How many other fields (sports, art, entertainment, whatever) can you think of where someone is/has been at the top of the field prior to their 18th birthday?

01 Carlsen off 2791,3 +16,3 25 3 1990 id-card
02 Anand off 2790,9 -7,1 4 1 1969 id-card
03 Morozevich off 2787,0 -1 9 1 1977 id-card
04 Topalov off 2786,2 +9,2 4 1 1975 id-card
05 Ivanchuk off 2781,8 +0,8 44 5 1969 id-card
06 Kramnik off 2771,9 -16,1 16 2 1975 id-card
07 Aronian off 2754,1 +17,1 17 2 1982 id-card
08 Radjabov off 2749,5 +5,5 17 2 1987 id-card
09 Leko off 2746,6 +5,6 16 2 1979 id-card
10 Wang Yue off 2735,5 +31,5 23 2 1987 id-card

In the game Benguthrie-Ammarathinman1 black's last move with the knight blocked the f8 bishop which was the defender of the d6 pawn and blocked the e7 escape square of the king. What is the best reply for white?

Solution of the last position:

Black queen moved to b3 to give a specially pretty checkmate! :-)

Did you give a nice checkmate and want to show it to your friends? Please email the game number to dailymate@chesspark.com and maybe your checkmate will be the next on this page!

]]> http://sodapopandritalin.wordpress.com/?p=10 Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:42:33 +0000 sodapopandritalin http://sodapopandritalin.wordpress.com/?p=10 Clamp is probably my favorite manga creators so I was estatic that when they announced the Clamp no Kiseki line of art books that would come with chess pieces for you to collect. There was a serious delay with the American releases and I didn't pick them all up even after they started releasing them again. I had kind of given up on having a full set but as luck would have it I recieved this lovely gift in the mail today via ems.

White Side (from right to left)
Tsubasa- Li (King)
Cardcaptor Sakura- Sakura (Queen)
Cardcaptor Sakura- Tomoyo (Queen-alternate)
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland- Miyuki (Bishop)
Wish- Kohaku (Bishop)
Tokyo Babylon- Subaru (Bishop-alternate)
Chobits- Chii (Rook)
Clamp School Detectives-Akira (Knight)
Magic Knight Rayearth- Hikuru (Knight)
Angelic Layer-Misaki (Rook)
Cardcaptor Sakura-Kero (King-alternate)
Tsubasa- Mokona-Modoki (pawn x 8 )

Dark Side (from right to left)
X- Kamai (King)
X-Fuuma (King-alternate)
RG Veda- Ashura (Rook)
Tsubasa- Fay (Bishop)
XXXHolic- Watanuki (Bishop)
Tokyo Babylon- Sakurazuka (Bishop-alternate)
Clamp School Detectives- Nokoru (Knight)
XXXHolic- Yuuko (Queen)
Clover-Suu (Rook)
Cardcaptor Sakura- Spinnel (King-alternate)
XXXHolic- Mokona-Modoki (Pawn x 8 )
Fear my leet Clamp knowledge as I just did all that from memory.

Spinnel and Kero were mail away figures that you had to send in coupons from all the previous releases to put in a lottery for the right to buy them. I have actually seen just Kero and Spinnel go for about $100 keep in mind the pieces are only about 1 1/2- 2 inches tall each.

They are actually quite detailed for what they are. Some were done a little better than others and some of the pieces left me baffled as to why they wanted to devote a piece to that character when there others possibly more deserving of being made into a chess piece. The duplicate pieces also leave me a bit bemused as well what the hell am I going to do with three bishops?

Bellies filled with veg chili and corn muffins, a small group gathers on the front porch to watch a chess match between a couple of house mates. Later on, a few of us move on to the Westville Pub, across the street. The urban legend proves true, American girls cannot resist guys with French accents. It was a fun evening.

In the game Willien-YoshiDinoJr after white's last move black got the possibility to give a wonderful checkmate. How?

Solution of the last position:

Black gave the check by moving the bishop to c5. White defended by Rook to f2, then the black queen captured it. White moved the king to the corner to h1 and then, the black queen went back to h4 to give the checkmate. Long and pretty mate! :)

Did you give a nice checkmate and want to show it to your friends? Please email the game number to dailymate@chesspark.com and maybe your checkmate will be the next on this page!

