Chess News for week ending May 14

Sarajevo: Malakhov leads after eight rounds

Russian grandmaster Vladimir Malakhov has taken over first place after eight rounds in the annual grandmaster tournament in Sarajevo with 5 points.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu had held the lead since the first round, but fell to second place today when he lost to Latvian-born German grandmaster Arkady Naiditsch while Malakhov defeated 19-year-old Bosnian Borki Predojevic.

Malakhov has won two games and drawn six without a loss. Nisipeanu has two victories, a loss and five draws for 4½ points.

Tied with Nisipeanu for second place is 15-year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has one win and seven draws.

One of the best games of the tournament so far has been the teenage rumble in round five between Predojevic and Carlsen. Carlsen, playing Black, won the game. The game began with White (Predojevic) playing his King's Pawn and Black responding with a Sicilian Game which steered into the line called the Najdorf Defense (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6). This often develops into a sharp game in which White relies on a Kingside attack and Black on couterplay on the opposite wing; this game was no exception to that. White appeared to have a initiative featuring mating threats until Black sacrificed his Rook on this 37th move. White accepted the Rook; Black then uncorked a mating attack with 38 -- c2+ 39 Kc1 Qf4+ 40 Rd2 Bxb2+ and Predojevic resigned rather than continue 41 Kxb2 c1=Q+ 42 Rxc1 Qxd2+.



Teenage Rumble in Action: Borki Predojevic, 19 (left), against Magnus Carlsen, 15, in Round 5

The double round robin tournament concludes after the tenth round Tuesday.

Simultaneously with the main event is a "B" tournament featuring four grandmasters and six international masters seeking a grandmaster norm.

After seven rounds, there is a three-way tie for the lead among Alojzije Jankovic, an international master from Croatia and grandmasters Bojan Kurajica of Bosnia and Adrijan Mihalicisin of Slovenia with 4½ points each.

The single round robin "B" tournament also concludes Tuesday.

Sofia: Kamsky takes early lead

Gata Kamsky, a US citizen of Tartar descent born in Soviet Crimea, has the early lead with 3½ points after four rounds in the second annual international tournament in Sofia.



Sofia participants Veselin Topalov, Vishy Anand, Peter Svidler, Ruslan Ponomariov, Etienne Bacrot and Gata Kamsky

Kamsky took over the lead in the third round on Saturday by defeating India's Viswanathan Anand, who won both of his first two games. The game featured a Spanish Opening in which White avoided the Marshall Gambit (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 0-0 (the usual continuation is 7 -- d6 8 c3 0-0 9 h3) 8 h3 (8 c3 d4! is the Marshall Gambit, usually continuing 9 exd5 Nxd5 10 Nxe5 Nxe5 11 Rxe5 c6; Black has sacrificed a Pawn but gets a powerful initiative for a Kingside attack) 8 -- Bb7 9 d3 d6), an opening that has been seen in no less than four games at Sofia. The players battled to a Rook and Pawn ending in which Black's (Kamsky's) King was centrally posted, giving him a winning advantage. After the move 50 -- f4! Black had an advanced passed Pawn. After the exchange of Rooks, Black had an easily won game. Anand resigned on the 58th move when he was obvious that he would be unable to prevent the Pawn from queening.

Anand, who defeated Ukrainian grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov today, is in second place with 3 points.

FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria is off to a moderately slow start with a second-round loss to Anand and three draws.

Kamsky, once one of the leading players in the world, is in the second year of a comeback after taking five years off from chess to study law. In Sofia, he has also won games from French grandmaster Etienne Bacrot and Peter Svidler of Russia. An interesting result of Kamsky's five-year hiatus is that, in spite of being the second oldest player in the tournament, his the first round game Thursday against Ponomariov was the first meeting of the two over the board. The game ended in a draw.

The double round-robin event concludes May 21.

Chess Olympics begin Saturday in Turino

Turino in the Italian Alps, the site of this year's Winter Olympic Games, is also the site of the 2006 Chess Olympiad beginning with opening ceremonies Saturday, May 20 and the first round the following day.



The Chess Olympics is an international team tournament that is descended from similar events held since before the First World War. Indeed, the history of the event is marked with two incomplete tournaments in Mannheim, Germany, 1914 and in Buenos Aires in 1939. Both events ended abruptly when war broke out in Europe. Coincidently, the legendary Alexander Alekhine, world champion from 1927 to 1935 and from 1937 until his death in 1946, played for the Russian team in 1914 and was the captain of the French team in 1939.

