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Friday, March 21, 2008

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, Yifan Hou winner!!! Cramling Pia runner!!

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, has concluded!

Yifan Hou has won the tournament, and Cramling followed.

Here are the standings after Round 9!
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Rank Title Name Rating Country Points
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1 WGM Yifan Hou 2527 CHN 7
2 GM Cramling Pia 2524 SWE 6
3 WGM Xue Zhao 2517 CHN 5½
4 IM Atalik Ekaterina 2408 TUR 5
5 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2470 GEO 4½
6 GM Chen Zhu 2548 QAT 4
7 IM Dronavalli Harika 2455 IND 4
8 IM Krush Irina 2473 USA 3½
9 IM Ushenina Anna 2484 UKR 3
10 WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre 2207 TUR 2½
--------------------------------------------

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Rest day!

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament

March 19, Wednesday, is a free day!

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 4, Vishy Anand lost (??) in Rapid round (??)

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament
-----------------------------------------
Each round has 2 games
Blindfold game (say, BG) - a normal game
Rapid game (say, RG) - a fast game, moves are to be played faster than in normal game
-----------------------------------------

Round 4

Results!!
-----------------------------------------
BG
RG
-----------------------------------------
Gelfand-Van Wely 0-1 
Van Wely-Gelfand 1/2-1/2 

Karjakin-Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2 
Ivanchuk-Karjakin 1-0 

Aronian-Carlsen 1/2-1/2 
Carlsen-Aronian 0-1 

Kramnik-Morozevich 1-0 
Morozevich-Kramnik 1/2-1/2 

Anand-Leko 1/2-1/2 
Leko-Anand 1-0 

Mamedyarov-Topalov 0-1 
Topalov-Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
-----------------------------------------
Uhhh...!!! the cunning chess player... Van Wely!!! 
His cunningness, this time, has seen Gelfand loss. 
Of course,
Gelfand gave up his King's safety, and had to play the price, when Van Wely sacrificed his Rook for a lesser Piece, and had a strong attack,
Gelfand gave up the game too! Slowly but surely Van Wely is gaining back for what is known!!

Here is the game!!


Ivanchuk, on his Birthday, beat the younger Krajakin!
Not sure, if Krajakin did keep his cool, after Ivanchuk gave away a well-calculated Queen sacrifice!!
This is real cool figthing spirit by Ivanchuk (he is known for his desire for a win)
Krajakin did give up his Queen, and after dust settled, by move 27, he has got Rook for Ivanchuk's Knight, but, but, but, Ivanchuk got 3 extra pawns, which is really good!
Then it came to 5 pawns for Ivanchuk, verus, no pawns for Krajakin. Krajakin could forsee the fate, gave up, Ivanchuk won with ease, and in Style, with Queen sacrifice, on his Birthday!!!

Here is the game!!


Aronian hit the right weak spot in Carlsen's territory!!, on 26th move, with Rook to a3!!
With this move, Aronian's Rook held busy Carlsen's both Bishop & Rook, for a long time!
Tough looked equal in material, Carlsen dint have counter play, he tried Rook to a3, only to see, there would be a check on the next move, and his Rook will be out of chess board!
He resigned, Aronian won!!

Here is the game!!


By move 34, obviously Kramnik is ahead by 1 pawn, and also, he had two passed pawns (pawns that cannot be stopped by opponent's pawn!)
So, the win looked obvious for Kramnik, and in the end Moro attacked like-any-thing to Queen his pawn by sacrificing both Bishop & Knight, but it was the end-game-master Kramnik at the other end. Obvious, with Material up Kramnik won!!!

Here is the game!!


This Round isn't good for Dr. Dr. Dr. Viswanathan Anand! (yes, Anand is said to have recieved his 3rd!!! Honorary Doctorate, last month!)
In the earlier post (below link), we mentioned Leko is a "solid player", this is again proved!
http://chessthatiamwatchingnow.blogspot.com/2008/03/17th-amber-blindfold-and-rapid-chess_18.html
So, Anand lost to, long time considered the most solid player, Leko!!!
This time, Leko beat Vishy Anand!!!! (though we shud say, it was Anand's who gave it up, for free).
Just after Loko played, Anand gave up the game, as he is going to loose a piece, which he missed to see!
Actualy, this is a classic lesson on what will happen when we deny our own King's castling (safety)
Anand himself denied King castling by moving his King on move 15, let's not talk if he is right or wrong! as he is Anand!
It only that, he looked like, wanted to move his King to safety, just a step away, but there were no more moves! Leko won!!
Anand's 1st loss, that too in a Rapid game, in which he is considered to be a King!!, also he would have just overlooked for a split second, as he would always draw if something looks suspicious to him!
Anyway, with this simple loss, Anand lost his 1st place in both Rapid/Blind and combined.

