Kramnik 1½ - Aronian 1½

Sergei Shipov annotates Kramnik's win in Game 3 for ChessVibes.

Shipov on Game 6

Good stuff.

A bang or a whimper?

Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk have been battling like sumo wrestlers or sprint cyclists.  The match looks maddeningly peaceful to the spectators, but the experts assure us that they're both playing to win.

If you're reading this post Wednesday morning, check out Game 6, the final game of regulation.  Chess in Translation has been live-blogging a translation of Shipov's commentary.

Gelfand-Kamsky game 2 drawn

A very close call for Kamsky, and a very interesting fight!

Shipov annotates.  (Not a permalink.)

Candidates quarterfinals complete

Grischuk upsets top seed Aronian, and Kramnik somehow survives against Radjabov.  English-language coverage is spotty at best: I'll add links later today.  In the meantime, here's an English translation of Shipov's commentary on yesterday's Topalov-Kamsky game.

Semifinals pairings: Kamsky (USA) vs. Gelfand (Israel), and Kramnik (Russia) vs. Grischuk (Russia).  Play begins this Thursday.  The survivor will challenge Vishy Anand for the world title next year.

Shipov on Carlsen-Anand

From the great Chess in Translation site!

Magnus Carlsen: crisis of form?

Kramnik beats Carlsen in round 1 at the Bilbao Grand Slam final (Shipov's round one notes are here).  Neither of the preceding links are permalinks: they'll go stale shortly.

Anand (having obviously worked on opposite-color bishop endings after Sofia) drew Shirov fairly easily.

Here are the top six players in the world per the Live Ratings list.  The world champ Anand could easily reclaim the top spot by the end of this event.

	Player		Rating	Change	Games	Events	Birth Yr
01	Carlsen		2805,1	-20,9	9	2	1990
02	Anand		2799,3	-0,7	1	1	1969
03	Aronian		2793,8	+10,8	16	2	1982
04	Topalov		2785,5	-17,5	9	1	1975
05	Kramnik		2785,2	+5,2	16	3	1975
06	Ivanchuk		2771,9	+17,9	10	1	1969

Shipov annotates Dortmund live

GM Sergei Shipov

Wonderful stuff at Chess in Translation.

The live game (Friday, it's Ponomariov-Kramnik: not a permalink) is here.

Yesterday's Kramnik-Le Quang Liem is here.

Shipov on Game 12

Via Dana Blogs Chess.

I normally don't get excited about opening books....

a tabiya in the English Hedgehog

Black to play

Suba's out-of-print book on The Hedgehog is brilliant, and I've won at least one tournament game thanks to it.  But it's also one of the most disorganized and confusing books I've ever read.

But now there's a much better alternative.  I just got my copy of Sergey Shipov's The Complete Hedgehog, Volume 1.  So far, I've only thumbed through the 527 (!!) pages and read the introduction to various sections, I can tell you that it looks like an absolute masterpiece of clarity (considering how confusing this opening can be!).  Furthermore, it looks to me like that rare opening book suitable for both 1600 and 2400 players.