Notts News Newsletter of the Nottinghamshire Chess Association 2007–08 No. 24 26 January 2008 http://www.nottschess.org/ [email protected] Copyright © Nottinghamshire Chess Association 2008 2008 Nottingham Rapidplay Intermediate (U125) This year’s Nottingham Rapidplay saw a big increase in numbers, up from 75 last year to 102 this time. There are Name Grade Score probably a few reasons, including better publicity, avoiding 1 Janos Wagenbach (Mansfield) 121 5 £80 half-term, an extra section and more prizes. But some things 2= Jamie Adcock (Reading) 117 4½ £20 never change – GM Mark Hebden won the Open, this time Samuel Milson (Louth) 119 4½ £20 with a perfect 6/6 score. Full results of all four sections follow. 4= Ross Blake (Newark) 119 4 Dean Hartley (Amber Valley) 123 4 Open Nick London (Radcliffe & Bingham) 122 4 Name Grade Score Robert Taylor (Ashfield) 112 4 8 Robert Willoughby (West 107 3½ GP £20 1 Mark Hebden (Birstall) 246 6 £120 Nottingham) 2= Mehail Avramescu (Romania) 189e 4 £30 9= Graham Booley (Birstall) 124 3 Alan Byron (Wigston) 185 4 £30 Stephen Foster (Worcester)983 4= Michael Barnes (Gambit) 200 3½ Graham Gibson (Gambit) 116 3 Julien Dudognon (West 182e 3½ Kevin Marshall (Sheffield Nomads)96 3 Nottingham) Marcel Taylor (Radcliffe & 111 3 Alan Edwards (Scraptoft Valley) 183 3½ Bingham) Ankush Khandelwal (Ashfield) 198 3½ 14= George Boothman (Doncaster 116 2½ 8 David Coates (Lincoln) 137 3 GP £20 Junior) 9= John Harrison (Navigation) 163 2½ Daniel Lin (West Nottingham) 107 2½ Peter Mercs (Gambit) 157 2½ Richard Stokes (Peterborough) 114 2½ Pavel Ondrejka (Rugby) 124 2½ 17= George Murfet (Radcliffe & 113 2 12= Ian Kingston (West Nottingham) 146 1½ Bingham) Drag Sudar (Gambit) 138 1½ Mike Nailard (Radcliffe & Bingham) 109 2 14 David Levens (West Nottingham) 158 ½ 19= M Goodwin (Newark)–1½ James Thomson (–) 99 1½ 21 Michael Harper (Gambit) 105 0 Major (U150) Name Grade Score Minor (U100) 1 Alexander Combie (Newark) 136 5 £80 Name Grade Score 2 Keith Brameld (Navigation) 129 4½ £40 1= Eric McKenna (Sheffield Nomads) 72 5 £60 3= Brandon Clarke (Littlethorpe) 126 4 GP £10 Terry Norris-Hunt (Ashfield) 80 5 £60 Gordon Stables (Eccleshall) 136 4 3= John Crawley (West Nottingham) 70 4½ U80 GP Michael Tate (Scraptoft Valley) 131 4 GP £10 £10 6= Maurice Hill (Nomads) 140 3½ Robert Garnett (West Bridgford) 95e 4½ Graeme Jennings (Navigation) 147 3½ Ben Hobson (Gambit) 73 4½ U80 GP Nigel Towers (Redditch) 130 3½ £10 9= Daniel Broughton (–) 127 3 Edwin Justice (Ashfield) 95 4½ Junior= Paul Colbourn (Braunston) 135 3 Michael Zhang (West Nottingham) 90 4½ Junior= Phil Court (–) 130e 3 8= David Dunne (West Nottingham)76 4 Jonathan Day (West Nottingham) 127 3 Kim Gilbert (Shirley & Lucas)934 13= Geoff Collyer (Louth) 131 2½ Gary Hopkinson (Gambit)834 Eliot Houing (ACF) 144 2½ Predeep Nehra (West 99 4 John Tassi (Gambit) 128 2½ Nottingham) 16 John Collins (West Nottingham) 128 2 William Preston (Worksop)764 17= Oliver Exton (Nomads) 126 1½ 13= Jon Asbury (Shirley & Lucas)923½ Toby Thurgood (Nomads) 113 1½ Dorothy Blampied (Navigation)793½ 19 Richard Edwards (Gambit) 122 ½ (continues overleaf) 1 Name Grade Score The sensation of the week off the board was the ‘no Paul Clapham (Newcastle-under- 45 3½ U60 GP handshake’ incident in the B group, when Ivan Cheparinov Lyme) refused (twice) to shake Nigel Short’s hand, apparently in Lloyd Clarke (Littlethorpe)603½ protest at some comments made by Short regarding the Andrew Garside (West 69 3½ possibility of cheating at the 2005 FIDE World Championship Nottingham) tournament. You can read the story at http://www.chessbase. Aarav Gupta-Kaistha (West 73 3½ com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4397 and http://www.chessbase. Nottingham) com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4402, but in brief: the Bulgarian Ross Mackay (West Nottingham)60 3½ was initially defaulted; then, on appeal, the game was ordered Keshav Nehra (West Nottingham) – 3½ U/G GP to be played on the rest day, provided Cheparinov apologised George Seabridge (–) – 3½ U/G GP in writing (he did) and shook Short’s hand (he did). Short won Andrew Sutton (–) 87 3½ in highly determined fashion. 