd8

22.�e2 Black doesn't get a chance
to become really dangerous. 22 ...
�Kd3+ 23.Wxf2 l:!c2+ 24.Wf3
�c4 25Jlc1 l':!.xa2 26.�c3 b5 27.

J:!.a1 J:!.dd2 28 . .6i:xa2 llxa2 29.h4

h5 3D.g4 hxg4+  31 .Wxg4 16  32.
e5 Wf7  33.ex16 exl6 34.�e3 l:!c2
35.�a7 +  Black resigned.

The longest game of Round 7 was

also the most dramatic one. As
part of his preparation for his re
turn in the Corus top group (let's
not forget that he won the tourna
ment back in 1 986 and '87), Nigel
Short (44) had read Hemingway's

The OLd Man and the Sea.

A pur

poseful choice, as he explained, as
this novella is  about  'an  old man
who  hopes  to  catch  one last big
fish'.  That big  fish,  and  it need
not necessarily have been his last,
Short could have  caught  in that
fateful Round 7, when with excel
lent play he put Kramnik's Petroff
u n d e r   pressure  and  reached  a
completely winning position .

NEW iN CHESS

1 1

This was the position immedi

ately after the first time-control:

Short-Kramnik

position after 43.�e5

White is a pawn up and it's a big
one, as it is hard to see how Black
can stop the white a-pawn from
touching down on as, particularly
as the white queen gives him add
ed worries (with the knight com

ing to fS and threatening to take
on h6 if the black queen leaves) .

The game was played on a Satur
day, and those leaving early to go

for dinner could not believe that
the game had ended in a draw af
ter 63 moves. Still, that is what

happened and this is how:

43 ..

:im

44.4Jf5 �a7 45.a5 c5

46.f4 �a2 47 .a6 �c4 48.4Jxh6
�xa6 4 9 . 4Jf5 �f6 5 0:iVxc 5
�e6 51 .g4 jLxf5 52.�xf5 �b2 +

5 3.Wg3 'i!Hc3 + 54.wh4 �e1 +

5 5 .Wh5  �e8 +  5 6 .'i!Hg 6   �e3
5 7  .Wg 5   �e7 +  5 8 .Wh5  �e3
59.�f7  �xh3 +  60.Wg5  'i!Hh6 +
61 .Wf5  g6 +  62.We5 �g5 +  63.
fxg5 Stalemate.

Fortunately, this setback didn't

rob Short of his humour. Wistful

ly he elaborated on his Heming

way anecdote, saying: 'Of course

I should have realized that in the

end, i n his attempt to catch this

big fish, the old man is done in.'

For Kramnik this lucky break

had the effect such miraculous
escapes often have. The next day
he overturned Nakamura's Dutch
Defence and edged in on Shirov,
who maintained a half-point lead
after drawing with Carlsen in a
repeat of the Sveshnikov discus

sion they had in last year's MTel
Masters.

HD 6 . 3

-ASS

Vladimir Kramnik

Hikaru Nakamura

Wijk aan Zee 2 0 1 0 (8)

1 .d4 f5 The Dutch Defence,  ac
tually the opening Kramnik had
expected Nakamura to play.  2.g3
4Jf6  3.�g2  g6 4.c4 �g7  5.4Jc3
0-0 6.4Jf3 d6 7 .0-0 c6 8.l::tb1 4Je4
9.�c2  He  had  found this move

around 3 a.m. when preparing the

previous night. 9 ... 4Jxc3 1 0.bxc3
e5 1 1 J�d1 ! That was the idea.

11 ... e4 1 2.4Jg5 h 6 1 3 .4Jh3 g 5
1 4.f3 d5 Pretty much forced, a s it
would be way too dangcrous to let

White open u p the position after

. . . exf3 I

.exf

. 1 5.4Jf2 Wh8 1 6.

cxd5 cxd5 1 7 .c4 White has a most
pleasant advantage and Black tries
his best chance: 17 ... e3!? 1 8.4Jd3
4Jc6 1 9.�xe3

.t.�

��

�

fj, !'3:,

��

CiJ!£fj,fj,

fj,

'if

fj, !£fj,

�

1 9 .. . 4Jxd4? Black should h ave
tried

. .

'iVeS, even though the

players concluded in their post
mortem that W h i te woul d be
clearly better after 20.'i!HC I dXC4

4JxeS 22. dxeS 'i!Hx es 23 ·

f4. 2 0 .jLxd4 jLxd4 + 2 1 . � h 1

f 4 22.l:tb 5 ! A precise move that

Kramnik was very p leased with.
2 2 .. . 'i!Hf6 2 3 . �xd5 jLe6? This

loses quickly. 24.4Jxf4 gxf4 25.

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•

by "the man who changed chess history"

•

full of original insights & great portraits

•

now for the first time in figurine algebraic notation

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•

134 pages

•

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1 2

NEW iN

CHESS

WIJK AAN

Z E E

Vishy Anand:

simply needed some time to get going and sometimes you get

stuck in ruts.

kept getting the opposite of what

intended.'

l:!,5xd4 fxg3 26.hxg3 Black doesn't
have any compensation for the
two pawns. The rest isn't too dif

ficult.  26 .. J'ig8 27 .l:!,f4 'iVg5 28.
l:!,h4  �g6  29.'iVc3 +  wh7  30.f4
�xg3  31 .'iVxg3  l:!,xg 3   3 2 .�xb7
1:lb8 33.�e4 +  \t>g7  34.\t>h2 J:Ie3
35.a:g1 +  �f7  36.�g6 +  cJ;;e 7 37.

�d3 l:rb2 38.Rg2 Rxa2 39.J::[xh6
�f7 40J'ih7 �f6 41 .c5 laa4 42.c6

�xf4 43.c7 J:re8 44Jbf7 + Black
resigned.

Carlsen arrived in Wijk aan Zee
straight from a training camp
with Garry Kasparov in Morocco.

Kasparov believed that before he

was going to seek the wind-swept
shores of Wijk aan Zee, his protege
could do with some sun. He also
urged him to work on his physical

condition, so that he would feel fit

in the final rounds. After all that's

when a tournament is being de
cided, when players get tired and

start making mistakes. An apt pre

diction, as we would see.

So far Carlsen had been playing

well, without showing much of the
brilliance that had pushed him to
stellar heights in Nanjing. But ob-

W I J K A A N Z E E

viously, sharing second place with
Kramnik half a point behind Shi
rov, he was solidly in the race for
first place. The big clash we would
see in Round

after the second

rest day, when Carlsen was White
against Kramnik. And what a clash

it was. The photographers that

thronged the board for a chance
to catch some out-of-the-ordinary
shots (as opposed to man sitting
at chess board staring at pieces or
glazedly reading bulletin of previ
ous round) were in for a surprise.
After the clock had been started,

Carlsen, sitting motionless, closed
his eyes and didn't open them for
almost two minutes. Then, when
he finally looked up, as if awaken

ing from a nap,  he pushed his  d
pawn to d4. Afterwards Kramnik
joked that he had not known what
to  do.  Had  Carlsen  fallen asleep
and should he wake him up? The
Norwegian  himself was  unwill
ing to provide a clue, although he
did admit that till the very last mo
ment he  had  been  hesitating be
tween I .e4 and I.d4.

Initially his choice for r . d4

worked out fine, and he even

missed a chance to get a serious ad
vantage on move IS, but the game
will largely be remembered for
Kramnik's magnificent counter
play and the spectacular victory he
scored. When he showed the game
to the press, the Russian even
called it one of the best games of
his career. We feel privileged that
he consented to annotate the game

in great depth, yet with wondrous
lucidity, for this article.

Kramnik took the lead in Round

with a draw against Ivanchuk

and looked at the near future with
optimism. Unlike so often before,
when he would fall ill in Wijk aan
Zee, he was still in good shape and

felt he had the strength  to  fight
for tournament victory.  Kramnik
advanced to first place when Shi
rov  suffered  his  second  loss.  A
loss  that almost caused a  sensa
tion as it was the first win by Vi shy

Anand after an unusual string of

nine draws. Whatever the World

Champion tried, he could not get
a grip on his play and people were

already  beginning  to  wonder  if
he was really playing in Wijk aan
Zee or if someone else had taken
his place. After all, there also was
a  Vishy  Anand  active  on  Twit
ter,  who had confused many with

his  tweets.  Calling  himself (her
self?) Vishy Anand and support
ing that claim with a photo of the
real  Vishy  Anand  and  his  par
ents,  he  mainly posted innocent
and lame comments, but exposed
himself as a fraud when he boast
ed that in Wijk aan Zee it was time
to show who was the boss, not ex
actly the language the real Anand
would use.

Anand came to Wijk aan Zee

with the wish to do well, but ob
viously felt somewhat restrained
by  his  upcoming match  against
Topalov.  As he put it afterwards:
'I  simply  needed  some  time  to
get  going  and  sometimes  you
get stuck in ruts.  I  kept  getting

NEW iN CHFSS

1 3

the opposite  of  what I  intended .
I  was aiming for something and I
didn't manage  to  guess properly
and possibly some of my choices
in the beginning were  mistakes.
Not because they didn't work but

because I should have tried some

thing  else. '  But  then  came  his
lucky break against Shirov, a game
that, as Carlsen commented after
wards, followed 'the standard reci
pe':  'Vishy is brilliant in defending
this kind of position and counter
attacking. The  most likely scenar

io was that S hirov would play for
an attack, get into time-trouble

and miss a winning combination . '

Carlsen w a s right a n d t h i s was

the winning combination Shirov
missed:

j. j.

�

:i � .a �

::i: j. � ttJ � j.

�

'if

Anand-Shirov

position after 38

...

�

39.<1:Je6? A mistake shortly before
the  time-contro l .   White  should
h a v e   p layed  3 9 .l:!.x b + ,   w h e n
Black  retains a  slight advantage
with 39 . . .  l:!.cS .  39 ... J:!.xe6? Shirov
doesn't see the opportunity that
he is offered . He could have forced
a  draw  with  39 . . .  �xe6 +0.�xe4

As Magnus Carlsen sat with his eyes closed for two minutes, his opponent

Vladimir Kramnik wondered if he'd fallen asleep and if he should wake him up.

l:!.cc7 +1 . dxe6 �cS + ,  but winning
is the amazing 39 .. .  <1:Jg3 !  (threat
ening . . .  �h+), with the point that
+o .<1:JxgS  loses  to

l:!.XC I . 40.

dxe6 l:!.e5 41 . l:!.xb4 Now White
was in command and went on to

WIl1 111

moves.

That day Carlsen himself bounced

back with admirable composure

and played, as he explains in his

notes to this game fur ther on, his

best game in Wijk aan Zee.  And
it  is indeed  amazing to  see  how
a  world-class  player  like Sergey
Karjakin, as White, starts to err in
a fairly normal position and finds
himself in  a  hopeless  situation
only some eight moves later.

Carlsen continued to fight for his

last chances in Round

I I

and was

rewarded for his risky play against
Leinier Dominguez when the Cu

ban, after a tough and cool-headed

defence, made one crucial mistake.

�

.a j.

ttJ

�

'if

�

::i:

Carlsen-Dominguez

position after 30.'tWxc4

�

White's position looks threat
ening, but how threatening is it
really? 30 ... Wh8? A human reac-

Play 2

...

Nf6 in the Sicilian!

The Nimzowitsch-Rubinstein System

.�.aW.

•

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•

has nothing to do with the main branches of the Siclian

•

Bogdanovich, a recognized expert

•

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Hardcover

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1 4

NEW iN CH�

W I J K A A N Z E E

tion, stepping out of the queen's
fire line.  But i n  fact B lack could
have  played  3 0  .. .  .Ii2.xes  and now,
for  i n stance,  3 1 JH 1   'iYq  3 2 .

lLl g S + W h 8 3 3 · lLl h + �g7 3 4 ·

lLlxeS 'iYxes 3 S JH7+ Wh8, with a
draw. 31 .lLlxg7 Wxg7 32.e6 Now

Black is lost. He faces a dangerous

passed pawn and wiII soon lose his
c

pawn. 32 ... l:rb7 33.'iYc3 + wg8

34J:;(d6 l:!.e 7 35.l:!.xc6 'iYf8 36 . .a.c8
Carlsen wraps up comfortably.

36 . . . J:le8 37 .l:!.xe8 'iYxe8 38.'iYf6
�c8 3 9 .

g 2

�c2 + 40 .Wh3

'iYc5 41 .Wh4 'iYb4 42:�f7

Wh8

4 3 . e 7 �e1 + 44.Wg5 �e3 +
45.'iYf4 Black resigned .

With t w o  rounds  to  g o  Carlsen
and  Kramnik,  who had to  work
hard in a  Petroff to make a  draw

against Shirov, were sharing the

lead. They were half a point ahead
of S hirov  and  a  most  comforta
ble one and a half points clear of
a group of four: Anand, Nakamu
ra,  Ivanchu k  and  Karjakin .  The
pairings  in the  final two  rounds
favoured the Norwegian, but be-

fore he could calI himself the un
disputed 20 1 0  Corus champion,
Carlsen  needed  the  assistance
of various colleagues.  To begin
with he owed a  big thank you to
Vishy Anand, who played his best
game in Round  12 at the expense
of Kram n i k .   Or,  as  the  World
Champion put it himself, bearing
in mind his first win against S hi
rov,  ' I  am only here to spoil oth
er people's tournaments'. In a way

he was, but the way he unsettled
Kramnik's Petroff and took ad
vantage of the Russian's forgetful
ness was most impressive.

As Carlsen, with black, easily

held the draw against Peter Leko,
who was convinced that the nov
elty he was treated to was one of

Kasparov's, the top

seed entered

the last round  half a  point ahead
of Kramnik and Shirov.  AlI three
of them were White  in their last
game, but Carlsen seemed to have
the  'easiest'  opponent,  Fabiano

Caruana. Indeed, Kramnik had
run out of steam and soon resigned
himself to a draw against Karjakin.

Leinier Dominguez didn't realize how dramatic his draw offer turned out to be.

W I J K A A N Z E E

But the two other key games kept
the spectators and journalists glued
to the screens for many hours.

Everything seemed up in the air

when Carlsen ended up in a highly
suspect position against Caruana
and Shirov tried his best to mud
dy the waters against Dominguez.
The tension reached a peak when
in raging time-trouble Shirov con
jured up poisonous tactical tricks
and Dominguez's position sud
denly hung by a thread. A thread

that threatened to snap when af
ter 30 moves Dominguez offered a
draw in the following position:

Shirou-Dominguez

position after 30

. .

�g7

Down to his last seconds S hirov
sat frantically looking for a  killer
blow.  As the seconds ticked away
he failed to see anything forcing,
and realizing that he was about to
lose on  time he  quickly accepted
the draw  offer.  Dominguez  had

not seen either what all computers
and, as a consequence, everyone
else had seen by that time: White

could have forced Black's resig

nation  (had  he  made  the  moves
quickly enough) with 3 I .b4, when
after 3 I . . .�C7 32.'iYa8+ �f8 (still
seen by Dominguez, although  he
believed it would hold) 3 3 . J:lfr  the
bishop on

drops off.

For Carlsen this was not yet the

end of the ordeal, as he still  had
to  save  his  own  game.  This  he
managed, in part with the help of
Caruana, in part thanks to his te
nacity (as  you  can read  in Carua
na's notes  to  this thriller) .  A fter

NEW iN CHESS

1 5

close to six hours of play Carlsen
was sole winner (he shared first
place with Aronian in 2008) of

the Corus tournament for the first

time in his career.

At the end of a mesmerizing

and gripping last round the re

actions of the main protagonists

contributed to the conviction that
the 20 1 0 edition had been one of
the most exciting Coms tourna
ments in years.

Alexey Shirov was not in the

least shocked that he had missed

(shared) tournament victory by

one  move.  He  had  not  seen  the
win, so  why  should  he whine?  'I
understood that I probably should
have kept on playing, but I  didn't
have much time. And I  didn't see
b4; I  was only considering queen
c6. I couldn't evaluate it very clear

y, whether I was better or eq ual or

worse, even.  Then I  remembered
that he had offercd me a draw and
I  thought,  maybe  that's  the  saf
est  way. '  The  chance  he  missed

against Anand he found more

painfu l ,  but that  moment  could
not spoil his overall feeling of sat
isfaction either:  'I felt OK before
the tournament, I  felt OK during
the tournament, I feel OK now. '

As might have been expected,

Vladimir Kramnik didn't cher
ish such fcelings of contentment
(apart from the pleasant memories
of his win against Carlsen), but his

dissatisfaction didn't concern his
loss against Anand or the fact that
for the fourth time running he had
had an extra Black (although he ad
mitted that this was getting annoy
ing,  particularly for a player who
cherishes his white games), but the
overall level of his  opening prep
aration. 'My openings were really
going  wrong  here.  It was  such  a
disaster.  Something I  haven't ex

perienced for quite a  while,  since
the  match  in  Bonn  when  it  ap
peared that my opponent was  1 0
times better prepared than me.  I
had the same feeling here. Most of

1 6

NEW iN CHESS

the time I  was  getting completely
nothing  with  white  and  most  of
the time I was under pressure with
black. I have to think about this. If
you want to win tournaments like
this you at least have to do decent-
1y in the opening. I  had  something
like  five  worse  positions,  which
is simply impossible.  Of course I
am disappointed by the end of the
tournament, but objectively speak

ing I squeezed the maximum out

of the positions I got. With such
positions it's a

big achievement to

make plus three. I have very mixed
feelings, such strange games. On
the other hand, some games were
really good, so I don't know what
to think.'

Magnus Carlsen was delight
ed with his victory, but knew

well enough that it hadn't been a

smooth ride and that  he  had not
won  fully  on  his  own  strength.
'What I  am satisfied with is that
I  managed to  pull myself togeth
er both in some games and in gen
eral in the tournament after I  lost
to  Kramnik.  Of course,  a  lot  of
things went my way in the last few
rounds, but it would be  fair to say
that both Kramnik and Shirov def
initely had their share of luck earli
er in the tournament. I don't think
it was unfair that I won in the end.'

Following his superlative win in

Nanjing and his first place in the
world rankings, expectations have
often been unrealistically high and
he admits that he himself has also
been struggling with his own ex
pectations. 'Yes, in a way I do. Af
ter Nanjing, where almost every

thing went as well as it could have,

I find it hard to be completely
satisfied even with results as +4

here or + 3 in London. Because I

feel that even though the result is
g-ood, I  could do even better. But
the score  is  good.  I  won  shared
first with +3 here in 2008 .  Karja
kin won outright with +3 last year,
so it's a good score.'

NOTES BY

Magnus Carlsen

FR 4 . 4

C1 1

Sergey Karjakin

Magnus Carlsen

Wijk

aan

Zee 20 1 0 ( 1 OJ

1 .e4 e6!?

The Fren c h Defence. In my
younger years I used to consider it
at best a second-rate opening, and
I once even lost a bet with one of
my friends, and as a result had to
play

I .

. . e6 in all my black games

in a Super-GM tournament. For
tunately my friend was greedy,

and took money instead . I believe

that both 1 . . .cs and 1 . . .es! are bet
ter choices, but since I  desperate
ly wanted to win this game (I was
trailing the  leaders Kramnik and
S hirov by a  point  at  this  stage)  I
decided to try something new.
2.d4 d5 3.tiJc3 tiJf6

The other main move here is  3 . . .
�b4, which i s  rather more contro
versial.  Some  think it gives B lack
good counterplay, while others re

gard it as a simple positional mis
take to give up the bishop too
early.

4.e5 tiJfd7 5.f4 c5 6.tiJf3 tiJc6 7 .
�e3 �e7

Other options here are the rela

tively slow

a6, or the more con

crete

. . . cxd4, followed by . . . 'iYb6,

. . . 'iYb6 immediately, both of

which are rated quite highly by
Wesley So and his Rybka (see New
In Chess 20 r o / r ) .

8.�d2 0-0 9.�e2 a6 1 o.o-o b5

W I J K A A N Z E E

At the farewell party Magnus Carlsen was pleasantly surprised by a visit of

football star Edgar Davids (Ajax, Barcelona Juventus, AC Milan, etc.!,

who is a devoted chess player these days.

1 1 .<�7 h1 !?

An interesting and quite unusu
al move. r I .a3 or r I .<1:J d r are the

normal moves here. The text is

actually a  quite cunning waiting
move,  as  . . .  b4  and  . . .  as/ . . .  �a6
(the  normal  reply  to  <1:Jd r )  can

now be met by <1:Ja4, while . . . �b7

(one of several possible replies
to a3) can be met by <1:Jd I . Then

Black will probably have to play

. . . b4 and . . . as/ . . . �a6 anyway, but

with a tempo less.

Therefore I decided to be more
flexible, and make a more or less

useful waiting move.

1 1 . . .'lWc7 1 2 . a 3 �b7 1 Uh d 1
l:i:ac8

I: �

.t � � .t i i i

�

i i i b

tLl

� tLl

b b Wil �

b b

W I J K A A N l E E

1 4.'&'e1 A typical manoeuvre.
White intends to gradually start
an attack on the kingside, which is
why I decided to start counterplay
in the centre immediately.

1 4 ... cxd4 1 5.<1:Jxd4 <1:Jxd4 1 6.�xd4

�c5

I: �

.t � �

i i i

i .t i b

�

tLl

b b

�

b b

ld Wil ld

1 7 .'lWh4?

While this move might objective
ly speaking not deserve a question
mark, it was definitely a turning
point in the game, as after my re
ply, Karjakin got very uncomfort
able with his position.

r 7 .'lWf2 or something similar was

required, as the queen needs to
have more influence in the centre

after I play . . . f6, which is bound to

happen sooner or later.

1 7 ...�xd4 1 UlKd4 f6! 1 9 .�d3

This probably won' t help much
either, but since it was part of the
plan with '&'h4, I will not give it a
question mark.

1 9 ... h6

I: �

.t � �

i i

i b

WiI

tLl �

b b

20.exf6 20.�g4 �b6! would not
help White, while 20.fS fxeS 2 I .
�g4 <1:Jf6 stops any illusions of a
white attack.

2 0  ..  Jbf6  Now  it  is  clear  that
something  has  gone  wrong  for
White. The rook on d4 is exposed,
f4  is weak, and he will  be facing

tactical problems with . . . es quite

soon. The 'bad ' bishop on b7 is
certainly no worse than the white
knight, which has dominated it in
so many textbook games.

�

.t � �

i l:

WiI

tLl �

b b

21 .f5

2 I . J:[ g r   J::[cfS 22. <1:Je2  es  2 3 . fxeS
<1:JxeS would not have been much
of a  relief - the black pieces are
j ust  so  much  more  active  than

their white counterparts here.

2 I . �g3 l:i:cfS 22.l:i:f3 <1:Jb8! leaves

White on the brink of disaster.

21 ... �cf8 22.l:i:g1

NEW iN CHFSS

1 7

;i *

.t.� �

j. ;i

.l:i:

t2J �

b b

.l:i: �

22...tDc5!

The most energetic approac h .

T h e tempting 22 . . . e s 2 3 . tD xdS

jLxdS 24.J::rxdS tDb6, trapping the
rook, gives White very good draw

ing chances after 2 S .'tlfq tDxdS

26.'tlfxdS+ �hS 27. J::re l .

23.fxe6

xe6 24.J::rg4?!

2.j.. tDxdS  jLxd S  2 S . J::rxdS tDf4 26.
J::td4  'lWcs  forces  White  to  give
up  the  exchange  with  2 7 . J::rxf.j.,
as 2 7 . c3  tDxd3  2S Jhd3 �Xg 1 +
29.Wxgr 1:1f1  is mate. That being
said, it would probably have been
a better try.

24 ... tDf4 25.'tlfg3

� *

� .l:i:

t2J �

'iY

b b

.l:i: �

25...�e7 !

The  last  key  move,  after  which
Black is completely winning. Thc
point  i s   to  control  e2,  leaving
the white knight without a  good
square after . . .  d4 next. The tacti
cal justification, based on a slight

ly surprising queen sac, is:
26.J::rxf4

After this Black will have to make

only  a  couple o f  good  moves  to
win  the  game,  but  White  was
probably lost in any case, as wit
ness 26.h3 d4 27.J::re 1

1 8

NEW

CHESS

;i *

.t.

� .l:i:

t2J �

'iY b

b b

.l:i:

�

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

2 7 .. . �xe 1 + ! 2S.�xe 1 tDxd3 , and

Black  will  be  material  up in eve
ry  line.  Alternatively,  instead  of
2 7 . J::re 1 ,  2 7 . tDe2  tDxe2  2S. �xe2
�cS! wins an exchange, while 27.
tDd 1   �cS  2 S . J::re r   � f7  2 9 . J::r h4
�b7 30.J::rg r  tDxg2! (30· · · gS is also

very good, of course) 3 r . J::rxg2

l:rf3  32.�g.j. J::reS leaves the unco
ordinated white forces defenceless
against the threat of 33 . . .  J::re 1 + .
2 6  .. .  J::rxf4  27 .tDe2  27.�g6  J::rSf6
2 S . �h 7 +   � h   is  obviously  not
dangerous. 27 ... J::rf1

27 .. . J::rh.j., with the idea of 2S.�g6
J::rxh2+, and mate, was tempting,
but I could not refute the consid

erably stronger 2S.C3 .

.t.

2B.tDd4

Now Black can force a queen swap,

but 2S.h3 J::rxgr + 29.�xgr �CS+

30. �h2 d4! , finally activating the
bishop, was hardly stronger.

2B ... J::rxg1 + 29.Wxg1 J::reB

With the queens on the board
White could perhaps have hoped
to resist, but without queens the

extra exchange is bound to count,

even though the knight on d.j. is

keeping the position together for

the moment.

30.h4  �e1 +  3 1 . � h 2   �xg3 +
32.�xg3 �f7 33.wf2  wf6  34.g3
�cB  35.c3  �g4  36.jLc2  g5  3 7 .
hxg5 +  hxg5 3B.

�

b3 we5 39.�c2

J::rfB + 4 0 . W g 2 �d7 41 .tDf3 +
wf6 42.

�

b3 g4 43.tDd4 We5

Now the white king is cut off,  and
the undermining . . .  as/ . . .  b4 can
not be prevented .  44.

�

c2 il5 45.

�d1 �e4 White resigned.

best game in Corus 20 1 O !

NOTES BY

Vladimir Kramnik

CA 3 . 1 - E04

Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik

Wijk

a a n

Zee 2 0 1 0 (9)

1 .d4 tDf6 2.c4 e6 3.tDf3 d5 4.g3
In his preparations for the game

Magnus apparently considered

that  the  Catalan  was  my  weak
est point. I  had not expected this
opening,  and  so I  thought  for  a
few minutes and decided, in  turn,
to surprise Carlsen

I chose the

variation which in recent times I

havc usually played .

4 ... dxc4 5.�g2 �b4 + 6.

il5

Until the end of the 1 990S this
variation practically did not exist,

but it became popular after it was
employed by Topalov in his match

with me in 2006. It is a strange

variation, but up till now it has not
been refuted . Be my guest!

7 .tDc3

W I J K A A N Z E E

The  fashionable  move  in  recent
times.  Against Topalov  I  played
7 . �C2,  and  a  later  rapid  game
of mine with  avara went 7 . 0-0
0-0 8 .ii.gS .  Although  I  won both
games, I  did not obtain anything

special from the opening. Gener

ally speaking, as I understand it,
the Catalan is virtually the only
opening in which the best devel
opment square for the queen's
knight is usually d2.

7 ... 0-0

A i 8

ttJ

ttJ 8

b b � b b � b

iY �

B.a3

This logical move had occurred
only once, in a game between two
not very strong players. Boris Gel
fand played 8.�gS, which after
8 . . . bS 9.tLleS lla6 led to a compli
cated, unclear position (Gelfand

Kramnik, Moscow 2009).

I had not analysed 8.a3 seriously at

home, but had simply judged that

the  bishop  should  be  retreated,
since after 8 . . .  ii.xc3 9 .bxC3 White
has long-term compensation for
the pawn, and besides, in  this po
sition the inclusion of the moves
a3 and as is most probably in his
favour.

B ... �e7 ! 9.�a4

.i � A �

.i �

i i A i i i

i �

'iV

i b

f':.o

ttJ

ttJ f':.o

f':.o

� b b � b

�

W I J K A A N Z E E

Vladimir Kramnik: 'In his preparations for the game Magnus apparently

considered that the Catalan was my weakest point.'

9 ... c6!

Black's idea looks rather strange:

first he captures on C4, tryin g to
cling on to the extra pawn with all

his might, when suddenly for no

apparent reason he gives it back.
But there is a  logic in this: while
White is capturing on C4 with his
queen, Black succeeds in expand
ing on the queenside - the white
pieces inevitably come under at
tack with gain of tempo ( . . .  b7-bS,
and at some point ... bS-b4). Con
sequently, taking into account the
time spent by Black on . . .  �f8-b4-

e7, we obtain a more or less nor
mal version of the Catalan.

