Come on by the Buffalo Wild Wings,
in Brighton, Michigan for chess! Casual chess will still be played this Monday,
March 7, starting at 4pm until approximately 10pm. However, we also have a
Fischer Random 960 tournament going on! It will start at 6:30pm or earlier, if
the players are there and want to get started. Or a little later if folks can’t
make exactly at 6:30. Our club is very player friendly! Here are the pairings
for Round 3. The player listed first is playing the White pieces:
Board 1: Mike N – Paul M
Board 2: Ken T – Levi T
Board 3: Sam T- AJ E
Board 4: Pete B – Jeff S
Board 5: Vince V – Mary B
Board 6: Frank F – Leo B
Board 7: Jim G – Charlie S
Stop on by to play or to watch
the action!
Now meet the 14th Chess
World Champion!
Alexander Valerievich Khalifman (see photo) was born on January 18, 1966, in Leningrad. Khalifman is of Jewish descent. When he was six years old,
his father taught him the game. From there, he became the FIDE World Chess
Champion from 1999-2000.
Khalifman studied in the mathematics and mechanics department at
Leningrad State University. He served in the Russian army. He is married and
has a daughter.
His first trainer was Vassily Byvshev. Later he worked for many
years with a Honored Trainer of the Russian Federation, Gennady Nesis.
Alexander achieved his first major successes in youth chess. He was the
two-time junior champion of the USSR (1982, 1984) and junior champion of Europe
in 1985. Among the titles he has won in official competitions are: two-time
champion of Saint Petersburg in 1996-97, champion of Russia in 1996, member of
the winning Russian world championship team in 1997, and a member of the
winning Olympiad teams in 1992, 2000, and 2002.
He achieved the title of International Master in 1986 and became
a Grandmaster in 1990. His highest FIDE rating was 2702 (October 2001, January
2003, April 2003). His current FIDE rating is 2625.
He was a participant in the Candidates’ matches in 1994. He has
been the victor or a prizewinner in many international tournaments, among them
Plovdiv 1986 (3), Dordrecht 1988 (1), Moscow 1990 (1), Groningen 1990 (1), New
York Open 1990 (1), London 1991 (1), Ter Apel 1993 (1), Rakvere 1993 (1),
Elenite 1994 (1), St. Petersburg 1995 (1), Hastings 1995 (1), Bad Worishofen
1996 (1), Ischia 1996 (1), St. Petersburg 1997 (1), Aarhus 1997 (1), Hoogoven
2000 (1), Kazan 2005 (1) (sharing first place in the premier league of the
Russian championship) and others.
His greatest success was his victory in the FIDE World
Championship in Las Vegas (USA) in 1999, a tournament in which practically all
of the strongest players in the world participated, with the exception of
Kasparov and Anand. The tournament was conducted by the knockout system. After
winning the title of FIDE World Champion the Petersburg grandmaster
admitted, “I always knew that someday I would be first!”
Alexander Khalifman is a famous chess theoretician and writer.
He is the author of the popular series of opening books, “The
Opening for White According to Anand” (analysis of the move 1. e4,
in 12 volumes) and “The Opening for White According to Kramnik” (analysis
of the move 1. Nf3, in 3 volumes), which have also been translated into
English.
He is the co-author, with G. Nesis, of the books “Tactics in the Grunfeld Defense” and “Tactics in the French Defense“. He has written numerous
columns, which have been published in practically all the leading chess
periodicals of the world.
Below Khalifman is interviewed for a Russian chess magazine.
To promote children’s chess – what applied skills
of chess education do you consider the most significant?
Chess is fairly unique for the precise reason that it teaches you
to think. Most subjects taught in school only weigh your memory down with
information, without giving you the skills of independent mental work. Even the
solution of physical or mathematical problems most of the time can be reduced
to one standard algorithm or another.
But chess teaches you to think, and not only that, does it in a
playful form that is very natural for children. And at the same time, it brings
you face to face with a very concrete result.
Your most
memorable game?
Now I have to talk about missed opportunities after all. I was 20
years old, and several rounds before the end of the USSR Championship (Kiev,
1986) I played a good game and had a simple win against the respected GM Vitaly
Valerievich Tseshkovsky. If I had won, I would have moved into first place.
Alas, I lost the game, and after that I fell apart at the finish. You would
think that was all long ago, but it still bothers me to this day.
Tell us, please, about your most memorable
victory and most painful loss!
The most painful loss was against Tseshkovsky (USSR Championship,
1986), and the most memorable victory was my draw in the 6th game of the match
with Akopian (Las Vegas, 1999). For several days after the defeat against
Tseshkovsky I would even wake up, as in “Groundhog Day”, hoping that it was
only a bad dream, and today I would play the game as it ought to be played.
Unfortunately, it was not a dream… But after the game with Akopian, such a
feeling cannot be described. I was happy that this happened to me.”
Is your style
more tactical than positional? How
would you assess your style of play in chess (brilliant tactician, strategist,
attacker, defender, etc.)?
My style is more universal than either of the categories you just
named. The absence of even the smallest apparent talent always forced me to
play off my opponent, in other words, to play in that style that would be most
uncomfortable for that particular opponent in that particular game. That’s
difficult work, of course, but at times it didn’t work out badly. I tried to be a universal player
and act in a fashion that would be maximally uncomfortable for the concrete
opponent.
After this victory, did you consider yourself an equal
classical champion in the line beginning with Steinitz-Lasker- … up to
Kasparov, or did you somewhere in your heart of hearts understand that it
wasn’t so? [Ed. Note: Brutal question. The interviewer is asking, ‘do you rightfully
consider yourself the weakest World Champion of all time, or are you lying to
yourself?’]
Thank you for your undoubtedly good intentions, but it never even
came into my head to consider myself the equal of Steinitz. He defeated
Zukertort, but I had to master Kamsky, Gelfand, and Polgar. Now compare. In my
perhaps uneducated opinion, a world chess champion should prove his superiority
not only over one outstanding challenger, but over others who are, perhaps,
equally outstanding.
I
do not idealize the knockout system and I do not even have any thought of
considering myself a great chess player, but nevertheless the ideal system for
awarding the world championship has not yet been invented. [Ed. Note: An
absolutely beautiful answer to a boorish question.]
Whose games, among the former world champions,
created the strongest impression on you?
You can learn something from all of them, but if I had to choose
the absolute favorites, it would probably be Fischer and Tal.
