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CHESS PIECE: TURIN MOVES
by Bobby Ang
BusinessWorld
June 5, 2006 Monday
2006 Turin Chess Olympiad
Men's Olympiad
20 May 2006 - 04 June 2006
Top Standings as of Round 11 (of 13)
1. Armenia (Aronian, Akopian, Asrian, Lputian, Sargissian, Minasian),
32.0/44
2-3. China (Bu Xiangzhi, Zhang Zhong, Zhang Pengxiang, Wang Yue,
Ni Hua, Zhao Jun), France (Bacrot, Lautier, And.Sokolov, Fressinet,
Vachier- Lagrave, Bauer) 28.5/44
4-5. Russia (Kramnik, Svidler, Grischuk, Morozevich, Bareev,
Rublevsky), USA (Kamsky, Onischuk, Nakamura, Ibragimov, Kaidanov,
Akobian), 28.0/44
6-9. Czech (Navara, Hracek, Babula, Laznicka, Kalod, Cvek), Ukraine
(Ivanchuk, Volokitin, Karjakin, Eljanov, Moiseenko, Efimenko), Cuba
(Bruzon, Dominguez, Nogueira, Arencibia, Delgado, Quezada), Israel
(Gelfand, Smirin, Sutovsky, Avrukh, Huzman, Mikhalevsky), 27.5/44
10-11. Netherlands (Sokolov, Tiviakov, Van Wely, Nijboer, Van den
Doel, L'Ami), Germany (Naiditsch, Jussupow, Gustafsson, Luther, Lutz,
Graf), 27.0/44
Total of 150 teams participating
Armenia defeated the overachieving Czechs 3-1. Aronian's spectacular
victory over David Navara is annotated below. They are 3.5 points
ahead of the second placers with two rounds left. Barring a disaster
of cataclysmic proportions we should soon be proclaiming Armenia
as the new no. 1 country of chess. The steady point production of
Aronian (6/9 on top board), Akopian (8/10) and the incredible Gabriel
Sargissian (he played in every round and scored 9/11) seems to indicate
an inevitable advance to the throne.
The way I see it the battle is confined to the silver medals. India
is the second seed but was taken out of medal contention by a 1-3
thumping delivered by the Israelis. Anand, although performing at a
2674 level, can perhaps be considered as a bit of a disappointment.
He beat FM Batchuluun (2303) in the second round but then slowed with
seven straight draws.
The Russians are still in contention but have not shown their best -
they have already lost thrice - to the Dutch, French, and Americans.
The last was the most vexing - Grischuk had a mating attack against
Nakamura but blundered grievously several times and it was he who
had to resign.
I am betting on France to take the silver and Russia the bronze. The
Frenchmen would be a most deserving medalist - they have yet to lose
a match and have defeated the Russians and Chinese in their individual
set- to.
The Philippines is still at no. 36 with 25.0/44. We had a chance to
climb up the score chart but a rather heavy loss to the Netherlands
in round 11 kicked us back down the standings. For a chance at a
decent finish we need 30 points, so in the last two rounds we have
to pick up 5 points. We accomplished this two years ago with 2.5-1.5
victories Hungary and Yugoslavia, two powerhouse countries. We've done
it before and can still do so now. Picking up from where we left off
last Friday, here is the round- by-round of the Philippines:
Rd 10. Philippines routed Malaysia 3.5-0.5. Paragua, GM Joey and
Dimakiling defeated Mas, Jonathan Chuah, and Nazreen Anas. Eugene Torre
was held to a draw by FM Lim Yee Weng. The Malaysian top board Mas
was coming off a nice upset win over Viktor Korchnoi in the previous
round, but Mark stopped him dead on his tracks. I knew GM Joey would
defeat Jonathan. During the 1999 Asian Team championship the Malaysian
second board requested for and got some private tutorials from Joey,
and his hero- worshipping was bound to prove a stumbling block.
