Nigel Short won the 7th Bangkok Chess Club Open on Friday. In the last round the English grandmaster drew with IM Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam, who earned a GM norm. Short won 3.3 rating points to get to a virtual 2700 Elo exactly.

Nigel Short victorious in Bangkok, and back in the "2700 club"  

In our first report we saw that in round 6 Nigel Short had just taken over the lead from Indian IM M.R. Venkatesh, who had started so strongly with 5/5. One day later there was the interesting confrontation between Short and Women's World Champion Hou Yifan from China. This game was also won by Short:

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Venkatesh lost for the second time in a row; the Indian blundered in his game against Vietnamese IM Nguyen Duc Hoa.

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2011 winner Jan Gustafsson, who was already a point behind Short after six rounds, dropped another half point against another Indian IM, Roy Saptarshi.

In the penultimate round Short secured tournament victory (well, at least shared) thanks to another win with the white pieces in an instructive rook ending.

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In the last round Short drew with Nguyen Duc Hoa. This way Englishman finished sole first while the Vietnamese clinched a GM norm.

Winner Nigel Short between Indians Sriram Jha and M.R. Venkatesh

The following game from the last round had a nice finish:

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The 12th Bangkok Chess Club Open took place 13-19 April at the luxurious Dusit Thani Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. There was also a 7-round Challenger and together with the open there were over 230 players from 34 countries.

Bangkok Chess Club Open 2012 | Round 9 (final) standings (top 30)

Thai dancers during the closing ceremony

The Russian Chess Federation has announced the line-up for the next Tal Memorial. Luke McShane, who won an online poll, has confirmed his participation.

The 7th edition of the Tal Memorial will take place 7-19 June, 2012 in Moscow, Russia. As always it will be a 10-player round roubin. The full list of participants of this year's Tal Memorial is as follows:

Early March six players had confirmed their participation: Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. Three participants would be determined later, and for number ten the Russian Chess Federation used an original method: an online poll.

In the lower right corner on all pages of the RCF website a poll was put up with the names of thirteen pre-selected players. With the text "Whom do you want to see among Tal Memorial ? 2012 participants?" the follow names were given:

• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
• Wang Hao
• Gata Kamsky
• Ruslan Ponomariov
• Mickey Adams
• Anish Giri
• Le Quang Liem
• Judit Polgar
• Alexei Shirov
• Baadur Jobava
• Emil Sutovsky
• Luke McShane
• Hou Yifan

As we more or less predicted, the poll encountered problems. After a few days, the Russian Chess Federation decided to remove Le Quang Liem from the poll,

as his supporters have violated the rules of fair play and used computer generated votes.

As mishanp commented on our site, 

(...) Le Quang Liem voters got a little over "enthusiastic" and he seems to have been dropped from the race. I don't know... on the one hand, people definitely were voting multiple times (techniques for how to do it were being discussed on at least one Vietnamese forum), but on the other hand, it's just the nature of such votes.

And so against his will Le Quang Liem was punished for his popularity in his home country, and the many votes had the opposite effect.

The poll ended on Thursday, March 15th when the RCF brought the news that English grandmaster Luke McShane won the poll.

The fight was very hard, and until the end the three leaders went head to head. In the end, Luke McShane (England) won, receiving 3860 votes. Second place went to the Latvian grandmaster Alexei Shirov - 3732 votes, while third came Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) - 3682 votes. They left behind the Women's World Champion, Chinese Hou Yifan, who was supported by 1646 people, and the leader of the Georgian team Baadur Jobava, who got 720 votes.

Now, about a month later, the Russian Chess Federation could finally report that McShane has confirmed his participation. We double-checked with McShane, who replied to us that indeed he will play.

I think the poll was an imaginative idea, and was pleased to be included amongst a group of excellent candidates for the last spot. I hope I'll contribute to some exciting games in Moscow!

Besides McShane, the last three unknown names were revealed: the Russian players Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grischuk and Evgeny Tomashevsky. For unknown reasons Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler will not play this year. RCF President Ilya Levitov supported the decision to include Tomashevsky to rsport:

He is a young and talented player with almost 2750,  but never played in such a strong tournament. Why shouldn't he be given a chance?

Normally the Tal Memorial takes place in November, but it was moved to June when FIDE announced that they would organize the Candidates Tournament in October-November. Later this tournament was moved to March 2013.

Update: in an interview after the Russian Team Championship, Sergey Karjakin reacted to the question whether he was invited for the Tal Memorial:

No, they didn't invite me. I don't know. Perhaps it's connected to the fact that I played there twice in a row before that, though in general I didn't play badly: on the first occasion I shared first place and on the second I shared third. Therefore results-wise I've got nothing to be embarrassed about. Well, and their not picking me is of course disappointing, but I don't think it's my fault.

(Translation by Colin McGourty)

While chess is usually not more than part of a decor in cinema, or ? even worse ? a way to emphasize a character's twisted mind, it plays a major role in the TV series Endgame which premiered last year on the Canadian network Showcase. Last week's profile in the New York Times drew our attention to the show that stars Shawn Doyle, playing crime-solver Arkady Balagan.

In the synopsis Balagan is described as a former World Champion, born in the Soviet Union but "escaped when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down".

He came to Vancouver, the hometown of his fiancée, Rosemary, to take part in a tournament. Rosemary was going to lunch with an old friend. As they waved goodbye, a vehicle drove up. He watched as Rosemary died in a hail of bullets.

The local police said it was a case of mistaken identity. Balagan became traumatized; convinced he was the real target. It was Vladimir Putin's revenge for Balagan having given millions to the pro-democracy forces in Russia.

