Blarney

Kissing the stone for luck.

The first round in the tournament had to start at 8 p.m. on 26-th of March, so I took the advice given by the locals to go to Blarney. It is a small town, situated some ten kilometers away from Cork, where a noble old castle is the main attraction. The guys told me that there is a stone that brings luck if you kiss it, I could not miss this before the tournament for sure; it was not easy though, and there is some risk for the ordinary chess player…
The thing that they did not explain to me at the beginning is that kissing the stone also means that you get that gift of speaking too many things without saying anything, rubbish to put it mildly…there is even such a word in the English language, and it comes precisely from that place. The story tells that it was the Queen who addressed the word to a noble called Blarney, and it started its existence since then.
Anyway the place was wonderful, with some old buildings, druid and witch stones, wonderful lake, some funny animals and lots of flowers.
There were three tournaments altogether, although the participants were a bit less than expected.
The event started without big surprises, and up to the fourth round the top seeded four players in the “A” open had full amount of points. I should admit that in round three the Blarney stone did quite a good job in my game against Philip Short- a five-time Cork champion and local legend when he blundered in the time trouble in winning endgame.
Before the final round I managed somehow to get half a point advance and the white pieces against Alex Baburin in the final one. Alex is a strong Russian player who lives for seventeen years already in Ireland, and represents the country. He was not in his best form though, and could not show the best of his play. We drew our encounter, and this gave a chance for two players more to tie for the first- Alex Lopez, young Spanish player who lives in Cork, and Bogdan Lalic. The former one had the habit of coming late at least 10-15 minutes for the game, but I managed finally to take a picture of him at the closing ceremony.
There was a small surprise before the closing ceremony, since the top two players in each group had to place an “Armageddon” blitz game to define the winner. In group “C” there was a four way-tie for the top, but only the best two played a game. One important thing was that the games were “friendly”- which means that you can touch any piece that you want, and even take your move back before you press the clock. In case of a draw, a second game would have taken place. The calmer young player won the blitz game in the “C” tournament.
“B” tournament saw a clear winner, so there was no match. However, our cute organizer Michael Bradley, after a first-game bye due to the organizational stuff managed to score 4/5 in the remaining games, and to tie for the second place. “Connections, what to do”, explained he at the ceremony, presenting the price for himself. By the way, he is from Blarney himself, do not be astonished.
From our three-way tie Alex Lopez had the worst criteria, and did not play. I chose the white pieces (remember the stone?), and was lucky enough to win the game. I received the chance to make some pictures with the wonderful cup, and the promise to defend the title the next year.
However, the thing that I am most proud of are the remarks of two of the local players who took part in the Tactical Lecture on Thursday, one day before the tournament- that they managed to win one game each thanks to the knowledge they got that night.
Next stop- Australia.