�

xc4 b5 1 1 .

�

.�d3 also came into consider

ation, although it also would not

have set Black any great problems:

I I . . .tLlbd7 1 2.tLlq ( 1 2 . 0-0 is met

by the typical 12 . . . .Q.a6, with the

unpleasant threat of 1 3 .. . b4) 12 . . .

tLlxq 1 3 .�xq �b7 1 4.0-0 �b6,

and it is doubtful whether White
can prevent . . . c6-cS.

11 ... �a6

From this point I began aiming to

sharpen the play. Possibly I over

estimated the situation. In princi
ple, I could have acted more calm
ly. For example, after I

r .

.. tLlbd7

1 2 ·�gS

�

b7 1 3 . 0-0 h6 1 4· �xf6

tLlxf6  I S . J:!. fd I  �b8  (the immedi
ate  I S  .. .  b4 is also possible) Black
need not hurry with  . . .  c6-cS and
can play this later.  I  think that in

such a position, when White's

dark-squared bishop has been re

moved from the board , and his

knight is at C3 instead of d2, soon
er or later Black will advance . . . c6-
c5 and completely equalize.

1 2 .

�

g 5

The correct decisi o n .

White must do something t o op
pose Black's clear plan involving

. . . tLlbd7, . . . b4 and . . . cs·

NEW iN CHESS

1 9

1 2...tLlbd7 1 3 .

�

xf6

The only move that is able to set

Black any problems.

1 3 ... gxf6?

Here I certainly became carried

away by my desire to complicate

the game. Obviously I 3 .. . tLlxf6

was bad because of q.tLleS, when

the c6 pawn is lost.

However, after 1 3 .. . �xf6 1 4.tLlq
il.q 1 5 . 0-0 b4 (it is also possible
not to hurry, by playing

I S

. . . �b6)

1 6.�C2 bxa3 1 7 .bxa3 h6 1 8JHd I

� C 7 Black has n o particular
problems, although his winning
chances are also nil.

1 4.�c2 b4

� .a 1

1 1

ttJ

ttJ 8

8 'ViII

8 8 Jl 8

1 5.tLla4

The natural move, which Mag
nus made quitc quickly, although

I S . tLl d l ! ? was interesting. Thc

idea is to bring the knight closer

to the kingside. Say, if I S .. . CS then

1 6.tLle3 (the pawn sacrifice 1 6. d S

exdS 1 7 .tLle3 is also possible).

15 .. .l::t c8

In the light of what follows, to
some extent this is a waste of a
tempo.

However, I was not sure that in
the event of the immediate

S . . . c5

Black would be able to regain the
pawn, for example, after 1 6.dxcS

J:!:c8 I 7 .axb4 axb4 1 8 .�q. Also,

1 6.0-0 cxd.j. 1 7.tLlxd4 nc8 1 8.�q

did not greatly appeal to me.

1 6.0-0

W hite's only chance of fighting
for an advantage involves a pawn

sacrifice. On the other hand, the

play takes on a character which is
possibly not altogether in keeping
with Magnus's style.

1 6 ... c5 1 7 .d5! exd5

1 8.

�

h3?

After a long think Carlsen takes, in

my view, a conceptually incorrect
decision, disrupting the rhythm
of the attack with the manoeuvre

il.h3-fS-h7·

The  most  logical  move  was  1 8 .
tLlh.j.,  and  I  think that  in  a  blitz
game  most  players  would  make
it instantly.  Nevertheless, it is not

so terrible: after 1 8 .. . tLles 1 9 .tLlfs

J:!:e8 followed by 20 . . . il.fS Black

has a reasonable position.

1 8 . J:!: fd l ! was very strong, when

Black unexpected ly has serious

problems. After the critical 18 . . .
d 4 White has the extremely un

pleasant I 9.�fS . In advance I had
intended 19 . . . J:!:e8 here, and if 20.

tLlxd.j. cxd.j. 2 I .il.q - 2r . . . tLl fS ,

b u t White calmly plays 2

Jh d.j.

and Black is in trouble. Virtual
ly the only move for Black is 1 9 .. .
il.d6, but the position clearly fa
vours White.

1 8 ...

�

b5 1 9.axb4

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Z E E

1 9 ... axb4

Of course,  not the computer rec
ommendation I9 . . .  cxb4 in view of
2o.'ifd2 - the  d4-square  is  con
ceded to the knight. Black's main
trump  is the bad position of the
knight on a4.

2UHd1

Too late!

2D ... d4 21..�J5?!

A continuation of the faulty plan.
The release of the knight on a4 is
far  more  important  than  the h7
pawn. 2 I . 'ife4 is dangerous only
at first sight - after 21 ... Me8 White
has no great threats. But the sim
ple 2 I .b3 was quite unpleasant for
Black .  After,  for  example,  2 I .  ..
J:'!.e8 22.�fS  h S  2 3 . tLlb2 'if q  24.
tLlC4 White has  definitely  suffi
cient compensation for the pawn,
and his game is far more pleasant
and  easier  to  play.  Carlsen  most

probably missed my next move.

21 ... tLle5!

The correct decision.  After  the
c o m p u t e r   r e c o m m e n d a t i o n
2 J . . .Wg7  White can revert t o  the
play  involving 2 2 . b 3 ,   in  an  im
proved  version.  Now,  however,
Black seizes the initiative.

22 . .ixh7 +

White should probably have re
verted to the plan with a blockade
on the light squares: 22.tLlxeS fxeS

23.b3  (the light-squared bishop is
no weaker than a rook, and there
fore  I  would  not  capture  on  c8)
23 . . .  'ifd6 (not paying any atten
tion  to  the  exchange;  after 2 3  .. .
Ma8,  i n  m y  opinion,  White  re
tains the advantage - 24 . .ixh7 +

W I J K A A N Z E E

�g7 2 S ·.iq J:ta7 26.tLlb2, with

pleasant and enduring pressure)

24 . .ixc8 .!:(xc8 2S .tLlb2 'lWe6 - and

it seems to me that Black has suf
ficient compensation for the ex
change, as he has lifted the block
ade on the light squares.

I  should mention that if 22.�xc8,
apart from 22 .. .  Vi'xc8 there is the
extremely unpleasant 22 .. .  d3 ! .
22...�g7

I: �

1. .t. � �

.I.

1. .1.

ttJ .t.

.I.

ttJ b

b �

b b

23.tLlxe5

Now  White  can  no  longer  com
fortably play b2-b3 .  For example,
23 .b3 tLlg6, exchanging the bish
op (or 23 · . ·d3 24·.ixd3 �xd3 2 S ·
llxd3 tLlxd3 26.exd3 fS )·

And in the event of 23 . .ie4 there

is  the  very  unpleasant  23 . . .  b3 ! ,
when  after  24. 'ifxb3  ( 2 4 . 'if d 2
a: h 8 )   24 . . .  �xe2  2 S . tLl h 4   �g4
26.Vi'C2 C4 27 . f3 .ie6 the knight at
a4 is still out of play, and Black has
a clear ini tia ti ve.

23 .. .fxe5 24 . .if5

If 24-b3 Black has several i nter

esting possibilities. I would prob
ably  have  played  24 .. .  J::l.h 8   (af
ter  24 . . .  C4  2 S .jLfs  the situation
is not so clear; for  example, 2 S  .. .
C 3  26.'ife4,  and  although Black
is winning strategically,  he might

be losing tactically .. . ) 2 S ·.id3 C4

(or the quieter 2S .. . �xd3 26.exd3

l:rc6 2 7 . 'ife2  'ifds  with approxi
mate  equality)  26.bxC4  .ic6  2 7 .
.ifs  � b 8 ,  a n d  here I  would take
Black's side - for the pawn he has
a strong passed b-pawn, two bish
ops and in general a rather active
position. However, W hite also has
his trumps.

24 ... llc6

An important manoeuvre.

25.'iVe4?!

Dr.  Tarrasch  would  have  an
grily  scolded  my  young  oppo
nent. It was time, finally, to bring
the knight into play: after 2 S . b 3 !
Mh8 26 .'ife4 (26. tLlb2  J::l.ch6 2 7 .
h3  �c6)  26 .. .  M c h 6  the  compu
ter  does  not  see  anything more
than  a  draw  after both 27. tLlxcS
.ixcs  2 8 .'lWxeS +  'iVf6  29 . 'lWxcS
.ixe2  30. 'ifxd4  .l:i:xh2  3 I . .iq,
and 27.'ifxes+ .if6 28.'iVq J:'!.xh2

29. tLlxcS  J::l.h I +  3 0 . Wg2  J::l. I h2 +
3 I .'iiig I .  True, it is hard for a hu
man to go in for such a variation: it
is obvious that after the doubling
of rooks on the h-file White may
get mated .  Apparently it was this
that concerned Magnus.

25 ... l:i.hB

2S . . . 'Ii'q was also possible, but

this move slows the development
of Black's initiative. For example,
26.'ifg4+ l:I.g6 27 . .ixg6 fxg6 28.
b3 C4 29·bxC4 'ifxC4 - Black is a
clear exchange down, but, accord

ing to one authoritative opinion, he

has enough for equality. I reckoned
that in this position it was not nec
essary to cling onto material, but at

any cost to advance . . . cS-C4, com

pletely cutting off the knight on a4.

26.'ifxe5 +

White misses the last chance to
switch to the variation 26.b3 J:lch6
and,  apparently,  make  a  draw
there.  Or  perhaps Magnus over
rated his position - it  seems that
from time to time he suffers from
this fault - as, however, do

How-

NEW iN CHESS

2 1

ever, in this respect we are both

still far behind Levon .. .

26 ... �f6 27 .'i¥e4

�

i �

.ft.

.ft. i

�

t2J i

i �

8 8

:a:

27 .. ..!:te8!

A  very  important  move.  Black
would like to play 27 .. .  C4 immedi
ately, but after 28.'i¥g4+ �f8 29.
�d7 the problem is not so much
the threat of jLxc6, but rather his
lack of useful moves. Now White
objectively  stands rather  worse,
and  he has to  think  in  terms  of
how to escape.

28.'iVg4 + �f8 29.�e4?!
A n o t h e r mystery

w h y d i d

Carlsen n o t  play  29.2Ld7  ?  The
position  arisin g  after  29 .. .  2Lxe2
30.'i'h3 �xd r  3 ! . Rxd r  l:i:ee6 (in
the  event  o f  3 1 .  .. a. q   3 2 . �xe8

'i'xe8 3 3 . tL:lb6 White succeeds in

creating  counterplay)  3 2 .2Lxe6
fxe6 33 .b3 'i¥ds is assessed by the
computer  as  slightly  better  for
Black.  It  is  hard to  say  what this
may  signify

Black has a very

powerful centre, and if he can set
it i n motion, White will be una
ble to save the game. On the oth
er hand, his king is exposed and
therefore White has counterplay.

I think that Magnus, in playing
more ambitiously, underestimat
ed my next move.

� E. �

.ft.

.ft. i

t2J i

i �

�

8 8

:a:

29 ... c4! 3D.�Kc6

By now Magnus had apparent

l y realized j ust how unpleasant

White's position was, and here

he thought for a long time. The
strongest move was the seeming

ly pointless 30.�f3 . After very se
rious consideration, the computer
produces the following line: 30 .. .

�g7 3 ! .'i¥fS .!:!.es 32.'i'f4, and for
the moment White holds on - but

that's not the way humans play

chess .. .

3D ... �Kc6

31 .'i'h5

White's position is now critical,

and he has practically no moves :
his rook o n  a r  and knight on  a4
are shut out  of  the  game.  Black
has a  powerfu l  pawn centre and
the two bishops. For example, af
ter 3 ! .<;t>fr iYdS 3 2 . f3 �bS White

is effectively stalemated, where

as Black is threatening to begin
advancing his powerfu l pawns.
Here Magnus used nearly all his
time remaining to the control (al
though with the 3 0-second ad

dition this is not so terrible) and
found an interesting practical
chance.

I mainly tried to work out what
seemed to me to be objectively the

strongest continuation: 3 ! .tL:lcS

'i'ds  3 2 . 'i'f3  iYxf3  ( 3 Z  .. .  'lWd6?
3 3 ·J::.\a6) 3 3 · exf3  d3 34.tL:lxd3 (af
ter 34. �a6 �xf3  3 S .tL:ld7+  <;t>q
36.tL:lxf6 �xd r  37.tL:lxe8 dz Black
wins)  34 .. .  cxd3  3 S .l' h d3  �xbz
36. J::!.b r  2Lc3 37·a.CI  �bS 38J �d5

l:i:b8  3 9 . :a.cS  �d7 (an  important
resource - the bishop succeeds in
reaching'  h 3 )  40 · � 5 xC3  b XC3  4 1 .
MXC3  jLh3  4z . a. c r   l:i:bz  43 . '!:!' e r
naz 44. � d r  <;t>e7 4s·a.cr <;t>e6.

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W I J K A A N Z E E

I  don't know whether or  not this
position is won - a separate anal
ysis is required.  I  will not be sur
prised if it is nevertheless won .
31 ...l:!.e5 32.�h6+ We7?

My opponent was in time-trouble,
so I decided not to allow him time
for thought, and I quickly made

this move.

After the correct 32 .. .  WgS!  I  did
not like the fact that after the tac
tical 33.tDb6 the knight comes into
play. Had I spent a couple of min
utes, I  would surely have seen the
reply 33 .. .  :!::t.e6 or even the simple
33 .. .  J:!.xe2, when the knight is not
going anywhere - if 34.tDxq there
is 34 .. .  �dS.  White  would  appar
ently  have  had  to  play  3 3 . �f4,
but here Black has a mass of good
continuations,  the simplest being

33 · · ·�dS 34·f3 �gS 3 S ·�g4 d3 36.

exd3 cxd3 37·tDb6 �cS+ 3S.<.t>g2
'i'xb6 39.:!::t.xd3 iYcS . It can be said

that 32 .. . WgS! would have practi
cally concluded the game.

33.e4

Very resourceful, although objec
tively incorrect.  This move does
not yet completely  spoil  the sit
uation, but  here  White  had  two
clear-cut, although not at all sim
ple, ways to achieve a draw.

The first is 3 3 .�d2! 'iVds 3 4 . f3
(weaker is 34·iYxb4+ WeS 3 S . f3

:!::t.xe2  36.'!:!:d2  d3  3 7 . �b8+ �dS
3 S . �xe2+  dxe2  3 9 . � e r   �d4+
40. Wg2  'iV e3  4 1 .  iY f4  'i' xf4  42.
:!::t.xe2+ Wf8 43. gxf4 �xa4) 34- . .  c3
3 S . 'i'xd4 �xd4+ 36. �xd4 C2 (or
36 .. .  cxb2 37·tDxb2 �xe2 3 S .l::b7+
WfS  3 9  . .!:!:xb4  �Xb2,  and  Black

W I J K A A N Z E E

cannot win this position) 37.a:q
(the only move) 37 ... �xa4 3S.Wf2
(or 3 S . J:r xa4  b3  3 9 . W f2  - White
loses after 39.:!::t.C7+ ?  �d6 40.l:i:aq
�CS !  4 1 . l:!.7xcS  �d4+  42 . Wfr
�xcS)  3 S  .. .  l:!.bS  3 9 · .!:!:xa4 b3  40.
Mq+  (yet another trap :  4o. l:!.a3
�CS ! 4 I .l::txcS �d4 + 42.Wg2 �xcS
43Jh r �d4, and Black again wins
thanks to tactics) 40 .. .  Wf8 4 I . l:!.aq
�Xb2 42.J::!.XC2 bXC2 43 . .!:!:XC2, with
an obvious draw.

And the second: 33·'i'f4! 'i'ds 34.

e4 'i'xe4 3 S .'i'xq �xq 36.tDcS,
and  although  White's  position
looks dangerous, he j ust succeeds
in gaining a draw: 36 .. .  J:!.e2 (or 36 .. .
.l:!:es 37.!h7+ Wf8 3S.tDd7+ �xd7
39J:hd7 l:!.e2 40.l::l7xd4 �xd4 4 I .
�xd4)  3 7 . �fr  (an  important re

source) 37 .. . d3 3 S . �a7+ Wf8 39·

�a6 �d4 40.l:i:xc6 .!:!:xf2+ 4 I .Wer
.!:!:e2+ 42.Wfr , and Black has to be
satisfied with perpetual check.

Of course, these variations are very
difficult to calculate with j ust one
and a half minutes on the clock.
33 ... d3 34.'iYe3

The computer suggests 3 4 . l:!.e r ,
a completely unfeasible move i n a
practical game, and reckons that

White can still somehow hold on -

34· · ·'iVd4 3 S ·�d2 WeS ( 3 S · · · l:!.bS

3 6 . .!:!:e3 C3 3 7 ·bxC3 bXC3 3 S .tDxc3

'iYxc3 3 9 . 'iYxc3 �xC3 40J :rd r )

36.�xb4 d2 37·tDc3 dxe r �+ 3S.
l::lxe r �q 39 .iYbS+ �dS. Black
is certainly better, but it is not so
easy to win.

34 ... �Ke4

Again quickly played, intensifying
the pressure.  34· · · l:!.xq 3 s .�a7 +
WeS!  36.'iVcS  (36.l:!.e r  �dS !  3 7 ·
tDb6 d2 3 S . J::!.ed r  � e s )  36 .. .  'iYds
37.'iVxdS �xdS also came into con
sideration, with winning chances.

� i

tLJ i i

i 'if

35.tDb6?

In a  difficult position, and short
of time,  White  cracks under the
pressure and blunders.  It would
appear that all our recent mistakes
were associated with the fact that
we were both excessively interest
ed in the fate of the white knight.

To reach Hotel leeduin the players in the top group had to watch their

step on the snow-covered slippery roads of Wijk aan lee.

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Checkmates I.

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On every move Magnus looked at
ways of bringing it into play, and I

at  possibilities of preventing this.
During  the  game  I  considered
only three possibilities for White,
in  one  way or another involving
the activatio n  of the knight, and

they would all have lost:

A) the move in the game;

B) 3 5 . tbc5 �c6, and White

loses everything;

C) 3 5 · f4 l:te6 3 6 . �c 5 + J:id6

3 7 . 'ifxC4 �d 4 + 3 S . <;t> fr 'ifd7
3 9 · tbc5 'ifg4! 40. J:ia7+ c.t>dS 4 1 .
tbe6+ 'ifxe6 4Z

'iV

q+ c.t>eS, and

the black bishops control the en
tire board.

The computer is  completely un
concerned about its knight on the
edge  of the  board,  and  it points
out the only move  which might
yet have held the position - 3 5 .

ne r !  with the idea after 3 5  .. .  d z  of
bringing the rook back: 36.�ed 1 .
There  i s  n o  logic  to  this,  but
Black has no direct win, for  ex
ample:  36 . . .  �cz 3 7 . �xdz �xd r
3S.'ifxdS+ WxdS 39Jhd r +  c.t>q
with a probable draw.

Apparently the strongest is 3 5 .. .
�c6! ' Now White has to find a se
ries of only moves:

�

� &

ttJ & &

& 'iV

�

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

36 .�C5 + !  (this square,  since  h e
loses after 36.'ifa7 + ?  c.t> f8  37.:Bxe5
�xe5  3 S . 'if c S +   'iVd6  3 9 . �xC4
dz  40. �CZ  �f3  4 1 . � d r   �xd r
4z .'iVxd r  b3 ! )  36 . . .  'iVd6 37 '�xC4
dz  3S . .a:ed r  �q  ( 3 S  .. .  �b7  3 9 .
tbb 6 ! ;  3 S  .. .  �xa4 3 9 . �xa4 ne r +
40 . <;t> gz  � x d r  4 I . � a 7 +   W d S
4z. l::raS+  with  perpetual  check)

W I J K A A N Z E E

39.�cS ! (39·tbb6? nxq 40.tbcS+
c.t>f8 4 1 .tbxd6 MCZ) 39 .. . .a:ez (it is
possible to play for domination by
3 9 · · · J:!d4 40.'iVxd6+ Wxd6 4 1 . f4
c.t>dS, which appeals to me), and

White is practically forced to give

up a piece: 40.c.t>fr 'iVxc5 4 1 .tbxc5
�b 5 4Z . <;t> gz �d4 43 . tbq �c6
44.c.t>fr .a:xe4 45.MXdz �b6

� &

i. i.

�

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

leading t o a n endgame which is

very similar to my endgame with

Ivanchuk in the following round .

B l a c k is certainly playing for a

win, but I am not sure that he will
be able to achieve it.

35 ... �b7 Defending against the
check on a7 . 36.'iVf4

36. Ma7 nxe3 3 7 · Mxb7 + c.t>eS 3 S .
fxe3 c3, a n d t h e black pawns can
not be stopped .

36 ... �xb6 A sad life, an inglorious

end, as they say .. .

37 .�xc4 l:re2 38JH1

And without waiting for the obvi
ous 3S . . . �d4, Magnus resigned.
A memorable game o n a grand
scale, as regards both the intensity
of the struggle, and the content of
the play.

NOTES BY

\fishy Anand

RG 6 . 1 2 - C42

Vishy Anand
Vladimir Kramnik

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 ( 1 2)

At this stage Kramnik and Carlsen

were leading the tournament with

+4 and I was still on + 1 . But

at least I had a good idea in the
Petroff that I wanted to try out.
1 .e4 e5 2.tbf3 tbf6 3.tbxe5 d6 4.
tbf3 tbxe4 5.d4 d5 6.�d3 tbc6
7 .0-0 �e7 8.c4 tbb4 9.�e2 0-0
1 0.tbc3 �f5 1 1 .a3 tbxc3 1 2.bxc3

tbc6 1 3J�e1 �e8 1 4.cxd5 �xd5

1 5.�f4 .a:ac8 1 6.h3 �e4

�

& & &

i. & & &

�

8 i. �

ttJ

� 8 8

'iV :

�

So far no big deal. Kramnik had

reached the very same position
several times, and j ust the previ
ous day against S hirov a very im

portant battle had developed af

ter  r 7 . tb d z .   But  I  didn't  want
to  repeat  S hirov's  idea because
I  assumed  Kramnik would  have

worked on that. I tried to find

something unusual and stumbled
on r 7 .�C I .

1 7 .'iVc1

In fact, I had beaten Kramnik

once with r 6.�c r instead of r 6.
h3, so this was the second time I
placed the queen on that square in
this line.

Both these moves I  had analysed
back in zooS with my second Ubi
lava, but there was  quite a  bit of
fine-tuning to do before I  could
make it work again.

1 7 ...tba5

NEW iN CHESS

2 5

Of course there are several possi

bilities for Black: 1 7 .. . ill.f6, 1 7 . · .
ill.d6 and probably quite some oth
ers as well, but it is interesting that
Kramnik started to think quite a
bit here, so I had the feeling that I

had caught him at least somewhat
by surprise.

1 8.\\Ve3 �f8

After thinking for quite some time
Vladimir realized that he had j ust
forgotten his preparation, so in

stead of wading into some sharp

line he went for the most passive
set-up, which is to pull the bish
op back and give me my space, and
settle for something solid.

Other moves were I 8 .. . �d6 and

I 8 . . .ill.fS ·

1 9.c4

.i A •

& & &

�

'i¥

b b A �

� 4:'l

� 8 8

�

1 9 ... 'iVd8

The queen has to withdraw, as

I9 .. . tiJxC4 fails to 20.ill.xC4 \\VXC4

2 I . ttJd2, and Black loses a piece.

20.ttJe5 �f5 21 .\\Vc3

21 ... b6

The problem with 2 1 . . .CS 2 2 . d S
is t h a t White h a s a passed pawn
which can always go to d6, so Black
tries to protect the knight without

2 6

NEW iN CHESS

Vladimir Kramnik doesn't know yet that Vishy Anand is going

to spoil his tournament, too.

conceding that, and it seems that
I should have taken this chance to
play cs, now or on the next move.
22.l:!.ad1

I had overestimated the possibil
ity of Black being able to put the

bishop on dS, but it seems that he

is not really able to do anything
with it, and if we reach the posi
tion after 22.CS! ill.e6 23 .ill.a6 J:1a8
24· �b S l:!.q 2 s . l:Iad I ill.d s 26.
ill.d3, White will threaten 27. �e3,
with a fairly safe advantage.

.i 'i¥ .i A .

& & &

�

4:'l A

8 8

�

� b 8

M M

�

22 ... \\Vf6

Black should have used his chance
to play 22 .. . f6! and then try and
swap the bishops with . . . �d6. I

would probably have gone back:
23.ttJd3 (if ! return by playing 23.
ttJg4 the position is equal after 23 · · ·
ill.d6 24.�xd6 cxd6 2S.ttJe3 ill.e6),
and White keeps some advantage.
23.\\Vg3

For the second time I miss the
chance to play 2 3 . CS ! . I was a bit

reluctant to mix it up, but it seems

that the space gained and the fact
that White takes away certain key
squares like d6 and also allows the
bishop on e2 to go to bS or maybe
a6, gives White quite an edge .

.i A •

& & &

'i¥

�

4:'l A

�

� b b

�

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

For e x a m p l e 2 3 . · . ill.e 6 ( 2 3 . . .
�xh3 runs into 24.'iVg3 ! - clearly

W I J K A A N Z E E

stronger than 24·�xh3 �xf4 2 5 ·
�d3 g6 26J:le4 - 24· · ·�fS 2 S ·�gS
'iVe6 26.�hS g6 - relatively better
is 26. . .�g6 27.�g4 �d5 2S.�XCS

l:lxcS 2 9 . tbxg6, although Black

should be lost here as well - 27.dS,

and the queen is lost) 24.'iVg3 .

23... <1.:J c6

We  had both assumed that White
was  better  here  after  the  game
continued  with  24· <1.:Jg4·  But  it
turns out that Black has  a  pret
ty  surprising resource  on  move
26, so perhaps the position is fine

for Black and White has missed
his chance to get an advantage by
playing cs on either of the previ
ous moves.

23 · · ·cS 24.dS �d6 2 S .�h S g6 26.

.!:i:e3 �xes 27 .�xes l:lxeS 2S. MxeS

<1.:JxC4 would probably be a pretty
good exchange sacrifice if White
withdraws the rook and the black

knight gets to d6, but unfortu

nately White has a tactic: 29.l:hfS !

�xfS 30.�g4 �C2 3 I .d6, and the
passed pawn costs material.

24.<1.:Jg4 �g6

!. .t �

�

� � �

� �

�

� �

� tLJ

�

� � �

jd jd

�

25.d5

I n view of the possibility that

Black missed on move 26, it seems

that

should have taken the pawn

on c7 here: 2 S .�XC7. For example:
2s · · J:le4 (less good is 2S .. . �C2 26.

Md2 <1.:Jas 2 7 . C S ! <1.:Jb3 2 S Jhc2

�XC2  2 9 . <1.:J h 6 +   - also  good  is
29.<1.:Jf6+ WhS 30.<1.:JxeS .!:!.xeS 3 I .
�es - 29 · · · � h S  3 0 . <1.:Jxf7 +  �gS
3 I .  <1.:Jh6+ WhS 3 2 .�es <1.:Jxd4 3 3 .
<1.:Jf7 +   �gS  3 4 · �xd4  M x e 2   3 S .

Mxe2 �d I + 3 6 . �h2 �xd4 3 7 .

<1.:J g S bxcS 3 S . �f3 , with a white

W I J K

AAN

Z E E

advantage) 26.dS (26.�f3  Mxe r +
27 .Mxer h S  gives Black counter
play)  26 . . .  <1.:Jd4 27 . �fr  �xg4  2S.
J:!.xq �xq  29.hxg4  <1.:Je2+  30.
�xe2 'iVxe2 3 r..!H r  l:teS 3 2 .�f3
�XC4 3 3 · d6  �bS  34.�d I ,  with a
white edge.

25 ... <1.:Ja5

Here, 2S .. . �C2 26. l:td2 <1.:Jas gives

White good compensation for the
exchange after 2 7 Jhc2 �XC2
2 S . <1.:J h 6 + �hS 2 9 . <1.:J x f) + WgS
30.<1.:Jes·

26.�xc7

!. .t �

�

� � �

�

tLJ

�

VJil �

� b �

jd jd

�

26...�c2?

We were both engrossed looking

for  forcing ways for  Black to  do
something specific, like this move
followed by 27 .. .  <1.:Jb3, but instead
the computer points out the calm
26 .. .  �cS ! ,  when it seems that af
ter the queen swap and the black
bishop's  retreat  to  d7 - 27 .�fr
h S  2S. �xeS+ (2S.<1.:Je3 �xg3 29·
�xg3  �d 7 )   2 S  .. JheS  2 9 . <1.:Je3
�xg3  30.�xg3 �d7 - Black has
full compensation. With his weak
nesses on  the queenside it is very
difficult for White to take advan
tage of his extra pawn.

27 .MC1 <1.:Jb3

!. .t �

�

� � �

�.

�

tLJ

� �

VJil b

� � b

�

28.l:!.xc2!

