Mainz 2007 – Anand leads in Rapid World Championship

Chess Classic Mainz 2007 The event takes place from August 13 to 19 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. It includes matches and Opens in traditional and Random Chess, with stars like the current world's number one Anand, who will play in Chess960 (Fischer Random) and in rapid chess tournaments together with Levon Aronian, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Etienne Bacrot.

Anand dominates Rapid World Championship

Johannes Fischer reports on day one of the
Grenke Leasing Rapid World Championship in Mainz

On Friday evening Anand, Aronian, Kasimdzhanov and Bacrot sat down to play their second World Championship in four days. This time it was back to classical chess, position 518 in Chess960 terms. A well researched position familiar to the players. Instead of having to worry about unprotected pawns and possible mates in the opening, they could rely on preparation. And maybe it was the wish to be back on familiar territory that made the Ruy Lopez the opening of choice – four of six games featured a Ruy. But theory or not, the players showed interesting chess with Anand being the most fluent in Spanish.

Anand showed how well he understood the Ruy Lopez in the very first round against Kasimdzhanov – or maybe it was Anand’s knowledge of the Sicilian Sveshnikov that helped him to play a fine positional game. Somehow the Ruy turned into a Sicilian structure in which Anand sacrificed a pawn to establish a permanent knight on d5 which terrorized Black’s bad black squared bishop. Anand now proceeded to gradually prevent all counterplay and to hunt down the weak black pawns. With less and less time on the clock Kasimdzhanov could not defend against the increasing pressure, and in the end, as if to emphasize the crucial motif of the game, his bishop was lost because it had no more squares to go to.

Meanwhile Aronian demolished Bacrot in a short tactical game. Playing with black, Bacrot was not content with passive defense, but tried to gain counterplay by provoking complications. However, his king was just not in a position to allow his forces such luxury. Aronian simply developed his pieces and Bacrot was faced with the choice of letting his king be mated on the open central files or to play on a piece down. Instead he chose to resign.

The second round saw the most prestigious encounter of the preliminary: Anand vs. Aronian. Again it was a Ruy Lopez and again Anand had the better of it. After an exchange of bishops on e6, which gave Black double pawns, Aronian suffered from a bad structure. He tried to compensate this disadvantage with piece play, but ran into a counter by Anand, which forced his opponent to give an exchange for some swindling chances. But Anand easily defended against Aronian’s thin threats to win this prestigious encounter.

In the other game of the second round, Bacrot was undeterred by his quick loss against Aronian and tried the same recipe of seeking tactics in the opening again. This time he was more successful. His pawn sacrifice gave him powerful piece play and a few moves later a much better ending, which he won despite some technical inaccuracies.

Top French grandmaster Etienne Bacrot

What is good with White can’t be that bad with Black. Maybe this is what Anand thought when he decided to play the Ruy in this third round game against Bacrot. However, to prevent early pawn sacrifices by Bacrot, he opted for the Marshall. Both players followed theoretical lines and an endgame arose in which Anand had two pieces for rook. As both couldn’t do much, the game was quickly drawn. Later Anand said about the game: “Well, we could have played something more interesting.”

Rustam Kasimdzhanov, FIDE world champion 2004

In the press conference Kasimdzhanov also explained his bad results and said that rapid chess “is less a matter of expertise than form and luck. I was not in form, and I did not have much luck. Actually, it was only the very last move of my game against Levon [Aronian], which saved a draw for me that I considered myself lucky. So I think this is a very good sign and I am quite optimistic for tomorrow.” In fact, after his losses against Anand and Bacrot, Kasimdzhanov was again close to defeat against Aronian, who in a queenless middlegame came up with a surprising combination, which gave him a better ending. But after accurate defense Kasimdzhanov saved the draw. Tomorrow he will hope for more. Right now, most people expect another final between Anand and Aronian.

Standings after day one

• Click to download all games in PGN

Bologan wins FiNet Chess960 Open

Report by Eric van Reem

Victor Bologan (Moldova) is the winner of the 6th FiNet Chess960 Open. He won in the final round against top seed and sole leader Vassili Ivanchuk, who just needed a draw with the white pieces to win the tournament.

The critical final round game Victor Bologan vs Vassily Ivanchuk

Bologan scored 9.5 points and he was followed by a handful of players with 9 points: Kamsky, Ivanchuk, Volokitin and Navara, In this extremely strong field no player remained unbeaten.

Very exciting was the women's section: no less than six players scored 6.5 points! Best senior player was Ivan Farago (7.5). The category "best player under 14" was won the young Indian grandmaster Negi with 7 points.

Gata Kamsky (left) before his eight-move win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Gata Kamsky had a very good start on the second day: he won an eight move game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The ex-youth world champion from Azerbaijan obviously has mysterious black-outs from time to time. But in Chess960 such things happen: the unusual structures and a single moment of distraction may lead to disaster.

Etienne Bacrot, France, vs Gata Kamsky, USA

In the 9th round Gata Kamsky stumbled. Etienne Bacrot sacrificed a piece and won a magnificent attacking game. Kamsky, Ivanchuk, Volokitin und Navara scored 9 points. Other formidable players like Shirov, Grischuk and Akopian were happy to reach at least the top 20! This year 279 players participated in the FiNet Open.

The top three: Victor Bologan, Gata Kamsky, Vassily Ivanchuk

Final standings

Rybka wins Chess960 Computer Championship

In the main computer tournament the programs Shredder and Rybka took the top places and met in a final showdown match, which Rybka, developed by Vasik Rajlich, won convincingly with a 2.5:0.5 score.

Stefan Mayer-Kahlen and Vasik Rajlich during their final match

• Final report on the computer match

Links Official web site: in German and in English Chess Classic 2002, 2003 Chess Classic 2004 +   the Carmen Kass story Chess Classic 2005 Chess Classic 2006