Chess

The annual Hamilton-Russell competition for London Clubs has been won by the Royal Automobile Club, with the Marylebone Cricket Club in close contention. On Tuesday 17 April, the awards ceremony will take place in the Mountbatten Room of the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, combined with the annual dinner for notables of the contesting teams. It is the premier annual social event of the London chess scene.   This week, a game won by Dominic Lawson from this year’s closely run event.   Lawson-Shankland: Hamilton-Russell Cup 2018; Scotch Gambit   1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 c3 dxc3 5 Bc4 cxb2 This is certainly playable but capturing so many pawns is dangerous. 5 ... d6 and 5 ... Nf6 are safer lines. 6 Bxb2 Bb4+ 7 Nc3 Nf6 8 e5 Acting immediately in the centre.

No, not the type of space travel allegedly enjoyed by the World Chess Federation president, Kirsan Ilumzinov, during his self-confessed encounters with aliens — rather, the control of space conferred by certain types of chess opening as explained in Opening Repertoire 1 e4 by Cyrus Lakdawala (Everyman Chess). The industrious and prolific Lakdawala presents a smorgasbord of possibilities in an easy-to-learn repertoire for White, predicated on the ambition to dominate greater terrain. Against the Caro-Kann Defence he advocates 3 e5, while in this week’s game (featuring the early frontrunner in the Candidates tournament for the World Championship) Lakdawala recommends the space-gaining 3 e5 against the French Defence, as favoured by the guru of chess strategy Aron Nimzowitsch.

A match which has attracted less attention than it deserves was Luke McShane’s victory over David Howell in the final of the UK Knockout championship, which coincided with the London Classic last December. En route to the final, Luke eliminated both the reigning British champion Gawain Jones and England’s most celebrated grandmaster, Nigel Short.   The following game from the final is furnished with notes based on those kindly provided by the victor.   Howell-McShane: British Knockout Championship, London 2017; King’s Indian   1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 g3 Bg7 4 Bg2 0-0 5 d4 d6 6 0-0 Nbd7 7 Nc3 e5 8 e4 c6 9 h3 Qa5 10 Re1 exd4 11 Nxd4 Ne5 12 Bf1 Qb6 13 Be3 c5 Not 13 ... Qxb2 as then 14 Na4 Qb4 15 Bd2 Qa3 16 Re3 traps the queen.

Every so often a game is played which is worthy of joining the immortals in the pantheon of chessboard masterpieces. Anderssen v. Kieseritsky, London 1851, Zukertort v. Blackburne, London 1883, Botvinnik v. Capablanca, AVRO 1938; these are the jewels to which every chess player aspires. As Marcel Duchamp once observed: ‘not all artists are chess players, but all chess players are artists’. The former world champion Vladimir Kramnik played such a game against Levon Aronian, one of the pre-tournament favourites in the Berlin Candidates to determine the challenger to Magnus Carlsen’s crown. The championship match itself is set for London in November.

The three most important events in the World Chess Federation calendar are the World Championship match, the Olympiad and the Candidates tournament, all of them biennial. The last of these is now in progress in Berlin and the winner will go on to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the supreme title in London later this year. The first round witnessed some typical nerves which tend to afflict even leading players at the commencement of career-determining competitions.

This weekend the Candidates tournament commences in Berlin to decide the challenger who will face Magnus Carlsen for the world title in London later this year. The favourite is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, with a rating of 2814, and this week’s puzzle shows a sample of his trenchant style. Although he is not the highest-rated, my money is in fact on triple Olympiad gold medallist Levon Aronian (2797), who is capable of reaching great heights when on form. The rest of the field, in rating order, is as follows: Vladimir Kramnik (2800), Wesley So (2799), Fabiano Caruana (2784), Ding Liren (2769), Sergei Karjakin (2763) and Alexander Grischuk (2767).

This year’s tournament at Bunratty in Ireland was the celebratory 25th in the series and I was invited to deliver the closing peroration. The competition was particularly stiff on this occasion, with British champion Gawain Jones sharing first prize with grandmaster Sergey Tiviakov, ahead of Nigel Short, Jon Speelman, Luke McShane and a host of other grandmasters and masters.   To break the tie a sudden death playoff was required, from which Tiviakov emerged the winner. For the key moment see this week’s puzzle. The game I have selected demonstrates the great talent of the female grandmaster Dina Belenkaya, of whom no doubt we shall be hearing much more.