A nice exchange sacrifice, but in
fact White's play has been leading
up to this, and the next few moves
are fairly logical.

28 .. .  �xc2  2 9 . <1.:J h 6 +  �h8  3 0 .
<1.:Jxf7 +  � g 8  31 .<1.:Jh6 +  W h 8  3 2 .
<1.:Jf7 + � g 8  33.<1.:Jh6 +

A  little confusion here.  A  lot of
people, and briefly my opponent
as  well,  thought I  was repeating
moves, but in fact the first time, if
you notice, I took a pawn on f7 and
the second time I went to an emp
ty square,  so it's  not a  repetition
yet. I was simply trying to get a bit
closer to the time-control in case
the position got out of hand. But I
had the feeling that I was better, so

I intended to continue.

33...�h8

!. .t

�

� �

�

tLJ

�

b �

VJil �

�

� b �

�

34.�e5!

And in fact White is simply much

better here. The problem for Black

is that his king is really weak. The
light squares, potentially a bishop
going to e6 or hS, there are just so
many weaknesses around the king.

Plus, the pawn on dS is badly re
stricting his rook.

34 ..

�g6 34 .. . �d2 loses to 3 S .

<1.:Jf7 + �gS 36.�C3 ! �C2 37.<1.:Jd6.
35.�g4

It's better to keep the queens on,
as the win after 3 S .�xg6 hxg6 36.
d6 l::l.xes 37.<1.:Jf)+ \t>gS 3 S . <1.:JxeS
�xd6 39. <1.:Jxg6 would take more
time.

35 ... l::l.xc4

After the alternative 3S .. J:rcdS ei

ther 36.<1.:JfS or 36.�xb3 �xh6 -
3 6 . . .�d6 37.�e6 - 37.�e6 would

NEW iN

CHESS

keep two pawns and a massive ad

vantage. But after the text-move

there's a forced win.

3 6.�xb3 Rxe5 37 Jbe5 Rc1 +
38.�h2 �d6

�

& &

.i.

'iV tiJ

� M

.it

b VjJJ

8 � �

39.14

This move doesn't spoil anything,
it simply requires a little bit more

calculation .

After 39.�e3 t h e  game would b e
basically over, because 39 .. .  'iYxh6
is  met  by  40 . f4,  and  otherwise

Black can't do very much.

39 ... �xe5 4o.fxe5

�

& &

'iV tiJ

� �

.it

b VjJJ

8 �

2 8

NEW iN CHFSS

4o ... gxh6

The trickiest line would have been
40 . . . �e4, but the queen sacrifice

idea 4 I .d6 �f4+ 42.�g3 I:'i.h I +

43 . Wxh I 'iYxg3 44. tLl f7 + is not
that difficult to find once you work
out that the knight of f7 takes
away a lot of key checking squares

such as es and d6: 44· . . �g8 4S .
e6 (also winning, but more cum

bersome, is 4S.d7 �e I + 46.�h2

Wxh 4 7 · d 8 � :il' xe S + 48 · g3

'iYb2+ 49 . � g I  �xa3  so.'iVdS+)
4s · · · 'iVe I +  4 6 . � h 2   'iVC I  47·d7
'iY f4+  48 . W g I   �C I +   49 . � f2
� d 2 +   s o . � e 2   'iV f4 +   S I . � f3
�d4+ S2.Wg3, and wins.
41 .�e3

This is a good precaution to stop

. . . 'iVgS or any checks coming via

f4 or es, of course, and in fact the
rest of the game is fairly simple.

�

'iV &

� b

.it

VjJJ

�

8 �

41 . .:iVb1 42.d6 Jah1 + 43.�g3
J:!:e1 44.'iVf4 �f1 45.�f3

Black resigned .

NOTES BY

Fabiano Caruana

RL 1 2 . 3

Magnus Carlsen
Fabiano Caruana

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 ( 1 3)

This was one of the cri tical games
of the last round. Magnus Carlsen
had 8 points from 1 2 games, half
a point ahead of his nearest rivals
Kramnik and Shirov. If he were to
beat me, he would claim clear first

place.

1 .e4 e5 2.tLlf3 tLlc6 3.�b5 a6 4.
�a4 tLlf6 5.d3 d6 6.c3 g6 7 .tLlbd2
�g7 8.tLlf1 0-0 9.�g5

I knew very little about this vari
ation, so it was at this point that I
started thinking on my own.

.i. 'iV

!. �

& &

& .i. &

� &

.it

b 8

tiJ

� �

8 8 8

VjJJ � tiJ

9 ... d5!? An enterprising and risky

move, which, however, has no

clear refutation.

1 o .'iVe2

W I J K A A N Z E E

Other moves also lead to a rough
ly equal game: I O. exdS WiVxd5 I I .
ttJe3 WiVd6 ( I 1 . . . WiVcS 1 2 . 0-0 �e6

I 3 .ttJd2!, and Black has problems

coordinating)  1 2 . 0-0  ( I 2 . ttJC4
WiVds  I3 . .¥i.xc6 ? !  bxc6 is position
ally dubious for White) 12 . . .  bS 1 3  .

.¥i.b3 .¥i.e6, with an equal game.

I O . ttJe3 dxe4 I I .�xf6 WiVxf6 1 2 .

dxe4 ttJe7 is also fine for Black.

1 0 ... WiVd6 1 1 . .¥i.xf6

This surprised me. I hadn't ex
pected him to give up the bishop
pair without a fight.

I had expected I I .ttJe3 ! ? , with the
tactical point of 1 1 . . .dxq (I was
instead planning

I . . .bS) 1 2. dxq

ttJxq 1 3 . ttJ q WiVd5 14 . .l:i d 1 , but
here I missed the spectacular blow

j. j.

�

� j.

�

ttJ

�

ttJ

VJi 8 8 8

Jd <;it

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

1 4 .. . ttJ d4 ! ! I S . cxd4 ttJ x g S 1 6 .

ttJxgS WiVxg2, and Black wins!

11 ... .¥i.xf6 1 2.ttJe3 ttJe7 13 . .¥i.b3 c6

E �

� j.

j. � A j.

j. j.

� b b ttJ ttJ

b b

VJi 8 8 b

<;it

14.h4!?

A move which threw me off bal

ancc. I didn't realize he could play
this way! Soon, I started to feel
uncomfortable, because I couldn't
see how to counter his attack.

14 ... .¥i.e6 1 5.ttJg5

W I J K A A N Z E E

Fabiano Caruana came close to spoiling Magnus Carlsen's tournament:

'Bad luck! This move leads to a draw.'

1 5 . h 5 as leads to good play for

Black.

1 5 ... .¥i.d7 1 6.a:d1 A useful move.
In many lines White will have tac

tical opportunities because of the

queen's vulnerability on d6.

Black has no problems at all aftcr

I 6. exdS cxdS 1 7 ·WiVf3 ( 1 7 · ttJxd 5 ?

loses to 1 7 .. . �xgS) 1 7 .. . .¥i.c6.

E �

A � j.

j. �

A j.

j. j. ttJ

� 8 b ttJ

b b

VJi 8 b

Jd <;it

1 6 ... J::!:ad8!! This deep move was
the most difficult one of the game.
I hold up my shaky rear by tactical
measures!

My first intention was 1 6 .. . b S ? ,
but then

noticed the refutation:

I 7 . exdS cxd S I S . WiV f3 .¥i.c6 1 9 .

ttJe4! dxe4 20. dxe4, with a very
strong initiative for White.

Of course it was possible to play

I 6 .. . h6, but then after I 7.ttJf3, the

threat of hS becomes more un
pleasant, as the g6 pawn has been
weakened.

1 UllYf3?

An error based on miscalculation.

1 7 · exdS cxdS I 8 . WiVf3 �c8! was

the main point of I6 . . . J::t:ad8.

I suggest 1 7 . ttJ f3 ' ? , with h4-hS
to come, as White's best chance,
although Black is obviously not
worse.

1 7 ... h6 1 8.ttJc4 dxc4 1 9.dxc4

Seemingly attractive, but .. .

E �

A � j.

j. �

A j. j.

ttJ

� 8

VJi

b b

8 b

Jd <;it

1 9 ... ttJd5!

This i n t e r p o s i t i o n t u r n s t h e

tables!

NEW iN CHESS

2 9

20.Qlh3

A  sad move to have to make, but
the alternatives would have lost:
z o . exd S ?   hxgS  Z I . C S   e4,  or  z o .
cxd S ?  hxgS z Ldxc6 'i'xc6. In both
cases White has no compensation
for the lost piece.

zo.c5 'i'q z L exds cxdS is also

winning for Black.

20 ... h5 21 .'il'g3 iLg4 22.l:!.d2

E �
i

i � A i

� i

A b

il b

iY ttJ

b b M

b b

22...�xh4

�

Also  possible  was  zz . . .  'i'q  Z 3 .
cxdS  �xh4 Z4.'i'd3  �g7,  when
Black plans . . .  f5 .  Due to White's
offside knight Black has a serious
advantage.

2 3.'i'xh4 'i'f6 Z3 . . . Qlf4? is very
nice, but fails to Z4.'il'xd8! 'i'xd8
Z5·a.xd8 .!:!.xd8 z6.Qlxf4 exf4 z7.f3

�e6 z8.c5, with an equal endgame.
24. 'i'xf6 Qlxf6

E �

� i

il b

ttJ

b b

�

This is a very unpleasant endgame
for White.

2 5 . Ql g 5 c5 2 6 .f3 �c8 27 .�a4
�g7 28.l::!.xd8

expected z 8 . g3 .a.xdz Z9. �xdz

�h6 30.f4, and here

had planned

30 .. . �e6!, when it is very awkward
to defend the C4 pawn.

28 .. J:!.xd8

NEW iN CHffiS

A E

i �

� i

ttJ i

b b

�

29.b4!?

A move few people would have the
strength to make. Objectively it is
a mistake, but it offers practical
chances, as

was in time-trouble.

29...J:Id3 30.bxc5 l:[xc3?!
Unnecessarily complicating mat
ters. Correct was 30 .. . Qld71 3 Lc6

(3 I . �xd7 �xd7 is hopeless for

White) 3 I . . . QlcS 3 z . cxb7 iLxb7,
and White is being dominated.
3,. .;t>d2 nxc4 32.�b3 �xc5 33.
Qlxf7 a5

ttJ �

� i

�

34.Rc1 !  Although  the  ensuing
knight endgame looks lost, this
was  still White's only chance to
resist.  34 .. J�xc1  35.�xc1  a4 36.

�c4 b5 37 .Qld6 bxc4 38.Qlxc8 h4

39.Qlb6 Qlh5 40.Qlxc4

�

ttJ

�

40 ... �f6?

Bad  luck!  This  only  leads  to  a
d raw,  whereas  40 . . .  Ql f4  would
win !  But it's  difficult  to  decide
with  only  two  minutes  o n  your
clock  for  the  last  move  of  the
time-control.

should have played 40 . . . Qlf4 ! !

4 I .Qlxes Qlxgz ( I d o n ' t s e e any
way

fOi'

Black

win after 4 L .. �f6

4Z· Qlg4+ �g5 43 ·Qlfz!  Qlxgz 44·
Ql h 3 +   �h5  4 5 · �dz  g5  46. �ez
g4 47 · fxg4+ �xg4 48.Qlfz+  Wf4
49·Qld3 +  Wxe4 50. Qlc 5 + ,  with a

draw), and now:

A) 4Z. Wdz �f6 43 ·Qlg4 + �g5

44·Wez h3 4S·�fz �h4·

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

This position i s winning for Black.

Due  to  zugzwang White  will  be
forced  to allow Black's king into
g3 :  46.e5  Ql f4  47·a3  g5  48. �e3
Wg3  49· �q Qle6  5 0 . Qle3  Qlg7!

- an impressive manoeuvre, pre

paring . . . hz - 5 I . Qlg4 hz 5z. Qlxhz
Wxhz 5 3 . f4 g4 5 4 · f5 g3 5 S · f6 gz
S6.f7 t2Je6, and Black queens first;

B) 4Z.Qlg4

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

4 z .. . Qle I ! (an important move,

W I J K A A N Z E E

Wijk a a n Zee 20 1 0

cat.

KIK

Magnus Carlsen

IGM NOR 281 0

Vladimir Kramnik

IGM RUS 2788

Alexey Shirov

IGM ESP 2723

Vishy Anand

IGM INO 2790

Hikaru Nakamura

IGM USA 2708

Sergey Karjakin

IGM UKR 2720

Vasily Ivanchuk

IGM UKR 2749

Peter Leko

IGM HUN 2739

Leinier Dominguez

IGM CUB 271 2

Fabiano Caruana

IGM ITA 2675

IGM

2696

Loek van Wely

IGM NED 2641

1 3

Sergey Tiviakov

IGM NED 2662

Jan Smeets

IGM NED 2657

allowing the king to advance to

the centre) 43 . tUhz Wf6 44.Wdz

tU gz  4 5 . Wez  Wes  4 6 . W fz  tU f4
47 .We3 gS (this position is  losing
for White due to the weakness of
White's a-pawn)  4 8 . tU g4 +  Wd6
49· Wd4 tUez+ 50. We3 tUc3 5 I .a3

tUb r 5 2 . f4 gxf4+ 5 3 . Wxf4 tUxa3

54·tUe3 h3 5 5 · Wg3 We5 56.<.t>xh3
Wxe4 5 7 . tU d r tUb r , and the a

pawn is unstoppable.

41 .wd2 tUf4

42.<.t>e3

Obv i o u s l y   n o t   4z . tU e 3 ?   W g 5
43 . <.t> e r   tU x g z +   44 · tU x g z   h 3
45 . W fz  h z ,  and  the  black  pawn
queens.

42 ... tUxg2 +  43. wf2 tUf4 44.tUb2
a3 44 .. .  Wg5 45.a3! is also drawn:
45 · · ·Wh5 (or 45 . . .  h3 46.Wg3 with
a draw) 46 . tUxa4  tUd3+  47 . '>i;>gz

tUe r +  48 .<.t>fz tUcz 49.tUc5 tUxa3
SO.tUd3 tUC4  5 1 .Wgz  gS  SZ.Wh3
Wg6  S 3 · W g4  tU e 3 +   5 4 . W h 3
Wf6  5 5 . tUcS  We7  S 6 . tU d 3   Wd6

W I J K A A N Z E E

V-

5 7 . <.t>hz, and Black cannot make

any progress : 5 7 . . . tUcz 5 8 . Wh3

tUd4 5 9 . Wg4 tUe6 6 0 . tU fz WC5

6 1 .WfS , with a draw.

45.tUc4 tUd3 + 46.Wg2

46 ... wg5

46 .. . tUb4 47 . tUxa3 tUxaz 48. tUC4

is similar to 44 .. . Wg5 . This 3 vs z
pawns endgame is always drawn.
46 . . . tUe r + 47 · <.t> fz tUcz 48.Wgz

gS 49 · <;f;>h 3 tU e r 5 0 · � g4 tU d 3

S 1 .Wh3. Again, Black will have to
trade the a-pawns, with a draw.

47 .tUxa3 <.t>f4 48.tUc2

T P R

2822

V-

2801

2806

V-

7V-

27 7 0

V-

27 7 7

V-

2748

V-

2746

V-

6V-

271 7

V-

6V-

271 9

V-

2665

V-

2634

2638

V-

4V-

261 3

V-

4V-

2614

At this point I realized how White

would draw after 48 .. . gS .

48 ... tUb2

If 48 .. . g5 then 49 .a4 h3+ so.Wxh3

<.t>xf3 ·

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

5 1 . <.t> h z ! (this is the move I had

overlooked in my previous anal
ysis. When White's king reaches
g r , it will be impossible to create

threats with the g-pawn) 5 1 . . . g4

( 5 1 . .. <;f;>fz S 2 . <.t>h3 is a repetition;

5 1 . · · tU f4  5 z . <.t> g r   tUez+  S 3 . Wfr
tUg3+  S4·�gr  tUxe4  5 S .aS, with
a draw) 5z.<.t>gr <.t>xe4 5 3 . aS, and,
as usual, White's a-pawn is  too far
advanced  for  Black  to  have  any
winning chances.

4 9 . tU b 4 h 3 + 5 0 . � x h 3 Wxf3

51 .Wh4 wf4 52.tUd 5 + Wxe4 53.
tUe7 Eliminating the g-pawn. The
draw becomes obvious.

53 .. . wf3 54.tUxg6 e4 55.tUe5 +

�f4 56.tUg4 tUa4

Draw.

NEW iN CHESS

3 1

Anish Giri

Another Great Leap

Forward

In hindsight his original

ambition was laughably

modest. Seeded 1 2th

(from 1 4),

Anis h Giri

(rated 2S88 at that

point) had hoped that he

wouldn't lose too many

games and avoid last

place in the category

1 6 Corus B-Group.

Following an explosive

start with wins over third

and second seeds Pentala

Harikrishna and Liviu-

Dieter Nisipeanu, he

wo years ago, when I was elimi

nated as early as the first round

of the ICC qualifier

Corus C,

I could hardly have imagined that

two years later I would win the B

group o f the prestigious Corus
tournament.

3 2

NEW

CHFSS

understood that he might

strive for considerably

more. In a fairy-tale

scenario Giri continued

to dominate the field and

scoring four more wins

(against one loss and six

draws) he finished half a

point ahead of top-seed

Arkady Naiditsch to claim

the finest victory in his

young and prodigious

career. In the process the

winner added

3 3

points to

his rating.

Following my debut in the C

group last year (when I shared
second place with Tiger Hillarp
Persson, one point behind Wes
ley So), it was a great pleasure for

me to get invited to Wij k aan Zee

again. And it was an even great-

One of the special

attractions of playing in

the B-Group Giri found

that he could watch the

stars from the top group

in action from up close.

Next year it will get even

when he will be

sitting opposite them. In

a highly personal account

the I s-year-old Dutch

champion tells his 'own

story' of one of the most

sensational wins in recent

chess history.

er pleasure to have a chance to
play, this time, in the very strong

B-tournament.

Furthermore, I was also very

happy  with  the  strong  A-group,
since  in  Corus  I  am  not only a
player but also a  spectator,  who

W I J K A A N Z E E

can enjoy the exciting games from
the A

group and see all the top

players 'in real life'

©.

It was the most important and

strongest tournament that I had

ever p layed so far, and obviously
I took it very seriously. I prepared
very well and I think

was in pret

ty good shape.

However, I also think

was

lucky with my pairings, not only

because I had seven whites and

six blacks, but also because

had

white against everyone against
whom I wanted to have white, and

black against those I didn't mind

playing as Black against.

So (one has to be careful with

using the word 'So' when talking
about this year's Corus B

©)

first game was against Harikrish-

W I J K A A N Z E E

na, and since I had white, I was

pretty optimistic.

SL 4.3

0 1 7

Anish Giri

Pentala Harikrishna
WiJk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 ( 1 )

1 .d4 d5 2.c4 c 6 3.tiJf3 ttJf6 4.ttJc3
dxc4 5.a4 ilI.f5 6.ttJe5 e6 1 .13 ilI.b4
I had more or less expected this
line during my preparation, and

decided to check my opponent's

knowledge in a sideline.

B.ttJxc4

Here 8.q is the main move, and

now,  after  the  forced  8 . . .  ilI.xe4
9 . fxq ttJxq  I o .�dz  �xd4  I I .
ttJxq  �xe4+  I z .�ez  ilI.xdz+

I 3 · <;i;>xdz �dS+ I 4-�CZ ttJa6 I S ·

ttJxq, White has a piece for three

pawns, and the position is unclear.
When seeing the position for the
first time one may think that this

position  is  completely  random,
but in fact it has been played more
than  3 5 0   times  by  players  like
Kasparov,  Kramnik, Anand and
so on. Some have even played the
position with both sides. The text
move  took  Harikrishna  by  sur
prise and after some thought he
went for .. .

B ... ttJd5

was very surprised that he played

this move, since I remembered
that when

checked some statis-

tics of this line, 8 . . . 0-0 was the

main move, with 8 . . . C5 as the sec-

ond choice, but with a big gap in

between. The move he played was
the third option . . .

NEW iN CHESS

3 3

Indians in Wijk aan lee: Abhijeet Gupta, Pentala Harikrishna and Parimarjan

Negi. Humour has it that next year the festival will be called Tata Chess

Tournament after the Indian owner of the Corus steel works.

�

After he played 8 . . . tLldS I real
ized that it was a trap, since after
9 .�d2 he can pick my d4 pawn.

Then of course I realized that it
was extremely dangerous to grab

the pawn. However, I hesitated for
a long time because of another op

tion: 9 .'iYd2.

With 9 .'iYd2 I don't give a pawn,

and after 9 . . .  tLlb6 (I totally missed
9 . . .  C S ,  but here  White  is  slight
ly  better,  too,  after  I o .e4  cxd4

I I .'iYxd4 tLlxc3 I 2 .'iYxd8+ 'i&xd8

I 3 .exfS - or I 3 .�d2) I O.q tLlxC4
I I .�XC4 �g6 1 2 . 0-0 I am slightly

better, I thought. But then all of a
sudden some very brave thoughts

NEW

CHESS

came into my head and I j ust

played 9.�d2.

9 ... 'iYh4 + ?

I had mixcd feelings after h e exe
cuted this movc. I was happy that
he had accepted the challengc, but
I also was a bit unsure about all
those complications.

9 . . .  tLlb6  was  best,  and  I  d o n ' t
cven think that t h e  bishop is bet
ter on  d2  than  the queen.  But  I
j ust wanted  to  provoke Hari into

grabbing the pawn and then pun
ish him for it. I knew it was tricky,
since I know that Harikrishna
himself is a tricky guy

©.

1 0.g3 'iYxd4

Here, I had originally planned

I I .e3·

:i �

�

i i

i i i

�

� .t ttJ �

ttJ

� b

�

ii �

]:I

'iY w ii

]:I

1 1 .e4

But then suddenly I noticed this

move and .. . I realized that it may

be j ust winning by force! I start
ed calculating, rechecking my cal

culation five times. After the fifth
time I thought that it was accurate
enough, so I went for it!

By the way,  I I .q is a strong nov
elty,  which  finishes  off  the  line
with  . . .  �h4+  completely.  I  was
very happy that even my compu
ter didn't see that move at once.
As  said,  I  had  initially  planned

I I . e 3 , when after I I . .. 'iYf6 1 2 .

e 4 tLlxC3 1 3 ·bxC3 �XC3 1 4· 1:[ c I

�xd2+ I S .'iYxd2

�

6 I 6. tLld6+

I  was calculating like crazy try
ing to be sure that I  was better.  It
is of coursc clear that I  am much
better, but sitting there in my first
game with really a lot of pressure

(exerted by myself

©)

I was not

that sure.

11 ... tLlxc3 1 2.bxc3 �xc3

:i �

�

i i

i i i

�

ttJ � b

b b

]:I

'iY w ii

1 3 Jh 2 ! ! The point! I was very
happy when after the game no one
less a person than Peter Leko told
me that he liked this idea!

13 ... .itxe4 I3 . . . �h3 was what Ha
rikrishna had been counting o n .

He had missed 14.'iYb3 ! . As I said,
I rechecked I I . q five times, so
luckily I had noticed the beautiful

I 3 .. .

�

h3 too.

1 4.'iYc1 Now I thought that I had
already won the game, but I for

got that he can give up the picce

and fight on .. . I was a bit upset of
course, but nonetheless after

1 4 .. . .it d 3 1 5 . 'iYxc3 'iYxc3 1 6 .
�xc3 �xf1 1 1 .J:!.xf1 0-0

W I J K A A N Z E E

E �

.i �

& &

& & &

�

tLJ

b b

W :t:t:

I think I played perfectly, without

giving him any chance.

1 B.<;t>e2 b6

To somehow develop, since I was

threatening ttJaS .

1 9. 1::!.d1 ttJa6 2 0 .l::!.d 6 l::!.fcB 21 .
ttJe5 c5

�

& & &

� &

R &

�

� �

�

22.a5!

I was very happy that I had con

tinued to calculate this move, since
after the seemingly very strong

22 ... ttJc7

I win a pawn by force with

23.axb6 ttJb5 24.

l::!.

d 3 axb6 2 5 .

l::!.b2!

Now the b6 pawn falls and he has

no chances. The rest I played very
accurately too.

W I J K A A N Z E E

25 ... ttJc7 26.ttJc4! l::!.eB 27 .ttJxb6
l::!.a6 2B.�d2 e5 29.ttJd5 ttJe6 30.
�xe5 c4 31 .ttJb4! l::!.a1 32.ne3
l::!.dB+ 33.�c2 l::!.h1 34.

l::!.

dd1

35.�c3 l::!.df1 36.f4 h5 37.�xc4

�

& &

�

tLJ w

S uddenly  I  took  all  his  pawns,
and with a  full extra piece in the
endgame I  am not afraid of any
one, not even of strong players like
Harikrishna!

37 ... h4  3B.ttJd5  J:!.c1 +  39.l:!:bc2
hxg3  40.hxg3  l::!.xc2 +  41 . l::!.xc2
f6 42.f5 ttJfB 43.�f4  g6 44.fxg6
�g7 45.l::!.a2 �xg6  46J1a6  ttJh7
47. �d3 l::!.e1 4B.ttJe3 ttJfB 49. �e4

ttJd7 50.l::!.d6 ttJfB 51 .�f3 l::!. b1

52.�g4 l::!.e1 53.ttJd5 ttJh7

54.

�

g5!

I felt that I needed some killer
move to force him

resign

©.

54 ... l::!.e5 55.ttJf4 +

Black resigned.

I was very pleased with my play in
this game! Afterwards I  felt that
I  was  in the best  possible  shape
and  I  was very  optimistic  about
the rest of the tournament! This
is why I think this game was very
important for my tournament as a
whole.

Of course I  knew that there were
still twelve difficult games await
ing me. The next one was  against
Nisipeanu .  I t  was one of my best

games in the tournament, and

I felt flattered when at the final

press conference M a gnus, the

winner of the A-group, said that
he liked the game!

RG 3.2 - C42

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
Anish Giri

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 (2)

1 .e4 e5 2.ttJf3 ttJf6

I decided that against a creative
and sharp player as Nisipeanu, the
Petroff would be a good choice,
and as it turned out, I was right!
3.ttJxe5 d6 4.ttJf3 ttJxe4 5.c4
A rare line that Nisipeanu had al

ready played a couple of times.

5 ... ttJc6 6.�e2

This came as a surprise. Before, he

used to play 6. ttJC3 , which is re

ally-really harmless. So in fact it
wasn't such a big surprise that he
deviated .

6 ... �e7 7 .0-0 0-0 B.d4 �f6

8 . . . dS was my first thought, but af-

ter 9.cxdS

�

xdS I O.ttJC3 ttJxC3

[ .

bxc3

�

f5 we get one of the main

lines of the Petroff, but with a pawn
on a2 instead of a3 ! I think this leads
to an advantage for White, since
now �b3 is possible, but more im
portantly the . . . ttJa5/ .. . �b3 idea is
less appealing.

9.d5 This move came as a pleas
ant surprise to me! I realized that
all I had to do was to make a cou-

NEW iN CHESS

pIe of reasonable moves and of
fer a draw

In fact, after this

move I get a slightly better (easier
to play) position . After the game
Nisipeanu said that he was try

ing

fight for an advantage by

any means, so this was his try. His

move is rather an understanda

ble mistake, since his advantage is
simply nowhere to be found.
Better was 9 . �d 3

fs 1 0 . J:!.e l

J:!.e8, and now  I r . g4 was the only
thing  that  bothered  me,  but  al
ready  before  I  played  8 . .

�f6,

had found

I I

. . . ttJxfz ! I z . �x fz

�xg4, and Black has a killing at
tack! Unfortunately, I

. g.j. is also

bad because of the simple

I . . .�g6

1 2 . gS , and now J z .. . �d7 ! ! . Never

theless I was very happy that I had
found . . . ttJx fz ! . ow that

r . g.j.

doesn't work, White has no advan-

tage after 8 . . .

�

f6.

9 . . . ttJ e 7 9 . . . ttJ e S was my fi rst

thought, but I rejected it, first of
all because I liked

. . . ttJC7 more,

but also because I was a bit worried

by some ideas like T O. ttJxeS �xes

Lf-t

�

r z .�f3 ( T 2 . g4! ? )

. . .

J:!.e8 J 3 . g4, and although i t i s clear
to me now that Black is better, over
the board

was not so sure.

Anyway, 9 . . . ttJC7 retained more

tension, and I think it was better.

ttJ

J:!.e8!

I was somehow feeling very good
after I made this move. My first
ideas were

. ttJg6 and

. . . ttJfS,

but then I asked myself, what will

White do i f I j ust make a move?
And I received no answer

©.

