Monday, March 13, 2006

Updates: Iceland and Nakamura

In my earlier post about Reykjavik and the game Ziska - Timman (1-0), I was unsure if the result was actually correct since the Dutch legend was actually winning the final position. We now have some clarification from the official site's report from round 1, by Australian FM Manuel Weeks.

The upset of the round went to Helgi Dam Ziska from the Faroe Islands who defeated Dutch legend Jan Timman. In a sharp Sicilian Keres attack Ziska introduced the novelty 12.Qd3 and soon afterwards had a decisive advantage. On move 20 there is more then one way to win and Timman had probably convinced himself of his impending fate but Ziska blundered with 20.Nxf7??. If he realized his blunder then he did not show it as Timman extended his hand in resignation believing it to be unstoppable mate overlooking a defence. The Dutchman will now will go down in Tim Krabbe’s records as another person who unfortunately resigned in a winning position.

And here are some responses on the Salon site to their article on Nakamura.

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