The World Is Enough... for Teimour Radjabov
Tim Wall was on the scene in Baku with the Cadet Grand Prix winner. Full event report!
A struggle for world domination across three and a half continents, technical problems in the Caspian region, with a nail-biting finale against the clock and spectacular explosions to boot. No, we’re not talking about the plot of the latest James Bond movie, The World is Not Enough, which is set in Azerbaijan, but the unscripted course of KasparovChess’s innovative tournament, the World Cadet Grand Prix.
Over the course of seven eventful days, Teimour Radjabov, Baku’s 12-year-old prodigy, experienced the full range of emotions – from despair over trying to overcome technical problems in his first match with England’s Murugan Thiruchelvam, to delight and relief at his impressive victory over Chinese star Bu Xiangzhi in the final.
The concept of a high-level tournament being covered over the internet is not, of course, new, but the format envisaged here – with eight young players from around the world operating in several different time zones, two game mini-matches of one hour apiece, and on-the-spot reporting from each venue – certainly was.
The line-up for the tournament was also quite impressive. As well as the two favourites, Bu Xiangzhi, the sensation from Qingdao, China, who has become the youngest GM of all time, and Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov, who last September won the European Youth (Under-18) Championship while being the youngest competitor in the event, most of the players had either won or come very high up in world championships for their age. Vladimir Belov (Russia) and Zahar Efimenko (Ukraine) could probably be assessed as the next seeds, with Hikaru Nakamura (United States), Maxim Rodshtein (Israel), Victor Jimenez (Spain) and Murugan Thiruchelvam (England) the dark horses of the event. For most of the players this tournament represented their widest immediate exposure to worldwide publicity yet.
In Baku, this factor seemed to be affecting Teimour Radjabov, as he confessed later to being worried about ‘everyone in the world being able to watch my games’.
Boris, Teimour’s dad, didn’t exactly put Teimour at his ease by assuring him that seven million people were expected to follow the event online.
The youth tournament was a curtain-raiser to the KC Grand Prix, a good idea, if you’re going to try out the system for a group of the world’s very top players, who better to use as ‘guinea pigs’ than a bunch of hot-shot, computer-literate kids. After all, as the internet generation they’re probably going to be more comfortable with the medium than most adult players.
One slight detraction from the event, however, was the lack of any girl player in the line-up. Regardless of whether the preferred strongest under 16 girl players were available to play, this would perhaps have been an added publicity boost, and sent out a positive message about the increased popularity of chess among girls going into the new century. [Invitations were sent to three girl players, from the US, France, and Germany, and none were able to play for various reasons, including one who cancelled at the last minute. -ed.]
Under starters’ orders
Quarter-Finals
Hikaru Nakamura 0.5-1.5 Zahar Efimenko Victor Jimenez 0-2 Vladimir Belov Bu Xiangzhi 1.5-0.5 Maxim Rodshtein Murugan Thiruchelvam 0.5-1.5 Teimour Radjabov
The first round saw different varieties of starting technique from the wunderkinds. Zahar Efimenko took the first hurdle at a gallop, despatching Hikaru Nakamaru in a cascade of sacrificial play after drawing a slightly worse, dullish French in game one. The Ukrainian came out fighting on the white side of a razor-sharp Sicilian Najdorf Main Line 6 Bg5, which is surely the perfect opening if you’re a gung-ho, fearless 14-year old (when you’re over 30 there just aren’t enough brain cells left to memorise all of the theory on this line). Russian Vladimir Belov overcame the challenge of Victor Alcazar Jimenez fairly easily, with game one being good entertainment value as Belov perhaps played over-spicily with 19...d5, when the simpler 19...Ba6 would have won a pawn fairly simply. Despite a slip or two by both sides in the resulting ending, the Spaniard found himself one down, and in the return his off-beat Sicilian failed to pass muster. The endgame this time was pure torture, and a rather one-sided 99-move marathon as Jimenez was mercilessly ground down.
The favourite’s route to the semis was a bit bumpier, but Bu’s resourceful counter-attack in the second game avoided a play-off against Maxim Rodshtein. A pawn down due to a vicious tactical trick (18 Bxc5!) Bu seemed to virtually ignore the pawn deficit, eventually finding some tactical counter-chances and forcing a perpetual. Earlier, he had shown nifty knight-footwork, giving back an extra exchange to exploit his own pawn plus in game one.
