CHESS #583

Consulting during a chess game is illegal under normal conditions. It hasn’t worked well in experiments. In Kasparov Vs Rest of the World for instance, the RoW made sub-optimal moves at crunch moments. The most popular move was chosen and by definition, those choices were mediocre at inflection points.

Teams working for top players develop more sophisticated methods of “parallel processing”. Ultimately, one guy calls the shots so sub-optimal analysis doesn’t slip through that often. Nevertheless, there have been famous disasters.

The principal has forgotten the analysis (this happened several times with Karpov) or something has been left uncovered. During the Kramnik-Leko match, Kramnik suffered a painful loss in the Spanish Marshall due to collective impatience. His team left the engines running for a brief while and noted white was winning. If they had left the engines running a little longer, they would have seen a 360 degree turn in evaluation.

Anand-Kramnik provided some instances of how stressful it is, managing teams. Team Anand worked out intricacies of the Bonn Variation of the Meran Defence (14.—Bb7) and Anand won in Game 3. They found a flaw in 15.— Bd6. Team Kramnik must also have seen the hole since Kramnik repeated in Game 5. The Russian GM was castigated for that decision because he lost Game 5 while Team Anand was highly praised for its analytical depth and thoroughness.

The story Anand relates is hair-raising. Game 5 was due to start at 3pm. At 2 pm, his team saw the line had collapsed. After feverish analysis, at 2.25, the team thought the alternate 15.—Rg8 was ok. Anand left for the venue at 2.30, with his fingers and toes firmly crossed.

Team championships fall somewhere in-between in terms of collective analysis. Teams “group-think” strategy to decide who takes risks, etc. One of the toughest team tournaments is the Russian championships.

There’s oil money backing regional chauvinism and passions can reach flash point. Tomsk-400 with Jakovenko, Timofeev, Inarkiev, Tiviakov leads ahead of SHSM-64 (Moscow Central Chess Club) with Gelfand, Wang Hao, Najer, Caruana, etc.

In team tournaments, designated risk-takers are “allowed” to play dangerous lines No questions about Alexey Shirov belongs to. In THE DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (Shirov Vs Wang Hao, Russian Team Chps, 2009), White broke through with 16.Nxe6! — this works due to 16.— fxe6 17. Nxc5 Qxc5 18. Qxc5 Nxc5 19. Rd8+ or 16.—Bxe3 17. Nc7+ Kf8 18. Nxd5 Bb6 (otherwise Nc7) 19. Nxb6 Nxb6 20. Rd8#.

Play continued Bb4+ 17.c3 Qxe6 18.cxb4 0-0 19.Rd6 Qxe5 20.Bc4 Nc6 21.0-0 Qh5 22.Qf4 Nde5 and now the delectable 23.Rxh6!! (1-0). The main line is 23. —Qxh6 24. Nf6+ Kh8 25. Bg5 trapping the queen while 23-Qg4 24. Nf6+ gxf6 25. Bxf6 mates.