Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today’s chess quotation

May 17, 2011 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

” It’s very fashionable to criticise the qualifying system – but if you go back to the origins of competitions, the Olympics in Ancient Greece, and so on –they started off in order to identify the strongest person. But now people pick out the strongest at the beginning, for example Aronian, and then if, god forbid, he doesn’t win, the system’s considered bad.”
GM A. GRISCHUK
(yesterday, commenting on his surprise victories over Aronian and Kramnik)
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…or, in other words…as my dog Igor would say:

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Tuesday’s humour

May 17, 2011 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Two young guys appear in court after being arrested for smoking dope.
The judge says, “You seem like nice young men, and I’d like to give you a second chance instead of jail time. I want you to go out this weekend and try to convince others of the evils of drug use. I’ll see you back in court Monday.”
On Monday, the judge asks the first guy, “How did you do over the weekend?”
“Well, your honor, I persuaded 17 people to give up drugs forever.”
“Seventeen people? That’s wonderful How did you do it? ”
“I used a diagram, your honor. I drew two circles like this: O o. Then I told them that the big circle is your brain before drugs and the small circle is your brain after drugs.”
“That’s admirable,” says the judge. Then he turns to the second guy. “And how did you do?”
“Well, your honor, I persuaded 156 people to give up drugs forever.”
“Wow!” says the judge. “156 people! How did you manage to do that?”
“Well, I used a similar diagram,” the guy says. “I drew two circles like this: o O. Then I pointed to the little circle and said, ‘This is your asshole before prison …. “
Thx Ken!
MEANWHILE, ON THE MISSISSIPPI…

THE CASE AGAINST CHEWING-GUM AT PARTIES:

A woman was having a daytime affair while her husband was at work. One rainy day she was in bed with her boyfriend when, to her horror, she heard her husband’s car pull into the driveway.

‘Oh my God – Hurry! Grab your clothes and jump out the window. My husband’s home early!’

‘I can’t jump out the window. It’s raining out there!’

‘If my husband catches us in here, he’ll kill us both!’ she replied.. ‘He’s got a hot temper and a gun, so the rain is the least of your problems!’

So the boyfriend scoots out of bed, grabs his clothes and jumps out the window! As he ran down the street in the pouring rain, he quickly discovered he had run right into the middle of the town’s annual marathon, so he started running along beside the others, about 300 of them.

Being naked, with his clothes tucked under his arm, he tried to blend in as best he could. After a little while a small group of runners who had been watching him with some curiosity, jogged closer.

‘Do you always run in the nude?’ one asked.

‘Oh yes!’ he replied, gasping in air. ‘It feels so wonderfully free!’

Another runner moved along side. ‘Do you always run carrying your clothes with you under your arm?’

‘Oh, yes’ our friend answered breathlessly. ‘That way I can get dressed right at the end of the run and get in my car to go home!’

Then a third runner cast his eyes a little lower and asked, ‘Do you always wear a condom when you run?’

‘Nope … just when it’s raining.’

Thx,Gloria!

TODAY’S LOOK OF 110% PURE SATISFACTION:

TODAY’S HEALTHY LOOK:
The times are a changing…
 

Grischuk and Gelfand qualify for finals

May 16, 2011 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Battle of the ‘G’s to begin this Thursday to decide Anand challenger!

Relieved and content!  Gelfand (l) , the arbiter and Grischuk (r) at the press conference
Of course the rules have been criticized by everyone: too few serious games (just 4), too much emphasis on ‘casino’ fun , etc, etc.  But that is the world we live in these days, take it or leave it.  Or better still, why not just give the wheel one last spin just to see if your lucky number comes up…
In truth, the players did their best to cope and adapt.  Perhaps the chess is not the chess of Bobby Fischer, and perhaps the ultimate winner will only be the ‘first amongst equals’, but everyone knew what they were getting into before it started.  Unless you are a strong willed individual like Magnus Carlsen–who refused to take part under this format–and are willing to forgo some ‘easy’ money, you take part and do your best to survive.
It is no surprise to me that both Grischuk and Gelfand are to meet in the finals starting this Thursday.  Infact, I predicted it last week here on this blog!  Gelfand has an angel sitting on his shoulder (reference to his World Cup Qualification), while Grischuk is using his poker experience to his advantage:  if he doesn’t like his position (hand) after a few moves (rounds of betting), he just throws in the cards and waits for the dealer to shuffle–that is, he makes short and boring draws!
Congrats to both losers, Kramnik and Kamsky.  They played equally well, but were not favoured by the gods.  Who will win the finals?  Grischuk, of course.  (Unless Gelfand is dealt a pair of Aces in every hand!)