23= Charlotte Attwood (Radcliffe & –3 Many people believe that this was actually a test of the rules Bingham) on behalf of Cheparinov’s compatriot, Veselin Topalov Sohum Dhir (Nomads)363 (Cheparinov is Topalov’s second, and they share the same Eamonn Lim (West Nottingham)69 3 manager) ahead of the Topalov–Kramnik game. No love is lost between those two after their acrimonious 2006 World Dean Madden (Spondon)463 Championship match, and when they sat down to play the Vijay Maharajan (West –3 Nottingham) whole handshake issue was avoided by the simple expedient of neither player offering his hand. But what happened on the Arun Maini (West Nottingham)613 board in that game proved to be the real sensation... S. McDonald (Doncaster Junior)– 3 Amy Milson (Louth)613 Topalov, Veselin – Kramnik, Vladimir Keval Rughani (–) 56 3 CCT 2008 Wijk aan Zee, 22.01.2008 32= Tracey Clegg (West Nottingham)58 2½ I make no excuses for relying on computer analysis for the Paul Todd (Ashfield)642½ notes in this game (but I have tried to avoid giving too many 34= Steven Cooper (Newcastle-under- 56 2 indigestible variations). Other sources include Topalov’s own Lyme) comments in the press conference and Mihail Marin’s notes Harry Croasdale (NJHS)–2 for ChessBase. 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 Mike Falgate (Radcliffe & Bingham)60 2 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5 9.Be2 Bb7 10.0–0 Nbd7 Neel Kothari (West Nottingham)44 2 11.Ne5 Bg7 This is a very well known position in the Semi- Harjit Nijran (NJHS)–2 Slav. Many of today’s stars have been willing to take one side Aman Ruparelia (West 42 2 or other in this position: Kramnik and Radjabov have taken the Nottingham) White side, for instance, while Anand and Aronian have played Isaac Stables (SASCA)42 Black. Here Kramnik decides to play it as Black. 12.Nxf7!? Daniel Thurgood (Nomads)– 2 (12.Nxd7 is the usual move) 42= Steve Baker (Radcliffe & Bingham)– 1½ G. Lettin (Doncaster Junior)–1½ Saaras Mehan (West Nottingham)12 1½ 45= Derrick Jones (Newcastle-under- 46 1 Lyme) Jordan Nicholson (West –1 Nottingham) Tobias Stables (SASCA)51 Christina Wright (–) – 1 Corus 2008 The Corus supertournament at Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, finishes today. With one round to go, Magnus Carlsen shares the lead on 7½ points in the A group (with Levon Aronian) after a rollercoaster of a week which saw him blunder away a drawn position against Peter Leko; win a lost game against Loek van Wely; throw everything into an apparently winning attack against Viswanathan Anand, only to see the World I’m not sure that using ‘!?’ is adequate for this move, which Champion defend brilliantly to win; and finally beat former looks like something that a 10-year-old might play after seeing World Champion Vladimir Kramnik – with Black, something a few sacrificial games by Tal: sacrifices always lead to winning that has only happened eight times to Kramnik in the last 10 attacks, don’t they? As crazy as it looks, however, there’s no years. Anand and Teimour Radjabov lie just half a point behind. obvious refutation. During the press conference after the Michael Adams was briefly in contention after a win against game, Topalov revealed that this was an idea discovered by his van Wely, but a loss to Judith Polgar dropped him back to second, Ivan Cheparinov, three years ago. The Bulgarians had 50%. If you get this in time, you can watch the last round live been saving it up for a suitably important occasion. Cheparinov at http://www.coruschess.com/. revealed that some of his analysis extends up to move 40 or so. It also transpired that the move wasn’t new, either – 2 although there are no examples in the ChessBase database, unknown to Topalov and co. it had been played in a couple of recent correspondence games. So what does White get for the piece sacrifice? Well, first of all, the Black king is somewhat exposed. Secondly, the white squares on Black’s kingside are now very weak. In particular, g6 and e6 are vulnerable. Thirdly, after e5, Ne4 and Nd6 White gets a very good square for the knight. Fourthly, the black bishop at b7 is out of the game for some time. And finally, Black’s pieces are all rather discoordinated. But does this add up to a whole piece? There is certainly no immediate way to regain the sacrificed material, so White has to hope that these advantages will endure for a while and that the defence of such a position will prove too difficult. 12...Kxf7 13.e5 13.f4 was played in the correspondence games mentioned above (Nacu–Brodda, ICCF 2006 and Brodda–Zidu, ICCF 2007; both drawn). This a completely different approach – attacking down the f-file – from that 27.cxd5?! Another critical moment. 27.h3 appears to be the adopted by Topalov 13...Nd5 13...Ne8 doesn’t look all that best move: 27...Rxf7 28.hxg4 Nf4 29.Nxf7 Ne2+ 30.Kh2 promising, but it does stop White’s knight from reaching d6. A Nxc1 31.Rxc1 Rb8. Topalov was worried at the time that quick look with the computer suggests that White should do although White is now a piece up, the the absence of the well here, but some serious analysis would be needed to be knight and bishop from the queenside might allow Black to sure 14.Ne4 Ke7 15.Nd6 Qb6 Now White starts to play make something of the b-pawn.