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If Carlsen is going to stop his rating hemorrhage in Reykjavik today, it won't be easy, playing Black against Leko. Leko is a bit of an old nemesis to Carlsen, with a +3, -2, =10 score, albeit they've only played once in the past 5 years (an 83-move draw) since Leko no longer gets invites to the major tournaments. Given Leko's proclivity for draws, I'll likely pay far more attention to the board 2 game between Hammer and my personal favourite, Rapport (:
Two other games I'll definitely be paying close attention to are Mamedyarov vs Giri and Jobava vs Grischuk since I'm also a huge fan of both Shakh and Baadur (:
It is pointed out that MVL lost to Carlsen at the Sinquefield with this line, this past September.
______
Viktor Bologan comes on to talk to Fiona about his game with Olafsson. Viktor is from Moldova, which is sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine. Presently, he lives in Qatar, where he is a full-time coach. Fortunately, he got time off to play with his home team. He is doing quite well with 5/6 so far (no losses).
His major accomplishment was winning Dortmund 2003 ahead of Kramnik, Anand and Leko. He was co-winner at the Canadian Open, Edmonton in 2005. He is author of a number of books and opening DVDs.
Readers may have some of:
Victor Bologan – Selected Games 1985-2004 (2007)
The Chebanenko Slav According to Bologan (2008)
The King’s Indian According to Bologan (2009)
The Rossolimo Sicilian (2011)
The Powerful Catalan (2012)
Sokolov is Bosnian-born but has had Dutch nationality since 2002. Naiditsch is a German and Azerbaijani grandmaster, born in Latvia. I hope that sets everything straight!
______
With almost all matches complete for today these are the results:
We witnessed yet another day of high-quality, exciting chess at the Laugardalshöll in Reykjavik today and both Russian teams were able to maintain their lead.
In the Open Section, all the top boards were very close affairs, as can be told by the fact that the 6(!) first matches all ended in a 2.5-1.5 score. In the top clash of the day, Russia edged out Georgia, as Nepomniachtchi’s first loss (against Pantsulaia) was compensated by victories from Tomashevsky and Jakovenko.
On board 2, France created the upset of the day as they overcame second seed Ukraine, with Fressinet deciding the match in their favour by beating Eljanov.
On board 3, title defenders Azerbaijan beat the Netherlands, thanks to a victory by Naiditsch against Ivan Sokolov. While on board 4 Armenia overcame Germany, board 5 saw a victory by Hungary against Norway, but World Champion Magnus Carlsen won his first game of the tournament against Peter Leko. So after 6 rounds, Russia is still in the sole lead with 11 points, but they are closely followed by France on 10 points and by Azerbaijan on 10 points.
Tomorrow France will challenge Russia on the top board, while Latvia takes on Azerbaijan.
In the Women’s Section, the top board clash between leaders Russia and title defenders Ukraine kept all its promises, as despite ending in a 2-2 draw, the match featured four decisive results! Indeed, all players with the white pieces managed to win their games: Mariya Muzychuk and Zhukova for Ukraine and Lagno and Goryachkina for Russia. On board 2, Georgia overcame France by the smallest of margins, while the board 3 match between Romania and Serbia was another 2-2 draw with only decisive games.
This means the standing is now very similar to the open section, as the Russian ladies lead with 11 points, and are followed by Georgia on 10 points and Ukraine as well as Hungary on 9 points.
In the 7th round, Hungary will take on Russia, while Serbia faces Georgia and Ukraine plays Austria.
“Despite having two ex-world champions – Veselin Topalov (ELO 2803, second position in the world) and Antoaneta Stefanova (ELO 2519, fifteenth position in the women rankings) – the Bulgarian teams cannot be found in top 10, top 20, or even top 30 of the ETCC standings. The simple reason – one of the few countries in Europe that did not send a team to the competitions in Iceland is Bulgaria. This has provoked the Bulgarian chess community to come up with an open letter to the Minister of Sports, signed by numerous GMs and IMs.
To Mr. Krasen Kraev, Minister of Sports,
On the 12th of October in Reykjavik (Iceland) started the European Team Chess Championships for men and women. For the first time the Bulgarian national teams are not participating. Why? We turn to you to find out: who and when took the decision our country not to participate in these competitions? Well in advance we want to note that excuses like “there is no money” cannot stand, as during this year in Bulgaria we have had dubious tournaments, for which the BCF has spend much more than an ETCC participation would cost. Dear Mr. Minister, why in the past year the leaders of BCF have self-excluded from the international chess life? Why didn’t Bulgaria have a representative at the FIDE Congress in Dubai or the General ECU assembly in Montenegro? At these forums our country has been mentioned in negative context multiple times. Why didn’t anyone go to defend us? We, as players in international tournaments, can feel the attitude of the organizers and other players towards our country.”
