Tag: Viswanathan Anand

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-

Shirov Played the Cambridge Springs Twice in Wijk aan Zee so far, with Abysmal Result

January 27th, 2011 · · -, Cambridge Springs, Games, Queen's Gambit, Queen's Gambit Declined 3 comments - Tags: , , ,

Recently I wrote a post on the Cambridge Springs here, detailing ideas for black in this system as well as some simple traps that are part of its appeal to club players. While I haven’t even started playing the opening myself, something about it is romantic and fascinates me, which is why I was thrilled to see the ruthless attacker shirov use it twice this week in Wijk aan Zee. During both games, I followed them live holding my breath as he pressed on the queenside and seemed to get interesting positions. In both games, the move 11.Bc4 is played by white, which seems to give black some problems in this variation. Interestingly, the moves 11.a3 and 11.Be2 are recommended by Panczy and Ilczuk in their text on the Cambridge Springs, but 11.Bc4 isn’t mentioned, which leads me to believe that its relatively new if not untested. In any case, I thought it was my duty to post these games here. If anyone spots any improvements for black, please leave a comment.

An Explosive Attacking Theme

December 12th, 2010 · · Anti-Sicilian, Classical Dutch, Dutch Defense, Openings, Sicilian Defense No comments - Tags: , , , , , , ,

The other day, while listening to the live commentary to the game Short-Anand in Round 4 of the London Chess Classic, GM Gordon and IM Peterson noted briefly a common attacking theme that is popular among class players. It was a plan I had seen before, and even employed myself in the Dutch. In its simplest form, it is illustrated In the introduction to “The Classical Dutch” by Simon Williams. Including only the relevant portion of the board and noting that black’s pieces are on their ideal squares for an attack, he demonstrates the attacking motif with the following diagram:

Here, the idea is simply to win by playing Bxg2, fxg3, Rxf3, and either mating on h2 or winning a ton of material. This setup occurs naturally in the Classical Dutch, following the maneuver Qd8-e8, h4. By coming to the king-side so quickly, the queen brings enormous pressure to bear on white’s position. The move 7…Qe8 is common in both the Classical Dutch and the Leningrad, and is a move that I favor for precisely this reason. A dream continuation in a game would look something like this:

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Today in London

December 11th, 2010 · · -, Games, same-colored bishops No comments - Tags: , , , , , ,

The games this afternoon were not nearly as intense as they have been the last few days, but nonetheless there was still a feast of interesting chess for fans at the London Chess Classic. Short was absolutely steam-rolled by Anand’s kingside pawn storm, giving up a piece to break up the pawn-roller but not finding adequate compensation, and graciously allowing Anand to deliver mate only a few moves later. It saddens me to report that Nakamura lost to Carlsen in a tense Anglo-Dutch. Lately, Nakamura is one of the only top players to regularly whip out the Dutch Leningrad, and as a Dutch fan myself it pains me to see him ground down to a lost bishops of same color ending. Mcshane drew with Adams in a Reti, while Kramnik demonstrated a straight-foward winning plan in the Grunfeld using his passed d-pawn in his game with Howell.

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World Champion Crushes Carlsen in London

December 10th, 2010 · · -, Ruy Lopez, Ruy Lopez Breyer No comments - Tags: , , ,

After Carlsen’s temper tantrum regarding the current world championship cycle, the chess world reacted with dismay and disappointment fearing that the young player had missed an opportunity to become the youngest world champion ever. Magnus had some leverage to negotiate considering his position as number one in the world rankings, though his demands were comically outside the realm of possibility and no other top player agreed with him. When interviewed on the subject, most players expressed confusion as to his decision.

With the uncertainty as to his participation in the upcoming candidates match looming over every game Magnus plays, his game against the current world champion today took on special significance. Once again, Magnus chose to defend the Ruy Lopez, Breyer variation. This defense has been the battle ground for the last few meetings between these two, though all of the previous games have ended in a draw. Today the wheels came off and Anand turned the screws down hard on Black’s position. Anand actually missed several clear winning lines, however, his position was so solid and black’s so unstable that he had no reason to rush. Once again, the video commentary by the full english breakfast crew was fantastic, as was the post mortem analysis which you can see here.

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Sicilian Rossolimo Part III: 4.0-0

December 10th, 2010 · · -, 3.Bb5(+), Anti-Sicilian, Openings, Sicilian Defense No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In our third installment on the Rossolimo anti-sicilian, we turn to the variation 4.0-0. This move is probably the most common, since it rapidly develops white’s kingside and seeks information from black. When I play the Rossolimo with the white pieces, this is the variation that I favor. Below, I will outline a unique idea for white which might be objectively worse but has given me great practical chances over the board. Keeping in mind that all of the ideas presented in the earlier two posts are equally relevant here considering the wealth of transpositional possibilities in this variation, I would like to look at the following position as the main starting tabiya for this post. This position occurs after the moves: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4.0-0 Bg7 5.Re1, when black has several moves at his disposal, though the two most common choices are either the solid e5, or the dynamic Nf6.

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London Classic News

December 9th, 2010 · · - No comments - Tags: , , , , ,

Today at the London Classic, there was some interesting chess to say the least. I highly recommend following the games live and watching the fantastic video commentary and post-mortems here. Mcshane won again, this time winning with black in a Sicilian dragon against Nigel Short. The video commentary featured these two witty Brits going over their tactical melee, with mate threats and traps at every turn. Incredibly, Mcshane came out of the complications clearly better. Magnus bounced back today with a win in the English against Adams, while Howell found a nice fortress with the move 43.Rf4, and managed to hold Anand to a draw.

