Friday, June 20, 2008

Records in chess Part 2

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

I HAD a lot of feedback from my article last week on chess records and here are a few more. I would like to acknowledge Cepca member Edmund Suralta who has probably the biggest collection of all kinds of chess information for sharing these to my readers.

The latest first capture was played in Veume 2000 between B. Meljfroidi and A. Lenoir and lasted up to 72 moves as white overstepped the time limit. In fact all the pieces were still on the board and there was no capture at all.

In the game between Filipowich and Smederevac Polanica Zdro in 1966, all 32 pieces were present at move 70, when white claimed a draw on the ground of the 50-move rule. This is the most crowded position in which that rule was used.

The earliest stalemate occurred at move 27 between Sibilio-Mariotti in Ravenna 1982. Stalemate normally happens very much later in the game.

The longest consecutive series of captures: 17 half-move from move 12-20 was between R.Blodig and H. Wimmer in Germany 1988. The game was played in 35 moves won by black.

One of the longest games played in which there were 73 consecutive moves by the black queen starting at move 72 was played between Mackinzie and Mason in London in 1982. The game was a draw after 144 moves.

A unique record is this game between Wegner and Johnsen Gausdal in 1991 when there were a total of 141 checks; 100 by white and 41 by black. There was also no capture in 151 moves starting at move 49 and the game was a draw after 200 moves. I featured this game in my previous but there were no details then.

Another one-of-a-kind record is the H.Rebickova vs. M. Vorakova game in the Czech Republic in 1995, when Rh 1 never plays for 105 moves and there were 74 consecutive checks by the black queen. It was a draw in move 105.

In the game between P. Zarrouate and H.Brauckmann in Tolouse in 1980, six mutual consecutive checks were made starting at move 27. White won.

Another no-mover this time by the Knight at g8 for 85 moves was the B.Galanov vs. S. Kosanski in Budapest in 1994 which ended in a draw.

This pawn never moved until 171 which is then captured. This was a game in the Olympiad in Thessaloniki in 1988 between Seirawen and Xu Jun and is one of the longest game ever played at 191 moves and ended in a draw.

Again, another no-mover is this bishop at Bc8 which never moved at all in all of the 81 moves of the game. J.Levitti won over R. Lev in Tel Aviv in 1989.

The Queen is the most powerful piece and yet was never played until move 76 to Qa8 from Qd8. This was a drawn game between D. Alvarado and J. Carvajal in San Jose, Costa Rica in 2001.

In the game between Thorhallsson and Johanesson in Hafnaborg, Iceland in 2003, both kings remain in their original squares throughout the game of 47 moves won by white.

Center pawns normally are exchanged early in the game. The game J. Vidarrson-J Hjartarson in Iceland 1994 started with 1.e4 e5 and a draw was agreed on move 180 and those pawns were still there. A drawn game.

When all four Rooks do not move at all until the end of the game, then it is unique. It happened in L.Szabo vs. Tristoja in Helsinski in 1975 and won by White after 41 moves.

The most number of moves by the black King is 123 and was a draw in 174. This was played in Kusadasi, Turkey in 2004 between F. Bozkurt and E. Tanrivermis and won by white.

The most number of moves by a Knight is 93. The game lasted for 159 moves and ended in a draw. This was between Lipschvix and H Bird in New York 1889.

Lastly, this coincidentally was played in Manila in 1992 (Olympiad?) when 15 pieces were captured on one square at d5. E. Ng vs. S. Erigayama (1-0).

If you are interested to play the moves of these games, these are available and I can send these to you via e-mail.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Records in chess

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

I ESTIMATE that the number of games I have played since I was eight is more than 30,000 most of them in them in the Internet on the past 10 years or so. I don’t remember ever playing a game that reached 100 moves.

So, it’s just amazing that moves in tournament play can reach more than 200 and the record stands at 269 moves, played in modern times. It was played in Belgrade in 1989 between Nikolic-Arsovic and lasted more than 20 hours.

With modifications to the 50-move rule, this record is unlikely to ever be broken.

The 50-move rule states that a player can claim a draw if no capture has been made and no pawn has been moved in the last fifty consecutive moves. The reason for the rule is so that a player with no chance to win can’t be obstinate and play on indefinitely.

Other games which lasted more than 200 moves according to chess historian Tim Krabbe are Fressinet vs. Kosteniuk (237 moves) in Villandry in 2007 which lasted just about two hours as the play was rapid with increment; the blitz Dos Hermanas Internet 2007 Petrosian-Sammour Hasbun (227 moves) ; Ivanchuk vs. Leko World Biltz Championship Moscow 2000 (215 moves); Cheklov vs. Stavrinov, Riga in 1988 (209 moves) ; and Wegner-Johnsen Gausdal in 1991 (200 moves).

When a pawn moves up to the 8th rank, it is normally promoted to queen.

The record with most number of queens played in modern times and in tournament play stands at 5. The most famous is the Alekhine-Grogoriev Moscow 1915. Others are Belov vs. Prohorov Chelyabinsk in 1991; Brumen vs. Jurkovic Bed in 2000; Mackic vs. Maksimenko Yugoslavia in 1994.

There is a game, the Sumpter vs King in Australia in 1965 in some databases with seven queens which later was proven fake and the six-queen Van Hall vs. Krabbe Amsterdam, 1963 also probably fake.

