2007/06/25

Dear players, be kind please!

Chess players, be kind or... you'll lose the game! The Fide Presidential Board, held in Tallinn, decided on setting up behavioural norms in chess events. No, this is not a joke. The PB discussed "several recent cases in different chess tournaments where the attitude of players toward their opponent or officials, journalists etc. was not acceptable under conventional social behaviour". This is why Fide decided, at last, that "any player who does not shake hands with the opponent (or greets the opponent in a normal social manner in accordance with the conventional rules of their society) before the game starts in a Fide tournament or during a Fide match (and does not do it after being asked to do so by the arbiter) or deliberately insults his/her opponent or the officials of the event, will immediately and finally lose the relevant game". You can say this is ridiculous, I think it is a sad necessity. I'm personally aware of some episodes where players even insulted their opponents... Perhaps they just got nervous for some reasons and reacted in a wrong way (perhaps their opponent were a bit guilty themselves, too), I don't know: this doesn't justify them anyway. Remember you are playing chess, not football :-) You have to be sporty, whatever happens. If you can't stand a loss (because this is the main reason why a player gets nervous), just give up chess and try another sport. More details on www.fide.com.
The Sparkassen Chess Meeting had a rest day. Tomorrow's games will be Mamedyarov-Kramnik, Carlsen-Alekseev, Gelfand-Anand and Leko-Naiditsch. Official site: http://www.sparkassen-chess-meeting.de/. You can also find a Dortmund section on my Italian site www.messaggeroscacchi.it (direct link: www.messaggeroscacchi.it/mondo/dortmund07.html).
Round 7 of the Aerosvit supertournament was played in Yalta,Ukraine. Sergey Karjakin strengthened his lead by beating Loek Van Wely; Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov also won against Pavel Eljanov and Krishnan Sasikiran respectively. Standings: Karjakin 5/7; Ivanchuk 4.5; Shirov 4; etc. Official site: http://www.ukrchess.org.ua/aerosvit2007/index_e.htm.
And now here is Karjakin victory's...

Karjakin,S (2686) - Van Wely,L (2674) [B90], Yalta 25.6.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3
Karjakin usually plays 7.Nb3 at this point. The text move is a solid alternative.
7...Be7 8.Bc4 0–0 9.0–0 Nc6 10.Re1 b5 11.Bf1 Rb8 12.Bg5 Ng4 13.Bc1
Probably a new move. White deviates from the game Anand-Topalov, Morelia-Linares 2007, which continued 13.Bd2 Be6 14.Nd5 h6 15.h3 Nf6 16.c4 Qd7 17.b3 Bd8 18.Rc1 Bxd5 19.cxd5 Ne7 20.Bd3 Bb6 21.Nh4 g5 22.Nf3 Rfc8 23.Rxc8+ Rxc8 24.Nh2 Ng6 25.Ng4 1/2–1/2.
13...Qb6 14.Qd2 Nf6 15.h3 Re8 16.Qd1
It looks like White is a bit confused...
16...h6 17.b3 Bf8 18.a4 b4 19.Nd5 Nxd5 20.exd5 Na5?!
The first inaccuracy. After 20...Ne7 Black has completely equal chances.
21.Be3 Qc7 22.Nd2 f5 23.Nc4 Be7?!
Probably not the best choice: 23...Nxc4 24.Bxc4 Qf7 looks safer.
24.Qh5!
Now Black is in deep trouble.
24...Rf8
This allows White to finish the game with a brilliant combination. 24...Rd8 and 24...Bd7 had to be considered.
25.Nxa5 Qxa5 26.Bxh6!
First blow!
26...gxh6?
Now Black loses by force. 26...Bd7 was the only way to survive, although White has a huge advantage after 27.Bg5.
27.Qg6+ Kh8 28.Qxh6+ Kg8 29.Qg6+ Kh8 30.Re3!
Now Black has to prevent Rg3.
30...f4
Almost forced, but...
31.Rxe5!
Second and decisive blow!
31...dxe5 32.Qh6+ Kg8 33.d6
Wonderful! White is one Rook and one Bishop down, but Black doesn' have a good defence!
33...Rf7
This loses immediately, but after 33...Qd8 34.Bc4+ Rf7 35.dxe7 Qxe7 36.Qg6+ Kf8 37.Bxf7 Qxf7 38.Qd6+ Kg7 39.Qxb8 Black is hopeless anyway.; 33...Bxd6 loses even sooner: 34.Bc4+ Rf7 35.Qg6++-
34.Bc4 Bf5 35.dxe7 1–0
After 35...Qc5 36.Qg5+ White takes the Rook back with a totally winning position, so Black resigned. "I was lucky today!", commented Karjakin after the game.

3 comments:

Tom Chivers said...

Goodness. Nigel Short will never win another game!

Anonymous said...

Does that mean that Topalov and Kramnik, who refused to shake each other's hands in Wijk aan Zee, will now be double forfeited? Or did one player refuse first?

Mida said...

Fide Ethics Commission and the Arbiter’s Council are to elaborate guidelines for the players. They will be published on the Fide website - www.fide.com - very soon (I hope...). I think that if both players refuse to shake hands, they will be double forfeited. We will see...