Searching for Chess

Maybe I read this somewhere or perhaps somebody told me, but apparently more books are published under the letter "C" thanks to chess. Which is probably right considering the amount of printed matter that exist today under the subject of "chess". By sheer book count chess is arguably very popular.

Which made me wonder: what about online? How many blogs out there are about chess? Or news sites, e-zines, Facebook pages - basically, websites of any kind talking about chess? I don't know and I'm not inclined to find out any time soon. For imagine how much work that will take.

But I did find out the number of times in a month that "chess" is entered into Google by people searching for chess or anything related to chess.

6,120,000!

That's according to Google's Keyword Tool which actually also tells you the relevant search phrases containing "chess".

And who, you may ask, are the most avid seekers of all things chess? The Mongolians!

Now, 6M searches for chess might seem like a high number, but this doesn't even come close to "sex", at 338M searches, or "facebook" which comes in at a staggering 2.5 billion!

Kichijoji Weekender

The light snowfall over Tokyo during the last few days seemed like a good reason to stay indoors. The skies are dark and the streets wet. Snow looks pretty atop houses and by the sides of alleyways, but I really hate snow.

So yesterday, I decided to drop in again at the Kichijoji Chess Club. To my delight they were running a 3-day long weekend tournament. Unfortunately I arrived too late and, at any rate, Sunday, the last day, just happens to be the Tokyo Real Ale Festival in Asakusa, and there's no way I was going to miss that!

I did stay for bit and took a couple of photos (with the iPhone), however, and here's one of them. The rest are in my flickr stream.

The Adventurous Mikhalevski

French writer Pierre Mac Orlan (1882 - 1970) apparently said this:

"There are more adventures on a chessboard than on all the seas of the world."

He's probably right. Especially when you see games like this one from round 6 of this year's Gibraltar.

2011 Gibraltar Masters
Akobian, Varuzhan
Mikhalevski, Victor
A65

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 c5 4. d5 Bg7 5. e4 d6 6. Nc3 O-O 7. Bg5 h6 8. Be3 e6 9. Qd2 exd5 10. cxd5 Re8 11. Nge2 Nbd7 12. Ng3 h5 13. Be2 a6 14. O-O b5 15. Bh6 h4 16. Nh1 Nh5 17. Bxg7 Kxg7 18. a4 b4 19. Nd1 f5 20. exf5 Nb6 21. fxg6

Position after 21. fxg6

21...Rxe2 22. Qxe2 Nf4 23. Qe4 Qg5 24. g4 Nh3+ 25. Kg2 Nf4+ 26. Kg1 Bd7 27. Ne3 Nh3+ 28. Kg2 Nf4+ 29. Kg1 Re8 White is totally paralysed. He can't do much now, except this... 30. Nf5+ Kg8 31. Qb1 Nh3+ 32. Kg2 Nf4+ 33. Kg1 Nh3+ 34. Kg2 Nxd5 35. Nf2 Re2 36. Nxd6 Bxg4 and it's mate in 6! 0-1

Iran Strikes at Israel

Pissing contests between the Jewish State and the Iranians are almost a weekly headline. Much of it provoked by the Iranian leader's vitriol (including a denial of the Holocaust), not to mention, their alleged nuclear programme. Luckily, neither side has made any sudden movements. For who knows how nasty that could turn out to be?

But perhaps luckier still is that both sides seem perfectly happy to conduct a sort of proxy contest away from the battlefield and onto the chess board.

When an Israeli broke Morteza Mahjoub's record for the number of simul games, the question was immediately put back to the Iranians. That question has just been answered emphatically, this time by another Iranian, GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami. The AFP has the details.

Just as well, really. In a real war, the Iranians have no chance.

The Age Tribute to Hjorth

Guy Rundle on IM Greg Hjorth:

Discussion of natural genius irritated him; he insisted that immense hard work separated first rank mathematicians from many of those who fell short. Recent accolades, from the 2003 Karp prize to last year's Tarski lectures underlined that commitment. Widely regarded by colleagues as among the best mathematical logicians under the age of 50 in the world, he would have been a potential contender for any of the great mathematical prizes on offer. Yet his modesty was total. The only time he got excited about an award was when a fellow Australian won the Fields medal, the maths Nobel.

Hard work was also an approach he had taken to chess, something that had been a passion since he first became interested at the age of six, when he and his parents, Robert, a neurologist, and Noela, an artist, were living in London. Once he'd learnt the basics, his father remembers, ''there was no stopping him''.

UPDATE: The UCLA's Mathematics department also has a tribute to Greg Hjorth including a PDF file that contains pictures of the man while in action, both inside the classroom and over-the-board.

High Finish for Pinoy in Russia

International master Oliver Barbosa of the Philippines has turned in what must be a highlight performance of his career so far. Twenty-four year old Barbosa collected 7.5 points over nine encounters in the just concluded Moscow Open (section E). His last 2 round kills against a pair of grandmasters were absolutely crucial. Here's one of them.

