Lubomir Kavalek

International Chess Grandmaster

Huffington Post, September 27, 2010

Ivanchuk Dominates Chess Olympiad

The chess olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia is in full swing, moving into the second half.
The Open section has 149 teams listed, nearly 750 players. The women section has 115 teams, roughly 575 players. Head and shoulders above all players stands Vasyl Ivanchuk. The 41-year old Ukrainian grandmaster smashed everything coming his way so far, winning all five games and amassing a giant 3357 performance rating. His team is sharing the lead with Georgia and Armenia after six rounds, having won five matches and drawing one. The 11-round olympiad concludes Sunday, October 3.

Ivanchuk was born in the same year as the world champion Vishy Anand and they are good friends. But unlike the Indian grandmaster, he sticks his neck out in an event considered to favor young players. Playing the top board is always a challenge. The American Hikaru Nakamura, 22, is doing well with a 4.5 - 0.5 score, but the world's top-rated grandmaster Magnus Carlsen of Norway, 19, is struggling at 50 percent with two wins and two losses. How come Ivanchuk doesn't even blink and collects his points with a solid, steady performance? He does it with his incredible opening knowledge, sharp and unusual tactics and subtle positional play.

Ivanchuk's win against one of the best defenders, Peter Leko of Hungary, is a positional masterpiece. William Steinitz, the first official world champion, loved to have his pawns on the original squares, since any pawn move weakens the position. It was a sound idea, not overlooked by world-class players such as Bobby Fischer, Ulf Andersson or Michael Adams. Ivanchuk's wonderful illustration would have made Steinitz happy. In the Semi-Slav Meran defense, using tactical themes and a delicate queen maneuver, the Ukrainian GM created many pawn weaknesses that Leko was unable to cover.

Ivanchuk - Leko
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.d4 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 (Avoiding the straight Meran defense 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5.) 6...Bd6 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 dxc4 9.Bxc4 a6 10.Rd1 b5 11.Bd3 (Karpov's 11.Be2 is more modest, but also more popular.) 11...Qc7 (Leko tries to move his queen from the d-file, but 11...Bb7 seems preferable.) 12.Bd2 (Ivanchuk is anticipating a queenside scramble and plans to shut down black's counterplay with 13.b4! [13... Bxb4 14.Nxb5!]. Pavel Eljanov, another strong Ukrainian grandmaster, won games with 12.a4 and 12.Ne4.) 12...c5 13.dxc5 Qxc5 14.a4! (Undermining the queenside.) 14...bxa4 (After 14...b4 15.Ne4 Qxc2 16.Bxc2 Be7 17.Nxf6+ Nxf6 18.Ne5 is pleasant for white. Black could have tried 14...Bb7 15.axb5 Bxf3 to shatter white's kingside.) 15.Rxa4 Bb7 16.Rc4 Qa7?! (And just like that the game turns. Black had to try 16...Bxf3 17.Rxc5 Bxd1 18.Nxd1 Nxc5 with roughly equal chances.)

17.Ne4 Nxe4 18.Bxe4 Bxe4 19.Qxe4 (The light squares are more accessible to white.)
19...Rac8?! 20.Qd4! (Ivanchuk begins to dominate in the center, driving the black queen back. Leko has problems on the d-file and can't exchange the queens. After 20...Qxd4? 21.Rxd4 Rc6 22.Bc3 white wins a piece.) 20...Bc5?! (20...Bb8 was a better alternative, but after 21.Bc3 Qxd4 22.Rcxd4 Nc5 23.g3 Rfe8 24.Rc4 white still has a slight edge.)

