8/8/2009 – Make no mistake, it is GM Monika Socko, not her top-rated husband Bartosz, who is leading the Arctic Challenge with 6.0/7 and a 2703 performance. No less sensational is that 14-year-old IM Ray Robson is sharing first with a 2679 performance. The action is exciting ("hammer time") and the landscape lovely in the land of the midnight sun. Big illustrated report by Misha Savinov.
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Tromsø – Arctic Chess Challenge 2009
Misha Savinov reports from Tromsø
The Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø is the most important event in Norway
this year. In spectacular surroundings, 120 participants from all parts of the
world are battling it out on the chess board. The players have already participated
in boat trip, fishing trip, mountain trip and football challenge, and can try
focusing on doing their best at the finish of the event.
After seven rounds three players are ahead of the peloton. GM Monika Socko
and IMs Marijan Petrov and Roy Robson have scored 6.0 points out of seven (conceding
just two draws apiece). GM Bartosz Socko, the top rated participant, only has
just 5.0 points and is languishing on place 16, while his wife bravely fights
for the first place.
Doing well in Tromsø: GM Monika Socko of Poland
The lady from Poland is having an excellent tournament! She dropped half a
point against GM Berg, having a rook + pawn against the opponent’s sole bishop.
Nalimov tells that the ending was won for Black, but Monica either didn’t knew
it, or didn’t find the way to convert her material advantage. She won five games,
including those against GMs Turner and Sulskis. After six games her performance
was equivalent to 2779, after a seventh round draw against Ray Robson it is
2703!
The next Bobby Fischer? IM Ray Robson of the US
The very determined 14-year-old boy from the US is already an international
master, taking lessons from GM Alexander Onischuk, with his game improving faster
than we can write. Ray Robson is a new bright hope of the American chess, and
can make a serious international impact, if – we always have to say it about
the Americans – if he doesn’t quit chess.
In Tromsø Ray defeated GMs Malakhatko and Rasmussen, and dropped half a point
to FM Kjetil Stokke, who showed good simplification skill as White in the Catalan.
Robson’s play here is very energetic and determined, he does not shy away from
complications and is very strong at the technical stage. If he shows sufficient
endurance in the final rounds, he may very well be among the eventual winners
of the tournament, despite being just the 11th highest rated at the start.
Intermediate standings after Round Seven (4.5 points and higher)
Five players have 5.5 points after seven rounds, amongst them Norwegian star
GM Jon Ludwig Hammer. And what about the rating favorites, 2600+ players? All
of them are yet to make a significant impact at the standings.
Indeed it is, Jon Ludvig
The biggest star in Tromsø is clearly Ray Robson, Both this young lad's
victories against grandmasters cannot be praised too highly. Against Malakhatko
he showed decent knowledge of the latest updates of the Caro-Kann, and carried
out a nice attack.
IM Ray Robson at move 17 in his game against GM Vadim Malakhatko
Here White has the only way to win, and Ray finds it with amazing ease: 29.N3g4!
Qf5 30.Nxf6+ Nxf6 31.Qxb7! The point! The knight cannot be taken due to
31...Qxe5 32.Qc8+ Kh7 33.hxg7+ Kxg7 34.Qh8+ Kg6 35.Qh6+ Kf5 36.Qxd2, and White
wins.
31...Qh5 32.a3 Rd1+ 33.Rxd1 Qxd1+ 34.Ka2 Qh5 35.Qa8+ Kh7 36.hxg7! (the
knight is immune again) 36...Kxg7 37.f4. White consolidates and quickly
converts his material advantage. 37...Qf5 38.Qxa7 Nh5 39.Qd4 Qxf4 40.Qxf4
Nxf4 41.a4. Black resigns: 1-0.
The next game against GM Rasmussen was even more spectacular! Robson sacrificed
a bishop for a pawn, but completely cemented the opponent’s queenside, effectively
locking a knight, a rook and a king. White could only see how the Black’s king
slowly arrived into the White’s camp with his lethal mission...
