Anyone waiting up till 3am to catch the action? That's NY time, which is 1500 local. I don't think I'm going to make it. The first round pairings are Topalov-Jakovenko, Carlsen-Leko, Wang Yue-Radjabov. According to the official site the time control is the very fast 90'+30", which I was happy to believe was becoming obsolete. Pro chess without a second control shouldn't be called classical.
Some fun tidbits from today's stadium opening ceremony, which apparently benefited from the services of the same translator as the official website. A few of the slogans projected on the screens during the ceremony:
"Grand Crosstable, Wise Game Harmonious Win-Win Embrace the World, We Are Family Civilised Nanjing, Intelligent Life Nanjing we Gather, Masters we Admire, Do not move around freely or make a noise." The introductions also contained a few gems. The women's event was twice dubbed the "Women's Grand Prefix" while Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was announced as "President of FIDE and the president of the Russian Communist Republic of Kalmykia"! It's almost enough to make me put on my old English teacher hat and head to eastern China. Maybe some of these should be sent here.
But if gathering intelligent life doesn't quite work out with the politicians, the players are looking good. This should be a great event, so we'll give them some slack on the language and the loopy website. Topalov, as befits the world's #1 ranked player, is the favorite to repeat his crushing victory in last year's inaugural Nanjing event. Carlsen will be looking to improve on his lackluster, for him, Dortmund performance in July. Let's hope all the hoopla around the revelation of his training with Kasparov hasn't been a distraction. Two other players, Leko and Jakovenko, tied with Carlsen in Dortmund behind Kramnik. Leko has been playing very well, but with his last-round troubles may need a 1.5 point lead going into the final round to really be sure.
Radjabov is a wildcard to me in this event, as in so many others. He hasn't played very often this year. For the longest time he alternated wild adventures in sharp lines with black with long streaks of unambitious play. But he seems to be steadily outgrowing the old stereotype and has become a stable fixture in the top ten. Wang Yue jumped up the rating list and then played in just about every top event for a year. His repertoire looked increasingly stale and though he's still solid, he's still looking for the upgrade he needs to make more progress.
"Radjabov is a wildcard to me in this event, as in so many others. He hasn't played very often this year. For the longest time he alternated wild adventures in sharp lines with black with long streaks of unambitious play. But he seems to be steadily outgrowing the old stereotype and has become a stable fixture in the top ten."
I think he will save any surprises for the KO tourney where he is the top seed.
"The field seems to be Veselin Topalov, Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Peter Leko, Dmitry Jakovenko, Wang Yue."
According to TWIC the field is a question of subjective perception. ;)
Predictions? I think Topalov (of whom I am not a fan) will continue to hold the pinnacle of chess up higher than Carlsen can reach, though we will all note Carlsen is getting taller. Topalov just wins too often against even the 2700 class players. I hope Topalov has worked out new novelties to keep us all excited!
Not a prediction , but Carlsen´s game looks pretty ugly to my taste (move18), i hope he proves me wrong but his opening just looks weak to the eyes of the patzer.
Was the Scotch a recommendation by Kasparov? If chessgames.com is complete, Carlsen had played it before against Kamsky in the World Cup 2007, and twice way back in 2002 and 2003, that's it ... .
Carlsen - Leko
First time I've seen Carlsen play the Scotch. Kasparov's influence? (I don't ever check chessbase.)
Wang - Radjabov
Is it me or does Wang Yue play the most boring, dead-equal openings as white? Some King's Indian exchange, looks drawish from the opening on out.
I don't know where Mig found the information about the time control, but according to the live transmission the players just got another hour after move 40.
And it seems that Carlsen's Scotch is doing fine after all, Leko's compensation for the sacrificed piece is at best vague or speculative ... .
In my database -- Big Database 2009 -- I see several games from back in 2002/2003 and the game against Kamsky in 2007:
Carlsen,Magnus (2214) - Orujov,Adnan, EU-ch U12 Peniscola (2), 30.09.2002, 1-0 (28)
Carlsen,Magnus (2450) - Diamant,Andre (2149), Wch U14 Chalkidiki (2), 24.10.2003, 1-0 (32)
Carlsen,Henrik (2069) - Kelemen,Lajos, Budapest FS12 FM-A Budapest (2), 08.12.2003, 1-0 (41)
Carlsen,Magnus (2450) - Vajda,Szidonia (2360), Budapest FS12 GM Budapest (5), 10.12.2003, 1-0 (54)
Carlsen,Magnus (2714) - Kamsky,Gata (2714) [C45], World Cup Khanty Mansiysk (6.1), 09.12.2007, ½–½ (21)
He's also been on the receiving end as Black:
Sander,Rolf (2054) - Carlsen,Henrik [C45], Gausdal Eikrem Memorial Gausdal (2), 31.07.2000, ½–½ (36)
Pavasovic,Dusko (2615) - Carlsen,Magnus (2484) [C45], Corus-C Wijk aan Zee (9), 20.01.2004, 1-`0 (59)
Lie,Kjetil A (2536) - Carlsen,Magnus (2710) [C56], Arctic Chess Challenge Tromsoe (8), 11.08.2007, ½–½ (40)
Naiditsch,Arkadij (2639) - Carlsen,Magnus (2714) [C45], World Cup Khanty Mansiysk (2.2), 28.11.2007, ½–½ (21)
But I think the guiding hand of Kasparov can be seen in Carlsen's choice of the Scotch today. A very impressive game by Magnus, though I'm not sure why Leko so willingly let his Q-side get demolished. Maybe Leko overestimated his chances on the K-side.
