Words of Wisdom by Susan Polgar

Here is Susan Polgar's blog about Wesley's Win against Gata kamsky and how he can sustain his winning streak!!!

Susan Polgar: Wesley has done the hardest part by winning with Black. But don't expect Kamsky to roll over without a fight.

The strategy for Wesley now is:

1. Again, it is critical NOT to get into time pressure in the second game. This is especially important against Gata because he will complicate the position and without sufficient time, Wesley could make mistakes at crunch time.

2. Do not play openings which would give Gata dangerous counter play. There is no reason to take unnecessary risks.

3. Do not play passively. Gata is one of the best in grinding out closed positions.

4. Do not get over confident. Gata is very mentally tough and he is more than capable of making a comeback. The match is not over until it is final.

No decisive games yet in Hoogeveen

REPORT BY CHESSVIBES

Also in the third round of the Univé Chess Tournaments both games in the Crown Group ended in a draw. Giri drew easily with Polgar using the Petroff while Ivanchuk couldn’t convert a big advantage against Tiviakov – the Dutchman GM liquidated to a RB-R ending and knew his endgame theory.

The 17th Univé Chess Tournament, formerly known as Essent Tournament but sponsored by insurance company Univé this year, takes place October 16-24 in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands. As always the Crown Group is a 4-player, double round-robin with this year Vassily Ivanchuk (2756), Judit Polgar (2687), Sergei Tiviakov (2670) and Anish Giri (2552) playing for a € 10,000 prize fund. The time control is 40 moves in 1.5 hours + 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment from the start.

Round 3

Yet again we were looking at an empty tournament hall today as far as the open group was concerned, when one game in the Crown Group was still going on. Ivanchuk was trying to beat Tiviakov in the infamous RB-R ending which is theoretically drawn, but tricky in practical play. However, with the time control used in Hoogeveen, Tiviakov didn’t come close to timetrouble, and in such a situation defending the ending is a piece of cake for a strong grandmaster.

It was understandable that Ivanchuk tried it for quite a while, because earlier the Ukrainian top seed had probably thrown away a winning position. He refuted strange opening play by Tiviakov and reached a very promosing ending. “29…Be7 was a bad move,” Ivanchuk said. “29…h4 or taking on h3 must be winning.”

Anish Giri is still holding his own comfortably among the big names; today the 15-year-old easily drew with Black against Judit Polgar. In fact, if anyone could have played for a win it was him. “Maybe against a weaker played I would have gone for 11…Ne6 but against Polgar I thought I should play it safe.” So far keeping it safe is enough to share the lead at half-time.

Univé Chess Tournament 2009 | Crown Group | Round 3 Standings


Univé Chess Tournament 2009 | Crown Group | Schedule & Results

Missing a win today: Vassily Ivanchuk

Bad opening, good defence: Sergei Tiviakov

Not easy finding something against the Petroff: Judit Polgar

Nothing to lose, and doing fine so far: Anish Giri

Two fighting draws in Univé Crown Group

report fro chessvibes.

“Amazingly, I’m still on first place after two rounds. No, even better, I have the highest tpr,” Anish Giri said after his draw with Sergei Tiviakov today. The youngest participant was happy to share his thoughts about the game with us. Judit Polgar missed a win with Black against Vassily Ivanchuk and so after two rounds all players have one point. In the open group Brodsky is the only player with 4/4.

The 17th Univé Chess Tournament, formerly known as Essent Tournament but sponsored by insurance company Univé this year, takes place October 16-24 in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands. As always the Crown Group is a 4-player, double round-robin with this year Vassily Ivanchuk (2756), Judit Polgar (2687), Sergei Tiviakov (2670) and Anish Giri (2552) playing for a € 10,000 prize fund. The time control is 40 moves in 1.5 hours + 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment from the start.

Round 2

Despite two more draws, it’s not difficult to describe the fighting spirit in the Crown Group today. Except for one board, the whole open group had already finished when Ivanchuk, Polgar, Tiviakov and Giri were still playing!

The game between the two top seeds was quite difficult – even to name the opening is not an easy task. We’ll just call it a Nimzo/Queen’s Indian hybrid. Anyway, Black’s play was very thematical and when she had managed to push d6-d5, Polgar was doing fine. Ivanchuk subsequently played quite risky and indeed was losing at one point. 46…Qd4 wins on the spot and Polgar did see it, but not the exact pointe – see the game viewer.

Giri and Tiviakov had a very different opinion about the opening variation that came on the board – a Catalan which Tiviakov had played before. “I said I looked at two lines, one of them which was equal and one good for me. He thought the one line good for Black, and the other one winning for him!” Giri said. Future opponents of Tiviakov should look at the lines we give in the game viewer, because they were all whispered to us by the reigning Dutch champion, who doesn’t believe in the variation for Black.

Chess vs college...is there a conflict

Here is Susan Polgar's comments on Wesley So's current crossroad which is to stay playing chess or pursue the career in chess...Wise words from Susan..simply put, why not have both..


Susan Polgar: Texas Tech scholarship would include tuition and housing expenses. Students will also be given the opportunity to make additional spending money by spending a few hours a week teaching chess at many local schools.

All our titled players are given the opportunity to compete in many strong tournaments throughout the year. In fact, we do pay for the expenses for the players to compete in some (not all) of these events. I also work with them personally.

My job is to dissect the players' game, then help them maximize their areas of strength, as well as improving areas of weaknesses.

If a player needs to represent their countries in various competition (national championships, Olympiad, world cup, etc.), they are free to do that. All they need is to make arrangements with their professors to make up the work / tests.

There have been many good examples of strong players doing both (Onischuk, Shulman, Dr. Kosashvili, Dr. Sherzer, and me, etc.)

I do not advocate strong players to give up chess for college. It is possible for serious players / students to do both.

Best wishes,
Susan Polgar

Susan Polgar on Wesley So

Here is Susan Polgar's warm greetings to Wesley So fans in an online chess community. For sure Susan has an eye for talent and would definitely agree on what she said "Stick with this kid, he has a bright future"

Full page comment below:

Susan Polgar: It's an absolute pleasure to have Wesley and William here at the SPICE Cup in Lubbock and Texas Tech. They are wonderful people.

Playing in an open tournament and playing in a round robin/double round robin tournament is very different. It requires different approach, preparation, psychology, and training, etc. This is an important learning process for Wesley. Next time he will improve.

Wesley certainly got the respect from the big guys. No one will offer you a draw if they think they can beat you :)

I am sure this is not the last time we will hear about Wesley at the SPICE Cup.

One thing I hardly see from any other player is the support Wesley got from the Filipino community in the Philippines, in the US, in Texas, and around the world. There were people who drove I believe 5-6 hours to come and support Wesley and William. Stick with this kid, he has a bright future.

I will continue to update news about Filipinos players and Wesley on my blog and please feel free to send me any article that I may have missed.

Best wishes,
Susan Polgar

SPICE CUP 2009 rnd 2-Hostilities resume

Hostilities resume at the prestigious SPICE Cup 2009 tourney. It is expected that again players would go out an all out win in today's round as round 1 was plagued with draws in A group division. Below is the2nd round group A and B pairings:

Sunday, September 20 / 2pm - Round 2 (Houston Texas Time)

A group

Mamedov - Kuzubov

Hammer - So

Akobian - Andreikin

Sunday, September 20 / 2pm - Round 2

B group

Kuljasevic - Diamant

Rensch - Antal

Perelshteyn - Papp

Ippolito - Robson

Bhat - Finegold

Link to live commentary by chessdom is here.