Rd 11. We lost to the Netherlands 1.0-3.0. GM Joey has played perhaps
hundreds of games with Van Wely on the Internet Chess Club, and knew
that he could beat Van Wely, so, even with Black, he essayed a very
sharp line of the Nimzo-Indian. Problem is, he was insufficiently
prepared and did not respond correctly to the Dutchman's theoretical
novelty. The loss followed quite quickly. Darwin Laylo had the
advantage in the opening vs Nijboer but overreached in his attempts
to win. Nevertheless, he made Nijboer work for the point, only giving
up after the 114th move.
FIDE elections
The incumbent, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov beat Bessel Kok for the FIDE
presidency by a wide margin (96:57). As many of you know Ilyumzhinov is
the President of the Kalmyk Republic, one of the 21 Russian republics,
administrative units with the greatest amount of autonomy within the
Russian Federation.
On the other hand Bessel Kok is a Dutch millionaire currently residing
in Prague. He was the creator of the SWIFT system for transfer of
funds between banks and later on served as the head of the Belgian
commission in charge of telecommunications (BELGACOM).
During their respective campaigns President Ilyumzhinov highlighted
the personal commitment he has made to chess, including injecting
his personal money of more than $20 million for prize funds of
tournaments. Bessel Kok ran on the basis of his proven professional,
managerial and organizational skills.
While the big margin of victory could have surprised some people,
I knew that Ilyumzhinov was unbeatable. Under the FIDE statutes each
member- nation was entitled to one vote, in other words Russia with
156 grandmasters and US Virgin Islands with only three rated players
(take note: I said rated, not titled) are given equal weight come
election time. Everyone knows that the small countries/federations
usually go along with the incumbents.
World Computer Championship
The World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) was also held in Turin
as a side-event.
Final Top Standings
1. Junior, 9.0/11
2-3. Shredder, Rajlich, 8.5/11
4. Zappa, 7.5/11
5-7. Spike, Diep, Jonny, 6.5/11
8-9. Crafty, Ikarus, 6.0/11
10-12. IsiChess MMX, Delfi 4.6, Chiron, 5.5/11
Total of 18 participants
The heavy favorite to win was Rajlich, which is actually Rybka (its
author is IM Rajlich), the new chess engine that has been making
waves and was highly touted as the strongest ever in chess history.
Zappa, being the defending champion, also was regarded as a favorite.
Shredder, of course, had won the championship so many times that no
one would have been surprised if it came out on top.
Instead, the hyper-aggressive Junior program rolled to victory with
7 wins and 4 draws. Junior is an Israeli program written by Amir
Ban and Shay Bushinsky. It started off its career as a positional
engine with a boa constrictor style, but starting the 6th edition
they made a conscious effort to move it towards aggressive play by
giving greater weight to mobility, piece activity and opponent's king
safety factors. The result is games like this:
Junior - Uragano 3D [B33]
14th WCh Comp Turin (10), 31.05.2006
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.N1c3 a6 7.Na3 Nf6
8.Bg5 Be7 9.Bxf6 Bxf6 10.Nc4 Nd4 11.Nd5 Bg4 12.Qxg4 Nxc2+ 13.Kd1
Nxa1 14.Ncb6 Rb8 15.Bd3 Bg5 16.h4 Bh6 17.Ke2 Nb3 18.axb3 0-0 19.Bc4
Kh8 20.g3 Qe8 21.Rd1 Rd8 22.Qh5 Qc6 23.Kf1 Qc5 24.Kg2 Qc6 25.Qg4
Qe8 26.h5 f6 27.b4 Qf7 28.Qf5 Qe8 29.Bb3 Qf7 30.Rd3 g6 31.hxg6 hxg6
32.Qh3 Qh7 33.Rd1 Rf7 34.Rh1 f5 35.exf5 Rxf5 36.Ne7 Kg7 37.Nxf5+
gxf5 38.Qh4 Re8 39.Nd5 1-0
Count on me to buy the latest Deep Junior version from Chessbase!