Carlsen-Leko 1-0.
Oops, seems like a couple of games of Henrik Carlsen, Magnus' Dad, made it into my listing of the Scotch games...
Time control in the Nanjing Grand Slam tournament is 40/90 and one hour to finish - no increment.
I thought it was a really well played game by Carlsen. Sac'd a pawn after which Black's pieces were uncoordinated for a long time and White has an enduring pull on the Q side. Rather than wait to get crushed on the Q side, Leko tried for some counterplay on the K-side which Carlsen seemed to refute rather easily. Seemingly effortless chess by Magnus!
I wonder if Leko missed that 29.-Nf2: 30.Kf2: Nh4: runs into the calm 31.Rh1.
One can only guess... Did we see any other really strong player using the Scotch to great effect? Mmmm
Exemplary play by Carlsen in Round 1. It almost seemed as if he was inspired by Bobby Fischer, aiming not just to win but to utterly destroy his opponent. His demolition of Peter Leko was a pleasure to watch.
Nice game. Waiting for the analysis to see where exactly and how many times did Leko push the self-destruct button.
I prefer the variation with 4... Nf6 over the one Leko played.
This may just be a matter of personal preference (of course you didn't say or claim anything else), in any case 4.-Bc5 was not the decisive mistake ... . Peter Doggers on Chessvibes seems to be the first one coming up with analyses, criticizing three moves by black:
13.- 0-0, when 13.-Bh3 seemed to lead to an easy draw in Morozevich-Kramnik, Dortmund 2001 [of course Carlsen/Kasparov may have prepared an improvement]
19.-b5 ("Perhaps 19.-b6 was a better try" - actually I had the same impression [later on] during the game, but it's easy to say in hindsight)
23.-Ng8?! [but is there another active plan for black?]
On the other hand, he gave 29.-Nh4:!? ("an interesting try in an already lost position").
Overall, a nice game - but I do not quite agree with enthusiastic reactions by ArcticStones and, to a lesser extent, d_tal. Not sure if it qualifies for game of the year, or even if it will be THE game of Nanjing at the end of the event.
At the very least, it doesn't mean TOO much for the rest of the tournament. I am sort of reminded of the first round of Linares: Anand getting plenty of praise for his win against Radjabov, and several people already predicted his tournament victory ... .
Another more general thing: What do you guys think about the compulsory Chinese shirts? German Chessbase has most pictures so far:
http://www.chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=9586
Maybe the organizers should have invited Aronian and Nakamura, two of the most creative players (also) regarding how they dress sometimes ... .
"Overall, a nice game - but I do not quite agree with enthusiastic reactions by ArcticStones and, to a lesser extent, d_tal. Not sure if it qualifies for game of the year, or even if it will be THE game of Nanjing at the end of the event. At the very least, it doesn't mean TOO much for the rest of the tournament."
-----------------
Thomas, you’re stretching things more than a bit. Who said anything about "gamed of the year", "the game of Nanjing", or it meaning "much for the rest of the tournament"?
I certainly didn’t. :)
Tomorrow Carlsen plays white against Topalov. My primary wish is this: May we see aggressive, high-quality chess!
Brilliant, Lékó has started to lose first round games as well. I hope Carlsen goes on winning - at least for one more round..
"Anyone waiting up till 3am to catch the action? That's NY time, which is 1500 local."
Mig, not 4am? I thought NY was GMT-4 and that you guys had DST too (no DST in Nanjing).
I wouldn't get up early for it, but the time trouble coincides nicely with morning coffee in Europe :) I think Leko was doomed the moment he was allocated/chose by far the worst outfit. Though I suppose Carlsen was the one who mainly had to look at it...
"This may just be a matter of personal preference (of course you didn't say or claim anything else), in any case 4.-Bc5 was not the decisive mistake"
Agreed. I doubt Leko would make a mistake on the 4th move. Topalov is a prisoner of his own greatness. If his performance level is less than 2813, we'll say he played badly. I wasn't following chess several years ago.
"He lost his title in the World Chess Championship 2006 match against Vladimir Kramnik, during which he accused his opponent of cheating." Wikipedia
Was Topalov having mental health issues? Kramnik didn't beat Kasparov by cheating! ;) (Although I'm not a Kramnik fan)
Thomas I suppose the silk shirts are more photogenic than the outfits the players themselves would choose. Topalov's looks too much like dun camouflage, but I like the blue and red ones.
Perhaps at a Scottish tournament, the men will wear skirts (kilts), and maybe in Germany, leiderhosen (sp?).
