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The rules are simple - send us your questions and see them featured in the weekly Q&A column! Q1: Thanks for your articles! What should I study more - the opening, middlegame or endgame? A1: While beginners need to pay special attention to the endgame to learn basic mating techniques and get to know how the game ends, top pros spend most of their time trying to find interesting plans and novelties in the opening and middlegame. The golden middle for an average (between beginner and grandmaster) player is to pay attention to all the three stages and concentrate on the weakest one.
Q2: Who is stronger - Anand, Topalov or Kramnik? A2: The answer depends on the circtumstances, motivation and many other factors. I guess every person can have her/his own favorites.
Q3: Russia has recently lost a friendly match to China. Can Russia win against China if it invites the top players to participate? A3: In a few weeks we will find out the answer if China gets to face Russia-1, 2 or 3 at the Chess Olympiad.
Q4: What are the most trendy openings today? A4: The Berlin, Catalon, Gruenfeld, Petroff... Hope you are not asking this to abandon your repertoire for the "fashionable"?
Q5: Your plans for the end of 2010?
A5: World Women's Blitz Championship, Chess Olympiad, European Team Championship, Russian Superfinal, World Women's Championship. Quite a busy schedule.
Q6: Have you started teaching your baby to play chess?
A6: At 9 months old he's very formidable. Give him a few seconds, and all your pieces are gone!
Q7: Do you know any efficient chess doping?
A7: I guess that some people could be taking some special medicines (just like students who wish to sharpen their memory, sleep less, stay concentrated, etc.), but for me and my friends the only "doping" is proper nutrition, sleeping well, staying positive and fit, support from fans and love for the game!
In the "winners" section the most notable results have been shown by British Champion Michael Adams (+22), Laurent Fressinet (+21 and first entry to the 2700+ club), Wang Yue (+16), Vassily Ivanchuk (+15 and back in the top-10), Dortmund-2010 winner Ruslan Ponomariov (+15) and #1 on the Experience team Boris Gelfand (+12). Also worth noting is Eljanov's result (+6, up to #6 in the world).
Alexander Morozevich is barely clinging to his 2700+ status (-15 points). Vladimir Kramnik lost 10 points at Dortmund and is now at #5. Vitiugov is down 13 points, Leko and Almasi - 10, Navara-9, Kamsky - 8, Tomashevsky - 7.
The magnitude of rating changes is higher in the women's section. Bela Khotenashvili gained 41 points, Nana Dzagnidze - 36 (and back into the top-10), Elina Danielian - 35, Ju Wenjun - 20, Lilit Mkrtchian - 16, Irina Krush - 14, Maria Muzychuk - 12, Harika Dronavalli - 11, Anna Zatonskih - 10. Tatiana Kosintseva and Nadezhda Kosintseva have increased their ratings by 11 and 14 points correspondingly, making them #4 and #5 on the female rankings.
Notable rating losses are 20 for Marie Sebag, 18 for Elizabath Paehtz, 14 for Victoria Cmilyte and Maia Chiburdanidze, 13 for Xu Yuhua, 10 for Natalia Pogonina, 9 for Antoaneta Stefanova and 8 for Pia Cramling.
In August the traditional Russia-China match took place. It is held every year, usually shifting the venue from Russia to China and vice versa. The 2010 edition happened to be the 7th one. For Russia this friendly chess match is a nice opportunity to put some Russian team candidates to the test (and send a few A-team players too as well). China tries to allocate all the available top players as it is very hard to oppose the Russians.
A bit of history. In the 90s the Chinese female players emerged on the world chess scene. Xie Jun became the Women's World Champion (later followed by Zhu Chen, Xu Yuhua and runner-up Hou Yifan), while the Chinese team started winning Olympic medals. The Chinese government pays serious attention to sports (just like the USSR did), including chess. This resulted in the Chinese women's team winning 4 (!) Chess Olympiads in a row (1998-2004). The Chinese players could boast a great nervous system, excellent tactical vision and somewhat unusual playing style. One couldn't see many of them in open tournaments (even now China has only 138 active FIDE-rated players and 398 FIDE-rated players overall), so, due to their successes at different championships, the Chinese have formed a brand of mystery and invincibility around themselves. The Chinese men's team, however, wasn't anything special at that time.
At the next stage the Chinese female players started competing in international events and boosting their strength even further. Meanwhile, their competitors somehow got used to them and their chess playing style. People began treating the Chinese team just like any other top players. As a result, in 2006 Ukraine took gold in the women's section and in 2008 - Georgia. Anyway, the Chinese women's team (rated second, only behind Russia) is still considered to be one of the strongest in the world and one of the favorites to win gold at the 2010 Olympiad in Khanty-Mansyisk. For example, the recently established World Team Championship has been won by China twice.