21.Qc3! (Pinning the bishop and threatening 22.b4.) 21...Rcd8 (After 21...Rc7 22.Qc2 Rfc8 23.Bc3 the black king may not be comfortable.) 22.Qc2! (Freeing the square c3 for his bishop and threatening to weaken black's kingside with 23.Ng5.) 22...Rfe8? (Allowing Ivanchuk to increase his advantage by weakenning the dark squares. Leko had to try 22...h6 23.Bc3 Rfe8 to meet 24.Rg4 with 24...Bf8!) 23.Ng5! g6 24.Ba5 (The modest 24.Be1 has more venom, for example 24...Be7 25.Nxe6 fxe6 26.Rc7 wins; or 24...Bb6 25.Ne4 Kg7 26.Rc6!, threatening to win with Ne4-d6-c8.) 24...Bb6 25.Bc3! (Ivanchuk forced the black bishop out of play. More holes are creeping into black's position.) 25...e5 26.Ne4 Re6 27.Bb4 Kg7 28.Rc6! Nf6 (Black is in trouble. After 28...Nf8 comes 29.Bd6!; and after 28...Rxc6? 29.Qxc6 white is threatening to win with 30.Be7.) 29.Rxe6 fxe6 (Black is left with a weak double pawn and Ivanchuk begins to zero in.)

30.Nxf6 Kxf6 (Black gets mated after 30...Rxd1+ 31.Qxd1 Kxf6 32.Qf3+ Kg5 [On 32...Kg7 33.Qf8 mates.] 33.Bf8!, threatening either 34.g3 and 35. h4 mate; or 34.h4+ Kxh4 35.Bh6! g5 36.Qh3 mate.) 31.Ra1 (Ivanchuk decides to keep the rooks, tickling the a6- weakness. White could have also played 31.Bd6!? threatening 32.Qe4, for example 31...Qa8 32.Qa4 Kf7 33.Bxe5 with a healthy pawn up.) 31...Qb7 32.Bc3 (Pinning the e5-pawn.) 32...a5 (After 32...Rd5 33.Qe2 Rb5 34.Qg4 the black king is left alone.) 33.Qa4 g5? (After 33...Qd5+ 34.Qf4+ Ke7 35.Qg5+ Kf7 36.h4 black can't survive.) 34.h4! h6 35.Qg4 Qh7 36.Qh5 (Threatening to win a pawn with 42.hxg5+ and black has to give up something. Another way to attack was with 36.Qf3+ Qf5 37.Qc6 Rb8 38.Qd6 Rb7 39.Ra4 black is tied up and the white rook threatens to sneak into black's position via the square c4.)

36...Qg6? (Blundering, but after 36...Rg8 white has two ways to conclude the game: 37.Bxa5 Bxa5 38.Rxa5 Qb1+ 39.Kh2 Qg6 40.hxg5+ hxg5 41.Qxg6+ the rook endgame is hopeless; or 37.b4 axb4 38.Bxb4 Qg6 39.Qf3+ Qf5 40.Qb7 gxh4 41.Be7+ Kg6 42.Qxb6 h3 43.e4 Qg4 44.g3 wins.) 37.Bxe5+ Kf7 38.Qf3+ Kg8 39.Qc6 (The black bishop has nowhere to go and 39...Bxe3 40.fxe3 gxh4 41.Kh2 is not good enough.) Black resigned.

Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to follow the game.

Bill Hook Memorial Tournament

Chess Olympiads were always special for the late Bill Hook. He played in 17 of them for the British Virgin Islands, winning one individual gold medal on the top board in 1980. The Maryland master and artist was honored on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the U.S. Chess Center in Washington , D.C. in a blitz tournament. GM Mark Paragua won the event with a 15-1 score. Bryan Smith and Oladapo Adu shared second place, scoring 11.5 points.

The solutions of the last week's Chess Puzzles are here.

Lubomir Kavalek

International Chess Grandmaster

Huffington Post, September 21, 2010

Chess Puzzles: Richard Reti's Marvelous Squares

A chessboard is a square, divided into 64 black and white squares. But there are more squares in chess, mostly invisible, as part of an amazing chess geometry hidden in chess players' minds.

One classic square is often used in pawn endgames when a king is chasing the enemy's passed pawn. The king doesn't have to walk in horizontal or vertical lines, he can run diagonally or zig-zag across the field. But he needs to be close enough to catch the pawn. How close?

