July FIDE Rating List: Four Things

See the ChessBase story regarding Magnus' amazing attainment, which is now official.  Note several things about this all-time top ten list.  First, Carlsen's achievement at 19 is nothing short of amazing.  I anxiously wait to see just how much he will achieve.  Second, taken by itself, Fischer's inclusion on this list 38 years after reaching his peak rating is also amazing, but it is particularly so when one accounts for almost 40 years of inflation.  If memory serves, Fischer actually lost rating points by defeating World Champion Spassky.  Third, Kasparov's and Karpov's positions on the list are noteworthy because of the age of their ratings.  Karpov remains in the top ten despite the lapse of sixteen years and the attendant inflation, and Kasparov still holds the first position eleven years after his peak.  Neither Carlsen, nor anyone else, will likely bump him down anytime soon.  Finally, only one country has more than one player on this list.  Unsurprisingly, it is Russia with four.

1.d4 Sidetracks: Torre, London and Colle Systems, But Not Really

Bruzon takes the great Ivanchuk out of mainstream theory quickly, but to no good end.  White declines to go down a beaten path repeatedly until we reach the following position:

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2

A lot of known lines have been avoided to this point, but the game is at least now on the cusp of the Catalan.  ChessBase classifies this position with the Torre, London, and Colle systems, but it's none of these.  If you have a name for this, drop a comment.  Nevertheless, the position has been reached often, and Black's next odd-looking move can be described as an anti-Catalan: 4...b5  Perhaps the kid Carlsen has shown the old master a thing or two.  See the second game below.

King's Tournament: Schliemann!

This looked like a species of suicide: bringing out the Schliemann against Carlsen.  The Schliemann is theoretically dubious at best, and if you're going to mix it up, do you really want it to be against Carlsen?  Worked like a charm.  Carlsen played 4.Nc3, heading for the attendant complications, but Nisipeanu was obviously well prepared.  Carlsen can be forgiven for not leaning forward in anticipation of 3...f5.  Nisipeanu has played into a Ruy all of seven times, four of them in classical mainlines and three Berlins.  He's a Sicilian player.  Despite the early theoretical advantage enjoyed by White, the game is played well on both sides and goes nowhere particularly interesting.  The theory is worth some review if your're a Ruy player.

Carlsen v. Radjabov: Same Old Song

Commentators are running out of words.  Make it four straight and a Live Rating of 2825 after today's result. Radjabov brings out the the Dragon, which you have to love since Carlsen may be the world's leading proponent of that opening.  I'm not often taken by the ineffable, but there's something of a Fischeresque quality about the kid in that he wins when maybe he oughtn't.  (If you prefer, see the pgn player at the bottom of this post.)

[Event "4th Kings"]

[Site "Medias ROU"]
[Date "2010.06.21"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Black "Radjabov, Teimour"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B35"]
[PlyCount "127"]
[EventDate "2010.??.??"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 Qa5  (Diagram)










8.O-O O-O 9. Bb3 d6 10. h3 Bd7 11. Re1 Rfc8 12. Qe2 Qh5 13. Nf3 h6 14. Rad1 g5 (Diagram)

15. Nd5 Nxd5 16. Bxd5 Bxb2 17. Rb1 Bc3 18. Rxb7 Bxh3 19. Nxg5 Qxe2 20. Rxe2 (Diagram)

20...Bg4 21. Nf3 e6 22. Bxc6 Rxc6 23. Bxh6 Bxf3 24. gxf3 Ra6 25. Rc7 Bg7 26. Bxg7 Kxg7

27. c3 Rb8 28. f4 Rbb6 29. Rd7 Rc6 30. Re3 Rxa2 31. e5 dxe5 32. fxe5 Rc5 33.