The story of the day though was Nakamura’s victory over Kramnik. Winning a piece on move 12! Kramnik did not get nearly enough compensation for the lost material, leaving us to wonder what went wrong? Unfortunately, these two have not shown up at the podium to give a live post-mortem analysis of the game. I’m so curious to know if this was simply an example of bad preparation, or did kramnik make an over the board blunder that Nakamura pounced on. I would also like to hear this story told from Nakamura’s side. Did he feel nervous taking a piece so early against Kramnik, with the black pieces? When a pgn file of the games is made available I will post them here, until then you can find them on chessbomb.

Update: Below are the games from the second round of the London Chess Classic.

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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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The Queen’s Gambit & Catalan for Black, by Lasha Janjgava

November 11th, 2010 · · -, Book Review, Catalan, Queen's Gambit, Queen's Gambit Declined No comments - Tags: , , , ,

The Georgian GM Lasha Janjgava has produced a fantastic text on the QGD and Catalan for black. The book is worth buying for its coverage of the Catalan alone, though it also includes whole chapters with theory and game fragments for most variations of the Queen’s Gambit Declined, including the Tartakower, the Exchange, and the popular Lasker Defense, which Anand has been using to great effect against Topalov recently.

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Ideas for Black against the Catalan: 4…Bb4+

November 9th, 2010 · · -, Catalan, Openings 2 comments - Tags: , , , , , , ,


The Catalan has become a go to weapon at the elite chess level for many top players, from Wang Yue to Carlsen. It has also been the key to Topalov’s defeat in his last two world championship matches, as both Kramnik and Anand employed it against him with impressive results. The appeal of the Catalan is obvious, white takes little risk and yet generally gets a positional pull that lasts deep into middle game because of his fianchettoed king’s bishop. This opening is also likely to be become very popular at the class level since the publication of “wojo’s weapons,” and the two volume series “1.d4 Grandmaster repertoire.” In this post, I would like to offer black a “simple” system against the Catalan, involving good piece placement, active queenside play, and the pawn break c6-c5.

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Novel Idea in the Ruy Lopez, Breyer Shirov – Mamedyarov, Tal Memorial

November 8th, 2010 · · -, Ruy Lopez, Ruy Lopez Breyer 2 comments - Tags: , , , , , , ,

Earlier this week, I wrote a post on the Ruy Lopez Breyer games that Anand and Carlsen have been playing recently. So, when Mamedyarov uncorked a lovely novel idea against shirov yesterday at the Tal Memorial in Moscow, I had to post it here. In the game, the new idea involves the pawn sacrifice 17…b4! This breaks up white’s queenside pawns, and black will get excellent play with his queenside rook along the open file and 4th rank. The rook swings into action and crosses along the fourth rank all the way to the kingside of the board, where it harasses white’s king for the rest of the game. A lucid and fascinating concept from the Azerbaijani – comments by chessvibes-

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Play the 4.f3 Nimzo-Indian, by Yuri Yakovich

November 7th, 2010 · · -, Book Review, Nimzo-Indian No comments - Tags: , , , ,

Yuri Yakovich, who previously authored an incredible book on the sveshnikov sicilian for Gambit as well, has produced a fantastic little book here, which I highly recommend for the following reasons: First of all, the book is not a massive treatise that requires months of your time, but instead is on a nice playable sideline, although the reader has to be prepared to play a saemisch nimzo-indian when adopting this move order, the theory of 4.f3 is not overwhelming, as it may be in the 4.e3 (Rubinstein) or the 4.Qc2 (Capablanca) Nimzo-Indian systems. Here, in less than one hundred pages, Yuri Yakovich gives a nice overview of this system, covering at least two options for white in all lines, and offering thematic, recurring ideas along the way, which gives the reader an intuitive feel for the positions very quickly.

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Ruy Lopez, Breyer

November 6th, 2010 · · -, Ruy Lopez, Ruy Lopez Breyer 2 comments - Tags: , , , , , , ,

In his last few encounters with the black pieces against Anand, Carlsen has employed the Ruy Lopez Breyer variation three times and drawn all three games. As a fan, it’s odd to see these two battling in an open game so deeply in the same variation, almost matchlike, because both of them tend to be 1.d4 players. While the world anticipates the real match to come between these two (though that may not happen) I can’t help but wonder if this “battle in the breyer” is serving merely as a proxy for their behind the scene preparations in the catalan, or would they attempt to surprise one another with 1.e4 in a match setting? More on the Breyer, after the jump…

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Challenging the Sicilian with 2.a3!?

November 4th, 2010 · · -, Alekhine's Defense, Anti-Sicilian, Book Review, Scandinavian, Scheveningen Sicilian, Sicilian 2.a3, Sicilian Defense, Sicilian Dragon One comment - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Bulgarian chess publisher “Chess Stars” has put out some fantastic literature. Their opening series according to Anand/Kramnik are well known and sought after, and their book entitled “getting an edge against the grunfeld” is one of the most in depth and impressive high level books I own. Unfortunately, there are a few of their books that are so rare and hard to find that they practically don’t exist. “Challenging the Sicilian with 2.a3!?,” by Alexei Bezgodov is one of them.

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