Here is the game!!


Topalov invaded Mamedyarov's kingside, in a usual very attacking way,  
After Topalov took a pawn with Knight, Mamedyarov dint take it
(otherwise Topalov will take the Bishop too!, and Mamedyarov will be spectator as he can't take it with pawn!) 
Real cool trick, Mamedyarov missed to see, saw the game ending!

Here is the game!!


Link:
http://www.amberchess2008.com/2008Round04.html

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, Round 3, Upsets Galore!!!

17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament

-----------------------------------------
Each round has 2 games
Blindfold game (say, BG) - a normal game
Rapid game (say, RG) - a fast game, moves are to be played faster than in normal game
-----------------------------------------

Round 3

Results!!
-----------------------------------------
BG
RG
-----------------------------------------
Mamedyarov-Kramnik 1/2-1/2 
Kramnik-Mamedyarov 0-1 

Topalov-Anand 1/2-1/2 
Anand - Topalov 1/2-1/2 

Leko-Morozevich 1/2-1/2 
Morozevich-Leko 0-1 

Aronian-Gelfand 1/2-1/2 
Gelfand-Aronian 1-0 

Carlsen-Karjakin 1-0 
Karjakin-Carlsen 1-0 

Van Wely-Ivanchuk 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk-Van Wely 0-1
-----------------------------------------

Great upset was Kramnik losing to Mamedyarov!!!

Until move 20, in what looked like a dead equal game,
is thown away (???) by Kramnik, sacrificing his Bishop, assuming he can win back.
This proved to be severe overconfidence on Kramnik's part,
as Mamedyarov crushed him in 20 more moves, slowly but surely!
What a game it was!!!

Here is the game!!


Anand couldn't force a win on Topalov!, both Blindfold & Rapid ended with draws.
In Rapid game, felt Anand could have played 29th move as Rd4 (Rook to d4 sqaure), but we can't assume Anand didn't get it, he is genious, and suggestion may be an obvious one!

Here is the game!!


Ok! another upset (not really) was Morozevich losing to Leko!. Not really because Leko is a solid player, only these days he isnt playing at his peak!
You can't really win on the Mighty Moro, but Leko's solid play became very heavy on dynamic play of Moro, this time.

Here is the game!!


Seeing his extraordinary performances this year and his rating, Carlsen shud win on Karjakin, he did in the 1st game!
However, it was Karjakin who won on Carlsen in the Rapid game, yes, this is an upset.

Here is the game!!


Lastly Ivanchuk, most experienced in Top 10 (may be Top 100?), has lost to much low rated, but very cunning (in chess), Van Wely!
Van Wely! slowly gained a pawn in the middle, gave it back for strong attack against Ivanchuk, later slowly gripped on the game, and took 2 pawns!
With not much counter play left, and 2 pawns down, one passed pawn to become Queen with certainity, Ivanchuk resigned, Van Wely won!!

Here is the game!!


Link:
http://www.amberchess2008.com/2008Round03.html

Ataturk Women Masters Chess, Round 6 & 7, Cramling Pia & Yifan Hou lead!! Atalik Ekaterina follow!

Ataturk Women Masters Chess

(Not surprisingly, this tournament is overlooked as another Super tournament, 17th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, has started, where great guns like Anand, Moro, Topalov are playing, ofcourse it's difficult to say Kramnik is doing great, with 2 loses already ??)


Ok Round 6!

Chen Zhu (2548), after a series of losses, slowly got her confidence back, and won on Xue Zhao (2517), in the Round 6! It's a good sign, but can she reach to Top? All depends on how others perform!


Round 7

After Round 7, Cramling Pia with her huge experience & Yifan Hou with her extraordinary talent, are leading the tournament now.

Also, these are the only un-beaten players till now!

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Rank Title Name Rating Place Points
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1 GM CRAMLING Pia 2524 SWE 5½
2 WGM YIFAN Hou 2527 CHN 5½

3 IM ATALIK Ekaterina 2408 TUR 5
4 WGM XUE Zhao 2517 CHN 3½
5 IM DRONAVALLI Harika 2455 IND 3½
6 IM KRUSH Irina 2473 USA 3
7 IM JAVAKHISHVILI Lela 2470 GEO 3
8 WIM YILDIZ Betul Cemre 2207 TUR 2½
9 GM CHEN Zhu 2548 QAT 2
10 IM USHENINA Anna 2484 UKR 1½
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