Kasparov, Thiel on Chess, etc: Video

This special video features World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel discussing technology, chess, Russian and American politics as well as human rights and prospects for the world economy. 

Garry KasparovThe youngest world chess champion in history at 22 in 1985, Kasparov remained the top-rated player in the world for 20 years, until his retirement in 2005. He then became a leader of the Russian pro-democracy movement against Vladimir Putin and is currently the chairman of the NY-based Human Rights Foundation. The Kasparov Chess Foundation promotes chess in education around the world with centers in the US, Europe, and Africa with more soon to come. Kasparov speaks and writes frequently on technology, decision-making, and risk. His book, "How Life Imitates Chess," has been published in more than 20 languages.

Peter ThielPeter Andreas Thiel is a German-born American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. Thiel co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and served as its CEO. (Wikipedia)

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World Championship 2013: Best Updates

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World Cup: All Indians Knocked Out

Grandmaster and former national champion B. Adhiban bowed out of the chess World Cup after losing his second game on the trot against higher-ranked Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the third round in Tromso. (Left Photo B Adhiban) Overall, Peter Svidler, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Boris Gelfand and Gata Kamsky guaranteed their places in the fourth stage. Julio Granda Zuniga levelled the score by defeating Anish Giri to play the tiebreaks on August 19. Alexander Grischuk played the longest game of the round against Le Quang Liem and managed to level the score after 154 moves and 6.5 hours. Ten matches will be decided by tiebreaks. 

As regards the Indian challenge, losing the first game as white, Adhiban started the day in a must-win situation but his aspirations suffered setbacks as Nakamura scored another chance-less victory against the Indian.

Adhiban was the best-performing Indian in the event as compatriots G. Akash and Parimarjan Negi had crashed out in the first round itself against Fabiano Caruana of Italy and Yuri Kryvoruchko of Ukraine.

Krishnan Sasikiran found his nemesis in Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the second round of the 128-player knockout event.

World No. 2 Levon Aronian knocked out by...

World number two Levon Aronian of Armenia was sent packing too as he could not win in the return game against Evgeny Tomashevski of Russia and lost the two-games mini-match by 0.5-1.5 margin.

...Evgeny Tomashevski of Russia

Russian Alexander Grischuk however rose from his ashes to square it up against Le Quang Liem of Vietnam. It was a dead-drawn endgame on board which on another day was no problem for Liem.

  

Great fighting spirit: Alexander Grischuk

However, the pressure got to the Vietnamese as he squandered away the chance to be in last 16 and will have to now battle it out in the rapid tiebreaker.

Apart from victories by Grischuk and Nakamura, the day provided just one more decisive game and veteran Peruvian Grandmaster Julio Granda Zuniga benefitted at the expense of Dutchman Anish Giri.

Fighting for Peru: Julio Granada Zuniga

Incidentally, Anish had won the first game so this one too goes to the tie-break stage.

Adhiban went for the King’s Indian defence against Nakamura but the American just went for an equal variation that involved trading of queens early in the opening.

Seeking a victory desperately, Adhiban felt the heat and his attempts to complicate did not come good. Nakamura spotted an opportunity to sacrifice an exchange that sealed the fate of the game effectively and the American notched the victory in 40 moves.

Adhiban got $16,000 after his ouster out of which 20 per cent will be paid to FIDE as part of the regulations. The Indian had beaten Evgeny Alekseev of Russia in the first round and Alexander Fier of Brazil in the second. (All photos by Anastasiya Karlovich)

