2011 World Cup: Round #4
August 26th-September 21st, 2011 (Khanty Mansiysk, Russia) Round #4 |
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#
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Name
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Flag
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Nation
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Result
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Name
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Flag
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Nation
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| 1 | Polgar, J |
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HUN | Dominguez, L |
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CUB | |
| 2 | Ivanchuk, V |
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UKR | Bu Xiangzhi |
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CHN | |
| 3 | Zherebukh, Y |
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UKR | Navara, D |
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CZE | |
| 4 | Ponomariov, R |
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UKR | Bruzon, L |
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CUB | |
| 5 | Gashimov, V |
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AZE | Nielsen, P |
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DEN | |
| 6 | Potkin, V |
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RUS | Grischuk, A |
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RUS | |
| 7 | Radjabov, T |
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AZE | Jakovenko, D |
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RUS | |
| 8 | Svidler, P |
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RUS | Kamsky, G |
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USA | |
Official Site: https://chess.ugrasport.com/
Games: Main Site, PGN (TWIC)
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2011/08/25/2011-world-cup-khanty-mansiysk-russia/
To add some more context to this, here’s the September FIDE rankings.
1 Magnus Carlsen 2823
2 Viswanathan Anand 2817
3 Levon Aronian 2807
4 Vladimir Kramnik 2791
5 Sergey Karjakin 2772
6 Veselin Topalov 2768
7 Vassily Ivanchuk 2765
8 Ruslan Ponomariov 2758
9 Alexander Grischuk 2757
10 Gata Kamsky 2756
11 Vugar Gashimov 2756
12 Hikaru Nakamura 2753
13 Teimour Radjabov 2752
14 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2746
15 Boris Gelfand 2746
Judit Polgar 2701, but her performance rating in this particular tourney looks like its in the stratosphere!
Sup Putzer! U maybe right about Maurice Ashley making 2700,actually, now that u mentioned it I can see that happening fairly easily. Hi Adia!, Hi Diamond!, Hi Susan! and turn off that Judge Judy, Susan, im tryin checkin out my lil sista! lol Ultrathanks!!! Peace.
Yes… Judit has done well and is trying to get her career high. She’ll gain maybe a dozen points. She didn’t play her best today.
Go Judit!!!
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Bloodbath! Only two draws on the first day
You would think that the latter rounds would have more draws since the playing levels are more equal but not today. There was a blood bath in Khanty-Mansiysk with 6/8 games being decisive. Navara started out with a clean win over Ukrainian upstart Zherebukh. This has been a good tournament for the 16-year old but he ran into a buzzsaw today. He tried to catch Navara flatfooted, but his attack was easily repelled.
Judit Polgar was beaten by Cuba’s #1 Leinier Dominguez putting her at the brink of elimination. She allowed Dominguez to equalize quickly and began playing strange rook moves to probe the kingside. During this time, her opponent mobilized on the queenside. He also had a central advantage, but the game was blown open when Polgar erred with 44.b4? After 44…Be3 45.Qf3 Rg1+ 46.Kh3 Qg5 and black will deliver checkmate.
Teimour Radjabov played impressively as did Vladimir Potkin in their wins over Dmitri Jakovenko and Alexander Grischuk. Svidler ground down Gata Kamsky and Vugar Gashimov had to show technique in his rook versus bishop ending against Peter Heine Nielsen. Bu-Ivanchuk and Bruzon-Ponomariov were drawn comfortably.
Official Site: https://chess.ugrasport.com/
Games: Main Site, PGN (TWIC)
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2011/08/25/2011-world-cup-khanty-mansiysk-russia/
Judit won a well fought battle that was full of instructive chess for the wanna be grandmaster. A series of tactical and strategical threats from both side that included cleverly hidden motifs such as Polgar’s constant threat on mate in one, which finally paid off after a fatigued Dominguez, who has played the last 6 games consecutively, finally made a mistake and over looked the increased threat of the check mate.
Bravo, Judit, bravo! Tomorrow her comeback to chess gets tested in the rapid playoffs! Good luck, after witnessing the fighting spirit Judit possesses, I can say she deserves to proceed to the next round!
Fascinating technique!!
Judit fan # 2
Bravo, Judit, bravo! Her comeback to chess gets tested in the rapid playoffs! Good luck, I can say she deserves to proceed to the next round!
https://video.ugrasport.com/view/70
https://video.ugrasport.com/view/701
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Polgar wins mammoth fight against Dominguez… Kamsky flames out
Titanic struggle between Polgar and Dominguez.