And now what you have been waiting for, our featured game. I was
watching this online and can attest to the general gasp of disbelief
when Aronian .... oh, just play it over - worth your while!
Aronian, Levon (2756) _ Navara, David (2658) [E17]
37th Olympiad Turin ITA (11), 02.06.2006
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.Nc3 Ne4 7.Bd2 f5 8.Qc2
A move order trick. Normal is 8.d5 first and after 8...Bf6 then
9.Qc2. Navara did not think it made any difference. Wrong.
8...Bf6?! 9.Ne5!
With White not having played d4-d5 the long diagonal is still open
and Black's knight on e4 is pinned against his bishop on b7.
9...d5 10.cxd5 Nxc3?
It is understandable that Black wanted to get rid of the long diagonal
pin, but now he gives Aronian an opening. To be fair, I was watching
the game online on the Internet Chess Club and no one there, including
several GMs and IMs, noticed anything amiss.
11.Nf7!!
Now that everybody notices 11...Kxf7 is impossible because of 12.dxe6+
Kxe6 13.Bxb7.
11...Qd7?
In the comfort of our study we notice that Black's only move here is
11...Qc8! to defend the b7-bishop. Navara, of course, has just been
shocked by 11.Nf7 and is not in a good frame of mind.
12.Bxc3
With chagrin Black discovers that since the bishop on b7 is still
vulnerable, the white knight remains taboo.
12...Bxd5 13.Bxd5 Qxd5 14.e4! fxe4 15.Nxh8 Nc6 16.0-0 Ke7 17.Rae1
Rxh8 18.Rxe4 Rd8 19.Rfe1 Rd6 20.Rf4 g6 21.h4 Rd7
Protecting the c7 pawn before capturing on d4, otherwise the white
queen can take Qxc7 with check.
22.h5 Bxd4 23.hxg6 hxg6 24.Qxg6 Ne5 25.Qf6+
Black either loses his queen via 25...Kd6 26.Rxd4 or his king if
25...Ke8 26.Qf8. 1-0.
by Bobby Ang
BusinessWorld
June 5, 2006 Monday
2006 Turin Chess Olympiad
Men's Olympiad
20 May 2006 - 04 June 2006
Top Standings as of Round 11 (of 13)
1. Armenia (Aronian, Akopian, Asrian, Lputian, Sargissian, Minasian),
32.0/44
2-3. China (Bu Xiangzhi, Zhang Zhong, Zhang Pengxiang, Wang Yue,
Ni Hua, Zhao Jun), France (Bacrot, Lautier, And.Sokolov, Fressinet,
Vachier- Lagrave, Bauer) 28.5/44
4-5. Russia (Kramnik, Svidler, Grischuk, Morozevich, Bareev,
Rublevsky), USA (Kamsky, Onischuk, Nakamura, Ibragimov, Kaidanov,
Akobian), 28.0/44
6-9. Czech (Navara, Hracek, Babula, Laznicka, Kalod, Cvek), Ukraine
(Ivanchuk, Volokitin, Karjakin, Eljanov, Moiseenko, Efimenko), Cuba
(Bruzon, Dominguez, Nogueira, Arencibia, Delgado, Quezada), Israel
(Gelfand, Smirin, Sutovsky, Avrukh, Huzman, Mikhalevsky), 27.5/44
10-11. Netherlands (Sokolov, Tiviakov, Van Wely, Nijboer, Van den
Doel, L'Ami), Germany (Naiditsch, Jussupow, Gustafsson, Luther, Lutz,
Graf), 27.0/44
Total of 150 teams participating
Armenia defeated the overachieving Czechs 3-1. Aronian's spectacular
victory over David Navara is annotated below. They are 3.5 points
ahead of the second placers with two rounds left. Barring a disaster
of cataclysmic proportions we should soon be proclaiming Armenia
as the new no. 1 country of chess. The steady point production of
Aronian (6/9 on top board), Akopian (8/10) and the incredible Gabriel
Sargissian (he played in every round and scored 9/11) seems to indicate
an inevitable advance to the throne.
