It took him awhile, but top seed Veselin Topalov finally made it to the top of the Vitoria-Gasteiz tournament in Spain. Yesterday he beat Ponomariov in a typical Topalov win to swap places with him in the standings and take a half-point lead into today's final round. It was Topalov's second consecutive win, and his trademark push in the final rounds is part of why this win was typical. It also illustrated his supreme fighting qualities at the board. He just keeps pushing and pressing until his opponent cracks. His comeback was required due to a bizarre blunder against Polgar in round four. He had an extra pawn and a superior position with white against her Petroff (ugh) when he captured a pawn on a7 that wasn't just poisoned, it was covered in polonium and labeled with the skull and crossbones. Two moves later his queen was trapped and he had to give up a full piece.
That wasn't the last piece of good fortune for the first lady of chess. In the 7th round she was well on her way to a loss against Karpov, who was performing a little trademark play himself with a classic squeeze in an IQP position. He collected the pawn but got himself into time trouble and couldn't keep up with the tactical shots Polgar kept tossing at him. (39..Nc5!?! isn't what you want to see when you're worried about your clock.) Finally Karpov blew the win and the draw in one move, 41.Rc1?? when he needed to find 41.Kg1. Things got worse for Karpov in yesterday's 9th round when he was blown off the board by Kasimjanov, who finished strong after a lousy tournament. He completed Ponomariov's fall from grace in the final round today by beating him with black.
As I write this (I started last night, as you can probably tell), Topalov is finishing off Polgar with black with the tournament title already in the bag. He's up two pawns and a lot of time, but doesn't want to pull a Karpov so he's being cautious. Yet another tremendous finish from Topalov, who looks to be winning his third game in a row to close out the tournament.
In the online audio stream with Leontxo Garcia, Ponomariov complained about the "claustrophobic" playing area, although overall the players were complimentary about the tournament and the organization. In particular, there was no place to go if you are prone to wandering on your opponent's move. As Leontxo said, it was a first effort by these organizers and they deserve some slack. Especially since this was a major charity event, raising money for a local hospital.
Topa is amazing in tournament play. By the way Kramnik won today and is leading Tal Memorial. So I guess there is apparently no dispute that Anand, Topa and Kramnik are by far the strongest players in the world currently.
.. He just keeps pushing and pressing until his opponent cracks ...a bizarre blunder..,he couldn't keep up with the tactical shots tossed at him ...finally blew the win and the draw in one move...he was blown off the board ..a lousy tournament... a completed fall from grace ..up two pawns he's being cautious....
who would guess that this is about GM-chess ?
Has Polgar regained her form from before she had the babies?
The money is not for a local hospital; the money is being raised to build up a hospital in Congo (the "heart of darkness"). And that's really far away from Vitoria! :-)
Ponomarion choked. What a kleenex. T0PAL0V R00LZZZZZZZ GO VESKO ! ! ! ! ! !
As long ago as Fischer-Spassky 1972, I had suggested playing in a glass room. Fischer complained about camera and spectator noise, and it seemed like a good solution. Perhaps they ought to allow walking into a private back room, to catch a smoke or something, as you couldn't smoke in the glass booth. Ugh, suppose someone farted? I hope the air conditioning is adequate.
At least it must be quiet inside the glass booth. I played in a tournament in Charlottesville VA where a train went by every 1/2 hour, shaking the pieces on every board. Also, one year in the 1980s at the Santa Barbara Open, a clogging class was held downstairs (clogging is a type of dancing involving stomping around in heavy shoes). Another year a bird flew in the open window at the SB Open, causing a ruckus. At least it must be quiet inside the glass booth!
Ponomarion choked. What a kleenex. T0PAL0V R00LZZZZZZZ GO VESKO ! ! ! ! ! !
