Tag: draw

Carlsen Wins Tal Memorial

November 25th, 2011 · · -, Games No comments - Tags: , , , , ,

In the final round Carlsen caught Aronian (who he beat on tie-breaks) with a clean victory over Nakamura that looked effortless. The game Svidler v. Kramnik was extremely sharp and interesting, with Svidler finding a queen sacrifice mate to end the game. In the game, Kramnik clearly took risks to create complications, but wound up on the wrong side of them. For all of those detractors out there who call him Drawnik- you really have to hand it to him here, he took a risk… it may not have turned out well for him, but he went for complications.

Next up on the Calendar for the 2800 club is the London Classic- which is my favorite event of the year. It starts December 3rd and lasts for more than a week, so luckily for me I will have something to do on my birthday while I’m stuck in bed with this cast on. As usually, the lineup will feature some of England’s hometown heros, such as micky adams, nigel short, and luke Mcshane who put up a great performance last year. I’m not sure if they’re doing the 3-1 scoring system this year or not, but for the first two years the London Classic has awarded 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.


Tal Memorial Snooze Fest

November 20th, 2011 · · - 4 comments - Tags: , , , , , ,


One nice thing about being bed-ridden with a full leg cylinder cast for six weeks is that now I will be able to follow all of the cool chess events going on for the next month or so. Around the time of my birthday the London Chess Classic will kick off, which is one of the best organized events on the calendar and I can’t wait to watch it live with commentary. At the moment though the Tal Memorial is raging on… sort of. The last two rounds have featured draws on all boards, and the comments on chessbomb have been predictably acerbic. Interestingly, today several player’s achieved potentially winning positions, but later slipped back into drawing lines. When top flight tournaments feature so many draws, spectators understandably become disinterested. This phenomenon seems to be more and more common at elite chess events, prompting new rules regulating when players can agree to a draw and forcing players to fight on even in hopelessly drawn positions…(remember that tournament last year where tiviakov repeated moves 27 times?) Perhaps Fischer Random or Seirawan chess is the future of our game. It seems that opening theory is on the verge of suffocating the life out of the game…

In any case. If you’re interested in watching the games live, a live video feed is available here.

Today I watched the game between Aronian and Nakamura most closely.

Here is a picture of my poor leg in a full cast- ugh- shattered my knee in a bike accident and will be bedridden for a while… at least I still have chess.

Women’s World Chess Championship 2011

November 14th, 2011 · · -, Catalan, Games No comments - Tags: , , ,

Today, the WWCC kicked off in Albania with a hard fought draw in an Open Catalan between Koneru and Hou.


Abbott: Who had the white pieces?
Costello: No, Hou had the black pieces.
Abbott: So, who had the white pieces?
Costello: No! … Hou had the… (you get the point.)

With Judit Polgar’s recent reentry into top-flight events, she casts a tall and long shadow over anyone who would claim to be the Women’s World Chess Champion. However, I suppose the same could be said of the Men’s World Championship- what with the highest ranked player in the world refusing to play in the candidates matches. In any case, you can watch the the games live on chessgames.com or chess bomb-

First Round of Drawndidates Concludes

May 9th, 2011 · · -, Games No comments - Tags: , , ,

Of the first 16 games at the FIDE 2011 Candidates matches in Kazan Russia 14 were draws. The only players to claim a victory in classical time controls will face each other in the next round, which I hope will make for some interesting chess. I love the Queen’s Gambit Declined, honestly I do, and Anand’s use of it to destroy Topa in the final game of the last World Championship has made the Lasker variation fashionable indeed. However, some of these games are so risk free as to make me wonder if either player is even looking for any imbalance.

