With Errol Tiwari
It was an unusual chess tournament that was held in November 2007 in the Basque city of Bilbao, Spain. It was designated the Blindfold Chess World Cup, and six of the world’s finest blindfold experts were invited to participate.
Former FIDE classical world champion Veselin Topalov represented his homeland, Bulgaria, while Xiangzhi Bu was the pride of all China. Judit Polgar, the only female among five males, represented not only her native Hungary, but all women chessplayers on the planet. For many years, Judit has not been participating in women’s grandmaster tournaments, and has actually refused to do so. On more than one occasion she was ranked among the top ten chessplayers in the world.
The current phenomenon of chess, Norway’s prodigy and teenager Magnus Carlsen was making a case for all young people everywhere. Over one million of his fans, mostly teenagers, were rooting for him to win the tournament. Carlsen is currently ranked No. 2 in the world behind world champion Vishy Anand.
Another prodigy, the Ukraine’s Sergey Karjakin, was there. At the time, Karjakin held the record for being the youngest person ever to qualify for the prestigious title of ‘grandmaster of chess’ at age 13, plus two months. Finally, there was Pentala Harikrishna from India, who had to defend Indian nationalism and the colourful history of the game which was invented in his homeland thousands of years ago.
The time control was 25 minutes per player for the entire game, plus a 10 second increment per move. Players were not allowed to offer or accept draws among themselves. Only the arbiter could decide whether a game was drawn, and a positive decision was only possible for one of the following three reasons:
1. A threefold repetition
2. Perpetual check
3. Positions which were theoretically drawn
Bu led the event from start to finish and until the last round had not lost a single game. Even his last round loss to Judit could not prevent China’s grandmaster from taking first, for himself and for one billion Chinese.
Polgar v Topalov
While most of the games of the Blindfold Chess World Cup were quite interesting, there were a few that ended in herculean blunders. Some players argued that typing their moves on the keyboards distracted them, and were responsible for their blunders. Here are two dramatic examples – blunders you do not actually witness in regular chess.
Polgar, Ju (2708) – Topalov,V (2769)
Blindfold World Cup Bilbao ESP 16.10.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 d6 8.d4 Bb6 9.Be3 0-0 10.Nbd2 h6 11.Re1 Ng4 12.Nf1 Nxe3 13.Nxe3 Rb8 14.Bd5
14…Bg4?? 15.Nxg4 1-0.
Harikrishna v Topalov
Harikrishna, P (2668) – Topalov,V (2769)
Blindfold World Cup Bilbao ESP. 17.10.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Nc6 4.d3 Nf6 5.0-0 g6 6.h3 Bg7 7.c3 0-0 8.Bb3 b5 9.Re1 a5 10.a3 e5 11.Bg5 a4 12.Ba2 h6 13.Bh4 Qe8 14.Nbd2 Be6 15.Nf1 Bxa2 16.Rxa2 Qe6 17.Ra1 Nd7 18.Ne3 Nb6 19.Rc1 Na5 20.g4 Nb3 21.Rb1 d5 22.Qe2 d4 23.cxd4 cxd4 24.Nc2 Rfc8 25.Nb4 f6 26.Bg3 g5 27.Nd2 Bf8 28.Nf1 Bxb4 29.axb4 Rc6 30.Qf3 Nc8 31.Bh2 Ne7 32.Rbd1 Ng6 33.Ng3 Nh4 34.Qh1 Rac8 35.Nf5 Nxf5 36.exf5 Qd6 37.h4 Rc2 38.Bg3 Qd7 39.hxg5 hxg5 40.Qh6 Qg7 41.Qh1 Nd2 42.Re2 Nb3 43.Rxc2 Rxc2 44.Qd5+ Qf7 45.Qxb5
45…Nc5 46.bxc5 1-0. Harikrishna takes the Knight and Topalov resigns!
