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Alekhine's Parrot
TheParrot
Says…Welcome
to the archive of the weekly leader of chess events around the world. Chessville
welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on this week’s news by
writing to
TheParrot@Chessville.com where selected letters will be
featured.
|
.jpg) |
11-17-2007
|
 Honorable
Chess Gossip:
Chess Success stories:
Chess champs' next move is playing in big event: By
PAIGE HEWITT, Houston Chronicle
 Celebrated
chess player Warren Harper's signature is "a provocative waiting move."
He plays gently, deliberately appearing a little vulnerable, and waits.
"I provoke my opponent into playing overly aggressively," the 16-year-old
said, grinning. His next move: stun the enemy, perhaps launching the
attack with his favorite soldier, the knight.
Harper's strategy has been working remarkably well — in
a few days he will be among 10 young Texans headed to Antalya, Turkey, to
compete in the world's most prestigious chess competition for players
younger than 18.
The Houstonian's success has lured attention in the
chess world because he has been playing only three years — he taught himself
with a "how-to" DVD. Within months, he was winning most games.
Within a year, Harper had become an "expert." After two years, he was
a "master" and two months ago, his title bumped up yet again to "senior
master."
Harper, coached by Russian Sam Palatnik, who lives in
Baltimore, will be playing at the World Youth Chess Championship Saturday,
November 29. About 2,000 young players are expected at the event.
Twelve Texans
qualified for the event; 10 are going, including three from the Houston
area.
Sisters
Evan and Ellen Xiang, 8 and 10 respectively [captioned], also are
competing. Hannah Liu of Sugar Land was the fourth local qualifier.
Evan is ranked first in the United States in her age group, Ellen is ranked
second in hers. Daughters of engineers, the sisters spend an hour
daily during the week playing chess, two hours each day on weekends and
compete in tournaments.
Chessville's Forum
was boring
this week – don’t go there! <ducks> Just lots of opinions from boring
serious people who know stuff.
|
 |
Chess News
USA and Canada |
 |
Your local, on the 8x8s:
Its out! Its all
over. The National Geographic Documentary "My
Brilliant Brain" is now airing worldwide. Susan Polgar
says she has received emails from viewers from all over the world. It
is still not aired in the U.S. yet but just in case if you have not seen it,
here is the entire 47 minute movie which you can watch on-line.
SPICE Cup event, readers watched live games at
either
Monroi.com or
the ICC . Who is chatting around the table? That’s Dmitry Schneider,
[Su. Polgar] Eugene Perelshteyn, Irina Krush.
Drama at round 7
was like this; in the early round Perelshtehn simply ran away with the lead
and at one stage was 1.5 points in the lead. But back came Miton and
Becerra.
Perelshteyn 5/7 (+3)
Miton 4.5/7 (+2)
Becerra 4.5/7
Hernandez 4/7 (+1)
Hera 4/7
Hoyos 3/7 (-1)
Krush 3/7
Gulko 2.5/7 (-2)
Schneider 2.5/7
Lugo 3/8
STOP-PRESS Report from Susan Polgar: Final
1. Perelshteyn (USA) 6.5/9
(+4)
2. Hernandez (MEX) 6/9 (+3)
3-4. Miton (POL), Becerra (USA) 5.5/9 (+2)
5. Hera 5/9 (HUN) (+1)
6. Krush (USA) 4/9 (-1)
7. Hoyos (MEX) 3.5/9 (-2)
8-10. Gulko (USA), Schneider (USA), Lugo (USA) 3/9 (-3)
 It
was an incredible finish. Trailing by 1/2 point, GM Miton from Poland pushed
all the way for a win against GM Hernandez of Mexico. At one point, GM
Hernandez only had 4 seconds left on his clock. At the end, GM Miton pushed
too hard and lost, giving the championship to GM
Perelshteyn of Massachusetts, and second place to
GM Hernandez. |
We are all talking over there about ways and means to present
opening material.. Long before everyone is in complete
agreement we will launch a few experiments with an innovative
column.Selecting openings is relatively easy, and as NM Dan
Heisman points out, it is mainstream openings that most need
attention rather than esoterica that you hardly ever encounter.