Worrying and waiting
Meanwhile, in Baku amid the waiting and the frustration as we tried to solve the connection problems, Teimour eventually triumphed against England’s Murugan Thiruchelvam. At first Teimour played from his home, and because of the timing of the games (beginning at 7 pm Baku time) he was adjusting his own ‘clock’ by sleeping late, and even catching catnaps for a couple of hours each afternoon. His laid-back demeanour changed about an hour before each game, and you could see him visibly stiffen up and go very quiet.
However, he seemed to cope with the pressure better than Boris, his father, who worried a lot. In virtually every game Boris would evaluate (or imagine, more correctly) that his son was losing, stood worse, or wasn’t playing the position correctly. That’s what he said, anyway – but I believe it was his coping mechanism.
Of course, I’m not saying that Boris is another Rustam Kamsky – he’s a million miles away from that individual – but simply that he suffers from the same ailment that affects a great number of chess parents – a mixture of normal parental concern with slight over-protection a la Nimzowitsch. One of the best ways to explain this phenomenon to parents of promising juniors, I often think, is Fred Waitzkin’s book,
Seaching for Bobby Fischer, about the relationship between him and his son, now IM Josh Waitzkin. It was also made into an excellent film starring Joe Montagna as Fred, and Ben Kingsley as coach Bruce Pandolfini (it was called Searching for Bobby Fischer stateside, and Innocent Moves outside the US). In particular one scene, where the parents at a junior tournament have been locked out away from the playing hall, is one I’m sure all chess parents out there can relate to.
Anyway, after that extended digression into cod chess-psychology, let’s rejoin Teimour for his first game. For Boris the opening moments of this game were especially worrying as he clearly hadn’t anticipated his son’s risky choice of opening – in between fielding well-wishing calls from the Azerbaijani Sports Minister and various friends and chess officials, he could be seen anxiously pacing up and down in the kitchen, waiting for news of the game.
After the standard French sequence 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 Bd3 c5 6 c3 Nc6 7 Ne2, Black normally reacts with 7...cxd4 8 cxd4 and then one of 8...f6, 8...Qb6 or even the Leningrad 8...Nb6. But Teimour’s – taking the pressure off d4 and allowing White a big kingside initiative - seemed extremely risky, even after he constructed a makeshift defence with 8 Bc2 b5 9 0-0 b4 10 f4 g6 11 Nf3 h5.
I wasn’t sure if Murugan missed a breakthrough shortly after this, but Teimour survived, and a critical moment was reached after 20 Rb1:
Black to move
In reply to Teimour’s 20...Rxb1 21 Qxb1? allowed Black to reach a favourable endgame (instead of 21 Bxb1, assessed as unclear by Teimour afterwards), because of the weakness of White’s a4-pawn. Seriously behind on time, Teimour might have even considered a draw offer, but it was accompanied by a serious mistake (27 h4?), which deprived White of any chance of kingside counterplay with an eventual h3, g4 and f5 breakthrough. After that accurate technical finishing by Teimour (his manoeuvre to run round with the king to a6 particularly impressed) left Murugan no chance, as Black always had the option of throwing a ...Nb3 spanner into White’s defences, securing an outside passed a-pawn as a vital decoy in order to mop up the kingside pawns.
The second game was much more sedate, as Teimour quickly established a bind from a sleepy d-pawn opening. After 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 d5 3 Bf4 c6 4 c3 Murugan initially played very passively, allowing White a free hand: 4...e6 5 e3 Be7 6 Bd3 Nbd7 7 Nbd2 b6 8 Ne5 Bb7 9 Qf3 Nxe5 10 Bxe5 Bf8 11 Qg3 Rc8. Now Teimour admitted later that he could have tried 12 e4 or 12 h4 more aggressively, but instead chose a no-risk alternative with 12 a4!? Nd7 13 Bf4 h6 14 a5 and later invaded to the seventh with a rook, then cool as a cucumber hoovered off everything in sight to leave a ‘dead as a parrot’ drawn rook ending. In spite of a seemingly risky French line in game one, Teimour had shown good technique, and had come through the games as smoothly as the other favourites.
