Bad Luck Mas

Here's something from our friends in Malaysia. But first, take a look at this game.

39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 Open
Al Sulaiti, Ali
Mas, Hafizulhelmi
A49

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 c5 4. d5 d6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. c4 b5 7. cxb5 a6 8. b6 Nbd7 9. Nc3 Nxb6 10. O-O O-O 11. e4 a5 12. a4 Ba6 13. Re1 Rb8 14. Qc2 Nfd7 15. Rd1 Rb7 16. Bd2 Nc4 17. b3 Nxd2 18. Nxd2 Qb6 19. Rab1 Qb4 20. Na2 Qb6 21. Bf1 Bxf1 22. Rxf1 Rfb8 23. Nc4 Qa6 1-0

By the final position, black is at least equal, but probably even slightly better. But 1-0? What happened?

It now turns out that international master Mas, who's been chasing GM norms, lost out to the so-called "Nokia Gambit"! Well, he ain't gettin' that GM-ship if he's that careless. Lucky he's not a Pinoy player, else the whole country would have demanded his head.

More by Quah Seng Sun.

Kingpin Survives Vote

Being a bit of a foodie myself, and especially so since I happen to live in the culinary capital of the world, I've just recently downloaded an iPhone app called 'Foodspotting'. Perfect for finding the food you want to eat where you happen to be. Problem is, there aren't too many Tokyo-related info yet, but I'm hoping to soon fix that!

I'm talking about this because I wonder if there's an iPhone app that the just re-elected FIDE boss Kirsan Ilyjmzhinov might find useful - something like "Alien Spotting". Just think of all the fun he could have now that he doesn't have to worry about "K" and "K" for the next four years!

As we now know, Kirsan won the FIDE contest by a count of 95-55. If you look at this report on Chessbase there's a vid of an incensed Kasparov (who was probably lucky not be decked by that big black guy behind him). For an interesting discussion on the election results, there's only one place to head to: Chessvibes.

A Bugger of Sac

Super GM beau or not, when you have a bad day, then you have a bad day. And today's eigth round was very, very bad for Aussie women's spearhead WIM Arianne Caoili. She lost in 23 moves to a fine attacking game by her Lithuanian opposite number, WGM Deimante Daulyte.

39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (Women)
Daulyte, Deimante
Caoili, Arianne
C60

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nge7 4. O-O g6 5. c3 a6 6. Bc4 b5 7. Bb3 Bg7 8. a4 b4 9. Ng5 O-O 10. f4 d5 11. fxe5 Nxe5 12. d4 Bg4 13. Qc2 Nd7 14. Qf2 Be6 15. Qh4 h6 16. Nxe6 fxe6 17. Nd2 c5 18. Nf3 g5 19. Bxg5 hxg5 20. Nxg5 Nf6 21. e5 Ng6 22. Qh3 Re8 23. exf6 1-0

That is such an awful game it's not even funny. Almost seems like one of those "hack & bash" in an U12 kiddies event. Too easy for the Lithuanian. But who knows? It might just be the flu. GM Smerdon tells us that there's a nasty bug going around in the Olympiad.

Meanwhile, one Aussie player who seems to have well and truly shed his virgin blues is IM George Xie. As I write he's just reeled in his third victory in this event, equalling his number wins from Dresden but just exceeding his total tally from 2 years earlier by a half point. This man can only get better over the years.

Aussie Stud in Olympiad

Back home in Tokyo now and, of course, the first thing I do is log on to the Olympiad. There waiting is a grand spanking new official site! Faster and prettier, like the blonde Sava Stoisavljevic (who's the chief arbiter of this event), the site now also seems to be quite reliable. I've actually got all the Australian games up on my browser!

Very interesting for folsk Down Under was the little Trans-Tasman test match up of the New Zealand and Australian women's teams. That ended in Australia's favour 2.5 - 1.5 after WIM Arianne Caoili pulled off the only victory, against Helen Milligan, on board one.

Speaking of the women, by the way, here's a special report on women in the Olympiad. See if you can spot the Australian stud.