Creative Strategist, Innovator & Leader, James (Not Jim) Patsalides, asks the following question:

Does "creative leadership" scare some people?

He says, "Those of us who are Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) alums would clearly value creative leadership, but are there companies/executives out there who might be nervous of the "creative" part? How can you tell these companies from those who might embrace creativity? Why would they be nervous?"  

Here's what I think:

Creative leadership, scary or not, is the survival key for these uncertain times.

This question reminds me of the following wise words: “Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource.” — Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class

Creative leadership, therefore, is the management and guidance of our ultimate economic resource.

Here's how I distinguish companies that embrace creative leadership from those that are run scared:

When I talk to company representatives, I listen to the language they use to describe company happenings. Do they speak in terms of "how we work," or do they specify individual stories about specific people and teams that creatively solve problems? When I hear specific "breaking the mold" stories about people and ideas, I know that the company is valuing creative leadership.

“The key difference between checkers and chess is that in checkers the pieces all move the same way, whereas in chess all the pieces move differently. … Discover what is unique about each person and capitalize on it.” —Marcus Buckingham, The One Thing You Need to Know

I'd say more, but I don't want to scare anyone...

In week 2, we faced the expansion Chicago Blaze and the match ended in a 2-2 tie. I was on board 2, behind Josh, against IM Emory Tate.

The legendary Emory Tate. If you're following an American tournament on ICC, or even some international tournaments, it's hard to escape mention of 3 chessplayers: Fischer, Nakamura, and Tate. Here are a couple writeups I found, at the Chessdrum: a brief intro and part 2.

ICC, where the games were broadcast, billed the game as "Watch the Legendary IM Emory Tate make his debut in the USCL against GM-elect Vinay Bhat!"

Given Tate's history as a dangerous attacker, I was hoping to avoid any such excitement and instead play some quiet chess. However, the game was rather messy, with a number of complicated lines that were tough for me to slog through in the short time control. The game can be replayed here: http://www.uschessleague.com/games/bhattate08.htm

Bhat - Tate, USCL (2) 2008.09.03

1. d4 b6!?

A surprise, but as I hadn't done much preparation for this game, it didn't bother me too much.

2. e4 e6 3. Nd2!?

Clearly not the most testing move, but I was a bit tired before the game, and I wasn't going to challenge him in what might be considered the main lines with either 3.c4 Bb7 4.Nc3 Bb4 or 3.Nc3 Bb7 4.Nf3 Bb4. The latter is probably White's best option of punishing Black for his ultra-hypermodern play in the opening, but I simply couldn't be bothered to do that this early in the game.

3...c5 4. c3 Ne7 5. Ngf3 d5 6. e5 Qd7

We've essentially reached a funky version of the Advance French where Black is hoping to exchange off the light squared bishops. To this end, he needs to take away the option of Qa4+ (as after 6...Ba6 7.Bxa6 Nxa6, 8.Qa4+ wins a piece).

Developing the bishop on f1 is natural now, but doesn't help White's cause as after 7...Ba6, he'll have nothing better than to exchange bishops. Thus, I was looking for something useful to do, and realizing my advantage was going to be on the kingside, I decided to start seizing space immediately.

7. h4! Ba6 8. Bxa6 Nxa6 9. Qe2 c4!?

A tough decision for Black. If he retreats with 9...Nb8, he maintains the central tension for a bit more time, but he also loses time with his knight. I was planning 10.h5 Nbc6 11.a3, taking away the b4-square. White can then proceed in a few different ways on the kingside, most probably with h5-h6 (as in the game) or h5 and Rh4-f4, to pressure the weak f7-pawn. Either way, I think White still is a bit better.

10. h5 b5 11. h6

Ramming the pawn into Black's camp. If he pushes past with 11...g6, he's left with huge dark-square weaknesses (and a knight coming to g4 would be especially strong then), while if he lets White take on g7, the bishop on g7 is going to be weak, while the f6-square is still soft.

11...gxh6 12. Nf1?!

During the game, I thought it made sense to go after the kingside immediately, but maybe it would've been more prudent to play 12.a3. That would take a move out to slow down Black's queenside counterplay, as in the game, he stirred up some trouble there. White can afford to do this given that he'll win the kingside battle anyways.