One hundred forty teams will participate in this year's event in two divisions, men's and women's. The men's division is expected to be a contest among former Soviet countries, especially Russia, Ukraine and Armenia. The strongest teams in the women's division come from China, Georgia and Russia.

The United States will field all-immigrant teams in both divisions; with one exception, all the American players come from the former Soviet Union. The men's team will be made up of Hiraku Nakamura (born in Japan), Gata Kamsky (Russia), current US champion Alex Onischuk (Ukraine), Ildar Ibragimov (Russia), Gregory Kaidanov (Ukraine) and Varuzhan Akobian (Armenia). On the women's team are current US women's champion Anna Zatonskih (Ukraine), Irina Krush (Ukraine), Rusa Goletiani (Russia) and Camila Baginskaite (Lithuania).

In addition to the tournament, an important meeting of delegations from FIDE will take place in Turino which will decide whether FIDE will stay with current President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov of Russia or replace him with Belgian businessman Bessel Kok.

Photo Credits:

Borki Predojevic and Magnus Carlsen in Sarajevo from the official tournament website
Participants in the Sofia Tournament from the official tournament website
Logo of the 2006 Chess Olympiad from the official website of the 37th Chess Olympiad.

Frank Marshall
1877-1944
Swashbuckling Chess Master

The Marshall Gambit is named for New York grandmaster Frank Marshall, the perennial American national champion during most of the first third of the twentieth century. Marshall was on the great attacking geniuses of the last hundred years, although he lived at a time when positional chess was all the rage.

The Critical Position



After 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Be3 0-0

Marshall had worked on his gambit for a few years before he uncorked it in an important game for the first time in a tournament played in New York in October 1918 against the Cuban master, José Capablanca, whom Marshall knew to be a better player than he. The game began as a typical Spanish Game: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3. The usual continuation is 7 -- d6 8 c3 0-0 9 h3 and Black has about a half-dozen good options for his ninth move, all leading to equality with the best play. However, instead of the usually 7 -- d6, Marshall playing 7 -- 0-0. We don't know if Capablanca knew of Marshall's experiments with his opening or if he thought Marshall was planning a harmless transposition of moves, but the Cuban played 8 c3 and the Marshall Gambit was born when Marshall replied 8 -- d5!.

The Marshall Gambit



Position after 8 c3 d5!

The idea of the Marshall Gambit for Black is to sacrifice a Pawn for a fierce attack against White's castled King. The Capablanca-Marshall game continued 9 exd5 Nxd5 10 Nxe5 Nxe5 11 Rxe5. These moves have formed the main line of the Marshall Gambit ever since. Marshall then played 11 -- Nf6, but one which is played less often nowadays in favor of 11 -- c6. Marshall got the attack he desired, but Capablanca, a skilled and patient defender, weathered the storm and eventually won the game.

A more recent example of the Marshall Gambit is a remarkable game between Hungary's Judit Polgar and Michael Adams of Britain played at the international tournament at Dos Hermanas, Spain, April 1999. This is an excellent example of Black's resources. A recent example of the Marshall, also featuring the same player as White, is Ms. Polgar's victory over Peter Svidler of Russia in the Wijk aan Zee tournament in January 2005. In September 2004, Hungarian grandmaster Peter Leko as Black used the Marshall Gambit to win the eighth game of the world title match in Switzerland from classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

While Judit Polgar clearly accepts the challenge to play against the Marshall Gambit, many players prefer to avoid the Marshall Gambit by playing either 8 a4 or 8 h3 instead of 8 c3; these moves are called the Anti-Marshall lines.

Anti-Marshall Lines


8 a4 (left), preferred by Kasparov, and 8 h3 Bb7 9 d3, featured at Sofia 2006

One such player was the recently retired former world champion Garry Kasparov, who always played an Anti-Marshall line in the Spanish Game after Black played 7 -- 0-0. British grandmaster Nigel Short had prepared some innovations in the Marshall for use against Kasparov in the 1993 title match in London. Three times in the match Short as Black played 7 -- 0-0 and three times Kasparov responded with 8 a4. Kasparov won all three games and easily won the match. Here is the seventh game of the Kasparov-Short match, in which Kasparov dispatches Black with a cool Kingside attack. Overall, there is a record of sixteen attempts to play the Marshall against Kasparov; Kasparov usually played 8 a4, but was not adverse to playing 8 h3 now and then. Kasparov's record using the Anti-Marshall was seven wins, one loss (to Vassily Ivanchuck in Prague, 2002) and eight draws.