Balagan won't leave his luxury hotel suite for months, until he helps finding a missing boy and proving the innocence of the boy's father. Thus he earns a reputation for solving mysteries and figuring out the impossible. In the series, each week people come with problems that have stymied the police, or problems that they cannot even bring to the authorities. Balagin is assisted by Sam, a grad student and chess fanatic, and Alcina, a hotel maid from Guatemala. Danni, the hotel bartender, is his source for information and contacts, as well as an ear for his theories.

Promo video

Although Balagan cannot leave the hotel, he solves the puzzles in his head. Literally, as the synopsis writes.

He can imagine events, interview the living and the dead, go over every permutation and combination of events. He imagines it one way, then another; and we have the privilege of entering his mind and seeing it all with him, until finally he figures it out.

During all of this Balagan is also trying to figure out who killed Rosemary and why. With the assistance of her sister, Pippa, he explores many theories, but to no avail.

So the question remains: Why can he solve every case - except his own?

And so  Endgame is special in a way that chess is more than just decor: the main character is in fact a former player, and his great intellect helps him to solve crimes. (Well, maybe times are changin', as our blogger GM David Smerdon recently noted!) On top of that, Balagan is often seen playing chess, and some of the plots are built around the games.

The series was created by Avrum Jacobson, a writer for TV series since 1987. He said to the New York Times:

To me it is a metaphor. Someone who plays chess is able to think in a certain way. I thought it had a lot of great visuals.

The show still doesn't seem to be available in Europe and apparently the Showcase network did not renew the series. However, it has been picked up by Hulu, which is considering the production of a second season. This was reported by the New York Times - their article is recommended for reading more about Endgame.

In issues 50, 51 and 52 of our PDF & PGN magazine ChessVibes Training Anish Giri treats the readers with a deep analysis of a very exciting game played at the European Championship in Plovdiv: Niclas Huschenbeth (2509) vs. Erwin l'Ami (2611). To give you an idea about what this game offers, we'll give the position after move 50 with the knowledge that White didn't take the rook on f7 here!

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In CVT #50 Giri starts his column about this game:

Another extremely exciting struggle took place in the same last round of the European Individual Championship. This time my fellow countryman Erwin L'Ami was involved, and as he'd lost any chance of qualifying the round before he did all he could to make the game as much fun as possible. I have to say he succeeded!

After the moves 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Ne7

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Giri gives a revealing comment:

As far as I can tell this is a variation where if Black plays an early c5 he runs some tactical risks, while if he delays it too much the risks are strategic. However, the position's too complex for me to understand.

How comforting is that? A strong grandmaster is just a human like all of us, and can't understand everything there is in chess. The fact that Anish admits this deserves credit, doesn't it?

  Want to improve your chess? See more combinations, understand middle game plans, hear about useful endgame motifs? Receive the best chess tips available with ChessVibes Training, a weekly PDF magazine (+ PGN!) co-authored by International Masters Merijn van Delft, Robert Ris and Thomas Willemze, and including a weekly column by top GM Anish Giri.

What is ChessVibes Training?

Every issue consists of a PDF Magazine and the accompanying PGN file. The PDF consists of eight pages (A4 size) with the following contents:

• Giri's Grab Bag - A weekly column by GM Anish Giri in which he tells about his tournament practice and his excitement and worries during a top level chess game.
• Guess the move - A weekly game quiz by IM Merijn van Delft that gives you the opportunity to solve problems that GMs couldn't. What move did they play? Can you calculate as deeply? Give it a try and see how many points you score this week!
• Improve your play - An interactive section by IM Thomas Willemze that discusses games from our readers. Yes, that's you! You can send in your game(s) and Thomas will pinpoint mistakes and possible improvements from a number of amateur games every week.
• Tactics, tactics - 12 tactical exercises carefully selected by IM Robert Ris, arranged in increasing level. Regular tactical training is highly important to maintain your top form, and now it will be easier than ever with new diagrams delivered in your mailbox every week!
• Practical endings - IM Robert Ris gives a clear explanation of a recent endgame played by strong players, focusing on text rather than variations. Every week a typical endgame theme is discussed, sometimes with the emphasis on the theory, but always providing you with useful guidelines.

DOWNLOAD A FREE SAMPLE ISSUE HERE!

DOWNLOAD A FREE SAMPLE ISSUE HERE!

The magazine is published every week on Saturday morning, so that you can devote your weekend to studying chess! 

Recent material, digitally

For their sections in the magazine the authors will mostly use recent games and fragments. However, if needed they will return to a classic example if it explains the basic theme the best. In any case, ChessVibes Training will provide excellent, additional training material to existing books and manuals with the advantage of being published digitally - you can enjoy all material in your Chessbase or Fritz or other software, or on your iPhone or iPad!

Read CVO on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

With the app SmartChess! you can also read ChessVibes Training on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch*. We've put CVT at $1.99 or ?1.59. More info can be found here.

*At the moment we offer single issues only, so this means they're not included in the subscription. At the moment we cannot offer discounts to our subscribers, partly due to Apple's policy against subscriptions.

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For several reasons, this magazine will be different from other magazines in the market. An important aspect of ChessVibes Training is that it will be interactive. For our section Improve your play we need your input! If you have a question about a game you played, just send it to us and maybe it will be discussed in the next issue of ChessVibes Training so that you and all other subscribers can learn from it!

Meet the ChessVibes Training team

GM Anish Giri - top grandmaster		IM Thomas Willemze - highly experienced trainer, talent coach for the Dutch Chess Federation and tournament player
IM Robert Ris - highly experienced trainer and tournament player		IM Merijn van Delft - highly experienced, full-time trainer, author and tournament player

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ChessVibes Openings and ChessVibes Training

Our other magazine ChessVibes Openings, which is 4 pages, costs ? 28 a year. If you're already a subscriber to CVO, you should have received a newsletter this week that announced a serious discount. Not a CVO subscriber yet, and interested in getting both magazines? The two separate magazine subscriptions are 28 + 40 = 68 Euro but if you go for both you only pay 60 Euro! (click for price in US$)

Can I buy back issues?