-Posted by: Roth at November 14, 2007 20:32
Oh my, didn't see that coming or anything.
tjallen,
I have a book in the works, in which each chapter focuses on a particular genre of distraction that arose during a tournament. Sort of a twisted instruction manual that advises what not to do while playing chess, its chapter titles include:
"Don't Run TOWARD the Sound of Gunfire" - An armed robbery happened on the street right below the hotel during Round 1. I won from a lost position because I didn't budge from my board while my opponent - along with everyone else in the tournament hall - ran to the window to watch the gun-battle first hand.
"Don't Fight With a Psychopath" - Forced to play at the table next to the infamous Jack Beers for 3 or 4 separate rounds in a weekend tournament, by round 6 I resembled 1984's Winston Smith after he'd just visited Room 101. But when Beers came apart at the seams during the final round, it was not me but my opponent who got addled. As Frank Perdue used to say: It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.
"Don't Fight With a Bodybuilder" - A famously thuggish young GM wasn't content to only distract me into blundering away our first-round encounter. Three rounds later, he whipped out his cell phone and it got away from him, taking flight across the Marshall Chess Club and landing with a thud between my shoulder blades. At that moment I was down to my final 2 minutes of sudden-death, and down two rooks with naught but "cheapo potential" for compensation, against the strong Robert Hess. Again, strong nerves trumped strong play (and two extra rooks): with plenty of time on his clock, Hess walked into a mate-in-1. (oh yeah...both this entry and the preceeding one did involve loudly voiced threats of physical violence).
"Don't Send Your Girlfriend Down a Dark Alley in a Bad Neighborhood"....well, I'd best leave something to the readers' imagination.
tjallen at November 14, 2007 20:50 wrote:
{I played in a tournament in Charlottesville VA where a train went by every 1/2 hour, shaking the pieces on every board. Also, one year in the 1980s at the Santa Barbara Open, a clogging class was held downstairs ...
}
- - - -
Gary Dorfner ran a chess tournament in Tacoma WA (USA) fantasy/dice gaming center. Early in the morning all was calm.
Around 12noon it was awful, with numerous 16-24 year old males coming-going, yelling to their pals, as the groups began to set up for their play.
Once all 20 of the fantasy players started playing, their talk was business voice about their games. A decibel meter would have showed a lot of noise. But individual conversations were blurred, and the noise level was steady. To my SURPRISE, the steady loud noise did not bother me in the least.
Later as their games completed one-by-one, it got bad again.
It is hard to find affordable places to play chess OTBoard.
Topalov is back to form!!
The current championship match schedule is a mess.. but I'm sure he will regain his title in a few years.
>Topalov is back to form!!
Great this guy no doubt (when he doesn't blunder the Q in 2 moves or the exchange in 1)
Kramnik too seems to have got ambition, Mexico served him a lesson on where laziness leads.
...glass booth? Bring back the cone of silence.
Not related to this post, but surly Dirt material.
http://www.tsf.org.tr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1374&Itemid=27
After the finalization of the agreement Geoffrey Borg, FIDE Vice President and CEO of Global Chess BV resigned from his post in FIDE due to complying with transparency of future projects. Ilzyumzhiov thanked the most dynamic chess politician in the world and suggested the Board that TCF President Ali Nihat Yazıcı the election to the resigned post. Hence, Yazıcı was elected as FIDE Vice President and sat down among the Presidential Board in the next session.
"Has Polgar regained her form from before she had the babies?"
No, her form and results are not up to par. In particular, she is having trouble with her opening preparation as Black. In the Queen's Indian Defense, she was just getting lousy positions right off the mark, and she was fortunate that she didn't suffer more defeats. Indeed, she was losing both in her 2nd game against Karpov, and her 1st game against Topalov, and she won them both.
She is still tactically sharp; but she'll need to play herself into better form. She's never been a particularly active player, so she ought to focus on acccepting more invitations, even if the terms are not what she is hoping for.
Off Topic - Mig,
Did you see Gary K is mentioned several times in this Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR2007111302070.html
The point of the article is that Russian independent publishers are being harrassed/shut down because of pirated software. The central government is finally cracking down on pirated software, but is doing it selectively, apparently to halt independent publications.
