July 09, 2020 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
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SportsRapid chess
Posted on January 07, 2013 ACTIVE CHESS (30 minutes per game) was introduced in 1987 by FIDE and caught in very quickly. In the Philippines the visionary Rey Gamboa (formerly of Shell) organized the Shell Active Chess Championship, a nationwide competition which is still very much alive as of this date. Most of the Philippines’ new stars, including Wesley So, graduated from this Shell project.
Mr. Saturnino “Bong” Belen of Diwa Publishing fame also set up the Active Chess Center for Asia (ACCA), which for many years, under the guidance of its director Manolito “Toto” Ferrer, organized the weekly executive chess tournaments from which your humble scribe graduated.
The first official Active Chess (30 minutes per game) tournament was held in Gijon, Spain, in 1988 and won by Karpov. Karpov, in December of 1988, won the World Active Championship (a FIDE event with 61 players) in Mazatlan, Mexico, and received $50,000. To the surprise of many, no less than Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion then, strongly opposed active chess. He was quoted as saying, “Active Chess? What does that make me, the Passive World Champion?” This Active Chess initiative was one of the good projects that Kasparov effectively stalled for many years. This is all chess politics, of course. Kasparov really did not oppose active chess -- he simply did not want to share his thunder as world chess champion with another, possibly more exciting, variant. You don’t believe me? Well do you know that he actually organized his own brand of fast chess, called “Rapid Chess” with a time control of 25 minutes a game. This name and event was adopted by FIDE in 1989 so as not to imply an inactive chess title if FIDE awarded an Active Chess title. It took a while to get there, but in November 2011 FIDE agreed to launch the “Rapid” and “Blitz” rating lists in 2012. For players with existing FIDE ratings, their initial rating on both of the new lists will be that rating. Their rapid play or blitz ratings will be adjusted depending on their results in those forms of chess. It also formalized the definition of the two terms: 1. Rapid Chess must have at least 15 minutes, but less than 60 minutes thinking time; or the time allotted + 60 times any increment or delay is at least 15 minutes, but less than 60 minutes for each player. That is the exact wording in the resolution, but not quite so clear, so perhaps I will give an illustration. Supposing you want a time control of 15 minutes + 10 second increment per move, is that eligible? Well, the 10-second increment over 60 moves comes out to 600 seconds, or 10 minutes. This 10 minutes added to original time of 15 minutes totals 25 minutes -- well within the 15-60 minute eligibility time control. 2. Blitz games have the same method of computation, except that the eligible time control is 5-15 minutes, after adjustment for any increment. Thus, the time control of three minutes plus two second increment or all the moves in five minutes is acceptable. This has led to another explosion of interest in these forms of chess. Last December the Polish insurance company Metlife Amplico, sponsored the European Rapid and Blitz chess championships. The winners were: EU-Ch Rapid 2012 Warsaw, Poland Dec. 15-16, 2012 Note: take note that these events typically take only 1-3 days, which is why organizers like this form of chess