Sources for openings to discuss are currently looking like
this:-
A recent correspondence sparring partner of this Parrot is
WGM Yelena Dembo, and her “Play the Grünfeld,” title.
“Starting Out: Sicilian Sveshnikov,” by John Cox will
be an interesting book to compare with an older 1989 but
‘tournament’ level, “The Sicilian Pelikan” by Evgenny
Sveshnikov.
And then two Benoni titles – the original goodie by William
Hartston, first published in 1977, plus a brand new 2007 title,
“The Modern Benoni” by Zenon Franco.
And if you’d play the Benoni, surely you’d look at the Benko?
With extracts from “Play the Benko” by V.Ravikumar.
A really very brave typewriter-composed monograph by George
Koltanowski on “Practical Play of the Max Lange Attack”
published in 1973 is going to reward anyone who can stay with it
for a dozen moves.
Then, is “The Schliemann Variation of the Ruy Lopez” [Tibor
Florian] still alright? Another monograph, from 1970, on
material from 1968, from the games collection of Antal Ruttkay,
so old Fischer probably read it as a nipper. Published in
England with a translation by K. B. Richardson.
Kampars and Tejler published another monograph in 1972 on the
“Blackmar-Diemer Gambit,” vol 3 features The Vienna
Defence, which is rock&roll at move 4.
Now – these are all mainstream openings after e4 and d4, and
it is very interesting that most players get a bit lost even at
move 6, and are very much in The Jungle
by move 10...
But in the forum, we are discussing how to best explore and
use this interactive internet media to present these –should be-
common tabia ... |
|
www.MonRoi.com was on hand to broadcast all the games LIVE.
The trophy was hand made by Mr. Marty Grund, one of the founders of
ICC.
|
 |
Chess News WORLDWIDE |
Another year, another prestige
event in chess: The Tal Memorial
 From
9 to 23 Nov Moscow hosts the second Mikhail Tal Memorial. This year
three major contests will take place within the framework of the event viz.,
a round-robin classical chess tournament of category 20 (with the average
rating of 2742), the World Blitz Championship and an exhibition ''advanced
chess'' match between Vishi Anand and Vladimir Kramnik.
 The
round-robin tournament, where Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2787), Vladimir
Kramnik (Russia, 2785), Peter Leko (Hungary, 2755), Shakhriar Mamedyarov (Azerbajan,
2752), Alexei Shirov (Spain, 2739), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2752), Gata
Kamsky (the USA, 2724), Evgeny Alekseyev (Russia, 2716), Magnus Karlsen
(Norway, 2714), and Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia, 2710) are taking part, started
on 10 Nov. Each round starts at 3 p.m. The playing days are 10 through 4 and
16 through 19 Nov. Rate of play is 100 minutes to each player for the
first 40 moves plus 50 minutes for the next 20 moves plus 15 minutes for the
rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the
first. Cross table so far:
|
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
Total |
Score |
|
1 |
 Leko,
Peter |
2755 |
|
= |
0 |
= |
= |
|
|
|
|
1 |
2,5 |
|
|
2 |
 Kamsky,
Gata |
2714 |
= |
|
= |
= |
|
|
|
|
= |
0 |
2 |
|
|
3 |
 Kramnik,
Vladimir |
2785 |
1 |
= |
|
|
|
|
|
= |
= |
1 |
3,5 |
|
|
4 |
Alekseev,
Evgeny |
2716 |
= |
= |
|
|
|
|
= |
= |
= |
|
2,5 |
|
|
5 |
Jakovenko,
Dmitry |
2710 |
= |
|
|
|
|
= |
= |
0 |
= |
|
2 |
|
|
6 |
 Mamedyarov,
Shakhriyar |
2752 |
|
|
|
|
= |
|
1 |
= |
= |
= |
3 |
|
|
7 |
 Ivanchuk,
Vassily |
2787 |
|
|
|
= |
= |
0 |
|
= |
|
= |
2 |
|
|
8 |
 Carlsen,
Magnus |
2714 |
|
|
= |
= |
1 |
= |
= |
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
9 |
 Gelfand,
Boris |
2736 |
|
= |
= |
= |
= |
= |
|
|
|
|
2,5 |
|
|
10 |
 Shirov,
Alexei |
2739 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
= |
= |
|
|
|
2 |
|
What to say at
this stage? Carlsen continues to play very strongly against very strong 2700
opponents? We said that earlier in the year. If any reader has a better
favovite for a future world champion, write to the Parrot.