Discovering Ireland

Cork (or Corcaigh in Irish) is Ireland’s second largest city. It is situated on the south of the country with a population of approximately 120 000 people. The town is known as the “Rebel County” since 1491 when the local supported the English Pretender Perkin Warbeck. These are things that I learned from Wikipedia, but when I arrived here everything appeared to be true, and confirmed by my new friends. Corkonians also refer to the city as the real capital of Ireland.
Some months ago I got an invitation to take part in the annual Cork Chess Congress that takes place 26-28 March. But before that the organizer of the event Michael Bradley invited me for a joint simultaneous exhibition (together with Bogdan Lalic) on 24 March and a lecture on the next day. I picked up the theme “Discovered Attack, methods and patterns”.
In the foyer of the Gresham Metropole hotel I meet Bogdan Lalic. The Croatian-born GM currently lives in London. He has just bought a new camera, and asks me a few things about how ho handle it. In the meanwhile Michael Bradley comes and picks us to the City Hall where the simultaneous exhibition will take place. He is in good mood, and he is anxious for he is participating, too. Some of the players did not appear on time, so we decided to give a joint simultaneous. I start the simul, and Bogdan makes the second move. This is fun as we do not always understand the ideas of the other. The City Hall is open during the whole event, and while we are playing some people come to watch. One of them tells me that he is working for the BBC, and he is here to cover some economical news. However, when he saw the door opened he decided to have a glance and see what happens. Pity he did not come earlier, he was really willing to take part.
We have some wins, and a couple of draws, and finally there are two boards left. One of it we still manage to win, but the last man standing, a young fellow plays flawlessly, and takes away two GM scalps in one go. His name is Kieran O’Riordan, nice Irish name, and he is one of the best juniours in the area. His results improved the last couple of years, and he is now rated around 1750. Do not get misled by the low ratings, people here have very few rated events and the Elo factor lacks dynamics.
We have some free time between the chess events to visit the most remarkable places in the area. The main street in Cork, St. Patrick’s is one of those. We also have a famous English Market, beautiful park, nutritious Irish breakfast (sausages, bacon, beans, eggs, some more meat and tomatoes- a great stuff to start an eventful day). Corkonians are also proud producers of Beamish and Murphy’s Irish stout. This is something that makes the whole country worth a visit, as well as the size of the pint-it is 568 ml, not the conventional half liter…
Some ten miles away from Cork is situated the harbour of Cobh (pronounced Kov), the second largest harbour in the world. It was also known as Queenstown once (after Queen Victoria). It was the last place where Titanic stopped before it went to the journey with no return, and there is still a small museum of the lost ship. Some years later the tragedy repeated with the sinking of the ship Lusitania, when more than thousand people could not be saved.
The town saw many immigrants leaving the green Ireland to find their luck in new places, such as the USA, and Australia. Although the population of Ireland is about 4.5 million, many more millions have moved to other countries and established there.
The Cork chess club is situated very near to the Gresham Metropole hotel where the tournament will take place. It was founded some twenty years ago, and has approximately eighty members from young children till eighty-year experienced players.
The tournament starts on Friday, there will be six rounds, and the top seeded player is the Irish situated GM Alex Baburin.

After the Free Day

Yesterday was a free day in Rijeka, and most of the players took their time to recover after the first seven rounds. In the evening before it the organizers gave another good sample of their hospitality with the party for the participants. It was conducted in the Hemingway bar in Opatija, and all the players were presented with a typical Croatian drink, called “stock”. It is a kind of brandy with a specific taste. The morning saw many of the participants chasing away the stress with dances, and some drinks. The rest day that followed was really needed.
Apart from the ECU general Assembly, two important from chess political view events took place. Anatoly Karpov officially announced his candidature for the FIDE president, and Silvio Danailov made a cocktail party yesterday, with which he started his campaign for becoming an ECU President. Bulgarian’s motto in his campaign is “I know”, with which he stresses on the fact that he is in chess all his life- as a player, manager, trainer and organizer of important chess tournaments. In a short speech he explained his ideas, and showed his respect to the previous ECU presidents for the work that they have done so far. Among the guests at the cocktail were his rival, Ali Nihat Yazici, Anatoly Karpov, FIDE’s vice-president Georgios Makropolous, and many other officials. Some weeks ago Danailov made a generous gesture to Rumen Nikolov, a twelve years old chess player, and participant in the M-tel Juniour Circuit. Danailov presented his own money for Rumen, who needed an emergency eye operation in Germany.
In the meanwhile the tournaments continued with exciting games. After his somewhat lucky escape in the seventh round, Baadur Jobava beat the top seeded Zoltan Almasi today with the white pieces. The Georgian is sole leader now, and is the only player who has scored “plus six” so far. However, there are 408 participants, and it is not clear that such a score will suffice for the first place. Contrary to some other years the participants are not happy with short draws when they make reasonable score but continue to search the maximum.
In the female tournament Monica Socko is already sharing the first place with Victoria Cmilyte from Lithuania who won against K. Arakhamia-Grant in extremely sharp game.
The players’ open letter with demand for thirty-minute tolerance due to the travelling time was signed by hundred and ten participants. However the arbiters decided not to change the zero-rule tolerance for the obvious unfairness to those who have lost points already.
The town of Opatija is surrounded by the Ucka (Uchka) mountains. It is a popular tourist destination, near both the Italian and Slovenian boarders. The architecture is from the times of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the resort has a typical Mediatarian look.
There is a nice park near the Milenij hotel and a boulevard of fame on the main street. Today the weather got wormer, and very nice for walking, so I am sending you some pictures from this beautiful place.

