Adhiban wins Barcelona Sants Chess

Former world under-16 champion B. Adhiban, who recently went all the way to the third round at the Chess World Cup, has won the Barcelona Sants Open chess tournament this Monday. It's been a great run for Indian chess as Pentala Harikrishna recently won the Biel Chess Tournament, Parimarjan Negi won in Copenhagen, S.P. Sethuraman won Leiden and M.R. Lalith Babu won the Vlissingen event.

Adhiban was the only titled Indian in the 298-player contest and finished a point ahead of Lazaro Bruzon of Cuba. The second to fifth places were shared by Cori Jorge (Peru), Vladimir Potkin (Russia), Jan Gustafsson (Germany) and Firat Burak (Turkey) with eight points each. 

The tournament format was 10-round Swiss. There were two playing groups: Open A (all players eligible) and Open B (U2000). Open Internacional de Sants is part of the 10th Catalan Chess Circuit. -- Agencies

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World Jr Blind Chess Bronze for Darpan

Nineteen-year-old Vadodara boy Darpan Irani is back home after making a splash at the World Individual Junior Blind Chess Championship at Belgrade in Serbia.

At the event, organised by the International Braille Chess Association from August 21 and September 1, Darpan won a bronze medal — a first medal win in the category by India in 16 years since the country's blind chess federation was recognised by the international recognising body.

Darpan defeated his nearest rival from Serbia in the world junior individual braille chess championship to emerge third, missing silver medal by just half a point.However, Darpan is more than happy to have won the first medal for his country, and believes he could have done much better had he focused more on practising chess rather than on his Chartered Accountancy studies, which are equally important for him if not more.

"This is the first time India has won any medal in this category, and I am glad to have emerged victorious. It was a do-or-die situation in the last round, as drawing was not an option. Drawing would not have fetched me a medal," he said.

Though, this was the first time Darpan won big, it wasn't the first time he played at the international level. He played in Serbia in 2010 and in Greece in 2011

This was the first time he had travelled abroad without his parents accompanying him. "Organisers insisted on my parents accompanying me but I refused, because I would have to become independent someday. After a lot of discussions and deliberations, they finally agreed," he said.

Of the nine games that were played in the tourney, Inani could not perform well in the first four, which dimmed his chance to win gold. "There were some miscalculations due to time pressure, so I had to repeat moves. Moreover, I made some technical errors in between," he said.

Darpan already has several wins to his credit. He became the youngest person to win the national chess championship for the blind in 2010. -- PTI

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Kramnik wins World Cup: Final Video

Vladimir Kramnik claimed victory in the FIDE World Cup after he drew the fourth classical game in the final match against Dmitry Andreikin. The overall score in the match was 2.5:1.5 in Kramnik's favor. The former World Champion won the first game of the final match while the other three games finished in a draw. The former World Chess Champion didn’t lose a single game during the event and showed great play. He won four out of seven matches in classical chess and the three others in rapid. His opponents were G.Bwalya, M.Kobalia, A.Areshchenko, V. Ivanchuk, A.Korobov, M.Vachier-Lagrave and D.Andreikin.

 

FIDE World Cup 2013: video report Day 24 Final Game 4, with Susan Polgar, Kema Goryaeva and Anastasiya Karlovich.

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World Cup Semis: 3 Russians, 1 French

The World Cup semi-finals begin at India Time 6.30 pm in Tromso. The two ratings favorites in their matches - Peter Svidler and Fabiano Caruana - lost in rapid chess against Dmitry Andreikin and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave respectively in the tiebreaks on Sunday.

Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

Peter Svidler lost the first game and didn’t manage to even the score in the second. Fabiano Caruana drew with White against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave but lost the second game. Three Russian players - Vladimir Kramnik, Dmitry Andreikin and Evgeny Tomashevsky - plus Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, will play in the semi-finals.

