Berkeley International Final Results

The Berkeley International Tournament, held in Berkeley, California ran from Dec 14-28, 2008, with the final results coming late by me...Christmas, not up to posting until today, trying to get all the games for a pgn file for download. I think I managed to do the latter. The file of course will be on the Website mentioned below.

Here are the Final Standings:


1 7.5 GM Giorgi Kacheishivili

2 7.0 GM Zviad Izoria

3-5 6.0 GM Josh Friedel, IM Irina Krush, FM Daniel Rensch

6-7 5.5 GM Vinay Bhat, IM David Pruess

8-12 5.0 GM Jesse Kraai, IM Justin Sarkar, GM Dashzegve Sharavdorj,
FM Marc Esserman, WIM Iryna Zenyuk

13-15 4.0 IM Lev Milman, FM Daniel Naroditsky, FM Dale Haessel

16 3.5 FM Bela Evans

17 3.0 IM Sandor Kustar

Elista Grand Prix 2008 Final results

The 3rd event in the FIDE Grand Prix held in Elista, Russia came to an end with a three-way tie for first. The thirteen round event finished yesterday after starting on Dec 14, 2008.

Here are the final standings, the pgn file will be available on TransWarp's website in the games page.

Grand Prix event #3, Elista, Russia Final Standings.

1-3 8.0 GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2751
GM Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2737
GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2719

4 7.5 GM Vugar Gashimov AZE 2703

5-9 6.5 GM Peter Leko HUN 2747
GM Etienne Bacrot FRA 2705
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2731
GM Wang Yue CHN 2736
GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov UZB 2672

10 6.0 GM Ivan Cheparinov BUL 2696

11-12 5.5 GM Evgeny Alekseev RUS 2715
GM Pavel Eljanov UKR 2720

13-14 5.0 GM Vladimir Akopian ARM 2679
GM Ernesto Inarkiev RUS 2669

GM Gadir Guseinov wins one!

GM Gadir Guseinov, one of the higher rated blitz players beat TransWarp on time yesterday. I DO have a good excuse, I am beta-testing Chesspartner 6, which is going to be an awesome gui for the online computer players when the bugs are out.

GM Guseinov lost the first game, but then in the second game, the Chesspartner gui started acting funky, and me, not thinking straight, kept restarting CP 6 beta instead of falling back on CP 5.4.. Thereby losing 15 seconds penalties for each time it failed, which was 3...give a great blitz player an extra 45 seconds and he will make the best of it!

Since the time win is really just pieces getting moved back and forth in a locked position, and Rybka not trying to break out for some reason, I guess it just couldn't see anything and given the position, would probably have been a 50 move draw. I guess I will post both games so that the readers of this blog see what I mean. A small note, I will try to upload the Berkeley International tournament and Elista Grand Prix PGN files to the website, link in the Links list of course. They will be in the games page.

Here are the two games (At least TW got to PLAY two games!) I thank GM Guseinov.

photo from fide.com

GM Guseinov (2650, expected to be 2660-1) vs TransWarp



TransWarp vs GM Guseinov (Azerbaijan)



I would also like to thank GM Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia for playing as well, in case I haven't yet in a previous post, he played vs Deep Rybka 3 Human in the Chesspartner 6 gui, I just don't have the knowledge to know what caused it to fail in GM Guseinov's last game, things that make you go, hmmn.

Been slow to report...

Well, with the wacky weather we've had here in Kansas, I've been stoved up in bed, plus Christmas dinner put this guy to sleep! We actually were in a Tornado Watch early this morning and had a Severe Thunderstorm pass through dropping hail and some high winds, lots of loud thunderclaps as well (4:30am in the morning!). Tonight, snow...go figure. If you don't like Kansas Weather, wait a few minutes and it will change. ;)

TranswWarp has been kind of quiet as well, getting a few games from GM Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, FIDE rating of 2616 and might hit 2628 in January, 2009. It's amazing that this young and upcoming Grandmaster is currently rated #31 in Russia, when he would be tied with GM Yuri Shulman at #5 in the US! Chess really needs to bring in corporate sponsors who realize that promoting this sport would help develop stronger players in the United States, but also help children learn more effectively, this has been proven, chess helps with problem solving skills, visualization and general brain power, help these young minds prepare for the future, when we may need their help solving all our global problems.

But at any rate, TranaWsrp only got a few games this week, mostly the games from GM Nepomniachtchi as well as a couple bullet games from GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela. It'a getting harder and harder to find opponents, when you send a seek ad out and have only 1 eligible for blitz, 4 for bullet and 11 for standard, it's the top players who are left to play, but many of the higher rated players are only interested in playing each other, which I can understand. It's a bummer, but I understand.

GM Nepomniachtchi (faust) vs TransWarp





TransWarp vs faust

Nanjing Pearl Spring Super GM Final Results

Here are the final results of the Pearl Spring Super-GM Tournamant held in Nanjing, China. FIDE #1 Rated player, GM Veselin Topalov won the tournament and his rating is expected to break 2800 again, with estimates at 2809. This is an impressive win going into the FIDE Challenger's Match vs GM Gata Kamsky in February 2009.