In the first five rounds at the 2006 international tournament in Sofia, there have been six games featuring Anti-Marshall lines. Five of these have featured the move 8 h3 while today's fifth round game between Ukrainian grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov and Etienne Bacrot of France has featured 8 a4.

The Ponomariov-Bacrot game, played in today's fifth round, continued 8 -- b4 9 d3 d6 10 a5 Be6 11 Nbd2 Rb8 12 Bc4 Qc8, as did the first game of the 1993 match between Kasparov and Short. The Kasparov-Short game continued 13 Nf1 Re8 14 Ne3 Nd4 15 Nxd4 exd4 16 Nd5 Nxd5 17 exd5 Bd7 18 Bd2 Bf6. Here, Black (Short) seemed to invite a series of exchanges on the open e-file, but after White played 19 Rxe8+, Black replied with the dubious 19 -- Bxe8?! instead of the anticipated 19 -- Qxe8. White took advantage of the lapse and sized control of the e-file with 20 Qe2 Bb5 21 Re1 and went on to win the game. Today, Ponomariov varied from the Kasparov game on move 13 by playing 13 b3, at attempt to stop Black's Queenside advance in its tracks. The game continued 13 -- Nd7 14 Nf1 Bf6 15 Ne3 g6 16 Bb2 and, instead of an exchange of heavy pieces on the e-file as in the Kasparov-Short game, there was an exchange of minor pieces with the long diagonal opened after Bxc4 17 Nxc4 Re8 18 d4 exd4 19 Nxd4 Nce5 20 Nxe5 Bxe5. This game ended in a draw after 47 moves.

All of the other Anti-Marshall games at Sofia have continued 8 he Bb7 9 d3. In the second round, Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand as Black continued 9 -- Re8 against FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov. Topalov replied with 10 c3, a move that resembles many slower Spanish set ups favored by nineteenth century world champion Wilhelm Steinitz. The game continued 10 -- h6 11 Nbd2 Bf8 12 a3 d6 13 Ba2 Nb8!? and now Anand retreats his Knight in order to grab space with a Pawn advance, 14 b4 c5 and then returned his Knight to its more ideal square with 15 Nb3 Nc6. Anand took advantage of his queenside advantage and eventually won the game. In today's fifth round, Anand again played 9 -- Re8 against Russia's Peter Svidler. Svidler, however, chose piece development in place of Topalov attempt to create a solid Pawn center and continued 10 Nc3 Bb4 11 Ng5 Rf8 a3 Bxc3 13 bxc3 h6 14 Nf3 d6. This game ended in a draw.

In three other games the continuation was 9 -- d6 10 a3. In the second round against Gata Kamsky, Bacrot as Black played 10 -- Na5 in order to grab queenside space in a way slightly different to the method used by Anand against Topalov in the same round, already discussed. The game continued 11 Ba2 c5 12 Nc3 Nc6. Bacrot was not as successful as Anand in exploiting his Queenside spatial advantage, but succeeded in equalizing the game. Kamsky eventually won the marathon game in 103 moves. As Black, Kamsky played 10 -- Qd7 against Ponomariov in round 1 and against Anand in round 3. Ponomariov continued 11 Nc3 Nd8 and then opened up the center with 12 d4 exd4 13 Nxd4 Re8 14 Nf5 Ne6 15 Qf3 Bf8 16 Be3 c5 17 Nd5 Bxd5 18 Bxd5 Nxd5 19 exd5 Nc7 20 Bd2. This was followed by Rook exchanges on the open e-file. The game ended in a draw. Anand played 11 Nbd2 in order to go for a Pawn center and the game continued after 11 -- Nd8 12 c3 Ne6 13 d4 Rad8 14 d5. The position appeared fairly equal after 14 -- Nf4 15 Nf1 Ng6 16 Ng3 c6, although Black eventually won the game.

Black has done well with Anti-Marshall lines in Sofia. This suggests that we may yet see one of the players as White risk a venture into the Marshall Gambit by playing 8 c3 d5.

Frank Marshall from a German website.
Diagrams from ChessGames.com