CHESS #631

Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen shared the 19th Amber, gathering 14.5 points each (combined Blind+ Rapid). Ivanchuk scored 7 wins and 15 draws including a 2-0 crush of Carlsen in the first round. Carlsen scored 13 wins (!), 6 losses and just 3 draws. Kramnik was third with 13 points, ahead of Grischuk (12.5).

Defending champion Levon Aronyan finished 9th with a 50 per cent score. Grischuk won the blind section with 8/11 ahead of Carlsen and Ivanchuk who shared first place in the Rapid. As usual, it proved very hard-fought with 68 of the 120 games ending in decisions. Obviously format has something to do with the result ratio. But so does attitude, which is driven by prize and appearance fee structures. The Euro Open had a 68 per cent decision ratio over 3,078 games. The website saw over 2 million visitors, which suggest fans lap up scraps.

Play at an invitational round-robin with classical time-controls will undoubtedly be “cleaner” with fewer errors. But what price is purity if the vast majority of games are drawn early and the fans turned off? Sofia Rules do help to keep eyeballs because people enjoy long hard fought draws. No route to converting those eyeballs into revenues is visible yet but that’s no reason to turn them away.

Incidentally in an interview at the Euro, Silvio Danailov stated that Topalov will play the world title match under self-imposed Sofia rules even though there's no such compulsion. Presumably he will not offer draws and he will refuse any offer Anand might make.

Bobby Fischer and Bent Larsen had similar philosophies. While it normally served them well, it is double-edged. It can lead to over-aggressive play especially in a match situation. In tactical terms, Topalov may be hoping to exhaust Anand, who is five years older. Or, this is simply a gambit in the pre-match probing for potential weaknesses.

The Diagram WHITE TO PLAY (Nepomniachtchi Vs Inarkiev, European Championships 2010), illustrates the splendid talent of the new champion. Black appears to be on the verge of breaking through on the queen-side and in the centre.

White finds the fantastic 33.Nxf7! Kxf7 34.exd5 cxd5 35.Rc7 Rd7. The idea which he must see before his 33rd is 35...Qa6 36.Ng5+! Kg8 (36...Nxg5 37.Qxe7+) 37.Qxa6 Rxa6 38.Nxe6 Rxe6 39.Rxe6, winning. Even after taking the queen, white needs exact moves to exploit black’s lack of coordination. The loose Kt-e7 is a key target.

36.Rxb7 Bxb7 37.Ba4 Ba6 38.Ne5+ Bxe5 39.Qxe5 Ra7 40.Qh8 Nf8. Now the black squares are weak and the continuation 41.Bh4 g5 42.Bxg5 Rg6 43.Qd4 Rb7 44.Qf4+ (1-0), uses those. It's time to resign because Kt-e7 is finally lost.