Round 8
GM Topalov Veselin 1-0 GM Ivanchuk Vassily
GM Aronian Levon 1/2-1/2 GM Movsesian Sergei
GM Svidler Peter 1-0 GM Bu Xiangzhi

Round 9
GM Svidler Peter 0-1 GM Topalov Veselin
GM Bu Xiangzhi 1/2-1/2 GM Aronian Levon
GM Movsesian Sergei 1/2-1/2 GM Ivanchuk Vassily

Round 10
GM Topalov Veselin 1/2-1/2 GM Movsesian Sergei
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 1-0 GM Bu Xiangzhi
GM Aronian Levon 1/2-1/2 GM Svidler Peter

Final Standings:

1 7.0 GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2791
2 5.5 GM Levon Aronian ARM 2757
3 5.0 GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2714
4 4.5 GM Peter Svidler RUS 2727
5-6 4.0 GM Sergei Movsesian SVK 2732
GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2786

TransWarp Website updates

On TransWarp's official website, I have added 800 more games of TransWarp vs opponents at ICC (Chessclub.Com). The address is http://www.transwarpchess.com then go to the games page. I will try to update this site more, but with the work of both of them, it's pretty tough for me. Some people can stay up at the computer hours on end, not this cat. He needs his rest :) But you will also find the pgn file of the Nanjing Pearl Spring Super GM Tournament uploaded there as well, and when the Elista Grand Prix event ends, I will upload the pgn file of that and the Inernational tournament in the San Francisco area going on at the moment. It's being called East Bay 2008 on ICC, but not the real name, just a shortcut. Sorry for no updates for a couple days, it's been pretty cold here in Kansas and that makes the joints and bones hurt... I never thought that was true as a young adult...but now, oh yeah, it's true.

Elista Grand Prix 2008 Round 4 and 5 results

GM WANG YUE

Round 4 in Elista, Russia's FIDE Grand Prix event finished yesterday, here are the results and standings after round 4 with today's round 5 pairings. Today's pairings will be updated today as they finish, there are already some results in from the round. A note I missed, I don't know if GM Wang Yue had played and lost before this event, but he had a rather large streak of being unbeaten, last I saw it was in the 80+ game range, (this include draws of course, just not losing a game), until Round 1 when GM Dmitry Jakovenko beat GM Wang Yue, however, this streak propelled him into the 2700's, among the elite players. Nothing to sneeze at, that's for sure!

Round 4 results, 17th December 2008

Kasimzhanov Rustam 2672 0-1 Alexeev Evgeny 2715
Wang Yue 2736 1-0 Eljanov Pavel 2720
Akopian Vladimir 2679 0.5-0.5 Gashimov Vugar 2703
Grischuk Alexander 2719 0.5-0.5 Inarkiev Ernesto 2669
Cheparinov Ivan 2696 0.5-0.5 Jakovenko Dmitry 2737
Bacrot Etienne 2705 1-0 Leko Peter 2747
Radjabov Teimour 2751 0.5-0.5 Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2731


GM Wang Yue vs GM Pavel Eljanov Round 4



Another win by the rising star from China.



Round 5 results, 18th December 2008

Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2731 0.5-0.5 Kasimzhanov Rustam 2672
Leko Peter 2747 0.5-0.5 Radjabov Teimour 2751
Jakovenko Dmitry 2737 0.5-0.5 Bacrot Etienne 2705
Inarkiev Ernesto 2669 0-1 Cheparinov Ivan 2696
Gashimov Vugar 2703 1-0 Grischuk Alexander 2719
Eljanov Pavel 2720 0.5-0.5 Akopian Vladimir 2679
Alexeev Evgeny 2715 0.5-0.5 Wang Yue 2736

(pairings and Round 4 results Courtesy of Chessdom.com, a great chess news site)

Here's a quick win by Bulgaria's GM Ivan Cheparinov

GM Ernesto Inarkiev vs GM Ivan Cheparinov



Round 5 Standings:

1-2 3.5

GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2751
GM Vugar Gashimov AZE 2703

3 3.0

GM Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2737

4-9 2.5

GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2719
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2731
GM Evgeny Alekseev RUS 2715
GM Wang Yue CHN 2736
GM Etienne Bacrot FRA 2705
GM Vladimir Akopian ARM 2679

10-13 2.0

GM Ernesto Inarkiev RUS 2669
GM Peter Leko HUN 2747
GM Pavel Eljanov UKR 2720
GM Ivan Cheparinov BUL 2696

14 1.5

GM Ruslan Kasimdzhanov UZB 2672

Catch up on Nanjing Super GM 2008

I had a couple of bad days, so the posting was slow, sorry about this. Here's and update on the round results and standings of the Nanjing Pearl Spring Super GM Tournament.

They have finished Round 7 now, I think my last results were from round 5..so here are the round results I missed as well as a couple of games, a win by Topalov as well as a win by Aronian.

Round 6 Results:

GM Topalov Veselin 1-0 GM Aronian Levon
GM Svidler Peter 1/2-1/2 GM Ivanchuk Vassily
GM Bu Xiangzhi 1-0 GM Movsesian Sergei

GM Topalov vs GM Aronian Round 6





Round 7 Results:

GM Bu Xiangzhi 1/2-1/2 GM Topalov Veselin
GM Movsesian Sergei 0-1 GM Svidler Peter
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 0-1 GM Aronian Levon

Here's the nice win with the black pieces by GM Levon Aronian vs GM Vassily Ivanchuk who is winless so far, but has had some well needed draws to stay close, but with only 3 rounds to go, he would have to win all his remaining games to pass GM'x Bu ans Topalov at 4.5 pts and in the lead at the moment. Here are the standings followed by GM Aronian's win.