'It’s eating that’s believing’
Semi-Finals
Teimour Radjabov 1.5-0.5 Vladimir Belov Zahar Efimenko 0-2 Bu Xiangzhi
After the first round the tournament moved eastwards, as Ukrainian Zahar Efimenko became the most western-located player. If Teimour in Baku was having problems adjusting to playing till late in the evening, at least it was better than for Bu Xiangzhi, who would be starting each game at 11pm. Thinking back to a season of wonderfully spooky Chinese ghost films I once watched, I imagined Bu to be turning into a nocturnal spectre by this point, complete with wide-brimmed hat and magic sticky rice to carry out his tactical spells.
I was amused to see in Vladimir Belov’s homepage that he was quoted as saying, "Seeing is deceiving. It’s eating that’s believing" which I took to mean roughly as the equivalent of the quaint English ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’.
When it came to Vladimir’s first game with Teimour, it turned out to be the kid from Baku who scoffed everything, as the Russian offered more and more tasty morsels in Teimour’s direction in search of a desperate counter-attack. The first significant moments came just out of a quiet Reti opening, as Belov’s 15...Nf6 allowed Teimour to claim an edge with 16 d5!, with latent pressure against g7. Better seemed 15...Bf6, opposing White’s lurking b2-bishop and preparing to meet 16 d5 solidly with 16...Bxb2 17 Qxb2 e5, or 16 e4 with 16...cxd4, transposing to a reasonable hedgehog position. After 19 Nh4:
Belov committed himself to some loosening with 19...c4, but the alternative 19...g6 can be met by 20 Nf5! anyway. As 20...gxf5? loses to 21 Qxf5 Qd7 22 Qg5+ Kf8 23 Bxf6 Bxf6 24 Qxf6, 20...Ng4 is more reasonable, but 21 h3 gxf5 22 hxg4 fxg4 23 b4! undermines Black’s defence along the a1-h8 diagonal, e.g.: 23...Rad8 24 Qc3 f6 25 bxc5 dxc5 26 d6, with a clear advantage to White.
Teimour seemed slightly surprised that Vladimir Belov was falling so far behind on time, asking at one point, "Is that his real time?", as the technical problems in the previous match had put the clocks out of synch. The reason for Vladimir's time problems, was, of course, the problems Teimour was setting him on the board, especially the task of pulling a win out of the bag in game two, which never looked likely.
As was pointed out by Sophia Polgar in her notes, on moves 27 and 28 Belov missed chances to complicate the struggle with an ...h5 thrust (with the idea in some positions of using the open g-file by ...Rg8 and ..Kh8), and thereafter Teimour straightfowardly converted his one, then two pawn advantage.
The second game saw Teimour again varying his opening schemes, this time opting for the equalising try 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 dxe4 – the Rubinstein French. After 4 Nxe4 Be7!? Belov seemed to be slightly foxed, as he thought for several minutes over replying 5 Nf3, then allowed Teimour easy equality after 5...Nf6 6 Nxf6+?! Bxf6 7 Bd3 c5 8 dxc5 Nd7 9 0-0 Nxc5. After another hard-to-understand decision (giving up bishop for knight with 15 Bxc5?!) Teimour stood better, and reached the following very promising position:
Here Teimour’s mouse picked up his bishop on f6, hesitated for maybe a full 30 seconds, then dropped it on c3. There was probably more than one way to try to win the position, but instead Teimour was cold-bloodedly forcing a draw.
After 29...Bxc3 30 Rxc4 Qe1+ 31 Kf3 Qf1+ 32 Ke3 Qe1+ Teimour looked around at me as if to say, "It’s a draw," then continued checking on e1 and f1 until the draw by repetition result popped up on the screen three moves later. I pointed out that he could have pushed the draw button on the computer screen, but he just seemed happy enough to register the win. His now beaming parents, Boris and Layla, who had been watching the moves on a monitor in the next room at AzEuroTel’s offices, came in and gave him a big hug.
In the other semi-final the following night, Zahar Efimenko succumbed to Bu’s Chinese magic, as his three pawns for a piece exchange in game one turned sour, and his attempts to unbalance the position in the return turned against him as Bu’s powerful centralised knight aided a powerful kingside attack. Thus the stage was set for the high-publicity pairing the organisers may have secretly wished for all along – Bu v. Teimour.