_______
The Bulgarian Chess Federation is in turmoil and there is talk of scandal, boycott and protest and further investigation.
I note that Jobava has White today against Ivanchuk. Chessgames.com shows the last 7 encounters (5 classical) between these two have all ended 1-0, 5 White wins by Chucky and 2 by Baadur.
Fiona and Simon’s commentary seems to be going more smoothly than during the first few rounds.
Simon says that this is the money end of the tournament – where dreams are made and hearts are broken.
He feels that Shirov-Mamedyarov will be a game with fireworks. Alexei Shirov wrote a book with his best games 1979-1996 aptly called Fire on Board. One reviewer said of it, “His penchant for wild attacking games has made him a great favourite with the chess public, who see him as the natural heir to another Latvian, the former world champion Mikhail Tal.”
(Conversely, Paul Motwani wrote a book for Batsford entitled COOL Chess, that most people have never heard of).
Mamedyarov is a brilliant blitz player and Simon says that one of the most amazing things he has ever seen was at Gibraltar one year.
There is a Dutch player, Manuel Bosboom, also a brilliant blitz player. The two were playing at Gibraltar and Mamedyarov was giving time odds of 3 minutes for Manuel to 20 seconds for Shakhriyar, for the whole game!
"Bosboom is known as an excellent blitz chess player. For a long time possibly the best, at least the fastest blitz player of The Netherlands. It pleases the eye to see him castle queenside in one fluent movement at lighting speed. For a while, blitz was also his main source of income. Every week he played a tournament somewhere hunting for prize money.
The ultimate challenge on this territory came in 1999. The committee of the Hoogovens tournament [now Tata Steel] decided to hold a blitz tournament on one of the rest days with the entire world top. Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik, and so on, all participated. Only Shirov wasn't interested, thus one spot was available. Reportedly, Loek van Wely recommended his friend Manuel Bosboom. The winner of almost all blitz tournaments in the Netherlands was allowed to test himself against the entire world top. The local hero from nearby Zaanstad suddenly could show his art amidst all those giants. After a shaky start he found his rhythm. The biggest surprise was a win with the black pieces against no-one less than Garry Kasparov!”
If you click the above link, you can see the crosstable of Hoogovens 1999 Blitz and how Bosboom did against Kasparov, Anand and others.
_______
There has been some wonder so far in the tournament at how badly (comparatively speaking) Carlsen is doing. Although there is no need to defend the World Champion, Simon points out that when you are WC, you have a target painted on your back.
That said, Carlsen and Papaioannou from Greece draw in 41 moves.
Fiona mentions that she saw a doping room being set up for random testing of the players.
Once, in a tournament, she won very quickly and so was chosen for drug testing. She had to drink three litres of water to enable her to give a sample. She remarks also that Ivanchuk once refused to take the test.
This from 2008:
“On Nov. 25 in Dresden, the last day of the Chess Olympiad, Vassily lost to Gata Kamsky. When the game against the American ended, a judge asked Ivanchuk to submit to a drug test. Instead, he stormed out of the room in the conference center, kicked a concrete pillar in the lobby, pounded a countertop in the cafeteria with his fists and then vanished into the coatroom. Throughout this performance, he was followed by a handful of officials.
No one could convince Ivanchuk to provide a small amount of urine for the test. And because refusal is treated as a positive test result, he is now considered guilty of doping and could be barred from professional chess for two years.”
Chucky was not banned.
While the men are bashing away at each other, this game is applauded from the Women’s Section where Gunina of Russia is playing Papp of Hungary.
Perhaps it is the accent and some mannerisms but some viewers think that Simon is Nigel Short. Simon says that is all right if he can take credit for the brilliant king walk game that Nigel played against Timman at Tilburg in 1991.
In the top boards, Grischuk beats Fressinet and Russia is 2.5-1.5 over France. Areschenko makes the wrong queen move in time trouble and loses his game with Gagunashvili and so Georgia is 2.5-1.5 over Ukraine.
The last top game to finish is from Latvia-Azerbaijan (2-2), where Shirov goes down to Mamedyarov in this game:
Nigel Short - The FIDE Anti-Cheating Commission, which scans players DURING games must learn the Hippocratic principle "ἐπὶ δηλήσει δὲ καὶ ἀδικίῃ εἴρξειν"
(WK – Note – (translation) "I will abstain from doing harm"
Sebastien Mazé - Repas en équipe , bonne rigolade et lasagnes au menu. Les troupes sont motivées!
Sylvio Danailov - Two additional reasons why I am not in Reykjavik. FIDE makes me sick. They won't see one Bulgarian euro anymore.
