John Wong's blog

I just added John's Chess Food for Thought to my blog list. I do not know why I missed adding it for so long. Maybe John is not so good at self-promotion unlike some other bloggers I know.

John is a chess coach across the Causeway (that's Singapore for those less acquainted with the region). He blogs from the point of view of a trainer and writes some interesting posts. His latest post is on his satisfaction seeing how his students have improved after training with him.

Thoughts on Penang Open

A bunch of Pinoy second liners descended on the island. None of them would be considered a contender for any future Philippine olympiad team. Yet they swept most of the top prizes.

We had two members of the 2010 olympiad team competing but with six points each they could only join a big group tie for 6th to 15th placing. They had the best placing amongst the locals.

Our other players capable of fighting for the top prize - Nicholas Chan, Mok Tze Meng and Ronnie Lim (who recently made his 1st IM norm at this year's Malaysian Open) were nowhere in sight. It is quite simple to deduce that their work does not permit them to play. It is a shame especially for Ronnie as Penang is his home state.This is the sad fact for us - first studies and than work will put an end to our players chess career.

Further down the list, I spotted two juniors whom I have been keeping an eye on. I first got to know them during a training camp organized couple of months ago. They are Low Jun Jian and Tan Jun Feng. Jun Feng is the older brother of Tan Li Ting. Both only scored four points but I think they have potential to become the next batch of strong juniors. These three need a good trainer to work with them to realize their potential.

The last mention is Yeoh Li Tian who scored five points. There is so much expectations from this young kid that this result can be considered a failure. His best result was at this year's K.L. Open. Following on was the Malaysian Open and now this tournament. Looking at the opposition and his results in these three tournaments, my opinion is that his game is not improving. For such a young player, this is of concern for this is the time when he should be making leaps and bounds in strength.

There are other juniors playing but as I have not worked with any of them and therefore know little about them, I cannot comment on their performance.

Zero to Hero

Here is something you do not see very often. In a Swiss tournament in Italy, with several grandmasters taking part, a 2149 rated untitled player ties for first place ,takes the trophy on tie-breaks and makes a IM norm in the process.

Pos	Title	Name	Rtg	PRtg	Fed	Pts
1	--	Herman Matthew J	2149	2571	USA	6.5
2	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2563	2570	UKR	6.5
3	GM	Tratar Marko	2492	2464	SLO	6.5
4	GM	David Alberto	2587	2438	LUX	6.5
5	GM	Salvador Roland	2527	2515	PHI	6.5
6	IM	Bellia Fabrizio	2399	2496	ITA	6
7	IM	Colovic Aleksandar	2457	2513	MKD	6
8	GM	Marin Mihail	2562	2426	ROU	6
9	IM	Saric Sinisa	2452	2395	SRB	6
10	--	Mertens Heiko	2320	2472	GER	6
11	IM	Tesic Dragan	2403	2395	SRB	6
12	GM	Drazic Sinisa	2524	2459	SRB	5.5
13	IM	Borgo Giulio	2414	2363	ITA	5.5
14	FM	Damia Angelo	2302	2382	ITA	5.5
15	IM	Vezzosi Paolo	2379	2266	ITA	5.5
16	--	Garano Nicola	2171	2270	ITA	5.5
17	--	Lapiccirella Daniele	2225	2344	ITA	5.5
18	--	Iudicello Giovanni	2158	2283	ITA	5.5
19	FM	Sbarra Marco	2312	2221	ITA	5.5
20	--	Gagliardi Christian	2188	2291	ITA	5.5

His list of opponents -

Rd	Colour	Title	Opponent	Rating	Result
1	W	GM	David Alberto	2587	1
2	B	IM	Manca Federico	2405	0
3	W	--	Agrifoglio Fabio	1999	1
4	W	--	Garano Nicola	2171	1
5	B	IM	Saric Sinisa	2452	1
6	W	IM	Borgo Giulio	2414	1
7	B	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2563	0.5
8	B	GM	Marin Mihail	2562	0.5
9	W	GM	Tratar Marko	2492	0.5

Unfortunately for him, this was only an IM norm result as he played two low rated players in the third and fourth round. Nevertheless, this kind of performance is every 2200 rated player dream. I really hope our Malaysian players can read this and be inspired to achieve something similar.

Lim Chong has passed away

I just got a call from Hamid informing that Lim Chong has passed away, apparently on a flight back from London. This is very shocking news as he is only in his fifties and looked well when I last met him at this year's DATMO.

We have all lost another friend of chess.

R.I.P. my friend.

Aronian takes World Blitz

Levon Aronian won the 2010 World Blitz Championship, a twenty player double-round robin tournament. He finished just half a point ahead of Teimour Radjabov. Magnus Carlsen was third and trailed Radjabov by just half a point.

No.	Title	Name	Fed.	FIDE	Total
1	GM	Aronian, Levon	ARM	2801	24.5
2	GM	Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	2744	24
3	GM	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2802	23.5
4	GM	Gelfand, Boris	ISR	2741	21.5
5	GM	Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2741	21.5
6	GM	Karjakin, Sergey	RUS	2760	20.5
7	GM	Kramnik, Vladimir	RUS	2791	20.5
8	GM	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE	2763	19.5
9	GM	Svidler, Peter	RUS	2722	19.5
10	GM	Eljanov, Pavel	UKR	2742	19
11	GM	Grischuk, Alexander	RUS	2771	19
12	GM	Mamedov, Rauf	AZE	2660	18
13	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	RUS	2720	18
14	GM	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA	2703	18
15	GM	Movsesian, Sergei	SVK	2721	17.5
16	GM	Andreikin, Dmitry	RUS	2683	17.5
17	GM	Grachev, Boris	RUS	2654	16.5
18	GM	Savchenko, Boris	RUS	2632	15.6
19	GM	Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	2709	13.5
20	GM	Ponomariov, Ruslan	UKR	2744	12.5

Although the first three positions were very close, I felt Aronian is a worthy winner. His game were generally solid and in blitz where everybody blunders he just did less of that.

