Kronsteen – McAdams, 1963

Continuing my theme of fictional chess scenes based on real chess games.

In the famous chess scene at the beginning of the Bond movie "From Russia With Love" we see Kronsteen of SPECTRE playing the Canadian McAdams. The score is 11½–11½. The scene is based on Spassky-Bronstein from the 1960 USSR Championship.

Spassky-Bronstein
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Bd6 5.Nc3 Ne7 6.d4 0-0 7.Bd3 Nd7 8.0-0 h6 9.Ne4 Nxd5 10.c4 Ne3 11.Bxe3 fxe3 12.c5 Be7 13.Bc2 Re8 14.Qd3 e2 15.Nd6 Nf8 16.Nxf7 exf1Q+ 17.Rxf1 Bf5 18.Qxf5 Qd7 19.Qf4 Bf6 20.N3e5 Qe7 21.Bb3 Bxe5

This is the starting position in the movie, except that the two White pawns on d4 and c5 were removed. Both the real and movie games continued...

22.Nxe5+ Kh7 23.Qe4+ (1-0)

However, what's odd is that in the original game, 22....Kh7 was not a blunder as Black had no defense. But in the movie, McAdams could have defended with 22....Ne6, which would not have worked in the position facing Bronstein.

So my question is WHY would the movie producers change the board position? Were they TRYING to make the point that Kronsteen could have been held off with calm defense, or am I giving them too much credit?

FIDE Championship (Final) Round 14

Results:
Topalov-Polgar, ½-½
Svidler-Anand, ½-½
Morozevich-Adams, ½-½
Leko-Kasimdzhanov, 1-0

The games
http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch14.htm

Final Standings:


Some things to note:

• Topalov was the only player to go undefeated, beating every other player except Anand by 1.5-0.5. His performance rating was 2890. At the end of the first half, he had scored +6 =1 for a performance of 3177 and was well positioned to break Karpov's record performance at Linares 1994, but in the second half he drew all seven games.
• Judith Polgar had a horrible tournament, losing 6 times and turning in a 2610 performance
• Morozevich and Polgar were the only players to get skunked (by Svidler and Anand, respectively).
• Adams (-3 =11) was the only player to go through the tournament without a single win.

FIDE Championship Round 13 - It's All Over

Topalov the winner with one round to go!

Results:
Kasimdzhanov-Topalov, ½-½
Adams-Leko, ½-½
Anand-Morozevich, ½-½
Polgar-Svidler, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 9.5
Anand, Svidler - 8
Morozevich - 6.5
Kasimdzhanov, Leko - 5.5
Adams - 5
Polgar - 4

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch13.htm

FIDE Championship Round 12

Results:
Topalov-Svidler, ½-½
Morozevich-Polgar, ½-½
Leko-Anand, 0-1
Kasimdzhanov-Adams, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 9
Anand, Svidler - 7.5
Morozevich - 6
Kasimdzhanov, Leko - 5
Adams - 4.5
Polgar - 3.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch12.htm

FIDE Championship Round 11

Results:
Adams-Topalov, ½-½
Anand-Kasimdzhanov, 1-0
Polgar-Leko, ½-½
Svidler-Morozevich, 1-0

Standings:
Topalov - 8.5
Svidler - 7
Anand - 6.5
Morozevich - 5.5
Leko - 5
Kasimdzhanov - 4.5
Adams - 4
Polgar - 3

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch11.htm

FIDE Championship Round 10

Results:
Topalov-Morozevich, ½-½
Leko-Svidler, ½-½
Kasimdzhanov-Polgar, 1-0
Adams-Anand, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 8
Svidler - 6
Anand, Morozevich- 5.5
Kasimdzhanov, Leko - 4.5
Adams - 3.5
Polgar - 2.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch10.htm

FIDE Championship Round 9

Results:
Anand-Topalov, ½-½
Polgar-Adams, ½-½
Svidler-Kasimdzhanov, ½-½
Morozevich-Leko, 1-0

Standings:
Topalov - 7.5
Svidler - 5.5
Morozevich, Anand - 5
Leko - 4
Kasimdzhanov - 3.5
Adams - 3
Polgar - 2.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch09.htm

FIDE Championship Round 8

Results:
Topalov-Leko, ½-½
Kasimdzhanov-Morozevich, 0-1
Adams-Svidler, ½-½
Anand-Polgar, 1-0

Standings:
Topalov - 7
Svidler - 5
Anand - 4.5
Leko, Morozevich - 4
Kasimdzhanov - 3
Adams - 2.5
Polgar - 2

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch08.htm

FIDE Championship Round 7

Topalov wins 6 out of 7!

