The best from the Champ

Review of the debut of Radio Rustam, ChessBase’s new Internet Chess Radio Show

By Grandmaster Jacob Aagaard.

It seems like it was just yesterday that John Shaw and I did Glasgow 3rd Floor Chess Radio, the Internet's chess version of Laurel and Hardy. There were a few characteristics about our show that will live in people’s memories. There were the technical problems that seemed to never end, the inability to keep to the schedule, endlessly overstepping the time limit. Guests and not the least our roles, John as the up-tight British gentleman and me as the hooligan. Well, some will say that these very not entirely fictional characters.

We had a lot of fun with 60-80 listeners tuning in every week, which is not a lot for Internet Radio as a whole, but a good number if you add chess into the equation!

Both John and I dreaded the idea of ever doing the show on our own, though I did do so on occasion. The challenge of making sense for one hour straight is daunting at best. Even someone as knowledgeable about chess as Garry Kasparov can at times seem lost for words on his DVD’s.

It is for this reason that I am writing this review.

Last Tuesday I tuned in to the new Radio Show with Rustam Kasimdzhanov on Playchess.com to hear what the former World Champion had to say. I have watched some of his DVD’s and found his style clear and easy to follow, but the question still remains, how was he going to hold up live?

The answer is, simply, brilliantly.

With an enviable pace Kasimdzhanov went through three games from the German Bundesliga, explaining the ambitions of the players in the given positions and where they went wrong. First it was Svidler-Stellwagen, where the young Dutch GM won after an accurate defensive performance. Kasimdzhanov illustrated the dangers in the position for Black and how he avoided them.

Next he turned to a game played on the lower boards in the tournament. Praising the players for what they got right and explaining why they got wrong what they got wrong, we eventually ended in this position.

Huschenbeth (2437) - Swinkels (2427)
Bundesliga 2007-8 Godesberg 10.02.2008

The game continued: 26...Qa3? 27.Rb1 Rb2 28.Bxd5 exd5 29.Qxd5 0–0 30.e6 Rfb8 31.exf7+ Kg7 32.Qe5+ Kh7 33.f8N+! Rxf8 34.Qc7+ Kh8 35.Qe5+ Kh7 36.Qc7+ ½–½. Kasimdzhanov showed then that Black could have obtained a large advantage with 26...Rb1+!!, based on the line 27.Rxb1 Qxd4 28.Rb8+ Kd7 29.Rxh8 Qf2 and Black will win back the piece.

The last game of the show was his own game with Luke McShane. He had lost with white to the English grandmaster, but was not at all precious about it. He explained how he could have gained a clear advantage, but went wrong and was subsequently outplayed. In the time trouble his opponent missed several wins, including the following:

Kasimdzhanov,R (2681) - McShane,L (2592) [E95]
Bundesliga 2007-8 Godesberg GER (9), 10.02.2008

Here Black played 40...Bxf3? 41.Qxf3, whereafter the chances are even here, but after a long and tense fight, Black won on move 74. Instead McShane could have played 40...h2+ 41.Kh1 Rh3!!, winning. An absolutely sensational combination.

Towards the end of this game the players had run out of time again and were rushing to get their moves made. In the same way Kasimdzhanov rapidly fired out the final moves of the game, determined to end on the hour, something John and I never managed to do in our year with ChessBase Radio. But Kasimdzhanov did and without shortcuts.

Beginners luck I might say in self defence, and maybe that is my excuse for tuning in again Tuesday night. I want to see if he can do it again.

I warmly recommend that you do the same. See you there!

Jacob Aagaard

FIDE World Champion 2004-2005 and ChessBase author Rustam Kasimdzhanov

Rustam Kasimdzhanov's lecture starts at 21:00h European time (CET = GMT +1 – check the time in your location here), will be broadcast live Playchess.com server. For a charge of ten Ducats (about one Euro) a visitor gets a pass to listen to the live one-hour lecture by the former world champion.

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