Photos from https://chess.ugrasport.com/.
In a must-win situation, Judit Polgar was able to convert an exciting victory to force a tiebreak in the fourth round of the 2011 World Cup. In a classic Sicilian battle, both sides marshalled their forces on common squares. Almost immediately, a skirmish resulted when the Cuban uncorked 15.Bxh6!? This may have been ill-advised given that he only needed a draw to advance. However, his sacrificial barrage was parried and they ventured into an endgame. Leinier Dominguez had two rooks and five pawns versus Polgar’s rook, two bishop and three pawns. However, Judit was able to coordinate her bishops and tie her opponent’s pieces down.
Like an attacking goalie or rushing quarterback, the king sprinted up the board.
After that, she marched her king all the way up the board to dominate the passive rook. Note that the white rook on the a-file could not leave or the black rook would swing over to the a-file to weave a mating net. Dominguez had to sacrifice an exchange to release pressure but Polgar got the famous rook and bishop versus rook endgame. Unfortunately for Dominguez, he did not recognize the three-fold repetition that occurred on moves 95, 105 and 107. After that Polgar finished the game in fine technique. (See game)
Ivanchuk-Bu was another complicated Sicilian Najdorf struggle with white going for a frontal attack. Bu got a strong knight on e5, played actively on the queenside and was able to get adequate counterplay. Ivanchuk’s exposed king also prevented him from making any further concessions in his position for an attack. The game ended in a draw. In Navara-Zherebukh, white capitalized off of a lapse of attention after black huddled all of his pieces on the queenside and forgot about the king. Navara played. 26.Bxg6!? exposing the black king and black defended incorrectly and Navara got an overwhelming attack.
Yet another classic Sicilian battle between Ponomariov and Bruzon took place, but the game was dynamically equal throughout. In Nielsen-Gashimov, black played very risky chess and was duly punished. The Dane dominated that game and equalized the match after a bit of resistance from Gashimov. Grischuk took advantage of an oversight by Potkin, pocketed an early exchange and finished the game with a tactical flurry.
Peter Svidler had lots to smile about after his win over Gata Kamsky.
Photos from https://chess.ugrasport.com/.
Gata Kamsky was eliminated after simply being outclassed by Peter Svidler in their mini-match. Billed as the “match of champions” Kamsky was trying to equalize got what appeared to be a promising position, but at a critical moment, played 26.Nxb8?? and after Svidler’s 26…Re2!! white’s position fell like a house of cards with all types of tactical threats on the king. Kamsky will leave the tournament with credible showing while Svidler will move on to play the Polgar-Dominguez winner.
Official Site: https://chess.ugrasport.com/
Games: Main Site, PGN (TWIC)
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2011/08/25/2011-world-cup-khanty-mansiysk-russia/
With the fall of Kamsky (born in USSR) and Nielsen, The only two left that are not representing former Soviet lands are Polgar and Navara. But even they are from former Soviet satellites nations.
… and your point is what?
Mikhail,
Regardless of who would have gone onto the last eight, the media would have tried to give it an Soviet-influenced angle. Since Russia does not dominate in team and individual events anymore, they expand it to “Soviet”. Notice that when a strong player does well, there is an attempt to tie him/her to a Soviet trainer. It’s rather presumptuous.
So the Indominable Lioness Judit Polgar has qualified for the 5th(!) round. I can not understand people who can compare her to any woman chess player around. The Women’s World Champion was eliminated easily in the early rounds, whereas our Judit has fought valiantly through, albeit surviving near falls! Let the great debate take place on the board! Judit has commented that she is often referred in various magazines as the Women’s World Champion (rightly so) and she has to remind them that she is actually the highest rated woman chessplayer. I believe FIDE out to honor her in with some honorary title. Let the great debate begin!
Nobody compares her to any female chess player around, but gender comparisons in chess don’t make much sense anyway. She is simply an elite chess player. The sooner we remove gender classisfications from chess (and destroy those awful titles), the better. Right now she is the highest rated, but not the Women’s champion since she does not compete in the cycle. I don’t believe she’d want such a title. It would defeat her purpose of rejecting women’s titles and tournaments.
