E-Mail mdcrowth@netcomuk.co.uk www http://www.tcc.net/gmtchess.html Tel or fax 01274 882143 [Bradford England] Produced for Thoth Communications Corporation part of Grandmaster Technologies Incorporated.
1) Introduction
2) Kasparov vs Deep Blue
3) European Team Championships
4) Linz Tournament Austria
5) IV Novgorod International Chess Supertournament
6) First Saturday Tournaments May
7) Karpov beats Kotronias in Athens
8) Kasparov Simultaneous Event
9) FIRST TORONTO INTERNATIONAL OPEN UNDER WAY by Vojin
Vujosevic
10) Russian Chess Championships
11) Frankfurt Chess Classic. Chess players on Speed
12) PCA WORLD CHESS RANKING
13) 52nd Yugoslav Championship - play-off - Belgrade April
17-23
14) Theoretical Corner by Marco R. Martini (ITA)
EuT-ch Pula CRO 1997 204 EuT-ch Pula CRO 1997 Women 90 It Linz AUT 1997 10 FSIM May Budapest HUN 1997 26 Hellas Rapid m Athens GRE 1997 4 Int open Toronto CAN 1997 4 UMBC simul Catonsville USA 1997 8 ch-YUG playoff Belgrade 1997 6
My thanks to Martin Bennedik, Sinisa Joksic, Marco R. Martini, Gerald Schendal, Harald, Lothar Karrer, Michael Atkins, Vojin Vujosevic, Alexander Khalifman, Laszlo Nagy, Damir Medak, Argiris Kotsis and all those who sent information this week.
England's triumph in the European Team Championships is their first in any major team event and should have brought a great priority this week. The news that Gary Kasparov is willing to play a match against Deep Blue for his World Title is however the one that should attract the most attention. This is an epoch making decision, one that I don't believe should go unnoticed. In fact given the fact that there is no clear way for a human to challenge Kasparov and that it implies a whole host of implicit assumptions about a computer's rights to compete it should at the very least be open for discussion. I would certainly ask the top GM readers to think about it because before long, especially given Kasparov's very patchy record against computers (he seems to have broken most of the records in recent years for losing to these machines) because it is starting to become pretty important for the future of the game itself. If they disagree they ought to be making more noise.
Hope you enjoy this issue
Mark
Kasparov did a round of interviews after the match and his views can be represented as:
He wants a rematch before the end of the year. He is prepared to have a winner takes all match where he would win nothing if he loses second time around. He wants to put his World Title on the line.
He doesn't understand how the computer played so strongly but is still confident of the result second time round. His main accusation is that between games there were major alterations to the program in the way it assessed the value of pieces. This was something that was actually flagged before the match on the IBM site and has never been disallowed in computer events. It has been found to be counterproductive before as changes can have a drastic negative effect, clearly IBM have found a way to make these changes in a controlled way. He also doesn't understand how some of the "human like" decisions were made. He sticks by his insinuation that there was the possibility of such intervention during game 2. This points has played very negatively in the press, certainly in the UK. Kasparov says:
"I think game two posed too many questions and I think it is in the interest of the IBM team to answer those questions. "They should not say 'it's not your business' because no computer in the world will reconstruct the steps ... they will not give you the same result."
IBM gave him the printouts he requested after the match and have answered that Kasparov seems not to have found any problems.
He wants the games to be on alternate days and the match to be over 10 games.
He wants a separate sponsor for the event and have it as a true competitive event as he had entered the match believing this was a scientific experiment. My impression again is that this was a real competitive event. Perhaps Kasparov should start using the internet (he espouses the internet but according to one person I asked doesn't use it himself).
IBM are non-committal. They have had several offers from top players including Anatoly Karpov for matches. So long as it is a top player this is probably more productive. Kasparov is most certainly not the best "defender of the human race" for chess. His dramatic demands for an almost immediate rematch don't suggest that his mental attitude will be ideal. It needs someone with a calm frame of mind to play machines. He now has a history which suggests that if push comes to shove he collapses. If the match came down to level after nine I wouldn't expect anything but a collapse from Kasparov.
