Getting back to full strength...

...chess strength at least. The physical strength is taking a while. The two big wounds still haven't closed, but everything else is healing beautifully. I want to go back to playing tournament chess soon, though I'm somewhat worried about sustaining concentration over a long game. That might still be asking a bit much.

Have you been following Linares? It just finished, with Grischuk and Ivanchuk sharing first, Grischuk with the better tiebreaks. A nice breakthrough for Grischuk whose style I really like, and another amazing performance from Chucky. I love that guy. He's totally crazy. If he ever releases a book of best games, it will have no repeated openings. He plays everything in the book, coming up with significant theoretical novelties in the most varied positions. It's a pity his nerves will almost certainly prevent him from ever taking the World Championship. Of the players who came up in the early 90s, Anand, Kramnik, and Ivanchuk were by far the strongest (Shirov close behind, Topalov's a little younger). I personally think they all were strong enough to win the world title, and in some ways Ivanchuk is the most brilliant. He plays some games that just blow me away with their originality and complexity.

In any case, congrats to both. Just because I like posting games, here's a little blitz effort I put together online tonight after re-upping my ICC membership. I really hate anti-Sicilians on principle (I sometimes play the Grand Prix, and I feel like a bitch every time), so it's nice to deliver beat downs to anti-Sicilian players.

Gotta Watch Out For That Boden's Mate!.pgn


Later.

Happy New Year, Corus is Coming...

And not a moment too soon.  Every super-tournament seems to have a few requisite
tomato cans, but the invited Dutch players at Corus tend to be either pretty strong
(Loek Van Wely used to be good, I swear, or young and on the rise like Smeets and
Stellwagen.  I especially like Smeets' play.  In any case, between the strong A-group
field and Caruana playing in the B-group, this should be another interesting edition
of Wijk an Zee.  Here's the entire lineup from the A-group, cribbed from Chessninja.

Alexander Morozevich (RUS, #2)  Elo: 2787 DOB: 1977
Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR, #3)      Elo: 2786 DOB: 1969
Magnus Carlsen (NOR, #4)        Elo: 2786 DOB: 1990
Levon Aronian (ARM, #7)         Elo: 2757 DOB: 1982
Teimour Radjabov (AZE, #8)      Elo: 2751 DOB: 1987
Wang Yue (CHN, #11)             Elo: 2736 DOB: 1987
Michael Adams (ENG, #12)        Elo: 2734 DOB: 1971
Sergei Movsesian (SVK, #13)     Elo: 2732 DOB: 1978
Sergei Karjakin (UKR, #15)      Elo: 2730 DOB: 1990
Gata Kamsky (USA, #16)          Elo: 2729 DOB: 1974
Leinier Dominguez (CUB, #21)    Elo: 2719 DOB: 1983
Loek van Wely (NLD)             Elo: 2618 DOB: 1972
Daniel Stellwagen (NLD)         Elo: 2605 DOB: 1987
Jan Smeets (NLD)                Elo: 2604 DOB: 1985

So that's a pretty good field, much better IMO than the Grand Prix that just
finished in Elista.  Seriously, how did FIDE dig up so many no-name 2700+ players
for that one?  I would only consider Radjabov, Leko, and maybe Grischuk among the
world elite, ratings not withstanding.  In any case, chess will resume soon here in
South Florida and I'll publish more games that no one will look at or comment on.
Ta.