European Individual Championships

The strongest European Championships so far are taking place in Rijeka, Croatia. Statisticians calculated that twenty seven from thirty best women in Europe are taking part of the event. The only missing are the world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, as well as the young mothers Katerina Lahno and Natalia Pogonina. The male part is also seeing most of the top European players, including nine who are rated over 2700 Elo barrier. The consistency of the players is also very good, and there are almost hundred participants over 2600. There are almost 600 participants in total in the tournaments. Both the champions from the last edition- Russians Tatiana Kosintseva and Evgeny Tomashevsky are defending their titles.
Starting from the first rounds many of the top seeds already lost points, but this is hardly a surprise since they had to face strong opposition, even GMs in most of the cases.
Almost all participants live in the nearby town of Opatija, in luxury hotels, and have to travel every day some hour before the start of the round.
The “zero tolerance” rule is causing some troubles because of that. The first round saw one of the buses arriving only three minutes before the round, and many participants literally running to catch their games. However, only in the second round in the male tournament there were five games decided by default. This is too much, and most of the players strongly disagree with the rule. Indeed such measures will be very appropriate for super-tournaments, where you have six-fourteen players, and it will be shame for the audience to see empty boards at the start of the round. However in such a massive tournament, with so many players and additional transfer of almost all of them many unforeseen consequences can appear, and prevent the players from arriving in time. Probably fifteen minute tolerance is the best solution of the problem.
Except for this problem Croatians are providing excellent conditions for the championships. The hall is spacious and both women and men share the same place. There are free refreshments in the hall, as well as internet access in the venue. Food in the hotels is excellent, service is great. The weather is relatively cold, but Adriatic see is nevertheless beautiful.
The widely respected Croatian GM Miso Cebalo and world senior champion is commenting the tournament for the official site.
In brief- interesting games have started, and we expect even more fascinating chess in the coming rounds.

Pin (3)

Forcing the pin:
Sure enough, our opponent will be aware of the dangers that pin may cause, and will try to avoid it. But if we are precise enough we can give the game the course we want:
Peredy,Ferenc (2311) - Malanca,Adrian (2247)
Budapest FS02 IM-B Budapest (2), 02.02.2003


Black first activates his rook: 30...Rd1+! 31.Kh2


And now forces his opponent’s king to step on a “mined field”:
31...Rh1+! 32.Kxh1 Qxh3+


For the hyper important tempo Black sacrificed a whole rook, and was awarded with mate. 0–1

Pin (2)

The second sample from the book features:
Advantage in Development.

Pin can be especially effective when our opponent’s king stays in the center. We can use the central lines for our heavy pieces that can be easily opened, as well as the power of the bishops and the queen. For the sake of opening the position of a non-castled king pawns and even pieces are often sacrificed:

Bruzon Batista,L (2607) - Flores,Di (2558)
II ch-Ibero-Americano Gp B Morelia MEX (2), 16.02.2008
1.d4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.e4 d6 4.Nc3 Nd7 5.Bc4 e6 6.0–0 a6 7.a4 b6 8.Re1 Bb7 9.e5! Black played too passively in the opening, and White starts to open lines against his king in the center. 9…dxe5


10.d5 exd5 11.Nxd5 Ne7 12.Bg5 Bxd5 13.Bxd5 Rb8 14.Bc6 f6 15.Bxf6! "With so many pins and a development advantage, the tactical ideas are clearly justified," states the Brazilian GM Vescovi [15.Nxe5 fxe5 is another way to keep the king in the center. After: 16.Qg4 Nxc6 17.Bxd8 Nxd8 18.Rad1±