You can view a video with some great shots of today’s action at this site.

Today’s reflection

May 16, 2011 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

”Quite often in life, when a tragic event arrives it becomes a springboard for mirroring all other things in one’s life that one hasn’t come to terms with….To grieve is something extremely difficult, we don’t even know how to begin to grieve, and I don’t know how you can be taught to grieve.”

–Charlotte Rampling (born 1946) 

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

AI vs human intelligence

May 16, 2011 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

We chess players are too often bombarded by confusing and often conflicting information from commercial producers of chess-software (chessbase, rybka, shredder, etc) about what their products do and why every chessplayer can not live without them.  How many times everyday do we find ourselves questioning the futility of playing what is supposed to be an intelligent game (chess) when computers seem to play so much ‘smarter’ than ourselves? If we can’t beat them, then why not join them–is that it?   It makes us feel insecure…
At times like this it is important to get back to the origin of AI and what intelligence really is.  The following article is  a nice read.

The Paradox of Artificial Intelligence

 by Harry Fairhead
Monday, 16 May 2011

 

 
 
What do we mean by “intelligence” in practical terms. And once we adopt an operational definition does it defeat the whole idea of “artificial intelligence”? The solution might be to realize that intelligence isn’t a property but a relationship.
There is a longstanding problem that people working on artificial intelligence have had to cope with. Whenever you create your latest amazing program that does something that previously only a human could do then the intelligence sort of melts away as if it never was.
Look at the early days when it seemed to be right to try to create artificial intelligence by writing programs that could play chess, say. Obviously you have to be intelligent to play chess. It is a subtle game that involves thinking, whatever that is, planning and strategy. It is a game that needs human intelligence and a program that plays chess has to be intelligent.

Only of course once you have built a program that solves the chess problem you realise that it is nothing of the sort. It is clearly a collection of algorithms that seem to do the same job. Often it is said that computers don’t play chess like humans and the reason the intelligence vanishes is that there are non-intelligent ways of solving some problems that we solve using intelligence.
That is there are a set of problems that when approached using the wetware of the human brain seem to embody the idea of intelligent thought. However, just because the human brain needs to tackle something in a way that you are happy to label “intelligence” it doesn’t mean that this is the only way. Given the superior speed and accuracy of a digital computer and given the different way that its memory works you can solve the chess problem using nothing that looks like intelligence.
So some attempts at creating artificial intelligence do nothing of the sort. They simply find more appropriate ways of getting computers to solve the same problems that humans do.
It’s not so much artificial intelligence – more advanced computing.
This, of course, raises the question of whether there can be approaches that do work towards creating true artificial intelligence?
Some people think that the way something is done doesn’t make a great deal of difference. The fact that a computer can play chess or recognize a face is the important thing, and to enquire about the nature of the internal workings before ascribing intelligence is not sensible. After all a human is a finite state machine and so can be emulated by a big state table, a very big state table – so where did that intelligence go?
It is like trying to capture a butterfly – as soon as you pin it to a display board the (living) butterfly is no more.
One of the problems with not worrying about the way things work is that you end up with all sorts of uncomfortable conclusions. If you do adopt the idea that there is a way of working that is “intelligence captured” then you have to say what this way might be.
How is it different from digital computation?
You can’t just say that it is analog computation and this is different because it is obvious that a digital machine can simulate any analog machine given enough resources. However you try to characterise that which is required to be intelligent it seems that it can be reduced to a program and run on a digital computer. This means that it is a list of instructions that you can look at and understand and well … it just doesn’t seem to be intelligent. Just as the chess playing is reduced to searches and lookups, whatever you propose as the mechanism for intelligence is reducible to code and hence the language of algorithms applies.
Some look to copying biological systems such as the brain in the form of say neural networks. In this case it is often the appeal to the idea of emergent behaviour to keep the “intelligence” alive.
Suppose you took a lot of artificial neurons, put them in a box, let the box interact with the world and after some time perhaps you would start to see behaviours that you hadn’t programmed. Perhaps you would see such sophisticated behaviours that you would be happy to say that the system had emergent intelligence. So at long last you have artificial intelligence in a box. The elusive quantity didn’t vanish the moment you completed your program.
But… suppose you now take the neural network and record its state. That state can be once again expressed as an algorithm. You can now produce a program without the hardware and without the training phase an just use it.
Once again the whole thing is there for you to examine as a program. It is understandable and just like the chess program.
So where did the intelligence just evaporate to?
The point is that we use the word “intelligence” incorrectly. We seem to think that it is ascribing a quality to an entity. For example we say that an entity has or does not have intelligence.

Well this isn’t quite the way that it works in an operational sense.

