'Rising Stars' Take Victory in NH Hotels Chess Tournament 2006

by John Lee Shaw


The NH Chess Tournament took place in Amsterdam, Holland, between August 19th and 29th. The event had a very interesting format, in that a team of 5 so-called 'Rising Stars' went up against team 'Experience', the contrast of which is self-explanatory. The 'Rising Stars' were made up of GM's Carlsen, Karjakin, Stellwagen, Smeets, and Wang Hao. Team 'Experience' consisted of, GM's Ulf Andersson, Alexander Beliavsky, Artur Jussupow, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, John Nunn. The Rising Stars, were also permitted to bring seconds in order to help them, and these were as follows: Magnus Carlsen=Peter Heine Nielsen, Daniel Stellwagen=Yasser Seirawan, Jan Smeets=Arkadij Naiditsch, Wang Hao=Li Wenliang, Sergey Karjakin=Ruslan Ponomariov.

The teams would play a 'Scheveningen' tournament, with classical time controls. It would be an interesting experiment in how experience can fare against the theory and tactical machines that are the up-coming stars of the future ... and vice versa of course. Each player of the winning team would receive € 2000, and in the case of a tie each player would be awarded € 1500. In addition to this, each player would receive € 500 for each point scored. An added incentive for the Rising Stars, was that their top scorer would be invited to next year's Amber Blindfold & Rapid Tournament, held in Monaco.

Play opened at the Hotel Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam, on August 19th, with the Rising Stars having the White pieces. It was very much a black day, though, as 3 of the 5 games were drawn, and Beliavsky and Jussupow drew blood with the black pieces. In round 2, the Rising Stars turned the tables on their opponents to level the match at 5 points a piece. Daniel Stellwagen bounced back against Alexander Beliavsky (whom he had last faced at Corus 2006 I believe) and took a point from him with the black pieces. The other scorer, not surprisingly I suppose, was Magnus Carlsen, who got the best of England's John Nunn. 

Alexander Beliavsky is a tough opponent for anyone, and Wang Hao certainly found this to his cost in round 3. Beliavsky equalised rather promptly in their Scotch game, and both sides chose their moves extremely accurately, maintaining the equalibrium for a good while. It was Wang Hao's grabbing of a pawn with 29.Rxa7? which got him in to some trouble, and soon the youngster was giving up rook for bishop in order to try and salvage something. Beliavsky's play was clinical, however, and Wang was resigning on move 39. The anti-Marshall of Smeets-Ljubojevic was a close encounter, but a few late inaccuracies from Ljubojevic allowed Smeets the pressure he needed to take the point. The other 3 games, Karjakin-Nunn, Carlsen-Jussupow, and Stellwagen-Andersson, were drawn. The match score remained equal then, at 7.5 points each.

This equal standing was maintained in round 4, with the round being drawn 2.5-2.5. 3 of the 5 games were drawn, with one decisive result per team. Karjakin defeated Artur Jussupow with the black pieces, while Nunn played a corking game against Jan Smeets to take the point. The overall score was 10 points per team. It took round 5 to break the equalibrium, with the Rising Stars moving up a gear with two decisive games and no losses. Wang Hao took a well earned point with a victory over Ljubojevic, and Magnus Carlsen broke through Ulf Andersson's French Defence. With the other games being drawn, the scores at the halfway stage were Rising Stars 13.5, and team Experience 11.5.

Complete Rest Day Standings: Rising Stars 13.5 - 11.5 Experience

Rising Stars: Carlsen -- 3.5; Karjakin -- 3.0; Wang Hao, Stellwagen -- 2.5; Smeets -- 2.0.
Experience: Beliavsky -- 3.0; Jussupow, Nunn -- 2.5; Andersson -- 2.0; Ljubojevic -- 1.5.
Overall: Carlsen --3.5; Beliavsky, Karjakin -- 3.0; Stellwagen, Jussupow, Nunn -- 2.5; Smeets, Andersson -- 2.0; Ljubojevic -- 1.5. 

After some rest day sightseeing, play resumed for round 6, and it was shared spoils, with 3 draws and a win and loss per team. Points went to Wang Hao, who was really starting to get in to the event and defeated John Nunn, and Alexander Beliavsky held the Experience end up by getting the better of Jan Smeets, who was somewhat below his best in this tournament in my opinion. This of course kept the Rising Stars out ahead by 2 points at 16-14. In round 7, the young-guns had obviously had a good nights sleep, as they comprehensively beat the opposition again by 3.5-1.5. Magnus Carlsen defeated John Nunn, and Jan Smeets handed Ulf Andersson a rare defeat also. At the end of this round, the Rising Stars had increased their lead by another 2 points, and the match score was 19.5-15.5.