A Thought for Spassky

As I prepare to head back home to Tokyo, there's just a little bit of time left to check out Olympiad results. But, nope, no luck here. "Unable to connect" is all I'm getting. Did I mention that Khanty-Mansiysk is in the third world? I just hope the Turks can do better next time, or at least deliver better weather. Thanks to ICC, though, I'm still getting something. As I write I'm watching no less than superstar GM Carlsen go down to Georgian grandmaster Baadur Jobava. Which is a problem for the Norwegians: they've got the world's numero uno, but the rest of their lineup is pretty anaemic.

While we're all getting excited about the Olympiad, with or without online coverage, we should perhaps spare a thought for Boris Spassky. Chessbase reports that the Russian legend is "in grave condition".

Smerdon Bags First Point

It's 4AM and I'm up in the my hotel room watching the live broadcast from the Olympiad. But that's if I can get the official site up in my browser at all! Did I say that these organisers are in the third world or what?

Right now I've got the live games page up and running but who knows for how long? Before it keels over, I should say that Australia has already had a first round result courtesy of men's board one, GM Smerdon. His Bahraini opposition was totally out of his depth and the Aussie finished with a neat tactic.

Smerdon, by the way, is on the ground and also blogging from all that action. Make sure to drop in on him over at www.davidsmerdon.com.

And man oh man, how about Vietnamese super GM Quang Le? He just lost his first round game to unknown Kheto Phemelo of Botswana. That's right: Botswana! Here are the moves courtesy of ChessDom.com.

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. b3 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. Bb2 Bf5 6. c3 e6 7. Be2 cxd4 8. exd4 Bd6 9. O-O Ne4 10. Nbd2 Qf6 11. c4 Qh6 12. cxd5 Nxd2 13. Qxd2 Bxh2+ 14. Nxh2 Qxd2 15. dxc6 Qxe2 16. cxb7 Rb8 17. Ba3 Qa6 18. Bc5 f6 19. Rfe1 Kf7 20. a4 Qxb7 21. b4 h5 22. a5 a6 23. Re3 h4 24. Nf3 h3 25. g3 h2+ 26. Nxh2 Rxh2 27. Kxh2 Rh8+ 0-1

Rock n' Roll in the Olympiad

They're off in the Olympiad. By all accounts it seems that things are off to a positive start. One of my Facebook contacts who is there reports that even the hotel rooms they're in look "lovely" and finished. The rooms are much bigger, too, says Shaun. And based on the published pictures so far the opening ceremony definitely looked spectacular. But I don't know, it looked a bit too, uumm, Soviet'ish to me. I hate that cheesy human chess display and the overall look. Maybe they should switch from calling this thing an "Olympiad" and call it "Spartakiad" instead.

Anyway, there's one guy who's very eager to start laying it on his opponents.

Twitter / Hikaru Nakamura: Time to rock and roll here ... via kwout

An Imploding Olympiad?

Looks like we're about to witness the single biggest chess event implode into a total disaster. I suppose this is what happens when you send the event to some third world part of the world like Khanty-Mansijsk.

The Chess Mind blog has gruesome details of a rather nasty email exchange between FIDE big wig Israel Gelfer, who is listed on the FIDE site as an honorary veep, and Bermuda representative Nick Faulks:

Dear Mr. Faulks

Without going into the details of invoice you got let me just respond to your style of your mail:

I find your last message to the organizers and to Fide as disgraceful and unbearable and if I were the organizer I would simply disregard any mail from you from now on.

Personally, I would not care if people like you would withdraw from the olympiad.

Israel Gelfer

RP 2010 Olympiad Team

I've just checked Olympiad registration site to find out about the RP squad and it looks like we now have a team. According to that site, the following will comprise both the Philippine men's and women's teams (in no particular order).

Abraham, Tolentino (Captain)
Gomez, John Paul
Laylo, Darwin
So, Wesley
Torre, Eugenio
Antonio, Rogelio Jr

Legaspi, Edmundo (Captain)
Perena, Catherine
Cua, Shercila
Cua, Sherily
Bernales, Christy Lamiel
Camacho, Cheradee

The men retain 3 players from two years earlier with So, Laylo and Gomez getting a guernsey. Villamayor is out and is replaced by another veteran, Antonio. Interestingly, the Pinoy legend Torre is back in for OTB action after his stint as captain in the last Olympiad. The skipper's duties go to some dude named Abraham Tolentino. I've never heard of him, so perhaps some of ourRP-based readers can elucidate.

