Category: English

Maxime’s agenda is a bit dull these days (not that he’s not training !), before the avalanche of tournaments from end of May to end of June. (see Maxime’s agenda), So let’s run the risk of being somewhat unconventional for once, and try not to talk that much about chess !
All chess players know MVL ; well, anyway they should ! But those three letters which are familiar to the noble game lovers, what do they mean to the others ?
We have decided to find out more about it !

Let’s begin this overview in France…

The company MVL (Muselets du Val du Loire) in Chambray-les-Tours is the « wirehood » leader, this wire cage that fits over the cork of a bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine. It is covered by a metal foil envelope, especially appreciated by specific collectors.

MVL is also the Métalliers du Val du Loir company, located in Sarthe. It is specialized in the manufacture of metal doors and windows

MVL-signed objects, we will point out first and foremost the Peugeot 103 MVL, undisputed star of the eightie’s mopeds…

With regard to sport, MVL is the Mende Volley Lozère, whose first team just missed out the qualification for next year’s professional Pro B League.

Let’s continue our journey in MVL’s universe abroad…

First of all, we stop in Islet, Québec, where the MVL garage, as its name indicates, specializes in Mécanique des Véhicules Lourds (heavy vehicle mecanics), especially trucks, trailers and agricultural machines.

Still in Canada, but in a rather different field, MVLMédicaments en Vente libre (free delivery drugs), developed by the Pharmacists College of Québec. This database is filled with essential informations for pharmacists, drug manufacturers and wholesalers.

Let’s go to the Usa, with the lavalier MVL marketed by Shure. Dedicated to superior audio recording, it can be plugged into any smartphone.

We stay in the US with the MVL GROUP. But here, difficult to guess where the name of this large international company comes from… In any case, MVL is a giant of construction and supply chain management, mainly operating in Middle-East and Afghanistan. For instance, MVL can be credited with the construction of numerous official Afghan infrastructures and buildings, as the Ministry of Home Affairs, or the Helmand military base.

In India, Media Video Limited (MVL) was born ten years ago. As its name doesn’t indicate, this company was originaly specialized in audio/video, but diversified and also operates nowadays in residential and commercial real estate.

Let’s go to South Korea now, where exist, not one, but two luxury hotels named MVL !
MVL HOTEL in Goyang

MVL HOTEL in Yeosu :

In the sports area, we’ll pick the MVL XC, cross-country club of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon High School (Washington DC, Usa), whose female section looks particularly smiling… Hello, Mvl !

And you will even find an MVL in musics, with Neztor MVL, a Mexican rap and hip hop singer, very popular on YouTube, mainly in Hispanic countries.

Obviously, this list isn’t exhaustive, and we will only add to conclude :

Man Vehicle Laboratory (MVL), an MIT Research group whose goal is to optimize overall human-vehicle system effectiveness and safety, on aircrafts and spacecrafts.

Molecular Vision Laboratory (MVL), an american reference laboratory specializing in genetic testing for ophtalmic diseases.

Marvel Entertainment, listed in the New-York Stock Exchange under the code MVL, is producing fictions based on the american comics universe.

MVL, air code of the Morrisville-Stowe Airport, in Vermont (Usa).

Mario Vargas Llosa (MVL), a Peruvian writer, author of novels and political essays, and Litterature Nobel Prize 2010. He was a candidate for the Perou Presidential election in 1990.

Members’ voluntary liquidation (MVL) : process where the shareholders of a solvent company adopt a voluntary winding up resolution.

Manœuvre à Vue Libre (MVL) : an aeronautic term, a « circling approach » in english. Pilots fly circling approaches when it’s not possible to do a straight-in approach to the runway after an instrument approach.

MVL, Myvicariouslyfe.com, personal blog of an Atlanta-based magazine editor.

In Malaysia, MVL sells stuff online « in the name of love » !

We should stop now, but we will not leave without a single chess word !