One of the sharpest lines in the Ruy Lopez (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 f5) is widely attributed to Wilhelm Karl Adolf Schliemann (1817-1872), said to be a relative of the Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) who discovered the site of Troy. Now it appears that the variation should in fact be attributed to Carl Jaenisch (1813-1872) since W.K.A.S. in fact advocated something rather different, namely 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Bc5 4 c3 f5. However as Junior Tay, author of the new book The Schliemann: Move by Move (Everyman Chess) points out, the name of Schliemann has stuck and it would take a lot of literary hard labour to undo the misattribution.

A good rule of thumb is to avoid sending off knights to excursions at the edge of the board, where their mobility can be limited. Exceptions exist, of course, in particular where a knight strikes from the extremities to land a decisive blow against the enemy king. A good example arose in a win by Michael Adams, Britain’s best performer in the recently concluded Gibraltar Tradewise Masters. The way in which Adams destroyed his opponent brought to mind some classic examples from the greats in similar vein.   Adams-Grandelius: Gibraltar Masters 2018 (see diagram 1)   Black has attempted to equalise the game by clearing the centre but has carried out this manoeuvre too early and exposed his king to an attack. Rather than recapturing on d5, Adams now played 17 Nh6+! Kh8 17 ...

The Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian has won first prize of £25,000 in the important Tradewise Masters which has just finished in Gibraltar. Britain’s Mickey Adams also shared first place, but due to the exigencies of the tie-breaking system it was Aronian who progressed to the play-off, where he defeated the leading French representative Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.   Here are some extracts from an event which has consistently been voted the world’s best open competition.   Aronian-Hoolt: Gibraltar Masters 2018 (See diagram 1)   Black is a pawn up but White has tremendously active rooks and a juicy square on e5 for the knight. 34 Nf6! This proves remarkably awkward. Black cannot capture as 34 ... gxf6 35 Qxf6+ Rg7 36 Rd7 Reg8 37 Rcc7 wins. 34 ...

Various champions have been accused of hypnotising their opponents, including Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal and, not least, the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen. The respective accusers were the grandmasters and world-title candidates, Efim Bogolyubov, Pal Benko and the relatively recently deceased, Viktor Korchnoi.   The latter was an adept in the dark arts of presumed parapsychology; indeed Korchnoi’s 1978 challenge for the chess crown was dominated by suspicions of paranormal activity. It was evident that Korchnoi simply could not comprehend the magnitude of Carlsen’s successes, finding the quality of his play incompatible with his superlative results.

A remarkable event took place in London towards the end of last year, when the AlphaZero computer program took on one of the leading commercial programs, Stockfish, in a 100-game match. Astonishingly AlphaZero won by the overwhelming score of 28 wins, no losses, with the remainder of the games being drawn. AlphaZero is the brainchild of Demis Hassabis and his team at Deep Mind. I had the pleasure of playing against Demis in a simultaneous display when he was just eight years old. It was absolutely evident that he possessed an extraordinary intellect, and he has gone on to invent revolutionary processes for creating new types of AI. He was awarded CBE in the New Year’s Honours list. In my opinion, he is nearly up there with Newton and Darwin in the pantheon of British geniuses.

‘Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike,’ wrote Alexander Pope about Atticus. Those lines more or less describe the entire tone of the London Classic, which concluded towards the end of last year. Though it was a powerful event, there were too many anodyne draws to stir the blood of either the live audience or the substantial online one. In the first three rounds, there was not one decisive game, while in the clash between Aronian and Karjakin, the latter, as if reluctant to break union rules and actually win a game, agreed a draw in a winning position.   The final scores (out of nine) were as follows: Caruana and Nepomniachtchi 6, Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave and So 5, Nakamura 4½, Aronian 4, Karjakin 3½, Anand and Adams 3.