Yes you can! At the moment we offer back issues 1-40 for 29,95 EUR. You can also buy sets of ten issues separately. In all cases, you will receive a ZIP file with all PDFs and PGNs with dozens of pages full of instructive chess content.

Apologies again for a long break between posting but again I?ve been very busy. I promise to update as much as possible now while I have a bit of time at home.

This year I made my debut for SC Remagen in the German Bundesliga. The top division is composed of 18 teams with 8 players with no restrictions on either the number of foreigners or gender, and is generally regarded as the strongest league in the world.

I was ranked fifth in the squad and generally played on board three, playing 11 out of the long 15 game season. On paper our team were of about average strength but unfortunately it didn?t go well for either the team or myself. I scored 5/11 with ten draws and one loss against opposition averaging 2573. Rather disappointing but I can take solace my only loss was straight after returning from New Zealand (arriving into London on Friday morning and leaving Friday afternoon) and in that game the team was going to lose 4.5-3.5 had I drawn so I had to go all-in. I also managed to salvage draws from some pretty unpleasant positions.

As for the team, we were pretty much up against it from the first weekend. There we played three games and didn?t manage to come away with any points, losing each match very narrowly. That set the tone for the entire season ? our heaviest losses being 2.5-5.5 against Berlin and Werder Bremen and even there we had good chances until the very end. The problem was we failed to put away the weaker teams with three draws and four 3.5-4.5 defeats.

With four teams getting relegated we knew we were going down by the final weekend but still we fought to restore some of our pride and not finish bottom of the table. We defeated Katernberg 5.5-2.5 on the Saturday followed by a 4-4 draw with Mulheim on the Sunday.

On the Saturday, against Ilja Zaragatski, a 2476 IM, I sacrificed a pawn for the initiative but erred and my compensation dried up. By the time control I was probably lost but my opponent didn?t play accurately and let me off with a draw. On the Sunday I had Black against Alexander Berelowitsch, a Ukranian Grandmaster who now plays for Germany. After being slightly worse out of the opening I started to press and even went a pawn up in a rook and pawn endgame but couldn?t convert and we agreed a draw after six hours play.

These games followed a similar pattern for the season; against the lower rated guys I had gone wrong quite early and had to defend to hold the draw (in fact this happened against all 3IMs I played). In the game I lost against the young German GM Sebastian Bogner he equalised out of the opening and then I went for too much. However against the higher rated GMs I got very reasonable positions and never really had any problems ? definitely something for me to think about and work on.

In the end our team finished 17^th, although had the table been decided on game points rather than match points (i.e. if you win 8-0 you would get 8 points and if you win 4.5-3.5 you?d get 4.5 points ? with match points you simply get 2 points for a win) then we would have been safe in 14^th!

Meanwhile at the other end of the table Baden-Baden won yet another Bundesliga with +13 =1 ?1, finishing two points ahead of their perennial rivals Werder Bremen and Solingen doing well to finish in third. You can see the final table here.

Apparently Werder Bremen?s team is not going to be as strong next year so it will be difficult to see who might challenge Werder Bremen?s dominance. I hope that they remain as strong as they have in recent times without so much competition. The final weekend saw World Champion Vishy Anand lead out the team but he suffered a surprising defeat to Dutch GM Sergey Tiviakov. White won this game very easily and, with Tiviakov using the repertoire I recommend in my How to Beat the Sicilian book, I couldn?t very well not show you guys the game!

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Although the team is based in Remagen, and we played our home matches there, we normally meet up in Andernach. This is a very pretty old town on the Rhine and when I was there this Friday I took a few photos.

As loyal readers will know, I love walled towns after living in Lucca!

And if you don't know what you're looking at...

then all you have to do is read the signs!

"Ruins of the former archbishoprical castle of the electorate of Cologne...erected in the 12th century"

The Majestic Rhine

The Bastion built in 1659-60 as a Toll house on the river and now also a war memorial for the First World War

I?d like to thank Peter Noras the captain for all the time, effort and money he?s put into the team and apologise that we couldn?t quite deliver this year. I hope the team will bounce back and return to the top flight for the 2013-2014 season.

Tomsk-400 have won the Russian Team Championship for a fifth time, with Sergey Karjakin posting the tournament?s best performance. Their rivals could only draw against each other in the final round, giving St. Petersburg silver and ShSM-64 bronze. Karjakin comments on his team?s victory, and don?t miss a longer interview with Peter Svidler at the end of this report!

Karjakin interviewed after leading Tomsk-400 to victory | Photos by Eteri Kublashvili (more here)

Gold medals for Tomsk-400

There were fears before the Russian Championship began that the new 7-round Swiss format might result in an accidental winner, but in the end nothing could have been further from the truth. On their path to victory Tomsk-400 played the top six teams apart from themselves, and the top five places were taken by the top five seeds. What is true, however, is that the short format left the ultimate medal allocation balanced on a knife edge. It all came down to a nail-biting final round.

Day Seven

The St. Petersburg Chess Federation were leading by a single match point going into the last day, but knew that only a win was likely to give them the title. It was the same story for their opponents, ShSM-64, though the team from Moscow knew that even a narrow win might not be enough. In the end, however, they cancelled each other out:

Peter Leko had been having a wonderful tournament (3 wins, 2 draws) but he met his match against an inspired Sergei Movsesian, who won his fourth game in a row after demolishing Leko?s Berlin Wall. Don?t believe anyone who tells you the Berlin is a quiet opening!

