Shirov
This year Wijk Aan Zee tournament victory went for Magnus Carlsen. As related in other posts he is going to be ruling chess for some time, specially is Kasparov is to be his long term trainer.
In spite of Carlsen victory the tournament started with a Spanish player on top, with 5 victories in a row Alexei Shirov lead the table and got the headlines around the world. At this momente he was 1.5 points ahead of runner up. Most players in this situation would have played defensive chess, easy opennings aiming for quick draws. Not the spaniard, he’s well known for creative and visually attractive chess, not sure he’s capable of playing for draw.
At the end Shirov finished second, but he had chances to win the tournament on his last game. Short of time he did not manage to see the fairly easy continuation on his game agains Cuban GM Lenier Dominguez.
Below is the game in question, can you find the appropiate continuation? (Shirov only had 20 seconds in the clock for the next 10 moves).
I London Chess Classic
The tournamente was played from the 8th to 15th of December of 2009. Its highest rated players being Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik. Chance had it they’ll battle each other on first round.
I have been following Magnus from some time since he appeared ocasionally as tournament winner as a child, being from Norway he was blond, pale and “cute” making the victory look like an impossible acomplishment.
As tournament winner he will be the first ever highest rated player on his teens. He will probably not lose the spot frequently from now on. Off course things would been different if he were born in Indonesia or Bolivia but petrol rich Norway nourished him. I for once am grateful for it.
Carlsen is not a very attacking player, he’s not Shirov or Morozevich. That does not mean he’s a pushover, once doesn’t get to win tournaments letting chances pass by. In my opinion he rather builds preassure slowly and playes a very balanced game. The game below was not about sacrifices and mate threads, as most chess game aren’t, it’s about accurate defence. Off course I do not understand in depth the implications and variants of half the moves over the board, nor do you or the person doing comments for this matter, however we all like it, as we can glimpse from time to time some of the tactics and strategy going inside their brilliant heads. Please enjoy, the bloke was born in the 90′s so we could have many more to come.
VIDEO: I London Chess Torunament. Carlsen vs Kramnik. 1st Round
Chess and Women
We could start arguing first if chess can be considered a Sport, or just a game. I believe this is a semantic problem. It would take us too far from today’s topic so for the time being let’s assume it is a non physical sport.
As with most other sports they are played mainly by males. We could argue this is because of the physical nature of sports has more appeal to them. However chess isn’t a strength or stamina game, so there may be some other explanation.
There are two main arguments explaining male-female behaviour differences, once accepting there are any. The first one is genetic, it usually takes us back to our animal background, when we were hunter nomads living in caves and how males went off searching pray while females took care of children. The second argument is educational, girls are different because they are educated and live in societies which teach them to act as girls and so do behave as their mothers, likewise for males.
Going back to chess, there may be a bit of both. Notice girls do not play better or worst than males. If you were to take a random sample of 500 players from the top 10.000 it will not be far off the current sample of female players. The main issue here is with the amount of girls playing chess at all levels.
Social stigma? Sure, it is easier to play a sport or a game if some of your friends do. But chess isn’t really that popular so most chess players do not have many friends playing it in the first place. In truth most chess clubs have none or few females so it is understandable they could be intimidated.
Lack of coverage in the media? That could well explain why girls do not play basketball, there isn’t Michal Jordan there. However, how many times do we see a chess player on TV? Who can name more than 10 current chess players? Ok, maybe you could, but you’re reading this post in the first place, so you’re not the average Joe, are you?
Our Hunter background? maybe, chess can be a slow game and it requires a great deal of concentration, maybe female mind is more suited for multi-tasking. Also best chess players tend to peak around their teens, so there could be something about different adolescence (earlier for girls).
Judith Polgar
Judit Polgar is by far the best chess player of our time, and quite likely the all time best. Here is a video with a chess problem she composed aged 4. White to move and checkmate in two (video link below)