Duif's Place chess pages for fans and tournament players includes coverage of hot chess news happening around the world. This page includes feature coverage of the 1996 Novgorod Super Grandmaster tournament, one of the strongest tournaments ever held.
This very strong event is Category 19,one of the strongest events in chess history. All participants are rated in the Top 20 in the world on the FIDE lists from the international chess organization.
This section includes:
The tournament is officially called "Lord Novgorod The Great - 96"
It is being held at the Beresta Palace Hotel in Novgorod, Russia, just south of St. Petersburg.
This young Superstar was the highest rated player in the world (ahead of both PCA Champion Garry Kasparov and FIDE Champion Anatoly Karpov) on the FIDE rating lists at the end of 1995. Although he had difficulties in the world championship qualifying events in the last cycle and did not reach the semi-finals, he is considered by many to be one of the top four or five players in the world right now, and a future contender for World Champion. Like Ivanchuk, Kramnik has competed in all three of the Lord Novgorod events. In the 1994 event, he was third, behind Kasparov and Ivanchuk. 1995 was a little worse for him: he played slightly below his expected performance, and placed fifth, behind Kasparov, Topalov, Short, Ivanchuk, and Ehlvest. This year, Kramnik enters the event as the favorite, and several analysts believe he will use this tournament to show his full return to world class status after the uneven last two years.
Over the last year this Bulgarian Grandmaster has become one of the most feared contenders on the European circuit. He defeated Kasparov at an important event a few months ago, and has been placing in the top three positions in just about everything he enters. He is famous for sitting rock still at the board, in total concentration, with both fingers stuck in his ears to maintain quiet. At first, other GMs found the sight amusing: now, they find it threatening. They know, when Topalov concentrates, he is getting ready to unleash the full power of one of the most formidable minds in chess.
Sometimes called "Chuckie" by his fans, this popular player is a crowd favorite. He has had some excellent successes over the last year, often placing 2nd or 3rd in SuperGM events. In 1994, he tied for first in the first Lord Novgorod the Great tourney. Although he lost one game to Kasparov, he scored 1.5 against Kramnik and Shirov, and Kasparov and Ivanchuk both finished the event with 7 points. In 1995, he tied for 2nd-4th with Topalov and Short, while Kasparov took first.
Short startled the chess world two years ago when he became the first Westerner to challenge for the World title since Bobby Fischer. Short had already defeated former World Champion Anatoly Karpov in the semi-finals, and then faced Garry Kasparov. After losing badly to Kasparov in their PCA title match, Short went into something of a tailspin, with very uneven results over the next two years. At 31, he is still young in international circles, but is the "old man" of this event.
Gelfand has been on the verge of World Championship class for about 3 or 4 years, yet has never quite succeeded in breaking into the top 5. He is capable of incredibly strong play, and is very well respected as an opponent by top players like Karpov and Kasparov. Yet he has had some difficulty with some of his younger peers, including Kramnik and Ivanchuk.
One of the most popular players in European
events, Judit Polgar, youngest of the three
Polgar sisters, is one of the top 20 players in
the world. Like her oldest sister Zsuzsa before
her, she entered international events by getting
into the records books as the youngest
Grandmaster in history when she was only 15. She
has risen rapidly to the top of the FIDE lists.
Most commentators feel her individual style is
still developing, and there are many arguments as
to whether she will reach the very highest level.
But she's still very young, still improving, and
on any given day can given even former World
Champions a run for their money.
Happy Birthday to Judit Polgar, who
turned 20 on 23 July!
This is an all-play-all double round robin
format, 10 rounds with no eliminations. Each
player plays each of the others twice, once with
Black and once with White. In this type of event,
a single loss can be deadly, and with everyone
this strong, the players may tend to play
conservatively during the first half as they
jockey for position. They play one game each day,
with several rest days scheduled. The schedule
will be:
Games will be played at 7 am Eastern (New York)
time each day. There will be live coverage at the
Internet Chess Club, telnet chess.lm.com 5000, or
see their web
page for more information.