There are already moves afoot to try and get computers into real chess competitions. This should be resisted absolutely. Already there is the potential that chess will be turned into a game where computers dominate in terms of public perception. Kasparov needs to answer precisely where he intends to go with the PCA title he holds. Karpov is likely not to be the FIDE Champion by early next year (he has said he won't play in the FIDE KO event). The FIDE KO event will be a non-event on a World scale, or at least I predict this will be the case, and so there is no forum to show chess at its best. The match in France is the only hope for a Kasparov-Karpov struggle and I believe that it is likely to founder on FIDE involvement. There is a danger that over 100 years of chess history is being dumped in the garbage can. Few seem to be doing anything about it. Last year one top GM said that Kasparov was closing in on retirement from chess. He already makes more money from business and before he leaves he is intent on destroying chess by destroying the World Championships and then through playing these computer matches. Perhaps these predictions will come true, given that he is for the first time in chess history prepared to recognise these matches as anything other than exhibitions. There are many who will never recognise these matches as anything more than exhibitions.
IBM have not made any definitive announcement as to future plans for the Deep Blue program. However there has been an announcement about Deep Blue Junior a smaller version of the main program. According to The Sunday Times, Innovation column of May 18th "It consists of one workstation compared with Deeper Blue's 32, but with accelerator cards and advanced chess-playing software, the company believes it is just as formidable. It has already proved invincible in exhibition speed chess games against Grandmasters." Whist I have seen no games played by Grandmasters against this machine there is some reason to doubt that this is the case. In the May issue of Chess Magazine there is a letter from Art Wang about a visit of some members of his chess club to IBM in San Jose (March 2nd) where they played Deep Blue Junior. There were two games played on the original visit. In both they played closed Sicilians, one where the humans were crushed and another where the humans obtained Queen for Rook and two pawns but unfortunately messed things up later on in this overwhelming position. A few days later Art Wang revisited the computer and won the following game.
Art Wang-Deep Blue Junior San Jose March 1997
1.f4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 e6 4.d4 c5 5.c3 Bd7 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Nbd2 Rc8 8.0-0 Bd6 9.Ne5 0-0 10.Rf3 Qb6 11.Kh1 Qa5 12.Rh3 g6 13.Qe1 Qc7 14.Qh4 Nh5 15.g4 Be7 16.g5 Nxe5 17.dxe5 h6 18.Qg4 hxg5 19.Rxh5 c4 20.Bc2 d4 21.exd4 gxh5 22.Qxh5 f5 23.Qg6+ Kh8 24.Qh6+ 1-0
Perhaps the one thing we have learnt from the match is that Kasparov has a breaking point. Kasparov's next appearance will be in the Novgorod tournament (see below). Can the other players start to put some pressure on Kasparov? His stated remarks after his match against Anand that he was extremely concerned prior to the start of that match might suggest that his huge self confidence has started to erode. It is time however that some assertiveness and aggression from his rivals is shown.
Report from Pula by Damir Medak
The 11th European Team Championships were the first where all participating countries had to pay the costs of accommodation for their teams. This fact was probably the main reason the reduction in the number of participants compared with the previous ETCC in Debrecen 1992. Nevertheless the beautiful ancient city of Pula hosted chess-players from 34 countries with 34 men's teams and 30 women's teams (including a Croatian second teams in both tournaments).
Although some of top players did not take part (e.g. in Russian team), the competition produced a number of beautiful games and there was enormous fighting spirit with only a few so-called grandmasters' draws. The battle went right to the final round.
The Georgian women's team led from the first to last round and there is nothing much to be said about the gold medal. Very impressive, that's all. The silver was decided by a half of Buchholz point in favour of Romania which caused long discussion between Chris Ward, the captain of the English women's team, arbiters and myself as tournament director. Chris just couldn't believe that his Buchholz calculation (according to which England should take the silver) was wrong.
The winner in the men's tournament was not clear till the very end. The leading position of the Croatian first team during the first few rounds attracted a lot of attention in the host country. Later on it seemed that England would be the clear winner, but the drama of the 9th and final round proved that everything was possible. However it was something like higher justice to see the gold medal going to England, because of the unfortunate loss of Nigel Short to Aleksandrov in the 3rd round. He "underestimated" the digital clock and exceeded the time limit in eventually won position. The time limit seemed to cause difficulties: instead of "normal" 30 minutes for the end of the game, every player was awarded 30 seconds for every move after the 60th move (under condition that one player had spent his time!). The problem arises if one makes e.g. 80 moves in 3 hours and then expects additional 20*30 seconds when the game goes to the third phase. It simply does not happen - you have 30 seconds for the next move, regardless for 61st or 81st! This is just one of the problems with Fischer's clock, but I find it much better than very interesting situations when playing 30 minutes for the rest of the game.