I considered this during the game, but I thought I would actually be able to use the open b-file faster than Black. With that in mind, I doggedly pursued my strategy on the kingside.

12...b4 13. Ng3 bxc3 14. bxc3 Qa4 15.Rb1 Ng6 16. Nh5 Be7

17. Bxh6

This was where I was hoping to make real use of the b-file by playing 17.Rb7!?. Black can't leave the rook on the 7th in his camp, and so he must play 17...Qc6 (17...Rb8 and 17...0-0-0 both kick the rook away from b7, but allow White to take the pawn on a7). I then had planned 18.Qb2, taking the b-file and on 18...Ba3, White has 19.Qxa3 Qxb7 20.Qd6, when White is winning due to the threat of Nf6#. Fortunately, while he was thinking, I realized he could play 18...Kd8!! there, with the simple idea of 19...Kc8. All of a sudden, my "control" of the b-file just gets me into serious trouble.

17...Nc7 18. Nh2 Nb5 19. Qf3 O-O-O 20. O-O Rd7 21. Ng4 Nh4 22. Qh3?

Up until now, my play had been pretty logical and to the point. However, here, I missed my chance with 22.Qxf7. I was spooked by the possibility of 22...Bg5 23.Qxe6 Nc7, seemingly trapping the queen, but 24.Rb4! saves White and leaves him winning.

22...Nf5

23. Bf4?!

23.Bd2 might look more natural, as it guards the weak c3-pawn, but the bishop is exposed on d2 and will be vulnerable if Black ever puts a queen on the 2nd rank (either after ...Qxa2 or ...Qc2). Thus, I decided to put it on f4.

However, 23.Nhf6! was correct. I saw this move, but for some reason, I kept wanting to avoid calculating in my tired state. The lines are pretty simple, though:

(1) 23...Rb7 24.Nxd5 exd5 25.Ne3

(2) 23...Nxh6 24.Nxh6 Bxf6 25.exf6 Nd6 (25...Rb7? 26.Nxf7!) 26.Rb2 and White just doubles on the b-file.

(3) 23...Bxf6 24.Nxf6 Rb7 25.Nxd5 Nxh6 26.Rb4! Qa5 27.Rxc4+ Kb8 28.Nb4, and the threat of 29.Nc6+ means White can take the knight on h6 later.

23...Rb7 24. Ngf6 Rd8

White was threatening to remove the support from under the f5-knight with 25.Nfxd5.

25. g4 Nfxd4

A visually pleasing sacrifice, but it was virtually forced. The knight had no other safe squares, and 25...Bxf6 runs into 26.gxf5! Be7 27.fxe6 fxe6 28.Qxe6+ when White is crashing through.

26. cxd4 Nxd4 27. Rxb7 Kxb7 28. Ng3 Bxf6 29. exf6 e5 30. Be3 Qc2 31. f4!?

After the game, David Pruess told me this was move was insane, and I agreed. However, I didn't like 31.Qh5 Rd7, when I can't take on e5 because of the weak f3 square. And without that double attack, I needed to find another way to break up his central pawn phalanx.

31...Qd3 32. Bxd4 Qxd4+ 33. Kh1?!

I was now down to 1 minute.

The computer rightly points out that 33.Kg2 was better. I didn't see anything clear after any of the king moves to g2, h2, or h1, but I decided against putting it on the 2nd rank because of some possible checks or pins from b2 or d2.

33...exf4 34. Ne2 Qe3?!

After playing pretty well for the rest of the game, Tate started to go wrong here and got too ambitious. 34...Qe4+ was better, as after White interposes, Black can choose to exchange queens and enter relatively drawish endgames at will. Given the match situation (where they won on board 3 and were winning on board 4), this would have been the more prudent option for the team as well.

35. Qg2 Kc6 36. Rxf4

White is already better again, as the pawns are temporarily stopped and Black's king is somewhat exposed. The ensuing king walk is somewhat counter-intuitive, but it's hard to sit tight sometimes.

36...Kc5 37. Rf5 Kb4?

The previous king moves were not too bad, but this one starts a real downward trend for Black. What's the king doing on b4?

