Chess News and Features from Duif's Place

Game 4: An interesting draw leaves the match tied with a final score of 2 - 2.
The game was tense but both sides played well, ending in an interesting draw. In the post-game interview, Kasparov noted that although computers play better than they used to, humans also know much more about playing against them than they did 5 years ago. He also pointed out that it was he who made the two most significant errors, and that he felt it was up to him to improve his play and win the next match. All in all, this was a fun and interesting event, and both Mr. Kasparov and the sponsors (including the Fritz team) are to be commended for participation.

Game 3: Cool and confident, Kasparov rolls over the computer to win Game 3, match tied 1.5 - 1.5 with 1 game remaining.
A game in which Kasparov was in control from the beginning, with none of the shifting dynamics of the first two games. Here it was "All Kasparov, all the time," as the computer program clearly was unable to evaluate the subtleties of a closed position. Kasparov won a pawn, gave it back for even more positional advantage, and played precisely through over 40 moves to win the pawn back again and break through on the Queenside. A lovely game, and unexpected by many of the pre-game commentators who had written Kasparov off and out of the match after his heartbreaking loss in Game 2. But now the match is tied again, and Game 4 on Tuesday will tell the tale.

Game 2: Computer wins, leads match 1.5 - 0.5 with 2 games remaining.
A heartbreaker in every sense of the word. The opening was tense and exciting, with excellent play on both sides. Fritz X3D played the White pieces. A slight advantage shifted back and forth, and each side sought to improve a dynamic position. At last in time pressure and suffering from fatigue, Kasparov made a fatal mistake, and the computer program swooped in for the kill. Mig posts a great report with photos at Chessbase. Game 3 will be on Sunday, November 16.

Game 1: very exciting: Kasparov as White sacrificed a pawn, then won the exchange, but misplayed the attack very slightly and the computer program, always a tenacious defender, fought back to a draw. WorldChessRating.com offers brief analysis from Garry Kasparov on game 1.

The match consisted of 2 rapid and 4 blitz games. This event was held September 23.

Kasparov won the two Rapids games--and then won 3 out of 4 of the blitz games, leaving Azmaiparshvilli with just one draw in game 5. Score: Rapids (Time control 25 3): Kasparov 2, Azmaiparashvilli 0.
Blitz (Time control 5 3): Kasparov 3.5, Azmaiparashvilli 0.5.
Not bad considering Kasparov hasn't played a serious game since Linares in February. Now on to the Euro Club Cup!

Official site in English.
Information on the Kasparov-Azmaiparashvilli exhibition match
Photos from the Kasparov-Azmaiparashvilli Exhibition Match

Once a year, an event is held that brings together many of these clubs to play for the European Clubs Cup. Each country in the European Federation is allowed to send one club team. Participation Rules allow countries that have more grandmasters to send more clubs, so there's no strict country/club ratio.

The prize fund is 10,000 euros for team placement, 5,000 euros for individual placement.

Note: each player plays their own game as an individual without consulting other players. At the end of each round, the scores for the players on one team are added together to get the team score.

This is a seven round event. This year's participants include the world's #1 rated player Garry Kasparov, 2003 European Champion Azmaiparashvilli, 2003 Dortmund winner Bologan, 2003 Russian Champion Peter Svidler, and many more. More than 150 grandmasters are scheduled to participate.

Kasparov will be playing for one of the Russian teams, Ladia-Kazan , which also includes Rublevsky, Smirin, Bologan, and Gallimova. They are considered the favorite for the event.

Other strong teams include NAO Paris of France, whose players include Grischuk, Svidler, Mickey Adams, Joel Lautier, and Francisco Vallejo Pons. Note that NAO's team members include players from England, France, Russia and Spain, a fact made possible by the club format.

Official site in English.
Photos from the Kasparov-Azmaiparashvilli Exhibition Match

Players participating include IM Charbonneau (the Canadian Champion) and GM Lesiege of Canada; a number of US players including GM Ashley, GM deFirmian, GM Gulko, GM Kaidanov, IM Irina Krush, GM Nakamura, GM Onischuk (2657, the highest rated player in the event), GM Shabalov (the current US Champion), ; GM Mecking (Brasil), GM Gilberto Hernadez (Mexico), GM Julio Granda Zuniga of Peru, and many more.

