I possibly would have written a very happy blogpost had I simply chosen ..Bd7 but still I can take good things from the game. White tomorrow vs 2095 player.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Reykjavik Open has started - My 1st round game
My favourite tournament has started. Time to meet foreign friends and have fun on the 64 squares. I started with a victory with white in the first round against an 1800+ player. I would have preferred black since I now get the YoYo i.e. black against strong players and if I lose white against lower rated rinse and repeat!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The Icelandic League, Second Weekend
This weekend we finished the Icelandic League. It is played over two weekends, one in October and one in March. Each team has eight boards and it's round-robin 7 rounds. This year my team came painfully close to finally catching the title for the first time. We, Vestmannaeyjar Chess Club (Taflfélag Vestmannaeyja in Icelandic or T.V.) came 2nd with 40,5 out of the possible 56 and only 2 points behind the winners, Bolungarvik Chess Club. We played them in the last round and we won 4,5-3,5 but we needed 5,5-2,5 to get the title. It wasn't to be this time but for a moment it looked like the match could swing our way. I and board 8 both made draws but for a moment it looked like both of us had winning chances so the last round was very exciting and nervewracking for team members, team followers and captains.
The top 3:
It's interesting that the 3rd place finisher, my former club Hellir won all their matces but didn't score enough game points vs the "lesser" opponents and so came a little short this time as well. All in all a very interesting competition.
For many players this is also sort of like a family reunion of sorts because the country is so small and most players know each other very well and sometimes for retired players this is the only time you see them each year and is always fun. This also means that for some the quality of the games is less important because many players do a lot of walking a round to see people, look at positions and have a short chat in the hallway. One of my favourite weekends each year!
Here is my morning game from Saturdays rounds.
Here is my second round game in the deciding match. Like I said in earlier entry, my opponent was 1977 World Cadet Champion (U-16) ahead of Kasparov and Short!
The earlier game finished around 15:00 and then I went and drove my teammates, Jan Gustafsson, Tomi Nyback, Kamil Miton and Jon Ludvig Hammer to the hotel to get some sleep for the 17:00 second round. I myself went downtown to a restaurant and had myself a good seafood soup while contemplating what to do against my opponent. Even though he is retired from tournament chess, he plays some games in the league and actually more in the last few years than before and also I have played him many times in blitz tournaments so I know his repertoire fairly well. He is one of those players that more or less always played the same and stuck to his guns and still does more or less. It has pros and cons, it means he usually has a familiar position but also he is easy to prepare for but that is a bigger problem in this era than it might have been back in his playing days.
Ok so basically I knew the game would start 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 which is my beloved French Defence. What I didn't know was what would be his 3rd move. He has played both 3.Nc3 and 3.Nd2 against me in blitz games and during his career he played both and switched between the two a lot.
I have been playing more Winawers recently so I more or less decided not to prepare that as I feel pretty good in those lines and think I can just show up more or less and get a decent game in that line. Vs the Tarrasch however I have gone back and forth between 3...c5, 3...Be7 and 3...Nf6 a lot so I needed to decide in this short one hour+ what to do against the Tarrasch if he played that. I remembered our blitz game which was mainline stuff there with Bd6/Qc7. I looked up some games and saw a game of his vs Hjartarson which gave me an idea what to play. I had played ...g6 myself in the blitz game but saw that Hjartarson played ...h6 in the same position. Now this didn't score very well in the database but I still saw some recent games with encouraging results from for instance Emanuel Berg. So during the next hour I looked at these games and played around with the position with the engine running to get an idea what I wanted to do vs certain moves. Long story short my preparation worked out perfectly and I got a playable good position with a good time edge.....lets go on to the game:
A good game I felt and I think I played pretty good. Slightly frustrating not to win but still can't see clearcut improvement on where the win should be.
After the game it was the closing ceremony where prized were handed out, some beers were consumed and some interesting chats with some interesting people. For instance I talked a lot with GM Olafsson and GM Arnason and we talked a bit about old masters and some old stories. For instance it was pointed out to me that Levenfish was a great talent in the USSR, not less as such than Botvinnik but in those times being a communist was more imporant and therefore Botvinnik got all the chances.
Also some chat about his career. He felt that of all the players he faced against Smyslov and Petrosian he truly felt like he didn't have a break. He managed though to draw against Petrosian but also mentioned an ending he felt he would have held against anybody in the world but lost against Smyslov. You decide for yourself:
(show chess board)
(hide chess board)
We also talked about some old adjourned game where another Icelandic player was playing against a Romanian GM, this was in 1978. The Romanian called the Icelandic player and said they should accept a draw. The Icelandic player accepted but when he came to the board the morning after (of course not having analysed the game at all) the Romanian player pretended to know nothing about the draw offer and they played on.