Topalov won every game except against Anand. His performance rating stands at an amazing 3177!

Results:
Topalov-Kasimdzhanov, 1-0
Leko-Adams, 1-0
Morozevich-Anand, 1-0
Svidler-Polgar, 1-0

Standings:
Topalov - 6.5
Svidler - 4.5
Leko, Anand - 3.5
Morozevich, Kasimdzhanov - 3
Polgar - 2.5
Adams - 2

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch07.htm

FIDE Championship Round 6

Results:
Polgar-Topalov, 0-1
Anand-Svidler, ½-½
Adams-Morozevich, ½-½
Kasimdzhanov-Leko, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 5.5 (very impressive!)
Anand, Svidler - 3.5
Kasimdzhanov - 3
Leko - 2.5
Adams, Morozevich, Polgar - 2

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch06.htm

FIDE Championship Round 5

Results:
Svidler-Topalov, 0-1
Polgar-Morozevich, ½-½
Anand-Leko, ½-½
Adams-Kasimdzhanov, ½-½

Standings:
Topalov - 4.5 (nice lead)
Anand, Svidler - 3
Kasimdzhanov - 2.5
Leko, Polgar - 2
Adams, Morozevich - 1.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch05.htm

FIDE Championship Round 4

Four decisive games again.

Results:
Topalov-Adams, 1-0
Kasimdzhanov-Anand, 1-0
Leko-Polgar, 1-0
Morozevich-Svidler, 0-1

Standings:
Topalov - 3.5
Svidler - 3
Anand - 2.5
Kasimdzhanov - 2
Leko, Polgar - 1.5
Morozevich, Adams - 1

Aside from the chess, a great deal of entertainment can be had from reading the English version of the website, which is translated from the Spanish original either by a computer program or by someone with limited command of English. For example, in commenting on the Leko-Polgar game, the site says, "Leko changed his face and won, replacing himself on the race track." If you read the Spanish comments, this should have been translated as, "Leko about faced and won, placing himself once gain on the race track."

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch04.htm

FIDE Top 20

1 Kasparov, Garry g RUS 2812
2 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2788
3 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2782
4 Leko, Peter g HUN 2751
5 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2748
6 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2740
7 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2739
8 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2735
9 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2725
10 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2724
11 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2720
12 Adams, Michael g ENG 2718
13 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2717
14 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2710
15 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter g ROM 2707
16 Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2707
17 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2707
18 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2704
19 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2704
20 Tiviakov, Sergei g NED 2700

Notes:

• The top five are unchanged, although Topalov dropped 6 points, allowing Anand to claim the #2 slot by himself.
• Kramnik drops another slot, as he and Svidler trade places because Kramnik lost 5 points and Svidler gained 2 points.
• There's three brand new names in the 2700+ list: Nisipeanu, Radjabov and Tiviakov. And two players fell off: Kamsky and Bologan. So the 2700 club is up to 20 members.
• The top rated US player is Kamsky, at #23 with a rating of 2690 (down 4 slots and 10 points from the July 2005 list).

FIDE Championship Round 3

Four decisive results, quite a change from last round.

Results:
Morozevich-Topalov, 0-1
Svidler-Leko, 1-0
Polgar-Kasimdzhanov, 1-0
Anand-Adams, 1-0

Standings:
Anand, Topalov - 2.5
Svidler - 2
Polgar - 1.5
Morozevich, Kasimdzhanov, Adams - 1
Leko - 0.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch03.htm

FIDE Championship Round 2

Results:
Topalov-Anand, 0.5-0.5 (97 moves)
Adams-Polgar, 0.5-0.5 (48 moves)
Kasimdzhanov-Svidler, 0.5-0.5 (24 moves)
Leko-Morozevich, 0.5-0.5 (69 moves)

Standings:
Anand, Topalov - 1.5
Morozevich, Kasimdzhanov, Svidler, Adams - 1
Leko, Polgar - 0.5

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch02.htm

FIDE Championship Round 1

Results:
Leko-Topalov, 0-1
Morozevich-Kasimdzhanov, 0.5-0.5
Svidler-Adams, 0.5-0.5
Polgar-Anand, 0-1

Standings:
Anand, Topalov - 1
Morozevich, Kasimdzhanov, Svidler, Adams - 0.5
Leko, Polgar - 0

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2005/sanluis/games/wcch01.htm

Grew-Schwartz, 827 GE (ca. 13000 AD)

As long as I'm posting games from literature, here's the game played between Grew and Schwartz in chapter 11 of Asimov's Pebble in the Sky. It too was an actual game.

