Showing posts with label Vassily Ivanchuk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vassily Ivanchuk. Show all posts
24 May 2013
23 May 2013
22 May 2013
FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki 2013
FIDE is pleased to announce the fourth stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Series will be held in Thessaloniki (Greece) between the 21st of May and 4th of June 2013. The 5-star Makedonia Palace Hotel and its owner, international business investor and philanthropist Ivan Savvidi, are FIDE's sponsors for the 12-player Grand Prix Chess Tournament.
"This event could happen thanks to the active support of the well known philanthropist Ivan Savvidi. According to the wish of Mr Savvidi, an elite chess event is coming to Greece. As FIDE has its principal secretariat in Athens, we are quite happy to have such an elite event in Greece. Additionally, the Greek Chess Federation is one of the most experienced and organized chess Federations in the world and their involvement in the organization of the event will be critical to its success," said FIDE President Kirsan Iljumzhinov.
The opening ceremony will take place at the Makedonia Palace Hotel at Thessaloniki at 6.30 p.m. on 21st of May. The games start at 14:00h local time except the last round. The prize fund to be shared by the players in Thessaloniki is 170,000 EUR, while the organizer provides further 70,000 EUR to the accumulated prize fund for the overal Grand Prix series standings.
Participants include three former World Champions Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan). GM Teimur Radjabov has withdrawn from the Thessaloniki Grand Prix for personal reasons and has been replaced by GM Etienne Bacrot from France.
There will be a systematic renewal of images, reports, as well as live commenting (English, Greek) and press-conferences with the players. Official commentators are GM Ioannis Papaioannou and GM Stelios Halkias.
Time control: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then each player will be allotted 15 minutes after the second time control and an increment of 30 seconds per move will be allowed from move 61 onwards.
The Grand Prix Series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years (2012-2013). 18 top players participate in 4 of these 6 tournaments. The winner and second placed player overall of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014.
Players
Name FED Title Rating
Bacrot, Etienne FRA GM 2725
Caruana, Fabiano ITA GM 2774
Dominguez Perez, Leinier CUB GM 2723
Grischuk, Alexander RUS GM 2779
Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR GM 2755
Kamsky, Gata USA GM 2741
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam UZB GM 2699
Morozevich, Alexander RUS GM 2760
Nakamura, Hikaru USA GM 2775
Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR GM 2742
Svidler, Peter RUS GM 2769
Topalov, Veselin BUL GM 2793
Average: 2753
Official webpage thessaloniki2013.fide.com
2 Apr 2013
1 Apr 2013
The FINAL challenge
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Final round pairings
GM Carlsen Magnus 2872 - GM Svidler Peter 2747
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2757 - GM Kramnik Vladimir 2810
GM Gelfand Boris 2740 - GM Grischuk Alexander 2764
GM Aronian Levon 2809 - GM Radjabov Teimour 2793
Official website: http://london2013.fide.com
Round 14 standings
Right before the first time control, it looked like Kramnik was going to seal the deal to be Anand's next challenger. Gelfand had a very difficult position and little time. On the other hand, Carlsen had virtually nothing against Radjabov.
A slight inaccuracy by Kramnik gave Gelfand new light and he held. The only game left was Radjabov vs Carlsen. Even though it was a technically drawn position, Carlsen kept on pushing and Radjabov eventually blundered and lost.
It will come down to one final game for Carlsen and Kramnik. They are tied and it things remain the same, Carlsen will win on tiebreaks as he has one more win than Kramnik. But neither can sit back and play safe.
Round 14 results
GM Radjabov Teimour 2793 0 - 1 GM Carlsen Magnus 2872
GM Grischuk Alexander 2764 ½ - ½ GM Aronian Levon 2809
GM Kramnik Vladimir 2810 ½ - ½ GM Gelfand Boris 2740
GM Svidler Peter 2747 1 - 0 GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2757
Official website: http://london2013.fide.com
31 Mar 2013
Critical round 13
Round 13
GM Radjabov Teimour 2793 - GM Carlsen Magnus 2872
GM Grischuk Alexander 2764 - GM Aronian Levon 2809
GM Kramnik Vladimir 2810 - GM Gelfand Boris 2740
GM Svidler Peter 2747 - GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2757
Official website: http://london2013.fide.com
30 Mar 2013
Shocking round 12
Round 12 results
GM Aronian Levon 2809 0 - 1 GM Kramnik Vladimir 2810
GM Carlsen Magnus 2872 0 - 1 GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2757
GM Gelfand Boris 2740 ½ - ½ GM Svidler Peter 2747
GM Radjabov Teimour 2793 ½ - ½ GM Grischuk Alexander 2764
Official website: http://london2013.fide.com
26 Mar 2013
Carlsen in lead at FIDE candidates
Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk (both Russia) drew an amazingly complicated game and after 6.5 hours of play Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) scored his first win, against Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan).
