The Gibraltar and Moscow opens were strong, well-organised and wonderfully presented . But they were overshadowed by a non-event - a cancellation. London withdrew its bid to host the world title match in May 2012.
Chess Promotions Limited (CPL), the sponsors of the London Classic, had made a 2 million Euro bid in July 2010, with an "acceptance date" of January 29th,2011. Negotiations fell through and the bid has been withdrawn.
Blame-gaming open letters are now doing the rounds. Fide VP Israel Gelfer, Fide VP claims the withdrawal of Magnus Carlsen was a deal-breaker. CPL was also allegedly unwilling to match Sofia in terms of post-tax prize fund. There is some speculation India may come up an alternative offer.
The Candidates will be played in Kazan, Russia in May 2011.
The winner of Topalov Vs Kamsky plays the winner of Gelfand vs Mamedaryov for one final spot.
The winner of Kramnik vs Radjabov plays the winner of Aronyan vs Grischuk for the other spot.
The first match and semis are 4 long games and the finals will be six games. Tiebreaks start with 4 games of 25 minutes (+ 10 seconds increment), followed by up to 10 (!) games at 5 minutes + 3-second increment . A final Armageddon will have 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black (who has draw odds), with 3-second increment from move 61.
Gibraltar was a tour de force for Ivanchuk, who scored 9 from 10 (+8,=2) for a 2968 tournament performance rating (TPR) . Nigel Short got 8.5 points (TPR 2883). Short's loss to Ivanchuk decided 1-2 with a Short a point ahead of the field!.
The Moscow Open had over 500 players, plus an invitational round robin, and a women's invitational RR.
The Open was won by the 17-year-old Vladimir Belous. Belous is rated 2497 and untitled. He scored 8/ 9 (TPR 2735). We'll hear more from him As usual, Moscow is followed by the even-stronger Aeroflot Open.
The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (Ivanchuk Vs Fridman, Gibraltar 2011) is from the final round and black has just made his only serious error with 22.— Ra8-c8. Instead 22.—Rff8 gave him a chance to contest the d-file.
It looks even but Ivanchuk won smoothly with 23.Rd2 c4 24.Rad1 Rff8 25.h3 Rfe8 26.Qe4 Qc6 27.Qc2 c3 28.Rd6 Qc4 29.bxc3 Qxc3 30.Qe4 Qc4 31.Qxb7 Qxa2 32.Rg6 Rg8 33.Rxg7
The machines say 33. Rdd6 and 33. Rxh6+ also win but this requires the least calculation. Black responded 33. - Qc2 34.Rxg8+ Rxg8 35.Rd6 Qh7 36.Qc6 Qb1+ 37.Kh2 Qf5 38.Rf6 Qg5 39.Rxh6+ Kg7 40.Rd6 (1-0). The forced line 40. - Rf8 41. Rd7+ Rf7 42. Qe6 Rxd7 43. Qxd7+ and Qxa7 leaves absolutely nothing to chance and there may be quicker kills.