1 1 .ttJa3

.i. � .i

i i i

� i i i

.i.

f'::,

f'::, ttJ �

ttJ

f'::, �

Ji � � �

Ji 'i¥

n �

1 1 ... ttJf5

I . . . c6! crossed my m i n d . It's

strong, but I thought that once he
consolidates with ttJac2 I am the
only one that can get worse. The
computer proves that Black's dy
namic play is worth more than
the slightly weakened structure:

1 2 . dxc6 bxc6 1 3 . J::!:b I ! ( I 3 .ttJac2

�b6! I 4 . J:!.b I ? ? ttJC3 ! ) , and now

Black has a lot of possibilities, for
example: I 3 .. . �b6 1 4 .�e3 cs I S ·
ttJdbs ttJfS , and here I finally see

why my smart  engine  liked  . . .  c6
so much.  Well, I  am only human,
what can I say .. .

1 2

ttJ

ac2

ttJc5

This move I liked, too. My posi
tion felt really good, even though
my advantage is minimal. I don't

even regret that I didn't play . . . c6

a move earlier!

1 3.ttJb3

.i. � E

i i i

.i.

� f'::,

�

ttJ

f'::, f'::, ttJ

Ji � f'::, �

Ji 'iV

n �

1 3...�d7

I 3 .. . b6!? would be very clever in

order to capture on cs with the b

pawn and to have the b-file open .
I don't know, though, if it is worth
more than the d6-square for my
knight!

1 4.ttJxc5 dKC5 1 5.

�

d3 a5 1 6.J:!.b1

h6 1 7 .

i..

Here he offered a draw. I was about
to agree .. . but then I thought: l . It
is too early and z. What is his next
move?

1 7 ... b6

My last three moves were ' j ust
moves' and I think that it was

well-written, well-structu red book with a lot of interesting

ideas to explore. Sokolov introduces each chapter with plenty of

textual material and also summarises at the end."

British Chess Magazine

"Sokolov does not look at the variations he treats with rose
coloured glasses, and his conclusions and valuations are always
honest."

German Correspondence Chess Association

"The book is close to indispensible for those who want to be

thoroughly prepared for playing the White side of the Ruy Lopez."

Sverre Johnsson, author of

The Ruy Lopez,

Guide for

Black

Paperback

•

270

pages

•

€ 23.95

•

available at your local (chesslbookseller or at newinchess.com

3 6

NEW iN CH5S

W I J K A A N Z E E

very important that he runs out of

those easy logical moves like .!:!:b r

and .2.d2 before I run out of them.
Now he had

take time (which he

already didn't have too much of)

and make some decisions.

'iV i.

�

1 .t

1 1

1 �

�

� 8 CiJ �

� � �

M �

1B.�f3

This move I had missed, and now
I had a choice to make a draw

with I 8 .. .tbh4 or to continue, al
though I felt that my initiative was
disappearing.

1B ... tLld6

I forced myself to play this move,

because somewhere deep inside I

just wanted to make a draw and be
happy with my

Vzl2 start against

such strong players. But then I re
alized that my position was still

more pleasant to play, I had more

time and that 2 1 2 is better than

Vzlz!

. .

tLlh4 r 9 · �g3 tLl fS was the

draw that I was considering.

1 9.b3

19 .

.2.

f4 prevents . . . �es, but now

I have

. . . �gS 20.�xgS �xgS,

and I am ever so slightly better.

19 ... it..e5

'iV i:

�

1 .t

1 1

1 � .t

�

'iY

�

CiJ �

8 � �

M �

20.h3

W I J K A A N Z E E

This was a mistake. I even think

that t h i s move w e a k e n s h i s

position.

2 0 J H e r  would  keep  i t   almost
equal ,  since  now  after  20 . . .  fS
he  has  2 I . it..f4,  but  stil l ,   after

2 1 . . .�f6 22.�xes J:[xeS 2 3 . J::(xeS

�xes 24 . .!:!:e r �f6 I am slightly
better.

20 ... f5

Now I was already seriously think
ing about winning the game!

�

1 .t i:

�

'iV 1 1

1 8 "

�

CiJ 'iY M 8 8

2 1 .J::(fe1 �f6

30.

it..

e4?

At  this  point Nisipeanu  was  al
ready in real time-trouble, where
as I  had  a  lot  of time  and  a  very
pleasant position .  The computer,
however, tries to convince me that
it is equal.  This  time there is no
way I will believe it!

22 . .!:!: e 2 .!:!: e 7 2 3 Ja e 1 .!:!: a e B

24.�h5

A mistake, but it is hard to sug

gest something for him, since even

though I am only slightly better, I
have a lot of plans to improve my
position ( . . . tLl f7, . . . .2.d6 or . . . gS)
whereas he has none.

�

1 .t i:

'iV

1 8 .t 1

'iY

�

CiJ � M 8 �

24 ... g6!

He's lost two tempi. I can imagine

how unpleasant this is with only
minutes left for I S moves.

The computer screams that 24 .. .
tLle4! would have given m e an ad

vantage. I wasn't even consider

ing it!

25.�f3 tLlf7 26.

�

wg7

No rush!

2 7 .

�

g 3 �xf4 2 B . �xf4 tLl e 5 !

29.

�

d2 f4!

ow it is practically over, al

though he still has a saving move.

The final blunder. 30. f3 was the
only move, when 30 . . .

�

3 3 l .

.!:!:xeS .!:!: xeS 3 2 . J::(xeS .!:!:xeS 3 3 ·
gxh3 i s better for Black, but I

would prefer 3 0 .. . h S , and then

some slow plan with . . . gS-g4 and

maybe . . . tLlf7-d6.

30 ...

�

xh3!

31 .�c3

.2.

White resigned. This game felt

extremely easy, and that boosted

my confidence even further.

I think it is worth mentioning that
my second game was very impor
tant for my psychological prepara
tion

©:

before this game my kind

room-mate, Robin van Kampen

(another

year-old Dutch play

er who, by the way, finished shared
third in the

group), was always

questioning my ' great' fi ghting
spirit, constantly reminding me
that

play the Petroff. Well, af

ter this game I finally had an an

swer!

By the way, I had a very

nice time with Robin, with a lot of
fun ! Luckily enough there wasn't
a single day on which we both lost

our game. I can't imagine how

quiet our room would have been
in that case

©.

The third game was against

D i m itri  Reinderman .  At  that
point he had 0 out of 2, while I had
2  out of 2.  This,  however,  didn't
affect our game. In fact, he made
a  very  easy  draw  with  black .  In
the opening he played the Stone

wall, and I followed a good plan,

but then at some point I lost the
thread and he managed to equalize

NEW iN CHESS

easily. I wasn't all that upset after
the game, since I know that Dim
itri is, in fact, a quite strong player
and the fact that he had o/z was
no more than bad luck.

My fourth game was another

draw, this time, however, against
my fellow-leader, Ni Hua. I de
cided to go for the Petroff again,
and thanks

my preparation I got

an extra hour.

possibly should

have used some part of this hour
to equalize accurately, but I made
some small mistakes and then
only a very narrow tricky defence

helped me to equalize the game.

In fact, after the game the com
puter showed me that my defence
would not have been enough if he
had played a few accurate moves,
but we didn't even find this during
our post-mortem, so I was pretty
satisfied with this game as well.

After that game we had a dinner

with the managers of Cor us. I liked
this event very much, not only be

cause of the delicious food and nice
conversations,  but  also  because  I
liked  the  speeches  of  the  Corus
representative  and  of the  Chess
representative

Vishy Anand!

Well, back to my tournament.

After a well-spent rest day, when
it was mostly my computer that
worked hard, I had

play against

Emil Sutovsky.

G1 4 . 9

085

Anish Giri
Emil Sutovsky

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 (5)

This was my second game against

Emil. In our first game in Zu

rich last year, I played a very good

game, got a winning position with
black, bu t then I got too nervous
and sacrificed my queen when it
was not needed . In the end the
game was drawn, even though af

ter my queen sacrifice I was nearly
lost. So this time I wanted to get

back the half-point that I lost in
that game!

3 8

NEW

CHESS

1 .d4 ttlf6 2.c4 g6 3.ttlc3 d5

Emil  plays the Griinfeld  almost
exclusively,  so  obviously  I  was
prepared  for  this.  The  fact  that
we had had a rest-day before this
game was also to my advantage.
4.cxd5  ttlxd5  5.e4  ttlxc3  6.bxc3
�g7 7 .ttlf3 c5 8.�e3 'ifa5 9.'ifd2
ttlc6

1 0J:tb1 A clever move. White tries
to provoke . . . a6.

r o

.:1:[

c 1 cxd4

I . cxd.f 'if x d z +

z. Wxdz i s another main position .

1 0 .. .

1 1 .

l:!:

c1 Now the rook goes

to C1 after all, but the b6-square is
weak, which will be especially im
pOl"tant in the endgame.

11 ... cxd4

I didn't expect this variation from
Emil, because I thought that his
strong point was complicated play,

and those passive endgames were

not his style.

1 2.cxd4 'ifxd2 + 1 3.Wxd2 f5

Here 1 3 .. .

0-0

would not be good,

because of 1 4. d S , when 14 .. . l:!:d8
would be met by 1 S .�b6.

1 4.e5 �e6 1 5.

�

xc4 1 6.l:!:xc4

0-0

Of course, I was well prepared for
this position, but over the board I

got worried about . .

d8-dS, so I

tried to find the most precise way

fight against it.

Against Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky, Anish Giri had his revenge

for the game he failed to win in Zurich last year.

W I J K A A N Z E E

17 .We2 J:!.adB 1 B.J:!.b1 J:!.d5

And he went for it! The normal
plan for Black is . . . e6, . . . J:!.d7,

. . . J:!.eS, ... h6 and to wait and see.

This, however, is not Emil's style.

19.a4

1 9.J:!.xb7 ttJaS is the point.

1 9 . J:!.C2 was in teresting, but

wanted to get some minimum safe
advantage,  without any  calcula
tion. After  1 9 . 1:tC2  I  would have
to calculate both  19 . . .  f-1- and  19 . . .
J:!.bS, but i n  fact White i s  better af
ter both .

1 9. J:!.cS J:!.xC5 20.dxcS J:!.bS! 2 I .e6

ttJdS! was what

was considering

for a long time.

1 9 ... J:!.fdB 20.g3 h6 21 .h4!

Just restricting his options.

�

& &

.i � &

!'3J

l:: !'3J

� Cfj �

� �

l::

2 1 . . .ttJa5 And here I again felt

that my opponent was not in the
mood to j ust remain passive.

2 1 . . . J:!.Sd7 was the normal move,

when after 2 2 . J:!.b6 White has

an advantage, since after 22 .. . e6

will j ust take on c6, while af

ter 22 . . .

<tJh

I have got some op

tions to transfer my knight, e.g.
ttJd2-b3 or ttJe r -c2(d3 ), since d-1-
is poisoned.

W I J K A A N Z E E

22.J:!.c7 ! J:!.5d7

After the more normal 22 .. . J:!.Sd7
I had planned 2 3 . J:!.C2,

prevent

23 .. . b S , since 23 . . . bS fails to 2-1-.

J:!.cS+ W

2s ·J:!.aS ! .

23.J:!.c5! J:!.d5

Now, with some clever but simple

rook moves, I have won an impor

tant tempo.

24.J:!.xd5 J:!.xd5 25J:lb6 Wf7

26.�d2

& � .t

& &

.i � &

�

!'3J

� Cfj �
� �

26.'it>d3 ! was another idea

looked

at, but I  didn't like  it because  of
26 .. .  J:!.dS. What I  failed to see was
2 7 . h S !  gS  2 S .�xg5 ! ,   and  White

wms.

26 ... ..\tfB

26 . . . ttJc6 was, of course, the only

move: 27 .�c3 ttJdS, and now both

ttJd2-b3(q) and ttJe l -c2(d3) give
White a large advantage, although
Black is still hanging on .

27 .�c3 e6 2B.ttJe1 !

�

& l::

& &

�

!. � &

!'3J

�

� !'3J

was very happy with my knight

manoeu vre!

2B ... �e7 29.ttJc2

�

dB 30.

�

xa5!

J:!.xa5 31 J:txb7 +

Now 3 r . . . Ji.q loses to ttJb4-c6,

which may be what Emil had
missed from a distance.

31 ... 'it>eB 32.

J:!.

b4 J:!.d5 33.J:!.c4

He is not only a pawn down, but

also going to lose a second one al
most by force.

33 . . .

J:!.

d7 34.

J:!.

c6 �f7 3 5 . J:!.xa6

J:!.b7 36.a5

J:!.

b2 37 .Wd3

J:!.

a2 3B.

J:!.a7 +

Black resigned .

After this pretty easy game I was
already on a -1- / 5 score. Robin
also won his game (it was the first

game that he won) and we both
were extremely satisfied that day!

As I was already feeling I was win
ning the tournament,

very much

wanted

win my next game too,

even though I was facing a strong
and solid player, Tomi N yback,
with black. My desire to fight af
fected the opening very much (not
in a good way) and it was only my
optimism and confidence in my

self plus a positional blunder by

Tomi that helped me to win the
game.

SL 1 .7 - 0 1 2

Tomi Nyback
Anish Giri

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 (6)

As I already said, I wanted to in
crease my lead and I felt that I
could win this game too. This time
it worked, but next time

will be

more careful.

1 .d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.ttJf3 ttJf6 4.e3
�f5 5.ttJc3 e6 6.ttJh4 Ji.e4 7 .f3

�g6 B.'fib3 'fic7

Ji.

ttJbd7

1 0.cxd5 ttJxd5

NEW iN CHESS

17 ...�e7 !?

I knew that something very tricky
must be tried in order not to lose
without a fight.

.. JL:JcS I 8 .�cz tLle6 looks at

tractive, but after I 9 .�e3 Black
is completely hopeless. White will
just go �C4/Wb I , with a close to

winning advantage.

18.�xe7 Wxe7

19.�il3 + !?

An interesting switch . I 9 . �C4

�b4 zo.'li'cz tLlb6 z l . �ez was
simple and good.

19 ... 'li'b4 20.'li'e3 c5!?

I decided that I had to play in this

sharp manner since, with my king

on e), I would be i n big trouble
otherwise. Plus, this move sets a

very nice positional trap .. .

Simply z o .. . W fS i s quite possi
ble, though. White is better, but at
least I take my king to safety.

� � i i

'iV

8 8

W M

�

21 .d5??

A horrible positional blunder!
Now everything is turned upside

down, and it is Black who is stra

tegically winning!

Z I . Wb I ! would be very strong,
when I would have had to find

W I J K

AAN

Z E E

With a smile of relief Anish Giri shows his game against Tomi Nybiick to the press.

Remaining optimistic, he turned a strategically lost position into a winning attack.

the only move Z I . . . W f8 ! , and it
is not so easy for White to find

something  concrete.  However,
some slow  play like h 3 / a 3 /  �C4
should  give  him  a  stable  plus.
I n  fact,  in  our  post-mortem  we
missed  Z I . . . 'It>f8 ,  thinking  that
Black  would  be  lost  after  Wb l .
Now I can conclude that

. . . �e7

and zo .. . cS were actually not only

good moves from a practical point

of view, but also objectively.

� � i i

i 8

'iV

8 8

8 �

W M

�

21 ... 'It>d6! !

I was very proud to execute this
move. Now I block both the d S
and the

pawn, a n d I can start

pushing my own pawns o n the
queenside. Tomi had completely
missed this move, and since it is

the only way to stop d6, it is logi
cal that he made the terrible move

Z I . d S ·

22.il3 'li'il4!

If zz . . . 'li'b6 then Z 3 . a4 ! .

23.Md3 b5 24.ld.c3 l::!.hc8 25.jLe2
tLle5 26.Wd2!?

Nyback tries to flee with his king,
but it doesn't really work.

26 ... b4 27 J::tc2 bXil3 28.bxil3

i i

�

i 8 �

M W �

8 8

28 ... .a.ilb8

z 8 . . . 'li'd4+ ! ? was strong, but I

didn't like the idea of going into

the endgame, since he was in time

trouble and I wanted to mate him.
2 9 . l::!.hc1 c4 30.l:rc3 Mb2 + 31 .
�1c2

3 I . '>t>e r ! was necessary, when after
3 I . . .�b5 3 Z . WfI Black is clearly

NEW iN CHESS

better, but White is still holding.
31 ... �b5 32.J:!:xb2 �xb2 +

� �

�

8 �

�

'iV

�

� �

8 8

33.J:!:c2!? Setting a trap .. .

3 3 ... �b1 3 3 .. . C3 + 34.�xc3 ! was
the trap, but I had seen it already
before he played 33.J:!:C2.

34.�c3 Bad, but nothing is good
anymore.

34 .. . J:!: c 5 Now the C2 rook i s
bound to its square, since other
wise

is hanging.

35.g3 f5! 36.J:!:b2 �xe4 37 .Wc1

�

.i 8 � �

�

'iV

�

37 ... lUd3 + ! White resigned .

So, even though I won mainly be
cause of his blunder, I liked this

game very much, especially be
cause of my 2 1 . .. Wd6! .

The next two  games I  had white,
so I  was full of optimism as usu
al. But, in fact, in my next game
against L'Ami, I  was pretty much
outplayed  in a  Catalan  endgame

and I had to fight for a draw. Luck
ily enough I made it, even though
I  was  disgusted with my  position
throughout  the  game.  But  well,
one cannot bc  much  upset  with

5 '1217, and since I was also having
white against Howell, I had every

NEW

CHESS

reason to be optimistic. J\10reover,
my family members came to vis

it me after my game against Er

win, so I was full of fighting spirit
again!

The game against David was

pretty important and I won it al
most disturbingly easily.

G1 4.8 - 085

Anish Giri

David Howell

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 (8)

1 .d4 lUf6 2.c4 g6 3.lUc3 d5

Again the Grunfeld, and again I

was quite well prepared .

4.cxd5 lUxd5 5.e4 lUxc3 6.bxc3
�g7 7 .lUf3 c5 8.

�

e3 �a5 9.�d2

0-0 1 0.J:!:c1 J:!:d8

�

8 8

� ttJ

'iV

8 8 8

� �

In this game Howell, compared

to S u tovsky, went for a sharp
line, but in the coming five moves
something went totally wrong,
and after

1 1 .d5 e6 1 2 .

�

g5 f

1 3 .

�

f4 f5 14.

�c4 �a4 1 5.�e2 b5 1 6.

�

xb5

'ii'xe4

the only thing I had to do was to

deviate from a game that we both
knew with

.i � .t .i

�

.t �

�

� � 8

�

� �

ttJ

'iV 8 8 8

�

1 7 . d x e 6 ! That game between
Moiseenko and Petrosian in Ohrid
2009 went 1 7 .�xq fxe4 1 8 . dxe6

�xe6 1 9 .

d2 a6 2 0 . �a+ lU d 7

2 1 . 0-0 lUf6 a n d ended in a draw
on the 67th movc.

1 7 .. . �xe6 If I 7 .. . 'iVxf4 I 8 . 0-0 ! ,
and White i s winning.

1 8.lUg5! �xe2 + 1 9.Wxe2

.i �

�

.t �

�

� �

� ttJ

�

� 8 8 8

Till move ) 7 we both blitzed out
our moves, but here my opponent
spent a full hour. It was already
too late, since he is totally lost by
now.

1 9 ... kxa2 20Jb1 �f7 21 .J:!:hd1
!:tc8 2 2 . lUxf7 �xf7 2 3 .�c4 +
We8

.i � .i

�

.t �

�

� 8 8 8

24.�e6

2 4 . J:!: d 6 !   would  have  won  even
more quickly,  but I  had  already
seen  the coming line  during  his
hour of thinking, so I went 24.�e6
as planned .

24 ... lUc6 25.J:!:a6! lUe7 26.�d7 +
�f8 2 7 .�xc8 1:rxc8 2 8 .

J:!:

x a 7

�xc3

Now it's a matter of techniquc,

and I decided to take the h-pawn
instead of the c-pawn to be sure
that he got no chances.

W I J K A A N Z E E

Anna Muzychuk may have been the bottom seed, but she didn't fail

to strike when Anish Giri went wrong at a crucial juncture.

29.

�

g5 lDc6 3D.

l::!.

xh7 �e5 31 .

l::!.dd7 c4 32.

f4! iLb2

Here I took some time to calculate
things through till the end .. .

�

� f'3, f'3, f'3,

3 3 . l::!. c7 lD d 4 + 3 4 . W d 2

l::!.

xc7

35.l::!.xc7 c3 + 36.�d3 lDe6 3 7 .

iL d 6 + � g 8 38.

l::!.

c8 + �f7 3 9 .

iLe5 iLa3 4D.�xc3

Black resigned .

A surprisingly easy game. Now I

was 1 1'2 points ahead of my pursu

ers, and my next game was against
the lowest seed .. .

W I J K A A N Z E E

So,  what else  did  I  want?  A  1 1'2
point lead, the next game against
the lowest seed in the tournament
and a  rest day! But like so often,
when you expect yourself to win,
things  go  wro n g,  whereas  when
you  don't  expect  anything  you
suddenly win game after game.

Against Anna Muzychuk I de

cided not to repeat the Petroff,
and

had some interesting idea.

However,

quickly mixed things

u p,  and  ended  u p   in  a  slightly
worse endgame. Then I  found a
precise way to equalize, but when
I  had to concentrate and make an

important decision I relaxed and

ended up being totally lost.

S1 1 . 4

8 5 1

Anna Muzychuk
Anish Giri

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 (9)

1 .e4 c5 2.lDf3 d6 3.�b5 + lDd7
4.d4 cxd4 5.�xd4 a6 6.

�

xd7 +

itxd7 7 .c4 �g4!? A new idea. Just
to kick the bishop out and then de

velop normally.

8.lDc3 e6 9.�e3

� � .a � i:

i i i

i i

9 . . . lDf6 I mixed something up.
I think

9 . . .

lDe7 would be much

better here. Black would have no
problems then.

d 2 ! Now the bishop on g4

feels uncomfortable.

1 D ... �e7 1 1 .h3

� �

.a i i i

i i �

�

8 VJJJ 8

t2J

�

f'3, f'3, t2J

f'3, 8

�

:a:

1 1 .. . e5 A must. After

. iLh s

she h a s t h e very strong 1 2 . f4 ! ,
with the idea o f g4 and fS ·
1 2.�b6

A safe choice, 1 2 .�d3 was more

ambitious .

1 2 ...

�

xb6 1 3 .

�

xb6 �e6 1 4.lDd5

�xd5

14 . . . l::!.c8 was maybe wiser. But I

thought that the text was easier.

1 5.cxd5 �d8

Now I exchange my bad bishop
and should have no real problems.
1 6.

�

xd8 �xd8

If I am not mistaken, I offered a
draw here. I wanted to check her

intentions, and I was clearly not

happy with the outcome of the
opening. Even though it is al-

NEW iN CHESS

Times have changed. Only a few years

ago, multi-processor systems were clearly
a minority affair and i f your computer

had four cores, you were obviously a

geek.  Since then  the  relationship between
both types of machine has changed and
nowadays  even notebooks are currently
available i n  large numbers in dual core
versions. For many standard  uses of the

machines, this l eap in hardware perform

ance is not tcrribly relevant. But chess

programs, on ti,e other hand, have long

been high performance applications which
benefit enormous ly from being able to call
on the greatest possible performance from

the system on which they run. But for

multi-processor systems, that is only pos

sible with a "deep" version, which unlike

normal versions of the program can simul-

taneously use all the available processors
for tile putposes of calculation .

Thus, even on a dual processor system the

new Deep Fritz

achieves an increase in

speed of

60-70 %

compared to what Fritz

can manage on a single core system.

The result of this is an i ncrease in playing

strength but also an improvement in the
quality of the analysis, because tllC pro
gram looks deeper into the position and
spots the critical moments more quickly.
Deep Fritz

1 2

is ready for the current

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developed, it was optimised for four and

eight processors, but it is already pre
pared for tile multi-core processors which
tomorrow will bring. The new version is
capable of working with up to

cores.

But the quality of a program does not

depend only on its calculating speed or

even on its absolute playing strength, but

also  to a  great degree on the quality of the
program's interface  and  ti,e character of
the  engine  itself.  The best analysis partner
is a  strong engine, but one which reacts in
as human and therefore as comprehensible
manner as possible and which is at home
in all phases and aspects of the game. This

concept has been turned into reality for
ycars by the programmcrs of Fritz, and
they have logical ly continued along the
same road with Deep Fritz

1 2 .

In particu

lar the evaluations in the middlegame have
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most equal, I had wanted to fight
in some sharp Najdorf, and now I
had to defend this endgame.
1Urc1

17 ... b5!

After some thought I found this
strong' move. The idea is to cov
er the C4-square, while c6 would
be covered by the knight from e7
via gS.

1 8.'it>e2 wd7 1 9.1:Ic6 l:!.hc8 20.
l:rhc1

i i i

1::

�

� i

�

b �

Cfj w � �

1::

20 ... l::txc6??

I j ust lost concentration, because I
thought this would draw anyway.

20 . . .'� gS! first was the way to

draw this position easily, for exam

ple: 2 1 .a4 CiJq 22. l:!.xCS J:i.xcS 2 3 .

l:txcS WxcS 24.axbS axbS 2 S . Wd3
WC) 26. WC3 Wb6 27· Wb4, and

now there are 20 ways to prevent

CiJ

-C3 , the most convincing be

ing 27 .. . CiJg6 2 S . g3 CiJf8 29 . CiJb 1
CiJd7 30.CiJc3 CiJc5 3 r .CiJxbS CiJd3+
32. Wc3 CiJxf2 3 3 · CiJxd6 'it>cs 34·
CiJb7+ Wb6, which is the line that
we found during our post-mortem
analysis.

21.l:!.xc6 CiJg8

W I J K A A N Z E E

�

i i i

1:: i

�

� b

Cfj w � �

22.a4! Now it's over. 22 ... CiJe7 23.
J::tb6 Wc7 24.a5 l:ra7 25.CiJf3 f6
26.CiJe1 !

�

i i

i 1::

� i

The  knight  transfer  to  b4  was
what I  had missed.  26 ... CiJc8 2 7 .
J::tc6 +  w d 7  28.CiJd3 CiJ e 7  29.l:tc3
Black's position is hopeless. 29 ...
f5 30.13 f4 31 .'it>f2 .!:ra8 32.h4 g6
33.g3 fxg3 +  34.Wxg3 g5

* �

�

1:: Cfj

� W

�

A desperate attempt to activate

some p ieces, w h i c h obviously
doesn't work.

35.hxg5 .!:rg8 36.Wh4 h6  37 .gxh6
l:tg1  38.l::rc1  .!:rg6  39.f4  l:!.xh6 +
4 0 . W g 3   exf4 +  41 . CiJxf4  CiJ g 6
42.CiJe6  'it> e 7   43.CiJd4  �f6  44.
CiJf5  �h5 45.l:tc8 l:!.g5 +  46.Wf3
J:lg1  47 .CiJxd6 J:!.b1 48J:[e8 a:xb2

49 . .l::\e6 + W g 5 50.CiJf7 + Wh5

51. We3 .!:rb3 + 52.<;t>d4 �b4 +

53.Wc5 a:c4 + 54.'it>b6 b4 5 5 .
l:txg6

Black resigned.

After this shocking game (the re
sult was more shocking than the

game itself) , everything turned

upside down in my head . Now I

no longer had ambitious plans to
win the tournament, but was try
ing to keep some control so as not
to lose my next game against Nai

ditsch, and to take my chances if

my opponents would be so kind as
to provide them.

The day that I lost my game

was, in fact, not over yet. After the

game Robin and I went to a restau

rant and as usual we made some

random orders. However, I was so
disgusted by the dish I got that I
decided to eat some of the choco
late cake we had in our hotel room.
When the candy that we took after

the dinner was no better than the

horrible dish, I realized that it was
simply not my day.

As I sai d , I was p layin g top

seed Arkady Naiditsch in the next

game. I wanted to play solidly, so

that at least I wouldn't lose two

games in a row before the rest day.
In fact, Arkady surprised me in the
opening and then after he found a
couple of precise moves in the end
game, a draw was quickly agreed.

I was still leading by half a point

when I had to play probably the

most important game in the tour
nament, against Wesley So.

RG 6.4 - C42

Wesley So
Anish Giri

Wijk

a a n

Zee 2 0 1 0 ( 1 1 )

I had had a whole rest day to pre
pare against Wesley,  but  since  he
has recently included  r . d4 in his
repertoire, my preparation wasn't
so  easy.  I  didn't  know  what  to
expect.

NEW iN CHFSS

1 .e4 e5 V2lf3 tLlf6

I decided to opt for the Petroff
again, since I felt that this game
was very important, and I wanted
to play solidly.

3.tLlxe5 d6 4.tLlf3 tLlxe4 5.d4 d5 6.
i.d3 tLlc6 7 .0-0 i.e 7 8.l:le1 i.g4
9.c3

� .

j. j. j. A j. j. j.

�

b � A

b ii tLJ

b b b

�

Wesley So has never played this
line before, and even though I ob

viously knew it well, over the board
I couldn't remember all the details.
9 .. .f5 1 o .�b3 0-0 1 1 .tLlbd2 tLla5
1 2 .�c2 tLlc6 1 3.b4 a6 1 4.a4
Here I started thinking in order
not to confuse things, a waste of
time that I later regretted.