As to the Chinese men's team (China is #4 in the world by average rating of top-10 players), it is progressing rapidly. More and more of their masters are entering the world top-100 (Wang Hao - #21, Wang Yue - #28, Bu Xiangzhi - #58, Zhou Jianchao - #67, Ni Hua - #93) , and the chess team will be a considerable force at the Olympiad.
The aforementioned dynamics can be traced by following the Russia-China matches. Earlier the Russian women's team used to be a weak link, but in 2008 and 2010 we won the standard chess matches. The men's team, on the contrary, started losing more often than before.
This year's match in China was won by the Chinese (if you take combined scores of men and women, it was 128 to 122). Unlike in the past, this year I didn't do well, and got only 2/5 in the standard part and 10/20 in rapid.
The Chinese women's team (left to right): Ju Wenjun, Ding Yixin, Tan Zhongyi,
Wang Yu, Huang Qian
The Russian women's team (left to right): Anastasia Bodnaruk, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Alina Kashlinskaya, Valentina Gunina, Natalia Pogonina (in front)
Here's a game from round 1 of the event:
I overestimated my position, made a mistake and ended up facing some problems. After I started to play defensively, my opponent tried to exchange all the pieces (instead of building up pressure), so the game quickly ended in a draw.
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Candidate master Peter Zhdanov's column at Pogonina.com
Back to the last two games of the rapid match vs candidate master Evgeny Sidorovsky. Game 3 illustrates my playing style rather well, let's take a look (try to answer the questions yourself before seeing my comments):
Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153)
White to move
What move will White play? How should Black fight back?
The obvious continuation (played in the game) is 16.f6 ripping open the Black kingside. The best reaction for Black was probably 16...g6 17.Qh3 h5 18.Bh6 Ne5+/- White will be up an exchange, but the position is closed, and Black has some compensation.
Another idea was 16...Ne5 and after the complicated 17.Qh5 Qe6 18.fg Rfe8 19.Rf4 Qg6 20.Qh4 Re6 21.Ref1 Qg7 22.Bf6 Rf6 23.Rf6 Kh8+/- White has an exchange for a pawn and seems to be attacking, but Black isn't dead lost at least.
In the game the natural 16...Nf6? 17.Bf6 gf was played
Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153)
White to move
On move 16 some chess engines don't see the correct move in this position until they reach a considerable depth. Now it's much easier to spot. Can you?
Of course, 18.Qf6?? leads to nowhere after 18...Qe5. The correct move is 18.Qh5! winning
Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153)
White to move
Obviously, White has a decisive attack here. What is the correct way to finish Black off?
In the game I played carelessly: 20.Ref1?? (thinking that White is winning easily). However, after 20...Kh8 White is far from securing the whole point. The right move was 20.Re3, e.g. 20...Qa1 21.Bf1 Rfe8 22.Qh6 and Black is getting mated.
Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153)
White to move
Instead of playing 20...Kh8! my opponent blundered in return with 20...Bc8?? Can you find the decisive cheapo for White now?
21.e5! wins on the spot, of course. Evgeny has overlooked this shot and was under the illusion that he simply has extra material. Now Black has to give up the queen.
Zhdanov (2049) - Sidorovsky (2153)
White to move
The position is resignable for Black, but Evgeny decided to play on. What is the most efficient way to wrap up the game here?
I thought I played a smart move - 23.ef. It is winning easily, but an even quicker path to victory was 23.Qf5 Rfe8 24.Qf6 Re5 25.Qf7 Kh8 26.Qf6 Kg8 27.h3 Rae8 28.Rf3 Re1 29.Kh2 and Black is getting mated.
So, in game 4 I had to play for a win with Black to tie the chess part of our competition.
Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049)
Black to move
How should Black deal with 7.Ne5?
Chop the knight, obviously! The e5-knight is too strong to tolerate it, while the creatures on d7 and f6 are restraining each other. However, for some reason I played the solid 7...c6.
Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049)
Black to move
After some friendly chat during the game Black found himself in trouble. The pawns on b7 and f7 are hanging, what can be done about it?
The best option is 15...Nd7! 16.Qb7 c5 17.dc Nc5 18.Qg2 Nd3 19.Be3 h6 20.Nf3 Qe4 21.Bd4 Bd4 22.c2 Rab8 23.b3 Rbc8= with compensation for the pawn. However, if I could play at this level, I would have been a GM by now.
My choice was associated with a trap. My opponent fell into it, btw! 15...Ng4?!
Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049)
White to move
White won a pawn, but the knight is hanging. What is the right way to handle this situation?
18.Qc6! fg 19.fg Qh3 20.gh Qg3 21.Qg2 Qg2 22.Kg2 Bf6+/- and White has an extra pawn and a better position.
Evgeny gave a nice-looking check instead: 18.Qb3? e6 19.Rf2 fg 20.fg Qh3 21.gh Qg3 22.Kf1 Qh3 23.Kg1 Bh6 and Black has no problems at all.
Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049)
Black to move
How can Black try to press for a win here?
After 25...Qg5! 26.Kh2 Qh4 27.Kg1 Rab8 Black has attacking ideas such as Rb5 or e5. White should hold it with perfect defense, but this is still better than 25...Qe3 (pretty much settling for a draw).
Sidorovsky (2153) - Zhdanov (2049)
White to move
How should White defend? Any chances to play for a win?
28.Rgf2 (played in the game) or 28.Kh1 are good enough for a draw. After 28.Kh2?! Rf8 White is in some trouble and 28.Rff2?? loses to Rf8 29.Qa6 (29.Qc6 Qe1 30.Kh2 Rf2 31.Qa8 Rf8! incredible 32.Qa7 Rf5 33.Qa8 Kg7 34.Qb7 Kh6 and White is helpless) Rf2 30.Rf2 Rf8 31.Qe2 Qf2 32.Rf2 Rf2 33.Kf2 h5-+ with a won pawn ending for Black.
In the poker heads-up match I managed to win the first round (my opponent has collected most of the dead pots, but lost the key hands). In round 2 I was on the verge of winning the title: sensing weakness in Evgeny's all-in, all I had to do was call it. Alas, I had only a small pair on a board with lots of overcards and draws, so I thought that he must be thinking he's behind while he's not. In fact, he had complete air. After that critical hand I had no real chances for a come-back, so Evgeny evened the score in poker and took the unofficial World Chess-Poker title (2.5-1.5; 1-1), while I became the runner-up.
The 64th traditional prestigeous Moscow Blitz tournament lacked many leading Russian grandmasters (playing in the Higher League or absent for other personal reasons, like Kramnik or Grischuk). Nonetheless, a few eminent players, including world-class stars like Morozevich, Bareev and Jakovenko, were present. After 19 rounds the title went to Alexander Morozevich (2715). In fact, it's his 5th trophy since 2001 (with one year of participation missed, 2004). GM Mikhail Kobalia (2648) finished in clear second, while IM Vasily Papin (2521) - he got bronze on tie-break points, GM Dmitry Jakovenko (2726), GM Farrukh Amonatov (2608) shared third.
Especially delightful was the fact that the organizers have provided not only online games broadcast, but also a special video coverage possible due to setting up multiple cameras in the venue. In fact, the level of coverage of this event has been unmatched as compared to other chess tournaments.
The rules are simple - send us your questions and see them featured in the weekly Q&A column!
Q1: Why do many top players in countries such as Russia, England, France, etc. avoid playing in the national championships? A1: Sometimes it's simply a matter of circumstances. In other cases there are conflicts with the federation or lack of motivation (financial, competitive, etc.). Both sides are responsible here: players should be more respectful towards their national championships, but the federations should also find ways of motivating their top guys to participate.
Q2: When is the next Women World Championship? What is your current world rank among women?
A2: In December, 2010 in Turkey. 15, I guess.
Q3: Are you planning to be a full-time chess player or become a lawyer, model, etc.?
A3: We never know. In the next few years I feel like being a chess pro. After then we shall see...
Q4: Is the Dutch popular among top players these days? Why?
A4: No, it's not that popular nowadays since modern theory states that White has an advantage there. Also, it's a matter of chess fashion. As variations are getting refuted or improved, the trends change.
Q5: What tools do you rely on in your opening preparation?
A5: Mainly chess databases - Chess Assistant, ChessBase. Also (occasionally) opening books, recently played games and advice of my GM-friends.
Q6: I'm planning to become a grandmaster and play chess full-time. Will it earn me a lot of money?
A6: It normally takes over 10 years of hard work to become a GM even for talented people. Depends on what you mean by "a lot", but an average (non-elite and non-coaching, etc.) GM makes less than $50k per year.
Q7: I want to increase my rating. Should I wipe out a lower-rated tournament or play against stronger opposition?
A7: If you wish to improve and increase your rating in the long run, it's better to "play up". Just make sure the field is not excessively strong (or you might lose all the games and hardly learn anything). Scoring next-to-perfect results in lower-rated groups is also a valuable experience, but you still need to face more skilled opponents to improve.