Roung 7 Standings:

1-2: GM Bu Xiangzhi, GM Veselin Topalov 4.5

3: GM Levon Aronian 4.0

4: GM Peter Svidler 3.0

5-6: GM Sergei Movsesian, GM Vassily Ivanchuk 2.5

GM Vassily Ivanchuk vs GM Levon Aronian Round 7

3rd Round game in Elista, GM Mamedyarov vs GM Bacrot

I was observing and analyzing GM Mamedyarov's game on ICC as it was broadcast live on ICC, the 3rd round vs GM Etienne Bacrot of France (2705). It was a hard fought game with Deep Rybka keeping the game pretty even, however Bacrot made an error and Mamedyarov pounced on it immediately (31. Bf7+ Kg5? (Kf6)). Mamedyarov's lead grew bit by bit until 39. Rb5+ Kf6 40. Rxa5? (Rd6+ where the game is won, Rybka's eval was +4.50 and rising, then 40. Rxa5 and eval dropped significantly to approximately 0.00 (equal). This was a tough break for GM Mamedyarov, who I was hoping would win, I have a soft spot for all the GM's that play TransWarp, and lately GM Mamedyarov had played a lot of games.

Here is the game:

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2731) vs GM Etienne Bacrot (2705)



At least it was just a mistake that went to a draw and not an outright blunder that made him lose the game, but losing a won game is tough, I lost many of them when I played, usually after the first 5 moves! Just kidding of course, but I did lose many a game to a silly blunder, why I don't have GM in front of my name, not even Expert! But for me it's fun, I don't play over the board anymore, (at tournaments) it would just be a waste of entry money, the meds I'm on make me lose my concentration and ability to hold a position, let alone win one. So I have to give GM Bacrot credit for hanging in there and not resigning too early (a mistake many of us have made) and waited for his opponent to misstep and it happened and he came away with the half point. A lesson for us all, don't resign too early, play on in unclear positions even if you know you are losing, you might catch a break!

*NEW*

GM Mamedyarov's 2nd Round Game in Elista

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, having played TransWarp, is a Grandmaster of which I've started to take note. It's not too often a 2700+ FIDE rated Grandmaster plays a computer, his ICC handle is azerichess. At this time he's playing in the FIDE Grand Prix event in Elista, Ruaaia. I've had other 2700+ players challenge TW, but not as often, the exception being GM Hikaru Nakamura, who's rated 2704 now, but was rated in the mid to high 2600's, who played hundreds of games vs TransWarp when it was running Rybka 2.3.2a mp x64. He has never played TransWarp with Deep Rybka 3. He decided that blitz chess wasn't good for his game, or so I was told/read.

Here's GM Mamedyarov's game vs GM Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria.

GM Ivan Cheparinov (2696) vs GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2731)

GM Vladimir Kosyrev (Tankist) plays some standard chess

GM Vladimir Kosyrev (Tankist on ICC) played a couple of standard games yesterday, these are games that are considered longer than blitz, could be like these games, 15 minutes with 0 Increment (15+0) or up to a regular tournament style game, like 2 hours + 30 second Increment.

Here are the games GM Kosyrev was kind enough to play, he does say that he sometimes plays after some drinks for fun, so even though these are longer games, he might have been a little tipsy, although, some players were known to play better after a few shots of vodka, like the legend GM Mikhail Tal!

TransWarp vs GM Kosyrev (Tankist)



Tankist vs TransWarp



I saw this game, GM Kosyrev had a pretty good time advantage and what looked to be an even position, if he would have offered a draw, I might have taken it for TW. But they chose to fight on and in the end the silicon was just too fast for the flesh, with TransWarp breaking through and at the last moment, achieving a mate in two, 161. Kg1 Qg2# It was a really fun game to watch, there were pieces flying everywhere at the end, but when TW was trying to break through, she had to pick the right time, which was probably at the 49th move before the 50 move draw! This is what a high contempt setting does, I wish that the computer was able to just set up the position and go right to it, rather than moving pieces around, waiting. But this is the way it's programmed to play, go gung-ho at the last minute, it may have been able to make these moves earlier, but it was waiting for GM Kosyrev to make an attacking move, naturally, he's going to just protect his position and get the win on time or a draw, but the computer doesn't know that, so it doesn't try to break out sooner. But I thank GM Kosyrev for his continued play, he's a really nice person, and like all the GM's and IM's and other high-rated players, doesn't have to play, but likes a challenge and this time he almost got Miss Rybka. Yes, for all you out there, Rybka is referred to as "she", I know the ladies might get up in arms about this, but it's a good thing, after all, at the moment, it's the best computer chess program in the world that's commercially available! At least it's not some real storm devestating people out of lives and property as in Hurricanes. Which is why, now, Hurricanes carry both female AND male names. Rybka is a pretty "little fish" with VERY sharp teeth!