Playing with Black Maxime Vachier-Lagrave made a smart opening choice in the first game and managed to equalise quite easily. He was unsure if he chose the most precise way to make a draw but it seems Black was in no real danger during the whole game.

In the second game Fabiano Caruana chose the Dutch Defence but Black got a passive position without counterplay. White's main idea was to push e4 at the right moment and when he finally succeeded in carrying out his plan Black’s position collapsed.

Fabiano Caruana lost his chance to qualify for the Candidates via the FIDE World Cup. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will play against Vladimir Kramnik, who knocked out Anton Korobov the day before.

Dmitry Andreikin successfully followed the same scenario as in the previous match against Sergey Karjakin. After two draws in classical chess he won the first rapid game against Peter Svidler. Neither Karjakin nor Svidler could level the score. In the second game Andreikin forced a draw in a better position and goes through to the semi-finals. Peter Svidler, the winner of the World Cup in 2011, leaves Tromso.

Dmitry Andreikin will play now against Evgeny Tomashevsky. Both players are from Saratov (Russia). The fight in the semi-final matches will be very tough as only two out of the four players will qualify for the Candidates Tournament in March 2014.

Time controls and rules
The time control for each two-game match is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. If the score is equal there are two rapid chess tiebreak games, played at a rate of 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds per move. If the score is still equal then two accelerated games will be played, with a time control of 10 min + 10 sec. If the score is still equal two more games will be played at 5 min + 3 sec. If the winner is still not determined then a final Armageddon game with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, with a 3 sec increment after move 60, will be played. In this game Black has draw odds (i.e. he wins if the game is drawn).

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Kasparov Secrets: Intuition, Discipline

Garry Kasparov : 'A game designed for me'
The chess grandmaster tells Al Jazeera the key to his success has not only been his talent but his discipline and intuition.

Acknowledged by many as the greatest chess player of all time, Garry Kasparov has been marching to his own algorithm his whole life.

Born in Baku in 1963, Kasparov has taken on the greatest champions and won. And since retiring from the game, he has been involved in a political battle with one of the most powerful and controversial men alive - Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.

Sir David Frost travels to Abu Dhabi to join Kasparov on his mission to promote chess in the Gulf. Kasparov shares his secrets of the game, discusses milestones in his life and expands on why chess should be compulsory in school curriculum. He even offers a few tips to some of the young chess players.

 

Kasparov impressed his parents at a very young age, when he finished a chess game they were struggling to solve. "I knew it was a game designed for me," he tells Sir David.

After losing his father when he was only seven, Kasparov's mother dedicated her life to nurturing her son's talent.

For a young boy, there was no better place to be a gifted chess player than the former Soviet Union. The game which is 1,500 years old, was actively promoted by Soviet leaders as to them, chess was a way of demonstrating not only sporting but intellectual superiority.

By 1976, Kasparov had won all the Soviet junior titles, and by the age of 14, he knew he would be a real contender. "I knew I was good, even special," he says.

Kasparov tells Sir David the key to his success has not only been his talent but his discipline and intuition: "if you don't trust your intuition you will never become a good decision maker".

Strategising is a crucial element of the game and Kasparov can visualise up to 15 moves ahead. And demonstrating his exceptional memory, he recalls games and moves as far back as 30 years ago. Some of those games include headline-making matches against his arch-rival, Anatoly Karpov.

"Karpov is a very solid player, positional, quiet…. I'm totally the opposite… Any match of that calibre is a personal rivalry, period," he tells Sir David.

For five months in 1984, the two players battled it out but the International Chess Federation eventually intervened to call it a draw. Kasparov was furious and remains so to this day. He tells Sir David how he broke away from the federation, forming his own alternative, the International Chess Association. The institution did not last and it coincided with the demise of the Soviet Union.

But, the crumbling of the Soviet Union triggered a personal tragedy for Kasparov.

In 1990, Kasparov and his family, who are of Armenian descent, were caught up in the vicious programmes against Armenians in Azerbaijan, forcing thousands of ethnic Armenians to flee. And that is when Kasparov escaped to Moscow.