Results round 3 game 1: Levon Aronian (Arm) lost to Evgeny Tomashevsky (Rus) 0.5-1.5; Vladimir Malakhov (Rus) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Vloadimir Kramnik (Rus) drew with Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Le Quang Liem (Vie) v/s Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) drew with Pavel Eljanov (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; B Adhiban (Ind) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (Usa) 0-2; Boris Gelfand (Isr) beat Alexander Moiseenko (Ukr) 1.5-0.5; Jon Ludvig Hammer (Nor) lost to Gata Kamsky (Usa) 0.5-1.5; S Mamedyarov (Aze) drew with Wei Yi (Chn) 1-1; M Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) beat Leinier Dominguez Perez (Cub) 1.5-0.5; Daniil Dubov (Rus) drew with Anton Korobov (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Dmitry Andreikin (Rus) drew with Aleksey Dreev (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Peter Svidler (Rus) beat Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 1.5-0.5; Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with Yuri Kryvoruchko (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Julio Granda Zuniga (Per) v/s Anish Giri (Ned) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Nikita Vitiugov (Rus) drew with Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak.

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World Cup: Arbiter on Hao-Dreev Issue

Armenian Arbiter Ashot Vardapetyan explains the incident in the game Wang Hao - Alexei Dreev in detail.

I will try to answer to all the questions raised in the Russian site and hope you will find the answers interesting to you as well.

Indeed, I have read all the original Russian comments and I am sorry to find out that 90% of the people didn’t understand what happened on site. They chose to interpret everything from their point of view based on their imagination of “what could happen” or they just don’t comprehend the FIDE rules.

Let me note that it is not for the first time that such a situation happened in international events, including official events. In my practice, the last time I encountered such a situation was during the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. Such situations were discussed during the FIDE Rules Commission meetings with a general opinion formulation at the end.

Moreover, many lecturers discuss such situations during the FIDE Arbiters’ seminars. I am sorry, that many readers, including chess players and arbiters, voiced their decisive opinions without the command of chess rules’ nuances.

The situation is very simple. Let us again discuss the situation:

1. Before claiming a draw, Wang Hao offered a draw to his opponent as it is obvious that after the planned move is made, the position will be repeated 3 times. Getting no response from his opponent, Wang Hao claimed a draw by telling the planned move to the arbiter. According the Rules he may not stop the clock while claiming a draw.

2. The arbiter was right when he did not react on the claim as there was an obvious failure in procedure. Then after the second claim, the arbiter felt that Wang’s incorrect procedure claim disturbed his opponent. Because of this, he stopped the clock.

3. The Chief Arbiter added time to Dreev's time to punish Wang Hao for disturbing his opponent. This is in accordance to the rule.

4. Dreev did not understand why his time was added, telling all that he has no connection with any of this. (The reader who made own assumptions, could hardly understand that by watching the video).

5. Finally, after clarifying the situation and adding more time to Dreev’s clock, the arbiter re-started the clock.

Here, let us make a note: in fact, no claim of draw (neither correct nor incorrect) is recorded at this moment since Wang did not write down his next intended move on the score sheet. There was only wrong behavior (procedure failure) that disturbed the opponent in time trouble. At least this was recorded by the arbiters.

6. The fact that Wang Hao told the move he was planning to make could have no consequence as the move was not written down.

7. It was clear that Wang Hao understood his mistake after the arbiter’s first intervention (and not after the arbiter’s tip) and was indifferent to the punishment of adding time to his opponent’s clock.

8. He wrote down the move immediately after the game was restarted, stopped the clock, and claimed a draw with no procedure failure, according to the FIDE Rules of Chess.
Let us note that in the first case, if he wrote down a move which would bring to incorrect claim, indeed, he would make exactly that move and on that move he would have no right of three times repetition claim.

9. Then Dreev, probably, taking into no account of that nuance claimed that his opponent lost the right of claim on that move and all the rest conversations and explanations were only and only on that issue.

10. Finally, the two sides agreed on three fold repetition and no checking of position was required as the claim of draw is also the draw offer that is recorded immediately upon the sides agreeing to it.

I would like to thank all the minority who made the efforts to invite attention on the facts rather than speculation as there was really no mistake by the arbiters in this case.

Hopefully, this will satisfy all the curiosity about this situation.