Intelligence isn’t a quantity to be ascribed it is a relationship between two entities. If the workings of entity B can be understood by entity A then there is no way that entity A can ascribe intelligence to entity B.

On the other hand, if entity B is a mystery to entity A then it can reasonably be described as “intelligent”.

A has no idea how B works so the conversation is enough for A to say B is intelligent

However A is a computer scientist and discovers exactly how B works

Knowing how B works A cannot assign “intelligence” to B even though nothing else has changed.


Intelligence is a relationship between A and B
If you try this definition out then you can see that it starts to work.

Entity A is unlikely to understand itself therefore it, and other entity As, ascribe intelligence to themselves and their collective kind.

Now consider   “Humans are intelligent” or   “I am intelligent”.

True enough if spoken by a human, but if an advanced alien, entity C, arrives on the planet then it might understands how we work. With this different relationship C might not ascribe anything analogous to intelligence to us.
Intelligence is a statement of our ignorance of how something works
Looked at in this way it clearly demonstrates that attempts ot create artificial intelligence is partly doomed to failure. As soon as you have the program to do the job – play chess say – you can’t ascribe intelligence to it any longer because you understand it.

Another human, however, who doesn’t understand it might well call it intelligent.

In the future you might build a very sophisticated robot and bring it home to live with you. The day you bring it home you would understand how it works and regard it as just another household appliance. Over time you might slowly forget its workings and allow it to become a mystery to you and with the mystery comes the relationship of intelligence. Of course with the mystery also comes the feelings that allow you to ascribe feelings, personality etc to this intelligent robot.

Humans have been doing this for many years and even simple machines are given characters, moods and imputed feelings – you don’t need to invoke intelligence for this sort of animism but it helps.

Notice that this discussion says nothing about other and arguably more important characteristics of humans such as being self aware. This is not a relationship between two entities and is much more complex. Intelligence is something that doesn’t stand a close inspection of how it works.
So can AI ever achieve its goal?
If you accept that intelligence is a statement of a relationship between two entities – then only in a very limited way. If intelligence is a statement that I don’t understand a system and if AI is all about understanding it well enough to replicate it then you can see the self-defeating nature of the enterprise.

It’s a nice (almost) paradox for a subject that loves such self referential loops.
Harry Fairhead is the author of various books and articles on computer architectures. His current interests include heterogeneous systems and embedded web programming, mostly using PHP.

CHESS TV

May 16, 2011 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Chess TV has been around since 2004 and produces a 28-minute world chess news summary each Monday.  I have been a fan for years and occasionally I cover one or two episodes here on my blog.  I heartily recommend this to my readers.

Antonia, Adriana and Amelia

The WCN team consists of five siblings from Stockholm, Sweden, currently in the ages between 21 and 14. Adriana, Antonia and Amelia Krzymowska (21-17) and Alfred and Albert Krzymowski (16 and 14) created the idea and concept of the show.
Seizing the opportunities of their generation; with advanced computers, the Internet and digital cameras, they learned all of the technical and editorial aspects of producing a news show, and have done that ever since (They write the scripts, set the lights, adjust the sound, record the shows, edit the material, air and market WCN).
But WCN is in a constant process of evolution, and the team has since the start perfected a lot of details, making the show better and better for every episode. Not even now, with more than 200 produced episodes, the team considers the show “done”.
The siblings produce and market the show on their spare time, while managing their academic careers and competitive chess. Adriana studies law at Stockholm’s University, hoping to achieve the Swedish Master of Laws Degree by the end of 2010. Antonia and Amelia are both in upper secondary school, attending Östra Reals Gymnasium with a law-alignment, and the brothers are in compulsory school.

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ALFRED

ALBERT

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Some chess!

May 14, 2011 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

http://www.capablanca.co.cu/

The Elite section of this year’s edition of the Capablanca Memorial got underway earlier this week in Havana.  A double round-robbin between 6 very strong GMs, headed by Ivanchuk.  The tournament used to be a single round robbin with between 10 and 16 players, but times have changed and the Cuban chess federation no doubt feels the economic pinch like most organizers in the west.  Gone are the times when the state merely had to snap its fingers…Cuba is fast moving towards a market economy.  Dollars are scarce.
Too early to pick a favourite, and though I usually like the underdog, this time Bruzon has yet to score even half a point.  Never the less, I expect a fast recovery and a great second half.  What the heck:  I pick Bruzon as the eventual winner! (But no bets, please!)
The games that I have seen so far do not inspire me, but my readers will no doubt find something to learn from.  I give 2 examples along the ”unforced blunder”  theme.  It is not often that strong grandmasters make embarrassing blunders, but in the hot Havana sun it is quite common.  Lasker himself could not even win a single game when he played his world championship match against the great Capablanca in 1921.  After his last blunder he simply apologized to the match organizers, resigned the match (congratulating the Cuban on becoming World Champion), packed his bags and went home! 
POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 31st MOVE (31.Qg4):

GM  BRUZON

GM NAVARA
While Black has an extra pawn, White’s pieces are very active and give full compensation.  Infact , Black must be careful because White also has a threat…. that the Cuban superstar overlooked  it  entirely!
Correct would be 31…Ne6, with a tough struggle ahead for both sides. 
Instead, Bruzon played 31…Qa4??  How does White win after this?

