CHESS #636

The Fide elections are headed for a courtroom. Anatoly Karpov’s lawyers, White & Case of New York, have filed suit against Fide and incumbent president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Lausanne. Technicalities in the Fide constitution may disqualify the Kirsan re-election campaign.

The federations of USA, France, Germany, Switzerland and Ukraine are plaintiffs, along with Karpov. The suit challenges the nomination of Ilyumzhinov by Russia, Argentina and Mexico and the nomination of Beatriz Marinello for vice president on Kirsan’s ticket. There has to be at least one woman on every ticket, and Marinello is the only woman on Kirsan’s squad.

Each candidate must be nominated by either their home federation, or some other national federation where the candidate has been a member for a year minimum. Karpov and Kirsan are Russians. France, Germany and Switzerland nominated Karpov after confusion arose as to the legitimacy of his initial nomination by Russia on May 14.

The Russian Chess Federation has been taken over by Arkady Dvorkovich, who is economic adviser to the Russian president. The May 14 nomination was declared invalid and the RCF then nominated Kirsan.

The suit alleges Kirsan has not been a member of either the federation of Argentina or Mexico for sufficient time, while challenging the legality of RCF nomination. Ditto for Marinello. She is Chilean-born and nominated by Chile and Brazil, despite being an US citizen and resident.

Meanwhile the Dortmund Super GM is underway. The lowest rated (2689!) is Quang Liem Le, the teenaged GM from Vietnam, who qualified by winning the Aeroflot Open. The others, Kramnik (2790), Mamedaryov (2760), Ponomariov (2737), Leko (2735) and Naiditsch (2691)are all hardened pros.

Dortmund has Sofia Rules. It will also feature delayed move transmissions to prevent possible cheating. Kramnik is top-rated and he’s won nine times. But he started with a draw against Quang, while Mamedaryov and Ponomariov both won.

The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, Ponomariov vs Leko, (Dortmund 2010) gives the lie to the truism “all rook endings are drawn”. White went with 35. Rxa5 fxe5 36. fxe5 Bxe5 37. Rxe5 Rxd6 38. Kxb4 Rd2. Now it’s all about calculation

Play continued 39. a4 Rxg2 40. a5 Ra2 41. Kb5 Kf7 42. a6 Kf6 43. Re4 g5 44. Ra4 Rb2+ 45. Ka5 Rb8 46. h5!! Leko missed this. - 46. hxg5 hxg5 or 46. a7 Ra8 47. Kb6 gxh4 draws. Black tried 46. - Rg8 47. a7 g4 A last try 48. Rxg4 Rxg4! 49. a8=Q Rg5+ draws since the fortress can't be broken. But white was relentless in playing 48. Kb6! Kg5 49. a8=Q Rxa8 50.Rxa8 Kxh5 51. Kc5 Kg5 52. Kd4 Kf4 53. Kd3 Kf3 54, Rf8+ Kg2 55. Ke2 g3 56. Rh8 Kg1 57. Kf3 (1-0).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player