Russian team was very strong despite of fact that the players were from the same club. They showed the full strength in the last round when they almost caught the gold medal. Armenians were very solid during the whole tournament. The medal was definitely deserved. And now, few words about Croatian team; though modestly rated, our players had a chance to make the great surprise. The first three board were extremely successful in tough matches (especially the youngest player Mladen Palac), but we definitely missed a solid fourth board.
About the organization:
It would not be fair that I write about it. I have just tried to direct the tournament, publish the bulletin with all games, run the WWW-site, supply the journalists and all of that with the team of 5 persons including myself! But, let our guests give their impressions. Best regards to all of them: players, arbiters, journalists and all those who attended. Thanks for all and see you again in chess mad Croatia!
The event was covered in detail for the first time on the internet with full results and games every day at: http://alf.tel.hr/hss/main.html
Final Standings Men1 ENGLAND 22.5 183.5 2 RUSSIA 22.5 177 3 ARMENIA 22 179.5 4 HUNGARY 21.5 178.5 5 GERMANY 21.5 171.5 6 ISRAEL 21 177.5 7 CROATIA I 20.5 184 8 GEORGIA 20 180 9 BELARUS 19.5 178 10 BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA 19.5 173.5 11 NETHERLANDS 19.5 173 12 POLAND 19.5 168 13 ESTONIA 19 176.5 14 SWITZERLAND 19 160.5 15 AZERBAIJAN 19 156 16 SLOVAKIA 19 155.5 17 SWEDEN 19 147.5 18 LATVIA 18 177.5 19 FRANCE 18 160 20 SPAIN 18 157.5 21 TURKEY 18 144.5 22 ITALY 17.5 164.5 23 CROATIA II 17.5 148 24 LITHUANIA 17 173 25 CZECH REPUBLIC 17 155.5 26 GREECE 17 150 27 F.Y.R.MACEDONIA 17 145 28 SLOVENIA 16.5 162 29 PORTUGAL 16.5 139.5 30 FINLAND 16.5 136 31 AUSTRIA 15.5 154 32 IRELAND 12.5 137 33 SCOTLAND 8.5 141 34 WALES 6.5 143 |
Final Standings Women1 GEORGIA 13 96 2 ROMANIA 12 94.5 3 ENGLAND 12 94 4 RUSSIA 11.5 94.5 5 ARMENIA 11 90 6 HUNGARY 10.5 93 7 LITHUANIA 10.5 85.5 8 BOSNIA&HERZEGOVINA 10.5 82 9 GERMANY 10 89.5 10 POLAND 10 82 11 GREECE 9.5 92 12 AZERBAIJAN 9.5 89 13 ISRAEL 9.5 88 14 LATVIA 9.5 78.5 15 CROATIA I 9 82.5 16 NETHERLANDS 9 77.5 17 FINLAND 9 76.5 18 SPAIN 9 76 19 SLOVAKIA 9 74.5 20 CZECH REPUBLIC 8.5 83.5 21 F.Y.R.MACEDONIA 8 84.5 22 FRANCE 8 78 23 CROATIA II 8 72.5 24 SWEDEN 8 66.5 25 AUSTRIA 7.5 65 26 SLOVENIA 7 77.5 27 PORTUGAL 6.5 66 28 TURKEY 5 68 29 ITALY 5 65 30 IRELAND 4.5 68 |
Board prizes - men 1st board 1st prize: Suat Atalik (TUR) , 5.5/7 (78.57%) 2nd prize: Boris Alterman (ISR), 6.0/8 (75.00%) 3rd prize: Michal Krasenkow (POL), 6.5/9, (72.22%) 2nd board 1st prize: Rafael Vaganian (ARM), 5.0/7 (71.43%) 2nd prize: Igor Efimov (ITA), 5.5/8 (68.75%) 3rd prize: Peter Svidler (RUS), 6.0/9 (66.67%) 3rd board 1st prize: Mladen Palac (CRO), 6.5/9 (72.22%) 2nd prize: Vadim Zvjaginsev (RUS), 5.5/8 (68.75%) 3rd prize: Gennadi Timoschenko (SVK), 6.0/9 (66.67%) 4th board 1st prize: Johan Hellsten (SWE), 6.5/8 (81.25%) 2nd prize: Mathew Sadler (ENG), 7.0/9 (77.78%) 3rd prize: Christian Gabriel (GER), 5.5/8 (68.75%) Reserve: 1st prize: Ashot