Oh, on a small sidenote, TransWarp did finally pass BigMomma's bullet record of 3326, which was just 4 points above Scrappy's official record of 3321, TransWarp's and BigMomma's records are "unofficial" as we are not the program's writers. TransWarp would like to commend BigMomma on holding this record for 13 months! Since November of 2007, it has been the computer to try and reach, TransWarp came close once with Rybka 2.3.2a mp x64, but fell short after the blockade trick was found and abused. Although TransWarp is not listed in BigMomma's notes, TransWarp would like to commend BigMomma "flyingfatmat on playchess.com" on the high standards it set. TransWarp has been lucky enough to hold the blitz record since March 10, 2008 when it achieved 3932, I didn't expect it to hold the record this long, and why I commend BigMomma on holding the bullet record for so long. By comparison, it held the blitz record for 1 year 3 months! So needless to say, it has been the computer to beat on ICC as for records.

However, I would like to point out that these records were achieved by playing humans, in BigMomma's case a stretch of time where it played humans only and would play computers unrated. I do believe BigMomma did play a few rated games with computers in bullet and standard. There are many computers that are VERY good, but choose to play each other as well as humans, this gives them a more realistic rating, except for a certain few, which pick and choose their opponents. Bountyhunter(C) is one example of a computer account that will play all comers, there is also DesertCat(C) formerly "DesertRat" that's another example. There are more of course, but these are guys that put a lot of time into their computer vs computer past-time. I don't have the energy to keep working on books and monitoring my computer to make sure it's operating okay like I used to be able. I'm on more pain meds, get tired very easy, and this is just much more easier for me to do (Play Humans only, although a few (C)heaters did get to play TransWarp, luckily, it won all those games. So if I'm going to commend BigMomma, I have to commend those who battle in the trenches every day in compter vs computer play. They are awesome, and I would like to call a few of them friends. They don't agree with what I do, but I do hope they understand, I get to meet a few of my favorite players, those who do talk, as well as not worry that TransWarp is going to crash and be norated for good. This is why I mention in my notes how stable it has been with the limited games it plays against people. I have been told by Admins that if TransWarp makes a habit of crashing, it may be norated permanately, which would really suck on my part.

A short note that ended up becoming quite long-winded. I apologize for this, also I hope to be able to work on the Website soon...I just haven't been up to it, few people realize how much work it is for me. When your immune system attacks your skeletal muscles, it's almost like walking in sand and water all day, that sand at the ocean that when a wave comes in, causes you to sink. I know some understand, but I do know, I'm probably not very well thought of by some computer vs computer players. :-/ I try. All I can do.

Round 5 Nanjing Super GM Tournament, Topalov Draws Blood!

As Round 5 of the Nanjing Pearl Spring 2008 Super GM Tournament (What a mouthful, or in this case, fingerful, (of typing), GM Veselin Topalov got a win over GM Peter Svidler. GM's Ivanchuk and Svidler are starting off slowly in this tournament, with GM Svidler bringing up the rear. This was GM Veselin Topalov's first win of the tournament however, as the other two games were drawn, he will join the leaders.

Round 5 Results:

GM Topalov Veselin 1-0 GM Svidler Peter
GM Aronian Levon 1/2-1/2 GM Bu Xiangzhi
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 1/2-1/2 GM Movsesian Sergei

Round 5 standings:

1-3 GM Bu Xiangzhi, GM Veselin Topalov, GM Levon Aronian 3.0

4. GM Sergei Movsesian 2.5

5. GM Vassily Ivanchuk 2.0

6. GM Peter Svidler 1.5

GM Alexey Dreev latest to play TransWarp

GM Alexey Dreev was the latest to play TransWarp in blitz, but this was two days ago, games are getting fewer and far between. The main reason as I may have mentioned is the 3900 rating of TransWarp, as the rating gets higher, the list of eligible players gets smaller, which is kind of sad. It's too bad titled GM's couldn't risk 1 pt based on their title, but that's not the way it works. Players have to be rated approximately 700 pts below TransWarp to even be able to risk 1 pt. It's too bad the higher rated players, in the 3400 and 3500's don't take the risk to play, would be interesting, but they are interested in their rating. I have nothing but respect for those titled players who take the time to play TransWarp. It's a courtesy on their part to even try, they don't have to play a computer, much less one that is very hard to beat. But some DO see it as a challenge and give it a try, this I respect and honor with mention of their names in my notes on ICC and a Thank You. Speaking of which, I also have to thank IM Lucas Liascovich of Argentina for his occasional bullet games as well as GM Hristos Banikas of Greece, Thanks Gwntlemen!


Here are the two games of GM Dreev

GM Dreev vs TransWarp



TransWarp vs GM Dreev

Nanjing Super GM 2008 Rounds 3 and 4

Sorry I missed Round 3, I had a very bad day yesterday, slept most of it away. Here are Round 3 and partial round 4 results.

Round 3 results:

GM Ivanchuk Vassily 1/2-1/2 GM Topalov Veselin
GM Movsesian Sergei 1/2-1/2 GM Aronian Levon
GM Bu Xiangzhi 1/2-1/2 GM Svidler Peter

All hostilities end in a truce in round 3, leaving round 3 standings at as follows:


1-2 GM Levon Aronian, GM Bu Xiangzhi 2

3-4 GM Veselin Topalov, GM Sergei Movsesian 1.5

5-6 GM Vassily Ivanchuk, GM Peter Svidler 1

Round 4 Results:

GM Movsesian Sergei 1/2-1/2 GM Topalov Veselin
GM Bu Xiangzhi 1/2-1/2 GM Ivanchuk Vassily
GM Svidler Peter 1/2-1/2 GM Aronian Levon

Again, peaceful outcomes to all of the games, they are playing it safe it seems, but after 46 moves Deep Rybka 3 Human had the Svidler-Aronian game equal = So it's not like they aren't trying.