|
Round 1
Leko - Shirov 1-0
Alekseev - Ivanchuk 1/2
Jakovenko - Mamedyarov 1/2
Kamsky - Gelfand 1/2
Kramnik - Carlsen 1/2 |
|
Round
2
Leko - Kamsky 1/2
Gelfand - Kramnik 1/2
Shirov - Mamedyarov 1/2
Ivanchuk - Jakovenko 1/2
Carlsen - Alekseev 1/2 |
|
Round
3
Kramnik - Leko 1-0
Mamedyarov - Ivanchuk 1-0
Alekseev - Gelfand 1/2
Kamsky - Shirov 0-1
Jakovenko - Carlsen 0-1 |
|
Round
4
Carlsen - Mamedyarov 1/2
Gelfand - Jakovenko 1/2
Leko - Alekseev 1/2
Shirov - Ivanchuk 1/2
Kamsky - Kramnik 1/2 |
At round 5
Drawzzzzzzzz Death
strikes again! Of 25 games played only 5 were decisive. This
cheered up in round 6 where 3 from 6 had a decisive result:
STOP PRESS: Round 6 report
1 Kramnik -
4.5
2 Mamedyarov - 3.5
3-7 Carlsen, Shirov, Gelfand, Leko, Jakovenko - 3.0
8-9 Alekseev, Ivanchuk - 2.5
10 Kamsky - 2.0
|
Chess Champions League Vitoria Gasteiz
While Pono took the lead, another Hungarian, GM Andras
Adorjan wrote to the Parrot to enthusiastically pointing out that not
only was Judit Polgár still in the running, but she has scored 3 wins
with the black pieces, more than the entire world champion series!
My Spanish is not up to describing exactly what is going on in these
photographs, but everyone looks to be having fun. |
 |
Standings after
round 6:
1. Ponomariov - 3.5
2. Polgar - 3
3. Topalov - 3
4. Nisipeanu - 2.5
5. Kasimdzhanov - 1.5
6. Karpov - 1.5
Official website:
www.ajedrez-hotelakua.com
Last
week we offered the results of the European Team Chess Championships (ETCC)
Men’s tournament. Here are the top finishers from the Women’s
competition:
 Final
women's teams standings
1 RUSSIA RUS 15 25,0 184,5 [captioned]
2 POLAND POL 13 23,5 179,5
3 ARMENIA ARM 13 21,0 176,0
4 UKRAINE UKR 12 22,5 172,5
5 GEORGIA GEO 12 22,5 166,5
6 SLOVENIA SLO 12 20,5 171,0
7 HUNGARY HUN 11 22,5 172,5
8 ROMANIA ROU 11 20,0 162,5
9 CROATIA CRO 10 21,0 132,0
10 AZERBAIJAN AZE 10 19,0 173,0
11 GERMANY GER 10 19,0 170,5
12 NETHERLANDS NED 10 17,5 188,5
13 FRANCE FRA 10 17,5 181,5
14 SPAIN ESP 9 19,5 141,0
15 ISRAEL ISR 9 16,5 175,5
16 GREECE 1 GRE1 8 19,0 152,0
17 CZECH REPUBLIC CZE 8 18,5 150,5
18 BULGARIA BUL 8 18,0 172,0
19 SERBIA SRB 8 18,0 162,5
20 SWITZERLAND SUI 8 18,0 134,0
 Here
is a cool chess tradition: The XXII Friendly
Chess Match
between USSR and Yugoslavia teams took place 8th-9th November 2007 at the
Central Chess Club of Moscow. The USSR won 11:9
Gligoric - Korchnoi
0-1,1/2 [caption]
Vasiukov - Ivkov 1/2,1/2
Matanovic - Taimanov 1/2,1/2
Balashov - Velimirovic 0-1,1/2
Karaklajic - Zaitsev 1/2,1/2
Averbakh - Vlahovic 1/2,0-1
Spasojevic - Vorotnikov 1/2,0-1
Machulsky - Savic 1/2,1/2
Lazarevic - Fatalibekova 0-1,1/2
Zaitseva - Blagojevic 1-0.1/2
Vassily Ivanchuk
won a 14 rounds rapid match against Peter Leko, took place in
Mukachevo, Ukraine 26th-28th October. Time control 10min. + 10 sec. for a
move. Final score is 7.5:6.5 in Ivanchuk's favor.
