Pirc 101: Austrian Attack

Robson plays a nice game against Molner in the 5th round of the 38th World Open. The opening is the Austrian Pirc. The move to pay attention to is White's 9th, e5. The Rybka 4 Book (Jiri Dufek) gives 9.Qb5+, which has been the principal practice over the board.

French 101: Classical in Jermuk

Tatiana Kosinteva beats Hou Yifan in a French Classical in Jermuk, Armenia.  While the novelty in the game is 11.Nd1, which is dubious, the bigger flaw in the game is Black's plan to exchange the light-squared Bishops.  Black position is left stretched out of shape, and Kosinteva drives the point home.

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.

Petroff 101: 5.Nc3; 7.Bf4 or 7.Be3--Five Boards to Compare

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 Oh no! 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Play 5.d4 to head for the mainlines.  5...Nxc3 6.dxc3 (diagram) 6.bxc3 is okay, but I think it is objectively inferior.  The idea is that White is going to play down the half-open d-file and often shove the kingside pawns northward. 6...Be7 Why this?  The Bishop is almost assuredly going to develop to the e7 square, while the queenside minor pieces can go to several squares.  In particular, Black will clarify the placement of one of the White Bishops, usually the dark-squared Bishop, before deciding whether to develop the Knight to d7 or c6.  Now White has two major options: 7.Be3 or 7.Bf4.  Which?  Let's look at five positions each of higher level games five moves later, after White's 12th.  Survey the positions and see if they help the choice based on your preferences.

After 7.Bf4 (five positions five moves later)

Jobava-Motlyev, 11th Karpov Poikovsky Rus 2010

Black is slightly better with the Bishop pair and potential for play down the b-file.  White wins the game.

Topalov-Gelfand, Amber Rapid 15th

The game is roughly equal.  Black will win the pawn back after the exchanges on d6 by forking the Rook and f-pawn via e4.  White wins the game.

Ivanchuk-Kosteniuk, Cap d'Agde CCAS Gp-A Rapid October 2008

The game is roughly equal after Nxe6.  White wins the game.

Kramnik-Nielsen, Dortmund 2005

White is slightly better after Be6 due to his space advantage.  White wins the game.

Rublevsky-Shirov, Rus ChT 2006

Black is slightly better, but not after 12...hxg5 13.hxg5 and Black has to immediately give back the piece with threats down the h-file abounding.  If 13...Be7, then 14.g4 and Black is lost.  Black wins the game.  On the updside of White's choices after Bf4 is that White is always on the watch for a kingside assault, but as the previous games show, the attack's not a foregone concluion.

After 7.Be3 (five positions five moves later)

Anand-Kramnik, Amber Blindfold14th. 

The game is equal.  White wins.

Ivanchuk-Wang Yue, Sofia MTel Masters 5th 2009

White is very slightly better.  Black wins the game.

Svidler-Kramnik, RUS Ch Superfinal 2005

Again, White is slightly better due to better coordinated pieces and a space advantage.  White wins the game.

Jakovenko-Volokitin, Rus-ChT Dagomys 2008

White is slightly better due to better better coordinated pieces and a space advantage.  Black wins. 

Bolgan-Charbonneau, Canadian op Edmonton 2005.

White is slightly better for the usual reasons and a kingside initiative.  White wins. 

King's Indian 101: Fianchetto Variation

The Fianchetto Variation of the King's Indian is a popular way to avoid the mainlines of the opening in which Black will conduct an all-out assault on the kingside.  There are many ways to arrive in the Fianchetto Variation, including as in the below game.

Fischer-Spassky: Chess Table for Sale

One of the three chess tables used by Fischer and Spassky in Reykjavik is reportedly being offered for sale. See the Gambit account of the sale here. Páll G. Jonsson apparently bought two of the tables following the 1972 match, and now at 77 wishes to sell one of them.

Johnsson states that the chairman of the Match Organizing Committee, Gudmundur G. Thorarinsson, can authenticate the table. 

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.

Chess Engines: Which Are Legit?