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That blow struck for St. Petersburg (who?d previously beaten key rivals Tomsk-400 and Economist), was matched by Evgeny Najer?s convincing win against Maxim Matlakov. Najer?s ultra-aggressive opening eventually gave him a huge strategic advantage, and Matlakov?s desperate attempts to generate counterplay were easily refuted:

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ShSM-64 team captain and "64" editor-in-chief Mark Glukhovsky looks on as the tension mounts

With the other games drawn it all came down to Zvjaginsev ? Grachev, which would be a game to skip apart from its huge sporting significance. Vadim Zvjaginsev got the better of an innocuous rook ending, and reached move 88 trying to promote his passed pawn:

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That draw meant the goal was wide open for Tomsk-400, who had what should nominally have been an easy match against Polytechnik:

Tomsk were missing Viorel Bologan (3 wins, 3 draws) who left a day early, but ultimately the wins came from the other likely sources, Sergey Karjakin (4 wins, 3 draws) and Igor Kurnosov (3 wins, 2 draws). The middle of the Tomsk-400 line-up was perhaps less impressive, though Ruslan Ponomariov?s solid display on board 2 (1 win, 4 draws) was just as useful as it has been previously for Ukraine, when Vassily Ivanchuk would dominate on board 1. Karjakin performed the Ivanchuk role perfectly, though his final round win had looked unlikely at one stage (he began by sacrificing no less than three pawns in a Najdorf), and ultimately came down to a dramatic blunder in a theoretically drawn ending:

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Dmitry Kokarev shouldn?t be too downhearted, however, as knight and rook v. two rooks is far from a trivial draw. As Sergey Shipov pointed out, Evgeny Bareev once lost the same ending to Garry Kasparov:

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Sergey Karjakin, back up to no. 6 in the world, at the centre of attention

Karjakin summed up the event for Eteri Kublashvili of the Russian Chess Federation website:

The tournament went perfectly: we managed to finish first in the overall standings, and I was first on my board. Of course luck was involved, but on the other hand when you?ve got a short tournament of only seven rounds it?s pretty difficult to win without luck. I think my best game in Loo was the win with the black pieces against Dmitry Jakovenko, which meant our team won a crucial match. Of course it would be better if there were more rounds as that would be a more objective format. With nine to eleven rounds the best team will always win, while here it was a lottery until the very last moment.

Economist entered the final round with their fate no longer in their hands, but knowing a win by a large margin would boost their medal chances. They seemed to go for it, but it nearly ended in a fiasco, with Ian Nepomniachtchi in particular playing a disastrous opening. The team eventually won by the narrowest of margins:

As it happened, though, even a 6:0 win wouldn?t have helped. Fourth place was a disappointment for Economist, but Alexander Morozevich proved he was a worthy team leader, brushing off a first round loss to finish with a 2810 rating performance. In the final round he beat Pavel Tregubov, despite living very dangerously:

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That completed an unfortunate treble for Tregubov, who stood equal or better at around move 30 against all three top-10 players at the event ? Karjakin, Caruana and Morozevich ? but contrived to lose each game.

Pavel Tregubov

So the top half of the men?s standings ultimately looked as follows (the ?Total? column gives the crucial game points ? the first tiebreaker):

Gold medals for Ladya: Natalia Zhukova, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Daria Charochkina, Valentina Gunina and Alisa Galliamova

Favourites Ladya had already sealed victory in the penultimate round of the women?s event, and they celebrated in style by beating Udmurtia 4:0 in their last match. As second-placed Ugra had a bye in the final round the only remaining intrigue was whether ShSM-RGSU could claim silver. They needed a 3.5:0.5 victory against the bottom team, Polytechnik, but couldn?t quite make it:

In fact, it could easily have been worse, as Alexandra Kosteniuk beat Ekaterina Timofeeva in an extraordinary game. First Kosteniuk, then Timofeeva, overlooked spectacular tactics, only for the former World Champion to eventually win a drawn ending:

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Alexandra Kosteniuk finds some space to think

The final table of the women?s event looked as follows:

Finally for this year?s Russian Team Championship, a treat: Peter Svidler interviewed by Eteri Kublashvili for the RCF website. Talking after drawing with Fabiano Caruana but before the match was over, he discusses the event, how it compares to the Bundesliga, and reveals that he?ll be commentating on the upcoming World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand:

Peter, could you tell us how the tournament went?

For me personally, or for the team?

Both personally and for your team.

Well, it?ll all become clear for the team in the next hour and a half. While for me personally? I can?t say I?m satisfied with everything, and I?d happily have done without that game against Jakovenko, but given I?d taken quite a long break I think my play was decent overall. ?Plus one? on first board is never a catastrophe, though I?d have liked more. Of course I'm not going to treasure losing in 20 moves with the white pieces in a crucial match. All things considered, I?d give myself four out of five.

And would you single out any of your wins?

I won two games, but in both of them my opponents played extremely poorly, so I don?t have anything in particular to boast about. Artyom Timofeev got a very tough position against me right out of the opening and, quite frankly, Emil didn?t play the game of his life against me. Therefore there?s nothing in particular to single out: it was a normal tournament, all my opponents were strong and none of the games was a formality.

What was the atmosphere like in your team?

We always have a wonderful atmosphere! That?s one of the reasons why we all keep playing year after year. The line-up barely changes and rotation is kept to a minimum. It?s a pleasure to play for the team! We?ve already established ties in the local area and we?ve got ?our people? in the markets of this wonderful region, so our evening meetings are informal. In my first year playing for the St. Petersburg team under the current management I was slightly shocked by what went on at the first meeting. Now, however, the anticipation of those meeting is perhaps one of the main reasons why we play for the team. Seriously though, we played four crucial matches, losing one and winning two. Today?s match has been very tough going. I hope things will work out ? we?ll see.

In the end it was silver for the team from St. Petersburg

You also play for Baden-Baden in the Bundesliga. How would you compare those two teams and two leagues?