The king has to walk into a square whose one side is defined as the distance between the pawn and its promoting square at the edge of the board.

We can use a famous study by Richard Reti as an example. The world-class player, creative chess composer and prolific writer published his amazing work in Ostrauer Morgenzeitung on December 4, 1921.

Richard Reti

White draws

While the black king is in the (green) square and can snap up the white c-pawn anytime, the white king is out of the (red) square, unable to catch the black h-pawn. Reti makes the study work, blending both green and red squares into a beautiful solution. Can you find how white draws?

Other composers tried to expand on Reti's maneuver. Ladislav Prokes juggles the squares differently. The black pawn is far out of reach, but the white king, momentarily pinned to the edge of the board, finds a miraculous way to stop it.

Ladislav Prokes

White draws

Henri Rinck composed his version in 1922 and published it in the Revue Suisse d'Echecs in Basel. He also worked with squares, but added a line-geometry, the skewer, into the solution.

Henri Rinck

White wins

Solutions to all three studies appear next week.

Lubomir Kavalek

International Chess Grandmaster

Huffington Post, September 11, 2010 12:57 AM

Chess Great Bent Larsen Dies

Just one day before the world's top-rated grandmaster Magnus Carlsen of Norway
shone in New York, winning the RAW World Chess Challenge, another great Scandinavian chess player quietly left the chess world. Bent Larsen, the legendary Danish grandmaster and world championship candidate, died on September 9 in Buenos Aires at the age of 75.

An optimist by nature, Larsen was one of the most fierce fighters of the last century and one of the few players capable of challenging the Soviets for the world championship title. He came close, participating in seven Candidates matches. But when his chances were the best, he was stopped twice by players who became world champions: by Boris Spassky in 1968 and by Bobby Fischer in 1971. Still, throughout his career, Larsen was considered to be one of the best tournament players in the world. Among his many triumphs were first places at the Interzonal tournaments in Amsterdam in 1964, in Sousse in 1967 and in Biel in 1976.

I was fortunate to witness Larsen's many victorious drives in tournaments and matches. He was the ultimate chess battler, always interested in wins and first places. Sometimes he reached too far, but it never stopped him from reaching again. He played with enormous energy and great fighting spirit. Offering him a draw was a waste of time. He would decline it politely, but firmly. "No, thank you," he would say and the fight would go on and on and on.

Larsen strived in both simple and rich positions, did not shy of complications and it was an honor to play against him. He had deep knowledge of the game and was always ready to go where nobody else dared to tread. He created several original opening ideas, often shocking his opponents with risky and unusual moves in the middle game and scoring many points by grinding down players in long endgames.

From 1963 till 1986, we played 30 games against each other all over the world. It was always a pleasure to meet him at the bridge or chess table. We laughed together, drank together and I loved to listen to his countless stories. Bent was also an outstanding, witty chess writer. He will be missed.

In a double-round tournament in 1970 in Lugano, Switzerland, Larsen destroyed me in both games and on the back of the picture from our first game he wrote: "With best wishes to Lubos, who allowed me twice to believe in chess beauty."

Larsen considered our second game in Lugano as one of his best. In his book Studies for Practical Players, published by Russell Enterprises, the outstanding Russian chess composer Oleg Pervakov introduced the idea performed by Larsen with these words: "During play, situations occur fairly frequently where one side finds its intentions blocked by one of its own pieces or pawns, either occupying a vital square, blocking a line, or introducing some other annoying element into the position. And not infrequently, the speculative removal of such personages from the board alters the assessment of the position completely. Noting this kind of nuance and accurately executing such a liquidation is a sign of the highest kind of mastery." Analyzing the stunning hidden possibilities was as exciting as playing the moves over the board.