Moscow Open 2011 - E
Kotsur, Pavel
Barbosa, Oliver
B19

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nd7 8. h5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 e6 11. Bd2 Ngf6 12. O-O-O Be7 13. Rhe1 O-O 14. Qe2 Qc7 15. Ne5 c5 16. dxc5 Nxc5 17. Kb1 Rac8 18. c4 a6 19. f4 b5 20. f5 bxc4 21. fxe6 fxe6 22. Qxc4 Nd5 23. Ng6 Qxg3 24. Rxe6 Nxe6 25. Qxd5 Qd6 26. Bb4 Qxd5 27. Nxe7+ Kh7 28. Nxd5 Rf2 29. Ne7 Rd8 30. Rc1 Nf4 31. Ba5 Rd7 32. Ng6 Nxg6 33.hxg6+ Kxg6 34. a4 Rxg2 35. Rc6+ Kf5 36. Rxa6 h5 37. Ra8 h4 38. Rh8 Ra7 39. Bd8 Ra8 40. a5 g5 41. b4 Rd2 42. Rf8+ Ke5 0-1

John Paul Gomez garnered 6.5 points while lone Aussie, the little kid, Anton Smirnov collected 4 points. Young Anton's most impressive win was in the third round over Denis Vorobjov, rated 2248.

The untitled Vladimir Belous won the section E event with 8 points overall.

A Chess Day in Tokyo

A quiet day in Tokyo, so I decided to walk around my hometown and stop by over in the Kichijoji Chess Club. It's been months since my last visit and a few weeks since I touched real-live pieces. I'd had enough of ICC bullet games.

For 800 yen (roughly $10) I got to play a few rounds of 5-minute blitz and for another 100 yen, a rated game! Yes, pretty expensive by Australian standards. It's basically a pay-per-visit model. But folks don't seem to complain. And it's the sort of revenue raising that let's them rent the third floor of this building.


Part of the fees probably also went into the payment for one of Japan's top players (can't remember his name) to drop in a deliver a lecture. Roughly a dozen eager listeners, mostly young, attended. Of course, I couldn't understand a word of it.

If you happen to visit Tokyo, the Kichijoji CC is on the Chuo line and just a 3-minute walk from Kichijoji station.

Kichijoji Club game
Kobayashi
The Closet Grandmaster
B01

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 c6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Bd3 Bg4 7. O-O Nbd7 8. Bd2 Qc7 9. Qe2 O-O-O 10. b4 e5 11. h3 Bh5 12. Rfb1 exd4 13. Na4 Re8 14. Qd1 Bd6 15. c4 Bf4 16. g4 Nxg4 17. Nxd4 Ngf6 Fritz reckons that 17... Be3 is strong. 18. Bxf4 Qxf4 19. Qc2 Qxd4 20. b5 c5 21. Nc3 Ne5 22. Bf5+ Kb8 23. a4 Nf3+ 24. Kf1 Qf4 25. Ne4 Rxe4 26. Bxe4 Nxe4 0-1

Ivanchuk Wins Gibraltar

Super GM Vassily Ivanchuk is the winner in Gibraltar with a powerhouse output of 9 points from ten games. He conquered all, never dropping a point. Nigel Short was in second place with the equally impressive finish of eight and a half. The British man's only blemish was his loss to Chukky.

The only Australian in the event, IM Wohl, performed to his level finishing with 6 points overall. His ten games included a run-in with no less than legend Viktor Korchnoi. The game was a KID with Viktor on the white side. Of course, the old-timer won the encounter and after which told Alex, "Against some people you should not play the Kings Indian". Ouch!

You can play through that game over on Alex's blog.

Finally, while I didn't exactly cover this event regularly, I have to thank the Gibraltar press office for their daily media releases. Very professional, indeed, and some top-notch reporting.

Moscow Open 2011

The Moscow International Open Festival is a massive event. While the open is the feature tournament, there are actually a couple of round robins that include some impressive names - Kosteniuk in the women's, Alexeev, rated 2701, and Ivan Cheparinov in the men's.

But of interest to our readers is the main tournament because of some familiar names - Australia's Anton Smirnov as well as Pinoys GM John Paul Gomez and IM Oliver Barbosa.

Barbosa, especially, had an electric start. He got up to 4/4 before going down to Alexander Beliavsky in the fifth!


Moscow Open 2011 - E
Barbosa, Oliver"]
Beliavsky, Alexander G
A87

1. d4 f5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. O-O O-O 6. c4 d6 7. Nc3 Qe8 8. Re1 Qf7 9. b3 Ne4 10. Bb2 Nd7 11. Qc2 Ndf6 12. Nxe4 Nxe4 13. e3 c6 14. Rad1 a5 15. a4 Be6 16. Nd2 d5 17. Bf1 g5 18. f3 Nd6 19. c5 Ne8 20. Bd3 Qh5 21. Bc3 Kh8 22. f4 Nf6 23. Be2 Qg6 24. Nf3 Ne4 25. Bd3 gxf4 26. exf4 Rg8 27. Ng5 h6 28. Nf3 Bf6 29. Bxe4 fxe4 30. Ne5 Qh7 31. Re3 h5 32. Kf2 h4 33. Rg1 Raf8 34. Ke1 Bxe5 35. dxe5 Rxf4 36. Bd4 Rf7 37. Kd1 Bg4+ 38. Kc1 e6 39. gxh4 Bf3 40. Ree1 Rfg7 41. Qd2 Qxh4 42. Rxg7 Rxg7 43. Rg1 Rxg1+ 44. Bxg1 Kh7 45. Kb2 Kg6 46. Be3 Kf5 47. Ka3 Qh3 48. Bh6 Qg4 49. Qxa5 d4 50. Qc7 e3 51. Qxb7 Qg6 0-1

After 5 games, young Anton, son of FM Vladimir Smirnov is on 2 points.

New Doco on Fischer

Obviously as a follow-up to yesterday's post, one of our avid readers just sent in a tip about the latest doco on Bobby Fischer. This one called "Bobby Fischer Against the World", directed by Liz Garbus, recently premiered at Sundance.

I couldn't find the trailer, but here's Liz briefly talking about the film plus a brief clip.