By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

FORMER FIDE champ Veselin Topalov remains number one on the Jan. 1, 2007 rating list despite losing 30 points following his loss to Vladimir Kramink in their world title match and his below-par performance at the Essent tournament.
The Bulgarian is now only four Elo points ahead of India’s Viswanathan Anand, but 17 points ahead of Kramnik.
Other highlights of the new list: Azerbaijan Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is now no. 4 while Russia’s Peter Svidler has dropped to no. 12. Hungary’s Judit Polgar is no. 13 after gaining 17 points, while Ukraine’s Ruslan Ponomariov rose from no. 20 to 14.
India has another second player in the 2700 bracket: Krishnan Sasikiran, who captained his nation’s team in winning the gold medal in the first ever chess competition at the Asian Games.
The world’s top 20:
1 Topalov, Veselin BUL 2783
2 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2779
3 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2766
4 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2754
5 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2750
6 Leko, Peter HUN 2749
7 Aronian, Levon ARM 2744
8 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2741
9 Adams, Michael ENG 2735
10 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2733
11 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2729
12 Svidler, Peter RUS 2728
13 Polgar, Judit HUN 2727
14 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2723
15 Navara, David CZE 2719
16 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2717
17 Shirov, Alexei ESP 2715
18 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2705
19 Kamsky, Gata USA 2705
20 Akopian, Vladimir ARM 2700
21 Sasikiran, Krishnan IND 2700
Game of the week. In December, Topalov played a blindfold match against Polgar in Bilbao, Spain and the Bulgarian won 3.5-2.5 which, according to IM Malcolm Pein, who also annotates our featured partié, “went some way to avenging his double defeat at Polgar’s hands during the recent tournament at Hoogeveeen.” The games, Pein adds, “were all of high quality even though the rate of play was 25 minutes plus 10 seconds a move.”
White: V. Topalov
Black: J. Polgar
Sicilian Scheveningen
Bilbao 2006
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be3 Be7 7.g4 The Keres Attack against the Sicilian Scheveningen. 7...h5!? 7...h6 is much more solid when the White attack is halted for a move or two. 8.gxh5 Rxh5 9.h4 [9.Be2 Rh7 10.Qd2 a6 11.f4 Nc6 12.0-0-0 Bd7 13.Nf3 Qa5 14.Bd3 Nb4 15.a3 Nxd3+ 16.Qxd3 Bb5 17.Qd4 Bc6 18.Rhg1 Rc8 19.Kb1 d5 20.Ng5 Rh5 21.e5 Nh7 22.Nxh7 Rxh7 23.Qd3 Rxh2 24.f5 Bb5 25.Qd4 Rc4 26.Qa7 Rxc3 27.bxc3 Qxc3 28.Rd2 Rxd2 29.Bxd2 Qxd2 30.Rh1 Bc6 31.Qb8+ Kd7 32.Rh8 Qd1+ 33.Kb2 Bxa3+ 34.Kxa3 Qa1+ 35.Kb3 Ba4+ 36.Kb4 a5+ 37.Kxa5 Bxc2+ 38.Kb4 Qb2+ 39.Kc5 Qc3+ 40.Kb6 Qc6+ 41.Ka5 Qc5# 1/2-1/2 D. Velimirovic (2515)-A. Sokolov (2585)/Bar 1997] 9...Nc6 10.Be2 Re5!? Judit is having fun, or is this move a back handed compliment to the play of the computer Deep Fritz in the sixth match game against Kramnik when it used an unorthodox rook maneuver early on? 11.Nf3 Ra5 12.a3! d5 [12...Ng4 and if 13.Bf4 Qb6 was good for black.] 13.b4 Nxb4 [13...dxe4 14.Qxd8+ Bxd8 15.bxa5 Bxa5 16.Bd2 exf3 17.Bxf3 Nd4 18.Bd1 Bd7 is actually quite good for Black as her bishops rule the board and White has 4 split pawns.] 14.axb4 Bxb4 15.Bd2 dxe4 This looks dangerous for white but he finds: 16.Nb5! [16.Nxe4 Nxe4 17.Bxb4 Qb6! Wins. ] 16...Rxa1 17.Qxa1 Bc5 [17...exf3 18.Bxb4 fxe2 19.Nd6+ Kf8 20.Nxb7+ wins.] 18.Ng5 a6 19.Qe5 axb5 20.Qxc5 Ra1+ 21.Bd1 Black’s position has lost all semblance of coordination and Topalov cleans up. 21...b6 22.Qxb5+ Bd7 23.Qb2 Qa8 24.0-0! One could be forgiven for forgetting this was possible, particularly in blindfold. 24...b5 25.Bb4 Ra2 26.Qe5 Qc6 27.h5 1-0.
Puzzler.
White — pawns on a2, a5, e6, g4; Rc2, Nc4, Bc6, Kf7, Qh8.
Black — pawns on c7, d4, e3, f2, f6, g5; Qa6, Ba7, Rb7, Rb2, Kc5, Ng7.
White to play and mate in four.
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