Like soccer, chess is played pretty much everywhere and Europe is the leading continent.But unlike soccer, Asia is pretty competitive although Europe is the powerhouse. A half-dozen former Soviet Republics guarantee professionalism. Along with the Philippines, the rise of the PRC, Vietnam and India, has raised standards considerably. The Chinese are top contenders in the women’s Olympiad and nobody would be surprised if they managed a podium finish in the open.
The Asiad Teams format seems more “fair” than the Olympiad. First there’s a 7 round Swiss followed by a semi-final and final contested by the four top teams. While any Swiss has a large element of luck, this eliminates last round luck a least. It’s reasonable to assume that any serious medal contender will make the top four. After that, two knock-outs means decent opposition.
Sadly, India without Anand and Humpy was too unstable to power through. Both teams started as second seeds (behind PRC) and both have chances of a bronze. But they lost their respective semi-finals by the minimum margins.
The men lost to Philippines while the women lost to Uzbekistan in matches they could have reasonably hoped to win. China are hot favourites in both sections, of course, having qualified easily for the finals.
A tentative draw for the 2011 Candidates has been released. It’s scheduled for Kazan (Russia) next May and Chessbase suggests the pairings could be Topalov-Kamsky, Kramnik-Radjabov, Aronyan- Grischuk, Gelfand-Mamedaryov.
This presumes that Magnus Carlsen sticks to his announced decision to pull out. He actually has a deadline of December 22, to confirm participation and there are strong efforts being made to coax the Norwegian GM to change his mind. If he does revert, Grischuk is out and the pairings would change to Carlsen-Radjabov, Aronynan- Gelfand and Kramnik-Mamedaryov.
The diagram is from Nepomniachtchi Vs Kramnik, World Blitz Moscow 2010. BLACK TO PLAY. Kramnik made a speculative piece sacrifice — an idea borrowed from Fischer-Korchnoi (Curacao 1962).. Black has huge pressure for his minimal deficit.
He continued with 29. - Rxe3??. Instead 29.--Nxd5! is an instant win since black gets back his piece with several extra pawns. White has to bailout with something like 30.Rxf8+ Kxf8 31. Rf3+ Kg7 32. Qd3 Nxe3+ etc.
Now white defends with 30.Rxe3 Nxd5 31.Qc4 e6 32.Ref3 Nf4+? Black could hold the balance with 32.-- Rxf3 33. Rxf3 Ne3+ when e6 is defended. Now white's winning after 33.Rxf4 Rxf4 34.Qxe6+ Kg7 35.Rf3 Rxf3 36.Kxf3 Qxb2. The Russian teenager proceeded to punch out the exact 37.Qe7+ Kh6 38.Qf8+ Qg7 39.Qf4+ g5 40.Qxd6+ Kh5 41.Kg3+! g4 42.Qxc5+ Kh6 43.Qe3+ Kg6 44.Qg5+ Kf7 45.Bc4+ Kf8 46.Qd8# (1-0). An excellent example of the good, bad and exciting spectacle that is high-level blitz.
