Baseball returned triumphantly to Washington last Thursday after 34 years. "Luckily, it is not a national pastime in Russia," joked Garry Kasparov on Friday after he got hit over the head with a wooden chessboard he had just autographed. He was speaking to young political activists in Moscow when the attack occurred. The 13th official world chess champion survived the brush with Russian politics with only a bump. Let's hope his political opponents don't discover baseball bats.
A Chinese Prodigy
Kasparov was a product of the Soviet coaching system, in which the most talented kids were selected from a large number of chess-playing children. The Chinese tried to emulate it and succeeded in producing a few women's world champions and a formidable women's team that keeps winning the gold medals at chess olympiads. But the Chinese men were behind and their young talents did not go far enough. Perhaps now there is a hope.
Last week, the 15-year-old untitled player Wang Hao took clear first at the seventh Dubai Open with seven points in nine games, leaving behind 53 grandmasters. Who is he? A Google search mostly turns up a Chinese table tennis star who won the silver medal at the Athens Summer Olympics last year. The chess prodigy has competed mostly in junior events. He was on the Chinese team at the chess olympiad in Calvia, Spain, last year, but did not play well. However, a more mature player showed up in Dubai. Let's see how he outplayed an experienced Georgian grandmaster, Georgi Kacheishvili, in the Slav defense in the last round.
Kacheishvili-Wang
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 (The old-fashioned way to play the Slav defense. Not everybody has the nerves to enter the sharp line 6...e6 7.f3 Bb4 8.e4 Bxe4 9.fxe4 Nxe4 that still remains unsolved.) 7.Nxc4 Qc7 8.g3 e5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Bf4 Nfd7 11.Bg2 f6 12.0-0 Nc5!? (A move embraced by the Russian GM Alexander Morozevich, stressing active piece play.) 13.Ne3 Bg6 14.b4 Ne6 (The agressive14...Rd8 is refuted with 15.Ned5! cxd5 16.bxc5 with white's advantage.) 15.b5 Rd8 16.Qc1 (Black should not have problems with this passive move. Trying to invade black's position via the b-file with 16.Qb3!? Bf7 17.Bxe5 fxe5 18.bxc6 bxc6 19.Rab1 Nd4 20.Qb7 is more critical.) 16...Bc5!? (More aggressive than 16...Be7.) 17.bxc6 (Not much can be gained by 17.a5 0-0 18.a6 b6! 19.Bxe5 Qxe5 20.Bxc6, because after 20...Nd4 the activity of black's pieces easily compensates the small material loss.) 17...bxc6 18.Bxe5 (Scattering black's pawns, white also gets the square e4, but the activity of black's pieces easily compensates for his deficiencies.) 18...fxe5 19.Ne4 Be7! (The bishop controls many dark squares in black's camp.) 20.Nc4 Nd4 21.Ra2 0-0 22.Kh1 Kh8 23.e3!? Nf3 24.Ncd2 (Trying to drive the pesky black knight away from the square f3.) 24...Qd7! 25.Qa1 (After 25.Bxf3 Rxf3! 26.Nxf3 Bxe4 black wins.) 25...Qe6 26.Nc5? (White should have tried 26.Nxf3!? Bxe4 27.Qxe5 Qd5 28.Qxe7 Bxf3 29.Bxf3 Qxa2 30.Bxc6 Qc2 31.Bd5 [On 31.Bb5 comes 31...a6!] 31...Qxa4 32.e4 with some fighting chances for the exchange.) 26...Bxc5 27.Nxf3 Be4! (Spelling trouble for white on the long diagonal h1-a8.)
28.Ne1 (A sad retreat, but after 28.Nxe5 Bxg2+ 29.Kxg2 Bd6, the knight can't go back, for example 30.Nf3 Qe4 31.Qd1 Bxg3 32.Qe2 Bc7, and black wins; and on 30.f4 comes 30...Bxe5 31.fxe5 Qd5+ 32.e4 Qxe4+ 33.Kh3 Rxf1 34.Qxf1 Qxe5 and black is a pawn up and the white king is exposed. Grabbing the pawn with 28.Qxe5 leads after 28...Qc4! 29.Raa1 Rd5 to a winning position for black.) 28...Bd5 29.Bxd5 (After 29.Rc2 Bxe3! decides.) 29...Qxd5+ 30.Kg1 Bxe3! (Punctuating the attack with a piece sacrifice that helps black hunting down the white king.) 31.fxe3 Rxf1+ 32.Kxf1 Qh1+ 33.Ke2 e4! (Closing the net. The white king can't escape.) 34.Kf2 Qxh2+ 35.Ng2 Rf8+ 36.Ke1 Qxg3+ 37.Kd2 Qxg2+ 38.Kc3 Qg5 White resigns.
Scholastic Supernationals
Ruixin Yang, a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, was in the Chinese talent pool before his family moved to the United States. At the Supernationals III, Yang matched the winning score of six points in seven games in the top K-12 championship group and finished second on a tie-break. The premier scholastic event, organized by the U. S. Chess Federation for students from kindergarten to 12th grade, took place April 8-10 in Nashville. It broke an attendance record, attracting 5,270 students from 1,332 schools. Other top area finishers in each category:
K-9 championship: Adithya Balasubramanian, Tabb Middle School, Yorktown, Va., 15th place.
K-8 championship: Uesugi Shinsaku, Herbert Hoover Middle School, Potomac, 16th place.
K-6 championship: Douglas Stanley, Georgetown Day School, Washington, third place.
K-5 championship: Darwin Li, Forest Edge Elementary School, Reston, eighth place.
Solution to today's study by W. Veitch (White: Kh6,Rg4,P:g2,h3; Black: Kc5,Rg1,Ba8,P:f4,g3): 1.Kg5! f2 2.gxf3 Bxf3 3.Rxg3! Rxg3 4.Kh4, and on any rook move along the g-file white is stalemated.