Years later Arnason had an adjourned game with the same player. In a dinner the night before he told Tal this story. Tal became absolutely furious when he heard this....he couldn't believe what the Romanian GM did. So Tal invited Arnason to come to his room the next day and analyse the adjourned game. Needless to say Arnason punished the guy and won the full point!
As a final random note I'll add that we somehow had three US Chess Leauge GOTY judges sitting almost completely next to each other. I was judge this year and on my team was fellow judge Jan Gustafsson and Robert Hess from the USA was also playing for another team in the league. Quite a coincidence!
BS! the final note is of course this link: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr38865.aspx?art=4&lan=1&m=-1&wi=1000 I was top scorer in the whole league although my good friend Stefan had higher percentage in fewer games and some players had 3 out of 3.
The top 3:
| Rk. | SNo | Team | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
| 1 | 8 | TB A | TB A | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 42.5 | 10 | 0 |
| 2 | 4 | TV A | TV A | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 40.5 | 12 | 0 |
| 3 | 2 | Hellir A | Hellir A | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 39.5 | 14 | 0 |
It's interesting that the 3rd place finisher, my former club Hellir won all their matces but didn't score enough game points vs the "lesser" opponents and so came a little short this time as well. All in all a very interesting competition.
For many players this is also sort of like a family reunion of sorts because the country is so small and most players know each other very well and sometimes for retired players this is the only time you see them each year and is always fun. This also means that for some the quality of the games is less important because many players do a lot of walking a round to see people, look at positions and have a short chat in the hallway. One of my favourite weekends each year!
Here is my morning game from Saturdays rounds.
Here is my second round game in the deciding match. Like I said in earlier entry, my opponent was 1977 World Cadet Champion (U-16) ahead of Kasparov and Short!
The earlier game finished around 15:00 and then I went and drove my teammates, Jan Gustafsson, Tomi Nyback, Kamil Miton and Jon Ludvig Hammer to the hotel to get some sleep for the 17:00 second round. I myself went downtown to a restaurant and had myself a good seafood soup while contemplating what to do against my opponent. Even though he is retired from tournament chess, he plays some games in the league and actually more in the last few years than before and also I have played him many times in blitz tournaments so I know his repertoire fairly well. He is one of those players that more or less always played the same and stuck to his guns and still does more or less. It has pros and cons, it means he usually has a familiar position but also he is easy to prepare for but that is a bigger problem in this era than it might have been back in his playing days.
Ok so basically I knew the game would start 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 which is my beloved French Defence. What I didn't know was what would be his 3rd move. He has played both 3.Nc3 and 3.Nd2 against me in blitz games and during his career he played both and switched between the two a lot.
I have been playing more Winawers recently so I more or less decided not to prepare that as I feel pretty good in those lines and think I can just show up more or less and get a decent game in that line. Vs the Tarrasch however I have gone back and forth between 3...c5, 3...Be7 and 3...Nf6 a lot so I needed to decide in this short one hour+ what to do against the Tarrasch if he played that. I remembered our blitz game which was mainline stuff there with Bd6/Qc7. I looked up some games and saw a game of his vs Hjartarson which gave me an idea what to play. I had played ...g6 myself in the blitz game but saw that Hjartarson played ...h6 in the same position. Now this didn't score very well in the database but I still saw some recent games with encouraging results from for instance Emanuel Berg. So during the next hour I looked at these games and played around with the position with the engine running to get an idea what I wanted to do vs certain moves. Long story short my preparation worked out perfectly and I got a playable good position with a good time edge.....lets go on to the game:
A good game I felt and I think I played pretty good. Slightly frustrating not to win but still can't see clearcut improvement on where the win should be.
After the game it was the closing ceremony where prized were handed out, some beers were consumed and some interesting chats with some interesting people. For instance I talked a lot with GM Olafsson and GM Arnason and we talked a bit about old masters and some old stories. For instance it was pointed out to me that Levenfish was a great talent in the USSR, not less as such than Botvinnik but in those times being a communist was more imporant and therefore Botvinnik got all the chances.
Also some chat about his career. He felt that of all the players he faced against Smyslov and Petrosian he truly felt like he didn't have a break. He managed though to draw against Petrosian but also mentioned an ending he felt he would have held against anybody in the world but lost against Smyslov. You decide for yourself:
(show chess board)(hide chess board)We also talked about some old adjourned game where another Icelandic player was playing against a Romanian GM, this was in 1978. The Romanian called the Icelandic player and said they should accept a draw. The Icelandic player accepted but when he came to the board the morning after (of course not having analysed the game at all) the Romanian player pretended to know nothing about the draw offer and they played on.