The winners were GM Goldin of the USA and GM Vescovi of Brazil, with 8.5 points. Other players qualifying to go on to the FIDE Knockout World Championship Tournament are: Bruzon (CUB), Morovic (CHI), Nakamura (USA), Onischuk (USA), and Shulman (USA).

There are some photos from the opening ceremony. There will be some live coverage on the Internet Chess Club and some at the official site (in Spanish). The official invitation including schedule and prize fund (in Spanish) is also available.

Anand had an up and down event (or perhaps we should say down and up), with weak performances in the beginning followed by a streak of 3 wins in a row, and ending with two quiet draws. There were persistent rumors that he was ill during the event, which can explain this type of performance. In any case, he managed to end up tied for 2nd with Kramnik, certainly a respectable score.

Radjabov continues to look like a future superstar, as he put together nice wins over both Anand and Naiditsch, and lost only two of the ten games (once to Kramnik). His opening repertoire is also improving.

So it was an exciting event, with lots of surprises, and some great games from Bologan, Anand, and Radjabov. But what about reunification? Some pessimists predicted it would be even harder to find a sponsor for Kramnik-Leko after neither one won Dortmund. But most sponsors look beyond a single event, and there was certainly lots of fan interest in seeing Kramnik defend his title. Yes, it would have been nice if we'd seen the two match prospects playing the topline chess they're both capable of--but the match decision won't be based on this event.

Excellent coverage of Dortmund was available at a number of sources, including live audio coverage from www.chess.fm, and news coverage at The Week in Chess, Chessbase news site and the official site in German and English.

In the end, it was GM Azmaiparashvili of Georgia (Europe) who was the clear winner with 9.5 points. Malakhov of Russia and Graf of Germany tied for 2nd. Pre-event favorite Ivanchuk of the Ukraine was in a large group of players tied for 4th - 14th with 8.5 points.

See the official website in English for more information, including the full list of participants and some photos. Some live games will be available at the official site and at ICC (chessclub.com) and other chess servers.

The event was won by IM Perelshteyn. Perelshteyn, 23, was the 2000 US Junior Champoin. This was his first GM norm. (He was the only player in the event to earn a norm.)

For more information on the process of earning a title, see the section in our Guide for Chess Fans and New Tournament Players: "Titles vs Ratings"

At the end of Round 3, the 20 year old Spaniard, Vallejo Pons, was in first with 2.5 points. Khalifman, Dreev, Shirov, and Epishin were tied at 2.0.

Vallejo Pons (known as "Paco" to his fans) continued to hold the lead through the 7th round, then began to slip back. At the end of the event, Dreev and Rustemov were tied at the top with 6/9. Rustemov took first on tiebreaks. Vallejo Pons and Khalifman finished with 3.5, tied for 3rd - 4th.

The official site has some photos and all the games.

There were twelve players this year: Almasi (HUN), Anand (IND), Bareev (RUS), Gelfand (ISR), Ivanchuk (UKR), Kramnik (RUS), Leko (HUN), Ljubojevic (YUG), Morozevich (RUS), Shirov (ESP), Topalov (BUL), and van Wely (NED).

The blindfold games are played using computers which show a chessboard, but no pieces. Moves are made by clicking on the From and To square. Assuming the move is legal, the piece briefly appears on each player's computer screen, the move is made, and the piece again becomes "invisible." (This is similar to the old style of blindfold games where a player would announce moves, as in "Knight to f3.")

GM Morozevich is the defending champion from 2002. The youngest player in the event, 23 year old GM Leko of Hungary, placed third here last year, and is coming off what may be the best result of his life with a first place finish at the prestigious Linares tournament in February (see below). But in this format, anything can happen!