38. Rf3

In time pressure, I missed that 38.Nf4! was much stronger.

38...Qh6+ 39. Kg1 d4?

Black had to prevent his queen from getting shut out and so 39...Qd2 was called for.

In time pressure, I missed that 38.Nf4! was much stronger.

40. Rf4!

The finisher. White cuts Black's queen off from giving any checks, opens the long diagonal for White's queen to give a check on b7 (and as it can later check from b6 or d8, it indirectly is attacking the rook on d8 already), and eyes Black's king along the 4th rank. White is completely winning now.

40...Ka3 41. Qb7 Qh4 42. Qxa7+ Kb2 43. Qb6+ Kc2 44. Qxd8 d3 45. Nd4+ Kc3 46. Qa5+, 1-0

White is going to deliver checkmate soon, and so Black resigned. This brought us up to 1-1 in the match, and after Josh won and Naroditsky lost, the match was finished at an even 2-2.

This game was also awarded the Game of the Week prize for week 2 in the USCL. Here's the writeup from the judge of the Game of the Week competition: http://usclnews.blogspot.com/2008/09/week-2-game-of-week.html

I was largely playing to get some practice playing 2 rounds a day again, as most European events have one round on every day. It was my first time back at the State Champs since 1999, when there were very strong players like GMs Roman Dzindzichasvili and Walter Browne amongst the participants. This year, I was the top seed with about four or five 2400s behind me.

Nevertheless, it was an unmitigated disaster for me.

In the first round, I had the white pieces against Jimmy Heiserman. He played a Grunfeld against me, and I was rather happy with the game, as I got a small edge out of the opening and started to expand across the board. He tried to complicate things, but I cut my way through the complications to get an easily winning endgame.

In the second round, I had the black pieces against NM Steven Zierk, who I played in a 20-board simul in Los Gatos earlier in the year (writeup at: http://vbhat.wordpress.com/tag/los-gatos/). He played extremely passively, but I guess he just wanted a draw from the game. I struggled to squeeze something from the position, and I was making great progress until I made a bad miscalculation around the time control on move 30 and was left with a worthless advantage in the endgame. The game petered out in a K+B (for me) vs. K (for him) draw ...

Annoying for sure, but it was the 2nd game of the day, and as I was trying to prepare myself for the rigors of playing a pair of 5-hour rounds a day, I wasn't overly upset at that one. The next morning, though, I drew again with a much lower rated master, this time NM Gregory Young.

I got a clear advantage out of the opening, but immediately took it into an endgame which offered few practical chances for me due to the opposite colored bishops. This was a bad practical decision, as had I kept more pieces on the board, I may have kept more chances of outplaying my opponent. As it was, the endgame was not so hard to defend, and although he gave me a few chances, I never got close enough to win the game.

The real disaster struck that evening, in the fourth round as black against NM Drake Wang. I emerged from the opening with a clear advantage (extra pawn, pair of bishops), but then was so overjoyed with such an advantage that I played a little loosely for the next few moves. I saw a winning line after he played 18.Nxf7, the only problem being that I mixed up the order of the moves. Thus, I incorrectly played 18...d4, when 18...Bxc4 19.bxc3 d3! was winning. He immediately took advantage by sliding his knight away with Nce5, after which I was reeling. I tried to fight, and the game went on for another 2.5 hours, but I was again in no danger of winning and in fact was in no real danger of drawing the game!

With that loss, I was dropped to 2/4 and decided to withdraw from the tournament. I had done a great job against lower rated players in general since playing more seriously in 2006 - before this tournament, in my previous 64 games against lower rated opposition (since the start of 2006), I had 55 wins, 7 draws, and 2 losses. In this tournament, I left with 1 win, 2 draws, and 1 loss. A clunker like that was bound to happen at some point, but it was disappointing for sure. However, I think I've learned a couple things from those games and will hopefully not let that happen again.

The tournament was also costly from a FIDE rating standpoint, as I essentially threw away all my gains from Balaguer 2008 by losing 12+ rating points. My next rated tournament will be the Miami International, from September 10th to the 14th.