Baden-Baden has more strength in depth, I?d say. Baden-Baden?s full line-up is stronger than any team in the Russian league, but at the same time the Russian League is of course stronger than the Bundesliga. After all, in the Bundesliga apart from Baden-Baden you?ve basically only got Bremen, whereas a record number of super clubs show up for the Russian League.

In which league is the weight of responsibility greater?

It?s hard to say, as the formats are completely different. The Bundesliga lasts seven months and I played five games in it this year ? three in November and two in March ? and I was also lucky with the team: it?s hard to compete with us. While in the Russian Team Championship it?s always ?Scandals. Intrigues. Investigations? [the catchphrase of a Russian TV program - CV], as nothing?s ever clear until the final round.

Do you like the current format of the Russian League?

It used to be round-robins, but now they?ve simply decided to try something new. I don?t think the small clubs are very happy with the innovation as previously they?d fight for first place in the Higher League. If they were sponsored by a town or region then when they returned home they could boast about victory in the Higher League; and who?s going to get to the bottom of what kind of league that is exactly? And therefore they got support as it was clear they were competing for something. With the current format it?s clear they?re not going to be involved in the fight for prizes, although they get the chance to play against the big players. So that?s the only problem, but otherwise it?s all very dynamic.

Do you prefer playing in team or personal events?

I really like playing for the team, but as the years go by I?ve started to play worse for them. Therefore I can?t say with my hand on my heart that I?m a team player, although around three years ago I was scoring very good results for the team.  

What are your plans for the immediate future?

It seems I?m going to commentate on the Anand ? Gelfand match in Moscow, while my schedule starts to get busy from August onwards.

How do you think the World Championship match will go?

I think the match will be more interesting than people think. I don?t consider the current form of the World Champion and the challenger to be a good reflection of reality. Let?s see what happens, as after all we've got two great players competing!

August:  The 2012 Chess Olympiad, Istanbul, main playing hall.  A large crowd has gathered around the last game to finish.  Australia is playing against an unspecified Eastern European team, the match locked at one and a half each, and so teammates hover nervously behind the two players for the final stages of the deciding game.

I sit opposite my opponent, a freaky amalgamation of highly-rated grandmasters Vladimir Akopian (Armenia), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan) and Kiril Georgiev (Bulgaria).  I have the white pieces, and material is balanced: I have an extra knight, but him three connected passed pawns.  Both kings are exposed, and we have two minutes each left on our clocks for the final moves.  I look up, and Vladimir?s staring back at me ? piercing, cold eyes, the eyes of a killer.  He leans back in his chair, and suddenly it?s Kiril: sullen, serious, confident.  I look back at the board; it?s my turn.

I see the position for the first time, and I draw a breath ? he?s threatening checkmate next move, by capturing my knight with his queen.  I look up, and it?s Vugar, his hands a triangle against his temples, his eyes fixated on the board.  I become aware of the crowd, the remarkable silence of the mass, save for the odd tense cough, and the ticking of the old-school analogue chess clock.  I pick up my queen, and my hand hovers over the board, grasping the white piece by her crown, waiting, looking.  The crowd leans forward as one.

I place it on e5, giving check.  Suddenly it?s Kiril, and he whips off my queen with his own with a flourish, slamming his clock with a large BANG.  I recapture tentatively, and he pauses, checks, and thrusts forward his g-pawn.

I recoil; my clock?s flag is hanging, seconds remaining, but I can?t bring myself to move, to focus.  Australia?s team captain, Manuel Weeks, flashes me a worried look; teammates Darryl Johansen and Zhong-Yuan Zhao simultaneously slump their shoulders with a dejected, knowing glance at each other.  The diminutive Armenian grandmaster Gabriel Sargissian starts rubbing his hands together as he tries to peer over his teammates? shoulders; for some reason, his nose is long and crooked.  With much hesitation, I capture the loose e6 pawn, and suddenly Vladimir is back, the cold, calculating professional, marching his pawns towards my back rank.  The g-pawn advances, his neighbour on the f-file quickly following, and my clock counts down the last few seconds to the flag falling?three?two?one?

Suddenly, the board begins to spin, and the table, the players and the room begin to swirl, a shimmery haze filling my eyes, before ? SNAP! ? I?m transported back back to the original scene, queen in hand, two minutes remaining on my clock.  I blink twice, but my opponent and the spectators are busy staring at the board, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.  I try to regain my composure.  I lower the queen, not to e5 this time, but to d4, again with check.  Surely it can?t be any worse than the history I?ve just avoided.

Kiril takes off my foolhardy white pawn with his king, and I eagerly reply by swinging my rook to h1 with check.  Suddenly I sit up off my chair ? a retreat by his king allows my pieces to penetrate into his position on h8, and checkmate follows in just a few more moves!

But Vugar?s back, and he confidently marches his king forward to g6, and I realise my checks have quickly run dry.  Despondently, I retreat my queen to d3 to defend my knight and prevent his own checkmate, but his reply is swift and precise: his queen plants herself deep into my territory, offering a poisonous trade that I dare not refuse, but assures destruction if accepted.

I look up, and Vladimir is staring back at me, expressionless; behind him, Gabriel is smiling at me, and the broad grin seems somehow maniacal when sheltered under such a wicked proboscis.  The crowd starts to murmur.  Faced with an impossible choice, I sigh, and, with a heavy heart, reach to move my queen, a move I know will seal my fate.  The clock ticks down my final seconds?

The queen is in my hand, but the board looks different: I?m back again at the opening position, the crowd is silent, and Vugar sits opposite.  But this time I?m ready, composed, and I have the advantage of knowing how two of the potential variations play out for me.  I smile a secretive, half-smile to myself.  Suddenly I notice that my score-sheet has my last played queen move to d3, and not e3.  I frown, and gingerly lower the piece back to her original square, looking up somewhat guiltily at my opponent to see whether he corrects the alteration.  He doesn?t budge, and neither does the crowd.