Radjabov's second placing came with a seven games win out of the last eight games. Kramnik lost his last two games to stay out of contention for the top placings.

Chess playing robot

Not a robot as we usually think of it. But a robot arm that can move the pieces and even press the clock. It is probably linked to a chess playing software , the mechanical arm is really just programmed to do just that - mechanical action. There is no real intelligence there. My guess is that there is a software that interprets the input from the chess program and sends the appropriate signal to the robotic arm.

Actually this is nothing new, robotic mechanisms like this can be found in any modern factory. The novelty is in introducing it into the chess setting. For some reason I found the movements very amusing especially when the robot presses the clock!

Notice in the video how Kramnik tries to fool the program. He moves his a7 pawn in between a7 and a6. Maybe it is pawn to a6.5. That really froze the program :)

I can imagine the robot reprimanding its opponent somewhere in its circuitry :)

At another point, Kramnik extends his hand and offers a draw only to quickly retract - his hand that is. You do not want to get in the way when that giant arm swings into action.

Watch the video here Kramnik versus robot arm

And if that is not enough to give you the shivers, here is the robot giving a simultaneous display robotic simul

2010 World Blitz Championship

The 2010 World Blitz Championship is now on-going in Moscow. Twenty of the best players in the world have been invited to this annual event. I think the only top players missing are Anand and Ivancuk.

The event will be held over three days from 16th-18th November 2010. This is a double round robin event meaning a mammoth 38 rounds. Yesterday fourteen rounds were played. Another fourteen today and the rest on Thursday 18th November.

Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian are leading after 14 rounds. Standings after 14 rounds:

No.	Title	Name	Fed.	FIDE	Total
1	GM	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2802	10
2	GM	Aronian, Levon	ARM	2801	10
3	GM	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE	2763	9.5
4	GM	Kramnik, Vladimir	RUS	2791	8.5
5	GM	Svidler, Peter	RUS	2722	8.5
6	GM	Gelfand, Boris	ISR	2741	8
7	GM	Eljanov, Pavel	UKR	2742	7.5
8	GM	Karjakin, Sergey	RUS	2760	7.5
9	GM	Grischuk, Alexander	RUS	2771	7.5
10	GM	Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2741	7.5
11	GM	Radjabov, Teimour	AZE	2744	7
12	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	RUS	2720	6.5
13	GM	Caruana, Fabiano	ITA	2709	6.5
14	GM	Ponomariov, Ruslan	UKR	2744	6.5
15	GM	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA	2703	6
16	GM	Grachev, Boris	RUS	2654	5.5
17	GM	Movsesian, Sergei	SVK	2721	5
18	GM	Andreikin, Dmitry	RUS	2683	5
19	GM	Savchenko, Boris	RUS	2632	4.5
20	GM	Mamedov, Rauf	AZE	2660	3

The time control is three minutes and two seconds increment for every move. You might think it is hard to blunder with such increments but it happens to even the best of them.

Vachier Lagrave - Magnus Carlsen, After 67.Rc8

 Carlsen has an extra pawn though he is about to lose his c3 pawn in exchange for white's h6 pawn. The game should be drawn as Black cannot queen his last pawn in this ending as White will simply sacrifice his knight for the pawn at the right moment leading to a drawn RvR+N ending.

But something possessed Carlsen and he proceeded to lose with 67...Ne4?? allowing white to push his h-pawn. 68. h7 c2 69.Rxc2 Rxc2 70. h8=Q Rc6 71. Qe5+ Kd8 72. Ne6+ Kd7 73. Nd4 Rc5 74. Qe6+ Kc7 75.
Nxf5 1-0

Against Boris Gelfand, Carlsen in a winning position surprisingly lost on time. Despite these two setbacks, he won nine and drew two games to finish at the top.

The surprise is Hikaru Nakamura who is generally acknowledged as one of the best blitz player alive today. He lost six games to position on tenth.


Here is a selection of games:

16th Asian Games

Chess will be included in the 16th Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, China next month. The tournament will start on 13th November to 26th November. There will be individual as well as team events with four gold medals at stake. I suppose that means there will be men and women sections for each event.

As usual, our Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) is silent on this. I think both Mas and Mok are the only sure bets for the individual event. Maybe they will send the 2010 Olympiad team?

China is very strong in WeiQi (Go) and Xiangxi (Chinese Chess) so there is no surprise to see that both these games also feature in the Games.

Carlsen loses again, Kramnik leads

What's up with Magnus Carlsen this days? First a really poor performance at the Olympiad, losing three games. Now two consecutive loses in as many rounds at Bilbao.

Granted, this is a very strong field but still this is something unexpected from the highest rated player today. This is only a six round tournament, so there is no way he can make a comeback. Unless he wins his next four games. I'm a Carlsen fan but even so, I cannot believe that is possible.

Kramnik is in great form as he won another game by beating Shirov. So the current standings are:

1. Kramnik 6 points
2. Anand 4 points
3. Shirov 1 points
4. Carlsen 0 points

The third round sees Anand playing against Kramnik. This should be interesting to see what Anand else he has in his repertoire for Kramnik.

Bilbao begins

The 2010 Bilbao Masters begins with World Champion Anand, World Number 1 Carlsen, Kramnik and Shirov playing a double-round robin.

Each player will meet the other three players twice. Bilbao rules are in place which means you better win some games. Wins scores three points, draw is one and a loss ... is a loss.

Watching four guys play is pretty boring if none of the games get interesting. So far nothing much to follow and I believe both the games will be drawn. Yawn.