French Game in Alekhine Memorial 2013

A French Defence game was played during the Alekhine Memorial 2013 tournament:
Direct Link to the game @ chessgames.com: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1715459

The game was played between Peter Svidler and Nikita Vitiugov, and was played in the Winawer variation of the French Defence

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4  
Standard moves in the Winawer variation. Black now put pressure on Whites center because of the absolute pin on the knight.

4. e5 c5
Whites center is still under attack, attacking the d4 (regular occurring theme in French Defence).

5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3
Some pressure off from center and Blacks "good" bishop has been traded.

6...Ne7 7.Qg4 cxd4 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7
Poison Pawn variation

9.Qxh7 Qc7 10.Ne2 Nbc6 11.f4 dxc3 12.Nxc3

White has more space and blacks king side is open. Blacks only castling option is queen side.

12...Nd4 
Threatning Kc2+ and winning the rook, but the queen is defending the c2 square. White can't move the queen of this diagonal before the threat of Nd4 is gone. 


13.Bb2 Bd7 14.O-O-O
White removes the threat of Kc2+ and get his king in some type of security.

14...Qb6 15.Qd3
Threats to win the knight at d4 since white attacks the knight twice (Queen and Rook) but black defending with just one piece (Queen).

 ... Ndf5 16.Nb5 Rc8 17.g3 a6 18.Nd4 Ba4 19.Rd2 Rc4 20.Bg2 Nxd4 21.Bxd4 Qb5 22.Bf1 Qc6 23.Qe2 Nf5 24.Bb2 Rh8 25.Qf2 Nxg3 

White can't take the Knight since 26.Qxg3 Rxc2+ 27.Kb1 (27. Rxb2?? Qxb2#) Rxd2


26.Bxc4 Nxh1 27.Qa7 Qxc4 28.Qb8+ Kd7 29.Qxh8 Bxc2 30.Rxc2 Qf1+ 

31.Kd2 Qf2+ 32.Kd3 Qf3+ 33.Kd2 Qf2+ 34.Kd3 Qf3+ 35.Kd2
and the game was drawn by Threefold repetition rule. My analysis engine declares white as leader here with +3.39. but after 35...Qf2+ 36.Kd3 Qf3+ 37.Kd4 Qe4+ 38.Kc3 Qxf4 the computer says 0.00 and the draw is correct.

Chess Training game 1

I've started a new way of training chess:

Playing through high rated players games.

So I started out with a french game which can be seen here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1581622
Play through the first moves until you reach a key position (a key position to you!), and start guessing the moves for one of the players.
Give yourself one point if you select the correct move, 0 if you choose the wrong move.

Important here is that you are honest to your self, and if you choose wrong move, try to understand what was wrong with the move and why the correct move was better in this case

8...	Qb6	Nf5	0
9...	Be7	Be7	1
10...	O-O	O-O	1
11...	Nxe3	Nh4	0
12...	Nxf3+	Nxf3+	1
13...	f6	Qb6	0
14...	f6	Rac8	0
15...	f6	Nb4	0
16...	Rxc1	Rxc1	1
17...	Nc6	Nc6	1
18...	f6	Rc8	0
19...	f6	f6	1
20...	fxe5	fxe5	1
21...	Bg5	Nxe5	0
22...	Nc6	Ng6	0
23...	Bg5	Qd6	0
24...	Bg5	Rf8	1
25...	Bxf8	Bxf8	1
26...	Be7	Be7	1
27...	Bg5	Bf6	0
28...	Bg5	Bc6	0
29...	e5	Bg5	0

Out of 21 move I guess on, 10 was correct.  

Next game will be http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1035168

French Defense Traps #2

This move order can look like black is winning a pawn:

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bd3

But taking the pawn with Knight, results in that white can easy win back it's pawn by continue playing:

5...Nxd4 6.Nxd4 cxd4 7.Bb5+ Bd7 8.Bxd7+ Qxd7 9.Qxd4

Taking with the c5 pawn is considered mainline, and white continues with 6. 0-0

Magnus Carlsen is the new chess world champion

Magnus Carlsen is the new chess world champion! He beat Vishy Anand after 10 games with a score of 6.5 to 3.5.