On the distaff side, there's only one change to the lineup with Rivera dropped and replaced by another Cua, Shercily.

Final Aussie Olympiad Applicants

Applications for this year's Australian Open and Womens Olympiad Teams have now closed. Below are the names of applicants as posted by ACF Selections Director, Dr Bonham over on ChessChat:

Men's
GM David Smerdon
GM Zong-Yuan Zhao
GM Darryl Johansen
IM George Xie
IM Gary Lane
IM Stephen Solomon
IM Alex Wohl
IM Igor Goldenberg

Women's
IM Irina Berezina
WIM Biljana Dekic
WFM Emma Guo
WIM Arianne Caoili
Giang Nguyen
Sarah Anton
WFM Vaness Reid

I'll stick to most of my earlier picks. Probably the only one in the men's who now has a question mark is IM Aleks Wohl. After a poor KL Open, he has just completed the 9th Asian Continental on 2.5 points from nine games! In that light I'd seriously reconsider Solo.

And on the women's side, Moylan opted not to apply, so I'm going for Giang Ngyuyen. To be clear, I think that the combo of Caoili, Berezina-Feldman, Giang, Guo and Reid should head off for Khanty-Mansiysk. That's three proven campaigners plus 2 hungry young guns who, I think, deserve to be groomed for future action.

By the way, if you haven't already, don't forget to put in a little something to this year's Olympiad Appeal.

Where's the Appeal?

A couple of years ago, the ACF ran a highly successful Olympiad Appeal. I think it must have been the most successful ever. According to the Appeal website, the effort, in fact, raised a near unbelievable total of almost twenty grand!

But here we are again in yet another Olympiad year and so far the ACF hasn't asked for or announced anything about an appeal. I guess they must still have some pennies left from the last time.

Live Blog - Round 11

Estimo: RP Chessers Doomed

This seems like it's a badly timed opinion piece given that there is still one more round to play, but I suppose Sammy Estimo just had to vent.

Our team to the Dresden Chess Olympiad was doomed even before it left. Its composition—from a faulty national qualifying system—and board assignments were pitiful.

Top officials of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP), led by Prospero Pichay and Abraham Tolentino, could not be persuaded to include veteran Grandmaster Eugene Torre in the lineup, and that presaged the sorry campaign of our team, once a board terror in previous Olympiads.

Read more in RP chess squad doomed from the start.

Live Blog - Round 10

Karpov Doesn't Like Match Points

At last the Dresden organisers have rolled out the big guns for their press conferences. Today's session, for example, will feature Anatoly Karpov and Boris Spassky while last night, Karpov and another ex world champion, Alexander Khalifman, entertained the crowd. Both gave their views on a number of matters such as the recent Anand v Kramnik match in Bonn, Viktor Kortchnoi and the challenge to the supremacy of Russian chess. The older Karpov was more lengthy in his answers while Khalifman opted to be brief and, at times, rather witty.

When asked by Susan Polgar if he ever met the late Bobby Fischer, Karpov said, "not over the board", but they did meet in person a couple of times in 1977. More recently they had "negotiations to play", but Fischer wanted to try a new variant of chess wherein white would commence the game with one pawn less. Karpov called this idea "a strange one" and the match never took place.

On Fischer as a person: "Ah, it's difficult for me to judge, because I [only] met him 4 or five times in my life. So I cannot say in general. But in my experience, he was [a] nice person. We had nice talks, discussions. It was mostly about chess, because otherwise he was not easy person to talk about."

Anatoly Karpov, Photo by The Closet Grandmaster

Now mainly inactive from competitive play, Karpov these days devotes his time to projects including chess schools (having opened one recently in Poland), works relating to the environment and the so-called International Association of Peace Foundations of which he has been president since 1982. However, he still keeps a keen eye on contemporary chess issues - like the recent Anand v Kramnik match in Bonn, for instance. When asked about this event, the ex world champion couldn't help a little historical detour and proposed an optimum number of games for the world championship battle. He says that 24 games, common back in his heyday, may be too long for the current era and prefers sixteen to be just about right.