The article points out that several of the independent publications are connected to GK.
tjallen
Why is Kirsan so nice to those who run against him? Bessel Kok; signed a big business deal. This guy; made him FIDE vp
>Why is Kirsan so nice to those who run against him? Bessel Kok; signed a big business deal. This guy; made him FIDE vp>
He neuters them. Forver.
After first defeating them he offers them a subordinate role. Like Kramnik offering Topalov after Elista a position of secondant in his team.
Kirsan is a good politician.
In the world of politics, Kirsan plays chess and Kasparov plays tic-tac-toe.
"In the world of politics, Kirsan plays chess and Kasparov plays tic-tac-toe.
Posted by: greg koster at November 15, 2007 20:19"
Right on the mark, Greg. As smart as GK (not you, Greg) is, let's see how long it will take for him to surpass Kirsan's level.
Chess talent is not related to intelligence, as Kaparov has repeatedly demonstrated. Chess talent is like music talent: when a virtuoso plays the piano, you can't tell how intelligent he is or is not.
The fact that 99% of players never advance beyond 1800 in spite of their best efforts is a clear indicator that chess is not something that a person generally considered "intelligent" can master by sheer willpower and dedication. The world is full of successful, intelligent people who never even achieved an expert rating, while complete retards go around with the GM title. Now, DO NOT misunderstand me: I have met many truly intelligent strong players. My point is that what makes these strong players strong at chess is not their intelligence, but their natural "talent" for the game coupled with their work - an intangible quality very similar to the natural "talent" that some people have for music.
Mig is a perfect case. He is far more intelligent than Kaspy in every sense, but their rating difference is about 1000 points. Why? Because Kaspy was born with the talent. Mig was not. And that's not meant as an insult. I would rather be Mig than Kaspy, to be honest (but I prefer to be me, of course!:-)
>Mig is a perfect case. He is far more intelligent than Kaspy in every sense, but their rating difference is about 1000 points. Why? Because Kaspy was born with the talent. Mig was not.>
People can have genius for some activities and be mediocre, or total idiots, in others.
Fischer is a good example : he can not make sense of the social and political complexities just as others can't make sense of the conceptual texture of chess and are fated to remain weak (1600-1900) players all their life whatever the efforts.
Mig has talent for writing, for language and people, clearly better than Kasparov I agree.
Mig writes, seemingly at least, with ease and enjoys playing with subtleties, paradoxes, and levels of meaning ( while continously praising the would be 'awesome' intelligence of his boss, as a good employee he is).
Kasparov tries such things nowdays, he knows that it matters, but he can't go beyond "2200" in this field, just as Mig will never go beyond 2200 in the chess field despite of being tutored by Kaspy.
Talent as you said.
I agree with Ovidiu.
Being good at chess has nothing to do with being good in other activities, but it seems that a relation exists between the things one likes to do. E.g. a lot of chess players also like to make music.
Most of the high rated players I know are intelligent, often very intelligent. There are exceptions to the rule but I do see a general correlation between intelligence and having a high rating. That said, certainly there are many lower rated players who are very intelligent but will never break 2000. The fact that a person is interested in a cerebral game such as chess makes it more likely that they will be intelligent. I'd love to see a statistical study that compared the average IQ of the general population with the average IQ of chess players. I'd be surprised if chess players werent well above the norm.
"Mig writes, seemingly at least, with ease and enjoys playing with subtleties, paradoxes, and levels of meaning ( while continously praising the would be 'awesome' intelligence of his boss, as a good employee he is).
Kasparov tries such things nowdays, he knows that it matters, but he can't go beyond "2200" in this field, just as Mig will never go beyond 2200 in the chess field despite of being tutored by Kaspy."
I agree Mig is a wonderful and naturally gifted writer. However, we shouldn't criticize Kasparov too harshly considering most of what we read has gone through editors and translators. Unless we can understand primary sources in Russian, I wouldn't want to comment to harshly on Kasparov's abilities as a writer or speaker.