As a stand-in for a wrap-up of the tournament, my former student FM Sam Shankland won the tournament convincingly with 5/6. He thrashed IM Andrei Florean in round 5 before holding a draw against IM Dmitry Zilberstein in the final round to secure clear first place.

HT to my former teacher Richard Shorman for the photos. There are more available at his Chess Dryad site.

I the game N.Imi-Bitdefender white opened his king's position with pawn f2-f4,

which allowed a winning attack for black. How shold he finish the game?

Solution of the last position:

White sacrificed the knigh on d5. Black captured it with c6 pawn, then white queen captured the pawn on d5 and attacked f7 pawn and c5 bishop in the same time. Black should defend the f7 pawn by Be6, but he moved the c5 bishop to a7 which gave the possibility for white to capture on f7 to give a checkmate! :)

Did you give a nice checkmate and want to show it to your friends? Please email the game number to dailymate@chesspark.com and maybe your checkmate will be the next on this page!

1. Matveeva, Svetlana RUS (2412) - Ushenina, Anna UKR (2476) - 0:1

2. Hoang Thanh Trang HUN (2487) - Koneru, Humpy IND (2622) - 1/2:1/2

3. Hou, Yifan CHN (2557) - Sedina, Elena ITA (2344) - 1:0

4. Gaponenko, Inna UKR (2468) - Stefanova, Antoaneta BUL (2550) - 0:1

5. Cramling, Pia SWE (2544) - Ruan, Lufei CHN (2499) - 1:0

6. Harika, Dronavalli IND (2461) - Mkrtchian, Lilit ARM (2436) - 1/2:1/2

7. Shen, Yang CHN (2445) - Kosintseva, Nadezhda RUS (2460) - 1/2:1/2

8. Kosteniuk, Aleksandra RUS (2510) - Kosintseva, Tatjana RUS (2511) - 1/2:1/2

Official website: http://nalchik2008.fide.com/

Today I started a game while doing some English homework. Although the game was set at three days a move we both were making moves every five or so minutes. Unfortunately I am going to have to show you the game notation which will mean nothing to most people that read this. But once I figure out how to post an actual game with a board and you can go threw the moves then it will be much more interesting.

EDIT: well I cant figure out a way to post a game board on this site so here is a link that you can view the game from. GAME

In the game Blueray-dejanus white got development advantage and a strong knight in the center, black king is in the middle, the c5 bishop in undefended. How can get white the most out from the position?

Solution of the last position:

White moved the queen to e7 to give the checkmate!

Did you give a nice checkmate and want to show it to your friends? Please email the game number to dailymate@chesspark.com and maybe your checkmate will be the next on this page!

I suppose he was a male version of a Stray Dog. I think he badly wanted to fuck me. Keep talking sailor, but I'm still not going home with you.

All images and info: from the Official site where you can also follow the games live!
On this link you can follow the the results of all the rounds.
On THIS LINK you can play through the games of round 1 and on THIS LINK you can play through the games of round 2...and click here for round 3 all rounds' games on chess.com's site.

Pairings and results: round 6 Monday 8th September

IVANCHUK Vassily vs ANAND Viswanathan  
TOPALOV Veselin vs RADJABOV Teimour  
CARLSEN Magnus vs ARONIAN Levon

Pairings and results: round 5: 6th Sept 2008

IVANCHUK Vassily vs TOPALOV Veselin --1/2
ANAND Viswanathan vs CARLSEN Magnus --1/2
RADJABOV Teimour vs ARONIAN Levon--1/2

Standings after round 4
Please click HERE to play through the games of round 4.

Results: round 4 - 5th Sept 2008

ARONIAN Levon IVANCHUK Vassily --1-0
CARLSEN Magnus RADJABOV Teimour--1-0
TOPALOV Veselin ANAND Viswanathan--1-0

Image: chess.com
The organisers are certainly making original efforts to make chess more accessible to spectators by placing the players in an "Aquarium" i.e. a giant, soundproofed glass box. This innovation was first seen earlier this year at the M-Tel Tournament, but in Bilbao the "Aquarium" will be situated outside in The Plaza Nueva in Bilbao.