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POSITION AFTER 16 MOVES:

GM IVANCHUK

GM  ANDREIKIN

The current World Junior Champion had just got married and we all know that this usually means that one should be wary about returning to over the board competition soon after that ….
Here the position is relatively boring and uninteresting.  Sterile might even be a good word to describe it!Probably White should play 17.a3 and offer a draw!  Instead, Andreikin played the horrible 17.Rac1 (seems natural enough: Rooks belong on the open files!)  How did Ivanchuk take advantage of this and gain a decisive edge with just one move? 

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http://www.skbosna.ba/

The Bosna International finished just the other day.  It was held in Sarajevo, one of my favourite cities in the world!  The Georgian superstar GM Baadur Jobava (born 1983) won.
Baadur has a brother who is an IM.  In Georgia chess is always a family affair!  Baadur has been one of the top Georgian GMs for years, having represented Georgia at the Olympiad since 2000.  Jobava is an extraordinarily talented player, capable of beating anyone and with any opening or colour.  He already has a long list of wins in international tournaments.

POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 35th MOVE:

JOBAVA

YILMAZ

BLACK TO PLAY AND WIN!

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POSITION AFTER 21 MOVES:

GM   A.  KOVACEVIC

GM  JOBAVA

Here Black’s extra pawn is not enough compensation for having his King stuck in the centre.  Jobava continued 22.f4!?  g6  23.f5! gxf5  24.Nxe6! with a strong attack.  In the diagram above, what did Jobava overlook? (Solution Monday)

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GM Mark Bluvshtein  is participating in the strong Premier tournament of the Capablanca Memorial in Havana right now, in a  10-player round robbin.  While it is too early to predict a winner, with his 1.5 points out of 2 games Mark is in a good position.  I am certain that my readers wish him success!
POSITION AFTER 30 MOVES:
GM BLUVSHTEIN

GM  ALMEIDA

The game has not been going well for the Canadian.  White has a clear positional advantage (2-bishops and the Black King is more of a target than its cousin).  Luckily for Mark, the Cuban began to think about the Black weakness on g5 instead of playing 31.Qa3! (thinking about the Black monarch), and Mark was able to organize some counterplay later.  Curiously, in the end Black’s Knight-pair proved stronger than the Bishop-pair!

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Kramnik Humor

May 13, 2011 By in Uncategorized

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Playing on the same theme as the successful ”Chuck Norris Facts” humour that swept the ‘net some years ago, GM Natalia Pogonina started a ”Vlad Kramnik Facts” fad on her popular website the other day.  I thought that I would reproduce here some of this…enjoy!

Former (future?) World Champion Vladimir Kramnik (born 1975)
VLADIMIR KRAMNIK FACTS
(By Natalia Pogonina and friends)
1) There are two types of positions in chess: those that Vladimir Kramnik remembers, or those which he has forgotten.
2) Slyusarchuk wanted to register his record of remembering 30 million digits of pi with the Guiness book, but then he found out about Kramnik’s existence.
3) During school years teachers of literature didn’t ask Vova Kramnik to recite poems by heart.
4) Anatoly Karpov launched a new elite chess set. It features leading grandmasters as pieces, while the king is Vladimir Kramnik.

5) Kramnik didn’t lose his match to Anand. He was just checking if Vishy can convert such positions.

6) Russia is working on a new super computer with an exceptional hard drive since no other machine can store Kramnik’s analyses.

7) New doping issue: kramnidii has been banned. This substance allows one to memorize 100 pages of chess lines with just one glance. The only person who is not invited for doping control is Vladimir Kramnik, as this substance is created in his organism by natural means.

8) Houdini managed to beat Rybka after studying Vladimir Kramnik’s games.
9) When Kramnik isn’t playing in tournaments, he is busy dictating the next set of tablebases.
10) To deal with the draw death of chess FIDE introduced a new rule: players with the surname Kramnik have to give a pawn and a move in advance to their opponents.