In the end, Anand took the overall prize, with a score of 7.0 in the Blindfold and 7.5 in the Rapids for a total of 14.5/22. Leko and Morozevich tied for 2nd in the combined standings with 13.5.

Kramnik was first in the Blindfold event, a full point ahead of Anand and Morozevich. However, Kramnik did much worse in the Rapids, managing only 5/11 in that format. Bareev won the Rapids with 8/11, with Anand and Leko at 7.5.

Leko finished first on tiebreak points (most wins) with 7.0/12, Kramnik was second, and Kasparov and Anand tied for 3rd/4th with 6.5/12.

The event was held from February 22nd through March 9th. For full information, including a crosstable and round by round reports, as well as links to games and analysis, see our Linares 2003 Feature Article.

Photo report from FM Aviv Friedman.

While in the past Kasparov has sometimes attempted to defeat computers by playing "anti-computer chess" which involved openings and styles that were not necessarily comfortable for him, either, this time around the world's top human player seemed content to "just play chess," choosing the same types of lines he might play against other human players.

The results ended mixed. Kasparov won the first game handily with the White pieces after taking the machine "out of book" in the early opening. The second game, where Kasparov had Black, involved some spectacular fireworks, as first Kasparov sacrificed the exchange to get a blistering attack, and Deep Junior defended by sacrificing its own Queen back to reach a drawn position. An exciting and impressive game for both sides!

In the third game, Kasparov again played very aggressively, and reached a position in which many commentators felt he was clearly winning (GM Yasser Seirawan, commentating at the site, said, "Deep Junior is toast.") However, again the computer defended very well, this time managing to score a win with the Black pieces to tie the match.

In the fourth game, Kasparov played a much quieter, complex positional game with great tension on both sides, eventually reaching a draw.

In the 5th game, an extremely complicated position was reached. Many analysts felt that Kasparov had an advantage, but GM Yasser Seirawan felt the position was too risky, and Kasparov should settle for the draw. Apparently Kasparov agreed, because after taking about 40 minutes on the position, he chose a line other than the one recommended by the majority of analysts, and after a few moves the game was drawn.

Finally, in the 6th game, which was broadcast liver on ESPN2, Kasparov again reached a complex position and offered a draw. The machine declined and played on a bit, but the game was drawn shortly afterwards.

The final result was a tied match, 3 - 3. Neither player will receive the Championship title, and each will receive $125,000 in addition to appearance fees.

Prize money for the match is also impressive. Kasparov receives a $500,000 appearance fee. The Deep Junior team received $250,000 as an appearance fee. The remaining $250,000 was available as the actual prize fund. The event was sponsored by www.x3dworld.com, a technology company that makes high-tech 3D glasses for viewing computer programs.

Deep Junior has a commercial version distributed by Chessbase, and their site has some nice pictures.

There is also an excellent interview with International Master David Levy, an expert on human-machine chess matches, at the Chessbase site.

Almost all of the major chess sites and servers provided couverage of the event, including The Week in Chess, ICC, and audio commentary from chess.fm, Internet Chess Radio.

There is also a page of photos by Carla Huppeldepup. Although it takes a long time to load, it's well worth it, with over 30 pictures of the players in the top section.

Shabalov wins a prize of $25,000, thanks to the sponsor, America's Foundation for Chess. 7 players, including Benjamin, tied for 2nd - 8th place with 6 points, receiving about $8,000 each.

This event determines the official US Champion. 58 players were selected using a combination of ratings, qualifying events, and wild card spots to fill the field. Using a format that was first tried in the US in 2002, the field includes a mix of men, women, adults and juniors, and has ratings ranging from 2742 to 2094. The format is a nine round Swiss tournament, with a tiebreaker used if needed after the final round. The Swiss format means that no competitor is eliminated, but, as the tournament progresses, those with the highest scores are paired against each other. This tends to encourage "fighting chess" at all levels, and also offers the opportunity for upsets as players are not segregated by rating class. The format also lets promising junior stars compete directly with established veterans. For more information, see the official site.