Larsen - Kavalek
1.b3 (The Larsen opening. Bent played it successfully, but all his efforts were overshadowed by his famous defeat against Spassky in 17 moves at the match USSR vs. Rest of the World in Belgrade. It began 10 days after Lugano finished.) 1...c5 2.Bb2 Nc6 3.c4 e5 4.g3 d6 5.Bg2 Nge7 6.e3 g6 (6...d5 is a good move. Kavalek tries to transfer the game into a known position from the English opening.- Larsen) 7.Ne2?! (7.Nc3 was best with the idea 7...Bg7 8.d3 to meet 8...Be6 with 9.Nd5. - Larsen) 7...Bg7 8.Nbc3 0-0 (Preparing the advance d6-d5 with 8...Be6 was better. White can't play 9.Nd5?! because of 9...Bxd5 10.cxd5 Nb4!) 9.d3 Be6 10.Nd5 Qd7 11.h4! (Larsen's trademark - a rook pawn move. Here it prevents 11...Bh3.) 11...f5 (Stopping white's advance with 11...h5 was better.) 12.Qd2 Rae8 (Larsen thought that 12...Rab8!? gave black more chances for a counterplay on the queenside.)13.h5! b5 14.hxg6 hxg6 15.Nec3 bxc4 16.dxc4 e4 17.0-0-0 Ne5 18.Nf4 Rd8 (After 18...g5? 19.Nxe6 Nd3+ Larsen planned the exciting 20.Qxd3!! exd3 21.Nxg7 Kxg7 22.Nd5+ Kg6 23.Bf3!! and white is winning.) 19.Kb1

(I thought here for 16 minutes about the sacrifice 19...Bxc4! and left myself with only 12 minutes for 21 moves. It is remarkable, since the time control in those days was 40 moves in 2 ½ hours. What was I doing for the first 19 moves?) 19...Bf7?! (Chickening out, although my instinct told me that the bishop sacrifice is the right thing to do. Larsen did not think much of it, saying that after 19...Bxc4! 20.bxc4 Nxc4 21.Qe2 black does not have anything.
However, Gavril Veresov, a Belorussian master, later provided splendid analysis, confirming that black's attack was indeed very powerful after 21...Nxb2 22.Kxb2 Qa4! and suddenly a disaster is looming on the long diagonal a1-h8 after 23.Qd2 [On 23.Qc2? Rb8+ 24.Kc1 Qa3+ 25.Kd2 Rb2 wins for black.] 23...Rb8+ 24.Ka1 Qa3! 25.Rc1 d5!!, and white has a hard time coping with black's threat to push his d-pawn.

For example, after 26.Nfxd5?! Nxd5 27.Qxd5+ Rf7 28.Qd2 Rd7! 29.Qc2 Rd3 white loses quickly.

Black has to be more creative after 26.Ne6 with 26...Bf6!! 27.Nxf8 Kxf8 with powerful threats, e.g. 28.Qc2 c4 29.Qd2 Rb3 winning; or 28.Rc2 Rb3 29.Rhc1 Nc6 and the threat 30...Nb4 decides, since after 30.Qxd5 Bxc3+ 31.Rxc3 Qb2 mates.

After 26.Bf1 black has two ways to victory. The most amazing variations come after 26...Rb4! 27.Nfxd5 [The other knight leap 27.Ne6 is met by 27...Rfb8 28.Nxg7 Rb2 29.Rc2 Qxa2+! 30.Nxa2 Rb1 mate.], but here Veresov suggested 27...Qxc1+ 28.Qxc1 Nxd5, which is unclear after 29.a3. He missed the incredible 27...Rd8!!, for example 28.Nxe7+ Kf7 29.Ned5 [On 29.Qc2 Bxc3+ 30.Qxc3 Qxc3+ 31.Rxc3 Rd1+ 32.Rc1 Rxc1 mates.] 29...Kf8!!

and amazingly, white does not have a good defense to 30...Rxd5!, for example 30.Be2 Rxd5! 31.Qc2 Rd3! 32.Bxd3 exd3 33.Qd2 Rb3 and there is no defense to 34...Rxc3 winning.

Less spectacular, but very effective is after 26.Bf1 Rf6!, for example 27.Nfxd5 Nxd5 28.Qxd5+ Rf7 29.Qd2 Rd7! 30.Bc4+ Kf8 31.Qc2 Rdb7!, threatening 32...Bxc3+ and 33...Rb1+ winning. All this was impossible to see during the game with the clock ticking next to me.)
20.g4!