Years later Arnason had an adjourned game with the same player. In a dinner the night before he told Tal this story. Tal became absolutely furious when he heard this....he couldn't believe what the Romanian GM did. So Tal invited Arnason to come to his room the next day and analyse the adjourned game. Needless to say Arnason punished the guy and won the full point!
As a final random note I'll add that we somehow had three US Chess Leauge GOTY judges sitting almost completely next to each other. I was judge this year and on my team was fellow judge Jan Gustafsson and Robert Hess from the USA was also playing for another team in the league. Quite a coincidence!
BS! the final note is of course this link: http://www.chess-results.com/tnr38865.aspx?art=4&lan=1&m=-1&wi=1000 I was top scorer in the whole league although my good friend Stefan had higher percentage in fewer games and some players had 3 out of 3.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Icelandic league
Won my game again this morning but the opponent was much lower rated and I had white. In the final round we will play against the top team and we need to win 5,5-2,5 to get the title. That will be very difficult but doable even though they have rating advantage on most boards.
I will most likely play against retired GM Jon Arnason, former world junior champion in 1977 (the year I was born)....ahead of Short and a certain young little Gary Kasparov!!
So will be tough obviously but I and we will do our best.
I will most likely play against retired GM Jon Arnason, former world junior champion in 1977 (the year I was born)....ahead of Short and a certain young little Gary Kasparov!!
So will be tough obviously but I and we will do our best.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Played tonight in the Icelandic League
Was my birthday so nice to get the W but unfortunately my team lost the match meaning our chances of gettign the title are almost relegated to purely mathematical. I don't have time to add analysis or words because the next game is tomorrow morning, but anyway here is the game, nice to win with black against 2444 and member of the Icelandic Olympic team.
I had prepared for a completely different opponent as their lineup surprised us. I thought I was black against IM Thorfinnsson who I also played against with black in the Reykjavik Championship in January. So all my preparation was preparing against the English Opening. When my opponent here opened 1.d4 I decided to deviate and not play the Benoni because I had no preparation and feared that my opponent had prepared something there. So I went for the closed Czech Benoni and also thought this was a good type opening to get my type of position vs him and also something he wasn't very familiar with. I know him pretty well so these choices are always very psychological.
I had prepared for a completely different opponent as their lineup surprised us. I thought I was black against IM Thorfinnsson who I also played against with black in the Reykjavik Championship in January. So all my preparation was preparing against the English Opening. When my opponent here opened 1.d4 I decided to deviate and not play the Benoni because I had no preparation and feared that my opponent had prepared something there. So I went for the closed Czech Benoni and also thought this was a good type opening to get my type of position vs him and also something he wasn't very familiar with. I know him pretty well so these choices are always very psychological.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
New live blitz on Chessvideos.tv
http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8274
Yet another Black Queen Blues. 6...Qa5 in the Winawer
Yet another Black Queen Blues. 6...Qa5 in the Winawer
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Good interview with Chucky
He just had a fantastic tournament in Gibraltar and he always has those in between every year. He is obviously dripping with talent but sometimes he becomes very inconsistent in between his brilliant performances.
http://www.chessintranslation.com/2011/02/vassily-ivanchuk-i-can-still-become-world-champion/
http://www.chessintranslation.com/2011/02/vassily-ivanchuk-i-can-still-become-world-champion/
Thursday, February 3, 2011
A wonderful mating theme from ICC game
My friend and teammate from the Vestmann Islands team was playing a 3-minute game on ICC vs a Grandmaster and finished him off with a mate in 3 in this position.
1.Qf6!! Nxf6
2.Bg7!! Kxg7
3.h8=Q
Aside from being very beautiful and clean, this mating pattern also has a nice aesthetic geometry to it. White makes successive checks on the diagonal squares, f6, g7 and h8 and each time with a different piece! This could possibly be unique but I'll leave that to someone with good searching tools in databases.
1.Qf6!! Nxf6
2.Bg7!! Kxg7
3.h8=Q
Aside from being very beautiful and clean, this mating pattern also has a nice aesthetic geometry to it. White makes successive checks on the diagonal squares, f6, g7 and h8 and each time with a different piece! This could possibly be unique but I'll leave that to someone with good searching tools in databases.
More Korchnoi!
