2013 Candidates: Round 2 Photo Report

Rather than expend a lot of words, I thought I would kick off today with some photos of the action...

Magnus has White today against Vlad Kramnik so we can expect a protracted battle - can't we?

Pleasant smile for me from Boris...

... but Levon should not expect such a friendly reception.

Vassily Ivanchuk shields his face, while Teimour Radjabov carefully arranges the pieces.

Peter Svidler plays another Russian, this time Alexander Grischuk

Arbiter Werner Stuebenvoll goes from board to board, starting clocks.

Magnus Carlsen starts building a torture chamber for Vlad Kramnik (he hopes)

Another shot from the gallery of the lecture theatre.

A few more photos soon...

... And They're Off! Candidates 2013

Round 1: Levon Aronian has white against Magnus Carlsen

Play has started at Savoy Place in one of the most eagerly-awaited chess tournaments for years. This could be the start of Magnus Carlsen's inexorable rise to the world title. That is, if the other seven players haven't read the script. Teimour Radjabov is quoted as saying "there are no favourites" and, while I wouldn't agree with that, it has to be said that the 'Seven Samurai' that Magnus faces - Levon Aronian, Vlad Kramnik, Teimour Radjabov, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand and Vassily Ivanchuk [edit -Oops! I left Ivanchuk out of my original list - JS] - all have a realistic chance of success.

Play has been in progress for just over an hour as I write and, of course, nothing of significance has happened at the board. All four boards look level (ish). So, instead of commentary on the play, I'll share a couple of amusing incidents with you.

The first was when arbiter Werner Stuebenvoll introduced the FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to the audience and said that he was about to make the traditional opening move of the game "Anand-Radjabov". This elicited a laugh from the audience, and the arbiter quickly corrected it to "Gelfand-Radjabov". Perhaps he had forgotten that Vishy Anand had succeeded in retaining his title against Boris Gelfand last year.

The second was when Vlad Kramnik took out his pen from his inside jacket pocket. He fumbled with it for a  few moments but an amused expression on his face was the clue to a serious pen malfunction. Calamity! He got up and went offstage for a few moments but, luckily, he was back at the board with a new pen before the arbiter called 'play'. (We wouldn't want any 'zero tolerance' defaults, would we?)

One more serious bit of gossip: FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has been quoted as saying in a press interview today that the next world title match, in which Vishy Anand will meet the winner of the London tournament, will "probably be in India".

Boris Gelfand at the Opening Ceremony

Boris Gelfand at the opening ceremony in London, 14 March 2013

It was great to see Boris Gelfand at the opening ceremony of the Candidates' tournament yesterday. I interviewed him for CHESS Magazine last year. It was one of the high points of my entire career as a journalist and editor as Boris proved to be a charming and generous interviewee. Later in the year I was disappointed for him when he just missed out on winning the world title but the positive attitude he showed during the match and afterwards was inspirational and he was buoyed up by the fantastic reception he received when he returned home to Israel. His presence adds class to the field in London. Can he win? He has already taught us not to underestimate him. I wish him the very best of luck.

2013 Candidates' Opening Ceremony

Phew! It's been a while since I last blogged here (last June - that's around nine months). But I decided it was time to dust off my old blog site for the biggest chess tournament to hit London... ever? The 2013 World Championship Candidates' Tournament is something very special: eight top players competing for the right to meet Vishy Anand in a title match later this year (or perhaps early next year - you always have to build in some delay contingent when foreseeing such an event.

Your table is (nearly) ready, gentlemen...

I find there is a sense of unreality preceding a major chess event and, when big-time chess hits London, I always find myself unable to believe that I am really going to be seeing world-class players, practically on my doorstep. So, when I visited the venue today, for the opening ceremony, I had to have a quick look round the actual playing area. It's not quite ready yet, but it looks as if it only needs a couple of hours' work to be shipshape. But the sight of that table, with the name cards 'Aronian' and 'Carlsen' already attached to the side helped bring home to me that this thing is really going to be happening. Exciting, isn't it?

Follow the action here: london2013.fide.com
And also here: chessvibes.com

More fun tomorrow... 