On the same topic (the Anand v Kramnik), Khalifman offered something a little more interesting: "The way it happened was a bit surprising, well, I think not even not a bit, but for everybody because Anand showed the big advantage. I wrote it in some chess magazines there was a big advantage in the preparation. So Vladimir was not properly ready for this match. I don't how it happened, but it was a fact. And so, Anand deservedly won. That's the only thing I can say about it.

And about numbers ...it's very strange that some people are so much addicted to numbers. Well, world champions are not prisoners. They don't need numbers. They are just world champions. That's it."

Ian Wilkinson, the Jamaican Chess Federation boss (who only took up chess in 1999, he informed the press conference), posed a question regarding Russian supremacy in chess and the challenges they face, specifically in the Olympiad. Once again, Karpov detoured into the near past.

"Still, the Russian team is the strongest, I'm sure. But what's [been] missing during last years and last Olympiad, they are really missing I believe a leader of the team. A person who would be the leader over the chess board, not only the strongest chess player, but [someone] who could mobilise the forces and effort of the whole team."

Wilkinson interjects, "Like you?"

Karpov continues: "Yes, I did it for so many years and then we did it together with Kasparov. And even when we had big problems, personal problems, we could unite just to win like it has happened in '86 or '88. So this is very important", before finally adding, "But now probably we don't have such persons. And it's a bit of a problem because Olympiad is not just a combination of individual results. [There is] something else in the Olympiad and in the team competition."

As was his preferred method, Khalifman was short and sharp.

"Well, Ok, in my opinion it is good for the competitive spirit, for the Olympiad that no team is dominant. It's pretty good because it's sport and it's good that no one can pick the winner before it starts."

Finally on the question of Viktor Kortchnoi, Karpov recalled the time when the Swiss board 1 was a "problem" for the Soviet Union. These days, though, with the two of them playing for a team called the South Urals, Karpov says that Kortchnoi is a real team player.

Again, Khalifman was blunt with the answer: "Well, I can admit I just did not understand the question. Viktor Kortchnoi is a great chess player. What else should I say? That's it!"

You may also like to hear what Karpov thinks about the new match points system. He said simply: "This I don't like".

Live Blog - Round 9

Misaligned Southern Cross

At this juncture of the event, Australia is normally ahead of their New Zealand cousins in the Olympiad rankings. But after 8 matches, the boys from Down Under are in 75th spot, while the Kiwis are up, up, up there in 43rd place! As if that wasn't bad enough, the NZ rugby league team overnight delivered a massive beating to the Kangaroos, 34-20. OK, league is pretty much an irrelevant sport, but c'mon! The stars must be seriously misaligned.

In yesterday's match Australia faced off against Bosnia Herzegovina, the very team that New Zealand defeated the day earlier. The question was: can Australia attain a similar result? On board 4, playing against IM Zeljko Bogut, GM Johansen gave Aussie fans reasons for rapture. His play was calm and methodical. We take you now to the crucial moment.

Chess Olympiad 2008
Johansen, Darryl K
Bogut, Zeljko
A28

1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. e3 Bb4 5. Qc2 O-O 6. Nd5 Re8 7. Qf5 d6 8. Nxf6+ gxf6 9. Qh5 e4 10. a3 Bc5 11. b4 exf3 12. bxc5 Re5 13. Qxf3 Nd4 14. Qd1 Bf5 15. Ra2 dxc5 16. f4 Re8 17. Kf2 Nc6 18. Qh5 Qd7 19. g4 Bg6 20. Qh4 Be4 21. Rg1 Re6 22. Rg3 Rae8 23. Rh3 Kf8 24. f5 Rd6 25. d3 Bxd3 26. Bxd3 Rxd3 27. Qxf6 Ne5 28. Qh8+ Ke7 29. Qxe5+ Kd8 30. Qf6+ Kc8 31. Rxh7 Rd1

Position after 31...Rd1

What to do? What to do? Defend the piece or return it with 32. Qxf7 and playing with four connected passed pawns? 32. Qc3 Qc6 33. Rh8 b6 34. Rxe8+ Qxe8 35. Bb2 Qe4 36. Ra1 Rd3 37. Qe5? Rd2+ 38. Ke1 Qg2 0-1

The other men drew their games but Oz still go down 1.5-2.5. Meanwhile, and doing their bit to salve our heartaches, the girls blanked out the Barbados team four-zip. Canberra's Shannon Oliver must be happy. The party girl's grounding has finally been lifted after winning her first ever Olympiad encounter.