(WK – Note - Danailov and Topalov are having a wonderful time in Argentina, while these teams fight it out in frosty Iceland.)
I'm thrilled to see that both Baadur Jobava and Richard Rapport crack the top dozen TPR numbers in Rejkjavik (:
1. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2864
2. Arkadij Naiditsch 2854
3. Viktor Bologan 2847
4. Levan Pantsulaia 2845
5. Hrant Melkumyan 2825
6. Peter Svidler 2821
7. Levon Aronian 2813
7. Alexander Grischuk 2813
9. Baadur Jobava 2805
10. Robert Markus 2800
11. Richard Rapport 2797
12. Jon Ludvig Hammer 2794
By way of comparison, Magnus Carlsen has a TPR of 2580 ):
Both Armenia and Hungary strike me as mathematically sound bets today given the limited empirical evidence. Armenia is 63/10 to beat Russia despite Aronian having a slight edge against Svidler (+4, -3, =21), Grischuk a slight edge against Sargissian (+2, -1, =1), Melkumyan and Jakovenko drawing their only encounter (the 2014 European Individual Championships), and Movsessian the slight edge over Nepomniachtchi (+1, -0, =1 as well as +3, -2, =1 at Rapid/Blitz). Those numbers certainly don't add up to Russian being the 9/10 favourite and Armenia the decided dog at 63/10 (:
Hungary isn't quite as attractive at 47/10 to beat Azerbaijan but still seemingly a good bet. Leko is dead even with Mamedyarov (+2 -2, =13), Rapport drew his only encounter with Radjabov (the 2013 European Club Cup), Almasi has split his 3 decisions with Naiditsch (+1, -1, =1), and Berkes and Safarli drew both their encounters. And Hungary is the only 2014 Olympiad medal winner (silver) in Reykjavik (:
Thanks for the blitz tidbit (or tim bit) in post 36 Wayne! Manuel Bosboom is a blitz legend. That the Shak could willingly give him 3 minutes to 20 seconds odds is absolutely stunningly incredible!
*originally reported as 6 wins and 2 draws but a win and a draw (against Giri) was secured with 2.Bf4 (not 2.Bg5), which carries the same A45 opening designation
Last edited by Jack Maguire; Saturday, 21st November, 2015, 03:29 PM.
Both Armenia and Hungary strike me as mathematically sound bets today given the limited empirical evidence. Armenia is 63/10 to beat Russia despite Aronian having a slight edge against Svidler (+4, -3, =21), Grischuk a slight edge against Sargissian (+2, -1, =1), Melkumyan and Jakovenko drawing their only encounter (the 2014 European Individual Championships), and Movsessian the slight edge over Nepomniachtchi (+1, -0, =1 as well as +3, -2, =1 at Rapid/Blitz). Those numbers certainly don't add up to Russian being the 9/10 favourite and Armenia the decided dog at 63/10 (:
Hungary isn't quite as attractive at 47/10 to beat Azerbaijan but still seemingly a good bet. Leko is dead even with Mamedyarov (+2 -2, =13), Rapport drew his only encounter with Radjabov (the 2013 European Club Cup), Almasi has split his 3 decisions with Naiditsch (+1, -1, =1), and Berkes and Safarli drew both their encounters. And Hungary is the only 2014 Olympiad medal winner (silver) in Reykjavik (:
Armenia could only draw Russia but Hungary trounced Azerbaijan 3.5 to 0.5. I'll take a 50% score any day of the week when you're getting those kind of odds (:
Last edited by Jack Maguire; Saturday, 21st November, 2015, 04:02 PM.
While it hasn't been announced as yet, the only logical final round pairing is clear 1st Russia (14) vs clear 2nd Hungary (12). Unfortunately for Hungary, the head-to-head result does not appear to be a tie-break ):
5.3 The order of teams that finish with the same number of match points shall be determined by application of the following tie-breaking procedures in sequence, proceeding from (a) to (b) to (c) to (d) the extent required:
(a) by the sum of Sonneborn-Berger points, which is calculated as follows: match points of each opponent, excluding the opponent who scored the lowest number of match points, multiplied by the number of board points scored against each opponent respectively. The highest number wins. In case of two or more opponents with this same number of match point the lowest results of multiplication should be excluded. (ECU GA 2015 in Bar, Montenegro).
(b) by the number of board points won, the highest number wins;
(c) by the sum of the board points of all team’s opponents, the highest number wins;
(d) by the sum of the board points of all opponents defeated plus one half of the board points of all the opponents with which a tied result was achieved, the highest number wins.
It's not all bad news for Norway. Hammer is having an excellent tournament and Peter Doggers reports 16-year-old Aryan Tari has picked up a double GM norm to secure GM status.
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