Endgames Are Where 'C' Players go to Die

At least that's how I beat them. The last two weeks I've played two player rated 1600-1700ish, and in each case I've taken them into endings in which they're slightly worse (if not equal) and beaten them without a whole lot of trouble. I swear I'm not that good at the middlegame, except in terms of preparing favorable endings. My tactics are not so great but by God if I see a potential endgame weakness I can usually highlight it. It helps when your opponents are oblivious to their own weaknesses, or at least don't perceive the seriousness of them. Here are the games:

Rampley-Neptune.pgn


Rampley-Rockley.pgn


I feel that I've really consolidated my rating lately, so to speak. I pretty much always beat players 100-200 points lower than me, and I feel that's a big part of being a stronger player. You just can't give away points to much lower rated players...you have to find a way to beat them. Drawing people slightly stronger on a regular basis is a big part of it too, and I've definitely gotten better at that as well. Of course, sometimes I get rolled by someone at a higher level, and I have a painful example of that as well from three weeks ago. The line is one that I believe is good for black if he's playing for a win, but it's not easy to play (it's a gambit in the Alapin Sicilian). Anytime black gambits a pawn a lot of accuracy is required, and I didn't have it. I really need to study this position deeply because I've had a lot of trouble with it both over the board and online. Still, I wouldn't give it up as it's one of the few lines versus the Alapin Sicilian that isn't drawish. Here's the game:

Lopez-Rampley.pgn


Ouch. That one still hurts. Though I have very little time to study now that I'm working (which is going well, thanks for asking), this position is worth some time and effort. I just can't stand the early ...Nf6 lines, they're just so boring.

In the chess stratosphere these days, Carlsen is owning everyone like they're a bunch of 'A' players in a weekend Swiss. This guy is really ridiculous. I love how in the last round of Nanjing he beak Javojenko, even though he had already won outright. How many GMs would have just taken a short draw? 80-90% would be my guess. He's as flexible as Kasparov in the types of openings and positions he can play well, and he has the drive to win every game like Fischer did. And I believe he's about to be 2800+ before his 20th birthday. If he keeps this up, he could challenge Kasparov for best all time. I realize that's preposterously premature, but the way he's playing is just astonishing. Nobody wins as many games these days as he does. Defensive technique is just too good, but he just seems to throw people off their games. I'm a huge fan. I hope Anand whips Topalov soon and that Carlsen gets his shot quickly thereafter.

You know who I think could be Carlsen's great rival? Aronian. He plays in a sort of offbeat way, but he's tremendously strong at simply playing the game (as opposed to opening prep) in the same way as Carlsen. A match between those two would be excellent. The older generation is starting to fade somewhat in my opinion, in prominence if not in rating, and it's time for Carlsen, Aronian, Radjabov, Karjakin, Grischuk, etc to step up. I look forward to it.

So Topalov beat Kamsky...

...hopefully after Anand WHIPS HIS ASS sometime later this year, the blatant FIDE favoritism towards Topalov will be over. Finally. But I doubt it. I also realize I haven't written a proper sentence this post. Deal.

Seriously though, who would have thought that the Tarrasch French would be the opening of the match? The French wasn't exactly a mainstay of Kamsky's repertoire prior to this match (though it does fit his style in my opinion), and I can't imagine that his team spent as much time on the Tarrasch as on the Nc3 mainlines since that is what Topalov has mostly played. For what it's worth, I expected Topalov's team to outdo Kamsky's team and that didn't happen. Kamsky got drawable positions from the opening, he just messed up. Time usage continued to be an issue for him, and lack of time definitely played a role in his errors.

In any case, Kamsky should have been playing Anand directly but since I think he would have lost that match much worse than he did this one, it doesn't bother me so much that he didn't. With FIDE you have to expect disruptions and changes for no reason, and this is just another example of that.

In other news, Mamedyarov has accused Kurnosov of cheating at Aeroflot. If you look at the game (a short and brutal crush of Shak), there were only something like 6 moves out of theory and they were relatively forced. I think a player much weaker than Kurnosov could have found them. I have always thought that Shak Mamedyarov was overrated. Obviously his 2750 rating isn't BS, but he seems to duck the top tournaments and when he does play against Carlsen, Anand, etc, he doesn't impress. I think he'd probably do a Loek Van Wely swan dive if he couldn't play the slightly weaker opens like Aeroflot. His opening repertoire is offbeat which is not necessarily a bad thing, but he's no Morozevich and I think he gets a few points from playing positions his opponents aren't as familiar with. That wouldn't work at Linares. You can probably tell I think this cheating accusation is bunk and that Shak is acting like a child after a brutal loss to a weaker opponent. He should stop bitching, stop accusing people, and reassure himself that losing to a 2600 player is not such a bad thing. 2600 does in fact mean you can play some chess. Though Shak did have white.

On the personal side I don't recall if I mentioned that there was too much scar tissue to do the surgery laparoscopically or not, but that was in fact the case. They had to open me all the way up, and so recovery is taking much longer. I have 30some staples and I don't get those out until Friday. Even after that's done, it will be a while. A bit of a setback, but no serious infections (thankfully). I'll be playing again soon.

The Curious Case of Veselin Topalov

What's so curious about Topalov? You might well ask this question if you haven't been watching his recent games against Gata Kamsky. Aside from his hideous suits which look like scaled up duds from a 1970s Ken doll and his Rasputinesque facial expressions, his opening choices have been baffling to say the least. He started off somewhat normally with two relatively sharp Gruenfelds and a sharp offbeat Lopez, but the last two games have been so out of character it seems like he's been possessed by the ghost of 1974 Karpov. A main line Closed Lopez and a Tarrasch French? Topalov has ~60 games on the white side of the French in the Megabase 2008, and only 5 are Tarraschs. I expected this match to produce some major theory since Topalov is such a great expert on the white side of the Gruenfeld, but so far I haven't seen much.

So what's going on with these games? Grinding positional battles are Kamsky's wheelhouse, and I don't understand why Topalov would play that sort of chess by choice here. He did win today, but only because of a Kamsky blunder. He didn't have shit out of the opening, and the game should have been a draw. If Kamsky gets to play two more Closed Spanish games in his other two whites, he very well might win both. Has Cheparinov run out of ideas? Has Topalov's copy of Rybka gone on strike? He's probably the sharpest player of his generation, and we've seen no gambits or even the exchange sacs he's so well known for. You can probably tell I'm dissapointed by the match so far. All I can say is that if Topalov goes on to play Anand and continues in this manner, he's going to get eaten alive. Incidentally, this would be fine with me because I'm not big fan. I think he dragged Kramnik through the mud for no reason other than to protect his pride, and I think his manager is the chess equivalent of Don King. I don't assume he will get a shot at Anand however, since Kamsky is scrappy and definitely not out of it yet.

Here is today's game, which Kamsky blundered in and lost. Prior to the blunder it was one of the most boring games I've ever seen at this level.

Topalov-Kamsky.pgn


In personal news, I might have gotten an infection after all. It remains to be seen if it will extend my hospital stay. I dearly hope not.