Round 1

Round 3...Carlsen vs Topalov..image:chess.com

Round 5 ...6th Sept

Bilbao will receive from September 2 to September 13, the strongest tournament of the History of the Chess. A tournament of the category XXII with Elo's average of the participants of 2775,63. Further more, for the first time ever an event of such characteristics will take place in the street, in the Plaza Nueva, right in the centre of Bilbao's Old Town.
The six players participating are currently among the world’s top ten chess players headed by world’s champion and number one Viswanathan Anand. Along with him, Magnus Carlsen (number two), Vasili Ivanchuk (number three), Véselin Topálov (number six), Teimur Radyábov (number seven) and Levon Aronián (world’s number ten currently) will compete in Bilbao. No tournament had managed so far to gather such a high Elo’s average level (scoring system to order players’ ranking).

For the first time in a world’s elite tournament and surrounded by a strong international controversy, the Final Masters is going to apply the football scoring system, earning three points per game won and one point per draw, though players will not be allowed to agree a draw being the competition’s referee who will determine it.

The Final Masters has the official recognition of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and it will be played in a double round league during ten days (plus a two-day break). The total prize money amounts to €400,000, sum only exceeded by World Chess Championships: €150,000 for the first classified, €70,000 for the second one, €60,000 for the third one, €50,000 for the fourth one, €40,000 for the fifth one and €30,000 for the sixth one.

Another great novelty in this tournament will be the playing place: the street, allowing a lot of people to follow the games live and directly. A huge soundproofed and air-conditioned glazed case is under construction to this purpose and it will be placed in the Plaza Nueva in Bilbao under a marquee which will also accommodate The Agora for analysis and comments, a space located by the glass case where the audience will also be able to enjoy comments from Chess Grandmasters among whom we can name Boris Spassky and Susan Polgar.

Pleae click HERE for the Official site.

Standings after round 3..click on the image for a larger view

Pairings and results: round 3 --- 4th Sept 2008
RADJABOV Teimour vs IVANCHUK Vassily--1/2
ARONIAN Levon vs ANAND Viswanathan --1/2
CARLSEN Magnus vs TOPALOV Veselin--0-1

Rounds 3-10...Pairings...source:chessbase

Anand
I couldn’t care less about my mental power or whatever it is said about me in the chess encyclopaedias in a hundred years time”. Viswanathan Anand is no doubt one of the greatest genius in chess history in the last fifteen centuries. But his easy-going character makes him the complete opposite of Fischer, Kárpov and Kaspárov. World champion and number one at the age of 38, he lives in Collado Mediano (Madrid), the rapid of Madras wants to polish even more his record in Bilbao at a month from the struggle for the crown with Russian Vladímir Krámnik.

“Although it is my second world title, this one is more valuable because in 2000 chess was suffering from a schism and there were two champions. Now I am the only one. The dream has come true” he explained in Mexico City on 1st October 2007, before calling his parents who live in Chennai (former Madras) and his “Spanish father”, Mauricio Perea.

Carlsen

The ‘Mozart of Chess’

His second places at the Wijk aan Zee Corus (Holland) 2008 and at the Ciudad de Linares 2008, where he repeated his 2007 achievement, are a sign that this 17 years old Norwegian is already mature for even greater achievements. Magnus Carlsen recommends parents of child prodigies: “to give them support but without putting pressure on them. My father taught me to play chess when I was 5, but I wasn’t interested at the time and he left me alone”. At the age of 2 he already solved difficult jigsaws; at 5 he remembered the capitals, flags, areas and inhabitants of every country.

At 8, Magnus felt jealous one of his sisters played chess and that is where a career only comparable in precociousness with the ones of the sacred manes began. At 13 Carlsen became the youngest chess grandmaster in the world; and today, at the age of 17, he is among the world’s top five players in the rankings. He sleeps up to eleven hours, is a passionate fan of the Real Madrid and Spain is the country he knows best. When he is not travelling he attends a special school for sports talents. He has his particular opinion about money: “I don’t really know what to do with it”. I spend much less than I earn”.

Ivanchuk
An adorable absent-minded wise man

His sensational victory in the Mtel Masters, Sofia 2008 gave him the right to be in the Bilbao Final Masters. But even without this feat, Vassili Ivanchuk deserves a place among the top-class chess players: at almost 40, he is the oldest luminary though he is nevertheless at the peak of his career. Chess lover to the core, tireless worker of encyclopaedic knowledge he is a genius absent-minded wise man of whom everybody - even his most bitter rivals- speaks very fondly.

