Wijk aan Zee 2008 – People and Personalities (part two)
Pictorial retrospect by Frederic Friedel
We start with an apology (and end with a different one). In the first
part of our pictorial report we misplaced one of the players of the 2008
Wijk aan Zee tournament:
Etienne Bacrot, the former child
prodigy, today France's top GM, was not playing in the A Group.
We mechanically included him in the portraits of players from this group (a)
because of his 2700 rating; and (b) since we have seen him up there with Anand,
Kramnik and the rest for such a long time. Playing in the B Group? What happened,
Etienne? On the other hand this group was a category 15 with an average rating
of 2618. And he came in second (together with Nigel Short), with a 2722 performance.
Ivan Cheparinov, Bulgarian GM and extraordinary talent, who
apparently came up with the novelty that gave his boss Veselin Topalov a much-needed
boost against Vladimir Kramnik, Topalov's enemy-for-life: a resounding win in
round nine.
Cheparinov achieved world fame during the Wijk 2008 tournament by refusing
Nigel Short's proffered handshake, a misdemeanour that has so far been watched
by 130,000 on YouTube.
Cheparinov was forfeited the game, apologised, was allowed to replay it on a
free day and got
severely thrashed by a hyper-charged Short.
Nigel Short, the hero of this drama. On the eve of our departure
from Wijk aan Zee the distraught English GM was determined not to appear for
the game on the next (free) day, and in fact abandon the tournament instead.
Steve Giddins and I went through the arguments – and a couple of beers
– with Nigel in our dune-top hotel, but he would not budge. Things looked
very bleak when I left the next day.
On my drive back to Hamburg I briefed a colleague on the events in Wijk: Nigel
refuses to play and has abandoned the tournament... "But he is playing
Cheparinov, and he is better!" my colleague informed me. Cellphones and
the Internet – the marvels of modern technology. Nigel played one
of the best games of his career: he crushed Cheparinov and came
out of the hall with a well-prepared soundbite: "There is a God, and he
is not Bulgarian!"
Amador Rodrigues, a Cuban grandmaster now living and working
in Spain. I remember many years ago when he used to write us reports from his
island nation, handwritten on paper,
using ink. These would be shipped
across the Atlantic Ocean and hand delivered by state-trained
human couriers. Today Amador does multimedia recording and broadcasts like
you and I drink soda.
Grandmaster Efstratios Grivas, whose speech sounds disconcertingly
like that of FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropolous. Not that surprising,
since both hail from Greece. And both have the same aggressive style of humour
– which I find quite addictive. A warning: beware if Stratos invites you
for a drink and a philosophical discussion around midnight: it is hard vodka
and he is a mean debater.
A German and a Greek engaged in metaphysical discourse? Hmmm, for some reason
the famous Python sketch springs to mind:
What's in a name?
Back in 2004 we explained how South
Indian names worked, and in the Wijk
2008 pictorial by Fred Lucas we applied this to two highly talented Indian
players in the B-Group. This generated some protest from at least one reader,
and so we consulted the players in question to set the record straight.
About Pentala Harikrishna, 21, rated 2664, we wrote: "His
name is Harikrishna, Pentala is his father's name. So call him Harikrishna if
you know him well, or Mr Harikrishna if you don't." To this we received
the following message from Prasahanth Mukkala from Hyderabad, India: "Although
that holds true with some people who are born in the state of Tamilnadu (like
Viswanathan Anand), in this case Pentala and Koneru are family names or surnames,
but definitely not fathers' names. Just to give you a feel of that, the name
of Humpy's father is Koneru Ashok in which Ashok is the first/given name and
Koneru is the surname."
It is true that Pentala is not Harikrishna's father's name, but it is still
not used in formal or informal address. As Hari wrote us: "It is Harikrishna,
and Harikrishna only. Thats my name. Your report was absolutely correct."
About Koneru Humpy, 20, rated 2612, we wrote: "Like Harikrishna
her name is Humpy or Ms Humpy, not Koneru, which is how you address her father."
Again a correction: her father is Mr Ashok, or just Ashok if you know him well.
This young lady would be addressed "Miss Humpy" by the Indian Prime
Minister and just "Humpy" by her friends. Miss Koneru is weird, as
is "And now Koneru played a lovely combination...". Humpy did.
Aviv Friedman is an Israeli FM who writes
columns for the official site, and plays blitz in the chess room. Until
last year Aviv was a very portly gentleman, but he has lost more pounds than
Michael Dale Huckabee and looks trim and fit these days. Damn you Aviv, how
did you do it?
Gert Ligterink is a Dutch journalist who also writes
columns on the official tournament site – unfortunately only in Dutch.
It looks like this: "Vorig jaar keek een prominent lid van het toernooicomité
na afloop van de eerste ronde ontevreden naar de verlaten borden in de speelzaal."
But not to worry, we have the Babel
Fisch Translation site, which in a trice will convert it to English: "Previous
year looked at leaving a prominent member of the tournament committee after
the first round dissatisfied to the borden in the speelzaal." Come to think
of it, the original Dutch is clearer...
Steve Giddins wrote daily express reports for us, usually
before dinner, and more extended report for the British Chess Magazine. Subsequently
his BCM boss John Saunders perpetrated the Horrendous
Chess Pun. Not wishing to be outdone Steve an I have been searching for
something even more atrocious. As a warm-up we practiced some material from
the English radio series "My Word". In this show the contestants were
given a saying or proverb and had to explain how it originated. I remembered
one and Steve the second. Both come from that great master of the dark art of
wordplay Frank Muir.