Chess-in-School. A few years ago I wrote an article about the benefits of playing chess, especially if taught to children in schools and am happy to note that in Marikina this school year, chess is part of the curriculum. It was also noted in the television program that the school authorities hoped that this program might implemented nationwide.

Last year President Arroyo even suggested and recommended that the game be a part of the curriculum. With Butch Pichay at the helm of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines this might become a reality.

More than 40 countries have Chess-in-School programs including giants such as the US, China and Russia.

I wrote in 2004 “Chess and the Child” that “Dr. Peter Dauvergne of the University of Sydney (1990), said that chess as a learning tool can:

“Raise intelligence quotient (IQ) scores; enhance reading, memory, language, and mathematical abilities; foster critical, creative, and original thinking; provide practice at making accurate and fast decisions under time pressure, a skill that can help improve exam scores; challenge gifted children while potentially helping underachieving gifted students learn how to study and strive for excellence; teach how to think logically and efficiently, learning to select the “best” choice from a large number of options; demonstrate the importance of flexible planning, concentration, and the consequences of decisions.”

DPWH Team Tournament. Cepca secretary Tony Cabibil informed me that the DPWH region 7 recently organized a four-board tournament with the following results among 9 teams: First-Cebu 3rd District 34 points winner over the other rule, second RO 7 also with 34 points and third Bohol 2nd District.

The players for the champion team are Cepca member Nilo Visitacion, Josephus Apurado, Edward Testa and Raul Flores. The members of RO 7 are Roy dela Cruz, Nonato Paylado,Cepca

Friday, June 6, 2008

Tournament highlights

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Cheesemoso

THE Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) monthly tournament for Kiddies, Juniors and regular members for May was held last weekend at Deep Blue Café SM City and the winners are, for Kiddies: First placer Cleomar Tilus, 5 points, second placer Raymond Abellana 4 third to fifth placers were Cheryl Angot, Raffy Bensi, Jevin Albios, 3.5.

In the Juniors Category the final standing is first placer Nikki Sabiquil; two were tied for second Felix Shawn Balbona and his sister Jessa with 4 points and had tallied three points—-Kevin Albios, Godfrey Villamor, Herbert Siiton, Gerald Miral and Daniel Minoza.

The come-backing Bong San Pascual easily won the regular handicapping tournament with five straight wins followed by Nic Cuizon with 4. Miguel Banebane, Joe Atillo and Felix Poloyapoy Jr. managed to score 3 points each.

Meanwhile nine barangay teams played a round robin at the City Sports Center last weekend also and here are the final standings: First Camputhaw A with 28 points, second place Sawang Calero A with 27, third placer Tinago with 23.5 points and fourth placer Camputhaw B with 19.5.

The players for Kamputhaw A were Ed Vincent Lepalm, Patrick Osorno, Jaymond Albino and Leonard Obatay. For Sawang Calero the members were Ricky Raganot, Camilo Benabente, Mark Kevin Albios and Johnny Cualbar.

On the national front, the talk of the town is Jayson Gonzales who finally became the country’s ninth grandmaster after breaching the 2500 barrier with his win at the Subic Open last month and leading the Philippine team to a rout over Myanmar in Tagaytay City.

“Nagpapasalamat ako kay Rep. (Butch) Pichay dahil hindi siya tumigil sa pagsuporta sa akin mapa local at internasyunal para matupad ang pangarap kong makuha ang GM title,” said Gonzales.

Gonzales, a member of the Philippine Army Chess Team joins the elite-GM group of Eugene Torre, Joey Antonio Jr., Bong Villamayor, Nelson Mariano, Mark Paragua, Darwin Laylo, Wesley So and the late Rosendo Balinas.

International. Peter Leko, Hungary’s top player played a one-on-one eight rapid games with current chess sensation, Magnus Carlsen of Norway. The event was played from May 28 to June 1st and Carlsen won, 5-3, with two wins and six draws.

Miskolc has a history of pairing their top player Leko with the leading players of the world, first with Michael Adams, Anatoly Karpov and Vladimir Kramnik last year,
The Bosnia Sarajevo tournament took place from May 23to June 2 and was a six-player double round-robin featuring Alexander Morozevich (2774), Perez Dominguez (2695), Sergei Movsesian (2695), Arty Timofeev (2664), B. Predojevic (2651) and Ivan Sokolov (2690).

At the end of seven rounds Morozevich scored 6 points with a performance rating of 2987 but had three draws in the end to win the tournament with 7.5/10,1.5 points
over the field. With this win, Morozevich moves up to No. 3 in the world behind Anand and Kramnik.

XXI Magistral Ciudad de León in Spain featured four players, who played two semifinal matches of four games each, with the winners meeting in the final.

Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk defeated world champion Viswanathan Anand in the final by 2½-1½ . It was the first time that Anand did not win the tournament after
seven tries.

The other players were Spain-based Alexei Shirov and Spain’s top player Francisco Vallejo Pons.

The King’s Tournament, composed mostly of contemporaries of Eugene Torre, took place in Bazna, Romania from May 24 to June 4. Nigel Short won the event with 7/10 without a loss and a 1.5 spread over second placers, Lajos Portisch and Ulf andersson.

It is his best performance in a long time. A surprise participant was Henrique Mecking, who was rated third in the world in the ’70s, with a respectable five points.