Anastasian (ARM), 6.5/8 (81.25%) 2nd prize: Giorgi Kacheishvili (GEO), 6.0/9 (66.67% ) 3rd prize: Petr Haba (CZE), 6.0/9 (66.67% ) Board prizes - women 1st board: 1st prize: Maia Chiburdanidze (GEO), 5.0/6 (83.33%) 2nd prize: Johanna Paasikangas (FIN), 7.0/9 (77.88%) 3rd prize: Ketino Kachiani-Gersinska (GER), 6.5/9 (72.22%) 2nd board: 1st prize: Nana Ioseliani, (GEO), 5.5/7 (78.57%) (2325.71) 2nd prize: Cristina Foisor, (RUM), 5.5/7 (78.57%) (2300.00) 3rd prize: Barbara Grabarska (POL), 5.5/7 (78.57%) (2238.75) Reserve:: 1st prize: Jana Jackova (CZE), 5.0/7 (71.43%) (2235) 2nd prize: Tatiana Voronova (LAT), 5.0/7 (71.43%) (2198) 3rd prize: Zorica Puljek-Szalai, (CRO), 3.0/5 (60.00%)
Austria is hosting a strong event in Linz with amongst others Etienne Bacrot the World's youngest GM and Viktor Korchnoi one of the most successful veterans.
Round 1 (1997.05.17)
Almasi, Zoltan - Lanka, Zigurds 1-0 39 B66 Sicilian
Glek, Igor V - Romanishin, Oleg M 1/2 43 B30 Sicilian
Korchnoi, Viktor - Bacrot, Etienne 1-0 52 A29 English; 1.c4 e5
Casagrande, Harald - Wach, Markus 0-1 40 D03 Queen's pawn
Rogers, Ian - Beim, Valery 0-1 84 B09 Pirc; Austrian
Round 2 (1997.05.18)
Almasi, Zoltan - Korchnoi, Viktor 1-0 33 C82 Ruy Lopez
Beim, Valery - Glek, Igor V 1/2 11 A15 English; 1.c4
Romanishin, Oleg M - Casagrande, Harald 1-0 38 A30 English; 1.c4 c5
Lanka, Zigurds - Wach, Markus 1-0 40 B14 Caro-Kann
Bacrot, Etienne - Rogers, Ian 1-0 38 D38 Queen's gambit
Linz AUT (AUT), V 1997 cat. XII (2542)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1 Almasi, Zoltan g HUN 2595 * . . . 1 1 . . . . 2.0
2 Beim, Valery g ISR 2555 . * . = . . . . . 1 1.5 2803
3 Romanishin, Oleg M g UKR 2555 . . * = . . . . 1 . 1.5 2685
4 Glek, Igor V g RUS 2620 . = = * . . . . . . 1.0 2555
5 Korchnoi, Viktor g SUI 2635 0 . . . * . 1 . . . 1.0 2547
6 Lanka, Zigurds g LAT 2575 0 . . . . * . 1 . . 1.0 2505
7 Bacrot, Etienne m FRA 2500 . . . . 0 . * . . 1 1.0 2617
8 Wach, Markus m AUT 2415 . . . . . 0 . * 1 . 1.0 2470
9 Casagrande, Harald m AUT 2365 . . 0 . . . . 0 * . 0.0
10 Rogers, Ian g AUS 2600 . 0 . . . . 0 . . * 0.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Harald Grafenhofer sends the games from the first two rounds of the Linz tournament. There is further coverage by Lothar Karrer on the www:
http://www.oesd.co.at/wz/schach/austria/HMENU.HTM
The 4th Novgorod International tournament takes place in Russia between June 10th-24th 1997 is another fantastic event. It has an average rating of 2719,2
Players:
Gary Kasparov - Russia, Moscow;
Vladimir Kramnik - Russia, Novgorod;
Vesselin Topalov - Bulgaria ;
Boris Gelfand - Byelorussia;
Nigel Short - Great Britain;
Evgeniy Bareev - Russia, Moscow;
There will be a web site http://chess.novgorod.ru
Laszlo Nagy reports:
The May version of the traditional FIRST SATURDAY tournament in Budapest in Hungary has just finished. The IM tournament was category III, 14 players from 7 countries. The ELO average was 2308, the IM-norm was 9,5 points. The event was won by Siegfried Baumegger by a clear point from David Karatorossian. He scored 9.5 which seems to have qualified as an IM norm.
