Homepage Rochade Kuppenheim

Coffee Break Chess

GM Alexander Baburin's online newsletter

more chess texts by GM Baburin


Nr. 23, 16th April 2000:

Dear Friends!

  It's been more than a month since I produced CBC-22. During this period I played 2 tournaments in US and also competed in British (4NCL) and German (BL) Team Championships. There was a lot of travelling involved: New York, Chicago, Madison, Las Vegas, San Francisco & Berkley, Birmingham, Bremen and Cork - chess players certainly get to travel sometimes! :-) In this and next issues of CBC I am going to show some curious games, which I played recently, and also to share my views on some interesting developments in the chess world nowadays.

 

Commercialisation of FIDE

   Recently FIDE President Kirsan Illyumzhinov suggested a very controversial plan of commercialisation of FIDE. You can read his address at Inside Chess Publisher's Messages, along with comments of Yasser Seirawan. Illyumzhinov’s plan looks scary to me, as chess players might became mere workers (slaves?) of FIDE, which would have much power over their lives. If excepted, the plan might also lead to decline of chess activity in the world, as some chess organisers may not like the to pay FIDE and might just pull out altogether. One practical implication for chess pros: if the organiser does not pay FIDE a fee (the size of which is not defined in the President’s address) for running his/her tournament, then FIDE can call all players who took part in such a tournament before its disciplinary committee. Then FIDE can ban such players from other (FIDE) events, thus seriously affecting lives of chess professionals. The other aspect of the proposed plan is that Kirsan Illyumzhinov will have much influence on chess even if/when he will be no longer a FIDE President. At The Chess Café Tony Miles shared his impressions of the Illyumzhinov’s plan in his excellent column, which you can find at The Miles Report. Basically, the drawbacks of the proposed plan are very obvious, but I fear that FIDE is such an inefficient organisation that it may actually accept the plan! :-( If this happens, chess professionals should unite to oppose certain threats, which the plan poses to their livelihood. You can learn more about FIDE at: FIDE. My Web master Michael Dooley posted a poll concerning commercialisation of chess on our site. So far most people voted against it, though I believe that the chess needs to go commercial, if it is to survive. However, I am clearly against the current plans of FIDE President.

 

Chess Magazines and Web sites

   It’s a pity that excellent magazine Inside Chess is gone in its printed form. Still, its Web site: Inside Chess is worth visiting. I particularly enjoy Seirawan’s messages to general chess public. See the latest one at: Inside Chess Publisher's Messages. Yasser is now involved in chess.net (Chess.net). Some of view may remember that I had an endgame column in Inside Chess. Now I write similar columns for Schach-64 (Schach-64) and The Australian Chess Forum, whose editor Paul Dunn is also involved in Australian Chess Archive (Australian Chess Games Archive), which is similar to BritBase.

 

Kasparov-Kramnik match

   As you may already know, Anand declined the offer to play Kasparov and he has been replaced with Kramnik. Last year the match Kasparov-Anand failed to materialise and it will be interesting whether Garry will be more successful this time. There is little doubt that he is the strongest player in the world now, but to be called the world champion one needs to play for the title. Alas, Kasparov created a lot of mess in chess and now it’s hard for ambitious players to have a go at the world champion title. Alexey Shirov is one obvious and sad example... The new match has already provoked some curious comments - for example see GM Gausel’s remarks at:
www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/Chess/wc.html.

I agree with Einar that computers should not be given a chance to play in the World Championship. Cars are not invited to compete with runners, boats are not competing with swimmers, etc. Secondly, I don’t see how Braingames Network Ltd, or Kasparov can make such an important decision alone - surely the chess world must have a say on this matter, before we all have to sing ‘Long live Pentium XX, our new Chess World Champion!’. The decision to invite computers to such matches is very controversial, but there is even more controversy surrounding the match, as IM David Levy wrote an open letter to GM Ray Keen, who is involved in organising the Kasparov-Kramnik match. Keen replied and the discussion seems to be rather heated. To learn more about this story please refer to Sam Sloan Web Page.

 

Let’s talk chess!

   Today I invite you for an on-line chat. You can ask me questions, make suggestions, etc. The chat will start at 18-15 Dublin time (19-15 in Berlin, 13-15 in New York, 10-15 in Los Angeles). To join the chat please go to: Live Chat. If the chat goes well, I will make it a regular feature on my Web site, announcing the next ones well in advance.

 

My new career

   Recently Alexander Morozevich visited Ireland. He gave a very interesting lecture in Dublin, but the main result of his visit is that I will work as his manager. Morozevich is currently ranked No. 5 in the world and I hope that our co-operation will help him to concentrate on chess, while I will take care of the organising side and problems. Alexander is one of the most exciting players in chess today and soon I will create a Web site devoted to him. If you would like to suggest what you want to see there, please e-mail me at: baburin@hotmail.com - I will appreciate your thoughts and comments.