Believe it not, our society will always has gender classifications!! Judit’s absence from top level chess has been due to things that affect only women in general, such as pregnancy and motherhood. So why should she not be celebrated as an over-achieving woman/mother? I think FIDE need to induct her into the Chess Hall of Fame or some honorary title of some sort (reason being she has managed to do all the girly stuff and still be as good as gold at her chess). Compare her to Nigel Short who requested not to be invited to the ‘super GM’ tournaments because he could not cope. Having done so, note that Judit never did, (please correct me if I am wrong). For chess fans like me rallying behind Judit because SHE is a girl, let’s continue to support this strong woman chess player, otherwise let’s just support the best chess player Carlsen and forget that the youngest World No. 1 player on the rating list, (i.e. the next step, there is no youth in chess, it is just a mind game so it does not matter if you are a child ‘prodigy’ in this respect, oh yes! let’s rid of these awful titles!). My point stands!
Viva Judit! Viva your Dad for the greatest revelation against gender discrimination in human history! Away with this nonsensical gender classification and YES to affirmative action to redress the wrong.
The Lion Queen ROARS through!
Go Judit, Go Judit, Go Judit………………
I’m sure (besides Judit being a woman), you are saying behind Judit because she is the clear favorite to win this tournament or that she is the rating favorite? I think only that she is a strong woman thats why you say,
Interesting point, if she was doing this without no-one mention that J. Polgar is a woman, would you or Shabazz here wish to mention it to us, in the same manner that we were reminded that Carlsen could have been the youngest World champion had he not withdrawn from the World Championship cycle? Let’s be true people we all support Judit because she is a woman otherwise whilst ridding the nonsensical gender titles why not rid of the ridiculous rating system, given that a 2701 (Polgar) is clearly better than say a 2772 (Karjakin). Otherwise if 2772 means clear favorite then we must without doubt rally behind the player with greatest Elo.
No… Judit is now the lowest-ranked player remaining and while she is not an absolute favorite to win the tournament, her chances are good. It would not be a surprise to me if she wins. To me, she is a world-class player regardless of her gender. However, her gender brings an important historic context… that women do not need special requirements to excel at chess… special titles. The tournaments are fine because they provide opportunities, but there is a reason that the Judit Polgar has always desired to play the strongest competition. There is no way she gets as high as 2735 playing in women’s tournaments. She has already proven that women can play chess at the elite level.
Magnus Carlsen is a totally different story. He is not a guarantee to win the World Championship. In fact, he may not win for several years. He will have to follow the system to get a chance. We currently have a World Champion in Viswanathan Anand, so Carlsen cannot make any claims other than his highest rating for tournament play. There will always be upsets in tournaments and the top player will not always win. Karjakin was by no means a clear favorite to win this tournament despite his rating being the highest. Chess is not so simple and these players have played each other many, many times. With the last eight players, any one of the players can win it.
If you don’t have a rating system (to seed players) what will you use?
Actually I read an interesting article on ratings. It stated that any player 200 ratings points higher than another is expected to win 3 out of every 4 games. Perhaps this holds true statistically over a large number of tournaments and a large number of players. So to extrapolate, comparing Polgar to Karjakin, the 71 point difference just means that Karjakin is supposed to win 2+ games out of 4.
Sure if you only look only at the numbers. This tournament has proven that theory wrong many times. Of course, rating research cannot possibly control for every factor involved in chess. For example, what is the previous score between the Polgar and Karjakin? Which player is in the best form? Who has the best nerves? Samuel Shankland was nearly 200 points LOWER than Peter Leko and won. We know Shankland is not a stronger player than Leko, but he won. Why did he win? Tthere are reasons to explain Leko losing, but they may no be explained merely by looking at rating differences.
I agree the weakness is that it’s only numbers and doesn’t factor in things like matchups…which are huge! If I’m right, an attacker should have more trouble against a lower rated player that is good at disguising defenses than just a lower rated attacker. And higher rated players play differently against lower rated players. If I’m right, they are advised to be patient and allow the lower rated player to make mistakes. But I think the numbers theory is meant to apply better as the number of games goes up; just like rolling snake eyes might not look like 1 in 36 if you’re having a bad day. If you compile the career record of Leko versus Shankland just for the games in which they were separated by 200 points, Leko is theoretically supposed to be in the lead in those games by a factor of 3 out of 4. But if there aren’t enough games satisfying the criteria you won’t see it. Perhaps a better way to see if the theory is right is to look at a single player and his career record over players rated an average of 200 points lower. On day 1 of this tournament, Polgar was supposed to be 3 out of 4 against players averaging 2501 and Karjakin is supposed to be 3 out of 4 against players averaging 2572. It can be looked up if that was approximately true.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
When the smoke cleared, you had a strong eight-player tournament
Vassily Ivanchuk advanced easily by beating Bu Xiangzhi when the Chinese player apparently ran out of steam. Vugar Gashimov Azerbaijan beat Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark in two ten-minute tiebreaks to advance.