11) When Botvinnik was recruiting new students for his school, he asked Vova Kramnik if he can recall the move he made in the masters tournament in the 20’s. Kramnik smiled and called out not only to move, but recited the games played on other boards as well.
12) Magnus Carlsen is so popular in Norway he even got an invite to the “Who wants to be Vladimir Kramnik” TV-show.
13) Kramnik was paid a huge sum by IBM when they launched the Watson computer. Otherwise he threatened to start playing Jeopardy and ruin their plans.
14) There are two types of moves in chess: chosen by Vladimir Kramnik and inferior.

15) When Kramnik said during a press conference that he FORGOT the accident that occured in his game vs Ponomariov (when the clock stopped), the public couldn’t stop laughing for quite a time.
16) Kramnik was elected the spokesperson for Blancpain since he knows how to stop time. Radjabov became a victim of this recently.
17) The World Chess Boxing Championship is held only because Kramnik is not interested so far.
18) Hot-tempered Kasparov fired Kramnik (who used to be his second) since he often made fun of his moves during sparring games.
19) Danailov once won a game against Kramnik. Then he woke up.
20) Kramnik knows all the theory not only in classical chess, but also in Fischer’s.

21) When Kramnik was invited to the Amber blindfold event for the first time, he couldn’t understand what the difference was.
22) Manufacturers of top chess engines stopped asking Kramnik to comment on the games as he gives ? marks too often when analysing their play.
23) Once the public thought Kramnik has overlooked a tricky win in 37 plies. “Ok, I will give a mate in 57, and you will be sitting and staring at this like idiots” – thought Kramnik.
24) Even God is afraid of playing Kramnik. The games always end in a draw, but Kramnik still knows how to put pressure on the opponent.
25) Few people know why Fischer didn’t come back, and Kasparov left chess. But you do now, don’t you?

26) Joanne Rowling is working on a sequel to “Harry Potter” called “Vladimir Kramnik”.
27) Vladimir’s Kramnik’s glasses is an artefact that increases one’s FIDE raing by 500 points.
28) One of the journalists asked Kramnik if he will start playing weaker without his glasses (see #2). Kramnik replied calmly: “What will happen if you subtract a constant from infinity?”.
29) While Kramnik’s classmates were busy proving the Pythagorean theorem, little Vova proved that chess is a draw.
30) Vladimir Kramnik is not interested in all the chess positions, but all chess positions are interested in Vladimir Kramnik.

31) Candid Camera asked a cute blonde to approach Kramnik, ask for knight odds, while being secretly assisted by Rybka. Kramnik, being a true gentleman, decided not to win and made a draw.
32) Kramnik finds poker dull as his starting hand is always two kings.
33) Yet another eminent grandmaster has been delivered to the asylum. He claimed he can beat Kramnik.
34) Vladimir Kramnik doesn’t wait for his opponents to make a move. Instead, he takes a walk and sends them the move using telekinesis when necessary.
35) There is just one player whom Vladimir Kramnik agrees to draw on move one – Peter Leko.
36) When Kramnik is playing in tournaments, book-makers don’t offer odds for the winner.
37) In 1990 Kramnik was surprised to learn that the Berlin Wall has fallen, and promised he will “fix it soon”.
38) After all, Botvinnik did create an artificial intelligence that plays chess. His name is Vladimir Kramnik.
39) Some openings are called after eminent masters. Chess is sometimes called “the game of Kramnik”.
40) Vladimir Kramnik uses chess engines only to find out why annotators keep making mistakes when analyzing his games.
41) The Drawmaster character of the ChessMaster series is a pitiful attempt to imitate Kramnik’s play.
42) Few people know that Deep Blue self-destructed after losing a chess match to Kramnik’s tennis racket.

43) One day Kramnik was invited to the world chess puzzle solving contest. After he handed in answers to all the FIDE albums ahead of time, he doesn’t visit these events anymore.
44) The statement “e4 is winning, d6 doesn’t lose” is not against the laws of logic since it works only for Vladimir Kramnik.
45) The aliens who visited Ilyumzhinov have captured all the other planets of the Universe after defeating their best chess players. Unfortunately for them, Kirsan had Kramnik’s phone number…
46) Kramnik solved checkers while being in the maternity home.
47) Kramnik says his wife plays chess on amateur level. Indeed, she still enjoys beating Rybka over and over again.
48) Kramnik was named the best painter of all times since no one can match his drawing technique.

