[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: The Daily Update: European Club Cup

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
The Daily Update: European Club Cup
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1224740160.shtml


   As usual, we list games we found interesting from the day's round of
   the [1]European Club Cup (which you can download from [2]TWIC):
   Karjakin-Svidler was only a draw, but one with a great deal of
   complexity. It won't make for "light" replaying, but it might be a
   good challenge for the ambitious to analyze.
   Krasenkow-Beliavsky was a lively win for the old(er) man, and it
   showed that one can play a QGD-type position for a win with Black, not
   only for a draw.
   Smirin-Grischuk was quite entertaining, and reminded me one of my
   favorite games. It also demonstrated the power of centralization and
   its value for the attack. White's passed a- and b-pawns were no match
   for Black's assets. (Hmm, sounds like a couple of the Kramnik-Anand
   games.)
   Most noteworthy was the game Ivanchuk-Carlsen, won by the Ukranian
   legend. Ivanchuk's win was most convincing, but he still trails
   Carlsen for third on the [3]Live Top List. (Anand leads it right now,
   of course, with 2796.8, almost six points ahead of the man who isn't
   very interested in the world championship match. His loss.)
   Next up, Aronian's win against Volokitin, a wild and woolly tactical
   affair won by the Armenian super-grandmaster, who is using part of his
   free time to offer brief comments on the Anand-Kramnik match for the
   [4]ChessBase site. (While you're visiting there, check out [5]Jose
   Diaz's cartoons. It has been a long time since he's done any
   chess-related work, which is a pity. [6]His cartoons for Wijk aan Zee
   in 1999 were terrific.)
   Sakaev-Gelfand was a fairly short but treacherous draw in the
   ultra-sharp Anti-Moscow Gambit, but knowing these two players it was
   undoubtedly of theoretical importance.
   Moving on, I'd now normally report on the Crown Group of the [7]Essent
   Tournament and the [8]16th NAFI in Chicago. The former was on a rest
   day, however, while the latter hasn't been updated the past two
   rounds. So that's it for this post, which already has enough to keep
   the readers busy until game 7 of the world championship.

References

   1. http://ecc2008.chessdom.com/
   2. http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html
   3. http://chess.liverating.org/
   4. http://www.chessbase.com/
   5. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4970
   6. http://web.archive.org/web/19990505183419/chess2.lostcity.nl/hoogovens/diaz.html
   7. http://www.essentchess.nl/
   8. http://nachess.org/fide/