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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.
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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.

Super-GM Levon Aronian from Armenia
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.

World's top-ranked chess grandmaster Vishy Anand of India
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
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 winner of the FiNet Open: Victor Bologan of Moldova

The critical final round game Victor Bologan vs Vassily Ivanchuk

Caught at the very end: 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.

Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna

Former boy wonder Sergey Karjakin from Ukraine

French WGM Marie Rachel Sebag
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
Rnk |
Player |
Rtn |
Nat |
W |
D |
L |
Pts |
TB1 |
TB2 |
1. |
GM Bologan,Victor |
2650 |
MDA |
9 |
1 |
1 |
9.5 |
57.5 |
66.0 |
2. |
GM Kamsky,Gata |
2717 |
USA |
8 |
2 |
1 |
9.0 |
59.5 |
69.0 |
3. |
GM Ivantschuk,Vassili |
2766 |
UKR |
9 |
0 |
2 |
9.0 |
57.0 |
66.0 |
4. |
GM Volokitin,Andrej |
2698 |
UKR |
8 |
2 |
1 |
9.0 |
55.5 |
69.5 |
5. |
GM Navara,David |
2656 |
CZE |
8 |
2 |
1 |
9.0 |
52.0 |
61.5 |
6. |
GM Grischuk,Alexander |
2726 |
RUS |
7 |
3 |
1 |
8.5 |
54.0 |
67.5 |
7. |
GM Sasikiran,Krishnan |
2674 |
IND |
8 |
1 |
2 |
8.5 |
54.0 |
65.5 |
8. |
GM Gashimov,Vugar |
2655 |
AZE |
8 |
1 |
2 |
8.5 |
53.5 |
64.0 |
9. |
GM Sargissian,Gabriel |
2667 |
ARM |
7 |
3 |
1 |
8.5 |
53.0 |
65.5 |
10. |
GM Bacrot,Etienne |
2703 |
FRA |
7 |
2 |
2 |
8.0 |
57.0 |
70.5 |
11. |
GM Almasi,Zoltan |
2682 |
HUN |
7 |
2 |
2 |
8.0 |
56.5 |
68.5 |
12. |
GM Karjakin,Sergey |
2678 |
UKR |
8 |
0 |
3 |
8.0 |
54.0 |
66.0 |
13. |
GM Petrosian,Tigran L. |
2613 |
ARM |
8 |
0 |
3 |
8.0 |
52.0 |
67.5 |
14. |
GM Jussupow,Artur |
2583 |
|
7 |
2 |
2 |
8.0 |
51.5 |
65.0 |
15. |
GM Akopian,Vladimir |
2708 |
ARM |
7 |
2 |
2 |
8.0 |
51.0 |
63.5 |
16. |
GM Moiseenko,Alexander |
2641 |
UKR |
7 |
2 |
2 |
8.0 |
50.0 |
62.0 |
17. |
GM Tregubov,Pavel |
2599 |
RUS |
7 |
2 |
2 |
8.0 |
49.5 |
61.5 |
18. |
GM Burmakin,Vladimir |
2592 |
RUS |
8 |
0 |
3 |
8.0 |
46.0 |
54.0 |
19. |
GM Ruck,Robert |
2563 |
HUN |
7 |
2 |
2 |
8.0 |
45.5 |
59.5 |
20. |
GM Pentala,Harikrishna |
2664 |
IND |
6 |
3 |
2 |
7.5 |
51.0 |
63.0 |
21. |
GM Shirov,Alexey |
2735 |
ESP |
6 |
3 |
2 |
7.5 |
50.5 |
66.0 |
22. |
GM Döttling,Fabian |
2537 |
|
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
49.5 |
67.0 |
23. |
GM Iljin,Artem |
2569 |
RUS |
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
49.5 |
61.0 |
24. |
GM Drozdovskyy,Yuriy |
2572 |
UKR |
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
48.5 |
59.0 |
25. |
GM Meier,Georg |
2552 |
|
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
48.5 |
58.5 |
26. |
GM Gyimesi,Zoltan |
2607 |
HUN |
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
48.0 |
61.5 |
27. |
GM Mchedlishvili,Mikhail |
2624 |
GEO |
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
48.0 |
59.5 |
28. |
GM Landa,Konstantin |
2669 |
RUS |
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
47.5 |
60.0 |
29. |
GM Vaganjan,Rafael Agred |
2596 |
ARM |
6 |
3 |
2 |
7.5 |
47.5 |
59.5 |
30. |
GM Bischoff,Klaus |
2535 |
|
6 |
3 |
2 |
7.5 |
47.5 |
58.5 |
31. |
GM Medvegy,Zoltan |
2512 |
HUN |
6 |
3 |
2 |
7.5 |
45.5 |
62.0 |
32. |
GM Al-Modiahki,Mohamad |
2563 |
QAT |
6 |
3 |
2 |
7.5 |
45.5 |
59.5 |
33. |
GM Jenni,Florian |
2527 |
SUI |
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
45.0 |
57.0 |
34. |
GM Farago,Ivan |
2501 |
HUN |
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
44.5 |
58.5 |
35. |
GM Ubilava,Elizbar |
2540 |
ESP |
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
44.5 |
57.5 |
36. |
IM Boidman,Yuri |
2444 |
|
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
44.0 |
57.0 |
37. |
GM Meijers,Viesturs |
2483 |
LAT |
7 |
1 |
3 |
7.5 |
42.5 |
55.0
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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
All pictures by Carsten and Natalia Straub
Replaying the games
Due mainly to the specially castling rules (see below) Chess960 games
recorded in PGN cannot be easily replayed with regular chess programs
or applications. However Fritz 10 can handle these files, in PGN or ChessBase
formats. ChessBase 9 or ChessBase Light can also do the same, using the
games in ChessBase format.
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How about a nice game of Chess960?
Note that with Fritz 10 you can also play Chess960 against the or on
the Playchess server. With ChessBase
Light you can do the latter.
To do this you should enter the special rooms reserved for Chess960.
You can go there to watch the broadcasts of the games being played at
the Mainz Chess Classic, or you can play games against other users yourself.
You can also stage tournaments, for humans or for chess engines which
know the game. |