14 ... i.d6 1 5.i.a3 'it>h8 1 6.'iVb2!?

This is a rare move, and now I re

alized that I would be unable to re
member anything, whereas he had

prepared this, so I started to think

how to trick him and get him out
of his prepara tion.

�

j. j.

� A

b � A

ii b ii tLJ

\if tLJ

8 8 8

M �

1 6 ... tLle7 !

The exclamation mark i s not
for the objective strength of the

move, but more for psychological

reasons. I knew that So had pre
pared this line with the compu-

NEW

CHESS

Wesley So and Anish Giri lost in thought at the start of Round 1 1 ,

'probably the most important game i n the tournament'.

ter and that he was not so famil
iar with the position. So it was not
surprising that this strong move
took him by surprise. The com
puter doesn't show it because it
underestimates the piece sacrifice.
1 7 .tLle5 i.xe5 1 8.dxe5 tLlg6 1 9.f3
tLlxe5 2o.i.f1 �f6

Initially I  had planned 20 .. .  �h4,
but then I realized that he has the
simple but  strong 2 r . fxg4 ! ,  and
now  d2  is never hanging,  while
2 I . . .'iVf2+ 22.�h r  tLlg3 + 23·hxg3
I:[f6 won't work due to 24.gS ! .
21 .fxe4 fxe4

•

j. j.

�

b b

\if

tLJ

b b

M ii �

22.�h1

So played this quite quickly.  I ac
tually think it is a big mistake and
he  should have  taken  some  time,
since he had a strong alternative in
22 . tLlb3 ! .  But maybe he was right

in playing quickly, because the

only thing that disturbed me dur
ing the game was my time, which
was slowly vanishing.

2 2 . b S   is  not  so  good  because  of
2 2  .. .  'iV fz +   2 3 · 'it>h r  e3  24.tLlb3
'iVxb2!  2 S .i.xb2

J:H2

2 6 Jh e 3

tLlq!, with equality.

2 2 . tLlb3 ! , however, would have
been very strong. I was think
ing that I'd get enough play with

.. Jhe8, or . . . �gS, with the idea

of going . . . tLlf3 + at some point,
but i n fact it is clear that I was
overoptimistic.

•

j. j.

�

j. �

b b

\if

tLJ

b 8

M ii

�

22 ... b5!?

When I saw this move, I immedi

ately played it! I liked the idea of

killing the white bishop on a3 so

muc h !   22 ..  .'iYh6 ! ,   with  the  idea
of . . .  :!if2 ,  would have been  very
strong and  would  have led to an

W I J K A A N Z E E

advantage for Black, but once I

J::!.afS 28.il.g2, and now i f 28 . .

.1:H2

saw my move I couldn't stop my
self from playing it!

�

� �

�

� �

fj, fj,

�

'iV

ttJ

fj, fj,

l:t

l:t �

23.tLlb3  23 ·axbS  axbS  24.�xbS
�b6!  was the  point.  Now,  after
2s .ihr , Black has 2 s  .. .  e3 ! .
23...�h4 24.'iYd2 J:!:f5! After this
strong move I  thought that I  was

just winning. In fact, I was over

optimistic again and I relaxed too
early. Black may be better, but it is
too early to claim victory.

25.tLld4!

The best move. 2 S . g3 was anoth
er possibility: 2S . . . 'iYf6! (2S . . . 'iYhs

was my original intention, but I

had missed the following brilliant

resource : 2 6 . tLld4 J:r f6 27 . axbS

�

� �

�

fj,

� �

�

ttJ �

�

fj,

'iV

E � fj,

l:t

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

then White is saved b y  the bril
liant 29JH r ! .  However, after 28 .. .
tLlq, Black still keeps enough of
an attack for the piece), and here
White seems to be in trouble:  26.

�g2 bxa4! (26 .. . �fS 27.tLld4 J::tf2

28.'iYxf2 ! ! 'iYxf2 29JHr , and it is

White who has an almost winning
advantage) 27. tLld4 J:t f2 28.'iYc r ,

and  even  though  White  i s   still
hanging  o n ,   Black  has  several
ways to cause White  some trou
ble, for example . . .  �f3 ,  . . .  tLlf3  or

. . . tLld3 ·

25 .'iYxdS J:[afS is the point. White
is lost here.

25 .. .  J:!:h5  2S . .  JH 2 !   was  the  only
move!  I saw the idea of 26 .. .  �f3 ,
but t h e n  .. .   I  thought t h a t  2 5  .. .
1:lh5 also wins and then forgot it!
In fact, things are far  from clear,
since after 26.'iYe3 �f3 ! ,  with the
idea of . . .  ctJg4, White has 27.tLlfS !
�xg2 +  2 8 . il.xg·2  J:IxfS  29.�g3,
and even though the engines are
saying that Black is better, I doubt
it. So in fact, the only time I really
had an advantage was on move 22,

when I should have gone for the
simple but strong 22 .. . 'iYh6! .

�

� �

�

� �

fj, fj,

ttJ �

.t �

�

fj,

'iV

b fj,

l:t

26.h3!

I had totally u nderestimated this
one. In fact I had missed his next
move.

26.'iYf4  was  the  only  move  that
I  had  seriously  considered,  and
then 26 .. .  tLlg6  (26 .. .  Wg8 ! ?  didn't
work due to  2 7 . Wg r ! )  2 7 . 'iYxq,
and now:

A) 27 . . . J:t fS ! . This strong move

was what I had seen. I don't know

if White can survive here, but

practically  speaking  he  i s   lost.
Here you can see how I mated my
engine:  28.'iYd6 h6! 29. 1:le3 'iYf2
30.�ee r  1:lf4!  3 I .'iYxg6

�

'iV �

�

b b ttJ � E .t

�

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

Sven Rom l i ng

(German

2nd

league player)

qual ified translator and i nterpreter

offers his services:

•

� �

(AR)

•

sachy

(el)

•

chess

(EN)

contact: chesstra nslator@goog lem a i l .com

W I J K A A N Z E E

•

echecs

(FR)

•

illaXMaTbl

(RU)

... into German. other languages on request

NEW iN CHESS

Wij k a a n Zee

2 0 1 0

cat. XUI

Anish Giri

IGM

NED 2588

Arkady Naiditsch

IGM

GER 2687

Ni Hua

IGM

CHN 2657

Erwin l'Ami

IGM

NED 261 5

Wesley So

IGM

PHI

2656

Pentala Harikrishna

IGM

INO 2672

Parimarjan Negi

IGM

INO 2621

David Howell

IGM

ENG 2606

Emil Sutovsky

IGM

ISR 2657

Anna Muzychuk

SLO 2523

1 1

Liviu-Oieter Nisipeanu

IGM

ROU 2681

Dimitri Reinderman

IGM

NED 2573

Tomi Nyback

IGM

FIN

2643

Varuzhan Akobian

IGM USA 2628

and now the totally brilliant 3

I .

. .

�d r ! ! , with the idea o f . . Jhh2+
and .. . 1:;(h4 mate, and . . . 'iYxfr

mate! This line is not forced,

of course, but i t demonstrates
Black's resources;

B) 27 .. J �cS is only a repetition

of moves:  2 S . �d6  (I  also didn't
like the brilliant-looking 2S.ttJf3 ,
which  doesn ' t  work  d u e  t o  the
equally brilliant 2S ... 'iVf2 29.'iYb7

'iVg3 ! 30.Wg r , and now 30 .. . 'iYd6!

was what

had missed) 2S .. . l:l.dS

29·'iVq·

26 ... l:rf8 27 .J:(e3!

White has survived Black's attack,
and after 'iVe r

will be left with

out compensation .

was very up

set, since j ust a couple of moves
ago

was sure

was going to win

this game.

27.'iYe3 was the only move that

saw, but then 27 . . . �xh3 ! wins on

the spot!

27 .. .l:H2 28.'iYe1 'iVf6

2S . . . .l:!. h 6 ! was the only way to
fight on, but

was so disappoint

ed that

was unable to find any

thing anymore.  Play  might con
t i n u e   2 9 . W g r   !:!. h f6  3 0 . h x g4
'iV x g 4 !   3 I . a x b S   a x b s   3 2. . l:!: e 2
J::i:xfr +  3 3 . 'iVxfr  a:xfr +  34. l:rxfI ,
and White has a huge advantage,
although  after  34 . . .  h6,  Black is

sti

in the game.

29.Wg1 !

NEW iN CHESS

'I.

�

i i

�

i �

� �

ttJ i

�

.i b

iV � �

A very nice move. Now Black is
totally lost.

29 ... J:(f4 30.hxg4

My opponent took some time

before making this move, and

thought he would find the sim
ple 3 0 .�c r , and

could simply

resIgn .

After the text-move

still can try

to set a trap or two, even though

am completely lost.

30 ... ttJxg4 31 .Iah3 J:(xh3 32.gxh3
ttJf2 3 3 . 'iVe3 'iV g 5

3 4 . � g 2

ttJ d 1 !

'I.

2 1 1 3

8V.

2 1 34

2 1 1 3

'I.

1 V.

2681

1 V.

2684

'I.

6V.

2625

6V.

2629

'I.

2601

2591

'I.

5V.

2580

5V.

2568

2546

2541

'I.

4V.

2519

Setting a last 'trap', which would
only work if he played .. .

35.'lWc1 ?

Here 3 s . 'iVe2 !  is  something that
a  player like So would  normally
find easily.  The strange thing is
that I had only a few seconds left,

whereas he had half an hour ( ! )

t o find the easiest win: 3 S .. . ttJXC3

36.'iVe r ! or 3 S . · · Iaf2 36.'iVg4! both
win easily.

Remarkably, 3 S Jh d

r ,

falling for

the trap, also wins: 3 5 · · · l':tfr +  36.
laxfr 'iVxe3 + 37.Wh r  h6, and now
3S.axbS !  'iYxc3 39.bxa6, and I can
not stop the a-pawn.

35 ... 'iVg3!

Luckily I was able to find this
resource.

Now the forced win is already

gone and the only thing he can do

is to give his queen for rook, bish
op, bishop and knight. But at least
I would have a queen and four
pawns.

�

i i

b b

ttJ i .i

�

� �

�

iV �

�

W I J K A A N l E E

36.tt::le2??

I  had  been  worried  about  this
move  for  some time, but then I
saw  the  mate  and  smiled  some
where  deep  inside.  You  cannot

imagine how happy I was when he

actually made this move.

So the way he should have played
was 36.�xd I  1:[f2 3 7 .'ii'fr  J:!:xfr +
38.J:lxfr  h6  39.ilLb2 bxa4, and the
win is not easy,  since his g2 bish
op  is  pinned,  while  my  a-pawn
will disturb  him  as well .  Having
said that, 40. C4!, opening the long
diagonal,  still  gives  him a  large
advantage.

. .

.l:H1 +

I took some time before execut
ing this move to make sure my op
ponent realized that he had blun

dered and would resign.

In hindsight I think that it was a

very complicated game, and even
though I  had been lucky,  I  didn't
feel that I had played badly.  May
be my worst move in the game was
wasting time in the opening.  And
I  must also add that  So defend
ed very quickly and very well un
til he relaxed in a totally winning
position .

After this lucky w i n  I finally real
ized that all components for tour
nament  victory  were  there,  in
cluding the final one - luck! I must
say  that  I  was a  bit  surprised by
the fact that the daily prize wasn't
awarded for  this round in the B
group at all, because my win (the
only win of the round) was a lucky

one. By the way, in total I won
four of those prizes: for my games

against Harikrishna, Nisipeanu,
Howell and Nybiick.

The funny thing was that

felt

myself getting more and more

nervous towards the end of the

tournament. I could even measure
it! The first days Robin and I al
ways took two pieces of bread be
fore the game, but towards the end
it got less and less. At some point
we started taking pea soup (one of

W I J K A A N l E E

the specialties of the Corus tour
nament, by the way

(9),

and before

the last two rounds we could hard
ly take any food at all.

Now I had one extra point with

two rounds to go. To be honest, I

wanted to win with white against
Akobian, who was in bottom place,
to make sure that nothing could

g'O

wrong with my tournament any
more. But unfortunately in the
opening (some r .tDf3 d6 2.d4 ilLg4)
I wasn't prepared well enough, and

even though I found a very crea-

In the last round, I had to play

Parimarjan egi, and unsurpris

ingly I went for the Petroff. The

game turned out to be much easi
er than I had expected. Negi tried
a  new  idea in the 3 . d4 1ine, but I
neutralized  it  comfortably,  and
in the final position I  was already
much  better.  I  even  had  some
thoughts of playing on, but then
decided that tournament victory
was  much  more  important.  Im
mediately after our post

mortem,

a lot of people asked for inter-

IJmond

We'll meet again. Anish Giri joined Magnus Carlsen at the final press conference.

'It was a great pleasure to hear some nice words from him about me.'

tive idea over the board, it was not

enough for an advantage. At some

point I thought that I had end

ed up slightly better, so I checked
his intentions by offering a draw.

He refused. Then, two moves lat
er,  he offered a  draw,  which I  re
fused .  And  then  we  continued
playing.  I  was slightly better the

whole game and got a rook ending

of three against two on one flank,
but at this level it is not possible to
win this anymore. Luckily enough,
all my pursuers also finished their
games in draws, so a draw in the
last round would be enough for me.

views and it took me some 20 min

utes before I could finally meet

my family. Later, there was a press
conference together with Mag
nus Carlsen, who had won the A
group. It was a great pleasure for

me to sit there with him and to

hear some nice words from him
about me.

All in all, I had a great time in

Wij k aan Zee and

am very hap

py that I managed to win the B
group, not only because it is always

nice to win strong tournaments,

but also because I got a ticket

�

for next year's A-tournament!

�

NEW iN CHESS

Man

MAC H I N E

brief history of six clashes that shocked and rocked the chess world

In the decade between

1 996 and 2006, man and

machine waged a war

for chess supremacy

in a series of six well

publicized

Garry Kasparov's 1 996

defeat of Deep Blue in

Philadelphia is viewed as

the first credible top-level

challenge by a machine,

while Vladimir Kramnik's

2006 defeat at the hands of

Fritz in Bonn is generally

accepted as the final

battle.

Vasik Raj lic h ,

the human brains behind

today's strongest and

top posts on the Voronezh Oblast

party committce. Then again, af
ter Kasparov moved into similar
political work many people began

to have a less sceptical attitude to
wards Chernyshov's business, and

Kostya himself is a nice, intelligent
person. If all communists were like
him I'd probably apply to join the

Russian Communist Party.

Unlike other modern grand

masters, Chernyshov has his own,
easily-distinguishable style. It's

not only the fact that he's partial

towards rare openings, but also his
ability

constantly find original

ideas.  When I  was  working on a
book about the Scotch Game re
cently,  I  realized that it would be
very convenient to have separate
databases  available  for  the main
specialists  in  this opening.  And
I  created  four  databases

the

games of Kasparov, Morozevieh,
Rublevsky and Chernyshov. You
can check this for yourself

Kon

stantin has introduced a lot of new
stuff into the theory of this open
ing. He also has quite decent tech
nique,  which  is  evident at  least
in  the  game  Chernyshov-Najer
which was annotated for  this re

port by the victor.

With so many obvious virtues,

why  then  does  Konstantin  have
such a  low  rating?  I  don't  know.
Perhaps he's busy with party or
ganizing and doesn't pay much at
tention to chess, not playing very
often .  But  he's  capable  of find
ing  s uper-moves.  I  won't  hold
back any  longer,  I'll  'quote'  the
game Chernyshov-Grischuk that

M O S C O W O P E N

was played in the Russian Team
Championship on April 22, 2005,
precisely on the day of Vladimir

Ilyich Lenin's birth.

i. � .t

� .t

ol ol ol ol ol ol ol

�

Chernyshov-Grischuk

position after 8

. .

�xc3

9.�c1 ! !

Cutting off the queen's path home
via a s .  This move would occur to
hardly  anyone  over the board  or
in home analysis. The queen hunt
turned  out  successfully,  White
chased  it  to  g7  (after  9 .

. g6 1 0 .

:!:r C I �e3+ I I . ttJe2 ttJa6 1 2 .ttJq
�h6 I 3 .�f4 �g7), almost stale

mated h i s opponent and won
convincingly.

There was also room for an

u n forgettable  move  i n   o n e   of
Chernyshov's  Moscow  games.
But only with a minus sign, as its
authorship didn't belong to Kon
stantin, but to  his opponent, the
tournament's favourite by rating.

i. �

� �

�

ol i.

ol ol �

�

� � CiJ

�

Motylev-Chernyshov

position after 2 3 . . .tt:lc6

From the pawn structure it's easy
to assume that the French De

fence has been played. True, it
started somewhat strangely

I .C{

e6 2 . d4 b6! ?, White exchanged off
the dark-squared bishops, pes

tered the e6 pawn and forced his
opponent to weaken his king. In

a word, everything was going fine
with him. As Chernyshov put it,
when he played 24.ttJh2! M oty
lev was very happy with his posi

tion. However, the reply 24 ... b3!?
forced him to start thinking. Per

haps White had overlooked this

But this attempt to muddy

the waters isn't all that frighten
ing. Nevertheless, after 25.axb3
cxb3 followed the unbelievable
26.ttJa1 ?

i. �

� �

�

ol i. ol

ol �

�

'In my opinion, you  can  only play
a  piece  down  in a  practical  game
if your goal is to make your oppo
nent happy.  Well, here the spec
tators were happy, too!' (Cherny
shov). The oddest part of it is that
Rybka also recommends this move

for a long time (before it switches
to 26.ttJe I ) ! Apparently the hun
dreds and even thousands of hours
spent in front of a monitor aren't

for nothing and 'mechanize' the

thinking process.  Sure, the com
puter has taught us that you can't
toss anything out of your calcula
tions, even the most unbelievable
continuations,  but you can't take
this thesis so literally! How could
Alexander, a subtle and deep play
er,  find  himself making  such  a
clumsy move? White wins the ex
change p ure and simple, but how

can the knight get out of the cor

ner after that?

26 ... a4 21 .ttJg4 ttJd8 28.ttJxf6 +
ttJxf6 29.

:!:r

e1 �c6

NEW iN CHESS

8 1

�

E �

�

.i.

i � i

i 8

�

Vlif 8 £::'

ttJ �

J:(

�

Black has gradually activated his
pieces and switched to the attack.
White gave up the unlucky knight
for two pawns, but he couldn't
save the game:

30.

�

g 6

..te8 3 1 . ..tf5 ..td7 3 2 .

jLd3 'lW d 6 3 3 JH 3 � g 7 3 4 . g 3
jLe8 35.

xg6 36.hxg6 'lWc6

3 7 . 'lW e 5 W x g 6 3 8 . w g 2 'lW d 7
39.'lWe2 � g 7 40.

'lW

a6 J:t f 7 41 .

J:te2 J:te7 42JHe3 tLlg4 43J:td3
'lWc6 44.

'lW

a5 tLlb7 45.'lWb4 tLld6

46.

tLl

xb3 axb3 47 . 'lWxb3 tLlf5 48.

J:tf3 J:tf7 49.'lWb8 e5 5 0 .

J:t

xe5

tLlxe5 5 1 .'lWxe5 + <;i;;>g6 52. Wg1

'lWd7 53.c4 dxc4 54.g4 tLld6 White

resigned .

When I asked him to annotate his
favourite game from the Mosco\\"
Open, Chernyshov chose the fol
lowing encounter.

NOTES BY

Konstantin Chernyshov

EO 1 2 . 2

A23

Konstantin Chernyshov
Evgeny Najer

Moscow Open 2 0 1 0 ( 7 )

Alas,  my  preparations  for  this
game took a  tragi c-comic  turn.
My chess program  developed  a
fault, and I had to phone home to

my native Voronezh. But my wife
doesn't play chess, and the ques

tion 'What does Zhenya Najer

play?' created an insur mountable
pause at the other end of the line .. .

Finally, following several dozen

heavy sighs, by joint efforts at a

distance I managed to help her to
figure out the  computer program,
and the first few  moves were de
termined.  I  was  unable  to  with

stand this torture any more. After

thanking my wife for the help she
had been able to offer, I switched

off my mobile

and went to sleep.

1 .c4 e5 2.tLlc3 tLlf6 3.g3 c6

d 5 5.cxd5 cxd5 6.d3 d4 7 .tLle4
tLld5

� i

i ttJ

£::,

£::' 8

8 8 � 8

J:(

ttJ J:(

8.'lWb3!?

Daniel Naroditsky, the youngest chess author in history:

"If

you wan t to excel at chess, you have to delve deeper, and appreciate not only

visually pleasing combinations, b u t much more subtle positional ideas as well. "

Practical Lessons of a Junior World Champion

Mastering

Positional

Chess

Da n i e l Na rodi lsk y

"iV *

1'It. . ... (J&'lIJ

Practical Lessons of

Junior world Champion

With crystal-clear verbal explanations
(and many exercises) on the essence of

positional chess, in

chapters:

•

Prophyaxis

•

Defense in worse positions

•

Building and breaking fortresses

•

Positional sacrifice

•

Paralysis in the middlegame

•

Maneuvering

NEW!

Paperback

•

240

pages

•

€ 19.95

•

available at your local (chess)bookseller or at newinchess.com

8 2

NEW

CHESS

M O S C O W O P E N

Amazingly, this is a novelty! Here,
without great s u ccess, W h i te
has twice brought out his king's

knight to f3 , but to me the queen

diversion seemed more natural

and productive.

B ... �b4 + 9.

�

d2 <1:lc6 1 0.'i'xd5!?

'i'xd5 1 1 .<1:lf6 + gxf6 12 . .ixd5

�

xd2 + 1 3.�xd2

�

� �

�

.t �

� �

�

t!:,

t!:, t!:,

ct;; � �

t!:,

j:l

By the 1 4th move the contours of
an  endgame  have  unexpectedly
appeared. But what should White
play?  For  all the apparent activ
ity  of the  advanced  phalanx  of
black pawns, I  thought that they
were more likely to become a tar
get.  However,  further simplifica
tion of the position, involving the
exchange of the bishop,  does not

bring any dividends: q . �xc6+

bxc6 I S . <1:l f3 �d S , or 1 4 .�xe6

fxe6.

Therefore for the moment White
maintains the tension and endeav
ours to provoke further weak
nesses in the opponent's pawn
structure.

14 ... �d7 1 5.f4 exf4 1 6.gxf4 f5 1 7 .

�

xc6 + bxc6 1 B.<1:lf3 c 5 1 9J:thc1

�d6

�

� .t

�

t!:,

ttJ

t!:, t!:,

ct;; t!:,

t!:,

j:l

M O S C O W O P E N

20.b4!

A successfu l c o n t i n u a t i o n of
W h i te's strateg·y.

ow Black's

central bastion is destroyed, and
the knight takes up a powerful,
dominating position in the middle
of the board .

20 ... cxb4 21 .<1:lxd4 �hcB 22.�xcB

j:l

�

� .t

�

ttJ

t!:,

�

ct;; �

t!:,

j:l

2 2 .. . �xcB? A serious mi stake.

Black should have recaptured with
the bishop, with the following var
iation in mind: 22 . . . �xc8 2 3 . a3
bxa3 2.J..�xa3 as ·

23.a3! b3 24.�b1 li:bB 2 5 . Wc3
�cB + 26.�d2 �bB 27.

<1:l

xe6 fxe6

2B.Wc3

The pawn  is lost.  Accepting the
inevitable, Black switches his rook
to the kingside,  in order to set up
a  passed  pawn  and  create  some
counterplay.

2 B .. . � g B 2 9 . �xb3 � g 2 3 0 . e 3
�xh2 31 .�b7 � h 3 32.Wd4

�

With the idea after the capture of
the a-pawn of striking in the cen
tre with . . . e6-es ! Alas, I have an

excellent resource, which not only

extinguishes the opponent's pos
sible initiative, but also creates a
complete spatial superiority.

3 3 . � b 5 !

�

h 3 34.�a5 h5 3 5 .e4

�f3 36.�a6 + \tIe7 37 .�e5 �xd3

3Ube6 + Wd7 39.Wxf5

Despite  the  material  equality,
Black is unable to defend. White's
pawn  pair  is  s upported  by  his
pieces, whereas Black's forces are
chaotically scattered  around  the
board .

39 ... �xa3 40.�h6 a5 41 .�xh5 a4

42.e5 �a1 43.<;9f6

Black resigned.

II:I:II

Evgeny Bareev, Le Quang Liem
and Ernesto Inarkiev scored the
same number of points as the win
ner, seven out of nine. Each one of
the threesome had a higher Buch

holz score than the winner, but

the first additional indicator was
the number of wins, and Cherny
shov, unlike the others, lost one

game, then won s i x . Arguing

about which additional indicator
is fairer is fruitless, as in any sys
tem there'll always be those who
are left disappointed. Something
else is more important: the tour
nament prizes weren' t shared,

NEW iN CHESS

and  with  the  same  number  o f
points t h e  first prize  winner re
ceived two and a  half times more
money than the fourth prize win
ner ( s oo,ooo  versus  zoo,ooo ) .   Is

this fair? If a player doesn't lose

then he stays at the very top, and
he gets the strongest opponents.
Then again, it's better if the play
ers themselves talk about this sub
ject. We'll only note that a tax was
taken ou t of the prize money

1 3

percent for Russians and 3 0 per
cent for foreigners.

Second prize winner Evgeny

Bareev hasn't played that much in
the last couple of years, but recent
ly he decided to rouse himself and
won the Russian Cup, overcoming
Ian Nepomniaehtchi in the final.
Eygeny is one of the most cunning
players of our time, only Ruslan
Ponomariov can rival him in this
respect. Bareev always knows what
and how he has

play with every

opponent. For example, he skilful

ly drove Motylcv into time-trouble
and provoked Bologan into exces
sively sharp play. At the same time
he also gave up two whites

offered a draw on the sixth  move
to  someone  who  wasn't the most
fearsome opponent (probably for
some personal reason  he  couldn't
play on that day) and by no means
seriously  fought  his  student  Le

Liem.

Meanwhile, the young Viet

namese player became the real dis
covery of the tournament. Before

this he was known as the storm

of the Internet, but it turns out
that he's no less dangerous at the
board, too. Le Quang Liem is very
well-grounded theoretically, and
the main thing is that he's very
strong in tense, dynamic positions.

Judging by all that, this player has

arrived at top-level chess seriously
and for a long time.

One of his finest efforts was his

win against Sasikiran which Le
Quang Liem annotated for this
report.

NEW

CHESS

NOTES BY

Le Quang Liem

GI 5 . 1 0 - 087

Le Ouang Liem
Krishnan Sasikiran

Moscow 2 0 1 0 (8)

1 .d4 ttJf6 2.e4 g6 3.ttJe3 d5 4.exd5

ttJxd5 5.e4 ttJxe3 6.bxe3 �g7 7 .

�e4 e 5 8.ttJe2 ttJe6 9 .

�

e3 0-0

1 0.0-0 'fIIe7

i i tv

1 U:!.b1

Jl, 8 �

8 Jl,

CiJ 8 8 8

'if M �

In this popular line of the Grun
feld, I I . J:!:c 1 is more often played,
but to me it seems that the rook is

better placed on the b-file.

1 1 ... �d7

If Black keeps the same plan as in
the 1 r . J:!:C I variation, with 1 1 . . .

J:!:dS I z .�f.j. �e5 ( I z .. . es can be

met by 1 3 · �gS J:!:d7 q . d S and

. . . 'flld 7 by 1 3 . dxcS) 1 3 · �xe5

ttJ xeS I 4 . �b3 ttJg.j. I S · ttJ g3 h 5

1 6.'fllf3

I 7 .�cz h .j. I S.h3 hxg3

1 9 . hxg.j. gxfz+ zoJhfz es Z I . d S

J:!:f8 z z . g S White enjoys a h u ge
advantage due to his active piec

es and his attacking prospects. In
all those cases it is obvious that the
placement of the rook on bI is in
White's favour (compared to the

line ro . . . 'fllq I I .J:!:C I �d7).

Here White docs not need

afraid of I 1 . . .cxd4 I z .cxd.j. ttJxd.j.

1 3 . �x f7 + J::!:xf7 1 4 . ttJxd.j., and

I believe that White should be
slightly better.

1 2 .�d3

The game has transposed to the

line Io . . . �d7 1 1 .J:!:bl 'iYq.

Now Black has to choose between
two  basic  plans:  to  play  . . .  J:!:adS
and then . . .  �cS, or . . .  J:!:fdS con
nected  with  . . .  �eS.  I n   general
Black's idea is to press in the cen
tre, force White to play dS  or es,
and then undermine them with
his e- and f-pawns.

1 2 .. .l:Hd8 1 3.h3

A usefu l move. White takes away
the g4-square to prevent . . .

�

g.j. or

. . . ttJc6-eS-g4 in some variations.

