'Coffee Break Chess' No. 27, 23^rd September 2000

Dear Friends!

It seems that there are so many chess events nowadays, that one can have something to write about every day. Recently, I started a weekly chess column for the Irish newspaper ‘Sunday Independent’. At first I was not sure whether I would have enough interesting topics to cover, but now I can see that it’s possible to fill in a daily column! Hence the very short pause between this issue and the previous one.

Tournament news
Vishy Anand was in superb form at the first FIDE World Cup and won it very convincingly. It was a very interesting event to watch and I followed many games live at www.worldchesscup.com. I am becoming more and more in favour of the knockout system. OK, it is tough for players, but they are professionals and should be able to live with the stress. And who said that it is easier to drag on in a long and painful tournament when you are out of form? Is it psychologically easier when everyone looks at you as the only prey around? In this sense knockouts are more ‘human’ – we can actually say about them: "no gain, no pain!" :-). And, it is much more interesting for spectators! Hopefully, events like this will become much more common. Here is Anand’s decisive game in the final:

V. Anand (2762) – E. Bareev (2702)

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Nce2 c5 6.c3 cxd4 7.cxd4 f6

Bareev chose a rare line - usually Black delays taking on d4.

8.Nf4 Bb4+ 9.Bd2 Qb6 10.Bxb4 Qxb4+ 11.Qd2 Qxd2+ 12.Kxd2 Ke7 13.exf6+ gxf6 14.Re1 Nb6 15.Nf3 Nc6?

Perhaps 15...Bd7 would have been better, as now White exchanges his bishop and creates a weak spot on c5.
16.Bb5! Bd7 17.Bxc6! bxc6 18.Re2 Rae8 19.Rhe1 Kf7 20.Kc1

White has a lasting advantage, as he is ready to take control over the weak c5-square. Meanwhile Black’s bishop is passive and his pawn mass is not mobile. 20...Nc4 21.Nd2 Nxd2 22.Kxd2 c5

With this sacrifice Bareev seeks counter-play, as otherwise after Nf4-d3 Black would be very passive. 23.dxc5 e5 (D)

24.Nxd5! Anand sacrifices the exchange. This is better than holding on to the material with 24.Nd3, which would have allowed Black serious counter-play after 24...Bb5 25.f3 Rb8, followed by ...Rhc8.

24...Bb5 25.Kc3 Bxe2 26.Rxe2 Rc8 27.Kc4 Ke6 28.b4 Rhd8 29.Rd2 Rd7 30.f4! e4

After 30...Rcd8 White has 31.c6 Rd6 32.f5+! Kxf5 33.c7 Rc8 34.Ne7+ Ke6 35.Rxd6+ Kxe7 36.Rc6 Kd7 37.Rxf6 Rxc7+ 38.Kd5, and he should win.

31.Rd4 f5 32.g4! Rg7 33.Ne3 fxg4 34.Rd6+ Kf7 35.Nf5 e3 36.Nxg7 Re8 37.Nxe8 e2 38.Rf6+ Black resigned as the pawn ending arising after 38...Ke7 39.Rf5 e1Q 40.Re5+ Qxe5 41.fxe5 Kxe8 is hopeless for him. 1-0

Anand and Shirov will play a short match in Australia
Coverage is at http://sydney.fide.com.

This match is a part of FIDE’s promotion in Sydney. However, it remains to be seen whether chess will actually benefit from joining the Olympics (if we ever join!). Sure, financial support might get better in some countries, but will chess not get lost in such a massive event as the Olympics? What also worries me is that soon we might have drug testing, while nobody has told the players what actually is a drug in chess. Is a cup of coffee too much? What about two cups?

US Championships
This year US Championships were under serious threat – it was possible that the world’s richest nation, which is doing so well economically, will not find money to fund its national championships. Fortunately, GM Seirawan and one of his friends stepped in and saved the event, which will soon start in Seattle. Read Mike Franett’s story in the Chess CafŽ at www.chesscafe.com/franett/franett.htm

Another interesting event to watch is the Najdorf Memorial in Buenos Aires. You can find the news at its official site: http://www.adrian.roldan.com. At the moment Bologan and Karpov are in the lead. See coverage also at http://msoworld.com/mindzine/news/chess/najdorf2000.html.

I did not go to the Mind Sports site for a long time, but now I see that they have lots of chess content. This can be said about many sites nowadays - I think chess on the Web has matured a lot in the last year or so. For example, www.chessbase.com looks very good now. By the way, Chess Base recently released a new version of its main product – Chess Base 8.0. I have been working for Chess Base for more than 5 years now and used their program even longer! Their Chess Base Magazine is pretty good, and I do its tactical review.

Here is one tactical puzzle:

Black to play

See the answer at the end of this article.

Another site to watch

InterChess Club - http://www.interchess.com. Of course, it is hard to compete with ICC, which provides an excellent service, but the Moscow playing zone is consistently improving their site.

Looking for a tournament to play in October?
I can recommend two events: Monarch Assurance Open in the Isle of Man (16-22 October; http://charteris.co.uk/events.html) and the Bavarian Open in Bad Wiessee (28 October - 5 November; http://www.schach-am-tegernsee.de/oib2000). As for me, in October I will play in a strong open in the Faeroe Island. Then I will travel to Istanbul with the Irish team. After that I will play in the Norkom Open in Kilkenny. Early next year I plan to take part in a few tournaments in the USA. Apart from playing, I’ll be working on the Internet, where I will have some very interesting news coming soon for you - stay tuned! BTW, drop me a note about what you would like to see in the CBC – I always appreciate your feedback!

Solution of the tactical puzzle: In the game S. Sergienko – A. Rustemov, Samara 2000, Black played 39...Qh2+! and White resigned in view of 40.Nxh2 Ng3# What a pretty finish!

Alexander Baburin, Dublin http://www.gmsquare.com/Baburin/ & http://www.gmsquare.com/chessauction

Technical support
I am very grateful to Igor Yagolnitser for his help with this project. For assistance regarding CBC, please contact Igor at igor@yagolnitser.com. Also, many thanks to Nidal Aker for proofreading this issue.