Preparing a surprise for Calvia
The strongest female chessplayers in the United States assembled at a midtown
hotel in New York City last weekend for a very special training session. For
three days they received all-day classes from the world's top-ranked player,
Garry Kasparov. This is the US women's training squad and at least three of
its five members will be on the four-player women's Olympiad team this fall
in Calvia, Spain.
Only four of the ladies were present. Rusa Goletiani had taken some time after
the women's world championship in Kalmykia to visit her family in Georgia. Irina
Krush and Jennifer Shahade, both New Yorkers, had made it back from Kalmykia
just in time. Consider it the silver lining of being knocked out in the first
rounds. Susan Polgar lives in Queens, New York and Anna Zatonskih came in from
her home in Ohio.
"What would you play here for White?" Garry Kasparov, Irina Krush,
Jennifer Shahade,
writer Paul Hoffman, Anna Zatonskih, Susan Polgar, trainer Michael Khodarkovsky.
The training
squad was organized a little over a year ago by Susan Polgar and her associate
Paul Truong. Sponsorship comes principally from the non-profit Kasparov Chess
Foundation, the US Chess Federation, and has received assistance from IBM and
ChessBase, among others. One of Kasparov's old trainers, IM Michael Khodarkovsky,
is the head of the KCF and is in charge of the training program. This is the
second set of sessions the team has had with Kasparov.
Much of the training material Kasparov brought in was based on the huge amount
of analysis he has been doing for the upcoming third volume of his "My
Great Predecessors" book series. It includes a very large section on
Bobby Fischer and on the third and final day of the training many of the positions
were from Fischer games. Here
are a few of the games Kasparov looked at. No analysis but we point
out a few of the key alternatives he mentioned.
Kudos if you recognize Keres-Fischer, Bled Candidates, 1959. Was there a
draw?
There were as many computers in the room as humans. IBM has sponsored the team
by giving each of the ladies a snazzy Thinkpad laptop. No bonus points for guessing
that all of them were running ChessBase. We were only slightly surprised to
notice that there wasn't even a real chessboard in the room, other than the
display board Kasparov is using above. It reminds us of what Kasparov said last
year on the eve of his match against X3D Fritz. He joked that in the future
wooden boards and sets might be museum pieces and his son might point at them
in wonder and say "You played on those?!"
One eye on Garry, one on ChessBase.
Kasparov
says the team is ready to cause a real surprise in the Olympiad this year. Former
women's world champion GM Susan Polgar, despite not playing serious chess
for many years, is in good form and will likely be the highest rated player
in Calvia. Anna Zatonskih, a recent arrival from Ukraine, received much praise
from Kasparov and Khodarkovsky and has been showing good progress. Krush has
been busy with classes at NYU, but will focus more on chess during the summer.
The Olympiad team's fourth board has yet to be decided. The USCF has hastily
arranged a women's national championship event that will start on June 17, although
there is another championship scheduled for November 24. (This was done either
to give 2003 US women's champion Anna Hahn a chance to be on the team or to
get her off the team because her rating was too low, depending on which potential
lawsuit you prefer. This sad situation was the legacy of the old USCF, which
is now undergoing serious reform.) The winner will be board four of the team,
so it is possible that training squad members Shahade and Goletiani won't make
the trip to Spain. Certainly one of them won't.
Regardless of who takes the fourth spot, the US women's team will be a formidable
competitor for the Chinese, Georgian, and Russian teams that have dominated
for so long. (At least since the Hungarian all-Polgar team disbanded!) Krush
and Zatonskih are in the mid-2400s and if Polgar does as well as the trainers
predict she could be playing at a 2600 level. The other top teams can field
a balanced group of 2400-2500s, so a strong showing on board one by Polgar is
likely to be crucial. No doubt her many fans and club
members (not to mention her sisters Judit and Sofia) will be happy
to see her back in action.
Jennifer Shahade, Anna Zatonskih, Susan Polgar
Pondering the latest in opening theory. That's FM Paul Truong in the back.
Kasparov isn't much of a stern taskmaster as a teacher, at least not on the
final day with this experienced class. Still, several of the women confessed
that they were quite nervous, especially during their first sessions with Kasparov.
They hesitated to give their opinions when asked, not wanting to be the first
to receive a surprised glare or, worse, a contemptuous "why?".
Krush, the youngest at 20, seemed to be the boldest of the bunch when it came
to making suggestions and asking questions. A few times we had to bite our tongue
when we were sure we knew a right answer, but this wasn't the chess journalist
training squad, alas. Still, we recognized Fischer-Spassky game 13 right off
and no one else seemed to recognize the horrible opening play by Spassky against
the Alekhine.
(This went a long way to reinforce our opinion that reviewers who criticized
Kasparov's "Predecessors" books for including games that are
"too well known" don't understand the market at all. If a room full
of top players don't recognize such games, amateurs certainly won't. As Jen
Shahade put it, "most Masters don't know three Alekhine games.")
Computer + brain power. Kasparov plus two laptops running ChessBase!
Serious stuff!
"Now it's too late!" How could Taimanov have lost that one to Fischer?
At the after-session dinner and farewell party. Greek food and good company.