The Olympiad is always an interesting event. There will be world-class level chess among the top boards of the strongest countries, and geographic and political rivalries throughout. The hottest topic of conversation away from the boards is FIDE's recent affiliation with The Olympics, which now means that some form of drug-testing will be required. The questions are what is the fairest way for "mindsports" like chess to comply with regulations designed to punish those using performance-enhancing substances in physical sports? What drugs should be tested for? What penalties should be imposed? The present regulations allow for a maximum fine of $100,000 for substances including caffeine. This complex subject is the topic of much debate at the Olympiad, with some talk of a possible player boycott if physical sports regulations are applied.

See the official site in English for more information. the Week in Chess also has coverage. Some games will be shown live at the Internet Chess Club --see their Calendar link off their homepage for more information.

In an upset, the World team finished ahead, 52 - 48. Neither GM Garry Kasparov nor GM Vladimir Kramnik could manage a plus score (perhaps they had their minds on the upcoming reunification events?). GM Kasparov, the top rated player, had three losses, one each to GM Ivanchuk, GM Judit Polgar, and GM Akopian. Top individual scorer for the event was GM Shirov of Spain, who scored 7 out of 10 (including a loss to Kasparov and a defeat of Kramnik). Current FIDE World Champion Ponomariov scored 60% with no losses. See the crosstable for individual results. Blank squares on the crosstable were draws.

Russian team: Kasparov (2838), Kramnik (2807), Bareev (2726), Morozevich (2716), Grischuk (2702), Khalifman (2690), Karpov (2687), Zvjaginsev (2673), Rublevsky (2658), Motylev (2634). Team average about 2713.

World team: Anand (2755, IND), Ponomariov (2743, UKR), Leko (2722, HUN), Ivanchuk (2711, UKR), Gelfand (2710, ISR), Shirov (2697, ESP), Short (2682, ENG), J. Polgar (2681, HUN), Smirin (2676, ISR), Radjabov (2618, AZE). Team average about 2700.

The Dortmund 2002 Tournament's top section included 7 of the top 12 rated players. The winner of this event will take on Vladimir Kramnik. Meanwhile, FIDE's 2001 Champion, the 19 year old Ruslan Ponomariov of the Ukraine, will play a match with Kasparov. The winners of those two matches will then play each other for a World Champion title recognized by FIDE, Einstein, and GM Kasparov.

(Garry Kasparov's current FIDE rating is 2838, Vladimir Kramnik is #2 at 2807, and Viswanathan Anand of India is #3 at 2755. Ponomariov is #6 at 2743. )

Phase One: Dortmund, a privately organized event that is now the official candidates event for the Einstein cycle, ran from July 6th - July 21st. The event was divided into two four player groups:

Group 1:

• Topalov, Bulgaria, 2745
• Gelfand, Israel, 2710
• Shirov, Spain, 2697
• Lutz, Germany, 2650 (the local entrant)

Group 2:

• Adams, England, 2752
• Bareev, Russia, 2726
• Leko, Hungary, 2717
• Morozevich, Russia, 2716

GM Leko and GM Topalov qualified at the top of their sections, then met in the Final. GM Leko won the final at Dortmund 2.5 - 1.5, so he will challenge GM Kramnik for the Einstein title. The winner of that match will meet the winner of the Kasparov-Ponomariov match.

GM Leko was #8 in the world on the July 2002 FIDE rating lists. He was 21 years old in September 2001 and has been one of the top 10 players in the world since his late teens. More information on GM Leko is available at his Official Site.

For more information on the Dortmund tournament, see The official site (in English) Excellent coverage, including photos, is available at The Week in Chess.

The Tournament winner: GM Viswanathan Anand of India. Anand defeated Karpov by winning the first game and drawing the second of the two game Finals. All results through the finals at Eurotel.

Congratulations to GM Larry Christiansen, the new US Champion! See the official site for details.

For a weekly update on what's happening in the chess world, visit Mark Crowther's great homepage, TWIC (The Week in Chess). Games, crosstables, and news stories on the most important events in the tournament chess world.
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