Previously known as the storm of the Internet, Le Ouang Liem demonstrated

that he is no less dangerous at the board, too.

M O S C O W O P E N

Now White is already threaten
ing to play f� and start a kings ide
attack.

�

j. j. 'iV i. j. j. i. j.

1 3 ... e6

�

8 8

8 � �

CiJ 8 8

'iY M �

A  logical novelty - Black did not
want to let White's pawn go to d 5 .
B u t  this move has some drawbacks
as  well .  Firstly,  Black's  l i ght
squared bishop is slightly passive,
and secondly it weakens the h4-dS
diagonal.

1 3 .. ·iLeS q.dS <1:les I S . q e6 1 6.

<1:lf4 nabS

7 .

e2 J:rd6 I S .�C2

J:ra6 1 9 . 1::tb S ! ? was seen in Topal
ov-Svidler, Nanjing 200S, which

ended in a win for White.

1 4.

�

Better was q.'lilVC I i12.eS I 5 . !:rd

J:racS 1 6 .�b2, and White keeps
strong pressure.

1 4 ... J:reB

H ere

. . . cxd4 ! ? 1 5 .iLxdS J::!.xdS

I 6 . cxd� <1:lxd4 I 7 . <1:l xd4 iLxd4

deserved attention, giving Black
g o o d c o m p e n s a t i o n fo r t h e
exchange.

1 5 .�c1 !

i: �

j. j. 'iV i.

j. i. j.

squares and has a strong centre.
White wants to consolidate with
�e3, !:rfd I and then start an at

tack with h3-h4-hS, or es followed

by <1:le2-g3-q. So, Black's answer
is almost forced.

Less clear is I s . es <1:le7 I 6. <1:l g3

c6 1 7.<1:le4 cxd4 I S.cxd4 J:radS.

15 ... cxd4

On  I s . . .  J:racS White continues his
plan with I 6.'iYe3 . After I S  .. .  'iYd6
he has 1 6.�a3 b6 I 7 .J:rfd J .
1 6.cxd4 �d6 1 7  .J:rxb7

1 7 ... !:rab8

It is not easy to regain the pawn:

I7 ... <1:lxd� I S .<1:lxd4 J:recS (if IS .. .

4 1 9 .'iYc7 �XC7 20.J:rxC7 ii.cs

2 I .�b5 Black loses the exchange,
while I S .. . �xd� 1 9.J:rd r iLa4 2o.

C2 �q 21 .iLxa4 �xa4 22.J:rdd7

gives White a dangerous initiative)

1 9.<1:lC2! �xd3 20.J:rd I �xq 2 1 .

J:rdxd7 J:rXC2 2 2 . �e3 �xe3 2 3 .
ii.xe3, and White i s better.

1 B.J:rxbB J:rxbB

1 9.�c5!

This move, the only way to keep

Here White stands better be-

the pawn, gives White an endgame

cause he controls important dark

advantage.

M O S C O W O P E N

1 9 ... �xc5 20.dxc5 h6

Looking for active counterplay

with 20 .. . J:rb2 2 1 . J:r d I J:rxa2 22.

s J:ra I fails to 23.ii.C I ! .

2 1 .

�

e3 J:rb2 22.

J:r

�

j. i.

�

j. j.

� �

8 :1

CiJ 8 8

�

22 ... <1:lb4?

This move j ust worsens Black's

situation, although it is already
difficult enough.

The best defence was 22 .. . J:rxa2

2 3 . �q J:rC2 (23 . . . J:ra I 24. J:rxa I

ii.

xa I 2 S .iLxh6 is excellent for

White)  2 � . ii.b3  J:rb2  2 S . J:r xd7
J:r x b 3   2 6 . g 3 ,   when,  a l t h o u g h
W h i te  is  clearly  better,  Black
keeps some chances of saving the
game.

23.

�

j. i.

j. j.

� �

�

8 i:

CiJ 8 8

�

24.a3!

And suddenly Black's knight is in
trouble.

24 ... <1:lc2 25.J:rdB + Wh7 26.

J:rb7

27.

ii.

<1:le1

He  m i ght  have  tried  27 . . .  <1:la r ,
but  i t  would  not  have  been  a
real  improvement  o n   the  game
continuation.

28.

ii.

NEW iN CHESS

8 5

.l :i

.l .i.. �

�

.i..

.l .l

CiJ 8 8

�

2S . . J:t b 1 2 9 . �f1 tbe2 3 0 .

�

d 3

�b5 31 .e6

it.

xd3 3 2 .

J:1

xd3

J:1

33.e 7 J:1e6 34.

J:1

3-1-.it.f-1-! wins faster, but the move
in the game is also enough .

34 ... tbd4 35.

it.

f4 tbxe2 36.c.t>xe2

e5 37.

�

Black resigned.

IOI::JI

During the tournament the au
thor o f these lines was work
ing as a commentator

demon

stt'ating what was going on in the
games of the leaders to the au
dience on a big screen in a sepa
rate room, and giving my expla

nations. The same image that we

saw was simultaneously shown on
the tv screens situated in the cor
ridors next to the playing halls.
The spectators who came were
very varied, including some who
didn't know chess notation very

well, and sometimes I explained

the possible course of events by
pointing to a square on the board
with  the  mouse:  White  to  here,
Black to here, and so on.  But af
ter  two  or  three  rounds  one o f
the  women  players  complained
to the arbiters that she'd seen a

variation on the screen that she'd
j ust been calculating at the board .

didn't want to give any hints

away, so we had to sto p doing this
type of commentary.

Thanks to my work I followed the
performances of the participants
in the open t o u r n a m e n t very
closely for the first time in many

NEW

CHESS

years. And there was something
to watch! For example, an episode

from the fourth round .

Sergienko-Uescovi

position after 5 5 .

. .

The pawn on dz can't be stopped,
and a long drawn-out endgame

emerges with Black a knight up.

But White is aided by an attack on
the king.

56.tbe4!

Now o n S6 . . . d I 'lW follows 5 7 .

tb f6 + 'it> f8 5 8 . tb h 7 + � g8

5 9 .

tbf6+ , with perpetual check. Ves

covi tries his last chance.

56 . . . d 1 tb + ! ? 5 7 . � g 3 J:1 a 3 +

5 S . c.t>f4 tb d 3 + 5 9 . c.t> g 5 J:1a5 +
60.�h6 J:1xh5 +

Black has to give up the exchange

in order to avoid bei n g mated

accidentally.

61 .�xh5 tbe3 62.tbf6 + �fS 63.
tbh7 + 'it>eS 64.tbf6 + �fS

Draw.  The  final  picture is quite
amusing! But it pales in compar
ison  to  the  fantastic canvas  that
the  same  Brazilian  grandmaster
painted the next day with the co
authorship  of a  young  Moscow
master.

Uescovi-Krylov

position after 5 1 . a 6

Black starts and .. . My friend Oleg

Pervakoy usually shows me posi

tions like these: in a modern stud y
you w o n ' t immediately grasp

where the pawns are going and

who's fighting for what.

Moscow Open 2 0 1 0

Chernyshov

IGM RUS 2556

Bareev

IGM RUS 2643

Le Duang liem

IGM VIE 2647

Inarkiev

IGM RUS 2649

Sasikiran

IGM IND 2653

6Y>

Bologan

IGM MDA2692

6Y,

Andreikin

IGM RUS 2635

6Y>

Kurnosov

IGM RUS 2668

6Y>

Azarov

IGM BlR 2622

6Y>

Rublevsky

IGM RUS 2697

6Y>

1 1

Bu Xiangzhi

IGM CHN 2673

6Y>

Belov

IGM RUS 2595

6Y>

1 3

Vorobiov

IGM RUS 2621

6Y>

Savchenko

IGM RUS 2638

1 5

Rakhmanov

IGM RUS 2591

1 6

Motylev

IGM RUS 2697

1 7

Khismatullin

IGM RUS 2651

Zhigalko

IGM BLR 2668

Volkov

IGM RUS 2623

Pugachov

1M RUS 2445

Kazhgalayev

IGM KAZ 2643

Matlakov

1M RUS 2587

Najar

IGM RUS 2665

Amonatov

IGM TJK 2634

Nepomniachtchi

IGM RUS 2658

Uescovi

IGM BRA 2660

Shinkevich

1M RUS 2501

Grachev

IGM RUS 2653

Khusnutdinov

IGM KAZ 251 3

5Y>

Krapivin

IGM RUS 2495

5Y>

1 B7 players, 9 rounds

M O S C O W O P E N

The oldest participant, 91 -year-old World War II veteran Nikolay Naumov, came

to Moscow from distant Sakhalin, but wasn't too happy with his play.

51 ... g1�

Looking in on the commentary

room  Grandmaster  Ian  Nepom
niachtchi  suggested  5 1 . . J:tb S ! ? ,
slowing down both pawns that are
on  the  verge  of promotion.  But
there's a  flaw  in the 'mysterious'
rook move

White can switch to an

attack on the king: 52.�C2! �fI +

5J.'�a5

�

fS S·p ? ! , with a win.

Rybka fo u n d an asto u n d i n g

ly beautiful variation: 5 I . . . 'iYfr !

5 z J :td3 g

"i¥

5 3 ·a7 "i¥g-1- S4·aS"i¥

e2 5 S .bS"i¥ e r "i¥ . By God, you

feel like engraving this picture,
putting it in a frame and nailing it
to the wall!

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

T h i s probably s o u n d s rather

strange, but the queen on bS is
pinned, which means that White
suffers the decisive loss; he can't
hold on for long.

M O S C O W O P E N

In the event of 5 2 . a7  (instead of
5 2 J:l d 3 )  Black  also  has  a  beau
t i fu l ,   altho ugh  not  as  i m p res

sive win : 5 2 .. . �xc6 + ! S 3 . dxc6+

d 5 !   S 4 · "i¥ d 3   "i¥x d 3 +   5 5 · 11 x d 3
g I �  5 6 . a S�  ( 5 6 . bS "i¥   "i¥b I +
5 7 · Wa4 11xbS is bad) 5 6  .. .  �b I +

5 7 · Wa-1- ( S 7 . �c5 ..Ifl.q+ S S . �xd5

�b 5 + w i t h a c r u s h i n g a t
tack) 5 7 .. . �C2+ 5 S . Wa S "i¥a2+

59. Wb-1- llxaS, and it's all over for
the white queens.

52.a7 "i¥gf1 53.a8"i¥ "i¥xc4 +
Even more decisive is 53 . . . �xc6+
54·dxc6+ "i¥xq+! 5 S . �xq d 5 + ·

54.�xc4 "i¥f1 + 55J:rd3 e 2

Here the same idea worked : 5 5 .. .
� xc6 S 6 . d xc6 d 5 + S 7 . � x d 5
�h+ with a mating attack.

56.�c3

..Ifl.

d8??

A terrible mistake in mutual time

trouble. As before, after 56 .. . �xc6

5 7 . dxc6 d 5 + Black would have
won .

5 7 . b B "i¥ e 1 "i¥ 5 8 . ..Ifl.xe1

..Ifl.

c 6

59."i¥xdB?

Vescovi probably wanted to move
the draw out of harm's way. But

after S 9 . "i¥xc6! ll f-1-+ 60 . Wb3 !

White moves his king away from

the checks and wins.

5 9 . . . il. x a 8 6 0 . "i¥ g 5 + W f 7
61 .�h5 + ?

After 6 r ...Ifl.h4! Black can't escape
perpetual check.

6 1 . . . W e 7 6 2 .

�

h 4 + W d 7

63.

"i¥

g4+

f5 64.Wc3 "i¥f4!?

It seems that the queens are tired
of the battles!

65. "i¥xf4 llxf4

Subsequently  Black  transferred
the bishop to  h  and the  rook to
the fifth  rank .  White  didn't hold
onto  his pawn  and  admitted  his
defeat on the I O-1-th move.

Under the auspices of the  Mos
cow  Open  a  j unior  tournament
was  held  with  a  prize  fun d   of
700,000 rubles, and also a tourna

ment called 'As old as our victory'
for players born in r 945 and older

(650,000 rubles). First place here
was taken by the two-time cham
pion of the U S S R Vitaly Tse
shkovsky. The oldest participant,
9 I -year-old World War II veteran
Nikolay Naumov, came to Moscow
from distant Sakhalin (an island in
the Pacific Ocean, near Japan). As

ikolay Stepanovich said, he liked

everything at the tournament ex
cept for his own play. Well, as long
as a man isn't satisfied with him
self, he'll continue to grow!

The World Cup for chess com

position  solving also  deserves  a
mention,  won  by  Piotr Murdzia
( Polan d ) ,   as  does  the Japanese
chess (Shogi) tournament, the ar
biters' seminar and  the  academic
and practical conference dedicat
ed  to  the  issues of chess  educa
tion in schools. And next year the

organizers promise to make the

programme even more full and

�

"ri�.

�

NEW iN CHFSS

From Berlinchen

to Alaska

H A N 5

R E E

Emanuel Lasker.

Denker, Weftenbiirger,
Schachweltmeister

(thinker, citizen of the

world, world champion)

is an amazing book by its

scope and high quality,

finds Hans Ree.

n recent years I have had to go to

the grocer's several times to put

a new chess book on the scales,
but with the Lasker book this was
not necessary, as one of the editors
Michael Negele has already help
fully declared that it weighs 3 . 5
kilogrammes.

Apart from the r 6 introd uctory

pages, which have Roman numer
als,  the  book  has  1 079 large pag
es. There are  about 500 pictures.
Though  at  1

euro the book is

quite reasonably priced, it is still
costly. Would it sell?

At the Corus tournament the

owner  of one  of the book  stalls
told me that it sold like hot cakes
and that he would soon have to re
plenish his stock .  This  was good
news, an encouragement for  am

bitious publishers.

H o w c o u l d t h e b o o k have

sprawled so exuberantly? As the
e d i torial team consists o f R i

c h a r d Forster, Stefa n Hansen

and Michael Negele, the obvi

ous suspect would be Forster,
the man who gaye u s the mas

NEW iN CHESS

sive tomes about Amos Burn and
the Schach-Gesellschaft Zurich,
but in this case that doesn't seem
j ustified .

To put it in terms of a film pro

duction, Hansen, the president of
the Emanuel Lasker Gesellschaft,

seems to have been the originator

and financier of the project, Nege

Ie the prod ucer and Forster the
technical di rector. Keeping the

book within more or less reason

able bounds, rather than expand

ing it, was one of his most diffi
cult tasks.

Heroes Shivering

An  article in the January issue of
the German magazine Schach  by
Negele  describes  the  history  of
the production .  Obviously a  big
weight has fallen off his shoulders
now that the book is out. The title
of the article says it all:  'Fairy tale
or nightmare? or Of heroes who
went out to learn to shiver' .

The heroes arc the three edi

tors, who started to invite contt'i
butions to the book early in 2006,
intending to present it to the pub
lic at the Dresden Olympiad of
2008, an aim that understandably
was not fulfilled .

It seems a tough schedule for

any big book, and this one has a

list of 26 contributors from many
different countries, who submit
ted their texts in many different
languages. Unavoidably conflicts
arose.

Deadlines were not met, agree

ments about the length of the ar-

ticles were ignored and sensible

editorial advice was met with an

ger, to such an extent that Negele
speaks about a multi-dimensional
nightmare.

The biggest blow to the project

threatened at the end of 2008,
when Robert H ubner announced
that he would retract his contribu

tion, one of the most substantial

and important of them all, almost
a book in itself. Luckily Stefan
Hansen could convince him that
the perceived conflict was based
on a misunderstanding, and Hub
ner relented.

S l i ghtly more than half the

book is devoted to Lasker's chess
career.  There  are  articles  about
his problems and endgame stud
ies,  H ubner deals  with Lasker's
early  career,  finishing  with  his
first world championship match
against Steinitz in 1 894, and sev
eral  events

H a s t i n g s 1 89 5 ,

Lasker-Tarrasch 1 908 and Zurich

1 934

are singled out for spe

cial treatment. The biggest chap
ter consists of a collection of all

Lasker's match and tournament

games, many with annotations
from older sources.

Besides this, there are articles

about other  aspects  of Lasker's
life.  Lasker in Britain, the U. S . ,
Cuba, t h e  Netherlands a n d  Rus
sia.  Lasker's  often  considerable
accomplishments in other games,
such as bridge, go and Laska, one
of the games he invented himself.
There are articles on Lasker as a
mathematician, philosopher, jour-

H A N S R E E

nalist and as a bohemian in Berlin
intellectual circles.

Some of these subjects were also

dealt with in a  German book that
appeared in 200 1 ,  Ema/1l1el Lasker,
Schach,  Philosoph ie,  Wissel1schafi,
edited  by  Michael  Dreyer  and
Ulrich S ieg.  At the time I  wrote
about it in New In Chess, and now
I  wondered  if some chapters  of
that book might have reappeared.
But I found that the two books are
completely independent. None of
the writers fro m  200 1  has contrib

uted to the book that is present

ed now.

Losing the Backbone

As a journalist I have often been
in the situation that I started out

writing on some subject, but then

my  thoughts  j u mped  to  issues
vaguely  connected  to  it,  upon
which I started digressing, so that
I  ended  up having to remove the

original subject from my article

to keep it in shape. On a much
grander scale this is what hap
pened to the Lasker book.

The original idea was that the

backbone of the book should be
a new intellectual biography of
Lasker that would serve as a cor
rection to the romantic and often
inaccurate Hannak biography of

1 952.

Though I have often made fun

of Hannak's book, I must say that
when I read it as a youngster I was

enthralled by  it.  Only  much  lat
er did I  wonder how I  could have
fallen  for  the mythological  style
that would befit a children's book.
Anyway, an overhaul was certain
ly due.

But when the book expanded

because of the length of the chap
ters that were supposed to be an

addition to the biographical back
bone, and the prospective author

of that biography procrastinated,
it finally had to be left out.

That's how it goes. But one

would wish that at least a brief

H A N S R E E

chronology of Lasker's life would
have been inserted, a few pages

with the most important events

in his life, a thing that would have
been easy to do on the basis of the

rich material that can be found in
this book.

It is true that the reader can do

it himself by hopping from one
chapter to another, collecting the

relevant biographical detai ls of

different periods. But why make it
so difficult?

I own a big book on Marcel Du

champ by Duchamp scholars Jen
nifer Cough-Cooper and Jacques
Caumont, called Ephemerides 011
Marcel Ducha11lp and Rrose Silavy.
Ephemerides is a term used in as

tronomy and astrology for charts

or tables that indicate the position
of astronomical objects in the sky
at different times.

The book has about 500 pages,

which is only an estimate, because

the authors have coyly refused to

number the pages. In a way it is a
wonderful book. It documents the
life of Marcel Duchamp almost
day by day, it is chock-full of in
teresting anecdotes and beautiful
ly and abundantly illustrated .

However, it has one madden

ing  and  deliberate  oddi ty.  Ap
parently the authors thought that
Duchamp  was  quirky  and  that
therefore  they had  to be  quirky

too. They do not chronicle Du
champ's life by year, but by date,

starting with everything that hap
pened on January

of all the years

of his life, then proceeding to Jan

uary 2, and so on till December

3 I .

The ( i ntended) result was

that it is practically impossible to
check on any event at all. It is not
enough to know the year when
something happened, which you

usually do. You have to know the

date.

I played with the idea of cut

ting out all the items and re
arrange them in conventional
chronological order to make my

own enhanced book of Duchamp
ephemeridcs, which would be a
real treasure, but the task was be
yond me.

I was reminded of this book, but

this is not to say that the editors

of the Lasker book intended to
make life as difficult for the read
ers as the two Duchamp scholars

did. But in a book of almost 1 1 00

pages a simple chronology of Las
ker's life would have been most
welcome.

With the enormous amount of

information that the book pro
vides it would be silly

com

plain seriously about the lack of
one item.

Playing Leonardo

How good was Lasker in all the

intellectual  fields  that he was in
terested  in?  H e  was certainly an
excellent  game  player,  reaching
international level in bridge  and
becoming one of the best  play
ers of go in Germany,  which may
not have been such a great accom
plishment, as very few people in
the West were playing go then.

His contributions to mathe

matics were relatively few - in
the bibliography 14 mathemati
cal publications are mentioned -,
but substantial and in this field his
name is preserved by the Lasker

Ring and the Lasker- oether the
orem, explained here by the math
ematician  Joachim  Rosen t h a l .
It is a  highly technical  explana
tion, and the 'broader public' that
Rosenthal wants to reach can only
consist of those  who  are already
versed in mathematics. Of course
this is not meant as criticism, but
only to show the wide range of the
book .

M y impression is that the con

tribution of Noether, who gener

alized a  particular result by Las
ker,  is seen  as the most brilliant
part  o f   the  theorem ,  but  any
way it is a  great  honour  to have

one's name joined with that of

NEW iN CHESS

8 9

the famous mathematician Emmy

Noether.

Lasker as a playwright, how

ever,  was far  from a success. The
one drama he wrote,  in collabo
ration with his brother Berthold,
was  never  performed .  It plays a
role in chess history because of the

well-known story about the tele

gram sent by his brother Berthold
during the tournament in Moscow
in 1 92 5 .

As t h e story goes, Lasker had a

superior position against Torre,
received the telegram, which gave

him the hope

soon to be aban

doned

that his play would ac

tually be performed, and was so
happy and excited by the news
that he blundered and allowed a
deadly seesaw combination.

The telegram is given as one

of the ill ustrations in the book.
There is no indication that Lasker
himself attributed his loss to the
fatal telegram .

In her article about Berlin bohe

mia, S usanna Poldauf, biographer
of Philidor, calls the play

VOI1l

Menscllell die Gesellielite

the result

of a continuing joint creative proc
ess by the brothers of at least sev
en years.

She is too kind,

think, when

she attributes its rejection by the
atre companies to the superficiali
ty of the Berlin public that wanted
entertainment instead of a philo

sopher's take on ethics and moral

ity. I have never read the play, but
everything that I have read about
it suggests that the supposedly su
perficial Berlin public would have
been right to stay away from it.

The play's title means: ' O f

m a n k i n d the history ' . Poldauf

suggests that this may not have
been the best choice of a title, and

indeed it seems fit to put off the
theatre p ublic, and not only the
superficial segment of it.

But it is an honest title, describ

ing fairly what the public should
expect. The play consists of a suc-

NEw iN CHESS

cession of allegorical scenes, from
the earliest time of man up to the
contemporary Berlin coffeehous
es, that throw light on the eternal
tension between ethics and practi
cality. No wonder it wasn't put on
the stage.

Various writers in this book note

Emanuel's ambition, the typical

ambition of the dilettante, not j ust

to make a modest contribution to
a field that had caught his interest,
but to revolutionize it complete-

Iy. Occasionally this works well.

The great Ludwig Wittgenstein
was a dilettante when he wrote his

Tracta tus

with the aim of answer

ing,  or rather obviating, all philo
sophical  questions  once  and  for
all. H e  didn't quite succeed, but
the work was and still is tremen
dously influential.

As a phi losopher and social

thinker Lasker wanted to say the
last word, not based on a thorough

study of empirical facts or other
people's writings, but just by ex
erting his own mental powers. He
tried to refute his friend Einstein's
theory of relativity - by sleight of

hand I would say - and even as a
would-be military strategist he
didn't refrain from the most out
rageously confident statements at
the beginning of World War I.

The theatre play is a case in

point. The history of mankind, no

less. It is not a suitable subject for

the stage.

Lonely in Russia

Why did he choose

live in the

Soviet Union in  1 93 5 ?  As a Jew
he had to flee Nazi Germany,  of
course, but surely other countries
must  have come into considera
tio n .  Lasker  had  played  his sec
ond  match  against  Steinitz  and

several im portant tournaments

in Russia and probably had good
memories of Russian hospitality.
At the tournament in Moscow in

1 93 5 and during his following va

cation in Russia, together with his
wife  Martha,  he was  celebrated
as a  hero.  "Vhat's more, living in
Moscow as a  member of the So
viet Academy of Science he would
be  financially  secure,  which  was

important  after  the  Nazis  had
robbed  him  of his  savings.  But
still . . .

T h e new wave of terror that

had started after the murder of the
communist leader Sergey Kirov in

1 93-1- was not yet in full swing, but

terrible things had already hap
pened in the Soviet Union. Dur
ing the campaigns of agricultural

collectivization  millions of peo
ple  had  been  murdered.  Didn't
Lasker know this? Didn't he care?
At least, when he agreed to settle
down in Moscow, he took the sen
sible precaution of securing per
mission to  travel abroad when he
wanted to do so.

In the same year that Lasker

settled in Moscow,  Ludwig Witt
genstein, world-famous in philo
sophical  circles  by  then,  went to
Moscow  to  investigate  the  pos
sibility of teaching in the Soviet
Unio n .  He wanted  hardship; he

wanted Siberia.

Back in England he said to a

friend that it would be possible to
live in the Soviet Union as long as
one realized that one should never
speak openly. Theoretically Witt
genstein valued full employment

higher than freedom of speech,

but as a person he was the last
one to keep his opinions to him-

H A N S R E E

self. Nothing came of his Russian
venture.

Lasker liked the European cafe

society,  staying there  till  late  at
night,  playing  games  and  talk
ing freely about culture,  politics
and  life  in  general .  In  Moscow

under Stalin in 1 93 5 Soviet citi

zens risked their lives by talking
so freely.

In a chapter about Grigory Lev

enfish in his beautiful book Russiall

Silhollelles,

Genna Sosonko briefly

touches on Lasker's Russian years.
He writes that because of the lan
guage barrier Lasker's contacts
had been restricted from the start,
but that as contacts with foreigners
became a deadly danger for Soviet
citizens, Lasker's narrow circle
was gradually depleted. He knew
that his telephone was tapped and
that his home help Yulia would re
port on all his meetings.

At t h e e n d of h i s chapter

Sosonko  describes  a  meeting of
Lasker and Levenfish, who often
came  to visit him.  Late  at night
the old  Lasker suggested :  ' Let's
go and have a coffee.' In Moscow
at  this  hour) 'Let's go,  let's  go,  I
know a  little place', said  Lasker.
'The buffet  at  the  Kiev  railway
station is open until three in the
morning. ' And there they went.

Near the end of 1 93 7 Lasker

and his wife left the Soviet-Union,
ostensibly for a brief visit to Mar
tha's  daughter  from  a  previous
marriage,  who was  living in  the
United States. Isaak and Vladimir
Linder,  who in  the Lasker book
wrote the chapter about his Rus
sian years, take the same view as

Sosonko did, namely that it was
an escape.

The Polar Route

After a  brief stay  in the Nether
lands the Laskers arrived in  New
York in October 1 93 7 .  In the book
an article is reproduced that Las
ker  wrote in  1 939 for  the  maga
zine Aujbau of the German Jewish

H A N S R E E

Club. The title is 'Jude Wohin? ' ,

Jews where t o go?

There Lasker sees the U. S. as

the best place to settle for the per
secuted  European Jews, singling
out Alaska, because that state will
be  o f   ' world-historical  impor
tance'  as  the  starting point  of  a
public road across the North Pole.

Indeed, when you look at a globe,

you see that this road would in
deed be a quick shortcut to Mos

cow, a fact well-known to military

strategists. In his book The Com-

The book is set in a fictional

world in which history has taken
a slightly different course than in
our universe. In Alaska there is a

semi-autonomous Jewish district
called Sitka

a place of refuge for

European Jews during World War

where Yiddish is the official

language. There are some big dif
ferences but also similarities with
our world .

An 'Emanuel Lasker' mur

dered in Alaska, a Jewish district
j ust as the real Lasker had envis-

Lasker tried to refute his friend

Einstein 's theory of relativity

1Il1l1lity o/the Future

of 1 9-1-0, Las

ker would return to his idea of

Alaska as a good place for Jewish

settlements.

Jews in Alaska? That rang a bell

with Robert van de Vclde, who
wrote the chapter on Lasker as a
bridge player. He doesn't write

about Alaska, as this would be far

beyond the boundaries of his real

subject, but from a personal letter
from him I  learned  that he made
the  connection  with  the  best
selling  crime  novel  by  Michael
Chabon,  The  Yiddish  Policemen 's

Union,

which appeared in 2007 .

At the start of the novel a man

is found shot through the head
in a shabby hotel room in Alaska.
He has registered under the name
of Emanuel Lasker. In the room
there is a beat-up copy of Siegbert
Tarrasch's famous Three Hundred

Chess Cames

and a chessboard

with a messy looking position that

later in the novel turns out to be
a problem ( Chabon used one of
Vladimir abokov's problems).

aged it, could that be j ust a coin

cidence? Van de Velde wrote an
email to Chabon asking him if he
had known of the connection be
tween Alaska and the real Las

ker. Chabon answered that he had

known nothing about it and that
he was stunned.

A prophet after all, if only of a

fictional worl d , Emanuel Lasker
died in New York, 72 years old,
on January

I I ,

1 94 1 , when the full

horror of the fate of the European

Jews was not yet known.

