World championship matches can leave players exhausted. It took Bobby Fischer 20 years before he recovered from the 1972 world championship match and played again. His nemesis and friend Boris Spassky thought he could regain the lost energy in one year. The experienced Mikhail Botvinnik thought six months should be fine to come back. This month, Vladimir Kramnik removed himself from the 57th Russian championship, explaining that he can play again only in three months after his world championship match with Peter Leko, which ended in mid-October.
Disappearing Act
The 57th Russian championship in Moscow was supposed to be a showcase of the best Russian stars. First scheduled for September, it was moved to November at Kramnik's request. Soon after he dropped out, another world champion, Alexander Khalifman, was axed to make the number of participants even. Anatoly Karpov was next. Rather than playing in the strongest championship in years, the former world champion found it more important to help launch a new car model made in a factory in Tula. The field shrank to 11 players.
Fortunately, Garry Kasparov stayed, not being afraid to fight it out with hungry, younger players. After yesterday's play he had 3 1/2 points in five games. The leader was Alexander Grischuk, 21, who scored four points in six games. Against Alexander Motylev, Grischuk blunted the English Attack in the Najdorf Sicilian with an exchange sacrifice and won a fine game.
Motylev-Grischuk
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e6 7.Be3 b5 8.g4 h6 9.Qd2 Nbd7 10.0-0-0 Ne5 11.g5?! (An unfortunate novelty, taking the energy out of the white's position. Grischuk prefers to protect the center with 11.a3 before setting the pawn avalanche in motion on the kingside. The Finnish international master Tapani Sammalvuo writes in his book "The English Attack" that white can play 11.h4!? b4 12.Nb1 d5 and now 13.Qg2!, threatening g4-g5, followed by f3-f4. After 13 . . . dxe4?! 14.Nxe6! Qxd1+ 15.Kxd1 Bxe6 16.fxe4 Nfxg4 17.Bg1, black has insufficient compensation for the queen.) 11...hxg5 12.Bxg5 Bb7 13.Rg1 (White can't push the knight on e5 away, since 13.f4 is strongly met by 13...b4! and the white center collapses.) 13...Qa5 14.a3 Rc8 15.Kb1 (Allowing a promising exchange sacrifice that takes the wind out of white's sails. After 15.f4 comes 15...b4! with black's edge.)
15...Rxc3! 16.Qxc3 Qxc3 17.bxc3 Rxh2 (The material is roughly equal, but it is difficult for white to generate active play.) 18.Bf4?! (White is not recognizing the danger. After the simple 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.Bd3 Bh6 20.Rh1, the position is in balance.) 18...Rh5?! (Black could have wrestled away the initiative with another spectacular exchange sacrifice: 18...Rf2! 19.Bg3 Rxf3!!, for example 20.Nxf3 Nxf3 21.Rg2 Nxe4; or 20.Bxe5 Rxf1! 21.Rdxf1 dxe5 22.Nf3 Nxe4; or 20.Bxb5+ axb5 21.Bxe5 dxe5 22.Nxf3 Nxe4, and in all cases black's minority pieces and the passed pawns on the kingside dominate white's helpless rooks.) 19.Rg5 (Again, 19.Bxe5 dxe5 20.Nb3 g6 21.c4 is a better choice.) 19...Rxg5 20.Bxg5 Nfd7 21.a4? (Giving away another pawn with a faint hope to blunt black's play in the center.) 21...bxa4 22.Be2 Nc5 23.c4 (Stopping the central advance d6-d5, but Grischuk finds another way to deploy his pieces effectively.) 23...g6! 24.Rh1 Ned7 25.Rh8? (A blunder. White had to make space for his knight with 25.Bd3.)
25...e5! (The knight on d4 is trapped in the center of the board!) 26.c3 exd4 27.cxd4 Bxe4+! (The simplest!) 28.fxe4 Nxe4 (The knight attacks both bishops, one directly and the other with a check on c3.) 29.c5? (The pawn is going nowhere. But after 29.Bd1 Nxg5 30.Bxa4 Ne6! 31.Bxd7 Kxd7 32.d5 Be7 32.dxe6+ Kxe6 black should win anyway.) 29...Nxg5 30.c6 Nb6 31.Bxa6 Ne6 32.Ka2 d5 33.Rh1 Bd6 34.Rh8+ Ke7 White resigned.
U.S. Championship Coverage
The 2005 U.S. Chessmaster Championship, a nine-round Swiss event, begins Wednesday in San Diego with 64 players. Defending champions are Alexander Shabalov and Jennifer Shahade. The prize fund is $255,000, the world's largest for any national championship. In addition, a $5,000 Bent Larsen prize is reserved for the most combative player of the event. The championship runs till Dec. 5 and can be followed at www.uschesschampionship.com.
A Valuable Record Book
McFarland & Co. recently issued Gino Di Felice's "Chess Results, 1747-1900: A Comprehensive Record with 465 Tournament Crosstables and 590 Match Scores." It is a fine record book, as complete as it can get and far exceeding the number of results listed in previous excellent works of Jeremy Gaige and P. Kuiper Feenstra. It could be an invaluable tool not only for chess journalists and chess history buffs, but for any player interested in the glorious past.
It can be obtained at www.mcfarlandpub.com or by calling 800-253-2187.
Once you realize that white had to make the last move to reach today's diagram position (White: Kc1,Rb1,Bc5,P:b2,c2; Black: Ka2,P:c7), the solution to K. Faber's puzzle is simple: 1...c6 2.b4 Ka3 3.Ra1 mate.