Budapest HUN (HUN), V 1997 cat. III (2308)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Baumegger, Siegfried f AUT 2360 * 1 1 0 = 0 1 = 1 1 = 1 1 1 9.5 2478
2 Karatorossian, David ARM 2235 0 * = = = 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 8.5 2423
3 Czebe, Attila m HUN 2325 0 = * 1 1 1 1 = = 1 = = 0 = 8.0 2393
4 Stillger, Bernhard f GER 2315 1 = 0 * 1 0 0 1 1 = = = 1 1 8.0 2393
5 Richardson, John R f ENG 2360 = = 0 0 * = = 1 0 1 1 = 1 1 7.5 2360
6 Lopushnoy, Denis RUS 2290 1 0 0 1 = * = 0 1 = = = = 1 7.0 2337
7 Abbasov, Farid AZE 2220 0 0 0 1 = = * = 0 1 1 = 1 1 7.0 2343
8 Kahn, Evarth m HUN 2370 = 1 = 0 0 1 = * 1 0 = = = = 6.5 2302
9 Jetzl, Joerg AUT 2245 0 0 = 0 1 0 1 0 * = 0 1 1 1 6.0 2283
10 Lauber, Arnd GER 2360 0 0 0 = 0 = 0 1 = * = 1 1 1 6.0 2274
11 Eperjesi, Laszlo m HUN 2340 = 0 = = 0 = 0 = 1 = * 1 0 = 5.5 2248
12 Koch, Wolfgang Max f GER 2355 0 0 = = = = = = 0 0 0 * = = 4.0 2162
13 Velcheva, Maria wm BUL 2285 0 0 1 0 0 = 0 = 0 0 1 = * = 4.0 2168
14 Toth, Andras HUN 2245 0 1 = 0 0 0 0 = 0 0 = = = * 3.5 2137
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
First Saturday Web Page
Organiser Laszlo Nagy has started a news page for Hungarian Chess. It will be updated at least once a week on a Saturday and possibly more frequently. The news will be available at his web site: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/chess_first_saturday_hu/
You can contact Laszlo Nagy in the following ways:
Postal address: H-1101 Budapest, Hungaria krt. 5.-7. XI.ep.I.em.7. Tel-fax: int-(361)-263-28-59
E-mail address: chess_first_saturday_hu@compuserve.com or 100263.1700@compuserve.com
Kotronias, Vasilios - Karpov, Anatoly 1-0 33 B12 Caro-Kann
Karpov, Anatoly - Kotronias, Vasilios 1-0 35 E89 Kings indian; Saemisch
Kotronias, Vasilios - Karpov, Anatoly 0-1 46 B12 Caro-Kann
Karpov, Anatoly - Kotronias, Vasilios 1/2 56 B07 Pirc
Athens GRE (GRE), V 1997
------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4
------------------------------------------------------------
Karpov, Anatoly g RUS 2760 0 1 1 = 2.5 2685
Kotronias, Vasilios g GRE 2590 1 0 0 = 1.5 2673
------------------------------------------------------------
The Hellas Chess Club organised a rapidplay (25minutes per side) match between FIDE Champion Anatoly Karpov and leading Greek player Vassilis Kotronias. There were four games played on the 17th and 18th of May.
Arbiter: Christos Pilalis
My thanks to Argiris Kotsis
On Saturday May 17th Gary Kasparov played a simultaneous event against 8 opponents, Michael Atkins reports.