The way I see it the battle is confined to the silver medals. India
is the second seed but was taken out of medal contention by a 1-3
thumping delivered by the Israelis. Anand, although performing at a
2674 level, can perhaps be considered as a bit of a disappointment.
He beat FM Batchuluun (2303) in the second round but then slowed with
seven straight draws.
The Russians are still in contention but have not shown their best -
they have already lost thrice - to the Dutch, French, and Americans.
The last was the most vexing - Grischuk had a mating attack against
Nakamura but blundered grievously several times and it was he who
had to resign.
I am betting on France to take the silver and Russia the bronze. The
Frenchmen would be a most deserving medalist - they have yet to lose
a match and have defeated the Russians and Chinese in their individual
set- to.
The Philippines is still at no. 36 with 25.0/44. We had a chance to
climb up the score chart but a rather heavy loss to the Netherlands
in round 11 kicked us back down the standings. For a chance at a
decent finish we need 30 points, so in the last two rounds we have
to pick up 5 points. We accomplished this two years ago with 2.5-1.5
victories Hungary and Yugoslavia, two powerhouse countries. We've done
it before and can still do so now. Picking up from where we left off
last Friday, here is the round- by-round of the Philippines:
Rd 10. Philippines routed Malaysia 3.5-0.5. Paragua, GM Joey and
Dimakiling defeated Mas, Jonathan Chuah, and Nazreen Anas. Eugene Torre
was held to a draw by FM Lim Yee Weng. The Malaysian top board Mas
was coming off a nice upset win over Viktor Korchnoi in the previous
round, but Mark stopped him dead on his tracks. I knew GM Joey would
defeat Jonathan. During the 1999 Asian Team championship the Malaysian
second board requested for and got some private tutorials from Joey,
and his hero- worshipping was bound to prove a stumbling block.
Rd 11. We lost to the Netherlands 1.0-3.0. GM Joey has played perhaps
hundreds of games with Van Wely on the Internet Chess Club, and knew
that he could beat Van Wely, so, even with Black, he essayed a very
sharp line of the Nimzo-Indian. Problem is, he was insufficiently
prepared and did not respond correctly to the Dutchman's theoretical
novelty. The loss followed quite quickly. Darwin Laylo had the
advantage in the opening vs Nijboer but overreached in his attempts
to win. Nevertheless, he made Nijboer work for the point, only giving
up after the 114th move.
FIDE elections
The incumbent, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov beat Bessel Kok for the FIDE
presidency by a wide margin (96:57). As many of you know Ilyumzhinov is
the President of the Kalmyk Republic, one of the 21 Russian republics,
administrative units with the greatest amount of autonomy within the
Russian Federation.
On the other hand Bessel Kok is a Dutch millionaire currently residing
in Prague. He was the creator of the SWIFT system for transfer of
funds between banks and later on served as the head of the Belgian
commission in charge of telecommunications (BELGACOM).
During their respective campaigns President Ilyumzhinov highlighted
the personal commitment he has made to chess, including injecting
his personal money of more than $20 million for prize funds of
tournaments. Bessel Kok ran on the basis of his proven professional,
managerial and organizational skills.
While the big margin of victory could have surprised some people,
I knew that Ilyumzhinov was unbeatable. Under the FIDE statutes each
member- nation was entitled to one vote, in other words Russia with
156 grandmasters and US Virgin Islands with only three rated players
(take note: I said rated, not titled) are given equal weight come
election time. Everyone knows that the small countries/federations
usually go along with the incumbents.
World Computer Championship
The World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) was also held in Turin
as a side-event.
Final Top Standings
1. Junior, 9.0/11
2-3. Shredder, Rajlich, 8.5/11
4. Zappa, 7.5/11
5-7. Spike, Diep, Jonny, 6.5/11
8-9. Crafty, Ikarus, 6.0/11
10-12. IsiChess MMX, Delfi 4.6, Chiron, 5.5/11
Total of 18 participants
The heavy favorite to win was Rajlich, which is actually Rybka (its
author is IM Rajlich), the new chess engine that has been making
waves and was highly touted as the strongest ever in chess history.
