There are simply too many world-class chess events taking place or have taken place all over the world at the same time. From Ningbo in China to Dortmund in Germany and Biel in Switzerland, my attention is presently being distracted with this surfeit of chess activities.
Would I consider this a problem? Yes, but this is a happy problem. I don’t mind the distraction. It only proves that chess can have a crowded calendar.
So where shall I start? Perhaps, from where I left off last week, with the world team chess championship that ended in Ningbo on Tuesday with Armenia deposing Russia to become the new champion.
I thought at first that Russia was going to win this event but the Russians then stumbled badly and went out of contention. The Russian team lost to both China and Azerbaijan, and in the final round, suffered the ignominy of losing to India.
Russia’s setback was the opportunity for Armenia to spring into the lead. The Armenian team had played so steadily that they hadn’t lost to any other team yet. At their worst, they drew with Russia, the United States and Azerbaijan.
On Tuesday, Armenia was due to play Ukraine in the final round. A drawn match was all that they would need to clinch the title but the Ukrainians themselves were in the chase. If they could score a crushing result like a 3½-½ win against Armenia, they may even come out tops. Maybe the Ukrainians saw the unlikelihood of this ever happening because soon after the start of the round, their match was quickly drawn.
I would believe that China was disappointed with this outcome because they were mathematically in contention for the title and they would only need to win by 2½-1½ against Hungary, which they did, to be the champion if Ukraine had won by any score line. The only consolation for the Chinese team was that they actually finished with the same game points as the Armenians, except that on the more important match points they trailed the new champion.
India, Israel and Egypt found themselves out of their depth in this tournament. Israel was possibly the biggest disappointment seeing how just a year ago, they had finished third in the Chess Olympiad.
India came into this event as the Asian champion but they soon realized that even finishing in the middle of the table would be a tall order. I even thought that they could play the role of a spoiler and take surprising points off the main title contenders but the only problem was, they could not until the very last round against Russia when the results did not count significantly any more.
As for Egypt, there is little to be said about this African representative except that they failed totally.
And so we move on to Dortmund in Germany where the former world champion, Vladimir Kramnik, is creating waves at the Dortmund Sparkassen invitational chess tournament. Well, at least he has been in impressive form right until the mid-way point of this event last Monday. By the way, the tournament ends on Sunday so there is still time to see whether Kramnik will carry his advantage right through till the end.
The Dortmund Sparkassen is an elite chess tournament that goes a long way back. However, it was not until 1973 when it was converted into a regular annual event. This year’s edition is a six-player, double round-robin tournament that features Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Ruslan Ponomariov, Le Quang Liem, Anish Giri and local German player Georg Meier.
As mentioned, Kramnik has been showing great form. He couldn’t have been happier. In the first half of the tournament, his victims have included Ponomariov, Giri, Meier and Nakamura, and he has dropped only a draw to Le. Even if he eases up on the pedal and draws the rest of his games in the second half, I believe he should coast through easily to win the top prize.
The last tournament on my list today is the annual Biel Chess Festival. This is also another chess festival that has been around for decades. It started life as only a masters open tournament in 1968 but the grandmaster tournament was introduced in 1976.
Since then, the grandmaster tournament has evolved into one of Europe’s showcase events. Like in Dortmund, this is a double round-robin tournament featuring six very strong players. Their names speak for themselves: Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexei Shirov, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Morozevich and Yannick Pelletier.
I would be very surprised if Carlsen does not win the event which will end today. On Tuesday as I was writing this story, he was leading the field with only Morozevich following hard on Carlsen’s tail. The rest had been left behind. Caruana, who had won last year’s Biel grandmaster tournament, found himself trailing everyone this time around. A complete reversal of form.
Up next
Malaysia Chess Festival
With only a few days remaining until the official closing date of entries for the main events of this year’s Malaysian Chess Festival, I’ve been informed by the organizers that there may be close to a hundred participants in their showcase event, the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship.
At least players from 19 countries will be represented and among them will be at least 13 grandmasters, two woman grandmasters and nine international masters. Presently, there are only a small number of Malaysian players in the field but no doubt, we shall see the numbers increase ahead of the closing date.
According to the organizers, the official closing date for entries for the main events – the Datuk Arthur Tan Malaysia open championship, the Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng international seniors open championship and the AmBank Malaysia chess challenge – is Aug 1. Entries will still be accepted after this date but a 25 percent surcharge will be imposed. Plus, anyone submitting their entries within 24 hours of the start of these events will be hit with a 50 percent surcharge. So before you say “ouch” and complain about the surcharges, it is best to submit your entry before Monday.
The three events will be held at the Cititel MidValley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on Aug 18-25. Nine round Swiss, 90 minutes plus 30-second increment time control.
As for the complimentary chess events, the closing date remains unchanged, that is, Aug 15. Here, you have: the Swensen’s open rapid age group chess tournament, Aug 21, six rounds, 25 minutes per game; the Merdeka individual rapid open chess tournament, Aug 26, seven rounds, 25 minutes per game; and the ASTRO Merdeka rapid open team chess tournament, Aug 28-29, nine rounds, 25 minutes per game.
For more information, visit http://datcchess.blogspot.com/2011/06/malaysia-chess-festival-is-on.html
Raja Nazrin Shah open
Formerly known as the Kuala Lumpur open, the Raja Nazrin Shah international open chess tournament takes place at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences, Kuala Lumpur on Sep 4-10. Nine rounds with time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes play-to-finish with a 30-second increment from the first move. For details, contact Peter Long (peterlong@aol.asia).