(Oleg Pervakov writes:" White has opened the h-file, and taken aim at the black king. It would be nice to push the queen over to h2 - but how? The d2-e1-g1-h2 route is pretty long and would grant Black time to whip up counterplay on the queenside. Larsen finds a cardinal solution to the problem." And indeed, Larsen's line-clearing on the second rank is remarkable.) 20...Nxg4 (Now after 20...Bxc4 comes 21.gxf5! and white's attack is faster.) 21.f3! exf3 22.Bxf3 Ne5 (Larsen correctly claims that after 22...Nf6 23.Qh2 Rfe8 24.Nb5 Nc8 25.Bxf6 Bxf6 26.Qh7+ Kf8 27.Bd5 white wins quickly, e.g. 27...g5 28.Ng6+ Bxg6 29.Qg8+ Ke7 30.Rh7+ Bxh7 31.Qf7 mate.) 23.Qh2 Bxc4!? (After 23...Rfe8 24.Nb5 Nc8 25.Qh7+ Kf8 26.Bd5, threatening 27.Nxg6+!, white wins.) 24.bxc4 Nxf3 25.Qh7+ Kf7 26.Ncd5 Rg8 27.Nxe7 Rb8 28.Ka1 (The other king move 28.Kc1 won less brilliantly, e.g. 28...Qxe7 29.Qxg6+ Kf8 30.Bxg7+ Qxg7 31.Ne6+ etc.) 28...Qxe7 29.Qxg6+ Kf8 30.Ne6+ Qxe6 31.Bxg7+! (Sidestepping the last trick: 31.Qxe6? Bxb2+ 32.Kb1 Ba3+ and white has to make a draw with 33.Ka1, since 33.Kc2 loses to 33...Rg2+ 34.Kd3 Ne5+.) 31...Ke7 (Almost escaping, but Larsen nails down a magnificent finish.)

32.Bf8+!! Rbxf8 33.Rh7+ (After 33...Rf7 34.Rxf7+ Qxf7 35.Qxd6+ Ke8 36.Qd8 mates.) Black resigned.

Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to follow the game.

The solutions of the last week's Chess Puzzles are here.

Chess Puzzles: A Vodka Escape

Lubomir Kavalek

International Chess Grandmaster

The Huffington Post, September 1, 2010 02:47 PM
Chess Puzzles: A Vodka Escape

I began my escape from the communist Czechoslovakia 42 years ago, on Sunday, September 1, 1968. According to Wikipedia, I bought several crates of vodka with my winnings at the Akiba Rubinstein Memorial in the Polish spa of Polanica Zdroj, bribed the border guards and drove to West Germany.

At that time, I was supposed to play the first board on the Czechoslovakian team at the Lugano olympiad, having won the strongest national championship in history ahead of Smejkal, Hort, Filip, Pachman, Jansa, Janata and others. During the summer I added a first place finish at the IBM tournament in Amsterdam ahead of David Bronstein and I was just in the middle of the race with the former world champion Vassily Smyslov in Poland, when the Soviet and other Warsaw pact armies invaded my country on August 21. During the next 10 days it became clear to me that I had to go west. I played a few simultaneous exhibitions in Poland, the last one in Wroclaw.

The city, previously known under the German name Breslau, had special meaning for me. Not only did I begin my journey to the West there, but it was the birthplace of Adolf Anderssen, one of the strongest players in the 19th century, an attacking genius known for his creation of the Immortal game against Kieseritzky and the Evegreen game against Dufresne.

Everybody loved Anderssen and his combinations, but he was also a gifted problem composer.
I have chosen two of his works from his book Aufgaben fur Schachspieler.

Adolf Anderssen

White mates in three moves

The next puzzle is well-known masterpiece, in which white eliminates all threats of stalemates.

Adolf Anderssen

White mates in four moves

Solutions will appear next week.