Playing like an accountant?

5th Norway Chess 2017 Stavanger, Norway June 5-17, 2017

Final Standings (All GM)

1. Levon Aronian ARM 2793, 6.0/9 2-3. Hikaru Nakamura USA 2785, Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2808, 5.0/9

4-6. Fabiano Caruana USA 2808, Wesley So USA 2812, Anish Giri NED 2771, 4.5/9

7-9. Maxime Vachier Lagrave FRA 2796, Viswanathan Anand IND 2786, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2832, 4.0/9 10. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2781, 3.5/9 Average Rating 2797 Category 22 Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes play to finish with 30 seconds added to your time after every move starting move 61.

In round 5 of this Norway tournament there was the game Sergey Karjakin vs Fabiano Caruana which ended in a draw. Caruana got an inferior endgame right from the opening but managed to hold it. The online commentator Nigel Short said that Caruana’s problem was that he “played like an accountant.”

GM Nigel probably meant that Caruana was counting pawns rather than other factors such as scope and development of his pieces, but good grief! Enough of those snide remarks about accountants! I remember that one of our local journalists, Mr. Victor Agustin, used to refer to us as having a “sleep-inducing profession.”

C’mon guys, I am a Certified Public Accountant by profession myself and can admit to a bias when it comes to this topic, but I do know many accountants like Catalino Pestano (who has his own accounting firm), Mr. Florido Casuela ( former President of Landbank and now a Member of the Board of PNB) and National Masters Jerome Balico and Nito Acosta, whose chess styles are anything but boring.

Then you have accountants from SGV itself, like Cris Orcullo, Roberto Grepo, Wilson Tan — these guys are not pawn-pinchers.

I will not drag on this discussion much longer, let me just point to Henry Edward Bird who lived from 1829-1908. He was an accountant and an authority in Railway Accounting in the United Kingdom — he wrote a book on it.

Bird (as in Bird’s Opening) was a participant in the first international tournament (London 1851) and among the chess elite for 50 years. He was also the winner of the first brilliancy prize ever awarded, which was in 1876.

*** Bird, Henry Edward — Mason, James [C01]

New York Clipper International, 1876 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.exd5 exd5 5.Nf3 Bd6 6.Bd3 0–0 7.0–0 h6 8.Re1 Nc6 9.Nb5 Bb4 10.c3 Ba5 11.Na3 Bg4 12.Nc2 Qd7 13.b4 Bb6 14.h3 Bh5 15.Ne3 Rfe8 16.b5 Ne7 17.g4 Bg6 18.Ne5 Qc8 19.a4 c6 20.bxc6 bxc6 21.Ba3 Ne4 22.Qc2 Ng5 23.Bxe7 Rxe7? [23...Bxd3 24.Qxd3 Rxe7 is better]

24.Bxg6 fxg6 25.Qxg6 Nxh3+ 26.Kh2 Nf4

27.Qf5 Ne6 28.Ng2 Qc7 29.a5!?

Bird: “This move initiates a combination of remarkable interest, besides affording scope for some of the best play of both these well-known players.” 29...Bxa5?

Correct was 29...Bxd4 30.cxd4 Nxd4 31.Qf4 Rxe5! and White cannot recapture because of the knight fork on f3 at the tail end. 30.Rxa5 Rf8

[30...Qxa5 31.Ng6 Qc7+ 32.N2f4 wins] 31.Ra6!?

This queen sacrifice wins the brilliancy prize. Modern chess engines have proven it to be unsound, but it leads to a mighty complicated game where anything can happen. 31...Rxf5 32.gxf5 Nd8 33.Nf4 Qc8 34.Nfg6 Re8 35.Nxc6 Qc7+?

[35...Nxc6 36.Rxe8+ Qxe8 37.Rxc6 Mason cannot take the rook because of Ne7+ and that was where he stopped his analysis. In truth, after 37...Kh7! Black is winning]

36.Nce5 Qxc3 37.Re3 Qd2 38.Kg2 Qxd4 39.f6! gxf6 40.Rxf6 Ne6 41.Rg3 Ng5 42.Ng4 Kg7 43.Nf4 Qe4+ 44.Kh2 Nh7?

This is the losing move. After 44...d4 45.Nh5+ Kg8 46.Nxh6+ Kh8 47.Nf4 Kg7 48.Nh5+ white has to take the draw

45. Nh5+ Kh8 46. Rxh6 Qc2 47. Nhf6 Re7 48.Kg2 d4 49.Ne5! Qc8 50.Ng6+ Kg7 51.Nxe7+ 1–0

If that is what “playing like an accountant” is, then I am all for it. So there.

Let us now get back to the Norway 2017 tournament. After the last pawn had been pushed in Norway the Live Ratings of the Top 10 are as follows: 1. GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2822 2. GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2812 3. GM Wesley So USA 2810

4. GM Levon Aronian ARM 2809 5. GM Fabiano Caruana USA 2807 6. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2800 7. GM Hikaru Nakamura USA 2792 8. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2791 9. GM Ding Liren CHN 2783 10. GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2783 Vladimir Kramnik, who turns 42 on June 25, said that he expects to be playing for a maximum of another two years, but his wins over Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri all show that he remains a chess powerhouse.