Zappa, being the defending champion, also was regarded as a favorite.
Shredder, of course, had won the championship so many times that no
one would have been surprised if it came out on top.
Instead, the hyper-aggressive Junior program rolled to victory with
7 wins and 4 draws. Junior is an Israeli program written by Amir
Ban and Shay Bushinsky. It started off its career as a positional
engine with a boa constrictor style, but starting the 6th edition
they made a conscious effort to move it towards aggressive play by
giving greater weight to mobility, piece activity and opponent's king
safety factors. The result is games like this:
Junior - Uragano 3D [B33]
14th WCh Comp Turin (10), 31.05.2006
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.N1c3 a6 7.Na3 Nf6
8.Bg5 Be7 9.Bxf6 Bxf6 10.Nc4 Nd4 11.Nd5 Bg4 12.Qxg4 Nxc2+ 13.Kd1
Nxa1 14.Ncb6 Rb8 15.Bd3 Bg5 16.h4 Bh6 17.Ke2 Nb3 18.axb3 0-0 19.Bc4
Kh8 20.g3 Qe8 21.Rd1 Rd8 22.Qh5 Qc6 23.Kf1 Qc5 24.Kg2 Qc6 25.Qg4
Qe8 26.h5 f6 27.b4 Qf7 28.Qf5 Qe8 29.Bb3 Qf7 30.Rd3 g6 31.hxg6 hxg6
32.Qh3 Qh7 33.Rd1 Rf7 34.Rh1 f5 35.exf5 Rxf5 36.Ne7 Kg7 37.Nxf5+
gxf5 38.Qh4 Re8 39.Nd5 1-0
Count on me to buy the latest Deep Junior version from Chessbase!
And now what you have been waiting for, our featured game. I was
watching this online and can attest to the general gasp of disbelief
when Aronian .... oh, just play it over - worth your while!
Aronian, Levon (2756) _ Navara, David (2658) [E17]
37th Olympiad Turin ITA (11), 02.06.2006
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.Nc3 Ne4 7.Bd2 f5 8.Qc2
A move order trick. Normal is 8.d5 first and after 8...Bf6 then
9.Qc2. Navara did not think it made any difference. Wrong.
8...Bf6?! 9.Ne5!
With White not having played d4-d5 the long diagonal is still open
and Black's knight on e4 is pinned against his bishop on b7.
9...d5 10.cxd5 Nxc3?
It is understandable that Black wanted to get rid of the long diagonal
pin, but now he gives Aronian an opening. To be fair, I was watching
the game online on the Internet Chess Club and no one there, including
several GMs and IMs, noticed anything amiss.
11.Nf7!!
Now that everybody notices 11...Kxf7 is impossible because of 12.dxe6+
Kxe6 13.Bxb7.
11...Qd7?
In the comfort of our study we notice that Black's only move here is
11...Qc8! to defend the b7-bishop. Navara, of course, has just been
shocked by 11.Nf7 and is not in a good frame of mind.
12.Bxc3
With chagrin Black discovers that since the bishop on b7 is still
vulnerable, the white knight remains taboo.
12...Bxd5 13.Bxd5 Qxd5 14.e4! fxe4 15.Nxh8 Nc6 16.0-0 Ke7 17.Rae1
Rxh8 18.Rxe4 Rd8 19.Rfe1 Rd6 20.Rf4 g6 21.h4 Rd7
Protecting the c7 pawn before capturing on d4, otherwise the white
queen can take Qxc7 with check.
22.h5 Bxd4 23.hxg6 hxg6 24.Qxg6 Ne5 25.Qf6+
Black either loses his queen via 25...Kd6 26.Rxd4 or his king if
25...Ke8 26.Qf8. 1-0.