Ah, to be in Siberia in the summertime. Poikovsky isn't far from Khanty Mansiysk, the site of the last World Cup. It's currently hosting what has become a nice annual addition to the chess calendar, a strong round robin just below super-elite level. Uncompromising players like Bologan, Shirov, and Sutovsky are there this year, as well as Jakovenko, Rublevsky, Wang Hao, Onischuk, Volokitin, Gashimov, and Inarkiev. A spicy field full of tacticians and fighters in this locally organized all-play-all. That didn't stop them from drawing all their games in Wednesday's second round. But just take a look at the sacrificial insanity of Sutovsky-Shirov from round 1 and you'll see that not all draws are created boring. (Game after the jump.)
Jakovenko won last year's event with a solid +3 when no one else could muster even +2 in a very balanced field. Right now Jakovenko, Rublevsky, and Wang Hao share the lead on +1 after two rounds. Volokitin, Gashimov, and Inarkiev are the losers so far. Everyone else has two draws. For an endgame morsel, check out Volokitin-Bologan. I wonder if 64..Nxc3! came as a surprise to Volo when Bolo played it. Cute draw. It was probably drawn anyway after 64.Bd4 or whatever, but White could have tortured him for a while.
Ms. Mig is currently in the pains of labor, and while I have the much easier job of fetching things and rubbing her feet and back, I'll be a bit busy for the next few days. Please continue to solve the world's problems amongst yourselves. UPDATE: It's a girl! But we knew that months ago. Anyway, mother and baby good, no problems at all. "That was a lot easier than I expected" sez Ms. Mig. After putting up with me, childbirth is a piece of cake.
[Event "9th Karpov"]
[Site "Poikovsky RUS"]
[Date "2008.07.08"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Sutovsky, E."]
[Black "Shirov, A."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C78"]
[WhiteElo "2654"]
[BlackElo "2741"]
[PlyCount "84"]
[EventDate "2008.07.08"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Bc5 7. c3 d6 8. a4
Rb8 9. d4 Bb6 10. axb5 axb5 11. Qd3 O-O 12. Bg5 exd4 13. cxd4 h6 14. Bh4 g5 15.
Bg3 Nh5 16. Nc3 Nxg3 17. fxg3 g4 18. e5 Kg7 19. Bc2 Rh8 20. Nh4 Nxd4 21. Rxf7+
Kxf7 22. Rf1+ Ke8 23. Nd5 Nf3+ 24. Kh1 Nxe5 25. Qxb5+ Bd7 26. Qe2 Qg5 27. Ng6
Bc6 28. Rf5 Qc1+ 29. Rf1 Qg5 30. Rf5 Qc1+ 31. Rf1 Qxf1+ 32. Qxf1 Bxd5 33. Nxh8
Ke7 34. Ng6+ Nxg6 35. Bxg6 Rf8 36. Qb1 Kd8 37. h3 Rf2 38. Be4 Bxe4 39. Qxe4
Rf1+ 40. Kh2 Bg1+ 41. Kh1 Bf2+ 42. Kh2 Bg1+ 1/2-1/2
My very best wishes to Ms. Mig --- and her husband, too! I myself just became a first-time daddy two months ago.... :-)
Let us all welcome the newest Mig to the world!
Best wishes for you, wife, & the li'l one (ones?!). Don't worry about us; we'll just keep the war of words & chessmen going...your family needs you more than we do right now! Go for it!
& don't forget to breathe...deep...
Best Wishes for the Migdom! We'll keep everything in check... (and keep the monkey-poo flinging to a G rated minimum in honor of the miglet; hmmmm, maybe poo-flinging will simply become in keeping with the diaper express about to ensue...)
Good luck to Ms. Mig and Miglet! We'll be looking forward to pics.
Congratulations! - Mark
congrats Mig!
Although your life as you know it .. is gone :)
Congratulations Mig! All the best!
Mig, congratulations and best wishes to you, your bride and your little girl!
Congratulations , Mig !
Congratulations Mig! Wahoo!
WooHoo!! Congrats Mig, wish you all the best!
Congrats, sir. Cute kid. Cute giraffe, too.
Congratulations to all three of you!
Mazel Tov to all three of you. I'm glad it was an easy birth and a healty baby.
Congrats, Mig!!
Congratulations! So glad to hear everyone is doing well. Does La Miglette have a name yet?
Congratulations to you and Ms. Mig!
A Glorious Welcome To Earth Day For The Entire Family! God Bless!
Nicely done, Mr. and Mrs. Mig!
Felicidades Sr., Sra. y Bebe Mig!!!
Congrats to Mig's daughter on having parents!
Congrats, Mig.
Congratulations to the proud parents and Best Wishes for a long, happy and health life!
For me? Too kind, noyb. Congratulations, Mig!
Warm congratulations to you Mig, Mrs Mig and the young lady, Miglette.
Hi Mig,
Congrats.
Now it's time for you to quit blogging and go forth and put together a nest-egg to put La Miglette through college.
Also practice saying "No!" with various degrees of emphasis - you'll be doing it for the next umpteen years.
A second Mazal tov Mig. We want pictures of Chess' new Queen!
I'm confused. I'm looking through the NYT, but there's no mention of Mig and Mrs. Mig's baby. Don't they have a sense of what is news?
Congratulations!
