Bacrot and Leko Connect Their Pieces
I have stated that chess pieces are connected. As a result, I have been asked to explain how pieces are connected. The way a player deploys the pieces should take into consideration their coordination. The first part of this is simply development. It is necessary to get the pieces off their original squares. Another part is to centralize the pieces. This will help the player to use them together. However, pieces that are not centralized can work together by accessing common lines of squares. These lines are ranks, files, and diagonals. These ideas are what goes into putting pieces in good places.
The connection of pieces will be shown in a game between two super grandmasters. Playing with the white pieces is Etienne Bacrot. He was born January 22, 1983 in France. He was world champion under 10 and under 12. He earned the International Master title at 12 and the International Grandmaster title at 14 years and 2 months. That made him the youngest GM ever (for the next nine months). He reached 2700 in 2004 and soon entered the world's top ten. He was French champion six times. Peter Leko is a Hungarian grandmaster who was born September 8, 1979 in Yugoslavia. He became an International Master in 1992 and a Grandmaster at age 14, then the youngest ever. In 2002, Leko won the Candidates Tournament to become the challenger for the Classical World Championship held by Vladimir Kramnik. Leko led by 7-6 with one game left. Kramnik won the last game to tie the match and keep the title. Leko's picture is shown.
The game was played in the match between Armenia and the Rest of the World (ROW) in 2004. This match has also been called the Tigran V. Petrosian Memorial, named after the world champion of 1963-1969. The World was represented by Anand, Svidler, Adams, Bacrot, Van Wely, and Vallejo Pons. Armenia used Kasparov, Akopian, Vaganian, Lputian, Gelfand, and Leko. The ROW team won 18.5-17.5. It will be noticed that three players on the Armenian team are not Armenian nationals. Kasparov is half Armenian. Leko's father-in-law and trainer is the Armenian GM Arshad Petrosian. Gelfand was at one time trained by Tigran V. Petrosian. These three non-Armenians have Armenian connections. Like chess pieces, players have connections. In this case, the connections were not limited by the rules FIDE uses in the Olympiads.