Black has three light pieces for a queen, which usually favours the side with the pieces. However here black king cannot find a save heaven, and White is much better. The way that Bruzon chose is more clear-cut, and should have led to success.] 15...Bxf6 16.Nxe5 Bxe5 17.Rxe5 Rf8 18.Qd5?! But here he went astray. Better was: [18.Qg4! Rf5 (18...Rf6 19.Re6 Kf8 20.Bxd7+-) 19.Rae1 Rxe5 20.Rxe5


with the idea Qg4-e6-g8 mate and this should have led to a win (Vescovi). In this line White exchanges one of his active rooks, but for the only active Black’s piece. Both knights now are partially paralyzed due to the pin, and from this suffer all other Black’s pieces. 18.Re6!? was reasonable, too- 18…Rf7 19.Qd2 Kf8 20.Bxd7+-It is quite obvious that Black has to part with his superfluous material. In such situations we must try to take it back (or even win) material without loosening the grip that we have, and giving in return the initiative.] 18...Rf7 19.Rae1 Kf8 The queen on d5 is hanging, and Black manages to exchange some active pieces and get relief-20.Qxd7 Nxc6 21.Qxc6


White is still better but Black managed to save half a point with stubborn defense later…Ѕ–Ѕ
More to follow soon.

Pin

My first book “A Course in Chess Tactics” is out in shops now. Here is how it starts, and the first annotated game:
The pin is one of the most common tactical methods in chess. By using a line piece (a queen, a rook or a bishop) we can connect opponent’s piece, and freeze it partially or definitely not to move under the threat of losing a more important piece. If the pin is toward the king then we speak about “dead” pin and the pinned piece definitely cannot make a move. Ordinary is the pin towards any other piece.
The fact that the pinned piece usually protects another important one could be used by us for attacking it, and eventually destroying it. The lower valued the secondary attacking piece is, the better the threat becomes (pawns are ideal for the purpose). Otherwise, if we attack the pinned piece by a piece that is as the same value as it we are just exchanging it.
Another method of collecting the pinned piece is by putting more hits onto it than our opponent can possibly do.
Pinned piece is predictable in its actions, and is less mobile than usual. It can hardly use all the potential of its energy.
However, we must take into consideration the fact that a pin is a temporary advantage that must be used promptly. Otherwise our opponent can escape, or break the pin.
Exemplary Game:
Dreev,A (2650) - Seirawan,Y (2600)
Wijk aan Zee, 1995
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 b6 4.a3 c6 5.Nc3 d5 6.cxd5 cxd5 7.Bf4 a6 8.Rc1! Bb7 White is better developed, and already has some tactical threats-[8...Be7? 9.Na4!+-Threatening Bf4-c7, Na4xb6, or even Rc1xc8] 9.e3


9...Nc6?! Black is behind in development. With this move he gives an additional opportunity for his opponent to make use of a pin. [9...Be7 10.Na4! (10.Nb5 axb5 11.Bc7 Qc8 12.Bxb5+ Nbd7 13.Bf4=) 10...Nc6 (10...Bd6 11.Qb3 Bxf4 12.exf4 Nbd7 13.Bd3 0–0 14.0–0±) 11.Ne5 Nxe5 12.Bxe5 Bd6 13.Bxd6 Qxd6 14.Qc2±; 9...Nbd7 was the best choice, giving White only a slight edge] 10.Nb5! The "Troya knight" is untouchable, due to the pin. 10...Rc8 [10...axb5 11.Bxb5 Rc8 12.Qa4 or 12.Ne5 puts unbearable pressure onto the pinned knight and Black has to part either with it, or with his bishop after Bf8-c5 which leaves White completely winning. Note that White has the opportunity to quickly bring many hits on the pinned piece.] 11.Qa4 Nd7 [11...Qd7 was an alternative try to break the pin from the white queen. However after: 12.Ne5 Nxe5 13.Rxc8+ Bxc8 (13...Qxc8 14.Nd6+) 14.Bxe5± White preserves his advantage.] 12.Nc7+


