Position No. 6130: White to play and win. From the game Alexey Shirov-Emanuel Berg, 39th Olympiad, Khanty-Mansiysk 2010.
Solution to Position No. 6129: Black wins the pinned Knight by 1…Nd5! 2 exd5 Bxc2 3 Qe2 Nd3 4 Rf1 Bh4 5 Rf3 Nxf4 6 Qf1 Nxd5. The tougher defense, 2 Ndc4 Rxc4 3 fxe5, still loses to 3…Bh4 4 Kh1 (or 4 Re2 Nf4 5 Rh2 Rxe5) Rd4 5 Qf3 Nb4.
Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik won the third Grand Slam Final in Bilbao, Spain. The double round robin featured four of the world's strongest grandmasters.
The first two rounds nearly decided the tournament. Kramnik won both of his games while Magnus Carlsen of Norway lost twice. Kramnik drew his remaining four games to finish ahead of world champion Viswanathan Anand of India (who had one win and five draws), Carlsen (one win, two losses, three draws) and Alexey Shirov of Spain (two losses, four draws).
Carlsen, ranked first in the world a month ago at 2826, has unofficially fallen to second at 2802 after poor results in the Olympiad and in Bilbao. Anand has regained the top spot at 2803. Others: Levon Aronian (Armenia), 2794; Kramnik, 2791; Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), 2786; and Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), 2772.
Los Angeles Open
State champion IM Enrico Sevillano took first prize last weekend in the Los Angeles Open, scoring 41/2 -1/2 in the 44-player Open section. John Daniel Bryant, GM Melikset Khachiyan, Roman Yankovsky and this writer tied for second place at 4-1.
Michael W. Brown and Takashi Kurosaki shared expert honors with 31/2-11/2. Andrew Lu and David Cody Oldham scored 3-2, best in Class A.
Alexander Gustafsson and unrated newcomer Jiahao Lin led the 23-player Amateur (under-1800) section with 4-1 scores. Gemin Keshishian, Cijo Paul and Hovanes Salvaryan were next at 31/2-11/2. Volodia Muradyan and William Yuen Yee tied for best under-1400 with 3-2.
Panitan Satamalee and Karl Tolentino tied for first at 4-1 in the accompanying scholastic event. Hakob Seyranov led the under-1000 section with 41/2-1/2. There were 34 entrants.
Scott Radmacher scored 3-0 to win the Hex tournament of 90-minute games.
The Southern California Chess Federation ran the tournament in place of John Hillery, who died last month.
Local news
The second Bakersfield Fall Classic will be held Saturday and Sunday in the Golden State Mall, 3201 F St. in Bakersfield. Call Ken Poole at (661) 304-7468 for more information.
The sixth annual Goodwill tournament, for players of all ages, takes place Saturday in Adams Square in Glendale. Register at 10 a.m. for the four-round tournament. More information is posted at aaachessclub.com.
Tianyi He, Yusheng Xia and Fei Yue Yang scored 5-1 to tie for first place in the 67-player San Gabriel Valley Championship at the Pasadena Chess Club. Dave Matson, Armen Gary Siwajian, Aaron Simo, Tom Hogue and Alexander Hung earned class prizes.
A special "mini-game" tournament, where players compete with only one kind of chess piece, will be held Nov. 7 at Beth Knesset Bamidbar, 1611 E. Ave. J in Lancaster. The tournament is designed for beginners of all ages. For details, write to daa@mahowald.org.
Quinn and Luke Creger are forming a club in Newbury Park for scholastic players and adults. For more information, visit conejovalleychessclub.com.
Games of the week
Ankit Gupta-Vadim Kudryavtsev, Los Angeles Open, Los Angeles 2010: 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 exd5 cxd5 4 c4 The Panov-Botvinnik Attack. Nf6 5 Nc3 e6 6 Nf3 Be7 7 cxd5 Nxd5 8 Bd3 0-0 9 0-0 Nc6 10 Re1 Bf6 More popular than the older 10…Nf6. 11 Be4 Nce7 12 Qd3 h6 13 Ne5 Nxc3 14 Qxc3 a5 White has the edge because Black cannot easily complete development. Karpov tried the similar 14…Nf5 15 Be3 a5. 15 Be3 a4 16 Rad1 Ra5 17 Qc4 Nd5 18 Bd2 Ra8 19 Rc1 a3 20 bxa3 Rxa3 21 Qc2 Threatening 22 Bxd5 and 23 Bb4. Be7? Necessary is 21…Ra8. 22 Bh7+! Kh8 23 Bg6!, Black Resigns. A bit premature, but after 23…Kg8 24 Nxf7! Rxf7, either 25 Bxf7+ or 25 Qxc8 Qxc8 26 Rxc8+ Rf8 27 Rc2 should win for White.