Official site
Leko
- Ivanchuk 1/2,0-1,1/2,1/2,1/2,0-1,1/2,1/2,1-0,1/2,1-0,1/2,1/2,0-1
11-10-2007
|
Honorable
Chess Gossip:
In Chessville's Forum
gossip about ‘Is Black OK?’ continues, with this synopsis: “What's
interesting to me about this conversation, Kelly, is that Adorjan appears to
be correct in his premise; which is about our own expectations. Now,
when your Davies quote about Morozevich and Korchnoi are added to his own
[and Timman's] then perhaps more than his premise is correct? In other
words, his conclusion is also correct, and we play according to what we
think we should be achieving, rather than any more objective factor that is
taking place over the board.”
Each week in
The Chessville Weekly
newsletter
Forum Host Kelly Atkins selects a Best Post of the Week.
|
|
Chess News
USA and Canada |
|
Your local, on the 8x8s:
Susan Polgar’s Blog site,
http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/ is always an interesting place to find
chess news-briefs on a daily basis, reports a few episodes of this popular
Swedish chess show and she thinks they are very good:
Check it out at yourself at
http://worldchessnews.com/. “There is no reason why this cannot be
done in other languages,” says Polgar, and asks “What do you think?”
The intro is in English and the report in Swedish with English subtitles,
but you’ll get it.
Susan Polgar also opined this week, " I hope that Irina Krush, Dmitry
Schneider and Blas Lugo will be able to get their GM norms." She was
referring to the SPICE Cup event, and readers can watch live games at
either Monroi.com or the ICC. The games start at 5 PM EST except for
the final round on November 16, which begins at 11 AM EST. Who is
playing?
1. GM Kamil Miton 2628 POL
2. GM Boris Gulko 2571 USA
3. GM Julio Beccerra 2568 USA
4. GM Imre Hera 2544 Hungary
5. GM Gilberto Hernandez 2536 Mexico
6. GM Eugene Perelshteyn 2536 USA
7. IM Dmitry Schneider 2502 USA
8. IM Manuel Leon Hoyos 2495 Mexico
9. IM Irina Krush 2475 USA
10. IM Blas Lugo 2411 USA
 |
|
Players Corner
Openings
This week features The Parrot Has
Landed, but where, Defence? |
This sidebar on openings has proved popular enough to win its
own column! It's interesting that many players at all
levels admit to not really knowing the first dozen moves of even
popular openings, never mind clever deviations by ones opponent.
So, the Parrot has returned to -
THE JUNGLE
As in “its a jungle out there,” to negotiate a course
throughout the bewildering possibilities of opening play.
So, the Parrot will land in a new column which will present
tabia or ‘snapshots’ from popular openings.
The general format will present these ‘snapshots’ of
positions emerging from opening play, as well as general plans,
schemes and opportunities for both sides.
In conjunction with Chessville's
Forum it will also report actual excursions and
experiences from actual players, just like ourselves!