My clock ticks down, but I don?t notice.  I take my hand off the queen and rest my arms on the table as I continue to stare at my opponent.  I know I?ve touched my queen and I?m obliged to move her, but if I wait long enough, maybe, just maybe?

Sure enough, after a few moments the haze returns, and the people and objects mesh into a shimmery blur.  My hands are still resting on the table when they re-emerge, and the board shows my queen sitting on d3, stoically defending my knight, and offering the e-file to my rook.  I lift it, and the wood makes a satisfying CLUNK as I take the pawn on e6.

Vugar shifts uncomfortably in his chair, and the crowd again begins to murmur ? but this time, they?re on my side.  If he pushes his g-pawn, I?ll take his pawn on f5 with my queen, and suddenly his proud defensive wall of pawns will have crumbled, fatally exposing his king.  With some trepidation, Kiril plonks his queen down on c3, offering a relieving trade.  But this time, instead of accepting, I?ve a startling riposte up my sleeve?

I move my rook to e8, giving check.  Taking with his own rook would leave his queen unguarded and en prise.  With no other option, Kiril moves his king forward one square, capturing my pawn.

I reach forward again, and snap off his f5 pawn with my queen, again with check.  With both kings now desperately exposed, I?ve got no choice but to keep the attack going at all costs, lest my own defences be breached.  Vladimir also has no choice, and continues to shuffle his king forward into the abyss, sending the monarch on a perilous path down the h-file, hoping my attack will run out of steam before I can deliver the coup de grace.

I give check again, this time with my rook, prodding the black king one step further along the plank.  Withdrawal would fall to a quick checkmate, and so Vugar pushes his king forward one last time to h5.

But now the king?s retreat has been cut off, and his own pawn blocks a sideways parry.  The only breathing squares left to the black royal lie in front of him? but wait!  I look up, and Vugar?s eyes meet mine ? he?s seen it, too.  I look back at the board as the crowd lurches forward as one expectant beast, sensing the imminent end.  I can play check with my queen and cut off his king?s final escape squares at the same time, leaving no way out.  It?s checkmate on h3, and I lean forward to deliver the killer blow?

(?And this is when I woke up.  Sadly, I was not in Istanbul at the Olympiad, and I was not just about to defeat one of the world?s top grandmasters.  But, perhaps even more disappointingly, even if the game had existed, I was not even about to deliver checkmate.  As I got out of bed and set up my ?brilliant? subconscious combination on a chess board?

?I instantly realised that my final winning move was in fact a horrific blunder, as my queen could simply be captured by her opposing number on c3:

Ahem.  It seems my fight of fantasy lacked the precision of that other dreamy David, the extraordinarily talented grandmaster David Bronstein, whose subconscious composed his famous Dream Game in 1961.

Not to worry.  Perhaps I?ll get another chance in reality when the Olympiad kicks off in August.  Though if I arrive on the first day and notice Gabriel?s had a nose job, I might start to wonder?)

Nigel Short defeated M.R. Venkatesh on Monday to take over the lead at the Bangkok Chess Club Open after six rounds. The Indian IM was the surprise leader after five rounds.

The Dusit Thani Hotel in Bangkok, venue of the tournament  

The 12th Bangkok Chess Club Open, which takes place at the luxurious Dusit Thani Hotel, is a 9-round Swiss with 135 participants of which 41 are titled players. There is also a 7-round Challenger with over 100 players. With over 230 players from 34 countries the tournament has broken its attendance record from 2011 to confirm its ever-increasing popularity.

This year Hou Yifan plays for the first time and she obviously adds prestige to what has become one of Asia's best open events. The 18-year-old Chinese arrived in Bangkok a few days before the start of the tournament. Last Wednesday she met with a number of VIPs (including Thailand's Prime Minister) and aspiring chess talents at Shinawatra University?s city campus and in the Blue Room of Thailand?s Government House. After a photo session the champion played a chess simul against thirty children, students, and sponsors, and won all games in a mere two hours.

The Women's World Champion playing against Thailand's PM Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra

In the Bangkok Open the Women?s World Champion will battle for the top spot against strong rivals, including the tournament?s highest-ranked player, GM Nigel Short of England. Both GMs demonstrated great form at last January?s Gibraltar Chess Festival when they finished first and second in a field that included 55 GMs.

Other strong players who will have a shot at the first prize are the 2011-champion GM Jan Gustafsson of Germany, first-time participant GM Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan, as well as returning champions GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. of the Philippines (winner 2003, 2004, 2006) and GM Deshun Xiu of China (winner in 2008 and 2009). The strongest local players are FM Wisuwat Teerapabpaisit (2278), FM Nakorn Trisa-ard (2265), FM Jirapak Pitirotjirathon (2252) and FM Boonsueb Saeheng (2207).

The spacious playing hall, part of the Dusit Thani Hotel

The start of the tournament coincided with the joyous and rowdy Songkran Festival, when Thais and tourists throng in the streets and splash each other with water to cool off from the fierce summer heat. A popular location to ?play Songkran? is Bangkok?s Silom District where the venue is located!

Hou Yifan joins the Songkran celebrations

The games are played between April 13th and 19th, with double rounds on Saturday and Sunday. On Friday and Saturday morning no real upsets were seen, but in the third round untitled Sander Severino (2344) held Nigel Short to a draw on board 1 and next to them, Jan Gustafsson also split the point with IM Daniel Contin (2331) of Italy. In round 4 two other GMs drew their games: Hou Yifan against IM Nguyen Duc Hoa (2453) of Vietnam and Farrukh Amonatov against IM Liu Qingnan (2461) of China.