With the second half of the FIDE World Chess Candidates’ Tournament well under way, the interest in the tournament is growing, both online and at the IET in London. Every day both the number of spectators in the playing hall and journalists in the press room is growing, and many local grandmasters can be seen at the venue. Gawain Jones, Daniel King and Luke McShane have been frequent visitors and on Monday GMs John Nunn, Matthew Sadler, Jon Speelman and Simon Williams came along. They all witnessed another great round in which the big game was world number 2 Vladimir Kramnik against world number 1 Magnus Carlsen.
Kramnik got a nice advantage in a Catalan: “Actually it was my preparation for Kazan; I was about to play it against Radjabov in 2011 but finally for some reason I decided to play something else. Since that time I was keeping it and nobody played it. This 11.Qc2 and 12.Rd1 is kind of a new set-up; it’s quite dangerous I believe.” Carlsen: “I didn't know the details too much of this line. I more or less had to figure it out over the board. It’s not so easy to play and the way I played, he got a stable advantage so I probably did something wrong. I was just trying to find a good plan which I probably didn’t succeed in doing,” said Carlsen.
After 13.Nc3 White was “just better” and after 20.Qe3 it was “getting really critical for Black” (Kramnik) but then, starting with 22…Re8, Carlsen found a key defensive idea (and perhaps even the only move): 25…Nd5!. Almost by force an ending with rooks and opposite-coloured bishops came on the board where Kramnik’s extra pawn wasn’t worth much. “It just seems to work by millimetre,” the Russian said two times at the press conference.
“Of course Magnus is a very strong player, a very strong defender. I don't say that I missed any win today but I was better in the opening, had a very nice position and then… it seemed very close. It’s a bit disappointing of course,” said Kramnik. Carlsen about defending this game: “I thought it was dangerous but the good thing for me is that most of the time I had to make only moves. Then in a way it’s easier.”
Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk played the most spectacular game of the tournament so far. The latter went for the ever-interesting King’s Indian Defence, and like in his game against Radjabov, Svidler played the Sämisch variation. Then, on move 12, Grischuk came up with an absolutely stunning novelty that involved a long-term piece sacrifice.
At first Svidler was “very worried”. “In a practical game (…) every move will be a torture.” English grandmaster Matthew Sadler, who lives in The Netherlands but spent his weekend with family, joined the commentary for a while and said: “I was counting the pieces and I must have counted them at least ten times!”
Svidler went for a long think, played an interesting sequence of moves and then felt he was winning. “Of course I missed 19…h3. After that I realized the game continues.” Eventually White got three minor pieces for his queen, and Svidler still felt that “White should be better somehow”, but “it became a bit too messy for my liking”. In time trouble he might have missed some ways to make Grischuk’s life harder. Just after the time control Black had created so much counter play that Svidler had seen enough and accepted his opponent’s draw offer.
The game between Boris Gelfand and Levon Aronian became quite very important for the tournament standings. In a Queen’s Gambit Declined that turned into some sort of Stonewall position, around move 25 Aronian missed a tactic and lost an important pawn. Computers don’t like his 26…Bf7, a move Gelfand didn’t expect: “Here I think Levon is in trouble.”
However, according to the Israeli Black wasn’t lost yet. “After 32…Rd3 I don’t know if my advantage is so big, but 32…h5 is a blunder.” Aronian, who had to skip the press conference because of a drug test (which Carlsen, Kramnik and Svidler also had to perform), said he had missed 28.e6 and then “completely forgot about this 33.f5 stuff”. However, just before the time control Gelfand missed a quick win, and a double rook ending came on the board. “Fortunately I have this plan of a king’s attack,” said Gelfand, who won the ending without too much trouble. It wasn’t an easy game for him, though. “I think for me it was more difficult because I played with my very close friend and he is leading the tournament. But we're professionals and we have to play our utmost in each game.”
After six and a half hours of play, Vassily Ivanchuk scored his first win of the tournament. He got a pleasant advantage out of the opening against Teimour Radjabov, who played what could be dubbed the “Accelerated Lasker Variation” of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. For a moment commentator Nigel Short thought that Radjabov had perhaps accidentally played Lasker’s Nf6-e4 one move too early, but in fact the Azerbaijani spent five minutes on it. Radjabov: “It was a long torture somehow. I got this unpleasant position, I mixed something in the opening and I got this slightly worse position where you always have to stand. I didn't have so many counter play ideas.”
Both players were not sure if the ending was really lost for Black. “Maybe I didn't have to change the knights as then the position became really easy to play for White. There’s maybe no direct win,” said Radjabov. Instead of his preparation, as suggested by Kramnik in an interview, Radjabov blamed his inactivity for his disappointing play thus far: “I should have played in one of the recent tournaments, but my family situation did not allow this. You can see that the players who played in Zurich didn't start very well, but now they are all in good form.”
