Even though the game of chess has undergone an explosive development in Asia
over the past decade, tournaments at the highest level are still fairly rare.
The reason is simple: Most of the world's strongest players reside in the West,
and flying them to Asia is very expensive for potential organisers.
So the "Japfa Classic", which was held in Denpasar located on the
Indonesian island paradise of Bali, was definitely something special. The
organisers managed to assemble an extremely strong field, giving only three
spots to Asian players.
Former World Champion Anatoly Karpov has not enjoyed much success in recent
years, but he was still the favourite going in. Even though he's no longer
strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the guys in the top ten, Karpov is still a
formidable opponent for most super-GM's. His main rivals on paper seemed to be
FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman, the world's top female player Judit
Polgar and Dutch ace Jan Timman.
However, it soon became apparent that Timman had been forced to leave whatever
form he'd been carrying with the boys in Indonesian Customs. But the three other
favourites were clearly in impeccable form.
Khalifman got off to a good start by downing IM Win Lay Zaw from Myanmar.
View game with annotations: Zaw-Khalifman
As many of you may have heard, the ratings of the top Burmese players are the
result of a rating scam, no doubt engineered by the Myanmar chess federation.
The heaviest beneficiary of this wholesale fraud is Zaw, who went from about
2450 to a massive 2633 (making him number 44 in the world rankings!) last year.
On the last list he picked up almost 100 points in only 33 games.
"How is this possible?", I hear you ask. Well, unless the Zaw has been
beating the stuffing out of Garry Kasparov in private matches, it isn't! It's
the same story with the other five Burmese players on the Top 100-list. We're
clearly dealing with some very "creative" rating reports here, folks.
So, can they play chess at all? Yes they can, but nowhere close to the level
their ratings would imply. Two of these guys, Nay and Aung, both rated 2596,
played in a tournament in China recently and scored performances of about 2250
and 2350 respectively.
Judging by Zaw's play in Denpasar, I'd place him somewhere around 2450. Even
though he quickly wound up in the basement and stayed there for the duration of
this event, he did draw Timman and Karpov. A lot of suffering was involved, but
still. And he even beat Jaan Ehlvest in the final round. The Estonian ace was
clearly out of form, but he certainly wasn't braindead.
Now let's get back to the battle for first place. Karpov played very
professionally throughout this event, carefully picking his victims and never
overplaying his positions. In round five he climbed to +2 after beating
home-favourite Utut Adianto in impressive style:
View game with annotations: Karpov-Adianto
Clearly wanting to get his rating points back as quickly as possible, Adianto
nailed Zaw's head to the board in the following round:
View game with annotations: Adianto-Zaw
Following Karpov's lead, Alexander Khalifman also stuck to the sensible path -
picking up a win here and a win there. The FIDE Champion has clearly done a
lot of work on his openings after being humiliated by Peter Leko in January, and
he is now reaping the fruits of this labour. Against Timman he quickly got the
upper hand with his favourite variation in the French Defence.
View game with annotations: Timman-Khalifman
This resulted in a four-way tie going into the last round, with Polgar, Karpov,
Khalifman and the "Brazilian Surprise", Gilberto Milos, all on 5.5
points. As fate would have it, these four players were paired against each other
in the final round, thus leaving nothing to chance.
Polgar, who had been in the lead or sharing it throughout the tournament, seemed
to have the best chances of scoring the full point. True, Milos was thus far
undefeated, but playing for first place in star-studded field like this would
certainly be a new experience for the Brazilian. If anyone was going to be
suffering from last round jitters, it would most certainly be him.
And sure enough...well, see for yourselves:
View game with annotations: Milos-Polgar
At this point, Khalifman looked set to join Polgar at the top. The Champ was a
pawn up in a knight ending against The Former Champ. Karpov, however, is no
stranger to trouble. The 48-year-old Russian miraculously managed to win his
compatriot's outside passer, and even though Khalifman won one back on the
kingside, the resulting 2-1 majority was not enough to win the game.
This hard-fought draw made Polgar the clear winner, and there's no doubt that
winning this category 16 event must be one of her greatest achievements to date.
Her next major challenge will be the annual Sigeman & Co tournament in
Malmo, Sweden (May 23rd-29th), where she'll be facing off against Jan Timman
(again), Nordic no. 1 Ulf Andersson and the reigning Nordic Champion Tiger
Hillarp Persson.
Can she do it again?
- Einar Gausel
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