The 1st ACP (Association of Professional Chess Players), Rapid chess tournament took place at Odessa, one of the most important cities of Ukraine, from the 4th to 8th of this month. Although some of the sheen of this tournament was lost due to the absence of the 3 top most players, Topalov(former World Champion) , Anand (a specialist in rapid games) and Kramnik (the present World Champion) ; the quality of play from the rest of the participants was excellent.

Of the 16 participants, Grand Masters Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Gelfand, Leko stood out as the favourites to win, so also was the fiery Grand Master Shirov. The young brigade was led by Radjabov , Nakamura , and India’s own Pentala Harikrishna.

The tournament lived up to the expectations of the audiences world-wide and as anticipated, Leko and Ivanchuk , after the very arduous elimination rounds, entered into the finals.



With his habitual “not so furious” and solid style, the Hungarian Grand Master Peter Leko proceeded to neutralize the first game with black pieces and , later to took maximum advantage with white pieces to win the championship.

Let us see how he did it….

Leko, Peter (2749) - Ivanchuk, Vasily (2750)

Title Match : 1st ACP Rapid chess tournament , Odessa, 2007

1.e4 Nf6 [Although Ivanchuk is a player who prides himself of having a great diversity in his openings and defenses, the Alekhine’s defense is one which he uses very rarely. His favourites being 1… c5; and 1… e5]

2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.exd6 cxd6 [This is not a well known move in theory. The move which enjoys a better reputation being 5… exd6]

6.Nc3 g6 7.Be3 Bg7 8.Rc1 0-0 9.b3 a5 [One of the main lines here is 9 … e5 10.dxe5 dxe5 11.Qxd8 Rxd8 12.c5 N6d7 13.Bc4 with a negligible advantage for black.]

10.Be2 Na6 11.Nf3 Bd7 12,0-0 Rc8 [This is a new move by Ivanchuk. The book move played on several occasions being 12 … e6 and after 13.Qd2 with idea of Bh6, white obtains an advantage.]

13.Qd2 a4 14.Rfe1 axb3 15.axb3 Re8 16.Bh6 Bh8 17.h4! [ With this move white tries to attack in the King side, where the Black’s defense is weak. In order to avoid this Ivanchuk will have to open up the center, which is indeed what Leko is hoping for.]

17… e5 18.dxe5 dxe5 19.Bg5 f6 [ This is a Forced move and further weakens the defense on the King side for black. If Black were to play 19… Qc7 20.Nb5 Bxb5 (If 20… Qb8 21.Nd6 loses a rook for a knight) 21.cxb5 Nc5 22.b4 and white gains a piece. ; Or if 19… Bf6 20.Bxf6 Qxf6 21.Ne4 Qe7 22.Nd6 again gaining a rook for the knight.]

20.Be3 [White is already in an overwhelmingly strong position.]

20… Nc5 21.Bxc5 Rxc5 22.b4! Rxc4 [With this sacrifice black tries to free himself of some of the pressure which he is being put under. Worse would have been 22… Rc8 23.c5 Na8 24.Ne4]

23.Bxc4+ Nxc4 24.Qd5+ Be6 25.Qxb7 [The game is already decided by now.]

25… Qb8 26.Qc6 Bf7 27.Nd5 Nd6 28.Nc7 Rd8 29.Red1! Qxb4 [If 29… Nf5 30.Rxd8+ Qxd8 31.b5 and it will be difficult to stop the ‘b’ pawn]

30.Na6 Qa3 31.Qc7 Rc8 32.Qxd6 Rxc1 [ And Ivanchuk resigned at the same time in view of 33. Qxa3 ] 1-0.

Giant chess pieces carved from ice sit on a chessboard in Trafalgar Square in central London on Wednesday. A live chess game was held between London and Moscow to launch the London Russian Winter Festival which is on Saturday.

The first Grand Slam tournament in tennis, The Austalian Open begins on the 15th of this month. All Indians must be eagerly awaiting the moment when Sania Mirza blasts her way through the early rounds and hopefully go farther than any Indian women in tennis history. But most of us would not know that there is another sport in which an Indian would be participating this month with a very good chance of capturing the crown.

I am talking bout the Grand Slam tournament of Chess, the Corus Chess Championship 2007 which will begin in the quaint old town of Wijk aan Zee ( A poem on this town) in Holland, beginning on the 12th. The tournament is held every year in the second week of January and it is the custom that the best chess players of the world take part in this season opener.

This year the participants include last year's Champion and our very own Grand Master Vishwanathan Anand of India, runner up on tie-break and current world number 1, GM Veselin Topalov of bulgaria, and the current World Champion GM Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. They will be given company by the likes of GM Levon Aronian, GM Teymour Radjabov,GM Peter Svidler,GM Ruslan Ponomariov,GM David Navara,GM Alexey Shirov,GM Magnus Carlsen,GM Loek van Wely,GM Sergey Tiviakov,GM Sergey Karjakin and GM Alexander Motylev. This year it is a category 19 tournament with an Average Elo rating of 2719.