Just as the book under consider

ation, my article has sprawled out
in all directions and what should
have been the backbone of it, Las
ker as a chess player, has disap
peared during the writing. To

�

that, I'll come back next time.

�

Emanuel Lasker. Denker, Welten

biirger, Sch a c h rveltmeister.

ited by Richard Forster, Stefan

Hansen, Michael Negele. Exzel
sior Verlag, Berlin 2009, € 1 1 4.

NEW iN CHESS

9 1

The Game of the Year?

he year's still young, but we al

ready have a strong candidate

for the title above. Asked to name
the best game he ever saw, Ben
Finegold quipped in our previous
issue: 'Three days ago, Gashimov
Grischuk, World Team Champi
onship 20 1 O! ' . And indeed, Gris
chuk's stunning king march left a
deep impression, and we're sure
the winner will remember his au
dacious idea with a smile for years
to come.

In Bursa, the Russian team fi

nally  managed  to  win  a  major
team  event  again.  Following an
early upset against Greece( ! ) ,  the
Russians fought back to finish well
ahead of the US and India. Only
days after he won the Russian Su
per Final Alexander Grischuk ar

rived in Turkey to defend Russia's

first board . With 4V, out of 7 and
a 2797 performance he had every
reason to be satisfied . His dashing
win over Vugar Gashimov was the
icing on the cake.

N O T E S B Y

Alexander Grischuk

SI B . 1

B97

Uugar Gashimov
Alexander Grischuk

Bursa 2 0 1 0 (4)

1 .e4 c5 2 . ttJf3 d 6 3.d4 cxd4 4.

ttJxd4 ttJf6 5.ttJc3 a6 6.

�

g5 e6 7.

f4 �b6 8.�d3 �xb2 9J:tb1 'ii'a3

1 0.f5 �e7 1 1 .fxe6 fxe6 1 2.

�

a5 1 3.

�

d2 �c7 1 4.g4

The main move. In our game from
the Grand Prix stage in Elista I
gained the advantage after q.o-o

0-0

S . �e{ �d7 1 6.�b3 WhS,

but I went on to lose.

1 4 ... h6 1 5.�h3

9 2

NEW

CHESS

.i � .t

�

i �

i i �

CiJ

8 Yl Yl

�

Despite the  fact that our main an
alyst and team captain  Alexander
Motylev  spent  the  whole  night
checking this variation, the move
�h3 came as an  unpleasant sur

prise to me. The result of nearly
an hour's reflection was the move

1 5 .. Jlh7

which has just two virtues: it does
not lose by force, and the opponent
was unlikely to have analysed it. A
few days ago, at the tournament in
Linares, I improved Black's play,
again in a game with Vugar, and

despite the fact that after 1 s . . . o-o

r 6 . g s hxgS 1 7 . ttJ xe6 �c6 the

move I S . 1:rfI was overlooked by

our 'analytical brigade', I was able
to make a draw almost by force:

.i � .t

i: �

� i CiJ �

8 Yl Yl

� :g

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

I S .. . g� r 9 .�xg4 ttJxg4 20.ld.xfS+

�x fS 2 1 .�xg4 �d7 (an amus
ing line goes 2 1 . . . �eS 2 2 . ttJ d s

�xe6?  2 3 · ttJ f6+  W h  2�.�h 5 +
g 6  2 S · �h 7 +   - 2 S Jhb7+  ttJd7
2 6 . � f3  wins  i m m e d i a t e l y   -
2 S . · · Wxf6 26.�c3 + WgS 27·'i¥hS
ttJd7 2S .�d2+ Wg� 29.h3+ Wg3

3 0 ·�gS Wg2 3 1 .�h� �f7 3 2 .
�f4, and o n this occasion the

king's raid concludes with the op

posite  outcome)  2 2 . ttJd S   �xe6
23·�xe6+ �xe6 24.ttJq 1:[a7 2 S .
ttJxe6 bS 26.ttJxfS  W x fS  27.�b4
We] 2S.es ttJc6 29.exd6+ We6

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

3 0 . a4 (this immediately leads to
a draw, but also after 30.�CS

J::!:h

3 1 .l:tcl I  1:[ fS  - 3 1 .  ..  ttJeS  3 2 . 'it>e2
l:t f4  is  also  possible  - 3 2 . �f2
l:tes+ 33·'it>fT  l:tds 34.l:txdS WxdS
3 S . �g3  We6 36.C3 ttJaS  3 7 · We2
ttJ e{  3 S .  <;t> d 3   ttJ x d 6   3 9 . �x d 6
<;t>xd6 40 . 'it>d4 - �o. We{ W c S  -
4o· · · gS 4 1 .h3 as 42.a3 a4 the pawn

endgame is drawn) 30 .. . ttJxb4 3 I .

l:txb4 bxa4 3 2 . .iha4 'it>xd6, and

within a few moves it all ended .
1 6.l:tf1 ?

I thought that I S .. . l:th7 would def
initely prevent g4-gS , but it turns
out that this is what White should

have played : r 6.gs hxgS T 7 .ttJxe6
�c6 ( I 7 .. . �d7?? I S.�xhi ttJxh7

I 9 . � h 5 + g6 2 0 . � xg6 m a t e )
I S . � fS �x e 6 I 9 · � x e 6 � d 7

20.'i¥b3 ttJc6 2 1 .�xb7 �xb7 2 2 .
l:[xb7 ttJd4 23.�d

r ,

and Black has

B U R S A

that after 24 . . . l:tcS position

I S

unclear.

21 . . . � d 7 Vugar made this se

ries of moves very quickly,  and I
couldn't understand how I  could
be  losing  by  force.  But  here  he
stopped to think.

l::t

d1 As is usual in such posi

tions, most variations lead to per

petual check, for instance, 22.�h
MhS (or 22 .. , ttJxd2 2 3 .

J::(

d I

J:ihS

24·J:i.xd2 �Cs 2 S ·'iYxg7 .b!:dS 26.
J:i.f7 'i'e3 + 27 · Wd I Wc6 2S. J:[xe7

�

+ 29. We2 �xh2+ ) 2 3 . �b4

tbd6 24.'i'xg7 neS 2 S . �g6 �dS
26 . .a:b3

�

7 2 7 . �as + WcS 2S.

l:rc3 �h4+ 29.�d I tbq 30.�xeS
�x e S 3 I . l::t fS

'i'

h I

+ 3 2 . We 2

'i'e4+ 3 3 . �fI

'i'

h I

+ .

22 ...

l:t

The commentators called this
move 'cool-headed', but the point
is that to find a 'cool-headed' move
in this position is rather difficult.

fj,

* .t

�

'if

f'>:,

�

f'>:, �

fj,

M � M

Revolutionize

Your Chess

ChossCafe

Book of the Year

finalist

23.

�

f4??

A strange mistake. White should
have played 23 . l:H7 tbd6 24.�b4

J:I fS  2 S . �x d 6   :r::. x h   2 6 . 'i' x h
'i'c3 +  2 7 . �e2  Wxd6  2 S . �g6+
W q  2 9 . � x q +   WbS  3 0 . �e4

Wa7, and to j udge by the assess
ment of computer programs, the
game should again end in perpet

ual check to one of the kings.

23 ... �b4 + 24.c3 tbxc3

I thought that 24 .. . �XC3 + 2 s . We2
�d4 would also win, but the move
in the game seemed safer to me.

25.

�

'i'd5

H ere  I  already  realized  w h a t
Gashimov  had  devised,  but  I
could  not  believe  that  it  would
pose Black any serious problems.
26.

l::t

f7 + Wc6

M i

�

f'>:,

� �

fj,

�

M �

27.

l::t

c1 ! !

Sacrificing a second piece!
27 ...Wb6

'if

fj,

It was totally impractical to play

27 . . .  �xd3  2 S . 'iYe S ,   when  here
Black has to find a  lengthy series
of only moves: 2S .. .  as 29 · nxC3 +

�XC3 3 0 . l:!. q + Wb6 3 I . J:i. xc3
'i'b I + 3 2 . l:!.C I

�

b 5

3 3 · �d4+

Wa6 3+ l::tcS �b I + 3 S · l::tC I �b6

3 6 . l::tcS l::td S 3 7 . 'iYq + Wa7 3 S .

.!:l:.xaS + W b S 3 9 .�f4 + l:!.d6 40.

�xd6+ 'iYxd6 4 I . l::txaS+ �xaS

42.�XCS+ Wa7, and in this queen

endgame there should not be any
great problems in converting the
extra pawn.

However, both the strongest and
the most practical was 27 .. . gS ! 2S.

�XC3, and now not the line I was

considering - 2S .. . �es + 29. Wd2

�xc3 + 30.l:!.xc3+ Wb6 3 I .'i'h3 -

but 2S . . .

�

3 ! 29.�xb4+ �bS ! ,

i 'if

�

fj,

�

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

when the white queen i s shut in,
and Black launches a decisive

substantial work, rich i n ideas for a l l three stages of the game

British Chess Magazine

wake-up cal l for chess players of all levels ( .

) The author has

introdu ced something new: the Five Touchstones you should keep i n

m i n d when playing a game. If y o u do s o consistently, y o u w i l l n o t be

d isappointed . "

C o r Jansen, Provinciaalse Zeeuwsche Courant

"There is a lot to be learned in the practical part of the book ( .. ) In the
chapters on the middlegame my eyes have finally been opened."

Richard Vedder, Schakers.info

enjoyed this book. There is a lot to read, a lot to absorb.

know it's

only January but, at the end of the year, when

com pile my list of the top

books

have reviewed i n

2010, 111

be surprised if ' Revolu tionize You r

Chess' i s n ' t included."

Marshtower Chess Reviews:

Paperback

•

352

pages

•

€ 24.95

•

available at your local (chess)bookseller or at newinchess.com

NEW

CHESS

B U R S A

counterattack ( with his king on

b S ! ) : 3 0 . �d2 ( 3 0 . kc3 es) 3 0 .. .
.!:!.d8 3 I .a.j.+ Wb6 3 2 . .!:!.d r Wa7 .

�

M �

� �

�

'iY

� �

�

2B.

�

e3 +

2 8 . '!:!' x C 3 �xC3 2 9 . kxC3 w a s

inadequate:

A) 29 . . . .!:!.d8 3 0 .�xd S '!:!'xd S

( 3 0 .. . exd S 3 1 . .Jt d .j. + W c6 3 2 .
.!:!.xg7) 3 I ..Jtq .!:!.gS 3 2 . h3;

B) 29 . . . �xh S 3 0 . gxhS es 3 I .

.!:!.xg7 WcS 32 .

.Jt

q as, and Black

should win.

28...�a5 29.a3 Wa4

29 · · . .Jtxa3 was altogether uncon
vincing: 30 . .!:!. XC3

.it

b4 3 I . �d 2

�

xhS

3 2 . gxhS �XC3 3 3 ·.itxC3 +

«9b6 3 .j. · kd.j.+ Wc6 3 S . .Jtq+
Wd6 36.�xg7 .!:!.d8 37 . .itxh6, and

the h-pawn is very dangerous.

30.axb4?

The decisive mistake. After 3 0 .

l:tf.j.! Black would have had t o play

pretty accurately. He must play

3 0 .. . lUa2 + ! (only a draw results
from 30 .. . �xh5 3 1 . .!:!.xC3 ! �h4+
3 2 . «9 d r

�

3 3 ·kc2+ Was 3.j.·

a x b .j. + � xb4 3S . .!:!.xb.j. �xb4
36 .

.it

2 WbS 3 7 ·kd 3 + �b6 38.

.Jte3 + <;£;>as 39·.Jtd2) 3 I .axb.j.

B U R S A

�

'iY

� b

M b

� �

�

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

3 r . . . � x h S ( 3 I . · · lUxc r 3 2 . b S +

W b 3 3 3 · .itq + �xq 3 .j. · J:!. xq

lU d 3 + 3 5 . � d 2 �xq 3 6 . � f7 ! )

3 2 . b S + �a3 3 3 · gxhS

34·

kxc r + Wb3 3S . .itd2

.it

3 6 .

bxa6 bxa6 3 7 . l:tf3 <;£;>a4 3 8 . l:t f4 +

Wa3 3 9 . .!:!. f3 .!:!.hfS .j.O . .!:!.g3 Wb2

.j. l .�q '!:!'fc8 .j.2 . .!:!.b3 + Wa2 43 .
.!:!.C3 + .!:!.xq

.j..j.

. .!:!.xq

.j.SJ:tq

.!:!.f8,

and Black would appear to be

winning, but it would not greatly
surprise me if some improvement
for White were to be found in this
variation.

3 0 ... �xd3 31 .�a5 + W b 3 32.
.!:!.xc3 + �xc3 + 33 . .itd2

�

M �

�

'iY

� �

�

33 ... b6!

Now much becomes clear. Appar
ently, Vugar overlooked this move.
3

�

Kb6 �e5 + 35.Wd1 .Jtb7

I very much wanted to make this

move, finally completing my de

velopmcnt. The only thing that

deterred  me  was  the  realization
that the computer would not ap
prove  of it.  Even  so,  in  the  end
cowardice overcame greed.
36.�xb7 l:thdB 37JH 3 +

�

37 ... Wa2! Curiously, no one no

ticed that after 37 .. . Wb2 38.�xa8!

.!:!.xa8 39 .

.it

C I +

Wa2 .j.oJh 3 + Wb r

.j. I .l:[b3+  the  game ends  in  per
petual check. Alas, after  38 .�xa8
Black wins by both 38 .. .  �d.j. and

38 .. . �d6, and even 38 .. . �q. 3B.

.!:!.f2 Wb1 Touchdown!

�

3 9 . �f3 .!:!.acB 40.�b3 + �b2
41 .

�

Kb2 + Wxb2

White resigned .

Our  game  concluded  when  the
match  score  was  I - I   ( M alakhov
had  won  against  Mamedo\',  but

Morozevich had lost to Mame

dyarov). Also still in progress was
the  gamc  Yakovenko-Radjabov,
in which White had  a definite ad
vantage in the endgame and could
move  back  and  forwards for  r oo
moves.  For  some  forty  minutes
Mitia did not make a move, await
ing  the  outcome  of  our  game.
When White resigned, he quickly

forccd a draw, giving us victory in
the match, and opening the way to
the title of world champions. This
game was certainly one of the hap
piest moments in my life, associ

�

ated with chess.

.i:

NEW iN CHESS

9 5

Dynamic Nostalgia

Nom you are tellillg me you a re lIot
!lostalgie.

Well give me a llother mord lor it,

you mho a re so good mith mords.

- Joan Baez to Bob Dylan, in her

song 'Diamonds and Rust'

asparov once praised the edi

tors of this magazine by saying

'You are everything your reader

wants you to be, that's why you are

so successful'. He also remarked
that New In Chess was perhaps,
on occasion, a little too nostalgic,
with a clcar fondness for essays on
players from bygone eras. The ed
itors may not thank me for raising
this issue again, but I mention it
because

think the nostalgia is in

many ways the heart of the mag

azine's charm . New In Chess is

not j ust good games, quality an
notations and original p h oto

graphs. Somehow the pages have

weight  and  meaning  that  other
chess magazines do not carry, and
that is because of what might be
called dynamic nostalgia, in which
the backward  glance is not wist
ful, but rather a reminder of why
we continue to care about modern
chess.  Indeed, the richest mateJ"i
al manages to remain timeless, be

cause it dares to explore chess not
j ust as a game, but as a form of life,
manifest as intimate portraits, and
galvanising stories that serve as a
record of cultural evolution.

Forgive me, for it is somewhat in
cestuous to review one's own mag
azine, but this general appraisal

9 6

NEW iN CHESS

helps to contextualise my appreci
ation for

NelTJ ill Chess: The Firsl

2S Years - All Anthology, 1984-
2

, edited by Steve Giddins. If

you are reading this magazine, you

probably enjoy New In Chess, so
you will not be surprised to hear
that the selected material offers a
feast of dynamic nostalgia.

I first came to know about New

In  Chess  when  I  was  a  young
teenager,  from  Mike  Shepherd,
a geologist by profession, and the
strongest player in my home town
of  Aberdeen .  He  would  some
times  drive  me  home  from  the

chess club, and he invariably had a

New In  Chess magazine in his car,
which he  would occasionally lend
me when we reached my house. It
was a small gesture, but along with
a  thousand  and  one  other  twists
of fate, this taste of New In Chess

was instrumental in motivating

me to become a grandmaster. The

main value for me was sensing this

struggle for power at the elite lev
el, and reading the interviews with
the top players whom I began to
admire. I particularly remember
the issue when Fischer re-emerged

after twenty years of exile, because

I had heard the story on television

a few weeks previously and wasn't

sure what to make of it, but clar
ity emerged while sitting in the

back seat of Mike's car. He threw

that distinctively shaped maga

zine to me from the front and said:

'Kasparov is not being very nice to
Fischer, he's calling him an Alien '
I read the interview at home, and

hoped Kasparov was wrong to fear

that Fischer was destroying his

own legend.

At that point in time, as a young

aspiring player, New In Chess
helped to make the game seem not
merely interesting or exeiting, but
also meaningful. The interviews,
games and the analysis together

gave you a sense that the results
of these super tournaments mat
tered, and they mattered beeause

they refleeted a will-to-power

struggle that is as inspiring as it is
tragic. Indeed, Jan Timman once
said, probably in New In Chess,
that only the belief that your life

is 'an overpowering epic' can drive

a player to the summit of ehess.
New In Chess manages to reflect

that sort of idea, the personal

struggle for ascendancy manifest
in chess moves, and documented
in algebraic notation . At the same
time, the portraits of past mas
ters, often by Hans Ree or Genna
Sosonko, highlight the more trag

ic and comic aspects of the game.

A few years later I took a year be
fore university to study chess, and
did so at the home of FM Donald
Holmes, who had several old issues
of New In Chess. I remember suf

fering from a bout of insomnia and
reading an interview with Gelfand
in the hope that it might send me to
sleep. In fact it was very engaging,
and I  was  struck by his claim that
it was  really  crucial  to fight hard
in the first round of a tournament,
to  get into the event, even  if you

R O W S O N ' S R E V I E W S

lose in the process. I still remem
ber this advice in my first round

games. I also remember Ivanchuk
saying you have to 'believe in your

talisman', which led me to look up
'talisman' in the dictionary, but al

though I have mystical leanings, I

am not superstitious by nature.

The anthology is almost -1-00 pag

es long, and spans 2 5 years, so I
will simply share with the reader
the ideas and verbal vignettes that

made the strongest impressio n .
First, I recommend you read the

interview with Tim Krabbe, who
seems to be slightly mad, in the

best possible sense. The following
three quotes should help to j ustify

this claim:

'Several Grandmasters even now

tell you they learnt to play chess
with very odd rules. Sosonko once
told me that he had learnt chess

from his mother, who taught him
White always begins with d2-d4
and e2-q as a double first move. I
myself have learnt chess with the

rule that if you got your king to

the other side you were allowed to
choose five new pieces.'

'I have never looked for excus

es. I like to quote Hans Ree, here,
who simply said : "Chess is beauti
ful enough to waste your life on."

To me, that sums it up. Once you

start looking for excuses, you will
end up needing an excuse for be

ing happy. '

' When I imagine Troitzky in

his Siberian forest, surrounded by
howling wolves, analysing night
after night whether king plus four
knights can always beat king plus
queen (laughs exuberantly), that
is great. That is what chess is all
about, only you have to be a chess

player to appreciate it.  How can
you  explain  to a  non-chessplayer
that within chess there is the little
world  of endgame studies with
in which you have the even tinier
world of theoretical major minor
endgames, within which there is a

R O W S O N ' S R E V I E W S

micro-cosmos populated by utter
madmen analysing four knights

against queen? '

T h e n there is ' T h e impossi

ble Challenge' by Tony Miles, in

which he recounts, at consider
able length, how he won Tilburg
while playing most of the eyent on
a stretcher. Towards the end of the
event, some players didn't want

play a supine Miles at all, and it
became clear to everybody that

New

Chess - The First 25 Years

edited by Steve Giddins

I-lUbner and Miles would agree a
quick draw. They planned to make
j ust two moves, but five moves

were encouraged, and the arbiter,

Geurt Gijssen, said : 'Please make
the five moves sensible.' Miles
then shares the following:

'Crossing the road to the res

talll'ant I met Hubner coming the
other way.  I  told  him  of the  lat
est request. "Oh no," he said,  "it
was my  intention  that the moves
should be utterly stupid "  "Well,
okay,"  I  said,  "I'll  play  sensible
moves, you do what you like, and

I'll offer a draw on move five" . '

Tony Miles

Robert Hiibner

Tilburg 1 985 ( 1 2)

1 .d4  e5  I  had had the slight fear
that  Robert might  really  do the
job properly with 1 .  .. f6 and 2 . . .  gS.

I had two ideas against this. The
first was to avoid 2 . C4. The sec
ond, which I would probably have

adopted, was to play 2 . e4 gS then

pick up my queen, slam it down

on h5 and then 'j 'adoube' it to g4.
2 . dxe5 �h4 3.ttJf3 �a4 4.ttJc3
�a5 5.e4 Drawn .

at much of a game, you might

think, but in its subversive spirit it
reminded me of the following pre
arran ged draw by two American
j uniors unkindly paired together
in an international event.

Jennie Frenklakh
Jennifer Shahade

Menorca Wch U-1 6 1 996

1 .h3 f5  2.d4 e5 3.�d3 f4 So far,
so weird, but it  gets much worse,
or better,  depending on how you
look at it.  4.�g3 !  The exclama
tion  mark  is  for  audaci ty,  these
girls were representing their coun
try after all.  4 ... e4! This time the

exclamation  mark is for  resisting
the temptation to call off the pre
arranged draw and take the queen.
5.�h2 �e7  6.a4 a5  7 J:!.a3  With
the obvious attention to swing the
rook to the kingside.  7 ...

�

!? A

prophylactic move, but not one

you'll find in the Dvoretsky / Yu

supov  literature.  8J:tg3  e3  9.f3
�e7  Although  Black  failed  to
take White's queen, she has shown
good  positional  sense.  However,
White is  not  without hope: 1 0.c4
�b4 +  1 1 .ttJd2 d6 1 2.c5 The be
ginning of a  kind  of counter-at
tack, urgently trying to give away

legal moves. 12 ... �e6 1 3.c6 �b3

Taking away the remaining square

from the white king. 1 4.d5 Black
has various ways to win now, but

first wanted to keep her pawn

structure intact. 14 ... b6 And there

we have it. No draw offer, and not
even a fabricated three-fold repeti

tion, but good old stalemate, after

j ust 1 4 moves.

More seriously,  on reading Tim
man's notes on a  crushing Miles
win  against  S passky,  I  was  re
minded of one of my own games
against Miles:

NEW iN CHESS

Miles-Spassky

Mantilla 1 9 7 8

position after 1 5 .. . 96

1 S.�ad1 tDg7 17 .h4

b4 1 8.

d7 !

kc8 1 9.tDxd5 Wh8 20.

5fS J:!:a7

21 .d5! 'Now the point of move 1 6
is revealed' - Timman . tDe7 22.

ke5 J:!:xd7 23.h5 J:!:xd5 24.�f4

J:!:xd1 25.J:!:xd1 'iYa5 2S.

e8 fS

27.gxfS Wg8 28.tDxg 7

1 -0

'i¥ E

�

i .t

.t i

i � i i � i i

Miles-Rowson

West Bromwich 4NCL 1 99 6/9 7

position after 1 5 .. . 96

At this moment Miles played  1 S.
J:!:ad1 ,  and after the game,  which
I  won, he remarked :  'I always put
my  rook  on  this  square  in  these
positions and it never seems to do
anything. '   Reflecting  on  Miles
Spassky above, I  wonder if Miles
'always'  put  his  rook  on  d

cause he was subconsciously trying

to relive a particularly sweet game
where it proved to be vitally useful.

I  have  nothing against  Spassky,
but he  was the victim of another
piece  of accurate  calculation  in
the  following game, with select
ed  comments by  Timman .  This

9 8

NEW iN CHESS

game was the icing on the cake
of Sosonko's exquisite account of
Tal's life, called 'My Misha' :

Boris Spassky

Mikhail Tal

Tallinn 1 97 3

1 .d4 tD f S 2.c4 eS 3.tDc3 kb4 4 .

k g 5 hS 5.

h4 c5 S . d 5 b5 7 .dxeS

fxeS 8.cxb5 d5 9.e3 0-0 1 0.tDf3
'lWa5 1 1 .

xfS J:!:xfS 1 2.'iYd2 as

1 3.bxaS

cS 14.

14 . . . d4! 1 5 .exd4 J:!:xf3 1 S.

xf3

cxd4 1 7 .0-0 dxc3 1 8.bxc3 �xc3
1 9 .�dS ' S uddenly things have
stopped looking so rosy for Black.

But here comes the point of the

combination . ' 19 ... l::txaS 20.

xcs

kb4! 'The point of the combi
nation. White has

leave his

king's bishop to its own devices.'
21 .'iYb8 J:!:xcS 22.J:!:ac1 kc5 'This
too, had to be calculated on move

Black shields the c-file.' 23.

J:!:c2 'iYa4 24.'iYb3 'iYf4! 25.'iYg3
'iYf5 2S.J:!:fc1 kb7 ! 27 .'iYf3 'iYg5

2 8 .  'iY b 3   J:!:c7  2 9 . g 3   kxf2 + !
'The  l o n g   awaited  execution . '
30.�xf2  'iYfS +  31 .We1  'iYe5 +
3 2 .Wf1  kaS +  33.�g1  'iYd4 +
34.Wg2 'iYe4 +  35.�g1 kb7 3S.
h4 'lWh1 +  37.�f2 J:!:f7 +  38.�e2
'iYe4 +  'The hunt is done. White
resigned .  A masterpiece of accu
rate calculation . '

Steve Giddins seems t o  have done
a  good j ob  of selecting the mate
rial,  though  I  should  point  out
that he made a strange mistake of
printing one of my review columns

'Objecting to Objectivity' with the
title from another column called
'The Right Kind of Smoothness'.

He begins each selected piece with

a brief introduction, for instance:

'New in Chess has always fol

lowed the policy of letting players
hal'c their say, however controver
sial or outspoken they may be. OYcr
the years, this has made for some
memorable contributions, not all of
which make comfortable reading,
but none of which can be faulted

for their entertainment value. The
next piece is one such. Valery Salol

has long since withdrawn from the

chess world, but re-reading the fol
lowing pages, one cannot help but
think what a loss he was, as both
player and polemicist.'

This contribution was extensive,

covering politics and history more
than chess, so I have just shared one
particularly striking comment, sug
gesting some positions are so bad
that you can't even look at them:

Alexey Shirov
Valery Salov

Wijk aan Zee 1 998

1 .e4 c5 2.tDf3 d S 3.d4 cxd4 4.

tDxd4 tDfS 5.tDc3 as S'ke3 tDg4

7 .kg5 hS 8.

h4 g5 9.kg3 kg7

1 0.

e2 h5 1 1 .

xg4 hxg4 1 2.0-0

xd4 1 3 .

�

xd4 fS 1 4.

E � .t 'i¥ �

V)i�

� 8 8

8 � �

'In the post-Monicagate style of
Hilary and Bill or the pre-PCA

style of Vasily I vanchuk I was try

ing to avoid any visual contact with
my position, not believing that such

R O W S O N ' S R E V I E W S

irreparable damage could have been
self-inflicted after only 1 3 moves.'

Anand's account of his first major
victory against Kasparo\' opens

with:

' I . C4

z.d4 dS 3 .ttJdz

These days Garry prefers the hy
peraggressive 3 .exdS of course. '

In the same hyperaggTessive

spirit, in 1 993 Kasparov answered
a question on whether his friend
ship with Short lacked credibility,
by showing his love for hyperbol
ic analogies: 'In the Second World
War it was no secret that Chur
chill and Stalin had personal and

ideological differences, but when
the moment was there they joined
forces against a mutual enemy '

A fter F i s c h e r ' s death N e w

I n C h e s s editor Dirk J a n ten
Geuzendam visited Iceland, and

gave a remarkably sensitive ac

count of the time Fischer spent
there at the end of his life. One of
Fischer's Icelandic friends, Helgi
Olafsson, made that particularly

poignant remark that 'It was a ter
rible burden to him, to be this fa
mous chess player' .

Interviews with FIDE presi

dents are included, and I felt the

following snippet reveals j ust how
slippery a character Campomanes
could be. Dirk Jan ten Geuzen
dam's question was: 'Do people

have a chance of getting

know

you  if you're  so  very  protecti ve
of your privacy? '  Campo replies:
'You see, I don't bother to explain
myself. I'm not a fellow to explain
myself.  I  j ust  do  my  work  and
that's all. Because this business of
having coffee  or a  drink with the
boys, this is not my cup of tea.  I

don't have to explain myself ' (I
particularly like the idea that hav

ing coffee is not his cup of tea).