Dreev wants to use the pin, this time towards his opponent's queen. Reasonable alternative was: [12.Nd6+ when Black has a defensive resource: 12...Bxd6 13.Bxd6 Nxd4! (Discovered attack!) 14.Rxc8 Nxf3+ 15.gxf3 Qxc8 16.Kd2! where Black's king should stay in the center, and White posses a strong bishop pair.] 12...Rxc7 13.Bxa6!? Tricky move, which intends to deprive Black from the option: [13.Bxc7? Qxc7 14.Bxa6 Ndb8 15.Bxb7 (15.Bb5 Bd6) 15...Qxb7 … b5 and Black is ready to break the pin. After: 16.Ne5 b5 17.Qc2 Nxe5 18.Qc8+ Qxc8 19.Rxc8+ Kd7 20.Rxb8 White still looks somewhat better, but the discovered attack levels the chances: 20...Bb4+ 21.axb4 Rxb8 22.dxe5 Rc8 23.Kd2 Rc4=] 13...Bxa6?! Black follows the stream, and ends up in difficult situation. [13...Ndb8!


additionaly supporting the pinned knight was still possible. In his notes Dreev points out the "refutation": 14.Bxb7 Rxb7 15.Bxb8? (15.Qb5!?) 15...b5 16.Qa6 but misses the simple: 16...Rb6 17.Qa8 Nxb8 where Black wins. Obviously Dreev would have to go for the line mentioned above where Black levels the chances. Why does this happen? The reason is logical-White does not use all his pieces either. Black did not commit such a terrible error in the opening. However his defense was never easy, and the chance to commit mistake(s) was much higher than his opponent.; for instance the natural 13...e5 does not solve the problems- 14.Bxb7 Rxb7 15.Qxc6] 14.Bxc7 Qxc7 15.Rxc6 Qb7 16.Ne5 White now has a rook and a pawn for two pieces, but he controls the vital open line, and still uses the pin to hinder his opponent's development. 16...Be7 17.b4! f6 In case of: [17...Bc4 18.Rxb6! is much better move than Dreev's idea 18.Ne5-c4. 18...Qxb6 19.Qxd7+ Kf8 20.Nc6 wins for White.] 18.b5 Bxb5 19.Qxb5 fxe5 20.0–0! [20.Rxe6 exd4 21.0–0 Kf7 22.Rc6 Nf6] 20...exd4?! [20...Kf7 21.Rfc1 Bd8? 22.Rc7!+- loses, but in my opinion Black was obliged to castle at any rate:; 20...0–0 21.Rxe6] 21.Rfc1! Kd8?! Finally Seirawan collapses under the pressure. Dreev gives one more instructive line: [21...Bd8 only move 22.Rxe6+ Kf7 23.Rcc6 Nf6 (23...Nc5 24.Red6 Be7 25.Rxd5 dxe3 26.Rf5+) 24.e4! dxe4 25.Qc4 Kg6


and now a cunning use of the pin: 26.Qxd4 Kf7 27.Qc4 Kg6 28.Qxe4+ Kf7 29.Rxf6+!+-] 22.exd4! The Russian prefers to attack, rather than defend in the line: [22.Rc8+ Qxc8 23.Rxc8+ Kxc8 24.Qc6+ Kb8 25.Qxd7 Rc8!] 22...Rf8 23.a4!+-


The pawn on b6 is pinned now... 23...Bg5 24.R1c2 Rf4 25.a5 Rxd4 26.g3 Rd1+ 27.Kg2 Ra1 28.axb6 Nb8 There is no salvation anyway, since after: [28...Qa6 29.Qxa6 Rxa6 30.b7 Rxc6 31.Rxc6 Bf6 32.Rd6 the pawn goes into queen.] 29.Rd6+ 1–0
More to follow soon.