My contribution: Muir goes into a convoluted narrative on how a load of bakers
yeast and a consignment of gentlemen's clothing are being transported by rail,
in trains headed towards each other at high speed, on the same track. But not
to worry, there will be no catastrophe. For, as the saying goes: Yeast is yeast
and vest is vest, and ne'er the trains shall meet!
Steve told an even more painful one by the same Frank Muir: Nero and Cicero
had rose gardens next to each other. The tender of Nero's garden had a mishap
and destroyed a whole row of roses. So he sneaked over to Cicero's garden, stole
a row from there and replaced the ones missing in his master's garden. However,
they were white, while the ones in Nero's garden were pink or "rose-colored".
When Nero saw this he wrote a note to the gardener: "Our roses are rose.
Is a row Cicero's?"
I know that most of you will go "huh"? My own reaction, when Steve
told it to me, was "Go on...?" But that was it, the pun was finished.
Took me some minutes to get. It will be understood only by a small percentage
of a small percentage of a small percentage of our readers. I will probably
include an explanation somewhere below.
We tricked a lot of folks with a quiz asking "Who
is this grandmaster" while showing an artificially aged childhood image
and some true but misleading biographical details. The Grandmaster was Fabiano
Caruana, born in Miami, Florida, in 1992, who lives in Hungary
and plays for Italy (his parent's home country). He is currently the second
youngest grandmaster in the world, and in Wijk he displayed his class by winning
the C Group with two points more than anyone else – 10.0/13, performance
2694. Fabiano is a whisp of a boy, quick-witted and with a maturity that seems
incredible in a 15-year-old.
German GM Jan Gustafsson who, like so many other GMs, finds
it much more profitable to play online poker than chess tournaments, but who
occasionally cannot resist deploying his 2607 chess playing strength.
Chess fans following and analysing games in the De Morian pub. There are quite
a few notebooks open, but also plenty of chess boards, where people are usually
playing blitz. Above was the smallest chess set in the pub.
Our hotel, Hoge Duin, High Dune, built on the highest (and windiest) spot in
Wijk aan Zee. It is right on the sea-side and a few hundred steps takes you
to the beach.
In summer it is idyllic, in winter cold and windy. The sand is whipped up by
the traditionally gale-forced wind and has your teeth gritting all day long.
On the beach we met a brave Spanish lass who will be introduced a little later
in this report.
Brave Spanish lass approaches the North Sea in what is perhaps not the optimum
footware for such expeditions. Heavy
boots and Antarctic clothing are called for.
The sea attacks, our Spanish lass wisely retreats.
This is Aruna Anand, arriving at the playing site, suitably
attired.
She is greeted by Pilar Molina Esposito, the Spanish lass
in our pictures above. Pilar is one of the organisers of the Linares tournament
and also looks after players and press in the Morelia segment (where this year
she is sadly missing). You may remember the two above from such memorable photo
reports as this,
or this, or
this, or even
and especially this
one.
The two are joind by Sofi Leko, the wife of Péter,
hailing from Armenia, fluent in so many languages. Sofi explained to us her
miracle diet: don't eat anything after 7 p.m. Until the next morning –
that is the trick.
I swear one day she will open them so wide they will fall out of their sockets
Aruna is interested in the diet, but not for herself. The Slim One must try
to keep her husband in shape.
Pilar and Potkin. GM Vladimir Potkin has seconded Levon Aronian,
but in Wijk he was training the New Kid, Ian Nepomniachtchi. Vladimir was also
sporting a new goatee and a sweater that had my eyes trying in vain to find
a focus.
Said Ian Nepomniachtchi, the New Kid, 17 years old, fluent
in English, 2600 in playing strength. Ian came in fifth in the B group in Wijk
2008, with a rating performance of 2646.
Pilar gets a gift, a chess key-chain, from one of the game's great players:
Vlastimil Hort, 64, originally a Czech national, who was one of the world's
strongest players during the 1960s and 1970s. He reached the Candidates stage
of competition for the world chess championship, but was never able to compete
for the actual title. A few years back I introduced him to the young Kateryna
Lahno, who did not recognise the name – until I pronounced it correctly
(in Russian): Gort!
Thai supper in Wijk. This has been a tradition for more years than I can remember.
When Vishy Anand wins we go to the Thai restaurant in the neighboring town of
Beverwijk to celebrate. In the picture you see Aruna, Anand, his second Peter-Heine
Nielsen (from Denmark) and your reporter Frederic Friedel.
The treasures of the East bring solace to the long, cold days on the Dutch
sea coast.
The solution to the atrocious pun, with apologies to the 95%
of our readers who will not get it: Frank Muir was asked to explain the origin
of Gertrude Stein's famous
adage "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." Now if you read
Muir's line "Our roses are rose. Is a row Cicero's?", remembering
that in British English the "r" in "our" and "are"
is not pronounced (both words, when spoken quickly, can sound a bit like "a"),
and if you mutter the line quickly, many times, you can get it to sound exactly
like the Stein sentence. Oh dear, nobody likes is? I am sure only two Russian
players will appreciate the pun. One is Peter Svidler, and the other isn't even
Russian, he's Uzbek.
