The preliminary chess tournament to decide the candidates for participation in the National Championships begins next Sunday at the St Stanislaus College on Brickdam.
The tournament, an eight-round swiss system event, will be conducted separately in the Junior and Senior categories. Each game will be of two hours duration, thereby giving each player one hour on his clock to complete the game.
In the Senior category, the top seven finishers of the tournament will join national champion Kriskal Persaud in a double round-robin tournament for the National Champion-ships which begin in one month’s time. Kriskal has automatic qualification for the nationals as the current national champion.
Eight players, however, will go forward for the Juniors, because last year’s champion, Ronald Roberts, is not eligible to play in this category any longer. The time limit of two hours per game will also apply for the junior players. The schedule for the preliminary tournament is as follows:
Sunday, October 12 —— 3 games. Begins at 9.30 am
Saturday, October 18 —— 2 games. Begins at 2 pm
Sunday, October 19 —— 3 games. Begins at 9.30 am
The games will all be played at St Stanislaus College and all chess players are invited to participate.
Following this preliminary tournament and the National Championships, the Guyana Chess Federation in association with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, will be hosting a National Schools Championship in December. It will be the first time that a National Schools Chess Championship will be held in Guyana. Also in December, a simultaneous exhibition in the Main Street avenue will be held. Whoever wins the National Championships of Guyana will be awarded the enviable distinction of conducting the exhibition.
In international chess news, world champion,Vishy Anand is preparing to defend his title in less than two weeks against Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik. The championship match will be played in Bonn, and eight games will be contested.
Recently, Anand gave an interview to Der Spiegel in which he said he has been studying his opponent since April. He noted that for the last 20 years, Kramnik has played thousands of games.
If you show Anand a position from one of those games, ninety per cent of the time he would be able to tell you which game it came from. But Anand was quick to add that one should not conclude that he can see through his opponent. He contended that he expected Kramnik to surprise him and logically, vice-versa.
Anand said he is studying Kramnik 10 hours per day, every day. He is constructing game plans and trying to neutralise positions in which his opponent is strong. Obviously, Kramnik is doing the same with his games, he said.
In 2000, Kramnik became world champion by defeating Kasparov in London, but has since lost the title.
Morozevich v Polgar
This game is taken from the Mainz classic 2008 which was held July-August in Germany. Black has the better endgame but could not translate the advantage into a win. The players agreed to a draw.
Morozevich, A (2788) – Polgar, Ju (2711)
13th Grenke Leasing Rapid WCh 3rd-4th Mainz GER (3), 3.8.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 c5 4.d5 d6 5.Nc3 exd5 6.cxd5 g6 7.e4 Bg7 8.h3 0-0 9.Bd3 a6 10.a4 Nbd7 11.0-0 b6 12.Re1 Qe7 13.Bf4 Ne8 14.Qd2 Ne5 15.Nxe5 dxe5 16.Be3 f5 17.exf5 gxf5 18.Bg5 Qf7 19.Bh6 Nd6 20.a5 b5 21.Bxg7 Qxg7 22.Qe3 c4 23.Bc2 Re8 24.Qc5 Qe7 25.Re3 f4 26.Re2
26…Bxh3!? 27.gxh3 Rec8 28.Qa3 b4 29.Qxb4 Kh8 30.Ne4 Qg7+ 31.Kh2 Rg8 32.f3 Nf5 33.Qd2 Nd4 34.Rf2 Raf8 35.Raf1 Rd8 36.Qd1 Nf5 37.Rg1 Qh6 38.Rfg2 Rxg2+ 39.Rxg2 Ne3 40.Qg1 Nxg2 41.Qxg2 Rxd5 42.Qg4 Rd8 43.h4 Qg6 44.Qxg6 hxg6 45.b3 cxb3 46.Bxb3 Rd3 47.Bc4 Rxf3 48.Bxa6 Ra3 49.Bb7 Rxa5 50.Ng5 Kg7 51.Be4 Ra3 52.Kg2 Rg3+ 53.Kf2 Re3 54.Kg2 Kh6 55.Bf3 Kg7 56.Be4 Kf6 57.Nh7+ Kf7 58.Ng5+ Kg7 59.Kf2 Rg3 60.Bf3 Kh6 61.Nf7+ Kg7 62.Nxe5 Rh3 63.h5 gxh5 64.Nd3 Rh2+ 65.Kg1 Rh4 66.Kg2 Kf6 67.Nc5 . DRAW AGREED. 1/2—1/2.