:-)
The folks who did the translations for the slogans must have been the same dudes who subtitled the classic 'The Backstroke of The West' episode of Star Wars. (http://winterson.com/2009/01/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west-redux.html)
I know it's only one game, but IMO Carlsen's demolition of Leko was plain scary - not because of the opening preparation which bore the fingerprints of Gazza - but because of the amount of time he took after going a piece up to seal the win. All too often in previous games (the Aronian games in Tal '06 and Linares '09 come to mind) did we see Carlsen throw away the half point with a careless rushed move or two; instead we may be seeing a newer, more cautious Carlsen these days. Maybe this was the best advice GK could have imparted.
I don't think Carlsen will play the Scotch again anytime soon. Think about it: He recently revealed the news about working with Kasparov. This was the first round of a major event. What better time to spring a surprise Scotch game to confuse the rivals? Now they will stay up all night and try to figure out what's in Kasparov's secret database, while Magnus will get all the sleep he needs and play his usual repertoire.
http://blog.sina.com.cn/chessnews (and
http://www.schacksnack.se/artiklar/24685 in Swedish) confirms it was combined Magnus-Garry preparation.
I completely agree , you can see clearly in the picture that he is hating his dress.
"Brilliant, Lékó has started to lose first round games as well."
Don't worry, he has white vs Wang Yue in the last round, and will manage a draw.
"confirms it was combined Magnus-Garry preparation"
Yes, but I think Leko played the first new move.
When Carlsen played h4, that seemed unusual and kind of nervy to me. Was it to prevent Bh3?
Awesome link, Thomas. Particularly loving the one of Topalov looking like Mussolini who'd been got out of bed in his pyjamas to address a gathering of a couple of thousand or so of the faithful.
What on earth is it with the organisers making the players wear fancy dress? Pathetic. You'd think they would want the players to wear what they felt comfortable in and were most likely to play their best chess in. You'd like to think that Ivanchuk, for example, would have told them wear to stick it. Can't see Gelfand or Kramnik, say, having much truck with it either.
Do the players get to choose what they wear under the shirt and the pant? Or is that officially sanctioned too?
"What do you guys think about the compulsory Chinese shirts?"
They are looking very comfortable. I guess the players at least have a choice, which shirt to wear.
But a clear disadvantage for Leko. He must feel misarable wihout tie in a serious event.
His tacticle plan - disturbing his opponent with an ugly view - didn't work out against Carlsen.
Is there an english equivalent to the saying: 'Schadenfreude ist die beste Freude'?
"When Carlsen played h4, that seemed unusual and kind of nervy to me. Was it to prevent Bh3"
Rybka 2 on chessbomb suggested this move a couple of times. My impression from the comments I've seen, is that this move limits the movement of the black queen. 28...Qh6 was critizised because of this (Qf5 was supposed to be better), but at this point Leko played only for the Nxh4 tactics.
OK, "game of the year" etc. was my, apparently stretchy, interpretation of your words. If nothing similar was at all implied, I wonder how often you think or write the following about top GM games: "It almost seemed as if he was inspired by Bobby Fischer, aiming not just to win but to utterly destroy his opponent."
My own summary of Carlsen-Leko:
1) Carlsen played a known pawn sacrifice in the opening. Combined, Chessvibes and Chessmind mention six earlier games - apparently, Morozevich-Kramnik, Dortmund 2001 was both the first one and the only one at the highest level.
2) White had clear compensation, and later cashed in on the queenside then being a pawn up.
3) Black tried a sacrifical attack on the kingside, which was refuted. White's key defensive moves seem to be 28.Bf3, 29.Qc4 (not only getting out of the pin on the b-file, but also defending f4) and 30.Bg4: . Not sure if these moves are exceptionally brilliant and hard to find, the two last ones are more or less forced - so Carlsen had no choice but destroying his opponent!?
Altogether, I wonder how many comments (and what kind of comments) the game would have got if Carlsen wasn't working with Kasparov, or if their cooperation was still kept secret ... .
Lederhosen are a Bavarian tradition, not sure if they are appreciated elsewhere in Germany (the main chess events are Dortmund and Mainz). Similarly, in other parts of the USA people may at least smile at certain habits or accents from, say, Texas ... ,:) .
Another idea might be to have all players wear their own national costume. Would a Norwegian sweater do for Carlsen (maybe wrong Chinese season, though), or does he have to put up a Viking helmet? I know they are not common on the streets of Bergen and Tromso (Norwegian cities I visited myself), but I vividly remember hundreds of Viking helmets and Scottish kilts on the streets of Bordeaux, France in 1998 [football World Cup, match Norway-Scotland].
At Corus, some Indian players occasionally show up in traditional clothes (Sasikiran and I think some females, but not Anand).
And apparently, the Nanjing organizers ran out of colorful outfits, hence the officials (arbiter Ignatius Leong, guest of honor Ilyumzhinov) stuck with conventional suits.
"Is there an english equivalent to the saying: 'Schadenfreude ist die beste Freude'?"
While *I* do not feel that way, there are those who would make superficial inane comments regarding the dressware in Nanjing, thus reminding me of this English phrase: "Laughter is the best medicine," i.e., laughter "being good for what ails you."
CO
I wonder what Alekhine wore to his later tournaments.
He probably tied one on. :)
CO
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