Korchnoi had quite a tournament in Gibraltar. After 9 rounds, he was undefeated with 3 wins and 6 draws. He only lost this last round game today against Paco Vallejo(2698) but had a winning move in there had he been lucky.
Had he won I am sure he would have set the bar pretty high for anybody to catch his Tournament Rating Performance at the age of 79! Even with the loss he might still have the best mark if this is his best TRP since turning 79.
Here is the game and then some stories after it ;-)
In the 9th round, Korchnoi beat A.Wohl with the white pieces and in a King's Indian. After beating him, Korchnoi says in German (He had lived in Swiss for many years so he can manage with German) something like: "Es gibt Leute gegen die man nich Konigsindisch spielen können" (his german is not perfect and mine is pathetic so apologies to my German audience)....Anyway. They part and just moments later while outside, Korchnoi walks up to him and now says in English "You know, there are some people against which you just can't play the King's Indian!". Wohl anwers "I know....I understood when you said it in German". To which Korchnoi replied "I just wanted to make that clear!!"
There is only one Korchnoi! It's like childish arrogange and the feeling I get it's not meant to be hurtful, it's just the way he is.
Once playing in Sweden around 1990. My current team captain observed this. He was playing against Swedish IM Ari Ziegler. Ziegler had white and got some advantage out of the opening so he offered the great warrior a draw. Victor the Terrible answered by throwing his hands in the air.....and screaming "HE OFFERED ME A DRAW" ....followed by some big laughs. Naturally Ziegler was so distraught after this that he lost his way and lost the game.
Once he played here in Iceland against Ivan Sokolov. This is like 8 years ago. The position is becoming drawish and instead of offering a draw Korchnoi says "Ok, I GIVE you a draw"....the exchange of words and expressions they had on the stage after that was hilarious, too bad I can't rememeber any of it. I must ask Ivan over a bottle of red win in Reykjavik Open 2011. I do remember though that Victor called Ivan a "Coffeehouse player"!!
Had he won I am sure he would have set the bar pretty high for anybody to catch his Tournament Rating Performance at the age of 79! Even with the loss he might still have the best mark if this is his best TRP since turning 79.
Here is the game and then some stories after it ;-)
In the 9th round, Korchnoi beat A.Wohl with the white pieces and in a King's Indian. After beating him, Korchnoi says in German (He had lived in Swiss for many years so he can manage with German) something like: "Es gibt Leute gegen die man nich Konigsindisch spielen können" (his german is not perfect and mine is pathetic so apologies to my German audience)....Anyway. They part and just moments later while outside, Korchnoi walks up to him and now says in English "You know, there are some people against which you just can't play the King's Indian!". Wohl anwers "I know....I understood when you said it in German". To which Korchnoi replied "I just wanted to make that clear!!"
There is only one Korchnoi! It's like childish arrogange and the feeling I get it's not meant to be hurtful, it's just the way he is.
Once playing in Sweden around 1990. My current team captain observed this. He was playing against Swedish IM Ari Ziegler. Ziegler had white and got some advantage out of the opening so he offered the great warrior a draw. Victor the Terrible answered by throwing his hands in the air.....and screaming "HE OFFERED ME A DRAW" ....followed by some big laughs. Naturally Ziegler was so distraught after this that he lost his way and lost the game.
Once he played here in Iceland against Ivan Sokolov. This is like 8 years ago. The position is becoming drawish and instead of offering a draw Korchnoi says "Ok, I GIVE you a draw"....the exchange of words and expressions they had on the stage after that was hilarious, too bad I can't rememeber any of it. I must ask Ivan over a bottle of red win in Reykjavik Open 2011. I do remember though that Victor called Ivan a "Coffeehouse player"!!
Monday, January 31, 2011
A beautiful move
From Chernin-Morozevich
Morozevich played 10...Ne6 and went on to lose although he stands well here. He however missed a killer move and even Ribli who has short annotations on this game in my database fails to mention this move. 10...Nd5!!
White can resign! Both captures are met with ...b5 when white is in trouble because the queen can no longer protect against mate on c2 so white has to give up the queen. 11.exd4 is the best white can do but it's very ugly after 11...Nxc3 and then 12...exd4.
Morozevich played 10...Ne6 and went on to lose although he stands well here. He however missed a killer move and even Ribli who has short annotations on this game in my database fails to mention this move. 10...Nd5!!
White can resign! Both captures are met with ...b5 when white is in trouble because the queen can no longer protect against mate on c2 so white has to give up the queen. 11.exd4 is the best white can do but it's very ugly after 11...Nxc3 and then 12...exd4.
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