Complete standings are Anand 6.0, followed by Kramnik, Timman, Shirov and Judit Polgar with 5.5, Topalov and Gelfand with 5.0, Adams with 4.5, Salov, Piket, Nijboer, Van Der Sterren and Karpov with 3.5 and Van Wely with 3.0.

Almost everyone is having difficulty getting into my web site, because of its limited capacity. My web site will normally accommodate only 12,000 to 14,000 hits per day, and I am getting more than that now. If you try to hit my web site and receive a message saying,

“500 Server Error
“The hard transfer limit for this user has been reached”

this means that my present band width of 200 megabytes of transfers per day is being exceeded.

Fortunately, this is not serious, because at the beginning of every hour, the hard transfer limit gets revived. Therefore, if you want to see my web site, you will always be able to do so if you try just a few minutes after a new hour starts.

You can actually see my hits as they come in. Look at http://www.best.com/faq/faq0007.html

Under shell server, click on shell15 (SHELL FIFTEEN)

Under user name type in ISHIPRES

Look down at the bottom. It will show how many hits I have received in the last 23 and a fraction hours. As soon as a new hour rolls over, the count starts again.

You can also actually see the hits as they come in. The web site is on California time. Right now, it is 1:00 PM in New York, but it is 10:00 AM in California. If I look at the number of hits during the hour 10:00 now it says 111. When I hit the refresh key, it says 121. Every time I hit the refresh key the number for the current hour will go up.

When some big news happens, my hard transfer limit is exceeded. This happened every day during the World Chess Championship match between Karpov and Anand. I actually got 24,000 hits on one day, a record.

Three days ago, my hard transfer limit was being exceeded because of my photo of Monica Lewinsky. I believe that I was the first public website to post that now famous photo.

Just a few minutes ago I checked and my hard transfer limit was again exceeded.

In spite of his poor result in Hoogovens thus far, Karpov has played some exciting chess, completely out of the normal style of Karpov. In his just completed game against Topalov, Karpov played wild and aggressively. However, Karpov got a lost position and finally blundered into a simple four move mate. A great performance by Topalov.

[Position after 49. Ng5]

The key position in Forsythe notation was as follows:

5QK1/P5Br/4N1P1/4p1n1/1PP2p2/6k1/Rp1q4/7r

Topalov has just played 49. Ng5.

I believed that Karpov simply wins with 49. ... Nxg5 50. fxg5 Be5+ followed soon by ...Rxb2.

However, it was pointed out to me that if 49. ... Nxg5, White wins by playing 50.Qd5+ Nf7 (if 50...Qf7, so 51.Qd8+ Qf8 52.Rh8+, winning the queen) 51.e6, with 52.exf7+ Qxf7 53.Rh8+ Bxh8 54.Qd8+! Qf8 (54...Kg7 55.Qxh8 mate) 55.Rxh8+ to follow.

Instead, Karpov blundered with 49. ... Ra6 and Topalov delivered a simple mate in five starting with 50. ... Rh8+. Karpov resigned rather than play this out.

Before this surprising finish, there seem to have been many other tactical possibilities in this game as well. This would be a good game to analyze with a computer.

Sam Sloan

[Event "Hoogovens"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee"]
[Date "1998.26.01"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Topalov,V"]
[Black "Karpov,A"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2740"]
[BlackElo "2735"]
[WhiteCountry "BUL"]
[BlackCountry "RUS"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bf4 c6 6. Qc2 g6 7. e3 Bf5 8. Qd2 Nf6 9. f3 h5 10. Bd3 Bxd3 11. Qxd3 Na6 12. Nge2 Nc7 13. O-O Ne6 14. Be5 h4 15. Rae1 O-O 16. g4 hxg3 17. hxg3 Nd7 18. Kg2 Nxe5 19. dxe5 Qd7 20. f4 f5 21. g4 Rf7 22. Rh1 Bf8 23. gxf5 Nc5 24. Qd1 Qxf5 25. Nd4 Qd7 26. Reg1 Re8 27. Rh3 Ne6 28. Rgh1 Bg7 29. Qc2 Nf8 30. Nce2 Qe7 31. Nf3 Qb4 32. Rg3 c5 33. Nh4 Re6 34. Nc3 d4 35. Nd5 Qb5 36. e4 c4 37. Nf3 d3 38. Qc3 Ra6 39. Nd4 Qc5 40. Rxd3 Rxa2 41. Rdh3 b5 42. Nf3 Ne6 43. Kg3 b4 44. Qd2 Rf8 45. Nf6 Rxf6 46. exf6 Bxf6 47. e5 Bg7 48. Rh7 Qf8 49. Ng5 Ra6 {If 49. ... Nxg5 White plays 50.Qd5+ Nf7 (if 50...Qf7, so 51.Qd8+ Qf8 52.Rh8+, winning the queen) 51.e6, with 52.exf7+ Qxf7 53.Rh8+ Bxh8 54.Qd8+! Qf8 (54...Kg7 55.Qxh8 mate) 55.Rxh8+ to follow.} 50. Rh8 1-0

Here is a link: The Hoogovens Grandmaster Tournament