Tournaments and Championships

Norway Chess 2013 / Final

Published May 18, 2013 | By DoughBoy

Sergey Karjakin

Karjakin wins the Norway Chess Tournament of 2013 by a point and a half – Wow – and look at the opposition; a World Champion and the highest rated player on the planet.

#	Name	ELO	Pts	S-B
1	Karjakin, Sergey	2786	6	24
2	Carlsen, Magnus	2872	5.5	22.75
	Nakamura, Hikaru	2767	5.5	21.25
4	Svidler, Peter	2747	5	21.5
	Aronian, Levon	2809	5	20.5
	Anand, Viswanathan	2783	5	19.25
7	Wang, Hao	2743	4.5	21.5
8	Topalov, Veselin	2771	4	18
9	Radjabov, Teimour	2793	3	10.75
10	Hammer, Jon Ludvig	2631	1.5	6.5

For All Games of the Final Round – See Comments.

http://norwaychess.com/

Posted in Tournaments and Championships | 1 Comment

Norway Chess 2013 / Round 8

Published May 17, 2013 | By Bart7

The 8th Round of the Norway Chess tournament saw four decisive games and surprisingly the top two players Sergey Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen were both defeated. Karjakin still holds the lead with one round to go..

Nakamura played a sharp game with white against Radjabov’s sicilian defense ..who after the game says he may cancel his next tournament: the FIDE Grand Prix which starts in a few days in Thessaloniki.

Norway Chess 2013 / Round 8

Rd8 GM Nakamura (2775) – GM Radjabov (2745)

standings after 8 rounds..

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	Pts	SB
1	Karjakin,S	2767	2900		0	½	0	1	1	1		1	1	5.5	19
2	Carlsen,M	2868	2837	1		½	½	½		0	½	1	1	5	18.25
3	Anand,V	2783	2856	½	½		½	0	½		1	1	1	5	17.25
4	Svidler,P	2769	2812	1	½	½		½	½	0	½		1	4.5	18.25
5	Nakamura,H	2775	2829	0	½	1	½		0	1	½	1		4.5	17.5
6	Aronian,L	2813	2792	0		½	½	1		½	½	½	1	4.5	15.5
7	Wang Hao	2743	2724	0	1		1	0	½		½	½	0	3.5	14.75
8	Topalov,V	2793	2719		½	0	½	½	½	½		½	½	3.5	13
9	Radjabov,T	2745	2632	0	0	0		0	½	½	½		1	2.5	7.25
10	Hammer,J	2608	2530	0	0	0	0		0	1	½	0		1.5	5.25

Norway Chess 2013 / Round 7

Published May 16, 2013 | By DoughBoy

by National Life Master Loal Davis

Teimour Radjabov

Viswanathan Anand

Anand has a very long and strong history of playing the Black side of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. He played it in his youth in its original form and later gravitated towards the Meran Defense and the Open Catalan; all are similar in that Black plays an relatively early dxc4. Yes a little time is lost and short term central control, but Black has an internal harmony of all of his pieces, especially the Bishops which in other (most) variations of the Queen’s Gambit are confined and a constant nuisance.

In the 7th round of Normay Chess, Vishy again shows us the pluses associated with opening the game up.

Radjabov,Teimour (2745) – Anand,Viswanathan (2783) Norway Chess 2013 Stavanger (7), 15.05.2013

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4

The Open Catalan. When you think about it, it’s a Queen’s Gambit Accepted.

5.Bg2 c5 6.Qa4+ Bd7

[Black can also play 6...Nbd7 and liberate the Queenside by a6/b5 (with tempo)/Bb7 - and if necessary (often is with a Bishop on g2) Rb8 (but watch out for Bf4).
Then Black's Bishops have nice long open diagonals while he fights for central control. It can also happen that Black ends up with a Queenside majority of Pawns for the ending.]

7.Qxc4 Bc6 8.0–0

The Pawn on c5 usually ends up being a temporary Pawn sacrifice and White may well be better off ignoring it.

8…Nbd7 9.Nc3 Rc8 10.Be3 b5

11.Qd3

[11.Nxb5 cxd4 12.Nxa7 Bxf3 13.Qxc8 Qxc8 14.Nxc8 Bxg2 15.Kxg2 dxe3 and White is a mess.]

11…b4 12.Nb1 c4

There’s that Queenside majority.

13.Qc2 Be7 14.a3 b3

Black refuses (with tempo) to let the White Rook out, but the Queenside Majority is now not so mobiile.