Dragons roar
The Final
Bu Xiangzhi 0.5-1.5 Teimour Radjabov
Perhaps it was fitting that the final was between countries who both celebrate the year 2000 as the Year of the Dragon, and I was certainly looking forward to some fire-breathing tactical jousts, which I thought would be more likely to initiated by Bu, since Teimour seemed to be aiming for a ‘safety first’ policy in this event. It also seemed quite appropriate that the Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough, was having its English premiere in Baku on the same night as the match, another do-or-die battle for world supremacy.
Before the final, I estimated Teimour’s chances at about 40-60, as Bu had a rating advantage, but I also told Boris that it was down to the old football cliche of ‘who plays better on the night’. He didn’t seem to fully believe me, but for the final there was a bigger bunch of well-wishers gathered in the adjoining room, closely following the game on the KC website.
Among them was IM Ragim Gasimov, Teimour’s coach, and some leading chess officials, including the presenter of a show called ‘Chess Club’ which appears on Azeri television. It was the first time I had met Ragim, and I understood where Teimour got his quiet confidence from. He was unassuming, with boyish looks and an easy relaxed manner. I guessed that he and Teimour had cooked up some special opening preparation for Bu, so I was surprised to see Teimour wheel out the Dutch Stonewall in the first game, which he had been playing consistently in 1999 tournaments.
Teimour is Agent 0:00
It seemed on the surface an easy target for Bu, and both players began typical Stonewall manoeuvres, Teimour having to play around a big White knight on e5 and play down the open c-file. But Black’s position didn’t seem too bad, and he managed to get a bit of counterplay with the gradual build-up 11...Kh8, 19...h6, 21...Rg8 and 25...g5. Teimour reckoned later that his later problems stemmed from 24...Qe7?!, when 24...Qb6! would have put pressure on White’s b3-pawn and allowed Black to equalise.
Thereafter, it was a bit of a struggle for Teimour, and he acknowledged that ‘Bu played some very good positional chess’ in this game. Despite Bu’s edge, the rook and two v. rook and one ending was clearly drawn, but the problem for Teimour was his lack of time. He made one, non-fatal, slip 47...Kg4? sidelined the black king, when 47...Ke4 would have drawn more simply, as the king can help out in stopping White’s passed b-pawn). After this, however, it was simply a question of Teimour v. the clock, and he even complained to me that he didn’t want to lose time with his mouse to press the draw button (the mouse on the AzEuroTel computer was a little sluggish at times, another problem which hadn’t been foreseen). Therefore I ‘claimed’ the draw for Teimour, via mobile phones Baku-Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Qingdao, and the KC arbiter ordered Teimour to play on, presumably observing whether the position would remain a theoretical draw until the flag dropped. When Teimour’s time finally did run out, the following position had been reached:
On the board in Baku Teimour had picked up his rook and put in on f6, which clearly secures the draw. After careful deliberation (roughly about half a very tense hour) the result came back from the arbiter in Tel Aviv: draw. Teimour occupied himself during this time largely by shrugging his shoulders, saying, "White hasn’t got two moves in this position -- if b7 I play Rb6, if Rc8 I take his pawn. And if White doesn’t want to do this, I’ll push my g-pawn and queen!"
If the arbiter had had any doubts about Bu’s ability to ‘play for a win by normal means’, they were dispelled by Teimour’s technical knowledge as he exclaimed, "It’s all in Lisitsin’s book -- you can look it up!"
No regrets about Qg4
The final game lived up to all expectations and surpassed them (one relief for me was the lack of any need for blitz play-offs, as all matches in the event were settled in normal time). Teimour again varied his opening as White, choosing an innocent-looking queen’s pawn sideline, turning into a standard isolated queen’s pawn position with fully equal chances for Bu.