Oh, and this must be the only blog where father announces birth of child under heading "9th Karpov Poikovsky Underway"
Shirov obviously heard about la Miglette & became inspired to produce her 1st (uh, 0th?!) birthday (actually, birth day) present. Beautiful, as I'm sure she is (& what's her name? do we have a contest to guess it?):
[Event "9th Karpov"]
[Site "Poikovsky RUS"]
[Date "2008.07.12"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Inarkiev,E"]
[Black "Shirov,A"]
[Result "*"]
[WhiteElo "2675"]
[BlackElo "2741"]
[EventDate "2008.07.08"]
[ECO "D12"]
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c6 3. c4 Nf6 4. e3 Bf5 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nh4 Bg6 7. Be2 Nbd7 8.
O-O Ne4 9. g3 Nd6 10. b3 Be7 11. Nxg6 hxg6 12. Qc2 Nf6 13. Rd1 Qc7 14. Bf1
O-O-O 15. Bg2 Rh5 16. c5 Nf5 17. h3 Rdh8 18. e4 dxe4 19. Bf4 Qd8 20. g4
Rxh3 21. gxf5 Rxc3 22. Qxc3 Nd5 23. Qc1 gxf5 24. Kf1 Rh4 25. Be5 Qh8 26.
Ke1 Rg4 27. Bf1 Rg1 28. Qc4 Qh4 29. Ke2 Bg5 30. Rdb1 f4 31. Rb2 f3+ 32. Kd1
e3 33. Ke1 e2 34. Rxe2 Rxf1+ 0-1
Per the above, my vote's for "Alexa"... :)
Congratulations Mig! Enjoy every moment with your precious little one!
Congratulations MIG for the new girl. I am a dad of five so I can tell you that to be a father is wonderful. Regards to Mrs. MIG. Count your blessings MIG and praise God for such wonderful addition.
Alex from Canada
"Poikovsky" link...
http://russiachess.org/
My computer died 5 seconds after I clicked the above link.
Does anyone know:
Who/What is paying for or sponsoring this "Poikovsky" tournament?
Any who convinced the sponsor?
re: My computer died 5 seconds after I clicked the above link.
First time yesterday IE7 gave me a warning that the site wanted to install something on my computer while at the same time opening a second window with acrobat loaded trying to load something. Presumably it wanted to exploit some vulnerability there. I cancelled & closed everything, but if you did not get to see the warning or request to install you might have gotten infected. (I googled the warning & it's malware/virus/trojan related.)
I scanned my pc afterwards for spyware & viruses and my av did find stuff in temporary internet files which it specifically marked as being viruses (so not just harmless tracking cookies or something). So that site imo is definately dangerous.
I visited again several hours later and it didn't do anything anymore, so either they are being smart about it or else it's coming through via advertising or some other third party not directly related to the website itself.
Congrats on the birth of your daughter Mig.
Great to hear that Mum and Bub are doing fine.
As they say on the interwebz:
Pic or it didn't happen!!!
Best wishes to your daughter in this changing world Mig. Let her not become a professionnal chess player!
Re: "Let her not become a professionnal chess player!"
Or worse, marry one! May her life and her parents life with her be a long and joyous song!
Off topic, but THIS is what the world sees of chess today? http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1821639,00.html?cnn=yes
(This made it to the front page of cnn.com around 2 p.m. EDT 7/13)
Congrats, Mig!
(Now you'll have even less time for the blog though.)
Off-topic: does anyone have a link to the games of the recent chessboxing world championships? Thanks.
Mig, congratulations and best wishes to your wife, to you, and most of all your little daughter.
May she have every good thing.
Hey Mig,
COngratulations on the baby girl....may she kick your ass on the board in a decade....
Mig,
congratulations, best wishes to you family.
I guess your daughter will probably play the Najdorf before she knows how to tie her shoes :)
Congrats Mig et al........... Deduct 200 Rating points do no pass go.....
Dear Mig
Congratulations!! to you and your family, welcome to the world of diapers and occasional sleepless nights (if you are lucky)
Congrats, Mig!
Best wishes from notyetagm of chessgames.com and ICC fame.
:-)
Congratutaions to Mr. & Ms. Mig and to little Migette.
Am I the only one still in suspended animation when I think of the Inarkiev-Shirov game?
Thank God, Allah etc. for players like Shirov!
Could not get to comments under the picture. So I used this.
Awwwwwww.
Happy Days! To Mig and family
"Am I the only one still in suspended animation when I think of the Inarkiev-Shirov game?
Thank God, Allah etc. for players like Shirov!"
- no, not the only one...but this kinda made me hyperventilate as well:
[Event "9th Karpov"]
[Site "Poikovsky RUS"]
[Date "2008.07.14"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Gashimov,V"]
[Black "Volokitin,And"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2717"]
[BlackElo "2672"]
[EventDate "2008.07.08"]
[ECO "B96"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Nbd7 8. Bc4 Qb6 9. Bb3 Be7 10. f5 Nc5 11. Qf3 Ncxe4 12. Nxe4 Qxd4 13. Bxf6 gxf6 14. c3 Qb6 15. O-O-O d5 16. fxe6 dxe4 17. exf7+ Kf8 18. Qxe4 f5 19. Qf4 Qg6 20. Rhe1 Be6 21. Qe5 Qg5+ 22. Kb1 Bxb3 23. Qxh8+ Kxf7 24. Qxh7+ Kf8 25. axb3 1-0
Anyone figure out yet how sound it is...?!