Karpov is running against seemingly well-entrenched incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the 48-year-old multi-millionaire businessman who is also the president of the Republic of Kalmykia of the Russian Federation. He has been at the helm of FIDE since 1995. He claims he has met and travelled with aliens. But recently, he assured the public that he is “not an agent of any extraterrestrial intelligence.”
I am not making this up.
Karpov says he is running because chess “is in crisis today.” FIDE, he adds, “has become disconnected from its foundations: the federations and the players.” He believes that “support for our new direction must come from below, to benefit the many, not from above to benefit the few.”
His campaign managers, American GM Ron Henley, doesn’t mince words. “Ilyumzhinov has tarnished the image of chess and relegated it to the back pages of newspapers and the geographic backwaters of the world. Simultaneously, he has embarrassed his own country. Imagine a VP of marketing googling Kirsan or FIDE and finding these stories about his pleasant encounters with Saddam Hussein and his sons, with Muammar al-Gaddafi, not to mention the extraterrestrials. Would that VP want to invest his company’s money and reputation in chess?”
The Guardian’s Leonard Barden says “many Western chess federations including the U.S. and England have announced support for Karpov but FIDE has 161 member nations…and Ilyumzhinov has won the last three elections with the help of sweeteners to third world delegates. Karpov is famous enough to turn some small countries his way, but the vote will be [this fall] during the biennial team Olympiad at Khanty-Mansiysk in Siberia, a favored Ilyumzhinov site.”
Game of the week. Moldavian-Romanian GM Dorian Rogozenco annotates our featured partie which was played in the first round of an ongoing elite tournament in Romania. The other participating GMs are Carlsen (2813), China’s Wang Yue (2752), Israel’s Boris Gelfand (2741), and Ukraine’s Ruslan Ponomariov (2733).
White: Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2672)
Black: Teimour Radjabov (2740)
Sicilian Sveshnikov
Medias 2010
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c4. A very safe choice for White, whose main task in this variation is to prevent Black’s activity. 11…b4 12.Nc2 0-0 13.g3. Taking the pawn with 13.Ncxb4 brings White not even a shadow of advantage, which Azerbaijan’s Radjabov himself proved two years ago against Anand: 13…Nxb4 14.Nxb4 Qb6 15.Nd5 Qxb2 16.Bd3 Bd8 17.0-0 Be6 18.Qb3 Qxb3 19.axb3 Rb8 20.Rfb1 Bxd5 21.cxd5 a5 22.Ra4 Bb6 and the draw was agreed soon in Anand,V (2798)-Radjabov,T (2744)/Bilbao 2008.; The main alternative for White is 13.Be2. 13…Be6. Much more popular is 13…Bg5 and if 14.Bg2 then 14…Qa5 15.0-0 Qc5 is considered to be sufficient for equality. It remains a mystery what Nisipeanu prepared here. 14.Bg2 a5 15.0-0 Rc8 16.Qd3 g6 Good chances to equalize are offered by 16…Bxd5 17.cxd5 Nd4 18.Nxd4 exd4 19.Bh3 Rc5 20.Rac1 Qc7 21.Rxc5 Qxc5. 17.Nxf6+! The first important strategic moment in this game. Nisipeanu exchanges his powerful centralized knight for black’s poor bishop on f6. But the bishop was going to retreat to g7 and from there it would have controlled important squares around the black king. Most important, however, is that with the bishop on g7 the advance f7-f5 would have been good in almost all cases (because the opening of the position would have been in Black’s favour). White’s last move practically kills any hope for Black to get activity in this game. 17…Qxf6 18.b3 Qe7 19.Rad1 Rfd8 20.h4 This is quite a typical position for the whole variation. After the game Radjabov evaluated it as quite reasonable for Black. However, it is more pleasant to play with White if only for the simple fact that Black has no active plan and must wait. On his part White can combine the pressure on the d-file with the advance h4-h5. 20…Kh8. The first step into the wrong direction. Black overestimates his chances and prepares the advance f7-f5. 21.Kh2 f5? 22.exf5! gxf5 23.Bxc6! The second important strategic moment. Again Nisipeanu exchanges his strong-looking piece. And again the Romanian grandmaster showed a very subtle strategic understanding.After the next White’s move it will become clear that Black faces serious difficulties. 23…Rxc6 24.f4! Now a deeper look reveals the following factors: Black has very weak central pawns and a passive bishop. Moreover, potentially his king is vulnerable as well. From the practical point of view Black’s position is very difficult, although the chess engines see no danger for Black. 24…Rcc8 25.Qe3 Qg7 26.Rf2! Protecting the knight and ruling out any d6-d5 ideas. The immediate 26.Nd4 exd4 27.Qxe6 allows Black to activate the rook after 27…Re8 28.Qxf5 Re2+. 26…Rd7 After this Black is probably lost, but as mentioned before, his position was difficult anyway. 27.Nd4! Simple and efficient. Black’s position collapses. 27…Qg4 28.Rdd2. The dark-strategy domination. Black’s bishop is useless. 28…Re8 29.Nb5! Not a bad transfer from c2 to b5. 29…d5. Radjabov tries to complicate matters, but his position is just too bad. 30.Nd6. The most precise execution. Nisipeanu’s play is impressive until the very end. 30…Red8 31.Qxe5+ Qg7 32.c5 Qxe5 33.fxe5 Rc7 34.Rc2 d4 35.Rfd2 f4 36.gxf4 d3 37.Rxd3 Bf5 38.Nf7+ Kg7 39.Rg2+. A very nice achievement by Nisipeanu. 1-0.
Puzzler.
White — Ka4, Ba6, Nb8, Nc6, Qc1, pawns on e3 and h4
Black — Kd5, Nd6, Rf7, Bh7, Rh3, pawns on b3, c4, c7, d4, e6 and f3
White to play and mate in four.
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