Ilyumzhinov's interview does

not, alas, include a reference

his time with extraterrestrial life
forms, but I  did like the wonder
fu lly  vacuous  nature  of  his  re
ply to the question  ' Which  reli-

gious book has made the deepest
impression on you ? ' . 'The Bible.
Very interesting. Very interesting '

Finally, the last section includes

the editor's selection of his favour
ite answers

the 'Just Checking'

questions. My favourites were

Mig Greengard's answer to the

question 'Best result ever" ' 1 990,
when I got to third base with Jean
ette Neybert on our first date. '

And to put things in perspec

tive, I should end with Kramnik's
answer to the seemingly innocent
question 'Do you believe in the

future of chess?' 'Well . .. to begin
with let me say that I do not really

believe in a future for mankind. '

Assuming Kramnik's progno

sis was offered in j est, or at any
rate that it does not take effect any
time soon, I strongly advise you to

seek out this anthology. I am sure
that New In Chess's dynamie nos
talgia will have a positive impact
on your mood, and maybe even

�

your chess.

�

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NEW iN CHESS

Najdorf with 6.�g5

in Wijk aan

lee

n an article entitled ' Under

standing the Najdorf Variation',

M i guel  Najdorf wrote  the  fol
lowing: 'I began to play the Sicil
ian in the years 1 937- 1 93 8 ,  since
it  suited  my  temperament  and
my status as a player always look

ing for a fight. It was then that I

put into practice the move 5 . . .  a6
which had been previously played
by  Opocensky  and  other  mas
ters. The frequency  with  which

I employed it was the reason for
its subsequently becoming wide
spread under my name.'

This article appeared in the

book Tile

Va ria tiol1

1 976. Somehow Najdorf's memo

ry must have played tricks on him,

because he played his own varia

tion earlier than Opocensky,  who
used it for the first time in  1 9-1-2 .
Before that time he usually played
the Caro-Kann. Najdorf himsclf
played it for  the first time in the
Buenos Aires Olympiad of 1 939,
in which he played second board

for Poland, behind Tartakower.
His opponent, the Dane Poulsen,
reacted with 6 .�gS e6 7 .'iVf3 and
was ingloriously disposed of.

It was only in 1 9S o that Naj

dorf played his variation against

world-class players: in Budapest,

Smyslov responded with the quiet

6.�e2, while Reshevsky went for
the kingside fianchetto with 6 . g3

in Dubrovnik. It was not before

1 9 5-1- that the approach with 6 .

gS gained i n popularity, mainly

because of Keres.

Earlier, the Estonian star had

1 DO

NEW iN CHESS

also preferred the quiet 6 .�e2,

but in the Amsterdam Olympiad
of 1 954 he defeated Sajtar in the

following spectacular manner:
1 .e4 c5 V2lf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.
tt'lxd4 tt'lf6 5.tt'lc3 a6 6.

�

E � .t iV � .t

�

� � � �

�

6 ... tt'lbd7 7 .�c4 e6 8.0-0 'iVc7 9.

�

xe6! fxe6 1 0.

tt'l

xe6

'iVc4 1 1 .tt'ld5

Wf7

1 2 .

�

xf6

�xe6? 1 2 .. . tt'lx f6

was the only option. 1 3 .

�

c3 tt'lf6

1 4.

�

xf6 gxf6 1 5.tt'lb6 and White

won easily.

Such a game contributes huge

ly to the popularity of a varia

tion. A year later it was followed
by the three famous Gothenburg
games: in Round

Keres, Geller

and Spassky disposed of Najdorf,
Panno and Pilnik, respeetively. All
three games were a Najdorf with

6·�gS ·

This set the trencl . From the

start of my career I always regard
ed it as obvious that the Najdorf
had to be countered with 6 .�gS,
although I was aware, of course,
that Fischer opted for 6.�q, and
sometimes 6.h3, and that Karpov
preferred the quiet 6.�e2. Great
attacking players like Tal and

Spassky remained loyal to 6 .

You had to know a lot as White,

of course. The Polugaevsky varia
tion with 7 . . . b5 and the 'Poisoned
Pawn' with 7 .. :iV b6 could not be
tackled without thorough prepa
ration. In my early years as a pro

fessional I studied it relatively
deeply, which yielded me a great
number of victories.

In t h e l a t e 1 9 8 0 s , t h i n g s

changed .  Many variations o f  the
Poisoned  Pawn  seemed  to  have
been sucked dry,  with  the result
that a  draw seemed almost inev
itable.  Now  you  saw  only  white
players intending to go for a draw
opting for 6 . �gS .  Most  self-re
specting players went for  6.�e3,

w h i l e K a s p a rov, w h o always
ploughed his own opening furrow,
usually used Fischer's weapon of

6.�q.

At the start of the present cen

tury, 6.�gS experienced a revival,
although it is hard to say when ex

actly this started . In 2006, Rad
jabov won a rapid game against

Anand in  16 moves, which was a
clear sign  that Black had not had
it easy.  RadjabO\

had reinforced

an old Tal idea, and with the help
of fast computers it became clear

what dangers Black was exposed
to in this line.

These days, a large number of

top  players  use  6 . �gS :  Anand,
S h i rov,  Ponomari ov,  Rad j abov,
Ivanchuk,  Gashimov  and  Alek
see v play it with some regularity.

The recent Corus tournament

also showed that this trend is

J A N T I M M A N

continuing. Only Leko and Do
minguez stuck to 6 .�e3; both of

them faced the Sicilian only once.

In the main group, there were

seven games with 6 .�g

, in the

B-group there was one, but that,

too, was a theoretically important

battle.

And there wasn't a single game

with the Poisoned Paw n . I find

this strange, since I  do not knoll'
exactly  what the best way  is  for
White to tackle this system .  Ap
parently, no one at the highest lev
el  had  the  courage  to try  it,  un
doubtedly because the computers
have  found  deep  variations  that
are not satisfactory for Black.

In Wijk aan Zee, Smeets played

the Najdorf with 6.�gS four times
as White, while Van Wely was be
hind the black pieces three times.
Nakamura and Ivanchuk played it
both as White and as Black. In the
final round, Shirov ventured into

the theoretical discussion by going

6.�g

in his crucial game against

Dominguez.

In Round

I ,

the game Smeets

Nakamura went as follows:

6.�g5 e6 7 .f4 �e7 B.'�Vf3 h6 9.

�h4 �c7 1 0.0-0-0 tLlbd7

and  now  White  went for  1 1 .f5,
giving the position a static charac
ter. After 11 ... e5 1 2.tLlde2 b5 1 3 .
�xf6  tLlxf6  1 4.tLld5 t h e  position
was roughly equal.

More ambitious is I I .�g3, in

tending to advance the e-pawn .
After 1 1 . . . bS 1 2 .es

I 3 .�e2

dxeS

fxeS tLldS a sharp battle

with chances on both sides arises.

J A N T I M M A N

Two  rounds later,  Smeets, in his
game  against  Ivanchuk,  faced
7 ... �c7 .  The  drawback  of this
queen move is that vVhite can now
swap on f6  and get a kind of Rau
zer position in which he can attack

Black's weakened pawn structure.

White has a choice: he can play

8.�f3 first and then take on f6, or
turn things around and develop
the queen to d2, as in the Rauzer.
Smeets went for the former op
tion. After B.�f3 b5 9.

�

xf6

gxf6

i. � .e..

� .e..

�

i i i

he faced another choice, a quite

common  o n e   i n   the  S i c i l i a n :
should h e  prevent the further ad
vance  of the  b-pawn ,   or  castle
queenside at once?

In Shirov-Papaioannou, E u ro

pean Team Championship, Novi
Sad 2009, White went for queen
side castling, and after 1 0.0-0-0 b4
1 1 .tLlce2 h5 1 2.tLlg3 h4 1 3 .

tLl

tLld7 1 4.g4 �b7 1 5.�e2 0-0-0 a
sharp battle with chances on both
sides arose.

Smeets  played  1 0.a3,  and  after
1 0  ... jlb7  1 1 .�e2  h 5   1 2 .0-0-0
tLld7  1 3 . f 5   e 5   1 4 . tLl b 3

J::!:

c B

1 5 . W b 1 tLl b 6 1 6 . J::!: d 3

�

h 6 !

1 7 .�xh5 We7 B lack had com

pensation for the pawn. I am not

so sure that f-+-fS  is such a  good
idea  without  White  having  firm
control of square d S .

Against Smeets, Dominguez

went for a variation that immedi

ately leads to a hyper-sharp battle,
but although the game itself was
spectacular enough, it added ,'cry

little to the existing theory.

SI 4 . 6 - 896

Jan Smeets

Leinier Dominguez

Wijk

a a n

Zee 2 0 1 0 ( 7 J

1 .e4 c5 2.tLlf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.
tLlxd4 tLlf6 5.tLlc3 a6 6.

g5 e6

7 .f4

7 ... tLlc6!?

A provocative move, introduced in
Keres-Letelier, Santiago

1957.

B.tLlxc6

This game continued 8 . e s h6 9 .

�

h-+ gS 1 0 . fxgS tLl h

) I

r . tLlxc6

bxc6 1 2 .exd6 tLlxgS 1 3 .�d4 J::i:g8

q.o-o-o,

and White was winning.

This  was not an encouraging ex
ample  for  black  players.  It  took
more than four decades to become
clear that  1 0  .. .  tLldS is playable for
Black.

B . . . bxc6 9.e5 h6 1 0.

�

h4 g5 1 1 .

txg5 tLld5 1 2 .

tLl

.e.. � � .e..

i i i

� 8

8 � �

8 8

1 2 ... �b6!

The only correct defence. Black

must act as actively as possible.

1 3.

�

d3 hxg5 14.

�

xg5 �xb2 1 5.

c4 �e7 !

NEW iN CHESS

1 0 1

Loek van Wely said that in his

preparation he had concentrated

exclusively on the Najdorf. A typical

case of 'King Loek' humour, we guess.

This, too, is an important move.

But it was already known.

1 6.

�

xe7

ttJe3

.i.

� i

i i i

!3,

ttJ

� �

8 �

8 8

� �

1 UWe1

The first new move. Known were

I 7 .exd6 and 1 7

�

f3 , after which

Black continues to check on g2
and e3 .

Smeets is prepared to make a dou
ble rook sacrifice, with the result
that at some stage not Black but
White will be forced to draw by
perpetual eheck.

1 7 .. . ttJ x g 2 + 1 8 . W d 1 ttJ e 3 +
1 9.We1 ttJg2 + 20.Wd1 ttJe3 +

1 02

NEW iN CHESS

21 .�xe3 �xa1 + 22.<J,;>d2 �xh1
2 3 .

�

xd6

'!:!:

xh2

24.

�

�b1

2 5 . ttJf6 + <J,;>d8 2 6 .�d4 e5 2 7 .

�

+ W e 7 2 8 . � d 6 + <J,;> b 7

29.'iYe7 + <J,;>e6 30.'iYd 6 +

Draw.

White will have  to  start  looking
for  reinforcements  at  an  earlier
stage.  In  this respect,  the  game
Azarov-

played in the

Belarus championship shortly af

ter Wijk aan Zee, is of theoretical

importance.
After 1 1 .1i.f2 (instead of I I . fxgs)

1 1 .. . ttJd5 1 2 . ttJ e 4 gxf4 1 3 .e4

1 0 . ttJxe6  � a 5   1 1 .ttJxJ8  '!:!:xf8
1 2 .'i¥xd6  Negi came with a  new
defence,  which he had  undoubt
edly worked out at home:

.i.

* �

�

i i

�

� i

�

8 8

ttJ

8 8 8

8 8

�

�a5 + 1 4.�d2 �xd 2 + 1 5.Wxd2

12 ... <J,;>f7 ! 1 3.e5 b4! Now White

dxe 5 ! 1 6.exd5 exd5 Black had

s u fficient counterplay o n the
strength o f h i s m i gh t y pawn

structure. Remarkably enough,

neither Smeets, nor Azaro\' went
for

dxgs ttJdS 1 2 .ttJq �b6 and

now 1 3 . c3 ! instead of J 3 . �d 3 .
After 1 3 . . . 'i¥xb2

. .!:!:b I �xa2

I S .g6! the situation is critical for

Black, as Kuzmin shows in Year

book 94- This is probably the rea
son why Dominguez played a dif
ferent system against Shirov in
the final round .

I n the other five games with

6 . �gS  in  Wijk  aan  Zee,  Black
went for  a  system  in  which  the
queen's knight is developed to d7
at an early stage. This system was
mainly popularized by  Gelfand :

Black prevents h i s f-pawn from
being doubled, and then wants to
take his queen

C7 for the tradi

tional advance b7-bS.
Naiditsch-Negi was of theoreti
cal importance. White went for
developing his king's bishop to

6.�g5 e6 7 .f4 ttJbd7 8.

�

e4 In

my report of the European Cham
pionship in Budva (see New In

Chess 2009 / 3 ) I have discussed

this system fairly extensively. The
idea is to meet 8 . . . �b6 with 9.

iLxf6 ttJxf6 I o.iLb3 . Negi played

8 . . . b5, and this was followed by
the sacrifice on e6 in the style of
Keres-Saj tar. After 9.il..xe6 fxe6

has a choice between q.e6+ and

q.exf6, but in either case Black

will have sufficient counterplay.

In Nakamura-Van Wely (Round 2)

White went for the old-fashioned
approach with 8 . � f3 but after

8 . . . �

7 he continued 9.�xf6.

.i. * .i. .i

i � �

i i i

i i �

for someone unfamiliar with this

line this must seem quite strange:

White often withdraws his bishop
from gS to h{ here if Black plays
h7-h6, but now he swaps volun
tarily on f6. The determining fac

tor is how Black can take back on
f6. He will only recapture with the

g-pawn if he has no other choice.
Taking back with the bishop usu
ally is Black's best option. I f the
knight on f6 takes, White always
has the possibility of quickly go

ing q-eS or g{-gs .

The game continued a s follows:

9 ... ttJxf6 1 0 .g4 b 5 1 1 . g 5 ttJ d 7
1 2.0-0-0

J A N T I M M A N

� .t * .t �

� �

i i i

i i

Cjj 8 8

Cjj

�

8 8 8

� M lii. M

and now, after 1 2 .. . itq, a main
line of this system would have
arisen via transposi tion.

Players  who  opt  for  the  system
with 7 . . .  tLJbd7 and S . . .  �C7, how
ever,  arc usually not prepared to
switch to the system with 7 . . .

Jl..

e 7

and S . . . �C7 . I n this position ,
Black has also tried various differ
ent moves.

The most important one is 1 2 ...
b4, after which White is forced
to make the traditional piece sac

rifice on d S . In Radjabov-Volok
itin, Biel 2006, White was better

after 1 3.tLJd5! exd5 1 4.exd5 £l.b7
1 5.�e4 + £l.e7 1 S.tLJf5 tLJc5 1 7 .
tLJxg7 + WfB 1 B.�d4 b 3 1 9.

Jl..

In Sjugirov-Papin, Lipetsk 200S,
White did something different

by playing 1 5 .

�

h 3 ( i nstead of

I S .�q). After 15 ... £l.e7 1 SJ:the1

gS 1 7 .�e2 tLJbS 1 B.f5 tLJxd5 1 9.fS

0-0 2o.fxe7 l:!.feB 21 .�d2 tLJxe7

22.�xb4 he was also better.

In Volokitin

Petrosian, Dresden

2007, Black varied wi th 12 ...

Jl..

7 ,

and after

1 3

£l.

h e could have

followed in the footsteps of Sjugi
rov-Papin with 1 3 .. . b4. Instead, he
continued 13 ... l:!.cB 14.l:!.he1 'i'c4,
which White met calmly with 1 5 .
£l.f1 �c5 1 S.a3. White was better,
mainly because of the vulnerable
position of the king.

Against Nakamura, Van Wely went
for another line again: 12 ... tLJc5
1 3.a3 l:!.bB The combination of
Black's two last moves is very un

fortunate indeed. Nakamura struck
with 1 4.b4 tLJd7 1 5.tLJd5, and it is
self-evident that the piece sac is

J A N T I M M A N

made here under far more fayour
able circumstances. The bad  posi
tion of Black's queen's rook in par
ticular at once  makes  for a critical
situation .  Black is hopelessly lost.

my surprise, I later learned that

Nakamura had prepared this piece
sac in these circumstances in his
hotel room. There are many more
crucial and more difficult lines in
this system. Nor did I understand
why White got the daily prize for
this walk-over.

Ivanchuk had apparently fol

lowed the Van Wely debacle with
interest, and explains himself what
happened in their game.

NOTES BY

Vasily Ivanchuk

S1 6 . 1 - 896

Vasily Ivanchuk
Loek van Wely

Wijk

aan

Zee 2 0 1 0 (41

1 .e4 c5 2.tLJf3 dS 3.d4 cxd4 4.
tLJxd4 tLJfS 5.tLJc3 as S.£l.g5

:i � .t � * .t

i i i i

�

lii.

I noticed that Nakamura played

this variation with black against

Smeets, and that the next day he
employed it with white against
Van Wely and won confidently. I

decided to make use of his experi
ence, and it turned out very well.
S ... eS 7 .f4 tLJbd7 B.�e2

A fashionable continuation, which
nowadays has good statistics for
White.

8...�c7

Loek was ob\

iou

not prepared

for the given variation, since he

thought for a long time over eve

ry move.

9.0-0-0 b5 1 o.a3 £l.e7 1 1 .g4 l:!.bB

In reaching this theoretical po

sition, my opponent had already

spent a mass of time, and yet the
play is only j ust beginning in such
positions. The following is con
sidered a solid continuation:

I ! . . .

�

7 1 2 . l:!. g J h 6 1 3 · �h4 g S 1 4·

fxgS tLJh7 I S ·ii.fz hxgS 1 6 . tLJ f3
tLJeS I 7.£l.d4 f6 1 S. h4 0-0-0 1 9·hS

tLJf8 20.ii.f2 tLJxf3 2 I .�xf3 tLJd7
22·l:!.g3 tLJeS 23.�e3 Wd7 24.�b6

�xb6 2S .itxb6, with sharp play,
Wang Hao-Li, Beijing 2009.

1 2.

�

:i .t

� � .t i i i

i i �

lii.

Cjj 8 8 8

8 8

�

lii. 8

1 2 ... b4?

T h i s   is  c o n s i d e r e d   d u b i o u s .
Black's  premature  attack  is  not
at all  justified.  1 2  .. .  h6 is better,
after which  I  give some possible
variations:

A) 1 3 . �x f6 £l.xf6 q . h4 b4

1 5 .axb4 l::txb4 1 6.es clxeS 1 7 .tLJc6
l:!.xf4 r S .tLJC4 0-0 1 9 .9S

ii.

b7 20.

tLJxf6+ tLJxf6 2 I . gxf6 �xe6 22.
fxg7 l:!.cS favours Black;

3 .£l.h4

£l.

�

.t � � .t i i

i i �

Cjj 8 8 8 lii.

Cjj

8 8 � lii. 8

� M

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

NEW iN CHESS

1 03

qJ:the I (an important alternative

is qJ:thg l )

q . . .

lLlb6 I S .�b l , c.g.

I S · · ·O-o 1 6·gS hxgS I 7 . fxgS lLlfd7

I S .�h S lLlcS I 9 · l:!:c3 g6 zo.�ez

lLlbq, with chanccs for both sidcs.
Finally, I z .. .

b7 docs not fit at

all well with the rook on bS, and

the move looks illogical, but it
has a right to exist: 1 3 . �b I �q

q . 'iYe I h6 l s · iLh.j. gS 1 6 . fxgS

hxgS I 7 .iLxgS b4 I S .axb4 'iYxb4

1 9 .1Llb3 lLlxg.j. zo.iLxq Wxe7 Z l .

l::td.j., and White is better.

1 3 .axb4

l:t

xb4 1 4.e5!

An important breakthrough .

14 ... dxe5

� � .t ' "

, �

Ji.

t2J

8 8

'if

Ji. 8

� 11

1 5 .

lLl

c6!

I remembered that in cert ain
games lLlc6 was playcd, and in all
of them Whitc won. This inspired
additional confidence.

1 5 ... �b7

I was expecting I S .. . h6 I 6 .iLxf6

gxf6, and no\\':

� � .t ,

t2J

8 8

t2J

8 8

Ji. 8

� 11

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

A ) 1 7 . lLl xb.j.

xb.j. l S . lLl q

exf.j. I 9 . l:t xd7

xd7 z o . lLl x f6+

WdS Z T . l:td T

�

d6 zz .�q, with

attack;

B) 1 7. fxeS ! ? , and White retains

1 04

NEW iN CHESS

strong pressure. The game Sprag
gett-Czakon, San Sebastian zo07,
concluded as follows: I S .. . l::tb6 1 6.

lLl

7 .

�

7 J:Ixb7 1 S . fxes

lLl x e S 1 9 · 1:tde l lLled7 20. 'iYxa6

1 -0 .

1 6.

lLl

xb4

.t � �

i i '

, �

Ji.

8 8

1 7 .fxe5

1 7 .

�

x f6

lLl x f6 I S . iLxb7 �xb7

I 9·'iYxeS 0-0 zo.gS iLxC3 21 .'iYXC3

lLldS zz.'iYd.j. also looked strong,
but the game continuation seemed
stronger

me.

1 7 ...

�

xc3

A fter 1 7 .. . lLl x e s l S . �x f6 ( o r

I S . �xb7 �XC3 1 9 · bxC3 �xc3

zo.�xa6, winning) IS . . . gxf6 1 9 .

xb7 �xb7 z o . lLl q

Z l .

l:thgI White is winning.

1 8.exf6 gxf6

I calculated I S .

. �as 1 9 . bxc3

�xgS + zo.�dz 'iYxd2+ Z I .l:txdz
�xgz zz.fxg7 l:tgS z3·l:rxgz l:txg7

and j ud ged the position to be

technically won.

If  IS . . .  iLxf6  I 9 .iLxf6  lLlxf6  zo .
gS  �Xg2 Z I .'tl¥xgz lLldS z2. l:txds
exds z3.l:te I +  WfS z.j..'iYxds, and

\\' II1 S .

.t � �

1 9.bxc3

Ji.

I thought that exchanges would
lead to the simplest conversion of
my material advantage. 1 9 .iLh6

eS zo.�xb7 �xb7 z I .C3 came

into consideration, but the bishop
is very strong on es.

1 9 .. .fxg5 2o.

xb 7 'iYxb 7

�

'if

� 11

21 .h4! Bringing the second rook
into play.

21...�c7

z 1 . . . gxh.j. was more tenacious, al
though after zz.l:txh.j., White's po

sition is easily won .

22.hxg5 'iYxc3 23.'iYxa6 lLlc5

'if

�

� 11

24.�a8 +

The prosaic 2.j.. 'iYc8+ <:Ji;q 2 S .
l::td7+ was simpler, but i n such a

posi tion all roads lead to victory.
24 ... We7 25.'iYa7 + �f8 26.

l:t

hf1

Black resigned .

£I:JI

not hard to predict which

opening variation would be played
in S meets-Van Wei),. Like I van
chuk, Smeets did something cle\'

er: he was the first to deviate from

the earlier games, preventing Van
Wely from showing what rein
forcements he had come up with.

J A N T l M M A N

Vasily Ivanchuk: 'I noticed that Nakamura played this variation with black against

Smeets, and that the next day he employed it with white against Van Wely and won

confidently. I decided to make use of his experience, and it turned out very well.'

Smeets played 1 o.g3 instcad of

T O.a3·

Hc wants to fianchctto his bish
op and then aim for q-e s . But it

goes without saying that he must
be prcpared to sacrifice a piece

with 1

. tt:l d 5 after

. .

b-l. Aftcr

I 1

. . . cxdS White has no fewer than

three mo\'cs to launch an attack:

1 2 . cxd S + , 1 2 . �g2 and 1 2 . tt:l fS .

Thcre i s little doubt that Smects
had prcpared for this thoroughly

with his second Sipke Ernst.

Black, incidentally, is forced to

J A N T l M M A N

play I O  .. .  b-l; otherwise White gets
too much  play  without any sacri
fices.  Van  Wely learnt  this  to his

cost. After 1o ... �e7 1 1 .

�

g2 �b7

White's 1 2.e5

was already so strong that Black
was teetcring on the edge of the
abyss. His king is stuck in the
middle, and White will be able to
mobilize all his pieces for the at

tack. Things went downhill from
here very quickly: 1 2 ... dxe5 1 3.
fxe5

tt:l

d5 1 4.

�

xe7 tt:lxc3 1 5.bxc3

�

xg2 1 6.

�

xg2 �xe7 17 .tt:lc6 + ,

and the black position collapsed

soon afterwards.

After the game, Ernst said that

they had had the position on the
analysis board till after White's

1 7th move. Again I was surprised:

there are so many difficult side
li nes, so why bother with posi
tions in which all that is left is the
execution? This game completed

Van Wely's debacle. But he didn't
secm too worried about it. A week
after the tournament I met him in

Porz during a Bundesliga match,
where he seemed quite cheerful
and told me that during his prepa

ration for the tournament he had

exclusively concentrated on the

Najdorf Variation .

So it's j ust as well that he played

his other games without any prep
aration, otherwise his entire tour
nament could have turned into a
disaster.

I n the final round, Dominguez

went for the immediate 6 . . . tt:lbd7,

as in Keres-Sajtar.

Recent examples have shown that

7.�e2 leads to the variations dis

cussed above because Black is al
ways forced to play q

But

Shirov followed in Keres's foot
steps with 7..�.c4. After 7 ... 'iYb6
B.

9..

b3 e6 9.�d2 9..e7 1 0.0-0-0

tt:lc5 1 1 .f3

�

c7 1 2.<;!;>b1 0-0 1 3.

g4 b5 a sharp battle with chances
for both players ensued . Black has

lost a tempo with his queen, but

White has been unable to exploit
this, since he is not in the position
to launch a strong advance in the
centre.

S u m m i n g   up,  we  can  say  that
I vanchuk  scored  the best result
with  the  line,  winning  both  as
White and as Black .  The Najdorf
with 6 .9..gS  is still completely in
the making, and it is fascinating to
see how the play continues to de
velop.  I have a feeling that I  will

�

have to return to it in the future.

NEW iN CHESS

1 0 5

N A M E :

Michael Adams

E L O - R A T I N G :

2 7 04

O A T E O F B I R T H :

November 1 7 , 1 97 1

P L A C E O F B I R T H :

Truro, England

P L A C E O F R E S I D E N C E :

Taunton, England

is yourlavourite colour?

Red or white are good, rose is not my favourite.

Who is yourlavourite author?

Robert

Parker, Carl Hiaasen, Tom Sharpe and Ian

Fleming.

W ha t mas the most interest ing book you ever read?

I recently finished 'The Black Swan' by Nassim Ni

cholas Taleb, which I enjoyed.

Wha t is your all-time lavourite movie?

'Pulp Fiction' probably, I also like James Bond and
Terminator movies.

Wha t is your lavourite

series?

'Boston Legal' and 'Cali fornication'.

D o y o u h a v e a lavourite actor?

Morgan Freeman . I j ust saw 'Frost/Nixon' with
Frank Langella

he was excellent.

And a lavourite actress?

Tara MacGowran!

Wha t IIlusic do you like to listen to ?

Warren Zevon, Squeeze, Guns N' Roses, Madonna.

Do you have a favourite painter or a rt ist ?

My wife has some of Ralph Steadman's works, his

mind works in a very cool way.

Wha t mas the best game you ever played?

I like my game with Ivanchuk in Terrassa 1 99 1 , prob
ably because I was clever enough not to let the com
puter see it.

Is there

chess book that had a profound influence on you?

I have strong recollections of reading 1)etrosian's
Best Games 1 946-63 ' by Peter Clarke when I was
quite young. 'Profound influence' might be going a
bit far though .

1 06

NEW iN CHESS

Who is your lavourite chess player ol all time?

Tal was a lot of fun and a class act on and off the
board . I was very happy that I got to play him a cou
ple of times.

Wha

do you see as your best result ever?

Avoiding a real job.

Wha t are chess players particularly good at (except lor

chess) ?

Daydreaming

and maybe poker.

Do you have any superstitions concerning chess?

After a defeat, I use a different pen for the next game

(if ! can find one).

Who or mhat mould you like to be

meren 't yourse/.f?

Dolphins look pretty happy.

Which three people mould you like to invite

lor

dinner?

Martin Johnson, Amelia Earhart, Saul Hudson.

Is there something you 'd love to learn?
A foreign language.

Wha t mouldyou save.from your hOllse ifit llJere onjire?

My insurance policy.

Wha t is the stupidest rule in chess?

Unfortunately too many to choose from - but a rule
that allows someone to be defaulted for not being
present at the board despite arriving early for the

game is a masterpiece of moronic-ness.

What lPill be the nationality o/the

2050

chess llJorld

champion ?

I'm not sure - will they have finished the current

cycle by then ?

What is the best thing tha t IPas ever said about chess?

'Chess doesn't drive people mad, it keeps mad people
sane'

Bill Hartston .

J U S T C H E C K I N G

Document Outline