Having said that, there certainly were some fantastic draws as well, such as this morning’s game between Topalov and Kamsky. Kamsky managed to draw what should have been Topalov’s victory to save him from elimination today, instead Kamsky will go on to face Gelfand while Topa will go home. Here is game 4 between Topalov and Kamsky:

Kamsky-Topalov: Game 1

May 5th, 2011 · · -, Games, Najdorf, Openings, Sicilian Defense No comments - Tags: , , , , ,

Wow! So, today was the first game of the 2011 World Championship Candidates Matches being held in Kazan. All four games were draws, though two were exciting games to watch. Naturally, as an American, I’m cheering for my fellow Brooklynite Gata Kamsky. This morning at 7am New York time when I was frying and egg and making coffee I was shocked by the first few moves of their game. In a standard Sicilian Najdorf, Kamsky played 6.a4!? and then followed it up with 7.a5! GM Danielsen describes some of the ideas behind this wacky sideline over at Chessdom. Kamsky was just coming off from his win at the U.S. Championship and was in full form for this battle with Topalov. Topalov won a match a couple of years ago against Kamsky as you may recall, but since then Kamsky seems to have gotten sharper while perhaps Topa has fallen off his game a bit- so this match could easily go either way. I can’t wait for 7a.m. tomorrow morning when the battle resumes and Topa will have white.

Here is the first game in its entirety. Kamsky missed a couple of wins as outlined by GM Danielsen over at Chessdom, though the most surprising one to me was when Kamsky played 17.b3, when 17.Bb3 gives white a chokehold on the position, as it threatens Ba4 and thus allows white the push the black queen around and place his pieces actively on the queenside of the board.

Endgame Blunders…

March 12th, 2011 · · -, Endgame, Games, Knight Endings, New York Chess, Sicilian Defense No comments - Tags: ,

This week I played a game for my team in the NYCCL, where my captain told me I only needed to draw for our team to walk with a positive result. I had the black pieces and had been told that my opponent likes to play 1.d4 and the trompowsky in particular- so I was a little surprised but not disappointed when he played 1.e4. I responded with a Sicilian, and the game was a bit strange for the first few moves but began to look more mainstream by move ten. I made an early middle game blunder in a position where I should have simply won a pawn, and lost the exchange- the rest is my fighting for dear life to draw- and miraculously managing to do so. However, it pains me to admit that I missed about half a dozen winning chances, one of which is quite egregious.

My teammate made me feel a little better by reminding me that it’s sometimes easier to see things when you’re not in the heat of battle, any case here is the game which I’m not terrible proud of but am posting because the last 25 moves or so is rife with instructive error.

A Surprising Sortie in a Sveshnikov Sideline…

February 8th, 2011 · · -, Annotated Games, Games, Sicilian Defense, Sveshnikov 6 comments - Tags: , , , , , , ,

This Sunday while most people were focused on the Super Bowl, I was at the Marshall Chess Club looking at a different kind of sideline, 7.Nd5 against the Sveshnikov. There are some sidelines that are very popular against the Svesh that I see on FICS all the time, but among them the simplifying 7.Nd5 is without a doubt the most popular. It’s probably the choice of many club players because it side steps the ocean of theory and gives white a simple straightforward game. In blitz it just leaves white with basically nothing to worry about, however, this can also be said for black. Sidelines that are chosen for their simplicity are rarely testing either. In any case, after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Nbd5 d6 7.Nd5 the following position is reached.

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Naka Wins!

January 30th, 2011 · · -, Games No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I loved his last game too- starting out with a KID move order and then playing e6 to go for a sharp Benoni, even offering an exchange sacrifice for several moves that Hao never accepted. I was somewhat surprised at the draw agreement on move 22, but I guess that’s common for the last round of a tournament where neither party has anything to gain from playing on.

In any case, what an incredible performance for Naka, finishing +5. When was the last time an american won an elite tournament so convincingly? A good point made by mig over at chess dirt was that with Nakamura putting up such an impressive score, it will force Kramnik and similiar players to reevaluate their approach to these tournaments if they ever expect to win them again. I hope he is right.

Another impressive performance in the tournament was Giri, with his convincing victory against Carlsen and strong performance otherwise, he is a rising contender at the tender age of 16.

Dissappointingly, Shirov finished dead last. I want to go back over some of his games, in particular the Cambridge Springs games he played, and try to find where he went wrong. Not that I expected him to win the event, but finishing behind Smeets is a result I wasn’t expecting from him.

