By Jordan S.Berson

Essent It Ironic?

The Essent Crown Group featuring former World Champion GM Vesselin Topalov is in the books, and Topalov was not the winner. Of the four players in this Double-Round-Robin tournament, Topalov finished a dismal third with 2.5/6 points.

The joint winners were GM Shakhryar Mamedyarov, who won by tiebreak formula, and GM Judit Polgar, each finishing with a respectable 4.5/6 and 2900+ performance ratings. Last place went to GM Ivan Sokolov who scored a single draw against Topalov for a paltry 0.5/6.

Polgar showed her prowess by winning both of her games over a weary Topalov, who was clearly out of form and in need of rest after losing the World Championship Reunification a week earlier against GM Vladimir Kramnik.

The 84-player Open Tournament saw a two-way tie for first place. GM’s Ivan Cheparinov and Jan Werle each scored 7.0 points in the nine-round Swiss System event. Behind them at 6.5/9 were GM’s Evgeny Postny, Michail Brodsky, Mikhail Gurevich, and Alexander Goloshchapov.

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Computers Calculate the Best in Chess

In every chess circle, at every chess club, in some corner of every tournament, someone asks the question, "Who is the best chess player ever?" And the answers will always vary from player to player… Is it Kasparov? Fischer? Karpov? Capablanca? Botvinnik? Tal?

The answer has always been: there is no answer! Any answer that one person could give, would be refuted by another. Basically, there has been no way of knowing since not all of the players could get together in one tournament to determine who is the best player ever… until now!?

According to a computer analysis of several hundred World Championship games played over the past hundred or so years, Jose Raoul Capablanca could be called the greatest player ever, if only mathematically. Surprisingly, Capablanca narrowly beat second place Kramnik. The gap between Kramnik and third place was rather wide. According to the mathematical analysis, third place goes to GM Anatoly Karpov, and very close in fourth place is GM Garry Kasparov. The rest of the players, in order of rank according to this calculation, were Spassky, Petrosian, Lasker, Fischer, Alekhine, Smyslov, Tal, Botvinnik, Euwe, and Steinitz.

The analysis was done by a series of calculations based on: the number of errors each player made in World Championship games; the number of "best moves" played, and; the complexity of the games. Of course, chess kibitzers around the globe will disagree with this analysis, but one thing will remain true: we will never really know who is the best player of all time, until yours truly beats Kramnik 7-0 in a World Championship match…

Capped in Cap d'Adge

The Cap d'Adge Rapid tournament is underway, and GM Anatoly Karpov has had his hands full with girl power. 21-year-old WGM Zhao Xue of China and 19-year-old WGM Humpy Koneru of India each beat Karpov twice.

The format of the tournament started with two eight-player round-robin tournaments, featuring former Women's World Champion WGM Antoaneta Stefanova, GM's Sergey Karjakin, Timour Radjabov, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Andre Volotkin, Magnus Carlsen, Etienne Bacrot, amongst others. Four players from each group will then face off in elimination matches, which Karpov did not qualify for.

Check out Chess Around the Globe next week for the final results of Cap d'Adge and more…

Jordan S. Berson

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