Rg3+ Kf8 34. Rf3 Rxe5 35. Rfxf7+ (Diagram)

 Ke8 36. Rfe7+ Kf8 37. Rh7 Kg8 38. Rdg7+ Kf8 39. Rb7 Kg8 40. Rhg7+ Kh8 41. Rge7 Rg5+ 42. Kf1 Rc2 43. Rbc7 a5 44. Rxe6 a4 45.Ra6 Rg4 46. c4 Rg7 47. Rxg7 Kxg7 48. Rxa4 Kf6 49. Kg2 Ke5 50. Ra5+ Ke6 51. Rc5 Kd6 52. Rd5+ Ke6 53. Rd4 Ke5 54. Rh4 Rc3 55. c5 Kf5 56. Rh8 Kf4 57. Rc8 Ke5 58.c6 Kd6 59. f3 Rc5 60. Kg3
(Diagram)




Rg5+ 61. Kh4 Rg1 62. f4 Ke7 63. c7 Rc1 64. Kg5 1-0

Pat He Comes, Like the Catastrophe of the Old Comedy: Carlsen Victorious in Sämisch

Just as I was winding up a brief introduction to the Sämisch Variation, I checked in on TWIC to find that Carlsen played against it today versus Ponomariov.  I'll yield to the World's No. 1 for a day.  Here's the game.  Note Ponomariov's 6.Nge2 and compare it to 6.Be3 lines. 

King's Gambit!: Carlsen v. Wang Yue 1-0

Carlsen plays and wins with the King's Gambit against Wang Yue, a player who recently ran a non-losing streak to the longest anyone's seen of late. (Wang Yue went 85 games without a loss.  The record belongs to Tal with 92.) The game feints in the direction of the Falkbeer Counter-Gambit, but then settles into the Modern variation by a rather standard move order that avoids 3.Bc4, the Bishop's Gambit.  It's not a spectacular game, but it gives future Carlsen opponents additional homework, as if they needed it.

Corus 2010: Gruenfeld--The Russian System

Shirov is now chasing Kramnik and Carlsen a half point back.  Carlsen notched a critical win today and has recovered on the crosstable after his loss to Kramnik.  Dominguez was sailing along with the black pieces until 30...Kh8, which was unnecessary and essentially game ending.  The game score follows the crosstable. 

Corus A Wijk aan Zee (NED), 16-31 i 2010														cat. XIX (2719)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2788	*	1	½	.	1	½	.	½	½	½	1	½		1	7½	2839
2.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2810	0	*	½	½	½	1	1	1	.	.	1	½	½	1	7½	2846
3.	Shirov, Alexei	g	ESP	2723	½	½	*	0	0	½	.	.	1	1	1	½	1	1	7	2821
4.	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2790	.	½	1	*	½	½	½	½	½	½	.	½	½	½	6	2749
5.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2708	0	½	1	½	*	½	0	½	½	.	1	1	.	½	6	2765
6.	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2749	½	0	½	½	½	*	½	.	.	½	1	½		1	6	2751
7.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	UKR	2720	.	0	.	½	1	½	*	½	½	½	½	1	½	½	6	2748
8.	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	g	CUB	2712	½	0	.	½	½	.	½	*	½	½	½	½	1	½	5½	2716
9.	Leko, Peter	g	HUN	2739	½	.	0	½	½	.	½	½	*	1	0	½	½	1	5½	2706
10.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2675	½	.	0	½	.	½	½	½	0	*	½	½	1	0	4½	2651
11.	Van Wely, Loek	g	NED	2641	0	0	0	.	0	0	½	½	1	½	*	1	1	.	4½	2660
12.	Short, Nigel D	g	ENG	2696	½	½	½	½	0	½	0	½	½	½	0	*	.	.	4	2630
13.	Tiviakov, Sergei	g	NED	2662	½	½	0	½	.	½	½	0	½	0	0	.	*	1	4	2625
14.	Smeets, Jan	g	NED	2657	0	0	0	½	½	0	½	½	0	1	.	.	0	*	3	2559

Corus 2010: Nakamura 1/2 - Carlsen 1/2

This is an amazingly high quality game where neither player appears to have ever lost control of the game despite its complexity.

Corus 2010: Hikaru?

Corus 2010 is about to begin in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Hats off to the Dutch sponsors and organizers of this event. The name has become synonymous with high quality chess. The start date is January 15. Will this be Hikaru's breakout tournament?

Grandmaster Ggroup A

	Name	Country	Rating	Position
GM	Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2810	1	Photo
GM	Viswanathan Anand	IND	2790	3	Photo
GM	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2788	4	Photo
GM	Vassily Ivanchuk	UKR	2749	8	Photo
GM	Peter Leko	HUN	2739	12	Photo
GM	Alexei Shirov	SPA	2723	20	Photo
GM	Sergey Karjakin	RUS	2720	21	Photo
GM	Leinier Dominguez	CUB	2712	25	Photo
GM	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2708	28	Photo
GM	Nigel Short	ENG	2696	38	Photo
GM	Fabiano Caruana	ITA	2675	51	Photo
GM	Sergey Tiviakov	NED	2662	62	Photo
GM	Jan Smeets	NED	2657	73	Photo
GM	Loek van Wely	NED	2641	104	Photo

Average rating	: 2719
Category	: 19

World Rankings: January 2010

Congrats to Magnus Carlsen, the official World's # 1, and the youngest to ever hold the position.