The column will then cite further reading for players who
like the arising positions; which seems like a sensible way for
readers to choose chess books – and an innovative way for
Chessville to review them. |
|
And
Irina [captioned] got off to a good start, and was the only winner
with the black pieces – here are all round 1 results:
Hernandez,
Gilberto vs Gulko, Boris 1-0
Hera, Imre vs Schneider, Dmitry 1-0
Lugo, Blas vs Krush, Irina 0-1
Perelshteyn, Eugene vs Hoyos, Manuel Leon 1-0
 Games
covered LIVE on
http://www.monroi.com/.
Another report on
American chess is
a feature on young Ray Robson, that is, the new young IM-norm
Ray, where reporter Luke Mullins, associate editor of U.S. News and
World Report, says, “Stallings says his chess team’s annual budget
is “a few hundred thousand dollars, which goes toward travel and the
salaries of a coach, a director, and an assistant director. Each of
the 25 members of UTD’s current chess team is on some form of scholarship,
which the university treats as an academic award, rather than an athletic
grant, and which it finances through its general scholarship fund.
How is the
strategy working? While it is impossible to measure precisely the
chess team’s effect on UTD’s reputation, university officials couldn’t be
more pleased. “Chess has served our purpose well; we are not the same
university that we were ten years ago,” Coleman says. “It has brought
us onto the national stage in terms of being a university that promotes
intellectual character.”
This is a big read
on how current chess talent is encouraged and supported in the US of A.
|
|
Chess News WORLDWIDE |
 39
countries confirmed their participation for the European National Team
Championship 2007 in Crete, Greece 27 October - 7 November 2007,
including all the chess power houses of the continent! Here is a
summary of the event:
 Russia
triumphed with both men and women teams taking the golden medals at the
16th European Team Chess Championship 2007. Men's team had an
impressive run of eight consecutive wins and only one draw, claimed the
title even before the last round, and most of their players took medals for
individual scores as well.
Silver medals go to the 2006 Olympiad winners - Armenia. This ultra
solid team took a slow start, but broke through to the second place with the
series of narrow wins. Quite the opposite happened to the bronze
medalists, the explosive team of Azerbaijan. They started furiously in
the first few rounds until they were stopped by the Russians. Still, the
third place is a fantastic achievement for this young team.
 Russia
women were having a tough race with the title defenders from Poland.
Only in the 8th round Poland succumbed and Russia routinely drove the ship
into the safe harbor. Just like men, most of the Russian ladies also
earned individual medals.
Poland still managed to capture the silver medals on better
tie-breaks/individual points. Armenian female team resisted famous
Georgians in the last round, and after Ukraine didn't win against Russia,
girls from Yerevan started celebrating bronze medals.
It was a fantastic event, the motivated players gave us aesthetic
pleasure with wonderful games and our kind hosts in Creta Maris provided
excellent playing and lodging conditions.