 

Dr. Martinovsky died

   When I came to Chicago in March, I learnt that Eugene Martinovsky had just died of cancel. He was a real gentleman and his death is a big loss for the chess scene in US. I really looked forward to meet Eugene in Chicago, which was his hometown. We played two games (Hawaii and Isle of Man) and talked on numerous occasions. He came from Macedonia, but his father was Russian. Eugene lived in UK for a while, but finally settled in the USA, where he worked as a psychiatrist. He was a strong player, dangerous for anyone, as he had a very good common sense in chess. In one of our games I was completely lost after making an unsound sacrifice in the opening. Here is the game he won against GM Summerscale in the same tournament:

 









Stellung nach:

E. Martinovsky (2365) - A. Summerscale (2455)
Port Erin, 1998

1 d4 d6 2 Nf3 f5 3 g3 Nf6 4 Bg2 g6 5 0-0 Bg7 6 b3 0-0 7 Bb2 c6 8 Nbd2 Qc7 9 a4 Ng4 10 e4 f4 11 h3 Nh6 12 g4 Nf7 13 Qe2 e5 14 dxe5 dxe5 15 Nc4 Be6 16 Rfd1 c5 17 Ba3 b6 18 Bf1 Nc6 19 c3 h5 20 gxh5 g5 21 Nh2 Bf6 22 Ng4 Be7 23 Qf3 Kg7 24 Rd5 Rh8 25 Rad1 Rxh5 26 Nge3 g4 27 Nxg4 Rah8 28 R5d3 Ng5 29 Qg2 Qc8 30 Be2 f3 31 Rxf3 Bxg4? 32 hxg4 Nh3+ 33 Kf1 Nf4 34 gxh5+! Nxg2 35 Rg3+ Kf8 36 Kxg2 Rg8 37 Bc1!± Qe6 38 h6 Rxg3+ 39 fxg3 Qg6 40 Bf3 Kg8 41 Ne3 Qxh6 42 Nf5 Qf6 43 Be2 Na5 44 Rd7 Bf8 45 Rxa7 Qd8 46 g4 Kh8 47 Nh6 Qh4 48 Bg5! Qe1 49 Bf6+ Bg7 50 Bxg7+ Kh7 51 Bf8+ Kg6 52 Rg7+ Kf6 53 g5+

1-0

 

My recent tournaments and matches

   In March I had a very enjoyable US tour. I played well and finished equal first in both US Masters in Chicago and in the National Open in Las Vegas. During the tour many people told me that they enjoyed CBC and my Web site - their feedback was very encouraging! I will certainly try to keep it this way, not letting your expectations down. I will write more about the tour in my next CBC, while here I’d like to show one game from Chicago, where I shared 1-7 places with GMs Ehlvest, Wojtkiewicz, Shabalov, Blatny, de Firmian and GM-elect Ziatdinov.

 









Stellung nach:

Alexander Baburin (2591) - Rashit Ziatdinov (2473)
US Masters, Chicago (3), 10.03.2000

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 cxd5 exd5 5 Bg5 Be7 6 e3 0-0 7 Bd3 Nbd7 8 Nge2 c6 9 Qc2 Re8 10 0-0 Nf8 11 f3 Be6 12 Rad1 Qa5?! Here the queen is misplaced, although this move creates some tactical tricks, for example: 13 Bh4? Ng4! 13 a3! Rac8?! 14 Kh1 a6 15 b4! Qc7 [15...Qxa3?? 16 Rb1+-] 16 Na4 Nh5 17 Bxe7 Rxe7 18 Nc5 Rce8 19 e4 dxe4 20 fxe4 Bc8 During that game and in the post-mortem I felt that 20...Bg4 was more testing. Yet, after 21 e5 f6 White has several ways to prove his advantage: 22 h3! Bxe2 23 Qb3+ Kh8 24 Bxe2 g6 25 Bxh5 gxh5 26 Rxf6+- and 22 Qc4+! Kh8 23 d5+- 21 e5 Such positions are typical for the line with Nge2 and f2-f3. They usually favour White, as the h5-knight is misplaced and White can often exploit the weakness of the d6-square. 21...f6 22 Bc4+ Kh8 23 Ne4! Black played very quickly and by this move I had spent 1 hour 17 minutes, while my opponent spent mere 20 minutes. However, here he started to think... Too late, as he is already in deep trouble! 23...fxe5 24 dxe5 Ng6 Better was 24...Qxe5 25 Nd6 Nf6 26 Nxe8 Rxe8. 25 Ng5! This is stronger than 25 Nd6 Nxe5 26 Nxe8 Rxe8, which gives Black counter-chances. 25...Qxe5 26 Nf7+ Rxf7 27 Bxf7

1-0 Time: 1.27 - 1.22

 

Beware of computer worms!

   I recently received a few messages, which contained Pretty Park exe attachment. I am an experienced user, so I deleted them straight away. However, I feel that among my readers there are some, who might benefit from learning more about computer worms. Once you open such attachment, you probably see some stupid fireworks or maybe even nothing. However, behind the scenes a worm gets into your PC and sends out e-mails (without you knowing!) to all people in your address book. Some of them will open it and their computers will get infected too. Those guys will not be happy, as it takes time to get rid of the warm. So, first of all, never open executable attachments (exe, etc). If you really want to see what such attachments contain, e-mail the sender first and check whether he really did send the message. By the way, CBC often comes with attachments - they are usually pdf files (for Adobe Acrobat) and cbv files, which are Chess Base archives.

In the next issue of CBC I will continue covering my US tour, so more games will follow - stay tuned!

Alexander Baburin, Dublin
ababurin.tripod.com
chessauction.tripod.com

 

Technical support

   I am very grateful to Igor Yagolnitser for his help with this project. For assistance regarding CBC, please contact Igor at: MOHCTP@ix.netcom.com.

 
Copyright © 2000 by GM Alexander Baburin. All rights reserved.


The recipient is granted a limited license to re-send this Newsletter to another in electronic form, or post it on an electronic bulletin, board or World Wide Web site, as long as no fee is charged for such reproduction. Any such reproduction must contain this license and acknowledge the author's copyright. Such reproduction does not waive any rights to future reproduction by the copyright holder.


CBC 22 Coffee Break Chess CBC 24