15.Qc1 Nb6 16.Nc3 Nfd5 17.Bd2 0–0 18.Ne5 Nxc3 19.Bxc3 Bxg2 20.Kxg2 Na4 21.Re1 f5

At first this looked strange to me, but Anand wants to play Bf6 and not be bothered by Ng4.

22.f3 Bg5 23.e3 Bf6

Black is better. Look at that Rook on a1.

24.e4 Bxe5

Going for the ending. The d3 square is soft.

25.dxe5 fxe4 26.Rxe4 Qd3 27.Re3 Qd5 28.Qe1 Rfd8

29.Rc1 Qb5 30.Rd1 Rd3

Beautiful play by Anand; comletely developed, central control/pressure and White’s Bishop is playing the role of a Big Pawn.

31.Rexd3 cxd3 32.Bd4 Qc4 33.Be3 Nxb2 34.Rc1 d2

[34.Rc1 d2 35.Bxd2 (35.Qxd2 Qxc1 36.Qxc1 Rxc1 37.Bxc1 Nd3 and the Pawn from the Queenside Majority waltzes in.) 35...Nd3 36.Rxc4 Nxe1+ 37.Bxe1 Rxc4]

0–1

Posted in Chess Game Analysis, Tournaments and Championships, Viswanathan Anand | 1 Comment

Supreme Masters 2013

Published May 16, 2013 | By Bart7

Magnus the Magician pulls a win out of thin air…

Magnus Carlsen scores another win against Teimour Radjabov for the second time… moves within half a point of the leader Sergey Karjakin.

Supreme Masters 2013 Sandnes NOR

Rd6 GM Carlsen (2868) – GM Radjabov (2745)

Supreme Masters 2013 Sandnes NOR (NOR), 8-18 v 2013															cat. XXI (2766)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2767	*	0	.	1	½	.	.	1	1	1	4½	2953
2.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2868	1	*	½	.	½	½	½	1	.	.	4	2897
3.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2775	.	½	*	0	1	½	½	.	1	.	3½	2851
4.	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2813	0	.	1	*	½	½	.	½	.	1	3½	2798
5.	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2783	½	½	0	½	*	½	1	.	.	.	3	2797
6.	Svidler, Peter	g	RUS	2769	.	½	½	½	½	*	.	.	0	1	3	2765
7.	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2793	.	½	½	.	0	.	*	½	½	½	2½	2696
8.	Radjabov, Teimour	g	AZE	2745	0	0	.	½	.	.	½	*	½	1	2½	2708
9.	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2743	0	.	0	.	.	1	½	½	*	0	2	2617
10.	Hammer, Jon Ludvig	g	NOR	2608	0	.	.	0	.	0	½	0	1	*	1½	2578

“I’m really very satisfied I managed to squeeze something out of this and am now fully in the tournament. It’s a very welcome turn of events for me.” – Carlsen.

*** UP DATE Round 7 results Magnus wins again…

WANG Hao	½ -½	ARONIAN Levon
HAMMER Jon Ludvig	0-1	CARLSEN Magnus
SVIDLER Peter	½ -½	TOPALOV Veselin
RADJABOV Teimour	0-1	ANAND Viswanathan
KARJAKIN Sergey	1-0	NAKAMURA Hikaru

official site http://norwaychess.com/en/

Posted in Magnus Carlsen, Tournaments and Championships | Leave a comment

Manny Pacquiao Cup

Published May 15, 2013 | By Bart7

[Boxing Champ and Chess Enthusasist Manny Pacquiao]

The Asian Continental Chess Championship is scheduled May 18 to 27 at the Midas Hotel in Pasay City.

Grandmaster Eugene Torre, who is co-organizing the event, graced the PSA Forum at Shakey’s Malate to announce the staging of the nine-round Swiss System tournament to be known as the Manny Pacquiao Cup.

A total cash prize of $100,000 will be up for grabs in the event that serves as the last qualifying tournament for the 2013 World Cup in August in Norway.

“This will be a historic event because one of the world’s sporting icons, Manny Pacquiao

is supporting us,” said Torre. We will make sure it becomes a successful event.”Read more: http://sports.inquirer.net/99841/pacquiao-backs-asian-chess-tilt#ixzz2TN9YVFGM

Posted in Chess, Famous Chess Players, Tournaments and Championships | 1 Comment

U.S. Championship 2013 / Final

Published May 13, 2013 | By DoughBoy

Gata Kamsky

Gata Kamsky won the playoffs with Alejandro Ramirez.

The Final game was a must-win situation in sudden death for Kamsky (Diagram).

Congratulations Gata ! ! U.S. Chess Champion for 2013.