After five rounds the surprise leader was Indian IM M.R. Venkatesh, who is the only player with a clean sheet. On Sunday afternoon he defeated last year's winner Jan Gustafsson on top board. Nigel Short was half a point behind Venkatesh and these two players would meet each other in round 6. Hou Yifan and Farrukh Amonatov again drew their games and found themselves in a group of 16 players who are on 4/5.

In round 6 the British GM showed his class and came up on top against Venkatesh. On board 2, Hou Yifan came back from a technically lost position to defeat FM Martin Voigt, and last year?s champion GM Jan Gustafsson recovered with a win against WGM Kruttika Nadig.

Selection of games rounds 1-6

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Bangkok Chess Club Open 2012 | Round 6 standings (top 30)

For the seventh year in a row, the Bundesliga team OSG Baden-Baden won the German Team Championship. However, the last Bundesliga weekend was a bit bumpy for the star team from Baden-Baden: after an unexpected 4-4 against the team from Eppingen in the penultimative round with a shock loss of world champion Vishy Anand against Sergey Tiviakov, the planned party was delayed one day. In the last round on Sunday however, OSG Baden-Baden crushed Hockenheim 7-1, securing the title.

By Eric van Reem 

Saturday ? SC Eppingen shocks OSG Baden-Baden

The playing hall in Baden-Baden

The home team of Baden-Baden had everything prepared for a victory party on Saturday, but the opponents from SC Eppingen, number three on the table, proved to be a really tough opponent. In the end the match ended 4-4, but the favorites were on the brink of losing the match.

Once again world champion Vishy Anand showed up to play two Bundesliga games. He arrived in a typical Baden horse-drawn carriage with his manager Hans-Walter Schmitt to play against Sergey Tiviakov. Certainly not everybody expected Anand to play just a few weeks before the world championship in Moscow, which will start on 10 May.

Anand played with the black pieces against Tiviakov, who played a smooth game. The Dutchman obtained a nice advantage, which he gradually expanded. Anand did not find any counterplay and after 44 moves the world champion resigned. It was a textbook game, which shows how to take advantage of the weak square ?d5?.

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In an interview for the official website, Tiviakov said that Anand obviously did not know the variation 3?Nd7 at all and that black made a lot of mistakes:

11?b6 is a serious mistake, black has too many weaknesses in his position. It was an easy game for me today.

Tiviakov said that he did not know that he would face Anand on Saturday:

I just came from Russia the day before the match against Baden-Baden, had to arrange some things at home in Groningen and travelled for more than 10 hours to Baden-Baden. I had no time to prepare anything.

Things went wrong for the home team also on the second board: Paco Vallejo of Spain lost against Hungarian GM Peter Acs.

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Therefore the lower boards had to secure at least a draw. Schlosser won against Vogt and top scorer Arkadij Naiditsch managed to equalize the score by winning against Robert Ruck.

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The other games ended in a draw, although all games were hard-fought. In the other match in Baden-Baden on Saturday, SG Trier easily won against SV Hockenheim.

History lesson

Baden-Baden 1870: the first Super Tournament
The German city of Baden-Baden is famous for its spas, its therapeutic waters and its casino, but the picturesque city has also played host to some of the greatest chess tournaments in history. Back in 1870 a tournament was organized, that can be regarded as the first ?super tournament?. It was the first tournament in which only top international players were invited: Adolf Anderssen, Wilhelm Steinitz, Joseph Blackburne and Gustav Neumann, to name just a few. Quite interesting to know is the following: it was the first tournament in which chess clocks were used (20 moves had to be made per hour), and it was the first time that draws counted as half points. Anderssen won the tournament with 11/16, before Steinitz with 10,5/16. More information about the players and the tournament can be found here.

A group photo of the participants in 1925

Another memorable tournament in the history of chess is Baden-Baden 1925, with players like Alekhine, Reti, Nimzowitsch, Torre, Tarrasch and Grünfeld. Alekhine won with the phenomenal score 16/20. In recent history, in 1992 Anatoly Karpov won a round robin tournament in Baden-Baden with 9,5/11.

Sunday: Easy 7-1 win for the champs against Hockenheim

After the draw on Saturday, the players of OSG Baden-Baden were sent to bed early by team captain Sven Noppes to prepare for the final round against Hockenheim, starting at a chess-player unfriendly time: 10.00 AM. Arkadij Naiditsch was the first player to win. He won both games this weekend and had a great +7 score this season: 11/15.

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Anand played his last game before the world championship match in May against Rainer Buhmann and he quickly gained a small plus. However, the world champion had difficulties to convert his advantage and he even had some problems after 46. Ne1. However, Buhmann did not find the right plan and Anand won the game in the end.

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Baden-Baden players Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark (l.) and Etienne Bacrot of France

The final score was 7-1, securing the title and with a convincing win OSG Baden-Baden ended the season with a bang.

SV Hockenheim had enough reason to celebrate as well, as their Elisabeth Pähtz scored her first GM norm after drawing with GM Laszlo Gonda. SC Hansa Dortmund, USV TU Dresden, SC 1950 Remagen and SK König Tegel relegated to the second league.

Final standings

What a difference two days make! Economist?s 100% record now lies in tatters after they lost to their closest rivals in rounds 5 and 6, leaving them out of the hunt for gold medals. Instead Peter Svidler?s St. Petersburg lead by a point, with only ShSM-64 and Tomsk-400 still capable of denying them the title. In the women?s event favourites Ladya have been crowned winners with a round to spare.

