The Sofia MTel Super GM has Carlsen and Shirov tied at the top with 4.5 points from 7 games. Veselin Topalov is 4. Both leaders are unbeaten. There are five rounds to go so, plenty of time for the standings to change.
The whipping boy has been Vassily Ivanchuk who has had a terrible 2009 with several poor performances interpolated with one good result (Joint first at Linares). He’s dropped from no:3 to no:12 since January. At Sofia, he’s lost 4 games so far including two with awful blunders.
Garri Kasparov recently commented, “Unfortunately for Ivanchuk and the chess world, his angels travel arm-in-arm with demons. Tragic time management and inexplicable blunders, you never know what to expect.”
One possible factor is tiredness. Ivanchuk plays continuously, far more often than most top players. At age 40, he may no longer have the energy required. Perhaps it’s time for him to take a break, recharge batteries, work on clock management, etc.
UEP President Josef Resch and Fide President Kirsan Illyumzhinov have released their alternate versions of the breakdown of sponsorship negotiations for the 2011 title cycle. Resch asserts in a Sports Express (SE is a high-circulation Russian magazine) interview that negotiations broke down over the size/ display of logos and accused Fide functionary Geoffrey Borg of deliberately throwing a spanner in the works.
Kirsan immediately responded in SE that it was more about principle and defended Borg, though he admits logo-display was indeed central to the dispute. He’s set a deadline on mid-June for finding a sponsor. Interestingly, both Resch and Kirsan say nice things about each other. There is little fear of misquotes since both are native Russian speakers (Resch is of German-Ukrainian descent). Perhaps this exchange will clear the air and let Fide-UEP get back to the negotiating table.
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Meanwhile Rybka took the triple crown at the World Computer Chess Championships in Pamplona, Spain. “Ms Fish” (Rybka is a female fish in Russian, Polish, Serbian) won the 8-core section, the no-limits section (using a 52-core cluster) and the blitz (8-core). Deep Sjeng, Shredder and Junior were the nearest challengers in various categories.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (Rybka – Shredder. Computer Olympiad Pamplona 2009) is from the unlimited section. Rybka made an innovative rook-life Re4-h4 in a Spanish Berlin. Now the 52-core monster goes berserk with 19.Nd5! c6 20.Rxe6! Qxe6 21.Nf4 Qxa2 22.Rxh7 cxb5. 23.g3!
Black is way up on material. White needs to stop the back rank threats. It's scarcely credible but white is winning and can afford this loss of time due to the queen-side traffic jam 23...Rf6 24.Bc3 Kf7 25.Qh4 Qa1+ 26.Kg2 Qa6 27.Bxf6 Qxf6 28.Qh5+ (1-0). Black resigned due to 28.Qh5+ Ke7 29.Nd5+ winning the queen.