Ashot Vardapetyan
Councillor of the RTRC

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World Cup: Adhiban in Round 3

Grandmaster and former national champion B.Adhiban made the most of his opportunities to beat Brazilian Grandmaster Alexander Fier in the second round and advance to the third round of the chess World Cup here.

After drawing the first game as white Adhiban made good use of his opportunities as Fier went berserk while trying to attack and lost a piece and the game soon after.

The other Indian left in the fray -- Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran -- again did well to hold the Russian world number nine Sergey Karjakin to tie the two games match 1-1 and set up a tie-break contest to start with the rapid games.

Chinese teenage sensation Wei Yi continued with his demolition act and ousted highly-regarded Alexei Shirov of Latvia after winning the second game. In the first round, Yi had beaten Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.

Sasikiran plays the tiebreak against Russian Sergey Karjakin on Friday - watch live India time 6.30 pm. Will he go to Round 3 as well?

Among the higher seeds, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Alexander Grischuk of Russia, Fabiano Caruana of Italy and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine cruised in to the third round effectively at the expense of Mikhail Markovof and Dariusz Swierczof of Poland, Yu Yangyi of China and Ray Robson of United States respectively.

However, Gata Kamsky of United States and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia were stretched to the tiebreaker by Russians Alexander Shimanov and Mikhail Kobalija.

Among other fancied players, Anish Giri of Holland accounted for Li Chao of China for the second time in two days while Hikaru Nakamura of United States did not disappoint his fans and moved to the last 32 defeating Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan by 1.5-0.5 margin.

Adhiban stole the thunder showing determination and skill to hold a difficult position against Fier.

It was a Four Knights opening by Fier that gave excellent position to the Brazilian as white but he soon crumbled impatiently while going for a quick checkmate with a piece sacrifice.

Adhiban digested the extra piece with remarkable ease and proved that white’s attack was only optical.

Sasikiran went for the trusted Breyer defense as black against Karjakin and the Russian could not do much despite having the experience of playing at the top level. The game was drawn in just 23 moves.

Important and Indian results round 2 game 1: Evgeny Tomashevsky (Rus) beat So Wesley (Phi) 1.5-0.5; Alexander Morozevich (Rus) beat Rafael Leitao (Ger) 1.5-0.5; Gata Kamsky (Usa) v/s Aleksandr Shimanov (Rus) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Alexei Shirov (Lat) lost to Wei Yi (Chn) 0.5-1.5; Alexander Grischuk (Rus) beat Dariusz Swiercz (Pol) 1.5-0.5; Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus) 1-1, goes for tiebreak; Fabiano Caruana (Ita) beat Yu Yangyi (Chn) 1.5-0.5; Julio Granda Zuniga (Per) beat Peter Leko (Hun) 1.5-0.5; Anish Giri (Ned) beat Li Chao (Chn) 2-0; Leinier Dominguez Perez (Cub) beat Alexander Onischuk (Usa) 1.5-0.5; Ray Robson (Usa) lost to Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 0-2; Hikaru Nakamura (Usa) beat Eltaj Safarli (Aze) 1.5-0.5; B Adhiban beat Alexandr Fier (Bra) 1.5-0.5; Anotn Korobov (Ukr) v/s Baadur Jobava (Geo) 1-1, goes to tiebreak.

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World Cup R2: Sasi, Adhiban Draw

Tromsø, Norway: Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran kept himself in the hunt by holding Sergey Karjakin of Russia to a draw in the first game of the second round of World Chess Cup here  on Wednesday.

After beating Romanian Constantin Lupulescu in the tiebreak games, Sasikiran took it easy in the first encounter of the two-game mini-match and gave little chance to Karjakin, ranked ninth in the world currently.

Grandmaster B Adhiban, however, could not make use of a good advantage and drew with Brazilian GM Alexander Fier after an opening tussle.

Former national champion, Sasikiran surprised Karjakin by going for the King's Indian attack as white.