Live Blog - Round 8

Gens Una Sumus?

Gens Una Sumus. But perhaps only for those who can afford it.

The other night, I was on my way to the Rathaus, where FIDE and the Dresden organisers are feeding the players, to examine the food conditions as well as, maybe, grab a free feed. Not knowing the exact direction, I approached the men's team from Ethiopia, who happened to be on the same tram as I was. Lucky for me, they were en route to the same location.

The Ethiopian captain, Kebadu Belachew, is a friendly fellow who readily struck up a conversation. Now a resident of the United States, and working there as a network engineer, Kebadu is eloquent, speaking with a particularly charming accent that is at once hospitable and passionate. In our conversation he spoke most passionately about the trials that his team had gone through just to reach the Olympiad.

Like a number of African countries, team Ethiopia faced serious problems on two main fronts - money and visa. At one point they were even handed an accommodation bill for €15,0000 as a result, Kebadu admits, of their own late registration.

"Fifteen thousand euros would save thousands of people's lives in Ethiopia. Definitely the country doesn't have that kind of money", he told me over dinner. Fortunately for Kebadu and his team, the Dresden city mayor stepped in and agreed that the huge accommodation bill be waived.

Then there were the visa problems. On the first attempt, the Ethiopians were point blank simply refused entry visas by the German consular office in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. It was days before some compromised was reached and this came in the form of a letter of guarantee from the event organisers which was duly provided. Still, there was one more problem: the letter only covered the men’s team, not the women’s team. Thus, the women’s visas were delayed.

After two rounds of play, the Ethiopian women, with money and visas at the ready, were preparing to fly to Dresden. Sadly, Kebadu had to give them terrible news.

Kebadu: “It was very, very hurting to myself to tell them that they cannot come, even if we have their money, because after two rounds, no team will be accepted”.

“They were heart broken. I still get emails from them. I tried to comfort them. Because this is the first time that we tried to get a women’s team represent Ethiopia [in any international chess event]”.

Despite this serious setback, however, Kebadu is optimistic, hoping that the next time will be an easier one, especially, for the women.

“God didn’t mean it this time [for the women’s team to play], but we have done the ground work”, he added.

For a backgrounder on the Ethiopian “saga", check out this post (“Ethiopians Denied German Visas”) and this one ("African Nations Booted From the Chess Olympiad") by Daaim Shabazz on The Chess Drum blog.

Historic Day for NZ Chess

Trans-Tasman rivalry took on an unexpected turn yesterday when New Zealand grabbed the baton for Olympiad bragging rights away from Australia. In what is perhaps their most significant round victory in Olympiad history, the Murray Chandler led Kiwis defeated the Bosnia Herzegovina team 2.5-1.5. Adding a little extra sweetener to their fine win, New Zealand’s rivals, Australia, were trounced by the powerhouse Bulgarians 0-4.

For New Zealand fans, here is a shot of that historic scoreboard.

The New Zealand scoreboard

The mood among the Aussie men last night was downbeat. It’s never nice to be beaten, even by a red hot opposition, but to be one-upped by the Kiwis is unsettling. After dinner, there wasn’t much to do but to strategise for the next round, which team they’ll play, who they’ll drop and so on. I turned up to the Maritim hoping to commiserate over a couple, but nope, up they went to their hotel rooms.

To make the day even worse for the Australian camp, the girls were also defeated 0-4 by the less fancied Venezuelans. Frankly, this was a surprising result. On paper our team outrated the Latinas on all four boards. Indeed, at least 2 Australian boards were winning!

Failing to have beers with the boys, I thought I’d try the girls. They’re always keen. But once again, I failed there, too. They’re all grounded, Moylan said. For Shannon Oliver, it’s a double whammy; she’s grounded until she wins a game!