20...Nd5! Black starts a very beautiful positional plan. 21.Bxe4
Nxe3 22.Rxd8+ Rxd8 23.c7 Rd4 24.Bb7 h6 25.f5 Bd7 26.c8Q+ Bxc8 27.Bxc8
White is a piece up, but the tragi-comical arrangement of his queenside pieces
leaves him with no play other than painful waiting for the enemy break. 27...Kf8
28.Ba6 Rd6 29.Bb7 a5 30.Bf3 Ke7 31.a4 Rd4 32.Be2 Kf6 33.h4 Ke5 34.Rb1 Kf4 35.Nb5
Rd7 36.Nc3 Kg3 37.g5 hxg5 38.hxg5 Kf2 39.Bh5 Ke1 40.f6 gxf6 41.gxf6.
A picturesque position! The computer would announce here: “Mate in seven!”
41...Rd2 42.Ra1 Rc2+ 43.Kb1 Nf1. White resigns: 0-1. One
can rarely see such games at a grandmaster level these days!
Bartosz Socko, #1 rating seed, suffered a slow start and seems
to lack sufficient aggression. He already made four draws, which is clearly
too many for a Swiss event, and find himself in a large group of players with
five points.
Igor Khenkin, #2 seed, has also collected just five points.
He can blame himself for peacefulness in the round five: having the black pieces
against the ultimate leader, Sarunas Sulskis, Khenkin could not resist accepting
a draw in a complicated and somewhat unorthodox position.
In the post-mortem analysis the players discovered – to mutual surprise, I
have to add – that White was in a big trouble and had to fight for survival!
Khenkin couldn’t believe it. Not that he missed an easy win, no, there was a
lot of play, but he indeed missed a decent chance to knock down one of the most
dangerous opponents, and score a valuable Black victory.
Yuri Drozdovskij, #3 seed, also has five points, but all seven
of his games were decisive! This is extremely unusual for a player, who in his
native Odessa is called “our little Petrosian” – for positionally sound play
and great sense of danger. Yet in Norway Drozdovskij already lost two games.
In the Round 3 he fell to the Italian IM Luca Shytaj. The Ukrainian was very
disappointed about his own play. He told me that they returned from the excursion
only 15 minutes before the round start, so he decided to skip on the dinner,
which proved terribly wrong. Yuri made a number of mistakes during the game
and failed to defend a rook ending without a pawn, which could be drawn with
prefect play. After two successive victories in the next rounds he got White
against IM Kiik and lost to a crushing attack.
WGM Natalia Zdebskaja, rated 2412, with 4.5/7 and a performance so far of
2382
Yuri’s sense of danger was some place else that day. Should be recall the famous
Khalifman rule about the inevitable rating loss after marriage? Yuri’s wife
WGM Natalia Zdebskaja also suffered her first defeat in the sixth round.
The tournament has been pretty brutal so far for the local Nordic players.
Pål Røyset (2239) and Benjamin Arvola (2144) have 4 points each, which is the
best result for Tromsø players, but a long shot for the prize money. Espen Forså,
FM with one IM norm, also cannot find his best game – he lost only one game
(to Khenkin), but won just two, and made three draws with lower-rated players.
Perhaps they are just too hospitable!
Photo impressions from Tromsø
A view of the playing hall with round six under way
IM Luca Shytaj in the process of defeating GM Yuri Drozdovskij in round
three
GM Emanuel Berg, and exchange down, survives a 134-mover against GM Monica
Socko
GM Jon Ludwig Hammer is desperately looking for a win
The African pioneers of Tromsø: Lawrence Kagambi (Kenya)...
Dericka Figaro (Seychelles)...
... and Isabella Asiema (Kenya)
A football match for the players
An elk resting on the banks of a semi-dry river – a common sight in
Tromsø
The weather started to change. It is a bit cooler and less sunny, and in the
evening the mountains are covered with milky-white fog. Luckily, most of the
outdoors excursions for the participants already took place.
Fog descending to the coastal beach...
... and rising to the high roads in the mountains
The beautiful Arctic landscape around the time of the midnight sun
All photos by Bjørn Berg Johansen and Misha Savinov
Video impressions by Torstein Bae (index of reports at the end)
A selection of games is being broadcast live on the official web site
and on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!
Previous ChessBase reports on Tromsø
Tromsø 2009 – four lead in Arctic Chess Challenge
06.08.2009 – At the Arctic Chess Challenge
in Tromsø 120 players are competing in the year’s most prestigious Norwegian
event. After five of nine rounds there are four players in the lead.
Three are GMs, one a female, but the fourth is of particular interest:
14-year-old US American IM Ray Robson, whom some people are calling
the new Bobby Fischer. Pictorial
report by IM Torstein Bae.