Karjakin spent more time in the opening but it was clear that the Russian was well-prepared and was only trying to remember the best moves. As the middle game approached, Karjakin got his counter play rolling on the queen side and Sasikiran had to play a bit cautiously to avoid giving any leeway.

The minor pieces changed hands and when Karjakin traded the queens after which there was nothing left to fight for. The Russian proposed the draw that was accepted. The game lasted 44 moves.
 

B Adhiban

Adhiban missed out on gaining the lead. Fier came up with the Noteboom variation where the Indian opted for the razor-sharp Marshall gambit. Very early in the opening, Fier decided to part with his rook for a minor piece. In established theory that was quite unplayable and the Brazilian was soon under pressure.

The game, however, took a different route and Adhiban as a result spent a lot of time in the middle game, thereby falling a little under time pressure. Sensing trouble, the Indian proposed a draw after just 20 moves which Fier gladly accepted.

After a few surprises in the opener, most of the higher ranked players got off to a good start in the first game of second round in this USD 1.6 million knock-out event.

The day saw top players like Alexander Morozevich and Alexander Grischuk of Russia, Gata Kamsky of United States, Anish Giri of Holland and Fabiano Caruana of Italy registering victories over lower rated opponents.

Julio Granda Zuniga of Peru

Julio Granda Zuniga of Peru, however, sprang a major surprise defeating Hungarian Peter Leko. Isan Ortiz Suarez from Cuba suddenly lost to French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in a position with a huge advantage.

Alexander Morozevich blundered in a winning position but his opponent Rafael Leitao didn't see the winning shot and instead lost. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov didn’t convert a huge advantage against Maxim Matlakov, while Wang Hao got a three-time repetition in a lost position. Local hero Jon Ludvig Hammer, who defeated Sergey Movsesian in the previous round, drew with David Navara in a game where he had a better position, although it wasn't winning as he'd thought after the game.

Some players preferred not to take any risks in the first game and didn’t mind a short draw. Peace agreements were signed relatively quickly in the games Dubov-Ponomariov, Bacrot-Moiseenko, Jakovenko-Eljanov, and Lysyj-Aronian (pictured above). The others fought for many hours but the positions remained balanced in the Kobalia-Kramnik and Svidler-Bologan games.

In the 12 decisive games the victories for White outnumbered Black by 10 to 2. Only Vassily Ivanchuk and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won with the black pieces.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had a winning position but lost his advantage in one move.
"Seems I’m getting old if I cannot win such positions," Mamedyarov wrote on his Facebook page.

The World Chess Cup is a part of the next World Championship cycle. The event started with 128 players but half of them were knocked out after the first round, including Parimarjan Negi and G Akash of India.

Each round, except the final, is a mini-match of two games followed by encounters of shorter duration in case of tied result.

Important and Indian results of Round 2 game 1:Igor Lysyj (RUS) drew with Levon Aronian (ARM); Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS) beat So Wesley (PHI); Alexander Morozevich (RUS) beat Rafael Leitao (GER); Gata Kamsky (USA) beat Aleksandr Shimanov (RUS); Alexei Shirov (LAT) drew with Wei Yi (CHN); Alexander Grischuk (RUS) beat Dariusz Swiercz (POL); Krishnan Sasikiran (IND) drew with Sergey Karjakin (RUS); Fabiano Caruana (ITA) beat Yu Yangyi (CHN); Julio Granda Zuniga (PER) beat Peter Leko (HUN); Anish Giri (NED) beat Li Chao (CHN); Leinier Dominguez Perez (CUB) beat Alexander Onischuk (USA); Ray Robson (USA) lost to Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR); Hikaru Nakamura (USA) beat Eltaj Safarli (AZE); B Adhiban (IND) drew with Alexandr Fier (BRA); Anotn Korobov (UKR) beat Baadur Jobava (GEO).

Watch all the games live at the official website of the World Chess Cup 2013. (Photos: Anastasiya Karlovich)

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