Round 4 Standings:

1-2 GM Levon Aronian, GM Bu Xiangzhi 2.5

3-4 GM Veselin Topalov, GM Sergei Movsesian 2.0

5-5 GM Vassily Ivanchuk, GM Peter Svidler 1.5

Round 2 Nanjing Super GM Tournament starts, Aronian ties Bu for lead.

GM Levon Aronian gained a full point today over GM Vassily Ivanchuk and finished the round tied with GM Bu who ended his game peacefully with a draw vs GM Veselin Topalov. GM Peter Svidler took a loss at the hands of GM Sergei Movsesian. Here are round two results and standings.

Round 2 results:

GM Svidler(2727) 0-1 GM Movsesian(2732)
GM Aronian(2757) 1-0 GM Ivanchuk(2786)
GM Topalov(2791) 1/2-1/2 GM Bu(2714)

Standings after Round 2:

1-2 1.5 GM Levon Aronian ARM 2757
GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2714

3-4 1.0 GM Sergei Movsesian SVK 2732
GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2791

5-6 0.5 GM Peter Svidler RUS 2727
GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2786

Round 1 Nanjing Super GM Tournament starts, Bu starts out good!

The Nanjing Pearl Spring 2008 Super GM Tournament started today, 6 player double round robin tournament, with these top GM's playing.

1. GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2791
2. GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2786
3. GM Levon Aronian ARM 2757
4. GM Sergei Movsesian SVK 2732
5. GM Peter Svidler RUS 2727
6. GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2714

Round 1:

GM Movsesian(2732) 0-1 GM Bu(2714)
GM Ivanchuk(2786) 1/2-1/2 GM Svidler(2727)
GM Aronian(2757) 1/2-1/2 GM Topalov(2791)

Standings:

1. GM Bu 1
2-5 GM Aronian, GM Topalov, GM Svidler, GM Ivanchuk 0.5
6. GM Movsesian 0

GM Movsesian vs GM Bu Xiangzhi

BOOO gets a time win, Chess Assistant 9 time management?

Yesterday, BOOO,, the anonymous player, who has drawn TransWarp before, achieved a win on time. I was using Chess Assistant 9.1, which is known to have time management problems, I normally never use it for onliine play, but for sorting out databases and looking for certain openings and variations. But since my ChessPartner 5.4 was in the shop, so to speak, I had to use Chess Assistant 9. I do NOT know if Chess Assistant 10 & it's upgrade 10.1 have solved this time management problem, but I don't really see anyone using it as a gui to connect their computers to ICC, so I'm guessing they haven't.

Chesspartner 5.4 is very good at managing it's time and usually does well in all time controls if you have it set right. I switched computers from HP to Dell and suddenly, it doesn't recognize 4 cores. I figured out it was a long filename problem and after renaming the long Rybka filename, all was solved and she's riding her old horse Chesspartner again.

But to give BOOO credit, after analyzing the position where it lost on time, the position was drawn. Rybka showed a +1.00, but as the analysis got deeper, the score got lower, to less that -0.50 (black advantage to computer analysis neophytes.) When white has an advantage, it's always a positive score, such as +0.50 for a guesstimate of a 1/2 pawn advantage. For a strong advantage, it would be like +3.00, or the equivalent of a minor piece, Rybka also takes into consideration the position on the board, so even though it's a K+P vs K endgame, where you would think the most the computer could give as a score is +1.00 (1 pawn) the position is also considered, if it's a winning position for white, it could be +9.00+ or even a Mate in # score, but if black's king can defend to where he can draw the position, the score would be 0.00. Just reverse the scores for black advantages, ie. -0.50, -3.00 and -9.00+ etc. So a quick, but I hope not confusing computer score lesson. A note, some engines tend to give higher scores than Rybka in some positions, especially older crafty engines. It's just a manner of how the programmer set up his/her value system for material and position...too complicated for me to make an engine, that's for sure.

Also, again GM Mamedyarov played some games this morning, not as many as the two previous days, but at least TransWarp is climbing back up towards it's 3940 high...but a ways to go at 3910.

BOOO vs TransWarp



Plus a nice draw sa well.

GM Mamedyarov plays another marathon

Grandmaster Mamedyarov, currently #15 in the world on Hans Arild Runde's Live Rating List (Not official, but a great tracker of current ratings of players over 2700 between Official rating lists), at 2727.9, played 12 games this morning. I had to examine a lot of them to see why he resigned, only to see that the computer had a good advantage in the positions. He was able to see this right away, this always amazes me. Here's the last game.

Condolences to the Polgar family

I would like to offer my condolences to the Polgar family, Susan, Szofia, and Judit as well as their parents at the loss of their grandmother. She was the last survivor of the Polgar family confined to the horrible extermination prisoner camp of Auschwitz. This is indeed a sad time for the Polgar family, having lost both my Grandmothers, I truly know how they feel. Nothing we can say but we are most sorry can help their grief at this time.