The match started out pretty boring with 2 quick draw.

Carlsen was the first to win as he turned a tiny advantage into a win in game 5 and playing black in game 2 he took his second win of three.

In game 9 Carlsen played black, but after a major blunder by Anand, Carlsen was able to secure his last victory of the match. 

Last move played by Anand was 28. Nf1 was considered the blunder of the game

Even if a draw was enough for Carlsen to secure his title in the 10th game, he pushed very hard for a win. He said in the press conference that he did go for a win, but when the attack failed he just sealed the draw and become chess world champion!


All the games and information about the match can we read here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=81142

back after a big break

I'm back, after a big break. This time I will start to focus more on puzzles, french defense and follow tournament results.

What has happened since last time?

• Karjakin won Norway Chess tournament
• I started to write a article about Karjakin, what kind of player he is and his historical background
• I've been playing very little chess because of vacation
• Been practicing some tactic trainer on chess.com to keep my tactical vision

Norway Chess 2013 6th round result

Karjakin got a draw against Anand and is still in the lead with 4.5 point out of 6. Carlsen is close behind with 4 out of 6 points.

Aronian won against Ludvig Hammar and now has 3.5p out of 6.
Topalov and Wang got a draw and now Topalov has 2.5p out of 6 and Wang 2p out of 6.

After round 6:

	Players		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total
1	KARJAKIN Sergey	RUS		0		1	½			1	1	1	4,5
2	CARLSEN Magnus	NOR	1		½		½	½	½	1			4
3	NAKAMURA Hikaru	USA		½		0	1	½	½		1		3,5
4	ARONIAN Levon	ARM	0		1		½	½		½		1	3,5
5	ANAND Viswanathan	IND	½	½	0	½		½	1				3
6	SVIDLER Peter	RUS		½	½	½	½				0	1	3
7	TOPALOV Veselin	BUL		½	½		0			½	½	½	2,5
8	RADJABOV Teimour	AZE	0	0		½			½		½	1	2,5
9	WANG Hao	CHN	0		0			1	½	½		0	2
10	HAMMER Jon Ludvig	NOR	0			0		0	½	0	1		1,5

Tomorrow: 

WANG Hao		ARONIAN Levon
HAMMER Jon Ludvig		CARLSEN Magnus
SVIDLER Peter		TOPALOV Veselin
RADJABOV Teimour		ANAND Viswanathan
KARJAKIN Sergey		NAKAMURA Hikaru

Karjakin lost in 5th round of Norway Chess 2013

Carlsen outplayed Karjakin in the 5th round, and is now only one point after Karjakin in the total standing.
Karjakin is still in the lead, but Anand and Nakamura is still to be played. Carlsen has already played them and should soon meet the players Karjakin won against.

Nakamura has earlier beat Karjakin with 5 to 2, and 10 draws and Anand has 2 to 0 wins and 6 draws against Karjakin.

Hammar also got his first win of the tournament against Hao Wang, the best chinese chess player. Before the tournament he promised Norway to win at least 1 game of the tournament.

	Players		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	A	B	C
1	KARJAKIN Sergey	RUS		0		1			1		1	1	4	8	4	2
2	CARLSEN Magnus	NOR	1		½		½	½		½			3	9	1	1
3	NAKAMURA Hikaru	USA		½		0	1			½	1		3	6,5	2	1
4	ARONIAN Levon	ARM	0		1		½	½	½				2,5	6,75	1	0
5	ANAND Viswanathan	IND		½	0	½		½		1			2,5	6	1	0
6	SVIDLER Peter	RUS		½		½	½				0	1	2,5	5,5	1	0
7	RADJABOV Teimour	AZE	0			½				½	½	1	2,5	4,5	1	0
8	TOPALOV Veselin	BUL		½	½		0		½			½	2	5	0	0
9	WANG Hao	CHN	0		0			1	½			0	1,5	3,75	1	0
10	HAMMER Jon Ludvig	NOR	0					0	0	½	1		1,5	2,5	1	0