[otw_shortcode_quote border=”bordered” border_style=”bordered” background_pattern=”otw-pattern-1″]MVL échecs

We had a look at all kinds of MVL’s, but wait, chesswise, are there any other active MVL’s ? Well, a search in FIDE lists shows that there are a few of them, and that MVL’s runner-up (Elo wise) is a female player, namely WFM Monica Vilar Lopez, 1995 Spain champion, numerous times Catalonia champion, and who played for Spain in three Olympiads.
Welcome to the club, MVL ![/otw_shortcode_quote]

It’s the second time the Bundesliga gathers in the main room of the Berlin Maritim Hotel, very close to the center town. With sixteen teams around playing the last three rounds of the year’s championship, it can be said that this long weekend was the culmination of the year, a kind of huge chess party. In sporting terms, we (Baden-Baden) began the final weekend head to head with Solingen, with the hope of winning this long_distance affair in one of the three rounds.
Continue reading “Giant meeting in Berlin”

Chess Informant is a real institution for chess players. The older ones will remember that during the pre-computer era, the Informant was awaited like the Messiah. This compilation of the semester best games was indeed the main source of informations on the latest developments of opening theory.
Continue reading “« Best of » MVL in Chess Informant”

It’s a quiet period before the next tournament, end of April in Norway. I take this opportunity to recharge batteries, think about what lies ahead… and train !
At the present time, the French Youth Championships 2018 are taking place in Agen (south west), with almost 1.600 youngsters gathering during one week. I thought it was a good moment to introduce « my » Youth Championships, which I played uninterrupted for eight years, from 1997 to 2004.
Continue reading “My French Youth Championships”

After a quick taxi transfer beetween Karlsrühe and Baden-Baden during the rest day, I took residence in a town and an hotel that I get to know pretty well ! The next day, I approached my game against Carlsen half a point ahead of him, but with black.

4th round: Carlsen (2843)-Mvl ½-½
I didn’t really expect him to enter this variation of the English opening ; especially since after the game, he said he had something special in mind, which he finally didn’t play. I don’t know what happened exactly, because he looked rather well prepared in this variation, which requires to remember very specific moves. I had already analyzed the exchange of Queens, a new try for white, and his later choice of sacrificing a pawn by 17.d6+ Kxd6 18.Rad1+ Ke7 19.Be5 wasn’t an easy follow-up to find, but it was certainly the best practical chance.

Thanks to this good prep, I never left my comfort zone, though it was not so trivial to keep things even. Observers might have expected more suffering from me against Magnus, who loves that kind of endgame, but I feel I found the precise moves to neutralize him rather quickly !

5th round: Mvl-Aronian (2794) ½-½

I arrived at the board with a fresh idea in the anti-Marshall (12.h3), but unfortunately, I reacted badly to his manoeuver …Qb8-b5, which I hadn’t anticipated. Instead of 14.c4, I should have played 14.Be3, a move I rejected because of 14…d5, but 15.c4! would then give white an advantage, because the compensation for the pawn is huge after 15…dxc4 16.dxc4 Qxc4 17.Nbd2. Later, I was happy to find this little tactic 19.Nxe6!, though in the end, it doesn’t bring a lot !

At the end of the tactical sequence, he uncorked the excellent 25…g5!, which looks anti-positional but locks down the position. I should have tried 26.Kh2 (idea 27.Rg1) 26…h6 27.h4! in response, as Levon mentioned after the game ; white can still continue to press, but it probably wouldn’t have been enough against an accurate defense.
Then, I didn’t play well the ending that followed, notably when I foolishly decided to trade rooks. In fact, after 28.Rd1?, I was the one at risk in this Bishop endgame where my pawn on a5 falls, even though it holds by a hair’s breadth ! And yet, instead of 28.Rd1?, almost any move keeping the Rooks on the board would have guaranteed an immediate draw…

6th round : Vitiugov (2735)-Mvl ½-½
Once again, I could deliver a new idea, this time in the Neo-Grünfeld with 5.Qa4. An early and very interesting pawn sacrifice (6…0-0!?), regrettably spoiled by an idiotic move, played too impulsively, 14…Rfd8?.

I completely forgot that after 15.Rf1 Nd3, white was not forced to play 16.h3 Be6 17.Nd4 which leads to a draw, but had the strong 16.Nb3! at his disposal, after which I had to suffer for five hours before to salvage the draw.
Instead of 14…Rfd8?, 14…Nbc4! would have prevented white to establish a Knight on d4, and after 15.Nxe5 (15.Nxc4? Nxf3+) 15…Nxe5, black has adequate compensation for the pawn. Afterwards, I think I defended rather well the difficult position, but I could have spared myself sixty additional moves !

