Kavalek in Huffington: Tired chess brains in China

Tired Chess Brains in China

By GM Lubomir Kavalek

Saved from collapse by the rich Russian sponsors, the FIDE Grand Prix moved to China this month for its fifth leg. Some of the world class chess players came to Beijing tired from the previous hectic schedule. They took part in some of the six major tournaments in the last four months: the Candidates tournament, Alekhine and Tal Memorials, Norway Classic and Grand Prix events in Zug and Thessaloniki.

The victory in Beijing went to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 28, who seems to be on a winning streak. Last month, the Azerbaijani grandmaster won the World Rapid Championship in Russia and the Geneva Masters.

Mamadyarov with the winning trophy

The tournament began with Sergei Karjakin's breakaway, three wins in the first three rounds, but he was pulled back after he lost three games in a row. At that moment Mamedyarov's move to first place with a burst of 3.5/4 was closely followed by Alexander Grischuk, 29. The two leaders looked tired at the finish, just preserving their places, each managing only one draw in the last two rounds.

The idea of the FIDE Grand Prix was adopted from the Grandmaster Association's World Cup, a series of six Grand Prix tournaments, played in 1988-89 with the participation of all the strongest players at that time, including Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov.

FIDE is also using a similar complicated point system for the overall results. Each player participates in four of six tournaments and the worst result is discarded. Two players from the FIDE Grand Prix will advance to the next Candidates tournament. Topalov leads the series, Mamedyarov is second. But Alexander Grischuk and Fabiano Caruana can mount a challenge in the last tournament in Paris in September.

The game between the two Grand Prix leaders was important for the final classification in Beijing.

On the wrong side of chess brilliancy

It seems strange that two grandmasters rated among the world's Top Ten can lose three consecutive games. It was not Karjakin's misfortune, but Hikaru Nakamura's losing hattrick in the last rounds of the Tal Memorial that reminded me of a story played out nearly a half century ago during the tournament in Belgrade in October 1965.

I came to the Yugoslav capitol with a victory in Varna, Bulgaria, and one grandmaster norm. I needed another one. The GM norms depended in those days on the composition of the tournament. The more grandmasters, the lower the norm. FIDE didn't say how strong the grandmasters should be and many titled veterans were popular invitees. Perhaps it didn't matter too much: there were only some 60 grandmasters in the world and the title meant something.

The Belgrade tournament was different with a bunch of players in their twenties. Like Nakamura, I was leading the event by a half point with three rounds to go. A single point would guarantee me the first place and the final grandmaster norm. But I lost two games and drew in the last round, finishing a half point behind the winners, grandmasters Florin Gheorghiu and Milan Matulovic. Everything ended well: I made my final GM norm in December in Leipzig.

I began the downward spiral with the game against Dragoljub Velimirovic who had a reputation of a reckless attacker. I allowed him a bishop sacrifice in the Philidor defense for what I thought was only a slight discomfort of my king. I was looking for some devastating punches from his side, but he slowly and quietly developed his pieces. Suddenly, I was without a good move. I realized I was at the wrong end of a chess brilliancy. It was the best game of the tournament.

The game brings us back to Beijing where the young Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, 19, suffered a similar fate. In the same Philidor defense, the Chinese grandmaster Wang Hao, 23, sacrificed his bishop the same way as Velimirovic. After Giri panicked, Wang kept increasing his attack until it attained destructive force.

Indispensable Chess Results

I saw the 1965 crosstables from Varna, Belgrade and Leipzig in the latest volume of Gino Di Felice's Chess Results, published by McFarland. The Italian author arranged together 11 volumes of tournament crosstables and match scores from 1747 till 1967. The last tome covers the years 1964-1967, a period of my first international tournaments, and I was able to relive some exciting moments. Sometimes Di Felice begins a crosstable on one page and finishes it on the next page, but it is nothing major. His comprehensive work is indispensable and essential to any chess historian, researcher and writer, and may be enjoyable for anybody who loves to browse through older tournaments.

Image by FIDE press chief WGM Anastasiya Karlovich

Original column here – Copyright Huffington Post

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