Verlinsky-Levenfisch
Third USSR Championship, Moscow 1924
First Brilliancy Prize
Ruy Lopez [C84]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Be7 6.O-O b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.d3 O-O 9.Nd5 Na5 10.Nxe7+ Qxe7 11.Ne1 Nxb3 12.axb3 Nd7 13.f4 f5 14.exf5 Rxf5 15.Nf3 Bb7 16.Bd2 exf4 17.Nd4 Rg5 18.Nf3 Rg4 19.h3 Rxg2+ 20.Kxg2 Qg5+ 21.Kh1 Ne5 22.Qe2 Qg3 23.Qg2 Nxf3 24.Bc3 Nd4 25.Qxb7 Qxh3+ 26.Kg1 Ne2+ 27.Kf2 Qe3+

The actual ending of the game was 28.Ke1 Nxc3#, but in the book the ending was given as 28.Kg2 Qg3+ 29.Kh1 Qh3#.

Poole-HAL, 2001

I was watching the movie 2010 this weekend, and I got curious about the famous game between Poole and HAL in 2001. I had heard that it was based on a real game. Here's what I found at the ChessGames website.

Roesch - Schlage, Hamburg 1910
Ruy Lopez, Worrall Attack [C86]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2 b5 6.Bb3 Be7 7.c3 0-0 8.0-0 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nf4 11.Qe4 Nxe5 12.Qxa8 Qd3 13.Bd1 Bh3

This is the initial position shown on the screen in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

14.Qxa6 Bxg2 15.Re1 Qf3 (0-1)

In the film, this move was incorrectly given by HAL9000 as "Queen to Bishop Three" instead of the correct "Queen to Bishop Six." Apparently some fans of the film believe that this error was intentional and meant to let the alert (and chess-savvy) viewer know that something was wrong with HAL.

I seriously doubt this! My evidence: the fact that there are several other sloppy oversights in the film. The most grotesque is that they refer to the monolith's dimensions as 1x4x9, bringing to film what was an important element of the book. However, if you look at the monolith on the screen it is nowhere near 1x4x9, not even close. If they weren't going to take the care to make the monolith the right size, then it would have been better just to avoid any mention of the 1x4x9 dimensions.

The forced mate sequence is 16.Qc8 Rxc8 17.h3 Nxh3+ 18.Kh2 Ng4#

Atlanta Chess Center

The Atlanta Chess Center finally got itself a website: http://www.atlantachessclub.com/

An interesting draw

RMD-ALD, 9/11/2005 [D00]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bf4 Bf5 4.Nb5 Na6 5.e3 c6 6.Nc3 Nb4 {6...Nc7, Van Vliet - Schippers, Hengelo 2002} 7.Bd3 Nxd3+ 8.cxd3 e6 9.Nf3 Bb4 10.Ne5 O-O 11.Qb3 Bxc3+ 12.bxc3 Qa5 13.O-O Ng4 14.c4 Nxe5 15.Bxe5 dxc4 16.dxc4 b6 17.a3 Rfd8 18.Qb4 Qxb4 19.axb4 f6 20.Bg3 Rd7 21.c5 bxc5 22.bxc5 Rb7 23.Bd6 a5 24.f3 Rb2 25.e4 Bg6 26.Rf2 Rxf2 27.Kxf2 a4 28.g4 Kf7 29.h4 h5 30.g5 fxg5 31.hxg5 Ke8 32.Kg3 Kd7 33.Be5 a3 34.Bxg7 a2 35.Be5 Ra3 36.Kf4 Ra4 37.Ke3 Ra3+ 38.Kf2 Kc8 39.Bg3 Kb7 40.Ke2 Ka6 41.Kd2 Kb5 42.Be1 {42.Bf2 and the two saved tempos make all the difference and the position is a draw. Now Black gets (very slim) winning chances. - ALD} Kc4 43.Bf2 Kb3 {43...Rxf3! 44.Ke2 Rxf2+ 45.Kxf2 Kb3 -/+} 44.Kc1 {44.d5} Kc3 {44...Ra4! -/+} 45.d5 exd5 46.exd5 cxd5 47.c6 Rb3 {Ending any remaining winning chances. Better is 47.Ra4. - ALD} 48.Be1+ Kd4 49.Rxa2 Rb1+?! {Very weak. Correct was 49...Ke3=. Now it is actually White that has winning chances. - ALD]} 50.Kd2 Rb8 51.Ra6?! {51.c7! +/-} Rb2+ 52.Kd1 Rb1+ Draw {My wife was almost out of time, 0:29 - 0:25 (G/30 time limit), but gets a draw. We both played the endgame very weakly, but at least this game was free of any major blunders. - ALD}