“My secret is I don't know how I managed to win those five first games one after the other. I certainly did have a little bit of what it is called the luck of the champions. But the key is I wasn’t aware of what I was achieving; otherwise I would have never managed to do it. I believe I am at the best of my career. I don’t feel a bit old to stay in the elite; particularly if I compare myself to Víktor Korchnói, who is at his 77 years old still in the front line!”. So modestly explained Ivanchuk his win in Sofia –undefeated, with eight of ten possible points-, one of the best results in chess history.

Topalov
An exemplary fighter on his way up

He defeated Kasparov in what was to be his last game (Linares 2005) and he is a clear symbol of the differences between the current chess elite and the times of the Ogre of Baku.Natural, modest and very friendly, a fighter and well disciplined about his everyday training, and tries to keep a good image. That’s Veselin Topalov, the 33 year-old Bulgarian from Salamanca world chess champion in 2005 and currently number four in the chess rankings, with the clear aim to take up again the crown in 2009.

“I will never forget what happened to me when I was 8 years old in Ruse, my native city. After defeating me, one of the best players of the area gave me a row, he pulled my ears and almost hit me because I had played too fast, without thinking. A year later I played with him again in the same tournament, and I won, he remembers about his childhood in Bulgaria.

Topalov admits that it is impossible to be among the world’s top ten chess players without innate talents: “If we put it into round numbers, 60% of my success is due to the effort and 40% to the talent”.

Radjabov
The kid that knocked out Kasparov

Even though chess is along with music and mathematics the activity that more child prodigies produces, very few have impressed so much as Teimur Radyabov. At 12, when he became European Champion U-18, he already showed a strategic depth and good manners not expected from someone of his age. At 14 he became grandmaster. At 15 he defeated Kasparov with the black pieces in Linares. Today he is 21 and has settled among the elite, though everything shows that he’s still got a long way to go, as he will most probably demonstrate in Bilbao.

One has to go back as far as the legendary Bobby Fischer in the 60’s to find feats as resounding as when Radyabov defeated Kasparov in 2003. Also born in Baku, he had never lost with white pieces to a human rival in the classical game since May 1996. Bearing in mind that both of them were born in Baku and were Guéidar Alíyev’s protégées (President of the Azerbaijan KGB when Kasparov was young and of the Azerbaijani Government when Radyábov was a child) one can better understand Kaspárov’s angry outburst that night: he did not shake hands with the winner and had a very late dinner, thumping his fist on the table while having chicken.

Aronian

An easy-going winner

He could be the boy from the shop around the corner, jet he is a great chess luminary: he is only 25 years old but has already won the World Cup and the Linares and Wijk aan Zee (twice) tournaments. That naturalness, his universal style and belonging to a country where chess is the national passion, as well as a balanced nervous system configure the 25 year-old Armenian Levon Aronian as a very solid value.

“I’m not prepared to compete with the big ones. The only advantage I have over those beasts is my total ignorance and fresh thinking”, Aronian said at Christmas 2005, a few days after having won the World Cup in Siberia and some days just before his debut in the Wijk aan Zee Corus Tournament (Holland), where he shared the 7th place of 14 participantespants. Just a month later he triumphed in Linares, the chess Wimbledon, so surprisingly as convincingly.

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In a game of chess you can see all the pieces at all times, their location, the passed moves they made, and their potential future moves. You have almost all the information in the world about the situation, and yet almost every time time a game is played someone looses! Stalemates are rare. Surely given a pair of skilled players they should be the rule. But it's not. One person loses. Is this a failure of analysis, a dereliction of information, the inability of one player to spot the significance of a particular set of moves? Or is it more often that neither player can read the mind of the other player?

Which brings me to another interesting question how often to good chess players look at their opponent? Do they study the board or their opponents more when they're planning future moves?

Ate breakfast at Tempo aftee chess.

Remembered how she sprawls about the bed in improbable positions when she sleeps. I wonder if she knows that is part of why I love her.

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Great little game for when you can't find anyone to play chess with!