Ruslan Ponomariov versus Cuba’s Lazaro Bruzon.
Photos from https://chess.ugrasport.com/.
Ruslan Ponomariov finally vanguished a resilient Lazaro Bruzon after tying in the classical, rapid and 10-minute. After drawing the first five-minute game, the Ukrainian sacrificed a piece in the opening with 15.Nxf5!? and got three pawns for it. Black’s king was also dangerously exposed and while Bruzon got the queens off the board, he had to give up another pawn. White massive four-pawn island would be like a steamroller if black didn’t at least try to halt their advance by either crippling them or sacrificing material back. Bruzon was unable to do this and the pawns crushed his position. Great match!
The other Cuban Leinier Dominguez had one of the most exciting matches, but was unable to get past Judit Polgar.
Leinier Dominguez was also trying to hold the Cuban flag with Bruzon and fought valiant matches. Dominguez match with Judit Polgar was one of missed opportunities. In a now famous game from yesterday, he had good chances to secure at least a draw. He then missed a three-fold repetition.
Today Polgar won the first game only to try the Center Counter when needing a draw. She got a bad position out of the opening and the Cuban came crashing through with 16.Bxf7+! Dominguez could have won more efficiently with 19.Be5 but was able to wrap up the point cleanly.
Judit Polgar has shown tremendous fighting skills.
In the third tiebreak, Polgar played a wierd version of the Sozin Attack and Dominguez quickly got an “absolute winning position” after her 21.Nf5? sortie. Black countered in the center and was firmly on top, but instead of 25…fxe4 he erred with 25…Rg8 and Polgar begin setting an attack in motion.
Slowly creeping into time pressure, Dominguez made a crucial error with 27…Bxf6 and after 28.Nd5! Judit had built an attacking formation. On 28…Qxb2?? the black king fell after 29.Rxh7+ Kg8 30.Qh6 Bd8 31.e5! mating. What a turnaround! Judit was seen with a big sigh of relief after the game. However, she again chose the Center Counter and lost badly.
In the first five-minute tiebreak, Polgar chose the Grand Prix Attack a second time and was close to winning. After a thrilling, pulsating, crowd-pleasing game, the game ended in a draw. The last game was simply a thrashing as Polgar went back to the Sicilian. Dominguez missed the tactical 19…Nxf3! and his position collapsed. The coup de grace 31…Bxb2+! was a nice close to an exciting match… perhaps the best thus far.
Peter Svidler-Judit Polgar
Vassily Ivanchuk-Teimour Radjabov
Alexander Grischuk-David Navara
Vugar Gashimov-Ruslan Ponomariov
Official Site: https://chess.ugrasport.com/
Games: Main Site, PGN (TWIC)
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2011/08/25/2011-world-cup-khanty-mansiysk-russia/
I suggest you organize a Polgar vs Carlsen match. It could be interesting but, it would have absolutely nothing to do with smoking out the best (he-she) player in the world.
As a matter of fact, the best player in the world is the person male or female whoes name affords the prefix World Champion.
For example, 4 times World Champion Visvanathan Anand.
We can clearly see winning (even qualifying for) a World Championship match is much more complex and demanding than sporting a high Elo profile.
Who benefits from all this World NoOne, Worlds highset rated female baloney? No one!
The goal has always been (and always will be) to become the World Champion; which implies being the best player in the world.
In short, there is no guarantee that if Judit were to play in the Women’s World Championships, she’d be the victor. She therefore is not the best female player in history as per quote,
Maybe you need to take a reality check mate!
This debate continues, but most people regard Polgar as the strongest woman player in history by virtue of her results at top level and unmatched performance not by the world crown. She is 100 points over her nearest female competitor.
However, this “female” honor is secondary since her results have proven this. However, she has never won the official title. What is important to me is that she is one of the strongest player ever to live (male or female)… full stop. In the case of the men, Anand has quite a history of winnings that no active player can approach so his strength is not questioned.
Yes… if Judit played in the Women’s championship she would be heavily favored to win. Why? Hou Yifan is simply playing a 2700-level player… and she would lose against any of them (male or female). Even if Judit lost the match, she’d still be considered the strongest ever. As we all remember, Kasparov was regarded as the top player even after losing against Kramnik.
Saying this, we have to begin to look at Judit’s triumph as a great achievement for women and that she can accomplish against the strongest competition the world has to offer. I believe women’s events and titles cripple the development of women’s players The Polgar sisters are still the shining example of how women can excel without the mental intimidation normally experienced by women in large tournaments.