(See http://www.wizard.net/~matkins/kasparov.htm for photographs from the event. )
He gave a short talk before playing 8 in a timed simultaneous. The eight were IM Valery Atlas, SM William "The Exterminator" Morrison, FM Dmitry Atlas & SM Greg Shahade (The UMBC "A" Chess team, and 4 juniors. The Juniors were 1997 MD High School Champ Ray Kaufman, Alex Bardakh, Ben Lifshtein, and Edic Tsibulevsky, the final three qualifying in a tournament this morning.
Kasparov arrived about 45 minutes late for the 12:30 start, as he went to the College Park campus instead of the Catonsville UMBC campus. He entered to a thunderous standing ovation with the crowd yelling its approval and many shouting "Go Garry!!." He appeared somewhat embarrassed by the ovation and his first comments were "I don't think I deserve this, but thank you."
Kasparov clearly seemed very tired after the whirlwind events of the past couple weeks. He commented that he had just finished 4 major interviews yesterday for the NY Times, Time Magazine, Reuters, and the last one escapes me right now. He said that he hoped he had enough energy for this simul and was sure the players would sap whatever energy he had left.
The World Champion spent a good bit of his time talking about his recently completed match with Deep Blue and answered several questions from the audience. He repeated his offer of a rematch and suggested that he have a day off between the games because " I am vulnerable", and that in the next match he thought that IBM should just be the player, and not the combination of player, organizer and sponsor as he felt that was unfair and created a combative atmosphere.
He was very personable and engaging to the several hundred people in attendance and cracked many jokes that delighted the audience. He said it was hard playing Deep Blue because after a game he was tired and the computer didn't even know that it had won, didn't know if it had lost and didn't even know if it had played. He said that for the first time he came up against an opponent that didn't crack under his pressure. He told the audience that they should bet on him the next time as he was going to win because "I feel I am a better player than the machine."
There was also a USCF-sponsored event featuring 4 GM's playing a timed simultaenous match against 4 teams of juniors. The GMS's were U.S. Champion Alex Yermolinsky, Boris Gulko, Gregory Kaidanov and Nick deFirmian.
The event was organised by Dr. Alan Sherman, the faculty advisor of the UMBC chess team who arranged for the simul (sponsored by the Abell Foundation, TRMAC, and the UMBC President's Office.) and deserves any accolades going for organising the event.
One of Kasparov's 4 junior opponents, Ray Kaufman, plays at my club. William Morrison one of Kasparov's other opponents is said to be the person that the street player character from the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" was based on. Morrison is now a history major, the 1995 Maryland Chess Champion and an expert blitz player.
Kasparov won 7 games and drew only one, against Dimitri Atlas.
Vojin Vujosevic reports from the first Toronto International open. The venue is the Downtown Toronto Best Western PRIMROSE Hotel steps away from the legendary Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens otherwise known as the Gardoonies. The first Toronto International Open with $25,000 in guaranteed prizes was under way. The actual sponsor and guarantor is the MTCBF - The Metro Toronto Chess Building Fund.
There were at least 290 players involved in chess combat, in this 7 round open Swiss FIDE rated, CFC rated tourney, divided into 6 groups.
The main group had, among other things 3 IGM's: Lev Psahis the former Soviet and former Israeli champion, Sergei Kudrin and Dmitry Gurevich of U.S.
Other well known players I spotted in my brief stroll were IM's Rashid Ziyatdinov, Toronto IM's: Lawrence Day, Bryon Nickoloff , Zvonko Vranesic and Ron Livshits, FM's: Ian Findlay, Grant Spraggett. Grant's older brother IGM Kevin Spraggett was supposed to come but I am told ended up in Cuba and is currently playing in the Capablanca Memorial.
Local strong players present were: Eduardo Teodoro IV, Hans Jung, Jura Ochkoos, Goran Milicevic, Josip Mihaljevic... I am sure I missed a few ...
