Assault on Russian defence

ASSAULT ON RUSSIAN DEFENCE

The 32nd Chess Olympiad opened in Erevan, Armenia, last Sunday and this three-week competition promises to be one of the most interesting in recent years.

The defending champion is Russia but there is a strong possibility that we can get a surprise winner. The Russian team looks formidable enough, but it may not be unbeatable this time.

The strongest members of the Russian team are of course Gary Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik; but, while Evgeny Bareev, Sergei Rublevsky, Alexey Dreev and Sergei Tiviakov are not pushovers, they are not exactly the best players in Russia either.

The Olympiad has attracted almost all the best players in the world with only the world champion Anatoly Karpov, Gata Kamsky and Viswanathan Anand missing.

The Bulgarian team is powered by Veselin Topalov on first board. Topalov is one of the most successful players this year and he defeated Kasparov in Moscow 1994 to establish his name on the world chess scene.

Spain has Alexei Shirov, Valery Salov and Miguel Illescas in their line-up, England is depending on Nigel Short, Michael Adams and Jon Speelman, while the Hungarian team has Judit Polgar playing on top board. Hungary has included their teenaged sensation Peter Leko in their team too.

With Ukraine led by Vassily Ivanchuk, Germany by Artur Yusupov and Robert Hubner, and the United States sending some of their best players - Joel Benjamin, Boris Gulko, Larry Christiansen, Boris Kaidanov, Nick DeFirmian and Alexander Yermolinsky - the list of contenders for the gold medal is quite extensive.

The key to success in such events is to be able to score points on all boards in every match. Each match is played over four boards, and a good performance on the fourth board counts as much as winning on the other boards.

The trick is also to hold the strongest rivals to a draw or a narrow loss, and then score heavily at every other opportunity. Teams can make up for bad starts by dropping down in the standings and then play against weaker teams which they can beat heavily. Very often, the medals are decided by good performances on the last day of competition.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian contingent departed from Kuala Lumpur last Friday. Before they left for the airport, the contingent paid a courtesy call to Culture, Arts and Tourism Minister Datuk Sabbaruddin Chik, who is also the president of the Malaysian Chess Federation.

In the men's team are, from far left, Lim Yee Weng, Tan Wei Sin, Ooi Chern Ee, Fide master Mas Hafizulhelmi, Mok Tze Meng and international master Jimmy Liew. Mok is a last-minute replacement for Azahari Md Nor.

The women's team consists of Khairunissa Wahiduddin, Nurulhuda Wahiduddin, Eliza Hanim Ibrahim and Roslina Marmono.

Heading the contingent to Erevan is Ibrahim Abu Bakar, while the other members of the contingent are team manager Chan Kwai Keong, Ibrahim Yaacob who will be an arbiter in the Olympiad and Abdul Hamid Majid who sits in the pairing committee.

Meantime, check out these links to various sites offering news on the Chess Olympiad:

Mark Crowther's Chess Page
Armenian News Agency
Olympiad site
Inside Chess on the Olympiad
Icelandic Chess Page
Planet Chess

BEIJING TOUGH ON FOREIGNERS

The third annual S.T. Lee Cup, played late last month in Beijing, China, was won by Suat Atalik, a grandmaster from the central Asian country of Turkmenistan.

This open Swiss system tournament was a major event in the Chinese chess calendar and almost all the Chinese top players took part in it. Many foreign players also participated, and this gave the Chinese an opportunity to test their play against the foreigners.

As an indication of the depth of the Chinese players' preparation and capability, the top-seeded Estonian grandmaster Jaan Ehlvest could only finish in a lowly 19th position. Ehlvest completely ruined his result by losing to Tong Yuanming, Lin Weiguo and Wang Zili.

Probably the best result in the Chinese eyes was that achieved by their woman grandmaster Zhu Chen. She finished fifth and along the way, drew with Ehlvest, Atalik and Mikhail Ulibin, a Russian grandmaster. Among those who lost to her were Latvian grandmaster Igors Rausis, Israeli grandmaster Ilya Smirin and China's own grandmaster, Xu Jun. Her only loss in the entire event was to Tong Yuanming.

All in all, the foreign players faced quite a hard time in Beijing.

Top standings: Suat Atalik (Turkmenistan), Mikhail Ulibin (Russia), Konstantin Landa (Russia) and Lin Weiguo (China) 7.5 points; Zhu Chen (China), Evgeny Pigusov (Russia) and Igor Stohl (Slovak Republic) 7 points; Lubomir Ftacnik (Slovak Republic), Liang Chong (China), Tong Yuanming (China), Xu Yang (China), Wang Zili (China) and Xu Jun (China) 6.5 points; Wang Yaoyao (China), Wang Pin (China) Ilia Smirin (Israel), Zhang Zhong (China) and Ye Jiangchuan 6 points; Jaan Ehlvest (Estonia), Alon Greenfeld (Israel), Igors Rausis (Latvia), Peng Xiaomin (China), Peter Szekely (Hungary) and Qin Kanying (China) 5.5 points.

Here is a game from the tournament.

Tong Yuanming - Jaan Ehlvest

1. e4 c5, 2. Nf3 e6, 3. c3 d5, 4. exd5 Qxd5, 5. d4 Nf6, 6. Bd3 Nc6, 7. O-O Qd8, 8. dxc5 Bxc5, 9. Qc2 Qc7, 10. Bg5 h6, 11. Bxf6 gxf6, 12. Nd2 Bd7, 13. a4 Be7, 14. Nc4 h5, 15. Re1 h4, 16. a5 Rad8, 17. Qe2 Kf8, 18. b4 a6, 19. Rd1 Be8, 20. Qe3 Kg7, 21. Be2 f5, 22. Rxd8 Bxd8, 23. Rd1 Be7, 24. Qb6 Qb8, 25. Qe3 Qc7, 26. Qd2 Bf6, 27. Nd6 Ne7, 28. c4 Ba4, 29. Qf4 Bxd1, 30. Nxf5 Nxf5, 31. Qxc7 Bxe2, 32. Ne5 Bh5, 33. g4 hxg3, 34. hxg3 Nh6, 35. f3 Rd8, 36. g4 Bg6, 37. Nxg6 Kxg6, 38. Qxb7 Rd4, 39. b5 Kg5, 40. Qc7 Rd2, 41. bxa6 Bd4, 42. Kf1 Rf2, 43. Ke1 Rxf3, 44. a7 Bxa7, 45. Qxa7 Nxg4, 46. a6 1-0