We take up the action as Bu has just played 14...Qd8-h4, theatening mate on h2:
White to move
Bu tacitly offers a draw, as after 15 g3, Black’s best is the perpetual by 15...Nxg3 16 hxg3 Bxg3 17 fxg3 Qxg3+ 18 Kh1 Qh3+. 15 f4 Nxc3 15...Bxc3 is more natural, keeping a strong knight at e4. Teimour confessed that during the game he didn’t know who was better, just that the position seemed unclear to him, and he felt that with only one hour each, "both players didn’t really understand this position." Now White has some initiative, due to the slightly weaker Black pawn formation (White only has e3 to worry about, as opposed to c6 and d5) and his raking ‘Horrwitz’ bishops, poised to attack Black’s kingside. 16 Bxc3 Bd6 17 Bb2 Qe7 18 Bd3 Bd7 19 Rf3
Now Teimour’s plan is becoming clear -- he intends a frontal attack on the king. He said after the game, "Black should probably play ...f6. At the time, I thought my plan should be perhaps Kh1, g4 and g5 to open up lines."
19...f5?! Allowing the b2-bishop full rein. This, and Black’s next combined seal Bu’s fate. 20 Qc2 h6?! Bizarrely weakening g6.
"Now I knew I would win," said Teimour. Even the normally cautious Boris was looking optimistic in the spectators’ room by this point. 21 Rg3 Rf7 22 Be2 Qf8 23 Rf1 This plan (to double rooks on the closed g-file) would be completely audacious, were it not for the fact that Black has no counterplay at all. Now Bu’s kingside comes under an intense bombardment from the heavy artillery.
23...Be8 24 Bd3 Bd7 25 Rff3 Qe7 26 Rg6 Kh7 27 Rfg3 Rg8 28 Qe2 Bc5 It looks like a mini-threat by Black, but here is what could have been a stunning queen sacrifice:
Here Teimour apparently decided that The World was indeed Enough, and settled for a winning move, instead of a brilliant one. In fact the beautiful 29 Qg4!! wins. If Black accepts the queen sacrifice with 29...fxg4, it’s mate in two with 30 Rxg7+ Kh8 31 Rh7. Meanwhile, if 29...Bxe3+ 30 Kf1 Qe8 31 Bf6! (this is perhaps what Teimour had missed; he said later, “I wanted to play practically – there were many variations after 29...Bxe3+, and I didn’t have that much time”) and there’s no defence against the idea of 32 Rxh6+, with mate to follow.
Teimour was unrepentant afterwards about playing Be5 so quickly. “Even now that I know Qg4 wins, I’d still play Be5 if had the same situation again – because this way Black had no chances.” And this was true – White’s control here is total.
29...Qh4 30 R3g4! Qd8 31 Qe1! Be7 31...Bf8 doesn’t really hold out here; Teimour pointed out the simple win 32 Qg3 Qe7 33 Rxh6+! gxh6 34 Rxg8 Bg7 35 Rxg7+, with a completely won ending, two pawns up.32 Qg3 Qf8. Now White finishes off in style, making up slightly for those spectators who were deprived earlier of a grandstand finale.
33 Bxg7! Qxg7 If 33...Rgxg7 34 Rxh6+! Kg8 (34...Kxh6 is mate on the h-file) 35 Qh3 and White wins.
The rest is also straightforward. 34 Rxg7+ Rfxg7 35 Rxg7+ Rxg7 36 Qh3 Kg6 37 g4 Kf7 38 Qh5+ Kf8 39 Bxf5 Bc5 40 Bxd7 Bxe3+ 41 Kg2 Rxd7 42 Qxh6+ Ke7 43 Qg5+ Ke8 44 Qg8+ Ke7 45 f5 d4 46 g5 d3 47 f6+ Kd6 48 f7 1-0
Amid the congratulations, Teimour found time to comment on the Cadet Grand Prix event: "I think that the KasparovChess tournament is very good for chess, because the players don’t have to travel to many different countries, you can just sit at home and play. Maybe in the future tournaments can be played like this with 40 moves in 2 hours. Next month we will see many of the world’s top players playing over the internet – that will be very interesting to watch."
The next day he planned to take it easy, take a day off from chess work, and go watch a movie - a completely fantastical and unrealistic action-adventure yarn, set in Azerbaijan, with a nail-biting finale against the clock and spectacular explosions to boot...
See related news articles:
Radjabov Wins Game One of Bug-ridden Affair Radjabov beats Belov in Semifinals of KC Cadet Grand Prix Chess Take Center Stage in Baku Teimour Radjabov beats Bu Xiangzhi in Final DOWNLOAD All the KC Cadet Grand Prix Games[The file is in .pgn format.]
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