He overtook Wesley So as the world no. 2 after beating Anand, and in fact after defeating Magnus Carlsen in round 7 it appeared that even Carlsen’s no. 1 ranking was in danger — the world champion was at 2818.6 while Kramnik was 2812.2 — the gap between the two had narrowed to 6.4 points. This was but a fleeting moment though, as in the next round Carlsen beat Karjakin while Kramnik lost to Vachier- Lagrave — the gap widened again a bit. By the end of the tournament, as can be seen in the table above, the two are separated by 10 points.

The Kramnik vs Carlsen game was quite a spectacle. * **

Kramnik, Vladimir (2808) — Carlsen, Magnus (2832) [C54] 5th Norway Chess 2017 Stavanger (7.3), 14.06.2017 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.0–0 a6 7.Re1 Ba7 8.a4 0–0 9.h3 Ne7 10.d4 Ng6 11.Nbd2 c6 12.Bd3 Kramnik prepared this for someone else in the tournament and called it a “very, very dangerous move” — he explained that the idea was to maneuver the d2–knight to g3 without allowing ...d6–d5. 12...Re8 13.Bc2 h6 14.Nf1 exd4

Carlsen decides to transpose to a Benoni-type pawn structure.

15.cxd4 c5 16.d5 b5 17.axb5 axb5 18.Ng3 Bd7 19.Be3 Bb6 20.Rxa8 Qxa8 21.b4 Qa7 22.Qa1!

As usual in a Benoni formation exchanging queens will favor White as his pawn structure is better than Black’s. 22...Qc7?

A blunder. Carlsen admitted after the game that he completely overlooked White’s next move. For better or worse he had to exchange queens: 22...Qxa1 23.Rxa1 Rb8 24.bxc5 Bxc5! ( better than 24...dxc5 25.Nd2 when the b6–bishop is not actively placed and White can start rolling forward his center and kingside pawns) 25.Bxc5 dxc5 now Black has some counterplay in his queenside outside passed pawns. 23.Bxh6! cxb4 24.Bxg7 Qxc2

Taking the knight leads to mate. 24...Kxg7? 25.Nh5+ Kh6 (25...Kf8 26.Qxf6 Bxf2+ 27.Kxf2 Qxc2+ 28.Kg3 Qc7 29.Kh2 Ne5 30.Ng5 the attack is mating) 26.Qxf6 (threatening Qg7+ followed by Qh7 mate) 26...Rg8 27.Ng5 (this time the threat is 28.Nxf7+ Kh7 29.Qg7+! Rxg7 30.Nf6#) 27...Rf8 28.Nf4! (another mate threat: 29.Nxf7+ Rxf7 30.Qxg6 mate) 28...Bc8 29.Nxg6 fxg6 30.Qxf8+ Kxg5 (30...Qg7 31.Qf4 White is a rook up) 31.h4+! Kxh4 (31...Kg4 32.Bd1+ Kxh4 33.Qh6#) 32.Qh6+ Kg4 33.Bd1# 25.Qxf6 Qxf2+?

Carlsen thought that taking with the queen offered more practical chances. With the benefit of hindsight it appears that taking with the bishop was correct: 25...Bxf2+ 26.Kh2 Qc3! (26...Bxe1 27.Bh6 Qc3 28.e5! and there is mate on g7) 27.Re2 Bxg3+ 28.Kxg3 Bf5! 29.Qxc3 bxc3 30.Bxc3 Rxe4 there is no more win for Kramnik. 26.Kh2 Bd8 27.Qxd6 Nh4 28.Nxh4 Bxh4 <D>

POSITION AFTER 28...BXH4 Both players had “seen” this position, but Kramnik had gone one move farther. 29.Nh5!

With the idea that 29...Qxe1 30.Qh6 is forced mate. 29...Bxh3! 30.Rg1

[30.Kxh3? Qxe1 31.Qh6 Qh1+ 32.Kg4 Qxg2+ 33.Kxh4 Rxe4+ 34.Nf4 Qxg7 it is Black who wins] 30...Bg5

Naturally to prevent Qh6. 31.Bf6 Bg4

After 31...Bxg2 32.Rxg2 Qh4+ draws by perpetual check, but both players had seen that after 31...Bxg2 Kramnik has the resource 32.Qg3! keeping the win in hand. 32.Bxg5 Bxh5 33.Qh6 Rxe4

[33...Bg6 fails to 34.d6! Qd4 35.d7! Qxd7 36.Bf6 Qd6+ 37.e5 Black must give up his queen by 37... Qxe5+ to avoid mate] 34.Qxh5 Qf5 35.Qh6 b3

[35...Re5 36.Ra1] 36.Bf6 Qf4+ 37.Qxf4 Rxf4 38.d6! Accurate till the end. 38...Rxf6 39.Rd1 Rh6+ 40.Kg1 1–0