The TIO 1997 - Main Group - round 5 results:
[ ] Teodoro IV,Eduardo 2440 - [ ] Ziatdinov,Rashid IM 2485 a fairly simple ending looked a lot like a draw when I left. [=] Kudrin,Sergey GM 2612 - [0.5 ] Livshits,Ron IM 2485 [0] Tipu,Vincent 2367 - [1] Psakhis,Lev GM 2610 [0] Linskiy,Oleg 2415 - [1] Gurevich,Dmitry GM 2635 [1] Day,Lawrence IM 2486 - [0] Saleh,Maher 2368 [1] Milicevic,Goran FM 2380 - [0] Nickoloff,Bryon IM 2475 [=] Vranesic,Zvonko IM 2348 - [=] Findlay,Ian FM 2435 [1] Ilic,Stanimir 2329 - [0] Djerkovic,Miladin 2391 [0] Hua,Lefong 2276 - [1] Spraggett,Grant FM 2432 [=] Schleifer,Michael 2439 - [=] Filipovic,David 2314 [1] Ochkoos,Yuri 2360 - [0] Glinert,Stephen 2300 [0] Charbonneau,Pascal 2238 - [1] Rajlich,Vasic 2341 [ ] Kiviaho,Bob 2326 - [ ] Krupka,David 2300 [=] Campbell,Brett 2325 - [=] Jung,Hans 2303 [1] Heringer,Chris 2230 - [0] Kamberi,Sonny 2318 [=] Boross-Harmer,Peter 2044 - [=] Nash,Barry 2362 [1] Turtel,Evan 2219 - [0] Ciaffone,Robert 2305 [=] Hum,Peter 2237 - [=] Ruiz,Richard 2176
There were a bunch of people who arranged for byes in this round before the tournament started including: FM Denis Allan 2394, Milan Vukadinov 2390 etc.
After 5 rounds the situation in the 44 player main group is as follows (I will assume a draw on board 1):
GM Lev Psakhis, IM Rashid Ziatdinov & Eduardo Teodoro IV 4 pts.
GM Sergei Kudrin, GM Dmitry Gurevich, IM Ron Livshits, IM Lawrence Day, Goran Milicevic, Stanimir Ilic all 3,5 pts
FM Ian Findlay, Milan Vukadinov, IM Zvonko Vranesic, FM Grant Spraggett, Yuri Ochkoos all 3 points
IM Bryon Nickoloff, Maher Saleh, Lefong Hua, Michael Schleifer, FM Denis Allan, David Filipovich and Chris Heringer 2 points etc.
Cecil Rosner reports that the Canadian Open will take place in Winnipeg, July 12-20, 1997. It is shaping up to be one of the most exciting open events in Canadian history. We have nine confirmed grandmasters and many other titled players already registered. In the last three weeks alone, I have fielded inquiries from a dozen other GM's interested in coming to
Winnipeg, including FIDE world champion Anatoly Karpov, who is interested in attending to deliver an exhibition and lecture. We are in the process of determining just how many of these additional appearances we can afford to accommodate.
This will be an unprecedented opportunity for Canadian players to meet world-class competition and achieve possible norms.
Manitoba has experienced some serious flooding in the last few weeks, and I have heard informally that some people are worried about the effect on the Canadian Open. I would like to tell you that Winnipeg itself was essentially untouched by the floods, and there is ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT on the tournament itself, in any way, shape or form. Winnipeg in July is a glorious tourist destination, and this year will be no exception.
June 1 is the deadline for early entry to the tournament. We have far fewer advance entries than I would like to see so far. I call on you, as chess organizers and activists, to spread the word about this event and help make it the success it deserves to be. Any assistance you can provide on this front will be most appreciated.
http://www.escape.ca/~woodbury/cdnopen1.htm
Alexander Khalifman reports that the Russian Chess Championships start today. The Russian Championship 1997 are to be held in Elista the venue for the last few years.The exact dates are 19.05-06.06.The format is very much similar to one which is scheduled for the FIDE World Championship. It will be KO-system and in every round there will be 2 games with regular time limit ( in case of a tie 2 rapid chess games will decide etc.)
In the 1st round 40 players who qualified from zonal tournaments and due to rating ( above 2550 on 1.1.97 ) will start. In the 2nd round 20 winners will be joined by 12 highest-rated Russian players and so on until the final. All the best Russian players (except certainly Kasparov, Karpov and Kramnik ) are expected to take part in this $100.000 event.
e.g. Bareev,Dreev,Svidler,Khalifman,Rublevsky,Epishin etc.
Communications with Elista are always a problem but there is an arrangement for the results and games will be sent regularly to RISC (Russian Internet Super Chess).
The URL is http://www.dux.ru/chess
Martin Bennedik reports that there is a very strong speed tournament in Frankfurt.