Here is a quote from Susan's blog:

"Her beloved Grandmother, the last member of Susan's family who survived Auschwitz, just passed away earlier yesterday in Budapest, Hungary. She is survived by her daughter Klara (Susan's mother), 3 grandchildren (Susan and her sisters), and 6 great grandchildren (Tommy, Alon, Leeam, Yoav, Oliver, and Hanna)."

Again, my deepest condolences go out to the Polgar family for their loss of a dear family member.

BOOO draws twice, GM Mamedyarov plays ten!

BOOO, the enigma of ICC, an untitled (as far as we know, it's an anonymous account), high-rated player, who prefers to be anonymous has drawn twice. I do have to admit, his last draw was a mistake on my part, when starting to use Chess Assistant after ChessPartner refused to see all four cores on my machine (The first draw, just one core, ugh, but Rybka could have won, still good play on BOOO's part, even on one core, Rybka 3.0 is tough!), I forgot to set the contempt level to my preference, at a low contempt level, it took an easy 3 move repetition draw, higher contempt would have avoided this.
After the loss to azerichess, the two draws by BOOO put a serious cramp in TransWarp's quest for 4k. However, after the 2 draws today by BOOO, azerichess played ten games and in a way, donated 20 pts to it's cause. Not by giving up I mean, but TransWarp getting some revenge for the loss. But she still sits at just 3917 now, a far cry from 3940, a long road to travel again. But that is Internet Chess! You have to take the highs with the lows and the past few days after floating on a cloud so to speak, TransWarp was humbled. She didn't take it well, I could swear I heard her circuits crying..lol! But to do BOOO justice, I have to post those draws, it's only fair.
But, I would also like to applaud GM Mamedyarov (azerichess), when he played the ten games today, he put up 2pts per game, most won't risk this. The pts are too precious to them, but Deep Rybka 3 IS intimidating, some titled players have said in their finger notes that it ruined the game of chess. But in the computer age, I think it has brought more fans to the game as well. There was a time when master rated computers would cost over $1,000! The old Saitek and Novag as well as Mephisto self-contained chess computers, the type that looked like a chessboard with all the chess software inside it and even moved the pieces on it's own through magnetic pieces. You would see them in malls playing over Fischer games in demo mode behind glass. You could go to radio shack and get a chess computer that you pressed the piece to the board where it was and moved it and pressed it to the board again to make the moves. These could be rated about 1700 or so, and you would have to wait hours on end on it's higher levels for it to move! They were about $75-$125 on the lower end. Now, for that price, you have Deep Rybka uci for about that price! You have to have your own pc of course. The computer technology has just gone wild in the past 20 years. That's when I had my $100 press and move computer, around the time I got disabled, actually a few years before in '86, I would go to my college class, come back and the darn thing still hadn't made it's move...lol. For us computer chess addicts, how did we get by?? My goodness!

Anyway, here are the two draws by BOOO :)

BOOO vs TransWarp



TransWarp vs BOOO



Plus I got some good news today, Coruschess.com has allowed me to use info and pics as long as credit is given (Which I always try to do anyway), which is pretty cool as I'm excited about the upcoming Corus event!

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov checkmates TransWarp!

Grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov threw TransWarp a curveball and struck out her out on Dec, 4 2008. I am late posting this game because at the moment, I'm not feeling well. I am trying to hold off this probable virus, it's at the worst time of the year too...winter in the Northern Hemisphere, I say this as I do have the occasional visitor from South of the Equator. I promised azerichess I would have this posted yesterday, but just didn't feel up to anything, even postponing a non-basic Dr's appt! (Go over some cardiac test results, couldn't do anything to help my current situation as a specialist and not my regular Doctor).
But as promised, here is TransWarp's thrashing, courtesy of azerichess (GM Mamedyarov), I don't feel bad that TransWarp got beat by a Super-GM, after all, this can only have what openings I have put in it's books, there's bound to be certain openings that GM's have studied and in a 3 0 blitz game, take care of a computer that hasn't seen the position before. No excuses, only an explaination. I congratulate GM Mamedyarov on his win! Below, please find the game. A small note: TransWarp was able to reach 3940 to gain a few points in the "Unofficial Computer Blitz Rating" record, but this loss was a setback in further gain as TW lost 31 pts in the game. At the moment, it sits at 3922.

TransWarp vs azerichess

Titles Awarded to Chess Players at Dresden FIDE Congress

Both men and women were issued new chess titles at the 79th FIDE Congress in Dresden, Germany this November 16-26 and finalized. I congratulate all players in their achievements, even kava, GM-Elect Anton Kovalyov, who's history is known to TransWarp followers. For those curious, it's in the blog archives, but congrats to him at any rate.