1st board medal winners men:
Svidler (RUS), Carlsen (NOR), Adams (ENG)
1st board medal winners women:
Peng (NED), Danielian (ARM), Kosteniuk (RUS)
Highest performances of the European Team Championship:
1. Svidler 2989
2. Morozevich 2855
3. Roiz 2855
4. Adams 2800
5. Mamedyarov 2798 |
6. Topalov 2797
7. Navara 2792
8. Vallejo Pons 2782
9. Bacrot 2781
10. Alekseev 2760 |
Source: chessdom.com
Final standings:
1 RUSSIA 17 25,0 180,5
2 ARMENIA 14 21,5 175,0
3 AZERBAIJAN 13 20,5 183,5
4 POLAND POL 12 21,5 165,0
5 UKRAINE UKR 12 21,0 159,0
6 ISRAEL ISR 12 20,5 181,5
7 BULGARIA BUL 11 22,0 178,0
8 SLOVENIA SLO 11 20,5 172,0
9 FRANCE FRA 11 20,0 186,5
10 HUNGARY HUN 11 20,0 181,5
11 SPAIN ESP 11 19,0 184,0
12 DENMARK DEN 11 19,0 167,0
13 GEORGIA GEO 10 21,5 155,5
14 GREECE GRE 10 21,0 146,0
15 CZECH REPUBLIC CZE 10 20,0 178,0
16 ENGLAND ENG 10 19,5 168,5
17 MKD FYROM MKD 10 18,0 175,5
18 LITHUANIA LTU 9 20,5 147,0
19 NETHERLANDS NED 9 19,5 168,5
20 ICELAND ISL 9 19,0 169,5 |
21 SERBIA SRB 9 19,0 164,5
22 NORWAY NOR 9 19,0 160,5
23 GERMANY GER 8 19,5 154,0
24 MONTENEGRO MNE 8 18,0 164,0
25 SWITZERLAND SUI 8 17,0 160,5
26 CROATIA CRO 8 17,0 159,5
27 SWEDEN SWE 8 16,5 184,5
28 ITALY ITA 8 16,0 164,5
29 BELGIUM BEL 8 15,0 153,0
30 AUSTRIA AUT 7 18,5 145,5
31 FINLAND FIN 7 16,5 158,0
32 SCOTLAND SCO 7 13,0 147,5
33 ROMANIA ROU 6 16,0 152,5
34 ESTONIA EST 6 15,5 163,5
35 TURKEY TUR 6 15,0 157,0
36 LUXEMBOURG LUX 6 14,0 127,5
37 WALES WLS 5 10,0 140,5
38 CYPRUS CYP 4 10,0 131,5
39 MONACO MNC 1 9,0 143,0
40 BOSNIA & HERCEGOVINA BIH 0 0,0 21,0 |
Source:
http://www.greekchess.com/euro2007/news.html
Chess Champions League Vitoria Gasteiz
And Another Polgar, Judit, make the news: “[she] broke the spell of
the two leaders – by beating former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov with
the black pieces in the fourth round of the Champions lead (after beating
another former FIDE champion, Rustam Kasimdzhanov with the black pieces a
round earlier)”. Reports ChessBase. Current standings of that
tournament uncertainly reflect a round one result Kasimdzhanov vs Nisipeanu,
which is may still be unplayed.
Here were the ELO/TPR ratings at round 4:
 1.
Ponomariov, 2705 2877
2. Polgar, J 2708 2803
3. Topalov, 2769 2779
4. Nisipeanu, 2668 2714
5. Karpov, 2670 2519
6. Kasimdzhanov, 2690 2454
Standings after round 6:
1. Ponomariov - 3.5
2. Polgar - 3
3. Topalov - 3
4. Nisipeanu - 2.5
5. Kasimdzhanov - 1.5
6. Karpov - 1.5
But what are they doing with the soccer gear? Official website:
www.ajedrez-hotelakua.com.
Coming up:
The Tal Memorial Tournament takes place in Moscow 9th-19th November.
Players are: Ivanchuk Vassily g UKR (born 1969) 2787, Kramnik Vladimir g RUS
(1975) 2785, Leko Peter g HUN (1979) 2755, Mamedyarov Shakhriyar g AZE
(1985) 2752, Shirov Alexei g ESP (1972) 2739, Gelfand Boris g ISR (1968)
2736, Kamsky Gata g USA (1974) 2724, Alekseev Evgeny g RUS (1985) 2716,
Carlsen Magnus g NOR (1990) 2714, Jakovenko Dmitry g RUS (1983) 2710.
And the World Blitz Championship approved by FIDE follows the event.
This double round robin tournament take place November 21st-22nd.
Another chess cheater, Banned. “In the match Bergen op Zoom vs
AAS, played in Dutch League 2C last Saturday, the arbiter caught the team
captain of AAS (who was playing himself on board six), using a PDA outside
the playing hall, which he had left, with permission, to "get some fresh
air." The arbiter had followed him and caught him using Pocket Fritz.
On the screen the current position of the game was shown.” Reports
ChessBase.
11-3-2007
|
|
Chess News
USA and Canada |
</s
| | |