Although it does not have the prestige of the Classical World Championship (to be staged in London in November), the Rapid and Blitz championships recently concluded in Saudi Arabia carried not just worthy titles, but an impressive overall prize fund of $2 million. Viswanathan Anand emerged victorious in the Rapid, while Magnus Carlsen dominated the Blitz. The only fly in the ointment was the refusal to grant visas to Israeli players, an omission excoriated by Carlsen. This week, key extracts from play in both championships.   McShane-Anand, Riyadh Rapid 2017 (see diagram 1)   The veteran new champion strikes with a bolt from the blue against a leading British grandmaster and winner of the recent UK Knockout Championship. 51 ... Qh3+!

It is traditional that in my first column of the new year I review the previous 12 months and select the most outstanding game played at elite level to receive the accolade of game of the year. This time, there is little doubt that the most spectacular game of 2017 was the win by the Chinese grandmaster (and now World Championship candidate) Ding Liren against Jinshi Bei from the Chinese League. This game has become known as the Chinese Immortal and, as with the original bearer of the immortal accolade, Anderssen-Kieseritsky, London 1851, this game sees a queen sacrifice followed by a devastating attack against the opposing king. Indeed, the closing stages resemble one of the wild king hunts of the 19th century rather than a game between modern experts.

The London Classic is over and full reports in this column will follow in the new year. Meanwhile, we now know the line-up for the World Championship candidates tournament, which is to be staged in Berlin next March and will determine the challenger to Magnus Carlsen for the supreme title. Leading results in the Fidé (World Chess Federation) event in Palma de Mallorca were as follows: 1= Dmitry Jakovenko and Lev Aronian 5½.   The upshot is that the following players now have secure places in the Candidates tournament: Sergei Karjakin, Lev Aronian, Ding Liren, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexander Grischuk, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Vladimir Kramnik.

The English Chess Federation has awarded its Book of the Year prize to Timman’s Titans: My World Chess Champions by Jan Timman (New in Chess). This is a good choice for a present: Timman’s book is aimed at both the expert and the general chess enthusiast, and describes his interactions with many world champions.   A perennial favourite for the committed chess fan is the great series by Garry Kasparov on himself and his predecessors as world champions. This comprises a 12-volume set which analyses his clashes for the title with Anatoly Karpov, Nigel Short and Vladimir Kramnik. This contribution by Kasparov is probably the most significant account ever produced in world chess literature.   This week, Kasparov losing to Jan Timman.

The London Classic gets underway this weekend in Olympia. The line-up is formidable, including the world champion Magnus Carlsen, his predecessor Viswanathan Anand, and Sergei Karjakin, who challenged Carlsen for the title last year. The remaining contestants are as follows: Lev Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Michael Adams.   Carlsen comes fresh from his triumph in St Louis against the elite Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren. In a mixture of fast-play formats Carlsen triumphed by the overall score of 67-25, winning the match with 13 rounds to spare.

Garry Kasparov was without a doubt Alekhine’s creative heir. The 1985-2000 world champion said himself that he became entranced at an early age by Alekhine’s dynamic style, and that he was particularly impressed by Alekhine’s sudden attacks which came like lightning from a clear sky. This week some further examples of Alekhine’s genius, and a clear case where the great man’s influence could be detected in the play of his admirer.   Torres-Alekhine, Simultaneous display, Spain 1922 (see diagram 1)   Black’s next sets up a deadly double check. 28 ... Qxh3! 29 gxh3 Nf2+ 30 Kg1 Nxh3 mate   Alekhine-Colle, Paris 1925 (see diagram 2)   30 Qxd7!

Alexander Alekhine was one of the two world champions (the other being his fellow native Russian Mikhail Botvinnik) who won, lost and regained the supreme title. In fact 2017 represents the 90th anniversary of Alekhine’s victory over the Cuban world champion José Raúl Capablanca at Buenos Aires 1927, and the 80th anniversary of his revenge match against Max Euwe, played on the Dutchman’s home turf, where Alekhine retrieved the title he had lost in 1935. On re-examining Alekhine’s games recently, I was struck by the proliferation of queen sacrifices which characterise his vigorous creative approach, several against the leading exponents of the day.