The chess engine environment is rich and evolving.  The engines are obviously stronger than ever, and are still improving, both on the software and hardware fronts.  Much of the current debate, however, is less about strength and more about what's legitimate and what's not.  On the commercial front (read "for sale"), the leaders are Rybka (4), Fritiz (12), Shredder (12), and Hiarcs (13), with the Wikipedia list of such engines including:

Chess Genius, by Richard Lang of Mephisto fame
Chessmaster
Chess Tiger
Fritz, Deep Fritz
Gandalf
HIARCS
Junior
The King - the engine of the commercial Chessmaster program
Ktulu
Loop (also the engine for Wii Chess)
Naum versions 2.1 and later
Onno
Rebel - (see also ProDeo)
Ruffian 2
Rybka
Shredder
Deep Sjeng
Smarthink

The controversy is not so much with these engines, but rather with the "free," "open source" engines that are cropping up.  There are many of these as well, led by what's known as the IPPOLIT family, including RobboLito, Igorrit, IvanHoe, FireBird and Fire.  Some have claimed that the IPPOLIT engines are nothing more than decompiled versions of Rybka that have been tweaked (for better or worse) and tossed onto the market.  Last I checked, the IPPOLIT authors were an anonymous group calling themselves the "Decembrists."  One could also add Strelka to this list and the name Yuri Osipov (a pseudonym?).  There's also an open source, free engine known as Stockfish (Tord Romstad (Norway), Marco Costalba (Italy) & Joona Kiiski (Finland)).  This last engine has substantial legitimacy in the fact that it's been accepted for rating by the CCRL.  The authors may have perfectly good reasons for why they would want to offer this engine at no charge.
 
I am currently running Rybka 4, Shredder12, Fritz 12, Deep Fritz 12, Firebird 1.2, and Stockfish 1.7.1 JA on my machines.  I'm not entirely comfortable with all of these engines, and I do believe that it is in all of our best interests to support only the legitimate (non-prirated) efforts.  I do not have the software skills to challenge any of the above programs, and I'll thus be looking to others to offer explanations of legitimacy or otherwise.  (Any such claims of illegitimacy have been weak to date, although certainly plausible.)  The reason behind the intellectual property protections afforded by patent, trademark, and copyright laws are obvious--to incentivize creativity.  Until the answers are clear or more clear, I will continue to purchase the leading commercial programs to support the progress of chess engines, but I will also explore and run my own tests on the engines being called into question. 

To the extent that any programmers are taking code from one of the commercial engines and quickly improving it in a pirated release, more issues are raised than just copyright protection. If the commercial programmers are withholding improvements, they may be entitled to the protections of the law, but they aren't necessarily going to get my undying support.

King's Indian 101: Classical Variation--9.Nd2

This King's Indian comes from the 17th Correspondence World Championship.  White scores with the third of the big three White responses to the Mar Del Plata Variation of the King's Indian: 9.Nd2.  The move may only be inferior to 9.Ne1 and 9.b4 in terms of the times it has been played.  Play is often across the entire board as in this game, and here, Black simply wasn't able to hit hard enough on the kingside.  The novelty in the game is at White's 20th. 

King's Tournament: King's Indian Classical with 7...Na6

The last round of the King's Tournament in Medias saw all three games end with a Black victory.  In the game Gelfand-Radjabov, Radjabov played 6...Na6 in the Classical Variation, a move he's only played once previously.  The notion behind this move is usually to avoid the body of theory after 6...e5 and 7...Nc6.  Radjabov likely knows this theory better than anyone, having played into the line more than 70 times, but even Radjabov is not above side-stepping an opponent's preparation.  Oftentimes 6...Na6 simply transposes to the more mainstream move order 6...e5 7.O-O Na6, and that's what happens here.  The verdict is out on 7...Na6 (which is this game by transposition), but the general thought is that White has additional options due to a lack of pressure on the White center.  Here, the novelty is 12...d3 and it would seem that White has won the opening phase, but it's never quite so simple....