Round 8 was a drawn round, the teams having one win each and the remaining games being ended amicably. Magnus Carlsen gave his quest for the invitation to the Amber melody tournament a boost, his win over Jussupow put him 1.5 points ahead of his nearest threats Karjakin and Wang Hao. For team experience, Lubomir Ljubojevic exploited some overly aggressive play by Jan Smeets to take his first full point of the tournament. The Experience team really needed a plus score in this round, however, as remaining 4 points adrift with just 2 rounds left, gave them a lot to do in the closing stages of the tournament.

Round 9 was a bad round for Magnus Carlsen, but losing to GM Alexander Beliavsky is no disgrace, even for the 'Mozart of chess'. The Norwegian suffered for a structural weakness, (namely a weak e-pawn), and Beliavsky exploited it and gradually took a hold of the game. This result, coupled with Karjakin's win over Artur Jussupow, made the final round all the more exciting, with the gap between Carlsen and Karjakin narrowed to a half point, the fight for the invitation to the Amber tournament 2007 was still wide open. Smeets and Nunn went in to Najdorf territory, with the Dutch GM seemingly quite happy to enter a variation involving a queen sacrifice, as played by Morozevich-Volokitin at the recent Biel Chess Tournament. However, Nunn deviated with 15...Nc7, which according to Smeets was too slow. Nunn's 28...Ra6? was a mistake (28...Nxd6 was better) and ten moves later, Smeets had the point. The remaining 2 games, Stellwagen-Ljubojevic, and Wang Hao-Andersson, were both drawn. And so, going in to the final round, the Experience team had the rather obscure task of winning it 5-0 in order to end the tournament tied. The scores: Rising Stars 25-20 Experience.

Round 10 saw the Rising Stars take victory in the NH Chess Tournament, by an impressive 6 points advantage! 4 of the 5 games were drawn, the decisiveness taking place on the Jussupow-Smeets table. Victory went to the Dutchman, who got the better of complications in the Meran Defence. Sergey Karjakin was quite rightly miffed with himself to allow Beliavsky a rather effortless draw in the Queens Gambit Accepted. "There is only one forced draw in the Queens Gambit Accepted and that is what we got on the board," said the Ukranian, upon fluffing his chance to put pressure on Magnus Carlsen in the fight for the Amber tournament invitation. A rather surprising oversight from Karjakin, which allowed Beliavsky to play a rather well known drawing line, ending the game in 10 moves. Of course, Sergey had wanted a fighting game in order to keep Magnus Carlsen honest, who now only had to draw his game with Ulf Andersson in order to be assured of the invitation to the 2007 Amber tournament. This is exactly what he did, job well done in 29 moves. In just 7 months, he will debut in Monaco. The remaining two games were not too eventful. John Nunn ended his active chess career rather quietly against Daniel Stellwagen who apparently is starting to forget his own games now? Stellwagen had played the same line at the Amsterdam tournament not long ago, but instead of 14...Qe7 had played 14...Be7 against Nunn and not done too well from it. "I knew I put something on e7," quipped Stellwagen, "I could just not remember what". The game was drawn 4 moves later. Wang Hao and Ljubojevic ended their encounter rather uneventfully also, drawing in 16 moves. All this left the Rising Stars with 28 points to their opponent's 22.

Complete Final Standings: Rising Stars 28 - 22 Experience

Rising Stars: Carlsen -- 6.5; Karjakin -- 6.0; Wang Hao -- 5.5; Stellwagen, Smeets -- 5.0.
Experience: Beliavsky -- 6.5; Ljubojevic -- 4.5; Andersson -- 4.0; Jussupow, Nunn -- 3.5.
Overall: Carlsen, Beliavsky -- 6.5; Karjakin -- 6.0; Wang Hao -- 5.5; Stellwagen, Smeets -- 5.0; Ljubojevic -- 4.5; Andersson -- 4.0; Jussupow, Nunn -- 3.5.

I found this tournament incredibly exciting to watch, and I hope that there will be more like it! All competitors must be congratulated, with Magnus Carlsen and Alexander Beliavsky clear stars of the show. It is interesting to note, that as comprehensive as the team scores are, Carlsen and Beliavsky's individual scores they show that the jury is still out when it comes to youth v experience. Also, Wang Hao put in an impressive showing with his 5.5/10, and is one to watch out for for sure.

I must also add, that the organisers must be congratulated for their excellent internet coverage, combining live games with streaming video -- excellent!