See ChessBase for a full report on the Men's and Women's top 100.

Rank Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year
1 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2810 16 1990
2 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2805 4 1975
3 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2790 9 1969
4 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2788 16 1975
5 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2781 17 1982
6 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2761 25 1968
7 Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2759 21 1986
8 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2749 13 1969
9 Wang, Yue g CHN 2749 8 1987
10 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2744 27 1976


Nakamura 28
Kamsky 40
Onishchuk 58
Seirawan 90

Kosteniuk 8
Zatonskih 30
Krush 37
Goletiani 97

Magnus Carlsen: Time Article

More good publicity for chess and Magnus.

London Chess Classic: A Barn Burner

Carlsen and Kramnik went one-two at the London Chess Classic as expected. Magnus missed a win and then had to scramble to hold the game against Short. There was plenty of drama over the final few minutes, and when the smoke cleared there were only a pair of Kings left standing. The game can be seen at Chessdom. Howell was impressive as he didn't lose a game and finished above .500 even though he was seeded last. The tournament scoreboard wasn't kind to McShane, but you have to like his fight, and it was just a disappointing tournament for Nakamura and Short, who were the only two to not win a game.

Nr.	Title	Name	Fed.	Rating	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Score
1	GM	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2801		1	½	½	1	½	½	1	13
7	GM	McShane, Luke J	ENG	2615	0		½	1	0	0	1	0	7
8	GM	Howell, David W L	ENG	2597	½	½		½	1	½	½	½	9
3	GM	Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2715	½	0	½		½	½	½	½	6
6	GM	Ni, Hua	CHN	2665	0	1	0	½		½	½	0	6
5	GM	Adams, Michael	ENG	2698	½	1	½	½	½		½	½	9
4	GM	Short, Nigel D	ENG	2707	½	0	½	½	½	½		0	5
2	GM	Kramnik, Vladimir	RUS	2772	0	1	½	½	1	½	1		12

London Chess Classic: Don't Look Over Your Shoulder, Magnus

Carlsen dodged a bullet against Adams today in London. The game is worth seeing. Kramnik continued his comeback, and is now close enough that tomorrow will be a full work day for Magnus.

A further word on Kramnik. My sense is that he's going to go down as an under-appreciated World Champion. He is provocative in his statements at times, but that can likely be attributed to being brought up in a different (chess) world. One shouldn't ever forget that he took down arguably the greatest champion of all time, and I've never really bought into the idea that he did so when Kasparov was past his prime. He simply outplayed Kasparov for a brief moment in time. That was a feat. Among his recent pronouncements, he said that Magnus was not quite up to his and a few others' level quite yet. With a little time to digest the remarks, I suspect he's right. I also suspect that Magnus will exceed them all in a short time. In any event, here's to Vladimir and his game. He played well against Nigel today. And he's still a large force.

London Chess Classic: Carlsen Again; Nakamura Falls With White

In a brutal display of accuracy, Carlsen pushed Ni Hua off the board after Ni Hua ducked the Najdorf with 3.Bb5. See the game below. McShane had better luck against Nakamura with the King's Indian than against Carlsen, and he took the whole point. The other two games ended in draws. 

 

Nr.	Title	Name	Fed.	Rating	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Score	TPR
1	GM	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2801		1	½	½	1			1	11	2913
7	GM	McShane, Luke J	ENG	2615	0		½	1			1	0	7	2718
8	GM	Howell, David W L	ENG	2597	½	½				½	½	½	5	2719
3	GM	Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2715	½	0			½	½	½		4	2625
6	GM	Ni, Hua	CHN	2665	0			½		½	½	0	3	2590
5	GM	Adams, Michael	ENG	2698			½	½	½		½	½	5	2691
4	GM	Short, Nigel D	ENG	2707		0	½	½	½	½			4	2586
2	GM	Kramnik, Vladimir	RUS	2772	0	1	½		1	½			8	2747