After nine rounds, Carlsen is in clear first place with 6 points. Aronian is now second with 5.5, followed by Kramnik with 5 points. Gelfand moved to shared 4th place with Grischuk: both are on 4.5. Svidler is 6th with 4 points, Ivanchuk 7th with 3.5 and Radjabov last with 3. Tuesday, March 26th is the third rest day of the tournament. Play resumes on Wednesday, March 27th at 14:00 GMT with the tenth round: Carlsen-Gelfand, Aronian-Ivanchuk, Radjabov-Svidler and Grischuk-Kramnik.
The FIDE Candidates' Tournament is taking place March 14th-April 1st, 2013 at IET London, Savoy Place. It is sponsored by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and organized by AGON and the World Chess Federation (FIDE). Games and information can be found at http://london2013.fide.com.
20 Mar 2013
Candidates tournament round 5 pairings
Round 5 pairings
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2757 - GM Carlsen Magnus 2872
GM Svidler Peter 2747 - GM Gelfand Boris 2740
GM Kramnik Vladimir 2810 - GM Aronian Levon 2809
GM Grischuk Alexander 2764 - GM Radjabov Teimour 2793
Official website: http://london2013.fide.com
Carlsen leads FIDE candidates
Magnus Carlsen catches Levon Aronian in first place at FIDE Candidates
Official website: http://london2013.fide.com
In Tuesday’s fourth round of the FIDE World Chess Candidates’ Tournament in London Magnus Carlsen of Norway caught Levon Aronian of Armenia in first place. Carlsen beat Alexander Grischuk of Russia in a Ruy Lopez Berlin, while Aronian was held to a draw by Peter Svidler of Russia in a Queen’s Gambit Accepted. The two oldest participants, Boris Gelfand of Israel and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, drew a very interesting game that started with the rare Chigorin Defence. Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia drew a Nimzo-Indian that was always more or less balanced.
After enjoying their first rest day, on Tuesday the eight top grandmasters returned to the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) at Savoy Place for the fourth round of the FIDE World Chess Candidates’ Tournament. It was also the first day that, in the commentary room, host IM Lawrence Trent was joined by former World Championship contender GM Nigel Short. Throughout the tournament, online spectators can follow the games while watching and listening to live commentary simultaneously. In the playing hall, the audience enjoys a similar experience thanks to Samsung tablets which are waiting for them on their seats at arrival.
The first game to finish was a relatively short draw: tournament leader Levon Aronian split the point with Peter Svidler after 31 moves. In this game, Svidler showed once again that he has come to London very well prepared. The grandmaster from St. Petersburg successfully employed a rare line of the Queen's Gambit Accepted in which Black actually hangs on to his c-pawn with an early ...a6 and ...b5.
“During the game I was trying to remember what my intention was, but I failed," said Aronian. According to Svidler, his opponent didn't play the most dangerous plan: "This is actually not such a straightforward line but with some precision Black tends to equalise if White goes for the pawn grab. I suppose the critical lines are somewhere where White ignores the pawn for a while."
Svidler's 10...Rb8 instead of 10...Ra7 is a new idea (played only once before) that involves a long-term pawn sacrifice. It worked well, and Svidler equalised quite comfortably. "It's nice to have half a rest today. Somewhat nicer for me than it is for Levon I'm sure but for me it's fairly nice," said Svidler.
A bit more than 3.5 hours into the round, Magnus Carlsen won his second game of the tournament to catch Aronian in first place. In the popular Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez, his opponent Alexander Grischuk started spending a lot of time early on. An important moment was 17…f5, a move disliked by Carlsen. “I missed a lot of things with this move. I completely overestimated my position. I still think Black is fine but [during the game] I thought Black was better,” said Grischuk. One of Black's problems was his bad bishop on f8 – the reason why his position looked better than it was.
To make matters worse, Grischuk’s disadvantage on the clock started to grow. After making his 21st move, Grischuk had only 4 minutes and 24 seconds left on the clock for his next 19 moves. It was just impossible to reach the time control without making mistakes, and Carlsen profited from these mistakes by not paying attention to his opponent’s time trouble too much. As he said after the game, he was “just trying to play well”. And he was never really worried: “Obviously there are threats but I felt that I always had enough resources to parry them. You can never be absolutely sure but I thought that I had enough play on the queenside to counter whatever threats he could muster.”
Only two players are older than forty in this tournament: Boris Gelfand and Vassily Ivanchuk. Both 44, these chess legends must have played over a hundred games against each other. Gelfand referred to this when he expressed the following nice words about his opponent: “Each game is very interesting and always a big lesson for me. Probably it’s one of the reasons for our chess longevity: when you play such a great player so many times, it gives you so much experience and knowledge – it helps a lot!”