Svidler - Morozevich in Round 5 | Photos courtesy of Dmitry Kryakvin (more here)

Day Five

If Economist-SGSEU had beaten the St. Petersburg Chess Federation in Round 5 it?s unlikely they could have been stopped, but instead they fell to a narrow defeat:

Sergei Movsesian, so often the hero for the Armenian team, scored the critical win, following up a sharp trick in the early middlegame with excellent technique to convert his slight edge:

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Dmitry Kryakvin captioned his photo: "Alexander, this is a lucky pen!" The hand belongs to Economist team captain Alexey Vetrov

It?s impossible, however, to avoid mentioning Peter Svidler?s draw with Alexander Morozevich on the top board, which featured a staggering exchange of blows. The 17?Kd7! countercheck and Svidler?s quiet 19.0-0-0!! are worth the price of admission alone:

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However, GM Sergey Zagrebelny, who commented on the game live for ChessPro, expressed some lingering doubts about whether the players had really been playing at the board:

I've got mixed emotions, and I don?t even know how to ?sum up? what we?ve witnessed. Questions, questions? Above all, naturally, to the players. How far did Svidler?s knowledge stretch? And Morozevich?s? Alas, we?re a long way away and we can?t ask. If we ignore the home preparation then we saw extremely spectacular chess today: forks, pins, discovered checks, tactical shots ? simply a feast for those who like their dishes served spicy! And the unexpected 19.0-0-0!! But still, what was really going on? I?ll leave that question hanging in the air?

Another curiosity, as pointed out by Dmitry Kryakvin in his blog at the Russian Chess Federation website, was that the game ended in a position where the tournament rules (no draw offers before move 40) would have required the players to play on. Instead it seems to have been agreed that it was senseless to ruin a masterpiece with some additional shuffling of pieces.

The day?s other real battle came between Ugra and Tomsk-400, and again it was settled by a single game:

Dmitry Jakovenko had already had a rollercoaster tournament, losing to Alexander Morozevich but beating Peter Svidler. In Round 5 he lost a long and tough game to another member of the Russian team, Sergey Karjakin, who has the best results on Board 1:

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Elsewhere ShSM-64 were compensated  for their loss to Economist the day before with a match against the much weaker University, who they duly dispatched 5:1, including wins for Fabiano Caruana and Peter Leko on the top boards.

ACP President Emil Sutovsky

The dark horses Navigator and the Chigorin Chess Club (entering the round in joint second place) had a chance to stake a real claim for tournament victory, but could only draw against each other. Emil Sutovsky?s win against Evgeny Romanov was highly entertaining, if not exactly flawless!

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Evgeny Potemkin continues to film the event. In the following video you can see him on his way to the playing hall and greeting various players before the round begins:

He also seems to have spent much of the day following a cat that strayed into the playing hall. It was clearly a chess fan, as it eventually took up a position underneath the table of one of the day's most eventful matches, the 3:3 draw between Navigator and Chigorin Chess Club (screenshot from ):

Reinforcements for the Chigorin Chess Club on, or rather under, Board 4

Day Six

While it's been a tough schedule for the men each women's team had a day off - here ShSM-RGSU enjoy the sunshine (Alina Kashlinskaya, Anastasia Savina and Alexandra Kosteniuk) | photo: Eldar Mukhametov

Economist?s woes continued, as their hopes of tournament victory were destroyed by another narrow loss, this time to fierce rivals Tomsk-400:

It?s perhaps worth starting with Economist?s one success story. Ian Nepomniachtchi had started the tournament with a bang (see our Rounds 1&2 report), but then had a sequence of four solid draws. He woke up in Round 6 to put in a powerful performance against Ernesto Inarkiev, whose counterplay was never quite enough:

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Dmitry Andreikin had been a key player behind Economist?s earlier wins, but he eventually lost a tough ending against Igor Kurnosov, while Pavel Eljanov had another day to forget, failing to get out of the opening against Viorel Bologan:

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ShSM-64's luck of the draw continued, as they were paired against 8th seeds the Chigorin Chess Club and pulled off a perfect 6:0 victory. There were also six decisive games in the match between Navigator and St. Petersburg, but it was all much more exciting!

As we saw in the game from the previous round, Emil Sutovsky isn?t a man for playing solid, predictable chess. Peter Svidler has also been in bellicose form, so we could expect fireworks, and the players didn?t disappoint:

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In terms of the match St. Petersburg exploited their superiority on the lower boards perfectly, but it wasn?t one-way traffic. Krishnan Sasikiran impressively diffused his opponent?s over-ambitious attack, while Daniil Dubov scored a win which must be one of the highlights of his short career. The 15-year-old talent got the better of the opening and then converted in style just when it seemed Dominguez had weathered the storm:

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Going into Sunday?s final round the standings at the top are:

It couldn?t be set up better, as St. Petersburg will take on ShSM-64 (Svidler ? Caruana, Dominguez ? Wang Hao, Movsesian ? Leko?). It looks as though both teams need to win, as Tomsk-400 play the much weaker Polytechnik and are likely to win by a heavy margin. Economist also finally have an easier match, and therefore good chances of taking a medal.

It was a very convincing victory for Ladya, featuring Nadezhda Kosintseva, Valentina Gunina, Natalia Zhukova, Daria Charochkina and, not in the photo, Alisa Galliamova

With so much top men?s chess to cover it?s been hard to devote much time to the women?s event, which has also been something of a disappointment. Many of last year?s top teams are absent, and victory for favourites Ladya has never looked in doubt. The only team to hold them to a draw, second seeds Ugra, have a bye in the final round (it might have been worth following the example of last year?s London Chess Classic, where the pairings were altered so the bottom seed would be the one to miss the final round). The standings with a round to go are:

The remaining intrigue is whether last year?s winners ShSM-RGSU can beat the much weaker Polytechnik (rated 2268 - 1920) by a sufficient margin to take silver. At least 3.5:0.5 (or possibly 4:0?) seems to be required.

You can follow all the action from the final day of the Russia Team Championship live at the RCF website.