"The psychological trauma was awful - this thought is still painful" he says.

Following his move to Moscow, Kasparov engaged against a new partner - IBM's super computer, Deep Blue, which created huge interest worldwide.

But most recently, having retired from the game of chess, Kasparov has embarked on a new mission - to bring democracy and justice to Russia and to see Putin ousted from power. He tells Sir David of his treatment at the hands of Russian police, of being arrested and his time in a Russian prison, and why he was keen to stand up for the members of the rebel pop group Pussy Riot, who were jailed after an anti-Putin video.

Kasparov finishes his conversation with Sir David by telling him why he is now too old to play competitive chess and the show ends with an extraordinary twist on Garry Kasparov's future - he will no longer be returning to Russia.

The Frost Interview can be seen each 

week at the following times 

GMT: Friday: 2000; Saturday: 1200; 

Sunday: 0100; Monday: 0600.

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Kasparov on World Cup Last Eight

No chess event worth its value is complete without a comment from the legendary 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov. The World Cup is down to the last eight and here are Kasparov's comments (official FB Page):

"The chess World Cup knock-out tournament in Tromso, Norway, is down to the final eight players. As has become something of a tradition, this is a good time for me to take stock now that the field is a manageable size. Several of the big rating favorites were eliminated in round four, including America's Nakamura, former world championship challenger Gelfand, and my compatriot Karjakin. 

"They both lost to much lower-rated opponents and there is almost no chance to recover in this format. One loss usually guarantees elimination no matter how well you played in your other games. Nakamura is surely a better player than Korobov, but the American played poorly in their match and was punished.

"Morozevich suffered a similar fate against Tomashevsky today in a marathon tiebreak session. Tomashevsky played without pressure and this nothing-to-lose mindset often helps the underdog in these events. But I cannot call any of this final eight "tourists"; they all deserve their spots and should provide tough matches for their more famous opponents.

"Good nerves are critically important to success in the KO format. The tension is very high at every moment and the most talented player can suffer a breakdown and be unable to concentrate. This is especially true in the rapid and blitz tiebreak games. So it's no surprise to see veterans like Kamsky, Svidler, and Kramnik move on to the round of eight. Of course, they are all also very strong players. 

"Nerves are important, but moves still matter! Even in this "lottery" format, good chess is required by the winner. Svidler and Kamsky have both won this event before. Svidler has played the most interesting chess so far, while Kramnik has been very solid.

"So despite Grischuk and Karjakin's elimination, Russia is well-represented. Karjakin made some big statements before the event about his ambitions on the highest title, but his play in Tromso failed to back up those statements. (The two finalists in Tromso will automatically qualify for the next stage of the world championship cycle.)

"Svidler and Kramnik are big favorites in their matches against Andreikin and Korobov, respectively. This is partly due to the level of chess shown so far in Tromso and partly out of respect for the rating system and what we might call regression to the mean for the underdogs. It is cumulatively less and less likely lower-rated players will continue to play above level, even in a single event and even in a relatively random one like a knock-out tournament. (An exception is very young stars, who are often underrated.) But surprises are really no surprise in this format, even with only four matches!

"Kamsky is a slight favorite versus giant-killer Tomashevsky (before beating Morozevich he eliminated world #2 Aronian). The match closest to being a toss-up is Italy's Caruana versus Vachier-Lagrave of France. Caruana is higher rated and capable of the better chess, but he has not been convincing in Tromso. And fate may yet demand compensation for the huge gift Caruana received in his match with Malakhov! 

"A certain loss with white in their first tiebreak game in round two turned into a win for Caruana. While there is no luck in chess, I do believe in good fortune and the goddess Caissa often demands payment sooner or later. We will see that was "winner's luck" for Caruana or if the bill will come due against Vachier-Lagrave.

My congratulations to every member of the final eight and I wish them all good chess and good nerves!"

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