49) Few people know that the Pepsi machine from the famous commercial that delivered a knock-out punch to Kasparov was just Kramnik wearing a special uniform.
50) Kasparov, Karpov and Fischer all failed to make it past round 1 of the “Who wants to be a millionaire” show since the question was “Who is the greatest chess player ever?” and the options – a) Kasparov b) Karpov c) Fischer d) Kramnik

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Canadian zonal results

May 13, 2011 By in Uncategorized
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

2011 CANADIAN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
Between May 6 and May 11 the 2011 Canadian Chess Championship was held in Guelph. Twenty-nine players between 1950 and 2513 (FIDE), including 1-grandmaster and 5-international masters, braved the hastily organized 9-round in 6-days event. At stake was the right to represent the CFC at the World Cup to be held later this August in Siberia.

When the smoke cleared GM Bator Sambuev (Quebec) and IM Eric Hansen (Alberta) tied for 1st place with 7.5 points each. A short series of tie-break games was played to decide which would officially become the 2011 Champion. Bator Sambuev emerged victorious. Congratulations to both players!

IM Gerzhoy finished alone in 3rd place with 6.5 points, while Noritsyn, Panjwani and the 2210 rated Calugar finished with 6 points each. (I will have more to say about Calugar’s final game later)


GM Bator Sambuev (born Russia 1980) has been living for a number of years in Montreal and has earned a reputation for being an excellent weekend swiss player, easily dominating this circuit in Quebec and Ontario. This was Bator’s 1st appearance in a Canadian Championship, and hence his first national title. He will not, however, be representing Canada at the upcoming World Cup because of some technicality regarding changing federations (you either pay a 5,000 euro fee or have to wait a one year grace period). In his place will be Eric Hansen. Sambuev will be able to represent Canada starting sometime this October.

Sambuev played every game to win, but could not always score, making 3 draws. He was a bit lucky at times, but you make your own luck.  Bator’s win against Samsonkin was perhaps his best effort. White grabbed a hot pawn (d5)  and was never given a chance to recover. Sambuev played with great energy.
POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 20th MOVE:
GM  SAMBUEV
IM  SAMSONKIN

BLACK TO PLAY AND WIN!

(GAMES COURTESY OF MONROI)

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As explained in previous blog articles, this year’s Canadian Championship was a low-priority for the CFC executive. Each participant (with the exception of the single GM who participated) had to pay a $250 entry fee. There were no cash prizes other than a percentage of the collected entry fees that were returned after deducting for some organizational costs.
There were no sponsors, though the organizers liked to pretend that  there were sponsors–listing the CFC and several other penniless and near-bankrupt Ontario chess associations as ”official” sponsors. SAP also found its name attached to the event, apparently without them the much criticized MONROI (live coverage) would have been impossible (if we are to believe what we read). I doubt if SAP will be pleased with the publicity…

International coverage of the Championship was virtually non-existent, though some short videos were put on youtube in the final days . There was no easy access to what was happening day by day other than thru the Monroi website. It was hard (re: impossible) to find the pgn-format games in any single place , and following the games-live-was often an exercise in frustration. No insult intended, but it is clear that the MONROI people need to fix some bugs in their system.
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I followed closely the players’ progress thru the tournament, especially as I was interested in how Canada’s young talents are developing. In particular, I was very impressed with IMs Eric Hansen and Raja Panjwani. Both players take their chess very seriously and have tremendous fighting spirt. They are fearless. To my mind both youngsters are already GM-calibre. GM Sambuev had to play very well to achieve draws against them!
IM Eric Hansen (born 1992) is from Calgary and is the best player ever from Alberta. He just recently won the Alberta Championship and this result in Guelph establishes him as one of Canada’s most promising hopes. Eric should have qualified for the Canadian National Team last year, but was replaced by a Toronto player in an controversial and possibly illegal decision by an all-Toronto Selection Committee! This result at the 2011 Championship, where Eric finished ahead of 3-Toronto members of last year’s National Team, must come with a lot of satisfaction. Well done, Eric!
Eric won the critical 8th-round game against Raja Panjwani that allowed him to go the final round tied for 1st place with Sambuev. White managed to catch his opponent with a well prepared opening and, despite Raja’s stiff resistance and resourceful tactical play, Eric was able to push home his advantage, and with class. One of the most important games of this year’s championship.

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IM Raja Panjwani (born 1990) represented Canada at last year’s World Junior and narrowly missed a GM norm. A physics and philosophy major, this talented youngster intends to study medicine in the near future. Raja does not have a lot of time to  play or study chess because of his busy university schedule, but what he lacks in time he more than makes up with in love for the game, discipline and dedication. Raja is what I call a serious student of the game!
Raja was one of the favourites to win this tournament but his 8th round loss to Hansen was a heartbreaker. Never the less, Raja played many wonderful fighting games in Guelph, his last round against IM Gerzhoy being just one of them! Enjoy.
POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 23rd MOVE (23.Ra7):

IM  PANJWANI
IM  GERZHOY

White is threatening to bust Black on the Queenside, but Raja finds a creative resource to save the game.

