Battle of Giants

Submitted by chessbibliophile on Sat, 11/07/2009 at 3:44am.

Who is The Champion of The Champions?

By Fritz Baumbach, Robin Smith and Rolf Knobel

Hardback.224 pages

Exzelsior Verlag.Berlin.2008

http://www.zeitschriftschach.de/

Imagine a world champions' tournament in which Fischer,Tal and Kasparov would participate.Let us say, they would be joined by Botvinnik,Smyslov, Petrosian and Spassky, the legends of the past with Anand and Kramnik, the lords of the present. It would be a chess player's dream. Sadly, such an event never took place in the past and now of course it's impossible, with the sad demise of several greats, the last being Bobby Fischer.

Fortunately,in correspondence chess it's a dream come true.

In the year 2001 a unique tournament was held to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the ICCF(International Correspondence Chess Federation). All nine living world champions participated in this great event, and it was time for festivities!

(Grigory Sanakoev is looking back at the camera, and Vytas Palciauskas, sitting opp.is enjoying the fun along with the hosts.)

Although the tournament was played by email,it still took 3½ years to complete. Mikhail Umansky, the XIIIth Champion

won the tournament with the incredible score of 7 out of 8 points (+6 =2 -0).

He was followed by Vytas Palsiauskas who remained unbeaten with 5 points. This book of the tournament offers all the games with in-depth annotations by the players themselves, supplemented with commentary by the authors.

A word about the distinguished authors:Dr.Fritz Baumbach,the XIth Champion also participated in this tournament and finished fourth on tie-break with 5 out of 8 points.

He has been assisted by Robin Smith and Rolf Knobel, both CC grandmasters, in the preparation of this book.

It begins with a tribute to the past world champions from Cecil Purdy to Yakov Estrin.There is a biographical sketch of each player followed by a representative game.The same method is followed with the present champions. There is an introduction to the life and career of each player followed by an illustrative game.The core of the book, however, is made up of the games of the Jubilee Tournament. These are tough battles, with the players displaying the knowledge and experience of a life time.There are hardly any grandmaster draws, and all the games are hard-fought.

These mighty foes over the board are the best of friends otherwise.They have known one another for years, and there is wonderful bonhomie among them. OTB players more accustomed to the acrimony of the Topalovs and Kramniks would find this friendly spirit a pleasant surprise.

(Six World Champions meeting at the ICCF Congress in Dresden in 2006.

From left to right:Gert Timmerman,Ivar Bern, Fritz Baumbach,Tunc Hamarat, Horst Rittner and Grigory Sanakoev)

The book is a joy to behold and browse through.It is an elegant hardback with an imaginative cover design and bright layout.

The following game is a brilliant effort by the winner of the tournament against Grigory Sanakoev, no mean combinational player himself.

Highly Recommended

Notes:

1)The tournament commenced from 1st July, 2001 and concluded

on 24th December, 2004.Here is the crosstable:

Player			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	P
1	Mikhail Umansky	RUS	2633		½	½	1	1	1	1	1	1	7,0
2	Vytas Palciauskas	USA	2558	½		½	½	½	1	½	½	1	5,0
3	Gert Timmerman	NED	2744	½	½		½	½	½	1	½	1	5,0
4	Fritz Baumbach	GER	2489	0	½	½		1	½	½	1	1	5,0
5	Tõnu Õim	EST	2610	0	½	½	0		½	½	1	1	4,0
6	Hans Berliner	USA	2763	0	0	½	½	½		½	1	½	3,5
7	Horst Rittner	GER	2577	0	½	0	½	½	½		0	1	3,0
8	Jørn Sloth	DEN	2605	0	½	½	0	0	0	1		½	2,5
9	Grigory Sanakoev	RUS	2597	0	0	0	0	0	½	0	½		1,0

2)Correspondence chess is a rich and exciting field as you can see in the following review:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/ultracorr3part-i

http://www.chess.com/article/view/here-is-gods-plentypart-ii

http://www.chess.com/article/view/here-is-gods-plentypart-iii

» posted in Amazing Games

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1 vote:

Comments:

by chessbibliophile - 11 days ago
Bangalore India

Member Since: May 2009
Member Points: 797

Dear friend,

Thanks for the comment.I used to ask myself the same question.The engine can prevent a player from making a blunder like the one seen in the game here. So it is helpful at the short range. But it can give a misleading assessment of a position in the long term. Infinite analysis does not always translate into infinite wisdom. If you read some CC books they would tell you how the concerned player was let down by the computer.

Semko Semkov made a percetive comment on Chesspublishing.com Forum:

"We all have computers, but there are extremely unbalanced and hard to assess positions I definitely do not trust engines' evaluations in such cases. Computers must associate every position with a number. On the contrary, a strong GM can sense a bad coordination and rule out lines that the engine claims to be good for him. Thus he can save weeks or months of futile analyses. Everyone can probe endless lines on his personal PC, but eventually one or two games at the top level will tell the verdict."

by chessoholicalien - 11 days ago
Missouri United States

Member Since: Dec 2008
Member Points: 754

CC is very interesting; I just wonder what stops people cheating and using engines these days?

by aungkhinemin - 13 days ago
Pyay (Prome) Myanmar

Member Since: May 2009
Member Points: 1

I am very much amused of reading this article.

by chessbibliophile - 13 days ago
Bangalore India

Member Since: May 2009
Member Points: 797

Dear Adamperfection,

I am happy to see your interest in Hans Berliner.

He was hesitant to play on account of 30 years of inactivity.That was the handicap. But others did not want to miss him on this historic occasion. He was 72 when he played this tournament. Rittner was 71.As far as I can see from the games, age alone was not a factor. Berliner lost to Umansky and Palciauskas.The game against Umansky lasted 55(!) days. It is annotated by both the players in the book.The other against Palciauskas is annotated by the latter.Berliner had to be outplayed thrice in the opening,middlegame and the endgame.He gave quite a bit of fright to Palciauskas.

Umansky’s opening preparation was superior to that of others. He had greater energy and stamina.But most of the games are long tough struggles. Nobody had it easy, not even Umansky.

by Adamperfection - 13 days ago
Brantford Canada

Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 375

Hans Berliner probably could have won that tournament if he wasn't getting up there in age. He is 80 right now so he would have been in his 70's at the time of the tournament. To still get a decent result is pretty impressive.

by chessbibliophile - 13 days ago
Bangalore India

Member Since: May 2009
Member Points: 797

Dear Henk Van Oosten,

Thanks for the comment.Yes, the book is worth it.I trust you do visit ICCF and Chess Mail web sites as well.There are valuable links.