Tromsø 2009 – the Arctic Chess Challenge 02.08.2009 – The Arctic Chess
Challenge in Tromsø is this year’s most prestigious event in Norway.
More than 35 titled players are taking part, including 13 GMs. Top seed
is Polish GM Bartosz Socko, rated 2656, with three more super-GMs just
below him. The tournament is truly an international open: the 118 participants
hail from 26 countries, and from all parts of the world. Pictorial
report.
Tromsø 2009 – the Arctic Chess Challenge 22.07.2009 – The city of Tromsø, located within
the Arctic Circle in Norway, has become a hot-bed of chess. Not only is
Tromsø bidding for the Chess Olympiad 2014 – every year they stage a very
attractive chess tournament in this beautiful location. This year the
Arctic Challenge will be staged from August 1st to 9th, with 132 entries
and lots of title holders – an ideal opportunity
to make norms.
Tromsø – a Chess Olympiad in the midnight sun? 18.11.2008 – It lies well within the Arctic
Circle and has a history of chess activity. Now the city of Tromsø is
bidding to host the 2014 Chess Olympiad in one of the most attractive
regions of Europe. A full presentation is being made at the Olympiad in
Dresden. We visited the city this summer and support their bid with some
WYSIWYG evidence of why it is ideally suited for an Olympiad. Photo
report.
Chess in the Arctic Circle – GM Igor Kurnosov triumphs 18.08.2008 – For the third time the Tromsø
Chess Club staged an International Open in the Arctic Circle. It ran from
August 2nd to 10th 2008, with sky high prizes, by Norwegian standards
(total prize fund 11,000 Euros). The venue is spectacular, the atmosphere
warm and generous. And the place is full of Carlsens: Magnus, Henrik,
Sigrun, Ellen, Ingrid and Signe. Part one of our big
pictorial report.
Moiseenko wins the Arctic Chess Challenge 12.08.2007 – In the end it was a super-GM who
took the unshared first place in the Tromsø Midnight Sun tournament: Alexander
Moiseenko of the Ukraine scored 7.5/9 to overtake the long-time leader,
"Mr Sunshine" Kjetil Lie, who had beaten him in round four. Top seed Magnus
Carlsen recovered from a poor start to share 2-4. Like his parents we
expect Magnus to scale the Store
Blåmannen.
Carlsen vs Carlsen – Magnus beats his dad 10.08.2007 – That is hardly a surprise, since
the 16-year-old is over six hundred points stronger than his first teacher.
But then again Henrik Carlsen has grounding powers... After seven rounds
of the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø it is Norwegian GM Kjetil A. Lie
who is in the lead, with 5.5 points, followed by four players with 5.0
points each. Report
with pictures and videos.
Second Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø 07.08.2007 – The Norwegian island town of Tromsø
lies well within the Arctic Circle, which means that this time of the
year the sun never sets. Tromsø is playing host to a strong GM tournament
from August 4th-12th, 2007. Top seed is Magnus Carlsen, who rushed in
from his victory in Biel and did not have a great start here (3.0/4, place
ten). Two other GMs, Macieja and Lie, lead with 4.0/4. Round
four report.
Shipov wins Midnight Sun, Carlsen second 03.07.2006 – The Midnight Sun Chess Challenge
in Tromsø, Norway, was won by Russian GM Sergei Shipov, who scored 7.5
points in nine rounds. Second was fifteen-year-old Magnus Carlsen with
7.0, who beat Leif Erland Johannessen on tiebreak points. We bring you
a final report with pictures from Whale's
Island.
Carlsen leads the Midnight Sun Challenge 28.06.2006 – A fifteen-year-old super-grandmaster,
blessed with an Elo of 2646, is leading the Midnight Sun Chess Challenge
in Tromsø. Magnus Carlsen of Norway looks set to break a few new records
with the form that he is showing these days. The event is being held well
within the Arctic Circle, where at this time of year the nights are bright
as day. Misha
Savinov reports.
Midnight Sun Chess Challenge in Tromsø 26.06.2006 – There are parts in the world where,
during a certain period of the year, the sun never sets. The northern
Norwegian town of Tromsø, which lies well within the Arctic Circle, is
one such place. From June 24th to July 2nd, in the middle of the midnight
sun period, it is holding chess festival with GMs like Krasenkow and Magnus
Carlsen. Big
illustrated report.
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