As so often, Ivanchuk played a rare opening set-up. With Black he went for the Chigorin Defence (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6) and it took Gelfand a few minutes to decide on which line to play. In a position that looked a bit better for White, on move 22 a very nice piece sacrifice was found (and played instantly!) by Ivanchuk. After some wild complications White ended up with an extra bishop on h2 that was completely out of play, and there Black could force a perpetual check.
The last game to finish, between Teimour Radjabov and Vladimir Kramnik, was a Nimzo-Indian game that always looked fairly equal. “I think I got a very nice position out of the opening and it’s also very easy to play. I had this very simple plan of trying to attack these hanging pawns but of course White is also very solid. It might be equal and maybe it’s a matter of style, but I would take Black in this position, it’s easier to play somehow,” said Kramnik. The Russian was happy with his manoeuvres, and thought he was pressing. “But Teimour seemed to defend very well.”
Radjabov agreed that he got “nothing out of the opening". “I probably mixed up some things in the opening, how I got this position without the two bishops. It’s kind of a dream position for Black.” But the Azerbaijani managed to avoid serious mistakes, and so Black’s advantage was never more than symbolical.
After four rounds Aronian and Carlsen are tied for first place with 3 points while Svidler is the only player with 2.5. Kramnik and Radjabov are on 50% with 2 points, Grischuk has 1.5 points and Gelfand and Ivanchuk are still in last place, with 1 point. Wednesday, March 20th at 14:00 GMT the fourth round will be played: Ivanchuk-Carlsen, Svidler-Gelfand, Kramnik-Aronian and Grischuk-Radjabov.
Source : susanpolgar.blogspot.com/
18 Mar 2013
Aronian leads Candidates
Armenian star Levon Aronian got his second win in a row today and is now the sole leader in London. Peter Svidler and Magnus Carlsen trail a half point behind after winning their third round games.
Candidates London 2013 news / Pairings / Live games / Chess videos
Levon Aronian arrived to the third round as the co-leader, after defeating Boris Gelfand yesterday. He had to play with the black pieces against Vassily Ivanchuk.
These two elite players faced each other in numerous occasions in the past, with Aronian having a small historical advantage. However, today’s game was probably one of the most important clashes for each of them.
The Armenian then started to show his strength in this kind of positions, playing precise and annoying moves. As usual, Vassily fell in huge time trouble – he had just 8 minutes left for 19 moves. This proved to be the decisive factor as the Ukrainian lost on time on the 35th move after making a mistake with Kd1.
World Cup winner Peter Svidler obtained his first win today against yesterday’s co-leader Teimour Radjabov. The King’s Indian setup used by the Azerbaijani did not surprise anybody. His play, however, was quite remarkable, as he constantly looked for ways to complicate the position.
Eventually, the material balance was slightly altered – Radjabov had a rook for Svidler’s bishop and knight. The contenders had the same amount of pawns, but the Russian’s passed a-pawn was the decisive difference. Teimour was forced to put pressure against this pawn, leaving the rest of the board somewhat unprotected. Svidler took his king to the queenside, activated the pieces and converted the positional advantage into a full point on move 55.
The Israeli’s position seemed to be perfectly fine in the middlegame, as he even had more active pieces. However, it is impossible to rule out the chances of the Norwegian prodigy.
Magnus remained calm looking for an endgame where the only advantage he had in the position – the queenside pawns majority – would play a decisive role. His precise play in these positions emerged once again and Gelfand was forced to resignation on the 57th move.
Kramnik, true to his style, took a pawn giving up the pair of bishops with the hope of converting his advantage in the long run.
Grischuk, on the other hand, responded with some active play and penetrated his compatriot’s position with the queen. This was enough to reach a triple repetition and sign a draw in 35 moves.
Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich
Official website
17 Mar 2013
Candidates - Round 3
GM Gelfand Boris 2740 - GM Carlsen Magnus 2872
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2757 - GM Aronian Levon 2809
GM Svidler Peter 2747 - GM Radjabov Teimour 2793
GM Kramnik Vladimir 2810 - GM Grischuk Alexander 2764
Official website: http://london2013.fide.com
16 Mar 2013
Candidates Tactics
This is the position in the game between Ivanchuk and Grischuk in the 2013 Candidates tournament.
It is white's turn now! What can you tell about white's move and the game result?
Carlsen VS Kramnik - Round 2
GM Carlsen Magnus 2872 - GM Kramnik Vladimir 2810
GM Grischuk Alexander 2764 - GM Svidler Peter 2747
GM Radjabov Teimour 2793 - GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2757
GM Aronian Levon 2809 - GM Gelfand Boris 2740
Official website: http://london2013.fide.com
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