Final Standings (in tie-break order) 1-4. GM Alexey Dreev RUS 2748, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2711, GM Alexei Shirov LAT 2723, GM Sergei Rublevsky RUS 2712, 9.5/11 5-13. GM Arkadij Naiditsch GER 2708, GM Vladimir Malakhov RUS 2713, GM Vladislav Tkachiev FRA 2635, GM Alexander Motylev RUS 2677, GM Markus Ragger AUT 2665, GM Richard Rapport HUN 2623, GM Bartosz Socko POL 2628, IM Vladislav Kovalev BLR 2482, GM Michal Olszewski POL 2533, 9.0/11 Total of 775 (!) players EU-Ch Blitz 2012 Warsaw, Poland December 14, 2012 Final Standings (in tie-break order) 1. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2749, 18.5/22 2. GM Gabriel Sargissian ARM 2666, 17.5/22 3. GM Vladislav Tkachiev FRA 2647, 17.0/22 4-8. GM Ivan Bukavshin RUS 2632, GM Alexey Dreev RUS 2696, GM Evgeny Romanov RUS 2538, GM Markus Ragger AUT 2603, GM Andrei Istratescu FRA 2654, 16.5/22 Total of 439 players Just before the end of the year was the Final of the Rapid Grand Prix of Russia which took place from December 23-24. The final was a knockout event with 16 participants who scored most points in the Grand Prix rapid events throughout the year. Alexey Dreev, fresh from his victory in the European Rapid championship, added another title by winning this event as well. In the final match Dreev defeated the 14-years old prodigy Vladislav Artemiev from Omsk. In the earlier rounds Dreev eliminated Yana Kim, Pavel Maletin and Anton Shomoev. Here is the decisive game of the finals. Artemiev, Vladislav (2474) -- Dreev, Alexey (2654) [B11] Russian Rapid GP Final 2012 Kirov RUS (4.2), 24.12.2012 1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 [4...Bh5 is also played but is nowhere near as popular as the game move] 5.Qxf3 e6 6.d3 You might be interested to know that in the 2012 USA Championship the following game occurred in the first round: 6.g3 Nd7 7.Qe2 d4 8.Nb1 h5 9.h4 g5 10.hxg5 Qxg5 11.d3?? 0-1 Stripunsky-Onischuk, Saint Louis 2012. 6...Nd7 7.Bd2 Bc5 8.Qg3 Bd4 9.0-0-0 Trying to chase away the bishop is futile. After 9.Ne2 Be5 10.f4 Bf6 White cannot play 11.e5 because of 11...Bh4 9...Qb6 10.f4 Ne7 11.Be2 0-0 12.Kb1 Nc5 Black’s attack is coming in faster than White’s. He is already threatening 13...dxe4 14.dxe4 Nxe4! and White cannot recapture because of mate on b2. 13.Bf3 Rfd8 14.Qe1 Bxc3 15.Bxc3 Na4 Intending to push his d-pawn to d4. If he protects this with 16.d4 then 16...dxe4 17.Bxe4 Nd5 18.Bxd5 Rxd5 keeps up the pressure. 16.Ka1 d4 17.Bb4 c5 18.Ba3 Qc7 19.e5 Rab8 20.c4 dxc3 21.b3 Nb2 22.Qxc3? Artemiev did not like 22.Bxb2 cxb2+ 23.Kxb2 a5 with a strong attack, but the text is not an improvement. 22...Nxd1 23.Qxc5 Qxc5 24.Bxc5 Rbc8 25.Ba3 Rxd3 26.Bxd1 Nd5 27.Bf3 Rc2 28.Rc1 Rxc1+ 29.Bxc1 Rd4 30.Kb1 b6 31.Kc2 h6 32.a3 Kf8 33.g3 Ne7 34.Be3 Rd7 35.g4 Nd5 36.Bd2 Ke7 37.f5 f6 38.exf6+ Nxf6 39.fxe6 Kxe6 40.b4 Ke5 41.a4 Ne4 42.Bc1 Rc7+ 43.Kb2 Nc3 44.Kb3 Nxa4 45.Bd2 b5 46.Be2 a6 47.h4 Rf7 48.Be3 Ke4 49.Bg1 Rc7 50.Bd1 Rc3+ 51.Ka2 Rc1 52.Bxa4 Rxg1 53.Bc2+ Kf4 0-1 Artemiev is the sensational discovery of the tournament. He defeated Alexander Galkin, Russian champion Dmitry Andreikin and young star Sanan Sjugirov on his way to the final. Artemiev’s nerves of steel served him well during the entire duration of the event. In the following game Galkin, a former World Junior Champion, just loses his head in the complications and Artemiev mows him down. * * * Sjugirov, Sanan (2643) -- Artemiev, Vladislav (2474) [D48] |
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