7th round : Mvl-Caruana (2784) 0-1
Against Fabiano, I decided not to face his new weapon, the Russian defense.
But I didn’t expect him to play the …Bb4 variation of the 4 Knights English. I took time to decide how to react and how to handle the position, the more so as my theoretical memories were a bit distant ! After hesitating quite a lot, I finally chose one of the safest lines, 9.Qc2, which is obviously also one of the less ambitious ones. By the way, I had forgotten during the game that the theoretical reference after 11…Bf5 was a game of mine ! (against Van Wely in 2008, draw in 37 moves -Ed.).
Anyway, I quite liked my position after the opening, and that’s why I tried 14.Qb2, followed by the unorthodox 17.Bf1!?, to try keeping the Bishop pair in the long run.

But I lost too much time immediately afterwards, with two moves in a row which didn’t fit together, 18.a4 and 19.Rac1 ; I could have played 18.a4 and 19.Qb5, or 18.Rac1 and 19.c4, perhaps even 18.a4 and 19.c4, but not the combination of moves I chose !
Actually, in the course of the game, I underestimated the strength of 20…Qf5! because I hadn’t anticipated 21…Qc5+ at the end of the variation. Thus I was adequately punished, as Fabiano could even choose beetween the actual 22…Bd5, which does the job, and 22…Bxf3+ 23.exf3 Qf2!, which also wins.
Of course, this game remains a disappointment, and that day was clearly not mine, but it is no disaster either ; I just tried something different in the opening, and it backfired.

8th round: Bluebaum (2631)-Mvl ½-½
I didn’t really anticipate to face this brand new fashion line in the symetrical English, with 5.e3 and 6.dxc3, which is no great danger to my mind. I even thought he was going to exchange all four rooks at move 18, leading us back home very promptly ! With his move 18.g4!?, he gave me new hopes of creating something, but it wasn’t to be enough. At the end, I must say I’m not that far, but he still holds an impregnable fortress, because not enough lines are open in the position.

9th round : Mvl-Meier (2648) ½-½
There again, with white, I wanted to change. I was rather pleased with the position which came out from this atypical Reti opening, with my rare 6.Qd3 opposed at his early …b5 ; indeed, there was room for creating imbalances, against a black setup which looked a bit passive.

I must confess that Georg reacted pretty well, proving that he knew that kind of setup and its ressources. He succeeded in playing the freeing 21…c5, even though I thought I could reduce his pieces to extreme passivity with my pawn sacrifice 22.Rec1 cxd4 23.Qd3, in particular with the Nb8 which could hardly move.
But in this kind of dynamic equilibrium, I was the one who ultimately found himself in bad shape, because of my try to force events with h4-h5… At the end, I had to be precise to earn my half point.

All in all, I would define this tournament as a sort of dress rehearsal one, with an average result at the end, but very interesting games, which is rather good news in view of the season’s follow-up.
Even if I messed up a bit with white at the end, my opening prep was satisfactory on the whole. Especially after a few months break from the highest level, since I probably had less fresh ideas in store than other players…
However, I was suprised to lack energy at the end ; I was rather expecting to struggle at the beginning of the tournament to find my form.

Kudos to Fabiano for the impressive achievement of scoring twice, Candidates and Grenke !
Next rendez-vous, the Norway Chess in Stavanger, with the opening blitz on May 27, and the tournament from May 28 to June 7.

Official site: http://www.grenkechessclassic.de/en/
Maxime’s games

[otw_shortcode_quote border=”bordered” border_style=”bordered” background_pattern=”otw-pattern-1″]Take me homeThe rail strikes in France didn’t interfere with Maxime’s travel for the Grenke tournament in Germany. Indeed, he took the train for his outward trip just before the strikes began ; and as for the return path, it was scheduled on Tuesday, April 10, a right timing as this day was spared by the union calendar… But others in Baden-Baden weren’t that lucky, although they were not heading towards France ! It turns out that the ground staff of four huge german airports, including the nearby Frankfurt hub, were on strike that day, forcing Lufthansa to cancel more than 800 flights ; among them were numerous long haul ones that some of the players were supposed to catch in order to fly back home. About star chess24.com commentator, IGM Jan Gustafsson, who had planned to fly directly to Thailand in order to play in the Bangkok Open, he lamented himself during the last round show, unable to know if he would be able to make it to Asia the next day ![/otw_shortcode_quote]