Grandmaster titles awarded:

Country, Name

ARG Flores, Diego
ARG Kovalyov, Anton
ARG Valerga, Diego
ARM Melkumyan, Hrant
BUL Bojkov, Dejan
BUL Rusev, Krasimir
CHN Hou, Yifan *
CHN Zhou, Weigi
CRO Bosiocic, Marin
CRO Saric, Ivan
CUB Gonzales Vidal, Yuri
CUB Corrales Jimenes, Fidel
EGY El Gindy, Essam
FRA Cornette, Matthieu
FRA Thal, Abergel
GEO Dzagnidze, Nana *
GER Braun, Arik
GER Siebrecht, Sebastian
GRE Papadopoulos, Ioannis K.
HUN Berczes, David
IND Arun Prasad, S.
KAZ Ismagambetov, Anuar
PER Cordova, Emilio
PHI Gomez, John Paul
POL Socko, Monika *
RUS Klimov, Sergey
RUS Orlov, Andrey
RUS Sjugirov, Sanan
SLO Borisek, Jure
SRB Milanovic, Danilo
UKR Simantsev, Mikhail
USA Friedel, Joshua E.
* Women achieving "Men's" Grandmaster Title, noting this as you will see there is a separate Women's Grandmaster Title, with less requirements to meet. There were a select few, starting with GM Zsuzsa (Susan now) Polgar winning the title the conventional way, as Men would. Nona Gaprindashvili was awarded the Men's GM Title as a result of winning the 1977 Lone Pine Tournament, held in the US, in 1978. Then Maia Chiburdanidze beat Nona and two other women in 1984 to win the Women's World Championship and was thus awarded the Men's GM Title. So although, Susan was the 3rd the achieve the conventional GM title, she was the first to win it the same way the men win it. Then came Judit, but that's a whole different story! Precise ways Nona and Maia achieved their GM titles: source wikipedia.com

International Master Titles awarded:

Country, Name

ARG Della Morte, German
ARG Iermito, Sebastian
AUT Hangweyrer, Manfred
AUT Santos, Marcus Vinicius M.
BUL Milchev, Nikolay
BUL Serafimov, Tervel
CAN Quan, Zhe
CHN Liu, Qingnan
COL Uribe, Mauricio
CRO Martinovic, Sasa
CRO Sertic, Rudolf
CUB Gomez Garrido, Camilo
CZE Biolek, Richard Jr.
ENG D'Costa, Lorin AR
ESP Recuero Guerra, David
FRA Delorme, Axel
FRA Goldsztejn, Gildas
FRA Housieaux, David
FRA Nezar, Mustafa
FRA Roser, Kevin
GEO Benidze, David
GER Morawietz, Dieter
GER Pasalic, Mehmed
GER Spiess, Gunter
GER Wegerle, Joerg
HUN Balog, Imre
HUN Nemeth, Miklos
HUN Toth, Ervin
INA Purnama, Tirta Chandra
IND Arghyadip, Das
IND Bathay T. Muralikrishnan
IND Narayanan, Srinath
IRI Toufighi, Homayoon
ISR Bykhovsky, Anatoly
ISR Caspi, Israel
ISR Kostromin, Mikhail
ITA Zimina, Olga
KAZ Amanov, Zhanibek
LTU Beinoras, Mindaugas
LTU Vaznonis, Vytautas
MKD Pancevski, Filip
NED Bitalzadeh, Ali
NED Rothuis, Vincent
NED Wemmers, Xander
PER Cruz Sanchez, Cristhian
PHI Barbosa, Oliver
PHI Nolte, Rolando
POL Piorun, Kacper
RUS Kharous, Ernest
RUS Klimov, Anton
RUS Kuznetsov, Gennady
RUS Moskalenko, Alexander
RUS Yatsenko, Alexey
SUI Carron, Julien
SUI Vuilleumier, Alexandre
SVK Jurcik, Marian
SVK Michalik, Peter
SWE Blomqvist, Erik
SWE Grandelius, Nils
SWE Smith, Axel
UKR Ipatov, Alexander
UKR Muzychuk, Mariya
UKR Nyzhnyk, Illya
UKR Tuka, Oleg
USA Kaufman, Raymond

Women's Grandmaster Titles awarded:

Country, Name

CRO Stock, Lara
CUB Marrero Lopez, Yaniet
IND Swaminathan, Soumya
ROU Sandu, Mihaela

Womrn's International Master Titles awarded:

Country, Name

BUL Jordanova, Svetlana
BUL Nikolova, Adriana
BUL Raeva, Elitsa
CHN Xu, Tong
CZE Pertlova, Sona
FRA Congiu, Mathilde
GEO Danelia, Mariam
GER Hoolt, Sarah
HUN Domany, Zsofia
LTU Limontaite, Simona
RUS Vazirova, Karina
SVK Borosova, Zuzana
TUR Ozturk, Kubra
USA Melekhina, Alisa
USA Zenyuk, Iryna

Grandmaster Titles awarded (conditional on rating*)

Country, Name

ARG Lemos, Damian
ARM Ter-Sahakyan, Samvel
BUL Vasilev, Milen
FRA Libiszewski, Fabien
LTU Pileckis, Emilis
POL Swiercz, Dariusz
UKR Zherebukh, Yaroslav
ZAM Simutowe, Amon

*must achieve a rating of 2500, not sure if they can pass 2500 during a quarterly rating period, then drop below before the rating period ends and still achieve title. Say, achieve a 2506 rating during September, but fall to 2498 in the same month, end up rated 2498 in October list and still achieve the title. Hmn, seems if someone passed 2500 during the period, they would end up NOT playing other tournaments until the next rating list to make sure Title is achieved (Many countries pay a stipend to it's professional players based on titles), thus losing out on a possible tournament win and payday. Would have to delve into the deep recesses of FIDE rules to find out.

International Master Titles awarded (conditional on rating)

Country, Name
ARG Filgueira, Hernan
AUT Kreisl, Robert
BUL Berbatov, Kiprian
CZE Jasny, Stanislav
CZE Nemcova, Katerina
ENG Rudd, Jack
ISL Arngrimsson, Dagur
MAS Lim, Yee-Wenig
NED Slingerland, Fred
POL Leniart, Arkadiusz
USA Arnold, Marc

Women's Grandmaster Titles awarded (conditional on rating)

Country, Name

ROU Ionica, Iulia-Ionela

Offer Ends December 31, 2008

Corus Group B and C announced!

In the big upcoming Corus 2009 Tournament, broken into 3 major parts at the top, Group A, announced previously in a post, was finalized with the addition of the names of those who will be competing in Group B and Group C. There also is an open tournament for those not picked for the top 3 groups. It's a major tournament I look forward to seeing each year, well, at least watching some of the live relays on ICC of my favorite players. This tournament takes place next month, and then followed by the Candidate Match for the challenger for the World Title against Champion, GM Viswanathan Anand, (GM Veselin Topalov vs GM Gata Kamsky) after much haggling over place and money.
But back to the subject, here are the invited participants of Group B, no guarantee this will be everyone who plays, there might be a drop out or such.

CORUS GROUP "B"

1 GM Krishnan Sasikiran India 2694
2 GM Zahar Efimenko Ukraine 2680
3 GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov Uzbekistan 2672
4 GM Alexander Motylev Russia 2672
5 GM Francisco Vallejo Pons Spain 2664
6 GM Andrei Volokitin Ukraine 2659
7 GM Nigel Short England 2642
8 GM Fabiano Caruana Italy 2640
9 GM David Navara Czech Republic 2633
10 GM Erwin l'Ami The Netherlands 2610
11 GM Jan Werle The Netherlands 2582
12 WGM Hou Yifan China 2578
13 GM Henrique Mecking Brazil 2567
14 GM Dimitri Reinderman The Netherlands 2543


CORUS GROUP "C"

1 GM Wesley So Philippines 2610
2 GM David Howell England 2593
3 GM Abhijeet Gupta India 2580
4 GM Tiger Hillarp Persson Sweden 2543
5 GM Friso Nijboer The Netherlands 2540
6 GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Venezuela 2538
7 IM Manuel Leon Hoyos Mexico 2535
8 GM Oleg Romanishin Ukraine 2532
9 GM Frank Holzke Germany 2524
10 FM Anish Giri Russia 2466
11 WGM Dronavalli Harika India 2462
12 IM Roeland Pruijssers The Netherlands 2458
13 IM Manuel Bosboom The Netherlands 2416
14 FM Ali Bitalzadeh The Netherlands 2370

Breaking News: TransWarp passes 3932

I just happened to check out TransWarp's current status, it was sitting at 3930, approaching it's old unofficial blitz record of 3932, when I saw BOOO (strong anonymous blitz player) playing. BOOO must be very good to hold his own and sitting at #16 in blitz between #15 GM Bu Xiangzhi (bxz) and #17 GM Arman Pashikian with a post game rating of 3241. But I would like to post the game that put TransWarp at 3933, hopefully advancing more, but it's really tough when a draw can cost you 15 pts, meaning you play 14 games but 1 is a draw, you come out behind. Like 1 step forward, 14 steps back! :) A draw is bound to happen sooner or later, so I will be happy with this moment, which gives me a little pleasure, as I had a very small part in TransWarp's success, updating her opening books, actually making those books, not being able to use the Official Rybka book because I just have the UCI package and use ChessPartner 5.4 as it's gui, which cannot read Chessbase opening books. It's a small input, but Deep Rybka 3.0 "Human" does all the work with the nudge I have given her, and just a small nudge at that!
Will hopefully continue moving forward, I dread the inevitable draw or even loss, but it WILL happen, just a matter of when. Thanks to BOOO, whoever he/she may be, for being brave enough to be the one who risks the pts that put TW past it's old record, set on March 10, 2008. Here is the game that took her to 3933.

TransWarp vs BOOO (anonymous)

GM Vladimir Kosyrev stuns TransWarp in 15 0!

GM Vladimir Kosyrev played TransWarp yesterday in 15 min + 0 increment chess (Known as Standard on ICC, that is the fastest time control of the Standard category), stunning it with a win! The position was actually a draw, and GM Kosyrev, known to his fellow ICC'ers as Tankist (even me, who would bet on him with fake chips in the bettingbot channel, but that's a different story), offered a draw, but sadly, I was busy sawing logs and TransWarp was on her own. So Tankist did what anyone would do, kept playing and ended up out blitzing TW. This is where I kind of miss the time control options in the settings of Rybka 3.0, it spent more time in the opening and middlegame, but didn't save that extra for a time battle. But no excuses, I have to go over the game and see what went wrong, hopefully fix it, and move on. You don't make progress without a few setbacks.
The game was also special in that it was the first win against TransWarp, since GM Rauf Mamedov did it in October, the game is in the archives here. Also, TransWarp had been on a run of games without even a draw (89) until Tankist smacked her right in the code. Here is the game: Congrats to Tankist (GM Vladimir Kosyrev)

Tankist vs TransWarp



I do have to give it to GM Kosyrev, offering the draw in an obviously drawn position, but that's the risk an operator has to take when you cannot man the computer all the time. I WISH I was watching, of course I would have taken the draw, but C'est La Vie. :)