Posted in Gata Kamsky, Tournaments and Championships, U.S. Championship 2013 | Leave a comment

U.S. Championsips 2013 / Rnd 9

Published May 13, 2013 | By DoughBoy

by National Life Master Loal Davis

Alejandro Ramirez

Alejandro Ramirez and Gata Kamsky have tied for first in the 2013 U.S. Championship.
Ramirez and Kamsky will have a playoff on Monday.

Irina Krush finished as undisputed Women’s Champion of 2013; she was last years winner and continues her reign.

Ramirez won his last round game against former U.S. Champion Larry Christiansen (Diagram).

For All Decisive Games in Round 9 – See Comments.

Posted in Tournaments and Championships, U.S. Championship 2013 | 2 Comments

Norway Chess 2013 / Rnd 4

Published May 12, 2013 | By DoughBoy

by National Life Master Loal Davis

Hikaru Nakamura won a game in the fourth round of Norway Chess against the World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

Anand was unrecognizable. Bad form? I’m at a loss to explain so many slips in a row. Explanation or not, Nakamura was right there to pick up the pieces and he put the game away very strongly.

In the first Diagram (Top/Left) the position appears flat equal. Here – Black to play – Hikaru tried 24. b4.

If the Pawn was simply ignored and met by centralization – say 25. Rd2 (Diagram Top/Right) then Black has many problems to solve; back rank, Pawn on e5, and the newly offered Pawn on b4.

Even after the Pawn was taken 24. …. b4 25. cxb4 Nc6 26. Rd2 could still have been played.

Instead Anand opted for 26. Ba4 which resulted in 26. …. Nxb4 27. Qxe5 Qe7 28. Qh5 (Diagram Bottom/Left).

Here I think 28. Qc3 may have been better. There’s a lot to be said for going after that isolated c Pawn.

After 28… Nxa2 there was a chance to play 29. Ne5 which still appears flat equal.

Instead Anand played 29. g3 and after 29. …. Nc1 30. Rc2 Nd3 Diagram (Bottom/Right) Nakamura had a bone in White’s throat that could not be removed.

Black went on to win the game.

A World Champion taken down hard. Congratulations to Nakamura.

Posted in Chess Game Analysis, Famous Chess Players, Hikaru Nakamura, Tournaments and Championships, Viswanathan Anand | Leave a comment

U.S. Championsips 2013 / Rnd 8

Published May 11, 2013 | By DoughBoy

by National Life Master Loal Davis

Irina Krush won a game in the 8th Round that smacks of intimidation; not hard to do in this case, as she was, and still is, the tournament leader in the Women’s Section. She also outdistanced her opponent by approximately 150 rating points and is the reigning U.S. Women’s Champion. One is supposed to put all that aside and look at the board – easy to say that from the sidelines – it’s another to have the position in front of you with a clock ticking at your elbow. Let’s take a look.

On White’s 41st move Abrahamyan played f4 (Diagram Top/Left) with an obvious threat of f5 with a fork.

By simply playing 41. …. Rg7, Black could have maintained a substantial plus and most likely gone on to win the game – which she did anyway.

Instead Krush played 41. …. g3 which tossed the game in the next few moves to move 43. …. g2 (Diagram Top/Right).

Scary – Right? Yet it was here that White crumbled.

By playing 44. Qd5 White could have set up a possible e7+ with the threat to promote combined with removing Black’s Queen from supporting the g1 Queening square.

This may well have produced 44. Qd5 Qxd5 45. exd5 g1=Q 46. Bxh7+ Kf8 47. Rxg1 Rxg1+ 48. Kc2 Rg2+ 49. Kd3 Rg3+ 50. Ke4 a4 51. Bg6 Rxg6 52. Rh8+ Ke7 53. Rh7+ (Diagram Bottom/Left) with a probable draw.

Now this is all not forced, but very plausible, and certainly worth a shot.

Instead Abrahamyan believed Black and played 44. e7 which after 44. ….Ra8 produced the Diagram Bottom/Right.

Here, Black is firmly in control and went on to win the game. Interesting.

For All Decisive Games (Round 8) – See Comments.

Posted in Chess Game Analysis, Tournaments and Championships, U.S. Championship 2013 | 2 Comments

Norway Chess 2013

Published May 11, 2013 | By DoughBoy

Viswanathan Anand

Veselin Topalov

In the third round of Norway Chess, Anand played a brilliant game. In the Diagram position White could have played Bb3 with the same idea; as a matter of fact Anand thought that may well have been a better move than what he played. Better or not, the move he played was one for the books.

Posted in Famous Chess Players, Tournaments and Championships, Viswanathan Anand | Leave a comment