Rededication of Johannes Zukertort's Grave, 26 June 2012

On 26 June the grave of Johannes Zukertort (1842-1888) was rededicated in London's Brompton Cemetery. Polish-born Johannes Zukertort was one of the world's leading players in the 1870s and 1880s. His most significant success was his victory at the 1883 London tournament, well ahead of the world's best players of the time, including Wilhelm Steinitz. He later contested what has become accepted as the first official world chess championship match in 1886 against Steinitz which he finally lost after an early lead.

   

GM Stuart Conquest delivers a few words on Zukertort at the newly-restored grave.

Zukertort settled in London in the early 1870s and died there aged 46 in 1888. Brompton Cemetery is one of London's most elegant Victorian graveyards and the horizontal stone placed over Zukertort's grave would have been quite a distinguished one for its time. However, over the course of time it had sunken lower and lower, and been covered by grass, although (as Stuart Conquest explained in his speech) it had been periodically rediscovered by people from the chess world and tidied up. The exact location of the grave was known to the cemetery administrators and it had also been identified some years ago by the Polish Heritage Society, who were understandably proud of their high-achieving fellow countryman who had been laid to rest in London and they had started planning for the grave's restoration.

Quite independently, former British Chess Champion and GM Stuart Conquest came to know about the grave about a year ago when spending some time in London and seeing Zukertort's name in a list of notable people buried in the cemetery. He was shown the grassy plot in the graveyard under which Zukertort lay and took it upon himself, with the blessing of the cemetery authorities, to uncover the original gravestone which lay a few centimetres below the grass.

Thus, after a few sessions of grandmasterly digging, the stone showing Zukertort's birth and death details was once more above ground and visible. In due course Stuart and Dr Marek Stella-Sawicki, Chairman of the Polish Heritage Society, became known to each other and they collaborated on a scheme to put up a more suitable upright stone to honour the memory of a chess legend. Today, 26 June 2012, saw the culmination of their splendid efforts with the rededication of the grave, now resplendent with a beautiful new headstone. 31 people from the world of chess and from the Polish community in Britain gathered at the newly-restored grave to pay homage to one of the 19th century's greatest players with a moving religious ceremony and excellent speeches from Marek and Stuart. The religious rites were conducted by the Rt. Rev. Walter Jagucki, Bishop Emeritus of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, and Father Wladyslaw Wyszowacki, Rector of the Polish Catholic parish of Balham in south-west London.

It was heart-warming occasion and blessed by probably the best weather of the English summer so far. A huge debt of gratitude is owed to Stuart Conquest, the Polish Heritage Society, the staff of Brompton Cemetery and everybody who helped fund and support this fitting memorial to a great chessplayer.

The new gravestone

Johannes Zukertort (1842-88)

Links:
Photos by Ray Morris-Hill
Article written by GM Stuart Conquest for Chess Magazine in 2011 (ChessBase Website)
Video of GM Stuart Conquest interviewed by GM Daniel King re Zukertort project
Report of Zukertort Grave Rededication (ChessVibes)
Graves of Notable Chessplayers (Ken Whyld Association Website)
Video of Zukertort Grave, Pre-Restoration (MrChessClassics, YouTube)
Article on the Zukertort grave restoration project (Steve Giddins)
Johannes Zukertort on Wikipedia
Polish Heritage Society

4NCL Hit by Petrol Crisis?

There's a 4NCL (British Team League) weekend coming up and Britain is in the grip of a petrol crisis (either that or it's a government ruse to take our minds off their half-witted budget measures, pensions rip-offs, NHS destruction and general mismanagement of the country).

Organiser of top-level chess events in Liverpool, Prof. David Robertson, wrote on his Facebook page: "Isn't there a sizeable risk that those who reach Hinckley Island on Saturday will be trapped there forever? Didn't Sartre write 'Huis Clos' with this in mind?"

A frightening thought. As Sartre might have written in similar circumstances, "l'enfer, c'est les autres joueurs d'echecs"...

Chess Links

Note that the old bcmchess.co.uk domain now points to www.chess.co.uk

If anyone is missing the chess links page, note that it can be found in two places;

One is at the main chess.co.uk site here: www.chess.co.uk/links.html

And also at my personal website, here: www.saund.co.uk/chesslinks.html