Ivanchuk
Dominates Chess Olympiad
By GM Lubomir Kavalek
The chess olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia is in full swing, moving into
the second half. The Open section has 149 teams listed, nearly 750 players.
The women section has 115 teams, roughly 575 players. Head and shoulders above
all players stands Vasyl Ivanchuk. The 41-year old Ukrainian grandmaster smashed
everything coming his way so far, winning five straight games and amassing a
giant 3357 performance rating. On Tuesday, Ivanchuk added his sixth victory
against the Georgian GM Baadur Jobava. His team leads the olympiad after seven
rounds, having won six matches and drawing one. The 11-round olympiad concludes
Sunday, October 3.

Ivanchuk was born in the same year as the world champion Vishy Anand and they
are good friends. But unlike the Indian grandmaster, he sticks his neck out
in an event considered to favor young players. Playing the top board is always
a challenge. The American Hikaru Nakamura, 22, is doing well with a 4.5 - 0.5
score, but the world's top-rated grandmaster Magnus Carlsen of Norway, 19, is
struggling at 50 percent with two wins and two losses. How come Ivanchuk doesn't
even blink and collects his points with a solid, steady performance? He does
it with his incredible opening knowledge, sharp and unusual tactics and subtle
positional play.
Ivanchuk's win against one of the best defenders, Peter Leko of Hungary, is
a positional masterpiece. William Steinitz, the first official world champion,
loved to have his pawns on the original squares, since any pawn move weakens
the position. It was a sound idea, not overlooked by world-class players such
as Bobby Fischer, Ulf Andersson or Michael Adams. Ivanchuk's wonderful illustration
would have made Steinitz happy. In the Semi-Slav Meran defense, using tactical
themes and a delicate queen maneuver, the Ukrainian GM created many pawn weaknesses
that Leko was unable to cover.
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to
follow the game.
Original
column here – Copyright
Huffington Post
Chess Puzzles: A Vodka Escape
Richard Reti
White draws
While the black king is in the (green) square and can snap up the white c-pawn
anytime, the white king is out of the (red) square, unable to catch the black
h-pawn. Reti makes the study work, blending both green and red squares into
a beautiful solution. Can you find how white draws?
SOLUTION:
1.Kg7! (The king has to climb up diagonally to reach one of
the two squares.) 1...h4 2.Kf6! Kb6 3.Ke5! (The diagonal journey
is successful. The white king can either help his own pawn or catch the black
one.) 3...h3 (After 3...Kxc6 4.Kf4 draws.) 4.Kd6 h2
5.c7 h1Q 6.c8Q draw.
Other composers tried to expand on Reti's maneuver. Ladislav Prokes juggles
the squares differently. The black pawn is far out of reach, but the white king,
momentarily pinned to the edge of the board, finds a miraculous way to stop
it.
Ladislav Prokes

White draws
Henri Rinck composed his version in 1922 and published it in the Revue
Suisse d'Echecs in Basel. He also worked with squares, but added a line-geometry,
the skewer, into the solution.
SOLUTION:
(With the first three moves, white threatens to advance his a-pawn, forcing
black to react.) 1.Kc8! (After 1.a6? Kc6 2.Ke7 h5 black wins.)
1...Kc6 2.Kb8! (After 2.a6? Kb6 3.Kd7 h5 black wins.) 2...Kb5
3.Kb7! Kxa5 4.Kc6 (As in Reti's study, the diagonal walk saves the
game.) 4...h5 5.Kd5 the white king is in the square and catches
the black pawn. Draw.
Henri Rinck

White wins
SOLUTION:
1.a4 Kb3 2.a5 Kc3 (2...Kc4 after this move, white uses the
skewer to win: 3.a6 Kd3 4.a7 f2 5.a8Q f1Q 6.Qa6+ winning the black queen.) 3.Kg1!
(The only move. After either 3.Kg3? Kd4 4.a6 Ke3 5.a7 f2 6.Kg2 Ke2; or 3.a6?
Kd2 4.a7 f2 5.Kg2 Ke2 black draws.) 3...Kd4 4.a6 Ke3 5.Kf1!
(The black pawn is stopped and the white pawn queens.) 1-0
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to
follow the game.

The Huffington Post is an American news website and aggregated blog founded
by Arianna Huffington and others, featuring various news sources and columnists.
The site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a commentary outlet and liberal/progressive
alternative to conservative news websites. It offers coverage of politics, media,
business, entertainment, living, style, the green movement, world news, and
comedy. It is a top destination for news, blogs, and original content. The Huffington
Post has an active community, with over one million comments made on the site
each month. According to Nielsen NetRatings, the site has around 13 million
unique visitors per month (number for March 2010); according to Google Analytics
the number is 22 million uniques per month.