July 20, July 21, July 22, July 23
July 24 = rest day
July 25, July 26, July 27
July 28 = rest day
July 29, July 30, July 31
The winner's name for each game is shown in
UPPER CASE
J.Polgar-Kramnik DRAW
Short-Topalov DRAW
Gelfand-Ivanchuk DRAW
Notes
Round 10: FINAL ROUND: Gelfand draws with
Ivanchuk. Polgar draws with Kramnik. And Topalov
clinches first by drawing with Short.
Round 9: Topalov, a full point ahead of
the field, draws with Gelfand. Kramnik draws with
Short. With his victory over J.Polgar, Ivanchuk
moved to within half a point of the leader, with
just one round to go.
Round 8: Judit Polgar won a pawn in a
strong attack against British Champion Nigel
Short, then continued with an interesting rook
and pawn ending in which she first won a pawn,
then gave up her rook for Black's last pawn and
had three connected passed pawns against a rook.
She as eventually able to win with the pawns.
Very nice game. In the Gelfand-Kramnik game,
Gelfand seemed to have somewhat awkward pieces,
but a strong passed pawn, and ended up winning a
piece for two pawns. Black's extra pawns were not
well-coordinated, however, and white ended up in
a winning endgame.
Round 7: Three decisive games today, with
the White side winning in each game. Short's game
against Gelfand showed the style that took the
British champion all the way to the World
Challenger position two years ago: he converted
better piece coordination and a slightly better
bishop into first a one pawn advantage, then
two--then cleared the board of major pieces while
sacrificing his bishop for 2 more pawns and an
absolutely won ending. Nicely done. Once again
Polgar attempted to launch a complicating attack,
but ended with a Bishop for two pawns and a pair
of rooks still o the board. Topalov played his
two connected center pawns very well, forcing a
situation where Polgar had to first give back the
piece, and then had to resign when the remaining
pawn was too strong to stop. Then it was
Kramnik's turn to leapfrog up from the bottom of
the standings with a win over Ivanchuk.
Round 6: Short continues his string of
draws. Topalov rolls over Kramnik with a fierce
attack. Polgar defeats Gelfand with a nicely
played attack, to give her two wins in a row, and
jump her ahead of both Kramnik and Gelfand in the
standings.
Round 5: Short draws Kramnik. Polgar beats
Ivanchuk in a startling game based on
"defend by attacking"- -several times
analysts proclaimed Polgar lost after she went
down a pawn, but her attack proved unstoppable.
Topalov gets into a slightly advantageous endgame
position with Gelfand, but accepts the draw.
Round 4: Kramnik Defeats J. Polgar; the
other two games are draws.
Round 3: All three games ended in draws.
Round 2: Gelfand and Short drew. Polgar
sacrificed a piece for a speculative attack, but
Topalov defended easily and took the point.
Kramnik appeared to misplay the middlegame in his
game against Ivanchuk and Ivanchuk, too, scored a
full point in this round.
Round 1: All three games ended in draws.
The Short-Ivanchuk game was the most exciting,
with unbalanced pawn structures and a lot of
tactic traps. Ivanchuk played some very sharp
lines, including the offer of an exchange
sacrifice, but Short played through all of these
with aggressive counterplay. Our thanks to the Internet Chess
Club for real-time coverage and information
on the event.
6.0 Topalov
5.5 Ivanchuk
5.0 Short
4.5 Gelfand, J.Polgar, Kramnik
______________________1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 01 Kramnik G X = 0 = = 1 X 0 1 = 0 = 4.5 2765, RUS 02 Topalov G = X = = = 1 1 X 0 = = 1 6.0 2750, BUL 03 Ivanchuk G 1 = X = = 0 0 1 X = = 1 5.5 2730, RUS 04 Short G = = = X = = = = = X 1 0 5.0 2695, GBR 05 Gelfand G = = = = X = 1 = = 0 X 0 4.5 2655, RUS 06 J.Polgar G 0 0 1 = = X = 0 0 1 1 X 4.5 2655, HUN
Game scores for all games are available at the
Internet Chess Club.
telnet chess.lm.com 5000 to watch the matches
Other Helpful Information sources on this event:
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