It's great to see the return of this powerful event in the Ukrainian Crimean resort of Foros. The first round is Monday the 18th. Here's the official site. Don't see anything on live games; don't think they had them last year. [You can download a client to watch the games, but reviews on functionality are mixed so far.] I tipped the field a few months ago, but it's had one interesting change. That item mentioned Radjabov and not Ivanchuk, but Ivanchuk is playing and Radjabov is not. Perhaps Chukky has become Radjabov's full-time understudy after filling in for him in Morelia? More likely the initial report was erroneous, or just a list of people the organizers were trying to get. Whatever the case, this is again a very strong field, with a few players coming from the candidates matches in Elista. The full list: Svidler, Ivanchuk, Jakovenko, Shirov, Nisipeanu, Sasikiran, Eljanov, Karjakin, Rublevsky, Dominguez, van Wely, Onischuk.
Unfortunately, they are again using a single time-control system of g/120'+30". These inevitably lead to butchered endgames. No matter how much time you start with, or how big the increment, unless there are additional controls the players inevitably get down to the increment sooner rather than later. Yes, this is their own fault, but we should just avoid it with, say, 40/90' + g/60'+30" or something that at least gives the players a chance to catch some wind at some point.
The first round sees the intriguing Ukrainian match-up Karjakin-Ivanchuk. The veteran beat the youngster in 2005 and 2006 and they drew at this event last year. I'm interested in seeing Karjakin, who has been keeping a pretty low profile compared to the super-tournament travels of his peer Magnus Carlsen. He had a miserable European Championship, but has turned in a couple of fine events recently. Might he be due for his own breakout performance on his home turf? He really fell apart here last year, with three losses (and 0.5/3) before a consolation win at the end. Rublevsky is the defending champion. Ivanchuk was second last year.
Off topic, but ... what happened to Tim Krabbe's chess diary?
It's back!
Speaking of Magnus Carlsen, his super-tournament travels are rewarded with a sponsorship of 1,5 million NOK, so he can afford to hire some elite seconds now:
http://e24.no/selskap/FAST/article1838360.ece
That's 185000 euro by the way
Yeah, these g/120'+30" really are horrible!
Live games are available (in theory at least), but take some hunting down: on the results page, there's a "live" link below each round. This takes you to http://www.ruschess.com/Online/chess/Foros7/online.html which tells you you must install some software to view them (why?!) which, if my experiences last year are anything to go by, won't work.
A win here could be all it takes for Jakovenko to be propelled into the semi-permanent Corus-Linares-Dortmund crowd.
Karjakin-Ivanchuk turning into a Sicilian
Dragon ! Looking forward to see Ivanchuk dealing with that annoying 12.Kb1
Quick update on the client: it jumped around randomly from one game to another for the first hour, then threw up a bajillion errors. But when I tried again towards the end of the round, things seemed to be working pretty well.
Shirov-Rublevsky looked like the pick of the round (not that I actually understood it, of course).
http://www.ukrchess.org.ua/aerosvit2007/photo/aerosvit2007_11b.jpg
http://chesspro.ru/_images/materials/2007/aeroswit8.jpg
Have to love Chucky's outfit.
Man, Ivanchuk looks like he's either asleep, depressed, or drunk out of his mind in that second photo.
In the 2nd picture Ivanchuk is clearly in his own world! And that is the exact way we want him! He is a chess genius! Normality need not apply to him!
"If a man does not keep pace with his fellow companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears...however measured or far away."
Thoreau
Roiz beats Karpov :( Come on Karpov, you can do it
I played Roiz in Israel about 10 years ago, when he was just a candidate master, only to watch him progress rapidly and soon outstrip me. A few years later, I faced him in the Beer Sheva blitz championship, which was very strong and included various GMs and IMs. I did well in the tourney overall, coming in 3rd or 4th, but there was only one player who truly impressed me--Roiz. Other GMs, I always had a chance against (or beat), but Roiz completely and convincingly wiped the floor with me, 2-0. He struck me as an exceptionally intuitive, talented and modest young man.
I don't know if this'll work for anyone else, but I found - after experiencing some craziness w. the gameviewer from the original site - that if I went to the www.ruschess.com site and used their link to download the viewer, answering to replace the old versions of the files when prompted, that now when I re-enter the site I can watch the games w. no problem. Worth a shot, anyway...
A win here could be all it takes for Jakovenko to be propelled into the semi-permanent Corus-Linares-Dortmund crowd.
-- Posted by: Yuriy Kleyner at June 18, 2007 09:17
Too bad he just got wiped out by Van Wely in Round 4. And I say that as a Jakovenko fan.
***BEGIN AUDITOR REPORT***
Our records show that "Alexandra Kosteniuk's" husband Diego Garces is at least twenty years older than she is.
***END AUDITOR REPORT***
gmnotyet,
In one word: yup. Let's see if he recovers.
CA
Apparently that isn't a problem for them.
I thought this was Daily Dirt, not Infrequent Dirt. I pay good money for an internet connection and I expect timely updates.
Mig, I do not know if you have noticed two events that make me wonder if chess is going into a good direction. First, it was Kramnik in chessbase http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3912 . Then danailov in an interview http://interviews.chessdom.com/silvio-danailov-interview . When will the fights stop?
I just looked up Karjakin's FIDE rating history. It's amazing to me to see his progress from Apr01 to Apr02; he went from about 2250 to 2530 in one year. I can think of times when I've had a "step up" in my playing strength and added 100-200 points per year, but the talent/knowledge/skill required to increase one's rating points has to grow exponentially the better player one is. So, to grow from being a 1500 to 1700 require a lot less knowledge than to grow from 2000 to 2200, I assume. I'm interested to hear people's opinions about drastic improvements like Karjakin's. Has anyone on this blog ever had such a "light turning on" experience? Are there any famous stories of well-known players having this happen?
I enjoyed the Kramnik interviews. But in a way I'd wished he'd adhered to his former "no comment" policy, treating the Bulgarian badboys and their little toy toilets with the silent contempt they deserve.
both are speaking crap... it sounds like mudthrowing.... if they sue Kramnik, I think Kramnik will sue them.
stendec,
your question reminds me of the famous quote from Fischer: "I just got good." This was his response, in a 1954 interview, when he catapulted from a decent tournament player, the year before, to a recognized chess prodigy. I don't think there were official Elo ratings at that point, but Fischer's leap in playing strength was remarkable!
@ Stendec
Karjakin could have been stronger than his rating even in 2001. Sometimes it's long to get rating points.
When playing in small tournaments against people of your average elo you gain only few points even if you get good scores.
The day you decide to play seriously against stronger opposition you can get elo points faster. Maybe he was ready and decided to do that.
The elo a player has does not represent his actual playing strength until he reaches a plateau. Karjakin was also young and learning fast.
xtra
Interesting set-up by Ivanchuk. First he plays rapid chess with easy draws, now he is going to spend more time and even wins with black. Typically him.
Jokeovenko got crushed again, yeah hes thiissss close to being a super GM :). Kramnik is World Champion and everyone knows it why waste time arguing...enjoy life.