A blitz (and rapid) birthday in Amsterdam

"Happy birthday to you me..."

Ilya Levitov, the former Managing Director of the Russian Chess Federation (from 2010 to 2015), is the sponsor and initiator of a small private chess tournament currently taking place in Amsterdam to celebrate his 40th birthday. Not much was known publicly about the event until during the recent Grand Chess Tour Rapid and Blitz in Paris, when it was the topic of conversation among players and commentators who were planning to attend. 

My Path to the Top

On this DVD Vladimir Kramnik retraces his career from talented schoolboy to World Champion in 2006. With humour and charm he describes his first successes, what it meant to be part of the Russian Gold Medal team at the Olympiad, and how he undertook the Herculean task of beating his former mentor and teacher Garry Kasparov.

For this special event, Vladimir Kramnik has returned to the chessboard; the 14th World Champion officially announced his retirement from tournament chess in January. Viswanathan Anand is also there, coming straight from Paris, along with six other prominent players completing the field: Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Boris Gelfand, Anish Giri and Evgeny Bareev.

The venue is the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Amsterdam.

A room can be had for the low low rate of $800 a night!

Ilya Levitov | Photo: Russian Chess Federation

On Saturday the "Levitov Chess Week" started with a blitz tournament. Kramnik and Anand finished with 5 points each. Since Kramnik won the head-to-head, he was declared the winner.

In his game against Grischuk, Anand apparently felt inspired by Kramnik's play. 

Beating the Berlin Defence

Ever since the Kasparov-Kramnik WCh match (London 2000) players with the white pieces have been breaking their teeth biting on the Berlin Wall in the Ruy Lopez. The situation from White’s point of view has become precarious – ducking it is equivalent to capitulation, because in all alternative variations to the Berlin endgame White gives up from the start on the struggle for an opening advantage. White has to find ways to crack open Black’s defence. There is hardly any other grandmaster of his class who is as well known for his uncompromising and creative play as the Latvian Alexei Shirov.

Here, in a well-known position, he played 8.♖g1. From the black side of a very similar structure, Kramnik tried an analogously surprising manoeuvre in the 2018 Berlin Candidates tournament against Aronian. There followed 8...♜e8 9.g4. 

Anand castled long and was keen to attack:

After 24...♞c5 25.♖h3 there is no defence against the mate threat. 1-0.

Anish Giri seems to have brought his poor form from Paris to Amsterdam at the moment.

In the game against Kramnik, Giri had 'made luft' on h7, but then sealed in his king with the h7-bishop. Kramnik took advantage of this with 32.♘e5 (other moves would have won as well). After 32...♝xe5 33.d7 Giri gave up. (33...♝f6 34.d8♕ ♝xd8 35.Qxd8 mate.

Master Class Vol.11: Vladimir Kramnik

This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) how to successfully organise your games strategically, consequently how to keep y

Final standings - Blitz

All games 

A rapid tournament began yesterday and continues through Tuesday, however the games are not being transmitted live. We'll update the games and standings as available.

Current standings - Rapid

All rapid games

Commentary by Peter Svidler

Svidler comments on the first two rounds of the rapid tournament

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson