Chess

Published on Wednesday 1 July 2009 19:02

CHESS saw centuries of naive oversights in the openings before players learnt to avoid known mistakes. But the increasingly popular variant Chess 960 (or FischerRandom) involves multitudes more in the way of potential pitfalls, since each of the 959 new set-ups has its own complexities.

The opening play in Chess 960 develops around specific details in each initial position. Sometimes, the play is sharper than in classical chess because more squares are underprotected. Often play seems "amateurish", since even strong GMs can easily fall into an opening catastrophe. Castling, though, remains the same, with kings and rooks going to their usual outposts.

Pondering these implications has led Mark Dvoretsky to some interesting conclusions. The world's best trainer believes that playing Chess 960 is useful and entertaining because it helps "overcome routine and develop an unfettered approach".

Whether classical chess or Chess 960, Russia's GM Alexander Grischuk, the world No 15, seems to have a natural talent for both. The Muscovite was the top seed in the Mainz/Internet Chess Club Online Chess 960 Qualifier on Sunday, and he easily won to scoop the 750 first prize and the all-expenses-paid invitation to the Mainz Chess Classic later this month in Germany.

The 16-player field (that also included US champion GM Hikaru Nakamura as second seed) battled their way through to the finals after a week-long series of qualifying tournaments. And en route to the title, Grischuk made it all look so easy with convincing wins over Dino Ballecer (2.5-0.5), IM Anatoly Bykhovsky (3-1), GM Dmitry Kononenko (3-1), and then IM Artur Gabrielian (3.5-0.5) in the final.

D Ballecer – A Grischuk

Mainz/ICC Chess 960 Finals

1 e4 g5 2 Ne3 c5 3 g3 Ng6 4 d3 b6 5 a3 Bb7 6 Ba2 e6 7 c3 Bc7 8 Bd2 Kc8 9 O-O-O f5 10 f3 Rf8 11 N1c2 Ne5 12 Be1 g4 13 fxg4 fxe4 14 dxe4 Nd6 15 Rxd6 Bxd6 16 Nc4 Nxc4 17 Bxc4 Qe5 18 Rf1 Kc7 19 Bd3 Bxe4 20 Bxe4 Rxf1 21 Bxa8 Qg5+ 22 Kb1 Rxh1 23 Bxh1 Qxg4 Bd2 Qd1+ 0-1