|
|
|
|
 |
|
| Chess by Malcolm Pein of the Daily Telegraph   Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk)
you can read his chess columns along with those of Nigel Short and David
Norwood at their new
Chess
Club (to read the columns you need to register which is free).
Dortmund Round 9 August 9th 2003  Leko - Kramnik (9) Photo © Franz Jittenmeier of chess-international.de The Sparkassen Chess Meeting at Dortmund is set up perfectly with Viktor Bologan a point ahead of Vladimir Kramnik with a game to play which is with the black pieces against the world champion. Kramnik has drawn eight games out of nine played so far but must go for the win. Bologan has 6/9 with Kramnik and Anand on 5/9. Bologan drew with the fifteen year old prodigy Teimour Radjabov in round nine and at one stage he looked like he was going to secure first place with a round to spare when he uncorked a knight sacrifice. However Radjabov, with typical resourcefulness ignored the offer and sacrificed his rook for the steed that had invaded his position. Bologan soon had to return the material and head for the draw. The world number three Vishy Anand was very disappointing and gave the local GM and bottom seed Arkady Naiditsch a quick draw with white after winning three games in a row. Kramnik drew easily with Peter Leko as black and these two are supposed to play for the Classical Chess World Championship but I fear we will not hear an announcement of the long awaited match at Dortmund. Round 9 results Leko draw Kramnik, Sicilian Defence 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5, 21 moves; Anand draw Naiditsch, Ruy Lopez Anti Marshall 8.h3, 19; Bologan draw Radjabov, 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5, 37 moves; Scores: 1 Bologan (Moldova) 6/9; 2-3 Kramnik (Russia) Anand (India) 5; 4 Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 4.5; 5 Leko (Hungary) 3.5; 6 Naiditsch (Germany) 3; Two all play all tournaments were organised by Bill O Rourke at the Blackpool Hilton Hotel as part of the Lancashire Chess Festival. Play finished on Saturday with two IM norms achieved in the Ron Banwell Masters but Stewart Haslinger just missed out one securing his third and final IM norm in the Hilton Premier. At one point Haslinger, who hails from Southport looked well placed for a GM norm but fatigue set in after illness and in the penultimate round he lost both the GM norm chance and the lead of the competition. First place was shared by British Champion Abhijit Kunte from India and Nigel Davies of Southport alongside Scottish IM John Shaw. Irishman Sam Collins achieved his first IM norm. There was plenty of drama in the Ron Banwell Masters asJeff Horner who has been one of Lancashire's leading players for many years has been seeking his final IM norm. Going into the last round he needed to defeat IM Colin Crouch with Black. Despite some bold play it was not to be. This tournament was won by Sundararajan Kidambi from India and Horner, Scotsman Steve Mannion and Gary Kenworthy, who went through the tournament undefeated shared second place. The festival was sponsored by the Hilton Hotel Blackpool, the BCF, Friends of Chess, Blackpool Tourism, the NCCU and the Lancashire Chess Association. Bill O'Rourke next idea is to run the English Championships next Easter at the Hilton Blackpool. Haslinger,S (2414) - Gormally,D (2478) [B80] Hilton Premier Blackpool ENG (4), 06.08.2003 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 Be7 9.0-0-0 0-0 10.g4 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 b5 12.g5 Nd7 13.h4 Bb7 14.Kb1 Rc8 15.Bh3 Ne5 16.Qg2 Qa5 17.g6! hxg6 18.h5 g5 19.h6 g6 20.Bxe5 dxe5 21.Rd7 Rc7 22.Rxe7! Rxe7 23.Qxg5 f6 24.Qxg6+ Kh8 25.Bxe6 Qc7 26.Nd5 Bxd5 27.exd5 Rh7 28.Rg1! 
Threatening Qg8+ If Black defends with 28. ..Qd8 then simply 29.d6 and d7 wins. 1-0 There was a record entry of 1009 at the Smith & Williamson British Championship and here is the list of prize winners from week one. My thanks to Neville Belinfante of the BCF for compiling the information. Neville maintained an excellent website during the event at www.bcfservices.org U100 Champion - Tom Peet (East Finchley) U150 Champions - Chon Lee (Edinburgh), John Harbour (Beds) U8 Champion - Sahaj Grover (India) U8 Girls Champion - Megan Owen (Monmouth) U9 Champions - Prasanna Rao, Fenil Shah (both India) U9 Girls Champion - Rhian Hughes (Edinburgh) U11 Champion - Fenil Shah (India) U11 Girls Champion - Amisha Parmar (Notts) U13 Champion - Thomas Pym (Shrops) U13 Girls Champion - Robyn Smith (Oldham) U15 Champion - William Bennet (Rutland) U15 Girls Champion - Mrudula Namibar (India) U16 Champion - William Bennet (Oakham School) U16 Girls Champion - Priyanka Desai (India) 5 day week 1 - 1st Neville Gill (Isle of Man) Harry Baines wk 1 - 1st Paul Dupre (Addlestone) 20th July Rapidplay - Ameet Ghasi (Birmingham) 27th July Rapidplay - IM Neeloptal Das (India) Weekender Atkins - John Stephenson (Undercliffe) Weekender Soanes (U140) - John Dempsey (Glasgow) Weekender Yates (U110) - Lana Boztas (Ashtead), Calum McQueen (Giffnock,) Harikrishna,P (2558) - Hossain,E (2452) [B40] ch-GBR Edinburgh SCO (2), 15.07.2003 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 a6!? Tournament commentator IM Andrew Martin points out that 2. ..a6 is irrelevant against the Closed Sicilian setup with pawn g2-g3 and pawn d2-d3 and the way the game develops ..a6 and ....b5 only help White. 3.Nf3 e6 4.g3 b5 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.d3 d6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.e5!  I suspect the real error is allowing the break 8.e5! which opens up the light squares. 8...dxe5 9.Nxe5 Bxg2 10.Kxg2 Nbd7 11.Nxd7 Qxd7 12.Qf3! Rc8 13.a4! Be7 Black has to jettison the b4 pawn and get castled. His attempts to maintain it lead to disaster. 14.axb5 axb5 15.Ra5! b4 16.Ne4 c4 17.dxc4 Qc7 18.Nxf6+ Bxf6 19.Ra4 Qxc4 20.c3! Rb8 21.Re1 Be7 22.Ra7 h6 23.Bf4 Rd8 24.Be5 f6 25.Bc7 Rc8 26.Qb7  1-0 |
|
|
| New Kasparov Book! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