Date: Thursday, 26th June and Friday 27th June
Masters Tournament (Rapid), category 19 (!!), participants include Karpov, Anand, Topalov, Lobron. Also simultanous displays by Leko and Topalov, and an open rapid tournament to qualify for next years masters (28th, 29th), where also many of the best German players will play.
For player rated 2500 and higher. Results up to May 1, 1997
Produced by Ken Thomson with ChessBase Calculated by Vladimir Dvorkovich, Chess Union Int.
1. Kasparov,Garry RUS 2828 154
2. Anand,Viswanathan IND 2765 145
3. Kramnik,Vladimir RUS 2762 149
4. Topalov,Veselin BUL 2731 184
5. Karpov,Anatoli RUS 2710 145
6. Ivanchuk,Vassily UKR 2710 182
7. Kamsky,Gata USA 2701 181
8. Adams,Michael ENG 2688 156
9. Gelfand,Boris BLR 2687 133
10. Salov,Valery RUS 2672 173
11. Beliavsky,Alexander G SLO 2666 133
12. Shirov,Alexei ESP 2666 194
13. Bareev,Evgeny RUS 2657 167
14. Short,Nigel D ENG 2653 187
15. Andersson,Ulf SWE 2652 138
16. Yermolinsky,Alexey USA 2646 154
17. Khalifman,Alexander RUS 2644 143
18. Polgar,Judit (GM) HUN 2643 188
19. Granda Zuniga,Julio E PER 2632 206
20. Piket,Jeroen NED 2631 168
21. Georgiev,Kiril BUL 2629 166
22. Lautier,Joel FRA 2628 200
23. Seirawan,Yasser USA 2628 182
24. Leko,Peter HUN 2626 155
25. Dreev,Alexey RUS 2625 162
Tournaments processed for this list
SLO Bled open
SLO Portoroz open
SLO Nova Gorica open 2
YUG Belgrad play-off
USA New York open
GER Bundesliga Rounds 12/13
ESP Dos Hermanas Cat.19
FRA Enghien IT Cat.10
RUS Krasnodar Russian Cup open
RUS St.Peterburg 70th Championship
RUS Moscow 75th Championship
Sinisa Joksic reports that Dragoljub Velimirovic from Belgrade won the playoffs and the title of Yugoslav Champion. Velimirovic the 55 year old grandmaster, was the oldest participant in the four player tournament. This was his third title having won 1970 joint with Vukic and 1975 in Novi Sad.
He won, also, the second cycle of the playoffs. He did have a lot of luck in the final round. In his game with Ivanisevic (20) he sacrificed a piece incorrectly and had a lost position before the events youngest player overlooked losing a knight in time trouble (the 40th move!) and lost in an inferior ending.
Considering that the other game from the last round Damljanovic-Popovic also finished with a blunder (or a nice trap) it could have been a totally different final result with Ivanisevic and Damljanovic on top.
The tournament was very successful with plenty of good games but the organisation was very poor both for the players and for spectators, very unusual in Belgrade. [Apologies for the delay in publishing the second half of the event MC]
Round 4 (1997.04.21)
Velimirovic, Dragoljub - Popovic, Petar 1/2 41 B89 Sicilian
Damljanovic, Branko - Ivanisevic, Ivan 1-0 45 E64 Kings indian
Round 5 (1997.04.22)
Velimirovic, Dragoljub - Damljanovic, Branko 1/2 37 B33 Sicilian; Sveshnikov
Popovic, Petar - Ivanisevic, Ivan 0-1 40 B47 Sicilian
Round 6 (1997.04.23)
Damljanovic, Branko - Popovic, Petar 0-1 39 E75 Kings indian
Ivanisevic, Ivan - Velimirovic, Dragoljub 0-1 73 E90 Kings indian; Classical
Belgrade (YUG), IV 1997 cat. XI (2505)
-----------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4
-----------------------------------------------------------
1 Velimirovic, Dragoljub g YUG 2485 ** 0= 1= 11 4.0 2636
2 Popovic, Petar g YUG 2545 1= ** =1 00 3.0 2491
3 Damljanovic, Branko g YUG 2540 0= =0 ** =1 2.5 2436
4 Ivanisevic, Ivan YUG 2450 00 11 =0 ** 2.5 2466
-----------------------------------------------------------
Special section in the games section Email: avvmartini@mailbox.icom.it WWW : http://www.icom.it./user/scac