In last years edition Vishwanathan Anand secured an amazing win in the last round to claim the trophy on tie-breaks from the then world champion Veselin Topalov. The Indian grandmaster has an amazing record at this tournament having won it as many as 5 times beginning in 1989,1998,2003,2004 and last year. Anand is currently ranked number 2 in the world and has been quietly gearing up for this tournament. With much of the Media focus likely to be on Topalov and Kramnik, Anand may find it easier to concentrate on his chess and claim yet another victory at this tournament.

PS: Just a reminder that the Corus group, for which the Indian Steel Giant TATA and Brazilian giant CSN groups are bidding, are the title sponsors for this tournament.

In what was one of the biggest stories in chess for the year 2006,Grand Master Gata Kamsky returned to the chess fold after a prolonged hibernation in the field of Medicine.

The Russian-American GM, Kamsky, returned to professional chess after almost ten years of absence. Born on the 2 of June,1974,at the cold Siberian town of Novokusnetsk, he grew up with his father Rustam, an ex-boxer who could not support himself on his sport, but now saw the possibility of becoming rich at the cost of the talent of his son. His Violent methods forced his wife to run away, making Kamsky a child without a mother. He was a young prodigy, who by the age of just 2 years knew to read and to write, and later would show to the world his great talent for music and chess, his greatest passion. At the age of 14 he moved with his father to the United States of America and became a US citizen. He rapidly progressed in the field of chess and at the tender age of 15 became a Grand Master.


Making rapid strides he became the best player of the United States and even occupied a place in the select group of the Top Ten Grand Masters of the world. At the age of 20 he already began to play the Candidates tournament to challenge for the world-wide title, and in 1996 he made it to the last round where he lost to the Russian GM and former world championAnatoly Karpov. Then he took the drastic decision to retire from chess to pursue a career in Medicine, when he was just 22. His father obviously wasn't happy with this decision and led to an estrangement between them.

So after 10 years he returned to his passion, Chess. His first comeback tournament was the Wijk aan Zee (corus) tournament where he created quite a few scares, particularly giving a very hard time to Vishy Anand, his old sparring partner. He played a few extra ordinary games showing why he was rated as one of the most promising and frightening players of the 1990's, before finishing the tournament in 13th place.

His most notable performance since his return has been to finish 2nd behind Veselin topalove at the M-Tel Masters event. Soon after, Kamsky led the US team to the bronze medal at the International Chess Olympiad at Turin. On July 4, 2006, he tied for first place with nine others at the World Open, winning about $7000.



Kramnik-Kamsky, World Championship Quarter-Finals Match, New York 1994 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.g3 O-O 5.Bg2 c5 6.O-O Nc6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Qe7 9.Nc2 (White allows Black to ruin his pawn structure, and soon sacrifices one of his weak c-pawns. He hopes that his two bishops will give him sufficient compensation, but will find that he is unable to use them effectively.) Bxc3 10.bxc3 Rd8 11.Ba3 d6 12.Rb1 Qc7 13.Nd4 Nxd4 14.cxd4 Qxc4 15.Qd2 Qa6 16.Rb3 Rb8 17.e4 Bd7 18.Rf3 (trying to get play on the king-side, but Kamsky's pieces now overrun the queen-side) Ba4! (disdaining 18...Nxe4 19.Qf4 f5 20.g4 opening lines for White's pieces) 19.Re1 Rbc8 20.Bf1 Bb5 21.Bh3 Qa4 22.d5 Rc2 23.Qe3? exd5 (White is in deep trouble. If now 24.exd5? Re8 wins) 24.e5 d4! 25.Qg5 Re2! (Exploiting White's weak back rank. Now White sacrifices material for a fearsome-looking attack against g7, but Kamsky has calculated exactly.) 26.exf6 Rxe1+ 27.Bf1 (27.Kg2? Bf1+ 28.Kg1 Bxh3#) Rxf1+ 28.Kg2 Rg1+! 29.Kh3 (29.Kxg1? Qd1+ 30.Kg2 Qf1#) Bd7+ 30.Kh4 g6 31.Qh6 d3+ 32.Rf4 (32.Kg5? Qg4#) Qxf4+! 33.Qxf4 (33.gxf4 Rg4+ 34.Kh3 Rg5+! 35.Kh4 Rh5+ wins the queen) Rh1! 34.g4 h6! (Now White's attack is over and Black's pawns join in attacking White's king, threatening ...g5+.) 35.Kh3 (35.Qxh6? Rxh2+) g5! 36.Qd4 Rg1 37.f3 d2! 38.Qxd2 (38.Qxg1 Ba4 and Black queens) Bb5! 0-1 (39...Bf1+ will win White's queen)