23…Nxh2!!

The White King suddenly finds himself facing a blitz! He must play carefully not to lose…
THE GAME CONTINUED:

24.KxN PxP-ch 25.KxP!


Taking with the Pawn loses brilliantly after 25…Rxf3!! 26.PxR Re2-ch with a forced mate!

25…Qf5! 26.PxP Qg5-ch 27.Kh3!
Precise play! 27.Kh2? loses to 27…Re4!!

Now Black has nothing better than a perpetual check, which Raja obtained with
27…RxB-ch!

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Raja Panjwani’s favourite game was his 6th round win over Victor Plotkin.
POTKIN
PANJWANI
At first sight it is not obvious what is going on here as both sides are struggling to mobilize their passed pawns.  However, Raja’s next move is a brilliant tactical  resource that soon makes clear that White is infact much better in the position in the diagram.
38.Nxb7!!
 

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Another nice win by Raja!

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HOW THE HIGHEST    7-FIDE RATED   PLAYERS DID   AGAINST EACH OTHER
Half of the tournament was rated below 2200-FIDE, making the bottom half relatively weak.  If we take a look at how the top 7-rated players scored against each other we will discover some interesting things.
Only Sambuev and Hansen played against everyone in the box above (6 games) and scored an impressive 4.5 points.  Panjwani played 5 games, scoring 2 points. Gerzhoy, who finished in 2nd overall, only played 3 games and drew each one. This means that Gerzhoy gained his points against weaker opposition.  As did Noritsyn–who played 2 and lost both.  Samsonkin played 3 games and only made one draw.  While Thavandiran only played 1 and lost it!
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THE ”FUNNIEST” GAME OF THE TOURNAMENT
Well, it started as a serious game.  GM Sambuev against IM Noritsyn from the 8th round.  The following position appeared on the board after 9 book moves:

GM  SAMBUEV
IM  NORITSYN

A popular line of the Advanced French…normal now is 10.Be2 or 10. Ra2 (Sveshnikov’s choice).  The  books write that White should not hurry to move his Knight (10.Nc3).  However, Noritsyn must have been day-dreaming as he played

10.Nc3? and Sambuev quickly replied 10…Nxb4!  winning a pawn

Curiously, many players fall into this trap!  Should White now recapture the Knight then Black will take back with the Bishop and gain a significant advantage with the pin.  There would be little to prevent Black from playing …Rc8 followed by Castling and brining in the other Rook to bear on c3.
Noritsyn wisely chose not to recapture but instead continued with his development , as though nothing had happened!  He later put up enormous resistance and managed to fight back into a messy and probably equal game….then it was Sambuev’s turn to return the favour and blunder:
POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 46th MOVE (46.Rb-b3):

Sambuev had sacrificed an exchange in the middlegame but it had not yielded the desired results…White’s pieces are all coordinated and defend against Black’s immediate threats.  It is now time for Black to think of forcing a draw, and the experts tell us that 46…Qc2! was the right move.  White would be obliged to play 47.Nxf4 and the game would soon end in a draw by force.

Instead, amazingly, Sambuev still thought of trying to win and in the process he overlooked that White actually has a threat in the position above!  THE GAME CONTINUED:

46…Rc8??  47.Rb-e3!   winning a piece!!

Here Sambuev thought for a long time  as he began to realize the full extent of the damage caused by his last move.  Quite simply, he is lost!  He found nothing better than 47…Qf5 but after 48.RxB!  QxR 49.RxN he is a piece down and his King finds itself in an even worse position than White’s King…

But the comedy was not over yet!  Just when it seemed that Noritsyn was well on his way to win the game, he makes an incredible halucination:

POSITION AFTER BLACK’S 57th MOVE (57…e4):
Correct is the simple 58.Qf4.  Instead  Noritsyn thought he saw an even faster way to win:

58.Rf8-ch???    Kg7!

No doubt Noritsyn had now planned to mate in 2 moves with 59.Nh5-ch!!!  QxN  60.Qf6-mate!  But now it suddenly dawned on him that his Knight is pinned!  Quite simply, White now loses a whole Rook and with it the game!

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MOST ”DUBIOUS” GAME OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP

(When is it better to lose than to draw?)