What’s next for Naka? Now he will be firmly entrenched in the top ten at number 7 in the world rankings. While I’m a huge fan of Kamsky’s, I secretly think that Naka perhaps would have a better shot in the upcomming candidates matches now after this performance in Wijk.

Maybe next cycle Naka…

Below, find all 13 games Naka played in Tata-

Carlsen Draws Kramnik in the QGD, Chigorin

December 14th, 2010 · · - No comments - Tags: , , , ,


Today there were four draws in London, which keeps the pressure on the top contenders to produce a win tomorrow or face tie breaks. The most noteworthy game of the day in my opinion was the Kramnik-Carlsen showdown, in which Carlsen played the QGD, Chigorin, which is an extremely uncommon opening in high level chess, Moro being the only well known exception, although even he has given it up recently in favor of the Albin counter-gambit.

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Mecking v. Fischer 1970, Buenos Aires, Grunfeld with 4.Bg5

November 26th, 2010 · · -, Book Review, Grunfeld, Openings No comments - Tags: , , ,

I recently came across a biography of the Brazilian GM Henrique Mecking titled “Latin Chess Genius,” edited and written by Stephen W. Gordon. I particularly liked Gordon’s inscription: “For the girls, the only reason I do anything,” which no doubt refers to his daughters but is also a rather humorous double entendre, since to think of a chess player writing a chess book “for the ladies” is in itself pretty laughable… in any case, the book is wonderful for a few reasons. First of all, it contains a wealth of biographical insight condensed into only 20 or so pages, providing the reader with details about Mecking’s illness and its effects on his career, as well as filling in a few gaps with anecdotes from his showdowns with the worlds greatest. In the 1960′s and 70′s, Mecking was a breakout chess player who scored well against the top players of the day, reaching a candidates match with Kortchnoi which he lost by 2 points, tragically weakened by illness.

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Two Interesting c3 Sicilians

November 22nd, 2010 · · -, Anti-Sicilian, Games, New York Chess, Openings, Sicilian 2.c3/Alapin, Sicilian Defense No comments - Tags: ,

While we’re waiting for Sveshnikov’s book “The Complete c3 Sicilian” to come out, I thought I would offer this interesting c3 Sicilian I played recently on a correspondence chess website. In it, we follow the current mainline pretty deep, reaching a fascinating middle game. Comments in the notation.

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The Anatomy of the French Advance

November 20th, 2010 · · -, Annotated Games, French Advance, French Defense, Games, Openings One comment - Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I have always played the advance against the French, and as a French player myself I have faced the advance many times. Naturally, there is no substitute for learning theory, however, the french advance is a forgiving opening in which an understanding of general principals can help you find the right ideas, even deep into the middle game.

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Perpetual Check

November 13th, 2010 · · -, Endgame No comments - Tags: , , , , ,

Tactics are something most serious players spend a lot of time on when studying, however one of the most useful and overlooked tactical motifs is perpetual check.  Perpetual check is what I would consider an “iron clad” draw because there is no mutual agreement to draw the game, with perpetual check you steal your half point back.  The diagram to the left shows a simple example.  Shuttling the queen back and forth between e8 and h5, white gives checks forever and saves his skin from the back rank mate.

In a recent game on the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) I found myself down on material, short on time and close to resigning.  The idea that I could somehow swindle a win was gone and my only chance to avoid a loss was to force a draw somehow. In the following game fragment, my opponent was doing a good job of tossing me up.  I desparately try to complicate and hope that he can’t find the best continuation.  After the jump, we see the Theory of Infinite Resistance at work.

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Bishops of opposite color endings

November 11th, 2010 · · -, Bishop Ending, Endgame, opposite-colored bishops No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bishops of opposite color endings are notoriously drawish, even where one side has one or two extra pawns. Some common drawing plans are demonstrated in the positions below.

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Bishops of same color endings: Bishop vs Bishop+pawn

November 11th, 2010 · · -, Bishop Ending, Endgame, same-colored bishops One comment - Tags: , ,


Bishop endings are fairly common, and the following few positions contain essential knowledge for proper technique in these basic positions. Armed with a few simple kernels of wisdom, you should be able to play these kinds of endings near perfectly.

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