The last round game between the middle-aged Viktor Potkin (rated 2245 FIDE) and the teenager  Arthur Calugar  (rated 2210 FIDE) was one of the last games to finish and was decisive for determining who would get the IM-title and the 2 FM-titles that are by custom awarded at FIDE zonals. 
Calugar had 5 points going into the game and a win would most probably mean that he would earn the IM-title (6/9 by FIDE regulations).  Potkin, being a half point behind at 4.5 points had no chance for the IM-title even if he won, but a win would assure one of the FM-titles.  A draw was useless to Potkin since in that case Calugar would get the FM-title before him!
So Potkin was playing the game  for a win and as things happened soon out of the opening he had a superior position.  But Calugar put up strong resistance and managed to slowly reduce his opponent’s winning chances.  By move 53 it looked like the game should end in a draw….
POSITION AFTER WHITE’S 52nd MOVE:

CALUGAR

POTKIN

Here Calugar can win a pawn with 52…Qxh2, but after 53.Qc5! Qxg3  54.Qxa7-ch  Qc7 55.Qa8! (with considerable counterplay, threatening to play the Queen over to the Kingside attacking the vulnerable Black pawns; and threatening to advance his own a-pawn) the most reasonable result seems like a draw.  Calugar decided to prepare taking the h-pawn with 52…h5!?

Ofcourse, this does not change anything in the position as White  maintained the balance by continuing with the logical 53.Qc5! and after the more or less forced moves 53…a6  54.Qa7-ch  Ke6 55.Qa8  Kd7! 56.Qb7-ch Kd6!  57.Qb8-ch  Kd7! 58. Qb7-ch  Kd6!  we reach the following the position in the following diagram:

It has been clear for a while now  that White can has no winning chances at all and that a draw is the evident conclusion to what has otherwise been a tough struggle for both players.    The position has already been repeated twice and White can now force a 3-fold repetition with another round of checks starting with 59.Qb8-ch.

However, by this time almost all of the other games had  finished  and since it was known that the first FM-title would go to Kleinman, the rest was easy to calculate.  Curiously,  a  very unique set of circumstances suddenly arose :
  • As before, a draw  would eliminate Potkin’s chances for the FM-title and instead Calugar would earn the title
  • And still a win would guarantee Potkin the 2nd FM-title, but seemed out of the question given the position
  • But now –amazingly– a loss by Potkin would give guarantee Potkin of atleast a playoff for the FM-title since Calugar would be given the IM-title, not the FM-title!
Faced with these very exceptional circumstances, Potkin all of a sudden found himself  with the very  pleasant option where he can forgo the logical and seemingly forced repetition of position and play on without risk of losing SINCE A LOSS WOULD BE JUST AS GOOD AS A WIN as far as earning the FM-title is concerned!!!!!

When I first played over this game, I found it difficult to understand White’s refusal to take the draw here (and later, on several occasions , as we shall see) and to play for a win when this seemed not only improbable but also much too risky!  And to do so especially when it meant that such sloppy play would reward the opponent with an IM-title  (such disrespect for the IM-title!) However, it was only later that an eye-witness explained the real situation that Potkin  now faced

Potkin now chucks the draw and boldly playsed 59.Qf7  and ofcourse Black  captured on f3:  59…Qxf3

Once more, White can force a perpetual check beginning with 60.Qf8-ch : 60…Ke6  61.Qc8-ch Kf7 62.Qd7-ch Kg8 63.Qe8-ch  Kg7  64. Qf7-ch  Kh6  65.Qf8-ch Kg5!?(trying to escape the perp) 66.Qc8! f5 (66…Qf5?! 67.Qxa6 gives White all the winning chances!)  67. Qd8-ch Kh6 only move to avoid mate! 68. Qh8-ch  Kg5  69. Qd8-ch and so on.

INSTEAD, Potkin again threw caution to the wind:  60.Qxg6  Qf1!

Black now has serious threats (…Qa1-ch , winning the d-pawn)

Now once more White can force a draw with 61.Qe8! (the Black King can not run far)  and after 61…Qa1-ch 62.Kb4 Qxd4-ch 63.Ka5  Qd2-ch (what else?) 64. Kxa6 the draw is becoming evident as soon Black will run out of checks and then it will be White’s turn!

Instead,  once more not interested in saving the game, Potkin played the incredibly reckless (surprise, surprise) move 61. Qxh5?  This allowed Black to seize the initiative and the advantage for the rest of the game by the obvious  61…Qa1-ch  62.Qb4  Qxd4-ch  etc.  The White Queen was not able to return in time to save the White monarch.

The final result is that Potkin lost and got his FM-title (it turned out to be unnecessary to have a play-off), while Calugar got his IM-title.  The outrage is that Potkin was able to get his title by losing; drawing would not have been good enough!!
Ok, clearly Calugar had nothing to do with this, but in my day both players would have been forfeited.  Such a disgraceful finish to an otherwise normal game should never be rewarded.

(Video courtesy of John Upper)

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SPRAGGETT ON CHESS